KTM Duke 200
This slide shows KTM’s future models for the US market. Two of the bikes have my interest. A KTM 350 Duke for the 2013 season. I would expect it to be very similar to the KTM 200 Duke pictured above. If priced right this bike could kill the 250 Ninja. KTM’s 350cc dirtbike engines put out 47hp on the dyno. Even a detuned street version would put out significantly more than the 250 Ninjas 28hp. My next race bike?
KTM 350 Concept Bike
Passwords…how many do you have? Ebay, Email, Paypal, Bill Pay, Internet Forums, Software Registration, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, on and on. Too many passwords. My first password was to Compuserve. For years is was on a small piece of paper kept in my dictionary. Now I have literally hundreds of passwords. Most people keep their passwords on pieces of paper under their keyboard or mousepad. Not very secure, or convenient to find.
In 1995 Ziff Davis gave out a free password keeper sofware program called ZD Net’s Password Pro on a floppy disk attached to their magazines. It is a nice and simple little program that I have been using for the past 16 years to store all my passwords. Unfortunately this program hasn’t been updated in many years and doesn’t seem to work well with versions of Windows from Vista on. It is also a little too simple and limiting. Today I recommend a neat little program called KeePass.
KeePass is freeware. I like free software, especially free software that does everything I want. KeePass is a little more complicated than my trusty old Password Pro software but easy enough that most anyone will be able to use without ever even looking at the help file. All your passwords will be stored in an encrypted database that can’t be accessed without your master password. One password is all you need to remember.
There are versions of KeePass for just about every operating system: Windows (all versions), Mac OS X, iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry, PalmOS, J2ME, Linux and more. KeePass is also portable so that you can run it from a USB stick if you want. There are even many plugins to extend this program beyond simple password storage. You can integrate KeePass with Firefox or Chrome web browsers or even synchronize your password database with many computers using Dropbox.
Identity thief is a huge problem. Don’t make it easy for thieves by leaving your passwords out where they can be found. Lock them up and never lose a password again with this simple free download.
Do you back up your computer regularly or at all? Yesterday I was searching Google and clicking on search results when all of the sudden my computer went haywire! Microsoft Home anti-virus popped up telling me I had a virus. Well I don’t have Microsoft Home anti-virus so I really did have a virus. A few minutes later my Norton Anti-Virus popped up telling me it had deleted a virus but it was too late my computer was infected with what I later learned was the Trojan.Agent/Gen-Frauder virus. There are ways to clean the clean the computer but that takes a lot of research and a lot of work along with a lot of computer knowledge. Luckily I had made a backup of my computer the night before. I just took out my rescue CD and 30 minutes later my computer was back to normal.
Over the years I have had many hard drive failures as well and have always been saved by my backups. It’s not hard or expensive. There are many ways to backup. My recommendation is to use Acronis True Image Home software along with a USB drive.
Get an external USB hard drive to save your backups to. I recommend you purchase a backup drive that holds at least twice as much data as you have on your computer. That way you can have at least two complete backups of your system.
The Acronis True Image software will make an exact image of your hard drive(s). I recommend doing a full backup every time vs. doing incremental backups. Full backups are much easier to work with. A simple wizard will walk you through making a backup. Once you have a backup you can easily restore a single file (something that was accidentally deleted) or your complete drive in the case of a virus or failure.
Even if you don’t feel that you have any important data on your computer do you really want to re-install your operating system and all your applications from scratch? Do you even know where all your install disks are? Not to mention all the updates you will have to download. If you don’t backup now is the time to start.
Attention Top Gear fans! I’ve just received news from a fairly good source that the new season of Top Gear UK will start on Sunday January 29th on BBC2 at 8pm GMT. I’ve been searching for information about the new Season 18 of my favorite show but until now all that BBC would say is that the show starts in January 2012. Well it is January! Luckily the Top Gear India Christmas special, though a little short of Top Gears usual quality, has kept me from going completely mad between seasons.
Those of us outside the UK will have to fire up our cold Bittorrent apps and start searching the racing and UK torrent sites for Top Gear on the last Sunday of this month. Here in the US the 8 hour time difference is perfect timing for us to grab the torrent and watch the show on Sunday evening too.
If you don’t know what Top Gear is you don’t know what you are missing. If you are a Middle-Aged-Motorhead this show is for you! Don’t ask me about Top Gear America, I don’t care for those clowns. And yes I do look like James May.
I am a fan of the mini-series, a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. I really like a serial that you can follow episode to episode to its conclusion. At night I like to watch an episode from a good series before I go to sleep. I just finished watching my #1 series pick and and started looking for a new one which got me to thinking about what my all time favorites are. I’m going to list my top ten TV series of all time. These are series that after a break I enjoy watching them again.
