penn

Rama-lama-ding-dong

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but part of my blogging reticence has been my awful computer. While I loved my first macbook, I've had a love-hate relationship with this current one. My macbook worked fine at first, but I had issues doing things that took a lot of work, like making videos. It's been a long time since I made a video on my computer (looks like it's been 3 years since I posted anything other than iphone videos on my youtube account). Then, I had issues if too many programs were open. In the past 6 months (or 8 . . . or more), I have had issues typing in MS word and doing work on the internet.

I've taken my computer in to the mac store multiple times, and each time I get the non-helpful "well, maybe you have too many tabs open. You know, you can't have so many programs open." I was frustrated because I wasn't doing anything I couldn't have done on my old macbook. In fact, I could still do those things on my old macbook except that it now resides with my mother.

Finally, I took matters into my own hands. Over Christmas, I ordered new RAM (computer memory) from Crucial. I have been busy, so I finally installed the memory this weekend. Instead of 4 dinky gigs, which was fine in my past macbook, I now have a screaming 16 gigs of joyfulness. I can surf the web! I can see myself typing! I don't lose whole sentences! I am ebullient.

Don't ask me why the same amount of memory didn't suffice in my new computer with a better processor. I don't have an answer. And definitely don't ask me why I waited so long when I suspected from the get-go that this was an issue. I don't know why either.

All I know is that I have a functioning computer now, and life is good. I'm even listening to itunes while I type! One of these days, I'll try to put together another video for everyone.

This does have me wondering: would more memory be good in me? Sometimes, I procrastinate, or I stall out on simple tasks. What if I could upgrade myself? Ah, if only. For now, I will have to resort to the old tried and true: got to go. I've got papers to grade.

Christmas, again!

Two new arrivals plus a long to-do list have me wondering just what I'll actually get done today. I feel like a kid in a candy store!

In the UPS delivery, I got two awesome arrivals:

Okay, maybe that's not enough for most of my blog audience. I got a new hard drive for my computer -- mine is on the fritz, and this one is so much larger -- and a baritone ukulele. The uke is a present from my awesome big brother, and he bought me one that has the same fingerings as a guitar so I can learn from guitar friends and switch if needed. My goal is to be a decently capable song leader, and this will certainly help.

I'm not even sure where to start. Tune the uke? Put in the new HD and get that process going? Hit the post office to pick up my other package? (Planet Earth and an art & exploration book). So many choices!

Something I would pay for

I've got a PO Box here at the local post office. Right now, it's the easiest and most dependable way to get mail. Plus, there's something fun about having a key to a little box that holds stuff for you.

The big downside to the PO Box is having to visit the office to check your mail. I'm a single gal, and I just don't get much mail. A few bills and the occasional letter or postcard from a friend are my main box occupants. A few years ago, the post office happened to be located right next to where I worked, so it was no problem to check my mail at the end of each workday. In my current town, I usually have to make a special effort to get my mail.

I'm waiting for a package from Amazon: a late Christmas present of Planet Earth for Matt and me to share. I've been watching the tracking on that package, and it was finally delivered today. It's really exciting to know that I will actually have something when I go to the post office. That also got me thinking: what if the post office had an online system where you could check to see if you have mail? Of course, it would be super complicated to tell you exactly what you have, but it would be nice to know that you have something. There could be a barcode on the inside of your PO Box, and the post office could scan it when they place mail inside. Then, I could log into a website or get an email alert that I have mail waiting for me (and, to be nice, hopefully the postal workers would only scan for actual mail and not for the ad inserts that they frequently place in my box).

Obviously, the system would cost a little more. But think of the utility! I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would pay for such an exciting feature.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, stumbleupon readers! I just now checked my stats and realized that I've been seeing a huge jump in traffic from stumbleupon. Apparently, someone linked my dating ideas, and it's become somewhat popular.

