Shortcut to Better Google Results

If you’ve ever Googled the best way to Google on Google and come up short, follow these four tips from Randolph Hock, author of The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook ($25, barnesandnoble.com). Then, learn seven surprising ways to utilize the Google search field.

antivirus live

Mel had her laptop infected with antivirus live. Said it locked her out of the programs that she wanted to use to get rid of it.

Did a ctrl-alt-delete after booting and was able to get to the task manager (I suppose before it began to lock it out). From this site, I learned the process running has the name [randomword]sysguard.exe. So I terminated it and the program was killed.

Then I downloaded and ran malwarebytes on quickscan. Then later fullscan (which found a couple more culprits).

Also updated and ran ad-aware and spybot for the heck of it, though I don't think they detected it.

mass extinction #6

If the course of human history is any model, then the wheels are already turning on Earth's sixth mass extinction, thanks to habitat destruction, pollution and now global warming, a scientific analysis of millions of years of data revealed Friday.

The study of the fossil and archaeological record over the past 30 million years by UC Berkeley and Penn State University researchers shows that between 15 and 42 percent of the mammals in North America disappeared after humans arrived.

That means North American mammals are well on the way - perhaps as much as half way - to a level of extinction comparable to other epic die-offs, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The analysis by Barnosky, research associate Marc Carrasco and Penn State's Russell Graham was published this week in the scientific journal PLoS ONE. It compares the extinctions of mammals in North America after humans arrived 13,000 years ago to the five mass extinctions on Earth over the past 450 million years.

Although humans clearly did not have anything to do with the previous extinctions, many scientists are afraid that global warming and other environmental problems caused by the ever-increasing human population could have similarly catastrophic consequences.

"Here we are again, astronomically increasing the number of humans on the face of the globe, plus unusual climate change," Barnosky said. "That seems to be a recipe for extinction that we saw in the past, and we are seeing again."

resetting cable box

The DVR was acting screwy. When I went to record to VCR mode, some other screen came up.

How to reset? Looking it up, it's info,vol+,vol- all at the same time.

Hawaiian Hope

The sight of a homeless woman sleeping on a park bench at 4 a.m. next to the Waikiki police station was an epiphany for Curtis Kropar.

"I was instantly infuriated to think that this was the best option she's got," he said of the experience a few years ago. "I seriously could not tell the difference between her and my mother in Pennsylvania. She had the same build and same poufy hairstyle."

The woman's plight so disturbed Kropar, a highly paid computer programmer at the time, that he grew determined to help people like her improve their circumstances. He quit his job and founded Hawaiian Hope, a nonprofit technology-based company in Kalihi that views computers as a key to success.

"People that are struggling to get food to eat are not going to spend $300 to $1,000 on a computer," he said. "It's phenomenal what we've done in the last year. Dozens and dozens of computers were given away for free to people who have never owned a computer before."

On the receiving end have been charitable agencies and shelters.

"Hawaiian Hope is bringing technology to the people ... bringing hope into Hawaii," said Kropar, noting that computers make functioning easier in today's society.

In a job search they are increasingly necessary: More than a third of the 100 private and government employers his volunteers surveyed this year take job applications online only.

batteries

Took apart (unscrewed anyway) my Intel roll-up calculator that is no longer working. I see there's a little button battery in there. Since the calculator is over 10 years old, I'd say the battery is dead. It's an AG10 battery which I never heard of before.

Googling, I see it's available from bestofferbuy.com with free shipping. Don't know how they would make money since a 10-pack is $1.50.

Amazingly, I just tested the battery with my Radio Shack tester and it tests as good! So maybe the calculator is bad after all.

So maybe I should just get a new calculator. Or not. I think I'd like a credit card calculator better. Or just use my cell phone..