Weather.com is toast, trashed maybe even hacked?

*** UPDATE *** turns out this is a local problem perhaps with our Netgear UTM10 firewall.  Computers connected ahead of the firewall have no problem with www.weather.com.

For some reason www.weather.com is not working and no one is reporting on the problem?  When you try to go to their web page in Firefox you get a "Toast Notification".  In Internet Exploiter it is just plain messed up.

Here is what it looks like in Internet Exploiter:

Brace for the biggest solar storm yet from this solar cycle.

First look at the Northern Lights prediction note the dark red:

Here is a chart that more clearly shows the incoming solar storm:

All this and more is available at: http://www.electricquakes.com/

Ford Windstar Intermittent starting problem

My van has been having issues starting for a few weeks. Then it left me sit, fortunately at home, but the battery ran down while I was trying to start it.  Even with a battery charger it would still not start.  Someone told me to change the gas filter so I did that.  When changing the filter I noticed that there was no fuel pressure so someone told me to change the fuel pump relay.  That did not fix the problem either. 

Then I got out the manuals and started finding out how the van fuel system works. When you turn the key it turns on the fuel pump or 1 to 2 seconds to prime the system. Soon I discovered that if you listen for the fuel pump when you turn the key you can easily hear it running.  If the fuel pump is running then the van will start and runs just fine.  So next I put a meter on the safety switch that is in the back of the van that is wired up in series with the pump.  It is connected just before power goes down to the pump.  According to the meter there was no power there so I thought that the problem was not the pump.  After another week of fiddling with the van I discovered that connecting a beeper to check for power to the pump was a better solution.  Once I installed a beeper I could tell that the fuel pump was always getting power, but it was not always running, so the problem was the fuel pump.

Along the way I redid all of the ground connections in the engine compartment.  Here are the left side grounds. The PCM ground is behind the silver part of the AC system. I added star washers to all of the grounds.

Ford Windstar Grounds

Here are the grounds on the right side. The battery ground was hidden under the plastic until I cut it away. It was in bad shape and I thought I had found the problem, but it did not help at all.

Ford Windstar Grounds

How to use SQl to fix all records in Wordpress

Ever discover that you need to change all records in a Wordpress database. Recently I needed to add a "/" to every record, so I used PHP Admin and a SQL command to make that change.

E-Yama 17JN1 LCD Monitor repair

The E-Yama 17JN1 monitor is easy to fix. First remove the cover around the power and VGA cables, it has 6 snaps and is a little hard to unsnap. Then remove 4 screws and the base stand is detached. Remove 1 screw and unsnap the back cover, some catches may break.

Once Inside replace the 2 capacitors in the red box in the picture. Test it out and put it back together. It has a nice bright picture

My opinion on Occupy Wall Street Demands

I have read some stuff on Occupy Wall Street and I do not see a clear goal, or objective.
So Here are some of my suggestions of what needs to be done to fix this country, besides just simply throwing out the current government and replacing it with one that is "of the people by the people and FOR the people".

1. BALANCE THE BUDGET
Stop wanton wasteful government spending.  According to the pie chart found on the IRS web site last year 40% of government money came from borrowing!  And according to the same chart 40% was spent on "social spending".  Balance the stinking budget!  Stop the government from "social engineering".  CEASE AND DESIST wasting our children's money on totally stupid programs!

2. REPEAL STUPID LAWS
Repeal laws that just make the rich richer and the poor poorer.  Most laws coming out of Washington have the exact opposite effect of what they were supposedly written for.  They must be repealed and cancelled! For example repeal the HMO law that created HMO's and caused medical insurance to go through the roof!
Here is a s site listing laws that need to be fixed:  http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009

3. NUKE THE TAX CODE
Nuke the IRS and start over.  Some sort of flat tax would be ideal.  Eliminate tax breaks for mortgages, and other such nonsense.  Eliminate non-tax taxes like SS and medicare unless they actually go to where they are supposed to go.. LOL.

After saying that I realize these things will never happen so we should just gather around and watch the USA go down the tubes as a hopeless case.

Video Standards have gone crazy

Today someone asked me for help on setting up their monitor.  I discovered to my dismay that there are now way too many video resolution standards.  This chart is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards2.svg

Now try to navigate your way through that mass?  The monitor in question was WSXGA+ compatible, but actually it was1440 by 900.  And here I thought they were all supposed to be HD 1080 or 1920 by 1080.

Viewsonic VG700 repair

The viewsonic VG700 has the usual two capacitors in the inverter problem. However it is tricky to get it apart. First snap out the control panel at the bottom front of the monitor. Remove 2 screws and slide the bezel up then out.

Next you remove the four screws and gently pry the LCD screen forward and out of the RF shield. Be careful of the cables as they are all barely long enough and will not unplug on their own.

The faulty capacitors are in the middle of that circuit board on the right, they are bulging and oozing.

AOL Captcha Hell

When they make me head of Internet security, I have three changes that I will make:

1. BAN JAVA and thus eliminate over 90% of all web viruses.
2. Require logging in before being allowed to send email.
3. Delete all web sites that have a Captcha on them anywhere.

Come on Internet security people these captcha things are all a total waste of time........

OK so I am upset, I spent several hours in "Captcha Hell" trying to set up an AOL IM account.  Sure you say just click on the "Play sound" button?  That does not work either.  I went to YouTube and the sound for the computer is working just fine.  I downloaded the latest 30+ megabytes of Quick Time but there is still no Captcha sound.  I thought "Quick Time" had died a miserable death a long time ago and was buried right next to "Real Audio"?  Who on earth uses Quick Time and for what reason would anyone want to use such an archaic format??  Back at AOL IM, I must have created a half a dozen accounts that I cannot access because it never accepted my information and it never asked for the alternate email account to "send a password reset" to, so no that feature does not work either.  Has anyone at AOL ever tried to create an AOL account?  They would quickly discover "AOL Hell" its right next door to "Captcha Hell".

Good thing no one is asking me to be the head of Internet security, I would work on actually making the Internet safe again.  As I often say:
"The Internet used to be like going to the library to read a book, now its like walking through a mine field".  -Bob Davis