As an aside, thank you so much to the people who have been giving more ideas for dates. Perhaps I'll have to show the post to my boyfriend and see if he can stretch his boundaries a little! Sadly, in my own life, I've only had the chance to try out a few of the ideas listed there. I've played with sidewalk chalk during a date, and I've pulled out cribbage boards all over the place. Interestingly, in the small town in which I live, not one person gives us a strange look when we start playing cribbage in a restaurant. I'm not sure if that means card games are commonplace or that no one really pays attention to other people anymore.

Other posts you might like include a description of a camping date (complete with my boyfriend's first geocaching find), a description of how to find a geocache (for those of you that would like to try it for a date), and my travel archives from visits to Europe, New Zealand, Chicago, Detroit, Tangier, Pittsburgh, DC, Seattle, and moving across the US (more than once!).

I hope a few of you decide to stick around. Feel free to leave comments, and welcome to the site.

Like Christmas! In April!

The title of this post succinctly covers the conversation between myself and an Apple store "specialist" this afternoon. I was the one proclaiming Christmas. This feeling has continued to last all day. Let me enumerate exactly why today was my Christmas in April day.

When I bought my macbook, almost two years ago, I bought one of the very first ones. They always tell you not to buy the first generation of anything mac, but I loved the macbook and wanted a computer before heading to grad school. Within a few months, I was struck with the dreaded "browning." In retrospect, I should have taken a picture; when I opened up my computer, the techs all agreed that mine was exceptionally bad. It's been like that for ages, and I have just been really lazy in bringing the macbook in, as I didn't want to go without my computer.

In January, I started having more problems; in addition to the browning, my case started cracking at the point where it closes. The cracking isn't surprising, given the architecture of the macbook, but it was a pain. Still, though, I didn't want to part with my computer for any length of time, so I slapped some tape on the cracking and called it good.

The final straw was my recent battery problems. It's natural for battery life to diminish over time, but I was down to 10-15 minutes. Even if my battery wasn't covered under warranty, I was willing to pay to replace it.

Now that school is done, I figured I could part with my laptop for awhile to get the fixes done. I backed up my computer (two times!), and I took my precious little computer down to the Apple Store today. Pleasantly, I found it would only take two hours to fix my computer. The case fixes were free, since I have apple care, but the tech did let me know that I'd have to pay $99 to replace my battery. No worries; $99 is well worth it to have a fresh battery and make my macbook just like new.

Now comes Christmas: when I went back to the store to pick up my macbook, I opened it up before signing the final papers. It is beautiful! It is soooo white and lovely, and everything is perfect. Since the keys and trackpad and everything are all part of the top case, I basically have a cosmetically new computer. Furthermore, they replaced the battery for free! I'm using my computer at this very moment (obviously), and I still get a giddy feeling every time I touch the new plastic.

My computer has always run just fine, and it's just as speedy as when I first got it (mostly thanks to the extra RAM I installed, I think). With a new battery and a snazzy new case, I see my macbook and I being buddies for a very long time. And I see myself and Apple being friends for an even longer time. As someone who has owned several PC computers (and enjoyed Windows just fine -- I really have no qualms with it), I am amazed at how simple the service process was at the Apple store here in Ann Arbor. Since I was expecting to have my computer gone for a week, and fully anticipating having to reinstall everything, it was such a pleasant surprise to know that I only had to part with my computer for a few hours. Last time I had a PC serviced, it did take forever, and the techs somehow erased my harddrive while installing a new fan.

Maybe the secret to Apple's new success is that lots of people have low expectations. Again, I'd like to reiterate that Windows and I get along just fine, and I'm not one of those mac evangelists. But I must acknowledge that Apple has a smooth service process, and I certainly hope that they are able to retain their efficiency and service quality as they gain further market share. In an age where computers are constantly changing and many don't know how to service their computers themselves, it is pretty awesome that Apple provides such strong support.

