Monroe

It just hit me about this new virus ... if it was found off the coast of Chile then that's salt water and a pond in Australia would be fresh water ... a very versatile virus.

I guess they now have another reason to take away guns ... FAA Warns Public Against Shooting Guns at Drones http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/19/faa-warns-public-against-shooting-guns-at-drones/ People who fire guns at drones are endangering the public and property and could be prosecuted or fined, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Friday. The FAA released a statement in response to questions about an ordinance under consideration in the tiny farming community of Deer Trail, Colo., that would encourage hunters to shoot down drones. The administration reminded the public that it regulates the nation's airspace, including the airspace over cities and towns. A drone "hit by gunfire could crash, causing damage to persons or property on the ground, or it could collide with other objects in the air," the statement said. "Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane." Under the proposed ordinance, Deer Trail would grant hunting permits to shoot drones. The permits would cost $25 each. The town would also encourage drone hunting by awarding $100 to anyone who presents a valid hunting license and identifiable pieces of a drone that has been shot down. ... This just gets better and better ... a hunting permit to shoot down drones, I kinda like the idea ... if the Three Stooges were still here, this would be a great movie short ... go duck hunting and bring down a drone! I still think a "back yard" model rocket missle defense would work or perhaps rocket type fireworks could be modified in some way to not only "light up the sky" but bring down a drone as a bonus !!! ...

Thought this was interesting ... probably not much of a discussion topic but we can be greatful that it appears to be "harmless" unless it might mutate or "join up" with something more deadly one day. Never-before-seen GIANT virus found that's so unusual it may have come from Mars http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2370100/Scientists-GIANT-Pandoravirus-come-alien-planet.html Scientists have found a new virus thought to be the biggest ever seen on Earth. The virus, dubbed Pandoravirus, is one micrometre big - up to ten times the size of other viruses - and only six per cent of its genes resemble anything seen on Earth before. Many traditional viruses range in size from around 10 nanometres (nm) to around 500nm. The Pandoravirus is around one micrometre big and there are 1,000nm in a micrometre. This means the Pandoravirus is big enough to be seen under the most basic microscopes. Pandoravirus lives underwater and was found off the coast of Chile and in a pond in Australia. They took sediment samples from the coast off Chile and from a pond in Australia. They took the samples to their laboratory and put them in a solution packed with antibiotics in an attempt to kill any bacteria present. These bacteria-free samples were then exposed to amoebas knowing that if they died, there must be something else in the samples killing them. This proved to be successful and large amounts of Pandoravirus were spawned. When the team studied them they found that their genetic code was twice the size of the Megavirus, which was previously the biggest virus ever found at around 440nm. However, they were in for more of a shock as only six per cent of its genes resembled genes seen before in other organisms on Earth. ... Let's hope it stays harmless ... more info in the article.

Yes, very cool indeed ... this may be what dencorso had in mind when he posted this on 29 May ... Post #41 ... "In the US, as here in Brazil, apartment buildings without elevators are next to non-existant. However, that's not so in Europe, where they are common in the most expensive neighborhoods, even in London, Paris and Milan. So what I do envisage as the probable 1st civillian use of a BigDog would be to be bought by such condominia, to bring up the stairs things, like, say, the packages with the goods just bought from the local supermarket." ... except these could lift heavy items to the roof ... furniture, appliances and such for people near the top of the building. ...

Yes, I had actually read about the super big mosquitoes over a month ago and that they have been around for years but hardly ever seen by most people living in Florida, however this year was expected to be different. Anyway, you dug up a lot more info on them and a mention about the dreaded salt marsh mosquito. That one sounds horrible, if you get bit ... maybe like getting bit by a horse fly. Must be bad for the deer and other living things in the salt marsh. Oh well, yes the "burning drone" either crashed or was shot down as target practice. ...

I would have to agree but having lived in Florida for a time back in the 80's ... there were some pretty large insects around then and they have probably only gotten larger since I left. For instance, this news just broke in June ... Huge Mosquitoes Spotted in Florida http://www.livescience.com/37383-gallinippers-huge-mosquitoes-florida.html Enormous mosquitoes known as gallinippers (or Psorophora ciliata) have been spotted in Florida, according to WKMG, a CBS affiliate. The insects are about 20 times larger than most common mosquitoes. The sighting comes after a warning by the University of Florida that there could be a bumper crop of these mosquitoes this summer. ...

