Posted in Gadgets, Photography, Tips
 October 15, 2008 7:36 pm I just ordered a new digital camera, Canon Powershot SD 990 IS, and wanted to get a memory card to use with it. There are so many storage choices these days, it’s a bit overwhelming. I finally decided on a brand and size, but didn’t know if I should pay extra for the high-speed cards. I looked all over to see if the SD 990 would support it. From my research, not all cameras were capable of writing fast enough to take advantage of the high speeds that some cards offered. Without knowing the camera’s write-speed, I could not know how fast of a card I needed. So I wrote to Canon. I was very surprised to get a quick and detailed response from them. I hadn’t even gotten the product yet and they helped me already. Sorry, I guess I’m just jaded with customer service these days. The following is an excerpt from the email:
Canon does not speed rate digital cameras. The write speed of the camera is limited by the drive inside the camera. Using a faster card rated at 12x or 24x speed may not perform any faster than a slower rated card. If you use a card reader capable of reading at the faster speeds, then you may experience faster downloads from a card reader.
The only features on our cameras that will utilize the high speed rated memory cards are the Continuous Shooting and video recording features. The exact performance increases are not published. Unless these two feature are of extreme importance to you, you will honestly be wasting your money on a high speed rated memory card. The memory cards that come packaged with our cameras do not have a speed rating.
I do intend to do continuous shooting and video recording so speed was a factor. I decided to get a card that was in the middle… not standard, but not the fastest either. It would also be nice to have the faster downloads. If speed were to become a big issue, I could buy a faster card in the future, when the price is lower. Besides, I read that it’s better to have multiple cards instead of one big card, in case there are any issues… kind of like “not putting all your eggs in one basket” kind of thing.
I’m so excited. My camera is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I’m looking forward to getting back into photography and posting photos in my gallery.
Posted in Venting
October 15, 2008 7:17 pm Today, I heard someone in the restroom who was a fake hand washer. I was inside a stall so I didn’t witness everything with my eyes… just heard the goings-on outside the stall. This woman rushed out the stall, placed her hands under the automatic faucet just enough to activate a splash of water, noisily grabbed some paper and rushed out. I have heard plenty of hand washings so I knew that that was just a noisy charade on the part of the woman to make it seem like she was not the dirty creature that she was. I had to resist the urge to shout out as she left, “I know you didn’t wash your hands!”
The other time I experienced that, I told my coworkers about it. One pointed out that fake hand washers are worse than the people who did not wash their hands. That latter group might just be clueless about hygiene and do not know better. The fakers know that they are supposed to wash their hands, pretend to do it, and waste paper and water in the process.
If people want to be non-hygienic in private, that’s none of my business. However, if they’re going to touch public items like door handles, serving utensils, etc., they better keep themselves clean for everybody’s sake.
Posted in Google, Tips, Website
October 14, 2008 8:57 pm Thanks to Matt Cutts for the heads up on how to use Google Webmaster Tools to get more information on our websites’ 404 File Not Found errors. As the Google Webmaster Central Blog announced: Webmaster Tools shows Crawl error sources.
For those who have not used the diagnostic tools of Webmaster Central, one of the informative features is getting a listing of the urls that resulted in 404 File Not Found errors. Previously, it was an exercise in futily, though, since we did not know where the incorrect link(s) originated. Now, that we know where the sources are, we have a better chance of correcting the links.
When I went to find out what caused my site’s 404 errors, it was pretty enlightening. I found out what appeared to be a hack attempt on my blog. I found some bad urls in the form of takethu.com/blog/page/NUM/?ref=BADSITE.COM. Fortunately, my blog was up-to-date so those urls didn’t do anything malicious nor contain anything bad on the pages. I checked Google’s cache to confirm that there was no spam. However, those results did show up in a Google site search of my blog so I needed to do something to get rid of them. This was what I added in my robots.txt to tell search engines to drop those urls from their indices:
Disallow: /blog/page/*/?ref=*
I love being able to use wildcards in robots.txt. Another nifty tool in Webmaster Tools is “Analyze robots.txt”, which enables testing of robots.txt disallow/allow patterns against actual urls to see if Googlebot will respond to the urls correctly.
Another thing I found was that there was a broken file path for a flash file on my site. Once I found out on what page it occurred, I was able to come up with a solution and fix it.
Thanks to the Google Webmaster Tools team for giving us webmasters such a useful tool.
Posted in Cats, Gadgets, Product, Tips
October 13, 2008 10:09 pm Back in June, I picked up an iRobot Roomba 550 from Costco. It’s one of those purchases where I was not sure if I would continue to use it in the long run. After four months, I am certain that the Roomba is a keeper. My boyfriend helped me with naming it: Robert. It might sound silly to name a gadget, but it’s pretty convenient: “Oh, Robert’s cleaning”; “Robert is done”. I’m not the only Roomba owner who has a name for her robotic housekeeper. Besides, I like to name my gadgets, like my computers, GPS voice, PDA, etc.
