MPIA shuts down town WIFI

Our friends at MPIA have done it again. They forced a small town to shut down their public WIFI because one person downloaded a movie. There are 2 ways to look at this. One is that a single person spoiled the free public WIFI for all, or 2, the MPIA is continuing its gestapo tactics. Either way, I feel sorry for the local IT guys who have to put up with all the political mess and extra work.
http://www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20091109/UPDATES01/91109015

Great music group for Kids and us older people too.

I just finished watch a couple of YouTube videos that impressed me very much. In these days with all the rap and hate music, it is good to see a young group doing great music that has a very positive note. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ

Veteran’s Day

From a Vietnam Veteran to all veterans.
This is your day an I am proud that you all have served your country to keep it as one United States.
Let us all say a prayer for all that have served and survived an an extra prayer for all those that pay the ultimate price protecting our past freedom. This freedom will continue as long as we can keep the politicians from amending any of the “BILL OF RIGHTS”.

Equal Rights?

The New York Times had an article yesterday about Florida and South Carolina judges refusing to let their states produce a Christian license plate. It is a real sad state of affairs when these type of anti American Christian groups have more political pull then the common American. Read the article for yourself. I am dismayed.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/i-believe-license-banned-by-judge/

Where are the backups?

Montgomery county Maryland has a great traffic computer. It keeps traffic moving based on traffic flow and works well. That is until it crashes and a massive traffic congestion occurs. It was down for quite a while while the engineers tried to fix it. What I want to know is where was the backup computer to take over when this mess happened.
Read the story an watch the TV news video here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110402413.html

New chemicals to protect from iceing.

I want some of this stuff for my use.
A coating developed at the University of Pittsburgh repels freezing rain and could be applied easily to roads, planes and power lines, researchers said.
The nano particle coating developed in the Swanson School of Engineering belongs to a class of water repellants known as superhydrophobic coatings, doctoral student Liangliang Cao said in a release Thursday.
The coating was inspired by water-resistant Lotus leaves, which have microscopic ridges that reduce the surface area to which water can adhere, Cao said.
Cao’s team created resins from nano particles of silica and applied it to frozen aluminum plates to simulate freezing rain. Resins with silica particles less than 50 nanometers in size completely prevented icing, Cao said.
Water touched the air pockets between the particles and fell away without freezing. Cao produced similar results when he used the coating on a commercial satellite dish, the university said.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Newsletter 11/01/2009

Since Halloween was last night….
Is it possible to build a scientifically designed haunted room or haunted house? Wired magazine blog site has a story about such a room that was built.
See what the outcome was of their project here.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/scientifically-haunted-house

Have you wanted a barcode with your name or something really special to fool people? How about a custom bar code for …
Anyway this site let you make a standard UCC/EAN-128 or GS1 DataBar Expanded barcode. Strange but so is Halloween.
http://www.morovia.com/free-online-barcode-generator/

Thing to use on or after Halloween.
In the cool stuff section, how about a pair of bicycle pedals that have red LED lights built in so you always have night light. These require no batteries and when you pedal they generate the electricity to power the LED’s.
http://www.dosun.us/portablelight/index_light.htm

This is from a blog I read that says that these are the best indoor plant to create oxygen.
“1. Areca Palm – You need at least four shoulder-height plants per person in the building and, if you are living in a polluted city, make sure you wipe the Palm leaves every single day for the plant to effectively convert Carbon dioxide into Oxygen.
You should in fact grow two sets of Areca Palm’s — keep the other set outdoors and rotate that set with the indoor one every 3-4 months.
2. Snake Plant — Unlike most plants which release Carbon-dioxide at night, Snake Plant (also known as Mother-in-law’s Tongue) does the reverse as it converts CO2 into Oxygen at night so you can safely keep it inside the bedroom.
You need at least 6 to 8 waist height plants per person to improve the indoor air quality to a healthy level.
3. Money Plant — Other than releasing oxygen in the air, money plant can also eliminate formaldehyde from the air that is commonly released by cigarette smoke and adhesives (used with wood furnishings).”

If you recently purchased the new Windows 7 from Microsoft or plan to purchase it in the near future, you can get a bunch of free themes from Microsoft.
ttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/personalize?T1=themes

While talking about the new Windows 7 here is a list of some of the keyboard shortcuts used on Windows 7.
• Win+Home: Clear all but the active window.
• Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop.
• Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window.
• Shift+Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window vertically.
• Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it’s maximized.
• Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor.
• Shift+Win+Left/Right arrows: Move the window to the monitor on the left or right..

Ultrafast DNA Nanosensor

“A portable instrument based on an ultrasensitive nanoscale sensor could detect bacteria in minutes, helping to catch infectious diseases early and prevent their spread. The simple, low-cost device should be available within three years, says Benjamin Miller, professor of dermatology and biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and codeveloper of the sensor.”
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23575/?nlid=2403

Glowing DNA: A CCD camera sensor captures the glow of hairpin-shaped DNA nanosensors when they bind with a target gene sequence of anthrax bacteria.
Credit: Benjamin Miller, University of Rochester Medical Center

Red Light Cameras

Can you believe this? Hmm, looks like the city of Riverside has a real revenue stream going with the camera.
“A single red light camera in Riverside, California issued $1 million worth of right-hand turn on red tickets in just one month. The automated ticketing machine installed in March at Tyler Street at the entrance to the 91 Freeway has become the most productive of the city’s cameras and now accounts for half of the citations issued by Riverside’s vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia. The camera helped boost the grand total of citations mailed since January 2007 to 82,448 tickets worth $32,532,203.”

This is a trend that is happening all over the US and Europe. Everyone needs to pay close attention to where they are and what they are doing or you will find your checkbook in a dismal state.

Newsletter 10/11/2009

I listen to radio via the web at work and at home. If you are so inclined, this following will help.
Free online music is easier to find than ever with the multitude of internet radio stations now available to listeners. With the growth of the World Wide Web and advances in telecommunications, finding free music, news, sports and talk is only a few clicks away. However, there are now so many options available that you might have trouble figuring out exactly what’s out there.
http://www.onlineradiostations.com

Documents are what make this world happen. There are documents for about every possible thing, item, procedure, rule, etc. So what are the 100 most influential documents in US history?
I can think of ten immediately. The Bill of Rights. What about you? This web site has the results of votes from the people. It is presented by the National Archives and is worth a visit and read and compare yours against what is listed.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=true&page=vote”

While you are at The National Archives web site, check out the ‘Digital Vaults’. This section has pictures, photographs, documents, and film clips of the items mentioned in the previous post and much more. I liked taking some time to make my personal film clip of historical events that I thought were most significant. Oh, be sure to view the Flash version as it is very impressive.
http://digitalvaults.org/

Food, one of my favorite things. Since it is high on my priority list, I should know how long each type of food lasts on the shelf, in freezer, or in the refrigerator. Since I don’t I had to do some searching to find the answer. Indeed I did with a little help from my wife. The answer to all of the above questions on any food is quickly available at the following link.
http://www.stilltasty.com

By now most people who watch any TV have heard at least one of David Letterman’s top ten lists. I found a site that its whole purpose is to produce and show you top ten lists. If you are searching for a top ten list it has to be here or will be here sooner or later.
http://listverse.com