This is from MS-DOS. The keyboard gives you access to about 100+ characters. However, the codes that define a character range from 0-255. If you want to see what some of these extra “letters” look like:
Hold down Alt
Type in a 3 digit number; 0-255
Let to go of Alt
The character will appear
This doesn’t work on every program, but most and particularly the older ones that remember the DOS days. This is a list of the ASCII characters and codes.
It’s good to be wrong about something, because you learn at least two things when you discover an error.
First, you discover “the truth”, a more accurate viewpoint, or whatever the correction is. However, you want to phrase it. “The truth” is a pretty bold phrase. You discover the right way.
Second, you discover about yourself that you believed an inaccuracy. Hopefully, this makes you less likely to kill someone for believing in the same inaccuracy you had participated in and you have more respect for others that believe a different “truth”. Tolerance.
If everything is working well, you learn why you were more convinced by the ly than the truth. This is perhaps the most valuable lesson. Because this will reveal a whole interconnected set of inaccuracies. And give you the chance to clean our your closet, so to speak.
It’s not a good thing to be wrong about something. It is invaluable to discover that you were wrong about something.
I’m still waiting on the flooring to come in. Did they ship it to the wrong city? Did the truck have an accident? Those things are fine, I guess. If they would just tell me. Supposedly, this stuff walked on a truck on 3/7. 6 50lb boxes of ~8″ X ~4′ boards. I checked on Sat. and they called yesterday. It should have been here on Sat. Let’s hope for today.
I needed the break. It was getting to be a job. Tonight, I’ll start up again and I look forward to having all of Friday.
One of my favorite authors and arguably the first man to invent the idea of a satellite orbitting the earth in perpetual free fall. Bless him.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.
Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva told The Associated Press.
Clarke was regarded as a technological seer as well as a science-fiction writer, and was known as “the godfather of the telecommunications satellite.”
…
MSNBC
Great post from JOS about the coming war over Internet Explorer 8, web standards, and general design principles of multi-version products. Even if you don’t get programming stuff, this is really good. Should be very understandable.
You’re about to see the mother of all flamewars on internet groups where web developers hang out. It’ll make the Battle of Stalingrad look like that time your sister-in-law stormed out of afternoon tea at your grandmother’s and wrapped the Mustang around a tree.
This upcoming battle will be presided over by Dean Hachamovitch, the Microsoft veteran currently running the team that’s going to bring you the next version of Internet Explorer, 8.0. The IE 8 team is in the process of making a decision that lies perfectly, exactly, precisely on the fault line smack in the middle of two different ways of looking at the world. It’s the difference between conservatives and liberals, it’s the difference between “idealists†and “realists,†it’s a huge global jihad dividing members of the same family, engineers against computer scientists, and Lexuses vs. olive trees.
…
Martian Headsets
The British National Space Centre (BNSC), Britain’s equivalent of NASA, notes in a new report (UK Civil Space Strategy: 2008-2012 and beyond) that “In 1986, the UK chose not to participate in human space missions.†This decision is still in place in 2008. There were no British manned space programs before 1986 either, so it could be stated that the British government has avoided human spaceflight for the entire duration of the half-century-old Space Age.
Opponents of human spaceflight have maintained the status quo for decades. Even a small, internationally cooperative spaceflight program will meet entrenched political opposition.
This is remarkable because all the other major powers in the world are involved with human spaceflight to some degree. Among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the United States, Russia, and China have the independent capability of launching manned spacecraft, and France is a major partner in the European Space Agency’s manned flight program. In the Group of Eight (G8), again the United Kingdom is the only nation that opposes humans in space and prohibits governmental participation of any kind.
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British space policy on life, the universe, and everything
Not a lot of things got done this weekend. In fact, I didn’t do anything yesterday. I got a pneumatic nailer and cleaned up the chair rail, built a small trim holder in the garage, and painted/sanded trim a few times. Christopher stopped by and showed me how the nailer works and I got a 25′ straight hose to use with the compressor. He also told me how to install the chair rail with a level.
Yesterday was not good. I got up early and went to get groceries and some air compressor accessories that Christopher recommended. I got a 10 gal tank and many quick connects. But the 10 gal cheap tank doesn’t have the right connections, at all. And I couldn’t unscrew it and I started rounding off the nut. To say, I was pissed would be an understatement. I set it to the side, but lots of other little things kept going wrong. To keep from ruining my projects I decided to do something else. When something little and annoying goes wrong every 20 minutes I can take a hint.
