Saturday, May 9, 2009

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Entry for October 30, 2007
Conspiracy Theory opus

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Tuesday October 30, 2007 - 10:06am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
The RX321
The RX321 magnify
No one has dedicated a web site or page to this radio. I think I will, though with fewer than 100 of them produced I don't expect much traffic.

Mostly it is a matter of a subject I know a bit about that no one else has exploited, at least as far as I can find out. I really wish Google's news search wasn't so crippled!

I put out a request for information on Usenet/Yahoo, I guess I'll see what shows up.

I have a VERY-VERY-VERY-rough page now with a very raw info dump on it.



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Monday October 29, 2007 - 11:27am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Just Pottering About.
Just Pottering About. magnify
This is almost as hobbit-forming as Tolkien



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Monday October 29, 2007 - 10:22am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
The Forces Of Change
According to the Knight-Ridder News Service, the inscription on the metal bands used by the United States Department of the Interior to tag migratory birds has been changed.

The small metal bands used to bear the address of the Washington Biological Survey, which was abbreviated: "Wash. Biol. Surv." until recently when the agency received a letter from an Arkansas outdoorsman.

The letter read: "Dear sirs, While camping last week I shot one of your birds. I think it was a crow. I followed the cooking instructions on the leg tag, and I want to tell you, it was horrible."

The bands are now marked "Fish and Wildlife Service."



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Sunday October 28, 2007 - 09:19pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 1 Comment
Chile Sans Carne

I'd like to try it sometime. Swiped from Simply Recipes.

Spicy Vegetarian Chili Recipe

Filed under Main Course, Vegetable, Vegetarian, Wheat-free

Spicy Vegetarian Chili

Those of you who have been reading Simply Recipes for a while probably sense (rightly) that my father is a committed carnivore. Thus you may appreciate that dad, spending an afternoon making this vegetarian chili with vegetables that he had bought at the farmers market that morning, would only put so much care into a meat-free chili main course, his dinner, if that chili were darn good. This vegetable chili is that good. It's excellent. Spicy, flavorful, delicious. Of course my mother did have to convince dad that no, we didn't need steak in addition to the chili, the beans were full of protein. And no, neither did we need potatoes. We served the chili with French bread.

1 1-pound eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes
Olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, inced
2 medium zucchini, diced
2 large red bell peppers, cored, seeded, diced
1 to 2 jalapeño peppers, seeded, finely minced (Taste and check the heat of the jalapeños. If very hot only use one, if mildly hot, use two. Wash hands with soap and water after handling. Do not rub eyes.)
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine
1-2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp fresh chopped oregano or 2 teaspoons dried
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 1/2 cup cooked white beans (1 15-ounce can, drained and rinsed)
1 1/2 cup cooked kidney beans (1 15-ounce can, drained and rinsed)
Zest of one lemon
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Place cubed eggplant into small, shallow roasting pan. Toss with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, stirring once. Remove from oven, set aside.

2 Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil on medium heat in a 5-6 quart Dutch oven. Add onions, cook for 4 minutes. Add garlic, cook for a minute more. Add zucchini, red bell peppers, and jalapeños. Cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

3 Coarsely chop the canned tomatoes, add to pot with their liquid. Add wine, cumin oregano, and fennel seeds. Add chili powder to desired heat. Gently stir in reserved eggplant, simmer for 20 minutes over low heat.

4 Add beans, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, and cilantro. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve with sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, and chopped green onions.

Serves 8-10.
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Another Freeware Great!
Another Freeware Great! magnify

NetPenguin

NetPenguin consists of 12 network utilities that offer a large viriety of network administration and monitoring services. It includes the following functions: SysInfo, Tracert, Ping Scanner, IP Scanner, IP Query, Port Scanner, Connections, Network Neighborhood, Packet Sniffer, DNS Query, TCP/IP Stat and ARP.


Another good Freeware site, too.


