Mon 21 July 03I have written my profile: HERE. I have also joined a special profile webring to encourage visitors. After several days the count has reached...wait for it...1! If you visit now, you will double that number in one go.There has today been a huge increase in the use of google/yahoo searches looking for 'stridercover'. I cannot think why this should be so. If YOU know, please email me with the reason. Yesterday there wer just 4 visitors to that site. So far ttoday there have been 37! So I have linked the April pic to the August one.
From time to time I come across websites that need a picture or banner hotlinked from another site. The places where the pix or banners can be hosted are difficult to find. I know they can be uploaded to any web site, but the host usually does not allow them to be accessed from outside the site. However, I came across just such a site today, and I have the owners agreement to upload as many pictures to it as I want. That is what comes of asking nicely beforehand! At the moment I have not uploaded any, but will do so at an appropriate moment. The facilities for the uploading can be found at HERE
The weekend was spent very productively, laying carpet, glossing and emulsioning, and in between, relaxing in the sunshine. Well, I have to admit, I was doing a lot of that in the sticky heat last week. It is better than working. The tan is coming along nicely now!
Also I have taken the opportunity to update the design of this blog. The bright red was beginning to look somewhat garish, so I have made more pages light blue, with balck text. I have also moved the menu from the left side to the top of the main page. The screen proved not to be wide enough for the blog as well as the menu, so I putthe menu into the scroller sectionto make more of the screen available for the blog. Security Forums proves more and more interesting. It is amazing what one can learn. The chat room has been a revelation as well, although they are not really my scene!
Sun 20 July 03 There are no problems associated with Bravenet webrings, and as you may have noticed on my index page, I have MY own webring for easy navigation of many of my websites. I can assure everyone that Bravenet webrings create no problems with the coding or set up of pages on Geocities. If they did, I would not be using them! as far as I am concerned I don't believe that the coding contains spyware either. If that is the way the software works, then spyware will be found! I am not convinced that the Bravenet webring contains spyware, any more than that this Geocities page does. This page has a 1X1 gif at the bottom for tracking purposes. That could be considered spyware, but remember this host does not charge for this service so surely it has a right to see what site owners and visitors do when they visit. And what about the other rings run by netring and webring. Surely they operate in the same way to Bravenet, so if there is something to do with spyware on Bravenet, you can be sure that the others will operate in a similar way. I understand that if you come across a 'no right click' page to protect code and pictures, then by pressing 'return' on your keyboard at the same time as right clicking the protection is removed. That does not work for me. I thought that my pop up killer from panicware was causing the problem, but even removing that did not make any difference. The easiest solution is to use the free Opera browser, where the java script code for 'no right click' is ignored. In general it is a much more versatile browser than IE, and I find it so easy to keep multiple pages open at the same time by using the tabs at the top. Why not give it a try? You won't regret it!
Sat 19 July 03 Mr Hobbs, long serving member of staff at Arnold Hill School, is leaving at the end of term. Today he held his 'at home' do for his colleagues, both existing and previous, at the school. To see the pix taken at this event. Enter the correct username and password in the box at the bottom of this page.
Thur 17 July 03 I have put the Security Forums button on my site as a link to the forum at the top of my menu. I have found answers on that forum to a couple of difficult problems I could not deal with myself. By a careful study of the topics, I was able to resolve them, so they certainly deserve a link! They also have a chat room: very easily found by clicking here:
SFDC chat
Wed 16 July 03 Those who know me will know that the rear garden backs onto the edge of an old quarry, which was developed soon after I moved here 31 years ago next month. A couple of years ago the neighbour in the corner site of the quarry, which adjoins most of the rear boundary discussed putting up a fence. This required the removal of a couple of silver birches, which overhung their land. I was pleased to oblige in this, and so the fence was erected. I recently learned that my immediate neighbour was told that I had gone halves in this fence, no doubt to imply that they should do the same when the next section is built in the near future. As I did not make any contribution, since it did not matter to me whether a fence was put up or not, it is always worth checking the facts, or you will be led into making decisions from false information!
