An Ink Saving Font

My favorite tech blogger on Yahoo is Christopher Null. Yesterday he wrote a post about saving ink with the font you use. You can read it here. The font suggested is Century Gothic. I changed my text message font to check it out. Usually I use Arial if I don’t want formal print but this one looks nice if a bit taller and lighter. Now I’m going to change the default font on my printer and screen to match. I’m also wondering if a font that uses less ink also uses fewer bites in the text file size? If it does wouldn’t that mean that it takes less time to transmit? Saving bandwidth and speedier transmissions of documents might be a nice extra. What font do you use?

Playing around with Windows Live Writer

This is my first experiment with Windows Live Writer and blogging. Terry of Paradise Discovered highly encourages, even dares (um…challenges?), his friends to use it. Since he’s a smart guy I figured it was worth a shot. I did have it on my system and just hadn’t gotten around to messing with it. Looks like he’s right. It does indeed have a lot of really cool controls. They remind me of MSWord controls. I’ll have to recommend it to my favorite writing friend Susan of Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. She likes to use MSWord to compose stuff, even letters which makes for some interesting translations when your email browser doesn’t have a rich text option to view with.

Wow! Hit the return key and you get a double space. Hit it twice, like I just did, and you find yourself backing up a line or two. :-)

When I started up Windows Live Writer it gave me the option to add my blog to my Windows Life page, a thing I’d been ignoring as to date I’ve only really used Windows Life Messenger to talk to a couple of friends. Wish I could add all my friends to that one. Yeah, Windows is kind of self loving and doesn’t always play nice with other software but there are worse OS’s out there. I used to keep Yahoo Messenger up and running so I probably need to try to add that one in or get a few of my old contacts to switch or connect through whatever medium they have which might allow that. Looks like the world is getting smaller and smaller as we connect in new and exciting ways.

Darn double enter habit has got to go! LOL

I also added my Facebook page and my Stumble Upon page to the Windows Live Page. Now all it needs to make it perfect is to be able to add the games I play on Pogo there. Wouldn’t that be fun! Go to Windows Live and play Scrabble or Pinochle with my buddies?

So, Terry, if you’re reading this, Thanks for the good suggestion. Is there a way to make this product pop up every time I click on the new post button? Or do I have to remember to put this on my quick launch bar? I’ll play with the picture thing next I guess. Let’s see how this thing posts.

But before I go I’d like to ask Terry to check out 7Stacks and see if he can figure out how to make that little Widows desktop utility to work. I sure couldn’t because it didn’t have any help files. It seems to think it is intuitive, but if you’ve never used stacks like Macs or Windows 7 has then you just might be as clueless as I am about how to create them. Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers!

Minor Manipulations

If you look to the right you'll find that I've turned the player off and changed it's color. I think the new color is less "in my face". Hope others like that too.

The reason I turned the thing off was that it was getting in the way of other functions on my computer. It slowed my dsl way down. It's a constant source of music/noise. The player uses Java which doesn't seem to like having multiple applets running at the same time. Add a mail browser to that and things get even worse. It took 10 minutes to check my email this morning. To load the daily jigsaw puzzle required closing two tabs. If performance doesn't improve the thing goes. Does anyone know if there are some Java settings I can adjust to make things work better?

My PC is very knowledgeable about computers and software. He suggested some free photo manipulation software, GIMP, that is open source and works on multiple platforms. I installed it today and tried out a few of the filters. There are tutorials and books showing how to use all the features it has. Those will come in handy as I'm finding myself in need of a digital terms dictionary.

And while I'm thinking about it, it's raining here today. The lovely soft pitter pat of raindrops hitting on surfaces and the smell of damp. Totally peaceful!

San's Desktop Meme

San, congenial person that she is, challenged us all to display what was on our desktops. She probably hoped we'd share a favored picture of something we valued. While I do have images of friends saved on my machine, I don't usually display them. Instead my computer is my gallery wall. Webshots Desktop allows me to download lovely photographs by professional photographers, to which I've added other files saved on my computer (those being fantasy art and friends photos). My background image rotates daily. Today, I downloaded this picture of a mountain in Mexico titled Mina, Nuevo Leon, Mexico by Super Stock.

A few days ago it was this lovely picture of a Peruvian Pelican by Ruoso & Minden.

