Notes To Self

What's your story? Tell me and the entire world all about it.
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

To be clear, I'm not all that familiar with the triangulation technique of radiation therapy you cite. It sounds like a great way to pinpoint the ionization effects, but that is not as much a problem as is locating the offending cells in the first place. It's the inability to be precise that causes the collateral damage. Of course, I would also agree that improved techniques of applying radiation would be a giant leap forward.

I think the ability to cure cancer is a myth. A 'cure' is something that eliminates the diseased organisms and the accompanying symptoms of it's presence. That kind of cure is performed daily in surgeries all over the world. However, removing a malignant tumor, for example, does not cure the patient in spite of the absence of symptoms or diseased organs. The cause must be eliminated in order to bring on a true cure. Good luck trying to remove the causes of cancer from this planet.

You are mixing disease cures with patents and they are actually two different things. In combination they spell financial disaster for us Americans simply due to our complex patent laws that allow Big Pharma companies to be monopolies. There certainly are many treatments in the FDA mill and bound to patent laws. This situation has been allowed to take hold because our system of governance has ceded its mission to corporations instead of doing its job to represent the people. I blame it on capitalism, but you might point a finger at socialism, democracy, populism, or any other ism of your choice. I think your 25% tax rule has already failed to take down our nation. When we fall it will be due to reasons other than taxes.
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

On a different note, what do you know about monitoring ham radio transmissions via the Internet? I've seen some sites that offer simulations - I'm guessing those are fake broadcasts and not real time. I've also seen downloads offered which allow you to "monitor" the ham bands. I'd love to get back into listening if all it means was installing the right software. Can that be done?
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Kellemora
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by Kellemora »

I'll hit your Ham Radio question first, only to say I never got my equipment set up since I moved south, so have been away from it for a long time.
That being said, before I moved south, I used my computer with my ham equipment for everything from copying and sending Morse Code to handling Packet Radio retransmissions. However, this was all done by the radio equipment itself and the equipment just controlled by the computer.
I had an ERA Microreader for Morse Code which besides displaying on it's own screen, displayed on the computer monitor.
In conjunction with this I had an AutoKeyer which worked both with a standard code key, or I could type my message on the keyboard and it would send it at the speed I set for the transmission.
My main HF rig was too old to use a computer for tuning it with, but a couple of the VHF and UHF transceivers had some awesome features. The feature I like most about the computer controlled rigs was they would display a bar graph so you could see most of the band and where there was activity. I could click my mouse under the most active bar and my radio would tune directly to that portion of the band.

As far as what you are asking about software, a computer is not a Ham Radio Receiver regardless of what software you add to it. However, you can connect on-line to Ham Radio Stations who are set up to let you do so on-line. Some even allow you to tune up and down their preset band. But since I've not been active, I don't know who is set up for that purpose.

On the medical issue: You do know I am a Cancer Survivor. I had small cell lung cancer, diagnosed back in 2002, the kind that normally kills in under six months. My oncologist dropped the ball on me, so I looked elsewhere. I met with a doctor from India who was working out of Mexico, and got scheduled for treatment by him. My main treatment was with MSM & DMSO followed by an H2O2 Flush after the last treatment. I have no idea what MSM is, but am familiar with DMSO topical cream, not whatever he used though.
I wanted my sister to go to him also, but my youngest sister, a nurse, talked her out of it, and made her go the normal medical route. Needless to say, she did not survive. I'm sure she would have if she would have went to the guy I chose.
Around 2005 on one of my trips back home to St. Loo from Knoxville, I stopped in my oncologists office only to show her I wasn't dead yet, hi hi. After I told her what steps I took to be cured, she kicked me out of her office. About three months later she called me on the phone wanting the information for someone in her family, only by then my India guy was no where to be found, and the group I found him through was shut down also.
I was also a member of a cancer research group who did tests on me every couple of years for several years. The same group who first diagnosed my cancer, so it is all well documented by them, by my oncologist, and the testing lab at the hospital before my trek for treatment, and again one year after my treatment.
FWIW: Mine started as a speculated mass and was doubling in size and area of my lung affected every month while I was going to the oncologist and the hospital lab. I honestly didn't think I would live long enough to get treated by the India doctor, but the timing was right for us to meet. I may not be in the pink of health after two heart attacks and contraction COPD, but I no longer have cancer, and am still alive.

I've met several other cancer survivors who had to go out of the country to be treated, and when we used to communicate from time to time, they were all still alive as well. I don't know about now though since I had some ISP problems a few years back and lost all of their e-mails when my ISP shut down. I'm sure we lost a few to old age though!
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

Thanks for the run down on amateur radio and the Internet. In the course of my browsing I did see reference to being able to connect to actual radios. It was a subscription service so I avoided that. One of the organizations is out of Knoxville, which is why I thought you may have had some experiences along those lines. I listened to one of the simulations and it sounded much better than any SSB transmission I ever heard. LOL But, they explained that it wasn't a real radio connection. It was virtual ham radio I guess. I also know from past readings that a computer can be used to control a station. Not surprising given that most if not all commercial stations are now under computer control. Some don't even have people in the studio. That's nice if you have the equipment, which I don't - other than the semi-automatic code keyer (bug) which I keep for nostalgic reasons. I had a shortwave radio which i used a few decades ago to eavesdrop on 40 meters. It was a crap receiver but kept me occupied for a little while. I also was able to listen in on the Childrens Band (CB) frequencies. Talk about nostalgia.

