Monday, October 29, 2007

Skip the machine, Get a real human ASAP

GetHuman contains shortcuts to skip the automated phone systems of over 500 customer service call centers. If you're an impatient customer like me, and want a real human right away, this is a lifesaver!

read more | digg story

NBC and Fox are set to launch an advertising-supported online video site

NBC and Fox are set to launch an advertising-supported online video site that hosts programming from varied entertainment companies in a bid to seize viewers from Google Inc.'s YouTube, the broadcasters said.

A test version of the site, Hulu.com, goes online Monday, with plans to premiere a final version in a few months, company officials said.

The site, developed by News Corp. and NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., offers free viewing of full-length films and TV episodes, supported by advertising.

It will host programming from the two networks, as well as TV shows and films from Sony Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

Read more about Hulu.com here.

TV Shows Online Free & Legal

NETWORK TV

*ABC online shows

*CBS online shows

*NBC online shows

*Fox online shows

*CW/UPN online shows

PBS

*Nova shows

*Nature shows

*Frontline shows

CABLE TV

*TBS online shows

*TNT online shows

*TLC/Discovery/Animal Planet shows

*A&E online shows

*C-Span shows

*Current TV

*National Geographic

*HGTV videos

*TV Land shows

*Comedy Central videos

*Sci-Fi Channel shows

*CNBC clips

*Lifetime shows

*USA original shows

*History Channel Clips

*Food Network

Saturday, October 27, 2007

My son filled out his Dream Sheet for his Orders


I talked to my son John last night on Windows Live Messenger from Naval Station Great Lakes. He said that he filled out his Dream Sheet for his Orders yesterday. The Dream Sheet in the Navy is where they get to pick where they would like to be assigned. There is no guarantee that they will actually get to go to those places. In the military you go where you are needed most. John will finish his OS-A School next week. His choices were Florida, Hawaii ,Virginia, California, Japan , and Washington (state). John picked Hawaii and Florida. He is really hoping to go to Florida. He put in to work on a Guided Missile Frigate, he said that they do allot with the Coast Guard helping with Drug Bust and thought that might be interesting . John did say that he would come home to visit first. He said he would fly home for a few weeks then go back to Chicago and fly to his next duty station from there. The Navy pays for him to go from one Duty Station to another. Today John went to school for a little bit for Open Study ( he is doing chart plotting right now ). He said that it is allot of fun. Aside from that he is going to call us later. That's about it for now.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Disturbing Poll: One in Ten OK with Net Access Brain Implant

Here is a disturbing thought, 11 percent of Americans say they would be willing to safely implant a device that enabled them to use their mind to access the Internet, according to poll released Wednesday.

read more | digg story

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Happy Birthday Windows XP


It was on this day back in 2001 that Microsoft's Windows XP was released onto the desktops of consumers everywhere. It's still most people's favorite Windows OS, combining the stability of Windows 2000/NT with the eye candy of a consumer-focused OS like Windows 98. So happy birthday Windows XP.

Link

Get Email Notifications for Blogger Comments


Here is good tip for those who leave comments on an old post from a Blogger blog: now you can get email notifications if someone posts a new comment. Just check "Email follow-up comments to my Google account address".

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

I talked to my daughter Cindy tonight


I talked to my daughter Cindy tonight. She is still at Naval Station Great Lakes. She leaves the middle of November ( she does not know the exact date yet ) to go to her FC-C School at Dahlgren, Virginia to learn the M-160 Gun Computer System for three months. After that she will go to San Diego, CA and report to the USS Stockdale (DDG-106). It is still being built and will be ready sometime in 2008. She said that she might go to Maine for more school while waiting for them to complete the ship. I am proud of you Cindy.

The USS Stockdale (DDG-106) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy. Stockdale is named after Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale.

Stockdale DDG 106

Stockdale DDG 106





I also just talked to my son John and he said that he had a good day in OS-A school. Tonight he did mail and trained duty section 4's mail PO. John has been helping out with the mail occasionally.

Firefox 2.0.0.8 update to be updated soon

From Mozilla "The 2.0.0.8 release fixed some 200 issues, but accidentally regressed a few things. Most users won’t see any difference or experience any problems, and those 200 fixes make the 2.0.0.8 update very valuable, but you should never have to choose functionality over security. So we’re working fast to understand and fix these problems, and will shortly be issuing a 2.0.0.9 update to address them."

Read more about this issue here
.

