TheScri.be

I spent some time today putting together a new business card. I found myself pondering quite what to put on them, as they’re more multi-use than your regular biz card because I don’t have a business/job to promote - at least not a specific one.

I seem to be asked for business cards by three groups of people: those who want my contact details relating to my work in the Air Training Corps, those interested in my web design and those who want to get in touch with me regarding my music. (I’m forever being asked what my myspace address is by the latter.)

In the end I decided to just stick with my name, email address, website and phone number so that the card could be as multi-purpose as possible - I suppose it’s more typical of the old fashioned “calling cards”, albeit with a little more information.

Along with my name, the circles at the bottom are meant to suggest an acoustic guitar, at least that’s the intention! I’ve also made the email address (and specifically the [at] symbol) quite prominent to suggest a technology connection. The blank space on the left allows me to write any details which aren’t on the card - my address or ATC Squadron number, for instance.

So, without further ado, here’s the initial design:

Let us know what you think.

I had a wonderful piece of advice the other day, in the form of a quotation:

bq. “Power is in the Present”

In other words, while you can look to the past for advice on how to deal with a situation and you can look to the future to prepare for new situations, the ability to influence your life and _actually do something_ is governed by what you do *now*.

Use your past and your imagination to inform your choices, but *actually focus on what you must do _now_*.

This is a great way to motivate yourself to get on with stuff when you’re in a lethargic mood. Just think “Power is in the Present - Right Now”, and get on with it.

Here’s some good ideas for keeping yourself in shape without the need for a fitness regime. Some sound a little silly but “every little helps”:

1. *Lift things, don’t slide them* - When you have to move a chair, pick it up and carry it.
2. *Put your socks and shoes on while standing* - This will improve your balance, as well as help (to some degree) your muscles.
3. *Take the stairs* - Obvious, no?
4. *Get some fresh air* - If you have time go for a 5-minute walk before work (or better walk to work).
5. *Use a rough towel after your shower* - This exfoliates your skin and warms up your muscles.
6. *Box at shadows* - Shodowboxing uses a whole host of muscles and focuses your mind much more than a repetitive activity like jogging. Plus you can imagine pummeling someone you dislike which can be fun.

Back in the good old days before I had the money for a real Mac I, like many others, had to put up with Windows. It wasn’t great, but it worked… just. The point is, it did most of what I needed at the time.

Although I was happy to put up with all those little annoyances, i saw no reason why I should look at an ugly interface while I waited for my PC to crash — I wanted a pretty GUI.

As I was fiddling and installing things I wrote a short guide and bundled it with a lot of the software I used. Having rediscovered the Zip file I thought I’d post it up for anyone who wants to give it a go.

I found that most of what I did had little impact on the speed or performance of my PC so it’s preferable to something like WindowBlinds.

*BE WARNED*: The software is probably out of date so you might want to grab the latest versions of it all.

“Download the Tutorial”:http://thescri.be/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/windows_cust.zip

Sometimes it’s a good idea to sit down and just think. I did just that the other day and as my mind wandered I started thinking about what I’m good at - what I like doing. It struck me that I should try to push my aspirations and ideas towards these things.

So here are some of my thoughts, in a simple old-fashioned list. No Waffle:

• I’m good at making things neat and tidy.
• I like procedure, order and outlines.
• I like documents that follow conventions. My conventions.
• I like implementing systems which are written down in detail.
• I like designing paperwork, but not using other peoples.
• I like stationary. A lot.
• I like being outdoors and doing visual, manual work.
• I like pretty things - stuff that is clean and functional, but looks nice too.
• I like structures and schedules.
• I like teaching, an awful lot.
• I’m good at writing detailed plans & orders.
• I enjoy writing documentation.
• I like talking.
• I like meta-stuff

Writing these down just now was a rather enlightening experience. It seems I’m rather a perfectionist, at least when it comes to paperwork and organization. It’s all rather at odds with my fairy laid-back attitude to things. I guess I’m a secret perfectionist.

The imaginatively named “Foxit Reader”:http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php by “Foxit Software”:http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ is program I discovered about a month ago. It is a PDF reader and it is simple. Basically, I love it.
We all know how long Adobe Acrobat takes to load up, and how when it tries to load in your browser it invariably slows your whole machine down to the speed of a disabled snail. I hate Acrobat and don’t much like Acrobat Reader so you’ll imagine how refreshing it was to load up a 10MB e-book in just over three seconds.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always been a source of irritation to me that whenever my FF installation breaks, of if I decide to reinstall it, I have to hunt down and reinstall all of my thirty-six extensions. If you’re running Windows you can use the following method to back up your extensions:

Create a batch file (open notepad and save the file with a .bat extension) with the following code:

del C:\PATH TO BACKUP FOLDER\ffarchive.zip
7za a -tzip C:\PATH TO BACKUP FOLDER\ffarchive.zip -r "C:\Documents and Settings \YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox"

Name this script something like ffbackup.bat and put it in the C:\WINDOWS directory (or anywhere that the windows PATH points to). To run the script you can simply type “ffbackup” at the command prompt or in the run box.

Tis script uses a command line version of 7-Zip, a free WinZip-type program. The first line of the batch file deletes the current archive and the second replaces it with a zipped up version of your Firefox application data.

If you’re interested, the “a” specifies that files are to be added to the archive, the “-tzip” specifies zip as the archive format, the “C:\PATH TO BACKUP FOLDER\ffarchive.zip” is the path to the backup that will be created, the “-r” tells it to zip up the subdirectories too. The “C:\Documents and Settings \username here\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox” is the path to the data which needs to be backed up.

If you clear the cache, history & cookies and ensure that Firefox is closed before you run ffbackup, you’ll help reduce the size of the archive produced.

*Steps:*

1. Download 7-Zip Command Line for Windows (Unzip it to C:\WINDOWS)
2. Create the ffbackup.bat batch file (also place in C:\WINDOWS)
3. Run it.