If this book doesn't end the science and religion war, it's certainly a MAJOR step in the right direction!

I signed up with GrandCentral and have been testing it for a long while now and I like the service a lot. I have a new phone number now that will reach me at all of my existing phones; home, office, cell phone and Skype. The only number you will ever need to reach me is (619) 393-2298. Now you can reach me everywhere with a single number. And if I move, switch jobs, or buy a new phone...this GrandCentral number never changes. You can even use my new number as an email address (6193932298@grandcentral.com). It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Another cool feature of this amazing free service is the Call Me! button that you will find in the left column of this page, near the top. Click the button twice, enter your phone number and name, click the small Call Me button again, your phone will start ringing, pick it up and I will be on the other end!

I am handling funds for the Elmer Gray Family Reunion registration fees. If you have not done so already, please Download GrayReunionRegistrationForm.xls  and complete it to determine the proper fee to be paid by your group. When the form is completed you can click "Pay Fees" near the bottom right of the form to get back here.

Then click on the "Submit and Pay Total Fee" button at the top of the column on the right side of this page. You will be transported to my "Tip Jar" where you can leave a message that can include any comments or questions you may have. After you enter a message, your name and email address, click on "Continue to PayPal" where you can complete the transaction. If you do not have a PayPal account you will be offered the option of using a credit card or bank account to make your payment.

So many gadgets. So little time. Here are a few of the gadgets that I have been playing with:

My mobile phone was upgraded to a T-Mobile MDA about a year ago. It is, by far, the best mobile phone I have ever owned. I use GPS software to find my way around. The Windows Mobile system and Microsoft Office software give me access to most of my desktop data and functionality. With a Stowaway Infrared Wireless Keyboard and a Stowaway Wireless Bluetooth Mouse I can do real computer work with the phone. I store movies on a mini SD card to watch when I'm in waiting mode and music to enjoy when I can safely use stereo earphones. Oh, and its a great phone. It has WiFi, so I can avoid cell phone service when I can find an Internet access point (the phone runs Skype well), but I purchase unlimited Internet access from T-Mobile for $20 a month and the GPRS speed is not bad.

I love flash drives. I'm using an 8GB USB unit about the size of half a stick of gum. It runs all of the software I need (Open-Office, Roboform To Go, Good Sync, and more) and carries my 1.2GB Outlook data file and My Documents folder.

Janet and I both enjoy the 60GB Gigabeat portable video, music, picture, TV player we got awhile back. We use it every day to meditate together using Holosync technology.

There is more, but it is time for bed.

Lauren Grace Ray's personality is emerging to the delight and occasional consternation of those in her life. She is growing up way too fast, is physically active and loves to dance (she hasn't quite figured out how to walk yet, but she can stand and groove to the music).

Jamison and Sydney are doing well, too. Jamison is maturing and enjoys reading and playing video games. He is a wonderful big brother for his sisters and is doing great at school and with his extra-curricular activities. He is a handsome kid.

Syd is precocious and funny even as she becomes evermore photogenic. I talk with her mother often and she always has a story, or two, about Syd's recent antics.

Stephanie and Clinton are hanging in there. Clinton works long hours for a trucking firm and enjoys tinkering with and racing his dragster. In addition to corralling three kids, Steph is in her first year of the nursing program at a nearby college.

The Rays visited us this summer for a month! Clinton was only able to stay a few days and had to return to Michigan to work, but Steph and the kids were able to hang out with us for a few weeks in San Diego and then travel with us in a minivan I purchased for the trip to a Frahm family reunion at the Roybal's lodge near Pecos, New Mexico. We had a great time.

The family will not soon forget the cross-country trek from the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff, Arizona, using my new GPS mobile phone to lead us on the "shortest" route possible. Other highlights of the trip included a couple of days with my siblings in Arizona (Sydney says that swimming in my sister Debra's pool was her favorite thing on the trip), Montezuma Castle, driving through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, and visiting the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater and Sky City.

Much has changed in my life over the past eight months. The most significant is a career change--I now serve as Executive Director of San Diego Memorial Society. It is a great job and I've been having a blast getting things organized and off to a good start. I'll share more about the Society in future posts here.

