“More Interesting Info” new web site

The “More Interesting Info Newsletter” has moved to its new location. Please visit this new web site for the newsletter and much more including tech, gadgets, cool stuff, and things that just “Frost MY Butt”

Click here MCRCO.com

Newsletter 03/07/2010

Oops, I said in the last newsletter I wanted mention government stuff but here are a few more that I felt worth posting.

The TV news of lately has me not wanting to hear anything about what is happening with our government.
The squabbling among the congressmen and senators make me thing they are 5th graders. It sure would be nice if they had the peoples interest in mind instead of their reelection.

At least a lot of the government web sites have viable information for us to review. On such site is the governments holiday site that lists all the official and unofficial holidays.
http://www.usa.gov/citizens/holidays.shtm

Continuing with useful government sites, this one could benefit you for quite a while. The Federal New service has available all the same day transcripts of all the hearings, speeches, and briefing from all the major departments. You have the option to customize your Federal News Service home page with only the items of inters to you.
ttp://www.fednews.com/fnsproducts.htm

Back to my usual stuff.

Some of us are coupon collectors and some us never take the time, but this site has some great coupons to use while making online purchases. They cover many sites and just about every type of product you might need a couple for.
http://www.retailmenot.com/

There are a few more coupon sites that I should mention so check out the links below.
http://coupons.com
http://www.ecoupons.com
http://www.eversave.com

There are so many cool simple projects that will help you with just about everything you do from stuff around the home, garage projects, personal stuff, and many more.
I use this site quit often and it is on my best bookmarks list.
http://www.realsimple.com

I hope you don’t need this site but if you do it can really help a lot.
“IC3′s mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims
of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations.”
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

“It is astonishing with how little wisdom mankind can be governed, when that little wisdom is its own.”
William Inge

Newsletter 02/28/2010

We have seen our share of cold and snow this year on the Eastern Shore. I sure hope this is not a new trend.
Be sure to check my blog as the last couple of weeks this email has been trapped and returned as spam.
The following is another option to read the newsletter. I set up a Goggle group called ‘More Interesting Info’ http://groups.google.com/group/more-interesting-news where you can read the most recent newsletters.

This issue deals with a lot of political and government stuff. As you all know I usually stay away from anything political related and this will be the last of its kind for the foreseeable future.

You have just 18 days to make your comments and ideas heard at the federal government site Opengovtracker.com. This site lets you post any ideas or comment you want the federal government to act upon. You can also vote on the proposals that also have been submitted. Please lie your ideas there and vote on the best idea you want the federal government to act upon.
http://www.opengovtracker.com

While on the same subject another site has some interesting reading on what the federal copyright czar wants to know about how to clarify the copyright laws. This area really need much attention and I have sent a long dissertation on the changes that I feel need to be made. Read the article and then send your thoughts to intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov.
The article to read is at the following web site.
ttp://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/23/us-copyright-czar-wa.htm
http://boingboing.net/2008/10/10/entertainment-indust-3.html

There is a real interesting article on Computerworld’s web site that reveals what Microsoft store about your from your MSN account and other Microsoft accounts. It also show what Microsoft is willing to freely give to any federal or police department upon request without a subpoena. Check it out. I know you will be surprised as I was.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/15655/leaked_microsoft_intelligence_document_heres_what_microsoft_will_reveal_to_police_about_you

If the following seems like a good idea to you, follow the link.
“The Contract from America serves as a clarion call for those who recognize the importance of free market principles, limited government, and individual liberty. It is the natural extension of a movement that began in the local communities and quickly spread across America in response to unprecedented government expansion, reckless spending, and a blatant disregard by our leaders of the nation’s founding principles.”
http://www.contractfromamerica.org

“An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied. “
Arnold H. Glasow

Newsletter 02/14/2010

Happy Valentine’s Day to all. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Ok, we need to look at the origin of Valentine’s Day, so follow the link below and read about the history of this day.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/holidays/valentine.htm

