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Newsletter 6-24-07
Earthquakes, now much has been said recently because we have had so many other weather related issues around our world. The USGS has just about everything you ever wanted to know about earthquakes, like largest is the US, largest in the world, earliest reported, and much more. Cruise over to the following site increase your knowledge of earthquakes.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/facts.php
The RIAA and MPAA trot out their spokespeople at conferences and public events all over the country, repeating their misleading talking points. Innovators are pirates, fair use is theft, the sky is falling, up is down, and so on. Their rhetoric shouldn’t be given a free pass. To that end, EFF has prepared a sample list of tough questions for times when you hear entertainment industry representatives speaking and want to challenge their positions. Find out what you can do and how to help the EFF fight unfair Digital Rights Management.
http://www.eff.org/IP/faq/
GRIN (Great Images In NASA) is a collection of over a thousand images of significant historical interest scanned at high-resolution in several sizes. This collection is intended for the media, publishers, and the general public looking for high-quality photographs. Please note that downloading these image files may take some time, although searching and browsing should be relatively quick. GRIN was established to help journalists, publishers, educators, authors and the general public find high-quality historical photos. Photos were selected both for their historical importance and their visual impact. This is a large collection and understanding how to browse GRIN efficiently will save you a lot of time. So take time to read the FAQ.
http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/howtouse.html
Since 1971, Nolo’s goal has been simple: To make America’s legal system accessible to everyone. With hundreds of top quality, plain-English legal products, we’ve helped make that happen. Every year, over 10 million people turn to Nolo to save billions of dollars. Thank you for your support. Ok, so some of their products cost money, but there is still al lot of free legal advice at this site and it is a worthwhile visit.
http://www.nolo.com/
All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy. So check out this large selection of free games from Yahoo. Time to relax and have a little fun for a while. I am sure you will find something here that will entertain you for a few minutes if not for hours.
http://games.yahoo.com/arcade-games
The National Park Service was created by an Act signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, l9l6. Yellowstone National Park was established by an Act signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on March l, l872, as the Nation’s first national park. The National Park System comprises 391 areas covering more than 84 million acres in every state (except Delaware), the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These areas include national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. Now you have a quick overview of the web site so why not take a trip to one of our National Parks for vacation this year.
http://www.nps.gov/
Investing in your home on your street could be more profitable than investing on Wall Street. 
This site will help you find resources to make your home more energy efficient. Basically this site was developed to help you successfully capitalize on the energy savings opportunities identified by the Energy Advisor module. You’ll find a host of links to practical information, ranging from lists of specific efficient products … to tips about selecting a good contractor … to information on what assistance your utility might have to offer.
http://hes.lbl.gov/
“The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.”
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Newsletter 6-17-07
Happy Father’s day to all the dads reading this issue.
The idea of Father’s Day was conceived by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., while she listened to a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm. A day in June was chosen for the first Father’s Day celebration — June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane’s mayor because it was the month of Smart’s birth. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.
Recent laws in the US have opened up records to the public. There is a good starting point to find any public record you might need now or in the future. This site provides links to criminal records, civil court records, marriage records, divorce records, real and personal property records, recorded documents, jail and inmate records, sex offender records, wanted persons records, and many more free public records. The site also offer a Google Public Records toolbar is you so desire.
http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/
If you’re looking for information on cutting calories and fat in your diet, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, or your favorite low-calorie, reduced-fat foods and beverages (and the ingredients that make them possible), just cruise on over to Calorie Control Council. Here you will find a online calorie counter, a “get moving” counter that will tell you how many calories you burn by doing different types of exercise, a body mass index calculator, and a weight maintenance calculator. Too much calorie counting for me but it may help you.
http://www.caloriecontrol.org/
StateMaster, is a unique statistical database which allows you to research and compare a multitude of different data on US states. They have compiled information from various primary sources such as the US Census Bureau, the FBI, and the National Center for Educational Statistics. More than just a mere collection of various data, StateMaster goes beyond the numbers to provide you with visualization technology like pie charts, maps, graphs and scatter plots. They also have thousands of map and flag images, state profiles, and correlations. They also have stats on everything from toothless residents to percentage of carpoolers.
http://www.statemaster.com/index.php
After you visit StateMaster you might want to go over to The Kaiser Family Foundation web site which also has a good resource on state health facts. This site carries the latest news headlines on health facts from each state along with all Health coverage, Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance, minority health, women’s health, and everything else related to state health facts.
http://statehealthfacts.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi
Since we are covering health facts, we can’t leave out the AARP. AARP brings you quality health information from its own experts and from a host of trusted leading sources. The information provided under Health Conditions is intended to help you play an active role in managing your health. You will find reliable, easy-to-use information about conditions and treatments, medications, medical tests, self-help groups, the importance of quality in healthcare and much more.
