Just an observation

Why is it in this connected age are people more rude than in years past? There have been times I have emailed people, sent them private messages on Facebook, texted them, just to be ignored. I think it may be because there is no accountability in the communication. In years passed, if you said “hi” to someone face-to-face and they snubbed you, there was accountability there. Of if you called up someone on the phone, they answered, you said “hello” and they hung up on you, there was really no getting around not knowing how they felt about you. But in this digital age, a brief “hello” or such is just so much more noise in the cacophony of our lives. I’ve been guilty of it too. But I’m trying to change. When Jesus prayed for us, he prayed not that we might gain more information about each other and everything else, but that we might love one another. Let us all try to be guilty of loving more today than we did yesterday. At our ends, what do we take with us into eternity? Our relationship with God and our relationships with those we have loved. There are no iPads in heaven. Steve Jobs left his behind just like the rest of us.

Old Cellphone? Recycle It!

All of us have them—cell phones sitting in a drawer, slowly dying from disuse. At one time they served their purpose, but they are now just junk that is cluttering up the place. Maybe we switched carriers, and our “old faithful” would not work on the new carrier’s network? Or maybe we upgraded to a “smartphone” and no longer have a need for that old “candy bar” phone? But is there still some value in that old clunker? I'm glad I asked! Yes there is!

Use it as an emergency phone

All cell phones, regardless of carrier, are required to allow calls to 9-1-1. Just make sure your old friend is charged. Throw it in the glove box of your car, or in a drawer. If something unfortunate ever happens, you will have an emergency communication device at hand. Many of us drive with our cell phones out on the seat of the car for various reasons. Slam the breaks on suddenly and watch your precious smartphone go flying. Where would it go in the case of an accident? Knowing you have an emergency phone in the glove compartment can give you extra peace of mind.

 

Use it for the programs (applications) it contains

Backup alarm

I have an old cellphone in my bedroom as a backup alarm clock. In case the power goes out, for whatever reason, it will not affect my cellphone. If the main alarms go down due to no power, I know that my trusty cellphone will still wake me up in time to go to work. Being a cellphone, it sets its time automatically to the servers, so it always shows the right time. And if it is plugged into A/C power, when the power goes down? It still works since it runs off of its battery. You can use your regular cellphone in this regard as well, but sometimes you do not want to always keep your cellphone in your bedroom while you sleep.

Timer

Most cellphones have a built-in timer. This is great if you are cooking something. Just set the timer on the old cell and place it on the counter (or take it with you for a very handy mobile reminder. When not in use, old faithful can sit in a drawer, ready for service.

Calculator

Ever need to do some quick math and not remember where you placed that calculator? Well, if you have a charged cellphone around—there is your calculator.

Recycle it

Cellphones contain harmful chemical and compounds inside of them. If thrown away, those chemicals go either into a landfill and can wind up leeching those poisons into the environment, or if incinerated, those toxins can go into the air we breathe. Neither option is cool. There are numerous free options available that are both good for the environment and good for the world.

Staples

Take your old cellphones and/or charges to your local Staples store. They will accept it regardless of where you originally purchased the phone. This is a free service that the fine folks at Staples provide.

Troops

Donate your used cellphones to those brave men and women who serve in our armed forces.

Recycle

Send your cellphone to these fine folks and they will take care of it for you. If it is operable, they will resell it. If not, they will recycle those parts that are working into making other working cellphones. If it cannot be recycled, they will ensure that it is disposed of properly.

I am certain that there are many other uses for old cellphones. If you think of one that you would like to share, just write it down in the comments. If this article is revised later, and your ideas are incorporated into the revision, I will be sure to give you the credit.

Kaspersky woes

Earlier this month I purchased a new laptop at BestBuy.


The screen on my previous laptop was broken due to my own stupidity. I tried to repair it myself, but I purchased the wrong replacement screen from a company in Vancouver, BC. I just set the laptop aside and didn’t get back to it. Other than the broken screen it works great.

Due to procrastination, I never did get the screen exchanged for the correct one, so I’ve been laptopless for the past six months.

