Musings...

Not exactly a blog or diary -- I'm not going to promise to write something every day, or even frequently. But, when something strikes my mind, I might put something in here. The newest entries will be at the top.

2010-08-30

Watch out for kamikaze deer!


I was coming home from Eureka on Monday the 16th and got hit by a deer.

No, I don't mean that I hit the deer.  Quite literally, the deer came bounding across the road from the left-hand side and ran into the side of my Saturn Vue.  It took out three of the four major panels on the left-hand side, missing only the driver's door.  Cosmetic damage only, as the vehicle was still perfectly drivable — and I put about 1300 miles on the car between the time I was hit and the time everything was ready for me to take it into the body shop this morning.  (It now has 270,000 miles on it since I bought it in August of 2003, and still runs great and gets 27+ MPG.)

Summer has been unusually mild this year.  There have been only about 3 days above 100° so far, where there are usually many more than that in July and August — one year, we had almost two weeks straight over 100°.  Also, Cloverdale is usually the hottest spot in the area, but every time I've gone through Cloverdale this year, it's been about 8 degrees cooler than Ukiah.

2010-01-25

It's been quite a while since I've added anything here. Not much to say, really.

I was going through some things last night and ran across my divorce papers. While reading through them, something jumped out at me that I'd never noticed before. The ruling came out on July 15, 2003 and took effect a month later. August 15? That sure sounds familiar.

Being a World War II history buff from way back, my first thought was that it was one of the atomic bomb detonations. However, when I looked up the date, that wasn't it at all. I can't believe that I never made this association before — it's so appropriate!

My divorce from Julie became final on VJ-Day!

2009-08-22

I've been a bit out of it this month. On the last Thursday in July, I came down with what may, or may not, have been the H1N1 flu. (My doctor said they weren't screening for it unless the patient required hospitalization.)  I was pretty much housebound from that time until August 8 -- starting with fever, chills and headaches for the first few days, and then continuing with severe chest congestion and coughing.  I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Wednesday the 5th, and they gave me antibiotics for the chest problems.  I was feeling good enough to go to the Joe Saltel dance on Sunday the 9th, and was back to a normal schedule by Wednesday the 12th -- but I lost nearly half a month's work (and income) to this illness.  I also had to cancel an entire week of calling engagements, and I apologize to the Lucky Steppers of Santa Cruz for being unable to call their Slab Dance on the 1st.

A lot of people in the Ukiah area seem to be coming down with these symptoms, which certainly resemble what is reported in the paper as H1N1 symptoms.  My boss at Pacific Internet and his daughter both came down with it about the same time that I did, but recovered more quickly.  (Well, his wife is a doctor...)

2009-05-02

More on AVG 8 vs. AVG 7

I figured that since my AVG license doesn't run out until August, I'd install version 8.5 on my main machine when the company stopped making updates for v7.5 on April 30, and then run that until the license ran out before getting NOD32. Now, I'm not so sure I want to do that.

I installed 8.5 on my main machine on Thursday. So far, I haven't seen any noticable slowdown from the realtime shield protection. This morning (Saturday), the first automated system scan took place -- I only scan my machines once a week, and I set it to go early in the morning on Saturday (4am) so it'll be done when I get up.

My first shock was when I got up and went in to my computer at quarter past eleven and found it still scanning!

When it finally completed, AVG 8.5 had taken 7 hours, 41 minutes to do the same scan that AVG 7.5 had taken 2 hours, 54 minutes the previous weekend.

That's just not acceptable.

So, if I've got extra money available at the end of the month, I'm going to go ahead and switch to NOD32 then. Wish I'd known this at the end of April, because I did have the extra money then, but it's gone into savings now.

AVG 8 has now gone from my "it's okay, but I recommend something else" category to my "not recommended" category. I'll still recommend the free version to home users, but not for paying customers.

