“Google Chrome is go for beta on Linux! Thanks to the many Chromium and WebKit developers who helped make Google Chrome a lean, mean browsing machine. Here are a few fun facts from us on the Google Chrome for Linux team:
60,000 lines of Linux-specific code written
23 developer builds
2,713 Linux-specific bugs fixed
12 external committers and bug editors to the Google Chrome for Linux code base, 48 external code contributors
Thanks for waiting and we hope that you enjoy using Google Chrome!
Google Chrome Team”

I am not running Linux right now or I would be downloading and installing and playing with Chrome for Linux.  Down load it here:  Chrome Linux

Popularity: 6% [?]

  All I have is a cell phone on a pay as you go plan.  The plan was to get a land line (cable) phone from Charter but that did not work out.  It would have been about $10.00 a month with taxes.
  I cancelled my unlimited cell phone plan ($50.00) a month thinking I would have that land line.
  So now what do I do?  I could go back to paying $50.00 a month for the cell phone. 
  Well I just signed up for Skype service.  It is VOIP (voice over IP).  Now it is “free.”  Well free if you call other Skype people.
  What I need is a phone number that people can call me and just about the only person that calls me is my ex-wife.  So how much for a phone number so people can call me?  That is $18.00 for three months.  OK I signed up for that now.
  Now if I want to call someone on their land line (or cell phone) from Skype how much does that cost me?  I have not even checked to see.  For right now if I need to call someone I will just call on my cell phone.

  I have to many accounts.  I need to just turn my life over to Google and have them control everything for me. 
  This is just all to much for me.

Popularity: 6% [?]

  September 6 of 2009 I did the SpeedTest when I lived in Miami and my ISP was Comcast.  I think it is time I run it here in Fort Worth and the ISP is Charter.

  Comcast was 26.69 Mb/s down and 0.96 Mb/s up.

  Charter was 22.81 Mb/s down and 2.06 Mb/s up. 

  For the test of Charter above I did use the Fort Worth TX server.
Here is for San Jose (CA):    21.75 and 2.02
Here is for Washington DC:  25.75 and 1.99

  Russell, my grandson, likes to use DSLReports to check speed.

All I know, at this time, is that I am very happy with Charter right now.  That may change when I get my first bill from them and I see how they are billing me.  But now Jim Howard is happy.  I love fast Internet.

Popularity: 6% [?]

  I have talked about using Google AdSense here.  It was my understanding that you were not allowed to tell how much you make with them.  I was in error on that policy.  You can say how much you make with them but you can not give out details about the eCPM, CTR per site. 
  You know me.. I am very open and honest and it is hard for me to blog when my hands are tied so it is welcome news that I can comment on earning.

  Russell and I will be in Texas in 11 days. 
  My son, here, says he will take me to pick up some boxes on Thursday at The UPS Store.

Popularity: 5% [?]

  Tonight is the night that we set our clock back one hour.  At 0200 hours it becomes 0100 hours.  I hate DST.  I think it is stupid.
  I guess it does not matter a great deal to me now that I am not working but it was a royal pain in the ass in the past.
  I read a great book about Daylight Savings Time.  I can not remember the name of the book but it was very interesting. 

  For years I worked at a small hospital as the only officer on duty and I worked two 12 hour shifts and two 8 hour shifts.  I worked every weekend and those were the 12 hour shifts. So I was working when the clock went ahead or back for almost 11 years.
  In fact I had to adjust the time clock for the hospital each time.  Sometimes it made report writing a pain or even just filling out the daily activity sheet.
  The worst was when I had to work an extra hour.  When you work 12 hours you are ready to go home after 12 hours and an extra hour is a killer.
  I did not mind it when I only had to work 11 hours … of course I lost one hour of pay.  But that was never a problem for me.
  I think we should just leave the clock alone.  Let the seasons happen.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 37% [?]

  You would NOT believe the software that I have installed over the past few days.  I have even installed MS Service Pack 3.  If they say they have something…I install it.
  I got my Netflix DVD today.  I put it in the computer to see if this computer will play a video DVD for me.

  I get the above message: “Windows Media Player can not play this DVD because a compatible DVD decoder is not installed on your computer.”
  My God…I been installing everything from Windows for days. 

