Weblog for October '01
Monday, October 29, 2001
New Tools; New Wish List
Since I made the last entry in this weblog, I have made some changes in the software that I use regularly. Most significantly, I have adopted a new email program, TheBat!. I tried it for 30 days before deciding to register it, but after that trial period, I found that it has a number of things that recommend it. I have been a staunch advocate of Eudora Pro for a long time before making this shift. It always had my vote because it was apparently immune to most of the attacks that were aimed at Outlook or Outlook Express, and it had some nice features such as search capabilities that I liked.
However, TheBat! has everything Eudora Pro has and more. It handles S/MIME X.509 certificates gracefully, which Eudora Pro did not. It has excellent filtering capabilities and permits the use of templates for creating messages or replies. These templates give one the ability to structure his reply, to include a tagline from a file of your choice, and to handle routine communication without problem. I may find a program in the future that I like better, but for now this is the choice. And its price is reasonable -- $35.00 for a single user license.
The "wish list" still holds a digital camera. The good thing about keeping something like this on one's wish list for a long time and continuing to "window shop" for it is that you become familiar with the issues and considerations you should make in making the purchase. For instance, in purchasing a digital camera, the storage medium on which the images are recorded is a significant factor. Whether or not a digital camera will accept Type I and Type II Compact Flash storage and/or a Microdrive should be one of the choices one makes. I rely heavily on the Digital Photography Review site for information about the various cameras and their capabilities. At the moment I am leaning toward the Cannon PowerShot G2 as the camera to buy. Since this purchase is closer to $1,000.00 than it is to $500, it makes sense to think carefully before pulling the trigger. I'll continue to shop for a while before making a decision. Perhaps I'll find other factors that should be considered before purchasing. However, as I approach 60 years of age, I realize that I shouldn't put off till tomorrow something I really want. One never knows how much longer he has to be a consumer.
Monday, October 22, 2001
The Atlanta Braves' season ends
Last night, the Arizona Diamondbacks beat Tom Glavine and the Braves 3-2, and that brought an end to the Braves' season. Of course, I am disappointed, but given the way the Braves played in this series, they didn't deserve to win.
Throughout the season, this team struggled. They just didn't have the pop in the bats that they have in previous years. Individual players had good years, and overall, the team made it much further into the playoffs than I had any hope they would after following their play throughout the year. Some criticize the Braves for not having won more World Series during the last 10 years, and though I would have liked for them to have won them all, I have to say that I wouldn't trade the Braves' record for any other team in baseball. They have won so often that their fans have become jaded to victory even to the point that they don't show up for the final game of the league championship series.
I am eager for next year. Having Rafael Furcal at short and Marcus Giles at second from the start of the year will be exciting. If the Braves lock up Andrew Jones for the future and make a few other major additions, they could be even more fun to watch in the future than they have been in the past. Nevertheless, I'm still proud to be a Braves fan and to anticipate the coming of Spring and a new season.
Sunday, October 21, 2001
" ... with a little help from my friends."
Today Chris Beitz, my supervisor at work, came over and gave me some help in getting my network configured so I can access one computer from the other. It had baffled both of us up until we enabled a primary logon on one of the computers. Once we did that, the other computer showed up in the Network Neighborhood. I'm relieved to have that mystery resolved. Thanks, Chris.
Wednesday, October 17, 2001
The pain of new technology
While adding a Linksys router has given me access to the Internet from this computer (the Asus) so that I can once again update this web site (and for that I am grateful), that access has come at a price. Every time one adds components to his computing environment, he takes on the chore of learning how to use it. Like deciding to acquire an exotic pet, the joy of having a new member of the family sometimes fades into the realization that one has a lot of work to do.
Although the router has given me access to the Internet, I still have to figure out how to gain access to the programs on this computer from the other computer on my network. For instance, I didn't realize that in order to share a folder between the computers on a network, you have to change the sharing permissions of that folder by right clicking on the folder in Windows Explorer, choosing properties from the resulting menu and then clicking on the Sharing tab. You can then change the permissions for that folder and set a password to protect it from unwarranted access.