Years ago when I was in junior high and high school, a number of my friends had motor scooters. IF you are old enough to remember, you may recall the following manufactures of motor scooters. Vespa, Lambretta, Cushman, and Mustang. There were others small manufactures but these were the most common.
California Scooter company that made the Mustang scooter back in the early ‘60s has brought back the original design with an updated motor and brakes.
If this bring backs memories or you are just curious, check out the link below.
http://www.californiascooterco.com/scooters/classic-blue.html

Here on the Eastern shore we are covered with snow and after more than a week of this stuff are though are of warmer places and summer vacation. How about a trip to Florida, Southern Arizona, or Southern California? Now being a person that likes the best deal I can get via the web, I sought out a site to find great bargains in vacation rentals.
There are quite a few out there, but this one kept my interest the longest. Vacation Rentals by Owner. This quote from their web site says it all. “Established in 1995, we’ve been in the vacation rental business for over 14 years. In fact, VRBO was founded by vacation rental owners who self-manage their second homes, like many of you do. We provide an online space for homeowners to advertise their vacation properties and make it easy for travelers to search 130,000+ rentals in over 100 countries worldwide.”
http://www.vrbo.com

While on the subject of great free products, how about a paint program that has all the functionally that most user will ever want and it only costs the time to download it.
“It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.”
http://www.getpaint.net

Do you have the need to rip DVD’s, CD’s, or covert media from one type to another? Well most of you will need to do this now or in the future so save some money and get this open source free program for all you video conversion needs. I us this all the time to rip DVD’s and CD’ to my computer and highly recommend it.
http://handbrake.fr/

Dramatic Video Sand Art

This is a outstanding video posted on youtube that won the Ukraine’s 2009 ‘Ukraine’s Got Talent’ show.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $75,000.
She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated. It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.
She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier. This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye. The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in at least 8 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.
Click here to watch this brilliant performance.

Newsletter 01/31/2010

The Eastern shore has just experienced the heaviest snowfall in 15 years. Needless to say, we are snow bound. Yet the sun is shining and it is beautiful white outside. A real contrast to the green we normally see here. This has given me some more time to read, and do other inside activities. One of those activities is watch some TV which I normally don’t do very much of.

I just watched an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Many of you probably watch this show and enjoy the character portrayal. While on the subject of Grey’s Anatomy, did you know that Henry Gray published a large book in 1918 which include many illustrations? This book was called Gray’s Anatomy. “Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body features 1,247 vibrant engravings—many in color—from the classic 1918 publication, as well as a subject index with 13,000 entries ranging from the Antrum of Highmore to the Zonule of Zinn.”
http://www.bartleby.com/107

This year, 2010, is the year of the federal mandated census. Actually I believe this is a good thing as is realigns moneys throughout the country based on population, age, etc. It also give us people that like to look at statistics, more data to manipulate to fit what we want. So, go the web site and found more on the census and what it can do.
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/

There is something about glow-in-the-dark stuff that is fascinating to all the kids I know including this one. So, whenever I find some cool idea or cool way to do glow-in-the-dark stuff I always give it a try or at least remember where I saw it so I can try it later or just have it for a reference. This site has a great idea on making a cool glow-in-the-dark wall that has a number of possibilities besides entertaining the kids.
http://fangletronics.blogspot.com/2010/01/glow-in-dark-sketch-wall-and-led-pens.html

The Wall Street Journal has many great articles on their web site but they only let you read the first paragraph or just a little bit without subscribing. This bugs me so I knew there should be a way to view the whole article without pay for a complete subscription. Well there is. Over at this web site they explain exactly how to read any article that you may need.
http://www.labnol.org/internet/free-access-to-online-newspaper-articles/12336

I know many of you have an Apple iPod, iPhone, or iTouch. The problems with these devices is that they are tied to iTunes if you want to make the most use of your device. Now that is not the case. A new application that has more features and works as good if not better is now available. Check out this web site to see for yourself how well ‘CopyTrans’ works.
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/copytrans4-ipod-iphone-backup-and-recovery-utility
http://www.copytrans.net

Newsletter 01/24/2010

I suppose most of you have seen the movie Avatar by now. To me it was absolutely amazing as far as special effects, human and animation integration, and actual graphical design. Oh, the 3D stuff was great too! Check out the short clips on hulu.com that features the behind the scenes look at how the movie was made, and the actors comments.

