Grazing Press=

It is one of those blogs occasionally mentioned in a NYT article, you visit it, browse around and then click the X and it is off your radar.  However, there was one and now there are two blogs put out by authors that I have added to the TO READ folder in my overloaded Google Reader.
The first belongs to Neil Gaiman.  

His blog has had many changes from feeling like an illustrated novel to becoming a more personable blog, with side features to add to it wealth of information.  Mr. Gaiman is one of the contemporary authors who cannot have a book published for very long before it is in my hands and read too quickly.

Now another author whose work finds itself into my hands as quickly is Stephen Fry.  His blog leans more to the fun he is having using computers and the Internet, but still, there are links to the fruit is labor handily weaved into the page design. 

Though the content of Mr. Fry’s blog leans toward the Geek, I have placed it in the TO READ file, instead of the KNOWN GEEKS, where Amber MacArthur, Leo Laporte and the like are linked. 

With so much information constantly coming into our lives from so many sources, the need to characterize, compartmentalize and generally cope is becoming more and more a necessity. 

As an example, there is one book of Mr. Gaiman’s I have yet to read is Revenge: A Novel

I am waiting for the arrival of my gifted Kindle and intend it to be my first online order/download.

Hogmanay !!
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If you haven’t seen her perform or at least heard Patti DeRosa sing, there is a piece missing in your life.

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In an earlier article on BBC News, a mysterious object over 27 meters long had washed up on the shores of Stinky bay on the west of Benbecula.

The good news is it has been identified.  The very good news for our fellow Scots is that it is a fermentation device used to make beer.  Though it hasn’t been claimed by the Colorado brewing company, the BBC News reports it is very similar to the type they used.

When I first saw the article, I was convinced it was of some sort of military creature right out of Dr. Who or its anagram spin-off Torchwood, where alien articles mysteriously appear on the British Isles, mostly around Cardiff.  But the more mundane use for brewing beer; now that’s something I never would’ve guessed. 

Well, ye inhabitants of the Western Isles, Hogmanay!
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Back in the 80’s when I took home my first 8080 PC, the program was on one five inch floppy while the OS ran on the other 360K disk.  Then came the 80286>80386 and the hard drive.
Soon after the introduction of the hard drive a 1200bps modem was added. 

Shareware came on floppies collected at monthly PCUG meetings.  Geeks Only!!!

Next was the 486 and the 5600 baud modem.  It was believed for a moment that we had plateaued in information sharing.  What fools!

This bit of nostalgia was brought about by a review of programs evaluated over the past year.  We kept all of the installation files on our backup 250 Gig back-up drive.  That being full, we are now moving the 2005-2007 files to the second 500 Gig back-up drive.

With the 160 Gig drive on the laptop, the total storage connected to this little laptop come to 960 Gig, or .96 Terabyte.

960,000,000K vs. 360K-X2 in twenty or so years.  There was no way I could’ve imagined making that leap in so short a time.  What more do we get out of this memory?  A great deal if managed rightly.  Too much to handle, if we don’t.

Maybe I’ll go back into politics…
Nah!
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We were shocked last night that the Patriots were not on any of the screens at YYG.  This is hard to believe.  We got the scores updated to half time by CBSSPORTS.COM and then were able to watch the end of the game in Halifax, but it wasn’t the same as watching the entire game.

The good news is we have TiVo.  We speed-watched the game this morning.  Knowing the final score was a blessing.  The Fifth Quarter wasn’t all that informative beyond saying, okay, now that that’s over, it means nothing if we don’t win the playoff games and Superbowl.

It’s a cruel-cruel world in which we live.
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We will be off to PEI fairly soon, but wanted to wish you all a joyous season!

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In a few of our blog entries we have complained about being overwhelmed by Google Reader.  This is no longer so.

We have made few modifications in the manner in which it is read, while simultaneously adding a doze or so RSS links to blogs and other sites.

Whereas before we were reading each blog separately they are now grouped by general interest.  We have BLOGS, NEWS, SOFTWARE, HARDWARE and TO READ.  Each of the selected links are placed into the right group. 

Next we changed the default view from Expanded View to List View.   For a while we tried reading it by group.  Then we advanced to reading list with All Items (#) chosen.

The last, and most necessary of the settings is Show # New Items.

After perusing the  list, do not forget to Mark All As Read.  If you forget to do that, then the rest of the effort was in vain. 

We have recently added to Firefox the Read It Later extension.  Using this tool removed the last bit of pressure.  

Now we select an item from the list, right click to link and choose, Read It Later from the list.  Then the link is added to a list activated by the new icon in the top toolbar.

Now, it’s onto the new Kindle from Amazon.

Information Overload.  Who would have thought it possible?

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Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device

The Miami Dolphins defeated The New England Patriots in the scoring for the 2nd half of today’s game.  Unfortunately, The Patriots won the first Half by a lot more points.  28-7.  This makes them 15-0. 

Just thought you might like to know.
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Fidel Castro, according to BBC News, is hinting at retirement.  Wants to make room for the younger generation.  I remember watching supportive newsreels of the Cuban Revolution between movies in my childhood, over a half a century ago.  It would appear Mr. Castro has a slightly warped idea of what moving over and the younger generation mean.

On a lighter note, the Earl and Countess of Wessex have announced the birth of a new son, Viscount Severn, first name so far undecided.  The file photo in the piece displays the Earl in a top hat and the Countess wearing a bird thingy on her head.  That’s straight out of the 1930’s representation of royalty! 

Rah for that!
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The problem with the Live Writer usage with Movable Type was looking for the API Password.  It isn’t called that in the user profile.  It is called  Web Services Password.  I followed all of the directions to embed the .xml file in the root directory, etc. etc. It was using the wrong password.

For every other system the password you use to sign-in is the same as the one you use to allow an editor, such as this Live Writer to gain access.  The people at Movable Type decided you needed an extra layer of protection by providing a different password for "Third Party Access."

I told you I wouldn’t quit that easily.  Now let’s see if I can get this work in Scribe Fire and w::bloggar…

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