Rambling Dogs

A Few Good Donor Management Tools

2009-07-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Good overview article of donor mgmt software, plus link to a guide that helps you choose:

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page10942.cfm

Thanks.

--David

Opening CakePHP Files in Dreamweaver

2009-06-05T18:04:00.001-07:00

Thanks to James Fairhurst, so easy. Basically need to update the couple of Extensions.txt and the MMDocumentTypes.xml file.

http://www.jamesfairhurst.co.uk/posts/view/opening_cakephp_files_in_dreamweaver

Removing Skype Call Link

2009-05-15T12:10:00.001-07:00

How annoying that by default Skype makes all 10 digit numbers in browsers into hyperlinks with skype/call icons - even ones that aren't phone numbers, like purchase order #'s in reports. Especially if you don't use Skype Out much.

Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Manage Add Ons -> Disable the Skype ones

But hey, I love skype, and for free I take what I can get.

Coal Power is Better Than Oil

2009-05-06T18:45:00.001-07:00

"To top it all, using electricity generated in large part by coal to power our passenger cars would lower carbon emissions -- even in Indiana, which generates 75 percent of its electricity with coal. Big power plants are so much more efficient than the gasoline engines in our cars that a plug-in hybrid car running on electricity supplied by Indiana's current grid still ends up more carbon-frugal than comparable cars burning gasoline in a conventional engine under the hood. Old-guard energy types have been saying this for decades. In a major report released last March, the World Wildlife Fund finally concluded that they were right all along."

--Pewter Huber

What Happened in Vegas — Sightline

2009-05-05T21:34:00.001-07:00

Vegas actually controls sprawl better than most other cities.

http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2009/05/01/what-happens-in-vegas

Official Google Blog: Adding search power to public data

2009-04-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

Google might be a helper and/or distributor of our scorecard:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/adding-search-power-to-public-data.html

Hunters' Groups Ask Limbaugh to Cease Humane Society Support - Philanthropy.com

2009-04-29T21:29:00.001-07:00

Another example of our great country:

"Twenty-eight organizations that represent gun owners and hunters have asked the broadcaster Rush Limbaugh to cease his public support of the Humane Society of the United States, according to The Washington Times."

http://philanthropy.com/news/?id=8022&pth&utm_source=pt&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=lefttop

A Company Plans to Market Illiquid Assets - NYTimes.com

2009-04-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

Maybe that whole invest in a company thing has value... though not sure if you can get around the high minimums that some require in assets to be an accredited investor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/technology/start-ups/23vc.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Facebook Causes makes no money?

2009-04-23T22:04:00.001-07:00

Supposedly nobody's making any money on Facebook Causes? Only two have earned more than $100k. So says the Washington Post / MSNBC, but now the article has been pulled? No idea what that means, maybe somebody thought that was too negative...

California utility bets on space-based solar power | Grist

2009-04-23T21:40:00.001-07:00

PG&E has contracted for a solar plant in space. Pretty cool stuff, and apparently hugely impressive source of solar radiation compared to stuff on the ground. And what seems the most interesting is that they can transmit the energy via radio waves? I didn't even know that was possible. If they can do that, why can't we have wireless power everywhere? Why do I have to plug in my laptop?

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-16-solera-space-solar/

Environmentalists Adopt New Weapon: Seed Balls : NPR

2009-04-15T19:12:00.001-07:00

We should take these hiking and throw them in post-fire areas!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103129515

America’s first solar city, from a former NFL player | Grist

2009-04-13T19:53:00.001-07:00

Master planned eco-friendly community, just like you wanted to build...

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-10-americas-first-solar-city-fro/

Kyoto stove wins $75,000 FT climate change innovation competition | Grist

2009-04-10T23:04:00.001-07:00

Some awfully smart people developing some awfully cool shit that might actually change the world.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-09-kyoto-stove-wins-competition

Dog parks

2009-04-09T18:37:00.001-07:00

And you guys thought I was crazy to want to open a dog park combined with an internet cafe and coffee shop...

