Dad Has A Dream

Posted on May 18, 2013 by admin

A while back I published a condensed version of this on my facebook page. I thought I’d like to share it in it’s entirety here, as the lessons learned from it are valid for all of us:

A few months ago my dad walks in from his bedroom and tells me about a weird dream he keeps having. I told him that “Dreams and their interpretation are the Lord’s”, which is the same thing Joseph told Pharoah of Egypt. “It is”, I explained, “God’s way of speaking to us of things that are important to us, as well as things that are important to Him.”

Fast-forward a while: He walks in one morning and tells me to find all those decon poison trays he put out and get rid of them.  It seems he continues to have the same recurring dream, in which his basset hound was “getting into them and poisoning herself”. Dad may not be big on dreams or spiritual things, but he loves his doggie. I got rid of all the poison trays that day.

Now, the thing I don’t think he understands, and which I tried to explain to him, is this: While this dream speaks of something important to him (his dog), I feel it also speaks of things important to God….perhaps getting rid of things in his life that poison his house, or his relationships. It is entirely possible that God is instructing him to “set your house in order, and get rid of those things in your life that don’t produce good fruit, or good results”, which has been on his mind a lot lately (he’s 83). This would also refer to attitudes, desires, mindsets or prejudices that don’t bear good fruit. In addition, the fact that this is a recurring dream to him tells me that this is established by God. That is, if he doesn’t take warning and do something about this to correct it, he will suffer the consequences for his failure to act.

Many times a dream will have such a dual interpretation, and both can be valid. In this case, God is obviously warning dad about his dog because God is also concerned about the things that concern us. What may not be so obvious is God’s warning to also pay attention to things that are important to Him, such as things that may or may not bear good fruit or give good results.

God has a variety of ways in which He speaks to us, and He often uses things in our natural realm to teach us about things in His spiritual realm. So….what do your dreams tell you?

 

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The Moral of Morels

Posted on May 4, 2013 by admin

The other day I was driving towards lake hope when I saw what appeared to be a flat pool with a lot of water flowing from it down into a stream. I’d never seen this before, so I stopped to look it over. I was really hoping to find some tadpoles I could use as fish bait, and the bigger, the better. The pool, like a lot of holes in the nearby hillsides, are actually old coal mines that have been abandoned for the past hundred years or so.

I wasn’t really dressed for tramping around in the weeds, as I had sandals on my feet. To make matters worse, my knees and ankles were giving me a lot of problems lately, so I was concerned about more injuries. Nevertheless, here I was tramping and feeling like a kid (I’m not). I was still trying to find a away over the stream when I almost stepped on it….a single morel mushroom. It was big, and it was growing sideways, like it was bowed down instead of standing upright. I plucked it up, and kept on going. Then I saw another, and another. You know how it goes. I ended up with enough to make a nice dinner for myself. All but one was “bowed down”, growing sideways, not as though they were uprooted. They appeared to grow up, and then bend to the side to grow sideways. Strange.

A couple days later I went back to see if I could find some more, but to no avail. Not even a tiny one could be found. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the wonderful gifts God gives you when He gives them to you, and then they are gone. Some of God’s gifts are just like that…..meant to be relished for a short season, and then remembered with gratitude.

The mushrooms were very good, indeed.

Mushrooms

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Imagine THAT!!

Posted on April 16, 2013 by admin

Former President Clinton wanted more gun control. Nobody was buying it, especially when the liberal (useful idiots) media jumped on the bandwagon. Another “useful idiot” then ran past the White House firing randomly with an AK-47 clone. “See?!” said the useful-idiot-media…. “We need more gun control!!”  Still, nobody was buying it, and they knew it. The average American can smell a rat. Politics and the liberal media are chock-full of them. Regarding this event, I think the average American could care less if liberal/communist sympathizer like Clinton got offed by some nut with an rock upside the head, much less an assault rifle. I seriously doubt that most Americans would grieve too much at the loss of our current crowd of anti-American, Nazi-thinking politicians, either, especially knowing the mess they’ve made of our economy and our republic. Rather, they’d all think “What a tremendous waste of  life and opportunity….”

Don’t get me wrong here…I think even the most rabid gun nut would grieve at the waste of human life being lost to gun/explosive/gang violence. I just don’t think they’d grieve at their deaths any more than they currently do at the way these self-deluded liberals live their lives while systematically destroying ours.

Consider the following:

Instead of securing our borders, they’re more concerned with getting the votes of the illegal immigrants and squandering money that isn’t theirs to squander so they can maintain their illegal/immoral grasp on power and control.

