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5276

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)

« Last post by app103 on September 17, 2006, 11:39 AM »

Lilly, I am glad you like it and find it useful.

If you have any suggestions on how I can make it even more useful, I'd be glad to hear them. 

5277

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you organize your email?

« Last post by app103 on September 17, 2006, 07:56 AM »

I have multiple gmail accounts...each for a different purpose.

All mail from them is forwarded to my main gmail account, where it is labeled with what account it came from.

Then all newsletters are labeled with the name of the newsletter and archived.

My labels are sorted in the labels list by adding a letter to the beginning to of each to classify them by type. (E for email addresses, L for lists, P for projects, N for newsletters, F for family, etc)

Same is done with other mail, labeling it with something that can identify it, and immediately archived if that category makes sense to archive.

What I am left with in my inbox is a few stray unclassified emails, stuff that's very important, and whatever the spam filters didn't catch.

If it's something I want, chances are it has a label. Most things without a label are spam.

I let a lot of the newsletters pile up (ones that send 2-3 short ones a week) and read them all at once, when I have time for it.

My only wish was that one of my isp's would allow me to forward my mail from my 4 account boxes to gmail. Then I would really have things under control.

5278

General Software Discussion / Re: Create animated gifs

« Last post by app103 on September 17, 2006, 07:19 AM »

When I first got into animated gif files, I owned a copy of Jasc's Paint Shop Pro which came with a little animation studio. It worked for what I needed but in hindsight I don't think I really liked it.

-Deozaan (September 02, 2006, 02:30 PM)

Jasc's Animation Shop 3 is ok for when you have the frames prepared properly before importing them in, which should be done in Paintshop Pro first. (all frames should be same dimensions, saved as 256 color .bmp files for best results)

If you want something a bit more heavy duty, Ulead Gif Animator would be my suggestion. You can even use most of the Photoshop & Paintshop Pro 3rd party plugins & filters you already have installed.

Also allows you to save your animations as .gif, .swf, .avi, and a few others.

5279

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Stand alone bookmarks toolbar

« Last post by app103 on September 16, 2006, 03:07 PM »

Also this STABOOM (stand alone bookmark master) could <marketing-buzz>integrate</marketing-buzz> with the likes of del.icio.us or beautiful ma.gnolia.com so you could not only synchronize between browsers but also between workstations.

-housetier (September 16, 2006, 01:40 PM)

STABOOM...I like that name 

5280

Living Room / Re: Show us your (physical) desktop

« Last post by app103 on September 16, 2006, 02:59 PM »

EdTheSlowAss:



specs

The old one...on a set of 2 drawer filing cabinets, with a table top ironing board across an open drawer. (hey...it works pretty good as a desk)


Yasmin:



specs

And this is where I live. 

5281

Living Room / Re: Secret Shopper Scams: How to tell real from fake offers?

« Last post by app103 on September 16, 2006, 10:06 AM »

Actually companies do pay you to shop...and some pay quite well.

Supermarkets will hire secret shoppers (mostly existing store customers) to test their cashiers. I know...I was a victim of one many years ago and was reprimanded for not checking under the cart for hidden items when a secret shopper snuck stuff past me.

I have also been a "secret shopper" for a company I worked for. It was my job turn in a once a year report on the competition down the street. I had to include the prices for everything they had that matched items we sold, that were in my department. The way most would perform this job would be to run down the street and collect a few each day, on their lunch break, till the full list was finished. Then they collected a $50 bonus when they turned in the book.

Fortunately for me I was friends with the manager down the street and was able to do the entire store on my day off, bringing a huge binder filled with our store's inventory/price list...not just the stuff for my department. It was an easy $300 in my pocket since my boss had me on the clock the whole time, plus I got the turn-in bonuses for every department.

The ones you see online that ask you for money and promise you'll make money are all scams.

The ones that will give you some money in cash or a gift certificate to spend, or an item to return for a refund, up front, and more when you complete the job...those are usually safe. You are usually told to keep what you purchased, or keep the refund you received, in addition to the amount you receive as pay.

