The Short and Sweet Guide to Being Fucking Awesome | The Best Article Every day

http://www.bspcn.com/2011/01/24/the-short-and-sweet-guide-to-b...

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/anjub

How to Find ANYTHING on the Internet

http://www.bspcn.com/2010/12/09/how-to-find-anything-on-the-in...

Looks to be a potentially exceptional web-search reference guide. Posted for later reference.

Google Voice...Let the Testing Begin

This is at least the third article I've stumbled across while browsing the web to rave about all the great things one can do with Google Voice. I hadn't seen anything about it that really interested me when I originally looked it over, but maybe I didn't give it a close enough look. If Lifehacker likes it ("one of our favorite communications tools"), then I'm inclined to at least look it over again, more closely. I'm posting this in the hopes that it'll remind me to read through the links in the article below when I have more time to do so.

Amplify’d from lifehacker.com

Google Voice is one of our favorite communication tools. Apart from the obvious (it creates one phone number that rings all your phones), you've got tons of clever ways you can put Voice to use. Perhaps the best involves setting up Google Voice with the right provider for unlimited free VoIP calling. Quick bonus: Don't forget about all the awesome ways you can take advantage of free calling in Gmail. Read more at lifehacker.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/hu69

The REAL Blog Begins NOW! —uh…OK…Right After THIS Post! …(grin)

 

Though very few (if any) of my friends and family know it, I’ve been blogging for a long time, now. Well…a few years or so, at any rate. I stopped for a period of about eight-to-ten months in the past year, due to an overwhelming number of overwhelming personal circumstances that made doing so feel…uhm…very “nonessential.” It was, undoubtedly, far less important than the many other things I was doing at the time (urg…surviving…rebuilding…etc.). Even if I hadn’t felt that way, there wasn’t really a lot of time for it. That lapse, though, was always considered to be a passing thing for me;not writing was something I would eventually get over, move past…and once my life “re-stabilized,” I felt certain, the blogging would almost certainly begin anew. (That assumption was, obviously, 100% accurate).

Yes indeedy. I am a blogger. I have blogged for many a year.

There are two points I want to make in saying that, by the way. 

The first is that I use the word “blogging” in a very generic sense. I was never a “blogger” in the sense of the real blogging that real bloggers do…you know…like the blogging “phenoms” (Daily KOS or Mashable or who\whatever). Those people that blog in a VERY public\social way and typically do it very, very WELL…many of whom even make a very real and very good living at blogging? Yeah…well…that ain’t the kind of blogging I’m talking about when I say I’ve been blogging for years. Nothing I’ve done was ever intended for public consumption…I never promoted my blogs, never sought to entertain or inform, never sought readers…never tried to be a part of any “group”…never sought to be recognized for my finely-honed writing skills, my insightful viewpoints, my eclectic eccentricities and/or my populist “flair.” Or whatever.

A blog was always, for me, just a workspace…a handy, easy-to-use, and readily accessible area where I could (and did…and do) write my personal and private thoughts down. A blog was just a place, in other words, where I kept a journal (diary, if you prefer).

[I have always kept a journal, y’all…since I was …hmmm…14 or 15, I think? A long time, anyway…at 47 years of age…very nearly 48…a very long time indeed. No surprise, then, to say that I am a strong believer in the many fundamental personal benefits … in the empirical and intrinsic creative\intellectual\emotional\psychological\etc. value … of journaling].

[I mean…duh].

A journal is, of course, a very different thing from what most people think of when they think of “blogs,” and to be perfectly honest, I myself never really even thought of it…of what I have been doing all these years…as “blogging.” Not really.

Which brings me to the second point…

I do read blogs, of course. I know, I think, the difference between a good blog and a bad one (make that, an “interesting” one and a “dull” one). I know what I’m looking for in a blog…entertainment, or information, mostly…so, I’m very well aware of the fact that what I’ve been doing with this blog…while entertaining for me, perhaps…is a bit too wordy and, let’s face it…a bit too personal ….to ever be of any real interest to other people (busy people, like ourselves). I mean…even if I was a good writer…and I most certainly am not that…this would still be a pretty bad (i.e. uninteresting) blog if all I ever did was write about ME…what I do, what I think, what I like, what I don’t like…why I like or don’t like something…Good lawd!

Blah, blah, blah, blah…who GIVES a shit, man.    

