John D. Harvey's LiveJournal

Musings on Genre TV plus a Movie Recommendation

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:08:24 GMT

It’s interesting to watch the migration of genre actors from one geek show to the next geek show. It’s almost like there’s a temp agency in Burbank, CA, that specializes in transitioning our favorite scifi actors. For example:

Hoban “Wash” Washburne (Firefly) begat Dale Maddox (V)
Inara Serra (Firefly) begat Anna (V)
Charlie Pace (Lost) begat Simon (Flashforward)
Penelope Widmore (Lost) begat Dr. Olivia Benford (Flashforward)
Juliet Burke (Lost) begat Erica Evans (V)

Am I missing anyone?

I have to admit that it’s fun watching Tudyk and Baccarin in the same show again (though in wildly different roles). Honestely though, I’m generally happier when I see Baccarin in any form or fashion . Hubba, hubba!

Now, if you want to see Tudyk at his comedic best, then check out Death at a Funeral. Though it has an American director (Frank Oz), I would still consider Death at a Funeral to be a British comedy. Tudyk steals almost every scene he’s in. If you don’t believe me, then the picture below should add some weight to my claim.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Some Great Comic Book Art

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:45:31 GMT

As I delve more and more into comic book writing, I’ve come across a couple of nifty galleries of comic book art that I thought I’d share. Both are from design blog abduzeedo.com (which I highly recommend).

Super Heroes and Villains Alphabet

This comes from the online portfolio of an artist called Ankles (that’s the closest I can find to a name). It’s an excellent series. If you like the artist, check out his/her other work at http://enymy.deviantart.com/ .

Beautiful Watercolor Illustrations of Super Heroes and Villains

You don’t see a lot of comic book art in watercolor. This is a great collection.

BONUS: Warren Ellis posted a link to a few of his comic book scripts. Just click here to go to his site and download.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

On Having Conversations that Require the Penis-Endowed

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:12:19 GMT

It never ceases to frustrate me that some men insist on talking to me about sports even though they KNOW I don’t follow or even care about sports. The conversation typically goes something like this:

“Hey, did you see the game last night? Wasn’t that play by … ?”

“I don’t like sports. You know this,” says I.

“Yeah, but you should have seen this pass by … !”

“I’ll explain myself AGAIN,” I reply with open annoyance. “I’m not going to recognize any of the names you rattle off. I won’t care about their individual accomplishments with ball or puck. And, I further don’t care how these individual accomplishments help their team get to the spin-offs.”

“Um, play-offs.”

“Play-offs, spin-offs, jack-offs … the point is that I honestly don’t give a flying fuzzy #$%&. The only way I could be convinced to care is if a team spontaneously decided to donate 50% of their collective salaries to the ‘John Harvey Charitable Beer & Kung Fu DVD Fund‘ if they win the play-offs. Even then, I would only watch the final play-off game.”

“Okay. But the thing is this one player got traded and now he’s…”

“Right. The reality we’re slowly spiraling towards is that you have a small, tight bundle of synapses, probably snuggled right up against the pineal gland, that drives you to have this sports conversation with someone penis-endowed. And this drive mimics the brain-stem insistence that forces salmon to spawn up the same stream every year and Joan Rivers to get more plastic surgery.”

Long, introspective pause.

“Yes.”

“Fine,” I say. “Go on then. I’ll just lie back and think of England.”

Bloody hell.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

In Ohio, Big Agriculture Makes a Power Grab Via Prop. 2

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:24:22 GMT

My sister, Sharon Harvey (executive director, Cleveland APL), has been very actively campaigning against Proposition 2 in Ohio. This agriculture bill would amend the Ohio state constitution to create a Livestock Board with unchecked power over livestock rules and regulations. While masquerading as an attempt to improve food safety and animal welfare, Issue 2 would give a dozen political appointees broad and unchecked power to decide rules on how animals are raised, tracked, or traced.

The official site for the ‘No’ campaign is here.

This HSUS blog post spells out their position on the issue.

This article posted to the Center of Consumer Freedom (CCF) site is the only ‘pro prop. 2′ statement that I could find. It becomes a bit empty when you realize that CCF is a shell non-profit primarily funded by the thousand-pound gorillas within the tobacco, restaurant, and agriculture industries. See here, and here.

