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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Tuesday, November 27, 2007Overdue Everything Must Go UpdateI had hoped to begin a new "Everything Must Go" update before this, but time has gotten away from me. Before I can do that, however, I need to rectify some mistakes from the last batch.This is embarrassing, but I've heard from two people now who didn't receive DVDs they ordered from the last batch of stuff. I've had postal service issues before, and immediately suspected something along those lines, but when the second email arrived, what should have been obvious suddenly dawned on me: Maybe it was my fault. It was. In both cases, the ordered DVDs were sitting here with DVDs that were never sold. So I'm going to send out those DVDs via first class mail this week with refunds. But if there's anyone else out there who didn't receive ordered books or DVDs, please let me know as soon as possible. Now I'm fearing I might have stranded other people, and that's obviously not the goal here. Once this is all figured out, I'd like to get going on the next batch. Please don't email me ahead of the next posting about this stuff, as I will supply a heads-up about the posting time before it happens. But it looks like I'll have numerous Xbox 360 games and various electronics devices and accessories. I will likely be giving away a ton of PC games for the price of postage as well, since I can't imagine anyone actually paying for that stuff. There should be at least a couple of iPods, some USB 2.0 hard drives, and the like. But again, I need to straighten out the last mess first. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink ]
Friday, October 26, 2007Everything Must Go ... Now SundaySorry for the delay on this, but between racing to finish up my Leopard review and just being sicker than heck, I'm going to have to push back the virtual yard sale by one day. This will give me time to catalog everything and so. Sorry about that. New ETA is mid-day Sunday EST.Labels: Personal [ Posted at 5:13 PM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, October 23, 2007Everything Must Go ... SaturdaySo I'm still going through the hundreds of responses to my previous post about what to do with this blog. Thanks for that. I'll figure that one out soon, but in the meantime, I did want to provide a heads-up about the next "Everything Must Go" event, in which I'll be selling a number of items (DVDs, electronics, Xbox 360 games) and giving away another set of books. Since this seems like the more appropriate place to do this, and since I've been doing it here all along, I'll be posting this here to the Nexus blog and not to the SuperSite. This will happen on Saturday before noon EST and will be a first-come, first-serve kind of thing as usual. Thanks! --PaulLabels: Personal [ Posted at 2:33 PM | Permalink ]
Sunday, October 21, 2007What's next?So I've gotten a lot email from people wondering what's up with the Nexus blog. It's a fair question. Since starting blogging over at the SuperSite for Windows, I have allowed this blog to become stale and silent. I guess there's only so much time in the day. Without getting into a history of what could'a been, I'd like to at least throw out a few thoughts about the future.First, I think it makes sense to have a single blog, and there are good reasons why that should be on the SuperSite. For starters, I've been running the Nexus blog at a loss, somewhat deliberately, since it began over 6 years ago. That means there are no comments or forums, or whatever, because the time it would take to monitor that stuff would be prohibitive. That's not the case on the SuperSite. That said, I know that many readers appreciate that I have a non-Microsoft-oriented forum for discussing other technologies. Understand, however, that that hasn't stopped the kiddie Apple lobbyist cabal from misunderstanding and mis-characterizing the point of this blog. I don't hate Apple or any other non-Microsoft companies, organizations or technologies. I just believe you should be able to criticize things when they're not right and point out the good things when they are, whatever the setting. That is and will be the case on the SuperSite as well, though of course just having the word "Windows" in the title puts a certain spin on things in the minds of some people. It shouldn't: I advocate for users, not Windows or Microsoft. There are some things the Nexus is still a more appropriate forum for, and that makes it difficult for me to figure out what to do here. For example, I still have a bunch of "Everything Must Go" stuff to sell and give away (DVDs, electronics, books) and had hoped to get some of that up before now. I'm currently away so that will have to wait (hopefully next weekend), but clearly doing that through an independent blog makes more sense than trying to do it on the SuperSite, where my corporate masters might be confused about my desire to make money on the side (as paltry as that might be) using their resources. It's an understandable concern, however. So. I'm not sure what to do here. I could continue blogging about non-Microsoft issues on the Nexus, I guess, but then there could be no discussion and, more importantly (to me, anyway), it would exclude the Windows-using readers of the SuperSite from learning about non-Microsoft topics. Or I could just move it all to the SuperSite. I think that makes the most sense. But I understand why some may disagree. Let me know which you'd prefer. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 9:41 AM | Permalink ]
