Monroe

... we should all be so 'poor' ... kind of a comical story or read ... may the best rich person win !!! http://www.nysun.com/national/bezos-slim-and-buffett-billionaires-pleading/90026/ Bezos, Slim, and Buffett, Publicly Pleading Poverty, Ask Congress for Help With Their Newspapers By IRA STOLL - the Sun | July 10, 2017 It’s the sort of brazen move that might ordinarily trigger a front-page news story or an outraged editorial — a bunch of rich individuals asking Congress to write them a law that would give them better negotiating power against other rich individuals. Yet in this case, the rich individuals wanting special treatment are the newspaper owners themselves. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos (worth $83.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index), New York Times owner Carlos Slim (worth $61.1 billion), and Buffalo News owner Warren Buffett ($76.9 billion), publicly pleading poverty, are asking Congress for a helping hand in their negotiations with Google, controlled by Sergey Brin ($45.6 billion) and Larry Page ($46.8 billion). In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, David Chavern, president and chief executive of the News Media Alliance, whose board has representatives of Bezos-Slim- and Buffett-backed papers, complained about what he called “an economically squeezed news industry.” The Times, in a column sympathetic to the effort, likened the news providers to “serfs.” Maybe Serf Bezos should have considered the economics of the news industry when he bought the Washington Post, or Serf Slim when he bought his stake in the New York Times. The idea that Congress needs to roll to the rescue of “serfs” like Messrs. Bezos, Buffett, and Slim to bail them out of bad investments just doesn’t pass the laugh test. In respect of the Times, it’s particularly comical, because, as an editorial matter, the paper generally favors stricter antitrust enforcement. The newspaper that less than two years ago was editorializing that Congress “should also study whether there are ways to strengthen the antitrust laws,” now is backing the move for what its own columnist describes as “an anticompetitive safe haven,” “a limited antitrust exemption.” One of Robert Bork’s scholarly insights was that if there’s any logic to enforcing antitrust laws or enacting them in the first place, it is with a eye toward protecting consumers. The publishers contend that news is a kind of special case because consumers are harmed by a decline in news quality. Or, as the Times quoted Mr. Chavern, “If you want a free news model, you will get news...But it will be garbage news.” I’m a paying, seven-day-a-week print newspaper subscriber who earns a living as a journalist primarily on the basis of people’s willingness to pay for news. So I sympathize on some level with what Mr. Chavern is saying. But even I can see that his argument is, to use his own term, “garbage.” Some excellent news — the CBS Evening News in its Walter Cronkite heyday, “60 Minutes,” — is and was “free” to consumers, who paid with their willingness to be subjected to commercials. In this past election, the prediction model of the expensive, paid New York Times was just as wrong as that of the free Huffington Post. Nate Silver had a better prediction over at ESPN’s free website. Even if you buy the questionable idea that more expensive news automatically equals better news, it’s a further, and even more tenuous, logical leap from that idea to the notion that Congress ought to interpose itself on one side of a set of business negotiations to make it easier for the publishers to make their news more expensive to consumers, or their ads more expensive to advertisers. If publishers want to permit competing suppliers to negotiate prices and terms on a cooperative basis, then let them support changing the law to allow it in every industry, without special treatment for journalistic enterprises. The Google-Facebook world has taken advertising and subscription revenue dollars out of publisher pockets. But it’s been a huge boon to marketers and to readers. Advertisers can now reach targets more efficiently at a fraction of what they used to pay for print ads, and readers can now get news from a variety of sites and editors and journalists, from Matt Drudge to Mike Allen to Glenn Reynolds, rather than having to rely on the judgment of their one hometown newspaper editor. Not even Congress has the power to turn back that clock to the old days. Nor would anyone with any sense want it to, other than someone lucky (or unlucky) enough to have inherited a newspaper, or foolish enough to have overpaid for one. ...

