Frostbite Falls Daily Rant

[Palloy2]

I never gave my card number or anything else to Itunes.  I don't use Itunes or any other Apple product.

Then someone must have stolen your credentials and used them to register and buy iTunes stuff with it.  Call in the FBI !

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[RE]

Then someone must have stolen your credentials and used them to register and buy iTunes stuff with it.

No shit Sherlock.  That's why I cancelled the card! 

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[luciddreams]

We have a Chihuahua named Sherlock at our house.  Well we also call him Little Cheech, Cheech Cheech, Little Poo Poo, Little Pee Pee, and Shiver me timbers butt.   

He's the coolest dog I've ever had the pleasure of living with to. 

Digibits are not secure, they are make believe, and we all believe in them because they buy us stuff.  Cash is going away to be replaced with chips. 

I'm going away to.  Eventually.  I'll be living in the woods not far from my current location, next to a river, in a small volunteer Holly grove.  There's a birch tree as well, and oaks, poplars, and other nefarious nature creatures.  Soon there will be many varieties of bamboo growing as well, because I'm the Bamboo Monster, and where I go bamboo grows.   

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[RE]

You gotta drive a wooden stake through their hard little banker hearts, or they just grow a new head.

I am OK with Stake Driving as Insurance, but Decapitation worked for the Highlander.

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/_j6_H-PSml0" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/_j6_H-PSml0</a>

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[knarf]

Years ago I ordered online a way to watch certain TV shows on the computer. I gave my credit card #. Two months later we had bought about $3000 dollars of SHIT! I called the bank immediately and they did a great job of refunding our money seeing they were totally superfluous to our regular statements. We were very lucky. I still by stuff online, but it has to be ( at least I hope ) honest about their privacy policy.   

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[RE]

My main net connection over cable has been out around a half hour.  I am on my backup tethering to my cell phone.

I tried rebooting and also resetting the router and modem.  No go.  Must be an ISP problem.  Can't call the help desk now, they close at midnight.  Gotta wait until tomorrow morning.

Having a backup Plan B is important for resilience!

I'll check again in an hour to see if the cable connection is working, then again before I go to sleep.  If it's still not working when I wake up (if I wake up and can get out of the dream loops), I'll call the help desk to see what is going on here.

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[RE]

I bought the new Dell All-in-One about 6 months ago, but even though I finally set it up after a month, it was over by my couch and I didn't use it much.  I didn't like the feel and travel of the keyboard it came with.  So I ordered a new Razer gaming keyboard that got very good reviews from the tech geeks, which came last week.  It's very cool.  So today I rearranged my workstation with the new big screen up front and my laptop to the side.  It's sitting on top of two older laptops.

Details Diner Control Center

Diner Control Center

On the right side you can see my new Wireless printer and on the left the old printer which doesn't work but I haven' been able to bring myself to send it to the Land of Away yet.

It's quite a change to have this much screen real estate to work with.  I've never had such a big screen, even when I had towers and CRT monitors.  It's like a whole new world! 

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[RE]

I hope my nurses are as compassionate on my way to the Great Beyond.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nurses-dying-man-wish-granted_us_58ecc2a7e4b0df7e20453db7

Nurses Ignore Hospital Regulations To Grant Dying Man His Final Wish
“A beautifully humanistic gift from a caring staff and family.”

By Lee Moran

Nurses in Denmark benevolently broke their hospital’s regulations last week to grant a 75-year-old man his dying wish.

After doctors at Aarhus University Hospital told Carsten Flemming Hansen that he was too sick for surgery and would die within days from internal bleeding following an aortic aneurysm, he revealed the final thing he wanted to do.

And that was to smoke a cigarette and drink a glass of cold white wine outside, while watching the sun set.

According to a post on the hospital’s Facebook account, nurses wheeled Hansen out onto a balcony on a bed last Tuesday and broke the building’s strict no-smoking policy by allowing him to light up.

He then enjoyed a spectacular sunset as he sipped his drink, surrounded by close family and friends.

“It was a very cozy and relaxed atmosphere,” said one of the nurses, Rikke Kvist. “Of course they were relatives also affected by the fact that he was going to die, and they were sad.”

