This too shall pass.
Need some free software to get something done? Check out I want a freeware utility to… where the list of over 400 applications keeps growing. Many of these I use often.
Now you can double your pleasure with “I want a Firefox extension to…”. A great way to learn why the world’s best web browser keeps getting better.
With many of the applications and extensions on those two sites you can then carry your life on a thumb drive or ipod, which is always cool.
An update for Firefox was released today, bringing it to version 1.5.0.4. I suggest you go get it if you don’t use Firefox, or use the auto-update feature (Help > Check For Updates) in Firefox if you do.
Harvest is a really frigging cool web-based time tracking application. I have been toying with the free demo account and am going to set up a full account when I am done writing this. If you do any sort of freelancing you should check it out.
Today I launched a site I have been working on for a publisher called Enlightened Ink. Glad to see it get out of the starting gate.
After seeing my golf balls slice off to the right every time I hit them last week, I started wondering about The Perfect Swing: Reality or Myth?. Check out all the links to tips at the bottom of the page.
Former AFCCC co-worker Jason seems to have latched onto the wonderful world of blogging quite nicely, putting together a great site for his family.
For you web developers, Vitamin seems to be coming along quite nicely, with great articles from some of the web’s leading minds. And it looks cool too.
Dell has started shipping their higher resolution laptops using a default 120dpi setting for the display. While this helps the readability of text on these systems, it makes an awful bug in Internet Explorer 6 rear its head. What happens is that IE tries to upscale gif images in addition to fonts, thus rendering them very pixellated and jagged. This frustrated me for about a week recently, until I learned the reasoning. If you want to remain at 120dpi but not have the problem, there is a registry hack you can use.
Man, oh man, I want one of these USB turntables so I can finally convert my record collection to digital format. Actually, just to be able to hear some of my old records on a nice system would be great in and of itself.
Adios.
We are back from our week at the beach. Gray turned 3 while we were there, and Dax had a ball with all the family members passing him around. The weather was mild, the trips down there and back were pretty good with the kids in the car, and we ate a lot of good food.
Ben and I were privy to go out for an exciting game of golf at Pawleys Plantation, an Arnold Palmer course, thanks to Amy’s friend Dave. I shot a 115, which I was pleased with considering the difficulty of the course.
To top it all off and make you wish you were there, I have posted some pics of the beach trip and other happenings in May to the photo gallery. Check em out.
Gray turned three at the beach today.
Wrapping paper flew.
A pool was swum in.
Sand was castle-ized.
Waves were jumped.
Cake was devoured.
Bubbles were blown.
Relatives were wrestled.
Naps were taken.
Play-doh was piled.
Magic wands were waved.
Cameras were clicked.
And time has flown.
I’ve been working a whole lot.
That’s about it, really. I like working. I really like the fact that the current work I am doing is challenging, stimulating, and educational. I really, really like the fact that I am working for myself and am better off than ever before.
Workaholic?
Perhaps.
Is that bad?
Only if it leads me to neglect my family, which it doesn’t. I work because I love my family and want to enjoy them more.
What’s my end goal?
Well, of course it would be nice to retire at 45 and vacation the rest of my life, but that ain’t gonna happen. I think I’ll settle for working less, playing golf more, and enjoying my family even more than that.
Is this the weirdest blog entry I have ever made?
Probably. I am interviewing myself. That’s what happens when I start writing after having worked about 50 hours this week. Sheesh.
I did find time to make my first venture into electronic music. It ain’t much, but check out this:
Greebo – by Me (mp3)
Click the arrow to start playing it, right click and Save As to download it.
Tell me what you think. I think it needs more.
My search party has returned on their Taun-Tauns empty handed. It’s time to close the shield door on the South Wing as Chewbacca moans in agony.
Pretty much since the original Napster was ever worth a darn I have been searching for two songs, but have always come up empty handed.
The first song, which should be easier to find, is called Nothing Special by Bastro. The song was originally done by My Dad is Dead. This song was one of my favorites, but the only copy I ever had was a tape I made from Paul Oldham’s split 7″ of Bastro and My Dad is Dead. That tape is long gone, but my need to hear the song has only grown stronger over the years. The drumming on it was stellar.
The second song was from a mixed tape originally given to my brother when he was in 9th grade at the Brown School in Louisville (which would put me in 5th grade at the time). I think he got the tape from Brian McMahon or Britt Walford. On the first side was the seminal Flex Your Head LP from Dischord Records (I have that on vinyl still), but on the other side were a bunch of random songs.
