Honda’s New Luxury Jet Features Futuristic Engine Mounts

Honda, my favourite car manufacturer for almost 30 years, announced this week that their first production HondaJet is now in final assembly.  That’s right – the makers of the affordable, practical, fuel efficient, best-selling Civic automobile are jumping into the luxury jet business alongside Lear, Gulfstream and Bombardier. True to form, Honda’s new jet has a futuristic Over-The-Wing Engine Mount unlike anything seen before on jet aircraft. If beauty counts – this corporate jet is already a winner!

HondaJet made its public debut this week at the Oshkosh, WI Airshow

Now, here’s the really good news for all you owners of Honda products like cars, lawn mowers, generators and motorcycles, you can own a new HondaJet for the amazingly affordable price of only $4.5 million. Hmmm….on second thought, even if I had $4.5 million to blow on this jet that wouldn’t leave me near enough money to fill up the fuselage with expensive jet fuel. That’s probably why we own a Honda Civic!

Wing-mounted engines give HondaJet its unusual appearance

A breakthrough in aeronautics, the Over-The-Wing Engine Mount was engineered and proven by Honda after more than 20 years of extensive research and development. This innovative technology not only breaks the conventional mold set by the aerospace industry but, again according to Honda, also provides category-leading advancements such as a more spacious cabin, noise reduction and increased fuel efficiency.

Looks to me like a game show console rather than cockpit controls…Wow!

Just like many of us RVers, the HondaJet is guided by a Garmin GPS. The Garmin G3000 is just a little more advanced, I’d guess, than the Garmin's we have in our RV’s and trucks. The dual touch-screen controllers and three 14-inch landscape high-resolution displays offer enhanced navigation, flight planning and control The cockpit is unquestionably built around the pilot to enable either single-pilot or dual-pilot operation. So, guys, that means if you buy one, your wife can fly it too!

Look out world – here come the HondaJets off the assembly line

What do you think? Does Honda have another winner here? I remember laughing at the Civic when it came out decades ago – now we own one. Somehow, I don’t see us ever owning a HondaJet!

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Mason’s Excellent Holiday Adventure In Parksville

After a sleepover at my Grammy and Grandpa’s on Saturday night, my Mom took me on our very first summer holiday together. I was really looking forward to it because she told me we were going to a place with really big sandy beaches.

It wasn’t too far from my Grammy and Grandpa’s because it only took a little over an hour to drive there. The place we stayed at was a resort right on the beach in the little seaside town of Parksville.

As soon as we got there and settled into our room, I got changed into my beach clothes and found my dump truck and shovel and we headed down to the beach.

It was really hot so I had to have yucky sunscreen sprayed all over me and then the sand stuck to my legs. I’d never seen this much sand before and I tried to see if it tasted any good but I spit it out right away. The resort we stayed at is way behind me in the picture of me playing in the sand. When the tide comes in the ocean comes right up to our hotel.

Last week I saw in my Grandpa’s blog that he saw 2 Owls on a tree in the forest.

Well, Grandpa, my Mom took me to the village of Coombs and guess what I saw? 3 Owls on a branch. He-hee!!

I made sure Mom took a picture of me with the Owls just so you could see for sure I just wasn’t trying to fool you.

I don’t know what kind of Owls these were though as they didn’t go “hoot, hoot” or anything. I’ll just have to look them up in my bird book when I get home or maybe I’ll just Google it like you were showing me at our sleepover. That was fun but I’m sorry I wrecked your computer screen and made it go all funny!

There was a little kids park next to where we were staying so I got to go on lots of swings. I think swings are my favourite. I really like to go as high as my Mom will let me. She doesn’t push me as fast as you do, Grandpa, but that’s o.k. I know she’s just scared I might fall off and hurt myself. I’m not scared though.

I really had fun in Coombs. It’s the place where they have all the goats on the roof. I wanted to go up and see them but we weren’t allowed so all I could do was watch them as they ate the grass growing on the roof. I didn’t know that grass could grow on roofs.

There were lots of stone carvings of dogs, birds and other animals in Coombs and I got to touch them and even climb up and sit on anything I wanted to.

Maybe next summer you and Grammy can come up here and I can show you all the things there is to see here in Coombs. It’s fun and you’d love it because there are all kinds of places that sell ice cream cones. I know you love ice cream cones.

