The adventures of a box maker from Mike Grace on Vimeo.

Cassie Grace showing off her box making skills.

I have also been impressed to see Buzz pulling my flickr photos intelligently into my buzz stream. I had 3 photos of our new front door being replaced on flickr that I posted via 3 separate tweets and all 3 got grouped together in the same buzz.

With the way Buzz facilitates conversation and does some intelligent work with managing other social network data, I really think Buzz will become a powerful player in the social networking world.

ARCHATHOR’IAN THE ERADICATOR

I spent the day learning and working on Kynetx code that was my first assignment since joining the team. I sure hope I won’t disappoint. Finally as the final hours of the day were counting down I was helping my wife make the bed when IT happened. Yes! IT happened! What is it? I was throwing the sheets up so I could get them to lay flat on the bed. When on the last throw, I threw them too hard, I hit the ugly glass plate covering our light hanging from the ceiling and it came crashing down. The largest shard was able to somehow maneuver it’s way to my head and connected with whatever sound glass makes when it hits flesh. *{insert sound here}* Once I got the wound covered we were able to clean it up and bandage it enough to get to bed. Here are some photos of the battle wound. Enjoy! ; D

Chicks dig scars right?!  ; )

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

How Designers Think, Fourth Edition: The Design Process Demystified

The Design of Everyday Things

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition)

Coders at Work

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! : )

Enjoy your Halloween and thanks for watching!

Trick or Tweet!

I have officially entered the world of Podcasting! The podcast is about technology and learning and incidentally enough, is hosted at http://technologyforlearning.info I am privileged to be able to co-produce the podcast with a good friend of mine, http://michaelfarmer.info. We both have a lot of fun being geeks and really digging into technology and what it means for us today and how it will impact us in the future. We are both amateurs and don’t have any formal voice training but we do love what we do. So, if you would like to join in on the fun and the conversation subscribe to the podcast and tune in each week as we review current technology and how it applies to learning.

Brother Judkins Comm 313
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/b8dvinssolbf8qce3r2tam0alc%40group.calendar.google.com/private-87267a1ca2dc1e499bd46ab3dae40b26/basic.ics

Brother Ercanbrack CS 165
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/ca0dn9amvkt8f3a10j7ch0huqg%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Chalkboard Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozenchipmunk/ / CC BY 2.0

THE PROBLEM

Information is flying all around us like debris from a tornado going through a trailer park. Information overload is a real problem now for the average person and it can wreak havoc on a persons productivity and goals. Never before in the history man has there been soo much information available. Experts, books, seminars, awareness: the availability of these are low if not non-existent. We are like little children who have been handed a gun with incredible power but no one is talking about how to safely handle it, and people are getting hurt!

WHAT TO DO

Fortunately for you, if you “shoot yourself in the foot” its your fault! Probably not what you were expecting, but it’s true. You have control over most of the information you subscribe to.

• RSS Feeds
• Television
• Radio
• Email
• Social Networks
• Magazines
• Newspaper

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MY BROWSER?

You can control what your Firefox looks like. I have seen too many people who try to browse the web with so many buttons, bars, and add-ons that much of the space for actually viewing web pages is reduced by about a third or more. Take back your browser real estate and surf the web with freedom again!

WHAT CAN I DO?

Here is an example of two extremes.

If the bloated one looks similar to yours or a friends browser then you are in the right place.

To Do:

• Use the Toolbar collapse button to hide the clutter until you need it

• Remove all add-ons you aren’t using all of the time (Spring Cleaning!)
• Hide toolbars (functionality can often be accessed through the application menu)
• Remove buttons that aren’t needed (most have keyboard shortcuts which are faster)

This is really fun because you get to drag and drop buttons where ever you like.

• Hide status bar if you don’t use it (Bottom gray bar)

• Disable “Always show the tab bar”

The real trick is to balance the functionality of add-ons and buttons with space. After many months of trying different configurations, this has been the most effective layout for me.

I use the keyboard shortcuts for the Firebug add-on and the other basic browser buttons like forward, back, refresh, so I have removed all those buttons and add-on bars. I show the status bar on the bottom so I can see if the HTML pages I am coding are validating as strict without running a validator. I also hide the bookmarks bar because I don’t use them very frequently. Everyone uses the web differently which makes Firefox great for many people because it can be customized for their needs. Play around with your layout, reduce distractions, and find what works best for you.

