A place for the neat stuff the surrounds my life
MacDevCenter.com has a good article by Joli Ballew, author of Degunking Your Mac (from Paraglyph Press) on 12 Steps to Improving Your Mac's Performance.
Some of these tips might be a little advanced for newer Mac users, but if you want to wring out the best performance possible from your Mac, try them out.
Career-Op: Getting to know you
by Douglas E. Welch, ComputorEdge Magazine
Each new season brings a new initiative here to the Career-Op offices. Summer takes us away from the beautiful outdoors – at least for a little while – and into the wild and wooly world of statistics. Perhaps it was the act of helping my wife with the statistics for her Master’s thesis, but I got a sudden urge to know a little bit more about my clients. There is career gold to be mined in those hills of data, but only if they spur you to new projects and the betterment of your career.
California: State and Local Government on the Net
LibrarianInBlack points out this excellent collection of links to State and Local Government Web Sites throughout the US. As she mentioned in her post, "The next time someone asks me for state government information (which they do more than I would like), I'm going here instead of Google. It got me to my desired result a lot faster."
Fast Company magazine online has a nice quicky article, Practical Networking Tips, on how to keep your networking wheels going when you are at a conference, association meeting or just hanging out.
Not sure what to make of this entry in my access log:
149.101.1.127 US Dept of Justice. US,MD wdcsun27.usdoj.gov
Of course, they accessed my gardening blog, A Gardener's Notebook, so perhaps that makes it a bit more comforting....or not!
A slew of Security Updates were released by Microsoft today.
I highly recommend that everyone visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and install them at your earliest convenience.
Palm/Palm Pilot: Personal Experiences and Tips
I know many people who have a Palm Handheld PDA, but they don't get the most out of it. Too often it is merely an electronic address book.
If you want to turn your palm into a more useful companion on your daily journey through the business world, check out this site. It has a collection of tips and hints, illustrated through the writer's own personal experiences with their Palm handheld. There is also a ton of great links to other Palm sites at the bottom of the page.
The LA Public Library is rolling out FREE Wi-Fi Internet Access at its branches. Three are currently online, including my "base of operations" in Sherman Oaks. Others hotspots include Los Feliz, and North Hollywood Branches, as well as at the Central Library downtown.
As the program expands, this could give you a hotspot almost everywhere in the city. No need to pay for T-Mobile access at Starbucks or Borders anymore. Just head towards your local library branch.
I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but theoretically, you should be able to use the network from the parking lot or other places outside of the library. This could work really well for me when I am between clients and need to check or send some email. If the connection is strong enough, I wouldn't even have to leave my car. You should also be able to use the connection, even when the library is closed.
Most laptops with wireless cards should already be configured to access the library's wireless, but I can help you out via email, if you have any questions.
If you are looking for a way to have a little fun with your camera, or simply be more creative and productive, here are 10 quick self-assignments from Photographic magazine.
Now, get out there and start shooting! (SMILE)
Over the last couple of weeks I have been listening to this CD a lot. Every time I get in the car, I seem to be drawn to it. It was lent to me by some good friends who brought it back from a working trip at a songwriter workshop in Driggs, Idaho. John and Jo Ann Braheny are author and speaker on music business and creativity topics. Jo Ann says she heard this CD while in a restaurant and bought it immediately.
Fishing Music is a collection of standards, originals and traditional music all gathered around a fishing theme.
This is one of those CDs where you are inclined to listen from beginning to end each time. There is a building of form and content across all the songs that takes you back to the days when albums were more than just a collection of singles thrown together.
One of my favorite tracks is the instrumental Upstream. This a traveling song; one designed to be listened to while you are moving. Even here, in the congested traffic of Los Angeles, I can feel like I am driving down a country road, heading off to the fishing hole somewhere in the mountains. Other favorites include the standard Lazy River and a great original story song by the producers of the CD, Madison Brown.
Fishing Music is a CD you will return to again and again over weeks, months and years, whenever you need a recharge and want to dream about somewhere where the fish are biting all the time.
