Flooding in and around Chanute, Kansas ( More Pictures)

This is looking north on Santa Fe near the north city limits.
Buildings on the east side of North Santa Fe.
East Main Street
Water Flowing over US-169 just across Neosho River Bridge north of Chanute. Cars were 'sightseers' and had to turn around on the bridge. This picture was taken from a mile away.
Flooded homes on west side of S. Ashby on east edge of Chanute.
Spillway of Santa Fe Lake in south Chanute.

2007 Chanute, KS Flood ( More Pictures)

745 AM CDT TUE JUL 3 2007

THE NATL WEATHER SVC IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A

*FLOOD WARNING FOR.
ELK COUNTY IN SE KS.
LABETTE COUNTY IN SE KS.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN SE KS.
NEOSHO COUNTY IN SE KS.
WILSON COUNTY IN SE KS.
WOODSON COUNTY IN SE KS.

*UNTIL 745 PM CDT TUESDAY

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTINUED TO REPORT NUMEROUS ROAD CLOSURES DUE TO HIGH WATER.

DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS SAFELY.

A WARNING MEANS THAT FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR OCCURRING. IF YOU ARE IN THE WARNING AREA MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND IMMEDIATELY. RESIDENTS LIVING ALONG STREAMS & CREEKS SHOULD TAKE IMMEDIATE PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT LIFE & PROPERTY. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS SWIFTLY FLOWING WATERS OR WATERS OF UNKNOWN DEPTH BY FOOT OR BY AUTOMOBILE.











Another friend sent us these pictures of the flood in Chanute.

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent~ShowEvent~674992

Extremely heavy rainfall from the end of June into early July caused flash flooding throughout Neosho County. The flash flooding and the ensuing river flooding resulted in roughly 100 homes being destroyed and another 50 sustaining major damage. This resulted in at least 10.5 million dollars in damages. An additional 1.5 million dollars in damage was reported public infrastructure. The Neosho River reached a record crest of 40.6 feet on the morning of July 2nd. This was 11.6 feet above flood stage. Major flooding was seen on the Neosho at Chanute when a crest of 36.82 feet was recorded on the morning of July 1st. The Neosho inundated the city of Chanute with some areas under as much as 7 to 8 feet of water. The river remained above flood stage at Chanute until July 4th and at Erie until July 5th.An upper level low pressure system and associated frontal boundary stalled across the area for several days, resulting in periods of numerous and widespread heavy showers and thunderstorms across portions of south-central and southeast Kansas from early on the 27th until July 1st. Phenomenal rainfall totals occurred during this period, ranging anywhere from 8 inches, to as much as 20 inches, heaviest across southeast Kansas. A few the most extreme and measured rainfall reports from June 28th - 30th were 18.29 inches at Fredonia, 12.47 inches at Independence, 11.70 inches at Iola, 9.18 inches at Chanute, 8.63 inches at Erie and 8.40 inches at Coffeyville. Excessive runoff produced widespread, catastrophic, record flooding across much of southeast Kansas, particularly in the vicinity of area rivers, streams and creeks. Hardest hit were the Verdigris and Fall Rivers, where record flooding was observed at Fall River, Independence and Coffeyville. The Neosho River was also hard hit with record flooding observed at Erie and major flooding observed at Chanute, Parsons and Oswego. Public, private and crop damage was extensive and at times severe. Hundreds to potentially a few thousand homes and businesses sustained severe flood damage, an incalculable number of roads were closed due to high water, and several bridges were either washed out or sustained damage. Thousands of acres of crops sustained severe damage. Thousands of miles of roads were damaged from the flood waters. Evacuations and water rescues were common, as several towns were for a time surrounded and/or engulfed by flood waters. Water became unsafe, as flood waters inundated water and sewage treatment plants. Thousands of residents were without power for an extended period of time. Several counties were declared federal disaster areas. Public and private damages likely exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, but exact monetary values will be difficult to nearly impossible to determine. The flooding in Coffeyville enveloped the Coffeyville Resources Refinery. A malfunctioning pump lead to a 71,000 gallon crude oil spill into the Verdigris River, leaving an oily gunk on everything the oil touched, and contaminating the water for miles. One fatality occurred in Coffeyville, when a gentleman refused to evacuate his motel room, despite being warned twice by emergency officials of the impending flood.

Southeast Kansas Flood July, 2007

Flooding in Chanute, KS. July 2007

Flood Video Southeast, KS 2007

Chanute Flood July 2, 2007

A friend sent us these pictures of the Chanute Flood ( where we live ). These were taken yesterday.

