I finally got around to making the transition from Blogger to thoughtsparks.net. The design will go through some revision soon, but getting moved over was the first major issue. The main thing was the value of transitioning to an independent domain fairly early on in the life of the blog. I’m getting some traction in terms of traffic and as the site develops it’s always better to make changes early. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think.
Monthly Archives: April 2007
Home Network Best Practices
Filed under Tutorials, Web and Tech Helps
My wife often comments, "what do people do who don’t have a techie for a spouse?" For those of you frustrated with computing gotcha’s and don’t have a resident techie, here’s some simple stuff to do to keep your computing environment at home humming along.
- Turn your machine off at night or for longer periods when not in use. This reduces your overall vulnerability from hacking. You’ll also save on electricity.
- Use daily to several times a different virus and bot scanners. Some of my favorite free ones are:
- AVG Anti-Virus Free at free.grisoft.com
- Spybot-S&D! at www.safer-networking.org
- Ad-Aware at www.lavasoftusa.com
- Use an internet filter. I like K9 Web Protection at www.k9webprotection.com. It’s a great parental control and does warn you of site content before you hit the page. Great for sensitive and discerning eyes.
- Remove unused programs. Use ‘em or lose ‘em.
- Use FireFox to surf the web. IE7 is better on security than 6.0 but who likes IE7?
- Delete the cookies from your browser often.
- Don’t save passwords.
- Off-load data from your drive. When a HD gets over 80% capacity, it starts to choke, especially if you do any major graphic/multimedia editing.
- Run Defrag and Disk Clean-up every once in a while. I forget that this is important, but it makes a difference in performance.
- Custom configure your home network interface.
- Create a unique IP address and subnet.
- Limit the DHCP range to only the number of machines needed. This may be necessary/convenient for laptops.
- Even better would be to disable DHCP and enter IP, Subnet, Gateway and DNS entries into each machine.
- Don’t enable SSID broadcast which does not display the wireless network to your neighbors.
- Use WPA-PSK instead of WEP. WPA-PSK takes a little more work to crack with 64 character pin instead of 10.
- Change your settings on a regular basis.
- Keep your Windows OS patched with updates.
- Keep your MS Office patched with updates.
- Don’t surf nasty sites like porn and hate site. It will keep your mind clean (most important) and will reduce your computing liability.
- Use webmail. No need to download email to your machine. Highly recommend the ever popular Google mail – gmail.com. They just got it right. If you haven’t tried it yet, do yourself a favor.
- Learn to be shrewed with email. When in doubt, delete it.
- Keep your ear to the ground for latest threats. You don’t have to be a subscriber to Slashdot – slashdot.org/ to keep up with the critical issues. More and more threats make the news.
- Take the cover off of your desktop and blow-out the dust. If it’s in a dusty location, do this every month or two. Also, make sure your machine is well vented.
- Make friends with a techie and bribe them with brownies and Diet Coke (or whatever their choice of caffeine). Then you’ll be armed when it eventually hits the fan (because someday it will).
- Pray daily to God to protect you. Not kidding here. God is into the details of our lives and computing can wreak havoc to your schedule and if you blog for a living to your monitary gain.
- Use a Mac and save yourself some trouble. Yeah, do as I say and not as I do. Mac’s are great. I’ve just not made the leap just yet. Windows at work, Windows at home. ¿Que lastima?
Best FireFox Plug-in Ever
Filed under FireFox, Reviews, Web and Tech Helps
I just discovered Foxytunes. Check out: www.foxytunes.com to download. Foxytunes is a music tool that integrates into Firefox allowing you to control the music player of choice from the browser. It’s highly configurable and as you can see is compatible w/ a good number of players. It also has a slick search function that allows you to peruse with preset searches related to the artist, the album, the song, video, images, etc. Once again, the Firefox community leads the way in developing an integrated browser experience.
The One Degree of Difference
Filed under Critical Thinking, Productivity, perspective
There is a difference between good and shoddy work. It’s a one degree difference. One definition of perfect is: "excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement." Being perfect, complete in ones projects sometimes is the difference of a few minutes well spent.
- Did you take out a piece of paper and think through the project?
- Did you anticipate the pitfalls and identify the solutions?
- Did you take a break after the initial rough-draft of the project and reflect on the process?
- Did you have someone review for errors? Spelling, grammatical, graphical, linkage?
- Did you review the project as well looking for both errors and points of improvement?
- Did you come away from the project with a sense of satisfaction that you did your best?
These are really simple suggestions, but doing your best is not neglecting the mundane elements of a project.
Today, I took a different look at the tasks and projects on my plate. I considered how to reconnect the dots between like projects for development that would accomplish multiple tasks: One set of code for multiple HTML Email, one Flash kiosk concept for multiple presentations, one reporting mechanism for multiple statistical reports, one code revision for multiple applications on the web. Efficient work gives me time to do a more effective job with strategic goals in mind. In the end, I will produce better work in less time because I thought through how to reuse code and design. It is the little things that make the difference.
