My Top 75+ iPod Touch Apps

Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by kchristieh in technical

When we recently purchased a MacBook for our daughter to take to college, I asserted myself and claimed the iPod Touch that came with it. I’m so glad I did. While we wait for Verizon to start selling iPhones, I’ve become completely obsessed with and dependent upon the apps on my new iPod Touch.

I can click to my favorite apps – ShoppingList, Mail, Facebook, Contacts, Safari and Twitter – directly from my home screen. I highly recommend ShoppingList. I walk through the grocery store with my iPod in hand, checking off items on my categorized list. I also use it for packing for trips.

I’ve categorized the rest of my apps into 14 different categories. Here are my favorites for each category:

College:

• iStanford: Shows what’s going on at Stanford each day. I wish I could hear all the great speakers and attend the great events, but maybe it’ll come in handy the next time I visit.
• TommyCam: I can see a live view of the Tommy Trojan statue at USC. This Fall maybe my daughter will call me when she’s standing in front of the statue, waving to me. You can also see the TommyCam online here.
• CollegeMapp: Keeps track of college application submissions and statuses. I’ve got to get my son to put this on his iPod. Yes, I get to experience the college application process all over again this year.

Date / Time / Cal:

• CalenGoo: Great Google Calendar app. Our family’s calendars are on Google Calendar.
• Super Countdown: Counts the days until a big event. Right now, we’re counting the days until my daughter leaves for college (40).
• IP Free: For women. If you don’t get it, you shouldn’t.
• Clock: Shows me the time in various time zones.

Entertainment:

I don’t spend much time in this area, but this category includes YouTube, Fandango, Flixster, IQ+ Netflix, The Onion, Oprah Mobile, Videos, Kindle, This American Life and Public Radio.

Finance:

• Mint.com: I can view and categorize my financial transactions. It synchs with the online version.
• Tip Calculator: Easy way to figure a tip and split a bill.

Food:

Some cookbooks are completely downloaded on the iPod, and others will only show up offline if you “favorite” a recipe. Cookbooks include:

• How to Cook Everything (where I learned to make crepes!). This was worth paying for, as it downloaded the whole cookbook to my iPod and includes great step-by-step directions, tips and recipe variations. It also includes a timer for each step.
• Epicurious
• AllRecipes
• Recipes
• On the Grill (shout out to Jamie Purviance!)
• Whole Foods
• Jamie Oliver’s 20 Min Meals.

Music:

• Pandora: Just like Pandora.com. Listen to your favorite playlists.
• Vuvuzela: My virtual vuvuzela comes in handy when I watch World Cup games.
• Music: The music from my iTunes on my computer.
• Binaural Beat: Relaxing sounds.
• Shazam: Identifies songs. I haven’t used it yet, since it would require me to plug in my earbuds/microphone. I’m usually at my computer, so I can usually see what song is being played if I’m actually listening to music.

News:

If I’ll be offline, I’ll download the news before I leave home. It’s especially handy while waiting in a car line.

• New York Times
• Slate
• TheAtlantic and AtlanticWire: Look for new versions coming soon!
• The Daily Beast
• NPR News and NPR Addict
• WSJ (Wall St. Journal)
• LA News, KTLA 5, Fluent News
• Scanner911: Listen to real-time police scanners from around the U.S. We’re in the LA County Sheriff’s territory, but LAPD is much more interesting.

Photography:

• Flickr: Synchs with my photos at
• Rebel T2i (my camera’s manual)
• Photos: The photos I’ve chosen to upload from my computer.

Productivity:

• MobileRSS: Allows me to see all the items in my feed. I can download it when I’m online and read it when I’m offline.
• Things: Synchs with my Things to-do list on my computer
• Evernote: Synchs with Evernote on my computer and online.
• Dropbox: Allows me to read files that synch with my computer via Dropbox. Password-protected.
• iDisk: Part of MobileMe
• InstaPaper: Allows me to save articles to read later.
• GoodReader: Read pdfs

Reference:

• Articles: Great way to find something on Wikipedia.
• Dictionary, English/Francais Dictionary, Eng<>Spa Dictionary
• Google
• Wolfram
• YellowPages, W&Y Pages
• Wikipanion
• WebMD
• Bible, FastFacts

Shopping:

Apple Store, Amazon.com, Groupon, App Store, iTunes

Travel:

• TripAdvisor
• TrafficLA: Shows camera views of different freeways. I wish I could find an app that would show a map with how busy different freeways are.
• TripTracker
• Yelp
• GoogleEarth
• FreeMaui
• Maps
• Chateaux de Loire: I can dream, can’t I?

Utilities:

• Settings
• Free Wi-Fi
• Flashlight
• Calculator
• KitchenPro: Translates cups to TB, etc.
• Carpenter: Level, ruler, etc.
• Life: BMI, life expectancy
• Notes: I use Evernote instead.

Weather / Quakes:

• Weather: But it’s always the same here: sunny, sunny, sunny.   :)  (except yesterday and the day before)
• QuakeWatch: Shows and maps the most recent, biggest and closest quakes.
• TWC (The Weather Channel)
• pUniverse: Plots the stars and planets from wherever you wish.

As much as I love my iPod Touch, I’m frustrated that I can’t put more than 12 apps in a given category. If there’s a way to do that, please let me know.

In case you’re curious, I uploaded my own wallpaper as a photo into my Photos app.