Air Force drone crash closes remote Florida highway http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/18/air-force-drone-crash-causes-officials-to-shut-down-remote-fla-panhandle/?test=latestnews An Air Force drone being tested at a nearby base crashed on takeoff Wednesday near a remote stretch of a Florida Panhandle highway. Officials say no one was injured but the road would be closed into Wednesday night. The Air Force closed Highway 98 west of Panama City and east of Mexico Beach because of possible fires from the crash. Officials said the drone has a limited, 24-hour battery life and would be inactive after the battery depleted. ... the picture shows something burning ... lots of smoke so the battery and drone would "maybe" be inactive before 24 hours had passed ... however, I'm no rocket scientist !!!

Tripredacus ... don't have anything to offer about the heat situation but in your first post I learned about two programs I had never heard of ... from your pictures ... TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.7.2 and CPUID HWMonitor. I have a Pentium M (1.6) IBM Thinkpad with XP Pro but I don't get all the information that you get ... I guess you have more sensors to detect more readings. Still glad to have found out about these two software programs. ...

OK, things are more clear but I may have misunderstood what these "extra" USB updates actually are. When I was still with Windows 98SE, I remember you would ocassionally have a newer USB update in the Windows 98SE forum to add new USB flash drives, cameras and etc ... that's what I thought these additional USB updates for Windows XP after SP3 actually were. I don't have a NVIDIA 680i motherboard installed so I don't think I have any real need for these additional updates ... I just thought these were newer additional USB cameras and such that were added after XP SP3 came out. Perhaps XP doesn't have to be updated like Windows 98SE had to. Still learning things dealing with XP ... thanks again for explaining everything.

OK ... thanks for the additional information ... not sure if I have it all clear but I have some idea where to start to try things out.

I don't understand how to add these "extra" USB functional patches for Win XP after SP3 posted by dencorso. At pointertovoid's thread - "USB functional patches for Win2000 after SP4 and R1" he says the following: The table is plain text to help you copy it. In order to display your copy properly, you'll need a fixed width font (like Courier new) where you paste it, for instance an Html document or a text editor (Metapad does it). I never change any fonts in my XP setup and don't understand completely what steps I should be doing and how to enter everything into my XP setup or exactly where it is supposed to be ... I'm thinking probably the .ini file but I don't know for sure. Can someone tell me in simple "novice" terms how to add the extra USB patches as posted below from dencorso's post. -----------------XP-SP3----948101v3-949764-945436-949033-968764-969238-2828030-2807986--========================================================================================usbccgp.sys-----2600.5512-------------------5585----------------------------------------usbehci.sys-----2600.5512--------------------------5587---5778---5825---6368------------usbohci.sys-----2600.5512----5550-------------------------------------------------------usbuhci.sys-----2600.5512-----------------------------------------------6368------------usbport.sys-----2600.5512------------5551-----------------5778----------6368------------usb8023.sys-----2600.5512--------------------------------------------------------6532---usb8023x.sys----2600.5512--------------------------------------------------------6532---========================================================================================---------------------------948101v3-949764-945436-949033-968764-969238-2828030-2807986--thanks ...

Dry Cleaner Drone Delivers Clothes to Customers http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/the-scene/Dry-Cleaning-Drone-Delivering-Clothes-to-Customers-214736141.html A freshly laundered shirt, covered in plastic, flaps in the wind as it takes flight from in front of Manayunk Cleaners in Philadelphia. It wasn’t picked up by a breeze, though, rather a remote-controlled drone, which ferries the shirt across the sky on a delivery run to a nearby customer. “I’m all about technology and I see a lot of these cleaners, it’s so old school. You come in…and you just pick it up. I needed to spice things up,” says Manayunk Cleaners owner Harout Vartanian. ...

MHz ... thanks for the info on some other things to check on my XP installation. I can experiment since I have an image backup just made a few days ago. submix8c ... not sure if the question was for me or not, I guess so. I just came across the little program and decided to post about it. The program from NirSoft seems to be better with more information provided. I have downloaded it ... I am familiar with NirSoft software but I missed that one. Always good to have some of these programs handy. Thanks for mentioning it, maybe others will have use for it also. ...