In any case, I know that I have friends, followers, and contacts in Ohio who see these posts via the intertubes. I encourage you to vote NO on Proposition 2.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

[VIDEO] Stephen Colbert “Defends” Glenn Beck

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:21:37 GMT

Generally, I don’t put much politics out there on this blog. Perhaps I should. Rumor has it that if you want over a hundred comments on a blog post, you need to either go political or say something bad about Mac computers.

Anywho, this “Bend It Like Beck” clip from the Stephen Colbert is a classic and, in the form of satire, sums up how I feel about all the current “rodeo clowns” (Beck’s term, not mine) posing as conservative political thinkers and commentators. For me, this most prominently includes Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity. I place O’Reilly and Hannity at the more sensible end of this spectrum, for what it’s worth. On the other hand, Beck and Limbaugh are crazy people.

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bend It Like Beck

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Michael Moore

What I find most interesting is that you really can’t find anyone on the liberal side of the broadcast media equation who used vitriol, theatrics, and fear-mongering to the degree utilized by these four commentators. People will sometimes mention the names Janeane Garofalo and Al Franken, but even in their “heyday” on Air America Radio, they never approached the audience size garnered by any one of the four conservative commentators mentioned here. Also, Garofalo and Franken bug the hell out of me, too.

Perhaps the best known and most widely watched liberal political commentators are Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Here again, I find it interesting to compare what galvanizes liberals in popular culture versus conservatives. Somebody smarter than me should take some time to figure out what makes liberals flock around satire while conservatives seem to be drawn toward shock jockery.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

MySpace Needs a New Game Plan

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:26:08 GMT

So, I logged in to my MySpace account last night for the first time in … ohhh … three months, maybe four, maybe more? I knew I had a bunch of messages, friend requests, and blog subscriptions accumulating in a digital landfill.

Like most people, the first thing that struck me after my long absence was how much MySpace was trying to emulate Facebook. Adding apps, MySpace chat, a new Facebookish friend timeline, etc. All this, but without much effort to spruce up their user interface. In fact, many of the new tools appear shoehorned into MySpace’s GUI, which was never all that user-friendly to begin with.

For perhaps the most telling symptom of their growing failure, look to MySpace’s “Online Friends” indicator which shows how many of your friends are online and available to chat right there and then. It’s the equivalent to Facebook’s “Chat” indicator in the lower right corner of the user interface.

While I was on MySpace last night, I was also logged in to Facebook. On MySpace, I have 886 friends. Meanwhile, on Facebook, I have 554 friends. At that time, out of 554 Facebook friends, over 30 were online. Guess how many of my 886 MySpace friends were online at the same time?

One.

The simple fact is that not a lot of people use or spend a lot of time on MySpace anymore.

The niche market that MySpace still addresses better than Facebook is people who deliver audible media to the public: bands, musicians, singers, stand-up comedians, etc. They don’t measure up quite as well with regards to writers and publishers.

Not that anyone at MySpace is asking for my opinion, but if I were in charge over there, I’d chase that performer market and slowly shed pursuing social networking for average individuals. The simple fact is, they’re not in that game anymore. And they won’t be in in that game every again unless they make some radical changes.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

ABC’s “Flashforward” … Did You Know It’s a Novel?

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:28:10 GMT

There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding ABC’s new paranormal drama series “Flashforward.” And for good reason, if the series pilot is any indication of upcoming quality in the show.

I won’t go into great detail regarding what the show is about. A quick summary though … A mysterious global event causes the entire Earth’s human population to simultaneously lose consciousness for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During this blackout, everyone sees visions of their lives six months in the future. The event results in massive deaths from accidents and leaves the survivors wondering whether what they saw will happen. It’s a great premise for a show and I look forward to watching it.

What a lot of people don’t know is that “Flashforward” was originally a science fiction novel (of the same name) written by Robert J. Sawyer [wiki | web] in 2000. Interestingly, Sawyer has been involved in the show and will even write at least one of the upcoming episodes.

One of the major, and necessary, differences between the book and the TV series is that in the book the visions show what everyone’s lives will be like in 20 years. This is a major change that Sawyer sees as necessary to adapting the series to TV.

To find out why, you can listen to a couple of good interviews with Robert J. Sawyer about “Flashforward” (both the book and TV series) and his other projects. Just check out these two Farpoint Media podcasts:

Both podcasts are run by author Michael R. Mennenga. They cover a little of the same territory, but not a lot. I enjoyed listening to both podcasts for both the Sawyer interviews and the other show content. In particular, the Dragon Page podcast includes Sawyer talking at length on the craft of screenwriting. I thought he had some interesting insights and recommendations.