The hospital my doctor worked out of up north was fairly advanced in many ways. When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer the urologist explained it all to me and included an option of alternative treatments. They would refer me to resources but would not legally be able to use anything but the accepted medical procedures. I had a robot remove the cancer which at the time was cutting edge technology (pun intended), not alternative treatment.

Mom was diagnosed terminal and given only a few hours to live in the CICU. When she survived that, they upped it to a few days at most. At that point of declaring her terminal the staff no longer had to follow protocol and pursue heroic procedures to save mom's life. She didn't want to be saved anyway, but she also said she was not going to die. The doctors were nuts. Well, they discharged her and gave us all kinds of hospice care information. 2 1/2 years later mom died. The point here is that those highly trained and respected doctors are limited in what they are allowed to do. Many of them consider alternate treatment a hoax, which is probably why you got kicked out of the office. However, they also know the alternatives do work in certain situations. They just can't go that rout and avoid malpractice suits. I gave the hospital an extra star in their rating because they were kind enough to explain that there are other ways to go about treating me, even if they could not do it themselves.

The alternate treatments in other countries are not considered unproven by the locals. We hear many miraculous stories, of which yours is one. The truth is that for whatever reasons the methods and procedures used in US medicine need to be proven before it's available to the general public. Add that to the monopolies we talked about earlier and we end up with a limited number of choices. On the positive side, they are highly reliable (not perfect) treatments with a known degree of proven effectiveness. They are not so picky outside the USA; thank goodness for that.
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Kellemora
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by Kellemora »

I had a remote 440 rig designed solely for controlling our 2-meter repeater.
Ugly little tin box with a black vinyl covering which was textured so trapped every bit of dust and dirt.
Looked like it was 20 years old only a few months after I bought it. But it worked well, and was used by all the clubs administration. Heck, as far as I know, it may still be in use up at the repeater sight. Some of the simplest equipment designs seem to go on forever without problems. Wish the same could be said for our tuning tanks, hi hi.

My pediatrician took care of me until I was in my 30's. Then he set me up with another older doctor and scheduled me visits for the doctors day off. The doc was there to handle paperwork, but still saw me once every three months up until I moved south. His only drawback, he was a proctologist. So rather than fill a cup each visit, I got roto-rootered, hi hi. There were a few times when I needed a medicine which was fairly expensive. He gave me a list of OTC meds to go buy instead. At first I was a little leery because the OTC boxes said take no more than 4 per day 6 hours apart, and he had me taking 3 at once of one and 3 at once of another to add up to the dosage of the script version.
I have a couple of meds I'm on right now that I can get OTC, and if I hunt around, and am lucky enough someone didn't beat me to them, I can get them for 88 cents instead of 12 bucks. I was just at the store today, since our Internet was out all morning, and saw they did not have a single box on the shelf. This is why I check so often, and if they have some, I buy a month or two supply.

After my second heart attack, which was basically because the affordable script the doc had me on failed to work properly, he went ahead and put me on the super expensive one. He tried to get my insurance company to help cover the cost and they refused, so for a whole year he managed to get me samples, and/or special deal coupons for 75 to 90% off.
There are a couple of scripts my regular doctor wants me on, but there is no way I can afford 300 buck a month scripts so don't take them at all. I have had a couple of free samples and never saw a difference when I used them for the duration the samples lasted.

Running way behind since our Internet didn't come back on until 2pm. Sorta ruins my whole day of getting anything done.
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

I never realize how helpful doctors can be with the cost of drugs until I got a whole new set of MD's down here in MO. One of them tried to get me some help with a $500/mo anticoagulant I must take, but apparently I am "over resourced." It's me against the donut hole come the end of June so it now seems. One of the things I learned is that you can buy those scripted drugs without using insurance. Sometimes doing that is cheaper than paying the deductible. However, until recently the pharmacy was prohibited from informing their customers of such savings. So, I asked the pharmacist what I would have to pay retail, which is when they came up with the $500 per 30 pills pricing. This was a CVS pharmacy which I happened to look up on the Internet before I asked about it. The information on the Internet claims it's $435. They claimed innocence in the store and stood by their higher price.

At one point in the very distant past I was given a prescription for Nexium @ 60mg/dose. That did a marvelous job clearing up some acid reflux problems and the collateral damage it caused. Unfortunately, it is going to be something I'll deed to do for life. I forgot what I had to co-pay but I discovered that I could buy an OTC version @ 20mg/dose. That was cheaper than the script, plus it had the added advantage of being less chemicals I had to swallow. They warn you not to take too much and to not go beyond taking it for two weeks. My doctor chuckled when I asked him about it. He told me I could take three OTC pills if I really needed them and they don't know of any long term side effects. Well, they didn't at the time but there are rumors going around now. Anyway, the OTC drugs are exactly the same as the scripts but a lesser dosage. You always should get the approval of your doctor if you are going to go beyond what the drug manufactures recommend, of course. I would have been dead many years ago if I could not afford go buy the necessary scripted drugs to keep me alive. I think about that every time I hear they are going to cut benefits for us old timers in order to pay for a rich man's tax cuts.
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

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Moving right along ... I got an interesting threat in the e-mail yesterday. The sender claimed he had infected my operating system with a trojan about six months ago. The virus logged all my activity on the web and caught me visiting some porn sites. He had me worried up to that point, but then he went on to say that my camera was activated and captured me doing some really funky stuff. He was going to send all those videos to everybody on my contact list if I dind't send him $500 worth of bitcoins. He gave me 48 hours to comply.