Despite having discovered that bit of information, I still can't "see" this computer (the Asus) on the network. So far I have not resolved why that is so. Of course, this mystery leaves me something else to learn. Before long, I'll be able to report that I've solved that problem too ... I hope.
Monday, October 15, 2001
On the edge of history
My problems with publishing to this web space have helped to perpetuate a pattern that, in retrospect, I have observed throughout my life. I was missing in action when another one of the most significant events of my time occurred. Ironically, the corruption of the file that I used to update this web site happened just one day before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The four planes that were hijacked, the deaths of thousands in the event, and the transformation of the atmosphere in the country all took place while I was incapacitated by a silly little problem, a glitch I should have been able to resolve easily.
It's not the first time I've failed to comment on some really historic event. Born exactly one month to the day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, I was, of course, too young to comment at the time or even to know anything about it. As a school child in Clarkston, I went to Billy Gaines' home to watch the atomic tests on his family's television set. At the time, a television inside a school was unthinkable. I recall sitting around watching live what I have seen many, many times as historical footage. It was sometime in the early 50's.
I had just begun attending Stone Mountain High School when the newspaper headlines shook the country's confidence in the superiority of our science and technology by announcing that the Russians had beaten us into space by successfully launching Sputnik on October 4th, 1957. Though this event ushered in the Space Age, thus bringing my infatuation with programs like Captain Video closer to reality, it seemed at the time a blow to our, or maybe just to my, sense of superiority and being lucky enough to having been born onto the "winning team." But it never occurred to me at the time to comment in writing about the significance of the event.
In October of 1962 during the Russian Missile Crisis, I was glued to the television and fascinated by President Kennedy's address to the nation as he announced the discovery of the presence of the missiles just 90 miles off our shores. It was great drama, but at the time, it never occurred to me how close we, as a nation, came to being caught up in a nuclear exchange with the Russians. It played out like a movie I was watching. And I was a passive bystander to another monumentally significant event of the 20th century.
In 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin in Dallas on November 22nd, I was midway through my training in Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. I was serving as what amounted to an "upper classman" to the people who were just arriving for their first eight weeks of OCS. Sitting in a class in preparation for that event, I recall the shock I felt when someone came into the classroom and announced that "President Kennedy has been killed in Dallas." Stunned, in tears, we paused for a moment of silence, but then proceeded with our duties. I remember wanting life to stop while I mourned and locked my eyes on a television set, but I didn't have the luxury of doing that on that weekend. I had duties to perform, obligations that I couldn't escape.
Even for events that were more sociological than earthshaking, I was a remote observer. While a half-million kids my age were gathering for a rock and roll happening, Woodstock, on a New York farm, it never occurred to me to go to the event, only to observe it from a distance. At the time, it didn't even seem like an option. Others might get in a Volkswagen Microbus and travel across country, but I was more "serious" and busy about business. So I didn't show up for another major sociological phenomenon of the 20th Century. In fact, it was only in retrospect that I came to understand its significance.
While I could go on, the pattern is clear to me. I have been on the outskirts of much of history. And on September 11th, when those who maintain weblogs were documenting their contemporaneous reactions to the events of the day, I was "having computer problems" such that I couldn't comment contemporaneously on my reaction. As a documenter of history, I have been missing in action, but as an observer, it has been a fascinating "movie" to watch throughout my life. I sure hope it has "a happy ending."
Sunday, October 14, 2001
Back Where I Belong
Well, if all goes well with the publishing of this update of my web site, I'll be back at https://members.tripod.com/ppp45, the original web address of this site. Though I know my dilemma with the corrupted file on the new computer may only be of interest to me, the gist of the problem is that my Trellix file on the newer computer became corrupt and prevented my updating my web site. Today I resolved the problem, to a degree in that I purchased a Linksys router to share my Internet connection, so now I can access the net from this computer (the Asus) and from the other one (the Sony). If this updates successfully, then I'll be back in business again.
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