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwevent~ShowEvent~674992

Extremely heavy rainfall from the end of June into early July caused flash flooding throughout Neosho County. The flash flooding and the ensuing river flooding resulted in roughly 100 homes being destroyed and another 50 sustaining major damage. This resulted in at least 10.5 million dollars in damages. An additional 1.5 million dollars in damage was reported public infrastructure. The Neosho River reached a record crest of 40.6 feet on the morning of July 2nd. This was 11.6 feet above flood stage. Major flooding was seen on the Neosho at Chanute when a crest of 36.82 feet was recorded on the morning of July 1st. The Neosho inundated the city of Chanute with some areas under as much as 7 to 8 feet of water. The river remained above flood stage at Chanute until July 4th and at Erie until July 5th.An upper level low pressure system and associated frontal boundary stalled across the area for several days, resulting in periods of numerous and widespread heavy showers and thunderstorms across portions of south-central and southeast Kansas from early on the 27th until July 1st. Phenomenal rainfall totals occurred during this period, ranging anywhere from 8 inches, to as much as 20 inches, heaviest across southeast Kansas. A few the most extreme and measured rainfall reports from June 28th - 30th were 18.29 inches at Fredonia, 12.47 inches at Independence, 11.70 inches at Iola, 9.18 inches at Chanute, 8.63 inches at Erie and 8.40 inches at Coffeyville. Excessive runoff produced widespread, catastrophic, record flooding across much of southeast Kansas, particularly in the vicinity of area rivers, streams and creeks. Hardest hit were the Verdigris and Fall Rivers, where record flooding was observed at Fall River, Independence and Coffeyville. The Neosho River was also hard hit with record flooding observed at Erie and major flooding observed at Chanute, Parsons and Oswego. Public, private and crop damage was extensive and at times severe. Hundreds to potentially a few thousand homes and businesses sustained severe flood damage, an incalculable number of roads were closed due to high water, and several bridges were either washed out or sustained damage. Thousands of acres of crops sustained severe damage. Thousands of miles of roads were damaged from the flood waters. Evacuations and water rescues were common, as several towns were for a time surrounded and/or engulfed by flood waters. Water became unsafe, as flood waters inundated water and sewage treatment plants. Thousands of residents were without power for an extended period of time. Several counties were declared federal disaster areas. Public and private damages likely exceeded hundreds of millions of dollars, but exact monetary values will be difficult to nearly impossible to determine. The flooding in Coffeyville enveloped the Coffeyville Resources Refinery. A malfunctioning pump lead to a 71,000 gallon crude oil spill into the Verdigris River, leaving an oily gunk on everything the oil touched, and contaminating the water for miles. One fatality occurred in Coffeyville, when a gentleman refused to evacuate his motel room, despite being warned twice by emergency officials of the impending flood.

Navy Boot Camp ( First letter home)

My son John is in boot camp at Great Lakes, Ill with the Navy. He is in Div 259 Ship 10. He is allow to write home Sundays and the letters will arrive here on Thursdays. Here is a small part of what he said last week in his letter.

Just got the first letter from John and he asked that I post this part on here for him.

"So far things are not too bad. The first day was really boring, we just mainly sat around and waited. At one point one of the Petty Officers forgot about my division ( which consisted of 88 people, now 87 ) and left us waiting in the hallway for two hrs. So far there has not been any physical training, that wont start until after the processing days ) I had to stand watch last night ( Saturday night ) from 3am-4am it wasn't that bad it gave me more time to study."

He called several days ago after he wrote the letter and said that things were still going well. He had a lot of dental work done. They are going to break his jaw and reset it and give him braces. He had several teeth pulled this last week. He said to tell his friends to write him. He said that the running was not that bad but the marching hurt his feet. His boots are the wrong size and he is going to exchange them.

We should get more letters today. He went into Boot Camp June 14th so this is two weeks so far. :) Having a daughter that just went through it makes is much easer. (Update, he was too busy and couldn't write that week and the next weeks letter got lost in the mail for several days )

If you want to write John at Boot camp just let me know and I will give you his address. :)

Here is a link to two videos that I posted earlier that show some of what they do in Boot camp with the Navy.

My Son Joined the Navy

My Son John joined the Navy after this semester at college and left for Boot Camp today. He had accumulated 37 credits towards his degree in Computer Science. He plans on finishing college and getting his degree while in the Navy. We are going to miss him. He is going to be an OS ( OPERATIONS SPECIALIST ). We wish him all the best and our thoughts and prayers are with him.

My Navy Daughter

My Daughter Cindy is in the Navy currently going to her A school for AECF FC ( Advanced Electronics Computer Field, Fire Control ) in Great lakes, IL. I am so proud of her. Good job Cindy. :) Love, Dad

Reminder: Monday is Wiretap the Internet Day!

May 14th is the official deadline for cable modem companies, DSL providers, broadband over powerline, satellite internet companies and some universities to finish wiring up their networks with FBI-friendly surveillance gear, to comply with the FCC's expanded interpretation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.



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Yahoo To Shut Down Yahoo Photos In Favor Of Flickr

Yahoo is not forcing transition to Flickr - instead, users are being given the option of choosing among a number of top photo sharing sites. If you are a current Yahoo! Photos user, you will be given the option to export all your photos into Flickr (a one-click process) or you will be able to export to a few other services such as Photobucket, Snapfish, Kodak Gallery or Shutterfly. Most of these services have built special tools to transition users.

Read the full article here.

Petfood recall widens on cross-contamination

A major pet food recall has expanded again as manufacturer Menu Foods Income Fund revealed evidence of cross-contamination by some cat and dog food pulled since March.

About 4,000 complaints of related pet deaths have been reported to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration by Thursday, but the agency said that only 16 deaths of cats and dogs have been confirmed.

The pet foods recalled late on Wednesday were made at the same facility at the same time as other Menu Foods products that contained wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine, the company said in statement.

Menu Foods, which initiated a recall of 60 million packages of pet food on March 16, said the additional products were not supposed to contain wheat gluten, but a customer report and study results indicated cross-contamination.

Since then, Menu Foods has expanded its recall several times.

Melamine, used in plastics and fertilizer, has turned up in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China and shipped to various pet food manufacturers. More than 100 brands of pet food have been recalled after reports of kidney failure in cats and dogs and several pet deaths.

Menu Foods makes pet food sold under a variety of labels such as Iams, Eukanuba, President's Choice and Nutro Max Gourmet Classics and store brands sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Safeway Inc. and Petsmart Inc.

Other pet food manufacturers, including Colgate-Palmolive Co., Nestle SA, and Del Monte Pet Products, have also pulled some brands.

The recalls came amid mounting reports of pet deaths and thousands of consumer complaints to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's hotline.

The agency has received about 17,000 complaints of sick pets, with deaths reported in half of about 8,000 complaints that have been entered into an FDA database, it said.

LITTLE RISK FOR HUMANS

The FDA has expanded its investigation to include livestock feed that contained tainted pet food and made its way to some 6,000 hogs and as many as 3.1 million chickens.

While both the FDA and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture have said food from those pigs and chickens poses little risk for humans, they have called for remaining livestock that consumed the feed to be slaughtered.

Wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate are also used in human foods such as bread and pasta, but there is "no evidence that it has ended up in baby food or for that matter any other human food as an ingredient," said FDA Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection David Acheson.

He said the FDA was continuing to hold vegetable-based proteins from China at the border pending further inspection as well as testing samples of pet foods and ingredients already in the United States.

Of 700 domestic samples tested, about 400 tested positive for melamine and were traced back to the two Chinese companies -- Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd. and Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. Ltd.

FDA investigators are in China working with officials there, Acheson said.

The FDA has said it thinks a combination of melamine and melamine-related compounds form crystals in some pets' kidneys that can cause problems. "We don't believe that the melamine alone is the cause of this," Acheson said.

Filler Responsible For Pet Food Deaths Is Open Secret in China

As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein.



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6 Degrees of Computer Science

A common confusion among high school seniors interested in computers has to do with too many, often similar, options available for pursuit in higher education. What is the difference between Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, and why is neither the same as obtaining a Computer Science degree. Go here and take a look.

Video: RSS in Plain English

Click To Play

There are two types of Internet users, those that use RSS and those that don't. This video is for the people who could save time using RSS, but don't know where to start.

Yahoo! Sued For Human Rights Violations - Cooperation with Chinese government raises concerns

Human rights organizations have been keeping an eye on Yahoo! for years because of the company s cooperation with countries like China where cyber dissidents are criminals regularly sentenced to long prison terms for their subversive online writing. Back in 2005, Reporters Without Borders was emphasizing the fact that IP address information given to the Chinese government resulted in a ten year sentence for one of these online writers. The exact same situation has happened again but this time the activist group has teamed up with the World Organization for Human Rights USA and the wife of the sentenced dissident in a lawsuit against Yahoo!

University VP of Information Services Uses Patriot Act Against Students

University of Portland VP of Information Services has used the Patriot Act against several students. One student wrote a program to bypass Cisco Clean Access and distributed it to a select few. The programmer was suspended for a year and essentially told he was a terrorist. The VP of IS wasn't even able to recognize the code used. It was C++. How sad...

Read the rest of the article here

Criminal Probe Opened in Pet Food Scare

FDA Says Charges Possible; Tainted Pork Confirmed in Calif

The Food and Drug Administration has opened a criminal investigation in the widening pet food contamination scandal, officials said yesterday, as it was confirmed that tainted pork might have made its way onto human dinner plates in California.

More than 100 hogs that ate contaminated food at a custom slaughterhouse in California's Central Valley were sold to private individuals and to an unnamed licensed facility in Northern California during the past 2 1/2 weeks. The hogs consumed feed that contained rice protein tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened and killed dogs and cats around the world.

Read the rest here at the Washington Post.

Apple security patch tackles two dozen Mac OS vulnerabilities

Apple Inc. on Thursday plugged over two dozen security exploits within the client and server versions of its Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" and Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" operating systems that could potentially expose Mac users to a variety of malicious attacks. A version of the software update for systems running Mac OS X 10.4.9 -- labeled Security Update...



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See All of Your Friend's Online Activity in One Place

With Tabber you can import your contacts from a number of sources (gmail, digg, myspace, yahoo, aim etc) and tie them to additional social sites such as blogs, del.icio.us and photo galleries. You can then view their recent activity on these sites in aggregate or individually.



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Pet food recall widens Today ( Updated April 28th )

Wilbur-Ellis Co. said on Thursday it was voluntarily recalling all lots of a rice protein concentrate its feed division had shipped to pet-food manufacturers.

Wilbur-Ellis said the recall was because of a risk that rice protein concentrate may have been contaminated by melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers that can lead to illness or fatalities if consumed.

The announcement is the latest in a widening recall of dog and cat food products across the United States since mid-March. More than 100 brands of pet food have been recalled after reports of cases of pets developing kidney failure.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received more than 14,000 reports of pet illnesses so far. Officials have confirmed just 16 deaths but believe the actual number could be higher.

Wilbur-Ellis' said it obtained rice protein from a single source in China and shipped it to five U.S. pet-food manufacturers, in Utah, New York, Kansas and two in Missouri.

The company said it had told the FDA on Sunday that a single bag in a recent shipment of rice protein concentrate from its Chinese supplier, Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co. Ltd., had tested positive for melamine.

Wilbur-Ellis said it separated that bag and quarantined the entire shipment for further testing and no further deliveries of rice protein concentrate had been made since.

The company also said a pet food distributor issued a voluntary recall of its pet food on Monday, believing the source of contamination to be rice protein concentrate supplied by it.

Wilbur-Ellis said it is urging all pet food manufacturers using rice protein concentrate supplied by it to recall any pet food that may be on supermarket shelves.

So Far Pet Foods Manufactured by the following Companies have Recalled Pet Foods.

* Menu Foods

* Del Monte Pet Products

* Hills Pet Nutrition

* Nestlé Purina PetCare Company

* Sunshine Mills, Inc.

* Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

* Wilbur-Ellis Company

* Royal Canin USA (April 19)

* Blue Buffalo Company (April 19)

* SmartPak (April 20)

* Diamond Pet Food ( April 26)

* Chenango Valley Pet Foods ( April 26)

* American Nutrition, Inc (April 26)

* Sierra Pet Products, LLC Issues Nationwide Recall of "Harmony Farms" Canned Dog Foods, "Harmony Farms" Canned Cat Foods and "Harmony Farms" Dog Treats (April 27)



Wilbur-Ellis noted that it obtained rice protein from a single source in China and shipped to a total of five U.S. pet-food manufacturers located in Utah, N.Y., Kansas and two in Missouri.



FDA Website with complete list of Recalled Pet Foods.