Well now there is a mystery ... I decided this morning to go to the MS update site and run another check to see what might turn up. Now the KB2839229 update is listed as the "only" update that still needs to be downloaded and installed on my setup. I know it was not on that list of updates over the weekend but on Monday morning (today) it shows up as still required. I am also puzzled about the download size ... at the MS update site it is listed as 331 KB in size ... Security Update for Windows XP (KB2839229) Typical download size: 331 KB , 1 minute however, when I actually go get the download myself from MS to save, the download size is 2.2 MB ... Date Published: 06/10/2013 Version: 2839229 File name: WindowsXP-KB2839229-x86-ENU.exe File size: 2.2 MB So I don't know ... it's not there to download one day and the next day it's there ... I did that update check three times over the weekend and it was not there. Any idea why the file size difference? I guess it was all a false alarm unless we hear something different. ... thanks

OK ... I only started searching information on the KB2839229 update after it dropped off my earlier list of required June updates. Ten days ago I had 8 listed updates and now there are only 7 listed updates with KB2839229 being the update that disappeared or dropped off my list. My last MS updates that were installed were the March 2013 updates ... so my June update list includes Apr, May and June updates. Well, I wasn't questioning what you posted earlier, just wondering if there might be a problem with that particular update. Not going to worry about it ... I decided to install the 7 updates today and will see what the July updates are going to be. ...

submix8c ... yes that's the way I get my updates to download and save to a DVD ... in case I might want them someday when XP is officially dropped. I usually have AutoUpdates turned off in Services but turn it on when I go to the M$ update site and then hit the Custom button and see what new updates are available or required for my XP setup. Then I take the KB number and put that into Google as "KB----------- XP download" ... I get the M$ download that way and burn all the updates for that month to my M$ Update DVD ... the KB2839229 was in the list of updates when I did that around 10 days ago ... but yesterday and doing a double check today, the KB2839229 update is no longer showing up as a required download for my computer. ...

submix8c ... there isn't much information currently floating around about KB2839229 possibly being a bad update except for what I posted earlier and the one mention was in Chinese with a Google translate. Read your links and that's basically what dencorso said earlier about the update from 12 February 2013 (KB2799494) being superceded by KB2839229. Have to see what dencorso might have to say or anyone else if they find some information. As I said in my last post ... I am no expert with M$ updates but when there is a bad update released does not M$ put a statement out warning people who might already have it installed or do they just keep quiet about it? ... bad publicity and all that ... I would imagine they would pull it from the update site immediately and then do a fixed new release. ...

