Old Newbie's Notes

Kimmy/Gus Interface

2005-08-18T19:50:00.000-04:00

Gus, how do I make another IM under another ID???

Kimmy

The Moon on a string

2005-07-25T05:23:00.000-04:00

The Tourbus and LangaList have just heralded Google's latest wonder -- a Moon viewer be sure to look closely at this scientific marvel. Now if they can only prove the Earth is flat...

Store opening delayed

2005-07-19T15:48:00.000-04:00

While I had hoped to have more in place by the 15th, the flesh was weak and the servers were unwilling. Offering Domains and Web Hosting services was never to be my main focus, but they made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I'm passing it on to you with some ridiculously low markups at my storefront.

It's an open secret that I buy space for my three Domains with three different companies, as well as making use of MSN Groups and Yahoo's Geocities free space. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and I'm writing more about the whole process. Before you even think of buying space, try using some of the free available alternatives, not least among which is blogger which will store your files at blogspot if you wish. I'm so impressed the Learning Center Notes may become my homepage there soon (so if you've bookmarked that be sure to update it.)

Problems and perspective

2005-07-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

The past four days have been frustrating to say the least. Beyond bumping into my own limitations, a server went down (or funny) at a point where I was trying to test some simple things and I was almost thinking I understood how to use the Dreamweaver program in the way I wanted. My mood tanked and my circadian rhythms (never very good) went completely off the grid. Sunday into Tuesday was a 40 something hour day.

Yesterday morning things were put in perspective. A neighbor knocked at my door with her usual somewhat rapid knocking that always seems a bit frantic. Being up 15 hours though it was barely 9AM, my first thought was that I was glad I was awake because I might not have heard her otherwise. As soon as I opened the door, I was struck that she looked smaller somehow. Her face at rest is generally thoughtful and before she speaks she always flashes a small smile. Lately (the past year or so) she has begun to grasp your hand before speaking, something I barely noticed at first. Gripping my hand she blurted out her reason for coming "I wanted to tell you I'm going to {named Senior housing facility} today! The movers are coming. And I won't be seeing you again." Never big on small talk, she'd always preface with a hello and a 'I have a problem' or 'I don't mean to a bother' and plunge right into it. This was much more abrupt than usual. I was taken off guard and merely said I hoped she'd be happy there.

I described it as a Senior housing facility because it offers very different levels of assisted living from apartments with some housekeeping services, to extended rehabilitation services, to full care beds in a more hospital like setting. From her tone, it was apparent this wasn't a choice that excited her, but it was when she turned to walk away that the full sense of defeat struck me. She'd made some hard decisions while caring for her husband. I knew exactly how hard and I knew the second guessing and doubts first hand. My words seem so hollow and empty in my ears.

Most of my online friends are on the downhill side of 60, so I am asking what should I have said.

MSN CSC MISSING

2005-07-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

CHECK MY BLOG

The little town that wasn't

2005-07-13T03:05:00.000-04:00

It always amuses me the way we take pride in being named on a list. Even when it isn't in the top 3, or 5 or 10. the Media feels it is worth a mention. Our neck of the woods got a distinct honorable mention as 28th most livable city according to Money magazine which bestowed the honor on Wexford. There is one small hitch

There's no mayor of Wexford, no Wexford Borough Council, no "Make checks payable to Wexford" on tax bills.

Apart from the small fact that Wexford isn't a town after all, but a zip code covering bits of Pine, Franklin Park, McCandless and Marshall. Not being so rude as to wonder about just what data Money used in making its pick, Pennsylvanians just smile and accept the compliment.

Three other Pennsylvania towns cracked the top 100: Blue Bell, Montgomery County, came in 14th; Hummelstown, Dauphin County, ranked 61st; and York, York County, was 95th.

Four out 100 isn't bad, even if one is the little town that wasn't.

Blackout after 25 years, 35 years

2005-07-13T00:00:00.000-04:00

A crippling blackout took place on July 13, 1977, in New York City. A freak lightning strike was the cause of major chaos. It was described as a repetition of the Nov. 9, 1965 power failure which saw the lights go out on large portions on the Northeastern US and Canada.

I recall quite well the hue and outcry went beyond additional safeguards -- a National Energy Policy was needed. The prices at the pump go up -- we need a National Energy Policy. The weather changes in dramatic ways, wildfires threaten homes built in remote resort areas, and the rest of the World recognizes a Global Warming problem.

Perhaps our National Energy Policy needs to be more than a scheme 'to feed the machine' with new resources. Perhaps we need to look further or closer to home --further into the effects of our usage and closer to home on how we can better or more wisely use energy.

Thanks to the template makers

2005-07-07T16:30:00.000-04:00

Perhaps I should say apologies, because I've already folded, spindled, and mutilated their hard work; and, knowing myself as I do, I expect to further damage and ineptly modify their elegant designs.

Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL: www.stopdesign.com

London Attack

2005-07-07T13:00:00.000-04:00

Saddened and shocked by this act of barbarism, I find it hard even to read the details. Living most of my life in NYC and a frequent mass transit rider, I cannot express how truly evil such an attack on a city feels. The only bright point is the common reaction of our World leaders which I characterize as a strengthening of resolve. Not often a fan President Bush, I have to say his quote (reported by Reuters) says it well.

"Their resolve is as strong as my resolve," Bush said. "We will find them (the perpetrators). We will bring them to justice. And at the same time we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate."

Addendum July 8, 2005

It struck me as almost comical that the Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe claimed responsiblity for this act on a website. Not very secret, is it?

An Op Ed column by Thomas L Friedman made some very cogent points. Too often we see the negative response to American actions. It is well passed the time for the Muslim world (or village as this author refers to it) to begin recognizing that the negative response to these terrorist acts is likely to felt by all Muslims. Rooting out, what he refers to as, "a jihadist death cult in its midst" is a job best done by the Muslim leaders. Left to the West it will be done in a rough, crude and likely unhumane way. But make no mistake it will be done. We see it unfolding in the streets of Iraq, we saw it in the heavy bombardment in Afghanistan, but even more in the air of suspicion and distrust of Muslims everywhere, especially in our own home lands.

Live8 and the G8

2005-07-06T22:00:00.000-04:00

Live 8 is a most notable exception. Much more than a music festival which some of you have seen on TV. You might want to send a picture if you can't join the march in Edinborough where the G8 is meeting. You might want to sign an online letter http://www.one.org/ to Presidnet Bush telling him:

“WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs – education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans – would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all.”

Somehow I think that would be a much more effective front in the war against terrorism.

Murphy's Law

2005-07-05T09:30:00.000-04:00

If it can go wrong, it will.
If there is a time when it will be most inconvenient, it will happen then.
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Doing nothing takes longer than anyone would expect.

My self-imposed July 15th deadline for my store's opening is looking way too close, but as with most things I do it will be an ongoing process.

A disturbing editorial in the NYTimes about online sales tax led me me to fire off a reply in their Forum. I'm planning to make the magazine a key page in the revised site layout and it will hold a daily Today in History, headline and opinion links to to the Times in addition to a some less frequently update articles. Unlike the giant portals it won't be configureable by individual users -- that will be a subject I should cover in a tutorial.

Old Newbie Enterprises

2005-06-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

Effective July 1, I will be doing business as Old Newbie Enterprises.

It has been my policy to try to avoid troubling my visitors with ads and not to confuse my educational efforts with any notion of personal financial gain. Last year, I introduced a few Google ads and I am pleased to publicize the various companies who provide Host space to my various domains. To a large extent that will not change.

What will be changing is a new Gift Shop area where you will find a selection of merchandise which I hope you will enjoy. The payment process will be through PayPal, a trusted and secure way of transfering funds, at no cost to my customers. Shipping will be limited to the continental United States via UPS usually (some larger items may ship more economically via a Common Carrier, but that will be the exception and it will be noted on any applicable items.)

My venture into online marketing is a step I take for a two-fold purpose. Revenue would be nice -- defraying the cost of space and providing funds for additional software. But most of my knowledge, as I so often say, comes from having fallen in the pitfalls myself.

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T01:05:00.000-05:00

May the day

be filled

with

Joy and Blessings to All

15° and falling again

2004-12-20T15:30:00.000-05:00

We appear to have bottomed out at 1°F and as I looked at my digital thermometer it dropped from 15.1° to 14.9° and the sun is shrouded behind the gray clouds again. That may be a good thing.

When it is clear, as it was most of last night and through mid-day, radiational cooling makes the temperatures drop more. Although with such a cold air mass, there's little warmth to lose. As usual the optimistic weatherman forecast warmer tomorrow. When the high is barely freezing, I have trouble calling it warmer.

Brrr And Winter Starts Tomorrow?

2004-12-20T06:47:00.000-05:00

It is a balmy 2^o F and according to the National Weather Service

WIND CHILL INDICES THIS MORNING RANGING FROM AROUND 10 BELOW, TO NEAR 15 BELOW ZERO MAY BE EXPECTED

which isn't really conducive to my crawling out from under the covers. But the lure of a caffeine fix did the trick. My plans include some work on the site which lead me to notice a headline (on the recently added 7AM New Feed -their link) Charges Against Turkish Patriarch Dropped (as reported by Newsday.)

It caught my eye since a branch of the family is Greek Orthodox and knew even from the headline it would involve their church. Greece, Turkey and Cypress are the Mediterranean version of the Irish, English, Protestant, Catholic troubles with a longer history and a tad less recent violence. The sad part is this a dispute between two Christian communities that found its way into the secular court of a predominantly Muslim country.

