Helpful Stuff

By cliopatra

Dec

17

Image representing Opera Software as depicted ...
Image via CrunchBase

I am probably (ok usually) the last to know about tech stuff, but when I find something I really love, I want to talk about it. I’ve got two of those things today.

NUTSHELLMAIL
I first started using NutShellMail about a year ago. It’s a service that will e-mail you all of the status updates for your social networking sites, all in one big e-mail at the times and days that you specify.

I currently use it for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. I get e-mails 3 times a day with the latest information from all of those sites as it relates to me.

Why do I love it? It keeps me from having to sign in to all of those sites every single day. I can keep up without straining myself.

Why am I just now writing about it? Well, today they started a new e-mail format wherein you can comment, reply, even write on someone’s wall right from the e-mail. Before you had to log in to the social networking site or reply to the email to do that. If, like my company, yours has blocked certain sites, you can use this as a workaround. I only wish they had it three days ago when I was trying to win a contest!

OPERA
I downloaded Opera to my Blackberry when I first got it, and haven’t used it much since. It seemed silly to me that the browser window shows a miniature web page and you have to read it in sections.

Last night I finally figured out why that was so useful. I was having trouble making something happen on my laptop in both Chrome and IE, so I tried it in the Opera browser on the Blackberry and it worked like a charm.  It’s very nice not to have to look at a web page that is all scrunched up on the screen, either.

I even downloaded the browser on the laptop and I am figuring out the ins and outs of that too.  I think they call it “Opera” because you sing “ahhhhhh” when you see what it can do for you.

So there you have it, the tech report from a nontech girl.

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Spider

By cliopatra

Aug

30



100_1962
Originally uploaded by cherylrw

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly,
‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I’ve a many curious things to shew when you are there.”
Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”

– The Spider and the Fly, Mary Howitt

We have an enclosed lanai, and earlier this summer a spider much like this one created a very impressive web on the outside northwest corner, stayed for a couple of weeks, and then disappeared. Irish tore down the web while mowing.

A few weeks later another of the same kind of spider created another web at the other end of the lanai. She got very large, and then disappeared. She’s been gone for a week or so.

Earlier this week this spider created a new web at the northwest corner of the lanai. She weaves and weaves, and then she sits and waits, which is what she was doing when I came out to take her picture.

The web is probably 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. She is perhaps 4 inches in diameter. I considered putting something up next to her so you could see the comparison, but it was hard enough getting up close enough with the macro lens to get her detailing.

She is stunning, isn’t she?

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