Are you included? Don’t get left behind with your browser.

Keep your browser up to date. Are you using a browser that brings you the best experience? HTML5 has hit the internet and is changing the way websites are experienced, the only difference being that you may not be seeing the difference. Only browsers that support the new HTML5 code will see its content properly if at all. Here is how the browsers stack up:

HTML5 specifies a standard way to include video, with the video element.

Video Formats

Currently, there are 3 supported video formats for the video element:

Format	IE	Firefox	Opera	Chrome	Safari
Ogg	No	3.5+	10.5+	5.0+	No
MPEG 4	9.0+	No	No	5.0+	3.0+
WebM	No	4.0+	10.6+	6.0+	No

• Ogg = Ogg files with Theora video codec and Vorbis audio codec
• MPEG4 = MPEG 4 files with H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec
• WebM = WebM files with VP8 video codec and Vorbis audio codec

The audio element can play sound files, or an audio stream.

Audio Formats

Currently, there are 3 main formats for the audio element:

Format	IE 9	Firefox 3.5	Opera 10.5	Chrome 3.0	Safari 3.0
Ogg Vorbis	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
MP3	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Wav	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

As you can see there is only one company doing their homework and doing it to benefit you, and that is Google who produces the Chrome Browser.  

The most important thing to remember is to get updates for your browser as soon as you can. Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and Google are all making changes and updating their browsers to keep up with the new HTML5 code changes, however Google is the only company who sends you the updates automatically and is the only company making you and your browsing experience the priority. The latest version of the Chrome browser as of this posting is 12.0.742.112, however you can always click on the wrench and select About Google Chrome to see your current version.

Google URL Shortener

Google URL Shortener

via Google URL Shortener

 

 

 

 

 

 

Microsoft Security Essentials

Did you get your notice that Microsoft Secruity Essentials is now free? Back on Sept 29, 2009 Microsoft released their upgrade to the OneCare virus protection program that you paid a subscription fee to use. The new program boasting the label Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is Free and you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

The amazing thing I have noticed in discussions in chat rooms and forums is that it seems no one was aware of this and it has now been over a year and a quarter since its release.

Well fear not, just use the link I provided above. Its as good as any other free virus protection coupled with windows defenders firewall service, but there still is no substitute for a fully paid for virus and internet security program such as that of Trend Micro’s Internet Security Suite.

If you are the type of person that believes in using the same brand name for your stereo components or audio/video center matched to the same brand for speakers, then it wouldn’t hurt to install MSE on your windows machine. Sorry it’s only for XP and above, but it has a 32bit and 64bit version.

Now for a fair warning for all those people that have a pirated copy of windows on their machines, “Your PC must run genuine Windows to install Microsoft Security Essentials.”

Happy 2011!!

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.

 

In 2010, there were 11 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 91 posts. There were 19 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 554kb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was October 1st with 141 views. The most popular post that day was Donna Jean Summers, Rewarded Criminal at Large..

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were rocketwolf.net, counter.bestproceed.com, facebook.com, google.com, and search.aol.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for welfare, 8002357105, 800-235-7105, totally free porn, and evony game.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Donna Jean Summers, Rewarded Criminal at Large. October 2007
1 comment

2

Welfare Addiction February 2008
20 comments

3

Soul Mate Scam May 2007
105 comments

4

Evony: Age I – Browser Based Portable Plundering August 2009
5 comments

5

Communication – 60% body language, 30% tone of voice. September 2007

We Were Soldiers … and Young.

Nov. 14th, 1965 – 450 soldiers of the American Army entered Ia Drang Valley in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam led by Lt. Col. Hal Moore. Col. Moore was the first soldier to put a boot on the ground, and the last boot to leave the ground at LZ (landing zone) X-ray. All 450 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry left Ia Drang Valley after 3 days of fighting…80 no longer living. In those 3 days, 1800 enemy soldiers  died at the hands of the 7th Cavalry. Col. Moore spent another 293 days in Vietnam before coming home.