I have a good hunch about this show. I hope I’m right.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

NPR’s Fresh Air Radio Story on Dog Fighting and Michael Vick

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:17:10 GMT

I’d like to encourage everyone to listen to this very informative NPR radio feature story on illegal dog fighting. In this Fresh Air spot, Dave Davies talks with John Goodwin, Humane Society manager of animal-fighting issues, and Sean Moore, a Chicago-based former dog-fighter who works in that city on the Humane Society’s efforts campaign to end dog-fighting in that city.

You should be warned that much of this interview includes some very graphic descriptions of animal cruelty. What is most interesting is that this story puts forward some very startling statistics on how many people are involved in dog fighting. Granted, all those involved admit that it’s nearly impossible to get an accurate count as to how many people are involved in dog fighting.

Also interesting, and thoroughly revolting, is a description of rules, lingo, and rituals involved in organized dog fighting. It also lays out some forms of “cheating” including rubbing poison into a dog’s fur to handicap the opposing dog.

In sum, if just the mere concept of dog fighting enrages you, then this interview will likely put you over the edge. That said, I encourage all of you to listen. It’s important for everyone to know about the many levels of dog fighting ranging from the chaotic world of street fighting to the highly-organized higher echelons of dog fighting.

As much as I know about pit bulls and dog fighting, this interview contained a few nuggets of information that startled me. Give it a listen, and then donate or volunteer for your local pit bull rescue.

Click here to listen to “After Michael Vick, The Battle To Stop Dog-Fighting.”

After Michael Vick, The Battle To Stop Dog-Fighting

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Help Make Pet Care More Affordable — Support the HAPPY Act! (H.R. 3501)

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:42:07 GMT

Having volunteered and worked in shelters for several years, I know first hand that one of the top reasons for people giving up their much loved pets was the cost of care. This effect has been magnified by the current economic downturn as well as military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan making it impossible for families at home to afford their pets.

Stepping up to the plate is U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R – MI) who introduced the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (“HAPPY”) Act. This legislation allow individuals to claim tax deductions for qualified pet care expenses for up to $3,500. This would include veterinary care costs.

The HAPPY Act will help Americans provide their pets with the care and quality of life they deserve, while helping to keep more pets in homes and out of shelters.

The ASPCA has set up a great page where you can show your support for H.R. 3501. Click here to visit the ASPCA page.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Sweat Equity Starting To Pay Off

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:38:50 GMT

As some of you know, starting just after NECon 29 I came to the conclusion that I had to get control of my weight and general fitness. On July 19, I stepped on my home scale and it tipped to 228.1 pounds. This was 43 pounds heavier than I’d been in December 2007 (185 pounds) when I’d taken over as executive director at an animal rescue league. Just walking around, I felt big, lazy, and generally unhealthy.

Deciding to get healthy and actually committing to the process are two different things. I went through several stages of fooling myself into thinking I could continue several bad habits and that adding a bit of exercise would make all the difference in the world. In case you’re curious, if you go to the gym 2-3 nights per week, and order out Chinese food 4-5 nights per week, you’re not going to make a lot of progress in terms of losing weight. It’s sort of like bailing out a sinking frigate with a thimble.

So, the first new reality that got through my thick Irish skull is that I had to hit the gym more often. I’m going about 5-6 days per week now. Once I reach my fitness goals, I’ll look at cutting back to 4-5 nights per week, but for now I need this level of consistency to reach my goals. The real challenge here has been learning to assign my workouts with a higher priority. It’s always easy to say, “I’ll skip tonight’s workout to get ahead on X,Y, and Z.” That said, it’s somewhat easier for me as I’m both single and I have no kids. So, I have fewer external pressures than a lot of guys my age.

Once I upped my workout frequency, I also knew that the diet had to change as well. The food side of the equation was somewhat easy. I’ve never been addicted to fast food and I needed to cut back on take-out anyway to save money. I’m eating more protein, veggies, good carbs, and a lot less processed foods. MUCH harder was curtailing my love for any beer that resembles old motor oil. Yeah, if you’ve noticed stock in Guinness taking a bit of a dip lately, I’m the reason why. The good news is that I’ve done it, but boy did that take a fair amount of willpower.

