Hacking Your Life
The term "Hacking" used to be a strictly negative term for many people, evoking thoughts of troublemakers and criminals. In some instances that was accurate, but another meaning is to 'take something and make it work the way you want it to', to personalize it.
To do that requires examination, taking what you want to 'hack' apart to fully understand it, and to see how, or if you can change it to suit your needs. Sometimes it's just to discover the inner workings of something, whether physically or intellectually (like the early 'phone phreaks' or someone like Kevin Mitnick). Sometimes it's altering the computer 'code' of a program to change it's behavior.
Like many things in life, 'hacking' something (in and of itself) is neither good nor bad. It all depends on your intent and/or point of view. Such is the distinction between 'White-Hat' hackers and 'Black-Hat' hackers. They both use similar tools, but for opposite reasons.
Other versions of hacking have been around as long as humans (and some animals) have been making and using tools to accomplish various tasks. It's called innovation, invention, making a better widget, and one I'm particularly fond of, "Yankee Ingenuity".
As computers and the Internet become more ingrained into our daily lives, users are naturally finding ways to use this technology to enrich our lives and assist us in so many ways.
Information, communication, and collaboration are all enhanced exponentially because of computers and the Internet, and of course the innovative people who make it work in so many ways.
It never fails to amaze me that I can exchange thoughts with people all over the world instantly! That I can find information on any subject instantly! All this from my little apartment in the Endicott Hotel in Concord, New Hampshire! I can get to know someone from downtown Baghdad, Iraq, reconnect with old friends from school or when I was in the Navy....
When I think back to my childhood in Monterey, Massachusetts around 1961, to make a phone call you would pick up the receiver and a woman would come on the line and say "What number please..". From that level of technology to what we have today, in less than 50 years, just boggles my mind. I'm only 50, so for those much older than I am who have kept up with it, they must be even more amazed at how far technology has progressed within their lifetime. (Unfortunately 'humanity' hasn't kept pace.. but I've digressed too far already..)
I'm going to start this series with a web site designed to help people 'hack' their lives. Not surprisingly it's named Lifehacker ("Tech tricks, tips and downloads for getting things done").
It's not strictly computer-centric. Readers suggest all kinds of tips and ideas to get things done. Now that (GTD/Getting Things Done), is one of the main topics on the site.
I suggest taking some time and exploring the site. There are archives, so you're not limited to what the daily topics and software offerings are. I have to admit, my favorite content on the site is the software. The downloads are divided on the main page into Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Locating and accessing whatever you're interested in is really easy through the aforementioned archives page.
Now depending on your browser, your settings, and a few other variables, the web page(s) can take a while to fully load. I find my Opera browser loads the site quicker than Internet Explorer or Firefox, and also displays the pages better, but as I said there are a bunch of variables affecting the speed the pages load.
Note: This is one of many reasons to install and try different browsers!
- I have my Opera browser set to load pages in "User Mode" (as opposed to "Author Mode") which loads the web pages without any images (or other custom page 'elements') so that they load in a snap, and if I want the rest all I have to do is click on the "Author Mode" button (and wait for it to load). This isn't limited to Opera though, there are ways to speed up page loading in all browsers, it's just really easy to access those controls/buttons in Opera.
I'm thinking that I really should have taken the time to change my OpenDNS settings to check and see if that's what is slowing down the loading of the Lifehacker site for me, but to tell you all the absolute truth, it's 4 AM, and in the past days I've had PC issues that FUBAR'd both versions of my Firefox browsers causing me to have to completely reinstall both of them and also reinstall/rebuild all 20-30 different add-ons and extensions that I'd customized each of them with! So my apologies for not doing that.
In my case, I'm thinking that because I use a (excellent & FREE) service called OpenDNS, and through that I block a site called gawker.com (which just happens to load a lot of content onto the Lifehacker site like all the images and page backgrounds, etc.) it's making trouble for me specifically. It's just a 'thing' between me and gawker.com.... Lifehacker seems to be one of the only sites that I visit that uses so much 'gawker.com' content on their site (thank goodness!).
Also, for some reason I haven't discovered yet*, the buttons for the downloads (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux) on the main page, aren't 'visible' unless I put my cursor/pointer over them.
I usually don't even have to visit the Lifehacker site unless I see something from their RSS 'feed' that catches my interest. I use the FeedDemon feed 'reader' (or 'aggregator') to collect 'feeds' from hundreds of web sites so that I can speed up the process of checking the latest content from all the different web sites I want to keep up with.
That's one thing about the massive amount of news and different types of information available on the Internet. It can be overwhelming. Which brings us back to innovation. People needed a way to aggregate the content from all the different web sites that they visited. "Really Simple Syndication" (RSS) was developed as a way to 'syndicate' content from individual web sites (like blogs) and then it could be 'aggregated' for people to read in one place, usually providing a brief synopsis and a link back to the originating web site to read the full article or whatever the content was. Some web sites take the 'brief' part to the extreme only giving you a single sentence/headline and a link. Others have the full article accompanied by photos, video, audio, etc..
