Ideas, Mine and Others

Furl, an enhanced use

brilliantideas — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:13:00 +0000

Just a quickie. I’ve created a new category in Furl!, remember. I’ve marked it private, but there is no reason one couldn’t create a public topic as well. When I have an idea I Furl it. It doesn’t matter what site I’m at, it just gets put in the remember category as reminder accessible from anywhere on the internet.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags: Furl reminder internet idea

Just in case

brilliantideas — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:50:40 +0000

In anticipation (well hopes of anyway) people finding what I have to say interesting, I am adding a convention to my blogs to assist you in finding my posts wherever they might be. I will be closing all posts, on my own entries and in comments, and tagging them where possible with J. Andrew Morrison.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

New Blog, Simpletidbits.com

brilliantideas — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 16:44:12 +0000

Hello,

I have added a blog to my primary web site. This blog will be where my better researched and more complete and organized postings will be. This blog will continue to be the incubation point for my new ideas and will also contain my more controversial and personally biased posts. There is a link to the site in the Blogroll. The address is http://www.simpletidbits.com/blog. My first endeavor on the new blog is a detailed explanation of DSL and Cable broadband technology starting with terminology and ending with a DSL vs Cable comparison from the perspective of how it really pertains to your browsing experience. Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy the new blog.

Firefox must prevail

brilliantideas — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:39:22 +0000

Firefox must prevail because it is the better browser. I know Firefox is faster, more standards compliant, particularly with CSS, and developed in the spirit the internet embodies. I have gathered many facts but I want to know what you think. Help me evangelize Firefox by providing your opinions of why Firefox is better than the rest and any resources you think are useful to the cause. Firefox is at 15% or more market share right now. Let’s start beating the drum harder and move it to 50% by new year.

Cheers,
John Morrison

Join Safari Bookshelf

brilliantideas — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:28:36 +0000

First, this is not an affiliate offer. Safari has no affiliate program I know of. This is just a great service I want to share.

This is a brilliant idea, and an awsome implementation. Safari Bookshelf by Oreilly is an online business and technical bookshelf. For a monthly fee, as low as $19.95 for 10 books at a time, you get a rotating bookshelf populated from a list of thousands of titles. They’re not stale titles either. Here are some of the titles on my shelf right now

Apple Training Series: iWork ’06 with iLife ’06
Design and Deploy web sites with Macromedia® Dreamweaver® MX 2004 and Contribute® 3: Training from the Source
Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity
Macromedia® Flash® 8 ActionScript: Training from the Source
Spring Into HTML and CSS

At $35 to $50 a pop that’s a $200 bookshelf right there, and it’s only part of what I have! And you get to switch a book out after 30 days so you always have the books you need, when you need them, where you need them on the internet; and without the chiropracter bill that comes with carrying them around .

You can get a free 14 day trial at Safari.

Cheers,
John

Tags: iwork ilife books technology bookshelf internet

ICE your cell phone

brilliantideas — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:28:45 +0000

This one could save your life. At the end of 2005 cell phone users numbered 207.9 million, 69% of the U.S. population. Emergency workers have taken notice and now see the cell phone as a valuable tool in emergency situations. When they discover a victim who is incapacitated and has a cell phone they look for ICE listings. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. With these listings they are able to make contact with family members or friends who can identify the victim, and in some circumstances provide information on medical conditions and allergies that can save the victims life.

So if you own a cell phone take a few moments to enter some ICE numbers. It could save your life.

Here are links to ICE services (not affiliated):

ICE Sticker for the back of your cell phone

icefirst software to upload emergency contact and medical information to your phone

Cheers,
John

Solar Power Where It’s Needed – AC

brilliantideas — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 15:46:35 +0000

I thought of this while watching a commercial about a product that keeps your car cool. It is a fan that attaches to the top of your window and it is solar powered. Brilliant! Use solar power, exclusively, for things that need electricity when it’s hot! Imagine the energy saved if all air conditioning units and industrial cooling fans used solar power exclusively for their power. That’s my piece for now, definately a topic for expanded discussion.

Cheers,
John
Tags:Conservation Energy Conservation

Avoid the email Phishing Hook

brilliantideas — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 03:05:25 +0000

Here’s a simple idea that is guaranteed to keep you safe from email Phishing attacks.

Don’t reply to, click on any link in, or use the contact information included in any email pertaining to personal, confidential, and/or financial information.

If you are concerned by the contents of the email then visit the site by entering a known URL directly into your browser, sending an email to a known address you have used before, or call the customer/contact number you have used before.

For more information on what phishing is and what you can do to fight phishing identity theft read my entire article here.

Show Civility

brilliantideas — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:05:59 +0000

Civility, this idea, if implemented by everyone, would change the world. Most of you know what being civil is so I won’t go into positive examples. Instead I will share some things that shouldn’t be done because sometimes I think the people doing these things don’t realize how un-civil they are being.

Don’t tailgate.

Don’t pass a long line of cars on the right and cut in. We all want to go faster, you are not special. Besides, not only are you being un-civil, you are endanger the lives of others.

Don’t pass a long line of cars waiting to turn at a light (this is particularly common on busy off ramps) and cut in at the bottom of the line.

When there are two lanes to turn left, don’t put yourself in the left lane if you know you need to be in the right lane after the turn.

If someone is requesting assistance in a forum for the first time on a subject don’t assume they haven’t tried to find the answer on their own and don’t provide a condescending answer chastising them for finding the other posts you know exist.

Don’t ask for civility then be un-civil, like drmike the WordPress forum moderator (yes he’s the straw that broke the camels back and got me to finally write about this. As a moderator he is a public figure and therefore open to public criticism).

Don’t think technology is infallible and assume users are stupid (this goes out to the IT industry “professionals”).

Don’t assume you know the answer when you haven’t listened to all the details.

Read the entire content of a post or email.

That’s it for now. Please add your own pet un-civilities.

Advertising Idea for Apple

brilliantideas — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 03:09:45 +0000

Those who know, use Macintosh.

While watching the several “learning” stations (Discovery, Science Channel, etc.) I found that many of the experts being interviewed were using Macintosh computers. These are the top biologists, archeologists, mathmeticians, physicists, etc, etc, in their fields and I think Apple should capitalize on the opinions of these powerhouse brains.

Cheers,
John