My PC Crashed!

Get ready for some spring cleaning!

2011-03-10T16:35:00.002-05:00

Yep, I've been a slacker, I know I haven't posted on here in some time. But you know what? Now is a good time for you to look at some spring cleaning on your pc!

Little checklist

- Update your Antivirus program(s)
- Update your Microsoft Windows
- Update hardware and software with the vendors
- Run defrag on your system
- Save your important docs, pictures, etc to a USB flashdrive *(if you don't have one, then get to the store. Seriously, they are about $10 for a 4 gig version now)*

If you feel really brave, you can take the side (or top) off of the computer and spray it out with a can of compressed air (you can find those at Radio Shack, Staples, Best Buy, etc)

Oh, most important of all. Run your antivirus program again. If you can't remember the last time you did, then you really should get to it! For some machines this may take an hour or so. (Or one episode of your favorite Prime Time show).

There, now don't you feel better for having cleaned out your system?

The joys of IT work

2010-09-25T08:38:00.003-04:00

One of the most annoying facts about being an I.T. person is when you are in the office is the fact that you feel like you have to sneak around. People see you as a free service to them to fix computers for them, their friends and family, 2nd cousins roommate from college. Need to run to the bathroom? Suddenly you feel like a downed pilot behind enemy lines trying to sneak past enemy patrols. And then it comes. The ambush. Someone stops to ask a question about something they saw on so-and-so's computer once on this tv show last year.
You stand there nodding endlessly, thinking to yourself, "Hurry up Speedy, I'm not hopping around like this because I plan on trying out for Dancing With the Stars."
If there is one thing I have learned is, don't fix the computers for these people at work, or you will find your spare time eaten up with a bench full of computers from them and everyone they know wanting free tech support. And the phone calls. Once someone gets word that you are an IT person, expect the phone calls to start. "Look I dropped my pc accidentally. Can you tell me over the phone how to fix this?"
My professor told us the other night he repairs computers. But he charges $400 for the repair. I asked him why. He said, "Once they know you fix them, they will constantly be bringing them over. You gotta train them. They want it fixed, make the 8-10 hours you spend on it profitable. Video card out? Pop in a $200 video card for them. Once they learn that it will cost them, they will stop bringing all but the most severe cases to you. And you get your life back."

I will have to make note of that.

Slacker!

2010-09-25T08:37:00.003-04:00

Man has it really been that long since I kept up with this site? I am a total slacker! Maybe I should look at connecting it to my Facebook page, then it would update hourly. Anyway I promise to update this more often with tech tips!

Has it been that long?

2010-03-25T13:41:00.002-04:00

Oops! Been a while since I posted on here. Well, time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Anyway, have you updated your antivirus program lately? Or your AntiSpyware? No? Let's get to it then!

Spring Cleanup time!

1) Buy milk and eggs at the store

Wrong list, let's try that again.

1) Open your antivirus program, and check to make sure the database is updated. If not, run an update. The location of the updater will vary from program to program.
2) Update your Anti-Spyware application. Same as above, the location will vary.
3) Defrag your hard drive. In Windows, this will be located in Accessories\System Tools.

Once you have done that, I would recommend going to the applications and setting a time once a week for a virus scan. (like say, running at 2am on Friday morning). Do the same for your anti-spyware also, but set it for a different time.

A few funny pics for your entertainment

2009-11-20T16:03:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a difference

2009-09-14T17:13:00.002-04:00

Ok, here I am, almost a week after the Gastric bypass surgery, and I am still adjusting to everything. Normally I could sit down to a great big meal three times a day, and put away enough food for three.

Now, the thought of food doesn't enter my mind. I find myself having to eat because I have to, not because I am hungry. It's all I can do to hold down 2-3 oz of food before I am full.

Right now, I can only have liquids. Granted, it has moved up to soups, and sugar free puddings, and protein shakes, but it is a start.

Well, here's to my new life!

Spring Cleaning!

2009-05-14T15:45:00.004-04:00

Updated your antivirus and antispyware software lately? It's time again. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to run a defrag on the hard drive as well also. Have you wiped the monitor and keyboard clean too?
Did you know the average computer keyboard is 100 times dirtier than a toliet? AGH! Time to clean that thing up. But how often should I do this?

Inside of a typical home pc.

So, here is a rough idea of how often to clean your computer.

* User who does not smoke and has no pets - Clean the computer every five months.
* User who does not smoke and has pets - Clean the computer every four months.
* User who smokes but has no pets - Clean the computer every three months.
* User who smokes and has pets - Clean the computer every two months.
* Business with clean office environment - Clean the computers every five months.
* Business with clean office environment; however, multiple users use each computer - Clean the computer every three months.
* Business that is a factory environment or allows smoking - Clean the computer every two months.
* School computers with young adult users - Clean the computer every three months.
* School computers with pre-teen users - Clean the computer every month. In some cases, this may need to be weekly or daily.”

To clean computer component by component follow next tips:

1. First - put power off – turn the cable from the outlet for safety reasons.

2. Monitor can be cleaned with moist (not wet), soft rag or you can buy a tool for cleaning the monitor (cleaner) and clean it with soft duster (do not add the tool for cleaning directly on the monitor).

3. The keypad is very hard to clean because there are plenty of places where dirt can be located. First, turn it upside down and shake it. After that blow up the dust between the keys with hair dryer (put it in the cold) or compressed air in cans (cost- $5 - $10). If you use a compressor be careful because the pressure is very large and can damage the keyboard. At the end - with moisten rag with alcohol pass between the keys. If you have a laptop be very careful, or you will break a key off.

4. Clean the mouse - the upper and lower sides clean with paper or cloth moisten with alcohol.

5. Clean the computer case in the yard or balcony because it has a larger quantity of dust. Disconnect all cables from the case. With screwdriver unscrew the screws and open the case (Only if you know what you are doing!). First (don’t forget) blow out the power supply with compressed air in cans, or some electric dust cleaner. Use the brush used for housing to clean non electronic parts of the case (valves on processor and graphic card, passive refrigerators etc.). Be aware – do not touch electronic components. If your computer case has a lot of dust blow it with compressor or absorb it with electronic dust cleaner.

More tips: Clean the computer case every 3-6 months, depending on where your computer is located. If your computer is on floor you'll need to clean more often than the one that is placed on a higher position (ex. on the table). To preserve keyboard clean, do not eat and drink on it and don’t work with dusty and dirty hands. Clean the keyboard as often as possible because when dirt once goes between the keys, you will not be able to remove the dust without a full segmentation.

The average life of a pc is 3-5 years. Doing this, you can extend the life of the computer well beyond that.

Twitter has a problem building

2009-04-20T21:51:00.001-04:00

Twitter, while a great application, is about to have a big problem on its hands. Spam has invaded the Twitterverse, and it looks like it is about to become a big issue.
Several people have reported issues already about this, and have been pushing Twitter to adopt new methods.

Normally it starts when you start to see a lot of people that you dont know showing up as followers.

The spammer has a program called Twitterhawk, that scans for keywords from everyone it follows.

Now, lets say you are at the store, and you 'tweet' that you are having trouble finding shoes. Twitterhawk kicks into gear, and messages you via Twitter, sending you a website of their choosing, saying something along the lines of "I notice you are interested in shoes. There is a great website that you would be interested in here..http://blahblah.."

For more information on how Twitter is being abused by spammers, check out this link...

http://www.stoptwitterspam.com

To scan your account, go to TwerpScan here:
http://twerpscan.com/

Conflicker Virus

2009-04-03T07:29:00.001-04:00

Ok, so, Conflicker wasn't as big of an impact as everyone thought. Still, it should have been a wakeup call to let you know it is time to update your antivirus program, if you haven't already.

Most antivirus programs already do some form of automatic update. Some the older versions don't. If yours is one of these, it may be time to upgrade.

If you do not want to pay for a new program, there are several free alternatives out there.

Avast! Antivirus for home
http://www.avast.com

AVG Antivirus
http://free.avg.com

Remember, an ounce of prevention.........

Where oh where has my facebook gone?

2009-03-17T19:45:00.005-04:00

So, first facebook gets into a lot of hot water by updating their terms of service. And now, they have changed the layout completely. Some are happy with these changes, but other purists, do not.

If you are a purist, and want facebook to look the way it did beforehand, there is hope. (KINDA)
The only thing is that it requires addons to Firefox. So if you have no problem with that, then continue onward.

First off, you will need Firefox, which, if you don't have, you can get here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Now, you will need an addon for firefox called GreaseMonkey, which is here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Restart the Firefox browser, and go here to get a script for greasemonkey:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/44271

Click on the install button, and then wait for it to install. Once that is done, restart the Firefox browser again, and try out Facebook.

The changes aren't massive, but it should bring back some of the look of the old Facebook that a lot of us are used to.

Classic TV, part 2

2009-02-11T14:31:00.002-05:00

Well, it seems CBS has jumped into the notion that people are interested in older tv shows, and launched their channel to suit.

CBS Classics

You can find a variety of shows, such as the original Star Trek, Love Boat, Have Gun Will Travel, Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, and more.

Me? I'm loving the original episodes of Star Trek are now online.

Give it a try. Relive your childhood again with these older shows.

Frankenbrowser

2009-02-10T21:44:00.000-05:00

Ever feel like tweaking some of the inner workings of Firefox? Now you too can play Dr. Frankenstein with these simple steps.

