Jim do little

Parade The Circle June 11, 2011

2011-06-13T21:26:00.001-04:00

It was a stone groove, my man!

The weather held up despite predictions! More pictures are here!
Now in its 22nd year (same as Earthfest), Parade the Circle never disappoints and gets bigger and better every year!

Money for Nothin

2011-05-29T21:15:00.000-04:00

Money for nuffin'

Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts Official Video

2011-04-18T13:43:00.001-04:00

I've been trying to find out who does this song and now I know and so do you! If this doesn't look right then click here!

Simply Electronics, Simply Disgusting

2011-04-05T20:46:00.001-04:00

I posted earlier on my quest for a 500mm Sony lens. This has turned into much more than a simple shopping trip on the web. Its turned into a horrible experience that I wouldn't wish on anybody. Here's a rundown of what led up to this situation:

I wanted a lens that I knew was discontinued
I felt that even though it was discontinued, it may still be available
I searched for and found the lens on multiple sites
I clicked through to sites and right off the bat, was told that its out of stock
One site, Dells, indicated it was indeed in stock
It was indeed, not in stock at Dells, one of the largest computer companies in the world, who doesn't grasp the concept of inventory
I ordered the lens
Oops, Dell says "We don't have it"
My account gets the money back
I then found the lens on the website of the villain of this story, Simply Electronics (look it up, I won't link to them)
They had 2 in stock
Then they had one
I ordered on the 28th of March, 2011
Let the games begin
Did I mention that I used Google Checkout? An outstanding service that appears to stand for nothing!
Simply Electronics soon found that, and I quote:
"Upon packing your order, we had discovered that our shipment of Sony SAL-500 500mm F8 Reflex Super Telephoto Lens was damaged, and therefore had to be returned.
Unfortunately, the replacements are not expected to arrive within any short period of time.
We apologise for any inconveniences caused, however in this unfortunate event, we would like to ask if there are any other similarly priced products listed on our site that may be suitable as a replacement? Should the price be slightly higher, we can perhaps waive this as a gesture of goodwill (please note we can only do this usually for minor differences).
Likewise, if the price is lower, we can have this reimbursed to your account.
Kindly let us know by reply and we will do our best to expedite this for you. Otherwise, kindly advise on how we should proceed.
Looking forward to your response, thank you.

Kind Regards,
Tobias
Customer Service Executive"
For the folks playing at home, it was never in stock. They must have an excuse box next to the phone and they pulled damaged! Trust me, it was never in stock
I get it! I'm looking for a discontinued lens! So, cancel and give me my money back, right? Wrong!
Emails, phone calls, yea, yea, yea! I'm getting nowhere
Simply Electronics is based in Hong Kong,
I think that translates to "bye, bye gringo money"
That was a joke
This blog is hosted on Blogger, a Google company
Google Checkout is another Google company
I participate in the Google Adsense program
I can't rip you off like Simply Electronics can with Googles blessing
Google might say that I didn't go through the dispute process
My bank has a dispute process
The local branch of my bank disputes what the phone people from the bank say
If you click on an ad on my sites, I get $.0001 (or less, not sure) and if I buy from Simply Electronics they keep all my money
I ordered something, never received anything, yet my bank says I could lose the money I paid for nothing!
There's no such thing as a free lunch! That used to be an old saying.
Don't mind paying for something you never receive! April 5, 2011! Our banks, our government, us consumers!
My headaches almost gone and the knots are almost out of my neck! I don't know, do you think they'll try to charge me for therapy?

UPDATE: We finally got our money back on April 18, 2011! We feel lucky! I finally found a way to raise a dispute about this with Google. It wasn't in plain site and I'll try to find it and post it. I'm not sure if it was that Google got after them or my bank or the combination of the two. Again, after waiting nearly three weeks I did get my money and I feel relieved, but the process was terrible to go through and I wouldn't wish it on anybody.

Mp3s on a Verizon LG- VX8300

2011-03-29T20:08:00.000-04:00

Verizon LG-VX8300 - card limit is 1GB

1. Format your microSD card using the phone's built-in utility--very important. (see Settings & Tools/Memory/Card Memory).

When formatting the card in the phone The utility asks for your lock code, which is by default, the last four digits of

your phone number.

3. Use the adapter (supplied with the microSD card) along with an SD card reader to transfer mp3s from you computer to the

card. (Protected content from iTunes and others won't play; you need plain vanilla mp3s.)

4. Enable mp3 on your phone via the Services Menu, and select (or press): End/Ok/0000000/11/.mp3 Enable

Alternate instructions: From main screen press OK and then the number 0 seven times (youll see a series of question marks

disappear). Then scroll all the way down and press #11 (Music Setting). Finally, choose Enable mp3.

5. Install your microSD in the phone and enjoy the music.

6. To get MP3s to play and to be able to use the keys on the front of the phone, including ringtones Press OK (Menu) and go

to Settings and Tools, press 5 (phone settings), press 2 (shortcut key), press 5 (play key), and choose my mp3s.

The Quest for the Mythical Sony 500mm Mirror Lens

2011-03-28T20:52:00.001-04:00

I'm a fan and user of the Sony Alpha line of DSLR cameras and over the years I have wanted the SAL-500F80 , Sony's 500mm Super Telephoto lens. Unfortunately, Sony discontinued the lens and I felt that I should get it before its gone so my quest began! At first I looked at Sony's site and it was a no go. Next up, Amazon, right? Nope! After searching the nooks and crannys of the internet, I found it on of all places, Dell!!! And so, I ordered it! End of story, right? Wrong! I received an email within days of placing the order telling me the ship date was being pushed back. Hmmmmm! The reason I ordered it through Dell was that it was orderable! I know that's not a word, (spell check told me so) but, it was! I figured that Dell, Mighty Dell, one of the lords of the industry, would save me from my total inability to decision this process and order the damn lens when it was available! The Dell website showed it as available and so I ordered it. Or so I thought! In the Dell parlance, my order status has been "in production". In the meantime, I found the same lens on another site for $8 more with 2 listed as being in stock. The tension grew as I continued to check for emails for shipped dates and nothing occurred. Finally, when I clicked on the "order number" for "order status" and got error messages, that was it! I canceled the order and went through the other guy.

The moral of this story is that Dell, the huge computer company doesn't seem to be able to use computers as well as the other company's to inform me or anyone else that the item in question is not in stock! The company that makes computers can't use them properly! What a hoot! Sony knew they didn't have the lens. Amazon knew! The little company did know they had 2 and then 1!

And then again, NO! The little company, Simply Electronics, seems to have had a hiccup them selves. It's March 30th and they sent me an email stating that
"Upon packing your order, we had discovered that our shipment of Sony SAL-500 500mm F8 Reflex Super Telephoto Lens was damaged, and therefore had to be returned.
Unfortunately, the replacements are not expected to arrive within any short period of time."
Well! I'm screwed again! What galls me is the stupid excuses and the inaccurate databases showing they have an item they clearly do not have! I know the lens is discontinued. I'm not trying to pull some stunt on these guys!
I remember some years back(okay, a lot of years back) when I called and went from store to store searching for the missing original Transformers(the constructicons, they were green and there were 6 as I remember) for my son for Christmas and this is the same type for thing only updated but with no success because I'm striking out!

Katy Perry covers Lady Gagas "Born this way"!

2011-03-08T19:45:00.000-05:00

Why not? Katy and Gaga are so alike!!

Avril Lavigne covers Ke$ha?

2011-03-08T19:25:00.002-05:00

I was early on Ke$ha and this is just good fun! Gotta love Avril!

The Chagrin River Flooding Through Chagrin Falls

2011-02-28T18:18:00.000-05:00

This is downtown Chagrin Falls and the footage of the flood on February 28, 2011 is stunning

The link to the video is here

Chets Computer Problem

2011-02-23T20:09:00.002-05:00

Look folks, I don't know anybody named Chet, I just needed a name and Chet came up, probably because I was thinking of a vampire cat in a Christopher Moore book, actually this one! Anyway, "Chets" computer was acting up and I decided to help. The complaints:

We can't download Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 beta
We can't download Microsoft service pack 3 for Windows XP
We can't turn on Microsoft Security Essentials

Man, does that sound like Waaaah! or what? Or whatnot. So, hmmm. Okay, don't download and install a beta piece of software because its a "beta" piece of software! Beta means "not done"! Clue! For those not aware, it goes like this: Alpha, Beta and then RC (release candidate). Beta is a uncooked muffin! Duh! Anyhow, all those "we can't s" add up to, you guessed it, we got trouble. The reason we can't do anything is viruses shut down Internet Explorer and that's the pipeline to the Internet. We need to fix that and the way to fix it is with SneakerNet.

This is an old method, but it works. As I see it, Internet Explorer 9 beta is out, but Internet Explorer 8 is in because it's a stable release and not "beta". First though, is Microsoft service pack 3 for Windows XP, which precedes I.E.8 and is more of a "foundation" type of thing as it fixes holes in the operating system. That software can be found here ( or search for this "xp service pack 3 stand alone", using a different, healthy computer, I downloaded Service pack 3 and put it on a thumb drive and for good measure, downloaded I.E. 8 and put that on the derive as well. I then walked over to the other computer and put the thumb drive into the USB slot and accessed the programs I downloaded. In order, I did this:

Installed Microsoft Service Pack 3 for XP from the thumb drive
Installed Internet Explorer 8 from the same thumb drive
After Internet Explorer 8 was installed, Microsoft Security Essentials began to work normally, so I updated and scanned with that and found over 200 assorted nasties.

SneakerNet

2011-02-23T19:11:00.001-05:00

I know it's 2011, but I think that SneakerNet is still relevant. For those that don't know what SneakerNet is, it's this: Ethernet without the cables, wireless Ethernet without the radio signal. Let me explain. This technology is archaic, but still relevant, simply because it gets the job done. SneakerNet is the act of downloading something, meaning data, from one computer onto hand held media (thumb drives, flash based cards, cd's, dvd's, external hard drives and even, gasp, floppy disks) and walking to another computer and transferring that "something" to the second computer! Since many people, when walking, tend to wear "sneakers", geeks and nerds being, well, geeks and nerds, decided that "sneakers" was the network, the transferring agent, to get data from point "A" to point "B". Thus was born, SneakerNet!

