Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works

Too small a fish.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

While chatting online with my friend Corrine, we got to talking about the ease of using low-cost domain names and pointing them to free, ease-of-use blogs. I sent her a link to one I'd done for a friend, and commented that so many local politicians were still hiring out to have fairly bloated, unattractive sites made from the ground up.

"...they are still paying small fish to design big, ugly bloated sites," I typed.

Corrine commented that Small Fish would be a funny business name, so I check on the domain SmallFish.com. It was taken. I figured it would be -- it was too good a name.

There's some irony here.

"It's been mothballed," I typed. "Evidently, it was too small a fish."

Small Fish Software, Inc. has been kaput since 2003. Or, at least the site has been.

Business names are tricky. They are either the perfect name, or they unconsciously spell out the future.For example, naming your deep-sea diving business "Going Under" may or may not be the best idea. Hard to say.

Labels: friends, humor, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Getting back either the new or the old iGoogle.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'd been using the new iGoogle (forced on me by Google, of course) for a few months now. I actually liked it, and found that I could access my Gmail that was otherwise blocked on a borrowed wifi connection I'm getting from a public school.

Then one day, without warning, my new iGoogle reverted back to the old. I didn't like it. I had no idea why that happened, but there I was, my left navigation gone.

So I entered the cavernous worlds of Google help forums only to find about a 90 percent rate of people expressing hatred for the new iGoogle. Any attempts of mine to find a way to revert back to the new format only resulted in replies of "I hate the new one and I wish I could get the old one back" and little else of help.

I stumbled onto this post, however, and saw note of a little bit of javascript that people could use in their URL bar to switch back to the old version.

I figured, since I was already there, that perhaps the same bit of code would do the same and bring me back to the new version. Here's the code:

javascript:_dlsetp('v2=1')

I thought maybe it would work like a toggle switch. So, I tried it.

And it works. As far as I can tell.

Have the new iGoogle and hate it? Or, want to switch to the new iGoogle if it somehow switched back to the old? Simply place the code in the URL bar when you're on your iGoogle homepage and it should do the trick.

Labels: internet, technology

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Google Chrome has minions.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

I've been highly curious and desiring to download and try out the new Google browser, Google Chrome.

Today, the day it was supposed to be released, I find that it...isn't released. Yet. Doing searches and trying to find the official download pages reveals that Google is redirecting to the home Google page.

Regardless, the creepy aspect here is that I left a Twitter message just a few minutes ago regarding my interest in Google Chrome, only to find that GetGoogleChrome is now following me on Twitter.

That had to have happened within minutes of posting my original Tweet.

While anyone is free to follow accounts at Twitter so set up, and I am free to block...I just found that a little creepy. I guess (and I'm not a techie, so I can't write about it any more complex that this) that what you post at Twitter can be little more than key words for direct marketing.

Huh.

"Don't be evil", indeed. Let the unofficial minions do that.

UPDATE: Google Chrome now available here. (Thanks, Will.)

UPDATE 2: Google Chrome is fast. Its appearance is fairly sparse. The first thing I did was check to see if my own web site fell apart in the new browser; it doesn't seem to have, though if anyone notices something looking strange with Chrome, I'd appreciate an email about it. I sure miss the Adblock feature of Firefox, though I suppose, with Google, I can't expect that. I would like better integration with the Google apps and my Google account (not just dropping it onto my desktop/taskbar), unless I've just not discovered how that is accomplished quite yet.

Labels: internet, technology

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Rant against Scribd.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

I'm not ranting against Scribd.com; I use it a lot, now, and have found it a handy way to provide documents to my readers both as the PDF files in the original posts and as an organize collection accessible by an easy link. I frequently include links to the blog posts that use the documents, so everything works out nice and tidy.

Scribd has also let me provide a feed for readers to subscribe to, so that they have instant access to uploaded documents whether or not they happen to catch them in whatever blog post I used them in. I can also keep some documents private and share the link with just those I wish to have view the documents. This has been useful numerous times.

So Scribd. I think it's neato.

Nevertheless, some are not happy with it, as you can read here: Die, Scribd, Die

Lotta rage. Anyone who uses/posts links to documents in Scribd are idiots, and worse.

I can appreciate that. I go off on a rant periodically. But...I just had to leave a comment.*

* The comment is awaiting moderation as of blog publishing time. Here is what I wrote (pardon the words -- it matches the rest of the comments and the original blog post):

"an idiot will post a link to a document there"

I use Scribd quite a bit, offering both a PDF file as well as a link to Scribd. Some people don't like the forced start of an app to read the PDF. Plus, I can embed the Scribd doc in my blog posts.

