Crazy?

Last week I reran the Windows display/font tweaking tool at least a dozen times ... and the fonts still did not look very good.

I had two major updates late last week/over the weekend and I swear, all of a sudden my fonts are back to being gorgeously rendered on screen.  There was no mention in the updates of anything having to do with font rendering.  Am I crazy?  I think I must be.  But today my screen looks so good I just want to stare at it.

And there is an interesting thought:  Font rendering on Windows differs from Mac OS X quite a bit, and people do seem to prefer one or the other.  I wonder if that plays a role in computer selection?  Windows tends toward sharp and crisp, Mac OS X tends toward warm and fuzzy (and often more accurate in regards to scaling).  If you prefer Mac OS X style font rendering on Windows there is an open source project, gdipp, that does a decent job of bringing that style to Windows.

Personally I like both.  I appreciate Windows Crispness, and Mac OS X's softness.  I am currently more used to crisper fonts since I've been primarily a Windows user for several years now.

Enough for now!  Have a nice day!

The argument against the right

I think a prevailing argument against "the right" is that we try to legislate morality, and that religion does not belong in law and politics.  They believe that it is WRONG for us to do that.  They fail to see that they are doing the exact same thing, creating laws to make actions that others find reprehensible, legal.  They hide under the idea that people should be able to do whatever they want if it doesn't harm anyone else and claim that government should not interfere, it's role is as a provider.

I think that some people even feel that what happened in that junior high/middle school in Maine is "O.K.... no harm no foul". (If you don't know what happened, a gay-rights group was allowed to talk to the student body about bullying and such, but at the end of their talk they began to tell the students how to have safe, gay sex, in DETAIL before the staff could stop them).  The problem with that is a lot of people DON'T think that is "O.K.", yet in many states those people are now, by law, FORCED to allow something similar, if not as detailed, to happen.  So while people tout how OUR (conservative) will should not be pushed onto them, they push THEIR (liberal) views on US.  It's called hypocrisy, people.  The funny thing is that (in this case) the gay community is a small percentage of the whole, but in some twisted idea that the needs of the very very few need to be protected and nurtured, they stomp on a very large part of the population.  This is what is causing the conservative reaction and backlash.  It's like 100 people voting, and letting the minority of 1 take all.

I honestly don't know what the solution is.  1/2 the people in our country believe in a more conservative socio-economic view, the other 1/2 believe in a more liberal socio-economic view.  I don't think this can be resolved.

But let me remind you that laws are created to protect us, not restrict us, to prevent us from performing harmful or detrimental acts to us, and others.

Finally, for conservatives, we must never lose COMPASSION.  We certainly are allowed to and should pursue the support of law, but we shouldn't do so in such a way that we lose track of the fact that we ARE talking about PEOPLE who have feelings, failings, wants and needs just as we do.

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my conservative views
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Abortion:  I believe that once an egg is fertilized it is now a "potential" human being.  No turning back.  The DNA is complete, the cell is starting to build into a shape we will eventually recognize, someone who might someday change the world in a huge and wonderful way, or might become a crazed killer, who knows.

Gay Marriage:  There is no longer any point to marriage, as it obviously isn't for having children and building a strong, healthy family unit.  Family unit == male, female and offspring.  Extended family can be anything and everyone else as far as I am concerned.

MINORITY:  While our country is about freedom and equal rights, that can only carry so far.  Homosexuality is a 1% minority in our country.  (Maybe just over 1%).  It's nice that some people are championing the cause of others, but again, freedom and equal rights need to be tempered with reason, justice, and sometimes restriction.  Yes, I know this is not a democracy.

Freedom OF Religion, NOT freedom FROM religion:  People seem to think that our MOSTLY CHRISTIAN founding fathers and original settlers (why did most of the people come here and settle this land?  Freedom to worship God as they pleased) meant to exclude religion from anything public, and tout Jefferson's quote of "separation of church and state" as statement against religion.  This is NOT TRUE.  Jefferson said that because the STATE of Connecticut was trying to impose one, official religion and Thomas Jefferson (rightly) felt that was wrong to do.  He did not mean to imply that religion and government should be completely separated in all ways, he meant that the government (as stated in the constitution) should NEVER enforce a given religion or interfere with ANY religion.  THAT is what our constitution is about.  It should not be illegal to have a Christmas tree on public property, or even a shrine to Buddha for that matter. We are supposed to embrace diversity not shun it.  I think if people want to pray in schools, they should be allowed to, and given the opportunity to (yes, even Muslims).

