SweetWater.com is my new Favorite Guitar Store

I just bought a new guitar, ok, my friends and family know that's not a big deal. In this case I bought it from a new store. SweetWater. They are in Fort Wayne Indiana. Here is what is so neat about them. They act like my new guitar is a big deal. They talk to you on the phone like a person and then behave as if you are valued. Where do you find that kind of service online.

They offered to set it up and put my brand and guage of strings on it. Not only did they set it up and restring it, but they sent me pictures of my actual new guitar. They must have a guitar portrait studio. 

And the service.... Unbelievable. Bought it on Monday, arrived on Wednesday with my gauge and brand of strings and all set up and ready to play. Not just restrung but actually set-up. Spot on intonation, pickups adjusted. A pleasure to play right out of the box. These people are incredible. If you need a guitar, give sweetwater.com a peek, they deliver in many ways. They even threw some candy in the package for my grandchildren.

This guitar is just like my first electric guitar. Originally Fender wanted to grab jazz guitar players with a special circuit just for Jazz. Now later in my life it has a great set of my favorite features, including the belly cut for my past middle age middle. It also has single coil pickups and a great look. This model has a little hotter pickups than the original but it still has that single coil pop that I love. It also has that great jazz circuit, just like I remembered it. Thanks Sweetwater.

What is this Omer Counter Thing doing here?

As a child, holidays came and went. Each had its own rituals and foods. Some I didn't even notice, others were pretty much good for a day off from school. Now that I am older, and have time to think about these things, I spend a little more time wondering what it is all about.

When my dear daughter asked me to write her an Omer counter I had to look it up to find out what it was. I find the idea interesting for many reasons. Most of which it makes the counter, if you choose to be one, congnizant of the passage of time and the season more than ever. It gives us a chance to prepare for the holiday that celebrates G-d giving us the Torah.

The Torah, everything you need to know about life in one easy to handle scroll, is an amazing gift and however you believe it came to be, it certainly has had a profound impact on Jews and non-Jews alike.


I found a couple of interesting articles on Counting the Omer. The first is from the blog PunkTorah regarding the counting:

So, what does this all mean to us now? Well, it can mean many things. Counting the Omer can be used as a tool of self reflection. We can take this time to recognize the miracle of the Exodus from Egypt, from the gift of our freedom. The Sages tell us that G-d freed us from slavery in order to give us the Torah on Shavu’ot, so this should be a time of preparation. Counting the Omer gives us the time to learn from the gift of freedom G-d has given us and incorporate it into our lives, to grow one day at a time, taking a spiritual accounting, to make sure that we are heading in the right direction, to look at what we are doing that is right or wrong and to try to make ourselves ready to receive the honor of the Torah.
Counting the days is another way of directing our mindfulness to the passage of time. Be aware of the days as they pass, count them, give them meaning. We have been freed from slavery, rejecting the confusion and idolatry (philosophically, literally, and spiritually) of our own Egypt’s and are being made ready to re-focus our lives.

I guess a good take-away from all of this is that one must make each day count. Make each day worth living for you and the people you love. 

(This is a repeat of a post from a few years ago)

Computing in the Clouds

Welcome to my personal Blog. I will have all the websites, links and goodies from our session, Monday March 11, 2013 assembled here for you to use. It will stay here so don't worry about losing the resource.

These presentations are shared from my cloud.

• Don't Blink 
• Cloud Computing
• Cloud Computing II 
• The Death of Flashdrives   
• The Perfect Marriage (Web apps)

Can I take a Post Back?

About a year ago I did a post about a new printer. I was pretty excited about a wireless printer that installed itself and had an email address of its own. Wow, I could email documents to the printer no matter where I was and it would print out and be there when I got home.

The quality of the printing was excellent and I printed a lot of very nice snapshots and other documents. Worked great for a while and then one day my computer couldn't find it... I could see it but the computer drivers were taking a break, I guess, and I need to do a complete uninstall and reinstall of the HP software. HP product software is the very definition of "bloatware" I guess that's not a big deal until the third or fourth time you do the uninstall/reinstall thing for no reason at all.

This is a common problem with these printers but HP does not address it, they just offer a discount on ink and free shipping....  

