Mysterious Fireball Lights Up Western Canadian Sky II Video

Mysterious Fireball Lights Up Western Canadian Sky

Here are some follow up articles and images, I'm also going to try and post video as well. Let me know what you think.

Link To Video

Mysterious fireball lights up western Canadian sky

CTV Edmonton security cameras caught the meteor approach and then create a massive flash in the skyline on Thursday evening, Nov. 20, 2008.

CTV Edmonton security cameras caught the meteor approach and then create a massive flash in the skyline on Thursday evening, Nov. 20, 2008.
Amateur astronomer Alister Ling, based in southwest Edmonton, captured a bright flash in the sky from a camera that constantly monitors the sky.

Amateur astronomer Alister Ling, based in southwest Edmonton, captured a bright flash in the sky from a camera that constantly monitors the sky.


A mysterious fireball has lit up the sky in western Canada and may have been a meteorite which slammed into central Alberta, according to local reports.

While it's still unknown what caused the bright light, residents from northern Saskatchewan to southern Alberta have reported seeing it, the RCMP said.

MyNews user Dan Charrois, who lives about 50 kilometres north of Edmonton, said security cameras set up at his home managed to capture some grainy footage showing a big flare in the night sky.

"It happened so fast I don't think anyone would have had the reaction time to get it," he told CTV.ca, adding that his computer software business has written programs which track meteors.

Though Charrois didn't see the fireball himself, he decided to check the security tapes after his friends and neighbours called him to find out where the light may have came from.

"I only had to rewind a couple of minutes and it was there," he said, noting the security time stamped the flash at 5:26 p.m. local time.

"You kind of see a flash, which lasts about two seconds or so," he said.

CTV Calgary has also received several calls about the fireball, and one witness said it was so bright that it was visible from the Deerfoot freeway in the city's core.

Other witnesses in Lloydminster, located on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan, said the light was so strong that it appeared to be daylight when it passed over the area.

And locals at the Red Pheasant First Nation, 100 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, said the walls of their band office shook when the fireball streaked overhead.

The fireball may have crashed into the ground about 200 kilometres south of Calgary, according to witness Rob Westland.

Westland told CTV Calgary that he was driving with his son when the pair spotted a massive light.

The Brooks, Alta., resident said that the fireball was about the size of a house and that it may slammed into the ground with a muffled boom.

Meanwhile, Calgary-based astronomer Alan Dyer said that it's too soon to speculate on what caused the light.

Dyer, who works at the Telus World of Science, added that it will take time for experts to work through videos and photos to find out what exactly occurred.

Possible Meteor Lights Up The Skies In Northern Alberta

This is pretty amazing stuff there was another one that was seen over Quebec about a month or so ago but nothing was found this one sounds like it's big enough that they will find pieces of it. I also hope to have some images that I will post as they become available.

Possible meteor lights up the skies in northern Alberta

EDMONTON — A possible meteor lit up both the sky and the telephone lines in Western Canada on Thursday evening.

Around 5:30 p.m., a huge flash of light briefly turned the dark skies into daylight. Reports of sightings of the light and possibly a fireball came from Edmonton to Regina to Swan River, Man. People got so excited that RCMP in Lloydminster, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary, issued a news release asking people to stop calling them.

The excitement quickly spread to the scientific community, which was agog with the possibility the fireball might have dropped meteorites to the ground.

"Wow. That's impressive," said Chris Herd, associate professor of Earth and Atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta, when told of the wide geographical swath of reports.

"To see something from that far away, that's pretty substantial. The potential is that it's big. That tells you that the meteoroid is probably a good size. There's a pretty high chance that it dropped meteorites."

He said that pinpointing the location of any meteorites depends on two factors - people calling in to say they've found such space rocks, and people calling to report how far afield the fireball was spotted.

"The more reports that you have into that fireball-reporting ... the more data you have and then people can reduce that data and try and pinpoint where it may have landed."

He said typically, meteorites fall within a radius of a few kilometres.

The source of the meteor can only be determined once the meteorites are examined, said Heard, who is also curator of a collection of meteorites at the Edmonton university.

"The vast majority of the meteorites that we have, we're fairly certain, come from the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter."

Marcel Gobeil was on his acreage west of Beaumont, Alta., waiting for his wife to come home at the time.

"I just happened to look outside facing east," he said. "All of a sudden I saw this big flash coming down and I thought somebody was playing tricks on me, like fireworks behind the house or something.

"Just before that I heard a boom. I didn't know if it was a tree against the house. It was green and blue and it was coming down pretty fast."

Gobeil said the light display eventually turned orange, yellow and red and lasted 10 seconds.

"I was waiting for it to explode," he said. "It looked similar to when we watch (news reports) in Afghanistan. When I didn't see that, I said, 'well, that's something from outer space.' I'm sure it landed way out in Winnipeg or something."

