Sunrise

The Battle of the Sexes...

Some stories have great legs...

My comments on today's news...

Night photos with a compact digital camera...

This isn't perfect, but it's pretty damned good for 5:00 a.m. on a wet and foggy night when even the seagulls are walking. "And what did you take this with?" I hear you asking... "The Fuji Finepix SL1000" I reply. I should also confess that it has been edited just a little using Irfan Skiljan's "Irfanview", and resized to fit this blog better. Google doesn't like pictures that take up too many megapixels.
Compared to what we could do with digital cameras of only a few years ago, though, this is a vast improvement in their "night vision". And that all comes down to having bigger sensors, a good tripod, and a camera with ten seconds of time delay on the shutter if you want it - and I usually want it for shots like this.

And to say a word or two about that editing, Irfan Skiljan's 'Irfanview' is a freebie (all donations gratefully accepted) that does a better and more comprehensive job of editing your pictures than a lot of those pricey ones that you can spend your money on, but not get any better results. Irfan lives in Bosnia, and he is a really nice guy - and very smart! You should try Irfanview.

Today's Question Everything....

A Republican Senator named Flake - Is this an appropriately named politician, or what? 'Only in America...' you say? Sacré Mon Dieu!

Trophy Wives, and all that...

He's 25 years older than she is. My last (and best) wife is 22 years younger than I, and we were divorced decades ago. Anyone who tells you that such an age difference doesn't really matter is full of shit right up to their eyebrows!

ABC News and Miley and all that...

I was going to offer you my critique of Miley's VMAs appearance, but 'Joe' offers us a much better one and I certainly can't top that, nor would I try. I think he does a masterful job, and we all should read it. And as for Miley's ass, I think it belongs on a tractor in North Dakota... where she can sing 'Bringing In The Sheaves' as she helps produce the main ingredient of bread, rather than being on stage somewhere, simulating getting bred. We all know what an ass looks like, Miley - most of us have one. And some people are all ass.

Speaking of Russians....watch this!

To Russia, With Love....

Keeping your computer happy...

This is a little story about changing the battery in your computer, and yes, dear friends, it does have one. Trust me.  It is on the motherboard, usually near the main processor, or between that and the chips for the RAM. It's about the size of a U.S. nickel and it likely has the number CR2032 on it, or one very similar.

For instructions and a short video on how to do all that replacing of it, which really isn't all that difficult, you can just Google the phrase "Replace the CMOS Battery", and look at the first few items of the results for one with a video. The batteries are usually available at both computer repair shops and at stores with a camera department, because this is a lithium battery also used in camera equipment. Quite readily available, in other words.

And the screenshot above shows what you get if you are running two monitors on a Windows 8 PC and save a screenshot using Windows Key + Print Screen.
It saves both monitors as if they were one. Neat, huh?

I almost forgot to mention that the voltage shown above for 'VBAT' (CMOS Battery) is the voltage of a newly-replaced battery. I changed it today. When you do that, the first time you start the machine, it will show you a screen full of information about your BIOS, and ask you to press F1 to continue, and after you press F1, it will continue into a normal start.  You can then start breathing again because you did it all correctly and your computer is happy.

From NBC News...

Here's what's wrong with pics from portable devices...

They're 'noisy' - there's a lot 'static' in the pixels, because the equipment doesn't have enough room in it for a big-enough sensor to give you 'clean' shots...

Like you'd get with better equipment, or by running that noisy one through a program like Neat Image (as above) to filter out the crap and clean it up.  And if
Miley insists on showing us her ass, she ought to pay more attention to the quality of the images. And if she's wondering why she's going wild, I'm quite sure there's a medication for that - I was on it myself for decades, because there was a time when I too believed in "Fly while you still have wings".... and going up is absolutely wonderful - it's the coming down and crashing that presents a problem - for everyone! - Trust me... would I lie to you?

Thank You, Windows 8 - and USA Today...

I love the way Windows 8 can grab a screenshot right out of a playing video, and I have to add that USA Today has the best pictures in the best sizes for doing that. My thanks to both for your excellent work.

And this above is from the video in this morning's USA Today, in the story about the wildfire near Yosemite National Park, which is causing big problems there.

And from Google Maps, this one to show you where this is happening....

Everything old is new again....

Today's Sunrise...