Take me back to the Mac shack

Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by kchristieh in my life, technical, things that bug me, tv, work

When my husband and I first met, we were poor graduate students. We were happy eating ramen (me) and Kraft Mac & Cheese (him), as long as we were together. (awww!) I’ve always considered it a blessing that we fell in love when we had so few material possessions, as our expectations of the relationship weren’t based on finances.

But over the years, there’s one thing I’ve come to depend upon: my internet connection. It’s impossible to be a website designer or serial volunteer without a fast, reliable connection. I’ve told my husband many times that I’d be fine living in a much smaller abode as long as I have my computer and a good internet connection. (and my dog, and my pillows)

I may have to test that promise. Although I live in a thoroughly modern Los Angeles suburb, I have nearly given up on having a decent internet connection. My internet provider, Charter Communications, was fine for many years, but since this summer my internet connection has become increasingly unreliable. I’ve had countless technicians come out to fix it, but thus far they’ve only made things worse. Last Wednesday the same technician came to our house twice: after the first time the connection went down four times within the next hour, and after the second time our television signal was lost, even though we hadn’t previously had a problem with our signal. Every day since then, Charter has told me they’d have a technician here, and every day has come and gone without a technician servicing us. Tomorrow marks a week since we lost our signal, and I’m not holding my breath that it’ll be fixed by then.

I gave up last night, and decided to switch to AT&T. Unfortunately, AT&T doesn’t provide high speed internet service to our area, so the speed they promise, 768 KBps, isn’t much faster than a dial-up modem. I want reliability, but I don’t want the speeds I gave up in the last millennium.

I’m writing an email to Charter Vice President / General Manager Fred Lutz. () He makes a big deal out of how important customer service is to Charter. I agree: it should be important. I just wish it were. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. If not, maybe I’ll even call him. . Or even worse, I’ll have my attorney husband call him. He misses his football much more than I do.

Many thanks to Amy B. for paying attention to Mr. Lutz’s email address and phone number when he recently appeared on our local cable news program.  :)

How Obama gets his cellphone fixed

Posted on 14. Aug, 2009 by kchristieh in politics, shopping, technical

Imagine my surprise when President Obama’s name showed up after mine in the queue at the Verizon store last night! He didn’t push on the “c” hard enough, but I’ve had that problem before, too.

Hopefully the Verizon folks were able to figure out how to work with his phone’s special encryption.

I wonder if he wishes Verizon carried iPhones. I sure do!

Top 10 Reasons Why I Don’t Twitter

Posted on 10. Mar, 2009 by kchristieh in technical

It’s a virtual aviary out there, with lots of twittering and tweeting. As much as I love technology (and , too!), I’ve drawn the line at Twittering.

Top 10 Reasons I DON’T Twitter:

1. Facebook status updates allow me to inform friends of important events in my life.
2. Facebook status updates keep me updated about what my friends are up to.
3. I don’t have time to add yet another time-sucking activity to my life.
4. I don’t want to depend upon a service that limits me to 140 characters in length.
5. When I signed up for Twitter, it wouldn’t read my AOL email addresses to see which of my friends are on Twitter. It still says, “Importing from AOL has been temporarily disabled.”
6. My few friends who use Twitter also use Facebook, so I’m already in touch with what they’re up to.
7. Even though I can restrict who gets my updates, it’s a bit creepy that some males that I don’t know are “following” me on Twitter. Ick.
8. I use my blog to express myself.
9. I don’t want to start boring people with the minutiae of my life.
10. I don’t need it for either my personal or my professional life.

Maybe I’ll change my tune in the future and Twitter away, but for now it’s not happening. So if you’re following me on Twitter, bless you, but you won’t be following me anywhere. If you know me in real life, find me on Facebook. Or go old school and email me or call me.

My newest addiction: iPhoto ‘09 “Faces” feature

Posted on 01. Mar, 2009 by kchristieh in technical

Even though I bought my iMac at the end of 2008, I purchased iLife ‘09 because the reviews I read all said it was a great improvement over my “old” version. The only program in the package I’ve tried so far is iPhoto ‘09, and I’m completely addicted to the “Faces” feature, which uses facial recognition to organize my photos.

Here’s how it works: you “tag” a photo, much like you do on Facebook. Then, that person’s name shows up on your list of Faces, much like the one on the right.

This is my cousin Diana. She was on the cover of Town & Country awhile back, so I recently scanned the pages she appeared on. Note: she got her height from her mom’s side of the family, not the side we’re related on.

When you double-click on her picture, it takes you to a page where you can name more pictures she’s in. The top part of it shows which pictures she’s already been tagged in.

The next part of the page shows pictures the program thinks might be of her. The program nailed it perfectly, and put the pictures of her at the top.

When it’s all done, I can see all the pictures she’s in.

I think this appeals to both my social side and my quest for order. Love it!!

It’s amazing when it identifies people at various ages, and sobering when it identifies people at different weights. And it’s sometimes illuminating or hilarious when it makes incorrect suggestions.

Too bad my camera doesn’t have a GPS in it, because it would be cool if iPhoto would automatically map where each photo was taken. I’ll survive.

I’m giving Apple two demerits

Posted on 18. Feb, 2009 by kchristieh in my life, technical

I love my iMac. But perhaps I expect too much of it. I’m peeved about two things that happened last night that I don’t think Apple handled well.

When I purchased my iMac this Fall, Apple offered a special deal on several printers. I had a working printer, but figured that if I could get a new printer with the computer I’d be guaranteed that they’d work together.

