Still on track
Although I got a later-than-usual start this morning, I'm still on my streak in exercising. Today is the 19th day in a row of exercising. I delayed my start today in part so that I would be accompanied on it by NPR's Weekend Edition. It's not that I can't walk to music, but I much prefer something that occupies my thinking more than just listening to music does.
- posted by Perry @ 8:47 AM 0 comments

 
Day 17
This morning's walk was considerably cooler than the past several days have been.

I left the house at 7:24 AM and came back in the door at 8:00 AM, and although it was humid during my walk and I worked up a good sweat, it was noticeably cooler. My neighbor was right when she advised that it is better to walk between 7 - 8 AM than after 9 AM. That is, of course, easier to do on my days off or even on a day after my day off, such as today, because I can go to bed earlier and therefore get up earlier. I think the most important thing however is to walk, regardless of whether it is early or late.

On another note, I posted a series of pictures of various art works that my friend Diane Kegley has sent me over the last couple of years. To be clear, she sent me the pictures not the art works. Check them out over at my Flickr site if you have the time. She is quite talented and she works in a wide variety of different media. In her most recent job, she is learning to do by computer what she used to do by hand.
- posted by Perry @ 8:22 AM 1 comments

 
Streak still on
For the last couple of days I've begun my walk at around 7:20 AM, so I'm back at home by 8 AM and have avoided a bit of the heat. Now at 16 days in the streak and counting.
- posted by Perry @ 8:11 AM 1 comments

 
A fortnight of exercise
I now have 14 days in a row of morning walks through the Colonies.

As I passed one of my neighbors this morning, she chided me that it was too late to be walking. (It was about 9:35 AM.) She said she had walked at about 7:00 AM, and it was "almost unbearable then." As I told her, I'd prefer to walk at 7:00 AM too, but I have trouble being up at that hour.

Today, I added a new section to the morning walk making it a longer walk and also guaranteeing that get in about 40 minutes of exercise on each of my walks.

Also on this walk, I recalled an old rhyme that I used to repeat to myself when I was attempting to run this course. It went like this:

The hills are easy
The hills are fun
The hills are the reason
You came out to run.

My buddy Winston Baird used to feign irritation with me about such a Pollyanna philosophy, but despite his derision, I still believe such thinking helps to overcome the hills you encounter in your experience, whether it is when exercising or just when dealing with the difficulties you encounter in any endeavor.
- posted by Perry @ 10:54 AM 2 comments

 
Study: Some Internet Terms Unfamiliar
From Yahoo! News:

"NEW YORK - Podcasting and RSS feeds may be the latest craze in high-tech circles but the general public is largely unfamiliar with the Internet terms.

A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project also finds that Internet users aren't all that familiar with 'phishing,' either.

Seventy percent of Internet users never heard of phishing or aren't sure that it refers to e-mail scams that try to trick users into revealing sensitive information by masquerading as a legitimate bank or credit card issuer.

Eighty-seven percent are unfamiliar with podcasting, which lets everyday users distribute audio files over the Internet for playback any time on computers or digital music players.

And 91 percent do not know about Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology chiefly used to pull summaries of new entries on news sites and Web journals."
- posted by Perry @ 1:11 PM 0 comments

 
Next Version of Windows Named 'Vista'
From Yahoo! News:

"REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. dropped the code name Longhorn on Friday, announcing the next version of its flagship Windows operating system will be called Windows Vista."
- posted by Perry @ 1:08 PM 0 comments

 
To do list, simple, easy, fast, sharable: Ta-da List
This free web-based tool, Ta-da List, provides a way to keep track of your to-do lists and gives you access to them from anywhere.

"Make a list, check 'em off

How about a list of movies you want to see this year? Or all the stuff you need to get done before you go on your trip? Or a list of thank you notes you need to write? Or...

Ta-da List makes list making and tracking easy. And, since it's web-based, you can make a list at work and still get to it at home or anywhere else you have a computer or internet access (even on a mobile phone)."

There's even a video tutorial that explains how the whole thing works.
- posted by Perry @ 11:00 AM 0 comments

 
Exercise report: a baker's dozen
Day 13 of my exercise regimen was completed successfully this morning. Fortunately, it wasn't quite so hot this morning as it was yesterday, but it was still plenty hot.
- posted by Perry @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

 
An even dozen
Despite the sweltering heat, I completed the 12th consecutive day of a morning walk through my neighborhood. On these hot days, it would be far wiser to get up early and begin the walk before the sun beats down so much, but for some reason I'm not waking up until 8 AM or later, so the walks leave me pretty much drained. But in a positive way.