2009-04-09

iCarbon

I have an inexpensive HP PSC 1350 all-in-one device that I bought several years ago. It includes a copier function, so to make a copy all I have to do is put the paper on the scanner glass and press either the "Black" button or the "Color" button. Simple, efficient.

However, the 1350's printer is an inkjet printer, and I usually use my Brother laser for printing. If the HP sits for a month or so between uses, it takes several cleaning cycles to get it printing properly again so that I can run a copy. There have been many times that I've wished that I could make it print the copy on my laser printer instead of the built-in inkjet. Up until now, that's been a cantankerous process of scanning, saving as a picture file, then printing the picture on the laser printer. All of that required hands-on at each step in the process. It worked, but it was cumbersome.

A week ago, I started looking to see if there was a program available to automate all of that. A Google search turned up a large number of hits, but most of them turned out to be alternate download sources for two programs. I downloaded both and tried them.

In my opinion, the better of the two was iCarbon by Frederik Schaller, available from iDev.ch for free download. It has the normal copier functions (number of copies, scaling percentage), and allows you to pick the type of scan (B/W, grayscale, or color) and the scanning resolution. (It tops out at 300dpi, while my printer and scanner are both capable of 600dpi, but that's minor.) While the program hasn't been updated since 2003, it does exactly what I was looking for and does it well.

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AVG

I'm still using AVG Antivirus, but I'm using version 7.5. AVG came out with version 8 last summer, and has recently upgraded that to version 8.5. I'm running that on one of my computers here, but I've been less than impressed by the performance. A scan of my computer that took 2 hours under version 7.5 takes about twice that with the new version. The new version also is larger than the old one (which is to be expected), and doesn't run well on older computers, and seems to have some problems updating itself automatically for people on rural dial-up internet connections. The LinkScanner function introduced with version 8 also has had reports of causing increased internet traffic, and I never install it.

I'm still recommending the free version of AVG for home users, especially those with newer and faster systems. To that, I've added the free home edition of Avast! Antivirus -- it's a little harder to set up and register than AVG, and its user interface is a little harder to figure out, but it's smaller and faster. For business customers who have to pay for antivirus, however, I'm currently recommending Eset's NOD32. It's extremely small and fast, and has a very good reputation in the industry for customer service and for catching new viruses even before definitions are updated. (If you listen to Leo Laporte's radio show, you've already heard a lot about NOD32; I first encountered it through the store where I used to work.) It's a bit more expensive than AVG, and the subscription renewal process is a little bit more complicated, but overall I like it -- and I'll be switching to it when AVG stops distributing definition updates for version 7.5 at the end of April.

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I just got back from the CALLERLAB Convention in Kansas City, MO. I didn't get to see much of KC -- the airport is outside of town, and the hotel where the convention was held was right on the edge of the airport. However, I had a great time and learned some new things, so it was well worth the trip.

One of the best things about attending the CALLERLAB Convention is being able to actually meet and visit with some of the great names in the square dance calling activity. I've been able to talk with people like Bob Osgood (yes, he's gone, but I got to meet him at a past convention), Jim Mayo, Marshall Flippo, Wade Driver, Elmer Sheffield, Jon Jones, Tim Marriner, Jerry Jestin and Jerry Story -- not to mention people I've already known but seldom see like Deborah Carroll-Jones, Don Beck, Clark Baker, Bear Miller, Jeff Palmer, Stephen Cole, Mike Seastrom and Mike Callahan.

My friend Scot Byars, chairman of CALLERLAB's Ways and Means Committee, is planning to put out a yearbook for the Convention this year. He was going to have Hunter Keller take pictures at the convention but Hunter, like many people this year, couldn't afford to go. Since I have a camera, Scot asked me to take pictures -- not that I know anything more about photography than "point the camera, click the button." So I made a general nuisance of myself, taking pictures at the meals, at the sessions I attended, and in the hallways between sessions. I also took the opportunity to have my picture taken together with a couple of the people I admire:

Me and Deborah Me and Marshall Flippo
Thanks, Deborah! Thanks, Marshall!
(I just don't feel right calling you "Flip!")

