Does your daily to-do list look like Mount Everest? Check out this super-simple approach to streamlining your everyday tasks for more sanity and productivity.
25 October 2010
If It Won't Fit On A Post-It, It Won't Fit In Your Day
If It Won't Fit On A Post-It, It Won't Fit In Your Day: "
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28 March 2010
Winnipeg dad dies after birthday party assault
Winnipeg dad dies after birthday party assault: "A Winnipeg father of five has died in hospital after being assaulted by an uninvited guest who crashed his daughter's 18th birthday party."
Read more:
A Winnipeg father of five has died in hospital after being assaulted by an uninvited guest who crashed his daughter's 18th birthday party early Saturday.
Family members identified the man who died as Garth Isfeld, 44, who they say got into a fight with a man who'd been asked to leave.
They said Isfeld was struck over the head with a beer bottle as he stepped in to protect another daughter from the man.
Isfeld had a barbecue to celebrate the birthday of his daughter, Stephanie Krasnesky, after recently moving into the small home in the north Winnipeg neighbourhood.
Police were called to the house around 12:30 a.m. Family members said Isfeld was rushed to hospital, where he developed blood clots and died.
Elia Bevacqua, Isfled's sister-in-law, saw the assault happen. “Beer-bottled him in the head and he just dropped,” she said.
His daughter Stephanie curled up in a chair and sobbed, her family leaning over to touch and hug her as she spoke about the traumatic experience.
“I just seen him on the ground and he was rolling his eyes back in,” she cried. “There was so much blood everywhere. I just grabbed a pillow and put it around his head.”
Neighbours said the party got rowdy and people could be heard screaming, telling a man to leave.
Several people who were at the home when the fight happened are being interviewed.
Police are investigating. No charges have been laid.
Randall Krasnesky, 22, holding his sister's hand, said he'll do everything he can to support the remaining children who've been left without a father.
“They got me and I'll look after them,” he said.
Read more:
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So do we bring back the death penalty now that we have ways of identifying someone (DNA and bacteria). Legally in Canada DNA identification is governed by the DNA act.
Personally I feel that as identification gets better and better it becomes harder and harder for accused people to be wrongly convicted of crimes they didn't commit. I think eventually Capitol punishment will come back as we get more and more certain someone has committed a heinous crime (usually no statute of limitations like murder, rape etc).
I wouldn't be sad if it did. If someone cannot function as part of society that is fine, if they become a danger to it (by committing a heinous crime), for the safety of others they should be put down.
A way of looking at it would be similar to If a dog mauled a kid, it gets put down... we don't question that.. we should do the same for people.... no shame, no guilt, just take care of it.
16 March 2010
Six Hidden iPhone Shortcuts
(03-02) 15:54 PST -- Last week, a new iPhone app called Tiger Text hit the App Store. The app lets users send text messages to a server that could be read by the recipient via an app reader. The text message would then be wiped from the face of the earth (i.e. both the texter and recipient's iPhones, and the server) after a pre-determined amount of time.
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The purpose of this app, of course, is to hide your tiger tracks. Makers of the app swear they came up with the app's name, Tiger Text, well before steamy Tiger Woods texts and voicemail messages that he'd sent to mistresses made headline news.
[ Apple's bikini ban was too reactionary, reports CIO.com. | What's the App Store's dirty little secret? ]
Tiger Text is supposed to give texters power over historical records of their private texts that they might hammer out one night and regret the next day--but it's a false sense of control. Clearly, the makers of Tiger Text are betting that most iPhone owners who receive Tiger Texts messages don't know how to take a screenshot of the message. And maybe they don't.
All of this got us thinking that a review of some of the hidden iPhone features is in order. The simplicity of the iPhone and lack of buttons belies a wealth of shortcuts. We've picked six of the most important ones.
