Author’s page here

synopsis: ping.fm updates all status updates for a bunch of places:

• Linkedin (I don’t know where status msgs are placed…)
• facebook
• twitter
• this blog (via plugin)
• various others places… (see ping.fm)

Updates can be sent from a phone, gtalk, http://ping.fm, email, bunch of methods…

so, now I can update one place, and microblog to all the usual spots.  MSN WLM bot doesn’t work…

My throat was sore from since Saturday, and today’s Monday.  I’ve been taking “Cepalcol Sore Throat” to try and numb the soreness that was on the back of my tongue, down my throat, and only to one side… weird.

To the point, cepacol just numbed my tongue, lessened the throat/tongue soreness.

“Ricola Lemon-Mint”, took one and wham… soreness went away… it was soothed.  Maybe I was just already getting better, but Ricola definitely made my throat feel a lot better.

Cepacol:

• Taste: 5/10, wouldn’t eat it as a candy.
• Effectiveness: 7/10, just numbed my tongue, but did give some relief
• Overall: 6/10

Recola:

• Taste: 8/10, I like lemon and mint combination.  I could eat it as a candy… but does have a little medicine taste to it, so that’s where the 2 got knocked off.
• Effectiveness: 10/10, can’t notice the soreness as I’m typing this.
• Overall: 9/10

Disclaimers:

• I’m not a doctor, this is not medical advice.
• I’m not partnered with the manufacturers of Cepacol, or Ricola
• Trademarks below to their respective owners.

Monday to Friday: 5am – 12am

Saturday to Sunday: 8am – 8pm

Dec 24th, 5am – 6pm

Dec 25th, closed

Dec 31st, 5am – 6pm

Jan 1st, 2008, 8am to 8pm

However, here’s a super easy way to to monitor RSS feeds.   Thunderbird!!! Yes, that’s old too, I know.  If you don’t have News & Blogs, you’ll have to add an account first.  Now you have an easy way to just drag new feeds over.

1. Find an rss feed, look on the side of this side, and you’ll see an RSS feed.
2. Drag it to your News & Blogs section in thunderbird.

Now I don’t need to open up all my those sites to figure out what if there’s something new. RSS feeds will automatically find out for me, and notify me whenever something is new.Suggestions for RSS use:

1. Monitor a friend’s del.cio.us bookmarks. “Hi SAM! I’m watching you!”
2. Monitor someone’s blog.
3. okay, here’s a real useful one. Monitor new file releases on sourceforge.
4. Forums and Announcements

That’s how I’m using RSS… any other suggestions to use RSS?

Want to get rid of blogspam, or at least stem the tide of rushing spew that goes to your blog?

For wordpress, as that’s what matters to me, install akismet, and spamkarma. If one doesn’t catch it, the other will.

Akismet is already installed as part of the default install of the latest wordpress (requires a free api key).

Spamkarma is really free.

However, I find myself being consumed by the fact that YC can kick my butt at sudoku. Seems like I can only win one out of every 5-6 games… where as other people I seem to consistently win against.

Maybe I’m a masocist to want to play her. I just somehow play worse when it’s against her.

Who knows why…

What’s going on in the minds of legislators in GB.  Seems like the fancy with 1984 is running a muck in the queens parliament.

I mean, where’s my privacy, when I want it?  Why would I want to turn over evidence to the crown?  I guess the reverse argument is, “why do you need to hide this – if you don’t have anything to hide, why not show us”.  That reverse argument is ludicrous, as it’s an invasion of privacy.  I should not need to justify myself to anyone.  If you have something to accuse me of, do so in the proper channels.

The article I linked too, has a good argument as well.  What happens if one is on the receiving end of an encrypted communication, and does not have the key.  How does one prove a negative, being the argument – “how do I prove I don’t have something?”

I’m amazed at the incredible stupidity of some lawmakers.

I’ve always seem flamers/trolls just general jackasses that most are accustomed to. These people would never say the things they do online… the anonymity is the trouble. What fear do they have? Maybe if we post everyone’s IP that post the crap they do.

I know I’ve done it in the past… maybe it’s just a bad day, who knows.

The above link is a good read. Correlations between a programmer and a “computer guy” being one and the same works out well. I guess I am one and the same as well.

Just recently, it’s one of those times where associates just ask you computer questions. At least this new set of people that ask computer questions, start out with a hello and a bit of small talk.

I think I would be much more reluctant to answer questions if they were posed as blatant extractions of knowledge. I see it already as such, there is no hiding of it… I just assume that these people would be altruistic in the future.

Clients at least exchange money for knowledge or services rendered. Friends and associates have much more reluctance to a bartering system. As if knowledge is free for the taking. If you put up a fight to give it to them, they assume you’re a jerk or worse.

There are friends and associates that I don’t mind helping what so ever, as I know they would help me in a pinch. I’m not talking about those people… It’s more the ones that try to bleed you for every drop of knowledge possible, while knowing full well, that the 1st communication in years is a tech question. I remember ending a call, only to get another one a minute later from the same person, only having thought of another question. Oh well… if I were busy at the moment, I don’t think I would have assumed the role of human encyclopedia of all things computer technical. Not only did they loose the number, they went about in a calculated way to obtain my home phone number to extract information from me. In the end, it was a calculated move on my part as well to keep these people happy. With the hope of a garnering a contract in the future.

Altruism only goes so far… I remember when I first started working downtown, I would give away loose change in my pocket to a pan handler whenever possible. Only till I started to think about how much money I was giving away, a loony or twoney at a time is nothing, but when you start to give away that amount, it adds up.

The idea of keeping myself well hidden and disguised as a normal Joe is not a bad one. Problem is, the more people that know that you’re a ‘computer guy’ the more questions you get.