Lifehacking - Tips - Use old socks to protect hardwood floors (and toes)

I love our hardwood floors.  We worked really hard as a family to install them, and we do our best to keep them in good shape, including making some of our beds wear socks on their feet.  Originally this started as an attempt to protect our toes from being stubbed in the night on bed legs, but it has proven so effective at protecting the hardwood floors that I had to share this tip with you.

Tips for Successful Video Conferencing

Video conferences are a convenient way to save money, and time and environmental impact, while still getting work done. They are hi-tech and still relatively new which may make them intimidating. Nobody wants to look foolish, much less in a business setting and even less on video that might even be recorded. If you put in the time and planning, your video conferences can be smooth and effective.

Video tips that will help you improve what your video conference attendees SEE.

Look at the camera

It may feel strange, but you shouldn't spend all your time looking at the people on your screen, especially when you are speaking. The best place to look while speaking is directly at the camera. Your participants will get the impression that you are looking right at them. This creates a better connection between them and you.  To help with this, you can position the camera as close as possible to the screen so your eyes don't have far to travel.  This results in near eye contact when you are looking at the screen.  Eye contact is important for interpersonal communication. If the camera cannot be place close to the screen, then consider practicing facing and talking into the camera, not looking at the other party's image. You want to avoid the situation where you have two people watching each other watching their computer screens.

The Lighting

Hollywood movies have lighting designers for a reason.  Light is important for video.  Have plenty of light on your face. If you don't, you may appear as a silhouette. Also try to eliminate shadows. A shadow of your hand, for example, looks like another hand to the camera, so the motion of that shadow results in twice as much motion handling as it would normally do, with a subsequent reduction in perceived video quality.

The Setting

The location that you chose to do your conference from will say something about you. Other than the obvious point that what you have on your desk and behind you will make impressions on your participants, what is in that background can be detrimental to your video quality. Try to have a clean or bare background with a neutral color. Keep all camera-visible areas neat and decluttered. You will look better on screen, so as much as you have control in your work environment, be mindful of the background for your video conference. 

The Clothes

What you wear can alter the hue of your skin, and possibly distract your video conference attendees.

• Avoid wearing clothing that has bright colours and busy patterns. 
• Wear plain or fabrics of muted colours like pastels.
• Avoid bold colors, especially red and black
• Avoid jewelry that may brush against microphones or tabletops and cause feedback
• Solid shades of blue or gray generally bring out healthy skin tones and do not create a visual distraction. 
• On a television monitor, black and white clothing colors can also enhance the skin tones, 
• Avoid too sharp or too little contrast between your clothing and your skin and hair tone.
• Avoid wearing bold red, green and orange, as these colors can cause an unfriendly hue for your skin

Be in the picture

Frame yourself in the picture by practicing with your camera prior to the meeting.  You want to avoid disappearing off of the screen.  Knowing how far you can lean will help you stay on-screen during the conference.

You might consider using your mouse as your anchor point. Holding on to the mouse naturally while setting up your camera may help you maintain a good sense of where you are. 

As you move back and forth be aware that the camera may exaggerate your motion. 

Because movement is compressed and decompressed in videoconferencing, it is important that motion be minimized.

Audio tips that will help you improve what your video conference attendees HEAR.

 

OK, assuming that we all know how to use a phone, or talk in a normal meeting, videoconferencing is a little different because of audio delays, a general unfamiliarity of how to behave around a live microphone, and the loss of queues a face to face meeting would otherwise provide.


Mute is your friend. use it.
An issue specific to virtual meetings is the mute button. Mute buttons are essential to having a well-ordered and quiet meeting, and their use should be encouraged. This minimizes interruption such as coughing, sneezing, and paper shuffling.  Being aware of muted attendees allows you to give attendees a few extra seconds to respond to questions. By allowing them time to unmute themselves.  Limit verbal interruptions by providing non-verbal feedback through, nodding or shaking your head.  Some video conference systems drop the other party's audio when the microphone is active, so mute avoids unnecessarily dropping the other's audio.


Speak Clearly
Clearly enunciate and speak more slowly than the normal rate of speech. Auditory dynamics such as pitch, tone, volume, pausing, and pacing are crucial during a video conference.  Audio compression may remove parts of the audio so careful speech improves the chance that your message will be received clearly


Verbal acknowledgement and identification

• Address people by name especially for questions
• Acknowledge individual comments and ideas
• Identify yourself (and your site if appropriate) before speaking if there are more than three participants
• Ask participants to raise their hand if they wish to speak
• Allow a couple seconds for transmission delay when speaking; 
• Pause after the end of your comments to allow time for remote sites to respond to a question or comment

Etiquette tips that will help you improve the flow of your video conference.

Etiquette

• Direct questions or comments to a particular person or site (especially important in multipoint conferences)
• If participating in a large multi-point meeting, it is advised that you say your name and location each time you speak
• Avoid side conversations
• Announce actions to the others when possible  (e.g. John from HR has just joined us here)
• If your video conference session is primarily a presentation/lecture, it is recommended that the "audience" mute their microphones. 

Bonus Video
Here is a great, funny video from the University of Washington which highlights some good video conference practices. (worth a watch).
http://www.digitalwell.washington.edu/rcuwtvdownload/uwtv_vidcon_ipodv.m4v  (7:40)


Source credits:
http://ezinearticles.com/?10-of-Our-Favorite-Video-Conferencing-Tips&id=1382277
http://www.tss.uoguelph.ca/cts/vidcontip.html
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/distancelearning/videoconferencing/tips.html
http://www.video-conferencing.com/presentation.html
http://www.packetizer.com/ipmc/vctips.html




Cheers, I hope you find these video conferencing tips helpful.
Greg.

Google Maps provides Free Real-Time Traffic Information in Canada

I assume you are already familiar with Google Maps. You have probably stared at satellite images of your house from space, planned the best route from your current location to a street address, and looked at maps to measure distances. Maybe you've even tried Google Building Maker to create photo-realistic 3d buildings in your city.  Possibly you've noticed the upgraded appearance of road-maps lately, but there is more... Google is now giving you more

Previously only available in the United States, Google Maps has released Real-time traffic information for Google Maps in Canada. I'm happy to say that I saw this one coming, requested it from the Google Maps team, and watched with interest as it was launched in Seattle and featured on the Google Maps blog.

