• Stop using Ferric Chloride etchant! (A better etching solution.): Alternative (overly-complex) Method: Make Cupric Chloride Faster. - Instructables - DIY, How To, science, tech Alternate to using ferric chloride to etch circuit boards (tags: pcb etch)

After scouring Brisbane by phone I finally located a possible Wii Fit. One store had one that had been set aside for a customer – they were going to ring and see if they still wanted it. It was my lucky day. As I arrived to pick up the Nintendo Wii, the chap said he had manage to secure the Wii Fit for me as well.

I rang 10 or 15 outlets yesterday to discover none had any in stock, yet all were advertising them like mad. Responses ranged from “we can put you on a list but its first in first served” to “we will guarantee you one by Christmas!”

Unpacking the Wii – it comes very nicely presented in two “sliding drawers” full of equipment. Batteries were included as well as a remote, nunchuck, Wii sports, wired sensor bar and composite audio cable (which we will not use) manuals, power charger and a base stand.

Unpacking the Accessories. We bought an extra nunchuck, remote and Wii Play game combo, a charger and rechargeable batteries, wireless sensor bar (batteries were included) and silicon covers and grips for the remotes and nunchuks.

We also purchased a component cable to connect to our home theatre.

So last night we unpacked the Wii and installed it, then while the kids were creating their Mii’s I unpacked the Wii Fit and set it up. A quick measuring session and creating user data for each for each of was enough for the night. (I wanted to watch Federer beat Safin in straight sets.)

The Wii Fit was packed well and comprises the balance board, add on raiser feet for using on carpet, instruction manual and the software disc. Batteries are included.

This morning however I woke early and headed into the lounge for some exercise. Stretching, muscle workouts, anaerobic exercise and some balance games showed that while in some things I am strong and fit, in other areas I am very weak. I have a great deal of problem balancing on one leg or foot. Other family members excelled and had trouble in different areas also. The great thing about the Wii Fit is it remembers all this stuff for you and tracks it So each of the family members will be able to focus on developing the areas of their fitness that are lacking.

I think this is going to be a great addition to the electronic equipment in this house. It will promote and extend fitness, playing together as a family and fun together. The kids are all very excited and had lots of fun while learning more about their bodies fitness levels.

On his show on Tues. July 1, Thom Hartmann read part (all? I tuned in late) of the Declaration of Independence, and discussed some of the consequences that signing this document had for some of the signatories. Many lost their freedom, families, fortunes, and/or lives for a cause that could easily have failed. I believe that up till now I have underestimated the courage it took the Founders to put their names to that revolutionary document.

Even though this painting, popularly believed to depict the signing of the Declaration, really shows the presentation of the Declaration to the Congress by the drafting committee, it still seems appropriate.

• Dave Shaw | Outside Online A very interesting story about a very deep dive. (tags: toread diving story)
• dotmatrixdesign: Twitter LED Scroller Build Log Control an LED matrix with an ATmega. I'm thinking of building a very small binary clock. (tags: avr led matrix todo)

There’s a church in my neighborhood, run along fairly fundamentalist lines by a guy who always seems to me to be looking for a fight. (With evil, I’m sure, but I suspect he sees evil in places where it might not be.) Anyway, they just hung a banner that reads, “If you want Bible, you want [Name] Bible Church.” Does that sound pugnacious, or is it just me?

Perhaps the reason that the Doris Lessing quote below struck home is that I’ve been feeling unusually irritable lately.  Everything seems to annoy me unreasonably, and daily activities are gauged in terms of what I can tolerate rather than what needs doing.  It’s a terrible way to live, and I’m sure it’s even harder on the bystanders.

Via Jezebel, an interview with Doris Lessing in Time:

Even at 88, Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing refuses to play the role of Britain’s elder literary stateswoman. “As you get older, you don’t get wiser,” she says. “You get irritable.”

And I don’t think it’s only because of my well-known partiality to basset hounds.

It’s been a while since Tim has asked me to write an article for Back to Basics. Lately I’ve been more focused on our Geek Girl Blogger series, putting together their surveys and what not. Anyway, Back to Basics!

RSS! You may ask: “RS whaty whaty?” Or, “I’ve heard of that, what is it?”… or what I personally said was “I use RSS to read stuff at my work, but I’ve got no clue what it is exactly or how it works! What is it?” haha.

So I started researching it. When writing articles for Back to Basics I often don’t know much about whatever I’ve been asked to write about, and so I have to learn it myself and then write about that experience!

Not long after starting my research on RSS, literally I’d only clicked my mouse about four or five times! I came across a video from the commoncraft show called “RSS In Plain English” – wow! There’s my understanding and content for my RSS article! All in one little video. If you want to learn how RSS can benefit you… this video is well worth your time!
RSS In Plain English…. I owe my understanding and content to the guys who explained RSS in that video.

RSS is a news feed that allows you to see from one place whether your favourite websites have added new content or not. As far as I know, RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. The gist of what I’ve learned about RSS!  It is a TIME SAVER… for sure. If you often read blog posts or news articles on the Internet, using RSS will save you some valuable time. Once you understand it, like what I just experienced from watching that video, RSS is really quite simple to use!

Like I just said, it’s a time saver. Explanation: Rather than you going to all your favourite blogs and news articles on the web to find out whether there’s anything new there for you to read, RSS brings them all together in one spot for you. You only have to go to one spot to find out whether any of your many sites have been updated. Awesome!

Like the guy in the video says, there are two steps.
One, go sign up for a Reader account. Two, go to your favourite websites, click the icon and subscribe!
Those two steps are explained in the next paragraph or so.