The hospital shared a photograph of Hansen online Friday, shortly after he died. It’s since gone viral, with many people praising the nurses’ compassionate deed:

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Details Diner Control Center 2

Diner Control Center 2

It's the wee hours of the morning here on the Last Great Frontier as I sit here in the RE digs at my Diner Central Command station awaiting the Nuclear Fallout.  The digs are all dark, no lights except for the light of my monitor and the new Razer Gaming Keyboard.  OK, behind me some diode lights are glowing on the wireless router too.

Since getting the Razer, I no longer even have to turn on the one 10W Flourescent bulbed lamp that I would use at night to be able to see the keyboard and negotiate my way over to the fridge for the periodic beer.  The screen puts out plenty of light to see as I walk around, and on reaching the fridge and opening the door, that light goes on enabling me to quickly and easily locate a can of brew.

Once I turn off the computer at night prior to going to sleep, I negotiate my way to the bedroom by the light of my Samsung Galaxy Mega smartphone screen, which also puts out enough light to walk around without tripping over anything.  I always take the phone with me to bed and put it next to my pillow when I sleep, in case I get one of those morning phone calls from a lawyers office or doctors office, or the occasional text message from GM on some SUN☼ related issue.  Or in case I need to call 911 if I have a medical emergency and don't die in my sleep.  The phone also gets me to the bathroom safely when I wake up once in the middle of the night needing to excrete.  Once comfortably sitting on the Throne, I can then surf the web to see what's up in Doom and make sure no Nukes have been fired off while I was sleeping.  I'd hate to miss the Big Show after all these years waiting for Doom to hit.  Sleeping at all is a risk, but is necessary. lol.  I don't need to turn on the bathroom overhead light while sitting on the toilet, I can't miss. lol.

So overall now my electricity energy footprint is pretty much as low as you can get it inside industrial culture.  The only other things using juice in the digs are the refrigerator and the control mechanism for the heating system.  Not sure how much juice the Dell All-in-One computer uses, I'll guess maybe 100W including powering the keyboard backlighting.  I'll get around eventually to seeing how small an inverter I can use to power the system.  My 140W modified sine wave inverter was enough to power my laptop and the flourescent lamp, so I am pretty sure it will power this setup also although it has a larger LCD screen.  Since it no longer has to power the lamp, that should balance it out.  The keyboard definitely uses less power than the lamp, since it is powered out of the USB port.

Liquid Fuels wise, I'm also down about as low as you can go in the 1^st World.  Since the Spring Equinox, the snow and ice accumulated over the winter has mostly melted off, and it's now safe once again to use the Ewz for my prep runs over to 3 Bears for food, beer or smokes.  I do usually need to use the car once or twice a week for a trip to the doctor or a trip to the post office in Palmer or over to Walmart.  On the days I do use the car, I generally rack up no more than 15 miles cruising around the neighborhood.  Once every few months I have to make a drive into Anchorage to see a specialist, like next week I am due for a checkup by the Vascular Pro from Dover to look at the legs.  Swelling has worsened there again.  Overall though, I don't think I put more than 2000 miles on the vehicles all last year.

For heating and cooking, I generally keep my heat fairly low in the 62-65F range, and this is a pretty well insulated building overall.  These days of what I do eat, a lot of it is salads and sandwiches that don't require cooking, at least by me.  The prepared meats like Salami and Pepperoni on a Subway Spicy Italian are of course cooked by somebody else somewhere, so you do need to count that into my energy footprint.  For just what I can calculate though, my NG bill is around $35/mo in the winter and $15/mo the rest of the year.

So, all in all I don't feel too guilty about my total energy usage.  I do wonder if everyone in Amerika pursued a regime like this, how much less energy would we use each year, and how much less carbon in the atmosphere?

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[Palloy2]

Overnight my computer set up has 26 small LEDs on, some of them only intermittently, and most covered by gaffer tape to reduce the brightness.  The total effect is still bright enough to light my way to bed after a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the relative dark, and casts a slight shadow of my book case 10 metres away diagonally across the room. 

Additionally there is a small digital clock on the microwave in the kitchen area.  You can power that off at the wall, but recharging the 600 V driver capacitor uses more energy than the clock in a day, or so they say, and is a potential source of failure in my experience.

And then there is the fridge and the electric hot water system, both thermostatically controlled and set for lowest energy use.

All that results in using 6 - 7 kW.h per day depending on the time of year, or 270 W continuous.  There are I².R losses on the (350 x 2) metre cable from the meter box at the entrance to the house, so I won't ever find 270 W of use going on at the house.