Steven Wright at the Ohio theater, February 20, 2011

2011-02-20T22:39:00.001-05:00

"If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?" - Steven Wright

The show started at 7:00 P.M. and lasted till about 9:00 P.M. We'd previously only seen him on YouTube and I think he's best experienced live like many comedians. Currently ranked # 23 on the Comedy Central 100 Greatest Standups of all Time, he made his case for that ranking. The audience covered the age spectrum and laughed at most everything he said, although sometimes after a pause because he likes to make you think. Example: "What's another word for thesaurus?" Delivered with his trademark monotone and deadpan face, you can't help but laugh.

His website

Kill the Irishman

2011-02-18T15:50:00.001-05:00

Ah, the story of Danny Greene, a Irish-American Clevelander, shot where? Oh yes, in Detroit! Got it! The trailers are here and here . It will be in theaters March 11 and probably have a limited run I'm betting even with Christopher Walken in it. This movie is based on the book "To kill the Irishman" by Rick Porrello, another Clevelander. I lived in two areas that Danny Greene lived in and remember seeing him and hearing the explosion that wrecked his car during an attempt on his life. I hope the movie is reasonably good but I have my doubts. One time after his death, his son spent the night at my house sleeping off a drunk as I remember.

5 Videos I think you should see

2011-02-13T17:10:00.001-05:00

First off, from Cee Lo Green "F**k You"

Then there's DEV with "Bass Down Low"

"Bass Down Low" features the Cataracs and here's their version of the song

and DEV and the Cataracs work with The Far East Movement on "Like a G6"

next up is Garfunkel and Oates "I Don't Understand Job "

Adding a gallery of pictures to a website using Expression Web 2 or 4

2011-02-07T20:15:00.000-05:00

This doesn't seem complicated I'm sure to most web designers but I'm self taught and I didn't understand what I wanted. First of all, there is a ton of free software that will accomplish this task for you to choose from. That is, if you want something Flash based or possibly Java based. They are easy to use once you understand the procedure needed. I speak from experience here and will try to provide a list of them if that's what you're looking for. After trying many different programs, I realized that I did not understand what I wanted. Maybe I should spend more time talking to myself. What I wanted was a gallery (actually, galleries) of thumb nailed pictures that would upon clicking the thumb nail, would lead to a full size picture. The purpose would be to offer some pictures free of charge (public domain) for use in whatever anybody had in mind. My motive is not entirely utilitarian as I run ads on the site but I, as many do, wanted to give something back to the Internet community. The existing gallery generating packages that I looked at did as advertised, they created some slick looking galleries that you could embed on blogs and websites but didn't solve my problem.

My solution was to use a table, which like I said, seems simple enough but I didn't see it. It seems that most gallery software wants to display your pictures but prevent the copying or free use of them. My goal was the opposite. I used the table solution in a site designed with a "dynamic web template". I created a table with 10 rows and 2 columns. You can then choose to insert pictures from files into each cell by using the menu driven solution or actually just drag and drop. After either action, the result is a large picture that doesnt fit, but a right click and "auto thumbnail" fixes this in a jiffy. This is the most elegant solution that I have found for creating pages that provide what I was looking for and hopefully may help others.

Cropping and Resizing Photos to Fit into a Certain size space

2011-02-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

Recently I had to change pictures in an existing website that was template driven. It seems easy enough when you first think about it but actually doing it can be a pain. As an example, the first pictures dimensions were 380 pixels wide by 506 pixels high. I found an appropriate replacement and opened that picture inside of Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3. The original dimensions were 4912 wide by 3264 high. this is a big difference. I chose the cropping option and set the size to 380 by 506 and it was so small I couldn't fit what I wanted in that area. The trick is to set the target pixel size then making sure the "Maintain aspect ratio" box is checked, drag the sides or corners of the cropping box until you have the detail you need. Now you have the picture you want but its way to large. The second step is to re-size the picture to the original dimensions you need. I clicked on "Image" then "resize" and under "pixel dimensions" adjusted the size down to 380 by 506. I know that some people might say its easier and less steps to do all this within the web authoring package you use but that's not always the case. I use Microsoft's Expression Web 2 and Expression Web 4 and if you resize a picture the results aren't nearly as nice. This is one of the many reasons it helps to have software designed to one thing and do it well.

The original is here, the picture to the right.
The cropped picture is here, the top picture on the right

Ramly Burger

2011-01-22T19:04:00.003-05:00

Like anyone else, I was searching for one thing and found another, but I don't remember what the original quest was for. No matter, because what I found was a Ramly Burger!

These are popular in Singapore and Malaysia and while I'm sure they aren't healthy, they sure look like they taste good. I found out that the patty in this video is chicken, which is closer to the original Rambly Burger.

And since we're on a burger theme, take a look at this badboy!

Coby ILO flash based MP3 player skips

2011-01-18T18:19:00.000-05:00

My friends told me his MP3 player skips and I found that hard to believe because it's flash based, meaning there's no CD-ROM to skip but I said I'd take a look. After thinking about it I realized what the problem might be. These things are like SD cards or CF cards and when sectors go bad the built in controller marks them as bad. That may cause a skip. I hooked it up to my computer and took all the songs off and then formatted the device. Afterwords, I copied most of the songs back but not all. The reason here is that as a photographer, I know its a bad thing to fill a memory card to capacity. Sometimes the card ends up unreadable. Proof in the pudding, it hasn't skipped once since that little bit of therapy. It was a Coby "iLo" like "I low price"! Cheap, but still working.
Search Amazon.com for coby

Inserting ads into a footer using Expression Web 2

2011-01-17T20:24:00.001-05:00

Note to self: when adding ads to Expression Web2 inside the footer, the code needs to go inside the footer! DUH! And, increase the height by the size of the ad. And, do it in the "master.dwt"! Also, there is the need to go to: format/dynamic web template/update all pages, because it aint as dynamic as you think, dumbass!

Euclid Creek Dam Removal

2010-11-19T20:24:00.000-05:00

I've been following the Steelhead fisherman of Euclid Creek for some time now and lately there's been a "reel" problem with fishing results! All the catches are down and the waters been muddy or silty as hell. Everybody was blaming it on different construction projects but the real problem may help fishing in the future. Up the creek, in the Euclid Creek Metropark, the authorities are deconstructing a "low head" dam that's below Highland road and is actually situated on the East branch of Euclid Creek. You can download a file here that details what is happening and make up your own mind about what this is all about. There is another project that's coming that may affect fishing, please click here for that information.

Rolling Hills Asylum Ghost Hunt - November 6, 2010

2010-11-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

Yeah, yesterday, Mary and I went on our first and maybe not our last, over night ghost hunt. This occurred at the Rolling Hills Asylum in New York State. We are definitively not ghost hunters, more like disbelievers, but, we did have a good time, knocking around with the other participants. Everybody else was well equipped with "state of the art" tools and we, sadly, had none. We had flashlights, they had headlights and flashlights and glow sticks, Get it! . My brand new Sony A55 SLT barely coped with the extreme conditions we encountered, while the true ghost hunters pranced around with point and shoots capturing all manner of ethereal evidence of purported ghosts and or spirits and whatnot. To bad, so sad! We did indeed capture some intriguing pictures and video that you can view and use to make your own determinations. Mainly, the pictures and video suck, and we know this. However, just like anything else, you fall back and regroup. We now know that we need better equipment and supplies to do this properly.

Windows Movie Maker - save file to my computer problem

2010-10-25T20:12:00.001-04:00

I recently had a problem using Windows Movie Maker and try as I might, all the cure alls on the internet did not help me. This problem occurred after adding a sound effect (a .mp3 file) to an existing project. Everything I saw on the net said the problem was related to not enough memory (ram). At some point, I noticed that the process of saving stopped at the point where my added sound effect occurred. I know that if a file has an error, it usually occurs at the beginning, or more likely, the end of the file. I shrank the size of the clip by a second or so and then tried again. It went further but still stopped. I used this new sound effect ( the gong sound) 4 times, so I cropped each instance of it from the end and it cured the problem. Here's the video:

Sonys A55 SLT

2010-10-19T21:08:00.000-04:00

I've been testing one of Sony's newest cameras, the Sony Alpha SLTA55V DSLR and I must say that I'm impressed with this camera and it's sister, the Sony Alpha SLTA33 DSLR (there's not much difference between the 2, besides $100, GPS and some video capabilities). As I own Sony's first DSLR, the Sony Alpha A100 , the Sony Alpha A350 and the venerable Sony Alpha A700 , I think my opinion on Sony DSLR's carries a little weight. Lets clear one thing up: since this camera lacks a mirror some people will say it's not a DSLR. I don't care because light still reaches the sensor (I don't care how it gets there), and it still takes all the Alpha lenses. Since there is no mirror, Sony was able to make the body smaller and lighter which is more accommodating for a lot of people. This is one feature that I don't really like because I have large hands and there's not quite enough grip for me. I'm hoping Sony will come up with a vertical grip for this camera soon because the battery is slightly smaller than the NP-FM55 or NP-FM500H used in previous cameras and doesn't last quite so long. In Sony's arsenal of cameras that they're launching at the world, this would be the mid-range. The NEX series are the small fries followed by the Axx series and then the Axxx.

Lets get down to business. The A55 sounds smooth and is smooth. I hate to say it's hard to take a bad picture with it, but with the HDR capability and DRO, lets see that bad shot, especially when set on auto or auto+ . I mean, you may frame a bad shot, but you'll get it, warts and all. Really! If Aunt Tilly wasn't smiling before you pressed the shutter button, since this camera can do 10 shots a second, you got her when she did! It sounds like a smooth machine gun!

