Plumb Pak Toilet Flush Tank Lever Highly Recommended

The toilet handle disintegrated and I was forced to pick up a new lever. I had already reported on the HydroFlush Water Saver adapter that saves water depending on the flush load, but I have found out over time that the interface is not simple for inexperienced users to grasp. I will continue to look for alternatives, but in the meantime, I went to Lowes and purchased a solid solution. It's the Premium Tank Lever by Plumb Pak in polished brass (item #79890) and I am really liking it so far. It was easy to install in about 10-15 minutes but more importantly, it's all brass. There are no plastic or fake metal parts to break like the last unit. I would definitely recommend this product: http://www.lowes.com/pd_79890-143-PP836-73L_5003696__?productId=3135311&Ntt=toilet+tank&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl__5003696__s%3FNtt%3Dtoilet%2Btank&facetInfo=$10%20-$15

Posted with Blogsy

Apple TV vs Google TV vs Roku vs Boxee vs…

Here is a great snapshot comparison from the Device Guru comparing:

Apple TV vs Google TV vs Roku vs Boxee vs…

http://deviceguru.com/google-tv-vs-apple-tv-vs-boxee-vs-roku/

Golf Handicap - What does that really mean?

I was trying to determine how my golf handicap was calculated and this web site was very helpful: http://golf.about.com/od/handicaps/l/blhandicapincal.htm

I learned that your Handicap index is not meant to reflect your average score, it's meant to reflect your best potential.

Here are some other important definitions:

• Course rating tells scratch golfers how difficult the course will be;
• Slope rating (a term trademarked by the USGA) is a measurement of the difficulty of a golf course for bogey golfers relative to the course rating. The minimum slope rating is 55 and the maximum is 155, average difficulty is 113
• ESC: Equitable Stroke Control: is part of the USGA Handicap System, and is a feature of that system that is designed to minimize the effects of "distaster holes".  ESC sets a maximum per-hole score that you can turn in for handicap purposes, and those per-hole maximums are based on your course handicap.
• Adjusted Gross Score:  Gross score is, of course, every stroke a golfer has taken during a round, added up to a total score. Adjusted gross score is a golfer's stroke total for a round after accounting for the maximum per-hole scores allowed by the USGA's Equitable Stroke Control (ESC) guidelines.Also note that even when ESC limits are in use, golfers must still count all their strokes. If you score 89, you don't get to claim to your buddies that you shot 79 because of ESC limits. Your score is the number of strokes you used. But the score you submit to a handicap committee is the total that results after you apply Equitable Stroke Control (and that figure is known as your adjusted gross score).
• Course handicap is really the crux of the USGA Handicapping System. It's the number that determines how many strokes - if any - you get to reduce your net score by on each hole at each different golf course you play.Course handicap is a result of the addition of "slope rating" to "course rating" as factors in the USGA Handicapping System in the early 1980s. A player's scores and the course ratings and slope ratings of golf courses played are used to calculate a "handicap index." But not all golf courses are created equal; some are easy, some are tough, and some are in the middle. What happens if your handicap index was earned playing a very easy course, but now you're about to play a very tough course? Handicap index alone doesn't account for that, so a second calculation is needed. That second calculation is course handicap, which adjusts your handicap index up or down depending on the degree of difficulty of the specific course you're about to play.
• USGA Handicap Index is a numeral, to one decimal place, that represents a golfer's potential for scoring. A handicap index of 14.5, for example, indicates that a golfer will, on his or her best days, shoot somewhere around 14 or 15 strokes over par.  Handicap Index is not an average of a golfer's scores, but rather an estimate of what the golfer might shoot on his or her best days

After reading through all of the pages, I decided to create my own spreadsheet to help determine exactly what my score is when taking into consideration the "Course Handicap". Take a look at this https://www.dropbox.com/s/yi7zgrikjagkyfj/Handicap-Template.xls handicap template spreadsheet.  I hope this helps.

Mag Lev Tube: NY to LA in 2 Hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McpWcn-1RZU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Enable the Debug Feature in iCal for Bonus Features and Tweaks

http://lifehacker.com/5886836/

How do germs spread?

 "Most germs are spread through the air in sneezes, coughs, or even breaths. Germs can also spread in sweat, saliva, and blood. Some pass from person to person by touching something that is contaminated, like shaking hands with someone who has a cold and then touching your own nose.

Steering clear of the things that can spread germs is the best way to protect yourself. And that means . . .

Hand washing! Remember the two words germs fear — soap and water. Washing your hands well and often is the best way to beat these tiny warriors. Wash your hands every time you cough or sneeze, before you eat or prepare foods, after you use the bathroom, after you touch animals and pets, after you play outside, and after you visit a sick relative or friend.

