Microsoft Will Ship Windows 10 With New Web Browser

Wow!  After 20 years, we may be saying goodbye to the venerable, yet often hated, Internet Explorer. With the arrival of Windows 10 in 2015, Microsoft is said to be building a new lightweight browser code named Spartan that will be the default browser for Windows 10.  Spartan will look and feel more like Chrome or Firefox. IE 11, the current Windows 8.1 browser, will be included with Windows 10 but only for backward compatibility.

Spartan will probably not be the final name for Microsoft’s browser

Spartan is still going to use Microsoft's Chakra JavaScript engine and Microsoft's Trident rendering engine (not WebKit).  If that’s so, then it’s unlikely the new Spartan browser, just like current IE, will be available to run on iOS or Android devices. Microsoft has repeatedly said it has no plans to port IE to any non-Windows operating systems.  But, IE isn’t Spartan is it? More fun and games to come and we may find out more on January 21st when Microsoft is scheduled to unveil more on Windows 10 from Redmond, WA.

When Spartan debuts, support for these 2 IE versions will go bye-bye!

Internet Explorer 11 is an excellent browser.  It’s fast, reliable and dependable but it suffers a lot from its name. Microsoft was slow to respond to faster, modern browsers like Firefox and Chrome.  It was Google’s Chrome that really stole the thunder from IE with its blazing speed, auto-updates and clean, minimal look. Some analysts think that Microsoft simply needed to change the name of IE just to get rid of the bad vibes folks had about it. Maybe…but Spartan will be completely new too!

Windows 10 – we’ll see this in the fall of 2015

What does this mean for us bloggers?  Well, if you do use Internet Explorer you’ll need to update at some point in the future to a version later than IE 8 as when Windows 10 hits the shelves late in 2015, it won’t be long after that until Microsoft drops support for those older versions. 

Thanks for visiting!

Idiot Of The Day – Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Last week, Politifact, one of the most highly regarded media fact-checkers, labeled former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani a “Pants on Fire” liar for stating that President Barack Obama said “that everybody should hate the police”.  The truth, as Giuliani knows full well is that the President said no such thing – not even close.

Politifact, another top media fact checker gave Giuliani its highest liar rating of “Four Pinocchio’s” for his outright false statements.

The sad part of all this is not so much Giuliani’s outright lying but rather how typical it is of the kind of race-baiting that right-wing conservative wing-nuts have engaged in for the full six years of Obama’s Presidency.  They take every opportunity available, true or not, to play to the worst fears of older, white Americans about a black President. It’s disgusting.

Here is what Politifact wrote about Giuliani:

Throughout all of his comments since August, when the latest unrest over racial disparities in the criminal justice system began, Obama has continuously encouraged working with police to find solutions and make change. He has also repeatedly emphasized the importance of law enforcement in communities of color and the fact that police officers have a dangerous job.

Giuliani’s claim is an outlandish distortion of what Obama actually said. We rate this Pants on Fire.

As for Fact Checker, here’s their take on what Giuliani said:

The burden of proof rests with the speaker. We combed through Obama’s speeches and can find no evidence of “propaganda” that “everybody should hate the police.”

Giuliani suggested that the president actively launched and promoted anti-police rhetoric — and that is simply Four-Pinocchio false.

Thankfully, after his disastrous campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2008, Giuliani has mostly disappeared from the political scene except for the odd appearance on Faux News or radical, wacko conservative talk radio shout-a-thons. For that, everyone should be thankful.

Thanks for visiting!

A Day Of Quilt Shops And Pacific Ocean Beaches

We were on the road just before 8am Saturday morning heading south towards San Diego.  Our destination though wasn’t the big city on the border but rather two other cities just north – Vista and San Marcos.  What was the big attraction in those two places?  Two of Paulette’s favourite quilt shops - The Fat Quarter and Grand Country Quilter were having their post-Christmas 50% sales on fabric. Traffic was light and we arrived at the first shop in Vista at 10am just as the doors opened!

