Maldives looking to move

The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically elected president has told the Guardian.

Mohamed Nasheed, who takes power officially tomorrow in the island's capital, Male, said the chain of 1,200 island and coral atolls dotted 500 miles from the tip of India is likely to disappear under the waves if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels.

the e-waste problem

The Electronic Wasteland (as seen on 60 Minutes)

* * *

[12/4/07] The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.

For five years, environmentalists and the media have highlighted the danger to Chinese workers who dismantle much of the world's junked electronics. Yet a visit to this southeastern Chinese town regarded as the heartland of "e-waste" disposal shows little has improved. In fact, the problem is growing worse because of China's own contribution.

* * *

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Most Americans think they're helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they're contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas.

While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50 to 80 percent of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the U.S. each year ends up overseas. Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

"It is being recycled, but it's being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities. "We're preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world."

cell phone use and your health

Though many (including me) have voiced concern over the safety of cell phone use, the evidence of potential dangers has been inconsistent thus far -- but a recent news story about an industry insider's personal concerns delivers an urgent precautionary message to all of us. The founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Ronald B. Herberman, MD, sent a memo to faculty and staff, as well as to his friends and family, advising them to limit cell phone use based on his interpretation of recent research, some of which is as yet unpublished. While acknowledging that the connection between cell phones and brain tumors is still inconclusive, he says some studies have found that the phones emit radiofrequency energy, a form of electromagnetic radiation, that may damage DNA and could be harmful. Though never intended for such widespread distribution, his memo brought accolades from scientists in the fields of cancer and cancer epidemiology research.

* * *

Here's the article from the FDA saying there is no clear connection.

free tech support

One of these sites will help to get rid of the virus.

They are staffed by people who give their time and knowledge free to people with pc problems.

I've used them 5 or 6 times now and they've told me how to get rid of the virus every time.

It's free to use and the help is given by e-mail / the message board or messenger. You can even get one of them to remotely fix your pc.

Here's the sites

Tech Support Guy

protonic.com

Help2Go

CyberTechHelp


The first one is the best and quickest in my opinion but any of these will help you fix your pc for free.

[from Mandi at frwr-news]

50 words kids think you don't know

• Online
crackberry: nickname for a BlackBerry, the addictive phone, e-mail device and general digital gadget.
google: to use a search engine, especially Google.
hit: a visit to a website.
webisode: a video short produced specifically for Internet viewing.
wikidemia: a term paper that was entirely researched on Wikipedia.org.

• Text Message Decoder
BFF: best friends forever.
IDK: I don’t know.
LOL: laughing out loud.
OMG: oh my God!
ROFL: rolling on the floor laughing.
TMI: too much information.

• Fashion
bling: sparkly jewelry, often gaudy.
tatted out: covered in tattoos.
tramp stamp: a tattoo on a woman’s lower back, designed for viewing between low-riding jeans and short T-shirts.
scooby doos: good shoes.
soul patch: a small tuft of beard under a male’s lower lip, usually with the rest of the face clean-shaven.

• Love
baby mama: the mother of one’s children, usually not a spouse.
boo: boyfriend or girlfriend.
cougar: an older woman who dates younger men.
cupcaking: engaging in a public display of affection.
flirtationship: a prolonged flirtation with an acquaintance, not involving physical contact.

• Friends
brodown: boys’ night out.
bromance: a close but nonsexual relationship between two men.
frenemy: a friend-enemy; someone close to you who often competes or hurts your feelings.
n00b: a newcomer, especially one to online gaming. Also noob, newb, newbie.
peeps: people; one’s closest friends or family.

• Music
crunk: a hip-hop genre.
disco nap: a short nap before a night out clubbing.
emo: softcore punk genre and its subculture of angsty teen fans.
mash up: To take elements of existing pieces of music, usually of different genres, and combine them in a new song; also the resulting song.

• Actions
check vitals: to monitor one’s e-mail, cell phone, voice mail and other electronics.
floss: to show off your wealth, often in a car.
friend: to add as a contact on a social networking website.
jump the shark: to have peaked and now be on a downward slide.
rock: to manifest greatness.
talk smack: to speak negatively or belittle a person, often in the heat of competition.

• Affirmations
fo’ shizzle: certainly.
obvi: obviously.
totes: totally.

• Descriptors
bomb, the: an ultimate favorite.
off the chain: the bomb.
ridonkulous: beyond ridiculous.
sick: extremely cool.
tight: fantastic.
wack: unjustifiable;.

• Britishisms
chav: derogatory term for a working-class youth.
nutter: crazy person.
snog: to kiss.
T5: disorganization, like the infamous new Terminal Five at Heathrow Airport.

• The End
badonkadonk: an attractive derriere.

-- By Betsy Towner - October 1, 2008 - From the AARP Bulletin print edition

The State of Communications

http://www.arcamax.com/pic/61910/382253

casalemedia popups

Don’t you just hate it when you have your pop up blocker enabled, such as the free pop up blocker that comes with FireFox, and somehow, you still find that some companies and websites have managed to get around your pop up blockers, and shove their advertising down your throat (or up your browser, as it were)? As quickly as we figure out how to stop pop ups, it seems, the companies find ways around it, for example using stealth new browser windows, also sometimes known as “pop unders”, to shove paid advertising down your throat. And because the new pop under window is opened quietly in the background, under your current browser window, you often don’t even find them until days later, when you finally close down your browser for one reason or another and find them laying there, like so many dead flies trapped between your window and the screen. Eeew.