Nickelback, Squirrels and Birds

2010-10-13T20:52:00.000-04:00

This is why I don't post as often as I should, in one 2 week or so period, all this occurred:

I noticed a dead squirrel in the road by my house. It wound up in our yard(smelled), was buried, 3 days later was unburied(smelled worse), dug a deeper hole, buried,(said a few words) with a birdbath base over it. Still dead.
We had a raccoon in the house which had to be chased out but not buried.
The neighbors seem to think it came back but did not enter.
On Saturday, October 2, we went to see Nickelback, Three Days Grace and Buckcherry! They were all great.
The concert started at 6 pm and ended at 11 pm. It was raining, cold and windy. We took a wrong turn, went down an alley and found a rock that looked like a bird. It was a bird.
Bird rescue! We took it to the car while passing stupid drunk people and not rescuing them. It got loose in the car after warming up and drying out!
We took the bird home and put it in a box with a little bird blanky and a screen lid from one of our windows. Estimated time of actually going to sleep: 3 o'clock in the morning.
It turns out that all birds, even injured ones, start their day at around the same time! That would be at about 6 o'clock in the morning! (note: birds in your house are much, much, louder than when they are outside, trust me on this)
On Sunday morning, starting about 6 o'clock, I started thinking about letting birdy boy go. Mary continued to sleep till, I don't know, later!
While Mary slept, I tried to come up with options for our new friend. Just let your mind run wild here. We have many cats in the neighborhood so the backyard was not an option for a stunned bird(we later learned that he or she was indeed, concussed).
Letting it go in the local park. Good idea, but I don't migrate and he does, so, did he miss the migration bus? Heaven forbid, would she be migrating with other species?
Option C, we(I called, Mary was still snooze la la) called Penitentiary Glen (Wildlife Center Hotline
(440) 256-2131), a not so local park who I knew does rehabilitate wildlife from reading the local paper.
We took the "Gray Cheeked Thrush" out to Pen Glen, as the locals call it, and its under good care.
I ran over a raccoon on the way to work the next Monday. I hit it, but did not kill it, I think it got a bop on the head (I drive a van, it's up higher).
We took our dog for a walk in the park on Saturday and before long we were confronted by two homeless cats! Two 6 month old kittens came out from nowhere and were meowing at us. Mutzi (my dog) did not approve of this at all. I called some cat rescue people and they were on the way when one of the cats took off like a cat out of hell!
I had gloves in my van(I'm allergic to cats and stupid people) and caught the second cat and was able to get it to the cat people.

Wayne Brady and "Iron" Mike Tyson doing Bobby Browns "Every Little Step"!

2010-09-30T19:53:00.001-04:00

Check it out:

Every Little Step with Mike Tyson & Wayne Brady from Mike Tyson

Installing and Using Dropbox

2010-09-14T19:46:00.000-04:00

I should just call this post using dropbox because there's not much to installing it. For that matter, there's not much to using it either. You download a file, install said file and then you drop files into the "dropbox" that appears on your desktop. You can access the files in your dropbox from any computer connected to the internet or a smartphone. Simply put, this is a way to share or have access to your files from anywhere at anytime. When I say access, I mean you can add to your account, copy, delete whatever! Did I mention it's free?(up to 2 GB) It does require an email and a password. Dropbox! Pick it up!

Image Problems with Sony Alpha Cameras or Lexar CF cards: part 2

2010-09-06T19:51:00.001-04:00

On Mikes suggestion (thanks Mike), I downloaded pictures to my desktop and noticed some bad pictures (4 out of 300 some). I tried to download the Compact Flash card to Marys computer, but it crashed! (vista, who knew?) Then, using the same card and reader, I downloaded to my Netbook and , no errors! So, my problem exists on my desktop for sure, but what that problem is, I don't know. I'll keep digging for the answer though!

Image Problems with Sony Alpha Cameras or Lexar CF cards

2010-08-29T20:11:00.001-04:00

I'm having a problem that I can't diagnose(yet). I own Sony Alpha line cameras (A100, A350,A700) and I have a reoccurring problem with some of the images.You can see by the examples I've posted that its ugly. But, I don't know the cause. Its occurred on 3 different CF cards and 2 different cameras! I do have a couple "off" brand CF cards and I'm going to try them them.

Update: I posted on a forum about this problem here

How to diagnose an IP conflict

2010-08-18T18:38:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted for awhile but here's a good one. I just had a situation where only one computer could access the internet and not only that, but if any other computer was turned on, both or all got a message about an IP conflict. I think the message was something like "another computer has the same IP" and there was a yellow triangle. Now, the computer that was first turned on could access the internet but the second could not. In trying to figure out the problem I attempted to access the router (type 192.168.1.0 in the address bar and hold the Ctrl button and press enter) and came up empty "the process timed out". I tried different combination's of the last two numbers and got into the modem instead. Then I got smart and hit Start>all programs>accessories>command prompt and typed in "ipconfig" and saw that the IP issued to my computer was close to the IP issued to modem. This was a clue because the network in your house only has a couple of reserved address ranges and this was out of range. I decided to have a look at the router and found the power light blinking while Mary informed me that there had been a power surge or loss earlier in the day. I unplugged the router and waited 1 minute and plugged it back in and the power light quit flashing.
After this, any computer turned on was able to access the internet and go about their business.

Explanation: the router quit working and the modem went default and issued the next IP address to the first computer that was turned on. The modem is not a router and can't handle multiple IP's. Once the router was working again it resumes its duties. The clue was the abnormal IP address at the computer level. When behind a router you should expect an address starting with "192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x or even though obscure 172.16.x.x .

Gin Wigmore

2010-08-01T20:36:00.002-04:00

My previous post detailed something that sucked. This post details something that does not suck. "Oh My" by Gin Wigmore is a great song. The video is okay and I'm using it to show off Gin's pipes but that's my opinion.

Titanic 2: why not

2010-08-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

On this page you can see the trailer for Titanic2. This is direct to video for a reason. Everybody says it sucks. I believe it does. You decide.

I hate Microsoft Even More!

2010-07-29T20:26:00.000-04:00

Why do I hate Microsoft? Let me count the ways!

Windows ME
Windows Vista
Office(any version)
Internet Explorer (version 8's okay i guess)
Service Packs: XP has 3! Really! Was this software ready for release?
Adobe has Flash. Why Silverlight? Why not "Lightning"! Sounds catchy. Therefore, not Microsoft.
Did I mention Windows Genuine Advantage? Advantage = them! Us = not so much.
Nice website
Bill Grates on my nerves
All of the above

Actually, I do have a minor gripe with "the empire". I design some websites, not very well thank you, but still I do. One of the "tools" I use is Microsoft Expressions. I originally started with Frontpage only because I'm not notepad website hacker guy. I need WYSIWYG( pronounced "wisseewig" it stands for "what you see is what you get". Anyhow and whatnot, I use Expression 2 and noticed an opportunity to upgrade to version 3 and get a "free" upgrade to Expression 4! Being the dumbass that I am, I jumped at the chance to go with a company with a great track record of providing quality software at a reasonable price. I bit, HARD! They got me!
The story is that Expression 3 sucked and sucked bad. Real bad! After installing, computers were crashing and nobody could get anything done. This was why they offered the "free" upgrade to version 4. Version 4 would fix everything, right? Wrong!
My situation is this: if I open a website designed in Expression 2 it doesn't look like what I designed, so I went back to version 2 and it crashes shortly after liftoff! What to do, what to do? I guess I may have to reinstall my operating system and the Expression Web 2 and try to hold it together until they tempt me with another great offer. Maybe if I buy Expression 5 they throw in a coupon to Dreamweaver so I can actually design instead of bitch, ya think?

I Hate Microsoft!

2010-07-29T19:40:00.001-04:00

I hate Microsoft! And I've paid for that right! I have owned every operating system save for business related ones like Server and such. MS-Dos, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, I've owned them all and still do. The crux of this post is Windows 7 and the problems I'm having with it. Please let me explain.
The back story is that I beta tested it which involves installing an early release of the software and was successful and helped the program and other users.
The story now is that I bought a 3 license upgrade "Home Premium" pack from Bestbuy and installed it over a month ago.
The problem is that the other day I booted it up and got the message that my copy is a illegitimate bastard child! Ooh, I'm sorry! Let me use their terminology: "you may be a victim of software counterfeiting. This copy of Windows did not pass genuine Windows validation".
I'm sorry, I lost my cool there for a moment. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10!
I'm okay. Most other people would not be okay because of the key word "upgrade". If you upgrade your operating system and this happens, your computer will stop working after awhile.
I won't be affected because the computer I installed this on actually can boot into three O.S.'s: Windows 7, Windows XP and Ubuntu. I still hate Microsoft, but after all this typing and explaining I realize that they are their own worst enemy. I can still use my computer but the average person, their core group of customers, will hate them far more then I do. I think they should call this "the genuine windows disadvantage".

A Casting Call for Lisbeth Salander

2010-07-11T20:17:00.006-04:00

Lisbeth Salander, for those fewer and fewer people who don't know, is the main character in the Millenium series of books written by deceased author Stieg Larsson. These three books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide and are said to be selling 50,000 a day in the U.S. The books were initially made into movies in Sweden, Larssons home country, and have now been optioned for the U.S. rights. What that translates to is David Fincher will be the director and needs a leading lady. This is where things get interesting because the wrong choice could spoil what could be a series of blockbuster movies.

As an example, currently there are rumors that Kristen Stewart, of Twilight fame, is interested. This I believe would be a mistake on many fronts chiefly because she doesn't look the part and secondly, not trying to be mean, but no one knows if she can act, yet! It has been said that Fincher would prefer someone in the realm of South Africa's Yo-Landi Vi$$er, a member of Die Antwoord, and someone who, at first blush, delivers the look of a "Salander" type girl, diminutive, yet strong. She's in the video below.

The Swedish series of movies showcased Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and having only seen the first movie I can only say she was well cast in it.

The second movie opens in the U.S. on July 9th, 2010. July 30th in Cleveland at The Cedar Lee.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Bundle: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

LastFM has more on Die Antwoord as does MySpace.

Collider has an article on this subject as well as NYMag.

A Collection of Zapping Stuff!

2010-06-23T19:12:00.003-04:00

Rat zappage and such! I don't know why or how I tripped on this stuff, but it's fun, yeah?

