Let me google that for you...

Someone told me about this the other day and I thought it was brilliant. Do you ever have someone, say your boss, ask you a question and you think to yourself, "Why don't you just Google it? That's what I'm going to do." Well now you can answer their question and get your point across all at the same time.

Step one: Go to http://lmgtfy.com/ It will look like Google. Don't be alarmed.
Step two: Type in your question in the field and hit enter.
Step three: Copy the link it created at the bottom of the page.

You can now email this link to the person that asked you the question, and it will send them to a video that shows how to type their question in Google. I wouldn't advise doing this to anyone who takes themselves too serious and is your employer, but I'm sure you'll find a situation where it is applicable.

Mac things

So I've learned a couple tricks for mac recently. None of them warrant a full post, but together... well brace yourself.

The Boss is coming!
Okay, so there are times for being sneaky.  We all know it. It's always when you're shopping for your wife's Birthday present,  you're goofing off in class, or your IMing about your boss, when the person of interest walks by and looks at your computer. Well The great people at apple have thought ahead for you! Just hit Control+Shift+Eject for an instant black screen. Just FYI, things go back to normal as soon as you move your cursor, so I would recommend playing it cool till the situation resolves itself.

Oh no I closed that tab!
Safari has a cool tool in it that I only heard of recently. If you closed a tab by accident, don't panic! Just ⌘+Z that thing, and safari will bring it back!

Mail Shortcuts:
It is a horribly annoying thing to have to hit the buttons to send, reply, reply all or forward in mail. Unfortunately the shortcuts are not intuitive. So here are they are. If you don't know then, memorize them, then send gift cards to say thanks:

Send - Command+Shift+D
Reply - Command+R
Reply All - Command+Shift+R
Forward - Command+Shift+F

Mail like you're on an iPhone
Some people have really come to love the whole thread view that Mail for iPhone uses. Personally, I hate it, but that's just me. If you happen to be a fan, simply click on View in mail, and hit "Organize by Thread." Then you're $2000 computer can feel like a $500 phone.

Screen shots + Full window captures.
We all know that Command+Shift+4 will let you draw an area to capture as a screen shot. What I recently learned is that if you hit spacebar after releasing Command+Shift+4, it switched it so it captures the entire window you select.

What does that word mean again?
In most OSX programs you can look up the meaning of a word simply by highlight it, then hitting Command+Control+D. For some of you I just reduced the amount you use Google by half. You're welcome.


Geeking out.
    Most people can skip right over this, but if you're a super geek this one is for you. Go download Geek Tool from the app store. This lets you overlay your desktop background with all kinds of goodness such as system logs, activity reports, and other things that help you live like a true genius. It even interfaces with some Linux software for those of you who only dabble in OSX for something fun to try between ruling the internet.

Login Items
    Remember that one time in high school when you told Skype it was okay to load on start up? Yeah... fast forward a couple years and rebooting your computer has turned into a game of trying to force quit Skype before it has time to start sucking up all your RAM. Well, luckily this is one mistake you can undo. Go to System Preferences > Accounts. Click on your name, and above your picture to the right you will see a button that says Login Items. Click there, and turn those unwanted programs off! Just make sure not to turn off anything you don't understand.

Quitting a program without being in the program
Wanna switch between programs? Everyone knows you hit Command+Tab and it brings up a list of all the programs on your computer. While holding down Command, you can hit tab again and again to scroll through the programs. BUT I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW that while a program is highlighted, you can hit Q to quit the program or H to hide it and all of it's windows from sight. This has revolutionize my shut down process.

Finally, Switching between windows within a program
If you're like me you often have multiple windows of the same program open. You can switch between them by hitting Command+` (that is the button above Tab).


Alright that is enough for now. I'll post more later. LLAP

Don't believe the lies!