Then there is the way it uses ink. The cartridges seem to empty automatically. i.e. not just while you are using it. The ink costs a fortune and seemed to always need replacement. I knew that inkjet printers were expensive but this was ridiculous. 

I finally decided to use up the ink and dump the thing. In the middle of my wait HP sent me an email saying that I hadn't used the email printing feature in a long time and I should try it again. Of course, I did and it didn't work.

That's right, I have three little brothers on my desk!

So today I gave up and installed a new printer. A Brother MFC-J825DW. Very easy installation it seems to work great. I'll let you know after I get to know it a little better.

BTW:I turned it on, used the tiny touch screen to configure my network SSID and it immediately was able to print from my iPhone and iPad. I can even scan from the IOS devices and have the files printed or saved to an SD card in the printer. Pretty cool. 

Books I've Read - 2012

I'm certainly not done reading for the year, its just the 28th of December. I'm just don't think I'll finish another book so here is the my completed list. 
I decided to keep track just for the fun of it. I learned a few things that are probably pretty obvious to those who read a lot.  Some books are better than others; I'd rather read than watch TV and  some books are more fun and easier to read than others.  
My favorite author this year was Stuart Woods. Lee Child was a close second. 
I shall continue in 2013. If you have a suggestion I'd love to hear it. I will probably read it too.
  

1. Micro - Michael Crichton
2. Zero Day - David Baldacci
3. Red Mist - Patricia Cornwell
4. American Assassin - Vince Flynn
5. The Hunter -John Lescroart
6. Deeper Than Dead - Tami Hoag
7. Secrets to the Grave - Tami Hoag
8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
9. Rough Country - John Sandford
10. Bad Blood - John Sandford
11. Shock Wave - John Sandford
12. Down the Darkest Road - Tami Hoag
13. Kill Shot - Vince Flynn
14. Private Games - James Patterson
15. Unorthodox - Deborah Feldman
16. Devil's Gate - Clive Cussler
17. Judas Gate - Jack Higgins
18. Night Probe - Clive Cussler
19. The Snowman - Joe Nesbo
20. Night Probe - Clive Cussler
21. Stay Close - Harlan Coban
22. A Heartbeat Away - Michael Palmer
23. Home Front - Kristin Hannah
24. The Innocent - David Baldacci
25. City of Thieves - David Benioff
26. Shadow Pass - Sam Eastland
27. The Eye of the Red Tsar - Sam Eastland
28. The Storm - Clive Cussler
29. Force of Nature - C.J.Box
30. Stolen Prey - John Sandford
31. The Columbus Affair - Steve Berry
32. Canada - Richard Ford
33. Bloodline - James Rollins
34. The Third Gate - Lincoln Child
35. The Fallen Angel - Daniel Silva
36. Mission to Paris - Alan Furst
37. I, Michael Bennett - James Patterson
38. Phantom Prey - John Sandford
39. Archive 17 - Sam Eastland
40. Invisible Prey - John Sandford
41. Mind Prey - John Sandford
42. New York Dead - Stuart Woods
43. Dirt - Stuart Woods
44. Dead in the Water - Stuart Woods
45. Swimming To Catalina - Stuart Woods
46. Worst Fears Realized - Stuart Woods
47. L.A. Dead - Stuart Woods
48. Cold Paradise - Stuart Woods
49. The Short Forever - Stuart Woods
50. Dirty Work - Stuart Woods
51. Reckless Abandon - Stuart Woods
52. Two Dollar Bill - Stuart Woods
53. Dark Harbor - Stuart Woods
54. Fresh Disasters - Stuart Woods
55. Shoot Him If He Runs - Stuart Woods
56. Hot Mahogany - Stuart Woods
57. Loitering With Intent - Stuart Woods
58. Kisser - Stuart Woods
59. Lucid Intervals - Stuart Woods
60. Strategic Moves - Stuart Woods
61. Bel Air Dead - Stuart Woods
62. Son of Stone - Stuart Woods
63. D. C. Dead - Stuart Woods
64. Unnatural Acts - Stuart Woods
65. Severe Clear - Stuart Woods
66. Trip Wire - Lee Child
67. Running Blind - Lee Child
68. Echo Burning - Lee Child
69. Without Fail - Lee Child
70. Persuader - Lee Child
71. The Enemy - Lee Child
72. The Hard Way - Lee Child
73. One Shot - Lee Child
74. The Lawgiver - Herman Wouk
75. Bad Luck and Trouble - Lee Child
76. Nothing To Lose - Lee Child
77. Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child
78. 61 Hours - Lee Child
79. Worth Dying For - Lee Child
80. The Affair - Lee Child
81. A Wanted Man - Lee Child
82. The Panther - Nelson Demille
83. Mad River - John Sandford

 

Wow, do I love to read...

