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Computer Perfume

2009-07-18T14:51:01Z

Author: ccc
Posted on: 2009-07-18 15:21:05

The law of the little shovel

2009-07-18T10:38:00Z

If you want to dig a big hole, you need to stay in one place.

If you walk around town with a little shovel, you'll just end up digging thousands of little holes, not one big one.

Call on one person ten times and you might make the sale. Call on ten people once each and you will likely get ten rejections.

The important thing to remember is that separate events are often separate. If you use the same ineffective approach on one thousand people, it's not going to start working better just because you use it more often.

Connected events, on the other hand, often benefit from frequency and trust.

Which leads to two viable strategies:
1. If you can stay still, stay still. Earn the trust, earn the sale by repeatedly demonstrating value and authority.

2. If you can't stay still, get a bigger shovel. Your marketing and your sales pitch has to be so refined and focused that it works the first time, because you don't get a second time.

Strange Building: The Crooked House

2009-07-18T07:46:07Z

Author: ccc
Posted on: 2009-07-18 12:48:55

Strange Building: House Attack

2009-07-18T08:32:26Z

Author: ccc
Posted on: 2009-07-18 12:24:27

Strange Building: Ripley’s Building

2009-07-18T08:32:26Z

Author: ccc
Posted on: 2009-07-18 12:22:13

Strange Building: Kansas City Public Library ( Missouri , United States )

2009-07-18T05:44:40Z

Author: ccc
Posted on: 2009-07-18 12:27:00

Strange Building: The Basket Building

2009-07-18T05:44:40Z

Author: ccc
Posted on: 2009-07-18 12:47:16

憑甚麼五千多？──將軍澳樓價高企原因(2009/07/17)

2009-07-18T02:09:06Z

將軍澳領都開售在即，有環保團體及政客大聲疾呼樓書內容不實，廣告相片與現實不乎，該團體更會調查了過去十年、超過100本售樓書，選出5個經典「呃人」個案(詳見http://www.greensense.org.hk/densebuilding/press_release_20090712.pdf)。筆者一向主張，買樓不是買棵菜，廣告不可盡信，樓書資料不詳，示範單位整古做怪，那麼買幾百萬樓宇一定要做調研。單位硬件用料不論，樓盤四周環境是否有厭惡性設施，交通是否方便，甚至會不會沙塵滾滾有異味，斷無理由聽信賣方或經紀的一面之辭。譚主席本人都搭了幾百蚊的士喇！真金白銀買樓者，不上網找Google Earth，至少都搭港鐵到調景嶺站附近望下掛？筆者時不時接到網上查詢置業區域，有些問及將軍澳是否理想選擇，筆者每多直言：如果將軍澳要賣西九龍價，為甚麼不去買西九龍呢？就以領都為例，開價五千以上，與西九龍港鐵站上蓋物業相比是略有折讓，但扣除交通環境之類的因素，筆者還是想選擇西九龍。可是市場現實是將軍澳樓價高過東九龍，比美西九龍，總要想想甚麼原因吧！將軍澳出市區交通，出九龍路線選擇比到港島為多，因此到九龍工作的人亦多於港島。根據2006年中期人口調查，西貢（主要人口在將軍澳）跨區工作人口中，九龍佔50.7%，港島區佔34.6%，新界佔14.8%。但比較2001年人口普查，五年來港島區工作人數增加了45.9%，九龍21.4%，新界只有16.3%，換句話說新增工作人口以港島區佔多。西貢區跨區工作人口港島九龍新界總數 2001 36,215 (30.3%) 63,886 (53.5%) 19,393 (16.2%) 119,494 2006 52,841 (34.6%) 77,530 (50.7%) 22,558 (14.8%) 152,929 增長 16,626 ↑45.9% 13,644 ↑21.4% 3,165 ↑16.3% ↑28.0% 再看同期就業人口增長，港島區只是增加了8,473，但西貢區新增的港島區就業人口有16,626；相比之下九龍區增加了21,594，但西貢只是增加了13,644；而新界區新增就業人口居住在西貢只佔微不足道的8.2%。突顯港島區工作人口流入西貢區（主要是將軍澳）的現象。就業人口 2001 2006 增長港島 929,574 938,047 8,473 九龍 1,033,855 1,055,449 21,594 新界 1,005,782 1,044,554 38,772 這樣便解釋了將軍澳樓價追得上九龍的原因：港島區住宅多年缺乏新供應，但產業及工作人口因商業物業不斷落成而增加，將軍澳的通勤時間與九龍相差無幾，港島區住宅樓價及電費長期高企，西九龍樓價亦不低，將軍澳有港鐵將軍澳線相通，繁忙時段的擠塞程度卻較荃灣線低，便帶來移居的誘因。所以即使將軍澳與九龍隔座山，與港島隔個海，也不能改變其作為港九市區伸延的市場現實。同樣地葵涌及荃灣亦是市區的伸延，甚至沙田亦可由是觀之，因此該等地方樓價與九龍邊沿地帶接近，港鐵站附近物業樓價甚至比美市區，不值得大驚小怪。至於異味問題，筆者未嘗親歷其境不敢妄言，但要指出的是，將軍澳堆填區老早在1994-95年關閉，第一期在康城以西，第二至三期在康城以東，並已完成復修工程。現在坊間所指的將軍澳堆填區，是指「新界東南堆填區」，隔著將軍澳工業污水處理廠以南，是佔地更大的「將軍澳填料庫」。要獲得這些資料不用親身到現場，網上有地圖有照片有衛星像片，想知道更多，請到此博客：http://tkobadsmell.blogspot.com/。拜託，大拿拿幾百萬，無知、懶同賴唔係藉口。