Tai-Pan is Chinese for “supreme leader”. This series takes place in 1840′s China and is based on James Clavell’s 1966 novel. Thrown off the mainland because of his opium dealings, a western merchant (Bryan Brown) starts a trading post on the island of Hong Kong where he faces conflict from friend and foe alike in the lead-up to colonization. This is a fun colorful adventure with no shortage of beautiful women, especially JOAN CHEN who plays the Tai-Pan’s mistress.
This is the series I am currently watching. Framed around Queen Victoria’s decision on England’s political stance towards the Zulu Nation, this mini-series details King Shaka’s rise and fall with mythic detail. Filmed entirely on location in South Africa, Shaka Zulu offers an often-compelling look at a tumultuous period in African history, centering around the character of Shaka himself, who emerges as a complex figure teetering on the balance between leader and tyrant. The role of Shaka Zulu was played by HENRY CELE. This movie also starred EDWARD FOX as Lt. Francis Farwell, ROBERT POWELL as the doctor for the colony, CHRISTOPHER LEE as Lord Bathurst, ROY DOTRICE as King George IV, and others stars such as TREVOR HOWARD, and FIONA FULLERTON. Lots of beautiful African women to keep the men in the house happy.
A dramatic series about the reign and marriages of King Henry VIII. The Tudors ran for 4 seasons with a total of 38 episodes. This is a drama not a history as many liberties were taken with people and events. None the less it is a production of very high quality, beautiful to look at and fun to watch. My main complaint is that King Henry didn’t seem to age much and was young and good looking through most of the series.
Babylon 5 isn’t a mini-series as there are 110 episodes, however it is a series as it was intended from the beginning to run 5 seasons. A novel for television. A space station in neutral territory is the focus of a unique five year saga. In the year 2258, it is ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. Commander Sinclair takes command of a giant five-mile-long cylindrical space station, orbiting a planet in neutral space. At a crossroads of interstellar commerce and diplomacy, Cmdr Sinclair (2d season Captain Sheridan) must try to establish peace and prosperity between various interstellar empires, all the while fighting forces from within the Earth Alliance. It is a precarious command, particularly given that sabotage led to the destruction of Babylon stations 1, 2, and 3 and 4 vanished without trace.
Boardwalk Empire is a period drama focusing on Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (based on the historical Enoch L. Johnson),[9] a political figure who rose to prominence and controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. Nucky interacts with several historical figures in both his personal and political life, including mobsters, politicians, government agents, and the common folk who look up to him. The federal government also takes an interest in the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the area, sending agents to investigate possible mob connections but also looking at Nucky’s lifestyle—expensive and lavish for a county political figure. As of this writing only seasons 1 and 2 have aired with season 3 coming soon. Boardwalk Empire has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its visual style and historical accuracy, as well as for Buscemi’s lead performance. The first episode, directed by Martin Scorsese, cost $18 million. The series was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards; winning eight, including Outstanding Directing for Martin Scorsese.
The Spartacus series currently includes three seasons: Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena and Spartacus: Vengeance. Season 1, Blood and Sand chronicles the capture of Spartacus, his life as a gladiator fighting for the House of Batiatus and concludes with his escape from bondage. Season 2, Gods of the Arena is a prequel which features the bloody history of the House of Batiatus and the city of Capua before the arrival of Spartacus. The third season, Vengeance has not yet aired takes place after Spartacus escapes and forms an army of slaves revolting against their Roman captors. This series takes blood-soaked action, exotic sexuality, villainy, and heroism to new heights for television. If you like blood and naked women you will love this series.
From the Earth to the Moon is a twelve-part HBO television miniseries (1998) co-produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, and Michael Bostick detailing the landmark Apollo expeditions to the Moon during the 1960s and early 1970s. Each episode documents a different aspect of the Apollo mission from simple yet complex question of “How are we going to get there?” to the construction of the lunar lander or Spider, to geology lessons on what rocks to look for. I was a small boy during the 60′s Space Race and this program answers many of the questions that no one could answer for me then.
Hornblower is the umbrella title of a series of television drama programmes based on C. S. Forester’s novels about the fictional character Horatio Hornblower, a Royal Naval officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
The series ran from 1998 to 2003 and starred Ioan Gruffudd in the title role. The series consists of eight made-for-television movies, which are notable for their high production values. I wish they had made more! The eight movies cover the events of just three novels (Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, and Hornblower and the Hotspur). Ioan Gruffudd has said that he would be glad to participate in more Hornblower films, however there are no plans for future episodes.
The Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980. These were fun, camp, sci-fi shows. Starting in 2003 they were remade into a 73 episode series of epic quality. Many non-scifi critics hail this as the best show ever created for television. Storyline: The second war against the Cylons is over and The Twelve Colonies have been destroyed. Now Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galatica and President Laura Roslin lead a ragtag fleet of refugees in a supposed search for the fabled lost thirteenth colony, Earth. However, the dangers they face are many which compound an already difficult situation. In addition to the Cylons hunting and attacking the fleet in space, their infiltrator units carry out a more subtle plot even as their former unwitting pawn, Gaius Baltar, helps in the hunt for them while hiding both his own guilt and the strange presence that haunts his every thought. If that wasn’t enough, the fleet also faces internal political conflict in which the rabble-rousing figure, Tom Zarek, is merely the loudest dissenting voice. In the midst of these trials however, clues begin to appear that suggest that Adama’s simple bluff about Earth may be more truthful than anyone could have guessed.
My favorite series of all time. Rome ran for 2 seasons with a total of 22 episodes. The series begins with Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, and the first season concludes with the assassination of Caesar followed by the rise of the first Emperor Augustus. The second season chronicles the power struggle between Octavian and Mark Antony following Caesar’s assassination, spanning the period from Caesar’s death in 44 BC to Octavian’s final victory over Antony at Actium in 31 BC.
Today is Dump GoDaddy day. GoDaddy is a company that you just want to love but can’t. They have a great ad agency and who can argue with their fast/hot Spokesgirl Danica Patrick. Love her! I’ve had several domains and even a web site hosted at GoDaddy in the past. I removed my stuff from GoDaddy because of their horrible user interface and slimy billing tactics. My domains are now hosted at MyDomain.com.
The final straw that prompted the national boycott of GoDaddy was their support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — which opponents say will limit free speech on the Internet and infringes on first amendment rights. SOPA would make websites responsible for illegal copyright content uploaded by any user, making it difficult if not impossible for companies like Imgur, YouTube, and Facebook to operate. The call to dump GoDaddy started when one user of popular link-sharing site reddit.com was unhappy with the response he got from GoDaddy after writing a letter expressing how uneasy he felt about their support for the legislation. GoDaddy quickly recanted its position on SOPA once they saw that the boycott was taking off.
If you have a domain hosted at GoDaddy and think that the governments SOPA bill is too draconian take action and move your domain to another host. Even if you don’t care about SOPA you will find most other domain hosts much easier to use and deal with than GoDaddy. If you’ve already paid for several years hosting on your domain don’t worry in almost every case those years will be honored by your new domain host.
When you think about it all GoDaddy has is funny ads and Danica Patrick. We love you Danica! Goodbye GoDaddy!
So you have your favorite web browser set up as your default browser but there is some site you need to use another web browser with…what do you do? Maybe there is some site that doesn’t work with your browser or perhaps you are a web developer who wants to their site in a variety of browers. You could launch the browser and navigate to the site but there is an easier way. You can create a shortcut to goes to a specific site with a specific web browser.
I ran into this problem. Chrome is my default web brower. I use Google Apps and am always logged into Google with those credentials. I also have an old Google Voice account which is not compatible with Google Apps 
My solution is to access my Google Voice account with my Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser but it is a pain to launch MSIE then navigate to Google Voice. Here is how to create a shortcut that will launch a URL in the browser of your choice.
First: Go to the start menu and find the web browser you which to use (Firefox, MSIE, Chrome, etc.). Right-click on the browsers shortcut and choose copy from the pop-up menu.
Second: Right-click on your desktop and choose paste. This will put a shortcut to the web browser on your desktop.
Third: Right-click your newly created shortcut and choose properties from the pop-up menu. You will get a box as shown here.
Fourth: In the Target window add the URL of the site you wish to open after the browser location as shown. Click OK and you are done.
Congratulations, you have created a desktop shortcut that will launch a URL in the web browser of your choosing. You can move this shortcut to your Start Menu or Quick Launch bar if you wish.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network in the USA, and was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour. The copyright year in Roman numerals was mismarked as MCLXIV (1164) instead of the correct MCMLXIV.
This video is from YouTube. I’ve posted it here to test how YouTube videos look in my player. Running time is 51 minutes. I didn’t know YouTube had videos that long ’till just now.
This movie is often called Santa Claus vs. the Devil. 94 minutes.
A bizarre flick from Mexico translated by K. Gordon Murray for children’s matinees. Considered to be one of the worse films of all times. This one makes Santa Clause Conquers the Martians look like a quality movie. In this flick Santa teams up with Merlin the Magician to fight the devil and defend the magic of Christmas. Santa Claus is the envy of the CIA and avoids child labor laws by keeping his slaves in an orbital castle over the North Pole. This film was made in Mexico in 1959 and dubbed in English for American audiences in 1960.
Originally released Christmas 1910, this Edison production features Charles Ogle (Frankenstein) as Bob Cratchet.
Another Xmas film for the collection. A Christmas Carol, is a 1910 silent film directed by J. Searle Dawley for Edison. It runs 10 minutes and is one of the earliest film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ famous 1843 novella. It featured Marc McDermott as Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles S. Ogle as Bob Cratchit.
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