Page 2 of Dofusdaddy

 

Dofusdaddy Replaces the Engine in his Mustang

First, some notes on buying an older car in California. Cars made in 1973 or older do not require smog or vehicle checks in California. An out of state vehicle will require a VIN check at the DMV when you get the title. When the seller signs the pink slip over to you, be sure you check the VIN on the pink slip against the VIN on the car. Make sure the seller gives you a bill of sale, the DMV may require it. Note: The DMV does not care if the car has been modified (for example headers, carburetor, exhaust), if it is 1973 or older. But if you are pulled over by the Highway Patrol with a modified car, you can be cited. The only approved engine modifications are listed in the DMV website - click here. The best source for searching for older cars is www.collectorcartraderonline.com.

Click here to go to my page on how dofusdaddy replaced the engine in his 1967 Mustang Coupe. That's right, Dofusdaddy bought a Mustang as a project car for this web site. A couple of general notes on from Dofusdaddy on home auto repair. I first started working on cars in Anchorage, Alaska. I worked on an old 4x4 Blazer in the parking lot of my apartment complex during the first winter I was there. (Amazing the number of tools and parts you find after the spring thaw.) You must know what the municipal codes for your town are. In San Diego it is illegal to have an inoperable vehicle on the street. In San Diego you can be given a 10 day notice if you leave an inoperable vehicle in your driveway or yard overnight. You can request a hearing and ask for leniency, and more time to repair your car. Many apartment complexes prohibit car repair in their lots. Many of your neighbors may not appreciate you working on your car in public view. Dofusdaddy believes working on your car in your driveway is your God given American right. If it offends you, move to a neighborhood where the conditions for buying a house prohibit working on cars. Anyway, enough on that. I like wearing a pair of overalls to protect my clothes when I slide under the car. In cold climates, with rain and snow you will wear rain gear over the overalls if outside. In cold weather a pair of latex gloves under flannel gloves (the type oil workers wear) is best. Ten degree antifreeze on your hands will numb them without latex gloves underneath. In Southern California I usually wear latex painters gloves when I work. When they rip or get greasy, I peel them off and get another pair. If I don't wear gloves, I clean my hands with liquid dish soap afterwards. My jacks, stands, wrenches, and sockets are Craftsman, which I get on sale at Sears (lifetime warranty). The test equipment is available at Autozone and other stores. You need a floor jack and two stands ($60). The jack and stands must be 3 ton rated for trucks and 1 1/2 ton rated for cars. You need metric 6 point deep and shallow sockets, and box wrenches for newer cars. You need SAE 6 point deep and shallow sockets, and box wrenches for old American cars. You also need a good set of screwdrivers, a timing light ($35), a vacuum tester ($20), a spark tester ($8), an OBD Scanner for retreiving error codes ($150), and a good Digital Multimeter (DMM)($50-$300). A timing light synchs top dead center of cylinder 1 with the opening of the points. A spark tester connects to the spark plug wire and shows you if you have spark. You will need the DMM to measure resistance, voltage, and amperage. Amperage measurements are the ones that blow the meters and should generally be avoided. You measure amperage when the full current goes through the meter. This happens when you disconnect a wire from a terminal and connect the meter terminals to the end of the wire and the terminal. Voltage measurements are safe. You measure voltage when you leave the wires in place and touch the probes to different places on the wire. Resistance measurements are safe. Good DMM's also measure dwell, or the distance between the points when spark is created. Vacuum testers measure vacuum at various points. Vacuum is created by suction of air into the gasoline in the intake manifold. This vacuum pulls excess fumes from the cylinder head and reburns them for emission control. Vacuum also advances the timing as you speed up. There are many electronic sensors on your new car. That is why you need a good DMM. You will have to measure the resistance, voltage, and amperage of these sensors to determine whether they are working or not. The average new car will have 15 to 20 sensors tests listed in Chilton's or Haynes manual for your car. Download the trouble codes with your OBD scanner. These can guide you in the right direction but aren't a fix all. If your car is hesitating, you have to start a the beginning and go from there. Is it getting fuel? Is it getting spark? Change the spark plug wires and plugs, and fuel filter before checking the ignition system. Then go through the sensors. Click here to open and print a PDF document off the internet that may help "Handling No Trouble Code Problems". Do what I do and cruise the internet by plugging keywords into google.com or ask.com. There is plenty of good advice there. And if you get really desperate, like I did, have your fiancee call her brother-in-law in Philadelphia who worked on cars his whole life. It worked for me.
I don't have a lot a faith in the dealerships. Standard care for 50,000 mile transmission tune-up is dumping a pint of additive into the transmission, there by overfilling and mucking it up ($350). Pressure flushes ($120) are popular but the filter is still old and the gunk still sits at the bottom of the pan around the magnets. If you do something to the transmission, you must drop the pan and clean it out. Then re-fill the transmission, run the engine, and drain it at least twice to flush with new fluid. The final refill should include the additive such as Slick Automatic Transmission Treatment. No additives should be used on cars before 50,000 miles, and most new cars never require transmission fluid change or additives. Fill to the correct fluid level.