This next clip is about ball lightning and the weather guy is wrong about Saint Elmos Fire being similar to ball lightning. Saint Elmos Fire is seen in the ocean and its phosphorous organisms that react to the movement of the ocean created by boats and is related to lightning bugs.

Here's a link to wikipedias info about ball lightning.

Abes of Maine: Rokinon 8mm Fisheye Lens

2010-06-22T20:48:00.002-04:00

Fathers day was June 20th and I got a Rokinon 8mm f3.5 fisheye lens from Abes of Maine! Let me just say that I love the lens! 8mm and a 180degree field of view rock! The link above is to Amazon and there's a reason why. I ordered from Abes of Maine(they're located in New York) for the first time and the price was right and shipping was free! All good, right? I did have an issue with the order, me the dumbass, ordered for the Canon mount, like I didn't know I own Sony! So, I called them and got through after a couple of minutes and changed the order but then the guy wanted to sell me a lens pouch. I said, didn't the lens come with a pouch and he said no, so I got the pouch. He said $14 something on the phone but I was billed $15. Whatev, so I got my pouch first and then the lens. The lens came with a pouch! I then called and was switched to a guy that said he would knock off $5 from the cost so I said okay, will I get an email stating that? he said yeah. Well, no email. Actually, he also said that Bower(the brand of the pouch) was "top of the line". Right. My recommendation is NEVER shop with Abes of Maine. PAY more for a better experience!

Tall Ships Preview: Round Two

2010-06-16T19:32:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I'm full of crap! Yesterdays post was erroneous at best and just possibly an outright lie! Neither of the 2 ships I spotted yesterday were the U.S. Brig Niagara (reconstructed, home port: Erie Pa.) because it came in a few hours later. The first 2 names and origins remain unknown. So I was wrong. But, so was the Plain Dealer! On the front page article from the June 15 edition it clearly stated and I quote: "this Wednesday, you won't be able to board the Niagara, who's home port is Erie Pa. - you will have to wait until the festival to do that". Well, you don't get pictures like the one to the left without being on board the ship, so there! The festival they refer to is the "Cleveland Tall Ships Festival" which runs from July 8 through July 11th, a Sunday at the port of Cleveland. Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 day of. More info at playhousesquare.org and 216-241-6000 or 866-546-1353. More pictures are here! And you can win tickets to this event here! And the Niagara's page is here!

Tall Ship Preview

2010-06-15T18:11:00.008-04:00

The Plain Dealer reported, rather inaccurately, that one of the "Tall Ships" would be visiting Cleveland on Wednesday, the 16th. Actually two just sailed into Cleveland at about 4 o'clock or so. They arrived from the East and were visible from Wildwood State park to the 55th Street Marina area. The last I saw of them, they were holed up at the Lakeside Yacht Club, a "members only" establishment, behind a chain link fence. So, they'll rest there overnight and probably party till dawn and then wake up and proceed to shoot their cannons off in Cleveland Harbor. Follow up links are: Channel 5's story and the home page of these two ships is here.

Carpe Diem!

2010-06-07T20:42:00.007-04:00

"You're falling asleep!" or "Shoot low!" are the sounds you here when you're hanging around Nick and Nick. I've run into a loose group of guys at Wildwood who have a interesting habit of shooting carp through the head (or there abouts) with an arrow tethered to a bow. Bowfishing is a sport that may be as obscure as it is controversial. The controversy arose after I showed the pictures to Mary who went all "Don't club the baby seals" on me. The pictures are graphic I admit, but this is a sport with rules and regulations and it's legal. Besides, I'm a spectator here! Besides, these guys are fun to hang around with. They have a loose camaraderie that's easy to join with and they are more than polite while pursuing their prey. I'll keep posting about these guys and their exploits as the season goes on. For more pictures click here.

Lilith: A Indie Horror Film being (partially) shot in Cleveland

2010-05-16T18:18:00.002-04:00

I happened to be at Edgewater today watching the kite surfers and the parking lot had some mobile homes and moving vans. There was also people with stuff set up, tables and such and someone handed me one of those fliers and said "God lives you". I thought it was all connected and they were probably preaching safe sex and the tables had baskets of free condoms. Right? Wrong! Most people ignored what was going on but I wanted some pictures off that platform over the lake, but the trailer people were monopolizing it. So I asked one of the "grips" whats going on and he said they were shooting a film. I asked him the name and he said "Lilith" but I couldn't hear him with the wind blowing so I asked again. I said "Lilith, like Lilith Fair?" and I got a look. Now, to be fair, he said he's from Brooklyn(New York, not Brooklyn, Cleveland) and maybe they don't get the paper, you know? Anyhow, I asked for a media kit and got another look, so I said I'm going to shoot a couple stills(get it, movie talk) and I got a shrug. It's public place so I was just being polite. When I got home I scoured the web looking for info and this is what I came up with:

"Lilith" is the title at least for now.
Lead Actress: Julia Voth.
Julia Voth plays Sarah Wilson
Julia Voth was in a movie called "Bitch Slap"
Today is Miss Voth's Birthday! Happy Birthday!
The IMDB mentions Julia Voth but not this movie
Lilith has a blog here
The genre appears to be horror
only by checking twitter and MySpace and other social sites was able to confirm certainly that they are indeed filming in Cleveland
Cleveland doesn't know or care
and so it goes

This movie is being shot digitally on one of the RED cameras, which is cool in my book. If they're shooting now it probably won't be out for a year. I looked on all the major news sites like cleveland.com (which had a blurb from last year) and you knoe Scene Magazine and there was no mention. The Plain Dealer is usually about a week late so who knows, they might yet have something about this movie.

New Sony cameras and Camcorders

2010-05-14T19:54:00.000-04:00

The new Sony cameras coming out are referred to as " alpha NEX". The bodies are small and light and have a different mount system (the "e" mount) and don't use a mirror so the viewfinder is electronic. There will be an adapter for "a" mount lenses but the new lenses may not work on "a" mount cameras. This point is not clear.

The new camcorders are intriguing because they appear to use the "e" mount system and can also use the "a" mount via an adapter just like the alpha NEX system.

The capabilities seem endless with the integration available through these systems.

I Finally joined YouTube

2010-05-13T19:29:00.002-04:00

I acquired a new camera on Tuesday, a Casio EX-FH20 mostly for it's ability to record video in high speed. From 240 frames per second to 1000 FPS, the videos that you can obtain using this camera are at least interesting if not amazing. I have 2 examples on You Tube (jimdolittle) and on pikshures now and hope to add more.

The Irishman

2010-05-11T20:34:00.003-04:00

Joe at work has been asking me what's up with the Danny Greene movie that's supposed to come out. I found out it is on IMDB and found some video that's behind the scenes.

From that site:

"The Irishman chronicles the rise and fall of infamous Cleveland gangster Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson), who engaged in a power struggle with the Italian mob. Greene was as an upstart longshoreman union rep and later became a cocky, legendarily difficult-to-kill troublemaker in the world of organized crime in the 1970’s. Based on the real story of mobster Danny Greene, Christoper Walken will play the loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns and Val Kilmer is a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene. The incredible ensemble cast includes Vinnie Jones, Marcus Thomas, Linda Cardellini, Laura Ramsey, Paul Sorvino, Mike Starr, Tony LoBianco, Vinnie Vella, Steve Schirippa, Jason Butler Harner, Robert Davi and Fionnula Flanagan."

Whatever. From what I know, this is being shot in Chicago, where none of this happened. It's a location thing. Like Eliott Ness growing up in Chicago and bringing down Capone in Chicago and being buried where? Cleveland!

This link isn't related, but's interesting.

What to do with those compact fluorescent bulbs

2010-05-11T20:08:00.001-04:00

Here's a website that will tell you where to recycle those compact as well as other fluorescent bulbs and lights and other items too!

In Case you missed Betty White on Saturday Night Live like I did

2010-05-09T19:38:00.000-04:00

I've thoughtfully looked up some vid for you:

There's Red Tailed Hawks Nesting by Wendy Park

2010-05-05T20:32:00.001-04:00

A beautiful thing and a great photo op if you have a long enough lens. First, that the hawks chose to nest in this location and that you can get a reasonable shot. The nest is on the east bank of the Cuyahoga on what I think is port authority land. This is across from Wendy Park facing east, there are two cement silos with metal brackets in the middle of them. The hawks are positioned on the second tier from the bottom and you can just see the babies.

"Believe" by "The Bravery"

2010-04-28T19:36:00.001-04:00

One thing I hate is hearing a song on the radio and the station doesn't tell you the artist or the song name. I've heard this song several times and finally tracked down the song name and the band that plays it. The Bravery are from New York city, formed in 2003. Initially, I thought of "The Cure" but was mistaken. Their website is here.

Chia Seeds

2010-04-28T18:43:00.001-04:00

Chia seeds! If my brother Norm tells me about them one more time, I'm gonna pull my eyeballs out! No, wait! I should pull his out because Chia seeds are good for wounds! I'll bet he doesn't know that one. Okay, I'm done venting. Actually, on a hunch, "I" investigated Chia seeds(yeah, the Chia pet seeds) and it turns out they are good for you in a variety of ways. As a full disclosure(or maybe "fool"), I sort of started this by picking up both of "Kevins" books for my Bro. Kevin Trudeau is the source and perpetrator of this latest crazy idea. If you're not familiar with this guy you must live under a rock. He's the "they don't want you to know about" guy, as in Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About and The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About. You might have caught him on late night TV telling busty playboy women about flushing his colon. Here's a link to Wikipedia about him. Yeah, that guy. Anyhow, Norms been burning up the pages and then lecturing me about it all. So I Googled "Chia seeds" and they are good for you and there's a lot of uses for them, kind of like George Washington Carver and peanuts. They can heal wounds (sorry Norm, heres your eyes back and some seeds) they pack nutrition and Omega3 fatty stuff (God, I'm sounding like Kev and Norm) and the Aztecs loved them(and I love the Aztecs). Theres a place called "nutsonline.com"(who knew, I'm one of them) that sells them, doctors recommend them and some people say they make you "peppy"! Well, I'm going to wrap this up by saying that I am going to try them, mostly for the peppiness! I'll post in the future after this experiment.

