I’m in Baton Rouge at the moment doing some work on my Mother’s home. I was up early this morning and making my way to CC’s to get some work done before my first appointment at 10:30am. A little after 6am I arrived at CC’s and as is my usual custom, I began checking my e-mail via my pa1m0ne Tungsten C. I use SnapperMail and I find it easier to clear out my inboxes using my Palm than firing up my e-mail client in Windows. Anyway, the point is I’m standing in line to place my order and sifting through my inbox when I finally come across an actual e-mail that isn’t SPAM. It’s an e-mail from one of my best friends, Helen Papaneri. She just had a child a few days ago and I figure it’s a birth announcement. As I read the first few lines of the e-mail, the barista asks me for my order. Unfortunately for me, I’m speechless. You see, I just found out that she and her husband named their child Michael Thomas.
Month / January 2005
Top 10 Ways To Keep Your Computer Running Smoothly
The start of every new year makes us think of making a fresh start on various things in our lives. Perhaps you want to start a new diet, or maybe get a fresh start on your personal finances. Whatever the case, it’s this time of year that most people consider, and more importantly take on, getting a fresh start on things. Since I provide informal tech support for my friends and family, I thought it might be helpful if I published a “Top 10” list of do’s and don’ts on how to keep your computer running smoothly. My hope is that you’ll take this list to heart and implement these 10 steps as part of your New Year’s Resolutions. If you do, I assure you that you’ll be glad that you did.
Even if you have an IT department at work, most of us are on our own when it comes to managing our personal computers at home. There’s not a person with a PC I met this holiday season that didn’t say something negative about their personal computer. The most common complain is that it’s running slow. There’s a number of factors that contribute to the overall speed of your machine, but following the items on this list can go a long way in making sure that your PC is running as optimally as possible. So without any further ado…
Top 10 Things You Can Do To Keep Your Computer Running Smoothly
Perhaps This Only Matters To Me
There’s an old saying that goes, “There’s lies, damn lies, and then statistics.” Regardless of the addage, I still like looking at them from time-to-time, especially this time of year. Maybe it’s from all my days in marketing, but I like looking at charts and graphs and comparing results from one year to the next. So this year, since I now have enough data, I put together a little presentation to see how 2004 stacked up to 2003.
In looking over all the pretty bar and line graphs, a couple of interesting things poped out at me:
Total number of page views:
» Increased by 665%Total number of unique visitors:
» Increased by 403%Total number of articles posted:
» Decreased by -60%So what does all this mean? Well, this means that readership of the site in 2004 increased six-fold, but I published half as much. :s
I’m A Coffee Snob
I gently pour my coffee from my french press coffee maker into one of my favorite coffee cups. I let it cool for a few minutes and let the air permeate with the smell of freshly made coffee. I lift the cup to my lips and take a small sip to minimize burning my tongue if the coffee is still too hot. It’s not and the hot liquid easily slides past my taste buds and down my throat. Getting the full taste of today’s brew, I make a small grimace as the sound “Eh…” pops out my mouth. It’s then that I finally admit to myself – I’m a coffee snob.
From Humble Beginnings
That’s right, I admit it, I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I suppose it was always this way in some form or another. When I was younger and began drinking coffee, only Community Coffee would do. The difference between then and now is that back then (and still to this day), Community Coffee is considered the State coffee of Louisiana. It’s served everywhere and is a staple of the coffee diet in the deep south. So I really wasn’t being a snob per se, I was just going with the natural order of things.
Then came the coffee house boom of the 90’s, where Starbucks began popping up on every corner along with mom-and-pop shops and alternative chains. All of a sudden it seemed you weren’t cool if you didn’t frequent a store that specialized in coffee. Naturally, I stopped into near by Perks, since Starbucks hadn’t made it to Baton Rouge. It was there that I was introduced to such coffee drinks as Cappuccinos and Espressos. There was a whole world out there that I had yet to experience, so I sampled everything they had to offer.
The 2004 Resolution Year In Review
This past weekend began the new year – 2005. With a new year comes new promises. Promises that this year will be better than last year, so we make a long list of things that we plan on doing differently than the year before. I plan on making resolutions for 2004, just as I did last year, but before I do I thought it might behoove me to take a look back and see how I did with my 2004 resolutions.
Resolution #1: I Will Face Life Head On
Wow, was this broad enough? I didn’t go into a lot of detail in describing this in the weblog, but it was something that was very personal to me. I can’t say that I completed this resolution perfectly, but I’d say that 75% of the time, I did take the “bull by the horns” when it came to my life.
The biggest result of this resolution is that I made some pretty big changes with some of the projects that I was involved in. In that regard I was really successful. Some of the highlights include the following: InterPUG was all but shut down. NPUG now has an active Leadership Council and I’m now a co-host on the Computer Outlook radio show.