DeNNis HaY

If It Won't Fit On A Post-It, It Won't Fit In Your Day

2010-10-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

If It Won't Fit On A Post-It, It Won't Fit In Your Day: "

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.

Winnipeg dad dies after birthday party assault

2010-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

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."

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.

------------------

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.

Six Hidden iPhone Shortcuts

2010-03-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

(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

Verbatim robot smash

2010-01-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Use Better Tools to be a Better Student in 2010 [Students]

2010-01-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

Use Better Tools to be a Better Student in 2010 [Students]: "

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]

2010-01-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

Learn Proper Sushi Etiquette to Make a Good Impression [Etiquette]: "

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]

Google Image Swirl

2009-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

Google Image Swirl: "Google released a new Google Labs experiment related to image search: Google Image Swirl. The service 'organizes image search results based on their visual and semantic similarities and presents them in an intuitive exploratory interface.'

Google Image Swirl clusters the top image search results for more than 200,000 queries and it lets you explore the clusters and the relation between images.

'Once you find the group of images you're interested in, you can click on the thumbnail and a cluster of images will 'swirl' into view. You can then further explore additional sub-groups within any cluster. Image Swirl expands on technologies developed for Similar Images and Picasa Face Recognition to discern how images should be grouped together and build hierarchies out of these groups. Each thumbnail on the initial results page represents an algorithmically-determined representative group of images with similar appearance and meaning. These aren't just the most relevant images — they are the most relevant groups of images,' explains Google.

Try queries like: jaguar, flowers, van Gogh and keep in mind that this is an early demo, so not all the queries will return results.

Google has two other visualization tools: 'wonder wheel' for exploring related searches and YouTube Warp, an interactive way to visualize related YouTube videos.

Graph Paper Generator - PDF

2009-11-15T14:03:00.001-08:00

Not really a blog but, still very useful site for generating customized graph paper in pdf fromat.

Replenish Fluids After Exercising with a Simple Equation [Exercise]

2009-11-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

Replenish Fluids After Exercising with a Simple Equation [Exercise]: "

It's important to keep hydrated before, during, and after a workout, but if you're not satisfied with conventional 'until you're not thirsty' wisdom, Men's Health explains how to calculate how much you need to drink to replenish your fluids.

Photo by shrff14.

According to the post, you should ideally start drinking water or comparable liquids at least 15 minutes prior to exercising and around eight ounces of water for every 20 minutes spent working out. It's also important to weigh yourself before and after a workout, especially where refueling after the fact is concerned. Once you've clocked your post-exercise weight, drink 16 ounces of water for every pound you've lost (you've clearly done some serious working out if you've dropped literal pounds). For example, Men's Health says that 'if you're 2 pounds lighter after an hour-long run, drink 32 ounces more before or during your next run.'

And if you're not sure whether coffee, juices, and other liquids will help you refuel as well as water, get to know these four debunked hydration myths.

Drink Up: How to Replace the Liquids You're Sweating Out [Men's Health]

Eddie Rickenbacker

2009-11-07T03:15:00.000-08:00

Eddie Rickenbacker: "'Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.'"

Customize MediaWiki into Your Ultimate Collaborative Web Site [Mediawiki]

2009-11-07T03:07:00.000-08:00

Customize MediaWiki into Your Ultimate Collaborative Web Site [Mediawiki]: "

The free MediaWiki software is best known for powering Wikipedia, but you don't have to be writing an encyclopedia to put it to good use. Extend, skin, and customize MediaWiki to create any kind of easy-to-update, collaborative web site.

When and Why MediaWiki?

MediaWiki is arguably the most advanced, install-it-yourself, free wiki package available. A wiki is an editable web site; you can change each page's content without having to log into a content management system like WordPress or access the server via FTP or other means—you just hit the edit button. While MediaWiki is built for public web sites that anyone can update, like Wikipedia, you can customize it to limit access to certain users. Like WordPress and Firefox, MediaWiki is extendable via plug-ins that add functionality. MediaWiki is also skinnable, which means your wiki can sport a custom theme so it doesn't look just like Wikipedia.

MediaWiki's greatest strengths are that it makes web site pages extremely easy to update, and it makes managing page changes by multiple users very easy as well. So, while you could use MediaWiki to publish your own personal web site where you're the only author, MediaWiki really shines when you're co-authoring with another person or group, or if you have an editor reviewing text on a site who needs to make quick corrections and changes. MediaWiki is also very good at structuring large amounts of text with simple markup. For example, MediaWiki automatically creates on-page, hierarchical outlines based on page sections (shown here) with links that point directly to those sections (even if they're midway down the page). Whether you're co-writing your NaNoWriMo novel, setting up a company intranet, or just want an easy-to-update web site, MediaWiki fits the bill.

Recently, Adam and I used MediaWiki to write, publish, and expand a book-in-progress using MediaWiki. Check it out to get a feel for what a non-Wikipedia web site using MediaWiki can look like.

MediaWiki Installation and Basic Usage

To use MediaWiki, you'll need a web server with PHP and MySQL available and some experience installing web applications. If you've installed WordPress before, you'll have no problem installing MediaWiki. To do some of the customizations below, you'll have to be comfortable adding files to your installation, doing some light PHP file editing, and in the case of skins, know how to tweak HTML and CSS to get your skin to look how you want.

Back in 2006, we covered how to install MediaWiki and that article still stands up. (However, you can't go wrong getting instructions from the horse's mouth—here are MediaWiki's latest installation instructions.) If you don't want to deal with the hassle of setting up a web server with PHP and MySQL and MediaWiki, check out the quick-setup BitNami installer for MediaWiki.

Once MediaWiki's installed, you can start adding and editing pages to your wiki. Wiki pages aren't made of HTML like regular pages, they're made of special wiki markup. Here's a rundown of the most common bits of wiki markup you'll need to know. To see wiki markup in action, hit the play button to watch a five-minute screencast demonstrating how to edit and create pages ('chapters') of a novel in MediaWiki.

MediaWiki Skins

Out of the box, MediaWiki comes with the look and feel you're so used to from Wikipedia; this MediaWiki skin is called MonoBook, and it's popular and immediately recognizable. However, if you log into your MediaWiki installation and click on preferences, and then the Skins tab, you can dress up your wiki in various other looks. With a little elbow grease, you can also create your own custom skin and assign it as the default to the wiki.

