“If we work harder on ourselves than we do at our job. We reap untold benefits in every aspect of our lives.”

I was reminded of this when I discovered this article. While having nothing to do with Web Design or Development. It’s fun to go down the list and learn new things.

Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills: “The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills.  You just have to know where to look.  Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills, but I figured I’d save you some time.

Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new.”

(Via marcandangel.com.)

Already the geeks are working the iPhone tethering and MMS problem.

(Via Lifehacker.)

1. If you have the means. Pay off your credit cards and start a savings account.

Eliminating debt is paramount. You can’t start saving if you owe Visa. If things go south your credit cards interest rate will go north. If you just make the minimum payment your just giving visa their cut and the principal will still be accruing interest.

Start saving money. Put a little back if you can from every check, You’ll feel a lot better with a monetary cushion if things get rocky.

2. Cut your expenses back as far as you can.

Do you really need that triple-shot, skinny, sugar-free latte? Isn’t that $4.50 you can save. Make some coffee with the coffee pot in the kitchen. You know the one with the layer of dust on it.

Instead of buying that fifty dollar console game. Play the stack of games you have next to the console system. More than half of which you never finished anyway.

If you rent movies and buy audio books both can be had for free at your public library.

Instead of getting away for the weekend. Go to the park for the day. it’s free and the fresh air will do you good.

3. Get your resume together and have your business cards.

Update your resume or draft one if you don’t have one. Update your portfolio pages with your latest stuff and eliminate anything that might be questionable.

4. Use and participate in internet social networks.

Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are all social networks that can be joined and mined for contacts. One way to approach this is to find people and are in the web industry but specialize in areas you do not. That way you can create a feeling of synergy with your contacts.

I like twitter. The web design and developer community is great and friendly. They chat about what they are writing, what they are working on and they give a yell out to the community if they need work done they do not specialize in.

5. If you lose your job. Use that time to work on yourself.

You’ve lost your job. Lots of people in the startup arena have. Yahoo, Mahalo and Revision3. What do you do now besides the obvious of getting another job?

There is no replacement for self-development. If you improve yourself, the world around you will do the same.

If you code PHP. Get so good at coding a employer would be nuts not to hire you. Got an idea for a internet service? Build it. When the economy is down this when you build value. Value in that project you could never get to because the paying work was in the way. Value in yourself by learning, striving and developing.

Remember just because things are bad now they will get better and when that happens you’ll want to be ready.

Carlin’s longevity during his fifty year career, was due in no small part to his ability to remake himself. Starting as a middle class standup comedian, then becoming a hippy and counterculture icon touring the coffee houses and universities during the 60′s and 70′s. Then a more critical social/political commentator during the 80′s and early 90s and finally the funny, bitter old curmudgeon. All the time taking longtime fans with him and inspiring a entire generation of upcoming comedians.

So where does the everything worth learning about life part some in?

Upon reaching the “Age of Reason” I discovered Carlin’s comedy routines and discovered that while I was laughing, I was also thinking and while Carlin’s stand-up was funny it was so well thought out and his command of the english language so great. That the staunchest debater would fall before his reason.

• Question Everything!
  Our Leaders, Institutions, Theories and Beliefs are not above being examined and re-evaluated on a regular basis. Those that say they are above criticism really need a good review. Because those are the ones with the largest holes. Notice I didn’t say disbelieve in the aforementioned “Leaders, Institutions and or Theories/Beliefs”
• Love what you do.
  During his career Carlin kept a travel schedule that would have tired a gypsy. Two hundred days a year performing on the road. Constantly honing is craft and writing new material to perform in venues all across the country. It was clear he loved what he did so much that he was a perfectionist about his material.
• Never rest on your laurels.
  Most when reaching Carlins level of fame would have coasted, phoning in performances year after year. That was not Carlin’s way. He would always stretch into new areas with his material. A lot of the themes he touched on were the same from performance to performance but how he approached them was always from a different angle. This made for very little repetitive material.
• If someone says “Don’t talk about that subject” then it’s probably the only thing worth talking about.
  Carlin made people think about subjects that they were often not comfortable with. Death, Rape, Religion and Politics just to name a few. He would approach them in a way what was so logically thought out that most people had one of two reactions. They would laugh, because they had not thought of the subject in that way much less that it was funny at all. Or they would get mad poke out their lip and say something that a third grader may use as a verbal defense.
• If your have no humor your dangerous.
  If you have no sense of humor about yourself or your beliefs. Then you are a very dangerous person. Fundamentalism breeds no irony. September 11th was carried out by such people. The last 8 years of government in this country was carried out by such people.

