At the time, I brought it to the stream owner, Nuke’s attention and he immediately expressed disapproval. The ad itself is not too obtrusive, but it is there, nonetheless. It displays for approximately 10 seconds before it retreats to a small red tab on the right side of the live stream.

The advertisement is similar to what youtube.com has recently migrated to. I do not know how they ustream.tv) is going to target advertisers dollars to viewers or if Ustream.tv even has a way to keep feminine ads from being displayed on a masculine stream and vice-versa.

I wonder how long time ustreamers are going to react to the change, especially like the founders, Chris Pirillo?

See the full size capure at http://www.greenerhomeowner.com/filebin/nuke1ad.jpg

Wrong!

In the early days of the internet and to this day in varying degree, a person could scrape together a few lines of Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and as if by magic, call it a website. Today however, things are much more complex. There are many facets to building a website and as many languages to program sites as there are fingers on my hands. So how can a person survive in the complex world of administering their personal website?

Drupal.

I have been working half-heartedly with Drupal 5.5 now for just over 8 weeks as of this writing. The first 6 weeks were dedicated to installing, deleting and reinstalling the software and databases 3 times. I have spent hours on the phone with technical support. After all was said and done, it seems that my hosting provider did not have some key settings correct. So with those fixed, I should have been well on my way to administering my site. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It seems that my philosophy of taking the product out of the box, throwing  the instructions away and figuring it out on your own, does not work well with Drupal. I’ve had to UNLEARN my entire way of  doing things. It has served me well in the past, but in regards to content management systems, it is an epic fail!

My first lesson learned: It would be wise to sit down with paper and pencil and flowchart or at least sketch the form you would like your website to take on.  I tried to skip this step and found myself creating menus and more menus to navigate my site only to have them report 404 (page not found) because there were no content pages for the menus to point to.

The way I should have started was to create the pages of content *first*, then build the menu’s later. Drupal is more like a puzzle, where parts come together to make it whole. I’ve had to learn a whole new set of terms. Taxonomy, blocks, modules, aggregation, views, RSS and many more. Some parts of this puzzle do not play well with other parts. www.drupal.org has extensive modules and documentation to support them, but I still find myself floundering.

Just how Drupal is supposed to make my website design easier is still a mystery to me. I have lost countless hours sleep, building and rebuilding menu hierarchies, installing modules, views and themes as well as pages of content only to lose them *somewhere*.

This week I have made more progress than ever before. I have installed a new theme called Newsflash from www.roopletheme.com. I am viewing video tutorials, reading help faqs, and getting one-on-one help from some new found friends as well as old school trial and error. Things are becoming a little bit clearer as to the inner workings of this beast, but I would not say that ‘ease of use’ is Drupals strong suit.

I have so may more ideas and every day I lose more sleep trying to get them out of my head. I’d like to launch the site soon, so that one day you may even get to see my unique outlook on how an average homeowner sees the future of living green, saving money, alternative energy, solar power, wind power, DIY, and much, much more. If you would like to stop by, view my progress, or just say hello,  check out www.greenerhomeowner.com but be kind since it is a work in progress.

It is a collaboration tool that allows flexibility and accessibility for companies, schools, or anyone that has a group project that they need to interact on. It took minutes to set up and is tied to your company website or domain. You have the option to share it with everyone in your group, certain individuals, or the whole world.

I see the largest use for this tool in small to medium sized businesses. It would benefit R&D or project departments that need interaction from people spread out over the building or where close proximity interaction isn’t possible.

You can invite people to your project and have them work as owners, collaborators or just as a viewer. You can attach files, have an interactive calendar which can be merged with other members calendars, Google Docs, which includes documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

You can upload several types of files to Google Docs. HTML, and Text, as well as .doc, rtf, odt, sxw. Power-points as large as 10megs and spreadsheets as large as 1mb.

I believe that Google Sites in a limited fashion, is just another step closer to Internet based productivity or cloud computing of the future. It is taking the place of many programs that have been located on a users physical computer and made them much more mobile and accessible from anywhere that you can fire up a web browser.