Wrong! Yesterday I discovered that when I’m operating the computer in the Mac OS environment, there’s no way to tell my Canon MP620 to pull paper from the back printer tray. I’m trying to print some pictures, and that’s the only place that I can successfully load the glossy paper. I called Apple, and they said that just because I purchased the printer at the Apple store it didn’t mean that it would work with Apple computers. The rep said it was like buying two products at BestBuy: there’s no guarantee they’ll work together. That’s a bad analogy, since the only type of computer that Apple sells are Apple computers.

My next step was to see if there were any updated Canon drivers I was missing. I found one, and after I downloaded it I restarted my computer. The computer froze. At 9:45 p.m. I tried calling Apple customer service, since I’ve paid to be on their AppleCare Protection Plan, and the message I heard was that I needed to call back between 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. I was shocked. I guess that’s the price I pay for speaking to Americans instead of overseas representatives, but I’d thought that for the extra price I paid to be on the protection plan I’d get better service than that.

Eventually I remembered the recovery step I was missing (unplug the computer, turn it on, press option + command + p + r immediately, let go after three chimes) and the computer started. But, I still can’t print from that back tray. Thankfully I still have my old printer, so I’ll install that. Grr!! There goes more desk space.

My greatest Verizon annoyance, and they say they can’t fix it

Posted on 30. Jan, 2009 by kchristieh in technical, things that bug me

Every five minutes, I’m getting a cell phone call from an “Unavailable” number. It beeps and beeps and if I don’t pick it up, it leaves a message.

I called Verizon, and they said there was nothing I could do except change my cell phone number. I’ve had this number for about 10 years: I DON’T want to change it.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there another solution?

At least my default ringtone is good: the Peanuts theme song.

Why I’m glad I switched from PC to Mac

Posted on 15. Jan, 2009 by kchristieh in technical

After 17 years of running my life and business on a PC, I switched to an iMac a few months ago. The verdict: I LOVE IT!!

Why I switched:
I switched because I needed a more powerful computer, but wasn’t impressed by Vista or by the reviews of the new Windows 7 operating system. I was also sick of being afraid to update my old computer for fear that it would cause important programs to stop working, as it had done in the past. I was also convinced that I could successfully run the few Windows programs that I still needed, such as Publisher, Access and Money, on the Windows operating system on the Mac. Note: I’m a website designer, but I also do volunteer work which involves databases.

How I switched:
I connected my old PC’s backup drive to the iMac and imported only the files I needed to the new computer. I splurged for a new, larger backup drive for the iMac, which uses Time Machine to back up my files many times a day.

How do I still run Windows?
I chose Parallels because it was the only emulation program which listed Access as a program which it would be able to run. I’m not sure it was the best choice, since I can’t print from Parallels without plugging in the printer after Parallels is running (it took me many phone calls and much trial and error to figure that out), but it’s ok. It took awhile to get Windows to work in Parallels, since the new Windows XP disk I’d purchased from Amazon was corrupted. Thankfully, the replacement installed easily. When I have to do something in Windows, I’m reminded of how much easier the Mac is to operate. It’s a good day when I don’t have to open Parallels.

My favorite things about my iMac:

• When I have a question or a problem, I call the 800 number and within about a minute I’m talking to a human who I’m able to easily understand.
• The 24″ screen.
• Spaces, which allows me to run whichever programs I choose in different window panes. For example, I can keep a Word document and the Dreamweaver program I’m copying its data to in one space, and then my email and Firefox in another. I can divide it as many ways as I wish. I’m up to 9 now.
• Being able to press shift+option+4 and select which part of a screen to copy. Then, to be able to drag that to what ever program I’m using.
• Programs like iMovie, which is a much better video editing program than I ever purchased for my PC.
• MacMail, which took a little time to get working right, but which is MUCH better than AOL. I get my AOL email via MacMail.
• I can press the middle button on the mouse and see the 5-day weather forecast, local movies, an easy way to translate phrases to another language, and more widgets I chose.
• When I browse for files, it sorts the folder levels into columns.
• When I open Excel, Word, or Powerpoint, I can choose to see files opened in the last day, week, month, etc.
• Stickies, which look like Post-its on the computer screen. Much better than the real thing. I add pictures to them to make it easier to see what each one’s about.

Extra Programs I’ve Installed That I Love:

• Webbla (keep track of favorite websites by keyword)
• MacFreelance (keep track of freelance time)
• EasyCrop (crops, resizes, saves images really easily)
• On Firefox: FireFTP (allows me to upload files to servers) and Shareaholic (allows me to share websites and articles on a variety of different networks, esp. Facebook). NOTE: I like Firefox better than Safari, the Mac browser.
• Linotype Font Explorer (lets me sort fonts however I want, and then see how a phrase looks in different fonts at the same time)

My Mac Wish List:

• A better database program than Filemaker. I downloaded it to see if it could replace Microsoft Access, which only runs in Windows. It wasn’t at all intuitive, like a Mac program should be, and I gave up on it. I’ve used Access for years, and don’t have time to take a Filemaker class. There’s got to be an easier way to print labels on a Mac than Filemaker or mail merge.
• I wish that Adobe Fireworks would allow me to add a pop-up menu to a button the way it’s supposed to. Their technical support people apologized, showed me a workaround, and told me to keep checking for updates. Grrr!!

It’s taken awhile to transition, and I’m still not completely done. Transferring the files was the easy part. It took a lot of research to find programs to replace ones I’d relied upon on my PC. It’s also taken some time to learn a new way of using a computer, and new programs. And, as noted above, everything still doesn’t work completely correctly. But, I think it’s worth it, and I’m really glad I switched. I suspect that any new computers we get in this family will probably come from Apple…

Avoid Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by playing Tetris

Posted on 12. Jan, 2009 by kchristieh in technical

Do you have Tetris downloaded onto your cellphone or iPod? If not, then Get It Now!

