Chrome - get it

I want to tell you about how nice the new Google browser called "Chrome" works. It is super fast, this is one of the best features. I haven't given up on FireFox but I find I am using Chrome more and more. Give it a try, download it here.

http://www.google.com/chrome

QSL Cards

Here is a real neat product for backing up your QSL cards

Amazon.com Product Description

With one-touch scanning and no PC required, the PhotoLink personal photo scanner/converter from Pandigital makes it easy to enjoy digital copies of all your favorite printed photos. Designed for ease of use, the Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter saves scanned images directly to SD card for quick and simple transfer to your Digital Photo Frame or PC. The PhotoLink is perfect for the family genealogist, or anyone who needs to quickly and easily scan photographs or business cards.

My YouTube Videos and Picasa Photos

I received an email asking about a video I produced about a year or so ago. I went looking for it and realized I have, in my novice days of video, had produced several that I had forgotten about. Some are pretty bad, some are pretty good. Here is a list of all I have uploaded:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wbotx?feature=mhsn#p/u

Also you can see on Picasa all of the albums of photos I have posted. See them here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/105974274631821525519

Pumpkin Show 2011 is history

It was a damp cool morning for the parade but not enough to halt the fun and tradition. I marched just to the rear of the Versailles Legion Color Guard in my traditional Class A Army uniform. I think this is the last year with the original, but for next year I will buy a size larger shirt. I had much trouble getting the collar button fastened. I will go from size 15 to a 17. I hate to deviate from the original but at age 66 I have been very lucky to get in it this many years. I have posted the video on YouTube of the color guard and parade for those that were not able to attend.

Versailles Indiana legion Color Guard 2011

Versailles Indiana legion Color Guard

marching in the Pumpkin Show Parade 2011

Watch in larger format on YouTube

Versailles Pumpkin Show Parade 2011

After I returned to the Legion after marching I shot some video with a very small Flip Video camera.
The video is not good quality, but better than none at all.
Click HERE to see it on youtube
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6MSXeP4p08

Fall Equinox - 9/23/11

An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth'sequator. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) andnox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length.

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The Big Picture - out of the past

When I was very young I remember watching the TV series The Big Picture that was dedicated to the military. Another TV show was Victory At Sea. This was pure Navy. I have ten hours or so of this program that was recorded on VHS and now transferred to DVD. Sometimes when its raining or bad snowy cold weather I dig these classics out and watch them. I can't help it, I just love this stuff.
See on YouTube:
"The Big Picture" and "Victory at Sea"

Pumpkin Show - Versailles Indiana

If you live far away and can not attend as so many do, you still can have a small view of the festivities. You can see the Northwest corner of the town square. The image updates every one minute between the hours of 8am to 5pm. I would like to thank the Ripley County American Red Cross for hosting the camera.
http://webcam.wb9otx.com/cam/

See more still photos

Flo Pegee Skeen - A Versailles Icon

I am ask about Flo Pegee several times a year by email and in person. I always state that I don't really know much about her. I did have the chance to talk to her on two occasions when I was very young, 11 or 12 as to the best I can remember. I was walking from our farm to the Versailles show I and all of the other kids never walked past her house on her side od the street, Why, we were afraid of her because of the stories being told about her as a witch. As I passed across from her converted green tavern (where she lived later in life) she called out,"young man oh young man, could you help me a minute". As I walked across the street to her I must tell you I was very afraid, but I kept walking to her. As I came near she said, "Can you lift this flower pot from the porch for me"? I did not reply but did as she said putting it on the sidewalk as she pointed where to place it. She said thank you so much. I replied you are welcome mam. As I turned to walk away she shouted "but I didn't pay you", as she was opening a little change purse pulling out a dime. I said "no mam you do not owe me anything". She told me in a very grateful voice, "you have been raised proper thank you". I walked away on my way to the show. I never told any of the other kids about the encounter with Flo. The second time was about a year later. Flo was in her yard and remembering the last encounter I just said good morning mam. She replied just a simple hello. As I look back I feel she was a very misunderstood lonely lady. I have never judged her as I have no proof of the roomers that were told about her. Even today if you mutter the words Flo Pegee, witch will he heard. She did dress in black and always wore a large hat, does this make her a witch, I think not. The photo here shows her as a young very attractive lady. I know of no photo of her in later years of her life. All of the photos I have collected are posted here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/105974274631821525519/FloPegeeSkeen

Here is a paragraph from the Alan Smith Sr. authored book "Tales of Versailles"
http://wb9otx.blogspot.com/search?q=flo+pegee+skeen

Flo taught me to judge people as you see them, not from what others say.
......... Jack

happy bithday to me !