I also got to meet Cal Golden, who was there to receive his 50-year award. At the fundraiser auction Tuesday night, Marshall Flippo bought a painted cane made by a young lady named Lenka Olivera (who was in one of my beginners' classes about 10 years back when she was in grade school) and traded it to Cal for his metal one. Here's a picture of Cal with Lenka's cane:

Cal Golden and cane

(As you can see, Cal got his original cane back as well!)

What a great time! This was my fifth time at the convention since I started calling in 1994, and my third in a row. I don't know if I can afford to go every year, but I'd sure like to!

2008-12-20 Foxit Reader

PDF files (Adobe's Portable Document Format) have become a standard way to post ready-to-print information (such as flyers) on the Web. The most common way to read these files on your computer is with the free Adobe Reader program (formerly known as Adobe Acrobat Reader).

When it was first introduced, Adobe's reader was a small, lean program that did one thing and did it well. Over the years, however, it's grown and become more elaborate. Version 5.05, dating from around 2003, was an 8.7MB download, while the current version 9.0 is 33.5MB. As it's grown, it has gotten much slower to load, even on today's faster computers.

Several years ago, I ran across another program for viewing PDF files: FoxitReader. Like Adobe Reader, it's free to use. (There are some advanced functions that are only unlocked with an inexpensive paid license, but I haven't run across a need for them.) And, harkening back to Adobe Reader's early days, it's lean and fast. The first version I came across, v1.3, was a 1.6MB download, and version 2 eventually grew to 2.6MB. It's quick to load and feels faster in general than Adobe's reader.

The only reason that I did not switch from Adobe Reader to Foxit Reader at that time was that Foxit didn't offer one of the features that I use constantly: the ability to view a PDF file directly within your web browser's window. With Adobe Reader, if you click on a link to a PDF file on a webpage, the file would open right in the web browser, with a border around it showing the PDF navigation tools provided by the reader; with Foxit, the file would open up an instance of the reader in a new window and display it in front of the web browser.

Recently, Foxit Software released version 3.0 of Foxit Reader (a 3.7MB download, by the way). When I tried it, I found that it now has the ability to show a PDF file within the browser window as Adobe does. That removes my last objection to the program.

I've now replaced Adobe Reader with Foxit Reader on all 3 of my main computers, and haven't had any problems at all in the week since I did it. And, PDF files come up a lot faster than they used to.

Recommended.

2008-12-08 Vexed with Citibank

After my father passed away in October, I notified his credit card company (he had an AT&T Universal Card through Citibank) of his passing, then waited for them to send me a final statement so that I could pay off the balance.

It never came.

Instead, it appears that Citibank immediately turned the account over to a collection agency. I won't name that agency here, because they did nothing wrong. However, when they began contacting me, there was nothing to indicate that they were legitimately acting in Citibank's behalf. My first reaction was that identity thieves had gotten hold of Dad's social security number after his death and were trying to make a fast buck off of a bereaved family, so I had nothing to do with them.

I attempted to contact Citibank about the matter, which proved impossible. However, one of my attempts eventually got forwarded through Citibank's phone system to the collection agency. This indicated to me that the agency was acting legitimately, and I went ahead and paid them.

However, this practice of immediately turning the account over to a collection agency strikes me as being a very poor business practice, not to mention being completely insensitive to the deceased's family. Since I have one of those AT&T Universal Cards myself, I am very seriously considering whether or not I wish to continue a business relationship of any sort with Citibank. I've had the card for fifteen years, but I don't really care to do business with a company that shows such poor judgement.

2008-06-24

Lots of thick smoke in the Ukiah area this week, from fires around Northern California sparked by lightning strikes over the weekend of June 21. Look at the view from our front porch:

Smoke toward dam Looking east toward Coyote dam -- you should be able to see the yellow grass on the face of the dam over the tops of those trees behind the trailers, plus the hills across the lake. Today, we're doing well just to see the trees!
Smoke to south Looking to the south. The knoll is just across the river from our trailer park -- just a couple hundred yards away. Look how the smoke is making it hard to see details even at that short a distance!

