The first story circle was interesting to me. As I tried to capture the essence of what the other student’s were talking about, our difference of experience became very apparent to me, though the snow was a unifying thread. I’ve since lost the notes from that moment, but I felt closely connected to the story about the girl who explored and fell into the river. My own experience doing a polar plunge produce a strong connect to that, though hers was in all ways more natural, accidental – deadly; my story was regulated, monitored, and in a large group of other people with strongly competing egos.

I remember Atlas, and perceived how little she seemed to really enjoy the snow. That a comfortable, and warm distance was preferred by her. Independence seemed to really shine through in her portion.

I remember Angels story, as one of deep community – energy, and work.

I remember the man from Ohio’s story, as connected strongly to her Christian faith, and the story of the last judgement, angels, as he quotes the Scripture ascribed to Jesus, ” I was naked, and you clothed me..”

I remember the African American man who felt lost, and scarred as a child.

I wondered about the nature of memory, and suffering. As I walked home, and felt the coldness on me – I imagined being left out in it (much like the soldier of Ukraine and Russia; or the children of Palestine). I wondered what it meant to embrace the snow?

Good afternoon sirs,

I am happy to report that I can successfully journal on a website I’ve been “maintaining” for a few years. Focus clock set for 30 minutes. My reflection about the first class are rooted in the poem: ‘Spell Check’.  The website will allow you to posted comments below, though the user interface is a bit clear about where to post:

Spell Check (Revised Using Blackout Poetry)

It’s not much account…

Hillbilly poems, won’t let you waller, won’t let you foller.

Makes you have titles where tiles ought to be.

Changes log into dog, and before I could say ‘Undo’ it turned housecat to housecoat.

Sallet, newground, Junebug, graveyard – not in dictionary.

Can’t have a grandbaby on this thing without arrangements!

It changed my taters into tatters, subpoenas – I ordered soupbeans.

Wants to replace the homeplace with someplace…

This the same spell that changed proud to poor – minnows to memories?

Flies buzzin.

A cool snap of beans breaking on the porch.

The tenor of coonhounds on a moonlit ridge. Exit

Float a while. 

Spell: “set on a sycamore bank, feet in the creek turned to crick.”

Supernetting

2022 Topical Outline:

Take a moment to try and forecast some of the topics that will be discussed in the upcoming year :

1. January,  Windows 11.
2. February, Wi-Fi Installation and Repair for Residents.
3. March, Laptop Computer Repair.
4. April, New Computer Sales & Setup.
5. May, Linux Operating Systems
6. June, Security Practices.
7. July, Virus!
8. August, Desktop Computer Upgrade.
9. September, Ethernet Wiring.
10. October, Sustainable Energy.
11. November, 3D Printing.
12. December, Redefining Intellectual Property.

Today I wanted to share some communication on system speed and performance. If you are in a Windows environment and use the msinfo32  command in the command line terminal – you can get a comprehensive listing of your machines components.

The big three are: 1. Processor, 2. Memory, and 3. Operating System. However, as gaming have evolved and pushed the capability of computers, the number items is the 4. Graphics Card.

I am using:

1. Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-7100U CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2400 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

2.  8.00 GB DDR of Physical Memory.

// Note msinfo32 does not supply memory-type information. You must download CPU-Z to determine the type of memory your system is using.

3. OS Name | Microsoft Windows 10 Home  Version 10.0.19043 Build 19043

4. Intel(R) HD Graphics 620

// Note: The graphical information in not found in the System Summary, but is under the Components tree.

I often run into bottlenecks with this amount of memory, as just from start-up the O.S. requires about 4.00 GB to handle all of it’s processes – but the procedure for upgrading laptops is some degree more difficult than for a desktop computer with a large chasis.

Other bottlenecks in system performance include the motherboard, particularly the internal BUS structure. For instance, and according to Trenton systems, “PCIe 1.0 slots have a transfer rate of 2.5 GT/s, while PCIe 6.0 has a data transfer rate of 64 GT/s !  ”

Creating A Custom Desktop in Windows 10

Hello! Today’s blog post is going to illustrate how you can edit desktop icon in the Windows 10 Home Environment using a desktop. Make sure it is a desktop, I’m not certain how well this would transfer over to a smartphone or tablet, though feel free to email me if you need help.

So, if you’re interested in learned how to create a customize desktop like the one below, just follow these 10 easy steps or if you’re better at following along, check out the video below! Once you finish if you don’t like any of the built in Windows Icons, you can visit this link for thousands of free icons to customize your desktop!

1. Minimize all your applications using Window + D.
2. Create, a directory-folder on your desktop, by first right-clicking a blank area.
3. Scroll down, in the panel tray to the ‘new’ tab, follow the arrow >. Then, mouse up, to ‘folder’.

// The system will place a new blank folder onto your desktop. Now we need to customize it!

4. Right-click, the folder you created in steps (1-3).
5. Scroll down, again we’re in the panel tray – to the tab that say ‘properties’.

// The system will open a new window for you called ‘New Folder Properties’.

6. Move, over to the ‘Customize’ tab.
7. Look, for a section called ‘Folder Icons’.
8. Press, the ‘Change Icon…’ button.
9. Pick your favorite icon and you’ll end up with something other than a boring yellow folder!

DialPad Business Dialing Software.

Well, with the initial 14 day subscription, coming to an end and little more than 15 calls with 1 strong marketing lead – the question of moving into a monthly agreement with the software provider must be made. While the monthly cost is not tremendous, at only $20.00 per user the question of return on investment is crucial, particularly where KTS Mobile has a strong desire to support software developers in my hyper-local economy.

