How to Ensafe Your Laptop

You can prevent the theft of your laptop and/or the precious data in it. You can even make it possible to retrieve it after theft. Here's how:

Back Up Your Data Regularly

Imagine if you lose your laptop and you don't have any copy of your files in it. Scary isn't that? So backup your important files regularly. Try using Duplicati. More importantly, backup on a USB or external drive.

Encrypt Sensitive Data

Data encryption isn't a hard thing to do. You just have to create a 20-character master password if you will use TrueCrypt, which I recommend and use.

Make Your Laptop Easy to Return

Offer a reward for its return if you can afford it. Place a prominently named text file on your desktop (e.g. REWARD_for_return.TXT) containing your contact information and any information about the reward. You can also have your name engraved on your PC.

Install a Tracking Software

More and more PC's are being retrieved because they were tracked and traced; and the thief nabbed. Prey always make the news. But why not install Predator too?

Beware of Buying Second-Hand Laptops

This woman bought a 2nd-hand laptop and put her naked pics in it for her boyfriend. When a tracking-software firm and the police traced the PC, you can guess what happened next. But she sued the software firm for passing her naked pics to the cops.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/30/reminder-the-embarrassing-naked-photos-on-your-stolen-laptop-may-not-belong-to-the-thief/

Tips for Searching on the Web

Would you believe that college students aren't good 'googling'?

http://mashable.com/2011/08/22/the-google-gap-college-kids-arent-good-at-searching-study/

It's a funny coincidence that I forgot where I found the piece about student's being poor 'googlers'. So I first googled 'students poor in web searching'. On the results, I clicked 'last 24 hours' and Bingo, I got what I exactly want.

Try these tips then teach them how:

Try a generalized search first before you make a detailed one.

Let's say you need to know about a stray plant with tiny violet flowers and how to care for them. Then search: ' stray plant with tiny violet flowers'. After African violets or saintpaulia appears, search 'caring for African violets'.

Safe Search Tools

There are lots of safe search tools you can use. Choose among some which would be convenient for you:

WebofTrust

Norton Safe Web

Scroogle

DuckDuckGo

Preventing Netbook CPU Overheating

There was this very important program I need to install which I couldn't just because my screen is too small -my screen just can't show the install-button. Fortunately, my mind was still sharp and it recalled what maybe the most important netbook app.

The primary annoyance with using a netbook is the screen size of course. Fonts become smaller and some apps or programs designed for big screen won't just work. Since I'm using Taskbar Eliminator (TE) and my CPU is overloaded and overheating, I wondered if TE was reducing CPU load since it has hidden the taskbar. Here's the result of my Google search:

'Run Security Task Manager to check your explorer.exe process ... If you stop this process the taskbar will disappear. .... And it is possible for explorer to chew up 98% percent CPU, if it starts behaving badly. ..... comp is getting slow . does any1 has a clue why it taking too much of memory and how to reduce it. … -www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/explorer.exe.html...'

So there's possibility that hiding the taskbar would lessen and prevent CPU overheating! (Aviassin should pay me for this discovery and review) And hiding the taskbar would also allow a bigger screen of course. You not only have a wider screen but more importantly, your CPU work is reduced to prevent overheating -which would probably cause your computer to crash.

Since more and more gadgets are threatening to kill the netbook industry, why not donate to me and help keep netbooks alive.

How Can Time Travel be Possible?

Dr. Mullet's Time Travel Project

'If gravity can affect time, and light can create gravity, then light can affect time.' -Dr. Mullet

UConn's Dr. Ronald Mullet hid his obsession with time travel by studying black holes for decades and who is now doing official time travel experiments using lasers and neutron particles.
Video: http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/page/4242.html

Time-Travel and The Tyranny of Father Time

Have you ever considered how powerful a figure time is in the human psyche? You might even be one who hates time like me; who sees time as a tyrant. If you were asked to define time, what would you say? Don't frown if you can't.
You're one of the many who couldn't. Even St. Augustine seems not to know:
"What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not."