Well, the e-mail was sent to this site's administrator. It's interesting how the bad operator could infect the operating system, but even more interesting that he could use the camera on the system to compromise me. There is no camera on the Linux server in North Carolina as far as I know, plus I don't use this site to visit porn shows. I checked with the hosting service just in case, and they said the system is all clean. I was not impressed with the tech support person's ability to know that, but all I wanted was a log of my attempt to check things out. I now have that, plus the server logs for our domain and all it's subdomains, in addition to the orginal e-mail with all it's header information. What to do next, if anything, is the question.

I'm wondering if you did any reporting to authorities when your network was infected with ransomeware. In my case there is extortion involved, admitted hacking into a private computer, and various federal laws regarding the use of the Internet to commit a crime. I'm not going to sue anybody, but I would like to see this jerk taken down. I'm sure you felt the same, but did you do anything other than clean up your LAN?
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Kellemora
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by Kellemora »

I've tried, but the form you need to fill out requires having names, e-mail addresses, location, etc. None of which I had. The only thing I had is the temporary address where I had to send the ransom.
The source is probably somewhere in Nigeria where our government has no ability to do anything.

When I changed my phone numbers, I purposely did not put them on the don't call list.
My brother did an experiment a few years back. He got four new phone numbers. He put two on the don't call list.
Guess which ones were inundated with robocallers and telemarketers. The two on the don't call list.
He would occasionally get a call on the two phones he did not put on the don't call list, but it was rare.

I figure the reason for this is, the don't call list is distributed for free to anyone who asks for a copy.
To a telemarketer, this is merely a list of known working numbers which cannot easily be enforced.

My Ooma telephone has a Blacklist, over and above the supplied two big blacklists. I can put a number on my blacklist, but it does no good as far as stopping telemarketers, because each one has about a thousand different phone numbers they call from, and they fake the caller ID's also. Most of the calls are probably routed through servers outside the US also.
Since these guys also use real peoples phone numbers on the caller ID, I've made it a habit to call back the numbers shown on the caller ID, and about 2 out of 5 belong to people who didn't know scammers were using their number. I just tell them to report it to their phone company.

I've not looked into it, because I couldn't afford the equipment and service anyhow. But there is supposed to be a way to check the real phone number being used, not that you get to see what it is, but if it doesn't match the caller ID, it doesn't let the call go through. The problem I see with that is a lot of cell phones only give the city and state of where the call is coming in from, and doesn't show an actual phone number on the display.
I have several types of names on the display blocked, such as Unknown, Name Not Available, Wireless Caller, etc. In the case of Wireless Caller it does allow them to leave a message, just in case it's a real person. I get very few messages, hi hi. I also have Whitelisted numbers that will go through regardless of the caller ID's name shown.
It costs me 9.99 per month to keep the call blocking feature, which does include other features I never use.

On the Meds:
OTC meds must have those disclosures on them to protect their own arse.
If your doctor prescribed 60mg, and the OTC is only 20mg, you have to take three to get the same amount as the script. The OTC box may say do not take more than two in 24 hours.
My biggest problem is some of the scripts I'm on means I cannot take the formulation of some OTC brands because they don't come without the other ingredients I can't have. Some of them used to, but not anymore, probably because too many folks were buying the OTC and not the scripts, hi hi.
There was one script I was on that was cheap, only 4 bucks normal retail for a 30 day supply at Walgreens without insurance. With insurance it had no copay so cost nothing.
My insurance company dropped it from their formulary, so I bought it for 4 bucks.
About 3 months later, the pharmacy said it now cost 56 dollars. And a month after that they said it was discontinued.
I liked it because it worked. The doc gave me a script for something else that was in my formulary, but it didn't work.
I check store shelves for OTC drugs and jot down what's in them. Almost all of them have an added ingredient I can't have now. I really do think they are doing this on purpose.
Even so, there are two 11 and 12 dollar scripts I can find the OTC for only 88 cents, if they are out of the 88 cent type, there is a 4 dollar version. Ready in Case is 88 cents. Good Sense is 4 bucks, Equate is 8 bucks and name brand is 12 bucks. Needless to say, the 88 cent shelf is usually cleaned out unless you luck out and hit when they just filled it.
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

If you are talking about the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) run by the FBI, I have looked at that form. They do indeed ask for all the details you can provide about the perpetrator, but they also say to skip that part if you don't have the details. In my case the person identified themselves with a dark net nickname and gave a bitcoin wallet ID. Any organization with smarts should be able to use that to track down the source.

The telephone spam is irritating but an easy problem to solve. Instead of the negative approach of using blacklists and whitelists (you will never get them all listed) I use a more positive method of screening calls. All the people I know have been entered into the telephone's digital contact list. If I don't recognize the name that shows up on the caller ID (associated with the contact list) the call does not get answered. Spammers rarely leave voice mail but real people I don't recognize with a need to get in touch will. So I check the voice mail and call back any legitimate people. I could also turn off the ringer, but I like to know when I'm being called. The same positive screening works well on the cell phone too. I don't give that number out very often but I do get spam calls regardless.