Done for now.

Windows 8 Pro

My official-release copy of Windows 8 arrived yesterday.  First, it is evident that Microsoft is trying to emulate some of the practices of Apple.  The packaging was visually attractive and in some ways nicely constructed, but there were flaws.  It was a flip out box within a sleeve, when you pull it out and open it all the DVDs (32 bit and 64 bit) and (one card sized) instruction set just fall out.  They did, however, place the KEY on a special pullout card which was nice.  So while the packaging was very nice, it could have been better still.

Needless to say once everyone else went to bed I began the installation process.  I had bought the upgrade version (AFAIK) and was surprised when the installation did not ask for my prior Windows 7 DVD/Key.  The installation process offered me only one choice "Don't copy anything" (or something to that effect).  This was expected since I was running a trial version of Windows 8 Enterprise, and I was prepared for this and had backed up all my essential files.

The installation process took abnormally long for a "fresh install" and I believe that was due to a combination of things (a disk check, backing up system files from the existing W8E) but once that huge lag was done the rest of the process went quickly.  I probably should have done a forced, fresh install, but this worked out well for me because any non-standard installs I had on my C drive were retained and I was able to restore those to their original state easily.

The little "learn how to use metro" blurb was useless for anyone who has never used it.  I've been using it for 9 months now so that didn't matter to me.  Once installed it asks for either your pre-existing outlook.com or live.com account, or you can choose to create a local account.  I go with my online account which syncs in the background and maintains a lot of settings from install to install.  It's very handy.

Once my account was created I started re-installing all of my favorite apps.  First the productivity apps, then some games and other silly things.  I still haven't finished, there a few that I will install when I find myself needing them.  But my development and networking tools are all in place.

One problem I DID have was getting my screen to look like it was before.  I have no idea why it became so difficult ... but for the life of me I could not get both the colors and the font rendering to look good.  I spent more time fiddling with that (I would not call this a problem with Windows, I have a monitor that, while feature full and of excellent quality, is known for it's horrible, default configuration) than everything else combined.  I finally downloaded a configuration file from a website, set it and slightly modified my RGB settings based on some forum posts and it while it seems a little "warm" it now has rich color and contrast.  I fired up Skyrim and the world looked a lot more colorful than it used to.  My fonts look alright now... took about 20 iterations of the clear type wizard... but I got it.

The new Windows Mail app is not bad, but I cannot use it for work... well I CAN use it for work but my work exchange server insists on altering my security settings and I really want to avoid that if possible because I hated how quickly my screen would timeout and lock me out... something like 8 minutes.  I'd walk to the kitchen to make coffee, come back, and my screen was locked.  Outlook doesn't seem to require that, so why does Windows Mail?  For now I am using my old favorite, Postbox, with DAVmail.  (Update, I found a workaround on the internet).

I don't use a lot of the metro apps (sorry, I know it isn't called "metro" anymore but I can't stop calling it that), a few games, like Mahjong, Periodic table, stuff like that.  I also use Windows Mail, it's not bad, if a little simplistic.  This might change in future releases.  Most of my work is done on the desktop and I am happy that not only do all my desktop apps work fine, but the entire interface is snappy and clean.

I've gone over many of the changes to desktop interface in previous weblog entries so I won't do that here.

Overall the installation process was about as I expected it would be.  A clean install or a proper upgrade from a Windows 7 box would go much more smoothly I should think.  But here I am, an official Windows 8 user!  I am excited.  I've enjoyed Windows 7 over the past couple of years, and I have enjoyed Windows 8 for the last 9 months as well.  I am intrigued to see where Microsoft takes Windows in the future.

Tumor in my wrist?

I noticed it weeks ago.  It was pretty tiny.  But today I was playing with it and realized "hey, it's a lot bigger!"  *Sigh*  So now I suppose I should go to the doctor and see if he things I should have it taken out.  I am sure it is some sort of fibrous growth, probably from the tendon sheath in there or something.

I am not worried about it... but just having it there distracts me and I suppose if it keeps growing it will impact movement, so I should have it looked at.

Haven't been to my doctor in 3 years... he's going to want to do a complete physical on me... ugh.

ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5 and Anywhere MX update

My system is a little over a year old now and I expect it to continue to be a solid build for at least another year.  While CPU technology continues to improve, the i7-2600K continues to compete favorably with the latest from Intel.  The price to performance ratio is exceptional.

But as games become more complex and other peripherals grow old, they can be replaced.

