I’ve been working on Windows machines since the existence of Windows, and I always hated the dreaded blue screen error. It has been quite a long time since I’ve had one of those, but today I had one. This machine has been fairly stable, the only additions were an extra gig of memory and my cell modem. No programs added or new hardware, except a Windows update yesterday.

The problem with this blue screen was that it flashed and went directly to reboot. Not a chance to read the screen at all. Not that it would have helped, but maybe it would have given a clue. I actually had to cancel a reboot to start from my last known good start. Grumble….

Now back to that blue screen. Back in the day when you could actually tell what happened (early dos for you folks that don’t know) it wasn’t the terrible trouble it seems to be now. When Windows 3.1 finally rolled in and you could actually do some multi-tasking, the blue screens ominous tone. Since you were multi-tasking, you weren’t always sure what task caused the error. Most of the time it was running the multiple tasks that caused the error in the first place. Windows became known for its blue screen of death. For a long time this prevented windows from being used for important functions (think payroll). It took Windows 2000 to finally start getting Windows machines that were fairly stable. I sometimes wonder where computer networking would be today if the early windows machines would have failed with more precise error messages. Would the world of Linux and Unix file servers have taken off as they did. Would Apple have any opening in the corporate world? I really think the downfall of the early Windows machines was that blue screen of death. Even the color made the machine seem ‘toy’ like. And the messages, well lets just say it took a lot to be able to get anything out of them. If a stable Windows environment existed from the beginning, would we even have the Virus writers/hackers of today?

I guess we will never know, until the next computer revolution.

By the way, I really think my latest blue screen was caused by the update Microsoft/Windows decided to make yesterday evening.

Earlier this week I heard about someone from Georgia (State in US, not the Country) found a body of what they believed to be Bigfoot. They said there would be press conference on Friday (today) that would explain everything, and be proof positive of Bigfoot’s existence. You did not see a blog on this earlier, because I believed they were all wet. After the press conference today, my mind has not changed.

I would like for someone to find Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or a Yeti, but so far there are only a few blurry pictures and some anecdotal stories.

While I contemplated that story, I remembered a short story about a guy who brings a College football player from Tibet. I couldn’t find it anywhere on the web, so I will have to hunt through my collection of books someday. I don’t recall if they ever said the player was a Yeti, but it was hinted at very strongly. Good short story for me to remember it for this long (years).

In the State of Utah, a rock arch in Utah’s Arches National Park collapsed. Now I never have been to the state of Utah, and therefor have never been to this park. From pictures I have seen, it looks like a place I would like to visit. The pictures made me think of one of my favorite places that I’ve ever been is in South East Ohio. A wonderful State Park area called Hocking Hills. As a family we’ve had many great vacations there.

The story of the collapsing arch, made me remember the rock falls around the hiking trails of Hocking Hills. Going back time after time, you can see how the rock falls change the area. Trails are closed or rerouted and each trip can be different than the last.

The thing is that even with this arch fall, people didn’t see it happen. With all the times at Hocking, I never saw a rock fall but have seen the results. I know people do occasionally see them, most of the time they fall unnoticed. I would like to talk to someone who saw a large rock fall.

One thing I just thought about was the fact that these rock falls occur quite often, but people will go right to the edge of the cliffs, even if they don’t know what is or what isn’t under them. Oh well, I guess if they haven’t seen a rock fall, they don’t know the danger the could be in. And I guess I never saw anyone fall off either.

Now I fathered my last child when I was early thirties, and I remember being a bit more tired with her than all the rest. Now she did have some special needs being born 8 weeks too early, but even running around after her when she was older seemed to tire me out a bit quicker. I couldn’t imagine trying for more children after my thirties, and I don’t even carry them for 9 months. But I just read about a 110 year old that may have fathered quite a few little ones, after going years with no interest at all. He had a tumor removed and was again interested. Hmmm.

Now I guess I should mention that this 110 year old is a reptile, a tuatara to be exact. While the article headline calls it a lizard, and it looks something like a lizard, it belongs to its own little clan. They also have a life expectancy of around 200 years, so I guess this guy is really just middle age.

I’m going to have to do another internet search soon. This article got me wondering the latest ages that animals will generally conceive. I don’t want to know the rare oldest mothers/fathers, I more interested in the age of general last conception, and what percent this is of the normal life span. People are now normally having babies into their 40’s, and with the life expectancy somewhere in the late 70’s, this makes people clock in at conception at about 50% of the life expectancy. The tuatara, if the article is acurate, has a higher percentage. Not enough information to get a specific number, but it looks like it may be over 50% of life expectancy. Hmm.. I’ll need to keep digging.

Something good has happened with my internet connection. For some reason, I am now getting a much better signal at home with my cell-modem. I can actually watch most YouTube videos in streaming mode (some longer ones I catch up with the stream). I can listen to streaming radio. And I can easily watch sport downloads from mlb.com. I’m hoping that this is a sign of good things to come and not just a temporary weather fluke.

I’ve been told that the towers in the area are getting some upgrades, so maybe my recent speed increase has something to do with that. I’m now averaging over 600 kbps. Earlier, I was averaging 150 to 200 kbps with bursts to 300 kbps. On the old dial up I had before this, I was averaging 15 kbps (yes, that slow). So, I am now accessing the internet 20 times faster than my old dial up…

Edited to add that I maxed out at over 1000 kbps this evening!! Something is up with the connection

Isn’t technology grand?

