Patriot Guard Riders

Find out more about this dedicated organization at:
Broadband page:
http://www.patriotguard.org/
Dial-up page:
http://www.patriotguard.org/DialupHomepage/tabid/667/Default.aspx

Dirty screen - Fix it now

Is your screen dusty or smudged ? Just click the link below to fix this problem.
http://www.linein.org/media/screenclean.swf
Mine is spotless now.

Spam never ending

This morning when I opened my email I had 104 messages that arrived overnight in these 104 was only 3 that were not spam or silly forwarded messages. These 3 were read, the rest were deleted. Please remember that the list of displyed email addresses most likly fall into a spammers data base for his massive mailings. Think before you forward a message, Does the receiving party really want to receive it ? Has he/she seen it before ? Please read the following to help cut down on the spam we are all receiving.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You need to protect your email friends, as well as the poor people who have already fallen prey to massively forwarded emails containing their addresses.

To do this, simply send any email to yourself and BCC the recipients. Just click the CC button at the top of the new or forwarded mail and add the addresses from your address book into the BCC field. If you’re only sending to one person you can skip this of course, but you should always do this when sending to multiple people.

To help protect the downline addresses you see listed at the top of these massive forwards just remember when you click on Forward you are creating a new “document” and you can edit it. Scroll to a line just above the start of the actual message, left click to the far right of the offending message and while holding the left mouse button drag the cursor all the way to the top left. That entire section should turn blue (or some other color if you’ve changed your preferences) indicating that is now selected. Release the mouse button and click the Delete key on the keyboard. All of the email addresses in the message will disappear.

*** excert from the The PCgurus Newsletter at : http://thepcgurus.com/pipermail/newsletter_thepcgurus.com/2008-January/000123.html

FireFox beta "don't do it"

I downloaded the new FireFox beta and wished I did not. As with all beta releases there are tons of bugs. I found all of my ad on extentions failed to work. I found that imbedded email links no longer take you to the web page. The list goes on. My advice is to wait for the fully released version. Stick with version 20011 for now.

Ripley County Amateur Radio Club (RCARC)

I just want to say thank you publicly to the Ripley County Amateur Radio Club (RCARC). This is a newly organized Ham Radio club and unlike the other Ripley County Ham club, this one is open to all people that are interested in the hobby of radio. All meetings are open to all, there will be no secret meetings and you can read the meeting minutes online. The RCARC has a working repeater station on 441.775 MHZ that all licensed Hams are welcome and encouraged to use. You do not have to join this new club to use their repeater station, but if you decide to, it will not drain your bank account. The membership is only $12 per year total. They are already planning upcoming events such as Commo for the Red Cross, VE Testing, Field Day, Swap fest, breakfasts, and much more. Read more about this new organization at:
http://www.441775.com
I'm sure the RCARC will make Ham Radio fun again for the many shunned Hams in the past. (and I'm one of the shunned) Thanks again RCARC, all the best.

My ol' friend the hawk

It is a cool snowy morning here in Versailles and this makes for just looking out the window. I seen my ol' friend the hawk perched on a limb looking for his next meal. My wild birds have almost disappeared because of this hawk. I wish he would find another hunting ground, but I guess I will just enjoy watching him and not the other birds that he has frightened away.

Image was made with a Canon Rebel and a 800mm lens. Shot in RAW format then changed to TIF then to JPG for this email. Croped to 640 X 480 - Distance was about 500 ft away from the camera.

This is not a Red Tail hawk that is most common, Can you tell me what kind he is ?
http://tinyurl.com/3xqetb

I have found this hawk is a Sharp-Shinned hawk - see other photos at:
http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/raptors/Sharpshinned.html

Are you terrified

All but a few are terrified that their identity will be compromised if you sign up, post, get PayPal, sell/buy on eBay, and on and on. If you are in this group check out Life Lock.
http://www.lifelock.com/
It is $100 but is well worth it just to stop the junk mail and phone calls from coming. (it works, I have it)

Pay Pal is one of the safest things you can use on the net. I just added their security key. This little gadget puts an added layer of protection in. It generates a different PIN each time you log in. The cost is $5 total for life and its fool proof. It works for eBay also, but I don't use it there. More info here:
https://www.paypal.com/securitykey

RIAA is at it again

The RIAA may be attempting, in a current lawsuit, to set legal precedent that ripping music from your own CDs that you bought & paid for to transfer the songs to an MP3 player or your computer violates copyright. If they win in court you could be fined and land in jail.
http://tinyurl.com/2uw76m

TV Converter Box Coupon

You have 405 days left to receive analog TV
Tell me more about the digital TV transition

IrfanView loads RAW

I have a Canon Rebel camera and I love it, but I can't read CRW/RAW format photos. I do have PhotoShop 7 and Paint Shop Pro, neither of these graphic programs will load the RAW photos. I don't want to spend 300 plus dollars to upgrade PhotoShop. Microsoft does have a program that will let you view RAW format but that's all, you can't edit with it. Canon has one also but it is the same. I told my problem to a geekie friend of mine and he said, don't you have IrfanView ? I said, "Never heard of it" (that's from The Dirty Dozen movie) He said download it and give it a try, that will do what you want to do with RAW photos. I went to
http://www.irfanview.com/
installed it and loaded a test RAW photo, then saved it in a non-compresed TIFF format. Then I was able to load it in PhotoShop 7 or Paint Shop Pro. My problem was solved for free. Read more and download it for free here:
http://www.irfanview.com/
Thanks for the tip JH