Tie•Dot•Cafe

Political Term Limits

2012-02-23T13:04:00.002-05:00

A "term limit" means that a person cannot hold a political post more than a certain amount of terms. There are two reasons for this. 1. To ensure that the politician doesn't get too powerful, which could hurt both the people who elected him and those who oppose him. 2. To ensure that fresh faces and fresh blood enter office, which bring new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Originally, there were no legal term limits for the president of the United States but George Washington started a tradition that a sitting president would not seek a third term. (This tradition was broken by President Roosevelt who in 1940 ran for and won a third term, and in 1944 ran for and won a fourth.) In 1951, this tradition became the law.

Although most people support term limits and many people lobby for term limits, it's an uphill battle to make them the the law, because politicians are the ones who make the laws, and they stand to lose from term limits. A great example of this is New York City, where the Mayor and City Council were legally limited to two terms, but in 2008 they changed the law to allow themselves three terms, even though most New Yorkers were against this change. (The law was subsequently reverted to two terms, but even then was applied only to politicians elected after the subsequent change.)

Incandescent Bulbs, Fluorosecents and CFL bulbs, and LED bulbs

2012-02-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

Electricity is energy, and energy can be converted to many forms. One form is light and another form is heat. Incandescent bulbs do a poor job of converting electricity to light - only 20 percent goes to light, and the other 80 percent becomes heat. When you buy a 100 watt bulb, that bulb uses 100 watts of electricity every hour, but only 20 watts are going to light.

Fluorescent bulbs and CFLs are much more efficient; almost 100 percent of the electricity is converted to light. When you buy a 20 watt bulb, almost all 20 watts are going for light. This means that you get the same amount of light from a 20 watt fluorescent bulb as you do from a 100 watt incandescent bulb. That's a savings of 80 percent. Additionally, these bulbs have a longer life than incandescents.

LED bulbs are even more efficient, and as an added bonus they practically never burn up. They do cost quite a bit, but many people find that it's worth it.

Styles In Microsoft Word

2012-02-16T03:28:00.001-05:00

Every user of MS Word has seen "styles" but most don't have a clue how to use them. Browsing around online I saw that some people swear by them, so I decided to figure out how to use them. Supposedly this would save me time and make things more efficient. So, I spent a few hours reading guides and tips and tutorials.

What a pathetic load of rubbish! Using styles has to be the most frustrating, unintuitive, unsatisfying experiecne in the world of computers. If cars would be built this way everyone would walk.

Imagine having to put a car into reverse in order to drive forward! There are actually times in Word styles that you must select "bold" to get text to be not bold. It has to do with double negatives and there not being an official style of "not bold", or something like that.

Paragraph styles, character styles, linked styles - that work differently depending on whether you select a word or a paragraph and where your cursor is... it's all so complicated! And it doesn't even work well.

Microsoft's approach is to just add more and more features and options and dialog boxes to make things work better. They should learn from Apple that to make things work better you have to keep things simple and clean.

Ice With Holes, Cloudy Ice

2012-02-13T13:08:00.005-05:00

Get a cup of soda from your local drive-thru and you may notice that the ice has a hole in it. Why do they do that? Turns out there are two reasons.

1 - This gives the ice more surface area. More surface area is good for two reasons: It cools the drink faster, which is obviously good for the consumer. It also causes the ice to melt faster, which is good for the merchant: By the time you get to the bottom of the cup, most of the ice/water will already have been ingested by you, and you won't feel ripped off by all the ice they dumped in.

2 - The ice is formed by running water over a very cold metal bar. Being that the ice forms in layers and not all at once, all the gasses in the water escape as it's being frozen, and the ice winds up being clear. Contrast this to ice trays, where all the water is put in the freezer at once and the top freezes first; this causes the gasses in the water to get trapped, and the ice cube becomes cloudy. That cloudiness is really microscopic air bubbles!

Understanding Networking & Routers

2012-02-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

What is a network? A network exists when two distinct things work together. Examples: When you connect a bluetooth headset to your phone, you have a network. When you connect a printer to a computer, you have a network. In these two examples the two components communicate with each other directly. This works well when you only have two things that need to communicate with each other.