Good morning




Good morning everyone, I am just drinking my first cup of coffee for the day and reading the news. It's a little cold here this morning, right now it's 47 degrees. That's better than yesterday morning when it was 37 degrees. We are going to make Chicken soup today. I will post our Chicken soup recipe later. We talked to our son John last night on MSN messenger. He was doing well. He said that he is going to test out of Mod 11 at his OS-A School today at Naval Station Great Lakes and then he will be in chart plotting which he will finish by next week and then take the post test and CIC lab and be out by next Friday. He asked for a picture of me taken 10 years ago and I sent him one and then he sent the picture below back. LOL Me Vs Chuck Norris. What do you think? I told him that yes Chuck and I did look alike several years ago and then I just kept getting better looking and Chuck just kept getting older. LOL

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Medal of Honor Ceremony at White House for fallen Navy SEAL


President Bush honored a fallen Navy SEAL Monday by presenting his grieving parents with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor for valor, to Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, N.Y. — the first given for combat in Afghanistan— and privately honored their sacrifice by wearing a dog tag they'd given him moments before.

read more | digg story

Monday, October 22, 2007

RealPlayer Security Vulnerability and Fix reported

There's a RealPlayer vulnerability and fix reported. RealNetworks has issued a fix for a vulnerability, identified here by Symantec, that affects the import method of an Active X control.

Read the rest here at the Real Website.

My Hardy Chunky Chili Recipe








The first post I ever did on this Blog was my recipe for Chili. With the temps dropping here in South East Kansas and Winter around the corner I thought it would be appropriate to post it again. This is absolutely the best Chili that I have ever made. We make it several times a year and it freezes well. You can also cut the recipe in half to adjust it for yourself.

My Hardy Chunky Chili

2 lbs lean ground beef or ground venison
1-2 packages of dry chili seasoning ( your choice )
1 large white onion chopped
4 large cans diced tomatoes, 28oz each with juice
2 large cans spicy chili beans with juice. I prefer Bush's chili beans but any will do.
1-2 cans Rotel tomatoes with chill peppers ( your choice )

Using Large pot
1) Cook ground venison/beef with chopped onion until no longer pink / Drain / Return to pot
2) Add the chili seasoning and stir into the meat/onion
3) Add diced tomatoes and stir
4) Add Rotel tomatoes and stir
5) Add chili beans with the juice from the cans and stir

Cook for several hours on low heat letting it simmer.

Serve alone or with shredded sharp cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Can also be served over cooked white rice.

Leftovers freeze well.

Note: The more chili seasoning and Rotel tomatoes you add the spicier it is.

Fake turf watered as supplies dry up in North Carolina


Yesterday I watched the news and saw that residents of North Carolina would be fined $1000.00 and have their water shut off if they watered their lawns or did not conserve enough. Then today I see this in the news "Fake turf watered as supplies dry up.Hockey fields need soaking, officials say; Duke coach." How sad, when sports come before people. Durham, which has about 69 days left in its water supply at the current use rate, has banned all outdoor watering. Thats right, people don't need to drink but they really need to play field hockey? This is just unbelievable.

Read the article here.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Talked to my son today




I talked to my son John today. He is still at Naval Station Great Lakes and is doing well. He completed Mod 10 in his OS-A School and should be done Mod 11 this week. There are a total of 12 Mods befor he gets done. He should be finished by the 1st of November. Meanwhile, my wife Vicki and I finished cutting down an ornamental plum tree in our yard that died when we had a frost last spring. Vicki also cut down two large bushes in our yard that were diseased.

Secrets to saucing pasta the Italian way ( Video )

Americans overdress their pasta 99.9 percent of the time. It should never be a bowl of soup. It should be noodles, with a little stuff. My wife would disagree but this is the way it should be done.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

TV-Links shut down but several others remain open

One of the world's most-used pirate film websites has been closed after providing links to illegal versions of major Hollywood hits and TV shows.

The first closure of a major UK-based pirate site was also accompanied by raids and an arrest, the anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact) said today.

The arrest and the closure of the site - www.tv-links.co.uk - came during an operation by officers from Gloucestershire County Council trading standards in conjunction with investigators from Fact and Gloucestershire Police.

Read the entire article here.

It looks like a few other places are still open.

http://www11.alluc.org/alluc/
http://www.videolemon.com/
http://www.tvlinkvault.com/
http://www.findago.com/series/
http://www.movie6.net/
http://www.peekvid.com/
http://pics.area755.com/pics/movies-online/
http://www.findago.com/series/
http://www.freedocumentaries.org/
http://www.tioti.com/
http://www.bmovies.com/

And lets not forget Online Video Guide. "top 10 best site of the year" - Time Magazine 2006

If you want to Bookmark this page for future reference just click here and then bookmark the new window that opens.

