I have just discovered this and have signed up to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and 30th. Just to make sure I don't have any spare time in November. 21 individuals signed up in 1999. In 2004 it was 42,000 of which 6,000 completed the word count by the deadline. So far 49,419 have signed up for this year. In the last couple of years it has produced about 5 published books.
The time constraint is a good excuse to not worry over much about the literary merit or quality of the writing and may be a good way to overcome writer's block. A 2000 words a day schedule should keep it churning out OK. As it says in the blurb on the site, it is not about quality; its all about quantity.
There's probably worse things I could waste my time on. http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Terry Wassall :: Social and miscellaneous
Blog post: 08 October 2005
I didn't get far with this - only about 1,800 words but every one a good one. Entered again in 2006 and didn't write a single word!
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Terry Wassall on Monday, 26 March 2007, 15:58 CEST |
Blog post: 04 December 2005
Lots of people voted for this poem but it didn't win. Some Kipling thing did. If only people had better taste...
Road not Taken
I was driving home late last night after a pleasant evening with friends, either retired or quite close to it, and where we had talked about how we got where we are. On the radio I heard one of my favourite poems, the Road not Taken by the Amercian poet Robert Frost. It is one of my favourites because it is about a univeral of the human condition, the ability to make choices, never knowing for sure what is the best one to make and never knowing for sure how life would have been different if another choice had been made. In my case I turned my back on what was a promising career as a racing cyclist and then, later, an even more promising career in financial services.
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence.."
All this, of course, is put in perspective by the immortal Yogi Berra, the erstwhile baseball player, who said:
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it".
Who needs poetry! Who needs philosphy!
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence.."
All this, of course, is put in perspective by the immortal Yogi Berra, the erstwhile baseball player, who said:
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it".
Who needs poetry! Who needs philosphy!
Keywords: poetry, Robert Frost, Yogi Berra
1 Comments (+/-)
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Hi Terry,
It is certainly an interesting poem. I first heard it during a keynote by Helen Barrett. It was the centre piece to her own digital story. I will see if I can find it.Dave Tosh on Sunday, 04 December 2005, 16:39 UTC
Blog post: 20 December 2005
Bah humbug!
Not really. Season's greetings and have a great New Year to all friends; past, present and yet to come (regardless of religion).
Brahmanism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.: Mahabharata 5:1517(With thanks to Aisha Siddiqah)
Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.: Matthew 7:12
Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. Sunnah
Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.: Udana Varga 5:18
Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.: Talmud, Shabbat 31:a
Confucianism: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.: Analects 15:23
Taoism: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.: T’ai Shag Kan Ying P’ien
Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good: for itself. : Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5
Keywords: be nice, humbug, religion
Blog post: 15 May 2006
Appeal for help on trojan attacks on my home PC. Didn't really get a lot of hlep at the uni on this but know shortage of advice from Eduspaces colleagues. I solved the problem with a battery of anti-virus and trojan software, but my PC is about half as fast now.
Trojan attack
I have just spent the whole weekend trying to clean a new PC of various spys, malware, viruses etc. The worst one kept hijacking my browser home page so it went to a site selling antispy software. It also produced false Windows security messages and even changed my desktop image to one that looks like a blue screen of death. I also got advert windows popping up even when not on-line. All invited me to download software of one sort or another. Windows Defender found nothing. Spy Doctor (a PCtools product and highly rated) found 81 infections but wants a credit card number to register and clean. For obvious reasons I am not keen to enter my cared number. Adaware found nothing, nor did Spybot, recommended on teh MS Windows security site. Windows firewall couldn't spot a trojan if it was made of wood and was pushed in by 100 sweaty soldiers. However Prevx did find it and has cleaned sucessfully. It is free for 28 days. I think I will probably buy this in due course. I have also installed the free basic version of ZoneAlarm, recommended by my computer services people (as was Adaware). Very effective but not easy to use for a non-techy like me. I may be blocking stuff I shouldn't.
Any advice would be gratefully received. Any recommendations of antispyware, firewalls, security strategies etc? I think UNIX is probably not an option for me for the above reasons of non-techyness.
