Random Thursday - Inspirational

Random Thursday is sometimes off the wall crazy stuff. Not today. I certainly hope you have a great set of headphones or speakers and a PC capable of 1080p, but it's not that important. This is a blessing for all of us. It took a while to finalize this post because it's rather hard to see through an eyeful of tears. Tears of joy. There is Power in this performance.



"Cracks in your armor,,,that's how the light shines through."
~Wynonna Judd

New Free Edition

You can now advance to level 20 in World of Warcraft's Free Starter Edition. Hey, this is NOT GUILD WARS. After this edition of WoW you will have to buy the game and the modules you want plus pay a monthly fee of somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 bucks a month after you reach level 20. With GUILD WARS you buy the game and there is NO monrhly fee. Guild Wars is free to play after you purchase it. Anyway, here's a trailer supplied by the Blizzard folks and found on their site at YouTube.




I do hope everyone understands that Guild Wars is by far my fav online game! But go take a look at WoW. Guild Wars also has a free trial. Try it. Then you can decide if you want to pay that $14.99 per month fee for WoW.

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships."
~Michael Jordan

Liquid Asphalt, It Does Exist

Out of town for the evening. It's TCB concerning faulty air conditioning and other personal matters. Have to pick up the replacement cooling unit in the morning on the way home. Good Lord knows my fat butt is not happy in the heat! Winter does not phase me. Much easier to get warm than to be kewl, lol. As Harley Davidson said, "Better to be dead and kewl, than alive and unkewl!" No doubt that in the Deep South we are smack dab in the middle of a scorcher. It's so hot local chicken farmers are feeding the hens crushed ice so they don't lay boiled eggs. Sun tea makes instantly...at night! Sorry EdC, I outright thieved these bits of wisdom from you. You know, excessive heat will make you do such.

It's late at night and I must stop in order to re-apply sunblock before retiring to bed. College baseball may conclude tonight since South Carolina beat Florida in a ga-zillion extra innings last night. Go Gamecocks! Reverse chomp those mighty Gators!!

EDIT: South Carolina won! Two national championships in a row!

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."
~Anton Chekhov (It's very apparent Anton never spent any time in Mississippi)

Music Monday - Magic is Being Used

Boyce Avenue is just downright awesome! Why have I just discovered this great music?!?!? Alejandro and Gina melt their voices together to mesmerize. This song has always moved me and didn't think it could be improved. Well, hold on to your socks friends and neighbors, this is perfection.



Thanks beagle for turning me on to this awesome sound. Love their rendition of Drops of Jupiter. Do they do anything that's less than awesome?

"The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms."
~George Santayana

Late Saturday Night

Recently it was noticed that several jerks have been following behind me and spamming comments. Why anyone would comment here using cyrillic text is a mystery to me. One of the spammers does though. Didn't know baboons spoke Russian!

Clean up of this garbage is being performed. Due to the recent fiasco with 1 or 2 children posing as know it all ArenaNet, Guild Wars experts, I decided to moderate comments. This episode is under investigation and may result in a disclosure of their IPs. Mature adults don't rail and use coarse language...well, most mature adults would not take this approach. Anyway, they are gone and cannot make comments here anymore.

There is now a filter in place at the Cybersouth email addy. This will eliminate this silly nonsense in the future. Tedious and worrisome. Here's an idea: If people want to express outlandish statements then find free hosting and create an online outlet where personal opinions can be posted. That's exactly what I did in April 2003, LOL.

Anonymous, to me, denotes that which is overly diluted. Such a weak, weak name. Gosh, at least exercise creativity and make up a name. You know, something like Daffy Duck, Snidley Whiplash, Leroy Jenkins, The Pelvis, Stormin' Norman or Scooter! In the meantime, I'll gradually rid the site of existing comments spam. BTW, please don't stop commenting. I check moderation several times a day in order to expedite posting of comments. If you disagree with something posted, that is fine. Just don't use vulgar language or be rude. Easy enough? I thought so.

If you are not staying casual strive to get that way. Later.