Storm Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/liebedich/ / CC BY 2.0

1. Properly secure a wireless router.
2. Crack the WEP key on a wireless router.
3. Leech Wifi from your neighbor.
4. Screw with Wifi leeches.
5. Setup and use a VPN.
6. Work from home or a coffee shop as effectively as you do at the office.
7. Wire your own home with Ethernet cable.
8. Turn a web camera into security camera.
9. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point.
10. Understand what “There’s no Place Like 127.0.0.1” means.
11. Identify key-loggers.
12. Properly connect a TV, Tivo, XBox, Wii, and Apple TV so they all work together with the one remote.
13. Program a universal remote.
14. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone.
15. Benchmark Your Computer
16. Identify all computer components on sight.
17. Know which parts to order from NewEgg.com, and how to assemble them into a working PC.
18. Troubleshoot any computer/gadget problem, over the phone.
19. Use any piece of technology intuitively, without instruction or prior knowledge.
20. How to irrecoverably protect data.
21. Recover data from a dead hard drive.
22. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network.
23. Install a Linux distribution. (Hint: Ubuntu 9.04 is easier than installing Windows)
24. Remove a virus from a computer.
25. Dual (or more) boot a computer.
26. Boot a computer off a thumb drive.
27. Boot a computer off a network drive.
28. Replace or repair a laptop keyboard.
29. Run more than two monitors on a single computer.
30. Successfully disassemble and reassemble a laptop.
31. Know at least 10 software easter eggs off the top of your head.
32. Bypass a computer password on all major operating systems. Windows, Mac, Linux
33. Carrying a computer cleaning arsenal on your USB drive.
34. Bypass content filters on public computers.
35. Protect your privacy when using a public computer.
36. Surf the web anonymously from home.
37. Buy a domain, configure bind, apache, MySQL, php, and Wordpress without Googling a how-to.
38. Basic *nix command shell knowledge with the ability to edit and save a file with vi.
39. Create a web site using vi.
40. Transcode a DVD to play on a portable device.
41. Hide a file in an image using steganography.
42. Knowing the answer to life, the universe and everything.
43. Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers without a KVM switch.
44. Google obscure facts in under 3 searches. Bonus point if you can use I Feel Lucky.
45. Build amazing structures with LEGO and invent a compelling back story for the creation.
46. Understand that it is LEGO, not Lego, Legos, or Lego’s.
47. Build a two story house out of LEGO, in monochrome, with a balcony.
48. Construct a costume for you or your kid out of scraps, duct tape, paper mâché, and imagination.
49. Be able to pick a lock.
50. Determine the combination of a Master combination padlock in under 10 minutes.
51. Assemble IKEA furniture without looking at the instructions. Bonus point if you don’t have to backtrack.
52. Use a digital SLR in full manual mode.
53. Do cool things to Altoids tins.
54. Be able to construct paper craft versions of space ships.
55. Origami! Bonus point for duct tape origami. (Ductigami)
56. Fix anything with duct tape, chewing gum and wire.
57. Knowing how to avoid being eaten by a grue.
58. Know what a grue is.
59. Understand where XYZZY came from, and have used it.
60. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator.
61. Burn the rope.
62. Know the Konami code, and where to use it.
63. Whistle, hum, or play on an iPhone, the Cantina song.
64. Learning to play the theme songs to the kids favorite TV shows.
65. Solve a Rubik’s Cube.
66. Calculate THAC0.
67. Know the difference between skills and traits.
68. Explain special relativity in terms an eight-year-old can grasp.
69. Recite pi to 10 places or more.
70. Be able to calculate tip and split the check, all in your head.
71. Explain that the colours in a rainbow are roygbiv.
72. Understand the electromagnetic spectrum – xray, uv, visible, infrared, microwave, radio.
73. Know the difference between radiation and radioactive contamination.
74. Understand basic electronics components like resistors, capacitors, inductors and transistors.
75. Solder a circuit while bottle feeding an infant. (lead free solder please.)
76. The meaning of technical acronyms.
77. The coffee dash, blindfolded (or blurry eyed). Coffee <brew> [cream] [sugar]. In under a minute.
78. Build a fighting robot.
79. Program a fighting robot.
80. Build a failsafe into a fighting robot so it doesn’t kill you.
81. Be able to trace the Fellowship’s journey on a map of Middle Earth.
82. Know all the names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit.
83. Understand the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
84. Know where your towel is and why it is important.
85. Re-enact the parrot sketch.
86. Know the words to The Lumberjack Song.
87. Reciting key scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
88. Be able to recite at least one Geek Movie word for word.
89. Know what the 8th Chevron does on a Stargate and how much power is required to get a lock.
90. Be able to explain why it’s important that Han shot first.
91. Know why it is just wrong for Luke and Leia to kiss.
92. Stop talking Star Wars long enough to get laid.
93. The ability to name actors, characters and plotlines from the majority of sci-fi movies produced since 1968.
94. Cite Mythbusters when debunking a myth or urban legend.
95. Sleep with a Cricket bat next to your bed.
96. Have a documented plan on what to do during a zombie or robot uprising.
97. Identify evil alternate universe versions of friends, family, co-workers or self.
98. Be able to convince TSA that the electronic parts you are carrying are really not a threat to passengers.
99. Talk about things that aren’t tech related.
100. Get something on the front page of Digg.

Photo by bellafer*:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gataclark/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Defcon – Getting There from Mike Grace on Vimeo.

Photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kratz/ / CC BY-SA 2.0