1. You need a home base for reading all your posts. This site is called a Reader. They are free and all you need is an account. I, just like the guy in the video, use a site called Google Reader. On the left of your Google Reader page will be a list of all your sites, and on the right you can scroll through all your posts from those sites!  So to complete step one you need to go sign up for a Reader. Google Reader, Bloglines, newsgator, My Yahoo, are probably a good place to start… so the guy in the video tells us. For more information on different RSS readers, see the details section below.

2. You need to start a connection between you and your favourite web sites.This process is called Subscribing. Nearly every blog and news site gives you the ability to subscribe to it. So that all your reading content from those sites, shows up in your reader. To find the subscribe invitation, just look for an orange icon that looks like this . Once you find that icon on whatever site you’re wanting to subscribe to, click on it. The page that opens up will give you everything you need for subscribing. After you click the icon, one of two pages are likely to appear. To understand what to do on those pages in a really simple way! The guy in the video shows you! However if you choose not to watch that video, you will hopefully figure it out for yourself eventually anyway.

So once you’ve done all that, any new posts from your favourite blogs and newsfeeds will start appearing in your Reader… and it doesn’t take it’s time, as soon as things get published, they get listed in your Reader!
So get a move on, sign up for a Reader and start looking out for RSS icons on any web site you use!

There are three different types of readers:

1. Web based - (can be accessed anywhere you have Internet eg Google Reader).
2. Computer Based - Internet explorer 7 and Outlook 2007 combine to give you RSS feed reading on your desktop or laptop (Limited to where your computer is).
3.  A separate application that you install on your computer and use to read your feeds. eg blogbridge, RSS bandit.

Earlier I explained how to use RSS with a web based Reader.
For the computer based option, it’s pretty simple, took me less than a minute to learn the process! Understanding it took a bit longer though. Anyway, all you have to do is use Internet explorer 7 and go to a website that you want to subscribe to, find the RSS link, click it, subscribe to this feed, and you’re subscribed! And then if you go into your Outlook, click on RSS feeds, and it’ll be in there! Pretty simple.
If you attempt doing that but get confused, just ask Tim using his contact page.
And to use RSS by using an application that you install onto your computer, just go to the links I provided above for blogbridge and rss bandits and it should be pretty simple from there… I’ve never tried it myself… but again, if you get stuck just ask Tim ;-)

• RSS feeds are a writer’s best friend – By Mark O’Neill. – really good!
• BBC – RSS news feeds
• www.whatisrss.com
• Wikipedia – RSS

See Tim’s previous articles about RSS -

• How to Use Google Reader with Firefox for RSS feeds
• Choose the best RSS aggregator for you
• RSS Reader List
• What is RSS

Also see Tim’s tags for RSS on del.icio.us

Sarah Perez is our GGB for this week, her survey is below. Sarah is a Microsoft Channel 10 Personality.

Geek Girl Profile -

Name: Sarah Perez
Screen Name: sarahintampa
Personal Blog: www.sarahintampa.com
Professional Blogs: www.readwriteweb.com, www.on10.net
Blog Network: www.grandeffect.com
Social Networks: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Friendfeed, last.fm,
hype machine, ma.gnolia, flickr, goodreads, stumbleupon, digg, mixx.
Current Employment: ReadWriteWeb, Microsoft's Channel 10
Location: Tampa, Florida USA

Today, I blog both professionally and personally, and the motivations for each blog I write for are different. On ReadWriteWeb, for example, I'm surrounded by really talented bloggers who inspire me to be a better writer, to learn, and to grow. To be blogging alongside these rockstars is truly amazing - and sometimes even a little intimidating. It's really an honor to be a part of a site that produces such a consistent flow of great writing and great content.

Blogging for Microsoft's Channel 10 is fun, too. As someone who came out of I.T., I'm aware that there's more to computer technology than just Web 2.0, and on Channel 10 I can explore some of that a little more. Microsoft still does a lot of amazing stuff - the R&D that takes place there is remarkable. It's exciting to be a part of that company even in some small way. Plus, getting the inside scoop on what they're up to and trying out new technologies like Live Mesh is great, too. (Note: I'm not a FTE - just a contract employee.)
Amanda says: look at Tim’s article on Live Mesh.

On my personal site, though, I have the most freedom - I would never give it up. I can say whatever I want and blog whenever I want. I don't have deadlines or content guidelines. Whenever you go pro, you have to mold yourself a bit to what that particular niche is all about. Keeping up a personal site on the side helps you stay focused on what it is you really care about. I am also able to have a more intimate conversation with other bloggers there than elsewhere, and that's still very much a part of what blogging to me is all about.

My blog focuses on technology news - more often than not, it's news about Web 2.0 and social media.

I don't use audio and video, I just write. Before I began working at Channel 10 and ReadWriteWeb, I would have said that I was a very regular blogger on my personal site. Now that I blog professionally, it's more of a challenge to keep my own site updated, but I try to post at least a couple of times per week.

I started blogging back in 2001 on Blogger. At the time, it was a way for me to keep an online journal of sorts and it was a much more private activity. Later on, when I moved to TypePad, I began combining the journaling aspect with writing about things that interested me. Of course, technology was one of my favorite topics because I was already interested in computers thanks to being in  I.T. Having a platform to share news and opinions with others while also reading and responding to what those like me had to say was a great way to interact and participate in a global conversation about the new web technologies. Over time, this hobby of mine became a more serious endeavor, and I found myself blogging as just part of my daily routine. Today, I use my personal blog - now on WordPress, by the way - to continue that conversation that I began many years ago.