Instead of getting rid of the violent criminals, they’re more interested in taking away your only reliable defense against such predators and leaving you at their mercy.

Instead of encouraging Americans to exercise their God-given and Constitutionally-affirmed rights, these “useful idiots” are so afraid you’ll hold them accountable for their treasonous acts that they’ll stop at nothing to place you in bondage to their control, lying every step of the way while, once again, they leave you powerless to defend yourself, much less rid yourselves of their bondage and control.

Now, some other “useful idiot” fires a couple bombs at the Boston Marathon and the “usefully idiotic” press screams, once again: “See?! We told you! We need more gun control!! You gun and bible-hugging extremists need to give up some of your liberty so we can ‘feel’ safer!!” You know what they mean….kinda’ like trying to eliminate drunk-drivers by stealing the cars of all good drivers so nobody has a car. Except the police or government “royalty”, of course.

Know this: I don’t care how many folks are shot or blown up. I’m not surrendering any of my precious liberties or rights so you can feel safer. One of our founding fathers stated that “Those who give up liberty for peace and security will have neither”. If you want to feel safer, teach your kids how to use a gun safely, to not mess with explosive ordinance, and leave people and things alone that don’t belong to them. Better yet, first repent of your own sins and believe the Gospel, then obey it by teaching others to do likewise.

Oh, wait….silly me! Someone already covered all this once….when He said:
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”.

Imagine that….simple….elegant….and actually works.

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Earthquake dream 1974

Posted on April 5, 2013 by admin

I was watching a news broadcast about a series of earthquakes of immense proportions. The first one was in the central USA along the Mississippi River, and it triggered a second quake nearby. These two then seemed to feed each other and triggered two more earthquakes. One was along the southeastern seaboard, and most of Florida and the eastern seaboard up through the Carolinas were now in the sea. The other was along the west coast, and quakes were triggered all the way down the west coast into South America as far as the southern tip of Argentina.

Immediately after this I saw another newscaster talking about a new emblem which he was holding in his hand. It was about four inches in diameter, and had what looked like an equilateral triangle made of small-diameter rope or twine. The lower-right side extended just a bit past the corner, and the bottom side was curved like a “rocker”. Inside the triangle was the image of a face, somewhat human and yet somewhat lion-like in appearance.

The newscaster was acting like a salesman giving his “pitch”, waving the emblem around while saying: “This is our symbol! This is our unity!”

This is when I woke up and realized it was a dream. It was mid-1974, and I’d never seen such a thing in any of my dreams before. I shared it with the congregation where I attended church at the time. That church is no longer around, while some of the saints from that congregation are serving God in other groups and areas.

Over 40 years have come and gone since I had this dream, and I still struggle understanding the symbols and images in it. Thousands of years ago Joseph, the son of Israel/Jacob said that “Dreams and their interpretation are The Lord’s”. I believe this is just as true today. There isn’t any place recorded in scripture where satan gives anyone dreams. He is a thief and a liar. He comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, and this is what he’d like to do to our dreams, as well as our lives. Don’t let him. Hold onto your dreams, and ask God for understanding and direction concerning them. He loves to answer our prayers!

I believe this dream speaks of powerful spiritual events that God is about to manifest in the earth, particularly starting in the central United States of America, and that these events will strengthen one another and trigger more events across the nation. I believe these events will continue to trigger more events that will manifest down southward along the west coasts even to the southernmost parts of Argentina. I think we have never seen anything quite like this before, and it will happen prior to another series of events that will shake the world like never before, and I further believe there is nothing our government will be able to do to stop these events.

God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.

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Scurrying Like Rats

Posted on March 26, 2013 by admin

I’ve been noticing all the politicians scurrying like rats and jockeying for the best position now that SCOTUS is hearing arguments on gay marriage. Why, there are even some last-minute “converts” to the gay cause, falling over themselves like a bunch of horney drunken frat kids trying to impress their respective audiences.

I have a problem with this.

You can make all the laws you want legalizing gay marriage. It doesn’t matter. Neither SCOTUS, POTUS, FLOTUS, The entire United States government, nor even the over-puffed-up UN has any authority with God on this matter. It will remain, no matter what laws you pass, an abomination before God, and those that do so will remain an abomination before Him for doing so. Those who continue to defy His laws and ways will neither see, nor enter into The Kingdom of Heaven. Whenever you fight against God and His order, established in Heaven, you – will – lose.

