The outline of my class is publicly available online:

• Communicate, Coordinate, Collaborate: Websites for Family History Work (read online)
• Communicate, Coordinate, Collaborate: Websites for Family History Work (PDF)

Thank you for including me as one of the early adopters in your upcoming changes to Gmail advertisements.  I first noticed a change on 6 April 2011.  The change was dramatic, and gave me quite a shock.  I’ve decided to write this open letter in response.

I logged in to Gmail on Wednesday, and saw my first graphical Gmail ad.  I was disgusted.  To use Facebook’s old rating of image ads, I found it “offensive.”  I have always enjoyed text-only ads in Gmail and elsewhere in the Google-verse: they are usually relevant and appropriate.  Even when off-topic, they are mildly amusing at best and easily ignored at worst.  I know that the Gmail team is working to serve “better ads.”  However, the image ad I received was contrary to the nature of the email I was viewing.

What is to be done? According to Gmail help:

If you don’t want to see ads in Gmail you have the option of using the HTML interface, or POP or IMAP. We’re also committed to data liberation: if you decide to switch to a new email provider, it’s easy to set up automatic forwarding for all new messages that arrive in your Gmail account.
Source: Ads in Gmail and your personal data | Gmail help

I have written here in the past my opinion of Google’s claims to be “amoral.”  I invite you to reread that post.  Regarding this recent development, here is how I am responding.

1. I set basic HTML view as my default view (it’s faster anyway).
2. I have published this open letter on my blog, with links from my other social media streams.

Looking forward, if Google continues to present offensive ads as part of the Gmail experience, I will have no practical option except to discontinue using the Gmail client and switch to another email platform.

I believe that ads can be effective without being offensive.  Effective ads are related to the surrounding content and most often are similar, not opposed to the surrounding content.  Google executives, I ask that you please reconsider the roll-out of image ads in Gmail.  I use Gmail because it’s better in significant ways; the addition of irrelevant, offensive, graphical ads is too much for me this little frog to take.  If the ads are relevant and appropriate, I will reconsider my decision.  Until then, I will be opting out of Gmail advertisements.

Sincerely,
JF Carroll

After finishing half of the coursework for a master’s degree in Computer Engineering, I felt impressed to withdraw from the program to become a chiropractor. With the support of my advisor and wife, I followed the impression and took a leap of faith. I hadn’t taken a chemistry course for eight years, but I took three chemistry courses the next semester, along with psychology and physiology courses. The switch has been difficult, but I am comfortable and confident with this decision. I am finishing the prerequisite courses this semester, and I have already received provisional acceptance from graduate school.

I will earn the Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree from National University of Health Sciences, beginning May 2010 and finishing September 2013. Upon graduation and passing the board exams, I aspire to practice as a junior partner in a small clinic in rural Utah or in the Midwest. After 3-5 years, I expect to open my own clinic.

In addition to my own future practice, I currently help chiropractic clinics “go paperless.” I represent a computer consulting firm which provides software for practice management, document imaging, and electronic claim submission. I enjoy employing my unique background to serve both doctors and patients.

I haven’t submitted the application yet, and I would sincerely appreciate feedback on how I can this can be improved.  Thank you.

FamilySearch development team:

New FamilySearch is a wonderful, collaborative system.  When I am doing research to extend a distant family line, I am working with literally dozens of other contributors, most of whom I have never contacted.  Due to the large number of contributors working on common lines, new information is frequently added to one of my ancestors.  Unfortunately, I must visit the record for each ancestor just to check if any information has been added.  It would be great if I were notified each time information is added to certain individuals.  I suggest FamilySearch add “update notifications” to facilitate this.  Updates can be sent via RSS, email, or web-based.

• One feed per person identifier
• A single feed for “all my ancestors”
• A feed for “all ancestors of John Doe”
• A feed for “all descendants of Jane Doe”

I imagine that the development team will select one or some, not all of these options, to avoid giving the user too many choices.

E-mail updates would be nice, and could be sent daily, weekly, or “as it happens.”  This is a great option for users who don’t use RSS; additionally, it aggregates multiple updates into a single notification.