Step one: Type about:config in the address bar and hit enter

Step two: Make the following modifications to the file by typing in the values on the respective fields to get the desired result (feel free to experiment)

1. To enable/disable Single Click Select URL of address bar browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll = True browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll = False

2. To auto Complete URL while typing in the address Bar browser.urlbar.autoFill=True

3. To set the number of auto complete URL in the address bar browser.urlbar.maxRichResults = #
(# indicates the number of auto complete URLs shown. The default is 12)

4. To disabler Browser Toolbar Tipbrowser.chrome.toolbar_tips = False

5. To paste copied content by clicking the center button on the mousemiddlemouse.paste = True

6. To disable blinking textbrowser.blink_allowed = False

7. To create a single close button to for all Firefox Opened Tabs.browser.tabs.closeButtons = 3

8. To increase number of recently closed tabs.browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo=15

9. Right click view source in your editorview_source.editor.external=Trueview_source.editor.path= Path of Editor

10. To enable fast scrolling across tabstoolkit.scrollbox.scrollIncrement =75

11. To stop displaying website icon in address bar and on the tabsbrowser.chrome.site_icons = False

12. To enable spell check in text fieldslayout.spellcheckDefault = 2

13. To speed up the browser

network.http.max-connections 30 to 96
network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8
network.http.pipelining false to true
network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8
network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true
network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true

14. To disable annoying browser behavior
Change the followowing values to 'false'dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar dom.disable_window_move_resizedom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar

15. To show more tabs on single windowbrowser.tabs.tabMinWidth = 75

16. To display search results in new tabbrowser.search.openintab=True.

2009-02-03T08:37:00.001-05:00

When you hear the word 'Galleon', images of pirates, and swordfights, and parrots on your shoulder pop into your head. Visions of sailing the caribbean and sacking merchant ships swirl around.

But there is another type of Galleon, and this one makes your TiVo its home port.

Galleon HME

This application sits on one of the computers in your home network. Download the program, and run it, and you have access to all kinds of features via your TiVo. Features such as:

Play MP3 files using the builtin player or with your favorite Winamp skins.
View your photo collection using many slideshow effects and background music.
Listen to online streaming radio stations including Shoutcast stations.
View local weather forecasts and alerts.
View internet webcams.
Read your email.
Read your favorite RSS feeds.
Automatically download recordings from your TiVo using keywords.
Automatically download your favorite podcasts.
View local movie listings.
Copy video files from your PC to your TiVo using GoBack.
View Internet Slideshows.
View online Videocasts.
View upcoming events in your area.
View traffic conditions in your area.
Send instant messages with Jabber.

Now, there is some slight configuration you will need to do to some of these apps, such as pointing audio/video folders to shared folders on your home network. But with a little adjusting here and there, you have a great interactive TV.

Show off your home movies, and family pictures on your TV, or listen to streaming music in the background while you work around the house. Wanna see a movie, look for what is playign and in some cases, buy the tickets via the TiVo!

Try it out today, matey....and soon you will be swashing your buckle across the internet too..

BIOS CODES

2009-01-23T22:34:00.002-05:00

There are no words that come to mind when you sit down to your pc, and get nothing. No screen, no desktop, nothing at all. Well, except that beeping noise you now hear when the pc is powered back up.

Did you know that the noise you are hearing is actually a message from your computer telling you what is wrong? If you ever hear it, listen carefully. There is often a series of short and long beeps, sort of like computer morse code.

That is what is known as a BIOS BEEP CODE. Normally, when you power up your machine, you will hear one quick beep, or two quick beeps depending on who made the thing.

If you are curious as to what the full codes are, here is a website for you.
BIOSCENTRAL

You will need to know the BIOS maker of your machine. Normally this is shown on the initial bootup screen when you turn the pc on. Look at the screen again, somewhere on there is the identification.

Knowing what the bios beeps mean, can often arm you with vital forehand knowledge and let you repair the problem yourself. Or if you take it somewhere you can inform them and fill secure with your inner geek.

New Broadband Plan

2009-01-18T12:41:00.002-05:00

Part of President Elect Obama's $825 billion dollar infrastructure plan is a $6 billion dollar national broadband plan for the U.S. Part of that money will be used to set standards as to what constitutes broadband, to create a map of what areas have high speed, and to set open access areas.

I love this idea. It is about time someone has stepped forward to make a move for our country as far as our technology is concerned. But, there is a problem with this.

As far as our country is concerned, we are far behind the rest of the world in our internet speed and availability. Corruption. Lobbyists. Failure to innovate until forced. As long as this old school of politics is in place, nothing will change.

The major providers currently list high speed internet as a point just slightly faster than dialup. Why? Because anything that would map out the true speeds would show that they 'cherry pick' areas to allow access, and don't truly offer services everywhere. And do you think they will allow a bill to pass that sets forth 'open access' areas that offer free service?

Let me give you an example. Internet phone service. When this technology started to take off, and people were leaving the older POTS line (Plain Old TRelephone Service), the phone companies complained. A competitor came up offering unlimited phone service for next to nothing, and they were losing users. So they lobbyed and got extra fees and taxes, and other restrictions added to the Internet phone service providers. Some areas purposly degraded the internet phone data. Then they began to offer internet phone service to win people back.

Another example is this... Look at the bigger cities. For years, high speed internet service has been available and at a variety of speeds. Now, compare that to a rural area. I know of some people just outside of town that can only get dialup access, because the local providers don't want to spend money to run lines there. And here's the kicker. With most providers dropping dialup access, they've been informed internet won't be available much longer. Welcome to the 21st century.

Anyway, back to my point. I love this new initiative for broadband. But, as long as you have people in washington who are bought out by lobbyists, news jouralists who don't seem to care about the corruption, and people who have no clue what the 'series of tubes' are, i'm afraid any plan to move our technology infrastructure forward isn't going to be much more than a 'tupperware' party that gives a great show.

So I tried to install the Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-13T21:13:00.002-05:00

I started the update about 11am this morning. And now...10 hours later... it fails.

The upgrade was not successful. Your previous version of Windows is being restored.

So, the lesson here is....Beta software is like buying something at the flea market. Sometimes you find a Monet, and other times it's the picture of the Dogs Playing Poker.

Wireless Security

2009-01-13T09:43:00.003-05:00

So, you have a high speed modem in your house, and you finally made the decision to get a wireless router, and share your connection in your home. But, is your network secure?

One of the first rules of wireless security is to understand there is no such thing as true security. For instance, if someone wants to break into your house bad enough, they are going to get in.

So, what does that mean for you? It means that you need to set something in place to discourage hackers. If they come down your street, and scan for wireless networks and they see yours has security features enabled, but the other networks on the street aren't, they will go for the easier target.

So what can you do? Well, Wireless routers come with two basic wireless features built in. WEP, and WPA.

WEP is Wireless Equivalent Privacy. This is the very basic encryption security. Basically you generate a wireless key, and then enter it on whatever machine will access your network.

WPA is WiFi Protected Access. This is an enhanced wireless key security, and considered to be better than WEP.

There are other advanced security features out there to keep your wireless network safe, and I am aware that these can be easily hacked if needed. This post is just a starter guide to point you in the direction of wireless security.

If you interested in learning more, check these out:

Wireless Security End to End

WiFoo II - The Secrets of Wireless Hacking

Want to understand how hacking happens, and the basics of the hacker culture?

No Tech Hacking: A Guide to Social Engineering, Dumpster Diving, and Shoulder Surfing

Whatcha listening to?

2009-01-07T09:54:00.007-05:00

Anyone with a satellite radio knows how nice it is to listen to commercial-free radio in your car, or at home. But what if you want to listen at work or home, and you don't have an adapter?

Well, there is a new program for your computer which can let you listen online to either Sirius or XM, depending on which you have. And it is by far better than the online players they offer.

Stayplayr for Windows, by Geeks Toolbox is that program.

It is still an Alpha version (which means they are working out the bugs, and the interface isn't complete).

It is a great program, and I highly recommend it. All you need is a valid Sirius or XM account. Just enter the login information, and you are set.

Here is a screenshot. As you can see, you can have 20 presets stored. It also shows you the album art of the song you are listening to, as well as a link to iTunes store to purchase the song you want.

If you just use Sirius, and want a more 'stylish' look to your player, I recommend the Sirius Player for Yahoo Widgets. You must first have Yahoo Widgets installed to use this application.

As you can see, this has a cleaner look than Starplayr. It has more of a standard Sirius player than Starplayr does. This one also allows for up to 30 channels to be stored, as well as skin support (which means you can download other files which will slightly change the color and appearance of the playerto your taste.)

I hope Starplayr can work on thier interface soon, as I really prefer it over this one.

Pick a card....Any Card...

2009-01-05T18:42:00.000-05:00

I saw that my sister posted on her facebook site about downloading the Google Chrome Browser and trying it out, just to have a different internet browser to try.

So, I thought I would post about the many different browsers that actually are available for Windows.

There are three main engines with the code that drives the web browser. Trident (for Explorer style), Gecko (for Firefox style) and Presto (for Opera style). Now I know that if you search there are many other styles out there, but I am focusing on the ones that mainly run on Windows.

Everyone is familiar with Internet Explorer...But were you aware that there is a newer version out there? Version 8 Beta *Click Here*

Another popular browser is Mozilla Firefox. *Click Here*
Did you know there are other versions based off of Mozillas code?
Seamonkey is one of them. *Click Here*

There is also Opera *Click Here*

And Safari *Click Here*

On the Linux side, they have the Konqueror browser, which is now available for Windows *Click Here*

And the new kid on the block, Google Chrome *Click Here*

I left off a wide variety of other browsers, such as K-melon, Lunascape, Maxthon, Songbird, I-Rider, and many others.

So give a different browser a try. You might find a new one you like.

Firefox Plugins - round 2

2008-12-31T15:57:00.003-05:00

GSpace - Turns the 2 gigs of storage on your GMail account into a file server.

Hyperwords - neat little program. When you highlight something on a web page, this addon will give it functionality. (Highlight the word North Carolina and you can then search in the news, flickr, google, and wikipedia) Also has a Babelfish translation *

Customize Google - added functionality to google searches, such as mini pics of each link before you visit, removal of ads, and other customizable features.

Imagezoom - like it says. Right click on pictures and zoom in and out on them.

Minimap addon - this is a nice feature as it keeps listing of your current address onhand, and if you find an address online, you can highlight it, and choose minimap, and it will give you directions from your house.

Searchbar autosizer - This keeps the searchbar in the upper right hand corner to a minimal size, and only expands as you begin to type in it. Nice for keeping extra 'real estate' open on your browser window.