The beautiful beach of Carlsbad, CA

If you happen to be a quilter or a person who is interested in quilting shop bargoons then head over to Paulette’s blog and she’ll show you all her great deals.  If not, then I’ll show you what Rylie and I did while Paulette was busy bolstering the US economy. 

Paulette said she’d like an hour at the Fat Quarter Shop in Vista so after dropping her off, Rylie and I headed west for the 10 minute drive to the Pacific Ocean and the city of Carlsbad. The beach promenade was pretty busy but luckily I found a parking spot right away.

I hustled Rylie out of the truck and we set off on a 30 minute walk along the sidewalk high above the beach.  It was a sunny, warm morning with the temperature in the high 60’s and it was only 10am!  The beach seems to be a popular place for people of all ages to enjoy a walk and see the ocean.

I could only imagine how busy this beach must be in the middle of summer. It seems to go on for miles and miles. 

A very nice hotel facing the ocean in Carlsbad

Carlsbad is one of those clean, remarkable looking spots that dot the southern California coastline. There are many beautifully restored old buildings but also a lot of tacky looking restaurants and surf shops. I imagine its a pretty expensive place to live if you’re anywhere within a half-mile of the beach!  After our walk, Rylie and I headed back to Vista where we met Paulette right on schedule as she left the quilt shop carrying 2 large bags of loot.

View from Double Peak Mountain in San Marcos

After leaving Vista we drove about 10 minutes south to San Marcos for another 1 hour pit-stop for Paulette at the Grand Country Quilter. This time, I didn’t head for the beaches, instead I took the short drive to a famous landmark in San Marcos - a place called Double Peak Park.

Double Peak Park affords a 360 degree view

Double Peak is located just south of San Marcos and the elevation at the summit is 1,646 ft.  On a clear day, the peak offers views of distant places such as Mexico, Downtown San Diego, San Clemente Island, Catalina Island, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the Santa Ana Mountains, and the San Bernardino Mountains. It was a pretty clear day and I was able to see downtown San Diego’s buildings and I imagine some of the islands as well if I knew where they were.

I could see downtown San Diego off in the distance (but not Russia!)

Again, we had lots of time to explore Double Peak and still get back to San Marcos to pick Paulette up at noon.  On the way back to Desert Hot Springs and the Sands, we stopped off at an In-N-Out for lunch. The burgers were good and with not too much traffic we were back at the Sands not long after 2pm.  We just took it easy for the rest of the afternoon and watched a movie on TV after dinner. Life is good!

Thanks for visiting!

A Nice, Leisurely, Enjoyable Day In The RV Park

While Paulette left at the crack of dawn to head for the big mall in Palm Desert looking for Boxing Day sales, even though there is no Boxing Day in the USA, I stayed home with Rylie to take it easy and have a nice quite morning – which we did!  The wind blew pretty hard overnight and was steady up until about noon when it pretty much stopped leaving us a nice afternoon with sunny skies.

Mason with his Uncle Kevin on Christmas Day

Carrie kindly sent us a bunch of photos of the family get-together on Christmas Day in Victoria. It looked like everyone was having a great time and one that we sadly had to miss.  We’ve already made up our mind about next Christmas and are having a big family Christmas reunion dinner at our home in 2015.  All 5 children have committed to being home so we’ll be heading south around New Year’s.

Oh good – Mason got drums for Christmas!

Granddaughters Mikayla with boyfriend Cody & Jessica with husband Carl

Mason giving his new baby cousin a kiss

It was great to see all the photos of the family on Christmas Day and then last night we got to enjoy another video chat with Mason which is always fun!

Thanks for visiting!

A Christmas Day Hike In The Hills Of Palm Desert

When we were having such a great time enjoying all the wonderful food at our Christmas Eve Pot-Luck Dinner here at the Sands we never even gave a thought to how we’d feel on Christmas morning.  We felt like stuffed Turkeys and one of the main reasons was this delicious but very decadent home-made Trifle:

This ‘Trifle’ was every bit as good as it looks!