There were no liner notes or anything, so I don’t know who sang it, but the song i think was called Refrigerator Kid, and was about a kid getting stuck inside of a refrigerator and suffocating. Morbid, yes, but it stuck with me all these years, and I’d love to hear it again.
That tape I inherited from my brother pretty much steered me away from Def Leppard and Nena, altering my musical tastes forever.
Anyone know anything about these songs, where I might obtain a free MP3, or even buy them?
I just added an April 2006 section to Ye Olde Photo Gallery. Get yer fix on. Some of the pictures are old and from my cell phone, which I tend to forget about downloading to my PC. Some are from Easter weekend in Columbia, some are from An Event Apart in Atlanta, and some are from our trip out to Brevard today. We went to see our friends Jenni and Jay and their daughter Lilah. Our friends Dave and Celeste were there with their son Frank too.
After looking at these, I realize I need to take more pictures of Dax. It’s kinda easy to forget about him because all he does is sit there.
Been working on a lot of sites the last few weeks.
Recently launched HeidiClare.com for Heidi Clare, fiddler extraordinaire of the Reeltime Travelers. Be sure to check out the MP3 samples.
Also on the old-time fiddler front comes the launch of BruceGreene.net. Bruce’s site has several very good articles and stories relating to old time music, fiddlers he studies under, and a lot of general lore about Kentucky old-time music. Pretty interesting stuff.
Almost done is a site for a book publisher, which I cannot disclose just yet. Looking forward to seeing it go live.
My new job starts tomorrow. Technically, I am going to be doing this through my existing business, Asheville Technologies, so I guess I can say I am working for myself full time now, which is really pretty darn neat.
I am eager to get this transitional period over with – it’s been a few weeks since I stopped working at AFCCC, and I am finding out that I really like having a predictable schedule. Not that I haven’t enjoyed all the time I’ve spent with the family, but I start feeling edgy when I don’t have a regimine. I must be getting old.
These are some applications (free and not free) that I have been using a lot, and that I would now consider myself unable to live without. All of them are web-based in that they are accessible from the internet and can be logged into from anywhere. This makes working from home, from the office, and from the coffee shop a breeze.
Backpack – http://backpackit.com/
This application is excellent for anyone doing any sort of project management, freelancing, or collaboration. I was skeptical at first when I signed up for the free trial, but then I realized the power after using it for a few weeks. I was hooked when they lowered the price of the mid-level package.
Backpack allows you to set up projects (Pages, as they call them) for each of your projects. Each of these Pages has to-do lists, Notes, file uploads, the ability to share this content with someone, Writeboards, and more.
One of my favorite features is the Reminder feature, which will send you an email and/or a text message on your phone when an event is about to occure. Also, there is the ability to send an email to Backpack and have it be added to a Page automatically. Pretty darn cool.
TimeTracker v2.0 – http://www.formassembly.com/time-tracker/
After trying numerous time-tracking apps that run off my PC, I landed at the TimeTracker web site. I can now set up projects and keep track of how much time I have spent on each. Slices of time can have notes appended to them so I can keep track of what I did during any given time. This makes billing clients for work I have done a breeze. Oh, and it’s free!
ForPerfect CInvoicer – http://www.forperfect.com/seo/cinvoice.php
This is an online billing/invoice system that you have to download and install on a web site yourself, but it does everything I need it to do, albeit a little confusing. I wanted a tool to keep track of client invoices, send out reminders, send out recurring bills automatically, integrate with Paypal and 2checkout, and be reasonably easy to use for clients. This does it all. Configuring it to look and act like I wanted took a little time, but once it was done everything is running smoothly.
It costs $39.95 and requires a little MySQL knowledge to install it. There is a live demo on their web site (linked above).
HipCal – http://www.hipcal.com/
I have talked about HipCal before, and I still love it. It is more feature-rich than any of the other online calendars I have toyed with. For a while I thought 30Boxes was going to trump HipCal, but when their developers showed a lack of interest (if not a defiant stance) in enhancing the repeatability of events, I gave up on them. They are shooting themselves in the foot if you ask me, but I digress…
HipCal rocks, and after their first couple of rocky months (bugs, server issues), things seem to have stabilized and I am enjoying the free calendar a lot. It will send me reminders of events, and has a simple to-do list on the side.
Netvibes – http://www.netvibes.com/
Netvibes keeps getting cooler and cooler. It’s a ‘start page’ of sorts that allows you to customize the layout and content to your liking. You can add your favorite RSS feeds, widgets, email interfaces, and more. They just launched a major upgrade that has a ton of great features. I have tried other similar start pages, but they all suck and are clunky compared to Netvibes.
Summary
That about wraps it up.