The adjustment of priorities was a bit disruptive as many interests faded and my attention focused in new directions. This blog was abandond until now and I'm not sure yet how often I will be returning to publish here. I feel drawn to come back and share information with friends and family, promote the San Diego Memorial Society and Funeral Consumers Alliance and play around with this culture-changing blog technology, so I'm back.

I love coaching people, both individuals and business teams, to learn new ways to get organized, be productive, stay connected and have fun by using various technologies. But I do not seem to be able to find the time to send invoices. I would much rather assist a client or charitable organization or do research about a new device or software application or read a book or learn something new than to go through the drudgery of keeping track of my time and sending an itemized bill to the many people I assist.

I have been feeling overwhelmed lately because I'm busy, having a great time, but I am over three months behind on sending invoices. Well, I am not going to worry about it anymore. So, do not expect an invoice from me; I've decided to stop sending billing statements. I will assist you for whatever you think is fair and can afford.

Some people pay me well and I enjoy working with them and I will prioritize my schedule so that I will be there when they want me. I also assist a few non-profit organizations without any expectation of payment--doing volunteer work has always been an important part of my life and I will continue to make contributions to causes and institutions that I believe in enough to donate my time and energy and sometimes even my financial resources.

Friends and family have not received invoices from me in the past, so this is nothing new for them. A number of my friends have sent me a check or funds via PayPal and I appreciate their support. In fact, it is their support that has inspired me to work this way with others.

I have billed $60 an hour in the past for my services. I suppose that is what I think I'm worth. But from now on I will accept whatever you want to pay me.

You can send me a check via snail mail (my mailing address is available by clicking on the "About" link under my Webcam image at the top of this website's left column), or you can transfer money to me via my Tip Jar.

You do not need a PayPal account to make a payment via the Tip Jar with a credit card, but you will need a PayPal account to make an electronic transfer from your bank account. In either case you can initiate Tip Jar payments to me by clicking on the Tip Jar icon at the top of this website's right column.

When you send me funds via the Tip Jar, I get an email notification of the transaction that contains the payer's name and a short message (the message is optional). No other information is given to me.

If I have assisted you in the past few months you will get a personal email message from me about this change in my "business model" soon. I hope everyone will respond well to this change--it is a big relief for me and I suspect that the pay-whatever-you-want arrangement will work out fine for me.

I have been using Gmail a lot lately. The reason I am steadily increasing the use of the service flows mainly from a unique feature of Gmail: filters.

Gmail filters can be used in many ways. I’m using them to identify the source of email messages that are sent to me. Whenever I register online when I purchase something or I want to use an online service, I use my Gmail email address when completing the registration form. When I enter the address I add an identifier. Then, whenever I get an email message using that identifier, I know where the sender got the email address.

So, let me give an example. I recently rented a car using Priceline dot com. When I registered at the site, I used "jkdmail+priceline@gmail" dot com for the email address. The "+priceline" is the identifier. Then I went to my Gmail account and added a filter I called “Priceline.” This filter captures every email message coming into my inbox that has the +priceline identifier. I can view new and archived messages using the filter.

This works great, but I have run into an occasional problem. Every once in a while I register at a website that will not allow the identifier in the email address. For many months this has not been a big deal, I would just email the company and asked them to change their validation criteria so Gmail, with an identifier added, would be accepted. Everyone was glad to do so. The new Glide dot com website is an example of a site where I got this kind of quick response.

There are companies that will not change their email validation criteria. One such company is DHD Media, a company that provides website registration services, credit card processing and billing, streaming media and DRM, and managed hosting for a number of companies. When they refused to change their email address validation criteria, I sent them this message:

This feature of Gmail is the principal reason I use the Gmail service. Gmail has this feature to allow accountholders to filter email. I use it to identify the source of the messages I receive. If I get spam that uses the identifier, I know where the spammer got my email address.

It takes effort on the part of Web form designer to rule out the "+" sign in an email address. I assume there is purpose behind this effort. The only purpose I can think of is that they do not want me to identify email sent from the site or from the people to whom they sold the information.

Please let me know if you change your policy to allow Gmail with the filter identifier. I'll subscribe to your service then.

