Please Don't Take My Stapler!

Woohoo,

After almost a year of work, my wife and I payed off our last credit card last month. Boy that's cool. We still have a long way to go, but it is an exciting milestone.  A big thanks to Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University. We went through the 13 week course starting last August, and we really enjoyed it. Many of the principles we learned at that class have helped us get where we are now. The most helpful part for us was not the what(I know I should save and not use credit cards), but the how(Baby Steps). I also enjoy the podcasts of his show.

 Another resource about money I have been enjoying  is The Simple Dollar. This blog has lots of common sense money information. I don't agree with everything he writes, but it is always well thought out and thought provoking.

Check out their blogs, and think about attending one of Dave's classes. It might just change your life. 

My first experiences with video games as a child were cartridge based games on the family commodore 64. You remeber the one, with the giant keyboard that was the computer? Those were the days. Well, I found a websire this week that has brought back many of those memories:  c64s.com

They have all of your favorite games from the Commodore 64 playable from your web browser. Woohoo. Enjoy.

Fitness has been a focus of mine this year. Other than the obvious reasons for staying fit such as staying healthy, having more energy, and to look good, I have a couple of goals that are motivating me in my quest to be fit. I hope to test for a First Degree Black Belt In ATA TaeKwonDo before March of next year and I need to be in great shape to pass that test, and to keep up when we spar and grapple. I also plan on doing my first sprint Triathlon this summer which will require endurance. There are a couple of things I have been doing lately to stay in shape: cycling, swimming, running, and going to TaeKwonDo class really have helped, but I have found a new form of exercise I am really excited about: Kettlebells.

Kettlebells are cast iron balls with handles. They have been used by the Russians for hundreds of years to stay in shape and they have been gaining popularity here in the US in the last couple of years. Kettlebell workouts are total-body workouts that increase strength, endurance, while challenging both the muscular and cardiovascular system. Here is a video that shows some of the many exercises that can be done with kettlebells. Kettlebells come in many diferent sizes. The sizes are measured in an old russian unit of measure called a pood. One pood is equal to 36 pounds or 16kg. That is the kettlebell weight that most people start with. As they increase their skill and depending on the exercise, you can use other weights anywhere from 8 pounds to 97 pounds.

Due to their ability to increase endurance and strength, Kettlebells have become very popular with MMA athaletes. I am told that they made an appearnce in the latest Rocky film too.  Pavel Tsatsouline is credited with being a big part of bringing Kettlebells to the states. His website has lots of great information about them and some great books you can order. I bought a 44 pound Kettlebell today, and I am looking forward to learning more about kettlebells and starting to use them on a regular basis. If you are interested in buying one, you can find them at local stores, but you may have to call around to find a store that caries them. Thanks to Mr. Baker for turning me onto Kettlebells and for the lessons.

I love Technology. All kinds of technology. Fast cars like the BMW M5 or fuel efficient cars that I hope we get here in the US some day. There are many other things I dream about like sweet monitors, and really fast computers. But many of those are expensive toys that I may never afford or find practical.

Along the lines of impractical toys is the Optimus Maximus keyboard. It sounds like a transformer and in a way it is. What is amazing about this keyboard is that all the keys can be swapped out. In their place you can put replacement keys that have miniature OLED screens in them. Then you can use a piece of software to display images in those keys and to assign functions to those keys.. So you could have a key that was the Firefox logo that launched Firefox. Or you could find a picture of a flower and have that be your F key. The possibilities are limitless. There are some really practical uses for this keyboard, especially if you are bi-lingual. You could have your keyboard display in English, and then switch it to Greek, and then to Hebrew. How cool is that. The price? If you have to ask, you probably can't afford one. They start at around $600 and go up to over $1500 depending on how many OLED keys you want.

On a more practical note, there is another piece of of cool technology that is a little more reasonably priced. It is called the EeePc. It is a miniature laptop that has a 7 or 9 inch screen, weighs 2 pounds, and it has a flash based hard drive. It was originally released with a version of Linux as the only operating system option, but is now available with Windows XP. The bonus, it only costs $299. Now there is a toy that I may end up getting one of those days. Too bad the ole station wagon needs tires.

Back to dreaming.

Woohoo, It is here!!

The new version of Ubuntu, 8.04 Hardy Heron was released today. What is Ubuntu?  It is a FREE and Open Source operating system. It is fast, stable, really secure, and one of my favorite pieces of software. In the near future I will write a couple of posts about installing it on my Dell Latitude D630, and about some of the new features. You can get it here.

Enjoy,

These days there are so many different kinds of Mal-ware out there, that the categories start to get confusing. Spyware, viruses, trojans, worms, root-kits, key-loggers, spybots, etc. What is a computer user to do? In my previous post I went over Anti-virus options. In addition to that, keeping you rcomputer and your software updated and using more secure software such as Firefox goes a long way in protecting your computer from the bad guys on the web. There is a third type of protection I would like to go over. Spyware protection.

One of the biggest problems with spyware protection is knowing who to trust. Many of the spyware protection suites advertised on the web install more spyware then they remove. So here are my recommendations:

One of my favorite tools is Spybot Search and Destroy. This free tool has many uses, but it's main capability is removing spyware. When you install it, I would recommend that you don't allow it to install the Tea Timer as it can be annoying and confusing. Make sure you run the updates, and you are ready to rock and roll. Searching for and removing unwanted software is pretty straightforeward. click on the check for problems button, and when it is finnished, click the remove problems button to remove them. The immunization function is a great tool that puts known malicious sites in the do-not-trust list of Firefox, Internet Explorer, and or Opera. I would recommend doing an update, spyware scan, and immunization with Spybot once a month.

If you are an advanced user, Spybot has some other capabilities that I use quite often. In the Tools menu, there is an advanced mode.Do not turn this on unless you know what you are doing as you can cause some damage to your computer with some of these tools. My favorite advanced tool is the startup list editor. I use this tool to remove programs running in the background of computers on a daily basis.

I also use Windows Defender. It is a free tool that Microsoft puts out that checks for spyware on your computer. I like it. It is relatively light weight, free(from Microsoft? hmm that's a first), and effective. install it, update it, and it will do it's thing.

Other options include Ad-aware, Spyware Blaster, and commercial options like Webroot Spysweaper. I don't use any of these because they either prohibit commercial use in their licenses or they are not free.You are welcome to try them, but I think that a well patched computerwith good anti-virus, Spybot, and Windows Defender, and a little common sense(don't open attatchments unless you know you can trust the attatchment) and you will be fine in the crazy jungle that is the web.

Have you ever noticed how your digital world ebs and flows? For Example. Today I got fed up with all the emails I get. Not necesarilly spam, but email lists I got on because I thought it wouldn't be too bad to receive an email from travelocity (or sites like it) when there was a great airline fair available. After a while they start to build up, and I start to get 10 or 12 a day. I finally get so fed up that I start un-subscribing from every list I can find. If it comes in, I am unsubscribing.

 I find that is true of much of my digital life. How much I blog or use Twitter. How often I play flash video games or see what I can find on YouTube to entertain myself. Even things like RSS Feeds/Google Reader. Sometimes I read every post from every blog and website I care about, and then there are times when I don't care all that much. I guess that is life though. There are seasons to everything. Freindships, exercising, even sleeping. Or, Maybe I'm just crazy. Probably both.