Update: San Diego Gets a New Library

New San Diego Central Library

Recently, I checked in on the construction of the new San Diego Central Library and took the following photos of our soon to open gray concrete library that comes with a dome, which will offer those inside a view of the Coronado Bay Bridge:

 

Apparently, it will be very close to the San Diego Trolley

 

What library would be complete without a dome?

Can we get one with more gray colored concrete? 

 America seems like a very generic destination

for a trolley that runs exclusively inside
the United States

Suggested Software: Notepad++ and 7-Zip

Notepad++ has long been my go to text editor.  In fact, I have a copy of the software on a flash* drive along with several other programs that I install first thing when I get my hands on a new computer that I will be using for more than a few minutes.  If you ask nicely in the comments, I might publish the rest of the list here.

Here is the link to the official Notepad++ web site.

Use Notepad++ to Break Up a Block of Text with Line Breaks
Or, How to Put Email Addresses that are Separated with a Semicolon Onto Their Own Lines

• Click on Search
• Click Replace (or just press Ctrl + H)
• find the Search Mode options
• Select Extended (\n, \r, \t, \0, \x...)
• Type \r into the Replace With field
• Type a semicolon into the Replace What field and viola!

Thanks goes to Viper this comment on the Alex Blog for coming up with this solution.

Use Notepadd++ to add text to the beginning or end of a line

The following technique is useful for adding text to the beginning or end of each line in a document that contains a large amount of text:

• CTRL-H to open the Find/Replace Dialog. 
• Check "Regular expressions" radio box near the bottom of the dialog.
• To add "md " to the beginning of each line, type "^" in the "Find what" field, and "md " in the "Replace with" field. Then click "Replace All".
• Use "$" in the "Find what" field instead to get the text added to the end of the line instead.

Notepad++ Can Capitalize the First Letter of Each Word

• Hit Ctrl + F to bring up the Find and Replace Command
• Enter the following in the Find box ^(.)
• Enter the following in the Replace box \u\1

7-Zip

Recently, I was asked by a co-worker for a way to unzip a folder which refused to decompress for her using the tool that is built into Windows.  My go to application for unzipping, untaring, etc. is 7-zip, which can be downloaded here.

If you do not know if you should download the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of the application and you are using a Windows based computer, open the Control Panel and find the System application.  In Windows 7+ this information will be displayed to the right of the "System type:" field.  I know that computers running Windows XP do not list this information in the System application.  If you are trying to install software on a computer running Windows XP, it's a fairly safe bet that you should go with the 32-bit version because aside from one wise acre who did so just to upset general rules of thumbs, if a computer is running Windows XP it's a 32-bit machine.

*Or, thumb, jump, USB, or whatever one is supposed to call those little portable hard drives that you can plug into a USB port, which are basically worthless in the age of cloud computing but I still have sentimental attachment to because they were cool (in my eyes at least) at one time.

Election Fallout

Elizabeth Warren is now a member of the United States Senate.  "You took on the Wall Street banks and the powerful interests and let them know, you want a Senator who will ALWAYS fight for the middle class." writes Senator Warren on her blog.  Hopefully, she will spend the next six years fighting for the middle class.

Here is a video that provides her back story:

The next big hurdle for Elizabeth Warren is to find a way to get herself into the powerful and influential circles among her ninety-nine new colleagues in the senate and the 435 members of the House so that she can quickly introduce and secure passage of legislation that will help the middle class.

Straight from the official Senate web site, here are the committees in the United States Senate:

Committees

Standing  Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry  Appropriations  Armed Services  Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Budget  Commerce, Science, and Transportation  Energy and Natural Resources  Environment and Public Works  Finance  Foreign Relations  Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions  Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs  Judiciary  Rules and Administration  Small Business and Entrepreneurship  Veterans' Affairs  Special, Select, and Other  Indian Affairs  Select Committee on Ethics  Select Committee on Intelligence  Special Committee on Aging  Joint  Joint Committee on Printing  Joint Committee on Taxation  Joint Committee on the Library  Joint Economic Committee  Now let's see if Senator Warren can get herself onto the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Budget or Finance committee. Joe Donnelly got himself a promotion from the House of Representatives to the United States Senate.  Here is his website.  I find the comparison between Senator Donnelly's web site and Senator Warren's web site to be revealing in terms of how enthusiastic each individual is about the prospect of serving in the United State Senate for the next six years.

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers

Hooray!

For Those of You Who Take the Time to Love Your Leather
Cheers for this video and this link that explain the basics of caring for leather shoes:

Here and here are two more resources that I vouch for that explain about leather care.

To You Who Take the Time to be a Little Clever With Your Responses to Parties

Go ahead and toss in a reference to Cole Porter's ultra-famous song when you reply in the negative to an invitation.  Learn more here.

To You Cabin Dwellers

Thank you for sharing some photos of your shacks here.


Jeers

About.com - either get substantially better content or get off my internet!  I have had enough bad experiences with about.com that I will no longer visit the site.

Boo!

Jeers to anyone who does not include their full name and contact information in the signature portion of the emails that they send.  I know that you think you are special.  You are not.  You make it difficult for me to keep track of who you are and how to get in touch with you.  

If you are one of the sadistic people who signs your email "Peace, Joey" or "-Joe" or "J" stop it.  Right now I want you to take five minutes and setup the signature portion of your email to read as follows:

First Name Last Name

Title (if any)

Company or Organization

Physical Address

City, State, Zip Code

T: (xxx) xxx-xxxx

F: (xxx) xxx-xxxx

E: joe@example.com

[Brief statement about your business, inspirational quote, statement about delivery to the wrong person, or other personal touch]

From now on your emails should looks like this:

Sam,

I just want to say that you are doing a great job!

Also, I will be attending the conference you are working so hard to arrange on March 20, 2013 with Jane Doe from my office.

Sincerely,

Joe

Joe Smith

President

Any Company, Inc.

123 Any St.

New York, NY 10000

T: (212) 123-4567

F: (212) 123-4568

joe@anycompanyinc.com

Every company should do what I'm doing right now!

Jeers to People Who Do Not Listen When You Talk

A recent conversation recorded nearly verbatim from my place of employment:

H-: We should hire a new person.

S-: I agree.

Roger (me): I agree because we have a lot that needs to be done and it is distracting H- and I from what we should be doing.

Big Boss: Alright.  Do it.

D-: I think it's important to make sure that the new person has something to do.

H-: Trust me we have lots of things for that person to do (laughs).

Me: Agreed.

-- Time passes as the conversation moves on to another topic before the new person to be hired gets mentioned again and this happens --

D-: I just think that if we bring someone in here we should really have something for that person to do.

H-: Even just helping Roger and I to avoid being interrupted would be good.  If the person wanted to read a book the rest of the time it would still be a big help to both of us.

--- Conversation moves to another topic and eventually the meeting ends ---

Later that day, D- approaches me and suggests that if we hire someone new they should be given something to do.  

I am not making any of this up.