Feds caught storing checkpoint body scan images:
http://ping.fm/zs1lY

Enjoying the rain...

Record high temperature of 101° was set at Jacksonville, FL this afternoon. This breaks the old record of 100 set in 1941.

What Americans have gotten, in return for the billions of tax dollars spent on security, is a surveillance state that reads our e-mails, wiretaps us without warrants, and strip searches grandmothers at airports.
Full Text: click here.

The US Congress spent $604,000 of your money on Bottled Water for themselves in the last 9 months.
http://ping.fm/AwHV8

Do you have wireless internet? Ditch your dish, and get a Roku! One-time cost of $80, an no monthly fees!
http://www.roku.com/

"Regime uncertainty is the opposite of the rule of law. It is the rule of the whims of the people in charge and what mood they are in on any particular day. It is usually associated with third world dictatorships and plays a major role in why some countries remain poor. When a business cannot predict whether a government will issue a permit, confiscate or nationalize their capital investments, tax them into bankruptcy, or arbitrarily stall their operations, they tend to do business elsewhere. This type of government hostility is not conducive to wealth creation and it is tragic to see it chasing away businesses here when we need the jobs and productivity more than ever." -Ron Paul
http://ping.fm/FhX7e

Did you know that Walmart sells caskets??
http://ping.fm/SLrrD

Check out this new website:
http:www.LiveOakHealth.com

Working...

Writting DOS-style BATch files for automation...

The IT Assistance Paradox:
http://ping.fm/W2fOX

New Term: Quizzitory Gridlock

New Term: "Quizzitory Gridlock - When so many questions bombard a project that it cannot move forward."


by Jay Harrison, 06/21/10 04:17P

VIDEO: Ron Paul: A 2012 Revolution

Another One Bites the Dust...

This one in my home town:

The one-two punch that is Netflix (with Roku) and Redbox is kicking the pants off brick-&-mortar video rentals.

-J


Special thanks to Will Herndon for this photo.

Microsoft Math?

I'm supposed to be running Windows 7 Ultimate... but the command prompt says otherwise. ;)


Microsoft Windows Version 6.1.7600 ...?

Online Wind Assessment Tool

Here's a great site to evaluate whether or not your site is suitable for a wind power installation (as in, will it be cost effective to do so). Here's the website:

http://www.windenergy.com/wind/index.php


Check it out!
-J

Why does Java try to force the Yahoo toolbar??

I hate the fact that Java tries to constantly install the "Yahoo! toolbar" on one's machine by default. This is traditionally a practice of malware and spyware programs. I wish they'd stop! Does anyone know of a good contact email or phone number to get some feedback to the folks at Java/Sun?

Happy Mother's Day!

Ignorance is Bliss

Wii Semaphore

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ft/2010/ft100418.gif
-J

A Must-Watch Video:

The Census

"Article I, section 2 of the Constitution calls for an enumeration of citizens every ten years, for the purpose of apportioning congressional seats among the various states. In other words, the census should be nothing more than a headcount. It was never intended to serve as a vehicle for gathering personal information on citizens."

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/RonPaul20100308

Need some cordless phone batteries?

Click here for the eBay link.

Hi All,

These are FOUR (4) SM15800 3.6volt 700mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries. These came out of my AT&T cordless phones. I had JUST bought these near the end of last year (you can see the date I wrote on them when I installed them - 9/1/09) and in December the base unit went out. I tried to have the phones fixed, but it costs more to fix the base unit than a new set of phones costs. These batteries have only a few months use on them, but are good for several years, and have lots of life left in them. They all worked perfectly when uninstalled in Jan of this year.


Best,
-Jay Harrison

P.S. Being used; these are being sold as-is, with no returns.

Back to Java...

As of Valentines Day, I'm coding Java again...