Today at the conclusion of my walk, I stopped by the house and picked up my camera and made a part of the walk again. I walked down to a valley that is a part of my usual route and took some pictures of the Kudzu that has overgrown that valley and most of the trees there. For those of you who read this blog from other parts of the country (or world, I suppose), you might find these four pictures interesting and perhaps shocking. As I say at my Flickr site where I've posted them, such scenes are quite commonplace here in the South.
- posted by Perry @ 9:32 AM 0 comments

 
Another day on my record
Again this morning I got a late start on my walking, leaving my house about 9:30 am, and it was hot already. But then again it is the latter half of July and I am in Knoxville, TN, so what can I expect? I sweated profusely, but it was a pleasant walk nonetheless. To be absolutely sure I'd have to go back and count up the days, but I believe this is the eleventh day in a row that I have walked for the 30 to 40 minutes it takes to navigate around the neighborhood.
- posted by Perry @ 10:04 AM 0 comments

 
My thanks to all of you.
The response to my first podcast has been very gratifying. Thank you to all of you who have commented both here at my blog and by email.

WARNING!! Be careful what you reinforce, because you may get more of it.

Just to document the fact, I have maintained my consecutive streak of daily exercise. I walked this morning a bit late because I had stupidly stayed up until about 2:30 AM on Wednesday night watching the movie, "Eyes Wide Shut." My review? Don't bother.
- posted by Perry @ 11:52 PM 0 comments

 
Perry's Podcast #1
I've just recorded and uploaded the first of Perry's Podcasts. Although I've done a few before now, they were all experimental for the purpose of testing the software. With this podcast, I begin those that are essentially my conversation with the world.

Click here to listen to it. That will download a small file to your computer that will then stream the podcast to your installed media player. If you have an RSS reader, you can subscribe to my feed by clicking here.

If you'd like to provide feedback, you may send an email to talktoperry@gmail.com. In addition, I would encourage you to send an audio response, if you have the ability to record an MP3 file to that same address.

Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy this first effort.
- posted by Perry @ 3:45 PM 3 comments

 
'Star Trek' Star James Doohan Dies
'Star Trek' Star James Doohan Dies - Yahoo! News: "James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original 'Star Trek' TV series and motion pictures who responded to the command 'Beam me up, Scotty,' died early Wednesday. He was 85."
- posted by Perry @ 12:15 PM 0 comments

 
Living in EULA land
The EULA (End User License Agreement) is encountered by all of us when we install a piece of software on our computer, but for most people it passes by so quickly that we don't even recognize that we have seen it. It's that box where you must check "I agree" before continuing through the installation. If you don't click it, you can't go forward. So most people, it appears, just click it and move on.

There is another option, however.

You can pause and scroll through it and read what it says. I know that a high percentage of the verbiage is dense legalese that is difficult to understand and mind-numbingly dry. There are, however, two sections of it to examine closely before agreeing to it.

The first is the description of what information the software will gather about you and how that information will be used. In that section, look for the term "third parties," and pay particular attention to what is said about them. And the second is any reference the EULA makes to the privacy policy of the software company, which often appears as a link to a more in-depth explanation of what that privacy policy is. If only a small percentage of people read the EULA, still fewer of them ever follow the links in it to more in-depth explanations.

Why, you may ask, does all of this matter?

The answer is that by blindly agreeing to the EULA, you may be giving that software company the right to install other third party software along with the software you intend to install, and in doing so, in some cases you are giving permission to install spyware.

Even if no spyware is involved, there are some problems with EULAs, as has been pointed out by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in this User's Guide to EULAs. I found it interesting to read this document, and by doing so I learned some things I didn't know. It might be worth your time to read it when you have a moment. The better informed you are about such things, the better decisions you'll make about what to install on your computer.
- posted by Perry @ 8:35 AM 0 comments

 
Still walking
I awoke a bit after 6 am and got started on my walk, for the 8th day in a row, at about 6:40 am. The weather is quite humid, and this morning it was foggy throughout the walk, which ended at 7:15 am. I worked up a good sweat, but it feels good to continue my exercise. I've now settled in at my computer with my first cup of coffee to catch up on what is happening on the Internet and in the world.
- posted by Perry @ 7:26 AM 0 comments

 
Trial version of MixCast Live
If you are an aspiring podcaster, there's a new trial version of MixCast Live available. It never expires, so you can take as long as you like to try it out. Thought it doesn't have all the features of the full version, it does have all the essentials, and it will enable you to get up and podcasting immediately. I recommend you check it out.
- posted by Perry @ 10:53 PM 0 comments

 
768 Mb and growing
I went over this evening to visit Tom Wright, and while there I helped him install another 512 Mb of RAM in his computer. We also installed and ran Spybot Search and Destroy V 1.4 and Firefox V 1.0.6. Spybot helped to clean out some nasties from Tom's computer, and I demonstrated Firefox for him. He'll be using it for the next several days as he tests it out. I believe that once he has "driven" it for a while, he'll remain a dedicated fan.
- posted by Perry @ 10:44 PM 0 comments

 
I'm connected again!!
This afternoon at about 2 pm my Knight in Shining Armor (aka the Comcast repairman) came to the house and strung a new cable from the cable box to the entry point at the side of my house and immediately restored my connection. I am therefore "back in the saddle again," as Gene Autry used to sing. The only downside of being connected again is that I received 498 messages from one of the mailing lists I'm on. In all, I was without my connection for five days. I feel as if I have come back into the land of the living at long last.
- posted by Perry @ 4:34 PM 0 comments

 
Still drumming my fingers ...
When I went to bed last night, that song from the musical "Annie" kept running through my head, with slightly altered lyrics. I was hearing, "Oh, the 'net'll come up tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be mail." But ...

You guessed it! When I called Comcast this morning to confirm that they had an appointment for me, the agent with whom I spoke informed me there was no appointment in the system for me, and what's more, the earliest they could get someone out would be on Tuesday. She made a perfunctory apology and said she'd give me a credit for the time I was out (as if she were doing me a big favor by doing that), and I politely thanked her for that but told her that I certainly expected at least that much. When I asked what time the appointment was on Tuesday, she said it was an "all day" appointment "so they can get out there at the earliest time possible." The translation of that positive statement is that "I've put it on the schedule and they'll work you in as soon as they can."

I've survived this long, and I'm sure I'll survive until tomorrow or later if that is required, but this experience does underscore for me how much a part of my life is my connection to the world through the Internet.

On a more positive note, once again this morning I did my morning walk through the neighborhood, making this my sixth day in a row of that routine.
- posted by Perry @ 11:32 AM 0 comments

 
Another day without ...
I'm into day 3 without access to the Internet. The walls at my house have fingernail marks on them, but I'm surviving with the occasional fix I get by visiting Mike's house and using his laptop and Internet connection to "get by" until the repairman comes out on Monday. Thanks to Darrell's comment (to my previous post), I've been alerted to make sure I request a credit from Comcast for the time I've been without service.

On the positive side of the news, I walked again this morning for about 40 minutes. Today I walked down to the entrance to the Colonies. That added a significant challenge because the entrance contains a steep hill, which doesn't see so steep in a car but when you are walking you realize how steep it is. I could feel the lactic acid build up in the muscles of my legs and the "good" burning that comes from extending yourself physically. I'm pleased that I've kept this up for these past several days, and I look forward to its becoming a regular part of my morning routine. Like chicken soup, it can't hurt.
- posted by Perry @ 11:58 AM 0 comments

 
Status Quo
My Internet connection is still down and my exercise program is still on track, despite having had to walk in the rain this morning. I've now been walking for four days in a row for about 30 to 40 minutes each day. It helps, in a way, that I don't have the Internet to capture my attention when I first get up, because that leaves me free to go for the walk. Comcast tells me that they will be out on Monday to get me re-connected, and if they are successful, I will have been without access to either television or Internet service for four days. It seems more like 4 years!
- posted by Perry @ 9:48 AM 2 comments

 
I've lost my connection
When I got home from work last night my cable service was out, and it remains so this morning. I am composing this entry from my son, Mike's, house, using his computer and his connection to the Internet. I'll post more once I regain access to the online world.
- posted by Perry @ 11:04 AM 0 comments

 
I'm on a roll
Again this morning I took another stroll around the neighborhood to get my morning exercise. That's two days in a row. Hooray! for me.

I've posted some pictures on my Flickr site of the scenes from that walk. (You can click on the "View as a Slideshow" link to see a slideshow of them.)

As you will see, if you follow that link, trying to do two things at once doesn't always the result in the best of either task. I tried to take pictures while still walking and getting my exercise, so some of the shots are blurry. But I decided to post them anyway so the effort wasn't lost. The pictures where I stopped long enough to take the shot are much clearer than those I tried to shoot on the move, but hey! I'm just experimenting here, so not every effort is perfect.

One thing these photos do illustrate is how much greenery we have in the neighborhood. So for that I am grateful.
- posted by Perry @ 10:00 AM 0 comments

 
A good start to the day
This morning I walked from 6:11 AM until 6:42 AM at a brisk pace around the neighborhood. It was a pleasant experience. To gauge the pace, I counted my steps for a minute and found it to be 115 steps per minute. I didn't take my pulse at the conclusion of the walk, but I could tell that I had gotten my heart rate up and my lungs were given a good workout. I don't have any idea how many days I can keep it up, but I have a string of one day in a row going, so maybe I can add to it. It's just about putting one foot in front of the other. One step at a time; one day at a time.