I don't know about the OTC drugs having different formulas than the prescription versions. My understanding was that only the dosage level was different. They are all made by the same company after all. Substitute drugs are a different story. It is possible and likely that the ingredients vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. My wife had an interesting experience along those lines. Two companies make one of the drugs she had to take. It was the luck of the draw as to which one she would get when she filled her prescription. As it happens, one of the two added a non active ingredient which she reacted to adversely. It took some time to figure that out, but now she has to demand the drug from a specific manufacturer. This causes havoc at the pharmacy because they just buy what is cheapest at the moment. Fortunately she no longer has to take the drug. So, even with prescription drugs, the active ingredients may be identical, but the inert ones can vary.
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Kellemora
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by Kellemora »

I do have my cell phone set-up so only those on my phone list can make the phone ring, and of course the President, hi hi.
But I can't do that on my landline phone because I don't know what new customer or agent may decide to give me a call.
It used to be telemarketers did not call business numbers, but as far as I know, there is no longer a distinction between home numbers and business numbers, especially when you use the Internet for your phone service.

Yes, the base ingredient used in drugs can be something someone is highly allergic to.
The FDA does maintain an Inactive Ingredient Database which is helpful to find which drugs use one someone may be allergic to. If you know what you are allergic to, you can use that as a search also to see if it is in any of the drugs you take.

My wife got a call yesterday that the ID showed it was from her niece.
Her niece did not call her, it was a telemarketer who is using live phone numbers in the ID.
For this reason, and since the government does not enforce FRAUD by telemarketers, I think the Caller ID system should be abolished until it can be fixed.
The way it stands right now, you can enter anything you want as the ID displayed name and phone number.
Getting a caller ID set-up should require you submit the info to a government agency and get it approved. Which should also include publicly available data about the person if you wanted to look it up. And they should enforce it!
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

Spoofing of legitimate e-mail addresses and caller ID's is an old technique. The ID can be turned off altogether, but the spam bots know that people are onto that gimmick. The galling part about telemarketers is that they are using my paid for privacy phone number for commercial purposes. I'd not mind that if they would pay me a fee for use of my private line. If the government were to get involved, I'd like them to enact a law forcing the marketers to pay me for use of my phone and allow me to sue those who do not. Unfortunately the corrupt congress we are plagued with now would never allow such a bill to be voted on.

I did have one interesting and positive experience with a telemarketer. Way back when I lived up north and was using DSL I had two phone lines. Anybody who was not related to me or anyone with whom I did not do business with directly (such as my doctors), got the phone number for my DLS line when they wanted a number from me. I never answered calls to that number. The DSL line would ring periodically but not too often. Then, it started to ring every day at the same time. After about a week of that nonsense I actually answered the call. Somebody was selling something, I've long since forgot what, and I interrupted their spiel before they finished. I told them this number was a data only line in a computer center and not to call it anymore. They apologized and told me they would remove that number from their data store. The calls stopped after that. I could not believe that guy was so honest. LOL Now and days that could never happen because >90% of the incoming spam calls are from robots which cannot be interrupted. That's when I resorted to answering my voice mails only.
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Kellemora
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by Kellemora »

I have two phone numbers also, but they are twinned together so I don't know if they used the spare number or not.
I was angry when I first found out the two separate phone numbers used a single line, it defeated the purpose of my having two separate lines. I couldn't call one from the other, and all of my two line phones were rendered useless.
I can get them separated again for a one time charge of around 150 bucks, but its not worth the hassle anymore. I just answer all incoming calls with my business name so problem solved.
I no longer send FAX messages, so don't have a stand alone FAX machine anymore, although my printer has built-in FAX if I plug in a phone line. I had enough trouble with junk FAX messages that I disconnected my FAX machine and tossed it in the trash.

I don't know how he does it, probably a feature of his Schmartz-Fone, but my son can receive FAX messages on his cell phone. He can also print from his cell phone, but I think all of them can do that now. I just have a little flip-phone and that's all I want.
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Re: Notes To Self

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We custom built the last house we lived in and hired a general contractor to do the grunt work. One of the surprises I discovered after we moved in was that all the phone jacks were 4 wires. I never specified that, but apparently that is what the phone company either recommended or specified. All landlines use an RJ11 jack that will accept two or four wire cables so it didn't matter. I grew to like the idea because my ISP was willing to give me a dedicated DSL line providing I also had a dedicated conventional phone line. If I'm not mistaking there was a break on the pricing for that too. For some reason they would not provide a stand alone DSL line without voice service. Go figure.

I suppose if you are running a business FAX lines may still make sense. I bought this house long distance without ever having a need for a FAX machine. Adobe pdf reader has certified electronic signature capability and that's all the lawyers and real estate agents used. No more need for a photo copy or FAX. Way back in the Windows 98 era I used the built in Fax software with the OS. It worked flawlessly receiving messages and was only slightly useless when something had to be scanned. Thinking back on that arrangement explains a lot about why there are all-in-one printers now and days.