An Oxford University study shows that people who play Tetris within 30 minutes of a stressful event are likely to be able to recover more quickly from it.

Because there are limits to our abilities to do two things at once – like hold a conversation while doing a maths problems – the computer game is able to “interfere with the way our memories are retained in the brain”.

I love Tetris, so this works for me. Hopefully I won’t need to use it this way, however. At least I’m prepared.

I wonder if this would work with my other favorite games, Caterpillar and Millipede? I bet it would, since they’re also constantly making the brain figure out patterns. It’s moot anyway: I can’t download them onto my cellphone. Even if I could, my eyes would never be able to see such small action.

How to never lose your luggage again

Posted on 11. Jan, 2009 by kchristieh in technical, travel

Isn’t it ironic that we could send a man to the moon 40 years ago but we still can’t track our luggage here on earth?

I think I’ve finally found a solution: the XACT TRAX. Just put this little device in your luggage before you check it, and then if it gets lost, you can either look on the internet or call a number and find out where the device is for just $1.00. Of course, you’d still have to find a way to get the luggage back to you!
If you want to track a child, the company advises that you can put the device in a backpack and set perimeters so you can get warnings if the child leaves a defined area. Any self-respecting teenager would figure out how to beat this immediately. It might be more useful for hikers, who actually WANT to be found.
Right now it costs $249.99, but I’m sure that’ll come down over time. Also, I’m sure we’ll see even more cost-effective competitors.

What else would YOU use it for? The XACT TRAX website says you can use it to track pets, but it’ll have to be much smaller before it can track my 15 lb. pooch.
Links:

• Blog posting about XACT TRAX
• XACT TRAX press release

I’ll miss Polaroid, but I haven’t used my camera in years

Posted on 31. Dec, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical

It’s only fitting that Polaroid would stop producing film today. It was 13 years ago that I purchased a Polaroid OneStep camera to take pictures at my daughter’s 4th birthday party.

I painted a picture of a skateboarding dog from the “” book, and cut out the face. The kids stuck their heads in the hole, and I took their pictures with the camera. I remember how excited the kids were to run around the yard with their pictures and watch them develop. Once they were done, the kids personalized some cheap frames I’d bought. My daughter still keeps hers on her dresser.  :)

Today, my daughter convinced my mother and sister to purchase her a . No matter that I’d shown her how to easily convert a digital photo to a fisheye in Photoshop. She’s fascinated with the old school way of taking pictures. We all think she’s shortsighted, as the film and developing will cost her more than she expects and the results may not be that great, but she won’t be swayed.

Perhaps I should keep that old Polaroid after all. Maybe we’ll get some film off of eBay for her.

In the meantime, I’ll appreciate all the websites that use .

Rain drops and cough drops

Posted on 18. Dec, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical

I was reminded today of why I left New Jersey so long ago: I HATE cold weather. Give me a 110-degree day any time over a 30-degree day. It was in the mid-30’s here today, with rain and wind. Hopefully that means it snowed in other parts of town.

I stayed inside today to avoid the inclement weather, and got lots done. Sort of. I spent about an hour on the phone with the customer support people at Parallels, and they STILL can’t figure out how to allow me to print from the Windows portion of my new iMac. Silly stuff. They tried escalating my call, but the queue (I love that word, but hate the concept) was four hours long. Supposedly they’ll call within a day. Hopefully it won’t be in the middle of the night, since that is daytime in India.

I think I ate about 500 cough drops today. Any recommendations for brands or flavors? I probably should have just taken some DayQuil instead. Maybe this cough will go away some day and I’ll be able to go to Curves again. In the meantime, I don’t want to infect people.

iMac Wireless Keyboard Shortcuts

Posted on 30. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in technical

My new iMac has a wireless keyboard. It’s great because it’s shorter than a regular keyboard, since it doesn’t include the number keys to the right. That gives me more space to move my mouse around. Unfortunately, it also means that it doesn’t have page up, page down, home, end, or forward delete keys.

Here are keyboard shortcuts to compensate for their loss:

fn + ↑ = Page up
fn + ↓ = Page down
fn + delete = Forward delete
⌘ + → = End
⌘ + ← = Home
⌘ + ↑ = Top of page
⌘ + ↓ = Bottom of page

Here are some other keyboard tips I learned since switching from Mac to PC:

Emails:
Shift + ⌘ + U = Keep email as new
Shift + ⌘ + L = Flag email
Print Screen:
Shift + ⌘ + 3 = Saves whole screen as png
Shift + ⌘ + 4 = Drag to select which portion to copy

Mouse:
ctrl + click = right click
System:
Option + ⌘ + Esc = Force quit
Click while turning on computer = Eject disk

I’ve printed out this list and taped it on my monitor. I hope I memorize them all soon!

What would you do with these colorful CDs?

Posted on 25. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in art, technical

Back in the old days, before iStockPhoto, I spend oodles of money on CDs full of clip art. It seemed amazing at the time, but it’s so much quicker to find inexpensive stock photos and clip art on the internet that I haven’t used my clip art CDs in years.

Here are some CDs I found lying around my office. They’re so colorful that I didn’t want to toss them, yet I don’t know what to do with them. All I could think of was to hang them from our orange tree at Christmas time, but I think the oranges are prettier. I could make ornaments out of them, but my kids would react with horror if I compromised our tree’s gorgeous blue and silver theme.

