Is there a software that can adjust the brightness of my monitor?
You behoves retrevial drivers for department's plant (graphics card, monitor).You can take it in corporation provided, produce's, upper or google.com
Editor's note: I thought I had a reasonable grasp of computers, but maybe not. I can't understand a word of the above answer. Can you?
Thursday 5 February 2009
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Humber College to International Space Station: Do you copy?
Four community college students from Toronto contacted the space station through a hand-built apparatus, making them the first college-level students in the world to do so. It took them more than a year and a half to build the transceiver with many setbacks along the way, but in the end, the successful contact was so overwhelming that one of the students broke down and cried.
A number of the campus students spoke with U.S. astronaut Sandra Magnus for about ten minutes while she hurtled through space at 27,000 kilometres per hour.
The students' professor called his students' accomplishment the highlight of his career.
In a strange coincidence, I have a personal connection to this story. I happen to have attended Humber College when I was a youth. It's a small world, isn't it? Even when you're talking to someone out in space.
The Story.
A number of the campus students spoke with U.S. astronaut Sandra Magnus for about ten minutes while she hurtled through space at 27,000 kilometres per hour.
The students' professor called his students' accomplishment the highlight of his career.
In a strange coincidence, I have a personal connection to this story. I happen to have attended Humber College when I was a youth. It's a small world, isn't it? Even when you're talking to someone out in space.
The Story.
Tuesday 3 February 2009
17th century sanitary conditions in 2009?
One thing that always gets my ire up is when the almighty dollar is put ahead of people's health, safety or well-being. In recent days, there has been a media circus surrounding the closing of a supermarket by Toronto health department officials due to a "heavy infestation of mice" and evidence of a rat infestation, also.
News reports indicate that after a store customer complained to Toronto Public Health, "a large number of rodent droppings in display, food preparation and storage areas" were witnessed by health inspectors. The store, part of one of the largest food chains in Canada, released the following statement:
News reports indicate that after a store customer complained to Toronto Public Health, "a large number of rodent droppings in display, food preparation and storage areas" were witnessed by health inspectors. The store, part of one of the largest food chains in Canada, released the following statement:
"The store is currently undergoing an intense sanitization process. Our food safety team is on-site and assessing all products for any potential compromise to packaging. Loblaws vows to remove any products at risk and to review pest control processes. We are committed to providing customers with a clean and safe store environment. We are taking swift action to resolve the situation."
It begs the following questions:
Where was the "intense sanitization process" before they got caught for this gross violation?
Where was the commitment to "review pest control processes"?
The most damning thing is that clearly many employees were aware of the severity of the problem with droppings all over the place and yet no one chose to do anything about it. As far as I'm concerned, the promises to rectify the situation are as empty as I hope the store will be for the foreseeable future. The health and safety of Loblaw's own customers, the ones filling the store's coffers, were blatantly and totally disregarded. The good ship Trust has sailed, Mr. Weston.
If you won't do the right thing for you customers, at least do it for the future of your employees. And if not for them, then for your own future bottom line and quite possibly your own job. If you haven't already, I suggest you initiate a complete and thorough inspection and review of possible infestation at each and every Loblaws store. In the end, it may be cheaper than doing nothing. Even if it isn't, consider it the cost of getting a good night's sleep. One can only hope that it did not come easy the last few days.
Monday 2 February 2009
A Page out of the history books
I've never been a fan of Bettie Page. Hell, I hardly knew who she was--just heard her name bandied about. If you've never heard of her, she was what used to be referred to as a pin-up girl. That was back when newspapers didn't display women's breasts in all their glory and you had to buy (or sneak a peek at) what used to be called a smut magazine. Hell, in "the olden days", there were smut magazines that didn't even show nipples! It was a much different world from today. Miss Bettie Page was also one of the early girls appearing in Playboy.
Just yesterday, I inadvertently learnt she died in 2008 and being the inquisitive type, I decided to do some research. This intensive work consisted of doing a Google image search of her name. I didn't find her to be overly attractive, but then, who was in the 50's? As I pored over dozens of Bettie's pix, one of them stopped me in my tracks.
Although she is featured in provocative poses and in various stages of undress, only in this one particular photo did she have the slightest effect on my er, um prurient interest. She bears an uncanny resemblance to a girl I've had a crush on since I was a child. In fact, the apple of my eye is every bit as attractive today as she was way back then. See if you don't agree...
Veronica Lodge then and now:
Bettie Page then:
Side by side:
Is there not a striking resemblance? Further coincidence is that "Betty" (different spelling) is Veronica's best friend's name. As it turns out, the creator of the Archie comic book characters, Bob Montana, fashioned Archie's girlfriend around Veronica Lake, a popular actress back in the 40's. I wonder if Lake had a lodge...
The Archies
Just yesterday, I inadvertently learnt she died in 2008 and being the inquisitive type, I decided to do some research. This intensive work consisted of doing a Google image search of her name. I didn't find her to be overly attractive, but then, who was in the 50's? As I pored over dozens of Bettie's pix, one of them stopped me in my tracks.
Although she is featured in provocative poses and in various stages of undress, only in this one particular photo did she have the slightest effect on my er, um prurient interest. She bears an uncanny resemblance to a girl I've had a crush on since I was a child. In fact, the apple of my eye is every bit as attractive today as she was way back then. See if you don't agree...
Veronica Lodge then and now:
Bettie Page then:
Side by side:
Is there not a striking resemblance? Further coincidence is that "Betty" (different spelling) is Veronica's best friend's name. As it turns out, the creator of the Archie comic book characters, Bob Montana, fashioned Archie's girlfriend around Veronica Lake, a popular actress back in the 40's. I wonder if Lake had a lodge...
The Archies
Sunday 1 February 2009
Life is ebbing away
I'm 54 years old and I'm dying. I don't have cancer. I don't have heart disease. I don't have any terminal affliction at all. As I was watching a documentary about the making of the 1957 movie Sweet Smell of Success (starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Martin Milner, best known for Adam-12), something I've been feeling for a few years now suddenly became clear. Every time another celebrity from my early life passes away, so too does a piece of me. I have seen hundreds of heroes and villains alike go to the great beyond. This evening, it felt like there's very little left of me to die.
It doesn't help that I have lost interest in some of the things that used to inspire, enlighten and fill my life with joy. I haven't been to the movie theatre in four years, before that, it was ten years. Between the years I was five and twelve years old (early 60's), I used to go to the movies once a week. It shaped my early impressions of life. Later, when I was about 20, I returned to my weekly habit of movie-going. That lasted about 10 years. It seems that the biggest draw became special effects.
I had the misfortune of having a formative mind just at the time that rock and roll was born. Misfortune, because once the explosion and subsequent wave of incomprehensibly historic music waned, for me, it was as if music had died altogether. Hip hop just doesn't cut it after living through Elvis, The Twist, Beatle Mania, The British Invasion, Woodstock, Heavy Rock, etc.
I never realized how much some of the celebrities who were a part of my life meant to me until they were gone. I don't even understand now why watching an episode of the Dean Martin Roast series on YouTube practically brings me to tears even though I might have a huge grin on my face. I mean other than the fact that probably about half the guests from those shows are ghosts now. It's as if the death of each figure from my childhood takes a little of the colour of my soul away and soon I will be invisible...like them.
I wasn't ready for it, although it's perfectly logical that a point would be reached where the rate of dying celebs from any era would reach a crescendo. At my current age, many of the actors, musicians, comics, etc. that I watched, listened to, laughed at and idolized in my early life, who were just establishing themselves are now about 65-75 years old--right about life expectancy for them. I have mourned so many of the older ones already; I feel I don't have the heart to endure any more. Here is just a sample of the prominent figures who met their maker in 2008...
Suzanne Pleshette - Emily on The Bob Newhart Show.
Roy Scheider - French Connection, Jaws
Sir Arthur C. Clarke - 2001-A space Odyssey
Richard Widmark - Judgement at Nuremberg
Charleton Heston - Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes
Dick Martin - Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
Harvey Korman - Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles
George Carlin - Comic
Larry Harmon - You probably know him by his "other name"--Bozo the Clown
Isaac Hayes - Wrote the theme from Shaft, the chef on South Park
Jerry Reed - When You're Hot, You're Hot, Amos Moses, Smokey and the Bandit
Paul Newman - List too long
Bettie Page - 50's pin-up model, early Playboy centrefold
Van Johnson - Actor
Rock and Roll Heaven
It doesn't help that I have lost interest in some of the things that used to inspire, enlighten and fill my life with joy. I haven't been to the movie theatre in four years, before that, it was ten years. Between the years I was five and twelve years old (early 60's), I used to go to the movies once a week. It shaped my early impressions of life. Later, when I was about 20, I returned to my weekly habit of movie-going. That lasted about 10 years. It seems that the biggest draw became special effects.
I had the misfortune of having a formative mind just at the time that rock and roll was born. Misfortune, because once the explosion and subsequent wave of incomprehensibly historic music waned, for me, it was as if music had died altogether. Hip hop just doesn't cut it after living through Elvis, The Twist, Beatle Mania, The British Invasion, Woodstock, Heavy Rock, etc.
I never realized how much some of the celebrities who were a part of my life meant to me until they were gone. I don't even understand now why watching an episode of the Dean Martin Roast series on YouTube practically brings me to tears even though I might have a huge grin on my face. I mean other than the fact that probably about half the guests from those shows are ghosts now. It's as if the death of each figure from my childhood takes a little of the colour of my soul away and soon I will be invisible...like them.
I wasn't ready for it, although it's perfectly logical that a point would be reached where the rate of dying celebs from any era would reach a crescendo. At my current age, many of the actors, musicians, comics, etc. that I watched, listened to, laughed at and idolized in my early life, who were just establishing themselves are now about 65-75 years old--right about life expectancy for them. I have mourned so many of the older ones already; I feel I don't have the heart to endure any more. Here is just a sample of the prominent figures who met their maker in 2008...
Suzanne Pleshette - Emily on The Bob Newhart Show.
Roy Scheider - French Connection, Jaws
Sir Arthur C. Clarke - 2001-A space Odyssey
Richard Widmark - Judgement at Nuremberg
Charleton Heston - Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes
Dick Martin - Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
Harvey Korman - Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles
George Carlin - Comic
Larry Harmon - You probably know him by his "other name"--Bozo the Clown
Isaac Hayes - Wrote the theme from Shaft, the chef on South Park
Jerry Reed - When You're Hot, You're Hot, Amos Moses, Smokey and the Bandit
Paul Newman - List too long
Bettie Page - 50's pin-up model, early Playboy centrefold
Van Johnson - Actor
Rock and Roll Heaven
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