IE7 Why you shouldn’t install it

It breaks a LOT of programs that rely on ie6.
It doesn’t work
I spent quite a few hours trying to fix my parents computer tonight …Read the rest of this entry »

It is now official: Our solar system has only eight planets.

Textbooks around the world will now have to be rewritten.

Yes, it's official. 2,500 astronomers can't be wrong ... besides, what else do they have to do, it's only taken 2 weeks to decide against what we've accepted for so many years ... there must not be enough real science happening lately. Why with Global Cooling, oh wait, maybe that's it ... since the big cool down we've needed a diversion to take the minds off the fact the the Global Warming scare isn't really there. Is that it?!?

And what's this do for the mysterious Planet X (or 10), takes care of that one doesn't it. It's not Planet X anymore, it's something like Planet 9 ... unless it waits too much longer, then it might be Planet ... 4

Just waiting,
-Liam

My review of the FlavorWave convection oven.

My oven is the old original model #20007, without the bells and whistles they have now.  Like a light – it would be nice but I can’t see the bulb lasting in that heat (just an opinion, not a known fact).

 One thing I think it should have (maybe the new ones do) is a lower ring that has air holes in it, for when you’re cooking things with lots of water in them, so it can dehumidify and cook them faster. Thou the complaint might be you’d risk a better chance of drying out your food then, but some foods need dried out. Just a thought, I’m not a cook.

It seems since I wrote that I found they did make a lower ring with holes, stainless steel none the less :).  My brother dug it up for me, as I've stated earlier, this FlavorWave Oven was bought by my Mum so I didn't know what came with it.

So a screened ring was included, nice.  Also a special pan for baking cakes in that has a special side release ring.  I haven't tried this one yet.

I (as an industrial microcontroller designer/programmer) would have designed the timer to run the fan a while after the heat cycle timed out, to cool the hot heating coil that sits close to the fan, and give the fan some extra life.

Perhaps now they make the timer so you can program to come on at a preset time and run for a preset time, like a simple bread machine or coffee machine does.  If not, then they should have.  Next time maybe.  Better to use a multi stage timer then, so you CAN cook a chicken and have it finish when you come home, without it poisoning you.  (Simple to do with a microcontroller).

Well, just some thoughts.  I've got a better review coming up, and pictures.

Cheers,

-Liam Sand

The FlavorWave convection oven

The FlavorWave convection oven is my newest finds and joys. I can now cook food with my busy lifestyle without having the fire department join me :) You see I start something cooking and get involved in other matters, and bam or should I say boom or is it burn? Anyway, it tastes the same, … charcoal.

I don’t sell the Flavor Wave convection oven or even know the company, I didn’t even buy mine. It was something my dear old Mum bought and stored away, and for that I’m grateful. So I’m not doing ads for the company, who is Thane by the way, it was Hearthware Home Products when mine was made. (Though I wouldn’t mind some kickbacks, seems I am in the Google top 10 for this oven) Are you looking for the FlavorWave convection oven scam? I don’t think there is one. From my findings it’s a good deal for the money. And no, I don’t own the company, I don’t know anyone in the company, I’m not getting kickbacks from the company (yet). What was the company’s name this week?

Now they make the “Culinary Award winning Flavorwave Deluxe Oven.” But I digress… to take a look at my antique, that’s still running fine. Stay tuned for that look in my next post.

Cheers, -Liam Sand

Smile of the Day - Don't you need one?

If you do, try Tenebris's site Smile of the Day I think you'll like it.
-Liam

New modem blues

Installed the new modem.  Yes I use a modem :(

Thursday the lightning took out my nice Neto Dragon modem.  I really liked that one.  Oh well, perhaps I can fix it.

Fortunately I had a backup modem already installed that I had used with Win98 (the NetoDragon didn’t like 98).  So I’ve been using it till I finally got around to shutting the computer down, something I don’t like to do.  Something windows doesn’t like to do is stay up though.

RUN! Hide your vegies! The Ware-Rabbit Lives!

Yahoo News:LONDON (AFP) - In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit.

Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit -- prompting the 12 allotment holders in Felton, north of Newcastle, to hire two marksmen with air rifles and orders to shoot to kill.

