Category: Computer

Google It!

/ Paul / Leave a comment

I see things on different blogs and then forget where I saw them but remember the idea. I saw on a blog recently about using Google to do an image search. You type in your name and the name of a friend or boyfriend and see what comes up. Then you click on images and see what images come up with your search. I did this today for myself and my very good friend Shawn. An amazing amount of information came up as well as 729 images. And the search was returned in just 2.9 seconds. Google is amazing! I clicked through several pages of the images and grabbed a few. It’s interesting the images that appear when you do such a search. Below are just a few of the images. I know. You’re probably thinking that I have way too much time on my hands to be wasting it on things like this. But when you have all your work done and procrastinating on doing other things, Google is a good way to waste your time. By the way, you must realize that I don’t know any of the people in these pictures. None of them are actually of me and/or Shawn. Just random pictures that were generated from the Google search. Fun none the less.

The weather was beautiful today. It was a little windy which created a bit of a chill but the sun was out in full force and the sky became completely clear. It was wonderful. Tomorrow we are supposed to have a full day of sun and temperatures in the high 60’s. The weekend is looking even better! I might have to wash my car or decide on some place to go that is out doors. I love when the weather gets comfortable like this. I don’t want it too get too hot too soon though. Perfect weather for me is a clear sunny day with temperatures in the low to mid 70’s.

iChat

/ Paul / Leave a comment

It was a nasty day today. The weather was terrible. It was chilly. It was windy. It was rainy. It was awful. I hate this weather. There is promise of nicer weather by the end of the week. I hope it comes true.

Last summer when Apple introduced the iSight camera, I had to buy one. At that time I didn't know anyone to try it out with. I heard about iChatters.com and iChatfinder.com from all the Mac sites I browse, so I logged on and joined their free sites. The whole iSight thing was new then so there weren't many people on there. I video chatted with a few people at the time to figure out the camera and it was fun but I quickly lost interest. I eventually put the camera away and went back to using AOL for chatting. My profiles stayed on iChatters and iChatfinder. Then last week I got an IM from a guy in San Francisco saying he found me on iChatfinder.com. We chatted a bit and traded web sites. His blog is all about he and his partner raising their son together. It's a really cool site/blog. He's got some great iPhoto galleries and from time to time he posts iMovies on his site. I need to figure out how he does it. I have plenty of server space so I should create an iMovie and try to post it for others to see. That will have to be my next project. I should probably buy a digital video camera (hmm…justification for a major purchase?). Anyway, I enjoy checking out his site and watching his cool iMovies. I hope he doesn't mind that I linked to his site from my blog.

This evening I was on AOL and I got another IM from someone I didn't recognize. He said he found me on iChatters.com. He said he was in Santiago, Chile. I thought that was wild. He said he enjoys reading my blog. I'm fully aware of how vast the internet is and it's abilities but I still find it wild that I can talk (type that is) live with someone who is so far away. Chatting with him for awhile, I find out (which I guess I already knew) that we are in the same time zone but the weather is the opposite. I know the southern hemisphere is going through the opposite changes that we are going through but you don't think about it when you are chatting with someone who is telling you they are having the same sinus problems that you are having but they are going from Fall to Winter. Pretty wild.

P.S. No one made any guesses about my camera phone pictures from yesterday. 🙁 So no one wins the prize.

Junk e-Mail

/ Paul / Leave a comment

I must get 20-25 junk e-mails every day. What is up with that? I am constantly having to empty my trash just to clear out my mail box. Apple has a great junk e-mail filter on their e-mail program but they put the e-mails in a junk folder for you to check out and delete later. I guess I could set it to automatically delete them but what if I'm missing something? What if an e-mail that I'm meant to get actually slips through and gets put in the junk folder? So I have it set to go right to the junk folder and I manually delete them myself. But I'm doing this everyday. How many e-mails must I see about penis enlargement (not that we all don't want larger dicks, but please!), prescription drugs online, low mortgage rates, etc. I'm so sick of seeing these junk e-mails. And they are mostly from the same senders. Haven't they gotten the message that since I haven't gone to their site and bought something that I'm not interested? I won't even click on that “remove me” link because then they will see my address as an active address and keep sending me more. Is that true though? I mean, if you actually click on the remove me link, does it actually remove you from the list? Has anyone ever looked into that? And what about that spam legislation that was talked about awhile ago? Shouldn't I be getting less junk mail instead of more? I don't know what the recent law says but can't I sue some of these spamers and get a new computer out of it at least? I'm just so sick of my e-mail folders getting crammed with this shit. Before I got my own domain name, my ISP sent me a message saying my e-mail box was full and I'd have to empty it before getting any new e-mail. I couldn't believe it. I never save mail on the server. I always remove it. Sure enough, I went to the server and I had hundreds of junk e-mails that I had deleted from my local computer but not off the server. So now from time to time I have to go to the server and delete the mail so as not to get filled up with junk e-mail. I already have it set in my e-mail program to delete mail from the sever that is older then a month. But they send so much crap out that it gets filled up before it's able to delete it automatically. I thought I was being smart by creating a junk e-mail address and only using that address when I go to websites so that if they put it on some list I would know where it's coming from and could ignore that e-mail. I guess I'm just really frustrated with always having so much junk e-mail every time my e-mail program opens up for the first time of the day. I guess I'll just have to accept it or delete my addresses and start over. Who knows.

iPod Mini Arrives!