Want to get into The Kingdom of God and see it for yourself? Repent of your sins and believe the Gospel according to Jesus Christ. There is no other way, and no other name given under Heaven by which we must be saved.

I’ve never been able to figure out what it is in human nature that causes so many to think that, if we have enough on our side, that makes us right, and everyone else wrong. Perhaps it’s the erroneous idea that everything in the universe is run by democracy.  This, of course, leads to the inevitable posturing we now see as the courts decide the fate of California’s Proposition #8, which the voters already decided, and which politicians are obsessed with ignoring. Time will tell what the result of this idiocy is, but it sure is providing some entertaining exposure of human nature in all it’s desperation.

This doesn’t bode well for California, nor for those politicians now jockeying for best positions, and their respective states would be well-advised to watch these turncoats closely in the future. It appears they have sold their souls and their constituents to another bidder with diminishing returns..

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Windows or Linux

Posted on January 20, 2013 by admin

I use Linux on everything here, with one exception…. a netbook that came with WinXP pre-installed on it. I shrunk the win-doze partition and installed two versions of Linux on the drive in separate partitions. My main interests in this are to show others how easy and user-friendly Linux can be these days, right “out of the box”, and to encourage others to learn a new operating system.

Mind you….I’m not totally averse to microshaft’s large “monopoly”;  I just want something that works for me and does what I want instead of what some greedy corporation wants. I also want to pay for something once, and only once. When I pay for something, it’s mine, not somebody else’s, so I can do what I want with it, however I want, as many times as I want. Bill Gates, for some reason, seems to have a problem with that. If you don’t like it, get Linux or Unix and use one of them instead, or invent the next best operating system and do what you want with it. I’m not interested in re-inventing the wheel, so I use Linux.

I currently use the latest version of Puppy Linux for most of my computing. I also use Debian and Slackware, mostly for educational purposes, as mentioned previously. I’ve used other versions of Linux, as well as some of the BSD variants, but I’ve grown fond of these three, due to their ease of use and reliability. I would recommend one of the many Puppy variants (there are dozens) to the novice user, and perhaps Debian to someone more familiar to Linux. I wouldn’t recommend Slackware to any casual user. I’ve used it since the mid-90′s when it was much harder to install. FreeBSD was like this originally, but the newer versions are much more user-friendly these days. The main reason I wouldn’t recommend BSD or Slackware to a novice user is because their installation can be daunting to newcomers. A live CD or DVD is recommended to all newcomers.

I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one disappointed in the bloatware coming out of the west coast. See this rant:  Boycott Microsoft  by a guy who’s done some research on Microsoft’s practices, or this one: Three Dead Trolls.  Most impressive….comical, even. Personally, I miss DOS, but only because that’s what I started with, and I think that was one of the better systems that came from this company. Admittedly, we likely wouldn’t have the wonderful Linux variants we have today were it not for microshat’s business practices and buggy OS, but now we do have free choices, and lots of them.

Alrighty, then….you don’t want to stop using that familiar west-coast OS?  No problem. Get the latest version of Firefox and use that for your web browser instead of Explorer. While you’re at it, get the latest version of Thunderbird and use that for your email in place of microshat’s mail client. Both of these are easier to configure and way more secure than any windud-related product can ever dream of being. Wouldn’t hurt to put some add-ons into your new Firefox browser, either. I’ve used NoScript, DoNotTrackPlus, and PHZilla, but there are other add-ons that do the same things these do, and you’ll find them by clicking the <Tools> button at the top/left of your browser window followed by the <Add-ons> button. You’re free to choose or not choose whatever you want.

Now, then….what about other apps, like Office, or Powerpoint? I use Open Office, which includes Impress (powerpoint replacement). In fact, almost every common windoze program has an open source equivalent which is usually free, including upgrades. Now what was that excuse you had for sticking with expensive bloatware that draws malware infections like a french whore?

Finally, check out my previous post on Windoze Security to see how you can really tune or tighten up your machine to use less memory while closing any open doors or vectors for malware infection. You’ll also use less CPU time. Properly done, you may never need to run an antivirus program on your machine again. At least, not like you have been so far. Most run constantly in the background, taking up memory and CPU time. Instead, get a copy of ClamWin and run it about once a month, or whenever you notice any kind of glitch or slowdown in your machine’s behavior. Once you download and install it, update the virus definitions, then run it. Do I have to remind you to read the user guide?