"It is a massive thing. It is a monster. The first time I saw it, I said: 'What the hell is that?'" the Northumberland Gazette newspaper quoted local resident Jeff Smith, 63, as saying on its website (www.northumberlandtoday.co.uk).

He claims to have seen the black and brown rabbit -- with one ear bigger than the other -- about two months ago, and at least three fellow allotment holders say they have seen it as well.

"I have seen it and it is bigger than a normal rabbit. It's eating all our crops and we grow the best stuff here," said retired miner George Brown, 76, quoted by the domestic Press Association news agency.

Smith could not be reached for comment Friday, but his mother told AFP that the hare-raising story is true -- and no less an authority than the British Rabbit Council said it was credible.

"Certain breeds do grow very big, like the Continental Giant" which can be 66 centimeters (26 inches) in length or more, a spokesman for the Nottinghamshire-based council, which represent rabbit breeders, told AFP.

In the last hit movie featuring Wallace and his dog Gromit, the two cartoon characters battled a monster rabbit that was cutting a swathe of destruction through locals' prize vegetable plots.

Toast on a stick anyone?

I suppose I should ramble tonight about the Flavor Wave Oven.

After burning almost everything I put my hands to, *keep that fire alarm plugged in*. I’ve got too many things to do, so I’m always multi-tasking, and when I cook I run off to do other things … but then I forget I was cooking … and … opps, toast again.

Today I found hiding in a closet, like are many thing that Mom bought and never got around to using, or bought for backups, (she had enough Christmas gifts stashed away for years to come), *ahem*, I found a “Flavor Wave Oven”. It’s a convection oven, the first model no doubt (#20007). This oven has a TIMER on it, *joy*, that’s what I need. Something to stop the burning process that I begun and forgot about.

But I found no manual for it, and wasn’t sure if I was operating it correctly. Naturally I can push enough buttons to figure anything out, but how they though it would be operated and how I’m deciphering it, might be separate realities. So I looks for a manual in the great ether of knowledge, and Shazzam, I find Thane who now markets it. Mine was made by Hearthware (TM) Home Products, but remember mine is the original *lightning, thunder, echo* “Flavor Wave Oven”. (Oven, not Onion, I keep wanting to say onion. I must still be hungry)

I found the Thane site here. And they actually have their manuals available for download here.

So now I’ve found a great Oven to do my burning for me :-) I can set it and if I forget, it shuts down, unlike my stove and oven. I really like convection ovens anyway. I hate microwaves, I don’t use them! Microwaves are for radio communications, not for mounting in your kitchen. Dangerous on your health, and on your food. Try watering a plant from microwaved water (cooled back down) and see if it lives.

Perhaps I’ll let you know how this all works out, Cheers.

Let the flames begin.

Cutting edge, or over the edge?

So you’re looking for some “out-there” stuff are you? Then try some of these on for size:

Jeff Rense is on the edge sometimes, but probably more on the right side then he looks -- http://www.rense.com/

Alex Jones and his InfoWars and PrisonPlanet is on the cutting edge, this is a must see, visit it often. This site I will endorse -- http://www.infowars.com/ & http://prisonplanet.com/

And try this one too -- http://www.propagandamatrix.com/

Check out this video -- http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

I know that’s not much, but those there will take you quite some time to digest, so have at it, and keep your head up.

May Day, and you thought Communism was dead.

If communism is dead, and the cold war is over, then why do they still celebrate May Day and have their military parade in Russia?!?

1.5 million people participated in May Day rallies in Russia.  In Switzerland, Sweden, Chile & Turkey protesters clashed with police, and demonstrators denouncing the International Monetary Fund and the U.S.

Under communist rule, an annual parade in Moscow’s Red Square marked the international labor holiday known as May Day. Although the parade honored the working people of the Soviet Union, communist leaders such as Joseph Stalin, used the event to display the country’s military forces and to honor themselves.