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Sunday October 28, 2007 - 03:38pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
End Times
From Scientific American:

News

October 26, 2007

The World Is Not Enough for Humans

Humanity's environmental impact has reached an unprecedented scope, and it's getting worse
By David Biello


E-mail ArticleE-mail Print ViewPrint RSSRSS StumbleIt digg redditURL = location.href + '&sc=atbr' reddit nvURL = location.href + '&sc=atbnv' newsvine
Image Science Image: hot-earth
Image Image: ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
Image ONE WORLD: The Earth cannot support the demands humanity is placing on it, according to the United Nations Environmental Program.

Since 1987 annual emissions of carbon dioxide—the leading greenhouse gas warming the globe—have risen by a third, global fishing yields have declined by 10.6 million metric tons and the amount of land required to sustain humanity has swelled to more than 54 acres (22 hectares) per person. Yet, Earth can provide only roughly 39 acres (15 hectares) for every person living today, according to the United Nation's Environmental Program's (UNEP) Global Environment Outlook, released this week. "There are no major issues," the report's authors write of the period since their first report in 1987, "for which the foreseeable trends are favorable."

Despite some successes—such as the Montreal Protocol's 95 percent reduction in chemicals that damage the atmosphere's ozone layer and a rise in protected reserves of habitat to cover 12 percent of the planet—humanity's impact continues to grow. For example:


Biodiversity—The planet is in the grips of the sixth great extinction in its 4.5-billion-year history, this one largely man-made. Species are becoming extinct 100 times faster than the average rate in the fossil record. More than 30 percent of amphibians, 12 percent of birds and 23 percent of our own class, mammals, are threatened.


Climate—Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.76 degree Celsius) over the past century and could increase as much as 8.1 degrees F (4.5 degrees C) over the next unless "drastic" steps are taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from, primarily, burning fossil fuels. Developed countries will need to reduce this globe-warming pollution by 60 to 80 percent by mid-century to stave off dire consequences, the report warns. "Fundamental changes in social and economic structures, including lifestyle changes, are crucial if rapid progress is to be achieved."


Food—The amount of food grown per acre has reached one metric ton, but such increasing intensity is also driving rapid desertification of formerly arable land as well as reliance on chemical pesticides and fertilizers. In fact, four billion out of the world's 6.5 billion people could not get enough food to eat without such fertilization. Continuing population growth paired with a shift toward eating more meat leads the UNEP to predict that food demand may more than triple.


Water—One in 10 of the world's major rivers, including the Colorado and the Rio Grande in the U.S., fail to reach the sea for at least part of the year, due to demand for water. And that demand is rising; by 2025, the report predicts, demand for fresh water will rise by 50 percent in the developing world and 18 percent in industrialized countries. At the same time, human activity is polluting existing fresh waters with everything from fertilizer runoff to pharmaceuticals and climate change is shrinking the glaciers that provide drinking water for nearly one third of humanity. "The escalating burden of water demand," the report says, "will become intolerable in water-scarce countries."


The authors—388 scientists reviewed by roughly 1,000 of their peers—view the report as "an urgent call for action" and decry the "woefully inadequate" global response to problems such as climate change. "The amount of resources needed to sustain [humanity] exceeds what is available," the report declares.

"The systematic destruction of the earth's natural and nature-based resources has reached a point where the economic viability of economies is being challenged," Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director, said in a statement. "The bill we hand our children may prove impossible to pay."
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Sunday October 28, 2007 - 02:42pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Bullies & Retaliators
Bullies & Retaliators magnify
Interesting writeup at Classicvalues.

I remember school bullies all too well, and I know first-hand the fantasies they produce in their victims. If schools cracked down on bullys like they do on dress codes and other plitz, there might be less kids who crack under the cionstant stress of their "peers".

Maybe I am an oddball, but I think that bullies and abusive folks deserve to get what they have given, and the ones that deliver it to them deserve mercy & sympathy more than they do condemnation.

When I was fully grown, I confronted those that bullied me as a child. It was satisfying.



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Sunday October 28, 2007 - 02:32pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Entry for October 28, 2007
andycapp


ernest
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Sunday October 28, 2007 - 12:40pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Good beer, Too!

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the

animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel

nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest

lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."


Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

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Entry for October 27, 2007
Ain't it the truth, though?
\
nerdity
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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 10:50pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Shortcuts

Mental Math Shortcuts

60 mph = 1 mile per minute

Feet Per Second = MPH * 1.5

MPH = Feet Per Second * 2/3

speed of light = 1 foot per nanosecond

1 year = 250 work days = 2000 work hours

$1/hour = $2000/year

$20/week = $1000/year

Rule of 72: Years To Double = 72/Interest Rate

10,000 = hundred hundred

million = thousand thousand

billion = thousand million

trillion = million million

2^6 = 64 (the sixes match: six and sixty-four)

2^10 ~ thousand (1 kb)

2^20 ~ million (1 mb)

2^30 ~ billion (1 gb)

a% of b = b% of a
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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 10:45pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Book Stuff
From LibrarianChick

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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 10:11pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
To Carry on the Cause . . .
To Carry on the Cause . . . magnify
Here is a stolen copy of Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book"

Enjoy!



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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 09:53pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Radios I have Owned
Radios I have Owned magnify
Tentec/Global Wireless RX-321

RX320
Tentec RX-320

frog-7=
Yaesu Frg-7 (Frog-7)


Sony
Sony ICF-2010


DX-440
Radio Shack DX-440


Hallicrafters
Hallicrafters S110
Zenith
Zenith Transoceanic


Zenith
The Zenith Console




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Another Hobby
Another Hobby magnify
Shortwave listening.

I got hooked on that when I was given on old Zenith console radio that had some shortwave bands. I still remember the late winter night when I heard the first station - HCJB, The Voice Of The Andes, from Quito, Ecuador. It was a thrill.

Eventually I was given a Hallicrafter's SW radio, not a lot better than the Zenith, but a lot smaller, and I used it for years.

Shortly after the FRG-7 came out, I got one, and still have it, much modified. (A Gilfer digital readout, a fine-tuning control, an extra-narrow filter, etc were added at various times.) It was, and is, a good middle-of-the-road reciever, and is obviously still popular enough to rate its own Wikipedia entry entry. I use mine almost daily for casual listening.

Now, I use a very limited-edition radio that is an improvement of the TenTec RX320 "black box" radio. It is pictured above.

Here are some details:

The RX321 was based on the RX320 and was built by Tentec to specifications for Globe Wireless for a shipboard project.

The RX321 is slightly larger than the RX320 to accommodate a larger RF front end board & includes a mounting bracket for mounting on a bulkhead or table.

The intermod specs are improved. The RX320 is spec'd at 3rd order at +10 dBm while the RX321 is spec'd at +15 dBm. The second order intercept of the RX321 is spec'd at +60 dBM while the RX320 is not specified.

The oscillators are ovenized in the RX321 and specced at +/- 10 Hz over 0 to 40 degrees C.

The antenna connector is an SO-239 on the RX321 instead of the RCA plug on the RX320 and there is no internal antenna.

The DC power is shown as 12-24VDC on the RX321 instead of the unspecified power on the RX320 using a wall-wart. The RX321 includes a whole power distribution PC board.

DC power and the speaker connect via a terminal strip on the RX321 instead of phone plugs and DC coaxial connectors.

Remote audio line out on the RX321 is a balanced, center tapped transformer. The RX321 has a power LED and a rugged power switch.

The DSP board is slightly different with a different part number and different EPROM identifier.

The bottom line is better stability, more accurate frequency readout, much better sensitivity at lower ferequencies and less problems with overloading from nearby AM stations.



These radios were offered at less than 2/3 the cost of a new RX-320, and were a real bargain. There were probably less than a hundred of them made and they offer the abilities of radios costing thousands of dollars more.

Shortwave is dying now, killed by the internet. Many of the international broadcasters are gone now. There is more challenge in hearing things, but there is still a lot of fun to be had on the airways if you want to take the time to listen.



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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 05:00pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Another Priceless Tool Set
Another Priceless Tool Set magnify
Whenever I set up a new machine, one of the first things I install is 4NT, followed soon by Take Command, my fellow dinosaurs.

"4NT and Take Command are the best dinosaurs ever. They let you do all sorts of things in a few keystrokes that you can't do in a graphical shell and cmd.exe never thought of."

My first computer ran DOS 3, the first programs I wrote were simple batch files. As nice as XP is and as much as my computer useage has evolved, I still use batch files for many processes.

