For those of you who don’t make use of Facebook, or who just don’t keep up with all the changes on there, I uploaded a load of pics from the last few months on there… I’m fiddling around with how & where I upload pictures online so there will be a handful of posts that all access pictures from different places online as I figure out what I like best & what works best for me/you.

For this latest batch of pictures, click on the rebellious Taven above… It should take you straight to the album.

Here’s a pretty good list of free software (online & desktop) that covers a lot of the “best in class” options out there. After going through the list, I currently use or have used 90% of the programs on there at some point in time.

http://lifehacker.com/5412886/

These are the staples on my computers that I use regularly from that list:

1. FireFox (The Best Web Browser)
2. VLC (One Media Player to Rule Them All)
3. 7-Zip (Simple file compression [zip files, etc...])
4. OpenOffice.org (Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Slide Shows, etc…)
5. Google Chrome (Alternative Browser)
6. µTorrent (Torrent Downloader)
7. Gmail (Email)
8. GIMP (Photo creation & manipulation)
9. Thunderbird (Email Client)
10. Audacity (Audio Editing)
11. Picasa (Picture Management)
12. Pidgin (IM Client)
13. Ubuntu (Prefered Linux Distro)
14. iTunes (Music Library)
15. FileZilla (FTP Client)
16. Google Reader (RSS/Feed Reader)
17. TeraCopy (File Copy Manager)
18. PuTTY (Remote Access)
19. CDBurnerXP (CD Burning App)
20. HandBrake (DVD Ripping App)
21. Google Calendar (Online Calendar)
22. Google Voice (VOIP Related…)
23. AdBlock Plus (Down with Ads!!!)

I’ll try & put together a list of the other free software I use that didn’t make it into that list. I don’t think there’s going to be TOO much in this one though… The above list covers most of what I need in a computing environment.

This punchline is priceless, and exactly why I love Scott Adams.

Well, I finally had to do something about SPAM…
You (my loyal & faithful followers) have never seen the on-slaught of SPAM that hits this blog because I am diligent at keeping the comments clear of crap. However, now that I’m getting in excess of 20 SPAM comments every day, I decided I needed to put up some sort of prevention.

I decided that a simple Math Quiz would be easier than one of those impossible to read CAPTCHA messed up word pictures.

Let me know if you ever have a hard time submitting a comment.

- Thomas

I love spending time with my family too much. I mean, really.  As much as I love digging into electronics projects, programming, tinkering with graphics, photography, learning new skills, I just can’t find time to do any of them because I’m spending all of my time with Melisa & the boys.

I suppose that’s a better place to be than the exact opposite. Well, I don’t really suppose it, I know it.

The only problem is I’m finding that I don’t set aside time for myself. I don’t set aside much time for hobbies. I don’t set aside time to build my relationships with my friends. I don’t set aside time for personal development. I don’t set aside time to work on my Techie Thomas adventure.

I used to be of the mind-set that “I don’t have time”… I think I’m finally realizing that my days are made up of whatever I decide to put in them. I have 24 hours in a day. I need an average of 7 hours of sleep per day, so that leaves me with 17 waking hours to fill with whatever I decide. I’m currently employed full-time so Monday through Friday have 9 hours (8am-5pm) eaten up.

I don’t want to get into all the math of exactly how many hours I have at my disposal, but I guess the thought for the day is this…

Where are you spending your time? Do you have time for the important things in your life? What do you wish you would set aside more time for?

Me? I’ve never been good at setting priorities. I’m a better fireman than a scheduler. I can tend to emergencies & work great under that pressure, but put me in a spot where I have to decide for myself where my attentions need to be spent & I end up in a world of hurt.

Sounds like another place for “personal development”.
Now, time to figure out where to set aside time for that…