Building a better dog park
Kelly Acree loved taking her Labrador mutt to the public dog park in Dallas, but she didn't like the heat or the mess. Unleashed Indoor Dog Parks is her attempt to solve the problem -- 50,000 square feet of artificial turf under a soaring roof. The park offers Wi-Fi, indoor/outdoor play areas and a gift shop, plus dog handlers to break up any fights. For $7.50, dogs get an all-day pass, and there are even "toll tags" available to avoid a stop at the front desk. National Public Radio (4/7)

Google Insists It’s a Friend to Newspapers - NYTimes.com

2009-04-08T19:35:00.001-07:00

Nobody knows how to make money on the internet yet, not even google! Oh, wait, google can make money, just nobody else can...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/technology/internet/08google.html?th&emc=th

Transparency in Non-Profits

2009-04-06T21:18:00.001-07:00

From Tactical Philanthropy:

A funders allegiance should be to impact, not individual grantees. If sharing information about a grantee will increase system wide impact (such as warning other funders to not give money to an inept nonprofit) then it should be shared even if it hurts the grantee. But if hurting a grantee might lower impact (such as if the info might scare other funders away from what is otherwise a high impact nonprofit) than the information may be rightly withheld.

http://tacticalphilanthropy.com/2009/04/center-for-effective-philanthropy-knowledge-sharing-session

submodal - Google Code

2009-04-06T20:57:00.001-07:00

Pretty easy way to do modal dialog boxes in javascript/HTML, fairly easy to configure and cross-browser compliant out of the box (or so it seems). Pros and cons to loading an outside file to do the box, but if you really didn't like it you could change that part pretty easily.

http://code.google.com/p/submodal/

Equation to help understand inflation

2009-04-04T09:42:00.001-07:00

Can't figure out if we'll have inflation or deflation? Guess using this equation from Mauldin: Money x Velocity = Price(infl/defl) x GDP

And don't forget in 1933 Roosevelt had the new deal. In 1937 tried to fix it and balance budget, drove back to recession. Think Obama can do better in his 4 years?

Thanks.

--David

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sent via blackberry

Please Consider the Planet Before Printing

Obama Signs Major Land Conservation Law | 44 | washingtonpost.com

2009-03-31T21:28:00.001-07:00

The good thing about the financial crisis is that nobody's paying attention to this stuff, and it sneaks on through:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/30/obama_signs_major_land_conserv.html?wprss=44

Financial Safety Net of Nonprofit Organizations Is Fraying, Survey Finds - NYTimes.com

2009-03-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26charity.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

If you build it, they will come

2009-03-19T20:08:00.001-07:00

Shai Agassi, former SAP exec, thinks if we build a whole bunch of electric car charging and/or battery swap stations, then the electric cars will show up. Big bet, pretty cool, and probably a durable technology - maybe not the battery swapping stuff, but electricity isn't going away. And the cool thing is that you're paying per mile.

Although I'm curious if that will affect driving too much. If I actually start thinking about my per-mile charge, I might start to get really annoyed. Easier to think about buying one tank of gas every week or so - even if it works out to the same thing.

From the Desk of David Pogue - Electric Cars for All! (No, Really This Time) - NYTimes.comhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/technology/personaltech/19pogue-email.html?_r=1&8cir&emc=cira1

Solar Dish

2009-03-15T22:04:00.001-07:00

Way better than normal solar panels, hopefully much cheaper and definitely easier to install... Friend at Sempra Energy said this is real;

MIT prototype solar dish passes first tests - MIT News Office

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solar-dish-0618.html

Blackberry Battery Life

2009-02-18T21:01:00.001-08:00

My blackberry curve 8330 seemed to no longer be holding a charge, after about 8 months of use. No crazy apps running or anything, the WSJ reader is about the most data intensive that's open. It got to the point where it wouldn't last a half-day, even lose a bar overnight when it was only receiving e-mail.

I called Verizon, hoping to get a new battery, which incidentally is warrantied for one year, so that's good to know. But the nice helpful woman gave me a bunch of ideas, the simplest being: pull the battery out, wait a little while, and put it back in. And whaddyaknow, it worked! After the reset, suddenly it seemed to be back to a long-life battery.

Why in the world this works, and why the blackberry would be confused about the battery life, I have no idea... but it worked!

Smart Roads. Smart Bridges. Smart Grids. - WSJ.com

2009-02-18T20:55:00.001-08:00

Spend the stimulus on smarter, more intelligent infrastructure? Probably not, it's not quite shovel-ready... but would put us back on top of R&D.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123447510631779255.html?mod=loomia&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r1:c0.099142:b0

World Air Traffic Over 24 Hours - Video

2009-02-10T15:55:00.001-08:00

No idea what the source of this is, but pretty cool to look at the way the airplanes move over the earth. And clearly the world doesn't sleep enough.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2235978/world_air_traffic_over_24_hours/