There were all kinds of stores, shops and places to eat too. We stopped at one place and we had lunch at a table in the shade. It was very hot and I heard my Mom say to someone it was 90F. That sounded pretty hot to me.

Grammy would be very proud of me as I went to a real store to do some shopping. In the picture above, on the right, I found a basket full of snakes that were only $2.98 each. I poked them with a stick to see if they’d move but they didn’t. I was going to buy one to give to Grammy but my Mom said she’d “run screaming out of the house and wouldn’t stop until she was in Victoria”!  Is that really true?

After a playing on the beach, going for a swing, touring Coombs and then shopping I was getting pretty tired.

It was sure nice to get back to our air-conditioned room to lay on the bed and just chill with my Mom. We did this for 2 whole days and nights.

The best part of my first ever holiday was being with my Mom and then after 2 nights in Parksville we got to stop off and visit with you and Grammy again on our way home..

Thanks, Grandpa, for letting me tell my story about my first holiday with my Mom – it was really, really fun.

Thanks for visiting!

Massive iCloud Data Centers Powered By A ‘Green Apple’

Data centers for services like Apple’s iCloud are notorious energy hogs requiring huge loads of electricity to power the rows and rows of servers operating in a pristine climate controlled environment. They use as much power as small cities. A case in point is Apple’s iCloud data center in Maiden, NC which uses as much power as 14,000 homes. In NC, however, between 60 and 100 percent of power is supplied by Apple’s two 55,000 solar panel farms and biogas fuel cells. That is amazing!

One of Apple’s solar panel farms near Maiden, North Carolina

Apple’s two solar farms in North Carolina are already the largest privately owned renewable energy installations in the USA. Apple recently received approval to  significantly boost the number of solar panels being used to power its data center in North Carolina by building another 100-acre, 17.5MW solar panel farm in Claremont near Maiden. Apple claims that with solar panels, biogas fuel cells plus other renewable energy sources its data center is 100% powered by clean energy.

The 2nd of Apple’s solar panel farms in North Carolina

  Because of North Carolina state laws, the energy from the solar farms and fuel cells, running on biogas pumped in from a landfill. is fed into the main power grid owned by Duke Energy.  Apple then uses the energy it needs from the grid. This setup also means Apple doesn’t need large batteries, or other forms of energy storage, to keep the power going when the sun goes down and its solar panels stop producing electricity. Duke Energy is a big supporter of this setup. 

Thousands of servers cooled 75% of the time by water chilled by night air

According to data compiled by the Climate Desk, Google uses renewable energy to power about a third of its data centers. Facebook says its new Iowa data center will run entirely off wind power when it comes on-line in 2015. Microsoft has announced a second wind farm in Illinois to power its data centers. Apple is well ahead of all of its competitors with 100% of data centers running on renewable energy.

Steve Jobs at the Apple Data Center in North Carolina

Here are a few other of Apple’s Green Energy Projects Huge Prineville, OR data center under construction Prineville, Oregon - Our data center in Prineville, Oregon, is every bit as environmentally responsible as the one in Maiden, NC. We’re building a micro‑hydro system that will harness the power of water that flows through local irrigation canals. When completed in 2014, it will serve most of the center’s energy needs. In the meantime, since Oregon allows the direct wholesale purchase of renewable energy, we’re able to directly access enough local wind energy to power the entire data center. Reno, Nevada - Our newest data center, in Reno, Nevada, follows in the footsteps of our 100 percent renewable energy centers in Maiden and Prineville. We’re working with the local utility to co-develop an 18‑ to 20‑megawatt solar array using a new kind of photovoltaic panel with curved mirrors to concentrate sunlight. Expected to be operational in early 2015, the solar array will have an annual production capacity of over 43 million kilowatt‑hours of clean, renewable energy. Until then, the center will be powered by renewable geothermal energy purchased from the local utility. Newark, California - Like our facilities in Maiden, Prineville, and Reno, our data center in Newark, California, is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. We hit this milestone in January 2013, when we began serving the data center with energy sourced primarily from California wind power. We’re acquiring this energy directly from the wholesale market through California’s Direct Access program.

Solar Energy was the fastest growing industry in the US last year. One would think this would be a no-brainer. One would be wrong. Right-wing GOP conservatives hate solar power or any other form of renewable energy that threatens Big Oil.