I recently upgraded my graphics card from the triple-wide GTX 570 ENGTX570 DCII to the newer, abler, double-wide ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5.  The latest generation Nvidia cards are more efficient.  They use less power and temperatures are lower in general.  This allows a more graphically powerful card to require less cooling.  This means the new card takes up less space, is quieter and runs cooler.  It's a win on three counts.  No, make that four counts as it also performs somewhere between 16% and 25% better than the 570 did (depending on the performance category).

I also upgraded my old BENQ monitor to a new BENQ monitor that is capable of handling 120hz.  It's also MUCH brighter and more configurable than the previous model.

Finally, the Logitech Anywhere MX mouse I purchased a year and a half ago is still going strong.  This is a big deal to me because I burn through mice.  If a mouse lasts a year with me, that's good.  This one shows no signs of wear and the buttons and wheel feel the same as they did when I first unboxed it.  That's solid quality.  I am tempted to purchase another just to have.  I worry that Logitech will change or discontinue the model and when this one finally dies I will be out of luck.

That's it for now.  As a post script, I am running the Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation version.  It's full blown Windows 8, but with a time limited license that expires in a few months, basically when Windows 8 is released to the public at large.  Good stuff!  No going back to Windows 7 for me.

Spy Vs. Spy

Growing up I loved MAD Magazine.  One of my favorite shorts was "Spy Vs. Spy".  While I would like to say I always rooted for the White Spy, I really often rooted for the Black Spy.

In my black and white mind, white meant good, black meant evil, but in the world of Spy Vs. Spy there was no such delineation.  Both Spies had moments of innocence and moments of mischief.  That conflict (between what I expected and what I read) drove my own thinking to the point where I sympathized and secretly supported the Black Spy in all his endeavors.  The truth was not my perception.

Today I have noticed a trend of Spy Vs. Spy in the Christian community.  Christians of differing opinions and different backgrounds disassembling one another in public forums and web logs.  Sometimes the motivation comes from a simple misunderstanding, sometimes the motivation comes from something deeper, perhaps a bad experience of some sort that simply soured someone's perception toward a larger group of Christians.

Part of this also stems from a differing sense of duty.  Christians feel the tug of responsibility to "love thy neighbor" but also to insure that "the sword" (ie. gov't) is being properly wielded - and if it isn't, they feel they need to do something about it.  This tension can wreak havoc in how a given Christian communicates with people around them.  A second (and often very personal) cause of tension is that Christians know that God wants a relationship with EVERYONE, especially the people who do not know or follow Him.  They try and put themselves in God's shoes, feel what He feels and **it drives them to want to correct people, unfortunately often before they have even begun to have a relationship with God.  To some people the behavior exhibited by such people is unloving, while to the person doing the correcting, it couldn't be more loving.

I have no solutions, I am not even trying to come up with one.  I am simply observing and commenting on what *I* see happening.  What I can say is that every Christian walks their own path in their own time and that instead of picking one another apart, they should spend more time trying to understand the other brother's point of view.  If you find yourself angry or irritated with someone else, try putting yourself in their shoes.  For me it always comes back to James 1:19: "be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger".



** "It" is a loaded word in this case.  The "it" I know I feel when I attempt to consider how God feels leaves me very sad and a little numb.  [see parables of lost sheep, prodigal son, etc. and of course the very fact that Jesus was willing to die for us all, whether we accept and believe that fact or not].

The Trouble With Tribbles and Other Demons

As I grow older I've come to realize that demons come in all shapes and sizes.  I believe I have identified most of my weaknesses, the things that I do that I know are wrong, but I still haven't mastered them, nor have I managed to spot and eliminate the triggers before they've already been triggered.

I think the BIGGEST issue is my trouble with tribbles.  Almost everyone gets the Star Trek reference, the adorable, fluffy always purring creatures who are born pregnant and eat everything in sight that is edible... and somehow manage to get into every nook and cranny and innocently mess up whatever it is they have filled with their offspring.  People can't resist them...  they have an almost magical draw, despite knowing what they can do.

I have demons that draw me in like that.  You know you shouldn't, you struggle with it, but sometimes still give in and do what's wrong.  Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of "victories" but don't want ANY defeats.

