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Skip at 5:23 AM
I am hopeless when it comes to graphics and colour matching. It's a problem when I am looking at any web pages and trying to decide on colours. If you have the same problem, or just want a pallet of colours that go together check out Colormatch. There you have the three primary colours of red, green, and blue. Click on the main colour you want for your project and six other complimentary colours will be displayed for you. It's a big help to people like me. If you are interested in individual colours and don't want to be overwhelmed, try out theColour palette. Here you are given a nice page with 216 colours. When you click on any one, a page with hex numbers for that colour, and the colour itself are displayed. I know there are hundreds of other sites with similar help available, but I like the simplicity and ease of use these two supply.
As a note, todays issue of Lockergnome had a article fighting spam in Eudora (which I use). Check out the notes and filters at Cecilw.com. It's a great lesson on how to get most of your spam removed with just Eudora. I would try some of these techniques but so far I have been so impressed with Popfile that I think I will stay pat.
Skip at 5:28 AM
Two bits of fun today. For those of you who have always wanted to have your name in print but been too lazy to write, or too bad to be accepted, you can see your fantasy by going to Design your own O'Reily book cover. You can enter the title for your book and chose a graphic and get to see what your book would look like in print, with your name there too. I envision mine in ORANGE with the lion staring out at me! Now if I only had any writing talent!
Now for those who want to blog but have no life you can go toThe Apathetic Online Journal Entry Generator. It will create a blog entry with no effort on your part. Now when you don't feel like getting out of bed but need a blog entry just click, cut and paste. You can freshen the blog with new entries with no thought required on your part. Isn't technology great!
Skip at 4:57 AM
Today in Slashsdot.org there is a note about a new application called MoneyDance. It is a Quicken like program for handling your personal finances. It was developed for Linux but also runs on Windows systems. It looks interesting and I will probably download the free trial version. I use Quicken every day and have grown to love it. Lately, it seems to have become bloated with each new release adding (from my perspective) more fluff then function.
Skip at 6:28 AM
Living in Toronto it is hard not to get paranoid, these days, about SARS. The WHO placed TO on their list and the media has gone wild. It is a shame since I really believe SARS is under control at the moment. All of the people who have been affected have direct links to the first two cases. Most are health care workers. It is a sever crisis in the health care sector, but for the general population the fears the media are whipping up are groundless. People who live here are going around as normal. Doing ordinary things, going to work. Everyone I know who has traveled to the affected areas are quarantining themselves voluntarily and behaving in a civilized and thoughtful manner. No one has to cancel their trip to Toronto. I'd be more fearful about going to places that weren't being as careful about SARS as Toronto is.
Skip at 5:01 AM
I opened an account, last year, at Enom (formerly PageClicks) so I could register some domain names at a better price. I let some friends know and now I have used my account to set up the first domain name not for me! What a neat thrill for a geek!!!!
I have been very happy with Enom. They provide a very good service. Almost instant updating for any name server changes, almost unlimited email forwarding, and a few extras. Warning: blatant promo - If anyone is interested I offer a very good price!
Skip at 5:34 AM
Easter is over and time to go back to work. I don't have much to write at present. The weekend was nice, and in a rare occurrence, the nice weather showed up at the same time. I spent too much time looking at Blogshares. I'm not doing great, that's why I don't like gambling. I don't have the temperament to play games like this. I enjoy it for a short while then I have to take a breather. It's fun for me to watch though and I enjoy seeing the players try to outdo each other. As long as they don't pick on my blog. The share price is now 34 cents. Wow!!
Skip at 5:45 AM
Happy EASTER
Skip at 5:47 AM
GOOGLE SEARCHING A SPECIFIC WEB SITE!
This info is from IBM's WebSpherePro Developer Tips. It was new to me and I thought it was worth passing on:
It is eay to get lost on a big site like IBM's Web site, and its search engine doesn't always work well. So if you find yourself in this situation you can resort to everybody's favorite search engine -- Google -- instead. Obviously, there's a problem with Google in that it searches all Web sites, but you can limit Google to one domain. Google's advanced button provides a nice dialog to limit the domain, but you can also simply key site:www.ibm.com in the search string. For instance, to search http://www.ibm.com for all Linux JDK information you can use the following search command:
Linux JDK site:www.ibm.com
Skip at 6:47 AM
This is obviously SPAM week. Two interesting articles on Slashdot this morning spurred me on. The first was this one from Australia where people have been so upset that politicians have noticed and are discussing the banning of spam. What a nice idea! The second was on AOL suing some spammers. Guess everyone is upset. All I can add to this post is that I am still very impressed with Popfile. It looks like it was just what I needed.
Skip at 5:14 AM
Another entry about Popfile, because after just two days of poking and prodding I am very impressed. The application is written in Perl and seems very robust. I like the decision the developers took in using the browser for the user interface and manual. The only niggle is when I have PopUp Stopper active and I have to remember to hold down the control key to get another browser window to open. This is a personal thing, as it is my decision to use PopUp Stopper from time to time. There is a complete forum with Q&A's on the application, help for installs, and update info. I have been playing with buckets and magnets so the accuracy rate of Popfile in classifying my mail is now at 73% but it is rising quickly as I train it to my needs. This application is really worth a look.
