Monroe

I somewhat agree with you that things left in various places ... including cemeteries could be considered fair game. People steal from churches, run through cemeteries knocking over tombstones ... sometimes breaking them into pieces and lately metal vases are being stolen from veteran graves just to sell the metal. Since this has been an ongoing thing for these parents, I was feeling bad for them ... they still like to visit and bring something to their son's grave and someone else walks off with it. I didn't post the story to start any serious discussions or arguments ... just thought it was sad in today's world. The woman may well walk away with a small fine or nothing ... like you said, if people leave items laying around, is it really a crime to pick it up and walk off with it. If someone goes onto someone's property and steals a child's bike or toy, then yes, I would think that would be a crime ... but a cemetery, I don't know. It just doesn't seem like an ordinary person would do something like that ... I still walk around someone's grave out of respect instead of right over it ... but how would that person have any idea where I walk ... it's all just respect, as I see it. ...

I guess Facebook and social media do have good things that happen ... this helped the police solve this and bring some peace to the family. ... also a lot of comments at the bottom of the article link. "Sigler said several people came forward and identified Shade as the suspect after a video camera the police had set up near the gravesite that captured a woman taking the toy was shared on social media, where it received several thousand hits." "Sigler said several people contacted the Ontario Police Department identifying Shade as the woman in the video after it was posted on Facebook." Woman Charged in Theft From Child's Grave Apr. 25, 2014 http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/proart/20140424/news01/304240009/woman-charged-theft-from-child-s-grave?pagerestricted=1 ONTARIO — Ontario police have charged Frieda Kay Shade, 54, of Mansfield with stealing items from a baby's gravesite at Mansfield Memorial Park. Detective Jon Sigler said Shade turned herself in Wednesday night, and that she explained to authorities that she took a stuffed toy animal from the grave of Hayden "Tank" Cole Sheridan because a dog was running loose in the area and she didn't want it to destroy the toy. Sigler and Shade's attorney, Charles Robinson, said Shade will plead not guilty to one count of theft, a first-degree misdemeanor. Her court date is May 8 in Ontario. Sigler said several people came forward and identified Shade as the suspect after a video camera the police had set up near the gravesite that captured a woman taking the toy was shared on social media, where it received several thousand hits. "The video is there, we're not denying that. But video evidence does not show what a person is thinking. There are mitigating circumstances," Robinson said, without going into detail. "We all have sympathy for a child who has expired. We know how hard that is, and we sympathize with that." According to Mansfield Municipal Court records, Shade has made several appearances in court for criminal and civil charges including passing bad checks, unauthorized use of property and evictions. Shade has two open cases in Richland County Common Pleas Court Ohio in reference to state taxes. "I have no idea yet how I feel about (the arrest). I'm kind of in shock and have had no chance to think about it," said Scott Sheridan, father of Hayden, who died in 2007. Sheridan and his wife believe the grave has been targeted by thieves over the years; stolen items have included flowers, wreaths and toy tanks. That in turn led the Ontario Police Department to set up a surveillance camera, a kind typically used by hunters, near the gravesite in July 2012. "They've definitely experienced enough theft over the years to make them feel that way," Sigler said of the Sheridans. "In 2012, they noticed some solar lights were gone when all the graves around had theirs." Sigler said several people contacted the Ontario Police Department identifying Shade as the woman in the video after it was posted on Facebook. "I don't know if we would have gotten this case solved without that. The scenario is bizarre. It's really weird," he said. But Sigler also credited the value of surveillance video to his department. "We recognized its utility long ago and use it whenever possible. It has motion detection, night vision. It really serves a purpose," he said. Jaclyn Sheridan said her family went to Hayden's grave on Easter and saw the stuffed toy duck was gone. "We should be able to decorate his resting spot and leave things on his grave during the time we're allowed," she said. Jaclyn said the video footage has shown people showing their respect at his grave, too. She said she decorates for holidays at his grave. Her son was 14 months old when he died. Scott Sheridan said the family will continue leaving items on his son's grave. "Oh, yeah," he said. "That way we feel we're including him even though he's passed away. We feel this is the one spot where we can do that."

