http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2006/09.php .
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This isn't the first time that America Online (AOL) has been accused of messing up the computers of people who install its software. Several years ago, I read about a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit that accused AOL of designing its software in such a way that it made it nearly impossible for users to uninstall it, and modified files on their computers that prevented them from using any other Internet Service Provider after they left AOL. Now, an anti-spyware group has stated that users should not install AOL 9.0, because it is "badware" that "it interferes with computer use and relies on deceptive information practices.". Remember: Friends Don't Let Friends Use AOL.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new way to protect users from phishing sites, by utilizing the users' cell phones or PDAs. The new protection process seems a little complicated to me, but maybe it's one of those things that people will eventually get used to using, like repeatedly pressing numeric keypad buttons on a cell phone to send text messages. OK, maybe only kids will get used to using it. Except that kids probably aren't very worried about security. I wonder if this new protection technique has a viable target audience.
Anyone who has developed any corporate training or written any technical documentation will get a good laugh out of How to Write Technical Documentation.
When you watch the news on TV, do you believe whatever the reporters and anchors say, because you assume that they're smarter and better informed than you are? If so, you may be shocked at how stupid this reporter is, as he reports a story about. a 6,000-volt electric fence.
He's the strange and fawning host of the cable TV show, Inside the Actors Studio who has been parodied several times on Saturday Night Live. Here is James Lipton performing a rap song on the Conan O'Brien show.
Someone please loan the multi-billionaire a dollar, so he can
buy a bottle of Coke. He says he'll pay you back.
This Journal entry is now a separate article, Why I Switched From Kubuntu To Mepis, and appears in this site's CB Guides section.
With only about 2% of the desktop PC market, Linux is nowhere near the point of putting Microsoft out of business, but it is making some headway. User-friendly desktop Linux distros like Ubuntu, Kubuntu, SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), and SimplyMepis are making it much easier for users to switch to Linux from Windows. Despite its currently small market share, some people are very optimistic about Linux's future, as demonstrated in How Microsoft is Losing to GNU/Linux.
KDE-desktop-based Linux distros, like Kubuntu and SimplyMEPIS, have long had a color-coded, graphical hard drive space tool that shows you exactly which folders are taking up the most space on your hard drive. Now there's a similar free tool for Windows, called windirstat.
How good are you at figuring out which domino to topple in order to create a chain reaction that will eventually crush a tomato? Try Domino Pressure and find out.
Several weeks ago, I showed you a video in which late-night talk show host David Letterman worked in the drive-through window at a McDonalds. Here's another video from the old days when Dave used to be funny. It's the one where he works at the drive-through window at a Taco Bell. "OK, OK, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm not exactly a computer. Slow down."
Several weeks ago, I showed you a video in which a pizza chain used a similar technique to convince people that "The pizza's here!" See if you can figure out what's going to happen in
this funny commercial.
The Linux Desktop Myth is a well-reasoned and well-written essay that describes one man's interesting journey through various computers and operating systems, including a convincing analysis of why desktop Linux operating systems are currently not as popular as they should be.
Months ago, while I was still a Windows user, I configured my PC's Outlook 2000 email client's default settings to not display images that are within email messages. At the time, I did it to avoid downloading any web bugs that might have arrived in accidently unfiltered spam messages. Since then, spammers have increasingly resorted to sending picture spam within email messages, to foil anti-spam software, which typically only filters email text for spam content. That's why, when I switched from Windows to Linux, I remembered to configure my Thunderbird email client's default settings to not display images that are within email messages.
He rollerskates — turning, stopping, and jumping at will. Oh, yeah, and he's a monkey.
When it comes to golf, he's good enough to demonstrate his swing on TV. He's Tiger Woods, and he's only two years old.
You may have seen a few of them on TV, but here's a collection of
funny commercials.
Last night, my wife and I saw something that we had never seen in any of our previous visits to see the Gulf Coast sunset. A few minutes before sunset, a cigarette boat came speeding down the coast and slowed to a near stop a few hundred yards straight out from us. Then it turned toward us and came several yards closer to the shore before slowly turning to face back up the coast. I jokingly told my wife, "Maybe they're dropping someone off." A few seconds later, a man jumped off the back of the boat and started walking toward us, with the water up to his shoulders. As he walked, the speedboat turned toward the sinking sun and quickly sped off. It took a few minutes for the man in the water to slowly walk all the way to the beach. As he stepped out of the water about 30 feet away, he smiled at us and said, "Ah, home sweet home!" I called back to him, "You know, they have trolleys that go up and down the coast!" He laughed and continued walking toward the row of large condos behind us. A few seconds later, two nearly silent black helicopters suddenly appeared and quickly landed a hundred feet away. More than a dozen FBI and INS agents jumped out, chased him down, grabbed him, and handcuffed him. As they dragged him toward one of the helicopters, I called out, "I told you you should have taken a trolley!" No, that last part didn't really happen, but this sure would've been a funny story if it had.
