Monday, February 16, 2009

Romantic Ideas
from All Pro Dad

Call to see if you can pick up anything on the way home from work.

Send a dozen roses: 11 red roses and 1 white one. The note: "You're the only one for me."

On cold mornings warm up her car.

Trace "I love you" on a stick of butter or margarine.

When window shopping, secretly note what she likes, then return later to pick up that something special.

Put a new piece of jewelry in her jewelry box and wait for her to notice it.

Leave written clues that lead her to a restaurant where you are waiting for her.

Give her your jacket when she is chilly.

Always pull out her chair at dinner.

Get tickets for an event and keep it a secret until the day arrives.

Hide a greeting card under her pillow.

Slip a little love note into her wallet.

Serve breakfast in bed using your finest china and crystal.

While you are both out, have a friend deliver a gourmet dinner to your home.

Place a rose under the car's windshield wiper.

Take a hot air balloon ride.

On a frosty winter morning, scrape the ice off her car windshield.

Bake homemade cookies together.

Plan a three-day weekend together.

Monday, February 09, 2009

100+ Effective ways for Family members to save Money
Posted by Angel Cuala in Monday, September 8th 2008

There are a lot of ways to save money for the whole family, and most of them are practical and easy to follow. However, it is within ourselves who will make decisions if we will follow them or not. Below is a good list according to applicable categories such as Food, Education, Shopping and others, which I have compiled for easier reading. Most of them are now being practiced by my family.

Just remember that these were created to save money, and not to sacrifice the necessities of the family.

General

1 Make a strict budget and stick with it. Discipline your self.
2 Save time in everything you do. The time you save can be spent to earn more money.
3 Plan your family according to your income and status.
4 Manage your debt. Do not add loan in payment of another loan.
5 Learn the do-it-yourself activities like washing your car, cutting your hair, and minor troubleshooting of appliances.
6 Do not be excited with insurance programs. Have enough time to choose them before joining.
7 Do not join the lottery. Do not take chances on luck and work harder instead.
8 Save at least 10% of your earning no matter what happens. Cut it off it automatically every payday and consider it as part of your tax.
9 Coins are heavy on the pocket, so keep them at home and let them grow.
10 Make a list of your daily expenses, make a graph and analyze it during weekends. You will know which one you should cut off.
11 Learn the art of banking, and how to choose the best bank for you.
12 Watch out for identity thieves. Protect your ATM cards, and memorize your PIN instead of writing it.
13 To avoid transaction fees, do not withdraw money using ATM card to machines that do not belong to your network group.
14 Train your children to save energy which can be converted to money.
15 Teach your children all that you have learned. The earlier you do it, the better.
16 Live a simple life. Do not spend more than what you earn.
17 Identify your NEEDS and separate your WANTS. They are the two different things at home.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Look to the Ant
by Gary Klingsporn

Ants busy themselves with tiny tasks to accomplish big jobs. They plan ahead. They store food all summer. They prepare for winter long before winter arrives. To the would-be loafer or procrastinator, the ancient Wisdom teachers said, "Look to the daily diligence and persistence of the ant!"

These proverbs speak to my lifelong struggle with procrastination. I'm not lazy; I'm a perfectionist. I delay tasks, especially creative ones, to think through every detail, carefully consider every option. When I finally sit down to a project or decision, I want to feel that it's my best work.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Encryption top IT security initiative in 2009
Jan 06, 2009
By Ellen Messmer

IT security budgets are increasing in 2009 to consume 12.6% of the entire IT operating budget, up from 11.7% in 2008, according to Forrester Research's survey of 942 IT and security managers in North America and Europe.

Read more at Network World Asia

DIY Tuesday: Make bad audio sound better with Audacity
by Ralph HogaboomOctober 9th, 2007

Audacity is a free, Mac/Windows/Linux audio editor. It does a great job cleaning up bad audio sounds in a relatively straightforward manner. It’s certainly worth having around and knowing a few tricks with it. And it can help your media projects sound better. Here’s how.

Read more at youmakemedia.com

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

A Cast of Thousands

The mission of the church is not efficiency, but developing all its people.

Lillian Daniel | posted 12/19/2008

At my daughter's elementary school musical, the printed program noted: "This musical was originally written for 15 actors, but it has been adapted to accommodate our cast of 206." You know what kind of show this was. No-cut auditions, no performer left without something special to do. They danced, they sang, they delivered lines, and somehow 206 children graced the stage that night.

It was not a short program.

So many productions in life are competitive. TV's American Idol is popular as much for the failures as for the successes. Admit it. If no one got cut, would we really want to listen to these people? The excitement is seeing who makes it and who does not, and the winner is idolized. Celebrity worship is not just a figure of speech.

Well, the world may operate that way, but the gospel response, the church's calling, is like the volunteer geniuses that took an elementary school musical with 15 parts and creatively made room for 206. We take a few loaves and fishes and feed thousands, at the church potluck or at the homeless shelter. We take a task that we could professionalize and simply pay someone to do, and we divide it into parts so that everyone has a job. Is it efficient? No. Not if all you care about is getting the job done.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Linux And Music

One obvious advantage of Linux is lower acquisition cost, and while this is defin

itely a factor for sites with large numbers of computers and limited budgets (for example schools), it's not actually the major reason for most migrations. In the case of a multi-million dollar movie studio, it's unlikely to be the price of Linux alone that makes it attractive. These studios can afford to buy any system they want, so why are they choosing Linux? The answer is in part the lower cost of Intel processor hardware compared to the traditional SGI UNIX platform, and the fact that it's much easier to move programs from SGI to Linux than from SGI to Windows.