"It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more 'manhood' to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind."
- Alex Karras

TGIF

Sheldon's Battle Ostrich name - Glen.

"Turn your wounds into wisdom."
~Oprah Winfrey

Random Thursday - Great & Powerful Woz

This is one of my all time favorite The Big Bang Theory moments. I can verify that is certainly an Apple II Sheldon is carrying. Well duh! Nerds!



A bit of TBBT trivia: What is the name of Sheldon's Battle Ostrich in World of Warcraft? C'mon, get in the spirit of nerdistic fun n' don't Google it! Answer tomorrow!

"When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy."
~Dave Barry

Ho Hum

EDIT: It was my decision to remove the previous post, titled Guild Wars 2-Possible Profession Choice, that appeared here. Sorry folks I don't have the time nor the care to endure trivial arguments concerning matters in a virtual world. To the Anonymous ones: You virtually win, LOL.

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving."
~Dale Carnegie

Windows in the Machine

Received an email that reflected a negative opinion because I 'dissed' Vista Business. Well, I did - not intentionally. Let's put the facts straight. In the beginning there were many problems with all flavors of Vista and many people rushed to buy the 'new' Business version. It received a lot of criticism. Since the Vista Operating System went retail Microsoft has diligently made corrections and Vista is now a good operating system. Granted, Microsoft should have not rushed to market, but they did and you can either throw a fit and put Vista in the trash or download the updates and enjoy a very streamline, slick OS that has a beautiful GUI.

Don't get me wrong Windows 7 is the Big Dog in this arena. Does Vista equal Windows 7? No. But it's almost there with Windows 7 after all the updates, patches, etc. IMHO, Vista is better than XP. Yes. You didn't read that wrong, Vista is a better OS than XP. Bring it. I look forward to your e-cards and e-letters... XP is a very good operating system especially Pro 64 bit. Just remember that somewhere between 300 and 400 updates, patches, etc., were made to XP depending on the version and time of issue. So get over it. You are missing out on neat stuff. By all means, please feel free to skip Vista and go straight to Windows 7. And STAY AWAY from ANY version that has the word 'Basic' in it. If you are running Vista it's certainly okay to stick with it for now. Still, upgrade to Windows 7 when you can. Use the 64 bit version if possible. Home Premium is good, but it won't hurt to get off that hip pocket for the Pro or Ultimate version. Make sure your hardware is substantial. Huge hint: Be sure and have at least 4 gigs of RAM.

The machine being used to relay this post is a Vista Ultimate PC. It's fine. It's also up to date and has anti-spyware run every day as well as CCleaner. I use AVG Free and it does a great job. WebRoot is great if you have the money and TrendMicro is pretty good. Still, I'd probably opt to pay for the AVG offering if upgrading. Any of the three will afford great protection if used properly. Folks, please don't delay Windows Updates. If that icon pops up in the bottom right corner of your screen, take a few minutes and keep your system up to date. You won't regret it. Usually the updates only take a few minutes and a very legitimate excuse for a coffee break. If you have a boss that gets upset, find another job where more intelligent people work.

"Sharks are as tough as those football fans who take their shirts off during games in Chicago in January, only more intelligent. " 
~Dave Barry

Music Monday - Voices!

The human voice is, by far, mankind's greatest musical instrument. That is, if it is used properly. This group is at the apex of melodic vocal experience. Beautiful rendition of an old folk song. The little soprano finishes with a huge sound that may bring tears of joy to your eyes. Highly recommend using headphones or cranking up a speaker system.



Takes my breath away! God has blessed these children mightily!


"The human voice is the organ of the soul"
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Dreaming Along

Started using new editor for this site.  Hopefully the transition will be seamless.  We shall see.  

Before, I've expressed my desire to one day own an iPad2.  After researching further I am now leaning towards a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the Toshiba Thrive which has an SD slot that will extend the memory. They both connect through wifi. This seems more practical since wifi usually doesn't cost any extra and 3G/4G costs quite a bit. Granted the iPad app library is larger, but the Android library is substantial and growing. The number of movies available overwhelms anything without FLASH. And iPads don't have FLASH, which also limits the number of websites they can visit. Many Android apps are free and their overall costs are significantly less than Apple for a 'like' application. The Samsung Tab is for sale now and the Toshiba Thrive will be available in mid-July. Both are around half the cost of the fully loaded iPad2. Anyway, these are pipe dreams. I must increase memory and obtain a SATA III SSD 128Gig drive for my Qosmio laptop first. Then upgrading the workstation is next. Just trying to stay current with what the market is doing.