I've found it a convenient way to organize docs online by categories, etc. and provide an RSS feed to my readers. So, I can, instead of linking to all individual posts where they might find, for example, free project sheets, just link to the Scribd folder. There's all kinds of handy things about it.

But if you just want to go f**k Scribd, I guess that'd give you something fun to do for about a minute.

Whatever.

Labels: internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Forms are fun!

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

So I stumbled upon JotForm today, and decided to be an idiot. It could have several useful applications, but I'm not in the mood to come up with any right now.

Labels: internet, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Freedom of access.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I can understand why schools need to block some internet web sites, and also understand that it can be an imperfect science. I also understand that libraries don't block the internet and that some of the stuff I've seen patrons viewing on library computers is pretty nasty.

Having said all that...I prefer to go to the library for my free internet than, uh, borrow¹ the WiFi from a nearby school. The school blocks anything remotely associated with web-based email, proxy, Google services, social networking services, and even sites that I regularly use that are of little harm. I know why they do this -- no need for students to be checking email and such during the school day. My question is this: If they're going to be so medieval about filtering the internet, why in the heck do they allow a site like Blogger to be accessed?

Some of my more recent readers may not have been on this blog a few years back when I wrote about finding some high school student's blogs (from the school nearby that I've subbed at) that made fun of teachers and staff, including my mother, likely written at school on school time. Heck, I even made mention in the New York Post via a column by Dawn Eden on students and blogging.

Let me say that I didn't mince words when I wrote about what those kids did. Front and foremost wasn't that they didn't have "freedom of speech" (or, in this case, FreeDumb of Speech) according to their definition. The pitiful arguments that surfaced by kids on various online sites regarding my response to public speech online were easily shredded and revolved mainly around being aghast that they could be held accountable for what they said, and might even face negative consequences in oppositional freedom of speech.

In other words, right back at you, kids.

They were naive enough to think that adults are too dumb to find things on the internet, and had assumed that they had some kind of privacy and right to not get a negative or opposing response back once they hit "publish." Adults sort of helped build the internet, kiddies, I essentially pointed out. It's not your exclusive playground.

After a lengthy correspondence² with the then superintendent in which he seemed more interested in "disciplining" me rather than the students for my aggressiveness in the issue (and the fact that one of the kids' father was a friend on the school board), I finally suggested that, among other things, limiting the students use of journaling or blogging sites such as Blogger during school hours might be easier than trying to rewire the mistakenly construed concept of "freedom of speech" that had sadly taken hold in their heads.

There, as here, I can still access Blogger.

I really care very little, but after constantly hitting the "this site is blocked" message on just about every benign site I use, I find full access to Blogger odd. (Not to mention the fact that they leave their WiFi signal completely open and accessible. I hope the rest of the nearby community is enjoying it as I am.)

¹ For more discussion on the legalities of using an unprotected WiFi signal, read here, here, here, and here.

² I still have the letters. There are numerous grammatical mistakes, and I take special delight in reading them periodically. I'm that petty.

Labels: blogging, education, internet, summer 2008

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Spam Sunday.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Evidently Sunday is the chosen day for Nigerian Scam Spam.

My inbox has suddenly filled with fresh waves of it.

I like my scammers to honor the Lord's day, so there's absolutely no way I'm going to send any money. No checks go out until Monday.

So there, Majamouaa al Watania. I appreciate your plight. But not on Sunday.

Labels: humor, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Tweets that make me twitter with laughter.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I have two friends on Twitter whose short "tweets" (the quickie update messages that are almost like play-by-play mini-blogging) make me laugh.

RoueJ (a retired but still working judge) and Skangus (a person I don't really "know" except through some design work and drive-by Facebook messages).

RoueJ writes about work and a remodeling project. This one, for example. Or this one.

"Your twitters are like a punchline to the judicial system," I said in a message to RoueJ. "Very funny stuff."

"If I couldn't laugh, I'd cry," was the response.

Skangus writes about food and TV and just random, hilarious stuff. Like this one and this one, dealing with weather warnings.

"Your Twitter updates tend to make me hungry 95 percent of the time," I said in a Facebook message to Skangus.

