HarryWeezer

Welcome aboard and don't feel badly that you don't emulate your booze-guggling daddy. I haven't had a drink in years, and I can still get it up at least twice a month.

P-Man I picked up those exact heat wraps this noon - thanks. Gomer, thanks for all that advice - really appreciate you taking the time. I definitely want to get one of those stimulators - this problem is only going to get worse as I get older. Went to the web site and I don't know squat about these devices. Is there one in particular that you would recommend?

Thanks all. I know I've got some muscle relaxants around here someplace and will try that tonight, and the pillow idea. It's tough to admit to yourself that you can't do shit anymore.

Thanks Dark. Hadn't see that and it gave me fodder for my tech column, to wit: ......... It's always the same approach to chipping away at our constitutional rights: there's a great evil upon the land and for the greater good, government has to act. Several weeks ago I wrote about the so-called Internet Kill Switch - legislation that would allow the president to shut down some or all of the Internet when he/she determines some emergency requires it. Now, it's the Internet Blacklist - legislation that would allow the government to order Internet Service Providers to block access to web sites it determines contribute to copyright infringement. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act was introduced last week by U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah.) It would give the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) authority to file a civil action against web sites it, and only it, says are are involved with selling copyrighted materials and/or counterfeit goods. At that point, DOJ could shut down access to the sites - without due process of law. There's even a second blacklist in this bill, one that lists sites DOJ, at its whim, believes "infringe" on selling copyrighted materials and counterfeit goods. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) wouldn't be required to block access to the lesser offenders but the bill holds them harmless if they do. So, if an ISP, for instance, blocked access to eBay because one of tens of thousands of sellers listed a Beatles disc DOJ thought might be pirated, eBay could not then sue the ISP for damages. This bill actually has supporters, other than the misguided senators who introduced it. They say it's necessary to protect U.S. jobs and innovation by blocking access to an estimated $100 billion in intellectual property theft that occurs annually online, including pirated movies and music and counterfeit drugs and consumer products. Sen. Leahy says "ignoring the problem, or saying it is too complicated, can no longer be an option." Wrong - government can't and shouldn't try to protect people from themselves and shutting down a web site which either intentionally sells bogus goods or unintentionally allows someone to do so through them, without a finding of fact, without a court order, is power the government doesn't need and shouldn't have. The potential for abuse for political reasons is enormous. For instance, only last week, the president railed against Fox News, claiming it is "destructive" to America. Would a government feeling heat from a news organization find an excuse to shut it down, if it could? On its face, this bill would indeed allow DOJ to close access to, for instance, eBay because of one seller's illegal activity, thus also depriving all legal sellers access to the global Internet market. And indeed, the Internet is a global marketeplace; this legislation would do nothing to shut down these web sites outside the U.S. where most originate, and would continue to operate. This is nothing more than an Internet Censorship bill on the order of the Internet Kill Switch bill, both of which are part of a continued attempt by the U.S. government to gain control over the Internet in some form. It is precisely because there is no such control that the Internet has thrived. The Internet Kill Switch bill would give the president freedom to shut down any part of the Internet for up to 120 days in an "emergency." What contsitutes an emergency is not clearly defined - as in our foxnews example, it may be the whim of the president to find conservative voices on the Internet are undermining the administration's policies and thereby threatening the health and welfare of the nation at large: zap - they're gone. The public must be alert to these attacks on our freedoms. Connect Anywhere: We're a mobile society for sure, but keeping in touch digitally requires a laptop Wi-Fi connection - unless you have PdaNet installed on your iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or PalmOS Treo or Centro. This software turns your 3G cell phone into a router that connects your laptop to the Internet from wherever you have cell service. And it's free for non-secure connections and not very expensive - $30 - for a permanent license allowing you to bank online. A product of www.junefabrics.com, it gives you full Internet access without the hassle of configuring various proxy and IP settings and supports any PC or Apple WiFi device. I haven't tested this software but junefabrics says that once installed on your phone and laptop, it will connect you to the Net with one or two clicks. Installation seems simple, except for iPhone since Apple won't sell it at the Apple store and you have to do what's called a "JailBreak" to install it on your iPhone. You download the software to your laptop and install it, then connect your cell phone to your laptop to install the PdaNet mobile client. When you're on the road, you need only hook your laptop to your cell phone via its USB cable, and click connect on both devices, avoiding any "tethering" charges from your cell phone provider. Depending on your cell phone speed, some users claim to be able to stream live video - certainly not a problem next year when 4G networks are deployed. Tethering is the use of a mobile device to serve as a gateway to connect to the Internet via cellular service. My take is that you should be at liberty to use the cell phone service you pay for any way you wish, but use of PdaNet may violate your carrier's terms of use agreement. E-mail Spoofer: You're at a web site that asks for your e-mail address but you're not sure you should give it out. You don't want to end up on some spam list. The solution may be found at http://tempalias.com. Enter your real e-mail address, and the site will deliver an alias e-mail address. You may set either a time for that alias address to expire in days, or, by number of responses. Any e-mail sent to the alias address is automatically forwarded to your real address until either the time expires, or the number of set responses is reached. This does not affect e-mail that you regularly receive - it only works for sites where you enter the alias. There's no cost, and no registration requirement. The site forwards e-mail without examining it or keeping a record of it, and does not give out your real address to anyone, nor even keep it after the alias expires. Keep this site in mind the next time you need to give your address online. Bible Maps: Google maps has been used for a variety of purposes but here's a useful one: mapping biblical locations. At biblemap.org, you enter a book and verse and a map of the Holy Land will show places mentioned. The site was put together by He Lives Ministries as a free Bible atlas to help undestand the geography, and to learn. It's a great tool to each children about the Bible.