Walmart usually starts putting the 'Back to School' sale bins out after the 4th of July. Just got back from a quick trip to get a bag of Potato Chips ... saw they had some sale bins already out. Spotted the bin with the flash drives. The last three or four years I have posted about these SanDisk flash drives being on sale at Walmart in the summer. Four years ago they were 8 GB drives for $4.97 ... then the last two years they were 16 GB drives for $4.97 ... now this year, a real bargain ... 32 GB SanDisk drives still for the same price of $4.97. They may go fast this year ... I bought 14 and may get some more. Just like last year, the drives come in different colors ... blue, green and pink. I had just used up my last 16 GB flash drive this morning ... so I needed a new supply. So excited about the flash drive sale that I forgot to get my bag of Potato Chips !!! ... just to add: these drives are the Cruser Blade model. Amazon - SanDisk Cruzer Blade 32GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Frustration-Free-Packaging-SDCZ50-032G-AFFP/dp/B007KFAG8Y/ref=sr_1_11?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1499636140&sr=1-11&keywords=sandisk+flash+drives&refinements=p_89%3ASanDisk%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A1259716011 monroe

I guess you are talking about one of these USB type adapters ... years back someone gave me an older USB adapter ... it didn't look like these pictured at all ... just looked like an USB Flash Drive ... no antenna. I really didn't care much for it and gave it to someone else. My computer back then only had one USB slot and I used that for my mouse. https://www.amazon.com/usb-wi-fi/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ausb wi fi My 'newer' ThinkPads have two USB slots but I have PCMCIA slots which I use for a Netgear wi-fi card. I know there are Amazon websites scattered around Europe. ...

I just have a folder named Unzipped and that works for me ... it has many items inside.

That was close ... it wasn't a huge meteor but there are probably many larger ones out there ... from the article: "A METEOR with the explosive power of TEN cruise missiles has struck the Moon – sparking a massive explosion visible with the naked eye. And terrifyingly the 56,000 mph collision – captured by NASA scientists highlighting the catastrophic danger planet earth faces from similar meteors – was caused by a space rock weighing no more than 88 lbs (40 kilos)." END OF WORLD WARNING: Watch biggest explosion EVER on Moon as NASA warns we could be next http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/825642/Moon-meteor-biggest-explosion-NASA-video-impact A METEOR with the explosive power of TEN cruise missiles has struck the Moon – sparking a massive explosion visible with the naked eye. By Paul Baldwin Fri, Jul 7, 2017 And terrifyingly the 56,000 mph collision – captured by NASA scientists highlighting the catastrophic danger planet earth faces from similar meteors – was caused by a space rock weighing no more than 88 lbs (40 kilos). Despite the meteor’s tiny proportions – about the size of a small boulder and the weight of an average 10-year-old boy – the impact damage was colossal and the explosion shone with the brightness of a magnitude 4 star. A similar strike against a city on earth would create a crater 65feet (20m) deep and create a devastating kill zone equivalent to TEN Tomahawk cruise missile striking in exactly the same place. Experts fear the death toll would run into thousands. Unlike the Moon the Earth has a protective atmosphere meaning most space debris burns up before it can impact. But bigger meteors sometimes get through – most recently at Chelyabinsk in Russia where a 20 metre asteroid travelling at 43,000 mph breached the atmosphere and exploded with the power of 33 Hiroshimas. Fortunately because of the speed and angle of entry the rock exploded while still in the air but 7,200 buildings were damaged and 1,500 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment. A spokesman for respected science website Science.com said: “For the past eight years NASA has been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteors. “They’ve just seen the biggest explosion in the history of the programme." “It exploded in a flash 10 times as bright as anything we’ve seen before. Anyone looking at the Moon at the moment of impact could have seen the explosion – no telescope required.” The Chelyabinsk meteor is the largest known natural object to have entered Earth's atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska meteor, which destroyed a wide, remote, forested, and very sparsely populated area of Siberia. NASA is so concerned about the possibility of an asteroid strike ending all life on earth it has started the first design phase of a spacecraft known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) which will be used to redirect an asteroid’s path. NASA is working in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the craft and hope to have the first space tests underway by 2022 where it will attempt to move a “non-threatening” asteroid. Experts fear a similar impact on earth could cause tens of thousands of deaths Lindley Johnson, planetary defence officer at Nasa Headquarters in Washington, said: “DART would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate what’s known as the kinetic impactor technique – striking the asteroid to shift its orbit – to defend against a potential future asteroid impact. “This approval step advances the project toward an historic test with a non-threatening small asteroid.” ...

sdfox7 ... you may be correct on that free download. I can find nothing on Google, only what you mentioned ... XP Mode. I didn't think that was the program. I had a free virtual machine or window program but it must have been from someone else at the time. The program was for WinXP or Win98SE and I tried it out, seem to work. I mentioned the Time Machine program before since that's how I can test different programs now and recover very fast if everything gets messed up. The VirtualBox v5.1.22 program might also work for me. ...