Whats the tide - Places a tide level indicator in the bottom right hand of your browser. Just plugin your closest location, and it will give you the tide readings in your area. Updates every five minutes.

Google gears - Not a firefox addon, but an addition to firefox that speeds up web activities, such as Wordpress, and other blogs.

The 'BabelFish' is a fish that translates speech
from one language to another. Taken from the
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
series of books by Douglas Adams.

It's a fish you stick in your ear and it
translates for you. Obviously not real
plus sticking a live fish in your ear is
just plain weird. But funny.

Time for your medicine

2008-12-16T09:21:00.005-05:00

Have you updated your antivirus, spywareblockers, and firewall lately? If not, it's time to do so.....

While you are at it, why not defragment your hard drive? You do know what that means, don't you?

Ok, then... Here's the Layman's Terms of it..

When you write files to your hard drive, the data is put down on the drive in a continuous strip. Think of putting down a strip of tape on a blackboard. When another file is written, it goes down behind the first one. If the first file is removed, there is a 'gap' left. Any new files are written into these 'gaps' and often the files have to be broken into smaller parts in order to save them on the drive...

Look here..
See how the data is on the drive? Defragmenting means that the hard drive rebuilds the broken pieces back into one file, and saves them back to the hard drive.

This is a good thing, as an unfragmented drive will often lead to data loss, or even hard drive failure (see the hard drive has to read the data and all that bouncing around can eventually wear the drive out).

If you are using windows XP and Vista, it is under the START MENU, ACCESORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS.

For December 7.....

2008-12-06T21:45:00.003-05:00

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it - George Santayana

The attack consisted of two aerial attack waves totaling 353 aircraft, launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers.

The attack sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four more. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one minelayer, destroyed 188 aircraft, and caused personnel losses of 2,402 killed and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building were not hit. Japanese losses were minimal, at 29 aircraft and five midget submarines, with 65 servicemen killed or wounded.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT to Congress

December 8th, 1941

Audio Link Here

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.

Whats on the tube tonight???

2008-12-03T23:24:00.002-05:00

Man, there was nothing like TV in the old days. Four channels (if you had the rabbit ears just right) and we liked it that way. And remember the shows? They were awesome back then. Ever wish you could see those old shows again?

HULU is a joint service with several major networks. It is an online video service with limited commercial interruptions. One of the great things about HULU is the major studios have been moving the older shows there. Full episodes for your viewing pleasure.

Here is just a short list....

Emergency!

Alf

Bewitched

Doogie Howser MD

McHales Navy

The Dick Van Dyke Show

WKRP in Cinncinati

Barney Miller

Airwolf

Miami Vice

Simon and Simon

Hart to Hart

Starsky and Hutch

Adam 12

The Rockford Files

Dragnet

Kojak

Hill Street Blues

SWAT

Oh, did I mention they have full movies too? Come on... Here's a few. Don't worry, it's all legal. The commerical interruptions pay for this..

The Return Of A Man Called Horse

Ghostbusters

Three Amigos

The Longest Day

The Desert Rats

And this is but a sample of all that is available too. Plus some of them are in 480p format. (That means, they play in HD resolution, but you have to have a bit of a beefy PC to view it in that format).

Tell me they don't bring back some memories. You know, my father kept something on top of the TV that changed the channel.. We called it pliers. My sister and me were the original remote controls.. "Change that channel, Forrest...No, no. wait...try adjusting the antenna again...See if your mother has any tin foil..."

With technology changing as fast as it does nowadays, I find it hard to remember TV when it was just a few channels. Currently we have I think 400 gazillion channels available. And you still can't find a good show. "What? Another Billy Maze infomercial? And what the heck is a ShamWow?"

But there is hope.. One day, I will be able to tell my children.."We used to get up to change the channel. And we liked it that way..."

Extend the life of your laptop battery

2008-11-26T10:12:00.001-05:00

Ever use your laptop and find the battery seems to die quickly? Well, here is a few tips on how to stretch out your battery life. Now remember, this isn't for everyday use when you are plugged into a wall. This is for those times when you are running on the battery.

1. Brightness: The fastest way to suck the life out of a battery is leaving your brightness high. Turn it down as low as you possibly can without needing to up your glasses prescription. On most latops, using the function key and F9-F10 will set the brightness.

2. Don’t use any external devices. USB and PC-Cards(aka PC-MCIA) use your battery to function, even when you aren’t using them. Have an EVDO card or maybe a USB mouse? Remove them if you can. Even a memory card reader in your PC-MCIA slot uses power just by being in there. The effect varies based on the type of device, but even a few minutes here and there (as you’ll see) add up significantly.
3. Single-task, not multi-task. The more you are doing at the same time with your PC, the more memory and CPU usage increases. Both of which directly use up battery. Close any applications you aren’t using, even the small ones. While your hard drive uses the battery too, if you are doing anything ‘productive’ you are probably hitting the drive on a regular (even if infrequent) basis anyway.

4. Keep it cool. You can take a page out of the extreme gamer’s handbooks, and have your system perform more optimally by keeping it cool. Make sure your air vents (inflow and outflow) aren’t blocked by anything, which often occurs by poorly positioning your notebook on your lap (which is believed to have some other side-effects on men too, by the way). Heavy CPU and memory use all contribute to heat as well, hence my comment on multi-tasking above.

5. Shut down unused services. MSN Messenger, Google Desktop Search, QuickTime, wireless managers, etc. They’ve all gotta go. You probably aren’t going to use them, and they all eat up valuable resources. If you really want to get this one right, a little bit of research is in order. While online, launch the task manager (control-shift-escape) and for each service that has your User Name, google it. There are a few good web sites out there which chronicle what all these mysterious services do, and you should be able to figure out which you need, and which you don’t. Important warning: if you aren’t comfortable with this lingo, you should skip this step, or get some techie friend to help you out. Less important warning: you may end up in a situation where you need to do a reboot after you get to your destination.

6. Hibernate options Do Hibernate, Do Not Suspend. Laptops tend to use way too much battery when in suspend mode. Not sure why, but the ‘instant-on’ effect isn’t worth the extra 30-60 seconds it takes to get out of hibernation. Furthermore, the minor hit to the hard drive is unlikely to have a significant impact to your overall battery time. Also, if you weren’t aware, going in and out of hibernate is much better than a full startup/shutdown sequence.

7. Darker wallpaper. Did you know that by using a darker wallpaper on your desktop, you use less power? Try to find a nice darker colored theme, and use it. This goes hand-in-hand with #1.

8. Choose Wisely. Good: Word, Excel, Outlook, Text Editors. Bad: anything by Adobe (you think Microsoft has bloatware, have you noticed how long even Acrobat takes to launch these days???), all Google plugins, many ‘Widgets’, ‘Gadgets’, etc. All I can say is pick your battles wisely.

9. Watch That Hard Drive. The more it spins, the more power it takes. Make sure you’ve set your basic power option to turn off your drive relatively fast, but not necessarily too fast. Some drives use more power getting started than staying running for short periods of time. At the end of the day, if you are doing anything that prevents the hard drive from spinning down ever, you are draining your battery more than needed.

10. Power alarms Like a Boy Scout, Be Prepared. Make a point of configuring your ‘low power mode’ prior to using it. It may only take 5-10 minutes to get your system setup properly, but that just eats into your battery life if you do it unplugged. Once done with all the settings, the last thing you want to do before unplugging your power supply is hibernating the PC.

By following these steps, you should be able to get another 45 minutes to an hour of life out of your battery. I can stretch my battery from 2 1/2 hours to 3:30.

We've Got a Bogie on Radar........

2008-11-24T13:50:00.002-05:00

I wanted to go ahead and post this one. Each year at Christmas, NORAD tracks Santa's movements on Christmas Eve.
www.noradsanta.com

Here is a bit of the history on it.

In 1955, a Colorado Springs-based Sears store ran an advertisement encouraging children to call Santa Claus on a special telephone hotline. Due to a printing error, the phone number that was printed was the hotline for the Director of Operations at the Continental Air Defense (CONAD). Colonel Harry Shoup took the first Santa call on Christmas Eve of 1955 from a six-year old boy who began reciting his Christmas list. Shoup didn't find the call funny, but after asking the mother of the second caller what was happening, then realizing the mistake that occurred, he instructed his staff to give Santa's position to any child who called in.

Three years later, the governments of the United States and Canada combined their national domestic air defenses into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), but the tradition continued. Now major media outlets as well as children call in to inquire on Santa's location. NORAD relies on volunteers to help make Santa tracking possible. Many employees at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base spend part of their Christmas Eve with their families and friends at NORAD's Santa Tracking Operations Center in order to answer phones and provide Santa updates to thousands of callers.In 1997, Canadian Major Jamie Robertson took over the program and expanded it to the Web where corporation-donated services have given the tradition global accessibility.

During the Cold War when the tracking team provided updates via radio announcements, only North America was mentioned and Santa's approach was described in tense terms with interceptor aircraft scrambled to shoot down the "bogie." Only at the last minute would the pilot realize who he was engaging. Now the Web shows that as Santa approaches Newfoundland, a flight of Canadian Air Force fighters (CF-18 Hornets as of 2006) rendezvous with him to provide an honor guard and ensure that he has no difficulty with the various Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ) he must enter.

In 2005 holiday season marked the fiftieth anniversary of NORAD's annual tracking of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. The following year, NORAD Tracks Santa began using Microsoft Virtual Earth-style maps that instantly provide Santa's current location. In 2007, NORAD Tracks Santa used Google Earth to track Santa Claus in 3-D. They displayed Santa's location at 5 minute updates.

We did this last year with Emma. She called NORAD Command, and within moments, spoke with a lieutenant colonel, who informed her of Santa's location, as well as his proximity to Clinton. She flipped out with excitement, and ran off to bed.

On the website, you can track his location, using Microsoft Virtual Earth. I had the program on full screen, and left it going in the den. Before we called, Emma would run and check about every 30 seconds, to see where Santa was.

Nothing makes Christmas quite like seeing it in the eyes of your children.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

2008-11-24T10:21:00.005-05:00

Sherman, set the wayback machine for the years of 1966-1986.....