I remember being sick in bed for 3 days and one day I caught a television show that reminded me I am not alone in my struggles.  A catholic priest had a TV show and the topic was recurring sin.  He treated the subject well, and didn't sugar coat it, neither did he offer a final solution.  Basically we all struggle with recurring sin, often something that continually drags us down (not constantly, but from time to time) over our lifetime.  It's ours.  It's a struggle we have to deal with through prayer, behavioral change, studying scripture for insight (and meditating on the word).  He said to be prepared to never completely shake those demons, but take heart in the struggle, as it really can be used to hone your faith, and never give up.

I don't plan on giving up!  The gift we've received is far too precious.

YAW8 Post

Just an update of my Windows 8 status.

I've installed the (3 month limited) full enterprise version of Windows 8.  It looks great!  Not that looks are all THAT important, but the explorer changes from the preview versions are significant enough to make it all feel tied together.

Without any manual modifications (ie. scheduler bug) I have not had any significant issues so far (only been a couple of days).  I've become familiar with a number of keyboard shortcuts now and switching back and forth between the desktop and metro apps has become easy.  (Win+Tab is your friend).  The final versions of the basic metro apps are sufficient to meet my needs, but could have some more customization options.  For example you can't set email to mark a message read "instantly" upon being clicked.  But eh, that's no show-stopper.

Some MINOR issues with mail regarding exchange, but I have a feeling they will be worked out in future patch releases.

Other than that major bug fix and the prettier, final interface (oh, did I mention the improved metro tiles?), not too much more to report.

The biggest drawback of me running this version is that when the commercial release becomes available I will have to do a complete, fresh install.  But I have been doing that since February so, not a big deal.

OH!  One other thing, I do believe they have improved IE10's basic compatibility.  There are several websites I go to that did not work well with IE, but now seem to be just fine.  There are still some issues with some other sites and applications, but overall, it seems to have been improved.

That's it, for now...

Going Metro

I've decided to move one more step closer to adopting Windows 8.  I've been using it since February, of course, but today I created a new outlook.com account and created a new local account synced to it.  In the past this has not worked well with my existing live.com account, but I decided it had been awhile since I tried so I would try again, this time from scratch.

I created my new outlook.com account and created a new local account mapped to my outlook.com account.  Not only did it go smoothly this time but I have access to all the account, music and other data that was lacking before.  Another bonus is better exchange support.  I was able to sync up with work as well and now I have my metro calendar and email apps completely in tune with my work accounts as well as my other accounts (google and such).

I still haven't tried plugging my phone in yet.  I hesitate because I was so pleased with the results thus far I was afraid I would ruin the "high".

But while I still have standard desktop apps, I am making an effort to use the metro apps exclusively for calendar, address book, email and social connections.  As many people have espoused on the internet, it feels a little awkward shifting from desktop to metro and back again, but I think, as with the lost start menu, it is something I will adapt to quickly.  Given a few weeks I am confident it will become second nature and I won't feel the need to use the desktop equivalents.  One thing I will need to do is master the keyboard shortcuts.  Alt+tab works well enough, but I think there must be a better way to shift between Explorer and Metro apps.  Maybe I should have bought a touch screen.  But only time will tell.

Windows 8 and the Freeze Bug

I believe in one of my previous Windows 8 entries I mentioned I thought there might be input queue issues but I was wrong.  The issue was even lower than that and Microsoft has published (in a tech blog) a workaround that has worked for me over the past 48 hours.

The problem, it turns out, is some code that manages dynamic CPU ticking.  This allows the OS to power down individual CPUs when they are not needed, a great power saver for battery-dependent systems.  With Windows 8, this interface is not working with the latest intel core CPUs (i3, i5 and i7 series) and the CPUs are getting powered down one at a time until the system just hangs, but does not crash.

The workaround is to set a simple OS flag then reboot.  The flag disables the dynamic CPU management of the clock.  So far, as I mentioned previously, it has worked for me.  I was having hangs occur several times per day.  They seemed to happen most frequently when I was browsing the web and encountered sites that used Flash heavily.

Anyway, if anyone reading this has been suffering from this problem, the fix is:

1. Open a terminal in administrator mode.
2. type (without the quotes) "bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes" and hit return.
3. Reboot your system.

Once your system comes back up your problem should be cured.  Apparently there was another workaround that was discovered prior to the MS solution.  You could turn on hyper-v which is Microsoft's virtual machine code.  This could slow your system down a tad tho'.

Anyway, I am very happy to have finally found the solution to this problem (at least I believe it is the solution, 48 hours of smooth sailing so far) which has been plaguing me for months.  Microsoft will fix this for the actual release of Windows 8.  I guess it isn't a huge surprise that something like this might crop up considering all the kernel-level changes Microsoft has been making to Windows to squeeze out every bit of performance possible.