But you are not going to get rich doing this, and you can't make a career out of it. The shopping jobs are few & far between and the competition for them is fierce.

And many stores select from customers that happen to be in the right place at the right time to do their secret shopping. So if the store manager approaches you in the back of Walmart with a shopping cart full of stuff and ask you if you'd do him a favor and go stand in line with it, and hands you a gift certificate...go for it!

5282

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Stand alone bookmarks toolbar

« Last post by app103 on September 16, 2006, 09:07 AM »

How come most browsers do not allow you to have multiple bookmarks toolbars?

I would love to have a stand alone application that could allow me to point it at a folder of bookmarks and it would add the contents to a toolbar.

Some features it has to have:

• must be able to set folders on the toolbar, that when clicked will access a menu containing the links and subfolders of that folder. (not just links on the toolbar)

• must display the icon associated with those bookmarks, and/or allow you to set an icon for each item. If there is no icon available or selected, show the default folder icon or icon for default browser.

• allow the addition of multiple rows with more folders.

• links must open in default browser. (command line parameter to set a browser path other than default would be nice too, but not necessary)

• must be able to display new additions of both folders & bookmarks automatically if the contents should change while the program is running.

• must support drag & drop of items & folders for reorganizing, allow adding, editing, and deleting of items/folders

• must stay always on top

• must be resizable

• rows must be slim in size like in this image so it won't take up much screen space:

Basically what I am looking for is more bookmark toolbar rows compatible with existing folders of IE bookmarks. If it can handle the bookmark files of Firefox, Opera, and a few others too, that would be a nice bonus.

5283

Living Room / Re: PC World rates the 25 worst websites

« Last post by app103 on September 15, 2006, 07:16 PM »

This has never happened before...

For the first time in history I have to agree with PC World's #1 choice. 

But where is Digg on that list? 

5284

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for September 15th, 2006 - Codename 'Go GOE'

« Last post by app103 on September 15, 2006, 07:22 AM »

Wow! These newsletters are getting bigger & bigger!

Pretty soon you will have to do them once a week.

Once again...great job. 

5285

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: When to automatize?how looking to optimize your system will make you inefficient

« Last post by app103 on September 15, 2006, 05:09 AM »

hmmm...I don't think programmers are supposed to think like that...pasting something 75 times rather than coding a tool to do it this time...and every time...and for other people too.

If we all stopped coding the tools we want to use for the purpose of avoiding work, nothing would ever get done by anybody.

Necessity is the mother of invention...but laziness is its father. 

5286

Site/Forum Features / Re: The internet is a series of...

« Last post by app103 on September 15, 2006, 04:59 AM »

I could probably set up an additional Blogger blog and post stuff I wouldn't mind appearing on a blog/planet here, so that wouldn't be a real problem. I would just multi post a lot of stuff, like I already do now.

5287

Site/Forum Features / Re: The internet is a series of...

« Last post by app103 on September 14, 2006, 01:08 PM »

This is the kind of thing I was talking about...at least one of my ideas I mentioned here.

I wouldn't be against this, but I have a Blogger blog and can't assign keywords to posts. I would have no way of keeping posts I wouldn't want to appear there off...unless I keep them all off.

I would much prefer a group blog, where we have multiple posters to the same blog. That way I can choose to publish a post to a few blogs at the same time or just to one, as I do currently.

5288

Living Room / CreatingMinds

« Last post by app103 on September 14, 2006, 07:20 AM »

CreatingMinds.org seems to be mainly targeted at artists and writers, but I don't see why the principles, techniques, and methods couldn't be applied to other things like software development...or even business.

There is a lot of good articles & tools on this site for unleashing your creative side...get you really thinking in new directions....both as an individual...or as a group.

If you are participating in the GTD experiment here at the site, after you get the clutter out of your mind by writing it all down, you might want to use some of that free mental space to do some really creative stuff.

