Category Archives: Technology

Windows 7 keeps turning off numlock on startup…had to change a registry key to fix it.

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Windows 7 kept turning off numlock on startup on the computer I just built. I found that some of the values for registry keys InitialKeyboardIndicators needed to be changed to 2 (numlock on). I found the directions in the [Microsoft Community](http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/want-to-set-num-lock-to-be-on-and-active-at/7b48ae6f-fa9c-4bc2-8359-81e0c5e5d6a2).

Portland ratchets up volunteer-led ‘tool libraries’ that lend tools for free

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If you need a table saw, a 10-foot pipe clamp or a 20-foot pruner, you’ve normally got three choices: Buy it, rent it or borrow it from a neighbor.

Portland is fast becoming a leader in a fourth way: checking it out for free at a tool lending library.

About 900 of the more than 1,100 tools at the Northeast Portland Tool Library were donated, helping give the library a hardware store’s worth of inventory. The volunteer-run tool libraries offer low-cost home and garden lessons as well as tools.

Membership is free, and the library allows borrowers to check out up to 7 tools for a week.

The library survives on donations that help it buy new and refurbished tools, small grants, tool sales, late fees, and the good will of members. Since the library opened in August 2008, it has lent about 5,000 tools, with only a dozen not returned.

[Read](http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/01/portland_ratchets_up_volunteer.html “Read the Article”) (OregonLive.com)

Without ready access to computers, students struggle

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The digital divide has narrowed dramatically in the past decade. About two-thirds of American households report using the Internet at home, according to the U.S. Census. In affluent Washington suburbs, the numbers are higher; more than 90 percent of Fairfax households with children have home computers.

But even in Fairfax, the digital divide lives on in the study carrels of the Woodrow Wilson public library in the Falls Church area. Most afternoons, it is crowded with students from low-income or immigrant families using the computers. Although they live in one of the richest counties in the United States, these students recount skipping lunch to work at school labs or making long journeys to the public library after school.

Such effort is necessary because students are doing much of their work online: reading textbooks, watching podcasts, using discussion boards and creating PowerPoint presentations. The most frequently searched-for Internet term in the Washington area this year is “fcps blackboard,” according to Google. That’s the Fairfax County system on which teachers post homework assignments and study guides, children ask questions or participate in discussion groups, and parents monitor class work.

Read (Washington Post)

Hopefully, Verizon Has Fixed My Dsl Connection Dropouts

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Late last week, I saw a Verizon van across the street. I’m assuming the people who moved in down the block had their phone service connected.

Tuesday was windy here. Every time we’d get a big gust of wind, my dsl connection would drop out. For the past 2 days, my dsl connection had been dropping out every 2 – 15 minutes. A speed test last night showed a speed of 175k.

I got through to somebody at Verizon this morning, and since then, no drops. My Downstream margin has gone from 4.5 – 9dB before the call to 13.5-15.5dB after the call. A speed test this morning shows a speed of 2776k. They’re also sending a tech out on Tuesday.

Hopefully, this takes care of the problem(s).

Unique Communications Project Underway in Pointe Coupee Parish, LA

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A unique project is underway Friday night in Pointe Coupee parish. Officials there are putting together a program to keep communications up and running in case of an emergency. Officials are turning to old reliable amateur radio to do just that.

Fordoche mayor Justin Cox says it’s going to be the Pointe Coupee back up. “What this is going to do is a parishwide effort that will provide communications ability for ourselves as well as for the volunteer groups.” And how’s that going to be done? Well, with the old reliable ham radio. “You know, people on the surface think ham radio is just a hobby. But when disaster hits, it’s much more than a hobby, it’s a life saving tool.” said Mayor Cox.

[Read and/or Watch](http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=9962410&nav=menu57_2 “Read the Article / Watch the Story”) (WAFB Channel 9)

Virginia Tech Alert System Crashed During Most Recent Real-Life Test

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Virginia Tech officials say a computer crash caused the university’s “VT Alert System” to fail during Thursday’s (11/13) shooting scare. It’s not what they expected for the system’s first real-life test since being implemented following the April 16th shootings. Tech officials are blaming the system’s private contractor.

The alert system had previously passed 4 simulated tests.

[Read](http://www.wset.com/news/stories/1108/570111.html “Read the Article”) (WSET-13)

Apple’s iPhone Faces Off With PSP and Nintendo DS

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Apple’s iPhone has shaken up the cellphone business. Its next targets are Nintendo and Sony.

The iPhone and the iPod touch, which feature big screens and powerful graphics, are emerging as serious competitors to Nintendo’s DS handheld and Sony’s PlayStation Portable.

Game publishers such as Sega Corp. and Id Software Inc. are devoting more resources to Apple’s devices while start-ups dedicated to making iPhone games have sprung up. Already, there are nearly 2,000 iPhone games available.

[Read](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122644912858819085.html “Read the Article”) (Wall Street Journal)

Microsoft to release critical Windows security patch today 10-23

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Microsoft is pushing out a Windows security patch, marked as **critical** later today. Microsoft hasn’t sent out an emergency patch since April 2007.

