Rich's Random Thoughts

A great article on how to slow down spending habits. One idea I’ve already implemented: a 30 day wait list for toys. http://bit.ly/cbs2df

I work in a law library, but I can quite imagine our librarians doing a remix of a Lady Gaga song called “Catalog” (aka Poker Face).  You really have to be up on your library terminology to get what the reworked lyrics are saying.  The students and librarians at the University of Washington Information School did a great job!  Enjoy!

Like flossing your teeth, keeping track of your all your user accounts, passwords and digital assets is not easy to remember to do.  So why is it important to keep an organized record of information like this, when you can simply keep it all in your head?  Because if you get hit by a bus tomorrow, you want someone close to you to be able to access all this information in order to wind up your affairs and pass along your digital legacy to people who are important to you.

What digital assests are we talking about?  Things like:

• Online Account Information: Facebook, Blog’s, websites, Email, and Shopping sites.
• Hardware: including computers, thumb drives, backup drives and DVD’s… Any hardware that you have personal data stored on.

What got me thinking about this?  I saw a thought provoking article on the American Bar Association’s web site, called Estate Planning for your Digital Assets, by Dennis Kennedy.  Here are 3 important steps taken out of his somewhat lengthy article:

Step 1. Inventory Your Digital Assets: After the inventory is complete, put the list (including user names and passwords) in a secure place, possibly in a safety deposit box along with your will.

Step 2. Identify Appropriate Help: Let one or more people know about your inventory, so they know it exists and where to look for it when it will be needed.

Step 3. Provide Instructions:  You may want friends on social networks like Facebook or Twitter to be notified of your passing.  Make sure you’ve provided a message to post (along with the passwords you’ve already written down). You may want to close up your blog with a parting message, or pass along specific information to individuals (like photos or journals).

I saw a great faux news article on the Onion News Network titled, “Google Responds to Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology“.  For starters the article is very funny.  What makes it even better, is that it addresses problems that Google will need to address in the not to distant future.

We know that their motto is “Do no Evil”, but now that they are a public company, their only real duty as a corporation is to enhance shareholder value.  If down the road Google falls on leaner times, and they have to choose between enhancing shareholder value and protecting the public’s privacy, I’m not sure how well our privacy will be protected.  I hope that they’ll do the right thing, but without strong regulation and threat of serious penalties, I’m not sure that who ever is in charge of running Google at that point in time will do the right thing.

Here’s a couple of great lines from the article:

Responding to recent public outcries over its handling of private data, search giant Google offered a wide-ranging and eerily well-informed apology to its millions of users Monday.

“We would like to extend our deepest apologies to each and every one of you,” announced CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking from the company’s Googleplex headquarters. “Clearly there have been some privacy concerns as of late, and judging by some of the search terms we’ve seen, along with the tens of thousands of personal e-mail exchanges and Google Chat conversations we’ve carefully examined, it looks as though it might be a while before we regain your trust.”

Google expressed regret to some of its third-generation Irish-American users on Smithwood between Barlow and Lake.

Added Schmidt, “Whether you’re Michael Paulson who lives at 3425 Longview Terrace and makes $86,400 a year, or Jessica Goldblatt from Lynnwood, WA, who already has well-established trust issues, we at Google would just like to say how very, truly sorry we are.”

-http://www.theonion.com/content/news/google_responds_to_privacy

Twice in the past two weeks, I’ve gone to stores in order to purchase specific items, but was been shocked at how high the in store prices were.  Both times I quickly pulled out my iPhone and checked the price of the item I needed to purchase at Amazon.ca, and then purchased it online while still in the store.

On my first shopping trip I was looking for toner for my Lexmark 250DN.  At Staples, the toner I needed cost $150!  Can you believe that!  I only paid $250 for the printer, and now they want to charge me $150 for the toner.  A quick check at Amazon.ca showed the exact same toner costing $105.  I ended up saving $45 dollars. If I had just purchased it directly from Amazon in the first place, I would have saved  another $5 or more in gas for the trip to the store.

The second “in store, online purchase” incident took place last night.  Our son had asked us to purchase Assassin’s Creed 2 for the xBox 360 for him.  At EB Games in our local shopping mall, they were asking $70 for the game.  My iPhone informed me that Amazon.ca was selling the game for $57.  The kicker was that they didn’t even have the game in stock, so I simply purchased it from Amazon.ca as we walked away from the store.  I later learned that if you purchased the game from the EB Games online store you would only have to pay $60 (plus shipping… no shipping charges with the Amazon purchase).

New iPhone programs are making this type of comparison shopping easier and easier. RedLaser for example lets you scan bar codes and look up pricing (american pricing only for the time being).  SnapTell is another program that allows you to take pictures of products and get Amazon.com pricing for them, along with product reviews.  The product review can be very helpful, especially if you are not very familiar with the product you are trying to purchase.

