Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

by Jeff Harmon
on Jan 18th, 2008

Pyxlin - A New Way to Keep Your Personal Journal

Last last night we finally launched the proper website for Pyxlin! I am very excited for this!

Considering that the ONLY concern of over 2000 people that we have surveyed was security for their personal journal online, this following statistic seems unbelievable! How could anyone feel comfortable with so much personal information on a blog?

A recent study showed that 37 percent of blogs are personal journals. Technorati’s most recent estimate of blogs world-wide is over 70 millions blogs! This means that approximately 25.9 millions blogs are used as personal journals.

Pyxlin is a much needed solution for many who don’t want to keep a blog for a personal journal, but also want the benefits of the Internet.

I have already been using Pyxlin for my journal two and one half years. I have never been better at writing in my personal journal in my life as when I have been using Pyxlin. I just thought I would write a quick blog entry about our new Pyxlin personal journaling website.

by Jeff Harmon
on Jan 9th, 2008

Record Turnouts & Tight Battles Hurt Ron Paul

I just read an article, Ron Paul, loser again. Here is my response:

I had little hope that Paul might do well when I first started supporting him, but as time moved forward my hope increased as the media reported on the lackluster of the GOP. I just figured that if no one cared about the candidates then no one would show up to the primaries. But the Paul supporters would show up, as they did, and hand Ron Paul shocking top three finishes in many states. Still a long shot, but there seemed to be a chance.

Yesterday, NH had record breaking numbers. If I had expected record breaking numbers, then it would have been obvious to me that he wouldn’t do as well. ALL the Paul supporters would have come out yesterday regardless of everyone else.

Instead we had extremely tight races on both sides of the isle. This put New Hampshire in an absolute buzz. On top of that the weather was perfect.

It was the drama between Romney and McCain that hurt Dr. Paul most. A close look at the Exit Polls shows that 28% of those who were “strongly favorable of Ron Paul” voted for either McCain (8%) or Romney (20%). Even worse, 73% of those that were “favorable” of Ron Paul voted for Romney/McCain. I believe that not only did droves of people dilute the support for Ron Paul, but everyone starts to vote against the candidate they dislike rather than for their first pick.

We have a group of Pentecostals trying to defeat Romney’s Mormonism (even Ron Paul suggested with Jay Leno that discrimination against Romney’s Mormon faith could cost him the race), some who would vote just so Huckabee won’t be in, and another group that doesn’t want Guliani. A lot of voters are voting to defeat the candidate they don’t want, and I think that is part of why we had such huge turnouts. Ron Paul’s supporters seem pretty pure in this regard, they certainly aren’t voting to just defeat others, they just want to vote on principle.

People don’t support Ron Paul overnight. I didn’t and I don’t know one person who has. His ideas take time to digest and understand. When you have bunches of people, scarcely educated on their candidate, you can assume they will vote for what seems most exciting, McCain and Romney. Many of these people didn’t choose a candidate until the last minute.

I laughed so hard at this. It is much more applicable now than when it was filmed (if you are on facebook please click into the article to see the video. I promise it is worth it.)

Sorry about the swear word.

Here is the original debate this first video was taken from:

This is a very interesting subject for me. It is one of the only areas that I struggle with. Although I feel that we need to phase the troops out so there is some stability, I completely agree with Ron Paul in that we need to bring ALL the troops home from Iraq. Currently we are building bases all over that region as if we are going to be there forever. I believe that building permanent bases in Iraq, and not COMPLETELY giving the Iraqis back their country, will bring the USA greater terrorist threats than almost anything we could do. They, and their neighbors are sick of the world’s Super Power sitting with giant guns and missiles pointed at their countries. If I was them, I would probably be doing everything in my power to fight back as well.

Back in September I donated to a politician for the first time in my life. I am a BYU student. I am poor. I am trying to help build a company. A few weeks ago, my 1991 VW’s engine blew up. I can’t afford a new car so I am moving about on foot. BUT tomorrow I am going to dump what ever extra money I can into the Ron Paul campaign in my support of the constitution.

I heard about Ron Paul from a coworker, Duane. For over a year I had watch Duane reading about Ron Paul. I figured Ron Paul was a loony, until one day Duane sent me and email entitled, “An important part of my life.” Duane explained how important the ideas of freedom are to him. It was then I saw that Duane—also a BYU student and a newlywed, bootstrapping a company—had donated over $200 to the cause. I deeply respect Duane so I decided I best pay attention.