FDA Main Pet Food Recall Site

*This Post UPDATED May 2*

Virginia Tech.. Very Sad.. Apathy

As my wife and I have sat and watched the sad news from Virginia Tech the last few days we started thinking about what other students at other colleges thought about all this. We asked our son what they had to say about it in his classes at College here in Kansas and were astounded to hear that it was not discussed in any of his classes ( even Psychology ) Is it Apathy on the part of the students and teachers here? I wonder...

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the students, professors, and their families at Virginia Tech.

From Virginia Tech

To honor and remember the victims of Monday's tragedy, the university has created the April 16 Memorial Website so individuals may share condolences, thoughts, and prayers.

Using Google as a Proxy (or HOW TO: View MySpace at School)

It's very interesting that Google, a host unlikely to end up on most blacklists, has a couple of tools that can essentially act as a web proxy! I normally wouldn't put this on my Blog except for that fact that my sons College blocks several sites also. In my opinion College students are adults paying for their education and should be treated like adults and should police themselves.



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Menu Foods Expands Recall to More Cat Food

Menu Foods, Inc., a private label manufacturer based in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada, expanded its recall on Tuesday, April 10, to cat food not previously subject to the recall. The varieties of cat food in the United States and Canada now being recalled are included in the list at the bottom of this news release. A complete list of Menu Foods' recalled products, including the new items, can be reviewed at www.menufoods.com.

See FDA site for info

Opera 9.2 released

Finally! 9.2 is launched today. 9.2 is not only an important update with bug fixes and the new Speed Dial functionality, it's also a milestone in spreading Opera to new users around the world: Opera 9.2 for Windows ships with 31 languages.



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Opera's Web browser lets visitors see mini versions of their nine favorite sites at a glance

The latest version of Opera's Web browser lets visitors see mini versions of their nine favorite sites at a glance. Click on any thumbnail to load the full site.

The Speed Dial feature also lets people access the site by typing its corresponding numeral — 1 to 9 — in the address bar.

"Speed Dial is a fresh way to call up the top sites you enjoy throughout the day," Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive of Opera Software ASA, said in a statement. "It's a cool, new way to access those sites."

Users still have the option of typing in the entire Web address or calling up the site using a traditional bookmark.

The feature, available in the 9.2 version of the Opera browser released Wednesday, represents the Norwegian software maker's latest attempt to distinguish itself from more popular rivals like Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.

Opera's free software is available for the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Research finds Opera users are most satisfied

When the browser share is factored into the best browser voting, the analysis is even more revealing. The results imply that Opera has the most satisfied user base, followed by Firefox and [Apple’s] Safari,” according to NetApplications.

Read more at Opera Watch.

Navy Boot Camp... Recruit Training Command Great Lakes ( Video )

My daughter Cindy is in Navy Boot Camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes right now. Ship 6, Div 924. She graduates May 11, 2007.Go Navy...



Part1






Part2

MySpace blocks Photobucket

Yesterday MySpace made the decision to prevent Photobucket users from posting their videos and remixes to their MySpace pages.

This action by MySpace means that all of the videos and remixes you created will no longer show up on your MySpace profile, blog and comments section. More specifically, if you attempt to add new videos or remixes to your profile, they will be removed.

Read more at the Photobucket Blog.

Facebook named 'Hottest' of the hottest startups

Commenters are nominating the hottest startups of Silicon Valley. We totted up the mentions on both threads. Facebook, the college social network, scores highest; with Admob, the mobile ad network, following up.



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Facebook unveils new site design amid growth surge

Facebook, which has enjoyed explosive growth relative to rival social networking sites since a membership crisis six months ago, is set to unveil new features on Wednesday that mark its progress from a dating site for college kids into a mainstream network tool.

On Wednesday, Facebook is introducing new features designed to simplify how users navigate through individual member profiles to keep tabs on friends and associates. It will offer so-called portal pages that give users a bird's eye view of groups they belong to and of possible groups they might join.

Facebook counts more than 19 million registered users across 47,000 regional, work-related, college or high-school networks. The site's popularity is tied to the control users have over what other members see, which discourages members from cloaking their identify in the anonymity of many sites, so much so that many members post their mobile phone numbers.

You can read the full article here.

Bogus US-Iran War Spam E-Mail

A weekend spam run tried to dupe recipients into downloading the infamous "Storm Trojan" by attaching files that posed as videos of a bogus missile strike by the U.S. against Iran, antivirus vendors said Monday.

The unsolicited e-mail, which arrives with provocative subject lines that include "Missle [sic] Strike: The USA kills more then [sic] 20000 Iranian citizens," "USA Declares War on Iran," and "USA Just Have Started World War III," include attached executable files such as video.exe and readme.exe, said Symantec.

I know that our Spam filter stopped several of these from entering our inboxes over the weekend. :)

Walmart Pulls Tainted Pet Food By Day, Restocks It By Night

"Walmart is recalling tainted pet food during the day, only to restock it again at night. This egregious display of corporate ineptitude was detailed to The News & Observer by Walmart merchandise supervisor, Johnnie Walker..."

This was especially interesting because my son and I were in our local Walmart a few days ago and were told the same thing by a Walmart employee in the pet department.

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Pet food recall... Check these websites.

A lot of people seem to think that it is just one place menufoods.com that they have to check when it comes to the recent pet food recall. That is wrong! It's not just menufoods it is also pet foods manufactured by.

* Menu Foods
* Del Monte Pet Products
* Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc.
* Nestle Purina PetCare Company
* Sunshine Mills

You can go here to the American Veterinary Medical Association Pet food recall


And also here to the FDA pet food recall list


It seems like the are adding more foods every day so keep checking those websites. By the way our dog ate Alpo, and Oldroy and got sick. We just got him back from the vet and after IV therapy and antibiotics he should be fine.

Comcast Cuts Off Bandwidth Hogs

Customers across the country have been contacted by the telecom giant with a warning to curb excessive bandwidth consumption or risk a one-year service termination. Comcast, however, is refusing to reveal how much bandwidth use is allowed, making it impossible for customers to know if they are in danger of violating Comcast's limit.