The thought occurred to me that as I walk the neighborhood, I should take the camera with me one morning so that I can publish the pictures on Flickr. Perhaps tomorrow morning.

Oh, I wore my SanDisk 1 GB MP3 player and FM radio as I walked. It gave me a sense of getting something done as I walked. I listened to NPR's Morning Edition, a very entertaining, in-depth daily news show.

Today is the day that Discovery is scheduled (around 3 pm this afternoon) to make the first shuttle flight since Columbia broke up over Texas in February of 2003.
- posted by Perry @ 7:00 AM 0 comments

 
Technology and breaking news
This article in today's New York Times about the London bombings, Witnesses Post Instant Photos on the Web to Capture Drama, points out that ...

"Online photo-sharing sites and Web blogs began chronicling the attacks soon after they occurred, posting material often gathered before professional news organizations arrived on the scenes.

The BBC posted photographs and videos taken by witnesses, and The Guardian posted experiences that readers submitted on a running Web log.

The attacks were not the first recorded by witnesses with cellphone and other digital cameras. Online experts like operators of photography sites and photography agencies said the pictures of the explosions were posted in greater numbers and with greater speed than they had seen in other major events.

Not only has the technology for taking the photographs become more widespread in the last few years, the experts said, but posting photographs has also become easier.

Flickr.com, a site owned by Yahoo that lets people post photographs free, had more than 300 bombing photos posted within eight hours after the attacks."
- posted by Perry @ 9:46 AM 0 comments

 
MixCast Live 1.0 released
Yesterday, James Prudente released version 1.0 of MixCast Live.

This excellent system combines the ability to easily record a podcast with the ability to upload it to a hosting service with just the click of a button. It couldn't be easier now to stream your point of view or even your antics to people around the world!

This morning I recorded a podcast to give James some feedback on the new version, which you can hear (if you wish) by clicking this link to have it play in your system's configured MP3 player.

Later today, or perhaps tomorrow, I'll be creating my first personal podcast that I'll point to from here.
- posted by Perry @ 3:09 PM 0 comments

 
The annual SPEBSQSA International Show
This link: invites you to "check your computer and connection for 'webcast-readiness' with these preview files." All of this is in preparation for the upcoming webcast of the SPEBSQSA International Contest of Barbershop Quartets and Choruses that will take place in Salt Lake City between July 4th and July 9th. If you have a fast connection to the Internet, you can see and hear the contest ... for a fee. The fee for the broadband connection is $50.00, but I can promise you that it'll be worth it if you have any interest at all in this sort of thing. They've been doing these broadcasts for the last two or three years, and they are spectacular, and they are getting better each year. As with most things on the Internet, the faster your connection, the more you will be likely to enjoy it, simply because the webcast is so much better when it doesn't slow down or break up because of a slow connection.

If you only want to hear the audio, you can do that for free (for up to a 28.8 Kbps connection). If you are connecting at 56 Kbps (as most people are these days), you can see and hear the webcasts for $25.00 for the week. The schedule of events is contained in this link.
- posted by Perry @ 12:50 PM 0 comments

 
Independence Day
Happy 4th of July, everyone.

The photo at the right of Old Glory was taken by my son, Mike, and uploaded to Flickr on June 10th. It seems appropriate to the day, so I decided to "borrow" it for this post.

I hope you all have a safe holiday celebration and that you enjoy being with family and friends on this national day of observance of the birth of our nation. You can see the fireworks here.

- posted by Perry @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

 
My bad. The fix IS on after all.
It just occurred to me that I still had the temporary work around (the first one recommended by Blogger Buzz) in my Blogger template that I had implemented to eliminate the excess white space after the post headline. So I went back and removed that temporary work around code, and when I did, that made the new fix, just released yesterday, work. Hooray!!!!! Thank you, Blogger Support.
- posted by Perry @ 8:20 AM 0 comments

 
The "fix" is NOT on.
First test of the Blogger Buzz solution mentioned in the previous post shows it doesn't resolve my issue. Drat!
- posted by Perry @ 8:07 AM 0 comments

 
The latest Blogger Buzz "fix"
I'm sure you are as frustrated with the formatting problems I'm having as I am ... well, maybe not as frustrated, but at least frustrated nonetheless.

The Blogger support team has published this fix for the issue over at Blogger Buzz, and I have implemented it only to learn that it doesn't fix the previous posts. In part this post is designed to test whether the so-called fix resolves the issues for new posts. As is my customary style, this entry is sufficiently wordy to cause it to flow far enough to the right that if it is going to flow under the right sidebar it will be obvious, and that would signify to me the "fix" isn't working. We'll see after I post this. I'll withhold congratulations to the Blogger team until I see the results and experience any other unintended consequences of the cure. I just hope the cure isn't worse then the disease.
- posted by Perry @ 7:57 AM 0 comments