25 Absolute Essentials for Networking Success

Written on 7/01/2008

by Anand Dhillon, of Self-Help for Self-Mastery.

In business, it is often said that success is determined not by what you know but by who you know. Additionally, the level of your success is determined greatly by the quality of your relationships with others.

While for some, networking is something that comes naturally and effortlessly, for others it is an area where significant improvements are needed. Small, consistent improvements over time will open up far more opportunities and resources to you.

Whether you are a seasoned connector or someone who needs to jumpstart their relationship building, here are 25 essential tips to ensure your networking success.
Start before your need it

The best time to start building your network is. . .

(Via 25 Absolute Essentials for Networking Success.)

32 Gigs is a lot of space. That is how much data I have on my 80 gig internal drive. Now multiply that by twelve every day. “Brad whips out calculator.” 384 gigs, I can multiple see public schools are good for something. So that is how many copies you will have in your backup directory. Ok that is just plain crazy and wasteful. Can someone say “Throwing the Hard Drive industry a bone?”

I found this little app called Time Machine Scheduler 2.2 It solves many of time machines problems. Like being able to Schedule how often Time machine makes backups. I have mine set for every twelve hours. I just don’t need twelve backups a day.

Time Machine Schedulers simple interface

You can download Time Machine Scheduler 2.2 from klieme.com
Click Here to Download

After lunch last week I took out my trusty iPhone to make a call and could not get it to unlock. Having used it an hour earlier with zero problems. I cocked an eyebrow and thought for a moment.  A software lockup? Could be.  So I rebooted the phone.  The phone rebooted just fine until the unlock screen came up to the same problem. I tried cutting the phone off but couldn’t get past the lack of touch screen.  I went to Apple’s website and went through their trouble shooting  suggestions  finally restoring the phone. Which resets the phone to the factory settings while deleting all personal data.  Still no touch screen. There were no problems prior to this at all. No dead spots on the screen. No lockups. After  scratching  my head and  mumbling  “Well Crap” to myself. I went to the concierge  in the retail section Apple’s website and made a  appointment. A few hours later the local Apple store’s  Genius and I  were joking about how small a problem like  loosing  the use of the entire touch screen was. We had a laugh as he played with it. Yep it’s Dead! Was the response. Then out came the loner phone after a quick simcard swap I was backup and running. After a sync I was completely back in business. five to seven business days to get it fixed.

Five days later I go to the Fed-Ex package facility to pick up my fixed iPhone. The lady behind the counter takes my package number and vanishes to the back to retrieve it. She looks down at it and asks if this iPhone is mine. I say yes and she pokes fun/evny at me saying “aren’t you special”. We laugh and I tell her about the price drop and she should go get one. She looks at me and says she may but maybe after the next version comes out. I say that I’ve not heard of many problems with them. She says that Apple has had a lot problems with them and she’ll wait a while. I responded “Really, I read a lot of Apple and iPhone news and really haven’t heard anything that would lead me to that conclusion.” I ask her how could she know that? She responds “Honey, look where I work!” I was laughing all the way to the car.

Updated: After looking over my documentation on my iPhone purchase and the information screen on my iPhone after repairs it seems my fixed iPhone is in fact a different iPhone all together.

Here is the link to the engadget article

Macrumors Tutorial 1

Macrumors Tutorial 2

Another Tutorial with pics