Thanks for mentioning "Rebootrestore" ... I missed that one, it's from the company that makes RollBack Rx and is a freeware utility. I just explore this idea also as a way to go with XP ... after making an image backup to have if all else fails, including the hard drive, then having a program like Reboot Restore Rx or something similar allows a person to experiment with changes and software programs and easily return to a good working system very quickly, should something go wrong. I never really had much success with System Restore that comes with Windows XP, seems to be "hit and miss", maybe it works, maybe not ... a program like Reboot Restore Rx sounds like a much better alternative. Reboot Restore Rx http://www.horizondatasys.com/en/products_and_solutions.aspx?ProductId=18 Reboot Restore Rx is a Freeware utility that makes it easy to maintain PC’s in small public access computing environments (classrooms, computer labs, kiosks, internet cafes, libraries, etc.). Every time you restart the PC’s - they will automatically reset to your desired baseline settings. Advanced Technology designed for small public access computing environments. It’s a challenge to maintain public access PC's - at hotels, internet cafes, and libraries - where users are not always careful and usage is high. Reboot Restore Rx simplifies the management of PC's in shared computing environments... Reboot Restore Rx is a non-restrictive hard drive restore product designed for public access PC management. The PC users feel as though they have complete control over the PC. But regardless of what they do, including erasing files, installing software or even hacking the system registry, Reboot Restore Rx will automatically restore the PC to a predefined baseline -- every time the workstation is restarted, or turned on. Making the workstations perfectly configured and available for the next user. * Restore on Reboot * Reset to Baseline on PC Start Up or Hard Reset * One-Click Instant Updates * VMWare Support * Protects the MBR * Works below Windows * Mini OS Access * Restore from unbootable Windows ----------------------------- I tried Steady State and wasn't crazy about it but you said ... "I found an old version of steady state". That might be interesting to also try ... sometimes older versions seem to work a little better than later versions. What version did you find compared to the last version 2.5 ? I didn't spend a lot of time working with SteadyState, so I might try it again in a few months but I will try Reboot Restore Rx ... their RollBack Rx program is very popular and probably worth the price.

OK jaclaz ... I guess CDs / DVDs can't be read after being cut into pieces. The silver film does flake off ... so no repair jobs with super glue! I will still burn and melt them down ... mine have nothing important on them to anyone, I do like watching them melt and as they burn, all the different colors and then black smoke. I remember reading somewhere where paper that had been cross shredded was put back together over a very long period of time ... very time consuming but do-able. ...

Point well taken ... I am still not 100% sure that broken CDs / DVDs can not be read. I like burning and melting them to nothing ... outside of course or in a fireplace. That suggestion of putting them in an oven ... the chemical smell in the house would be terrible and there would have to be some residue, I would think. ...