Hangups and Windows 8

It has been awhile since I posted about Windows 8.  I downloaded and installed the Preview Release version (basically the final Beta) several weeks ago... since MS won't allow updates for pre-release software you have to do installs from scratch.  I configure the dickens out of my machines, so you can imagine that it is painful.  So I did my best to keep and re-use most of my app configurations, copying them to the verboten appdata, hidden folder.

Windows 8 began hanging frequently.  The only solution was a hard power-down and reboot.  SOOOO tonight I decided to back up my most important data and do another scratch install.  This time I would install all my apps fresh and configure them anew.  Slow going, backing up and restoring large quantities of image and music files, along with my work directory which contains bajillions (that's a word) of little files...  ugh!

But I am hoping this will solve the hanging issue.  This did not occur with my previous Windows 8 install, which ran flawlessly for 4 months, no major hiccup at all.  This being the final Beta release, I have to assume that it should be running even more smoothly than the previous Beta version.

Windows 8 PR is even "prettier" than the previous version, tho' MS has made it quite clear that the UI is NOT as it will appear in the final release.  Specifically, the translucency will disappear, instead MS is opting for minimal UI with high performance, less fancy graphics.  The Explorer colors are, however, close to their final, flat, almost pastel shades and textures.

This is just the desktop.  I am not one of those users who will end up spending a lot of time in Metro-mode.  I use the desktop and use it quite heavily, but for development purposes, which means I rarely need to leave the desktop to jump into the metro interface.  This need to jump back and forth has a lot of people in a tizzy.  To me, the metro interface will just be something I need to use when I want to start an app.  In other words, a glorified start menu.  Here is my current metro start screen, but not yet complete, and certainly not organized the way I like it:

This metro interface is what users who purchase tablets, laptops, new windows phones, etc. will see once Windows 8 is released.  It is quite customizable, I just haven't gotten to that point with my fresh install.  I tend to organize it by my most used to least used apps in both a vertical and horizontal way.

I won't talk more about performance until I have all my installs completed and have been using it for a few days or so.  I really do believe it will be solid with this fresh install, no more hangs.  If so, it should prove to be even more efficient than the previous beta release, which was incredible.  As I have mentioned before, Windows 8 outperforms Windows 7 in almost every way.  I should think the trend would continue.

Running beta versions of Windows can be a pain, since every update is a fresh install (including when the final release comes out, they will not allow a user to upgrade from beta) but it has been worth it.  I am glad to be one of the people who are actually USING Windows 8 as my primary OS, and not one of the people who use it for a day, say they don't like metro and drop it, but continually post in forums just how awful it is.  I find the opposite to be true.  Admittedly it takes a little getting used to the missing start button, and the metro vs. desktop paradigm, but once you get used to it, it becomes second nature.  A word of caution tho', there ARE valid arguments floating around about how it could make some users' lives miserable because of how they would use Windows, and also, Microsoft seems to be trending away from the desktop, trying to position Windows 8 as something akin to iOS.  I just hope they maintain some common sense and hold onto the desktop for just a little bit longer.  :)  Not every app will be something for a tablet or phone or other touch interface.  Can't ditch the old ways just yet.

Why are you a Christian?

It isn't enough to say "I am a Christian."

You need to know WHY you are a Christian.  What do you believe?  Why do you believe it?

There are many reasons to believe.

Mornings...

Coffee, kids, dogs, email...

And what happens the moment I get out of bed...

Ongoing with Windows 8

I've managed to wean myself off of Start8.  Start8 was the little app that re-inserted a sort of start button on the task bar...  I am now 100% Windows 8 Metro.  I am not missing the start button/menu.

As a debug version of the OS, Windows 8 has proven generally faster than Windows 7.  That being said I have noticed minor quirks.  For example when I shutdown my JBOSS server it used to take literally just a few seconds on Windows 7.  While it still starts quickly, perhaps quicker than it did on Windows 7 (but difficult to say when you are dealing with hundredths of seconds) it takes a full MINUTE to shut down.  Very strange behavior and I haven't really investigated why it is happening.

Another quirk is that I have to kill the Cisco NAC Agent every time I want to reconnect to our VPN, then manually start it post connection.  No idea why...  just some minor tweak or change in protection or activation behavior in Windows 8.