Today I noticed my colleague had Google Maps open in Greater Vancouver WITH traffic information!!! Apparently it launched at about the same time as Google StreetView.

Here's how it works...

To see Real-Time traffic in Google Maps, open up maps.google.com and after the map loads, zoom in a bit and choose the "traffic" button. A legend will appear. Green=good Yellow=ok Red/Maroon=Bad Black=ReallyBad. On the map coloured lines will appear on top of the routes, showing you where the slowdowns are and which roads are flowing smoothly. Experiment with zooming in and out to see traffic for larger or smaller roadways.

Google Mobile Users can also access this information from their Blackberry or other compatible device. From the Menu in Google Maps Mobile, choose "show traffic", let it load and voila, colours on the roads. My favourite feature of Google Maps Mobile is "hitting zero" and having the application guess my location and center me in the middle of the map. Originally this feature used cell phone tower information to triangulate my approximate location and I would see a nice blue circle around me (your position within 1300 meters) as Google did it's best to guess where I was. Usually pretty good, but switching to a phone with GPS brought the guess to withing 3 meters. (9 feet for my friends in the USA). Now if I hit "zero" I can watch myself cruising down the road colour coded for the kind of traffic I'm about to drive into. Google Maps Mobile users can also contribute real-time traffic information from their cell phones by signing up for and logging into Google Latitude.

So where is Google getting all this real time traffic data, did they really dig up all the roads and put sensors in? or are they tracking us with real time military satellites?... no. Google's "Latitude" service allows you to share your location with friends (and Google) using your mobile phone. If you don't have a GPS in your phone you'll still get the triangulation data for your location to share with your friends, but it may not be good enough for contributing to traffic... So anyways, your GPS information is shared with Google whenever you are logged in that will definitely put some "mileage" on your cell phone's data plan. I'm just saying be aware of it if you pay per MB/GB. If the Google traffic robot sees one phone going down the road, it has an idea of speed, but if it sees a whole bunch, it can start being confident of the road's speed. Freeways/Interstates have higher speed limits than arterial roads etc. A little bit of algorithm work to allow stoplights to function without making the whole city look like a traffic jam... and voila.

Today i had the distinct pleasure of watching myself drive down the road, and seeing the traffic information being drawn on behind me as I went. I guess I was the Latitude user with the GPS equipped phone that tipped the scales and gave Google the confidence to draw the traffic on the map. It feels good! Now we have an option to "flipping on the radio" and weathering the annoying advertisements when we see the freeway crawling to a halt.


Cheers, I hope this saves you and your friends a TON of traffic headaches!

I can't wait to see what Google Maps does next...
Greg.

Backyard Vegetable Gardens & Michael Pollan's 20 Food Rules for more Healthy Eating

Growing up we had a vegetable garden, Mom speaks of the vegetable garden her family had growing up, Grandma tended it and took after the example of her Mom, Grandma May, who was a pioneer crossing the prairies in one of those red river carts.  Those folks knew how to avoid wasting food, probably because they also knew what real hunger felt like. They knew about picking high-bush cranberries, about making jam and preserves, and of course making home-made bread.  Many of the necessary ingredients came straight from the garden, whether it was cukes for pickling or raspberries growing on canes in the garden, or tomatoes, carrots and other veggies amply supplied by the ground.  How natural is that?  Somehow after my family moved to BC in the late 80s we never gave a vegetable garden a second thought.  (Despite more favourable growing conditions.)  For almost 20 years I have been falling under the delusion that vegetables come from the produce section and not from the dirt.  Recent documentaries like super-size me the "Meatrix" and others have raised some significant questions for me about where my food comes from and how healthy it is.

So...

Today I started digging my garden.  It is another in a series of small steps I'm taking to eat food that is more healthy and more socially responsible.  I'm tired of eating without thinking as if in a waking sleep.  I want to put good foods in my body, and foods that have been produced, prepared and transported in a responsible manner. Some of you have heard of the 100 mile diet (now a book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating) in which people attempt to only eat food that has traveled less than 100 miles to their plate.  To me the backyard garden is about as close as you can get in transportation cost and processing. With my recent rain-barrel project, I have 200L of (non-chlorinated) rainwater available to water the garden.

For me I can't get it "perfect" it isn't about perfection, its about direction.  Am I moving towards health or away from it?  For this reason I really enjoyed reading Michael Polland's collection of "food rules" that his readers sent in. Michael Polland has authored books like; The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire, and Second Nature: A Gardener's Education.  The list reads like a "Cole's Notes" of collective food wisdom served in bite sized chunks.

I absolutely love this kind of reading, discovering what has worked for others outside of my experience, beyond my culture.  I was taught to "clean my plate" to not waste food.  I was more recently taught to eat until I was full.  The idea expressed above of stopping when 7/10ths full was full is brand new to me, but judging from my wasteline, this might be the best advice to date!  (We'll see how I do with the application of this rule).

Check out Food Rules: Your Dietary Dos and Don'ts (via Lifehacker)

Cheers,

Greg.

My Best Cell Phone Tips and Tricks

Get 411 for any business listing without paying.
Instead of paying your cell phone provider $1 or $2. Try Goog-411 Put 1-800-4664-411 on your speed-dial and use their voice recognition to find business listings in your area. In my experience the voice recognition is acceptable as long as someone isn't trying to talk to you at the same time. The listings tend to be useful although where they get their listings isn't exactly clear and some businesses don't appear. The good news is that most do return correct information. Advantages include:

• Handsfree dialing while in traffic
• No cost for the service
• Free connection to the listing anywhere in North America (so if you lookup a business in another state/province, that long distance call doesn't cost any more than a call to the 1-800 number)

More info here: http://www.google.com/goog411/

Use handsfree dialing via a Bluetooth headset

Today's bluetooth "handsfree headsets" are a completely different experience than the disappointing "handsfree" headsets that came with your phone when you first purchased it. I remember my disappointment when I first learned that my cell phone's "handsfree" headset consisted of half a pair of stereo earbuds (with a microphone). My disappointment turned to irritation as I would shoulder-check in traffic and the wire would pull the earphone out of my ear. Today's bluetooth headsets make dialing as easy as scratching your ear.