2008-06-03

I've got my calling assignments for the National Square Dance Convention in Wichita, and have put them on my Schedule page. There's always the possibility that I might pick up more when I get there, if some callers are unable to attend, but I won't be able to show them here.

I'm staying at the Holiday Inn Express West, which threw me for a loop temporarily -- that didn't match any of the names on the hotel list on the back of the registration form. Google Maps to the rescue -- it's practically on the airport itself, but about 4 miles from the convention center. That's actually fortunate for me, as my flight is on Frontier Airlines, and they eliminated the early-morning flight I had originally booked as one of their cost-cutting measures. I had intended to get into Wichita early Wednesday afternoon and maybe go to the Cessna factory to see if they give tours -- but now I'm not getting in until late Wednesday night. No time to see either Cessna or Beech. :-(

We're still waiting to try to find out what caused the seizure that Dad experienced about a month and a half ago. 45 minutes after the ambulance had him at the hospital, he was pretty much back to normal, and the CT scans and MRI that the hospital took didn't give any clues as to the cause. It took a month for him to get in to see a neurologist, who wanted an EEG that was just performed yesterday. Hopefully, it'll give some answers. In the meantime, nothing of the sort has happened since then, which suits me just fine -- it was a very frightening experience for me, even if Dad doesn't remember it at all.

Note to AVG Free users: the new version 8.0 of AVG Free has come out. You can upgrade to it by downloading the installer from their website (free.grisoft.com) but you don't have to hurry -- they will continue to supply updates for the old version (7.5) until the end of the year. If you aren't comfortable downloading the new version and would like me to do it for you, you can call me for an appointment. (Lake/Mendocino/Sonoma counties only -- I do charge travel time one way, after all!)

If you do download it yourself, be careful what you click on -- they will present you the option in several places of downloading the trial version of their commercial product side-by-side with the free version, and you have to be sure you're clicking on the free version if that's what you want!

2008-01-10

I've been using a program called Mailwasher for years, ever since my friend Nate Bliss told me about it. It's a program that sits in your system tray and periodically checks your mail server to see if any mail has arrived, and lets you know (via a flashing icon and a sound) if it has. It also does more than that; it

I've used it since about 1998 or so, and it's worked great. Until I installed Internet Explorer 7.

After installing IE7, I noticed two things:

  1. Mailwasher is supposed to pop its main window up when you double-click the icon in the system tray. After IE7 was installed, it usually takes two double-clicks to wake it up.
  2. When the main window pops up, the window frame will sit there empty for several seconds before it fills in with the mail list. It used to fill in immediately, if not sooner.

At first, I figured that it was because I was using an old version of Mailwasher. I hadn't updated since 2003 or so, because the program worked so well already. So, I downloaded the latest version of Mailwasher -- and it had the same behavior. So, I reverted back to the 2003 version -- it worked fine except for the slowness in popping up.

A couple of months later, I added a service called Postini to my Pacific Internet email account. (Pacific and some -- but not all -- other ISPs have it available as a free add-on service.) Postini is a spam filtering service -- it weeds the spam out of your email BEFORE it ever gets to my mailbox @pacific.net. I found that it did a VERY good job -- so good, in fact, that almost nothing was getting through that Mailwasher would flag from being on one of the blacklists.

Flash forward another couple of months, and just for the heck of it, I was browsing the area on TUCOWS devoted to email checking tools. There was a free, open-source tool called PopTray that got their top "Five Cows" rating. And it was written in Delphi, which attracted me because I develop in Delphi myself. Reading through the documentation, it appeared to have almost all the same features as Mailwasher, except for checking the remote blacklist sites. Since I wasn't using that feature of Mailwasher any more, I decided to download PopTray and give it a try.

