witola.com

I am patiently awaiting the arrival of my new WiFi 3G iPad. It is due for release at the end of the month.

Now if all the books I get to read are like this....

"Glenn Beck is a fucking asshole. I've met him. He called me the anti-Christ and not about Avatar. He hadn't even seen Avatar yet. I don't know if he has http://witola.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=1957&message=6seen it. I think, you know what, he may or may not be an asshole, but he certainly is dangerous, and I'd love to have a dialogue with him. He's dangerous because his ideas are poisonous. I couldn't believe when he was on CNN. I thought, what happened to CNN? Who is this guy? Who is this madman? And then of course he wound up on Fox News, which is where he belongs, I guess.

They're not attacks. They're just people ranting away, lost in their little bubbles of reality, steeped in their own hatred, their own fear and hatred. That's where it all comes from. Let's just call it out. Let's have a public discussion. That's what movies are supposed to do, you know, you can have a mindless entertainment film that doesn't affect anybody. I wasn't interested in that. That's right, I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads. Anybody that is a global-warming denier at this point in time has got their head so deeply up their ass I'm not sure they could hear me.

Look, at this point I'm less interested in making money for the movie and more interested in saving the world that my children are going to inhabit. How about that? I mean look, I didn't make this movie with these strong environmental anti-war themes in it to make friends on the right, you know. They're not on my Christmas card list. It's not going to change my lifestyle at all if they don't talk to me. But you know they've got to live in this world too. And their children do as well, so they're going to have to be answerable to this at some point."

This kid is amazing, and at just 10 years old, seems so well-adjusted and bright. He gets it. His name is Will Phillips of Arkansas and he is speaking up for gay rights! Kudos to his open-minded parents. I now have a different view of Arkansas for sure.

Here he is again being asked a simple question at the 21st Annual GLAAD Awards:

A friend of mine wrote this article and I thought I would pass this on with his permission. Feel free to follow him as well on Twitter: @HDSolarguy.

Depending on state laws where you live, you may even be able to get extra money back at the end of the year if you produce more power than you use. Imagine that... a power check instead of a power bill. California just passed such a law but is still deciding how to calculate the rates on this extra power; we may not get paid the full rate for it, time will tell.

And this, dear friends, is why solar is still not more widely deployed in these United States. Not because it is too expensive (you can currently produce solar power for about one-third to one-half of what your power company charges).

The problem is that the net metering laws are different in all 50 states and in many of them, you do not get paid full price for your "extra" electricity, even though the power company re-sells it to the business community, usually at a higher price than you would pay as a homeowner.

In fact, there are still five states in which net metering is actually illegal! Missouri recently passed a net metering law in which the utility must pay you no more than $.03 per kWh even though they sell it for over twice that much.

This creates a number of problems for the future of solar energy but there is a simple solution and you may hear more about it this Spring. It's called "National Net Metering" legislation and it would set a common standard for buying and selling solar power -- for everyone, no matter where you live.

The bad news is that it will probably not be discussed alone but in concert with many other even more "controversial" bills dealing with climate change, carbon reduction and cap-and-trade.

But to really understand how important net metering is, just imagine what our economy would be like if the internet were still a one-way pipe into your home... with only a handful of service-providers and the rest of us forced to play the role of consumers (only).

Net metering (and solar power) transform the power line to your house into a two-way pipe and change you from an energy consumer into a part-time energy producer.

As such, net metering is more than just a way to own your own power source (with about a 5-year payback). It also provides a gateway for anyone to participate in the global economy, buying and selling power (which has actual cash value as measured by your electric meter), but produced cleanly and profitably: it is as revolutionary as Napster -- but not for music, for electricity!

P.S. - You can check on the status of Net Metering in any state at http://www.dsireusa.org/

P.P.S - Google just created a subsidiary called "Google Energy" and has applied to FERC for permission to buy and sell power. See http://bit.ly/8qIK5a

Free online books library for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.

Via Read Print – Read Print is a library where you can find over 8,000 free online books by 3,500 famous authors at your fingertips. Books are set up in categories:  Essays, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Plays, Poetry and Short Stories.

The site has a clean, fun, nice design that makes reading books on-line a fun experience. There's also a contest “Spread the word about Read Print & Win a 17″ Apple MacBook Pro!”

Become a fan of Read Print on Facebook and Follow Read Print on Twitter for a chance to win!

OK, here is an example of how I find things...

1. First I heard a bleep on my TweetDeck and saw a tweet from my favorite blogger Chris Coyier from CSS Tricks.
He mentioned he just posted a screencast on how to re-create a CSS trick on this other site.
2. I watched the video, thought it was cool, and scrolled to the end of the post to see others posts/comments.
3. Then I scrolled past one where he commented back to someone and nosy me wanted to know what was up.
4. I read both and came across this

Jack Franklin says:

Great stuff Chris.

I noticed you have the HTML Ipsum icon in your menu bar, where can I get that program from, I’ve been searching for ages and I can’t find it

Thanks,

Jack

Chris Coyier says:

Use fluid.app and make a menu bar app from this URL http://html-ipsum.com/fluid/

5. So I Googled the app and... check this out and review the first 1 minute video on the sidebar. Very cool...

http://fluidapp.com/

6. The html ipsum app he was talking about is cool as well

This is how I find these things out, one thing always leads to another...

Here is a great posting on deleting applications from your Mac. I was always under the impression once you dropped it in the Trash, that was it, but that is not the case and Joshua Johnson's post from AppStorm explains it all below.