Eight years ago, when I first went looking for a domain name for this site, ComputerBob.com wasn't my first choice. I chose it because Bob.com, ComputerGuy.com, and ComputerMan.com were already taken at the time. Bob.com was owned by Microsoft, probably because they had registered it a few years earlier, when they had released Microsoft Bob. The whole point of Microsoft Bob was to make computers easier to use for beginners, sort of like this web site. Unfortunately, Microsoft Bob never became popular, sort of like... oh, never mind. I never owned Microsoft Bob, but I when I saw the screenshots of it, they reminded me that I did try it out many years ago, so I probably had a free beta or trial copy of it at some point.
Monkey Washing a Cat is actually a video of a chimpanzee washing a cat. And it's really only about 4 seconds long, but someone looped it to repeat for a whole minute so they could add totally irrelevant music to it. Still, it's pretty funny to watch if you've never seen a chimpanzee washing a cat.
If you listen carefully, you'll hear two or three clunkers, but that's forgivable, considering the fact that Stanley Jordan is playing two guitars at the same time in this cover of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. If you pay attention, you'll see a few sections where he plays lead guitar on both guitars. So why isn't Stanley Jordan really rich and really famous? I think it's because if you listen to his CDs, they just sound like normal recordings of a really good jazz quartet — it isn't until you see him play that you realize that his band is just a trio.
Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Super Mower — fighting for truth, justice, and the American way of landscaping!
In the past, I've mentioned funny ways that people have developed to deal with telemarketers. I started to call them "unwanted telemarketers," but quickly realized that the word, "unwanted" would have been redundant. Anyway, someone has reportedly developed a free, open source software application called
Telecrapper 2000, that automatically answers the telephone when telemarketers call, and uses computer-controlled voice responses to converse with them. Here's a recording of
one of those calls, and you can find several more examples on the TC2000 web site.
If you're a regular reader of this Journal, you know that, back in July of this year, I converted my main PC to use Linux. At first, I used Ubuntu Linux, then Kubuntu Linux, which is based on Ubuntu. I'm currently using SimplyMEPIS Linux, which is also based on Ubuntu Linux. I really like it, and haven't used Windows at all in the past several weeks. As far as I'm concerned, Ubuntu Linux is one of the main driving forces behind the growing popularity of Linux operating systems. Still, I learned a few things by reading Why Ubuntu Got It All Wrong.
Is your site like this one — powered by (X)HTML and CSS? Are you frustrated by the limitations of CSS? You can find out what's being done about some of those limitations by reading CSS Shortcomings.
Memories light the corner of my mind. Misty water color memories of the way we were. How many of PC World's list of The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time have you ever owned or used? I've used 11 of them and owned 3 of them.
Some researchers say that there's no such thing as a person with a photographic memory. Unless it's some kind of hoax, this amazing video proves them wrong.
Here's a funny, creative animation by Don Hertzfeldt.
Here's a very clever cartoon short, showing
How Superman Should Have Ended. I especially like the Seinfeld-esque coffee shop conversation with Batman afterward.
Does Linux Have a Role in the Home? is an easy to understand and balanced view of some of the upsides and downsides of switching your home computer from Windows to Linux.
If your home and/or corporate PCs are running Windows XP, and you're not planning to switch them to a version of Linux, you might be wise to leave them running Windows XP instead of upgrading them to Windows Vista. Take a look at The Dark Side of Windows Vista RC1 and see if it gives you any ideas.
Here's a free and easy way to temporarily run Windows software in a way that lets you try it out without allowing it to save anything onto your PC's hard drive. Its web site says you can use Sandbox For Windows "if you want to test programs you don't trust or if you want to run programs from your U.S.B drive without leaving traces."
Jerry Seinfeld has a lot to say about grocery shopping. It's a good thing for us that most of it is funny.
Next time you're looking for a great toy for a special girl or boy, remember: they don't want a cell phone, an iPod, or a new video game. They want
Log! It's better than bad — it's good!
Yes, Cutting Off Windows is another "I'm - really - happy - that - I - switched - to - Linux" story. I've posted one of them at the top of my Journal several times since I switched from Windows to Linux this past July.
I've got a bunch of memorable commercials to show you today. The first one is a funny commercial for the Yellow Pages. If I were the Yellow Pages people, I would never, ever show that commercial on TV. Why not? Watch it and then ask yourself if it convinces you that you should use the Yellow Pages the next time you're in a hurry to get some help.
Maybe I'm a little slow, but I had to watch this funny commercial twice before I figured out what had happened.
I didn't like this Geico insurance commercial, starring Burt Bacharach, the first time I saw it on TV. Now I think it's pretty funny. Note "the real Geico customer" trying to keep a straight face. "I hope I'll never get hit in the reeeeear again."
This commercial for Folger's coffee is so over-the-top annoying, amateurish and creepy that I thought it must be a Saturday Night Live parody commercial. Incredibly, it's not.
Here's a commercial for the Dodge Caliber that takes a contrarian view of market research focus groups.
This
Sprite commercial takes aim at the silliness of its competitors' commercials.
If you're interested in what may happen to Microsoft Windows in the future, I highly recommend that you read Hasta la Vista, part 1: Microsoft's Final Death March. It's got plenty of behind-the-scenes drama and eye-opening insight, presented in a way that beginnners can understand, while still providing plenty of technical details that will appeal to pure geeks.