P.S. For those interested, I also found out that Apple stores do one-on-one education in using their products, and a lot of Apple stores also offer classes in using various pieces of software. Definitely awesome.

Using your mac: a video post

To fulfill an item on my 101 things, here is my post about making a video post with your mac. My instructions are based on having a MacBook with a built in isight camera.

A question

What did people do before the internet?

In chatting with a friend tonight (appropriately, on the internet), we mused about the big time wasters in our life. The internet and TV are way up there. In fact, they're my only big time wasters. I don't read as much as I'd like these days (and don't really consider it a time waster most of the time, tho reading Harry Potter instead of studying is probably not the best idea). So, mostly, I surf the 'net, watch TV, or occasionally play a video game to pass time.

Before the internet and TV were accessible, how did people spend their time? If you didn't want to work on homework or do the chores, what did you do? Or were people magically more productive back in the day? I imagine I'd be a lot more productive if I wasn't such an internet junky.

Limit your browsing of certain sites

aka how to use greasemonkey

In my previous post, I mentioned that I've installed a script to limit my browsing of certain sites (notably, lifehacker, livejournal, facebook, and kottke). Since Zandria said she didn't know about that, I thought I'd give a little explanation.

First of all, this script (and others) only work if you're using firefox. You are using firefox, right?

With firefox, you have the ability to install add-ons to increase the functionality of your browser. This is nice for a variety of reasons. First of all, it means that the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do with your browser (within reason -- this thing won't be doing my laundry anytime soon, sadly). Second, I imagine it reduces the size of the initial install; you can have a browser that functions fine but doesn't have anything too fancy. Then, as people want more features, they can just add them in by hand.

It appears that most of the user-installed scripts available can be run through an interface called greasemonkey (caveat: I don't know too much about it, so there are likely scripts that don't require greasemonkey). GM is a metascript that will allow you to manage your other scripts. It's super easy to download and install. Succinctly: go to the website, click the download button, follow the prompts, and restart firefox when it tells you to.

Once you've got greasemonkey installed, you can install scripts that other users have written. The Invisibility Cloak is the one script I'm currently using. As it's written, it will block access to any website you chose from midnight until 3 pm. I've altered it so that my surfing is inhibited until 6 pm. Once you have greasemonkey installed, you can click on the link to the script to install it (the instructions there say right click, but right clicking doesn't give me an install option. Clicking on the script did. Your mileage may vary; I'm on a mac, so I imagine things are a touch different).

Altering the scripts is fairly easy but generally unnecessary. There's a lot of program language, and some scripts will also have "// instructions here" lines (the // allows you to write in instructions, since those lines will not be utilized by the program). I'm extremely mediocre at programming (to the extent that I have problems writing simple programs for flipping coins, deducing odds, etc), and I figured it out. It also seems that there's a good online support network for those who would like to modify these programs and have no idea how.

Kiwi Cloak is the next script I'm considering installing; it would limit my email checking to only a certain portion of the hour. I'm trying the self-discipline route first, but I might install it if I still have problems.

Oh, I forgot the two best things about greasemonkey:

1. a cute little monkey face shows up in the lower right-hand corner of the web browser. When I right click on the monkey, I can manage my user scripts (say, for example, to add more webpages to be blocked until after 6, or to change that time until 9 pm if I have a particularly busy evening).

2. You can turn off a script. For example, say you're writing a blog post about using scripts, and you'd like to link to some lifehacker posts. Just click on the monkey (who will turn sad and frowny), and your script is turned off. Yes, this does mean I can easily circumvent the restrictions if I'm trying to procrastinate . . . but the unhappy monkey and the extra step generally is enough of a reminder to get back to work.

So sad, so true

Wikipedia: biggest time waster in the history of the internet (after livejournal, natch).

I spend too much time on the internet, I think

But this youtube video was too funny to pass up. It speaks to my love of humor and popculture references (note: I'm not really that good at making pop culture references. I think I'm more excited about knowing a few of those references than anything else).