I found a review of the Sony Bloggie MHS-PM5K.  It was an excellent review but it was not in English. I could still understand the review.  I want that camera.  You should wish that I do not get the camera.  If I get the camera I will be posting a lot of videos here.

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  I use Twitter.  I now use the new Google Buzz.  It is going to be interesting.  I am not sure how many are signed up for Twitter.  I am not sure how many people are signed up for Google GMail.  The question is how many of those Gmail people will decided to use Buzz.

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“Tonight’s full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.

This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.

But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here’s how the moon works:

The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon’s orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.

So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.

Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.

As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object…”   Yahoo News

 

  It is going to be cold tonight but I am going to check it out.
I love looking at the sky.  I love space and astronomy.  I wish my eyes were better and I wish I had the location and the equipment to do astronomy. 
  I can not afford more than one hobby.. Hell I can not afford one hobby and I consider the Internet and computers to be one hobby. 

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  I did a little checking on the Internet and I am not a news media organization and I do not have a staff and I am just a retired night watchman so keep that in mind.
  I did a little checking on the Fox News web site and the CNN web site.  I sort of looked at them side by side.  Now keep in mind this is not a study or comment about their cable channels.  This was looking at their web sites.  Take it for what it is worth.

  Web site        Traffic Rank     US Traffic Rank    Linking Sites

  Fox News            211                         37                    35,406
  CNN                      60                          17                    85,968
  Looks like CNN is the big winner when it comes to web sites.
  Now in the world CNN is by far the leader and that should not surprise any of us.
  Just as an example in China CNN is ranked 561 and Fox is 5,815.

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“By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn, Ap Aerospace Writer – 1 hr 50 mins ago

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In a high tech first — really, really high — astronauts in space finally have Internet access.

Space station resident Timothy (TJ) Creamer had been working with flight controllers to establish Internet access from his orbital post ever since he moved in last month. On Friday, his effort paid off. He posted the first live Twitter post truly from space.

"Hello Twitterverse!" he wrote. "We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s"

Before, orbiting astronauts had to send such Twitter updates by e-mail to Mission Control in Houston. Then controllers posted the tweets.

The International Space Station crew can now use an on-board laptop to reach a desktop computer at Mission Control, and thereby browse the Web. This remote Internet access is possible whenever there is a solid high-speed communication link.

It’s expected to provide a big morale boost…”

    I am surprised I did not know they did not have Internet access.  Very strange that they just now are getting it.  I wonder how much bandwidth they have and if they will be watching a movie or something and using up all the bandwidth.

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“Mozilla’s Security team has disclosed a very interesting piece of research which suggests people refused to upgrade to the latest version of Firefox because they were afraid the browser would expose their, ahem, private collection of websites.

In May, the company decided to have one last attempt at persuading the people on Firefox 2 to move up to Firefox 3, by hitting users of the old version with a pop-up that prompted them to upgrade. Those who declined were invited to fill out a questionnaire, asking them to reveal why they didn’t want the latest software.

The number one reason for not upgrading was the new location bar, and the fact that it delved into people’s bookmark collections to suggest sites as they typed. No fewer than 25% of Firefox 3 refuseniks cited this as the reason they wouldn’t upgrade. In fact, almost all of the people who provided feedback had tried Firefox 3, didn’t like what they saw, and headed back to Firefox 2…”

  I just found the above post at PC Pro site.  It is dated August 2009.  I was not aware of this information.  Firefox is now up to version 3.6 so my guess is they fixed what people did not like.  What is interesting is the large number of people with porn on their book mark lists.

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"FOX News Guest Lt Gen Thomas McInerney U.S. Air Force [Retired]: "Strip Search All 18-28 Year Old Muslim Men At Airports" – 01/02/10"

  People do not even want us to do the full body image scans of people.  No way would they go for the Fox "news" expert idea.
  I do think we should full body scan everyone.  I do not think we can pick out just Muslim men for something.  It would be playing the odds but think about it.. If you were an American Muslim man. 
  I think we should set up the full body image scanners and scan everyone.  If we do not want to do that then scan everyone between age of 18 to 28 and if they do not want to be scanned by the scanner then a full body strip seach and if they do not want that the give them a free cab ride to bus or rail station so they can travel by bus or rail.

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"(WIRED) — Google's much-anticipated new phone, the HTC-designed Nexus One, could make its debut next week.

Google has scheduled a press event for Tuesday, January 5 at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. Though the company hasn't mentioned Nexus One, the invitation mentions Android, Google's mobile operating system for phones, and the company is widely expected to show the device that has had smartphone industry watchers buzzing for weeks…"

  I hope that Google does announce tomorrow the release of their Google Nexus phone.  I hope it is unlocked and I hope we can just buy it for x amount of money.  We will see what happens tomorrow.
  Reports are that it will be;  GMS-device, 3.7 inch touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, WiFi, and a accelerometer and compass.  It sounds good.
  If I can afford it and it runs advertising to help make it affordable I do not have a problem with that happening.  I am looking for a neat phone that I can afford to buy and I am willing to pay as much as $50.00 a month but $40.00 a month max would be much better.

