Doubting Thomas Blog

Archive for the ‘free’ Category

The boys and I went sledding at Chestnut Ridge Park yesterday, where we saw a sign that says the toboggan chutes are opening soon. I read in today’s paper (well, I read it on the newspaper’s web site) that the toboggan chutes will be open next week. I can’t wait to take the boys on that ride!

I was surprised to learn that the toboggan chutes have been closed for four years. It has been that long since we were there last? I am pretty sure my oldest son went down the chute with me, but that would have been five winters ago, and I am pretty sure he was too young back then.

Sledding with the boys is a lot of fun. I’m still young enough to go with them, and they’re not old to want to go without me, so it works out great. We crashed a few times (that’s part of the fun), and I managed to avoid landing on my bad shoulder. You know you’re old when you are thinking, as you fall from your sled, ‘I need to make sure I don’t land on my bad shoulder.’

We were dressed for cold and wind. My face mask stayed put, but the boys were wearing a different style of face mask, with a larger opening for the face, instead of the eye- and mouth-holes my hat has. They didn’t look scary at all.

Sledding at Chestnut Ridge Park reminds me of the sledding hill where we went when I was a kid. We used to walk through several fields and hedgerows to get to the back fairway of the golf course, then walk through half the golf course to the hill. It seemed like miles. But the hill was so huge it was worth it. The boys asked me if the hill at the golf course was bigger than the hill at Chestnut Ridge, but I wasn’t sure. I haven’t been past that hill in many years, and I know that our memories of things from our childhood always make things seem larger than they are.

To shoot the video below, I held my camera phone in my right hand, leaving only my left hand to hold on to the sled. The problem I had with only one hand on the sled was NOT that I almost fell out of the sled, but that I couldn’t steer. As I went down the hill, I had to steer by dragging my feet in the snow to avoid running over other sledders.

At least I didn’t drop the phone in the snow.

At my day job, I occasionally come across things that I want to remember to do at home, but by the time I get home, I forget…does that ever happen to you?

So today, I’m marking a couple To Do list items down on this blog, so that, when I get home, I’ll remember the web addresses of the programs I want to try out at home.

1. The first is a free application for syncing the files between computers.
   • Dropbox

I use use three computers at home (an Apple notebook, a Linux desktop, and a Windows desktop), and there are times when I have to stop and think, on which computer is the file I need? (Okay, I admit that often, when I think of such questions, I don’t use proper grammar, so what I really think at those moments when I need a certain file is more like “where’s that file at?”)

And the beauty part is that it works with Linux, Windows, and Mac computers! It’s perfect for my needs.

2. This next program I came across is going to help me get rid of a different free application that I haven’t been able to uninstall from my Mac. It was only free for a trial period, and it wasn’t that great, so I didn’t purchase the program when the trial period ended.
   • Apptrap

   Even though I dragged that application into the trash on my notebook, the program still gives me pop-ups when I start Firefox. It’s annoying, but as far as I know, it doesn’t cause any problems with my system or with Firefox’ I just have to click Quit every time.

Let me know, if you have tried either of these programs, how they have worked for you. Or, if you use other programs to accomplish the same thing, let me know what they are, and how well they work. FREE is preferred, but if you know of a low-cost file-syncing program that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux, let me know, in case Dropbox doesn’t work.

Need a secure OS?

As featured on DesktopLinux.com, Tin Hat is an open-source operating system designed to run in RAM (which means no physical hard drive holds the OS) and is completely encrypted. The project is driven by the nominally paranoid Dr. Anthony Basile, who is a friend of mine.

I use Google’s applications with my domain name WoodsWebDesign.com quite a bit, and I use Gmail separately, so I have noticed that there are some differences in what features are available through those separate services. What I want from Google is for every feature/service that’s available in the low-end version of their free services (i.e., everything that’s offered in Gmail) to be available to users of their mid-range free services (i.e., Applications).

When Gmail came out with themes this week, I was glad to see they had done something to update the Gmail service. And other innovations, such as video chat built-in to the Inbox, are cool, too. But why can’t all of those services be made available to those of us who have made the leap and are using Google Applications?