Save Money – Give your things away!
May 7, 2009, 6:18 pm
Filed under:
lifehacking,
Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags:
cost benefit,
environmental,
free,
lifehacking,
money,
save money,
social responsibility,
sustainable living,
tipsI’m going to let you in on a little secret… The beauty of this secret is that it scales really really well, so the more people you tell, potentially the more people who can contribute and benefit.
freecycle logo
I’m talking about free-cycle. You probably have a free-cycle group operating in your area. The concept is really simple. If you want something, you ask for it, and if somebody wants to give you that thing, they will contact you to come and pick it up. If you have something you want to get rid of, you post it and people will contact you to come and pick it up.
Our family started with a micro-wave stand. We probably could have got $15 bucks for it, but really… I don’t want to operate a garage sale, I don’t want to fight with someone over whether I’ll take $12.50 rather than $15, and well I really just want to get rid of it so it doesn’t waste my space. My “interest” is unloading something I don’t want to keep in my house. The other person’s “interest” is in getting a free microwave stand. The environment’s “interest” is that a piece of furniture did not need to be manufactured, stored, shipped and sold. (We’ve previously talked about “The Story of Stuff”) The object’s “interest” is that it becomes useful rather than just wasting space. Sound “interesting?”
This truly is “re-cycling” something useful to another person. Because there is no exchange of money or other consideration, the opportunity for fraud / theft etc is super low (making this safer than other systems where money is exchanged for goods).
It works quite well, and I’m really pleased with the free wooden rocking chair I’m looking at across the room. Not everything you ask for will be given. “Lego” is a hard sell. Nobody wants to give up their “Lego”! It is an email group. So don’t use your work email. use a “junk email” that can receive a steady stream of offers.
Getting started with free-cycle.
1. Chose a “junk” email address to use, because you are going to get lots of emails.
2. Find a group in your area by visiting free-cycle.org and typing in your city
3. Read the “rules” (guidelines) so you learn what kind of behaviour fits with free-cycle
4. Start reading and respond to items that interest you.
It is better to give than to receive. Freecycle helps you do both in a way that is responsible; socially, fiscally and environmentally.
Cheers! Enjoy the free stuff.
Greg.
Good Design and Open Design
April 26, 2009, 9:04 am
Filed under:
Quality, Excellence & Design | Tags:
cost benefit,
format,
free,
office,
open,
open standard,
save money,
software,
standard,
tipsI’m speaking generally in this article and not attempting to show too much favouritism, but I am painting history with a pretty broad brush so I appreciate your accomodation of that.
IBM clone PC
IBM PC vs Apple Hardware
Until recently the “IBM PC” has absolutely killed more proprietary hardware (like Apple products) in affordability.
Our family owned a Laser 128 apple clone, but apart from that we have over the years owned 1 TRS80, 2 386s, 1 486, 2 Pentiums, 1 Celeron, 1 Athlon64, 2Athlons, 1 zeon AND zero apples. Now this is with all the exposure to Apples in the school system (hence the Laser 128)
There was only 1 “Apple” computer company making hardware, but there are many many computer companies building “IBM clones”. We could purchase a 386 for $1500 or we could purchase the same computer from Apple for double the price. IBM decided to “open” the form-factor for their IBM PC so that low cost manufacurers overseas could “clone” or copy the hardware without paying licensing fees or battling an army of lawyers. Suddenly this meant there were 5 -10-15-20 soundcard manufacturers, and 20 video card manufacturers, and 10 hard drive manufacturers and 40 Motherboard manufacturers all able to design compatible products and compete on features and price. While Apple design has remained compelling, it is like Ford’s model T. “Any colour you like as long as it is black”.
I attended a wedding a few years ago and listened to a man chatting at a table who had worked for IBM for years comment; “It’s really too bad that IBM opened up their PC design, they could have made a killing if they had just held onto that and not let others use their design and build components”. He missed it. He didn’t understand that it was precisely because others could have the blueprints that we had commodity computers and incredible demand. (Understand there is high demand for affordable computers, and very little demand for unaffordable computers)
Open Standards let us cooperate and work together
There are lots of smart people out there. They don’t all do things the same way, we have chaos or war unless people can agree on how to work together. that is why we have “standards”. Those attempts to get everyone playing by the same set of rules so we can work together. Some examples;
- A green light in traffic means…?