On the other hand, we don't care if these gorgeous babes are stupid. In fact, we prefer them that way so we don't have to put up with a lot of BS.

Ya, he looks good. But he probably has a one-inch dick like Budman, and never finished third grade.

We've a lot of old farts in here like me, and I hope some of you idiots can offer some back pain advice. I hope Gray's doing better but I'm hurting. I've had a herniated disc, lower back, for years and it doesn't bother me unless I do one particular thing, and that is to bend over to one side while squatting on the floor. Three or four years ago I put a tile floor down for my daughter, and I was weeks getting over it. I'm now redoing a bathroom and removing an old tile floor so with my previous experience, I spent only several hours at it Sunday thinking that wouldn't bother me too much. I was wrong. It's getting up in the AM. The pain is almost unbearable - the wife has to tie my shoes. After a couple of hours, it calms down and I'm fine. But getting up to pee at 3 a.m. or so is absolute torture. I'm going to pick up a walker today to help me with that. If you search online you find tons of people with this morning back pain problem and tons of advice. Nobody mentions wearing a back brace to bed - anybody got experience with that? I hate to buy one if it doesn't help. Others find relief by stacking pillows in various locations. Any advice? Thanks!!

Tao, you slut. Leave me alone................... :} Thanks for the intro; you're a good player and we enjoy your company.

Ah, bonjour Olive. Of 16 great-grandparents, 15 are French Canadian. And indeed, many of my lines are from that region. Here's a list of all locales in France: http://ogdensburg.info/genealogy/places-oneletter.php?offset=1&tree=&psearch=France - I'm the family genealogist: 10,000 relatives at www.ogdensburg.info/genealogy

I love it when bullies get their asses handed to them. I was a shrimp growing up poor and was bullied unmercifully, especially by one family that lived down the street. But when my brothers and I hit about 19, we all started growing and putting on weight and after the military, I came back home ready to take my revenge. I lived in my home town for 10 more years before I moved the family out-of-state but in that time, I tracked down every son of a bitch who had picked on me as a kid, and exacted payback - or attempted to. Few of them would actually take me on. As with most bullies, the rest were cowards and just stood there while I shamed them, most in front of their friends and even family. For about four years when I was small, that one family down the street made my life a living hell and I can tell you in all honesty that had I access to a gun at that time, I would absolutely have killed this one kid with no hestitation.

Glad you're back. So how often do you have to check in with the parole officer?

Salut Mazout : Où êtes-vous en France ? La plupart de mes ancêtres sont la France - le nom de famille est Commeau. Bienvenue à XI et nos serveurs. Si je peux vous aider de quelque façon, laissez-juste moi savent.

Just pointing out that it's a violation of the EULA. Don't get your frickin' tits in a wringer girls.

Thanks JackNCoke. I checked with Microsoft on student copies: student copies are "not licenced for retail distribution" and are "restricted to students and academic facilities." ???

I went through this same shit on a Dell XPS system and never could figure out what was causing it. I even disabled onboard sound and installed a sound card; I screwed around with voltage settings - you name it - nothing fixed it.

I question the legality of buying a "bundle" of legitimate copies of Microsoft operating systems from Ebay at discount rates. If these are pirated copies of Microsoft operating systems - the sale of which violates federal law - I don't belive XI would appreciate you marketing them on its forum.

Yes, 750 watts. In the mail this afternoon.

How is it you are able to sell W7 Ultimate for $25?

Not sure I can trust what you guys are saying. We need pictures.

Boy can I relate, especially today. Broke mine in a car accident years ago and it doesn't bother me unless I either lift something heavy, or, I do what I did Sunday, which is to squat on the floor and bend - as in chipping away at floor tile for a half-bath I'm redoing. I'm hurting today - not as much as you my friend. But I sure feel your pain. All you can do is take is real easy (it's at times like this that I can get the wife to wait on me a bit...) Best!!!!

Caper: just dug it out - sorry, it's a 750. If you still want it, it's the ten bucks or so to mail it to you. ?? Addendum: we have another build ongoing for another member and it's now been donated.

I could donate a 1,000-watt power supply but instead, I'll be sending $50 shortly via Paypal. Easier I think if we just send cash so Rugger can get the thing done. Wizid, next time you build a system to donate, look me up. Got a few parts here.

Folks... PHUCKITMAN needs help. His system crashed and it's no wonder, it's a piece of shit. If you've been reading the threads, he's asked for advice on how to get it back up and running, but he's running an ancient system with an 80 GB HD, no burner, 1GB of memory and Windows XP. He needs a new system but can't afford even to replace the hard drive - if that's what's wrong with it. It appears to be a SATA drive from what he says, so he can always put that into a new system to get all his data. So, let's get him a system. He's got a decent video card, a GeForce 9800 GTX. He just needs a good box to put it in. That will cost no more than $400. If only 20 of us kick in just $20 each, he's there. The easiest way to do this is someone collects the cash, and then sends it to P-Man who can pick up a new computer locally. And the easiest way to do that may be to use the clan's PayPal donor program to collect the donations. I don't know if that is possible so can whoever handles that let us know? What think everyone. Can we get this done?

Good advice but I'm puzzled about the "windows notification to verify my copy" that you always had to click on at every boot. I don't know of any Windows OS that asks that question every boot. What are running? You said it booted OK and you later had to hit reset. Why did you have to do that? What happened; did you get an error message; did it lock? It sound like the HD but usually you know that's coming; you start to see errors all over the place as sectors go bad. If that hasn't been your experience, it could be the mobo. Do you get a POST when you boot? Have you checked all connections; taken out all cards and put them back in?

That is some incredible work. Where did you get the skeletons?