Tech and life

Computers. Don’t you just love them! Time rushes by when you are in front of that screen. Oftentimes I’ve let the fire die, or the potatoes boil to a soggy mush as I try to solve a computer problem or devise a workaround. And I’m not alone. They’re supposed to make you more productive… save you time, but sometimes I wonder. I loved this recent post on thrive as the author tried to do some photo editing and the catalogue of problems that ensued and the time wasted – I could identify with so much there.

We’ve all been there – a seemingly simple software problem to sort out or routine to master but it can take an eternity to get a satisfying result. In my experience, with the best will in the world, even after reading software help files, checking the preferences, often you may not get the direct easy solution you wanted but have to resort to a workaround or even have to hunt for an alternative program. Many’s a time I’ve found that with computers, for some reason to get from A to B you have to go via C and D!

Some applications like Photoshop are complex and you need to invest a fair bit of time to master them. Then when these apps are updated, they lose functionality or do things differently and you have to relearn stuff. Other applications just aren’t intuitive enough. I’ve often found that during a software installation or when using an app, the choice of options and the result of choosing an option aren’t clearly explained. I’m often left scratching my head wondering what exactly will happen if I chose a particular option, check a box or follow a particular route – and of course often the wrong choice is made and you have to start over losing more time. If I get the wrong result when using an app, very often I just have to work though the possible options by trial and error, changing one item at a time until I get the right result – more time gone. And of course don’t change two or three things at once as a shortcut – invariably, if you solve it you won’t know exactly which tweak solved it.

But having said that, there’s a great sense of achievement when you crack it no matter how long it takes. I’ve blogged some of my tips when I’ve solved a PC problem so as to try and help people through the same problems – and that’s my point here. When I started with PCs many years ago, there was no real help other than the good old manual, if that. Nowadays, we have so much help, from a quick Google search to tech forums, Twitter and sites like Mahalo Answers and MakeUseOf Answers where you can ask tech questions.

And when you’ve cracked that problem, be sure to make a note of what you did in something like Evernote, so you know for next time. There’s nothing worse that sitting down 3 or 4 months later faced with the same problem and scratching your head wondering how you solved it last time. Use your PC to remind you!

Have you solved a PC issue that’s given you a great sense of achievement? How do you solve PC problems? What do you find frustrating and a real time sink? Have you ever given up in disgust and taken drastic action! Have you resorted to changing your operation system or finding new software? Tell us in the comments!

photo credit: ap

I’ve just finished our annual mailing of Christmas cards – after tracking down our old address lists and address books to find all those addresses I need. In the past, I have used a card list stored on the PC and printed out but always had to go back to address books for the details and any address changes. I’ve decided to make things easier next year. All the contact details from this year’s list will go into a note in Evernote (tagged Xmas) so that they’ll all be easily found in one place next year. I’ll update any address changes there too, and add new friends and also email details where I have them so I can respond with eCards to some.

Yet another great use for Evernote.

Image credit: Kibondo

Now that I’m the wrong side of 50, I’m finding it’s real easy to forget where I’ve put things for safe keeping. I’m reasonably organized and so long as I put things back where I expect them to be, everything is fine. Problem is when I haven’t needed something for 6 months or more, you try the places where you think it might be, and if you draw a blank, then you’re stuck. I hate that. In fact, there are few things worse than wasting time hunting around for lost items, searching the same places over and over again till eventually you track it down, if you’re lucky.

For quite a few years now I’ve been using a personal information manager called InfoMagic to keep note of things I need to remember – contact details, lists, when the car needs its next service, shop opening hours, when I planted out vegetables in the garden, how long it takes to drive to various places, etc. It’s a free form organizer and the data are stored in RTF files so there’s no problem getting the data out again if necessary. The program hasn’t been updated in years, but it doesn’t need to be – one of its key features is its simplicity.

In one of its folders I have a document which I’ve just called Where. In it I put information on where I’ve stored important things I don’t need all that often – the things I know I probably won’t remember where they are in a few months time. I just enter the name of the item and where it’s located. I’ve divided my document into subsections: electronic stuff, books and magazines, household, etc. but this is not absolutely necessary as the data are searchable. If you store stuff in boxes in the basement or loft, you could label them Box 1, Box 2, etc. and detail the contents of each box in this Where document. That way you won’t have to dig through the boxes in your search.

Of course you don’t have to use InfoMagic. There are numerous free searchable notebook applications out there, like for example Evernote and Springpad, both of which are searchable.