Fox's Neil Cavuto hosted commentator Steve Milloy twice recently to blast the solar industry. Milloy said that "the solar industry is leading the country ... right down the toilet." He went on to claim that “Half the time solar panels don't even work. Half the time they do work they produce expensive electricity. This is just lose, lose, lose, for America. We can't do it here. Solar panels don't make economic sense anywhere. They are strictly a luxury item.”

The Koch’s have pushed anti-solar campaigns in Kansas, NC and Arizona

So, who do you believe - the energy genius’ of Fox News or the CEO’s of America’s richest, largest and most profitable corporations (i.e. Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook)? According to Fox News all of these guys are idiots and losers who are building solar panel farms that don’t work! Yah, right Fox! Fox News and the GOP are in bed with Big Oil to try and protect the dirty fossil fuel industry – wackos!!

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What Makes A Good Smartphone Camera?

I've started to use my iPhone camera a lot more recently and have been quite impressed with the quality of the photos it produces. The big advantage of using my iPhone for photos is that it's one camera that I always seem to have with me. When I leave home, snapping my iPhone case onto my belt is as second nature to me as putting my wallet in my pocket.

That's why I was intrigued when I ran across a site called TechnoPCArea that featured an “infographic” to explain “What Makes A Good Smartphone Camera?”  Interestingly, the author and owner of this site is a young man, Himanchal Sharma, who lives in Jaipur.

On his site, he states that to use his infographics all one has to do is add the code he supplies. I wrote to Himanchal to get confirmation that it was o.k to do this as I didn’t want to in any way to use his material without his express permission.

I had thought about writing my own article on smartphone cameras but this infographic by Himanchal does a better job than anything I could possibly do. I’ll just add that many times a photo taken by a smartphone camera and posted on our blogs can be indistinguishable from those taken by a high-end DSLR so don’t be afraid to start snapping photos with your smartphone!

The statement on TechnoPCArea giving permission to use material

Add These To Your Website If you want these awesome infographics to appear on your website also,then switch to the Html editor of your platform and add the following code in it:

Again, my thanks to Himanchal Sharma for generously allowing me to share this infographic article.

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Our Little Man Comes For A Sleepover

It’s only 9pm on Saturday night as I sit here in my computer room to compose what is going to be a blog very short on words. I’m beat and as soon as this is done I’m off to bed. Carrie and Mason came up for a sleepover arriving just after 2pm and it was  non-stop action until the little guy finally ran out of steam about 8:30pm. He had already had his bath and was still fighting to stay awake but he was pretty tired too and finally gave in. All in all, it was a great afternoon and evening of fun.

After dinner, we took Mason down to the little park at the end of our street so he could play on the swing. He just loves it and didn’t want to stop.

Rylie keeps a pretty close eye on Mason and seems to enjoy having him around. She is very good with Mason even when he accidently hits her while trying to pat her. We’re sure glad Rylie has accepted Mason into our family so easily.

View of the farmlands below the park at the end of our street

I spent an awful lot of time down on the floor with Mason yesterday. I’ll no doubt pay for that with some aches and pains on Sunday – all worth it though!

I’ll just let the pictures tell the rest of the story of our day as I’m too tired.

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How Did I Ever End Up On A Ku Klux Klan Email List?

It’s been a week of surprises for me for sure. First, I saw 2 Barred Owls just sitting on a tree branch in the forest, then a beautiful Mermaid just sitting on a rock beside our local Quarry lake. Then, just to prove the old saying that “things” happen in 3’s, I somehow end up on an email list where I received content that could only have been written by members of a Ku Klux Klan Klavern.

The spittle and hate filled email is ridiculously titled “Canada's Top Ten List of America's Stupidity”. Blaming this racist rant on Canadians is typical, cowardly behavior for Klukkers. After all, they do like to dress up in white sheets and hoods to disguise their real identities, so it’s no surprise they would be ashamed to admit their real citizenship(???). They are neanderthal, knuckle-dragging low-lifes.

This Top 10 List was sent directly to me by fellow blogger Joe Pitman (Somewhere In Time). I have absolutely no idea whether Joe agrees with the “garbagio” contained in this Klukker’s lament or why he saw fit to forward it directly to me. These Top 10 Klukker Kommandments did end with one good suggestion though:

PLEASE DON'T KEEP THIS - SEND IT OUT TO YOUR ENTIRE LIST.