There is real value in being able to go to a store and consult with someone about the purchase you are going to make.  There is also real value in being able to take something home right a way, if you need it in a hurry.  If I’m not in a hurry, and I feel that the price difference is too great, I for one am not afraid to walk away from a store and make my purchase online.

If you’d like to create some fun graphics or animations for your next presentation, or would simply like a distraction as you ease back into work after the Holidays, why not give GoAnimate a try.  From their website:

GoAnimate.com is an entertainment website that enables the simple creation of unique computer animated stories, satires and sentiments that can be shared with the entire online community.

Historically, the creation of animation required specific skills, limiting those who can express their creativity. We designed the Go!Animate application to allow users to create animations without drawing talent or a technical understanding of advanced software such as Flash. The site provides users with a library of interesting characters, backgrounds, props, sound effects and music for use in creating their own unique animations. Creators can customize their animations with a number of tools and features that allow them to create truly unique works of expression.

Enjoy!

I saw a great article on lifehacker.com about a combination money clip, and credit card holder.  I wish I’d seen this last week so I could get one for my birthday!

It cost $20 on Amazon.com, and can hold a fairly good wad of cash (up to 30 bills), plus up to 10 credit cards (5 on the credit card side and up to 5 on the cash side).  Here are some bullet points from their Amazon.com ad:

• Polished Stainless Steel
• Double-sided
• Securely holds up to 5 cards on the credit card side
• Can hold up to 5 additional cards on the money clip side
• Ultra-thin and light weight
• Personalize your Smart Money Clip with engraving

I’ve been using RunKeeper for 7 months now and love it!  RunKeeper is an iPhone application that maps your runs for you via the GPS device built into all  iPhone 3G and 3GS’s.  You can look at your iPhone during your run to see what your pace is and how you are doing time wise (see the image to the right for an example of what you would see during a run). The paid version of the application reports your distance and pace through your head phones.

After you’ve finished your run, you can see the route you took on Google Maps on your iPhone, or go to your computer and log on to RunKeeper.com and see a more detailed map of the route you ran. The map on the website is excellent, complete with a graph showing your speed during your run, as well as the altitude you were at.  For me this clearly shows how I slow down when going down hills, and how I speed up at the end of the run as I push to the finish line. Click here for a view of a run I did a few months ago.

There are both free and paid versions of RunKeeper.  The free version has most of the features of the paid version, but $10 is not a high price for this excellent application if you end up using it a lot.  Have run running!

The most insightful information I’ve seen on the Swine Flu… a very interesting graph from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta. Shows numbers of deaths from regular flu season, and then death’s from the swine flu. Doesn’t look as bad as the hype in the media would lead one to believe… It was not good for sure, but similar to having 2 flu outbreaks in one year.

This morning I am getting ready to go to the hospital to get a bone marrow biopsy. Not something I’m particularly looking forward to. You see, in order to get some bone marrow from a person the doctor has to push a horse needle into your hip bone and then suck some marrow into the needle. Why would I agree to subject myself to this procedure you ask? Four years ago I was diagnosed with a rare, but fairly treatable form of Leukemia – Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL). When I say rare, I mean among the 700,000,000 people in the US and Europe are less than 2000 new cases reported per year. You are literally more than three times more likely to be killed crossing the street than contracting Hairy Cell Leukemia. And if you do find yourself fighting the disease, the 20 year survival rate is about 95%. Compared to other cancers, the prognosis for someone with HCL is very good.

Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL) is very treatable, but because so few people contract it, individual doctors and oncologists don’t see it often or at all during the course of their careers. I have a wonderful medical team behind me, but I suspect that I am only one of two people that they have treated with this disease. They are busy people with limited time during the day for research into my disease of interest.

The internet allows me to connect with communities of people who are also fighting the disease, and with other medical professionals who specialize in it’s treatment. For HCL in particular I’ve found a great online bulletin board, called Rob’s User Friendly HCL Site and Chat Room. The support there is wonderful. When my blood test numbers recently starting trending downwards, I of course consulted with my doctor, but I also shared with the HCL board. I received support from the board, and also some advice from a Doctor who is a regular on the board (a GP who is himself is a HCL survivor). I also received private messaged pointing me to journal articles that related to what I’m going through at this point in time. I now have two or three thing to consult with my doctor about, including an article from the Journal of Clinical Oncology that talks about different chemotherapy strategies that have been tried over the years with HCL.

Without the internet, and the communities that it enables, I would know much less about the disease I’m battling, and would be not nearly as well equipped to discuss different treatment options with my doctor. So after not visiting Rob’s User Friendly HCL board for a couple of years now (since my last round of chemotherapy), it looks like I’ll become more of a regular now that my old friend is back with me. By the end of next week when my bone marrow biopsy results are back I’ll have a better idea of what treatments, if any, I have to look forward to.

For now I’m feeling great. This past week, I’ve played soccer twice, gone mountain biking with my sons, and played a little touch rugby. Life is good. I have much to be grateful for. I better get going though, my ride to the hospital for my bone marrow biopsy at 10:30am is about to leave.