Announcement & quote of the day

I got one announcement to make (what horrible way to...): I was accepted as a faci at CPS (Cultural Preparation Seminar) in Piteşti, Romania! I'm facilitating a 1.5 hour long session for Cross Cultural Simulation. Reminds me of Albatros simulation I saw at my very first LC meeting in 2006...I'm sure I had a big question mark written all over my face the entire time as I was watching people hissing at each other. I need to do something like Albatros, maybe something more exciting and memorable. Time to explore myaiesec.net for ideas, I guess.

For the past few days I've spent most of my working hours on drawing things using AutoCAD.


It isn't as complicated as it looks. In fact, it's actually quite enjoyable sometimes. But I'm not an expert on CAD drawing (the drawing above took me hours) and I needed to do something to boost my productivity. My colleague who shares an office with me kindly gave me a pdf file, called AutoCAD Professional Tips and Techniques, to help me out. I'm not a fast reader either so it's going to take ages to read the entire document (339 pages), but I'm on page 60 now and I have learned many tricks that I didn't know already.


Like the Windows key. If you have been using Windows for a while you've probably noticed (or already effectively using) a key with Windows logo on your keyboard. I've accidentally hit it multiple times in the past and it was annoying to see the Start Manu come up every time. But it isn't only for Start Menu. You were actually supposed to use it with other keys to use shortcuts like these:

# Windows Logo Key + B to Select the first icon in the Notification Area
# Windows Logo Key + D to Show Desktop
# Windows Logo Key + E to Open My Computer
# Windows Logo Key + F to Open Search
# Windows Logo Key + F + Control Key to Open Search For Computers program
# Windows Logo Key + F1 to Open Help
# Windows Logo Key + L to Switch Between Users, or Lock desktop while unattended
# Windows Logo Key + M to Minimize All Windows
# Windows Logo Key + M + Shift Key to restore after Minimizing All Windows
# Windows Logo Key + R to Open Run Dialog
# Windows Logo Key + U to open Utility Manager
# Windows Logo Key + Y to Open Yahoo Messenger (if loaded)
# Windows Logo Key + Pause Key To Open System Properties
# Windows Logo Key + Tab Key To Switch Between Active Programs
# Windows Logo Key + X to enter Windows Mobility Center (Windows Vista+ only)
# Windows Logo Key + P to switch Projection modes (clone, extend, single, multiple monitors, etc.)

I don't know how useful these shortcuts could be, but to me, one mystery solved.

As I was reading a section about keeping backup storage, I found an interesting line, so I put it here as a quote of the day.

"Never before in history has so much human effort been stored in so ephemeral a medium as magnetism on spinning metallic disks."

Did I mention that I'm a nerd?