Not anywhere close to purchasing any of these devices, but thought I would pass on the beach house take on tablets. Tomorrow the desired tablet may once again be the iPad2, lol. Feedback is welcome. If you have an opinion please comment and share. Inquiring minds wanna' know!

Interesting take over at the Orchard about where Apple is headed in the future - Post PC World. Even the pro-Mac writer thinks a world without PCs is unrealistic. Hey, we all have dreams. iDarth Jobs is entitled to his desires too. Just as the writer says it is a bit far fetched.

Out of town and returning home later today. Not a lot of rest, but that will come this PM. Everyone stay casual and enjoy Fathers Day.

"The large print giveth, but the small print taketh away."
~Tom Waits

Bazinga!

Got a really neat T-shirt for Fathers Day from Kristi, Jay and the girls. It's pictured. If you are a TBBT fan then you'll know it's the favorite word/phrase used by Sheldon. Not a TBBT fan? To find out more about it go here. Em, Charlie and the Purple Giraffe did some nice cellphone stuff for me too! Great Fathers Day and it's not even here yet!

TYVM for a really kewl shirt (TY for the George R.R. Martin books too) and for the cellphone stuff! Dr. Cooper and the Flash will be proud. Now if I can just get Amy Farrah Fowler on Facebook...

"I'm very pleased to be here. Let's face it, at my age I'm very pleased to be anywhere."
~George Burns

Interesting Phone App

Discovered an interesting web based service (the company calls it cloud based). Haven't tried it out yet. If it works I'll use it from now on because I DETEST phone answering devices. I use Fred's for filling prescriptions. One of the things that attracted me was their pharmacy answered the phone. Close proximity doesn't hurt either, lol. Now they use one of those machines. YUCK! It's unbelievable that they want you to punch in every prescription number, doctor's name, date of birth, last time you ate hot dogs and what time you walk your dog. I just lay the phone down and when I hear a human pick up I tell them what I need. It's all over in a matter of minutes. Punching all that other stuff in is time consuming. Besides, most people that are filling prescriptions are ailing and really don't need the added frustration. So, you can let your computer do the work for you.

Here's the link: FONOLO. It's free for personal use and there is also a free cell phone app available. I will 'guinea pig', try it out then report an opinion. If you try it please comment here and let us know the results. Remember, you download at your own risk so don't come crying if you fubar you PC.

"Middle age: When you're sitting at home on Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you."
~Ogden Nash

Random Thursday - Turn to Page....

Hymn Titles by Occupation

Do you know your (specific) hymn(s)?



Dentist's Hymn ....... ......... Crown Him with Many Crowns

Weatherman's Hymn ....... There Shall Be Showers of Blessings

Contractor's Hymn ........ The Church's One Foundation

The Tailor's Hymn ....... ...... Holy, Holy, Holy

The Golfer's Hymn ....... There's a Green Hill Far Away

The Politician's Hymn ....... Standing on the Promises

Optometrist's Hymn ....... ... Open My Eyes That I Might See

The IRS Agent's Hymn ....... ... I Surrender All

The Gossip's Hymn ....... .. .... Pass It On (also works for email)

The Electrician's Hymn ....... .. Send The Light

The Shopper's Hymn ....... ... Sweet Bye and Bye

The Realtor's Hymn ....... I've Got a Mansion Just over the Hilltop

The Massage Therapists Hymn .. He Touched Me

The Doctor's Hymn ...... ......... The Great Physician


AND for those who speed on the highway - a few hymns:


45 mph ....... ........ God Will Take Care of You

65 mph ....... ........ Nearer My God To Thee

85 mph ....... ........ This World Is Not My Home

95 mph ....... ........ Lord, I'm Coming Home

100 mph ...... ....... Precious Memories
Over 100 mph ......... Take my life, and let it be


Give me a sense of humour, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some humour out of life,
And pass it on to other folks.