Friday, October 19, 2007

New version of Firefox was released yesterday 2.0.0.8

A new version of Firefox was released yesterday. It's available on the official Mozilla website and through the update check in Firefox itself. Two critical, five moderate and two low security vulnerabilities have been fixed in the new version which makes it a recommended update for all Firefox users.

Fixed in Firefox 2.0.0.8

MFSA 2007-36 URIs with invalid %-encoding mishandled by Windows

MFSA 2007-35 XPCNativeWrapper pollution using Script object

MFSA 2007-34 Possible file stealing through sftp protocol

MFSA 2007-33 XUL pages can hide the window titlebar

MFSA 2007-32 File input focus stealing vulnerability

MFSA 2007-31 Browser digest authentication request splitting

MFSA 2007-30 onUnload Tailgating

MFSA 2007-29 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.1.8)

Get Firefox 2.0.0.8 here.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Rain and Storms today for South East Kansas





It's been a rainy day so far today. We have has several storms pass through with more on the way. I have to keep unplugging the computers and plugging them back in after the storm passes. It looks like we will be doing this the rest of the evening. Oh what fun....

The STORM PREDICTION CENTER issued a Tornado watch #709 in effect until 6 PM cdt this evening.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 80 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY ALONG AND 80 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 55 MILES NORTHEAST OF CHANUTE KANSAS TO 10 MILES SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF FORT SMITH ARKANSAS.

DISCUSSION...STRONG SYSTEM CONTINUES TO DEEPEN INTO PLAINS WITH RAPID INCREASE IN MOISTURE/INSTABILITY NWD THROUGH WATCH AREA. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS NRN OK EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DEVELOPING NEWD WITH INCREASING POTENTIAL FOR TORNADIC SUPERCELLS DURING THE AFTERNOON.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Yahoo accused of misleading Congress about Chinese journalist


Yahoo misled Congress regarding information the Internet company gave to Chinese authorities about the journalist Shi Tao, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos said Tuesday.

The newspaper reporter had posted information under a pseudonym on an overseas Web site called Democracy Forum about a government crackdown on media and democracy activists, Lantos said.

Shi was later arrested in his home in Beijing after Yahoo gave Chinese authorities information about his e-mail account, his computer address, his log-on history and the contents of several weeks of his e-mail, Lantos said.

Read the whole story here.

Vista can run out of memory while copying files

It appears that Windows Vista can run out of memory while copying files. ZDNet is reporting that not only does it run out of memory after copying 16,400+ files, but that 'often there is little indication that file copy operations haven't completed correctly.' Apparently a fix was scheduled for SP1 but didn't make it; there is a hotfix that you must request.

Link to Microsoft Article ID 942435

Watch free B-movies Online


My wife and I love watching the old B-Horror movies that are sometimes on late at night. Now we can watch them anytime at this new website bmovies.com. They have hundreds of movies that have been lost in the wasteland of forgotten cinema. No sign-up or log-in needed, just hours and hours of B Movies. The site has categories for, Horror, Sci Fi, Kung Fu, and Westerns. Go check it out for yourself.

http://www.bmovies.com/

Wi-Fi access on the Base at Naval Station Great Lakes


My son John on his Web Cam last night

I had a person e-mail me and ask if they had Wi-Fi access on the Base at Naval Station Great Lakes so I asked my son John about it. He said that there is "Wi-Fi at the library, the loft, and the USO. Out of those the only one that is not really slow is the library's". When John first got his Laptop he was able to connect to the internet at 32kbs from his room. That's slower than dial-up access. John recently got Comcast cables high speed internet with 6 meg download and now everything works great. It looks like Comcast was the way to go.

In other news John got his web cam working last night. We talked online for about an hour. It was really nice to see him. My wife and I also got our Flu shots yesterday so we should be all set for this winter. My daughter Cindy was supposed to have her transfer briefing yesterday but I didn't hear from her so still no news on when she is moving to Va. That's about it from here.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Speed up Vista


I just read a good article over at Digital Journal on how to speed up Windows Vista. Since my sons new laptop computer has Vista I thought I would post this link here. The article gives allot of good advice a few of which are, Turn off indexing and Turn off UAC in Vista. The article also tells you how to do these things and more. Go on over and take a look.

Link to article.

