Josh Quintero

This is how Twitter comes up for me right now. The CSS pros over there must be hard at work on something!

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After two weeks of applying the fix below, Snow Leopard and CS4 apps, Firefox, and Microsoft are all stable. Not a single crash!

Anyone that’s getting crashes whenever the system tries to save or open docs should try this:

1. Start by opening System Preferences
2. Select ‘Sharing’ from the Internet & Wireless section
3. From the list on the left choose ‘File Sharing’ and turn it off.
4. Delete anything listed in the Shared Folders section
5. Turn File Sharing back on
6. Log out, then Log back in
7. Done!!

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Follow-up to my thoughts about "2 Twitter features that out-do Facebook", it hit me as I was cruising my Twitter streams that there's one way Facebook outdoes Twitter... and it has nothing to do with features. It has to do with the fact that Facebook users tend to connect about their lives, and Twitter users tend to connect about, well, being on Twitter (and associated issues, et al).

Take for example being at a party where everyone talks about how great it is to be at the party, how they came to be invited to the party, so-on and on and on. Some people connecting with each other about their lives, but some keep it superficial. To some extent, Twitter helps keep it superficial. Granted, it's not an airtight example, but you get the idea.

Facebook on the other hand is set up to connect your online and offline lives, to dig deeper. Some people do it naturally, and some do not, but Facebook pulls personal info out of you and adapts to you.

So, if you want to trade, buy, or sell and maintain your anonymity, Twitter's probably your tool. But to connect with people online, you'll need to move your relationship to Facebook.

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Opened up Firefox this morning, and went to my home page, which is Google. Here's what I got:

Huh? Where's all the links at the top and footer stuff go?

Then I moved my cursor into around on the page and got a cool fade-in effect to show me this:

Sweet! I feel so decluttered. Does this feature do this for you?

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1. Avatar vs. Profile photo - If you change your Twitter avatar, it affects future tweets but not the past ones, giving you a sense of history. With Facebook, changing your profile photo means it changes infinitely backward giving you no sense of history. I think Twitter does this better.

2. Quality of the feed - I have yet to log into Twitter and have a stream shuffle by date, drop or hide updates, etc. Facebook does this all the time, and it's worse with the new Facebook update. I think Twitter's programming is more stable.

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Beautiful murals! I'm amazed at the time and skill involved in creating these works, most of them large-format.

While living in Philly, I had the opportunity to watch a commissioned graffiti artist do their work. His work was tedious and flamboyant at the same time. It's an experience that has stuck with me.

                               

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"So what to do? Two Things, it seems to me. Use up each day. Fill it overflowing with good. Deliberately enjoy it. Two, begin now. Mend a fractured friendship, mail an overdue letter, repair a broken heart, lay aside a grievance..., act on a noble impulse. As we all know, ‘The night cometh’ “.

~ Lanny Henninger

(via @cwkennedy)

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I do find Excel a more polished visual experience over OpenOffice, but visuals don't get work done: OpenOffice can actually solve issues that Excel does not. I've been using it for a while now and have some thoughts.

Example Use: Exporting data for database use (Excel vs. OpenOffice)

Excel is fine for organizing data, messing with columns and sorting, but what saving for other applications? I update a fairly large database of retailers for a customer and have to upload a complete Excel file into a database about once a month. The database cannot accept an Excel file, so I have to save it as a CSV (comma-separated values) file.

Here are my six steps using Excel (requires opening Word, too):

1. Open XLS file
2. Clean up data
3. Export as Tab-deliminated text
4. Open TXT file in Word
5. Save as Text file with MS-DOS compatibility
6. Upload file to database

...or, four steps using simply OpenOffice (Calc mode):

1. Open XLS file
2. Clean up data
3. Export as CSV with MS-DOS compatibility
4. Upload file to database

Even though I'm saving only two steps, the Export process is a lot better because of the saving options you get in OpenOffice that Excel does not have. And in this case, another app is needed to export the data the way I need it... not very efficient.

OpenOffice is free

Besides being a good utility app, OpenOffice is free and runs great on Mac/Windows/Linux.

OpenOffice plays well with others

Making it your default XLS handler takes some simple configuration, but if you know how to deal with file types you can optimize your experience for sharing spreadsheets with your peers or clients. OpenOffice can handle reading/writing XLS and XLSX files natively, so you can simply toss Excel and use OpenOffice. No one will know the difference!

http://www.openoffice.org

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Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

~ Will Rogers

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