Web-based update notifications would be managed and listed within the (New) FamilySearch website.  This would be similar to the “Watch List” on FamilyPursuit.com or wikipedia.org.  Each contributor would be able to “bookmark” or “watch” any number of individuals in FamilySearch.  I envision a simple star next to the name in the lower half of the “Family Pedigree with Details” view.  Clicking the star would add the individual to the watch list.  The watch list page (or layer) could be organized two different ways:

1. List each person on the watch list, along with the date of the most recent modification and the name of the contributor.
2. List updates chronologically (most recent first, of course)

In familypursuit.com’s watch list, updates can be marked as “read,” which provides a quick and easy way for contributors to remember which updates they have seen.  (Wikipedia’s watch list lacks this feature).

Update notifications would significantly help me to collaborate more efficiently with others in family history work.  Thank you for your dedicated efforts to improve FamilySearch.  If you have any questions about the features I have proposed, feel free to contact me; I would be happy to discuss them with you.

There is a charitable organization (Empower Playgrounds) making merry-go-rounds that generate electricity for school children in Ghana.  My sister in law, Elizabeth, was in the group of BYU students that helped build the merry-go-rounds.  I watched a video about it on BYUTV a while ago.  I was touched when the builders wanted to teach the children how the merry-go-round generated electricity, and explained that there was a magnet inside it.  The children didn’t know what a magnet was!  I thought, I have a ton of refrigerator magnets I am not using, they can have those.  I made contact with the Executive Director of Empower Playgrounds and she said they could use all I could collect.  She said it doesn’t matter if they say, “Joe’s Pizza” on them or they are a teddy bear magnet.     She said they are putting together some science kits, and could use all kinds of things.   Any toy that has a magnet inside it to make it work would would be good too.   The flashlights that work by shaking them are a good example.  I am going to take all I have collected up to their Provo office in the middle of January.  They are taking another trip to Ghana around that time and can take the magnets to the children.    If you want to donate your magnets and other things please get them to me before I go.  Thanks!

Update (5 Dec 2009):

Oh, forgot another needed thing is iron things to stick the magnets to like cookie sheets, with iron in them of course.

Miriam

Sarah M. Hall
Executive Director
Empower Playgrounds
3214 N. University Ave. #501
Provo, Utah, 84604

Mobile: 801-822-2973
Email:  sarah@empowerplaygrounds.org
Web Site:  www.empowerplaygrounds.org

Update (4 Jan 2010):

Hello all,

I am collecting magnets for school children in Ghana.  I have already collected several.  I am taking them to Provo on Jan. 28th, so please get me your unwanted magnets before I go, or get them to Provo by then.  Please don’t go buy magnets.  Please donate the money instead.  They want to make some standard science kits which they need money for, but they can use any magnets you already have.

Thanks for helping!

Miriam
************************

Introduction

Travel is defined as “moving through space, across time, in a departure from normal, daily activities.”  From the Book of Mormon, Lehi leaves his home and friends in Jerusalem, leaving “his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things” (1 Ne. 2:2-4).  Lehi was totally committed to his journey.  He prepared and took his family and necessary provisions into the wilderness.

For any journey, there are three stages:

1. Prepare for the journey
2. Travel through the wilderness
3. Make meaning through reflection

Preparation

First, Lehi’s preparations for his journey were quick, yet wise.  He took what he needed and left what he didn’t.  He prepared to live and travel alone, through unknown paths, without a guide.  Lehi trusted in the Lord and obeyed his word.

The Journey Itself

Second, Lehi embarked on the journey.  Shortly thereafter, God provided a tool to guide them through the wilderness.  A ball, or director, was given to Lehi to “pointed the way wither [they] should go” (1 Nephi 16:10).  This director acted as a compass; however, it only functioned according to the faith and diligence of Lehi’s party.  Sadly, “They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey” (Alma 37:41).

Lehi and his family traveled for many years until they reached their final destination.  Along the way, “things went wrong”: Nephi broke his bow, his brothers tried to kill him, their ship passed through a great storm, and they suffered “much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue” (1 Nephi 16).

Making Meaning

Third, we can apply lessons from the scriptures and from our own experiences with wilderness journeys to better navigate our current journey into the unknown future.  Dr. Rugh quoted Alma, a descendant of Lehi, who reflected on the journey of his ancestors.  Said Alma, “For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise” (Alma 37:45).