I'm also interested in this topic. I downloaded VirtualBox v5.1.22 earlier today and will work with it later. My computers also have WinXP installed but with a virtual XP ... I could then 'experiment' with software or whatever and not 'mess' up my existing XP setup ... am I correct? I now have XP backups that I can install in less than two minutes or just one minute to have my original XP setup up and running again. I might like to put Windows 98SE back on my computer into one of these virtual setups. Many years ago I remember downloading and saving a virtual window program from MS ... they made it 'free' to everyone. I have it somewhere on an old CD backup. Does anyone remember MS doing this and what the program was called? My problem will be going through many CDs (or DVDs) till I find the right one. Like I said earlier, I just downloaded VirtualBox so it may be a better program anyway. Some time ago I bought a backup program called AX64 Time Machine ... seems to be a good product once I now understand how it works, actually pretty easy to figure out. I back up to flash drives ... however, I'm not sure the company is still around. The web site seems to be hacked and some complain no one anwsers questions on e-mail. I think product was free to try, as I remember ... maybe not. I place these links here since I use and like the product. Still things may have changed with the product or developer. I don't have it running all the time ... just start it when doing a newer backup every so often ... does work with XP. AX64 Time Machine - Snapshot Imaging Backup | Time Machine Backup http://ax64.com/ Time Machine is a program developed by Bluebird IT PTY LTD. The most used version is 2.0.0.637, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. During setup, the program registers itself to launch on boot through a Windows Schedule Task in order to automatically start-up. The main program executable is tmapp.exe. The software installer includes 9 files and is usually about 37.19 MB (39,000,991 bytes). In comparison to the total number of users, most PCs are running the OS Windows 8 as well as Windows 7 (SP1). While about 56% of users of Time Machine come from the United States, it is also popular in Russia and United Kingdom. Time Machine (formerly AX64 Time Machine) 2.0.0.637 Beta http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/AX64-Time-Machine.shtml This might be of some use to WinXP users. ...

I guess these are not 'giants' like in today's world ... maybe 7 to 8 feet tall, but for that time period in China they are considered to be a giant. From the article: ... there are also pictures. "Many of the men discovered in the graveyard measured 1.8 metres (5ft 11in) tall and would have seemed like giants to the average person 5,000 years ago. One of the men in the ancient burial ground measured 1.9 metres (6ft 3in), making him a 'giant' of his day." Incredible graveyard of 5000-year-old 'giants' found in China http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/05/incredible-graveyard-5000-year-old-giants-found-china/ Mark Molloy 5 July 2017 A graveyard of 'giants' buried 5,000 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists in eastern China. The men, whose bones were discovered in Jiaojia village near Jinan City in Shandong province, would have towered above many of their contemporaries. Many of the men discovered in the graveyard measured 1.8 metres (5ft 11in) tall and would have seemed like giants to the average person 5,000 years ago. One of the men in the ancient burial ground measured 1.9 metres (6ft 3in), making him a 'giant' of his day. “This is just based on the bone structure. If he was a living person his height would certainly exceed 1.9 metres,” Fang Hui, head of Shandong University's school of history and culture, told China Daily. Archaeologists say their large tombs suggest they were likely considered powerful, high status individuals who had access to better food than the average person. But what made them so tall? “Already agricultural at that time, people had diverse and rich food resources and thus their physique changed,” Fang Hui explained. Today, men aged 18 living in the region have an average height of 1.753 metres (5ft 9ins), which is higher than the national average of 1.72 metres (5ft 8ins). Archaeologists have discovered a number of artefacts at the site from the Longshan Culture, renowned for its eggshell black pottery, from the Neolithic period. They began excavating the ruins of 104 houses, 205 graves and 20 sacrificial pits in the village last year, China Daily reports. ...

I asked about this maybe two years ago ... any way to clean out the growing Notifications area. There was nothing two years ago, has this changed in any way? ... maybe there has been a fix of some sort ... do they 'drop off' after a certain period of time, maybe a year. I don't seem to have as many as I thought. Just checked and they go back into 2016. I thought I also had some from 2015.