All your wiki's skin files are located in the /path-to-your-wiki/skins/ directory, where 'path-to-your-wiki' is the directory where MediaWiki is installed. A skin is made up of a single PHP file, and a directory with its CSS files and images. For example, a skin called 'My Great Skin' will consist of /path-to-your-wiki/skins/MyGreatSkin.php and /path-to-your-wiki/skins/mygreatskin. Unlike WordPress, you have to update your skin files by hand on your MediaWiki server. Be sure to back up your entire working installation before you start, just in case something goes wrong.

Newbie MediaWiki skin developers would do well to start with a copy of the MonoBook skin files and modify them. WikiHow (another MediaWiki-based site!) offers a simple tutorial on how to do that: How to Create a MediaWiki Skin Based on the MonoBook Skin. You can always preview a skin in your user Preferences->Skins area as you develop to make sure things look how you want. The (X)HTML markup for your skin will be located in its .php file and the CSS files will be located in the skin's folder. Be sure to save any skin-specific images in the skin's folder as well.

Once your skin development is complete, you want to set it as the default for everyone who looks at your wiki, whether or not they're logged in. To do so, in /path-to-your-wiki/LocalSettings.php, set the $wgDefaultSkin variable to to the name of your custom skin and refresh your wiki.

MediaWiki Extensions

Like WordPress, MediaWiki is an extensible web application, and several MediaWiki plug-ins that add functionality to MediaWiki are available for free. Unlike WordPress, MediaWiki extensions require manually copying files into your MediaWiki installation directory and hand-editing the LocalSettings.php file.

Three MediaWiki extensions you may find useful include:

The EmbedVideo extension helps you include a YouTube, Google Video, Dailymotion, or Revver video clip into your wiki pages.
The Cite extension makes creating page footnotes (ala Wikipedia) easy.
The WhosOnline extension shows what users are currently logged into your wiki.

These three extensions are just the beginning. See MediaWiki's list of extensions by category for more.

To install an extension, download its zip file and extract it to the /path-to-your-wiki/extensions/ directory. Then, in your LocalSettings.php file, add a line that includes the extension file. For example, to activate the Cite extension, you'd use the line require_once('$IP/extensions/Cite/Cite.php');. (Each extension's homepage will provide the line of code you'll need to install it, and how to use the extension once it is installed.)

MediaWiki User Permissions

The primary purpose of a wiki is to give anyone the ability to edit its pages, but MediaWiki is customizable enough that you can limit that access if you're concerned about vandalism, or if you want only certain users to be able to change content.

For example, MediaWiki comes with a mechanism to register users, so people can create an account at your wiki and log in. This comes in handy if you want to restrict edit access to only people who are logged into your wiki. Likewise, you can 'protect' pages on your wiki and grant only certain users 'editprotected' page access.

To set your MediaWiki user permissions, you have to edit the LocalSettings.php file. For example, to disable the ability for anyone who visits your wiki to edit its pages, create pages, or add to talk pages, use this code:

$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false; $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createtalk'] = false; $wgGroupPermissions['*']['createpage'] = false;

Above, the * represents all users.

A default group called 'user' refers to visitors who have created an account and logged into your wiki. To give them edit privileges, add the following to your LocalSettings.php file:

$wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = true;

You can even restrict edit access only to users who have created an account AND verified their email address with this code in LocalSettings.php:

# Disable for everyone. $wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false; # Disable for users, too: by default 'user' is allowed to edit, even if '*' is not. $wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = false; # Make it so users with confirmed e-mail addresses are in the group. $wgAutopromote['emailconfirmed'] = APCOND_EMAILCONFIRMED; # Hide group from user list. $wgImplicitGroups[] = 'emailconfirmed'; # Finally, set it to true for the desired group. $wgGroupPermissions['emailconfirmed']['edit'] = true;

MediaWiki's user rights scheme is complex but deeply customizable. See the Manual's User Rights page for a full list of rights, default groups, and how to create your own groups with custom access privileges.

More MediaWiki Customization Fun

This overview of skins, extensions, and user permissions is just a broad look at what's possible in the world of MediaWiki customization. Here are links to a few more common tweaks you might make to your wiki:

Set your logo image: If you're using MonoBook or another skin that uses a wiki logo, set it to your custom image.
Prettify your wiki URLs: By default, MediaWiki's page URLs look like /index.php?title=Your_Page, but an .htaccess file tweak can make them look like Wikipedia's clean /wiki/Your_Page links.
Set a custom Main Page: If 'Main Page' isn't the first two words you want your wiki's visitors to see, you can move the Main Page to a custom page you create and name.
Use MediaWiki templates for reusable modules: If you use repetitive page elements, like an image with a caption formatted a certain way, set up a MediaWiki template for easy reuse.
Make your wiki read-only with $wgReadOnly: To disable editing on all pages across the board on your wiki, set the $wgReadOnly variable to an explanatory string in your LocalSettings.php file. For example, the line $wgReadOnly = 'Wiki locked for maintenance'; will disable editing of all pages, and display that message to anyone who tries to edit a page.

What are your favorite MediaWiki customizations, extensions, or skins? Share 'em in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, is very excited to finally co-author a book for real using MediaWiki. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

http://completewaveguide.com/guide/Get_Started_with_Wave#

How to be a STUDYING JUGGERNAUT

2009-10-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

The purpose for writing this entry is that hopefully you find something in here useful and maybe I can save you some time as you can learn from my mistakes.

I have dyslexia and have struggled with it for most of my life. As an adult it's lasting impact was to make it very hard for me to read and comprehend information. This in itself isn't a terrible thing, all it means is that for every hour a normal person reads it will take me about 2-3 times as long to get the same information from material. So I have had to learn to be very efficient at what I spend my time on or just not bother. My weakness was always reading, studying and test writing, my natural strength has been hands on knowledge. I have a very acute three dimensional perception and understanding of objects if I can take something apart and get my hands on it. For me studying was very hard. At one point I had someone tell me that all I knew how to do was write exams and was only book smart ... it wasn't meant as a compliment but I took it as one and figured I must be doing something right :)

I feel very happy with my progress studying lately. Two of the biggest hurtles for me has been to:

keep from cramming before writing papers and
retain the information after I have written an paper.