This is a tremendous story of bravery and selfless sacrifice. It is a story of the endurance and emotional strength that wives of these soldiers had to have and the movie can be found here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277434

The names of the 80 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry who died those 3 days in Ia Drang Valley are listed on panel 3 east of the Vietnam War Memorial. To their left and right are the names of 58,068 of their fallen brothers-in-arms.

If you can not go see the memorial in person, there is a beautiful replication of it in Second Life ( http://secondlife.com ). Links directly to the Second Life location are as follows: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Wall/39/32/26

If you already have a Second life account you can simply teleport to that location. If you don’t have a Second Life account you can easily create a free one using the link provided on the map bubble that appears.

Though there are many fall festivities in November, happy holidays and activities, celebrations and fun, as well as the leaf raking duties, it turns out that Thanksgiving is in November as well as Veterans Day on the 11th which commemorates the end of WWI.

For those of you who are not active duty or veterans of the military service, I ask only two things that would make my day and any veteran’s day…tell us that you know our sacrifice, and remember that We Were Soldiers…and young.

How to Uninstall Ubuntu on a dual boot system

How to Uninstall Unbuntu (Linux) from a Dual Boot System

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

You have Ubuntu or other Linux OS on your dual booted Windows PC and you want an easy way to remove Ubuntu/Linux, and here it is.

Steps

1. You need to be in windows, (this is an .exe) and download this file http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html This program does cost money however, obtaining a free utility has been elusive.
2. When downloaded, run the setup.
3. Make a bootable floppy or cd, either choice works. (The cd option makes a cd .iso image so you will need a program to burn it to the cd.)
4. Next you will restart your computer with the cd or floppy in the drive. Once you boot into the program do not install it to your HDD.
5. Click cancel to run the program from your cd or floppy.
6. Go to partition work. Click the oval on the left side of the window (yes you can use your mouse!) to go to your primary hdd.
7. Select and delete every partition except for your standard windows partition. Now you should have a formatless partition that says free space after it.
8. Select your windows partition and click resize. The program will run an error check which may take a while depending on your partition size.
9. Type in the largest size in the prompt unless you have other plans for some of that space. Once you do that the program will allocate all that space back to your primary partition.
10. If you installed grub the bootloader, you will need to reset your MBR (master boot record) or else you can’t boot up because grub will crash. Select your windows partition
11. Go to view MBR on the left.
12. Select your windows partition and click STD MBR. This will remove grub and set your MBR back to its original state.
13. Click apply and the changes will take affect.
14. Eject your media and use the file option at the top left to reboot. Your computer should restart normally into windows.

Tips

• Be sure to make a backup or copy of your MBR prior to any changes.

Warnings

• BootItNG is not a free program.

Things You’ll Need

• CD/DVD burning software
• Unarchiving (.zip) program

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Uninstall Unbuntu (Linux) from a Dual Boot System. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Acai Berry Scam

This scam is world wide. It has now made it to Australia and the advertising market is LIT UP with responses to scam ads.

The scam artists prey on your inability to “see” what you are looking at or understand what you are looking at or reading.

Case in point: I ran across an ad in paltalk that looked like the one below and to the untrained eye would look like a breaking news report that exposes some dark secret about acai berry that doesn’t do what it’s claimed to do. So you click on the ad and your browser opens to a web page for the Daily Health Alerts news page which looks very official including what looks like a news reporter in a professional looking snapshot with a caption. The web page is even designed to show today’s date, plug in some user comments with todays date and a day or two earlier, and plug in an expiration date of today plus 1 day to establish a sense of urgency.

It is safe to open the page from the link I provided above and you can look through it as I explain its parts here. First thing that alerts you to a scam is the professional looking photo of a woman with a caption that causes you to think she is a real reporter or journalist for a news company, until you click on her photo which takes you to a web advertisement page for the acai berry.

There is no official company called the Australian Health Inquirer even though a logo is posted top left. You will also notice that the Fox News Special Report at the right sidebar has no video or image or working link, because there isn’t really one.

Second point, the headlines suggests that something has been uncovered and after reading the article you discover that nothing diabolical was uncovered after all and that the opposite is true. The article causes you to believe that the reporter was duped by doing her own test of the product and proved to herself that the product actually works, like a miracle.