There is a right way to wash your hands. Use warm water and soap and rub your hands together for at least 15 seconds, which is about how long it takes to sing "Happy Birthday."

Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze and cover your mouth when you cough to keep from spreading germs. So if you have to cough, it is best to do it in your elbow so your are not contaminating your hands.

Using tissues for your sneezes and sniffles is another great weapon against germs. But don't just throw tissues on the floor to pick up later. Toss them in the trash and, again, wash your hands!

Another way to fight and prevent infections is to make sure you get all the routine immunizations from your doctor. No one likes to get shots but these help keep your immune system strong and prepared to battle germs. You can also keep your immune system strong and healthy by eating well, exercising regularly, and getting good sleep. All this will help you to be prepared to fight germs that cause illness.

Now that you know the facts about germs, you may still pick up a cough or a cold once in a while, but you'll be ready to keep most of those invading germs from moving in.

Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD

Date reviewed: April 2011"

http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/germs.html#

25,000 Pics in iPhoto with Thousands of Duplicates

About 3 years ago my hard drive crashed.  On top of that, my backup software was partially working, so I had to piece together a lot of files and folders.  I sent my hard drive into a repair company that charged about $1,000 to extract the data.  Fortunately, they pulled out most of the files.  Unfortunately, a lot of the files were duplicates and even worse, the files were renamed to unrecognizable numbers, i.e. 111.pdf, 112.pdf, 113.pdf, etc.  As you can imagine, it took hours and days to get everything re-organized.  I dumped all of my photos into my iPhoto library.  While I was psyched to have not lost my pictures, I soon realized that my iPhoto library had mushroomed to over 25,000 pictures.  I finally got around to calling AppleCare tech support and they said that they do not have any remedies for this, however they did say that some people have used Duplicate Annihilator with some degree of success.  I downloaded the software and paid the $7.95.  Turns out this was a great investment.  I was able to extract about 8,000 duplicates from my library.  Even more exciting was that I was able to regain over 8 gigs of hard drive space!!  Great job to Brattoo Propaganda Software.  Thank you!

Google is Watching!

Curious to know what Google is monitoring?  Here is a link to a web site that will explain how they use your information: www.google.com/ads/preferences

Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems

Top 5 things you should know about driving on Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO)

Hard Drive Swap and Spotlight is Not Working

If you have recently swapped out your hard drive on your Apple computer, or ventured into hyper-speed with SSD upgrade (highly recommended), you may have noticed that your spotlight search is no longer working, or partially working.

The solution is simple... just REBUILD your spotlight database. The quick way to do it is:

1. go to system preferences
2. choose spotlight
3. click on "privacy"
4. click on the "+" sign at the bottom
5. add your entire hard drive
6. quit system preferences (you may want to restart at this point)
7. re-launch spotlight preferences in your system preferences into the privacy pane
8. click on the "-" minus sign and REMOVE your hard drive from privacy
9. close system preferences

At this point, if you go to search on spotlight, you will notice something that looks like this:

This means that spotlight is rebuilding your searching database and reindexing.  This worked great for me and I hope you have similar success.

Good luck.

Are you in the top 1%? You may be surprised...

If your household income is $384,000 or higher, you are in the top 1% of earners in the United States according to the New York Times. Check out this link to see where you fit in:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/15/business/one-percent-map.html?ref=business

or view the entire article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/the-1-percent-paint-a-more-nuanced-portrait-of-the-rich.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Mac Mail for Heavy Users

Are you using Apple's Mail program on your Mac? If so, you may remember how fast the program ran when it first started. If you don't keep your folders small, then you may run into problems. After calling Apple support, I found out that it is recommended to keep less than 2,000 emails in your folders. I deleted about 25,000 emails and now my mail program is working so much better. It has stopped crashing and everything is working great. It took some time to delete the files out of the folders because once the emails were moved to trash, I had to empty the trash and the Mail program would choke on large trash dumps. It required force quitting a couple times when I tried to delete to many emails at once. Eventually I got through it all and now Mail is working great and so much faster.

SIRI Command List

There is a great list of SIRI commands at this web site; and I have extracted part of the list below:

Calendars
Adding Events

• Set up a meeting at 9
• Set up a meeting with Michael at 9
• Meet with Lisa at noon
• Set up a meeting about hiring tomorrow at 9am
• New appointment with Susan Park Friday at 3
• Schedule a planning meeting at 8:30 today in the boardroom

Changing events

• Move my 3pm meeting to 4:30
• Reschedule my appointment with Dr. Manning to next Monday at 9am
• Add Lisa to my meeting with Jason
• Cancel the budget review meeting

Asking about events

• What does the rest of my day look like?
• What’s on my calendar for Friday?
• When is my next appointment?
• When am I meeting with Michael?
• Where is my next meeting?

