ShowMeBlog

What is Schemer?

“Google has a new product that you’ve probably heard of sometime in the past few days. It’s called Schemer, and it’s a guide to finding you things that you can do now, or add to your bucket list for later. But in a crowded market that is only getting more so every day, does it measure up? Read on to find out.

The first thing that you need to know is that Schemer is in an invitation-only beta right now. The next thing to know is that recommendations are only listed for a few select cities, and all of those are in the US thus far. But Schemer did at least get a list of recommendations for things that you can do from anywhere, such as “Buy a Kindle” or “Alpha test more Google products”. See where this is going yet?

So when you sign up, you’re asked to fill in your locations. Yes, that’s plural. This is one place where Schemer is doing something very right. If you’re planning a trip, you can input the location of that trip and find activities that you might not have considered otherwise. If I were to place a bet, I would say that much of the data comes from Google’s somewhat-recent acquisition of Zagat, a company famous for its travel guides.

But that Zagat info isn’t alone. Far from it, in fact. Google has a load of partners with which it is working to provide more diverse suggestions, and that’s another area where Schemer actually does excel. For instance, if you’re a foodie then Food Network has a list of suggestions such as eating carrots with homemade tzatziki sauce, among others. Explorer types might find suggestions from National Geographic, for example, to be more appealing…”   Apps – Part of the Next Web Family

 

  OK gang here is a link that will let you skip the beta waiting list to join Schemer. 
I think I only got 20 of those free openings.  Not sure what sort of message you get after they are gone.  But check it out if your interested.

TXU Energy

  I am in Fort Worth (Texas) and I use TXU Energy for electricity.  I have been very happy with their service.  My bill for last month was $44.11 now of course it is about three times that during the summer here because of the AC.

  I like that I can go online and see my daily, weekly, monthly use and know what my bill is going to be.  I am sure lots of companies do that now. 
  I use all compact fluorescent bulbs here. 
 

  I had a CFB go bad and I need to find out how to dispose of it now. 
Mother Nature Network has an aricle “5 Ways to Dispose of old CFLs.”

  I used the Earth911 link and it looks like Home Depot is the place I can take it. Home Depot takes compact fluorescent light bulbs.  They accept only unbroken CFL bulbs, no fluorescent tubes.  I have a doctor’s appointment on the 31st and there is a Home Depot across the street. 

  I guess when the price of LED bulbs come down we will all be using LED bulbs and it will be the end of CFL light bulbs. 
  I been using CFBs since they came out and they were high cost then.  I would buy one bulb each payday until I had everything replaced.  I think this time I will just wait for the price to come down on LED bulbs.  Well I will be 71 in March and I might not be around long enough to see the price drop this time. 

  I went to EarthTech Products and it looks like LED light bulbs cost about $40.00 for a 9 watt bulb and that puts out as much light as a 60 watt bulb.  I will wait for the prices to come down.

EMail from Virgin Mobile about data speed reduction

“Here at Virgin Mobile, our mission is to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Sometimes that
means making difficult choices in order to provide the best possible service to the greatest number of customers.
To make sure we can keep offering our Beyond Talk Plans at such great prices, we're putting a data speed reduction in place for anyone who uses over 2.5GB of data in a month.
How will it work?
Starting March 23, 2012, if you use over 2.5GB of data in a month on your Beyond Talk Plan:

• Data speeds may be reduced to 256Kbps or below for the rest of your month. During this time,
  you may experience slower page loads and file downloads and lags in streaming media.
• If data speeds are reduced, they will return to normal as soon as your next plan month starts.
• If you'd rather not wait for your new month to start, you can restart your plan immediately through
  My Account.

Will it affect me?
Based on your activity for your last plan month ending in December, you shouldn't be affected.
If you continue to use the same amount of data as you did in your last plan month, you should not see
your data speeds reduced. Just to give you an idea, in order to hit 2.5GB, it's about 400,000 Mobile
Internet page views, about 90,000(!) emails (without attachments), 91 hours of streaming music
or 20 hours of video clips*.
This will not affect your ability to text or make calls with your phone.
How will I know if my data speeds have been reduced?
If you reach 2.5GB of data in a month, you will receive a text message letting you know your data speeds
will be reduced for the rest of your plan month.
By putting this data speed reduction in place, we're making sure we can deliver the same quality service
you've come to expect from Virgin Mobile. We hope you understand.
Thank you.
Virgin Mobile”

MegaUpload Shut Down

  I checked out MegaUpload a year or two ago for some reason.  I think I had a large file that I wanted to send to someone and it would not fit via eMail.  So I used MegaUpload.  So I looked around their sites. 
  I saw that you could download movies.  Some of the movies were just out in the theaters right then.  But everything I saw about how the site operated sent warnings to me.  They had the feel of not being honest and being a hacker site.  I felt that you could not use their site for long without getting a virus or something worst on your computer.  I never went back to them.   I forgot about them.

  Well they got taken off line and all of their sites were taken off line.

  “Megaupload is an online Hong Kong–based company established in 2005 that ran a one-click hosting online service of the same name, along with its sister services. The site was shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on January 19, 2012 during an investigation into alleged copyright infringement,[3][2][4][5] leading to what activist group Anonymous calls "the single largest Internet attack in its history"…”

   

  Well yesterday Russ came into my room and was upset and mad.  I said what is wrong and he said they shut down MegaUpload.  I did not know he knew about the site or used them.