The private sector has been in the space race for a few years now. The prize for the first commercial, non-governmental vehicle that made it to space was awarded. And now they are getting ready to unveil the start of the next phase, paid passengers. Virgin Galactic will be unveiling the first half of their attempt for commercial traffic in space. The well named Mothership will be displayed by the company that developed it.

Right now the price for a 5 minute space ride is well out of my budget, but this is hopefully the first step to more and less expensive rides into space. My wife’s great grandmother lived to be 104 years old. She was around (and remembered) when automobiles started to take over the roads, she was around for the first airplanes. She couldn’t afford to ride a plane when passenger travel was first introduced, but when she was in her nineties, she was able to buy a ticket and enter a plane, travel to California to see her sister. Maybe when I am in my nineties, I’ll be able to do something like that and travel in space. I hope it is sooner.

Yes, death is an interest of mine. Years ago, when I got married, there were many deaths among family and friends. There were so many deaths, my wife and I joked about our marriage ending the same way. Unfortunately, we were correct. Many deaths in a few short years, with hers as the final death in the line. So yes, I have a morbid interest in death.

My interest this evening is Cryonics or the freezing of human or animal bodies with the “possibility” of bringing them back to life.

Why? Currently there is no known reversal method, so why do it now. It costs a lot of money to keep a body/head in a ‘suspended’ state, and there is no and may never be a reversal method. Sound like someone is playing with the emotions of people near death, or their families.

Even if there ever is a reversal process in the next 50 to 100 years, why would anyone want to revive the “dead” people? There are complaints of over population now, do we really want to have an alternative way to put more bodies on the planet. We do well enough now with the usual approach (having babies — explanation for those who weren’t sure what method is used). I can’t see that happening, unless they want something.

How will you fit in? The future will be different than life now, how will you cope? 25 years ago, personal computers were in their infancy. Now just about everyone has one. What changes will occur in the next 25 years? Next 50? Next 100? 200? If you are having trouble with text messaging on a cell phone, or wonder about all these people with things hanging out of their ears, will you be able to cope with things going on around you in the future?

And the real thing I wonder about is what is the ego of a person who wants to be frozen and thawed later. I’m not saying anything about family decisions (later…), but about a persons desire to put off death to be cured at a later date. Is anyone really that important?

And about a family that decides to keep one of their relatives, do they love/need the person so much to try to keep them around, or is it a comfort that just maybe? I could never see doing this for myself or for someone I care about. I think there would be too much anguish on both sides if and/or when the body can be thawed.

And I haven’t even touched on any religious aspects of this. I think that may be the start of a different post. Many things I would have to wrap my mind around for that…

I’m writing this blog specifically for a friend of mine. He will know I’m writing about him shortly. 😉

I decided to write a little about the NASA Apollo missions and those few people who don’t believe they really happened. Why I’m writing this is simple. While doing some reading on other things I ran across the ‘theories’ of the Lunar hoax.

Now just because this would be the biggest hoax ever played on mankind is no reason not to believe those who say we didn’t land on the moon. I’m sure there could be instances when vast sums of money could used to convince people to think something happened, when in fact nothing happened at all.

That of course would be in a perfect world when there is no reason not to believe the agency in question. The late 1960’s and early 1970’s were not that perfect world. Even at that time people were saying we didn’t land on the moon, there were not that many, but always a few.

The biggest problems I have with any hoax on the lunar landings are these. During the height of the Cold War, when the USSR was just as intent on the space race as the USA, how did we fool them. They landed an unmanned probe in 1959, 10 years before Apollo 11. They must have been able to track space ships to and from the moon. If they didn’t track one, and could not track the radio communications between the earth and the moon, why haven’t they said so yet. I’m sure at the time they would have loved any excuse to throw this in the face of the USA. And the other thing, why fake so many missions. Faking it once is hard enough. Faking it 9 times is a bit of overkill, and then why fake the failed Apollo 13 mission?

There are many other Web sites that will take on this lunar landing hoax, I just brought it up for a good friend with one wacky idea. Of course, he thinks that my belief in the lunar landings is a wacky idea, so I guess that makes us even. 😉

Ok, I’m all for feeling good about myself, and getting the occasional pampering, but now we can have fish keep our feet clean. Yes, you read that correctly. There is a spa in Virginia that has little fish to nibble off the dead and rough skin from your feet.

At $35 dollars for 15 minutes and $50 for 30 minutes, I think that this will be one spa treatment I can forgo. I never liked it at the lake, when the fish would come up and do the toe nibble.

Now I’ll have to find other weird spa treatments that people use. Can you say mud baths anyone?

There seems to be a lot more shattered bats during a major league baseball game these days. I’ve heard the talk that the newer maple bats tend to shatter, while the ash just split. A news article I just read discusses this ‘new’ event in major league games.

I understand why they don’t use aluminum/metal bats in the major leagues. If you ever saw a ball jump off of the new metal bats in college ball, or even the local softball leagues, you can guess why you wouldn’t want one of those in the hands of a major league hitter. The pitcher would have to be 90 feet away just to be safe. I am wondering if some sort of material could be designed for baseball bats. Keep the elasticity (bounce of ball of the bat) the same as current wood bats, but have it much stronger to prevent splitting.

With the problems with Ash borers in the midwest (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and maybe Pennsylvania), there may be a supply problem with Ash baseball bats in the future anyway. I think they may need to do something, before more people get hurt sitting in the stands.