I never looked in that area for the Profile size. This is neither 'here or there' ... mine says 900 MB. Does that sound like the norm for most setups ... give or take + or - ?

Probably as you were replying with your last post, I had come upon Contig v1.8 and that it might be a solution ... but you are correct, it would make sense as you say: 'You want to "compact" the $MFT or "shrink" its size.' I remember that program from some time back now that you made mention of it today. I probably have it saved somewhere on an old CD. UltraDefrag ... I will get the latest version now. This is interesting from 2011: Defraggler may NOT be good at defragging the MFT ... may make things worse. Defragging the MFT Feb 04 2011 09:49 AM https://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=31443 I was recently most intrigued to see that Mark Russinovich has updated his "contig.exe" command line defragging tool to be able to defrag a number of metadata files, including the MFT. Anyway, I downloaded it and tried it out, it did indeed defrag the MFT of one of my drives. I must admit, I always thought that this was infeasible [except possibly at boot time]. Anyway, I also recently tried out another well-known freeware defragger on a drive and noticed that it fragmented the MFT (as shown using Defraggler). So, then I tried to fix that using contig, and it worked. And then I refragmented it again using the other defragger, and upon a whim tried Defraggler on that drive to see if it could also defrag the MFT...and it did ! Incidentally, I've tried Auslogics' DiskDefrag on the same drive when the MFT is fragmented, and it's not managed to fix it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- So I don't know ... Windows XP defrag seems to be able to defrag the MFT and then there are Contig v1.8 and UltraDefrag. ...

Well I'm not sure what "Russian Hot Ladies" you are referring to ... I'm not seeing any of that. Wouldn't be the first time I've missed out on "the hot ladies" ... but if they are there somewhere, so be it. I must be filtering the image out in some way with my browser. I was really searching for the latest version of Defraggler v2.21.993 (Portable) which I found at MajorGeeks just before I came across this article. Defraggler 2.21.993 ... portable version is the second link down under: Download Locations http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/defraggler.html I was searching for information on Defragging the MFT (Master File Tree). I found this information on the subject ... don't ask me where I found it ... didn't save the link ... it may be from two separate sites. Defragging the MFT (Master File Tree) In Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003, the Windows defrag utility defrags the MFT. A defrag operation on the MFT combines an MFT file into 1 and prevents it from being stored in multiple places that are not sequential on disk. In this class of operation, the MFT file is more sequential. However, it is exactly the size that the MFT file was before the defrag operation. An MFT can be too big if a volume used to have lots of files that were deleted. The files that were deleted cause internal holes in the MFT. These holes are significant regions that are unused by files. It is impossible to reclaim this space. This is at least true on a live NTFS volume. I also incline towards the possibility of a fragmented MFT to explain this. The feature listing for Auslogics defrag says it moves files out of the MFT reserved area, to help prevent the MFT from fragmenting further if it needs to be enlarged. That could mean that when the MFT is in more than one piece, Auslogics clears files out of the space between MFT fragments even if they aren't specifically in the reserved area. Checking the exact state of the MFT as suggested above will show if this is so. Note that under the Windows API, the MFT is considered defragmented if it is in no more than two fragments, since under the API the starting position of the MFT cannot be moved. So if the effect appears to be caused by the MFT being in two fragments, you'd need to use a third-party defrag utility that can fully defrag the MFT (and hence does not use the Windows API). Other work-arounds could be to just use another defrag utility, or set Auslogics to defrag files only, not the entire drive layout. This is a workable option in any case, especially for a storage drive where the files being contiguous is more significant than their actual location on the drive. File-only defrag is even quicker too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This information from above: "An MFT can be too big if a volume used to have lots of files that were deleted. The files that were deleted cause internal holes in the MFT. These holes are significant regions that are unused by files. It is impossible to reclaim this space. This is at least true on a live NTFS volume." I'm wondering if I have gaps or space that can not be reclaimed on my hard drive. Do I read this right ... this space is gone forever or will a good defrag program correct this situation? The first line says: In Windows XP and in Windows Server 2003, the Windows defrag utility defrags the MFT ... but I read some good things about Defraggler in another article dealing with the MFT so I went hunting for the portable version. I have an older Auslogics defrag version installed, maybe it can defrag the MFT, I'm not sure. Any help or further explanation of this MFT thing would be appreciated. I have deleted many files and programs over the years ... so do I maybe have big gaps of empty unclaimed space on my hard drive? Thanks for the other links for reading. adding ... just found this program that might be a solution. Contig v1.8 https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx I think I need to defrag before Windows starts up completely. ...