You are correct ... they are paranoid with a capital "P". Lots of reading ... watching your electric consumption, putting CDs / DVDs in a microwave to destroy them ... I personally burn and melt every one of mine when I no longer need them or update a DVD image backup ... nothing "top secret" on them, just my XP setup but I just like knowing they are "gone" forever. Just pulling out some of the discussion comments: It's easy to disable a builtin camera (especially if you're not using it at all): cover the camera with a piece of duct tape. It's slightly harder to destroy a builtin mic, but most of them don't require too much effort with a paperclip or tack to destroy the diaphragm. --- I believe that a microwave oven will make optical media quite unreadable before disposal. Try 10 seconds. I'm not sure if the microwave is safe for food use after you destroy a boatload of DVD's, though. --- A hammer would also work well to destroy CDs and DVDs. If one were truly paranoid, they would distribute pieces of the broken media into multiple bags and dispose of said bags in widely separated parts of town. --- I have one PC at home running Windows XP that connects to the internet maybe 2-3 times per year. It's over eight years old and other than one harddrive failure is about as trouble-free as anything running Microsoft can be. Friends don't understand why I never use it for web surfing but from a security and up-time standpoint the benefits far outweigh the problems with an air gap. --- A conventional (gas or electric) oven is also a good way to securely "dispose" of optical and magnetic media. 450F for 15-30 minutes usually does it. I use a foil-lined cookie tray to preserve the tray... And do this when nobody is home for a few hours afterward so the "fumes" have time to disperse. For flash memory, a hammer works pretty well. --- I think the ultra-paranoid way would also avoid - connecting the system to the wall socket to prevent any manipulation of the power supply or any traces by consumption of electricity - use shielding wallpaper in an empty basement room with no windows - live in a house older than 1950 (only to be sure that no electronic bugs were built-in with the cement) There are a lot of comments ... haven't read them all ... several mention Qubes. Only for 64 bit computers ... if I understand it. http://www.qubes-os.org/trac Qubes is an open-source operating system designed to provide strong security for desktop computing. Qubes is based on Xen, the X Window System, and Linux, and can run most Linux applications and utilize most of the Linux drivers. System Requirements: * 64-bit Intel or AMD processor (x86_64 aka x64 aka AMD64) * 4 GB RAM * 32 GB disk space ...

I started this discussion here strictly for XP users no longer having support and besides having an image backup on hand, maybe a "roll back" type of program would be of some use. There seems to be several free and many paid programs available but one I came across today is Windows SteadyState that is no longer available from MS. "SteadyState was available until December 31, 2010 from Microsoft for 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is incompatible with Windows 7 and later." I am not familiar with it ... the ones I know about are Shadow Defender, DeepFreeze, RollBack Rx, Macrium Reflect Free ... I think there are a few more that I have read about but they don't come to mind now. Getting back to Windows SteadyState ... I found a download site and will try it out in a day or two. Anyone have pros - cons on this program and could it be of benefit to XP users ... I would think so, since it is free and can help if a machine gets messed up ... probably not 100% like actually having a good, clean image backup at hand ... but with an image backup, a person could use this program (or one like it) to test software and such. I think this program might be better than System Restore, seems more flexible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SteadyState Features: SteadyState can revert a computer to a previously stored state every time it reboots, or on administrator's request. When Windows Disk Protection (WDP) component of SteadyState is turned on, changes to the hard disk are redirected to a temporary cache. WDP offers three modes of protection: * Discard mode: The cache is cleared upon every reboot, thus returning the system to its previous state. * Persist mode: Changes saved in the cache remain intact across reboots. An administrator may later opt to commit these changes. Alternatively, at the specified date and time, the cache expires and its contents are cleared. * Commit mode: Contents of the cache is written out to disk and become permanent. In addition, new changes to the system are no longer redirected to the cache. ... download site Windows SteadyState http://download.cnet.com/Windows-SteadyState/3000-18512_4-10977409.html Publisher's Description From Microsoft: Whether you manage computers in a school computer lab or an Internet café, a library, or even in your home, this software helps make it easy for you to keep your computers running the way you want them to, no matter who uses them. Windows SteadyState runs on genuine copies of Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Starter. And, Windows SteadyState is offered free of charge to Windows Genuine Advantage customers. ...

This is a very interesting article and downright scary ... the claim is that since 2001, 26 atomic-bomb-scale explosions have occurred in remote locations around the world, far from populated areas, made evident by a nuclear weapons test warning network. This network has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001, all of which are due to asteroid impacts. It shows that asteroid impacts are NOT rare—but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought. The fact that none of these asteroid impacts shown in the video was detected in advance is proof that the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck. Astronauts to reveal sobering data on asteroid impacts Apr 17, 2014 by Jason Major, Universe Today http://phys.org/news/2014-04-astronauts-reveal-sobering-asteroid-impacts.html This Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, three former NASA astronauts will present new evidence that our planet has experienced many more large-scale asteroid impacts over the past decade than previously thought… three to ten times more, in fact. A new visualization of data from a nuclear weapons warning network, to be unveiled by B612 Foundation CEO Ed Lu during the evening event at Seattle's Museum of Flight, shows that "the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid is blind luck." ...