Well, my “entire list” is all the readers that follow my blog and I’m only too happy to do what the email message requested so that everyone can see for themselves the kind of stuff that hate filled racists continue to spread around. One way to combat racism is to shine a light on those that continue to practice it every chance we get.

For any Klukkers who might stumble across this post, I’d better explain that in Point 10 the “Obama” referred to is Barack Obama, the twice elected President of the United States and Commander in Chief of America’s Armed Forces. This is a fact that the Klukkers will never be able to get over.

Highlighted text is shown as it appeared in the original email sent to me:

Just makes you wanna shake your head in disbelief. Of course we look like idiots .... because we are. Number 10 Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000.00 per plate Obama campaign fund-raising event. Number 9 Only in America ...could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a  black President, a black Attorney General and roughly 20% of the federal workforce is black while only 14% of the population is black 40+% of all federal entitlements goes to black Americans - 3X the rate that go to whites, 5X the rate that go to Hispanics! Number 8  Only in America...could they have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner (the head of the Treasury Department) and Charles Rangel (who once ran the Ways and Means Committee), BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes. Number 7 Only in America...can they have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash. Number 6 Only in America...would they make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, while they discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just 'magically'  become American citizens (probably should be number one). Number 5 Only in America....could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as EXTREMIST’S. Number 4 Only in America...could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote. Number 3  Only in America...could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. Oil company(Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike). Number 2  Only in America collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a Trillion dollars more than it has per year - for total spending of $7-Million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money. And Number 1 Only in America...could the rich people- who pay 86% of all income taxes - be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all. PLEASE DON'T KEEP THIS - SEND IT OUT TO YOUR ENTIRE LIST.

Here are the other lucky recipients that Joe included on his email list. If Joe should decide to forward me any more Klukker literature, I’ll be sure to “send it out to your entire list”, as requested, and to print the names of those on his email list just in case any readers might want to ask them how to get their names added.

from: Joe Pitman to: Sherri Pitman, Jason Pitman, Dee Walters, Cecil Obrient, Bob Hill, Brice Bertram, Mike Leslie, Sylvia Crooks, Jim Hardin

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Wednesday It Was 2 Owls, Yesterday It Was A Mermaid

Although Paulette and I were tempted to return to the trail on Cobble Hill Mountain to see if the 2 Barred Owls we saw on Wednesday might still be hanging around, it was too nice a day to be heading into the thick, dark rainforest. Instead, we opted for the sunny trail that goes around the Cobble Hill Lake Quarry. It’s one of our favourites and yesterday I got another surprise. This time, it wasn’t Owls – it was a Mermaid!

Paulette was walking ahead of me with Rylie and as she rounded a corner I heard her say “hello, isn’t it a beautiful day?” to someone and a girl responded “yes, it is”. As I turned the corner I saw it was a young girl who looked to be in her early 20’s and she was completely topless as she sat in the sun on a large rock by the shore of the quarry. She looked at me without moving and completely unfazed said “hi”. I, of course, said “hi” right back and kept my camera right by my side!

I caught up with Paulette and said to her “did you see that girl back there, she was topless?”  Paulette said “no, I just looked at her face, she was quite beautiful”. I immediately replied “well, I saw her face too, but she was topless”. For a second, I thought I was imagining things but we were about 50 ft. away by then and we turned around and the young girl was standing up and just about to pull a t-shirt on over her head. No doubt about it – I was right!

The rest of our hike and our day was pretty routine. When we got back home, Rylie and I headed up to the TV room which is nice and cool and settled into the LazyBoy recliner for a short afternoon siesta.

Judy, the Bird Lady of Blogland, correctly identified the Owls we saw on Wednesday afternoon while hiking on Cobble Hill Mountain as Barred Owls.

As with most birds, I’d never heard of Barred Owls before. I’ve heard of Barn Owls and thought for a minute maybe that’s what Judy was referring to.

But, knowing that Judy knows all about birds I went off to my source of all-knowing information – Maharishi Google and he’s what he had to say about Barred Owls:

The barred owl (Strix varia) is a large typical owl native to North America. Best known as the hoot owl for its distinctive call, it goes by many other names, including eight hooter, rain owl, wood owl, and striped owl. I sure hope we get to see these owls again on one of our walks as they sure are impressive looking.