Go to the market and get a bottle of eyewash. Everyone touches their eyes with their hands eventually, and the grease irritates them. Just squirt the eyewash liberally into your eyes directly from the bottle. They will feel much better in a minute or two.

Important note: You must securely block and support car on jack stands.
Dofusdaddy will tell you how to make a great pair of tire blocks. You need about six feet of 4X4 wood, a foot of 2x4, a skill saw, a small drill bit, and three inch screws. Cut the 4x4's to the dimensions shown (click here for PDF drawings of dimensions for one tire block). You will have to cut from both sides with the skill saw to get through a 4x4. Place the blocks together as shown, drill pilot holes, and screw together. Use plenty of screws. You need pilot holes to prevent the wood from splitting when you put the screw in. If the screws are difficult to get in, you need to redrill the hole with a larger drill bit. The screws will have to be toed in at angles. I then painted mine.

The tire blocks are in white. The other 2x4 tool is to put under the car support rails when I use the floor jack to jack up the front end. Click on picture to enlarge.

Subversion and Morality

It is well known that the devil takes the guise of propriety, and may even take the form of an influencial leader in religious circles. Not necessarily your church, but in religious circles. Remember, there is only one devil. I believe psychiatrists are wrong, psyche does not revolve around mother, and father, and self. It is much simpler. It revolves around sex and the genetic desire to procreate, which is instinctive to life. All other behavior develops from this basic instinct which is a necessity for the existence of life. Why would the devil take the guise of morality unless it served him? Moses did not want to create the Jewish law. The people asked him too, because they said they could not understand what God wanted without the laws written and codified. God did not want to create Kings, but again the people insisited on someone to lead them. And in the old testament they suffered for it. Guilt acts on the basic sexual thoughts of all people and subverts their entire lives. No force on earth is going to stop those thoughts, and each sexual thought is conditioned to incite guilt. A psychiatric professor did an impromptu polling in his class. He asked all students to write on a piece of paper what they were thinking of at that instant. Four out of five in a large lecture hall said sex. Sex and sexual thoughts are natural basic part of life and they are always with us.

