When I first started researching my family history it seemed like ancestry.com was the only place on the internet to find information about my ancestors. It seemed they had something for every person in my family tree. After a year using ancestry.com, and now that I’m without, I’ve discovered a number of other great online genealogy resources.

Local Historical Societies

Local organizations will often collect information about families who lived in their area, such as the Minnesota Historical Society and the Kosciusko County, Indiana USGenWeb Project.

Google Books

Google Books scans books and makes them available online, fully searchable. I’ve found reference to my ancestors in histories such as the History of Delaware County and Ohio or publications like Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine (vol. 28, no. 4), and even entire books about a particular family line, such as Thomas Family of Hilltown, Bucks County, Penn’a. Many of these I found just by typing names into the search box. If the full version isn’t available online you can usually request a copy through Interlibrary Loan.

Libraries

Many old books contain lots of genealogy information, and many of these are available through Interlibrary Loan in the probable event that your local library doesn’t have a copy. You can search multiple libraries across the country simultaneously at WorldCat. I’ve been able to thumb through such rare finds as Knox County, Ohio, will book “D”, 1855-1861 thanks to WorldCat and Interlibrary Loan.

Libraries local to the area you are researching often have special collections relating to those area; the Library of Virginia, for example, has all kinds of good Virginia records, many online.

Library Databases

Many libraries subscribe to paid databases and serves and then give free access to their patrons, often from home. Some useful databases to which libraries near me subscribe include HeritageQuest Online and World Vital Records.

Reciprocal Borrowing Agreements, such as this one at the King County Library System, allow patrons of one library to obtain free library cards from other library systems. You can often apply for your card online and obtain your new library card number electronically or via snail-mail. This gives you full access to all of the online databases that your neighboring library systems subscribe to as well, often without ever needing to visit a branch in person.

Other

And of course there’s FamilySearch.org and their “pilot” site which has images of various birth, death and census original records.

If you do need to access ancestry.com, this can usually be done free of charge through most library branch locations.

I haven’t had a land line since sometime in 2004. Yesterday, I received a telemarketing call on my cell phone pushing Discover Business Credit Cards. I seemed to have heard somewhere that it’s illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones, and endeavored to arm myself for any future encounters.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA), or 47 U.S.C. 227 Restrictions on use of telephone equipment, lays out what telemarketers may and may not do. While the TCPA does not specifically ban calls to cell phones, 47 U.S.C 227 (b) (1) (A) (iii) does state that

It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States—to make any call … using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice … to any telephone number assigned to a … cellular telephone service, … or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.

Requiring an actual person to manually enter each digit of each telephone number increases the cost of soliciting to cell phones such that it generally isn’t worth it. I guess one could ask a telemarketer if they used an autodialer when calling your cell phone–if they have they are probably in violation of the TCPA.

There are a few exceptions, of course, namely if the call:

• is made in behalf of a charity or nonprofit
• is made by debt collectors, debt purchasers, or creditors
• is made by an entity with which you have an “existing business relationship”

Junkbusters helpfully offers this Anti-Telemarketing Script, and the FCC publishes instructions on how to contact them with a complaint (scroll down to “What You Can Do” and “What to Include in Your Complaint”). You can also sue telemarketers in small claims court, and of course there is the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry, which has a separate complaint process.

I was looking at Monet art prints on eBay today, and noticed some sellers offer hand-painted replicas. “Neat,” I thought–oil on canvas, with real texture and color. But then I compared the images with the original; I was surprised by how noticeable the differences were. I guess that’s why Monet is famous and they aren’t. Can you tell which is the real “San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk”?

Doug Ireton recently shared his finely honed GTD with RTM setup. In his guest post on the RTM blog he goes step-by-step through the lists, smart lists, tags, and locations he uses to GTD. These are presented in an evolutionary manner; I thought it would be useful to see a summary of the system all in one place. Thus, what Doug recommends is:

Lists

• ps-Daily
• wk-Daily
• {a list for each personal and work project (prefixed with ps- and wk- appropriately)}
• ps-Someday
• wk-Someday
• iTunes
• Books
• Lent/Borrowed

Smart Lists

• @Home [tag:na AND location:@Home]
• @Calls [tag:na AND tag:@call]
• @Errands [tag:na and tag:@errand]
• @Web [tag:na AND tag:@web]
• @Work [tag:na AND (location:@work or location:@downtown) AND NOT dueAfter:"2 weeks from today"]
• @Work-MIT [tag:na AND (location:@work or location:@downtown) AND NOT dueAfter:"1 week from today" AND (priority:1 OR priority:2)]
• Wait-Personal (or ps-Wait) [tag:wait AND NOT location:@work)]
• Wait-Work (or wk-Wait) [tag:wait AND (location:@work or location:@downtown)]
• Work-WeeklyStatus [completedWithin:"1 week of today" AND location:@work AND NOT list:ps-Daily]

Tags

• na (next action)
• @web
• @call
• @errand
• {a tag for each person who has been delegated a task from a Wait list}

Locations

• @Home
• @Work
• @Downtown

Yes, both operating systems have their faults and their virtues. I just wanted to jot down some reasons why I personally prefer Linux to Windows. I’ve been using Xubuntu as my primary operating system at home for about two years now and wouldn’t have it any other way.

I like not having my file manager and other components integrated directly into the operating system. In Windows, if your file manager hangs or crashes, it often takes the rest of the OS down with it. In Linux, everything is separate components–the kernel, the window manager, the desktop manager, and each of the applications are separate components, able to live (or die) on their own.

