On several occasions, I have also encountered those fake anti-virus scanners while using Linux. In each case, a pop-up or webpage claimed that they had detected that my computer was infested with viruses and spyware.
In each case, the advertisement offered to do a free scan on my hard drive. Despite trying to say no or close the tab, it started to pretend to scan my drive C with a progress bar showing the progress. About a minute later, it had finished and announced that it had found several viruses and also spyware in my registry and on my drive C.
Linux does not have a registry and does not label partitions by drive letters, so what it was saying way clearly bogus. Their fake anti-virus program had not even noticed that I was not using a Windows computer. I later looked up the names of the viruses they mentioned elsewhere on the Internet and discovered that those were Windows only viruses.
It then recommended that I purchase their anti-virus problem to fix the problems. They did not mention having a Linux version of their program.
When I decided not to purchase their product, it tried to download a Windows type executable file to my computer anyway. Firefox then asked me which program should be used to open the file or where I wanted to save the file. It was a file that ended with the.exe extension, so it clearly was a Windows only program. I rejected the attempt to download their program. Needless to say, I did not want to see if their Windows only anti-virus program could be made to run under WINE.
After that last encounter with the fake anti-virus program, I started using the NoScript Add-on for Firefox. I now do that on both my Linux computer and my Windows computer. I now only enable scripting when it seems to be necessary for using websites that I trust. For most other websites, I keep scripting off by default.
I am not an OS/2 user, but I use a mid-1990s era NMB Right Touch keyboard, which uses the even older AT type 5-pin DIN connector. I use a PS/2 to 5-pin DIN adapter, which in turn is plugged into another adapter, which is a PS/2 to USB adapter.
On my other computer, I have the same model keyboard and setup, except with one less adapter, because that computer has a PS/2 connector. One computer is my Windows computer and the other is my Linux computer.
I keep on using the old mechanical keyboard, because it feels much better than any of the newer keyboards.
About once every couple of years, I pry the plastic caps off of the keyboard, and clean out all the hair, dust, lint, and bits of food from under each key. It is amazing how much hair and food crumbs collect under each key. I also carefully wash off my grimy greasy finger prints off of each plastic cap, before snapping them back on. Once the hair and food has been removed from under each key, the keyboard works just like new.
While those keyboards were still available, I also bought a couple of extra keyboards and several adapters, just in case one wears out. My plan has been to continue using the same model keyboard for the rest of my life. The keyboards are old and the plastic is slightly yellowed, but they still work great.
With the latest versions of KDE, it is now once again possible to have a different background for each desktop. I use Kubuntu 9.10 with KDE 4.3.2 and use a separate background for each of my desktops. However, it is was not very obvious how to enable that feature.
The following article mentions how to do that. In the article, read the paragraphs just after the heading which says "Combine Virtual Desktops With Plasma Activities." Notice that the last sentence says "This will allow you to have a different wallpaper on each virtual desktop, as well as a completely separate set of widgets. "
Kubuntu 9.10 actually uses KDE 4.3.2, but the instructions in the article refer to KDE 4.3. However, those instructions still worked fine for me. Having a separate wallpaper for each virtual desktop has always been one of my favorite features. I was very disappointed, when with the early versions of KDE 4.x, they took that ability away. I am glad that it is now once again possible to to have separate wallpaper for each virtual desktop when using KDE.
BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona charges me $995 per month for medical insurance, for just myself. The cost went way up as soon as I became 55 years old. That is with a $1,250 deductible. It adds up to almost $12,000 per year.
I do not have any health problems of much significance. My blood pressure is low enough to not need medicine. Loosing some weight, lowered my blood pressure enough to get off of the blood pressure medicine. My cholesterol is also very low, just through healthy eating alone, without the help of medicine. My glucose and triglycerides stay to an excellent quite low number, just through healthy eating alone. For the last several years I have also been exercising for about an hour per day. I do not smoke, I do not drink, I always wear my seatbelt, I am very careful when using ladders, and I always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle.
However, I do have some minor allergies and I also take some thyroid medication, due to my thyroid levels being slightly low.
About 15 or 20 years ago, a Mexican guy, was helping a licensed contractor put a new roof on a two story home, and fell about 12 to 14 feet. The home had a very steep roof. I did not actually see it happen. From what I heard, he landed on rough ground between several boulders, smaller rocks and cactus. He then just laid there for several minutes before getting up. When he finally got up, apparently he was OK.
The steep high roof was not one which I would have dared to climb myself. That was why I was glad to hear that an experienced licensed contractor had been hired to do the job. Of course this being Arizona, several Mexican guys who did not speak English showed up to help do the work.
I also know of a woman, who has had some reoccurring lower back pain even since falling off of a 300 foot cliff, while hiking many years ago. I assume that she must have actually slid much of that distance, perhaps falling and bouncing, here and there a little along the way. I don't know the exact details, but perhaps she might not have fallen more than 6 feet on any one bounce. Her total 300 foot fall, could then perhaps be considered to be a series many, less than 6 foot falls.
Several decades ago, one of my grandmothers once lost her balance and hit her head and died from that injury. She was not tall enough, to have fallen more than 6 feet.
I also know of two instances where guys have fallen off of their own roofs, and have had serious life long back problems ever since then. Injuries like that on ladders or roofs are actually quite common.
I run Firefox sandboxed from within SandboxIE on my Windows XP computer. SandboxIE builds a virtual sandbox around the default browser on a computer. In addition, my computer is set up to where I am normally logged in with a user name. I only log in as administrator, when needed. I also use the NoScript and Adblock Plus extensions for Firefox. I only enable the running of scripts for certain Websites that I trust. Perhaps, those measures might help, but I am not a computer expert and do not know for sure.
I use Kubuntu Linux on my other computer, which is my main home computer. That is the computer which I am using at the moment. I also use Firefox on it, but there is not a Linux version of SandboxIE. Perhaps, I should use the Konqueror browser instead, until the final release of the patched version of Firefox becomes available. The Konqueror browser is already installed on this computer.
In the Linux version of Firefox, I also use the NoScript and Adblock Plus extensions. Of course, when using the Linux computer, I am normally logged in under under my user name, with the limited privileges which go with it. Like most Linux users, I do not run as root all the time. When I temporarily need more privileges I use sudo.
I am not a computer expert. I am just someone who uses both Linux and also Windows XP on my two computers at home.
I read somewhere, that there would be enough reserve vacuum for several applications of the brakes, but that if the throttle remained wide open, all power braking would eventually be lost. It would then require about four times the pedal pressure for the same braking effect.
Under normal conditions that would not be a problem, since you do not normally apply the brakes with a wide open throttle. But if the throttle were stuck open, power braking could eventually be lost.
By the way, although my parents did not own any guns, I did have a combination BB/pellet rifle as a teenager in Southern California in the late 1960s to early 1970s. My grade school aged younger brother once managed to shoot me in the leg with it. He decided to try and startle me by firing a shot into the ground just behind me. It ricocheted and hit me in the back of my calf. Fortunately, it had only been pumped once and hit the ground first. The pellet only went in about a quarter of an inch.