Basic Computer Things for Beginners and stuff everyone should know

Computers can be intimidating, so I am going to tell you some things that are important to have a grasp of. Beginners can skip over things I call advanced concepts.
1. You turn a computer on with the power button. Once a computer is on you never turn it off with the power button. Use mouse to go to Start - Shutdown. If after you do this you just see a Windows logo screen and the computer does not shutdown, you can turn it off with the power button.
2. Always turn your printer on first, then power on the computer. If the computer is on and the printer doesn't work, try shutting down the computer and restarting it.
3. If you get lost on a computer and it doesn't respond, go to Start - Shutdown and restart the computer. Or use the combination of keys Ctrl-Alt-Delete twice.
4. You must understand the way information on a computer is organized. You go from the desktop, to the drives, to folders, to files. This is known as going down the directory structure. If you go from files, to folders, to the drives, to the desktop, you are going up the directory structure. You go down the directory structure by double clicking on each item as you go down. You go up the directory structure by using the Back button at the top of the page or by clicking on the folder icon with an up arrow inside it. Once you reach the folder level, you can put folders in folders and continue the structure downward. Each folder may contain both folders and files or just files. A folder is just like a vanilla paper folder. It holds files or papers. You can put one folder in another folder in a cabinet, and you can do the same on the computer. The folders hold paper documents, just like a folder on your computer holds documents called files. A letter or document that you type on your computer is called a file. The file will have a name and be stored in a folder with a name, which will probably be stored in a folder with another name, which is on a drive. The main drive is called the harddrive, usually named the C: drive. Another drive is the A: drive, which is where you insert the floppy disks. Another drive is the D: drive which is usually where the CD's go. The desktop is the blue screen with icons on that you see when you turn on your computer, before you start clicking on things.
5. It is also important to know how to create a folder, and save your work as a file. You can create a folder anytime by going to File - New - Folder and putting a name you make up in the box around the new icon that looks like a folder. You can also create new folders by clicking on the picture of a folder in the pop-up boxes. When you type a letter you will need to save your work. When you go to File - Save as, you save a copy of your work with a name you make up. You can save as many copies of your work as you want with new names using File - Save as. Once you save your work using File - Save as, you can save changes you make to the letter with File - Save.
6. You can delete a file in My Computer or by right clicking on the file name and click Delete from the menu.
7. Remember that there are different types of files. Microsoft Word documents end in .doc, web pages end in .htm, pictures end in .jpg, PDF files end in .pdf, movie clips end in .avi. There dozens of file types, the ones I listed are some common ones.
If you are working in My Computer and you double click on a file, the application will open automatically and be displayed in that program. Sometimes when you do this the document will just flash or blink and your computer will freeze up. I am certain there is a better way, but I just restart my computer using Ctrl-Alt-Delete, twice. When your computer restarts you can re-open the document by opening the program first and then opening the file in it.
Remember also that after you open a program, the files saved box will show only files that belong to that program! The only place you will see all file types listed is in My Computer!
8. When naming files you should use descriptive names or short phases to describe the file. In the old days file names had to be short, you can use plain english now. The reason for using long file names is it makes it easier to find a file when you forget which folder it is in. By using Start - Find you can locate all files on your computer with the keyword you enter.
9. The exception to using descriptive file names is naming .htm pages you will dispaly on the internet. Web pages cannot be named with spaces, so seperate the words in a file name with dashes.
10. Do not be afraid to use Start-Help. There is a lot of good help there.
11. You will get to the internet on your computer by clicking on the blue e. You get to a location (called a web site) on the internet by typing in the name where you are going and pressing the enter button. The name you type in is called the web address. It always starts with www and usually ends with .com. For example the name to get to my web site you type the address www.dofusdaddy.com. The power of the internet is that you can search a topic by keyword or a phase, just like in the library. You do this in what is called a search engine. A search engine is just a web site with a box for you to enter the keywords, and gives you back a list of web sites (web addresses) where the keywords are found or discussed. Two very popular search sites are www.google.com and Ask Jeeves at www.ask.com. You can order almost anything on the internet by using a credit card. It is usually very safe.
12. So you spend an hour looking for information on the internet and finally luck into the right web page. Use Favorites at the top of the page to save the page. By saving it there you can go back to the same page anytime. I use it often.
13. You notice the letters in blue above. These are called hyperlinks. When you see these, and click on them, you are sent to a web site on the internet. That is all there is too it.
14. You can send and receive mail on the internet. If you go to the web site www.msn.com or www.yahoo.com you can sign up for a free email account. These web sites have free email accounts, and you can check or send your email from any computer in the world, because it is on an internet page.
15. At the top right corner of every page you will see three little boxes. The first box has a line in it and collapses the page to the size of a small box at the bottom of the page. If you click on the small collapsed box it will expand to its original size.
The middle box has two little squares; clicking on this will make the page go from full size to half size or half size to full size.
The last box has an X in it. Clicking on it closes the page.
16. A little more advanced concept is the way the page My Computer looks. Sometimes it looks different from the way you want. Under View I like to have the Status Bar checked, as Web Page checked, and a dot by Large Icons. The reason I like this view is it allows thumbnail views of pictures with single clicks.
17. Another advanced concept is the use of Copy and Paste buttons. It is extremely important however. First click on a folder or file is to highlite it. Then click on the Copy button. The file or folder has now been saved in a memory site called copy. It will stay there until you highlite another item and click on Copy, which will replace whatever was there before. You can then move up or down the directory structure and click on the Paste button. This puts a copy of the file or folder to the new location.
18. When you turn on some computers a box will come up asking for a username and password. Unless instructed otherwise, just press the Enter key.
19. Another advanced concept is that of naming files in chronological order, or by date. A computer reads dates as numbers from right to left. Dates are not numerically ordered right to left. So when you label the folder you must change around the position of the month, day, and year to year-month-day. For example the folder for October 5, 2004 is labeled 20041005.
If you don't do it this way the folders will be jumbled up, instead of in order.
20. Another advanced concept is that of highlighting file names in a list of files. You can select a block of files with two mouse clicks or individual files with individual mouse clicks. To select a block of files hold the shift key down and click on the first file and click on the last file of the block. Then release the shift key. To select individual files hold the Ctrl key down and click on the individual files. Then release the Ctrl key. This is usefull when using Copy and Paste or deleting groups of files. Of course you can always just do each file one at a time.
21. I keep thinking of stuff beginners should know. When you open a web page always be sure to scroll down with the bar at the side and your mouse. There is always material you can't see at the bottom of the page. You must scroll down to it.
22. Performance improvement.
You should empty your Recycle Bin occasionally. Right click on the Recycle Bin icon and click on Empty Recycle Bin.
If you are copying or moving large files it is important to run Scandisk and Defrag your computer. Run Scandisk first to remove any errors on your harddrive. Scandisk only takes a couple minutes to run. Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Scandisk. Defragging reorganizes your files on the harddrive so that they accessed more efficiently. Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Defragmenter. Disk Defragmenter could take from a couple hours to all day to run, so start it before you go to bed at night.
Dofusdaddy just discovered a way to do both of these tasks automatically in Win98. Go to Start - Programs - System Tools - Maintenance Wizard.
Note: Dofusdaddy wondered why his harddrive was filled up. My C:\Windows\TMP directory had 2.5 Gigs worth the stuff in it!!!! I gained 2.5 Gig back after deleting all items in the directory!! I strongly suggest you go to the following link and read Regular Maintenance.