http://www.aarp.org/health/healthguide/
We can’t leave out our children. The Seattle Children’s Hospital offers guidelines (topics) that are intended to help you determine how sick your child is and if you need to call your child’s doctor. Their second purpose is to help you treat your child at home when it is safe to do so. There site is laid out in an easy to find sections on what physical area the problem concerns.
http://www.seattlechildrens.org/child_health_safety/health_advice/
I saved the best health site for last. eHealthInsurance.com is a great site for comparing insurance coverage from multiple vendors. You can get quotes, compare coverage, for individual or families, business coverage, and just about any other type of coverage you may need. I found the best part of the site is comparing coverage from multiple vendors. It is really hard to compare coverage most of the time but this site cuts down to the bare essentials and compares each line item so you can have a very accurate picture of what each vendor offers and the costs associated with that coverage.
https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/
“Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life. If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.”
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Newsletter 6-10-07
StoryCorps is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record one another’s stories in sound. StoryCorps is made possible with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Carnegie Corporation. WNYC Radio is the public radio sponsor of StoryCorps-Grand Central. StoryCorps now has over 10,000 audio interviews. Take some time to listen to some great informative audio.
http://www.storycorps.net/
I know some of my readers are close to retirement age and the question a lot of people wonder is, “can I afford to retire yet?” PBS has developed a web site to help answer this question. The site has Frequently Asked Questions about pensions, 401(k)s and how much to save for retirement. An update on the 2006 pension law, plus expert analysis and articles on what’s gone wrong and what’s ahead, and industry insiders and retirement experts discuss the state of retirement today. A closer look at the employees featured in this report and a sidebar video story on pensions lost to bankruptcy.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/
Since we are talking about financial matters, SmartMoney.com has a good section called “Nine frequently asked questions about IRA’s”. They cover a lot at this section of their web site. Actually you should bookmark their home page too. This site is an outstanding resource on all thing financial and written in easy to understand prose. One of my favorite sites.
http://www.smartmoney.com/retirement/ira/index.cfm?story=faq
What is a dollar worth? Next you say, in terms of what? Well how about in terms of what a dollar was worth say, in year 1970. There is an easy way to find out. The federal reserve bank has a nifty calculator that will figure out how inflation has affected the value of the dollar.
Based on this web site calculations the gas I bought for my car when I was in high school at $ .35 per gallon should cost $2.28 a gallon now. Hmmm, we are not too far off that right now. I bought gas yesterday for $2.78 a gallon.
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/
Another good place to check out what is happening in the world of consumer finance is the Consumer Price Indexes. This program produces monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. Data is organized in many different sections including areas of the country, average prices, special product prices, wages, etc. Lots of data here for your review.
http://stats.bls.gov/cpi/
“Don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them, for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace. They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble.”
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Vista – 8 months later
(Condensed version)
Now that I have used Vista Business version for over 6 months, I felt that I should publish my experience so you can make a decision if you want to use Microsoft Vista operating system.
BEGINNING – Saturday late November 2006
My Vista DVD has arrived and I am eagerly waiting to get this new O/S installed. I have read many reviews both pro and con so now it is my turn. The installation went smoothly, although it took quite a while, I received no errors and to my surprise Vista had all the correct drivers for the hardware on my computer. After reboots to install all the updates (yes Vista has updates already), I am ready to see how this new O/S is going to perform.
Where is everything? MS has hidden all the good stuff. I can’t find networking, can’t find the windows I am use to seeing in XP. WOW pop-ups everywhere I turn, “are you sure you want to do this?” of course I am, that is why I clicked on this, said yes to this, moved this, changed this, and the pop-ups continue to get in my face and I am getting really tired of clicking yes to all the pop-ups. Got to find where to turn these off!
Found Control Panel and spent hours there making changes to suit me. Pop-ups off, Firewall off, configurations finished. Installed printer. Firewall configured and turned back on. ( How is an average user going to figure this out! Maybe the Home edition is easier) Now back to see what is new and check out the cool Vista stuff. Aero graphics, widgets, etc are nice but after the newness wares off they become just OK. Things are running smoothly now and all is well.
CONTINUING – December 2006
Office 2007 installed, Adobe Acrobat 8.0 installed, some of my favorite utilities installed, Photo Shop Elements 5 installed, Power Desk 6 installed, Firefox 2.02 installed, Norton Antivirus 6 installed – no. McAfee Antivirus 8.0i installed – no. Neither of these would install or run. OK, I need a version for Vista. Not available at this time. Now I have to depend on MS Windows Defender for Antivirus, very scary.