The big news today is a big happy bithday to me ! 66 today.
I received a nice home made card and photo from my grand daughter. I will go to the local pub this afternoon for my birthday beer and a kiss on the cheek (I hope it is a bar main working today). I worked two moon bounce stations last night, one from Oklahoma and one from Russia. Conditions are poor but I will try again tonight. I added a few more QSL EME cards to my online EME log page. See them here. I took a few photos of the lot where they are building the new Courthouse Anex (or what ever they are calling it). I will post them on the Net soon. It is a bright sunny day with a nice 7MPH breeze from the South West, a perfect Fall day. The Friendship Shoot is going on this week and Versailles Pumpkin Show is in two weeks. I hope the weather will hold for these events. Work is slow for my computer business, I hope it picks up so I can buy more toys. Lunch time now, ....... Jack

Moon Myths: The Truth About Lunar Effects on You

The moon holds a mystical place in the history of human culture, so it's no wonder that many myths — from werewolves to induced lunacy to epileptic seizures — have built up regarding its supposed effects on us.

"It must be a full moon," is a phrase heard whenever crazy things happen and is said by researchers to be muttered commonly by late-night cops, psychiatry staff and emergency room personnel.

It's been a long time since the Big Cheese revealed any new secrets as important as this week's announcement that traces of water exist all across its surface. Coincidentally, a study this week found zero connection between the full moon and surgery outcomes.

Full Story

Harvest moon

All full moons rise around the time of sunset. In general the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. As it moves in orbit around Earth, the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special because, around the time of these full moons, the time difference between moonrise on successive evenings is shorter than usual. This means that the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later from one night to the next, as seen from about 40 degrees N. or S. latitude. Thus, there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time following these full moons. In times past this feature of these autumn moons was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon.The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter's Moon is that the ecliptic—the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun—makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn.
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American Airlines Flight 11

American Airlines Flight 11 was American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight from Logan International Airport, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, California. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 767-223ER—was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists and intentionally crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, as part of the September 11 attacks.
Read the full story

From: wikipedia.org

Today 9-10-11

A busy day has already started for me. A trip to Milan for the RCARC Ham Radio breakfast at 8:30am, Had to pick up a radio and deliver a hardline connector there. Back home at 9:30, put the camera on charge for taking photos at Cliff Hill for the Cpl. Bishop memorial that starts at 11:00. I took a look on 15 meter ham band but nothing coming threw yet switched to 20 mtrs and the band is open. I looked for a few periods with the JT65HF mode but seen no new countries I needed. The VHF contest starts at 2pm today but the moon rise for me is not till 8:30pm. I will give a few calls on 2 mtr. sideband but I will concentrate on moonbounce tonight. The Friendship Shoot starts today and will last all week. I will try to at least make it there one day. I received a very nice email from a long time friend Ham Don Faris complimenting me on the things I have done with Ham Radio, Thank you so much Don......... There are loads of County and State Police on the roads today, I guess it is because of the 10 year 911 thing, Don't speed today. More later....... Jack
Now off to the BA for a cup of coffee.
Back from taking the photos of the Memorial for Cpl. John C Bishop - I have posted them HERE

An American Indian Proverb

"Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only when the last river   has been poisoned; Only when the last fish has been caught; Only then   will you find that money cannot be eaten."  (American Indian Proverb)  