Thanks EdC for a great email!!

Great Business PC

TopTen Reviews has a very good review of the Dell Vostros 230. I installed two of these machines last week replacing older XP Pro machines that ran 1.5gigs of memory and .5gigs of memory. Needless to say these very smart clients are delighted with the huge move upward in techno horsepower. Their ability to multitask with enormous speed alone was worth the change. Going from minimum memory to 4gigs of dual layer memory is a tremendous resource boost. Having 64 bit Windows 7 Pro is also a welcome change. Yes, this is a fantastic machine at a very decent price. Keep in mind they did get GeForce video cards and 4 gigs of memory instead of the standard 2 gigs of memory and onboard video. A second DVD player was also added at a very reasonable 20 bucks. Very sleek, efficient machines that are so quiet you have to get an ear next to the machines to even hear them running. All in all a super upgrade at a very decent price. Congrats and kudos to Dell for making a great machine at a very reasonable price.

Gathering images and data to feature a review of SwinTech Designs and one of their monster gamer builds. Look for it soon. In the meantime, go to my links list then amble on over to their site for a look-see. You won't be disappointed.

"The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives."
~Anthony Robbins

Early AM & Facebook

Up early working. Am avoiding interaction and trying to stay focused on projects at hand. Sometimes you have to take control of your life and get things done. Intimidation has never worked well with me so I withdraw, concentrate and resolve issues. Have to mix this in with a weird hectic schedule that is making money, yet doing zero as far as cashflow. It's hard to explain so I won't try. Trust me, I am best left to my own devices, LOL. Especially when hungry.

Facebook you ask? Working better this time. Changed my opinion and don't expect anyone to resolve world issues there. Why would anyone bully anyone with Facebook and why would anyone be bullied? Cut the damn thing off, remake the account and don't let anyone see it, but those you trust. Are people really so stupid they can't figure this out? I realize not everyone likes me. Some people just care nothing for my company or rhetoric. Know what? Screw 'em. Hey, I do not harbor evil thoughts or feelings about them. Have too much to do, for and with friends, to worry about the small stuff. But Facebook can be interesting, just don't take it seriously. And don't worry about others and their perceptions. When it gets right down to it, your opinion of yourself and God's love are all that count. If you want in the Facebook thangy, message me or drop an email at cybersouth@gmail.com.

Thanks out to Lisa, Dan, Charlie, Em, Rhonda, Dena, David, Kristi, Jim and others that have helped. Facebook is actually fun. Dropbox is way kewl. Back to the grind now. The call of work from my bench is whispering. There's laughter of Mr. Frustration in the background. Stay casual out there and it's okay to be a little hungry. I am certainly learning.

"Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation."
~William Ward

Music Monday - Eye and Ear Candy

Continuing yesterday's title, but going in the other direction - enjoy Clapton doing his thang!!



Eric is just downright awesome! This performance was The Band's final concert. Many music greats showed up to pay tribute. There are many videos with Clapton single note picking at the speed of light, but this is just a great solid song done by a living legend. The other dude shredding along with Eric is Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist of The Band. Good luck with Monday.

"I went to London and performed in Eric Clapton's concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I'll work with him any time he asks me."
~Carole King

Further On Down the Road

Had to do surgery on a motherboard this evening. PC is back up and running. Panic and depression are not pretty. Walking away for a few hours and resting really does help. Still not through with the other computer build that may kill me. But at least this one is back up and running. Everyone please forgive my negative ways from earlier today. There was a time when I would have thrown it in the trash and bought a new one. Repairing a motherboard, if that isn't a sign of poverty then what is?!?!?!? LOL.