Two such companies from which we’re seeing this a lot lately are Casale Media (CasaleMedia.com) and the Yield Manager division of Right Media

These are the sites where, when you visit one of them, Casale (and, to be fair, the site - which is Casale’s customer) manages to end run your pop-up blocker.

They do it by - instead of a typical pop up - actually causing your web browser to open a brand new window - they tell your browser to make it a small window, rather than a full size window, so it looks like a pop-up, but it’s really a browser window.

So, how can you get around these parasites?

About the only easy way - accessible to the general public - is to install software or extensions (depending on which browser you use) which provide parental controls - that is, they allow you to stop your browser from visiting certain sites (which sites is up to you). While these applications and tools are meant to keep children from accidentally (or intentionally) visiting sites which their parents deem offensive for children, the same technology can be used to prevent your browser from visiting sites which you deem offensive for adults - namely sites that are trying to shove ads down your throat.

Here at the Internet Patrol we use a Firefox extension called “LeechBlock” which allows us to block our browser from accessing any site - and in our list of forbidden sites we added - you got it, CasaleMedia.com and YieldManager.com.

mixing batteries

I have heard that you shouldn’t mix old and new batteries. Why?
—Gretta Golyansky, Aurora, Colo.

As the weakest battery dies, power surging through it from much-stronger batteries may cause it to leak and ruin your device. In rare cases, an airtight or waterproof device—such as an underwater flashlight—may even explode if ignited by a nearby spark or excess heat. The risk also is present if you mix different types or brands of batteries or insert them backward so that their polarity is reversed.

Google Chrome

The web community is split on its view over Google's new browser Chrome. To help you make up your mind we've put together seven reasons why we love Chrome, as well as rounding up seven down sides in our '7 reasons why we hate Google Chrome' feature in a bid to help you decide.

13 Things You Can Get For Free

After a bit of searching, we uncovered a bunch of 100% discounts hiding in plain sight. In many cases, the only effort that's needed to claim them involves the 15 seconds it takes to type in a name and an e-mail address.

Free flicks and shows: Instead of spending $2 at the iTunes store for an episode of "Family Guy" or $10 for the movie "The Big Lebowski," go online to Hulu and get them free, for viewing on your computer. Hulu's inventory of 100 movies and 400 TV shows includes titles from Fox, NBC Universal, MGM, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Brothers. (See "Kill the cable box: Get free TV.")

Sports gambling: Online gambling has always been illegal, even though people got away with it for years. CentSports.com skirts this pesky problem by bankrolling its customers. Users start off with 10 cents in their accounts, provided by CentSports, and use it to bet on any event for which Las Vegas bookmakers set a line.

Accumulate $20 in winnings, and you can cash out a minimum of $10 (sent by check in the mail). Losers risk nothing and get immediately re-staked with fresh dimes. (For more on CentSports.com, check out "A legal alternative to online gambling.")

Free tunes: Napster is no longer free, but there are legal alternatives to downloading free music. One of them, Spiral Frog, offers 1.2 million songs and 4,000 music videos. To sign up, you need only provide e-mail and mailing addresses; no credit card number is required.

For a better, more customized radio experience on the cheap, check out Pandora.com. Just enter an artist, and the site will generate playlists from that band and others within its genre. Better yet: There are no commercials.

the gas-free car

Not too long from now, a sensuously curved sports car designed by a German and made with American parts will roll off an assembly line in Finland and quietly mark the first clear break from our century-old dependence on crude oil for transportation.

Many a dreamer has attempted to create a serious, reasonably priced automobile that sidesteps oil and gas as an energy source, but all have flopped and sent investors straight to the poorhouse. Yet this one really has a shot at success, not just as a science experiment but as a commercial endeavor that could provide the first independent rival to the big international automakers in decades.

The new vehicle, the Fisker Karma, is the result of a marriage of convenience between art and commerce -- the love child of idealistic former BMW designer Henrik Fisker and Silicon Valley venture capitalists eager to make a smart, early bet on alternative energy.

1-800-GOOG-411

Google now has an absolutely free 411 service. Just dial 1-800-goog-411.

new Alzheimer's drug

CHICAGO - For the first time, an experimental drug shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by taking a new approach: breaking up the protein tangles that clog victims’ brains.

The encouraging results from the drug called Rember, reported Tuesday at a medical conference in Chicago, electrified a field battered by recent setbacks. The drug was developed by Singapore-based TauRx Therapeutics.

“These are the first very positive results I’ve seen” for stopping mental decline, said Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of Alzheimer’s research at the National Institute on Aging. “It’s just fantastic.”

The federal agency funded early research into the tangles, which are made of a protein called tau and develop inside nerve cells.

For decades, scientists have focused on a different protein — beta-amyloid, which forms sticky clumps outside of the cells — but have yet to get a workable treatment.

TauRx’s chief is Claude Wischik, a biologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who long has done key research on tau tangles and studies suggesting that Rember can dissolve them.

In the study, 321 patients were given one of three doses of Rember or dummy capsules three times a day. The capsules containing the highest dose had a flaw in formulation that kept them from working, and the lowest dose was too weak to keep the disease from worsening, Wischik said.

However, the middle dose helped, as measured by a widely used score of mental performance.

“The people on placebo lost an average of 7 percent of their brain function over six months whereas those on treatment didn’t decline at all,” he said.

After about a year, the placebo group had continued to decline but those on the mid-level dose of Rember had not. At 19 months, the treated group still had not declined as Alzheimer’s patients have been known to do.

print to pdf

Quicken 2001 has a problem printing when installed on Vista (which is the combination that Lloyd wound up with when he bought a new laptop to replace his old one when the hard drive crashed).

One suggestion was to print to a pdf file then print the pdf file. So I tried a couple of pdf programs.

The first one was PDF Redirect which gives itself good reviews on its website. It worked on Vista (on Word for example) though the interface didn't seem too simple. But Quicken errored when trying to print.

From the PDF Redirect, I saw that CutePDF was one its competitors. It seemed simpler to use which is a plus in my book. It worked on Vista, but Quicken again errored when trying to print on it.

It seems that Scansoft PDF Create might work, but it ain't free. OK never mind. Lloyd must live with the problem (or go back to XP).

Biology-Physics Convergence fighting cancer

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Angela Belcher, a materials engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, didn't plan on joining the war on cancer. That is, until she was drafted to work alongside the school's biologists.

Belcher, 40, a 2004 winner of a MacArthur Foundation genius award, tailors viruses that build microscopic electronic parts such as transistors. She was recruited by MIT's cancer scientists to uncover new ways to detect tumors early and deliver drugs more safely.

Biologists at MIT, in Cambridge, helped discover the genes that have led to a new generation of so-called targeted cancer medicines. MIT -- like Stanford University in California and Emory University in Atlanta -- now is deploying engineers for the first time to build on those successes. The approach is spurring interest from biotechnology company backers, said Terry McGuire, co-founder of Polaris Venture Partners, an investment company in nearby Waltham, Massachusetts.

``Investors are realizing that a combination of engineering and biology is going to yield greater products,'' McGuire said a telephone interview on July 28.

McGuire is an adviser to MIT's David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, funded partly with $100 million from Koch, a 68-year-old billionaire who has been under treatment for prostate cancer for 16 years. The Koch Institute is constructing an over-$200 million building, with 25 laboratories, scheduled to open in December 2010.

Cancer Survivor

``One only has to experience cancer personally to become a crusader for curing the disease,'' Koch, from the founding family at Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc., said in a telephone interview on July 22. The partnership between biologists and engineers, he said, ``is incredibly powerful.''

Each of the seven floors will have biologists and engineers, ``equal partners in the battle against this disease,'' MIT President Susan Hockfield, a 57-year-old neuroscientist, told a gathering at the school in June. ``The building is explicitly designed to help people bump into each other --intellectually, that is.''

Biologist-engineer collaborations against cancer have also been initiated at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Washington University in St. Louis, the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of California, San Diego.

Billions for Research

The U.S. government will spend $4.8 billion on cancer studies in the year ending Sept. 30, almost twice the $2.5 billion a decade earlier, according to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. About 75 percent of the Koch Institute's $50 million annual science budget comes from federal grants, said the center's director, Tyler Jacks, in a July 15 interview.

MIT biologists were involved in the original gene discoveries that led to the cancer drug Herceptin, made by South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc., and Gleevec, from Novartis AG in Basel, Switzerland. Herceptin, for breast cancer, generated $4.6 billion in revenue, according to Roche Holding AG, the Basel-based drugmaker that also markets the medicine.

The Koch Institute has an even split of biologists and engineers among the 24 faculty members. By comparison, no more than 5 percent of the 28,000 members of the American Association for Cancer Research, based in Philadelphia, specialize in the physical sciences, said Margaret A. Foti, the group's chief executive officer, in a telephone interview.

`Ahead of the Curve'

``We desperately need both physicists and engineers in the field of cancer research right now because of all the new delivery systems,'' Foti said. ``Centers like the one at MIT are really ahead of the curve.''

Belcher, a Texas native who won a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, was recruited by MIT's Robert Langer, the drug-delivery pioneer who runs the world's largest academic biomedical-engineering lab.

``She's one of the most imaginative, creative researchers I've ever seen, and really one of the young superstars at MIT,'' said Langer, 59, who formerly headed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Science Board, in an interview on July 14.

Belcher's goal is to create viruses that when injected into the body can hone in on tumors, she said in a June 3 interview. The viruses can act like freight delivery agents, carrying chemicals that can make otherwise unseen tumors more visible to imaging scans, or conveying chemotherapy directly to malignant cells.

Earlier Detection

The idea is to create diagnostics that detect cancer early enough for treatment to be more effective, Belcher said. The viruses' drug-delivery would be more accurately targeted than standard chemotherapy, which releases toxins throughout the body, harming healthy tissue in addition to the tumor.

She is also investigating how fluorescent tags called quantum dots might piggyback on viruses, highlighting the size, shape and location of a malignancy. While quantum dots are currently made from cadmium, which is toxic to humans, Belcher is trying to make a safe version from gallium nitride.

Belcher, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has genetically engineered viruses that assemble microscopic electrode wires by combining molecules of cobalt oxide. The wires, which are one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair, could provide power for implantable medical devices or for tiny, unmanned flying vehicles that measure air quality, she said.

`Check Your Ego'

Now Belcher devotes about 20 percent of her time to the viruses' cancer-related applications, an area where she said she hadn't thought she had anything to contribute.

``Part of it was just out of ignorance -- not knowing the field, not knowing the people, and what was happening,'' she said. ``So I didn't run to it, I got pulled into it.''

The experience can be humbling.

``You have to check your ego at the door,'' she said. ``You have to walk in and say, `What does that mean? Back up.' I have no problem admitting that I don't know anything, and learning.''

[via chicago484@chucks_angels]

web hosting

000.webhost.com is "the first and only - user donations supported free web hosting service."