These days, you can't go to a meeting or conference without being intellectually accosted by one or more PowerPoint presentations. Unfortunately, very few of them are even the least bit interesting. In fact, I can't remember the details of any PowerPoint presentation I've ever seen. Can you? In that vein, I think the title of 8 Advices for Creating Successful PowerPoint Presentation may be a little misleading — a more accurate title might be 8 Ways to Avoid Problems in PowerPoint Presentations. To me, the real secret to creating any successful presentation is to be a dynamic, engaging, knowledgeable, relevant, and entertaining speaker. Then, if you think that it will enhance your already excellent presentation, use PowerPoint as a presentation support tool. In other words, the presenter and the presentation itself are important — the presentation tool is not. If you disagree, think about this: When was the last time you saw Microsoft use a PowerPoint presentation in one of its TV commercials?
You want to add a cool signature to the bottom of your email messages, to show your message recipients how clever you are. Unfortunately, you're actually not very clever, so you can't think up a good signature. Fortunately, you're clever enough to go to Coolsig, "the world's largest online signature file collection," where you can choose from thousands of clever signatures.
Don't ever play chess with a hamster. They cheat.
We've come a long, long way since the heyday of the Commodore VIC-20 computer and its "real computer keyboard."
Here's a real home video that absolutely proves that
General Motors has working models of flying cars. I wonder why I haven't seen anything on the news about this.
A Letter From Linuxland is a realistic description of one person's choice between Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Linux. See if you agree with his conclusions.
For several years, Linux has been the operating system of choice for many corporate and ISP web servers. In the past few years, it has also become an increasingly popular operating system for desktop computers, cell phones, PDAs, and other electronic devices. Now here's an interesting story about a guy who took a long airplane flight, and accidently discovered that his airline of choice uses Linux in a surprising way.
Yesterday, I showed you an article that predicts a bleak future for Microsoft after it releases Windows Vista. That article's author isn't alone in that opinion, as evidenced by Why Vista Will Mean the End of the Microsoft Monolith.
She can't sing any lyrics while she's doing it, but Georgia Brown can sing really, really high notes. To steal a phrase that I heard years ago, she sounds "like Mariah Carey caught in a bear trap." I disagree with the comments under the video that praise her vocal control, though — she's good at singing individual long notes on-pitch, but when she tries to sing a melody, a lot of her notes are flat. Even so, it's an amazing feat that she can sing that high. Still, to be realistic, take a look and listen to this video, and then ask yourself if you could sit through an entire concert of it.
Saturday Night Live did a good job on this commercial parody for
Bad Idea Jeans.
Do you remember the furur that resulted a few years ago, when it was announced that Microsoft Windows would be used to control U.S. nuclear submarines? We all imagined BSDs (blue screens of death) causing all kinds of dangerous scenarios. Well, now it looks like the U.S. military is finally starting to understand the risks of trusting lives and sophisticated weaponry to Windows: Soon, Linux will be used to support the U.S. high-tech AEGIS weapon system. I feel safer already.
Speaking of switching from Windows to Linux, a large Australian equipment-rental company is doing just that. They've already switched 400 desktop computers, and hope to switch all 90 of their Windows servers to Linux by the end of this year.
It's one of those little things that can make using Windows more convenient. Here's how to add Control Panel to the right-click menu of My Computer.
I hope you haven't built your undergound bomb shelter yet, because one company that builds them warns that you should not build it out of concrete.
Would you like fries with that? Have you ever noticed that, no matter how much food you order at McDonalds, they always try to "upsell" you something more? Here's a funny video of a guy ordering every single item on the menu, to see if they'll still try to upsell him.
If you ever need to pull your car backwards out of some snow, remember these two important lessons:
Don't worry if you forget to do one or the other — something will remind you.
He just sits there, learning, absorbing, and getting smarter every day.
Who is he?
One of my college web design students from 2001, called me last night. We were on long-distance for over 2 1/2 hours, as I talked him through installing and configuring Windows XP onto a second hard drive on his Windows 98 SE computer. When we finished, he had a perfectly working dual-boot computer and instructions for how to copy his new XP partition to a third hard drive as a backup. It's not very often that I do my work via a long-distance phone call, but it's always rewarding, especially when I get to help a former student, and when things turn out as well as they did last night.
Linux Will Never Displace Windows of its Leadership Position. That's the conclusion that two Harvard Business School professors reached after studying the question, "Can the Open Source Software (OSS) movement defeat or cripple Microsoft in the marketplace?" Assuming that they are correct, does their conclusion affect your decision to use or not use Linux on your PC?
I'm still using a text editor and FTP software to update this Journal in Linux. I think I may glean some good advice for how to do it better from Linux and Web Development Intro and Part 2.
Windows Vista is coming! Windows Vista is coming! Too bad Windows Vista is still a mess.
Computer experts have long complained that Norton security software and suites are memory and CPU hogs that significantly slow down any computer on which they are running. Now someone has done some research that confirms those complaints, and shows you What Slows Windows Down.
Here's an article that tells the secrets of The Best Time to Buy Everything. I just have one question: What if you can't afford to buy everything?
It's clear that this monkey really loves his cat.