How to Get More Out of Your Home Network

2009-07-17T14:00:00Z

For most people, a wireless router is just a way to share your broadband Internet connection across the several computers and wifi-enabled devices in your house. Your router is not just a point of connection to your cable or DSL modem, though – it connects every other computer and device in your house in one big network. With not much work at all, you can easily take advantage of this to make home-wide backups simple, to centralize your music collection, to share household files and services, and even to operate computers on other rooms. We’re used to going over the Internet to share resources on other computers, but all the Internet is is a gigantic, industrial-strength version of the network in your own home.

A quick overview of your home network

Your router is a simple device, really – all it does it bounce data from one computer to another. When I upload a picture from my laptop to my Picasa account, for example, my laptop requests a connection from my router, which accepts the connection and requests the file, which my laptop sends. Then the router readdresses the data in my photo to the modem, which readdresses it to a router on my broadband provider’s network, which sends it out onto the Internet bound for the routers at Picasa. (OK, I’m simplifying a little, but that’s the basic gist. All I’ve really left out are the order of priests who chant the holy invocations that run the Internet.)

Out on the Internet, every computer has an address, a crazy number that looks like this: 74.125.127.147 (that’s Google’s homepage, if you’re wondering). On your home network, every computer has an address, too – a crazy number that looks like this: 192.168.10.4 – the last two digits being anything from 0 to 255. On the Internet, the URLs we’re familiar with (google,.com, lifehack.org, etc.) are aliases for those crazy numbers – their secret identities. The crazy numbers are the “IP address”, the location of the computer we’re looking for. On our home network, we’re stuck with the crazy numbers (for now – in a moment I’ll show you how to replace them with more memorable addresses.)

To find out the IP addresses of the computers on your home network:

On Windows, open a command line (Start > Run and type “cmd”) and type “ipconfig” – several lines will come up, including your IP address.
On Mac OSX, look under your system preferences.
On Linux, use your magic telepathic powers to mind meld with the machine. When that doesn’t work, try “/sbin/ifconfig” at the command line.

Now, unless you got fancy when configuring your PCs, your router technically assigns a new IP address to each computer when it logs onto the network. In practice, I find that routers tend to assign the same IP address to the same PCs pretty consistently, but to be certain you can go into your computer’s network settings and copy the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway in, giving each computer a permanent IP address.