Keywords: firewalls, Spyware, trojans
9 Comments (+/-)
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Hello, Terry,
Sorry to hear about your spyware woes -- this anti-spyware cocktail has worked well for me:
a hardware firewall through my home/office wireless
a software firewall (McAfee or Symantec will do)
AdAware and Spybot, with the list of spyware updated regularly
antivirus software (I currently use Symantec AV)
Foxfire for all browsing (I use explorer for testing sites I design, but that's about it)
Thunderbird mail, with settings set to not display inline imagesI've been using this setup for at least the last year, and, at the risk of jinxing myself, I've been largely spyware-free.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Fitzgerald on Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 03:25 BST
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Do you have any anti-virus software installed?
I use the free one from http://free-av.com/
Sven Edge on Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 10:29 BST
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Thanks for the advice and information. I have McAfee antivirus installed and this is updated regularly Sven. But this didn't prevent or detect the infection. I guess it wouldn't as McAfee sell a separate spyware detector program. Thanks for the info on Antivir. It looks like the paid for version includes spyware detection.
Using ZoneAlarm rather than the Windows firewall works ok, although as I said in my post it is a bit intermedating for a novice. I'm nor sure what a 'hardware firewall' is Bill. Is this something I have got that just needs switching on?
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Hello, Terry,
A hardware and software firewall do pretty similar things -- the software firewall runs on your computer, where the hardware firewall runs on a piece of hardware on your network --
For small networks (ie, home/small office wireless) the hardwire firewall comes with the cable/dsl modem. If you're working at a larger school, they almost certainly have a hardware firewall installed.
FWIW, my wife has the McAfee antispyware, antivirus, software firewall, and she has also been spyware free for the last several months.
Cheers,
Bill
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Thanks Bill. I think we are pretty bullet-proof on campus behind our firewall - at least I hope so. I like McAfee AV and it has kept me safe form viruses for several years now. I think it will be worth giving their antyspyware and firewall a go too. Cheers.
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I would also recommend changing your browser to Firefox -- it's pretty much the same as Explorer for all intents & purposes, and you're much less open to all the junk on the web. The other thing I'd suggest is installing the google toolbar, as that stops a lot of the malicious pop-up stuff. I've installed that on all of my user's pcs, as it keeps them from clicking on things that they shouldn't.
Nathan Garrett on Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 14:59 BST
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Thanks for this Nathan. I have been using both IE and FireFox for a while and have almost finished using IE altogether. But I do need to test stuff in it as my institutional browser is IE. I'll get the Goole toolbar and see how it works.
Cheers.
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Terry:
Work limits me to IE, but I've had a very similar experience to yours. I found that a few tools are often required to sort out a problem like the one you had.
- Download the trial version of Ewido. I found it to be excellent at spotting things that the Corp. A/V didn't see.
- Download XoftSpy. It was well worth the purchase. It basically acts as a 'sweeper' to look for malware
- Try x-cleaner. Works as above
The tools sweep my machine regularly and I'm willing to forego the loss of "remember me" cookies for some peace of mind.
I found myself highly pissed that an alleged 'Spyware Removal' tool masqueraded so effectively as a legit piece of software, but basically hijacked my machine...to say nothing of losing an entirel weekend to getting the machine back up and running effectively.
Makes one wish for some form of retributive justice, doesn't it?
Mark Sheppard on Friday, 14 July 2006, 19:14 BST
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Hanging's too good for them Mark!!
Thanks for all the advice everyone has given me. I finally settled on 2 products. I have installed PCtools Spyware Doctor. This and another malware detection utility, Prevx1, were the only ones I tried that detected the infection I had. Both are free for a while but have to be subscribed to for continued use. Both will continue to detect after the time limit but cease to remove. I have subscribed to both for the moment, Prevx1 is about £10 per year and Spydoctor £24. I also run McAfee anti-virus. This is free as we have a campus license. One of the two, I can't remember which one, is incompatible with the ZoneAlarm fire wall I usually run so I have uninstalled ZA and turned on the Windows XP firewall instead. I also run Adaware form time to time but now it never finds anything critical. As a matter of interest Windows Defender found nothing!
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