When you have a few things that need to communicate with each other, it’s easier for the all the communications to go through a central switchboard. That’s where a router comes in; it routes all the traffic to the right place. Example: You attach to a router a computer, a printer, an external hard drive, and a modem that provides a connection to the internet. If configured properly, you can do lots of things with this. The computer can access the internet. The computer can access the printer. The computer can access the hard drive. You can access your computer via the internet. You can access the hard drive via the internet.

How do the components connect to the router? The simple way is with wires, usually with an Ethernet cable, but you can do it wirelessly as well, usually via Wifi. One network can have some wired connections and some wireless connections, and indeed most modern routers can handle both kinds of connections. One network can have some wired connections and some wireless connections. Examples: In my house, the printer, the modem, and the external hard drive are all wired to the router, but my laptop and iPhone connect via Wifi. When I access the Internet from my iPhone, what really is happening is that my iPhone talks wirelessly to the router, and the router talks to the modem through a wire. When I access the hard drive from my laptop, what really is happening is that my laptop talks wirelessly to the router, and the router talks to the hard drive through a wire. When I use the iPhone to control my iTunes library, what is really happening is that the iPhone is talking wirelessly to the router, and the router is talking wirelessly to the computer.

If you figure out how to do it properly, you’ll have an amazing network and will be able to do really cool things, not to mention that it will make your life much easier. Example: Most people need to have their computer next to their printer to be able to print. If you hook them both up to a network, you’ll be able to print from anywhere in your house.

Fans And Cans

2012-02-02T12:46:00.001-05:00

Many people know that the word "fan", as in a sports fan, comes from the word "fanatic".

Today, someone told me that "can", as in a soda can, comes from the word "canister".

Cool Tricks For The iPhone 4 / 4s

2012-02-01T00:20:00.003-05:00

Do you find yourself always missing calls on your iPhone? After you ensure that you have a ringtone that is a loud one, here are two tricks that can help:

Set the iPhone to flash the LED when ringing: Go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> LED Flash for Alerts, and turn it on.

Set the iPhone to vibrate with a custom vibration: Go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Custom Vibrations, and turn it on. Then, go to Settings -> Sounds -> Vibration, and either select one of the pre-built patterns or tap on "Create New Vibration" to create a new one.

Besides for being cool, this should help you not miss calls!

England, Great Britain, And The United Kingdom

2012-01-26T13:06:00.003-05:00

England, Great Britain, and the UK are not one and the same.

England, Scotland and Wales comprise Great Britain. Great Britain and North Ireland comprise the United Kingdom of Grean Britain and Northern Ireland. It is all one big country.

England, Scotland and Wales are all on one island, across a channel from France. North Ireland is the northern part of a different island. On the southern part of that island is a distinct country called Ireland.

Is It Possible To Win A Free iPad?

2012-01-25T04:18:00.001-05:00

You always see online ads promising you a free iPad or Xbox 360 if you answer some surveys. Most people realize that it's probably not legit, but they figure "what do I have to lose?".

Let's use some simple logic and you'll see that you're wasting your time. There are only two possible outcomes. One is that even if you do all they ask they still won't give you the iPad, and that's obviously not worth it. The second is that they will give you an iPad. Now, no one gives anything for free, so if they are willing to give you a 500 dollar iPad, that means that the amount of time you spent for them is worth at least 500 bucks.

Answering enough questions that it's worth it for them to pay you 500 dollars is going to take you a long, long time. You're better off getting a job by a local McDonalds.

Verdict: Stay away!

Why We Need Two Eyes

2012-01-23T08:27:00.003-05:00

Why Do We Need Two Eyes? What would happen if we only had one?

Two eyes let us see in 3D.

How do we know if an object is close or far? One way is based on size; if a car looks small it must be far away, and if a cat looks big it must be close. Another way is based on things around the object; if a cat is blocked by a car, the car must be further than the car.

Many times these methods don't work. Then, having two eyes comes in handy. Each eye sees a slightly different image than the other, and based on what one eye sees that the other does not, the brain can figure out how far an object is. This is called stereo vision.

Cool experiment: Keep one eye closed and try putting toothpaste on your toothbrush. You will find it very hard. Being that you're only using one eye you only have 2D vision, which means your brain can't figure out where the paste and the brush are in relation to each other.