Associated Press reports that THIS year:

“communists in Russia honored Lenin and Marx.”
“Some of the biggest traditional gatherings were in Moscow, where 25-thousand people gathered to hear speeches from trade union leaders and the city mayor.”
“Meanwhile, communists marched from a square where there is a statue of Lenin to their usual rallying spot opposite the Bolshoi Theatre, where there's a statue of Karl Marx.”

Hmmm, response, interesting

So I write a little gibberish and it sells.  Interesting.  I seem to have moved far from my being a journalistic reporter, to just a dull blogger.  What’s become of me?!?  Perhaps I’ll wake up soon and get out of the rabbit hole – or not.

The day here was striking, and yet had a chill to it that one couldn’t bring himself to accept.  Why it looked so nice, and it’s been so warm, and after all – it’s supposed to be spring isn’t it?  The mind just couldn’t bring it’s self to understanding just why it had to turn the heat on with such a sunny day as it was.  Why it’s 230am now, and it’s just as warm as it was in the bloody daylight.

Watched a couple movies this even.  Too much cussing going on.  I know we don’t want censorship, but what about morals, can we get some of them!?  That would help the foul mouth problem, and many others as well.

I warned you

This is what happens if I just ramble on…

The grass is growing fast.  Yesterday my brother overfilled the gas can in the back of the car, so he’s trying to air it out (exciting isn’t it).

Listened to Car Talk and Prairie Home Companion today.

The cat’s in heat for the first time.

I have a couple cars to work on and a weed-eater to dissemble and re-ring.  Trees to trim.  Garden to plant.  Computers to wire up (LAN).  Oh, and it’s almost 3pm and I still haven’t taken time to get breakfast (as usual), see why I don’t have time to blog :)

So that’s just some blithering from down here in the valley, catch you later, Cheers.

Liam's getting tired of blogs

They are taking too much of his time, even though he doesn't spend that much on them.

Blogs are something that should be kept up to date regularly, and he just doesn’t seem to have the time or material to do that. So… either he gets on here and just babbles, or he focus his energies on more static web page designs.

He doesn’t know yet.

MSWord Blogger thing

Just a comment on this Blogger for MS Word thing.

This is a real great tool for posting a quick blog, though I usually like to do some other tweaking while I’m at Blogger, this really makes it fast to post as I don’t have to wade through Blogger to do it.

I wonder how good it translates the Microsoft Word coding though.  I’ve had problems with pasting Word into Blogger before.  I’ve hopes it will continue to work out ok.

Human organs on eBay?

China 'selling prisoners' organs'

Top British transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting the organs of thousands of executed prisoners a year to sell for transplants.

(read article)

Hitler - Was he ever born?

Seems to be quite a difference in opinion as to the exact date of birth of one Adolf Hitler.

• “The pageantry of the Third Reich and the precision of its army reached a dramatic climax during the festivities honoring Adolf Hitler on his 50th birthday: April 20th, 1939”

• “21 Apr 2006. Cities notch up security for Hitler's birthday”

• “several dozen skinheads in Tartu, Estonia held a torch-bearing demonstration to mark Hitler's birthday, according to an April 22, 2001 broadcast on Estonian Television.” This piece dated April 24, 2001

• “On April 20, 1939, Archbishop Orsenigo celebrated Hitler's birthday”

• “Today In Alternate History, April 20th, 2005. in 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria” Among other alternate views.

I would seem that 20 April wins out as the most popular date for Hitlers birthday. That is if popular opinion is the correct thing to gauge it by. After all the popular opinion of the powers in Germany in the 1930’s & 40’s wasn’t to be questioned now was it?

We also find that Wikipedia has some interesting things to say about the man:
“Hitler was a black comedian who gained power in Germany facing crisis after World War I.”
(I see that that’s been changed now, I suppose to what it should say. But one never knows what Wiki might say next.)

Remember, this year the Days of Remembrance fall between April 23 and April 30.
Visit http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/dor_06/ for more information.

Toast Anyone?

Good page on Ventilating a hard drive case on the wARp cOiL ReLoadEd.

If you have on of those external IDE hard drive cases that interfaces via USB you might not have enough air flow to cool the hard drive and thus lead to premature failure.





This project involves widening the fan slots to increase the air flow. (Read the article)

Good news, I'm no longer a wanted man.

