Critics

Why not take a break to read the words of this great American, and get yourself nice and rightly in a Fourth of July mood:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt, Sorbonne 1910.

Runner-Friendly Headphones

via From Where I Sit:

Michael Hyatt has some great recommendations for runner-friendly headphones on his blog, From Where I Sit.

Chart Pattern Fills in Excel 2007

via DailyDoseOfExcel.com:

I've heard several people complain about the fact that the chart pattern fills are not available in Excel 2007. This feature can be useful if you print charts on a non-color printer. Although charts created with previous versions of Excel continue to display the pattern fills, there is no way to apply patterns fills using the Excel 2007 UI.

Microsoft's Eric Patterson addressed this problem by creating an add-in. You can download it here: Chart Pattern Fills.

This add-in creates a new group (Patterns) on the Chart Tools / Format tab. The group has one control that, when clicked, shows the available patterns to apply to the selected chart element.

Are Your Prepared for Holidy PC Repairs?

via ZDNet:

Ed Bott has a great article on ZDNet with some recommendations on how to prepare for the inevitable Holiday PC Repairs.

Nordstrom Opposes Christmas Creep

via Consumerist:



Nordstrom has conquered the urge to celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. The retailer announced its decision to respect the calendar and common sense by hanging signs declaring that they will wait until the day after Thanksgiving, the earliest acceptable moment, to display their Christmas decorations. The vainglorious announcement is an important indicator that Nordstrom's competitors have overdone the unseasonable cheerfulness schtick.

How to Maximize the Bang for the Buck When You Buy Organic Food

via GradMoneyMatters:

At the grocery store, I have noticed that organic food in general costs about 25 – 50% more than regular items, and in some cases the mark up is more than 200%. According to the USDA certification guidelines - “Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation.” For some, especially those with young children, it may seem like the benefits of using organic foods justifies the extra cost. But like everything else, it is important to look beyond the label to get the best bang for the buck. Here is some information that can help decide which organic purchases are worth the extra cost and which may not be.

Security experts: NIST encryption standard may have NSA backdoor

via Ars Technica:

According to security experts, an algorithm for generating random numbers that is included in an official standard documented by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could potentially include a backdoor planted by the NSA.

In a recent blog entry, cryptographer Bruce Schneier describes research that was presented by his colleagues Niels Ferguson and Dan Shumow at the CRYPTO 2007 conference this past August. The security researchers have raised concerns about a potential backdoor in the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm, which is documented in NIST's 800-90 publication about deterministic random bit generators. Dual_EC_DRBG, which is based on elliptic curves, is said to be significantly slower to compute than the other algorithms in the standard and was supposedly only included at all because it has the strong support of the NSA.

Read the rest at Ars Technica