He has just posted his second post over at http://jontempies.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-2.html and has already hit the “What on earth do I write?” dilemma. So go take a visit, give him some comments and encouragement.
I look forward to reading some great posts from him and have already added him to my Google Reader.
Talking about Google Reader, how many of you guys have active subscriptions there? Do you have any management tips on how to manage your reading more efficiently? I have recently unsubscribed to some interesting feeds because of time constraints reading them, if I could manage my reading better I would not have to mark whole batches of posts as read due to not having time to read them.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
So I have this friend who is studying anthropology, now I have never gone into detail with her as to what exactly anthropology is, but today I found a video which is really interesting called “An anthropological introduction to YouTube”. The guy presenting has done a really good job describing one of the elements of Web 2.0. He speaks about how the second version of the web is less about the technology of the internet and more about the people of the internet.
It started me thinking about the people that read my blog, I have had quite a few of my friends comment on my writing and this has sort of convicted me that I don’t spend much time on my blog. It is fairly difficult coming up with new unique content so I want you guys to help. I would like you guys to comment on my posts and let me know what you would like me to write about or if you read something you enjoy, then let me know to give you more of it.
Well here is the video for your viewing pleasure, remember to comment if you enjoy it.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
I sit here on what South Africa is celebrating as Heritage Day, a public holiday which many people call national Braai day. The government reason for the day is to allow South Africans to celebrate their own cultural background and recognise other people’s heritage at the same time.
I got to take some time and manage the various blogs that I read through sometimes and clean up my RSS subscriptions in Google Reader, and found one post on what a Christian is to do on holidays like today or even annual vacation time. It was quite an interesting post and I can see where the writer is coming from but I do disagree to some degree. His idea is that what better way to serve your God than by serving others while they are attending a Christian conference. I truly believe that there is a place for holidays in which nothing significant gets done. You have no plans for the day or even the week and you just take one day at a time. If you don’t have to be somewhere at 8AM then doesn’t that mean you don’t have to stick to a quiet time schedule? How many times have you felt guilty about going 5 mins over time in your quiet time because you have to get to work? The bible tells us to work as if working for God and not man, would God not expect us to be on time then? And I am not talking about waking up 15 mins late today and therefore your quiet time is shorter, I am talking about “I am only supposed to read till verse 25 in my bible reading plan but I just feel that I want to read to verse 40 today”. If its a holiday, then feel free to do that, but if its a work day…
This public holiday I have a whole list of things I need to finish but I am still taking some time to catch up on my blog and make this post, I know that there are at least 2 people who appreciate that
There are many reasons that someone would want to build their own pc. Among those reasons are saving money, and putting together a pc that contains exactly what you want.
If you are willing to put your own pc together, then you could save quite a bit of money. Not only on the initial purchase, but also in the long run when it comes to the warranties. Most computer resellers offer a one-year warrantee on the entire pc. However, when purchasing your pc in component form, each individual component will have different lengths of guarantee. An example is your hard disk drive that usually comes with a five-year guarantee, and your memory may give you a lifetime guarantee. Each individual brand may give you different warrantees as well so it helps to shop around. Some resellers may use the cheapest parts they can find to build your pc so that they can maximize their profits.
The second reason mentioned allows you to research each individual part that you are considering putting into your new pc and putting in the best that you can find. This allows you to get the best combination of components so that you can put together that killer pc that you have always wanted.
The bonus of choosing your own components is that you will know whether a certain component is compatible with the other components and you will get good brand name components which have a good driver support from the manufacturer.
Talking about support, you may find that getting your pc working may be a bit difficult if you have never built your own pc before, (This would be the main downside to building your own pc), however there are several helpful websites where everyday people just like you are building their own computers and offer help and advice to anyone willing to listen. Check at the end of this article for a few ideas of helpful websites.
A really big benefit of building your own pc is that when one of your components get old you could possibly replace or upgrade just that one part. Pre-built resellers will generally not recommend upgrading parts as they make more profit on selling you an entire new system. Several of the pre-build computers are built in a proprietary fashion as well which means that newer technology might not be compatible with your current pc.
So what do you need in a computer to make it work?
Well there are many things that you can add to a computer but let’s cover only enough to get your computer from an empty space on your desk to something you can write letters with.
Here is a list of items you require to have a functional pc:
1. A pc monitor
2. A mouse
3. A keyboard
4. A computer case
5. A main board or motherboard
6. A CPU (Central Processing Unit)
7. Memory
8. An optical drive, like a CD-ROM or DVD
9. A Hard Disk Drive
10. A screen card (If it is not included on the motherboard)
All this is called your hardware, and with these ten things you will have a computer. However you will not be able to write letters yet, to do that you will need to get some software to add to the above hardware. The most important software you need is an Operating system. This controls the whole computer and without it your new creation will simply sit there looking pretty. The most popular operating system on the market today is probably Microsoft Windows. The only other real option you have for an operating system is one of the Linux flavors. These will save you money but will require some learning curve if you are used to using Windows.