The Mystery Of Expanding Snack Bags

2012-01-23T08:25:00.001-05:00

During airplane flights, sealed snack bags expand and appear blown up. Why does that happen?

Air pressure on the ground is greater that at higher altitudes. A plane flying at 35,000 feet would have extremely low air pressure with not enough oxygen for people to survive. Modern planes, therefore, keep air pressure at the 8,000 feet level which is enough to breathe comfortably. But the air pressure at 8,000 feet is still significantly lower than at ground level.

The air inside snack bags has ground level pressure, so as the cabin pressure is reduced to the 8,000 feet level, the air in the bag presses out and therefore the bag expands.

To experience the reverse phenomenon, put the cap on a soda bottle during a flight. When you land, the bottle will be pressed in. It's really cool!

What An MP3 Is And How It's Different Than An iPod

2012-01-23T08:11:00.003-05:00

Many people are confused as to what an mp3 really is, and how it's different than an iPod. Here is a clarification.

In the olden days music was recorded onto records and cassette tapes. Being an analog recording, the actual sound was impressed onto the media. CDs ushered in the age of digital audio; actual sound is not recorded, rather sound is converted into information and the information is recorded.

Think: Records and tapes contain little people playing music, and CDs contain sheets of music notes to be played. The CD player converts the music notes to actual music.

Really, a CD is just a medium. CDs that you buy in a music store contain information about music. You can also buy CDs that have no information on them, known as blank CDs.

The CDs you buy in music stores contain files with very extensive "music notes" -- an average song uses approximately 50 megabytes of space, a large amount. These large files can be converted to an mp3 file - which is in essence the music notes in shorthand; the same information but taking less space. The average song in mp3 format it 5 megabytes.

Basically, mp3 is a type of file, containing music in a small amount of space. This file can be played on a computer (e.g. with iTunes or Windows Media Player), or on an mp3 player. Mp3 players come in all shapes and flavors. Some of them let you store mp3 files directly on the player. Some of them look like CD players and let you store the mp3 files on a CD. Many car stereos play mp3 files that are on CDs or flash drives.

An iPod is an kind of an mp3 player; it is a device that can convert an mp3 files into music. IPhones can also do this, which means that they too are mp3 players.

Mold Near Windows

2012-01-19T13:50:00.003-05:00

If you find mold growing on or near your windows, cleaning the mold won't solve the problem. You have to understand what brings the mold in the first place. I broke it down into steps.

1 - Air contains moisture, known as humidity.

2 - Warm air is able to contain more moisture than cool air.

3 - When warm, moisture-rich air cools, it loses it's ability to carry all that moisture, and the moisture turns into liquid form. This is called condensation.

4 - You see this on cold cans of soda; the air closest to the can is cooled by the can, loses it's ability to hold the moisture, and the moisture turns into droplets of water on the can.

5 - The temperature at which air loses it's ability to hold moisture is known as the air's "dewpoint".

6 - In the winter, moist air inside the house gets cooled next to glass windows, reaches its dewpoint, and condensation forms on the window.

7 - In most houses the humidity level isn't very elevated and there isn't much condensation. In some houses, the air is very humid, and there winds up being lots of condensation.

8 - If there is a lot of condensation and the window is very wet, mold will grow easily and spread quickly.

After you remove any existing mold, you must minimize the moisture level of the house. Don't cook without a lid on the pot. Make sure your dryer vents properly out of the house. Wipe off excessive condensation on windows and window frames. Don't take long steamy baths or showers. The single-most important thing, however, is expelling moist air from the house: Use exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathrooms, and keep the windows open from time to time.

Good luck!

Website Names - Virtual Real Estate

2012-01-18T07:06:00.003-05:00

Some people make lots of money by buying up website names, more formally called "domain". Names that aren't taken cost just ten dollars per year, and entrepreneurs buy them in the hope that someone will want or need that particular name and will shell out big bucks for it. Common sites where you can buy domain names are godaddy.com and even Google's Blogger service.

It is rumored that Facebook paid millions for fb.com. Most companies won't pay that much, but they may pony up a few grand for the perfect name.

Now, if anyone really wants to be the proud owner of TieDotCafe.com... drop me an email!

Alternates To PayPal

2012-01-18T04:27:00.005-05:00

PayPal is wildly popular as an online payment service, but many a customer has been wronged by them. They have problematic policies and they have virtually no customer support.