Gobeil said he only wished he'd gotten a picture of the other-worldly event.

"It's exciting - both scary and really nice."

File Under Silly

This should be filed under silly!

"In “Market Economy and Ethics” the future pope said a decline in ethics “can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse,” Bloomberg reported."

That statement is just common sense when any market starts breaking it's own rules and the ethical standards decline you will see a decline and the absence of trust in those markets, it's not a prophesy though no matter how much one might try and make it so.



Pope credited for predicting financial crisis
Posted: November 20, 2008, 9:09 AM by Jonathan Ratner
Economics, Credit Crisis, recession

There is no shortage of experts claiming that they foresaw the global financial crisis. While some have a legitimate argument, many others don’t.

The most interesting such suggestion to emerge recently gives credit to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI was the first to predict the crisis, a “prophesy” in a 1985 paper presented when Joseph Ratzinger was a cardinal, according to Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti.

“The prediction that an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules can be found” in that paper, he said Wednesday at Milan’s Cattolica University.

In “Market Economy and Ethics” the future pope said a decline in ethics “can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse,” Bloomberg reported.

Jonathan Ratner

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI kisses a baby at the end of his general audience in Saint Peter Square at the Vatican October 8, 2008. REUTERS/Max Rossi (VATICAN)

A New Era Begins

As I write this I'm waiting for President Elect Barack Obama to make his speech. I wait with anticipation knowing I'm witnessing History. It is hard to believe that until recently the thought that an African American could be the President of one of the most powerful country's in the world was unthinkable, no one thought they would live to see it, let alone it could be possible.

At a time like this I think it is important to remember all the people who fought in the civil rights movement of the 1960's who in some cases gave their lives for the dream we see made into reality on this night.

The time is 11:57Pm and President Elect Barack Obama is standing at the podium, a crowd of One hundred sixty thousand plus has gathered at Grant Park to hear Obama speak. History speaks,a new voice of hope, of inclusion, this moment of time is hard to describe, it's full of awe and a hopefulness that I have not experienced before.

This is a moment in time I will remember, perhaps America will become a Beacon of Hope and freedom once more for those who are still oppressed in the world, I can not help but to think that a new era begins.

There Can Only Be One II

As of the time of writing this Barack Obama is poised to be the next President of The United States Of America. MSNBC has projected that Obama will be elected according to their exit polls and forecasts for the western states.

We are seeing history in the making, perhaps we will see a new era for the United States where it once again becomes a beacon for freedom and inclusion as opposed to the politics of exclusion.The World will be watching.

There Can Only Be One

After about a year of debate, it all comes down tonight with the world watching. Will history be made! Will we see the first African American President in The United States Of America's History!

I think Obama is going to win, I do have some fears though about the electronic voting in some regions as well as some fears around voter fraud after the last two elections one can not be too careful, either way it's going to be fun to watch.

Fallout Three & DRM SecuRom For PC

A lot of debate has focused around Bethesda's choice of using SecuRom for DRM protection on the PC version of Fallout Three. I have the game for Playstation Three so I'm happy That I don't like to play video games on the PC as I would not like any Third Party software checking my computer.

There has been some debate as to what was disclosed or not disclosed By Bethesda about what would be on the PC ROM Disc as of this date they just say that the software performs a simple disk check, though some gamers have made allegations that SecuRom acts in some ways like a rootkit and that if true is a very scary thought for PC Gamers.

I would be pleased to hear from anyone with technical knowledge of SecuROm and how it behaves on Fallout Three to either support the allegations of it being a rootkit or a somewhat harmless diskcheck, either way there seems to have been some issues about disclosure and the rights of customers to know what third party software is being installed on their computers. That in my opinion with any company should be transparent.

Please find the links below to The Bethesda Blog Post and Board Discussions around this issue. Also let me know what your thoughts are around this issue and DRM managment.

Bethesda Blog

Bethesda Weboard Thread About SecuRom

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone.

E-Bay And Third Party Coin Grading Company's Sued

This should be interesting to see what happens, there have been a few cases working their way through the courts the decisions made could have a big impact on E-bay and the other party's in my opinion.

Online Internet auction firm eBay, the American Numismatic Association, the Professional Numismatists Guild, and the ANA president's coin firm have been hit with a lawsuit in federal court alleging anti-competitive conduct.

There are four plaintiffs: Universal Grading Service of New Jersey; John Callandrello, a UGS shareholder; Joseph Komito, a New Jersey coin dealer; and Vadim Kirichenko, a New York coin dealer.

They claim damages in excess of $75,000, exclusive of costs, interest and attorney's fees and permanent injunctive relief.

Basis for the claim is an allegation of conduct "constituting violation of antitrust policies, as well as violation of anticompetitive conduct.

There is also a claim for "civil conspiracy and trade libel" pursuant to New York common law. Under the rules of defamation, truth is an affirmative defense to trade libel, if the action complained of actually took place.

The summons and complaint was filed in late August in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, headquartered in Brooklyn, where the Hon. Charles Sifton presides. An initial conference has been scheduled for Jan. 19, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. before the Judge Robert M. Levy.

Plaintiffs claim a "conspiracy between [Barry Suppler & CO., LLC], ANA, PNG and eBay to obstruct the ability of the smaller coin grading services to participate in the coin marketplace on eBay."

The basis of the claim: In 2001, eBay "formed a group that became known as the 'Internet rules committee' made up of coin industry insiders, including Barry Stuppler, in his capacity as then ANA governor and chairman of the ANA Consumer Protection Committee (the precursor to the "Coins Community Watch Group"), Doug Winter, a PNG dealer, and R. Steven Ivy," of Heritage.

Through the effort of this group and others, plaintiffs charge, PNG, in conjunction with the Industry Council for Tangible Assets ("ICTA") and spearheaded by Stuppler, commissioned a survey of rare coin authentication and grading services, which it is claimed gave rise to false and damaging results because of insufficient data.

"Small grading companies like UGS were never referenced in 2006 Grading Service Survey," it is claimed. Thus, coupled with an eBay policy permitting "only coins that have been graded by five grading services (NGC, NCS, PCGS, ICG and ANACS, ) to be listed for sale on eBay as "certified" coins," they claim these actions are anti-competitive and illegal.

The policies, plaintiffs hope to prove, are "destroying the competitive free market by prohibiting consumers and dealers from purchasing or dealing in certified coins graded from any coin grading service except for the ones listed in eBay's policy."

Attorneys for the companies that claim to be besmirched brought it as a class action suit on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated who comprise the ... "class." That includes "all companies and individuals who provide coin grading services on the market for coin auctions to the public at large and who have not been certified by eBay as 'the authorized grading company" pursuant to eBay's Counterfeit Currency and Stamps policy and who are interested in pursuing this lawsuit.' The class period is from January 2004 to the present.

It is also claimed that "eBay's policy enacted on Sept. 17, 2007 ... is per se unlawful because it limits the flow of goods in commerce."

There will be procedural wangling as to whether the ANA has a sufficient New York presence to be sued here. Presumably, as a national organization which held conventions in New York City in 1997, 1976, 1939 and earlier; had officers who resided or were present and conducted official ANA business in New York over extended periods of time, that may be hard to defeat.

PNG procedurally faces a better set of facts, as does Suppler. EBay will be interesting to watch since their presence is everywhere there is the Internet, but the law is more nuanced. ICTA, though named as a part of all this, was not sued.

For now, the case is in a legal hiatus while plaintiffs try an serve the defendants with legal process. Once that's done, there may be requests for summary relief before an answer is even filed, or the case may proceed with a different track which will be interesting to watch as it plays out. The step after that is the 2009 conference.

LawSuit against God tossed over lack of address

This has to go into the the strange but true file, it just goes to show some people have too much free time with nothing better to do but file lawsuits.

LINCOLN, Neb. - A judge has thrown out a Nebraska legislator's lawsuit against God, saying the Almighty wasn't properly served, because of his unlisted home address. State Sen. Ernie Chambers filed the lawsuit last year seeking a permanent injunction against God.

He said God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents in Omaha, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

Chambers has said he filed the lawsuit to make the point that everyone should have access to the courts regardless of whether they are rich or poor.

On Tuesday, however, Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk ruled that under state law a plaintiff must have access to the defendant for a lawsuit to move forward.

"Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice," Polk wrote.

Hole in the judge's ruling?
Chambers, who graduated from law school but never took the bar exam, thinks he's found a hole in the judge's ruling.

"The court itself acknowledges the existence of God," Chambers said Wednesday. "A consequence of that acknowledgment is a recognition of God's omniscience."

Therefore, Chambers said, "Since God knows everything, God has notice of this lawsuit."

Chambers has 30 days to decide whether to appeal. He said he hasn't decided yet.

Chambers, who has served a record 38 years in the Nebraska Legislature, is not returning next year because of term limits. He skips morning prayers during the legislative session and often criticizes Christians.

Black Friday

CRASH, BOOM,CRASH. That pretty much sums up the past few weeks on the world stock markets.

9/11 Seven Years Later

Well it's seven years later and the memories are still fresh somehow. I think for people of my generation what happened today seven years ago will become our watershed moment like the attack on Pearl harbor became one for that generation.

It's made me want to ask where were you when you heard the news?

