Vista is Slow

Vista is so slow, its annoying too.

---

Vista Problem

I got an error message from Vista that Miro has stopped working, however it seems to be working just fine?

I am going to reboot the system anyway.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed, or rather it reported it crashed, I did not have it open.

---

Blood Sugar

113

---

Vista Problem

I right clicked on a hard drive in windows explorer to check on remaining free space, and had the control panel open instead. That's just so weird.

---

Vista Crash

Windows media center error. Programs did not record.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

Windows explorer crashed again, only this time it locked the entire system, I had to do a hard reboot.

---

Vista is Slow

Every time I try to use Vista, I am reminded of how slow and unresponsive it is.

---

Blood Sugar

128

---

Blood Sugar

116

---

Vista Crash

Vista locked up again, I had to do a hard boot as I had no response to any input.

---

Vista Crash

Vista locked up completely, I had to do a hard boot as I had no response to any input.

---

Vista Crash

I hate Vista, windows explorer crashed again, this time in the middle of a download.

---

Vista Crash

I am unable to play a recorded show. I will reboot to see if that helps.

---

Blood Sugar

86

---

Vista Crash

I was trying to watch a recorded show nothing else was open, and it is unable to play smoothly. I am going to reboot the system and see what happens.

---

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed.

---

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed again, this time the system took longer to come back.

---

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed again.

---

RIAA Will Finally Face the Music In Court

Friday may mark a significant milestone in the RIAA's legal campaign
against file-sharing, as it is the deadline for exonerated RIAA
defendant Tanya Andersen to refile her malicious prosecution lawsuit
against the record labels. Soon afterwards, discovery will begin, and
all sorts of unsavory details about the RIAA's legal campaign against
suspected file-sharers are likely to emerge.

Andersen is a single mother living in Oregon who was sued by the
record label in February 2005. She eventually filed a counterclaim
against the RIAA, and when the labels voluntarily dismissed their case against her last June, she filed a malicious-prosecution lawsuit.
In it, Andersen accuses the RIAA of fraud, racketeering, invasion of
privacy, libel, slander, deceptive business practices, and violations
of the Oregon state RICO Act.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed Andersen's original complaint,
saying that she had "not adequately stated claims for relief," but gave
her a one-month window to refile. Her attorney, Lory Lybeck, told Ars
that he plans to file a new 80-page complaint tomorrow.

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed again, I had no other programs open and I had rebooted the system a few minutes ago.

---

Child-like intelligence created in Second Life

Four-year-old Eddie might behave like a typical young boy. Outside of the Second Life virtual world, however, he is anything but.
The child is a product of logic-based artificial intelligence and complex modelling techniques, and operates on what has been said to be the most powerful university-based supercomputing system in the world.

Vista Bug

The task bar is no longer auto-hiding, but when I checked its properties auto-hiding was still selected. Its just messed up.

---

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed again, what a pain, it happens so often, and takes so long before you can do anything.

---

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed. I have to say as well, that Vista, is painfully slow. If I ever find out I can run Linux on this system I am changing over.

---

Treadmill

129

---

Treadmill

.76 miles

---

Blood Sugar

113

---

Drugs Found in Drinking Water Nation Wide

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics,
anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found
in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an
Associated Press investigation shows.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter
medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking
water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences
to human health.

Bush, Colombia & Narco-Politics

By Andrés Cala March 9, 2008 (Originally published August 8, 2007)
George W. Bush's strategy of countering Venezuela's leftist president Hugo Chávez by strengthening ties to Colombia's rightist government has been undercut by fresh evidence of high-level drug corruption and human rights violations implicating President Alvaro Uribe's inner circle.

These new allegations about Colombia's narco-politics have tarnished Uribe's reputation just as Bush has been showcasing the Harvard- and
Oxford-educated politician as a paragon of democratic values and an
alternative to the firebrand Chávez, who has used Venezuela's oil
wealth to finance social programs for the poor across the region.