JK, special apology to you. The TS wouldn't work, then I saw that capacitor give it up (physically, watched it explode - had the side off the case), at the same time I knocked a cup of coffee into the MERC Stealth keyboard (keylights died, etc.), and the laptop would not make nice nice with the beach house wifi. Wasn't even drinking the coffee, it was cold! Then an unexpected visitor started banging on the door! It was like a monkey french kissing a football for a few seconds. Chaos was my momentary friend. Then when the phone was thrown on the desk, it turned off which is a somewhat new habit it has picked up. I discovered it being off when starting this post. Whew! Survival at the beach house is tough! So, very sorry about the uber panic attack. Gee...wonder what triggered it?

Still need a few days where I can pay attention to completing my last computer build EVER. Everything else is on hold until it is done and safely delivered. This has to leave the beach house next week or the people in the white coats will come and deliver me to the happy farm.

Later

"Feeling important makes one heavy, clumsy, and vain."
~Carlos Castaneda

Wasting Time?

Since readers have dropped to an all time low here the site will not see new posts for a few days. Sometimes it takes a considerable chunk of time to develop posts and I am working on three posts that have taken more than usual research. This time can be spent tackling the computer build that has almost caused a nervous breakdown for many months now and delivering items that need to return to their appropriate homes. When I present several different things that seem to inspire opinion (yesterday's post) and no one comments then I am not doing a very good job. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't shut down and have one less deadline in my day to day life.

Everyone stay casual and I'll see you this coming Saturday.

Competition, It's a Good Thing

Rumors are a constant source of frustration, but are also entertaining. Made this observation while researching the possibility that AMD might acquire NVidia which, to me, seems unlikely. Methinks that the FTC would put an immediate stop to such a move since AMD owns ATI, the largest competitor of NVidia. There are laws concerning acquisition of companies to monopolize. Intel and NVidia getting together might make more sense.

Which is the best? ATI's Radeon series or NVidia's Geforce family? If you have a coin used for tossing please take it out at this time. I know NVidia Nazis and also people that are Radeon Gestapo. Looks like some things never change. PC vs Apple? AMD vs Intel? Radeon vs NVidia? This is old school thinking about new school technology. C'mon folks, 'can't we all just get along?'

Further reflections on such matters below. Please comment by clicking on the word comment or comments (in red) below this post. A small window will open and you can read other opinions or type in your feelings.

Processors - AMD vs Intel. It's not who is the best but who has the slight edge today. Not everybody will agree with me and somehow I find that pleasing. Today, with no financial restrictions and anything goes, I'd go Intel. Do your research. Since money is a HUGE restriction AMD will probably be my next processor purchase. Great processors and still slightly less pricy than Intel. Besides, you can save mega bucks in a build using AMD. Across the board (pun intended) the motherboards supporting AMD are far less expensive. One popular series is AMD supported boards with NVidia NForce chipsets!!!! Great combination.

Video cards - NVidia vs Radeon. People are passionate about their graphics hardware. Still got that coin out from the processor battle? Flip it again. Speaking of flip looks like, bang for buck, Radeon cards are winning today. Wasn't that way last week. NVidia will introduce a new graphics card tomorrow so the balance may once again shift. Competition is a great stimulus for this industry. Today, will stay with NVidia due to familiarity. But an ATI offering at a substantial savings is certainly not out of the question.

Computers - PC vs Apple. Apple is building good solid products today. They make durable sleek looking machines with INTEL processors. This hasn't always been true. Glad they wised up and found a way to hang on to their 3% retail marketshare. Only three problems with Apple. One - price. Two - price. Three - price! Also, Jobs and company will outright lie to you and look you in the eye while doing it. You can use hardware other than Apple, i.e. RAM, hard drives, and you better get an anti-virus program on that machine. Hackers are targeting them as we speak. The iPod, iPhone, iPad are super gadgets. Very creative thinking on the Orchard's part and people really like these devices. Lusting after that mega iPad2 myself! Hey, we all have our "pipe" dreams. Today, put your coin away. PC is the obvious choice. They own 90% of the computer market worldwide. They are extremely fast. Versatility in builds also gives a more personal computing feeling to users. And they win big time in the price arena. Spend half of what an Apple costs and buy a faster PC. Can we say logical?