Have you ever deleted an application from your Mac by simply dragging it to the trash? It turns out there’s more to most applications than what you see in the “Applications” folder. Many apps spread system files all over your hard drive that can be a pain to track down. This means when you simply throw an app in the trash, you’re leaving behind associated content that unnecessarily eats up space on you Mac.

Fortunately, there are several third party solutions that save you the work of hunting down and deleting all these stranded files. Here’s a quick rundown of six of them, let us know which ones you use!

Amnesia

Amnesia

Amnesia is a feature rich solution that uninstalls applications, screen savers, dashboard widgets and preferences panes and their associated system files. It also comes with a built-in backup function that lets you restore any files that you may have deleted accidentally and lets you create a list of “Untouchables” that the application will warn you about before deleting.

Amnesia features a drag and drop interface as well as the option to view all installed applications, widgets, etc. in a list within the application.

Price: $9.95
Developer: Koingosw
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

AppCleaner

AppCleaner

AppCleaner is one of the best uninstall solutions out there. Simple drag and drop interface will take care of applications, widgets, plugins, and preferences along with their associated files with a smooth rotating cube animation.

Turning the SmartDelete option on will allow you to simply drag applications to the trash to receive an option to eliminate all associated files. Additional features include built-in lists to sort through your apps, automatic updates, and a customizable protected applications list. Best of all, it’s completely free.

Price: Free
Developer: Free Mac Soft
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

AppDelete

AppDelete

Though not as refined as AppCleaner, AppDelete is a great utility that effortlessly deletes applications, widgets, plugins, and preferences and any associated files. Drag and drop or select from list, hidden file support, auto detect apps thrown in the trash (if AppDelete is open), history logs, and undo delete.

Price: $5
Developer: Reggie Ashworth
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

AppTrap

AppTrap

AppTrap seeks to be a seamless solution for deleting apps in OS X. Instead of a standalone application, AppTrap is a preference panel that runs in the background. When you throw away an app, you get a simple dialogue asking if you want to delete the associated system files as well. If you’re looking for full integration and minimal effort, this is your best bet.

Price: Free
Developer: Markus Magnuson
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

AppZapper

AppZapper

AppZapper “zaps” your applications into oblivion with an easy to use drag and drop interface. After dragging an app to the window, you’ll see a list of associated files. Simply uncheck any you wish to keep and hit the zap button. Additional features include a log of all zapped files and the ability to keep certain apps safe from zapping. The best feature? It plays a (very) cool laser sound effect when you delete an app.

Price: $12.95
Developer: Austin Sarner and Brian Ball
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

CleanApp

CleanApp 3

CleanApp is by far the most advanced uninstall application I found. As soon as you open CleanApp it begins searching your Mac for applications, preference panes, and archives. It then organizes these files into searchable, categorized lists.

Like the other apps listed above, you can drag and drop an unwanted application into the interface and delete it along with any associated system files. If “logging” is turned on, CleanApp will track any new files created by a given app and include those in the delete menu along with the system files.

DeleteApp has several other options for keeping your Mac clean as well. It can analyze a specified directory for disk usage statistics, identify old files (those that haven’t been used in a while) on your Mac that you might not need, search for bulky cache files, and eliminate unnecessary language files and universal binaries from a specified application.

CleanApp even comes with a handy dashboard widget with similar functionality. Finally, CleanApp gives you the option to archive any deleted apps in case you wish to reinstall them at a later time.

Price: $13
Developer: Synium Software
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

Thought I would share some insightful words from someone I admire, respect and listen to... enjoy.

"Faith has a lot to do with where we place our attention. And we know from metaphysics that whatever you give your attention to increases. And so I would invite you to consider where your attention is these days, because where your attention is expresses what you have the most faith in. And I’ll let you take a breath on that one.

You know, when times are challenging, we have a choice. Will we give our attention to fear or will we give our attention to faith? And the interesting thing about fear and faith is that they are exactly the same power but moving in opposite directions.

Faith is the conviction, the certainty, the assurance that you will experience what it is that you desire. And fear is the conviction, the certainty, the assurance that you will experience what you DO NOT desire.

Same power, moving in opposite directions, they are equally creative in our lives because they both set mental equivalents in our lives, they set mental concepts that tend to out-picture.

And so our choice in challenging times is what will get the lion’s share of our attention? What will it be?

Will it be fear and then we will live the results of fear? Or will it be faith and then we will live the results of faith?”

Rev. Kathy Hearn, “Radiant Faith” – May 3, 2009

In Terminator, machines took over...

In an effort to assist the $24 billion budget deficit in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to bring the education system into the 21st century. But in a good or bad way????

Schwarzenegger is looking to eliminate text book spending and funnel those funds into more electronic learning, which is more cost effective and relevant for kids today.

In a press conference, he announced his plan and assure his state's citizens that the move will be highly beneficial:

"For so many years, we've been trying to teach the kids exactly the same way. Our kids get their information from the Internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones … Basically, kids are feeling as comfortable with their electronic devices as I was with my pencils and crayons. So why are California's school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?"

While it is clearly a smaller corner to cut, it might actually do some good, as long as the school is equipped to handle the move to a digital classroom. One textbook can average in price between $75-$100 and the numbers add up with the size of California schools. However, unless the school has the kind of hardware to sustain the change, then it becomes a useless endeavor.