Astronomer

Beautiful sky! At a glance, I can pick out at least 4 telescope-worthy objects in that shot.

Taken this evening as thunderstorms passed to my south. I let out a "Whoop!" to wake the dead when I saw the image on the camera's screen.This is one of my favourites so far:

How to edit your Hosts file: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27350/beginner-geek-how-to-edit-your-hosts-file/?PageSpeed=noscript

Hi all, Here's what I've compiled so far. If you want to lock your system down and stop the annoying auto-install of updates, this info will help. Sure, some of the new features require sending a boatload of your info to Microsoft servers, but I don't need those features and I want my operating system to just run my programs, thank you very much. Otherwise, Windows 10 is a good incremental update to the Windows OS. After opening "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security", you'll find two pre-defined Outbound rules, both of which are labelled "Search". Try right-clicking and disabling these rules. That was enough to disable Bing searching in the preview builds (before Microsoft provided the option not to include online search results). I cannot test at the time of writing, but it may be enough to prevent connections from being established by the search component to the *.a-msedge.net servers. EDIT #1: Keeping both rules enabled and changing the policy of each to "Block the connection" does the trick. Without taking this measure, it seems that the search component continues to harvest keystrokes and send them to Bing, even if one has toggled the button to omit online search results. EDIT #2: After changing the rules to block, if "Search online and include web results" is re-enabled and the entered search term does not match any local content, an entry to "Search the web" for the term is provided but the instant Bing results remain disabled. Clicking on said entry will convey the search term to Bing, by way of the default browser. Last edited by kerframil on Tue Aug 04, 2015 7:09 am ===================== If anyone is interested in turning off telemetry entirely, create a 32-bit DWORD in the Windows registry called AllowTelemetry and set it to zero, under the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection Then turn off the following services: Diagnostics Tracking Service dmwappushsvc Reboot, and you're done.. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/?comments=1 http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-disable-telemetry-and-data-collection-in-windows-10/ http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-disable-windows-update-in-windows-10-rtm/ =================== I intend to investigate further. In the meantime, I want to point out that it is trivial to manually create a rule that accomplishes the same. In the Outbound rule list, select New Rule then choose Custom (in my case, the Predefined drop-down no longer lists Search as an option). Click Next, Customize, Apply to this service, then select "Windows Search" as the service. Finally, keep clicking Next until the rule has been added. Another method is to match against the Application Package name - as the predefined rule did - rather than the Service name. In my case, the package name is "microsoft.windows.cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy". This method is slightly less convenient because, for some reason, it's not possible limit the scope to an application package until after a rule has been added. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/?comments=1&start=200 ================== Follow this guide to disable data collection: http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-disable- ... indows-10/ Also edit your HOSTS file to block these websites: 0.0.0.0 vortex.data.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 vortex-win.data.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 telecommand.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net 0.0.0.0 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 oca.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net 0.0.0.0 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 sqm.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net 0.0.0.0 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 watson.telemetry.microsoft.com.nsatc.net 0.0.0.0 redir.metaservices.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 choice.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 choice.microsoft.com.nsatc.net 0.0.0.0 df.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 reports.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 services.wes.df.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 sqm.df.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 watson.ppe.telemetry.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 telemetry.appex.bing.net 0.0.0.0 telemetry.urs.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 telemetry.appex.bing.net:443 0.0.0.0 settings-sandbox.data.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 vortex-sandbox.data.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 survey.watson.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 watson.live.com 0.0.0.0 watson.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 statsfe2.ws.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 corpext.msitadfs.glbdns2.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 compatexchange.cloudapp.net 0.0.0.0 cs1.wpc.v0cdn.net 0.0.0.0 a-0001.a-msedge.net 0.0.0.0 statsfe2.update.microsoft.com.akadns.net 0.0.0.0 diagnostics.support.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 corp.sts.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 statsfe1.ws.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 pre.footprintpredict.com 0.0.0.0 i1.services.social.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 i1.services.social.microsoft.com.nsatc.net 0.0.0.0 bingads.microsoft.com 0.0.0.0 www.bingads.microsoft.com

We had a pretty long and prolonged round of storms in SW Ontario, Canada this evening. This was the best of the bunch that I captured:

Awesome! Very jealous...

I hear ya. I did upgrade my gaming rig to Windows 10 because I am curious about it, but I've turned off a bunch of data-sharing options. I dual-boot into Linux Mint, which is where I spend most of my time. My Lenovo laptop runs OS X "Yosemite", and my wife has a big iMac. My Main servers run BSD and Linux, and I have a Windows Server 2012 R2 in the rack for training/lab work. It's attached to a Cisco Router which has its own IP address from my ISP (I put a switch behind the DSL modem, and my main DHCP server/firewall/router - a Sophos UTM on a HP DL360 - and the Cisco each get served a routable IP address). The lab network and home network are completely isolated, with very little Micorosoft in the mix.

At a very old cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. the crows are very used to people.

I saw these pics elsewhere a while back. They're not strippers. A makeup artist wanted to show any woman that they have inner beauty that can be brought out. My wife does not wear makeup unless we're going somewhere special, and she radiates. She doesn't need it, but when she applies just a little, wow.

Taken on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, on Canada's east coast, early in July. Smoke from forest fires in western Canada, 1000's of miles/Kms away had drifted over, enhancing the reds of the sunsets. Edit: the full-resolution images are sharper and stunning, if I can be allowed that conceit.

Happy birthday , EidolonFIRE! Hoping it's a great one for you.

The Moon and Earth are gravitationally bound. Earth has a much larger mass, so the center of mass, or barycenter is not in space between the two objects, as would be the case if they had similar masses. It's within the space occupied by the Earth. The Barycenter is the point around which both objects orbit. Check this page for a decent explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycenter

Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. Taken form the best and cheapest ride on the continent: $2.50 ferry ride. The area shown is Historic Properties and downtown. Citadel Hill is in the background.

My mom's cat caught yawning. I used a macro lens, with focus on his eyes.

Here's a better shot of the dragonfly:

This dragonfly briefly stopped to hover about 3 feet from me. I had time to manually focus, but no time to change the shutter speed to capture the wings. Still, I like this shot.

Caught these three butterflies putting on a performance while I was on a 15km hike in Nova Scotia, Canada.

From last weekend a supercell thunderstorm rolled in, with the shelf cloud to the left. It had serious rotation happening. Here's a full image and a crop. It occurred to me as I was standing near a tree with a metal tripod beside me, and lightning crashing all around and thunder rumbling continuously, that I wasn't in the safest place.

We were under a Tornado Warning about an hour ago. My wife went to the basement with the pups. I was outside with my camera: