Over at A CUP OF JO is “15 Genius Tips for Living in Small Spaces” that really are worth a read if you live in or plan to move to a small apartment or condo or dorm. It’s advice taken from a couple that live in a 250 square foot place, and they practice what they advise. 250 square feet is very small, as you can see:
And yet it looks like a beautiful space. Take a look.
This phishing attack is really good. Other than text like “we regret to announce” and a misspelling of “Apple”, most of the phrasing is well done and it all looks very official. Of course they sent it to my wrong email address, so that was another sign it was a phishing email. Most of the links are valid, too, except one that points to myioscare.uk. So yeah, beware. Here’s the text of the email:
Apple ID – <my email address at work>, (19 – September – 2014)
This notice is to therefore to inform you we regret to announce you that your Apple/iCloud Account (<my email address at work>) has been temporarily frozen until we can verify your iCloud Account details. This security measure to protect your Apple Account from unauthorized usage. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
You will be unable to access Apple sync/backup or the iTunes/App Store & Apps Store until you update your Apple/iCloud Account details on file, we urge you to complete validation as soon as you can. Failure to update your account details within a 74 hours can result in deletion of your Apple/iCloud Account to protect our system.How can I validate my Apple Account and restore my iCloud/Apple ID?
Just proceed to the highlighted link below to verify ownership of your Apple ID. Log-in in using your Appe/iCloud login and password, then read the instructions.> Validate My Apple/iCloud Account
While using Apple products and apps, you’ll still sign in with your primary e-mail address as your Apple account.
If you have queries and want support, please visit the Apple Account Care site.
Regards,
Apple/iCloud Europe
Case Validation Request: #UJ13HA41317-EU11
Chromecast is great for putting YouTube videos on your big screen TV. The problem for me, though, is finding good videos to watch: I want to spend less time searching and more time relaxing. 5by.com answers that problem by providing you videos picked by them around themes. I have just started with it, but it looks good (in more ways than one).
For more information, see Video Concierge.
Here are my reasons for (and why you might want to as well):
Reasons against:
In my case, I think the reasons for outweigh the reasons against, and that is why I have pledged to this Kickstarter campaign . I would encourage you to pledge as well.
Here’s a link to it: ‘1984’ Stealth Fashion for the Under-Surveillance Society by Zoltan Csaki — Kickstarter.
My son misplaced his phone. I assumed he was safe because it had a PIN on it and it was locked. Turns out someone must have found it and was using it to rack up big long distance phone bills. Here’s just one way people can do this: 3 Ways to Bypass iPhone Passcode – wikiHow.
Obviously I am not encouraging people to do this, any more than I would encourage people to steal or commit other crimes. I am encouraging you to call your provider whenever you can’t find your phone.
You print off this article: How to Get Through a Workday on No Sleep — Science of Us and you follow it step by step, hour by hour. Really. It has a great rundown of all the things you should do and why.
Of course the best thing is to do what it takes to get some sleep the night before. Or call in sick and get some rest. If neither of those options are available, what you read in that article may be the thing that saves you.
P.S. Thanks for reading this. If you have found it useful and you’d like to say thanks by buying me a coffee, you can do so here. Thanks! That’s awesome!
This WSJ article makes the case that you can probably get by with less than eight. Given the audience of the Wall Street Journal, I am not surprised they would have such an article.
For more reasonable people, this article in Real Simple (So Now We Only Need 7 Hours of Sleep? Not So Fast) makes more sense.
As I get older I lean towards getting more sleep, but to each their own.
Regardless, the weekend is coming up. Get some sleep.
P.S. The image, from the wikipedia section on sleep, shows the downside of lack of sleep.
Why? Because they are going to do it regardless of whether or not you teach them, and if you don’t teach them properly, there is a good chance they will download malware or at least the wrong software.
To back up, my son was complaining last night he could not download some software for his computer. He had gone onto Google, entered “download software XYZ” and clicked on the first thing at the top of the page. Now often times the first thing is NOT what you want: it is some company that purchased the right to show up first. I told him to instead look at the URLs that are displayed, and look for the company name in the URL. I told him to be careful about what you click on. (The software he wanted was on the first page of the search results, but about 3 or 4 entries down.)
The safest thing is to always have them talk to you before they download something. Or you email them a safe link instead of them clicking on what shows up in Google.
Via Real Simple magazine.
Anyone who has travelled, even a little, has likely encountered one of the scams listed here: Tourist Scams I’ve Fallen For (And How to Avoid Them). I know I have run into the Overly Kind Stranger scam, and I have been lucky to avoid some of the others, like the “It’s Closed” scam.
The list in the article are worth reviewing regardless of how often you have travelled. The best way to deal with them is to know about them, expect them, and have a plan to deal with them.
Good luck! Don’t get scammed.
Depending where you are, you may have any number of IP addresses: one for your home network, one for your work network, and even one from the coffee shop providing free WiFi. Since it is not uncommon to have sites block you based on your IP address, it is good to be able to determine what yours is.
The site WhatIP.com does just that. It will tell you what country, ISP, and city it thinks you are in, along with your IP address.