They would not budge. I told them that I was going to post an article on this blog about the Gmail filter feature and would include the fact that they refused to edit their email address validation criteria. I offered to include a statement from them concerning the matter. Here is what they had to say (this is a copy of the message, including grammar and spelling errors):

DHD Media does not sell e-mail address, nor could we even benefit from such an action since we are a billing processor as opposed to an e-business.

The resons are much less complex.  The plus sign is an operator in most programming languages.  All operator charcaters are disabled in order to prevent security breaches.  DHD handles too much sensitive account information to present such risks.

It is unusual to me that many websites would change their e-mail criteria for a mail service that google clearly states is *still* in its testing phase in spite of its popularity.  This is something to keep in mind when considering gmail's features.

Regards,
William
Tech Support
DHD Media

I have asked a number of friends about this and they all got a chuckle out of William’s “resons.” No one can think of any situation where a plus sign in an email address would effect any program written in any language, much less create a security breach.

So, the bottom line is that I did not pay over $100 for the service offered through DHD Media. Gmail made it possible for me to know before registering at the site that my credit card and other sensitive information might be used for God knows what.

Thank you, Google.

I posted a blurb here over a month ago about VoiceMale, a book written by my friend, Neil Chethik. Well, the book is now in its third printing. The Amazon dot com ranking spiked in January and it is continuing to do well as a Valentine's Day book for both husbands and wives. Be sure to look at the customer reviews at Amazon dot com.

For those of you who fly Delta, check out the in-flight magazine this month for a 4-page feature on the book. The February 13 edition of People magazine also gives it a good nod. Psychology Today has weighed in positively.

Neil traveled to speak in New York City, San Fransisco, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Washington D.C., and still has a few cities left on his agenda.

Books about men do not always do well in the market, but VoiceMale is an exception. Men are delighted to read a book that represents their gender in a positive light and women are fascinated by the intimate disclosures about what men really think. Neil has struck a nerve with the book that has many people abuzz about its content.

Janet's niece, Lisa Vroegh (v ru) was in San Diego for a few days to attend an event at the Convention Center. She was recruiting students for an education program at her college in Iowa.

During her stay her aunts, cousin and I assisted her with clothes shopping--she always buys clothes when visiting California. We had a great time and she found a number of really cute things.

I snapped this photo on Saturday morning as we were waiting to be seated for breakfast at 222 downtown. Russ, Joan and Debbie had come down that day from Newport Beach to see Lisa and spend the day with us.

Lisa had to attend sessions at the Convention Center mid-day. Joan, Debbie, Janet and I spent that time playing at Kobe's Swap Meet. The people watching was great and we left with all kinds of junk we don't need.

We then picked Lisa up for another shopping spree at Fashion Valley Mall, Ross and Nordstrom's Rack. Janet and Joan slept in the car when we got to our last spot--some people cannot shop as long or as hard as other people. The evening ended with dinner at Mimi's Cafe on Mission Center Road. It was a fun day and we hope Lisa will return again soon.

Janet and I spent almost two weeks in Michigan to assist Stephanie and her family during the expected arrival of a new family member. Lauren Grace Ray was born on January 19 at 7:36 PM. She weighed seven pounds, ten ounces, and was twenty inches long. Here are some photos taken in the delivery room following the birth: Lauren Grace Ray Arrives

Link: Skype Wins Over Past Critics.

Skype 2.0 became available for the general public earlier this week. Improvements from earlier Skype releases include free video calling and the ability to sort contacts into groups like colleagues, friends and family. There's also mood messages that let fellow Skypers "know where you are and how you're feeling."

The new Skype software has pushed me to depend on the service. Up until recently I used Skype as a plaything, an interesting concept. But lately the software has become so compelling that I find myself using it instead of my wireless phone and landline.

It began with Skype Out and Skype In, features that allow a Skype user to place and recieve calls on the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System or Service). Voicemail and Instant Messaging features followed. And now video calling. I'm hooked and I doubt I can ever go back.

If you do not use Skype you can reach me at 619-377-0588, my Skype In number. If you use Skype you can reach me at Skype Callto://johnkdavis.

This season is permeated with emotion, activity, travel, friends and family, memories, hope, and spiritual stirrings.