Personally, those sites that only provide a few words in their 'feed' (not enough to tell if it's worth taking the time to visit the web site to read 'the rest of the story' or not) get ignored in favor of the more informative feeds. And for those web sites that generate revenue according to the number of people going to their site (most if not all), well, those sites that skimp on their feeds don't get my traffic.
And one last issue about the Lifehacker web site (at least on my computer) is that the type overlaps in some places like the comments. Sometimes that's caused by poorly designed web pages but I don't know if that's the case with Lifehacker. Another time I might talk about the lack of 'standards' controlling (or not..) how web pages display across all the varying and competing web browsers. It's a real mess, and I'd hate to be responsible for designing web sites so that they look good on every type of browser. Those that succeed get my admiration and thanks!
Regardless of the minor annoyances (hopefully limited to my computer), the content of the Lifehacker site is outstanding overall. Like any site, the content (and my personal interest in it) varies, but over time you'll find yourself discovering interesting new web sites, really helpful tips and software, all designed to help you 'hack' your life on and off the computer for the better.
That's all for now, stay safe, and remember to THINK before you click!
* This is one of the reasons I laugh to myself when someone like Bill Bunker calls me a 'guru' in the comments section. There are so many things that I haven't learned [yet], many of them relatively basic, that place me far from 'guru' status! If someone versed in web site design could to enlighten me as to the reason for the 'hidden' buttons I'd be grateful. You don't have to be a guru..
Thanks
To tell you the truth, it's no where near the blog post I wanted to write. I think it was more like an exercise in free writing with a little bit of editing after I hit the Preview button!
I'm a 'rambler' by nature, and when I'm tired my 'governor' doesn't work as well to limit that rambling. Last night/morning was one of those times. Thankfully I always clean things up a bit before finally submitting it!
I'm glad to hear you'r getting something out of it. With such varying levels of knowledge out there (including my own) I'm trying to keep things understandable and provide links to more information, and of course basic security alerts and news.
I intentionally repeat myself a lot from post to post to reinforce necessary security habits and to make folks understand how important their individual actions are to the Internet as a whole.
You know how things go. People as a whole (of course I'm generalizing here) tend to not think of the big picture and how each of their individual actions contribute to that big picture. That is until there's a problem. Then some say "How did this happen?". With Internet security, if every individual did what was necessary to secure their own computer and acted responsibly, and those responsible for maintaining and securing their part of the Internet infrastructure were competent, responsible, and provided with the time, training, and tools necessary to do their jobs, we'd have a relatively safe Internet. The cyber criminals would have a much harder time, people could confidently shop online, there would be much less identity theft, the online economy could grow faster, our critical infrastructure wouldn't be threatened to the dangerous point that it is currently....
.. and that brings me back to people and 'the big picture'. If God forbid we have a major cyber attack affecting our power grid, or the Air Traffic Control System, our military satellites and/or GPS, etc., many will ask "How did this happen?". Part of the answer will be that large groups of unsecured personal and business computers including servers were used as a 'botnet' (just as they are currently) to assist in the attack.
That may sound alarmist to a large portion of the general public who treat their computers as toys, dangerously ignorant of the potential consequences their individual actions (or inaction) amount to as a group. Right up to the point when their lives are affected. The power goes out, basic services are affected, they can't travel, a refinery or two are off line and the lines at gas stations are growing..
I don't want to look back and say I could have done something. I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I've caused enough trouble when I was younger, thinking only of myself, and I've turned that around. It makes me feel good to have a positive impact in the world, even in this small way.
I'm glad you're getting something out of my posts. I trust that others are too, and I appreciate the feedback I've received so far. To be able to bring readers of the Concord Monitor Online and BlogsNH some helpful information and interesting reading is great.
I'd love to see the Monitor's online presence grow into a big interactive community. Hopefully people will continue to contribute to our BlogsNH section, and I'm sure that sometime in the near future we'll be seeing interaction with the main section's articles in the form of allowing comments by readers. You can't grow an online community without the ability to interact. Then readers won't just be readers, and they'll become more of a community. That's something this world needs more of.
So thanks Bill.
By the way, your mention of the old rotary dial phones reminded me of past Easters in our old house when my parents would 'hide' jellybeans in the finger holes on the dial. Those were happy times..
TR,
Again, another great and useful post. This topic like the others you write is packed with information that many of us would never know.
I also enjoyed the lead into the blog when you tell about the telephone. I remember similar experiences from the late 60's and 70's. Friends of my parents were the first to get a phone without rotary dial. I can remember asking why we could not have the same and they saw no reason to get one because ours worked 'well enough'.
I also remember the operator coming on after dialing a long distance call and ask "your number please?" I can also remember being on a 'party line'. For those younger readers it had nothing to do with meeting people; it was a collection of about 5 homes that shared one line. Humorously, it was only 35-40 years ago when it was quite common.
That black rotary telephone is still on my folks hallway wall. One room away, sits a brand new Dell computer and a brand new HP laptop; both operating on wireless internet. Even my folks, at 84 and 86 can't imagine what they would do without the new technology.
I get a kick out of them talking about running Norton and having to renew it or clearing out the history and temporary files, etc. It does keep them young and their minds sharp!
TR, you really add value to this blog community. I await your next topic; it is like a technology class, condensed without tuition and classroom!! Thanks!!