Two-Button Screenshot
What to do: In order to take a picture of whatever is on the iPhone screen at the moment, simply press the home button and the on/off button together. The screenshot is added to your camera roll. Also, in Safari, you can copy an image on a website by pressing on the image and holding until the "save image" pops up. The image will be saved on the camera roll. (Note: This doesn't work in some native iPhone apps like AP Mobile.)
Why it's important: Text messages, emails, websites, images often get inadvertently deleted. The screenshot shortcut is a fast way to save data.
Double-Click Camera
What to do: You can set your iPhone so that double tapping the home button brings up an application, such as the iPod or camera. Go to settings, general and home. Then select from home, search, phone favorites, camera and iPod. We recommend you set it on camera.
On a related note, if the iPod is playing, double-clicking the home button from another app or while at home screen will call up limited iPod controls, not the camera. When the iPhone is locked, double clicking the home button will also bring up the iPod controls.
Why it's important: Photo opportunities arise when you least expect them. That's why the ability to quickly bring your camera online is critical. The double-tap of the home button is much faster than scrolling through your screens and looking for the camera app. (Remember to unlock the iPhone first before double-tapping the home button or else the iPod controls will pop up.)
Three-finger Zoom
What to do: With three fingers, tap the screen twice and you'll zoom in. It doesn't matter if you're on the home screen or in an app. Perform the action again to return to normal view.
Why it's important: This feature can make it easier on the eyes. On the home screen, app icons and the words beneath them appear bigger. But the real advantage comes in the camera. If you called up your camera app using the double-click feature described above (as opposed to scrolling and calling up a feature-rich camera app like Snapture), then chances are the photo opportunity is fleeting. A three-finger double tap can zoom in on the subject.
Hold for Voice Activation
What to do: Hold the home button down until voice control activates. Then you can issue voice commands such as calling someone or playing a certain song.
Why it's important: Searching for contacts and numbers while driving is a recipe for disaster, not to mention maybe illegal. Voice commands keep you safer on the road.
Double-Tap Safari
What to do: When surfing the Web on Safari, it's hard to read text and view images on the tiny screen. If you're using two fingers to expand the content, our hunch is that you've probably just bought your iPhone. Instead, double tap the text or pictures to fit the screen. Double tap again to return to normal.
Why it's important: Web surfing and content consumption is a lot easier and less frustrating than constantly having to pinch and reverse pinch. Your fingers will thank you, too.
Voice and Data
What to do: You've seen it in the Apple and AT&T ads. When on a voice call, you can put the call in speaker mode and then hit the home button to access other apps. It's one of the key selling points--voice and data at the same time--of the iPhone.
Why it's important: At first, it might seem odd to multi-task during a call. After a while, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Tom Kaneshige is a senior writer for CIO.com in Silicon Valley. Send him an email at tkaneshige@cio.com. Or follow him on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline.
Copyright (c) 2010, IDG News Service. All rights reserved. IDG News Service is a trademark of International Data Group, Inc.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/03/02/urnidgns852573C400693880002576DA008301A2.DTL#ixzz0iKIwoI0j
21 January 2010
Use Better Tools to be a Better Student in 2010 [Students]
Use Better Tools to be a Better Student in 2010 [Students]: "
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Despite the proliferation of laptops and netbooks, the vast majority of students still use their computers like $500 typewriters. Stop working so hard and start being a better student by leveraging computer-based tools to your advantage.
Photo by Brad K..
For the last several semesters I have been informally tracking how my college freshman use their computers. I always assumed that my students were using their computers to their full potential to help them with school, research, and such, but almost all of them were simply using their laptops as extremely expensive typewriters and instant-messaging terminals.
What good is all the computing power of the pre-1960s world sitting on your lap if you're not using it to make life easier? The following is a guide for students every where that want spend less time on the tedious and more time on the things like study and research that actually produce results.