North Chagrin

2010-04-20T21:01:00.001-04:00

Click here for more piks!

Neo Socket

2010-04-18T08:52:00.005-04:00

In honor of Earth Day coming up(April 22), I give you the Neo Socket! This device claims to save you money and save the environment by making your car run better. After perusing the company's website you'll see that its easy to use, just plug it into the cigarette lighter socket and start saving. Even if you don't buy the product, make sure you look the whole website over because of the interesting use of the English language. Here's a couple of examples:

"Too easy to use and start working instantly" and "Neo Socket is a break-through, patent-pending invension in fuel conservation."

My spell check went off on the word "invension" above, but theirs didn't! Hmmmmm. While researching the term "Electrolysis Condenser" they use on their FAQ page, I found this page(which shows a launch date of October 4, 2006) and this one. I do like the updated design, it looks like an old fashioned Christmas light! One last point, I tried to find an auto dealer on the internet that listed a "cigarette lighter socket" as an accessory but couldn't find one. Hmmmm.

Outdoor Shoot with Dan and Turtle Soup?

2010-04-14T20:17:00.002-04:00

Dan and I went shooting today at the North Chagrin Reservation by the nature center. First we saw turtles, yawn! Then we saw what I think is a really big turtle, must be a snapper! We're still not sure about it. I have a picture from last year from June 21 of a turtle I thought was dead by looking at it but now I don't know. Today's pictures aren't definitive, but I'm hoping with Dans pictures we can figure out that it a turtle and not the "Loch Ness Monster". I apologize for the purple fringing and poor lighting and bad angles.

First picture is from last year.
The next, you can see a tail sticking up.
In the third, you can see the shell.

For further viewing:

Ringbill Gull Versus a Crayfish

2010-04-13T19:13:00.017-04:00

I caught this sequence on Tuesday at Wildwood. The rest are here.

Land Sledding? Jackass?

2010-04-12T21:15:00.001-04:00

Shoot. I just thought to add this. While Mary and I were down at Wildwood on Sunday some kids came down and hooked some kind of plastic thing to back seat of a minivan and then dragged the "sled" with a kid sitting on it around the parking lot!
Eventually, the rider fell off, usually around the turn. I do like the fact that the one kid(pictured) put his hood up as protection. When I was a kid, we boot hopped cars and hopped trains but this seems a little more, shall we say, advanced?

Charles J. Pinkney Jr. Finally Gets a Headstone

2010-04-10T18:49:00.000-04:00

I first heard of Charles J. Pinkney, the minor league baseball player by reading a story by John Campanelli in the Plain Dealer last year. This morning I was at Lake View Cemetery when he received his headstone 100 years late. His story is tragic yet notable. Only three players have been killed by in-game injuries(open to speculation) in pro ball and he happens to one of them, struck in the head by a pitched ball. The other two are Ray Chapman(1920), also at Lake View and Mike "Doc" Powers(1909), who collided with the outfield wall. The ceremony itself was dignified and went off without a hitch and the weather was great. I think that it happened in spring, baseball weather was cool too. I think about 30 to 40 people attended and it was probably half family. The location is section 25, lot 138.

"Cupid", his nickname, was killed in Dayton(he played for the Dayton Veterans) but was a Cleveland native, having grown up in the village of Collinwood. He played second base for the veterans and hit and fielded well. He was well liked on and off the field and got his nickname from his resemblance to Clarence"Cupid" Childs a second baseball who played for the Cleveland Indians.

I gathered or was provided information from the following sites:

Good Friday Shoreline Tour

2010-04-05T20:25:00.000-04:00

On Good Friday, I took Dan and his brother Andy on a tour of the Cleveland lakefront beginning at Wildwood to Gordon Park and from there to East 9th and Voinovich Park and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Heading west, we pulled into Edgewater Park, but then headed back east to Wendy Park where the Cuyahoga River empties into Lake Erie. Then west to Edgewater and finally Vincenzas on Prospect for food.

Alligator alert

2010-04-02T20:47:00.002-04:00

Yeah, so I was leaving Wildwood and saw a alligator being walked down the street! Not a Caiman! I've got the pics to prove it.

Blogger, Google Thyself!

2010-03-31T19:31:00.002-04:00

Who doesn't love a quote from the bible? I'm gonna guess Atheists!
Of course, the correct quote is "Physician, heal thyself".

Actually what I meant by the title is that bloggers or just regular old people should Google themselves once or twice a year. My, that doesn't sound nice. Oh, why don't you just go Google yourself! Dirty! But it can be a good idea. Let me explain. I recently Googled my name and was reminded that I had submitted some pictures to the ODNR. They never notified me about them using them but I wouldn't know if I didn't Google me(the pictures are here, at the bottom and here). I also now know there's a fellow in Wisconsin who shares my name and owns a bar there, the "5th Quarter Sports Bar and Grill" (free meals? I doubt it). I understand this isn't earth shaking but you should know about you even if its not you. How is your name being used or portrayed? What if you see something that leads you to think your identity has been stolen? Lost relatives? I'm sure you get the point.
So, don't take this the wrong way, but why don't you just go Google yourself!

Waterloo 7 Art Gallery

2010-03-28T09:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we went to the 1 year anniversary of Blue Arrow Records and went across the street to visit the Waterloo 7 art gallery. Even if you spend a few hours there I would recommend coming back because I don't think you can take it all in at once. Several different artists are represented including Jerry Schmidt the owner, his son Tyler and ERU, a local artist. Mainly sculptures, but with paintings, blown glass, photography and hand crafted jewelry, the world of art is well represented.

We are planning at least one return visit on April 10, 2010 6 to 9 P.M. for "The 1st Annual Wine Tasting Charity Event to support Battered Women of Northeast Ohio". The cost is $20/ticket and a portion of the proceed will be donated to The Domestic Violence Center of Greater Cleveland.
This is just one more in a series of fundraisers and community events that Jerry either hosts or participates in like the upcoming fundraiser he's hosting at Waterloo 7 for the NCFCP (North Collinwood Feral Cat Project) on May 22, 2010.

Beginning March 16 through June 25 Waterloo 7 is having a liquidation sale to clear his gallery and facilitate a move to a better location (still in the Waterloo area).

Anthony Sowell/Cleveland Torso Murders

2010-03-26T21:02:00.000-04:00

Recently on our Torso Murders site we added this in theories:

Mary(site owner) thinks: John Doe #3 doesn't belong with the rest of the victims. Reasons: the only Westside victim and the only one who was actually killed at the same sight where he was found. To me, this does not fit in with how the other victims were killed and found. When the Lady of the Lake was found it appeared to be a random, gruesome, stand alone crime. Once other victims were discovered, police still would not include her as the first in the long line of torso victims. Hmmmmm....maybe they excluded the wrong victim!
Jim(site owner) says: In light of what's happened recently in the curious case of one Anthony Sowell, when you look at the list of victims you should realize there might be spaces between victims. In Sowells history there were people he didn't prey upon and if he did, they survived. Sometimes I think the chemistry between prey and predator triggers a response that doesn't happen in other circumstances. I wonder if what we see as a list of victims is only a list of the final act of a play no one ever saw besides the two participants. There are clear overtones of some type of sexual connections among the bodies. We learned from Dahmer (and others) that some victims are more than willing to be victimized. Some people Sowell met ended up meeting their end while some escaped or just walked away, no wiser. I just think that when we see a list with 14 names on it, we should realize it could have been higher.

Leave it to the Beaver

2010-03-25T17:46:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, after work I decided to see what was happening at Sunset Pond in the North Chagrin Reservation. I was hoping to see some Wood Ducks but they weren't there.

However, a big beaver was there. I've seen beavers before but not this big and to top it off, he or she came right at me! Good photo op, right? Nope! I mean I got some good shots but the experience unnerved me because he came so close.

It was like he either didn't see me or didn't care. So, it swam right to me and I sort of moved out of the way and he changed course, you guessed it, right back to me. As he or she, IT came out of the water, I completely forgot what I was doing and blew the shots! Some pictures are okay but others are way over exposed.

So now I feel like a dork and wondered if I panicked a little or not. Turns out not so much because "The Beave" does attack! Good to know. Yeah I got curious and found some YouTube showing what can happen if you don't respect a beavers space. So, in closing, never under estimate a beaver!

More pictures here.
More videos:
Beaver attacks little girl
Rabid Beaver attacks 2 people

Birth of a Website

2010-03-20T20:18:00.001-04:00

I've been busy putting together a website for NCFCP.org, a non profit. This process can be intensive and takes lots of cooperation. The steps are:

Identify a URL and register it
Come up with a mission statement
In this case, look at templates available
Choose a template
Since it's a template, go through the motions of filling in the blanks.
Pictures, info, links
Publish
Update

This was a week long process that required numerous emails back and forth but resulted in what we think is a good site with good intentions.

Recent Books I've Read

2010-03-13T11:25:00.000-05:00

I've been busy so I haven't posted like I should. After reading "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston, I went on to "Cod" by Mark Kurlansky then plowed through "The Grifters" by Jim Thompson.

"The Hot Zone" was a good scary read about the Ebola virus family, it's effects and somewhat of a history.

"Cod" is a historical narrative explaining the fishes effects on the growth of various nations and ultimately those same nations effects on the fish themselves, which, unless you've been living in a sardine tin for the last 30 years, you might be aware of.

Finally, "The Grifters" was a nice quick book about three con artists, "grifters" and their relationships with each other. Chances are you've seen or heard about the movie made from the book with Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, and Annette Bening. It's been awhile since I've seen the movie so I can't tell honestly which one is better.

Mice for Laptops

2010-03-12T17:35:00.000-05:00

Skye, as far as laptop mice are concerned, I like either Logitech or Microsoft.

Starting to Thaw

2010-03-02T19:42:00.000-05:00

Euclid Creek, Wildwood, Cleveland Lakefront State Park.