Thanks Zero3K for the update ... I haven't posted much about the "newer" KM versions since they are furiously working from all angles and now are up to Beta 3 ... they have problems but with so many people helping on the project ... results are happening. K-Meleon 74 Beta 3 http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?8,127127,page=7 ...

I am using an older version of Zone Alarm Pro ... v4.5.594.000 with my XP setup, works great and it's just a firewall. The free version is also OK. ZoneAlarm® Free Firewall Release History http://sc1.checkpoint.com/sc1/za/release-history/zafree.html This version seems to be popular with other XP users ... doing a Google search. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/older-zonealarm-pro-versions.211980/ Older ZoneAlarm Pro Versions... Jun 10, 2008 I cant remember if the Older versions of ZoneAlarm pro, such as the 4.5 Series were XP compatible, or if they just worked on Windows 95/98 o_O I'd like to use this version,as it has no added crap such as AS/AV included,its just the standalone Firewall. It installs OK on my XP system, but when I reboot I get BSOD every time o_O So whats up ? Jun 11, 2008 I've used 4.5.594 on XP many times without any BSOD. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional: ZoneAlarm v4.5.594.000 was the last "pure firewall" only version and then ZoneAlarm v5.0.590.015 started with antivirus monitoring. ZoneAlarm version 5.0.590.015 * Antivirus Monitoring - Helps manage other security solutions by alerting you when your antivirus protection (even from another vendor) has been disabled or is out of date * Alert Viewer - New Alert viewer functionality organizes log details by feature category * Various other enhancements for increased reliability of operation As I said earlier, it works fine with my XP setup but I am always interested in something possibility better ... so I will also check out what others post. ...

JorgeA ... thanks for the article: "All sent and received e-mails in Gmail will be analyzed, says Google" I just closed my Gmail accounts in the last two weeks ... first I was with Yahoo and got fed up with all the changes, went to Gmail and then all the Google news started to come out over the past year. I had started to move my e-mails away from Google about 5 months ago. I am always on the look-out for a good e-mail site. Perhaps we need a good discussion on what e-mail sites are OK to use at this time ... April 2014. Someone here mentioned Hushmail, so I went there for now. They seem to be OK, there are free and paid accounts available. Decided to post the Hushmail link ... I am not endorsing them, they seem OK with the free account but there might be something better out there. They seem to be ad free but they do try to get you to sign up for a "paid" account when you sign out, that sort of can be expected ... but nothing really terrible. I guess this site could be OK unless they get bought up by AOL, Yahoo or Google in the future. https://www.hushmail.com/ Probably today a person can say ... that another name for the NSA is Google! The NSA is the hidden face and Google is the public face. As of today can anyone truly imagine what Google will be like in 5 years ... 10 years. They really seem to dig this spy stuff ... I don't remember seeing this mentioned but maybe it was ... about Google buying a drone maker ... just came out a few days ago. I don't care what they are saying about providing internet service ... probably just a cover, they like collecting and storing everything "forever". So as I said earlier, what will be the Google story in 5 or 10 years ... the real story? Google Buys Drone Maker Titan Aerospace http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/14/technology/innovation/google-titan-drone/ By James O'Toole - April 14, 2014 The technology company announced Monday that it has acquired Titan Aerospace, a start-up founded in 2012 that makes high-altitude, solar-powered drones. The purchase is part of the new push in Silicon Valley to find ways of delivering Internet service to underserved areas, particularly in the developing world. "Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world," Google said. "It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation." The Titan team will operate separately from Google, but will collaborate with divisions including Google Maps and Project Loon, which has been working on delivering Internet service from high-altitude balloons. ---------------------------------------- Google Buys Drone Company Titan Aerospace http://www.businessinsider.com/google-buys-drone-company-titan-aerospace-2014-4 ...