How to change the location of the My Documents folder


How to change the location of the My Documents folder in Windows.

In my computer I have three hard drives. Having more than one hard drive is becoming more and more popular these days.

By default, the My Documents folder located in Windows XP and Windows Vista is located on the same drive or partition as the Windows operating system. This is fine for anyone who has only a single drive or a single partition on their computer, such as the C drive, but if you have more than one physical or logical drive on your computer, it’s probably a good idea to move your My Documents folder off the system drive.

* Reasons to move the My Documents folder

* Free up hard drive space on the system partition.

With all of the monthly updates for Office and Windows, your C drive might be getting close to full. Also, other system files like the paging file, system restore files, and hibernation files are all stored on the system partition. Once you move the My Documents folder data off, you will gave Windows more space to live and breathe.

* Easy backup and recovery of data in case of Windows crash

Another reason to move the My Documents folder is to better help protect your data. For example, if Windows crashes on you one day and you have to perform a reinstall, all of your data on the primary drive will be lost. However, if your data is on the D drive, let’s say, and your Windows on the C drive craps out, you can reinstall a fresh copy of Windows on the C drive and the rest of your data remains intact. Of course, this will not save your data if the entire hard drive fails physically and your My Documents folder is on the same drive, just in a different partition. But there have been many occasions that I've seen when Windows has become unusable due to a virus, spyware or other problem.

* How to move My Documents folder to a new location

* Moving your My Documents folder is actually a simple process and can be done by anyone.

1. Right-click on the My Documents folder and choose Properties

2. Click Move and choose the desired location for your My Documents folder. Remember, it would be best to move it to a different PHYSICAL drive if possible. If not, move it to a different partition at least.

3. Click Ok and then click Apply. You’ll be asked whether you want to move all of the current documents to the new location or not. Choose Yes.

That’s all there is to it. Your documents will be moved to the new location. When you click the My Documents icon on your desktop, it’ll open just as before but your documents will be stored in the new location that you chose.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Cindy going to Dahlgren, VA

My Father sent this message to me by e-mail after I told him where my daughter Cindy is going.

John:
I have been to Dahlgren, VA. It is close to the Maryland border, but there didn't use to be much there. It is near Route 301 I believe. I think it is NSWC Dahlgren for Naval Surface Weapons Center Dahlgren. When I was in Hawaii, we had a rep at Dahlgren who was a LT.

Love, Dad

Thanks Dad. John

John just sent two pictures



My son John just sent two pictures. One is of his new Laptop on his desk and the other is duty section 3 going to "team sports". John said that "We are in first place by 15 points right now." They are having a competition between ( ships ) buildings called "The UCC cup" at Naval Station Great Lakes. John is in Duty section 1 in the same building.

My daughter Cindy called this evening. Cindy got her orders today. She will be going to Dahlgren, Virginia to work on the M-160 Gun Computer System. She doesn't know when she leaves yet. She has a transfer briefing Monday and will let me know more then.



View Larger Map

My daughter Cindy in the Navy just called


My daughter Cindy in the Navy just called from Great Lakes Naval Station. She graduated her FC-A School a few weeks ago and has been working as the Barracks Night Time Yeoman in the office of her ship ( Building ). She will get her orders today at 3pm and then she will know where she is going to go for C School. It will either be San Diego, Ca or Norfolk, VA. I asked her if she had a preference and she said either one was fine with her. She sounded good and said that she has been going out with friends allot. Now if I could just get her to send some pictures? Did you read that Cindy? :)




My son John called today at lunch from Great Lakes Naval Station but I missed his call. He left a message. He is on duty today after class, and he is going to night study tonight, and then he has watch at 4am tomorrow. That sounds like a long day. He got the Hard Drive yesterday that I sent up and has all his music now. That's about all from here for now.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Entire Internet Crashes

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash



Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

Protect Your Laptop Keyboard from Liquid Spills ( Video )


Preventing this from happening is easy. You could simply not drink near the computer, or keep a lid/cap on your beverages. You can also get a keyboard skin (cover) specifically made to protect your particular model.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows

With the fall television schedule in full swing, many of us are back in the habit of plopping down in front of the tube at night to catch the latest installment of your favorite show when it's scheduled to air. That means clearing your schedule to watch the show and then sitting in front of the TV for a whole hour just for 43 minutes' worth of programming. You can watch the three big networks at their sites.