There was also another incident as a teenager, where I was almost shot by a grade school aged boy with a CO2 cartridge powered BB pistol. I was standing about 100 feet from our house looking down into a gully, when I brushed up against a bush. The boy heard the sound and turned around and fired at me, and I could hear the BB whizzing past my left ear. The BB probably hit our house, since that was right behind me.
As if that was not enough, a hunter with a shotgun also accidentally fired some shots towards me when I was 16 years old at the same home. I was standing next to a small well building on our property, barefoot, just a short distance from the house. I stepped on a piece of glass, lost my balance, and fell into a bush. The instant I hit the ground I heard three loud bangs, and had the impression that the shots were towards my direction.
I then shouted "stop shooting" a couple of times, and rolled into a low spot. Two more shots were fired. There was a pause, 5 more shots, followed by a pause and another 5 shots. I am not sure if he ever actually heard me or saw me. I never saw him through the thick chaparral brush, and was never sure how far away he was, or what kind of gun he had. But, I had seen two hunters with shotguns parked near by just ahead of that. During the shooting, I had rolled further into the small gully. The hunter had been firing in the direction of both our well building and also our house which was further up the hill. The house and our two other building were on a bare hill, clearly visible from every direction.
I had also once seen a hunter walking across our front lawn, heading towards a group of quail that were running through the sprinklers, just 50 feet from our house. Dad opened the door and shouted at him to get off of our lawn. As a result of those several incidents, I developed a very strong anti-hunter and anti-gun attitude for many years after that. However, over time my feelings on the subject have changed and I now support gun rights. But, it did not help that a teenage neighbor boy managed to catch both our dog and the neighbors dog in his steel jawed traps. He never did succeed in catching a coyote, but the two dogs were OK.
I have been thinking about taking a gun safety course for myself, if one is available in my area. I have a.357 Magnum which I keep in a pistol safe. I bought the gun used from a gun shop a couple of years ago. I grew up in a family which did not own any guns and I was never in the military, so I do not have much experience with guns. Not all of us grew up hunting and being around guns.
My only limited instruction, was going out into the desert once about 10 years ago, with a retired policeman, and doing some target practice with a couple of his guns. He did have a few safety tips for me. I do also have a "Basics of Pistol Shooting" book that I recently purchased and plan to read.
I would would also like to make sure that I know at least a little bit about the Arizona laws for guns. I do know that Arizona is an open-carry state. I also know that many people in this state have taken a concealed-carry course and now have a concealed-carry permit. I personally do not feel the need to get a concealed-carry permit.
I do not have any children around, but I do keep the gun safely locked up in a small one gun pistol safe. It has a mechanical push-button combination lock. With a little practice, I could probably open the safe in a second or two.
I am also someone who could never write fast enough to keep up with what the instructor was saying. Besides that, I also found that the note taking process prevented me from fully paying attention to the lecture. It felt awkward seeing everyone around me constantly scribbling frantically, while I just sat there doing nothing. But for me, it clearly was a choice between paying attention and taking good notes. Of course, if the instructor in any way hinted that something might be on the test, I always wrote that down.
If most of what was being said was also in the assigned reading material in the textbook, why should I have to write everything down? Despite taking only very limited notes, I managed get an A in most of my classes at the Junior College. However, I was never one of those students who do that without studying much.
At a Junior College in the late 1980s, I once asked permission to record a lecture. The instructor said OK. However, part way through the lecture, the instructor made several pro-gun comments in a small class consisting partially of gun smithing students. It then occurred to him, that I had just recorded what he had said and that I was not a gun smithing student, or even a gun enthusiast myself. So he demanded that I immediately erase the entire tape. He expressed concern about the college administrators hearing what he had said. That was the last time I ever dared to try to record a lecture.
I did not think he said anything unreasonable, even though I did not agree with everything that he said. At the time, I felt he was entitled to his opinion and that he presented his thoughts well enough to at least make me consider what he had said. Even if I had disagreed more strongly, I still would not have shared the comments from the tape.
By the way, when I first took some college classes back in the early 1970s we also occasionally used slide rules, because pocket calculators did not exist. Of course cell phone and laptop computers did not exist yet either.
Despite living near a small city in Arizona, high-speed access only became available here about 3 years ago. In some rural areas where cell phones don't work, they probably still don't have high-speed Internet available.
When I was stuck on dial-up, I could not get the faster 56K dial-up, because the local telephone lines were only good enough for 26.4K. Fortunately, DSL from the telephone company finally became available for $39.99 per month, several years ago. By the way, cable was not available where I live.
Are there actually places where people can actually get high speed Internet for only $10? That is 1/4 what my only option for high-speed access costs.
That would be similar to buy one, give one option for purchasing a BoGoLight solar powered flashlight. At the moment, they are offering the option of buy one for yourself and having the other one go to Haiti.
http://www.bogolight.com/
Another organization is the freeplayfoundation.org. They offer the option of donating a wind-up or solar powered radio to poor people in Haiti or other countries, but do not seem to have a buy one, give one option.
By the way, I do not know much about either organization.
The disposable toilets could also be used after disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes or tornadoes. It also might be useful for homeowners to use during a several day long power outage after a wind storm or an ice storm. It would be an alternative to grabbing a shovel and going in the back yard or on undeveloped land nearby.
Baby wipes or similar disposable disinfectant wipes could be used to clean the person's hands afterwards, if no working water faucet is available. I sometimes use a baby wipe for my hands after using a Clivus Multrum composting toilet or an old pit toilet in the national forest, where no running water is available. I usually keep several in my day pack when hiking, just in case. The baby wipes could also be used on overnight backpacking trips when camping where no running water is available.
As a child, I remember visiting a several older relatives such as my grandparents, who had an outhouse on each of their farms. Grandpa's was a three hole outhouse. If I remember correctly, they had a small bucket of lime and would sometimes sprinkle a little over the poop. There was also some corn cobs and an old Sears catalog, just in case they ever ran out of toilet paper. If I am not mistaken, the corn cob is supposed to be used together with a page from the Sears catalog. As a child, I also enjoyed using the hand operated pump for pumping water from the well.
Of course they did also have one toilet and running water in the house, but as a child I found it more interesting to use the outhouse and the hand pumped well.
In my above post, I forgot to mention that I was using a firewall on the Linux computer. I also had an additional firewall turned on in my DSL modem. All ports visible to the outside world were both closed and stealth in both firewalls. I would assume that it is not that easy for an advertiser to just casually scan my harddrive like that, without my permission.
I have also seen several of those ads which claim to have detected viruses and spyware on my computer. I was using Linux each time, most recently I was using Kubuntu Linux. After announcing what it had detected, it would ask for my permission to scan my hard drive. Despite not giving it permission, a progress bar then appeared showing that my drive C was being scanned. About 60 seconds later, it then announced that both viruses and spyware had on my drive C and also in my registry. That is odd I thought, since Linux does not have a registry and does not name its hard drive partitions with drive letters. Infected dll's were also mentioned, even though Linux does have dll's either.
