abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
The English Alphabet
I just went to abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.com and amazingly enough the website was parked. It had no use. I cannot believe such a great website (the alphabet) was wasted. I feel like hooked on phonics or an elementary school program should invest in the website and turn it into something useful. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.com could be a great learning tool for reading and learning the alphabet.

Heck, if you google abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz you don't find anything useful. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.com does not even come up as an option. Any opinions?
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

How to build a dog ramp to the bed for your puppy or small dog for cheap - Step by Step instructions

We recently adopted a new puppy to our home. One thing we quickly realized is the dog is too small to jump up and down off the bed. We needed something to help the dog get to the top of the 26" high bed. There were no dog stairs packages that went high enough. We purchased a ramp from PetsMart for $130 that made stuck out 5 feet off the bed that the puppy used no problem. However, it was very much in the way of walking around the bed and extremely pricey. I vowed 'I could build a ramp for this that could run along the side of the bed and cost a quarter the price.'

I succeeded in building my own ramp for the dog. It cost a total of $22 (not including power tools).

Materials used:

A power screwdriver (or, a screwdriver if you want to do it the hard way)

A power circular saw (or, a hand saw if you want to do it the hard way)

A tape measure

Two eight foot 2x4 pieces of wood (2.64 each at Lowe's)

One ten foot 1x10 pieces of wood (9.72 at Lowe's)

20 or so screws ($3 at Lowe's)

10' roll of silverware drawer liner, 24" wide. ($4 at Wal-Mart)

Begin by cutting four 2x4 post the height of your bed. In my case 26". 

Second, measure the length of ramp you will need. This will vary depending on the bed and dog. In my case I cut 7'. So, I cut the 1x10 at the 7 foot mark.

Next I cut 1 foot of the 1x10 for the bottom base. And lastly I cut about 18" of the remaining 1x10 for the top platform. 18" so there is a 6" overlap to bridge the gap between the top of the ramp and the bed. We do not need the small dog or puppy having to jump over a 4" gap to get to the bed.

Using the 12" of 1x10 base, screw in the four 2x4s to bottom of ramp base as legs. You will want to space them 5" apart. Screw them in with 1 screw each pillar for now. 

Make sure the distance between pillars is the same on both sides of the base. Write down these measurements as they must be equal on the top part of the base.

At the top leave 1 inch of the top of the 2x4 uncovered. This should come naturally if you measured exactly 5" between the stands legs.

Measure angle to cut by placing wood for ramp at the distance and angle you plan and mark the angle. Once you mark the 2x4 with the angle, cut off as shown in the above pictures. This is what the ramp will be screwed into.

Before screwing the ramp to the base you will want to attach the drawer liner to the ramp and base top. This is what will allow your dog to have traction and grip to walk up and down. Without a gripping surface your dog will slip and quickly be turned off by the idea of using the ramp. I used industrial adhesive glue, you can use another type of glue or nails or screws or whatever. After covering the top and the ramp with the gripping surface you can screw in the top of the ramp to the base.

If my instructions seemed unclear or confusing hopefully the many pictures will help fill in the gaps. I did this will little planning and can easily be adjusted to fit your bed or couches specifications. However, in the end it cost around $23. It takes up less walking room than the store bought ramps and is easier to use than stairs and again, cheaper.

qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm-abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Google is fun. I was bored so I typed in 'qwerty' in Google and picked out the longest suggested suggested keyword search and hit search. They keyword was 'qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'. I have no idea how qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz became a suggested keyword. I love how it is actually two words. As if qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm was a word or something, and why on earth is it followed up by abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz? No idea. Hopefully that is not why you Googled the word... leading you to this site which has no answers on the matter.

I will probably look into keyword fun more when I find myself bored again typing random letters into Google. I did this with a similarly random keyword in an earlier post and surprisingly a lot of visitors have made their way to the post and left their mark on the guestbook. If you found this post by doing what I did... searching the suggested keyword "qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" in Google please post on the guest book! To me this is simply fascinating.

asdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjkl

Today in my boredom I typed in asdf in google in Firefox and noticed this keyword was surprisingly one of the auto-complete option, it was the longest one so I went with it.

I began wondering the affect a unique keyword such as the the title of this article "asdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjkl" would have on Google or yahoo or even perhaps bing/msn search results. Is it possible to get a simple yet meaningless blog post with a crazy title like asdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjklasdfghjkl to become a top 10 listing on google when this keywoard is searched?


Please post a comment if this is also how you found this post. I am very interested to see the impact of keywords in the title for blog posts in web pages. I find it fascinating!