Now that I'm caught up with posting pictures, I can babble a bit maybe. Yesterday, I got a nearly-new Dirt Devil Express vacuum for $7.83, which was what it cost for a package of new bags for it. The day before, I'd found it beside the Big Blue Bins down on P1, thrown out by someone who seems to not know much about vacuum cleaners. The bag in it, perhaps its original, was absolutely plugged, but otherwise I couldn't find anything wrong with it. So I bought some new bags, put one in, vacuumed some of my wall-to-wall to prove it does work, and put it away in the closet. Total cost: $7.83, plus a trip to Al's Vacuum Superstore for those bags. Both Al and I are wondering who would throw out a perfectly good vacuum just because it needed the bag changed. It can't have been used much, because the filter pad inside the exhaust vent is as clean as if it was new. Spotless, in other words. So, I'm enjoying another free vacuum. This makes three I've 'rescued' now from those Big Blue Bins. I'm soon going to have to start getting rid of some. The others are a couple of old upright Hoovers, and those things are practically indestructible. At least one of them must be at least half as old as I am, and I go back to before the discovery of nuclear fission, so you can guess how old that is.

August 22nd Sunset

USA Today photos make a great Windows Theme...

Want proof? - I thought you might.....

Save these to a folder named DesktopBackground (all one word!) and put that folder into another one named USA Today-01. You may want to resize these to suit your own display's resolution, but try it as-is first. After you get the folder with the photos inside the one marked USA Today-01, then you are ready to put all that into your Windows Themes folder and get it activated as another of your slideshow-type themes. 

Before you do that, you may have to make sure you can see your AppData folder, so go to Control Panel > Folder options > View Tab > Hidden files and folders > Move the dot from "Hide" to the next line *Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Click on Apply, Click on OK, and you will now see your AppData folder when you go into your own user folder, which we're going to do now...

Now, to install that new Theme,  go to C:\Users\ your username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes, and drag and drop that newly created theme folder you named USA Today-01 into the Themes folder. Now, in the Themes folder, click on that new USA Today-01 folder, then click on the DesktopBackground one inside it, choose Select All from the task bar above it, then when all images are selected, right-click on any one of them and from the drop-down menu, choose "Set as desktop background". As soon as you click on that choice, you should see one of your new theme's images come up on screen. You can now close that window, or any others, and go onto your desktop itself, now showing one of your new theme's pictures, and right-click the screen to bring up the drop-down, on the bottom line of which you'll see "Personalize". Click on that to bring up your Windows Personalization window, and then you can configure your new theme just as you would any other of your Windows Themes. Enjoy your new theme! And of course, you can use this same method to make other themes of your own, using your pictures chosen from your files or from images on the web. Just remember to size those to fit your screen resolution so they'll look right when on there.

And I practice what I preach, so here's what it looks like in action...

Flat screen TVs as monitors on the computer...

After I moved the 30-inch flat screen TV down off the top of the 6-feet-high stereo equipment rack I built when I moved in here 17 years ago, and hooked it up on this computer as a really big monitor ( It's a lot like my first look at CinemaScope...) I found myself frequently looking up toward that old location, expecting to see the TV there. So I got onto Future Shop's website, and checked out their latest batch of flat screen TVs, with particular attention to ones that also have a VGA input and a Stereo Sound input, for possible use as a PC monitor. 

Interesting Discovery: Only their cheapest (and smallest) flat screen has all those extras you need for using it as a computer monitor. Their others, all bigger and much more expensive, do not have what it takes to hook up your computer and use the TV as its monitor. And their cheapest one is a 32-inch for $200.00 plus taxes and etc., and the one I just bought is now back in the usual location on top of the stereo rack, where I can see it easily from my bed across the room. 

"How does it work?" you ask.... - Very nicely, thanks. I have its sound output coming out on the connection to the wireless headphones transmitter/charger,
and when not plugged into that, I plug it into another cable which puts the TV sound into an old Yamaha Stereo, with a choice of four speakers. That sounds a lot better than the built-in speakers inside the TV set. They aren't bad either, but they can't compete with a set of Electrohome and a set of Akai speakers on the old Yamaha Stereo. They just don't make them like this any more. 