If you want these, please let me know. The best idea in the comments wins. You can either pick them up here or I’ll drop them off at your house. Local deliveries only.

Switching from a PC to a Mac is like a painful divorce

Posted on 21. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical

I’m divorcing Mr. PC. We were married 17 years, but for the last few years he’s been cheating and coming home with viruses, he’s aged prematurely, and he’s treated the children poorly. I’m moving on to the first home computer I met, Mr. Mac. He was too immature for me back in 1985, and would lose my data if I asked too much of him. By 1991, when I was ready to make a commitment, he was too expensive for my tastes. But our time has finally come, and I know we’ll have a beautiful life together.

There’s just one problem: Mr. PC and I still share custody of the kids. And boy, is he a bitter ex! I’m trying to prepare a space in my new computer for my kids: Money (17), Publisher (17), Access (15) and my little cutie, NetVisualize Favorites (3). Mr. PC will have none of it: he even made sure that Amazon.com sent me a corrupted Windows XP disk. What a sneaky guy! No wonder I’m leaving him!!

Thankfully, Amazon, who’s just a middleman, agreed to send me a new disk, and I should receive it on Monday. Until then, the kids will just have to stay with my Ex.

Divorce stinks.

Thankfully, I’m just divorcing my PC. My husband and I have been happily married for 21 years.  :)

Why companies should hire editors for their websites

Posted on 20. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in technical, things that bug me

I’m trying really hard to purchase the best software for my new iMac. I’ve read reviews, talked to friends and Apple Geniuses, and visited company websites.

I finally decided to purchase Parallels so that I could run Windows XP (and therefore, Access and Publisher). I visited what I think (thought?) was the Parallels website, via a link on the MacWorld website, but I’m not impressed by the incorrect grammar on their landing page.

How can I trust that their software is correctly coded if their website isn’t correctly worded?

I must investigate further. I’d be much more willing to give them my money if I had more confidence in them.

Small plane spotted in Temple City

Posted on 15. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in technical, videos

I watched an airshow today on the Temple City High School athletic field. As my son chugged water in preparation for his hydration test, I watched a man fly a 15-oz. plane against clear blue skies with the San Gabriel mountains as a backdrop.

The plane was made of a material that was a lot like foamcore, but stronger. It ran on a lithium battery that lasts 10 minutes. The man flying the plane said it was very sensitive, and therefore tough to fly. It cost about $250, and his controller cost about $180. Here’s what the underbelly looked like:

The man operating the plane was very good at it. He could make it stall out, spiral to the earth, and then recover just in time to avoid crashing. He did loop-the-loops, and could fly it like a helicopter. (see right) He was also expert at flying the plane upside down. He agreed that it was like driving on the wrong side of the road, since you had to do the opposite of what you’d normally do.

One of the best parts about this plane was that it was extremely quiet. Just listen to the video below: at most, you’ll hear something that sounds like a loud mosquito buzzing. I’m sure this didn’t bother any of the neighbors, unlike some model planes.

I think my father-in-law would love this, since he used to be an airline mechanic.

On our way home, we could see both the Sylmar fire and the one out in Chino, and within hours, the sky darkened and we could smell smoke. Hopefully they’ll put them out soon.

Why I just ordered my first Mac

Posted on 14. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, social networking, technical, things that bug me

When I purchased my first home computer in 1991, I chose to get a PC because it was much cheaper than a Mac and there were more programs for it.

PCs have served me well enough over the years. I run my website design business and do lots of volunteer work on my PC.

But I’m sick and tired of:

• Being afraid to update programs because when I have in the past, my computer has stopped working
• Waiting forever for the computer to turn on or off
• Getting random error messages when I try to turn the computer off
• Pop-up ads, even when I try to block them

So this week, when my computer started giving me low memory issues (I had less than 1% of my hard drive free) I figured it was time to get a new computer. I thought my computer was much older than it actually is. I’ve been going around telling people it’s 6 or 7, when actually it’s 4.5. Bad genes, I guess. It just acts old.

I’ve always been intrigued by claims that Macs are easier to work with and cause less hassles than PCs, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to run some of my favorite programs (Access, Money, NetVisualize Favorites) on a Mac. I posted a “Mac or PC” question on Yahoo Answers, and 7 out of 8 people said I should get another PC. Most didn’t offer supporting details. When I posted my dilemma on Facebook, 10 friends responded, and ALL of them gave me good reasons why I should get a Mac.

I ordered my iMac this evening, and can’t wait for it to arrive!!

Barack Obama loses by one vote: mine

Posted on 23. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in politics, technical, videos

Just kidding. I’d laugh if this brilliant video from MoveOn.org weren’t so scary. I received a link to a video about McCain winning by one vote that was personalized so that the one person who didn’t vote was…ME!

Oversleeping. Getting the car fixed. Having to pick up the second-cousin’s stepkids on the other side of town. These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans won’t vote on November 4th.

It’s not like they hate voting. They want to do it. They know they should. And mostly, they intend to. But some of your friends won’t get around to actually voting because they haven’t been reminded vividly enough.

That’s why we developed this funny, scary video. It shows people what it might look like if we lose the election by a single vote: theirs.

Here’s a version we prepared for you. You’re in it—seriously, you, Kathryn. Check it out—and if you like it, send it to your friends:

This has motivated me to finish filling out my absentee ballot right now!

Don’t forget to check the List of Non-Partisan California Voter Guides to the right. I’m going to refer to it when I decide how to vote.