You never know...you might come up with the next brilliant million dollar idea. 

http://creatingminds.org

5289

Living Room / Re: website: CUTE OVERLOAD will make your head explode

« Last post by app103 on September 13, 2006, 08:35 PM »

If it was from someone on donationcoder.com pease do speak up!

-housetier

I dropped this link in the IRC channel not that long ago. I found it on one of my click adventures. I thought of you when I found it.

That might have been where you got it from.

5290

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: (10+2)*5 Timer

« Last post by app103 on September 13, 2006, 12:44 PM »

I do plan on adding logging in a future version. As soon as I figure out exactly what I want to log, the best way to do that, and the best way to present the data back to the user in a way that will make sense and be the most useful.

5291

Living Room / Re: Congrats to vrgrrl - Named One of Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2006, 10:14 PM »

Better finish up a game, guys, or people will wonder where this game division is

-allen (September 12, 2006, 05:01 PM)

You can have fun with Forever Flash while you wait. 

vrgrrl...congrats!

5292

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2006, 04:31 AM »

vrgrrl, I found the following article recently; if you don't like systems and todo lists you might find it interesting!

It's called: Time Management for Right Brained People (Or-What to do if to-do lists are not your style) (PDF).

-arjendk (September 12, 2006, 01:51 AM)

THANK YOU!!!

Your reply has brought a smile to my face.   

Up until now, I have been a silent about a problem I was having with the whole GTD concept...the fact that it seems to come from another planet that I don't live on and is all in an alien language I can't really comprehend.

It was starting to get very frustrating to just think about it...and I react very poorly to frustration....it usually makes me cry. But I kind of felt obligated to continue with it because I said I would, and didn't want to be a disappointment to myself, and those that know me, by quitting....and being the first to quit.

That article seems to make more sense than all of the others I have read, put together.

I think I am going to start with some 'What have I Done' lists. (something not mentioned there but I think is necessary for me)

Then take a really good look at them and start making some 'Not ToDo' lists.

And use the 'Not ToDo' lists to help me learn how to say 'No'.

Then maybe I will have the time, energy, and desire to do the things I want to get done.

In my life I have too many ToDo lists...and most aren't even mine. Too many people around me use me as their ToDo list, knowing if they don't do it, I will.

Pretty good deal for them...after all, what other method of keeping a list guarantees that if you don't do everything on it that it will magically get done by the multi-talented list itself, doing it all for you?

Not a good deal for me though...I end up feeling drained of my energy and then lack the desire to work on my very short list.

I need to stop being so dependable, stop being the one that always picks up the slack for others, learn to say 'No' and stop being a doormat....and stop giving all my time and energy away for free.

5293

Living Room / Re: What slows Windows down? See for yourself....

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2006, 03:11 AM »

If I had a P1/P2 box I would use nix on it for sure, and stick to oss.

-mitzevo (September 12, 2006, 02:29 AM)

It's a proprietary piece of NEC9820 crap that is incapable of running anything but win9x due to the fact that there are no drivers available for some of the hardware in it for any other OS.

And replacing the hardware is more money & trouble than it's worth. For example, there is no other motherboard that will fit that case except the one that is already in it. The PCI slots in it do not work...they have never worked...they are just for show. Even the RAM it uses is proprietary!

But it serves it's purpose as backup, storage, and a bit of 9x testing....and helped me keep my sanity when my P3 died and I couldn't afford to repair/replace it.

And since it currently can have no more than 10 hours per month of internet access, it's good for getting things done without distractions of chat, games, or browsing web pages.

edit: Best security is commen sense? upgrades available every day? yeah what if the updates have been comprimised.. (thinking in radical phases here )

-mitzevo (September 12, 2006, 02:29 AM)

That would be a failure...in which case the secondary antivirus (AVG) would take over. 

5294

Living Room / Re: What slows Windows down? See for yourself....

