Spammers Defeat Gmail CAPTCHA, Recording Off an HD Tuner, A Flickr Pic

Another Google Trick

Another small Google trick (again, you can find lots of sites with these or figure them out using the Advanced search options in Google itself). Find all pages with a certain URL in the search. Example: inurl:view/index.shtml - searches only for pages with "view/index.shtml" in them.

Spammers Defeat Gmail CAPTCHA

It was bound to happen. After all, there's some pretty advanced OCR software out there, so it was about time someone created something that could recognize text through any background. I think you'll see this showing up to crack other CAPTHCHA registrations. Damn spammers.

Recording Off an HD Tuner

Surprisingly what they say is true - even if you record an HD program off an HD tuner onto a regular old-school analog VCR the picture is better. Of course, it's not HD but it is better then off an analog tuner. Quite a bit in fact.

We haven't quite decided what to do about recording things. But for now, probably until the Big Diital Switchover (cue the fanfare); we'll probably stay with a VCR. We don't want to pay every month for TIVO or the similar brand, or go through the trouble of setting up a computer with an HD tuner just to record HD. Why doesn't someone make a standalone HD-capable digital recorder? Oh, yea, the whole digital copyright thing. Yea.

A Flickr Pic

The Internet is great, isn't it? Especially blogs. If you don't like what I'm saying you don't have to read it. Or maybe you're so fascinated or disgusted you can't look away no matter what. Anyway, blogs are great, I can give you my totally amateur thoughts on a picture like the below.

Anyway...I still love Flickr.com, even though I don't have a full account there now. But I can still upload lots of pics and look at other's. In fact, I have two accounts - one for general pics and one to correspond to my OABONNY site. You can see my OABONNY pages here at Flickr. Also, if you do, check out my favs there.

Some great stuff on Flickr, some talented people have shared their photos.

Here's one of my new favs (among many at both Flickr accounts). Have to share this, click it to see it larger:

You And I Fly A Ship Seeking The Warm Unending Sky
Originally uploaded by Eric Rolph

Firstly, the title caught me. At first I wasn't sure if it completely fits the photo but I now believe that it does.

The second thing that caught my mind's eye was something that made me think of that commercial, you've probably seen it but not thought anything of it. I'm not sure what it's advertising - maybe an allergy medicine or something like that. Hiking girl, top of a hill, looking out over the distance, the perspective turning 360 as your view swings around. Somehow, even though the are somewhat different, it reminds me of this shot.

Lastly, I think it's an inspiring shot. Potential spread out before you, but with the occasional hardships along the way seen on the horizon.

You could even call it post-apocalyptic if you wanted to interpret it that way, no civilization as far as the eye can see.

Or maybe I'm just getting anxious for the summer.

Subscribing to Blog, Acer Drivers, Google Tips, Kira, SPCA, Zootoo, Watertown Dog Park

Subscribing Links/Feedburner.com

Firstly, you might notice over on the right a couple new things. There's both a "Subscribe to Random Bits & Bytes by Email" link as well as a "Subscribe in a reader" link. Eventually I need to add some little icons for everything in that block but I haven't had time.

Anyway, they do pretty much what they sound like.

The first takes you to a page where you can enter your e-mail address and (after also doing the visual verification) receive new blog entries from here as I create them.

The second lets you subscribe via a newsreader. If you're using Firefox or comparable you'll get the RSS icon anyway in the URL field too.

Both of these are easy to set up via Feedburner.com, in case you want to do one for your own blog.

MS's Skydrive and Acer 5520 Driver Storage

I've begun to upload some drivers for the Acer 5520 for XP at Windows Live's Skydrive storage, which works quite nicely. You can even embed a folder in a page or blog (like with Box.net which I reviewed in an earlier entry but has less storage space for the free account). I'll upload some of the larger ones at a later date.

Some Google Tricks & Tips

There's a lot of things you can do with Google that the normal searcher probably doesn't know about. Some can make your searching much more spot-on or quicker. Some good ones from a Lockergnome entry:

*Quotes. Using quotes around a phrase makes sure you get the EXACT phrase, not searches for all the words in the phrase.

*'intitle:' It will search for the keywords only in the webpages titles. If you supply multiple keywords it will come back with an OR condition - any pages matching either keyword will show up. To search for a phrase enclose it in quotes. A couple examples:

intitle: abandoned This comes up with any webpage with "abandoned" in the title only.
intitle: abandoned building This will display any website with abandoned OR building in the title.
intitle: "abandoned building" Will display anything with the phrase "abandoned building" in the title.