Top computer tips I need to remember or share

Posted on 07. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in technical

When ever I get a new gadget or software program, I always read the manual or learn the tutorial. I find that whenever I do, I discover ways to do things I never even imagined I could do.

That’s why I loved David Pogue’s recent blog article about Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User. I won’t even try to argue whether or not I’m a “basic” computer user, but I did learn a few new things. Here are a few tips he shared that I want to remember. I figure that putting them in my blog will mean that I’ll always have a way to find them, and if I didn’t know them, you might not either.

• Windows key + D takes you straight to your desktop. Or back.
• Press Ctrl and the + key to enlarge text on a web page. Use Ctrl and – to make it small again.
• Tap the spacebar to scroll down a page on a website, and the shift key to go back up. (NOTE: The shift key doesn’t do that on my computer. But I did discover that either the Tab key or the Home key takes me to the top of the page, the End key takes me to the bottom of the page and the Backspace key takes me to the previous web page I had visited.)

I also recently read a great summary of computer care tips in Reader’s Digest titled “Thirteen Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You.” Here’s the one I keep quoting to my family:

Give it a rest. Turning off your computer when it’s not in use saves energy and clears out the RAM, or temporary memory, which would otherwise slow your machine over time.

I don’t think they believe me.

I also need to remember to defragment my hard drive more often. I can do that by clicking Start, pointing to Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking Disk Defragmenter. Of course, I’ll back up my computer first and not do anything else while it’s defragmenting.

If you don’t already have a great computer repair person, you might check out Dial A Geek. I’ve never used their services, but I’m impressed by their business concept and testimonials. For a monthly fee, you can place a phone call at any time of any day to a technician who can access your computer remotely, if you choose. Please let me know if you try it. I had an HP technician access my computer remotely from India once, and he fixed way more than just my printer problem. I just sat and watched!

And finally, if there’s something you think you might be able to do, you probably can. I recently decided to find out if I could disable the reverse beep in my Prius, and a Google search quickly found a wikiHow page with nine easy steps for how to stop that annoying noise. It worked like a charm! (Dave, have you done this already?)

Tips for reducing email inbox clutter

Posted on 17. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical, things that bug me, work

One of the biggest barriers between me and serenity is my email inbox. I hate chaos, and if there’s something in my inbox, I regard it as a task undone, a monkey on my back. I often feel that my life is like a tennis game, where I’m constantly hitting balls back to other people.

Apparently I’m not the only one feeling overwhelmed. Saturday’s NYTimes article, Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast, notes how some companies are trying to find ways to help their employees cope with the crush of email. They’re encouraging employees to send less messages, especially group messages, and to cut themselves off from the constant flow of email into their inbox. Some are even encouraging “zero email Fridays,” though that works better in theory than in practice. I recently heard an NPR story where a Microsoft employee with over 2,000 emails in his inbox declared “email bankruptcy” and deleted his whole inbox. How tempting is that?!? Unfortunately, that didn’t go over very well with some of the people who had sent him emails.

My inbox is doing pretty well right now, with only 25 emails. What are those emails about, and why aren’t I getting them all out of my box? Here’s a quick tally: work-related (15), memo to me reminders (3), class notes (3), need to log in finance program (2), friends (1), volunteer work (1). The best part of this exercise was realizing that there were 16 emails sitting in my inbox that I was able to dispense of pretty quickly because they were either no longer relevant or could be filed. Clearly, work’s what holding me back right now, but at least it’s paid work. Then again, that’s because the volunteer work had deadlines and I completed it already.

Here’s what I do to try to reduce my technological stress:

• When it gets really bad, I turn off the volume on my computer, so I don’t hear the click click click of emails pouring in.
• I don’t IM. I tried it many years ago, and found that as soon as I’d wrap my brain around what I was doing before I typed my last message, another would come in. I’d waste a lot of time writing about what could have been a 2-minute conversation.
• I don’t receive my emails or Facebook messages on my cellphone. I’d go crazy if I did.
• If I can’t get to something right away (e.g., make appointment for doctor tomorrow), I set up a Memo to Me reminder to arrive when I can accomplish the task.
• Our family uses a Google calendar with about 6 different calendars. Besides one for each family member, we have one that includes All-Family Events, and one that includes My Events Which Impact the Family. (e.g. when I have to go to the dentist when the kids are out of school.) Each family member has access to what s/he needs.
• I maintain two iGoogle to-do lists: one for work, one for personal stuff. Each is prioritized.
• I subscribe to Freshbooks, a service which provides a timer for me to keep track of how much time I spend on each project. Once I click on the timer, I don’t let anything distract me, since I only want to bill the client for work done for them.
• I delete mass email forwards unless they look truly fascinating and I have time for them.
• If I can respond quickly to an email, I do.
• If I think I might blog about something, I file it in a “Blog about someday perhaps” folder so that it doesn’t sit in my inbox.
• If I’m REALLY crazed, I stop blogging. I guess it’s not that bad right now. :)

Please let me know if you have any more suggestions!

Try Google’s free voice-activated directory assistance, 1-800-GOOG-411

Posted on 14. Apr, 2008 by kchristieh in technical

Leave it to Google to improve business directory assistance and make it free!

Just dial () and state the city and state you’re looking for, then the business name or category. (It’s not for residential listings.) It’s all voice-activated, unless you prefer using a keypad. It’ll give you the choice of what listing you wish to be connected to, and will even send a text message to your phone. If you think it heard you wrong or you wish to change your search, just say “back.” If you say “details,” it’ll even give you the address.