Well, I am having second thoughts about the Pixel Phone I still have my heart set on buying. I won't settle for anything less than the best one they offer and there are a few accessories that are a must. Wireless charger for example. It will set me back approximately $1300 and the gods only know what it will be to connect to a network. The cheapest from what I understand would be about $60/mo. It goes up quickly from there. I too am using a very old flip phone which has a camera and SMS/MMS capability. That's setting me back around $20/month depending on how much air time I use. My attitude is that I'm at a point in life where I deserve the best I can afford, and I can afford the Pixel. But do I really want to??? :lol:
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by Kellemora »

My house in Creve Coeur came with a built-in intercom system. The main control box was in the kitchen, but you could trigger any room, including the front and back doors from any room, so it was a pretty fancy system even though we never used it.
I brought it up, because when I set about to remodel the house I took it out, and in the process of doing so I found some very interesting wiring, some I saved and used down here in TN in this house.
The intercom used 8 or 10 wire shielded cable to each room, and 6 wire shielded between the rooms. The installer used 6 wire shielded to connect all the phone jacks in the house. However, two of the wires were unused. All the phone jacks were double jacks, and the top jack used red/green and the bottom jack used black/yellow as the center two connectors. This was handy if you only had a single line phone and could hear the office phone ring and you were in another room, just unplug the phone and plug it into the second jack. I later bought two line phones and the would work in either jack, but the lights were backwards on the phone if plugged into the bottom jack. In other words, lines 1 & 2 were the top jack and lines 2 & 1 were the bottom jack.
I thought this was nifty so did the same type setup down here in this house. Using shielded phone wire meant I could run my CAT5a, Phone, and Electrical Switch wiring from the house to the garage in the same bundle. Not the main electric to the garage, that is underground.

Although we don't have a functioning DSL service in my area (although they say we do), for me to use DSL would be the equivalent of moving back down to Dial-Up, hi hi. AT&T kept pestering me to try DSL so I agreed for an installation. The installer could not get DSL to work because our phone lines here are so bad, plus I think we are too far away from whatever it is we need to be close to. They kept calling so I had the installer come back knowing he couldn't get it to work. We just sat around and had a soda before he marked his ticket as no can do. Then they called and said we now have Fiber Optics and wanted to send a guy out again. Although I knew he was lying, I placed the order anyhow. Same installer came out and we had a good laugh over that one, he said there are no fiber optics anywhere in his service zone, and as far as he knew, none in the service zones around us either. At least they quit calling me after that.

I'll tell ya, having a 100mbps cable connection, and the Silver Yogi has spoiled me big time!
I had to use another computer and it was like going back to the 6502 or 8080a days, hi hi.

My son does almost all of his Internet stuff through his Schmartz-Fone. He found a way to do this years ago without paying more, but now it seems it is just part of his package deal. Even so, I don't think it was intended for him to use his laptop computers through the phones WiFi to connect, but that is how he does it, rather than using the USB to Cell Service connection which would cost him more. I guess the 4th Generation cell phones are pretty fast now, because he gets tons of pictures and sends tons of them out too.

My wife has a Schmartz-Fone and couldn't live without it. I'm on her plan as a second phone that at one time only cost me 9.99 per month added to her bill. Now they don't break it down that way, but based on her total package price now, it is like 20 bucks cheaper than her old package that had my 9.99 added to it.
The original plan was Friends and Family and each added phone was 9.99 per month, but consumed part of her allotment. Although I never went over about 30 minutes, her son used to rack up over 300 minutes and run her out of minutes. He now has his own phone so it is just the frau and I on her plan.

Although I have my own modem, Comcasts WiFi modem has an access port that anyone who uses Comcast can, if they are close enough to someone using their WiFi modem, can access the modem using a special code. A lot of folks didn't like this, so what Comcast has been doing down here, and probably elsewhere, is installing WiFi modems on utility poles near busy places who do not offer free WiFi. They sent me the access code, which is used in conjunction with my account number, so to see if it really works I brought my little netbook with me while getting an oil change. Took a look at sure enough I had a solid signal. Punched in my numbers to see if it worked and it worked just fine. I could access what I wanted, but the netbook is not fast enough to do the harder stuff without getting frustrated about the slowness.

What Windows 10 upgrades are you getting to try out? Is it Redstone 5? Just curious is all.
I've heard a couple of rumors about Windows Service OS, and Windows VR.
Plus the problems they are having with Windows 10 functioning on all the devices it was intended to work on.
Features that work on one device are useless or do not work on another type of device, and at present Win10 does not offer ways to turn features on and off for the type device one is using.
Will there be a Windows 11? I know Windows 12 was an April Fools Joke!
From what I understand or heard, Redstone 5 will bring back the controls of Windows Vista, 7 & 8 to Windows 10.
They are supposed to have a new Win10 release this month. And a major new release of Windows 10 in 2019 which might be called Windows 11, or they may still call it Windows 10, who knows.
This is a different OS than what Windows Service on-line OS will be. Subscription OS is how it was referred to by some IT guys.

I tried to play Free Cell on Debi's Win10 computer I have up here collecting dust. Not only have they changed it drastically from the XP version, it is now a pain in the arse to play. Have to watch an advertisement between each game. What the H, it's only Free Cell turned into an annoying and horrible game. Sure glad I still have my XP version of Free Cell, Spyder, and others.
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yogi
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

MY handy dandy 'flip phone' is actually a slide phone. LOL It has the same form factor as the classic flip, but it's actually two pieces of hardware sandwiched together. Sliding the top part with the display off to the side reveals a real honest to goodness tactile keyboard. I fell in love with it instantly when I saw it at WalMart. Back then the fastest networks were G3 enabled. Today they are introducing G5, a gigabyte network. G4 is pretty much standard but the Pixel Phone I have an eye on is G5 ready. It would be a waste of fire power to run it on an a slow network. And that is the reason I'm reluctant. I really don't care how fast the network is. I simply don't intend to stream video and audio all day long to take advantage of it. Then too, I could change my mind if I actually owned one. :mrgreen:

I'm evaluating Redstone 5 for Microsoft. They have two tiers of Insiders, the fast tier and the slow tier. The difference is in how frequent updates are released. The fast lane gets them more often and is more prone to be buggy. A while back they gave us fast lane Insiders the option to switch over to 'look ahead' and get the then new Redstone 5 updates instead of what everyone else was getting. After the new feature release earlier this month, everybody in the fast lane is now getting R5 roughly once a week.