Microsoft hasn’t offered many details about the patch, other than to say it should be applied immediately to Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems.

[Read](http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1658&tag=nl.e589 “Read the Article”) (Mary-Jo Foley)

Here’s a link to the [official bulletin from Microsoft](http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/updates/bulletins/200810_oob.mspx “Microsoft Bulletin for 10-23-2008”)

Giant Retailers Trying Solar Power for Energy Savings

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In recent months, chains including Wal-Mart Stores, Kohl’s, Safeway and Whole Foods Market have installed solar panels on roofs of their stores to generate electricity on a large scale. One reason they are racing is to beat a Dec. 31 deadline to gain tax advantages for these projects.

So far, most chains have outfitted fewer than 10 percent of their stores. Over the long run, assuming Congress renews a favorable tax provision and more states offer incentives, the chains promise a solar construction program that would ultimately put panels atop almost every big store in the country.

If Wal-Mart eventually covered the roofs of all its Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart locations with solar panels, figures from the company show that the resulting solar acreage would roughly equal the size of Manhattan, an island of 23 square miles.

[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/business/11solar.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin&oref=slogin “Read the Article”) (New York Times)

Sprinkler Outsmarts Thieves

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Thieves stole an irrigation controller from the wall of a Tucson housing development and then installed at a ranch 80 miles away. They didn’t realize that the controller had wireless capabilities, and after it was installed at its “new” location, it started reporting back to its original owners.

The original owners were able to query the controller and find it based on gps coordinates provided by the wireless carrier. The thieves were tipped off before the police could retrieve the controller, but the brush with the law apparently scared them, because the controller mysteriously showed back up on the wall of the housing development 3 weeks later.

[Read](http://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/Rain_Master_Smart_Controller_Outsmarts_The_Thief_999.html “Read the Article”) (GPS Daily)

For a Pinball Survivor, the Game Isn’t Over

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Stern Pinball Inc. is the last of its kind in the world. A range of companies once mass produced pinball machines, especially in the Chicago area, the one-time capital of the business. Now there is only Stern. And even the dinging and flipping here has slowed: Stern, which used to crank out 27,000 pinball machines each year, is down to around 10,000.

In the United States, half of the company’s new machines, which cost about $5,000 and are bought through distributors, now go directly into people’s homes and not a corner arcade, and nearly 40 percent of the machines are exported.

[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/us/25pinball.html?_r=1&ex=1366862400&en=1860884cf03a330c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin “Read the Article”) (New York Times)

Scooters on road toward mainstream acceptance

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Long a familiar sight on the roads of Europe and Asia, motorized scooters are still relatively rare in the United States. While much of the world views them as a practical – and often stylish – necessity, they’ve occupied more of a niche market in the car-centric US, where scooter riders were perhaps justifiably seen as more concerned with fashion than with function.

But the scooter’s image is evolving, and scooter numbers are rising: Scooter sales in the US have jumped dramatically in recent years, from roughly 20,000 units sold in 1999 to over 150,000 in 2006.

While the rising price of gasoline is generally seen as the main cause of that jump – depending on engine size, scooters can get 50 to 100 miles per gallon – the boom is also being fueled by frustrations with traffic jams, an aging population that is trading down from heavier two-wheelers, and what one longtime industry observer terms the “culturization” of scooters.

[Read](http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0321/p12s01-stgn.html “Read the Article”) (Christian Science Monitor)

Mounds of Sand Stressed Minnesota Bridge

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The Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis collapsed last August after construction workers had put 99 tons of sand on the roadway directly over two of the bridge’s weakest points, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

In all, board researchers calculated a load of 1.26 million pounds, including 198,820 pounds of sand at the critical spots. However, the load would not have been excessive for a well-designed bridge, according to experts.

[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/us/18bridge.html?_r=1&ex=1363579200&en=2dd0abc8a67e55d3&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin “Read the Article”) (New York Times)

Industry scrambles to find a greener concrete

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Roughly 5 to 10 percent of global CO2 emissions are related to the manufacture and transportation of cement, a major ingredient of concrete. With cement production expected to grow exponentially in coming decades, the industry is trying to address its environmental challenges.

The manufacture of cement is relatively efficient when compared with other building materials, such as steel and wood. The problem is the scale at which it’s produced – roughly 2.4 billion tons in 2006 and growing.

Worldwide, manufacturers are experimenting with using organic waste materials as a substitute for some of the cement used in concrete. These materials can replace up to 25 percent of the cement in the mix. Less cement means less greenhouse gas produced. Italy’s Italcemente is the world’s fifth-largest cement producer, and it is looking beyond reducing CO2 emissions by creating a cement that actually breaks down airborne pollutants.

No easy replacement for cement is on the horizon. No other known material is as abundant, accessible, and effective as limestone, the key ingredient in cement.

Read (Christian Science Monitor)

Biofuel trial flight set for 747

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Air New Zealand says it plans to mount the first test flight of a commercial airliner partially powered by biofuel. One of the four engines will run on a mixture of kerosene and a biofuel, and is set for late 2008 or early 2009.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7017694.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)