Category: blogs

Retrosi on Simplicity

On By Rick McIn blogs, happiness, health & fitness, philosophyLeave a comment

‘A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.’ ~Henry David Thoreau

… what would happen if I uncluttered my life.

A life uncluttered by most of the things people fill their lives with, and left with space for what really matters. A life that isn’t constant busy-ness and rushing, but contemplation and creation, connection with people I love and time for nature and activity.

That doesn’t mean I have zero clutter and zero complications: I’m a part of the world, not a secluded monk. I have possessions, electronics, distractions, and occasional busy-ness. I just would reduce it to make space for things of more importance. …

Simplify

That’s from a Gymnastics friend of mine, Tony Retrosi.

Retrosi

He’s preaching to the converted in my case. 🙂

One point in that post hit home more than any other:

• Your attention is your most valuable possession. Give it as a gift to the people you love most, not a bunch of clowns on the Internet. Give it to the work that matters most, not distractions. …

Got it.

RESET the NET

On By Rick McIn Apple, blogs, ethics, Google, government, internetLeave a comment

Two choices.

1. You can simply assume there is no privacy. No privacy online. None on phone.

Or …

2. you can try taking some small steps to discourage the NSA and other organizations from collecting data on you.

I’m switching from Google search to DuckDuckGo, for example. That might help. Apple is now offering DuckDuckGo as an alternative web search engine.

On the other hand, Google is responding to criticism, now offering end-to-end mail encryption, to try to make your email private.

reset the net

Watch the RESET the NET VIDEO .

Edward Snowden is all in for this protest.

RESET the NET

RickMcCharles.com – 2013 in review

On By Rick McIn blogsLeave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

… This blog was viewed about 25,000 times in 2013. ….

Click here to see the complete report.

WordPress drives 20% of websites

On By Rick McIn blogs, product endorsementsLeave a comment

In May, WordPress celebrated it’s 10th birthday. The platform has grown from its humble beginnings as a new open-source project to the most widely-used content management system on the internet, making up nearly 20% of all websites on the web. …

WP Engine

wordpress-adoption-graphic_5 (1)

text expanding softare – aText

On By Rick McIn blogs, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Tran Ky Nam Software – home page for aText

I paid $5 via the excellent Apple App Store for this text expanding software.

ku-xlarge

As a blogger, it saves me a lot of time.

It’s the best of the competitors on Mac, according to Lifehacker.

I’ve used several other text expanders in the past. This does seem more reliable.

do you use Google Reader?

On By Rick McIn blogsLeave a comment

If you (like me) had been using Google Reader, it’s being retired by Google on July 1, 2013.

I recommend you switch to Feedly, a similar free service which most former Google Reader users have adopted.

From Feedly, click the blue button to import your RSS feeds from Google Reader.

There are more RSS reader alternatives listed here.

The new Digg Reader is also free. And garnering some praise.

Easier still would be to subscribe to our posts via once-a-day email. Check the right hand navigation to that.

biggest winner last night – Nate Silver

On By Rick McIn blogs, ethics, government, product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

… Silver runs a blog called FiveThirtyEight, which is licensed by the Times. In 2008 he called the presidential election with incredible accuracy, getting 49 out of 50 states right.

But this year he rolled a perfect score, 50 out of 50, even nailing the margins in many cases. His uncanny accuracy on this year’s election represents what Rowinski calls a victory of “logic over punditry.”

… What does it mean when some punk kid baseball nerd can just wade into politics and start kicking butt on all these long-time “experts” who have spent their entire lives covering politics?

It means something big is happening.

… The age of voodoo is over. The era of talking about something as a “dark art” is done. In a world with big computers and big data, there are no dark arts. …

Read Write Web – Why Nate Silver Won, And Why It Matters

The fact check sites have helped. But what we really need are the facts.

It’s time to take down bloviating pundits in the USA, Dick Morris often being listed as WORST.

It’s Moneyball time. 🙂

the future of newspapers

On By Rick McIn blogs, things getting worseLeave a comment

Still murky.

Some will survive. But will you want to read the survivors?

It’s the same story over and over. A market leader — Dell, Nokia, RIM — gets complacent. Doesn’t change with the times. And gets quickly swamped by new rivals — Apple, Apple, Android.

Jeff Jarvis:

… newspapers, no longer monopolies and having lost their pricing power in the face of abundant competition, must be smaller if they have any hope to survive …

They must find new efficiencies through consolidation …, collaboration … , and specialization (do what you do best — in the case of local newspapers, that is being local — and link to the rest). They must reconsider their business models …

None of this is easy. Much of it is unpleasant. But it is necessary.

The news we can afford

new blog theme …

On By Rick McIn blogs, photosLeave a comment

Testing this one. It’s called Reddle. Leave a comment if it causes you any grief.

Header image is called The Old Wild Stampede.

Photo by Stuck in Customs. A travel photography site by Trey Ratcliff. I’m subscribed.