Because I'm a sucker for golds in images, I often download photos simply because they contain a glorious or mysterious variety of that color. So I also have this interesting shot of a pair of geese in flight titled Mirrored Wings from Super Stock.

And of course there are some images I come back to time and again. Such as this one of Sand Hill Cranes in Fog by Dancing Pelican. It it by far my favorite.

So that's my desktop. It's simple. Getting rid of unnecessary icons keeps it clutter free so that I can enjoy the art. Windows used to have a "hide desktop icons" option which I used so that my view of the image was unimpeded. XP doesn't seem to have it. I miss that.

Don't Blame the System. Blame the Part.

In his latest Weekend Wandering, David McMahon asked the question: Have you ever sworn at a computer?

My answer David's question is, "No. I've worked far too long in the IP industry to ever cuss at a machine for mistakes that were the result of something other than its functioning." You can stop here if you don't want to read a litany of things that can go wrong in computer systems and why it isn't the machine's fault.

Computers today are a collection of systems, part mechanical, part software, and part human operator. A computer traditionally is just the hardware, useless without the rest of it but still, just a machine. Something other than its mechanical functioning is what most computer mishaps are. If the system crashes it is most likely the software design and not the equipment. If the browser crashes after opening a webpage it is most likely a bug in the browser that doesn't work with something on the webpage, again, not the computer's fault. I don't want to think about how often Firefox has crashed after I viewed one of CNN's videos.

Or it could be my fault. If my work gets lost because of a crash this was not the machine's fault. It was mine because I didn't save it early or frequently enough to protect myself. If I get a bug, worm, or virus and whatever else there is out there today it might be because I didn't take proper precautions or opened an email without thinking. But it might also be something new or a trusted friend who accidentally sent me the little nasty.

What a lot of people choose to forget is that computers aren't smart. They are very dumb, fast machines that need specific instructions to do what you want them to do. If I tell it to do something in a way it doesn't understand I can almost guarantee you that the machine will give me an error message or, thanks to the OS designers, ask for more instructions.

Yeah, I know, Microsoft bashing is a popular sport these days. But, for all its problems with security, Windows designers are first and foremost programmers and they know so much more than the rest of us about how to protect themselves that they have forgotten more than we will ever know. They are also human and get used to having those protections in place which is probably why they forget to give them to us. They also know how often they have to recode a piece of software which is why they put in so many "are you sure" and "give me more info" messages that pop up all too frustratingly at times. They were trying to be kind to the novice and even the intermediate computer literate when they did that. If we really hate the company we should probably stop supporting it with our dollars and change machines or the OS. There are other options out there.

All of the above doesn't mean I haven't cussed at a situation I found myself in because of something that happened with the computer. I just know better than to get mad at the dumb machine. Chances are it was that old infamous, "operator error" in the first place. This means, "I'm a dummy too."

Response to Weekend Wandering

David McMahon of authorblog asks the following question: How would you cope if you had no way to use the Internet for a week?

You mean after I went frantic? The web is my chosen tool for communication, banking, bill paying, appointment setting, entertainment, and encyclopedia. Sometimes it is even my muse in that it gives me ideas on what to write about. When my computer goes down I rush to get it fixed. This isn't as easy as it once was. My favorite computer guru is often too busy to deal with my problems anymore. Thank goodness I have a nice stable machine.

If I couldn't do the things I do on the web I'd have to revert to the old fashioned methods. I'd pick up my phone and call people, maybe drive over to see them face to face. I'd pay bills by check and postage. I might have to go to the store to buy things I needed. Life wouldn't be as quickly accomplished as it is now. Things might slow down. I'd have to plan ahead more. Paying by web is instant, by snail mail isn't and you have to trust the generosity of companies to honor the postage dates. Thankfully most companies still honor those. To get entertained I'd have to read, something I do anyway, or watch TV. It used to be considered graceful and gracious to communicate by hand written letters and cards. In many cases it still is. I'd miss the frequency of emails from friends so I think my phone bill might rise or my calling hours would change (cell anytime minutes).

Would I like being webless? No! Could I manage? Yes, I was born when there wasn't any web. Would I be happy? That's hard to say. I worked for many years in the Information Processing industry. Some of my friends use me as a resource to tell them how to do things on their computers that I learned many years ago. Its a source of interaction but not our only one. My friend might be just as frustrated as I would be. Conversation would probably focus on the sudden lack of web.