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IE7 Trojan on the Loose

If you get a e-mail telling your IE7 Beta 2 is ready for release stop and think a few seconds. IE7 has already been released it is well out of Beta. This trojan is pretty nasty so don’t fall for this one. After all you should be using Firefox or Opera anyway...

Vulnerability in Windows Animated Cursor Handling

Watch out for those web sites that have animated cursors. Especially make sure you don't surf to those with Internet Explorer unless you want to leave your computer vulnerable to hackers.

Microsoft has issued a notice that it is investigating the vulnerability. If users visit a web site or view an e-mail containing hacked .ani files (the animated cursor file type), so Microsoft's advice for the moment: be careful when opening unsolicited emails or browsing new web sites.

The vulnerability appears to affect Internet Explorer 6 and 7 running on Windows XP SP2.

All the more reason to switch to either Firefox or Opera for you browser.

Microsoft Security Advisory (935423)
Title: Vulnerability in Windows Animated Cursor Handling

You are what you watch TV

I found a new website today called Pyro.TV. Pyro.TV allows you to select from a broad range of video channels naturally, just like choosing channels on your TV. Select video titles by genre, most popular, or search the TV channel library for exactly what you want. Check it out here.

Foobar2000 Audio Player gets Interface Revolution

The audiophile geek's music player foobar2000 has had an aesthetic update of epic proportions; using the new PanelsUI component users can completely customize their configurations using pop-open panels, tabs and buttons; virtually all arrangements are now possible. This revolution has been encapsulated by the linked to configuration.

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Internet traffic to the top 20 social networking sites

According to Hitwise, the US market share of Internet traffic to the top 20 social networking sites grew by 11.5 percent from January to February 2007, to account for 6.5 percent of all Internet traffic in February 2007. Perhaps unsurprisingly, MySpace is still the heavyweight in a market made up of featherweights, with an 80% share. Facebook is MySpace's closest challenger with 10% of the market.

Read it here

Dell, Alienware Ship Systems With One Terabyte Drives

Dell and Alienware are the first PC manufacturers to include an internal 1TB (that’s one terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes) hard drive as a build-to-order options on their systems. You’ll find this hulking hard drive on “select” XPS, Aurora and Area 51 boxes. Adding 1TB of space will cost you just a little bit, somewhere in the neighborhood of $540



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My daughter joined the Navy

My Daughter Cindy

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. My 20 year old daughter moved in with us a month ago. She had a job and an apartment within 18 hrs of moving here and then ended up joining the Navy and shipped off to Boot Camp this week. It's been a little hectic to say the least. She will be in Great Lakes IL for most of the next year, 8 weeks for boot camp and then 42 weeks of school. She is going into the Advanced Computer Electronics Field. I want to say congratulations to my daughter Cindy and wish her all the best in life and her new career.

Link to Recruit Training Command

Food Commodities For the Chanute area will be distributed Friday March 16th, 9:00am

Food Commodities For the Chanute area will be distributed Friday March 16th, 9:00am at the Otterbein United Methodist Church 631 W. 7th, Chanute, KS. Entrance will be on the East side of the church under the canopy.

Foods will be available to individuals and families based on income. Please bring Identification, proof of Address and proof of income for all applicable family members.

Recipients of cash assistance, food stamps and general assistance are automatically eligible for Food Commodities with proof of current benefits.

The possibilities of a career in Computer Science

The folks at Microsoft Research Lab have just produced this funky futuristic video exploring the possibilities of a career in Computer Science. Enjoy the show.


Career in Computer Science - MS Research

No Microsoft Security Updates this month

On March 13, 2007 Microsoft is planning to release:

Security Updates
No new Microsoft Security Bulletins will be released on March 13, 2007.

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
Microsoft will release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center.
Note that this tool will not be distributed using Software Update Services (SUS).

Non-security High Priority updates on MU, WU, WSUS and SUS
- Microsoft will release two non-security high-priority updates for Windows on Windows Update (WU) and Software Update Services (SUS).
- Microsoft will release four non-security high-priority updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

Sunday funny

Sunday funny? Satire? Or political cartoon? You decide. :)

How to use filters to Download all the MP3's on a Web page

Over at Lifehacker today they have a great article on how to supercharge your Firefox downloads with DownThemAll. DownThemAll is a powerful yet easy-to-use Mozilla Firefox extension that adds new advanced download capabilities to your browser. Lifehacker explains how to use filters to Download all the MP3's on a Web page. Go take a look at this informative article.

You have been fooled by Trojan horse. Now what?

CNET Download.com's Jessica Dolcourt and News.com's Neha Tiwari talk Trojans. Is reformatting your hard drive the way to go when combatting spyware? Find out here.

The Mother of All Computer Science Cheat Sheets!

For all the people working towards their finals. This may be the last cheat sheet you will ever need.



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Geek Squad Charges $415 Dollars To Replace A Hard Drive...

Geek Squad Charges $415 Dollars To Replace A Hard Drive and makes the customer retrieve data files himself. Geek Squad: Price to diagnose was $69.00, OS Install $129.00, Back up transfer $99.00, NO Guarantee. Estimated repair time seven to ten days. "Seven days later, they hadn't even looked at the machine. After 8 days, they'd begun testing the laptop..." read on for more.



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TV documentary from 1993 talking about a new phenomenon, the "so called internet"

I remember this, the good old days. :)

Computing award goes to female for first time

One of the most prestigious prizes in computing, the $100,000 Turing Award, went to a woman Wednesday for the first time in the award's 40-year history.

Frances E. Allen, 74, was honored for her work at IBM Corp. on techniques for optimizing the performance of compilers, the programs that translate one computer language into another.

This process is required to turn programming code into the binary zeros and ones actually read by a computer's colossal array of minuscule switches.

Read the rest of the story here.