Cheap computer (no monitor)

 

    HP D500S Desktop - 1.8GHz Intel Pentium IV, 512GB,
    20GB HDD, Windows XP Professional - Refurbished
    Ships from and Sold by Buy.com Marketplace
    FREE BUDGET SHIPPING
    $5.00 Instant Rebate at Checkout
    $94.99 After Instant Rebate* (see details below)
    Buy.com price: $99.99

Thank you,
Jay Harrison, Producer & Co-Host
TechWatch Radio
www.TechWatchRadio.com

Distance feature on Google Maps

I wonder why Google Maps does not have an easy way to measure distance (in a straight line) between two points? Say for example you wanted to measure a distance "by air" for either actual air travel, or, for instance, the distance between two radio locations.

They have the [very cool] option to get directions by walking now, in addition to the regular "driving" directions. But it seems like it would be rather simple to add a "distance by air" to that drop down box. Furthermore, why have a drop-down-list-box for such few options?

Now, I know you can measure distance on Google Earth (but you have to install that), and it's been rumored that you can get something similar done within Google's "my maps" section of the site, but I've never gotten that to work. Let me know if you have! ;)

The problem with Web 2.0

The biggest hurdle in the whole "interactive" aspect of the [now aging] Web 2.0 idea is having sooo many various accounts with every website. As someone who prudently uses a different password for every site that I am a member of - it's becoming tiresome, to say the least, to keep up with all of them.

Many "help" and forum sites (including blogs) suffer from this problem. See also the watch problem in an earlier post. I'm not going to create yet another account with some unknown site just to post there. There's got to be a better way. Allow anonymous postings. There has to be a good balance between that, and getting too much spam. Using a captcha helps... Or, make anonymous posting moderated by default, and known users post immediately.

Without a better solution for this, Web 2.0, and the active participation by individuals at large, will be handicapped.


Best,
-J

P.S. You can post to this site anonymously, without having to sign-up for an "account". ;)

The Casio CA-53W watch (and manual)

It's so frustrating trying to find manuals online these days for non-common items. My most recent endeavor was trying to find the manual for the Casio CA-53W calculator watch. I have finally located it (under a different model number?) but it's the same watch. Why do companies make finding the instructions on their devices so hard? Is it because the want to sell the manuals?


If you're looking for the manual for this watch, I've posted it [hopefully] forever more at this link:
http://www.audiolightproductions.com/manuals/Casio%20CA-53W%20watch%20manual.pdf

Even with the manual it was not easily apparent on how to find the fix I needed. My son has one of these watches - I'll extol the virtues of it in a later posting - but he had somehow turned off the beep tone that you hear when you press any/every button. This is important on a watch with tiny little buttons, because when you're using, say, the calculator, you want to know for sure that your entry took on each press. The key tone is very helpful audio feedback.

Well, somehow he had turned it off on his watch, and couldn't figure out how to turn it back on - and neither could I - yet. It bugged me bad enough to go out and [finally] find the instructions on it. And that adventure took so long that, I wanted to write a post here about it and hopefully save someone else the time and grief the next time this happens to another.

In fact, in looking, I found one of those completely non-helpful sites (in the top-five results) where someone is asking virtually the same thing, and yet has never gotten it answered [real helpful to me!]. Why search-index it, without an answer? And, now that I know, I'd willingly write to help this person out, but you have to create a whole account with this forum just to post a fix... does that make sense?

The simple fix is, you go into calculator mode - since this is where most people either want it ON for button-press-confirmations, or want it OFF so that it's not noisy when they're trying to make calculations - and you press the indented set button on the side. Once is on, again is off.

I hope it can help someone else out there with the same question. Here's hoping that Google will search-index their own blogs... ;)


Best,
-J


UPDATE (20120521):
Amazon has these with free 2-day shipping (if you have ) for ~$15!

Great Biology Course

Hi All,

This Biology 101 a great 4 DVD disc set that will really make biology interesting! It's geared towards high-schoolers, but is interesting and engaging to everyone from 2-yr-olds to adults.


Now, through this special TWR offer, you can get the 4 DVD set, not for the regular price of $69.95, but get $10 off and free shipping - just enter the code RADIO when you order.

Best,
-J