Hollys Fund For Breast Cancer Treatment

There is a game I play called Blogshares it's a fantasy market that uses blogs as stocks. Recently a person has been trying to get help for a person who lives in The United States and does not have insurance. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer. For some reason I have been really bothered by this, I'm not a wealthy person, though I do want to help, so I'm writing in the hope that others may respond. I just don't understand how when we live in country's that are so rich, that something so basic as medical care can bankrupt a person or even worse leave them without the treatments that could save their lives, it just does not seem right, to me it's just plain wrong. There is a link below that will take you to Hollys site where there is more information about her plight, please visit it and if you have the means try to help.

Hollys Fund.

Photographer Documents Secret Satellites — All 189 of Them

I thought this was a very interesting article, also I liked the premise That How we look at Photography may have changed, that now some see it as a way of revealing truth of things that are hidden.His shots of 189 secret spy satellites are the subject of a new exhibit -- despite the fact that, officially speaking, the satellites don't exist. The Other Night Sky, on display at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum through September 14, is only a small selection from the 1,500 astrophotographs Paglen has taken thus far.

read more | digg story

eBay Convicted in Counterfeit Case

eBay Convicted in Counterfeit Case

Finally something is happening, it's a small fine but it sets the precedent maybe now we will see some action in other areas.

eBay- Convicted- in-Counterfeit- Case

...

In what has the makings of a landmark decision, a court in Reims, France,
has ruled that eBay is directly responsible for the sale of bogus Hermes
bags on its auction site, and ordered the e-commerce giant to pay 20,000
Euros, or approximately $30,000, in damages. The ruling, handed down
Wednesday, stated that eBay "failed to act within [its] powers" to prevent
counterfeiting activity within its online community, according to a news
report, which stated the verdict was the first of its kind in France.

In a statement issued following the ruling, eBay said: "eBay takes the issue
of counterfeiting very seriously and we condemn it outright. Today's court
ruling relates to past seller verification issues. The court acknowledged
that eBay subsequently addressed these issues with its enhanced
anti-counterfeiting measures through its VeRO initiative."

...

A handful of similar cases are pending against eBay in five European
countries, and at least one is under review in the U.S. How heavily the
Hermes decision will factor in the direction of the remaining lawsuits
depends largely on the locality of the individual cases, notes Aaron
Kessler, senior research analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co. in East Palo Alto,
CA.

"The question is, who is the merchant of record, and how much is eBay
responsible for verifying the authenticity of the items sold on its site,"
Kessler says. "Each country might have its own interpretation of that. If
people don't trust what they're buying, that's a problem for eBay"

The material impact of the court fines will barely register at eBay-$30,000
is pocket change for the multibillion- dollar Internet goliath. However, eBay
has plenty to fear in terms of the psychological effect on buyers. While
it's probably close to impossible to completely eliminate illicit activity
on such an online venue, the company can and should take steps to increase
enforcement, Kessler says.

"There is continuing concern for buyers on issues of trust and safety. If
people don't trust what they're buying, that's a problem for eBay," he adds.
"We have been seeing slower buying activity on eBay the last couple of
years."

...

According to an Agence France-Presse report, lawyers for The Hermes Group
asserted eBay is "an active player in the transaction because, not only does
it offer a number of services to improve the sale, but when it does not work
well enough or fast enough, they intervene with the client. They are
perfectly informed of the transactions since they take a percentage cut."

Several other European designer brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior
Couture and cosmetics company L'Oreal have separately sued eBay for doing
too little to thwart counterfeit activity. Unifab, a French industry lobby
group, has also taken eBay to court, seeking action by eBay to better police
its site.

In the United States, a counterfeiting lawsuit filed by Tiffany in 2004 is
now being considered by a New York federal judge.

Alexander The Great (336–323 BC) (Coinage And History)

I have not been posting as much as I would like with the coinage and history series, so I thought I would get one out for a change this is one of my newest additions to the collection below you find some info on the coin and some history as well.

AR Drachm 19mm. 3.88g. Colophon Mint 301-297 B.C.

Head of Herakles, r. wearing lion skin headdress.
Zeus enthroned left., holding eagle and sceptre; lion's head left. above crescent in left. field; pentagram below throne.
Price 1832

Alexander the Great (Greek: Αλέξανδρος ο Μέγας or Μέγας Aλέξανδρος, Megas Alexandros; July 20 356 BC – June 10 323 BC),also known as Alexander III and Alexander the Macedonian, was an ancient Greek king (basileus) of Macedon (336–323 BC). He was one of the most successful military commanders in history, and was undefeated in battle. By the time of his death, he had conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.

Alexander assumed the kingship of Macedon following the death of his father Philip II of Macedon. Philip had united most of the city-states of mainland Greece under Macedonian rule (the so-called League of Corinth). After reconfirming Macedonian hegemony by quashing a rebellion of southern Greek city-states, and staging a short but bloody excursion against Macedon's northern neighbors, Alexander set out east against the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which he defeated and overthrew. His conquests including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria, and Mesopotamia, and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as Punjab, India.