The one downside of course is that you have to be pretty conscientious about updating the Where document, particularly when you change your mind where you want to store something. Not much point in having it if it points you in the wrong direction.

So how do you keep track of important things? Drop a comment below.

Image credit: Gimli_36

Back to a ‘Life’ post and the first on religion and religious beliefs. If you don’t fancy it, try clicking some of the links to other posts on the right but this is more about how our upbringing influences our beliefs so it may interest you.

If we were fully conscious of our surroundings when we entered this world from the womb, we would have observed that many things which will go with us through life were already in place – no matter where we live.  Our parents, sex, nationality and race were all fixed at this point, and we didn’t choose them. Our parents will go on to teach us what they think is right, their attitudes and traditions, and of course, their religious views, if any. If they hold religious views, in most cases they will be obligated by their religion to pass on those views and teachings to us.

The point I would like to make in this post is that we owe so much of our attitudes and views to our upbringing, to the country in which we live and were brought up and to the traditions of that country, our community or region. From an early age, our parents and also later our schooling and church may teach us religious beliefs. We will take these beliefs on board with very little questioning, at least until we are older and can make decisions for ourselves. Even then, fear of going against our parents and community may prevent any consideration of abandoning our religion, or of adopting alternative beliefs.

Very few of us actually set out to chose a religion – why would we? The religion we have been taught by our parents, our church and our society seems right and natural to us. If we haven’t had a religious upbringing, then that seems right. Why change? So we may believe our religion is the ‘right’ religion and that all followers of other religions have somehow ‘gone astray’. We can become polarized against others because they have a different religion.

Having grown up in northern Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s, the choice was to be brought up as a Christian … or to have no real religious beliefs. Most people in my region of Scotland were of the Protestant denomination with some Roman Catholics. My parents were both Protestant so that’s how I was brought up.

Granted there are many who are converted to another religion but I believe on a global scale, they’re pretty much in the minority. Globally, most children and many young adults take on the religious beliefs of their parents, if they have any religious views. My point here is that there was absolutely no chance I would be brought up as a Muslim, Hindu, Jew, etc. because of my parents’ beliefs and the country, community or region where I was brought up. I’m sure the same is true for you if you think about it.

So why is it that many of us look upon our religion as the ‘correct’ one and all others somehow ‘wrong’ or misguided when we haven’t even looked into the merits and demerits of each in an unbiased fashion? If truth be told, it’s only the ‘correct’ religion because it’s the religion of our parents and our region, that’s all. I’m quite sure if I had been born to Jewish parents in New York, I would quite happily be Jewish, if born to Muslim parents in Tehran I would be Muslim and if born to Hindu parents in Mumbai I would be Hindu.

It’s a very simple and logical argument, but, in terms of which religion is correct, one I find very hard to argue against.

The next part is slightly harder. Most religions advocate spreading the Word – certainly Christianity does. Many wars have been fought in the name of religion. For centuries, Christian missionaries have gone around the world ’spreading the Word’. Christians obviously believe this is the right thing to do. Why? Well because they’ve been brought up in the Christian faith and it seems right to them to spread the ‘correct’ religion. But as I’ve argued above, if they’d been brought up under different circumstances, they might firmly believe that another religion is ‘correct’ and they would have happily been spreading that Word. So what does it all mean? I don’t know, but if by some quirk of chance, I’ve landed with the ‘correct’ faith, and I am in the right boat so to speak, what about all the others around the world who have again by chance been dealt the card of the ‘wrong’ faith and will never question it. I do find that very hard to accept.

The bottom line of course is that we should all be tolerant of the beliefs and religious views of others. After all, most of us haven’t actually thought about and chosen our religion.

What do you think? Drop a comment below.

I occasionally wonder how this current period will be viewed historically by people in say a couple of hundred years time. So how have we made a name for ourselves? Well, I guess we are the pioneers of the digital age and the information explosion and I’ve been really lucky to see that in my lifetime. But on the downside, I think we’ll be viewed as very wasteful of our resources and an era who probably didn’t act quickly enough to counter the effects of global warming, which will probably be impacting on those people in 200 years time, if not before.

Anyway, doing my own small bit for the environment, we were recently issued with recycling bins by the local council for kerbside collection with a booklet advising us what they could recycle. That’s all fine – paper, magazines, cardboard, cans – until I came to plastic. Apparently, we can’t recycle all plastic, just certain types – PETE or PET and HDPE. Unfortunately, there’s quite a lot we just can’t recycle yet.

