Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I was sent a link to this inspirational three-minute movie today: http://www.stservicemovie.com/

Take 3 minutes out of your day to watch it—you may never forget it.

(For more movies in this vein, go to the main page: http://www.simpletruths.com/movies/; another one that got me was http://www.appreciationmovie.com/—being an ex-teacher and knowing plenty of other ex-teachers, this one struck home)

More on the ‘clean up the laptop’ saga… I came across something called “Viewpoint Media Player” in my Add/Remove Programs list and had no clue what it was, so off to Google again, where I found this brilliant piece about Viewpoint Media PLayer by Joe User (great domain name!) and his efforts to remove it. In amongst his diatribe about this piece of software—tell us what you REALLY think, Joe!—was this:

Here is my privacy policy: I do not want any type of crap on my computer unless I specifically OK it. I do not want anything installed without my permission. I don’t want some poorly programmed piece of crap crashing my computer, changing my bookmarks and homepage, and making itself part of the operating system so I can’t delete it without instructions from the internet. I do not want programs that record what I am doing. I don’t want programs accessing the internet at random intervals to send data to its home servers. I don’t care if “At no point is the CUID connected to a user’s name, email address, or other personal contact information”. I don’t freaking believe what is written in the privacy policy (which I didn’t even get a chance to read since it installed without my knowledge), nor do I trust your abilities to safeguard my personal data even if you are telling the truth.

When can you install something on my computer? If you get within arms length distance of my computer and can install it before I cave your head in with a baseball bat, then I will allow it.

Couldn’t agree more!

On one of my technical writing lists today, there was discussion about Christmas gifts for clients and links to websites that deal with such things. Someone mentioned donating to charity, which is what I did for the first time last year. Here’s my contribution to the discussion:

Along the same lines, last Christmas I decided not to send out cards to my clients as I figured they’d be on display (maybe) for 2 weeks, no-one would do more than glance at them (at best) and then they would go in the trash or recycle bin. The amount I would’ve spent on Christmas cards and postage (not including the time to write them!) I gave as a donation to Perth Zoo. I emailed my clients wishing them all the best for the season and told them of the donation in lieu of cards. Some responded saying what a good idea it was. No-one complained about not getting a card!!

I’ve always thought corporate Christmas cards were a strange custom – and now I don’t do it. I’ll find a suitable organisation to donate to again this year – preferably one where I can donate direct (like the zoo) as versus one that goes through fund raising agencies etc. to get donations.

That spurred me on to actually do something—so this year I’ve decided to donate to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a VITAL service for rural and remote Australians.

Craig over at Another Boy from Oz pointed me to this excellent (but long) blog post: The Nerd Handbook.

I know quite a few people like this—and on occasions, I am one! Scary.

Then get yourself over to Crestock.com for some stunning images you can download for free and install as wallpaper on your computer. They’ve provided 30 free images in two sets:

• Set 1 (13 images)
• Set 2 (17 images)

Awesome!

I just downloaded and opened the 2007 Web Survey run by A List Apart earlier this year. I was one of over 33,000 respondents.

My first reaction to the initial graphs? The web is run by young (almost 70% were under 32), white (84%) males (83%)! There are more people developing websites who are under 21 (nearly 7%), than those over 51 (combined total of 4%).

As a female ‘of a certain age’, I now realise I am *definitely* in the minority. Not that doing web stuff is my life’s work, but a reasonable proportion is involved in websites, web applications etc.

I’ll keep reading…

Ten days ago I reported that my Aeron chairs had arrived. Ten days on and all I can say is that they are GREAT!

While they seem to be really expensive, I figured that I’d already spent almost every working day since 1992 sitting in front of a computer, and was likely to continue to do so for many more years yet. And all that time I’ve sat in cheap, crappy chairs that did nothing for my back or posture. If I think how many cheap office chairs I’ve purchased for myself in the past 15 years (plus all the cheap ones provided at my various workplaces), I reckon I’d have paid for an Aeron and a half by now! Aerons have a 12 year warranty. If you amortise the cost over 12 years, they’re not so expensive after all. And if you also save on chiropractor or masseur bills, the cost is even less. It sounds like I’m justifying the cost – I guess I am! But one chair for 12+ years, compared to three or four chairs over that time plus chiropractor bills and the Aeron doesn’t look expensive at all!

I’m not saying that these Aeron chairs will suit everybody, or cure any back ailments, but in my opinion they are WAY better than any other work chair I have sat in. And my husband agrees – he loves his Aeron too!