Last night I was exposed to a revisionist lie.  My wife, whom I love and trust, looked at me during the course of editing something and said, “You shouldn’t use Oxford commas! It’s not proper!”  Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t claim to be a grammar expert but I did pay attention in elementary school so I know that an Oxford comma is the way of the world. After discussing this for a few minutes, I found out that people are actually being taught that you shouldn’t use this magnificent punctuation because “It’s not proper anymore. It’s unnecessary.” In order to preserve my childhood, find out who lied to my wife, and defend the truth itself, I decided to do some research on the topic to find out what is really going on here.

If you don’t know what an Oxford comma is (also called a serial comma), it is the comma before the final conjunction in a series of items. Here is an example:

            “I went to the store to buy eggs, milk, and cheese.” (Oxford comma in bold)

Now I admit that in this example the second comma is not needed. But lets look at another one:

With:

“Last summer I went on a trip where I encountered two priests, a skateboarder, and an alcoholic.”

Without:

“Last summer I went on a trip where I encountered two priests, a skateboarder and an alcoholic.”

This time, that little comma, that wonderful little comma, changes everything. With it you have a clear and concise list of four people. Without it the sentence implies that one priest was a skateboarder while the other was a drunk. Not only is this misleading, but without an oxford comma this sentence just killed two people. The skateboard probably had a family, and the alcoholic might have been in the program, but we will never know because they have been "erased.. from history!" (said in my best Christopher Lloyd voice)

Our forefathers understood that some sentences might not need the extra comma, but many do. Since authors could unintentionally confuse their readers it was decided that all lists must use an Oxford comma. This is for the protection of your readers, and potentially your eternal soul.

You may be asking, “Why would anyone try to get rid of such an easy to use and all around wonderful mark of punctuation?” Well here is the dirty little answer: Most people don’t want it to go anywhere! Here is a list of people supporting its use, all claiming it is essential to avoiding confusion:

Team Oxford Comma: Harvard Press, The United States Government, Oxford Press, The American Medical Association, The Chicago Style Guide, The Council of Scientific Editors, the American Psychological Association, a majority of college writing handbooks, and most respectable publishers.

So who is causing all this commotion?  The Associated Press, of course. Now I understand their point. Newspapers and magazines have limited space so every little mark they can remove helps. Because of this the AP doesn't use Oxford commas unless they have to. The AP does however recognize that Oxford commas have their place! (According to the 2010 AP style guide you should avoid using the comma and save space unless the sentence requires it for clarity.)

Bottom line, don’t believe the lies! Unless you are writing for a newspaper or some other form of limited space publication, you should use an Oxford comma. Imagine how this sentence could have been had our old friend the Oxford comma not been there to save the day:

“Juan accepted the award and immediately thanked his parents, Rachel, and Jehovah God Almighty.”

The Death of Television

I’m a little angry with TV networks. They keep making fun, well-produced shows and then cancelling them once I get interested. This is nothing short of emotional abuse and it needs to stop. But why is this happening? I know people are watching the shows, but their ratings are pathetic. So I decided to do some research. Here is what I found:

There is a guy named Nielsen, well at least there was. (Actually I don’t know if he was a real person, but that point is moot.) Since the 1950s a company called Nielsen has been installing monitoring boxes in a small percentage of people’s home, watching what they watch, and then saying this is an accurate survey of what the American people care about. This has become the industry standard of judging how well a show does, and they are the only company doing it. So if Nielsen says no one is watching your show, it is taken as gospel and the network cancels it. This would make sense except that…

NEILSEN is a dirt liar! They claim to have an accurate depiction of what Americans are watching, but this isn’t true. What’s worse is that everyone knows it. Lets take a look at the data:

How the system works: From what I could find, Nielsen tracks around 20,000 households (approx. 0.0002% of American households according to the last census). Here is the interesting part: They track DVR usage differently than live TV. So lets say you want to watch two shows that are on at the same time, so you DVR one of them. If you don’t watch it the same day, your numbers are not counted right away. Then when you do watch it, you fast forward through the commercials (like all good Americans with a DVR would do). You are counted as watching the show, but your show is docked points because you didn’t watch the commercials.

Ratings are about the ads not the views: The networks want people to watch the shows, because they make money off the ads. If a show has a lot of views, but they are all skipping the ads (Fast forwarding on DVR, or changing the channel) the shows C3 rating drops, and it gets cancelled.