Remember these?

Well, now you can find them online!

Just a thought....

2008-11-21T08:41:00.001-05:00

Is it illegal to yell "movie" in a crowded firehouse?

Just wondering.....

I hope you brought enough for the rest of the class..

2008-11-20T16:06:00.005-05:00

Ok, so, you've got the wireless connection going in your house, and you want to take your home network to the next step. How about sharing files and photos to all the computers in the house?

You can buy external hard drives for around $50-$75 now. So once you plug it in to your desktop computer, you can then move your files to that drive. Once you have your photos and files moved, just right click on the folder, and choose SHARING AND SECURITY. Set it to Share, and allow access to the folder.

Now, go to your laptop, and choose My Computer. At the top of the window, choose, TOOLS, and MAP NETWORK DRIVE. Choose a Drive letter to associate with the folder, and then choose BROWSE. Go thru the menu and find the drive on the desktop computer. When you choose a drive letter, I suggest picking one below the letter I: otherwise you will find that USB flash drives don't work anymore. (thanks Microsoft).

Now, once you have found the location of the folder, save this, and close out. When you go to MY COMPUTER on your pc, you should now see that folder you set as an availible drive on your system.

If you set the Drive letter to the same on all pc's, pretty soon you will come to know that as that drive. (ie, Drive L: on all computers in the house is the family pictures folder)

Then you can scare family and friends with photos like this:
Hey, I was the height of fashion in the 80s..As far as the black shoes...In my defense, It wasn't Labor Day yet. Yep, I was a babe magnet......

A Few Cool Websites to Check Out

2008-11-18T10:45:00.003-05:00

Ahh, the Internet, that bastion of collective information. That which has wasted more productivity and time of people the world over. And who am I to agrue with that?

So, here, dear readers, is a list of some cool websites to check out.

Package Mapping - Want to track that package you sent or are waiting for? Hey, why not add Google Maps to it and visually see where the path?

FlyAKiteOS - Anyone who uses an Apple computer is familiar to OSX. That is the Apple equivalent to Vista. If you want to try it out in a browser window, go here. No need to type a name, just login, and press F11 on your keyboard to go to full screen. (Note for Windows Users - The button to close an open window is the red one on the upper left)

PrimeTimeRewind - This one is a favorite of mine. Plus it looks cool too. All your favorite TV shows from the major networks are availible on a 'cube'. Just rotate left-right, down-up, to find your favorite show on the cube, and then watch any episode you may have missed.

Online Newspaper Archive - An online list of various newspapers around the county, dating from the 1700s to 2004.

BoooYaah! You can't beat that kind of entertainment with a sledghammer. But you can try.

Is that an organizer in your pocket...........?

2008-11-17T17:04:00.005-05:00

Ok, so, you want a way to carry around information in your pocket, but trying to keep up with the Blackberry settings, or Palmpilot apps or even your cellphone can be confusing. So how about an old school way of keeping your information.

www.pocketmod.com

Pocketmod allows you to print out a variety of pages, such as emergency info, blank note pages, tip calculator, mini 12 month calendar, 30 day calendar, etc. All this prints on a single sheet of paper, and there's a handy folding guide to help you fit it in your pocket.

I keep an emergency list, the calendar, and several blank note pages in my pocket for misc notes (such as IP addresses, email addresses, and other geeky info.)

Give it a try. It sure beats trying to figure out how to access the address book on your cellphone.

Bye Bye Birdie....

2008-11-10T22:41:00.002-05:00

Ok, so, we all know there are a LOT of plug ins available for Firefox. But did you know there are plug ins available for Thunderbird as well?

Here's a list of my favorite plug ins for Thunderbird to get started.

Adblock Plus - Adware filtering for your email.

Adblock Plus Filter Uploader - Updater for Adware, keeps the program current

Adblock Plus Element Hiding Helper - Addon for Adblock, allows you to create custom text rules for filtering.

Contacts Sidebar - create an Outlook style contacts sidebar in Thunderbird.

Message Faces - add images of friends and family that show up when they email you.

Lightening - A calendar plugin, similar to the calendar in Outlook.

Now, to install these, you need to right click on the links and download the files to your computer. Once you download the files, you need to open Thunderbird, and then choose TOOLS, ADDONS, and click INSTALL. Then point to the directory you downloaded the files.

Fun with pictures

2008-11-05T15:06:00.002-05:00

Every now and then I come across some funny pictures, so I thought I would share them with you. Enjoy.

The shortest distance between two points........

2008-10-27T22:14:00.002-04:00

Ok, so you're typing away at your computer, and you think, "man, if only there was a faster way to do this...". So, as always, I am at your disposal. Here is a list of some Windows shortcuts...

Copy and Pasting

CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+V: Paste
CTRL+Z: Undo
CTRL+B: Bold
CTRL+U: Underline
CTRL+I: Italic

Also you can use these.....

CTRL+Insert = copy command
Shift Key + Insert = paste command

CTRL+Z = Undo command

F1: Help
CTRL+ESC: Open the Start menu
ALT+F4: Quit current program
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently. This bypasses the trashcan.

ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window

Windows Logo: Start menu
Windows Logo+R: Run dialog box
Windows Logo+M: Minimize all
SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all
Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer

There, now you can move around in Windows comfortably and faster.

Extreme Makeover - PC Edition

2008-10-21T08:48:00.006-04:00

Tired of the boring way your computer looks, and want to update it? Well get ready to makeover your pc, and customize it the way YOU want.

Lets start at Wincustomize. Here there are a variety of ways to modify your computer. Look at wallpapers. Wallpaper is the image you see in the background of your desktop (as in the background of your computer when it is turned on.)

As you can see, these are just a few of the thousands of wallpapers to choose from. Everything from waterfalls, to spaceships, to holidays, etc. If you can think of it, you can more than likely find a wallpaper of your choosing.

Find a wallpaper you like, open it, and then right click on the wallpaper. The option for 'set as background' should be availible. Choose this, and you are done!

Now, lets move on to the Windows icons. Don't like them? Then there is a free program called IconPackager that allows you to download a new icon scheme for your system.
This is just a sampling of one icon package, and a few of its icons. Most packages come with hundreds of custom icons that change the appearance of your system.

Now, how about that cursor? Want to change it too? Well, there is another free program called CursorFX which changes your cursor as well. Here is a sample.
It's hard to tell from this picture, but all these cursors in this package are animated. It looks like moving water. Very incredible to see.

By using a few of these things, I've changed my desktop from this:
To this:
See the difference? Now you too have the tools to go out and change your desktop. It's your desktop, make it into what you want it to be.

I'm Forrest Logan, and I approved this message.

And now some computer humor

2008-10-15T12:00:00.003-04:00

"Artificial Intelligence usually beats natural stupidity."

"Smith & Wesson — the original point and click interface."

"Foolproof systems don't take into account the ingenuity of fools." — Gene Brown.

"Why do we want intelligent terminals when there are so many stupid users ?"

"Making fun of AOL users is like making fun of the kid in the wheel chair."

"I went to a gentleman's cybercafe — and they offered me a 'laptop dance'."

"I have NOT lost my mind — I have it backed up on tape somewhere."

"What do you mean by 'RAM DISK is not an installation procedure' ?"

"See daddy ? All the keys are in alphabetical order now."

"If you can't beat your computer at chess, do what I did — try kick-boxing."

"Ooops. My brain just hit a bad sector."

"Smash forehead on keyboard to continue..."

"Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue..."

"You know you're a geek when... You try to shoo a fly away from the monitor with your cursor."

"I rigged my cellular to send a message to my PDA, which is online with my PC, to get it to activate the voicemail, which sends the message to the inbox of my email, which routes it to the PDA, which beams it back to the cellular. Then I realized my gadgets have a better social life than I do !"

"Remember when...? A computer was something on TV from a science fiction show. A window was something you hated to clean and RAM was the cousin of a goat... Meg was the name of my girlfriend and gig was your middle finger upright. Now they all mean different things and that really mega bytes. An application was for employment. A program was a TV show. A cursor used profanity. A keyboard was a piano. Memory was something that you lost with age. A CD was a bank account. And if you had a 3 1/2" floppy you hoped that nobody found out. Compress was something you did to the garbage not something you did to a file. And if you unzipped anything in public you'd be in jail for awhile. Log on was adding wood to the fire. Hard drive was a long trip on the road. A mouse pad was where a mouse lived and a backup happened to your commode. Cut you did with a pocket knife. Paste you did with glue. A web was a spider's home and a virus was the flu. I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper and the memory in my head. I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash but when it happens they wish they were dead !"

"Apple computer are easy to use. It's also easy to stick your hand in a wood chipper."

"ASCII and ye shall receive."

"Will the information superhighway have any rest stops ?"

"The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents."

"Some things Man was never meant to know. For everything else, there's Google."

"Computer security." — Oxymoron

"The only truly secure computer is one buried in concrete, with the power turned off and the network cable cut."

"My computer's sick. I think my modem is a carrier."

"Old lie — The check is in the mail.
New lie — I didn't check the e-mail." — Brian Fine.

"Windows 95 /n./ 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition."

"Ever notice how fast Windows runs ?
— Neither did I."

"If you don't know where you want to go, we will make sure you get there." — Microsoft slogan translated in Japanese.

"In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates ?" — Dino Esposito.

"Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight." — Bill Gates.

"The only people who have anything to fear from free software (such as GNAT) are those whose products are worth even less." — David Emery.

"Why should I press the Start button to turn the computer off ?" — A Win95 user.

"People say Microsoft paid 14M$ for using the Rolling Stones song 'Start me up' in their commercials. This is wrong. Microsoft payed 14M$ only for a part of the song. For instance, they didn't use the line 'You'll make a grown man cry'."

"Microsoft Works." — Oxymoron

"I had a fortune cookie the other day and it said: 'Outlook not so good'. I said: 'Sure, but Microsoft ships it anyway'."

"Mac users swear by their Mac,
PC users swear at their PC."

"'Intel Inside' is a Government Warning required by Law."

