Image of the Day

Astronomy Picture of the Day
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

AOL is good for something I guess
http://reference.aol.com/photooftheday

Botany Photo of the Day
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd

Earth Image of the Day
http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/showall.php

NASA Image of the Day
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery

INDIANA LICENSE PLATE COUNTY PREFIXES

It is possible to tell the county that a vehicle is registered in by the first two digits of its license plate number. For example, a licence plate that was 69B000 would be registered in Ripley County (69 being the key here). The following are the prefixes for each county:

1. Adams 30. Hancock 59. Orange 88. Washington
2. Allen 31. Harrison 60. Owen 89. Wayne
3. Bartholomew 32. Hendricks 61. Parke 90. Wells
4. Benton 33. Henry 62. Perry 91. White
5. Blackford 34. Howard 63. Pike 92. Whitley
6. Boone 35. Huntington 64. Porter 93. Marion
7. Brown 36. Jackson 65. Posey 94. Lake
8. Carroll 37. Jasper 66. Pulaski 95. Marion
9. Cass 38. Jay 67. Putnam 96. Lake
10. Clark 39. Jefferson 68. Randolph 97. Marion
11. Clay 40. Jennings 69. Ripley 98. Marion
12. Clinton 41. Johnson 70. Rush 99. Marion
13. Crawford 42. Knox 71. St. Joseph
14. Daviess 43. Kosciusko 72. Scott
15. Dearborn 44. LaGrange 73. Shelby
16. Decatur 45. Lake 74. Spencer
17. Dekalb 46. LaPorte 75. Starke
18. Delaware 47. Lawrence 76. Steuben
19. Dubois 48. Madison 77. Sullivan
20. Elkhart 49. Marion 78. Switzerland
21. Fayette 50. Marshall 79. Tippecanoe
22. Floyd 51. Martin 80. Tipton
23. Fountain 52. Miami 81. Union
24. Franklin 53. Monroe 82. Vanderburgh
25. Fulton 54. Montgomery 83. Vermillon
26. Gibson 55. Morgan 84. Vigo
27. Grant 56. Newton 85. Wabash
28. Greene 57. Noble 86. Warren
29. Hamilton 58. Ohio 87. Warrick

Johnny Cash

If you can't wait till the new Johnny Cash movie hits the video store this Web Page may tide you over. I think if you have broadband you will be OK, but dial-up, I don't know but you can give it a try at: http://www.johnnycash.com/

Be a Webmaster

Create a unique website for you and your family with a variety of features that are available at the tip of your fingers! The site is perfect for family reunions, baby homepages, and keeping family members updated. Create your family website for free with no trial period in just a few minutes.
http://familylobby.com/

eBay - I love it

A friend asked, "is eBay safe"? here in a nut shell was my reply. A great many of us do the eBay thing, a lot of us don't because you have a foebea and think it is unsafe. Here is my take on eBay, I love to shop or look at things I don't have and might want to have, (did that make sense?) If I go out of the house I might trip on the porch step, I could slip on the ice on the car port, I may get hit by an oncoming car while backing out of my drive. The waiter where I eat lunch may spill hot coffee in my lap, my car may burst into flames while buying gas at the station, the clerk at the mall may copy my information from my credit card, and yes my car cold be stolen while I'm in the mall. Will all this lurking dangers keep you/I from shopping at the mall, no I think not, Why ? It is because you have learned to watch out for these possible hazards and never give it a second thought. The above risks and many more are with us through out the day, we have learned to be careful but continue on. eBay is the same, all kinds of bad things could happen, but if you are careful they won't. I have found that buying and selling on eBay is very safe, email is the dangerous part, but if you back onto the highway in front of an oncoming car you may get hit. With email, if you open unknown attachments your computer will acquire a virus sooner or later. If you click on a link embedded in the text you are going to open the door to a spoof or key logger. Many of these fake emails contain a keystroke virus. If you clicked on any of the links in the email, you may have exposed your computer to this virus. eBay knows that there are scammers that send out the phishing emails so to stop this bogus act they also put any email they send you on your my eBay page. If its not there they did not send it to you. eBay is fun and can be profitable if you want to clean out the basement. It is just like going to the mall you have to watch out for the dangers of everyday life. Always use PayPal, this act puts a big safe guard into the outcome also.

I just hapend to think

I just hapend to think, I guess the Career Center (Voc School) will have a hard time maintaining the tower if the REMC desides to vacate the tower. I think the big user of the tower is the Christian radio station brodcasting at 88.1 FM. Too bad the RCRA Ham radio group lost access on the tower as high places are hard to find around Ripley County. RCRA give away the thousands of dollars worth of feedline to REMC and now they will have an almost impossible job of acquiring new if they need it at a new location. May be the REMC will consider giving it back. May be the Career Center will forfeit the $1000 / month fee for the nonprofit Ham Radio club that do so much public service work in times of disaster and also when regular communications are disrupted or nonexistent. Think it over Career Center.