The bright note is Turkey is demonstrating that a Muslim nation can be secular and wise enough to rise above this squabble, particularly when it involves Greek and Bulgarian prelates. To put it into historical perspective

The Ecumenical Patriarchate dates from the Orthodox Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when the Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople, today's Istanbul, in 1453.

Naturally, the lawyers for each side had the exact opposite takes on the outcome.

Just poking my head in

2004-12-18T07:30:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas
Buon Natale
Felices Navidad

Okay, so I'm a bit early. Just don't misread this as foreshadowing any New Year's resolution like 'Being more prompt and attentive' because I am still working on 2002's 'Resolve to do less and goof off more' and making progress. Granted it is slow going.

Actually, I've been going through a Zen phase. 'Today, I will be a rock. Fears and worries rage like wind and water, but cannot move me.' Okay, I hear you thinking 'what a blockhead' but it doesn't move me. Soon I should move on to being water, being a rock is murder on your joints.

Website Weather Advisory: expect a flurry of activity as the winter solstice approaches, conditons are likely to remain changeable throughout the season. Surfers are cautioned about relying on deep links and Bookmarks should be made only on suggested pages or to the top level Domains.

Pithy quotes:

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
To grow is to change. To become perfect is to have changed often.

Moving

2004-12-18T04:19:00.000-05:00

This won't mean anything much to most, but the blog is now being served up to you from a different location, some web space I am already paying to use. The move is not to indicate that I am unhappy with Blogger.com or Blogspot.com in any way.

To the contrary, it is a minimal way (short of me paying them a fee) for me to lessen their server load. In the next few weeks you will be seeing guides to using their free Blog services on my site. It has been a slow part of the process of answering the query about making a website.

The Internet provides a wide variety of good, free (or minimally ad supported) and simple ways to communicate and express yourself. Exploring the possibilities and hopefully opening doors for my friends has always been a driving force to my project.

The Marine

2004-12-10T06:20:00.000-05:00

I don't FWD emails; but, at times, one is worth repeating. This came to me today.

This is a poem being sent from a Marine to his Dad. For those who take the time to read it, you'll see a letter from him to his Dad at the bottom. It makes you truly thankful for not only the Marines, but ALL of our troops.
THE MARINE
We all came together
Both young and old
To fight for our freedom,
To stand and be bold.
In the midst of all evil,
We stand our ground,
And we protect our country
From all terror around.
Peace and not war,
Is what some people say.
But I'll give my life,
So you can live the American way.
I give you the right
To talk of your peace.
To stand in your groups,
and protest in our streets.
But still I fight on,
I don't bitch, I don't whine.
I'm just one of the people
Who is doing your time.
I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any machine.
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a U.S. MARINE!
So stand in my shoes,
And leave from your home.
Fight for the people who hate you,
With the protests they've shown.
Fight for the stranger,
Fight for the young.
So they all may have,
The greatest freedom you've won.
Fight for the sick,
Fight for the poor.
Fight for the cripple,
Who lives next door.
But when your time comes,
Do what I've done.
For if you stand up for freedom,
You'll stand when the fight's done.
By: Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine Corps
USS SAIPAN,PERSIAN GULF
March 23, 2003
Hey Dad,
Do me a favor and label this "The Marine" and send it to everybody on your email list. Even leave this letter in it. I want this rolling all over theU.S. I want every home reading it. Every eye seeing it. And every heart to feel it. So can you please send this for me? I would but my email time isn't that long and I don't have much time anyway. You know what Dad? I wondered what it would be like to truly understand what JFK said in his inaugural speech.
"When the time comes to lay down my life for my country, I do not cower from this responsibility. I welcome it."
Well, now I know. And I do. Dad, I welcome the opportunity to do what I do. Even though I have left behind a beautiful wife, and I will miss the birth of our first born child, I would do it 70 times over to fight for the place that God has made for my home. I love you all and I miss you very much. I wish I could be there when Sandi has our baby, but tell her that I love her,and Lord willing, I will be coming home soon. Give Mom a great big hug from me and give one to yourself too.
Aaron

Thank you, Aaron and all our soldiers and your families. You are in our hearts and prayers.

Open Letter to Sherman E. DeForest

2004-11-19T07:20:00.000-05:00

"The trick is to educate them on what can be done so that they can decide what they want to do"

Dear Sherm,

Your articles are providing me with both inspiration and soul searching challenge.