Like allot of people who are writing power engineering papers, I would setup an exam date then plan for the studying, usually cramming the last couple of weeks before exam. After the exam would loose most of the knowledge gained from cramming until the next time I wrote an exam similar and had to re-learn the information once again.

I wasn't happy with this way of studying for exams but didn't have any real way to change my approach up until now. Knowing about reviewing periodically and all the other studying bits of knowledge didn't really help me get focused enough at the start to make me take advantage of spacing out my studying.

By starting early and spacing out studying for my next exam I will avoid cramming and retain the information. Ideally I want to be able to not study extra at all for the exam but rather just go in for the exam on exam date.

How am I doing this? By making up study flash cards from the material right away, then using a modified Leitner approach, spacing out repetitions based on how confident I am with my answer. Following some simple steps that work very well done on a daily basis:

My body is my temple

I have found that studying is a very intense thing to do, which tends to increase stress greatly so have found that if I make sure I am well rested, have eaten and exercised I don't get bogged down as easily.

One key is to study right after exercising, John Ratey has stated that the brain is more capable of learning right after exercise up to 2-3 hours depending on the intensity. Weight training tends to increase growth of new cells and intense cardio solidifies the new cells and information that was associated with learning. Ideally a cardio exercise that involves using deterity and not just a droning treadmill, elliptical etc.

REVIEWING Previous Cards according to date due (for warm up)

Essentially these are long term cards that I know but come up for review on a regular basis. The schedule depends on the confidence I have in the card. Essentially for every right answer (e^(4 * % correct * % of 5) )* 1.7 . If a card is incorrect I review it the next day, if not it is delayed by so many days. The more right and more times asked the longer the delay. The idea is to use a leitner type study system.

These cards have been asked before and are usually correct the last time.

REVIEW previous DAYS new flashcards to solidify new material

Memorized the card by looking at the card and writing down everything I can without looking at the back.... a formula sheet can be used as this will be memorized as well. Look at back of card to see if correct, make note of any errors quickly then repeat. Make sure not to have any answers visible and write down answer again quickly after looking. Do this until the card can be written out without error. If I am having problems remembering then draw on the back/highlight words etc, anything to make more sense of the information.

If done right the basic knowledge will have been digested overnight so remembering it will be allot easier.

Learn NEW cards - usually no more than 10-15 cards

This is done only while my mind is fresh. Walk through the information step by step making sure to understand each piece of information and why it is on the card. Make notes on the back, highlight etc to make more sense of the information.

Don't even try to memorize the information, just make sure it all makes sense. I only do a max of 10-15 new cards. Depending on how detailed they are it could be only 5-6. It really depends on how fresh I am and if I am getting frustrated.

STOP when things stop making sense

Reducing stress greatly improves learning and retention, so if I am getting frustrated I know I will be undoing any learning I do, so I quit for the day.

SPACE out repetitions to prevent overload and retain information

This is done using the review step, but to me this was the hardest step to do as it involves prior planning and daily review in small amounts to prevent cramming before an exam and forgetting after the exam.

I accidentally found out that If I took new cards one day, went over them till I understood them but didn't try to memorize them, then the next day set to memorizing them that I could digest much more new information than I had before and not be stressed about learning. This opened my eyes to spreading this system out over time and eventually, feeling confident that I would know all the information before exam.

The last exam I wrote, I crammed ... but had started this process and saw how well it worked I wanted to start right away for the next exam and test my theory.

So instead of procrastinating about studying then at the last minute cramming I have started a daily routine that is very manageable and with luck will allow me to not have to cram (I really don't want to do any cram type review before the exam) and hopefully be able to keep the info after.

As for the mechanics of the cards I use google docs to enter correct or not correct answers using a form to spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is set up to dynamically compile all the information on all the answers as I go so when I enter an new question it is part of the system without having to pre-program question numbers. This leaves it very flexible. The forms are pre-populated with current time and question number for review. As well all notes, questions, and forms have links for easy data entry. Essentially leaving me with only worrying about making flash cards and answering them. If I am away from the internet, I print off a list of questions and enter them when i get back.

As for the cards I use FastStone Capture to directly clip images of the question/answer into word using a full page per question split in the middle and exported to PDF for printing / reference online. I print off a copy and leave one on google docs linked to spreadsheet.

The cards are kept in sequential order since I review them based on when they are due on the spreadsheet.

I use a presentation folder to keep notes/formula sheets in as these have no rings, have a hard plastic cover and clear plastic pages to insert full page sheets of paper inside. Very compact and clean.

As for notes I use the cornel system for taking notes from books/lectures etc then summarize on one page each chapter / topic using mind mapping. The key is to keep only key points on mindmap and similar to the formula sheets only basic information. The idea is to draw associations with other items not to fully explain, that is done on the cornel sheets. Placing the cornel sheets behind the mindmap in the presentation folder so that only mindmaps are showing on one side keeps it simple and clean when reviewing.

When I study a card I write out the full answer, if it is a problem type question I do every step as if it were my answer on the exam. This way I am in the habit of writing out full questions.

I hope that this has been helpful

Google Wave First Look [Screenshot Tour]

2009-09-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Google Wave First Look [Screenshot Tour]: "

If you're not one of the 100,000 lucky users who gets an invitation to Google Wave today, don't fret. You can check out Google Wave right here.

But first, ground rules. Click on all images in this post to see it full size. Uppercase 'Wave' refers to the entire Google Wave product. Lowercase 'wave' refers to an individual message or document. Think of a lowercase wave like an email or a Google Doc that you're collaborating on with other people. The screenshots in this post are from the Wave developer preview, not wave.google.com, invites to which are going out today. We'll update this post with anything significantly new in the non-preview version when we get our grubby little paws on the proper server invitation.

Ready? Let's go.