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[RE]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/X78i13q-atk" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/X78i13q-atk</a>

As I mentioned a while back, last fall I bought myself a new Dell All-in-One Computer.  My first non-laptop style computer in 20 years or so.

Details Diner Control Center 2

Diner Control Center 2

However, because my current Laptop is still working; because it has all the passwords to sites I regularly visit stored in it and because I wasn't real happy with the keyboard that the Dell came with (key travel too long for my taste mainly), I didn't get round to actually using it all that much and replacing the laptop with it as my main Diner Control Center computer.

In order to resolve this issue, about a month ago I ordered a new Razer Gaming Keyboard to substitute for the keyboard it came with and finally made the switchover, although I keep the laptop active as well on the side.

I chose this Dell for a few reasons.  It's NOT quite "state of the art" as in being jam packed with the fastest processors now available or super gobs of memory, but I need neither one of those bells & whistles.  I don't game and I don't do a lot of video processing or photo editing of massive raw files, so I just don't need all that computational power.  You sacrifice a little of this, and the unit comes in way cheaper, in this case it cost me $750 instead of the $1200 or even more I could have spent.

I also could have gone for one with an even BIGGER screen than this one has, which again drives up the cost.  However, this one already has about 50% more Screen Real Estate than any of the laptops I have owned for the last 20 years, and other than going legally blind and needing to view pages at large magnification, I can't imagine needing more screen than this.  If I really wanna go big screen anyhow, I can plug it into my 45" Flat Screen TV which is never used and sits in my pile of preps.  I used that as a monitor when teaching in the Homeschool program we ran at the gym for a couple of years, plugged into my laptop.

I also chose it because it was fairly portable, easily.  The Stand that holds it up folds flat against the back, so it's EZ to pack into a Medium Size Suitcase.  Just about fits into an airline size carry-on wheely bag.  I wouldn't risk it with the baggage handlers though.  It also came with both a Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mouse, and I like both of those because they make your desk less cluttered and especially with the mouse, the wire can get in the way of smooth mousing.

After getting the keyboard situation resolved, I began considering the Mouse issue.  Through the Laptop Years, I've been using a Touchpad for the most part, although I have mice I can plug into it.  Mostly wired mice, although I do have a couple of wireless ones also, including the wireless mouse that the Dell came with, which is what I have been using.

It's a good basic mouse, optical sensor, right and left buttons and Scroll Wheel.  Just by itself, this is a big improvement over working with a touchpad in general, and I am kind of surprised at myself as a tech nerd that I got so lazy and just used the touchpads that the laptops come with rather than plugging in a mouse.  However, no Touchpad coming supplied with the Dell, I HAD to go back to the Mouse, or of course buy an auxiliary touchpad.

Now, I COULD have just stuck with the Wireless Mouse I got with the Dell in the package, but after sprucing up the unit with the new Razer Gaming Keyboard, I began to think about the Mouse issue.  I basically LIVE at the computer, and the Keyboard and the Mouse are my main Interface devices to communicate what is in my brain onto the World Wide Web.  I decided that since this is my main vocation in life now, I should have the BEST Mouse on the market along with the BEST Keyboard! 

So, off to the Tech Review sites like CNET and Gizmodo to find the BEST Mouse Money Can Buy! 

The overwhelming favorite here was the Logitech MX Master.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/JDJDeuJbiKc" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/JDJDeuJbiKc</a>

Besides the normal left and right buttons and center scroll-wheel, it also has two User-Defined buttons and a Thumbwheel as well to do side scrolling.  It's also Bluetooth, which means you don't need a Dongle to operate it with most modern computers that have Bluetooth built in.  So I can use it not just with my new Dell, but also with my Galaxy Mega Samrt Phone, at least I think I can.  Haven't tried setting that up yet.

This is the total Cat's Pajamas!  You can program it to open and close regularly used programs, copy/paste, whatever.  Makes everything much more convenient.  Price on the Mighty Mouse varies widely, from as high as $200 down to $70.  I got it for $70 at Best Buy Price Matching off the Internet.

If you are a heavy internet junky like I am, I highly recommend the Logitech MX Master Mighty Mouse as a valuable accessory worth the price you pay for it.  Great flexibility and controls, and really generally more important than spending extra money on computing power you probably will never need except for gaming and video.