"Q: How many Bill Gates does it take to change a lightbulb ?
A: None, he just defines Darkness™ as the new industry standard..."

Customer: "I'm running Windows '98"
Tech: "Yes."
Customer: "My computer isn't working now."
Tech: "Yes, you said that."

"People who think MS-DOS & Windows are the slickest thing since sliced butter should be forced to wear a sign stating 'This mind intentionally left blank'."

"Windows isn't a virus, viruses do something."

"Difference between a virus and windows ? Viruses rarely fail."

"Computer are like air conditioners: they stop working when you open windows."

This just in to our newsroom.........

2008-10-15T07:54:00.003-04:00

Ok, so, you want to add some news to your bookmarks? Here's a few links to get you started..

Local News....

WRAL 5 - http://www.wral.com/
WECT 6 - http://www.wect.com/
WTVD 11 - http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/index
News 14 - http://news14.com/default.aspx
NBC 17 - http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/home.html

Newspapers ...

Sampson Independent - http://www.clintonnc.com/
News & Observer - http://www.newsobserver.com/
Fayetteville Observer - http://www.fayobserver.com/

National News ...

CNN - http://www.cnn.com/
ABC -http://abcnews.go.com/
CBS - http://www.cbsnews.com/
FOX - http://www.foxnews.com/
MSNBC -http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/
CSPAN - http://www.cspan.org/

National Newspapers.....

New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/
Chicago Tribune -http://www.chicagotribune.com/
LA Times - http://www.latimes.com/

And if that isn't enough, go here to get a list of every newspaper and magazine online, listed by state.

And so, dear reader, you can now stay up to date with your news bookmarks.

Be Prepared

2008-10-01T22:25:00.002-04:00

Found a good website here on First Aid Kits and JumpBags. A jump bag is a small bag that you keep by your door, with basic supplies that you need should you have to leave your house in an instant. I believe every house should have a first aid kit, and that site gives a good supply list.
Last Christmas I asked my parents for a small fishing tacklebox, and I use that as our first aid kit.

First Aid and CPR training is another good thing to have as well. Your local Red Cross office will offer training classes regularly during the year. It is a one day class and I highly recommend it.
It can often take the local EMT's several minutes to arrive at your location, and every minute counts. Training will go a long way in that situation.

As far as the jump bag, we live in 'Hurricane Alley', and as such we are no strangers to severe storms. And I haven't even mentioned a good ole' Carolina ice storm. There may be a need to keep a bag filled with essentials in a front closet. Very good ideas in all.

But I wanted to post his list of notes, as some of them really stand out as valuable information.

Wool is light, fire-resistant, and maintains its insulating properties when wet.
Jell-O is a brand of pre-packaged instant gelatin dessert. It's the perfect food for hypothermia. Make the liquid, drink it. Choose a flavor that isn't colored red, so that when the patient vomits in the Emergency Department folks won't think he's bleeding internally.
Plumber's candles contain more stearic acid than the regular kind. Very hard, burn a long time. Get 'em at a hardware store.
Rule of thumb: Two sources of light; two sources of fire.
In a survival situation you live as long as your feet do.
If you don't understand what's going on, back off until you do understand.
You can live to be ninety without a Rambo knife but hypothermia or dehydration will kill you deader'n dirt by this time tomorrow.
Half-a-tank of gas is empty. Refuel now.
Every time you refuel, check your coolant level, your oil level, and your tire pressure.
In a survival situation you'll be astounded by how far a car can go with no radiator, no oil, and no tires.
If you have an extensive kit in your car, one part should be detachable and easily portable in case you have to abandon your car.
Nitrile gloves are better than latex gloves because: Tape won't stick to 'em; there's less chance of allergic reactions; punctures produce large rips so you know they're breached; and they have higher resistance to HAZMATs.
Without a traction splint a femur fracture is 80% fatal. With proper traction splinting, it's only 20% fatal. Learn to make a field-expedient traction splint.
Alcohol and disaster don't mix.
Some situations are non-survivable. Think ahead. Stay out of those situations.
Never ignore a warning, even if it doesn't make any sense to you at the time.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Take this information as you see fit. Personally, I want to get a small bag filled with basics and keep it handy. And I need to restock my first aid kit.

By the way, my CPR and First Aid training starts next month.

Searching.............

2008-10-01T10:06:00.002-04:00

Looking for a search engine? What if you 'Googled' Google? Would that create a rip in the fabric of time and destroy the earth faster than the Large Hadron Collider? I'm going with no. But if you are looking for alternative search engines, here's a few to try out.

http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.msn.com/
http://www.dogpile.com/
http://www.excite.com/
http://www.ask.com/
http://www.altavista.com/
http://www.lycos.com/
http://www.hotbot.com/
http://www.live.com/
http://www.cuil.com/
http://www.monstercrawler.com/

Looking for reference?
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
http://www.loc.gov/index.html
http://wiretap.area.com/
http://www.webmd.com/
http://www.imdb.com/search
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

And if you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer 7, you'll notice the search function built into the upper right hand corner of the browser window. You can add search engines to this by going to

http://mycroft.mozdev.org/search-engines.html

They have several hundred search engines to choose from.

And for fun, go to google, and type in 'number of horns on a unicorn', and check out the first answer it shows.

I Want My HDTV! part deux

2008-09-22T20:53:00.004-04:00

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Just kidding... Lets get started with part two of my information on HDTV.

Now before we start any further talking about HDTV and 'Digital Signals', lets stop and take a look at two pictures:

This one is as it would look on a standard 'analog' set.

This one is how it would look on a digital television. See the difference? You can actually make out the teeth on the gears in this photo. There is no comparison.

But, do you really NEED HDTV? Bottom line, if you have cable, satellite, or a digital converter box, you may not want HDTV. But if your current set is on the 'blink' or about to die, you may want to consider getting one. The average cost of an HDTV set is about $700.

Lets take a look at the different styles.

Everyone knows the older style 'tube' television sets that we grew up with.

Nowadays, HDTVs made with these are called 'Direct View' TVs. They are cheaper and have a wide viewing angle (as a result of the tube shape)

The next type of sceen is called a 'flat panel' tv because, well, it is flat. Normally they are a few inches thick, with some models being only 3 inches. The downside is they are still expensive and have a lower resolution than LCD screens. Speaking of which....

LCD Screens are another type of flat screen. They are availible in a wide range of sizes and have a better resolution than plasma screens. The downside is they are still expensive, and the home-theater image is not as good as plasma. Plus you have a small viewing area in front of the screen.

Rear projection screens are another alternative. They are rather inexpensive, but they have large cabinets, need periodic maintenance, and and not ideal for bright rooms.

There is another type of projection screen called a front projection screen. They are the often sought after for the home theater experience, but the price is very high.

Quick review

Direct View - 27 to 30 inches $400-600
Flat Panel LCD - 13 to 65 inches $200-8,000
Flat Panel Plasma - 37 to 71 inches $800-15,000
Rear Projection 37 to 73 inches 1,000 to $5,200

NEVER, EVER buy one on impulse. Shop around, look online, check different stores. Also, research HDTV yourself, and decide what price you feel comfortable. I should also remind you, that prices change every week, so what is $700 this month might be $500 next month. New technologies are coming out each week, and newer advancements are being made.

So if you do plan on getting one, find your tv, and not the one the salesman likes.

I want my DTV!

2008-09-19T15:43:00.003-04:00

With the switchover to Digital television coming in February 17, 2009, I thought I would give a little information on what a digital signal is, and what it means to get 'Digital'.

First off, lets look at the current signal, analog. The analog TV standard has been in use in the United States for about 50 years. To review quickly, here are the basics of analog television transmission:

A video camera takes a picture of a scene. It does this at a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
The camera rasterizes the scene. That is, the camera turns the picture into rows of individual dots called pixels. Each pixel is assigned a color and intensity.
The rows of pixels are combined with synchronization signals, called horizontal sync and vertical sync signals, so that the electronics inside a TV set will know how to display the rows of pixels.

This final signal, containing the color and intensity of each pixel in a set of rows, along with horizontal and vertical sync signals, is called a composite video signal. Sound is completely separate. When you plug your vcr in to the back of the TV, you plug in the yellow cable, or composite video cable. The sound cable is white (and with stereo sound there is an additional red one). When a composite video signal is broadcast over the airwaves by a TV station, it happens on a specific frequency. In the United States, we know these frequencies as VHF channels 2 through 13 and UHF channels 14 through 83.

If you currently have an analog TV, and it works fine with broadcast tv, vcr's, dvd players, and so on, an obvious question would be, "What's wrong with analog TV?"

The main problem is resolution.

The resolution of the TV controls the crispness and detail in the picture you see.
The resolution is determined by the number of pixels on the screen.
An analog TV set can display 525 horizontal lines of resolution every thirtieth of a second. In reality, however, an analog TV displays half of those lines in a sixtieth of a second, and then displays the other half in the next sixtieth, so the whole frame is updated every thirtieth of a second. This process is called interlacing.

But now we have all become conditioned by computer monitors to be comfortable with much better resolution. The lowest-resolution computer monitor displays 640x480 pixels. Because of the interlacing, the effective resolution of a TV screen is perhaps 512x400 pixels.

So the worst computer monitors you can buy have more resolution than the best analog TV set; and the best computer monitors are able to display up to 10 times more pixels than that TV set. There is simply no comparison between a computer monitor and an analog TV in terms of detail, crispness, image stability and color. If you look at a computer monitor all day at work, and then go home and look at a TV set, the TV set can look very fuzzy.

The first idea that is new to digital TV is the digital signal.

Analog TV started as a broadcast medium. TV stations set up antennas and broadcast radio signals to individual communities. You can put a pair of rabbit ears on your TV and pick up channels 2 through 83 for free. What you receive, as described earlier, is a single, analog composite video signal and a separate sound signal.

