Subject: Hi Jeremy Buy Heroin, cocaine and other shit from timothystuff
I am very sorry for you Jeremy, is a pity that this is how your life is
going to end as soon as you don’t comply. As you can see there is no need
of introducing myself to you because I don’t have any business with you,
my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL you and I have to do it
as I have already been paid for that. But I give you a chance. Call my neighbor 315-678-2789 and say password “there is time to save my skin” and if that would sound convincing, I will forget about you.
Tell him this password for Timothy Sinclair (be sure it is not my real name).

WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELLING ANYONE
BECAUSE I WILL KNOW.

Well, if I end up dead, its been a good life.

I landed a job at a web-hosting company.  It wasn’t just any job — it turned out to be one of the best things in my life thus far.  I work with a small group of extremely talented people whose combined knowledge could overload a supercomputer.  I have superiors but they do not make me feel inferior.  I not only get to come up with ideas but implement them.  I spend most of my time dealing with server related issues but my input in many areas of the company is respected.

I have the joy of getting paid to “play” with computers, help customers avoid certain web disaster, become a Linux guru and, with the help of my co-workers, learn the skills it takes to be a damn fine system engineer.

I hope anyone who reads this has the opportunity, at least once in their life, to truly enjoy their career.  There is nothing better in life than enjoying what you do for a living.

“Classic” Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel

• Tingling and numbness in your thumb, index and middle finger.
• Aching in the forearm which can radiate to the shoulder and clumsiness or weak grip.

“Other” Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel

• Tingling in all fingers
• Tingling only in the thumb or the middle finger
• Aching and pain in the hand
• Radiating pain to the shoulder or back.

If I stretched it a bit I supposed I could have made my symptoms meed a few of these criteria but in reality I had the following:

• Pain in the pinky finger (mostly the right hand)
• Pain in the wrist (mostly on the right side)
• The pain would increase as the day progressed
• My pink would become “non-responsive” — it just wouldn’t work

I decided to consult my father who has worked in sports medicine for the past 30 years and has dealt with more repetitive-motion injuries than anyone I know.  He asked me a few questions and had me do a few self-tests.  He was almost certain that, based on the symptoms, it couldn’t be carpal-tunnel.  Instead he believed it was tendonitis (inflamed tendons).  He warned that tendonitis would not get better unless I used my hands as little as possible.  Knowing that wasn’t an option he recommended that I go to CVS and buy a hand/wrist brace that kept my hands “still” as much as possible.

I have been using the brace for five days now and the results are dramatic.  My hands feel 100% better.  The moral of the story: Don’t jump to the worst possible conclusion…talk to a health professional and get the real scoop.  A $10 brace might fix the problem!

Note: I am not a health professional and this post is not meant to diagnose anything!  If you are experiencing hand pain please consult a health professional for an official diagnosis.

She reminds me when to do things without being rude, stops talking when I tell her to, doesn’t bother me if I don’t want to talk, never forgets anything, and probably best of all, she never costs me a penny.

Doesn’t she sound perfect? In reality Sandy is from iwantsandy.com and she can do some pretty cool things. She is a virtual assistant that you access through something most of you probably use everyday — your e-mail. There is not software to install, nothing to download and no cost.

Sandy can:

• Help you remember something
• Set a reminder
• Make to do lists
• Add contacts that you can lookup with a quick e-mail.

For a more complete list, check out the Quick Guide. Just send her an e-mail and she will remind you whenever you tell her to (or at a default time). One of my favorite things is you can CC: her on an e-mail about something important and Sandy will remember and remind you when it’s time via e-mail, text message, Twitter or all three.

There are all kinds of reminder programs, calendar programs and the like available for download and purchase but what makes this one different, at least for me, is that it integrates so well with my life. I use check my e-mail all the time for work and personal reasons and the options of text reminders are nice when you’re on the go.

If you are looking for an easy way to manage your appointments and save some time, give Sandy a try. She won’t let you down.