Google seems to beheading in the direction of becoming a household mane in not only searching, but Internet based application software. Google Sites is one more feather in the Google suite of online productivity and collaboration software.

It is no secret and I believe at our current rate, our society is going to collapse in 20 years or less due to imbalance of perceived supply and demand of crude oil. We have lived in a consumerist economy since the end of WWII and that will be our own downfall.

I remember in the ’70s when we had the first ‘oil crunch’ and the lines at the gas pumps. That is literally going to be a drop in the bucket to what is coming and it really bothers me. It bothers me that ‘big business’ has done nothing to stave off this oncoming train wreck. The car industry and the oil industry have been bedfellows for forty plus years.

Environmentalists have been foretelling the end of days (for cheap oil) for decades, and their words have been drowned out by roar of the auto industry’s engines. We as consumers have been conditioned to buy vehicles with bigger engines and until recently, fuel economy was not an issue. More cubic inches equated to more horsepower which equated to more gas consumption. Boy did that make gas companies happy. (Still does)

Cut to the present day when we(the entire world) is now consuming almost as much crude on a daily basis as all of the worlds oil producers are willing to provide.(Notice I said ‘willing to provide’)

The uniqueness of this point in time when OPEC supply and universal demand is balanced, is called, PEAK OIL. Think of ‘peak oil’ as roller coaster ride. You get on board and slowly climb the top of the ride, OPEC is at the release lever and controls when the riders are taken for a ride. It is at that split moment when you are no longer going up, but haven’t yet embarked on the downward trek, is the peak.

In my opinion, ‘peak oil’ is going to be similar to a roller coaster experience. Once the OPEC created shortage scenario grabs hold, it will spiral consumers down with such speed and force that you will be willing to pay monumental prices for gasoline. This will cause riots, theft, and possibly even more wars. It will not be limited to gasoline. Crude oil is used to make so many other products, that it will cause prices to skyrocket across the board. Plastics, crayons, food storage bags, paint, soap, car parts and even compact discs and DVD’s will be impacted.

The secondary wave will be the cost of doing business. Transportation costs, groceries, durable goods, and so on will be in the cross hairs. All because of greed and money. We cannot develop alternatives to oil fast enough and bring them into the main stream. OPEC and oil producing nations literally have us over a barrel.(of crude).

I will be attempting to cut my dependence on oil in the coming months. I am taking less trips to town. I also am riding with friends and neighbors more. I am also planning to cut back on my home energy bills by utilizing alternative sources. I urge others to do the same. If we can show our neighbors that moving to a more conservative and greener lifestyle is painless, we are more apt to gain a foothold before major crises occur.

The last two weeks were spent in New Orleans and then on the Norwegian Spirit for a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean. I am no stranger to cruising. Regina, my S.O. and myself have been on four cruises now. The first three were on Carnival and this last as I just stated was aboard NCL.

The main reason I am writing this is to let you know about the sanitary practices experienced on this trip.

I had heard about ‘NORWALK like’ or ‘NOROVIRUS’ in the past, but had not been too concerned. These are nasty little buggies that cause a person to have flu like symptoms as well as stomach cramping, vomiting and diarrhea (gastroenteritis) that lasts for 24-60 hours. Not a way to spend a vacation.

Here is a little Q&A the CDC has put together: NOROVIRUS Q&A

I am aware that cruise ships are notorious for these nasties because the passengers are a captive audience like rats in a lab experiment. But this is where I was really impressed by what NCL was doing to combat this problem.

At the time of embarkation, we were asked in writing if we had been sick within the last few days and had to sign a paper of admission or not. I assume to make sure if you had the sickness you would be quarantined.

Then the next surprise was at each buffet or restaurant. As you got in line or entered the area, there were hand sanitizing stations that dispensed an alcohol liquid to kill the viruses. The plates were handed to passengers by a gloved crew member and all of the buffet food was served by crew behind the buffet steam table. The crew was serious about this as passengers would attempt to acquire food of their own only to be hastily chastised and served.