- In my country we drive on which side of the road?
- A Meter is exactly how long?
- Do you use POP3 or SMTP for receiving or sending email?
- Are you reading an HTML web page right now transferred by HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)?
So standards are smart right? They allow people who are willing to negotiate or compromise to choose a common method (often it is not the “best”) but it is reasonable for the greatest number of people who are willing to collaborate.
Open versus closed design
Some silly companies think that cooperating with others reveals “weakness”. They think that they are smarter than everyone else. They think everybody should do things their way and they work hard to avoid cooperating with others. Lets call them “big brothers” because they like to be in charge of the customer and remove choice. Here the 2 philosopies collide. The collaborators and the “big brothers. Collaborators try to make things like software and file formats work with others including “big brother’s. The “big brothers” work hard to obscure and continually update their formats to make them difficult to copy. Big brother is all about control. Ironically Apple chose imagery from 1984 for their 1984 Superbowl ad where they were urging people to break free from the IBM PC. ROFL! OK, when it comes to file formats, there are many “big brothers” out there. Kudos! It was a brilliant Ad anyways Apple! (as was this um… “modification“)
Big Brother knows best!
Office document formats and the battle for useability
For years, Microsoft’s office formats have been the only game in town. MS Word, MS Excel etc. If you try exporting to another format, they you “lose features” and the docs never did look quite right. Microsoft is no longer the only game in town, but they are holding on hard to the idea that they know best, that cooperation is not as good as being uncooperative inovation. Every version of Microsoft office introduced new formats that would not work with the old versions of the program (or would not work well). In order to make things work, you would have to “upgrade” to the new version. (Now there was nothing wrong with the old one, its just that Auntie Sue bought a new computer that had the new version and now you can’t read what she writes..) So pull out your wallet and pay money every year to be able to continue doing the same things you did last year. That is how the “big brothers” make your life. Expensive and difficult.
Enter the giant killers.
Open Office has been looming on the horizon for years. Their converters for MS Office documents have been getting better and better. Now you can use free software that works pretty much as well as the MS Office programs, and it can convert to and from those formats. Open Office saves you paying hundreds of dollars to Microsoft, and new versions address the version issues Microsoft creates.
Google has created an online system called Google Docs that allows you to create, upload, edit and download documents online. No software other than your web-browser is required, and there is a a high level of compatibility with other office formats.
These companies are making your life easier, more affordable, and are being open and transparent about their formats so that you have fewer hassles. Their “open design” is translating into “Good design” and putting money back in the wallets of people who have been paying “rent” on their software for far too long.
3 Options for Free Higher Education
March 26, 2009, 8:18 pm
Filed under:
lifehacking,
Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags:
accessible,
books,
cost benefit,
course,
education,
effectiveness,
equitable,
free,
higher learning,
learning,
reading list,
save money,
save time,
school,
subjects,
university,
videoDon’t have a trust fund full of cash sitting around to send you to the finest universities? Don’t have 4 years of your life to throw at a degree? Want be educated by top schools and experts in the field without the typical investment of time and money? I’ve discovered 3 options to get you started on Free Higher Education.
(flickr credit: Peter Shanks)
1. MITOpenCourseware
Several years ago,MIT introduced Open Courseware, which was the sharing of some MIT courses so that anyone with an Internet connection could have access to lectures exams and videos. Scanned in notes plus lectures allowed anyone to recieve an MIT education (minus the credentials and the long lineups to get into courses you want.) I studied a little bit of queueing theory out of my own interest in the efficiency of traffic flow. Now I wasn’t pursuing this learning seriously, so I was just “browsing” so to speak. If someone was disciplined enough to study and do the reading and assignment they could really benefit from MITOpenCourseware
2. Personal MBA
This last year I learned about “Personal MBA” and began pursuing this myself. Over at http://personalmba.com/, in a nutshell the claim is; “Business schools don’t have a monopoly on worldly wisdom. If you’re serious about learning advanced business principles, the Personal MBA can help you master business without the baggage of b-school. ” Surveyed MBA program graduates sometimes share that the greatest benefit of the MBA came from the reading list and interacting with “some of the finest minds in business” through the reading list. Check out their “Manifesto” here: http://personalmba.com/manifesto/ For those of you eager to cut to the chase, here is the link to the reading list.
