brain games

Many electronic games exist to improve function and slow aging in brains of all ages -- and brain owners should know that significant improvement can be realized at any age. Here is a guide to a smattering of available brain fitness games.

finding lost keys

Mom lost her keys again, but later found under her bedsheet.

I'm wondering if there's something out there to help locate your keys. Something akin to ringing your cordless phone by pressing the button on the base.

A search on ebay found some cheapie products that activate by whistling. Well, for one thing I'm not very good a whistling.

Search the internet.

KeyRinger sounds promising. It comes in sets of two and the press of the button rings the other KingRinger. $29.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling.

Loc8tor is another one. It's a hand-held device with a display to locate electronic tags that you place on keys, pets, etc. It has a range of up to 600 feet. It looks pretty neat but is expensive at $180. Loc8tor Lite is cheaper at $80 with a range of up to 400 feet. Sounds like more than I need.

Looking at Amazon brings up Now You Can Find It which can find up to 8 devices corresponding to 8 buttons on the remote. But it gets mixed reviews and is currently unavailable.

With better reviews is EZ-Find which lets you find up to 25 items. It comes with 4 tags, so if you want to find more than 4 items, you have to buy extra tags. The price is $59.95 plus $6.55 shipping.

Also getting good (and more reviews) is Easy 2 Find which can find up to four items. It comes with 2 key ring receivers and 2 thin plate receivers (that you can put in your wallet for example). It has a range of 60-80 feet. It got 16 five-star reviews, 4 four-stars, and 2 two-stars. The price is $48.98 and ships free with Super Saver Shipping. This looks like the top prospect to me. [2/20 a.m.] Even better, now I see it on eBay for $29.95.

[2/15, posted 2/20]

Ricardo Montalban

Ricardo Montalbán, one of Hollywood’s first Latino leading men, who had a long career as a television and movie actor but whose lingering fame perhaps owes most to a less august role as the debonair concierge of “Fantasy Island,” died on Wednesday [January 14] in Los Angeles. He was 88.

Like other minority actors of the time, Mr. Montalbán, with his dark good looks and his Spanish accent, seemed to be a kind of racial utility player. This was the era of the western, and he repeatedly played American Indians, including a Blackfoot war chief in “Across the Wide Missouri.” He appeared as an ancient Babylonian in “The Queen of Babylon” and as a Japanese Kabuki actor in “Sayonara.” In the Broadway musical “Jamaica,” set on a mythical Caribbean island, he starred opposite Lena Horne in a cast that was, aside from himself, entirely African-American. For his performance he was nominated for a Tony in 1958.

In 1967, during the first season of “Star Trek,” he was a guest star as Khan Noonien Singh, a tyrannical superhuman villain; he reprised the role in the 1982 “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” giving a performance that was gleefully and confidently weird.

In recent years Mr. Montalbán found work in children’s entertainment, appearing in “Spy Kids” movies, and providing the voice of characters on the television series “Dora the Explorer” and in the 2006 film “The Ant Bully,” in which he plays the leader of an ant colony’s ant council.

“I always had Ricardo Montalbán in my head,” John A. Davis, the director and writer of “The Ant Bully,” said in an interview. “I don’t know why, but I just always heard that voice because he’s so noble and powerful and strong.”

clean a keyboard

with a post-it note. Run the sticky side between the keys to collect crumbs and bits of lint.

[from 28 Uses for Everyday Items, by the editors of Real Simple Magazine, starbulletin 1/11/09]

antivirus 360

Kristina Ching computer

infected with AntiVirus 360

bleepingcomputer recommends using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware

install, but it died after running

kill av360 process

try again

run it (quickscan)

off to Costco

came back and scan again - no problems found

install Windows Defender - no problems found

install avast

uninstall norton internet security 2006

scan w/ avast

install firefox

avast found 2 infected files

rescan - clean

[2/11/09, posted 5/10/09]

Kokua Wireless

I was trying to clean out Donna's laptop [last week] and on a whim decided to pull out the DSL cable and see if it could detect any networks. There was one called Kokua Wireless and it actually connected.

Apparently this is a free internet service supported by advertising.

Looking at the map, most of the nodes are concentrated in the downtown/chinatown area clustered around the Nuuanu/Hotel/Maunakea street area. But sure enough I see some nodes running at AOP right behind my street. Almost makes me want to buy a laptop just so I can use it.

* * *

The Kokua Wireless community-based project - offering free Wi-Fi - is still up and running nearly two years after its launch in Chinatown, but has undergone a few evolutions. It has expanded outside the borders of Chinatown, and is now in parts of the central business district, Waikiki, and even the zoo.

***

[2/23/13] Bah, I no longer see AOP on the map.