Once you have all these things then building your new pc is as easy as plugging everything together, doing some basic configuration and then installing the operating system.
How to do all this is covered by plenty of information out on the internet already, but hopefully this article whet your appetite and persuaded you that you should be building your next computer yourself.
Man I have been having some major car trouble lately. Just before my dad passed away, my clutch gave out on my Peugeot 307 suddenly and had to send it in to a dealership in Fourways. They charged me R9000 to replace my clutch and flywheel, but when they gave my car back it was leaking oil and making a funny noise they said was a worn gearbox. When I complained about the noise and oil leak not being there, I got a very cold “you can’t prove that” from the service manager. I just sent it to a gearbox repair specialist who told me that the gearbox was seriously damaged and it would cost me R20000 to fix. This included a new clutch and flywheel since the ones put in 2 months ago were saturated with oil from the oil leak. Anyway I am waiting for the Motor industry ombudsman to tell me what the way forward is for my complaint against the Peugeot dealership in Fourways.
I had been contemplating the Peugeot 308 because it really looks like a nice car, but the service I am getting from them so far has totally put me off Peugeot. I started thinking that with the current petrol price I need to look at a more economical car anyway and have started looking at the Toyota Prius. It looks like a cool car and with my possible move to within 10kms from work and about 900mtrs from Church, I should save a bundle on petrol, however I started looking at it purely from a cost point of view. After seeing a video of a little girl speaking at a UN conference for energy I am thinking it might be more beneficial from a green point of view.
The Prius runs between 4.5 and 5.5 litres per 100 kms which means it can run probably about 800-900 kms on a single tank of fuel from what I have been reading. A large part of the Prius’ fuel efficiency comes from driving the car in mostly city environments. Long road driving at 120kms per hour will give you an average efficiency similar to most other cars on the road, but shorter distances with frequent stops will use the battery more and cause the fuel efficiency to be much better. I will let you know if I decide to buy it or what I decide to buy if anything, but for now, check out this video…
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
Wow has it been a long time since I have been working on my blog!
My life has really been spinning for the past two months, filled with tons of work, travel to foreign contries and the biggest and most hard hitting event, the passing of my Father. I might write a little bit about that event when I feel a bit more up to it but at the moment I want to talk about something which is closer to everyone and that is finances, credit cards to be exact. I was looking at a website which consolidates credit card deals from a myriad of credit card providers. It seems that in America there are a number of different types of offers which credit card providers can offer to their potential customers, I thought was quite interesting. If anyone knows how the banking system works in South Africa, you know how we are ripped off, especially when it comes to credit cards and petrol cards. As an example, if you take a look at the gasoline credit card offers section on the website you will notice that there are some cards with rebates and other types of offers when you use the card to purchase fuel, well in South Africa, it is illegal to offer any sort of reward or discount on petrol, the price of which is strictly controlled by the government. Our government figures that if we get a rebate on petrol then that is almost like getting the tax back that we paid on the fuel, and that is a no-no.
When it comes to credit cards, they are not my most favourite thing in the world. Don’t get me wrong, they have their place, but too many people have adopted bad habits when it comes to credit cards. A common problem with credit cards is a practice known as revolving credit or rolling credit. This involves having multiple credit cards and paying them off using each other. In theory this results getting a certain amount of money which you never have to pay back. In reality though it involves the banks making huge sums of money from you while making you think like you are getting free money.
The place for credit cards in our lives is not to be over looked though. Using credit wisely can allow you to juggle your positive bank balance around for a few days until you have to pay off the credit card balance. Obviously this will only work if you get some interest free credit from your credit or you will end up paying for the privilege of borrowing a small sum for a few days.
Credit cards are also useful in emergencies, such as for example an urgent car repair or helping you with payments on an unexpected medical expense.
Needless to say, although I mentioned not being a big fan of credit cards, I feel that every one should have at least one card which, managed correctly will help rather than hinder your financial situation.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
I have been getting very depressed at the number of friends who are initiating the emigration process, some to the UK but most to Australia or New Zealand.
My mood today though has been one of “God is good, all the time…”. Not only was the sermon today excellent, and beautifully applicable to thoughts of emigration but I was just blown away at how God can use a message from Habakkuk to such a modern predicament.
I have always heard how relevant the Word of God is to us today as it was to those who read it for the first time since it was written.
“Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? ” (Hab. 2:13 ESV)
I would recommend taking a trip down to http://www.midrandchapel.za.org and downloading the sermon for a listen.