Compaq Presario F579WM Notebook

2010-02-28T19:48:00.000-05:00

I recently fixed this laptop and it wasn't easy. It experienced spontaneous reboots, BSDs (blue screen of death) and was generally possessed. The exorcism wasn't easy and took too much time. This was definitely one of the harder problems I've faced. Whats irritating is that it seemed to come down to a memory problem and I diagnosed this previously over the phone in January on a laptop from HP which owns Compaq! Memory issues are insidious because they are hard to track down and cause lockups and reboots which foul up the hard drive and make the problem worse. After removing the problem module and fixing the problems on the hard drive, I was able to run the restore program built in and recover the operating system (Vista) from the hidden partition designed for this event.

Is Mother Nature Out of Control?

2010-02-28T15:17:00.006-05:00

Is Mother Nature Out of Control? - AOL News First it was the weather not cooperating for the Olympics, dumping all the much needed snow elsewhere in the U.S. then that chunk of ice that fell of Antarctica some time back bumped back into its mother ship and knocked another chunk off. Then this earthquake thingy with Chile, I mean we just had one in Haiti! Then of all things, this backhanded, failed, misguided attempt to smoosh the Hawaiian Islands with, Good God, a tsunami! Somewhere in there a "Killer" Whale killed someone! Spacing, Miss Nature, SPACING! And even as I write this, she's damaging Europe, again! Have you no shame, girl? I think its about time the natural girl herself got what she deserves. A time out! Off in the corner with you! Wipe that smile off your face and no dinner! And if you won't listen to reason we'll call .... Aunt Hillary! Auntie? Auntie? She's being bad again!

Cat drinking water in a new way

2010-02-24T18:55:00.000-05:00

Dan sent me a link showing a cat drinking water in a way we've never seen before. Most cats aren't going to do this! He(she?) appears a little thirsty. Mary thinks maybe the cat had some Chinese food loaded with MSG!

John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide

2010-02-24T18:40:00.001-05:00

While browsing What Bird I discovered this link to a PDF of "John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide". It's a 50 MB download so it may not be for everyone but it's really a good reference for nature photography. After clicking here look for and click on "http://thekiwi.org/John_Shaw.pdf".

Netgear SC101 Storage Central: Hall of Shame

2010-02-22T19:56:00.002-05:00

One of the worst things I ever bought. I purchased this on the premise that it would protect my data, not destroy it. I stored picture files on it that could not be replaced and that is the case because they are gone and there is no recovery method whatsoever.

I mirrored two hard drives and thought that I had my data protected. After problem after problem, my pictures were gone! It's been a couple of years now and I still have one of the drives and I search from time to time for a data recovery solution but never find one. Even if you hook the drive up to a computer running some form of Linux nothing will help. If this was an all windows environment (fat32, ntfs, etc) then you would still be able to recover files by using the tricks of the trade we all know how to do. In this case, nothing works and I still have a problem with it because netgear never acted like this was a problem. I do like some of their products and have used them since but when it comes to insuring that your data is safe, I advise you to use another product, another company.

This thing had a lot of promise and seemed like a smart buy. But the more I used it and relied on it, the worse things got. I mirrored my data, thinking that's the best thing to do and ended up losing all my pictures! I do admit that I bought this when it first came out and should have waited and watched the reviews but I didn't.

Attention Walmart Shoppers!

2010-02-22T18:52:00.000-05:00

Today, while I was eating Marys delicious chili in the kitchen, the stool I was sitting on made an ominous creak and seemed to settle. Now, I'm a big boy, going 222 at the scales and I got concerned about safety. Not mine, the stools. This stool is actually a replacement for a previous model that met a bitter end, also a my, ahem, hands. So I got off it and flipped it over to check the weight rating.

Imagine my surprise when I saw its rated for only 200 pounds. I started to feel bad (don't want to kill again) but then my sadness turned to anger as I realized where we bought this lovely piece of American kitsch: Walmart! That's right! Only Walmart, where the average shopper has to tip the scales at beyond 200 (do I hear 250? Going once...) pounds would they sell a stool designed for more lets say svelte people!

Maybe I don't understand the function of this device. Let me think: was it originally intended to only serve one "cheek"? Ah! Therefore, they should be sold in pairs, dontcha think? That would be 400 pounds of supporting power! I'm not going to buy another stool at this time, I'm just going to alter my way of sitting and let one cheek hang off and hope that extra 22 is over there. As proof of my earlier claims about my fellow Walmart shoppers, just check out people of Walmart.

Birding at East 72nd

2010-02-21T19:27:00.001-05:00

I'm a fallen birder. I admit it. There is no 12 step program(that I know of) for bird watchers who fell of the wagon but there should be. I learned that lesson today. Today, when I misidentified a domestic duck as a
Glaucous Gull, I knew, the time had come to to admit my deficiencies as a birder.
If, perhaps, your skills have edged, and you decide to go birding at East 72nd, stay back and listen and learn.

Hot Zone

2010-02-20T18:24:00.001-05:00

I finished reading "Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. It was good and scary. Before I read this book, things like the Ebola virus were more or less fiction. By that I mean, the idea was abstract to me, happening someplace else to people with no face. Mister Preston has a way of making these problems more personal. I will be reading more of his books.

Problems Opening M.S. Office files

2010-02-18T17:53:00.002-05:00

Many people are experiencing issues when trying to open files that were created in M.S. Office. There are 2 sides to this issue.
If you are the creator of files, say your resume and you want to send them to somebody, try following these rules:

Try to find out what program the receiver of the files is going to use to open the files. The reason is simple. Microsoft has a few versions of their office suite and there are incompatibilities.
Save the files in the format that matches the target systems office product. (Office 2003. etc.)
If there is a problem, save and send it in an earlier version. (Office 97 instead of Office 2003)
Caution: saving a Word file(.doc) into a text file(.txt) will lose all formatting(fonts, color, etc.).
Consider using the .RTF(rich text format). It's kind of dumbing down if you have Office, but it's kind of universal and if the target system has Windows it will be opened by Wordpad.(everyone has it)

If you're on the recieving end here are a few tips and links:

Know the programs that are installed on your computer. This will possibly avoid any confusion.
If you are going to have to change(edit) the files that are sent to you, you will need an Office program. Consider buying M.S. Office or using OpenOffice. It's free and on the Kiss List.
If you're just receiving files and just need to look at them, go to Microsoft. Word, Excel and PowerPoint viewers are available and free of charge. (okay, there's a problem with this technique because my links from the kisslist won't work and curiously neither will microsofts, generated from there own website! Maybe they'll fix this, but I don't know). Oohh! I found it by searching with, you guessed it GOOGLE! Excel, Word and PowerPoint ! If these links break in the future just go to GOOGLE and search for "word viewer" etc.

In closing, remember to be careful when working with files that are important. Make a copy of the original file and open it with an untested program. That way you always have the original. Understand file formats. Files ending in .txt , .doc and .rtf are word processor files, files ending in .xls , .xlsx and .wks are spread sheet files. This link may help with understanding formats.

Sheriff Killroy has a new single out!

2010-02-16T20:22:00.000-05:00

Sheriff Killroy AKA Al Porter has another single out! Armor Up is a song that hits home if you live in Cleveland.

You can check it out here.

Global Warming in Cleveland

2010-02-16T18:36:00.002-05:00

Global warming is stupid! How can you have global warming when we having global cooling in Cleveland, Ohio? Maybe the people controlling the weather (oh, it's true!) are sending all the crap weather to Cleveland. Portland, Oregon is warmer than (60 degrees the next 3 days) Cleveland yet amazingly, it's more north than Cleveland (not lying here)! Since the North Pole is North and Santa and Frosty live there, most people think it gets colder as you go north, DUH! You know, that whole polar ice cap thing. Well, lake Erie is frozen all the way to Canada. Canada! They talk funny because it's so cold up there.

In the picture to the left, you see Lake Erie. It is frozen. If you squint, you will see Canada. It is also frozen. In the foreground there is a cat. He's not happy. He's not happy because he's frozen to the tundra. This is Cleveland.

Now, they say the polar ice cap is melting and global warming is coming to getcha in your sleep and all the polar bears are going to die. I have a solution. We Clevelanders love polar bears. We want to hug them and kiss them and put them to bed. Maybe we could name our football team "The Cleveland Polar Bears" and scare the hell out of the NFL and win it all for once! Hey, just bring those baby seals everybody's talks about down here too. We won't club them because the only fur we like is on our dogs. We don't wear fur, we walk it. In the summer, when everything thaws(maybe), the polar bears could go after those terrible Asian carp that's our next big threat.

Anchorage, Alaska is 5 to 8 degrees warmer then Cleveland for the rest of the week. This is fact. Global warming is an invented term. Facts win! I want to hug a polar bear!

JFK Love Letters, Tiger Woods Tweets

2010-02-15T20:15:00.000-05:00

Today JFK's love letters to one of his many mistresses came up for sale. Just a few months ago, Tiger Woods tweeted to many of his mistresses. These events got me thinking that maybe there's more than meets the eye here. I think if you're open minded about it there are some parallels between Tiger and JFK. If they somehow switched places both of them would have done what the other did. Maybe JFK didn't ring up as many notches on his putter as Tiger, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Of interest:

JFK was the 35th President of the United States
Tiger was the 61st winner of the Masters
JFK was the first and only (if I'm wrong tell me) Catholic President
Tiger was the first non Caucasian to win the Masters
They both met Bob Hope
They both liked blonds (Elin and Marilyn)
They both liked Swedish women (Elin and Gunilla)
JFK was the youngest President
Tiger was the youngest to win the Masters
JFK was one of the most admired men in his daya
Tiger was one of the most admired men in his day
Both of their images were tarnished by revelations of their affairs
JFK was run down by a Japanese destroyer (PT 109)
Tiger was run down by a Swedish destroyer (Elin Nordegren)
JFK was assassinated
Tiger was assassinated (by the press)

I mean no disrespect. I remember the day JFK was assassinated (I was 3, the TV screen was round) and it was a sad day. I also remember when the news about Tiger came out. I'm sure that there's a Zapruder like video out there that will either clear up or further cloud Tigers story. Will we really ever know what truly transpired in Dallas? Will we really ever know what truly transpired in Windermere?