One of the most valuable features is the Vi call summary – which give past call transcription and insights (yet, maximizing the feature requires a good voice call environment so that the translation is accurate). Dialpad’s Voice Intelligence technology helps you capture your conversations with call transcription, voicemail transcription, and actions. Additionally, the use is given a dedicated business line to add to the perceived professionalism of the company. As an aside, the support team was helpful in resolving some of the initial set up problems, though it took a few agents to finally get everything settled.

In comparison, and in contrast to these two great features – allow me to mention the negatives. The primary, and most frustrating part was the day-long initial import of the contacts. Without a premium Office 365 or G-Suite account, there is no easy way to import .csv contacts. Another major financial consideration is that, while DialPad supports some CRM programs, it is itself not one, and so add on an additional expense to that at first nominal $20.00 increases to $60 or more, once you  purchase an O365  or G-Suite account, and the CRM software, Salesforce or HubSpot , both specified as able to be integrated.

Tech Dictionary: THE URL

Technical discussion of the URL seems to have little value to the everyday google user and grasping around the concepts which brought about this monolith of computer science are not much better than a black box. So, the quest.ion is – how can a better understanding of URLs improve the serviceability of KTS.

For me, beginning to understand the URL starts abstractly in the application layer of both the OSI Model and Instruction Set Architecture, but most clearly in the empty search bar – and a domain name.

What appears much like the command prompt, waits for an input (in the most common form as an IPV4 address, or as a fully qualified domain name) and execution command. Seen by me, as MOSTLY human readable text, but then a separation starts to occur, as defined by the creators of the internet, and can be understood more fully in RFC 1738. My primary interests are in scheme, host, port and path

1. The Scheme helps to define the resource being access, and to identify what sort of protocol is being used, one of most essential protocols to users would be HTTP, or HTTPS which provides a layer of security over a network.
2. The Host – Consist of the fully qualified domain name, overseen by IANA.
3. The Port – Define how information over a network is routed.
4. The Path – Further defines the location of the hosted resource.

The simplicity with which I am even now inputting characters into a readable and real-time document is supported by a complex system, though essentially, my graphics card is communicating with my devices internal memory (RAM), bus architecture, and processor.

Computer science, and attempting to understand Instruction set architectures from Application to compiler / assembler, to operating systems; data-path & control, to memory, I/0 circuits, circuit design, and transistors – it become overwhelming, and easy to get lost in the technicality of it all, but the URL helps network users find information resources on the internet.

Lions, Tigers, and Malware – Oh! My.

Windows 10 Home comes with a built in Anti-Virus software called Windows Security. It does a good job of categorizing security concerns
into 7 unique categories:
1. Virus and Threat Protection, where you can place your folder systems into a protected state. This Anti-Virus software
also have a threat scanner. It even recently picked up the installer for The NiceHash Crypto Miner. (I’ll be covering that program at a later point!)
2. Account Protection, to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your desktop through: facial recognition, fingerprinting, pins, a
physical security key, passwords, and picture passwords! Talk about defense in depth.
3. Firewall and Network Protection, allows a brief over-view of the current state of the machines built in firewalls. Where
inbound connections that are NOT allowed are blocked, and outbound connections that ARE allowed pass.
4. Application and browser control, helps to provide safe browsing, and many different exploits. (The browsing protection appears to be limited to Edge users.)
5. Device security, with – core isolation, the TPM module, and secure boot features.
6. Device performance and health, to give a brief overview of the machines – storage, battery, application, and Windows service performance.
7. Family options, in order to protect against explicit websites (see our other solution – link), establish screen time habits,
generate an activity report, and control buying.

In comparison, and perhaps unnecessarily, Avast Anti-Virus– offers….a powerful virus scanner to find malware that slips in, as well as
to check for unsafe configurations, and passwords. The Anti-virus detects and block viruses, malware, spyware, ransomware, and phishing.
A Wi-Fi inspector to detect others on your network. One additional free feature is the “online security” browser extension.
Other than the Wi-Fi inspector, the free software doesn’t appear to add any additional features – and additionally, I’m blaming an Avast update
that got pushed back in 2020 for causing my laptop to crash. After that update to the program, I lost lots of data that I had been gathering for several years…. though maybe not forever. While it is not possible at this point of my technical knowledge to prove this, but it was the last software I interfaced with PRIOR to the crash – maybe they can help me recover the data to prove otherwise?

One strong positive for is the blog and community form, that – and the “threat search” portion of the blog particularly are,
in my estimation superior to the huge and often time confusing array of documents on the Microsoft website.

Overall, without paying, both lack many live support options! We also may attempt to review some of the source code in the future to determine what’s really happening on the net!

Getting ‘Back to the drawing board’ exists as a proverbial English idiom for failure, but more than that it’s carries the idea of hope, of new ideas, new creation – in the capital world, it means taking that which is old, and making it better, faster, cheaper.

Gathering a clear picture of the order of this old board, starts with a few notes on computing history, as an answer to how our world got here. Then with a question, “Who is in the business of creating computing machines, their components, building blocks, elements, and factors?”

In my time, computers have made an indelible impact in the halls of my mind. From the early virus infections of Windows 2000 to the terminally slow connection to DSL modems – fighting digitally for bandwidth. The red, yellow, and white inputs of some system generating tremendous playable audio and video; the brightest blue LED controller! All an enigmas black box created so delicately, working so perfectly that often the mind would be lost in the experience. Yet, there were points when this machine or that component would show flaws: a non-working disc, the loss of innocence in shadowy world, and a puzzle too hard for a novel mind to solve.

The first computer, if we might call it that, is as remote to a modern machine as it is distant in time, but it is there – in the abacus, a counting machine from 300 BC that we might find the root, the link of all future computers. That is all to say – that a computer counts and provides humans a means – to quantify. Until I get another breakthrough… check out this online abacus.