Afterwards, the advertisement then always suggested that I purchase their anti-virus product to fix the problems. In the most recent instance, despite not choosing to purchase their anti-virus program, a box popped up asking me what it should do with the Windows executable file which the website was trying to download to my computer. The filename had an EXE extension, so it was a program designed to run on a Windows computer, not under Linux. Of course, I would not have tried to run the non-Linux program under WINE.
Shortly after that latest experience, I started using both the NoScript and Adblock Plus Ad-ons for Firefox. On both my Linux computer and my Windows computer I have now enabled both of those security related ad-ons for Firefox. That add-on can be enabled by selecting add-ons from the tools menu. I only enable the running of scripts for certain websites which I trust or where they are needed to make some important feature on the website work. I can enable that either temporarily or permanently of specific websites by right-clicking on a special icon in the lower right corner of Firefox.
On my Windows XP computer I also run Firefox sandboxed within a security related program called SandboxIE. However, that only sandboxes my default browser for security purposes, it does not block ads.
In an earlier encounter with one of those ads, a pop-up appeared on my Linux computer, saying that Microsoft had detected viruses and spyware on my computer. That was a surprise, since I did not have a single Microsoft product installed on the computer.
I pay $39.99 per month for a DSL connection from the phone company here in Arizona. Cable is not available where I live, so I do not know how much that would cost. If a retired person were living mostly off of Social Security, $39.99 would probably be too expensive.
But, at least for the last several years, I have no longer had to complain about high speed Internet not being available where I live.
I have two computers at home, one runs Kubuntu Linux and one runs Windows XP. The Linux computer is my main computer, so I keep the Windows XP computer turned off most of the time to save electricity. About once a month I turn it on and spend a little while making sure that both the Microsoft and the non-Microsoft programs get updated. My knowledge about Windows is somewhat limited, but I usually just go ahead and manually start the update process for Windows. At the end Windows nearly always asks me to reboot, which is something that is not necessary after an update on the Linux computer.
Next, I usually have Secunia check to see what else needs to be updated on the Windows XP computer and start updating each of those programs, one at a time. Sometimes at least one of those programs also demands a reboot, killing a little more time. Lately, for several programs, the upgrading process would fail to start or run properly for programs such as Flash or SandboxIE. A few months earlier, it was the Adobe Acrobat reader which was refusing to update itself to the latest version. In each case, I ended up having to spend time figuring out how to reinstall both of those just to get them upgraded properly. This is quite a bit of work for a computer which only gets used once a month.
By comparison, the upgrading process under Kubuntu Linux is much faster and easier and less intrusive. Nearly all the important software on the computer comes from the official Ubuntu repositories and can be upgraded by apt or some fronted program that uses apt.
On my task bar there is an icon with the letter "i." When I clicked the icon a few minutes ago it said that I have some bug fix updates waiting to be installed. I could either do that now or later, but I went ahead and clicked "Review and Update." I then saw that there was an upgrade for the Linux kernel and also some printing related stuff. Sometimes there are updates for various individual software programs which I use. I am not an expert, so I can not tell if those are security updates or just updates, so I always just accept the suggested updates. I then went ahead and clicked "select all updates" and then clicked "apply." A couple of minutes later, it estimated that I still had about 8 minutes to go on the download. When it was done, as I expected, it did not ask me to reboot the computer, so I did not have any interruptions in typing this post.
A hidden underground room somewhere on the property, might come in handy in such a disaster. A family could then hide there with their food, water and other supplies. As someone who has only very limited experience with firearms, I would personally favor having a good hiding place for myself instead.
To avoid giving the location away by the sound of a ventilation fan, perhaps some kind of natural air flow through the hidden underground shelter could be used instead. The air inlets could be concealed by piles of rocks and a few bushes or something. In some climates no heating would be needed, everyone could just put on layers of clothes or climb into sleeping bags if needed. Camouflaged peepholes between the rocks could be used to keep an eye on strangers or neighbors wandering by.
A hand-crank operated radio connected to a hidden antenna could be used to get news of what is happening. Even better, a peddle powered Freeplay FreeCharge Weza portable energy source would provide just enough power to operate some ham radio equipment if the transmitting power was not turned up too high. Perhaps the antenna for an HF radio could be disguised as a flagpole or something. The smaller antenna needed for a 2-meter radio would be even easier to hide. If the radio equipment had been disconnected from antennas and power, before the event, it would most likely not have been damaged by the power surges.
Another alternative might be to have several buried caches of caned or canned dried food and possibly water hidden within a few miles walking distance. In that case, if a large group of heavily armed looters stole everything from your house, you could just go dig up one of your buried caches of food and other supplies. The secret caches of buried food should probably be bear and rodent proof. Some thought might also be given to the possibility of someone with a metal detector accidentally running across your buried cans.
Canned dried grains and beans are fairly inexpensive and together can provide complete protein (since each source of protein is missing one amino acid, but not the same one). Other foods could be stashed away as well (but my knowledge about survival food is quite limited). It would probably be best to not allow anyone to smell charcoal, wood or lighter fluid as you are cooking your meals.
If the hiding somewhere strategy was not used, then a group of several adequately supplied neighbors and relatives banding together with the strength of larger numbers would be another possible strategy. They could be like a temporary little tribe, standing together against the dangers they are facing.
My experience with cell phones is similar. Sometimes they just fail for no reason. They are also fragile and are sometimes ruined after falling off of my belt and landing under my feet, or in water. In once instance, as I was getting out of my pickup truck, the steering wheel knocked my cellphone off of my belt and it landed under my feet on the ground and I stepped on it, ruining it.
Another cellphone fell off of my belt when hiking. I was squeezing along the edge of a boulder on the edge of a cliff when it fell off of my belt and landed in the lake below. It briefly worked, but would no longer take a charge after that.
After a few experiences like that, I soon realized that the cellphone had to be secured to my belt much better. I switched to case which has a fold over velcro flap to hold the phone in. As for the holder staying on my belt, I switched to one with a complete loop around my belt. The clip-on type holder was always falling off (with the phone inside).
In another instance, when flying back from Maui I put the phone in my suitcase which I checked in. Since I was still inexperienced at using a cellphone, I did not think to turn it off before putting it in the suitcase. After getting back to Arizona and picking up my suitcase, the cell phone was just barely working and had anomalies on the display. The cellphone kept getting worse and soon failed after that.
I usually make and receive only about 1 or 2 calls per week on my cellphone, and no texting. Despite such light usage, they or the battery seems to fail, especially when I am traveling or hiking.
I remember watching that episode of the Candid Camera TV show decades ago. The car would be driving along and then suddenly split in two, with one half of the car turning left and one half turning right. I have forgotten the details of the episode, but presumably the hidden camera recorded peoples reactions or attempts to explain what they had seen to other people.