Despite the corruption disclosures - and Uribe's failure to stem Colombian cocaine smuggling to the United States - the Bush administration continues to shower Uribe's government with trade incentives and billions of dollars in military and development aid.

With other regional leaders unwilling to side with the United States against Chávez, Bush may see little alternative but to stay the course with the 55-year-old Uribe and hope Colombia's corruption doesn't draw too much attention in the United States or across South America.

Ironically, the latest evidence against Uribe's government emerged from a U.S.-backed peace process that offered leniency to right-wing
paramilitary death squads and their financial backers in exchange for giving up their guns and disclosing past crimes.

The right-wing paramilitaries and their cocaine-trafficking benefactors testified that elements of the Colombian government collaborated in a decade-long scorched-earth campaign that killed almost 10,000 civilians while seeking to dislodge a leftist guerrilla army known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The confessions include blood-soaked tales of political murders, cocaine smuggling and staggering government corruption. As a result, dozens of former and current congressmen, governors, government ministers, military officers, prominent business leaders and multinational corporations are being investigated or have been arrested.

This so-called "para-scandal" revealed that a counterinsurgency force, known as the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, or AUC, collaborated with drug lords to control the cocaine trade and simultaneously worked with Colombia's elites, including Uribe's family, to fend off the guerrilla threat.

Another troubling offshoot of the peace process was the creation of a safe haven for drug lords, who flocked to a 370-square-kilometer sanctuary set up for the AUC.

---

SIECUS

"To date, six studies of abstinence-only programs have been published.
None of these studies found consistent and significant program effects
on delaying the onset of intercourse, and at least one study provided
strong evidence that the program did not delay the onset of
intercourse. Thus, the weight of evidence indicates that these
abstinence-only programs do not delay the onset of intercourse. A study
of 7,326 seventh and eighth graders in California who participated in
an abstinence-only program found that the program did not have a
measurable impact upon either sexual or contraceptive behaviors. Nearly
two-thirds of teenagers think teaching "Just Say No" is an ineffective
deterrent to teenage sexual activity." A recent, congressionally-approved study of students
using both abstinence-based and comprehensive sex education showed that
students in the abstinence-only programs were no more likely to delay
sexual intercourse and had similar numbers of sex partners at the same
ages. That's a pretty big waste of hundreds of millions of taxpayer
dollars for abstinence-programs and a federal ban (per funding) for
comprehensive sex ed.

TCS

Texas Citizens for Science was formed in January, 2003, to promote the use of accurate and reliable science in Texas public education, government, and institutions.
...
Fourth, Republican Governor Rick Perry, Republicans in the Texas Legislature, and Republicans on the State Board of Education are currently attempting to completely reform the character of Texas public education in far-reaching ways. Teacher qualifications have already been weakened so that new teachers are no longer required to have the usual Education School pedagogical training. Abstinence-only sex education was recently mandated in health textbooks. School financing will be significantly changed, perhaps in ways that inhibit communities from raising property taxes to adequately support their local schools, and some districts may not sufficiently funded as in the past. More ominously, Republicans hope to add vouchers for religious and private schools, and hope to create virtual charter schools to support home-schooling at state expense. These new state-funded vouchers and virtual schools would not be subject to the same curriculum and instructional requirements as the public schools. Since religious schools and home schools almost all intentionally use curricula that distort modern science in favor of non-scientific religious beliefs such as creationism, intelligent design, flood geology, and a young Earth, some of these proposals will greatly damage reliable science education in Texas. Since many thousands of Texas students--who now receive an adequate if not exemplary science education--would find themselves subject to inferior faith-based pseudoscientific instruction under the new Republican plan for Texas public schools, this issue must be taken up by Texas Citizens for Science. (Note added, Jan. 2005: TCS is still working on this one!)