It's funny. It's weird. It's wacky. But there are probably over 1,000 reasons why
this car and its driver are far too dangerous to be street-legal.
This Journal entry is now a separate article: Review: Quanta Plus Web Development Environment.
If you're like me, you think it's pretty cool to use 21st century technology to watch a funny scene from a Charlie Chaplin silent movie that was made in 1925.
In 1998, I wrote a piece called Every Child, not knowing that, back in 1979, someone had made an animated short of the same name, that made the same point.
You're enjoying your day. Everything's going your way. Then along comes
Debbie Downer.
Have you tried a version of Linux yet? Remember, many Linux distros come on a bootable "Live CD" that will let you try them out on your computer without affecting Windows and without installing anything on your hard drive. Then, if you decide that you like Linux, often that same "Live CD" can quickly and easily install Linux onto your hard drive in a "dual boot" configuration, allowing you to choose between Windows and Linux each time you start up your computer. If you're like me, and you tried several versions of Linux in the past without finding one that you really liked, it may be time to give Linux another try. If you've been afraid to try Linux because you heard that it's only for geeks, you should know that Linux has gotten really user-friendly in the past year or so. For proof, take a look at Killing the Five Myths Against Linux.
How many years do you think computer hard drives have been around? This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first hard drive. It's absolutely incredible how monstrous it was and how little data it stored, compared to today's hard drives.
If you're a really clueless employee, you may learn a lot from 10 Things That Will Get You Fired. Or you may not learn anything from it; in which case, you probably should be fired.
I would've loved to have been there. Here's an absolutely beautiful time-lapse video of 106 hot air balloons taking off, flying around, and landing, in a 2006 hot air baloon race in Reno Nevada.
Here's a funny, apparently real, self-made video of a Mac user who clearly has
some anger issues regarding his computer.
I apologize that today's Journal entry is 12-15 hours later than my normal posting time. Yesterday, I had a serious mishap while using an electric chain saw to trim some tree branches. I was 10-12 feet up an extension ladder when, in the middle of my first cut, the ladder suddenly decided that it wanted to be about a foot shorter than I had told it to be. Unfortunately, that made it about an inch shorter than it needed to be to continue leaning on a large branch below the one that I was cutting. The result was that it fell to the ground and dumped me on my lower back onto one of the roots of the tree. Once I was able to breathe again, I slowly and carefully discovered that I could stand up, walk around, and even move in all directions. Apparently, I suffered only soft tissue injuries, without damaging any of the surrounding nerves, discs, or other spinal parts. I figured that if I went back inside and rested, my back would probably get so stiff and sore that I would have a hard time moving, so instead, I continued working for the next 4 hours. When I finally finished and went back inside, I found that I had a very large black and blue mark on my very swollen and tender lower back. Since then, I've been taking Aleve and have repeatedly iced down the whole area, which has significantly reduced the swelling and tenderness. My right ankle hurts, too, but I'm sure it will feel better in a day or two. I've also been sleeping a lot, which is why I didn't get around to writing this Journal entry until the early afternoon.
Windows and Linux explains some of the differences between the two, but says that it will allow you to make up your own mind regarding which one is better. If you notice the subtle bias favoring Windows over Linux, it's probably because the author is a Microsoft employee.
If you still use Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, you should probably learn about its latest security exploit du jour.
This web site has a fluid design — you can stretch your browser windows bigger or shrink it smaller, and the page content will flow into whatever size you provide for it. Here's an article, on a fixed design page, that asks Should All Sites Be Fluid?
The following statement will undoubtedly be considered some sort of blasphemy by many geeks: I have never read or seen any Lord of the Rings books or movies. For those of you who have, here's an animation that shows How Lord of the Rings Should Have Ended.
I usually don't enjoy beatbox videos. And I'm bored by student-made videos, Why? Because I'm more than 15 years old. Anyway, here's
a student-made beatbox video that I actually enjoyed.
Linux gets more popular every day. NASA is planning to use Linux to control its next generation of lunar rovers.
You can probably speed up your computer a little bit and also increase its security by disabling unneeded Windows services.
If you're willing and able to perform a few simple edits to your computer's Windows Registry, you can Add Copy To and Move To to Windows Explorer.
Many search engines keep a record of every search that you do. If you're looking for a quick and easy summary of how to keep that from happening, take a look at 6 Tips To Protect Online Search Privacy.
I've taken college courses. I've taught college courses. In all my years in college classrooms, I've never seen anyone do what
this professor did when a student received a cell phone call during his lecture. I think it was all just a setup, using a cheap toy cell phone, designed to make a point. Why do I think that? Because, as soon as the cell phone rang, the class camera left the professor and went to the student whose cell phone had rung.
Many thanks to those who expressed their concern for my well being after the injuries that I suffered a few days ago. One person suggested that maybe my fall wasn't caused by my extension ladder suddenly getting shorter — maybe it happened because the tree had a sudden growth spurt. Now that's creative thinking.
If you still use Microsoft Windows, and you also use a Windows software firewall, you should probably check out Firewall Leak Tester, to see how your firewall compares to others. By the way, none of them tested very well.
What would you guess is the most stressful of all professions? You might be surprised.
Here's a site that says that, to be safe, you should not sign the back of your credit cards. Find out what it says you should do instead.