Here are some things you can do to get more out of your fancy home network:

1. Centralize content to one main computer

I have a desktop PC that’s on all the time that I use as the central “hub” in my home network. Because it has the biggest hard drive in the house, I use it to store all my documents, media files, photos, and everything else. Most files Are opened from and saved to that single My Documents folder; if I need a file on another computer – for example, if I’m going to be working on something while traveling with my netbook, it gets saved to a Windows Live Mesh folder and automatically synced back to the hub whenever I’m online.

You don’t need any special software to open files from or save files to another computer on your network – not usually, anyway. Even on mixed networks, most contemporary operating systems include software to allow them to communicate with other OSes. I find that even streaming audio and video across my home network is hitch-free – so I can watch a video on my netbook in the bedroom even though the file’s on my desktop in the living room.

2. Backup like a superstar

Since everything important is on one computer, I only have to backup from that computer. All new files are copied to an external hard drive from that computer every night using SyncBack. For redundancy, I also backup that computer to Mozy. The My Document folder on my two laptops is mirrored on the hub computer using Windows Live Mesh (which means they’re also backed up online at the Windows Live Mesh homepage).

3. Run a server

Since I do some web design from time to time, I have a webserver running on my home network – on the hub, naturally. Installation is simple: download XAMPP, run the installer, and you’re done. XAMPP installs Apache, the industry-standard web server; MySQL, the industry-standard relational database; and PHP, a scripting language. I also have a Rails server running on the same computer, from when I was using Tracks, a Ruby on Rails-based GTD app.

So, for instance, let’s say I’m working on a new website. I create a new directory in the “htdocs” folder in the XAMPP directory and install Wordpress into it. Then, from any computer in the house, I can type “192.168.10.4/newfolder” to work with Wordpress, just like I’d installed it on the Web. That looks ugly, but to be honest, I don’t type all that: I type “olympus/newfolder” into my browser, because I’ve modified the hosts file – on which we’ll talk in just a moment.

4. Use any computer in the house directly with VNC

Let’s say I’m on the couch and I want to check something on the desktop but I don’t want to get up. Easy – I fire up UltraVNC and voila – the screen from my desktop appears on my netbook (well, some of it – I have a 20” widescreen on my desktop and a 9” screen on the netbook, so I have to scroll around a little to see the whole screen…).

UltraVNC is free, open source, and simple to use. Download it and install it on every computer. It will install both a client, for viewing other computers on the network, and a server, for sharing the host computer’s screen with others. To view another computer’s desktop, run the VNC client, enter the IP address of the remote computer, enter the password, and that’s it – you can go full-screen and it’s like you’re sitting right in front of the remote computer.

Here’s one thing I use this for: Olympus, my hub computer, is right next to the TV (thankfully it’s a really quiet computer) and has TV-out. So I run Hulu Desktop (or other video) on the hub, in full screen mode, feed the image to my TV via an S-Video cable, and use my netbook as a remote control using VNC to access Olympus’ desktop. Perfect.

5. Edit your hosts file to give your networked PCs easier-to-remember names

If you do a lot of network stuff, you’re going to get tired of typing “192.168.100.114” and the like. It would be much better if you could just use words like you do on the Internet, right?

You can do that easily enough by adding entries to your computer’s hosts file. Normally when you enter a URL into a browser, the computer sends out to your ISP’s DNS servers to translate that word into an IP address, but first it checks the hosts file – if the hosts file gives an IP address, it skips the DNS lookup on the Internet. What this means is that you can assign the IP addresses of your computers names that are easy to remember, like “minerva”, “mercury”, and “oracle” (those are computers and devices on my home network – I”m sooooo clever!).