dencorso ... the KB2839229 update (June 2013) that you mentioned in an earlier post may be a bad update that has been pulled by M$. I checked the M$ updates again this morning and it no longer shows up on the list of required updates for my setup. When I downloaded all the updates earlier to save, the KB2839229 was included but I no longer see it listed today. Perhaps someone else can verify this. I have found a few mentions of people having several problems with XP after the update has been installed. I don't apply most of the updates automatically anymore ... stopped in March but I still save all of them by the month in case I might want to apply them at sometime in the future. Perhaps you or someone else can verify that the KB2839229 is bad. I am no expert on M$ updates. 1st Search Find: Update KB2839229 downloads and installs but I'm repeatedly asked to install it On Windows XP, Windows Update notified me to download KB283929. It appeared to download normally; when it asked me to install, it appeared to install and I got the quot;installation complete!quot; notice. Within a minute or two, the quot;Updates are ready for your computerquot; icon reappeared asking me to download the same Update. I have completely shut down the computer 4 or 5 times over the past 2 days, but this has continued. (I did try to download and install 3 or 4 times, just in case.) Reply: I heard that this update has had an error, causing many XP/Win7 users to have BS (bluescreen) upon startup, and the system could not enter. Best not to update this first. ---------------------------------------------- 2nd Search Find: Never Ending Windows Update http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1824953 I am running XP home on my notebook and recently there was an update that shows it was downloaded and installed, then 5 seconds later the yellow shield pops and tells me I have an update waiting. I've googled this for hours and none of the advice I've read and tried has worked so far. I cannot make this thing stop. It happened before a few months ago and I simply told Windows Update to ignore it and then it came back and even though its still listed in the ignored updates, it is still trying to download and install. I can't make it stop. I've read that it has to do with .NET Framework, so I followed a lot of different advice, including uninstalling it, downloading the latest version directly from Microsoft Download site yet that still hasn't worked. I've attempted to use Microsoft FixIt, and everytime I do, it tells me I need to have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher installed...I DO...I HAVE 4.0 NOW AND THE (*$*%%^**& THING STILL WON'T WORK!!! Does anybody have a solid correction for this nightmare?! The download in question is KB2839229. Reply: There's a page that I found that's in Chinese and I used Google translate in Firefox to translate the page. They recommend that you don't install the June patch because of a design flaw in the patch. Kingsoft Security also causes problems with this patch unless it's got the latest update. Some have reported BSODs upon reboot after installing the patch. What the Chinese page recommends you do is boot into safe mode, go into Remove Programs, select the patch and uninstall it. As far as the Microsoft "FixIt", did you run the one for Windows Update? I run XP Pro on my Dell Precision M70. When it comes to Update Tuesday, I don't rely on Windows Update. Instead, I use IE and go to the Microsoft Update site and select "Custom" from the two choices. I get a list of High Priority updates, Optional Updates and Hardware Updates that I can select on an individual basis and either choose to install them OR select "Do Not Show This Update Again". Also, I've got Automatic Updates set to notify me when updates are ready but don't download or install them. I downloaded and installed the patch and didn't have any problems. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. But, hopefully, the above suggestions may help. ...

Found this little program a couple of weeks ago for XP updates. It's a program to remove MS update backup files in the system, if you need to do so ... it also says it can actually remove a bad update, I have not tried that. However, I like to use it just to see what updates are installed. It will list the updates along with the date they were installed. I find it quicker to use than going into Control Panel / Add - Remove to check the installed updates. It's very small and very fast. As usual, I mention it here for anyone (like myself) that never heard of it and might like to try it out. Windows XP Update Remover http://windows-xp-update-remover.software.informer.com/ Publisher's description Windows XP Update Remover provides a quick and easy way to delete the backup files left behind after every Windows update and reclaim valuable disk space. It can also remove Windows updates that appear to be causing trouble. Whenever Windows Update runs to install security fixes and other updates to your system, it creates a folder within the Windows folder containing all the files replaced during the update. ...

Here we go ... the insect drones now have power ... get out the flyswatters! ... don't think insect spray will work unless it fogs up the lens. Scientists use 3D printer to create microbatteries smaller than a single GRAIN of sand, paving the way for high-powered flying robot insects. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2344835/Scientists-use-3D-printer-create-microbatteries-smaller-single-GRAIN-sand-paving-way-high-powered-flying-robot-insects-mini-medical-implants.html The revolutionary technology behind 3D-printed car parts, food and guns can also be used to print batteries smaller than a grain of sand. Scientists have used a 3D printer to make linthium-ion microbatteries that can fit into tiny devices that had previously stumped engineers looking to power them for longer periods. The batteries were constructed from interlaced stacks of tiny battery electrodes, which conduct electricity, that are each smaller than the width of a single human hair. ... Found this article on the "mosquito" insect drone that was mentioned before: Business Insider - Military Defense The Future Of Micro Drones Could Get Downright Scary http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-micro-drones-is-getting-pretty-scary-according-to-alan-lovejoy-2012-6 It's been several years since the rumors and sightings of insect sized micro drones started popping up around the world. Vanessa Alarcon was a college student when she attended a 2007 anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. and heard someone shout, "Oh my God, look at those." "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?'" she told The Washington Post. "They looked like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects," she continued. ... and a refresher on the "dragon fly" drone ... "we saw an amazingly-realistic version that the CIA developed over 40 years ago" ... New dragonfly drone can be controlled with a smartphone http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/new-dragonfly-drone-can-be-controlled-smartphone.html Dragonflies have been a popular choice for nature-inspired drones. First, we saw an amazingly-realistic version that the CIA developed over 40 years ago, but scrapped once they couldn't get the flying part perfected. Then, more recently we saw a drone developed by Georgia Tech that copied the dragonfly's four-wing design and was equipped with a suite of data collecting sensors. The latest offering in robo-dragonflies, however, is the first that a) can be controlled with a smartphone and B) looks ready to be owned right now. The BionicOpter was created by robotics company Festo and like the Georgia Tech version is outfitted with sensors and wireless communication technology that allows it to continuously transmit data that it is collecting. ...