Good news. After more than a week, and over a dozen requests – blogger.com has responded and my Motorsport Madness blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared it and it will no longer appear as potential spam. Hoorahh! Hmmm, seems I’m not a fugitive now :-).

We live and learn. Thanks Blogger :-),
-Liam Sand

Welcome to my spam-blog!

It would seem that my Motorsport Madness blog is considered a “spam blog” by blogger.com, and I can’t get them to review my site or respond to me. Now I’ve see many spam blogs on blogger.com or blogspot.com (whatever you prefer), and I find them COS THEY’RE ROTATING THEM TO YOU IN THEIR SYSTEM, but alas, I’m not rotating in the system and can’t seem to get there – cos I’m considered a spam blogger.

Real Spam Bloggers on Blogger.com

It makes me wonder how they found me, because there’s plenty on real spam bloggers on blogger.com (or blogspot.com, if you like) and they’re obviously so. But me? I’m just a little guy with hardly any posts or activity, what made me flag them. Well it appears that it’s because I have several links back to the same site (sounds like a forum would be “spam forum”, … spamfortium … whathaveyou). So that’s how the spam-bloggers don’t get caught, they have their spam-site with all the links (nothing but links) to many (very many) diverse (many) sites, and that doesn’t flag the system.

Yes I use some articles from a select few sites, not because I support them or am affiliated with them or anything, but because I liked their articles, and they let me use them. Thanks ArticleCube.

I Finally looked into it

This took me quite some time to figure out too. It’s not like blogger.com informed me that I’d been flagged as spam-blogging. No! After a few months of having to deal with verifying my posts, I finally looked into it. First I checked my settings – for a long time I though it was something that I set it to do. But after getting annoyed by it, and I can’t used MS Word to post because of the picture verification, I found it was this “spam-blog” thing. Well that’s just great, I wondered why I wasn’t getting the traffic I once had, and here I was doing more work on my Motorsport Madness blog, and it was getting me nowhere.

I say as Graham Chapman repeatedly said, "I don’t like Spam!"

Biometrics, ID cards, tagging, DNA kits being pushed on kids

(excerpts from the article)
I was shopping for groceries at my Local Albertsons when I saw the all too familiar Child Fingerprinting tables.
They are part of a Child ID program called Child Protection Education of America.
The fingerprint card produced in the "ID ME NOW" program not only contains the fingerprint scans and a digital photograph of a child, but it also supplies instructions on how to perform a DNA collection.

The company even suggests tagging children like they are dogs.

Click here to read the complete article -
Steve Watson / Prisonplanet | February 21 2006

Related: Kids Being Conditioned To Big Brother and Police State

One Thousand A Month Tortured To Death In Iraq

Dr. John Pace drops a bombshell that translates as a whisper through obscure Maltese paper.

Proving that Abu Ghraib and Gitmo are the tip of the iceberg, the outgoing UN human rights chief dropped a bombshell when he told an obscure Maltese newspaper that as many as a thousand detainees a month are being tortured to death in Iraq.

Footage of US army personnel seizing a taxi cab and destroying it with an Abrams tank was broadcast two years ago on PBS. The crime? Stealing firewood.

More than half of Iraqis now say life was better off under Saddam and 47% support insurgent attacks on US forces.

Click here to read the whole article by Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet.com | February 21 2006

South Korea fines Microsoft £18m (excerpts)

Microsoft has been fined $32m (£18.4m) by South Korean regulators and ordered to separate its instant messaging service from its Windows software.

The FTC, ... said the bundling of Windows with the media player and instant messenger service were creating a monopoly and blocking out PC Server and other operating system makers.

Microsoft announced yesterday that it will invest $1.7bn in India over four years to build ...

Dan MilmoThursday December 8, 2005
The Guardian

read full article here

"Deferred Success" is new term for failure?

By Arthur Spiegelman Fri Nov 18,10:26 AM ET

In 2005, some people wanted the word "brainstorming" replaced by "thought shower" so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted "deferred success" to replace "failure" so as not to embarrass those who don't succeed.