Even better news is that it’s really starting to pay off on the scales. As I mentioned before, in late July I came in at 228.1 pounds. This morning’s weigh in put me at 210.6 pounds*. So, I’ve lost 17.5 pounds in a bit over a month. I’m happy with that. My goal is to reach and maintain 185 – 190 pounds.

I’m also happy that my consistency at the gym is starting to pay off noticeably. While I’m not nearly at my goal, the amounts of weight I can lift across most exercises has been rising steadily and I’m feeling stronger. It’s nice NOT being the fat guy struggling with dumbbells that look like cocktail wieners on toothpicks.

On a more amusing front, I also believe that I’ve “arrived” in the eyes of the other guys at the gym. I’ve noticed that several of the big, fit, “usual suspects” at the gym now greet me with that slight, wordless, gladiator head-nod that I think means they approve of my presence. There’s whole papers and stories that could be written around the odd rituals and sociology that occurs in your average gym.

So anyway, there’s my progress so far. A little over 17 pounds lost; about 25 pounds to go. I’m looking forward to reaching my goal.

Cheers!

* Those of you on Facebook know that I’m also involved in a “Biggest Loser” contest at work. The weights I listed in paragraph five don’t match with what I’ve posted from the contest. There’s two reasons for that. The first is simple: different scales. The second is that the weigh-ins I do at home are in the morning, pre-breakfast, and wearing not a lot of clothing. The weigh-ins at work are post-meal and fully-clothed. As a result, this adds about 5-7 pounds when I weigh in at work. So, my post-NECon weight at 228.1 pounds means that my “walking around” weight at that time was in the low 230s.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Zen and the Art of Going Up Someone’s @#$% at the Supermarket

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:10:22 GMT

Because I’m a single guy, when I go to the supermarket I can usually get away with jumping in the “15 Items or Less” line. And I have to admit, while there’s a number of things that get under my skin rather quickly, I’m pretty tolerant of people who get into the zippier checkout line with a few more items than the stated limit. I’m good at, say, the limit plus five items or so. Even when it’s over that, I’ll usually just suck it up and deal.

Well, tonight I jumped into the fast line with a maybe six items while tinkering with my cell phone. When I looked up from what I was doing, I realized that the woman in front of me had a shopping cart loaded up with a week’s worth of groceries for a family of perhaps six to eight. The line behind me had already gotten pretty long and after some contemplation, I decided to point out her “mistake”.

I tapped the woman on the shoulder, she turned to look at me, and I pointed at the sign stating “15 Items of Less.” She looked at the sign, looked back at me, went completely blank and motionless, and blinked.

And blinked again.

And again…

And yet again…

After about twenty seconds of this, I said, “This isn’t Jurassic Park. I can still see you when you stop moving.”

Annoyed she responded, “Well, I don’t know what you want me to do.”

After waiting a moment to both think this through and give her a chance to stop being an ass, I replied, “Well, you’re in the ‘15-items-or-less’ line with a carriage that has enough food in it to feed a family in Somalia for over a year. Isn’t it obvious? I expect you to strip down and dance the cha-cha…”

Now she stared at me like I just stuffed an uncooked smelt up her nose.

“…OR you can do the courteous thing and wheel your carriage to the appropriate line. You know, like everyone else in the store. It’s up to you. You have options.”

She reacted poorly, but she did get out of the express line.

Bloody hell…

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

The Lawn Toilet!

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:02:14 GMT

You have a spare toilet. The yard looks a little sparse. You happen to be good with tools. And what do you get? … THE LAWN TOILET!

As seen on my drive home from work. No … really.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

32 Pit Bulls Seized in New Bedford, MA

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:50:28 GMT

In a story that combines the ugly reality of many backyard breeding operations and the continuing problem with Pit Bull overpopulation, the City of New Bedford, MA, has seized 32 Pit Bulls from a single home (mostly puppies plus two pregnant females).

All of the animals were housed in filthy, inhumane conditions and were being bred for sale at a profit. The owners face multiple animal cruelty charges. The good news is that these animals will be evaluated and put up for adoption at Boston ARL.