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Today I downloaded the Logitech Software allowing you to customize Mighty Mouse.  The range of options is beyond belief, and it's hard to decide exactly which ones I want program in as the main profile.  It's like being a kid in a Candy Store!  lol.

Along with the Mighty Mouse, I also bought a new Bluetooth Wireless keyboard to use with my Phablet sized Galaxy Mega Smartphone.

I already have a Folding Bluetooth keyboard for it, but it has some idiosyncracies and I don't really need to keep one folded up in my pocket all the time.  Just having it in a backpack or briefcase is fine.  A one piece non-folding keyboard is much more solid overall.

I also bought it because it came so CHEAP!  Down to $30 now.  When I bought my folding keyboard, I think I paid $80 for it.  Also, like the Mighty Mouse, this one can be paired to 3 different devices with a switch that allows you to quickly switch between devices.

So if for instance you have your computer, your smart phone and a smart TV running, you don't need 3 separate keyboards for them.  Or if running multiple computers, again you don't have to clutter up your desk with multiple keyboards.  You can quickly respond to a text message that comes in on the phone over SMS, then switch back to your computer to surf doom! 

I also bought it because it's sized right to go with around a 10" Tablet in a folio, which is an intermediate variation in size I don't currently own.  I'm considering adding a 10" Samsung Tablet to my arsenal to match up to it.

This would be a convenient setup to use while waiting in doctors offices and exam rooms for the Pro From Dover to check me out.  Also more convenient on plane flights then pulling out the laptop and squeezing it onto the tray table.

Don't need this right now though, so I'll hold off.  I'll wait for a good sale and see if I can get a good one for under $200.

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[RE]

Bad Newz, Mighty Mouse does not work with Android at the moment.  Only works on Windows, Mac & Chrome.  Probably does not work on Linux.

It's not a total disaster though, since a while back I bought a small portable mouse from Logitech which does work on Android and I can use with the Phablet or a larger Tablet if/when I buy one.

I'm not that surprised, since because of its size, it's not really intended for portable use.  It's just fabulous though for its main job with the main home computer.

On the Good Newz front, the new Keyboard DOES work with both my Dell and with the Phablet. 

My first main Portable Diner Command Center adventure is scheduled for May 1st, when I am now scheduled for my tests at the Heart Center.  3 tests all the same day, EKG, Stress and Echo.  Long day of testing 4 hours actual test time, with waiting probably 6 hours.

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[RE]

Along with discussing the attributes and prices on Micro Computers with PY in order to have a separate computer running Linux at Diner Command Central (and not doing to good with that chat!  ), the other purchase I have been considering is a Tablet Computer with a larger screen than my smart phone Phablet, which comes in around 6".  This is not too bad for surfing and such, reading the latest Doom while waiting in the Exam Room for the Pro from Dover, but it's a bit small for wrting on and I can't stand the virtual keyboards you operate with your thumbs.  I LIKE a real Keyboard!

Now, I have a fold up one which when folded is about the size of the Samsung Galaxy Mega Phablet, though a lot thicker.  It also has some idiosyncrasies and does weird things every so often.  So I bought a new Logitech portable Bluetooth keyboard for the bargain price of $30 which has a slot in it to prop up a Tablet up to around 10" in size.  I can use it withthe Phablet, they are already paired and it works great.  BUT, it's just a little more than half of what I could have in terms of screen real estate to work with, and as long as I am carrying the keyboard in a backback or zipper portfolio, why not have a bigger screen too?

So, I started looking at 10" Tablets, and Samsung just issued out their newest S3 model.  However, this being brand spanking new is coming in with a hefty price tag of around $400.  I'm not going to spend $400 for a device I am just going to use when sitting in waiting rooms or riding on planes, which I don't do more than once a year.

If I go back to one of their earlier models, I can shave the price down to $200, which is getting a little more realistic.

However, I thought about this some more, and considered what this device will be used for, which is basically just surfing the web and writing.  It just needs to support the latest edition of Firefox, have a decent text editor and have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

So I surfed some more looking for other models from other companies, and that OLD brand name RCA popped up.  In the early days of electronics, RCA was the creme-de-la-creme, but in the computer era they turned into a knock off company.  ACER also does cheap knock offs.

Their knock offs though are SOOOO cheap, they're practically DISPOSABLE!  $100 the MOST, and some come in at around $70!  That's what I paid for Mighty Mouse!