I have not yet (knock on wood) had an actual OS crash (ie. blue screen of death occurrance), but I have noticed problems with I/O ownership with apps that hang.  When I play one specific game it tends to chew up VRAM and RAM quickly and at some point hangs.  When this happens I cannot switch I/O focus to the task manager (even tho CTRL+ALT+DEL works, and starts the task manager (you can see it in the bar)) and cannot kill the offending app.  I end up having to log out and log back in.  That's a pretty annoying problem.  On the other hand, it doesn't usually cause any other problems as I don't have anything else (or much else) running when I am gaming.

Back to the start menu and metro...

A ton of people are complaining about it.  I understand why... but after using it consistently for the last month it has become second nature to me.  It has not a distraction and because it is more spatial than the old menu, it is actually easier to remember where your apps are (not to mention you are the one who arranges your start screen).  I have a system now (arrangement of icons) of most used to least used, closest to a certain section of the screen.  I think what Microsoft has done is pretty bold, and in the end definitely more useful... but people are and will have a hard time giving up the old start menu paradigm.  But I also believe if they give it a shot, use it consistently for a month instead of uninstalling after 2 days and reinstalling Windows 7, they will grow to appreciate it for its configurability and spatial interface.

Not much else to report.  Microsoft has not been putting out any major updates... so no improved metro apps (like mail).  It has been predicted that the pre-GM build will be out in July, hopefully Microsoft will allow updates.  But all in all, I have found Windows 8 to be pretty exceptional and am enjoying it quite a bit.

Drawn To Comics

Just wanted to write a quick blurb about my favorite comic book store, Drawn To Comics.

It is husband/wife owned and they make an extreme effort to remember every face that walks in their door.  You are greeted with a smile and a friendly word and sometimes a high five, if not a handshake.  Despite being busy they find time to be on the floor helping each and every customer make their selections.

They also offer a box service (which I use).  You give them a list of comics you want to collect and they drop new issues into the box which you can collect up to monthly.  I make use of this since I live at least 40 minutes away from the shop.

The shop is in downtown Glendale on Glendale Avenue.  If  you love comics, or are curious, this is really the place to go.  You will not regret it!

On being Christian and a Freemason

I know I have written extensively about this in the past, just apparently not on my weblog.

I am a Christian and a Freemason.  I am a Past Master of Rockingham Lodge #76 in NH.  I haven't really practiced in over 6 years, since moving here to Arizona because I am lazy and there is no Lodge close by.  :)

There is a ton of stuff written about Freemasonry out in the internet and you can read them all and form your own opinions (but please be sure to read articles from more than one source, not just the anti-Masonic sites) but I thought I would share my own thoughts.  Freemasonry is not a religion, it is a religious fraternity.  That means that in order to become a Freemason, you need to belong to a faith that adheres to the principle of ONE GOD.  Off the top of my head the 3 primary religions would be Christian, Jewish and Muslim.

The PURPOSE of Freemasonry is to provide an environment where somewhat like-minded men can spend time together and perform charitable acts.  It is meant to make "good men better."  Freemasonry does not teach religion, neither does it allow the discussion and debate of religion (or politics for that matter) in Lodge.  To that end, before you join you are met by several Brethren who interview you and sometimes family and friends to make sure you are a man of good character not given to drink, bad habits, foul language, committed felonies, profess belief in God, etc.  If your petition is accepted then you begin the process of becoming a Freemason being introduced to the Lodge and having the members vote on your entry.

Before I go any further I should mention that Freemasonry is deeply embedded in our country and cultures in ways you might not expect or have realized.  Many of the country's forefathers were involved in Freemasonry and this influenced them during the creation of our country.  They were also Christians, or at the least, Deists.  Once while visiting my mother I noticed she had an Ellis Island booklet that contained the oath taken by immigrants.  I was surprised as I read it because the oath is so similar in wording to part of the Freemasonry oath that you could swap them out with only a few words changed.  (The Freemasonry oath is definitely older, tho' slightly varied from state to state and country to country).  Other cultural sayings that come directly from Freemasonry are things like "on the level" and "black balled", the first referring to how all Freemasons treat one another and the second referring to the processing of voting in new petitioners.  The voting process consists of selecting a white or black marble and dropping it into a box.  If a "black ball" is found in the box, the person is not allowed to join the Fraternity.  He is "black balled".  There are other cultural references but that is all I will go into now.