Never Do Anything Your Computer Can Do For You:
Never, ever, do something the hard way without checking to see if any easy way exists. Applications come in every shape and form to automate tasks on the computer. Never undertake a tedious task on your computer without first visiting a search engine and searching for a method of automating it. Whether you're resizing photos for a class project, renaming files, or crunching numbers in a spreadsheet, check for the simple—and automatic!—way first. Photo by striatic.
File Renamers: Renaming tons of files has to be one of the most boring and grinding tasks you can undertake. Never waste time renaming files. If you're on a PC, check out the powerful Bulk Rename Utility for a dashboard of options and the less-overwhelming but still effective Ken Rename. If you're on a Mac you can download specialty apps like File List, but it pays to become acquainted with Automator which can do so much more than simple file renaming.
Text Replacement: Unless you're writing the next great American novel, chances are you type a fair number of things with a high degree of frequency. Your email address, common phrases you use, formatting you find yourself typing over and over again when working on papers or taking notes, and so on, it might not seem like much but you can easily save hours over the course of a semester by using text replacement. How does text replacement work? Each text replacement tool handles things a little bit differently but the nearly all of them have two basic methods: instant replacement and hot keys.
With replacement you tell your computer to replace every instance of a string with another string—like notes1 becomes your favorite bullet-list format for taking notes or mymail becomes your full email address. Hot keys allow you to assign a phrase to a bit of shorthand plus a hotkey, for example I have a phrase that is XXX+TAB which is four key strokes but it types out a phrase that would require 53 keystrokes if I typed it manually.
If you're on a PC you can try out our home-grown text replacement tool Texter, or other capable tools like Phrase Express. Mac users should check out TextExpander or become more familiar with the built in text-replacement tools in Snow Leopard., and Linux users can give AutoKey a whirl.
Regardless of what you're trying to do you'll almost always be able to find a tool online to automate or at least make that task easier. Get in the habit of always asking yourself, no matter what the task, 'Could the computer do this faster and with less input from me?'. Over time you'll build up a set of tools for quickly completing common tasks.
Keyboard Shortcuts: Learn the keyboard shortcuts for everything: your wordprocessor, your note-taking tools, your email client. Slinging the mouse around for tasks that can be accomplished with a keystroke or two is a really inefficient way to work. Worse than inefficient, it's slow. If you're furiously taking down notes in class do you really want to break your stride to dig around in the toolbar or menus for something? You can find shortcut lists for every operating system and application under the sun, hit up Google with a search query like 'myapplication shortcut list' to find more shortcuts than you new existed. Photo by John A. Ward.
Take Better Notes:
Note taking is an art form and it is most definitely not simply writing down everything your professor says or that is in bold print in your textbook. How you take notes is a highly personal thing and heavily influenced by your learning style, but everyone can stand to improve their note taking with a tip or two. Photo by D'Arcy Norman.
Study Note-Taking Techniques: We've shared tips with you on how to take more effective notes and how to utilize different note-taking styles and you'll find no shortage of resources elsewhere on the web for being a more effective note-taker. You can further hone your note-taking skills by researching subject-specific note taking techniques—how you take notes in Medieval Literature won't be the same way you take notes in Organic Chemistry.
Ditch the Pen:
People who love to take handwritten notes love to take handwritten notes and we don't epect to dissuade the everything-looks-better-on-Moleskin crowd from abandoning their pens. For the rest of you, taking paper notes is, quite literally, so last century. It's 2010 and there is no reason for you not to have dynamic, media-rich, cross-indexed, and always available notes. At the end of the semester do you really want to pick through a hundred pages of hand written notes looking for information? No, you don't. You want to be able to search through your notes quickly and efficiently the same way you use major search engines like Google.
Two extremely popular note-taking tools are Microsoft OneNote and Evernote—so popular in fact we faced them off in a reader poll last year. The awesome features of the two applications are beyond the scope of a paragraph but suffice to say they both have excellent systems for searching (with handwriting recognition!), organizing, and accessing your notes—I use OneNote for everything from graduate school to teaching to writing for Lifehacker. You can check out our overview of OneNote here and Evernote here.