When I retired a few years ago my daughter suggested a couple of books to me, thinking that I would have more time to read without the bother of working. (Its not that I have anything against working, I think its good for many people to have activities that keep them busy and avoiding poverty.)

She got me started and this year I decided to keep track of what books I've read. There is a list on the left, sidebar, of my blog. Anyone looking at it might wonder why I've settled on Stuart Woods for the last couple of months. I simply like his characters and "Stone Barrington" is main character in this series in particular. He reminds me of those old New York detective movies from the thirties and forties where the main character wears a dinner jacket each night and finds beautiful women in a posh New York night spot.

So if you follow my reading list, you will be happy to know that the Stone Barrington series will soon end, at about 25 novels. It appears that Stuart Woods is prolific and Stone seems to be aging nicely so we will see what other books he writes with him as the main character.

BTW: I think Lee Child might be next. Any suggestions?

Help Us With This Project...

I'm never sure how many people read my blog. That's what you get for blogging infrequently.

My grandson, Sam, is in the fight against AML (leukemia). He is at Children's in Milwaukee. My daughter, the blogger rabbi, started a blog so that family and friends could keep tabs on Sam's progress.

 

He needs to know how many friends he has. My daughter started a photo project just to show him. Already his room is papered with pictures from around the country. 

 

His blog is: http://supermansamuel.blogspot.com. Below I have a repost of her call and challenge to friends around the world for support. It started when he questioned just how many people were in his corner and wanted to support him. 

 

Would you like to help show Sam how many Super People are supporting him? Join his team! And keep Sam in your prayers*

A family portrait I never would have imagined...

Take a photograph of yourself wearing your favorite superhero shirt 
(or holding up their logo...or just smiling!)

Print out the picture.

Put it in an envelope and mail it to:

Sam Sommer, E571

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin

P.O. Box 1997

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-1997

We will hang all the pictures on Sam's wall...Team Superman Sam! 

*(And I know that many of you are not Jewish, and your prayers are just as important and precious to me - God hears us, however we pray. And let me tell you - we will take all the praying we can get!)

Paris Was A Dream

Don't Blink Port Washington

A few years I wrote an article called Don't Blink. I've updated it dozens of times since then. Here's the latest version.

Before you look, here are a couple of observations:

1. I don't think Microsoft gets it. Its about sharing, collaborating and working together, not about platforms, software and market share.
2. Blogging is an exciting and easy way to communicate but keep in mind that it was invented in the early age of computing. Easy is not always most effective. A blog is about a message. If the message is good, the blog will be a winner
3. Blogs like mine, in which the blogger posts irregularly, will not generate readers. People will notice that the content is stagnant and start to skip looking. If you want a blog that is read, post every day. Perfect for teachers who teach every day.

Don’t Blink…Port

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Sorry folks, this does not work on an IPAD, no flash.

The Death of FlashDrives....

I saw some pretty good deals on flash drives in the past few days. You know, those little devices that we all started to use when floppies became hopelessly small for the documents we wanted to move around.

The first time I actually got a flash drive was at a product demo for a computer maker. It was about a decade ago. It was a tiny little thing that had the companies catalog on it. I promptly erased it and used the little thing to transport files from work to home and home to work.

That little thing was about 64kb or about an eighth of a gig. On my desk today I have several 8 gig drives, one of which will actually boot to linux.

Alas, these will probably become collector's items too. With cloud computing it seems that we no longer need "hard" storage as much as we need "cloud" storage.

Click to create your Dropbox and increase my storage

Dropbox is a service that provides cloud storage. Using a small program on your computer, Mac, or PC, it allow you to store files in the clouds and get them back from any computer that has an internet connection.