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A Pair Of Owls Pose For Us & Swing Time With Mason

I’ll bet that 99 times out of 100 when we go for our afternoon hike, I always make sure to take my trusty Canon G15 camera along. Wednesday afternoon, as we were getting ready to go to Cobble Hill Mountain and hike up to the water tower, I noticed a light rain was starting to fall so I didn’t bother grabbing my camera, just my iPhone, as I’ve taken hundreds of photos there during previous hikes. Wouldn’t you know it - it turned out to be the first time we’ve ever seen a pair of Owls up close

Thankfully, I had my iPhone along to snap a few pics of these Owls

As we turned a corner on the trail we saw 2 hikers ahead of us who were standing still and looking into the forest. One of the guys made a motion for us to be quiet as we approached and when we got there we could see why. Perched on a branch maybe 20 ft. from us were 2 beautiful Owls. We just stared at them and they just stared back at us. Luckily, Rylie didn’t see them or she probably would have barked and perhaps scared them away. The Owls didn’t seem bothered by us at all.

I’m sure Judy or someone will identify what type of Owls these are

I took my iPhone out and started snapping photos not knowing how they’d turn out. I’m sure glad I brought it with me though as the photos turned out o.k. – not as clear or as close-up as I could have got with my Canon G15 but pretty good for an iPhone camera.  We must have stood and watched the Owls for a good 10 minutes while they moved their heads about looking around but made no attempts to fly off. From now on, we’ll be checking out the trees on this walk for sure – with my camera!!

Mason loved the swing and the faster and higher the better!

Much earlier Wednesday, we drove down to Victoria to do a bit of Costco shopping and then drop over for a visit with Carrie and Mason. Our little man was his usual happy self and he was busy playing on his floor mat with some of his toys. Paulette and I made sure he showed us his walking skills – he’s really gaining confidence and going for longer walks now. He really loves it when we clap and cheer after he plunks down on the floor after a little jaunt.

To give Carrie a bit of a break, we took Mason down the road to Starbuck’s where we sat outside and had coffee. I got a cookie for Mason but all he wanted to do was break it all up and give it to Rylie. After leaving Starbuck’s we stopped at a little park so Mason could go for a swing – he loved that. He tired us right out so eventually we took the little guy home to Mama!  Carrie and Mason will be coming for a sleepover this Saturday and we’re already looking forward to that.

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Google Nixes Real Name Policy For G+ – Any Name Allowed

Google+ dropped all of its restrictions regarding profile names last Tuesday, which means we can now use any name we want for our G+ Profile. Since its inception 3 years ago, Google has required that everyone use their real name to join G+. This has caused privacy concerns for a lot of folks and has probably led to some refusing to join for that simple reason. That obstacle has now been removed.

No more name restrictions for G+ – you can use nicknames and blog names

This change is now live for all Google+ users, not just new users. So if you want to change your real name to a nickname, the title of your blog or anything else, you can do that. Be aware that changing your G+ Profile name will change it for all Google products including Gmail. Once you do change your name, you will not be allowed to change it again for 3 months. At the end of this post, I will show you the simple steps required to change your G+ Profile name.

Here’s how Google made the announcement in an unsigned post on G+:

When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.

We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be.

Be aware that changing your G+ Profile name changes it for all G+ products

This news broke last week while I was drifting along for a few days not worrying too much about blogging or anything else – just taking a holiday, I saw a blurb about it and made a note to follow up which is what I did yesterday. A lot of G+ users like the idea while many others hate it. No surprise there I guess. The most common complaint is that real names were a way to hold people accountable for what they said online fearing that anonymity would open the field for hated “trolls”.

Yonatan Zunger, Chief Architect at Google+, responded to this criticism by telling everyone not to worry:

“Oh, don’t worry. One of the reasons this is safe to launch is that our troll-smashing department has gotten very good at their jobs… I spent two years working closely with the YouTube team on comments, and I think we have a much better understanding of what turned them into the wretched hive of scum and villainy we all know.”

Zunger explains that they have fixed some of the “broken behaviors” that allowed YouTube trolls to run wild. I hope this is true. I like things the way they are now with G+ so I don’t think I’ll be changing my name to an anonymous one any time soon.

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  How To Change Your Google+ Profile Name

I’ll repeat the caveat I mentioned earlier and that is changing your G+ Profile name will change it for all Google products including Gmail. 

