Steve's Current Notes
Week of September 17, 2000

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I wanted to be able to check my office email from home, so I connected an old US Robotics Sportster 28k modem to the NT server Fred, dialed in and checked my mail.  I didn't think much about it after that until I returned to Winston-Salem last night and Suzy told me someone had told her that when they called the answering machine didn't answer, but instead they got a modem tone.  We have two POTS lines in our house and subscribe to BellSouth's voice mail system.  I have line one set to forward to line two after three unanswered rings. And line two answers with the voice mail system after two unanswered rings or a busy signal.  I connected the modem to line two and again, didn't think anything about until Suzy mentioned this problem.  I said, "that'll be easy to fix."  Famous last words.  

I went to the modem and flipped switch no.5 to the off position, which is supposed to suppress auto answer, but it still answered the line on the first ring.  I tried powering the modem off, same result.  Left the power off for several hours.  Same result.  I guess I'm going to have to dig the modem docs out of mothballs and see what's going on,  In the meantime I can kill the power to the modem (yes, it's external) until I want to dial into the office.

And speaking of dialing into the office, it sure would be nice to connect there via a virtual private network, but as security conscious as our company is, I don't see this happening in the near future.  Although, I have mentioned (requested) this possibility to some of my friends in IR.

I have cracked the top-20 among the DayNotes gang in the search for life form elsewhere, better known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Form project. To make it to the 20th position on the ladder I have processed 159 work units and have donated more than 3,420 hours.  I have the program running on several computers, so when you couple the faster ones with the slower ones, I've been averaging just a tick over 21 hours per unit.

 This operation is open to anyone who has a computer and a internet connection.  If you want to donate some of your unused computer time to the project, here's where you can find the software.

If you do decide to start crunching units, why not join our group.  Here's some instructions on joining our group from the leader, Bob Thompson.

I have six computer crunching on the project in my name, ranging from a 90 MHz Pentium to a 500 MHz Pentium III.  I think my fastest time is about eight hours per work unit.  I have one machine that takes near 100 hours per unit.

I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but I am playing with a new feature on this site, polls.  The first question will allow you to jump in on the restrictor plate issue in NASCAR Winston Cup racing.  Even if you don't follow racing, jump in with an opinion on the restrictor question.  The use of restrictor plates on racing engines starves the power plant for air, thereby reducing the car's speed.  Give us your opinion. I want to see how the poll thing works and then if all goes well, I'll have to think up some new questions, which I promise will not always be on the subject of Winston Cup racing. However, I must be honest and tell you, they might lean that way.

I'm also playing with a site that will feed me news headlines, so check out the news as well.

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When we returned home there was some bit of mild panic.  I dragged out the digital  camera and popped a disk into the camera and immediately the battery icon with the slash through it started flashing, indicating the battery was on its last leg.  I had another battery, so I confidently popped that battery into the camera which indicated it had 90 minutes of photo taking power left, but the camera immediately powered down.

My next move was to bring out the charger and get one of the batteries on charge and then suggest to Suzy that we pose photos after Katie's presents had been opened.  She agreed and said she really wanted a picture of the special Winnie the Poo cake she had made earlier from scratch.  I hoped the battery would have some kind of charge before we began slicing into the cake.

Katie opened a couple of presents and I decided to try to camera again.  Maybe I could get one or two shots off before it completely died.  Much to my surprise I was able to get shots of the cake and several of Katie opening presents with battery power to spare.

At the 13 the theme of her party was money.  She wants to go shopping for clothes at the mall, so cash and mall gift certificates were welcomed and appreciated.  It will now be Suzy's assignment to accompany her to the mall.  I would never make it through that experience without ending up in a straight jacket.

Most of the digital shots of people I take are still filled with red eye.  I guess because the flash on the Sony Mavica is so powerful at short distances.  I've heard there are software programs that will pace you through the steps of removing this red eye.  I guess they're really image editors that allow you to replace the red in the small of the eye with another dark color.

As I write this note I am in the process of downloading a trial version of ULead's PhotoImpact 6 which touts this among its features.  I suppose I could accomplish the same thing with Photo Shop, but PhotoImpact claims to have utilities that will walk you through the process.  In fact, here's the instructional web page (not sponsored by ULead) that lead me to decision to try PhotoImpact.

Most states today seem to have a slogan.  Many are devised by some advertising agency to help entice tourism and industry to the state.  Here are some state slogans that more than likely were left in the copy writer's recycle folder.

Some of the initial reports are in on Windows ME and they're not very flattering for Microsoft.  These words range from "Windows Me is Windows 98 all over again", "Windows Me shuts out some third-party applications" and "Reports of Windows Me bugs already rolling in."

If you're a Microsoft Internet Explorer user (like I am) you might think you're surfing the web behind behind this veil of privacy, but Microsoft acknowledges that might not be the case.  There is a nifty little feature in explorer versions  IE 5 and greater that  Microsoft calls  "persistence." It's supposedly designed to let Web pages remember information, such as search queries, entered by visitors. However, some feel that what was originally set to be used for convenience has now jumped over to the other side and leaves you more exposed than you might have originally thought.