To change your hosts file:

Go to c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\ on Windows 2000 and XP Pro or c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ on Windows XP Home and Vista and open the file called “hosts” in Notepad (or another text editor; in Vista, you have to run Notepad as an administrator).
Open Terminal.app on Mac OSX and enter “$ sudo nano /private/etc/hosts “ without the quotes.
Go to /etc on Linux and open the file “hosts”. Most likely.

There should be a line that says “127.0.0.1 localhost” – don’t touch that. Below it, start entering lines like this for each computer on your network: [IP address]<tab>[Desired name]

So, for example: 192.168.10.2 olympus

Don’t forget the tab between the IP address and the new name. Notice I skipped 192.168.10.3 – that’s the computer I’m writing on now, and if I want to access it from itself, I just type “localhost”. Now, when I type “olympus” int the browser window, it connects to that computer. Since XAMPP is running there, I get the home page for Apache – which I could replace with something of my choice, but I haven’t. If I want to run Tracks, which runs on port 3000, I would type “olympus:3000” into my browser.

6. Share a printer

It’s stupid to have a printer attached to every computer in the house. Instead, I have a single laser printer attached to the hub, and I can print to it from any PC on the network – as long as the hub computer is on, which it always is. (Technically, because I have a networked printer, I could plug it directly into the router, but the router’s up near the ceiling and I don’t want another cable hanging down, so I connect it to the hub PC instead). Although I don’t currently have a color inkjet for photos, when I did, it was connected to the hub PC too.

To share a printer, just go into the Printer settings on the computer it’s connected to, right-click, and select “Sharing…”. Turn on printer sharing. Now, go to “Add printer” on the other PC, and search the network for your printer. If all goes according to plan, your computer should install teh drivers from the host computer, and you’re set. If it doesn’t go well, you may need to use the install disc or download te drivers from the manufacturer’s website, and follow the instructions for installing a network printer. (It’s more complex on OSX and Linux, but google “share printer” and your operating system’s name and I’m sure you’ll find easy enough directions.)

The End

Do you have cool network tips to share with your fellow Lifehack readers? Share your network setup in the comments!

Dustin M. Wax is the project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.

Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.

Display Just the Items You Liked in Google Reader [Google Reader]

2009-07-17T16:00:00Z

Yesterday Google Reader updated with more social features, including a "like" feature—but didn't give you a way to view all the items that you "liked". Reader Michel writes in with the solution.

To view a list of all the items that you liked, simply navigate to this URL in your browser to see the list of your liked items—no doubt the link will eventually be added somewhere in Reader, but for now you can see the list this way.

http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/like

What we'd really like to see is a list of all the items that everybody else liked, sorted by the amount of people that liked them, but so far there doesn't appear to be a way to do that. Thanks, Michel!

For more, use the Google Reader Notifier for Windows, or the Google Reader Watcher for Firefox to keep an eye on your feeds, or check out how Google Reader Gadget brings feeds to the desktop.

Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password

2009-07-17T17:00:33Z

There are a lot of different reasons why one would want to use any number of password hack tools to hack a Windows password. Of course, there are the good-hearted reasons, like helping your grandpa because he forgot his password and is locked out of his own computer. Then, there are the more dubious reasons, like spying on your accountant.

In the past, MakeUseOf has published other password-cracking related articles. Those who are interest should check out T.J. Miniday’s 3 Ways to Reset Forgotten Windows Administrator Password.

However, there might be circumstances in which you’d need unnoticed access – being able to use the terminal without literally changing the password.

Ophcrack

That’s where Ophcrack comes in. Ophcrack is one of the more effective password hack tools that runs via Windows, Mac and Linux installations or on a Live CD, and it can be used to crack almost any Windows password.

To manage this, Ophcrack uses rainbow tables to guess the password. When a working one is encountered, it is presented to you, and you can simply log in with it. One would think this “guessing” takes a lot of time, but that’s just where the power of rainbow tables lies.