Closing

Thank you, Dr. Rugh, for your uplifting address.  It gave me great comfort and strengthened my faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thank you for making Gmail one of the quickest email clients. I love being able to open Gmail (with Chrome) in a snap and find messages with simple, powerful searches. I have a suggestion to improve message retrieval: Please add an “I’m Feeling Lucky” email search in Google Labs.

This morning I logged in to triage my inbox. After archiving a few and marking others as spam, I reached for a message at the top of my “All Mail”: I searched for a message I had recently archived, and I knew it would be first in the search results. While I waited for 3 seconds for the search results page to load, I spend the extra time thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could just do an ‘I’m feeling lucky’ search on my email?” I would replace the “Search the web” button with “Lucky search” or something like that.

As I look back on my Gmail habits, I realize that I repeatedly search for a particular message.  I quickly learn which search string will plcae the message at the top of the search results.  An “I’m feeling lucky” search would help me not only when racing through emails, but it would help me time and time again.  (Yes, I know I can bookmark search result URLs or use “quick links” in Gmail for recent searches.)

FYI, I never use the “search the web” button. For me, when I want to quickly search the web from Gmail, I simply do

1. CTRL+T (new tab in Chrome)
2. Start typing search string…

This is far better than web search in Gmail:

1. ‘/’ (keyboard shortcut for search box)
2. Type search string
3. <Tab>
4. <Tab> (to reach “Search the web” button)
5. <Enter>

I know this is somewhat off topic, but it further explains why I don’t need the “Search the web” button in Gmail. Web search in Chrome’s unified address bar (or Google Toolbar for other browsers) gives dynamic results as I type. Results come from history, common websites, and suggested searches. This is such a great search feature.  That is why searching with Chrome is only two steps before I start seeing search results, not five steps with “web search in Gmail.”

Cheers,
James Carroll

From Reuters:

Nineteen large banks underwent government “stress tests,” and of the 10 told to raise capital, GMAC had by far the biggest shortfall relative to its size.

Many analysts believe GMAC will need another bailout. Gupta declined to discuss specifics about efforts to raise capital. (Source: GMAC renames bank unit Ally Bank, drops own name, reuters.com)

From WSJ:

What happens if Ally falls short? “A brilliant marketing strategy with a great name like this will blow up in their face. People will be like ‘Is this what they claim of being an ally?’” Barrera said. (Source: Bye Bye, GMAC: Will ‘Ally Bank’ Work or Not? WSJ.com)

From Ally Bank’s FAQ:

Maximize your FDIC insurance

Deposits at Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured institutions are now insured up to at least $250,000 per depositor through December 31, 2013.
Get more out of FDIC insurance with a few tips from us

Know the facts. You could be covered for more than $250,000. Here’s a simple example of how one couple could be insured up to $1,500,000:
Ally Bank Account 1: John Doe, $250,000
Ally Bank Account 2: Mary Doe, $250,000
Ally Bank Account 3: Joint Account, John and Mary Doe, $500,000
Ally Bank Account 4: John Doe, In Trust For (ITF) Mary Doe, $250,000
Ally Bank Account 5: Mary Doe, In Trust For (ITF) John Doe, $250,000
Total: $1,500,000
Have a family of 3? See how you could have coverage up to $1.75 million.

Family of 4? See how you could be covered up to $2.55 million.

(Source: FDIC insurance, ally.com)

I feel like GMAC is leaning heavily on FDIC.  In fact, I feel like the entire American banking institution is leaning on FDIC.  So, am I banking with Ally, GMAC, or the Incorporated States of America?

External Links

• Follow this story on Google News.
• Failed Banks List,  fdic.gov
• Apologies to the shane company for the post title
• See three meanings of term “United States” according to US CODE: Title 28,3002. Definitions

Error number: 2^31-1, right?

It’s a neat tool that helps you organize your start menu into categories:

Organized start menu, thanks to "Tidy Start Menu"

It took me about 3.5 minutes to choose which apps belong in the pre-defined 9 categories.  With the Pro version, you can create your own catetgories; also the pro version will make category suggestions for you.  Slick.

I think this should be built in to the operating system, or at least owned by the same company.