When I saw RPG in the headline, at first I thought it meant "rocket powered grenade." It had never occurred to me that life could be "imagined as one big rocket powered grenade." After clicking on the link, I soon discovered that RPG could also stand for "role playing games." So then I realized that he meant that life could be "imagined as one big role playing game," which made more sense.
As someone who is not into playing computer games, that other meaning for RPG did not immediately occur to me.
One of the webpages says is temporarily unavailable, so I do not see anything about not being able to just drop off the grid. I was thinking that what I could bury several caches of dried food, water and other supplies in the the most remote parts of the mountains of northern Arizona. I could then remove the battery from my cell phone and go backpacking for a couple of months. As needed, I could restock my pack with supplies from one of my hidden caches. That would be living off the grid.
If the rules required me to occasionally post something on the Internet, I might have to stay closer to populated areas, and then briefly connect to a WiFi hotspot now and then. I would use a directional antenna, which would allow me to connect to the hot spot from at least a little ways away. I would also learn to spoof my MAC address, so to reduce the chances of someone getting to know the MAC address on my computer (or whatever device I was using). I would also delete cookies and probably bock the use of Flash.
If e-mail was what was required, I would not need to use a HotSpot for that. I am a licensed ham radio operator and there are a couple of ways to send email using ham radio equipment. Sailors also have a similar related system called SailMail (or something like that). If that would meet the requirements of the rules, I could just send an email messages from 50 miles or more away, and then quickly break camp and move on to a new location, many miles away.
By the way, I am a mid-50s guy who is way behind the times digitally. I barely even know what Facebook, Myspace and Twitter and tweets are.
Perhaps a treadmill desk might be a possible solution for some people who spend many hours sitting in front of a computer or TV at home or at work. The person could then spend part of their time walking in front of their computer or TV. Presumably, they would only need to do that all the time, and could also sit down for much of each hour instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadmill_Desk
A treadmill desk would not actually be necessary where I work. I spend about half of my time standing at a counter dealing with customers when someone is in the office. Between customers, I can sometimes just sit down and drink coffee while reading the newspaper. In those quiet moments, I sometimes do some stretching exercises or occasionally even some heavyhands calisthenics using hand weights. There is also an expensive exercise bicycle sitting unused in one corner of the office, which I could be using between customers.
It would be quite possible for me to do about 5 or 10 minutes of exercise per hour, whenever no customers are in the office. Since this is a small family business, owned by my parents, no one would object to my doing that, when I do not have anything else to do anyway.
Almost every day, either before or after work, I usually do a 1 hour walk while raising and lowering heavyhand hand weights from below my waist to above my head. I am a slightly overweight guy in my mid-50s. Over the last several years, I have gradually worked up to using 9-lb weights continuously for the hour walk. On some stretches of my walk, I switch to doing a double ski poling movement to improve the aerobic and strength fitness of my back and hips, as well. Perhaps I should also squeeze in at least some exercise during the day or evening. For me that is doable.
I am not an expert on any of this, but adding a thick masonry wall between his home and her home, would probably block most of the signal. One article said that the two houses are only 25 feet apart. If these are one story buildings and the wireless router is at table top height, I suspect that a masonry wall would most likely block most of the signal.
He could then build the tallest widest wall that the building code (and possibly the home owners association) allows. I am not sure how thick the wall would need to be (since I am not an expert). If I am not mistaken, signals of that frequency are not very penetrating. But, if extra shielding is needed, perhaps any empty block cores which are not filled with concrete, could be filled with gravel instead. Blocks come in various thicknesses. A large tall landscaped berm of dirt might be another possible option.
As you mentioned, wire lath which is sometimes used for stucco would probably also help. Perhaps he could use it on the inside or outside of the wall which faces towards her house. Would it matter what size mesh is used? Perhaps it might also help if he also install roll down steel or aluminum security shutters and also steel door on that side of the house. Those are my non-expert thoughts on the problem.
Of course, I am skeptical that a weak WiFi or cell phone signal from that distance would actually cause his problems. The FCC actually limits wireless routers to very low power levels.
Another alternative would be to move to a country home with a large lot.
I once had a colonoscopy where I was awake for most of the procedure. I was told that I might be awake in sort of a twilight sleep, but that I would not remember anything afterwards. However, I actually did remember everything afterwards.
The procedure started a small camera being shoved up my rear end. In front of me, I could see a color television screen showing the constantly the changing view of the inside of my colon. I was surprised at how spotlessly clean it was (except for occasional puddles of dirty water). I jokingly asked if I could get a VHS tape to show to other people. They said that the best that they could do was give me a printout with color photos.
After a while the doctor and the anesthesiologist (or someone) started asking each other why they were not there yet. As time went on they sounded increasingly puzzled and concerned that they had not yet reached where they were going. They would say things like, we should have been there long ago. They briefly considered the possibility of it having somehow having turned around and started going back the other way.
They were having increasing difficulty getting the cable with the camera to go much further and were discussing the possibility of having to give up. But then, the entrance to my appendix came into view in the distance as well as two polyps also visible up ahead. But, for a while they were not able to get the cable to move any further.
I asked what they would do if they could not reach the polyp. I was told that they would fire a harpoon and reel it in. But, then a moment later, I realized that he was kidding.
I then mentioned, that I could feel two places in my abdomen were it felt like the cable was binding up with the most pressure. The anesthesiologist (or the doctor) than pushed firmly on certain portions of my abdomen which finally brought the camera up to the two polyps. I remember them then taking a sample from the first polyp, and then I fell asleep after that.
Afterwards, they gave me a printout with several high resolution color photos, showing the inside of my colon (sorry about not having a link). Later on, I was eventually told that both polyps had been removed and that one of them would have probably eventually turned into cancer.
When I had a follow-up colonoscopy from another doctor a couple of years later, I was out the entire time. But, before the procedure, I warned the doctor that she should use the longest cable that she had.
I still get analog TV, where I live in Northern Arizona. The digital conversion has not yet occurred here (except for one 1 channel). Some of the mountaintop repeaters, which serve rural areas and smaller cites, were exempt from the requirement to change to digital. Some of the mountaintop translators in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and elsewhere are still analog.
I still get 4 analog channels and just one digital channel. I use a rabbit ears antenna mounted on top of my old mid-1990s 13-inch television, without a converter box. Cable is not available where I live. For several years, I kept hearing that analog TV would not exist beyond a certain date, but here it is almost 2010, and I am still watching analog TV. Oddly enough I think the translator station is probably having to convert a digital signal to analog to accomplish that.
Since I do not have cable, I use DSL over POTS lines from the telephone company for my Internet connection. Where I live the available speed is 1.5 Mb / 800 k for DSL, with hints that QWEST may possibly eventually upgrade to local equipment to 7 Mb capability someday.
Up until about 3 years ago 26.4k dial-up was all that I could get, even when using a 56k modem. The local telephone lines were not good enough for 28.8k or 56k.
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On several occasions, I have also encountered those fake anti-virus scanners while using Linux. In each case, a pop-up or webpage claimed that they had detected that my computer was infested with viruses and spyware.
