Good riddance

Saddam
assumes
room
temperature
and the
world is a
better
place.

This looks like fun!

Merry Christmas

This is the first Christmas since 1992 that we have been able to be with our family here in Florida. We are enjoying that. We also have Johanna with us (Jo is from Ecuador and lived with us in Maine for a year). She brought Paul with her, who is also visiting from Ecuador. We are looking forward to a wonderful time with family and friends, and hope you do the same.

No computer tip today, but I do have a video to share with you. Six year old Heather Martin sings about her big brother Shaun, who is overseas fighting for our country in Iraq. The lyrics to her song are below. Thanks to my son David for telling me about this video.


You were almost sixteen when I came into the world.
Mom and Dad had you first then 3 more boys I'm the baby girl.
I sure have a lot to look up to in you,
you're really smart and funny with a big heart too.
After one year of college you knew what you had to do.
It's just like you wanting to help with the war.
So you joined the army when I was only 4.
This time of year we talk of big plans
but you're over seas in some distant land.
You can't be here for Christmas, I don't understand.

Chorus:
When are you coming home, Shaun?
When are you coming home?!
We lit up the house like we always do
but it doesn't seem bright 'cause we can't have you.
In my prayers I ask God to keep you safe.
And I'm trying to be really brave.
Tell me that the fighting's through.
Come home!
I really miss you.

It's hard to enjoy the holidays without you.
But we're so proud of you and all the red white and blue.
Remember that Jesus is your best friend,
And someday our families will be together again.
Wow! You know we'll have a great big party then.

Chorus

I want to show you how tall I've grown
and introduce you to my new friends at school.
Maybe we could go and get some ice cream together
but I really don't care what we do.

You can also see a news story about Heather and her song here.

Microsoft saves the day once again

Are you stuck at work just before the holidays? Do you have a lot of small gifts to wrap?

Do you have MSWORD on your computer? Got a printer?

That's all you need to make cool graphic wrapping paper!!!

Read the full article here

Visiting some kids in need at Christmas

On Sunday afternoon December 17, I was part of a great event. My wife and two kids (they're both in college but they're still kids to me :), along with a group of people from our church, helped out at a Christmas party. We've all been to Christmas parties before, but this one was a little different.

This Christmas gathering was held at a juvenile detention center in Pasco county, about 30 minutes north of where we live. This facility houses both boys and girls (separately) that range in age from 8 to 18. Can you imagine - how messed up must your family be, to be in jail at age eight? A lot of these kids don't even have what we would think of as a "family" - most of them don't get visitors at all. So Christmas time is an especially difficult time for them.

Our group stuffed over a hundred huge Christmas stockings with all kinds of goodies and brought them out to the kids. We had a big Christmas dinner, sang Christmas carols and gave the kids their gifts. They all got their own stuffed stocking, and they also got a couple of new televisions and DVD players, along with some DVDs.

What impressed me was how well-behaved the group was. You wouldn't have known that they were being detained here because of breaking the law. They were very grateful, and said so many times. It was a wonderful experience, and it made me thankful that my children have never gotten into trouble or had the problems that some of these kids have experienced.

I encourage you to take a little time and volunteer for something like this. It really puts the Christmas season back into perspective.

Make a website shortcut on the desktop

I know some people who don't use the "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" feature of their web browser. For example, if they want to go to this blog page, they would actually click in the address bar at the top of the window, and type out "http://scottjohnsonflorida.blogspot.com". What a waste of time!

A faster way is to store often-visited websites in your Favorites (if you use Internet Explorer), or Bookmarks (if you use Firefox). When you are at the website you want to remember, do a right-click in an open area. In the menu that pops up, choose "Add to Favorites" or "Bookmark this page". Then, whenever you want to get back to that page, just click on it in your list.

However, if you commonly want to visit one particular website, and you want to get their as quickly as possible when the only thing showing on your computer is your desktop, there is a faster way.

First, go to the website you want to visit frequently. Then, drag the web browser window down so that you can see part of your desktop also. Now, find the icon in the address bar (this will be the little icon just to the left of the "http". Drag that icon to the desktop and drop it there.

Now, whenever you are looking at your desktop, you can just double click that icon. Your default web browser (either IE or Firefox) will open immediately to that website.

This weeks's video: Fake lifeguard takes a bathroom break

You need CounterSpy

I have mentioned this in my newsletter previously, a few times: spyware is a more widespread problem than viruses now. If you don't have an antispyware program on your computer, you are inviting trouble. The one I use and recommend is CounterSpy. You can download it here and use it free for two weeks. Then, it only costs $19.95 for the first year and $10 per year after that. A great investment against future headaches!

How to safely trash your computer

Hi Scott,

I love getting your newsletter. I wonder if you answer questions in the newsletter. If so, here's one from me: I'd like to send my old computer to the recycle bin but first I want to take personal information off the machine. Can I simply remove the hard drive? What does the hard drive look like? How do I destroy it?

