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

John sent more pictures

Good morning all. My son in the Navy John sent more pictures last night from when they, the USS Doyle was in West Palm Beach over the 4th of July. You can read the article here in the Mayport Mirror to find out more about their trip.

John on far right, and shipmates in West Palm Beach

John in West Palm Beach, FL

West Palm Beach

West Palm Beach

West Palm Beach

Weather, and a picture of our son John

John on his Ship the USS Doyle. John on right.

Good morning everyone. It's still hot here in south east Kansas with temps in the upper 90s and no relief in sight. We are coping by staying inside with the air-condition running. :) Our small garden has started to produce. So far I have had 6 tomatoes and 6 green peppers. Last night we made stuffed green peppers with the tomatoes and peppers from our garden.They tasted great and we have lots of leftovers.

I talked to my son John a few times over the past few days. John was doing well and has been busy. John tried to send me pictures from his Gmail account but only one came through. I finally set up an e-mail address for him at my ISP and he will try to send the pictures to us again later this week using that. I had to give John a hard time because the picture that he sent doesn't show his correct rank. He has not put his other stripe on his dress uniform yet. He said that he just has not had the time to do that yet with all the uniforms.

That's about all for now, I hope everyone has a great week.

The heat is here to stay for a while.

Good afternoon. Sorry I haven't posted much lately but there isn't really anything going on here. It's hot here in south east Kansas and it's going to get hotter the next few days. I mowed the lawn today and by the time I was done I looked like I had just climbed out of a swimming pool. I wish that were the case but it was not. :(

I see the surgeon Monday to find out about my knees that have been giving me pain for a while. I will be anxious to hear what he has to say. I am going to spend the rest of today inside where it's cool. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Good afternoon and it's hot here :)

Good afternoon everyone. The temp is getting up there in south east Kansas where we live. Right now it' s 97 degrees with a heat index of 102 outside. I went out to Wal-Mart last night to buy a new fan. We have central air condition in our house but when the temps get this high it's still hot in here so we use fans to help us feel cooler. Our fan that we used in our living room stopped working two days ago so I bought a new one. :) I was doing some stuff outside earlier today and got so hot I thought I was going to pass out so I gave up for the day and decided to just stay in and try to stay cool.

I was able to work on my computers a little and got Synergy working again. It stopped working after Vicki's friend Sheila left after her visit a few weeks ago. It took me a while to figure out what happened. When Sheila came to visit I made her a login on my computer so she could use it, when I did that it changed my computers IP address. LOL I finally when into the router and looked at the active IP table and saw right away what happened. I then went into Synergy and changed my IP address to the new correct one and re-booted and now everything works great. If you don't know what Synergy is it is software that allows you to use one mouse and keyboard with two or more computers at the same time. I have a Linux and a Windows computer on my desk that I use at the same time and it would be a pain to have to use two different keyboards and mice to access them.

I talked to my daughter in the Navy, Cindy a few days ago. Cindy made it to Everett Washington ok and has been working on the base and living in the barracks while waiting to go to her ship the USS Abe Lincoln. Cindy is an FC CIWS tech in the Navy and she just graduated CIWS C-School in San Diego earlier this month. Cindy is a little mad at me because I refuse to put a picture of her new tattoo on my blog. I as a parent find it inappropriate (sp) for this forum. I told her that if she would send me pictures of herself in clothes or even better in uniform I would love to post them. By the way her tattoo is on her chest so you can see what I mean when I say that I am not going to post that. I don't even want to see it myself again. Cindy has a right to do what she wants with her own body but I don't have to share the photos with the world.... God Bless you Cindy and I sure wish you would send me some things that I could post here.. I do love you. Dad

I have talked to my son in the Navy, John several times. His ship the USS Doyle is back in port in Mayport Florida. John said that they had a good cruse and completed all their qualifications. John is going to buy a cell phone charger tomorrow if he gets a chance. His old charger was take from his rack ( bed on the ship ) while he was sleeping. Right now he has to use Skype for phone calls. His ship goes out again in a few weeks and will be gone for a month. I know the exact days but I won't post them here. John is doing well and has his PT test today ( they have to do them every few months ) . He was worried that he might not pass because he is so sore all over from working. I think he will do just fine.

That's about all for now. I hope everyone has a great day.

Windows Vista

I talked to my son John a few weeks ago and he was telling me that he was thinking about getting a new more powerful laptop computer for himself. Right now he has an almost one year old laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium and it just doesn't have the power that he wants. It has two gigs memory and a 383mb video card, and a 160gb hard drive. He also has two external hard drives that he uses for additional storage and an ipod. You can click here to see what he has now. I can understand him wanting a new one. John is a computer nut so to speak. He uses it for everything, music, movies, television, phone calls, programming, work and so on. Before John joined the Navy he was in college majoring in Computer Science and doing some tech support on the side. Usually he is doing several things with his computer at once and needs allot of power. "John is a power user".

