Dakota Today

*** You won't get arrested for speeding here

Note the Speed Test SD button to the right.  Take a check and see how your ISP speeds your information up and down. You will have to plug in some required information which I assume is necessary to make the information actually useful in presenting results to federal government agencies and funders.  If you know more about this, comments welcome.

I ran the tests for our GoldenWest ISP broadband service. Download was 5.91Mbps and upload "speed"was 0.55Mbps. And whatever it means, latency was 91ms.  If you wish, add your own test info in a comment.

Check out the WOW option (Window on Winner) on the menus above.  I posted a photo of the large piles of corn here in Winner.  I'd guess about $6.9 million worth at current prices.

*** Stay tuned for news from here and there --- Doug Wiken

*** Steve Jobs has died

Just got a ZDNet Email with some information on the passing of Steve Jobs of Apple. The image below was on the ZD site.

The complete ZD story can be found at ZD Net -- Steve Jobs Passes Away

I have never purchased an Apple product of any kind that I know of, but Jobs and Wozniak went from a garage to greatness.  Jobs was a design and marketing genius and always interesting the few times I saw him interviewed.  And I doubt I will ever forget the superbowl ad with everything in gray until a hammer was tossed shattering everything.

The world of technology was changed forever by Jobs and the very few men like him.

*** Stay tuned even if I-Pod and I-Phone might as well be Izod for you -- Doug Wiken

**And now something completely different.. be ready to restore the soul of your computer

It is almost Sunday, so some spiritual-like language for your best friend computer might be appropriate. You might need to restore the pure soul of your Windows XP computer if some malware gets into your system.  The information below might be helpful.  Navigating counter-intuitive menus is doubly frustrating in a computer catastrophe.  Take a look you may want to copy the information in the continuation of this post and if you haven't already gotten a better malware countering program on your system, download the Microsoft Security Essentials program....even if the license agreement prints out to 4 or 5 pages.

The download link (as plain text) for Microsoft Security Essentials is below:

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials

Hotlink for above---   Download Microsoft Security Essentials .  

Check the cookbook steps in the continuation.  You may want to copy it and save as a file and then print it and then of course, you may never need it.  Soon, I will have this information in as a kind of How-to-do-it page.

** Stay tuned and good luck preserving the soul of the machine that does your personal computing (Check the continuation below) --- Doug Wiken

** Tele Check random risk assessment sucks

Recently, we visited the Rapid City Office Max store and bought a pencil sharpener and some other items.  Went to pay and my check was declined because of Tele Check information.  I paid by credit card.

Got back home and checked that account worried that something was wrong.  No problem.  The account had about 220 times as much in it as the check was written for.  I tried to call their number on the merchant denial report.  That was a circular run-around.  Endlessly asking for re-entry of the same information including full account number, check number, date as a number, check dollar amount number, merchant number..and then requesting the same information again and again until I hung up..

I looked at their website.  They claim the denial is based on some kind of mysterious risk assessment.  It must be by some computer robot pulling random numbers out of some computer bit bucket working just about as well as their robot phone system does.

The South Dakota legislature should ban this company from functioning in South Dakota or, when they make totally mistaken decisions pay something like 5 times the $35 or so they apparently charge for collecting bounced checks.to the person whose check they notify the merchant to deny.. or perhaps better 10 times the amount denied whichever is greater. The South Dakota AG office should be collecting this companies information to protect South Dakota taxpayers from this chicken-shit mikkey-mousy outfit rather than screwing around trying to fit right in with the national GOP mythology about the Obama health insurance reforms.

Tele Check claims they have no liability for denying checks.  Well, it is time the South Dakota legislature made them automatically liable for the consequences of foisting  such an error-loaded "logic" system on business and especially on their customers..

This outfit is also a very good argument for a South Dakota income tax on corporations.. including Office Max or any other outfit relying on this nonsense data manipulation system..

But, don't hold your breath, Republican legislators just love bank and intrusive bank-like operations that rip off customers and clients... and contribute mightly to the GOP.  None of this sandwich for votes stuff, they want real campaign contributions.

If nothing else, never again do any business with a business that relies on this outfit's computerised risk asssessment mystery swamp for nonsense excuses to deny perfectly good checks..

*** Stay tuned even if you long ago gave up writing checks for anything...hey, you think this might be the intent of merchants who rely on this dark magic random error producing system?--- Doug Wiken

 

** Take a look at SD Science Junction story on PinguyOS

I have a post on the Linux distribution PinguyOS built by Antoni Norman at SD Juntion which can be reached via top menu here or by clicking  link below:

South Dakota Science Junction -- The PinguyOS

I will add links to more software below soon...but not tonight.

*** Stay tuned, but check out the link above concerning a "Mac-Like" Linux

*** TomeRaider and other software for image editing and computer cleanup

Below are a few links for software which may be interesting to you. Some are on the "bleeding edge" of development however.

I have used and recommended TOMERAIDER before here at Dakota Today. Recently I looked at a number of different E-Book programs  useable with Windows.  These included desktop versions of Mobibook,Kindle and Blio. These are interesting because of the products and information resources linked to each reader. And, in related news, Pandigital NOVEL will have an additional product with E-Ink and capacitive rather than resistive screen. Even so, it still appears to me that TomeRaider offers advantages over any of these free desktop products unless you have diminished vision and need to use the talking option in Blio

The links below all provide information on TomeRaider, TR3 books available both free and not free, readable and not readable with the unregistered version of TomeRaider,etc.

TomeRaider HomePage    TomeRaider Support and FAQ, etc  Yadabyte TR3 Info

And here s a $24 USD dollar price indicated for TomeRaider 3 at Proporta

The ease of making books or magazines that are very compressed in filesize with TomeRaider would make it very useful for organizations and agencies if a bulk deal with a simplified registration system could be worked out with yadabyte, Proporta, or dealers.

The current CPU Magazine (December 2010) has recommendations for several software products. Bleachbit is a disk cleaning and privacy protection program which can delete DOM and Silverlight cookies, etc. Link to download Bleachbit: 

Libre Office Productivity Suite is a fork in the road of development of the Open Office Suite. Currently a Beta version is available for testing, but a stable version is claimed to be coming by end of November. Link to download Libre Office Productivity Suite 

Pinta-project is a "Paint" program claimed to be simpler to use than GIMP. Still in Beta however. Info and download for several operating systems  including Windows:

*** Stay tuned even if you aren't interested in the bleeding edge or any other kinds of software --- Doug Wiken

**Handy add on for Mozilla Firefox...Morning Coffee

PC World magazine mentioned an addon for Mozilla Firefox that appears to be handy.  It puts a coffee cup icon on the Firefox toolbar.  When you are viewing a website, you can click on the icon and one option will  be "Add to my Morning Coffee"

Clicking on the Coffee Cup down arrow will allow you to add the current link to Morning Coffee for daily link, once a week, weekends only, etc. 

Click on image for a larger version

Then, after adding links you often check on, you can click on the Morning Coffee icon and an option will be to open links for the day in a toolbar.  The idea is that if you routinely check a number of links regularly, you can have them like the morning paper with your morning cup of coffee.

Download Morning Coffee Or find more info

Now, you can have all those good South Dakota blogs handy once you have them added to your Morning Coffee.

** Stay tuned but you won't find much of the TV ads the $100s of millions of corporate cash have bought for Rabid Dog Republican Candidates--- Doug Wiken

 

** Free Blio E-Reader software for PC and other systems

Ray Kurzweil and an agency for the blind have partnered to provide free an e-book reader that will work with multiple formats and show books like cookbooks correctly. K-NFP is a partnership of   Kurzweil Technology  and   National Federation of the Blind . More information and a download link is available from:

Blio E-Reader Homepage with Download Link

The software requires a video card with at least 128mb of memory and capable of handling Direct-x 9+.  I downloaded the E-Reader with no problems.  If you try this, let me and other readers know how it works. I first read about this in the August CPU magazine, but the software was not yet ready for download then. The promo information and the site information promise great things from this free software..

I checked my video and it appeared it meet the requirments.  Installed the program with no problems.  Ran it and the demo video with no problems.  Downloaded a free book by Woodrow Wilson on Constitutional Government.  Viewing it was no problem.  234 pages or so download and conversion took a couple minutes.  Ironically, the old book was easier to read than the Blio Quickstart Guide and the Operators manual.  I have not tried the book reading option with audio which I would guess will be useful for blind or vision impaired who must read with their ears.

Blio will read E-PUB books.  A current version of PC Max or Tech Max has a CD with 100 E-Pub books on it. Tomorrow, I will see how this program works with them.

