http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2005/06.php .
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Yesterday, I found the time to successfully convert this site's Forums from a 3 year-old version of Invision
Power Board forum software to the newest, most secure version of
phpBB forum
software. Unfortunately, the job took from early afternoon until well after midnight. Why? Because the first two forum database
conversion programs that I downloaded and tried didn't work correctly, and because I needed my Web hosting company's help to get
the forum SMTP email function to work. My new forums' look doesn't match the rest of my site, so I'll have to try to
change their look when I have time.
Several years ago, this site's Forums used totally free, Open Source
phpBB forum software. Then, late in 2001, I
went to a lot of trouble to convert my forums to use
Invision Power Board (IPB) forum software,
because it had more features and its creators promised that it would always be free. A year or two later, the IPB people
angered a significant chunk of their user base when they broke their promise and started charging for newer versions of IPB
software and its support, so I continued to use the old, free IPB software. Since then, phpBB software has evolved to be much
more powerful and secure than it used to be, while remaining both free and Open Source. So, now I'm sorry that I ever stopped
using phpBB, and I hope that I'll have some time to try to convert my forums back to it next week.
Why yes, I have lost weight. In fact, I've lost 35 pounds and about 3 inches from around my waist in the past several
weeks. How did I do it? I drank a lot of water, stopped snacking, ate more fiber, and drastically reduced my intake of fats
and sugars. Thanks for noticing.
Late last night, I tried to logon to my
E*Trade online investment account that I've used
for the past decade. I hadn't changed my username or my password recently, but E*Trade kept telling me that they
were wrong. After
several unsuccessful logon attempts, it told me that I needed to call E*Trade "customer service" to change my password. Even
though I called in the middle of the night, I had to wait on hold for 52 minutes, listening to the same three or four telephone
system songs repeat over and over. Every single minute, (that's a total of 52 times), a recorded voice
interrupted the music to say, "Your call is very important to us. Please continue to hold..." The
voice never told me how long my wait would be, so I was forced to sit and listen for nearly an hour, not knowing if I would ever
be allowed to speak to a human being. What made it worse was that I was calling to straighten out a logon problem that was
obviously E*Trade's fault to begin with. Actions speak louder than words, and last night, despite their recorded voice's repeated
insistence to the contrary, E*Trade convinced me that their customers' calls are not
important to them.
They've been there for the past 6 years, but have you ever wondered why the words,
"Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Greek" appear near the top of my home page? It's
because, if you click on them, you can view my home page translated into those languages. When you view my home page in a
different language, then you can browse to any of my other pages and they will be translated, too. That's one of the reasons why
my site has had 123,000 visitors from 95 different countries. Try out my site's
translation service -- it's fun. I especially like to see my trademark slogan, "Making Geek-Speak Chic"
in other languages.
If you use LavaSoft's free Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition on your computer (as every Windows user should), be sure to update it to the new version 1.06, which boasts faster, more powerful scanning technology.
I had no experience with
hospices
until my Uncle Dom entered one near his home, two days before he died. During the more than
36 hours that I spent in his hospice room, I was deeply touched by the gentle, loving, knowledgeable medical care and the warm,
home-like atmosphere that the hospice staff and volunteers provided to him, as well as by the sensitivity that they showed our
family before, after, and since his death. And, incredibly, the hospice provided all of that at no cost to my family. In
gratitude, this morning, I mailed a donation to the hospice association, to purchase a memorial brick in the sidewalk behind the
hospice building. It will be engraved with the words, "I will always love you, Pa." If you'd like to
donate to a very worthy cause, I urge you to consider giving some time and/or money to your local hospice.
The other day, I saw a TV commercial that urged everyone to buy tools for their father for Fathers Day next Sunday.
My first thought was that I should buy something for my Uncle Dom, who has been the closest thing to a real father that I've ever
had. Then, in a sudden flash of sadness, I remembered. I thank God that I had plenty of
time to show and tell him how much I love him.
Has accused child molester, Michael Jackson, attempted suicide? Hackers created that rumor to try to spread a trojan over the Internet, using an email message titled, "Re: Suicidal attempt." When you click on the hyperlink that is contained in the message, it takes you to a site that displays a "busy" message while it loads malware onto your computer that will allow hackers to control it.
The Nigerian Scams
are back, and the new variations are even trickier than the previous ones. Learn how to recognize and avoid falling for them.
Yesterday afternoon, my mother happily told me that she had called Chase Bank and asked them to switch her MasterCard
credit card from the one that currently gives her 1% cash back on all of her purchases, to a new one that will give her
"up to 5% cash back." Having seen that type of credit card offer before, I suspected that the deal
wasn't as good as she thought it was, so I called Chase Bank to find out the details. It took me 3 phone calls to finally reach
someone who could answer my question, "What does the
phrase, 'up to 5% cash back' mean?" Just as I had suspected, the percentage of cash that you get back is
determined by how much you spend each month, and the way they have it set up, my penny pinching Mom would have never spent
enough in one month to get even 1% cash back, let alone 5%. In fact, she would have had to spend more than $6,000 in a one-month
period before she would have even gotten 3% cash back. When I told Mom what I had learned, she called Chase Bank to cancel the
new card, but they told her she'll have to wait 72 hours before she can do that. In the meantime, I told her to call Citibank
(1-800-549-7679) to apply for their Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard. It will give her a full 5% cash back on all
supermarket, drugstore and gas station purchases, and a full 1% cash back on all other purchases, up to a maximum of $300 cash
back each year.
A few hours ago, I somehow stumbled onto a photo of
a really cute little dog,
and I knew that I had to share it with you.
The Portable Freeware Collection is a good place to find "freeware that can be extracted to any directory and run independently without prior installation. These can be carried around on a memory stick / U.S.B flash drive, or copied / migrated from PC to PC via simple copying of files." Many of the free programs could be valuable tools for PC consultants and others who work on others' PCs, because using them would prevent the consultant from having to install and then uninstall utility software on each PC. Thanks to The LangaList newsletter for bringing TPFC to my attention.
The old saying says, When it rains, it pours. Well, at least that's how it works here on the Gulf
Coast of the Sunshine State.
Up north, there were many times when it would lightly drizzle all day, and by the end of the day we would have only gotten
one-tenth of an inch (a couple of millimeters) of rain. In sharp contrast, when it rains here, it doesn't waste our time
drizzling all day. Instead, it usually rains nice and hard, often in the middle of the night. Thst's what happened about 4:00 in
the morning a couple of nights ago, when we got more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain in just a few hours. Since
then, we've gotten another couple of inches of rain. So now, everything is nice and green. And really
wet.