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me / software — Comments Off on Play the win-win GAIM!
30
Mar 07

Play the win-win GAIM!

A win-win game is a type of game which is designed in a way that all participants can profit from it in one way or the other. (wikipedia)

Quite a few… Don’t you agree? Of course you do! – quite of few different IM (Instant Messaging) software solutions are out there for humanity to use. Funny enough, geography put its "social walls" in between groups of people around the globe, and we all use and know about different tools and products just because "we are from here"… Here is a quick example:

    ICQ was developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis, and first version of the program was released in November 1996. It is very popular in Europe and Asia, but if you ask people in United States, you’ll see an emptiness in the eyes and sometimes a quite common response – "what queue!?".
    Although people from Europe know and use ICQ they prefer MSN that was developed and distributed in US by Microsoft between 1999 and 2005 for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system.
    People from US use MSN too, but mostly prefer AOL’s AIM which was released in US by company called AOL in May of 1997.

There are "others that use others", and another disturbing fact is that if you need to talk to somebody from US, and you live in Europe, you need to install and run MSN in addition to AIM – so now you have two different applications running. And if you need to use ICQ, guess what – there is another application that you need to install – quite inconvenient. But along with 21st century came GAIM (and brothers: Trillian, Adium and Miranda), which broke, and still brakes, those geographical "social walls" by uniting/combining all the above instant messengers together in one very functional and great looking product. Hence now, by using GAIM, you do not have to install several different applications on your computer, you just install GAIM, and put all your accounts (MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, …) into it and use it. It offers "Tabbed message windows", "Logging", "Encrypted messaging" and many more, and of course it is open source, free, runs on multiple operating systems and just plain cool! You did not do it yet!? Go here, download and try it out – feel free to post any comments here, or just e-mail me, if you have any questions – good luck!

P.S.       GAIM is far from being classified as news, however, in many companies I go to, I meet people (a number of people) who are using several instant messengers, who never heard about tabs, so they have 7 windows, if they talk to 7 different people, instead of having one with 7 tabs, and when I ask them "do you know what ICQ is?", they still make me smile with a reply: "what queue!?"

cool places — Comments Off on Places to visit. Issue 1
30
Mar 07

Places to visit. Issue 1

action — Comments Off on Does Verizon Fiber Optics “Do Evil”?
28
Mar 07

Does Verizon Fiber Optics “Do Evil”?

“With great power comes great responsibility” —Uncle Ben to Peter Parker. Spider Man

Verizon FiOS (Fiber Optic Service) is another example of a “growing power”. Everybody is talking about it, everybody wants it, BUT don’t rush yourself to get it just yet… Before you do, be aware of “THE CATCH”…

    If you want to get an e-mail account, you go to GMAIL, and sign up – no tricks, no catches, you get exactly what you want.
    If you need a domain name, you go to GoDaddy, get yourself a domain, and get exactly what you want
    If you need to keep/store you pictures online, you go to Flickr, upload pictures, and get exactly what you want.

If you want “Fiber Optical” ISP, you go to Verizon, pay the premium, and along with a great speed (can’t take that from them) you may get NOT what you want.

Here is what many, not necessarily very technical, people were tricked/entrapped by:

    Be aware – very cruel thing that Verizon FiOS does is it blocks outgoing (80 – http) and incoming (25 – smtp) ports! Now you cannot host your website/blog/contact page/etc or a mail server from home. (They offer 1G of personal web space/online storage, but common – you get 2-3Gb with a single GMAIL account for free…)

    Same as with DSL you have to have a router from Verizon – and not from NewEgg…

    One more thing – after you ‘trade in’ your copper wires for FiOS (yes, they remove them), during a power outage, you now lose your phone line too. (— pointed out by Roscoe – thank you!)

“Be aware of Evil”, plus if you host from home “think twice” before switching..

The problem here is not only with blocking ports, router, etc.. but with how much more does Verizon cover up? How many more “surprises” will be introduced in the future?

They are big, they are powerful, they are the only huge “fiber optic” player out there – how will they use this power? There is no “power middle” – there is either “power good” or “power bad”… where will “power verizon” on this scale be?

The dilemma remains to be.. “To get or not to get?” – Should “I” Get the Good stuff from the Evil company?

Should “I”?

hookah — Comments Off on 10 Hookah Golden Tips
26
Mar 07

10 Hookah Golden Tips

Here is a quick reference to what was learned during years of practicing hookah/ shisha/ sheesha/ water pipe/ nargeela/ nargile/ narghile/ nargileh/ argeela/ arghileh/ okka/ kalyan/ ghelyoon/ ghalyan/ goza…

Here are the “golden tips” :) that were collected, followed, tested and confirmed from different places (hookah bars, web sites, people) including personal experience.

The strategy was split into three sub-goals:

  • Get as much taste/flavor as possible
  • Get as much smoke as possible
  • Get one session to last as long as possible

The taste is a very unique creature – several different things need to be setup right and work smoothly with each other to produce a rich and strong taste.

