19 Nov 2013
There is a favorite little family owned and run fish and rice shop I really like to go to for lunch. I used to go at least once a week but a job change added a good deal of extra distance between me and my fish and my lunch break did not increase time wise to allow for the extra travel time so sadly I do not get to visit as often as I would like.
The building is an older one that used to house a Kentucky Fried Chicken (it was not KFC back then) and was something else for a short time before it was converted to the fish and rice shop that it has been for probably the last two decades. Even though I have driven past it often over the years it wasn't until the last decade that I discovered it myself. The fried fish might be a little 'greasy' for some but I love it. Fresh and made to order it really hits the spot. Add the egg roll and some of the best fried rice I've eaten at a price that makes a Big Mac combo meal look like an extravagance and you have the makings of an addiction or at the very least a happy habit.
I think I know where I am going for lunch today. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water and I wish they were open early enough that I could stop there on the way to work and have lunch for breakfast.
Some mornings are like that.
What I am trying to get at is this, I, like many of you, have found that small food shops often offer up better fare than the big franchise chains. There is a simple honesty and personal integrity that is added by those that really care about their craft that is often missing in the large corporate boxes run by disconnected employees. When I find a place like this I like to support it.
That is not to say I am anti corporation. Far from it in fact as there are many things that big corporations have figured out how to do, and do very well and I support them for that. But there are the smaller businesses that also get it right and need the same support and recognition for a job well done. I can do that by doing business with them. This is not charity as in the course of doing business with them I am gaining something of value in return, the very definition of business.
So what does this have to do with 'A click of support'? There are probably trillions of web pages out there now and many of them are the big boys and they do there job quite well and they are rewarded with the many 'web hits' or visits that people make to their sites. They have ways to convert those visits to revenue and as a business they must cover their costs with those revenues or they will not stay in business long.
But fighting for attention are many small web sites, some trying to make a go of it and some doing it just for the love of it. These are the ones that are still providing a worthy product but lack the same level of attention that the loud sites get.
We all have run across these sites in the course of cruising the web and most times don't give them a second thought. That is just the nature of web surfing. There are sites that I have used over the years that have provided me with everything from entertainment to information, and I was wondering what the best way was to show my support and appreciation for their efforts. The easiest, lowest effort way I can think of is to click on an ad found on the site. No commitment, no form to fill out, no spam to sign up for, no outlay of time other than a momentary click of a mouse that will be a sign of support. It is a way of being mindful of another and expressing gratitude that goes a long way both for the giver and the receiver. In my mind you are casting a vote that you want the producer to continue to produce that which you have enjoyed.
I have been mindful of the efforts of others and have sometimes gone out of my way to do this. There are podcast that show up in iTunes that are free to download and enjoy (and I have) and I have gone to their web site with the intention of finding out additional information about the podcast and the people that produce them but also to click on their ads to give support.
Keep in mind that most of these ads are driven by the ad provider, not the content provider, and relate to the ad providers perceived demographics or user profiles. In my experience, they may or may not get it right for me individually but that doesn't seem to be as important as the act itself. Then I remember that those paying for the ads are people too so I try to give them due consideration.
Maybe it does take a little more effort to care...but it is worth it. This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
19 November 2013
12 November 2013
6380 page views as of 12 November 2013
Hello all,
I have been away for a little while but I came back over to take a look and noticed that the Google formats have all changed. I wasn't even sure if I still had an account or not, but if my nosing around is correct I have had 6,380 page views of my first 140 entries and I wish to thank each and everyone of you that took the time to make a visit. I hope it was worth your time and I am now motivated to be once again a blog publishing author.
I am surprised at how long it has been since my last post. Time flies in the face of a life. Someone once said that life is what happens to you while you are making other plans. It sometimes feels like life is what happens to you to spite your other plans. It may feel like the world is plotting against your plans but I also think that it is a good indication that you are on the right track when you start running into opposition. It is that opposition that helps you determine if there is enough energy in your plans or whether you will quickly lose interest and forget what it was you were after in the first place. Personal goals are like that for some reason.
What I am getting at I guess is that there are many obstacles to the meaningful things in our lives and some of those obstacles take the form of distractions. Distractions are those things that divert your attention away from what you really should be focusing on, those important goals in your life that are truly yours.
I have found myself chasing down several time-sucks lately thinking that they were useful in the pursuit of the goals that I think are important, and even though the time-sucks might move me toward my goals they are doing so in a glacially slow manner. I need to speed up the process if I still wish to complete some of these goals within the normal life span of a normal bloggers life.
