Archive for July, 2003

Imagine your life if you didn’t own or know how to operate a computer. Can you even do it?

Acouple of nights ago, I mentioned that I would like to see the “appear offline” feature in Messenger work better.

Apparently I am not the only one. However there is a difference between myself and this other blogger in our feelings about Messenger. I do NOT dislike the software, in fact, I like it a lot. Its a convenient IM app that I can use both at home and work to talk to so many people.

First off, as far as I know the first of his two reasons for not being able to stand Messenger relates to the fact that he has chosen “sign in automatically” for his Passport. This can be also undone by going into the options and choosing not to sign in when logging into Windows and connected to the Internet.

While the software may not completely custom made for all my needs I have to say it has come a long way over the past few years and is much better than most other chat applications I have ever used.

The newest version does a great job of allowing even the most basic users customize the interface. I expect this will help adoption rates considerably. Not to mention, messaging in ink is cool!

So while I might be able to understand why someone might be disappointed by a couple of features of Messenger. Nothing stands out strong enough to make me add it to the list of “Software I Cannot Stand“.

I am looking for somewhere online that has a decent selection of ebooks. I have quickly scanned Amazon and a couple of other common book places but find the selection pretty limited. If anyone has any good suggestions I would love to hear them.

I finally posted some of our pics from our trip a couple of weeks ago. I was waiting for Shane to do something up with them since he is the Photoshop/web guru but unfortunately he’s been too busy. So my lazy Photoshop auto-gallery will have to do for now.

This weekend I will be helping my big bro move. But hopefully the weekend after that we will get a little more camping and outdoors time in. Its been so hectic since we got back that we have resorted to being tied to our computer desks but I am determined to put a stop to that. I generally find the more I make myself get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air and sun, the more clarity and focus I obtain for the other aspects of life.

Loren has an excellent idea for messenger that I have to say I could really use. I have definitely embarrassed myself before by typing in wrong window and at the very least confused the heck out of the person I am talking to.

I would like to have more status choices than away or busy. Sometimes I find busy acts as too much of an invitation for people to message me. No idea why buts its true. In fact I would be perfectly content if I could make myself appear offline but still have the ability to message someone if I wanted to.

The good news is that my boss, Steve has told me I can continue to use his tablet indefinitely since I am getting so much use of it. Personally I think he is afraid to try and pry it out of my hands. Just kidding. Thanks Steve!

I have spent the last 2 days in a couple of design sessions with our lead architect for a new project we have coming down the pipe. The tablet is proving quite useful for us since when connected to the projector it is far more powerful that a whiteboard or standard projection could ever be. I can bring up documents, websites, or diagrams. Write directly on them, scratching down ideas and then save to our project’s Sharepoint site so that everyone can have access to all the diagrams, flowcharts, and concepts we discussed. These files also prove very helpful when I start writing more finalized documents since by converting a lot of my handwriting to text, I can cut down on a lot of needless rework.

I am still on the fence with OneNote. I like it. But I don’t love it yet. I want to love it but I need more time I guess. In the meantime, I find myself switching between it and Journal for most of my tablet use these days.

The next thing I want to do is start getting as much of my reading material as possible as ebooks. Traditionally I disliked ebooks because I never found my desk the most comfortable place to do any significant amount of reading. These days I find it a pain to use a real book. I know I know it sounds like a lot of bull. But it?s very true. Between lighting, comfort, and the lack of pages to turn, the tablet an excellent tool for catching up on many of my favorite subjects online.

Ok so it?s been a while I know. My holidays were a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the quality time with my guy not to mention enjoying the great outdoors.

We spent the first few days of our holidays in Gros Morne. I will post some photos this weekend. We took about 300 so I need to filter them a bit. Digital cameras are great when on holidays just for that reason. We took so many pictures and shot a lot of video. Then each evening we would just transfer it all over to our laptop and start off fresh again. There was a nice coffee shop in the town near our campground where we would go every morning called the “Granite Cafe”. The owner was very friendly and would let us charge up our gear.

We then spent a few days near Newfoundland’s other National Park, Terra Nova. However we didn’t stay in the actual park but a cabin that was directly on the beach. There was actually an iceberg directly in front of our cabin in the bay. A nice site for a tourist, but honestly a little cold if you are a local. We had a great time. Very cozy and fun.

Upon my return I was greeted with an over abundance of work that had to be done two weeks ago. Blarg. But all seems to be under control again now so no harm done. I can even find time to return to the blogosphere.