Google Deskbar

I Love Google

Yes, I use other search engines but the best of the best is Google.

I just installed the new beta version of Google Deskbar and I like it even better than the Google toolbar I have raved about in the past. Give it a try, its free, works with Windows 98 and XP, and has an uninstall button if you don’t like it. Get it HERE

My friend ‘Guru John’ ask me a question about auto update in XP, but he found the answer before I could. He wanted to change the automatic to manual. This is done by going to the Control panel and clicking on ‘System’ then ‘Automatic Updates’. Just read the choices and decide what is best for you. This is for XP only, so don’t try this at home if you use 98.

I am asked about upgrading to Windows XP all the time and I always say you should, but do a clean install with NTFS format. If your computer has a 600 meg processor or faster and has at least 128 meg (512 is better) of RAM by all means go for it. If you have never done anything like this before you might want a Computer Guru to give you a hand. You can do it by yourself but if you don’t know the terms and buzz words you will be wiping sweat before you finish. It will take about an hour of time. Back up your drivers before you start. Do it right the first time and you will love XP.

Clean it Up

This is a little story that I have had for a while and it is about to come true I think in the not to near future. Read it and get a laugh out of it, but what I want to get across is this story was sent to me via email and had been forwarded 3 times before. It had three (>) (greater than) symbols at the beginning of each line. Most people, not you I’m sure, just click forward and send it to all 97 people in their address book. Lets clean it up before sending it out again. When I received it, it looked like this:

> > Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland
> Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at
Lincoln
> Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's 266-2566. Which number are
you


After reworking it in Notebook or Microsoft Word, it looks like this:

Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland
Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at
Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's 266-2566. Which
number are you calling from, sir?"


It looks a lot better now, don’t you think ? Now you all have (if you run a Windows OS) the Notepad program so I’ll use it for this example.

To find and replace specific characters or words:
1. On the ‘Edit’ menu, click ‘Replace’.
2. In ‘Find what’, type the characters or words you want to find.
3. In ‘Replace with’, type the replacement text.
4. To replace all instances of the text at once, click ‘Replace All’. Or, to replace one instance at a time, click ‘Find Next’, and then click Replace.

Now we have removed all the > (greater than) marks, Lets remove the short lines. Do this by placing the curser at the end of the short line and then hit the delete key. The next or below line will jump up to the short line.

Now we are all done editing our little story, so we now want to send it to all 67 people in the address book. Think about this before you do it. Do they really want to read this story? Well if so go a head with the next step.

Copy and Paste:

While still in Notepad, hit ‘CTRL A’
The text will become highlighted (turn blue)
Hit ‘CTRL C’ this is the copy command.
Close Notepad and open your mail program, in this case OE (outlook express)
Click ‘Create Mail’
Place your curser into the body of the message.
Hit ‘CTRL V’ this is the paste command.

Wow ! look at that, the text from Notepad just jumped into your message.

OK, we have it ready to send so click on ‘To:’
Your address book will open.
Highlight your own address. ( if you don’t have it there add it to your addresses)
Double click it or hit the To: -> at the top right. This puts your address in the ‘To Box’
The next step is very important, All other address should be placed in the ‘Bcc: -> Box’
Hit ‘OK’
Look at your new message, you should see your address in the To: and all others in the Bcc:
Click ‘Send’
Away it goes to all the lucky people.

Do this a few times and it will become very easy to do. Practice by sending it to yourself a few times. I can tell you the people getting your forwards will think you are a Guru.







National Identity Card!!!


This is what it is all coming to, I'm afraid.


Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your..."

Customer: "Hi, I'd like to order."

Operator: "May I have your NIDN first, sir?"

Customer: "My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's
6102049998-45-54610."

Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland
Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at
Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number's 266-2566. Which
number are you calling from, sir?"

Customer: "Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information?"

Operator: "We're wired into the system, sir."

Customer: (Sighs) "Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your
All-Meat Special pizzas..."

Operator: "I don't think that's a good idea, sir."

Customer: "Whaddya mean?"

Operator: "Sir, your medical records indicate that you've got very
high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health
Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice."

Customer: "Damn. What do you recommend, then?"

Operator: "You might try our low-fat Soybean Yogurt Pizza. I'm sure
you'll like it"

Customer: "What makes you think I'd like something like that?"