I started to pick back up with the post before…and the idea just made me nuts. I know where I was headed with that story, but I’m not sure I really even want to go in that direction anymore. We all have enough crap to read in our day-to-day lives, online or otherwise…and my “peeps” would have to really, really like me and\or what I have to say to read through a 3000+ word story that is (ultimately) just my personal take on the events (and the positive\negative results) of what I have come to unofficially call “The Microsoft-Google War.”

But…come on. If I really felt the so-called “War” was of any real significance and/or genuine relevance to my life, personally, I’d write about it in my journal, right? And that’s where it would belong. If I thought it was important and/or urgent news, I’d mention it in Facebook and my other social sites (and with far more brevity than the story has had so far). And that would, also, be appropriate and proper. But…that story was/is none of those things, really. In the end, it was just a (admittedly fun-to-write, hopefully somewhat entertaining to read, but undeniably a long and winding) story about how and why I have ended up here, writing regular posts in a blog that, for the first time ever, I do not intend to keep secret, private or hidden away somewhere (so no one else can see).

Is that a good story? I don’t really know, but I can tell you this much…I personally think it’s a façade …it’s just me trying to protect myself in one of those weird psychological ways…providing myself ways to do this and appear nonchalant, because I doubt anyone really wants to read anything I have to say, even about technology-related stuff (i.e. insecurity).   

Well…so, fine. Ok…but that was never what I intended this blog to be…and to be honest, I’m eager to get busy with the things I DID intend. 

Though I think it may have been necessary for me to explain what I’m trying to do here (open a door so that I might interact in a more meaningful way with my non-techy friends…especially my older, previously “long-lost” friends…provide some good tech advice, tips, and information…because I can). In that light, a couple of background information posts might be an OK thing to do…but after I finish this post, I think I’m gonna call that work “done,” and move on to the stuff I really wanted to do when I made the decision to go ahead and start doing this.

I haven’t ever really done a thing like this before, of course…so, sure, on occasion, I’m probably gonna get all chatty. Resisting that impulse\habit, write concisely, informatively, and engagingly…just doing a decent job with a public blog, really…this is my REAL ulterior motive, anyway. Good at it or not…I love to write. I also really enjoy technology, and I like to tell people about it…about all the things I think are really clever, really useful and/or really cool. I need some outlet for that, I think…and honestly, I don’t really have one. Many of my friends and family are not techy people…My closest people would probably prefer I get that out of my system here rather than try and talk to them about techy stuff (I get enthusiastic sometimes, and will tell anyone handy about whatever it is I find so enthusing, whether they really understand any of it or not…lol). Many of my work colleagues, oddly enough, just aren’t all that INTO tech very much any more, and so I get little outlet, there, either.  

So, here’s my outlet to train myself to be better at many thing, and at the same provide myself with an outlet for all the enthusiasm I have about these technological things that have now become integral parts of our lives.  I really think it’s gonna be fun…

To Write Thusly, Amuses Me Greatly…Truly

 

A LOOSELY WRITTEN POST REGARDING BLOGS and (FREE) BLOGGING SERVICES…SORTA

"About the Free Blogs --"

"Free blogs? WTF? There all free, you moron. You mean to tell me that you honestly peruse elitist corporate drone / swine blogs that actually charge you? Like...real money?"

"No, no...I mean, like this. This 'Blogger' place you're operating out of…"

"You mean free Blogging Services, idiot ...or Blogging Service Providers...not free blogs…"

"Yeah, that...you know anything about that? About how to do all of this...the best places to do it, maybe...that sort of thing?"

No, not really.

Not very much, anyway.

I mean...I use Wordpress, but that's really only because Microsoft bailed on its "Live Spaces" venture\tactic\gambit ...(pick your own favorite term).

[I know that probably reads like I'm unhappy about that; like I'm bitching about that].

[Yeah, bitching….bitching about Microsoft ("Microfrost" is more like it)…like I'm bitter or something, bitter at Microsoft for just bailing on Live Spaces...just giving up on it...just up and quitting on it, on us….pushing us away...all of us...the newbs, the trolls, the bro's, the ho's and us...US!  The long-term "Live Spaces" users...the devoted, dedicated, and committed "Live Spaces" users...users, such as myself and many others, just like me...we, who kept our private "online journals" there… we, who wrote down all of our genuinely important words there… we, who gave of ourselves, there...who had dutifully, respectfully, and lovingly edited our HTML there, our CSS there, our scripts, our lists and yes, our exquisite prose there...we, who had published there, frequently ...and by so doing, had promoted them...the callous and mercenary Microsoft machine...promoted them for years...WE are told to grab our shit and just get the fuck out...”go to Wordpress, scum, and take your shit, your junk, over there…”]

[Bitching like that, ya mean?] 