I hate cleaning my house. I like a clean house, but I hate cleaning it. So I am always on the look out for ideas that can help with this.
I have to say that I practice most of the tips here: The Lazy Person’s Guide to a Happy Home: Tips for People Who (Really) Hate Cleaning | Apartment Therapy.
Another tip I have that isn’t here is to keep a notepad and pen nearby. I find I often have the best ideas spring to mind when I am cleaning. When I pause to write them down, I am amazed at how productive I am. It makes me feel like I am getting more out of cleaning that just a clean/less messy space.
My former colleague and all around great person, Annie English, has a book and a blog on how to retire young. The Toronto Star has reviewed it here: Here’s how this couple retired at 48 in expensive Toronto: Roseman | Toronto Star. Annie and her husband, Rich, were disciplined before retirement, and that discipline has paid off. If you want to learn how they did it, check out the Star article, or their blog, Retired At 48. If this is something you want to achieve, buy the book, too.
Over at Operating Partner, DFJ, Heide Roizen has a great case study of how to negotiate with someone as tough to deal with as Steve Jobs. You may not be in IT, and you may never have to negotiate with someone as demanding and smart as Jobs, but check it out: you can learn something useful and read a great story too.
Right now, Namecheap.com has .us domains for $1.10 (Canadian) and .org.uk for $6.41.
I was tempted to get iAmSoFabulo.us, but I may get something just for test purposes. (I am testing using cloud sites, and it is helpful to have a domain name, vs going with the full domain name that some of the cloud sites provide).
If you are Canadian or want a .ca domain, then netfirms.ca is a better choice (NameCheap.com has .ca domains for $13.03, vs $9.99 at netfirms.ca).
Finally, from what I hear, namecheap.com has deals all the time. It is worth visiting them from time to time to see what is available.
I often struggle with how to get through the long, cold winter. If you do too, or are dealing with other difficulties that can make you sad and miserable, try this exercise that I find helps.
For a period of no more than 10 seconds, do something that makes you happy. It can be looking at something beautiful, enjoying a piece of music or a piece of food, or saying something good to someone you love. Choose the best thing you can think of. In that 10 seconds, don’t think of anything else, just that. Think about it before you do it, think about it while you are doing it, then think about it after you have done it. That’s it. That’s the exercise.
Now, maybe you think 10 seconds is too short and a minute or more is something you can focus on. Great! Do that then. Or you so enjoyed that 10 seconds of admiring the snow, or sipping you tea or juice, that you are going to move on and try the exercise with something else. Also great. Whatever you do, try the exercise and then try to do it repeatedly through the day, week.
Happiness is hard to define, and still harder to quantify. But I think that each of us, in our own way, can build up the part of ourselves capable of being happy and work it and make it stronger. The heart literally gets stronger through exercise. The heart figuratively can stronger through exercise, too. At least I think so. Try this exercise and tell me what you think.
The best, easiest, and most effective New Year’s resolution to make (perfect for procrastinators, too) is this: I resolve to make a new resolution every week (or month, or quarter or season, or….you get the idea).
It sounds like a lame suggestion, but think about it for a minute. By making this resolution, you have already made a resolution. Good for you! One down. That out of the way, you can decide what is a schedule you are most likely to stick to. Once a week? Possible, but tough. Monthly? More likely. I personally like quarterly or seasonally. The idea of having a new resolution every season is a great way to kick off a season. In spring you can resolve to plant new / more plants. In summer you can resolve to go to the beach more, or go on that trip you always wanted, or spend more time in the park reading or exercising. In fall you can resolve to get out and take in more culture. And in winter you can resolve to get in shape for next spring and fall.
Whatever you do, keep a list. You will be surprised at the end of the year how many resolutions that you made and kept.
The other good thing about this approach is that you keep up the resolutions, rather than making a bunch in January, only to have them die off.
Good luck!
Sure, you can get a better webcam. But if you spend any time on web conference calls, it pays to read this, too: Strobist: How to Improve Your Cheapo Webcam’s Picture Quality. For example, following the article, the image that the webcam produces goes from the bluish one on the right to the better looking one on the right.
Well worth reading.
Come January 1, alot of people will resolve to lose their excess weight and get fit. And what is good for people is also good for …Macs! In this article, Ten ways to turn your Mac into a lean, mean, agile machine…right now (or Jan. 1 🙂 ), you can learn various ways to slim down your Mac while you wait for Mac OS X v 10.6.
If you want to make a lot of people feel better, here’s a very easy way to do it. All you need is a nearby marathon.
Go down to where the race is. Get yourself a coffee or tea. Then as the runners come by, cheer them on.Tell them they’re looking good, they’re doing great, hang in there, tell them about upcoming downhills, cheer, clap, yell woohoo. Whatever works for you. The best runners will appreciate you just being there. The rest will be rejuvenated by your encouagement.
I went down today to the Toronto marathon yesterday and in a short time made a few dozen people smile. Having run a few myself, I know how great it is for people to turn out and do that.
