Pictures Galore part 1 at Thursday, August 05, 2010

We have been filling our SD cards with pictures and haven't offloaded them to the server in a long time. Tonight I backed up 1123 files all photos and home video clips totaling 6.6 GB.

I'll share the best ones here, with a few comments mixed in occasionally.

Alaska - Melly was about 8 months old at this point

This was clear back in Alaska

This is an old one but one of my personal favorites.

Note: Don't call DCFS, he climbs in here on his own and shuts the door.

That's all for tonight, I'll get some more up tomorrow.

Popular Desktop Apps And Their Online Alternatives at Wednesday, February 10, 2010

This is an old list, some apps may not be current.

Source: http://www.investintech.com/resources/blog/archives/78-Popular-Desktop-Apps-And-Their-Online-Alternatives.html

Outfitting your computer with the latest software can be expensive. Time and money aren’t things to be wasted. With sky rocketing prices for desktop applications, you need to arm yourself with the right alternatives.

Fortunately, there is a great alternative out there: the Internet. As hard as it is to believe, just by surfing around online, you can access most of the desktop app functionalities you need without shelling out a cent.

To prove it, here’s a list of 25 online alternatives for the most popular desktop applications that you use, want and simply must have when working online.

Application	Online Alternative	Description
Microsoft Office 2007	Google Docs	Google Docs includes the same creation applications for creating word documents, spreadsheets and presentations as MS Office.
Adobe Photoshop CS3	Splashup	Splashup is an online photo image editing app that contains similar photo editing tools found in Photoshop CS3 and can integrate seamlessly with popular photo sharing services.
Microsoft Visio 2007	Gliffy	Gliffy has the basic functionalities to create and share quality flow charts, complex diagrams or technical drawings.
Adobe Acrobat 8.1	iConv	Create PDFs from a variety of formats by simply uploading your file. No registration, installation or cost required.
Apple 1 Password Manager and Form Filler 2.5.7	clipperz	With clipperz, you create direct log in links for your online accounts. Just log in once to clipperz to access them.
Apple Aperture 1.5	Flickr	A popular online photo management and sharing site. With a free basic Flickr account, you can upload photos via email or the upload webpage.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007	Gmail	Gmail accounts have tons of space, instant messaging, built in search technology, no banner ads, and available in 40 languages.
Vista	YouOS	YouOS is a virtual OS that you can customize without the hefty price or desktop trappings. A combination of OS functionality and web access, it still has the same look and feel of a desktop.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Adobe Flash CS3 Professional	app2you	This neat web service allows you to create your own simple web application without any coding or web designing experience whatsoever!
Desktop calculators	InstaCalc	InstaCalc is an advanced web based calculator. Send a link of your calculations to others or embed a calculator into your own website. Other features include unit conversions and programming commands.
MS Outlook HP fax machine Printing paper	FaxZERO	With this internet faxing service, you can send digital documents within Canada and US for free. Just upload the document and you’re set.
SharpReader (Windows) NetNew Wire (Mac OS X) Straw (Linux)	Netvibes	Netvibes is a nifty RSS reader and web home page. Stay connected to everything online at all times--catch up on blogs, facebook, to-do lists, news and weather.
Website Analysis Software	Google Analytics	This online tool allows you to keep track of your website and how it’s being accessed. Track content views or the amount of time spent on the site.
MSN Messenger Google Talk ICQ AIM Jabber Yahoo!	meebo	A web portal for instant messaging, meebo lets you have the same online chats, but without the download. Access Google talk, msn, Yahoo!, jabber, ICQ and AIM from any computer.
All desktop tools	Sosius	Sosius has all the essential desktop tools online: calendar, file management, rss feeds, projects, file management, databases, and collaboration and messaging tools.
Desktop Task Lists	Ta-da List	This is an online to-do list that you can easily access and share with others while online. You can even check your lists on an iPhone when you’re on the go.
Desktop Task Lists	Backpack	Like Ta-da List, Backpack is a to-do list web tool, but more dynamic and complex. Create pages of to-do lists with images, set up text message alerts or even share your pages with others.
Microsoft OneNote 2007	Stikkit	Stikkit is a simple online alternative that creates "little yellow notes that think". The notes are sharable and accessible anywhere.
Apple MindManager 7.0 Mac	Bubbl.us	This web application allows you to brainstorm online when you need to map out projects or make long term business plans.
Microsoft Money Plus Premium	Wesabe	Part financial application and part user community, Wesabe combines both to provide you with communal tips and forums so you can keep track of your spending habits.
MS Excel 2007	chartAll	chartAll.com is a free online web service where you can create, store and publish simple charts from your own data sources. Charts can be customized with colors, themes, and fonts.
MS PowerPoint	Preezo	As the website says, “Preezo is an Ajax web application that gives you the power to create and share professional quality presentations over the web without software or plugins. Goodbye, PowerPoint. Hello, Preezo!�?
Adobe LiveCycle ES	Wufoo	From job applications to customer surveys, Wufoo lets you create forms quickly and easily with an HTML interface.
Excel spreadsheets Invoices Financial software	PayPal	PayPal acts as the go-between that connects you and online recipients. An online must-have when making business purchases.
USB storage devices Hard drive storage space	DivShare	Simply upload and share your media and document files online to free up storage space on your computer.