Very interesting, thanks for posting ... I never heard of Lorenzo Da Ponte. I like all composers and music from the 1700's and before. He was born 8 years after Antonio Vivaldi died, my favorite composer. His life is a little like Vivaldi's ... became a priest, lived in Venice but fascinating that he eventually ended up in America and briefly ran a grocery store in Sunbury, PA and in 1828 became a US citizen ... his "Memoirs" looks interesting. I enjoy reading about the early composers ... with today's royalties they probably would have all lived a better life. ... I do not want to write more and take away what ROTS originally posted about.

Sad story ... what will become of us, our stuff, things we probably all think about at times ... In your story, I guess cremation might not be a possibility, it can also be expensive. In the 1700's many people were just buried in common graves that were later probably dug up to make room for new buildings and such. Death maybe is not fair and most of us will not be ready for it ... those that are lucky to be well off than most can arrange something better for their end. ... still you post a sad story. I was reading about Mozart and the belief that he was buried in a paupers grave ... but that seems to not be exactly true. I heard that many years ago and couldn't believe that could happen but he had debts and his wife and children had nothing when he died at age 35. The Location of Mozart's Grave ... Was he Buried a Pauper? http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/famouspeople/a/dyk11.htm An Unknown Grave Although Mozart is buried somewhere in Vienna's St. Marx cemetery, the exact location is unknown; the current monument and 'grave' are the results of an educated guess. Unfortunately, the circumstances of the composer's burial, and the lack of any definite grave, has led to great confusion, including the common belief that Mozart was dumped into a mass grave for paupers. This view stems from a misinterpretation of funerary practices in eighteenth century Vienna. Mozart's Burial Mozart died on December 5th 1791. Records show that he was sealed in a wooden coffin and buried in a plot along with 4 - 5 other people; a wooden marker was used to identify the grave. Although this is the kind of burial modern readers may associate with poverty, it was actually the standard practice for middle income families of the time. The burial of groups of people in one grave was organised and dignified, differing greatly from the images of large open pits now synonymous with the term 'mass grave'. Mozart may not have died rich, indeed he may have been relatively poor, but friends and admirers came to his widow's aid, helping her pay debts and funeral costs. Large graveside gatherings and grand funerals were discouraged in Vienna during this period, hence Mozart's simple burial, but a church service was certainly held in his honour. ----------------------------------- Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at 1:00 in the morning on 5 December 1791. Sophie, his wife's sister, recalled, "I cannot possibly describe the boundless misery of his faithful wife as she threw herself on her knees and implored succour from the Almighty for His aid. She could not tear herself away from him, beg her as I did." Following her husband's death, Constanze recovered from her despair and addressed the task of providing financial security for her family; the Mozarts had two young children, and Mozart had died with outstanding debts. She successfully appealed to the Emperor on 11 December 1791 for a widow's pension due to her as a result of Mozart's service to the Emperor as a part-time chamber composer. Additionally, she organized a series of concerts of Mozart's music and the publication of many of her husband's works. As a result, Constanze became financially secure over time.[19] Soon after the composer's death a Mozart biography was started by Friedrich Schlichtegroll, who wrote an early account based on information from Mozart's sister, Nannerl. Working with Constanze, Franz Niemetschek wrote a biography as well. Much later, Constanze assisted her second husband, Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, on a more detailed biography published in 1826. Mozart's musical reputation rose following his death; 20th-century biographer Maynard Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm"[19] for his work after he died, and a number of publishers issued editions of his compositions.

Sadly I also did not see the lunar eclipse ... it was cloudy and raining on and off. Did anyone actually see the event? ... how about Brazil, did you get to see it, dencorso? ...