I cannot go too far into the process of becoming a Freemason but I will say that it involves ritual.  Basically the rituals are "plays" that involve characters and their actions.  These rituals were designed to remind us of the basic, Old Testament points of morality and ethics and much of the ritual is directly derived from the Old Testament.  Also involve in the ritual are symbols.  It is these symbols that cause the most consternation for some Christians.  The symbols are not meant to represent idols, or anything of the sort, but instead (like the rest of the ritual) are meant to make it easier to remember the basic, biblical principles by providing visual cues.  Many of them have to do with Masonry tools and geometry since the original Freemasons were actual stone masons (and the idea of the Lodge and Fraternity came from the building in which the stone masons lived when constructing cathedrals and other structures in the Middle Ages).  Some of the symbols came from personifications of "Justice" or "Time".

The other problem some churches have with Freemasonry is "the secrecy".  There really are no secrets in Freemasonry.  There are secret handshakes to help recognize Brethren if they don't have their member IDs, and there are secret words... but honestly, all of them are available on the internet.  No, the REAL secrets (and the ones that are most jealously guarded) come from our meetings.  Freemasonry is about raising money for charitable purposes.  During our meetings we decide WHO GETS THE MONEY... can you understand why that would be secret?  Lodges get requests for donations constantly, and there is never enough money to go around for all the requests.  That means they have to discuss who should receive money... these discussions are what are secret.  It is not proper to air matters of this nature to the general public.

Finally, there IS one danger of Freemasonry.  The Lodge I joined and the ritual I took was clear that the initiate should be a man of faith who attends his church regularly and who is actively involved in it, no matter what that church is.  But I have found that while some Lodges and some members adhere to this idea, not all do.  I have met Brethren who have actually stated to me that "Freemasonry is my religion."  This is very, very wrong and inappropriate, and they do not understand Freemasonry and what it is for.  But I have seen this with some frequency.  It is my only concern with Freemasonry.  It isn't meant to be or replace your faith/religion, but to augment it by providing a group of men and a setting to engage in charity and brotherhood.

I guess that is it for now.  There is a lot more that could be said but I will leave it here.

Having a working Windows Key is Apple Pie

For some reason, even with the appropriate dip switches set, my HHKB Pro 2 is not sending the correct signals to represent the "Windows Key", so I have been without it for ages.  That was no big deal with Windows 7 as I really didn't miss the functionality.  But I had read that the Windows Key (from now on I'll just call it the META key) was useful for W8 shortcuts so I downloaded SharpKey and redefined what was supposed to be the meta key and told it to send the proper meta key bytes.

I can say it really does make a difference.  It can snap you in and out of various metro modes in an instant and really does make having the menu button more-or-less obsolete.  And playing with it, I've discovered features I had no seen before, like side-bar app switcher.

Anyway, my appreciation for the metro screen[s] has jumped up a notch with the functionality of the meta key.

Networking issue fixed...

I didn't solve it, someone else did.  But I found it!  :D  I am now able to connect to our company network thanks to a simple registry tweak.  That, coupled with the Stardock start menu app, gives me nearly the same basic environment I had with Windows 7 WITH all the benefits of Windows 8.

Now I need to get my network printers working.  I have one hooked up via USB, which is fine, but I'd like to not be dependent on the physical connection.

And some more on Windows 8

Yeah, having trouble coming up with good titles.  :)

Today I installed a new app from Stardock / Brad Wardell that sort of replaces the start orb.  Basically what it does is crams the metro start pane into a small pane that opens where the start menu always did.  It works pretty well, a couple of bugs but this was just written and just published so I expect a number of updates in a short span of time.  It DOES also offer the ability to view the full screen version that is standard with Windows 8 with the click of a settings flag.  Very nice!

Some things I haven't mentioned about Windows 8 that deserve mentioning.  Or really one thing:  SPEED.  Windows 8 is fast.  Seriously.  I know people are probably thinking "yeah right, compared to what?".  EVERYTHING about Windows 8 is faster.  Start up times, shut down times, application start times, web browsing, explorer file listing, etc.  When I say everything I mean everything.  They've done some serious optimizing.

There was a comparison done somewhere, ARS or maybe Tom's Hardware and Windows 8 had the shortest start up time over all the competitors (linux, Mac OS) by a significant amount.  That in itself should give you an idea of how they've changed up this version of their venerable OS.

Even my crammed, shared USB external disk seems to load faster.

There will be more to come.  I'll try to think up more clever titles.

More on Windows 8

I've been using Windows 8 CP (Beta) for a week now and am getting used to it.  In reality not much has changed except for some visual and under-the-hood improvements.  But it still plays like / feels like Windows 7.

