I am therefore resolved to disperse my online information among several vendors. Check out my progress in the list of Google products at the end of this post.

From Google News To iCurrent

I narrowed my list of possible news aggregation websites to News360 and iCurrent.

I tried news360 first, typing my Google news topics into News360 — they call them interests. None of my interests generated any news articles. Boy, I must be one boring person.

Giving up on News360 I tried iCurrent, again typing in my news topics, which iCurrent calls channels. I immediately got fairly relevant news from my channels.

iCurrent made an attempt to categorize my channels and did a reasonable job of it, as can be seen from the screenshot of the sidebar.

It correctly identified Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Google as belonging to the Technology section but put Silver into the Sports section.

Natural Gas, Solar Power, Global Cooling, and Global Warming ended up in the Science section although some would argue that Global Warming, at least the anthropological kind, should be in the Myths Section.

You can customize iCurrent much more than Google News:

• You can add sources you like or filter out sources you don’t like.
• The email digest scans the top items iCurrent has collected for you in the last 24 hours. Set the number of items, days, and time delivered.
• Channels can be tuned with Key Topics to make the Channels more focused.

The Tune Your Channels feature is my favorite. Writes iCurrent:

Once you’ve added a Channel, you can tune it to include or exclude Key Topics and Sources.

Hover the cursor over an article’s title and a dialog will pop up asking if you are interested in it. Click the up or down arrow and you can then get specific about what you like or don’t.

After you click an arrow, tell iCurrent what about the article you want to see more of (or less of) in your Channel.

Here is an example of Tune Your Channel.

The first article in my Linux Mint Channel, “Made In The Shade: Mint Green,” directed me to a fashion website that advocated “mint green should be the poster color for chill vibes” and to “opt for a flash of green polish as your new neutral nail shade.”

Guess what happened to that page.

The next offering began, “Happy Friday, color lovers! I hope you all had a lovely week of wedding planning!”

Oh boy.

After adding the topic “operating system” I got “Linux: A Getting-Started Guide.”

There you go.

News Sites Requirements

Another way to use Tune Your Channel is to filter news sites, like The Washington Post, that mandate that you register to continue reading after you have read two pages of a three page article. Just vote the article down and flag “source” as the problem.

Google Products I Use Regularly

My progress away from Google. The intention is not to “Dump Google” but for a little diversification.

1. AdSense
2. Analytics
3. Calendar
4. Chrome
5. Docs
6. FeedBurner
7. Gmail
8. Finance
9. Google+
10. iGoogle
11. News → iCurrent
12. Reader → Liferea
13. Search
14. Talk
15. Tasks

Do you use iCurrent or some other news aggregator besides Google News?

…covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.

Now information about you will be integrated as never before. There are a number of problems associated with this hyper-merging of your data:

1. Data is no longer compartmentalized between applications.
2. Inability to opt-out of sharing of data across products.
3. A single point of failure.

So am I resolved to disperse my online information among several vendors. Or for some Google products not to be logged in, or even online at all. The task then is to inventory the Google products I use and then, one at at time, try out alternatives. Consider this list of 15 Google products I use regularly:

• AdSense
• Analytics
• Calendar
• Chrome
• Docs
• FeedBurner
• Gmail
• Finance
• Google+
• iGoogle
• News
• Reader → Liferea
• Search
• Talk
• Tasks

From Google Reader To Liferea

The first Google service to get the axe is Google Reader. I do not need a web-based feed reader so I have opted to replace Google Reader with Liferea, the Linux Feed Reader. Loading Liferea is as simple as typing:

sudo apt-get install liferea

Next, follow these three steps:

1. Export Subscriptions

Exporting subscriptions from Google Reader

In the Settings tabbed page choose “Import/Export.” From the “Export your information” section select the OPML download which writes the file google-reader-subscriptions.xml to your desktop or to wherever you have saved it.

