by Joi on January 29, 2006
First of all, my sincerest apologies for the nearly week long hiatus. I’ve had my web designer hat on and have been working on a horse website for a client. So, it’s been a cowgirl hat, and I love the fit, partner! I’m a cat person first and foremost, and a dog person second, so while I can tell you everything about cats and most things about dogs, I knew nothing about horses. Well, unless you count the facts that they’re beautiful, large, and swat flies with their tails. I owned that little dab of information.
To feel at home with the website I’m building and to keep from making novice flavored mistakes, I’ve been reading all about horses. I know a Buckskin from a Dun and a Grulla from a Grullo now, whereas a month ago, I’d have thought the last two were items on a Mexican menu and the only Dun I knew played baseball with the Reds….and spelled his name with two ns. Buckskin? A shaggy rug.
At the risk of going into water too deep for a weekend, I have to say that learning things from a whole new arena has been very exciting and rewarding. It feels as though my world has been broadened, like the boundaries have been pushed back. That’s always a very good thing.
In fact, I’ve fallen so in love with horses that I’ve been looking at, and for, everything horse-related. These Green Horse Bookend Statues (Asia Traditional)
are incredibly handsome. They combine an old love of mine (the Orient) with a new love (horses) and work together to hold up one of my greatest loves (books). And they look so noble doing it!
I’m trying to decide when to break it to my husband that I want to move to a ranch and raise horses. We live in Kentucky, for heaven’s sake, so it shouldn’t be tough to find a ranch or a couple of horses to start with.
Oh, Michael…..
by Mike on January 26, 2006
That’s a question I’m posing after reading a post over at Signal vs. Noise.
In case you’re not familiar, Signal vs. Noise is a blog done by 37signals. They’re the fine folks that bring you products such as Basecamp, Backpack, Whiteboard and Ta-Da List.
Click HERE to visit their site and see all their fine products.
Click thru and read Jason’s post and leave a comment and let me know here what you think.
by Mike on January 25, 2006
Over at Symple Byte, David Canfield has a great post about what to and what not to do when creating a PowerPoint presentation.
David’s got info about bullets, images, fonts, embedded objects, masters and a few other things you need to know.
There’s some screen caps and a lot of good info, so head over and let David know who sent you.
Via LifeHack.
PS - You guys know I like simple.
by Joi on January 24, 2006
I was reading a nasty little article about bills and was fascinated to see how many people actually pay their’s online. According to researchers at the Gartner Group, 27 million Americans are saving on stamps by going online. It’s up from 10.6 million in 2001. That sort of interested me, so I started reading up on the subject.
Most large banks and credit unions offer the service to customers free of charge whereas CheckFree.com and Paytrust.com charge a fee. Of course, you can also use pesonal finance software like Microsoft Money or Quicken
.
One of the biggest benefits is the fact that you can arrange for recurring payments to be sent automatically. You can even schedule payments up to a year ahead. (That’d make it kind of handy when it comes to things like renewing domains.)
Another benefit is the ability to make money hop from your savings account to your checking account during non-banking hours - in the middle of the night or on one of the countless holiday’s that bankers cool their heels.
If your bank offers the service, all you need to do is set up an online user ID and password on its website. From there you create a payee list from your list of bills. Apparently not every biller is set up for online payment, however, so you have to plan accordingly.
Apparently there are still a lot of skeptics around. Many people still believe the risk involved ranges from financial theft to identity theft. However, proponents argue that the risk isn’t any greater online than off. For anyone who isn’t convinced, maybe you should hang onto your stamps a little longer. A finger-print-scanning device is in the works which will load directly onto your computer. Fascinating, in a James Bond kind of way.
by Joi on January 23, 2006
These WORKPLACE KARMA CARDS
from Uncommon Goods look like a pretty fun time waiting to be had. IF you have the right kind of co-workers, that is. If you have the wrong kind, these cards are more like a bitchathon waiting to happen. Your call.