Both phrases appear on a tongue-in-cheek list released on Thursday of the year's most politically correct words and phrases issued by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors language use.

The phrase that topped this year's list was "misguided criminals," one of several terms the British Broadcasting Corporation used so as not to use the word "terrorist" in describing those who carried out train and bus bombings in London that killed 52 people in July, according to Paul JJ Payack, the head of Global Language Monitor.

He added, "The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers 'neutral' descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes."

Second on the list was "Intrinsic Aptitude," a phrase used by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers to explain why women might be underrepresented in engineering and science. The phrase met with "deferred success" and Summers had to fight to keep to his job.

"Thought shower" was third and a French word for riff-raff or scum, "la racaille," was fourth thanks to being used by French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy to describe rioters of Muslim and North African descent in suburbs outside of Paris.

"Out of the mainstream," which Payack said was used to describe the ideology of any political opponent, was fifth and in sixth place was "deferred success" the euphemism for "fail" that Britain's Professional Association of Teachers considered using to bolster students' "self-esteem." The move met with "deferred success."

Seventh on the list was "womyn" for women in order to distance the word from men and eighth was using C.E. (Common Era) for A.D (Latin for "Year of Our Lord") so as to be more neutral in dates.

Ninth on the top 10 list was words and phrases that either de-Christianize the Christian holidays or neuter their genders. For example "God Rest Ye Merry Persons" replaces "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Seasons Greetings" replaces "Merry Christmas."

In 10th place was a move aimed at the heart of Australian culture when security staff were banned from using the word "mate" to address members of parliament. The MPs rebelled and said not being called "mate" was unpatriotic.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

From Dark Ages to PDA's

What's a man to do about a PDA today? I'm sure I'm not the only one that has been in the dark ages, and is now looking at getting a PDA.... but I look and look and look, and can't find anyone that has a good review on, basically, all the PDA's, like a history outline. Tell me when they came out, what features they have, pro/con, comparisons, PDA Brands – HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Palm, Acer, ...

I'd like to get something older on eBay, but there's so many out there, where do you start??? How old are some of these things out there? What are their differences? That's what I'd really like to know. I know what I need one to do, but where do I find a listing of what they do, all in one place, so I don' t have to look up every model. And where would that end?! HP has so many different PDA models, and prefixes, what's the deal? At least with Dell you have an idea on what model is newer. Aagh!

I can see a website that needs to be created here, if I only knew about PDA’s I'd do it. Anyone want to help me with that leave a comment.

Our role is to inform the public

Marvin Kalb, a longtime broadcaster now with Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, says "some tilting toward a sympathetic view of the American soldier at war" is "a natural phenomenon in this context," one that had not prevented the public from getting "very good coverage on television."

But Mark Hertsgaard--whose books about U.S. foreign policy include "On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency"--strongly criticizes what he calls the "false patriotism" of the networks.

"It is not our role to revere or applaud the government or the military. Our role is to inform the public and thereby serve the country," he says. "The government is not the country, and so when you see reporters talking about 'we' and essentially following the good-guy script, they are...betraying the real principles of journalism and American democracy."

Bias in the media

I'm watching Fox News, (for entertainment I guess.) Is this Conan I'm watching? Letterman?

They're certinaly not trying to pass this off as NEWS are they? Whatever happened to the BBC's stand on being non-biased in reporting? Even the BBC has vered from that lond held moto. You don't get news anymore, you get a politically corrected spin to it, but you're not supposed to notice they're spinning it.

It's one thing to be an alive, thinking, real personality, another to take up the chat show persona on news events, to sway your viewers toward your side of the issues.

Remember one mans freedom fighter or patriot - is another mans terrorest. Terrorist is a word the BBC wouldn't use years ago. It's not because there weren't any, it's because it's a biased word. It's not reporting -- it's biasing!

The Panopticon: A Mass Surveillance Prison For Humanity

Latest trends in Big Brother outstrip Orwell's worst nightmare

The Panopticon is defined as a prison so constructed that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times, without being seen. ...

read the complete article here

Hyperactive disorder drug 'raises risk of suicidal thoughts in children'

AMCP Tech Blog

AMCP Tech Blog