Karl Cooper, the excellent Radio Nottingham morning programme presenter, who I met on the Nottingham Caves tour several weeks ago, referred listeners to a web site at which he was looking at that moment, about 8.30am. I visited it and saw that it had a counter. From that counter it was possible to see his visit, and looking at the further details it was clear that the BBC was still using Windows 98 as the operating system! With the license now costing more than £110 I would have thought that they could have upgraded to XP by now! Initially Karl was not convinced that the details I sent to him confirmed his visit, but I think the IP address details are very conclusive! Here is the evidence: HERE, and HERE. There is also a cartoon of Karl on the side of a small theatre in Nottingham, and this is shown on the BBC Nottingham website. here it is: HERE.
Tue 15 July 03 I need to see updates of the Dow Jones index to help with my daytrading. Its value is available at several sites, delayed 20 minutes as is usual, but it needs refreshing to update. I thought that there ought to be an auto refresh browser, and there is! I found it HERE. Download it as it is also supposed to speed up your broadband internet access! It refreshes the pages, so should come in useful at moneyam as well, where the free version cuts out after several minutes, and hence needs refreshing. This browser should do the job!
Mon 14 July 03 Did you know that if you right click and get a 'do not steal' message, then you can use another browser. The no right click works with IE, but you can view the source code if you use Opera!Try my decoding challenge: CLICK HERE
Orange shares sold.CLICK HERE
Toe Nails. Long distance walkers usually suffer from black toes nails, and I am no exception. The pounding that my big toes take when on a fast long distance walk puts intense pressure on them, so that they regularly go black and eventually grow out and fall off. They were recovering nicely from an earlier attack at the time of the White Rose 100 at the end of May, but that 100 mile walk ensured that the black nails returned. This weekend they have grown out, and one dropped off on Saturday. I found it in the bed this morning, and added it to my macabre collection of big toe nails. The other one is still hanging on!
I have had a fairly lazy weekend, mostly lying in the sun. When I was at Knoydart in April climbing the three remote Munros that are in that area, I had some spare time. One of the books provided in the self catering bungalow was 'Vintage Stuff' by Tom Sharpe, the writer of 'Porterhose Blue' and 'Wilt'. There was no TV, so I started to read the book. However, when it was time to leave I had only got half way through. Returning here, it was ordered from the local library, and after a hiccup on their part, it arrived for collection a few days ago. It was previously issued in April, so I don't know why I had to wait so long for it. Anyway, the sunshine this weekend came at and opportune moment, in that I could laze in the sun and read the book. I did commence it again, and finished it off. I can recommend it to you to read as well.
I remember the former from the TV production! I did not wear my watch so as to avoid the white stripe on my wrist. I prefer not to have white bits!
Sun 13 July 03 Finance News. About five years ago, during the second year of ISAs, I was looking around for a BS to invest the £3000 for that year. I came across the Clay Cross BS, a society which fitted my criterior for giving it my money: it was small, with a possiblity of takeover, it was local, so I was allowed to invest, and it allowed member investments, meaning that if it converted members would be allowed to retain the shares. So on one of my visits to the Lake District aroumd that time I visited its only branch, Head Office in Clay Cross. I opened the account, presented the £3000 cheque, and that was that. Apart from receiving annual updates, and brief news items, I have had no further contact with the society. Until this week, that is, when a letter arrived telling me that it was proposed to merge it into the Derbyshire BS, and that there would be a small bounty payable on completion. Success!! That was why I invested in this society. I already have an account with the Derbyshire, so I can remove the cash from that, still retaining the now £3500 in the ISA, and put it to better use elsewhere. This merger will reduce my number of BS investments to 19. Maybe now that the stock market has picked up the good times will return and BS will begin converting to PLCs again. Anyone who had the shares from earlier conversions will have done very well, as shares in banks proceed from strength to strength. There is also the possibility of takeovers, the rumour again surfacing that there is a bid in the offing for B & B plc, by HSBC, a suggestion denied at the present time by both parties. Well, they would, wouldn't they!
Sat 12 July 03 A few days ago I found an interesting link on a personal website counter. "http://www.security-forums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6547". It led to a deleted message. In view of its outrageous comments. I was very surprised that it had been posted in the first place. People have been banned from forums for less.