"We give you the most flexible and powerful command line available anywhere. Each of our products is a comprehensive command line tool designed to make the C:\> prompt truly productive, easy to use, and far more powerful. Each offer similar benefits -- major productivity enhancements to standard commands like COPY and DIR, more than 100 new commands, improved command line editing, and thousands of other features for work at the command prompt. In addition, they are powerful batch file programming tools, providing extensions such as DO loops, error and exception handling, block-structured logic, a powerful integrated batch debugger, third-party plugins, and over 300 built-in variables and functions. 4NT and Take Command offer similar capabilities and features. They only differ based on whether they are a Console Mode or a Graphical User Interface (GUI) application."

I use both, upgrade them every other release or so as they put in new features I like. The support forums are great, and the products are under constant development.



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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 10:49am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Who will lead the leaders?

House Panel Screw-Up Reveals Whistleblower Email Addresses

But in an email sent out today, the committee inadvertently sent the email addresses of all the would-be whistleblowers to everyone who had written in to the tipline. The committee email was sent to tipsters who had used the website form, including presumably whistleblowers themselves, and all of the recipients of the email were accidentally included in the "to:" field -- instead of concealing those addresses with a so-called blind carbon copy or "bcc:".

I am afraid we are beyond help, government-wise. Corruption & incompetence.





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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 10:21am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
360 post
360 post magnify
Me too!
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Saturday October 27, 2007 - 09:12am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Now Reading . . .
Now Reading . . . magnify
Now And Then

Parker writes good books more often than the title indicates - all of his books are good.

This is one of the ''Spenser" series, my favorite. The "Jesse Stone" series is also good. The "Sunny Randall" series is further down on my list, I suppose because of the female protagonist, though the tone of the series is a little darker than the others. I never outgrew fairy tales and prefer the "happily ever after" endings.

His westerns are excellent, deeper than L'amour, historically accurate, great reading.



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We Are From The Government, Here To Help You!
Except for the red tape, huh?

Bureaucracy hampered initial Calif. fire efforts

"LOS ANGELES - As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

How much the aircraft would have helped will never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises troubling questions about California’s preparations for a fire season that was widely expected to be among the worst on record.

It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry “fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly."

We tie our hands with our over-lawyered rules. Too much of the world (our part of it, anyway) is regulated by the fear of lawsuits. Make a wrong decision on a fire, be sued.

Lawsuits are the great American lottery, played by lawyers against lawyers, with the rest of us as the losers.



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Friday October 26, 2007 - 10:29am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 1 Comment
Mixed Thoughts
Half-baked and overstirred! If I could spell poopooree (pot poury?) I'd a titled it that.

1. November is National Novel Writing Month - NaNoWriMo.

2. To go with that - here are 30+ Tools For The Amateur Writer.

3. - Jump! If I was in charge...

I'd legalize drugs, and tax to the max for them. We are losing the drug war big time, so why not try to treat drugs like tobacco and make money instead of spending a fortune for nothing? Legalizing (retroactively) would take a big load off of the prison and court systems and would take most of the profit out of the drug trade, and that should solve a few problems too.

I'd dump most of the weapons control laws nationwide & make it legal for anyone to carry a concealed weapon anywhere. I know from both observation and very personal experience that possession of a weapon deters crime. Statisically, how often does law enforcement show up in time to prevent bodily harm to an innocent person? They do a fine job of catching the baddies afterwards, but prevention is close to impossible.

Yes, some innocent folks would die. So would a lot of bad folks. Bad folks don't like the idea of getting hurt or killed either, they prefer prey that is helpless. Prey that isn't helpless isn't prey, by definition. Look at what happens when restrictive weapons laws pass - the crime rate jumps.

Convicted felons? They supposedly served their debt to society, let's give them all their rights back.

4. Jump! Woof was able to scratch his head for the first time since the operation - though granted all he could reach was his nose. At least it is progress. Once he recovers from the operation we will see about getting his arthritis treated. Dr. Calm in Kila has a good record of treating it with acupuncture, we may give her a try.