It's a gift to not become a bit pretentious and unfunny on Twitter, since it often morphs into (in the hands of the unfunny, um, like me) something mundane and makes a reader think "do we really care that so-and-so just ate a sandwich?" I've noticed that Twitter has become, for some people (um, like me), a way of force-feeding boring minutae to random public, or, worse yet, a mere blog RSS update which sort of annoys me because that's what my RSS reader is for.

These two use Twitter well. They make me laugh. That's a good thing.

I dumped them on a Google page via RSS feeds, but you should really just check out their profiles.

UPDATE: A friend just sent me a link to this cartoon which deals, very aptly, with Twitter. Hilarious.

Labels: blogging, friends, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Dumb glass of milk.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Sigh.

Once again, this.

Except it was a glass of milk that I meant to send to my nephew -- who is underage -- so I included some kind of "all the other drinks are inappropriate, so here's milk because everyone loves milk blah blah blah" and then unwittingly sent it to all of my friends of people who probably think I'm some kind of pansy now.

Julie, sender of glasses of virtual milk. Because everything else is inappropriate.

Swell.

Labels: internet, my life

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Link: VerveEarth

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

My sister Jacqui sent me an email she'd received about VerveEarth, and I decided to put Hampden on the map.

It's an interesting idea, though I don't think it'll change my life much. It's nice for visual people like me who want to continue to "humanize" bloggers from just being words on a page to seeing where they are loosely located in relation to me. It's also a cool way to find blogs and bloggers that are in the region that I hadn't been aware of. It would be better if more bloggers got on the map for that to really be seriously beneficial.

Regardless, I logged this blog onto the map, and North Dakota now boasts one more marker.

Hooray.

Got a blog? Put it on the map.

Labels: blogging, internet, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Dating out of fear of ending up with no teeth.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

Nothing sells like desperation and fear. And nothing moves a dating service into high gear like using a photo of a very old woman (man?) from...India? ...missing a considerable amount of teeth.

This is an ad I saw on Facebook today.

"Hurry! You become old and alone much faster than you think."

Yes, because the time/space continuum speeds up when you're not married.

Apparently, being over 30 and single means you're on track to toothless joy in a third-world country. 29? You're safe. Over 30? You look like Keith Richards via Bombay.

Usually, such ads feature hot, sexy, airbrushed people, but someone is trying a new concept: blatant fear. Or something.

I don't know.

It might work.

Labels: facebook, humor, internet, relationships

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Dumb questions.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

There are dumb questions.

I already wrote my thesis on this.

But, as I will now reveal from my secret life on Facebook, even a benign profile photo can begin the discussion again, right there in the photo's discussion area.

(Begin sarcasm.)

Anna: It's a tiny picture but I do believe I see leaves on those trees. Was that taken today? And why are you holding your face like that?

Me: My chin was falling off. I took this photo inside the Kennedy Space Center. Any other dumb questions?

Anna: There is no such thing as a dumb question. However, there are certainly dumb answers as you've just now shown us.

Me: No, there are dumb questions. For example: If I put my hand in this raging fire, will it hurt? That's a dumb question.

Anna: Not if you have the disorder where you can't feel anything. It seems like that would be a legitimate question. Next...

Me: "Would it be OK if I drank this anti-freeze that says 'poison: will kill you' on the side of the container?"

Anna: Perhaps that wouldn't be considered dumb if the person was suicidal and was really asking you to help out with your caring and concern...oops.

Me: "Can I use this office stapler to staple my eye shut?"

Anna: Well, what if a person had a serious eye problem...maybe her eye kept popping out and she couldn't get to a doctor because of the dangling eye and no one was offering to drive her and the phones weren't working so she could call a cab even if she could concentrate on dialing a phone...it would make sense that stapling her eye shut would be a temporary solution and she was really asking you to do the stapling because her hands were a little shaky and it is sort of hard to staple your own eye shut. Ah hem.

Me: "Why are you still doing this?"

Anna: That certainly is not a dumb question as it is used to gain much useful information in many different circumstances.

Me: "No really. Why are you still doing this?"
"That wasn't hypothetical. It was a real question."
"Don't let these quotes confuse you."
"You know how I love to use quotes."

(End sarcasm.)

(Anna's a good sport.)

Labels: conversations, facebook, friends, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Woman as explained by an engineer.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

A friend sent me an email with images that made me laugh out loud. I quickly forwarded them to my brother (an engineer) and few other friends.

First, check out the rest of the images:

1. Doing the math.
2. Hazardous materials data sheet.
3. Charting the chances of a man winning an argument.
4. Man and woman on the same mission.