Did know urban dictionary actual has an entry for "asdfghjkl" ? How crazy is that. The letters represent the home (middle) row of the keyboard typed out from left to right.
Urban dictionary defines "asdfghjkl" as  "An expression of frustration for IM; Used in desperation when no other words will do."
Here is the link -> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=asdfghjkl

Hilariousness that can come from boredom and google.. and typing asdfghjkl

How To Repair Air Conditioning Condensate drain and water leaks

I found this article online when attempting to fix my a/c unit that was leaking water in our garage (or basement). The text was pasted from the link below.

http://www.toad.net/~jsmeenen/drain.html

---

   Air Conditioning Condensate and Water Leaks

are easy to fix. Usually without professional help.

---

   There are lots and lots of inquiries about water leaking from air conditioners and heat pumps. This is a very common problem that is easily solved. The way your air conditioner dries your house is by removing moisture. That moisture must go some where.  The moisture is removed by condensing it on the cold refrigeration coils and letting it run down a drain pan.
    The problem is that dirt and crud will stop up the drain line and clog the pan. This will eventually happen to every system out there give it enough time.
    While this problem makes a terrible mess and seems like to end of your system it is really quite easy to fix. Most system simply use a 3/4 inch PVC pipe to drain the water to a floor drain or sink. when (not if) this drain clogs the drain pan over flows (especially when the fan stops) and you have a mess.
    Fixing this problem is rather easy. Simply take a wet dry vacuum and suck the drain line clean, 9 times out of 10 this will fix it and that is the last of this problem you will have for a few years. If the drain pan is really dirty then you will have to take the covers off the unit and vacuum it out. In extreme cases you may have to use compressed air, nitrogen or CO2 to blow out the drain line (expect a big mess at the other end).If you don't have either avaliable you can use the Garden hose to flush the line backwards (expect an even bigger mess on the other end)
    In rare cases you may actually have a hole in the coil drain pan in which case the coil or the pan will have to be replaced especially if it is steel (but this is rare). In other rare cases we have had situations where grease or oil fumes from the furnace have condensed on the coil and caused the water to fall off the coil. When this happens you must clean the coil with soap or some solvent.
   If the coil is totally stopped up the back pressure from the fan/blower can force the water out of the pan by undermining the bottom of the coil. When the coil is this dirty the coil usually needs to be replaced. You will also notice little or no air flow.
    In most cases these condensate leaks are a do it yourself repair. Only if you must take the unit apart and can't, do you really need to call for help.

Patellar Tendonitis Rehab Exercises

Here is the rehabilitation exercises I will be doing to strengthen the muscles around my patella tendon to heal my knee of patella tendonitis (jumper's knee).

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_jumpersk_rex.htm

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_xjumper1_art.htm
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_xjumper2_art.htm

If you have other great links please post them in the comments section!

How to Jailbreak iPhone 3G with OS 3.1.2 using Blackra1n

I have never jailbroken my iPhone before. I have read it is relatively safe... and not difficult but I never thought it was this easy. If you know how to install iTunes.. you can jailbreak your iPhone. If you can install adobe acrobat on your computer... you can jailbreak your iPhone. If you can install any basic program on your computer you can Jailbreak your iPhone. Don't pay someone $25 to do it... its rediculously easy and takes 5 minutes.

 

I literally downloaded one program. Plugged in my iPhone to my computer same as you do to sync.. and clicked one button and waited. This jailbreaking program did the rest. It was so easy and now I can record video (3G user), take pictures with zoom (free app), customize my icons into categories, view my calendar from my 'slide to unlock' screen... and tons more.

 

Below is the site I used with step by step instructions. Please note that you are doing this at your own risk... and if anything happens to your iPhone it is not my fault. I told you my expirience but I am not accoutable for what happens to anyone else

 

Step by step (easy!) instructions. You don't even really need the steps.. just download and execute while plugged in.

http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-iphone-3.1.2-firmware-with-blackra1n-rc2-uyh759/

 

Blackra1n's website... this dude rocks.

http://www.blackra1n.com/

 

Free Online Courses - or the 'U of FE.net' as I like to call it (www.free-ed.net)

I have debated about ever going back to school for continuing my education, but every time I look into getting my masters I do a cost benefit analysis of the amount of time and cost of grad school and how it relates to a raise in pay then putting that up against how much I could make and advance through using that time to work hard and earn my way up. The reality is in many cases I see it taking 10 years before I see a true monetary return on getting my masters.

I'm not saying grad school is something people shouldn't do. In most cases people go to grad school because in order to do the job they truly want to do they must get their masters or PhD. For instance, if you want to be a doctor, you have to go to grad school. In which case it obviously makes sense. But if you are doing it soley for the raise in pay you really have to sit down and think about it.