To pay for the sins of eating the Trifle as well as all the other great desserts, not to mention the turkey, ham and all the fixin’s dinner before, we figured we’d have to do a Christmas morning penance of some kind. That turned out to be not so bad as we decided to hike up in the hills of Palm Desert just north of Hwy. 111 off of Monterey Ave. 

What a wonderful way to spend a Christmas morning!

There were a lot of people, including many families, that had the same idea as us about going for a hike on Christmas Day.  We also encountered a lot of dogs on the trail which was a bonus for Rylie.  I’m not sure whether it was the hot weather, the altitude or just the plain old uphill slog that made us feel a bit light-headed at times but I’m sure we’ll get our desert legs under us soon.

The long twisting trail we took to get to the top

By the time we leisurely made our way down the mountainside and back to our truck we’d been on the trail for 2 hours so it was a pretty good first hike for us. We’re going to try and do this a few times a week if we find the time. 

I can’t believe all these presents are for me!

After we got back to the Sands, we phoned all the kids to wish them a Merry Christmas and to see how their day was going.  Our first video chat on G+ with Mason was a huge success.  He was smiling and laughing and clearly enjoyed seeing us on the computer screen.  It’s sure going to make being away from him a lot easier with this technology.

Thanks for visiting!

Merry Christmas One And All

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks for visiting!

‘Twas The Night Before Christmas and………….

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house……..not a creature was stirring……..wait, what’s that I hear in the living room…..our little man is preparing a snack of milk and cookies for Santa when he comes down the chimney to visit on Christmas morning…..what is Mason up to? 

Grandpa….I’m just dunking a cookie in milk for Santa

There kind of hard to fit in the glass, but I can do it

Santa’s going to be hungry, I better dunk another cookie for him

My Grandpa could eat 3 cookies so I’m sure Santa could too!

I better try one just to make sure they’re o.k.

My Mommy and me are all ready for Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone from Mason and my Mom!

A Picture Perfect Day Here In Palm Springs

We couldn’t have asked for a better first full-day here in Palm Springs as it was near perfect. Right from sunrise the sky was a clear blue with not a cloud in sight. It was sunny and warm in the morning and by the afternoon it was 85F and hot enough for me to take my first swim of the year in the pool here at the Sands. It sure was a great way to spend our first full day here at the Sands!

It’s always a good feeling to get the fence up so Rylie’s safe and sound

It wasn’t all play and laying around in the sun yesterday as we had to finish setting up our site. The first order of business was putting up a fence to keep our ever inquisitive Rylie from wandering off to visit some of her friends. With that done, Rylie can now come and go out of the 5’er and we don’t have to worry about her running off somewhere. After we finished with the fence, we put all the outdoor mats down and our lawn chairs and recliners.

One thing I didn’t have to wrestle with this year was setting up our satellite dish. Last summer we switched to cable TV from satellite. After we finished our jobs, I drove into Time Warner to see about getting Internet Broadband Cable and TV service. It was going to be a week for them to get out and do that but they said if I could wire the Receiver, Router, TV and Phone they could send a tech out on Tuesday to remove the filters.  Done!  We’ll have blazing fast Internet service sometime Tuesday!

Looking down the wash to the left from our site

I kind of fell off the walking wagon while we were travelling but got back at it in full force on Tuesday. In the morning, I walked all the loops in the RV Park and late in the afternoon Paulette and I took Rylie for a walk in the desert around the entire outside of the RV Resort. So, I’m back on track again with a 12,500 step day!

The golf course was pretty busy yesterday with the great weather.  When we went for a walk around the exterior of the park in late afternoon.  As for me, I haven’t even swung a golf club since last March while I was still here at the Sands. I think I’ll be doing a bit of practice at the driving range before I venture out on the golf course.

