Some people are STILL using Internet Explorer 6. It is possibly the worst example of software out there. It has more holes than a beer can near a Redneck campground. It allows more viruses to infect people’s computers than actually installing them yourself. And it’s programmed horribly. If you still use IE6, you should be caned.

Here’s an example of how terrible it is. If you use IE6, click the link. If you don’t, thank you for being modern enough to update every now and then.

BROWSER TEST FILE

Enjoy!

MDF

Amazon has caved to Macmillan’s demands to RAISE E-book prices to consumers. So, what’s the bottom line? Macmillan makes oodles of money from books, whether they are E-book or paper. Amazon gets 30% of each book sold. You and I get to pay whatever Macmillan wants for each E-book. Why all the screaming?

Before this row, Amazon PAID MACMILLAN FULL WHOLESALE PRICE PER BOOK. Amazon sold it to you and me AT A LOSS TO AMAZON, NOT Macmillan. Macmillan objected because ‘..it cheapened it’s books..’ WTF? Macmillan makes every penny it wanted to, Amazon lost money per book but made up for it other purchases book buyers made while at Amazon and you and I got E-books for less than we would have paid for the paper version. A Win-Win in my ‘book’, yes? Evidently not. Macmillan bent Amazon over to ram home the fact that the 800-lb. gorilla of publishing wanted TOTAL CONTROL. And Macmillan isn’t the only publisher squirming … There will be more, too. As far as I can see, three publishers are bitching: Hachette, Macmillan and HarperCollins. And now Rupert Murdock’s getting into the act.

So, you and I lose and a big, fat corporation wins. Again. Still.

My shout out to those publishers fighting Amazon? Watch what happens next. You modern-day buggy whip manufacturers days are numbered.

[In response to this news article]

“I am a huge customer of Amazon. As such, I buy four to five books a month from them. I have found no other retailer with the breadth and depth of their offerings, certainly not a ‘brick and mortar’ bookseller.

Mike Fisher”

If every Amazon customer did this, ESPECIALLY Kindle users, I betcha we’d get some fast responses and actions from the publishers.

Just a quick note that I’m going to be doing a couple of updates this weekend.

I’ve added a new gallery of photos I took at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington. We dropped by there on the way back from visiting Momma’s family up in Sequim, Washington. VERY COOL place if you’re interested in American Naval Underwater technology/warfare. Torpedoes, mines, subs, etc. are displayed there. Supported almost entirely by the gift shop and donations from the public and like-minded business, this is THE place to see if you’re like me. GO, BUY STUFF and DONATE. I did…

I’m still mulling over the subject of my next story. I’m developing a couple of subjects. Stay tuned, I’m trying.

I’ll post another subject soonest.

MDF

To All My Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I don’t know, you tell me:

An acquaintance was talking here recently and what she said struck me as A) innocuous at the time and B) wildly inconsistent in the logic department. Now, you that know me know that I am as far from logical as I can get, but this person tries to come across as a thinking, caring individual and this seemed to step outside the bounds of both.

The person will go nameless as I have no desire to harm them or their reputation.

It was all wrapped up in a couple of simple statements:

Statement 1: “… Chrimbo present.” (Chrimbo is a new secular slang for Christmas)

Statement 2: “To my Jewish friends. I’m sorry I missed the start of Hanukkah. I hope you have a wonderful celebration this year.”

If we’re atheist, as this person claims to be, then why the shout out to the ‘Jewish friends’ apologizing for ‘missing Hanukkah’? Where is the similar bow to their Christian friends? Why the secular slam implied in statement 1? It might have been an oversight, brain fart, what have you. And I’m pretty damn sure this person meant to alienate no one. But that illustrates my growing dissatisfaction with people of the liberal persuasion and their speech patterns.

These atheist folks will go out of their way to slam, criticize and denigrate Christians in any way possible. But ‘Heaven forbid’ (pun intended) they piss off some OTHER religion. Be it Jewish or Islamic, they’ll wet themselves to not ridicule these others.