In October of last year, I got the Litter Robot . Due to logistics, I had to place it near the entrance of my bedroom instead of in an out-of-the-way spot. When my cats jumped out of the Litter Robot, they would kick some litter out onto the carpet. I had to vacuum a few times a week to avoid having to step on litter crumbs.
The time it took to set up and do the cleaning added up, so I decided to look into getting a Roomba. My concern was whether it would be safe to have it running around in my cats’ presence. iRobot assured pet owners that the Roomba was safe for pets. I can confirm that. Not only is it safe, it has provided some great entertainment to see how my cats responded to the Roomba invading their space. They usually stay out of the way but if not, Robert is very gentle and doesn’t hurt the cats when he bumps into them. My cats haven’t tried to flip him over. They tried to chew on the side brushes but I scolded them and they haven’t tried since. I think it is important to be there in the beginning when using noisy, moving gadgets to reassure the cats that it is okay and safe.
I wish that Robert could go longer without me having to clear the brushes. I didn’t have to do that with my regular vacuum after years of use. The cool thing though is that if there is an issue, there is a voice that tells me that the brushes need to be removed and cleaned or whatever complaint Robert has. It’s a female voice, though. For people who don’t have long hair or pet fur, the Roomba could probably last longer with less maintenance between uses.
When I registered my Roomba, iRobot offered a 15% discount on an order of accessories. The hard part was figuring out what to order. I looked around for advice but couldn’t find anything that was useful. I’ll share what I have learned.
- The Roomba set that I got from Costco came with the Brush Cleaning Tool. This is very useful for removing hair from the bristle brush.
- I got a replacement order of brushes. It took a long time for me to decide on this because I could not find reliable information on how long they lasted and whether it was even necessary to ever replace them. However, I came across a suggestion that having an extra set is useful for when there isn’t enough time to clean the one set of brushes. I have had times where I would have preferred not to deal with the brushes, but didn’t want Robert to get stuck when he vacuumed while I was away. With the extra brushes, I can just remove the dirty ones and pop in clean ones when I didn’t have time to clean.
- Filters need to be replaced every few months so I purchased extra at the time to take advantage of the discount. I read where someone would wash the filter to avoid having to replace it but the filter can get so dirty that I didn’t think it was worth the effort. But that’s just me. I’m lazy; that’s why I got an automatic vacuum cleaner.
- I got 2 more Virtual Wall® Lighthouse™, which help block out sections of the room without needing to set up physical barriers.
In the beginning, I set Robert’s schedule so that he would run in the morning at around the same time as my alarm to make me wake up. After being awoken on a holiday morning, I decided to have him run after I had left for work. He runs three times a week and does a pretty good job. It’s a good idea to keep the regular vacuum cleaner around for an occassional deep clean. In addition, it makes me more disciplined about keeping my floor clear all the time since Robert cleans so many times a week.
Of course, I can also get him to run manually. In fact, he is vacuuming as I type this blog post. 
Posted in Cats, Product, Tips
October 13, 2008 9:00 pm A couple of years ago, I wrote that I am for Iams. This is an update that I am no longer feeding my cats Iams.
My cats have had a weight problem since they were kittens. I had to put them on weight control food since they were 9 months old, and the vet still kept saying that they needed to lose weight. However, they’re not obese, so that’s good. They just needed to lose a pound or so. That might sound like a huge proportion but my cats are big cats.
Anyway, I have tried at least 5 brands of weight control food. Yet, my cats didn’t seem to make progress although maybe their weight was at least under control so that they weren’t getting really fat, and I’ve seen really fat cats.
At first, as recommended by the vet, I tried to restrict the portions but that didn’t turn out very well. My cats got so desperate for food that they climbed into a closed-lid 18 gallon trash can. Yeah, gross. My sister suggested that I try free-feeding them. That way, they would get enough to eat and not try to overeat when they did get food. This seemed to work okay and my cats ate as much as they felt but didn’t eat everything in the bowl. This worked out for when I needed to be away for more than a day.
One day, I read on a pet owners mailing list a recommendation for Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Pet Foods. I know, I was skeptical about cat food with the name of an actor on it, too. I gave it a try anyway. I got the Reduced Calorie Formula. My cats are not picky eaters so acceptance wasn’t an issue.
I do not know for sure if my cats have actually lost weight but they look like it. Mr Knightley feels lighter to me. I’ll have to see when they have their weigh-in in March to confirm. Their coats are beautiful and silky soft to the touch. They are about as energetic as cats can be. All the ingredients are natural with no artificial colors, and include the nutrition my cats need, and then some.
Once I get my new camera, I’ll post photos of my kitties.
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