If you are unlucky enough to still contract the virus, you will be confined to your stateroom under quarantine until you have been better for at least 24 hours and released by the ships doctor.
I have to applaud Norwegian Cruise Line for taking a proactive approach to the safety of their passengers. It should be instituted by all cruise lines.

It is ironic that on the last day of our cruise, we were allowed to serve ourselves. I guess at that point, they weren’t worried if we got sick on the way home. Too funny!

So, in closing, to remain relatively safe:

• Wash your hands frequently.
• Always wash hands after using restroom facilities.
• Use a paper towel to open restroom door upon leaving.
• Cough into your arm, not your hand.
• Take some sort of hand sanitizer with you. It may just save your trip!

Bon Voyage!

It is the buzz acronym of 2007. (and maybe 2008)

Paid to click advertising, or PTC is popular for Internet marketers as well as people wanting to make money. The promises of wealth beyond your imagination to a comfortable extra hundred dollars monthly is promised by literally hundreds of websites out on the world wide web.

How can they pay you? Are they for real or a scam?

Here is *my* opinion on the Paid To Click gold rush.

Advertisers pay a website to guarantee them warm bodies to view their advertisements. Just like search engines can be paid so when you input a product or service, the paid advertisement always comes up at the top of the page and is sometimes highlighted. This is all well and good, but the problem herein is that the customer must be LOOKING for that particular item or service for paid advertising to work.

Introducing Paid To Click or PTC advertising. Here, an advertiser pays a website to advertise for them, usually 2¢ per hit or page view. The PTC website lures a potential customer or viewer into becoming a member by promising to pay them usually 1¢ per view and a referral for getting others to do the same.

It becomes the best of both worlds as th advertiser gets a warm body to view their ad and the clicker or viewer gets paid to view the ad. So where does all this money go and who gets it? Eventually, a customer will buy the service or product which in turn may pay a commission and it keeps the whole cycle going.

Show me the money!

The member/viewer(you) lets say gets 1 penny per click, so after viewing 100 ads, that person(you) now earned 1 dollar. If you have 10 other friends, neighbors, contacts doing the same as you and you referred them, you get a bonus or commission on their clicks too! Their friends, neighbors, and their friends and neighbors doing it becomes a powerful force.

If you look at it as a mathematical snowball effect you can see how you can POTENTIALLY make money. It all relies on continued participation by everyone and the constant referrals of others underneath the initial referrer.

1 person refers 10 which refer 10, which refer 10 and there you have 10,000 clicks.

10 friends x10 of their friends=100 new viewers 10×100=1,000 10×1000=10,000 and so on….

If each is paid 1 penny, that is a hefty crisp $100 bill for all 10,000 clicks. This is assuming a perfect world and everyone gets 10 friends and each one faithfully clicked their ad every day. That $100.00 is spread between the levels until it trickles back up to the initial referrer. Doesn’t this sound familiar to some of you out there? Network Marketing? Kinda.

BUT, we do not live in a perfect world. We are a fickle breed. Soon, we lose interest on things that are repetitive and there goes the perfect model right out the window. Don’t expect to get rich overnight. Like the snowball rolling down the hill it has to start with a single snowflake at the beginning.

Scam or Legit?

There are so many websites promising wealth. How do you sort them out? The best guide is intuition.

• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If promised $1000.00 per week or promised $100.00 per month, which would seem better? Most go for the quick money and say $1000, but that would not be practical. The 100,000 people it would take to pull this of isn’t likely for the average person.
• Look to see what others have already been paid. Some websites have areas to post payment checks with vital info blurred out photo’s can be doctored. If the photos are of most amounts under $50.00 it is a good bet the site is more legitimate than who post checks of $1000.00 or more.
• Written testimonials. Websites usually have support forums. Forums are not as easy to fake as photos. Watch to see that people posting amounts have been members for a length of time and have more than 5 posts under their belt. They are more likely to be credible.
• Don’t give out banking information. EVER! EVER! EVER! This is the biggest mistake that people make. Get a safe internet bank account and never tie it to your main household account. You can open secondary local bank accounts for little to nothing these days. PayPal is one service that you can open online. Then tie the new local account to PayPal.
• Search, Search and Search some more. A search engine may me the only thing that stands between you and losing your identity! Any popular search engine can be useful with just a few key words typed into the box. Search the company/website you are investigating and the word FRAUD, SCAM, COMPLAINT . If your results come back with just a few sites, then it is a reasonable bet the website is okay, but if it comes back with hundreds of results. RUN!
• Big Brother may be watching you. If you are a successful clicker, be aware that your newfound wealth is taxable when combined with your other annual income. It is INCOME.

In the end, it just boils down to common sense. If you want to try PTC to make a few extra dollars, then by all means, try it. If you happen to make more, enjoy your new found wealth. It can be as little as a click away!

The strong winds from the Northwest clashed with warm gulf moisture producing a line of tornadoes, severe storms, hail, and damaging winds starting around 2PM on Monday which lasted nearly 12 continuous hours.

At times, winds of 100+mph were reported with sustained winds of 50-60+mph racing across the South Central states overnight and are continuing to move to the Northeast.

Countless homes and businesses were damaged in this storm. A lot of details aren’t known at this time because the damages cannot be assessed until daylight returns to the region.

Local TV has reported many injuries and several deaths from this storm. I’m sure Southwest/Central Missouri will probably be considered a disaster area and possibly even part of Northwest Arkansas.

My local 5AM news is just coming on, so I will end this with a link to my local TV stations.

KY3 TV

KOLR 10

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Jan. 7, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) — EchoStar Holding Corporation today announced the launch of a new high definition (HD) DVR receiver to complement its premier line of ViP set-top boxes. The ViP612 is an advanced MPEG-4, dual-tuner, DVR receiver with integrated digital over-the-air tuner, and offers the visual clarity and superior surround sound of HD. The receiver will be available to customers in February.

“EchoStar continues to expand its suite of award-winning high definition receivers to meet and exceed the demands of DISH Network subscribers,” said Mark Jackson, president of EchoStar Holding Corporation. “With the recent holiday boom in HDTV sales, the ViP612 is the perfect solution for customers who have purchased an HDTV, and desire the ability to record HD content.”

The ViP612 — which is similar to the award-winning ViP622, but powers one TV — can record up to 30 hours of high definition content and 200 hours of standard definition content. It also features on-screen caller ID, a nine-day electronic programming guide (EPG), seamless access to both satellite and broadband delivered content, a host of interactive services through DishHOME Interactive TV, parental locks and more. ViP612 customers also have access to the most free national HD channels in the industry with more than 75, plus local channels where available.

The ViP612 is available for lease to new and existing DISH Network customers through DISH Network’s popular Digital Home Advantage (DHA) plan. For more information about DHA, DISH Network or the ViP612, call 1-800-333-DISH (3474), visit www.dishnetwork.com, or visit your local DISH Network retailer.

My father and his parents before him were Russian Orthodox. I have long forgotten the traditions that my relatives celebrated at this time of year until just moments ago. I recall only that my mother would prepare several dishes the day before so that they could be eaten Christmas eve.

I remember some of the foods. There were fruits and nuts as well as some kind of baked fish and a cream soup and pirohi(todays pirogies). But my most favorite was Lekvar!

It may not seem that a lenten sweet dough filled with a dried prune spread would be the favorite of a child, but I must admit, I liked it.  It sort of resembled a jelly or cinnamon roll, just filled with prunes.

Another was Pagach. This is a basic double crust bread dough pizza with just mashed potatoes and onions and the second crust goes on top. My mother added regular sliced cheese in later years. Similar to an Italian calzone, but no meat or sauce. We liked Pagach enough that my mother would make it throughout the year. It was very filling and portable, so you could grab it and go back outside to work on the farm.

