Undecided

Radio would be great for publishing a weblog if it was more stable. I have constant problems with upstreaming. I know that Radio is tuned for a broadband connection, but can't it work on a bad dialup too? If I decide to change platforms, then this page should come in handy. It is a comparison chart of various weblog tools.

4:56:58 PM     

categories: Radio Userland

International sports, weird!

Our kids are away at camp, at least the four oldest ones. So, we got to do something very rare last night. The baby was asleep and we were being couch potatoes. I'm new to watching soccer, despite living in a soccer crazy country and being from a part of the US where soccer is big (Seattle). I'm enjoying the World Cup. But last night China vs. Brazil was no where to be found. We started to watch a movie on VCD (think bad quality video on a CD), but the movie was stupid. We turned back on our TV. We get satellite TV via Indovision. We gravitated to the sports channels and watched "ESPN Big Fights : Mike Tyson's Greatest Hits" on ESPN International. It was interesting, but it ended before his rape conviction, strange.

After the boxing show there was an ESPN Intl. favorite, Premier Snooker League! Wow, watching pool on TV is almost as exciting as bowling. On Star Sports, there was "World Darts 2002 Championship." REALLY, DARTS! We ended up watching Australian Rules Football on another channel. I guess this is sort of like rugby. I tried to figure out the rules. I'm still clueless. In addition to these fantastic sports we can also watch lots of racing (cars and motorcycles), soccer (of course), golf, tennis, other forms of rugby, some hockey, some NBA, a little baseball and almost no American Football (which is fine with me, since it would inevitably be Pro, not college.)

This brings up the question of why in the world we were watching TV at all? Well, it was just nice to sit in a quite house and hold hands and vegetate. :-)

11:58:48 AM     

categories: Family & Friends, Indonesia

Email etiquette

Here's how to mind your email Ps & Qs. See the full site for the details and explanations. Most of these are good general email practices, but the list is oriented towards corporate/business users, so some of them don't apply to personal use. The ones I think are bogus have a ** next to them with my comments in italics. My favorites are in bold.

1. Be concise and to the point
2. Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions
3. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation ** (make a good attempt, but don't sweat it too much. Clarity is the issue. At least this is true for personal emails.)
4. Make it personal
5. Use templates for frequently used responses
6. Answer swiftly
7. Do not attach unnecessary files ** (This is critical for those of us living overseas and using low-bandwidth connections)
8. Use proper structure & layout
9. Do not overuse the high priority option
10. Do not write in CAPITALS
11. Don't leave out the message thread
12. Add disclaimers to your emails
13. Read the email before you send it ** (You really look stupid when you reply and don't address the issue.)
14. Do not overuse Reply to All
15. Mailings > use the bcc: field or do a mail merge
16. Take care with abbreviations and emoticons
17. Be careful with formatting
18. Take care with rich text and HTML messages
19. Do not forward chain letters
20. Do not request delivery and read receipts
21. Do not ask to recall a message.
22. Do not copy a message or attachment without permission
23. Do not use email to discuss confidential information ** (unless you are using SSL mail or PGP or the like)
24. Use a meaningful subject ** (this isn't always easy to do)
25. Use active instead of passive
26. Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT
27. Avoid long sentences
28. Don't send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks
29. Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters
30. Keep your language gender neutral** (Oh, give me a break.)
31. Don't reply to spam
32. Use cc: field sparingly

11:01:11 AM     

categories: Expat Tech

Trillian

I wanted to chat with Scott "Mr. Fuzzy" Johnson when I saw on his weblog that he was .  Scott uses Yahoo's IM software and I already had a Yahoo account, because I use their email service, but I hadn't installed their instant messaging software. So, download, install, have problems, get it working, finally chat with Scott (very smart guy, really generous with his time.) What a hassle. I'm sick of installing so many IM bits on my computer. I don't want them all running all the time. Too much memory eaten up, too many bugs, too many crashes, etc. Then I saw someone (I forget who you are, sorry) post about a new version of Trillian that was just release. This is the instant messaging Swiss knife. It supports AOL's AIM and ICQ, Microsoft, Yahoo, and IRC. I'd used it before, but uninstalled it for some reason I don't remember. Well, it is running like a gem and I've chatted with a couple of folks that I'd lost contact with (via chat at least) since I'd stopped using ICQ and AIM. Cool. Now, MS Messenger is no longer running and Trillian is the only IM software for me!

7:35:30 AM     

categories: Expat Tech