Computer or Pool Maintenance

2010-02-11T20:47:00.000-05:00

Weird title huh? Not really because everyone wants to use a pool/computer, but nobody wants to clean it when it gets dirty. I understand, I do, but it's got to be done. Let's identify the state of your problem.

How frequently and what do you do with your computer/pool:

Rarely. If you're a light user, hardly ever install programs, surf the web once or twice a week, you won't need much maintenance. It's like having a neighbor who has a pool just to let everyone know they can have it, but never uses it. It drives you crazy, but the pool man hardly ever comes over.
Sometimes. Heavy use on the weekends, maybe a stray Milky Way bobbing here and there. Somebody peed in the pool! Okay, I'm out of control with the pool metaphor, but it's working for me, so buckle up!You install programs as you see fit and rip MP3's but, you use account control and have 1 antivirus and at least 2 anti spyware programs installed.
Heavy. Multiple users, no account control, if a leaf fell on your keyboard, you'd try to install it. If your computer was a pool, the water would be green and brown, it would smell and nobody would want to use it. Your anti virus is out of date and you don't know or care about spyware. But, you're willing to click on a link that says you can see Jessica Simpson naked. (Jessica Simpson will never appear naked, for Gods sake! Her dad's a preacher). I will eat this blog if she ever does!

Choose the word that best describes your usage pattern from the above and lets move on.Rarely. If rarely describes your situation then you'll rarely have a problem. Scan once a week for viruses and spyware and if you rarely find anything then go to once a month. You can also check for errors and defrag your hard disk once a month but, if you rarely do anything to your computer then you'll rarely need to do this.

Sometimes. Scan for viruses, your biggest threat, once a week or after any perceived problem(if something happens while you're using your computer that you don't understand or gives you the willys, SCAN!). If "weekend web warrior" best describes you, then Sunday night to Monday morning scan is what you should do. Use anti spyware software every week to 2 weeks depending. Use the frequency of found problems to determine the frequency of scans. More problems, more scans. Duh! Check for errors and defrag the hard disk once a month.

Heavy. You are always going to have issues, because you are an issue. But, let's try to stem the flow. Consider buying the extended warranty with your computer, because you may use it and make us all proud! Scan for spyware/malware after heavy web usage and viruses twice a week(not for viruses you say? Your anti virus is probably going off while you browse or it's no good). I'd be worried if no problems are found. Go ahead, defrag, scan for errors, whatever. Look! I see you! You probably have an external hard drive so big it needs wheels and one broke off! It broke off because of all the limewiring and bittorrenting you've been doing! So, you've got the latest bootleg movie and the collected catalog of Frankie and the Johnettes(fictitious) and every other obscure piece of crap music available! Who cares? I don't. But scan that external and realize, before the other wheel breaks off, that once it does, that data is gone!

Okay, I just had to add "rant" to my labels. It's not you, it's me. Moving on, points to ponder:

Size does matter. The bigger your hard drive is, the longer it takes to do the maintenance.
Fit these routines into your schedule. Learn how long they take and plan accordingly. Break it up, virus scan one night, spamware the other night.
Learn your programs. Most anti virus programs add a option when you right click on a drive in My Computer to "scan selected files with ...." . Use this with drives that aren't always connected.

In the end, all the things you do with your computer are personal choices. The more you click, the more you install, the more you scan. But. This information, these songs, pictures, movies the way you have tailored your computer to your needs, are stored on a mechanical device that is prone to failure. Your hard drive has a number, a statistic, attached to it called MTBF. It means "mean time between failure". It will fail. The more you use it, the more scans you do, the more programs you install, wear on it. Think about that when you decide how often to defrag and scan and download and install the various options you encounter during your computer sessions.

Open by Andre Agassi

2010-02-10T18:45:00.000-05:00

I finished this book today. Let me begin by saying I received this book as a gift for Christmas(thank you Jen) but I don't remember the trigger point, the reason I asked for it. I do know that I don't fit the demographic for this book. I'm not an athlete, I don't care for tennis, watching or playing it. All the terms are foreign to me, yet I could not stop reading this book. I know a good story when I read it and this captivated me. Before reading Open, I knew the name Andre Agassi, had seen his image on TV but had no idea who he actually was as an athlete or human being, and couldn't have cared less. Thank you Andre, for being so Open, because now I know and care.

Final Hours of Darkness

2010-02-10T18:24:00.000-05:00

Recently, the parents of a friend of mine, Jim, came out with a book! Final Hours of Darkness is a book about ghost hunting. I haven't read it yet but it sounds fun. As I understand it, some of the book involves Mansfield State Reformatory, a fascinating and creepy place. I know, I've been there 4 times. I look forward to reading this just as soon as I finish some other books on my reading list. I always want to support local people and businesses and the author's are from Eastlake, Ohio so I hope they do well and go on to writing more books and continued success!

Yoga: Eagle Arms

2010-02-09T18:33:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I tried some yoga yesterday. Why? Don't know really, I thought it'd be a good thing. I tried the poses on this page on Yahoo. The first one was doable, the second one, not so much. As I understand it, yoga can help improve flexibility but first you may need some. I now know I lack flexibility. Mary, my lovely wife, does indeed have it. She did the eagle in like 5 seconds. I am wood. I stuck out my left arm and reached out my right and attempted to do the eagle but the eagle did me. This morning I can proudly raise my right arm up to my shoulder. Beyond that, nope. It burns like Holy Water on a vampire!

So, time to test if it's just me.

Mary weighs 100 pounds, 5 foot tall, can do it.
Me, 222, 5'10" can't do it.
My brother Norm, about my height and weight, can't do it.
My buddy Greg, taller than I, about the same weight, nope!
Dan, another friend, slightly taller and heavier than Mary, can do it.
A woman we know that's about 5 feet tall but heavier than Dan can do it.

Hmmm. I thought I had it figured out that bigger, bulkier people are not destined to be flexible until I saw the cover of this book. Big Boy there has some yoga game. Me, my shoulder still hurts. Next time instead of yoga, it'll be yogurt. Or Yoda.

Epson Stylus NX515 Printer

2010-02-06T18:55:00.002-05:00

We bought a new printer today. One of the reasons we chose this model was because it's wireless(1 less wire works for me). One reason was it wasn't a Lexmark as I don't care for them. Lastly. our HP was running through ink like a crack whore on ice! Fast! I mean really fast!

The setup was easy, unlike what people said on Bestbuys reviews, where we didn't buy it because the only location in the tri-state area was Columbus. So we went to our Friendly neighborhood Microcenter, where the nice man tried to sell me a USB cable. "It's wireless", I said. Said Nice Man, "still, sometimes you still need a cable". "Got one", I replied. Oh, by the way, Didn't need one, Nice Man!

Book Update

2010-02-04T18:37:00.003-05:00

Ooops! I forgot to post about some books I've read recently. I've just finished Stieg Larssons'"The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest", the last book in the Millennium Series(3 books) by this tragically deceased author. After writing 3 books that have sold millions of copies, he dies at age 50 of a heart attack, never seeing what his gift brought to the world. I couldn't stop reading this book, but was sad to see the last page.

Before this, I read "The Beatles" by Bob Spitz. Slow in the beginning like many books are, It finished nicely with a renewed hate of Yoko Ono, but with the added relish of understanding why.

Rihanna SOS/Soft Cell Tainted Love

2010-02-02T18:23:00.002-05:00

Me and Dan were talking today about Rihanna and how she rocks and I couldn't recall the first song or video of hers that I remember. It's "SOS' and it's just below. Then I remembered that it had a hook that I couldn't place and it hit me, Soft Cells' "Tainted Love". maybe it's just me but I hear a connection. I can't find an embeddable video for Soft Cell but I have a link to Last.fm here. Tell me watcha think.

Swine Flu SWINEdle

2010-01-31T10:43:00.002-05:00

Yea, I know I misspelled swindle, it was intentional, just like the profiteering off the " swine flu epidemic or pandemic or whatever". Whenever someone dies from this terrible disease it always makes the news but never in connection with a number that brings things into perspective, the population of the U.S. Here the Census bureau tells us that this number is approximitly 308 million.

"Estimates from April – October 17, 2009:
CDC estimated that between 14 million and 34 million cases of 2009 H1N1 occurred between April and October 17, 2009. The mid-level in this range was about 22 million people infected with 2009 H1N1.
CDC estimated that between about 63,000 and 153,000 2009 H1N1-related hospitalizations occurred between April and October 17, 2009. The mid-level in this range was about 98,000 H1N1-related hospitalizations.
CDC estimated that between about 2,500 and 6,000 2009 H1N1-related deaths occurred between April and October 17, 2009. The mid-level in this range was about 3,900 2009 H1N1-related deaths."

The information above is from the Center for Disease Control.

I read a book about the 1918 flu epidemic The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history. That book detailed the real horror that our country went through, and I'm not trying to diminish the fact that there has been loss of life, it's just that on the scale of things, this has been overblown. Another book, The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time (P.S.) that I also read, is a real eye opener and helps put things into perspective. Sad to say, this feels more about scaring the hell out of us and making money than about whats best for our country. Maybe by reading this article you'll begin to see the point. I quote:

"The one thing that was up last year was earnings for makers of H1N1 vaccines. CSL Limited saw its profits rise 63% above 2008 levels by June 2009, while GlaxoSmithKline enjoyed a 30% jump by the third quarter. Roche, maker of the preventive Tamiflu, enjoyed a twelve fold leap in profits from the second quarter of 2008 to the same period in 2009."

Let's be honest here folks. If you read this post or click on links, I stand to profit. This is how the Web works and most people know this. I am providing information to you and a slightly informed opinion as a service and I do not claim to be an expert or to know it all. However, I also know when something doesn't smell right and this stinks. It's about profiting off of basic fears and using a shell game to hide the truth.

In closing, how come you can find out the population of our great country with a click or two, but try as I might I can't find out how much money that's been made so far? Show us the numbers! Show us the money!