  Here is Boogie2988 from YouTube  and what he has to say about the MegaUpload shut down.

 

  I think MegaUpload needed to be taken down.  I know Russ will not agree with me and I know that many of you will not agree with me.  I could tell from a very little bit of time looking at MegaUpload that they were dirty.  In fact after I looked at their site I made a special point to do a complete virus scan.  I never make a special effort to run it I let it do it in the background.  But after looking at that site I ran it special.

Earth–Time Lapse View from Space

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

 

  I keep having people send me the link to this video so I am just going to post the view here.

 

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa
and the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from
August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude
of around 350 km. All credit goes to them.

 

Music: Jan Jelinek | Do Dekor, faitiche back2001
w+p by Jan Jelinek, published by Betke Edition
janjelinek.com | faitiche.de
Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
eol.jsc.nasa.gov
Editing: Michael König | koenigm.com
Shooting locations in order of appearance:
1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night

Candelabra base compact fluorescent bulb

  I checked online and my electric bill for last month is going to be $69.99 and I am happy with that bill.  The month before was $115.48 for the month.  I live on a limited income and I am very happy that my electric bill is not high.
  I do have all compact fluorescent bulbs except for the kitchen. In there is a fluorescent ceiling light.

   I did have all CFBs here.  A couple of weeks ago they put in a new ceiling fan in my room and the light that came with it uses a candelabra base.  I did not have a CFB with that sort of base and was not sure you could buy one.
  The normal candelabra bulb that with the ceiling fan only lasted about two weeks and I had not used it much.  I suspect high heat in the dome killed the bulb. 
  I see now that they make CFBs with a candelabra base.  I found them at Amazon.  I will order some in a few days.  If they will not fit in the dome I will just leave the glass cover off. I do not think a bulb longer than 3 inches will fit.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has died!

  CNN web site just reported that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has died at age 56.  He had a number of health problems.  It has been reported that he had pancreatic cancer.

 

“Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011^[6]) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. He was co-founder,^[7] chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc.^[8][9] Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer.^[10]

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula,^[7] and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of theMacintosh.^[11][12] After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985,^[13][14] Jobs resigned from Apple and foundedNeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios.^[15] He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006.^[16] Consequently Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.^{[17][18][19][20]}

His aim to develop products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.^[21]

On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his role as Apple's CEO. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that the Apple executive succession plan be followed and Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed chairman of Apple's board of directors.^{[22][23][24][25]}

On October 5, 2011 Apple announced that Steve Jobs had died at the age of 56. ^[26]…”

Bus-sized satellite to hit Earth Friday

 

Real Time Satellite Tracking of UARS

 

“The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is an orbital observatory whose mission was to study theEarth’s atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer.

The 5,900 kg (13,000 lb) satellite was deployed in 1991 from Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-48. The original mission life was to be three years. UARS originally orbited at an operational altitude of 375 mi (604 km) with an orbital inclination of 57 degrees. In June 2005, six of the ten instruments were still operational.

On October 26, 2010 the International Space Station performed a debris avoidance maneuver in response to a conjunction with this satellite.^[1] The satellite is expected to fall from orbit some time between September 22 and September 24, 2011.^[2]…”

Lying on the Internet, a Felony?

“A hearing today by the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed expanding a law that could make lying on the internet a felony. In 1986 the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was set into law to deter hacking. But throughout the decades, the legislation for the Computer Fraud Act has expanded to cover a wide range of issues, to make any act that "exceeds authorized access" to a computer, a violation. A violation is currently a misdemeanor, but the White House is looking to upgrade that penalty to a felony. What's worse, if you violate this Act, you're not just facing trouble from the feds but this law allows private parties to file civil suits as well.”

 

North Texas Balloon Project

  See North Texas Balloon Project web page for more information.

NTBP 19
Summer 2011, September 17, Hillsboro, Texas
Backup or Second Flight, September 24

Flight Announcement

NTBP is a group of amateur (HAM) radio operators from Fort Worth and has launched balloons from Cleburne, Clifton, and Hillsboro Airports since 1991. This is the first launch during this last year and is funded by the amateur radio operators associated with the NTBP.  Follow us on Twitter@NTEXBP for in time information on launch day.

Saturday's Launch 9.17.11 will show on APRS as W5SJZ-11

Please send an email to webmaster@ntexbp.org for further information or to make reports during or after the actual launch. The back up date will be September 24, 2011.

NTBP FLIGHT 19, “Salute the Shuttle, Thirty Years in Space”
Hillsboro Airport, Exit 3 on Interstate Highway 35W
9 am, Sat, Sept 17, 2011
APRS 144.390 MHz, W5SJZ-11
HF Launch Net on 7260 +/- 5 kHz, LSB and 1430 +/-
Crossband Uplink is 445.800 MHz and downlink is 147.560 MHz
2 mtr Beacon, 146.560MHz
10 mtr Beacon, 28.274 mhz
Launch Net will be Friday September 16^th at 8pm on 147.28 and carried on Echolink at K5AMM-R (Area 5 US). Live broadcast will be attempted on (www.batc.tv , member streams, K5PHD).
Tommy Davis, W5TCD Launch Director
Larry Westmoreland
K5PHD