I'm always amazed at how many really, really bad singers and dancers audition for those televised talent competitions, apparently unaware that they lack any of the necessary skills. Here's one of the worst performers I've ever seen or heard,
leaving the judges speechless.
If you're a relatively new full-time Linux user like me, you may have wondered how much RAM memory Linux uses, or maybe you've been confused by the memory usage figures provided by one or more of the Linux utilties. Have no fear — "Linux Uses Too Much Memory!" A (very) Basic Linux Memory Guide explains how Linux is actually using a lot less RAM than you might think. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that when I first boot up SimplyMEPIS Linux to its desktop, which includes 6 applets running in the tray and a sticky note program running on the desktop, Linux is only using 71 MB of RAM. When I start my Firefox browser (displaying this site's home page) and my Thunderbird email program, total RAM usage rises to only 101 MB. When I add my Quanta Plus web development software, total RAM usage is only 131 MB. Try doing that in Windows.
I originally built this site using HTML code. More than 3 years ago, I completely redesigned it to use XHTML 1.0 Strict (served as text/html for browser compatibility) and CSS. What do those terms mean? Why would someone choose one over the other? Frequently Asked Questions About XHTML vs HTML does a good job of answering those and several other important questions.
You've probably seen plenty of lists like the best tech products of the year or the best tech products of the past 10 years, but here's a somewhat unique list: The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. Have you ever owned or used any of them?
The stereotypical "bad interview question" asks, "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" Here's a totally unscientific, totally useless (except for fun) quiz that that answers the question, If you were a computer operating system, which operating system would you be?. It told me I would be the Amiga OS, so now I'll know in case an interviewer ever asks me.
"Let's ride with the family down the street, through the courtesy of Fred's two feet." Did you ever understand that part of the theme song from The Flintstones? Now you can stir up all kinds of childhood memories by listening to MP3 recordings of the theme songs from all of your favorite old cartoon shows, thanks to Mike's Classic Cartoon Themes.
If you've ever watched the U.S. TV show, Jeopardy!, you know that its host, Alex Trebek, has a pretty straight-laced and subdued personality. Here's a very unusual clip in which Alex goes a little crazy and tries to
do some disco dance moves. Apparently, that part of his programming hadn't been debugged yet.
According to ZDNet, "Bob Gleichauf, the chief technology officer in Cisco Systems's security technology group, has raised concerns that integrating Vista into a complex IT infrastructure could present problems." Here are the details.
Advances in computer technology never cease to amaze me. Chip-maker, Intel, has announced that "its researchers have figured out a way to create a laser out of hybrid chip materials that could enable high-speed communications at 1,000 times the speed of today's computers and at much lower costs than is possible today." In a follow-up announcement, the company predicted that within a month after the new technology appears in stores, computer users will complain that it isn't fast enough.
If your digital camera has a "night shot" mode, you can use the inside of an old floppy disk as a filter and shoot infrared photos.
Avast, maties! Today be a good one for countin' yer dubloons. This be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrrrr!
Before it was finally unveiled, it enjoyed months of publicity, claiming that it would change all of our lives and even change the way that new cities are designed and built. After all that, the two-wheel Segway vehicle turned out to be an expensive disappointment. Watch this video to see that tradition continue with the off-road Segway. When I think of off-road vehicles, I think of trucks, SUVs, and ATVs climbing over boulders, running up steep hills, and fording waist-deep streams. The new Segway appears to re-define the term "off-road" to mean "It will work if you ride it on smooth, dry, level trails — you know, the kinds of places where you would walk if you weren't rich, spoiled, and lazy."
Have you ever heard someone's cell phone ring, and wonder, "Why would anyone pick that as their ring tone?" Here's a funny video in which a man hands out fines
to people who have annoying ring tones.
I've been using Linux full-time since this past July, but I learned a few new Linux tips and facts by reading 10 Things a new Linux user needs to unlearn, and Part 2: Things a new Linux user should learn. Don't forget to also read the helpful comments that appear under each of them.
I've mentioned before how Microsoft has always used FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) as a marketing tool, to try to scare people into thinking that Windows is good while other operating systems are bad. Now Redmond is reportedly trying to deceptively scare the European Commission into believing that their member countries will lose billions of dollars if they take steps to rein in the company's monopolistic practices.
I always taught my college students that it doesn't matter what you know unless you can effectively communicate it to others. That's the main point of Grate Carear Tip: Lern How 2 Rite.
It would've been a lot easier to just buy some sound effects CDs or record the actual live sounds, but if they had done either of those things, I wouldn't have put this interesting commercial on my web site.
Remember the heartwarming story of E.T., the extraterrestrial who worked so hard to get back to his home planet? That movie probably wouldn't have been very popular with children if it had been released with
the alternate E.T. movie ending that was never shown.