Ok, then….”rant mode” OFF.
Enjoy….Mike

Posted in Computer Tech, The Occasional Rant | Leave a comment

Windoze Security

Posted on January 9, 2013 by admin

The following originally appeared on the Club100 Mailing List. I obtained permission from it’s author to share it with others a short time later, so here it is for the benefit of all. Thanks, Merch!

Rumor has it that “VBJ” may have mentioned these words:
> …Anyway, there are no bad AV, as long as the’re updated on a
> regular basis: i.e. automatic, or daily.

A common misconception.
In my own no-so-humble opinion, they’re *all* bad in the form that they give a false sense of security – most people just assume they can’t get a virus if they have a regularly updated antivirus. All antivirus programs are fallible and there are many other measures computer users should take to make sure they don’t get infected in case the antivirus fails for some reason.

Here’s some steps for extra security:
1) _Don’t_ use McAfee or Norton Antivirus. There’s a reason that McAfee is included free on a bazillion computers – it’s cheap for the OEM manufacturers to offer, and it sucks. I’ve heard a few rumors that Norton *Corporate* doesn’t completely suck, but I won’t take that chance. Corporate is also rather expensive. Ever since Norton removed the ability to immediately delete a virus & all viruses had to go thru the quarantine system, virus writers wrote their wormies to be able to survive & crawl out of the quarantine system.

When I owned my computer store, the breakdown of infected machines went something like this:
30% – latest updated McAfee AV,
25% – latest updated Norton AV (almost all of these were NAV Personal)
20% – any AV that wasn’t updated for 6+ months
20% – No AV whatsoever.
5% – Latest updated “Other” AV.

I used to steer people towards the free AVG antivirus, but the latest version (8.5) is becoming a resource hog just like the other “biggies” and unless you’ve got a CPU that supports Hyper-threading or a full dual-core CPU, I’d think twice about that option.

I’ve had “limited” good luck thus far with the free Avast antivirus. I’ve installed it on around 2 dozen machines and haven’t heard a peep, but that’s still a small sample from the (literally) thousands of computers I’ve worked with over the years. It does advertise that it works well with Pentium 3 series CPUs and still supports Windows 98+, IIRC. Very light with resources. I’ve only installed it on machines running W2K or XP, but about 1/3 of these machines were under 1 GHz and the machines still seemed pretty “snappy” after the install. I also tuned their machines quite a bit also, which helps. I’ll detail what I do & why below.

Personally, I use the ClamWin antivirus. This AV works _very_ well, but it is not for beginners, as it doesn’t have any shield technology at all. It’s good at removing viruses (especially on external drives, which is why I like it – it cleans viruses from other peoples’ drives hooked to an IDE->USB dongle very well. It does not protect me from getting infected, however. It’s great for resource utilization (none!) but poor for people who don’t have good security on their machine already. I’ve run ClamWin exclusively for 2 years on 3 personal machines, 2 of which run Winders fulltime and sometimes 24×7 for months _on the internet_ at a stretch, and I’ve not been infected. I’ve had more false positives with this antivirus system, but nothing “important” – no system files or anything like that. It occasionally flags installer utilities that have self-modifying code as part of the install process.

Also, because ClamWin has no “shield” system, it will not fight other AV systems. If you want use it for scanning USB keys & whatnot, you won’t hurt the OS or other AV program by installing it. I have both AVG (non-free) and ClamWin installed on my laptop at work with no issues. Most other AV systems will not co-exist due to their respective “shield” systems fighting for control, sometimes leaving the computer completely inoperable.

F-Secure used to be really good, but I have not used it since they went from $50 one-time (lifetime updates) to a $50/year cost model.

I also used to have good luck with the E-trust Personal and *great* luck with E-Trust Workstation/Server system, but Computer Associates as a company sucks beyond compare. The great thing about E-trust Workstation/Server is you could block any executable by extension, and there are a *lot* of files Winders considers executable. .PIF, .CHM, .HTA, if you got an email attachment with a virus with that extension, you could not get infected even if you didn’t have the latest definitions. Great security. You could also tell the system to leave certain system process alone, like Nero for burning CDs. This was the first AV I could use that wouldn’t burn coasters while the “shield” was on. ;-) Haven’t used it in 2 years, however, so I don’t know current status.

I know friends that have had good luck with the Panda antivirus, but I have very little personal experience with them. Certainly better than McAfee or Norton, however.

 Another common misconception:
> When are people going to understand that a computer virus that destroys
> the computer it has infected, can’t propagate. It’s like the ebola
> biological virus. If everybody (95%) dies, eventually there will be no
> hosts left to contaminate. If a virus only kills 1% of it’s hosts, but
> is very contageous – like the flu – it can propagate and cause much more
> damage. Same thing applies to computer viruses.

