Great news for NotAMysterians with smart-phone addled brains (like me).

Not A Mystery works perfectly on mobiles!

Kind of takes your breath away, n’est-ce pas?

Did You Notice The Picture-Of-The-Picture...?

How do they do that you might wonder? I’ll go with this saying:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke, “Profiles of The Future”, 1961

Actually it’s done for us behind the scenes by the WordPress Wizards. They do it with something call CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. In any case WordPress can see what you are using to browse our blog and delivers up the content in a mobile optimized format.

List of Posts

I’m prejudiced, but I think it’s quite attractive. And while I’d like to say WordPress does this just for us, the truth is that all WordPress-hosted blogs enjoy this feature. Just another reason to go with WordPress.com in case you are thinking of starting your own blog.

Comments And Everything

Our mobile world is populated with all the usual suspects … oops, I mean, features!

These days there’s no shortage of opinion regarding the size and role of government.

But one thing everyone can agree on; corruption has no place in any government.

In the USA we are lucky in this regard, but many (usually poor) people in developing countries don’t have that luxury.

I’m not talking about the stupidity of an elected official flying to Argentina on taxpayer’s money to visit his soul-mate. I’m talking about people having to pay local officials just to get business permits, drivers licenses, and even having a sick child be admitted to a hospital.

The World Bank has estimated that $1 Trillion are paid in bribes around the world every year.

But what can be done?

Shaffi Mather is a successful young [Indian] entrepreneur, whose goal is fighting the business of corruption in public service, eliminating it one bribe at a time.

And he plans to do it in a totally capitalistic way. It turns out there is a lot of gross margin to be made when you are operating in a $1 Trillion market.

Click On This Image To Watch Shaffi's TED 12 Minute Talk

You can watch Shaffi describe his idea in a 12 minute talk at the TED Conference in Mysore, India which he delivered last month.

In the lecture he begins by describing 298 for Ambulance a for-profit emergency medical service he founded. It operates on a sliding scale payment system that has revolutionized medical transport in Mumbai and Kerala and it is self funded.

That amazing success lends credibility to his even more exciting anti-corruption idea.

If you are like me you will stand up and applaud at the end of the video.

I guarantee it.

This morning there is (for me) one less mystery in the world.

What’s emerged from Rupert Murdoch’s recent complaints about Google Search is the existance of a “First Click Free” deal between News Corp. and Google.

Mr. Murdoch, who is arguably the most powerful person in media today, has been insisting that Google ‘steals’ his content without payment. He’s been threatening to wall off his media properties from Google search results.

This argument about payment for content is getting a lot of attention in the ‘press’, but what interests me more is the fact that Rupert has peeled back his Kimono and given us a glimpse at his free Hors d’œuvre. (How’s that for a mixed metaphor?)

Colonol Rupert With Kimono And Hors D'oeuvre

It’s pretty widely known that while the Wall Street Journal is a subscription-only site, you can access any article by going thru Google first, as long as you know the title of the article. I’ve documented this trick for our readers, but never knew it had such a descriptive name. And obviously it’s the result of a business arrangement between Murdoch’s News Corp. and Google. It’s not the result of Google stealing content.

Now we know officially that the Wall Street Journal has been working with Google to increase traffic on their site by giving away access to the ‘first’ article hoping that readers will sign up for a subscription. But in spite of Murdoch’s threatening to cut off Google and work only with Microsoft nothing of consequence has come to pass.

If you’d like to play the game, copy and past the following line into a Google search box, and then into a Bing search box. From the search results, click on the online.wsj.com link and you’ll get complete access to the article from Google, but only a preview from Bing.

wall street journal Pay-to-Play Probe Turns to Venture Capitalist

As a former long-time subscriber to the WSJ, I’m enjoying the appetizers, but won’t be back until Rupert figures out a decent business model and puts out the whole lunch.

Every once in a while you come across a trick that brings a smile to your lips.

I’m smiling now.

For those of you who have an iPhone or similar device, there are times when you’d like to go ‘hands-free’. Here I’m not referring to making a call, but watching a video.

Turns out there are lots of commercial “stands” that will serve your purpose, for the price of $15 to $50. But that seems a lot to pay; plus they don’t do anything except stand there.

So imagine my delight when I discovered the brilliant ‘life hack” pictured here.

This stand is not only sturdy, it fits in your pocket and comes in several flavors.

And you can floss when done, for a brilliant smile!

Simple Is Beautiful, And A Nice Smile Too!

I found this at a site called Instructables, and here is your link to the original.

In my limited testing it seems that only J&J’s Reach Ultraclean Floss will work, but that’s ok because  Sandy, my dental hygienist, turned me onto Reach earlier this year and it’s become my favorite floss. Here’s your link to Reach on Amazon.

Just remember to say “Cheese”.

Have you noticed that the world is getting more crowded? No, not with people (although that’s also true), but with STUFF. We’ve discussed this in a few previous posts, notably on The Collyer Brothers, and MyLifeBits.

