Nicole,
In case you can’t get to e-mail, your clue is next to the most recent “combination” we created:
331 n / s
543 c * y
231 n / 5
127 n + 6
457 n = 2
982 c + f
153 n – d
Clue for Nicole
Reply
Online Banking Checks (HSBC)
With Wachovia, I have never been clear what would happen to an on-line bill pay check if the recipient did not cash it. This mainly had to do with the paper checks that are sent to people or small businesses rather than corporations… corporate bill pays tend to be electronic.
At Wachovia, my account would be deducted right away, and I had no way of knowing if the person had received or deposited the check. I didn’t like that.
At HSBCdirect.com, the “laser checks” act more like a real check. It only comes out of my account when the recipient deposits the check, and I see an image of their endorsement on the back. So I like HSBC’s on-line bill pay better than Wachovia’s.
Of course, none of this is good news for my company.
Letter attached.
Lotus Notes: Manual Mail Archiviving
A tip I “found” on the internet for manual mail archiving. Good if your mail file is automatically purged after 60 days, but you need to remember longer than that.
MUTO by Blu
I wonder how long this took? The shadows are a clue.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
eMusic.com Joe Purdy and Ray
Found an offer for 25 free songs from eMusic plus a free audiobook in Fast Company. I went through the set up process and downloaded two albums by Joe Purdy, Judy Blue and You Can Tell Georgia, and three songs by Ray Charles. Since I did not install the download manager, I had to download each song one at a time, which was not too bad.
I was disappointed album art did not come with the songs. I had to find the art using Google’s image search and then paste it in once I had the songs in iTunes.
I tried to download a 7 hour audiobook of Mark Twain short stories, but the site said the download was not available and to try later. Meanwhile, it ate up the credit for the audiobook, and I saw no way I could try to download again without being charged.
I’d rather read the book, anyway, so I canceled the trial subscription. I found the whole eMusic.com experience to be far inferior to the iTunes store… except for the free part.
I used a secure online Discover card number to set up the eMusic account, just in case.
Oh… it turns out if I had not followed the Fast Company Free 25 URL, I could have just gone directly to the site and gotten 50 free songs!
Cleaning Apple Macintosh White Keyboard
With the new iMac moving in, Claire and I worked on a project to clean the old iMac’s keyboard. After years of use by hair-losing dogs and people, oily fingers, and way too much snacking at the computer, the keyboard accumulated a lot of filth. Zoom in the “dirty” photo below to see what you can identify. (Hint: Can you find the staple?)
Carefully removing each key and letting them soak in some soapy water, Claire and I used a hand towel and q-tips to make the keyboard look almost new!
We followed the tips of this French web page auto-translated by Google. The translation is funny, but there were some good tips.
Snap Shots (revisited)
I wrote earlier about adding Snap Shots to Mac 5. It will enhance any external link by giving you a small preview of the destination web page. I think it is most useful when it defines a word or phrase using Wikipedia. But it can also be neat to see a preview.
Recently, Snap Shots started doing something I considered invasive. It scanned for phrases it our posts and decided to attach links to them. I could also see that ads now appear under the Snap Shot previews, so this was about making money (fine) by randomly picking out key phrases in our posts (not fine.) I noticed it when posting the witness I gave at Dad’s funeral. I sure didn’t want to be randomly selling things in a eulogy!
Turns out, I can create an account and control that new phrase-link option. I turned it off. I turned on charitable contributions so that a portion of the ad proceeds will go to the International Red Cross.
So I’m still sold on Snap Shots.
YouTube Thumbnail Math
YouTube currently auto-selects 3 frames from your uploaded video to use as the video’s thumbnail. Knowing this, you can try to position one or more desirable frames at these exact locations:
X = Video length (in sec.)
Y = X divided by 4 or X/4 (in sec.)
Y is the 1st thumbnail.
2 times Y or 2xY (in sec.) is the 2nd thumbnail (poster frame).
3 times Y or 3xY (in sec.) is the 3rd thumbnail.
Pond Pump #3
When we bought the house, there was a stagnant pod with a little stream of water streaming up in the middle. One of my early projects was to clean out the pond and clean the pump. It worked fine for several years until I had to replace it with Pump #2… which went out this winter after about three years. I’m amazed that these little pumps can run continuously under water for years.
Photo of pump #3 that is now installed and circulating the water. Just in time for spring. Note the little slica gell pack. Keeps moisture down. Wouldn’t want a pond pump getting moist.
Willin’ Map
One of my favorite songs is Willin’ by Little Feat. I like their live version as well as Steve Earls version. Linda Rondstat made the song famous. It’s a truck driver song and has these lyrics:
I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonopah
So what does that trip look like? Google maps let’s you mark up a map and save it. You can optionally share it publicly. Willin’ Map.