Prior to his death, Alexander had already made plans for military and mercantile expansions into the Arabian peninsula, after which he was to turn his armies to the west (Carthage, Rome, and the Iberian Peninsula). His original vision had been to the east, though, to the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea, as described by his boyhood tutor Aristotle.

Alexander integrated many foreigners into his army, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He also encouraged marriages between his soldiers and foreigners; he himself went on to marry two foreign princesses.

Alexander died after twelve years of constant military campaigning, possibly as a result of malaria, poisoning, typhoid fever, viral encephalitis or the consequences of alcoholism. His legacy and conquests lived on long after him, and ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and cultural influence over distant areas. This period is known as the Hellenistic Age, and featured a combination of Greek, Middle Eastern and Indian culture. Alexander himself was featured prominently in the history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. His exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appeared as a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles.

CityScape

This is a bit different from some of my other posts hope you enjoy it.
If you would like to use my Photo's for Derivative Works or other use please contact me for permission. I can also provide Higher resolution photo's if needed.

If you would like to use my Photo's for Derivative Works or other use please contact me for permission. I can also provide Higher resolution photo's if needed.


This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Licence.

Microsoft, HP ready XP SP3 endless-reboot patches Help is ON the way for The Endless Reboot Monster

Well it looks like help might be on the way for those of us that got hit by The Endless Reboot Monster that owners of HP Computers with AMD chipsets were having.

Help is on its way for users affected by the Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 endless-reboot problem that has plagued some users for the past week-plus.

Both Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard are readying patches that should remedy the glitch, which seems to affect primarily users of AMD-based systems.

Microsoft blamed OEMs who improperly placed a Windows XP image created for Intel-based machine on non-Intel-based systems.

HP is advising users running XP on AMD-based systems to delay deploying SP3 until the company releases a patch, which sounds like it is due out this week or next at the latest. From a May 15 report in Computerworld:

“HP is working diligently with Microsoft on a software update and will be proactively distributing a patch this week through HP Update that will prevent this error from occurring….The patch will be posted to this page of HP’s support site when it’s available.

“Microsoft is also developing a prerequisite fix that must be downloaded before SP3 will automatically install prior to its proactive distribution of SP3,” HP statement added.”

MICROSOFT Blames Users For security Holes

MICROSOFT Blames Users For security Holes

Well well well, This goes down as one of the cutest excuses of the year award. Microsoft says "The number of virus infections found by a virus vendor does not necessarily equal poor security," wrote Kleef in a blog post. "In many cases it equals poor user behavior. If I, despite all prompting and consent behavior, choose to go to a (probably dodgy) website, accept the ActiveX control prompts to download (probably dodgy) code and I actually choose to execute that code then I'm hosed."

Well is that not convenient as the church lady would say from Saturday night live, Hmmm Maybe Satan made you you do it? When I write I try and think of things from the point of view of the average user, as thats what I am. I'm not a techy, and I'm most definitely not a computer software developer, but this sure as hell sounds to me like the hopelessly useless account user interface on Vista is being used as a way to blame user's for Window's flawed code.

I would like to ask Microsoft how many user's can tell what is a good active X control and what is dodgy? I know I can't, but I do know many websites have them and I can tell you when I say yes using Microsoft's account control it give's me no useful information whatsoever to tell me if it's dodgy or not, it just let's me know something is going on, but I have no idea if thats a normal process or not. Microsoft stop blaming the customer. I want to know what do you think? Is Microsoft right is the User to Blame?

Microsoft has claimed user "complacency" is to blame for malware infections, and denied that its Vista operating system is less secure than Windows 2000.

The claim that Vista is less secure than Windows 2000 was made last week by security vendor PC Tools, which said that over the past six months Vista had suffered 639 unique threats, whereas Windows 2000 has suffered 586. PC Tools's research was conducted by collecting data from customers using its ThreatFire behavioral detection software.


"Ironically, the new operating system has been hailed by Microsoft as the most secure version of Windows to date," said Simon Clausen, the chief executive of PC Tools last week.


"However, recent research conducted with statistics from over 1.4 million computers within the ThreatFire community has shown that Windows Vista is more susceptible to malware than the eight-year-old Windows 2000 operating system, and only 37 percent more secure than Windows XP," Clausen said.


However, Microsoft strongly hit back at the claims, blaming users for executing malicious code on their machines. On Tuesday, Technet blogger and Microsoft evangelist Michael Kleef said the number of infections found by PC Tools was an indication of poor user behavior.