I was looking around for some defragging information and I found this article that was just updated yesterday - 27 June 2017. Maybe it might be of some interest to a few people. https://www.lifewire.com/free-defrag-software-tools-2619172 15 Free Defrag Software Tools Reviews of the Best Free Disk Defragmenter Programs for Windows by Tim Fisher Updated June 27, 2017 Defrag software programs are tools that arrange the bits of data that make up the files on your computer so they're stored closer together. This allows your hard drive to access files more quickly. Defragmenation, in other words, can help improve your computer's performance by making the reading of files more efficient, thanks to the fact that all the tiny pieces that make up a single file are right next to each other. Still confused? See my What is Fragmentation & Defragmentation? for more help understanding what fragmentation is and why defrag software is helpful. Tip: All versions of Windows include a built-in defrag program, which I've ranked in this list. However, in most cases, a dedicated program, like any of the other free defrag software programs I list here, will do a better job. Note: I've only included freeware defrag software in this list. In other words, only completely free defragmentation programs - no shareware, trialware, etc. If one of these free defrag programs has started charging, please let me know. https://www.lifewire.com/free-defrag-software-tools-2619172 ...

Why don't you take a few minutes and join over at the forum link that I posted earlier. Ask your question (s) over there. Someone may have what you are looking for. My ThinkPads are the T4x series. I had a fan go bad and got some help and questions answered. I bought the wrong size fan from an eBay seller and got it all figured out with forum help. Upgraded CPUs and got help with buying the right thermal paste. Great bunch ... I need to spend more time there ... there are some nice utilities there for heat control made by forum members. There is a program utility called TPFC .62 ... TPFanControl by troubadix. There is also another fan utility that is worth checking out. I didn't even know about these programs till my fan stopped working. ...

So much for 'Doomsday' ... what about today ? ... right now ! From the article: "One of the planes is typically kept running at all times, with the engine running 24 hours a day at the Offutt base when the president is in the US. In the event of an emergency, the plane is ready to take off almost immediately." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4634414/Pentagons-nuke-proof-Doomsday-planes-damaged-tornado.html Tornado knocks out half the Pentagon's fleet of nuke-proof 'Doomsday' planes Two E4-B Boeing 747s damaged by a tornado at Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base Pentagon maintains a fleet of four of the 'Doomsday' flying command posts They transport the secretary of defense abroad and serve as flying fortresses Designed to remain in air for days at a time and withstand EM and thermal blasts By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com and Afp Updated 24 June 2017 Two of the Pentagon's four specially reinforced 'Doomsday' planes, designed to withstand the heat from a nuclear blast, have been grounded after being damaged by a tornado. The Air Force said Friday that two E4-B Boeing 747s were damaged when a tornado whipped through Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base with little advance warning on June 16. Built in the 1970s during the Cold War, the planes are essentially flying command centers that can refuel in the sky and are designed to remain airborne for days on end in times of crisis. The two damaged 'Doomsday' planes were reportedly parked in hangars during the storm, but their tails were exposed to strong winds. The Air Force has four E4-Bs, which also shuttle the secretary of defense around the world. 'Two E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft stationed at Offutt AFB received storm damage,' Air Force spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder said. Not including the damage to aircraft, the tornado caused an estimated $7million to $10million in damage to the base facilities, 55th Wing spokesman Drew Nystrom told the Omaha World Herald. Additionally, seven RC-135 reconnaissance planes suffered minor damage in the tornado and another needed an inspection. The E-4B is a 747 that has been reinforced to protect against the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear blast and is shielded from a thermal blast. The planes, also called 'National Airborne Operation Centers' when they are in-flight, have special equipment and have the capability to communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world and support analysts and strategists on the flight. ...

Yes, it is as you said ... I already had two of those five updates installed and those updates were not installed again ... but I did need three out of the five. So all is well. ...