A lot of smoke can be reached easily (just make a fire in a room :) ) but a quality of smoke and a session itself may suffer.

The longer session, the more relaxing the experience is, but it needs to be done the right way, so that this experience is truly relaxing.

Here they come – no assumptions, no stories, just “golden tips” ;) …

1. A coal should NOT touch tobacco while smoking. This is a very important thing to notice, since the “peak of the taste” comes about 5-10 minutes after the beginning of the session, and if a coal touches tobacco, the taste will no longer be pure tobacco taste, but will also have a burn flavor, since the top of the tobacco will be burning.

2. The deeper the bowl – the better. This just supports the point above, since if a bowl is deep, enough tobacco can be packed into it allowing an air buffer between a coal and tobacco.

3. Have tobacco sit for about 20-30 minutes before packing into a bowl. This is sometimes called acclimatization, where tobacco is unpacked, sprinkled on a piece of paper/foil, and let to be sit there (opened to the environment’s air) for some time before packing it into the bowl. This gives tobacco a stronger flavor, since its substance balances out with a room/outside temperature.

4. Sprinkle tobacco into a bowl instead of put it in as one piece. When tobacco is sprinkled into the bowl, it has a better chance to get a hit from a coal, as well as it lets hot air to pass better, which makes the smoke richer and the taste/flavor stronger.

5. Go with a lot of small holes instead of a few big ones. Instead of making several big wholes in the foil, take a needle or a simple staple and make a lot of small holes in the whole foil’s surface. These will allow more air to pass (if the whole surface is covered), as well as an even distribution of the hit.

6. Move that coal around. By moving a coal around a foil/bowl’s surface every so often (5-10 min) more tobacco will be engaged in a session, making the session longer and the taste/flavor stronger. When the coal is there on the same place for the duration of the whole session, tobacco, right under the coal “goes” pretty fast, and other tobacco is “not utilized”, which makes it fast and tasteless.

7. Clean the hookah periodically – all the parts. Cleaning is not always pleasant and the best time spent, but it pays off really well, especially if strong flavors (like mint or any citrus, etc.) were used, or the burn effect occurred. Make sure to clean not only the bowl and the glass part, but get a special long and narrow brush to clean the pipe itself. The hose(s) needs to be washed as well. Things to note: if a “filter ball” is made out of metal, make sure the water does not get into it.

8. Different hose for different effect. Get a “heavy” leather hose for a huge amount of smoke, and get a “light” hose winded up with metal stripe (to cool off the smoke) for the richer taste/flavor.

9. “The more coal the more smoke” – the more chance of burning and shortening the session. A lot of places advise more coal for more smoke – this is true, but there are “consequences”.. More coal is more hit – higher chance to burn the tobacco. More coal is shorter session, since tobacco is “gone” faster.
Alternative solution for more smoke is to use different hoses, as described in the point above, as well as to make sure the hookah is well sealed.

10. Green tea is the way to go! Green tea along with the hookah makes flavor/taste richer, and the overall experience healthier and simply magnificent!

More tips to come..

Leave you comments – to create a discussion ;)

P.S. Here is a very good place with a lot of useful information: hookah forum

money — Comments Off on Checking account that pays money
23
Mar 07

Checking account that pays money

How many times did you get charged for nothing? Specifically, how many times did you have to pay those annoying overlimit/overdraft fees to the bank like Wachovia/PNC/Your bank?

You went $5 over the limit, and instead of blocking the transaction they (bank) process it and than charge you

  • $31 general overdraft charge +
  • $31 overdraft charge for one transaction +
  • $31 overdraft charge for the each transaction after that +
  • $6 each day while your balance is negative

RIDICULOUS? – Yes, it is indeed. Banks are there to SERVE us! Not even to be upset with us, and definitely NOT to PUNISH us!

However, they do – that is the way they operate, that is the way they always did, and since these are usually huge corporations with a “long way back” history – they are very inflexible and unable to efficiently apply “change management” strategies…

Here is a very efficient and great solution that I found – switch to young, innovative and full of energy company – ING ;)

ING offers a free checking that actually PAYs you interest (4.0% to 5.0%) from your existing balance.

They also have 32000 free ATMs word wide – using ATM locator I just found 55 right next to my house. In some places like Rite Aid, CVS, Wallgreens, and even one Chinese Buffet :) )

And, of course to feed the “pet peeve” :) – Automatic protection with your Overdraft Line of Credit.

There is many more, like Fraud Protection and Security (how many old and boring banks offer that?) and many more – you can check it out here

So fight those monolithic and often unfair corporation with something that we all have – the CHOICE – choose what’s GOOD for you! ;)

I am not working for ING, don’t even know anybody there – I just like “true and cool” young companies and dislike “big and grey” old ones. If Google would open a bank, I’d definitely consider ;)

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