*The period. When searching use the period instead of a space between two words, or the period instead of a space between two words that you would normally enclose in quotes. You can get more results because it will search for the string of words. Instead of using You can also add this to the 'intitle' search too. This takes some playing around with to get used to it.

*Good old + and -. Plus makes sure the items in your search are included, - makes sure they are not. An example:
"abandoned buildings" -ghost Notice the quotes. This will search for any website with "abandoned buildings" mentioned in it (the phrase), but none that have the word "ghost" in the page.

*() For those who know a little about Boolean operators you can use the parentheses. If you're not a boolean-sort of person skip this one, but those who do programming with probably be able to figure this out. Pretty useful, if needed.

Don't forget to click that "Advanced search" link in Google too, it lets you do the same as above but using a form that you fill out.

Thanks to Lockergnome of the above.

Kira, Cat Toys, Bonito Flakes, Zootoo and Jefferson County SPCA, Watertown Dog Park

We lost Kira, our female ferret a few nights ago. She had a common disease that ferrets get, our

first male ferret - Odo - died with the same thing. It was a very hard night that night.

Saturday we were at the Super-Walmart near Fort Drum and picked up some cat toys on sale. Included in the package was something called "Dried Bonito Flakes", which is apparently used something like Tuna Fish in certain other countries, both for humans and as a treat for animals.

Unfortunately most of our cats were very much not thrilled with it. Despite the very fishy smell only a couple tried it.

It looks like shredded wood to me, or something that comes out of a pencil sharpener. And frankly smells much, much worse - a combination of strange old fish and a few other things I can't pinpoint. I can see why the cats don't like it, though a few scarfed it down - likr Crusher (he'll eat pretty much anything).

About hanging cat toys - we normally don't have them around or if we do the cats are supervised while using them, because it's too easy for a cat to get the toy down and get wound up in it. Same with other cat toys with strings and things they can get tied up in. For example, I found Ezri once with a cat toy wrapped around her hip, almost unable to move. It wouldn't have been long before some sort of damage would have been done to her from trying to get out of it and pulling it tighter and tighter. Bad, very bad.

If you want to use those toys make sure you keep an eye on them and don't let them have access to them when you are not around, and keep the hanging ones as high as possible (both to keep them from getting would up in them and to keep the toy intact, as they can't get to the string part of chew it off or swallow it).

If you have old cat scratching toys that have been scratched to pieces, like the ones with Sisal rope around them - you can easily replace it yourself by finding some of the Sisal rope into a hardware store or Walmart and rewrapping it yourself. Let's face it; larger cat toys aren't cheap and you can never have too many cat-scratching posts.

In an earlier blog you might have seen the large cat play toy thing I made, incorporating sisal rope scratching on the columns.

We're still hoping our local Jefferson County SPCA can win the million make-over from Zootoo.com. Here's the Zootoo link for the Jefferson County SPCA. Join Zootoo, and then add the local SPCA to your account and they will receive points for it, if they get enough they will win the make-over. So help 'em out - join, review some pet toys or anything, and help them with the points.

Some determined people are still trying to get a dog park in Watertown. Here's his message on Craig's List:

It's still in limbo, but it will happen...with your help. City Counsel does not want to throw their support behind it because they don't want to pay for it. The problem is, them not supporting it, makes it all the harder to get the donations that would make it happen. Who wants to donate to something that may or may not happen? Quite the catch 22! Were NOT looking for the $700,000 plan the City Came up with!! A Dog Park is just some Fence, Bag dispensers, trash cans, Benches and a water source Come on people WE CAN DO THIS!!!!

I have been asking EVERYONE who wants a Dog Park in Watertown to send ANY donation to

WATERTOWN CITY COMPTROLLER
MIA'S DOG PARK PROJECT
245 WASHINGTON ST.
WATERTOWN NY 13601

It does not matter if its $1 (more would be nice) it just shows support!!! Make sure to "Earmark" your check "Dog Park" so they don't use it to fill potholes! If the 2000 licensed dog owners of the city sent $20 each that would be $40,000 right there. It is Tax deductible too!!! Ask all your Family/friends to do this, Ask your Boss or anyone with a love for Dogs. If we get enough response they will have no Choice.

In Addition I have two Fund Raisers in the work for April/May. Will post details as soon as they are firmed up. Thanks SG + Mia

You can find a little more info at http://www.myspace.com/miabumblebee

I hope we can get this in Watertown - a great addition to the area. But we have the "old school", "Good ol' Boy" mentality - 'if it's something new and different and we didn't come up with it ourselves we won't consider it'. Good example of it here; trying to kill it by putting a ridiculous price tag on it....