But, uhm, no...I'm not.

Wordpress is awesome.

"Wordpress? You mean Blogger, right?...or Blogspot...or whatever the hell this is…right? Or what? You have another blog? Besides this one?"

"Yeah, I have another blog, genius...thanks fer askin'. Whattaya want? A nickel?"

[I’m so mean to that guy…really, I am…I really should lighten up on him a tad, shouldn’t I?]

I have TWO other blogs, actually.

But those...those are my own…my secret and sacred spaces in which I clarify and define my understanding of life, meaning, of the world as I know it, and of my place in it…and another where I unload my baggage. But these…"these are not for the likes of you." (grin)

[Three, come to think of it...if you count that lame-ass shit that I played around with for a little while, provided by the (otherwise quite excellent) web-browser, Opera.

Heh…yeah…”played around with for a little while”...like, maybe a day. Jeez...whatta-piece-of-crap that was].

But I digress…

I also use Blogger (obviously) and it's pretty nice, as well. No real complaints. It’s swell as hell, and all that (But honestly...I think I like Wordpress better, really...when all is said and done, I mean. It has a lot more blog "themes" [i.e. designs], for one thing...and I think most of theirs look better than any in Blogger's meager collection, for another. Hell, maybe that's the only thing, really...I haven't really thought very deeply about it, after all...but that's something that I know I genuinely care about. I likes my prose to look pretty).

The fact is, though, the only reason this blog is on Blogger is simply because I was curious about something and, more importantly, I wanted to be fair. To Google.

Allow me to explain...

You see, I had, when I started on this latest writing jag (and still have, actually)...a vision…a vision, of myself, writing this great big, exhaustively-tested, exquisitely researched, comprehensive, daring, honest, unflinching, enthusiastic, multi-part, technical-journalism "thing."

(...er...I think they call those things "an article"...or, in your case, an "essay," a "treatise," a "freakin' novel"...hahahahahahahaheh...*ahem*)

I had rediscovered a passion to write, and so, I decided I would write a "thing."

A "thing" about…

Well, that's just it. The "about" part started out as this little-bit-of-nothin-much-ta-talk-about…but very soon thereafter, the scope kind of… grew…

And grew...and grew. (And thus, a decision to write a "multi-part" piece was born).

Initially it was to be about Microsoft's most recent Windows Live /Office Live promotional initiatives, starting with their (completely free...and surprisingly good) Microsoft Security Essentials software.

Ya see...for the most part, I had lost touch with tech and tech news over the past two years or so... having all that divorce, familial betrayal, sporadic employment, couch-surfing\living-in-my-car, string-of-bad-relationships stuff to keep me occupied. But now, life has gotten on track again, and I’m back in the biz, again, and there are things I should do for my colleagues, just because I can. So, I'm doing some research for this new-hire training/orientation/acclimation piece, and I need to tell them where to go get their anti-virus software, and I happen to read about this MS Security Essentials software. "Interesting," thinks I. Microsoft has moved passed the mere (weak-ass) malware defense stuff (Windows Defender, et. al.) and gone ahead and put out a full-blown antivirus\antimalware product. That was really kind of a surprising move on their part, actually...in my opinion.

And one of these days, I'm probably going to get around to telling you why I found\find that surprising (no…it's not why you'd think). but that day is not today.

Well...mere days after catching wind of this new (and free) security-based product from Microsoft that, amazingly enough, tech people…tech-people in-the-know, as I like to call 'em…actually like (oh...did I mention that it's good? As in, really good? As in, quite possibly the best free antivirus/anti-malware/rootkit protection and real-time detection software out there, right now? Opinions vary, I'm sure, about who\what belongs in the top spot, but almost all the tech reviewers of note agree… MS done did dis one right).

Anyway, as I was saying...mere days after, I'm reading about "Windows Live Essentials 2011," another free bundle (they like to call them "suites," if I recall correctly) of various and sundry software.

What's in it? A lot of really, really nice shit, actually...but I didn't know that at the time. The one that caught my eye...the only piece that caught MY eye, actually, (and immediately, at that), was the new version of Windows Live Writer.

To be continued...

An Introduction to My “Tech” Blog

I can't recall the specific time-frame that social networks such as MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook started noticeably growing in popularity...when they started really taking off, making headlines, etc. I could easily look that up, I know, but to say that I don't know when it happened illustrates a point I want to make about these sites and services...and about me.