Rainbow Tables in a Nutshell

Operation systems don’t store the user passwords in plain text — that’d be highly insecure, and even right out stupid. Instead, they calculate the hashes of the passwords by putting the passwords through a one-way hash function and store those. When one would obtain these hashes, they would still be rather useless; the password needs to be entered, after which the hash needs to be calculated and compared to the stored password hash.

e.g. ‘makeuseof.com’ would become ‘9fb883363640e11970be10a5936a37fc:b35f6f8268073d2242e0cd8b72554d8a’ when converted to Windows XP’s LM hash.

A rainbow table is basically an enormous list of passwords — basically every password a brute force attack would try — with their respective hashes included. Although this table takes a lot of time to generate, it can reduce the cracking of passwords to minutes, or even seconds.

Downloadable Tables

Ophcrack supplies a few of these rainbow tables, free, for your use. They’re included in the Live CD, can automatically be retrieved from the Windows executable, or downloaded from the Ophcrack website. We’ll quickly look over the available tables, and their possibilities.

For Windows XP, Ophcrack supplies two alphanumeric tables. With these, you can crack 99.99% of all passwords under 14 characters, consisting of a combination between letters and numbers — abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789. Because the LM hash used by Windows XP is insensitive to capitalization, these hash tables contain 80 billion different hashes, corresponding with 12 septillion possible passwords.

You can choose between the XP free small and the XP free fast tables. These can both be used to crack the same passwords, but because the XP free fast table is twice as large, you can crack them in half the time.

The downside of both tables is their unability to crack passwords with special characters — these can only be cracked using the premium XP special tables.

For Windows Vista, which abandoned the weak LM hash, and moved on to the stronger NT hash, there are less possibilities. Currently, Ophcrack only gives away a table with dictionary-words and variations (hybrids) for free. If you’re willing to cough up a lot of money (about 99$), they also provide alphanumerical tables – including special characters.

Because the NT hash is subjective to capitalization, and allows a much greater password length (whereas the LM hash simply splits large sequences up in multitudes of smaller strings), these premium rainbow tables can range in size from 8GB to over 130GB.

And that’s the essence of it. There’s some more technical information (a real how-to) in the Ophcrack help files (included in the downloads).

If you’re shivering in your boots after reading this article and thinking,”Gosh, everyone’s going to know how to hack my password. What shall I do?” Then it may be a good time to create a stronger password. Stefan wrote about 5 free password generators that will help you make nearly unhackable passwords, no matter what password hack tools a hacker tries to use. It’s a good start.

So, what do you think? Is Ophcrack really the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or hardly worth one’s attention? — Let us know your experiences, opinions and questions in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

Related posts

Is Your Job Costing You A Fortune? Ten Great Ways to Save Money At Work

2009-07-17T06:47:00Z

Are you trying to cut back on your spending, reduce your debts or increase your savings? A good place to start is by looking at your work-related spending, because:

You spend more of your waking life at work than anywhere else
Work is part of your routine (and routine, regular spending is one of the best targets for savings)
The “surroundings” of work: your commute, and socializing with colleagues, often tempt you to spend unnecessarily

Here are ten ways to cut back on your job-related spending. I’ve listed these in roughly the order that they apply to your working day:

Eat Breakfast At Home
Do you regularly stop at a cafe or coffee shop for breakfast? If so, you’re clocking up unnecessary spending (and quite possibly adding unnecessary fat and/or sugar to your diet). Set your alarm clock ten minutes earlier, and eat a bowl of cereal before leaving home.

Leave Your Cash And Cards At Home
If you often succumb to impulse buys on the way to or from work, leave your wallet at home. (If you genuinely need money during the work day, then take the exact amount you need in cash.) This is a simple and foolproof way to cut your spending!

Carpool or Consider Public Transport
If you drive to work, you’re wasting money each day on gas. Can you carpool with a colleague, or someone from your area heading in the same direction? Alternatively, consider whether public transportation would save you money (season tickets are more cost-effective than one-off journeys). If you live close enough, walk or cycle to work: it’s free and you’ll be getting in some exercise.