From jaclaz ... The 1960's projects seemingly failed: http://en.wikipedia..../Acoustic_Kitty but that's more than 40 years ago.... well, maybe this little part says it all about the project being a failure! This is like something out of a Mel Brooks movie! This is freaking hilarious, my laugh for the day. "The first Acoustic Kitty mission was to eavesdrop on two men in a park outside the Soviet compound in Washington, D.C. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately." ...

OK ... I know you were not making "fun" of that post ... sort of ! When I was typing that earlier post, it popped in my head about satellites already in position snapping away. I remember reading 10 yrs ago, maybe 20 yrs ago that these satellites had cameras that could read the headlines off a newspaper that someone might be reading standing on a sidewalk. Yes, I joke around about having a personal spy drone one day but as you have said and probably is very true, most ordinary people won't be able to afford the price of a decent spy drone. That dragon fly drone from several posts back sells for $119 and that would be in an affordable range ... just how good and reliable it is, don't really know and also how long can it fly after launch? You hit the nail on the head ... there are always "talented people" that could put things together in a garage or back yard and make (build) a pretty nice flying drone from this and that ... like the early computer boys working out of a garage. Well it was a good article and probably of more concern to a government (country) not wanting to lose some of their expensive "state of the art" drones to a hijacking zombie. Still amazes me how "drone talk" has exploded this year compared to 2012 ... and are we going to one day hear that Microsoft has secret drones flying around for some reason ... could be more in that new Xbox or a future Xbox or a new computer program than we might think. Who can say what plans are on the table now. ...

This is really bad stuff ... so all the drones that I might buy to protect my property can be taken over to protect the property across the street. This just gets worse by the hour. I suppose this could also apply to pack horse drones ... "horse drone rustlers" just quietly walk them off a person's property. Horse thieves used to be hung but I guess that probably wouldn't happen to a drone horse thief. You sort of made fun of my last post ... sort of ... but the last paragraph in the article you posted says it all ... you said there are satellites and yes there are but look at those projected numbers for future spying drones and also the article said that drones could just fall out of the sky. "There’s something about things falling out of the sky that gets people’s attention. The FAA has promised to open the U.S. skies to civilian drones by 2015 and has estimated that by 2020, there could be 30,000 of them aloft. That’s a lot of potential flying zombies." ...

Very good work ... was wondering what these early web pages actually did look like ... now we know, thanks to "The Finder". ...

Found this interesting article ... the article is long so I posted just a small part of it. Scientists searching for world's first web page turn to North Carolina http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/06/11/scientists-searching-for-world-first-web-page-turn-to-north-carolina/?test=latestnews For the European physicists who created the World Wide Web, preserving its history is as elusive as unlocking the mysteries of how the universe began. The scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym CERN, are searching for the first Web page. It was at CERN that Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web in 1990 as an unsanctioned project, using a NeXT computer that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs designed in the late 80s during his 12-year exile from the company. Dan Noyes oversees CERN's website and has taken on the project to uncover the world's first Web page. He says that no matter how much data they sort through, researchers may never make a clear-cut discovery of the original web page because of the nature of how data is shared. "The concept of the earliest Web page is kind of strange," Noyes said. "It's not like a book. A book exists through time. Data gets overwritten and looped around. To some extent, it is futile." In April, CERN restored a 1992 copy of the first-ever website that Berners-Lee created to arrange CERN-related information. It was the earliest copy CERN could find at the time, and Noyes promised then to keep looking. After National Public Radio did a story on the search, a professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill came forward with a 1991 version. Paul Jones met Berners-Lee during the British scientist's visit to the U.S. for a conference in 1991, just a year after Berners-Lee invented the Web. Jones said Berners-Lee shared the page with the professor, who has transferred it from server to server through the years. A version remains on the Internet today at an archive Jones runs, ibiblio. ...