Do make sure you get a headset that is comfortable on your ear (it should not fly off when you rapidly shoulder check). Pay special attention to the noise and echo cancellation features. (The issue is that the people you talk to can hear an echo which degrades their listening experience.)

It is possible to get a decent bluetooth headset for $30 CAD, but consider the sets with better echo cancellation.

One nice bonus with phones which support voice dialing from your address book like the Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Bold is that dialing a number while driving is as simple as touching the headset on your ear and telling the phone who you want to call.

Power Managment Tips to Save your batteries

Despite battery advances, more features using data from the cell network means more radio transmission and often shorter battery life (before your next charge). By making a few changes you can stretch your battery life to double or better;

• Start by adjusting the screen brightness so it is only as bright as you need it to read clearly. Some phones auto adjust brightness for the ambient light to save power.
• Configure your ringtone profiles to not use vibrate unless you need a vibrate only option. The electric motors used in the vibrator function use more power than a speaker playing a ringtone.
• If your phone supports it schedule an "auto-on" and "auto-off" time when your phone will turn itself on our off on weekdays and weekends. Mine turns on at 6AM and off at 10PM weekdays.
• If you have an older phone, ensure your phone is set to use digital mode when possible rather than analog, this way it will use less power.
• If you use bluetooth, turn it off whenever you are not actively using the bluetooth as this second radio transmitter (after the cellular radio) uses a significant amount of power. Consider assigning a 'quick access' key to enable and disable your bluetooth for fast access.
• Try speaking in a squeaky high pitched voice as high pitches require less power to transmit. Nah, just kidding that last one is a complete lie I just threw in for fun.

Text Safely

Pull over or wait for a red light to type in addresses or text messages. Texting and driving while tempting is probably the most dangerous thing you can do while driving.

Use web enabled applications to extend your phone's functionality

Google Mobile tops my list of useful applications, you can get started at http://www.google.com/mobile with;

• Search (including voice search which allows you to just ask google your query)
• Gmail meaning all of your contacts and emails are handy
• Google Maps (which supports GPS if you have it, but will work fine using cell tower triangulation)

Quick Access to;

• Google News
• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Google Reader
• more...

Customize your ring tones for subtlety

Subtle ringtones can allow you to answer your phone before people bust you for leaving your ringer on.

If you are 30 or under, consider an ultrasonic ringtone. The idea is that as humans age they lose their ability to hear very high pitch noises, so it is possible if you are the youngest person in the room that you might be the only one who can hear your phone ringing. (very subtle, and apparently something high school teachers are having "trouble" monitoring.) Find some here: http://www.ultrasonic-ringtones.com/ (via LifeHacker). Or record your own subtle ringtone (tapping, a snap noise, water running) something that doesn't sound like a "normal ringtone."

Make use of free digital transcription

Option A

Use your existing voicemail to record "notes to self" for later retrieval. When working on a difficult problem, apart from the benefit of talking out ideas, having the ability to capture an idea verbatim is very helpful when you find yourself between home and office with nothing to write on.

Option B

Use free services like dial2do which allow you to call, record a message, and have them transcribe the message and email it to you. Frequently I phone dial2do, say reminder, and dictate what I need to pick up at the store while I'm driving. In the store I just open up my gmail and there is my shopping list.

Max out your speed dial list

Speed dial is faster and safer than using your address book. Make sure that you have numbers handy that you might need in a hurry.

• Add the local traffic radio station because often not only can you report traffic, you can ask them what is going on and get an answer faster than by listening to the radio.
• Add your local "commercial vehicle enforcement" tip line to report those scary truck drivers and perhaps save a life
• If you travel through several communities on your commute, add local emergency services for each community
• consider the "city engineering" departments for flooding / wires down and other road related hazzards you will encounter.
• Add your work's general number so that you can hit the voice recognition engine and voice dial anyone in your company. (or let the receptionist connect you which is safer than you looking them up in your address book while driving)
• Last but not least, add your home number so you can let your spouse or roommate know when you'll be home for dinner.

OK, so that rounds out the list of my best cell phone tips and tricks. Let me know what your tips are in the comments section.

Cheers,

Greg.

Saving water 2 - water conservation tips

It has been a long time since I shared some tips for conserving water, so I'll add some more that I think are quite effective. The first one is really the most amazing one, because in no way does it reduce the way we enjoy and use water, but it makes a huge difference to our "water bill". In fact one of our neighbours wanted to compare their bill with ours and we found that with 4 people in our house, we were using almost half the water they used with 3 people in their house.

Install "low flow" aerators on all your taps.

What this does is mix air in with the water so that you still feel the "pressure" you would normally, but with less water being used. At our house the following flow rates work quite well for us:

• Bathroom sinks (hand washing and tooth brushing) 1.5 GPM (Gallons per minute)
• Kitchen sink (filling pots and washing things) 2.5 GPM
• Shower head 2.5 GPM

Installation only requires a pair of plyers.

1. Look for and read any small writing on the spout of your tap, look right where the water falls out (this is in case you already have one). You are looking for a number and GPM (or LPM if you are metric)
2. Purchase an aerator for your tap
3. Cover your tap's spout with a piece of cloth to prevent the plyers from scratching, and remove the round piece on the end of your tap's spout.
4. Screw your aerator back on there to replace that piece.
5. Save water

Buy a timer for your garden hose

For $6-$14 you can purchase a mechanical hose timer (no batteries required) that will let you water your lawn for increments of 15 minutes up to 2 hours. Very handy in places where there are watering restrictions. This way you can start your watering and not need to fear wasting water, while at the same time, not needing to come back at a specific time. Most models come with an option to "bypass" the timer allowing for on/off operation like normal.

Water your yard more effectively

Water your garden and lawn in the early morning or in the evening when the sun and the day's heat is not likely to evaporate your water.

Use pinholes in bottles of water to target irrigation right to the stalks of the plants you want to water. (2Litre pop bottles and 2Litre waxed cardboard milk containers work effectively.) Fill them up and leave them unattended to supply your plants with a slow and steady amount of water that won't flood them.