This is ‘Tyson’ an 18 mth. old English Bulldog

Along with the golf course and the swimming pool the dog parks at the Sands are also popular places. Rylie and I go there for about an hour early in the morning and then again in late afternoon. This morning we met Tyson who is a beautiful 18 mth. old English Bulldog.  He took a liking to Rylie but Rylie was pretty wary of this big boy!  He’s a gentle, friendly pup though but boy is he solid – like a little tank!

Thanks again for visiting!

1 13 15  Photo
Gallery, IE 11, and Chrome 39 * 

Dear Classmates,

 

On Tuesday January 13 at 7 pm: 

We will
take photos in class, insert the memory stick from the camera into the
computer, and in the FREE  Windows Live Photo Gallery  we
will:

 Rename

Resize,

Auto Adjust,

Crop,

Get rid of Red eye,

Retouch,

Straighten,

Adjust Color

Exposure.

Then send it out in
an email. 

Will tell you about
my experience with System Restore, it saved my sanity.

 

Please Remember there is no meeting in FEBRUARY.

 

Last chance to ask questions
until March.

 

Kindest regards,

 

Joe Isaac

Online Tips:  http://www.ckcs.org/joetips.pdf

--------------------------------------------

 Will Demo: Windows
Live Photo Gallery

========================================

 

Will demo:  Internet Explorer 11,

 

========================================

 If you are
running Windows 8, you should do the free upgrade to Windows 8.1, it is so much
better.

======================================

 United States Armed Forces Medley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnFGc5r9bJE

----------------------------------------

 ANCHORS AWEIGH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4KHSjFWVhQ

----------------------------------------

I have two problems out here in Ennis, Montana.

Both involve Forwarding messages.

 Q.1. When I forward a message and start to type something in the
forwarded message, it inserts my name in italics. Do you know how I can get rid
of that?

A. In Windows live mail, at the top click on File, Options,   Signatures, and uncheck “Add signatures to
all outgoing messages” or check “Don’t add signatures to replies and forwards.”





Q. 2. When I forward a message that has come into me that is NOT in
html for formatting and has a hyperlink I wish to pass along, the
hyperlink  in the forwarded message remains in black and I believe it
cannot act as a hyperlink that way. 





A. Put your cursor at the very last letter in the Link and hit the
space bar and if it underlines it, you are in business. Sometime you think you
are at the end and you are not, you might have to do a back space to get to the
very end of the link. (Mike Seiler told me about this tip.)





Response: Joe, Many thanks. Both
worked. You are right, it is hard to tell if one is on last letter of link. Seems
to be good to go now. Again, many thanks,, and all good wishes.  Henry

-------------------------------

 

 Q. Joe, I
cannot open the attachments in your emails. 

 A. If you do not have Microsoft
WORD then Bob Brown recommends Libre Office. When you download, be sure they don’t try to give
you McAfee or some other program.

https://www.libreoffice.org/  

-------------------------------

From Myra Engle:

Move your
mouse over the picture.  HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

https://www.elion.ee/docs/joulukaart/eng/

--------------------------------

 

From: Sheila Isaac

Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2014

Subject: Colorado Doctor Finds Way To Treat Common Vertigo

 (This
sounds great to me. Joe)

 This is something to try if you ever get the dizzies. 
It is different from what the doctor usually does at his office.  This you can do yourself at home, and the
studies say it works better.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/04/23/colorado-doctor-finds-way-to-treat-common-vertigo/#.VHnT7jwbO5N.facebook

--------------------------------

 Q. How do I
stop Word from double spacing?

 A. Open
Word, click on the arrow to the Right of Paragraph, look
down a little and under Line Spacing use the down arrow and select Single, then at
the bottom click on Default, select: All Documents …. then click OK.

Response: THANKS Joe! now the default is single line!! THANK YOU! :)

--------------------------------

 Technical:

The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, pronounced U-E-F-I or like
"unify" it is the first thing you see when you turn on your computer,
and it starts your operating system.  UEFI
is meant to replace the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) originally in all PCs.