We provide you will the most reliable and feature-rich web hosting service without advertising. Lightning fast website loading speed, zero downtime, fanatic user support and instant activation - that is why you will love doing business with 000webhost.com - $0.00 webhost

250 MB Disk Space, 100 GB Data Transfer
We have enough room for your website, emails and databases. All our servers are also connected to dedicated 10mbps internet lines, so we can give you 100 GB data transfer absolutely free.

[via frwr-news]

Recycle CFLs

You can purchase recycling kits called RECYCLEPAK®
containers online from www.prepaidrecycling.com. The
kits, which can recycle 6 to 20 CFLs depending on size,
are for residential use only. Each kit costs $20, which
includes shipping and recycling fees.

-- Consumer Lines, July 2008

***

[9/30/11] According to opala.org, you can recycle CFLs at the Home Depot return desk

windshield of the future

General Motors Corp. researchers are working on a windshield that combines lasers, infrared sensors and a camera to take what's happening on the road and enhance it, so aging drivers with vision problems are able to see a little more clearly.

Though it's only in the research stage, the technology soon will be more useful than ever. The 65 and older population in the U.S. will nearly double in about 20 years, meaning more people will be struggling to see the road like they used to.

GM's new windshield won't improve their vision, but it will make objects stand out that could otherwise go unnoticed by an aged eye.

Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site

If you're having problems when trying to access my blogs, it's because of sitemeter. You get the message box saying "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site [url]". Before you click OK, you can read this message, but when you click OK, you get the page cannot be displayed screen with the title (way at the top) Cannot find server. If you're not getting the error message, it's probably because you're using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

I deactivated sitemeter on one of my blogs and no longer get the error, but you should still get the error on this blog. We'll see how long it takes for the error to go away (or for me to deactivate sitemeter here too).

[sitemeter fixed it the next day]

screen savers and saving energy

leaving your monitor on with the screen saver going can actually burn a lot of energy. For large organizations, this can be huge -- so much so that recently, Telstra, Australia's largest phone company, went to all-black screen savers on their 36,000 corporate PC's. Telstra claims this move is the equivalent of taking 140 cars off the road for a year.

What's curious about the Telstra move is that they could have saved even more energy by simply setting their displays to turn off after a few minutes. This is easily done with modern operating systems and displays.

With the price of energy skyrocketing nowadays, short of buying a hybrid car, this is one of the easiest things folks can do to help out.

Cuil Search

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Anna Patterson's last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.

She believes her latest invention is even more valuable - only this time it's not for sale.

Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet.

The end result is Cuil, pronounced "cool." Backed by $33 million in venture capital, the search engine plans to begin processing requests for the first time Monday.

Cuil had kept a low profile while Patterson, her husband, Tom Costello, and two other former Google engineers - Russell Power and Louis Monier - searched for better ways to search.

Now, it's boasting time.

you think it's hot now?

During the European heat wave of 2003 that killed tens of thousands, the temperature in parts of France hit 104 degrees. Nearly 15,000 people died in that country alone.

During the Chicago heat wave of 1995, the mercury spiked at 106 and about 600 people died.

In a few decades, people will look back at those heat waves "and we will laugh," said Andreas Sterl, author of a new study. "We will find [those temperatures] lovely and cool."

Sterl's computer model shows that by the end of the century, high temperatures for once-in-a-generation heat waves will rise twice as fast as everyday average temperatures.

Chicago, for example, would reach 115 degrees in such an event by 2100. Paris heat waves could near 109 with Lyon coming closer to 114.

bug oil

“Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into.”

He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.

Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us.

[via Trevor Pinkney @ chucks_angels]

Microsoft after Gates

SEATTLE — It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft's leader.

But as Gates bones up on epidemiology at his charitable foundation, the software company he built with a mix of visionary manifestos and extreme hands-on management must still wake up Monday to face hard problems even he could not solve.

Corn Starch

Steve Spangler The Science Guy brings Ellen a tub of corn starch

[via Donna via Donda]

The Next Technology Boom

EVERYONE loves a booming market, and most booms happen on the back of technological change. The world’s venture capitalists, having fed on the computing boom of the 1980s, the internet boom of the 1990s and the biotech and nanotech boomlets of the early 2000s, are now looking around for the next one. They think they have found it: energy.

Many past booms have been energy-fed: coal-fired steam power, oil-fired internal-combustion engines, the rise of electricity, even the mass tourism of the jet era. But the past few decades have been quiet on that front. Coal has been cheap. Natural gas has been cheap. The 1970s aside, oil has been cheap. The one real novelty, nuclear power, went spectacularly off the rails. The pressure to innovate has been minimal.

In the space of a couple of years, all that has changed. Oil is no longer cheap; indeed, it has never been more expensive. Moreover, there is growing concern that the supply of oil may soon peak as consumption continues to grow, known supplies run out and new reserves become harder to find.

The idea of growing what you put in the tank of your car, rather than sucking it out of a hole in the ground, no longer looks like economic madness. Nor does the idea of throwing away the tank and plugging your car into an electric socket instead.

[via web_rules]

Save YouTube videos

First, you need a way to download and save the file to your hard drive. Second, because youtube videos are in "flash video" format, you typically need to convert the downloaded file into a common format, such as AVI or MP3.

There are several Web sites that allow folks to download YouTube videos. These include keepvid.com, savevideodownload.com, or savetube.com. These are all straightforward and simple to use, and best of all, free.