Except when those viruses can still propagate much faster through hosts than it takes to kill them. Look at the black plague back in ancient times. It killed over 25% of the population, and killed most everyone it touched, yet ran rampant so quickly as to decimate western Europe in about 3 years. That’s why time-delayed destructive viruses are still popular among virus writers, conficker being an example of this.

Wanna make your winders 2000 or XP computer faster, safer and last longer? Here’s some helpful tips:
1) Turn off anything in the startup  file you don’t need. Dollars to doughnuts, there’s a lot more there than necessary, all taking up memory & resources.
a) Restart the machine, then without starting any program, click “Start” then click “Run” and type this command: taskmgr and hit “Enter”. This brings up a task manager system that shows you all programs that are running, and how much memory & CPU each are taking. Very handy critter. Click the “Performance” tab and look at the Physical Memory (K) parameters. This tells you how much RAM you’re using right on boot, and you might be surprised! This will give you a baseline to see how much improvement you’re getting after successive reboots after you start turning things off.
b) click “Start”  then click “run”  and type this command: msconfig and hit. Click the “Startup”  tab. Anything there that looks hinkey (yes, that’s a technical term) just uncheck the box. Go nuts, if you do turn off something you want you can just recheck the box later. Java updaters, Adobe updaters, itunes updaters, all unneccessary, yet they sit in memory full time & use up resources. When you’re done, reboot & see part (a) again and look at all that memory you have access too again! Yay!
c) How many of you have used System Restore successfully? (Looks around room, sees very few hands…) If you’ve never used it or it’s actually boned you in the past (read: nice safe secret virus storage vector) turn it off. It will speed up your machine by a fair margin. Right click on “My Computer” and click Properties. Click on the “System Restore” tab, and check the “Turn off system restore” box. Oh look at all that CPU and hard drive space you just got back! ;-)
c1) Don’t be fooled, this is _not_ a full backup/restore facility. It only concerns itself with parts of the c:\windows directory, registry files, drivers & system files specifically. If you are concerned by not having a full “oh crap” restore facility, go purchase Acronis True Image Home version. It will allow you to create your own protected restore partition on your hard drive that you can update whenever you want. Very handy, I’ve used it on 3-4 machines for others thus far and love it. Me, I yank my hard drive every few months & use Linux to backup the partition – it’s free & geeky (just like me! ;-) but not for a Windows or Linux novice.
d) click “Start” then click “run” and type this command: services.msc and hit “Enter”. This is where you’ll have to be a little more careful, so don’t just go nuts, you _can_ break something in here. However, follow my instructions, and you’ll be fine. I already did all the breaking here. ;-)

To turn off a service until the next reboot, double-click on the service itself & hit the “Stop” button. To make sure it never turns back on again, click the dropdown box that may say “Automatic” in it and change it to “Disabled.” If you’re not 100% sure you don’t need it, choose “Manual” and any program that needs it _should_ be able to start it, but it shouldn’t start on boot.

Trust the geek, and turn off & disable these services; they’re wholly unnecessary:
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service
Google Updater Service (if you have it. Update google shizzle manually.)
IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service (This is what makes Winders burn coasters. Go get Nero, Alcohol 120, or any number of free CD/DVD burning utilities that don’t suck.)
Messenger (this is _not_ Winders Live Messenger.)
Network Provisioning Service (I think this is for web servers, but I’ve turned it off on thousands of desktop computers & had no issues.)
Remote Registry (security hole the size of a Mack Truck!)
Telnet (Why would you want others to telnet into your machine?)
WebClient
Windows Time (I’ve never seen this work correctly… download a freeware time synchronization utility & sync to navobs1.oar.net.)

Now, these can be turned off & disabled _if_ you’re not using them:
Alerter (turn this off if you don’t care about administrative alerts. I have this turned off.)
Fast User Switching Compatibility (Terminal services uses this, and I think Remote Desktop uses Terminal services. If you don’t use Remote Desktop (in or out), turn this off.)
Help and Support (turn this off if you never hit the F1 key. I don’t, it’s turned off. If you use the MS Help system, don’t turn this off. Why it’s a service, only BillG knows.)
HID Input Service (Turn this off if you _never_ plan on using a USB keyboard/mouse/credit card scanner/etc. Chances are, leave it on. ;-)
HTTP SSL (This is for the HTTP *Server* built into winders. However, it may be used if you use the Windows Media Network Sharing Service. I do not, I turned it off.)
Indexing Service (If you like slowing down your computer all the time to speed up file searches, leave this on. I do not, I turned it off.)
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (like the Fast User Switching above, if you don’t use Remote Desktop {in or out} turn this off.)
Network Location Awareness (NLA) (Not sure what this does, I always turn it off and never had a problem. I _suspect_ the Winders Media Sharing jazz might use it, I don’t use Winders Media anything.)
Network Provisioning Service (I think the HTTP server might use this; I turn it off and never had any heartburn.)
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager (If you have dialup Intarweb & like the popup to connect when you open a browser or your email program, leave this on. If you connect dialup manually, or your highspeed connects through the Ethernet port {DSL Modem, etc.} then turn this off.)
Remote Access Connection Manager (Only turn this off if your DSL/Cable access is “Always on.” Some DSL providers (CenturyTEL, possibly others) require this to be on, and all dialup shizzle does too. If you have DSL, turn this off & reboot. If your Intarweb stops, turn it back on & reboot, otherwise leave it off.)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (Again, if you _don’t_ use Remote Desktop, turn this off. Otherwise, leave it on.)
Routing and Remote Access (I have turned this off many times, but some corporate LANs might require it, and it’s possible some DSL shizzle may need it. I set it to “Manual” if I’m unsure.)
Security Center (Anything but. If you don’t want Winders telling you you’re firewall isn’t on or your AV is out of date (most AV’s do that for you anyway) turn this off. Huge resource hog.)
Smart Card (If you don’t read “Smart Cards” with your computer {most don’t} turn this off. If you do read smart cards with your system, you probably know it when you stick one in, or possibly have an RFID reader for it.)
SSDP Discovery Service (This may be used for the Winders Media Sharing stuff that I don’t use. I turn it off, but if you can’t find media on different computers, you might want to keep this on.
System Restore Service (If you’ve already disabled the System Restore following instructions above, disable the service to take it fully out of RAM.)
Task Scheduler (If you don’t have the computer start tasks at a specific time, turn this off. Conficker & other viruses also use this as a vector to
a) keep the file in use so AV proggies can’t delete it, and
b) do bad things at specified times.
I use a freeware unix-like Cron utility myself for timed thingies, so I turn this off. If you’re not sure if you have any timed tasks, go to the Control Panel and double-click on Scheduled Tasks. If all you see is “Add new task” you don’t need the Task Scheduler service.)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper (This goes unused for most people but I *think* that the Remote Desktop Sharing might use this. Turn it off and see if RDS quits working if you use it. If it’s all good, leave it off.)
Telephony (Do _not_ turn this off if you have dialup, or use your computer to send faxes. Otherwise, disable it.)
Terminal Services (Turn this off if you don’t use Remote Desktop. I think disabling this also disables the Telnet function.)
Themes (If you {like me} _hate_ the kandy-koated big-button crap of XP, turn this off. You’re computer will be the “ugly old Win9x/2k” look, but at least it’s a sensible ugly, IMHO. And you’ll save a lot of RAM to boot! I *think* you can’t use .jpg pix for your background either, export them to .bmp and use that. ;-) IE & Firefox automatically do that when right-clicking on a picture and clicking “Use as Desktop Background.”)
Uninterruptible Power Supply (if you don’t have one, turn off the service. Otherwise known as a “Battery Backup” and will have a USB or RS-232 connection on it for this service to work.)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host (This is *not* device-based Plug and Play. It’s “Network” based for Windows Media server schtuff, and I don’t use it, so I turn it off.
Windows Audio (If you don’t have an audio card in your computer, turn this off. Most people do, but I have one that doesn’t!)
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) (If you don’t use Winders Firewall {I don’t} then turn this off.)
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) (If you don’t have a scanner or download digital pictures *directly* from the camera via USB/Firewire, turn this off. If you have a digital media reader (CF/MS/SC/etc.) this is not used and is safe to turn off.)
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (Remember me mentioning this? I don’t use it, I have it disabled. If you don’t share videos or music from your machine to other machines on the network, disable this & free up some RAM!)
Wired AutoConfig (This works on the 802.11x authentication on Ethernet ports. If you have ethernet you probably want to leave this on.
Wireless Zero Configuration (If you have a desktop machine without any wireless hardware {most don’t} turn this off. If you have a laptop and use wireless, keep this on.)
Chances are, you may need these unless you’re geekier than me:
DHCP Client (only turn this off if you’re using Static IPs.)
DNS Client (If you’re router has a DNS cache builtin, turn this off. If not, you’re computer will still work fine, but web browsing may become a bit slower. If you’re having issues browsing certain websites, stopping then restarting this service {without rebooting the machine} may fix that.)