Invest in Long-Lasting Clothes
Depending on your job, you may need to dress up smartly for work. It’s often a false economy to buy the cheapest clothing brands available – you’ll just end up replacing that suit after six months. Invest in good quality clothing that will last. Don’t forget to wash and care for clothes properly, too: check the labels for instructions, and you won’t end up shrinking one of your best shirts in the drier.

Brown-Bag Your Lunch
It’s always going to be cheaper to prepare lunch at home than to buy it out, whether pre-packed fro a store, or at a restaurant. Sandwiches are an easy option, as are last night’s leftovers. Your office almost certainly has a fridge where you can safely store food during the morning – and many offices have microwaves, toasters, even ovens.

Don’t Be A Sheep
One of the dangers of the workplace is that you’re around people – colleagues – who don’t necessarily share your values or who may be in a very different financial situation, and this can tempt you to spend unnecessarily. If everyone else in the office has an iPhone, you don’t have to run out and get one too. Similarly, just because your colleagues talk about expensive weekends away, don’t feel pushed into living a similar lifestyle.

Claim Valid Expenses
How often have you lost a receipt or not bothered filing an expenses claim because it was only for a small amount? Those little expenses – perhaps travel or office supplies – do add up. Make sure you submit expense claims for everything you’ve spent that’s chargeable to work.

Take Advantage of Job Benefits
If you work for a large employer, there are almost certainly some benefits that you could take advantage of. Many companies provide discounted membership at a gym chain, for instance. You might be able to get free eye tests or other health checkups – don’t end up spending your own money on these. Some companies provide free snacks or meals. If you’re really lucky, you might find an employer like Google:

We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses – just about anything a hardworking employee might want.
(“Benefits”, Eric Schmidt, CEO Google)

Go Straight Home After Work
Do you get drawn into hanging around for “just one beer” after work? Do you find yourself heading home through the mall, where window-shopping turns into actual shopping? If you regularly end up spending money in the evening after work, get into the habit of going straight home.

Enjoy Your Job
Finally, one surprising tip to cutting your job-related spending is to enjoy your job. Studies have shown that you’re less likely to spend excessively if you have a high level of job satisfaction. (See Job Satisfaction Can Reduce Excessive Spending, Debt). This makes sense: if you’re feeling stressed out or miserable at work, you’re more likely to end up blowing money on “fun” ways to unwind in the evenings or at the weekends.

Is your job costing you a lot of money? How do you keep your work-related spending to a minimum?

Written on 7/17/2009 by Ali Hale.Ali is a professional writer and blogger, and a part-time postgraduate student of creative writing. If you need a hand with any sort of written project, drop her a line (ali@aliventures.com) or check out her website at Aliventures.

Photo Credit: 신주리

DIY Pocket Fishing Pole [Weekend Project]

2009-07-17T22:00:00Z

Looking to spend some time in the great outdoors this summer and want to be prepared to do some survivalist fishing at the drop of a hat? This DIY pocket fishing rod and reel is for you.

Instructables user Toglefritz details how to build a pocket fishing rod and reel on the cheap with fun household supplies, including a telescoping radio antenna, Bic pen, binder clip, washers, some various other nuts and bolts, glue, and a few other sundry but common items. When you're done, you've got a simple-but-effective pen-sized fishing pole that fits in your pocket. Hit up the Instructables post for the full walkthrough.

Pocket-Sized Fishing Rod and Reel [Instructables via Make]

Essentials of Time Management #1: Your Capturing Toolbox

2009-07-17T21:29:01Z

I wrote a popular post recently about my rebellious notions on time management ("Rebel Without a Clock"), and I decided to expand upon it and do a series for the next five Fridays. I had talked about what I consider the five essential components of time management:

CAPTURE
COMMIT
CUE
COMPLETE
CORRECT

Today we explore the first step, CAPTURE. So much information is coming at you nowadays. It reminds me of those game shows where the frantic person is standing in a glass booth with dollars swirling around them and they get to keep what they can grab! How do you grab information more effectively and get it into your formalized systems? You have to use the right tools.