Converting the saved file is also fairly simple and there are a number of free programs available. We've used Pazera (www.pazera-software.com), Freez (www.smallvideosoft.com/flv-to-mp3), Prism (http://www.nbxsoft.com/flv-converter.php), all of which are free and straightforward to use. They all have optional settings for bitrate, framerat and size, but we've found that for most folks, the default settings provide the best combination of ease and quality.

China leads United States in emitting gas

China has clearly overtaken the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas produced by human activity, a new study has found, its emissions increasing 8 percent in 2007. The Chinese increase accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the year’s global greenhouse gas emissions, the study found.

The United States still has a vast lead in carbon dioxide emissions per person. The average American is responsible for 19.4 tons. Average emissions per person in Russia are 11.8 tons; in the European Union, 8.6 tons; China, 5.1 tons; and India, 1.8 tons.

Global Cooling

In what might go down as one of the ultimate scientific flops of all time, a 1975 article in Newsweek documented a frightening phenomenon threatening the planet -- global cooling. That's not a typo. Even though it might be hard to believe today, some climatologists back then proposed covering the Arctic ice caps with soot to help them melt faster. And that was just 33 years ago.

mailing labels

This was harder to find than I thought. Lorna was looking for a program to enter customer addresses and print out mailing labels for a mailer.

This seemed simple enough. And in the old days, I might have whipped out a QuickBasic program to do that job.

But I decided to look for some freeware to do this. And couldn't find it. Especially because I was looking for only free programs.

I wound up using the Contacts list in Yahoo Mail. You can enter clients addresses and print out labels. However the labels printed a little off (too low on the label) and only three lines printed out. Well it was good enough for them.

Anyway, I was browsing through WinSite and came up with StatTrack Address Manager. It sounds promising but I didn't try it yet. Hmm. Maybe the search will go on. The demo is limited to five names.

Well I guess WinSite has a few more to look at.

stubborn viruses

Steven's daughter's (Bryanna) laptop got hit with multiple viruses. All stubborn.

First was a windows script host message saying

cannot find

c:\document and settings\owner\Local Settings\Temp\tt992.tmp.vbs

Later were attempts to get to WWW.WINIFIXER.COM which were blocked by SpySweeper. WWW.VIRUSBURST.COM too.

The background had a message that the system was infected. And a crawling bug screensaver kept popping up. Both are symptoms of FakeAlert-AG.

Some of this may have been due to running Malware Protector.

XP Defender also popped up. Like I said, multiple problems.

I did the standard stuff like installing AVG, Windows Defender, Ad-Aware, Spybot. CrapClean too for good measure. AVG seemed to catch some of it. And so did Windows Defender.

The screen saver and background tabs were missing, but I was able to reset them at KellysKorner.

That seemed to help a lot, though I was still getting the occasional popups.

I also tried if I could do a system restore. But all the old restore points were gone.

Anyway, that seemed good enough for me, so I tried to do a system update of XP Service Pack 3. Unfortunately, hours later, the system stopped responding so I tried to cancel and the system stalled again.

So I rebooted, the upgrade got uninstalled. And the viruses were back including the crawling bugs. Well at least the background message was gone.

AVG turned up Generic.OYG/ which I move to vault.

Windows Defender detected TrojanJS/Agent.FA

KellysKorner would bring back the tabs, but they would get lost again on reboot.

AVG would find TrojanhorseAgent.WLG, Trojanhorse Fake/Alert.O. Not to mention FakeAlert.O and Agent.WLQ.

And I couldn't get rid of them.

So I turned to safe mode and ran AVG in command line mode (the only mode it runs in in safe mode).

It found a problem in the registry starting up trojanhouse agent.WLG,
Fake_antispyware.OI, and Trojan house FakeAlert.O

I deleted the registry key and infected files from the command prompt
That seemed to clear up a lot of the problems.

Power back on. No Windows Script Host message (may have been running from the registry key). Good sign.

But AVG found Trojan horse Agent.WLQ which was in System Volume Information\_restore. I manually deleted the file.

Trend Micro showed microsoft vulnerabilities, but no spyware. Tried Office update, but the installed Office could not be verified as genuine.

Spysweeper found apmebf cookie, and rogue security products in quarantine. Deleted the quarantine.

Windows Defender found Trojan: JS/Agent.FA which is also known as
Trojan-Downloader.JS.Istbar.ax (Kapersky)
VBS/Istbar (Ahnlab)
JS/ForcePopup (Authentium)
Trojan.Clicker.CM (BitDefender)

This was very annoying and wouldn't go away

I installed BitDefender which sure enough caught multiple occurrences of Trojan.Clicker.CM. But they kept coming back even after manually deleting them.

Exasperated, tried turning back the system date to see if I could do a system restore. No dice, all the old restore points were still missing.

Ran bitdefender full scan again. Ran AdAware which found tracking cookie.

Ran Spybot which found tracking cookie. Then tried to immunize which got stuck. So I shut down the background virusprotection (TrendMicro, AVG, SpySweeper, etc.) and the immunization went through.

Ran BitDefender again, but the Trojan.Clicker.CM was back.

At this point, I think I tried Windows Update again and this time there were some specific updates to apply instead of the whole Service Pack 3 (don't ask me why). And this time the updates were successful.

Windows Defender found nothing. Bit Defender found nothing. Reboot and Bit Defender found only files in trendmicro quarantine.

I don't know if it was perfectly clean, but that was good enough for me. Uninstall Bit Defender. And get it out of here.