Inside Google Wave

When you log into Wave, the default view is a three-column, 4-module layout. From left to right, the first column includes Navigation on top (think of this as your Inbox, Sent, and labels in Gmail) and Contacts below (think of this as your GTalk buddy list). The second column is the list of active waves in your Inbox, and the third column is where you can start a new wave or open a wave.

Here's what it looks like. (Click to enlarge.)

When someone updates a wave in your inbox, it turns bold and moves to the top of your inbox—just like email. If a contact of yours is online, a little green dot appears on on his or her icon.

All the modules are collapsible and dock themselves in the upper part of the screen. If you've collapsed your inbox and a new wave gets updated, it flashes green. Here I've clicked on new wave and minimized all the other modules to expand my workspace. (Click to enlarge.)

You can add all sorts of rich content to your wave, like a YouTube video, Google Map, image, links, or anything that a gadget enables. (More on gadgets below.) Here I've added some colored text and embedded a video clip in my wave. (Click to enlarge.)

When I finish typing and click the Done button on my wave, Wave pops up the 'Add participants' module so I can share my wave with anyone on my contacts list. You can search for a contact by name, or just drag and drop anyone to the wave you choose. (Click to enlarge.)

Once you've shared a wave, the magic starts to happen. At first you'll swoon over the ability to watch your co-waver type in real-time. It's weird in a good, we're-living-in-the-future way to see another person's cursor hard at work outputting characters, key by key on your own screen. But you get over that novelty pretty quickly. (Most likely your IM client can do that; anyone who's used collaborative editors like SubEthaEdit have seen this as well.)

You can reply to an entire wave like an IM or an email by clicking the reply button on a wave's toolbar. But what's most cool is the ability to reply to bits of a message inline. This lets you and your collaborators annotate the wave as you go.

For example, I gave a talk about Wave here in San Diego, and prepared my talk notes in a wave. At the beginning, I did an audience survey to gauge the level of experience with Wave-like technology. I was able to insert replies to the questions in Wave as I went. (Even better would have been to have a co-presenter or note-taker do that for me.)

You can collapse or expand inline comments easily. Here's what the talk wave looks like with comments collapsed. Notice the small talk bubbles on the top Audience survey section. (Click to enlarge.)

Here's what that same wave looks like with inline comments expanded. (Click to enlarge.)

Your replies inside or to a wave can also be marked as private; so if Jack and Jill and I are collaborating on a wave and Jill wants to tell me something about Jack in-wave that Jack shouldn't see, she can click on the drop-down on the upper right of a wave and choose 'Private Reply' as shown. (Click to enlarge.)

Once you've entered your private reply, Wave prompts you to add participants to just that reply. That's because every reply is a wave in and of itself. You can create a new wave from any reply or copy a wave to a new wave, too.

Besides real-time updates, other 'holy crap' feature of Google Wave is wave revision playback. If someone adds you to a wave late in the game, after lots of conversation and annotation has already happened, you can click on the playback button to see how it was constructed over time. Think of this like a slideshow through Wikipedia page revisions. Here's a quick video clip of what playback looks like on a wave I was in on this morning.

Just like Gmail, Google Wave offers powerful advanced search operators, wave tagging, file uploads (though those are wonky for me in the dev preview), and saved searches. In addition to tags, Wave also offers folder. Folders! The interface is completely drag-and-drop: you can grab any wave and drag it to the trash or a folder.

Wave Extensions: Gadgets and Robots

Wave is a completely extensible platform, like Firefox. Wave extensions come in two flavors: gadgets and robots.

A gadget is a piece of rich content that you can add to a wave. A few example gadgets are available in the Gadget gallery.

Click on the puzzle piece on a wave's toolbar to add a gadget to the wave. One useful gadget is the 'Who is Coming?' gadget that lets you invite folks to an event and get RSVPs quickly and easily.

The most useful gadget I've seen so far is the Ribbit conference call gadget. Add it to a wave, and everyone adds their phone number to it. (You only see your own number, not everyone else's.) Click the "Start Conference" button, and everyone's phone rings—and you're on the phone, while you collaborate on a wave. (Click to enlarge.)

For more on the Ribbit Wave gadget, check out Rafe Needleman's review.

Robots are email addresses that you add to your contact list. Then, when you are in need of their services, you add a bot to a wave so they can perform some action on its contents. A robot can modify the contents of a wave, and several already exist that do silly to useful actions.

For example, Eliza the Robot Shrink (elizarobot@appspot.com) will chat with you about anything—useful when you're the only one of your friends who has a Wave invite and you've no one to talk to.

More usefully, the Bloggy bot (blog-wave@appspot.com) will publish a wave onto a Blogger blog for you. For example, I have Bloggy in my contacts, and added it to my Wave talk wave as shown here. Notice the 'Bloggy published this wave here' message in yellow at the top of the wave. (Click to enlarge.)

Click on the 'here' link and you go to my test Wave blog, which gets the contents of that wave on it. (Click to enlarge.)

If another Wave user happens upon that blog post, s/he can comment on it in-blog, and those new updates will show up in my Wave client. Right now, you have to be logged into Wave to see blogged content; but that won't always be the case. Google is working on making published Wave content read-only for all users, even those not logged into Wave.

Polly the Pollster (polly-wave@appspot.com) is another extremely useful bot which lets you create and distribute polls to survey wave collaborators quickly.

Other bots do things like automatically link Twitter usernames to their Twitter page, clean up empty replies (which proliferate quickly for some reason), and insert stock quotes. I expect we'll see tons more gadgets and bots bloom over the next year. Here are some more featured Wave extensions, courtesy of Google.

But What Will We Use Google Wave For?

The most frequent question I get about Google Wave is: "But what would I use it for?" Personally I can't wait to use it to take meeting minutes collaboratively and to co-write documents like blog posts and articles online with my editors and co-conspirators. Instead of using something like Campfire or IRC to chat with my fellow Lifehacker editors, I could see using Wave as group chat—but with inline and private replies, which are key.

Right now, like all collaboration tools, Wave is only as good as how many of the people you work (and play) with have it. Even though I was one of the developers touched by an angel, with access to the preview, I didn't actually use Wave very much because almost zero of my actual friends and co-workers were on it. So as far as I can see, uses for Wave in your life will open up as the product itself opens up to more users who care enough to wrap their heads around it and start putting valuable information in it.

