2005 March 15

Long-time Lockergnome subscriber, Kyle Kyllan, talks with Chris about the fairly common but under-researched Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The disease typically effects boys starting at age 5, with no obvious advance warning signs. Currently, DMD is 100% fatal. Kyle and his step-son, Kevin Weisman (of Alias fame), are actively working to raise money to advance research through the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Research Fund. Kyle spoke with us in his capacity as President of the DMD Research Fund to raise awareness about the disease and get the word out about the upcoming Celebrity Snow Jam happening on March 26. More importantly, Kyle spoke as someone who is seeing the disease impact thousands of lives all over the world; someone passionate about doing something to help find a cure.

Read more on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy…

Lockergnomie David Hartman is not having a good experience with VoIP so far…

On March 10th, I tried to reach Vonage to report noise on my brand new VoIP phone line. I had done all my troubleshooting, and eliminated all but the Vonage service and the Linksys router / VoIP hardware. My ISP gave my connection a clean bill of health. I waited 45 minutes, then when CSR answered the call – I was disconnected after a few seconds. 16 minutes… again! 36 minutes… again! 36 minutes… again! 40 minutes… again! Total 2 hours 17 minutes! I sent them an email via their Customer Care page…today is the 15th – still no response. YOU try it! 1-866-243-4357 options 2-5-5-2. Where did I first hear about this wonderful new service? Lockergnome.

I haven't had many problems withour VoIP line here, although we're still waiting for the phone company to relinquish our phone number – transferring it totally to Vonage. Perhaps I need to drop the relatively-new phone number in favor for a new one entirely?

Read more on Vonage Customer Service…

A few hours ago, I got a note from “mouser,” the DonationCoder. He just posted a new piece of freeware called Process Tamer, which looks to be an essential tool for Windows users:

Read more on Taming of the Process…

“Why has our technological expertise far outreached our psychological and spiritual development?” Find out this Thursday night, as our guest, Michael Tsarion, joins us on the show.

Born in Ireland Michael Tsarion, an expert on the occult histories of Ireland and America, has made the deepest researches into the comparative mythologies of the world and into his own country’s ancient and mysterious Celtic Tradition. His presentations on Atlantis, Lemuria and the pre-diluvian epoch have been acclaimed by veterans in the field of paranormal research. In the tradition of Immanuel Velikovsky, William Bramley, Laurence Gardener and Erich von Daniken, Michael considers the consequences to civilization of extra-terrestrial involvement and seeks to clarify many of the quandaries that other “visitation” experts have overlooked. His book clarifies the disinformation about Atlantis and the lost continents of prehistory. It concentrates on the orchestrated chaos of modern times and reveals how the political and military machinations of the present have their roots in the ancient past. As well as stating the problems, Michael also furnishes us with solutions to the moral and social predicaments that have beset humankind for millennia.

Trust me, you’ll be glued to your audio tuner on Thursday night.

Read more on Ancient Technology…

“Why has our technological expertise far outreached our psychological and spiritual development?” Find out this Thursday night, as our guest, Michael Tsarion, joins us on the show.

Born in Ireland Michael Tsarion, an expert on the occult histories of Ireland and America, has made the deepest researches into the comparative mythologies of the world and into his own country's ancient and mysterious Celtic Tradition. His presentations on Atlantis, Lemuria and the pre-diluvian epoch have been acclaimed by veterans in the field of paranormal research. In the tradition of Immanuel Velikovsky, William Bramley, Laurence Gardener and Erich von Daniken, Michael considers the consequences to civilization of extra-terrestrial involvement and seeks to clarify many of the quandaries that other “visitation” experts have overlooked. His book clarifies the disinformation about Atlantis and the lost continents of prehistory. It concentrates on the orchestrated chaos of modern times and reveals how the political and military machinations of the present have their roots in the ancient past. As well as stating the problems, Michael also furnishes us with solutions to the moral and social predicaments that have beset humankind for millennia.

Trust me, you'll be glued to your audio tuner on Thursday night.

Read more on Ancient Technology…

I'm the proud owner of a T41p IBM Thinkpad, courtesy of IBM. The thing that kept me from walking the Thinkpad path earlier in the game was the lack of a Windows key – which is just inexcusable these days. There's a decent stock utility from IBM, and Randy has Sharpkeys. I've remapped the Thinkpad's right CTRL key for the time being – we'll see how that goes. I'm surprised the laptop arrived so quickly, to tell you the truth.
Why the “older” T41p? It had everything I needed: P M 1.7GHz, 512MB RAM, 60GB 7200rpm HDD, 14.1 SXGA+ (1400×1050) TFT LCD, 128MB Fire GL T2, 16×10×24x/8x CD-RW/DVD(slim), Bluetooth/Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), 802.11a/b/g Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 9 cell battery, WinXP Pro.
I spent the better part of my morning getting the Thinkpad up to speed, so to speak. It was fine out of the box, but I knew there'd be updates aplenty on IBM's Web site. The default Thinkpad “update” utility did a fine job, until I realized it missed 90% of what needed updating. It took me so long to get things going largely because IBM's layout and software services suck. Seriously, it should have taken me three or four clicks – not hours of searching and comparing T41p software and driver versions against one another.
This particular Thinkpad seems lightweight enough for me; I didn't want a large screen, but I wanted a higher resolution. The longer-life battery is a bit on the heavy side, but I won't be complaining with two of 'em keeping me well charged for hours on end. I haven't had much time to play with it, but it'll get a good run soon enough. Any other Thinkpad thinkers out there?

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