Mind you the question was only for a week. If the webless state extended beyond that the communications industry might have to step into the hole and create the ways of using technology that we now take for granted. Imagine AT&T providing camera phones when we are used to doing that for ourselves on our computers. Video calls would be very expensive. The world might have to get innovative with other forms of technology...satellites might get more usage than they do now. Would TVs get cameras? In all of the technology questions this is raising in my mind one thing that has nothing to do with technology stands out. Would people be more polite to each other if instant gratification through the web was no longer available?

Peace! Hope! & Joy!

Update on Pete's Pond

While sharing this link with a friend I discovered that you can change the viewing mode. I'd been seeing greenish night stuff. When you put your cursor over the screen of the webcam a couple of icons pop up. You can then select Real Theatre mode. This mode lets you do full screen or you can set it for small size and then stretch the view. I also get better color in theatre mode. Instead of the weird green lighting I get shades of brown. Worth trying. I can't wait for tomorrow morning to check on the daytime view.

Peace!

A Gift That's Kept on Giving

Earlier this year, my sister gave me a subscription to Spirituality & Health magazine. It has turned out to be a blessing. Coming out only every two months, this thin magazine has between its covers articles from Thomas Moore who wrote Care of the Soul, suggestions on how to open yourself up to the spiritual moments in your life, ways to live healthier, goals for a better life, all of that and more. The latest edition just arrived and among the titles are an article on How to Die Laughing and another on how to relieve stress. I'm going to focus on the relieving stress.

The very short quarter page article is entitled, "Feeling Stressed? Peek at These Wildlife Webcams". I've looked at web cams before. Some of them are very interesting. We have several in San Antonio that can be accessed via the web. One notable one here in town gives you a view across the center of downtown. The city's webcams however, don't show wildlife. They often show haze. Animals are so much more fun.

The webcams listed in the article totaled nine. Not all of them worked. Here are the ones that did work.

Pete's Pond is from the National Geographic website. When I accessed it there was lots of green, bird and animal sounds. From the shaking of the camera, I suspect an animal was rubbing up against it. Shortly I saw some kind of deer arrive to drink.

The Outer Bay Cam was the next one that would work. I saw lots of fish swimming in water that was tinted pinkish purple by the light. Some of them were sharks. Sharks swim in a beautiful lazy manner until they need to move fast. It can be mesmerizing.

The Tiger Cub Cam at the National Zoo is full of information on the tigers. Although the tigers weren't active when I visited the website they will be at other times. There are plenty of other animal cams there also.

The Sandhill Crane cam is temporarily offline but will be up again early next year thanks to National Geographic.

The Wolf Cam at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport,TN is pretty. I didn't see any wolves when I visited but there are probably select watching times.

The Peregrin Falcon Cam at the Standard & Poor Building in Manhattan was offline. They promise to be back online next spring. I've been to that cam when it was online. Yes you can see real falcons.

For a generally fun time and lots of animals at almost anytime of day I recommend Pete's Pond. If there is technology in the classroom I eventually teach in I'll take my students on a safari to Africa and let them write about what they see. Mixing science and geography with writing. Yes!

Sliding backwards on the technology curve

A few years ago I was VERY literate in computers. I could do almost anything I needed to or wanted to with my machine. If I didn't know how to do something, I knew how to milk the help files, look it up on the web to find out, and as a last resort I had geek friends. This was during the pre-XP era. Today I find myself on the back side of the technology curve and feel as if I am sliding backwards down it. Changes in connectivity are happening so fast that I am clueless about how some of them work and which choices are good for what. We have a new version of Windows coming soon and I'm not even totally comfortable with the current version yet. I keep asking myself, "Why?"

Part of my backwards slide is, I think, because I never used Windows NT and some of the things that happen in XP are wrapped around the network structure of that OS. It shouldn't be any surprise to me that if I am not network savvy I am not going to be comfortable with where computers, pdas, cell phones and even game consoles are taking us. And I don't want to be a mere user. I want to know how to check and repair the things I use when they break or malfunction. So I am wondering where I can go to get network literate. I'd gladly read a book on the subject. It might even supersede the stack of spiritual reading I have waiting on my bedside table.