If you're more of a moving-pictures learner, Google's new Wave overview video nicely illustrates some of the features I've highlighted above.

Got questions about Google Wave? Post 'em up in the comments, and we'll answer what we can.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker's founding editor, is trying to resist a bad Wave pun. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Wolfenstein PS3 - awesome :)

2009-09-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujycthb4B8E

watching UFC IN edmonton with my woman :)

2009-09-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

-- Posted from my iPhone

Resume - Dennis Hay

2009-09-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

RESUME - Dennis Hay
dennishay [at] mac.com 250 500 1788
Box 2465 - 4205 51st Ave East, Fort Nelson, BC V0C 1R0

Second Class Power Engineer (paper 1A3 and 1A2 on first class)

2007 - 2010 Shift Engineer (Spectra Energy, Fort Nelson Gas Plant)
Along with operating as powerhouse operator, following responsibilities: maintaining plant operation in environmental limits (emissions and effluent), vacation scheduling, employee work scheduling, safety meetings, time cards, material requisitioning, overtime meal orders, filing, work scheduling, employee training, mutual trades. Responsible for updating and publishing Safe Work Procedures for Fort Nelson Gas Plant.

2004 - 2007 Powerhouse Operator (Spectra Energy, Fort Nelson Gas Plant)
Operate water treatment (hot lime softener, sodium zeolite water softener, Activated Sludge Effluent treatment), boiler operation (3 Babcock and Wilcox Power for Industry Boilers operating at 700 k/lb/hr total @ 450#), Power Generation (4 Turbo Alternators, 4160V, 480V & 13.8KV switchgear), Effluent Plant for gas plant (Activated sludge 800 m^3/day), Sulphur Plant (modified Claus, Sulphreen, Thermal oxidizers@ 850 T/day sulphur). OFA level 3 First Aid.

2002 - 2004 Chief Engineer (Canfor - Polarboard OSB, Fort Nelson )
As well as operating as below also responsible for training, permitting, work orders, safety tours, communicating with Boilers Branch, participated as northern representative on regulation review on BC safety regulations. Created job safety analysis for all positions at Polarboard. Responsible for team safety audit of other Canfor mills (Fiberco, Uneeda, Polarboard).OFA level 3 First Aid.

1995 - 2002 Operator (Canfor - Polarboard OSB, Fort Nelson )
Operated Wellons wood combustor, Electrified filter bed (emmission control), wafer dryers, thermal oil system and fines screening (2564 m^2 surface area), wax resin area, warehouse and OFA level 3 First Aid.

1995 Forest firefighter (Initial Attack, Fort Nelson)

1987 - 1994 Infantry (Canadian Scottish Regiment - Port Alberni)

1985- 1994 Forest firefighter (Unit crew, Port Alberni)

Google Fast Flip

2009-09-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

Google Fast Flip: "Google Labs has been very active lately. The most recent service launched in Google Labs is Fast Flip, a visual version of Google News that encourages serendipitous discoveries.

'Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting,' explains Krishna Bharat, the man behind Google News.

The homepage shows thumbnails of the news articles and clicking on the thumbnail loads a screenshot of the article. You can't read the entire article in Google Fast Flip, so you need to visit the original source. The service shows articles from a small number of sources, including BBC News, New York Times, Newsweek and Slate.

The nice thing is that you can quickly go to the next preview by clicking on the blue right arrow or by using the right-arrow key. The service provides recommendation based on the articles you read, you email or explicitly like. There's also a mobile version optimized for iPhone and Android phones.

Frank Chimero: 10 Principles That May Make Your Work Better or May Make It Worse

2009-09-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

10 Principles That May Make Your Work Better or May Make It Worse

This article was originally written for Antonio Carusone’s wonderful site Aisle One. It can be read in its original resting place here.

I hate the word “tip.” It implies that there’s something that you don’t know. Some secret little gem that, when sprinkled on your work, your creative process, your diet, or your sex life will magically make it all better. They promise to make all of it effervescent, and float above everything, defying gravity above all those poor folks who didn’t happen to stumble upon Dumbo’s magic feather like you did.

Tips are easy. And shallow. Principles, though, now that’s something worth talking about. If tips are puddles, principles can be oceans. They can be deep enough to hold intrepid adventures, yet tame enough to provide a significant bounty to nourish a creative life. They can serve as a north star and a rallying point. More than anything, they can be an inspiration. Sailors will always sing about the sea.

Antonio asked me to map my own ocean and to document a few of my guiding principles. They may be of assistance to you. They may not. But then again, it’d be a shame if we were all working off the same map, looking for the same treasure.

1. Be honest.

Be honest to your audience. An open path of communication is built upon trust. This idea is relevant to every other form of communication, and I think it applies to visual communication. Honesty isn’t just about audience. Be honest to yourself as well. Do the things you’re passionate about. Avoid the things that you hate, if you can.

2. Consistent voice is more important than consistent style.

Voice is about what you say. It’s content. Style is about what you’re wearing. It’s aesthetics. The prior informs the latter, not the other way around. Clothes don’t make the man. They don’t make your work either.

3. Does it have heart?

If it does, make it. If it doesn’t, why spend the time on something that doesn’t have spirit?

4. Have modest expectations.

Spend a lot of time choosing that one thing that a piece of design or an illustration should try to do. Then, work your ass off trying to figure out the absolute best way to do that one thing.

5. Don’t be scared of your tools.

Use them, don’t fear them. For instance, while sketching, I recommend using cheap paper. If the paper’s cheap, you won’t feel bad documenting your bad ideas. Getting the first, awful ideas out of the way is crucial: very rarely does any one hit it out of the park on the first try. If I had a sketchbook filled with nice, expensive paper, I’d feel obligated to make the first idea I sketched brilliant. That pressure would paralyze me. Tools should be enablers, not disablers. If something is more intrusive or intimidating than it is useful, get rid of it. It’s not a tool, it’s a toy. Or worse, a creative boogie man that you’re inviting through your front door.