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2006, 02:26 AM »

If you can avoid them, don't install an antivirus program (especially not Norton). That's not perfect advice for everyone, but if you've got an oodle of web-smarts, you should be able to spot what's bad and what's ok.

better to be safe than sorry. this is a universal fact.. haha, even experts make mistakes.. so I take this as stupid advice.

-mitzevo (September 12, 2006, 02:15 AM)

The best antivirus is common sense...upgrades available daily. But you should always have layered security, just in case one part fails for some reason.

Which is my reason for having AVG installed...in case my common sense fails.

5295

Living Room / Re: What slows Windows down? See for yourself....

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2006, 02:25 AM »

With the exception of a few of these, none of the stuff in that list is on my P1...mostly for the very reason of it slowing the PC down much more than it already naturally is....to the point of being unusable.

Kaspersky is a good example. After installing that (my dad made me do it to test it for him) startup time was long enough for me to go cook dinner and eat it and clean up. And the system was so slow I could barely do what I had to do to disable it and uninstall it.

And a few things on that list like to add themselves (or parts of themselves) to startup when they don't need to be running in the background at all times...and they need to be neutered to stop that, or the combination will bring any system to a crawl. (ex: Quicktime & various messaging clients)

I do run some older, much lighter versions of some of the things on that list on that PC, though.

And I pretty much treat the newer faster pc the same way.

5296

Living Room / Re: Answerbag - a site of questions and answers

« Last post by app103 on September 11, 2006, 03:51 AM »

I have made up my mind that I will stop when I find one question I can answer...and then actually submit the answer.

I am going to limit myself to answering only 1 question per week, because as Eóin said, this can easily be a huge time wasting site...not compatible with GTD.

5297

General Review Discussion / Re: Desktop streamming review ?

« Last post by app103 on September 11, 2006, 01:10 AM »

TightVNC can be set up so that they can use the browser as a viewer. You don't have to allow mouse & keyboard control to the students either. That can be disabled.

It would only have to be installed on your pc, not the students' pcs.

And the price is nice...free and open source. 

5298

General Software Discussion / Re: What's the Greatest Software Ever Written?

« Last post by app103 on September 11, 2006, 12:11 AM »

'hello world' in whatever language you first did it in

-jpfx (September 09, 2006, 06:20 PM)

In some ways I have to agree...from a personal perspective. But for the rest of the world, I don't think they would agree that this should be on the list. 

I would maybe change that to be this: your first original program. The first one that you expended a bit of creative energy on and wrote something different than what you knew to be available elsewhere.

5299

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)

« Last post by app103 on September 11, 2006, 12:00 AM »

the thing i'd like to make a point of that really hasn't been mentioned anywhere is the notion/concept of BOREDOM. up until recently - a few days before the beginning of this experiment - i would have been BORED quite often. i used to find this disturbing and very annoying as i knew there were many things i could be getting on with - all my lists said so.

-nudone (September 09, 2006, 03:47 AM)

When I was a child, I once mentioned in my grandmother's* presence, that I was bored. It was the last time I ever said that, for a very long time.

My grandmother smacked me and told me to never say that again. She said if you are bored, chances are you are boring. Saying or thinking  "I am bored" is the same as saying "I am boring".

Interesting people don't get bored. They have plenty of interests to keep them busy.

Now that I am older, I can see her wisdom...and I agree with her 100%. I know if I am feeling bored, I am doing something seriously wrong with my time.

And for those rare occasions that I do feel bored, I would never admit to it now. 

^{*My grandmother was one of the most interesting people I have ever known, who had multiple careers over the course of her life...from farmer to investigative journalist (back when it was a taboo career for a woman) to school teacher.}

5300

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: (10+2)*5 Timer

« Last post by app103 on September 10, 2006, 09:37 PM »

So, i think either the reset button should not reset to "factory" or there should be another button in the gui to use this function.

-jgpaiva (September 10, 2006, 06:38 PM)

ok.

I'll fix that some time this week.