More on the spying and watching a person's every move ... maybe the regulars will post more information. Who’s Watching Me? Police Took Photos of My License Plates By Kathryn Watson / April 14, 2014 http://watchdog.org/138370/police-reporters-license/ ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The police know exactly where my car has been — and when — during the past few months. They could have the same information — or more — about you. As a part of my series on the use of automatic license plate readers in Virginia, I wanted to find out what kind of information local police might have. By law, the only information I’m privileged to is my own. Last week I filed a public records request with the Alexandria Police Department. I’ve lived in the lovely city of Alexandria for just two years, and my driving record — aside from the occasional parking ticket — is virtually spotless. What I found, however, left me riveted. In all, police captured 16 photos of my car — mostly at night — and recorded my license plate eight times on five dates — from October 2013 to as recently as April 1. ... more at the link ----------------------------------------- FBI Will Have Up To One Third Of Americans On Biometric Database By Next Year http://www.infowars.com/fbi-will-have-up-to-one-third-of-americans-on-biometric-database-by-next-year/ Privacy group warns “even if you have never been arrested you could be implicated as a criminal suspect” Steve Watson Infowars.com April 15, 2014 A leading privacy watchdog has warned that the FBI plans to have up to a third of all Americans on a facial recognition database by next year. The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes in a communique that some 52 million Americans could be on the Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometric database by 2015, regardless of whether they have ever committed a crime or been arrested. The group managed to obtain information pertaining to the program via a freedom of information request. The database will also hold fingerprints, of which the FBI has around 100 million records, as well as retina scans and palm prints. Profiles on the system will contain other personal details such as name, address, age and race. The system will be capable of searching through millions of facial records obtained not only via mugshots, but also via so called “civil images”, the origin of which is vague at best. “The FBI does not define either the ‘Special Population Cognizant’ database or the ‘new repositories’ category.” The EFF writes. “This is a problem because we do not know what rules govern these categories, where the data comes from, how the images are gathered, who has access to them, and whose privacy is impacted.” ... more at the link -------------------------------- Virginia Cops Constantly Photograph Random People’s License Plates http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/14/virginia-cops-constantly-photograph-random-peoples-license-plates/ 04/14/2014 Police officers in Alexandria, Virginia, frequently take pictures of the license plates of random vehicles all over the city — meaning that people’s addresses, work locations and daily routines are well known to the authorities who collect such information and store it for stretches of time. The disturbing discovery was made by Katie Watson, an investigative reporter with Watchdog.org’s Virginia bureau. Watson submitted a public records request with the Alexandria Police Department for all information the police had about her. Watson already knew that the police used automatic license plate recognition software to collect information. What she didn’t know was how pervasive the surveillance was.

Well if this is happening already, then I wonder how long all the actual updates will still be available? ... -X- had it right in the first post ... only now it's "grab and save" everything fast, the lights may go out sooner than later. Sounds like desperation on their part ... get XP off the stage as fast as possible. The last official updates were released just a week ago and M$ is busy. All this this in one week ! ... wonder what will happen in week two. Yesterday, I did an image backup on my three XP computers ... cleaned all the junk out, all the final updates were installed ... got everything exactly the way I want it, so now I have the perfect Factory CD (except it's a DVD now!) for any catastrophe. Those that don't remember those early days, when you bought a new computer ... there was always a "Factory CD" or CDs with the computer for going back to square one after a disaster. I'm sure those are no longer in the box these days. My next project will be to update some older software programs to newer versions ... when I figure out what programs need to be updated ... if I decide to update, like we all know ... sometimes newer versions aren't all that great, then I will do another image backup ... but I will always have the "final backups" from yesterday (Apr 14th) to get back to. So far the backups seem to be 100% perfect, I have never had a "perfect" backup, close but never perfect, always find something not right and that may happen ... looking good so far. I always have a list of what needs to be done, this time I seem to have had a very good check list.

