CHRISdotTODD

Who are Friends on Facebook and MySpace? Should you accept every Request? What if you rather not accept a Request? Recently it seems I've had an increase in Friend requests from folks that I have never met, but we share a common interest, or met just briefly once. I began to wonder how to best handle this. The easy answer is just to say Ignore or No, but then again you never know what bridge you might inadvertantly burn. This led me to consider the goals of my social networks and the capabilities of those networks. For me, MySpace was easy -- I use it to connect with my interest in Blues music. I have "requested friendship" with many musicians who I have never met, and we've connected. Facebook though has been a different story. Up until recently, I had most of my privacy settings set so anyone in my network could view information about me. I was treating Facebook as a more personal network, predominately filled with family, friends, and current and former co-workers.

On Jan 16, 2009, I wrote about troubles with Picasa 3 and no longer supporting it as a photo manager. Since then, I have tried 4 other photo managers and I have solved my Picasa problem. First, the fix. I took these steps to restore Picasa back to normal. File > Add Folder to Picasa Removed every folder referenced -- this led to no photos listed in Picasa File > Add Folder to Picasa Selected the folders I wanted to re-include in Picasa --Picasa reloaded Smiled and was happy :-) That simple process seemed to do the trick. As I mentioned, I have tried 4 other photo managers, though I'm going to stick with Picasa -- assuming it behaves. Not that they other 4 are not as good, but for one reason -- Picasa integrates so nice with their hosting service. Here are the 4 other photo managers (in no particular order), and a few comments: 1. ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 If I were to replace Picasa, I think this would be my choice. Some features I liked: Loads fast as a replacement for W

For most of us, faxes are quite dated. Having a fax machine to receive documents can be quite a chore to coordinate the logistics in figuring out where someone could send you a fax. If you use K7 , you can receive faxes and voice mails for free. Go to K7.net, give them your email address, select a 4 digit pin, and answer 4 questions on the service you want, and you will have your own (206 area code) fax number. Service options include the following: Save faxes only (which can be retrieved off the K7 website) Save faxes and send you a copy via email Do not save, email only Faxes are saved in TIF format, which will give you multiple images in a single file -- one image per page. The service claims to continue to support your account for free as long as it is used at least once every 30 days. If you have the Washington State only plan, which receives calls only placed within Washington, you can have up to 90 days of inactivity before your account is released. Next time you need to receive

Here's an Adobe Creative Suite 3 ad, displaying the capabilities of Flash using playing cards.

As I was working on a spreadsheet today, I realized that I had several cells with extra spaces at the end. I knew that there was a Trim function in Excel, but I didn't want to go through the hassle of determining the syntax and use, so instead I went to Google. THe third link I followed, I found Ablebits.com Trim Spaces for Microsoft Excel . Trim Spaces for Microsoft Excel is easy to install and easy to use, and works on many version of Excel. Here are the steps I followed: Downloaded Opened the zip file Opened the Readme.txt, which contained instructions Closed Excel Ran setup.exe Closed the Zip file Opened my Excel file in Excel Highlighted the cells to trim Clicked the Trim spaces button Saved my Excel file It doesn't get any easier! You can even use a silent installation -- great for IT groups who want to deploy. Ablebits.com Trim Spaces for Microsoft Excel is freeware, "The add-in is free for private and commercial use." That's a bargain, too. Here's are

As we all know, kicking any habit can be extremely difficult. Now days, it's also difficult to find a public place where you can feed your cigarette habit. With the introduction of the electronic cigarette from Njoy , that no longer is a problem. As featured at CES, Njoy's electronic cigarette gives you the experience of smoking and the nicotine and flavor you get from smoking, but it is done without burning or the nasty additives. The non-flammable Njoy Cigarette is powered by a patented microelectronic technology, a tiny rechargeable battery, and a safe refillable cartridge which contains water, propylene glycol, nicotine, and a scent that emulates the flavor of tobacco. Here's what you get in the Njoy starter kit: 1 - Njoy Npro Electronic Cigarette (color optional) 5 - Assorted Refill Cartridges (each cartridge equal to approx 1/2 - 3/4 pack of cigarettes) 2 - Rechargeable Lithium Batteries 1 - Lithium Battery Charger The Njoy site advertises the kit for $64.95, but

I'm very frustrated to report that Google's Picasa version 3 has been nothing but trouble. I am now on Picasa 3.1, this being at least the third version of 3.x. I first noticed with the first version 3 update that a few captions were wrong. I corrected a few, but as I looked closer, many of them were wrong -- the captions and pcitures were no longer correctly associated. After the next update, I noticed that Picasa was slower, often hanging for a while. This also included causing screen refresh problems with my other applications that were running at the same time. I just finished allowing another version 3 update, and I notice it seems to be re-building my library -- I now seem to recall it did this with the first version 3 update. I also noticed with pictures that I've added after the prior update also have incorrect captions on some of them -- I hadn't put captions on any of them, yet. Update 17-Jan-09: I've re-opened Picasa, and now the thumbnails are mixed up t

As a Firefox user, there are a few times that I run across a site that requires Internet Explorer (IE). With the right add-ons to Firefox, it's easy to switch the rendering engine with a single click. Of course it would be even easier if the site Firefox recognized sites that require IE, and switch for me. If you use the IE Tab add-on, that is exactly what you can configure it to do. Here's how to do it: Download and install the IE Tab add-on (like all add-ons, this will require a restart of Firefox) Go to the site that you want to render each time in IE Open the IE Tab Options (Tools >> IE Tab Options -- Sites Filter tab) The page you just navigated to should be in the URL box, so you just need to click Add You can skip step 2 and enter any URL manually into the URL box Click OK Now every time you go to a site that is listed in the Sites Filter section of IE Tab, it will automatically render in Internet Explorer. There's one more trick related to this that may be re

Greenwich Mean Time ( greenwichmeantime.com ) has a nice converter from GMT to your time. They also have a time check , so you can validate your computer's clock. And finally, an application is available that you can run on a Windows or Mac computer to keep your clock on time. The Greenwich Meridian (Prime Meridian or Longitude Zero degrees) marks the starting point of every time zone in the World. GMT is Greenwich Mean (or Meridian) Time is the mean (average) time that the earth takes to rotate from noon-to-noon. GMT is World Time and the basis of every world time zone which sets the time of day and is at the centre of the time zone map. GMT sets current time or official time around the globe. Most time changes are measured by GMT. Although GMT has been replaced by atomic time (UTC) it is still widely regarded as the correct time for every international time zone. View Larger Map Back to the time converter, one thing required is that you need to know your own GMT offset. Fo

Occasionally I find where IIS is hung, and I hate to have to reboot. Fortunately I found a web page that lists the command and switches you can use from the command line to accomplish the task. This is the same site, psacake.com that notified us of companies that would be closing after Christmas, so avoid getting gift cards from them.