3. AcademicEarth
And even more recently I have discovered http://academicearth.org/ There you can watch videos of lectures from the following universities;
- Berkeley
- Harvard
- MIT
- Princeton
- Stanford
- Yale
on the following subjects; Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer, Science, Economics, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religion
I’ve always found it sobering that I will not live long enough to learn everything that I would like to learn, or read everything that I would like to read. These options offer the same challenge in that there are many good things you could pursue and learn, so you must choose well and ignore the rest. I love that these three options truly level the playing field in terms of learning. You may not get a degree from these options, but you can certainly use these tools for accessible quality education.
Happy learning!
Greg
Useful Portable Apps for Your USB Drive.
February 22, 2009, 1:50 pm
Filed under:
lifehacking | Tags:
7-zip,
drive,
firefox,
flash,
free,
keepass,
lifehacking,
notepad++,
open office,
portable apps,
rocketdock,
security,
texter,
tool,
usb,
useful,
vlc,
xamppNot only are USB drives now commonplace, but with increasing frequency, applications no longer require installation and can run from those USB drives.
USB drive / USB Key
I got the idea for this post from Cam who observed that KeePass (mentioned previously) was portable. I thought I’d share some portable apps with you that have been really useful.
If you are new to the subject of portable apps, a good place to start learning about them is “portableapps.com“, Wikipedia also has some lists of portable applications to get you started. There are a number of reasons you might want to use portable apps including;
- You are borrowing someone else’s computer and don’t want to install software
- You are not allowed to install software at work
- You don’t want software to clog up Windows’ registry and slow down your computer
- There is a set of familiar tools you want to use when moving from computer to computer.
- Portable applications that can run from your USB drive, don’t make changes to your computer’s registry startup files or hard disk. (unless you ask them to)
- Portable apps won’t set themselves up to load when you turn your computer on.
- Sharing your most useful applications is as easy as copying some files
I’ve placed these in order of utility.
Texter – A powerful text replacement utility; we’ve looked at Texter previously
KeePass – Useful for securely storing your passwords We’ve also looked at KeePass previously
Firefox Portable – Run the popular open source browser from your USB key
Notepad++ – Thanks to Darryl for recommending this powerful editor which supports regular expressions and syntax highlighting.
7-zip – A lightweight archiving and compression utility
Open Office – An open source office suite similar to MS Office, which maintains a high level of compatibility with popular office products.
VLC Media player – Is described as a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats; it can play almost anything.
RocketDock – This one is just for fun, but its portable, and makes your applications easily accessible.
Xampp – More for died in the wool geeks, it is a portable collection of Apache web server, the PHP scripting language and the MYSQL database. All open source and freely available, this is the easiest way to run a web server with web applications and data from your USB key. (ever think of your USB key as a web server?) Now you can run any PHP/Mysql web app from a computer without installing a thing. (some assembly required)
Note: Many of these applications come in non-portable versions, so pay attention to which version you get. (I recommend starting with Portable Applications).
Free Videos of Inspired talks by the world’s leading thinkers.
February 1, 2009, 10:20 pm
Filed under:
Quality, Excellence & Design,
Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags:
free,
good,
lifehacking,
media,
presentations,
talks,
TV,
videosIf you are like me, for you broadcast TV is almost dead. I don’t want to reschedule MY life because some corporation decided the show will air at 9PM instead of 8PM. Also, of the 30 channels that are available on basic cable, only about 2 channels will have compelling content. (if that many) So there is un-compelling content on an inflexible schedule. For favourite tv shows like Lost or the office, I keep seeing re-runs in the middle of the “season”. If a season is 24 weeks, there should be 24 shows… The math seems very simple to me. If I miss a show, its GONE. Thankfully, the internet provides some more flexible options in terms of when you watch your “video content”.