Jumping on Youtube I found dozens of interesting videos of the debates. Initially I was bothered when Ron Paul would say that he wants the troops out of Iraq immediately. It wasn’t until after watching hours of Youtube debates on the war, and reading an article by my brother Neal about choosing between our fellow Mormon, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul that I decided the war is unconstitutional and will never work to fulfill its purpose—to rid the world of terrorists (I will discuss my logic against the war in a later post)

on September 9, I saw this video:


When I clicked “submit” to my first meager $15 (ALOT for me in September) donation, that I realized, “I must really like this guy!”

I knew nothing about the 5th of November until the day of. I couldn’t donate because I didn’t have the money. Since the 5th, myself, three of my brothers, two of my sisters (I am a Mormon, we have a big family), my mom, my uncle, and several friends here at BYU have all been saving and proselytizing for Ron Paul. None of us donated on the 5th and only I have signed up at teaparty07. Looking at this tonight, I believe that is the way we are going to see all the records broken tomorrow.

When people take a minute and look past Ron Paul’s unpolitical image, they see truth and the correct principles of freedom. In Ron Paul I feel as though I can visualize the kind of men who founded this country. Just yesterday I showed my friend from Brazil a video on Ron Paul. When it got done he said, “I would vote for this man!” To bad he is not American.

Here is another video to leave you with:

Donate on the 16th, Tomorrow!

by Jeff Harmon
on Oct 21st, 2007

How to type Portuguese accent marks on a Mac or PC

I have been learning Portuguese lately. I finally found out how to write accents on my Mac. I used Yahoo Answers to learn how.  I was directed to this site.
On A Mac

This list is organized by Accent type. The sample shows a letter with that accent, and the Notes present any special comments about using that accent.

For the Template, the symbol “V” means any vowel. The format is to hold the first two keys down simultaneously, release, then type the vowel you wish to be accented.

ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE NOTES
Acute ó Ó Option+E, V
Circumflex ô Ô Option+I, V
Grave ò Ò Option+`, V
Tilde õ Õ Option+N, V Only works with “n,N,o,O,a,A
Umlaut ö Ö Option+U, V

Example 1: To input the letter ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.

Example 2: To input the letter Ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release all three keys then type capital O.

Other Accent Marks

See the Extended Keyboard Page for additional accent marks

On a PC

This list is organized by Accent type. To determine the appropriate numeric code, match the accent with the vowel. See the individual By Language pages to see how to handle other accents.

Accent A E I O U Y
Grave
(Cap)
À
0192
È
0200
Ì
0204
Ã’
0210
Ù
0217
Grave (Lower) à
0224
è
0232
ì
0236
ò
0242
ù
0249
Acute
(Cap)
Á
0193
É
0201
Í
0205
Ó
0211
Ú
0218
Ý
0221
Acute (Lower) á
0225
é
0233
í
0237
ó
0243
ú
0250
ý
0253
Circumflex
(Cap)
Â
0194
Ê
0202
ÃŽ
0206
Ô
0212
Û
0219
Circumflex (Lower) â
0226
ê
0234
î
0238
ô
0244
û
0251
Tilde
(Cap)
Ã
0195
Ñ
0209
Õ
0213
Tilde (Lower) ã
0227
ñ
0241
õ
0245
Umlaut
(Cap)
Ä
0196
Ë
0203
Ï
0207
Ö
0214
Ü
0220
Ÿ
0159
Umlaut (Lower) ä
0228
ë
0235
ï
0239
ö
0246
ü
0252
ÿ
0255

Example: To input the acute a á (0225), hold down the ALT key, type 0225 on the numeric keypad, then release the ALT key.

If you are having problems inputting these codes, please review the instructions for using the codes at the bottom of this Web page.

by Jeff Harmon
on Sep 8th, 2007

Ruckus - Free Music for ALL University Students!

Today Mashable posted an article that explains that Ruckus, an iTunes competor that sports “free & legal music for all college students”, has just reached 20 million downloads per month. I love the idea, but even more I think their marketing stratagy is brilliant.

One of my instructors at BYU, John Richards—a Utah Angel Investor, was talking about Facebook in a lecture series at BYU. He was asking us how Facebook has become so huge? He then explained that it was in part because they started with the College age students. This is what has given Facebook the coolness factor.