5. Jump! Supper with larry at Nickel Charlie's. Very nice since they remodeled, and very good food at good prices.

6. FINIS! (and aren't you glad?)



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Thursday October 25, 2007 - 04:29pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 2 Comments
Imprisoned Innocence
Innocent man shares his 22-year prison struggle

It would be nice if: A: this solution below would work, and B: all the different jurisdictions would follow the procedure.

"To prevent more tragedies like Williams', innocence projects in many states, including Georgia, have begun pressing lawmakers to adopt special witness ID procedures called sequential double-blind lineups. Such lineups are administrated by officials who don't know who the suspect is and present each member of a lineup one-by-one instead of simultaneously.

Witnesses who see several potential suspects simultaneously are more likely to choose a person who looks most like the perpetrator -- but who may not actually be the perpetrator, according to the Innocence Project. The group also cites research that says misidentification is reduced if the person overseeing the lineup is "blind" to which person in the lineup is the suspect."

Of course, automatic acquittal if DNA evidence wasn't a perfect match would help too. As long as there are Mike Nifong's working in our judicial system I don't hold out much hope for reform, though.

The Innocence Project should actually be getting federal assistance for the great work they are doing, and some of the Hollywood celebs might comsider donating a few of their dollars towards it too.

I also note that some states are granting innocently imprisoned folks a mere $20,000 per year for the time they were in jail. In my opinion, a fairer price would be well in excess of $100,000 per year - enough to compensate a little for the lost years of life plus enough financial impact on the jurisdiction that messed up to make to make DAs's think twice about pressing charges. It might encourage police departments to make sure their procedures are up to par too.

No use holding your breath, though. There is a lot of entrenched incompetence and laziness in all levels of our government from local through federal - probably too much to ever reform or uproot.


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Thursday October 25, 2007 - 03:28pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Old Blue
Old Blue magnify
Typical of the old American male, I guess. We get attached to our vehicles, christen them, cuss at them when they fail, praise them when they bring you out of a tough spot and totally anthropomorphize them,

Old Blue is a 1993 Dodge Dakota SLT. 4x4, V8, AT, Cruise, PS, PB, would be the way an ad for him would read. A/C is all it lacks.

I knew I wanted an early-model Dakota because of the mid size, and I knew I wanted V8 power and cruise control for the highway. I wanted the extended cab for cargo space.

The problem was finding one that was affordable.

I bought the truck in 2003 at a small lot here in town called Chris' Auto, now departed. I made the purchase at the end of December, after Christmas, when rumor says car lots are more willing to deal. In this case, the rumors were true., and the savings were well over 30%.

I got the topper from a customer and a friend built the roof rack for me. The same friend remodeled some used trailer hitches I was given and installed them as front & rear trailer hitches.

I added fog lights & running lights to compensate for the crummy factory headlights. (plastic lenses, which cloud with age. Not a good design choice!)

I put in a heavy duty deep-cycle battery & a 110V converter (also purchased used).

Over the last four years I have had to replace the radiator, water pump, and ball joints.

I would class Old Blue as the most enjoyable vehicle i have ever owned, fast & comfortable for the highway, tough & reliable for off-road.



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Thursday October 25, 2007 - 12:09pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Dead Heat
Dead Heat magnify
I finally finished this latest Francis hardcover. I made it last as long as I could.

I am going to have to read it again to be sure, but I rate it as "middle of the pack" for his books, and definitely not a Dead Heat for first place.

It is okay, but not as good as many of his are. I think it is obvious he is still out of practice from his six year layoff, and his son Felix isn't quite ready to pick up the reins yet.

Plot was good, characters were good, but development and wrapup were not as authentic and rounded as his earlier books.

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Semen & Seamen
"October 22, 2007: About 15 percent of U.S. Navy sailors are female, and 14 percent of them are single mothers. Overall, 38 percent of all female sailors have children. Caring for a child is more difficult for a single mother, so the navy now gives all new mothers twelve months guaranteed work ashore. Until recently, new mothers only had four months of that, before they were again eligible for assignment to a ship at sea. At any given time, about 14 percent of female sailors are pregnant. It's lower (about 11 percent) for women at sea, and they are sent back to a shore job once they are about halfway through their pregnancy. This causes bad feelings on the ship, because some women openly admit to using the pregnancy to get out of finishing the cruise. This is made worse by the fact that a replacement is usually not available for months, or until the ship returns to port."