Operator: "Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your
local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion."

Customer: "All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then.
What's the damage?"

Operator: "That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four
kids, sir. The 'damage,' as you put it, heh, heh, comes $49.99."

Customer: "Lemme give you my credit card number."

Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash.
Your credit card balance is over its limit."

Customer: "I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your
driver gets here."

Operator: "That won't work either, sir. Your checking account's
overdrawn."

Customer: "Never mind. Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash
ready. How long will it take?"

Operator: "We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45
minutes. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick 'em up while you're
out getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward."

Customer: "How the hell do you know I'm riding a bike?"

Operator: "It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so
your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid up, so I just assumed that
you'd be using it."

Customer: "@#%/$@&?#!"

Operator: "I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got
a July 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop."

Customer: (Speechless)

Operator: "Will there be anything else, sir?"

Customer: "No, nothing. Oh, yeah, don't forget the two free liters of
Coke your ad says I get with the pizzas."

Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents
us from offering free soda to diabetics."

I got Wild

New Years Day,
Its pretty dull around here today, most of the morning was spent talking to friends on Ham Radio. This is where we solve all the problems of the world, like how do I put an animated Gif photo in your signature file in OE. We solved a sub-folder problem in WinZip. It was not a problem with WinZip, it was operator error. When we ran out of stuff to say, about 3 hours worth, I decided to transfer 8 hours of Victory At Sea from VHS to DVD. I’m 4 ½ hours into that, but my Wife will be home soon so I suppose the transfer will stop at about six hours. I guess that’s enough anyway. Could you set and watch old grainy black and white films for six hours ? I could. I wish I could find eight hours of the Big Picture.

I went shopping at Madison yesterday and what a madhouse. I went to Radio Shack to start with to buy a security camera. I called before I left and they said they had it in stock, but they didn’t, I think they just tell you everything is in stock just to get you in the store. I hate that store but sometimes you can’t find it anywhere else. I fooled them I bought nothing. From there I went to Staples to look around and I looked around about $150.00 worth, I had to do it as it was all on sale. Men say that too. Then I was off to Wal-Mart where I had to drive seemed like ten miles round and round before I found a place to park. I was beginning to think I was in a NASCAR race and was gonna’ have to pit for gas and tires, but some guy pulled out and I darted in his spot. I was shoved, stepped on, and pushed but I made my way to the electronic section. I looked at all the things I couldn’t afford and then went to the sporting goods department. Nothing I needed there. Let’s see where did I park?

New Years Eve was wild here. My Wife was helping her church with a youth group thing and started watching an old movie about eight o’clock. I pushed back in the recliner and never woke up till 1:00 A.M. when my Wife shook me and said, ‘did you miss it’, I said oh no I seen the big ball drop and it was great. I wasn’t fibbing I did see it drop last year. I’m going to bed.

Wow can you believe this warm weather we are having. I hope you didn’t get the kids a sled for Christmas.

Well, if you out there in Blog land refuse to send me any computer questions I will have to keep this up. To stop this, email a question and I will try to find the answer for you.

P.S. wasn’t that a nice baby photo of me yesterday?

Here is a nice New Year page Click here to see it.

Happy New Year to All !

Ajacks DailyFoto Dot Com

A Few Links

Here are some links I looked at while just surfing around. I looked at a few more but didn't paste them in the note pad.

Daily Foto
UFO Evidence
Goes IR
Refdesk
Stratton - Karsteter
DailyWAV
TBO
File of the Day
dartec
Geocaching
Wheres George
DX Operations
Van Heusen Shirts
Jeff French Survey
Disposable Email
My Guestbook

What's a Blog ?

I received a few emails from friends asking me about the Blog. I used a site to get a better description than I could ever come up with. It's called How things work http://www.howstuffworks.com/search.php
From there it lead me to a Blog site at:
http://www.motime.com/ Motime. The What's a Blog is at:
http://www.motime.com/node/view/24 It tells me there are about 1 to 2 million Blogs on the net and about 3 times as many readers of Blogs. Wow !