And those speakers have their own story. The two Electrohome ones came from the Langley and District Hospital Auxiliary's retail outlet called 'The Penny Pincher' out in Langley, and cost me a whole two bucks each. And the pair of Akai speakers, each two feet high by 11 inches wide, came from the Big Blue Bins downstairs on P1 of our parking garage. Someone left them beside the bins one day, and I couldn't resist finding out what, if anything, was wrong with them. Turned out, there was nothing wrong with them that a little dusting and polishing wouldn't cure. So all those speakers got hooked up to Old Yamaha, to see how that would compare to my main setup of Technics stereo with honeycomb speakers. The Technics still has more punch, but the Yamaha has a wonderfully mellow sound that is ideal for relaxed listening. It's nice to have choices. 

There really is a Memory Lane....

Mine is where most are, between our ears someplace in the old memory banks that were loaded long ago. And when I started researching for this, I made an interesting discovery: Google can find things better in the University of Toronto Library's Maps Section than the University of Toronto itself can, which says it all about 'higher education' wouldn't you say?

But I digress - please forgive me. On the 23rd on August, 1950, I was a high school dropout who ran away from home to start training as an Operator-In-Training with the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, which was the original name of Ontario Hydro, later again known as Hydro One. It was a very different company back in those days, and a lot more friendly than it is now, I'm quite sure. The official 1950 Road Map of Ontario didn't even show the road from Cobalt, the old silver mining center, running south-southeast from there along the Montreal River to four small power developments on it. I worked at two of those, shown in the Google Earth photo. A lot has changed since 1950, especially me!

Back in those days, large portions of the main highways in northern Ontario were still unpaved, and some weren't even built yet, like the portion of Highway 69 between Burwash and Britt on the eastern shores of Georgian Bay, which now is a major highway from southern Ontario to the Sudbury area. The portion of Highway 17 from a different Montreal River flowing into Lake Superior north of Sault Ste. Marie, going north from there to Wawa ( what a charming name!) and onward to the lakehead, then known as Fort William and Port Arthur, hadn't yet been built either. That makes me older than parts of the Trans-Canada Highway, and I'm beginning to feel like roadkill.....
 

Mighty Microsoft in USA Today, with my comments

Summer - at 50X optical zoom...

I have no idea who she is, but she makes a nice background on the monitor, and I think that weather summary is a little off - if this is "mostly cloudy" then they've never been here in the rainy season. Having seen a few of those, I can guess why. Now, here's another one in this new Windows 8 Theme just finished.

This just in, from Havana.....

Thank God for Google Translate! I would have a real problem without it. Now I must compose a nice reply, and use Google to translate it into Spanish for me....

And this is my reply:

Sometimes, I wish I had been more interested in languages at school years ago.
But Google Translate makes it possible for us to communicate even when we do not know the language. Thank you, Google!

DreamScene in Windows 8...

When I saw this animated gif from geovideo....

showing computer and internet usage around the world as the day progresses through its 24 hours, I thought 'What a neat backgrounder this would make for Windows 8!', and even though Google can run this animated gif, I have bad news for all us Windows 8 enthusiasts - Windows 8 can't. 

I should qualify that last remark: Windows 8 could, but first you need to install the latest version of DreamScene (Remember Vasta Vista?) and for that, you should read some helpful hints and directions and then I have other bad news.
It uses a LOT of RAM, and you need a respectable Processor, and you'll have to convert your animated gif into a video to make it all happen like you hoped.
In other words, it's just a whole bunch of work, and work is the curse of the drinking classes.... but it can be done, if you absolutely insist.

This brings me once again to Today's Question Everything: "If Google can make this animated gif work in my blog, why can't Windows 8 make it work on my desktop?" I would just love to know the answer to this one.....
 

In USA Today.....Wedding News...

Today's sunrise.....

....as a background on the monitor.

More about running two monitors on one computer...

Mighty Microsoft has some very good information in this informative article about the joys and advantages of using two monitors on your computer. The writer recommends we use two identical monitors (mine are!) to avoid having size differences in items showing on the different displays, which of course makes good sense. He also explains other considerations of using two monitors rather than one. I haven't been using the two monitors long enough yet to be able to add any intelligent remarks, except to say "Don't knock it if you haven't tried it." He also comments on using a single big monitor instead of the two smaller ones. At the risk of sounding smug here, I just happen to have both of those arrangements, and I'm not sure yet which I really prefer.

This whole thing was mostly serendipitous, one thing just leading to another, until it all came together. The flat screen TV became the monitor on one computer, freeing up that one's monitor, which became the second of an identical pair on the other computer. I had it all here to begin with, but just hadn't realized it. 