Apparently, you shuffle the deck and pick a card. On the card will be printed some sort of an activity. The premise is to promote workplace harmony, and perhaps even make necessary changes known to management.
Of course, if someone’s begging for you to get under their skin, and these cards help you do so….good deal!
by Joi on January 20, 2006
Below are links to a couple of great articles on home offices. Each includes all sorts of cleverisms I wish I’d thought of. But, alas, I did not.
Smart Office Space
Creating a Home Office
Have a sexy fun weekend!
Joi
by Joi on January 18, 2006
I was looking around this morning for something alltogether different for an alltogether different type of post, but I came across this unique product and pulled into a different lane. The
Emergency Center Battery Rack
from The Home Marketplace is, in my opinion, something we should all have in our homes, as well as our offices. It’s pretty ingenius and could prove incredibly helpful in the event of an emergency - and I don’t need to remind anyone how easily an emergency can rip open our lives.
Check out the ingenuity of this organizer! It’s designed with:
- A built-in AM/FM/Weather Band radio
- A digital clock
- An emergency tap light
- A powerful flashlight
- A battery tester
Other Features:
- It stores and organizes 22 batteries of different sizes.
- Includes a tilt-out compartment for spare keys, flashlight bulbs and other small items.
- Durable plastic Rack fits in drawer or mounts on wall with hardware provided.
- 13-1/2″Hx8-1/2″Wx2-1/2″D
All for under $40.00 - that may be the most impressive thing of all. It’s hard to put a price tag on peace of mind. When grabbing one for yourself, an extra one would be an incredibly thoughtful idea for a loved one.
by Joi on January 17, 2006
Check out these cosmopolitan computer mice. They’re from Lillian Vernon Online
, which would, I suppose, explain their voguish, sophisticated presence.
Me? I’m addicted to the cordless variety, and the altitude around high-brow makes me dizzy. But I can see one of these adding layers of chichi style to another office - one who’s occupants aren’t frequently wearing houseshoes!
These mice come plated in either gold or chrome. Both are incredibly sharp, no?
by Mike on January 15, 2006
Does your keyboard get all crunked up with dust and bits-o-whatever ?
Does your computer case have a layer of dust an 1/16″ thick ?
Do you like to way over-do it when you clean ‘em up ?
ME TOO !
Today I dropped by my local Staples store and grabben a kit called the AirDr from Digital Innovations.
Now you can BLAST away dust from cameras, keyboards, computers, A/V components, and office equipment with pinpoint accuracy.
It contains pure, oil-free, anti-static CO2 gas and delivers higher-velocity airflow than canned air.
It’s compact size houses an easy-to-replace 16-gram air cartridge and replacement cartridges are available.
It was only $14.98, which maqkes it about 3 times the cost of canned air, but I’m betting it will do more than 3 cans of that weak stuff will do and do a way better job in the process.
It’s much more agile and I can access parts of my computer case that have never been cleaned before.
I’ll let you know how long it lasts.
My CPU cooling fan and all the nooks and crannies in my case have never been cleaner.
Be careful, though, this puppy is way more powerful than those cans of air that are only good for selling and not for using.
by Joi on January 14, 2006
The HP 12C Financial Calculator
is prepared to do all the thinking and figuring for us if were so inclined. Since I do well to add and subtract, this might just become my electronic baby.
Special Keys
- Over 120 built-in business functions
- Financial: Time, value of money, amortization, bond price and yield to maturity, register-based cash-flow analysis
- Statistical: standard deviation, mean, weighted mean, linear regression, forecasting and cumulative statistical analysis
Display
- 1-line, 10-character LCD screen
Memory
- RAM
- Converts register memory dynamically into program memory as the user enters additional program steps
- When all 99 program steps are used, 7 data registers still remain available for storage
- Keystroke programming — enter a series of keystrokes into the memory, then execute your program at the touch of a button
Additional Features
- Reverse Polish notation
- Long battery life
This particular electronical genius (the HP 12C) is the accepted calculator of the New York Stock Exchange, and is available by clicking HERE!
