Month: October 2017

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill

Since my colleague referenced Churchill awhile back, I thought I’d use it as a springboard to talk about one of my favorite quotes. All of us have a choice of how we view things or interpret other people’s words. Some of us take the optimistic perspective and look for the good that will come from the situation or from the person. It helps if you start by assuming noble intent unless the person or circumstances have previously demonstrated why you shouldn’t. But even then, grace can be liberating.

Some of us tend to start from a pessimistic or negative perspective…skeptical of the person or circumstances…assuming evil intent…looking for the fight. While this approach has its place and time, it should not be the default for any of us.

Try taking the optimistic approach for a day or a week. Read that email or text as though the person had very positive intentions and a smile in their voice if they were speaking those words to you. Ask the question as though you’re sure the answer will be yes, not expecting another embarrassing turn down. It’ll make you see opportunities that weren’t there before.

It has been awhile since I have posted about tech items, and I was having difficulty knowing what to write about today, so I thought this would be a good time to update my advice.  A lot has happened in tech this year.  With ransomware and other threats on the rise, there seems to be no end to the trouble we can get into and the neat things we can now do.  Kicking off my list of advice is…ransomware

Ransomware is fairly easy to avoid if you follow some simple rules.  First, don’t open attachments from unknown sources.  Second, keep up to date with patching your devices.  Third, try to avoid Adobe Flash if you can.  It is hard to do, but that is a prime vector.  Fourth, back up your important pictures and documents regularly.  I recommend a cloud storage location like Google Drive or iCloud.  Fifth, if you are going to browse the web, either harden your browser (email rhaleii@gmail.com for a file with step-by-step instructions for Firefox) or use a service like Authentic8’s Silo.  They have a free 30-day trial if you are interested.  All your browsing is through their servers, reducing your browsing risk.

VPNs!  I wrote earlier about using and configuring VPNs for privacy and I still think they are the right solution.  At the time I recommended PrivateInternetAccess, but I have found some pretty good lifetime deals on Citizen Goods where you can buy a lifetime VPN subscription for a very reasonable one-time fee.  Of their offerings, I prefer the PureVPN one, but all of their offerings are pretty good deals.  VPNs allow you to look like you are coming from a different location than your physical one and encrypt all of your traffic end-to-end.  I am a big fan of using them and, for those of you wanting to watch content not available in the US (e.g., British TV not yet airing stateside) you can set your location to the UK and watch it as if you were there.

Unchecky – This app is fantastic for those of you who download and install apps only to find that you are now using Bing as your search engine.  Unchecky unchecks the boxes that installers try to sneak by you so that you reset your search engines, home pages, etc.  It is a great little app and free!

Ninite – This handy web site lets you select a bunch of software that you may want and creates a custom installer so that you can automatically download and install all of the apps at one sitting.  It is designed more for those setting up a PC, but it can also work for adding key apps without having to track them down one by one.  On the other end of the spectrum the PC Decrapifier scans your machine for bloatware and lets you select all of the apps you want to deinstall all at once.  Between these two, setting up and restoring machines is pretty simple.

Finally, there are a couple of interesting web sites I’d like to introduce you to.  First, there is Humble Bundles, where you can pick up interesting deals for whatever price you want to pay on video games, mobile apps and books, plus the money can be sent to a charity of your choice.  Second is digg, which is a site with lots of different articles, columns, etc.  It can be a real time sink, but there is generally something interesting there to read.  Finally, the YouTube channel Home Science is an excellent source of interesting experiments you can do at home.  Sure, you may not need to, but isn’t it cool to know that you can create a fire tornado?

Have a great weekend and don’t burn down the house!

Webster’s defines an Ebeneezer as “a commemoration of divine assistance”.  In the Bible it could take different forms, but the most common was a standing stone or pile of stones.  It was a monument to remind the people of what God had done for them at that geographical location.  For example, after crossing the Jordan river after Moses’ death, the priests gathered stones from the dry river bed and used them to assemble an Ebeneezer on the distant shore to remind the people that God had led them out of the wilderness, parted the Jordan river and led them over the dry ground into the promised land.  Similarly, in Ancient Ireland and Britain, standing stones were used to establish covenants, mark sacred lands, and commemorate important events.  In pretty much every civilization, you can find the use of stones to mark places and events of significance.

One of my former Russian instructors had been a geologist in the former Soviet Union, and he used to collect rocks from locations that had a special meaning in his life.  For example, he had a rock from the shores of each of the rivers he had surveyed, a stone from the airport when he first landed in the United States, etc.  He used to say stones are always somewhere by intent…they are moved from location to location by external forces, so the fact the stone was there in the first place was by intent, making it unique and memorable, as well as an enduring tie from the past to the present.  I am not entirely sure of the uniqueness, however, I am fully in agreement that rocks/stones make good objects to which we can attach memories, and, each time we see them they can take us back to the place or event in our mind.  That is why I have a sack of stones in my office.  Each one marks a special memory.  For example, I have a stone from the island where Scott and Lyra were engaged, a rock from the Isle of Skye where we spent part of our 15th anniversary, a rock from the path outside the Eagles’ Nest in Berchtesgarden where Easy Company took their photos after liberating it in 1945, and so on.

Over the years, I have accumulated quite a few of them, but I have been somewhat amazed that I can still remember which stone is associated with which event.  Whether a vacation, a family gathering, a celebration, a significant occasion, etc., the memories come back fresh and vibrant.  Granted, my pockets get a little heavier, but I have found them to be a significant, yet inexpensive way of commemorating special times, and, interestingly, more valuable than most of the other souvenirs I have picked up.  They may not be monetarily valuable, but their sentimental value is high…