Today's Spiritual Message: Placing Family Above All Else

My inspiration for this week's post came when I read an article shared by my man, Alex Chitu of Google Operating System blog.

I was fascinated when I read it (and am still crossing my fingers that it's real).  It's called, Experience:  I Lived with Wolves.

Is that the F-Word?

As amazed as I was with the whole article, my jaw (read the article for the allusion, I think you'll enjoy it) really dropped when I read this last line:

I want to show people that wolves aren't savage and ruthless – they are balanced and trustworthy creatures that place their family above all else.

I'm confident that I'm far from the perfect husband, father, son, or brother.  On the other hand, I'm very grateful for the document on your right, The Family:  A Proclamation to the World because I do believe our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and that "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Here is a set of five siblings whom I feel provides a glimpse of how rewarding and enjoyable such a family life can be.



Oh, and as I just accidentally broke our popcorn popper, I'll see how much my wife buys into the "forgiveness" part of the Proclamation, once she gets out of the shower . . .

Cocoa Beach: Our Daughter's First Beach Experience

I love how my mother captures the moments.

Yep, regular kite-flyer, here!

I wonder how misaligned this will look, once I'm back it home, putting it on the blog.

I'm in the groove! (and I want paying for my advertisement).

If you want to see the whole album at once, rather than the slideshow, mouse over the slideshow and click on the icon at the bottom right.


By the way, I will now discourage my daughter from ever listing Cocoa Beach as the answer to a security question on any of her online accounts.

Disney World: It's a Packed World, After All

Once again, thanks for understanding my Blogger photo-alignment difficulties.

The adventure begins.

Magical.

More magical.

Merry Christmas from the Magical Kingdom!

I've got places to go, people, let's move.

It IS a small world, after all!

Grandma and Grandpa, I will love you forever for taking me to Disney World!

If you want to see the whole album at once, rather than the slideshow, mouse over the slideshow and click on the icon at the bottom right.

Universal Studios

This photo pretty much sums up our Universal Studios experience and how awesome Yours Truly truly is.

Can you see my neck muscles popping out?

If you want to see the whole album at once, rather than the slideshow, mouse over the slideshow and click on the icon at the bottom right.

Harry Potter World: My Namesake

If I thought you were still reading this text, rather than skimming through the pictures (or grumbling about how awesome Apple is), I would give you a blow by blow of our Christmas season experience.  As you're probably already looking at the pictures (in all their glory), I hope you enjoy!

HAIRLESS POTTER WORLD

Behold.

Putting my name in the Goblet of Fire.

Expelliarmus!

Honey Duke's/Zonko's

Where are the chocolate frogs?

Which one's Hedwig?

Hog's Head or Three Broomsticks

My wife has been spotted!

If you want to see the whole album at once, rather than the slideshow, mouse over the slideshow and click on the icon at the bottom right.

Merry Christmas!

Top left:  I love my wife's cooking, and boy did we get some for Christmas!  I think we had leftovers for 3-4 weeks.

Top right:  Dad, let's just bury the hatchet and forget I blacked your eye.

Bottom left:  Let the good times roll!

Bottom right:  Thanks to my brother-in-law, I can now look like I'm officially on the Google payroll.

In case you're wondering, I pulled out all my hair using Blogger's interface to put pictures next to each other, and I decided to just use Google Docs, take a screen shot, and call it good.  I think I'd rather eat pigs' feet than go through the Blogger interface for side-to-side pictures ever again.

My daughter likes Christmas.  Maybe less than her juice, and she still likes Christmas.

Hey, once the little one's in bed, we crack out the good stuff (sparkling apple cider).
It's okay, Mom, as you can see in the back, I'm still pounding the wheat grass juice.

Hey, I get tired wearing my parents out.

The Full Slideshow

If you want to see the whole album at once, rather than the slideshow, mouse over the slideshow and click on the icon at the bottom right.

In case you're wondering, my wife is conspicuously absent by choice (hers).

Password Woes? Get LastPass

Do you use the same password for every website?

Do you have crazy-long passwords that seem impossible to remember and get lost amidst all your other "important" documents?

Do you use passwords consisting of only four or five lower-case letters (lacking any capitals, numbers, or symbols)?

Do you use passwords like your spouse's name, your birthday, your favorite actor, where you were born, etc.?

Guys like this dude know how to hack into your online
accounts a lot easier than you might think.

I'll resist using the "s" word on you here (should) and simply urge you to avoid anything listed above . . .  Especially after all the fraudulent emails I've seen from people I know (presumably from Facebook break-ins) and the recent Gawker hack.

