Blog Notes-August 2011

God is the great artist. We are creations and we are intended, in turn, to be creative ourselves.

1. First car maintenance task this month: headlight not working, but not the easy replace a halogen bulb. The wiring harness / connector is cracked and must be replaced. Now I have to figure out the correct and safe way to splice wires in the car.
   • Headlight wiring
   • Splicing wires with great photo's! _08-01-2011
   • done! used 2 butt connectors, wire stripper, and some black electrical tape. End results = it works!
2. Micro finance, creativity, and design all wrapped up together. Pen Type A at Kick Starter. The design is interesting, a custom designed stainless steel pen with a square ruler case. Refills are Pilot Hi-Tec-C Pens. Very creative! Watch the video. _08-02-2011
3. Downloading a copy of Cory Doctorow's Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright and the Future of the Future for travel reading. Audio readings of the book (by various readers) are available also, by chapter/essays.
   • Download links:
     1. PDF of Content
     2. 64Kbps MP3 Content
   • of course many other versions of the book and audio are available at http://www.archive.org/details/CoryDoctorow-Content_268
4. The Internet Archive (see Doctorow notes above for stored documents and audio on the Internet Archive) is worth thinking about for public publishing. Obvious sections available include:
   • Web
   • Moving Images (Example: Comparing Accrual and Cash Accounting by Khan Academy )
   • Texts
   • Audio
   • Software
5. Lifehacker 2011 Best Windows downloads and the Ninite installer pack
6. Video player, including FLV and about everything else including audio formats, VLC Media Player. VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVD, Audio CD, VCD, and various streaming protocols.
7. Gizmos Freeware Reviews
   • Best Online Apps - scan through the well organized list and look at the icons for some productivity tool ideas!
   • Best Portable Apps think USB thumb drive
   • The Editors' Choice List: Our Selection of the Best PC Freeware which is the BIG list, and is regularly updated. _08-03-2011
8. Bootable USB thumb drive with DOS operating system - why DOS? I needed to run SpinRite on a netbook - the only boot option was USB and SpinRite requries DOS.
   • HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8 - This utility will format any USB flash drive, with your choice of FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition types. An option is "Create a DOS startup disk" "using system files located at.."
   • Windows 98 System Files in a zip file. Unzip into a temporary folder and when you run the HP USB Format Utility select the directory for your bootable files.
   • last step was copying my SpinRite executable onto the USB and adding an autoexec.bat to load it upon boot.
   • A more current version of the HP utility is also available, but this worked fine for my simple requirement. _08-05-2011
9. Denver, CO
   • Biking - Denver B Cycle, rental bikes at 50 stations near downtown. Great for the Cherry Creek and Platte River bike paths. _08-07-2011
   • Mountain Gazette - mountain lifestyle. A spiritual journey of 43 steps (the article that is!) a hike, some friends, and writing. Some of the great quotes from Lili Wright:
     • All day, we walk. I like the simplicity of this mission. We are not multi-tasking. I am not trying to be ...
     • I don’t believe in bragging rights. Don’t tell me about the crazy thing you did. Tell me how much fun you had.
     • Do it wrong, do it twice.
     • ... we have to improvise, leave home — Just go. Get out of here — find our truths in the desert.
   • Colorado Photography Festival starts Saturday next door to my conference. Need to plan ahead, use the local city paper. In Denver, that must be Westword. _08-11-2011
10. New Win7 computer
    • Had my computer files moved to a new machine and needed to check that all files made the trip. Used WinMerge to quickly test about 28,000 files to my backup drive. Quick and easy peace of mind.
    • Utility time! 64 bit software
    • Win7 Resource Monitor is an excellent tool for tracking CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory usage. _08-16-2011
11. 2011 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits shows strong demand for accounting graduates
    • Start Here Go Places information for high school students
    • This Way to CPA focused on college students finding their path into accounting.
12. Pathways Commission - http://www.pathwayscommission.org