.exe extension, so it clearly was a Windows only program. I rejected the attempt to download their program. Needless to say, I did not want to see if their Windows only anti-virus program could be made to run under WINE.
In each case, the advertisement offered to do a free scan on my hard drive. Despite trying to say no or close the tab, it started to pretend to scan my drive C with a progress bar showing the progress. About a minute later, it had finished and announced that it had found several viruses and also spyware in my registry and on my drive C.
Linux does not have a registry and does not label partitions by drive letters, so what it was saying way clearly bogus. Their fake anti-virus program had not even noticed that I was not using a Windows computer. I later looked up the names of the viruses they mentioned elsewhere on the Internet and discovered that those were Windows only viruses.
It then recommended that I purchase their anti-virus problem to fix the problems. They did not mention having a Linux version of their program.
When I decided not to purchase their product, it tried to download a Windows type executable file to my computer anyway. Firefox then asked me which program should be used to open the file or where I wanted to save the file. It was a file that ended with the
After that last encounter with the fake anti-virus program, I started using the NoScript Add-on for Firefox. I now do that on both my Linux computer and my Windows computer. I now only enable scripting when it seems to be necessary for using websites that I trust. For most other websites, I keep scripting off by default.
I am not an OS/2 user, but I use a mid-1990s era NMB Right Touch keyboard, which uses the even older AT type 5-pin DIN connector. I use a PS/2 to 5-pin DIN adapter, which in turn is plugged into another adapter, which is a PS/2 to USB adapter.
On my other computer, I have the same model keyboard and setup, except with one less adapter, because that computer has a PS/2 connector. One computer is my Windows computer and the other is my Linux computer.
I keep on using the old mechanical keyboard, because it feels much better than any of the newer keyboards.
About once every couple of years, I pry the plastic caps off of the keyboard, and clean out all the hair, dust, lint, and bits of food from under each key. It is amazing how much hair and food crumbs collect under each key. I also carefully wash off my grimy greasy finger prints off of each plastic cap, before snapping them back on. Once the hair and food has been removed from under each key, the keyboard works just like new.
While those keyboards were still available, I also bought a couple of extra keyboards and several adapters, just in case one wears out. My plan has been to continue using the same model keyboard for the rest of my life. The keyboards are old and the plastic is slightly yellowed, but they still work great.
With the latest versions of KDE, it is now once again possible to have a different background for each desktop. I use Kubuntu 9.10 with KDE 4.3.2 and use a separate background for each of my desktops. However, it is was not very obvious how to enable that feature.
The following article mentions how to do that. In the article, read the paragraphs just after the heading which says "Combine Virtual Desktops With Plasma Activities." Notice that the last sentence says "This will allow you to have a different wallpaper on each virtual desktop, as well as a completely separate set of widgets. "
Seven Great Tips To Make KDE 4.3 More Friendly
Kubuntu 9.10 actually uses KDE 4.3.2, but the instructions in the article refer to KDE 4.3. However, those instructions still worked fine for me. Having a separate wallpaper for each virtual desktop has always been one of my favorite features. I was very disappointed, when with the early versions of KDE 4.x, they took that ability away. I am glad that it is now once again possible to to have separate wallpaper for each virtual desktop when using KDE.
BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona charges me $995 per month for medical insurance, for just myself. The cost went way up as soon as I became 55 years old. That is with a $1,250 deductible. It adds up to almost $12,000 per year.
I do not have any health problems of much significance. My blood pressure is low enough to not need medicine. Loosing some weight, lowered my blood pressure enough to get off of the blood pressure medicine. My cholesterol is also very low, just through healthy eating alone, without the help of medicine. My glucose and triglycerides stay to an excellent quite low number, just through healthy eating alone. For the last several years I have also been exercising for about an hour per day. I do not smoke, I do not drink, I always wear my seatbelt, I am very careful when using ladders, and I always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle.
However, I do have some minor allergies and I also take some thyroid medication, due to my thyroid levels being slightly low.
About 15 or 20 years ago, a Mexican guy, was helping a licensed contractor put a new roof on a two story home, and fell about 12 to 14 feet. The home had a very steep roof. I did not actually see it happen. From what I heard, he landed on rough ground between several boulders, smaller rocks and cactus. He then just laid there for several minutes before getting up. When he finally got up, apparently he was OK.
The steep high roof was not one which I would have dared to climb myself. That was why I was glad to hear that an experienced licensed contractor had been hired to do the job. Of course this being Arizona, several Mexican guys who did not speak English showed up to help do the work.
I also know of a woman, who has had some reoccurring lower back pain even since falling off of a 300 foot cliff, while hiking many years ago. I assume that she must have actually slid much of that distance, perhaps falling and bouncing, here and there a little along the way. I don't know the exact details, but perhaps she might not have fallen more than 6 feet on any one bounce. Her total 300 foot fall, could then perhaps be considered to be a series many, less than 6 foot falls.
Several decades ago, one of my grandmothers once lost her balance and hit her head and died from that injury. She was not tall enough, to have fallen more than 6 feet.
I also know of two instances where guys have fallen off of their own roofs, and have had serious life long back problems ever since then. Injuries like that on ladders or roofs are actually quite common.
I run Firefox sandboxed from within SandboxIE on my Windows XP computer. SandboxIE builds a virtual sandbox around the default browser on a computer. In addition, my computer is set up to where I am normally logged in with a user name. I only log in as administrator, when needed. I also use the NoScript and Adblock Plus extensions for Firefox. I only enable the running of scripts for certain Websites that I trust. Perhaps, those measures might help, but I am not a computer expert and do not know for sure.
I use Kubuntu Linux on my other computer, which is my main home computer. That is the computer which I am using at the moment. I also use Firefox on it, but there is not a Linux version of SandboxIE. Perhaps, I should use the Konqueror browser instead, until the final release of the patched version of Firefox becomes available. The Konqueror browser is already installed on this computer.
In the Linux version of Firefox, I also use the NoScript and Adblock Plus extensions. Of course, when using the Linux computer, I am normally logged in under under my user name, with the limited privileges which go with it. Like most Linux users, I do not run as root all the time. When I temporarily need more privileges I use sudo.
I am not a computer expert. I am just someone who uses both Linux and also Windows XP on my two computers at home.
http://esecurityplanet.com/features/article.php/3842331/Sandboxie-Blocking-Web-Based-Malware-From-Your-PC.htm
I read somewhere, that there would be enough reserve vacuum for several applications of the brakes, but that if the throttle remained wide open, all power braking would eventually be lost. It would then require about four times the pedal pressure for the same braking effect.
Under normal conditions that would not be a problem, since you do not normally apply the brakes with a wide open throttle. But if the throttle were stuck open, power braking could eventually be lost.
By the way, although my parents did not own any guns, I did have a combination BB/pellet rifle as a teenager in Southern California in the late 1960s to early 1970s. My grade school aged younger brother once managed to shoot me in the leg with it. He decided to try and startle me by firing a shot into the ground just behind me. It ricocheted and hit me in the back of my calf. Fortunately, it had only been pumped once and hit the ground first. The pellet only went in about a quarter of an inch.