Several weeks ago, our local stores stopped selling my wife's favorite soda pop: Caffeine-Free Diet Dr. Pepper. I always called it "a horrible witches' brew," but other than water and skim milk, CFDDP has been the only thing she has wanted to drink for many years. Apparently, the Dr. Pepper company still makes it, but stores don't carry it because they need the shelf space for the new Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, Very Berry Dr. Pepper, and their respective diet versions. Anyway, with her favorite drink no longer available, she decided to try drinking iced tea instead — specifically, iced green tea, which is reported to have lots of beneficial antioxidants. If you've ever bought iced tea in individual bottles, you know that each 16-20-ounce bottle costs more than a dollar (U.S.D). That works out to an incredibly expensive $7-10 per gallon. Even if you buy it in one-gallon jugs, it costs $2-3 per gallon. With all of that in mind, we decided to start making our own iced tea, using individual bags of Lipton green tea, On the Lipton box, it says to use 28 tea bags (at 12 cents apiece) to make a gallon of tea. Unfortunately, if we did that, one gallon of our homemade iced tea would end up costing more than a gallon of pre-made tea. So we did some experiments and discovered that we could make a gallon of green tea with only 4 tea bags if we heat a large pan of water almost to boiling, take it off the heat, put the tea bags into it, put a lid on it, and leave it for about 2 hours. That reduced our cost to less than 48 cents per gallon, or about 1/5 the cost of soda pop. Things got even better when I went to Sam's Club, where they sell 200 bags of Uncle Lee's organically grown green tea for only $6.34. Using the technique that I described above with 4 tea bags (at a little more than 3 cents each), we can make a gallon of green tea for about 13 cents, which is about 1/20 the cost of soda pop. Green tea is a drink that we can feel good about, and I highly recommend it.
If you have your mind set on using Windows Vista when it finally gets released, you'll probably want to read Features new to Windows Vista.
This could turn out to be very important medical news. I found a blog that claimed that new studies point to vitamin D as a possible wonder drug for diabetes (and maybe other diseases). I couldn't find any sources to confirm that claim, so I'm not linking to it — I wanted to let you know about it so we can all keep an eye out for any new developments in that area.
Here are a few commercials for a Bangkok insurance company. My first reaction to them was, "Sure, but that would never happen." Then I realized that that's exactly what they wanted me to think. Very clever.
If you've ever wondered how 3D computer-animated cartoons are created, watch
this step-by-step video. Unfortunately, when it ended, my only reaction was, "Why would anyone spend that much money and that many hours, over a whole year, just to make that cartoon?" No wonder it costs millions and millions of dollars to create a really good-looking 3D computer-animated movie.
If you're a regular reader of this Journal, you know that, for 3-4 years, I tried to find a version of Linux that could replace Windows on my desktop. I finally found one this past July, and haven't used Windows at all since then. Here's a short article that reminds me of a few of the main reasons why I looked so long and hard to find a Windows replacement, and why I'm so happy that I finally found one.
There are boatloads of articles that describe what it's like for a Windows user to try Linux for the first time. If you wonder what it might be like for a Linux user to try Windows XP for the first time, take a look at How To Switch From Linux To Windows - A User's Experience.
I think they could remake this funny commercial with a newbie tech support person, answering his first emergency call. In that case, it would advertise a computer training school.
In a race between a nitrous-oxide-powered Jeep and a snowmobile, which one do you think would win? What if they were racing across a lake?
Even though it doesn't appear to be very versatile, Levitron is a pretty cool toy.
I think I might have featured him once before, but he's worth another look, because
he has tremendous powers.
Yesterday, I saw the following quote at the top of my home page: "You can't comb the hair on a billiard ball without at least 1 cowlick and 1 crown." For some reason, that didn't seem right to me, so I started thinking about it. At first, I thought of a way to do it with 2 cowlicks but no crowns. After awhile, it dawned on me how to do it without any cowlicks or crowns. See if you can figure it out, and I'll tell you my answers tomorrow.
Last night, I happened to see the movie, Antitrust, on TV. It's a behind-the-scenes thriller about a fictional software giant that exploits the power of its virtual monopoly to fill its coffers, infiltrate every aspect of its customers' lives, and destroy its potential competitors. Tim Robbins is very believable in the role of amiable CEO Bill Gates — oops, I mean "Gary Winston," while former teen heartthrob, Ryan Phillippe's dreadfully wooden portrayal of a computer programmer reminded me of Christopher Reeve's mannequin impression in Somewhere In Time. Here's a bit of ironic trivia for you: pay attention and you'll notice that one of the evil henchmen is named Redmond. Unfortunately, I had to turn down the sound and turn on my TV's closed captioning because the soundtrack (mostly raucous songs of teen angst) nearly drowned out much of the dialogue. Despite its negatives, Antitrust is a very powerful and surprisingly scary warning about the dangers of using Microsoft Windows — oops, I mean "the dangers of allowing corporate power and greed to run amok." I highly recommend it.
Is your web site hosted by a company that provides fast, reliable, reasonably priced service? Mine is. Click on the "Monitored By" icons near the bottom of my left navigation column to see my site's incredible uptime, as monitored by 3 different independent site-monitoring companies. To learn more about my experiences with many web hosts over the years, read ComputerBob's Guide To Web Hosts. To sign up for fast, reliable, reasonably priced web hosting, or to learn more about the company that has been hosting this site since May, 2004, click on the Web Site Hosted By Bright-Byte icon in the left navigation column.