I've already gotten an email back from one of my friends regarding the last image. He had this to say: "The problem with this is no real man goes to The Gap to buy jeans. He goes to Mills Fleet Farm*."

--------------------------------

*Store name has been changed from original quote in order to protect the geographic location and anonymity of the contributor. The essence of the quote is the same.

Labels: friends, humor, internet, relationships, women

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Email signatures.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

I get bored with things very quickly.

And, since WILL STOLE THE CSS CODED GRAPHIC-HEAVY EMAIL SIGNATURE¹ I had been using, I have come up with a new, highly distracting, highly ineffective² graphic to stick on the bottom of my outgoing emails.

Would you like to see the new graphic?

Well, I guess you'll have to get an email from me, won't you? Ha!

(It likely won't last long, since I'll soon be bored with it and it's kind of clunky and annoying to attach, I suppose.)

Or, you could copy and past the following URL into your browser to see it: http://loneprairie.net/images/blog_images/emailsig001.jpg

--------------------------

¹ I may have given him permission as well as the code. Possibly.
² It's all part of my clever "reverse" marketing technique, with the ultimate goal being one of customer confusion and ever-dwindling sales.

Labels: blogging, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Being Fanny Price.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this post

The ideal heroine is Elizabeth Bennett, of course, but whenever I read the book or watched the films I always felt that out of all of Jane Austen's wonderful heroines, I was most like...the servants in the background. I'm not kidding. I really, really think that asking "if I were in that story which main character would I be" is a deceptive question. Who said we'd be the main characters?

"See that guy in the back, leading the horses into the stable? That's me. If Mr. Darcy would just step to the side, you could see me better."

I can identify.

One reason I liked the movie Gosford Park was that it gave me a view of the world of the servants which I knew, had I really lived in some previous era, would be my lot in life. I would be a servant person. The one who slopped the pigs.

Whatever.

There are about three million different online "which Jane Austen character are you" quizzes on the web.

::That was not a scientific estimate. I'm not good at estimating amounts and distances and I no longer feel like attempting anything ballpark.::

I think I took one of those quizzes once, but noticed none of the options included "peasant servant girl in background" so I doubted the qualifications.

So my friend Naomi invites me to add the "Which Jane Austen character are you?" application on Facebook a few days ago.

Grrr.

I take the quiz and find out it's one where you can't get your results unless you invite something along the lines of 200 friends which, if you do it, you'll have less friends. I might be a servant person, but I'm not dummy. So I canceled it out.

But, through the gift of crappy application programmers, my results still showed up on my profile despite my rejection of the order to invite, and I found out which Jane Austen character I was most like. At long last, I can agree:

Your result is: Fanny Price
You are smart and shy, a quiet beauty with brains that intimidate everyone around you. You often feel out of place, homeless and alone. As an intellectual idealist, you long to be heard and understood, but rarely waste your time trying to defend yourself to those who could not possibly understand. Time and experience is making you bolder. Despite your clever genius, you long for simplicity, and the love of your soul mate, who is a socially surprising and unlikely match.

Ha ha ha. What tripe. "That's me! That's me! Clever genius!"

These dumb quizzes annoy me, like some kind of literature-based horoscope.

I do, however, admit that I loved Fanny Price's character in (OK, I haven't read Mansfield Park and I know the movie is a severe bastardization but nevertheless, her character was fantastic) the movie Mansfield Park. The quiz is referencing the movie and not the book. In the movie (unlike in the book), she was smart and sharp and a witty writer and had a backbone and also came from more realistic non-elevated servant-esque family and circumstances and...was a servant of sorts.

And no one told her what to do.

Which is tricky, when you're a servant. Even a servant of sorts.

::Go, Fanny, go. It's unfortunate about your name, but we can't have everything, can we?::

Labels: books, facebook, friends, internet, movies, my life

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Bring it on, zombies.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 2 comments link this post

I've read the guide. And now I know.

61%

Hat Tip: GirlFriday

Also, in case you didn't know:

How evil are you?

(Two comments: Angelic is code for "boring." And secondly, the first question in this quiz asks the reader to choose from a list of European countries and then has Canada listed as an option. That tells you a lot about the accuracy of this quiz.)

Hat Tip: Jim

Labels: internet, links

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

So you got a stupid eCard from me on Facebook.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 8 comments link this post

Yes, I can do many fabulous things on the computer, but I can't intuitively figure out Facebook.