Doctor's Denying Your Disability Claim? GO TO COURT!!

Dofusdaddy will explore the world of malpractice. I ordered some books and did some research, this project will take a while to complete, since this is a new area to me and I am just getting started.

The charges in the lawsuit follow the following type of wording or argument.

Doctor displays negligence in refusal to sign disability papers. Doctors suggests working despite knowledge that this has resulted in further damage to the patient, extreme discomfort, and in psychiatric cases is a threat to public safety.

I understand that doctor's are reluctant to sign papers for disability claims because of the pressures by insurance company lawyers and the IRS to not sign them. But once you fear legal action by the patient, more than pressures from the insurance companies, I think doctor's will be capable of a balanced decision. The first step is never court action however. First complain to the hospital administrtion. Get names and titles. They will all be named as defendents in your law suit. Remember to keep a date and time log of all contacts and things each person says. You also need a daily log that documents your symptoms of pain, and emotional distress. Ask them straight out if they support the doctor's position not to sign your disability papers and why they have that opinion. Also write a letter of complaint to the regulators who license your doctor. No doctor can practice if his license is taken away. Doctors are required to report all problems with patients to their malpractice insurance company. If they fail to notify the malpractice insurance company, they will not be covered. No doctor can work without malpractice insurance. And they will be dropped if there are several complaints against the doctor. Note: expert testimony is probably not necessary. Most sources say that an expert witness is required in malpractice cases, and these witnesses cost from $50,000 to $300,000 for their opinion. There are cases (such as Getchell v. Mansfield) which have said that if a jury is capable of deciding what is reasonable conduct without the assistance of an expert medical witness, no expert testimony is necessary to establish the standard of care. The law is always changing and we are seeing many changes with the advent of the internet. In court cases I have been involved with, the heaviest merit is placed on studies in journals. The experts pull out these studies to back up their opinion. You can probably get a much better expert opinion off something like WebMD. You do not need to be an expert, it is on the internet and available as common knowledge. What decision would a reasonable man make? And as long as we are changing laws, we need sizeable fines ($20,000 - $15,000) for doctors who clearly do not follow the standard of care. If I have to go to the work of policing the medical profession, I want to be rewarded for it.

Also remember that the court only interprets the law. They can only overturn a law if it is unconstitutional. I see no reason a law could not be passed to allow lay people to present their research as expert evidence. It would clear this question up, once and for all. If a California governor can be recalled, anything is possible.

And that idea your doctor had about laying you off on some other doctor? Forget it. Patient abandonment is well established as malpractice.

We Need a High Priority, Goverment Managed Program to Develop Nuclear Fusion

First, your must understand the difference between fission and fusion. They are different things. Fusion reactions are what create atomic bombs and fuels the sun. Fission reactions are what we use in nuclear power plants. Fusion fuses two atoms together and creates much more energy than fission, where atoms are just split. Fusion test projects have going for years, but they are having trouble containing a hot enough core to maintain the reaction. Fusion is cleaner, cheaper and has fewer radioactive by products. Fusion uses hydrogen which we get from water. Magnetic fields are used to contain the fusion core. That is about all I know. We need the best people in the world and significant money put at solving these problems. I don't care if the national debt increases enough to push inflation 1% higher. There are people in this world who are smart beyond most people's ability to comprehend. Their minds do not go from a-b-c-d. They go from a-d. They make leaps of intuitive logic. There are pobably only one in a million people this smart. But I have met two in my life, so I know they exist. One I went to high school with. Scored in the top five in math in California SAT's. Went on to become a college professor. The other was an immigrant from Vietnam in an adult education electronics class. I am talking about a student, not the teacher. He could follow the logic in complex electronic logic designs like you and I read a book. We need the best people from all over the world that are this smart to work on nuclear fusion, for mankinds sake. And if after 50 years, we still don't succeed, we can say we did our best. Remember that having credentials is meaningless in this search. The people I am talking about are beyond any normal credentials. People like this have trouble with relationships and crave stable friendships. These people cannot be in charge, because they are poor managers with tremendous ego's. Pay them to sit around and think. They will work cheaper than you think ($50,000 -$75,000 per year). Give them what they want. Each one has a contact person or freind that will help coordinate their thoughts. Make a central science center where they can meet, and all travel to and from the center is pre-paid. The center provides free housing, health care, entertainment and food. Very similar to the way workers are housed in the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Much of the research could be developed similar to the open source development model that created Linux, with the science labs at a central location. There are huge tracts of vacant land in our country that would be ideal. The area around Lake Mead again comes to mind, with a central railway to Las Vegas.