The bad news is that the owners were busted for the same charges in 2007 with nine animals in there home. The sad truth is that very often even the stiffest of charges for animal cruelty rarely discourage backyard breeders from the lure of easy money.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

If you’re the guy at the gym…

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:50:00 GMT

… who screams like a Wookie trapped in an Orgasmatron with each rep, and then at the end of of your set you throw your dumbbells like a siege engine…

You’re an asshat.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Geek Humor

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:09:34 GMT

Taken from Jack Haringa’s LiveJournal.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

[PC TIP] Backup & Recover Data on your Hard Drive

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:38:47 GMT

On occasion, friends who know I’m a bit of a geek email me with questions on how to service and troubleshoot their computers (MS Windows, I’m not a Mac guy). Often, my answers tend to be more comprehensive than they expected. I figured it might be useful to share these answers across the system of tubes that is the Interwebs. You’ll find one of these exchanges below.

Please note that this is how I handle these issues. There are likely other/better ways. Please feel free to post comments if you have further suggestions.

QUESTION

Hi, John!

My laptop died and the drive needs replacing and I sure would like to recover my data. Problem is I am paranoid about having BestBuy send my drive out and risking exposure of my financial and other data. Any
suggestions?

Thanks for your ideas!

ANSWER

It’s hard to say without knowing exactly how the disk crashed. What do you see when you try to start up (if anything at all)? Blue screen of death? Does MS Windows boot but then freeze? Is there physical damage to the disk (scratches on the plates)? Did it die due to age/wear-and-tear? If it is either of these two scenarios, then you have no choice but to send the disk out to a special service to recover the data. This also tends to be very, VERY expensive. So, get a quote before you authorize any work. Generally, these companies stay in business by working extensively to protect your privacy while recovering data. That said, if I were forced to send a drive to an outside company to recover data, I would probably have my bank/investment accounts, credit cards, PayPal, and all other personal accounts changed to protect myself. I would also change my login information for social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

If you have to send the disk out, you can do some comparison shopping to see if you can save money. Here’s two companies I found on Google:

http://www.datarecoverylabs.com/
http://www.drivecrash.com/

I haven’t used either, but they’re a good place to start.

If there is no physical damage to the disk, and the problem resides at a sofware level (either BIOS or MS Windows boot, or a virus), then it may be possible to recover the data without sending the disk out. Have you tried booting the computer in SAFE MODE? If you can get in via SAFE MODE, then you may be able to copy data to a thumb drive, burn to a CD, or at least delete data. Once you do that, you can just wipe the drive with a fresh install of the operating system. But, if it’s an old(er) drive, then I recommend replacing it before it does kick due to old age.

You may also be able to “unstick” a drive with virus/malware issues using either (or both) of these open source anti-malware solutions:

I have both of these installed on my system, because either could miss a particularly crafty bit of malware. I’ve seen SpyBot catch stuff that AdAware has missed; I’ve seen AdAware catch stuff that SpyBot missed. I don’t think there’s many buggies that will get around both solutions.

You may also be able to unclog your drive using this open source MS Windows optimization tool:

CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner)

The second part of these little tragedies is MAKING SURE IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN! Which is to say, backing up your data automatically. Don’t feel bad if you never remember to back up your data. No one does. I don’t. You have two options for backing up your data without your own involvement:

*** BACKUPS TO PHYSICAL DRIVES ***

My laptop is connected to an external hard drive: http://bit.ly/hngQO. You can also get a much higher capacity version of this drive: http://bit.ly/3mUOjY. I’m probably going to buy a 1TB drive in the near future. To backup the data on my laptop to my external drive, I use a very nifty piece of open-source software called Cobian Backup (currently version 9). Cobian allows me to select certain folders on my laptop and back them up to my external drive automatically at a time of my choosing. Most people schedule backups to occur either while they’re asleep or at work, or you can schedule them on the fly. When Cobian is running, it does use up some system resources and your laptop’s performance may suffer just a hair. For the average user, it won’t matter if you’re working on the computer while a backup is running.

*** BACKUPS TO ONLINE DRIVES ***

This means you’re going to enlist the services of an online company to backup your data via a high-speed internet connection (DSL, cable,). You sign up for the service (pricing is usually annual or monthly) and from there you can set up backups in much the same way as Cobian. You pick the folders you want backed up and when you want them uploaded to the service’s online data centers. The data is encrypted, so the folks working and maintaining the servers can’t get at your private stuff (at least not easily). These sites are generally as safe as the banks and credit card companies where your sensitive financial/personal data is already stored (this may or may not give you comfort…).