Digital TV has started as a free broadcast medium as well. Each broadcaster has one digital TV channel, but one channel can carry multiple sub-channels if the broadcaster chooses that option. Here's how it works:

On its digital channel, each broadcaster sends a 19.39-megabit-per-second (Mbps) stream of digital data. Broadcasters have the ability to use this stream in several different ways. For example:

A broadcaster can send a single program at 19.39 Mbps.
A broadcaster can divide the channel into several different streams (perhaps four streams of 4.85 Mbps each). These streams are called sub-channels. For example, if the digital TV channel is channel 53, then 53.1, 53.2 and 53.3 could be three sub-channels on that channel. Each sub-channel can carry a different program.

Finally, the HD formats of digital TV have a different aspect ratio than analog TVs. An analog TV has a 4:3 aspect ratio, meaning that the screen is 4 units wide and 3 units high. For example, a "25-inch diagonal" analog TV is 15 inches high and 20 inches wide. The HD format for digital TV has a 16:9 aspect ratio, as shown below:

See how the digital image on the left can show more of the screen, and in a better resoultion?

In my next post, I will give some information on Do I Need to Buy an HDTV set, and what to look for if you decide to make a purchase.

September 11, 2001

2008-09-11T19:56:00.003-04:00

Every generation has an event that defines them. My grandparents can tell me where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor. My parents can describe in detail where they were when they heard about Kennedy being shot. I could never understand that.

My apartment was across the street from my office. My hours at work were 9am-4pm. I remember going out to my car about 8:45 and driving over to the office. WRAL 101.5 reported a breaking news story about a possible airplane crashing into a building in New York, possibly the World Trade Center. That story passed around in my mind. There was a story on the History Channel about a few weeks earlier on the history of the Empire State Building, and how in the 1940s a B17 bomber crashed into the upper floors. Growing up in a small town, most buildings didn't get over three stories, so the news flash was just another news headline at that time.

As I arrived as work, the report was updated slightly, a jumbo jet had crashed in the building.
We kept a TV set in the helpdesk area, mainly for our after hours workers, when call volume was low. We turned on the tv and watched a few moments when we saw the second plane hit the other tower. It seemed like something out of a horror movie. I felt a chill run down my spine, and send what felt like someone splashing cold water on my face. There was no way this was happening.

We continued to watch the news. There was a report that the airlines were grounding all flights in the United States. This has to be a dream, right?

A new report broke in, amongst the video of the Twin Towers. Another jet had just crashed into the Pentagon. WHAT IS HAPPENING?

We watched at around 10am when one of the towers fell. It was like watching an accordian fall in on itself. Another report. A plane was spotted going down in Pennsylvania. There is no way this is real. The second tower fell as we continued watching.

It was like a warzone on TV. People in the office shouted in anger. Others simply cried. I didn't know a single person in those buildings, or on those planes, but inside, I cried out too. I silently held my breath and prayed as if a close family member had died. For some reason, it felt like it.

We spent the rest of the day watching TV in the office. As I later walked around the building, there were TVs in every area. Some areas even had prayer rooms set up.

Our office normally would handle up to 300-400 calls during the day. On 9-11, we had five calls.
Jeff Foxworthy said later that before 9-11, he would laugh at that old man at a ballgame who would fuss if you didn't take your hat off when they played the national anthem. After 9-11, he said he became that old man. I can understand that. All politics aside, that event united us all in a way not seen, in my opinion, since Pearl Harbor. Not long after that, it seems it was politics as usual, with both sides verbally attacking one another.

But for a brief while, no one in this country could listen to the Star Spangled Banner without crying, or at least wiping tears in pride for our country.

Now, you may ask, "Forrest, why did you ramble on like that?"

Well, I guess you can call this my way of showing respect and honor for those who died on that terrible Tuesday. I never knew any of you, but I will always remember you. And when my grandchildren sit on my knee many years from now, I can tell them in detail about that day.

Excuse me now, I have to go wipe away a tear.

Time for Change

2008-09-11T16:18:00.003-04:00

And no that title is not a political message. Have you ever been working in Microsoft and all of a sudden the machine would lock up or worse:

Ahh...the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). The bane of every Windows user. That message has caused more heartache and grief in the I.T. world than anything else. Many times when Windows encounters one of its little 'glitches' you wish you could change to a different operating system altogether. But, fear of learning a new operating system and other barriers may stop you from switching.

Well, not anymore. There is a little thing availble now called a Live CD. Just Pop the CD in the computer, boot up, and try out a new operating system. When you are finished, eject the cd, and your old system is there again. Nothing is written to the hard drive and nothing is damaged.

Linux, for years, has been chipping away at the Microsoft hold on computers. Linux is actually making a very good stand in the server world now. And you want to know the benefit of running a Linux operating system? It doesn't cost a thing! Yep, the operating system, Open Office (like Microsoft Office) and other programs for Linux are free. Another bonus in my book (and that is because I work on machines all day) is that this operating system can be loaded even when the hard drive has failed.

So you think you want to test drive this thing out? You can easily download the software online, burn a cd, and make your own. If you are not comfortable doing this, ask a family member who is 'techo savvy' to help. I'm sure you can find somone.

Here is a link that explains LiveCDs better.

So go on. Be a rebel. Look how good it worked out for Luke Skywalker and his friends.

And no, that is not the Large Hadron Collider.

A little humor for you

2008-09-11T11:15:00.001-04:00

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Your sweetie says, 'Let's go upstairs
And make love,' and you answer,
'Pick one; I can't do both!'

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Your friends compliment you
On your new alligator shoes
And you're barefoot.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
A sexy babe catches your fancy
And your pacemaker opens the garage door,

'OLD' IS WHEN...
Going bra less
Pulls all the wrinkles out of your face.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You don't care where your spouse goes,
Just as long as you don't have to go along.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police

'OLD' IS WHEN...
'Getting a little action'
Means you don't need to take any fiber today.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
'Getting lucky' means you find your car
In the parking lot.

'OLD' IS WHEN...
An 'all nighter' means not getting up
To use the bathroom.

AND

'OLD' IS WHEN...
You are not sure these are jokes?

USB Survival Kits

2008-09-06T16:05:00.002-04:00

With USB drives as cheap as $8 at Walmart, let me recommend something for your survival kit in the modern age.

Here is a suggestion of what to keep on your drive, such as important documents.

Birth certificates
Drivers license
Bank account numbers
Social security cards
Vehicle titles
Photos of loved ones.
Names and numbers of relatives

I am sure you can come up with other ideas to keep on there. But before we go on, let me recommend TrueCrypt. A program that will allow you to encrypt the drive so that only your password will unlock it.

Once you have all your files stored away, get a waterproof container to keep it in. and put it away. Pull it out once every six months and check to see if any files need updating.

In this modern era, there will be a computer for you to access somewhere. In cases of disasters now, the Red Cross sets up Internet hotspots just for people. Most major computer manufactors and phone providers participate in this as well.

Access to your important documents instantly will go a long way into restoring your life. In a severe case, most banks and other institutions will not be able to access your records for several weeks.

If you don't get anything out of this post, consider this: people will trust what a computer screen tells them over what paper tells them. Let someone read an email that tells them the parkbench has just been painted, and they will believe it. Tell them face to face, and they will have to touch it to be sure.

The storm that....wasn't

2008-09-06T15:42:00.002-04:00

The winds started picking up last night and the rains came down hard. But that was about it. Our t.v. reception was out for about 30 minutes, then it came back on. All night long we heard it start to howl outside, and when we went to look, the branches on the trees weren't even moving. Like the storm rang our doorbell and ran and hid in the bushes.

I went out about noon today to check for damage. If insurance counted leaves off the trees, I can file a claim. Other than that, nothing.

The news channels up in Raleigh have been talking about the storm all night long. No damage to report on, so they jumped at the first story. "There is a report of a tree down in North Raleigh!!! We are sending a news crew now to verify!!!"

Now, don't get me wrong. I wanted to see a little something out of this. I guess it went along with all the preparations we went through just to prepare. Oil for the lamps, extra canned food, water, etc. And then nothing happened. Sorta gives you a feeling of "I prepared for this, and nothings happened? I wanna SEE something!"

Since Fran came into the state, I've tried to keep prepared. Before Fran, I didn't pay storms like that any mind. After Fran, I try to stay ready.

I remember sitting around the house because I didn't gas up the vehicle, and the tank was almost empty. I remember standing in line at the convience store for food. The owner opened up and rang people manually with a calculator, but couldn't give out gas.
I remember a refrigerator with food that went bad because we had no canned goods.
I promised myself I was NOT going to let that happen to me again.

remember the line "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"? That is how I like to stay during these storms. Anything unused can go in the hurricane supplies.

Hello, Hanna!

2008-09-05T23:31:00.002-04:00

Here she comes.. Walkin' down the street..Gets the funniest looks from.. Everyone she meets...

The rainbands started around 1pm today. Mainly just light rain off and on. As the evening progressed, the rains would continue to get heavier.

Around 9pm they announced a tornado warning for Duplin County, and the path had it moving to the northwest. The area was southeast of us. Have a feeling that we are in for more of this as the storm progresses.

Well, we lost the television signal at about 10:50pm. Right at the end of Stargate - Atlantis. So, now I don't know how this weeks episode ends. Oh, well, such is life..

Maybe I can get in a little Starcraft before bed. Or maybe just go to bed. If the tv is still out I'm not worried. Several weeks ago I picked up theVictory at Sea DVD set, Attack on Pearl Harbor DVD, World War II, the German Front, and Crusade in the Pacific Volume 1 and 2.
Plus about 10 hours of the History Channels Civil War Journal.

And if the power goes out, I have Band of Brothers on my laptop. But in all reality, I more than likely will end up playing Chutes and Ladders with my daughter. Maybe I can work on her chess game a little more.

We don't have a weather radio, but I do have my cellphone set up with a weather app that alerts me whenever there is a warning in my area. So we will be ok for tonight. As long as I don't snore...

Hurricane Alley

2008-09-03T15:36:00.003-04:00

Like most of us on the east coast, we occasionally have to bear with a hurricane. It seems this season is shaping up to be very active. Hanna appears to be bearing down on our position as we speak. So now we can all run out and buy milk and bread. I don't know why, it's just something we do. Maybe we are all planning on having french toast during the storm, who knows?