Everyday there seems to be more and more reasons to consider using another browser.

Joel Klein, the leader of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust unit, and the man who's been a thorn in Microsoft's side the past several years, is leaving his government post to "to seek new challenges."  I don't know what that means in government speak, but I know what it usually means in the real world.  Could he be that's he's leaving to pursue other career interests?  

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You would think that Texas Governor George W. Bush (and hopefully our next President) should go ahead and pack his bags and go home.  If you listened to media, and their reporting of the polls, you would think Vice-President Al Gore's campaign is soaring.  However, that may not be the case.

You don't have to rely on the nightly newscasts to find out how the Presidential candidates are doing in the public opinion polls.  Here are a few sites you can use to check up on your favorite on a daily basis.

• The  Voter.com Battleground 2000 Poll is a cooperative efforts between Republican pollster Ed Goeas Democratic counter Celinda Lake. 
  
• Rasmussen Research provides the polling information for Portrait of America and results from the Gallup organization can be found here.
  

Somewhere among all of these numbers just might be a portrait on how Americans will vote to elect a new President in a couple of months.  I hope we make the right choice.

Sounds like the folks at Lowe's Motor Speedway are going to install some kind of soft impact walls for their upcoming Winston Cup event.  Here's the deal.

When the racers get to Talladega, the racing could actually become racing again or at least that's what some crew chiefs are suggesting.  NASCAR has decided to open up the restrictor plate a little for those high speed power plants.  NASCAR announced this rule change today.  You can bet the engine men will be burning the midnight oil in the race shops dyno rooms from now until mid-October.

 I downloaded the trial version of ULead's PhotoImpact 6 and it seems like it's pretty straight forward in the steps it takes to remove red eye from digital photos.  I am sure I could accomplish the same thing with PhotoShop, but it appears PhotoImpact was built for the novice graphic artist.  In PhotoShop I'll the steps are more manual, but then you would probably have more control.  I have played with a couple pictures of Katie from last night and now it seems I have to decide on how much of the red to leave in so the eye would be defined.  As the simple instructions said you want some sparkle in the center of the eye.

In the little I have played with PhotoImpact, it seems like it might be a good alternative to Photo Shop.  I hope the cost is somewhere south of the Adobe version.  And I wonder if PhotoImpact has a plug In the Kodak Photo Digital Science 8650 postscript printer.  More investigation is in order.

Mark Bridgers [markbridgers@yahoo.com] and I had a discussion here a couple of weeks ago on the new Olympus D-490 digital camera.  It looks like he went out and grabbed himself one.  I hope to do the same in the near future.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about digital cameras, and last week I went and bought the Olympus D490.  What a great camera, especially for 500 bucks!  The best feature is the "drive" mode, which lets me take pictures at slightly faster than one frame per second.  This is invaluable trying to shoot pictures of my three boys, ages 5, 3, and 1 and have a chance of getting one good shot (at least).  And printed on my HP 882C they look as good as film, unless you look very closely.

As for photo editing software, I prefer Paint Shop Pro.  Version 7, which is due out at the end of September, has a number of nice new automatic features that handle red-eye, auto balance colors, etc.  You can get an eval at www.jasc.com.

Keep up the great site.  I really enjoy it.

Thanks for the encouraging words about this site.  Kind comments like yours make all the time I put in on these pages worthwhile.

I haven't gotten my D-490 yet, but you can bet it's in my future.

I am downloading the eval copy of Paint Shop 7 as I type this and plan to give it a whirl and test the red eye reduction tool.  It claims it can be accomplished in one easy step.  The process in PhotoImpact was fairly simple as well.

I'll be reporting my results here.

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And if you're into watching the weather, here's a neat little utility to clog up your system tray.  WeatherBug is from AWS, Inc., and provides live weather updates right to your PC desktop.  The closest reporting station to me is in Lexington, NC, which is only about 20 miles away.  Close enough.  Weatherbug places a set numerals in your system tray that change as the temperature changes.  Don't have any idea what kind of resources this eats up, but hey, I've got an always on high speed cable modem connection.

It is interesting that Andrew's social studies unit in school encompasses Australia this year.  It's also convenient that the Olympics headed down under to Sydney as well.  With this in mind, Andrew has chosen the watch the Today show in the mornings versus his usual menu of cartoons.  When he returns from school in the afternoon he wants to turn on NBC's Olympic coverage and with NBC, CNBC and MSNBC he has no trouble finding the Olympics on the tube.  With his interest in the Summer Games I thought I should point out the official Sydney sight so he could keep up with the goings on.  He now regularly pulls up www.olympics.com to check on how the Americans are doing in the medal count.  He will also ask about a sport that he hasn't heard of, i.e., "What's Judo?" and "What's fencing?" were his questions before trotting off to play this evening. They become competitive at a very young age these days.  In his mind, it must all be about who wins the most medals.  Now that I think of it, that's kind of the way most sponsoring countries look at it as well.