Then we come to point #3 at the bottom where the user comments would normally be. We find that there are 10 out of 177 comments showing, BUT WAIT! there are only 9 comments showing, not 10 and the last comment has todays date on it. WOW, I JUST missed being able to post a comment, but the comments are “closed due to spam activity” and you are left with nothing to do but read the 9 (not 10) comments that appear to be real from today and the previous day.

These comments talk about “going to”, “about to” “planning to” try the product, and some even say they did try it at exorbitant fees to help you, the reader, feel like you are special by getting the chance to take a free trial offer which by the way, EXPIRES tomorrow! This type of urgency is seared into your mind to make a better selling ad.

Now the truth:

Amazingly enough if you visit the root web address of http://www.dailyhealthalerts.com you find that it is NOT a website with daily health alerts at all. In fact it is a base for the different fake ad web pages to be hosted. There are many other websites on the web just like this mentioning a single mother of two who lost an amazing 42lbs in 3 weeks, or some professional single mother with no time to exercise who lost 37 lbs. in 4 weeks, etc., infinitum.

It’s a real shame that Oprah had an entire show on the effects of acai berry and literally HELPED the scammers sell more product that does nothing more than simple red wine and exercise.  Sadly, Oprah is responsible for helping a LOT of scammers. Don’t become a victim.

Technorati Tags: acai,berry,scam,alert,health,paltalk,Australia,miracle

BuzzNet Tags: acai,berry,scam,alert,health,paltalk,Australia,miracle

LiveJournal Tags: acai,berry,scam,alert,health,paltalk,Australia,miracle

RocketWolf.net Changes

Rocket Forum:
It looks like the Rocket Forum works optimally as a full page display rather than embedded into the RocketWolf.net website.

Although it wont flow with the website as I would like, I am going to post the direct link to the forum instead to give you the best user experience with it as possible.

I hope you decide to return to Rocketwolf.net after you have enjoyed using the forum.

Club Rocket:
After some time using various chat services embedded into the RocketWolf.net website (tinychat, xat, meebo, etc) and discovering their uniquely different problems, I have found two chat clients which are stable.

The current chat client (xat.com) is incredibly unstable with its current chat status updating routine leaving the chatter wondering who is actually in the room and when, if any. Many times the chat text is held in the buffer from other chatters and is then delivered in flood fashion to some chatters screens. This is unacceptable.

The two choices I am currently offering is allyourschat.com and PalTalk Express. allyourschat is a service that is also offered on the RocketWolf.net Community Toolbar as well as a link on the Chat page to get to it easily. Club Rocket can be reached two ways, either through the embedded palTalk Express on the Chat page, or from within Paltalk itself using the PalTalk scene (messenger).

 

Paradise down under

This week has been amazing. I discovered heliotrope, watched meteors at night, saw satellites cross the sky, discovered an indigenous grasshopper. The girls loved learning about Jupiter, constellations and using the World Wide Telescope to see our night sky before going out and seeing it in person.

I have been in Australia for about 2 months so far and really enjoy the tropical paradise of Queensland near Cairns. Our own back yard is populated with a variety of plants and trees, a variety of birds, some geckos, cane toads, and green ants as well as an interesting spider or two. Our street alone has a large variety of palms and other type trees.

These images open my Google Picasa web album “Australia” no matter which one you click on. There are captions for most of them in the album but to sum up these photos, this is just a small taste of this tropical paradise called Queensland.

In two days my fiancé and I will be getting married and I can’t think of a better place for such a great occasion. We could literally get married in our back yard, on any lawn on our street, or just randomly pick anywhere in the city and it would be perfect.

Our honey could very easily be on the patio under the stars since I discovered how incredibly bright the stars are here. There are thousands more and so much brighter as well the Moon appears so much closer to Earth. We have easily observed several satellites with the naked eye and several meteors due to the lack of light pollution.

Summer is in full swing but I have yet to witness a thunderstorm here even though it has rained at least 50% of the time I have lived in Queensland. Considering we are a little less than 17° south of the equator, it stands to reason that we experience an almost rain forest climate here explaining the lush green and flourishing ecosystem.