Some more thoughts on nuclear fusion. My father worked as a civil engineer on a nuclear power plant in Minnesota. He then took a job with Gulf Oil, at Gulf General Atomics in La Jolla. They were contractors for several nuclear reactors being built around the nation. He also consulted for nuclear projects in Washington state. The projects were failing due to budget over runs, and he was brought in to evaluate why (it boiled down to problems with red tape and bureaucracy). Nuclear power went down the tubes with environmental concerns. The division was shutdown, and we raised avocadoes full time. Gulf General Atomics was also running an experimental project at the center in La Jolla to develop nuclear fusion. Like I said above, the engineers never could figure out how to contain the heat for the plasma reaction. My point is that there are lots of people who can be pulled in on a nuclear fusion project who have had past experience in nuclear fission. Maybe it is better to farm out contracts to the oil companies than to filter it through the military or a government run burearucracy.

Who cares if you bully cops' kids?

Dofusdaddy cares. I have no tolerance bullies. I was often on the receiving end as a child and young adult. Police provide a valuable service and it angers me to see children harassed. Any children, of any race or religion.

Does it really take 10 years of education to be a good doctor, dentist, or lawyer?

I am certain I could train someone the skills of dentistry in one year, directly out of high school. Actually I would prefer a more mature individual, at least 21 years of age. The same is true in medicine. It does not take 10 years of medical training to give shots, diagnose and treat 90% of all illnesses. A mature person with good listening skills would not have a problem after one to two years of training. Of course you still need specialists for surgery.

Mass Transit

Many people are afraid to use mass transit because of crime. Dofusdaddy believes inexpensive security cameras should be common place. Facial computer recognition techniques could be used to identify people who abuse their freedom. All security people should carry inexpensive digital cameras. A police team can pick them up later.

 

So you live in San Diego and you want to build yourself. Click Here!

 

Where to begin if you have a complaint about your doctor.

If you have a complaint about your doctor, start by going to the Medical Board of California website. The board is responsible for policing doctors in California. It is up to them to take disciplinary action. You can also look up some information on your doctor using a database they provide. Click here to look up information on your doctor. The American Medical Association keeps a similar database at their website for all doctors in the United States. Click here to use American Medical Association lookup.

What's your home worth in today's market?

My neighbor Dave, who has helped me a lot of good advice on my car projects, told me about a website by Ditech.com. If you plug in your address it gives you a current appraisal value. I tried it on my house in the San Diego area and it seems quite accurate. They also have a bunch of other interesting online calculators to play with. Click here for their home appraisal page. It may also be handy if you are buying a new home and want to know if the asking price is reasonable.

What you need to know about Photoshop for web pictures.

Dofusdaddy is going to tell you how to manipulate a picture for use in an email attachment or in a web page. I assume you have a picture stored on your harddrive from a camera, the web, or a scanned photo. Open Photoshop, and File - Open the image you want to work with.

Probably the best tip to know for Photoshop is how to undo or redo an action. By using Control-Alt-z you can undo as many steps back as you wish. By using Control-Flag-z you can redo as many times as you want. You can go back and forth undoing and redoing to any point in your design.

1. First, do you need to rotate the image? Image - Rotate Canvas
2. Second, do you want just a portion of the image? The first box in the upper left hand corner is the Rectangular Marquee Tool and it is selected by default. Click on the image where you want the top left corner to start, and drag to the lower right. You will see a dashed box around the portion of the image you want. If you don't like what you selected, just click once outside the dashed box and start over. To select just the portion of the image inside the dotted box, go to Image - Crop.
3. You must now select the size you want the image to be. Go to Image - Image Size. The only box you need to worry about is the top Width box. It must be 600 pixels or smaller. (600 pixels almost fills the width of your screen.) The width should not be smaller than 150 pixels or it will be hard to see.
4. Now you will save the picture and optimize it for web viewing. If you do not optimize, the saved image will be far too large to send over the internet. Go to File - Save for Web - OK. Make sure you save the image in .jpg format.

When closing Photoshop a box will ask you if you want to save changes. Do NOT save changes because you do not want to alter the original photo. You already saved the optimized copy of the image.

Remember that photos will dramatically slow download speed of your web page. In other words, people will be waiting for ever for your webpage to show up after typing in the address. That is not a good thing. Go to www.netmechanic.com and run a free test on your web page. It will tell you how long your page takes to download for dial up or DSL connections.

 

What you need to know about using Macromedia Dreamweaver 3 for publishing web pages.

