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Greetings, Quotaholics:
Read any good books lately? There were a few recommendations here …
great books and great authors.
This
year, one of the biggest Christmas or Holiday presents was the Kindle
from Amazon.com. Amazon has not released any actual figures for sales,
but they are believed to have outsold both Sony and Barnes & Noble
electronic readers. Amazon did not run out of product to sell whereas
the other two companies did.
The
Kindle
Store has over 390,000 books available, according to Amazon. The peak
day for holiday sales was December 14 and on that day Amazon was flooded
with orders. Worldwide, 9.5 million items were ordered on that one day.
This staggering number means that 110 items were ordered EVERY SECOND
on that day. (Always a day late, I ordered my two books on December 15.)
According to
Reuters,
Amazon claims to have shipped 7 million units in one day. I’m fairly certain
this did mean Kindles, but individual items. I don’t think they had a
stock pile of 7 million Kindles.
Either
way, as a result of the wildly effervescent purchasing going on over the
Internet, Amazon’s stock rose as the markets opened again after the Christmas
holiday.
As
people opened their presents on Christmas Day, another phenomenon took
place. According to The
Guardian, more people purchased downloads to fill their new present
than those who ordered print media. This makes sense. However, there is
also a raft of free downloads that would make this feat even more remarkable.
Amazon
didn’t just sell Kindles in the month of December. They had several top-sellers:
Apple’s iPod touch, Scrabble Slam Cards, Nintendo Wii Fit Plus as well
as the balance board needed to play, Harry Potter DVD, Going Rogue
by Sarah Palin, and Susan Boyle’s latest album all sold remarkable well.
New
York analyst with Collins Stewart, Sandeep Aggarwal, has been tracking
the Kindle’s performance and believes that both models, Kindle
2 and DX
(the larger, more deluxe version), have been on target to sell a half-million
by the end of the year. As sales go global, the titles available are also
expanding.
I
also found a bit of variation in reviews of the device. Crunch
Gear gave me a list of ten reasons to buy it and ten reasons not to
buy. So there is a bit of a dichotomy all in one spot. Kindle 2 is said
to be much improved over the Kindle original. The DX is supposed to be
even better. The one thing on the list that would make me think twice
is the cost of the technology and how fast it is evolving. Will what I
buy today be pretty much worthless by tomorrow?
Do
you own an eBook reader? If so, what brand? If not, would you like one
if you could afford it? Is it something that is on your wish list? Do
you simply prefer dead tree print books?
What
are the benefits and drawbacks to the device? If you own one, do you just
download books or do you also get newspapers and magazines via download?
If you don’t already own a Kindle, are you interested now?
Literally,
P.S.
Since Friday is New Years, we’ll be taking another day off. (Last one
for a while I promise). Hope everyone has a fun and safe time.
See you on Monday!
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“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” - James Joyce
“Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it’s cowardice.” - George
Jackson
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Mixed Emotions
[Thanks Bonnie]
A husband and wife
were sitting watching a TV program about psychology and explaining
the phenomenon of “mixed emotions.”
The husband turned to his wife and said, “Honey, that’s a bunch of
crap. I bet you can’t tell me anything that will make me happy and
sad at the same time.”
She said: “Out of all your friends, you have the biggest penis.”
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“A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.”
“Borrow trouble for yourself, if that’s your nature, but don’t lend
it to your neighbours.”
“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” - All
from English writer and Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling born on this
date in 1865
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Speak right up!
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Sleep
I no longer use an alarm clock. Unless there is something going on that
warrants it, I am usually awake in plenty of time to do whatever is
planned for my day. With only an occasional fluctuation, I awake around
5 a.m., usually within a few minutes of the hour. It has been this way
for so long, I cannot remember the last time I set my alarm clock to
get up at "regular time".
As my children were growing up, we would be awakened by someone who
needed a diaper change. Later, we would have a tiny person standing
at the side of our bed wanting breakfast. As time went on, sporting
events, school activities, and a host of various things would have us
arising early on weekends. Weekdays always demanded that we get up and
go to work.