There is also the capability to make folder public, share them with specific people and best of all, share them with your Ipad or Ipod.

That's right, there is an app for that! The dropbox app is a super way to move things around. Music, pictures, ebooks either MOBI or epub and any other files that you own and want to share with friends or move from your computer to your Ipad. For example, if you have a pdf that you want on your Ipad and you want to share with friends or co-workers, just put it in your dropbox, notify your friends and fire up your Ipad's dropbox app. The file will soon appear in the dropbox app and prompt you to select an app to read the file in. (pdf's can be read the most ebook reader apps, but that is another post.)

(Disclaimer: If you click the graphic or link above to create your own Dropbox, it will increase my storage. Its a perk for getting people interested. )

Welcome Students:

Welcome to my CEdo510 Students. I know some of you might surf over here seeking some special wisdom. All I have are posts of stuff I'm interested in. I post infrequently but in spurts. When something strikes my fancy.

Here is something fancy, that struck mine:

More Incredible Tech

I like tech that installs itself.
When you get an IPAD you soon realize that printing is reserved for expensive apps or printers that are wireless and designed for Apples Airprint technology.
I only buy a new printer when the old one dies... Mine died. It was a six year old laser printer that had a duplexer and printed color in its early days. The print cartridges cost about $350 bucks a set and the printouts were not good enough in color to justify the cost. So I used it for BW printing for the last couple of years. When its network interface failed I took that as a sign from the almighty that I needed a new printer.

Shopping online is so easy. I decided that I wanted a wireless printer/scanner that was AirPrint compatible. I wanted speed and ease. I shopped amazon, J and R, buy.com and HP. HP remarkably had the best prices and selection so I compared all the printers, using their tool and decided on the HP C310a. Some of the reviews said it was a bit complicated but I thought that the performance specs were probably worth the trouble with initial setup.
HP's website is a bit troublesome. Great information but every time I go to buy, I have a question that does not seem to be answered online. (or a coupon code it refuses to recognize) The salesperson was excellent and eventually sold me the printer for about 15 bucks less than if I had completed the purchase online. There is a lesson there.
So here is my experience:
It came in about 2 days. The box was so light, I thought they forgot the printer. The packaging was sensible, a reusable zipper bag for the small items and the printer was set in the box in a reusable grocery type bag. Pulling gently on the bag handles and the printer slid out, easy and neat. I set the printer on my desk. Believe me the hard part was done.

Today's Gem

Unpacked and on my desk, I followed the directions, pictographs actually, on how to remove the tape, install the cartridges and then plug the thing into the power. From there the 4" touchscreen came into play. Following the directions on the screen, and answering a few questions, The next thing I knew a test page popped out. I was done setting up the printer and its wireless connection. The touchscreen suggested that I might want to put a disk in the drive and install this on my computer.
Computer setup is not necessary if you use an IPAD. In that case you are done. If you never print anything but photos from picassa, for example, or direct from a memory card, you are also done. It does that stuff right out of the box.

Here is today's gem!!!
I put the CD in my computer and followed the onscreen directions. It asked me how the printer was attached to the network, I said wireless. That's it. Next thing I knew there was a test page coming out of the printer from the computer.  That's about it. Never did have to plug the printer/scanner into the computer, it does everything through the network and wirelessly. The scanning is fast and accurate, but this isn't a review, its a gee wiz.
So the best is yet to come. The printer, it turns out, has an email address. HP calls it eprint technology and there is an app for that too. A few seconds of setup on the computer, accessing the eprint site and resetting the email address to something I could remember and I was done. Actually, I also secured it so that only certain email address can communicate with MY printer. You could leave it open to all but that would take a lot of ink and paper.
My daughter is kind enough to leave a picture in my tray once in a while. Not often enough, if she's reading this. My son has yet to do it but I hold out hope.
All they do is send me a picture, from any device, as an attachment. It supports pictures, documents etc. The printer simply prints the pictures and leaves them for me to retrieve.
From the IPAD there is actually no setup. Just find the right icon at the top of your app and select print. It finds the AirPrinter and voila, a page pops out. Isn't tech great.....