Ben Hovinga

New year is almost here. I just wanted to say good luck in 2010 and I wanted to know what your new year resolution is. Leave a comment.

My new year resolution is to lose about 100lbs of fat to get into that healthy BMI area and also before I join the navy.

If you need a countdown clock for your new year party I made one for you. Just go to this page and put your browser in full screen (pressing F11 or view->fullscreen). You can adjust the font size using the dark menu in the top left corner.

OK I’m off to the party.

Sorry for the big delay in getting this here.

I went down to the GM Center for the Olympic Torch Relay on Dec 16th. I took lots of pics and vid so here it is.

Before I show you I want to let you know that you can follow everything to do with the Olympic games on twitter. Just follow the list @agnivohneb/the-olympics-2010. If you know any other officials or partners on twitter then tweet me @agnivohneb and I will try to add them.

Click Through to see video and photos.

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The year is almost over so I decided that I would start doing the 2009 top stuff that I like and first on that list is Windows Based Software.

The great thing about this list verses all of the other 2009 top lists is everything on this list is free. I like free and a lot of other people do too.

This year I have been concerned about keeping things as simple as possible. What most people don’t realize is that when you keep your computer as simple as possible then it runs a lot faster, something my father still hasn’t figured out. Keeping it simple will not only improve computer performance but also is simpler to use and that could make your performance faster also. What I mean about keeping it simple is, if you know that you don’t need it then don’t install it. Or if you need a program but know that half of the features that are included in that program will never be used then try to find a simpler alternative, a program that you know has only the features that you need. I will talk more about keeping it simple throughout this post and many other top 2009 lists.

Google Chrome is the fastest, securest, and simplest browser that I know. The reason that this browser blows the others out of the water is that it is very minimal. Internet Explorer is just a slow insecure browser but Firefox gets slow and has problems when you install extensions. Chrome looks a lot different then IE or FF but the speed and security of having  simple, minimal and basic browser is worth getting used to a little bit of change.

OpenOffice.org is not just the name of the website but also the name of the program. This program is not simple compared to its expensive competitor Microsoft Office (newer versions) but this program is free and works with a large array of file formates. OpenOffice.org is a free open-source office suite that includes program to write documents, manage spreadsheets, create presentations, organize databases, and even a drawing application.

VLC Media Player is an all in one media player. This very small program is a very powerful player that is still simple to use. This little program can read almost any audio and video file standard available. No need to mess around with codecs and different software for different media types, this program will do it all. Talk about simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials is the most basic antivirus program there is. It is quick and doesn’t slow down your system when it loads, gets updates or scans. It is lacking in some features that a computer expert would prefer to have access to but being basic is perfect for the average joe looking to get some easy to understand security. And I don’t mind that some features are not there, I would never use them anyway.

I could go on with all of my favorite programs but these are my top favorite. I might continue later on in the new year with some more that I like.

I was doing some hiking just north of Oshawa in a conservation area called Purple Woods when I took some amazing photos. This is the last photo.

This is a very bare field about 200 m south of purple woods.

Click the image to download.

I was doing some hiking just north of Oshawa in a conservation area called Purple Woods when I took some amazing photos. One more to go.

Just had to take a photo of this puffy plant. Not sure what its called.

Click the image to download.

Thanks @frankferragine for telling me “it’s the seed pods of milkweed!!“