This is touching on basic concepts and personal opinions. No doctrine espoused here. Always fun to tout those in the arena. Does that make me a troublemaker? Don't think so. Does it make me a truthseeker? More likely. Stay casual folks. Enjoy your Mac or PC.

"I do not fear a man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. I fear a man who
has practiced one kick 10,000 times."
~Bruce Lee

Music Monday - The Band Is Always On Time

This knocks my socks off! Nineteen years old, plays all instruments, sings all harmony parts as well as lead, and wrote the song! Gosh, think he's gonna' make it in the music business?

Storm Warning - Hunter Hayes - Hunter Hayes Videos

"Who has skill in the art of music is of good temperament and fitted for all things."
~Martin Luther

Why I Am Up So Late

Several hours were spent today piecing together shards of an operating system. In retrospect, it should have been reloaded from scratch; you just never know. Tons of data and apps to reinstall hence the reason for a lengthy effort. Also have a backup being monitored remotely.

About to replace several XP pro machines with Dell Vostros PCs running Window 7 Pro. Highly recommend the Vostros series. They used to be slanted towards business scenarios, but the versatility of hardware selection has broadened the market. Very efficient use of hardware and you can go to Dell's site to create a PC that matches your needs. Lotta' bang for the buck! This backup is taking FOREEEVVVEEERRR!

Heads up on Windows 7 Pro: Very slick operating system. Forget all the bad press and hype about it being another Vista Business reworking. Not even close! MUCH BETTER. Win7 Pro is much more akin to Win7 Ultimate with a few subtle differences that won't be important to most folks. Windows 7 rocks, period. Make sure your hardware can take the demand for resources. Forget the recommended 2 gigs of memory. If you don't have 4gigs of RAM stick with XP.

Working on posts about SwinTech Designs (see the links list), RAID arrays (SCSI, SATA, etc.), & current legislative action concerning embedding (NAZIs posing as Senators). This is all in the background. Still struggling with that build that has taken over my life. Thought about sitting down and crying yesterday...again. Didn't. Anybody know where I can find a job sweeping streets? Don't recommend being a greeter at Wal-Mart. Tried that, seriously I did.

Later. Be casual. I am frustrated enough for all of us, lol!

"If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

2nd Attempt

Trying Facebook again. We'll see. Last time I was found by old classmates who felt it was their privilege to post anything and everything about me to the web. Needless to say, Homey don't play that game! They now know to not speculate. So let's try it again with different settings. Don't expect a huge involved Facebook thangy from me. Cybersouth has been here since 2003 and is still my prime interest concerning web posting. Yet, I know people that do Facebook exclusively. Hence the interest.

As explained before, posts are short for a few days and I must return to my land of nightmares. Later and stay casual, LOL.

Quick Blurb

Winding down another week in and around the beach house. Am researching a bill in the Senate that makes it a felony to embed YouTube videos. Have the web sites of the 3 sponsoring senators and will link them soon (hope there's some YouTube videos of these three jerks that can be embedded!!!) It will be a rant so my wait period to not overload is still active. And we all thought Nazism was dead! Hah!

Still struggling with cleaning my bench. Posts will be short. It'll be good to not worry about performing almost miraculous voodoo. Not my nature to duck people, not answer phone calls, etc. It's ridiculous for a grown man to hide in order to retain what little sanity is available. At least one machine is almost finished and the other within sight. Once they are gone - No mas!

Random Thursday - USMC vs. Criminal

Mudslingr recently emailed this to me. I think this "clumsy" criminal got exactly what he deserved. Just click anywhere on the news article to enlarge it:



"I know we will win because I see it in the eyes of the Marines every morning. In their eyes is the sparkle of victory."
~Randy Stone

Windows 8 Preview

This an informative concise video that gives us a glimpse of where Windows will go with the next version of their operating system. Looking much like the Windows Phone software they are shifting towards tablet capable PCs. You will still be able to use a mouse and keyboard or simply touch the screen to manipulate this software. Take a look, he covers a lot in just 4 minutes or so:



"Experts agree that the best type of computer for your individual needs is one that comes on the market about two days after you actually purchase some other computer."
~Dave Barry