There was also another incident as a teenager, where I was almost shot by a grade school aged boy with a CO2 cartridge powered BB pistol. I was standing about 100 feet from our house looking down into a gully, when I brushed up against a bush. The boy heard the sound and turned around and fired at me, and I could hear the BB whizzing past my left ear. The BB probably hit our house, since that was right behind me.
As if that was not enough, a hunter with a shotgun also accidentally fired some shots towards me when I was 16 years old at the same home. I was standing next to a small well building on our property, barefoot, just a short distance from the house. I stepped on a piece of glass, lost my balance, and fell into a bush. The instant I hit the ground I heard three loud bangs, and had the impression that the shots were towards my direction.
I then shouted "stop shooting" a couple of times, and rolled into a low spot. Two more shots were fired. There was a pause, 5 more shots, followed by a pause and another 5 shots. I am not sure if he ever actually heard me or saw me. I never saw him through the thick chaparral brush, and was never sure how far away he was, or what kind of gun he had. But, I had seen two hunters with shotguns parked near by just ahead of that. During the shooting, I had rolled further into the small gully. The hunter had been firing in the direction of both our well building and also our house which was further up the hill. The house and our two other building were on a bare hill, clearly visible from every direction.
I had also once seen a hunter walking across our front lawn, heading towards a group of quail that were running through the sprinklers, just 50 feet from our house. Dad opened the door and shouted at him to get off of our lawn. As a result of those several incidents, I developed a very strong anti-hunter and anti-gun attitude for many years after that. However, over time my feelings on the subject have changed and I now support gun rights. But, it did not help that a teenage neighbor boy managed to catch both our dog and the neighbors dog in his steel jawed traps. He never did succeed in catching a coyote, but the two dogs were OK.
I have been thinking about taking a gun safety course for myself, if one is available in my area. I have a .357 Magnum which I keep in a pistol safe. I bought the gun used from a gun shop a couple of years ago. I grew up in a family which did not own any guns and I was never in the military, so I do not have much experience with guns. Not all of us grew up hunting and being around guns.
My only limited instruction, was going out into the desert once about 10 years ago, with a retired policeman, and doing some target practice with a couple of his guns. He did have a few safety tips for me. I do also have a "Basics of Pistol Shooting" book that I recently purchased and plan to read.
I would would also like to make sure that I know at least a little bit about the Arizona laws for guns. I do know that Arizona is an open-carry state. I also know that many people in this state have taken a concealed-carry course and now have a concealed-carry permit. I personally do not feel the need to get a concealed-carry permit.
I do not have any children around, but I do keep the gun safely locked up in a small one gun pistol safe. It has a mechanical push-button combination lock. With a little practice, I could probably open the safe in a second or two.
I am also someone who could never write fast enough to keep up with what the instructor was saying. Besides that, I also found that the note taking process prevented me from fully paying attention to the lecture. It felt awkward seeing everyone around me constantly scribbling frantically, while I just sat there doing nothing. But for me, it clearly was a choice between paying attention and taking good notes. Of course, if the instructor in any way hinted that something might be on the test, I always wrote that down.
If most of what was being said was also in the assigned reading material in the textbook, why should I have to write everything down? Despite taking only very limited notes, I managed get an A in most of my classes at the Junior College. However, I was never one of those students who do that without studying much.
At a Junior College in the late 1980s, I once asked permission to record a lecture. The instructor said OK. However, part way through the lecture, the instructor made several pro-gun comments in a small class consisting partially of gun smithing students. It then occurred to him, that I had just recorded what he had said and that I was not a gun smithing student, or even a gun enthusiast myself. So he demanded that I immediately erase the entire tape. He expressed concern about the college administrators hearing what he had said. That was the last time I ever dared to try to record a lecture.
I did not think he said anything unreasonable, even though I did not agree with everything that he said. At the time, I felt he was entitled to his opinion and that he presented his thoughts well enough to at least make me consider what he had said. Even if I had disagreed more strongly, I still would not have shared the comments from the tape.
By the way, when I first took some college classes back in the early 1970s we also occasionally used slide rules, because pocket calculators did not exist. Of course cell phone and laptop computers did not exist yet either.
Despite living near a small city in Arizona, high-speed access only became available here about 3 years ago. In some rural areas where cell phones don't work, they probably still don't have high-speed Internet available.
When I was stuck on dial-up, I could not get the faster 56K dial-up, because the local telephone lines were only good enough for 26.4K. Fortunately, DSL from the telephone company finally became available for $39.99 per month, several years ago. By the way, cable was not available where I live.
Are there actually places where people can actually get high speed Internet for only $10? That is 1/4 what my only option for high-speed access costs.
That would be similar to buy one, give one option for purchasing a BoGoLight solar powered flashlight. At the moment, they are offering the option of buy one for yourself and having the other one go to Haiti.
http://www.bogolight.com/
Another organization is the freeplayfoundation.org. They offer the option of donating a wind-up or solar powered radio to poor people in Haiti or other countries, but do not seem to have a buy one, give one option.
By the way, I do not know much about either organization.
The disposable toilets could also be used after disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes or tornadoes. It also might be useful for homeowners to use during a several day long power outage after a wind storm or an ice storm. It would be an alternative to grabbing a shovel and going in the back yard or on undeveloped land nearby.
Baby wipes or similar disposable disinfectant wipes could be used to clean the person's hands afterwards, if no working water faucet is available. I sometimes use a baby wipe for my hands after using a Clivus Multrum composting toilet or an old pit toilet in the national forest, where no running water is available. I usually keep several in my day pack when hiking, just in case. The baby wipes could also be used on overnight backpacking trips when camping where no running water is available.
As a child, I remember visiting a several older relatives such as my grandparents, who had an outhouse on each of their farms. Grandpa's was a three hole outhouse. If I remember correctly, they had a small bucket of lime and would sometimes sprinkle a little over the poop. There was also some corn cobs and an old Sears catalog, just in case they ever ran out of toilet paper. If I am not mistaken, the corn cob is supposed to be used together with a page from the Sears catalog. As a child, I also enjoyed using the hand operated pump for pumping water from the well.
Of course they did also have one toilet and running water in the house, but as a child I found it more interesting to use the outhouse and the hand pumped well.
In my above post, I forgot to mention that I was using a firewall on the Linux computer. I also had an additional firewall turned on in my DSL modem. All ports visible to the outside world were both closed and stealth in both firewalls. I would assume that it is not that easy for an advertiser to just casually scan my harddrive like that, without my permission.
I have also seen several of those ads which claim to have detected viruses and spyware on my computer. I was using Linux each time, most recently I was using Kubuntu Linux. After announcing what it had detected, it would ask for my permission to scan my hard drive. Despite not giving it permission, a progress bar then appeared showing that my drive C was being scanned. About 60 seconds later, it then announced that both viruses and spyware had on my drive C and also in my registry. That is odd I thought, since Linux does not have a registry and does not name its hard drive partitions with drive letters. Infected dll's were also mentioned, even though Linux does have dll's either.