Whether these circumstances combined to regulate our "circadian
rhythm" or it was simply something that was natural for us can
be debated either way. All I know is I get up early and retire early.
The adage, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise" could apply to me except for the healthy, wealthy, and
wise parts. I’m still waiting on those effects from my lifestyle.
I often interact early with friends. Some interaction is online only.
Some is in "real life" (whatever that is). Because I am responding
to email well in advance of others even becoming cognizant of their
surroundings, I often tease friends who "sleep in". I find
it fascinating how some people need to sleep for longer periods than
I do. I get about 7 hours of sleep per night. Others need 8, 9, or even
10 hours of sleep per day. Very few sleep as little as I do.
I joke with friends who need more sleep. I often comment that they arise
"at the crack of noon", as opposed to "the crack of dawn".
In the winter, I often spend a lot of time and drink a lot of coffee
before the skies begin to brighten with the rising sun. With the advent
of Daylight Savings Time, I am still often up before Sol peeks over
the horizon. I just don’t have to wait as long. However, I often am
climbing into bed only shortly after Sol has left to visit Asia.
Here’s your quiz:
How many hours of sleep do you need, on average, per night?
Do you have the same "schedule" on weekends as you do on weekdays?
What time is your "bedtime"?
Sleep - Nature’s Way To Renew And Revitalize
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)
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Email Kirsten
“Christmas
waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer
and more beautiful.”
~ Norman Vincent Peale ~
Christmas is very stressful for a lot of people. It actually has a spot
on most lists of life’s most stressful events. For some reason, many
families go all weird over the festive season, and people who do not
exchange a single cross word throughout the year are practically ripping
each others’ throats out over Christmas.
For me, the stress is a little bit less extreme. I don’t mind the Christmas
shopping, and I kind of enjoy the wrapping even though it kills my back.
I have no problem being hostess to the visitors that come over. The
thing about Christmas that I find very stressful is the Christmas dinner
itself. I get all tense about the fact that the kids aren’t eating their
dinner and won’t sit still at the table, then when they’re excused from
the table they make a beeline for the Christmas tree and have to be
stopped from ripping open other peoples’ presents. It is next to impossible
for me to eat two consecutive mouthfuls of food without having to jump
up and deal with something or the other. Throughout the whole ordeal
I’m saying to myself, “Isn’t this supposed to be fun?” I am assured
that as the kids get older, Christmas dinners will get easier.
Despite the whole Christmas dinner thing, Christmas was actually a lot
of fun. We didn’t even have the obligatory family drama that usually
happens at around this time of the year. Everyone got on great, and
there were no stupid fights about things being blown out of proportion.
Everyone knows that Christmas is for the kids, and my favourite part
of the day is watching the boys open their presents. First they get
the stockings, and then, after breakfast, they get the good stuff. This
year, we applied hard-learned lessons from prior years and bought two
sets of presents that were mostly the same. That way, there’s less fighting
over gifts. Each boy got an individualized gift targeted to his own
interests (Lego for James; Mr. Potato Head for George).
But at the end of the day, one particular toy was the clear winner.
It was not the big remote control Mustang that each of the boys got,
but they are crazy about those now. It was not the pop-up play structures,
although those did generate a lot of interest. It was not the myriad
toy cars that never fail to bring hours of entertainment. It was one
of the stocking-stuffers that won the prize for “toy of the day”. George
got a blue one; James got a red one - and both of them took to their
toy instantly. It was none other than a simple Slinky.
I remember having one of those as a kid, and I remember being just as
fascinated by it as my boys now are by theirs. With the boys watching,
I gave each of their Slinkies a run down the stairs, and after that,
they were away. By Christmas afternoon, they were having Slinky races
down the stairs. I’m not too clear who won, but they had a lot of fun
doing it. I don’t know if the Slinky is in the Toy Hall of Fame, but
judging from the reactions of my boys, it certainly should be.