I checked on the flooring Sat., because I didn’t get a call. The computer showed that it was shipped on 3/7. So, any day now. The window sills are done and just need to be nailed down.
Christopher pointed out the problem of leaving the vinyl tile in place in the closets and causing a height difference in the floor. I think we’ll just put in the right amount of plastic under the floor and add or not add plastic in the closets. Two layers of vinyl and a small surface area. I think I can get away with it. We’ll see on Sat.
And he told me what saw to buy to cut the door frames near the floor. About the carpet to remove and how to prep the floor. I’m a little concerned that we might have to shave the bottom of the doors. The bamboo is tall. We’ll see.
Kryon book 2 mentioned several hints on gravity manipulation. Saying that the density (mass per volume) of an object is not static as we usually see it. Normally, to change density we change volume. It is an assumption that the mass of an object can not be manipulated. However, if we could change the mass and leave the volume we would have “anti gravity”.
Anyway, he/it also mentioned that there are several points around the world where gravity is not constant and can wreak havoc on propulsions systems designed to manipulate it. I came across one such area in Canada and it’s listed on Wikipedia. No one knows why gravity is lower there than elsewhere.
When Earth’s gravitational field was mapped starting in the 1960s a large region of below-average gravity was detected in the Hudson Bay region. This was initially thought to be a result of the crust still being depressed from the weight of the Laurentide ice sheet during the most recent Ice Age, but more detailed observations taken by the GRACE satellite suggest that this effect cannot account for the entirety of the gravitational anomaly. It is thought that convection in the underlying mantle may be contributing.[3]
Supposedly there are large deposits of iron ore under the bay which affect magnetic fields and compasses.[citation needed]
Hudson Bay Area
It was uncovered in Canadian forest. Well it used to be a forest until the new owner decided that farmland was more valuable and raising temperatures made this possible. When an earth mover rolled over an innocuous rock and it broke open setting the little germ free.
At one time this colony had spread over the entire Earth. She was hot and young back them. Molten seas weren’t unusual and the radioactivity that would drive her core for billions of years was near the surface. Earth was a very lethal place back then to any life forms that walked on her today.
It was in this environment that a small bacteria would crash land. Castoff from a rocky collision in space. Life born during the birth of another solar system far away. The bacteria had traveled millennia between stars in cold hard vacuum. And then flaming entry into the thin poisonous atmosphere.
This bacteria was unlike anything alive today. Hardy to an extreme, a lifespan longer than most human civilizations, and an affinity for an energy source not commonly available in Earth’s mature verdant state when the rock was crushed by the earth moving machine.
For this bacteria liked radiation. Loved it really. Though it could subsist on the metallic results of radioactivity’s ladder towards entropy, it thrived on the hot, fast particles spun off from unstable atoms like a plant in direct sunlight.
Within centuries of it’s arrival on Earth it was the dominant life form. Stretching across the whole surface of the globe. One big colony of one bacteria. It was in the rocks, the air, and around the lava pools.
This lasted for some time until Earth was a bit less young and significantly cooler. The radiation dissipated leaving the results. Transmutation had turned light elements heavier. The bacteria was reduced to extracting energy from these rocks. Some colonies migrated with the cooling rock to remain next to the heat far down where rock becomes liquid.
On the surface the colony was no longer thriving. It was surviving.
One day a new trick was learned. That of taking energy from the very plentiful, but very unenergetic light particles coming from the green sun around which the Earth moves. This new trick differentiated the two bacteria. One event in a long line leading to a broken rock and an earth moving machine. Where one line was surviving, the new line thrived.
Thus, the dominant form of life was relegated to odd corners of the planet. Places where it could obtain the heat and radiation it was best suited for. Even in those corners it would learn new tricks that better suited it to that corner. It would slowly forget how to take energy from decaying of atoms and become better at manipulating the chemical properties of elements to pick up an electron or two.
The rock that broke open was unique. It contained the last colony of the original space-faring variety.