I don't know when it started happening because, when it did (and for a couple of years afterwards), I didn't care.

I mean, I was IN the technology biz by then, and had been for quite some time. So, of course, I was aware of them. I was aware that they existed and, based on my preferred reading material at the time, I probably knew a little more about them than maybe as much as 90% of the active users did (i.e. underlying technologies, how they worked, etc.). But, apart from a mild interest in the technological advancements and innovations derived from the explosive popularity growth of these sites and services, they held very little personal interest for me, back then. I never really saw them as significant or meaningful…and even as the popularity of all this grew, I pretty much held firm to the idea that engaging in activities of that sort were simply not something I would ever care to do. 

But over the years, having lost touch completely with almost all the people I had known and loved back in High School and points beyond, you do occasionally wonder what ever became of this person, that one, or the other. I remember looking for a few old friends back in the day (before MySpace and Facebook became such a phenomenon)...and having very little success at it. Of the two or three I managed to find (or who found me), I almost immediately lost contact with them again, soon after.  (It was a weird time in my life. Nuff said. ) One in particular I had looked for was Steve Smith. It didn't take long to realize that finding a "Steve Smith" (or any "Smith") in the vastness of the world was simply not a goal with any realistic chances of success.

After separating with my wife of twenty years, I started taking a "fresh" and "new"  look at social networking sites, I guess you'd say… largely from a "meeting new people" and "dating" perspective. I joined a couple local ones, a couple that were specific to dating, but only MySpace held any real interest for me as far as (true) social networking sites went. It was fun, at first, but I grew to hate MySpace after awhile...just too over-the-top, most of the time… too "busy" …and on an old and slow computer...GWAGH!...it could be a mind-numbing and painful experience.

A broken friendship (in real life...long story...personal, and not interesting) as well as a desire for something a little more "subdued" in style ("grown-up," if you prefer), led me to part ways with MySpace and move to Facebook. 

And an interesting thing happened, almost immediately. Within...I kid you not...five or ten minutes of joining Facebook, the long-lost friend mentioned above, Steve Smith, found (and contacted) me. I was dumbfounded.

He was the first of many that I would reconnect with in the following months, and though I participate far less than most (it seems), I do check it every day (or almost so), and I admit that I have come to enjoy it very, very much.

Many of my the people in my friends list, I haven't seen in years. Decades, really…

And as thrilled as I am to have reconnected with so many of them, I'm always so busy, it seems. My life has been like that for a long time, now, really...just not enough time to do all the things I'd like to, or as well as I'd like to. So, my life…it seems to me…just isn't really conducive to writing lots of (probably lengthy) messages explaining things like "what I've been doing for the last 20+ years of my life."

And yet, without that...without taking the time to catch up...without disclosing something about at least some of the "life changes" that I've been through in the years past, since last we met ...reconnecting loses something it might have otherwise had: a sense of renewing the once-important friendship we shared. The sense of picking up where we left off...even if only a little. To have that, we need to share what has happened to us, where we've been, what we done, and what impact all of it has had on us. These stories provide the context we need to make a simple reconnection into something a little more meaningful to both of us...a renewed and active relationship, perhaps (even if it is a long-distance or almost exclusively online relationship). 

How and why I got into IT (Information Technology), for instance…

I can imagine the questions that some of my oldest friends might ask, remembering only the person I was back in high school or the military. Why didn't I go into a creative field? Why didn't I become a comic book artist, an actor, a psychologist or a teacher (or whatever else we all once thought I might be great at)? What is it that I actually do in IT? Have I been successful at it? Am I any good at it?

Knowing the answers to those questions might go a long way towards explaining why, of all the blog "types" I could have chosen, I have created a so-called "Tech" blog. It might explain, too, why I think some of the people I know (or knew, once upon a time) might actually care about what I have to say here. 

So, let me try to tell that story...answer some of those questions...as briefly and concisely as I can (hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahah…..heh).

From High School onward, I suppose:

I joined the Air Force because I really, really wanted to leave Va. Beach at the time (reasons that felt painful and personal then, but seem naïve and a little silly to me, now), and I really wanted to go to college, but had no other way to pay for it (that I knew of). The Air Force satisfied both of those needs, to one degree or another. I left for the Air Force at 20 years of age, a mere thirteen days away from my 21st birthday (turned 21 in Basic Training, in fact). A few months in Texas for training (Basic and Security Police Technical Training were both in San Antonio). Home for a month afterwards...and from there, I went to Berlin, Germany as a member of the 6912th Electronic Security Group, where I remained for the next four years. I saved as much money as I could with the program the USAF set up for that purpose, and at the end of my four year term, the decision I had to make was very different than when I had started...the decision was whether to stay in the USAF (I mean, it was a great job, with a million different opportunities I could have pursued), or to get out and go to college as originally planned.