I've been using PopTray for about a month now, and overall I'm pleased with it. Its message preview feature isn't quite as convenient as MailWasher's -- in MailWasher, you just press the spacebar to preview the selected message, while PopTray makes you either click a button or right-click the message and choose "Preview" -- and it seems to have trouble previewing a few more messages than Mailwasher does (usually ones that are written in HTML and don't include equivalent plaintext). But, it performs the functions I want -- delete mail from the server, checking for faked "from me" messages, and previewing selected messages -- and it handles multiple email accounts, unlike the current free version of Mailwasher. (The paid "Pro" version of Mailwasher handles multiple accounts, but not the free version.)

PopTray 3.2 -- recommended.
MailWasher -- also recommended (and hopefully Nick will fix the slow popup problem with IE7)

2007-12-21

Products I use personally (and recommend):

AVG Antivirus (home users, try the free version!)
Spybot Search & Destroy spyware removal utility
Mozilla Firefox web browser
Pegasus Mail (inexperienced computer users may prefer Mozilla Thunderbird)
FileZilla FTP client and server software
SyncBack file synchronization software
CCleaner file system / registry cleanup utility
PSPad text editor
UltraVNC remote control software
Dimension 4 clock synchronization software
Winamp music playing software

Apart from the commercial version of AVG (which I use because I use my computers for business purposes), all of the above are available for free. (There is a commercial version of SyncBack with more features, but the free version suits my needs. I do use -- and paid for -- the Pacemaker tempo/pitch control plugin for Winamp.)

It's amazing how much software is legitimately available for free on the Internet, and the high quality of much of that software is impressive as well. I'm not talking about illegal, pirated copies of store-bought software -- I'm referring to software that the authors have decided to make available without charge, and software which was created by open-source projects. A lot of these are in the categories of system utilities (like SyncBack and CCleaner) and software development tools (such as the WinMerge file difference viewer and the TortoiseSVN source code version control system, both of which I use) and, as such, are of more interest to "computer geeks." But, things like antivirus utilities, web browsers and email clients are of interest to everyone, and there are even free office applications like OpenOffice available which rival commercial programs such as Microsoft Office in both features and usability.

2007-09-16

I've got a domain name!

Not one of the big, well-recognized domains -- I wanted my initials (LOJ) like I use for my email address, but loj.com and loj.info were already taken. But there was one domain that GoDaddy said still had my initials available, and I took it. So, as of two months ago, you can also access this web site by typing the following into your web browser's address bar:

www.loj.name

Yep, that's right -- "name." Never heard of it before? Neither had I -- but it works! (It still shows the "real" address in the address bar once you get there, though.)

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We had a successful Sunday dance with Joe Saltel here in Ukiah last month -- five squares. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again next year when Joe passes through the area. It's always great to be able to dance to Joe -- he's my favorite caller, and one of my biggest inspirations.

Looks like the worst of the summer heat may be behind us -- high temperatures in the mid 80s are all that the 10-day forecast at weather.com shows for us. This summer has been nothing like last year, when we had a stretch of two weeks straight over 100 degrees -- but to me, anything much over 80 is too hot. (And, anything much under 70 is too cold, so I'm almost never happy. :-)

We've had a spat of health problems recently in my extended family -- an uncle and two aunts have all spent time in the hospital after falls. One aunt is still recovering in a care facility, but is doing much better than she had been doing before her fall -- she was diagnosed with anemia in the hospital, was given several transfusions, and is much more like her old self than she was before the fall. You can find silver linings in the oddest clouds!

I'll be traveling up to Mount Shasta next weekend to call a dance. That's just north of where I spent the largest portion of my childhood, a wide spot in the road on I-5 called Gibson, in the Sacramento River Canyon in northern Shasta County. It's always nice to get back up into that area again, even though much of my childhood home and haunts are now gone -- victims of widening I-5 in the '80s and '90s.

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