Who says saving money is hard? Just by looking at the desktop applications you can do away with, you can save a bundle. Most desktop applications can range anywhere from $100 to $1, 000. Compare that to the price of using online applications: $ 0.

So the next time you think of buying another desktop app, think twice—think “online�?. Because the more you ditch the desktop, the more you save!

Bonus Tip: For heavy users of PDF who don’t want to keep their data in PDF, Investintech offers PDF to Word Converter solutions in its products such as Able2Extract and Able2Doc. The PDF to Word focused solution is a robust one that performs conversions quickly, easily and above all, accurately.

Corona Arch - Things You Should Try at Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Yeah, that's me! The two Corona Arch trips that I've done are probably some of the funnest trips I have ever been on. Corona Arch is a large arch near Moab. Since it is not inside Arches National Park it is not covered by the same protections as Delicate Arch and the other famous ones you see in the pictures. The advantage of this is that it has been bolted and with a long enough rope you can rappel right off the arch. There are quite a few considerations, and you don't want to go out and buy a rope tomorrow and head down to Moab. But if you have climbing/rappelling skills, or know someone who does, plan a trip, you'll love it.

Both times I've done this trip we've gone off-season (spring or fall) which greatly reduces the number of people competing for time on the arch. It also means that we could visit the Fiery Furnace in Arches in the morning and do the arch in the afternoon/evening. As you can see twilight makes for a great photo. You can do the Fiery Furnace year round, but in the busy season you have to apply for a permit before hand. Off-season is a little cooler and much less crowded. But be prepared for cold nights if you camp out. Josh Whiting and I spent a cold night out on the sand on one trip.

Even if you don't do the rappel it's a fun hike and there are a few geocaches on the way if you're into that. It's a wonderful experience and it makes for some good stories and even better pictures.

Overall Rating (0 = worst/hard, 4 = best/easy)
Set-up NA
Maintenance NA
Usefulness NA
Enjoyment 4 / 4

Fantasy Sports - Things You Should Try at Thursday, May 07, 2009

Today's installment will take a break from the techy stuff and focus on something a little more entertaining. It won't increase your productivity, in fact it will probably cause a drop. But hey, its a lot of fun.

I was never much of a pro sports guy, in fact until APX paid for my ticket last year I had never been to a pro sports game. But a few years ago a few guys at NetVision decided to do a fantasy football league. They needed a few extras so I joined. I decided to sign-up for a public team too so I could play around, make mistakes, and get a feel for how things work. That year my public team took second out of twelve and my NetVision team took third of eight. Now I'm hooked. I went on the next season to manage two public basketball teams and took first and third. This past season my head to head basketball teams took first, first and second, including a first place in a league of guys from APX who actually know sports and watch these games. But enough of my bragging.

In fantasy sports you join a league of up to twelve other teams. You then select a team of real life players and based on how well they play you either get points (roto league) or you go directly against another team for the week (head to head league). Towards the end of the season there are a few weeks of playoffs and a champion is crowned.

You don't have to be a big sports guy to like fantasy sports. Its free to play, you don't have to refer five friends, and you can spend as little or as much time on it as you like. You can log on once a week and set your line-up, or you can be on there every day proposing trades and researching the waivers. You don't have to watch any of the games, or you can follow them closely rooting for your guys.

Personally I use yahoo, but there are lots of sites that offer fantasy sports. On yahoo you can manage teams year round. Of course they have the big three: NFL, NBA, MLB, but they also have hockey, nascar, golf, tournament and bowl pickems, and other games.

I probably spend more time than I should playing fantasy sports, but hey its a lot of fun. If anyone is interested in joining a league with me let me know and I'll send ya the details.

Overall Rating (0 = worst/hard, 4 = best/easy)
Set-up 4 / 4
Maintenance 4 / 4
Usefulness 1 / 4
Enjoyment 4 / 4

Log Me In - Things You Should Try at Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Log Me In is one of those services, like Orb, that I hope continues to be free. As long as it does I will continue to use it. I currently use it daily.

Log Me In is a remote desktop control app. Basically that means that if you have a home server, or even a computer that is often on, you can control it from anywhere. From your remote browser just go to their website and you can see on your screen your home desktop. Pretty much anything you can do sitting in front of the PC you can do remotely. I use it whenever I need anything done on my media PC. For a while my main server didn't have a monitor, then it was just hooked up to the TV. Whenever I needed to update something I just logged in and made the changes.

I also use it on all the computers that I provide tech support for. It also makes for some pretty good jokes, for example when you're logged into your sisters computer fixing things and her roommate comes in and starts writing a paper and can't figure out why strange lines keep popping up. Another good joke is to log into a computer when you know no one is in the room and start strange music playing.

In my setup I can watch the media PC from the bedroom TV. Well that's too far for a wireless keyboard or mouse. So I have two solutions, one is to use Log Me In from my laptop and start movies or whatever. For second solution I found a way to connect the 360 paddle to the PC and I can use it like a mouse, pretty cool.

I have also used it in class to load up a program on my home PC, complete a homework assignment, and email it to myself to print out and turn in at the end of class, pretty cool.

To get Log Me In, just go to their webpage, sign up for an account, and install the app on any computers that you want to control. You also need to install a plug-in on the browser that you control from. It's all fairly straight forward.

Overall Rating (0 = worst/hard, 4 = best/easy)
Set-up 3 / 4
Maintenance 4 / 4
Usefulness 4 / 4
Enjoyment 2 / 4