Today I just found out about WarChalking on NPR radio. What is WarChalking? If you own a computer system (Laptop or Desktop), and you have a Wireless Network Card installed, you can tap into certain computer systems without paying for access time! This means you can access the Internet, and have an access speed similar to: DSL, Broadband, T1 or above! I'm certain that it must be a topic which computer users will talk about for a long time to come. Here's how it works... First, you must have a computer system (Laptop or Desktop). Second, you must have a wireless network card installed inside of it. Third, you must have maximum RAM installed on your computer system, to download quickly from the Internet. Fourth, you must have patients when looking for a location to scout out. This means that you might have to sit on the lawn of a BIG company, with your laptop in hand, and then activate your wireless network card to see if you can access their computer system(s). Usually some Internet cafe locations have wireless abilities, so you could try there first. After trying SEVERAL different businesses, you should be able to find one which doesn't have a security wall, or encrypted password access. Since wireless network technologies are fairly new, most businesses might not have a clue about you and your wireless network card.

WarDriving is very similar to WarChalking. Instead of sitting on the lawn or on a bench, you sit in your car in the parking lot. You could go to a regular size business (Bank, Library, School, Airport, Cyber Cafe, local Grocery Store, etc...) and sit in your car using your computer system. You can do this 24 hours a day/night, 7 days a week! If you live next to a business, you might not even have to leave your room. How cool is that? If you take the BUS to work, you could scout out locations as you travel on the bus. The same holds true for taking a Taxi.

IS THIS LEGAL? Well, right now it's a very GRAY area, and I really do expect it to become ILLEGAL within 5-10 years from now. Let's face it, you wouldn't want someone tapping into YOUR computer system, would you?... Or would you? Hmmmmm...

Later, I hope to find out what Warez is.

 
Who is JOHN DOE? I don't know, but I wish I had his mental and memory abilities. Oh yea, it would also be good to look like he does, since dating would be a lot easier... John Doe had it's season premier today on FOX-TV. It would really be a bummer to be color blind, but after a year or two I might not notice.

 
Yesterday was Lawn Mower Thursday. No, it’s not a national holiday, or even a family event. It is a day, usually once every week, or every two weeks, when some guy from our neighborhood mows our lawn, and charges us for his services. The weather was somewhat wet, so he waited until today to do the actual mowing of the lawn. The household cat takes special interest in watching him, as he walks behind his LOUD machine. Her little furry head slowly goes left, and then right, and then left again. Sometimes she is distracted by a bird, or a pedestrian, walking along the sidewalk, but she always goes back to the watching the lawn mower man. From time to time he stops to empty the bag, and look around for spots that he may have missed, and then returns to continue mowing. After mowing the lawn, he uses an edging tool to trim the grass directly next to the sidewalk, and driveway. Finally, he uses a blower to blow away the clippings into the street gutter. I doubt that it’s legal to blow them there, but hey, he’s the professional…

 
Here are some TV shows I like to watch, and they are in alphabetical order only:



Angel

Black Adder (BBC & PBS)

Bloopers Shows

Bob Hope (Live or Stand Up Comedy)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Candid Camera

Carol Burnett Show

COPS

Dr. Who (featuring Tom Baker) (BBC & PBS)

Drew Carry Show

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (BBC & PBS)

Improv Comedy (Misc.)

MAD TV

One Foot In The Grave (BBC & PBS)

One Step Beyond

Red Dwarf (BBC & PBS)

Rowan Atkinson LIVE (on VHS & DVD)

Smallville (I Like The Women...)

Star Trek : Animation Of The Original Series

Star Trek : DS9

Star Trek : Enterprise (Now In It's Second Season!)

Star Trek : Original Series

Star Trek : The Next Generation

Star Trek : Voyager

Twilight Zone (All Versions)

Who’s Line Is It Anyway? (I Wish All Episodes Were On DVD, and unsensored)



I also like to watch PBS documentaries, and BBC comedies and sci-fi. There are loads of other shows, however, I cannot find a 'clearing-house' of TV programs, which would feature names of shows and their air-dates. I like comedies and sci-fi movies, and shows which pose the question: 'What If?' to it's viewers. I don't like dull bland soap operas, or stupid wrestling shows. I like the CNN, Discovery Channel, VH1, MTV (for shock value), and local news. I like to exercise my mind, such as it is...

 
Here’s just a quick Blog to let you know that September is Season-Premiere month on television. For example, in my area there is:


MONDAY = Who’s Line Is It Anyway?

MONDAY = Drew Carry Show

TUESDAY = Smallville

WEDNESDAY = Star Trek : Enterprise

SATURDAY = MAD TV

SATURDAY = COPS

Now don’t get me wrong, there are other shows also, but I don’t really watch that much TV any more. Oh sure, there is Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Twilight Zone, and other great shows, but the problem isn’t with the shows themselves… The local TV stations seem to cater to the sports fans, and preempt the usual TV shows. This really bugs the heck out of me, since I have waited several weeks for each season premiere to begin. I have already missed the start of Who’s Line Is It Anyway?, and the Drew Carry Show. The INDEPENDENT television station had sports on for about six straight hours!



@#$%&*-BLEEP!-BLEEP!-*&%$#@


This really gets my goat! I have missed the start of Buffy, Angel, and other shows. When will technology catch up to the viewer? If I miss a TV because of sports, or news, or stupidity, then I should be able to watch it on the Internet. No really. If I a had DSL, Broadband, T1,T3, or similar connections, a really good video card that supports TV format (input and output), and access to all of the networks, then I should be able to watch the shows that I have missed! But until that day arrives, I’ll have to sit back, and hope for the best. Wouldn’t it be ironic if a major sports game was interrupted by a regularly scheduled TV program? Well I can only dream… Oh, buy the way, remind me to tell you about the TV shows I like to watch, and why.