{Note added Sun Oct 10, 2010] It appears the Blio E-Reader converts files with .epub extension into files with .XPS extension and then reads the XPS rather than the EPUB file.  This conversion may turn a relatively small file into a rather large file.  Also, it did not appear that the Blio reader makes it possible to find files on a hard drive, flash drive, or CD which it can then load and convert.  I downloaded "Birds of South Dakota" by WH Over and tested the text to voice capability of Blio.  I let it run for 2 pages, and there was not one error. As indicated, I had a 100 EPUB files from a TECH MAX magazine CD.  I then downloaded another E-Book Reader for desktop use.  It is apparently also used by Amazon.  It can be downloaded from the link below:

MobiBook Desktop Reader Info Download

This program allows finding and importing files from disk sources with selection of the "TRANSFER" option and then selecting the appropriate file type.   The Mobi Pocket Reader interface is not quite as attractive as that of Blio, but it is useable. The "library" function of the Mobi Reader appears very good and simple.  Both these programs stuff downloaded or transfered files into your  Drive:\Documents and settings\documents\ Blio or My Ebooks folders.  Location of these folders is not immediately obvious.  Both programs allow downloads from their respective "Stores" of both free and paid books. [End Note of Oct 10,2010]

[[ Another note October 12, 2010.  Last night I downloaded KINDLE for PC and it works. I don't think at first glance that the free library options for it are as conveniently organized as for Blio for example.  Blio also has text to voice features not included in Kindle.  I plan to put together a future post with images and more experience using these PC E-Readers. The link for Kindle Download:   Amazon Kindle PC E-Reader Download.

After looking at these, It still seems to me that for anybody writing their own E-Book and reading it, that the TOME RAIDER software for the PC offers advantages.  The disadvantage is that it is not free.  If Pandigital NOVEL would get TomeRaider on it, it would be a really, really good deal.  More on this in a future post....Doug Wiken END OF NOTE ]]]

** Stay tuned for more...of something...holding you in suspense this time..you can breathe now anyway--- Doug Wiken

 

 

** Pandigital "Novel" gets to Winner,SD

We haven't been out of Winner for a few months, so I have not seen any of the e-book readers like Kindle.  I was a little surprised to see a display for the Pandigital Novel at the local discount retailer PAMIDA.  I asked a clerk if it was possible to see the actual device.  Well, yes, but no really.  They brought one out in the box, but could not open the box saying that would violate warranty for anybody actually purchasing it.  The device still looked interesting from the info on the box.  When I got on the internet, I did some searching and found the links below.  They include a lot of comments from users.  The device uses Android, so there are apparently hacks available that make it more versatile and hints that the company may make it easier to install Android apps.  Anyway, the devices are now out in the boondocks.

IPad has real competitor

PC World: P. Novel hacked to run Kindle for Android

C-Net User reviews of Pandigital Novel

Engadget: Review of Pandigital Novel

The Gadgeteer: Review of Pandigital Novel

The Coolest Gadgets: Android hack for Pandigital Novel

A couple more links found September 27:

Pan Digital Novel Home Site

Ziff-Davis reviews 10 E-Book Readers

One commmenter on the ZD story wondered why ZD writer wasn't also reviewing the advantages of small, convenient to carry  paper books compared to the electronic versions. Something to still think about

Not sure what to think. Looks like if reading e-books is all you want to do and you have little interest in messing with do-it-yourself hacks, the Kindle may be a better option. I'm still waiting for the e-ink $50 flat flexible plastic reader that is about the size of the top (or bottom) half of a regular-sized newspaper so paper can come down automatically at night and be loaded like a morning paper on the doorstep.

*** Stay tuned even if your dreams are all more realistic --- Doug Wiken

** An engine for a slow go-cart ...well not really

We get the Cooperative Connections monthly note in return for buying electricity from Rosebud Electric.  Now and then it  has some interesting stories.  One that caught my attention was "World's Largest Piston Engine". The information in the story with more and easier to see photos can also be found at    Vince Lewis on Big Engine   

The Vince's Worthwhile Website  has lots of other interesting stuff.  The story linked above is on his science and technology page where you can also look at the world's smallest engine.

I also see that the SDPB tech-savvy dudes who hit the radio waves some Fridays at "Midday" with the Computer Guys are adding a column for the Rosebud Cooperative Connections under "Technology Tips".  They also have their site Tech Radio. 

Looks like a couple more good ways to get information out to South Dakotans from our state institutions.  Too bad South Dakota colleges and universities don't make more of an attempt to be directly useful to the people who pay those college presidents their nice wages.

** Stay tuned for bad jokes and other irrelevancy too --- Doug Wiken