TransWorld pulled the plug on Wireless

I heard today from a dependable REMC customer that TransWorld pulled the plug on their wireless Internet service. Too bad for folks that live in the country out of range of DSL & cable.

All good things must come to an end

Symantec has agreed to acquire Sygate Technologies, Effective November 30th, 2005 all Sygate personal firewall products will be discontinued. This is very bad news to a lot of broadband internet users. I have used Sygate firewall for a number of years and now its gone for good. I felt it was the very best on the net. Symantec the publisher of "Norton Internet Security 2006" wants you to buy it now. Let me make a tall statement, "Norton Internet Security 2006" is the biggest mastake you can make if you load this software on your computer. Why, "Slow Slow Slow, then slower". After you plunk down 40 bucks and install it you must provide a password, and yes you will forget it. You can't get it off without it, that is unless you format the drive. Don't buy it. There is a few other free titles such as Zone Alarm, one I never liked but lots of users do. I still have Sygate loaded on all of my computers and I guess they will remain till I find them not working anylonger or till I find a replacement. If I find one I like for free, you will read about it here. Here is some other information on the buy-out:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5835431.html?tag=nl

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Yep I got it !

Hoo Ray ! for HP

I have a very low end notebook (lap-top) computer that I just plane wore out the touch pad. It was ten months old when I noticed the left mouse button was not working. I knew it had a one year warranty, so I called HP and after speaking to Bombay for some time I was transferred to a nice fellow that spoke very understandable English. I told him it was a hardware problem, but he said I had to load the driver again anyway. I downloaded the driver then did the install. I told him I had rebooted the machine, he said now will it work, I said no. He said boy it must be a hardware problem you are going to have to send it in for repair. The Fed-X truck pulled in Monday and off it went to California. To make a short story out of this, it is Thursday and I am typing this entry on the HP notebook and it is working perfect. I must say very good service.

Federal crime

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

Read the complete story here

It was on sale

When your Wife comes home with several big shopping bags, you say what did you buy? She replies, I had to get it as it was on sale. You think Oh brother. Sometimes I do the same thing. I bought two domain names over the weekend. The company where I buy all (at least most) had a two for one sale, in a week moment I went for a deal that I did not need. I purchased "TownOfVersailles dot com and TownOfVersailles dot net. This deal is going to make me some money or cause me a considerable amount of work, most likely the latter. So both domains are for sale at a low profit price or tell me what should go on this new page. Where would you like to go today ?

Paint Shop Pro X

Santa missed my house I guess but you know today a truck pulled in the drive and delivered a late Christmas gift. It was a piece of software that I have been using almost ever sense I have had a computer. It is called Paint Shop Pro and I started with version 3.0. It was shareware (try before you buy) with a nag screen that claimed you had 30 days to try it, but as I and thousands of others found, It never quit after the 30 day time limit expired. You ask, "What dose this great program do anyway"? I'm here to tell you it is one of the most used graphic editors of all time. The craze for digital cameras now makes it even more useful. I use it to edit, resize, enhance, remove people and objects, ad people, and on and on. You say, I thought Photo Shop was the best, you'd be correct. But it is overkill for 99% of most people and at a price tag of about $400 you won't need it to do the everyday editing. Paint Shop Pro X (10) sells for about $100.00. Here is the deal, I'm going to tell you a secret hiding place for the non-expiring version 3 of PSP. It will come zipped, so you will have to unzip the files before you can install it, a simple chore if your running XP. Windows 9x users will have to have winzip to extract the files. If you have never unziped a program its time you learned. Have your kids show you how. The learning curve is not to bad, just load up an old photo and experiment with the different tools. Version X is much more intence, so I have a few things to learn about the extra features version X offers over V 7.1 I was using before. I'll let you know how I do later on. Get the free version 3.0 here:

http://www.pagetutor.com/dl/psp312-32.html

Use it for awhile to get the feel of it, then after you think you can't do without it, buy version X.

A simple audio conversion for free

Q.
I have a large amount of CDs and a MP3 walkman/player. I have ripped the songs in the WMA format and find out too late that my player will not play WMA files. Is there any way to convert them to MP3 without too much trouble. I am a beginner, so keep this in mind.

A.
A very simple audio conversion program I have used is Free MP3 WMA Converter. It's free, very fast, and works very well.