  It would be great if it sold unlocked for $200.00 but I fear it is going to cost $400.00 and if that is the case that is out of my price range.  I might go for $300.00 but I hope they come up with someway to sell them for $300.00 each.
  We will see what happens tomorrow.

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  I have Charter Communications for cable Internet service and I am paying for 10 Mb/s down service.  I get like 3.8 Mb/s most of the time.  I am going to call them Monday and ask them to check and make sure everything is working correct.

  It seems like the United States should not be number 29 and 30 on the list of Internet speeds.
  OK OK.. sure I do not want to live in any of those other nations because they have faster Internet speed.  But I am sort of tired of waiting for high speed broadband Internet speed.  I do not think 3.11 Mb/s is it.  Keep in mind when I started people connected to my bulletin board system at 300 baud.  I paid hundreds of dollars so that people could connect at 1200 baud.  I have seen and been part of the start of all of this… I just think it is time to move ahead to high speed Internet for the United States.  We should not be at the bottom of the list.

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  Yesterday I was using my computer and not doing anything special or different and the screen when black and the computer did a re-boot.
  I was gone all day today but in a short period of time tonight it did it two times.
  The first time I told Russell, my in house computer expert, he told me to turn off the auto re-boot setting and I did.

   The second time it took place the computer did not re-boot and  I got the blue screen and it said there was a problem following ADF.SYS

   I did a search on the Internet and I found a number of links about this problem…

“Description: afd.sys is located in the folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers. Known file sizes on Windows XP are 138,496 bytes (88% of all occurrence), 131,968 bytes, 138,368 bytes, 130,688 bytes, 138,112 bytes, 273,920 bytes.
The driver can be started or stopped from Services in the Control Panel or by other programs. afd.sys is a Windows core system file. The program has no visible window. File afd.sys is a trustworthy file from Microsoft. afd.sys seems to be a compressed file. Therefore the technical security rating is 0% dangerous, however also read the users reviews.”  FileNet

I found the following which makes sense to me because I been having problems with my WiFi card and connection problems the last couple of days.

  I hope the problems will be fixed tomorrow when I stop using the WiFi card and go to a cable connection.

Abstract: afd.sys, which is part of the TCP/IP stack in Microsoft Windows, contains a memory leak in many versions of the driver.

“…afd.sys, which is part of the TCP/IP stack in Microsoft Windows, contains a memory leak in many versions of the driver. This leak can result in Windows consuming more and more memory as part of its Pool Nonpaged application under certain circumstances when InterBase is connected. ..”  Embarcadero Developer Network

  I hope my problem is fixed tomorrow.  We will see what happens.

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"THREE MILE ISLAND – November 21, 2009 (WPVI) — A radiation leak at Three Mile Island contaminated about 100 employees Saturday afternoon, according to a TMI official…"   6ABC.COM 

  How many of you were alive in 1979?  How many of you remember the event at Three Mile Island in 1979? 

  Nuclear power sounds like a good idea but the truth is it is not…It is a major accident waiting to happen.  The event yesterday is just 200 or so workers…My guess is most of them were boilermakers or pipe fitters. 
  The 1979 event could have been death for thousands and could have ended up with an area in Pennsylvania that no one could live in for thousands of years.
  The problem with nuclear power is accidents like this but the real problem is getting rid of the waste from nuclear power stations. 
  I hope all of the workers are going to be OK.  I hope the truth comes out about the accident and about any harm that could have taken place to people.

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  People are starting to say that Google is to big and has to much information on people.  Google has set up a service they call “Google Dashboard.”  It looks like you have to have a Google account and then you can log into the service.
  It will then show you what information they have on you and allow you to make changes to the information.

  I do not see how this helps the privacy issues.  It is just the sort of information you would expect them to have about you if you use any of their services.
  I think the problem areas would be information they get from you if you use Google Mail and the information they get on you when you do a search using Google.

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  Today new rules from the Federal Trade Commission go into effect.  The FTC is going to crack down on bloggers who review or promote products and get freebies or money and do not tell readers.
  I have always told you up front if I am getting any money or anything else.  The new rules will not bring much of a change here.  The new rules will make me think a bit more when I post something. 
  I post here daily about sites that I like or services or things I buy or want to buy and never tell you that I do not get paid for those comments.  I may have to start telling you, some how, that it is an un-paid recommendation.  I know that is not the rule… I need to tell you when I AM getting paid.  But I do not even want anyone to think that I might be breaking the rules.  I think the FTC rules are a good idea.
  I have seen a few excellent blogs that I did read go to hell… Because when sites like PayPerPost and others started up …those blogs that were so excellent would then be just post after post of promotions so they would get paid.
 