(chart from www.recycle-more.co.uk)

The real problem is that the symbols for the different types of plastic are often imprinted poorly and illegibly on what are very often transparent bottles and trays. There doesn’t seem to be any regulation regarding the size of symbols or where they should be located, whether on the paper label or on the container itself which is a problem I’m sure for people with poor eyesight and for those of us in a hurry. It can take time to find the symbol and a magnifying glass to read it! I’ve tried to show them on the collage below and have red-ringed the hard-to-spot symbols.

(photo collage made online at photovisi)

My point is that, to make it easier for everyone to recycle old plastic waste, please, please manufacturers, make the symbols large enough so that we can read them without needing a magnifying glass and put them in a consistent location so we can quickly find them and decide if the plastic waste can be recycled. And what about Braille information for the blind? If we want to improve our legacy to the generations that come after us, we all have to do our bit so please try and make it easier for us all to recycle our waste.

Have you any thoughts on recycling symbols and recycling in general? How is your local council doing on recycling? Drop a comment below.

Heard about this site on the Net at Night podcast a couple of weeks ago. The Obameter from the St Petersburg Times is tracking the US President’s 510 campaign promises detailing promises kept, broken, stalled, in the works and compromised. Well worth bookmarking and following.

After almost 3 weeks in office, 7 promises have been kept and 1 broken. Of course, the interpretation of whether a promise is kept or broken differs for people of different political persuasions and may also depend on the particular political bias of the publication. However, I think it’s a great idea to help track the President’s progress over the next 4 years and make him more accountable. I only hope that the UK media can adopt a similar approach after our next general election, whenever that may be.

Away from ‘Tech’ and back on a ‘Life’ topic today and I’m sure it’s a familiar one. No not exercise this time but our diet. We really don’t eat enough fruit and veg. We’re constantly being told to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day – or more correctly at least 5 portions. But you know, it’s actually easier said than done. Have you ever tried keeping a tally?

Here in Scotland, we have one of the worst records on coronary heart disease in the world and our diet is generally very poor, but improving. But it’s not from a lack of fresh produce on the high street. I think part of the problem is that fruit and veg are somehow not satisfying, especially as a snack. We’d somehow much rather be stuffing some mixture of fat and carbohydrates into our faces.

I’ve tried to make an effort to improve my daily fruit and veg quota to get to 5 or beyond and here’s what I’ve done:

1. Breakfast: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It must be, I’ve just Googled the phrase and got 140,000 hits! But I know that many people just can’t face breakfast or don’t have time which is a pity because it really sets you up for the day. I used to find fruit a turn-off at breakfast – too sharp on the palette first thing in the morning. However, I’ve found that a portion of tinned prunes in fruit juice is just right to start the day. Not too sharp or bitter and good for the constitution. If you don’t like prunes, try fruit juice instead. If you’ve got room for cereal, or porridge, put some sultanas or cranberries in it. Make time for breakfast and you may just be able to drop that mid-morning snack.

2. Lunch: Try and put some lettuce and tomato in the sandwich or on your snack. You’ve probably made it to 2 portions of your daily quota already.

3. Mid-afternoon: I used to have a cup of tea but I’ve replaced that with a kiwi and tangerine. That keeps me going till dinner.

4. Dinner: If it’s winter, try and get some good soup down you for starters. Hopefully there’s a portion in there. Then a portion of say corn or peas (or both) with your main course. In summer, you really shouldn’t have a problem.

5. Mid-evening: I usually have an apple.

I make that a conservative 6 portions and it’s not too hard. How do you fare on getting your daily quota? Any suggestions? I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment below.

Photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

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I’ve seen this kind of optimism before. When Tony Blair stepped into Downing Street in 1997 as UK Prime Minister, there was a tremendous feeling of excitement, hope and expectation. I remember watching him greet the crowds on Downing Street and thinking, hmm will he ever be this popular again?

As it turned out he wasn’t, and I hope the same thing doesn’t eventually happen with Barack Obama as the hope and expectation turn to reality. More than ever, America needs a strong leader who makes good decisions over the next 4 years and I really hope they’ve picked one. For me, it would break the mould.

I can remember four decades of UK prime ministers, and I can’t really stand back and say, ‘Wow he (or she) did a really great job and has left the country in better shape’. All have made some poor decisions in office. Yes, sometimes they stumble on problems of their own making, and sometimes as with 911, an unexpected global situation arises which has to be dealt with.