Here is how Dictionary.com defines it:
1. the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.
2. duration regarded as belonging to the present life as distinct from the life to come or from eternity; finite duration.
3. ( sometimes initial capital letter ) a system or method of measuring or reckoning the passage of time: mean time; apparent time; Greenwich Time.

In Philosophy, there are two viewpoints on time -some believe that time is real and some do not. The realist view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence. The opposing view is that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled and therefore unreal.
The problem with these arguments though is that it often center around what it means for something to be "real".

In Greek mythology, the personification of time is Chronos who is usually portrayed as an old, wise man with a long, gray beard and wings. In some Asian countries, time is portrayed as Death -a skeleton in black robe holding a scythe.

Time Travel and Deja Vu
How do we prove 'time travel' -if it's real? Is 'deja vu' -the sudden feeling that you have been in a present situation before -proof of time travel? Imagine some of sci-fi ideas that came true:

Tablets and E-Books

Synthetic Biology

Motion-Controlled Computing

Space Tourism

Flying Cars

Now consider Time-Travel which was already an idea of physicists and philosophers even before Einstein. The latest news from Physorg.com is that the Hadron Collider could be world's first time machine.

Is There Integrity in Writing?

The Difference Between Writing and Painting

Some groups still debate whether writing (and painting) is an art or a craft. But that’s not my topic here. The frank article ‘The Myth of Artistic Integrity’ by T.W. Anderson prompted me to write about this. Anderson bravely and brilliantly explains why artistic integrity is a just a myth. Once your write for money, you lose integrity. One proof of this are padded bestsellers. it seems to me you have no chance of writing a bestseller if you can’t pad your manuscript. It also made me realize the difference between writing and visual art of painting or drawing (I do both). A painter can’t ‘pad’ his work like a writer. So I conclude that a visual artist could have artistic integrity while a commercial writer can’t.

The Writer’s Worth

How much respect does a writer deserve? Does a writer need to be recompensed for all his efforts and expenses? ‘Writers are usually left in the gray area of trying to balance doing what they love and keeping the lights on in their dens.’ Collin Kelley wrote. More of his thoughts here:
http://www.pw.org/content/collin_kelley_on_a_writers_worth

I always read this caution on freelance writing sites: Be cautious handing out business cards declaring yourself a writer. So what is a ‘writer’? Or more definitely, who is a writer? Why is freelance writing business stricter than print and online publishing? Does it have that right?

Since on-line publishing started, the definition of a writer became an issue. If you were declared an ‘expert author’ by an online publisher, does that make you a ‘writer’? I agree that you’re entitled to the title ‘writer’ if only when you’re published in print. But what if my digital online articles are better than your printed articles? Who should be entitled ‘writer’ between the two then? The main question is: When could one be declared a ‘writer’?

Padding the Writing

If you ever dream of being a bestselling author, quit it if you don’t have the talent of ‘padding’ -writing unnecessary words just to pad your story. I daresay that 90% of all bestselling fictions are padded.
And that is my problem too. All my stories are just like summaries which I can’t seem to pad.

Neologism -Crafting New Words

If I coined a word, could I call it ‘my coin’ or if yours, ‘your coin’? Do you know that Shakespeare coined the word ‘puke’ and that he introduced hundreds more? I love coining words and I’m good at inventing proper names. My favorite coined word is ‘netizen’ and my favorite that I coined is ‘digistress’ (meaning digital stress from the Net or computer) although I’m not sure if I was the first one to coin it.
A pun is a word play and crafting new words is just like ‘punning’ to me.
Who is ‘Well-Read’?

How about the word ‘well-read’? How would you define it? Who would you call well-read? Just how much do we have to read before being considered ‘well-read’? If I read almost anything that’s crime fiction, does that make me well-read? This is just another issue where drawing-the-line is the main issue.

Review of 2 Handy Writing Books

My sister from the US recently sent me two writing reference books and I liked them both. They're even better than the two hardbounds she sent before these two. And the newly sent are more handy because they're pocketbook-sized.