  • ABC Full Episode Player
  • NBC Video Rewind
  • CBS Innertube

  • Go on over to Lifehacker to read the rest.

    read more | digg story

    Tuesday, October 09, 2007

    It's been a slow day so far

    It's been a slow day so far. I went and sent my son John at Great lakes Naval Base a package UPS with his 320GB external hard drive ( now fully loaded with his music and videos ) and also his digital camera, speakers, his mail and a few other things in the box. I also went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and went to Wal-Mart to get some over the counter meds that we needed.


    The above picture is a screen shot using google earth of John's ship ( building ) on base at Great Lakes Naval Base. His building is marked with a yellow tack. Click image for larger view.

    My son John called during his lunch today and sounded good. He is having some problems with Windows Vista on his new Laptop. One of the problems is easily fixed. What happened was that he tried to put some software on that was not fully compatible with Vista and his computer completely froze. He was finally able to do a system restore and everything is working fine now. He cant get the Laptop to recognize his cell phone via Bluetooth but it does find everyone else's Bluetooth enabled devices. Go figure. :) John said that he also can't get the built in webcam to work and he is going to call HP about that when he gets a chance. He thinks it might be a Vista compatibility problem also. Those issues not withstanding he likes the Laptop overall. He said that it is allot better that what he initially expected. He had a busy day yesterday on Watch with several people causing minor problems. I will talk to him tonight online when he is done with his classes. He is still working on his own Blog and will continue to update it as time allows. ( mostly on weekends ). That's all the news from here.

    Sailor Says He Was Mugged, Thrown On Tracks

    Sailor Says He Was Mugged, Thrown On Tracks
    Train Severs Victim's Arm

    You can read the article here at cbs2chicago

    Watch the Video from CBS

    I initially saw this yesterday and was concerned for my two children serving in the Navy at Great Lakes Naval Base. It looks like the sailor might not have been completely truthful when he talked to the police.

    UPDATE: Oct 15, 2007 Police in Lake Bluff say a sailor who lost his lower right arm after being hit by a commuter train now admits it was an accident. You can read the rest of the story here.

    I tried out VeohTV for the first time.



    Last night I tried out VeohTV for the first time. I did a search for Sliders, a TV show that used to be on the Si-Fi channel several years ago. I found numerous episodes and was able to play them back to back with no problems. The video quality and sound were both very good with very little lag noticeable. This morning I watched several episodes of GeekBrief TV "GBTV" with similar results. Overall I liked the experience I had with VeohTV.

    VeohTV is a full-screen online video application which is pitching itself as a more 'open’ alternative to the likes of Joost or Babelgum. Rather than being restricted to formal licensing agreements, VeohTV pulls in videos from thousands of sources which currently includes NBC, CBS, FOX, YouTube, MySpace and numerous others, along Veoh’s own video-sharing site with content browsable via a cable TV-style program guide.

    As already mentioned, VeohTV is designed to be run in full-screen mode and, the company claims, can be operated using a remote control so as to maintain a cable TV-like viewing experience. At the top of the screen are four options: channels, search, interact, and library.

    Channels
    The channel guide (mimicking cable TV) presents a paginated list of video sources (YouTube, CBS, Fox etc). Clicking on any channel then brings up a list of videos — remember this is an on-demand affair rather than replicating live TV — with the option to play, save, mark as a favorite, or view description.

    Search
    As an alternative to browsing by channel, you’re given the option to search by title. As far as I could tell the results are pulled in from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo, Veoh’s own site, and a user’s VeohTV library (which consists of videos you’ve saved or podcasts you’re subscribed to).

    Library
    When you first run the application you’re prompted to install an accompanying web browser add-on (Internet Explorer or Firefox). That’s because VeohTV enables you to download and save almost any DRM-free online video to your library (similar to the way RealPlayer 11 Beta works). In addition, videos can be saved within the application itself. So, for example, if you’re browsing VeohTV’s YouTube channel and you come across a video you want to keep, you can store it on your hard drive for later viewing.

    The browser plug-in also makes it easier to discover video podcasts that you can subscribe to via RSS.

    Interact
    The ‘Interact’ tab is an odd fit, clashing with VeohTV’s otherwise lean-back viewing experience. ‘Interact’ is basically a web page, similar to start-pages Netvibes or Pageflakes where you can install and configure various web-based widgets (powered by yourminis.com) such as news ticker, weather reports etc.

    You can go here and try it yourself.

    Also check out the VeohTV Blog at http://veohblog.blogspot.com/

    Monday, October 08, 2007

    Robot Attack Protection From Old Glory Insurance

    Here’s a hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch from November 18th, 1995 featuring Sam Waterson pitching Robot Attack Protection from Old Glory Insurance.