So here’s a question to make it more personal:

Do we own our stuff, or does our stuff own us?

If you feel like you are working for your stuff, instead of the reverse, I’ll share a simple answer.

• Subscribe To Your Stuff!

Some people like to call it a Business Model; this is from Wikipedia:

The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites. Rather than selling products individually, a subscription sells periodic (monthly or yearly or seasonal) use or access to a product or service, or, in the case of such non-profit organizations as opera companies or symphony orchestras, it sells tickets to the entire run of five to fifteen scheduled performances for an entire season.

They go on to list all the benefits to the consumer.

• They can save money if they use the service a lot.
• They can save time if the product service is accessed often.
• Encourages the vendor to constantly improve the product.

But this misses the most important advantage,

My favorite subscriptions?

1. Kindle eBooks for newspapers, magazines and books.
2. Rhapsody for music; no CD’s and millions of songs.
3. Netflix for movies, both mailed DVD’s and streaming.
4. Podcasts for specific shows when you want, where you want.
5. Audible.com for audible books; read and multitask.

I make a distinction between subscriptions and the using the cloud to eliminate stuff. More on the cloud in a future post.

Remember, “stuff” can be either a noun (bad) or a verb (good).

Be good, Stuff It.

This is part geek time-out, and part public service announcement.

We’ve add a neat feature to our blog, and want to explain how it works. It’s now appearing on thousands of other sites and blogs, so understanding it can save you a lot of time no matter where you are if you see that “Share” link.

And as we’ve said before, we are into time saving ideas.

The service is provided by a site called AddThis and if you look in the right column on this page you will see the button that accesses their features. Although the button is labeled “Share” it does much more than that, in fact there are so many functions it’s hard to capture with a simple label.

The button gives access to over 150 different services, and that list is growing. So for example you can use the button to:

• Create a Tweet linked to a blog post directly from your Twitter account,
• eMail a link to a blog post with your choice of email clients,
• Add a blog post to Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, etc. etc.
• Create a new item in your Evernote account,
• Print the post on your printer,
• Creat a .pdf file of the post,
• And the list goes on and on…

After you click the button you will see this box which allows you to scroll thru all the available services and pick the one you want to use. (Tip: if you choose to eMail, you have the choice to use your own account at AOL, Yahoo, Google, or Hotmail which is an additional time-saver.)

That’s all there is to it, click away and give it a try.

Tip Note: If you have some time on your hands (anyone?), an excellent companion post to read is our Blog Tips on “Landing and Leaving“, which is particularly relevant when you are sharing information on any blog (not just ours).  At this point I  think an even better title for that lesson would have been “Wherever You Go, There You Are”, but what’s done is done.

Think of this post as our first public service announcement.

Leslie and I don’t have any grand-kids or other crumb-crunchers spending time at our house which might necessitate a surprise visit from CPS to audit our home’s child-proof-ness.

So imagine if you will, my complete frustration with the Child Safety Caps that are put on pill bottles these days, to protect our non-existent guests.

I guess it could be worse; they could put the entire pill bottle in a blast-proof plastic container that passes for consumer packaging these days. Or failing that, requiring the purchase of a gun safe to store prescription meds.

But I digress.

We order meds on Prime Mail Pharmacy’s web site. It works so well that I’m tempted to give a full-throated testimonial, but this is a commercial free blog.

Nowhere on their site, as far as I could tell, was there a place to specify that they take the Child Safety Caps and stick them where the sun doesn’t shine; subsequently supplying either a twist-off cap or pull-tab (sic).

So I emailed their customer support and … wait for it … got a reply!

Thank you for taking the time to email PrimeMail. We understand you would like non-child proof caps for your bottles.

At this time PrimeMail only has one type of caps for the bottles. The good news is you can modify it to open more easily. Simply take the cap off, place it on a flat surface, and push down in the center until it snaps into place. This should disable the child proofing.

Carma
Member Services
PrimeMail

And guess what, It Works!

On The Left, Stupid & Clumsy Cap....On The Right, Smart & Easy Cap.

She is my hero, can you say “Carma Nightingale“?

Turns out I’m glad I didn’t buy an iPhone.

Because if I had, Nuvi and Tilt would never have been reunited.

Those are funny names for a Sister and Brother combo, but in the world of electronics it’s not at all that freakish.

You see, Nuvi (on the left)  is the GPS device I purchased a few weeks ago, and Tilt (on the right) is the smartphone that I’ve owned for about a year.

Side-by-side there’s no mistaking the family resemblance.

Oh So Common DNA

Well, I have to admit that I didn’t immediately get their common DNA, but when I charged Nuvi for the first time the light came on (so to speak)!

Because Nuvi and Tilt

Share the same charger!

Long-time readers of this blog will know the significance of this. One of our first posts was a shout-out to Martha Stewart for taking on the powers that be in the electronics industry for making us carry around 10 tons of electrical bricks and connections for our ‘portable’ devices.

So imagine my joy when I realized I only needed one cord for both devices.

