My knitting has gone to the dogs...

How to forward emails…

2010-07-29T02:43:57Z

… without pissing people off.

I’m sure all of you have at least one family member or friend who forwards every cute little joke, kitten email, or conspiracy theory to you on a regular basis. This is something you can send to them to help them understand the proper way to forward junk mail. Feel free to copy/paste, and make any changes you feel are necessary.

__________________________________________________________

So you want to forward an email to all of your friends? There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. Let’s go over the basics.

Type all of the addresses into the BCC field. This is the Blind Carbon Copy option. This will allow you to send it to everyone you know, but still allow you to keep their email addresses private. Type your own email address in the TO field. Do not type everyone’s addresses into the TO or the CC fields. This exposes everyone’s email address to possible viruses on other people’s computers. It’s bad manners. Please avoid doing this.
Edit out all of the >>>>> and the extra email addresses. This will make the email more readable, and will (again) keep everyone’s emails private. If you don’t know how to do this, ask. Someone will show you how.
Take the time to check Snopes.com and make sure the email is accurate and not a hoax. Do not assume the email is correct if it says “I checked this on Snopes.com and it’s TRUE”. Check for yourself. Seriously. If Snopes debunks it, don’t send it.
Do not assume everyone who is receiving the email has the same political/religious beliefs that you do. If you’re not sure, don’t send it.
Chain letters or letters that beg you to send them to everyone you know are spam. Nobody wants them. Nobody. Ever. No, Bill Gates is not going to start charging you 10 cents per email if you don’t forward that chain letter immediately. I promise.
Take the time to put something personal in the email. If you can’t be bothered to write one sentence explaining why you’re sending something, it’s probably not worth sending.
Be selective. Don’t forward everything, and don’t send every forward to everyone in your address book.

Right way:

The wrong way:

Notice I have edited the email addresses in this photo for privacy. The best way to respect everyone’s privacy is to remove these email addresses before you forward them.

Thanks for listening, and please take the time to clean up your forwards… the internet will thank you!

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Finally. The xphone.

2010-07-27T14:28:36Z

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Monday’s gone

2010-07-27T04:09:56Z

And that’s all I have to say about that. Hope your Tuesday is better than your Monday.

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Monday Happy List

2010-07-26T20:13:20Z

It’s Monday again! So without further ado, here is my list of five things that make me happy:

Will’s coming home in a week! It’s been really quiet around here without having a teenager here all the time, but I really miss having him here.
Cuddly kitties. Karma has been feeling exceptionally cuddly this morning, so I’ve had a purring cat on my lap for the last little bit. It’s hard to be in a bad mood when a purring kitty is sitting on you.
Having the trash guys take FOUR bags of stuff we managed to de-clutter from the spare room. Eventually, it will be my meditation room. If we worked at it, we could probably get the rest of it into the shed, but I really want to go through all of it.
The weather is cooling down out of the triple digits, and my swamp cooler can finally keep up.
Naps.

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Water bowl

2010-07-23T02:35:46Z

A few months ago, I found an Instructables post about a self-filtering water dish for pets. This intrigued me, and I decided to try it for myself. I found the filter at our local pet store, but the bowl was a bit harder to find. I finally located the bowl I was looking for on Amazon, and it arrived today. It was much bigger than I expected.

The only problem with this bowl was the lip… we couldn’t get the filter to attach properly, or stay up straight. Brian solved this by bending the lip down in one spot, and the filter attached pretty well.

I didn’t have any shims, so I just stuck the whole thing in the corner so it would prop up the filter. This worked pretty well. The filter is practically silent, and it’s moving a lot of water. Everyone investigated, but seemed afraid of the setup… until Alley decided she liked it. Now that she’s tried it, everyone else seems to think it’s ok.

All in all, I recommend this setup. Karma actually drank out of the dish after the dogs, which she’s never done before. I approve.

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ComicCon, I love you.

2010-07-23T01:43:35Z

Thanks for the story, PZ:

These… are my people. I wish I could be there.

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Earworm AGAIN

2010-07-23T00:54:25Z

Yes, this song is still stuck in my head. WHY???!!!one!!1???

Muse – Uprising lyrics:

The paranoia is in bloom, the PR
The transmissions will resume
They’ll try to push drugs
Keep us all dumbed down and hope that
We will never see the truth around
(So come on!)

Another promise, another scene, another
A package not to keep us trapped in greed
With all the green belts wrapped around our minds
And endless red tape to keep the truth confined
(So come on!)

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick the switch and open your third eye, you’d see that
We should never be afraid to die
(So come on!)

Rise up and take the power back, it’s time that
The fat cats had a heart attack, you know that
Their time is coming to an end
We have to unify and watch our flag ascend

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Hey .. hey … hey .. hey!

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious

Hey .. hey … hey .. hey!

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On the Rocks

2010-07-22T19:49:51Z

Ok, I’ve never heard of these guys before, but my friend Ray retaliated against the last video I showed with this:

On the Rocks – Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

These guys are awesome.

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Earworm

2010-07-22T19:47:56Z

Why is this song stuck in my head?

Muse – Uprising

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Rooting my HTC Droid Eris

2010-07-22T17:05:44Z

Feel free to ignore this post if you’re not into Android phones.

I finally got my replacement Eris on Friday, and I’ve been playing with it off and on since then. If you’re familiar with Android phones, you’ll know that Android 2.2 (Froyo) has been released and is rolling out on most phones. Unfortunately, the Eris is not one of them. Too old, too slow, not enough power… even though it could benefit immensely from the improvements in Froyo. I haven’t been very happy with HTC’s “Sense” UI, either… so I decided to take the plunge and root my phone so I could install Froyo on it.

I followed this easy, step-by-step guide to rooting any Eris (this includes anyone who’d installed the v3 leak), then installed the engineering bootloader to take it to stock rooted. If you don’t know what any of this means, it’s not important unless you want to do it yourself. The fun part, for me, was picking a ROM to use. I tried a couple of 2.1 ROMS (including EvilEris 3.0 and ErisLightningBolt), but I really wanted to try Froyo. Currently there are only a few Froyo ROMs for the Eris, and the most complete one seems to be KaosFroyo. The stock camera isn’t working at the moment, and there are a few other little bugs, but holy crap… I love it! I’ve overclocked it, and it’s running silky smooth. MUCH better than it was running before I rooted it.

The battery is lasting at least 30% longer, which is a huge deal… these little phones suck battery juice like it’s crack or something. I put my phone on the charger every single night, because it won’t make it through an entire night and a day. I didn’t charge it on purpose last night, and I think if I babied it I could make it all day today on what’s left. Impressive.

Conclusion: If you have an Android phone, root it and overclock it. If you can get Froyo on it, even better (try CyanogenMod if you have a Droid). If you have an Eris, by all means do this. It’s a huge improvement.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for what you do to your phone. This possibly brick your phone, void your warranty and/or kick your cat. If you do not understand any of the instructions I’ve linked above, read them until you do understand them, or do not root your phone. Rooting your phone may lead to terminal happiness. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where prohibited.

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