And so another Christmas has passed, and with it James’ fourth birthday.
Now we look ahead to the New Year with its parties and resolutions -
some of which will be kept, others of which will be as dispensable as
sleazy politicians.
I wish all of our readers and contributors the best for 2010. May all
of your dreams and none of your nightmares come true.
Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten
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On Monday I told you what you need to protect your new (or even old)
computer. By now you should have them all downloaded and stored neatly
in a folder somewhere. Make sure you know where that folder is before
you continue.
First, we’re going to uninstall your old antivirus. Make sure you
close all applications including any browser windows as you’ll probably
have to reboot after the uninstall. Do not disconnect from the internet,
as products such as AVG have to connect to the internet to uninstall.
Do not open any applications until Cloud
AV is installed. If you want to do one last update and scan with
your current AV, be my guest. I’ll wait.
Now, uninstalling your AV will leave you somewhat unprotected for
a bit, which is why you don’t want to open any applications. The process
also differs from vendor to vendor and between different versions
of Windows, and Cloud AV is only good for computers running XP or
above. If you’re running Windows 98 or 2000, ask Santa for a new computer
next year and skip to the malware part.
Most likely, there is an uninstall option under Start -> Programs
-> AV vendor. For Windows XP, you can just use that. If you’re running
Vista or Win7, you’ll want to right-click on that and select “Run
as Administrator”. Logging in as an administrator is not enough, you
have to right-click and run as administrator. It’s Windows. Windows
will complain and ask you if you’re sure and all that, just do it.
If it pops up a window asking why you’re doing it, tell them Tim said
Panda was better, then reboot. After you reboot, you’ll want to find
that folder where you downloaded everything, then right-click on CloudAntivirus.exe
and select “Run as Administrator” (this should work on XP too, if
not, just double-click it). Again, you’ll hear all sorts of noise
from Windows, but just click through them and follow the install instructions.
After it is installed, you have to create an account to activate it.
Just type in your e-mail address and a password (don’t use your e-mail
password) and optionally a forum username, then wait for the activation
e-mail. Click the link in that, and you should see a nice happy Panda
in your system tray. You’ll also get a welcome e-mail, but that’s
the last e-mail you’ll get. You’re protected. Oh, you may see some
quick “fade notices” popping up saying “Threat neutralized”, then
disappearing. Those are normal. Your AV protection used to suck. 
For Malwarebytes, again right-click
on mbam-setup.exe and run as administrator. Follow the instructions,
and it should want to update. Let it do so, then it will restart.
After it restarts, click the Update tab and update again. Keep clicking
until it says it’s done. Then click on the Scanner tab and do a full
scan. You’ll see a running total of objects scanned and objects infected.
After it is done, it will show a list of infected objects. They all
should have check marks in the box next to them, just click immunize
or delete or whatever it says. It will then pop up a text box with
what it cleaned, and may ask you to reboot. This doesn’t have an automatic
scan, so plan on scanning about once a week.
SpyBot
Search & Destroy is the same deal. Right-click and run as administrator
to install it. There is a check box for installing Tea-Timer, uncheck
that. As with Malwarebytes, update, scan, and follow the instructions
for removal. Keep scanning until it comes up clean.
Next we have McAfee Site Advisor.
Right click on saSetup3.0.1.163.exe and run as an administrator. It
pretty much does the rest.
Finally, there is RegistryProt.
This is a zip file, so right-click, and select “extract all”. It should
ask you where to extract the files to, I use C:\regprot. After the
files are extracted, a window should open with the contents of the
c:\regprot folder. Right-click on RPADMIN.exe, and select run as administrator.
Under Run at Startup on the right, there is an option to Install.
Do that. It will then pop up windows telling you what starts when
you start your computer, and asking if you want it to run. You’re
probably pretty safe saying yes to everything after the scans, but
in the future, if some nasty tries to install itself, RegProt will
let you know. But chances are, they will never get that far.