Turn off your water supply to your toilets before you vacation

If you have a slow leak in your toilet, while you are on vacation, your toilet will faithfully continue filling itself which wastes lots of water. If your toilet tank cracks for some reason and starts to leak onto your floor... your toilet will faithfully continue filling itself which wastes lots of water and destroys the floor, walls and anything else that gets in the way. Do yourself a favour, if you are going away for a couple nights camping or traveling, turn off the water supply and flush your toilet (you can usually time the flush so you don't waste any water ;-) ) This small step can not only save you from wasted water, but it can protect your house against the unlikely but nasty situation where a toilet decides to convert your house into a giant aquarium.

Use a rain barrel for watering your garden.

My relatives have a giant plastic rain barrel at the side of their house which catches water from the downspouts that drain from their roof. If the barrel is full, the water diverts like normal to the downspout and out onto the lawn, otherwise, a mesh cover on top keeps the barrel clean from debris and that soft rainwater that plants love so much is available for watering on weeks when there isn't a lot of rain falling. By positioning the barrel on the side of the house that is a little higher and elevating the barrel with a platform, a hose at the bottom provides adequate pressure for flowing into drip irrigation hoses and the like.

OK, I'm all out of ideas. I'd love to hear yours. Check out the previous post linked above and if you've got something new, or comments about these methods. Let everybody know down below in the comments section.

Cheers,

Greg.

Save Gas Right Now - Strategies for going farther on a litre of gas.

I found a useful article today on http://beyondoil.nrdc.org today. What caught my eye was the honest attempt to monetize the effect of the gas saving tips. With free advice being readily available, but not always of great quality I thought this angle helped lend credibility to the gas saving tips they were sharing. Perhaps nothing in their article is revolutionary, but it was a nice compilation of tips for saving gas.

In a nutshell

Maintaining your car well Potential savings: Up to $271 a year

including advice to: Remove heavy items from your trunk and roof racks can improve fuel economy by 2 percent.

Driving Smarter Potential savings: Up to $294 a year

including advice to: Ease up on the pedal. Slowing down from 75 to 65 miles per hour will drop your highway gasoline consumption by about 15 percent. In town, avoiding rapid acceleration and aggressive driving can improve fuel economy by up to 5 percent.

Driving Less Potential savings: Up to $236 a year

including advice to: Share a ride to work, telecommute or use transit. If each commuter car carried just one more passenger once a week, we would cut America's gasoline consumption by more than 50 million gallons each week.

So head on over to the National Resources Defence Council for the full article "Save Gas Right Now"

Save Time and Reduce Waste with Better Handling of Flyers & Community Newspapers

I don't like clutter.  I know advertising works (which explains the billions spent on it) the question is...  Why would I subject myself to advertising and allow my house to be cluttered just to give someone else my money?

Four times a week we receive a community newspaper.  Now the paper is mostly ads, advertisements, paid advertising and ads.  There are relevant local articles, but it hardly seems worth the "filtering" to get to the content.  Out of 40 printed pages, I'd guess 4 or less actually contain news.  Now I don't believe in mindlessly reading advertisements (and don't know anyone who will admit to this), but I must admit my relationship to the printed newspapers that appear on my mailbox has been undergoing a transformation.

I was curious what the impact was on my time and on the environment to handle all the paper associated with the unsolicited flyers and community newspapers I receive. To try and estimate the impact on my city, I'm assuming everyone in town does exactly what I do, and I'm believing the newspaper's circulation figures (averaged to 40,000 per paper) which I found on the Internet.  You will see some high dollar figures here, and this is because the cost to consumers is generally left out of the equation and ignored... Retailers don't incur that cost, it is the consumer's problem, so why would anyone bother to track or estimate that cost...  This is only a rough but fair estimate.  Now I'd love to make this more accurate, so if you take issue with the numbers, do us all a favour and contribute some research.  Here is the transformation in chronological order:

Handling Flyers and community newspapers (original version 1.0)

Initially we would bring the paper in, sort through the flyers "in case there was something good there", and put the papers on the coffee table to be read.  Then I would flip from front to back through the paper making sure I didn't "miss anything.  So including all the "handling time" bringing in the paper, reading through it. Picking it up off the floor after the small children decorated the room with it. Recycling it. I probably spent 30 minutes per paper and ended up skipping half of the papers completely.  The time spent "reading the paper" was time I didn't spend with my kids etc, so I'm going to think of that cost to me as $20/hour for my like many people earn.  The 150 grams estimated weight of the paper is based on Canada Post's "weight restriction" for mailing community newspapers (mine is probably larger) and 37 grams of flyers.  So 150 grams 4 times a week is 0.6 Kg per week or 31.2 Kg per year.

• My yearly time spent "handling" newspapers and flyers: 52 hours $1040


• My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 31.2Kgs (68.8 lbs)


• My city's yearly time spent "handling" newspapers and flyers: 2,080,000 hours $41,600,000   (this is the cost of consumer's time!)


• My city's papers and flyers sent to recycling: 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs)

Handling Flyers and community newspapers (updated version 2.0)

Then I recognized the time I was spending "tidying up" these papers all over our living space and I wanted to get the papers re-routed to recycling at the earliest point possible.  What I would do is "intentionaly"  sit down and skim the newspaper articles for 5 minutes, if there was relevant content I save the paper for my wife and tell her what is worth reading, if not, I recycle it and all of the flyers stuffed inside before the paper even makes it up the stairs to our living space.  (Sorry advertisers, your advertising budget was not effectively spent).  But this skimming is still an interesting activity to me, I'm not doing it because I am (at that moment) interested in reading the paper or learning something specific, I'm "reacting" to the newspaper being delivered to my door.  I'm voluntarily spending at least 20 minutes per week filtering out advertisements....   Hmm, how is it that someone else is "making me" spend time reading their paper....  That wasn't my idea.   Hey I could have used that time for something I WANTED to do.

• My yearly time spent "handling" newspapers and flyers: 17 hours $340 <reduced>


• My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 31.2Kgs (68.8 lbs)    <No change>


• My city's yearly time spent "handling" newspapers and flyers: 680,000 hours $13,600,000   <reduced>


• My city's papers and flyers sent to recycling: 1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs) <No change>

Handling Flyers and community newspapers (New Era version 3.0)

So I noticed that when those friendly guys from the "Globe and Mail" would call, I would answer.  "Not really interested, I use the Internet." and they would simply drop it and let me go with no more "sales"... hmmm..  Maybe I could just use the Internet and replace my local community paper...  So I testsed this.  What I could find online (in several locations) had all the information with much less advertising.  In many cases it offered more than the news (videos and such).  I bravely asked my wife what she thought and when I learned that she really didn't use those grocery store flyers I'd been saving for years, our course was set.  We put a "No Flyers or Newspapers" sign on our mailbox and suddenly our house is neater, our recycling is lighter, and I'm facing much less temptation to purchase things I would not have otherwise purchased.  I'm estimating that I only spend 15 minutes per month looking for local news and information.  Only God knows the value of the "impulse purchases" I'm not making.