I love Jefferson County and it's people, for the most part; don't get me wrong. But there is some severe ignorance on the part of those who run the city and the county. It's why Fort Drum is one of the few things keeping the area from being the worse place, economically and socially, in NY state. I'm no big fan of the military nor Fort Drum but without it I'd hate to live here.

Unfortunately the area is held back by those very people who should be improving it and thinking toward it's future.

HDTV, DLP LED TV's, 32 Sats in GPS, Benefits of the Space Program, Windows Live Writer

Been getting over one of the worse flu's I've ever had, still recovering but here's a few blog entries to read.

HDTV, DLP LED TV's

An engineer from one of our local tv stations (WWNY) has been posting a small blog about their station's transition to HDTV, a good little reference if you're looking for one. Link.

He too, seems frustrated that there us so much misunderstanding among the citizens of the US when it comes to the whole HDTV and Digital TV thing. See my previous blog entry for a general explanation if you need one.

We recently upgraded from a very nice HD-compatible rear projection tv to a pretty good DLP LED tv with an HD tuner. The quality of the HD signal is excellent, and we have not had any drop-outs from weather or anything else. We may not, as the signal strength for the local signal is nearly pegged.

The tv itself was a bit of a compromise. Of course, if money were no option we would have gotten a plasma. But they are not only more expensive, by a lot, but WILL fade eventually.

This DLP is slightly smaller then our old one, which is a great disappointment to me but it was the largest DLP LED we could find. And we definitely did not want to go with the DLP that used the lamp instead of the LED (who wants to replace that lamp every few years, despite the display's slight increase in response time with the lamp).

We have no experienced any of the rainbow effects that a small number of people seem to be able to see with DLP's, though the LED may slightly decrease this chance.

I also haven't the pixelization during heavy action/high quality audio that some people notice and that I noticed on my wife's mother's tv (similar model but smaller). That television had some bad pixelization. Then again, it was strictly being used through the local cable systems - neglible quality at best through the Time-Warner system, so that doesn't mean much.

We haven't seen it through the six or seven local HD stations we receive, nor the DVD (upconverted DVD player) nor through our digital satellite service.

I like the HD, but I wish everything were in the full rez 1080 as this doesn't seem to be consistent.

You can even see Obama's muscle twitch when a question stumps him. Now that's good TV!

Thirty-Two GPS Sats

I believe that we have a full 31 or 32 GPS satellites opened up the civilian GPS nav system now. Combined with WAAS we have the ability for some fairly accurate positional measurements with the GPS'es sold now. Our local TV station (WWNY) even did a little story on Geocaching.

Benefits of the Space Program

We're all ignorant about some things, no matter how well-informed we think we are as Americans. But there's some things that some of us should at least be marginally more aware of, at least basically.
Like the basic principles of how some of our everyday items work so that we can better use them - electronics, phones, cars, tv's, etc. Do most of us have the smallest inkling of the principles behind them. Do you know why your phone fades out in certain areas or why your car's oil needs changing?
Probably not, and likely it won't hurt you not to know. I'd like to go into this in a later blog with an idea I have. But right now; talking about the average American's ignorance - the Space Program.
I think an overwhelming opinion is that it's a waste of money, a boondoggle, there's not going to be any benefit from it, etc - have your pick.
Fortunately this is far from true, and a little quick research on the Internet allows any person to make their own INFORMED conclusion versus an UNINFORMED opinion. There's way too many uninformed opinions going around as it is.
Basically, any high technology - no matter how small - usually brings benefits to humankind. Sometimes directly, many times indirectly, and sometimes with unintentional or side-benefits not envisioned initially.
Take the war in Iraq, for example. No matter how much we may detest it in general there are many technological, science, medical, offensive and defensive, safety and protection, etc benefits coming out of it.
Anything that pushes technology, scientific principles, medical advances and hundreds or thousands of other corresponding and related and sometimes unrelated and unintentional - will at least have some good side benefits.
And the Space Program sure does all of the above. The aspects that go into getting people into space cover a wide, wide spectrum of science and technology. And our subsequent direct and indirect benefits are immeasurable. There's not one person who's reading this who hasn't gotten some benefits from one of the technologies that were direct or indirect spin-offs or by-products of the space program.

Windows Live Writer

What, did Microsoft actually create a piece of free software that is damn usable? Like Windows Live Writer?

Yes, I would say so. Basically, it's a standalone blog editor that supports any of the standard blogging formats, including Google's Blogger.

It's kinda what I've been looking for (and how did I not run across it before). Forget Scribefire and Flock, or blogger's sometimes-awkward online editor.

Give Windows Live Writer a try, it's a snap to download and set up and should work with most any blogger (but not all). Spell checker, formatting, draft saving; the same stuff you'll find elsewhere but implemented in one package that works well.