All I look for in people is consistency in their many religious/political stands. If you’re atheist, their is NO GOD ANYWHERE. Regardless of the religion. None. End of story.

If you’re Christian, don’t riot and carry on in hopes of eliminating abortion and then cry for a criminal to get the death penalty. But, you say, they’re different because a baby is given a soul at conception, whereby the criminal has damned his soul to Hell because of his crimes. I beg to differ. If your logic is ‘Life is precious’ and you’re against abortion, then YOU’RE AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, TOO. Or at least you SHOULD be. Assholes.

And if your logic is ‘Reproductive Choice is a RIGHT of Humans’, yet you will riot and destroy to save whales and harp seals, then you’re an asshole, too. If your point is that life is precious, except human life because they’re unborn, then you are a REAL asshole. (See my NEXT story about THAT sore subject)

Just get consistent, people. That’s all I ask. By giving yourself wiggle room with exceptions and political bullshit, you become an asshole. Simple. Here, I’ll make it easy for you:

Pick ONE:

1) LIFE IS PRECIOUS.

2) LIFE IS NOT PRECIOUS.

Choose one and off you go, a non-asshole.

And you are, of course, allowed to disagree with me. By all means do so. But don’t be an asshole.

I have a web cam. It’s nice. It takes good quality video.

BUT IT DOESN’T DO WHAT I WANT IT TO DO.

Here’s ALL I want:

1. Have a window on my desktop showing me what it sees.

2. Take date/time-stamped snapshot and upload them to my web site at a configurable interval like ‘every two minutes’.

3. Take video, or multiple date/time-stamped snapshots, and save them on my local machine. I can sort through them or use the separate images to make a ‘movie’ of the day.

Simple. NOT. I have tried literally DOZENS of software packages, both fee/open source and commercial, as well as freeware and shareware. NONE of them do all three. NONE. And if they say they do, they’re either lying or have truly poor documentation on how to do it.

It truly sucks that we have ALL these web cam software vendors and not one of them got it right. To be fair, some of them TRIED to do all three, but one of the three items fell WAY short of be usable.

For instance, YawCam. A free package that will do all three, BUT you can’t see the desktop window’s image due to flicker. It will KILL your eyes to watch it. There was a fix, however. Stopped the flicker, but killed the control panel for your camera. You could watch the desktop video, but couldn’t move your camera or control its zoom. Nice.

So I’m basically at a standstill. I can’t do all three and I have no idea how to fix it. I HATE THAT.

For my weather page, a camera view: CLICK ME

For my desktop, a great picture (With sound if I want it!)

For my day-to-day archive: CLICK ME

[SIGH]

Is it just me, or has the time for unions passed? Let me speak from my point of view here, at my work.

It occurs to me that this pending health care legislation could very well be the death knell for unions, at least MY union, here at ‘Unnamed Corporation’ (If I speak publicly about my work, it MUST NOT be negative, or I could suffer ‘Discipline up to and including dismissal’ – so much for the Freedom Of Speech in the United States)

I say this because our union here has become a One-Trick Pony. They’ve given so much away the previous few contracts that about all that’s left to ‘negotiate’ (Union-speak for ‘Give-backs’) is Health Care. They’ve given back cost-of-living raises, ALL holidays save for the Big Five, just about abdicated any semblance of ‘protecting the working stiff’ so they could become singularly focused on electing Democrats. (Full disclosure – I voted for Obama)

So, given that our union has become a spineless jellyfish Democrat-electing useless piece of dues-collecting bullshit, all they have to do anymore is ‘protect our health benefits’. And our benefits are GOOD. Don’t let anybody tell you different. I haven’t paid more than a $20 co-pay in DECADES. And I’ve had surgery and dislocated major joints! I am HAPPY with my health care. My company, on the other gripper, is decidedly NOT. They’ve been grousing for years about how to drop those costs onto us. And that’s the rub…

Obama and the gang in the Idiot Palace are talking about making health care Employer-Provided and MANDATORY. Even if the details change and other yada yada, what the HELL is my union going to argue about now? They’ve, in one fell swoop, eliminated the one remaining reason for it’s own existence. Buh-bye, Union. All they’ve got left to do is continue their single-minded pursuit of electing more Democrats.