• My yearly time spent not "handling" newspapers and flyers: 3 hours $60 (Internet time) <reduced>


• My papers and flyers sent to recycling: 0 Kgs (0 lbs) <reduced>


• My city's residents potential yearly time spent not "handling" newspapers and flyers: 120,000 hours $2,400,000 <reduced>


• My city's could potentially save  1,248,000 Kgs (2,751,369 lbs) of paper from going to recycling (or worse) <Join Me! It's free!>

Adding back "The Internet"

Sure there is time spent on the Internet to find local information, but I don't think it is the same as putting a paper on your doorstep.  I think that when someone is actually pursuing information, and not just having it "forced" on them, they are able to dig deeper and learn more.  Sure I will likely look up some local events using the Internet, maybe 15 minutes per month when I NEED to know something specific.  But that is one of the major points I'm making.  Newspaper delivery was someone else's idea that consumed my time and wasted paper.

Other Resources for breaking your flyer addiction

• I liked the vision expressed by http://www.reddotcampaign.ca

We are fortunate to live in abundance where one of our major issues is TOO MUCH STUFF! And to keep us buying more, Canadians are inundated with $19 Billion worth of advertising each year. If the old adage is true, "half of all marketing works great, if only we knew which half" why don't advertisers spend more resources understanding which half works and spend the other half supporting community?

• Another small but useful site is:  http://www.iwilltry.org/w/index.php?title=Flyers_against_flyers_campaign which advocates convincing your neighbours to join you in giving up flyers.  They had some great images you could print out and tape to your mailbox (download the originals from their site).

• The Canadian national "Do Not Call List" operated by the government of Canada promises to reduce phone based solicitation.  https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/


• The "Canadian Marketing Association has a "Do not Contact Service" designed to get your name on a list their members might check before sending out mailed advertisements. http://www.the-cma.org/?WCE=C=47|K=224217


• A ?grassroots? attempt to produce a better "do not call list" http://www.ioptout.ca/ trys to overcome limitations with the "Do Not Call List" (charities are not restricted etc).

(Use the comments to evaluate the usefulness of these links).

Please comment to let me know what you think of all this.  Do you have paper taming tricks? ways to find local information that work for you?  Would you consider joining me with a simple "no flyers or newspapers" sign on  your mailbox?  Why or why not?

Cheers,
Greg

Save Money - Give your things away!

I'm going to let you in on a little secret...  The beauty of this secret is that it scales really really well, so the more people you tell, potentially the more people who can contribute and benefit.

[caption id="attachment_538" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="freecycle logo"][/caption]

I'm talking about free-cycle.  You probably have a free-cycle group operating in your area.  The concept is really simple.  If you want something, you ask for it, and if somebody wants to give you that thing, they will contact you to come and pick it up.  If you have something you want to get rid of, you post it and people will contact you to come and pick it up.

Our family started with a micro-wave stand.  We probably could have got $15 bucks for it, but really... I don't want to operate a garage sale, I don't want to fight with someone over whether I'll take $12.50 rather than $15, and well I really just want to get rid of it so it doesn't waste my space.  My "interest" is unloading something I don't want to keep in my house.  The other person's "interest" is in getting a free microwave stand.  The environment's "interest" is that a piece of furniture did not need to be manufactured, stored, shipped and sold. (We've previously talked about "The Story of Stuff") The object's "interest" is that it becomes useful rather than just wasting space.    Sound "interesting?"  

This truly is "re-cycling" something useful to another person.  Because there is no exchange of money or other consideration, the opportunity for fraud / theft etc is super low (making this safer than other systems where money is exchanged for goods).

It works quite well, and I'm really pleased with the free wooden rocking chair I'm looking at across the room.  Not everything you ask for will be given.  "Lego" is a hard sell.  Nobody wants to give up their "Lego"!  It is an email group.  So don't use your work email. use a "junk email" that can receive a steady stream of offers.  

Getting started with free-cycle.

1. Chose a "junk" email address to use, because you are going to get lots of emails.

2. Find a group in your area by visiting free-cycle.org and typing in your city

3. Read the "rules" (guidelines) so you learn what kind of behaviour fits with free-cycle

4. Start reading and respond to items that interest you.

 

It is better to give than to receive.  Freecycle helps you do both in a way that is responsible; socially, fiscally and environmentally.

Cheers! Enjoy the free stuff.

Greg.

Good Design and Open Design

I'm speaking generally in this article and not attempting to show too much favouritism, but I am painting history with a pretty broad brush so I appreciate your accomodation of that. 

 

[caption id="attachment_534" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="IBM clone PC"][/caption]

IBM PC vs Apple Hardware

Until recently the "IBM PC" has absolutely killed more proprietary hardware (like Apple products) in affordability. 

Our family owned a Laser 128 apple clone, but apart from that we have over the years owned 1 TRS80, 2 386s, 1 486, 2 Pentiums, 1 Celeron, 1 Athlon64, 2Athlons, 1 zeon  AND zero apples.  Now this is with all the exposure to Apples in the school system (hence the Laser 128)

There was only 1 "Apple" computer company making hardware, but there are many many computer companies building "IBM clones".  We could purchase a 386 for $1500 or we could purchase the same computer from Apple for double the price.  IBM decided to "open" the form-factor for their IBM PC so that low cost manufacurers overseas could "clone" or copy the hardware without paying licensing fees or battling an army of lawyers.  Suddenly this meant there were 5 -10-15-20 soundcard manufacturers, and 20 video card manufacturers, and 10 hard drive manufacturers and 40 Motherboard manufacturers all able to design compatible products and compete on features and price.  While Apple design has remained compelling, it is like Ford's model T. "Any colour you like as long as it is black".