Case in point: I recently tried to setup online donations for a charity via PayPal. They make it very easy for you to do, but they don't tell you that you must be a government recognized non-for-profit. After I started getting donations they froze my account, and it tools weeks of emails and calls to sort it out. To boot, they were real jerks about it.

I found one viable alternate: WePay.com. I've been using it for a while and am very pleased with the service. It's easy to use, it works well, and they have good customer support. I recommend it to everyone! Amazon also has a system, but WePay is better.

If you do set up a WePay account, please do it through this link: https://www.wepay.com/xaeoi7 - I will get $20 and you'll get $10 after you make one collection. Thank you.

Best Online Stores

2012-01-17T13:38:00.001-05:00

The only expensive things that I buy online are electronics. I go to four sites and buy from the cheapest: Newegg.com, Buy.com, Bhphotovideo.com, and Amazon.com. All these sites are reputable, and it's a virtual certainty that there aren't other reputable stores that are cheaper than these.

There are cheaper sites, and eBay will certainly be cheaper, but unless you buy from a reputable store you are taking a risk. I once bought a "new-in-box" cellphone from a 99%-positive-feedback eBay store, and indeed it appeared brand new. However, when I called the manufacturer with the serial number they told me that the phone was actually refurbished.

You get burned once and you learn your lesson.

Zales Watch Battery Replacement

2012-01-17T13:33:00.002-05:00

Most jewelers change watch batteries for ten bucks. Zales does it for twenty, but it entitles you to free battery replacements for the life of the watch. Sounds like a great deal for the consumer.

It's actually a great deal for Zales, for a few reasons. 1 - They get twenty bucks right away. 2 - A battery lasts five years, and by that time most people will have lost or broken that watch, will have lost the receipt, or will have forgotten about the whole deal. 3 - Even when a customer does come in for a free battery replacement, at that time Zales will have done two replacements for twenty dollars, on par with all other jewelers, except that they got a five year advance on ten of the dollars. 4 - For the above reasons, it is very unlikely that a consumer will come in for a third battery replacement. 5 - Each time a consumer does comes in, he/she will browse around and possibly buy something, and at the very least will be reminded about Zales and what a great store it is.

Remember, nothing is free!

Local Backup vs. Online Backup

2012-01-16T14:46:00.001-05:00

Backups can either be stored locally or online. Local backups are stored near the computer, while online backups are stored... okay, you guessed it.

Local backups take less time and are cheaper, but they're less secure; They'll have your back if your computer crashes but won't help in case of robbery or fire. Online backups are more secure; you can access your data anywhere via a browser or a smartphone app, but for large backups they can take forever, and there is usually a yearly fee.

I found that the two best online backup services are Mozy and Carbonite. Mozy is slightly easier and slightly better, but it gets expensive for large backups. Carbonite is cheaper and it's also pretty good.

Local backups can be stored on a thumb drive or an external hard drive. These are easy to configure but they must be connected to the computer for the backup to happen. If you don't like the way that sounds, you can buy a network hard drive and connect it directly to your router. These are called NAS, for Network Attached Storage. Not all software can backup to NAS; I tried a few and found Vice Versa Pro to be the best.

Should I Backup My Computer?

2012-01-16T13:57:00.001-05:00

Many people ask, "Is it important to backup?". The short and long answer is "Yes", unless you're willing to permanently part with your pictures, files, music, videos, etc. If you don't do regular backups it is a statistical certainty that you will lose all your data at least once during your life.

Manual backups are the kind where you have to initiate the backup. Unless you're extraordinarily organized and extraordinarily disciplined, you will slack off and you will one day kick yourself hard.

Automated backups are initiated by software, so your data will always be safe. There are various options, some are free and some aren't. Popular ones include Acronis True Image, Nero BackItUp, Mozy Backup and Carbonite. Hard-drive maker Western Digital bundles free software with most of their drives. My favorite software is Vice Versa Pro.

Backup, please. If you don't, you will regret it.

What Is Tie•Dot•Cafe?

2012-01-11T23:53:00.001-05:00

Tie•Dot•Cafe is a a site I created to share information.

Every so often I will post some random piece of information, usually with a slight technical leaning.

I hope that you will find this site useful. Please spread the word and come again!