I upgraded from 7.04 “Feisty Fawn” to 7.10 “Gusty Gibbon” last Friday and have been completely thrilled with the results. The system fonts have been refined, icons have been tweaked and 1000′s of updates have been applied. Most will go unnoticed by the average user but the one feature that stands out, at least in my opinion, is the integration of Compiz Fusion windows manager. Many Linux users may know of Beryl, a popular eye candy producing add-on for the X desktop system. Well, Compiz and Beryl, have become one (again) and created a desktop environment that makes Vista’s features look weak and feeble. For more on Compiz Fusion, read here.

Check out the video below to see all the completely kick-ass features. I was able to get all of the working on my system with no problems what-so-ever. My daughter loves the “Fire writing”.

His results got me thinking about how people learn. While I usually learn best with a combination of written, verbal and visual cue’s, any method seems to suit me. This is not true with my son. He is very occupied with facts and concrete things. He likes to be told how to do a task one way, and chaces are he will never deviate from that pattern again. He is great with anything he can memorize. The problem comes when he has to apply the concrete facts in abstract ways. On his test he didn’t do so hot when he had to answer an essay question that required him describe the effect of Lake Michigan on the climate of Michigan. His answer:

“If you feel how cold or warm it is and thats how you know how the Lake Michigan affects the climate of Michgan.”

While technically correct, the answer didn’t quite have the substance needed for full credit. I talked to him about his answer and because, after years of practice I have learned to word questions to suit his learning style, I found out he indeed know how Lake Michigan affects our climate. Problem is, the world can’t constantly suit his learning style. We have to teach him to adapt and that will take years longer than most students.

How do you learn? How does your learning style affect you? Does it dictate the type of work you do? Does it help or hinder you in life? Take a test and find out your learning style (while at the same time helping a research study). Click here to take the test from NC State Univerisity. Report the results in the comments.

It was released July 21st, just 3 days ago. I sat, a grown man, waiting for a (so called) children’s book. It arrived early Saturday morning, around 8:30 a.m. via UPS. The box was striped with bold lettering, “Do Not Open before July 21st!” I ripped the box apart and saw the off-yellow cover of the book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

It felt weird holding a book I had been waiting nearly 10 years to read. I knew that inside an adventure that began in 1998 (US Release) with the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was finally coming to a close. I had read each previous installment feverishly, at a pace that usually involved nothing else being done for about 10 hours. I read then again when I was bored. The books brought me back to a place I used to visit frequently in childhood with books like The Castle in the Attic or The Indiana in the Cupboard. In this place I became lost. My mind entered the book and the world around seemed to disappear. I could see the characters faces like they were in front of me. I feet their triumphs, failures, hope and loss. The Harry Potter series took me back to this place and sometimes I didn’t want to leave.

The final book Harry Potter book was hard to read. I knew that once I started I wouldn’t stop until I was done. I knew that if I started it would be the last time I read a new adventure of Harry Potter. I spread out my reading over two days. I spent a majority of Sunday reading and finished it off last night. I feared that if I did not read it quickly some bastard on the news or elsewhere would irresponsibly share details of the book that might spoil the ending.

It may sound odd to most but I found myself, at times, tearing up as I read the book. The emotions I felt as I turned each page are hard to put into words. I didn’t want to reach the end but I had to know what happen to the boy wizard I had been following for so long. My daughter, wife, mom and sister have all read the books and have eagerly awaited each new addition but I get the feeling that they don’t quite feel the same way I do about them.

Here I sit, a grown man with kids of my own, mourning the end of of a series of children’s books. Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for your books. They mean more to me than I can put into words.

As you watch, think of what technologies like this could bring to your daily life then think, “If we can do this now, what will it be like in 10 years.” Leave me your thoughts on the future of computing in the comments. I will make a post out of them. For more information check out the official Microsoft page.

This is a short “intro”:

This is an “in-depth” overview that took place on the Microsoft campus.