Until next time…

Most Important Windows Security Patch Ever | PC Pitstop

I’m writing about this referenced article because it is a prime example of why software developers should be supporting and developing software for Unix/Linux/Mac operating systems.

Aside from the fact that Bill Gates and his engineers refuse to develop an OS that properly handles system resources, they still haven’t given proper attention to preventing exploits and security issues before releasing an OS.

Instead, a deadline is set for the release of the next version of windows, and then a mad rush ensues to meet that deadline at the expense of the consumers. The mindset of the Gates’ family is to get the product out first, and then patch the hell out of it later to keep in step with Apple and Linux.

This is a huge message to the public. First and foremost the focus is in the wrong place (on beating the competition) and second there is a reason why they feel they need to stay ahead or beat others to the cutting edge. It is because others are on the cutting edge first with an OS that is not vulnerable to hackers and those others have an OS that properly handles system resources and memory calls that far exceeds what Gates and Microsoft have ever offered…ever.

This is not to say Gates isn’t smart because he does understand that the only way to beat better technology and engineering (machine language architecture) is to beat them to the store shelves. Unfortunately the people that pay the price for this kind of “beating the competition to the line” is the consumer.

So why are software developers giving more attention and focus to Microsoft and their OS? Because they know that a profit is made from being first to the line, not from supporting a better architecture. Developers understand money in the pocket now, not long term investment returns.

What exactly will turn this tide of backward thinking in the software industry? The answer is in the proliferation of incidents like the cyber attack on the nuclear power plant in Iran this year. The more times an incident like this makes the news showing the vulnerability of the OS and network, the more obvious it will become to software developers that they are supporting the wrong system and shift to supporting a system that cant be hacked. Once they recognize they are on the wrong ship (the one sinking every year) they will gladly jump over to the ship they never have to jump off.

Until then, as a consumer who wishes to be rid of the need for anti-virus software and not have to buy a new computer every year that has a system that slows to a snails pace, and doesn’t want to worry about the information on their computers being compromised regularly, they have options like Knoppix, Ubuntu, and other unix/linux/debian based Operating Systems to give them what they need. Eventually consumers and software developers will be profoundly happy to have switched away from the chaos of Microsoft and the Gates family.

On a side note, Windows costs money, Ubuntu is free as well as Debian, and Knoppix and a host of other Open Source operating systems.

Most Important Windows Security Patch Ever | PC Pitstop

The Big Move

Some moves are just not normal. I have moved more times than should be allowed per human being. Since the time I joined the military in 1981, I have moved not less than 35 times. Many moves were made while in the military both as a single military member as well as a married military member.

When I was single in the military, moves were considered fast, purposeful and required, otherwise known as the duffle bag drag. Everything you owned went into a single duffle bag and off you went in a rush that took less than 30 minutes.

Then I got married, and moves began getting more difficult. Introducing the house hold goods shuffle. The military gladly picked up the tab for moving and regardless if you moved from offbase, to onbase, or from onbase to offbase, or around the world, the military would snatch up your belongings and put them in a big wooden box, stamp it and haul it to the new location.

After my military service obligations had been completed and I became a civilian once again, the moves got even more difficult, but bearable. I was at least able to pack my things the way I wanted and sift through what I had to get rid of the junk. The moves got easier as I reduced my “junk load” with every move I made reducing my total household volume to neccessities.

Now I am making a move I never imagined I would make. I am moving from Pennsylvania to Australia.

It has been a long 8 weeks since I began packing little bits at a time. After 4 weeks had passed and I had gotten a moving company in to do a quote, is when I realized that the moving companies want to pack everything themself. My inventory would not be sufficient for them and the bill would be well over $3000.

I began unpacking again, and deciding what I wanted to take, and what I wanted to get rid of during this new sifting process. Why am I unpacking? I found out that it was cheaper to mail my household goods rather than ship them with a moving company. Total saved? $1500.

…to be continued

A Higher Purpose

With so many YASNS (yet another social networking site) on the web, a Wiki for feeding your brain (not necessarily with facts), blogs and opinion/editorial sites, what is available for those who feel a higher purpose? Main stream media purports to bring you facts but instead they bring you biased speculations, circumstantial evidence and opinionated viewpoints while rarely producing any facts.