So what type of audio conversion can Free MP3 WMA Converter handle? You can go from: MP3 to Ogg, MP3 to WMA, MP3 to AAC, MP3 to WAV, WAV to MP3, WAV to Ogg, WAV to AAC, WAV to WMA, WMA to MP3, WMA to Ogg, WMA to AAC, WMA to WAV, Ogg to MP3, Ogg to WMA, Ogg to AAC, Ogg to WAV, AAC to MP3, AAC to WMA, AAC to Ogg, AAC to WAV and well, I think you get the picture. This program does handle a lot. Download the program at the URL below. By the way you do not have to enter the information in the form, just click "Download". When you install the program be connected to the internet and turn your firewall off if you need to, let it download the the conversion file as you will need it to do the convections. Turn your firewall back on before you run it as it will open your browser. No spyware is loaded though. Now you will be on your way to the MP3 tunes, play some oldies for me will you !

http://koyotstar.free.fr/dlEn.php?titresoft=Free_Mp3Wma_Conver

Hope this helps. Do you have a question? - email me at: jack.demaree@gmail.com

Joe Day Christmas light display

Here is the famous Joe Day Christmas light display.
Located just West of Versailles, Indiana at what the
locals call the Wye. These two photos were shot by
James Furiya of Versailles.

Thunderbird mail signature file

Q.
You are always telling people to use Thunder Bird Mail instead of Outlook Express, so I switched to it. Now I can't find in the help files just how to attach my old signature file. I know it can be done because your emails have this. Thanks for your help.

A.
As I remember it is just about the same as Outlook Express, just harder to find out just how to ad it. Here is your answer:

If you are using Windows:

1. Click the Start button, then click Run.
2. In the Run window that appears, type notepad and then press OK.
3. Use the open Notepad window to create your signature. Design your signature to appear exactly the way you want it to look in Thunderbird.
4. Once you have created you signature you will need to save it. Click File on the Notepad main menu and select Save. A window will appear that will allow you to name and select a location to save your signature. We suggest saving the signature somewhere you can easily find it (like My Documents), but not somewhere where it is always visible and in the way (like your desktop.)
5. In Thunderbird, click Tools on the main menu, then select Account Settings from the list that appears. A window will appear that will allow you to update your account information.
6. In Account Settings, click the check box next to "Attach this signature:".
7. Next, click the Choose button located to the right of the field just below the "Attach this signature" button. Select the signature file you created and then press Open.
8. Choose OK from the original Account Settings window.

Your signature will now be added to all outgoing messages in Thunderbird. To make any further changes to the signature, all you have to do is edit the signature file. This also means that if you delete the signature file, the signature will no longer appear in your Thunderbird email messages.

Nothing to it !
Thanks for your question,
Jack
jack.demaree@gmail.com

Networking home computers

First of all, I wish you a very prosperous 2006. 2005 for me had lots of curves and roadblocks, including crazy wack'o people and ill health, but all and all not to bad. Lets hope 2006 is a great year for us all.

================================

A little over a year or so ago I wrote about networking home computers. At that time I only new two people that had a home network and I was one of them. Now it seems, as I perdicted, more homes have more than one computer and broadband is getting to be the standard over dial-up. You want the main computer and the laptop both to be able to access the Internet.

I have deleted the link and paragraph that was here. I have replaced it with a more simple one.
This is written for local Ripley county Indiana readers, but may apply to other locations also.

Sometimes I forget I have been using computers sense 1981 and some of the things I take for granted everyone else has not a clue what I'm talking about. I received two emails telling me to explain this networking deal. This means the silent majority that never email, might be hundreds or more (i would hope). So here is the network deal in a nutshell.

Verizon DSL

If you have Verizon DSL you have a wireless router already. To surf the Web with another computer you will have to ad a PCI or USB wireless device or card to the second or third computer. Very good directions come with this hardware and all you will have to do is read and install the software. Most all new notebooks/laptops have built-in Wi-Fi (wireless) ready to go. If you have an older one without you will have to ad the Wi-Fi hardware.

Suscom cable

The modem Suscom provides is not wireless. So you can buy one from a computer store like Staples, Best Buy, etc. The draw back to this is you will have to call Suscom and give them the MAC number that you will find on the new modem/router. After you are up and running with the main computer you can set up the other computers. If you use the Suscom modem they provide, you can ad an access point. Read the very clear directions that come with any of this hardware to get up and running.

The above is for Internet access only. If you want a full blown network it is a little more complicated to set up, but it is not that hard if you have XP Home or Pro. Just look in the help files with the key words "network configuring" and don't forget to search the Web for more help. Most home users won't need or want a network. Most just want all the computers to have Internet accsess, if this is the case, don't worry about the networking part.