You might also try and may actually have better luck at the ThinkPads Forum Support Community and then under the "ThinkPad T6x Series T60/T61" https://forum.thinkpads.com/index.php?sid=9831764d83f02bca0c9dd4b4b04a598f There are several people there that sell parts for various ThinkPads and may have what you want. Lots of 'ThinkPad' knowledge and help over there. Just a few topics among many. ThinkPad T6x Series T60/T61 series specific matters only ThinkPad T4x Series T4x series specific matters only Several members also have parts and older ThinkPads for sale ... good place to be if you own a ThinkPad. ...

OK ... everything is clear now. I have downloaded these five Office updates that you posted earlier. 01 KB2596904 02 KB2825645 03 KB2984938 04 KB3085549 05 KB3191830 Will install them offline ... never expected to be able to get my Office setup updated after no updates since early 2015. It's better than what I had going. Thanks Bersaglio for the assistance and download links. Thanks also to Dave-H and heinoganda. ...

I should have mentioned that I already installed the NON POS updates released in May and June by MS and posted here by Bersaglio. I installed those a few days ago ... a total of 12 updates. Windows XP SP3 Updates (06-2017) 01 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4012598) 05/13/2017 02 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4012583) 06/10/2017 03 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4022747) 06/10/2017 04 Cumulative Security Update for IE8 for Windows XP SP3 (KB4018271) 06/10/2017 05 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4018466) 06/10/2017 06 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB3197835) 06/10/2017 07 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4024323) 06/10/2017 08 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4024402) 06/10/2017 09 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4025218) 06/12/2017 10 Security Update for Windows XP SP3 (KB4019204) 06/10/2017 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the following updates do not exist, install them. 11 Security Update for Windows XP (KB2705219) 10/08/2012 12 Security Update for Windows XP (KB2347290) 09/13/2010 ... and then yesterday I installed: Office 2007 Compatibility Pack June 2017 01 KB3127894 02 KB3191828 03 KB3203436 04 KB3203438 I read the post by Dave-H (one hour ago) and he mentions that I may have all the updates I need. So all these May (1 update) and June updates are installed on my XP system. Bersaglio and heinoganda ... I will have more time to check out what you posted and experiment later today or tonight. With what Dave-H posted and with all the June non POS updates installed ... maybe for the little I use MS Office 2000 these days ... the four Office 2007 June updates that I installed may be OK for my setup. I will still try to see if I can get the Windows update working again. If not, then it's no big deal ... everything in my XP setup is working just fine and I have backups to recover from a failure. thanks ...

Have a question about MS Office 2000 and the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility pack. I decided not to get POS updates on my WinXP machine but I still would do the monthly update check. I was still getting updates for my Office 2000 setup ... until early 2015 when I could no longer get these updates. The update check no longer worked, it would run forever and the computer got hot so I decided to just quit checking for future Office 2007 Compatibility pack updates. With the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack updates that Bersaglio supplied for June ... I downloaded those and they installed just fine. My question is ... I am probably missing many Office 2007 Compatibility pack updates since March 2015. These June updates are not 'cumulative' I suppose ... so there must still be over two years of updates that I am missing on my Office 2000 setup? Am I correct on this? Now I don't think it's that important since I don't use Office 2000 that much these days ... only if I run into a Word document somewhere. Also, if I do use Office 2000, I am always (usually) 'offline' ... no internet connection. So the fact that I have missed so many security Office 2007 Compatibility pack updates is probably not a big deal in my case ... am I correct in my thinking or am I missing something? thanks ...