You want to have an array of tools for different situations and times, and you'll adjust this as you learn about new tools and about what works for you. Here is a list of some ideas-- a toolbox, if you will. Choose what works best for you and your brain:

Paper & Pen. Keep some paper in your briefcase or purse. Best to have a dedicated pad or a stack of 3x5 cards instead of writing on random things like receipts or envelopes, since those can get overlooked.
Moleskine or other notebook. Same method as paper & pen, only much nicer and a dedicated tool you'll keep track of more carefully. There is a whole cult around Moleskines, it's a beautiful thing!
Phone. There are so many ways your phone can capture information. You can call someone like an assistant to tell him or her. You can call yourself and leave a voice mail message. If you have a smartphone, you can use apps for voice recordings and type things directly into your calendar or e-mail yourself.
Jott. When I am driving, I like using Jott with my phone so I can capture thoughts and ideas on the run. Jott transcribes my message and sends me an e-mail with the voice recording available along with the written content of what I said. Friends of mine also like using ReQall.
Calendar & Task List. Be direct-- whether you use a Blackberry, Outlook, or a paper planner, write or type things directly into your calendar or task list instead of transferring them in there later.
E-mail. If possible, have someone e-mail you the information for later if you cannot take notes yourself while meeting or talking.
Camera. Your digital camera or camera phone is a great way to quickly grab information. I often take photos of things like the parking lot sign where I have parked my car, so I can remember what section I parked in. I have also taken photos of recipes I found in a waiting room magazine, since I could not rip the pages out.
Printed Material. Grab the brochure or the handout that is provided at a meeting and use it to prompt you to enter pieces of that information in your system later.
Object Reminders. If you really must use your short-term memory to capture some information, you can use an object to help you remember that you are remembering. Sometimes I keep something in my mind and move my wedding ring to a different finger so I will remember to capture it in a more permanent way as soon as possible.
Evernote. I love Evernote-- it's like my second brain. It's an application on your desktop, the web, and your smartphone that synchronizes between them. You grab little bits & pieces of information that you're not sure what else to do with and stick them in there in "notes." You can tag your notes with keywords for searching later, and if you got the info from the web, it saves the URL of the site where you grabbed the information. I have so much random stuff in there that I may not ever use, but I can always find it if I ever need it, and I often do!

There are many more ways to capture information, and I would love to hear your favorites in the comments! The idea is that you have your own toolbox of capturing methods that work for you, to make sure information does not get lost. The next step is to COMMIT to what you're going to do with that information, and that will be next Friday's post!

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Olympus E-P1 review roundup

2009-07-17T14:03:00Z

Olympus did its darnedest to drum up hype for the recently unveiled E-P1 Micro Four Thirds shooter, and while we already shared our two pennies on the thing, we figured it prudent to round up the best of the best from elsewhere on the web to give you a fuller picture. The long and short of it is this: the E-P1 is universally praised in terms of image quality, with the only real knock in that department going to higher-than-likable noise levels in low-light scenarios. Still, a camera is about more than just the output, and reviewers were quick to lament the dearth of an integrated viewfinder and flash. Furthermore, critics panned the camera for being slow to focus, oftentimes requiring well over half a second to finally settle and snap a shot. That said, we couldn't find anyone who wasn't won over by the image quality, but we'd make darn sure those other nuisances won't frustrate you to no end before falling for the cute factor.

Read - PhotographyBLOG
Read - DigiCamReview
Read - photocrati
Read - PhotographyPress
Read - OutbackPhoto
Read - CNET
Read - Steves Digicams

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Olympus E-P1 review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Timelapse with the Canon 5D Mark II shows off Eiffel Tower

2009-07-17T13:17:56Z

It seems that people are really loving the Canon 5D mk ii (5D2) for timelapse videos as well as using the tilt-shift lenses. We’ve got a couple today.

First, the Eiffel Tower in Paris just celebrated an anniversary!