Please Note:
In the article, it mentions "Applies to Windows 7". It also works for Windows 8. 

Tom sends an interesting website link....

Here's an interesting site with world maps that Tom sent along this morning and you may find it very entertaining. "What will I see?" you ask.  Things like this:-

This one is an animated .gif file that shows the computer and internet usage around the world as the day progresses through its 24 hours in various locations. It would make a terrific wallpaper, if I could just figure out how to get it doing its thing inside a Windows 8 theme.... And do check out that website - this computer usage map is down the list a bit, so scroll down until you come to it.... and enjoy the others as well. And Thank You, Tom!

It's another nice morning...

And just for the record, two monitors really are handier than one. Among other things, you can now have your second browser open on the other screen, while you do your thing on the primary one. Then, if you need to do a search for something, for example, that second browser doesn't cover up what you're now working on. Like this blog, for example....

For those who tend to sometimes be critical of Wonderful Windows 8, including me, let me say it does a wonderful job of detecting your second monitor, and helping you expand your display to include it. It shows you which is your primary, and which is the secondary, and really, there's not a lot you have to do.
Windows is pretty smart, really. Sometimes, smarter than its users!

Another monitor setup....

Today, now having a spare 22-inch monitor, just like the one on the other PC, and needing somewhere to keep it, I thought, "Why not connect two monitors on that other computer instead of just one...?" Here's what it looks like now....

There's two Acer X223w monitors on the quad core PC, and the 30-inch Dynex flat screen TV on the dual core PC, so I've got plenty of landscape on each now.
Like dear old Granny used to say: "Waste not, want not!" 

More fun with screenshots.....

Thank You !

My thanks to everyone who visited this blog yesterday. That's the most viewers in one day that it ever has received.

I hope some of the things I'm saying here prove useful to you, or help to make your day a little more enjoyable, or both of the above.... and please stay tuned!

LiLo 'fesses up for Oprah

Lindsay says she's her own worst enemy. We all are, Darling - we all are!

And being addicted to alcohol doesn't have to ruin your life, unless you want it to. And being in rehab isn't the end of the world - it just might possibly be the beginning of the rest of your life, if you really take it seriously. 

How do I know? May I tell you? I was addicted to alcohol myself from my late teens until I got fired from my job as an electrical power station operator at the age of 38, and went crawling back home to my long-suffering parents, sick, sober and sorry, and very nearly flat broke, and thoroughly ashamed of myself.

I was lucky - I had an uncle who was 'up there' in the government's health care program at the time, and he gave me a lecture I richly deserved, and then told me that he would make sure there was room for me at an alcoholism and drug addiction treatment center his provincial government employers operated in another city a couple of hundred miles from my parents' home. 

About then, I felt that I'd lost just about everything that mattered, and had nothing left to lose by taking him up on his offer, so I went in there for treatment. They told me that I could stay as long as I felt that I needed to, and
until I could handle life's challenges without reaching for help from 'Dr. Smirnoff' and his friends. I took them at their word, and stayed there for three months.

Before I left, the Director asked if he could do anything to assist my return to the world outside, and I asked if he would please write to my former employer
and inform them of where I've been and how long, and give them his personal assessment of my recovery efforts, so that I might try to get my job back.
He very kindly granted my request, wrote the letter, and my former employer made me a very simple deal: stay sober, and you stay employed; fall off the wagon, and it's 'goodbye forever'.  I stayed sober, and later got a promotion,
and if I can do it, then you can too, Lindsay.

When that whole thing first hit the fan, I thought for sure it was the end of the world, but it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me,
because it made me really think about who I was and who I wanted to be, and how to work toward reaching those goals, instead of being an embarrassment  to all who knew me. I'm not going to give anyone a lecture on the joys of belonging to 'AA', because I never did have any faith in that gang who came to their meetings smelling of booze. There's only one way to quit drinking, and that's the same way we quit smoking: just stay away from that next one. Promise yourself anything, but don't pick up that drink, or don't light that smoke. There's no magic cure. And it helps to remember all the horror stories you got into before you got smart. Like I said, if I can do it, so can you. And please don't wait until you've ruined your health.  

Katkam's sunset last evening....