I like having control over my computer. In Windows if a process hangs, sometimes it just won’t die no matter how many times you click “End Now”. In the process manager, there are some processes where trying to end them gives “permission denied” even when logged in as an administrative account. There are files that Windows tells me that I may not delete–my files, on my computer?!

Windows is always trying to guess what I want, and it’s usually wrong. Linux makes no such assumptions. Microsoft Word is the worst offender, but the mindset is riddled throughout the operating system.

Windows is built for the lowest common denominator, and tries to protect users from themselves. For example, filename extensions are hidden by default–Windows won’t even tell you the real names of your files! Linux, on the other hand, is happy to always do exactly as you tell it.

Linux provides easy visibility into all of your system resource usage right on your desktop (usually with a panel plugin). Windows will at most display CPU usage through a minimized Windows Task Manager, when the taskbar feels like showing it.

Simple tasks are made difficult in Windows. In Windows, what is the best way to find out how many lines are in a file? View the OS startup logs or recent system messages? Find all filenames which match a given regular expression?

Linux comes standard with so many useful features. On Windows you have to hunt down functional, reliable, and trustworthy third-party apps to gain simple functionality.

The Linux command line is immensely powerful. I have at my fingertips all system status and information, I can easily move between scripting language sub-shells or even entirely different machines. On Windows you have to go clicking around into all kinds of different places to get anything done. The Windows command line is severely lacking.

I want to live on top of a grocery store.

The other night there was a dish I wanted to make, but I was missing one ingredient. I didn’t want to drive all the way over to the store just to buy the one missing ingredient–I wanted to eat dinner. “If I lived in one of those apartment complexes right over a grocery store,” I thought, “I could just run downstairs and get just what I need.”

There is nothing that we buy more often than food, so of all possible stores a grocery store is th e one you want to have closest.

I know of two apartment complexes built over grocery stores, Uwajimaya Village Apartments over Uwajimaya downtown, and another set built on top of PCC in Fremont. (Update: a new building has opened up above a QFC next to the Seattle Center, and then I found out there are condos above a Whole Foods on Westlake by Denny.)

If you lived over a grocery store you could always have the freshest fruits and vegetables.

Your perishables will never spoil, because you’re constantly rotating your supply.

You never have to worry about when you’re going to run out of milk or bread, because there’s always more downstairs.

Instead of looking though your cupboards trying to decide what to have for dinner, you have an entire grocery store at you immediate disposal, where you can pick the items required for just the dinner you want.

It would be an entirely different shopping paradigm. In the old style you compile a list of things you’ve run out of until it’s long enough to warrant a trip to the grocery store, where you stock up on everything you think you might need over the coming weeks. With the new style you could make much more frequent trips just for the tings you need, when you need them.

The next time I look for an apartment, I’ll check out the ones close to the grocery stores first.

After writing this I found an article from the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce called “Living over the store in funky Fremont”, which discusses some of the benefits and challenges of building an apartment complex on top of a supermarket.

An interesting experience from the other day, with a lesson to be learned:

I was nearing a project deadline at work. I checked in my changes and when I did a production build, found that my coworker had checked in some code without fully testing it, and it broke the build.
I wrote him an email asking him to fix his code. I was tempted to mention how it was holding me up from deploying an important change and otherwise berate him for his laziness.. but thought better of it and changed the tone to something a little more pleasant. It turns out part of my change didn’t build either.. I had just missed it because my errors were farther down the log than his.

Every time I’ve resisted my first inclination to be a little angry, harsh, or even just put-off, and switch to something nicer, I’ve always been grateful afterward. As with President Lincoln’s never-sent letter to General Meade, the trick is just to resist that initial impulse, or even better, change the impulse so it never comes.

In early July I made the drive over to Garden Valley, Idaho to attend the 2006 Lundquist Family Reunion. I’m really glad I went. Beforehand, the prospect of driving 10 hours seemed daunting, but when you just get in the car and do it, it’s not so bad. It makes me worry that something so small has kept me from past family activities.. We had 44 adults and 28 children there. Activities included attending the Cascade parade and fireworks, a day playing at the lake, whitewater rafting, geocaching around the campground, family history skits, games, and talking around the campfire. Talking around the campfire was probably my favorite part.

We talked about how we’d changed over the years, and some of where we were at now, with our current projects and desires. We talked a lot about desire; how change originates not in the actions, but in thoughts–the seed for all action.

I liked how Gen commented that the reason our church doesn’t have nuns is because that would be too easy.

I didn’t spend too much time socializing with my extended family, but kept mostly with those I already knew. It was fascinating, however, just watching the others, knowing that they are my family. Seeing what they do and how they do it. Yeay for family.

I went hiking the other day, up to Heather Lake. It was a pleasant hike, but there were just a couple more things I wished I had taken. Here’s the complete list for posterity’s sake, and so I have it handy next time I go hiking.

• water
• snacks
• camera
• tripod
• tissue
• layers
• extra socks
• rain protection

• Les Misérables :: Victor Hugo
• Watership Down :: Richard Adams
• Atlas Shrugged :: Ann Rand
• The Invisible Man :: H.G. Wells
• More by Robert Heinlein
• The Pragmatic Programmer :: Andrew Hunt
• Who Moved My Cheese? :: Spencer Johnson
• Good To Great :: Jim Collins
• Frankenstein :: Mary Shelley
• Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde :: Robert Louis Stevenson
• Bonds That Make Us Free :: C. Terry Warner

Revisit:

• The Count of Monte Cristo :: Alexandre Dumas