respublica

Could it be any smaller?

On major holidays or on anniversary of famous people's birthdays/deaths, google's home page often commemorate's the event with a big banner. Today is Memorial Day and Google once again adds to its home page, but take a look-how small can they make the flag?

It'll be gone by tomorrow.

Sign in

Why am I opening up my online sites this morning and having to sign in for every single one of them?

How to keep people from knowing what you read online

At least you can keep your Facebook friends from seeing what articles you've read. Anyone on Facebook occasionally sees that one friend or other has just read something and the link to the article comes up. If this public airing of what you read doesn't appeal to you, here's the way to block public view.

Adobe nuisance

Is there any program which wants to be updated more than Adobe? Maybe iTunes, but it seems like every third morning I turn on the computer to see Adobe wanting me to update. Can't they just get it right for awhile?

Thursday Tech

The New York Times Business section features new technology stories each Thursday and more often than not the reports are interesting and useful. There are 2 today that you may find worthwhile reading.

1. How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet.  While impossible to totally hide what you've done or where you've been on the web, some of the hints in this story may keep some of your information away from advertisers and others. As I wrote the other day, whenever I buy something online I am inundated with emails from advertisers for at least a week. It would be nice to avoid this.

3. An airport guide app for iphone and Android which gives you information about airports including an alphabetical list of restaurants, their locations and descriptions of them. Some also include security line wait times, flight delays, parking lots, ATM locations. There are tips which save you time and money in airports.

When buying things online one thing is certain

For a week or two after buying online your email inbox is going to be inundated with offers from dozens of other stores, probably stores you'd never even consider buying from.

I made two online purchases last week and the emails from various places just keep on coming. It's the web version of the old time junk mail from the mailman.

And, I went to Talbots yesterday to find something fresh to wear for the seminary's biggest day of the year, Call Day. This morning I find an email from Talbots saying, "Dear Diane, It was so nice to see you the other day at our Plaza Frontenac store! We look forward to seeing you again soon...and sharing our executive e-mail offers."

As much as I like Talbots because I find things that fit right, this was disconcerting.

Weber's grilling app

With the start of outdoor grilling, the folks at Weber Grills have created on snappy app which features all kinds of grilling tips and over 250 recipes and videos which include not only the meat, but sauces, rubs and more.

The app has a way for you to tag or bookmark recipes which you want to keep and lets you make grocery lists. 

Weber's On the Grill is a big file and will take up a bit of space, but if you're a griller, this is one you'll want to get.  Works best on the ipad but is also available for the iphone.

With all those pop up ads it was bound to happen

Clicked on a story in the Post Dispatch just now and the expected pop up ad appeared but this time it was a bad one which warned me my computer's drivers were old and began a download without my permission. Fortunately my virus protection caught it right away and cleaned things.

There are so many pop up ads, many okayed by websites. But good websites can't always count on all of them being innocous.  

I think I'll stay off the P-D for a while.

The wired world constantly amazes

There are still people who aren't interested the wired world, don't see any benefit, think it's a waste of time, but they're missing out. I doubt a day goes by that I'm not in awe of the technical marvels we have.

This week I'm especially grateful, we may be in Florida for a few days but can read the St. Louis papers, facetime with our kids, keep up with what is going on in the world, blog, tweet, download photos, read a book. We're powering the laptop with my iPhone's personal hotspot which gives us a fast wireless connection. It's amazing stuff.

As my dad always said...

"They don't get it from strangers".

Oh boy. look at them reading their Facebook pages. Drew is thumbing away while his dad reads.