I think that means that I will have to give up something good for something much better (kind of the definition of sacrifice). Of course much of knowing if you are going to something better is a matter of trial and error. So I have done some trial and and done some error. I haven't discovered the correct path just yet but I am still working on it. That is the thing about worthwhile goals, you only lose if you give up on them. As long as you continue towards a worthy goal you are making progress. You will either complete the goal and be ready to move on to the next one or in the midst of working toward step one you will see step two and no longer need to complete step one. Progress is progress, recognize it and move forward.
As you can tell I have still been working with and thinking about goals and such and I am sure there will be more to follow. I will also have some things to say about time-sucks, but that as they say is for another blog post.
And as always (even with the pauses) this is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
I have been away for a little while but I came back over to take a look and noticed that the Google formats have all changed. I wasn't even sure if I still had an account or not, but if my nosing around is correct I have had 6,380 page views of my first 140 entries and I wish to thank each and everyone of you that took the time to make a visit. I hope it was worth your time and I am now motivated to be once again a blog publishing author.
I am surprised at how long it has been since my last post. Time flies in the face of a life. Someone once said that life is what happens to you while you are making other plans. It sometimes feels like life is what happens to you to spite your other plans. It may feel like the world is plotting against your plans but I also think that it is a good indication that you are on the right track when you start running into opposition. It is that opposition that helps you determine if there is enough energy in your plans or whether you will quickly lose interest and forget what it was you were after in the first place. Personal goals are like that for some reason.
What I am getting at I guess is that there are many obstacles to the meaningful things in our lives and some of those obstacles take the form of distractions. Distractions are those things that divert your attention away from what you really should be focusing on, those important goals in your life that are truly yours.
I have found myself chasing down several time-sucks lately thinking that they were useful in the pursuit of the goals that I think are important, and even though the time-sucks might move me toward my goals they are doing so in a glacially slow manner. I need to speed up the process if I still wish to complete some of these goals within the normal life span of a normal bloggers life.
I think that means that I will have to give up something good for something much better (kind of the definition of sacrifice). Of course much of knowing if you are going to something better is a matter of trial and error. So I have done some trial and and done some error. I haven't discovered the correct path just yet but I am still working on it. That is the thing about worthwhile goals, you only lose if you give up on them. As long as you continue towards a worthy goal you are making progress. You will either complete the goal and be ready to move on to the next one or in the midst of working toward step one you will see step two and no longer need to complete step one. Progress is progress, recognize it and move forward.
As you can tell I have still been working with and thinking about goals and such and I am sure there will be more to follow. I will also have some things to say about time-sucks, but that as they say is for another blog post.
And as always (even with the pauses) this is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
01 June 2012
MP3 Review - Sansa Clip+
I am the proud owner of an MP3 player known as the Sansa Clip+. It is the 4gb size in blue and it has been a wonderful companion on my commutes, walks, and general waiting around times. I have listened to countless hours of music, podcasts and books on tape or rather audio books. It is fairly small, lightweight and has a battery that last long enough between charges not to be a hassle. I am still using the original headphones, which to me means that even though they are not perfect they don’t suck to the point I am willing to put forth the effort to find something else. They don’t shut out the roar of a jet engine on takeoff, and sometimes the wind whistles when there is a good breeze or you are riding a bike but that also lets in traffic noises that you need to hear and that is o.k. with me.
The Clip+ has a small window to navigate from (but at least it has a window) but it is all I need to get to whichever item I am trying to find. It has a simple straightforward interface which means it is very user friendly. That was very helpful for the first-timer that I was. I did not use the provided software or Windows Media Player for synching operations but instead just opened up Windows Explorer and used it like a thumb drive. I was not familiar with the other method and wasn’t ready to take the time to learn although I am sure I could figure it out now. The Explorer method of drag and drop is what I use on a daily working basis and still find it the easiest to operate.
The included FM radio works but I haven’t used it much as there are so many other things to listen to that don’t involve commercials. There is a recording function also which I have not used mainly because I got this unit for other reasons, primarily listening to books and it does that pretty well. There isn’t a bookmark function that I am aware of but it does save your place and starts up there again when you return. In all my uses I have not found a need for more than what this unit delivers…almost.