I also remember the extravagant decorations and the old delicate ornaments hanging from the tree.  As a Child, I was thrilled that our family celebrated both the traditional American Christmas as well as that of the Russian Orthodox Church Christmas. I didn’t understand the symbolism or the reasoning back then. I was interested in PRESENTS!
Unfortunately, my fathers extended family didn’t get along to well after grandma passed and as the years have gone by, more and more of my relatives have also died as well as my parents, taking all of the old time traditions with them. I have long since given up on finding out more about my heritage because of that fact.

How time changes our lives. If you have family that is aging, please don’t lose your heritage. Cameras are cheap. Sit with grandma and grandpa and let the camera go as they reminisce and tell you stories of their childhood. Get genealogy information before its too late!

So if there is anyone reading this with ancestors from around Poland, Russia, Austria, Hungary, or the long forgotten and no longer existent country of ‘Galatia’, cheer up, its Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I could make this blog post all about the evolving technology, and the who, whats and wheres of the changeover to all digital in the upcoming few year, but alas, I have a tale of woe to tell.

In November of 2003, I excitedly rushed out for the holidays and purchased my first HDTV. It was my Christmas present to myself and my wheelchair bound mother. She liked to watch TV, but found that it was getting harder to see the 27″ screen from where her wheelchair was positioned at the edge of our sunken living room.

It was just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

At 57″, the rear projection Hitachi 57S500 was a top model that year. I felt just like a sports car fanatic with a brand new toy. We were both captivated by the clarity of the picture quality.

Fast Forward 3 Years: January 2007.

Herein is where the danger lies. At that time, I subscribed to the school of thought that believed if you leave on an electronic device that would be less strain on the components. We have all heard of the dangers about constant voltage surges and spikes at the moment of turning light bulbs on and off, right?. I have since learned the errors of my ways as well as being more concerned with todays energy conservation and being more ‘green’.

By now you are asking, where is the danger? The danger is that coupled with a Dish Network DVR satellite receiver, my beautiful Hitachi was slowly, systematically, day by day being damaged. In their ultimate wisdom(or lack thereof) Dish Network programmed a screensaver on their DVR boxes that displayed their logo to at various places on the screen after a set time of inactivity. This logo would appear to be random and I never thought anything about it.

Now at this point, I was LIVID! I was like Howard Beale in Network.

BURN IN

Yes, Burn in. Something that we all have experienced at the local video arcade(circa 1980’s) and at the ATM machine where you can see a faint ghost of an image seared into the phosphor coating of the displays electron gun. Early console gamers and their parents knoww all too well about burn in, when the kids leave the same video game on for days and days and days. My HDTV now faintly displays the Dish Network logo in several spots on the screen during light or single colored scenes. During action scenes, it isn’t too noticeable, but it is there nonetheless.

Two’s Company, Three’s a bundle!

Now if you know nothing about rear projection or TV, I’ll give you a crash course. In a regular analog TV, there are rows of dots on the screen comprised of red, green and blue in a single cathode ray tube or CRT. The picture is displayed when electrons are fired at the front of the glass and the phosphor coating glows. There you have it in simplistic terms.

For in depth explanation: See this WIki

A rear projection television has three CRT’s. There needs to be a CRT for ‘each’ color. These CRT’s or ‘guns’ as they are called are aligned to produce a single picture. Knowing this, you now now that instead of just one ‘gun’ needing replaced, I need all THREE! Replacing each plus the cost of installation and then having it recalibrated would cost me nearly as much as buying a newer model.

Since that time 1 year ago, when I reported their equipment was causing damage to my HDTV, Dish Network has changed their screensaver.  I still have to contend with seeing their logo at intermittent times like subliminal brainwashing, but I cannot bring myself to spend more money on a component that is nearly obsolete, no matter how good the picture quality.
So be warned. Plasma screen owners face the same consequence. The only ones spared will be LCD owners.

I have learned to turn off my electronics and I’ve also learned a lesson. In a conscious effort to conserve energy, I don’t leave my HDTV powered on 24/7 anymore. So I hope this blog post keeps someone else from having burn-in happen to them.