Ralph Figuracion

Getting old

2010-03-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

If anyone had a choice no one would get old but we don't have that choice. I have not posted for awhile so I thought I would let everyone know I am still alive. I just finished a pretty good novel The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. This a book about Alfred the great who lived in 877 AD. If you like historical novels this one is for you.

Flame wars

2009-11-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I posted a link to a site dedicated net neutrality to my Facebook page. Most of the people that can see my Facebook page are family. I also added their link to my twitter feed. I got a very vindictive comment from one of my cousins. I doubt he reads this blog or that anyone does for that matter. However, I have chosen to respond here. The site is Free Press something or another which points to the site Save the internet dot com. Neither site is really very controversial. So perhaps my cousin was having a bad day or something. Or maybe he is upset with me about something else. Back in the olden days of the internet (nntp servers, list servers, and other pre-web proto calls) I would have gotten very upset and started a flame war with my own cousin. Today I understand that like a certain body part everyone has an opinion. Not everyone can express their opinions in clear and concise language.

A quick internet search will bring many thoughtful commentaries on the subject of Net Neutrality. This is not something new. The Internet from the beginning was neutral. It did not care what application was running on it. Even new protocols could and can run over computers that are across the country or the world from each other. The earliest RFC’s required network operators to route all traffic forward without interference or delay. Most people today get their internet from the few cable companies and telephone companies that still exist and those companies have competing technologies. Take VOIP for instance, there are independent companies like Vonage that provide internet based telephone service but they have to depend on an open Internet. There have been problems with ISPs throttling VOIP traffic from providers other than themselves. Today more and more people are turning off their televisions and using the Internet for news, entertainment, information, communication, and shopping. They are not using cable TV, the yellow pages, telephones, or other services which the ISPs make a good deal of money on.

This conflict of interest requires regulations. There are some bills in Congress that would do this and the FCC is looking into making some rules along this line. There is at least one bill that would keep the FCC from making any rules about the Internet. These bills change as they move through the congress and it is very tough to link to a bill that is changing all the time. A quick search will yield anyone with a couple of fingers links the bills. No one with a real job has the time to keep after these things. But we do need to let our representatives know we are paying attention. I am sure there are other organizations and web sites that are watching this. The EEF is one that I follow the IEEE has some interesting articles posted but you have to be a member to find them. Save the internet dot com is an interesting site that can provide lots of information about this subject.

They don't make them the way they used.

2009-09-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing people saying they don't make things the way they used to. They mean that things are made cheaper, weaker, less well in some way. This always bugs me. As an example houses today are made with 2x6s instead of 2x4s they are insulated better, they are covered with better siding, the windows are at least double glazed, even the electric service is better. An other example is automobiles. I have been talking about this for years. Cars today run better, get better gas mileage, are more dependable, and safer. If you follow is link Click here you will see what i mean.

2009-08-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

While it has been awhile. I fired Microsoft. After spending a couple of years trying to get small business server to work, I give up. SBS 2008 is junk. As an example when using the help program you are directed to a web page at Microsoft.com that is not there. I had everything working more or less and after it updated itself it changed the home page on my computer. I think the problems are in the Small Business part of the program. SBS uses windows server, exchange server, and something called WSUS these are hooked together with a console and some wizards. I think that the standard windows server is a pretty good system, but SBS is like the "el cheapo" server system and doesn't get the best programmers. To top it off the anti-malware solutions are priced like a small business is made of money. I can't imagine setting up a Small Business Server at a small business and having half the problems I had. The whole idea with a client server operating systems is wrong to begin with. The server is set up to keep the regular employees from doing anything that might cause a problem. Active Directory is like a dictator telling you how to use the Internet, your computer, and your email. Hire good people train them well and setup web page to enter information and retrieve it. I will post more on this later. I will revise this posting a few times in the next few days - I hope.

2009-04-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well I have posted once this year. I was thinking it had been much longer. April fools' day is special. My Brother Grant was married on this date and my Father-in-Law was born on this date. Both are no longer with us. So, today has become a day to think about my mortality. Of course this blog will live on forever. Well maybe it won't. But I believe everything we do or don't do effects the future. I am trying to find a well known quotation, something about moving a grain of sand. I am not having any luck.
In other news, I bought an Iphone. This thing is great. I feel myself becoming an Apple fanboy. I will try and not turn this blog into a testimonial for Apple or the Iphone, but I can't imagine using a different cell phone. I promise to write more about this at another time.
My wife Mary has started college again. She is so tough, working fulltime, going to school full time, and being a time and a half wife and mother. Since I hit 50 and contacted mad cow and oldtimers I can't remember what day it is. I am trying to pull my weight and helping with the house work, cooking and caring for our little angel. So my other pursuits, like this blog, reading great literature, and great scientific discoveries have been put on the back burner. However, that burner is still on and sometimes even gets hot.
I have been reading. Freakonomics is fantastic, a must read for everyone. I can't say enough about this book. I have also found a new website about books that I love. http://www.shelfari.com/ is a great site. I think I can share or choose friends or something like that. Just go there and check it out. I may post a link later or something. After Freakonomics, I read The Rising Tide: A Novel of the Second World War by Jeff Shaara also well worth the time. I am listening to a biography of Winston Churchill on my Iphone. Did I mention I got an Iphone. I have been a subscriber of www.audible.com for some time. Using an IPod or Iphone is so much nicer then burning CDs to listen to in the car. I am reading Why I write by George Orwel. I will have more on that in my next post.

