Recent Comments

1. about 2 hours ago on Herman

   Arguably, the most misquoted Bible statement is “Money is the root of all evil.” The full quote is “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.”

   I have no issue with some people having more than others as long as everybody has enough.

   Looking at the current crop of billionaires, there are some who enjoy their money and use it productively and then there others who are in LOVE with their money.

   “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.” – Dalai Lama XIV

   There comes a point when people stop owning things and things start owning people. When that point is crossed, people stop being human.

2. about 3 hours ago on Loose Parts

   Compared to what they used to cost and what they can do, computers are cheap. Of course if you are a gamer or graphics artist this might not be true.

   I’m like you. I tend to hang onto my technology for a while. I usually hang onto a computer for about 7 years.

   There is also Linux. It’s lightweight and free. It’s an excellent way to put a computer out to pasture. You can get enough apps to do what most people want.

   I have a windows laptop / tablet. It’s a cute little machine and very portable. It is my on the road, take on vacation machine. It will not upgrade to Windows 11. So I’ll turn it into a Linux machine. I hope I can find a driver for the touch screen.

3. about 12 hours ago on Non Sequitur

   Santa has two lists: naughty and boring.

4. about 12 hours ago on Off the Mark

   If it comes down to a shedding contest, the world champions are golden retrievers.

   They can shed twice their weight in fur every week.

   It is a good thing that they are very lovable dogs or they would have gone extinct. Ours came with his papers and a vacuum cleaner.

5. about 12 hours ago on Herman

   My wife used to go to the City Park to give out flu shots and do wellness checks on the homeless. My job was to wear my Air Force hat and jacket and troll for veterans.

   On one of these occasions, I saw a man get a new pair of socks. He went into his pack, found another pair and gave them to another man.

   I like to think that I am generous to my fellow human beings, but I don’t know if I have it in me to give up my next to last pair of socks.

   That’s my story about the meaning of Christmas.

   And then we have the billionaires for whom too much isn’t enough.

6. about 12 hours ago on B.C.

   Two words, Santa: Tail Hook.

7. about 12 hours ago on Aunty Acid

   I have dozens of coffee cups. I use only about a half dozen.

   The rest are in my collection and are worth more than a dollar figure. They represent every unit with which I have served. Some have other meanings: for example, I have a coffee cup commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Air Force. It’s now 77 years old.

   I also have a couple from former employers and one that I got at my 50th High School reunion that features a Route 66 highway shield – it was also featured on the cover of our yearbook. I was in the class of ’66.

8. 1 day ago on Non Sequitur

   Not Vice President, but President. Trump is sort of in Musk’s shadow recently. The media and Congress has decided who the new dictator is.

9. 1 day ago on Loose Parts

   If you are a windows user, the protection that comes with it competes well with the paid products. I recommend pairing it with MalwareBytes. MalwareBytes has a free version and will clean out just about any malware. Run it once a week or once a month depending on how you use your computer.

   Get rid of bloatware: programs that come installed with your computer that you do not need. Deinstall any app that you are not using. It’s also a good safety measure.

   Check the files that start up on your computer automatically when you boot up. For example, I do not always use Photoshop each time I log in. I’ll wait the extra couple of seconds it takes to load IF I decide to use it. Otherwise these files will slow down the boot up process and eat up RAM as they run in the background.

   Clear the cache on your browser from time to time. You’ll lose some convenience and in the short term it might slow down some sites, as cached pictures will be gone and have to be downloaded again, but it will pick up again and you should go a while before it starts slowing things down again.

   Stay away from registry cleaners and other apps that claim to speed up your computer.

   Use the Disk Cleanup Utility that comes with Windows to remove those temporary files that are no longer needed. This is kind of a once a month thing and it is of most benefit if you are short on disk space.

   Consider moving seldomly used files to an external hard drive.

   If you are using OneDrive, turn it off. Turn it on once a day to do a mass sync and turn it back off.

   If you have a traditional disk drive (not solid state), defrag it. You shouldn’t have to do this often. Maybe once or twice a year.

   Reboot frequently. I do it daily. Rebooting removes things in memory that shutting down and restarting does not.

   When all else fails, do a clean reinstallation of the operating system.

10. 1 day ago on Loose Parts

    Office 365 is cheap ($99 a year) and has some other perks that come with it besides the basic software. I can afford it, it’s convenient and I do have the occasional use for “real office.” As an Excel guru, I take advantage of its full potential.

    Libre Office meets about 95% of what most people need. I do use their drawing program since I’m not shelling out for a paid product. I don’t use it enough.

    The end of life for Windows 10 will probably revive an interest in Linux. I put Linux on an old “notebook” that I bought for my wife. It was nearly 10 years old at the time and was limping along on XP. It worked great for email, browsing and the Libre Office suite under Linux.