But fear not, dear reader. Here are a few links to help you track said nastie beastie.

Tropical Weather Information - A good resource of material on all the storms in the Atlantic.

Stormpulse - Interactive map showing all current storms in the area, as well as computer models, storm tracking, wind speeds, and more.

National Weather Service Short Range Radar - radar loop
National Weather Service Long Range Radar - radar loop

National Weather Service - NC Forecast by County, Raliegh Area - radar loop
National Weather Service - NC Forecasst by County, Wilmington Area - radar loop

National Satellite Map - radar loop

US Current Temperatures Map

NC IR + Radar - radar loop
NC Visible - radar loop

Southeast IR + Radar - radar loop
Southeast Visible - radar loop

And don't forget the webcams!
Wrightsville Beach Live Webcam

USS North Carolina Live Webcam

Chrome, Chrome on the range...

2008-09-03T15:12:00.003-04:00

So today, the folks at Google released their new browser (because we don't have enough browsers as it is - Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera) to the world. Kudos to my sister, I didn't realize the launch date was today.

If you ever want to hear a good war story, and find out the history of browsers, visit this link:
The Browser Wars. It also covers why web browsers today are horrible, and why the lack of standards wasn't met.

Anyway, back to the topic. This new browser was built to fix a lot of issues common with web browsing today. From what I have read, it beats Internet Explorer and Firefox in speed tests when running javascript, and it beats them both on the Acid3 test (a test designed to check how well a browser comforms web standards as well as to DCOM and Javascript).

I thought I would give it a try, and add another notch on my browsers installed.
(Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8 Beta, Safari 3.1.1 , Opera 9.52, and IceWeasel 3.0)
Hey, when you do web deisgn, you gotta make sure the page tests out). So, I downloaded Chrome, installed it, and voila!

Irony can be so ironic sometimes.

Time for maintenance

2008-08-29T15:38:00.006-04:00

About once a week I try to go around the house, and run Virus scans, update spyblock lists, and do general maintenance. Keeps things running smoothly.

If you can do simple updates and scans like that regularly, your system will hum along fine, and not drag along like a boat anchor.

If you do these things consistently, and the pc still seems slow, try running Disk Defragmentor. It can be found on the Accessories/System Tools menu (XP and Vista)

Still slow? Have you considered upgrading your memory? For Windows XP, I recommend at least 1 gig of ram, and for Vista, at least 2 gig. If your system is below this, maybe an upgrade is right for you. Pull out your owners manual.

(you DID save your manual for your computer right?)

Check and see what memory configuration your computer supports. If you are not comfortable with this, there are many local computer stores in the area that will assist you. (In the Raliegh-Durham area, I recommend Intrex computers).

Another area you can check on upgrading is the processor. Once again, if you do not feel comfortable (and I highly stress this) take it to a local computer repair shop. It can be very easy to 'brick' a machine. Nothing will make your blood boil quite like staring at an $800 L.E.D. on your desktop.

Just by upgrading the memory and processor, you can speed up your machine. Go from a lime green Pinto to a fire engine red Ferrari.

All that and you didn't even check the bluebook value.

Addons for Firefox and I.E.

2008-08-29T14:48:00.004-04:00

Looking for some good Firefox extensions? Try these out for size......

Adblock Plus - Tired of advertisements on webpages? Use this to remove 95% of online ads.
Adblock Plus Filterset G - An addon for Adblock that automatically updates the anti-ad list.
BugMeNot - Ever try to visit a link on someone's site that requires registration? This bypasses registration with preconfigured registrations that allow you to access the site. Right click to activate.
Download Statusbar - Moves downloads to a dock at the bottom of the browser window.
FavIconizeTab - You know those favicons(icons that show up in the address bar) you see on certain websites? You can have them show in the tab, and set certain websites to show just the icon instead of the full page name. This is very handy if you view multiple pages.
FirefoxView - This is a sneaky little plugin. It actually adds a menu item into Internet Explorer, so that if you are in I.E., you can right click on a link and view it in Firefox.
Fierr - This replaces the standard error message you get when a webpage is unavailible (also known as 404 error) with a more helpful message, and some functional buttons as well. Back - Reload - Search.
Flagfox - adds an icon in the bottom right corner of the browser with a flag, showing what country the website you are viewing is in.
Flashblock - Turns off Adobe Flash on websites. You can right click the icon that shows instead of the flash, and select it off or on for preferred sites. I HIGHLY recommend this one, as some sites can enable malicious code within flash. Turn it on for sites you trust.
Forecastbar Enhanced - Adds local weather icons to your browser that give you the forecast whenever Firefox is opened. Gives Alerts, watches and warnings from Accuweather.com.
You can also download other icon sets from their website here.
FoxLingo - Ever go to a website, and find out it is in another language? Well fear not, Foxlingo will fix that. You can set it to automatically translate into English, or any language you prefer. Currently supports 46 languages.
IE Tab - Have a website that doesn't load properly because it was coded for Internet Explorer only? This addon will automatically switch rendering engines within Firefox. In other words, you can set it to open certain sites, and that site will think you are using I.E., even while you are still in Firefox.
More Tools Menu - This unclutters your TOOLS menu, and adds another menu option - More Tools. Of course, a handy thing to have if you start adding some of my suggestions listed here.
Morning Coffee - One of my favorites. This adds an icon to the toolbar that, when clicked, will automatically open your favorite websites in individual tabs. You can even set what pages load by day. One click, and you can now browse the news, and online comics you preset. Think of it as the newspaper with your morning coffee of the 21st century.
Redirect Remover - This one is a good one to have if you are like me and hate seeing links like (http://www.alternatepageididntwanttosee/index.php?=www.pageiwanted.com). The reason for this is it speeds up the browsing and also shows you the true link.
Remove It Permanently - This is another good one. With this, you can eliminate a lot of useless addons or graphics, or advertising on websites you don't want to see.

And to show that I am not an Internet Explorer hater, here is another tool for Internet Explorer only.

IE7 Pro -Includes Tabbed Browsing Management, Spell Check, Inline Search, Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser, Web Accelerator, User Agent Switcher, Webpage Capturer, AD Blocker, Flash Block, Greasemonkey like User Scripts platform, User Plug-ins, MiniDM, Google sponsored search,IE Faster and many more power packed features. You can customize not just Internet Explorer, but even your favorite website according to your need and taste using IE7Pro.

Brother, can you spare a USB drive?

2008-08-28T20:04:00.005-04:00

Got a spare USB drive? Who doesn't nowadays, since you can pick up a 1 gig drive at WalMart or other retailers for about 8 dollars. Well, let me turn you on to something I think is one of the greatest things going for the USB drive now.

Basically, it is an entire computer, on a protable drive. Here is a list of the applications that come with it.

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)
Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)
Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)
ClamWin Portable (antivirus)
Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)
Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader
KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager)
Sudoku Portable (game)
Mines-Perfect Portable (game)
CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)
OpenOffice.org Portable* (office suite)
- Writer (word processor)
- Calc (spreadsheet)
- Impress (presentations)
- Base (database utility)
- Draw (drawing)

Now, there are also other apps that you can download and add to the drive, but really, look at that list. Word Processor, Browser, Email, PDF reader.
I use it at work because I lot of our remote locations don't have Firefox, or an updated PDF reader. I can check my email without disturbing their email client, and can load my browser with all my bookmarks on it as well.

So whether you get a USB stick drive, or thumb drive, or whatever you want to call it, why not have your files in an easy an accessible way?

2008-08-17T23:54:00.002-04:00

Here recently I have had a lot of requests for webdesign work. So much that I have considered starting a web design business. Hows this for starters?

Well, it's a start. I decided on Eastern Carolina Webworks for now, so I can keep myself in this area. My father suggested that I go with something like East Coast, but, I think I am content to handle this end of the state for now. Besides, the only time I can work on these is in the evening, and I certainly can't handle the East Coast. Maybe later, after the business grows and becomes a full time venture, but for now, I am happy where I am.

2008-08-08T16:49:00.002-04:00

Want to keep your computer safe from Spyware and Viruses? Let me make a few suggestions.

First, switch to Firefox -- here
For additional security, get these addons for Firefox:

IETAB - allows you to switch between Firefox and IE within Firefox
Adblock Plus - Removes unwanted ads from webpages
adblock filterset.g - a large adware list that has a built in updater
Remove it permanently - remove embedded ads thate adblock misses
Flashblock - turns off flash advertising except the ones you specify
redirect remover - removes annoying double links that are built into some websites.

Now, download Spybot Search and Destroy - here
When you download and install this, run the updater, then activate the Immunizer

Next, get SpywareBlaster - here
Same as above. Update it, then enable all protection.

For a free AntiVirus solution, use Avast! - here
You will have to register it, but it is free. The only drawback is you have to re-register every year, but for free, it is the best all-around Antivirus program.

By using these few things, you will be able to lockdown your pc, and eliminate about 95% of viruses, spyware, and unwanted ads.

Virus? What virus?

2008-08-08T16:40:00.003-04:00

There has been a lot of discussion in the I.T. community lately about the DNS exploit. (DNS is a Domain Name System. Every website is recognized by a web address like 65.173.22.10, and the DNS is a way for people to type in www.ebay.com and the network knows that address points to 65.173.22.10. Think of it as a really big Phone Book for websites).

Anyway, the exploit deals with people with malicious intent to change the traffic, so that when you type in the address of your banks website, it points back to them instead. Pretty much all DNS servers are patched and can now deal with this. But I was looking in some tech forums and I saw someone who posted pretty much this response:

"I don't really see what the big deal is. It seems to me that every few months the IT industry cries about an exploit OOOH THE INTERNET IS IN TROUBLE!!! I don't see the problem, besides, how does this affect me?"

As a member of the I.T. community let me say Thank You to this person. It is people like you that keep us employed.

2008-08-07T14:35:00.003-04:00

Some of my earliest memories have been about video games, and computers. I guess it is no surprise that I am in the I.T. field now. Lets hit the rewind button, shall we?