Monday, September 24, 2007My new Windows blogToday, I finally started blogging about Windows-related topics. You can find my new SuperSite blog, naturally, on the SuperSite for Windows. It's still in "beta" in the sense that the design needs to be updated to address the UI work I've been doing on the wider site, but I'll be writing there daily going forward. Expect the same irreverent look at Microsoft and the Windows community that I've done here with the world outside the software giant. [ Posted at 6:47 PM | Permalink ]
Saturday, July 07, 2007Top 10 Ways to Declutter Your Digital LifeThis is wonderful, and completely in keeping with my "less is more" philosophy. A must-read:There's been lots of talk about de-cluttering your physical workspace in the productoblogosphere lately, but virtual clutter can drag you down and create as much stress and anxiety as physical junk can. An overstuffed email inbox, thousands of unread feed items, a desktop covered in aging, random files are all forms of "e-clutter" that distract and overload you with more inputs than necessary. As the holiday week winds down this Friday, take a little time to clear your e-clutter for a fresh start next week. Here are 10 ways to go about it.I've been on that bandwagon for a while, noting years ago that people who multi-boot aren't getting any work done. If you must use multiple systems for some reason--or simply need to test things on other platforms--look at virtualization. It works. 9. Unify your tools ... Fewer storage spaces and communication channels (like email addresses, blogs, social networking accounts) means spending less time switching up and more time accomplishing things.Exactly. One of the beauties of email is that it can seamlessly download email from any other service and dump it into a label-based view: Now I have only one email entry point and it is accessible from any Web-enabled device on earth. 8. Uninstall unused programsThis is an ongoing battle for me, but again, Gmail is making life easier. (I keep waiting to be informed that I've hit the limit for the number of filters you can have. So far, so good.) 6. Archive non-working filesI've been a backup and archiving nut since 1999, when I lost a bunch of important data after I inadvertently formatted the wrong partition on a hard drive. I keep multiple copies of archived backups on DVDs and various hard drives, and I switched to a redundant terabyte backup system years ago, which makes life easier. Now, of course, these things are much cheaper too. 5. Organize "My Documents"This won't help so much with data organization, but it will help declutter things in general, so it's still good advice: Also, take the time to declutter your Start Menu (on Windows) and any applications you happen to use. For example, I create folders like "Utilities," "Internet," "Digital Media," and so on under the top level of the Start Menu and organize and delete accordingly. My Start Menu is trim and easy to navigate. Likewise, I heavily modify every install of Firefox so that there is a single toolbar, combined with certain Google Toolbar features, that gives me access to the stuff I use online regularly. I'll try to document this at a later time, but Firefox has evolved into my front-end for much my digital life thanks to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Picasa Web Albums, the latter of which I use to archive about 25 GB of family photos. 4. Empty your "junk drawer"Arguably, #3 could be combined with #5 and my Start Menu advice. But like many people, I use the desktop to hold temporary files, which I think of as a combination of files I'm working on and files that need to be filed on the network. On the road, I use a "To file" folder on the desktop for stuff that needs to be filed when I return. At home, I try to keep the desktop as devoid of icons as possible. 2. Prune your feed subscriptionsI don't think most normal people even use feed subscriptions, but if you do, focus on the ones that offer real value, not hate-oriented blogs or those with uninformed opinions. I have a very short list of sites I visit regularly, from a tech standpoint, because most of what's out there is just bluster and noise. The decluttering advice here should extend to your whole life--i.e. your physical home and office (thus regular offerings of books and DVDs for give-away or sale) and your mind. Life is too short. 1. Empty your inboxAbsolutely. This is something I've come into lately, and it's pretty much cured my email ills. You could do this with any good Web-based email system (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or any good email application, but I use the Web-based version of Gmail, and thanks to a combination of filters, labels, and Gmail's unique "Archive" feature (where archived email is moved out of the Inbox), clearing my Inbox is job one. I should document this sometime. It's really revolutionized my approach to email, which is huge for me because of the wide range of mail I get. Anyway: This is a nice list, full of good advice. Hopefully, I've added to the discussion. But do visit the original site for more information. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink ]
Friday, July 06, 2007Organic food 'better' for heartThis might qualify as the "duh" story of the decade, but as it turns out, there isn't a lot of scientific study around organic foods yet. Interesting nonetheless:A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found almost double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant.Or maybe its the lack of chemical fertilizer. That's where my money is. [ Posted at 12:52 PM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, July 04, 2007Happy 4thHere's a cool photo taken with the iPhone...
