Cleaning Products

Last night I bought a Bionaire steam mop which can also be used for carpets. It did an OK job on the vinyl flooring (same results as using my swiffer with a wet cloth) with the exception of a red mark (crayon?) that I had on the floor. It picked it up where the swiffer would not get rid of it. I also tried it on an area rug. It did nothing for it.

I have so many cleaning 'tools' but really the best are the swiffer products. My arsenal includes traditional swiffer wet/dry, swiffer vac for non-carpets, swiffer carpet flick (comes in handy for picking up cat kibble) and swiffer duster. I have a kick-ass Bissel vacuum but it's heavy (not to mention, loud)!

All in all, unless you're looking for a cleaner that won't use chemicals, the steam mop may be a good option for you. If you're looking to clean your carpets, don't go with this.

Cool Online Web Tools

The nice thing about the majority of these free tools is that no account creation is required.

Button Factory - http://dabuttonfactory.com/
Create buttons online. It's free and has nice 2.0 buttons!

Drawter - http://drawter.com/
Whoever made this deserves an award. Quite intuitive free tool that allows you to draw your website and generates the code for it.

WhosAmungUs - http://whos.amung.us/
Web site tracking widget including displaying visitor info on a map.

Sosius - http://sosius.com/Haven't tried this personally (yet) but it looks cool. It's an online workspace.

Bubbl.us - http://www.bubbl.us/
Cool mind mapping online.

Buttonator - http://www.buttonator.com/
Modern styles for making buttons.

Charts - http://charts.hohli.com/
Great for making quick charts.

Online Code Converter - http://code.cside.com/3rdpage/us/javaUnicode/converter.html
Convert character codes.

MorgueFile - http://www.morguefile.com/
Stock photos even for commercial use (read the 'license').

Wufoo - http://wufoo.com/
Create online forms for every occassion you can imagine. Versatile and good for inspiration.

280 Slides - http://280slides.com/Editor/
It's basically Powerpoint online. Free and easy.

Color Scheme Designer 3 - http://colorschemedesigner.com/
Design colour schemes online. (Nice interface)

COLOURlovers - http://www.colourlovers.com/palettes
This is an interesting site that not only provides colour schemes but also schemes based on patterns.

Pattern Tap - http://patterntap.com/
Awesome place for inspiration. You can view the different looks of 404 Pages, Audio, Breadcrumbs, Borders, Comments, Contact etc...

Kuler - http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/rating?time=30
Colour schemes you can contribute and create.

IzzyMenu (Builder) - http://www.izzymenu.com/
Comprehensive online menu builder that doesn't require an account.

Wirenode - http://www.wirenode.com/
This is an "ok" site. It provides a fast way, visual way of creating a site for mobile devices.

doTemplate - http://www.dotemplate.com/
This is the ultimate for lazy visual people. Customize the templates they have online and the templates are actually good!

Web Graphics Maker - http://en.web-graphics-maker.com/
Make backgrounds, lines, and bullets online. Includes transparency on png's.

Bradicon! - http://ico.bradleygill.com/advanced.php
Turn images in to icons.

Text to PNG - http://www.text2png.com/
Interesting concept. Converts plain text into a png. You can either use hosted (free) or grab the source for yourself (requires php).

Iconspedia - http://www.iconspedia.com/
Ok, not a tool but wicked Web 2.0 style icons/buttons/images.

Fresh Badge - http://www.freshbadge.com/
An ok site that generates badges.

Loading GIF Generator - http://www.webscriptlab.com/index.php
Good idea! Create animations to use as a 'loading' message.

Dynamic Drive Button Maker Online - http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/button/
Creates small buttons (eg, rss, xhtml etc...)

Timelines - http://www.mytimelines.net/
Create cut and paste timelines from any feed.

Wordle - http://www.wordle.net
Create tag clouds.

Iaza - http://iaza.com/
Vast assortment of image manipulation capabilities online.

LogoMaker - http://logomaker.com/
Cool creative customizable icons. Create the logo and link to it for free or download it for a price.

FotoFlexer - http://fotoflexer.com/
Basic image manipulation online.

Maya - http://www.stockfreephoto.com/
Online image manipulation. You can also download this and place it on your own site for free. (PHP)

Pixenate - http://pixenate.com/
Another free online image manipulation site.

Online Button Maker - http://www.advancewebsoft.com/free-oscommerce-cre-loaded-zen-cart-oscmax-button-generator-p.html
Pretty good button generator.

Big Huge Labs - http://bighugelabs.com/
Show off your pics from Flickr or Facebook. Create calendars, motivation posters, badges and more.

Cool Text - http://cooltext.com/
Cool Text

Logo Generator - http://www.logogenerator.com/
Excellent online logo generator and it's free!

Geeky Stuff

In case you're wondering what I do, I'm a Lead Content Developer for a company on the East Coast. The company's focus is on the gathering, managing, and presentation of geospatial data. My focus however, is on all things 'portal' (Liferay Portal to be exact). This includes troubleshooting, maintaining, recommending/evaluating, and developing applications that sit inside the portal called portlets. I also create training materials and if required, deliver it (yes, as in standing up in front of a bunch of people for a couple of days and walking them through various tasks).

I've decided that aside from personal notes on this blog, I will be sharing geeky tidbits. Not sure if anyone will bother reading it but at least it gives me something to do...

Psychic Fair

I was at the psychic fair today and saw Lyn Boucher who I had seen before. Here are some of the details she gave me... Whether it's true or not, obviously remains to be seen...

Highlights

-Going to meet a guy that's a friend of a friend. He'll be of Latino descent and his name will begin with an R like "Roberto".

-In 2 years time we'll be engaged or moving in together.

-When she read my palm, she said I'll have 2 kids. When she later did tarot she said, he'll already have 2 boys. I will be a 'full-time' mom though. It won't be a shared custody kind of thing.

-I will meet him in "big J" which to her means June or July.

-My career is going well and it's a big part of my life. I will be given more responsibility which requires me to delegate more.

-I will be financially secure.

-I will live to be 85 (according to my palm).

-I will be taking a trip this summer that involves a large suitcase and air travel. It will be personal, not work related.

Sept 2009 Update: Although I don't know what age I'll live to, all the other items were wrong, wrong and really wrong!

 

Near Death Account... Behold! It Lives!

Just for kicks, I thought I would see if a web site I owned 14 years ago still had my account on the server. (It was one of those free web sites.) Lo and behold, I logged in successfully! If after all this time, this organization had my information, just imagine how many others do that I've signed up for over the years.

Wow, First Post

... Is this a monumental moment or what?

Found a great web site, http://www.qik.com. Unfortunately, my Omnia isn't playing nice with it but the concept is cool. It allows you to stream your pocket pc. It also hooks in to Facebook which is great for lazy people like me that would rather hit one button to create an account rather than enter all of my info.

Finally got my dishes done buuuut I accidentally put a few holes in my sink with Liquid Drano which the superintendant sealed with Epoxy. Note to all, it really CAN put a hole in your pipes (and sink)!

Last but not least, I HATE having a cold.