I was looking for a certain program today, a portable duplicate file search program ... I came across this collection of portable software. I'm going by the description that everything is free and portable ... I had never heard of this site before ... anyone looking for some portable programs, maybe they are here. There is a list of everything in "INCLUDED APPS" and the Full Download is large ... you can look for individual programs. Lupo PenSuite (v2013.04) http://www.lupopensuite.com/index.htm The free collection of portable software for everyone - all-in-one for every needs - completely free and portable - translated in 28 languages - no spyware, adware or viruses - easy to use and to personalize - over 160 programs and games included - thousands of programs and games available http://www.lupopensuite.com/suite.htm#download Lupo PenSuite is a completely free collection of portable programs and games. This Suite is designed to simplify the user's life, by collecting the best suites and portable applications available on the Web. Optimized to be loaded on a USB flash drive and brought always with you, this Suite works perfectly well on any other device. It includes over 160 highly selected portable programs and games (7-Zip, Audacity, CCleaner, eMule, FileZilla, Firefox, GIMP, Instantbird, IrfanView, Notepad++, Opera, SumatraPDF, Thunderbird, µTorrent, VLC and many more). You can also easily customize your suite adding portable apps from our broad software database. All you need in one package.

Sounds like an ad for the company but I place it here just for reading and maybe discussion. Today at the Giveaway of the Day site ... they have an encryption software program ... in the many comments so far, someone posted about a Brazilian banker's hard drives being very secure from hacking. I had never read this story ... this is old news from 2010 ... I wonder if they were ever able to get into the hard drives? "For years now TrueCrypt has been providing free encryption. But don’t be mistaken. Its not the average encryption that it provides. It provides the encryption of the highest degree. Check out this excerpt from the Wikipedia page: In July 2008, several TrueCrypt-secured hard drives were seized from Brazilian banker Daniel Dantas, who was suspected of financial crimes. The Brazilian National Institute of Criminology (INC) tried unsuccessfully for five months to obtain access to his files on the TrueCrypt-protected disks. They enlisted the help of the FBI, who used dictionary attacks against Dantas’ disks for over 12 months, but were still unable to decrypt them." ----------------------- FBI Hackers Fail to Crack TrueCrypt http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/ The FBI has admitted defeat in attempts to break the open source encryption used to secure hard drives seized by Brazilian police during a 2008 investigation. The Bureau had been called in by the Brazilian authorities after the country's own National Institute of Criminology (INC) had been unable to crack the passphrases used to secure the drives by suspect banker, Daniel Dantas. Brazilian reports state that two programs were used to encrypt the drives, one of which was the popular and widely-used free open source program TrueCrypt. Experts in both countries apparently spent months trying to discover the passphrases using a dictionary attack, a technique that involves trying out large numbers of possible character combinations until the correct sequence is found. ------------------------- Brazilian banker's crypto baffles FBI ... 18 months of failure 28 June 2010 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/28/brazil_banker_crypto_lock_out/ Cryptographic locks guarding the secret files of a Brazilian banker suspected of financial crimes have defeated law enforcement officials. Brazilian police seized five hard drives when they raided the Rio apartment of banker Daniel Dantas as part of Operation Satyagraha in July 2008. But subsequent efforts to decrypt files held on the hardware using a variety of dictionary-based attacks failed even after the South Americans called in the assistance of the FBI. The files were encrypted using Truecrypt and an unnamed algorithm, reportedly based on the 256-bit AES standard. In the UK, Dantas would be compelled to reveal his passphrase under threat of imprisonment, but no such law exists in Brazil. The Brazilian National Institute of Criminology (INC) tried for five months to obtain access to the encrypted data without success before turning over the job to code-breakers at the FBI in early 2009. US computer specialists also drew a blank even after 12 months of efforts to crack the code, Brazil's Globo newspaper reports. The case is an illustration of how care in choosing secure (hard-to-guess) passwords and applying encryption techniques to avoid leaving file fragments that could aid code breakers are more important in maintaining security than the algorithm a code maker chooses. In other cases, law enforcement officials have defeated suspects' use of encryption because of weak cryptographic trade craft or poor passwords, rather than inherent flaws in encryption packages. ...

Another good link ... thanks dencorso ... I've seen several total eclipses of the Moon and they really do look 'blood red" ... the term I remember from years ago was "copper-red" ... but as you said, they are beautiful. Maybe this one will be more red than usual, I don't know.

