Laptop & Netbook Users Rejoice!

I have been a laptop user for years. Recently I switched over to a Netbook for several reasons. Ever since Laptops started with the touchpads I have had the problem of my hands brushing the touchpad while I'm typing and sending the cursor to a place on the screen I didn't want it to and whatever I was typing would appear there instead of where I wanted it. In a few cases it would actually overtype large chunks of text as well. Or send the cursor into a paragraph above where I was typing. This all depended of course on where the cursor was resting when my hands would brush the touchpad.

It was annoying at best, and downright productivity destroying at worst when it would happen several times within the same document. However I tried, I could not train myself to type with my hands above the touchpad rather than resting on the computer.


Well apparently there has been an app out there for sometime that eliminates this nasty and annoying little problem. I honestly can't believe it doesn't come auto-installed on every touchpad Laptop and Netbook as I really don't see a downside to using it at all.

It's called Touchfreeze. It's Google code and it works amazingly well. I have had zero issues with this problem since installing the tiny little app. Best thing is, it works smoothly in both XP, Vista, and Windows 7. I DLed Windows 7 to my Netbook recently and not only do most things run better in Windows 7 than it did on XP, but I've had zero issues with this little app saving me the frustrating problem of a rogue cursor. I love it when you can find something so simple and effective.

6 Year Old Not 2000 ft. above Denver in Balloon

If you are near a TV, turn it on. You should be able to hit a live news feed on a 6 year old boy that is trapped inside a mylar homemade hot air balloon that is floating 2000 ft. over Denver at the moment and they've shut air traffic down.

LCD Factory Settings - Anyone keep them?

I recently invested in a new Home Theater system. This is my first venture into Blu-Ray, LCD, and the Home Theater setup. I'm really pleased with the purchase at the moment although I've only been able to enjoy a few hours worth of it before jumping on another plane back to Nepal. The experience has left me with a few questions to others who happen to have LCDs and HD/Blu-Ray setups.

#1. Did you calibrate your picture or leave it on the factory settings?

The factory settings for most of these TVs have them overly tweaked on Brightness and Sharpness to make the picture 'pop' on the sales floor they say. However, all of the literature you read says that you should really calibrate the TV for more realistic pictures. They say that leaving everything tweaked can strain your eyes, burn out the TVs electronics quicker, etc.

As an aside, I find it rather humorous that we all get sold on a particular TV based on the picture we see in the store and yet have to 'calibrate' it the moment we get home to get a more 'realistic' viewing experience.

#2. If you do calibrate your picture settings, do you change those settings dependant upon what you are watching? Animated vs. Live-Action, etc?

#3. Does anyone use a Blu-ray player and/or receiver that sports the ability to stream from Netflix via an internet connection? If so, do you use a wireless connection for this or wired? If Wireless, what kind of unit do you use and are you pleased with the results?


For me, we watched Coraline with the factory settings on the picture and I was just blown away at the visual effects. Using the factory settings and having all the settings tweaked so high really made this movie sparkle. But on Live-Action shows and movies I definitely feel that the calibrated settings are far superior. With the factory settings everythign looked so sharp and so bright that it appeared we were watching low grade movies/shows. It was strange. The picture was sharp and clear and all....it just appeared.....too clear? It's hard to explain but it didn't feel natural.

Also...for anyone who may be looking at an upcoming LCD TV purchase....back-lit LED is the way to go. No question.

The Roaming Gnome Adventures

I travel...alot, and I'm short. So there is your explanation of the title.

Sometimes...it's the hard things that make us grow.

I'm currently sitting in the Bangkok airport on my way back to the U.S. after another month in Nepal. Now that I've extracted myself from the daily grind of Nepal, it's given me some chances to reflect on the last month and for lack of a traveling companion to share my thoughts with, I figured I'd post it here and see what kind of comments come around should you embark on attempting to read.

Over the last year and a half I've spent over 9 months total in Nepal. Aside from the general stress of being away from my family and all that we in the U.S. normally take for granted, I don't mind traveling. I'm pretty adaptable in most situations and I love foreign food; especially Asian food. However, more than on any other trip, this one brought me more face to face with my western mindset in some of the harshest ways. It has also made me consider just how I should be dealing with that western mindset. Let me elaborate a bit.

Nepal is bass ackwards. The country is so messed up that its hard to really see what will truly fix its problems because they are so varied and engrained in the culture. The people, while I respect and admire their ability to deal with the many challenges they have to deal with on an every day basis, have also gone past just dealing with those challenges and have accepted them as a part of daily life so much that the things that could help improve their lives are often shunned. Whether it be power cuts, lack of water, or simply trying to organize a government that can begin to deal with these things, they are their own worst enemies. The country has a 50% unemployment rate. Over the last two decades they have gone from over 400 major garment factories to 4. Ours being one of those remaining 4. The garment business, outside of Tourism, was among the country's top 5 sources of revenue.