Windows is truly looking more and more like a service. The subscription option is just one indicator of how it is different than iOS or Android. Microsoft came to the game late and had some time to think over how to play catch-up and surge ahead. One of the major changes in their business model had to do with offering just one service for all devices. Microsoft fully intended, and still hopes, to be everywhere in cyberland. I guess they are looking at the success of Linux and decided to put their billions of dollars into an effort to take over the computing world. To that end the Redmond folks started selling hardware in addition to their software service. You can now buy a Microsoft laptop which serves double duty as a tablet, for example. If you recall they also tried selling cell phones. To their credit Microsoft ceded that market to the experts. From a developers point of view the new 'service' offering is a blessing. There is only one software KDE that will allow you to develop your product for any device on which Windows is installed. The operating system will make the adjustments for size and resolution, which means the developer's job has been simplified.

As you alluded to, the single service that Microsoft now provides does not work the same on small screen cell phones as it does on large screen desktops. It used to be that developers had to write different versions of their software depending on which device they were targeting. That's no longer necessary, but that does not mean the developer covers all bases. The service provided by Microsoft Windows is intended to be universal, but not all programmers are that clever. You can give them the tools, but that doesn't mean they know how or want to use them.

Back when Bill Gates personally wanted me to switch from Win 7 to Win 10 (ok, maybe it wasn't Bill, but still), the developers at Redmond were instructed to make the transition as friendly as possible. Given that they forced Windows 10 down the throat of so many undecided customers, their 'friendly' strategy was less than welcome. However, several items from Windows 7 are still available in the R5 software I'm testing; e.g. the Control Panel. Some of the best loved features have been changed. Windows games, Free Cell et. al., have been removed from the operating system and migrated over to X-Box. As you have noted, X-Box is sponsored so that you have to put up with the ads if you want to go that rout. Of course, you could subscribe and eliminate the ads too. I still use Win 7 to play those games but I have used the X-Box version. It seems the ads are optional and you can skip through them somehow. It's an extra step, but not a big price to pay. Anyway, way back then when Win 10 was new, the idea being promoted is that there will be no more numeric upticks for Windows. 10 is the end of the line because it is no longer an operating system. Thus nothing changes. The 'service' gets updated, but does not change as was the case in previous offerings. To my way of thinking it's all semantics. They don't have to up the numbers in order for me to see that today's Windows 10 is way different than the one they tried to force upon me when it was first released. It remains to be seen what they do with the naming, but you can expect new features as time goes by.

And, finally, one last comment. This week's preview release of the Windows 10 service does indeed offer ways to uninstall the built in apps. Mail, for example, always bothered me because every damned device has an app called "Mail." but none of them talk to each other. Until a few days ago I was not able to uninstall it, but as Microsoft likes to say, they are listening to us Insiders and making appropriate changes. The next feature release is scheduled for spring of 2019, but if you want to see what they are up to, just sign up for Microsoft's Insider Program. It's free.
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Re: Notes To Self

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I think Windows10 was the NT based version of Linux's Rolling Release, which at the time appeared to be a great idea. No more major version changes which usually required a fresh install over an upgrade to prevent problems.
However, the biggest problem with a Rolling Release is finding hardware installation programs.
I know in Debian, you have to obtain the printer installer for the exact version you are running, else the install may not work right. Although the rolling release had this problem fairly well covered, it also meant severe bloat to store all the possible install options.

As far as having an OS as a provided service it can eliminate a lot of problems by only having the access module on the computer and everything else on-line. You want to add a new printer, the access module checks the OS database for the proper installer for your computers configuration and sets it up for you properly. So there is a lot to be said about OS as a service, unless your Internet is out.

Although I'm not certain about this, but I think Red Hat Linux, the commercial version, is both a rolling release and a service OS. I do know they are stealing the show from Unix on huge mainframe systems, because of the ease of using Windows computers on the floor, and it can display corporate screens from Red Hat to Windows computers and function identically on both platforms.

I don't know enough about server computers to really understand what they are actually doing or how.
My poor old mind views it a whole lot differently than is what is actually taking place.
I played with Ubuntu's Educational Server program for a short time, where all the computers connected to it were Dumb Terminals, so know the functioning programs were actually running on the server, not the workstation. This takes a lot of server power to handle. By the same token, I also know the computer system at our local grocery store does things differently. When you connect a workstation, it downloads the program module to the computer and uses the computers own resources to run the program, and only the data from the program is sent back to the mainframe. If they make a change to the Program, the next time you log in, it deletes the existing program on the PC and downloads a new version, all of this in the background so the only thing the user knows it is taking longer for the program to come up, hi hi.

On a PC you can dual boot Windows or Linux, but can't use them both at the same time.
Virtual Box lets you allow one to be active while the other sits idle except for handling the background tasks for virtual box.
Servers can be running both Linux and Windows server programs at the same time, but probably because they are server farms with some dedicated to Windows server and some dedicated to Linux server.