The other option, of course, would be to reinstall the O/S from scratch. But I didn't have the system CD. And I don't know if they had all the programs. Office might have been borrowed.

So in summary, what helped fixed it were AVG, KellysKorner, AVG in safe mode and manually deleting in command mode, and Windows Update. Immunizing with spybot might have helped too but I'm not sure.

Web sites show you how it’s done

Instructional videos can make you a better magician, pastry chef or yoga practitioner. There probably isn't a hobby or interest out there that doesn't have a corresponding video sitting on a server somewhere.

There are Web sites that cater to this "how to" market and in this column I want to introduce readers to ExpertVillage.com, WonderHowTo.com, Howcast.com and eHow.com.

Each site obtains its content differently. Expert Village recruits certified expert to create videos for its library. Howcast.com also has user-provided content; WonderHowTo.com collects videos from existing sources such as YouTube; and eHow.com consists mostly of self-help articles but also has a small collection of videos and photos.

All the sites are free and supported by advertising.

monkey think, monkey do

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.

The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology. Scientists expect that technology will eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives.

The Digital TV transition

Ready or not, here comes digital television

The upcoming DTV transition has made one thing clear -- the issue is confusing.

* * *

For more information:

www.DTV.gov

www.dtv2009.gov

DTVTransition.org

DTV Answers

Digital TV Facts

Digital TV 101

OK, I guess that's enough..

MagicJack

The YMax magicJack is a USB device that allows you to make phone calls with a regular analog phone (corded, cordless or headset), your home computer and a high-speed Internet connection.

Installing my magicJack was a breeze. I plugged it into my MacBook Pro, configured the preferences and input my physical address for the included 911 feature. The whole thing was ready to go in less than five minutes. I made the first phone call to my mom to discuss Mother’s Day plans. She couldn’t tell at all that I was calling from the Internet. I was thoroughly impressed with the sound quality - it sounds the same as a regular land line.

-- Alison Stewart, Click Chick, 5/21/08

polar bears endangered species

Once a symbol of Arctic wildlife's fierce resilience, the polar bear is now so vulnerable to the ravages of global warming that the US government placed the creature on the endangered species list yesterday.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the bears' habitat was literally melting below their feet. Bears depend almost exclusively on sea ice to hunt for ringed seals and other prey. Yet Arctic ice coverage fell to record low levels last year, and scientists predict it could decline another 30 percent by mid-century, he said.

The government declared the bears as "threatened," the first time an animal has been placed on the endangered species list primarily because of global warming. The designation means the bear is at risk of eventually becoming extinct and requires the government to protect it.

Jet Wings

Playing to a mesmerized audience, Swiss pilot and adventurer (some might say nutcase) Yves Rossy has soared above the Alps with homemade jet-powered wings strapped to his back.

Rossy, an extreme sports guy who has spent years assembling his wings, casually stepped out of an airplane at 7,500 feet, unfolded the wings and quickly passed from free fall to mellow glide. He then fired up the wings' engines and accelerated to more than 180 mph.

As if that weren't cool enough, Rossy showed off a bit, making a few dives, some figure eights and a 360-degree barrel roll before landing at an airfield near Lake Geneva.

"That was to impress the girls," he said after the five-minute flight.

Uninstalling a printer

I'm about to install a new printer since my old has broken. I guess I could just add it, but I figure I'd do it the right way by uninstalling the old one first.

There's actually a proper way to do it according to PC Answers.

It's a three-step process.

1) remove software installed with the printer with add/remove from the control panel
2) delete the printer
3) delete the printer drivers

Actually there's a better way for step 1 with HP All-In-One printers (link found while googling "uninstall HP Director). Just click Uninstall from the HP section in the Start Menu.

And just to be safe, I'm going to back up the My Scan folder before uninstalling.

* * *

OK, I ran the uninstall. What it did was uninstall the printer and drivers. But HP ImageZone and HP Director are still there. The question is whether I should uninstall these before installing the new printer. I would imagine the install would recognize the software and update it if need be. So I won't.

[5/22] WTH, I'll uninstall Imagezone from the control panel. Hey it got rid of both ImageZone and HP Director. All that's left is HP Software Update. I'll uninstall that too from the control panel. OK, that worked. The only thing that's left in the start menu is HP Digital Imaging Monitor and HP Image Zone Fast Start. And those are now shortcuts to nowhere. And I just manually deleted those items from the Start Menu. OK ready to install.

Vista eating resources?

When setting up a Vista notebook, I noticed a process eating up CPU usage. It turned out to be Vista itself or the new Vista interface.

What you can do to use the Classic Windows theme. Here's how vistafaqs.com explains it (and other things you can do).

Reverting to the windows "Classic" theme can also cutback on CPU and GPU load to help improve perfomance by making the graphics less consuming. To do this right click on the desktop and go to "Personalize" you can then click on "Theme" and change it to "Windows Classic".

The Food Crisis

You just know that something is astray when Afghan poppy growers begin to switch from opium to wheat. According to the Independent newspaper here in the UK, that's exactly what is now happening. I have no desire to enter into a pound for pound risk/reward analysis of producing wheat versus opium. However, the consequences of the rapid rise in energy and agricultural commodity prices are far reaching and perhaps not as well understood as they should be.

Timers

For some reason, I've always like timers. Maybe I like to see things running backwards or see things come to an end (a clock running forward doesn't end).

Anyway, from frwr-news, here's the best software timer I've used so far (not that I've tried that many).