At any rate, being in the IT field I always rationalize almost anything IT can be learned on your own. There are thousands of websites that will teach you all the programming languages and computer systems you will need to know. Today I stumbled across a simple yet seemingly effective website that can help anyone that is just interested in learning and not necessarily worried about the paper evidence- or more importantly cost of a class at a college.

The website is http://www.free-ed.net/. This website takes hundreds or websites from real online college courses as well as pre-structured courses from college textbook publishers websites and organizes them into courses and 'colleges'. Below are the spoof 'colleges' they have which each contain a subset of 'majors' of which then have a list of 'courses' which are links to the various course websites.

Here are some of the 'colleges' free-ed.net has to offer:
    College of Arts and Humanities
    College of Business, Marketing, and Economics
    AgriScience
    Automotive
    Building & Construction
    Computers & Information Technology
    High Technologies
    GED & College Prep
    College of Medicine and Allied Health
    Industrial Trades and Technologies
    Mathematics
    College of Science
    College of Social Sciences
    Transportation
    Education
    Engineering
    Hospitality & Human Services

Personally I am going to try to complete some of these courses for my own personal gain. Many of the courses found in the 'College Computers & Information Technology' would be beneficial know or review. In my opinion, at this point in my life having got a bachelor's degree and not going for my MBA there is little difference on a resume between putting 'took a Java and Web Design class at the University of Phoenix' and 'have learned to effectively use Java and am skilled in web design'

How to create shortcuts for shutdown, restart and hibernate in windows xp.

I stumbled across this handy link today while trying to create shortcuts to hibernating my work computer easily. This makes it easy to 1-click hibernate or assign a short cut key to the shortcut to have custom keyboard activated hibernating.

 

http://www.technixupdate.com/how-to-create-shortcuts-for-shutdown-restart-and-hibernate-in-windows-xp/

Windows 7 tips and tricks

Windows 7 is a great Operating System, but if you do not know some of these tips and tricks you may not realize how user friendly it is.

1. The new Aero features - Peek and shake
You can view live thumbnails of all your windows when you roll over the app in the task bar. You can scroll your mouse over each thumbnail to bring a preview of the window to focus, you can close the window within the aero thumbnail, if you shake a window it will make the rest of the windows minimize. To bring all the windows back you simply shake the window again.

2. Search bar
Finding files, programs, and features never got easier with the new and improved search bar in both the start menu and every explorer window. Search makes it easy to find anything. Perhaps you want to open a program but do not have any shortcuts for it other than in the multi-level start menu. Rather than click start, all programs, Microsoft office, Microsoft Excel simply click the start menu icon (or press the windows key) and begin typing 'excel'. The search comes up with the result as fast as you can type it. 90% of the time the program or file you were looking for will be the top item in the search and thus already highlighted. So, opening a program can be as easy as typing [win key] exce [enter]. This goes for folder names, file names, programs, or even topics in the control panel that you cannot easily find. The same handy search bar is in nearly every explorer window but searches faster than ever where you can find what you're looking for in literally seconds just by typing in the first few letters of the title.

3. Pinning programs to the task bar
At first many users will hate that it is not 'easy' to create a quick launch toolbar in the task bar like they had on Vista and XP. At first this 'missing' feature made me hate Windows 7. If you too were like me here is how to add the quick launch bar to the toolbar in Windows 7. It wasn't long before I learned how to pin programs to the tool bar. If you pin internet explorer to the tool bar but have a IE window open already an want to open a new one, it can be annoying to right click then click on 'Internet Explorer'. Well, you don't have to! Simply hold the shift button down while clicking on the window in the task bar OR use your middle scroll button on your mouse to click. Both will open a new instance of the program instead of bringing the existing window to focus. Once I figured out this tip I was a lot happier with the new tool bar in Windows 7.

4. Rearrange the order of the windows in the task bar
You can now click and drag the items in the bottom tool bar and rearrange how they are ordered. This seems like a small detail but it is handy when you have a lot of windows open.

5. The permanent show desktop button
On the bottom right of the screen you see a small empty space to the right of the clock. This is a dedicated 'show desktop' button. Hovering your mouse over it will allow you to 'peek' at the desktop while clicking it will work just like the old 'show desktop' icon did minimizing all windows. Clicking it again will bring all of those windows back from their minimized state.

6. Easily change the screen resolution
Now it is very easy to change the resolution of the screen. Simply right click in an empty spot on the desktop and click 'Screen Resolution'

 I will continue to update this list as I have time, but here is a link to another persons rather large list of tips & tricks for Windows 7
http://www.softsailor.com/news/887-70-useful-windows-7-tips-tricks.html