Something to look forward to if you live in the path. It will start in Oregon and end in South Carolina. http://news.trust.org/item/20170621100154-zx7n3 Two-month countdown begins to total solar eclipse across U.S. Irene Klotz - Reuters Wednesday, 21 June 2017 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 21 (Reuters) - Two months before the first total solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in a century, NASA on Wednesday is expected to detail its plans to study and promote a celestial show that will darken skies from Oregon to South Carolina. During the Aug. 21 eclipse, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, blocking the face of the sun and leaving only its outer atmosphere, or corona, visible in the sky. It is the first coast-to-coast total eclipse since 1918. Weather permitting, astronomy enthusiasts can watch as the moon's 70-mile (113-km) wide shadow crosses the country, starting at 10:15 a.m. PDT (1715 GMT) around Lincoln Beach, Oregon, and ending at 2:49 p.m. EDT (1849 GMT) in McClellanville, South Carolina. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration will discuss several solar physics and Earth science experiments to be conducted during the eclipse in a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. The agency also plans live broadcasts during the eclipse from dozens of locations along the path. Total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth every year or so, but most cast their shadow over oceans or remote land. The last time a part of the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979. All of North America will experience a partial eclipse, though the difference between a full and partial eclipse is "literally the difference between night and day," said astronomer Rick Fienberg of the American Astronomical Society. He noted that even a 99 percent eclipse will not reveal the sun's corona. And during a total eclipse, the temperature drops and the horizon is ringed by the colors of sunset. "The sky gets deep twilight blue and bright stars and planets come out," Fienberg said. "Animals and birds behave strangely, like it's the end of the day." More than 12 million Americans live in the path of the full eclipse, said astronomer Angela Speck, who heads the society's eclipse public outreach campaign. The entire U.S. population, except for northern Maine, lives within 900 miles of the full eclipse's path. Travel groups and many scientists will be heading to Oregon's northwest desert, which has the best odds of favorable weather for viewing, according to the website eclipsophile.com. Experts caution that the only safe time to look at the sun without special eclipse glasses is during totality when the surface of the sun is completely blocked by the moon. (Editing by Letitia Stein and Phil Berlowitz) ...

I guess this can be said for the clock and especially the battery or batteries. Not sure if it has one or two or a rechargeable type battery ... still an amazing story. The battery or batteries haven't corroded or starting leaking yet. I would think it would kind of be 'like an old friendly sound' now ... probably would miss it if it does finally stop one day. Pennsylvania Alarm Clock Stuck in Wall for 13 Years Goes Off Every Day http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/20/pennsylvania-alarm-clock-stuck-in-wall-for-13-years-goes-off-every-day.html June 20, 2017 - Fox News A Pennsylvania homeowner is reminded of the alarm clock that's stuck in the wall of his home when it goes off -- every day for the last 13 years. Jerry Lynn told KDKA that he dropped the alarm clock in September 2004 while trying to drill a hole in the living room wall of his home in Ross. Lynn said he was using the alarm clock to pinpoint the spot where he could run a wire to connect his television. "As I was laying it down, all of a sudden I heard it go ‘thunk!’ as it came loose," Lynn told the news station. "I thought, well, that’s not a real problem. You know it’s still going to go off. And it did." Lynn and his wife Sylvia thought the clock's battery would run out in three or four months, but 13 years later, they're still hearing the beeps. "It is still going off every day. And during Daylight Saving Time it goes off at ten minutes ’til eight. And during standard time it goes off at ten minutes to seven at night," Lynn said. The couple said the alarm starts off as soft "beep, beep, beeps" and increasingly gets louder and closer together. "That will set people like, 'What is that?'" Sylvia Lynn said. The couple said for them, the alarm has become a routine sound they hear every night. ...

I suppose the only sure way to stop everything is for a person to have their phone turned off. It's not a good fix when seconds may be important for an emergency ... and if you have a password also to type in, more seconds involved. ...