IE 7 – Start IE7, click OK to all the MS stuff so I can continue. Try to go to my.yahoo.com. More pop-ups, “are you sure you want to go here?” click yes. My.Yahoo.com looks terrible. What has MS done? Check IE settings. Yuk, can’t do anything with default settings, no graphics, can’t download, etc. (20 minutes later) IE is now configured so it is usable.
Observations – Hmm, seems like my machine is running slower now since I have installed some software packages.
Firefox runs great under Vista. Sure glad MS put in a compatibility mode so most of my XP programs will run.
JANUARY 2007 – Saga continues
Opening up a files in Office always seems to wait until Office finds the network printer unless I press ESC. A nuisance but I can live with it. My favorite file manager Power desk doesn’t seem to work right all the time, must be a Vista issue. Uninstalled Power Desk and installed Explorer2X. This works much better in Vista.
MARCH 2007 – File issues
I need to move many files from the server or another computer to this one. Vista waits for what seem like along time before starting to copy files. Vista asks me again if I am sure and then checks for disk space and then finally copies files. Much quicker in XP. I open Widows Explorer to check a file listing and click on the CDROM icon but there is not a disk in the drive and Vista waits, and waits, and waits. I finally go on to another task and check later. Vista is still showing the wait icon. Finally I kill the process with task manager. This also happens if you click on a network drive that is not available. Totally unacceptable behavior. File issues continue and I make sure I select a available network drive and ALWAYS have a CD in the drive before I try to access the files. This continues to get worse over time.
April – May 2007 – Real work needs to get done
Now I am in the middle of creating documents adding files, spreadsheets, pictures to a report. Multiple applications open, oops Word freezes trying to print. Error says printer not available. I just printed a few minutes earlier, what is going on? Try again, same error. Save file, close Word, try again. Works this time, glad I was not in a hurry. Maybe reboot is necessary. Windows takes forever to get to the shut down screen and won’t shut down. Hit the power button.
Days later -
Same issue trying to print is happening way too often. File issues are beginning to really get me upset. Shut down issue is happening all the time now.
Some more days later -
Major project needs to be finished. Open multiple applications, finish project send to printer, printer not available! Not now, I need this printed ASAP, not later! Go through process discussed early, almost past deadline. Finally printed. Oops application is locked. Task Manager is now my most used application; killing non responsive programs. Can’t save, network file issues happening again. Go get a beer and try to settle down.
(I have not had this many issues with an O/S since Windows ME)
FINAL EPISODE – May 30th
Format c:
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Newsletter 6-3-07
I had planned to give a good critique of Windows Vista this week just in case you were thinking about upgrading or purchasing Vista. I have used it since it came out in November of last year. Stay tuned for the review next week. The review will probably show up on my blog before the next newsletter, so if you want to read it there check toward the end of the week. Now on to some sites for your viewing pleasure.
The tour on this web site explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer’s affects it. There are 16 interactive slides. You can also jump to any slide by clicking on its number at the top of each page. As you view each slide, roll your mouse over any colored text that appears on each page to highlight special features of each image.
http://www.alz.org/brain/overview.asp
Social Explorer is dedicated to providing easy access to demographic information about the United States. Social Explorer is under continuous development. Our goal is to provide a complete historical census reference as well as current information and 10 year projections.
With Social Explorer you can:
Make maps and reports .
Visually analyze and understand the demography of the U.S.
Explore historical demographic data.
http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/home/home.aspx
The purpose of this web site is to present information about the services that the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program provides to veterans with service-connected disabilities. The web site also provides information about vocational counseling available to active duty service members and veterans who have recently separated from active duty. You will also find information about vocational counseling and special rehabilitation services available to dependents of veterans who meet certain program eligibility requirements.
http://www.vetsuccess.gov/
Quirky, entertaining and informative, Science Update is a daily, 60-second radio feature covering the latest discoveries in science, technology and medicine. Produced by AAAS, the world’s largest general science society, Science Update has reported on thousands of scientific and medical breakthroughs—and won dozens of national awards—since its inception in 1988.
http://www.scienceupdate.com/about.php
AT this site you will find the largest directory of biographies available on the Web containing information on more than 110,000 important people from antiquity to the present time. It includes biographies from the most important sites on the web in all languages. This is a great school research site no matter what your age.
http://www.omnibiography.com/index.asp
If you’re looking for information on cutting calories and fat in your diet, achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, or your favorite low-calorie, reduced-fat foods and beverages (and the ingredients that make them possible)… Check out this web site.
http://www.caloriecontrol.org/
“If you prize wisdom, she will make you great. Embrace her, and she will honor you.”