Who knows what all might have been different had I chosen differently, but I ultimately decided it was best for me to leave the military and do what I had said I was going to do: go to college, earn my degree. I would pursue a Master's degree, my major would be Psychology, and working with children was what I felt certain I would ultimately do. A fine plan...a good plan.

My mom had lived alone in Va. Beach the last two years before I returned home. She wanted to move back to Louisville (where I and my siblings were born...where most of the rest of her family lived), and I guess I didn't feel a strong sense of...home?  Kinship? Whatever the word\feeling is...I guess I just didn't feel it towards Va. Beach any longer. My mom, on the other hand...her, I loved a great deal. Being able to take her back to Louisville was, I felt, a fine thing, a good thing...and if it meant I would never live in Virginia again, so be it (though, honestly... I had intended to return, eventually).

.

I hit Kentucky running. A new job, a new place, outstanding SAT scores and enrollment in college (University of Louisville) within a year of landing there. And I pursued that educational goal religiously for the next nine and a half years (a mix of full-time and part-time coursework). During that time, I worked at a lot of different places, doing a lot of customer service, manual labor and/or management work. I met...and within a year, moved in with...the woman who would one day become my wife...we raised our daughter...and we lived our life together. In short...I had a life, I lived my life, and for the most part, I loved my life.

In the ninth year of school, something…happened.

Probably part nervous breakdown, part awakening...I became completely disillusioned with Psychology. I felt it lacked the qualities that the hard sciences had...the fact-based, verifiable truth that all other scientific fields of study had. I felt that choosing a preferred sub-field or emphasis was asking me to make a choice between "hoodoo," "magic," and "utter bullshit." These are things I no longer believe at all, mind you...I have profound respect for the work psychologists do, and credit them with salvaging my life, even...but at the time, I believed quite strongly that Psychology was false, and I honestly felt I could no longer continue to pursue an education, much less a career, in something I didn't believe in. 

I left school that year, intending only to take a single semester off, maybe two. I would give myself some time, I thought...time to think about what I wanted to do…what I could do…if it wasn't going to be Psychology. It was harder...making that decision...than I had ever anticipated. For the next six months or so, I felt genuinely lost...adrift...and deeply depressed. (Irony: giving up on and writing off as a useless waste of time the one thing I probably really needed at the time: psychological therapy. Fred works in mysterious ways...hmmmm?)

We used our tax refund that year to buy a computer. I remembered how much easier it made school-work such as writing papers, for instance (though I had only used one once or twice before). I remembered how much easier it made budgeting and other spreadsheet-based work. Though a hefty expense at the time, we found it relatively easy to justify. Whatever...lots of reasons...and so, we bought one. And my life changed...fundamentally...and forever.

I found I had not only a immense fascination with technology but also a natural affinity for it. As with anything that really fascinates me, I learn fast and remember what I've learned exceptionally well. I credit fascination for this, exclusively...the idea of software as tools that can improve or make more efficient all the things I do; tools that get me things I want and/or me want to do more...it tends to feed on itself. Within a year I knew I had found the career interest, the career field that would replace Psychology.

So...I make my living now in IT (Information Technology). My first job that could be called computer-related was little more than unboxing thousands of new computers for a local manufacturing firm; carting them out to the hundreds of offices, and plugging them in. Within two years, I was the manager of four teams of people, having been promoted five times in that two years. Everything in business and in IT's support of business is essentially one puzzle\challenge after another and, as it turned out, I was exceptionally gifted at solving puzzles and figuring out solutions.

Throughout a wide and varied career, the fascination never really waned. I learn some cool new thing almost every day, and of late, I have really wanted to share what I find. I also developed an intense desire to write lately...I guess I just feel an urge to contribute more than I ordinarily do...than I have done. I don't feel my personal life is very interesting, very often (I also worry about potentially\accidentally sharing too much about the important people in my life, hurting them or embarrassing them).

Those are the reasons, then, why this blog came to be...and why it is a "Tech" blog. It's something that I know and know well...it's something I am fascinated with and enthusiastic about. It is also something I can write about, safely...harming none and, if I'm lucky, helping some others.

I'm genuinely looking forward to it.