Normally, this event, the breaking open of a rock, would have gone unnoticed. Competition would have limited and likely killed the last specimen. An untold number of microorganisms are born and die every day unnoticed by those capable of reading this story. And on many other planets in many other solar systems that this bacteria seeded that is exactly what did happen.
However, Earth was different from those worlds. And that is the story.
Last night, I painted all the trim pieces. The chair rail needed some course and then medium sanding and wood filler in spots before sanding. I painted all the trim, even though I got more than I need. Maybe the next job will use it and I won’t have to break out the paint.
This morning I thought the baseboard, though generally very good, had some rough spots. So, I sanded it with the power sander. I’ll hit it with another coat of paint along with the chair rail and that should finish it.
And I put a bead of caulk around the windows. That will be painted over. Some windows are still really tight, but some have a visible gap between the frame and the aluminum. One more coat of paint and the windows sills and that part is done. Should be done today.
The baseboard can’t be installed till after the floor, but I thought I would cut and fit everything into place. So, that all we have to do it stick it on the wall. Today, I’ll install the chair rail. I already went around the room with the stud finder and put a piece of tape on the wall at each stud.
It occurs to me that with all this trim to install; chair rail, baseboard, and quarter round that I might want to get a pneumatic finish nailer. Lowe’s has an interesting write up about the different kinds. I’ve been using my compressor to blow the dust of the sanded pieces and now it will have another job.
Trim really seems to be a two person job. Maybe if I can quick nail it up that will help.
Be forewarned. I started this after two beers and ended sober.
One of the things I feel strongest about are my developing religious beliefs. Though, I think religious is not the appropriate word. It’s the idea most people would call religious. My feelings on this surprised me the other day.
See, I came to the end of a line of thinking about 3 years ago that was quite destructive. In my “crises” I seriously considered revisiting the faith I was brought up in. The problem with that was nagging issues with the Christian Baptist belief system
It seems that church requires you to turn off your logical thought for those hours of the week or on those topics. To me this is antithetical and offensive. I have spent well over a decade practicing logical deduction and reasoning. My profession is founded on it. Releasing that thinking process for even a short time is difficult. Like.. well there is no material thing I would trade. Perhaps like giving away a piece of your soul.
So, I sought a belief system that would not require a mental switch off. There had to be one. Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim,.. Something. So, I went looking. Slowly, I mean the prescription against paganism ran deep. However, in college a friend had shown me her form of Christian worship. Done in a house with only the bible, a hymn and piano, and 10-15 people. I really felt it. That valuable experience taught me that other faiths have merit.
As I learned more about Hinduism, reading book I of Swami Vivekananda and talking to the Indians at work, I really liked it. Reality is a dream. Acts that appear miraculous are a matter of practice or understanding. The very miracles Jesus did, though he never said this. There are many stories of masters performing these acts. Where Christianity has only the one. And he is on a very high pedestal. Hinduism believe that all can have these abilities with work through one or many lives.
A long a winging road entailed. I’m at a point now that I have not been before. I have a broad and expansive belief system. It’s not something I will give up for anything. The thought of pretending or masquerading is offensive. The other day, I was surprised to realize I would be willing to fight to defend it. And fight to defend the ability of others to discover their own truth.
It’s funny to me, because I did not pray. No talking to God or Jesus. Now, I stop every night and thank my two angels. And most times tell them what I want to happen or what to help with for the next day. And some days I talk to God. Or Jesus. Or my higher self (my soul) or the rest of me that doesn’t fit in this body right now. Whatever seems appropriate.
You’ve all seen that quote they like to put on plaques called “Footprints”. And when there is one pair of footprints that means the person was carried by God/Jesus. It’s very cute and inspiring. Well, I don’t like to be carried. I do my own homework. I take responsibility for myself. When I need help, I’ll holler. You won’t miss it.
I am far more “religious” than ever before. And it stuck this time. Not just stuck. It is me. I am peaceful most of the time. How many people do you know can say that?
I picked up ideas from everything I saw and kept the ones I wanted. This is my filter, “Have I experienced this personally?”, “Does it resonate with me?”, and “Does it honor Jesus?” (Hey, I was raised Southern Baptist.) 
So, what does this mean? Do I sacrifice a goat on the third Wednesday after the full moon? Not so far.
