Author: Tim Probst
Early adopting super geek, musician, father, resident tech guru.
Add Another Obama Supporter to the List
Dave Winer wrote a great post today about why he supports Barack Obama. I have been an Obama supporter from Day 1, and I try to convince anyone I meet to vote for him because I feel he brings a sense of hope and pride to our government that we have not had in a very long time. Like Dave, I am incredibly tired of hearing from Bill and Hillary Clinton. I almost feel the same sense of distrust towards them as I do towards Dubya. If the Clintons do manage to steal the nomination from Obama, I may have to abstain from voting in November. There’s no way I could bring myself to vote for one of the boobs running on the Republican side, but at this point, I could not support Bill and Hillary for a third term.
Get Some New Shoes
I finally had a chance to go online and check out some new music on Last.fm. It’s been way too long.
Anyway, I found this awesome video from Paolo Nutini. It’s a very cool song called New Shoes. Check it out when you have a chance.
Business Objects Partner Summit 2008
This week, I will be attending my first Business Objects Partner Summit. Actually, this will be the first software conference that I have ever attended besides the Microsoft Office launch events I go to with each new release and my own company’s user conferences.
I am looking forward to seeing what Business Objects has in store for us, but I think I am most excited about spending time with the other members of my team that I haven’t seen since last July. Don’t get me wrong, I love working from home with all of the time I get to spend with my family, but there is definitely something to be said about team camaraderie. We have an outstanding group of people and it is always a fun and interesting time when we’re all in the same place at the same time.
If time permits (and confidentiality agreements allow), I will try to blog about anything cool that happens at the conference. I don’t expect that I’ll be doing any live blogging, but I’ll definitely write about anything that seems interesting.
Using Gmail to Backup Files Online
For those of you who are not familiar with Gmail, you soon will be. Gmail is Google’s free email service, and it is one of many excellent services that Google provides. Most of the people I know already use Gmail as their main email service, and I suspect that many more will soon join the ranks of devoted Gmail users.
Google has always offered a tremendous amount of free storage space with each Gmail account, and with competition from Yahoo and Microsoft, they continue to add space to each account for free. Right now, I have 6,290 MB of space. That’s over 6 GB of storage space for free!
The catalyst for this post is my wife’s less than a year old Dell laptop. Sadly, the hard drive in that machine is beginning to show the telltale signs of failure. You know the ones – the terrible scratching sounds, the no drive detected errors, etc. Needless to say, we have been scrambling to find good ways to make sure her important business files are safe and sound. The first thing we did was save the files off to a USB flash drive. This is a good short term solution, but flash drives are easily lost. We have also started to use Google Docs more so local storage is becoming less of an issue.
Then something came to me. Why not use the 6+ GB of storage I have with Gmail to store my important files on Google’s servers? Using Labels in Gmail makes organizing all of your files insanely easy, and of course, Gmail comes with the power of Google’s search if you ever need to find a specific file. Follow these easy steps to save your important files in your Gmail account.
1. From your Gmail Inbox, click the More Actions drop down box and select New Label.
2. Enter a name for your new label like “Documents” or “Files.” This will help you find your files later.
1. Compose a new message and enter your Gmail address in the To field.
2. For the message Subject, use the name of the file you are sending to Gmail.
3. In the message Body, enter keywords or phrases that will help you find the file in the future.
4. Attach the file to the message.
5. Send the message.
6. The new message will appear in your Inbox.
7. Select the message by clicking the checkbox next to the message.
8. Click the More Actions drop down box and select the Label you chose for your documents.
9. Click the Archive button to remove the message from your Inbox.
Your file is now saved on Google’s servers. In order to access your files in the future, simply select the Label you chose for your documents. Labels are usually displayed under the Chat window on the left side of the page. Clicking on a Label will show all of the messages with that label so you will be able to see all of the messages you have saved with your important files. You can also use the search feature in Gmail to find a specific file. This is why using descriptive file names and adding good keywords is very important.
I hope this helps you get more out of your Gmail account and avoid the problems of a hard drive failure.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year everybody! I hope the holidays were very good to all of you. My family and I had a wonderful time visiting family and friends in Chicago and Wisconsin, and now we’re back at home getting back to normal to start the new year.
I’m a little late out of the blocks with posting on Probstisms this year, but my plan is to post as often as I find interesting things to write about, and the first few days of 2008 have provided quite a few exciting things.
Stay tuned for what I hope will be an interesting year for Probstisms!
Happy Holidays!
This photo was just too good to not share it with all of my readers. Click through to Flickr to see more Christmas related photos. I will add more to the set throughout the holidays.
I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
A Funky Groove from Christian McBride
While reviewing my Last.fm Dashboard yesterday, I found this excellent track from Christian McBride and his band. The track starts out as a jam but spontaneously evolves into James Brown’s Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose. Moments like this are the reason it is so fun to play in a band. You never quite know what’s going to happen when everyone starts stretching out. You can play the track here.
Christian McBride – Out Jam/ Give It Up Or Turint Loose
Back in the day, I played in a band called Real Jazz Quintet with my brother Jeff, my buddies Terry Brown and Rob Buckley, and a dude named Dave that played awesome piano. Well, one night at a coffee shop in Aurora, Illinois called Roasters, we had one of these moments, and luckily, we recorded it using an insanely cheap but effective boom box. Check out A-Town Drug Bust by Real Jazz Quintet.
I’m Sold on Lia Sophia
As many of you already know, my wife, Donnell, has been an Advisor for Lia Sophia for just under a year now. She has steadily grown her business over the last ten months or so, and I am very proud of her. She is truly an extraordinary woman.
A few months ago, Donnell wrote an article about Lia Sophia for B-Tique, Lifestyle & Fashion. In it, she explained how Lia Sophia was different and in my view, better than other direct sales companies I’ve heard or read about. It seems that not only is my wife an awesome Lia Sophia Advisor, she’s also a great writer. I am still a little confused why she referred to me as her third child, but I’m sure she’ll explain it to me some day using small, easy-to-understand words. 🙂
Anyway, check out her article when you have a chance. I think you’ll be sold on Lia Sophia as well.
If you’re interested in Lia Sophia, contact my wife through her website.
Apple’s Christmas Spirit
Just in time for the holiday season, Apple has released a new Get A Mac ad featuring good ol’ Saint Nick and our two favorite television personalities, Mac and PC. This time, they’re in wonderful CGI glory.
The Get A Mac ad campaign has been a huge success, and the ads are getting better and better as time goes on. Mac and PC have great timing together, and it’ll be a sad day when Apple changes to another ad campaign.
Anyway, while I was watching this latest ad, something came to me. I think PC (John Hodgman) would make a great voice over actor for a Disney/Pixar movie. He has great comedic timing, and his voice would be perfect for an animated character.
El Jobso, what do you think?