The laptop that I bought is a Toshiba Satellite L775D. It is a good laptop for a good price at BestBuy.

The only complaint that I have with it is not the laptop itself, but rather the deceptive promise that the BestBuy associate made. Attached to the laptop was an install CD for Kaspersky Anti-Virus. When I asked him about this, he said that the laptop came with a one-year subscription to the anti-virus of my choice. I had the choices of Kaspersky, TrendMicro, and Norton. I opted for Kaspersky.

The first “surprise” was that the “free” subscription was only for six months—not one year. I had wanted to get AVG Anti-virus, but that was not one of the options.

The second “surprise” was how many times Kaspersky gives me false-positive results. These are irritating. Every time I open Firefox, for instance, it gives me a warning message that a malware program also exhibits similar properties. For just about every program I install, the “K” gives me some sort of warning message.

This is unacceptable to me. I only want a warning message if there is actually a threat to worry about. I know that there are hosts of malware out there that masquerade as something else. But please, only tell me about it if it is the actual malware. Useless pop-ups just create a source of aggravation.

For me, it is time to uninstall the “K” and switch to either AVG Free or Microsoft Security Essentials (at this point, I’m not sure which I will decide upon).

Goodbye Windows 7

The time has finally come for me to retire my reliance on Windows. Not that Windows is a bad operating system--I've used it since Windows 3.1--and every iteration in between (with the exception of not using Windows NT until the 4.0 version. In between then and now, I've also tried some other, commercial, non-Microsoft OSes along the way. The first was OS/2 version 3.0. Personally I liked OS/2. The day I decided to upgrade my computer, I went to Best Buy in my hometown and bought OS/2 Warp 4.0. While in the parking lot, I changed my mind and was able to return it (seeing that it had not been opened) and I exchanged it for the brand new Windows 95. I never regretted that decision.
Later, at the end of the 20th century, I bought an operating system called "BeOS." It was made with modern computers in mind. Since it was new, it did not need to be backward compatible with previous versions.
Originally the folks at BeOS made their operating system to be compatible with the Macintosh Power-PC architecture. Until a few years ago, I never owned a Mac, so I got the Intel-compatible version of BeOS (though I've always built my computers with AMD processors).
BeOS was technologically superior to any other OS out there--it just never got the market share. There was an office suite that was native to it--but it was too expensive for most enthusiasts. At that time, Linux wasn't ready for prime time. I purchased both the commercial versions of Red Hat Desktop and a German distribution called SUSE.
Fast-forward 12 years.
Linux has come a long way. I have tried many different distributions, and the one that I find that I like the best is called “Ultimate Edition 2.7.”
It is based upon the latest version of Ubuntu and it is very polished and very mature. Everything just seems to work in it.
One frustration that I have had with my laptop is with distributions based upon Linux distros that use the Red Hat Pack Manager solution for software installation.
I have tried Fedora (open source desktop project of Red Hat), Mandriva, and OpenSuse, and none of them work with my wireless network card. Everything appears to work, but no packets are exchanged between my router and my computer. I can even ping websites, but cannot get the web pages to load. I even opened my home network entirely and it still would not work.
But distributions based up the Debian .deb package management system appear to work flawlessly.
So far I have had zero trouble with making the switch to Linux. The only thing I haven't been able to get working is DVD ripping. So for now Windows Vista is on my desktop and DVDShrink & DVDDecrypter are working well over there. If I can get open source software working to do this, I think my desktop may get an Open-Suse makeover.
I'm so confident this time that I sold my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on eBay.
Wish me luck.

Really should....

I really should update this more often. I can use it in conjunction with Facebook, but I keep forgetting.

Groundhog Day

Today is Groundhog Day. It is also my 2nd wedding anniversary.
My wife, Pamela, and I, were originally married January 12, 1985. Due to various things, we were divorced on November 9, 2007. Realizing that we made a mistake, we got back together and remarried on Groundhog Day 2008.

This day is so special because it is a silly holiday that hasn't been commercialized, except for perhaps in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Update

New job is going well. The only problem is that my days and nights are all messed up. It is almost noon and I want to take a nap.