I have heard many good things about these two services:

I use Mozy.com and like them a lot. Pricing is good; services are solid. Yes, I backup to *both* a physical drive on my desk and to an online service. This is because I once had the horrible misfortune of having both my computer hard drive and back-up hard drive die at the same time. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. My backup drive slipped out of my hands, bounced down a steep flight of stairs, and exploded spectacularly on the bottom step.

So, I like having two levels of redundancy to my backups. The peace of mind is worth what I pay Mozy.com on an annual basis.

Cheers,
John

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

ADOPT MISSY – Purebred Rottweiler, spayed female, 1.5 years-old

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:16:55 GMT

My friend Niki is trying to find a home for this fabulous, young Rottweiller named Missy. This very sweet pup is 1.5 years old, spayed, and will soak up training like a sponge given the right structure and discipline. Niki is very experienced with large breed dogs and especially Rottweilers, so you’ll be adopting from someone who knows the breed and can tell you what to expect from this dog.

Missy has moderate-to-high energy levels and will require training from someone who has experience working with and owning large breed dogs. Missy is a bit strong-willed (she’s a Rottweiler…) and will need to know from day one who’s the boss.

Niki rescued Missy from a very nice family who simply weren’t ready for such a large dog in their home. Niki had initially thought she would keep Missy as her own, but it turns out that Missy is very selective about her doggie friends. Niki wants to continue to rescue and foster dogs which doesn’t exactly dovetail with Missy’s issues with other dogs. So, Missy deserves a home where she’s the only pet and the center of all your love and attention.

If you’re interested in adopting Missy, send your contact information to jharvey@johndharvey.com and I’ll forward it to Niki.

Cheers,
John

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

[FACEBOOK TIP] Improving Signal-To-Noise Ratio in your News Feed

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:58:15 GMT

While this is a very basic tip for anyone who considers themselves at advanced intermediate or higher skill level when using Facebook (FB), I’ve heard from several novice and even more experienced users that they’ve shied away from using FB. This is because they have a hard time following all of the chatter that appears in their news feed as friends update their status, take quizzes, post memes, etc. This is a very common complaint amongst those who have more than, say, 100 FB friends.

As I write this, I have over 470 friends on FB and many of them are fiction writers and marketing professionals that I connect with purely for networking purposes. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I really don’t need to know 25 random things about you. Sorry.

In any case, there’s a very simple fix that will allow you to hide updates from these FB “acquaintances” and clean up your news feed. Note that if you implement this change, FB will NOT send a notice to the person you hide stating “John Smith does not give a rat’s ass which Star Wars character you are” (though in some cases, I’d like that option).

Here’s the fix.

1. Go to your Newsfeed page by clicking on the “Home” link at the top of the page. It’s also the default page when you first log in to Fb.

2. Locate a post from someone you want to hide.

3. Move your cursor to the far right of the post until you see a grey box containing the word “Hide”. Click on the word “Hide”

4. Now you will see a drop-down menu containing one item that reads “Hide John Smith” (see image below). Select that option.

Click to see larger image.

Once you do that, all current and future posts made by that friend will no longer appear in your newsfeed.

That said, you may want to see those hidden posts for some reason. You have several options. Obviously, you may visit a specific profile to see all updates from that person. Alternately, you can scroll to the bottom of your newsfeed page and click on a link reading “Show ## Hidden Posts” (see image below).

This will reveal all of the currently hidden posts from all hidden profiles. You can also select the link right next to it reading “Edit Options”. This will open an option box allowing you to restore certain users to your newsfeed.

There. That should help you reduce the clutter on your newsfeed page.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Fell Off The Wagon …

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:56:14 GMT

No, I’m not talking about booze. I torched that wagon in college and have been enjoying Guinness regularly since then. That said, beer has certainly contributed to my tumble from an entirely different wagon … which is ‘not being a fat guy’.

In late 2007, I weighed in at trim (for my height) 185-190 pounds just before taking a job as executive director at the Providence Animal Rescue League (PARL). I was eating right(ish) and going to the gym very regularly. Without going into a lot of details, being executive director at an animal rescue organization entailed a huge leap in work hours (typically between 60 to 70 per week) and stress. The latter also led to a sharp change in my eating habits (all bad) and it didn’t help that there’s a great little bar directly across the road from PARL (Alibi Cafe … if you go, tell head bartender Brent I said hello).