Thanks for the reminder ... I knew last month it was due but I forgot about it. Now I have to hope for clear skies.

You are probably right with future updates for MS Office. I do have the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack installed and I found out early on when the first Office 2007 update showed up, that it was "probably" OK to install the update and the later ones also ... but I had to research it all out to be sure. I for one would be interested in what you might discover in those ISOs ... almost seems to easy, has to be a trip wire in there somewhere. ...

Dave-H ... are the XP updates really done for April, who can say? Now that this November 2013 Root Certificates question is going around the web ... could MS fix and update and release a new RC later in the month or before Update Tuesday in May? Would that not still be considered an "April last XP update" ? I don't know. Thanks to dencorso and his logs, we have a pretty good idea when the March RC update was pulled. So who knows if there still might be something released before May 13th or on May 13th ... to make things right. Kind of a shoddy way to send XP out ... you would think all the "final updates" should have been 100% correct and up to date ... just my thoughts. I sort of asked what you are asking under another post about possible more updates for IE8 and MS Office 2000 ... since I had an Office 2007 update for Office 2000 this month (April). This thread: Another XP Update Question ... Sort Of !

OK I found out this all happened near the end of March ... this is from the Wilders Security Forum dated April 08 2014 ... Very strange - MS root certs for XP Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by FanJ, Apr 8, 2014 at 3:12 PM. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/very-strange-ms-root-certs-for-xp.362462/ (yes, I know that MS is stopping updates for XP and that today was the latest) System: Windows XP Dutch As you may know: updates for MS root certs on XP are optional and are differently handled compared to newer Windows versions. The latest update for root certs for XP was from March 2014, which I had installed. See http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/update-root-certs-for-windows-xp-march- 2014.361286/ Today I see that there is an update for root certs for XP dated November 2013. To be honest, I am kind of flabbergasted that I was offered an update from November 2013 while I had installed the update from March 2014. I am wondering whether other users on XP are seeing the same. Probably on other language versions of MS XP. What is going on here? Is this right? Is there an error on the MS Dutch update site? Is this also happening on other language versions of XP? Anyone know more about this? Any input is more than welcome! Maybe I will try to upload some screenshots but I don't know whether I will succeed with that on the new board forum software. ......... also from DSL Reports ... 25 March 2014 http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29130460-Update-for-Root-Certificates-for-Windows-XP-recalled-on-3-25-2014- Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP recalled on 3/25/2014? Hello. I just checked my two/2 XP SP3 machines' Windows Updates and noticed "Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP [November 2013] (KB931125)". According to both machines' histories, I got "Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP [March 2014] (KB931125)" on 3/11/2014. What's going on? Did MS recalled March 2014's root certificates? ------ Thanks for raising the question. The same thing as you noticed, has also been noticed by folks at Wilders: »www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/···.362462/ (with link to this thread here at DSLR/BBR)

Thanks submix8c ... I have never completely understood Root Certificates. I've read your links ... I don't understand exactly what I'm reading. I think for now I will stick with my image backup with the XP March updates. I was just experimenting with the April updates to see if everything was OK. I was waiting to see if anyone else posted that they also had the November 2013 Root Certificates update show up after having the March Root Certificates already installed. Again, if this is not happening to anyone else then I have to figure it's on my end. Should I fool around with more Root Certificate updates from those links you posted or just stop with the November 2013 update ... tempted to install the March 2014 RC update again to see what the Windows Update Tool reports.

Just finished installing the April 2014 XP updates on my machine ... went back to recheck everything with the Windows Update Tool on IE8 ... all updates were OK except that I found that I now needed an older Root Certificates update from November 2013. Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP - November 2013 (KB931125) I had installed the last Root Certificates from March 2014 with the March updates ... Update for Root Certificates for Windows XP - March 2014 (KB931125) so why I now had to go back to November 2013, I don't know. I installed it and went back for a recheck and all updates are installed ... wanted everything correct for an image backup later. Just a heads up to others to double check the Roots Update ... may just be something with my computer setup. ...