In short, password security can be a huge risk.  If you refuse to take my word for it, read this article from CNET News, How secure is your e-mail password?  I'm convinced you'll take password security a lot more seriously after reading it sincerely.

So what's the solution to all these problems?  Well for starters, whatever you do, avoid using the same password for every website, especially if you use Facebook or Gawker.

Next, I suggest what I consider a mindbogglingly simple solution:  get LastPass.

I'd heard about it for a long time, and I kept putting off getting it.  Take my word for it, and just get it.

LastPass:  The solution to all your password problems.

I've been amazed at how simple LastPass really is (which, from its logo, I presume is short for LastPassword).  I remember one super-secure master password, LastPass generates crazy-secure and unique passwords for any website I login to, it encrypts and remembers all my passwords for me, and I can access those passwords from any computer that has internet access.

I'll be upfront and admit I had some weird issues with my imported passwords.  Other than that, I've been blown away with how easy LastPass is and how much more secure I now feel.

To learn more, I strongly suggest this article from DownloadSquad, Three password apps to protect yourself from trouble like the Gawker database hack.

Please let me know what questions you have, and please share your experiences below.  I'd love to hear about both.

Today's Spiritual Message: Look Not Behind Thee

Happy New Year, everyone!

"Faith in Jesus Christ gives us strength to leave the past behind and look ahead to a brighter future. Read Jeffrey R. Holland's article, 'The Best Is Yet to Be': http://lds.org/liahona/2010/01/the-best-is-yet-to-be?lang=eng"

Cr-48 Update

First of all, I hope you all had a very, Merry Christmas.  And in case I don't see you, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, and Happy New Year!  (Can someone give me the movie reference, please?)

My family and I really enjoyed ourselves in Orlando, Florida, this past week.  So, keep your eyes peeled for a post or posts with relevant photos.

Now, down to business.  Here some additional thoughts I've had on my Cr-48, since we last met.

Battery.  Yes, I would say it does last about 5-7 hours, depending on the type of use.  And even though it died on me absent a clear warning, I believe it "saved" my data and tabs, so they were still there, when I plugged my AC in.

Using Google Docs on the Cr-48

Google Docs lethargy.  I've been rather disappointed, here.  I've found that some of my larger docs take ages to load, even on my souped-up HP machine; I sometimes feel like I'm having a Gandalf-out-of-body experience, waiting on the Cr-48.

I think I'm most disappointed when the letters on the Docs' screen fail to keep up with my fingers.  As I write this post in Blogger, I think the drag may be unique to Docs (I'm failing to see the same thing in Blogger).

Underlying Chrome channel unchangeable.  In the previous post, I conjectured/hoped I would be able to switch the Chrome channel I run inside of Chrome OS.  That's a negatory, good buddy.  A Chromium dev informed me that "Chrome and the other parts of Chrome OS are updated in lockstep; there's no way to set different update policies for them.  Newer versions of the browser aren't compatible with older versions of the OS, and vice versa."  Gasp!  Needless to say, as I consider myself a heavy canary/dev build user, I'm uber bummed out about this, cough, development, and hope it changes, fast.

Good Luck with the 3G . . .

Verizon 3G 100MB experience.  Yes, it's nice to have when I lack WiFi, for whatever reason.  On the other hand, I felt like I ate through 1MB (or 1% of my monthly allowance) every time I simply opened up a web page (almost like how cell phone providers charge a full minute, regardless if the call lasts two seconds).  I also felt like 3G was noticeably slower than my already slower Cr-48 experience.

Cr-48 Ninja Team

Hotel wireless.  To be short in writing, I was unable to log on to our hotel's wireless until I made two customer support phone calls and only after I realized that the Cr-48's "hardware address" is (I think) the same thing as a Windows machine's "MAC address."  I imagine this is all part of the beta experience.  The poor IT dude (it was Christmas!) I talked to had yet to even hear of Chrome OS . . .

Funked out fonts?  At a minimum, I'm really weired out with my Times New Roman fonts on Docs (and I think my normal fonts on Blogger, as well).  I hope this is also a beta issue; I imagine fonts are intended to look the same, across OSes.

Guest Mode.  Thanks for the shot, Sebastian of DLSquad.

Ninja support.  While I was somewhat disappointed with the Cr-48 support I received from the designated "Ninja team," I'm very grateful it even exists and that it responds to user queries.

Where's my ctrl+end?!!?  Call me a keyboard shortcut fanatic, if you want, I'll gladly accept the label.  I'm still grumbling about this MIA shortcut.

