alt.binaries.nl

I am interested in the site alt.binaries.nl that allows you to browse and search on the Usenet. For this to be viable, they can't show you actual content, but they can show you the headers and group. You have to use what you find with a news reader to actually download content. I am now exclusively using NewsBin Pro. What is especially nice about alt.binaries.nl is that it is uncensored. I hope that this can survive. The United States now has prohibited material of all too many sorts that we are not allowed to see or have (shades of the Soviet Union?).

"For Christmas" I bought an Epson Artisan 800 Multifunction box

I tried the Canon MP460 multi-function box, but I was dissatisfied with it. Mechanically, it is too fragile, because the lid pops off way to easily and is hard to get back in place. The scanner is too low-resolution, as well. If I had looked more closely at the specifications before I bought it, I probably would have purchased something else. The best thing about the Canon MP460 is the print quality, which was why I had originally picked it out.

We have limited places close by to by computer and electronic equipment. If I really have to, I will go to BestBuy, but I prefer OfficeMax. I am price sensitive, though, so I was energized by a good deal on a Compaq Presario C700 Notebook computer and bought it at Staples, my only major purchase there. But today, I went to OfficeMax and ended up with the Epson Artisan 800 multi-function box. I knew that I wanted to get a printer that would sit on our wireless network and had good resolution scanning and printing. The Epson fit my price and specification constraints.

A sign

This morning, I noticed a small sign at the corner of Grand and Harwood in south Dallas. The sign said: "Dallas banks discriminate against Black businesses and consumers. Why is that?" (the last might be slightly wrong, but the right sense). I took the city street route to work because of the danger of ice on the highways. The temperature was 31 degrees and it was misting heavily.

Blogger and lawyer Bill Dyer reviews the Blackberry Storm

Bill Dyer writes at Beldarblog (Beldar being a corruption of his name, Bill Dyer, inspired by Saturday Night Live). Bill has a review of the new Blackberry Storm.

December 7, 1941

When I think of December 7, 1941, I think of two men. One was my father, who decided to enlist in the navy the next day. He was 19 years old. The other was my wife's late uncle. He had been a machinist on a battleship in the late 1930's as a sailor. When his enlistment was up, he was invited to take a job as a civilian machinist at Pearl Harbor. In December 1941, he worked as an aviation machinist at Ford Island. On December 7, he and his neighbor both went on the base after the attack to help with the recovery.

"Samantha Power is back"

Apparently, Barack Obama's "firing" of Samantha Power was not for real, as she is back at work, looking at State Department staff. This is probably the "hottest" picture of her in existence. She is essentially a bomb-throwing radical foreign policy expert and advisor.

I am trying out NewsBin Pro

I am learning to use NewsBin Pro, which I had only learned about today. The features which caught my eye were that it could use SSL and had a search facility. The down side is that the documentation is pretty pathetic. However, I was able to figure out how to use it, so it must be pretty "user friendly". It also works with many binary file formats. I like being able to download files to directories of my choosing ("folders" in Windows parlance).