“Windows Media Player becomes a full-featured DVD player when combined with a DVD decoder (MPEG-2 decoder) with features such as full-screen video playback controls, DVD chapter listings, and integrated cover art.”

For Windows XP

“If you are running Windows XP, you can enhance your DVD playback experience by purchasing a DVD decoder pack. To find out if you already have a DVD decoder installed on your Windows XP–based computer and whether it is compatible with Windows Media Player, install and run the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility.”

Continue reading »

Popularity: 5% [?]

  I can not blame Windows…  My oldest and newest computers are not working.  Both are hardware problems. 
  My newest computer, I think, has a bad video card.  I do not remember what the problem is with the oldest computer.  I pulled out the video card and sent it to my son in Texas when we did not need the old computer. 
  The computer I am using is a bit slow…but it sure is nice to not hear the sound of the fans from it.  My new computer the CPU fan sound was driving me crazy.

  I like software that just has one serial number…But I can understand if you have an entire set of programs that you offer…Now AVS4YOU must have 20 programs and you just enter the code one time for all of them…I also like software that you pay for one time and you get all the upgrades for free for life.

  I will get back to installing programs.  I seem to install software all the time and I never use the software.

Popularity: 5% [?]

  I want to tell you about a great free program that I been using for a long time.
It is ColorPic. 

  It is a great program.  You can pick colors and save them so you can use them later when you are at some site that wants you to pick colors for some reason.  With my blogging I use it all the time.
  Again.. free.. great deal.

Popularity: 4% [?]

“Upgrading to a new operating system is a notorious mess — you need to find all of your data and user settings (often spending hours doing so), burn them to a DVD or other support and then copy them all to the new OS. Belkin’s "Easy Transfer Cable" for Windows 7, a USB 2.0 cable with accompanying software aims to make the whole process much easier by guiding you through the transfer process, automatically finding your data and settings and streamlining the transition from XP or Vista to the upcoming Windows 7.

Belkin’s Easy Transfer Cable is designed to work with the Windows Easy Transfer utility from Microsoft. The cable must be connected between two computers, an "old" one running either Windows XP or Vista on one end and another running Windows 7 on the other end. As soon as the cable is connected, its software will prompt the user and walk them through the transferring process.

After a few minutes of configuration, the system will go ahead and transfer data, settings and user accounts (programs are not included) selected by the user at 480 Mbit/s from the old to the new PC making sure you don’t lose important files in the process (as too often happens). A small LED placed on the cable also provides status updates on the transferring process.

Interestingly, Bravura Software has built on the previous version of this product (Easy Transfer Cable for Vista, for XP-to-Vista upgrades) to create a system for user-friendly data synchronization through the use of its own additional software, and will likely do the same for the Windows 7 version once it comes out.

The Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 will hit the North American market on October 23rd and is scheduled for Q1 2010 in Europe and Asia, but can already be pre-ordered from Amazon for about US$33.”     Gizmo

  I can see this being a big seller.  I format all the time and start over but I am sure getting tired of doing it.  I am running XP right now and I might get this cable because I will be going to Windows 7 if I can afford it.

Note:  If you click on the link above and buy the cable I should get a commission.
           I think you all know that but just wanted to be honest with you.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Remember I am a simple guy.  I impress easy…Smile
I hooked up my new UPS unit to a USB port.  It did an auto install of a driver.  I then installed the software that came on a CD.

I think that is pretty neat.  It is not only monitoring and telling me the input voltage but also the cycles of the AC supply.  It also tells me the load level on the UPS unit.  I was wondering about that because I got everything, except the printer, plugged in the UPS unit.

The configuration, as you can see, lets me decide how I want things to happen.  So next time I lose power after 5 minutes this software will shut down the PC and then after 2 minutes it will shut down the UPS unit.
Plus there is a self-test.  I hit that and it cut the power to the UPS unit and checked to see if the unit was working OK.
Next time there is a power loss or some event …I am going to have an event list.
You got to remember…My first computer was in 1978 and only had 4K of memory.  My first modem was 300 baud.  I think all this stuff is just so neat.

Popularity: 4% [?]