Why have all these garment factories left? Well, to some degree it was competition with a newly opened China in the 90s and the country being landlocked. However, as wages have increased in China, Nepal is once again a very inexpensive place to make garments. But you can't do that when the labor force is so hostile. Our company provided Health Care to the workers 5 years before the government made it mandatory. We pay twice the minimum wage for all tailors starting at our factory and we give them the training they need to make the technical garments we expect. We provided lunches for them for free when this wasn't required by law. We provided half of their month's salary in advance to them 2 weeks ahead of pay time(which happens once a month) even though we weren't required. We provided bottled water for them to drink because we didn't want them drinking the local tap water like many do. We also sponsored many of their children in school as each of our U.S. employees provided the funds for this. I sponsored two kids myself. Our factories are clean, well lit, and have been written up in the local papers in Nepal as being a great place to work.

Despite these and a few other things that makes our factory the best factory in the country for wages and benefits, our workers formed a union and began striking on us last year because they wanted even more. We tried to negotiate as much as possible and gave them some things while we couldn't give them others. Their work began to slow. Which meant orders to certain customers came late. Which meant we had cancellations that cost us more than a million dollars in raw materials and duty we had paid on it. The total lost revenue was over 2 million. Even after we sat them down and shared with them what this cost us, they continued to strike and when they weren't striking their output was very very slow. We are now closing down this factory. We simply have no choice at this point. We must cut the gangrene before it effects our company as a whole.

But this is nothing new. The entire country does this in every last part of it. Example, two student groups at the local college went on strike because the contractor that was going to build the new chemistry lab wasn't the contractor they wanted. This is the students mind you. And when groups like this strike....instead of just shutting down production in a factory, they go out into the streets and refuse to let traffic through. They throw rocks, mob people on bikes, motocycles, and upturn and start cars on fire if any of these modes of transportation are used to try and get by them. Then of course there are the ethnic strikes where whole people groups shut down the entire city or region. Last year they kept any goods from coming up from India by striking in the Tarai region. This sent vegetable, gas, and other essential goods souring in price for over three weeks as shortages built.

Beyond this...we've been building a new building to house our R&D and a new flagship store. To watch this thing being built was a lesson in absolute hilarity, criminal negligence, absurd stupidity, and the true Nepal mindset. There was a contractor, an electrician, an air conditioning specialist, a plumber, etc etc. All had the blueprints and the plans. None of them coordinated. A wall was built and then knocked down in order for electricity to go behind it. Then it was built again. Then it was partially knocked out for the ducts to go through. Then it was built again only to find that it leaked because of a pipe here that was punctured sometime during that process. And this was pretty much the way it went throughout the entire project. One guy would come in and do his work and then leave with an entire mess for someone else to clean up. We'd clean it...then the next guy would come in and do the same exact thing. All the workers, regardless of the fact that the plumbing wasn't yet finished and regardless of the fact that there was a designated place for them to go to the bathroom, constantly used the bathrooms in the building that weren't working yet...making it stink to high heaven. We found on multiple occasions after the plumbing was finished....workers taking showers in the building to clean themselves after the work day was done.

We decided we wanted trim around the base of the rooms. The trim guys hand cut everything instead of using any kind of measurements, leaving huge gaps....and then AFTER the trim was installed on the wall....began staining it. The wall had already been painted at that point and we had to go back and repaint because the stain was all over. We caught this half way through...told them to stain before they put it on...and they actually fought with us over it. Blew my mind.

These are just a few examples of the absurdity of it all. Which brings me to the point. This is Nepal and people here have just learned to accept this kind of stuff. They don't get frustrated...they just go on about what they do day in and day out. They don't try to fix it either...or when they do...someone pulls that person back into the barrel and keeps them from bettering themselves and others. My western mind just grates against this with every fiber of my being. Especially as the 'Operations' manager of our company, it's my responsibility to deal with and increase efficiencies in our systems and processes. But I can't come into a country and expect it to be or act with the same efficiencies as the U.S. So that is what I'm having to learn. When to push these guys, when to not accept the Nepali status quo.....and when to sit back, take a breath and realize that I can't win every battle here and if I try I'll just go nuts.

These are the kinds of things that mature us I suppose....but it's never fun going through the process.

Toys R Us - 50% Off Select Items Sunday/Monday Only

Toys R Us is having a Labor Day sale.


Looks to be mostly animated assortment numbers. But it looks as if it goes all the way up to Leader Class figures. So....