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By Jeff, on January 29th, 2011 I’ve felt like I’ve been neglecting this blog lately, and wanted to get focused on it again. As it happens, I ran across the 7 day Challenge from Andrew Emmett‘s blog (via Lee’s entry), which seems like a good idea to get me started again.
The idea is to write 300 to 400 words about each of the following questions over the next week:
What the purpose of my website is, who I am and . . . → Read More: Identity: 7 day challenge
By Jeff, on November 15th, 2010 Wow! I’m geeking out! This guy managed to mix computer laptop maintenance and an Ultraman-like tribute into a catchy, funny song! He even got a Queen tribute in!
Hats off to that dude. Way to go.
I wonder if he ever got that laptop back together.
By Jeff, on April 25th, 2010 “Dude,” (for some reason this conversation frequently begins with “dude”) “you’re the most technical person I know. How can you not even have a cell phone?”
This conversation (or a variation focusing on a different piece of technology) comes up in my life with some regularity. It happened again recently.
It’s true. I don’t have a cell phone.
(Well… technically, there is a cell phone that exists with my name on the account. But my . . . → Read More: The Neo-Luddite Geek Technologist
By Jeff, on August 8th, 2009 I wanted to follow up on a couple of posts I made (long ago) about web conferencing. Figured it was about time I got back to it.
I had the occasion to use two services last night: Vyew, and DimDim. I’ll summarize my experiences below.
This was the first time I’d tried Vyew. It’s a Flash-based service so there is no software to install (unless you want to share your desktop, which requires a Java . . . → Read More: Free web conferencing – ups and downs
By Jeff, on January 14th, 2009 Recently Gather Little by Little posted an article on “Deal of the day” sites, such as Woot.com and Yugster.com. These are sites that offer one product per day for a substantially reduced price. The merchandise, frequently reconditioned but at times new, is sold until their quantity runs out or 24 hours is up, whichever comes first.
I took a look at a few of the sites that GLBLGuy posted. Some I found useful, but most . . . → Read More: 4 sites to get free/cheap stuff – finding deals online
By Jeff, on November 26th, 2008 Let’s face it… some stereotypes exist for a reason. Even among native English speakers, in general, programmers are not known for their English skills. I know a few who buck that trend, but there are plenty of examples to prove the rule.
For example, while withdrawing a student from a course earlier today, the system sent back this confirmation message:
Withdrawment was successful.
Yeah. That’s a whole new word right there. Thanks for your contribution . . . → Read More: Programmer English
By Jeff, on October 20th, 2008 New York Times columnist David Pogue has had two extremely good posts lately. One is aimed squarely at general computer users, and both are of great use to technical writers.
In the generally focused Tech Tips for Basic Computer Users, he points out things that all us geeks think everybody knows about computers. There are a fair amount that I didn’t know, however, so the list’s worth a look (though the article is so popular . . . → Read More: Technical writers, pay attention
By Jeff, on January 5th, 2008 Through watching the Randy Pausch lecture (mentioned in my previous post) I discovered a great free tool for learning how to program, called Alice. What’s different about Alice is that it lets students learn the basics of object-oriented programming while avoiding a lot of the frustrations that normally come from this kind of exploration. It also makes it very easy to create working 3-D virtual worlds (it was originally conceived as a rapid prototyping tool . . . → Read More: Alice: Through the Monitor (or Creating new worlds for Novices)
By Jeff, on September 20th, 2007 In the last month or so, it seems like Murphy is camped on my front step.
Computer – dead. Motherboard, presumably, is fried, based on research. Car inspection – over $500 more than expected in repairs. VCR – dead. Yes, I still had one. No I don’t have a DVR. I don’t have digital cable either. Wife’s TV – extremely unreliable, verging on death. Picture fades to black for long stretches. Three extra trips to . . . → Read More: Unexpected costs, things that have broken lately, and lessons learned
By Jeff, on July 26th, 2007 Computer Tips For Everybody » Blog Archive » Create a custom Control Panel in Windows XP This is a timely tip for me, as I just received a new laptop with WinXP on it at work, and I’m trying to reaquaint myself with the little tweaks that aid in productivity. I’d probably opt for just turning on the setting that makes the Control Panel appear as a menu rather than in a new window, but . . . → Read More: Customize your WinXP Control Panel
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