My Windows XP machines typically use less than 90Meg of RAM on boot and everything I need works. I could easily get Win2K down to 65Meg. Again, if you use the Media Server schtuff or Remote Desktop Sharing, this number may change a bit. If I didn’t mention a service, then either
1) I don’t have it on my machine,
2) I’ve never touched the default settings so I have no idea what disabling it might break, or
3) it is necessary for the daily operation of the computer.

Remember, I’ve not had an active “virus shield” system on my Winders computers for over 2 years and have not gotten infected. However, I have a much better firewall in my home router which helps protect me, and most systems on my home network (10+) run Linux. But also, a lot of the services above are active vectors for viruses to exploit, and outright disabling them stops not only past & current but also *future* viruses cold if a security-challenged service is just plain turned off.

A good analogy to the “Automatic”,”Manual”,”Disabled” settings would be a Steel Door on a building. Automatic means the door is wide open… come on in! Manual means it’s closed, and maybe has a manual deadbolt on the outside of the door. Flip the lever & turn the knob and you’re in, but many hackers (crackers, actually) would not check for that, they’ll just look for wide open doors. “Disabled” is welded shut.  ;-)

This is a distillation of almost 20 years of Dos & Windows experience from DOS 3.3 and Windows 2.0 386 to XP. I have precious little Vista experience and hope to keep it that way. ;-) There might be errors in the above and I don’t know everything about windows as I’m still much more a Linux engineer and I refuse to use Windows as a server platform at home & try to avoid it at work (and we use Server 2003, not XP for that also). But I’ve worked on literally thousands of XP machines both at my current employment & before with Iceberg Computers cleaning viruses & whatnot, and this is a compilation of my “If you remove it and it doesn’t break, don’t put it back in” engineering mantra. ;-)

I apologize with the length of this missive, but remember: I wasted a whole lot more of my bandwidth than yours sending this! <snicker> ;-) Hopefully this helps people on the list improve the operation of their windows computers & keeps ‘em running longer. Enough geek stuff, now I have to go unload DJ equipment & mow lawns. ;-)

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The Daily Moron

Posted on January 8, 2013 by admin

Sometimes, the behavior of the politically-correct crowd defies all reason or logic. I guess it’s time for a “Daily Moron” award, which must, and quite probably will precede another “Darwin Award”.

Today’s “Daily Moron” award goes to a jounalist who published not only the names and addresses, but also maps of all legally owned and registered Concealed-Carry Permit Holders in her area. I can’t even begin to explain the selfish stupidity of this action, as it’s the same as publishing a list of places to avoid if you don’t want to get shot breaking into someone else’s home.

That’s right, folks….and this idiot will likely do more to increase the number of Concealed Carry Permit holders, as well as the number of non-permit holders who have guns in their homes than anyone else could have imagined. And here she is below for your consideration:

Daily Moron award

I can only assume that those who applaud her actions will want to leave gifts at her door, while the rest will….umm….well, I can’t imagine what the others might want to leave. I hear she’s sticking by her actions, and I can only hope that, in the event tragedy befalls her, a gun is not involved, as that would only serve to re-enforce her stupidity. I wonder if she has a gun in her home? Better yet….will she get one now that she also is exposed?

Ever notice how the most evil among us seem to live the longest?  You might think it’s so they have more time to pass along their genes, but I think it’s so they’ll have more time to re-consider their actions and repent.  This is, of course, my own opinion, and you are entitled to ignore it. I will continue to stand by it, as I’m a firm believer in the idea of freedom of speech and expression. That’s all for today, folks. I think it’ll be hard to beat this! Of course, I also hear that, even if you can make something idiot-proof, somebody somewhere will just make a better idiot.!