In fact I only have two things to squawk on with this little gadget in the 20 odd months I have owned it, one small and the other a bit bigger. First the small. I find myself spending too much time untangling the headphone cords. It doesn’t happen all the time (I am just noticing it more often lately) but when I want to put the thing in my pocket, unit headphones and all, I usual just kind of wrap it up and stick it in and carry on. This is fine until you pull it out to use it and find that the cords do not unfold as smoothly. It is a short cord so it doesn’t take long to unravel it but sometimes you are unplugging it to make it untangle faster. I have no idea if there is a better arrangement out there or not but 30 seconds is 30 seconds.
My only real desire that would make me want to get a different player is the ability to adjust the playback speed on the audio books and podcasts. I like to speed things up, sometimes quite a lot. This player will allow you to speed things up with a slow, normal, and fast setting but the fast setting is only about a 15% boost and it does not adjust the pitch so any voices will now have a slight chipmunk effect. The chipmunking is not bad, more annoying really, but 15% is slow on my scale. I searched long and hard for a player that could do better but found very little reference to playback speeds even from e-mailing the manufacturer. Apple has a speed adjustment on their players with a slow, normal and fast setting and they do have a pitch adjustment so that you don’t hear chipmunks. There fast setting is only 40% faster and while that is better in all respects I couldn’t justify paying 3 to 4 times as much and then being a slave to apples system. I still have some items in the Microsoft media player format.
Cost was a factor in picking the Sansa Clip+. I think I paid $40 for mine on sale. Sansa is also a good size company that deals in memory and other items so an MP3 player seemed to match their areas of expertise. And like I said, I could buy 3 of these and still be ahead of getting an Apple.
This brings me to one of the points that led me to the decision to stay on the cost effective end of the MP3 player spectrum. I have talked to several people and read many reports on line that lead me to believe that MP3 players are almost a disposable item in that many users have or have had more than one player over the years. Disposable is not my favorite term when describing something you are wanting to get lots of use out of.
So after all my fond use of a tool that has preformed fully for months without complaint, my Sansa Clip+ stopped dead cold in the middle of a podcasts playback on the way to work a couple of days ago. I was devastated and heartbroken. O.k. that is a little extreme but I was bummed.
I didn’t know why or what would make it stop like that. I had just recharged it over the weekend and knew it had a pretty full charge still. I had loaded it with some new items but kept it 500+ Mb below its capacity. I have heard that you never want to take any memory device to close to its full capacity. True with hard drives so why not small drives? No lights, no screen, no sound…so now what? Was the battery dead, shouldn’t be and as these are sealed units you couldn’t replace it even if you wanted too. Did I pick up a virus somewhere that killed my unit? The only thing I have plugged this into is an AC power adopter and my computer so I ran a full scan on the computer and found nothing.
I figured it was done, like those that I had read about, and I would need to start shopping for another one. I have had good luck with this one up until know so why not stay with Sansa unless of course I could find a new unit that had a better playback speed function. Sansa has a new Clip Zip player that other than a slightly bigger screen that has color appears to be a copy of the Clip+. I went on line to find a copy of the owner’s manual to see if it still had the playback speed function and it did. I was just about to say sign me up when I noticed mention of a reset function. Vaguely I recalled a similar function in my owner’s manual and went in search of it. Eureka a reset is done by holding down the power button for 20 seconds. I had tried that (along with all the other buttons and several combinations and groupings) but not for that long.
I went racing upstairs to find my Clip+ and try this last resort to restore functionality to my player. I pushed the power button for two seconds and lost count on my way to twenty and let go of the button to start again when the lights came back on. My player was working again. I didn’t need the whole reset. Why…I don’t know. The battery was showing a very low charge so I brought it back to the computer, plugged it in and everything appears to be working just fine. I am so glad. If you have read any of my past post you will know that it took me more than 6 months of shopping to settle on this MP3 player (and I am glad I did) but I didn’t want to be without a working MP3 player for 6 days. I understand now why those that have had them are so willing to have another or more than one, these things are great…when they are working.
I will still keep my eye out for a better audio book player but for now I am glad that I still have my Clip+. This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
The Clip+ has a small window to navigate from (but at least it has a window) but it is all I need to get to whichever item I am trying to find. It has a simple straightforward interface which means it is very user friendly. That was very helpful for the first-timer that I was. I did not use the provided software or Windows Media Player for synching operations but instead just opened up Windows Explorer and used it like a thumb drive. I was not familiar with the other method and wasn’t ready to take the time to learn although I am sure I could figure it out now. The Explorer method of drag and drop is what I use on a daily working basis and still find it the easiest to operate.