"The number of virus infections found by a virus vendor does not necessarily equal poor security," wrote Kleef in a blog post. "In many cases it equals poor user behavior. If I, despite all prompting and consent behavior, choose to go to a (probably dodgy) website, accept the ActiveX control prompts to download (probably dodgy) code and I actually choose to execute that code then I'm hosed."


Kleef claimed the number of infections was not purely the operating system's fault, but said that "in some cases it's the user and their lack of knowledge and their implicit 'it-won't-happen-to-me' complacency" that causes them to get infected.


Kleef's comments followed on from a blog post on Friday by Austin Wilson, the director of Windows Client Security Product Management, which also denied that Vista was less secure than Windows 2000. Wilson said results collected from over 450 million uses of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) and published in Microsoft's most recent Security Intelligence Report show Vista is more secure than Windows 2000.


"Our results published in the April 2008 version of the Security Intelligence Report show that Windows Vista is significantly less susceptible to malware than older operating systems," wrote Wilson in the blog post. "Using proportionate numbers, MSRT found and cleaned malware from 44 percent fewer Windows Vista-based computers than Windows 2000 SP4 computers and 77 percent fewer than from computers running Windows 2000 SP3."

Microsoft XP SP 3 The Reboot Monster

I'm not a High tech person, I'm pretty simple really and not very demanding all I want is for something to work properly. I tried installing SP 3 on My AMD machine. I read all the paperwork on known issues and thought I was safe, needless to say I was not.

I ended up getting the endless reboot monster. I was lucky though I was able to get into a safe mode where I could do a restore some people are not even able to do that! Now I'm spending hours fixing everything reinstalling security fixes and that does not even cover my losses.

I'm sick and tired of Microsoft putting out things that break your computer at what point should they be held financially liable? My thoughts are the only time we are going to see them take responsibility is when it Hurts their pocket book.

I'm going to take a wait and see approach though, as I know Microsoft is Blaming HP for using an alleged disk image that was only to be used for Intel machines, but I think Hp is saying Microsoft put in an unnecessary driver that is causing the crashes either way I'm one ticked off customer. I also don't think this is an isolated event please take the time to report your problems with Microsofts XP SP 3 here. You will also find some links below to some helpful info.

Jespers Blog

Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3

Progress Of The Torch Make A Difference For Tibet

Jinjirrie said...
The more information exchanged throughout the net about human rights abuses in ALL countries practising same, the more likely people within those countries who are working towards change will feel empowered and supported.

If you are interested in following the progress of the torch, check out http://twitter.com/teamtibet
Thank You for the Info I will be checking that out for sure.

Some Thoughts on Why You Can Make A Difference For Tibet

This type of issue is new to me. I just got tired at least in Canada of seeing our political leadership unwilling to take a stand when traditionally Canada has been viewed to have taken a strong stance on the universality of human rights.

The problem I'm faced with is how does one try and make a difference, and how to get other people interested and involved, so they can exert the most impact.

My thinking around boycotting company's came about because I think the Olympics have become very commercial in nature and a lot of money is spent to get people to buy products either Olympic branded ones or from other company's advertising their products.

Make a Difference for Tibet II

tahoejimbo420 said...
It will not do any good, the wealthiest communist capitalistic government in the world (and loans the US billions of dollars, who opened up trade relations in the 70's under Nixon) doesn't care.
Tibet, and Tienanmen Square and other atrocities should show that US quickly forgets, and had adopted torture as accepible.
Until there is a huge change in OUR government it will remain the status quo.


Thank You for your comment. I do think some things can work though.

We may be lacking leadership from the Democratic country's, but I'm talking about company's who advertise and sponsor the Olympic games. If a large number of people make it clear to those company's that they will make it a point to not buy their products, that affects those company's directly and hurts their reputation and bottom line. Company's respond to that and might with the right amount of pressure from the public pull their adds.

The last thing you want as a company is a Tainted product that will be associated with Human rights abuses.

Make a Difference for Tibet

I have been thinking a lot about human rights recently and the situation between Tibet and China. The main focus of my thinking is how can a person at the grassroots level show their displeasure of the human rights abuses and unlawful occupation of Tibet.

Given the Summer Olympics will be in China, I thought the best way for people to get a point across in a peaceful manner would be for everyone to check out who the sponsors and advertisers are in their home country's, the television stations, Websites, Print Media and write them, phone them or E-mail them telling them in no uncertain terms that you will boycott their products, in other words hit them in their pocketbooks if they don't pull their adds.

Let me know what you think would work or your ideas and pass this on if you think it's worthwhile. Also Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts you have about this issue in the comments section.

The Never Ending Winter 2008 Otter Lake

Here are some pictures Of Otter Lake Quebec from Two days Post storm.

The Never Ending Winter 2008

Is your Xbox 360 still working? You must be one of the lucky ones.

Is your Xbox 360 still working? You must be one of the lucky ones. This is a very interesting article about the Xbox 360 failure rate it makes for an interesting read. Let Me know what you think.