Which brings me to another union-inspired topic – Closed Shops. A closed shop is where, as in Oregon and Washington, you have NO choice if your work is a union bargained-for work group. No matter what your CHOICE, you pay the unions dues, like it or not. Oh, they say you can opt out, but if you do, they make you opt out EVERY YEAR. Forget to file the paperwork once, and BANG, you’re back in the union! They so conveniently provide you a one week window every year to do so. ONE WEEK. Nice people. Thank you.

So, here’s my take on what should happen:

1. Eliminate closed shops. You want to be in the union, pay your dues and you are. Simple. Kinda sounds ‘Democratic’, doesn’t it?

2. I agree that health care SHOULD be mandatory, if employer provided. AND the Dumb-ass FEDS should regulate it, not the CEO’s and union fat cats. Left to them, we’d all have $5000 co-pays ($4999 of which would go to the union to elect more Democrats) and no preventive health care benefits. Oh, and dental, too. If you are self-employed the situation isn’t changed – it’s on you. If you’re poor or underemployed, the FED plan would be yours.

3. Sorry, but taxes will go up. You dumb-asses that want all this shit can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You’ll PAY FOR IT.

Did I forget anything? I know I did, but I have a VERY short attention span and I’m already bored by this subject. Let me know how big an idiot I am if you want…

MDF

Remember what I keep telling you all when it comes to computer reliability? I’ll refresh your collective memories: BACK UP YOUR DATA. I’ll say it again: BACK UP YOUR DATA. Remember now?

Well, I’m glad I follow my own advice (for once) and, boy, did I need it!

I’m setting up to build a new computer. Goliath is getting a bit long in tooth and, besides, it’s been a few years since I last built a computer – time to get modern, Baby!

I ordered in a shiny new 1TB disk (That’s 1000 GIG, for you normals) and was prepping to back up four old disks the machine has now to the one new disk. I shut the machine down, opened up the case and scoped out where I was going to put it for the short time it would be in there. I moved a few cables around but I disconnected nothing. Just looked around, right?

Well, seeing as I had no spare ports to plug the drive into, I decided I would have spare up one of the present drives to make room for the new one. In other words, clean my crap off of at least one of the old drives to create a hole for the newer one. So, I turned the machine back on and … nothing. It wouldn’t boot. Just as dead as if it had NO DRIVES AT ALL.

Huh? I didn’t mess with anything! I just poked around in there. I MUST have dislodged a cable, by golly. Well, self-confident me went back in there and found everything hooked up just as solid and neat as ever. All data and power cables snug, right where they should be. Hmmm.

Turned the machine on and went into SETUP and looked at the on-board RAID controller. It said it saw both disks of my RAID1 array and that they, as well as the controller, were (in BIG GREEN LETTERS) ‘Normal’. Hmmm. This is odd. The computer says everything is ‘normal’ yet it won’t boot.

I fought that bastard for two days. Never fixed it. Finally, I gave up and just decided to break the RAID1 array and boot to a single drive. (For an explanation of a RAID array, go read THIS) Go ahead, I’ll wait…

What I ended up doing was just re-installing WinDoze on one of the RAID drives (there were 2) and saving the OTHER as a spare BACKUP. There’s that word, huh? Once WinDoze was reinstalled, I just copied the data from the spare RAID disk and I’m all back where I was three days before. Other than having to reinstall most of my programs, ALL MY DATA WAS SAFE.

Without my backup, I would have been one pissed off Geek. As it was, I was just inconvenienced for a few days. Let that be a lesson to you, one more time:

BACK UP YOUR DATA BACK UP YOUR DATA BACK UP YOUR DATA

My buddy Andy has posted some pictures of his new son, Kelvin, displaying him with some everyday Geek items to give you the scale of the (tiny) guy. Genius!

Click HERE to see it!