I've been reading Blogs for over a year now. Some of them just ramble on (like this one) and some of them have a purpose. I read one every day last summer about this young fellow that was walking across the USA with a dog pulling a wagon. I met this fellow when he came to Versailles. I followed his Blog with every post he made to it. Every night he would use an old laptop to record the day's travels. He would find an Internet cafe or library to gain access to the Internet to post to his Blog. It was a great trip for the three of us.

Find a Blog to read or make one for your self, Most are free and easy to set up. Go to Google and search for Blog, you will find hundreds of pages full.


Time for bed.

My Mug Shot

Just testing to see if I can upload a photo and it looks like I can.
This is me (jack) at my Ham Radio station WB9OTX.
If you want to learn about Ham Radio Click Here.



I should have closed the closet door.

Wise up!

I have been trying to do better on my spelling, but I have a long way to go. Please overlook my mistakes and consider the source.

<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

I have located the site that the Lid (I’m being nice, I would like to type what I would like to call this guy, but I won’t) is using to hide his identity. A little more than a year ago I received a few threats and warnings from an unidentified and anonymous person. A friend of mine also received a few emails similar to the ones I got.

I have found the site he is using and have blocked any emails coming to me from this mail server. This Lid has harassed me over and over again, but now, at least till he finds another service to forward his garbage, I will not be getting any more of his emails.

Do I know who he is, Yes, Am I going to accuse him, No I’m not.
I can tell him one thing, I never forget and there will come a day.

The only good use for this site would be to tell a friend they have bad breath. http://mailfreeonline.com/


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>
This is a rerun, but it is worth playing again.

Here is an exert from a mail list that is put out from WHAS radio Louisville Ky http://84online.com The reason I'm sending this out is because I received an email this morning telling me to forward an email to ten other people. For doing this great deed I would
receive a rose. Come on people, Just stop and think about it for a minute. How is the person that sends out the roses going to know if I do it or not. How are they going to get my address to deliver the goods. Why would anyone want to send this old grump a rose.


`Tis The Season


I guess it is time, once again, to discuss Internet chain letters and email hoaxes. We talk about this on the radio show regularly, but folks still want to clutter our inboxes with this junk.



Here are some pointers:



* MTV will not give you backstage passes if you forward something to the most people.

* Bill Gates is not going to give you $10,000.

* IBM is not going to send you a free computer.

* Disney is not giving you a free vacation.

* The Gap is not giving away free clothes.

* Miller is not about to send you a free six-pack of their Miller brand beverages.

* Coca-Cola won't send a free six-pack of Diet Coke to everybody you send an e-mail to.

* Neither Nokia nor Ericsson is ready to send you a free cellular phone.

* There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks.

* The American Cancer Society won't donate 3 cents to cancer
research every time you forward an ASCII-formed picture of Tickle-Me
Elmo.



Another thing: just because someone said in a message four generations back that "I checked it out and it's legit" does not actually make it true.



* There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to her cousin.

* Proctor and Gamble is not part of a satanic cult or scheme, nor is its logo Satanic.

* Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if they do, we probably all have it already.

* There is no gang initiation plot to murder any motorist who flashes headlights at another car driving at night without lights.

* There is no bill pending before Congress that will allow long distance companies to charge you for using the Internet.

* Microsoft has no technology to capture an image of you as you stare at your computer monitor.

* Neil Armstrong never said, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky."

*No one has ever crashed a jet-powered car--or an old car with a stolen jet engine strapped to it--into the side of a cliff (except maybe Wyle E. Coyote).

I hope I haven't burst too many bubbles with those revelations.

Besides the annoyance of having these emails clogging mail servers, most people forward this junk without using the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) feature. This poses those hundreds of email addresses to the spammers and their mail-bots. Ever wonder how that SPAM made it to your mailbox? Your best friend signed you up when she sent you that informative email about Bill Gates sending you a gazillion dollars.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

If an email urges you to send it 10 friends, don't!

If an email insists it is legit because a lawyer said so, it isn't.

Microsoft, Intel and IBM cannot track an email and don't.

You don't have to take my word for this. Here are some sites that expose the hoaxes:

http://www.snopes.com

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blhoax.htm?once=true&

http://www.vmyths.com/

Wise up!

Art Maley

mailto:no_email@from_you.com