I may not fall into the 'senior' category officially if you use a calendar, but I retired in 1990 and my first Windows and PC came in late 2000. My limited computer contact at work was on a UNIX trying to make sense of a data base tracking program with conflicting logic reflecting the design by pros with no appreciation for the work the model described or the users entering the data. (With grep and bat files I did manage to find and create most of the 'logically needed steps' that reality and the field user didn't need or document.) To say I understood computers would be exaggeration. What I did was examine the problem from both sides and find a way to get to the desired goal. A computer pro would have fixed the logical model -- I massaged the data.

When I began learning about my PC and Windows, I felt lost, but I was encouraged by the community of help that seemed to be everywhere online. That many were merely marketing something was a bit daunting. That many were actually sharing their expertise open-handedly made the process exciting. Much of what I read and found went over my head like a roof -- I still say I understand about 80% of what I read.

I stumbled into a chatroom while troubleshooting a problem and met a wild bunch of Senior Netizens. Some had had data entry experience before retiring, many had never met a keyboard before they got their PC. But all recognized this was a way to reach out and communicate. To fill the voids that time and health sometimes created in their lives. Quickly they became the dearest and closest friends I'd never met.

Even the Net changes, so we moved from that chatroom invading MSN Groups and spawning several dozen private, semi-public or public Groups. Some found message boards and custom pages; and others discovered graphic tools and blogs. Along the way I have tried to show the possibilities lending a hand when I can. Trying to find, fall into and learn the way out of most pitfalls.

The internet is what we make it.

Sincerely,

AsparaGus

AVG - The sky isn't falling

2004-11-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, news of Grisoft, discontinuing updating the free edition of AVG as of the end of this year, hit the eZines. As usual the sky is falling panic began, but with great timing Grisoft responded that they were preparing to soon roll out a newer version of their Free Personal Edition (7.0) and the new site is much more user friendly.

As I write I am doing the initial virus scan (as part of the installation.) Features I liked were the creation of Rescue Disks which would allow booting to a DOS driven virus scan and a bit more advanced email 'sandbox' configuration. You could accept the default setting for that sandbox, but taking the time to create the Rescue Disk set is well worth the peace of mind.

The Update process seems altered and the initial scan seems to be slower (but I am doing several other things and this is a very subjective judgement.) While it is too soon to say if the newer version is as good or better, the point is they have continued to be available as a reputable free alternative.

No one should be running without virus protection!

Family (a forward)

2004-10-21T16:57:00.000-04:00

Not being a forwarder, this came to me and it was one of those that deserved repeating:

Family

They say if you pass this on, you will receive a miracle. I am passing it on because I thought it was really good, short, and who couldn't use a miracle!

Enjoy it if it happens.

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, we could easily be replaced at work? But the family we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. So, why do we pour ourselves more into work than into our own families? Invest your time wisely.

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?

Father And Mother I Love You.

Pass this message to 7 people except you and me. You will receive a miracle tomorrow.

As for me every new day (even the shortening, dreary ones) is miracle enough.

Changes

2004-09-20T16:41:00.000-04:00

My philosophy to avoid ads like the plague is softening. I added Bravenet ads and links awhile back, but I am now allowing Google driven ads on select pages. In addition I plan to add some features which will have ad-links built into them.

My thinking is that they are innocent enough for the most part and won't create a billboard sort of effect. It must be noted, what ads appear is somewhat beyond my control. By placing ads here, I don't endorse all the possible products to which they may lead. So please be aware of the differences between the things I recommend and the sites you may go to from a ad link. So far the differences appear to me to be quite clear, but if I find they are too confusing I will revert to my former policy.

Google this or Looking into Blogs

2004-08-27T10:55:00.000-04:00

As if AsparaGus isn't spread too thin already, it seemed time to look into this whole blogger thing. Actually I already have a blog serving as a what's new for the site and a spot for interesting quotes -- if you've seen it you'll recall the dust from infrequent use.

As usual there is method in my madness, the Old Newbie Net has opened a subdomain for another interesting foundation¹ in Tampa Bay, the Fat Female Film Fest or for a less flashy look enter here. Personally, the idea caught my interest and the founder, Veronica Fitzhugh, has such enthusiasm that I became hopelessly hooked.

The Suire's site (on terra firma) will be visited by the BBC in connection with a documentary on alligators. They wanted an authentic country place where alligators are served. On the menu, that is. The dates have been pushed back, but we'll keep you posted and we'll certainly have pictures.

The Learning Center has had a facelift, but I've been too busy to add all the things I'd like. Interest in HTML and CSS is always generating questions, but I'd like to 'look into' that area in my own oft inimitated fashion. The Project has also detoured into the wonderful world of XP which means a redo of many of the existing demonstrations/tutorials.

¹The exact legalese is in works as I write, but I'm told by the founder it will be finalized soon. Not-for-profit, non-profit, foundation, public service organization -- all confuse me and keep the lawyers off the unemployment lines, so I guess that is a good thing.