Google has stepped up to the plate to provide a venue for higher knowledge. The Knol. A knol is  a way for people (not Google) to put their reputations and facts on the line, unlike a wiki that is viewed as mostly facts, but edited by the general public with or without verifiable facts. The wiki encourages citations and verifiable sources and provides a means to help promote accuracy and policing of the facts, but this is not 100% guaranteed as is stated in the Wiki’s disclaimer.

The Knol’s purpose is not understood by many, such as those that seem to think it is a market place to their wares as depicted by Will Johnson and his knol here.

For a better explanation of the purpose of a knol, take a look at this one. Maybe with a concerted community effort, we can help the Google knol concept flush out the “opportunists” and garage salesmen from its pages. Fortunately knols provide a star rating system, comments section and if the author allows, the ability to edit or collaborate on a knol. What tools are available beyond the star rating really adds to the credibility and reputation of the author.

Do you want to date my avatar?

This is for all those that have  or are involved in a 3D virtual community such as Second Life, or have played an MMO. Most everyone else wont catch the humor in this, but if you are a member in an online chat service, you might…

Pixel Games

This is a totally rad production, IMHO. Created by onemoreproduction.com and Patrick Jean, how many games can you name in this awesome video?

He Said – We Heard

Two thirds of America is against the Health Care Reform act signed into law by President B.O. The President, who claims victory for being the architect of and responsible for passing into law, this health care reform, has been challenged by the GOP to repeal the law which is unconstitutional on the grounds that it forces Americans to purchase a product or service against their will, and carries a fine for violation of the law, and garnishment of your wages or a jail sentence if you do not pay the fine. In other words, if you have a job, you will pay the fine or have your wages garnished to collect the fine, but if you are one of the 12 million people unemployed because of empty promises by B.O., who cant pay the fine for not having health insurance because you are unemployed, you will go to jail.

Democrat – President John F. Kennedy said "ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country". (see full speech here)

President B.O.  states in response to this challenge, “My attitude is, go for it. You try to repeal it” and what we heard was [I dare you]. The absolute smug audacity to say "Go for it", just try it, smacks of the conviction of a dictator who is convinced that he himself has done something that better not be challenged or swift retribution will fall upon those who challenge it.

This does not sound like true leadership that was extremely evident in President Kennedy, or of a president who upholds the Constitution and reveres the Declaration of Independence as the bible of our country. Nor does it sound like a President who understands and holds sacred that as a republic, We the People, are governed by the people through representation. The voice of the people rule this land. Yet this President and the democrat majority in congress feel it is their job to do what they feel is necessary, and ignoring the majority of its citizens, by forcing a bill into law without public approval and consent.

The White House suggests it has the upper hand on the issue politically, arguing the GOP risks a voter backlash because a repeal would take away many benefits. Among them are tax credits for small businesses to provide health care to their workers and $250 rebates for seniors to help pay for their prescription medications.

What the law also requires is that an extra tax be imposed on the sale of all medical devices such as wheel chairs, defibrillators, respirators, oxygen tanks, prosthetics, heart monitors and just about anything you may need for medical reasons. These taxes will be imposed on the manufacturers of these devises and of course will be passed along to you, the consumer, to compensate for the extra cost. [ see news clip at http://news.yahoo.com/video/opinion-15749653/obamacare-tax-shock-18934733 ] So much for a $250 rebate for seniors which pales compared to the extra costs of medical devices.

 

And now for what should have been an April Fool’s joke. GUAM Might Tip over or capsize! The following Video is real, aired on CSPAN and I am sure confounds anyone seeing it. Rep Hank Johnson – 4th Congressional District in Georgia (Democrat) interviewing Admiral of Pacific Forces on the feasibility of costs to send 8000 troops and their families to be stationed in Guam.

 

You may remember him from this video: http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=e9fb54e4-533a-4711-9441-5a84a68a6f2f

Now, I was under the impression that congressmen were drug tested and are not escapees from mental wards, but I have been wrong before.