Thinking out loud to teach our kids.

I was thinking about this as I walked up to get my son from school today (yes I said walked. I know) I was thinking about how probably one of the most subtle, yet important aspects of MacGyver was that it (almost subconsciously) taught us how to problem solve.

How many times have we heard MacGyver explain, in either a voice-over or to someone there with him, about “this is the problem I have.” Or “this is what I need to do” and “This is what I have to do/fix it with”. Admittedly they where often deliberately vague in order to maintain that “what’s he doing now?” factor and to provide an element of surprise when the viewer saw the end result, but over all he did often talk us through a very good problem solving process of…

1. Assess the problem
2. Determine what you want the end result to be
3. Identify what tools you have to achieve that result
4. Plan how to use those tools to get the result.

I know I’ve certainly caught myself following this process and I can only assume that I picked it up from watching and emulating MacGyver as a young teen, which lead me to thinking today about how if we “thought out loud” to our kids (if you’re one of those now rare parents that actually do stuff with their kids (is that too cynical?)) as we go about fixing things at home or doing stuff around the house etc, they too would pick up that MacGyver-problem-solving process which would certainly be an invaluable asset to them for the rest of their lives. It won’t make them into MacGyver’s using chewing gum wrappers to fix fuses (that’s a separate thought process again) but it will give them the ability to meet the challenges they will face in life.

Is the Consumers Guarantees Act misleading?

I’ve been hearing some comments and debates in recent times about how we don’t need to purchase extended warrantees because we’re covered under the Consumers Guarantees Act.

Having recently looked into this with the view of actually using it to get a 2 year old Microwave replaced I’ve found that there is actually quite a hassle involved in going through the process and there’s no guarantee you’ll get anything fixed.

Read the full story here

Is shareapic.net a scam?

I’ve just been looking at a new picture sharing site called shareapick.net which pays you per click of any images you host with them. On the surface it seems like a decent idea for helping to subsidize your web sites and blogs etc. You use them as your image host and link to your images in the same way you do with photobucket or any other image host and they pay you for each unique view of your images. So each time someone views an image you have linked in your blog (for example) you get some cents added to your account.

Sounds good right?

That is until you sign up, then you suddenly find a notice which isn’t viewable to non-members stating that they are “temporarily ceasing the issuing of payments to members in order to pool money to fight a pending lawsuit”. The notice goes on to say that earnings will still be accrued, but wont be paid until such time as the law suit is finished and they can afford to pay out the earnings. They continue even further to ask that members continue to keep using there service to build revenue for them and even go so far as to suggest that members could donate their earnings to support the legal battle.

At the very least the fact that this information isn’t shown until after you have joined their service seems very deceptive; But whats more worrying is that this notice has all the features of a classic scam, you know the kind we see in emails? Poor us, we’re fighting a big legal case, we need your help, we promise we’ll pay you when we can, can you donate some money to help us.. etc, etc.

Considering this site collects your login information to the sites it shares your images with, maybe this site should rename itself from shareapic to shareyourinfo.

There’s just too many things not right about this site.

Windows vs. Mac

Reset your forgotten windows login password

If you find you’ve forgotten the password to log into your windows account you can reset it without too much hassle.

• Start by inserting your Windows CD.
• After you get the Welcome screen, go to Windows setup option by pressing Enter key.
• Then select the windows partition you wish to reset the password on. (most people only have one partition so this should be fairly easy to work out)
• Let the process continue until it reaches “Press R to begin repair process”
• Press R and it will start copying files.
• When it’s finished it will automatically reboot your computer. As it reboots do not press any keys when asked to boot from CD.
• When you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10 .
• A command console window will then open up giving you full access to the system.
• In the command console window type NUSRMGR.CPL and press the ENTER key.
• You should then get access to user accounts in the control panel and be able ot change the password there.

Caring for your DVD collection

Many of us worry about wear and tear on our DVD collections such as scratching the surface, which unlike a CD could ruin the disk.

Here are a few simple ideas which I have found to be very helpful in providing the best possible protection for your treasures as well as preventing a costly replacement.

Don’t use the cases they came in
You can provide much better protection and prevent damage when removing or placing the disks in the cases by using a Disk Wallet to store your disks. Disk wallets come in various sizes and capacity (so you’ll find one which will hold your entire set in one case) and are designed to be soft and non-damaging to your disks when placing or removing them from the sleeves; This prevents surface scratching and pressure points encountered from the normal hard plastic center clip cases most DVD sets come in, the inside sleeve material will also help to keep the disk clean.

If you have the full season set, your disks will be loose in the box with no protection at all, so they are in even more need of a good DVD wallet.

You can of coarse print off a nice label to glue or tape on the end of the wallet to give it a nice finish for your book shelf.

Don’t put the disk down on any surface
One of the worst things we can do is leave the disk lying around. Even just putting it down for a moment is enough to scratch the surface with bits of dust or other surface debris. While these may be very small scratches at first, over time the number of scratches will build up and where they over lap become deeper, which will result in reading errors while you’re trying to watch the disc.

The best policy is to always move the disk from its case to the DVD player and straight back into the case when you’re finished with it. Never put it down even for a moment.