This program is several years old but the principles still hold true.
1. Save the first page as index.htm. It should be saved in a folder with the name of your web page, which is stored in My Documents. (Desktop - C: - My Documents - Dofusdaddy - index.htm) All the files for the Dofusdaddy web site are stored in the Dofusdaddy folder. (Why the first page must be called index.htm, I have no idea. It is just the way it is.)
2. When you open Dreamweaver be sure the Properties Box is showing at the bottom of the page. It usually is by default. If not, you can check it in Window - Properties. Using the Properties Box you can bold, center, select a color for text, and create headings or paragraphs, adjust the font and font size. You can also link hightlighted text to another file or web page.
3. You can link highlighted text to a file or web page by typing in the file name or web address, or by searching for the file in the folder icon called Target. To link to a web page you might type something like http://www.msn.com. To link to a picture you might type picture-of-me.jpg. To link to a PDF file you might type my-PDF-file.pdf. To link to a movie clip you might type my-movie-clip.avi. Then when someone clicks on the highlighted link on your web page, that file will open. They will go to a web site, see a picture, open a PDF file, or view a movie clip. This will happen automatically after they click on the highlighted words (also called a hot link or hyper link).
4. As you build the web page you will want to see what it really looks like on the internet. So go to File - Preview in Browser - iexplore. If you want to change something, just close the browser window and you are back in the Dreamweaver document. Make more changes and preview you page again.
5. There is one irritating quirk to Dreamweaver. When you hit Enter, you get a double spaced line. If you want a single spaced line you must hit Shift - Enter.
6. Just like with Microsoft Word, there is Edit - Undo if you want to recover from a mistake.
7. If you want to insert a picture in your web page, go to Insert - Image. Remember that the image must be stored in the web page folder (for example Dofusdaddy folder). It is best to store it in your web folder directly from Photoshop, where you first optimized your picture for the web.

OK, You have created your webpage. How do you get it on the Internet?

You now have your web page on your computer at home, how do you get it on the internet? This is three part process.
1. Parts one and two are registering a domain name and getting hosted. You need to register a domain name which is the web address for your page. You can go to a site such as www.godaddy.com and register any name which is not taken. It costs $8 per year to register a domain name. While you are registering the domain name on their website, you will be asked if you want them to host your domain name. This costs form $4 to $8 per month depending on the plan. The least expensive plan is more than adequate to start with. Hosting means that you will transfer the files from your computer to their computer. They have special software on a computer called a web server which will display your files on the internet when anyone on the internet types in your web address (web address is the same as your domain name).
2. The third part is moving the file from your computer to their computer. You need to have a special program on your computer to transfer files to their web server. The one I use is called WS_FTPLE. It can be downloaded for free from sites such as www.tucows.com. If you have never downloaded programs before you will also need WinZip, which you can also download from www.tucows.com. Many files are compressed (or zipped) to make them download faster over the internet. You need the program WinZip to unzip or decompress the program WS_FTPLE. It sounds complicated, but after you work through it once you will see it is fairly straight forward. It is easier to do than to explain. I suggest having someone guide you through the process the first time.

The program WS_FTPLE is not diffucult to use, but again, having someone show you once could be helpful. I am going to go over what you need know, so you know what questions to ask.
1. First type in the Profile Name which can be any name. Just use the name of your web site.
2. Next type Host Name/Address which the hosting people (in our case www.godaddy.com) will give you.
3. For Host Type keep the default which is automatic detect.
4. Next is User ID which you selected when you signed up for hosting with the hosting people.
5. Now click Apply at the bottom of the page.
6. Now click OK at the bottom of the page.
7. Now you will see a page with Local system on the left side and Remote site on the right side, and a text box called Password will pop up. Type your password into the box and hit Enter. (Again, you selected this password when you signed up with the hosting people.)
8. If you did everything right you will see the words Data connection accepted at the bottom and a list of some files appear on the right hand side.
9. If things didn't work, click on Close at the bottom, and then click on Connect, and then OK. Type in your password again. If you still are not connected get help. Ask a freind or call Technical Support at www.godaddy.com. They have always been courteous and freindly to me.
10. Chances are that you are not in the correct folder on your computer in the left hand column. If you need to go down the directory tree you simply double click on the folder and it opens up. If you want to go up the directory tree (which I usually do), it takes a little more effort. Look for the green arrow inside the box with the folder names. If you don't see the green arrow, scroll up with the slide on the side of the box until you do. Click on the green arrow once to highlight it, and click on ChgDir. You will see that you have gone up the directory tree one step. Once you have navigated to the file index.htm in your web page folder you are ready to move a copy of the file over the internet to their web server. You can see three choices for the transfer. ASCII, Binary, Auto. Use ASCII for text files, and Binary for pictures, movie clips, or pdf files. To move index.htm over, check ASCII, click once on index.htm to highlight it, and click on the arrow that points right. Your file will magically appear in the box on the right. Your webpage is now available for viewing on the internet. Open your browser. Type in your domain name or address, for example www.dofusdaddy.com, and your web page will appear. Congratulations, you are now published on the internet, for all the world to see.
11. A short word about making updates or corrections to your web page. If things don't work double check these steps.
a. Be sure you saved the corrections in Dreamweaver.
b. Refresh your FTP session using the Refresh button so it is accessing the most recent copy of the files on your computer.
c. When viewing your web page for corrections in the browser, you must press Shift - Refresh or you will not see the most recent page off the web server. Refresh alone will not show you the changes.

