JamesSavik

Windows XP is a wonder. It has thousands of files and a registry that turns mere mortals into jelly should they attempt to play with it. As fancy as it is, Xp users can run into a lot of headaches. Viruses, worms and spyware (Oh my. ) are a sad fact of intenet life and anyone that has suffered their wrath won't soon forget it. A feature of XP that many people either forget about or have never hear of is called Safe Mode. When you boot the system hit the F8 key and windows will load with a minimal set of drivers and allow you to unscrew whatever is screwed up. Tthe things that makes safe mode so appealing for diagnostics is that very few processes are loaded into memory and to interfere with things like virus/spware detection and removal or defragging the hard drive. Safe Mode comes in several variations. First is Safe Mode with Networking which would give you web access if networking is actually working. The next layer of Safe Mode has no networking turned on and is 100% isolated so that you can clean up whatever mess you have on your hands without exposing a flakey PC to the wild, wild web. Last is Safe Mode with only a command line. Thar be dragons here so if you don't know what you are doing, leave this one alone. You don't have to do anything very fancy to a windows box to create a software conflict, a condition where two or more programs are competing for the same resources. Windows is supposed to guard against this problem but it does happen. Usually systems that develop this problem have been used for a while, have lots of programs loaded. The system begins to slow down, lock-up for no apparent reason or have start-up or shut-down hang-ups (system boots or shuts down very slowly). Another friend to windows users is the Windows Task Manager or the little box you get when you hit control-alt-delete. When you have symptoms like unexpected lockups and startup/shutdown hangups, take a careful look at Windows Task Manager. You will be able to see how much memory and CPU time that all of the various programs (processes) that running on your computer actually use. If either CPU or memory usage VERY LARGE compaired to outher programs, that may well be your problem. Try killing it and see how your system behaves with out it. Another sign of trouble under Task Manager is too many processes are running at once. This could mean that spyware is loading up and running Don't worry. In windows, there is usually a dozen programs to do most anything. If you have to throw one out for behaving badly, chances are you can find another one that is better and will play nice with your operating system and other programs. OK- Here's a menu for a pretty good diagnostic session. If you do this about once a month, you'll save yourself a lot of greif. Reboot system, hit F8 while system is loading and come up in SAFE mode Run your anti-virus program Run your anti-spyware program Run CCcleaner [free utility that eliminates temporary and junk files) Run a registry checkup program to clean up and optimize your registry. Empty your Trash folder. Run defrag on your primary (usually C:) drive partition. Reboot your system to standard Windows. In my next entry I will list some programs and links to both free and commercial software + the pros and cons of freeware vs commercial software.

Ask me at 7am on the first few days of spring dst and i'll probably hurt you or break something.

Who else would you date? Complete strangers? And dating- what's a date? Two friends go to Barnes&Nobles, spend too much money, eat at Zoe's Diner and go home and watch DVDs until 2am. Was that a date or an ordinary weekend in the city?

My OS preference is based on the role that the machine is playing. As a client, Win XP is the most stable and bug free windows distribution that I have used. As a high performance workstation, a fast Intel CPU, lots of hard drive and RAM and one of several Linux variants. Mandrake is my favorite but Ubanutu has a lot going for it. As a web/email server for a box that is going to deliver network services, Linux is the gold standard. I've used Mandrake, Red Hat and a couple of distros. On one server I had an uptime of over four years. The only reason I shut it down was to add RAM and hard drive space. Another one was pushing 2 years when I had to shut it down for the Y2K network upgrade/cutover when I readdressed that subnet.

Colin beat me to the punch.

Sorry- no word from Billy. I know a lot of people won't like this but here goes: I use Norton Internet Security. Why? Because it has everything I need in one bundle: firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, email filtering. I update it every year and not having to worry about this firewall, that anti-virus and those spyware killers is worth $30. Downside: NIS is a resource hog especially when it is scanning the system but if you are running a fast system with enough memory, it won't be so bad. Just scedule it to run when you are at work or asleep.

Billy- I endorse the reccomendations so far. As for Limeware, just say no. If there is a more secure alternative, that's the one you want to go with. Limeware and its dofus cousin Kazaa are notorious back doors into your system. PM me if you've got any specific questions. Good luck pal, James

No one is above a few typos. Goodness knows that I'm not. I think that in free online fiction that most people are fairly reasonable in this regard. There are too many people who are willing to edit orl proof-read manuscripts. There's no excuse for posting a manuscript that's in very bad shape.