Don't worry — the fact that Windows Vista May Require Substantial Hardware Upgrades is good news — if you're a hardware manufacturer.
Danger Pies is a cute and funny little public service announcement that teaches the importance of eating a healthy diet.
If you followed any of the World Cup soccer matches, you may recognize some of your favorite players in this Pepsi commercial. If not, then you can just enjoy watching them perform some amazing soccer moves while surfing.
What are the odds of this happening right after he mentioned it?
It takes 7 minutes, but it's worth it when you get to the denouement of this funny 1977
short film by Steve Martin.
Here are my answers to yesterday's question, regarding how to comb the hair on a billiard ball. To end up with 2 cowlicks but no crowns, part the hair in the middle, all the way around. You'll end up with one cowlick on each side of the part, where all the hair from the different directions meets. To end up with no cowlicks and no crowns, simply comb the hair straight out, like a Koosh ball.
If your web site is 200 pages or fewer, you could save yourself a lot of time by using the W3C Multipage Validator to validate them to web coding standards, instead of individually submitting them to the W3C site's online validator. The Multipage Validator's current limit of 200 pages prevented me from using it to fully validate this site, but it only took it a couple of minutes to do a great job on the 200 pages that it checked for me. It even identified 7 of my pages that were each either missing a closing paragraph tag or had an unencoded ampersand in a hyperlink — mistakes that my HTML Validator Firefox browser extension had overlooked.
You've probably heard for years that you should have a firewall protecting your computer. But do you know what a firewall is, or why you need one? Firewalls FAQ does a good job of answering your firewall questions in an easy to understand way.
If you're feeling down, or you need some encouragement, here's a site that will make you laugh as it assures you that you are mighty.
The thing I like best about this video of a stupid criminal is the instant security wall that springs up to protect the bank tellers. Oh, yeah, and also his trouble with the bank's exit doors.
Though they generally have much more advanced computer skills than most people, computer geeks and nerds often lack the social skills and audience awareness needed to communicate what they know to others. If that description fits you, then starting about 20 seconds in,
this hilarious video will show you exactly how you sound when you talk about computers to your computerphobic friends and relatives. That's why I think it should be required viewing for all computer science students, along with a course in Making Geek-Speak Chic™.
When Windows XP was first released nearly 5 years ago, I decided to keep using Windows 98 SE. The main reason was that I didn't like all of XP's "new features" that treated users like software pirates and took away their rights to do what they wanted to do with their PCs. Last year, as I prepared for Microsoft to drop all support for Win98SE, I finally installed XP onto my main PC, in a dual-boot with Win98SE. Still, the latter remained my OS of choice until two months ago, when I switched to Linux. Since then, I've had Linux in a dual-boot with Windows XP, but I've only used XP once, to see how this site looked in Internet Explorer after I reconfigured its font settings. As you make plans to either stay with Windows XP, upgrade to Windows Vista, switch to a version of Linux, or switch to some other operating system, do yourself a favor and read If Only We Knew Then What We Know Now About Windows XP.
Studies have repeatedly shown that the biggest security threat to any company is its employees, and the biggest security threat to any computer is its user. Learn how to be less of a threat to your computer's security by reading The Best Antivirus - Common Sense v1.0. It contains some good security tips, but note that I disagree with the author's conclusion that "With this in mind, there's no reason why (if you're a legal law abiding user - yes, some exist) you *need* to run an antivirus." Like many others, I recommend "a multi-layered approach" to computer security — using several different security tools (i.e. hardware firewall, software firewall, antivirus, antispyware) to make it more difficult for a virus or other malware to successfully exploit a vulnerability in any one tool.
Most people receive lots of spam email messages, junk mail, and telemarketing calls. Here's how to reduce or eliminate them.
Even if you give them exactly the same amount as everyone else, some people always want a little more.
I think our local dog tracks would do a lot more business if they figured out how to use
this idea.
For many years, corporations, ISPs, and web hosting companies have run Linux on their servers. Over the past few years, computer users like me have discovered that Linux is also very good choice to completely replace Windows on our desktops. Now here's an article that gives some good reasons Why Linux is the Logical Choice for the Classroom, too.
How well does Microsoft listen to feedback from users and experts when it's designing its operating systems and applications? Apparently, not very well at all.
Over the past 5 years, the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy software that Microsoft built into Windows XP has caused a lot of problems. Most notably, it has told many users that their legal copies of Windows were "not genuine." The controversy over WGA became even more heated earlier this year, when Microsoft admitted that WGA had been spying on all Windows users every day for a year, without their knowledge or permission. Since then, some have created ways to disable WGA while still allowing users to receive Windows updates from Microsoft. And many people have expressed the hope that Microsoft would drop WGA from its upcoming Windows Vista operating system. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't have a very good track record of caring what its customers think, so Windows Vista will reportedly contain WGA, and it will be required to be enabled in order to use all of Vista's features.
Though they've been around for years, Windows 2000 and XP still have features that can be very annoying. Here are 8 tricks to make them more usable.
Math problems are easy, once you know how to solve them. Here are Ma and Pa Kettle, proving that
25 divided by 5 equals 14.