Afterwards, the advertisement then always suggested that I purchase their anti-virus product to fix the problems. In the most recent instance, despite not choosing to purchase their anti-virus program, a box popped up asking me what it should do with the Windows executable file which the website was trying to download to my computer. The filename had an EXE extension, so it was a program designed to run on a Windows computer, not under Linux. Of course, I would not have tried to run the non-Linux program under WINE.
Shortly after that latest experience, I started using both the NoScript and Adblock Plus Ad-ons for Firefox. On both my Linux computer and my Windows computer I have now enabled both of those security related ad-ons for Firefox. That add-on can be enabled by selecting add-ons from the tools menu. I only enable the running of scripts for certain websites which I trust or where they are needed to make some important feature on the website work. I can enable that either temporarily or permanently of specific websites by right-clicking on a special icon in the lower right corner of Firefox.
On my Windows XP computer I also run Firefox sandboxed within a security related program called SandboxIE. However, that only sandboxes my default browser for security purposes, it does not block ads.
In an earlier encounter with one of those ads, a pop-up appeared on my Linux computer, saying that Microsoft had detected viruses and spyware on my computer. That was a surprise, since I did not have a single Microsoft product installed on the computer.
I pay $39.99 per month for a DSL connection from the phone company here in Arizona. Cable is not available where I live, so I do not know how much that would cost. If a retired person were living mostly off of Social Security, $39.99 would probably be too expensive.
But, at least for the last several years, I have no longer had to complain about high speed Internet not being available where I live.
I have two computers at home, one runs Kubuntu Linux and one runs Windows XP. The Linux computer is my main computer, so I keep the Windows XP computer turned off most of the time to save electricity. About once a month I turn it on and spend a little while making sure that both the Microsoft and the non-Microsoft programs get updated. My knowledge about Windows is somewhat limited, but I usually just go ahead and manually start the update process for Windows. At the end Windows nearly always asks me to reboot, which is something that is not necessary after an update on the Linux computer.
Next, I usually have Secunia check to see what else needs to be updated on the Windows XP computer and start updating each of those programs, one at a time. Sometimes at least one of those programs also demands a reboot, killing a little more time. Lately, for several programs, the upgrading process would fail to start or run properly for programs such as Flash or SandboxIE. A few months earlier, it was the Adobe Acrobat reader which was refusing to update itself to the latest version. In each case, I ended up having to spend time figuring out how to reinstall both of those just to get them upgraded properly. This is quite a bit of work for a computer which only gets used once a month.
By comparison, the upgrading process under Kubuntu Linux is much faster and easier and less intrusive. Nearly all the important software on the computer comes from the official Ubuntu repositories and can be upgraded by apt or some fronted program that uses apt.
On my task bar there is an icon with the letter "i." When I clicked the icon a few minutes ago it said that I have some bug fix updates waiting to be installed. I could either do that now or later, but I went ahead and clicked "Review and Update." I then saw that there was an upgrade for the Linux kernel and also some printing related stuff. Sometimes there are updates for various individual software programs which I use. I am not an expert, so I can not tell if those are security updates or just updates, so I always just accept the suggested updates. I then went ahead and clicked "select all updates" and then clicked "apply." A couple of minutes later, it estimated that I still had about 8 minutes to go on the download. When it was done, as I expected, it did not ask me to reboot the computer, so I did not have any interruptions in typing this post.
A hidden underground room somewhere on the property, might come in handy in such a disaster. A family could then hide there with their food, water and other supplies. As someone who has only very limited experience with firearms, I would personally favor having a good hiding place for myself instead.
To avoid giving the location away by the sound of a ventilation fan, perhaps some kind of natural air flow through the hidden underground shelter could be used instead. The air inlets could be concealed by piles of rocks and a few bushes or something. In some climates no heating would be needed, everyone could just put on layers of clothes or climb into sleeping bags if needed. Camouflaged peepholes between the rocks could be used to keep an eye on strangers or neighbors wandering by.
A hand-crank operated radio connected to a hidden antenna could be used to get news of what is happening. Even better, a peddle powered Freeplay FreeCharge Weza portable energy source would provide just enough power to operate some ham radio equipment if the transmitting power was not turned up too high. Perhaps the antenna for an HF radio could be disguised as a flagpole or something. The smaller antenna needed for a 2-meter radio would be even easier to hide. If the radio equipment had been disconnected from antennas and power, before the event, it would most likely not have been damaged by the power surges.
Another alternative might be to have several buried caches of caned or canned dried food and possibly water hidden within a few miles walking distance. In that case, if a large group of heavily armed looters stole everything from your house, you could just go dig up one of your buried caches of food and other supplies. The secret caches of buried food should probably be bear and rodent proof. Some thought might also be given to the possibility of someone with a metal detector accidentally running across your buried cans.
Canned dried grains and beans are fairly inexpensive and together can provide complete protein (since each source of protein is missing one amino acid, but not the same one). Other foods could be stashed away as well (but my knowledge about survival food is quite limited). It would probably be best to not allow anyone to smell charcoal, wood or lighter fluid as you are cooking your meals.
If the hiding somewhere strategy was not used, then a group of several adequately supplied neighbors and relatives banding together with the strength of larger numbers would be another possible strategy. They could be like a temporary little tribe, standing together against the dangers they are facing.
My experience with cell phones is similar. Sometimes they just fail for no reason. They are also fragile and are sometimes ruined after falling off of my belt and landing under my feet, or in water. In once instance, as I was getting out of my pickup truck, the steering wheel knocked my cellphone off of my belt and it landed under my feet on the ground and I stepped on it, ruining it.
Another cellphone fell off of my belt when hiking. I was squeezing along the edge of a boulder on the edge of a cliff when it fell off of my belt and landed in the lake below. It briefly worked, but would no longer take a charge after that.
After a few experiences like that, I soon realized that the cellphone had to be secured to my belt much better. I switched to case which has a fold over velcro flap to hold the phone in. As for the holder staying on my belt, I switched to one with a complete loop around my belt. The clip-on type holder was always falling off (with the phone inside).
In another instance, when flying back from Maui I put the phone in my suitcase which I checked in. Since I was still inexperienced at using a cellphone, I did not think to turn it off before putting it in the suitcase. After getting back to Arizona and picking up my suitcase, the cell phone was just barely working and had anomalies on the display. The cellphone kept getting worse and soon failed after that.
I usually make and receive only about 1 or 2 calls per week on my cellphone, and no texting. Despite such light usage, they or the battery seems to fail, especially when I am traveling or hiking.
I remember watching that episode of the Candid Camera TV show decades ago. The car would be driving along and then suddenly split in two, with one half of the car turning left and one half turning right. I have forgotten the details of the episode, but presumably the hidden camera recorded peoples reactions or attempts to explain what they had seen to other people.