But a far more compelling reason for the migration is the quality and flexibility of Linux. Machines powered by Linux have been known to run for months or even years without needing a reboot, let alone crashing. In the UNIX world that's not unusual, but that kind of reliability hasn't been seen on desktop computers before. And the open source development model means that users can get the software they want, rather than just choose from what's on offer.

Another factor often cited by people who have migrated to Linux is the supportive and knowledgeable user community. If you have a problem with your Linux machine, there are lots of places to ask for help — both with local user groups and on the Internet. Linux users tend to be self-documenting: when they find the solution to a problem, they will often create a web page describing the fix to share their knowledge.

Read more at SoundOnSound

Windows 7: The Linux killer

Submitted by srlinuxx on Mon, 12/22/2008 - 00:06.
http://www.tuxmachines.org

Microsoft has long been worried about Linux competition in the server market. When it came to ordinary PCs and laptops, however, it knew it had little to fear.

But that was then. Now Microsoft may fear Linux on the desktop as much as it does the Mac. It's finally taking Linux seriously as a desktop operating system, and it has designed Windows 7 to kill it.

Let me explain.

The threat to Windows comes entirely from "netbooks" -- lightweight, inexpensive laptops that typically use Intel's low-powered Atom processor and don't come with substantial amounts of RAM or powerful graphics processors. They're designed mainly for browsing the Web, handling e-mail, writing memos, and taking care of simple word-processing or spreadsheet chores.

Rest Here

Monday, December 22, 2008

GNU/Linux on old hardware
Saturday, 13 August 2005, michuk

Is Linux a good choice for your old PC? In this article I’m going to examine the main issues connected with using GNU/Linux on some very old hardware. I will also cover choosing a distro, a desktop and the key applications for such a configuration.

Author: Borys Musielak
What are the minimal hardware requirements for Linux?

In theory, a computer with 386 processor and some 8MB of RAM is good enough to run GNU/Linux. There are a few specialized distros (still supported!) that allow you to install Linux on such a PC. Of course you won’t be able to run most of the modern apps on such a system, but it should be enough to do simple office tasks and play some old-school games.

If you have a Pentium I with some 32/64MB RAM, you can, with just a little bit of effort, make an outstanding desktop computer out of it, running GNU/Linux of course. You will still need a special distro for that, though.

However, if you get a Pentium II 455Mhz with a 10GB hard drive (it can be purchased for less than $50 nowadays), you can install any modern GNU/Linux distribution on it and with thoughtful selection of applications, it can make a great home Internet and multimedia center for next couple of years.

Read more at polishlinux.org

Linux distros for older hardware

By Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier on February 24, 2006 (8:00:00 AM)

Microsoft lately has been challenging Linux's suitability for older hardware, so it seems like a good time to look at Linux distributions that can run on older machines. I took six distributions for a test run on an old machine, and also tried software that turns old hardware into a thin client. The bottom line: Linux is still quite suitable for older hardware. It might not turn your aging PC into a powerhouse, but it will extend its lifespan considerably.

For these tests, I dug out Igor, an old PC that had been collecting dust in my closet. Igor is a Pentium II 233MHz machine with 64MB of RAM, an 8x CD-ROM drive, a 3GB hard drive, and an integrated ATI 3D Rage Pro video card with 4MB of video RAM. You can run Linux on older and slower machines, but this is the most under-powered machine I had available.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Windows Steady State Bulletproofs Your System

by Lee Mathews Jun 30th 2008

So you're thinking, "Hey, I want to be totally irresponsible with my computer and load it up with crapware!" Really, isn't everyone getting tired of having to be so stinking responsible on the Internet all the time? We certainly are. We're ready for system protection that isn't afraid of our reckless browsing, indiscriminate downloading, and general apathy towards good computer usage habits.

...Which is why we love Windows Steady State. It creates a cache file in which your operating system operates, meaning any harmful changes can be undone by simply emptying the cache. After downloading it's a snap to install - just a few obligatory clicks and the usual EULA mumbo-jubmo and you're set.

Read more at DownloadSquad

Back up your Google Apps data

Face it: If you use Google services like Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets, Reader, or Blogger, you've got a life's worth of data on Google's servers. Unless you back up your stuff locally, Google holds the keys to your digital life and you're out of luck if and when Google loses or denies you access to that data. Rather than run screaming for the hills, a few steps to back up your Google-hosted data can ensure that you're in control of your stuff and not the big G.

There isn't one easy, universal backup for all Google Apps, but there are methods that work. The strategies outlined below require different levels of work and commitment on your part. The Gmail and Gcal backups described are more or less automatic (you just need to set it up and run the applications), while others require you to manually perform the backup every now and then. However, none of them are terribly difficult, and the few minutes required to back up your data every week or month are more than worth the peace of mind that comes with knowing you still control access to your data.

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