So the question begs, Why do I remain in South Africa? What is it about this country which makes me overlook all the negatives, the negatives which the entire world is putting in their newspapers? Well I am not too sure, after today’s sermon I can safely say that every decision that I have made so far in my life has been without real worry. I have always had the notion that things will always sort themselves out. Over the last couple of months I have been through some very interesting times and learned allot, but one of the major realisations that I have come to over this time is that God is totally sovereign, and as long as I have faith in His sovereignty, the Will of God will play out in the end. No matter what mistakes I make in any decisions that I may take. So no, things will not work themselves out, but God will work them out in my life.
So that is pretty much what keeps me here, I know God is working in my life and at the moment I am just on a roller coaster ride. At times I do feel that I am not in control and it does stress me out in times of weakness. I guess the past few days has been a time of weakness but from this morning I have been tempted to quote Philippians 4:13, however I would be using it very charismatically and totally out of context. The truth is though that I do feel strengthened by the power of God and even though verse 13 is Paul talking about his own weaknesses and how God strengthened him, I feel that if God could strengthen Paul in his time of need, then God is more than capable to strengthen me as well.
This post is turning into quite a large one so I think I should start to conclude it now. But I will say this one final thing, if you have found this post and are thinking of emigrating from South Africa, I don’t have a definitive answer for you whether you should leave the country or not. There are many people who would offer their advice and tell you how bad this country is. They site things like Power cuts (Germany is saying that power cuts are coming for Germany soon because of the lack of generating capacity), Zuma (God places all leaders into power and we are to submit to their authority), or crime (my sister has been robbed more times in 4 years in the UK than our family has been robbed in 28 years), but I don’t have any advice, the reason being that I do not make decisions for you, you need to make them yourself. Your situation is unique to you and your family and no one can make any decisions on your behalf. Whether you emigrate or not is something between you and God, so take the decision to God and let him deal with it, and stop worrying about it. If you continue to worry yourself sick about it then you need to hand over everything to God so that He can deal with it in His way and in His timing.
Well that’s me, I am out
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
With more people setting up their own home based, online business every day, the amount of vulnerable web sites is increasing at an alarming pace. And the blame for this lies mostly within the Internet Marketing community itself. Why? Using the powerful techniques of persuasion at their disposal, many so-called Internet Marketing Gurus lure people into setting up their own online business by providing them with ready-made, plug and play web sites that contain basic security flaws. Do not forget that most of these sites are made by marketers, not programmers! And the consequences for you can be disastrous…
One of the most common vulnerabilities – and paradoxically the most easily cured – is to ensure that each directory on your site contains an index file. By default, web browsers, when directed to a directory look first of all for a file named index. This could be followed by a variety of extensions such as .html, .htm, .shtml or .php to name the most common ones.
If the browser does not encounter the index file, it will display the entire directory in the form of a clickable navigation list, disclosing all its contents for the world to see, thus leaving your precious and often restricted content wide open to any type of malicious action.
To prevent this from happening you should make sure that you have at least one or a combination of these following basic security measures in place:
:- Ensure that each directory contains an index file by renaming the default page you want to be shown to index. Then make sure that all the internal links to that page are updated as well!
:- Create an empty index file. When arriving at the directory, a blank page will be shown, but you will no longer be displaying a directory listing. You could also provide a message and a clickable link on that page to take your visitors to the correct page.
:- Create an index file that contains a redirection to the page you want to be shown. There are many free and easily implemented code snippets available that will allow you to do so and your visitors will not even notice that they are being redirected.
:- If you have downloadable content that people have to pay for, do not keep it it the same directory as the sales page, but keep it in a separate, secure directory and set up your payment processor to that directory. This way you ensure that only people who have paid for the content have access to it.
When selling products online as an Internet Marketer or otherwise, you are more prone to people trying to get to your restricted content so as to avoid having to pay for it. These basic security measures should help you drastically reduce the risk of unlawful access to your site and save you from a lot of headaches and worries.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
Wow what a sermon this morning. I really recommend taking a trip to http://www.midrandchapel.za.org and downloading the message.
As Christians we tend to get complacent with our lives. We read our bibles, pray about our friend’s and our own problems and we live our lives happy in the knowledge that God sent His son to do all the hard work for us and all we have to do is accept it. Well there is a commission given to us by Jesus Himself. Check out Matthew 28:16-20 and get yourself a copy of the sermon.
Here is a pretty good video as well, from a movie called The Most, which translates to The Bridge.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
I went to see the Lion King at Teatro in Montecasino. Man is it awesome, I really enjoyed it. The music was awesome, although sometimes the words to the songs were a bit fuzzy and you couldn’t hear what they were singing. The costumes, wow the costumes were awesome. I was really amazed by the Mufasa and Scar costumes. The way the animal puppets are brought to life by the cast is really amazing, you can actually imagine them jumping through the grass.
The use of shadows was very well done, I was blown away by how the shadows built the story for us.
Well its pretty late so I am just gonna say :-
GO SEE IT!!
Here is the opening sequence of the concert for your enticement… Just brilliant… You gotta see it live.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
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