SteveWords

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Remember when a TV season had regular times??

I have noticed that watching TV is getting harder and harder these days. Trying to follow a show is no longer easy. Remember when a show had a season that went from the fall thru the spring? The show came on every Tuesday night at 8PM. that generally did not change except in case of a big thing preempting the show.
Now a season can have just a few shows that sputter on and off all during the year. They will show 3 or 4 episodes then go to reruns, change the day and time, and have later in the week reruns. In order to watch the show you have to keep very close track of the TV Guide channel which is a hard thing to do because of the way it is designed.
All this erodes the number of viewers that watch a particular show. It makes watching TV a chore.
So what can a person do to help this problem?
One thing I do is buy DVD’s of favorite shows. There are no commercials and no garbage that takes up the bottom half of the screen. The picture and sound also work better too!
Another thing is to watch the shows on the internet. Most of the networks have a website that you can watch recent episodes or download them. That way you can stop some of the confusion!
If you have some other ideas, leave a comment!

Time for more words!

Hi!
Yes I do still exist!
I will be adding stuff here as I can and as I think of new things to write about. Yes I have had a million ideas-but I need to get them down here! I will try harder to do just that! So stay tuned!

Steve

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Attack on Estonia!

Recently I was reading in Wired magazine about a digital attack on Estonia that basically brought the country’s internet to a halt. Literally thousands of computers from several parts of the world were sending garbage requests to servers in Estonia and overloading them. This continued for the better portion of a day until the ISP’s in Estonia blocked all requests to their servers from outside their country. This solved the problem temporarily, but it also cut Estonia off from the rest of the world.

What caused this to happen? In part the computer in your home if you have a Windows machine. It was determined that thousands of the computers sending the attack were in the USA. These computers were infected with a virus or spyware/malware that made the computers into “zombies” at the beck and call of their controllers. In this case the controllers were apparently in Russia. People in Russia were controlling your Windows computer from afar and using it to attack servers in Estonia. Macintosh computers are immune to these types of malware so all the attacking computers were infected “zombie” Windows PC’s.

This leads me to observe that something interesting has happened here that Wired magazine did not pick up on. It was only Microsoft Windows machines that participated in this attack. Not Macintosh, Linux, or any other operating system-just Windows! Windows computers are vulnerable to something like 300,000 different versions of malware. Some of this malware sits in your computer at home right now. It sits there waiting for the signal from someone from across the world to activate a program that lets them use your computer for their purposes.

If you have a Windows machine your computer has some type of malware on it. They all do. You don’t see it running in the background silently waiting for someone to activate it to do their bidding. The interesting thing is that a lot of companies will put malware in your computer without your knowledge. A good example of this is the secret rootkits that Sony installed on Windows machines when customers put Sony music CD’s into their machines to play them. This happened automatically when the CD was played on the computer. You had no choice in the matter-Sony conned you because you owned a computer that runs Windows! As long as you own a Windows computer you will have complicity in crimes that you had no knowledge of.

How do we solve this problem? Part of the solution is get a new computer that does not run Windows. Macintosh and Linux are two that are immune to Windows malware. Linux will install on your current Windows computer and run very well. Probably better than your Windows machine ever did! It runs a lot like Windows and very rarely crashes. It is also completely immune to Windows Malware! Linux is also free of cost and free of software keys. Software keys are those ridiculously long letter-number combinations that you have to enter to get a Windows program to run.

Another solution is to invest in an Apple Macintosh computer. Every Mac is made of quality parts, made to last a long time. Yes they cost a little bit more to own in the beginning, but you will rarely have to spend more on a Mac. They just run and run well. They are completely immune to Windows malware and they last 2-3 times longer than a Windows machine. During that time they will run well and be easy to use. A Mac has a user interface that is beautiful to look at and looks much better than the Windows Vista interface. When you connect something to a Mac it just runs-no drivers and CD installers to deal with to get it running. It just runs!

So the next time you sit in front of your Windows computer think a little. Do you support crime on the Internet? Or do you support something better and safer? The choice is yours! Leave comments for me!

I am Back!

I have been away for a while, redoing my computer and such. Finally figured out how to get to the control panel again!
So I will be saying stuff here again! If you want me to write about something special, just leave me a comment here!