Step 1: Go to your G+ Profile page and click on your name as shown 

Change your name to whatever you want and click Save

As shown above, if I had clicked save, my name would have been changed to Mickey Mouse for the next 90 days!  I was actually kind of tempted!

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Drifting Through The Lazy, Hazy Days Of July & A Quick Tip

Thankfully, our weather pattern has returned to normal here on southern Vancouver Island and we’re now back to enjoying our mid-70’s temperatures which are much nicer than the 90’s heat wave we had last week.

Monday was a beautiful day so in the afternoon we took Rylie down to the Cowichan River Estuary for a long walk along the elevated levee that follows the Cowichan River as it flows into the Bay. It was 75F but a nice cool ocean breeze made it feel even more comfortable.

Over the weekend we had a nice visit with Carrie and Mason. While Carrie did some housework, Paulette and I wheeled the little man down the road to a Starbuck’s to sit outside with our coffees and enjoy the morning. We tried to get Mason to eat a bit of my Blueberry muffin but all he wanted to do was give it to Rylie. Rylie has really bonded with Mason and their both great buds now. Nothing like a few little treats to win the heart of Rylie!

Mason loves broccoli. Who’d of thunk it?  Carrie said she cut up some for him (it doesn’t matter whether it raw or cooked) and he eats if quite happily and seems to enjoy it.

We’re looking forward to this weekend as Carrie and Mason are coming up on Saturday for a sleepover. This will be Mason’s first visit since he began walking so he’ll have the whole house to explore and Grammy sure has a lot of interesting ornaments on tables as well as kitchen cupboards full of pots, pans and his favorite – tupperware!!

Our Nest Protect Smoke Detector continues to amaze me with some of its neat features. There’s a setting called Path Light I can turn on using the smartphone App.  With Pathlight, Nest Protect senses when you walk under it in the dark and gives off a soft white light to help you find your way. After you pass by, Pathlight turns off. This is perfect for our hallway as it lessens the odds I’ll stumble down the stairs at night. I also like the fact that I can monitor and check the device daily.

We’re taking advantage of Netflix again this summer to watch a few TV series we like both new and some old ones we missed. We watched Orange is the New Black in about a week then moved on to a great series we’d never heard of called The Americans even though it was on iTunes, not Netflix, which meant we had to pay for the 2 seasons we watched – it is excellent. Currently, we’re watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Boss starring Kelsey Grammer. It’s o.k. and better than nothing!

Thanks for visiting!

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Windows 8.1 Tips & Tricks

Well before I started to include my Windows 8.1 Tips & Tricks in this blog, I wrote about how to sign in to Windows 8.1 with just a 4 digit PIN # instead of the usual Microsoft password. I thought I’d better do a quick refresh here just in case anyone new to Windows 8.1 missed that post.

Image 1. Sign into Windows 8.1 with a 4 Digit Pin # instead of a password

One of the things I found rather annoying when I first switched over to Windows 8 and 8.1 was the requirement to enter my Microsoft Password every time I signed out of Windows or restarted my computer. I have a rather complex password to make sure it was secure as it was my entry point to all things Microsoft. The combination of letters, symbols and numbers all meant that it would sometimes take me 3 tries just to get signed in.  Instead of that little test, now I use a simple 4 digit Pin #.

Image 2. Click on Accounts

To change to a Pin # instead of a password is dead simple.  Just move your cursor to the bottom right-hand corner of your screen to bring up the Charm Bar and click on the Settings icon (looks like a gear).  Next, click on Change PC Settings as shown in Image 1 above – it’s in the bottom right-hand corner.  The PC Settings screen will be displayed - just click on Accounts.

Image 3. Select ‘Sign in options’

From the Accounts screen click on Sign in options and you’ll see PIN in the right side window pane.  In Image 3 above it shows the option to ‘Change’ the PIN # because this is my screenshot and I’ve already added my PIN #.

Img. 4 Just enter a 4 digit PIN # and click OK

A 4 digit PIN # is pretty easy to remember.  It could be your street number or even your year of birth.  The nice thing about this PIN # method is it doesn’t have to be a Fort Knox type of security because it only controls access to the computer you are using.  For instance, I have the PIN # sign on for my desktop computer but not for my laptop. My laptop goes a lot of places my desktop computer never will.  So, you might want to check out this PIN sign-in as I find it’s a real timesaver.

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