--------------------------------

 Microsoft:
We have more than 1.5 million Windows 10 'Insiders'

Microsoft officials say there are about 450,000, or 30 percent of
its total registered Windows 10 Insiders, actively testing the next Windows
release (I am one of the 30%. Joe)

--------------------------------

I was thinking that if your car gave you as much trouble as your
computer, we all would be walking.

--------------------------------

 

========================================

========================================

========================================

========================================

 

 

 

 

It’s Great To Be Back At The Sands And Settled In

We left Bakersfield a little before 8am on Sunday and pulled into the gates of the Sands RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs right at noon after a very easy drive. Our papers were all set to sign so we were soon on our way to our site and after backing in and unhitching it was time to relax for a bit after a long 5 day journey.

Sweet Dreams, little man, we miss you a bunch already!

We spent most of the afternoon visiting with friends here at the Sands and catching up on things. First thing Monday, we’ll be putting up the fence to keep Rylie from wandering off and getting in trouble.  The weather looks to be quite nice for the week ahead so that’s going to be a nice change.

I’m too tired to write anymore than this but I expect I’ll be catching up on all my favourite blogs in the next few days!

Thanks for visiting!

The Orange Grove On Saturday And The Sands on Sunday

We had another wonderfully uneventful travel day on Saturday as we drove from the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning to the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield.  It was a long distance by our normal driving standards – 400 miles. But, it was relatively easy as it was mostly flat with no hills so I was on cruise-control probably 80% of the time.  We arrived at the Orange Grove in Bakersfield at 3:20pm – not too shabby!

I-5 through Stockton isn’t getting much better

I-5 has been in pretty good shape most of our trip and I have no real complaints at all about it other than the California section is incredibly busy.  That said, there’s still Stockton to deal with.  While work is progressing on rebuilding the I-5 through the city, right now it’s still “shake, rattle and roll”.  What a mess!

We love coming to the Orange Grove RV Park in December as the oranges at right at their peak and all sites are lined with trees just loaded with fresh oranges. As soon as we pulled in and while I was setting up, Paulette got a grocery bag and filled it up.  It’s just one of the perks everyone enjoys here at the Orange Grove and this year there is a new perk- incredibly fast free WiFi.  The WiFi at the Orange Grove is the fastest I’ve seen in a long, long time at any RV park. Great stuff.

We’re not the only ones from our neighbourhood in Cowichan Bay who are travelling down I-5 right now on a snowbird vacation. When we stopped at the Midway RV park in Centralia our first night who should pull in next to us but neighbours who live about 7 houses down from us. Then, yesterday, we pulled into our site at the Orange Grove to find those same neighbours parked directly across from us. On each occasion, we enjoyed a great conversation with them.  They’re off to Arizona on Sunday.

Lumsing High Capacity 10400mAh External Battery Pack Power Bank

The Lumsing battery power bank that grandson Mason bought me for Christmas is sure coming in handy.  Yesterday, I used it to re-charge both my iPhone 5S and the Roam Mobility Liberty Hotspot while we were driving down I-5.  As for the Roam Mobility Hotspot I’m giving it an A for cellular performance so far. We have 4G service from it here at the Orange Grove even though we don’t need it and we had excellent reception for most of the drive down I-5 – especially in populated areas.

Thanks for visiting!

Another Easy Driving Day As We Reach California

We rolled into California at 10am on Friday morning and were greeted by blue skies and sunshine which has been quite rare on our trip so far.  We both said “this is more like it”!  Our joy with the weather was short-lived however as we soon drove into more clouds and rain. One of the landmarks we always look forward to seeing upon arriving in California is Mt. Shasta but not yesterday as the top two-thirds of the mountain were covered in clouds.

It was Seafood Buffet night at the Rolling Hills Casino

By the time we were approaching Redding it was raining pretty hard. Looking at our Garmin it looked like we’d be arriving at the Rolling Hills Casino’s RV Park by 1:30pm. We’d decided earlier to drive a bit further so our trip on Saturday down to the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield would be a bit shorter. However, with the rain and some fog we opted to cut our day short and pulled into Rolling Hills at 1:30 to spend a nice, restful afternoon. Of course, the rain stopped right after that.

