Jim's Thoughts, 2009

Take Advantage of RSS

RSS icon I am a firm believer in RSS feeds. Part of my daily work flow is to at least scan the arrivals into my Google RSS Reader. I happen to use the Google RSS Reader but there are many other RSS Readers available, most of them at no charge.

What is RSS? It's nice. It's easy. It's focused to what I want. RSS is where I subscribe to websites that I care about. Articles come to the Inbox in my RSS Reader without spam...and without things that I don't want to see (usually). Off the top of my head I subscribe to the RSS feeds of websites such as National Geographic, Scientific American, the BBC, many photographers, past students, and other websites that I have an interest in. More than 60 different RSS feeds at last count.

RSS is not something that is done to me. Email spam is done to me. Telemarketing telephone calls are done to me. Junk Mail is done to me. RSS feeds are done for me, by me.

You will find RSS feeds on my website...feeds that you can subscribe to. As I write this I offer two feeds:

My panoramas: As I add panoramas to this website they are fed to whomever is subscribed to see the panoramas as I add them. The panoramas that will display through this feed are all of my future panoramas. Additionally, as I add my past panoramas to this website they will be fed to my RSS feed subscribers.
My Thoughts: While this may seem a little self centered...let me explain. None of us are nothing. We are all something. Who are we? When we walk into a store we can get a sense of who we meet because we are standing in front of them...we can measure them. We get to know our friends as we interact in person with them. On the Internet it's a lot more difficult to know who you are dealing with. I post some of my thoughts here on the Internet so that customers potential customers, and others can form a sense of who I am...so that they can measure me. I'll try not to waste subscribers time with frivolous feeds. On the other hand some people will find that they think that the way my minds works is "not for them" The beauty is that they can un-subscribe from my RSS feed whenever they want.

The big orange and white graphic at the top of the article is a typical RSS Feed icon. When you see a graphic similar to the one above you can suspect that there is an RSS feed available. If you want...subscribe.

I consider this article to be very important. I think that RSS Feeds are very important. I believe that RSS feeds can enrich a persons life more than many forms of communication. Consider adding an RSS Reader to your daily workflow.

With best regards
-Jim-

How BIG is a TRILLION?

I have a technical background and as I write this am 64.

Thousands used to be a big number to me (for example "Kilobyte", meaning 1,000). One thousand was not too difficult to comprehend. For example, there are 1,000 seconds in about 20 minutes. There are 1,000 cycles per second in a kilohertz. I am old enough to remember when $1,000 was a lot of money.

Then came a Million. I don't remember struggling with one million...but I'm sure I thought it through. Megahertz...a million cycles a second. There are one million seconds in less than 12 days.

A Billion was a bit of a stretch for me. I remember struggling with a billion. At the time I was teaching at the local community college. I would always take a few minutes to teach my students that 1 billion seconds was just a bit less than 32 years. Gigahertz...a billion cycles a second

So far, one thousand, one million, and one billion seem like reasonable numbers and I can comprehend them.

Now we get to 1 trillion...a number that we are starting to hear more and more. Before I give you the bottom line I want to review a bit of history:

Written history began about 8,500 BC. Roughly. I don't want to argue the number. Written history began a long time ago.
There may or may not have been a Noah. There does, however, seem to have been an event that could have been Noah's flood about 13,000 BC. We are not sure...we don't have a written record of that time.
Bottom line...both the beginning of written history, and Noah's flood were a hell of a long time ago.

ONE TRILLION SECONDS GOES 20,000 YEARS FURTHER BACK THAN NOAH'S FLOOD.

Go ahead...get your arms or your mind around one trillion. I know that I am having a very difficult time.

Feel free to pass this definition to whomever you think might benefit from the knowledge.

James Coffee Studios

Take Advantage of RSS

How BIG is a TRILLION?