Cable bill went up again!

2010-01-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm a little pissed right now. I just went to TV Fool and it showed that i should be able to receive digital T.V. broadcasts OTA(over the air) using a indoor antenna. Our cable bill just went up again($25.77 to $32.85 - basic) and one of the only reasons we have it for football games. We don't watch TV that much because your are a slave to their schedule. Besides, it's not right to pay for cable to subject us to infomercials we don't want to watch! So i'm going to find a good indoor TV antenna and probably a amplifier and cut the cable!

Wildcats of Wildwood: update

2010-01-29T19:23:00.001-05:00

After helping Al today, I went down to Wildwood and even though it was so cold it was sunny and the cats were out. They really are cute and cuddly and they make really good subjects to photograph.

The rest are here.I see that all of the cats pictured have perfect ears, so that means that irresponsible people are still dumping cats.

Helping Al Porter AKA Sheriff Killroy

2010-01-29T18:29:00.000-05:00

I took some pictures for Al today by the old Army tank today. I think they could have out better, but it was freezing out so, what the heck. Those pictures are here.

Wubi - Ubuntu Installer

2010-01-27T18:30:00.005-05:00

I'm going to install Ubuntu on Box3(my third computer, expendable) using Wubi! Be right back.

Started Firefox at 6:40
Clicked on Wubi
Clicked on download now
Started download at 6:52
Ended download at 7:32
Double click on wubi.exe (where ever you downloaded it to)
You get a box with options. Select a size on your hard drive for the install. I had 26 GB free space. Wubi suggested 14 GB. I gave it 8 GB.
Then enter a password and click install.
My firewall (Comodo) asked for permission to continue. I granted it, but Wubi aborted.
double clicked on wubi.exe again.
And now wubi say's to uninstall click here. I uninstalled.
Windows Security popped up. I chose unblock.
Asked to reboot and I rebooted
After rebooting, you have 2 choices. I chose Ubuntu
At 7:38 I chose to let the computer sit. It's at a text screen that looks like DOS but isn't.
It was locked up. I did a hardware reset(turned off the switch at the back of the computer) and restarted.
Again I chose Ubuntu and it went further and I walked away. (sometimes the best thing)

This a hoot! it's installing!

The Ubuntu system restarted at the end of the installation.

I was able to boot into the Ubuntu system no problem.

After using Ubuntu, I rebooted and went right back to Windows XP

120 Hertz - It's the refresh rate, stupid!

2010-01-27T18:21:00.001-05:00

I didn't know the answer to this today, hence the title to this post.

Walmart and other stores are advertising T.V.'s with a 1080p 120 Hz. LCD
something like this below:

55" Class LCD HDTV (54.64" diagonal viewing area)
1080p
Full High Definition 1920 x 1080 Native Resolution
120Hz Smooth Motion technology

for a "normal" T.V., 60 Hz. (Hertz) is the refresh rate. Here, the higher number is better, but not necessary. On a computer monitor(CRT), 75 Hz. is more desirable if you notice "flickering". This usually occurs during action such as game play. If you have a decent LCD you probably don't notice this effect. If you have the money, go ahead, blow it! Just remember, the source of what you're watching matters to, so results may vary and often do.

Busy, busy, busy

2010-01-26T19:32:00.002-05:00

Installed Google voice on my blackberry .
Fixed "playing with ice and food coloring", Dan told me the link for the rest of the pictures didn't work.
To fix the above, I had to create the gallery on Pikshures in order to have a place to link to.
Helped Sheriff Killroy (Al Porter) by creating a MySpace page (for musicians) for him. It's located here.
Looked for and found Grumpy's Cafe. This place is right around the corner from La Bodega in Tremont. It's our next place targeted to check out food wise.

Google Voice Installation on a Blackberry 8130

2010-01-26T17:22:00.000-05:00

I was granted a Google Voice number a while back but never installed it on my Blackberry. Lets fix that. I went to iGoogle with my phone and started the download at 4:53. The entire process was done at 5:09. Part of the delay was my fault for not remembering the right email and password. Doh!

Personal Antivirus, Personal Security Virus etc. etc. etc.

2010-01-20T18:27:00.001-05:00

This family of crap goes by many names because when it gets found out they change it up to avoid detection. If you have this problem follow the procedures listed here to the letter and things should get better. Sky had this problem and was able to clear it up after a couple tries. The following are suggestions on how to protect yourself:

There have been issues lately with Internet Explorer. Use a different browser like Firefox or Chrome.
If you are prompted to "update flash player", DO NOT CLICK THE LINK! Instead, open up a new window or tab and type in Adobe or Flash and download from there. This is similar to calling your bank back if they call asking for your social security number. If you want the NFL go to the NFL!
The above also applies to updating Java. Java is made by Sun. Go to them.
Be suspicious. If my computer is infected, the virus can send emails from my address book with to you. Sometimes a "hey, did you send me an email?" call can save you some grief.
Keep your computer updated. This means all patches, updates, virus definitions for all programs.
Click Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs and go through whats installed on your computer. If you see something you don't recognize, get suspicious.
You must have 1 antivirus program. Only 1.
You should have 2 anti spyware programs.

Out of three people I talked to today who reported problems, Facebook, email, youtube and trojans(viruses) were a reoccurring theme. Email is the number 1 way to get a virus. Remember that. There's an old saying that goes, "keep your hooks sharp and your powder dry". It means be prepared.

Playing with ice and food coloring

2010-01-18T19:15:00.002-05:00

So I had this container that had some water in it and through the awesome power of Mother Nature(it was outside), it became frozen. Over the weekend things warmed up and I dumped it out and got idea. I brought it inside into controlled environment, put the camera on a tripod messed around with it. At first the frozen bubbles fascinated me

but then I grabbed the food coloring. This kept me busy for awhile. This is probably my favorite picture:

This next one is "cool" too

The rest of this session is stored here if you are still interested.

Wildcats of Wildwood: Status

2010-01-18T18:54:00.002-05:00

On January 15, I ran into Brian, one of the cat trappers. Seems he's been trying for weeks to catch one of the cats I took pictures of on January 14. This series of pictures shows the cat sizing up the situation and ultimately, deciding he wasn't that hungry.

Actually, none of the kitties were willing to bite on Friday. I suggested trying catnip and Brian said he'd have to try that to see if it works. The originals are here.

Wild Cats of Wildwood: Status

2010-01-18T18:41:00.002-05:00

I haven't had much to say about the Wildcats of Wildwood simply because it's been cold and they're hiding. I would too. On January 14, I saw some of them and took some pictures. It was warmer, the sun was out and they were prowling for food. These guys were over by the bait shop.

These two were over by the creek.

There was evidence of people feeding the cats, the feeders seem to be a dedicated bunch.I want to point out that in these pictures you can clearly see that the cats have both ears fully intact. When these cats have been trapped, neutered and released one of the ears gets notched(I think it's the left one). The rest of these pictures are here.

Avatar sucks because it's so good!

2010-01-11T18:39:00.003-05:00

My daughter Jen and I went to see Avatar a Wednesday or so back and while not sold out, it was packed. And Mary and Jen and I just saw it Saturday night and it was sold out. The movie started late(15 minutes, thank you Atlas Cinemas) so there was a lot of chatter. From what I overheard told me that most of the people there hadn't seen it yet. There were four things that surprised me on Saturday. They were:

The people in front of us didn't doze off! They were older (60's) and a 3 hour movie? C'mon!
The Four women to my right didn't babble right through the whole movie!
The audience had about 10 to 20 kids, from crumb grabbers up to ten year olds, and they hardly made a fuss.
I was there!

The fact that I was there was significant because I had already seen it. I have patience and just wait for movies to come out on DVD and then watch them when and how I choose. I don't like being a slave to someone else's schedule or agenda so I create my own. I can't remember the last time I paid to watch a movie twice in a theater because it never happened. One more thing, we want to see it again!

Okay, Just saw it again today. 4 times for Jen and I and 3 for Mary. Guess we have a problem, Houston.

D-Link DIR -615, Sky

2010-01-10T18:17:00.001-05:00

I know I recently recommended Linksys to Sky before for a router, but for around $40 you can buy the D-Link DIR -615, and it's a 802.11n, as well as, 802.11g and 802.11b, device. This means that even if your wireless laptops or whatnots are g or "heavens to Betsy" b, this product will work for you when you decide to upgrade.

Helping Al P. #2

2010-01-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

Als computer quit working right again. Here are the steps I went through to find and fix the problem

The screen was displaying messages
I determined the messages were O.S.D.(on screen display)coming from the monitor
I popped in a Knoppix ver. 5.1 Live cd and rebooted
The computer worked fine
I took the hard drive out and tried to image it. It stopped at 77%.
I took the hard drive out and tried to clone it. It stopped at 77%.
I attempted to run error checking on it. It froze.
The hard drive is bad.
No operating system disk. I installed Kubuntu.
I didn't like the way Kubuntu worked.
I had to boot into Win 98 and get rid of the partitions(seemed the easiest) and start over.
It wouldn't read the Ubuntu cd, the laser seemed weak.
Let the computer sit for awhile. The laser warmed up, installed Ubuntu.

Skys Email Problem and the personal security virus

2010-01-10T15:56:00.001-05:00

Sky, I've got some resources for you. I would do things in this order:

Make sure you have antivirus software, update it and run
Go to the link below from Beeping Computers for information about Personal Security Virus
Do everything in the exact order on their guide
Run Hijack This for good measure
Run antivirus software again just to be sure

Here's some links that will help:

Hijack This is for the internet explorer problem
I've heard good things about Malwarebytes anti-malware. I've also used it myself and it works
Bleeping Computer has a great guide for the removal of Personal Security

Good luck Sky!

Don't stop make it pop

2010-01-08T19:37:00.004-05:00

For anyone trying to figure out that song thats been playing lately on the radio, it's "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha, the lyrics are here. I, like everybody else looked up "don't stop make it pop" and came up with Lady Gaga on you tube. Then youtube took it offbecause Sony claimed copyright infringement. I got this from Yahoo!