2. Import Subscriptions

Importing subscriptions to Liferea

Before importing, I forgot to clean out the existing Liferea subscriptions that were preloaded with the installation so I need step 3.

3. Clean Up Subscriptions

Cleaning up subscriptions in Liferea

Next I selected Tools –> Preferences –> Feeds and chose a default feed refresh interval of 1 hour. You can override the global setting for an individual feed by selecting Feed –> Properties –> General and choosing a feed specific update interval.

Summary

I have been using Liferea for two weeks and I like it. The tray icon appears when there are new feeds to read.

Liferea tray icon

Occasionally Liferea will hang for a few seconds. It appears to be updating all the feeds and recovers without crashing. Perhaps I just to adjust the settings.

What you don’t get with Lifera is global accessibility. It needs to be installed and configured on every computer you use and has no synchronisation between the different installations. You can workaround this situation by selecting Subscriptions –> New Source... –> Google Reader and in the dialog enter your account username and password.

But now you have negated the installation of Liferea and you are back to where you started. Maybe you need to take a break and catch a YouTube video.

Next: Google News To iCurrent

Do you use Liferea or some other feed reader besides Google Reader?

Ron Paul Orange Rolls

Adelaide says:

I’ll send orange rolls home with Jill for you to try. I made them last night and refrigerated them overnight so we could have hot rolls for breakfast. I used a cookie sheet instead of a 9×13 pan, and some of them burnt on the bottom (the filling spilled out, which maybe doesn’t happen with the pan?) So I’ll have to try it again using two 9×13 pans to see if they turn out better, but they still tasted great!

You could easily half the recipe for only a dozen rolls. Also a package of active dry yeast is equivalent to 2 tsp (in case you use a jar of yeast, like I do.)

I ate three of the rolls and they were mighty delicious. Adelaide, you should have sent over a whole plateful.

I gave out the recipe for the Banana Nut Bread but this time get the Cookbook and support the Ron Paul Campaign.

Further Reading

• Richd K Miller — Voted for Romney in 2008. In 2012 voting for Ron Paul
• End the Fed
• The Revolution: A Manifesto
• Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom

Photo Credit: Adelaide of Ada Shot Me

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Mode

In the bank robbery mode you either rob one of the safes of the money, by using the provided dynamite, or you have to defend them. Another way to win, that pays less money, is to kill all of the opposing players. If the robbing team wins the round, then the two teams swap sides, which means the outlaws take a turn defending the bank.

Bank Location: Railcar

Proceed along to the train to the First National Bank of El Paso Railcar. The safe is on the upper level. So far I have only found one safe.

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Maps

Alamo Tiny
Backwater
Cobber Canyon
Coyote Bluff
DawnFort
Durango
El Paso
Farm
Greenhill Lake
Hang’em High
Mexico
NewTown
No Name City
Santa Cruz
Santa Fe Express

Smokin’ Guns Information

• Download Smokin’ Guns for Linux and Windows
• Smokin’ Guns Manual for when all else fails

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Mode

In the bank robbery mode you either rob one of the safes of the money, by using the provided dynamite, or you have to defend them. Another way to win, that pays less money, is to kill all of the opposing players. If the robbing team wins the round, then the two teams swap sides, which means the outlaws take a turn defending the bank.

Bank Location: Bank

Go to the rear of the bank and blow a hole in the wall.

Bank Location: Graveyard

You stole from the sheriff, pilfered church monies, and now you want to rob the dead! Cowboy, you are getting so low, hell is going to be above you.

See the church? The money is not in the building but in the graveyard. Blow the large grave to kingdom come and the money is revealed.

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Maps

Alamo Tiny
Backwater
Cobber Canyon
Coyote Bluff
DawnFort
Durango
El Paso
Farm
Greenhill Lake
Hang’em High
Mexico
NewTown
No Name City
Santa Cruz
Santa Fe Express

Smokin’ Guns Information

• Download Smokin’ Guns for Linux and Windows
• Smokin’ Guns Manual for when all else fails

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Mode

In the bank robbery mode you either rob one of the safes of the money, by using the provided dynamite, or you have to defend them. Another way to win, that pays less money, is to kill all of the opposing players. If the robbing team wins the round, then the two teams swap sides, which means the outlaws take a turn defending the bank.