If you haven't realized that I use this blog as a thinking tool then you haven't read me enough. It just occurred to me that I could do a Google search using "networks for dummies" as the keywords and I might actually find a page to teach me about them, or a book to read. So I did and sure enough there are quite a few of them out there. Perhaps reading these and getting caught up technically is a good goal or resolution to set for this year. I certainly don't want to go through life not being up on things. And since my dreams of technology include a cutting edge laptop when I get that teaching job and then setting up a wireless network in my new place I guess it is probably one of the more realistic resolutions of all those I've made over the years.

So, 2007, here I come...ready to get connected...or at least learn how!

Technology upgrades and dreams of glory

When I was young I used to declare boldly, "I believe in the future of technology." At the time I was saying this I was more into Science Fiction than actual technology. I'm not sure I had ever seen a real computer although my father's company claimed they used one. Still it sounded cool at the time. Now that I am a good bit older and have spent many years in the working world of computers I still can say boldly, "I believe in the future of technology." I can also say, "I believe in our technological future." While the difference between those two statements is not as clear cut as I wish there is still a significant difference between what is obviously the computer version of the industrial revolution and what humanity decides to do with it.

Sometime during the night my keyboard died. It had been part of one of those nice cordless mouse keyboard combos by Logitech that were rather exciting a few years ago. Now they are old hat. I had lost the cordless mouse earlier this summer due to water leaking through my ceiling. That was an a/c horror of apartment living experience that is best told on days when you are totally bored. When that happened I pulled out the spare mouse, a corded optical one, that I'd gotten a while back just in case. That was a nice tiny upgrade. The optical part meant I no longer had to clean the mouse. I could just merrily run it over any flat surface and it would work. I didn't find the cord upsetting although my cat, Hyram, objected to his not being able to shove it to the far side of my desk when he decided to usurp its considerable surface by turning it into his lounging place. For those interested, Hyram is a male flamepoint ragdoll who weighs almost 20 pounds.

My keyboard died at just the wrong time. I had classroom assignments consisting of 2 journal/reflections on teaching and a lesson plan to write. First it was limping badly. The keys, when struck, would do nothing, or something, or way too much of something. I stumbled through the journals cutting them in size by half and went to class feeling unprepared. When I got back I decided to take the keyboard apart and try cleaning it. It didn't appreciate my efforts and bit the dust entirely. Realizing it was time to buy a new keyboard and I thought I'd go online to find a good price inconveniently forgetting that I needed the keyboard to type web addresses into the browser. Out came the seldom used on screen keyboard which let me type in a hunt and peck fashion using my mouse. I located the nearest BestBuy and headed off to shop.

What I found at the store was that there were two major manufacturers who put out most of the mouse keyboard combos and these were quickly going the way of the cell phone. I haven't got a Bluetooth yet and didn't think I wanted one on my keyboard. So I gladly and frugally avoided the $179+ offerings which included more extra buttons than I would have been able to keep track of. Even avoiding most of the fluff I still had to upgrade. I didn't like the feel of the Microsoft mouse scroll wheel which was smooth. Logitech's clicks. I didn't need a gaming keyboard because I don't do first person shooters. I wasn't adding this to a laptop so I didn't need extra security. Eventually I settled on a Logitech LX710 Desktop. I'd like to say that it was the cool design of the mouse and keyboard which sold me on them but what really clenched the deal was the length of time the batteries would last and the 5 year guarantee. Yeah, I know...practical and boring. Still it is really frustrating to replace a mouse because a button dies and I've done that way too many times. So boring and guaranteed is preferable to flashy gizmos that stop working with frequent use.

Now I'm home and the new hardware is installed. All is safe again and I am working at my usual speed. But the trip to BestBuy gave me food for dreams. I saw a really nice Gateway that had an AMD chip and almost 3 gigs of memory. It looked so cool and was only $1100 on sale. And then there was the Sony Vaio to match or beat Susan's baby. I can't afford it now but maybe in a year... Oh well, I have tons of time to dream. I do like technology and when I get my first teaching job I am going to reward myself by getting that longed for laptop with a really good screen, lightning speed and I might even get the fingerprint security to protect it. I even know somebody who will help me set up the wireless network in my house. Wifi here I come.