Then we come to the internet. A large percentage of people under 35 are ditching cable. It’s simply cheaper to watch TV on Hulu or a variety of other online services. Nielsen does keep track of online viewers, but there is a catch:

1) People usually have to wait to see the shows on Hulu. Nielsen only keeps track for 7 days, so all of those shows that make you wait a week to see the online broadcast don’t really count the online views. If you wait to watch your show till the weekend, you probably won’t be counted either because most studios go off the number from the day after the TV broadcast.  Since the online world is designed to work around your schedule, it isn’t fast enough for Nielsen and is marginalized.

2) When you watch a show online, you don’t see the same commercials. Because of this online views are counted separately, and their voice doesn’t count for much. For example, a show that 9 million online views and 1 million TV views doesn’t count as much as a show with 2 million TV watchers.

It basically boils down to this: Since technology is moving fast than our ability to track it, shows that appeal to technologically savvy people are handicapped. This explains why shows featuring spoiled rich kids are doing well, and shows with a plot line are on the verge of extinction.

Be Prepared!

A couple nights ago, there was a huge storm that passed through the area. I was working on my computer, and Rachel was working on a water color painting for work. Then, as if tempting fate, Rachel said, "Wouldn't it be horrible if the power went out right now? We would never get this stuff finished!" No more than 20 seconds later the room went dark. There was silence, followed by a simple retort: "You just had to say it..."

The power was back up a couple seconds later and we went about our evening, but it started me thinking about what would happen if the power was out for a couple days. Between natural disasters, mechanical errors,  and all the craziness the sun has been spewing out recently, I decided it was time to build an emergency kit for the house. You should make one for yours. Hopefully you won't ever need one, but if you do a little bit of effort now might just save your life.


A good natural disaster kit includes four categories of item: Food/Water, Medical/Hygienic items, and Survival gear.

Food/Water: Bottled water is cheep and might be the most essential part of your kit. You need clean water for everything! Just think about how much water you have used today. You hopefully showered, brushed your teeth, had coffee, etc... In a survival situation you need about a gallon of water per person, per day to accommodate all of your needs.

     I once read that you can survive 3 weeks without food, but personally I don't want to try it. You should plan for 2 high calorie meals a day, per person. Think about energy bars, granola, peanut butter, etc... Beyond that, stock up on some extra canned goods. They are cheap and you are going to buy them anyway. So buy a couple extra and replace them as you use them. Plan to have enough food and water for one week.


Medical/Hygienic items: Have an extra bottle of shampoo, body wash, and hand soap in the house. It will keep you from running out, and in an emergency they can help stave off all kinds of bad things.

      Get a first aid kit! It's foolish not have one. I found ours on sale for $11 and it has everything we need in it. If you don't have one, go get one right now. If you are on an prescriptions, it's a good idea to refill them before you completely run out, and keep them in a place you can get to quickly.

Survival gear: There are basically two types of emergencies. Either you bunker down in your house, or you are forced to travel. Be ready for either. Bare minimum you will need waterproof matches, a good knife, rope, extra clothes, duct tape, flashlights, batteries, cash, and your ID.


Most importantly, HAVE A PLAN! We have fire drills in schools. This week there are tornado drills throughout Virginia. We have plans for our offices and schools, so make sure to have one for your home. Talk it over with your family and friends. Make sure everyone knows what to do if there is an emergency.


Here is a great checklist I found to help you get your your survival kit in order.

Master Supply List

You can also get more information from these site:

Ready.gov
72hours.org
Red Cross

Who knows when to use whom?

Recently as I was typing an email and I couldn’t decide whether to use “Who” or “Whom.” Since my life aspirations include never sounding like the guy who works behind the counter at Bass Pro, I decided to look it up. Here is what you need to know:

WHO – This is a subjective pronoun (or nominative pronoun for you foreign language lovers). This means the person in question is the subject of the sentence, which means he/she/it is committing the action described by the verb. Here are some examples:

“Who brought the chips to the party?” (Steve brought the chips to the party.)