That being said, I've heard of something else recently that immediately made me think it was actually WINE, but isn't.
You can install Wine, then install a Windows program on Linux that is compatible with Wine's features, and then create a Launcher that launches the Windows program in Wine. This does allow you to do some things on Linux and Wine at the same time.
However, this is not how whatever it was they were talking about worked. The only thing I heard was it is not Wine nor an emulator. If you wanted to install a program that had an .exe extension, the OS would automatically set all the parameters for it and install it the same as if you were on a Windows computer, without the hassles of trying to use Wine or another emulator. A split function OS? Perhaps with so many computers having 4 and 8 core CPU's they can start to do things they couldn't before. It could be too I misunderstood what they were talking about, it could possibly be an on-line service that you can use through Linux to access Windows OS to run Windows programs you install on your own computer. It's all so far over my head, I'm lost now just going to the bathroom, hi hi.

I use on-line subscription services for things like editing, grammar checking, and a few other things associated with writing. It doesn't matter what type of computer I'm on, nor what document version I upload to their system. Everything just works now. It wasn't always like that. Uploads had to be in .odt or .doc formats, not .docx which they used to refuse since it is not true XML. Now we can upload every text format that exists, including Android and others. I did figure out it does not upload the old .crd Windows Cardfile format.

Looks like I'm rambling again. Have a great day Yogi!
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Re: Notes To Self

Post by yogi »

The concept behind virtual machines is that both the host and the guest are fully functional simultaneously. This is due to the fact that the VM software is just another program as far as the host is concerned. The guest system is not an emulation in that case. VM software is self-contained with all the modules, kernels, and drivers necessary to run the guest system. There is no sharing of resources other than clock cycles from the CPU. I do this all the time. I go to my bank website, for example, in a Linux VM which is running on my Windows 7 host. I'll call up spreadsheets in Windows and enter data I see in the Linux browser. It would be difficult for someone to convince me that I am not running two operating systems simultaneously. In fact, if you have the fire power in the host, you can run all the operating systems your memory will allow. Two is enough for me. :mrgreen:

Both Linux and Windows can now run each other's operating system/programs without using a virtual box. In the case of Linux it's WINE that runs the other OS. WINE is an abstraction layer installed into Linux. That means it's incorporated into the operating system as a subsystem. As with virtual box software, the abstraction layer software has all the independence of a separate operating system. However, as you note, WINE is not supported to the same degree as Oracle's VirtualBox or Dell's VMware. Thus you may have trouble finding appropriate drivers for your specific hardware. Windows 10 also comes with a Linux abstraction layer for Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, and some others that I don't recall. In the case of Windows the Linux environment is provided so that developers may incorporate Windows technology into their products. WINE has a fuzzy history in my mind but it looks like it was introduced to satisfy gamers who can only run their stuff in a Windows environment. These abstraction layers are an either/or situation. While both OS's remain live during operation, only one can be used at a time.

Dual boot is the ultimate in system isolation. Its only purpose is to allow the user to run any OS they want all in the same hardware package. As far as functionality is concerned, none of the alternate OS's are connected or dependent upon any others. The downside of this is as you point out; only one can be run at a time.

The other alternative to computing is in the cloud. All the major players will rent you a virtual computer and virtual memory. Essentially all you need is a dumb terminal to connect to the cloud in that case, but that's not how it's done in many places. A full blown computer OS is used to access the cloud so that programs and data storage may be had in both places. This would be an example of where a server, somewhere in the cloud, has all the software and all the memory space. All you do is manipulate it. In general servers are not intended to run client software. Some are set up for that but things can get bogged down quickly in those cases.

One of the coolest things Ubuntu ever did was to set up a rolling release case for updating the kernel. You need to sign up for it, but after that you never have to update your kernel (and reboot) again. It's all done via Ubuntu's magic somewhere in the Cloud. I love it and am using it, but I don't understand why I no longer need to reboot after kernel updates.
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Re: Notes To Self

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Thanks for all the info Yogi.
I no longer have to reboot after a kernel upgrade on any Debian based system.
I first noticed this on Linux Mint, after an upgrade it always says the system it up to date.
I decided to check what kernel was in use, then rebooted and it was the same new kernel.
I still update my Debian system the same old way I always did by running apt-get update, apt-get upgrade.
Then I always reboot even though I no longer have to.

I know my doctors office always had its own server, and no patient data is ever stored on the individual computers in each office, just in case one gets stolen I suppose.
But now that they belong to a larger group, which has numerous doctors offices on their system.
I found out it still works pretty much the same way. The base system is kept up to date on the local server.
Then when a computer connects to the server, it downloads a new version of the base system if there was an upgrade.
When they access patient data, it is from their own server, unless something happened and they need to download from the main corporate server.
When they pull your patient chart from the server to read and add information to it, when they exit the patient chart, two things happen. First a backup is made to another drive on their own server, then a copy is uploaded to the corporate mainframe as a new file. In this way they can go back to all previous patient chart uploads, none are deleted, except on the local server which only keeps the most current copy.

The individual computers in each office have to have enough memory and disk space to download the base system, which I think includes OS upgrades as well. The doctor himself never has to worry about doing much with the computer system anymore, because the group he belongs to handles everything for him.
And as a patient, I can log into their main system and get all the data they want me to see. The main system also sends me an e-mail when there is a change to my chart, a notice of something I'm supposed to do, etc.