So I figure for this purpose I will try buying one of these El Cheapos to see how long it lasts.  I'm betting I get at least a year out of it, which amortizes out to less than $10/month.  I spend $10/week just on cancerettes!  This is chump change!

I will report again on this after picking one out and unboxing. 

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[RE]

OK!  I have decided on the New Tablet to go with the new Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard! 

I took a Prep Run over to Walmart today to get some Ace Bandages to wrap around my swollen legs during the day, which the Vascular Pro from Dover recommended.  Also to pick up cheap priced frozen juice, which I drink a lot of these days.  Orange, Cranberry and Strawberry Daiquiri for the most part.  The frozen concentrated stuff comes in at $2 a can at Wally's, at 3 Bears it is $3.50 a can.  Both cheaper than buying it in the refrigerated section or off the shelf of pasteurized juices not concentrated, which can run anywhere from $5 to $9 for the same amount of juice after reconstitution.

Also picked up tomatoes which come in real cheap at Wally's for my Greek Salads which are a favorite of mine lately with what little I eat.  I have an upcoming article for the Blog on this called "The Endless Salad", but its probably a few weeks away in publication due to my backlog of articles.

Anyhow, after the food and health care shopping, I mozied over to the electronics department to see what they had on the shelves.  If you wanna buy electronics from a Brick & Mortar store here in the Mat-Su Valley, Walmart is basically your only choice.  Fred Meyer has some selection also, but not as much as Wally World and the prices usually not quite as low, low every day as Wally.

Last time I was there, they had an RCA unit on the shelf at $69, but now out of stock.  They mostly only sell computers that are at least a year old and long in the tooth.  If you want something newer here, you either have to drive to Anchorage and shop at Best Buy, or order online.  This model no longer on the shelf.

What was available however at the low, low price every day of $79 was an 8" Lenovo.  This is a low end  "family tablet" to let the kids use, and if they destroy it you haven't lost a lot of money, like if they destroy a $600 Ipad.  This looks like the one I will buy.

I didn't buy it on this trip for a few reasons.  first, I don't need it NOW, my next appt at the Heart Center for a long day of testing is not until May 1st, which is where it would get its first main application as the Diner Mobile Control Center.  Second, prior to purchase I wanted to go home and research the review on the device from the Tech Geeks and look at the specs more closely to see what I am getting for my $79 in FRNs.  Third, had I bought today, I would have had to use my PAPER FRNs for it, as my Credit union has STILL not got me my replacement digibit card yet, after well over the 7-10 Bizness dys they said it would take.  I am getting just a bit pissed off at this delay.

As expected, the device skimps on everything to keep the price cheap.  The cameras are CRAP!  2MP screen side, 5MP back side.  But I will never use it for shooting a pic, so that is irrelevant. Even my El Cheapo Pocket Samsung camera that is 3 years old blows this away.  Next, total internal memory is pretty thin, especially if you wanted to store movies on it for the kiddies to watch.  It does have an expansion slot for a 128 gig SD Card though, so if I have movies I want to take with me on the plane to watch, I can drop them on one of those.  Lack of memory therefore, no issue either.

Only two issues gave me some pause.  First, the plastic casing, as opposed to Titanium metal and Corning Gorilla Glass in the high end models.  However, after handling it of the shelf and flexing it some, it's very sturdy plastic, and I am just not going to be using it that much.  I also am pretty good at taking care of my electronics, I only broke one in all my years messing with them which was when I dropped my first Samsung Galaxy Mega on a concrete parking lot in Texas at the first convocation.  Other than that, I never busted anything, it all just eventually craps out on its own from old age and planned obsolescence.  lol.

The only significant downside I could identify was the screen sharpness and resolution, at least as far as what the tech geeks wrote in their reviews.  However, on an 8" screen, I just did not notice any great problem with the screen resolution, my eyes aren't that sharp anymore anyhow!  Besides, I'm not mainly using this thing for gaming or other nonsense like that, just to write and read text easily for the most part.  So even a super duper high res screen is not necessary for this application.

I think this unit will do just fine, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a $400 Samsung Tablet 3 or a $600 Ipad!

I will probably buy next week when (hopefully!) my new Digibit card is issued by the Credit Union and I can go back to paying for preps electronically rather than using up my carefully harbored paper FRNs to live on.  I will do an Unbox  Review once I acquire it. 

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