Today -Sept. 06,2011

I'm sure you've heard it before "If you don't like the weather in Indiana, Set on a rock for five minutes and it will change". This is so true as it was over 100 degrees only a week ago, but this morning it is 56 as I type this. Pumpkin show usually bring jacket weather and the Friendship Shoot brings rain. What will the weather be this year ? Your guess is as good as mine. After looking at the grass in the front yard I'm thinking I may only have to cut it one more time this year. With the price of gasoline I have my fingers crossed. There is an ol' saying,"Fish bite the least when the wind is out of the East". This was proven wrong as Shawn Halcomb landed a very large bass over the week end. See the video of the catch here
The NASCAR race at Atlanta was rained out but will be run today at 11am, I guess I'll have to watch it, that is if the phone doesn't ring with work for me. I watched a movie yesterday and a quote from it caught my attention, "You cant stop what's coming", this is a fact and I think it has now come. No history today, Enjoy the day..........Jack

Old Postcards

Here I go with the old stuff but I just can't help myself. This page contains loads of old postcards from around Indiana. Hit the > to start the slide show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoosier_recollections/6077419480/in/photostream/lightbox/

Labor Day 2011

Today I looked over the past few days of Blog postings and find it contains mostly posting of history. I do love history but I think I have went slightly overboard with it. So today and from now on I will try to focus on a mixture of past and present. I lost a lot of sleep last night listening to the police scanner. The cops have narralded the search down to a location near Milan. At 9am this morning one escapee is still at large from the jail break Sunday morning. A very nice article appeared in the Versailles Republican newspaper about my adventures with moon bounce. This article came after one published two weeks ago in the Batesville Herald. Both reports were very flattering to me. As of today I have worked 55 plus stations on every continent except Oceanic . As soon as I work New Zealand or Australia I will have "Worked all Continents" (WAC Award). Very few have obtained this award on the 144 Mhz. (2 meter) band. See my EME log here.
Another Ham Radio thing I'm doing is a mode called WSJT65HF. Unlike moon bounce on 144 Mhz. WSJT65HF uses 1.5 to 28 Mhz. This is a very weak signal mode (QRP) and I only use 5 watts of power. This is less power than it takes to light your car's single tail light.I have worked about 50 countries in all parts of the world. This is a fairly new mode and is gaining popularity every day as new stations come on with it. With Labor day today it signals the end of Summer to me. Spring brought rain almost every day, but Summer has been very hot with temperatures of over 100 and very dry. Cooler temperatures are forecast this next week though. I am looking forward to marching in the Pumpkin Show Parade with my original Army uniform. "It still fits". See it here:
This is a lazy day and I will be napping after loosing the sleep last night, I'm on break ........ Have a nice day, Jack

Voyager 1 launched September 5, 1977

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram (1,592 lb) space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for 34 years as of today, the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. It will be the first probe to leave the Solar System and is the farthest man made object from Earth.
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Google is born September 4, 1998

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, advertising technologies, and search engines. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products,^[5] and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program.^[6][7] The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys",^[8][9][10] while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for twenty years, until the year 2024.^[11] The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful",^[12] and the company's unofficial slogan – coined by Google engineer Amit Patel^[13] and supported by Paul Buchheit – is "Don't be evil".^[14][15] In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.

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Japanese Surrender - Sept 2, 1945

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that enabled the Surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Provisional Government of the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Dominion of New Zealand on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
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Where are we headed ?

On the news this morning I heard that a state was trying to pass a law that it would be against the law to smoke in a vehicle with children present. OK I'm for protecting kids, but don't you think the government is going just a little overboard. When will it be unlawful to have tented windows or curtains on your home? Here is a little story that I have had for years, It may come true. Read and think about where we are headed......... Jack
========================================================


CRIPTO

There was once a far away land called Ruritania, and in Ruritania
there was a strange phenomenon -- all the trees that grew in
Ruritainia were transparent. Now, in the days when people had lived in
mud huts, this had not been a problem, but now high-tech wood
technology had been developed, and in the new age of wood, everyone in
Ruritania found that their homes were all 100% see through. Now, until
this point, no one ever thought of allowing the police to spy on
someone's home, but the new technology made this tempting. This being
a civilized country, however, warrants were required to use binoculars
and watch someone in their home. The police, taking advantage of
this, would get warrants to use binoculars and peer in to see what was
going on. Occasionally, they would use binoculars without a warrant,
but everyone pretended that this didn't happen.

