Rich's Random Thoughts

Do we all “Fake It” ?  I listended to a excellent Freakanomics podcast over lunch on “faking it” that makes a lot of sense.  No, I’m not talking about “faking it” in the bedroom (although I’m sure some faking does go on there), but “faking it” in our day to day lives.

I think we all “fake it” on a fairly regular basis.  Not only that, but we’re taught do so from an early age.  Just think of when a parent “encourages” their child to apologize to their sibling or play mate.  Do we really think that the apologizing child feels sorry for what they’ve done?  Most of the time they don’t, but they are being taught how to get along, and perform socially acceptable acts that help make up the civilized portion of our society.  Most people would agree that this sort of “faking it” is a good thing in that it reduces tension in groups, and helps them function more smoothly.

There are other kinds of faking it of course.  John Edwards (the american politician) faked it at the end of the US presidencial campaign, pretending that things were going well in his life and marriage, until it came out that the woman he was having an affair with was close to giving birth to their child. I think that is the kind of faking it that most people cringe at.

Faking it goes on in religion as well.  One example of this is in the Mormon religion I was raised in. As a teenager I was taught that if I told others that I “knew” certain religious “truths” were true, even when I didn’t actually know they were true or false, that I would come to know for myself that they were true. This could be described as the “fake it until you make it” method of learning.  While this may be a useful tool for learning to do certain tasks, I don’t believe that it is effective in determining truth.

So the next time my wife asks me how I like the new dress she bought, should I “fake it” or be completely honest no matter what the consequences?

I never realized how much my dog Maggie could teach me about marriage. Much cheaper than counseling http://nyti.ms/crlK8h

I’m very excited that we’re getting Solar Hot Water installed at the house tomorrow. $3375 in Federal and Provincial grants defiantly helps! http://bit.ly/claYyR

Island Energy is doing the install of an Enerworks system.  Photos and more information to follow!

How can you make your iPad more useful?  Velco!

iPad + Velcro = Amazing

Skype makes my life easier once again, and does it for free!  Most people know that it is a great tool for making free voice and video call from computer to computer, and that it allow people to make very inexpensive calls to land lines and cell phone around the world.  What most people don’t know, and what I didn’t know until recently, is that Skype will also allow you to share the desktop of your computer with other people.  So why is this so great?  Let me explain.

As someone who ends up helping co-workers, family and friends with computer problems, there are few things more frustrating than trying to talk someone through a series of clicks and windows on a computer that you cannot see.   Not only that, but I am also typically relying on rather sketchy description of a problem that more often than not is hazy at best.  That is where Skype comes in.  The person I am helping shares their desktop with me, and I can see what they are doing that triggers the problem.  At that point I can tell the person exactly what to do to fix the problem, and then correct them if they make any mistakes.  A win-win and time saver for everyone.

Here are some other potential uses for Skype Screen Sharing:

• Demonstrating Software.
• Collaborative Editing of Documents (especially if you insist on using Microsoft Word instead of Google Docs).
• Desktop computer support (as we already discussed).

Enjoy!

What is probably the quickest and least expensive way to reduce your home heating (or cooling) bill, and reduce your home’s carbon foot print? If you have a home older than 10 years old, the plugging common air leaks with calking and foam filler is probably the way to go.  The good folks at Re-Nest have a great article on how to go about finding the air leaks, and then how to effectively plug them up.

Not rocket science, but a much less expensive way to save electricity or natural gas than buying expensive new appliances.

Sam Harris makes some interesting arguments for why science should be involved in evaluating moral arguments in his recent TED Talk. He argues that there is often not one “correct” position to take on an issue, but a range of position, some better, some worse than others, and that science can help us figure out which help people live more fulfilled lives.

For example, in looking at how societies portray the model of womanhood, there are probably a number of morally positive ways to do this in between the extremes of the Islamic Burka, and the overt sexuality on the covers of many western mens magazines.

Harris also addresses the issue of giving the same weight to all moral arguments, irregardless of their source.  He argues that some people are better at moral thinking that others, just like some people are better a physics than others, so why should we put the Dali Lama and Ted Bundy on the same footing when it comes to looking at moral arguments?

A thought provoking video even if you don’t agree with everything he says.

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about how to create a family friendly internet setup in your home.  Given how quickly technology changes, I thought it was time to revisit the topic to see what has changed.

Being the father of five children under the age of 15 years old, and having 4 computers in our home along with a couple of iPod Touches, I’ve been experimenting with software & services over the past few years to try make my childrens’ experience on the internet as porn free as possible. After trying some commercial software for content filtering that ended up slowing down our 4 year old computer, and didn’t do anything to help on our iPod Touches, I have found something that works quite well on all the internet devices in our house (remember that no solution is 100% perfect not matter what the software vendor claims).  It not only works well, but once you set it up on your home router, you don’t need to install anything on the desktop computers or iPod Touches!

Read more…

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).

Recently my son Ryan was substituting for a friend on his Times Colonist paper route, with Maggie (our dog) tagging along to get some sorely needed exercise.  It was early in the morning (before 6am) when Ryan and Maggie saw a deer.  As they slowly moved towards the deer, instead of running away as is the usual MO of our neighborhood deer, the buck started to charge towards Maggie (this probably sounds similar to another recently told Maggie story).  The deer chased Maggie around the front yard of a house, but did not follow her when she ran up the steps to the front porch .

Once the “attack deer” had left the scene, Ryan tried to get Maggie to leave the porch so that they could finish the paper route together.  She would not move!  Ryan spent a couple of minutes trying to get her to leave the porch, but she wouldn’t budge, for fear of encountering the deer again. Fortunatly the owner of the house saw what happened and came out and told Ryan that he would stay with Maggie until he finished delivering his papers.  By the time Ryan was finished, Maggie had calmed down enough that she walked home with Ryan under her own power… We love Maggie, but she really is a Labr-Chicken!