  I talked about Conduit in the past.  I even did a YouTube video on it in the past.  Truth is none of you seem real interested.    I will give it a try again… I think some of you could find it useful and even use in your in your organization or business.
  Conduit has a toolbar.  They have 200,000 publishers.  I am one of those publishers.  I have a toolbar that I designed.  You can get details on it or download here:  HNBBS Toolbar
  The Conduit people have 60 million people using the toolbar!  The toolbars are easy to set up and totally free both for me and for you.  Search is powered by Google.  There is no Spyware and it is safe, secure and private.  You can add to the tool bar.
  So this is the way it can work… Remember you can create a personal toolbar of your own if you want.
  Here is how it works for me.  I design a toolbar.  I keep it up to date with the links and other gadgets and components.  You can download and install on Firefox or IE.  It is up at the top and you will find the links I have put on it.  Links to ShowMeBlog and Howard’s Notebook and other links.  It is pretty neat.

  Like I said you could design a one of a kind toolbar just for your own use.
  I think it would be most useful for a school, business or organization and they could have it on their own computers and it would help out.

Here is the YouTube video that I made about the toolbar.

Popularity: 5% [?]

  I reported here about Knol when it started up but I forgot all about  it.  I use Wikipedia here all the time.  I never even think of checking Knol. 
 

“Knol is a Google project that aims to include user-written articles on a range of topics. The project was led by Udi Manber of Google, it was announced on December 13, 2007 and was opened in beta to the public on July 23, 2008 with a few hundred articles mostly in the health and medical field. On January 16, 2009, Google announced that Knol had grown to 100,000 articles, and users from 197 countries and territories visit Knol on an average day.

Knol pages are "meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read", according to Manber. The term knol, which Google defines as a "unit of knowledge", refers to both the project and an article in the project. Several experts see Knol as Google’s attempt to compete with Wikipedia, while others point out the differences between the projects…^{”   Wikipedia}

  I looked around today and there is a lot of great content on Knol.  Just one “unit of knowledge” that I found was “Bikinis – the rundown on skimpy swimwear.”  An interesting thing is that the content you can read it or listen to it.  I will still be using Wikipedia and I do not think they are the same.  But if I can remember I may be using links to Knol more.

Popularity: 9% [?]

  I am not sure about you but much of the time my Internet access seems slow.  You can test your Internet connection by going to a site like SpeedTest.Net

  My computer seemed a bit slow so I just did a check and you see above that my connection is very fast.  It was 22.69 Mb/s down and 0.96 Mb/s up.  I have Comcast and they give you a burst of speed at the start when you do a download so I am not sure how great it would be over a long haul. 
 

  I am happy with my Comcast cable service. 

Popularity: 4% [?]

  I am a big fan of micro-lending and of Kiva and so it is time I give a little plug for them again.

“Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money”

  My Kiva page is:  http://www.kiva.org/lender/hnbbs
  You can see some of the people that I have made loans to at that page.  Think about joining and loaning via Kiva. 

Popularity: 2% [?]

  What is a Gravatar and how do you get one and what can you do with it?  You want to know how much does it cost.  The cost is easy.  It is free.

“Gravatar (an abbreviation for globally recognized avatar) is a service for providing globally-unique avatars which was created by Tom Werner.

On Gravatar, users can register an account based on their email address, and upload an avatar to be associated with the account. Gravatar plugins are available for popular blogging software; when the user posts a comment on such a blog that requires an e-mail address, the blogging software checks whether that e-mail address has an associated avatar at Gravatar. If so, the Gravatar is shown along with the comment. Gravatar support is provided natively in WordPress as of v2.5  and Redmine web based project management application beginning with version 8.0 (2008-12-07) . Support for Gravatars is also provided via a third party module in the Drupal web content management system .

A Gravatar avatar can be up to 512 pixels wide, is always square and is displayed at 80 by 80 pixels by default.  If the uploaded avatar is larger or smaller, the avatar is scaled appropriately. Each Gravatar is rated with an MPAA-style age recommendation, which allows webmasters to control the content of the Gravatars displayed on their website.

To eliminate spam, e-mail addresses are hashed with the MD5 cryptographic hash function. This prevents spambots from harvesting e-mail addresses.”

The above text is from Wikipedia.

Popularity: 3% [?]