Now that we are into the new year, are you still keeping your resolutions? I didn’t think so. Enough said.

A site you might want to add to your list of search sites is answer.com. This site uses a question and answer format. Post a question and if it doesn’t have the answer it will post it to the community that hangs out on the site. Maybe some user there might know where to find the answer. It has some relevant answers to a few of the questions I poster but it didn’t have the answer to this question. What software was used in the making of Avatar? You might expect a computer geek to try that type of question. Check it out.
http://www.answers.com

While I was giving the site about a good workout, I needed to find some special quotes that I queried. That immediately brought to my attention another site I visit regularly for bits of humor, wisdom, and profound statements. The quotes and words of with, humor, and wisdom found here can be used most anytime for just about anything.
http://www.brainyquote.com

Many of you including myself use Wikipedia to look up reference and information on numerous items. Now there is a ‘wiki’ for biographies. It has been around for a while but I forgot about it until I was searching for information on a notable subject. Again remember is a wiki so make sure to verify things that don’t look quite right.
http://www.s9.com

I believe that I may have put this in an earlier newsletter but it is worth mentioning again. How to sites are great to find out the steps need to accomplish a task. There are many specialized sites that give you great how to information. The best place to start on your how to search is findhow.com. Running a close second is wikihow.com. Both sites are must on your bookmark list.
http://www.findhow.com
http://www.wikihow.com

I suspect that all of you use Google as your main search engine. Most of you know that I don’t because I prefer to use specialized search engines depending on my search subject. Anyway, if you use Google you should know about all of Google’s search features. Take some time to read their search help page.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.htm

Trijicon Manufacturing – backs off from its religious values

Why does anything related to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Bible have to be removed and not items related to other religions?
What is happening to our countries morals, attitudes, and values?
The following comes from an article about markings on sights used in US combat weapons.

“The inscriptions are not obvious and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number.
Trijicon’s rifle sights use tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, to create light and help shooters hit what they’re aiming for.

Markings on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is standard issue to U.S. special operations forces,
include “JN8:12,” a reference to John 8:12: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,’” according to the King James version of the Bible.

The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with 2COR4:6, a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians:
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” the King James version reads.

Photos posted on a Defense Department Web site show Iraqi forces training with rifles equipped with the inscribed sights.

The company’s practice of putting Bible references on the sites began nearly 30 years ago by Trijicon’s founder,
Glyn Bindon, who was killed in a plane crash in 2003. His son Stephen, Trijicon’s president, has continued the practice.” (Manufacturing.net, January 21, 2010)

Trijicon is now going to remove the inscription from its rifle sites.

US Stamp for Muslim holiday.

The United States Post Office (USPS) has had many commemorative stamps over years and I have enjoyed seeing and using them until now.
A new stamp that has been issued supports the very essence of what our soldiers are fighting against.
Now ask yourself, would you purchase or support such a stamp? OK, you want more information on what I am talking about, so
follow along with me.

Wasn’t the following true?
A Muslim bombed Pam Am flight 103, World Trade Center in 1993, the USS Cole, Marine barracks in Lebanon,
and, the American Embassy in Africa. What about 9/11/2001?

OK, so why is the USPS issuing a stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday?
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_105.htm

Off Shore Oil Drilling approved by President Obama

Yes, you read the title right, President Obama approved a $2 billion loan to Petrobas for off shore drilling in Brazil.
He believes this is OK around other countries but not our country? Why? Strange things going on in the White House.

“The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion
and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided
whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees.
Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury
seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas.” ( Wall Street Journal)
Read the article for yourself.

Oh, one more thing, guess who is the largest individual stockholder of Petrobras and who would benefit most from this?
It is American BILLIONAIRE, George Soros, who was one of President Obama’s most generous financial supporter during his campaign. Duh!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.htm