Over 18 million Xbox 360s have sold through since the console's launch in November 2005, but just how many of those are still working? Squaretrade, a company that specializes in providing warranty support to purchasers of electronic goods from various manufacturers, claims 16% of Xbox 360s experience a hardware failure within six to ten months after a warranty purchase. Three out of every five failures were for the infamous "Red Ring of Death" general hardware failure error, a problem often linked to overheating.

The Xbox's figures compare poorly to competing consoles, which have a failure rate of around 3% -- and if anything, the Squaretrade figure underestimates the scale of the Xbox 360's reliability issues. It's a good bet that some buyers of Squaretrade warranties went straight to Microsoft after experiencing hardware issues and don't factor into the 16% number. On its company blog, Squaretrade pointed out that failure rates are "certain to go up" as the machines in their study group grow older.

Microsoft is cagey about coughing up official failure rate figures, which has lead some commentators to speculate about the actual severity of the problem. Luke Plunkett, a blogger on respected games news site Kotaku, said in a recent post that if the real failure rate wasn't in the 30-40% range, he'd "wolf down humble pie until his sides split."
Plunkett's sides are likely safe. Stories of 360 owners making their way through eight or nine consoles aren't hard to find, but to its credit, Microsoft has been working with the affected individual in at least one of those cases to lessen the impact of the constant failures.

16 Percent of Xbox 360s Are Likely to Break, Report Claims Even so, there's a surprise lurking for consumers who return their 360s for repair. When you purchase content -- arcade games, extra tracks, etc. -- over Xbox Live, it's playable by any user on the console you used to make the transaction. If you go to a different console and sign in with your gamertag, you can download the content and play it only for as long as you're signed in. Once you move back to your main machine, it will no longer be playable. Sounds like a handy system to let you take the content you own from place to place, right? But the trick with this system is that once a broken machine returns from its little vacation, it generally has sufficient internal changes to make it look, to Xbox Live, like a different console. So all your downloaded content -- which, if you're a heavy user, could amount to hundreds of dollars worth of purchases -- are only accessible to one gamertag, and only when the console has a live internet connection.

Getting this situation resolved can be difficult. Affected users have reported having to make repeated calls to the Xbox support line, often to no avail. Some fortunate individuals were able to eventually convince the MS reps to refund all the points they'd spent so they could repurchase all the affected content, although they had to do it using a different gamertag.

How to Avoid Hardware Problems

Air it out. Many failures are attributed to the inadequate cooling system of early-model 360s, so anything you can do to give it an easier time will pay off. Make sure you put the console in a place with cool, steady airflow.
Move it and lose it. Don't change the orientation of the console when it's running. The DVD drive's running gear isn't as well secured as it could be, so knocking over a vertically-standing console can cause the machinery to collide with the disc surface. Characteristic circular scratches are the result and are generally fatal for the game.

Think new. Thanks to a well-publicized cooling system redesign, newer machines are less likely to suffer problems. Any console bought in the last six months or so should have much better chances of surviving.

Red Ring of Death: What to do

Is it a "real" red ring of death? Somewhat confusingly, the true red ring error only has three of the four quarters of the ring illuminated. If all four are lit up, you have a much simpler problem: your A/V cable is loose!
Enterprising 360 owners have discovered a homebrewed way to fix the problem, although it only works for a short period of time. It involves turning on your console, wrapping it tightly in a towel, and leaving it on for 20-25 minutes. This might void your warranty from Microsoft, so consider yourself warned.

If all else fails, hit up the Xbox web site to request a warranty repair. They'll send you a cardboard "coffin" for you to return your console and send back a fixed machine in a few weeks. The official warranty was extended to three years for this specific problem, so even launch-day 360s are technically still covered.

Microsoft pulls plug on HD DVD players

Well it looks like Sony won, HD DVD seems to be dead.

Microsoft Corp. said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 video game system after Toshiba Corp. ceded the high-definition video format battle to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray.

Microsoft said Saturday it would continue to provide standard warranty support for its HD DVD players. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida last week estimated about 300,000 people own the Microsoft video player, sold as a separate $130 add-on for the Xbox 360.

"HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own," Blair Westlake, a corporate vice president of Microsoft's media and entertainment group, said in a written statement.

Microsoft was one of HD DVD's main backers, along with Intel Corp. and Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp., and its support for the format was seen as a big win for Toshiba's format.

But support for the HD DVD waned as major movie studios — Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment — picked Blu-ray to distribute high-def DVDs. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. struck what seemed to be the final blow just over a week ago when it said it would only sell Blu-ray players and discs.

Microsoft said it is looking at how the HD DVD technology it has developed, such as HDi, which adds interactive features to HD DVDs, and its VC-1 video encoding technology, can be applied to other platforms.