Eiffel Tower on Fire from Alta Media Productions on Vimeo.

This is a Timlapse Sequence of the 14th of July fireworks in Paris, France. It’s the anniversary of the French Revolution and also the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower.
Around 700 000 people gathered in front of the monument to see the pyrotechnics following a free concert by Johnny Hallyday. The firework was on for a little more then half an hour in which we took around 6000 photos.

Photography by Albrecht Gerlach www.albrechtgerlach.com

In another awesome timelapse with a tilt-shift, we see sumo wrestlers!

The Japanese Tradition -SUMO- from the bitter*girls on Vimeo.

Sumo is a competitive contact sport where a wrestler (rikishi) attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring (dohyo) or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Schneider Componon-S 4.0/80mm / MFS
http://photolog.blog.so-net.ne.jp/

(Photo credit: snap from the Eiffel Tower video)

Breaking the illusion of skin color: Nina Jablonski on TED.com

2009-07-17T14:54:17Z

Nina Jablonski says that differing skin colors are simply our bodies' adaptation to varied climates and levels of UV exposure. Charles Darwin disagreed with this theory, but she explains, that's because he did not have access to NASA. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009 in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 14:32)

Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/1h

Watch Nina Jablonski's 2009 talk on TED.com where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 475+ TEDTalks.

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Use iCal to tweet automatically

2009-07-17T16:00:00Z

Filed under: Software, Features, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Internet Tools, AppleScript

Recently, the question came up of how to automatically "tweet" a birthday message to a friend or loved one on their special day. After thinking on this question for some time I finally came to a solution. As it turns out, intrepid TUAW blogger Dave Caolo wrote a Mac 101 article all about attaching AppleScripts to iCal events. Additionally, Brad Linder over at Download Squad put together a nice little tutorial for posting to Twitter via the command line.

It wasn't obvious at first, but these two articles together formed a dynamic duo of birthday tweeting proportions. If, dear reader, you are interested in setting up a system for sending out some birthday tweets then follow along as we travel the mysterious world of iCal events and command line tweeting. Read on for a somewhat technical tutorial on how to set up some pre-scheduled tweeting goodness. (If you're looking for a service to take care of all this for you, here you go.)

Continue reading Use iCal to tweet automatically

TUAW Use iCal to tweet automatically originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A better way to harvest bone marrow: Daniel Kraft on TED.com

2009-07-15T15:12:19Z

The stem cells found in bone marrow are one of the most valuable resources your body produces (they can help treat terminal diseases such as Alzheimer's and leukemia), but normally the process of retrieving that marrow is a many-injection procedure that takes time, money ... and pain. Physician and innovator Daniel Kraft has revolutionized this process with his minimally-invasive Marrow Miner, which requires only one puncture and accumulates ten times as much marrow compared to the old manner. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009 in Long Beach, CA. Duration: 4:14)

Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/1b

Watch Daniel Kraft's 2009 talk on TED.com where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 475+ TEDTalks.

Subscribe to the TED Blog >>

In Afghanistan, Part One

2009-07-17T16:15:27Z

(Part one of two) - Today, nearly eight years after the initial invasion of Afghanistan, the country remains unstable at best, and the U.S. is now pouring thousands of new troops into the country, joining the international coalition to combat the Taliban insurgency. This year, bomb attacks on coalition troops have reached an all-time high - at least 46 American troops killed by IEDs this year, part of the larger figure of 1,249 coalition deaths to date. On June 25th, U.S. officials announced the launch of Operation Khanjar - 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces pushing into various parts of Helmand province attempting to secure the area ahead of Afghanistan's presidential election next month. Consider this entry a double-issue - there has been so much powerful photography coming out of Afghanistan the past few months, I had a very hard time editing down to just these, recent photographs from Afghanistan. (see part 2) (32 photos total)

An afghan girl stands next to the door of her house as Canadian soldiers patrol the village of Bazaar e Panjwai in Kandahar, May 29, 2009. (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)