Simian Farmer

Damn, that's handy

Several of the websites I visit daily, either directly or via RSS feed, provide handy tips and tricks for increasing productivity, saving money or just providing information that I think is really neat.

Some examples of those sites are:

Lifehacker
Tricks of the Trade
Deeper Motive
Slacker Manager
To-Done
43 Folders

(The irony in my posting this is that this is one of the least efficient things I could possibly be doing at work right now...)

To date, I have been at a bit of a loss to capture the information I find on those, and other, sites in order to reference at a future date.  I like to stay as organised as possible and a variety of TXT files floating around in myDocuments on my PC just hasn't been cutting it.

Just this week I discovered pbWiki, which is the answer to all my miscellaneous data-conglomeration needs.

Now, when I find an article, a tip, a quote, a joke or anything nett-ish that tickles my fancy, I just copy and paste into the appropriate section of my wiki so I can view it again later.

After two days of fiddlin', I have some of my stuff categorised into:
-Writing tips
-Neat Science info
-Funny Stuff
-Draft Blog Posts (This is VERY handy)
-Productivity / Efficiency tips (ie - don't do what I'm doing right now)
-Money tips
-Words of the day  (so I can write stuff like 'expatiate' and know what I'm talkin' about)

The kicker is that it's totally FREE.  (My favourite word these days, next to 'boobies'.)  And it's called pbWiki since they purport that it's easier to put together than a PB & J sandwich.  And it is.  Dead simple.  And free.  And it's fun just to say wiki.

wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki wiki

Here's a shot of the frontpage of my wiki so far.  They're private by default so whatever you include there is (mostly) safe from prying eyes unless you want to open it up.

Decision making

One of the sites I visit on a daily basis is Lifehacker.  It is chock full of tips, tweaks, shortcuts and advice on how to streamline many of the inefficiencies with which we fill our lives.  Plus a good dose of NEAT factor.  (Their motto: Don't live to geek; geek to live.)  Picture overclocking your CPU, but your CPU is your brain.

One of today's tips struck a chord with me:

Independence is a big part of child development. You can help your kid develop a sense of their ability to control their lives by offering them choices in your daily routines. Do not, however, ask them open-ended questions. “What do you want for breakfast?” just begs for trouble. Instead, specify two or three choices. “Do you want cereal or pancakes for Breakfast?” This lets your child choose, but limits them to realistic options.

I am so-oooo going to get my ass kicked for saying this, but the above also applies to pregnant wives.

Once again, I'm glad that my beautiful, tolerant and stalwart wife doesn't read this site.

Aging themepark

Taken slightly out of context, the following is a quote from a recent article I browsed on Boing Boing:

Television today is an ageing theme park, which we visit out of habit rather than in hope of finding anything fresh and original.

This struck me as particularly poignant since the first image it brought to mind was that of me sitting on the sofa last night eating a bag full of pistachios and watching a rerun of Daily Planet on Discovery Channel.  All this after my wife had gone to bed at 9 PM. (!!!)

Eating a bag of pistachios since, as by now you're well aware, I'm in hardcore training mode for the Death Race.  (There were some of those annoying nuts that hadn't cracked open far enough to get your thumbnails in there to pry them apart - you know the ones I'm talking about - but at least I made sure to suck the salt off the shells.)

I swear, when my wife and I get the money/time/inclination to finish our basement, that f--king television is going downstairs and the main floor of our home will be a tranquil refuge, free of the mind-numbing influence of that one-eyed monster. 

The only one-eyed monster on the main floor will be restricted to...  Well, never mind, but rest assured it won't be glowing in technicolour.

Great Googalie Moogalie

I have no idea how many monkeys in front of computers they have typing away over there in the Google labs, but they're churning out some pretty funky stuff.

Google Earth was unavailable to download for a time due to its burgeoning popularity, but persistence paid off and I have been fiddlin' a bit with it today.  The ability too zoom in from space and see my house, with the Grosvenor outdoor pool a blue rectangle down the street, makes the world seem a wee bit smaller than it did just a short time ago.

If you have Google Earth on your own machine, you can click the link below to see where I live.  I just mowed the lawn a couple days ago, and cleaned up the dog poop, so the yard should look presentable.

Simian Farmer lives here!!

Domo origato

Paul just took an on-line personality defect test.

I find it completely impossible to see that and not take it in turn.  Which, I guess, is a little less surprising after viewing my results.  Completely scientifically accurate, of course:

Robot

You are 57% Rational, 28% Extroverted, 14% Brutal, and 28% Arrogant.

You are the Robot! You are characterized by your rationality. In fact, this is really ALL you are characterized by. Like a cold, heartless machine, you are so logical and unemotional that you scarcely seem human. For instance, you are very humble and don't bother thinking of your own interests, you are very gentle and lack emotion, and you are also very introverted and introspective. You may have noticed that these traits are just as applicable to your laptop as they are to a human being. In short, your personality defect is that you don't really HAVE a personality. You are one of those annoying, super-logical people that never gets upset or flustered. Unless, of course, you short circuit.

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted.

3. You are more GENTLE than brutal.

4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant.

We can combine forces to bring order to the industry

Darth Vader makes a movie pitch to ad execs. 

"Never underestimate the power of the Orange side."

Funny stuff.

That is so freakin' cool!

I think just about everyone in the blogosphere is twigging on to this, but I am simply amazed at the technology that allows me to click on to Google Maps, enter my street address and BAM!!  There's my house pointed out on a purdy little satellite map.

That urban sprawl to the SE of my house is the NW section of the city of Edmonton.  The body of water to the west of my house is 'Big Lake', which feeds the mighty Sturgeon River that wends its way in a north-easterly sort of direction through St. Albert.  There are just oodles of beautifully paved trails that trace that same meandering thread all through my small city; many of which I'll be running and walking the baby and dog on this spring and summer.

The mosaic of farmland that surrounds my suburban island is quite beautiful from this vantage.
(Click the image for a larger version.)

Here I come... I'm coming to get ya!

Dear Firefox,

I'm sorry.  I'm sorry that I never took the chance on you before yesterday.  I was content with what I had, not knowing that there might be something out there that was better for me.  I was only holding myself back; you must have known that.  Thank you for being patient with me.  I've been hurt before and, frankly, am sometimes afraid to take chances.  I don't necessarily fear change, but it causes me some trepidation.  You've helped me with that feeling.  Thank you for being so gentle.  You rock.

All my love,

Simon

Good find

Here's an interesting link that I stumbled upon this morning:

The Uncyclopedia.  It purports to be the free encyclopedia of politically incorrect non-information.  And it's based on a wiki, so you can make contributions to it as well.  My hands are already itching a little.

Check out the entry on Sauron.  Turns out he's not really the megalomaniacal force of evil hell-bent on subjugating Middle Earth that J.R.R. Tolkien made him out to be.  Sauron's power base was Mordor, right?  Wrong.

The entry on God is good too, wherein is revealed that Satan makes a wicked goat cheese and basil panini.  Interested yet?

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And while we're on the topic of wikis, please do also check out meanderingly dot com.  A fledgling writing project to which I am a contributor.  It's whimsical randomness will have you reading long past when you thought you would stop.

Rather neat

Though presented from a Yahoo! bias, this little retrospective shows the past ten years on the net with 100 significant moments.  It's only been a decade?!