PaytonPlace

Wikipedia Begs Gracefully

~SP — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:20:34 +0000

It’s one thing to encounter prominent banners at Wikipedia soliciting donations during a fund drive. Such things are understandable and I can easily dismiss them with a single click. But it’s another thing to receive direct e-mail solicitation messages asking me to pester my friends to donate too! Today I received my first such e-mail …

Mortgage This!

~SP — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:24:59 +0000

Since interest rates are significantly lower than the note currently held on our home (almost 3 percentage points), it made sense to investigate options for refinancing our mortgage. The prime goal is to reduce monthly payments and conserve a few dollars during these economically challenging times. This is all well and good but what amazes …

At the Speed of Thought

~SP — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:12:58 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a mechanism to capture every significant idea that we have throughout the course of the day? Ideas or thoughts that we deem as either sharable or collectible for future use, that we don’t want to forget, are what I have in mind. At my age, or perhaps it’s …

Think You’re Too Old for School? Think Again

~SP — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:14:29 +0000

This morning during my start of the day e-mail scan, an article caught my eye regarding continuing education, something I’m always interested in reading about. In my opinion, it is never too late to learn something new or gain deeper understanding of subjects you may already know. With the economy in decline and job listings …

It’s all fun and games . . .

~SP — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:48:56 +0000

. . . until someone loses an eye! Such was the phrase that kept running through my head while I was wrestling with the boys after school today. They both got in plenty of shots against me and I deflected all but one of them. My #2 son connected with a left hook to a …

The Need for Speed (tests)

~SP — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:03:12 +0000

From time to time I run speed tests to see how my current connection fares in comparison to others with similar services. OK, full disclosure – I run a test for every new connection! I use internet-based tools in addition to Windows Ping and TraceRoute utilities when it seems like things are moving slower than …

SPAM Fighter Statistics

~SP — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:21:49 +0000

SPAM Fighter Statistics for November 2010 Thank you Postini for watching paytonplace.us (my domain) 2,227 messages blocked (46%), 996 in quarantine (20%), effective catch rate of 95.7%. Thank you Akismet for watching stephen.paytonplace.us (my blog) 2,646 spam attacks caught, 14 legitimate comments, overall accuracy rate of 99.9%.

Disable V-Cast Manager Popup

~SP — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:19:16 +0000

A fresh annoyance on the Verizon HTC Droid Incredible and Droid X is the V-Cast Manager web page that automatically launches each and every time you plug the phone into your computer. This issue surfaced after Verizon pushed the Android Version 2.2 (Froyo) update through their network to my Droid Incredible. Fortunately, I discovered a way to …

Get a Song Out of Your Head

~SP — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Been singing the same refrain for what seems like hours on end and can't seem to get the annoyingly catchy ditty out of your head? Here's how to rid your mind of the song.

Photo by Ferrari + caballos +fuerza=cerebro Humano.

Real Simple Magazine consulted James Kellaris, a University of Cincinnati professor who studies why catchy tunes stick in our heads. James says that to stop the looping, "listen either to complex music, like Mozart, or unfamiliar music that lacks a hook, like New Age."

And if that doesn't work, try singing the song all the way through or simply listen to it in its entirety. This will give your brain a sense of completion and should relax your need to continue repeating the lyrics. As for situations where you can't remember some or all of the lyrics, just rewrite the end to get the song out of your head.

If you have suggestions for complex and unfamiliar music that you've used to thwart the song in your head (or other tricks to achieve the same goal), leave them in the comments.

Take 18 Minutes to Keep Your Days on Track

~SP — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:30:00 +0000

According to the Harvard Business blog, you can organize an eight-hour work day and keep it on track by creating a ritual that'll only take a total of 18 minutes each day.

Photo by koyochi

Harvard Business blog's Peter Bregman outlines three steps on how to avoid those days when you can barely remember what you intended to accomplish by the time you reach for your keyboard:

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day.
STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus..
STEP 3 (5 Minutes) Review.

