Best thing? It synchronizes with Google Calendar and Outlook. Yepee!Why didn’t Microsoft think about this?

You avoid having to run any program to actually see a graphical representation of your schedule. And it’s cheap!

You can add photos to the background, define how many months you want to see at a glance, activate alarms and much more.

Now Google has another application that makes their calendar synch with Outlook. Practical things are getting cross compatible quickly.

My way of getting around this using the advanced search capabilities of Google. It works all the time and I get other blogs solely in WordPress by specifying the “wordpress.com” domain. It should work with any domain! Great!

I usually have a safe point to go back and delete all installations I have made after that point. I have been disciplined for many years in writing down the date when I install programs and the name and place where they are installed. That has helped me to pinpoint possible problematic dates. A notebook only for that is always on my desk. I can also look at Safari’s (for Windows) download feature and it shows me what I have downloaded.

A monthly virus scan and defragmentation helps to keep my PC running clean and smoothly. Cleaning cluterring files and unnesary histories, help. But this is just the basics, sometimes no matter what you do something gets in that starts to slow down your computer. 

I wish there was one key (like in a Mac) that  would make the computer start without all those memory hungry  processes so we could diagnose things; or at least  run  the PC free of interfering objects. That would make sense as an enhancement to any OS.  One could define two (or several) configurations and start the PC from any of them with a touch of a key.

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I don’t hear anyone complaining about this, and no effort to correct it from the part of Apple unless they have with OS 10.4. The behavior of windows is the only think I am ecstatic about in a Windows PC . I can always rely on a best fit to any screen, any computer.

I am still battling with the configuration of MacJournal for WordPress in my Mac. I have found several blogs of people complaining about the same thing, so it is not me…These people cannot configure the server for MacJournal either.
The Mac it is running slow, so every attempt that I make to configure anything takes forever. I have a G4 notebook with standard memory and she runs fine 99% of the time, so this unusual.

On the many things that haven’t worked today, I tried again to use “Coco View” but I find it very confusing in its management of the folders and I loose my way and any sense of where I am, so I am not even going to talk about it or us eit in a long time.

The only small programs that are running right and I find pleasing are SizeRoz And SnapNDrag. SnapNDrag cost me $5. I spent the five because it would allow me to use a few hotkeys to make it grab a selection, window, screen or timed shot of the screen to several formats of image types (JPG, PNG,TIFF and GIF). I find many programs that do this in the Windows world, but not for Macs. Not at this price. And SizeRox, surprisingly, batch resizes and does it well and quickly.

 The best of these program is that they load quickly, you do your thing and you are out in a few minutes. I don’t like to wait for Word to come up after 3 minutes, or even one. I want programs that load lightning fast.  At work, with lots of analysis to make, I use and have to use the real thing for computing intensive tasks.

We start to be programmed the moment we come out of the womb. Say mom, say dad… smile, Most of our lives, we don’t think. Once these programs are embedded in our brain, they are difficult to erase or modify. We are machines executing them.We have to break this cycle and start thinking hard – using a popular phrase now – out of the box. We are immersed , everywhere and all the time, in a mesh of visual and auditory programs that seduce us . We were conditioned to think as we think by many years of inputs that came from every imaginable way. We were conditioned to smoke and de-conditioned to avoid it . It only took intent, law and media. Some conditionings are good (like in the example, and some are bad).

The important thing is that we should know WHY we execute these l programs and decide WHICH reality we want to subscribe to.If you want to be free or at least be aware of your conditioned status, read and watch your environment. Don’t read what you usually read! Read anything! Watch all candidates speaking, specially those of the opposing parties. Read about other religions, specially those which are not your own or you don’t “like” . Read about other cultures… you already got the picture. Make your own judgments, try never to repeat anything you hear, or you run the risk of becoming a loud speaker.

How is your RAM doing?

Now, don’t get me wrong.. I paid $700 for an page design program, and paid for all the upgrades to PhotosShop, Painter that I have and have paid for Office 2003, NoteTaker, and many others… These are widely known programs and a requirement in the day to day workflow of an office. Even though with some defects, they keep improving and there is no other way to live without them for compatibility with other offices, jobs, projects, etc. But for my personal needs, I like small programs. <p>

Back to Idea Knot. Download the Free Mac version and Start journaling in your Mac. I use it to keep a log of my dreams and events on trips, recording of recurrent events, etc. The entries, organized under separate Journals as you wish, look and feel like a blog editing program with two panes, like WinJournal. The big difference is,that when you deem it necessary you can press “Combine” and all the entries combine in one file which you are then free to export in several different formats to be edited, formatted and distributed.A very good deal for a writer, I would say. Price for Macs? Zero. $20 for Windows

One of those gadgets that one is tempted to buy immediately.  My questions  are:  

1. How many titles are available?
2. Are they new titles? —There can be 40,000  titles, but the kind of titles is important
3. How new? 
4. How many formats can it read?
5. Am I tied to buy eBooks from  the brand store that sells the device … for the  life of the device?
6. What about upgrades? Will they become obsolete with a new model? Is it too soon to buy?

Priced at $299 it does only one thing and that thing is pretty much constrained to the provider. I saw the Iliad, and a HP reader and I saw  that Amazon has a proprietary one, the Kindle. Still,  I wish there were more information readily available about the formats,  availability of titles and cross compatibility. Some of them don’t let you see the titles they have. I want to find books on sci-fi, travel,  art, crochet,  etc. All I can find in a physical bookstore!

 For me, the gadget will be good when:

•  Comes to be widely used and
  • price is lowered
  • reads many formats from many book  providers
  • has touch screen tecnology

• Allows me to make annotations (which I some of them do) to the e-Books
• I can draw or create notes in my own handwriting
• Connects to my PC  and I  can download my own documents
  • PDF
  • Word
  • JPG
  • PNG
  • HTML
  • Other

So far, I like a couple of the  designs but have not seen one in person which is essential to  the decision. Sturdiness, looks, ergonomics; all play a role in decision  making. 

Ultramodern, but…Everyone knows that it has no “TO DO” list. I wish I could configure it so that when I delete e-mails I can tell it not to download any more old mails… no, please. I don’t need the old ones. What I want is  an empty Inbox.If you ask me, the only  wrong  designing went into ergonomics… Who is going to create a good case that protects the big screen area while at the same time grabs it at the back? There is no room for that. There is also no room to put your fingers around it without pressing some of the functions. But I love it. It’s 200% better than the closest best phone.