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins lectures on The God Delusion
March 19, 7:00 p.m., at the University of Texas – Austin
Hosted by Atheist Longhorns and the Secular Longhorn Alliance
Hogg Memorial Auditorium, Austin, TX
Tickets are first-come, first-serve at the event.

http://www.campusfreethought.org/

For directions, please go to http://www.utpac.org/venue/directions.php#hogg

From Congressman Pete Stark (California's Thirteenth District) Website

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
Should Congress impeach President Bush?

Why Impeach Bush and Cheney?

They should be impeached for deliberately misleading us into war, for illegally spying on Americans, and for turning America into a rogue nation that imprisons and tortures people illegally. Read more...

1. Misled Congress and the public about Iraq
2. Condoned the Torture of Prisoners
3. Authorized Illegal NSA Wiretaps
4. Other Reasons
5. Talking Points for members of Congress
6. And grounds for impeachment, articles of impeachment, treaty violations

Vista Crash

Vista put up a message that Firefox crashed asking if it should close the app. I clicked yes, then while Firefox stayed open, the rest of the screen went black for a few seconds then came back, but get this Firefox never closed. Something is messed up.

---

Brattleboro and Marlboro Vermont vote to Indicte Bush and Chneney

...President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution. In Brattleboro, the vote was 2,012 for and 1,795 against. In Marlboro, it was 43 to 25, with three abstentions.

Blood Sugar

104

---

Blood Sugar

103

---

VIA Isaiah x86 Processor Architecture

Next-Generation VIA Isaiah x86 Processor Architecture

The new VIA Isaiah Architecture combines substantial increases in performance and functionality with leading power efficiency

The
VIA Isaiah Architecture is a new x86 processor architecture that will
deliver significant boosts to the functionality and performance of
desktop, mobile and ultra mobile PCs while minimizing power
requirements, saving on battery life and enabling ultra compact system
designs.

Designed from the ground up by
the company's US-based processor design subsidiary, Centaur Technology
Inc., the VIA Isaiah Architecture combines all the latest advances in
x86 processor technology, including a 64-bit superscalar speculative
out-of-order microarchitecture, high-performance multimedia
computation, and a new virtual machine architecture.

Cost of the Iraq War

To put Stiglitz and Bilmes' $3 trillion in perspective, it's worth
comparing it to the cost estimates Bush officials bandied about before
the war began. The authors present a damning "Nightline" transcript in
which one official, Andrew Natsios, blandly told Ted Koppel that Iraq
could be completely reconstructed for only $1.7 billion. (With the war
now costing $12.5 billion a month, Natsios' estimate would have been
accurate if he had stipulated that it would pay for four days' worth
of reconstruction. Which, considering the delusional nature of most of
the Bush administration's pre-invasion estimates, may have been how
long it thought it would take to rebuild the country.) Other officials
settled on a figure of $50 billion to $60 billion. Larry Lindsey,
Bush's economic advisor, went way out on a limb, suggesting that the
war might cost $200 billion -- a figure derided by then-Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld as "baloney." Rumsfeld refused even to offer
a range of estimates, saying, "I've already decided that. It's not
useful." He was right: It would not have been useful for those ginning
up support for a war to predict that it might cost $3 trillion.

Third Highest Killer of Americans is the Healthcare System Itself

The two that I'm referring to are healthcare and the environment.
Obviously healthcare is a huge concern, and has been addressed
continually. Both Clinton and Obama support universal healthcare (well,
wait -- since when is America the universe?), and plan on having
everybody insured if they were to gain the throne. McCain says the
same, that we "can and must" cover everyone. It's a hopeful idea, and
one we can appreciate, especially given that numerous other countries
already have this system in place without having to use it as a
political platform. But of all three candidates, only one (McCain) even
mentions the word "nutrition," and makes some sort of claim to try to
stop problems before they start -- at the very bottom of his list.