Wednesday, June 27, 2007Mark updateI've received a lot of nice emails about Mark's surgery. Thanks for that. I thought some of you might enjoy some photos from before and after the surgery (don't worry, nothing gruesome), which are available in slide show form on my personal site. Mark's doing great, by the way. And only a nine-year-old would think to solve a headache by firing up the Xbox 360. :)Related: Surgery Labels: Personal [ Posted at 11:18 AM | Permalink ]
Monday, June 25, 2007SurgeryMy son Mark had cochlear implant surgery today. This is Mark's second cochlear implant: He became deaf at age one after almost dying from bacterial meningitis. At 18 months, he got his first cochlear implant and the ensuing 8 years have been a whirlwind of progress, as we've watched Mark develop amazing listening and speech skills and finally mainstream into the local public school system and just excel at every step along the way. It's likely that Mark will never hear normally again, not like most of you do, but he does amazingly well. It's inspirational and humbling.Today's surgery was an attempt to make his hearing even better. A second implant won't "double" his hearing capabilities or anything. Indeed, after eight years of non-use, it's possible that that side of his head will never process hearing again. But if all goes well, over time, he will gain some crucial improvements. The ability to hear directionally (in "stereo"). An appreciation of music, perhaps. Clearer hearing in crowded and loud environments. That kind of thing. Due to ossification in Mark's remaining cochlea, the doctors were originally planning to do a partial implant only (8 of 16 nodes). But when they got in there, they discovered the hardening was much less than what they had seen on the x-rays, so they were able to do a full implant (16 nodes), equal to what he has on the other side. Absolutely amazing. Before the good news came, things were tense and uncertain. I hope I'll never again experience anything as painful as holding Mark's comatose one-year-old body in my arms, watching him not react as doctors tried to revive him, but I was certainly reminded of that this morning: Mark asked me to be with him when he went into surgery. So I held his hand as he succumbed to the anesthesia. He was scared but trying to be brave. And as he drifted off, I had one of those moments only parents can understand. Anyway, all is well and Mark is coming home tomorrow. But events like this have a clarifying effect. You never know what life is going to throw at you. And most of us don't realize what we have until it's taken away. And yeah, that's all very trite. Unless of course something bad happens to someone you care about very much. Congratulations, Mark. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 10:08 PM | Permalink ]
Thursday, June 14, 2007Off to VegasI'm off to Las Vegas for what I'm calling "stupidity weekend" with friends. Hopefully, I'll live through it, but my guess is I won't be online much until Monday at the earliest.Labels: Personal [ Posted at 4:59 PM | Permalink ]
Thursday, May 24, 2007STARS WARS is 30And BBC offers some interesting bits of trivia about the original film:The original Star Wars film was released on 25 May 1977. Much to the surprise of many involved in the project, including the studio which backed it, it became a runaway success.It's hard to overstate how much this film affected me, since I was 10 years old when the first STAR WARS came out. [ Posted at 10:52 AM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, May 22, 2007Paul vs. Dell, 2007 EditionNexus readers may recall my horrific experience trying to buy a Dell PC last year (here and here). Dell, at the time, tried to make things right, which I appreciate, but I ultimately went with an HP, which, incidentally, has been rock solid. Flash forward to this week: I've been shopping around for a low-end PC that I can use as a Windows Home Server. I've been testing the beta, and while I did requisition one of my old servers (and literally a server, albeit a Dell PC tower-based box) for the recent CTP release, it's getting old and buggy (it won't reboot without you going into the BIOS every time, for example) and I thought a modern, if low-end, PC would do the