The included FM radio works but I haven’t used it much as there are so many other things to listen to that don’t involve commercials. There is a recording function also which I have not used mainly because I got this unit for other reasons, primarily listening to books and it does that pretty well. There isn’t a bookmark function that I am aware of but it does save your place and starts up there again when you return. In all my uses I have not found a need for more than what this unit delivers…almost.
In fact I only have two things to squawk on with this little gadget in the 20 odd months I have owned it, one small and the other a bit bigger. First the small. I find myself spending too much time untangling the headphone cords. It doesn’t happen all the time (I am just noticing it more often lately) but when I want to put the thing in my pocket, unit headphones and all, I usual just kind of wrap it up and stick it in and carry on. This is fine until you pull it out to use it and find that the cords do not unfold as smoothly. It is a short cord so it doesn’t take long to unravel it but sometimes you are unplugging it to make it untangle faster. I have no idea if there is a better arrangement out there or not but 30 seconds is 30 seconds.
My only real desire that would make me want to get a different player is the ability to adjust the playback speed on the audio books and podcasts. I like to speed things up, sometimes quite a lot. This player will allow you to speed things up with a slow, normal, and fast setting but the fast setting is only about a 15% boost and it does not adjust the pitch so any voices will now have a slight chipmunk effect. The chipmunking is not bad, more annoying really, but 15% is slow on my scale. I searched long and hard for a player that could do better but found very little reference to playback speeds even from e-mailing the manufacturer. Apple has a speed adjustment on their players with a slow, normal and fast setting and they do have a pitch adjustment so that you don’t hear chipmunks. There fast setting is only 40% faster and while that is better in all respects I couldn’t justify paying 3 to 4 times as much and then being a slave to apples system. I still have some items in the Microsoft media player format.
Cost was a factor in picking the Sansa Clip+. I think I paid $40 for mine on sale. Sansa is also a good size company that deals in memory and other items so an MP3 player seemed to match their areas of expertise. And like I said, I could buy 3 of these and still be ahead of getting an Apple.
This brings me to one of the points that led me to the decision to stay on the cost effective end of the MP3 player spectrum. I have talked to several people and read many reports on line that lead me to believe that MP3 players are almost a disposable item in that many users have or have had more than one player over the years. Disposable is not my favorite term when describing something you are wanting to get lots of use out of.
So after all my fond use of a tool that has preformed fully for months without complaint, my Sansa Clip+ stopped dead cold in the middle of a podcasts playback on the way to work a couple of days ago. I was devastated and heartbroken. O.k. that is a little extreme but I was bummed.
I didn’t know why or what would make it stop like that. I had just recharged it over the weekend and knew it had a pretty full charge still. I had loaded it with some new items but kept it 500+ Mb below its capacity. I have heard that you never want to take any memory device to close to its full capacity. True with hard drives so why not small drives? No lights, no screen, no sound…so now what? Was the battery dead, shouldn’t be and as these are sealed units you couldn’t replace it even if you wanted too. Did I pick up a virus somewhere that killed my unit? The only thing I have plugged this into is an AC power adopter and my computer so I ran a full scan on the computer and found nothing.
I figured it was done, like those that I had read about, and I would need to start shopping for another one. I have had good luck with this one up until know so why not stay with Sansa unless of course I could find a new unit that had a better playback speed function. Sansa has a new Clip Zip player that other than a slightly bigger screen that has color appears to be a copy of the Clip+. I went on line to find a copy of the owner’s manual to see if it still had the playback speed function and it did. I was just about to say sign me up when I noticed mention of a reset function. Vaguely I recalled a similar function in my owner’s manual and went in search of it. Eureka a reset is done by holding down the power button for 20 seconds. I had tried that (along with all the other buttons and several combinations and groupings) but not for that long.
I went racing upstairs to find my Clip+ and try this last resort to restore functionality to my player. I pushed the power button for two seconds and lost count on my way to twenty and let go of the button to start again when the lights came back on. My player was working again. I didn’t need the whole reset. Why…I don’t know. The battery was showing a very low charge so I brought it back to the computer, plugged it in and everything appears to be working just fine. I am so glad. If you have read any of my past post you will know that it took me more than 6 months of shopping to settle on this MP3 player (and I am glad I did) but I didn’t want to be without a working MP3 player for 6 days. I understand now why those that have had them are so willing to have another or more than one, these things are great…when they are working.
I will still keep my eye out for a better audio book player but for now I am glad that I still have my Clip+. This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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