Climate change is very real and it has been going on in cycles since the planet formed. Three Orbital cycles that affect climate: Orbital Eccentricity: 100,000 year Cycle Orbital Tilt: 42,000 year cycle Orbital Wobble: 25,800 year cycle Orbital Eccentricity: the earth's orbit around the sun forms an ellipse. Every 100,000 years or so the ellipse "flops" into a pattern that changes solar exposure. This trend is working is way to a peak this century. Orbital Tilt: The tilt of the equator varies between 21.6 to 24.5 degrees. This cycle is right in the middle. Orbital Wobble: The earths axis of rotation "wobbles" in a circular pattern over the period of the cycle which is approaching maximum. Catastrophic climate change Over the course of the planets geological record, it is apparent that there have been a number of catastrophic events that have caused either short or long term variations in the climate. These events are: Comet Impacts Asteroid Impacts Super-Volcanic Eruption/Out-gassing Comet Impacts: have taken place with regularity over geological time. One theory of the origin of our atmosphere is that water and gases locked up in comets seeded our atmosphere. Other theories are that comets delived the seeds of life to our planet in the very distant past. While they have had beneficial side effects in the past, comets are unbelievably destructive. Comets are gas and ice and have a nasty tendency to explode when heated by the atmosphere creating a huge fireball airburst of thousands of megatons of energy: enough energy to completely destroy a continent and wreak the climate for decades in a condition not unlike nuclear winter. Are you ready for the good part? This has happened several times in our planets history: most recently the Tunguska comet impact of 1908. Asteroid Impacts: the bad news of comet impacts is even worse for asteroids: they are solid and survive the atmosphere. They strike the surface and vaporize rock/soil and hurl molten material for hundreds of miles in all directions. The fireball itself is very much like a huge nuclear explosion which puts tremendous amounts of super-heated ash and dust into the upper atmosphere. This causes a decades long "nuclear winter" which changes the entire ecosystems. It is believed that this is what caused the mass extinctions that ended the Permian and Cretacous eras (AKA KT extinction). Super-Volcanic Eruption/Out-gassing: from time to time there have been extremely massive volcanic eruptions and periods of volcanic hyper-activity that have been so violent and have released so much CO2 and SO4 that they have simply poisioned massive land areas. I'm not describing the eruption of a Mount St. Helens or even a Krakatau, which both influenced the global climate, but entire regions erupting at once. One of the great extinction events of the past was thought to have been caused when hundreds of volcanoes, rifts and magma flows formed Siberia.

If hard science can prove the cause of homosexuality, then it takes the venom out of social conservatives and religious nuts that believe that it is a choice we make because of our sinful nature1. ______________________________________________________ 1- According to State Rep. Sally Kerns of Oklahoma

Love Japanese cars and trucks, hate anime/magna. I just don't get it. There are too many cultural references that fly right by me and the voiceovers are so bad you would think they were being done by rabid Ewoks on crack. I'm not turning japanese anytime soon. I would probably claw my eyes out or chew off a limb to escape if forced to watch a full length feature.

On American cars 3/8th, 1/2 and 9/16th will get you far. Never underestimate the usefulness of deep sockets! If you go to Sears or a hardware store, you can find some pretty cool socket organizers. My favorite are metal tracks with bit heads that fit 3/8ths and 1/2" inch sockets. You just plug in your sockets in order and you won't lose them.

Yes. It's fun and it pays well. There is a satisfaction when you plug it all in and it works.

When I go shopping for pleasure, there are two things I look at: books are #1 but tools are a close 2nd. [ My friends tease me by calling me a lesbian. :wacko: ] Yes- I have computer tools but I also have all sorts of other tools. As I do networks, conduits and cable are a big part of networking. For that you need to be able to bend conduit, cut it, drill holes for fastners, attach grounds and cut percise holes in a number of different building materials. I'm not so much a gear-head per see but I seem to know instinctly or quickly figure out how machines work and can fix darn near anything.

Money is good when it brings out the best in some motivating them to use their intelligence and energy to better their condition. It can also have the oppisite effect when greedy people want something for nothing and are willing to do anything to get it. You can only give money the label of neutral. Any good or bad is a matter of personal motives.

I am a neat freak in certian areas. When it comes to my tools, they are always sparkling clean and in just the right place. My computer is the same: always defragged, spyware zapped, swept for viruses, trash removed and temporary files deleted. Way back when when I first started with computers, RAM and hard drive space were tiny and at a premium price so I'm picky about wasting drive space. And NO! ADA, 2 C compilers, Perl and 3 C++ compilers isn't wasted drive space!

>>they used a chemical substance to alter the flies' perception. No. They used a substance that forced a gene to turn on. Big difference. Wake up after beer and you might be hung over. Wake up after having a gene changed and the change is permament.

On my pile at the moment: Smithsonian Earth Pandemic: the New Killer Plagues

I had a neat freak room mate once. As far as I know, the body has never been found.

Happy Pagan Egg Day! May your women be fertile and your corps grow large... or is it may your crops be fertile and your women grow large??

There are different sorts of cravings but the most basic kind tells our mind what our bodies really need to eat. Granted, you don't need carrot cake, but there is a pleasure payoff when you satisfy a craving which is positive reinforcement for getting what your body needs. Other sorts of cravings, like for carrot cake and choclate, may be based in a need and a want- the need: low blood sugar and want: choclate. Odd cravings during pregnancy are definitly hormonal and be careful with them. Giving into odd cravings during pregnancy can make you real sick (as if preganacy wasn't quite enough to handle).

I don't think so. I had a six month relationship with a guy that was intoxicatedly beautiful and horribly bad for me that took me six years to get over. Love is like a fast car: when you're in the groove, it feels real good. When it goes bad you can crash and burn and hurt so bad you wish for death. My advice? Wear a f-ing helmet.

As a good ole boy from the country far be it from me to be critical of getting frisky in the woods. That being said, I must warn beginners that poison ivy, chiggers and skeeters can get in some of the damnedest places.

I am talking to a big contractor who does a lot of work overseas. Here at home my job prospects are OK but not stunning and the contractor is interested in me to run multi-million dollar data and telecommunications projects. If I spent 6 years there with bonuses, I could retire comfortably and live anywhere I want in the US, Canada or Australia a millionaire. Chance of a lifetime or very serious trap? The catch??? The job is in Iraq and Afghanistan building a new national communications infrastructure. You honestly didn't think I'd post an easy one did you???

I think we've gotten fairly glib about the way we throw the word addiction around. Computers are tools- or at least that's the theory. Would we say that a carpenter is addicted to his hammer?