This evening I sent out some random eCard to every single person on my friend list which I never would do if I were in control of my body instead of being part of Borg.

So I go into the bowels of Facebook (otherwise known as "compose a message") and can't figure out how to send a little note to these same random people that says: Sorry for the eCard spam.

Sorry for sending out an eCard of two little kids on a beach holding hands saying "you're my bestest friend ever" or some such crap BECAUSE I WOULD NEVER NORMALLY PARTICIPATE IN SUCH A DEGRADATION EXCEPT AT THE THREAT OF DEATH!!!!!!

Yes, I'm sorry for the eCard spam. Sorry that I can't read before I click. Sorry that I can't figure out a web application that a four-year old wearing Pull-ups could handle. Sorry that I can't figure out how to rectify the situation. Sorry that I use words like "rectify" and can't figure out stupid Facebook.

For the longest time, my status on Facebook was as follows: Julie is.

I was amazed when I realized I could add something. With a simple click, I could have, at long last, some status!!

Perhaps I should have left it as that, come to think of it. It's sort of profound, in a way: Julie is.

I am.

Yes, I am in a current state of being. That state being "confused" and "embarrassed" and "sender of annoying cards."

So I wrote a post on my own Facebook wall to explain my electronic gaffe.

I think writing such an explanation on my own wall was probably an electronic gaffe in its own right.

You have no idea what it's like being me.

I figured out how to upload photos and make an album, though. That's something.

Related links:

Labels: blogging, facebook, friends, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

My secret life on Facebook.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 4 comments link this post

Yes. I know.

But.

My friends and family have been so active on Facebook and I find myself stepping up to the plate and accepting their invitations into various groups and applications. Will, for example, invited me into the "Make Something Day" group.¹

My friend Sarah has infested my virtual graveyard with zombies and desecrated my virtual aquarium with hordes of fish, leaving little notes that I'm under "zombie attack!" and that my fish tank looks troubled and that she wishes the fish would eat each other.

And now, with the Gingerbread application which allows me to decorate virtual gingerbread cookies and send them to my friends, I admit to excessive mirth and feverish wasting of time.

Oh, the gingerbread men I've created and yet to create. The Cyclops Gingerbread Man. The Minimalist Gingerbread Man. The Autopsy Gingerbread Man. The "An Art Major Made This" Gingerbread Man. The Leper Gingerbread Man.

If you have a Facebook account, look me up and I'll send you a fabulous Gingerbread Man. I've got a couple more inappropriate Gingerbread Men up my sleeve, but I haven't the courage to send them to anyone but my sister or closer friends. Let me know if you'd like one and I'll enthrall you. You'd be amazed at what I can do with virtual nonpareils.

[So ends the post of the Social Networking Hypocrite.²]

---------------------------------

¹ Which is kind of tricky since that's what I do, is make things. Nearly every day is Make Something Day for me. Then, of course, I have to sell them, these things I've made, which is what you're not supposed to do. Quandary.

² Email to me: "Given all your activity of late on it, have you decided to fully embrace the social network known as Facebook?"
My reply: "I still think social networking is dumb. The only thing I like about it is when the friends I have signed up are carry-over friends from real life or that I've already met through blogging. I don't like random strangers signing up to be my friend because it doesn't work for me. It's not a way for me to meet people because it isn't."

So there.

Labels: blogging, facebook, friends, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

I am a purist.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 8 comments link this post

Evidently, I'm also old, crazy-eyed, and with facial hair. And a guy.

Hat Tip: Jim

Labels: blogging, internet

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

My blog has been infested by rodents!

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

adopt your own virtual pet!

Labels: internet

SECTIONS

About

Contact

Breaking News!

Events

Press

Sales & Specials

TODAYS HEADLINES

BLOGROLL

Too small a fish.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Getting back either the new or the old iGoogle.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Google Chrome has minions.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Rant against Scribd.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Forms are fun!

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Freedom of access.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Spam Sunday.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Tweets that make me twitter with laughter.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Dumb glass of milk.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Link: VerveEarth

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Dating out of fear of ending up with no teeth.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Dumb questions.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Woman as explained by an engineer.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Email signatures.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Being Fanny Price.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

Bring it on, zombies.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

So you got a stupid eCard from me on Facebook.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

My secret life on Facebook.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

I am a purist.

Like this post? Subscribe to the feed. Click here to help support this site.

My blog has been infested by rodents!