This is a whopper ... 25 Terabytes of Data Exposed. From the article: "The databases were part of 25 terabytes of files contained in an Amazon cloud account that could be browsed without logging in. The account was discovered by researcher Chris Vickery of the security firm UpGuard. The files have since been secured. Vickery is a prominent researcher in uncovering improperly secured files online. But, he said, this exposure is of a magnitude he has never seen before "In terms of the disc space used, this is the biggest exposure I've found. In terms of the scope and depth, this is the biggest one I've found," said Vickery." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/338383-data-on-198-million-us-voters-left-exposed-to-the-internet-by-rnc-data Data on 198M voters exposed by RNC contractor By Joe Uchill - 06/19/17 A data analytics contractor employed by the Republican National Committee (RNC) left databases containing information on nearly 200 million potential voters exposed to the internet without security, allowing anyone who knew where to look to download it without a password. "We take full responsibility for this situation," said the contractor, Deep Root Analytics, in a statement. The databases were part of 25 terabytes of files contained in an Amazon cloud account that could be browsed without logging in. The account was discovered by researcher Chris Vickery of the security firm UpGuard. The files have since been secured. Vickery is a prominent researcher in uncovering improperly secured files online. But, he said, this exposure is of a magnitude he has never seen before "In terms of the disc space used, this is the biggest exposure I've found. In terms of the scope and depth, this is the biggest one I've found," said Vickery. The accessible files, according to UpGuard, contain a main 198 million-entry database with names, addresses of voters and an "RNC ID" that can be used with other exposed files to research individuals. For example, a 50-gigabyte file of "Post Elect 2016" information, last updated in mid-January, contained modeled data about a voter's likely positions on 46 different issues ranging from "how likely it is the individual voted for Obama in 2012, whether they agree with the Trump foreign policy of 'America First' and how likely they are to be concerned with auto manufacturing as an issue, among others." That file appears in a folder titled "target_point," an apparent reference to another firm contracted by the RNC to crunch data. UpGuard speculates that the folder may imply that the firm TargetPoint compiled and shared the data with Deep Root. Another folder appears to reference Data Trust, another contracted firm. UpGuard analyst Dan O'Sullivan looked himself up in the database and writes in the official report that the calculated preferences were, at least for him, right on the money. "It is a testament both to their talents, and to the real danger of this exposure, that the results were astoundingly accurate," he said. The Deep Root Analytics cloud server had 25 terabytes of data exposed, including 1.1 terabytes available for download. Over the 2016 election season, the RNC was a major client of Deep Root, one of a handful firms it contacted for big data analysis. Firms like Deep Root Analytics use data from a variety of sources to extrapolate social and political preferences of voters to determine how best to market to them. According to Ad Age, the RNC spent $983,000 between January 2015 and November 2016 for Deep Root's services and $4.2 million for TargetPoint's. "Deep Root Analytics builds voter models to help enhance advertiser understanding of TV viewership. The data accessed was not built for or used by any specific client. It is our proprietary analysis to help inform local television ad buying," said Deep Root Analytics in their statement. Misconfigured cloud servers and online databases are a common way for data to be accidentally left exposed to the public. Vickery has found everything from military engineering plans to databases of believed terrorists in exactly this way. What is uncommon in this case is the size and scope of this exposure. If its records are accurate, the Deep Root Analytics exposure contains information on more than half of the American population. It dwarfs the second-largest exposure of voter information — 93.4 million records of Mexican citizens — by more than 100 million voters and tops the largest data breach of voter information — 55 million records of Philippine voters — by more than 140 million. Anyone who knew the files' web address could have accessed them. But without that knowledge, they are much harder to find. Even armed with a search for unsecured databases, finding exposures of any magnitude is tough work. Vickery sifts through a large number of unsecured databases to find ones that interesting enough to publish research. Deep Root has contracted the security firm Stroz Friedberg to perform a thorough investigation of the exposure. The exposure, between June 1 and June 14, was sealed shut shortly after Vickery made the discovery during the night of June 12 and notified relevant regulatory bodies.

I forgot about the old Wellness Card ... probably still have it in a box somewhere. Well, that's my problem with the Plenti Card ... I only got it to get savings at checkout. I never went online to complete the whole process with Plenti ... so the card was only good at Rite Aid and not at any other stores in the system. So last year a nice clerk at Rite Aid asked if I would like to 'complete' my signup with Plenti ... she said she could do it right there at the register. I decided to let her finish the setup instead of me fooling around online but I did not get a password to log into my Plenti account for later on. I didn't think I really needed one, I was only going to use the card at Rite Aid ... I get a monthly statement (e-mail) from Plenti but yesterday morning I wanted to check something and I had to log in but I had no password. So at most sites you can request a temporary password to be sent to log in and then set your own password. This is where all the trouble started. I put my email in the space and hit next and then this stupid CAPTCHA popped up with street signs and cars and or store fronts. I just went around and around and never could get the CAPTCHA correct to get a temporary password sent and I left pi$$ed off and frustrated. It wasn't so much Rite Aid and Plenti but more about this CAPTCHA junk. I was curious to see if others are also frustrated with this new type of CAPTCHA. It's been around for awhile but more web sites seem to 'adopting' this particular one. I just can't seem to find all the cars, street signs or whatever. For instance when street signs are involved ... do you also check the street sign poles in the other squares? It's not a 'street sign' square picture but it's part of the street sign. I've tried the check marks both ways and most of the time it's a no go. ...