My step son plays those interactive fighting games. To do so he needs a pretty fancy computer, read that as expensive, hi hi. In order to play, he has to download their game playing system, which works on all Windows platforms that have not expired. He prefers to play on Win7 because the game runs smoother and faster than on Win10. But he said they are making improvements all the time to Win10 or the game system running on Win10.

Have a great day Yogi!
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Re: Notes To Self

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When I worked for IT at Motorola, they did similar things as your doctor's office does. The IT group had a standard image of the Windows OS de jour. Actually there were several standard images. The accountants didn't need the same software that the engineers needed, for example. The images were downloaded each time a system required more than ten minutes of troubleshooting time. The local client was informed and given an opportunity to remove anything they might have stored on the local drive. The standard image also was installed when major changes to the OS had been made. Thus everybody ended up with the same version of operating system. Well, it started out that way, but the policy was to allow people to install what they needed beyond the standard image. However, if they ever needed IT service, their custom installs would be replaced by the image. Knowing that made people less likely to modify the standard image.

I like the system of back ups your doctor's office uses. It's essentially what I suggested you could do at your home office. The depth of backup copies would be limited only by your resources and needs. You could keep everything you ever did if you had enough storage and server space. We backed up every day at Motorola, then archived every week, then every month, and every year. It was pretty fine grain and during my tenure we had at least 5 years of backups. There were certain legal requirements for keeping things a given length of time, otherwise anything more than a year old could be assumed not needed anymore. A small business might want to keep records for three years, or whatever the tax requirements are. That would certainly be within your range of capability.

As a Windows Insider I received a special survey from Microsoft one day. It was targeted at gamers and how they use Windows 10 to play. I gave them an eyeful of comments and I do believe they have made improvements in Windows 10. But speed is the thing in gaming. Windows 10 is good, but not what high end gamers want. Windows 7 is light weight and very suitable for most gamers' needs. The survey was most likely a sampling of how people feel about X-Box. It was shortly after that survey that Microsoft separated their gaming support from the main OS; pardon me, I mean service. :rolleyes:
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Re: Notes To Self

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I do know the computer in the Vampire's Office has two hard drives, because there is a note stuck on the wall behind the monitor about keeping lab programs and utilities on drive D. I'm pretty sure the receptionists computers have two drives also, because they work on personal things during their breaks.

Everything I have on my internal HD is saved to an external HD. And most of what is on my internal drive is pulled from an old File Server external drive, which I no longer write to anymore. If I pull something and make changes to it, it stays on my internal drive and copy on the 4 terrabyte external drive.
My only real problem is I don't make offsite backups anymore like I should, except for the really important things, like my accounting for example is also backed up to the NAS down at the house. So it's basically used as backup and for sharing some files the frau likes to have access to.

All of the redundant backups I used to keep is what has caused the problem of having too many duplicate files and knowing which are the most current. Plus changes were made to some of them and so none of them are the same anymore.
I'm slowly trying to get back organized again, which is why I bought the 4-terra external, but could only afford one of them. So to be safe, I don't delete anything anymore, but do rename the files as I update them with the date as part of the file name. Files I've gleaned everything there is to glean from them, I marked DONE at the end of the filename, hi hi. I don't delete it because they are saved to the 4-terra of which I don't have a backup for yet.

I thought X-Box was a stand-alone gaming console? Is it also an internal part of Windows 10 now or did I misread that?

Had a chance to talk with one of the programmers who work for Slashkey last night. They are attempting to build their own version of something similar to flash player, but more like a multi-layered graphics program. There is no way they can get their game program to use HTML5 as a replacement for flash. The way he put it, HTML5 does not have layered graphics programming, it is merely a display program with no useful features as far as a gaming platform is concerned.
Almost none of the major gaming providers use flash anymore, and most gamers don't want flash on their computers at all. He also said the most popular on-line games, although quite complex, do not use layered elements, which is what Farm Town and many other interactive games use. Almost any program where you can add structures or different elements on an existing playing field, requires the program allows for multi-layering. Houses on one layer, trees on another layer, flowers on another layer, and of course 9 layers of farming crops as in Farm Town.
I actually corrected him and said, whether you have 1 farming plot, 3 farming plots, or 9 farming plots, they are all on the same farming plots layer. He said true for layered crops, but we allowed up to 9 stacked plots. I had forgotten about crop stacking since it is rarely used anymore, and could corrupt the players farm. He said that happened a lot when Flash reduced the number of possible layers from 24 down to 22. Farms using all 24 became corrupted.
In any case, he said the game playing platform they are working on may or may not be designed for download if they decide to use HTML5 as the method of display. Placing the module on the players computer would make it faster and less problematic, but keeping it on the server would require a lot of server resources as one would be required for each player. The many little tricks we can do on Flash Player due to it's glitches will not be possible on a new solid platform. Which is one reason they are introducing new tools that can emulate what the glitches allow, without there being any glitches causing the anomaly, hi hi. Since we didn't write Flash, we had no control over stopping some of the things players discovered they could do, but we could stop the result from being entered onto the players database.
Many of the problems they do encounter has to do with Farcebook making changes to their system, and has nothing to do with their programming or Flash Player. Including the newest problem I reported about the location of a pop-up right in our way, the kind you can't use 3rd party software to hide.

OK, enough rambling for one day!
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