One such bright light on the Internet which is providing high quality video content that is worth watching is TED. TED.Com is worth checking out. It has amazing talks available online for free. Most are 20 minutes long, and feature themes like “design” “greener living”, “what makes us happy” and more.
Ted, Ideas worth spreading.
If I can say one thing, it is that TED talks are top quality and very interesting. TED obviously does a great job of filtering who they invite to speak. I find myself sending friends links to TED talks which often strike me as the most carefully thought out, succinct, presentations I’ve ever heard on the subjects. There are lots to choose from, so if architecture doesn’t interest you, “Whats wrong with what we eat”, or “Inventions from tomorrow”, or “The real difference between liberals and conservatives”might.
I discovered TED quite by accident while using an open media player MIRO that highlights channels that have free content. So if you enjoy learning and challenging yourself in your spare time, consider TED.
So check out TED. The things I am seeing there
Free long distance telephone calls
I don’t like being taken advantage of. When I pay $0.10 cents a minute for a long distance call and my friends tell me that they only pay $0.035 per minute I recognize that their phone company still makes a profit and that my phone company is extracting a $0.065 stupidity tax from me for sticking with their dumb prices. For years there have been programs to let you talk from computer to computer, but it required 2 people being at their computers at the same time, running special software… well that doesn’t sound as convenient as the phone, and who wants to leave their computer running all the time?
Skype and Jajah let you make long distance calls for free or low cost.
My friend Dan King introduced me to SKYPE. He had friends in the UK and wanted to call them from Canada but without the ridiculous long distance charges the local phone company would charge. The critical difference with Skype was a service they offer which allows you to make calls to conventional phones. It is called SkypeOut, and it costs about $0.03 cents CAD per minute. Definately a better price than the one offered by local phone companies.
The Skype website says:
“Skype is a little piece of software that lets you talk over the Internet to anyone in the world for free.”
SkypeIn is a phone number your friends can call. You answer in Skype.
Use SkypeOut to call from Skype to traditional landlines or mobiles.
JAJAH – The Difference – The Benefits
Jajah lets you make phone calls for free…
- There is no download and no software
- You don’t need a headset
- You don’t need a broadband connection
- You are using your existing phone (landline or mobile) and so is the person you are calling
- You are not stuck to your computer
- You can call your friends for free – no matter if they are online or not
JAJAH is all about simplicity! Enter the phone number you want to call at www.jajah.com, press call: Your phone will ring – your friend’s phone will ring – start talking! It’s what you’re used to, it’s simple, it’s free and it just works!
I think that is a simple and convincing explanation. I’ll add an explanation that if you want to call anyone who is not “registered”, you pay them $0.025 per minute (much like Skype) When you sign up they give you $3.75 credit. They don’t want your credit card or any other payment until you use up your credit and want to make a call that costs. If you call someone else who is registered, there is no charge.
Clearly this could be the same method Skype is using (with more limitations) give free calls to build up a clientelle, then introduce nominal fees.
What I like about this approach is the freedom from software. There is nothing to go wrong on your PC, just use your browser, use your phone, you are done.
Every now and then there is poor quality, just hang up and try again. The quality is normally equal to that of a conventional phone line (nobody knows the difference)
I’ve suspected that Skype,Jajah and others are able to purchase Voip services from somewhere and I’m determined to find out how this works, so I can buy at wholesale and not retail. I see that voip-info.org has lots of information, that asteriks is a free pbx, that trixbox is a linux distribution to run your own PBX, that most ADSL internet providers offer “naked DSL” (no phone service, only ADSL), that les.net is highly recommended and acanac.ca seems to have an echo on the line for everyone I talk to.
Quality In Life - Living Smarter... 