When I saw RPG in the headline, at first I thought it meant "rocket powered grenade." It had never occurred to me that life could be "imagined as one big rocket powered grenade." After clicking on the link, I soon discovered that RPG could also stand for "role playing games." So then I realized that he meant that life could be "imagined as one big role playing game," which made more sense.
As someone who is not into playing computer games, that other meaning for RPG did not immediately occur to me.
One of the webpages says is temporarily unavailable, so I do not see anything about not being able to just drop off the grid. I was thinking that what I could bury several caches of dried food, water and other supplies in the the most remote parts of the mountains of northern Arizona. I could then remove the battery from my cell phone and go backpacking for a couple of months. As needed, I could restock my pack with supplies from one of my hidden caches. That would be living off the grid.
If the rules required me to occasionally post something on the Internet, I might have to stay closer to populated areas, and then briefly connect to a WiFi hotspot now and then. I would use a directional antenna, which would allow me to connect to the hot spot from at least a little ways away. I would also learn to spoof my MAC address, so to reduce the chances of someone getting to know the MAC address on my computer (or whatever device I was using). I would also delete cookies and probably bock the use of Flash.
If e-mail was what was required, I would not need to use a HotSpot for that. I am a licensed ham radio operator and there are a couple of ways to send email using ham radio equipment. Sailors also have a similar related system called SailMail (or something like that). If that would meet the requirements of the rules, I could just send an email messages from 50 miles or more away, and then quickly break camp and move on to a new location, many miles away.
By the way, I am a mid-50s guy who is way behind the times digitally. I barely even know what Facebook, Myspace and Twitter and tweets are.
Perhaps a treadmill desk might be a possible solution for some people who spend many hours sitting in front of a computer or TV at home or at work. The person could then spend part of their time walking in front of their computer or TV. Presumably, they would only need to do that all the time, and could also sit down for much of each hour instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treadmill_Desk
A treadmill desk would not actually be necessary where I work. I spend about half of my time standing at a counter dealing with customers when someone is in the office. Between customers, I can sometimes just sit down and drink coffee while reading the newspaper. In those quiet moments, I sometimes do some stretching exercises or occasionally even some heavyhands calisthenics using hand weights. There is also an expensive exercise bicycle sitting unused in one corner of the office, which I could be using between customers.
It would be quite possible for me to do about 5 or 10 minutes of exercise per hour, whenever no customers are in the office. Since this is a small family business, owned by my parents, no one would object to my doing that, when I do not have anything else to do anyway.
Almost every day, either before or after work, I usually do a 1 hour walk while raising and lowering heavyhand hand weights from below my waist to above my head. I am a slightly overweight guy in my mid-50s. Over the last several years, I have gradually worked up to using 9-lb weights continuously for the hour walk. On some stretches of my walk, I switch to doing a double ski poling movement to improve the aerobic and strength fitness of my back and hips, as well. Perhaps I should also squeeze in at least some exercise during the day or evening. For me that is doable.
http://www.heavyhandsfitness.com/content.aspx?idx=54
I am not an expert on any of this, but adding a thick masonry wall between his home and her home, would probably block most of the signal. One article said that the two houses are only 25 feet apart. If these are one story buildings and the wireless router is at table top height, I suspect that a masonry wall would most likely block most of the signal.
He could then build the tallest widest wall that the building code (and possibly the home owners association) allows. I am not sure how thick the wall would need to be (since I am not an expert). If I am not mistaken, signals of that frequency are not very penetrating. But, if extra shielding is needed, perhaps any empty block cores which are not filled with concrete, could be filled with gravel instead. Blocks come in various thicknesses. A large tall landscaped berm of dirt might be another possible option.
As you mentioned, wire lath which is sometimes used for stucco would probably also help. Perhaps he could use it on the inside or outside of the wall which faces towards her house. Would it matter what size mesh is used? Perhaps it might also help if he also install roll down steel or aluminum security shutters and also steel door on that side of the house. Those are my non-expert thoughts on the problem.
Of course, I am skeptical that a weak WiFi or cell phone signal from that distance would actually cause his problems. The FCC actually limits wireless routers to very low power levels.
Another alternative would be to move to a country home with a large lot.
I once had a colonoscopy where I was awake for most of the procedure. I was told that I might be awake in sort of a twilight sleep, but that I would not remember anything afterwards. However, I actually did remember everything afterwards.
The procedure started a small camera being shoved up my rear end. In front of me, I could see a color television screen showing the constantly the changing view of the inside of my colon. I was surprised at how spotlessly clean it was (except for occasional puddles of dirty water). I jokingly asked if I could get a VHS tape to show to other people. They said that the best that they could do was give me a printout with color photos.
After a while the doctor and the anesthesiologist (or someone) started asking each other why they were not there yet. As time went on they sounded increasingly puzzled and concerned that they had not yet reached where they were going. They would say things like, we should have been there long ago. They briefly considered the possibility of it having somehow having turned around and started going back the other way.
They were having increasing difficulty getting the cable with the camera to go much further and were discussing the possibility of having to give up. But then, the entrance to my appendix came into view in the distance as well as two polyps also visible up ahead. But, for a while they were not able to get the cable to move any further.
I asked what they would do if they could not reach the polyp. I was told that they would fire a harpoon and reel it in. But, then a moment later, I realized that he was kidding.
I then mentioned, that I could feel two places in my abdomen were it felt like the cable was binding up with the most pressure. The anesthesiologist (or the doctor) than pushed firmly on certain portions of my abdomen which finally brought the camera up to the two polyps. I remember them then taking a sample from the first polyp, and then I fell asleep after that.
Afterwards, they gave me a printout with several high resolution color photos, showing the inside of my colon (sorry about not having a link). Later on, I was eventually told that both polyps had been removed and that one of them would have probably eventually turned into cancer.
When I had a follow-up colonoscopy from another doctor a couple of years later, I was out the entire time. But, before the procedure, I warned the doctor that she should use the longest cable that she had.
I still get analog TV, where I live in Northern Arizona. The digital conversion has not yet occurred here (except for one 1 channel). Some of the mountaintop repeaters, which serve rural areas and smaller cites, were exempt from the requirement to change to digital. Some of the mountaintop translators in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and elsewhere are still analog.
I still get 4 analog channels and just one digital channel. I use a rabbit ears antenna mounted on top of my old mid-1990s 13-inch television, without a converter box. Cable is not available where I live. For several years, I kept hearing that analog TV would not exist beyond a certain date, but here it is almost 2010, and I am still watching analog TV. Oddly enough I think the translator station is probably having to convert a digital signal to analog to accomplish that.
Since I do not have cable, I use DSL over POTS lines from the telephone company for my Internet connection. Where I live the available speed is 1.5 Mb / 800 k for DSL, with hints that QWEST may possibly eventually upgrade to local equipment to 7 Mb capability someday.
Up until about 3 years ago 26.4k dial-up was all that I could get, even when using a 56k modem. The local telephone lines were not good enough for 28.8k or 56k.