In the previous posting where I was going on about Queen Elizabeth Park, and the Bloedel Conservatory, and then about the Planetarium, now known as the H.R. MacMillan Space Center and Museum, you can see the Planetarium in this picture, in Vanier Park, lower left, just a bit to the right of that tower on Burrard Bridge. Look for the cone-shaped roof at the tree line. That cluster of tents below and to the right of the Planetarium are for the annual Children's Festival.

In the news today......

Old Egyptian saying: Slaves may come and slaves may go, but the Pharaoh lives forever. And he who would be a leader of men must first of all be their servant.

Yes, Virginia, my 30-inch flat screen TV works as a PC monitor....

And sitting in front of it is a lot like sitting in the front row at the old home town movie theater on Saturday afternoons, except we never saw anything like this back in those days, for sure. 

So, if you'd like a multipurpose monitor for your favorite desktop, head for the electronics and TV section at your favorite store in the mall, and get a nice big flat screen TV. It works for me! And this screen on a desk is B-I-G.... I kid you not.  Strangely enough, the resolution on my 22-inch Acer monitor that was on here is 1680 by 1050, but on this bigger screen it's only 1360 by 768, and that's with it set to its max adjustment. I'm not sure why that is, but I'll probably find out before very long. I think it's because this screen has bigger pixels but fewer of them, but that's just a guess. If you know, please leave me a comment.

Update, 10:10 PM.......

I found enough coax TV cable to hook this flat screen TV back up as a TV again,
and also reconnect the DVD Player, and now it does everything - the TV, the DVDs, and the computer monitor, simply by changing a selection on a menu with its Remote. This is handier than sliced bread, and I wish I'd done this sooner. But better late than never. So I now have a spare Acer 22-inch monitor and less clutter on the stereo rack, with the Dynex 30-inch flat screen TV doing
the various jobs it was designed to do all along, and it's working very nicely. 

Urban Green Spaces: Show me yours, I'll show you mine...

To Vancouverites like me, this looks very familiar because...

...here's what our Queen Elizabeth Park looks like...

...and here's how to find it, if you're visiting our beautiful city of Vancouver, B.C. and we hope you do come and see it for yourself.

One of the prominent features in Queen Elizabeth Park is the Bloedel Conservatory....

with its tropical jungle inside, including birds and butterflies flying around....

This was a gift to the city by the family of Julius Bloedel, one of the principals of the famous MacMillan Bloedel forestry company. His partner, Harvey (H.R.) MacMillan and his family gave us our famous 'flying saucer' Planetarium, now known as the H.R. MacMillan Space Center and Museum, at the mouth of False Creek, opposite Sunset Beach, in Vanier Park near the heart of downtown....

The sound system in the Planetarium (upper floor, under the roof above) is just spectacular, and one evening, many years ago, the person running the big projector assembly in the center of the room announced that they were planning a new kind of show which would combine rock music with features from various planetarium presentations, and he asked us for suggestions for the music. Being the 'Big Mouth' that I am, I jumped up before anyone else could, and shouted "Pink Floyd!" - there was a loud cheer from the assembled audience, many of whom had sampled some medicinal compounds prior to the show, and our host announced "It's settled then - Pink Floyd it is!" - and that Pink Floyd show ran on Friday and Saturday evenings for the enthusiastic younger crowds (and a few of us oldies) for at least two decades until fairly recently. You really should have been here....

Keyboards: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and now The Illuminated...

Getting lights reflecting off your glasses? Can't see the keys for yesterday's lunch? Last week's munchies? The vegetation growing up between them? Throw out that mouldy oldie, and get one of these illuminated ones. In the upper right corner of it, there's a cute little button marked 'LED Illumination'. Push it once to change to the next color (Blue, Red, or Passionate Purple!) and push it down and hold it for three seconds to shut off the lights entirely, and go back to your squinting. Now, if it only had a dimmer control to tone down the intensity of these LEDs, and maybe one choice of color being white or pale yellow, then it would be very close to perfect for us older and weaker-eyed senior bloggers, and all you younger ones too. 

"So, is this expensive?" you ask. No, not really. It was $45.79 Canadian including taxes and recycling fee. You can get cheaper ones, but they won't have keys that light up in red or blue or passionate purple.... and speaking of cheaper ones, there's some really cheap ones out there now, and the one that I tried works like a charm - so no one has to use a dirty keyboard these days, if you can find fifteen or twenty bucks. And even these cheap ones now will install their own drivers without any urging from you. Just plug it in and start using it.