It is great to see Ruckus following in Facebook’s footsteps. I imagine that Ruckus was inspired almost entirely by Facebook’s stratagy and that they already have plans to release their music to the general public as some point down the road.

by Jeff Harmon
on Aug 7th, 2007

50th Wedding Anniversary Party Article

This is an example of an article that we use at FamilyLearn. We built this one to Optimize the 50th wedding anniversary keywords:

Given the escalation of divorce rates in recent years, a 50th wedding anniversary in 2007 represents a true accomplishment. According to recent statistics compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau: “About 52 percent of currently married couples had reached at least their 15th anniversary in 1996, and 5 percent of them had reached at least their golden anniversary (50 years).” Making it to 50 years is a pinnacle that only few couples attain.

“Over that period of time a couple builds a legacy that can’t be measured in material possessions, but rather the lives they have touched through their union,” says Donna Pilato, Entertaining guide for About.com. More than golden anniversary mints, a 50th anniversary gives family and friends an opportunity to take a ride down memory lane and honor a very special couple.

When Barb Sasaki of New Jersey started planning for her Turner parents’ 50th wedding anniversary party for July 2007, she wanted to craft the perfect festive environment. Invitations were sent to family and friends. The big party was decorated with gold while sound of once popular 1957 music filled the air. She even convinced her dad to make his famous homemade wine. Guests were each greeted at the “sign in” book with their own labeled photograph of her parents. Barb went all out. Still, she wanted a 50th wedding anniversary gift idea that would represent the legacy of the lives her parents had touched over those 50 years.

It was with the “guest book” that Barb really got imaginative and pulled her 21st century cards. She discovered a website called MemoryPress.com where she could create a 50th wedding anniversary gift book, add her favorite memories and invite family and friends to contribute to the book from their own homes. The book blossomed into 143 pages of photos and memories contributed by family and friends. “It was the highlight of their 50th anniversary party! We used it as the guest book. Everyone wanted to sit down and look at it! My Mom and Dad were both brought to tears when we presented it to them and Mom told me the other day that Dad has read it cover to cover 8 times now in the 6 weeks or so since the party and cried every time!”

Barb realized that giving her parents memories was more valuable than gold or a perfect party. The Internet, via MemoryPress.com, made celebrating a 1957 couples’ lives with the memories and photos of family and friends as easy as email.

Match.com and eHarmony.com help people fall in love online, now MemoryPress.com is helping couples celebrate their lives online as an unforgettable 50th wedding anniversary gift. MemoryPress 50th wedding anniversary books can include everything from the couples 1957 love story to drawings by their grandchildren. Why not? After all, it’s 2007.

I helped Neal write this article today.

by Jeff Harmon
on Jul 25th, 2007

Family History Publishing

Today we finally added another book to the MemoryPress home page.

picture-4.png

self-publish your family history

We hope that we will soon win out the keyword family history publishing” in searches on Google, Yahoo, Live, and Ask.

So this means that I need to get as many people as possible to link to this new URL: http://memorypress.familylearn.com/family-history-publishing

Once we get the keywords for the five books we have figured out, then we will begin added others to the homepage.

by Jeff Harmon
on Jul 13th, 2007

Mashable Mentioned MemoryPress

Today Mashable mentioned MemoryPress on their blog. Here is what they wrote:

memorypress.PNG

MemoryPress is a recently launched service that lets you create physical books, scrapbooks, if you will, with its Mashup tools.

With MemoryPress, you can create a scrapbook of your choice, for a wedding, a new baby, or a memoir. The service will cost you about $50 per book, and works in a similar manner to PanRaven. The mashup part comes in when you see you have the option to import content from Microsoft Word or a Blog. There’s also integration with Flickr photos as well.

The editor has all the necessary tools for document creation, which seems to be from a different service than MemoryPress. This can be somewhat confusing, as it seems like the two aspects of the services aren’t quite interconnected, but the two options are part of the FamilyLearn site. At any rate, you won’t be able to try all the new features of MemoryPress, as they’re not all live yet.

A similar service include Scrapblog .

In regards to the comment about FamilyLearn. FamilyLearn is the company that built MemoryPress. All the books that are created on MemoryPress are archived (at no extra charge) so that they will be searchable for future generations on FamilyLearn. FamilyLearn’s Mission is to be the world’s most enjoyed family library. MemoryPress is just a tool to help it get there.

by Jeff Harmon
on Jul 12th, 2007

FireFox 2 Link

I love firefox. Here is a link to start a firefox account!
Firefox 2

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