Mozilla Fixes Firefox Bugs

Mozilla Corp. has released an update to its Firefox browser, fixing a number of security flaws in the product.

The Firefox 2.0.0.2 release includes a fix for a bug disclosed by security researcher Michal Zalewsky last week. That flaw can be exploited by attackers to manipulate cookie information in the Firefox browser, making it probably the most important fix in the update, according to Window Snyder, Mozilla's head of security strategy.

"The potential to compromise a user's account is almost as serious as compromising their machine," she said Friday via instant message. "Since the details of how to exploit the vulnerability are publicly available the risk to users is increased."

The updates also include a fix for a previously undisclosed memory corruption flaw in the browser that could be exploited to run unauthorized software on a Firefox user's computer.

This flaw could also affect Thunderbird users who have configured their mail client to run JavaScript automatically, something that Mozilla does not recommend. Thunderbird is Mozilla's free e-mail client.

The patches were released on Friday afternoon and should soon be delivered via Firefox's automatic software update mechanism, Snyder said.

Mozilla has patched a total of seven Firefox bugs and is also addressing two bugs in Thunderbird.

The latest browser release also includes enhancements to make it run better with Windows Vista as well as support for the Afrikaans, Belarusian, Georgian and Kurdish languages.

Unhandled Perception: Relocate the menu bar in IE7 to the top of the window

Software developer Chris Hanscom shows you how to tweak Internet Explorer 7's file-menu toolbar so it sits at the top, just like it did in IE6.

By default, IE7 doesn't even show the traditional File/Edit/View/etc. menu. You can restore it by clicking Tools / Menu Bar, but it appears below the navigation bar. Hanscom's simple hack moves it back up top where it belongs. He makes the file available for download if you want an easy fix.

Unhandled Perception: Relocate the menu bar in IE7 to the top of the window

How to log onto XP if you forget your password

With all the information we have to remember these days, it's not a surprise that sometimes people forget their logon passwords. If you created a password reset disk, just follow the directions for using it in KB article 305478.

If you never quite got around to it, you can still log on as an administrator and change the password for your primary account. Once you've logged on with an admin account, just do the following:

1. Click Start Run.

2. In the Open field, type: control userpasswords2

3. Click OK.

4. Click the user account for which you've forgotten the password and click Reset Password.

5. Type a new password and confirm it, then click OK again.

Kodak Offers Cheap Ink With New Printers

Eastman Kodak Co. on Tuesday started selling a new line of inkjet printers that buck the industry norm of selling inexpensive printers, while socking it to consumers when they buy ink.

Kodak's EasyShare AiO printers use cartridges that sell for $10 for black ink and $15 for a five-ink color cartridge. In launching the three models, Kodak is on a collision course with Hewlett-Packard, the market leader in printing.

"After today, the inkjet market will never be the same," Antonio M. Perez, chairman and chief executive for Kodak, said in a statement. "We are changing the rules in this industry to ensure that consumers can affordably print what they want."

The printers are capable of producing quality color photos, as well as text and graphics. The all-in-one hardware has print, scan and copy capabilities. The 5100 model sells for $150, the 5300 for $200, and the 5500 for $300. The lower-priced models are scheduled to ship in March. The 5500 is set to be on store shelves in May.

DoS Attack Cripples Internet Root Servers

The 13 servers that help manage worldwide Internet traffic were hit by a denial of service attack Tuesday that nearly took down three of them.

It was the fiercest attack on the 13 root servers since an October 2002 assault that took down many of the roots that help manage worldwide Internet traffic, according to Ben Petro, a senior vice president of NeuStar Inc. Three of the servers were nearly overloaded by the attack, but they did not go down, says Petro, who adds that they were in a slowed down brown out stage.

Tuesday's attack nearly matched the 2002 attack in terms of strength, but surpassed the old attack in sophistication, notes Petro. The servers didn't go down this time because of the significant increase in computing power in the last four years and because the roots defenses have been heavily beefed up since then.

"If you take down the roots, you take down the Internet," says Petro. "By comparison, if you take down a company, that hurts them. But this is just an attack of a very different scale. When you see someone going after root, it's an attack directly at the infrastructure of the Internet."

Read the rest of the article here.

Bill Gates made an appearance on the Daily Show

Yesterday, Bill Gates made an appearance on the Daily Show to promote the official launch of Windows Vista. As always, Jon Stewart had some excellent questions for his guest. Enjoy the show!

Microsoft Releases Windows Live Messenger 8.1

Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft's next-generation MSN Messenger. It has the same features as MSN Messenger (contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video) — plus new ways to connect and share photos and documents effortlessly.


YAHOO! - With Windows Live Messenger, you can now connect with your Yahoo! friends.

PC-to-PC Calling - Have a high-quality voice conversation using PC-to-PC Calling.

Better Video Conversations - New Messenger gives better: live, full-screen (640x480) video.

Sharing Folders - Drag a file onto a contact’s name creating a Sharing Folder. Now you and your contact can get to all the files in the folder any time, even if one of you is offline.

Text Message Phones - See a little mobile icon next to a friend's name? Just right click to send a text message.

Windows Live Alerts - Headlines, sports scores, traffic, or just about anything else you want to keep up with — get pop-up notifications of things as they happen.

--> Download Windows Live Messenger 8.1 <--

The latest version of Messenger on each operating system:

For Windows 98 and Windows Me: MSN Messenger 7.0.816

For Windows 2000: MSN Messenger 7.0.0816

For Windows XP and Windows Vista: Windows Live Messenger 8.1.0178.

Safer computing for your kids with Windows Vista

With Windows Vista you can choose to allow or restrict specific game titles, limit play to games with a certain rating, or block games with scary or inappropriate content. In other words, zombies and guns are out, while educational games stay in. If you don't want your kids on the computer on Sundays, for example, because you'd prefer they get some fresh air instead, you can specify which days and times they are allowed PC access.