Alarms
Setting Alarms

• Wake me up tomorrow at 7am
• Set an alarm for 6:30am
• Wake me up in 8 hours
• Change my 6:30 alarm to 6:45
• Turn off my 6:30 alarm
• Delete my 7:30 alarm

Checking the Clock

• What time is it?
• What time is it in Berlin?
• What is today’s date?
• What’s the date this Saturday?

Using a Timer

• Set the timer for ten minutes
• Show the timer
• Pause the timer
• Resume
• Reset the timer
• Stop it

Email
Sending Messages

• Email Lisa about the trip
• Email Jennifer about the change in plans
• New email to Susan Park
• Mail Dad about the rent check
• Email Dr. Manning and say I got the forms, thanks
• Mail Lisa and Jason about the party and say I had a great time

Checking Messages

• Check email
• Any new email from Michael today?
• Show new mail about the lease
• Show the email from Lisa yesterday

Responding to Messages

• Reply Dear Susan sorry about the late payment
• Call him at work

Friends
Checking Up on Friends

• Where’s Jason?
• Where is my sister?
• Is my wife at home?
• Where are all my friends?
• Who is here?
• Who is near me?

Maps
Directions

• How do I get home?
• Show 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino California
• Directions to my dad’s work

Local Businesses

• Find coffee near me
• Where is Starbucks?
• Find some burger joints in Baltimore
• Find a gas station within walking distance
• Good Mexican restaurants around here

Messages
Sending Texts

• Tell Susan I’ll be right there
• Send a message to Jason Russell
• Send a message to Lisa saying how about tomorrow
• Tell Jennifer the show was great
• Send a message to Susan on her mobile saying I’ll be late
• Send a message to 408 555 1212
• Text Jason and Lisa where are you?

Reading Texts

• Read my new messages
• Read it again

Replying to Texts

• Reply that’s great news
• Tell him I’ll be there in 10 minutes
• Call her

Music
Playback

• Play The Light of the Sun
• Play Trouble
• Play Taking Back Sunday shuffled
• Play Alicia Keys
• Play some blues
• Play my party mix
• Shuffle my roadtrip playlist
• Play
• Pause
• Skip

Notes
Creating and finding notes

• Note that I spent $12 on lunch
• Note: check out that new Alicia Keys album
• Find my restaurant note
• Create a reading list note
• Add Tom Sawyer to my reading list note

Phone
Phone calls

• Call Jason
• Call Jennifer Wright mobile
• Call Susan on her work phone
• Call 408 555 1212
• Call home
• FaceTime Lisa

Reminders
Requesting reminders

• Remind me to call mom
• Remind me to call my mom when I get home
• Remember to take an umbrella
• Remind me take my medicine at 6am tomorrow
• Remind me to pick up flowers when I leave here
• Remind me when I leave to call Jason
• Remind me to finish the report by 6

Stocks
Checking Stocks

• What’s Apple’s stock price?
• What is Apple’s PE ratio?
• What did Yahoo close at today?
• How is the Nikkei doing?
• How are the markets doing?
• What is the Dow at?

Weather
Checking the Forecast

• What’s the weather for today?
• What’s the weather for tomorrow?
• Will it rain in Cupertino this week?
• Check next week’s forecast for Burlington
• What’s the forecast for this evening?
• How’s the weather in Tampa right now?
• How hot will it be in Palm Springs this weekend?
• What’s the high for Anchorage on Thursday?
• What’s the temperature outside?
• How windy is it out there?
• When is sunrise in Paris?

Websearch
Looking up information

• Search the web for Bora Bora
• Search for vegetarian pasta recipes
• Search the web for best cable plans
• Google the war of 1812
• Search Wikipedia for Abraham Lincoln
• Search for news about the World Cup
• Bing Alicia Keys

Using Wolfram Alpha

• How many calories in a bagel?
• What is an 18% tip on $86.74 for four people?
• Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?
• How long do dogs live?
• What is the Gossamer Condor?
• What’s the square root of 128?
• How many dollars is €45?
• What was the Best Picture of 1983?
• How many days until Christmas?
• How far away is the Sun?
• When is the next solar eclipse?
• Show me the Orion constellation
• What’s the population of Jamaica?
• How high is Mt. Everest?
• How deep is the Atlantic ocean?
• What’s the price of gasoline in Chicago?..