TimeAfterTime v1.1 - 1830 KB
Run on Win98,WinME,WinNT 4.x,WinXP,Windows2000
A Multi-Timer which allows you to launch upto 6 simultaneous count up/down, stopwatch or alarm clock timers. Set timers to trigger once or recurring. Assign separate announcements for each timer - select from those that come with the application (via drop-down list) or allocate your own WAV files. Special algorithms ensure sound announcements do not cut each other off or overlap. Windows management features to help you handle many running timers.

Free Software

There are a number of places where you can get free software (besides good ole download.com) that sometimes are announced at frwr-news.

So I have started this post so I have someplace to list them.

trinityedusystems [frwr-news, 5/7/08]

Address Book

Since I'm using passwordsafe to store and retrieve my passwords online, how about someplace to store phone numbers?

Well, how about the Yahoo address book in their email? (Or the address books in any of the email services.) Duh.

OK, I'll try it and how well that works.

Yeah, I see I already has some old information there. It's called Contacts.

Airport Extreme

Keith emailed that they are unable to connect their IBM laptop to the Apple router which is an Airport Extreme. He dropped off the laptop, but since I don't have the router, it's going to be hard to figure.

I remember Dexter and Gina had the same kind of problem. I called Gina and Dexter returned the call in the evening. Dexter said they had to add the IP address for the laptop. Gina came on and said the encryption had to match and they had to take the laptop to the Apple store to reset the IP address on it (was my interpretation anyway).

I see they have the AirPort Extreme Setup Guide on the internet. And so is the Airport Utility.

OK. We'll see what happens on Monday when I plan to go over.

[4/28] Well I couldn't get it to work. The Apple Utility software couldn't find the Airport. The IBM Connect software (whatever it's called) could find it, but the signal was very weak. I thought the IBM software might have been interfering with Apple software, so I uninstalled it. This cleared up the logon screen problem (the Welcome Screen option was disabled, so you had the classic logon screen where you type the user name and password). But it still didn't work. Then I figured I'd uninstall the Apple software and see if I could logon with the raw Windows interface. But then it couldn't find anything and I noticed the wireless light on the laptop didn't go on. I managed to recover the IBM connect software with System Recovery (luckily, because not all the System Recoveries worked) and the light reappeared. But still no luck connecting. I even tried connecting with the neighbor's routers, some of which had no encryption set. But still no luck.

Finally, we wound up plugging in the laptop into the router with an Ethernet cable (had to visit Radio Shack to buy one). And that worked. With the cable in, the Apple Utility could see the router, but when I pulled out the cable, no dice. So, I'm guessing something's wrong with the wireless card on the laptop, since I wasn't able to connect to anything wireless. And the Mac connects to the Airport fine. Well at least they got both of their computers on the internet now.

(I gotta get me a laptop one of these days, so I can troubleshoot these problems better.)

Gator Blood

Someday an alligator might save your life.

Researchers in Louisiana say they've discovered unique antibiotic proteins in the blood of American alligators that can kill a wide variety of deadly bacteria, halt the spread of common infections and perhaps even stop HIV.

If they're right and they're able to sequence the genetics of gator blood, the researchers say superdrugs based on their findings might be available within 10 years.

Green Gasoline

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.

"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."

Genealogy Programs

Family Tree Builder is our genealogy software for Windows. It offers excellent quality, supports 23 languages and is one of the best genealogy software programs you'll ever find. [via frwr-news, 4/2/08]

GenealogyJ is a viewer and editor for genealogic data, suitable for hobbyist, family historian and genealogy researcher. GenJ supports the Gedcom standard, is written in Java and offers family tree, table, timeline views and more. GenJ is free software so it can be redistributed and/or be modified under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence as published by the Free Software Foundation. [frwr-news, 5/21/08]

Legacy Family Tree is your complete family history solution.
for Window 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows ME, or Windows XP. The feature-rich Legacy 4.0 makes it easy to preserve your genealogical information. Family trees containing millions of people can be recorded, displayed and reported in a variety of styles and formats. Legacy 4.0 includes all standard genealogical reports, as well as calendars, timelines, questionnaires, research logs and a multitude of blank forms and more! [frwr-news, 4/5/10]

Ahnenblatt is a free and easy-to-use genealogy software for Windows. It is designed to manage your genealogy data and to generate impressive reports and graphical trees. [frwr_news, 6/11/10]

take an inventory of your computer

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

[from Bill Husted, 2/29/08]

Vista is an upgrade??

Here’s one story of a Vista upgrade early last year that did not go well. Jon, let’s call him, (bear with me — I’ll reveal his full identity later) upgrades two XP machines to Vista. Then he discovers that his printer, regular scanner and film scanner lack Vista drivers. He has to stick with XP on one machine just so he can continue to use the peripherals.

Did Jon simply have bad luck? Apparently not. When another person, Steven, hears about Jon’s woes, he says drivers are missing in every category — “this is the same across the whole ecosystem.”

Then there’s Mike, who buys a laptop that has a reassuring “Windows Vista Capable” logo affixed. He thinks that he will be able to run Vista in all of its glory, as well as favorite Microsoft programs like Movie Maker. His report: “I personally got burned.” His new laptop — logo or no logo — lacks the necessary graphics chip and can run neither his favorite video-editing software nor anything but a hobbled version of Vista. “I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine,” he says.

It turns out that Mike is clearly not a naïf. He’s Mike Nash, a Microsoft vice president who oversees Windows product management. And Jon, who is dismayed to learn that the drivers he needs don’t exist? That’s Jon A. Shirley, a Microsoft board member and former president and chief operating officer. And Steven, who reports that missing drivers are anything but exceptional, is in a good position to know: he’s Steven Sinofsky, the company’s senior vice president responsible for Windows.