Here's a rundown of the other ways Windows Vista can help you set limits on your kids' computer usage:

Time limits: Set a limit as to how long children can use the computer

Web restrictions: Restrict the websites kids can visit and what they're allowed to download.

Game restrictions: Restrict the types of computer games children can play.

Application restrictions: Apply limits so kids can only run applications you have approved.

Activity reports: Get a detailed report of what your kids have been doing on the computer, including games played, websites visited and applications used.

Windows Vista Drivers Update

RadarSync put together a free webpage that will list ALL Vista drivers as they become available, with direct download links to the drivers. The page is already up and running and is 100% free for everyone, open to the community of Windows users.. check it out at

http://www.radarsync.com/vista

PC World says Opera is safer than either Internet Explorer or Firefox

In a recent issue of PC World magazine columnist Scott Spanbauer wrote about the importance of staying safe online while browsing. Here is what he had to say about the Opera browser:

“While no software is perfectly secure, many experts (including me) think the Opera browser is safer than either IE or Firefox.”

To be fair, it sounds like he’s basing it on the fact that Opera has a small market share, and thus malware authors aren’t targeting it yet.

Beware: Half of Pirated Vista Is Malware

From PC World Today:

"About half of all downloads that claim to be free versions of Microsoft's Vista operating system are actually malicious Trojan horse software, security vendor DriveSentry warned Thursday.

With Vista's consumer launch just days away, hackers have been bombarding discussion boards with offers of "cracked" versions of Windows Vista, which are typically being distributed on peer-to-peer networks, said John Lynch, vice president of sales and marketing for DriveSentry.

These posts offer downloads of the operating system that skip Vista's activation process, created by Microsoft to prevent users from running illegal copies."

Read the rest at PC World

Malicious Software Removal Tool

The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed.

Microsoft releases an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month. New versions are available at the Software Removal Tool Web page, Windows Update, and the Microsoft Download Center.

Because computers can appear to function normally when infected, Microsoft advises you to run this tool even if your computer seems to be fine. You should also use up-to-date antivirus software to help protect your computer from other malicious software.

Note You must be logged on to your computer with an account that is part of the Administrators group to run this tool.

Turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work to bypass web filters.

I posted about this a while ago but thought it needed another post to keep it current. The circumventor freeware program will turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work or school to bypass web filters. Sure, regular web proxies will do the same thing, but isn't it cooler to have your own personal proxy that is ad free? You don't actually install the Circumventor on the computer that is blocked from accessing Web sites. You, or a friend of yours, has to install the Circumventor on some other machine which is not censored.

Download Circumventor here.

Dell Begins Selling Desktops Without Windows Pre-installed

Are you looking for a desktop on which you can run Linux® or other open-source operating systems? Look no further! The n Series Desktops comes with a Pentium D or Athlon X2, and an unformatted hard drive ready for Linux, BSD, or any other free OS (or heck, even Windows if you want)! Go on over to Dell and check it out.

How to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista

Did you get a new PC with a free Vista upgrade recently? Tech site ExtremeTech tells you everything you need to know about upgrading your XP PC. The article goes tells you how to prep your system for the upgrade and walks you step-by-step through the procedure.

Clean up duplicate files with CloneSpy

If you have a ton of digital pictures or have a large music collection on your computer, you may wonder whether you've got duplicate files laying around that you could afford to trash. While you can try searching for duplicate filenames using a number of tools including the search functionality that is built in to Windows, to truly know if files are duplicates you need a tool that will examine the bits, and see if they match completely.

CloneSpy is a free little utility that will do just that for you, and it provides enough options to make sure that when you finally do decide to delete some duplicates, it's the right ones that actually get deleted.

Rip your old vinyl to MP3

Don't let your vinyl die a slow an lonely death moldering in your basement for years. Liberate it digitally with the Numark USB Turntable. Simply plug this high-quality turntable into the USB port on your PC and rip your vinyl directly to MP3. Click here to get yours today.

Netflix broadband delivery

The long-awaited Netflix broadband delivery service begins this week, though the initial movie catalog will only consist of around 1,000 movies. Netflix will only be adding around 250,000 users a month at first to help better manage bandwidth demand, but the company's service should reach full stride by June. The interesting bit: if you're already a Netflix customer, you get access to movie downloads without any extra cost. Netflix customers who pay $18 a month already for mail rentals will get 18 hours of video access. The initial launch will work exclusively for the PC, IE and XP only. More detail at the NY Times.

Firefox Google Search vs Yahoo...

The search box built in to the Firefox browser defaults to the Google search engine. But say an internet user escapes the confines of Google, and looks something up in Yahoo, which makes a rival search engine. A message pops up on the top right of the screen, pictured above, encouraging the user to switch. And, look closely, that's a miniature Google logo being selected by the arrow. Here's betting that many Yahoo devotees, not the most sophisticated of internet users, get extremely confused. Bad Yahoo...

How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media

I've just come across an excellent article on Ad Terras Per Aspera which covers how to choose CD/DVD archival media.

"Ahh, I’ve been planning to write this one for awhile: an entire article on archival quality media. As I do professional software development as well as professional photography (what a weird combination), I need archival quality CD and DVD media to store my data on.

However, one of the hardest things to is actually find good media, or even understand why it is good media. This article focuses on the history of Compact Discs, writable CD/DVD media, and why DVD+R is superior to DVD-R. If you want to just know what media is worth buying, skip to the summary at the bottom."

The article gets in-depth in some places but it's well worth reading. However, if you want a summary, here it is.

* DVD+R is much better than DVD-R
* Buy good quality discs

Yahoo Using Dirty Tactics to Switch Google & Firefox Users?

The power struggle between Yahoo and Google for your desktop just took an evil turn, with evidence that suggests Yahoo is covertly trying to switch Google search users without their explicit permission. Read the complete article here at Marketing Pilgrim.