Now, getting to my point, I have two desktop computers myself and my wife has one. My computers run Windows XP and Linux and my wife is using XP. I get allot of calls asking me for help with other peoples computers and since I don't have Vista I really can't help others that use that OS. John said that when he buys a new computer for himself that he would give me his current laptop. That will enable me to use and learn Vista. I am really excited by the prospect of owning a laptop with Vista. That would enable me to learn the OS and the flexibility to do work from other places besides my computer room/office. It will be nice to be able to sit in my living room in the recliner with my knees up instead of sitting here in my computer chair every time I want to do something with the computer. At the very least I'm sure that my blog will be updated more often when I get a laptop..... I'll let you know what he decides on when he finally buys a new computer, and thanks in advance John. :)

As a side note, I called my daughter Cindy but she was working and couldn't talk at the time. At least I know that she made it to Washington ok. :) I'm sure she will call me later when she has the time and I'll try to let you know what she is up to then.

Good morning from Kansas

Good morning everyone. I had a busy day yesterday. I took our neighbor Doris to Parsons to have a Myelogram and Cat Scan on her back so her Dr could find out what is causing her pain and then I stopped by Joan's house and did a few things to help her out. I left yesterday at 7am and got home at 7pm. :) I have nothing planned for today except to go to the bank and then pharmacy to get some prescriptions.

Our daughter Cindy tried to call when I was away yesterday but she didn't leave any messages and we didn't notice her calls on called ID until late., I assume that she made to to Everett Washington ok and is getting ready for her ship the USS Abe Lincoln..

Our son John also called using skype while I was out but he left a message and then he called again late last night. John is back from his latest cruse on the USS Doyle and will be back in port for a few weeks before going out again. John said that they passed all their qualifications and he was feeling good. He did tell us about a porpoise that rammed the ship and killed itself. He said that they could see it heading straight for bow of the ship on the radar but there was nothing that they could do. Sadly it died after the encounter with the Doyle. Overall John had a good cruse and is off this weekend. He is going to go out and buy a new cell phone charger while he is off so that he can use his cell phone again.

I hope everyone has a great day. It's going to be sunny and warm here with temps in the 90s. Take care everyone, I will post more later or tomorrow.

I love Pie

Mable in her Kitchen

Blueberry Pie :)

In past post I have talked about Joan and Mable. Mable is Joan's mother and she is in her 90s and makes the most delicious pies and cakes. My son John and wife Vicki also rave over them. This week she made me a blueberry pie that is just delicious. Thank you Mable.

'Overworked' Japanese have nothing on U.S. military

'Overworked' Japanese have nothing on U.S. military | State | Star-Telegram.com

It’s understandable if anyone in the U.S. military guffawed at the Japanese labor bureau’s recent decision that a 45-year-old car engineer died of overwork because he had put in an average of 240 hours a month the last two months of his life.

Not to cheapen the tragic death of a man, but perhaps some comparison is in order.

Take, for instance, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, the chief spokesman for the U.S. forces in Baghdad, which include the Fort Hood-based 4th Infantry Division.

Stover, 42, works 15 hours a day seven days a week. That’s 105 hours a week, an average of 455 hours a month. He has worked that schedule for almost 33 weeks. He has 30 more weeks to go.

Then there are Petty Officers 1st Class Dionicio Garza and Billy Ramirez, two Texans who work on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, now in the Gulf of Oman.

Garza and Ramirez, both 29, also work about 105 hours a week, in an environment that is unforgiving to anyone not paying very close attention.

All this while deployed to an area of the world where Friday’s forecast calls for a high of 118 degrees.

What was that about overwork?

Good evening everyone

Hello everyone. Sorry about the sporadic posting lately, we have been kinda busy the last few weeks here in Kansas. A good friend and neighbor "Joan" had a total knee replacement a few weeks ago and has had a hard time recovering and we have been trying to help her out a little. Another friend and neighbor of ours, "Doris", has been going through a tough time with back problems and we are also helping her a little too. Both of these ladies are more like family to us than friends and neighbors. Vicki and I kinda think of them as surrogate Mom's. Vicki's Mother passed away some time ago and my parents live over a thousand miles away from here. My wife has known them for 20 years and I have known them for 10 years. Today I brought Joan home from the hospital and tomorrow I am taking Doris to the Doctors. As for myself I am still having pain in my left knee and now it is starting to hurt in my right knee. I saw my Dr again today and he gave me more pain medicine and I am going to see an Orthopedic Surgeon on the 28th to talk about surgery on my left knee. :) I have had several surgeries on my knees in the past so I know what to expect and I am not looking forward to more operations but things are not getting better on their own.

Our daughter Cindy in the Navy will travel to Everett Washington tomorrow afternoon. Cindy just graduated from FC CIWS C-School in San Diego July 3rd and will be going to the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Abe Lincoln will be Cindy's first ship. We are excited for her and wish her the best. Cindy, let us know your address as soon as you can and do you have pictures of your graduation that I can post? :)

Our son in the Navy, John is out to sea right now on his ship the USS Doyle. John promised lots of pictures when he gets back which should be in a few days. John is an OS on the Doyle.

I hope everyone out there reading this is doing well and I will post more frequently when things settle down here. Keep checking back for updates.