Guest mode leaves regular mode in the dust?  I'll end this post with my puzzled musings.  I've been wondering what gives on the Cr-48's speed, so, the other day, I tried out the guest mode and felt like I had my socks blown off, in comparison to regular mode.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?  More than anything, I simply hope Guest Mode's relative zip is an indicator the Cr-48/Chrome OS's speed will improve substantially, soon.

Please chime in with any questions/observations of your own.

Today's Spiritual Message: Look to the Light

I hope you enjoy this Christmas message as much as I did:

Got My Cr-48 at UPS Last Night: Let the Instability Begin!

In case you're puzzled about my title, Cr-48 is named for a particularly unstable Chromium isotope (Chromium is also the open source project behind Chrome/Chrome OS).

Here are my initial thoughts:

1. Speed - Overall, feels pretty slow, at the moment. I did the jail break maneuver, and I’m unsure if I’m actually on the dev channel, as the OS status still says “0.9.128.12 . . . beta.”  At the end of the day, this is still like 4-6 months, pre-release.
2. CPU noise - I’m actually surprised at how loud it can run. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure it's substantially quieter than my dual core HP Pavilion Dv-7t 2000.
3. Touch pad - I think I really just prefer the traditional side region scrolling area.  I also feel like I have to bludgeon the touch pad to get the new Apple-style push-click (I really prefer tapping).  Finally, I had some issues with accidentally brushing my touch pad, while typing.  I think that got cleared up, some how.  Maybe I unknowingly changed the sensitivity settings.
4. Screen size - I really like the size, actually.  I feel really comfortable with it.
5. Keyboard transformation/shortcuts - Mainly, I love it.  I can do delete by simply pressing alt+backspace, yet the old ctrl+delete functionality seems to have been extinguished.  I also think that using esc in Chrome to stop a page from loading has been axed.  I really like that I can bypass the two-finger click with alt+click (I pretty much stick my tongue out at the two-finger click on the Cr-48).  On the other hand, I'm pretty confident this is broken in Docs, right now, which is a huge bummer when I'm trying to do things like spell check. Finally, I’m feeling uncomfortable with ctrl+alt+down/up arrow for end/home, and I believe Chrome OS lacks traditional ctrl+end/home (skip to beginning/end of a doc), altogether; I really hope I'm wrong, as I feel like I use that combo all the time.
6. Battery life - I love how it actually gives me an estimated time remaining (and that it lasts like 10x longer than my HP).
7. “System tray”  - I love how it’s just my clock, my network, and my battery:  All I ever wanted, anyway!
8. Flash - Yes, I can confirm that I’m disappointed with how jerky flash has run for me.  Again, this is pre-release.
9. Search engines and passwords - Neither is synced, and I’m pretty bummed out about it.  Ah, well.  Good old manual entry to the rescue!
10. Underlying Chrome Version - We now come full-circle to speed issues (it's probably apparent how much I value keyboard shortcuts).  Underneath my Chrome OS version, I appear to be running Chrome stable. I’ve been using the canary build, on my HP, for the past while, and I believe it's about 12 weeks, three months, or two versions ahead of stable, in terms of features and speed.  I miss my bleeding edge features/speed! I think I've heard it rumored that there is or will be a way to switch Chrome channels. I sure hope so.

All in all, I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen so far, with my principal gripe being the Cr-48's speed lag (which is probably because a) this is pre-release OS software, b) I'm used to a dual core Intel Centrino, and c) I'm currently on Chrome stable, rather than canary).

Please hit me with any questions you're dying to ask (or otherwise). I'll post more, later.


                                

Win a FREE Cr-48 (Chrome OS) Notebook!!

JUST KIDDING!! 

I mainly want see how many angry comments I get below, cursing me to Hades for luring people in with my malicious Google Alert trigger.

Muahahaha.

Seriously, though, I do hope you get one from Google.  Best of luck to you!

By the way, I'm writing this after actually applying to a (presumably) legitimate competition.  I'll post about it when it's closed.  :)  UPDATE:  Here's what the competition was:  http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/win-chrome-os-notebook.html

What Shall We Give?

"Giving, not getting, brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit."



Here's President Monson's full Christmas devotional from this year:

Good Times Reviewing for White Collar

So, after reviewing for White Collar Crime, basically all day, I feel like the foot in this image:

The White Collar Crime Review Demon Has Its Way With Me

10 bonus points if you can tell me where I found this fun piece.