Skip at 5:34 AM
I downloaded Popfile over the weekend and started to play with it. I read about using Bayesian analysis to classify emails. This sets up a algorithm to do content based filtering of the incoming messages. Popfile is an open source project, to implement this Bayesian analysis, and is set up for several systems. I have the windows version and the download and install was very easy. I also like the idea that this will work easily with Outlook and Eudora. On the initial install it won't filter anything. You have to set up buckets (such as work, personal, and spam) and when the messages arrive you have to "train" Popfile which bucket the message belongs in. I did this for just a few messages and Popfile started to make the right choices very quickly. I'm impressed so far and will be giving this one a good look.
Skip at 6:18 AM
I tried to sign up with Blogshares but every time I tried to CLAIM my site Blogshares told me the logo could not be found. I have it on the side bar IN PLAIN SIGHT of humans and computers. I now have it above. If I can't claim this site today Blogshares is HISTORY!
Addendum....It worked.
Skip at 6:29 AM
I mentioned this last month but I thought it deserved another airing for anyone who is having issues with their ISP about what newsgroups are available. My ISP seems to start and stop some newsgroups on a whim. I have never been able to get a good answer as to why.
I have been using newsbot.com's database to find providers who carry some of the ones I'm interested in. Newsbot.com keeps track of usenet resources and maintains a database of free usenet providers. They keep ratings on the providers and some links to other interesting resources. Give them a try if you want to access some newsgroups.
If you don't need up-to-the-minute access and don't use a news reader Google's Groups is a great asset. They maintain access to most news groups and allow you to search them for info. They don't carry the binaries, but why do you want them?
Skip at 5:42 AM
Just for a change of topic, I like to read Science Fiction. Every month I buy Analog magazine and save it until I take a holiday. I then dive in a read 5 or 6 issues during the week to ten days I'm away. It is a real treat and I just did that when we were in the Dominican Republic. I really enjoyed the the last batch and urge anyone to check out Analog. The web site has some forums and occasionally a short story or excerpt form a current/recent issue. An if you can't find the magazine there is a subscription form there. I don't wnat this one to go out of business, it is just too good. Buy a copy!!
Skip at 10:25 AM
I have been intrigued by the sites that have hooked up to Is my blog hot or not. I thought about signing up this blog but I already know the answer to that one! It seems that this type of affirmation has become the new fad. I think several years ago when the internet was younger, the web site where people posted pictures and asked it they were hot or not was novel and somewhat interesting. Now all the offshoots, including the hideous TV show, are getting to be too much. People seem to want this approval on such superficial grounds that to me it is worthless. If you don't have self esteem and integrity then go for it.
Skip at 6:24 AM
Another winter weekend here in Toronto. We go the freezing rain and a bit of snow. Made the streets very slippery and the corners (for pedestrians) was very slushy. Big puddles of snow/ice/slush to get through. We were lucky though. All around us, and especially to the south in New York state, the ice brought down trees and power lines. At least we could still have a sung and cozy weekend inside. Reports have it that some people in upstate New York will not have power for three days. At least we are being promised higher temperatures later in the week. I sure hope that this was winter's last gasp.
Skip at 8:55 AM
It seems this article in The Register has spawned a lot of blogging about the term GOOGLEWASH. It's an interesting review on how someone writing in a blog can get a term changed (perverted?, googlewashed?) to another meaning in very little time. It is something to consider. We worry about governments distorting things for their benefit, now we have to worry about a minority of influential bloggers with the same sort of power!
My question of the day is: How do I get in to this elite "A" list of bloggers?
Skip at 4:59 AM
With the SARS outbreak, Toronto has become a hotbed of cases. Toronto has a large Asian population and lots of people visit family and friends. It's not so strange that Toronto would be a hotspot. It's so easy to get on a plane and travel thousands of miles in a few hours. While I understand everyone is scared, I'm disappointed in Torontoians shunning of Asians. Our health misister made an inappropriate comment yesterday. People are not going to Chinatown and restaurants are sparsely attended. I hope that this is short lived and people come to realize that normal precautions are all that is required.
Skip at 5:19 AM
There were problems yesterday publishing my entry on Blogger. Don't know why but I will try today with just this small note.
Skip at 11:16 AM
After being away for a week and a bit, it was time to update my anti-virus signature files. The version numbers seem to have jumped up a lot. One that I have been testing out is the free Gladiator Anti-Virus. It is still in beta but each iteration seems to be stable and I haven't had any problem with it. It seems to co-exist well with AVG Anti-Virus.
As for spam, you can guess what a week away did to my mailbox. I can't believe to amount of pure junk that arrives. It really stands out when you look at it all at once. Normally I see one days worth, when I bother to look, and it doesn't register quite the same.
Skip at 6:38 AM
Helping to lower the average quality of Web content almost daily.