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  Today Windows 7 is out.  I am sure lots of people are going to be buying it.  I think a lot of XP users will just keep using XP.  Vista people should go to Windows 7 because Vista is crap.
  Lot of Windows 7 will be sold.. But many people are going to hold out if they are happy with XP.

  I am waiting for October 29th when Ubuntu 9.10 will be released.  It is free.  I have been running Ubuntu for years.. It just is fast, it is pretty neat …but I just can not replace Windows with it right now.  I hope 9.10 will let me say goodbye to Windows.  I do not think it will be that complete.

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  I was just thinking…I do not remember ever buying a Windows version…I would buy a new computer and it came with Windows but I never went to a store or ordered just Windows O/S.
  I can remember buying DOS and OS2.  I have bought many versions of Linux. 
  I think the past versions of Windows should have sold for $49.99 and I did run Windows 7 beta and Windows 7 RC and I think it is an excellent O/S.  But I think it should sell for $99.00 and not a penny more.
  I may buy a new computer one day and I suspect it will come with Windows on it…But I can not see myself going out and just buying Windows 7.
  Right now I am running Windows XP Professional v2002 Service Pack 3.  It is working excellent. 

  I guess Windows 7 Home Premium is going to cost (upgrade) $119.99 and Professional is going to be $199.99 and Ultimate $219.99 and that is for an upgrade.
  I will have to check again and see what the difference is between each version.  I could see myself paying $119.00 but not those other prices.

  The new Ubuntu 9.10 will be out October 29th (2009) and I may just give up Windows. Ubuntu is free. 
  Can I live without Windows?  I am not sure…I sure would like to try.

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“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.

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“(CNN) — It’s the most complex construction project in history.

Flying 250 miles overhead, the international space station can be seen with the naked eye, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, usually carrying a crew of six. Now, before construction of the station is even complete, there is already talk of when the lights will be turned off.

NASA is waiting for the Obama administration to decide how much longer the station will fly and exactly which direction the U.S. space agency will take next — a return to the moon, or maybe a trip to Mars?

The initial phase of the international space station was launched in 1998, although the station is still being expanded. The U.S. is one of 16 countries that help build and operate the station, whose laboratory runs a number of science experiments, including measuring the effects of space conditions, such as weightlessness, on humans…”  CNN

  I have been a fan and supporter of the space program from the very first.  When the USSR put up Sputnik 1 I tracked it on my shortwave radio.  I listened to it on 20.005 mHz.  I was hooked on space from that time.  Well the truth is I had been interested in the sky before that time.  
  Sputnik 1 went up on October 4, 1957 and I was in high school.
  My hobby was shortwave listening and right after I started doing a space communications column.  I would list satellites and their orbit information and the frequencies. 
  I would fall sleep tracking a satellite and the next orbit would wake me up.  Explorer 7 was one such satellite. 
  OK OK…the point is I have been and will be a big fan of the space program.  I had no idea that ISS had a dead line date.  I was thinking it was in space to stay and that we would just update it and add to it.  I was thinking that it would be there for all time.  I did not know that we had to choose it or something else. 
  It seems to me that we should have an ISS-Earth, an ISS-Moon and ISS-Mars.  It seems to me that they should connected and working with each other. 
  If we are going to kill off the ISS then I question if it was ever worth the money and the effort.  We spent a lot of money and we have lost lives just to build the ISS.  Why did we build the ISS?

  I hope the ISS will stay in orbit and out live us all.

  We know the Republican stand on this issue right?  They will want to give   space, the Moon, Mars and the sky and heaven to the big corporations.  They want them to control the water you drink, the air you breath and the sun that falls on your face. 

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  The following is a comment from Dick Williams:

"Bad enough we can't reach the ISS without the Russians after the
Shuttle is mothballed next year – now the continued operation of the
ISS is in question. The commitment of the government and the public for
space exploration and even commercial use of a resource like the ISS is
waning fast. I read recently of Space X – a private launch service that
soon be able to handle manned launches under contract to NASA from
their launch site on an old pad at the Kennedy Space Center. Sounds
like a cheaper follow on to the Shuttle and maybe no higher than the 50
million per flight the Russians charge us. Would hate to see the ISS
abandoned – maybe the Europeans and Asians can become primary tenants.
From the Zarella report it sounds like our long term support is in
question. We struggled to get the Space Station completed – I'm not
sure it's complete yet. Very disappointed to hear talk already that it
may not be supported beyond 2015. Remember Skylab in the 70s. That was
allowed to come out of orbit and burn up it the atmosphere in July
1979. Skylab was never seen as a long term project the way the ISS has
been portrayed. All the scifi depictions of long term colonies in space
are looking a lot more like the "fi" than the "sci" part of scifi."
 

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After 11 years and $44 billion, the international space station may be scuttled. CNN’s John Zarrella reports.

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  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.

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