"Sherman, set the wayback machine for 1977"

I would spend a few weeks each summer at my grandparents house. I would cut the grass, and they would give me $10 for doing it. My friends and I would then run off to Putt-Putt and the arcade, and play for hours. Then, one day, my parents brought this home:
Does that picture bring back memories? For a 7 year old kid, it was like the most magic thing I had ever seen. "You mean, all I have to do it plug in a cartridge and I can play a video game?"
I think I played Space Invaders for three or four hours straight after that.

Now, lets move the wayback machine a few years ahead to 1982. My dad brought home a VIC-20 from Commodore, but it wasn't the 64. So that night we packed it up and he brought this home:

Ahhh... The Commodore-64. 64 being the amount of memory. Although after the system loaded (it used memory) you were left with 38k free. (That is 38,000 bytes - The average computer memory now is 1 gig of memory, or 1 billion bytes.)

This system is where wasted youth went. The foundation of the operating system was BASIC (Beginners All Symbolic Instruction Code), so my time was spent writing programs. I remember that my father set this thing up in the pantry area where the kitchen table was in our house. The desk he had it on was an old metal desk, which he still uses today. Many an hour I stayed up at night writing and re-writing code, learning about pixels, and color codes, peeks and pokes.

I remember my dad would often say to me "Are you in there playing Donkey Kong?" so this last picture is for him.......

INSERT COIN

Home Again

2008-08-06T23:22:00.003-04:00

Hershey Park - 1 Emma -0
Winner this round - Hershey Park

Well, we made it back from our trip...and we are bushed. The total trip is about 7 hours. And I still spent about an hour a night working on the servers back at the office....

Anyway...time to get back into the swing of things. Oh I almost forgot. Before we left Hershey, we picked up some homemade cupcakes for our party at the beach. There is a mixture of Peanut butter, chocolate, and white frosting cupcakes. Emma picked out the peanut butter ones.

We want to do this trip again sometime. There was a lot at the park we missed. Plus I pointed out to Heather that we drove thru Spotsyvania, Fredricksburg and Manassas. It will be like a big Civil War themed trip..

Yeah, I didn't think she'd go for it either...but yeah, it was worth a shot.

Tuesday August 5th

2008-08-05T22:34:00.004-04:00

Today is the day we went to Chocolate World. It is an addition to Hershey Park, offering a history and a glimpse at how they make the candy, as well as a massive gift shop.

Here is a glimpse at how they make the Hershey's kisses. They have been making them pretty much the same way since 1907.

"Mommy and Daddy say they are gonna let me eat this, then go stay with grandma and grandpa"
One of the things we got to enjoy at the park was a chocolate taste testing. We sampled a variety of chocolate, including a selection of dark chocolates, as well as milk chocolate. We also learned the basic history and locations of the various cocoa plantations. I got a picture of the food we ate because I still enjoy picking on my sister. Here's to you, sis!

Monday, August 4th

2008-08-05T22:23:00.003-04:00

On monday we went to Hershey Park. Very nice theme park, originally started as a way for employees of the factory to relax. I wish we had more time to see everything, I felt we only saw a small part of the park. Emma got to enjoy herself on the kiddie rides. Nothing makes your heart smile as much as seeing a little one so happy.

"What do you mean our tickets crashed the computer, Unca Dan?"

"I thought YOU had a pilots license...."

"You must be at least this excited to ride".

In all fairness, the last one was taken at the end of the day. She was worn out and ready for a nap, but she would never admit that.

Sunday August 3rd

2008-08-05T22:05:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the delay in posting. Seems I've had trouble posting pictures from the hotel room.
Anyway, this is some of the photos from Saturday. We went to Easton, PA, and visited the Crayola Factory and Store. There are several floors of nothing but fingerpainting, arts & crafts, and all sorts of fun for kids in this place.

One of the things we go to see was a demonstration on how crayons are created. They made about 1000 crayons while we watched. They also demonstrated how crayola markers are made and assembled.

When we were in the store, they had on display the worlds largest crayon, that weighs in at 1,500 pounds, 15 feet tall, 16 inches wide. If you were to draw a continuous line, it would go 10 miles. It is equal to 123,000 regular crayons.

Who lives in a Pineapple under the.....wait, what do you mean the wrong intro song? Oh, excuse me......Dora Dora Dora, the Explorer! Guess who showed up the crayon factory? EMMA!! Oh, and Dora showed up too...

Dining Out

2008-08-02T22:21:00.003-04:00

Once we left the battlefield (Trust me, I have over a hundred more pictures, an hour of video, and I am not afraid to use them) we moved on to Harrisburg, PA. Just outside of Hershey's Park. For dinner tonight, we went to the Hershey Lodge, and ate at the Forebay.

It is incredible to walk into a hotel that smells of chocolate. It really sets the mood and theme of the hotel.

For dinner I had a lobster bisque and cocoa encrusted ribeye with a chocolate barbeque sauce. Heather enjoyed the bisque as well, but she opted for a chef salad. For dessert we shared a chocolate molten cake, and a puff pastry with vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate.

Nothing like a sugar overload to prepare us for Hershey Park. Tomorrow we go to Crayola Factory, and Chocolate World, followed up by a trolley ride thru town.

Living History at Gettysburg

2008-08-02T22:07:00.004-04:00

Who knew that 145 year old women would like me?
This was a reenactment of Union general Meades staff concerning the intelligence they had gathered on confederate positions and units in battle. Once they heard my southern accent, they were ready to toss me in the stockade as a spy. They let me go once they saw the destructive weapon I held in my hands.
The 124th New York was doing drills on the battlefield just north of Little Round Top. We got to see several live fire demonstrations, as well as drills commonly used by the soldiers.

2008-08-02T21:57:00.002-04:00

This is the Union side of the battlefield. In the middle of the screen on the left side (in the background) is Little Round Top.
This is where the North Carolina regiment made it to the wall at Gettysburg. That big tree in the background is the little dot of a tree I pointed out from the confederate view. The North Carolina boys would boast "First at Manassas, Furthest at Gettysburg, Last at Appomattox".
Hard to tell from this view, but off in the distance along the tree line is the NC Memorial. This view is from the Union lines looking back toward the confederate position. This is the vantage point seen from Union men who viewed Pickett's Charge.

2008-08-02T20:56:00.002-04:00

The Wheatfield. An area consisting of about 20 acres of land. And 4000 troops died trying to take this small patch of land. In the middle of the screen you can see Little Round Top. The extreme end of the Union line, defended by the 20th Maine. One of the most visited sites of the battlefield.
Here is the position the 20th Main had as they repelled wave after wave of southern forces. Eventually ending in a bayonet charge down the hill.
Here is a picture of something that makes a lot of noise, and a cannon.
Her mother and her really had very little interest in the battlefield, but they were happy to see daddy running around like a 10 year old in a Chuck E Cheese's.

First batch of pictures

2008-08-02T20:41:00.003-04:00

Artillery positions on the confederate side of the field. Southern forces had about 150 cannon, while union forces consisted of 120. It is hard to imagine what that many cannons firing would sound like.
The North Carolina Memorial at Gettysburg. Designed by Gutzon Borglum (who did Mt. Rushmore), it is considered one of the most beautiful and touching memorials at the park. During the battle, North Carolina troops consisted of about 25% of southern casualities. The statue is located in the edge of the woods where Rhodes brigade (southern commander of NC forces) came out and lined up for Picketts charge.
Picketts Charge, as seen from the confederate line. See that little clump of trees near the middle of the screen on the left side? That was the destination of southern forces during the march. Final destination, 1.5 miles away across open field.

2008-08-01T22:41:00.007-04:00

Well, we made it to the hotel. We are about two miles from the battlefield itself. Since we got a later start than expected (we left at about 1:30pm) we arrived at a little after 8pm. Not bad considering traffic was backed up a while in DC due to a wreck.

Anyway, the hotel itself. There is only one word that comes to mind when I think of this hotel.

WOW!!!!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves below (Heather booked this in advance for my birthday. Is my wife awesome or what?)

One of the Grand Hallways in the hotel. I'll try to get shots of the grand entrance.

The bedroom is in a different room altogether.

I cannot describe in words how soft the bedsheets and pillows are.

A flatscreen HDTV for the room. It also contains an area for memory card plugins, so you can view your pictures.

There was a bug we found in the bed. Not sure if we should call the front desk, or just let the critter be.

Tomorrow we start off at 8:00am, with a personal tour guide, then follow up with a movie about the battle. If Heather and Emma haven't left me, we will go to the living history section of the battlefield.

2008-08-01T01:40:00.003-04:00

'Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Today we will be enjoying the sights and sounds that is Gettysburg. Please keep your hands and feet inside the tram at all times. Ladies, watch your step, this isn't Minnesota...'

We were able to make arrangements and get a Licensed Battlefield Guide to give us a personal tour around the park. We opted for a two hour tour (seems that a three hour tour didn't fare so well for Gilligan). The Guide will drive our vehicle around the park, and stop at designated points along the route. After that we will take in a movie about the battle. Also going on this weekend is Living History at the park. Reenactors will be onhand to show what life was like for the common solider.

Now, onto the Audio/Video section of our little outing. Did I mention that we are bringing along a camcorder, two digital cameras, two USB camera cables, a video output cable and a laptop? All I am missing is the uplink to NASA's satellites in orbit to instantly send information back home.

Maybe next time.

A little history on Gettysburg before we go

2008-08-01T01:19:00.004-04:00

From the Wikipedia article:

The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 – July 3, 1863), fought in, and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of the Gettysburg Campaign, was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is frequently cited as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.

The two armies had suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing). Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors cite about 28,000 overall casualties, but Busey and Martin's definitive 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing).

2008-07-30T21:26:00.002-04:00

This cartoon is one of my favorites. It reminds me of some of the field work I have had to do in the past.

Starting up the blog

2008-07-30T16:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, I figured it was time to go ahead and fire up a blog, since the trip to Gettysburg and Hershey PA is coming up.

I'll post information on here and update any new information from the trip. Since I can download video and pictures, they will be on here as well..