Handle the disk by the edges only
It’s much better to avoid fingerprints on your disk rather than undertaking the risky business of wiping them off and almost certainly leaving a scratch or mark of some kind in its place. You can do this simply by holding the disk with a finger or hand against either side of the disk. An alternative is to use a finger in the center hole of the disk. Although if done incorrectly or with too much force this can put undue pressure on the disk, which over time could result in pressure marks or splits, so holding by the sides is the best way to handle a disk

Use a proper disk cleaner
Only ever use a proper “circular motion disc cleaner” to clean a disk. These cheap little devices are designed as a home version of the professional cleaners used in rental stores. They use a special spray and circular cleaning device to safely remove dirt and repair minor surface scratches on the disk. My one has fixed many a rented movie as well as saved a few of my own disks and I highly recommend them.

Home disk cleaning kit

Don’t store your disks in direct sun light
Even though some disk wallets are designed to protect disks from sun damage, the temperature inside a wallet will still increase dramatically if the sun is shining directly on the case. That kind of temperature change from cool to hot and back to cool, can place a disk under damaging stress as the plastic expands and contracts with the temperature changes. Over time this expansion-contraction process can cause a disk to warp and/or damage the track information stored on the disk surface rendering it useless.

*snuggles*

Bear Warning!

Weeing game consoles.

Who was the dumb ass that came up with the idea of calling a game console the Wee?

Do we really want kids asking their friends if they want to play with their wee? Or people walking into stores asking for a wee?
“I’m sorry we don’t have public toilets sir.”

“Grandpa, come and look at my new wee.”
O_O “New? wee? I can’t even find my old wee.”

Imagine Santa’s surprise when kids sitting on his knee tell him they want a wee for Christmas.
“What would like from Santa this year little boy?”
“I’d like a wee.”
O_O “Now!? Get this kid off me he’s gonna wee!!.. oh you mean Wii.. Ho Ho Ho.. silly Santa”.

*shakes head*

They call the software for the console wiiware. Wee Ware? The first thing I think of when I hear that is a raincoat and rubber boots.

What a ridiculous name.

Yes I realize that the name is suppose to represent that we all can play it and it’s an easy word to be said in all languages, but come on.. Wee??.. really??

Wouldn’t ALL be a better name to represent that it can be played by ALL people of ALL generations in ALL countries? Imagine the advertising they could get from ALL as a name.

“it’s ALL you’ll ever need.”

“Made for ALL.”

“Even if you combined ALL our competition into one, they still wouldn’t be ALL.”

“Be ALL you can be”

You could have a lot of fun and inspiring slogans with it.

If only they had put some more thought into the name instead of weeing all over it.

Home-made Hockey Stick

home made hockey stick

There’s a couple of reasons I decided to try making a hockey stick…

1. Because ice/inline hockey isn’t very popular in this part of the world, the equipment is harder to come by, and quite expensive.

2. I only want it to skate around on my own up at a local old outdoor roller skate area. (or on week-ends down at the school with my kids)

So I decided that all I really needed was something that resembled a hockey stick which I could dribble and hit a ball around with while I got some exercise on my roller blades.  Skating around in circles is pretty boring; chasing a ball around with a hockey stick is much more fun.

So after doing some research (via my good friend Google); I found the various measurements of standard hockey sticks, and set about looking for suitable materials to use.

I figured it was going to be all wood, and didn’t’ take long to find a piece of long thin wood for a handle and a small piece of compressed plywood for the blade section.

Blade cut out of compressed plywood

First task was to draw out the shape of the blade and lower shaft and cut it out using an electric jigsaw.

The piece of wood used is considerably thicker than a normal hockey blade, but this will (in time) give me the chance of developing a curve in the blade.

Although old hockey sticks never use to have a curve in the blade, it does make for better control of the ball or puck.

metal used to attach blade to handle

My next big problem was how I was going to attach the blade to the handle. Normal sticks are glued, but also made so one section partially slides inside the other to make for a firm attachment. I don’t have the equipment required to do that, so I decided to look at bracing the two pieces together.

I found a piece of angled aluminum from an old dead BBQ I had dismantled last summer; the metal was a bit too wide, but I decided to cut it in half (jigsaw fitted with a hacksaw blade made quick work of this) and use it as a splint brace to join the two pieces.

I was a little disappointed to find that the angled aluminum wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped it would be, so I needed to add a second strip on the other side of the join area for a bit of extra support, which worked out well.

So the end product is understandably heavier than a professional made stick due to the thickness of the blade and I guess the kind of wood used. But in time I’m hoping to get around to thinning the blade down and adding a curve to it, although I’m not sure of the woods strength so I’m a little hesitant to make it too thin.

home made hockey stick

I gave it a good work out this afternoon with a bit of one-on-one roller hockey against my son with his home made stick down at their school. It worked well and stood up nicely to the riggers of the game.

Facebook, a tool of change.

It would seem that some people have finally found a use for Facebook, as a tool of change.

What better way to start a partition or get your case out in the public than doing it where potentially millions of people will see it in a very short time?

That’s exactly what happened to Television New Zealand when they launched a new idea of using TXT styled language in their new promos for upcoming shows.

Some industrious person who didn’t like the idea started a group on Facebook called “I hate TV2’s new abbreviations”, it rapidly gained more than 6000 members and came to the attention of the bosses at the TV station. They said that along with the “dozens of emails and letters” has caused them to stop using the idea.

And so we see Facebook becoming the modern day equivalent of the old underground communications network.

Read the news item here