6. Embrace the subconscious.

In the studio, I have a sofa for naps with a couple pillows. The pillow is kind of comfortable, but mostly not. Just soft enough to relax you. But, just stiff enough to keep you from falling fully asleep. Right before you fall fully asleep, your brain is making all sorts of connections between all of the unrelated thoughts in your brain. There’s no filter from your conscious mind saying “This makes sense. This other idea doesn’t.” Without that filter, you can consider more possibilities. So, grab something to write with, fill your head to the brim with research and what you already know. Then, take an almost-nap and get ready to document the ideas that find you.

7. Edit.

Delete unimportant things. Even if you love them. If it isn’t spectacular, it gets cut. Kill your darlings. Be a cold-blooded killer. Ruthless. Delete. Refine. Improve

8. Being too comfortable is dangerous.

Most creatures die in their sleep. Keep moving, or get eaten. The only things you should be absolutely comfortable with in your creative process are your tools.

9. There is nothing keeping you from doing the sort of work that you wish.

What do you want? It’s a hard, yet crucial question. We all do creative work to get happy. It’s why we let it beat us up, and it’s why we keep crawling back to it. Figure out precisely what you want, and realize that if no one will pay you to make it, you can still make it for yourself. And you still win, because you’re happy.

10. Execute.

An idea on the page is worth 100x more than an idea in the mind. You can only judge and be judged by work that’s executed. Eventually, we all realize that most of the ideas that look great in our mind look dumb once they’re real. But, at least you now know.

Get any book for free

2009-09-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

Fort Nelson Public Library, just get a library card and you can request any book they have or any book they can get access too .. all the way to vancouver.

First Class Power Engineering Syllabus

2009-09-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Trying out the embedding ability of google docs to view a pdf. What I would like to share is my flashcards but embedded.

CURRENT WORKOUT

2009-08-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

I will be using this as a work-around for the iPhone since it can't display items in the background an will re-post/renew any forms that have data entered... essentially allowing me to load this page, see my workout and enter each exercise as I complete it.

Periodic workouts using google forms/spreadsheets

2009-08-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

From Blogger Pictures

Using Google Docs spreadsheet forms to collect data and submit to google spreadsheet was able to collect random entries, display last reps/weight for five sets and then using Michael Galloy's Dashboard Widget formula to calculate 1 RM and using a formula using natural log for growth and decay was able to determine next workout RM given goal RM and date expected.

Taking things a bit further incorporated in a min/max reps per set and next highest 5lb weight to make minimum of desired next set RM from reps/weight.

Variable workout period in days, which changes the RM and in turn the weight according to Reps.

Incorporated a way to select what to workout and ultimately Next workout with date/reps/weight and ultimate max RM...

Allot of work, but making a very simple process of looking at next exercise and then using google forms to enter it.. simple :)

Using Google Docs spreadsheet forms to collect data

Calories Burned during exercise - calculator

2009-08-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

The interesting thing about this activity calculator is it does VO2 max and MET equivalent as well.

Alaska Highway Bed & Breakfast

2009-08-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

This our Bed and Breakfast site... if you have any questions please call :)

iTunes podcast smart playlist

2009-08-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

I listen to podcasts on a regular basis, and found that iTunes is missing an easy way to collect all my new / unlistened podcasts in one place. That is why I made this smart playlist.

Update your podcasts as you would regularly. For me I have turned off automatic update, leaving it on manual as I don't always want iTunes downloading all the podcasts if I'm not going to listen to them. Some I have set to keep all and some like news podcasts only keep the latest.

I have my iPod touch set to sync the smart playlist which I call PODCASTS. I select all podcasts and select update, then when all are downloaded I sync my iPod touch. This leaves all the new podcasts in their own playlist sorted by length (shortest first). That way I get through the news first as they are usually 5-10 min max.

If I am working around the house I will sync my iPod shuffle by dragging all the podcasts into the shuffle library for the same effect.

I have found that I had to separate the video / audio podcasts so made another smart playlist exactly the same that has 'video' instead of 'audio' as final criteria.

Hope this is useful... I know it has saved me allot of time, especially when I just want to go outside and work on a project... I don't seem to have much patience at that point :)

FlightAware Fort Nelson Flight Info

2009-08-15T07:38:00.001-07:00

I found this site very useful ... not just for Fort Nelson flights :)

UTC/PST CLOCK

2009-08-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

UTC

LOCAL

Online time converter.

Flight info for Fort Nelson

Uniquely Tag Items using Day and week of the year

2009-08-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

This came about because I was trying to create a filing system that used a unique serial for items regardless of system. What I came up with was day of the year with 24 hour clock and week of the year. This is more as a solution to how do I refer back to some notes/information in the future and adding onto normal note taking styles. Pile of Index Cards or PoIC is another possible solution but find I am space limited and wanted a generic system to work on cards, email whatever.

9225:1134 This represents 225th day in 2009 at 1134, the assumption is that you won't come up with more than one item per minute (if you do the use A..B etc) but have found for all practical purposes there isn't any need to. This serial number can be referred to using any reference system and every number is unique, right from collecting your mail to thinking of something to surfing the web, email etc it all works. With indexed searching like spotlight and google desktop you can search for these terms across your files/ email etc / blog whatever. What now ties these items together is a unique number a 'key field'. If you combine index number with color coded shorties you get a simple but effective system.

9w30 30th week of 2009 .. this is used for a weekly bring forward file or tickler. Just tag something with this code and make sure you check / search for the key term on sunday or monday of the week and it will come forward as well.

The current DOY and TIME as well as WOY.

PE1A1 Thermodynamics Flashcards

2009-08-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

For the most part the questions used in Thermodyanmics are in three parts (Reed's, BCIT and PanGlobal books), for now my review is focusing on Reed's Volume 3 - Thermodyanmics and the reference numbers are for questions in that book. As there is so much material and it is all in the same book I didn't make actual flash cards but refer to questions out of the book.

Here are the actual card stats.

PE1A1 Thermodynamics Flashcard Stats

2009-08-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here is the summary spreadsheet I use to track and record flashcard stats, roughly speaking it tracks using a Leitner style study technique. The most recent is here.

Five Classic Ways to Boost Your Note-Taking [Back To School]

2009-08-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

Five Classic Ways to Boost Your Note-Taking [Back To School]: "

If your note-taking skills are suffering from summertime rigor mortis, now's as good a time as any to throw a new technique into the mix. Let's take a look at some new and old tools for improving your ballpoint repertoire.