Working from home

2009-01-21T13:04:00.001-08:00

Working from home is pretty challenging. Having a three year old is even tougher. Trying to do both is nearly impossible. Add to that attempting to keep up a blog and maybe you will understand why it has been so long since my last post. I have finished a couple of books recently. When I have time I will try and post something about them. I moved my workspace around to get my little her own space. She has a 42 inch high definition TV to watch Caillou on. The TV is even hooked up to the computer. We can watch movies and TV shows from the internet or off DVDs.

My recent reads

2008-05-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I said I would do a better job of reviewing books I had read. But I would rather read than write about what I have read. I finished Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. It was pretty interesting and a quick read. Before The Long Valley I read The GOD Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This a great non-fiction book that presents an atheist point of view. Dr Dawkins is an expert in evolutionary biology. I am not sure exactly what his PhD is in. Since my last post I have also read Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut followed by Faith of My Fathers by John McCain. Both are worth reading. My wife and I are listening to Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I am reading Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. I will add links to Amazon.com and varies blogs when I feel the need. If anyone were reading this blog I might do things quicker.

The Long Valley and The Red Pony

2008-04-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading John Steinbeck's The Long Valley which is a collection of short stories about the people of the Salinas Valley area. "The Red Pony" is the final story but it is much longer than the others. Some of the stories must have more behind them then I got with one reading. I would highly recommend this book. Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors. I have read other books of his and I enjoyed them all. I am sure one could find hundreds of summaries on the net for any of his books, so I will not bother. Maybe I will take some notes on the next book I read. I have started Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel one of his robot novels. I will try and do a better report on it without writing a summery. .

Cousin Dale

2008-04-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

My cousin Dale Bumpaous is visiting me this week. He lives in Richland, Washington which for those of you who don't know is the sunshine capital of Washington. Summer highs there can hover around 95 F to 100 F for weeks. Everyone there owns an air conditioner. It does rain over there a couple times a year, here in Western Washington it rains almost every day year round. Californians and others take note.

I have added my picture

2008-04-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I have added my picture. This one is a little old and I needed a shave that day. But, it is about the best picture I have taken. My eyes are straight, clear, and bright. Isn't being clean and sober wonderful. I will look for a more upto date picture. Today my hair is shorter, thinner, and a lot grayer. If you want to see more pictures of me and my family you will have to look on flicker.

Do I know you?

2008-03-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I added a post to this blog. It had been sometime since I last posted. It had even been longer since anyone had read my blog. I don't think my wife has yet read it. Therefore, I sent out an email to everyone in my contract list. The subject was "Do I know You?" I was surprise that only one email bounced. The address is no longer vaild. That does not mean all the other addresses are good. Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail and the like don't bounce they just sit there waiting for their owners logon. I was surprise to hear from a few people. I don't know how many looked at my blog but at least they are still alive. I know my sister took a look because she tried to post a comment but I had the comments turned off. They are on how but you have to log in. All that is required is a google log in which everyone should have. My sister Ada has also started a blog of her own. I will link to her as soon as I figure out how to do that.

OMG

2008-03-27T13:22:00.001-07:00

It has been so long since I posted to this blog. I thought about just starting a new one but that does not make much sense. If you are here for the first time because I sent you an email. Thanks for taking a look. If you find some misspelled words or grammical errors please let me know. I am going to post more often but shorter entries. At least that is the plan. The reason I decided to get back to posting here is because I am going to help Nichellle start a blog of her own.

