Many of you know we're selling our house of 26+ years …
Just listed this afternoon.
———————————-
See other posts: Selling a House in a Lousy Economy
The Art of the Browse, World Book and the iPad
In about 45 minutes, my wife and I will list our home of 25+ years for sale. It's been a good home, and in cleaning up our house for sale, I wondered if there was any reason to keep the 1959 World Book Encyclopedias? After all, the articles are over 50 years old, and most of my research is conducted via the web … and quite often Wikipedia.
My logic says to get rid of my World Books, but how do you say good-bye to an old friend? Somehow, as much as I enjoy the web, there is never the same joy or wonder which comes from pulling a different" letter" off the book shelf and starting to read. At a very young age in my parent's home this is how I explored the world of science, history, literature, foreign lands, etc. The web does not encourage this kind of browsing.
Sitting in front of me to the left of my computer is the Letter R … as in World Book. Normally I would curl up in a good chair, or in bed and read my encyclopedia of the day. Let's see … R (from World Book):
- R (Egyptian … 3000 BC; to Roman … AD 114)
- RA (see New Deal)
- Rabat (capital of French Morocco)
- Rabual (See New Britain)
- Rabbi
- Rabbit
And thus ends the topics from the first page of R! This led me to wonder what I would find on Wikipedia if I start with R:
Here is where the similarity between the two encyclopedias end. Upon review, I can't see whether it is possible to browse to the next "R entry". One can select "random article", but I want to read about R!
My only hope is the development of tablet PC's will bring back "the browse". After all, the software for reading content online is called a "browser", but do our present hardware devices really encourage "browsing"? I need to be in a comfortable chair! Right now, I can't justify the purchase of an iPad (too expensive). I do have my eyes on the Android Archos 101 Internet Tablet! After all, I will need to read "S".
Love, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and SPAM
Over the years this blog has built a nice following. Unfortunately this fact means the SPAM kings also target NorthstarNerd.Org with endless, mindless comments in their quest to sell a given product. This has forced me to moderate comments to prevent their junk from appearing online, but I have to admit on occasion their comments leave me laughing. Just like my friend's rich uncle in Nigeria who died leaving a fortune in a bank account … they are getting creative, particularly given their limited knowledge of the English language. Here are four recent SPAM comments, and my post at which they were directed:
Format: Comment Title / My Blog Post Title & Link … and of course, the comment!
Labor Vanquishes: My Favorite Engineering Webinars
- Labor vanquishes
all—not inconstant, spasmodic, or ill-directed labor; but faithful,
unremitting, daily effort toward a well-directed purpose. Do you think so?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Converting from Office XP to Office 2007
- Singularity is almost
invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more
difficult is it to bring it home. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer)
Love: General Mills 2.0
- Love shows respect
and never hurting our loved one in any sort of way, and if we should, it's allowing
them to see the hurt in our eyes for speaking disrespectful or wrong to them.
Wasting Time Over Budgets: Mind Mapping Software
- Time spent agonizing over
budget figures is time wasted. Even if miracle of miracles! Yours are honest
and accurate, no one else will have been so foolish. Did you agree with me?
Do you have some favorite comments that were posted to your own blog in an attempt to sell a given product? Comment below!
Thanks to a Great Librarian
How do you say thanks to the person who opened up the world of books to you? There is truly no adequate way to express my gratitude.
Earlier this month my elementary school librarian died. She taught me to love books, starting with Dan Frontier! Over the years I branched out to other books, and I never stopped visiting Mrs. Bissonett. My visits to this great lady lasted for over 45 years! After they closed my elementary school, she ran the children's library at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
- As an east coast prep school student attending Phillips Exeter Academy, I always took time out while home in Duluth, Minnesota to visit my elementary school librarian.
. - As an Ivy Leaguer attending Dartmouth College, I always took time out while home in Duluth, Minnesota to visit my elementary school librarian
. - And finally … two years ago for the last time, as a 52 year software project manager working at a Fortune 100 R&D Center, I visited my dear friend for the last time.
Thank you, Mrs. Bissonett for my love of reading … and the challenge to get a great education. Other than my parents, you were the key person who taught me to "love to learn".
Learn more about this great lady via the Ely, Minnesota newspaper.
From Firefox to Chrome
I've been a Firefox user for some time, but I finally moved to Google Chrome. While I know there are kinds of posts and in depth articles on the web about Chrome, I moved because Firefox could not handle my old Microsoft technology sites. I had heard that Chrome was the fastest browser, but why move from an open source friend like Firefox? After all, I had already left Microsoft's browser years ago.
In short, I.E. Tabs (a Firefox add-in) was not working with SharePoint. While basic SharePoint pages loaded, when I invoked advanced SharePoint functionality, crash. Obviously I tried upgrades of I.E. Tabs. No go.
Thus, I moved to Chrome for these reasons:
- It's extension for I.E. Tabs used in conjunction with SharePoint works
- Chrome is fast
- The user interface is logical and maximizes my viewable content
- I can easily synchronize bookmarks between many computers
Click upon the screenshot given below to maximize my Chrome annotations which gives an example of IE Tabs in use. Normally the address bar showing would not be present (I.E. Tabs would be turned off) While Firefox should do items 1 through 4, Chrome does it better.
More Google on my computer. I hope they "do no evil"