My house is now 31 years old, and furnishings need upgrading. These take place less frequently than MS upgrades! The 14 year old kitchen sink has a small crack and consequently leaks. So that is to be replaced by stainless steel, which although only guarenteed for 10 years, seems to last forever. Then the guest bathroom will receive attention. The tiles were provided when I had the house built, and are now beginning to fall off the walls. So it will be completely redone, with new bath, wash bowl and toilet, together with associated wall and side units. There will also be a mira power shower fitted over the bath, with a sensible protective partition instead of a shower curtain. I first discovered power showers at Youth Hostels a couple of years ago, and was determined to have one myself. The water pressure on the two showers installed at the moment is very poor, so a pump will be essential. Finally, with a worn out lounge/dining room carpet, the floor will be boarded, and free standing carpets laid. I will need to do something about the hi-fi wiring though. I trust there will be some profits from my attempts at stock market 'day-trading' to cover the costs of all this. Then there will be a new car so I can use my personal 04 plate.
The hacking challenge continues to entertain. Visit www.try2hack.nl to try it. Then when you reach level two and get stuck (see below) have a look at HERE for hints, and answers. for the level 1 to level 6 passwords, click HERE.
Thur 10 July 03 I was called in to Arnold Hill School today. Suffered the odd disruptive pupil. Only one was sent home! How teachers stick the job these days I shall never know. Don't make a career in teaching! There are many things you can do with your education that are much less stressful. Luckily now I can walk away at the end of the day, leave someone else to pick up the pieces, and not worry too much about whether any work is done. There is no homework to worry about either. I will get the £130 gross a fortnight tomorrow. I checked today and saw that this was only the 4th day I had been in this year, having turned down two days during the past month! They were early morning calls for that same day, so I rejected the offers. It is pleasant to be able to pick and choose.
The hacker challenge continues. I was intrigued by the comment on Moira's site, so I emailed for help, and she very kindly gave me the answers for level 2. I naively had again been looking at the source code, which was the reason for my <10 second success with level one! It gave me ItIsSoEasy for the PW for level 2, but that appearently is wrong. The one I was given, along with the ID was tricky, so even having been given it I emailed back to say it did not work!!!! I'll never make a hacker! But then, as I tried a google search using what I thought was the PW, it came up with a couple of sites. One just gave clues, which I would never have been able to work out, but another, on a forum type site, eventually gave answers, so I now have all the IDs and passwords up to and including level 6. This is the lazy way to crack! Search google. If you want to see the challenge visit www.try2hack.nl, and google will give you the answers, so don't struggle too much. I was therefore able to get very rapidly through to level 5, where I will have to stop. It says it needed a VB3 download, and VBRUN300.DLL to open it. Having found the file on the internet and downloaded it I fully expected my computer to stop working! It still worked, luckily, but it would not open the VB code, so I can get no futher. Good luck Moira when you get to that stage. If you CAN get level 5 to work, then I will be knocking at your door again for more advice! I do have the level 5 PWs, but it is easy to do the google search. As well as that, if you ARE tackling the challenge, be warned: to do it properly you WILL need to be a real expert at ports, how computers talk to each other, and all the other bits and pieces that only 0.0001% of computer uses know anything about. So be warned.
Wed 9 July 03 Because the comments on share dealings are taking over this site, I am setting up a separate section specifically for this. Visit www.shares4fun.co.uk to read about my day trading in future.
Tue 8 July 03 Barclays sold at 10.01 am for 463.12p for a small profit of £49. More details to follow.CLICK for the full story.
Mon 7 July 03 Many of you will know that I am getting quite a reputation as a paparazzo since I bought my Fuji6900 digital camera in April 2002. I am pleased to be able to report that ANOTHER of my pictures is to be on the front cover of the next edition of Strider, due for publication in early August. This follows the April edition, where I was the star attraction myself, standing with the pacerpoles on the summit of Dufton Pike, in the North Pennines. The back cover of the April edition also had yet another of my paparazzo type pix. Fame at last in the LDWA! Click HERE to view these great photographs. I am available for weddings etc at nominal rates plus expenses. Some weeks ago I was interested in seeing what keystrokes programs did, and installed one. It records all the key strokes from the keyboard, and sends the information out to whichever email address is entered. As it was a trail version a message window kept popping up every 30 mins informing the user that all keystrokes were being recorded. When I had seen the power of this, and had satisfied my curiosity, I wished to remove the program. Unfortunately it disguises its name, and does not appear in the add/remove menu. So I was stuck with it. I discovered this FORUM