Like our healthcare system already, everything is geared around
curing, and not preventing. This sort-of thinking is what has led us to
acquire what nutrition expert Colin Campbell calls "diseases of
affluence," illnesses that define the way Americans die in our times;
namely: heart disease and cancer. (Not surprisingly, the third highest
killer of Americans is the healthcare system itself, through faulty
prescriptions, botched surgeries and wrongful diagnoses). In The China Study
he not only shows why the way we approach nutrition is misguided, but
that it is actually helping promote diseases like the aforementioned.
He does not conclude that these nutritive guidelines -- high protein,
high fat, low carbohydrate meals -- create the illness, but the way
many Americans eat is certainly helping move us down the line a lot
quicker, and more painfully.

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan mentions
that a child born after 2000 now has a one out of three chance of
developing diabetes. That's tragic, but there is a cause, and it's not
genetic. That our candidates are pushing forth the idea that accessible
coverage (read: cheap pills) is the most pressing issue in our societal
health is remarkably illogical. Well, from a realistic standpoint that
is; from a political stance, it makes perfect sense. Can you imagine a
candidate stepping up on the next debate to declare that we can begin
to heal ourselves through a whole foods, plant-based diet? Not only
would they be booed off the stage, their entire candidacy would be
shot, they would be sued by the National Cattleman's Association, and Us magazine would have fodder for a year. This says as much about the American public as it does about our candidates.

Vista Crash

Vista claims Mozilla stopped working, but closed Miro.

---

Did Texas Restoration Project Improperly Fund Gov. Rick Perry’s reelection campaign in 2006

The Rev. Laurence White and his wife are two of three directors on the Niemoller Foundation’s governing board. White is also chairman of the Texas Restoration Project. The foundation reported income of about $1.3 million in 2005 and spent all but about $29,000 in that year.
Expenditures covered Texas Restoration Project activities – including more than $700,000 for the six pastors’ events – and payments to organizations tied to the Texas Restoration Project.

Other ties between the Perry campaign and the Niemoller Foundation/Texas Restoration Project include the following:

• The Niemoller Foundation’s expenditures in 2005 included nearly $475,000 paid to San Jacinto Public Affairs, an Austin-based firm that organized the Texas Restoration Project’s events. The firm earned at least $4 million from work for the Republican Party of Texas and electoral candidates between July 2003 and November 2007.

• The Perry campaign subsequently communicated directly with thousands of pastors recruited by the Texas Restoration Project, suggesting coordination between the campaign and the Restoration Project.

• Press reports in 2005 indicated at least one of Gov. Perry’s pastors’ briefing speeches was considered a campaign event, with the Perry campaign releasing the transcript of his speech. (“Perry mobilizes evangelicals as gov’s race heats up,” Matt Curry, Associated Press, June 11, 2005)

• The Niemoller Foundation doled out $200,000 to Plano-based Free Market Foundation and San Antonio-based Justice at the Gates in 2005. The two groups helped recruit pastors to Texas Restoration Project events. Free Market Foundation president Kelly Shackelford and Justice at the Gate director Susan Weddington served on Gov. Perry’s reelection steering committee.

• Days before the gubernatorial election in November 2006, the Texas Restoration Project sent e-mails to pastors on its mailing list, encouraging them to participate in a statewide conference call (which took place the following week) to “discuss what we can do this election cycle to motivate our pews to vote their values.” Shackelford and David Barton, who until June 2006 had served as vice chair of the Texas Republican Party, were among the organizers and prominent speakers on the call.

Documents related to the Texas Freedom Network’s complaint to the IRS can be found at www.tfn.org/religiousright/irstxrestorationproject/index.php.

Vista Crash

I got an error message from Vista saying that Mozilla had crashed, however it closed Miro, not Mozilla, which was not open.

---

Vista Crash

Vista locked up completely, I had to do a hard reboot.

---

80 years on a battery charge

The micro LED--which is significantly smaller than conventional
light-emitting diodes--requires only a few billionths of an amp to
operate. Thus, it can survive for quite a while on a limited power
source. One of the researchers on the project had one running
constantly for two-and-a-half years on his desk. Then someone damaged
it while moving it around. One member of the group calculated that it
could last 80 years (assuming no accidents) on the power stored in a
coin-size battery.