“Becky is the girl who runs the whole office.” (Becky runs the office)

WHOM – is a direct object. This means it is the recipient of the verb’s action. This can be tricky because most of us get this part wrong. A good rule of thumb is to answer the question or rephrase the statement in a complete sentence. Here are some examples:

“This is my son, of whom I am well pleased” (I am pleased with my son)

“Whom can we ask to call for help?” (We can ask her to call for help)

* Beware of prepositions! I can’t prove this, but I think they were originally designed to make you hate your life. Think of them as literary gremlins; they are everywhere and are trying to ruin your day. Observe:

“Everyone had a different opinion as to who they thought would succeed”

You might think this should be "whom," but this is where disappointment sets in. That pesky preposition changes everything. Since "who" is now the object of the preposition, it acts like a noun. (They thought He would succeed). If you get this wrong, don’t worry about it. Just avoid this sentence construction while speaking in libraries, English lit classes, or formal tea parties.

64 what?! BITS!

My lovely wife called me the other day because her work computer kept crashing Photoshop CS5. She was working with a freaking huge file, but her computer should have been able to handle it. After doing some research I learned two things:

1. CS5 (and the upcoming CS6) work best in 64 bit mode. In 32 bit mode (all macs prior to mid 2011) CS5 cannot use more than 2.5 gigs of RAM, even if your computer is pimped out with 512,000 gigs.

2. Most macs after 2008 have the ability to switch to 64 bit mode, if they are running snow leopard or later. (if you don’t know what your mac is, go here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3696 )

**DISCLAIMER: I don’t know what you do with your computer, but research the software you use before changing anything. Most everything plays well with 64 bit, but if you have any doubts, look it up. For instance, if you’re a musician, you will most likely have to reinstall your Avid drivers if you switch to 64 bit. (I had to, but it was easy). If you switch to 64 Bit and it’s a problem, you can always switch it back, but do your homework first.

**IF YOU HAVE A PC I can't help you, but you shouldn't be using it for graphics or audio anyway; get on ebay and buy a mac.

If you mac is able to run 64 bit, you can check to see if your computer has 64 bit turned on by clicking on “About this Mac” then hit “more info”. Scroll down and click on “Software” (left hand column). In the right column you will see a line that says:

64 Bit Kernel and Extensions: (Yes or No)

If it says yes, congrats! You can stop reading. You’re already a cool kid. If it says no, keep going!

Switching to 64 bit mode isn’t hard. There are three ways to do it.

1. Shut down your computer, and reboot it while holding the “6” and the “4” keys. This will put your computer into 64 bit mode until you shut it down again. I recommend testing it out this way, and if you like it make it permanent by doing one of the steps below.

2. I haven’t tries this, but you can open terminal and type:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

To revert back to 32 Bit type:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

3. Go to MacHD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Open the file and read through the the text until you find:

Change it to look like this: (add arch=x86_64 to the string phrase)

Then save (this will require authentication) and reboot. When I did this I had to save the file to my desktop, rename it with the .plist extension and place it into the folder. (OSX wouldn’t let me modify the document in the folder, but I could replace it)

So there you go! You can now join the 2010+ crowd and rock it like a Nintendo 64.

Bringing Back the Blog

I hate blogs. They are usually the worthless ramblings of overly opinionated, under qualified, individuals who use the internet as their personal soap box. I have no aspirations of joining their ranks, so I’m using this blog for a different purpose - Me. Let me explain:

There is an old adage that, “you learn something new every day.” It’s unfortunate, but I have to admit guilt in using this cliché once or twice in my life. Today, as I was squandering my existence on netfix, I began to ponder if this was actually true. More specifically, do I learn something worthwhile everyday? To that end, I have decided to take 5-30 minutes of my day, everyday, and learn something. This blog is going to serve as an archive of neat things I have learned so that when I forget it (an inevitable outcome of age) I can find it easily. So, this blog is for me but if you want to join me on my intellectual endeavor, feel free to check back for updates. You will be educated and entertained, but as the great philosopher Lavar Burton, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”