Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Firefox 3.0 is coming! (finally!)
Friday, June 13th, 2008The folks at Mozilla.org have finally pick a release date for Firefox 3.0. As a Ubuntu user, I have been using the betas and release candidates for a while, but, for those not as willing to live on the edge like myself, mark “June 17th” on your calendar as the day to head over to pick up a copy. While your waiting, sign-up to help set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads of a software package in 24 hrs.
Of the tons of enhancements and new features, I would have to say some of my favorites are the faster, more standards compliant rendering engine, one-click bookmarks, and easier plugin searching and installation.
Now, I can’t wait for the new Javascript Just-in-Time compiler (Tamarin) to give some of those rich web apps a kick in the pants.
12 Step Program for Ubuntu Update-Manager Addicts
Saturday, April 19th, 2008Hi, my name is Chris.
I am Ubuntu update-manager addict.
I began innocently enough, sometime back in Febuary, I ran ‘update-manager -d‘ to get a peek at Unbuntu Hardy Heron. Since that time I have been unable to resist the little orange “Updates Available” icon. Checking two or three times a day for improved progams, bug fixes, and new features. Swearing off updates after each bad dependency problem, only to run update again in hopes it will get fixed this time.
My family is tired of the home PCs being tied up running update-manager all the time and I’m not getting much done on my laptop while it’s burning up bandwidth updating the repository indexes. It’s time for an intervention.
I know I can’t break this habit alone, so I’m thinking of starting a 12 step program. I know there are others out there with the same problem so maybe a support group will help, all we have to do is: (more…)
What to get Your Geek on St. Valentine’s Day
Monday, February 11th, 2008Contrary to popular opinion, geeks can be romantic, too. Since time is getting short, here are a few things on my wish list (Just in case the the Mrs. is looking at my blog…): (more…)
Why your kids should read your blog…
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008Or “Requiem for a Sea-Monkey”
If you caught my last entry, you would know about the Sea-Monkeys. Yesterday, it came time to add the “Instant Life Eggs” package, and since Dad was busy, my son decided to help out. He read the package, took note of the fact sea-monkeys hatch faster if the tank is around 80F. Noting also that the room temperature was a little cooler, he took it on himself to warm up the water. While there are a variety of ways to warm up a small volume of water, I could sense a potential problem when I heard the tea kettle begin to boil in the kitchen. I rushed to the kitchen to find my first born ready to poor water from the steaming kettle into the sea-monkey’s tank. (more…)
New Years Resolutions: Life Hacking
Monday, December 31st, 2007I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I’m not so much against the January 1st resolutions to do better, it’s the January 2nd failure to follow through that I hate. But this year has to be different. The last year has been one of contestant changes and challenges, adding a new member to the family, new responsibilities at work, at church, at home, and on line. Without a concerted effort to get organized and better manage the little details, 2008 is shaping up to be a real cluster.
To that end, I’ve started to used a number of web services that should help:
- Goggle Mail - I’ve been a gmail user for about two years, but just recently, I have begun to use their IMAP and POP3 services to consolidate a number of email accounts I have, including my home account. The search engine makes finding emails a breeze (what do you expect from Google?) and the ever growing list of add-on services and Firefox plugins make integrating gmail into the rest of my life easier and easier.
- Google Calendar - another great Google service, makes a good central hub for managing my time and keeping other up to date on what I’m doing.
- Remember The Milk - A very cool task list organizer with tons of options for reminders and integration with Google calendar.
- Jott - I just stumbled on to this web 2.0 beta - call the “866″ number on my cell phone, leave a message, and it get transcribed into text and delivered to myself, a friend or even my Google calendar or RTM task lists.
Integrating these together, I can voice dial Jott, send a task to RTM, get reminders via my jabber account or SMS and view my calendar, a number of shared calendars, and my tasks all together on my Google calendar.
Of course, January 2nd hasn’t come yet, but 2008 is looking a little less chaotic from here…