The JimDandy

I have found after more than three weeks for cycling daily in everything I do and everywhere I go, cycling is an incredibly zen experience. Moving to a new place, new job and meeting new people, it has been an exciting and equally stressful time for me.

From this place of stress, I find that I can immediately (and I do mean immediately) de-stress when I start cycling. Some people may find this strange since cycling in traffic can sometimes be an extremely stressful affair, especially for a newbie like me. However I found this to be far from the truth.

I found the following truths about cycling.

• I am more mindful for my surrounding. I have found wonderful places and meet people I would not have otherwise.
• I am more mindful of myself. Cycling daily, I find that I’m calmer, breathing slower and more focused of my actions.
• On my way home, I take the long way. This is literal as Friday night I literally cycled the opposite direction from home. It was a wonderful night cycling and enjoying Brisbane at night.
• I find time ceases to exist. I clear my day simply to cycle and enjoy the moment. We simply do not to this anymore in our daily life. I am closer to the environment around me and close to God.

From what I’ve learned so far, cycling is a zen affair. I encourage you to take up cycling. Not competitively but just to enjoy it as it is. Simply a way to get you from A to B while enjoying life and enjoying yourself along the way.

And remember that the long way, it the best way

I’m now living in Brisbane. Almost two weeks counting and I’m starting to settled in.

Like many others everyone round the world, I’m starting again. Starting again in a new and exciting place in Queensland, Australia. Well ok, so many of my mates in Oz will say Melbourne and Sydney is more exciting, but to me Brisbane is the most exciting right now; and here’s why.

I’m starting again, and I’m embracing simplicity. It’s not minimalism (that’s simplicity with style, which I sadly lack, lol), and it’s not entirely being frugal (I do my best though). But I’m fully embracing simp (ask E. de Bono) and like any new beginning, I’ve promised friends and family I’ll share in my adventures.

So far I’ve taken up cycling and given up my car. I’ve started cooking healthy (and it’s yummy!) and started to simplify my life, both at home, work and play. I’ve already found that my focus at work and play has improved and I’m getting more energy for daily life. Stay tunes, my blog will start flowing along soon.

Our world today is so commercialized that event Christmas has been hijacked by bad businesses. We all need to stop and be present for one another during this time and remember what it’s all about.

Thanks to Being Frugal for reminding me this.

Advent Conspiracy [via Being Frugal]

It’s not often I read a blog post on a security tip pass around on a chain mail. However this security tip is good and important enough that like the blog which I read it from, I’ve forwarded it to my friends and family; and of course pass it forward here too.

GPS

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was

parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included

a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.

The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain

entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so

they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS – don’t put your home address in it. Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you

can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

MOBILE PHONES

I never thought of this…….

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which

contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet… Etc…was stolen.

20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says ‘I received your text asking

about our Pin number and I’ve replied a little while ago.’

When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen

cell phone to text ‘hubby’ in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their

bank account.

Moral of the lesson:

Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc….

And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.

Also, when you’re being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came

from them. If you don’t reach them, be very careful about going places to meet ‘family and friends’ who text you.

Now you read it, pass it on. More power to your safety!
This was originally posted on TBR.cc (http://briefingroom.typepad.com)

It’s almost common place in every city I’ve been to these days. Traffic is everywhere.

Recently on a trip to Christchurch, an apparently bike friendly city; I was surprised at the traffic and dangerous driving practices of the local drivers there. This is coming from me, an Auckland driver! This is why I love driving small cars (among other reasons, go karting comes to mind) and am now seriously considering taking up cycling where I can. Sure its sound crazy but I have to start somewhere.

Queentown, Wanaka and Te Anau has given me a glimpse of what a cycling friendly town can be like. But first I need to start to learn to cycle myself (^^; I’m getting better but still a fair way yet). Have a read on this old article (70’s) on cycle infrastructure and let me know if I’m crazy.

The Social Ideology of the Motorcar via
Bakfiets en Meer

It seems that Skype may leave over 480 million registered users without services due to a licensing dispute. This is the perfect example of why you should use open source software and APIs for your business (or products). All it takes is a dispute, misunderstanding or plain old greed to potential damage your business.

I’m sure most Skype users won’t hear this news. But when their call service stops, or when their Skype devices fail (once eBay re-writes their P2P software), there’s going to be a lot of very unhappy users. Google will be happy to step in with Google Voice and Google Chat.

They should look into the source code for eMule for some open source P2P love. Or maybe some open source P2P libraries. I hope eBay gets this sorted out. I need Skype here, well until Google Voice is avaliable here anyway.

- story via Slashdot

As a recent convert to a Mac (after many ‘fails’ on Vista and XP) I had the usual “Why doesn’t ctrl-C work?” questions. Having no Apple guru’s close by, I decided that many users like me needed a short quick start to OS X.

Keyboard Guide

There are a lot of keyboard shortcut guides out there. You first need to know the following below.

• ‘command’ key, it’s sometimes called the  apple key. You cut ( – x), copy ( – c), and paste ( – p) with this as well as the usual open ( – o), close ( – w), new ( – n) and quit ( – q).
• ‘control’, the key you used to use.
• ‘option’, also know as ‘alt’.
• ‘cap locks’
• ’shift’

Before you check out any keyboard guide, read this first. This Apple guide is pretty much all the keyboard shortcut you’ll ever need.

! note: If you’re using X11 based software on OS X, the keyboard shortcut (for the X11 software) may revert back to Unix ctrl-c and ctrl-v etc.

Software Guide

Now that you got your Mac, you need to load it up with software. Before you head to the Apple store or torrent sites, check for an open source version of what you need. Chances are that it’s better than what you’re after. Below are three excellent starting point for open source software for OS X.

• http://www.opensourcemac.org/ – has a good list of software you’re most likely to use.
• Apple.com UNIX & Open Source – also all open source software for OS X.
• http://www.apple.com/opensource/ – this is more for software developers. It’s best to search here first before you head to SourceForge or Google.

If you can’t find the software you need from the link above, try here.

Backup Guide

Use Time Machine which is already installed on OS X. Get an external hard drive, preferable one not LAN based as they’ll be too slow. Once you have your hard drive, make it your backup drive. The instructions are here.

My advise is to leave it on automatic and regularly connect your Mac to your backup hard drive. Always do this as you’ll never know when your Mac may break or get stolen. (Hey, you never know)

That’s it for this short quick start. If there is anything you can add or wish to know, please feel free to add a comment. Thanks!

“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!”

Ah! Wasn’t that fun. It’s been a while since I wrote anything on my blog. There’s also been a lot of spam as well. So when I thought of upgrading wordpress and askimet I simply decided to reinstall. Go for a new start and what not.

It was then I thought what was my blog all about. It’s was really just some random rants. There really was no direction or purpose for my blog unlike many others out there. That’s when I realise that my blog is just an extended comment box. I simply write when I have something to write about. All past post will disappear when Google cache or Bing is cleared.

This blog is just a tool I use. It’s an extension to Twitter, Facebook, Flikr and whatever social media platform or software is coming our way. There is nothing more to it.

Move along, nothing to see here. ^_^;