From a UK perspective, I really hope Obama’s different and that after 4 years, we can all look back and say, ‘Wow, he did a really good job’. Time will tell. I wish him well.

Any thoughts?

Picture credit: Steve Rhodes

Not counting quality time with your family, what do you do in your spare time? I’m sure for many reading this especially in the long winter evenings, spare time and the internet have become synonymous.

Over the last four or five years, with the pervasive uptake of home computers and web access, I’ve found myself spending more and more of my leisure time online – checking out forums, commenting on blogs, googling this and that, and more recently getting into RSS feeds and social networking, particularly with twitter. All this as well as trying to write the occasional blog post. That’s not even to mention gaming, stumbling, Flickr, YouTube, IM, email, Skype, streaming TV, internet radio and online shopping. In fact, I’m sure it would be possible to spend all my spare time and more online.

Okay, so any younger readers will be saying, so what, it’s always been this way. They’ve grown up in a world with computers at home, gaming and the internet. But it wasn’t always like this. Some of us can remember back to the 1960s to 1980s when the computer wasn’t the ever-present it is today. Yes I know I’ve generalized a bit here. Some of the geeks among us were using computers in the 1980s but it’s really only been since the dawn of the new millennium that computers have reached into virtually every home in the land.

We’ve witnessed a spare time revolution. For me, out the window have gone watching TV, reading newspapers and magazines, and writing letters in the evening. Of course watching videos has been replaced for many by DVDs, but we’re now well into this revolution where virtually all of our spare time needs can be fulfilled online. In fact with programs like BBC iPlayer, we can catch up on what we’ve missed on TV anyway.

I’ll be the first to admit that the change is for the better. Personally, in the winter evenings, I’d much rather be online than reading a paper or watching TV. But with all this gazing at flat panels, we must remember to ring-fence some of our spare time for other really important activities: getting out and getting exercise, cooking good food and perhaps most importantly, talking to our nearest and dearest.

Updated Oct 2nd 2009: Further reading: How much time do you spend in front of the screen?

Photo credits: Locator and askthepixel

‘I’ll just chuck it out the car window rather than take it home.’

What is it with some people?  Do they never stop to look at the unsightly mess their litter is creating. They’ll most likely be driving that road again and driving though the unsightly mess they’ve created. Do they care? Apparently not.

I really hate to see rubbish dumped at the roadside. We talk so much about caring for the environment these days yet some people just don’t give a damn. Do they think someone’s going to pick up their trash? In the city perhaps, but not in the countryside where I live.

I put it down to bad parenting, bad attitude and not enough emphasis in school on teaching about litter and the consequences on our environment from dropping litter. These things have got to be taught from a young age so good habits are developed.

Yet some countries seem to have mastered the litter problem. Switzerland, for instance. Some of you may have seen the endless repeats of Swiss Railway Journeys on UK satellite TV. Great program. But just look how litter-free the country is – even at the side of the rail track! You won’t see a speck anywhere! Anyone who’s been to the UK will know that the side of the rail track is just about the worst place for litter. And it’s not just me whose noticed it. I spotted this comment on a blog recently:

…I happened to see a few minutes of Swiss Railway Journeys on the travel channel and there was this pristine countryside without a piece of paper or plastic in sight – how refreshing.  Other countries have turned their litter problems around so maybe South Africa should put some effort into this as well.  Wouldn’t it be lovely to live in a clean environment…

So South Africa also has the litter problem. What can we all do about it? Probably not a lot. In an earlier post, I’ve already mentioned the benefits of exercise when listening to tech podcasts. I’ve taken to picking up the litter twice a year on the stretch of road that I walk daily and my neighbour is doing the same. I get some strange looks as I wander along, earbuds in, rubber gloves on and carrying a large black sack full of trash. But perhaps some drivers will get the hint that some folk actually do care for the environment and how it looks and take a pride in their country.

It’s a bit upsetting though when, about a fortnight after you’ve picked up every last scrap of litter, the stuff miraculously starts to reappear again as if sprouting from seed. Now that the grass has died back a bit after the summer, I’m going to start on my 6-monthly tour of duty and try and clear everything up again. Beside, it’s much nicer walking in a litter-free environment.

I’d urge you all to do the same. Okay, it’s not going to make a huge difference globally, but it’s nice to do your bit in your local area. Indeed, if everyone looked after their local area, we wouldn’t have a litter problem.

Does litter bother you? Is their a litter problem in your country? Do you do anything about it? I’d love to hear what you think so drop a comment below.

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