Everyone in a marathon is struggling to do their best in the face of great difficulty. Even the best of runners. Your encouragment is greatly appreciated. You can make a dozen people feel better in the time it takes you to finish your tea.
With regards to the question: when should one wear red? There are two occasions when one should wear red:
(Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash )
has great clothes. Anyone who can make a cardigan this well….
… deserves a look! 🙂
According to the nytimes.com blog, Bits ,
Starbucks announced today it will give most any customer two consecutive hours a day of free Wi-Fi access. Specifically, that offer applies to anyone who uses its prepaid Starbucks Card at least once a month. That represents as many as 60 hours of access for the price of one $2 cup of coffee.
It’s interesting to think of Starbucks as a network service provider. It has the potential to open up lots of other business opportunities for them as well. See Bits for more info.
I love the cloud paintings of Richard Herman. You can find out more about his work and even purchase it from the fine Toronto art gallery, Art Interiors.
From the excellent tumblelog, Daily Meh
P.S.
It mirrors some of the ideas from the book, Art and Fear, that I blogged about earlier.
…by reading this article, Chasing the Darkness With Sleight of Hand in the New York Times, which presents a nice case study on how to make a dark room light up. It features a room by Jeffrey Bilhuber, a Manhattan interior designer, whose client had a bedroom in their apartment with very little light. The end result is light and very attractive. Lots of good ideas to borrow here.
Matthew Sullivan has a great idea for a wine blog. His blog, the Short Cellar, is all about:
“….offering some advice about the joy of aging wine as I build my own cellar from the ground up, detailing what is going in, when it comes out, and what happened to it along the way. My emphasis will be on wines that are easily available in Ontario and that only take a year or two before developing into something special. Who has time to wait 10 years? I’m patient, but not a saint. There’s a perception that having a wine cellar implies expertise or money. This is a myth. You’re never too young, dumb, or soaked in debt to want a better bottle of wine. It’s true that a cellar takes some foresight and knowledge, but only enough to guess what you are going to have for dinner three years from now, and the knowledge that you’ll want something extraordinary to wash it down. You can spend any amount that you wish on wine, but the sweet spot is between $15 and $25. At that level, there are some exceptional wines that will mature marvellously, but there’s no guilt in drinking them at any time since, litre for litre, they are still cheaper than a latte.”
Sounds like a great idea. See The Short Cellar for more.
For
people who wonder, “why blog?”, the people at lifehack.org have listed
a number of strong reasons why you should in their article, How To Use Your Blog To Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever!
The
article is written from a viewpoint of how to use a blog to improve
yourself, and the bonuses they list regarding blogging (e.g. track
progress, get feedback, share knowledge) apply to anyone, either
personally or professionally.
The New York Times has a good summary on the various web sites offering publishing services in their article: Got a Manuscript? Publishing Now a Snap – New York Times. There are references to lulu.com, blurb.com and others.
If you have been always dying to see your work bound in hardcover, check out this article and then the sites they mention.
blogto does a great job of covering Toronto, including restaurants. And this review of Country Style Hungarian Restaurant is no exception.
There used to be a number of Hungarian restaurants in the Annex, including the Korona, my old favourite. Sadly, most of them are gone. But not Country Style. Head on over to 450 Bloor St West and have one of these…
…and you will be very glad you did! 🙂
(image link to blogto)
I stumbled across this demo of how to pick a master lock #175. There are alot of these videos! If your lock is in one of them, you should get rid of it.
That said, it is impressive to see some of these videos. It’s hackers for hardware.
Over at the well done blog, Zen Habits, is a list of The Four Laws of Simplicity, and How to Apply Them to Life
The laws themselves are:
1. Collect everything in one place.
2. Choose the essential.
3. Eliminate the rest.
4. Organize the remaining stuff neatly and nicely.
But see their article for good advice on how to apply them.
There are a number of architects and builders specializing in very small dwellings for people.
Tumbleweed Houses are appropriately named and nicely done. It makes being a nomad seem grand! You should visit the site, just to see what can be packed into such a small space.
If you love bread, or want to learn how to bake it, the Bread Blog has lots of great recipes and instructions on how to make all kinds of bread, including one of my favourites, Panettone (chocolate chip, no less)
CreatingMinds.org has these great creative tools that can
help you and your organization become even more creative.
I highly recommend them.
I think I have the perfect new year resolution for people in Toronto: eat all of this food before 2009! Forget that dieting stuff, this is the year to Eat, Drink and be Daring (as the good folks as Toronto Life recommend).
Go to the article…but not on an empty stomach!
The good folks over at RealSimple.com have some great ideas for this Christmas. They have a nice Holiday Gift List Worksheet and a list 50 Gifts Under $50.If you are not close to done or could use some help, go there now.
Over at ThinkSimpleNow.com is a list of 40 Simple Gift Ideas to Spark a Smile | . If you are stuck for gift ideas, check it out. They have separated out into:
* Unique Gifts
* Gifts that Touch the Soul
* Books that Change Lives
* Alternative Wrapping Ideas
Who wouldn’t like something like this?
Smart People I Know 