One day, a smart man invented paint -- and if you painted your house,
suddenly the police couldn't watch all your actions at will. Things
would go back to the way they were in the old age -- completely
private.

Indignant, the state decided to try to require that all homes have
video cameras installed in every nook and cranny. "After all", they
said, "with this new development crime could run rampant. Installing
video cameras doesn't mean that the police get any new capability --
they are just keeping the old one."

A wise man pointed out that citizens were not obligated to make the
lives of the police easy, that the police had survived all through the
mud hut age without being able to watch the citizens at will, and that
Ruritania was a civilized country where not everything that was
expedient was permitted. For instance, in a neighboring country, it
had been discovered that torture was an extremely effective way to
solve crimes. Ruritania had banned this practice in spite of its
expedience. Indeed, "why have warrants at all", he asked, "if we are
interested only in expedience?"

A famous paint technologist, Dorothy Quisling, intervened however. She
noted that people might take photographs of children masturbating
should the new paint technology be widely deployed without safeguards,
and the law was passed.

Soon it was discovered that some citizens would cover their mouths
while speaking to each other, thus preventing the police from reading
their lips through the video cameras. This had to be prevented, the
police said. After all, it was preventing them from conducting their
lawful surveillance. The wise man pointed out that the police had
never before been allowed to listen in on people's homes, but Dorothy
Quisling pointed out that people might use this new invention of
covering their mouths with veils to discuss the kidnapping and
mutilation of children. No one in the legislature wanted to be accused

of being in favor of mutilating children, but then again, no one
wanted to interfere in people's rights to wear what they liked, so a
compromise was reached whereby all homes were installed with
microphones in each room to accompany the video cameras. The wise man
lamented few if any child mutilations had ever been solved by the old
lip reading technology, but it was too late -- the microphones were
installed everywhere.

However, it was discovered that this was insufficient to prevent
citizens from hiding information from the authorities, because some of
them would cleverly speak in languages that the police could not
understand. A new law was proposed to force all citizens to speak at
all times only in Ruritanian, and, for good measure, to require that
they speak clearly and distinctly near the microphones. "After all",
Dorothy Quisling pointed out, "they might be using the opportunity to
speak in private to mask terrorist activities!" Terrorism struck
terror into everyone's hearts, and they rejoiced at the brilliance of
this new law.


Meanwhile, the wise man talked one evening to his friends on how all
of this was making a sham of the constitution of Ruritania, of which
all Ruritanians were proud. "Why", he asked, "are we obligated to
sacrifice all our freedom and privacy to make the lives of the police
easier? There isn't any real evidence that this makes any big dent in
crime anyway! All it does is make our privacy forfeit to the state!"


However, the wise man made the mistake of saying this, as the law
required, in Ruritanian, clearly and distinctly, and near a
microphone. Soon, the newly formed Ruritanian Secret Police arrived
and took him off, and got him to confess by torturing him. Torture
was, after all, far more efficient than the old methods, and had been
recently instituted to stop the recent wave of people thinking obscene
thoughts about tomatoes, which Dorothy Quisling noted was one of the
major problems of the new age of plenty and joy.


end of story

Richard Crisp Cupertino, Ca.
crisp@netcom.com

World War II starts Sept 1, 1939

Nazi Germany invaded Poland at Wieluń and Westerplatte, starting World War II in Europe.

"Here You Have It" Virus Email warning

I get this stuff all the time. The people that forward these emails think there doing you a favor, but all their doing is just burning up bandwidth on the net. Please check out these warnings and just because it states, "send to everyone in your address book" don't do it.
Read this
This ought to go without saying, but it's probably worth repeating for good measure: Never click on links in unsolicited emails or open unknown file attachments unless you're reasonably sure they're legitimate. That is how most network viruses are transmitted. Don't click on everything you see !