The floor is now open for questions.
Tim a’Musing
Having a Ball with Security
E-mail Dear Tim
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Miscellaneous Tips
[Thanks Bob of the North]
I’ve often read that one should add a slice of apple to a container
of brown sugar that has gone hard. That works, but so does adding
straight water by setting a small container of it inside the larger,
sealed sugar jar. As long as the water has to evaporate to reach the
sugar, the conditioning is fine. I keep a small measuring cup in my
sugar, of the size my breadmaker uses, and just add water to that
as needed. If that is too slow, you can just run over a bag of sugar
with a car.
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Lola was the only one who dared to try that line.
Thanks Lola, and thanks Anne for sending in extras. Remember everyone,
when I give you a bad line (often!) it’s OK to make up your own!
Next opening line…
I’ll face the New Year with a smile…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
As
the old year gives way to the new…
And visits from friends become few
Take a deep breath
Enjoy what is left
And bid the old year adieu. - Lola |
A
good marriage may be a bit rarer
But with a statistician it’s terror!
Post shopping I’d stutter,
"I meant to buy butter."
My mate asked, "What’s you’re margarine of error?" -
Anne Onimous |
I gotten
myself in a fix
Roman galley work’s not picnics -
Spending all day rowing.
But I hate them calling
What we do all day as "oarobics." - Anne Onimous |
I sit begging
outside the mall
Relating how far I did fall. . .
On my boss I did rail
In the firm’s email
Then mistakenly hit "reply all." - Anne Onimous |
In search
of the nuptial ring
Doc Frankenstein tried on-line dating.
To entice the honeys
He listed his hobbies
As electronics and body building. - Anne Onimous |
The other
day I went to the mall
I spied a black dress that did enthrall
It had spaghetti straps!
But my judgment didn’t lapse
For it made me look like a meatball. - Anne Onimous |
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Re: EMT’s
I was a volunteer EMT in
New York City for 12 years. There were countless times that I stopped
at a car accident when someone was injured. I could have kept on driving,
but I knew that I could help, and it would be very selfish of me to
keep that my knowledge and my abilities to myself. Some say that they
are afraid of lawsuits, but people who volunteer are covered by the
Good Samaritan Law. Even if these 2 EMT’s were on duty (and not covered
by the Good Samaritan Law) but they treated the patient to the best
of their training and ability, they have nothing to worry about. Even
if they didn’t have a lot of field experience, they can do their best
to stabilize the patient until the ambulance arrives (which in NYC
can sometimes be half an hour to an hour.
The
main thing though is, a trained medical professional (EMT, paramedic,
doctor, nurse) who is at the scene where there is an injured person,
can be charged with abandonment if they leave the scene before an
equal or more qualified medical person arrives.
Please let’s not let these 2 people ruin the good name of EMT’s and
paramedics the world over, who are always ready to help the injured,
sometimes even at their own risk. - Eli in Israel
I am never commented
on one of your articles but this one today (12/28) was unbelievable.
I had not read about the incident prior so reading it this morning
was quite an eye opener. I am appalled that these 2 chose NOT to do
what they are trained to do in an emergency situation. At the very
least they could have gone to her assistance to ease her anxiety.
And as far as losing their jobs……hell yes! Why subject them to
a job they don’t want to do anyway! Amazing what people are capable
of doing or not doing. Thanks for the article. - Mary
And my hope for the New Year is we no longer have to read about these
kinds of incidents!
IF these two individuals
were wearing a uniform identifying them as EMTs and since EMTs even
when working as dispatchers are required to be fully trained EMTs,
then their actions, or actually the lack of action is especially reprehensible.
Granted,
they probably did not arrive on location in an equipped ambulance,
nor were they probably carrying a medical kit with them. Still, given
the level of their knowledge and purported skills, for them to not
at least stay and support the woman and the people around her, demonstrates
a level of callous disregard for life and a shocking absence of compassion.