Read the whole article.



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Wednesday October 24, 2007 - 12:48pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 2 Comments
Logitech G15 features
Logitech G15 features magnify
Here is a quick visual of the two versions. From the reviews, the main differences seems to be less macro keys, no rotating knob for volume control and a physically smaller fixed LCD.

I suspect that the changes were made to reduce manufacturing costs as much as to reduce the desktop footprint width (by two inches!) to fit keyboard trays. Since the new unit is higher priced (at the moment) Logitech's per-unit profit should increase.

I do like the new orange lighting better than I do the blue of the older model, but I am one of the minority that really likes the old-style flip-up LCD. It is nice to have an LCD that disappears when you want it to and that you can adjust the angle of to get rid of glares or reflections.

There are prettier keyboards out there, like the Deck, more gadget-laden like the Ideazon, and macro-recording like my old Gateway2000 but so far (AFAIK) Logitech is unique in the use of the keyboard LCD. (A unique feature of the old Gateway that I will miss is that the macro recording is hardwired into the KB, and you can assign any key to be any other key.)

The applets I mentioned in my previous G15 post are ones I have wished for a number of times, it is nice to have them available.



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Wednesday October 24, 2007 - 11:13am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
The Secret Of life
The Secret Of life magnify
Though actually, everyone cares - but usually just about themselves.

This applies even more strongly to politicians and celebrities.



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Wednesday October 24, 2007 - 10:41am (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
G15 Keyboard
G15 Keyboard magnify
This KB intriques me in terms of the things that are being done to utilize the LCD. There are a lot of mods and applets out there. Here are the ones I use.
G15 TeamSpeak 1.11
An addon/plugin written for the Logitech G15 keyboard with attached LCD that interfaces with TeamSpeak to display current speakers, channel and other information on the LCD display.
SirReal's Panel
  • Customizable display of weekday, date and time.
  • Shows number of unread mails as icons (max 5) (if your mail client supports it)
  • Displays CPU usage (supports up to four CPU's, both Intel and AMD).
  • Shows the memory load.
  • Shows inbound (top) and outbound (bottom) network traffic volume
  • Shows network inbound/outbound network load over the last ten seconds, and/or total data sent and received.
  • World clock with daylight savings support and user selectable time zones
  • Speaker switcher, switch between speakers and headphones with a click
  • Displays sound volume and speakers muted status
  • Stopwatch with lap time (click to start/lap, long-click to reset/stop)
  • Detects unresponsive programs and allows you to kill them
  • TeamSpeak2 integration: Shows speakers, player count (channel with large font, server with small font), arriving and leaving players, mic mute status, self speaking status, channel changes. Click to mute/unmute mic. Long-click to show who's in the active channel.
  • WinAMP integration: Shows new song name when song changes. Shows remaining play time and average bitrate. Click to re-display current song.
  • Foobar2000: supports the WinAMP spam component.
  • FRAPS integration: Shows the current FPS.
  • SpeedFan integration: Shows user selectable values from SpeedFan (temperatures, fan speeds, voltages).
  • iTunes integration: Shows new song name when song changes. Shows remaining play time and average bitrate. Click to re-display current song.
Everest
The ultimate diagnostic tool. I use it to display the CPU core temps, GPU temps, MB temp, date & time.

Miranda g15
This plugin enables you to use many of Miranda's functions from your Logitech G15's LCD display.
Viewing your contactlist or chatting with contacts while playing your favorite mmorpg or rts - this plugin makes it possible :)
Features:
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- typing notifications
- customizable fonts
- Display notifications of messages / contact list events / protocol events
- Browse through the last events
- contact list view (supporting groups/subgroups)
- scrollable Chat sessions ( replying during a running game, or any other application possible)
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I really like the fact that you can set it up so that the applet that wants attention is the one that shows on the LCD. More on all this later in a commentable post - this one doesn't allow comments.
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Tuesday October 23, 2007 - 02:09pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Woof Happy
Woof Happy magnify
Back in his favorite chair again.



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The Better Choice
The Better Choice magnify
Linux: It's not Windows, but it's not weird, it's wonderful. It's better, and it's Free!

In fact, the differences between Linux & Windows seem pretty subtle when you look at the desktop. If you can navigate the Windows start menu & desktop, you will feel comfortable in Linux. If you are into Geekitude, you will love the infinite depths of possible tweaks and add-ons. If you are a habitual computer user, you will LOVE the stability and reliability. (Linux machines have run for years in daily use without rebooting - try that in Windoze!)

Most packages come with every program you might ever need in the install package, from IM to graphics to web browsing to advanced math to . . ., well, to just about anything anyone wants to use a computer for, including office & gaming. (Note that many of the popular games like Quake Wars are being released for Linux as well as Windoze!) If you think you can't get by without Microsoft Office, take a look at OpenOffice. (Read about it there - but get it here.)

If you don't want to take the whole plunge at once, you can have Linux set itself up so that when you boot you have the choice of going into Windows or Linux. This way you can go back and forth between the operating systems till you decide how well Linux fits your style.

Linux comes in several flavors, with a few advantages or drawbacks to each, but most of them are now user-friendly and ready to roll right out of the box.

For an idea of the difficulty of installation, HERE is a good tutorial for Ubuntu Linux. HERE is a good article on setting up Opensuse. HERE is the homepage for Mandriva, which has been touted as the best choice for folks used to Windows.

Do I use Linux? Yes, but not on my main machine at the moment. I use Mandriva on a backup box however, and have downloaded the latest Opensuse to put on a third machine. The main drawback for me is that CorelDraw, which I rely on, is no longer ported to Linux. (There are equivalent programs in Linux, but I have ten years worth of stuff in CDR format that I sometimes need to re-edit)

"TRY IT! YOU’LL LIKE IT!" was an old Alka-Seltzer TV commercial, but I'll say the same for Linux. TRY IT! YOU’LL LIKE IT!



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Monday October 22, 2007 - 03:33pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Woof: Doing Well
He navigated the stairs yesterday. Slowly, but it was what he wanted to do.

No swelling, little redness, he is pretty much back to normal already, though he still has a long way to go to be healed.

The vet called a bit ago to see how he was doing. They were worried that the wound might still be draining, and were happy to hear that it wasn't.

Woof has had several well-wishers stop by to see how he is doing - including two who slipped in last night while I was gone to give him a treat.



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Monday October 22, 2007 - 12:39pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Why I Liked Chocolate - Or Not
Why I Liked Chocolate - Or Not magnify
What is mere chocolate compared to a fresh-out-of-the-oven apple crisp accompanied by double-vanilla ice cream? NOTHING! That's what.

Neighbor Child, you are a WONDERFUL cook.



P.S. Woof & Rocky think you are okay too.

:)



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Sunday October 21, 2007 - 08:35pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Hilary's Pets
Hear about her pets?

AS THE “first pet” of the Clinton era, Socks, the White House cat, allowed “chilly” Hillary Clinton to show a caring, maternal side as well as bringing joy to her daughter Chelsea. So where is Socks today?

Once the presidency was over, there was no room for Socks any more. After years of loyal service at the White House, the black and white cat was dumped on Betty Currie, Bill Clinton’s personal secretary, who also had an embarrassing clean-up role in the saga of his relationship with the intern Monica Lewinsky.

Some believe the abandoned pet could now come between Hillary Clinton and her ambition to return to the White House as America’s first woman president. . . . Being Clinton, she also lectured readers that pets are an “adoption instead of an acquisition” and warned them to look out for their safety. (Buddy, the chocolate labrador, it should be noted, bounded into a road soon after leaving the White House and was promptly run over.)


(Swiped from the Instapundit)


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Sunday October 21, 2007 - 12:11pm (MDT) Edit | Delete | Permanent Link | 0 Comments
Need a Fact?
Need a Fact? magnify
Check this out. Refdesk might be the best reference site on the net. If you can't find it there, you probably won't find it in a library. From calculators to quotations, from phone books to phonetics, here it is.



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