February 2007 Posts

KeePass

KeePass is a terrific program that allows you to record and manage the various username and passwords (as well as related data) that you pick up over time. I first heard of it in the Lifehacker book. After spending a number of hours inputing all of my passwords, I’ve been using it for a week or so. I’m very happy with it. Very easy to use. Definitely worth a look for anyone looking for some help managing their passwords in a secure enviroment.

Should I Move This Site to patrickokeefe.com?

I was thinking today that it might be a good idea to move this site to the patrickokeefe.com domain. Back when I started this site, patrickokeefe.com was taken – and I didn’t own it. I liked pokeefe.com, so I used it. But, I now own patrickokeefe.com and have for a while.

The main downside is that I’d lose the links that exist to pokeefe.com right now. I could redirect some of the traffic, if I wanted to, but that isn’t the same thing, of course. On the other hand, it’s better to do it know than after I actually start getting traffic. If that ever happens. This site only gets about 35 pageviews a day now.

I am the first listed entry for Patrick O’Keefe on Google. I guess that’s probably not THAT hard to get back. Eventually, at least.

I’ve also been thinking about making this blog a part of the iFroggy Network. That would then make it a priority. I would try to blog every day instead of just whenever I feel like it. Right now, this blog is pretty low on the old totem pole. Work comes first.

And I am also considering (most likely going to go forward with) a conversion of all of my Nucleus CMS sites to WordPress. (Which, again, this site would most likely be the last one to get upgraded, unless I was preparing it as a new network site). So, I suppose I could do all of that in one shot for this site.

The Gates Are Strict!

From Reuters:

Gates said he and his wife Melinda decided to set a limit of 45 minutes a day of total screen time for games and an hour a day on weekends, plus what time she needs for homework.

45 minutes a day for gaming? Ouch!

I’d like to go to SXSW…

So, Chris is going to SXSW. Stephan is not, afterall, unfortunately. Jeremy is going, as well.

I’d like to go. I’d probably hang around with Chris like the whole time, anyway. lol It’d be a lot of fun and I’d learn some things, I’m sure. But, it’s just too cost prohibitive for me, unfortunately. If anyone wanted to pay my way or most of it, I’d wear their t-shirt a couple of the days, give them some advertising on the iFroggy Network, some plugs here, what else… hehe. Just kidding. A trip to SXSW isn’t in the cards this year, I don’t think.

Hopefully next year.

Lifehacker Book

In December, I read this blog post by Robert Scoble where he called the Lifehacker book the “”must own” book of 2007″. He also said:

From now on I’ll be able to tell if you care about being productive by asking whether you’ve read this book. If you don’t care about getting things done you won’t get it.

I certainly care about productivity (I run 22 sites… I need all the productivity I can get, lol), so when I saw that it was only $16.49 on Amazon.com, I picked it up. I read it during my vacation over the last few weeks. It’s a terrific book – well worth the money. I marked pages on all of the things I want to look into doing myself and I may blog about them, as well.

I have actually just subscribed to the Lifehacker blog because of the book. Kind of a funny order when you consider that it’s been around for a long time and is a very well read blog… I just hadn’t checked it out much before.

For anyone who sits at a computer a lot, whose work is on a computer, I’d totally recommend checking it out. For the price, if you find a few tips, it’s really worth it.

Google Book Search is Cool

Yeah, I know that Google Book Search is not new. I just haven’t had the opportunity to use it before.

Anyway, I found myself using Google Book Search while I was traveling. On my mother’s side of the family, some of my relatives play/played this card game called Muggins. Basically, you deal the deck to all of the players. Then, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, the players flip cards over (toward the other players) and do one of 3 things.

1. They can play to the middle. The middle will, in the end, have four stacks, sorted by suit. The first card in each stack must be the ace, followed by 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. Cards cannot be placed in any other order. And, if a card can go to the middle, IT MUST.

2. If not the middle, they can move the card to the stack of face up cards in front of the other players, starting with the player to the left and then and moving along that line. If you can play the card on the player to your left and the player to your right – you MUST play it to the player on your right. You can only play it in this fashion if the card at the top of the other players stack is one above or below the card that you are trying to play. i.e. you have a 5. You can only put it on a player that has a 4 or a 6 at the top of their stack – regardless of suit.

3. If you can do neither of those, you place the card at the top of your stack and your turn ends.

When you reach the end of your stack, you turn it over and start again.

If you do not do one of the things you MUST do. i.e., if you don’t play a card when you could play it to the middle, the other players can yell “Muggins!” and each player gives you one card from the bottom of their deck.

The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins. And you can play for 2nd, 3rd, etc. if you so choose.

Anyway, it was thought that my great, great grandfather (I believe) created this game. But, after doing some searching, including Google Book Search, it appears this was not the case. He may or may not have taken the game and come up with his own variation, but some of the Book Search results were interesting. Look at the title of this book, from 1888.

The Young Lady’s Book: A Manual of Amusements, Exercises, Studies, and Pursuits by Matilda Anne Planché Mackarness

Now, that’s a book title! LOL.

So, since I was there, I typed in the names of my sites to see what came up. A couple of things I didn’t know about showed up in results.

A mention of KarateForums.com where one of my members was quoted. Hopefully it falls under fair use or they asked for permission. Cool to be mentioned, if so.

A mention of phpBBHacks.com in Yahoo! Hacks where they showed a code screen for a response from Yahoo! Web Services for the term “hacks” – apparently, phpBBHacks.com ranked second for that term behind the site for O’Reilly’s hacks series. Not what you might call a traditional mention, but hey, I’ll take it.

I bought copies of both books. So, what have we learned? Mention my sites in your book, guarantee at least one copy sold! :) heh.