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Free MCSE 2003 Certification Training
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Warning - today is Paul's birthday (not to be confused with this Paul). Can't let this day go by without saying something. I'm a lucky gal to have Paul putting up with me for life. Raised in Henderson, Texas (specifically in Good Springs) about 45 minutes from Tyler, he came to Fort Worth where he was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base.
We've been together 16 years as of Sunday, January 18. Would you believe our first date was on the night I came back from Chris' hometown of Des Moines, Iowa? I went there to take a tour of Drake University as a possible college choice because of some computer program they had that would help me in my education. Obviously, I didn't go there as I went to TCU for my freshman year and finished the rest at American University. The Horned Frogs had an incredible football season that ended on a sour note. We're proud of the Frogs. While growing up in Fort Worth, I caught a couple of horned frogs in my backyard (and let them go, of course).
Paul and I met in 1987 on a BBS (bulletin board system), which was the Internet before the Internet we know existed. He once left me an e-mail on every BBS to which we belonged. Then, on January 18, 1988 we went on our first date. Rest is history. I know with all the divorces these days, you wonder how long it will last. Considering it's been 16 years and we fit each other well, we'll kill each other before we divorce. Plus, our parents are great role models as both have been together for over 45 years. On top of all that, we have three kids and ain't no way I want some other woman raisin' 'em. Heck, we even overcame an intermarriage - he was a C64 user and I was an Apple user.
I got Paul the final two seasons of Deep Space Nine on DVD plus a plane ride. He mentioned he wanted to ride a warbird in passing, and I've kept it in my head since. He loves planes, which is one reason why he chose the USAF. He wanted to be a pilot, but the one plane he wanted to fly - he was one inch too tall to qualify. I bought a model of a plane, a P-51 Mustang, since it was the closest thing I could find to the warbirds. Ironically, it has a PE on it, which are his initials. I printed a banner and attached it to the plane.
2003 wasn't easy for him since he's been laid off for ten months and has handled it with grace. People keep commenting that losing his job must've been a blow to his ego. It wasn't and he started looking for another job on the day he was laid off. Though nothing has come up, he is doing technical support and has a part-time consulting gig with CM/IT.
He is an involved dad and took care of me during the roughly five months I was down and out from the three surgeries I had in mid-2003. Don't know how I lucked out in landing the guy. He even remembers birthdays and anniversaries, cleans, does laundry, and more. OK, I'll stop gushing so you can stop rolling your eyes.
Happy 38th, Paul!
Paul's better half,
Meryl K. Evans
Two Days of Overviews, Case Studies, Technology Demonstrations and Roundtable Discussions! This is a must attend event for anyone interested in learning the emerging field of RSS and Internet Content Syndication. You'll enjoy two days of intense case studies, demonstrations and discussions from a roster of world-class speakers. Poised to be the biggest event of its kind. read more...
By Christopher Stewart
If you are an avid Internet graphics grabber, use this quick tip to make your life easier. Using Explorer (with your links toolbar turned on), drag a shortcut of your 'My Documents' or 'My Pictures' folder, or any folder in which you save Internet graphics. When online, simply drag the picture from the Web site to the shortcut on the Links bar. The only downfall is that the file is saved with the server-side filename. This link takes you from 8 or more clicks to one! That's a time saver!
{Atari classic game} The program comes with the source code so programmers can add their own modifications to the classic. Adventure is one classic of which I am not familiar. That @#$&* dragon keeps scaring the heck out of me with its loud sound and won't go away. It plays just like the old computer games like Apple Manor where you work your way around a maze, picking up objects in search of the Chalice. Where's that sword so I can stop the duck-looking dragon from getting me? [Meryl]
mjleaver.com/Software/software.htm
{Back up or sync files} Back up or synchronize important files to another drive, directory, or network. SyncBack is configurable and integrated with Windows Scheduler for automating backups. You can accomplish a simple backup by entering the destination and source directories and running it from there, skipping all other configuration. It successfully copied everything in the source directory in the backup directory. Process took less than five minutes. This is a good solution for those on a network or have backup media. From what I can tell, you can't ftp the files. [Meryl]
By Ray Merriam
Yup, it's me again! Noticed your desire to get a wireless keyboard/mouse. I also like having no wires cluttering up an already cluttered desk! Last winter I bought the Microsoft Wireless Multimedia Keyboard and Mouse combo, specifically for the computer in my living room, as I have very limited desk space there as you can imagine. Works fine (except that they go through batteries like there's no tomorrow - usually a week of use, using them maybe 2-3 hours a day; so I now have one of Durocell's 1-hour rechargeable battery devices; incidentally, the regular Durocell batteries last the longest in this particular brand of wireless keyboard/mouse).
So, I liked it so much I decided to get the same thing for my main office computer, said office being upstairs in the room just above my living room. Fast forward to a couple of months ago. I started having strange things happen on my main computer - I would be downstairs, but my upstairs computer would be performing some chore (printing a large file, downloading a large demo off the Web, etc.). When I went upstairs to check on the process, I found all kinds of different windows and dialog boxes open, programs running, folders open - one time an entire folder with dozens of subfolders and several thousand files (TIFFs and JPEGs, primarily of military photos I have scanned for my business) had been completely copied to another folder on a different drive). Scary stuff, right?
This went on for some weeks, and I was thinking someone must be hacking my computer (I have DSL but I do have a firewall and all the rest of the protection one needs to help prevent such skullduggery).
One night I went upstairs to check on the printing of a large file and then had to do a little work for about ten minutes. I had also been working on my downstairs computer while the upstairs one was printing. When I got back downstairs, I discovered the same proliferation of open programs, files, etc.! Eureka moment ensued: the signals from the wireless keyboard on one computer were being picked up by the other computer and thus all sorts of crazy stuff was occurring!
Since that night, about three weeks ago now, I no longer run both computers at the same time and have not had any recurrence of those ghostly events on either computer.
Just a little food for thought - and a bit of a warning when you get your wireless keyboard, should you decide to have more than one computer with such devices.
In response to yesterday's column, ALERT: Serious XP Bug, Chris Warrington writes:
Please pass the following link on to Don French, author of "ALERT: Serious XP Bug":It will allow him to search within all sorts of files.
Thanks, Chris! Now we're passing it along to our fellow Gnomies in hopes it can be utilized by anyone else having similar problems while searching file content in XP.