Note: If you’re looking for a listing in La Canada, California, say you’re looking for one in La Canada Flintridge. Otherwise, you might get listings in Cambria.

I’m going to program “GOOG411″ into my cellphone.

La Canada Flintridge finally on Google Streetview…sort of

Posted on 10. Apr, 2008 by kchristieh in local news, technical

I was so excited to see that La Canada’s finally got pictures on the Street View feature of . Here’s what the Sport Chalet construction looked like recently:

I wish we knew what restaurant is going there! I vote for Daphne’s.
Here are the streets that Google Maps currently shows on Street View for LCF:

I was pretty jazzed until I saw that they’ve mapped nearly every street in Pasadena and other surrounding cities:

Maybe Google’s waiting until our sidewalks are completed.

I didn’t see any people or cars I recognize on Foothill Blvd. Maybe we’re not a rural community?

How do I find thee?

Posted on 28. Mar, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical

Thirty years ago, there were three main ways to communicate with someone:

• Talk to them in person
• Call them on the telephone
• Write them a letter

Life’s gotten much more complicated. Now we can reach someone via all the above PLUS

• Text message
• Cell phone call
• Facebook / MySpace
• Email

Now I need to know what everyone’s email address and phone numbers are, as well as which method each person prefers. For example, although my son doesn’t usually read his email, he’ll definitely read a Facebook message. My husband reads his email, but doesn’t always answer his cellphone. My sister’s hardly ever on her computer, so I call her. My mom doesn’t have a Facebook page yet, and her cellphone is always off, so I either email or call her on her landline. My daughter’s the easiest to get in touch with: all of the above work for her.
Hopefully someone’s developing something to consolidate all of these!

Online PHP and MySQL course: New Year’s resolution to be fulfilled

Posted on 08. Dec, 2007 by kchristieh in education, my life, technical

As year-end approaches, I realize I haven’t yet fulfilled my main 2007 New Year’s resolution: to learn how to design and manage an online database. So, even though I’m swamped with paid/volunteer/family commitments, I just enrolled in the Ed2Go “Introduction to PHP and MySQL” class via the Glendale Community College website. I’ve taken several courses from them in the past (HTML, Dreamweaver, CSS & XHTML, Microsoft Access) and been really pleased by the level of detail, instruction methodology and pace of these reasonably-priced courses. I also appreciate that when the course is over, I have a notebook of course printouts to refer to in case I need to look up how to do something.

My class starts on Tuesday. I won’t be done by the end of 2007, but I’ll still be able to count this resolution as completed.

Note to self: supplement the course with the videos at KillerPHP.com.

The customer support message you never want to see

Posted on 27. Nov, 2007 by kchristieh in my life, technical

My Calendar Creator 10 program won’t read my calendar file anymore. It’s got over 13 years worth of data on it. Of course, this happened right after I backed up my computer, and it won’t read the backup version either. I tried everything I could think of and that they suggested online, to no avail. I decided to wait until this morning to call customer service.

Unfortunately, here’s the message that popped up when I looked for their phone number:

Web Support only…

To keep pace with current technologies and programs, technical support for the title you have selected is provided exclusively online. Technician-assisted telephone and e-mail support are no longer available.

Gee, thanks, Broderbund. Remind me never to purchase your software again.
So today I became a Google Calendar user. It’s easy to use and share, but it doesn’t print out as nicely as Calendar Creator did. Each even is only allowed one line, instead of wrapping to the next line. Maybe they’ll fix that in the next version.

Would you pay 20 cents to avoid lost suitcases? Also, tips for avoiding lost luggage.

Posted on 21. Nov, 2007 by kchristieh in technical, travel

Despite technological advances, airlines are losing more bags than ever. Today’s NYTimes says that,

One in every 138 checked bags was lost during the first nine months of this year, compared with one in 155 bags a year earlier.

Ouch. If my family of four each carries one bag on a vacation, we’ve got a one in 35 chance that one of our bags will be lost.

There are many things that airlines could do to improve this situation, but one of the easiest would be to implement radio frequency id tags.

American and other domestic airlines have resisted investing in radio frequency identification tags, which are used by big retailers to track inventory and are far more accurate. The tags cost about 20 cents each so it would cost $50,000 a day for American’s 250,000 bags, plus the cost of hardware to read them at each step in the process.

“We don’t lose enough bags to justify that investment,” said Mark Mitchell, American’s managing director of customer experience.

This is the very definition of penny-wise and pound-foolish. I’m sure that every traveler in the world would gladly pay an extra 20 cents for an airline ticket to pay for this. And imagine how much time it would save the airlines from having to track down bags and deliver them to passengers, and how much money it would save in compensating passengers for lost bags.

Very short-sighted, IMHO.

Here are some tips from the NYTimes and About.com to help avoid having your luggage get lost or to get it back quickly if it is:

• Arrive early.
• Put id with your cellphone number on it on your bag and in your bag.
• Include a copy of your tickets and itinerary in the bag.
• Tear off old tags from your bag.
• Carry on whatever you can, but especially important items such as medications and electronic devices.
• Color code your bag with tape, ribbon, etc.
• Lock your bag with a TSA-approved lock.*
• Make sure you’ve given your cellphone to the airline when you get your ticket.
• Know what kind of bag you have.
• Be waiting for your bag.
• If your bag is lost, go to the airline counter. Then, if you can, visit the airport again later to press them to look for it.
• Send presents ahead if possible. In fact, ship your luggage, if you can afford it.
• Try to have receipts for items in your bag. (My note: I wonder if it would help to take a photo of what you’re packing before you load the bag?)

