3787 My widgets

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Today I learned how to take a screenshot.  Windows 8 makes it really easy.  There's my new widgets over there on the right.

It's 52 and raining here, and 47 and cloudy at the other house.

I don't need or want the bottom half of the calendar, with the big 23, but I haven't figured out yet how to get rid of it.

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Later - Phooey.  It's overlaying text on the right Blogger screen, so it's hard to read.  Any smaller, and it would still be hard to read, but for a different reason.  Tough.  If you click on the screenshot, it should get clearer....
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3786 Widget wacky

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

On my old Vista, I had "widgets" on the sidebar.  A nice big analog clock, a calendar showing the whole month, gauges showing CPU and storage utilization, and two weather doohickies showing the temperature and conditions for both houses.

I loved them.  Glanced at them all the time.

Microsoft got rid of them in Windows 8, ostensibly because they presented a security threat, but the forum consensus is that Microsoft wanted people to use those stupid cluttering apps.  The ones you can't see when you're on the desktop.

So, I searched, and found several free widget programs.  Again, the consensus is that the best and safest is from http://8gadgetpack.net/.

Installation was quick and easy.  I got everything I needed, including two small weather gadgets, the ones that show temperature and atmospheric conditions.

Then I clicked on "options" to set the weather gadgets to my locales.  The one for the city house was easy.

The country house was weird.

I asked it to search for Red Hook, NY, 12571 (that's a village upstate, near Rhinebeck, not the old dock area of Brooklyn, and what I had been using on Vista as being close to the country house).

It told me it couldn't find a weather station for Red Hook, but offered me Slingerlands as the closest.  Slingerlands is way the heck up by Albany.  Duh?  Not even close!

So I shrugged and asked for Milan, NY, which is close and is in the same zip code as Red Hook, and has an airport, so I know there's a weather station there.

It said it couldn't find Milan, but offered me Red Hook as the closest.  Duh?

I don't understand.

But at any rate, my widgets are all set up, and I'm happy.
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3785 Notice for all pet owners

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

If you have a dog or cat, and give them jerky treats, please read this:

http://news.yahoo.com/fda-seeks-pet-owner-help-dangerous-jerky-treats-120212167--politics.html

Mysterious illnesses and deaths.  FDA is gathering info in an effort to identify the problem.
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3784 Dago

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Well, this is the first post in years without the leading green quote.  I still haven't solved the problem of how to get to my ".wps" documents.  No big deal.  Eventually I will.

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There's a food truck in the Albany/Schenectady area named "The Wandering Dago".  New York State had no problem approving the business name, but now someone in the government has decided the name is offensive, and the truck has been banned from places under state control, like the Empire State Plaza in Albany and the Saratoga race track.

The truck owners and operators happen to be Italian.  They like the name. They not only like it, they're proud of it, and by serving great food, they feel they are saying exactly that. They can call themselves Dagos if they want, right?  They've gone to court, claiming their first amendment rights have been abridged by the state.

I've been idly following the story for a while.  There's no resolution yet, but it doesn't look good for the wandering Dagos.  The judge's name is D'Agostino.  Catch the first four letters.

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This brings up something that generally bugs me - the tendency to much wider interpretation of the Constitution than the framers ever intended. 

The first amendment was meant to permit citizens to criticize the government without reprisal.  Period.

It was not intended to allow anyone to say, write, wear, do, display any insulting, profane, irreverent, impious, disrespectful, sacrilegious, obscene, blasphemous, indecent, foul, vulgar, crude, filthy, dirty, smutty, coarse, rude, offensive, indecorous, just plain nasty thing to anyone else, anywhere, any time. Which is how most people want to interpret it. 

Neither is it the function of government to protect people from being insulted or offended.

So I don't think the state has the right to ban the Wandering Dago truck from tax-supported public areas just because some people are offended.  I also don't think the owners have a right to the name guaranteed by the first amendment.  The first amendment has nothing to do with it. 

No, I don't know what the solution is.

The whole issue is annoying.

Now, if this were Europe....
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