Are these people required to maintain levels of skills requiring re-certification?
I know for sure it is required for the levels of CPR, even for doctors.
Had they been dispatchers so long they felt "rusty"? In
whose best interest were they acting? Theirs or hers?
If it is not already a practise, sounds to me like all dispatchers
should be required to spend some specified period of time every year,
back in the field working as an EMT.
While I would disagree with attempts to legislate compassion, I do
feel strongly about these people apparently withholding aid and assistance
when it was within their "power" to do so.
I have no comment upon legal or punitive actions for the individuals.
Carol T.
Unless they have
some kind of "good samaritan" law on the books, I don’t
think they can charge them with anything. That’s too bad, because
their behavior was both callous and heartless.
But that aside, what did the poor woman die of? This article says
they won’t do an autopsy unless the family requests one. That sounds
strange to me, the law about determining a cause of death is different
here in California. I would like to know if she would have died anyway,
even with help. - Margee Lee
Why a trained EMT might
not respond - what sort of Good Samaritan Laws exist in New York State?
Are EMT’s excluded? Does it apply when a trained responder has not
been sent or instructed officially to attend a person? Liability laws
and insurance are behind a lot of this! What if they HAD tried to
help the woman, and their efforts resulted in the same end - she died.
Would the family sue the two men? Remember, they were not ordering
lunch with medical bags in hand. They probably didn’t even have one,
since they were dispatchers. I think those two men did exactly the
right thing - they told the folks to call 911. - Nancy L in
Ohio
AFAIK, there’s
no reason for off-duty EMTs not to get too drunk to work. They might
even need to, if that’s how they cope with horror on the job. Those
dispatchers might have been burnt-out attendants, serving in the only
capacity they could to prevent a shortage. That said, I just got declared
officially disabled by what an off-duty EMT did to me three years
ago, in the course of performing an illegal eviction as a follow up
to other crimes and cheats she wanted to cover up. Maybe she figured
that if she saved a few lives, she could ruin a few and come out even.
- Bob of the North
Re: Weather
Ah, Cliff! A Weather Watch
means radar somewhere shows something could happen. A Weather Alert
means it has already begun happening. As in it MIGHT snow or Warning!
Snow Alert as you watch it swirling around outside your window. Yes,
I live in an unincorporated area, and no, they do not react to every
alert. The cities do, though. Salt trucks were out hours before the
freezing rain was supposed to arrive last week, making sure intersections
would not be sheets of greased ice. On our road, the County simply
drove up and down not putting anything anywhere. This morning about
8 a.m. they plowed the road. School’s out, no need to worry about
people who left for work two hours earlier.
Of Course I change plans if driving in awful weather is optional!!
The current storm will be over by noon tomorrow, and then I’ll go
to the Library. We keep a well stocked pantry and freezer. - Nancy
L in (northern) Ohio
Weather reports
in the Puget Sound area aren’t worth shit, for the most part. I can
look out the back door and get one that is more accurate! I usually
go to my homepage report for the area or the weather channel. I think
the reporters here are just trying to look good to get a better job
somewhere else since most of the stuff here is common sense. I will
say that the long range predictions here are mostly for the Seattle
area so the ones for across the Sound (our area) will be less accurate.
We
are officially in the city of Port Orchard, but it’s still out in
the country where we are. When we had the snow last year that dumped
a foot or so of snow in a day we were stuck for a week before they
got around to plowing or sanding in our neighborhood. Fortunately,
I had gone to the store and was reasonably prepared for it.
If there is going to be bad weather I try to stock up and get any
errands run before it’s supposed to hit. I’d much rather sit at home
in comfort (if there isn’t a power outtage, that is) than be outside
trying to get around or get unstuck from something! My husband missed
a week of work last year because he couldn’t get out and that really
hurt on the next paycheck, and I’m sure my kids in Oklahoma are having
the same problems right now. - Ruth in WA
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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