Friday, September 07, 2007

The Glassford Question….

Recently Glassford Hill Road in Prescott Valley was under construction. The normal speed in the construction area before the construction was 35mph. During the construction with all the road being ripped up and the detours and the absence of lines, and the safety junk all over the place, the speed was still 35mph.

There seems to be something wrong here. To me the speed should have been lowered to about 25mph or so. There was not even the dire warning signs about double fines present. Apparently the powers that be thought that 35mph was a safe speed even with all the road hazards present during construction.

This leads me to an even more interesting question or two. Does this mean that is 35mph is a safe speeed there with the hazards? If that is true then why is the normal speed is only 35mph? Should the normal speed be higher like around 45mph? That road feels perfectly safe at 45mph as it is a big double lane highway with turnoffs as needed. If Glassford Hill Road is fully capable of 45mph speeds then why is the speed limit there only 35mph? Is the town of Prescott Valley doing that just to make money off the people in town for artificial speeding tickets? To me that seems to be the answer. Prescott Valley Government has always seemed to be rather greedy in their need to fleece the people who live there. Maybe there needs to be some legal action here like what is happening with regard to the radar intersections that they have put there.

Tell me what you think!  Leave a comment below!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

If one life isn’t enough-try Second Life!

Remember Walter Mitty-the guy with a secret life?  Well you can have one too! It doesn’t necessarily have to be secret. But there is something that I have discovered. It is called Second Life. This is a highly addictive chat type game that will eat your time up! But it is way fun! In your Second Life you will have a new name and a little avatar that you can dress any way you like. You can then go on adventures and chat with and make new friends. I have several wonderful friends from such diverse places such as Florida, Texas, England, and Iceland. I have gotten to know these people very well through our chat. I have also learned a great deal about many different things through our conversations and have had great fun bantering and teasing each other. Second life is a huge world with everything in it that a real world has. You name it and it is there. There are thousands of people there for you to chat with.

If you want to have fun and like to chat with people from all over the world, Second life is worth checking out. Just ask for Sal Biedermann!

Saturday, June 02, 2007

A Great Mexican food place!

Tonight Mary and I went out to eat at Casa Bonita in Prescott Valley, AZ. (8280 E. Spouse Dr.) The food is really excellent and the service was too. We have eaten there several times before and every time has been really good. I highly recommend Casa Bonita as a good place to eat. There are also other restaurants in Sedona, Flagstaff, and Cottonwood, AZ. If they are as good as the one here-I’m there!

Watch out for fake trackbacks…

I have noticed an interesting thing happening on this blog. Apparently the spammers have discovered me. On my entry about the bad sound at the Chicago concert at Timmy’s Toy, there was 41 fake trackbacks that pertained to drug spam. I have erased them and will continue to wipe out things of this type on my blog as I do not support spammers. (added 9/5/07) I have changed the prefs for this blog to make it harder to spam it. You will have to enter a set of letters and numbers to comment and i will be checking comments first. Don’t worry-I won’t delete your genuine comment-just the spam ones!

As a side note-I haven’t been by Timmy’s Toy since the Chicago incident. Has anyone got any comments on their experience with the sound at concerts there? Leace a comment below!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

One Thing Wrong With Our Schools…

My wife and I were talking the other day about the tests that they give to elementary school kids. Apparently the tests are designed more to confuse the kids, not give an indication of what they have learned. The test also wants the kid to figure out something that wasn’t necessarily explained in the instructions given with the test. The ambiguity of the test confuses the kids and the teachers too.

If we are going to have an education system that excels worldwide we need to test the students on the subject at hand at an appropriate level. Basically our scores are low because our tests are screwed up. If we would stop playing head games with the tests, and really test on the knowledge the student has gained our kids would have a fighting chance out in the big world. We could be proud of our next generation!

Comments?

Dairy Queen: Bathroom Ambiance!

A couple of days ago we went th the Dairy Queen in Prescott Valley. When we entered the building we were blinded by the light! The main room has been painted all bright white and several large multi light bathroom type light fixtures have been installed. I’m talking of the light strips with 8 or so bright naked lamps on them. In addition to this all the fluorescent lamps on the ceiling were on too. The result was enough light to do operations with. Wanna do fine soldering on very small parts? Go to DQ! Food and fun too! My recommendation is to bring your shades when you go to DQ! The food is still very good though. We had a blizzard and a waffle sundae and both were good.

