Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Plagiarists and hackers, Microsoft and Christian Light Publications, children and bill collectors — they’re all having their own say in my day in their own way.
But it’s up to me to weigh my priorities and then arrange them by order of weight.
Among the top things still undone (by me) today… Read it all
A week from tomorrow Microsoft ends support for Windows XP. You know that. Some of the warnings I’ve read remind me of the good old pre-Y2K hysteria.
I own two XP machines: a 9-year-old Dell Dimension 3000 tower (are they expensive collector’s items yet?) and an almost-8-year-old IBM ThinkPad R51e. I doubt either has the muscle or the brains to run Windows 7 or Window 8.1 well (if at all).
What do I plan to do about their soon-to-be-dangerous-on-the-Internet OS?
Well, I had thought to switch to Linux since I can’t afford to replace either machine with — Wow! I just looked out the window and you ought to see the sunrise-struck clouds against the light-blue sky, all pink and salmon and some-shade-of-orange! — eh, where was I? 🙄
Anyway, so I’d thought to switch to Linux — mint or puppy or loveunto, I didn’t know which. Read it all
If your computer Windows are broken and the shards are giving you lots of pains, Microsoft has just made Windows 8.1 available for download.
And here’s one paragraph from their blog, Blogging Windows:
Start the way you want. The Start screen in Windows 8.1 is more customizable than ever with new tile sizes, new background designs and colors – allowing you to make the Start screen on your device unique and personal to you (you should see some of the color combinations I’ve come up with for my Start screen!). You can also choose how you start your Windows experience – at the Start screen or the desktop. The Start button is back. And there is an improved Apps view that allows you to see all your apps the way you want.
Better yet, you can purchase the updated windows over at Amazon.
If you use Windows 8, please tell us three things you like about it. And one you don’t.
For two years (if not more), I’ve been unable to get my two Windows XP machines to “talk” to each other on my simple little network using a crossover cable.
My client machine could access files off the host machine, but not the other way around.
This evening I finally found the answer quite by accident, so to speak.
I was nosing around in Control Panel –> Administrative Tools –> Computer Management.
I got to Services and Applications –> Services –> Server and upon right-clicking it and selecting Properties, I ended up solving the problem.
It was paused on my client machine, thus making it impossible for the host machine to access it. I clicked Resume and it did the trick!
Praise the Lord!
Anyway, click the above image for a larger image with more helpful details.
So there you are: I connect two computers together (I know that’s redundant, OK?) using an ethernet crossover cable. I don’t need a router. I don’t need the Internet. Just a crossover cable.
That may resolve your home networking problems, like it did mine!
If you’re a Mac user exclusively, this won’t do much for you. 
If you are a Windows user who tends to switch back and forth among multiple programs, you can save yourself time by creating a keyboard shortcut. While the little icons on your desktop are shortcuts that point to a program or other file on your hard disk, you can easily create a keyboard shortcut to a shortcut.
When you create a key combination for a shortcut, it will open the program, or switch to the program if it’s already running. Be sure to avoid creating keyboard shortcuts that conflict with built-in shortcuts or those you use a lot in programs. For example, you’ll want to avoid Ctrl+S save, Ctrl+P print, Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+X cut and Ctrl+V paste. Here are a few easy steps to create a shortcut to a shortcut:
- Right-click the shortcut on your desktop.
- Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
- Click in the Shortcut key box it says None if you have no shortcut key assigned
- Press the key combination you want to use to access your shortcut. You can use letters or numbers in conjunction with the Ctrl, Alt, or Shift keys. Or you can use the function keys at the top of your keyboard. Click OK.
Oh. You’re a Windows user and that doesn’t much for you either? Oh well. 😆
Source: Printer@Work
1871 — Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika (somewhere in Africa), saying “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
1951 — Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the USA.
1969 — “Sesame Street” debuts on US television.
1970 — The Great Wall of China opens for tourism.
1975 — The United Nations General Assembly approves Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism. The resolution was repealed with Resolution 4686 — 66 years later in December 1991!
1983 — Microsoft unleashes Windows upon the world.
1997 — WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger (the biggest at that point in history).
1998 — The Pentagon steps up the movement of warships to the Persian Gulf as the Clinton administration sweeps aside the idea of negotiations with Iraq over UN weapons inspections rejected by the Iraqis.
2003 — Federal regulators allow customers to switch home phone numbers to their cell phones.
2007 — Skipping (or perhaps fed up with) the diplomatic niceties, Spanish King Juan Carlos famously asks Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, ¿Por qué no te callas? 😯
2008 — President-Elect Obama takes his wife to visit their new residence (but they have to wait a few more weeks to take possession).