Pain

The following may upset you. It may even shock you. But I feel it is my duty as a concerned cititizan to bring you this important massage:



Yes, when I saw that 25 computers were, in fact, harmed in the making of this video, I almost cried. How about sending me a Cr-48 and letting me use it! On the other hand, I definitely appreciate the message illustrated by the destruction.

P.S. F-Word, if you're unable to identify the "who" and "where," from the opening line, I may have to repossess your quote card.

2010 Year in Review by Google

I saw this today and was pretty impressed.  Hope you enjoy it.



Yes, sometimes I feel like Ferris Beuller:

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

The 12 Days of a Large Family (7 Kids) Christmas

My wife and I both enjoyed this one, and she particularly goaded me to post it.  It's the comments this family of 7 children has heard while out shopping, sung to the 12 Days of Christmas.



In case you're wondering, let me say right off the bat that they are neither Catholics onr members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).  I know because they say this at the beginning and the end, respectively.

Hope you enjoy it!

Church-goers tend to be happier people, says study; Cougar Abogado says its because of their unity in God

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40557983/ns/health-behavior/

"Religious people are more satisfied with their lives than nonbelievers, but a new study finds it's not a relationship with God that makes the devout happy. Instead, the satisfaction boost may come from closer ties to earthly neighbors."

I saw this headline in my Google News this morning, decided to take a quick peak, and share a couple thoughts.

First, if this study is accurate, I think that "church-goers" being happier would make plenty of sense because, I assume, they are united.

The Savior prayed,

22And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17: 22-23

We find further evidence of happiness (I say "further" because I assume the Son of God was happy in His unity with the Father and His disciples), in the Book of Mormon, stemming from unity.  On the other hand, in contrast to the article, we learn that these people were happy because of their unity in God:

3And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.
15And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
16And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.
17There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God. 4 Nephi 1: 3, 15-17.

In summary, the MSNBC subtitle may be correct, "It's not the sermon — it's the socializing that's the key." Yet, I think the purpose of the socializing is what matters. "[W]hen ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). Indeed, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25: 40). And, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14: 15). I do believe and know there is great happiness in the unity of loving Christ and keeping His commandments.

Perhaps ironically, for our day, the people described in the Book of Mormon were happiest because of their unity, rather than their differences. In fact, the text tells us the key to their happiness was that they side aside their differences and focused on being "one, the children of Christ."

Becoming a Zombie . . . Plants vs. Zombies

Okay, so tonight I felt like blowing off a little steam after some (lovely) Tax review (gotta love those deductions!) and almost turned into a zombie playing PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES.

Tonight was my first foray into the Chrome web store games, and I'd heard about this title, and so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I was pulled in from the word "go," with the inherent war strategy, and stayed engaged, throughout, with fresh items and challenges.

I literally felt like I had to pry myself away from this one or risk becoming a zombie and being planted, by my wife, . . . six feet under!!

I gave this one five stars for all around awesomeness and probably would have kept playing four hours if my will power had utterly failed me.


When you've got a few minutes to burn, go try this one out.  Just make sure you've got plenty of will power, so you can pry yourself away!!

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mmcegpfdgcoclcdfkjahiimlikdpnina 

Google Launches Chrome Web Store, Shows Off Chrome OS/Chromebook, Cougar Abogado Grovels

IT HAS BEGUN!!!

Cr-48 Chrome hardware pilot program: 'Not for the faint of heart'

Today, while I soaked up some rays studying for Federal Income Tax (please, contain your excitement), Google launched its Web Store and gave an update on its forthcoming OS and a taster of the bad boy shown above.

As it turns out, Google is actually going to give away a number of these notebooks to crazy online dwellers like myself (hopefully!), daring and brave enough to test out the new OS, by putting it through its paces.  Pick me!  Pick me!!  OH PLEASE, PICK ME!!!

Okay, while I stop foaming at the mouth, please enjoy these videos on web apps and Chrome OS.





I've actually taken a peak at the Web Store and was pretty impressed with what I saw:  Toddler Jukebox (an app for playing kids songs, is the #1 paid app!!).  I also gave WGT Golf Challenge a swing and came away quite impressed with the graphics.

WGT Golf Challenge

To give one gripe, before I sign off, I'm pretty bummed out that app tabs appear to have lost (at last for the moment) the fabled features I once thought they would present.  See my comments here, for more.

App tabs - in the top left corner

On a somewhat ironic note, running the latest Chrome canary build, 10.0.603.3, this post died twice, so I resorted to using Firefox 4b7, so I could actually create this post, it's that important to me . . .  HINT, HINT, Chrome team!!