Excellent question. With new computers being so inexpensive now, lots of older computers are being replaced. Too many of these old machines still have working parts - and they contain all of your data. This could be data that doesn't really matter, such as your Spider Solitaire high score. Or, it could be your passwords or private financial information. The safest procedure is to make sure that none of that data is available to someone who might somehow come across your old computer after you have discarded it.

How to do that? First, make sure that the data you want to save is secure on a flash drive, CD or some other form of backup (how to do that is a separate lesson). Once you are sure that you have saved the data that needs to be saved, unplug the computer and open up the case. Locate the hard drive - it is approximately the shape of a small paperback book, but smaller. It will have two cables connected to it: one cable is quite wide, with about 40 pins being plugged into it. The other cable is about an inch wide, with 4 pins. Unplug both of the cables from the drive, and remove the drive itself from the computer (it is probably held in place by 2 or 4 screws).

Once the drive is removed from the computer, take it and store it in a safe place. The reason I recommend this is that you may have forgotten some data that you really need, and someday you might want to retrieve it from this hard drive. Just stick it on a shelf in a closet somewhere - it won't take up much space. You could even take a sharpie marker and write on it "old Dell computer" or something else descriptive.

Now your computer computer can be safely discarded (or recycled) and you don't have to worry about your data falling into the wrong hands.

This week's video clip: A simple left turn - in Moscow

Junk food heaven

If you like junk food, this story is like reading about someone that won the lottery. A container about the size of a tractor-trailer washed ashore on the outer banks of North Carolina recently, and it was filled with Cool Ranch, Nacho Cheese, and spicy Nacho Doritos. Local residents were eager to "help with the cleanup" - one man was said to have filled up his truck with the snacks. Most of the bags were undamaged.

I'll bet she buys lottery tickets

I read a story recently about the bleak existence of a young woman in Dallas. Here are some of the highlights:

DALLAS – Off a bleak and empty interchange midway through the Dallas sprawl stands a Burger King. It's past midnight, the rain sizzles on the parking lot blacktop like frying bacon. A young woman is working the lobster shift at the drive-through window. She is overweight and wears pink lipstick.

"Nothing special," she says of herself. "Nothing much."

From the car window, the whole fast-food experience is a numbing routine. Pull up. Order from the billboard. Idle. Pay. Drive away. Fast food has become a $120 billion motorized American experience.

But consider the life inside that window on Loop 12 in West Dallas. There is a woman with children and no health insurance, undereducated, a foot soldier in the army of the working poor. The fry cook sneezes on the meat patties. Cigarettes go half smoked. Cameras spy on the employees. Customers throw their fries and soft drinks sometimes because they think it's funny.

"I hate this job," Castillo says with a smile. "I hate it." It is her third drive-through job. First it was Whataburger. Then McDonald's. Now here.

Castillo works from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. She earns $252 a week before taxes. There is no chance of overtime, because the boss doesn't allow it. To make ends meet, she and her husband work split shifts, he at an auto parts place during the day and she at the Burger King at night. And so the children, ages 7 and 8, are alone for a half-hour in the morning, left to wash and dress themselves.

Castillo arrives at her two-bedroom rental house on a tough street at 7. She takes the boys to a McDonald's for breakfast at 7:15 – the same place she used to work – before dropping them off at school at 7:45. A man named Carlos works the window there. They used to work there together.

Every morning, the boys' order is the same: one sausage, egg and cheese biscuit; one bacon biscuit; two hash browns; and two orange juices. Castillo could take free food home from Burger King, but the boys like McDonald's better.

"Regrets, yes, I got some," she says. She wishes she would have worked harder in school. Not gotten pregnant at 13. Again at 14. She wishes she would have thought about life instead of letting it come at her, one dead end job at a time.

Since this story was originally published in the New York Times, I presume the purpose was to cause us to feel sorry for this woman. After all life has dealt her a tough situation, right? Maybe she should be entitled to some government program so she could make some progress and improve herself.

Sorry, I don't feel sorry for her. She made her choices and now she is living with them. It is not the government's responsibility to fix her problems. My taxes should not pay for her lack of planning.

I do feel sorry for her two kids, however. They couldn't choose their mother, and they didn't ask for this life.

Who's kissing under the mistletoe?

Protect your private data

Do you have personal data stored on your computer that you want to keep private? Perhaps you have a folder that stores all of your tax returns, or a folder that holds a record of all of your passwords to the various websites you visit. Maybe you have a list of Christmas presents to be purchased, and you don't want your kids to see it. Whatever the reason, you have a folder that you don't want anyone else to access. Here is how to protect it in Windows XP.

Find the folder (but don't open it). Right-click on the folder and choose Properties. In the new window that opens, click on the "Sharing" tab. You will see a check box that says "Make this folder private". Check that box, and click "Apply".

If you don't already use a password to log on to Windows XP, you will have to create one in order to privatize this folder. Choose a password that is not easily guessed - a random mix of numbers and letters is best, and the longer the better. Of course, you want to make sure that YOU can remember it. You will also now need to log on to Windows with this password.

This week's video clip: bloopers from a fishing show

Picture frames from CD jewel cases

Here's a clever idea - take those old CD jewel cases that you aren't using, and make something worthwhile from them. Complete tutorial, with video - see it here.