Bank Location: Hotel

Across from the bank is the hotel. Standing in the entrance, to your right is the receptionist’s counter which you jump over and go through the door. Descend to the basement via the handy ladder. Blow the crate open to obtain the money bag.

Bank Location: Bank

The safe is in the rear left corner of the bank. Get to it by going through the front door like a civilized human being or be an animal and go around the back and blow a hole in the wall.

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Maps

Alamo Tiny
Backwater
Cobber Canyon
Coyote Bluff
DawnFort
Durango
El Paso
Farm
Greenhill Lake
Hang’em High
Mexico
NewTown
No Name City
Santa Cruz
Santa Fe Express

Smokin’ Guns Information

• Download Smokin’ Guns for Linux and Windows
• Smokin’ Guns Manual for when all else fails

How to shop with a quiet child:

1. Place Bryson in shopping cart
2. Give him a Kindle Fire
3. Run Angry Birds

Good for 15 to 30 minutes of quiet. Results vary by child.

Photo Credit: From the iPhone of Megan

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Mode

In the bank robbery mode you either rob one of the safes of the money, by using the provided dynamite, or you have to defend them. Another way to win, that pays less money, is to kill all of the opposing players. If the robbing team wins the round, then the two teams swap sides, which means the outlaws take a turn defending the bank.

Bank Location: Jail

The safe is in the jail, the building with the big star over the entrance. Take the money and the sheriff will not be happy.

Bank Location: Large and Spacious Building

Standing in the entrance to the Large and Spacious Building, note the doorway to the left on the first floor. Through there is the safe — I have even blown it open for you.

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Maps

Alamo Tiny
Backwater
Cobber Canyon
Coyote Bluff
DawnFort
Durango
El Paso
Farm
Greenhill Lake
Hang’em High
Mexico
NewTown
No Name City
Santa Cruz
Santa Fe Express

Smokin’ Guns Information

• Download Smokin’ Guns for Linux and Windows
• Smokin’ Guns Manual for when all else fails

Ron Paul Banana Nut Bread

What I did different: I didn’t use nuts, as we didn’t have any pecans, which is what I like using in banana nut bread. Also, I used 2 mini loaf pans instead of a regular sized loaf pan, but still cooked it for 45 minutes.

Ron Paul Banana Nut Bread

½ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

Mix and bake the ingredients at 350° for 45 minutes.

So how did it taste? Adelaide said:

Oh, and it was really good. We ate one of the loaves yesterday (which is when I baked it) and have devoured most of the second one today.

Further Reading

• Richd K Miller — Voted for Romney in 2008. In 2012 voting for Ron Paul
• End the Fed
• The Revolution: A Manifesto
• Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom

Photo Credit: Adelaide of Ada Shot Me

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Mode

In the bank robbery mode you either rob one of the safes of the money, by using the provided dynamite, or you have to defend them. Another way to win, that pays less money, is to kill all of the opposing players. If the robbing team wins the round, then the two teams swap sides, which means the outlaws take a turn defending the bank.

Bank Location: Church

Easy to find, the safe is in the Church. Not easy on the soul, robbing the clergy.

Bank Location: Warehouse

From the church steps go either way around the building in the screenshot below and you will find the warehouse wherein is a safe.

Smokin’ Guns Bank Robbery Maps

Alamo Tiny
Backwater
Cobber Canyon
Coyote Bluff
DawnFort
Durango
El Paso
Farm
Greenhill Lake
Hang’em High
Mexico
NewTown
No Name City
Santa Cruz
Santa Fe Express

Smokin’ Guns Information

• Download Smokin’ Guns for Linux and Windows
• Smokin’ Guns Manual for when all else fails