Category: General

And a new chapter begins

It's been so long since I've posted anything and I have had so many things to talk about. I just haven't had time. I was working on a presentation for the computer group I am a part of, the SDNUA and thinking about how I should be putting a lot of this information on my website. If I could just find the time to do it.

Sometimes life forces you to turn the page on what you are currently doing and start a new chapter. This is what has happened to my family and myself over the past week.

First off let me say, to my family and friends who I haven't had a chance to talk to yet, I apologize if this is the first time you are hearing this information. If I had my way I would have had long conversations with each and every one of you.

Today, I was officially diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Sarcoma. Right now I'm afraid there isn't that much information to relay. I have a baseball sized tumor in my pelvis that needs to be removed and the doctors are working on getting that surgery out of the way in the next couple of days. I know this is a lot of information and at the same time not a lot of information, unfortunately it’s really all I have right now. To give you a blow by blow (or needle poke by needle poke) of events over the past 7 days would take too long and it would be filled with a lot of worthless information. I just wanted to get what important information there was up on the site. And to let everyone know, as much as I can, I will keep the website updated with my progress.

I will make sure everyone stays up to date on my progress if you care to be. Please keep my family in your thoughts. And I will talk to you again very soon.

"11 Days Of Remembrance"

I thought this was kind of cool so I figured I would share it with everyone. The San Diego Blood Bank, in conjunction with local credit unions, had an “11 Days Of Remembrance” from September 1st to the 11th in honor of the heroes from 9/11. Basically you went down and donated blood. Now I had never done this before but I went through with it. Anyways, just about everyone at the credit union I am working at decided to contribute in one way or another so we decided to take the opportunity for a photo op and put the picture up on our website.

Well, apparently the San Diego Blood Bank got wind of it and got a copy of the picture and placed it on their site as well. So, like I said I thought it was kind of cool to get that type of acknowledgement so I grabbed a screen shot of it to keep. Check it out since the website will probably be changed to something else by the time you read this.

11 Days Of Remembrance

Protection and Productivity You Can Afford

I get asked a lot what programs should a person absolutely have on their computer. The answer varies a lot depending on what you are going to be doing with the computer and exactly what type of computer you have. But let me address the most general “need to have” application for the most typical users.

For the most part, my friends and family use some form of Microsoft Windows computer. First step is to make sure you are up-to-date with all the Patches. You can accomplish this simply by going to Microsoft’s Update site . This is a MUST first step. If you are running Windows XP make sure you install Service Pack 2.

OK once your system is up-to-date, you’ll need a Firewall (unless you installed XP Service Pack 2 which enables its firewall), Anti Virus, some software to kill Spyware, and you’ll most likely want some sort of Office Suite. Now there are commercial versions of all this software, however I am going to point you to Freeware and Open Source solutions instead. [side note] It’s important to understand that there is a distinct difference between Freeware and Open Source [/side]

I guess before we proceed, I should make sure you have at least some understanding of what you are getting when you use freeware/open source and make sure you are comfortable with this as your solution. Personally, I have no problem recommending these solutions but I do not guarantee their performance. OK real quick, freeware is defined as “Copyrighted software given away for free by the author. Although it is available for free, the author retains the copyright, which means that you cannot do anything with it that is not expressly allowed by the author. Usually, the author allows people to use the software, but not sell it.” Where as Open Source is “a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge, i.e., open. Open source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon the code and share the changes within the community. Open source sprouted in the technological community as a response to proprietary software owned by corporations.”
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