trick. Besides, with 750 GB drives available now, two internal drives would be enough, so I could go for something reasonably small. And there's always external storage, something WHS deals with quite well. I set an upper limit of $500 to see what was possible.Ultimately, it came down to Dell and HP again. I won't bore you with the details this time, as it's just a server that's literally going to sit, headless, down in the unfinished part of my cellar next to my wife's stockpile of extra paper towels and bottled water. As with last year's competition, the Dell was cheaper than the HP. And while I wasn't too happy with my Dell experience last year, I am a long-time Dell fan and I've been watching them try to right the reeling ship down in Austin. What the heck, I gave it shot. Yesterday, I ordered a Dimension E521 tower PC with an AMD Sempron 3400+ CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a 160 GB hard drive, and a combo drive. No biggie. Even with taxes and shipping, the whole thing came to well under $500. Here's where things go better than they did last year. This morning, I woke up, and checked my email. The order has shipped. That puppy is already on its way to my house. So I guess we'll see if it's any good. (My guess is it will be just fine.) But already, I'm reminded of the Dell I was used to dealing with over the years. This is how ordering from Dell used to be, and should be. Maybe something positive is finally happening over there. [ Posted at 9:16 AM | Permalink ]
Thursday, May 03, 2007The French have much to teach us. Too bad Americans don't listenI guess I missed this when it was first published a month ago, but this Newsweek article nicely summarizes my feelings about France and, possibly, life:What it means to be French. Americans don't have it. When we talk about being American, we use words like liberty, freedom, opportunity. Compared with the French, we treat our country like a stock pick. We're high on it when it's high, down on it when it's having some rough quarters. But the French love of country is just that: a love of the physical place, the earth, la France profonde. When Americans hear French people talk about the local cheese, or the specific terroir of a wine, we roll our eyes and head to the Olive Garden, or some other generic transcontinental chain. But as a French friend of mine asked once, "You always talk about American individualism. If you're all so individual, why do you all eat the same hamburgers?"[ Posted at 11:43 AM | Permalink ]
Saturday, April 14, 2007Selling stuff online? Here comes the IRSCNET:Americans who sell items through Internet auction sites could be in for an unpleasant surprise at tax time next year, thanks to an IRS proposal designed to identify taxpayers who don't report income from those sales.So I saw this headline and had this brief stab of fear, given how much I sell through this site. But then it occurred to me that, of course, I don't actually make any money through the site at all. And I think most people who have purchased DVDs or other items from me would agree that the pricing is designed to move the stuff out, not turn a profit. Overall, I'd have to say that the effort of posting, packing, and shipping everything has vastly outweighed any money that's come in. And when you add the cost of just hosting the site, it all adds up to a big charity without any of the tax benefits, really. Which is all OK with me. I like getting this stuff out to people that want it. And really, that's what the book giveaways and DVD/tech toys sales are all about. I've got a lot more of everything to plod through, but it does take a while. In the end, everyone benefits. Except, I guess, the IRS, which is also OK with me. I give quite a chunk of change to the US government every year, thanks to being self-employed. I don't think they deserve any more. Labels: Personal [ Posted at 8:45 AM | Permalink ]
Thursday, April 05, 2007Tonight: Windows Weekly LiveThis evening at 7:00 pm EST, Leo Laporte and I will be hosting a live version of our Windows Weekly podcast using something called TalkShoe. I've done this before, but the idea is that we're able to present a radio-style show where listeners can "call in" with their PCs, ask questions, berate us, whatever. Should be interesting, and assuming it is, we'll try to do this regularly. Anyway, I thought Nexus readers might like to listen in and, possibly, give us a call.To join in, link to this URL starting at 6:45 pm EST. Thanks! --Paul Labels: Humor, Personal, Vista [ Posted at 2:48 PM | Permalink ]