Long story short, I gained weight steadily throughout the year I worked at PARL, and more so when it became obvious that my leadership position there was not going to work out. I have stayed heavier than I liked since then, but a recent convergence of family visiting, writers conferences, and other festivities created a kind of ‘perfect storm’ of bad habits. End result, I got on the scale after NECon and saw that my weight had spiked to 228 pounds.

Now, this weight will almost certainly startle my friends and followers who knew me in high school. I remember clearly when I had my freshman physical at Pepperdine University (age 19) I weighed in at 136 pounds at six feet tall. I remember this because the doctor on staff emphatically told me that the campus cafeteria was “all you can eat”. Boy, those days are LONG gone!

So anyway, I’m not terribly happy about my current tonnage. That said, I’ve recently decided that I’m done with the moaning. I’m back to going to the gym and I’ve changed around my eating habits. This will take a while, as it did the first time around.

The challenging thing will be incorporating workouts into an already full schedule. There’s a reason why the majority of writers you meet aren’t also underwear models. Work (the bill-paying gig), museum duties, writing, working out, etc., etc. Typically, when schedules fill up, the first thing to go is the exercise stuff. I can’t let that happen.

In any case, you’ll be treated to the occasional updates. It’ll be an adventure (a long, sweaty adventure…)

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Facebook Allows 3rd Party Advertisers To Use Your Posted Pictures in Ads

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:33:35 GMT

Facebook has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures WITHOUT your opt-in permission. To prevent this, follow these instructions:

1. Click on SETTINGS button up at the top the FB page where you see the LOG OUT link. Select PRIVACY.

Click to View

2. Then select NEWSFEEDS and WALL.

Click to view.

3. Next, select the tab that reads FACEBOOK ADS.

Click to view.

4. There is a drop down box; select NO ONE. Then SAVE your changes.

Click to view.

That’s it. You’re good to go.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

[VIDEO] Pit Bull Blues by John Shipe

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:25:28 GMT

This pro-pitbull video/song by John Shipe came to me via fellow Pit Bull rescuer Jennifer Hutchinson.

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

ReaderCon 20 … How My TBR Pile Got That Much Taller

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:14:19 GMT

I’m going to post more on ReaderCon as I get this blog going, but for now, here’s the books and magazines I purchased in the dealers room this past weekend.

++++ BOOKS ++++

LAST DAYS by Brian Evenson (Underland Press)

THE SHADOW YEAR by Jeffrey Ford (Harper Perennial)

REWIRED: POST-CYBERBPUNK ANTHOLOGY by James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel, editors (Tachyon)

MR. GAUNT by John Langan (Prime Books)

STRANGE TRAVELERS by Gene Wolfe (Orb Books/Tor)

JACK HARINGA MUST DIE! by Nicholas Kaufman, editor (Merricat Publications)

PHANTOM by Paul Tremblay and Sean Wallace, editors (Prime Books)

++++ PUBLICATIONS ++++

NEW GENRE #6 by Adam Golaski, editor

ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE #17/18 by John Klima, editor… Read More

BLACK STATIC (June/July ‘09) by Andy Cox, Editor

Mirrored from Johndharvey.com.

Open Source (Free) Software Recommendations

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:19:31 GMT

Originally published at Johndharvey.com. You can comment here or there.

I get asked for open-source (free) software recommendations often enough where I now keep a document that I just send to people when they start asking me for recommendations. Feel free to email if you have questions. The geekier amongst you will likely know about most of these solutions.

OpenOffice.org – Office Productivity

OpenOffice is an open-source office productivity tool that it very similar to Microsoft Office (but FREE!). Like Microsoft Office, this software package includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database, and presentation components. OpenOffice allows you to save your documents in Microsoft Office-compatible formats, so you can exchange documents with others who use Microsoft Office.
LINK: http://www.openoffice.org/

Thunderbird (& Lightening Add-On) – Email, Calendar, & Task Lists

If you want to also replace the Microsoft Outlook email/calendar/task client then one of the most widely-used free clients is Mozilla Thunderbird. It offers all of the same email functionality as Microsoft Outlook. In addition, viruses that target the Microsoft Outlook client are usually harmless within Thunderbird. Thunderbird on its own only offers email, but you can download and install a free add-on module called Lightening that adds calendar and task list functions. With Lightening, Thunderbird does pretty much everything Outlook can do.