I attended a wedding a few years ago and listened to a man chatting at a table who had worked for IBM for years comment; "It's really too bad that IBM opened up their PC design, they could have made a killing if they had just held onto that and not let others use their design and build components".  He missed it.  He didn't understand that it was precisely because others could have the blueprints that we had commodity computers and incredible demand.  (Understand there is high demand for affordable computers, and very little demand for unaffordable computers) 

Open Standards let us cooperate and work together

There are lots of smart people out there.  They don't all do things the same way, we have chaos or war unless people can agree on how to work together.  that is why we have "standards".  Those attempts to get everyone playing by the same set of rules so we can work together.  Some examples;

• A green light in traffic means...?


• In my country we drive on which side of the road?


• A Meter is exactly how long?


• Do you use POP3 or SMTP for receiving or sending email?


• Are you reading an HTML web page right now transferred by HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)?

So standards are smart right? They allow people who are willing to negotiate or compromise to choose a common method (often it is not the "best") but it is reasonable for the greatest number of people who are willing to collaborate.

Open versus closed design

Some silly companies think that cooperating with others reveals "weakness".  They think that they are smarter than everyone else.  They think everybody should do things their way and they work hard to avoid cooperating with others.  Lets call them "big brothers" because they like to be in charge of the customer and remove choice.  Here the 2 philosopies collide.  The collaborators and the "big brothers.  Collaborators try to make things like software and file formats work with others including "big brother's.  The "big brothers" work hard to obscure and continually update their formats to make them difficult to copy.  Big brother is all about control.  Ironically Apple chose imagery from 1984 for their 1984 Superbowl ad where they were urging people to break free from the IBM PC. ROFL!  OK, when it comes to file formats, there are many "big brothers" out there.   Kudos! It was a brilliant Ad anyways Apple! (as was this um... "modification")

 

[caption id="attachment_532" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Big Brother knows best!"][/caption]

Office document formats and the battle for useability

For years, Microsoft's office formats have been the only game in town.  MS Word, MS Excel etc.  If you try exporting to another format, they you "lose features" and the docs never did look quite right.  Microsoft is no longer the only game in town, but they are holding on hard to the idea that they know best, that cooperation is not as good as being uncooperative inovation.  Every version of Microsoft office introduced new formats that would not work with the old versions of the program (or would not work well).  In order to make things work, you would have to "upgrade" to the new version.  (Now there was nothing wrong with the old one, its just that Auntie Sue bought a new computer that had the new version and now  you can't read what she writes..)  So pull out your wallet and pay money every year to be able to continue doing the same things you did last year.  That is how the "big brothers" make your life. Expensive and difficult.

Enter the giant killers.

Open Office has been looming on the horizon for years.  Their converters for MS Office documents have been getting better and better.  Now you can use free software that works pretty much as well as the MS Office programs, and it can convert to and from those formats.  Open Office saves you paying hundreds of dollars to Microsoft, and new versions address the version issues Microsoft creates.



Google has created an online system called Google Docs that allows you to create, upload, edit and download documents online. No software other than your web-browser is required, and there is a a high level of compatibility with other office formats.  

These companies are making your life easier, more affordable, and are being open and transparent about their formats so that  you have fewer hassles.  Their "open design" is translating into "Good design" and putting money back in the wallets of people who have been paying "rent" on their software for far too long.

Observations on Mexican Transportation

For those of you who know my passions, you will recognize the sparkle in my eyes since traffic is the topic.

I couldn't believe my eyes as we left the Cancun International Airport.  A divided highway with overhead lights on the median.  Not only in the city , but in the country stretching for many kilometers.  The highway was well marked, well signed, well maintained and in most ways as safe as any other north American Highway.

 

[caption id="attachment_503" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Good Highway in Mexico South of Cancun"][/caption]

 

Illuminated LEDs embedded in the roadway guided vehicles to merge.  it was impressive even if this tourist highway was not typical of highways elsewhere in mexico.

This highway was a "1/2 freeway" not Interstate standards, but pretty close.

The highway was limited access, had some at grade crossings as well as overpasses.  Also seperating it from freeway standard was the provision of the uturn "retournos" where traffic could exit the fast lane, turn around and enter the opposite fast lane.  The roadways in mexico often use metal speedbumps embeeded at different interfals where traffic is expected to stop for a police check or an at grade intersection.

 

[caption id="attachment_505" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mexican Police checkpoint"][/caption]

 

I noticed other modes of transportations in cities.  Playa del Carmen had more scooters than I'm used to.  and more bicycles.  Playa had dedicated bidirectional bicycle lanes seperated from traffic by a curb.  Practical tricycles pedalled by union tricyclests carry many local deliveries.  

Taxis (Playa is a tourist area) are plentiful as well as busses and collectivos.  The taxis were similar to anywhere else except for the reputation that Mexican taxi drivers have for being daring.  Taxis are not metered there, so negotiate your price before you get it and pay when you get there. 

The busses are like the greyhound or charger coaches seen in Canada and USA.  Plush seats, airconditioning, TVs, curtains (some seatbelts).  Taking a 20 minute ride between towns cost only $1.80 which is a bargain considering a similar trip would cost $5-15 in Canada.  It seems that those busses run very regularly.  Hourly or every 15 minutes.  In Canada you are lucky to get 1/2 a dozen busses in a day.  So as a Canadian I can't help feel like we are being ripped off here.  A poorer country like Mexico can make nice regular cheap bus service an option? (Maybe everybody owning a car up here has made that a difficult challenge for the operators here?) I wonder what I'm missing here?

Mexico has something special I haven't seen elsewhere in North america.  Collectivos are 15 passenger vans that operate somewhere between bus and taxi.  Heading down the freeway they will pick up people who need a lift as long as there is room left.  When full, the collectivo will travel at alarming speeds to get you to your destination and it becomes more like a taxi at that point, leaving main roads to drop you at your destination.

 

[caption id="attachment_504" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Collectivo"][/caption]

 

Those are the neat observations I made about Mexican transportation.  Thanks for listening, I'm glad I could share some of the things that impressed and surprised me.

Peace
Greg.

10 Strategies for choosing a Secure Password You Can Remember

Having seen my fair share of "bad passwords" and understanding that for many IT departments password resets can account for 20-30% of all calls, it seems there is the need for a post on this topic that might help people choose good passwords they can remember.  