Photo by JasonRogersFooDogGiraffeBee.

The Cornell method

This oldie is a highly-regarded, very common system that makes it especially easier to retain information. By reviewing things as you go, you might even get away with less studying.

Divide your page into two columns. The left one (which could also just be the back of the previous page in your notebook) is narrower. You're going to jot larger ideas in this column: the 5-dollar-words and big bullet points. In the right column, you're going to take down as much information as possible. The right column is allowed to be messy, have pictures and tables—it's not necessarily organized. To some students, it's just regular notes. But as you go, record the main corresponding idea in the left column.

Every so often, cover the detailed notes on the right and just examine the main points and new vocab. See how much you can recite and explain in your own words. Then remove your hand and see how you did. Depending on the teacher, you might do this during lulls in the discussion or after class.

Some versions of the Cornell system leave the last few lines on each page for summarizing the whole page. Since what's on a given page doesn't necessarily group together nicely, I don't recommend doing it. But summarizing can help you with wading through piles of pages when studying time comes.

For a more in-depth look at the Cornell method, take a look at our previous guide to taking study-worthy lecture notes.

Go visual

It's tough to enter a classroom with colored pencils and still expect your fellow students to take you seriously. But unless you try it, you'll never know if it works better for you. Forget the status-quo and try something visual. Color-code with different pens, pencils, and highlighters. You might not have seen a web-style map of ideas since elementary school, but mind-mapping is hailed as quite an efficient way to group data. It needn't even be a rigid classification system—anything is better than doodling in the margins.

Switch mediums

For how tech-savvy our generation is, I still see surprisingly few laptops in classrooms. Try it out a few times and see if you like it. Particularly, if you're the type who outlines, computers let you go back and organize information on-the-fly. Laptops also let you and your classmates AIM with real-time questions about ~~the opposite sex~~ the lecture. There are also programs made just for taking notes, sharing them, organizing them, etc. Wikipedia has a great table that compares them all, or you can take a look at Lifehacker reader's favorite note-taking tools.

On the other hand, if you already use a laptop, try the pen-and-paper route again. Let loose a bit and see how that goes. Try scribbling out mistakes and drawing arrows everywhere. Or try one of the visual techniques above, most of which are difficult on a computer.

Shorthand

Notes are probably the only place in the classroom where internet slang is commendable. Trying some new shorthand is a really geeky way to slightly tweak your engravings and get you amped about taking notes again. Here are a few resources to get you started:

A Guide to Alternative Handwriting and Shorthand Systems
Shorthand Shorthand Shorthand

My favorite method is called Teeline—anyone can look at this one and learn a few things. It's mostly based around removing unimportant letters and making complex letters easier to write quickly.

Instead of converting entirely to shorthand, you might try translating just some of your most-frequently used words into a shorthand 'language' that takes less time to write.

If you're taking notes on the computer, supercharge your repetitive typing with tools like our very own text-replacement application Texter (Windows) or TextExpander (Mac).

Don't

Oh goodness! Don't take notes? How controversial!

Well, it couldn't hurt to relax every once in a while. Especially in small classes and seminar situations, staying engaged through discussion and questions might do you better than scribbling every word.

Here's another way to avoid taking notes: Record your lectures. Digital recorders can capture hours of audio. Sit back and just listen. After class, you can play it back at double-speed and take notes in half the time. Take that, engineers!

The school-bound productivity nuts at weblog HackCollege will be joining us all week to offer their perspective on making the most of your Back to School regimen.

NIGHT SHIFT AND JET LAG - and not feeling tired

2009-08-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. - Bob Dylan -

I like getting up and doing what I want to do, not being so tired and groggy that I am falling asleep every time I sit down or not being able to remember simple things through out the day. Having a clear mind and fresh body... sometimes you can power through it but for the most part, the longer I was on nights the harder it was to get my system back onto days afterwards.

Most of us are aware the circadian rhythm controls how aware and alert you are among other things. I tried all the usual tricks, but after working nights I was left messed up... usually the second day off was the worst, hitting my wall in the afternoon. My rule was to never make major financial decision or cook with fire while on nights or right after.

There was an article Starving yourself may fend off jet lag, seemed interesting and hopeful.

Basically, by starving yourself for 14-16 hours you reset your internal clock, letting you wake up about an hour or so before that time the next day. The idea being you don't want to miss an opportunity to feed when situations change in the wilderness.

Taking that idea on my last night shift, I eat dinner at 5:30 pm work my night shift till 7:30 am without eating (just drinking liquids with not calories) and then eat a breakfast of oats, eggs, milk etc the next day after I get home about 8:30 am. I then goto sleep till 2-3 pm, get up have dinner at 5:30 PM again. Goto bed around 10-11 pm without eating anything since supper... then magically wake up before my alarm usually around 7 am.

The day I wake up I am 80-90% functional, more importantly I don't crash or power-out. What determines my alertness is more based on how much sleep I get now not how many nights I have worked.

What I find hard is not snacking at night, when I do I tend to be less alert as I think it doesn't re-enforce my rhythm.

What doesn't help is that I live in Fort Nelson which in june has almost 24 hours of light and in December has almost 24 hours of darkness...

Something I have come to realize since I have been manipulating my sleep patterns is that what my parents said was right all along.

Don't eat before you goto bed. Make sure you eat a good breakfast for a good start to the day :)

Another example of fasting that works

GIRLS ARE EVIL :)

2009-08-09T07:22:00.001-07:00

This is an old one but classic :)

ITUNES MOVIE LIST

2009-08-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

This list is an exported movie list from our itunes library, all movies are either purchased with itunes or compressed from purchased DVDs using Handbrake

Movie list can be found here.

HACK Panasonic DEH-1400 for ipod input

2009-08-08T01:40:00.001-07:00

The things we do for entertainment... we have a Panasonic DEH-1400 car stereo installed in the control room at work, which doesn't have any aux input... so if you want to play CD's or listen to our one radio station your in luck, anything else (like listen to an ipod) your SOL.