    As a senior citizen, you’re probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people’s medicine for fuel.

    CD burning for free...

    CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

    Key Features

    * burn all kinds of discs

    * audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks

    * burn and create ISO files

    * data verification after burning process

    * create bootable discs

    * multi-language interface

    * bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!

    * Operating Systems: Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 Server / Vista

    Download now!

    Sunday, October 07, 2007

    Self-Detecting Geek shirt

    The Wi-Fi Detector shirt does everything you'd dream it could do: detect Wi-Fi signals and share them, via your chest, with the entire world. Spotting both 802.11b and 802.11g networks, signal strength is displayed in real time. Read more over at Gizmod.

    My son John got started on his own Blog yesterday

    My son John got started on his own Blog yesterday with two post. He will be posting regularly from now on. He didn't get the Best of The Best award at OS-A school last week, that was given to a Fleet Returnee. The Fleet Returnees always get first shot at it. I guess they want to show their support for the guys that have been out in the Fleet and then came back to school. I understand that. Yesterday I picked up a 320GB external hard drive that John had ordered from Wal-Mart and spent most of the day putting all his music and programs on it. The first thing I did with the Hard Drive was to format it with the NTFS file system instead of the Fat32 system that it was formatted with from the factory. For more information read "NTFS vs. FAT: Which Is Right for You?" from Microsoft. I will mail him the hard drive, his digital camera, extra speakers, and some shirts that he wanted Tuesday by UPS. Hopefully he will have everything by Friday.




    John saw the Lt. Dan Band perform at Great Lakes Naval Station Friday evening. He got to sit in the front row and had his picture taken allot and was recorded on video. If we find the pictures I will post them later. The Lt. Dan Band is a cover band founded by Kimo Williams and Gary Sinise. The band is named after the character Lieutenant Dan Taylor, whom Sinise portrayed in the film Forrest Gump. He also saw Jim Lovell. Jim Lovell is a former NASA astronaut, most famous as the commander of Apollo 13, which suffered an explosion enroute to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission control. Lovell was also the command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo mission to enter lunar orbit. Lovell is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Now that your done reading here go over to http://navygeek.blogspot.com/ and read my sons new Blog.

    Wednesday, October 03, 2007

    Another phone call


    My son John called again last night, his laptop is fine. It works great. John also got a remote control for his computer that he didn't order so that was nice. He ordered internet through comcast cable and they are supposed to come out either this weekend or next weekend at the latest. He managed to get online last night through the Navy's internet on base but it was too slow for him, he was connected at 32kbps LOL Really slow. When he gets comcast he will have 6 meg download. I mailed a box of his stuff out to him Monday and he should get that today UPS so he will have most of his software and his flash drive and such. I know he will be happy to get that. He said that as soon as he can he will sinc his Laptop and his cell phone and send several more pictures that he has.

    John also said that after he did so well on the radar test yesterday he got to help teach some of the classes and he is in the running for the "Best of The Best" again this week. That's about all the news from here... Hope you have a Great Day.

    Tuesday, October 02, 2007

    John just called from his OS-A School

    My son John just called from his OS-A School at Great Lakes Naval Base and he had a test today on Radar that he had been really worried about. He got the highest score ever on the new test. ( They changed the test several months ago ) John's overall score was a 93.7%. He was so worried that he would not pass it, several other people that took the test before him got scores in the 50% range. I asked him how he did so well and he said "I studied my ass off" :) His score on the test was equal to the Chiefs that teaches that class. He was very happy.

    John also received his Laptop today in the mail but has to wait until 7pm tonight to open it during mail call. He said that the box has some scratches on it and is dented in in one place so he really hoping that his Laptop is ok. That's all the news from here...

    The Family Tech Support Person

    There is a good article over at lifehack.org called "How to Survive as the Family Tech Support Guy (or Gal)." I can relate to this. I am the tech guy for my family and friends. :) If your interested go on over and read he article.

    They mention LogMeIn and I have advocated LogMeIn for a while now and it really comes in handy.

    "Tip: install LogMeIn Free on all your family member’s computers and link them to your account. Then you’ll be able to log in to their computers from home and work on it just like you would if you were in front of the computer itself. This is obviously no good for problems when the computer won’t boot or there’s a hardware problem, but for little things like setting up email, updating a program, or troubleshooting a network connection, it’s just the thing. And it’s free."