If you synchronize your mobile phone with Microsoft Outlook, you can still do this with Thunderbird by using free services like Funambol and Plaxo. I use Plaxo, which is based on Funambol.

LINKS:
Thunderbird – http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/
Lightening – http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
Plaxo - http://www.plaxo.com/
Funambol – http://www.funambol.com/

Firefox – Internet Browser

Mozilla Firefox is an open-source web browser made by the folks who developed Thunderbird. Firefox is more standards-compliant and targeted less by Internet viruses compared to Internet Explorer by Microsoft. If you create web sites (or web ads), then you should install Firefox so you can preview your work in both browsers (because stuff that looks good in IE does not always look right in Firefox, and vice versa). Firefox has about 15% of the overall browser market in the US, but a much higher percentage if you look at younger web users.
LINK: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

AVG Free – Anti-Virus Protection

AVG Free provides basic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection and is free. New virus definitions download and install automatically, so you don't have to worry about manually updating.
LINK: http://free.avg.com

Spybot Search & Destroy – Find & Eliminate Spyware/Malware

Detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. It can also clean usage tracks, an interesting function if you share your computer with other users and don't want them to see what you have been working on.
LINK: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/

Ad-Aware Free – Find & Eliminate Spyware/Malware

Finds and eliminates spyware and malware living on your computer. Depending on the “trickiness” of the spyware, these threats can sometimes go unnoticed by either Spybot or Ad-Aware. Running both products on your computer will usually eliminate all of the threats on your computer.
LINK: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

CCleaner – Computer Optimization/Registry Cleaning

CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently, and giving you more hard disk space. It also includes a registry scanner/cleaner that is both safe and stable. CCleaner allows you to backup your registry before you make any changes. This allows you to roll back to your old registry settings if something goes wrong. Note that when you install CCleaner, the product will ask if it can install the Yahoo.com toolbar for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Just uncheck the box and it won't install.

Definition of “Registry” (because I know you'll ask...): In Microsoft Windows operating systems, the registry is a single place for keeping such information as what hardware is attached, what system options have been selected, how computer memory is set up, and what application programs are to be present when the operating system starts.
LINK: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Eraser – Securely Erase Files/Folders FOREVER!

Eraser allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Erasing patterns include DoD 3-pass, 7-pass, and Gutmann 35-pass options (among others). WARNING: Once something is erased in this manner it's really, really GONE! I'm not kidding … GONE!
LINK: http://www.heidi.ie/node/6

AxCrypt – File Encryption/Password Protection

If you have a file (of any format) that you want to keep absolutely private, AxCrypt will encrypt it and allows you to provide your own custom password to open the file.
LINK: http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/

KeePass Password Safe – Securely Store Usernames/Passwords

If you have to keep track of usernames/passwords for multiple websites, software packages, alarm codes, electronic devices, etc., then KeePass is a great product to both centralize and encrypt a database of your various passwords.
LINK: http://keepass.info/

Help Find a Home for Boomer!

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 01:23:21 GMT

Originally published at Johndharvey.com. You can comment here or there.

This young (3 years), high-energy Pit Bull mix adores people, play, and cuddles. Boomer has been at PARL for close to a year now. Why? We think part of it is that he's a mutt and many people come to PARL looking for purebred dogs. We also think that his size, energy, and the fact that he's a Pit Bull mix has held some people back. The fact is that he's one of the best dogs we've ever had at PARL and there's no *good* reason for him to be here.

We need your help to find this great dog a new home. spread the word!Boomer is playful, people focused, and just loves to romp. Boomer is also a huge fan of cuddles and scratchies. If you're looking for a running partner, then this is the dog for you! Boomer has even had professional obedience training provided by Solid K9 Training.

Boomer's Petfinder.com listing.

Boomer's Flickr page.

Call 401-421-1399 or email adopt@parl.org.

Providence Animal Rescue League Launches a LiveJournal Blog

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:53:54 GMT

The Providence Animal Rescue League (where I'm the executive director), has just launched a Livejournal Blog. You can see it here. My first post touches on an irresponsible ad put forth by Verizon to promote their LG Dare. This ad portrays Pit Bulls using almost every negative (and false) stereotype that is out there.

And here's a screen capture:

Please feel free to stop by for a read and add us as a friend.

Cheers,
John