Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category
System Errors
The following are suggested system error messages for MickeySoft Windoze, they make more sense than most of the error messages that are already part of the operating system:
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Pocket Friendly Cybernetic Options
In today’s world the personal computer has become almost indispensable for day to day life. It is used for everything from writing articles and home work assignments to chatting with friends and family around the world on various social networks. But there are some aspects of computer usage that are often overlooked in our society. One is the legal aspect of respecting and paying for the intellectual property of the companies who provide the operating system and programs we use to accomplish the various tasks for which we obtained a computer in the first place. And another is the security aspect since today’s computers all to often come under attack by viruses and malware. Read the rest of this entry »
When The XP Hits The Fan
Today my laptop “bit the dust”. It simply refused to cooperate. I couldn’t even get it to boot into “Safe Mode”. Fortunately I set up an Ubuntu Linux 10.04 USB drive the other day. I guess the Good Lord was prompting me. A search on the ‘net produced zilch, nada, zip, diddley as to ways to fix the problem I’d encountered. The hard drive was accessible so the external hard drive was called into play and a copy of the document folder contents was made. Read the rest of this entry »
Mobile blogging
We live in a marvelous time. In my own brief life time we have gone from rotary phones on a a party line to cellular phones that allow one to call or be called over a vast portion of the world’s surface. We have gone from mail service that could take a week or longer to take a message from on end of the country to another, to email that can show up on another person’s computer, across the hall or half way around the globe, in a matter of seconds. Mimeograph machines had to have their templates painstakingly created by hand or on a type writer and each sheet of a multipage document had to be printed off separately and then each set had to be carefully correlated prior to handing out or mailing. Now one can type up, spell check, lay out and print, together with full color images or even high resolution photographs, multipage documents completely correlated and ready to be handed out or mailed. And that same document can be made into a pdf file which allows it to be sent via e-mail or posted to the internet so it can be downloaded. Such a document can be printed identically by virtually any computer and printer any where in the world.
WordPress in my pocket
Well, what do you know? Recently I obtained a “smart phone” to allow more communication options for ministry. It has indeed begun to yield fruit, allowing me to be in contact with folks in various ways. And now I’ve found WordPress Mobile. It allows me to publish to my blog “on the go”. Time will tell if this allows me more opportunities to blog or not.
Thoughts On Facebook
There’s a “social networking” website called “Facebook“. I was a bit leery of such places for a while. The whole “My Space” and such whoopla left me cold. And then I started paying more attention and saw that there’s actually some value to these places. So I set up an account. And then started finding friends, and friends started finding me. The whole thing is interesting, because it shows how we all have rings of influence in our lives. It’s interesting to take a look at friend lists on other people’s profiles. It’s amazing how many of us know the same people – and yet each of us knows oodles of folks the others do not know.
Another option for a computing environment
It’s been quite a while since I did a computer related post. Here’s a little something for those of you who may be tired of Microsoft’s near monopoly on computing environments – usually called “OS’s” for “Operating Systems”. To many new computer users the only option for a computer is the Microsoft Windows based machines at Best Buy or Walmart. A few more savvy people believe that Macintosh will save them from “windoze hell” and lock themselves into an even MORE expensive and limited computing experience. Read the rest of this entry »
New use for old technology
Here’s an interesting video. Interesting in that it was produced in Polaroid snapshots first, then made into a video. Anyway, they say a picture’s worth a thousand words. I wonder how much this video’s worth? 
Thanks to Hot Air for posting this.
A Look At Micro$ofts “Table of the future”…
Micro$oft is talking about their vision for the future – a multimedia table. Here’s a humorous look at it. Language alert. If you’re easily offended by “modern” language – best stay away. I got this off of Hot Air.
Computing differently
Obviously, anyone reading this blog has at least a passing interest in computers – or you’d not be on the Internet reading this blog! 
 A recent spate of e-mails on an e-mail list I belong to was sparked by yet another new windoze based virus. It shows that we also care about security and usability when it comes to computing. However, not all of us are tech savy -some are barely able to switch on the box and connect to the internet to download e-mail.
Lately we’ve been hearing about this Linux stuff, but it can be a bit daunting to folks who aren’t sure how their computer works and reallydon’t want to mess anything up. If you’d like to get a taste of whatLinux is, but don’t want to commit to a long term relationship, you can use one of the “Live CD’s” or “Live DVD’s” with some version of Linux installed on it.
These CD’s and DVD’s are available for download in an ISO format (That’s an image of a CD or DVD that allows you to make an exact copy with your CD or DVD burner) Right now I’ve got various generations of Linux in different flavors. Ubuntu, Knoppix, Fedora Core 6, and a couple others I’m to lazy to go look at right now to remind me what they are. The way they work is you put them in your CD or DVD drive on your computer and then restart the machine. You’ll have to set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive and each computer works differently there. I’d suggest you look in your manual for information if you don’t know how to do that. Anyway, once you reboot to the CD/DVD the Live CD/DVD will start right
up and run the program right on your computer. This will let you see how things work without worrying about installing or overwriting your windoze installation.
For newbies to Linux, there’s a few things to keep in mind. If there’s a glitch on your computer some versions of Linux simply won’t run. But neither will WinXP. I’ve got one motherboard that Linux simply will not install to a hard drive connected to it. Nor will a Live CD work with it – but I also can’t install WinXP on it either. Yep, it’s on the way to the dump someday – perhaps. I still haven’t tried it with Win ’98 – and I’m a glutton for punishment and refuse to give up until a piece of hardware is confirmed to be 100% dead.
For those of you who are interested in messing with video, etc. Take a look at Video Linux. It’s a version of Linux setup to allow you to mess around with Video. So far I’ve just downloaded and burned the ISO but haven’t had time to play with it. The concept is intriguing and we’ll see what happens when I get a chance to play with it.
There are more distributions out there than you can shake a stick at. All kinds of “flavors” of Linux that will do different things or are set up for certain applications only. I’d suggest you stick with one of the major distributions at first, Fedora Core 6 (based on Redhat Enterprise) or SuSE’s latest. You can get both the full ISO (For DVD or CD) or a Live CD ISO for either of them. That’ll let you at least get a taste of what you can do with Linux.
And Linux can breath new life into an old computer. We were able to upgrade our work machines to fairly recent technology. This frees up a couple of older boxes to play with.