Coming soon Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista

Built from the ground up specifically for Microsoft Windows Vista, this all-new version combines the reliable and easy-to-use features you've always loved from Yahoo! Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of this new operating system.

*Instant message, voice, webcam video, and more

*Use the integrated Yahoo! Messenger Sidebar gadget to keep up with the friends that matter most

*Also add Windows Live™ Messenger friends to your contact list to see when they're online and IM them

*Keep conversations organized by dragging and dropping them into one tabbed window

*Brand new emoticons, program icons and alert sounds

*Instantly change the look and feel of your Yahoo! Messenger interface

*Automatic groups are created in your contact list based on your Yahoo! interests (i.e. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league)

Read more here

My current Desktop

My current Desktop

Problem copying a large file to another Hard Drive?

My son wanted to copy a file that was very large ( over 4 GB ) from one of his internal hard drives to his external hard drive and keep getting an error message that wouldn't allow him to copy the file. After looking at his problem we determined that his external hard drive was formatted in Fat 32. The only way to copy files larger that 4 gigabytes is to have the external hard drive formatted to NTFS. So the lesson to the story is convert your external hard drives to NTFS and you won't have these problems.

To read more about Fat and NTFS go to "Comparing NTFS and FAT file systems"

To learn how to format your hard drive to NTFS or convert from fat to NTFS read this article from Microsoft.

Internet Explorer was vulnerable to threats 284 days in 2006

Brian Krebs at the Washington Post's Security Fix blog wanted to put together some statistics on how long it took major software providers to fix vulnerabilities last year. He started with Microsoft, and found that Internet Explorer was vulnerable to critical flaws for a total of 284 days. That's more than 9 months.

In fact, there were at least 98 days when Microsoft had not issued a fix even though criminals were actively exploiting some of those flaws to grab personal data from Internet Explorer users.

Krebs says he ran his data by Microsoft before posting it on the blog, and that aside from some minor issues, the company didn't bring up anything that would change the overall finding.

By comparison, Firefox was only vulnerable to a serious security threat for one 9 day period last year. What's interesting is that for 2006, Opera 8 and Opera 9 didn't suffer from a single extremely critical vulnerability as classified by Secunia (although both did suffer a single highly critical vulnerability).

Be sure to go read todays post. Krebs takes a look at the number of security patches issued for Microsoft Office in 2006.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Track Santa with NORAD

Here is another Christmas favorite. Track Santa with NORAD.

101 Classic Christmas Videos that you can watch Online

With Christmas just a few days away I thought I would post this link. The website list 101 Classic Christmas Videos that you can watch Online. Go on over and take a look. :)

Uninstall Norton products with Norton Removal Tool

Have you encountered problems with uninstalling Norton or Symantec products. Actually the uninstallation seems to go well when you do it in Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel but when you restart the computer, it shows error and unable to boot in to Windows. Somehow uninstalling Norton or Symantec products can occasionally corrupt Windows!

I found a tool to remove Norton products developed by Norton themselves. Think about this, why would Norton create a Removal Tool when it can be removed from Add or Remove Programs? There must be something wrong with uninstalling Norton products from Add or Remove Programs.

Norton Removal Tool can remove:

1. Norton AntiSpam 2004 and 2005
2. Norton AntiVirus 2003 through 2007.1
3. Norton Ghost 2009, 9.0 and 10.0
4. Norton GoBack 3.1 through 4.2
5. Norton Internet Security 2003 through 2007.1
6. Norton Password Manager
7. Norton Personal Firewall 2003 through 2006
8. Norton SystemWorks 2003 through 2007
9. Norton Confidential Online 2007
10. Norton Internet Security Add-on Pack
11. Norton 360

Download Norton Removal Tool for Windows XP/2000

Download Norton Removal Tool for Windows Me/98

First Security Updates for Firefox 2.0

Yesterday Mozilla released the first update for the Firefox 2.0 browser, it fixes eight security vulnerabilities.

According to the company, release 2.0.0.1 of Firefox fixes flaws in memory corruption as well as the way the browser executes RSS (really simple syndication), Javascript and CSS (cascading style sheets) code, among other vulnerabilities. Mozilla also patched similar flaws in its Firefox 1.5 browser.

Five of the eight flaws were rated as critical, according to Firefox. A critical rating means a Firefox user would be vulnerable to attack and remote software installation on their machines just from browsing the Web in the usual fashion. Two of the flaws were rated as high, while one received a low security-risk rating, Firefox said.

What's New in Firefox 2.0.0.1? Click here to find out.

School District Dropping Macs for More "Appropriate Technology"

Community Unit School District 300 in Illinois is working to remove Mac computers from classrooms in favor of more "appropriate technology." The district's new director of technology, Eric Willard, claims the move will help students because "most people use Microsoft programs in the real world."

Read the article here.

Young Frankenstein - Puttin' on the Ritz (Video) In memory of Peter Boyle.

Public Service Announcement: Food Commodities will be distributed Friday December 15th, 9:00am Otterbein United Methodist Church

Food Commodities For the Chanute area will be distributed Friday December 15th, 9:00am at the Otterbein United Methodist Church 631 W. 7th, Chanute, KS. Entrance will be on the East side of the church under the canopy.

Foods will be available to individuals and families based on income. Please bring Identification, proof of Address and proof of income for all applicable family members.

Recipients of cash assistance, food stamps and general assistance are automatically eligible for Food Commodities with proof of current benefits.

Income Guidelines are:

Household size - Max Monthly Income

1 - $1062
2 - $1430
3 - $1799
4 - $2167
5 - $2535
6 - $2904
7 - $3272
8 - $3640

For each additional Family member Add: $369

Things you can do instead of buying a PS3

This post is both hilarious and eye opening. It lists a few things you can do instead of picking up a PS3, and if you're a parent that actually wants to teach your children something this holiday season, gives some great advice. Go on over to this blog and take a look.