Category: Life hacks

Google Earth offers flight simulator

While you may still be playing around with the latest feature on GE 4.2, there’s a hidden feature that you may not yet know about. It hasn’t been publicized by Google yet, but it’s way cool.
By pressing CTRL+Alt+A in GE 4.2 you’ll be able to load and run a flight simulator around the world.
It takes some getting used to – seriously. I found the easiest way for me was to use my mouse, but they also offer keyboard shortcuts for all your typical commands.
It’s a very cool new way to see the world.
Marco has more info on his blog.

So you want to merge all those waypoints/geocaches?

If you’re like me – you hate typing in all those coordinates for geocaches into your handheld GPS unit. It’s such a bother, which is why we decided to purchase the Magellan Explorist 500. Simply hook up your unit to your computer with the USB cable, run the conversion software and presto, all your geocaches are stored to your unit.
But the next problem I came across was the fact that Geocaching.com only gives you 20 caches per page on their website.
So if you search for caches within 25 miles of zip code 75165, there are 320 caches, but only 20 per page. And unless you’re a premium member, that means you’re going to have to download page of 20 caches individually and then upload the files to your GPS unit one by one.
You can download Easy GPS Companion, which does a fair job of combining the files into one .loc file. But occasionally it makes an error and your files get corrupted. Continue reading So you want to merge all those waypoints/geocaches?

e-mail and presentations

Merlin Mann’s (at 43 Folders) presentation at Google over how to manage your e-mail has gotten more and more hype on the blogosphere. It’s based on a typical Get-Things-Done way of doing things. He basically says there are five actions to do with every e-mail….

  • Delete
  • Delegate
  • Respond
  • Defer
  • Do

Merlin says that if you limit yourself to those five actions for e-mail you can keep your inbox clean and really increase your productivity. I put some of these things in practice when I worked at the paper due to the number of e-mail lists and news releases I received but since I’ve been working for the county I’ve let it slide and now my e-mail inbox has become more like that pile of clothes that collects in the corner of the room. It started with a jacket and now there’s pants, shirts, socks etc.
I’m going to see if I can put these things back in place – especially with personal e-mails. Luckily I’m not at Google where employees are saying they get at least 500 e-mails a day just from within their company – not including all the e-mails they get from inside.

You can watch Merlin’s talk to Google here:

More information on Merlin’s plan, Inbox Zero can be found at inboxzero.com which links to Merlin’s series of blog posts about the process.

He also has his presentation online here which is another great topic for discussion.
He also has information on his blog about making presentations better.

Some of Merlin’s tips for better presentations include:

  • “Tell a story that makes the audience into the protagonist, then demonstrate how your approach to solving their problem will help them win in the end.”
  • Also, suck up your pride, and make yourself fill out Cliff’s Word template (available here) for telling your story
  • It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.
  • I love the look of a very simple graphic alongside a very few words
  • Do a cold open
  • Work the notes field
  • Think: “Stephen Colbert”

    • <5th email just showed up>

  • Finish early – this may be one of my hardest things to do. I want to be sure I include every ounce of information possible so there are no questions at the end. But I may be giving way more information than I need to. Finish early and give everyone a chance to ask questions if they want/need to. Merlin says, “Running long not only says you weren’t properly prepared for the time you were allotted, it leaves no time for the best part of every presentation for me: the Q&A. I love interacting with the audience and getting a chance to apply all that hand-waving to real-world questions.”

Well that should give you some fun things to look at and consider over the weekend – how do you handle e-mails? What works best for you? Are you like some people I know who just check it and delete everything or are you more like my dad where it builds and builds and builds and builds and builds until it takes an hour everytime you check your email?
Also anyone out there have any good presentations tips they want to share? What works for you? How can you/we apply these things to say a small group meeting at church? Can we use these ideas for a small meeting at work or does it only work when you’re presenting to a group of 50 or more?

The power of Wikipedia

To quote Eric Lidji (speaking of – that guy needs to start blogging again) again, “Ah the blogosphere, the place of no accountability.”
Some might suggest we could apply that same quote to Wikipedia – although I’ve found that there are a NUMBER of folks out there who are Wikipedia sticklers for content, sources and edits (which while I may disagree with them at times – is a good thing).
But Virgil Griffith wanted to find out just how reliable the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit really was.
He created software that examined Wikipedia entries and the source of their edits, and found some interesting things.
For example:

  • Microsoft tried to cover up the XBOX 360 failure rate

  • In the 9/11 Wikipedia article, the NRA added that “Iraq was involved in 9/11”

  • Exxon Mobil edits spillages and eco-system destruction from oil spillages article

  • Scientology removes criticism and negatives article from Scientology page

  • Dog breeding association deletes whole paragraphs about fatal attacks by dogs on humans

  • Fox News removes all controversial topics against the network from the Fox News page

  • Walmart removes criticism of outsourcing work. The retailer also changes negative paragraphs of underpaid workforce

  • Someone at Reuters calls Bush “a mass murderer”

  • Coca Cola removes negative content about its effects

  • US University adds the “prestigious” adjective to its page

It just goes to remind us that we’ve always got to examine and consider the source of the information we get online, on TV, in print or anywhere else. Then take it for what it’s worth.

Thanks to Wisebread for the heads-up

(ourkidsname)blundell.com

Yahoo News reports that a growing number of parents are already buying domains for their kids to protect their online identity in the future.
Sounds like something I’d want to do and then get laughed at for ;-).

“One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available,” Pankow said. It was, and Pankow quickly grabbed Bennett’s online identity.
A small but growing number of parents are getting domain names for their young kids, long before they can do more than peck aimlessly at a keyboard.
It’s not known exactly how many, but the practice is no longer limited to parents in Web design or information technology.
They worry that the name of choice might not be available by the time their babies become teens or adults, just as someone claimed the “.com” for Britney Spears’ 11-month-old son before she could.
The trend hints at the potential importance of domain names in establishing one’s future digital identity.
Think of how much a typical teen’s online life now revolves around Facebook or News Corp.’s MySpace. Imagine if one day the domain could take you directly to those social-networking profiles, blogs, photo albums and more.

Thanks to Lifehacker for the heads-up