Your moment of robotic bliss. Happy Holidays!
If you have not seen video where Keepon dances to Spoon’s “I turn my camera on”, check this out: http://dennismueller.org/blog/2007/04/zomg-robots/
My newest concoction of virus and spyware protection (and yes I use all three…)
Spybot Search and Destroy (with TeaTimer)
This is free (though you should donate to the cause!) and very effective at preventative measures with browsers and detecting spyware after it is downloaded.
Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 (or Norton AntiVirus 2010 for the home user)
Both products support real-time file system and email protection.
To not have it conflict with NOD32 do the following:
add the exception: “C:\ProgramData\ESET\ESET NOD32 Antivirus”
Change Settings >
Antivirus and Antispyware Protection “Configure Settings” >
on the “File System Auto-Protect” tab click “Centralized Exceptions”
Click “Add…”
choose Security Risk Exceptions > Folder
Then navigate to the “C:\ProgramData\ESET\ESET NOD32 Antivirus” and click Ok.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4
This product is new to me but has saved my butt from a keylogger so I like to include it in the mix. It is also very reasonably priced.
To not have it conflict with Symantec do the following:
On the Setup menu choose “Enter entire advanced setup tree…”
Then expand the “Antivirus and antispyware” tree
> choose “Exclusions”
Click “Add…”
Enter the path “C:\ProgramData\Symantec\SRTSP” (or the equivalent for Norton “C:\ProgramData\Norton\”)
I really enjoy taking photos. Generally I do more candid work which does not allow me to stage the background. I took this photo of my friend Joyce in her lovely dress. Unfortunately, there are a lot of distracting elements in the background that draws my eye from what should be a stunning picture of beautiful woman in a fabulous dress.
Click on the photo to make it larger.
Notice the brown box in the back, the white board has scribbled upon with blue ink, a garbage can just to the right of her and the depth of field is such that the background is in focus.
Click on the photo to make it larger.
I started by adjusting the contrast and color to make adjust for the flash. This is easily done in Picasa or other free tools and it makes a significant difference.
I then cropped the photo so that the some of the distracting qualities were diminished while placing her face in the upper right third of the picture and keeping the angle of her body going along that same axis to the lower third of the shot. Notice the red line that I drew to cut the photo into thirds.
Then next thing I worked on was removing her from the background. This was done by using photoshop and a the magic wand tool to select the subject, used feathering and copied her from the background layer to a new layer.
From here I identified the offensive background objects and did a quick job of removed them. I just cut and paste the wall and molding over them. Then I changed the brightness and size to make it fit. That works pretty well and should be relatively quick. Also it does not need to be perfect because I knew I was going to blur the background. Then I blurred the background layer and saved it as a jpeg.
And poof!
Canon MP480 All-in-One Photo Printer
I purchased this printer a about 8 months ago and it is one of the best all-in-one printers I have ever owned. It works great on multiple platforms (mac, windows, etc…). The printer is easy to use, truly a plug and play device and the quality of print is solid on both text and photos. The scanner has saved my butt many times when working from home. The real ease of use test is that I have purchased the same model for my parents (not very tech savvy folks) and have not had to do any troubleshooting since plugging it in. I would highly recommend it.
The best part, is that is sells for around $70 (as of this post) and comes with ink and usb cable so you can start printing right away.
The Ink:
Canon PG-210 Black Cartridge ($16)
Canon CL-211 Color Cartridge ($21)
Not too long ago I discovered the most awesome thing; BlackBerry’s can automate the dialing of a participant code on a conference bridge if the phone numbers are put in a specific format. So here is the layout for your conference bridge: Phone Number x Participant Code
For example if your conference bridge phone number is (888) 888-8888 with your participant code is 666666 and you need to press (#) pound to continue then you can put it in your outlook or email message like this:
(888) 888-8888 x 666666#
or like this 18888888888×666666#
or like this 1.888.888.8888 x666666#
or any combination thereof…
Given any of the phone numbers listed above the BlackBerry will dial the phone number (888.888.8888), pause and the following screen will pop up on your BlackBerry:
|
Dial Extension Dial 666666# Skip End Call |
You then can select to dial the participant code or technically the extension (666666#).
Happy conferencing!
By default most WordPress themes are not enabled to allow comments on pages. So even if you check the “Allow comments” check box in the DISCUSSION section when creating a page, nothing will happen until you edit your Page template file. You can ether edit it by logging into the the wp-admin site or by editing the file via ssh or ftp.
If you use the wp-admin site, click “Appearance” on the left side of the window to expand the section, then click on “Editor”
Make sure your current theme is displayed on the right hand side where it says “Select theme to edit:”
If it is, then click on the “Page (page.php)”
If you are using the FTP/SSH option go to your wordpress installation directory.
Then navigate to wp-content > themes > {your theme} and edit page.php
Scroll down until you see the following line of code:
|
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); } ?> |
Then add the following line:
|
<?php if ((‘open’ == $post-> comment_status)) { comments_template(); } ?> |
And it should be added before this line:
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<?php endwhile; endif; ?> |
There are 135 posts and 50 comments so far.
I am in the process of bringing over old blog posts to centralize my ramblings.
Why do I blog? I desire to become a better citizen and participate in the greater community. I blog in the hope that I can spark a dialogue and inspire readers to get involved. This blog is a reflection of my beliefs, passions and musings around politics, technology, green living, humor, and my personal experiences. You are invited to participate.
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