* * *

[4/26/08] Microsoft's operating systems run most personal computers around the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system.

Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.

Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.



Save XP Petition

plastic bottles vs. the environment

According to the New York Times, more than 90 percent of the environmental impact from a plastic bottle is already done before the bottle is opened, because plastic bottles have a surprisingly high carbon footprint.

Production of the 29 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles used in the United States (about one bottle per person every four days) requires nearly 900,000 tons of the plastic, the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of crude oil annually.

But that is just the cost of the bottles. There are other costs in the production of bottled water.

Ethanol Demand in U.S. Adds to Food, Fertilizer Costs

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. plans to replace 15 percent of gasoline consumption with crop-based fuels including ethanol are already leading to some unintended consequences as food prices and fertilizer costs increase.

About 33 percent of U.S. corn will be used for fuel during the next decade, up from 11 percent in 2002, the Agriculture Department estimates. Corn rose 20 percent to a record on the Chicago Board of Trade since Dec. 19, the day President George W. Bush signed a law requiring a fivefold jump in renewable fuels by 2022.

Increased demand for the grain helped boost food prices by 4.9 percent last year, the most since 1990, and will reduce global inventories of corn to the lowest in 24 years, government data show. While advocates say ethanol is cleaner than gasoline, a Princeton University study this month said it causes more environmental harm than fossil fuels.

Oil prices tripled since the end of 2003, causing the government to consider alternative fuels. Now, the competition for corn is leading to higher costs for food companies, raising prices for everything from cattle to dairy products.

Corn doubled in the past two years, touching a record $5.29 a bushel today in Chicago. The price of young cattle sold to feedlots gained 8.7 percent in the past year, reaching a record $1.1965 a pound on Sept. 6 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Average whole milk rose 26 percent to $3.871 a gallon in January from a year earlier, the Department of Labor said yesterday.

``For thousands of years, humans grew food and ate it,'' said Andrew Redleaf, 50, chief executive officer of Whitebox Advisors LLC, a Minneapolis hedge fund that manages $3 billion. ``Now we are burning crops to make fuel.''

Researchers led by Timothy Searchinger at Princeton University said their study showed greenhouse-gas emissions will rise with ethanol demand. U.S. farmers will use more land for fuel, forcing poorer countries to cut down rainforests and use other undeveloped land for farms, the study said.

Searchinger's team determined that corn-based ethanol almost doubles greenhouse-gas output over 30 years when considering land-use changes. Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington, said the study used a flawed model and overestimated how much land will be needed.

Ethanol is important in reducing emissions, ending energy dependence on the Middle East and creating jobs in rural areas, Dinneen said today at the USDA conference.

``There are still some who want us to choose between food and fuel,'' said Dinneen, whose organization represents ethanol producers including Archer Daniels Midland Co. ``I don't think we have to choose.'' Research shows cellulosic ethanol made from grasses and crop waste may contribute 21 billion gallons by 2022, and farmers will be able to boost yields, he said.

Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat

Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.

These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.

The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.

The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land, said Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper, and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”

Party-on Blu-ray

[2/20/08] Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc. The company will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.

Recent changes in the market prompted the decision, Toshiba said. Early this year, Warner Bros. said it would stop issuing movies on HD DVD in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. The Hollywood studio was one of three major studios remaining in the HD DVD camp, and its defection created widespread belief that the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was now over. More recently, major U.S. retail chain Wal-Mart announced it would phase out the sale of HD DVD products, moving to exclusivity with Blu-ray Disc.


LAS VEGAS -- The International Consumer Electronics Show is turning out to be a celebration party for Blu-ray, the high-definition format that Sony Corp. backed, and a wake for a rival movie disc technology pushed by Toshiba Corp.

Just two months ago, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the fight between Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD was at a "stalemate," and expressed a wish to travel back in time to avert it.

The impasse was broken Friday by Warner Bros. Entertainment, the last major studio to put out movies in both formats. It announced it was ditching HD DVD, and from May on, would only publish on Blu-ray and traditional DVD.

The decision puts a strong majority of the major studios, five versus two, in the Blu-ray camp.

Asked Monday at the show if the Warner announcement decides the format war, Stringer said: "I never put up banners that say 'Mission Accomplished.'" But his cheerful delivery belied his words.

By contrast, the main media event scheduled for the show by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, which includes Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., was canceled because of Warner's defection.

Everyday Mysteries

Did you ever wonder why a camel has a hump? If you can really tell the weather by listening to the chirp of a cricket? Or why our joints make popping sounds? These questions deal with everyday phenomena that we often take for granted, but each can be explained scientifically.

Everyday Mysteries will help you get the answers to these and many other of life's most interesting questions through scientific inquiry. In addition, we will introduce you to the Library of Congress' rich collections in science and technology.

All of the questions presented on this Web site were asked by researchers and answered by librarians from the Library's Science Reference Services. [via frwr-news]

Melinda Gates goes public

Of all the tricks that life can play, it's hard to imagine any stranger than what befell Melinda French. Today she is living in a gargantuan high-tech mansion on the shores of Lake Washington, married to the richest man in America - and giving billions of dollars away.

Has global warming stopped?

The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to the fundamental theory behind global warming – the greenhouse effect. Something else is happening and it is vital that we find out what or else we may spend hundreds of billions of pounds needlessly.<! brknews->