So you want to use a digital camera

A simple digital camera with a 2x zoom costs about $60 now. For $25 more you can get a memory card for it that will hold up to 120 pictures. You will need a USB port on your computer (which is a small rectangular plug on the back). Install the driver software on your computer from the disk they provide. Connect your camera to the back of your computer with the USB cable and a new drive will appear in My Computer on your computer. Click on the drive icon till you see a list of pictures. Go to Edit - Select All and then Edit - Copy. Move to another folder in My Documents and paste your pictures. The pictures are now stored on your computer.

Using PGP to Encrypt Your Email Documents

Everyone if worried about security nowadays. PGP encryption is essentially unbreakable as far as you are concerned. Both the sender's and recipient's computers must have the encryption software. You can buy it at the PGP website. Dofusdaddy has had the following explanations done for him at four different security classes in adult education. It takes a while to sink in. Anyway I will explain as best I can, so you have an idea of what is going on.

Encryption. We will start with something everyone can understand. You code a message with a secret key, and the recipient decodes the message with the same secret key. The problem is that anyone with the secret key can read the message if it is intercepted, and you must both have copies of the same secret key.

Public-Key Encryption. So we come up with an idea called key pairs. Public-key cryptography uses a pair of keys. A public key to encrypt the message, and a corresponding private key, for decryption.

You publish your public key to the world, while you keep your private key secret. Anyone with a copy of your public key can encrypt information and send it to you, even people you have never met. But, only you have the private key, so only you can decrypt the messages and read them.

PGP Encryption. PGP encryption uses a combination of the two methods. First the recipient must send you his public key. Second, the sender creates a session key which encrypts the sender's message. The sender's session key is then encrypted with the recipient's public key. The sender emails the encrypted message and encrypted session key. The recipient uses his private key to decrypt the session key, and the session key is used to decrypt the message.

Digital Signatures. Digital signatures are used to be sure that the document you received is really from the person whose address is on the email. Digital signatures also provide a check that the document you recieve has not been altered or tampered with. This may not sound as important as encryption, but it is important to do both. If someone says sell 10,000 shares of stock, you want to be damn sure who the message is from.

Digital signatures use the reverse process of that used in encryption. Encryption uses public-key sender to private-key recipient. Digital signatures use private-key sender to public-key recipient.

The sender processes his document with his private-key, which creates a digital signature. The sender sends the document and digital signature to recipient. The recipient decrypts the digital signature with the sender's public key. If decyrption is successful he knows the message is authentic.

Pass Phrases. When you create your key pairs, you will be asked for a passphrase. This passphrase is known only to you and keeps anybody else who sits down at your computer from using your private key.

Digital Certificates, Trust Relationships, etc., etc., etc. I'm sure I have already told you much more than you want to know. Fortunately the actual process is relatively simple once you have the software.

How the software works. You really need one person who understands this process to guide you through using the software. The use of the software is simplified if you use the email client Microsoft Outlook on your computer. However I successfully used the free demo software to encrypt a message on one computer, attach it to web based email, send it to another computer, save the attachment, decrypt, and read the message. I will detail out the process I used.
1. Download and execute the zip file to get PGP software on your computer and the recipient's computer.
2. You will be asked to create a key pair and passphrase. Just follow the instructions.(Important: Remember Your PassPhrase!)
3. Restart your computer when prompted.
4. In my example here, you are the recipient. Open the program and click on the Key icon. You will export your public key to a file. Then take this file, attach it to an email, and send it to the sender. The sender will click on his Key icon and import the public key from your attached file. (This is called putting a key on your keyring.) The sender now types a message in Notepad. The sender clicks on his Encryption icon. He selects the file to encrypt. He then drags the your public key (the recipient's public key) to the lower part of the dialog box and encrypts. The encrypted message file is saved. The sender attaches the encrypted file to an email, and sends it to you. You open the email and save the attachment. You click on the Decryption icon, type your passphrase, and the decrypted message file is saved for you to read. (Remember that decryption is done with your private key and requires your passphrase.)
5. Note that encrypted file will be shown with a lock icon and end with the file type .pgp.

Stihl FS 55C String Trimmer for mulching in California firebreaks

You will need poly blades for the average weeds in California. Use the string to mulch and the poly blades to cut the stalks near the ground.

Use the Stihl recommended oil additive to 2 ½ gallons premium unleaded. The trimmer comes with a safety trigger which is a nuisance. I taped it down.

