From Andy Stanley at Catalyst discussing how to create a healthy work culture.

Surprisingly, I didn’t have to hold for an operator at all, but the operator I got had me on hold several times as she tried to figure out my phone’s problem. After trying several different network changes on the AT&T side and several changes on my phone over the course of an hour, the support tech finally gave up and suggested I needed to reinstall the Surprisingly, I didn’t have to hold for an operator at all, but the operator I got had me on hold several times as she tried to figure out my phone’s problem. After trying several different network changes on the AT&T side and several changes on my phone over the course of an hour, the support tech finally gave up and suggested I needed to reinstall the iPhone OS and offered to connect me with an Apple support tech to help me out. I declined the Apple help and told her I could handle the reinstall myself. Before I hung up on her I she made an appointment to call me back the next morning to see if my voicemail was working correctly.

After I got off the phone, I turned to my trusty support database, google, and queried, “visual voicemail broken iphone” and on the second page, two minutes into my search, I found my solution– reset the network settings under Settings > General > Reset Network Settings. My phone restarted and I immediately got two visual voicemails– Problem fixed!

I thought I already knew this lesson, but I guess I learned it again– Google your problem before calling for support and more than likely you’ll find the answer your need. Now, I get to to explain to the AT&T tech how easy it was to solve the problem.

• Firefox - an extensible browser that renders appropriately
  
• Filezilla – easy to use ftp client
  
• Notepad ++ – small text file editor
  
• VLC - media player that will play almost any video or audio file
  

When I take on a new Mac or Linux machine I still use Firefox and Filezilla, but have a different text editor.

I also have a set of extensions that I always install in Firefox the first time I use it.

• Xmarks (was foxmarks) – a bookmarks synchronizer (I don’t use the password sync feature)
• Firebug – a quick html/css inspector
  
• Screengrab! – take a quick screenshot and save it or paste it.
• Measureit – answers how long or deep is that image?
  

I have a lot of others that I eventually end up installing when I need them, but these are normally the first four.

So what tools do you always use?

1. I only friend people I really know- I actually only friend people who I am willing to go out to dinner with so my standard is actually higher than this. There are several people who I’ve not friended because I don’t want to eat dinner with.
2. Facebook made me do it- I refuse to do something on facebook just because everyone else has done it. I won’t play the name game or 25 random things (that’s probably more because I’m lazy than anything).
3. Wall to wall flirting isn’t cheating – It’s horrible the way some people flirt and friend so outlandishly on facebook where they would be embarassed to be caught flirting in the same manner in real life.
4. I use facebook to keep in touch with people – I have to agree with Newsweek– I use facebook because I’m nosy (yes, I said it, now you can admit to it, too).
5. I’m so over facebook- I really am moving in that direction. More now than last week and more next week than now. When your grandma chats with you on facebook and asks you to post a link and then your 6 month old nephew friends you, it’s time to find another place to hang out.
6. I’m not so competitive- I hate most games- board games or computer games so I don’t care if you beat me. I don’t really know why I hate games. Just playing them really tires me.
7. Facebook is my friend- Ok. I know facebook isn’t my friend (just look how they flip flopped on their terms of service this week), but I can’t say it’s a business either or at least a successful one. On the other hand, I sure wish that I had come up with the idea and launched facebook or at least something similar where I could sue facebook for stealing my idea.

I guess that means that my infrequent outbursts actually slowed down my compute rmore. I wonder what talking to my computer sweetly and bringing it flowers and chocolate will do?

The video quality is decent (320 x 240) for the web, but it is dependent on the quality of the video camera/lens on your cell phone and the speed of your data connection on the cell phone.

When I worked at the newspaper, we played around a lot with qik and it just came available for Blackberries that have video camera built it in– also, it works a lot better on phones with a 3G connection that have a faster data service.

In review here’s how our four months with Ubuntu went…

• Easy to do a basic install and update. Took some work to get my pci wifi card, but installing a wireless hp deskjet was easier on Ubuntu than windows.
• Everyone could sit down and use it without additional instruction– even my three year old.
• Did all the basic great– web browsing, opened word documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints.
• Ran all of the above much faster than Windows XP on my family computer with less than a gig of RAM.
• Free operating system and free software– even used GIMP to edit photos.

It’s a long story that as I gain some perspective I hope I will be able to tell it all, but the short of it is soon I will be at UAMS in Little Rock running their Web Center helping them to launch their new consumer site and get a CMS running to standardize their edu site.

If you want to take a look at my whole professional career, I’ve primarily worked for educational institutions with a couple of short stints at newspapers and I’ve either worked around Memphis or in Arkadelphia.

Here’s the institution type pattern

• Mid-South Community College – Education
• The Commercial Appeal – Newspaper
• Ouachita Baptist University – Education (with a short stint of working part-time at UAMS)
• The Commercial Appeal – Newspaper
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences – Education/Healthcare

Here’s the place pattern.

• West Memphis
• Memphis
• Arkadelphia (with a short stint of working in Little Rock)
• Memphis
• Little Rock