I opted for the Prime Rib instead of cracking crab claws

The part of California we’ve seen so far is showing no signs of the extreme drought we witnessed last year. The rivers are roaring and there is standing water in the fields, ditches and drainage canals. We saw an Olive Tree orchard near Corning that was totally flooded. I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like as we get south of Sacramento into central California where the long drought has been the most devastating. According to weather reports Desert Hot Springs is supposed to be sunny and hot when we arrive on Sunday!

After saying that we weren’t going to go to the Rolling Hills Buffet this year, we again relented when we found out Friday night was their famous Seafood Buffet. Paulette loves seafood so we couldn’t pass it up as it’s about the only buffet we actually go to all year. I passed on most of the seafood opting for the Prime Rib and BBQ Ribs instead.

Another day of travel with our new Roam Mobility Liberty Hotspot proved successful again. Driving along I-5 our connection varied between 4G in cities and large towns to 3G in smaller locations and in the mountains in a few places we couldn’t get a signal at all.  We had similar issues with Verizon in the mountains too.

So far, the Roam Mobility service has worked well.  The big test for us will be once we arrive in the Palm Springs area.  According to the coverage charts I looked at the Roam Mobility 4G service is rated at excellent for the entire Coachella Valley.  That doesn’t surprise me too much as there are cell towers everywhere.  If we get good reception in Palm Springs then this experiment will be a success as far as I’m concerned.

Thanks for visiting!

A Relaxing Afternoon And Evening At Seven Feathers

We arrived at the beautiful Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, OR at 2:30pm on Thursday.  It was nice and early just as we like it when staying here. We left the Midway RV Park at 8am and had a real nice drive down I-5 and when we arrived at our destination it was a nice, warm 60F.  We just rolled onto our concrete, flat-level site and again I never even had to unhitch for the night.  Pretty nice!

Before dinner, I went to the spa for a swim and some hot tub time

It was an uneventful day which is a bonus when travelling as far as I’m concerned. We rolled right through downtown Portland and over the neat bridges, which I love, and the traffic was pretty light at 11am.  We were out of the city in no time and soon back on I-5 making good time.

The 1st Quilt Shop stop of this trip!

Although I’d describe the day as uneventful that’s not how Paulette saw it as she was anxiously looking forward to her first Quilt Shop visit of this trip.  We stopped in Springfield, near Eugene, OR, so she could check out “Something To Crow About” a shop she discovered a few years ago.  I managed to wrestle the truck and 5’er into the not so big parking lot and find a place to park.  Although Paulette said there were no great sales on she did manage to drop a few American dollars there!

At 2:30pm the east section was nearly empty – not so at 7:30pm

When we got all setup at our site, we decided to take Rylie for a nice, long walk. There’s a pretty good grocery store that’s part of the big truck stop here. It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk and we really enjoyed it after being kind of cooped up in the truck for a few days. When we walked past the east section of the RV park we noticed it was almost empty but it was still early.  Later on, I walked over to the clubhouse and the spots had mostly filled up which is pretty normal for here.

Trucks were lined up to use these 8 diesel pumps at 7 Feathers

I’d sure love to know how many gallons of diesel Seven Feathers pumps in a day. While Paulette was in the store, I watched the big rigs pull up one after another to fill up with diesel. As soon as one pulled out another pulled in. It was non-stop.  They must have gigantic holding tanks in the ground as I saw 3 or 4 big tankers standing by ready to fill up the underground tanks.

A free podcast series from iTunes

Before we left home, I’d been reading a lot on a few websites about a free iTunes podcast called Serial. Apparently, since it launched its 12 episodes in October it has become the highest downloaded podcast in history. We’ve passed the time while driving listening to it from my iPhone broadcast through our truck radio. It’s a great broadcast, we’ve listened to 6 one hour episodes already and will no doubt finish it before we get to Palm Springs. It’s a true murder mystery but you can check it our for yourselves if you’re interested.

Thanks for visiting!