My bookshelf is pretty varied; The Gospel of Rama Krishna (unread), Edgar Cayce (read), A Course in Miracles (unread), The Gnostic Bible (some read), Black Elk (loved it), Solomae Sananda (loved it), Kant (unread), Carl Jung bio (loved it), Talking to Extraterrestrials (that channel feels lovey), and Llewellyn’s Sun Sign Book 2008 (love it). Plus, in the bedroom Prism of Lyra (loved it), Mastery of Love (loved it), 2 bibles, the Swami Vivekenanda book set, Yoga, Eastern Mediation, How to be a Help to People, 2 Kryon books.. Ok enough. You get the idea. If you don’t recognize these titles look on Amazon. They tap psychology, mysticism, religion, metaphysics, body movement, thought, perception, astrological systems, native american, prophecy, past lives, kundalini,.. My favorites feel loving to me. Love coming from them author.
I guess I’m ranting a bit and I don’t know where to go now. Perhaps..
Church isn’t one day a week. Practicing my “faith” (heh, there’s a longer discussion) isn’t one day a week. Every day I learn and practice the “religion” I made for myself that I feel intimately comfortable with.
I walk my own path and I look back hoping to see someone else following. Not following me or what I believe. I have no aspirations to lead. People making their own way. Choosing to create for themselves instead of accepting the word of others over their own perceptions. That is very important. Believe what you see and feel first. Don’t let others try to frame a context for something they have not experienced. Accept your own authority before accepting others.
That’s it! That’s my “religion”, what I have experienced. That first. The others whom I feel have shared a same or similar experience second. Ones who feel loving third. The rest are a whatever.
Ok, enough overblown crap. Who writes this tripe anyway?
This is a 1 beer post.
So, I guess I’m dating now. Notice, I didn’t say again. I have never been in this state. Every relationship I have been in previously didn’t really have a dating period. It was very quick.
Looking back it seems like all my foibles kept me from doing this. Now, I don’t feel bound by those agreements and seek to choose what new agreements I make with myself. What kind of person to be.
Personally, I think I’m a hot property. I’m mean really no kids or ex-wives. Almost repeated that sentence. A career. Almost deleted that sentence. No serious addictions. Healthy. Smart and educated. A wide variety of interests. Emotionally stable most of the time. And my angels are helpful and cool, but I guess that’s not really me, huh. Well, unless you’ve seen Rudolph Steiner’s diagram.
Anyway, I added some stuff along the side in dating. Blog posts really. I wanted them to have a bit more visibility so I put them in pages to stay on top. My dating resume I guess you could say.
And beer #2.
So, WTF is involved in dating. Beats me. Dinner, conversation, non attachment, “the right thing” to say, impressing someone else, not saying too much, hiding the flaws, and much more.
Looks a lot like sales to me. There’s a reason I didn’t go into sales. I make things. Damn good things. My ass isn’t left off the list.
Why am I writing this? Because I’m frustrated with how long it takes. Because I detest the careful avoidance of certain topics in order to present a “good” ie false and misleading image. Because this post will probably be turned up by a prospective date and I want to express my distaste.
I am not like anyone I have met. In fact, I used to think if I found someone like me I would have to marry them, because that would be so rare. I was 19. LOL.
How do I describe myself? Do you have 60 pages? I’m very Aries. Look it up if you don’t know. The world revolves around me. Oddly, I was reading a lot about Cancer and found it equally compelling. I think, that’s my Ascendant sign. But hour/minute base astrology is difficult. You know times zones, daylight savings, and all.
I can be really intense. Really, I feel sorry for a task at work when it catches my attention. Particularly defects. All of my attention can be focused on one thing. Rare, but if you catch my attention, don’t be afraid. Enjoy it while it lasts, because as soon as something else interesting runs across my field of view you may not have my full attention again.
A lot of things have caught my attention. You can see my list of interests.
I have to have freedom. That could mean a lot of things. Maybe, a better phrasing is that I can’t feel obligated or tied. The end result will be rebellion. Either now or later. It may be devious, manipulative, childish, or more tricks I haven’t learned. This is not an aspect I particularly like, but I have observed it in action enough to act alleviate the feeling before it acts for me.