Backups

2006-06-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

I thought the new DVD RW drives that could burn double layer disks would be great so I bought one not long after they came out. I must of spent 129 or so on it. Since then I have bought 2 more. Each one was cheaper then the last one. Now they have them for less then 50. As you know the double layer DVD RW media is not cheap so I have not burned many of those. The other day I saw some double layer DVD+R or was it –R disk for 30 USD for 25 disks so the prices have came down a lot. But the new drives all burn and write everything. What I did with the last one is install it in 5.25 inch USB 2.0 / Firewire box. The box costs about 50 USD I think. You can put a CD, DVD, or a 3.5 inch hard drive I it. Anything that connects to a PATA connector will work. When I connect to a Win XP box my DVD-RW shows up as a DVD-RW but will only burn CDs but will read both CDs and DVDs. That is because Win XP only burns CDs natively. After I installed Nero I could burn both. This DVD box will not boot from a CD or DVD on older computers but on newer motherboard there are some BIOS setting that will allow you to boot from it. The reason I did this was to make back-ups of computers that did not have a burner. Do you know of any really light weight DVD burning software? I am going to check the open source stuff and see if I can find a basic one. Nero and Roxio are both great but really take up a lot of room and make lots of registry changes. I don’t want to do that if I am backing up someone else’s computer.

My Brother Grant passed away.

2006-06-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

I have not posted for some time now. Thankfully blogger.com has a password recovery feature. On May 26th my Brother, Grant Hayward Haynes Figuracion, passed away. He had been paralyzed for 22 years. For last 15 years I took care of him. My wife Mary found him that morning at 6:30 A.M. I don't think I will ever forget the sound of anguish in her voice. It is still hard for me to talk about this. Robert Soble theSobleizer lost his mother the day before this and reading his blog has helped me.

Updated BOIS

2005-09-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

After having some problems with my new computer freezing up, I updated its BIOS. Since doing that it seems to be running fine. This computer has a Gigabyte motherboard (GA-K8NS Ultra-939) an Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, one gigabyte of RAM, and a pair of WD 250 GB SATA hard drives using the on board RAID control in stripping mode. I used Gigabyte's @BIOS utility. I first backed up the existing BIOS then I downloaded and install an update. After rebooting the computer, I ran DivX converter which ran fine. I left the computer on over night, which had caused it to lock-up before, and this morning it was working fine.

My Upgrade

2005-09-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well I upgraded my computer to an AMD Athlon 64. Everything works great except it is freezing up every now and then. This is of course the hardest type of PC problem to deal with. I am going to check with the motherboard manufacture Gigabyte for bios and driver updates and install some monitoring software to check the temperature sensors. If the problem continues I will do some searches on Google to see if others are having the same problem with this motherboard, chip, and hard drive configuration. If someone else has a better idea or a link to a website please let my know.

Call for help

2005-09-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Call for help is back on TV in the United States. I really enjoy listening to call for help. I have my DVR set to record it everyday. There webpage is at www.callforhelptv.com It seems strange to hear them about Canada so much, but they are being taped up there. This is really great help for someone trying to learn computer repair. I tried to answer the question before leo does. Some other links:

thisweekintech.com
leoville.tv
leo.am

Godaddy Radio

2005-06-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

I have found a great site on the net. www.radiogodaddy.com This is another of the Bob Parsons great ideas. This is another podcast. He also has a blog at www.bobparsons.com.

I am still alive

2005-06-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

I am still alive and working on my mcdst. Mary and I have both finished the book. I am still working on the sample questions. I should be finished by monday June 6, 2005. At which point I will start taking sample tests. Well that is all for this post. I am going to try and post more often.
Hey has anyone else noticed that the TWIT podcast has not been released yet for this week.

MCDST my Quest

2005-03-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

This is my first post on a blog. I am hoping that keeping this blog will help me with the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician program. My wife and I are currently reading and studying from the same book. Supporting users and Troubleshooting a Microsoft Windows XP Operating system is the name. I am working on Chapter 10 and she is on Chapter 8. In the past I have studied Visual Basic with an eye toward that certification. For 15 years I have been trying to make money using computers instead of spending money on them. The plan is this time with the help of my wife to at least achieve this level of certification.

I may go back and post some notes from the chapters I have already covered but for now I am going to start with Chapter 10 “Supporting Network Connectivity.” If this is at least partly successful, I would like to organize these notes and post them on our website www.danaus.com. Mary is also going to start her own blog. Part of it may be in Filipino and part in English. I don’t know how she will organize it but I am going to encourage her.

Chapter 10: Network Connectivity
Understanding TCP/IP
I have studied this material before and thought I had a good understanding of it. Now I am not so sure.
Setting up a computer (host) on a network
IP address required
Subnet mask required
Default gateway required
Domain Name System (DNS) optional
Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) optional

IP address
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx each xxx can be a number between 1 and 255
Class A networks 1-126 subnet mask 255.0.0.0
Class B networks 128-191 subnet mask 255.255.0.0
Class C networks 192-223 subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Class D networks 224-239 not used for host
Class E networks 240-255 not used for host

Private IP addresses
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 Most NAT gateway routers

TCP IP HOST file instead of DNS server
Lmhosts File instead of WINS Server

WINS server NETBOIS name server not used in windows 2000 or windows xp except for backward compatiblity.