 

[caption id="attachment_449" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="(flickr credit: ferran.pons)"][/caption]

There are two very different perspectives

From the IT side of things, generally the focus seems to be  on security, so this results in policies that;

• make users change their password every 30-60 days


• require more complex combinations of; UPPERCASE letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.


• lock out your account if you get your password wrong a few times in a row (ever left caps lock on?) 

On the user side of things, generally the focus is on the utility of being able to log in so that you can get your work done.  This focus leads towards;

• Folks who have forgotten their passwords using others' accounts so they can get their work done.


• Passwords on post-it notes by their monitors


• Users re-using passwords between systems to reduce the number of passwords they need to remember


• People picking "easy" passwords to help remember them.

So it is easy to see how either side could view the other with disbelief.  The IT group shaking their head at people choosing poor passwords and showing disregard for security.  The users shaking their head at an IT group that appears to care more about complicating passwords than helping them perform their daily tasks.  It doesn't have to be contentious, there is hope.  More and more, users are becoming educated about the importance of good security practices, and security professionals are realizing that the best security is the kind that works for users rather than against them.

What makes a password good?

Put simply, anything you can do to make your password difficult to figure out is good.  So if your password is really long, and composed of many types of characters, it becomes very difficult to "guess".  If your password is short, a real word found in the dictionary, or something an attacker would know about you, then you make it easier for someone to guess your password.  But having a "good" password is only part of the challenge.  The best password in the world does you little good if you can't remember it.  Locking out all the would-be hackers is only part of the equation, making sure the account is accessible by the right person is the other.

[caption id="attachment_448" align="aligncenter" width="208" caption="(flickr credit: guspim)"][/caption]

10 Strategies for choosing a secure password you can remember

So here are some strategies for picking a strong memorable password.  Read through them all, and pick 1 or 2 that will work for you.

1. Plan ahead

Have a strategy for picking passwords that you can use across many systems.  That way when you go to a new system that asks you to pick a password, you can appyly your strategy rather than having to wrack your brain for a new password.

2. Take your time

Taking 60 seconds to think about a great password you will remember, rather than typing the first thing that pops into your brain will pay dividends.  Apply your strategy pick something you will be happy with.

The next 3 get you to try not thinking in terms of a pass-word.

3. Think in terms of a pass-phrase.  

It could be a line from a song, a poem, a story, anything, but of course you will modify it by adding punctuation, truncating the sentence or swapping in a word you like better like;

• "The dish ran away with the poon"  


• "I'm dreaming of a white Xmas"


• "AllIwantforChristmasismy2frontteeth!"  


• "Thyme4Golf!"


• "4getaboutit!"


• "NowwhatwasmypasswordCharlie?"

4. Think in terms of a pattern.  

A very popular pattern is to apply a prefix, a root, and a suffix to your passwords.  here is my version of "the pattern" 

• The prefix modifies the root, so you might want to relate it to what it is your are logging into.  If you logged into a system for email, you might use "email" or "Email" or "e-mail" or "E-mail" as a prefix.  


• A good choice for the root is a non-dictionary / non-name word like "selebrait (yes exactly, it isn't in a dictionary)


• The suffix is something you add to your pattern to add the required "non-letter" characters so that your password is "complex" enough.  Lets choose "$4".


• For email your password might be "emailselebrait$4";  for AOL it might be "aolselebrait$4", for gmail it might be "gmailselebrait$4" etc...

5. Think in terms of a simple puzzle.  

Where am I, who am I, what kind of login is this could yield unique results. for every login while requiring only a little bit of mental gymnastics.  For a gmail login it might be "gmailGregWebmail"

6. Anticipate being asked to change your password.

So if you have picked out a fabulously strong password that you can remember well, don't let the "prompt to change your password" cause you stress, build a "counter" into your password which you can simply increment.  It might look like;

• "Sallysellsseashells!1", "Sallysellsseashells!2", "Sallysellsseashells!3"

which is a reasonably complex password you could remember and which would allow you to "survive" the password change without having to think of a new password.  Note, lots of password systems won't let you simply tack on a number (too easy).  So I recommend you resort to one of two ninja password moves I've come to appreciate.  The first is to us a numeric increment, but not on the end;

• "Sallysells1seashells!", "Sallysells2seashells!", "Sallysells3seashells!" 

Or you could use something other than number to increment.  If you held down "SHIFT" while pressing the numbers 1-9 you would see "!@#$%^&*(",  so using our Sally example again it might look like this;

• "Sallysellsseashells!!", "Sallysellsseashells!@", "Sallysellsseashells!#" 

Or you could substitute letters for numbers along the lines of A=1 B=2 OR Q=1 W=2 E=3 (look at your keyboard to understand why I'm choosing those letters. 

7. Use your muscle memory.  

What do the following 4 passwords have in common?

• ajskdlf;


• quwieorp


• zmx,c.v/


• 17283940

OK, that last one should have given it away.  The fingers type the same sequence in a different row of the keyboard.  by mixing up the rows and columns on your keyboard you could easily come up with dozens of "muscle memory passwords" that feel the same to your fingers but would leave a potential hacker scratchign his head.  NOTE: Left to right rows of keys like "qwerty" and "asdfg" are REALLY bad passwords.

8. Test your password strength.

Not sure if you picked something strong enough?  You could always try typing it into the Microsoft password checker; http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx  Don't worry, if you are a bit paranoid like me you won't like the idea of typing your password into a webpage.  Microsoft assures you; The password is checked and validated on your computer, but is not sent over the Internet.

9. (Guys only) Write all your passwords down on paper in your wallet.

We are talking about the wallet that never leaves your front pocket.  If you lose your wallet, treat your passwords like your credit cards and get them all changed.  (Ladies, nothing personal here but the purse left slung over a chair in your office is nowhere near as safe as the wallet located in a guys pocket.)  Guys, if you don't trust the people living in your house this might be a poor choice.

10. Use password safe software

Password safe software can hold all of your passwords.  These tools use a master password to encrypt all of your passwords.  If it fell into the wrong hands it is useless to the bad guys, but in your hands, it can help you not only remember passwords, but also usernames, URLs for logging in and other details you record with the entry in a searchable "password database".  I recommend KeePass which I've discussed previously.

Hopefully these 10 strategies for choosing a secure password you can remember will lower your password stress, raise the strength of your passwords, and save you some time chatting with the nice guys at your company's IT support desk.