The Redmond-based software maker said the decision to stop selling HD DVD players won't have a material impact on its video game business.

Total Lunar Eclipse: February 20, 2008

There is going to be a total lunar eclipse tomorow above is a chart from Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC showing it's phases I hope to try and get some photos to post as well and if anyone else is able to get any pictures, please feel free to contact me and I will post them.

Asteroid 2007 Near Earth Object

Well it looks like some more fun stuff for next week, Hopefully people can get some pictures of it. If anyone is able to get pictures E-Mail me them and I will post them here. Another option just leave a way for me to contact you in the comments section and I will contact you.


Asteroid 2007 TU24 will pass within about 540,000 kilometres, or 1.4 lunar distances, of Earth early Tuesday for Canadians, reaching its closest approach at 3:23 a.m. ET.

The asteroid will, for a brief time, be visible to amateur telescopes of 7.5-centimetre apertures or larger, according to the Near-Earth Object program office of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

The asteroid, measuring between 150 and 600 metres in diameter, has no chance of hitting or affecting the Earth, the office said.

Asteroids of this size or larger are expected to pass this close to Earth, on average, about every five years, the scientists said. Asteroids of this size hit the Earth on average once every 37,000 years, they said.

In 2002, amateur astronomers were able to observe the flight of an 800-metre-wide asteroid when it passed over North American skies at a similar distance from Earth.

On March 31, 2004, a small asteroid, designated 2004 FU162, came the closest to Earth, passing within 6,500 kilometres, or roughly one Earth radius. It was only five to 10 metres in diameter, however.

Asteroid 2007 TU24 was discovered last October. NASA scientists said they plan to track and take high-resolution radar images of the asteroid as it nears Earth, with the hopes of producing a 3-D reconstruction.

Is There Life On Mars

Well it's been a busy week and this picture has been in the news a lot. It reminded me of a David Bowie Song, Is There Life On Mars? The lyrics follow below for the song.

David Bowie - Life On Mars Lyrics

It's a God awful small affair
To the girl with the mousey hair,
But her mummy is yelling, "No!"
And her daddy has told her to go,
But her friend is no where to be seen.
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seats with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen,
But the film is sadd'ning bore
For she's lived it ten times or more.
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It's the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?

It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow.
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again.
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads.
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns,
But the film is a sadd'ning bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more.
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It's the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?

E-Bay And Third Party Coin Grading Companys

I thought some people might be interested in this suite that has started with E-Bay and some of the slabbing company's. This I think could get very interesting and may work. It also highlights some of the problems with Third Party Grading services/slabbing.

E-Bay Auction Worries

This could get interesting I had suspected E-Bay was having some trouble as they had what I considered a very aggressive advertising campaign in Canada for their website. It should be interesting to see what the future holds, though I suspect things will get worse before they get better in my opinion.
Let me know what you think.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman is reportedly pondering retirement as the online auction giant struggles with slowing growth. Makes you wonder about those fourth quarter results eh?

The Wall Street Journal reports that Whitman is seriously thinking about retirement after a decade at the helm. That’s a lifetime among Internet companies. For instance, Yahoo has been through three CEOs in the last decade. John Donahoe, who leads eBay’s auction unit, is the front runner to succeed Whitman.

What’s Whitman’s departure mean? Big changes are coming. A few hints of how big these changes are will come Wednesday when eBay reports its fourth quarter earnings. Analysts are expecting a profit of 41 cents a share in the December quarter with sales of $2.14 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Going into the quarter, analysts expect eBay to cut its outlook for 2008 with a lot of management time spent on reviving listings growth. Listings growth in the U.S. is expected to be up roughly 3 percent in the U.S., according to Jeffries analyst Youssef Squali. However, Squali notes that eBay gets more than half of its revenue from overseas and a weak dollar can boost results. Overall, eBay is going to spend a lot of time talking about listing prices and potentially a major price adjustment.

eBay’s has two critical issues. First, Amazon’s third party partners are taking eBay market share. It’s unclear what eBay can do to boost listings revenue (it doesn’t have pricing power anymore). Most analysts expect eBay to cut insertion fees.

Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post writes:

EBay management has indicated that the company is looking at restructuring its listing fees structure in order to improve seller sentiment and increase listings activity (and better compete with Amazon for high volume sellers, in our view). Industry sources and our calculations indicate that sellers currently pay approximately 50-60% of their eBay fees upfront in insertion, gallery, and other option fees and only 40% in final value fees on goods that actually sell. For many sellers, particularly larger professional sellers, the lack certainty on their marketing cost of sales (because they can’t predict conversion rates) limits how much they are willing to commit to the eBay marketplace.

Simply put, it’s a good time for Whitman to hand off the reins–especially if impending changes at eBay will take a while to pay off.