Two days ago, I told you that I've only booted into Windows XP once in the past 2+ months since I switched to Linux, and that was only to see how this site looked in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Now someone has created a way to avoid having to boot into Windows by installing and running IE within Linux. No thanks — like many Linux users, I'd rather not install any Microsoft applications in Linux.
Yesterday, I told you about users having problems with Microsoft's WGA anti-piracy software. Now a ZDNet blog reports that of 137 complaints that were recently posted on the WGA Validation Problems forum, "42% of the people who experienced problems with WGA and reported those problems to Microsoft's public forums during that period were actually running Genuine Microsoft Windows. That's not just our opinion, either. Those statistics were reported by the Redmond-approved Microsoft Genuine Advantage Diagnostic utility." Some users have even had multiple problems with WGA. If WGA ever causes you problems — and it looks like the odds are pretty high that it will at some point — here is some advice for what to do.
Here's a funny commercial that shows how tiring it is to be a superhero.
He's not a great singer. He's not a great guitarist. Most of his audience walks by without even looking at him. Still, he's the best singer and guitar player I've ever seen who has no arms.
In the movies, an action hero will often drive on an airport runway, chasing a jet plane that carries bad guys. Here's a video that demonstrates what really happens if you drive into the blast of a jet engine.
Two days ago, I showed you a video of a monkey riding a greyhound. Here's a video that claims to show a monkey
riding a border collie to herd some sheep. To me, it looks more like the monkey is hanging on for its life as the border collie instinctually herds the sheep by itself.
I first mentioned this topic several weeks ago, but here are more details: Security software company, Symantec, claims that Microsoft Vista will reduce users' security software choices by not allowing them to say "hasta la Vista" to that operating system's built-in security software.
If you're a creative person, you know that the good advice in How to Make a Flyer! - Hot Design Tips on Designing a Flyer That Sells also applies to newsletters, advertisements, and web pages.
Yesterday, I showed you what happens when you drive a car into the blast of a jet engine. Here's another video, showing two different cars driving across a jet engine's blast.
This 12-year-old girl is
one of the best rock guitarists I've ever heard. Still, I feel sorry for her. If the comments below the video are true, her childhood is over.
A few years ago, when I first started trying out different versions of LInux, it appeared that a huge majority of "the Linux community" was more interested in preserving the elitism of its self-proclaimed intellectual superiority, than in helping others learn to use Linux. In fact, I quickly got used to seeing the insulting acronym, RTFM (Read The #@!%$ Manual), when I started looking for answers to my Linux questions. On the other hand, I'm very happy to report that my recent experiences with "the Linux community" have been very positive. In the past 2+ months that I've lurked in several Linux support forums and read hundreds of Linux articles and tips, I've found veteran Linux users to be very polite and helpful to each other and to new users. In fact, I've only seen RTFM once, and the person who posted it was immediately scolded by other Linux veterans. That's why I was kind of surprised to see Linux is Not Windows and Why You Don't Want Linux Going Mainstream. The attitudes expressed in both articles remind me of "the bad old days" of Linux support. I'm just glad that those who feel that way are apparently now a small minority of Linux users.
Most of us know how to be an angry customer, but since many of us also have to work "on the other side of the desk," we should also know How to Deal with an Angry Customer. Here's a good tip: Think about how the techniques might work with anyone — not just customers.
I've always loved grandfather clocks. Years ago, I found a beautiful one in a dusty old antique store called Nantiques in Grand Rapids, Ohio. Its dark, shiny case was handmade out of cherry wood, and it kept perfect time. even though it had been built way back in 1790. I imagined it standing in the living rooms of its various owners, patiently tick-tocking as it watched generations of babies grow old and die. I would have loved to buy that old clock, but they were asking $900 for it — my wife and I were so poor that they might as well had been asking $900,000 for it. Still, I went home and told my wife about how amazing it was. That weekend, I took her to see it, but someone had already bought it and it was gone. If I ever own a grandfather clock, I want an old one that has some history behind it, not one made out of lego blocks.
To me, a musician plays their instrument, but a virtuoso knows their instrument.
Here's a funny commercial in which a mother and daughter
reach a surprising agreement — in fact, it's especially surprising
to the daughter.
In Opinion: Second Look at Linux Proves Persuasive, a ComputerWorld author tries Mandriva Linux and decides that Linux "is ready for prime time," Though I'm a very happy Linux user myself, I don't think it's fair for anyone to conclude that Linux either is or isn't "ready for prime time" based on their experience with one version of Linux.
Everywhere you look, someone has a list of Windows XP tips. Unfortunately, many of them are not very useful. 50 Best Tips Ever appears to have some good ones.
Did you know that Windows XP saves your password in two different formats? One of those formats is pretty secure against hackers. The other is not. Here's how you can force XP to save your password in only the secure format.
Microsoft's quest for world domination continues. Now it has reportedly been granted a patent for creating insecure software. In this case, even its competitors agree that it earned it.
At first glance, it appears to be huge and incredibly complicated; however, if you look carefully, you'll see that it's really just one smaller section, copied and pasted 4 times across and 14 times down. Still, you'll have to really concentrate to follow one ball through its entire journey.
Here's an interesting video, showing a novel and incredibly inefficient way to
try out different hairstyles.