Well... we have a 36" HD TV that is good but not very loud, so the project was to install an aux input in the DEH-1400.

This involved ripping the player apart and soldering directly on the circuit board... it went well.. radio still works and now we have a sweet AUX input...

So now using my iPod touch with HD component out and aux input to the radio we have a very nice movie playing setup... the original how to is here

Solitaire City is evil

2009-08-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

I am addicted to this stupid game, and since it's on the iPod I can play it anywhere. Translation waste time anywhere :)

-- Post From My iPhone

PR0XY test

2009-08-07T03:25:00.001-07:00

Java (J) JavaScript (JS)
Cookies (C) Active X (AX) User Agent (UA)

Note: Use checkbox to enable. Enabling Java and JavaScript could pose risks to your anonominity

IE users view page source

ENERGY EXPENDITURE

2009-08-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

Online spreadsheet to calculate energy expenditure for some common activities. Change this here

SKYPE ME

2009-08-06T22:57:00.001-07:00

FAMILY CALENDAR

2009-08-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

A live version of the family calendar can be found here.

Bannock recipe - From Fort Nelson Museum

2009-08-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Original post at Bannock

Ingredients
(can be halved)

4 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 cups water
raisins (optional)

Method

Mix dry ingredients. Add water and mix dough to a drop consistency.

Melt cooking fat or heat oil in a frying pan until hot.

Drop tablespoons of mixture into hot fat.

Fry until brown all over.

DESPERATE GROUND

2009-08-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

well, I'm at it again ... PE1A1 Thermodynamics on 19 Oct 09. I need to study 7hrs a day till then to be able to write a 3.5 hr exam and feel confident I will pass.

-- Post From My iPhone

FAT CALIPER

2009-08-06T02:17:00.000-07:00

For myself, using the skin fold method on my own spreadsheet, Accu-measure caliper taken at the suprailliac (2cm above the hipbone). Put left index finger on point of hip bone and move up one inch.

Pinch suprailliac skinfold between thumb and forefinger, pull skin and fat away from muscle tissue.

Place caliper over skinfold 0.5 cm from finger, close caliper until there is a click, release.

Repeat three times, taking the average. To find out your percent enter your age in this form. For another more involved method.

A LITTLE MOTIVATION

2009-08-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

Since I have actually started my studying, figured this would be a good motivator.... at least for me :)

Why do I only stay at a job for 9 years?

2009-08-03T03:08:00.000-07:00

Expert - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I ran across this in Wikipedia suggesting that an expert is someone who spends 10 years or 10,000 hours deliberate practice ... maybe I'm not an expert but tend to get severely bored @ the 9 year mark... hmm

basal metabolic rate - Wolfram|Alpha

2009-08-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

basal metabolic rate - Wolfram|Alpha

I stumbled across this BMR calculator, very useful...

SHARED PDF's GOOGLE DOCS

2009-07-24T14:03:00.001-07:00

I just found out that pdf's on google docs can be shared. My first set of flash cards for my 1A1 course is in PDF format PE1A1-1 FLASH Rankine and Brayton Cycles.

Dad, how fast should I go?

2009-07-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

"Son, if your not getting hurt, your not going fast enough"
- Dennis Hay -

Blog from iPod.... not sure what it will look like

2009-07-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

-- Post From My iPhone

Ok I think I said too much ... or not enough LOL

Stationary Engineer First Class Paper 1 - Applied Thermodynamics and Plant Cycles

2009-07-19T02:53:00.001-07:00

Well here we go again. I'm not making a mistake about saying we either, Ang has supported my exam frenzy before... my exam date for this one is 19 Oct 09 @ 8:30 am in Dawson Creek.... 92 days away... the application has to be accepted by the Safety Authority (1-866-566-7233) by 29 Sep 09. The format is similar to the third class B1 paper and all the second class papers basically 7 question, answer 5 in 3.5 hours and get 65% or more to pass.

I am fortunate to be able to study while at work (so long as things run well)... this helps greatly as I will be working for about a month straight.

BCIT offers the correspondence course and primarily covers Pan Global's First Class Books and Reed's 3 with some extra questions added in from current exams.

The syllabus for 1A1 is Rankine and Brayton Cycles, Thermodynamics of Steam, Steady Flow Process Calculations, Thermodynamics of Perfect Gases, Expansion and Heat Transfer and Refrigeration Calculations.

My approach has been to study the principles in the Reed's and Pan Global books then practice definitions and questions using flashcards with Leitner system for review scheduling. Once I understand the principles the flashcards are just a mechanical brute force memorization... I put flashcards into the 8.5 x 11 paper format on PDF (each question per page folded in center (question on top, answer on bottom) this allows me to print off all questions with regular printer in card format... currently Flashcard exchange doesn't allow this but will in the future.

Recently I wrote 1A3 Boilers, Water treatment, corrosion and found that the BC Safety Authority supplies the Casio fx-260 calculator, so it was handy to pickup my own from office depot for $12.49.

Power Engineering in BC is regulated by the Safety Authority using the Safety Standards General Regulation and Power Engineers, Boiler, Pressure Vessel and Refrigeration Safety Regulation. Nationally SOPEEC is responsible for examination standardization.

LIVESTRONG together with Fitness Builder would RULE THE WORLD

2009-07-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

I have been using Fitness Builder for iPhone/iPod for awhile, and recently they have added some interesting metrics like blood pressure, heart rate etc... up till now it has been the best app for fitness in the iphone now it's even better... but they a lack an online way of tracking this data.

This is where Livestrong myPlate would come in... using the livestrong app to track calories/weight and exercise (from amount of calories used). Livestrong uses a very basic app as a way to collect information for their website (your own personal information) broken down very specifically.

My proposal is to have fitness builder send the metric information to the livestrong website and track this using their interface... that way you get the best of both worlds.. a stand alone iphone app that rocks and access to the metrics on livestrong that also rocks.... what do you think?

FROGGER

2008-06-22T16:31:00.001-07:00

Platinum Rewards MasterCard: Prime + 2.9% from Capital One Canada

2008-04-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

Platinum Rewards MasterCard: Prime + 2.9% from Capital One Canada

This is definately better than 18% card I have now that gives me nothing...