As I mentioned, there are some definite bugs, so unless you are bold and daring and have other ways of getting around issues, don't install and use this just yet.  It needs a few more months of brewing.

While I love metro on my phone and no doubt would love it on my tablet, I am coming to the conclusion that they should find a way to keep the start orb and only enable metro full-screen mode on specific devices.  I think that some of the metro apps show promise and if they could make them more windowed, less full-screen they would be great.  I also DO have to admit I like seeing reminders, social updates and my weather on the metro start panel... but...  I spend 99% of my time at the desktop and appreciate the small, pop-up start button/panel of Windows 7.

Even so, it isn't HORRIBLE like some people might have you think.  It is quick (the transition from desktop to metro to desktop happens as quickly as you can click your mouse).  You can arrange your most used apps in such a way that they will be close to the switching corner.  You can also still pin items to the super bar at the desktop level.

I will be monitoring updates and all the feedback on the Windows blogs with interest, to see how this progresses.  Meanwhile, since I can run 7 in a VM I can continue to use 8.

Finally I want to mention that 8 is stable at a system level.  You don't see crashes.  At least I haven't.  There are just some driver issues but they will sort themselves out over time.

Windows 8

Downloaded it the moment it was available and installed it.

So far it has been a mixed bag.  The upgrade installation path from Windows 7 failed.  I had to start from scratch and perform a clean installation.  That in itself was inevitable as I found that the VPN software I need to use does not work in Windows 8 anyway... so I ended up installing Windows 7 in a virtual machine and getting it set up to share disks with my W8 system.

So far Windows 8 is showing that it is absolutely a BETA version of the operating system.  It seems a lot rougher around the edges than Windows 7 did when it came out (I have been running W7 since it was publically available).

There are device issues, my networking seems rather unstable and inconsistent.  IE 10 (which I am using to post this entry) while fast in some situations, seems doggedly slow in others.  It also keeps complaining that something is trying to take it over, it is apparently quite paranoid.  It works relatively well until all of a sudden it interrupts whatever you are doing to warn you that BING is no longer your search engine du jour.  When it pulls up the settings panel it turns out that not only is Bing still your search engine, it's the only one listed.  So I don't know what that is all about.

The UI itself is pleasant.  It will take some time to get used to the new full screen start panel, and for the side pop up windows used to manipulate the interface.  Explorer is nice.  I like the changes Microsoft has made to file copying, the window manager, and the menus having been replaced by the ribbon.  They are all pluses.

Power management.  Ugh.  I build my own machines and Windows has always had one issue or another with them... in this case my machine went to sleep never to wake.  I had to reset, when that caused W8 to boot into an unusable state, I performed a hard shutdown, powered off and powered on again.  After that she came up fine.

Still, something to watch.

I went and turned off all power saving options.  Hopefully that will solve my problem[s] for now.

Since I am now running my work machine in VirtualBox, my Windows 8 installation can be a bit lighter.  I am able to share any and all files so I can continue to edit natively, I just have to perform all networked tasks within the VM.  So compiling, code management and running the server itself will all take place in the VM.

So, while there are some serious bugs left to be ironed out, I can't say enough about how the general desktop interface has been improved, made more useful, more powerful.  I have to admit that I wish there was a way to bring back the start orb, and there IS a registry fix, which I tried, and which then broke my explorer so I had to revert the fix.  I think Microsoft is expending too much effort in the new UI to allow the orb to replace it.

HTC Titan

After dropping my HTC HD7 awhile back, cracking the face into splinters, I decided to use my OTHER phone. Turned out my phone was no longer working because it was old and there were tower issues, etc. At that point I caved in and since I had a credit picked up an iPhone 4s. It was a solid piece of workmanship but I still found myself missing WP7.

As it happened, my wife's contract also came due and I was able to use HER credit to purchase a new Titan. I switched my new iPhone over to her (her old iPhone was starting to die, button would stick). The Titan is a pretty sweet piece of equipment. The screen is large and easy to read (the iPhone had an incredible screen, but it was small for me and my ever-aging eyes). It feels solid in hand, tho' I have noticed that while typing is easier with the large screen, it is slightly more difficult to navigate with one hand/finger than the HD7 was.

It takes decent pictures too. I tried a Samsung Focus S while at the store and compared the two. The Samsung didn't seem to adjust very well to the in-store lighting and pictures came out dull, almost with a yellow tint.

Forgive this poorly written, disjointed review... I am actually battling a stomach ache while typing so my mind is fluctuating back and forth from my stomach to the topic at hand.

Next post will be better!