Check out this great Squidoo page for more tips on how to avoid losing your luggage.
* I don’t lock my bag, but once my bag was returned to me with someone else’s lock on it. At 11 pm at night, I was using all the tools in our toolbox to break the darn thing!

Happy traveling!

Is this the real life, is this just fantasy? Kids in virtual worlds

Posted on 15. Nov, 2007 by kchristieh in education, non-profits, parenting, startling statistics, technical

Have you ever heard of Teen Second Life? I hadn’t until last night, when I attended the Common Sense Media conference “What are Kids Learning in Virtual Worlds? The Wonders and the Worries” at USC. Teen Second Life is one of several virtual world websites aimed at kids that were discussed by a distinguished panel of guests.

I mentioned the conference at Parent Ed. today, and some of the parents had never heard of a virtual world. A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment where your 2-D or 3-D character, or avatar, interacts with other avatars, earns points or currency, purchases goods, works, plays, and does many other things you can do in the real world.

After the panel spoke, I viewed demonstrations of many of the sites. Here are my biggest takeaways from this event:

• The sites for the youngest kids, Club Penguin and Webkinz, are safe for kids. However, parents should be concerned about the lack of educational value, the emphasis on consumerism, and the amount of time kids want to spend on them.
• Private school kids that live far from each other sometimes “meet” online to play games together.
• Whyville was the most educational site I saw. It makes kids solve science problems to get points.
• Girls greatly outnumber boys in the kid virtual worlds.
• Teen Second Life appears to be safe. I loved the virtual Holocaust Museum that a group of teens created for the site.
• Although Teen Second Life is several years old, it only has about 2,000 members, whereas (adult) Second Life has millions. I was also told that most of the Teen Second Life members also have Second Life accounts.
• The title bar at the top of Teen Second Life says “Second Life.” When I asked how a parent could be sure that their kid was on Teen Second Life, and not Second Life for adults, I was told that the parent should see if there’s cursing going on. “So, a parent needs to look over the child’s shoulder for several minutes to wait and see this?” Au contraire: the cursing is so rampant that you should be able to tell right away. The young man who was answering my questions said that, by his estimation, about 95% of what goes on in Second Life is sexual.

So what’s a parent to do?

• If your child wants to use one of these kid sites, decide whether you think it’s like a “gateway drug.” If they get used to spending time on a youth virtual world site, will they want to move up to a more adult site when they get older? Is that ok with you?
• If you decide to consider letting them on a youth virtual world site, learn as much about that site as possible. Play along with your child so you can see how he or she is interacting online.
• Make sure to teach your child about internet safety, and about what to do about online bullying.
• Consider restricting how much time your child can spend online.
• Most of all, KEEP THE COMPUTER IN A PUBLIC SPACE!!!

My teens said they don’t know anyone who is active in a virtual world. The parents of teens I polled today didn’t either, so I’m guessing it’s not a big issue for teens in our community. I think we wear the teens out with schoolwork and other activities, and the ones who aren’t worn out from those are choosing to do other things. On the other hand, my impression is that many of the younger girls are spending lots of time on Webkinz. Perhaps parents of tweens are the ones who should really get educated on this issue.
Virtual worlds are here to stay, and aren’t all bad. Responsible parents should make sure to know what they’re about before they’re asked to make a snap decision.

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Did MySpace founder Tom Anderson lie about his age?

Posted on 05. Nov, 2007 by kchristieh in parenting, technical

For years, Tom Anderson has said he was 27 when he founded MySpace. It looks like he was rounding down.

According to public documents obtained by NEWSWEEK—including professional license information, voter registration and utility and telephone service applications—Anderson is five years older than he claims. His online profile currently lists his age as 32, but it appears he was actually born on Nov. 8, 1970, meaning he’ll turn 37 next week, not 33.

Like every new MySpace user, Tom was my first “friend.” In fact, since I don’t use my MySpace account, Tom was my only friend. I never contacted him, however, as I didn’t personally know him, I’m happily married, and he was over a decade younger. It turns out he’s not so much younger than me after all! I just checked, and Tom’s no longer my friend. Maybe he decided to stick to people he truly knows after all.

Perhaps Tom understated his age because it looks a lot more hip to start an internet company in one’s 20’s than in one’s 30’s. When I worked at eToys, I was the grande dame in my mid-30’s. Almost all of my colleagues were a decade younger, and hardly any were parents like I was. This happens in other industries, too: I know a model who lied about her age so that she’d keep getting job offers.
Still, rules are rules, and states that

MySpace will delete users whom we find to be younger than 14, or those misrepresenting their age.

I wonder what they’re going to do about Tom?

Click here to see my listing of MySpace and Facebook safety tips, as well as a listing of relevant articles on the topic. And many thanks to Marcos for tipping me off to Tom’s faux age!

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Forget breadcrumbs: kids need a GPS to get home

Posted on 28. Oct, 2007 by kchristieh in parenting, technical

This truly is a Gilded Age. Today’s Toys-R-Us “Biggest Toy Book Ever” catalog includes the following ad for a handheld GPS system:

This would be perfect for little backseat drivers. “Mom, turn right here to get to Pinkberry.”

Otherwise, I don’t see the point. If your kid is ever unsupervised enough to need a GPS, then there’s a bigger problem at hand.

(Why was I reading the Toys-R-Us catalog? My teenage daughter and I read it together, and reminisced about the old eToys days when I brought home so many toy samples for free…)