Comcast limits customers to 250 gigs a month

Image via WikipediaStarting October 1, broadband provider Comcast will begin officially capping consumer use at 250 gigs a month, according to the company's recently-updated Frequently Asked Questions about Excessive Use.

If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, he or she may receive a call from Comcast's Customer Security Assurance (CSA) group to notify them of excessive use.

Customers who top 250 GB in a month twice in a six-month timeframe could have service terminated for a year.

I will have to ask my son John how many Gigs a month he uses as a Comcast subscriber. He is in the Navy and when he is on base here in the States he uses his computer for, Internet, E-Mail, Online gaming, TV and Movies, and even phone calls with Skype.

Read more about Comcast’s decision to cap monthly broadband usage at 250GB and why it is being decried as the end of the Internet as we know it here at Techcrunch. Also take a look at what they have to say over at gHacks.

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Computer viruses make it to orbit

Image via Wikipedia A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS).

Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had traveled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected.

Read more about this at BBC News.

What a Day

It's been a real pain today. This morning I had to take my wife Vicki to get an MRI of her back and I had to have some blood work done. Vicki has been having back problems and pain for several months after taking a bad fall in the house. If you don't already know it Vicki has MS, and SLE. That was not the part that was a problem today. I would do anything for my wife and I have no complaints about that. The problem is that our solar lights that we had in our front yard for several years were stolen while we were gone this morning. We were only gone for 1 1/2 hrs and the 8 solar lights were here when we left at 9:30am and were gone at 11am when we returned home. My wife has lived in this neighborhood for 20 years and I have been here for 10 years myself and never had anything like this happen. We are certain of the people that took them. We have new neighbors two houses north of us and they seem to be nothing but trouble. I did call the police and made a report when we got home. I also went out and bought locks for our back yard gate, garage and so on. What a pain in the a**. The nice thing about living here is that all the other neighbors that we have on our block are great. We mentioned the theft to our next door neighbors ( I mow their lawn for them whenever I mow mine, no charge ) and they brought a new set of solar light over to us. You can't get better people than that. I will tell you that the people that took our lights will not be happy if I catch them touching my stuff again. :) That's about all for now..

Two Computers with One Set of Speakers

Good afternoon everyone. Sorry I haven't posted in a while but things have been quiet around here. As you probably know from previous post I have two computers that I use at the same time. One is running Windows XP and the other is running Linux, Ubuntu 7.10 the Gutsy Gibbon. I have the two computers connected using Synergy so that I only have to use one mouse and keyboard for both computers. Today I decided that I wanted to hear the sounds, music, and so on from my Linux system through the Creative SBS 5.1 560 speakers connected to my Windows PC. I went to Radio Shack and bought a male 1/8" jack to a male 1/8" jack cable and connected it to the Line out of the Linux machine and to the Line in of the Windows PC. Now I can listen to music and sounds from both computers using only one set of speakers. It was so easy and it sounds great, I did have to adjust the Line out volume sound on the Linux computer a little as to not get distortion but once that was done all worked great.

Cindy goes to her Ship today

Image via Wikipedia Good afternoon all. My daughter in the Navy Cindy starts her journey to her Ship the USS Abraham Lincoln today. Cindy joined the Navy March 2007 and has since completed Boot Camp at Great Lakes, then, FC-A-School also at Great Lakes, then FC CIWS C-School in San Diego and is now in Everett Washington. She leaves today. We are very proud of all that she has accomplished in the last year and a half. God bless you Cindy and good luck.

Reenact Your Best Gaming Moment, Win an $1800 Video Pro PC

iBUYPOWER, maker of gaming PCs, is launching a new line of video PCs, developed with the amateur videographer in mind. And to promote them, they're giving away one of their $1800 Video Pro systems - packed with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor, ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card and 8 GB of DDR- 2 RAM, in a Gigabyte Poseidon gaming tower case - in their Favorite Gaming Moments YouTube Contest.

Just reenact your best moment, upload the video to Youtube any time before the end of August, and the winner will be selected from a group of ten finalists by the You Tube community in the second week of September.

http://www.ibuypower.com/WinAPC/WinAPC.asp

Security Warning fake Microsoft e-mail.

Screen Shot. Click Image to see full size.

If you get an e-mail that says it's from Microsoft asking you to download anything just delete it. It's a Trojan/virus. Microsoft is not going to send you download links. This one leads to, I am not posting the beginning to this URL for security reasons.de/DE44424232V2/images/ie7.0.exe Just delete these kinds of e-mails unless you want to pay me to fix your computer.

Read more about this here at the Internet Storm Center.

Rainy day

My wife Vicki with surprise lilies that she cut from our yard.

My Desk and computers.

My Desk and computers.

Good afternoon everyone. It's been a quiet rainy day with temps in the 60s and we love it. We had several weeks of hot sunny days with temps in the upper 90s and heat indexes of 105-110. I'm sure those days will be back soon enough so we will enjoy the cool weather while we can. :) My son in the Navy, John called today from Annapolis, Md. He was getting ready to go to the Mall with several of his shipmates. John was doing well and sounded great, he promised us pictures when he gets back to Mayport, FL. As for us we cleaned the house, mowed the lawn and Vicki cut some flowers yesterday and I moved the furniture around in my computer room / guest room. That's always fun, Not! Just doing all the wiring for the computers, network and so on is daunting. I made a roast, mashed potatoes, and gravy today that we will eat from for the next few days as we relax. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Update: John got a cell phone charger at the Mall.

Hulu, ad supported TV and Movies online.

Good evening all. A few nights ago I couldn't fall asleep so I decided to take another look at Hulu. I have written about Hulu in the past but really haven't paid much attention to it in a while. I went to the site and found that they have added more movies. I watched Spy Game and really enjoyed it. Hulu offers several current and past TV shows and some movies online. All are free to watch with limited commercial interruptions. 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. Anyway, I picked out the movie that I wanted to watch and then clicked the option to have it on a pop out window and dragged it over to my television that I have hooked up to my computer and watched Spy Game. I really enjoyed it. Take a look at Hulu and try it for yourself. It's free. :)

http://www.hulu.com/

August’s Patch Tuesday Microsoft

Here's what Microsoft has planned for us next Patch Tuesday that affects Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and some components of Windows such as:

* Windows Messenger
* Internet Explorer
* Outlook Express/Windows Mail
* Media Player

The affected Operating Systems are as follows:

* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows Vista
* Windows Server 2008

The affected Microsoft Office products are:

* Microsoft Works 8
* Microsoft Office 2000 SP3
* Microsoft Office XP SP3
* Microsoft Office 2003 SP2 and SP3
* Microsoft Office System 2007 and with SP1
* Microsoft Office Project 2002
* Snapshot Viewer for Microsoft Access
* Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003
* Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003 and with SP3
* Microsoft Office Excel Viewer
* Microsoft Office Converter Pack
* Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack
* Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and with SP1
* Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac
* Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

They also plan to release an updated version of Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Microsoft is also planning to release the following non-security update on August 12, 2008 via Windows Update website:

* Windows Mail Junk E-mail Filter [August 2008] (KB905866)
* Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (KB944289)
* Update for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP (KB951072)
* Update for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP (KB951618)
* Update for Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows XP (KB952287)
* Update for Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3 Service Pack 1 (KB954960)


* Seven Microsoft Security Bulletins with maximum severity of Critical.
* Five with maximum severity of Important.
* These updates may require a restart.

This is an advance notification of security bulletins that Microsoft is intending to release on August 12, 2008.

You can read more about these here.

Happy Birthday Mark

Mark

Today is my brothers Birthday. Happy Birthday Mark. I hope you have a great day. Love, John