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost

A great book written informally. Gary even teaches how to plagiarize yourself to your advantage. What I like most about Gary is that he's a crime-fiction writer like me.

The Little Red Writing Book by Brandon Royal

Now I wonder why Royal chose the color red instead of royal-blue. The advantage of this book over the other is that this one contains writing exercises. When you have reread a book so many times you almost memorize it, you could still use the exercises until you perfect your score.

These books might be dated but I still say that even professionals will probably learn something from them. Please let me know if you have other book suggestions. I would be very grateful for that.

My Browsers War Experience

This serendipitous thing happened years before I started using Google products (2009). I attacked 

Windows customer service in a Wordpress comment and got a careless reply betting that I'm using Google services. The obvious implication was that I'm promoting Google. He lost. I wasn't using any Google service at that time. But thanks to him I got curious about Google and started using it! Talk about fanatics ruining their own idols ha ha. Back to the present. Windows improved so much that I'm using it again although I still find that its help system is still mostly useless.

Now I just discovered that Wordpress works much better on Internet Explorer than the latest Opera 11.11. The Opera browser, instead of improving, became more problematic to use. I wonder now if Browser Wars and politics are involved.

Browser Ranking / Windows NT 6.1

1. Safari/5 (893 test runs) 47.43 173.22 139.82 360.46

2. Chrome/6 (34 test runs) 59.02 105.26 102.77 267.05

3. Chrome/5 (28 test runs) 56.92 106.23 86.17 249.32

4. Firefox/5.0 (1763 test runs) 37.23 179.72 3.76 220.71

5. Firefox/4.0 (7819 test runs) 37.63 176.85 3.79 218.26

6. Firefox/6.0 (497 test runs) 46.93 156.76 3.62 207.31

7. Firefox/7.0 (197 test runs) 46.78 155.59 3.64 206.01

8. Chrome/8 (629 test runs) 70.8 125.87 3.55 200.23

9. Chrome/9 (900 test runs) 69.09 123.63 3.32 196.05

10. Firefox/3.6 (3445 test runs) 43.09 125.62 14.06 182.77

11. Firefox/3.5 (112 test runs) 49.74 112.34 10.16 172.25

12. Opera/9 (2652 test runs) 69.89 87.41 4.44 161.74

13. MSIE 10.0 (59 test runs) 51.29 104.46 5.02 160.77

14. MSIE 9.0 (4807 test runs) 43.83 96.86 4.46 145.14
    http://www.speed-battle.com/statistics_e.php

Having a hard time choosing the best browser like I do? Expect it to get harder. Here's why -

http://www.softwarequalityconnection.com/2011/05/will-the-next-web-platform-please-hold-still/

My Fantastic First Freelance Gig

I was assessing my first real client as I was working with her and I decided I was lucky having her -she was kind and easy to work with. After just 2 weeks of collaboration, disaster struck. She had a personal crisis so we have to postpone our project tentatively. She assured me that she had already sent my paycheck. Weeks passed by and the check never came so I naturally started to suspect a scam which I already have experienced. My dilemma was that it would seem unethical to inquire about my pay when she's in a crisis -if she indeed has one. So I let a month pass before I asked again for the check. She checked her cash-transfer service and assured me again that the check is coming. After one week, I decided to tell her that 'I will have to write about this if I didn't get my check within a week.' Now I will also know if the gig was a scam or not. But this was a gamble too if she doesn't understand my position or what I'm doing. 

She seemed surprised and answered that she didn't know the check wasn't send by her cash-transfer service. Then she insisted that we use PayPal which wasn't in our agreement. I just agreed so I could finally get my pay. When I accidentally overestimated my asking pay, she finally raised her voice and made counter-threats and insisted on an amount as my pay which seemed fair enough.

My new dilemma was that there was still a possibility that our project could resume IF I didn't fight with her of course so I just agreed again. With some effort, I succeeded to refresh our friendship. And at least I had victory earning my first freelancing pay.

I wonder if life would ever let me have any good start. I don't seem to remember any.