If you one who takes the Windows Millennium jump, I hear that dos no longer is part of the operating system.  Well, it's not there like we used to know it, but it's there and here's a way to get if back if you really miss it.

Andrew and I are headed off camping this weekend.  It's the Boy Scouts Parent/Son weekend campout at the local scout council's camping reserve, Raven Knob.

There are a few things you should understand.  I am not a camper, heck I think a hotel room without remote control TV is roughing it, but I'm headed off to the wilderness with other dads who find themselves in the same boat.

With the big weekend's activities impending we've started to get out supplies together (thanks to some experienced Scout camping dads at the office who helped me prepare a list of what to bring along on the adventure).  We got a tent today and practiced putting it up in the front yard.  Our neighbor, who is also the CubMaster asked about seam sealing the team and I looked at him like he had three heads.  Luckily he picked up the directions and buried deep within the instructions on erecting the tent was a mention about sealing the seams.  I would have never seen this and when the rains came I would have been soaked.  Luckily, David is an experienced Boy Scout camper and went home and fetched his tube of Coleman seam sealer and helped me seal the rain fly.

And speaking of rain, yes the weatherman is calling for it rain this weekend in the North Carolina mountains.  Oh boy.  But Andrew and I are looking forward to the weekend's adventure no matter.

We going to be prepared with sleeping bags, stoves, lanterns, ponchos and I am sure hundreds of other things we won't need.  However, I am sure that I will forget several essential items.  

Should be a fun weekend.  

I now have two trial versions of photo editing software loaded in addition to my old standby, Photo Shop 5.5.  I added Paint Shop Pro 7.0 in addition to PhotoImpact, all in an attempt to evaluate which one might offer the easiest red eye reduction utility.  This is the first look I've taken at Paint Shop since the early days of the PC and it looks almost as powerful as Photo Shop/  I was surprised.

In my tests to date, which I will admit are limited, it appears that PhotoImpact is the most automatic with Paint Shop being a little easier to use.  However, in my test photo of Katie, I didn't quite get the glint figured out in Paint Shop and instead of two red eyes there were some shining white spots or sparkles in the middle of her eyes.  

I need more time, Captain.

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A pair of air mattresses and air pump was added to the supplies this morning.  I see these additions as essential. I also grabbed one of those 30+ gallon Rubbermaid totes to put all of the (well, most of it) camping gear in.  Maybe this will help to keep it all in one place and available for ready access for the next trip.

I think the checklist I mentioned yesterday will be essential.  Here's a version of the checklist Andrew and I will be using as we head off to Raven Knob tomorrow morning.  And it looks like we may be getting a break with the weather, at least I'm crossing my fingers.  The forecast from the Weather Channel still looks nasty, but one ray of hope lies in the forecast from AWS' WeatherBug.  The Weather Channel still says Thunderstorms while the WeatherBug is calling for showers in the morning and clearing in the afternoon.  Let's hope the "bug."  I checked another weather source.  The NOAA site for North Carolina favors the Weather Channel forecast, which isn't exactly looking the way I want it to.  Glad I picked up  a couple of rain ponchos this morning.

Intel's stock is getting pounded today after they announced after closing yesterday they may miss forecasted earnings.  I was not surprised to see this drubbing, which is also taking the rest of the tech sector down.  I own a few shares of Intel and after the shock of seeing double digit loses you almost have to wonder if it isn't a good time to buy more Intel.  It's a strong company, one of the strongest in the tech sector in my opinion, and, sure they may face some challenges in the near term from players like AMD, but for the long haul I have to believe it would be an opportunity to enhance the portfolio.  Sounds like I am talking myself into a call to the broker.

Our local United Way Chapter and the Boy Scouts have smoked the peace pipe and have finally come to an agreement.  Actually, in my opinion, the United Way, in an attempt to take political correctness to the next level,  may have been over zealous in defining discrimination.  Realizing the error of the way, prompted by threats of seeing their giving going down the tubes, the United Way has revised their position.

We had our United Way solicitation, er extortion, meeting yesterday, where the President of this campaign addressed this issue for some 10 minutes at the beginning of his remarks, including the fact that he'd met more Eagle Scouts in the last two weeks than he had in his entire life.

The power of the almighty dollar sure is amazing.

There's going to be a new driver in the Petty Enterprises stable for 2001.  The Petty clan announced this week that Buckshot Jones would be heading to Randleman to drive a third Dodge for the Petty's.  He'll be joining Kyle Petty and John Andretti in Petty cars next year and will be sponsored by Georgia Pacific.

In the past Buckshot has seemed flamboyant and a magnet for trouble.  It will be interesting to see if he still possess those tendencies and if so, how he'll fit in amongst the Petty's.  Actually, now that I think of it, the more conservative style ended with Richard.  Kyle is a "tell you exactly what I think" kind of guy as well.  Could be an interesting year in Level Cross.

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