/ Paul / Leave a comment

It arrived today! I got my new iPod Mini! I kept checking the Fed Ex site and saw about 11:00 am this morning that it arrived at my place at 10:28. Yeah! So when I got home I picked it up and ripped open the box. I plugged it in and right away iTunes opened up and copied my song library onto the iPod Mini. Only took a few minutes. Then I opened iSync and transferred all my calendars and contacts to the iPod Mini. Now I have all my music and information stored on the iPod Mini. It’s great! Then I plugged the headphones in and started listening to some of my favorite songs while doing things on the computer. Of course I could have listened to my songs on iTunes but it’s more fun to use the new iPod Mini. It’s a cool blue color and I had it engraved on the back with my name. Apple is so cool! I promised in an earlier post that I would walk an extra two miles a day to justify it’s purchase. Well, starting tomorrow I will come home, change clothes and get on the tread mill and DO my two extra miles a day. I promise! Now for a suggestion for future upgrades to the iPod line for Apple. I suggest they build Bluetooth into the iPod and into the earbuds. That would be so cool. You could just stick these little earbuds into your ears and clip the iPod onto your belt and no wires would get in your way. Sometimes when I’m walking my hands catch the cords and I yank them out of the socket. Just a suggestion Apple.

On another note. Why does my web site and blog look so bad on Internet Explorer and the AOL browser? I was surfing around and wondered what they looked like on those programs and I checked them out. They totally render my pages and blog terribly! They use the wrong font, put boxes around things. I just hate the way it looks. I use Apple’s Safari and everything looks perfect. Every thing’s in the right place, the fonts are right, and the colors show up correctly. Why is there such a difference in browsers? What can I do to make them all look the same? Why can’t everyone use Apple products? They are far more superior!

What Are Sundays For?

/ Paul / Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but Sundays are great days. Lots of people spend their Sundays relaxing, reading the paper, getting up late, enjoying the day. I see Sundays as days to catch up on all the things I couldn’t get to during the week. I get so much done on Sundays. In the past few years my sleep patterns have changed and I just can’t sleep late anymore. I’m usually up before 7:00 am. Since Brad and I didn’t sleep together last night I was actually able to get a good nights sleep. I got up at 6:00 am this morning. I didn’t set an alarm or anything, I just woke up. So I did my lazy things. Read a little of the paper, ate breakfast, surfed the web reading my favorite blogs and web sites, checking mail. Then I put a load of laundry in and got started. I changed the sheets on my bed, took a shower, and went to run errands. I got all that done before 9:00 am! For some people that’s a whole days work.

Then I went to my mother’s house to meet with a real estate agent. She’s ready to sell her house and get a condo. She’s lived in the place for 39 years. When she and my father bought the place in 1965 they paid $16,500 for it. The real estate agent told her he could list it for $370,000. She was shocked. I’m glad it will go for that much. That way she can buy a condo out right and not have a mortgage. That will make her happy.

After meeting with the agent, I came home and finished my laundry, balanced my checkbook, paid a few bills, updated a few pages on my web site, read a few chapters in the book I’m reading and watched some TV. Then I got a surprise phone call! Brad called and asked if I wanted to go run some errands with him and get some ice cream. Of course I said yes. Any chance I get to spend time with Brad, I’ll do it. So he picked me up and we ran his errands and then we went to Creamy Stone ice cream shop (a new one just opened up in Vienna and there’s one in Fair Oaks). The place was pretty busy for a rather chilly Sunday afternoon. We waited in line and made our selections. After awhile we got our ice cream. We went outside and sat on the patio to enjoy it. It was very good. The portions were rather large so I had to help Brad finish his. It was delicious. Of course I’ll have to walk an extra 30 miles this week to work it off! Hahaha. Then Brad brought me home, kissed me, and was off on his way.

When I got home I checked my e-mail and I had a message from Apple saying my iPod Mini had shipped! I clicked on the tracking number and went to the Fed Ex site and it said it was in SHANGHAI China! Of course it’s tomorrow there already. It’s got tomorrows date as the day it left China. I hope it gets here by Wednesday. I didn’t really need an iPod Mini but I wanted one and I’m justifying it’s purchase by saying I will walk an additional two miles a day, each day to increase my cardio and increase my weight loss. Another 10 pounds would be nice. Brad thinks I look fine and doesn’t think I need to loose any more. I told him I’m loosing it for me, not for anyone else. I want to be 165 by my 40th birthday (I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before).

So that was my Sunday. I consider it to be very productive as well as relaxing. The rest of the evening I will watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition (but it’s a rerun so I probably won’t pay attention to it) and the Sopranos and then I’ll read a few more chapters in my book before bed. I love reading and this book is holding my interest. I hope you enjoyed your Sunday!