Basically, you'll start the day off right by grabbing a sheet of paper and writing down the goals which you can realistically accomplish that day. The important part is to immediately assign time slots to those tasks by order of importance and difficulty because these designated times make you more likely to accomplish your goals and give you a way of tracking your progress once every hour. At the end of the work day, you'll take a few minutes to review not just the last hour, but the entire day. Did you stay on track? What can you do differently tomorrow to retain or improve your productivity?

Check out the full details on this time management ritual on the Harvard Business blog and tell us about how you organize your days and prevent slumps in productivity. Do you have a ritual or do you fly by the seat of your pants and hope for the best? Share your workday time management successes (or failures) in the comments.

Social Venn

~SP — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:05:15 +0000

Last Christmas my wife gave me a t-shirt from ThinkGeek.com with a single word printed on the front, Geek. The next day, I saw her matching shirt, “I Love My Geek,” and the psychology of her gift made perfect sense! [Time Passes . . .] While sipping my morning coffee and reviewing Facebook action, I …

HALOsonic Electronic Sound Synthesis

~SP — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:43:09 +0000

Although I’ve never had opportunity to drive and electric vehicle, I hope to own one someday soon. Strangely enough, my ultimate vehicle wish is to own an electric pickup truck. I’d like a four door truck that’s about the size of a Honda Ridgeline but better looking. Perhaps an electric vehicle the size of the …

Bose Ride System for Heavy-duty Trucking

~SP — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:12:54 +0000

At a press event in Framingham, MA on Wednesday, January 27, Bose announced an entirely new kind of product for the trucking industry – a product that has nothing to do with sound. The new Bose Ride™ system replaces a conventional air-ride truck seat with a Bose® suspension base and an integrated, custom-designed seat top. …

What Matters Now

~SP — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:32:38 +0000

A few days ago I happened across a document that piqued my interest. It is concept from the mind of Seth Godin, a famous author, blogger, and public speaker regarding all manner of marketing topics. This document is entitled, “What Matters Now” and contains eighty-two pages of insights from many other famous folks from all …

New Year’s Resolutions

~SP — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:48:21 +0000

The act of making resolutions at the start of a new year is as old as the hills. And although I’ve chosen not to publish such a list for the past few years, I think its time to start again. To neglect the posting of a list, even if you’re just recording it on paper …

Monster Bash Halloween 2009

~SP — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:11:18 +0000

This is a fun little video I created at JibJab.com. I took some liberties with the character roles since Becky is Dr. Frankenstein and her sister Lisa is bride of Frankenstein’s monster. You can guess who’s face is on the monster, eh? It just seemed funnier with Beck doing the lead as the Doc. Andrew …

WiFi in the Sky

~SP — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:46:00 +0000

Connecting to the internet while on an airplane is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. Although Virgin America Airlines has provided this service since they began flying in the United States, I don’t live near any of the cities to which they fly! But today, after a “parked on the runway for …

It Finally Happened!

~SP — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:19:02 +0000

For the very first time in dozens of prior transactions, the BestBuy In-Store Pickup promise finally came true. It was a painless and relatively fast experience after walking into the store and waiting in line for approximately five minutes. Hooray!!! Ordering merchandise online at BestBuy.Com is always a piece of cake. I verified my desired …

Everything Portable Finds Files Fast

~SP — Sun, 17 May 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Windows only: Everything, a super-snappy file finder that's one of our Top 10 tiny & awesome Windows utilities, offers a new portable version that's just as speedy as its standard-installation sibling.

Everything's portable version takes a few seconds on launching to build a database of all the files on an NTFS-formatted drive, saves it in whatever folder you've saved the application, then brings up a single text box to type into, and a big white space without any files listed—yet. As soon as you start typing in file names, regular expressions, or boolean-style operators (like ! in front of "not" phrases), Everything almost instantly pulls up the files matching that search. And there's a lot that's been added to a new version earlier this month, including support for USB/removable drives, shortcut keys, and a claim to improving search performance by 30 percent. There's also a host of nifty options you can enable, like an HTTP server for remote file searching—hit the MakeUseOf link below for a peek at a few of those value-added items.

Everything portable is a free download for Windows systems only.

Happy Birthday, Mum!

~SP — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:15:23 +0000

I miss you terribly, Mum! Happy Birthday . . . All My Love, Son