TerraPass: Carbon offsetTerraPass:Ever wished you could do something about global warming?My wife and I are entertaining the possibility of doing this. The cost of carbon-offsetting our cars and airplane flights is reasonable. The cost of doing so for our home (electricity and gas), however, is not. Granted, we both work from home and I have a lot of electronics devices, as you might expect. We also have a hot-tub outside, which adds a lot of power draw. So we might have to land in "carbon reduction" rather than full "carbon balance," at least for now. I'll keep looking at this. Update: There's a non-profit alternative to TerrPass called Carbonfund that looks interesting as well. It's also less expensive. [ Posted at 12:50 PM | Permalink ]
Monday, April 02, 2007DVDs for Sale: April 2, 2007I've listed another batch of DVDs for sale. Individual DVD movies are $4 each and there are a number of DVD sets as well. Check them out on my DVDs for Sale page.Labels: Personal [ Posted at 8:31 PM | Permalink ]
Sunday, February 25, 2007More DVDs for sale, More books to give away, some housekeeping notesSpring cleaning begins: I've posted another batch of DVDs for sale and books to give away. Individual DVDs are now $4 (US only, sorry) and there are a few sets as well (Lost, STAR WARS, James Bond). As for the books, there's a big collection that runs the gamut from fiction to non-fiction, both hard cover and paperback.Also, I need to get rid of the items from previous batches that haven't been taken. I'll post a revised list of these remaining items soon, give 'em a week, and then donate them locally if they don't go. There's a number of books and DVDs in particular that have been sitting around since last year and I really should get rid of them. Finally, I have a few items that were claimed but never paid for or, in some cases, I never got addresses needed for shipping. See if any of these apply .... - Last year, I sold my iBook 500 MHz but couldn't find the box. I've since found it. If you purchased this iBook, please contact me and I'll send it to you if you'd like. I'll try to find the name of this person in my email archives, but I figured this might be quicker. - Rob G. - I need your address (four books) - Paul L. - Never paid for Streets and Trips 2006 - Lars P. - I need your address (one book) - David D. - I have your stuff, sorry. I will contact you today. I'm not exactly the most organized person in the world, and I should have taken care of this stuff months ago. Oh, and if you ordered any of the latest Tech Toys, we're shipping and getting shipping estimates on Monday. My wife is in charge of that stuff, so it will happen quickly. Thanks! --Paul Labels: Personal [ Posted at 11:27 AM | Permalink ]
Friday, February 23, 2007Everything must go: February 23, 2007It's been awhile, but I have a bunch of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Xbox 360 stuff to sell, as well as a particularly nice "Rome" (HBO series) DVD set. You can find out more on the Tech Toys for Sale page. I'll have more books and DVDs up by the end of the weekened as well. Stay tuned...Labels: Personal [ Posted at 10:53 AM | Permalink ]
Thursday, February 22, 2007Back from Italy...Well, we're back. I wasn't really able to get online while we were away, since we were staying in a bed and breakfast outside of Rome, where the Internet is mostly a quaint rumor. I'll try to catch up today, but I'm a bit disappointed that nothing important seems to have happened in my absence. I was at least hoping that Apple had shipped its Apple TV or something. More soon....Labels: Personal [ Posted at 8:20 AM | Permalink ]
Thursday, February 15, 2007VacationIt's school vacation time, so I'm going to be a bit out of touch for the next few days. If I can get online and blog here and there, I will, but I might not be here much through mid-week next week.--Paul Labels: Personal [ Posted at 2:20 PM | Permalink ]
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