Use the Computer to Network:
We're not talking about Facebooking everyone in your class—although that could be useful—we're talking about actively using online study and collaboration tools to interact with your classmates. Sharing notes, discussing assignments and class topics, and collaborating on group projects are but a few of the ways you can take advantage of the hyper-connectivity the information age has brought about. Photo by krossbow.
Share Your Notes:The first objection I usually hear to the idea of sharing notes is that people don't want to share their hard work and they don't think that other people should benefit from it. Fair enough, how you deal with who participates in your class-centered groups and note sharing sessions is your business but as an instructor I can tell you this: the kind of person who doesn't bother to take their own notes isn't exactly the kind of person you're going to have to fight for the top grade in the class.
You can share notes and collaborate in quite a few ways but it would help your cause to stick with methods that have a low barrier to entry—most people don't want to sign up for a bunch of services just for a class. Google Notebook and Documents are great tools since having a Gmail account is nearly universal. You could also set up your own wiki with free tools like Luminotes or customize MediaWiki into your own personal collaboration server.
Build a Contact Web: Whether it's a group on Facebook, an email list, or a list of phone numbers for text messaging, it's wise to create a way you can quickly communicate with other students. Many times you have a question about an assignment, something that happened in class, or what you missed when you were absent and sending out an email to your fellow students will result in a faster response than waiting to hear back from the professor. It also helps you build of a contact list of your peers—not as important in freshman Psychology 110 course, but by the time you're in at the end of your schooling you'll be taking more focused classes and meeting people in your career path you'll want to stay in contact with.
Backup, Backup, Backup:
You have no excuse for not backing up your data—none. The number and methods for backing up data, especially the small volume that constitutes text-based research and class notes, are so numerous that there simply is no excuse for doing something foolish like keeping all your hard work on a single hard disk or flash drive. Photo by Jeff Wilcox.
Dropbox: It's free, the basic account can more than hold a semester's worth of work—short of a film school project—and it syncs to all your computers and to the web. "I accidentally deleted my homework" wasn't a very good excuse ten years ago and it's an unforgivable one now. You can sync your passwords, your OneNote notebooks, and access your favorite portable apps from anywhere.
Online Backup: While Dropbox is great for syncing files, if you want to go all out you'll definitely want to check out some full-fledged computer backup tools like Mozy and Carbonite. Check out our Hive Five on best Windows backup tools to get more information.
Have a tool you use to enhance your note-taking, studying, or school experience? Can't believe we overlooked your favorite technique? Let's hear about it in the comments below.
Learn Proper Sushi Etiquette to Make a Good Impression [Etiquette]
Learn Proper Sushi Etiquette to Make a Good Impression [Etiquette]: "
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Like many aspects of Japanese culture, there's a certain etiquette to eating sushi. Take the time to peruse these helpful tips so you can make the best impression on your sushi chef or dining companions the next time you're downing some maki.
Collaborative blog Clusterflock says good sushi etiquette dictates you should dip only the fish portion into soy sauce, never the rice, and take care to use the blunt end of the chopsticks to take food from a shared plate. The post also asserts that sushi is meant to be eaten in a single bite, not in a succession of smaller ones.
When you're dining on the fishy treats, make sure you always mind your chopsticks:
Don't rub your chopsticks together to remove splinters. (It's rude; a good sushi bar would never offer chopsticks of such low quality.
Clusterflock claims that stirring wasabi into your soy sauce for more flavorful dunking is likewise a faux pas. Some sushi aficionados say it's perfectly acceptable, however, so if you're concerned, the safest approach is to let your tablemates be your guide. If they're busy making wasabi soup in their individual bowls of soy sauce, feel free to whip up your own batch, too.
Check out the post for more sushi etiquette dos and don'ts. What's missing from the list? Are you an outlaw that breaks these rules, or do you follow every one of them? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Sushi Etiquette [Clusterflock]
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