There are two heads for the trimmer.
One is the standard string head. Use .105 line, which is the thickest there is for this trimmer. To replace line, depress tabs to remove cap and remove string spool. You need two eight foot lengths of line. Insert the line into the hole in the spool, and bend it back over hard. Wrap spool in direction of arrow. Repeat for other string. Both strings wrap in same direction. Put the spool back on the trimmer and feed each line thru the hole to the outside. Snap cap back on. When using the trimmer at high rpm for extended time, allow the engine to idle for several minutes, so the engine can cool down. To extend the trimmer lines, just tap the head on the ground (like any other trimmer).

To use the poly blades, you need to remove the string head and replace it with the poly head. This is very simple. Insert the steel pin from the kit into the hole above the head and unscrew the head. The pin holds the head so you can unscrew it. IMPORTANT. The head comes off Clockwise. This is the reverse of standard screws. Then screw on the poly head - Counterclockwise. Do not use the poly blades above 10,000 rpm.

To start the engine.
Press the ignition button to I (which is on).
Pull trigger all the way on and lock into place.
Push gas bubble 5 times.
Place trimmer on ground. It will rest on the guard and the U shaped leg on the engine.
Put your left foot on the round black sliding handle and your left hand on the shaft near the motor to hold it. Then pull with your right hand.
If cold, put choke on and pull 5 times. Then turn choke off and pull till it starts. Note:Engine will not start with choke on!
If hot, do not use choke. Pull till starts.
After it starts you must click the trigger to disengage the lock. The engine is now in idling.
To turn off the trimmer just press the ignition button to O.

BE SURE TO USE SAFETY GLASSES THAT COME WITH TRIMMER. You can get the trimmer at ABC Mower in Escondido or look for a dealer near you on their website (http://www.stihlusa.com). Stihl is the premier brand in trimmers and chain saws. The Stihl comes with a two year warranty for home use, one year warranty for commercial. I believe the Stihl FS55C is the least expensive trimmer that will take a poly blade attachment.

Clearing weeds is a two step process (necessary to mulch the weeds). First top the weeds with the string attachement so that just stalks about 4 foot high remain. Use the string at a forty five degree angle and the tops practically explode. This is dirty work. Then go back and cut the stalks with the poly blade attachment.

Total Cost
Stihl FS55C $230
Poly blade attachment $40
Extra string, blades, Stihl oil additive, 2 ½ gallon gas can $50
The whole setup is about $320.

Those little green bushes cut great with a machete.
The only way I know to get rid of sagebrush is with a circular blade mower on back of a tractor.

Bermuda Grass Does Great in Southern California!

Dofusdaddy replanted his lawn two years ago. After much research on the internet and question asking of neighbors, I ordered bermuda grass seed called Bermuda Triangle from http://www.bermudagrass.com/info/triangle.html. This blend produces soft, fine textured grass, in a thick wear resistant matt. It mows easily with a regular type mower (do not need reel mower), and requires less water that fescues. The only down side is that it is dormant during the winter, so it is brown from December to April. Also be advised that Bermuda needs lots of sunshine and does not do well in shaded or wet areas. Fescues are best for shaded or wet areas. Dave tells me you can overplant with Kentucky Blue grass during the fall if you want it green during the winter. I would double check this information to be sure.

1. Do not plant till the last week in April in Southern California.
2. Roto-tiller the earth to three inches of depth to prepare soil.
3. Rake lawn level. Spread bermuda seed evenly. Use plenty of seed. Rake gently just enough to bury the seed. The seeds are small and will not germinate if planted deeply.
4. Use commercial seed cover mulch, and spread an even layer. You only need enough to cover the ground evenly.(1/16 inch)
5. You must keep the soil damp which requires light watering at least twice daily.
6. The grass will start coming up in about 10 days to 2 weeks. It helps if the weather is sunny.
7. At the end of the month apply liquid Miracle Grow. Apply liquid Miracle Grow every two weeks after that.
8. At the end of three months it should start to look like grass. This is where you should experiment with something Dofusdaddy did not do. Try using 16-16-16 all purpose granular fertilizer instead of Miracle Grow. Dofusdaddy's lawn pratically died in its second year before I started using 16-16-16, and it is cheap. Actually the 16-16-16 is good for all your plants. You definitely must use 16-16-16 the second year. Make sure you apply the ferilizer in the afternoon when the grass is dry, and water thoroughly after applying or the grass will burn.
9. You will get weeds if you don't sod. You just have to stay on top of it and pull them by hand the first year.
10. During the second year the Weed and Feed products work well on broad leaf leaves. Use in the morining when the dew is on the grass. Apply a light sprinkling of Weed and Feed over the entire lawn. DO NOT USE TO MUCH. You will burn your lawn and kill the grass. If you do burn the lawn, do not worry too much, it will grow back. Do not use Weed and Feed the first year or you will kill your lawn.
11. Dofusdaddy had a thick green lawn by the end June, a little over a year after he planted the lawn.

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