So if you like that good ‘ol bathroom ambiance DQ is the place to go! Need to fix your face? This is the place!

Monday, April 23, 2007

Yavapai County Tax Time!

This is the time of the year that I protest the high property taxes for the next year. I check out the valuation sheets they send me every year and if I feel that the valuation has jumped too much, I will protest it. Generally I will save some money doing this.

The interesting part of all this is that the process is relatively painless. You have to fill out a form and all that, but the best part is that the assessor’s office people are really with it and willing to help. They answer all my dumb questions with good thought out answers and never make me feel like a complete idiot. The service is really good otherwise. They even call you back.

All this is just to say that you should not be scared to protest your valuations. The County won’t bite you. You might even save a few bucks in the process!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

A good Thai food place!

The other day we went out to dinner. We went to Tara Thai II in Prescott Valley. The food was really good and the service was excellent. I got a chicken and vegetable soup in a hotpot with flames and all. It was so good that I took the soup juice home to make a new soup out of. It was good too! Two meals for the price of one! Would I go back? Yes. Try it-you’ll like it!

Yes! I am still alive!

Yes I am still here! What do you want me to write about? Leave me replies and we will see what comes up!

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Building Fences

There are lots of stories about fences in history. Some fences keep out the bad guys, some keep in the bad guys. Some fences keep the nosey neighbors in line. I wanted a fence that was a little different than the ordinary fence. I wanted a fence that could be opened and closed anywhere along its length. A little bit more creative fence to make it more useful to me.

To do this project I called American Fence Co. in Prescott Valley, AZ. The estimator came by to see what I wanted to build. I told him my vision of the perfect fence for me. He freaked! Apparently my kind of fence was outside of his comfort zone! He only builds only one kind of fence. The permanant kind. Fences that don’t move, or that don’t work with the owner. There was no creativity in his soul.

There is something very interesting in this story. When you are in business, there will occasionally come by something that is a little out of the ordinary. In my business I see different things every day. Change happens almost momentarily. In order to survive in a business, you must embrace new ideas and try them out to see if they will work. There is never harm in trying something new. New ideas are what make us advance as a society. Could building a new type of fence harm society? I think not!

I am highly disapointed with American Fence Company, because they have no vision and no creativity. Because of my experiance with their estimator, I would not recommend them to build your fence. Look for somebody with vision and you will get a better fence. Leave your comments below and I will answer them!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Qworst wants to save you money!

I got yet another letter in the mail yesterday from Qworst (Otherwise known as Qwest-your not so friendly local communications monoply). The letter was offering me special savings if I signed up for a yearly agreement with them. I called the number and a clueless girl answered the phone who was trying to get me to switch to Qwest with MSN (YUCK!!!). I now use a local service that I like very much, thank you.

The even more interesting part of this whole thing is the scam behind the deal. Qworst sells a 1.5mb DSL connection for $28.00 a month at the regular price.  They wanted to sell me a 2 year agreement for only $22.00 a month-a savings of $6.00 a month. Here is the deal:

Save $6.00 a month = $72.00 a year or $144.00 for two years.

Here’s where it gets sticky! If you should decide to disconnect early interesting things happen! There is a fee of $200.00 for an early disconnect. So you could conceivably pay $200.00 to save $144.00. Sound like a good deal to you? Not to me! It’s just a marketing scam to trick you into locking yourself into their service! Either way they get to rip you off!

Some things to think about:

1. What will the technology be in two years? Most likely faster and cheaper. You lose!

2. Will the costs go down in two years and leave you holding the (expensive) bag? Most likely! You lose again!

3. Will getting the special rate actually save you money? This sometimes happens as the special rate requires “bundling” of services, some of which you will never use, but have to pay for to get the special rate. You lose again!

4. What happens if something happens? You lose your job and can’t pay the bill and have to turn off the phone. Congratulations! You owe Qworst an extra $200.00 (do not pass go!) and get nothing for it. ...and again!

Kinda makes you not want to do it doesn’t it?

Leave a comment or two!