 
With the rains in Utah, comes the early signs of winter. Brrrrrrr!!! It is definitely time for warmer clothing. Last night there was rip-roaring rainstorm, complete with lightning, thunder, and high winds. I heard every BOOM of thunder, and I saw the flash of lightning, and heard the howling of the wind. I almost wish that I had some recording equipment with me, to capture rumbling storm. One bolt of lightning hit across the street from the house I live in. I think it may have hit an oversized piece of construction equipment, which was used earlier in the day to plough the dirt flat on a construction site. The drought is not over yet. Oh sure there were rains, and storms, but the watershed is quite low, and getting lower. Currently, with all of the rains and storms, the watershed level is at about 45% and going down. The population of Salt Lick City, Utah is gradually going UP UP UP! So either we start to conserve water, or we begin to curb the population growth. I seriously doubt that humans are willing to make an effort to slow their reproductive cycles down, to make way for a better tomorrow, but hey, I could be wrong about that… Wait a minute, how did I go from storms to reproduction? Oh well.

 
Today was Garbage Day in our neighborhood. I put out the garbage, which consisted of one regular garbage (if there is such a thing), and one recycle garbage. The regular garbage has wet, gooey, sloppy, grungy stuff that is usually found in a regular garbage can. The recycle garbage has newspapers, plastic milk jugs, cardboard, and anything which could be considered recyclable. Along with all of my normal recyclable trash and rubbish, I included a LARGE plastic office floor cover. You know, the type of floor cover you use, so that rolling desk-chairs can sit you in front of a computer screen. Well I had to fold it, tape it up, and hope that it didn’t come undone. After I had lunch, I noticed the BIG over-sized recycle dump truck in my neighborhood. After a few hours had passed, I went outside and hey-presto, the old plastic floor cover had been taken to meet it’s maker. I would personally hope that in the future, the stores which sell these LARGE, oversized, plastic floor covers, would pick up the old ones, perhaps for a small fee. It makes sense to me. In hind-sight, however, I could have used a simple hack-saw to cut it down to size. Oh well, live and let recycle...

 
What the Blog happened this last weekend? I went to check my Blog website, as well as my other websites, and it was as if Friday the 13th had hit my cyber world, and gave it a major wedgie… First, my Blog site had template problems, and I had to re-publish my Bloggin’ files. Second, my other websites were unavailable to me, so I checked the root address. It seems that some company has purchased my free web page provider, and is in the process of ‘moving off certain FREE accounts’. Gee, thanks for the warning me guys. So during the entire weekend I worried about not having my websites up and running. But on Blog Monday, they seemed to be working for me. The first thing I did was to do a COMPLETE back up of all of my major websites! Then I put those back ups on CD-R’s, and felt much better. Heck, even my Blog logs were Blogging right along. If I had been unable to do a back up, I would have lost my Bloggin’ mind, because I put a lot of work into writing my websites. So all’s well that Blogs well…

 
Do you know what SLEEP APNEA is? Well I have it. Sleep Apnea means that something is preventing normal breathing during sleep. Usually the person cannot breath for up to a minute, and this happens several times throughout the night. Oxygen levels drop from 100% to about 80%, and when the person wakes up the next day, he (or she) is tired, grumpy, and slow to react. This effects over-weight people (no jokes please), and contributes to their weight problem. It does this because the person eats and eats to regain lost energy. How do you spot a person with Sleep Apnea? They normally have a serious SNORING condition. Their nostrils will buzz like chain saws, and they will keep other people awake and sleepless. How do you treat SLEEP APNEA? Put the patient on pure Oxygen, at about 2-liters per minute, and have them do simple, basic, exercising for about 15-30 minutes each day. If the person cannot, or will not exercise, then perhaps a Gastric Bypass (or GB) is needed. It reduces the size of the stomach to about 1/15th of it’s original size. This means that the person can lose a lot of weight in only ONE YEAR! How much weight can they get rid of? About 100-150 pounds each year! COOL. Insurance might cover up to 80% of the cost, but don’t count on it. Ask your doctor for more information. I know I will... Also, I use Melatonin pills to help me fall asleep. Ask your doctor about those also.

 
SATURDAY'S BLOG:

So what’s the deal with the LOUD music coming from cars, as they drive down the streets? Is the driver a half-deaf idiot who doesn’t have enough money to buy hearing aids, earphones, or headphones? Yea, I know it’s all about attitude, and that blasting their music so loud that even the walking dead gets annoyed, is considered normal for them. But when it comes to my eardrums, and my personal space, I want and DEMAND a certain level of quiet. I’m not asking much, and I don’t expect much, but I do not want to have someone else’s music forced on me. I know that I sound like a whiney crybaby, but music should be a personal choice, and not a blasting, raging, mound of noise. The ‘noise’ that I listen to is classical music, usually played at a low volume, with dimmed light, and probably during a four course meal. Anyway, back to my complaint, if someone wants to play their music really LOUD, then they should pay a fine of $100.oo if they get caught. Why? Simple, it stops them from bugging the heck out someone’s otherwise good day, and they learn a lesson in return. If they play their music loud at night, then the fine should be doubled or tripled. Hey, it’s only fair, right? RIGHT!

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