My communication may not be good. Heh, I know your reading this blog. I sound good. Carry on a conversation well. This is practice. I hide in myself like a crazy person. In my college years I did not need a lot of interaction with other people. Like only 1-3 hours a day. How did I think of that.. Oh yes, everything would fit inside my head. The day finally came when I felt this wasn’t possible anymore. Little tear. This is intended to pull me out. No idea whether it will work.
Half way on the 2nd beer and not getting #3.
Added some more to that last paragraph. Beer #3 seems more tempting. Ah, drunk blogging.. Not really.
Oh, I never drink enough to forget or not be in control. IT NEVER HAPPENS. I can get very sick, but “me” is always in, looser, control.
Hmmm.. #2 is gone.
Being with the little kids for 2000 years. arrrghhhh.. Better f’ing be worth it. Anyways this body..
Actually, I rarely drink. No drugs. Ever. I make my own beer. And pickles too.
< Just wrote the my religion post I'll put up next >
Ok, spent all my time writing my religion rant. Now, I sleepy and sober. Shoulda had #3. I’ll organize this dating stuff. Make it easily searchable. Add posts like what am I looking for in a relationship, in another woman (sorry guys, I like holes that were intended to be in or out and not out only.), and why my legs are disproportionally short in relation to my torso.
One year in college I lived with some great guys. One of whom had a girlfriend who just about lived there with us. Joey and her seemed particularly in love — and highly explosive. My background in personal relationships was very limited. So, I sought to learn some thing from her and I asked a simple question, “When did you start loving Joey?” I asked this question a few different ways, but she was never able to understand me and I gave up.
Perhaps, I can explain better here. At some point two people don’t know each other. They are not “in love”. They meet they talk and they are “in love”. My question is: When does this “in love” feeling happen? What set it off. Why does it happen?
My later experience did not answer this. The next relationship I was in was like, bam! The period between was talking and exclusivity was very short. Later, I think I understand why that happened and what set it off in that case. For a lot of reasons, this is unlikely to happen to me again.
Now dating again, the same question is raised. When is the “falling in love” period? What does it entail? What affects it? How are the people involved affected?
This was near the end of Kryon Book 2. I went looking. Apparently, there are bacteria that will eat anything. They may be our first line of defense when these 40 yr old nuke power plants are 200 yr old and just as “glow in the dark” then as today.
NSF: Radiation Eaters
But in the 1960s, scientists began discovering exotic organisms that play by astonishingly different rules, such as microbes living in near-boiling water or high-acidity environments. Now, a team searching deep in a South African gold mine has found one that redefines the very limits of life: Bacteria that subsist in rock at huge pressure for thousands of years by ’eating‘ by-products of radioactivity, completely isolated from any organic matter or effects of photosynthesis.
Scientists Seek Indestructible Bugs To Eat Nuclear Waste
Eight years ago, scientists using a metal rod here to probe the radioactive depths of a nuclear-waste tank saw something that shocked them: a slimy, transparent substance growing on the end of the rod.
They took the specimen into a concrete-lined vault where technicians peered through a 3-foot-thick window and, using robot arms, smeared a bit of the specimen into a petri dish. Inside the dish they later found a colony of strange orange bacteria swimming around. The bacteria had adapted to 15 times the dose of radiation that it takes to kill a human being. They lived in what one scientific paper calls a “witches’ brew” of toxic chemicals.
..
Scientists know of at least a dozen extremophiles. The first was discovered in 1956 in Corvallis, Ore. Scientists were zapping cans of horse meat with high radiation, trying to establish the preservative value of food irradiation. One can developed an ominous bulge. Inside, the scientists isolated pink bacteria they had never seen before.
National Geographic: Fungi Gobble Radiation to Grow, Study Says
The team performed a series of experiments to test whether the fungi could be harvesting radiation to fuel their growth, much like plants do when they capture solar energy through photosynthesis.
In addition to faster fungal growth, the researchers noted changes in the electrical structure of the melanin exposed to radiation.
Lead researcher Ekaterina Dadachova said these observations suggest that the pigment may play a role in the fungi similar to that of chlorophyll in plants, which traps energy from sunlight and converts it to “food energy” needed to sustain life.
“We have associated the faster growth caused by radiation with melanin—a phenomenon suggesting that the pigment is somehow involved in harvesting high-energy ionizing radiation” and promoting growth, study co-author Arturo Casadevall of Yeshiva University said.