Cheers,

Greg.

Carpooling Etiquette

Carpooling makes sense, you've been enjoying the benefits of carpooling for a while, you've adjusted to sharing commuting space and what seemed like a brand new adventure now seems normal.  Overall it has been good and you want your carpool to carry on, but there are these "minor annoyances" that are making carpooling a little bit tougher.  It started with the really strong perfume that made your car smell like... really strong perfume, then there was the coffee spill on your uphostery.  Life happens you know it could easily have been you, but then there were those surprises where some in your carpool just didn't show up without letting anyone know.  You waited patiently at first, now its almost a running joke that the carpool does not leave at the time you all agreed to.  You have put up with these annoyances, ascribed them to personal style or just plain ignored them thinking that maybe the behaviour would improve.  It hasn't...

Does this sound familiar?  I hope not, but for thousands of carpoolers, that is the reality of their carpool.  The carpool finds itself held hostage to bad behaviour, rudeness, inconsideration and the ambiguity of unclear expectations in order to retain the benefits of carpooling.  With the possible exception of a cement truck with no brakes, nothing will kill your carpool faster than carpoolers who don't respect each other. Let me encouage you to prevent that situation through the following approach to carpool Etiquette;  

[caption id="attachment_428" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bono Holds the Door (flickr credit: dpnash)"][/caption]

Clearly outline your carpool's rules

It is only fair.  Otherwise one person's high standards and another's low standards could be in conflict even though nobody is actually intending disrespect or breaking a rule.  By letting everyone in the carpool know about the expected standard of behaviour, everyone can be absolutely crystal clear when they are not respecting the group.  Writing things down tends to make things much more clear than just chatting about them in the carpool lane at 110km/h.  Since carpooling is optional, a member of the carpool who doesn't want to abide by the rules can either negotiate, or find a carpool with more lax rules.

Abide by and enforce your carpool's rules

The strongest teacher is example.  If you are always "running a couple minutes late", you shouldn't be surprised if the others in your carpool also "run a couple minutes late".  If you can't follow the rules, then don't have them.  Rules are actually there to be followed.  On the other side of the equation, if there is no consequence for not following the rules, or the group is so fearful to point out infractions, then you might as well not have rules at all.  If the carpool feels free to point out violations, it sends a clear message that disrespect is not accepted by the group.

Carpool Etiquette - Rules you might choose for your carpool


So what rules should you have for your carpool?  maybe your carpool is composed of like minded individuals who share the same values, or perhaps there is a real diversity of backgrounds, and what means respect to one person is completely optional to another.  I've been hunting online for a list of carpool rules and drawing from my own experience to give you the following selection of rules to strengthen your carpool and improve everyone's experience.

• Be prompt.  Perhaps you think 5 minutes is nothing, but when it happens twice a day and 3 other people are waiting you just wasted 30 minutes of other people's time.  In our carpool, we wait up to 5 minutes then we leave. Leaving work on time after work is as important as being on time in the morning.  That providential meeting in the hallway at the end of the day needs to end before carpool is scheduled to leave.  If carpool leaves at 7:30, then 7:32 may be fine for everybody getting settled and buckled in, but 7:39 is clearly not "on-time".


• Don't run errands when you are driving the carpool.  This includes not stopping at the gas station.  Always have your car full of gas so you don't make your carpool sit at the gas-station while you fill up.  The point of carpool is getting to and from work effectively.


• Safety first. Everyone should feel safe, so the whole carpool adjusts towards the driving style of the safest driver (not the most hesitant driver).


• Avoid strong fragrances; perfume, hairspray, scented hand lotions all have fragrances which the others who are enclosed in the air-tight vehicle may not choose.


• If your work requires you to sweat or otherwise get dirty, respect your carpool by covering their seats with towels to protect the vehicle.


• The car should be reasonably clean and odour free in preparation for the carpool.  Clean seats give your fellow carpoolers confidence when they sit down in their best business clothes for the commute.


• Be sensitive with the choice of music.  No music is easier to manage.


• Life happens.  Call if there is a problem.  Communicate early! Lots of warning lets people plan. Remember they are counting on you. So have everyone's contact information.  Yes you can phone my house at 6AM if there is a problem.  Getting to work is important enough for my phone to ring.


• Let the driver drive.  His job is to keep everyone safe in traffic by paying attention and using his judgement.  Backseatdrivers need not apply. (imaginary brake pedals for the passenger are fine, call it a reflex).


• Set food rules;  Is coffee or food allowed in the car? (each car may have different rules).


• Don't have long cell phone conversations while you’re in the carpool.  It says something if you are ignoring the person beside you while having an enthusiastic conversation with someone who is not present.  Short calls to check in at home, leave reminders and take care of telephone errands are usually acceptable. (remember your audience includes those present).


• Avoid discussing controversial topics like religion or politics unless you know your fellow carpoolers well. While some people enjoy debating the issues, others may prefer a quieter commute.  Depending on the enthusiasm of co-workers in your carpool, you may want other rules to limit the amount of "work" conversation that occurs en-route.

Carpooling is about relating with others.

Rules are useful and necessary for bringing order and predictability to your carpool, but be sure to employ them with flexibility for maximum impact.  

• Think in terms of equity, fairness and putting yourself in the other person's shoes.  


• Discuss carpool costs together. If members agree to rotate the driving equally, then money doesn't have to change hands. But if only one person drives the carpool, passengers generally chip in to cover the costs of gas and parking.


• Compromise where you can - They want to leave at the crack of dawn, you want to leave 30 minutes later.  Try leaving at 15 minutes after the crack of dawn. 


• Realize that not everyone in a carpool has the same degree of flexibility.  While some members may be leaving a "spare" $23,000 SUV in their driveway, others may be single car families with much less flexibility since the rest of their family may have plans for the car when it is not driving the carpool. 


• Keeping money out of the equation may move you from a transactional carpool which is interested in the exact dollars and cents owed towards a relational carpool where you focus on giving and receiving a benefit.


• Consider seating arrangements.  Those needing more space or prone to car-sickness up front, and the most compatible or compact folks in the back seat where there is less room.

It is my hope that the tips I've shared above make your life and your carpool better.  If you have tips or carpool experiences to share, hit the comments below.  Thanks! Greg.