Posted in The Occasional Rant | Leave a comment

Jaclyn Dene’ Elkins’ Guest Post

Posted on November 24, 2012 by admin

I’ve had the opportunity to meet some very remarkable people over the years, and most of them have been in the very church group I’ve been worshipping with since late 1998. Below is something originally posted by one of the young ladies at our church, and it originally appeared on her Facebook page. I shared it, with her permission, on my original website before it went down, and thought this would be a good time to share it again, so here it is:

Truth, UNLESS REDISCOVERED, becomes tradition.
by Jaclyn Dene’ Elkins on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 4:50am

One night before bed, my mind was so loud, I could not sleep. Writing always seems to quiet my mind, so I got out my pen and paper and started to write, call it word vomit, if you will. I just started listing every single badgering question, doubt, worry and failure that, far too often, consumes my every thought, feeling and action. As I saw these questions emerge from my pen, the Lord immediately reminded me of His Word and answered every question, assured each doubt, calmed each worry, and reminded me of who He says I am and what I am entitled to as His Child. As the Lord spoke to me, I couldn’t write fast enough. I began to sit up straighter, my shoulders fell from my ears, and I took, what felt like, the first deep breath I’ve had in a long time. A new peace settled my spirit and a spark of determination ignited to take back what the enemy stole from me! If the devil only knew what I am going to be after this storm, he wouldn’t have bothered me! His Word is more than spiritual bread. That night, I felt His word bring physical health back to my bones. After all, we do not live on bread alone. Here is the writing that came of my restless night:

How did I get here? Who am I?
I feel so small. Do you even hear my cry?
People all around me, Why do I feel so alone?
Worry and sadness like I’ve never known.
Tear-stained pillows and sleepless nights
My mind is a battle-field and everyday a fight
So tired and broken, I wait for my defeat
Then I am reminded who resides beneath who’s feet!

He says:
I am yours and you are mine.
I bought you with my very life.
You are not alone. You are engraved in my palm.
I will wipe every tear and every fear calm.
There is rest in me. My yolk easy and burden light
I did not give you that spirit of fear but of POWER, LOVE, and a SOUND MIND!

But I made a mess of me. I’m so sorry.
Mistakes and shame are whats become of me.
I accepted failure as my demise.
Forgot the truth and believed the lies.
I’m so tired and broken. All I want to do is sleep.
Then I am reminded who resides beneath who’s feet.

He says:
You are not a mess to me.  In fact, a MASTERPIECE!
You are not your mistakes. I buried them at Calvary.
Not a failure, but a conqueror and the apple of My eye.
VICTORY is your destiny BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE!

MY FLESH AND MY HEART MAY FAIL, BUT GOD IS
THE STRENGTH OF MY HEART AND MY PORTION FOREVER.
~PSALM 73: 26

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Why I ride

Posted on August 25, 2012 by admin

I thought I’d share some thoughts with you after getting crabbed at by folks up this way. You may not know this, but dad seems terrified that I won’t find another girlfriend, much less another wife, if I don’t stop driving “that d@*!#d old pickup truck everywhere”.  Same thing with regard to my bicycle.  I think he might be starting to get the idea.

Here for your consideration is what I’ve been sharing with folks on the topic of women and bicycles lately:

I got a bicycle so I can slow down, not race. And I want my pulse to do the same….slow down, not race. I want to see every tree I pass, not race by it in a blur. I want to see every blade of grass and every bug on it. If I’m really feeling crappy, I might even want to stop and follow that bug for a while, just because I can.
I paid for this bicycle once, and only once.
I never have to pay for it again.
I can ride it anytime I want.
I can ride it anywhere I want.
I can ride it as long as I want.
I can ride it as slow as I want….nobody whining “What’s taking you so long?”
The more time I spend with my bicycle the more my blood pressure drops.
If something goes wrong it’s a cheap and easy fix.
If I can’t fix it, the bike shop can. Still cheap and easy.
If I get tired of my bike, I can get rid of it and/or get a newer model and nobody will have a crisis over it.

Now then….have you ever met any women about which you can say any of the above? As we all know, if something goes wrong with a woman….you’re just screwed. Turn it over to Jesus or else. Seriously. I’m not kidding on this one.

That part about paying for my bike only once? Try that with any woman. You’ll pay and pay and then you’ll keep paying, over and over again for the rest of your life. There is nothing cheap or simple about women, and you can’t even fix them. In fact, if something goes wrong with any woman, you’ll probably get blamed for it. I can guarantee you’ll be blamed if you try to “fix” them.

Knowing the above, what can I do with a woman that I can’t do without one? Now, don’t go running out to clog the divorce courts, guys.  Just get yourself a bicycle and ride.   Feel  the peace and serenity….

73 de Mike

 

P.S. :  I thought it only fair to share a view from a woman’s perspective, so here’s what some early feminists had to say:

“The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.”
~ Ann Strong, Minneapolis Tribune, 1895.

“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.”
~Elizabeth West

Posted in Bicycling | Leave a comment