Common connector, common voltage, common amps. Somewhere out there is an electrical engineer who fathered these twins, but then lost them in a paternity battle to an evil marketing department.

But now it’s been put right.

I even got a tear in my eye when I turned on bluetooth pairing and both of their blue lights pulsed in unison.

Family time.

At least the lawyers kiss you first.

I’m not a huge fan of the legal profession, but compared to the people who package the laundry detergent at warehouse stores, they are squeeky clean.

Why Stop Now, Super-Size It!

About three years ago we consumers were the beneficiaries of a huge step forward in state-of-the-art packaging. Laundry Detergent delivered in new really convenient containers.

But I don’t recall ever saying

Super-Size Me!

I’m sure it saves the manufacturer money. And when we shop at a warehouse store we take what we get, because price is important.

And after all, the manufacturer is actually giving us a choice. We can live with the mess these new packages create when you use them, or we can spend our (free) time pouring the detergent into smaller, easier to handle, bottles.

But wait, there’s a better way!!

Having unlimited faith in American Ingenuity, I went on the hunt for a solution at the US Patent Office. And struck pay-dirt, so to speak.

Issued on December 9, 2008 to Bradley Hildreth of Garden City, NY (US) is Patent No.: US 7,461,761 B2 which describes a “Harness For Suspending Detergent Container”.

American Ingenuity Triumphs!

Because I think that Bradley’s invention is so right-on I’m going to quote directly from his Patent. First an overview of his invention.

A harness for suspending a container having a product dispensing valve, such as a laundry detergent container, generally includes a sling for holding the container therein in an orientation that permits dispensing of a product from the container and at least one strap attached to the sling for suspending the sling from above. The sling further has a valve opening for allowing the product dispensing valve of the container to protrude out of the sling.

Next some background for his invention:

Buying in bulk, especially bulk purchases of non-perishable items such as laundry detergent, has become very popular in recent years. Laundry detergent in particular is readily available in large containers. One of the more popular bulk sizes of laundry detergent is the 300-ounce laundry detergent container that is available in many stores today. Needless to say, a detergent container of this large size is extremely bulky and difficult to handle, particularly when attempting to maneuver the container into position over the opening of the washing machine to dispense detergent therein.

To which the manufactuer will say that they designed the container so it can be laid on it’s side and the liquid dispensed into the handy measuring cup.

Right.

And if you liked the Exxon Valdez, you’ll love their measuring cups.

Leslie and I have an agreement on the division of labour.

I stay out of the kitchen, and she stays out of the cleaning supplies.

Here I am, in my cleaning-the-house outfit.

Keeping It Clean

There is once small problem however. When I’m dolled up, and the vacuum is screaming, I can’t hear the Podcasts on my MP3 player.

And I’m sure there are others of you out there in the same boat. Even though I know you won’t admit it.

The solution, which I’m about to share, is my first ever published Life Hack.

Noise Cancelling Headphones!

I have an ancient set of Sony Noise-Cancelling ear-buds purchased years ago for use on airplanes. They still work great.

Plug them in, turn me on and I can hear all my podcasts with crystal clarity. The drone of the vacuum cleaner disappears into the background!

So did you want the Chicken or Beef?

I’ve been trying to simplify my so called life since I retired. At this point I’m looking failure directly in the eye.

But there is always the hope that simplicity will find us. Take a look at this painting by Rene Maggritte. Simple.

It's Not A Pipe, It's A Painting Of A Pipe

Which brings me to the topics of Multi-Tasking, Mash-Ups and Life Hacks, all tools that we are told will simplify our lives.

Here are my Academy Award nominations for the Meme of My Simple Life.

• Multi-Tasking involves doing more than one thing at a time, where each activity invariably gets done less well than if we just did it alone.
• Mash-Ups consist of the combination of several activities into one single activity, where the result is better than the sum of its parts.
• Life-Hacks are anything that can help you be more productive or more efficient, or simply a way to get something done smarter.

I’ve been trying to think of a single good reason to Multi-Task; I can’t. On the other hand, I know there are lots of people who don’t know any other way to go about their daily lives. Scary.

• One thing we are learning about Multi-Tasking is that in addition to making the people around you nuts, it’s also dangerous to your health. We now have MADD, next will be MAMT which is fine with me.

Mash-Ups on the other hand feel comfortable to me, calming even. Lots of information in a small package. Intuitive, with very little learning curve. Cuddly.

• Mash-Ups have been mostly conceived so far as media or digital creations. But I’m suggesting they be used as a life visualization overlay. Remember YHIHF.

Life-Hacks are simple and specific. To know one is to love one. Loyal, dedicated.

• Like this for example: “Buy only gray colored socks.”

So having listed the nominees, I get to pick my favorite. Let’s have the envelope please.

And the winner is…Life Hacks!

So for now, it’s Life Hacks, one trick at a time. No Multi-Hacks or Mash-Hacks.

Before everything was either black or white.

Now, I’m all gray socks, all the time.

I still need his chin though, click here.

From His Chin To His Socks