Here Was a Man (For Easter Sunday)
Filed under Web and Tech Helps
Here was a man a man who was born
in a small village the son of a peasant woman
He grew up in another small village
Until he reached the age of thirty he worked as a carpenter
Then for three years he was a traveling minister
But he never traveled more than two hundred miles
from where he was born
And where he did go he usually walked
He never held political office he never wrote a book
never bought a home
Never had a family he never went to college
and he never set foot inside a big city
Yes here was a man
Though he never did one on the things
usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself he had
nothing to do with this world
Except through the devine purpose that brought
him to this world
While he was still a young man the tide of popular opinion
turned against him
Most of his friends ran away one of them denied him
One of them betrayed him and turned him
over to his enemies
Then he went through the mockery of a trial
And was nailed to a cross between two thieves
And even while he was dying his executioners gambled
For the only piece of property that he had in this world
And that was his robe his purple robe
When he was dead he was taken down from the cross
And laid in a borrowed grave provided
by compassionate friends
More than nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today he’s a centerpiece of the human race
Our leader in the column to human destiny
I think I’m well within the mark when I say
that all of the armies that ever marched
All of the navies that ever sailed the seas
All of the legislative bodies that ever sat
and all of the kings that ever reigned
All of them put together have not affected
the life of man on this earth
So powerfully as that one solitary life
Here was a man
Commonly Known By Johnny Cash, written by J. Bond; T. Ritter
Laughter, The Best Medicine
Filed under Just for Fun
I found this video at Nelson Tan’s site 10 Benefits of Laughing and wanted to share the joy. I’ve gone back to it so many times that I thought it worth sharing.
My challenge to you: See if you can actually watch this video without laughing. I can hardly get through the first 5 seconds before I bust.
New Look for Thought Sparks
Filed under Creativity
After messing around with logos, I decided to go a different direction with a collage concept. The imagery is a mix of classical thinking and street art. The whispy flame is a hint of an idea mulling around between well developed and emerging concepts, order and disorder melding together towards new insight.
I enjoy blogging because it is an organic experience. The written expression and interactivity with other bloggers makes it a delight. So too could the visual construct of the site take on an organic feel that is molded and shaped over time.
Photo credits
Aristotle: Eric Gaba, July 2005 from wikipedia.org
Museum: Slavomir Ulicny from http://www.sxc.hu
Flame: Meaghan Bee from http://www.sxc.hu
All photos used under Creative Commons.
April Fools from Google
Filed under Google, Just for Fun
Google premiered two "services" that caught wind on the blogosphere today: Gmail paper and Gmail TiSP.
- Gmail paper is a service to send your email that you select via snail mail. Great service for the neophites of the world. See: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html
- Google TiSP is in-home wireless broadband service. It requires feeding a cable down your toilet. See: http://www.google.com/tisp/index.html
I have to admit that Google had me there for a minute w/ the paper mail, strange as it was, but the TiSP was too far fetched once I saw the photos. It shows the user running a line down their bathroom Toilet. This is hillarious.
Through the Eyes of a Child
Filed under Just for Fun
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My four and a half year old grabbed her digital camera yesterday afternoon and took some shots of what she saw. It’s refreshing, I think, to literally see through the eye of child.
What would the world be like if we saw new ideas like a four year old?
Would we be more delighted?
Would life seem more enjoyable?
Would the troubles of this world get smaller and the joys larger?
Would we be more bold and ready for new challenges?
Would we realize when something is too big for us and we need God’s help?
Would we laugh and play more?
Would we live in the moment not worrying about tomorrow?
Would we remember what’s really important, our family and friends?
Would we be in wonder of God’s creation and fascinated with each new season like it’s the first time we have seen it?
Would it spur our thinking to create new things, to generate new ideas, to bring to life thoughts that we have?
I wonder. |
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Poisoned Ivy and Poisoned Thinking
Filed under Productivity, Thought Provoking
Recently I posted about organic thinking. It’s Spring, and to my delight the garden is in bloom. But to my shagrin, so is poison ivy. For a recent service project I was mowing a field and got a good case of poison ivy. Been thinking about "thought" and what propels new initiatives in business and personal endeavors. Once a really good idea takes hold, it can propogate and create a momentum for change. Negative or poorly developed thoughts though, can do the same. I equate those to poisoned thinking, latching on to a new or existing idea that is harmful or negative to a process. What I find most often is that legacy ideas die hard and people tend to be committed to previous constructs now matter how inadequate or ill-conceived.
What medicine is there for poisoned thinking:
- Check your attitude. A sour, synical or poor attitude toward another individual will never effectively address poisoned thinking. Validate and respect the person and their ideas.
- Fully cook new ideas. Don’t replace one poorly conceived idea for another. You do everyone a disservice.
- Be patient with people. Most people are not quick to change. All ideas to sink in over time. Sometimes it means presenting the concept in multiple ways.
- Give time for change. The more important and enormous the idea, the longer the runway for change. Anticipate a lag in acceptance and execution.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff. Learn to overlook the errors of others, when appropriate, and you’ll win respect and honor. "Love covers a multitude of sins."
- Do sweat the small stuff. Be self-reflective, edit and review reports and presentations, go the distance with the details. People will notice.
- Recognize the window of opportunity. There is a kairos moment. A point in time to speak and there are times to remain quiet. Missed opportunities do not always come again.
- Execute with excellence. Get it right the first time and take pride in your work. Don’t let shotty work slip out of your hands.
- Evaluate and report. Garner feedback and pass along information up the chain of command. This is smart in terms of professional development but also adds to the value of the work done.
- Share the credit. If others helped you accomplish goals, include them in the accolades. This builds respect and appreciation by your peers.