http://otweb.com On The Web Blog http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=862 Here's a synopsis of how I installed dig on Cygwin: 1. Run the Cygwin setup and for the download site use: ftp://sunsite.dk/projects/cygwinports 2. Install the "Bind" package. 3. Determine the DNS being used. ipconfig /all 4. Create the /etc/resolv.conf. nameserver <DNS IP> If this is not done, you'll get the error "communcations error: connection reset" when you run dig. 5. Run dig http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=861 We just got back from a 3 week trip to Taiwan. We went to celebrate grandmom's 90th birthday and got to see many relatives. Pictures from the trip: Gallery Dad's Gaelyn's http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=859 The DebatingChristianity.com forum has been down for the past several days. And will continue to be down for possibly another week. It has been having high server usage and the web hosting provider has shut it down. I'm in the process of trying to migrate it over to a dedicated server. http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=858 Today, I created my first Facebook application. And it wasn't too hard to do! They've got a decent API and it allowed me to do what I wanted. One thing I don't like about Facebook is the extremely limited paging functionality when you're going through a large list. All you have is "1 2 3 Next" or "Prev 2 3 4 Next". Can't I at least have a "Start" and "End" also? But since they don't, it takes forever to get to the end of any list. So, I created an application that views all the members of the groups I belong to and can jump to any page directly. You can check it out at Group Viewer. http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=857 In addition to the financial storm, now we are in the midst of the global perfect storm in food also. Climate change, droughts, decrease in farming, increase in population, increase in biofuel production, increase in transportation costs, increase in oil costs, monetary inflation, and agriculture investment speculation - all these are resulting in agricultural inflation, or agflation. It seems like the only thing next is a plague of locusts. Coverage: Agflation coverage - Reuters Terms: Agflation - Investopedia Agflation - Wiktionary Articles: The food crisis "Agflation" is the New Buzzword Food riots fear after rice price hits a high Shoppers scrimp as food prices rise Agflation Videos: The causes of 'agflation' The fight over the world's food systems Sites: Stuffed and Starved http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=856 I've wanted a backup solution and I decided to go with a network hard drive. Microcenter had a good deal on one for $150 for a 500 Gig Iomega Network drive. It was simple to install. And I was backing up right away. And now any computer on my network can access it at any time. It's incredible how cheap this solution is. I believe I paid the same price years ago for a Zip drive just to store 100 Meg. http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=855 Here's what's happening to the US economy so that even a first grader can understand it: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again. As I've mentioned before, we are undergoing the most severe US economic downturn that will occur in my lifetime. This one will make it into the economic books and be studied in detail. We see highly unusual actions (read desperate) moves by the FED and the government to try to contain this. (Didn't Bernanke state last year that it was already contained?) But, I'm afraid that it's not going to be able to put Mr Dumpty back together again. The US has reached it's economic apogee. We have held the position of the economic powerhouse of the earth for awhile. And someone else will be coming up to bat. We'll probably end up being an England or a Germany, strong but not a global leader. The permabulls have not all given up yet. They all keep saying we've reached the bottom. But, unless fundamentals change, the argument that 'we've gone down so much already it can't go down much more' is not very convincing. What am I doing with my portfolio during this time? Being aggressively defensive. Inverse ETFs, gold, oil, international stocks, money market, income bonds. Everything except having long positions in US stocks. http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=854 Here's a free way to rip a DVD to a Zune. Use DVD Shrink to rip the DVD to an ISO file. Then use Handbrake to convert the ISO file to a .m4v file. Some directions on how to do that is here. Then use the Zune software to move it to Zune player. Links: DVD Shrink Handbrake Ripping to Zune instructions http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=853 I've finally decided to play around with subscribing to podcasts ever since the latest Zune software upgrade. And it's pretty cool. The Zune software is pretty limited, but functional. I wish I could specify how many episodes to keep per subscription, but it's either 1 to 10 or everything. And I can't figure out a way to edit the feed urls. But, the good thing is that it works. I just start it up, plug in the Zune, and it downloads and syncs up automatically. Here are the feeds that I've subscribed to so far: 60 Minutes APM: Marketplace APM: Corner Office BBC: Material World BestOfYouTube Larry King CNN News Update PBS Dragonfly Ecogeeks FOX News Sunday FOX O'Reilly ID The Future Serge Melnyk Chinese Lessons MSNBC: Meet the Press PBS: NerdTV PBS: Nova Religion and Ethics NPR: CarTalk Face the Nation Content Providers: NPR PBS FOX News CNN BBC MSNBC Audio Directories: podcast.com mediafly Video Directories: podcast.com vodstock.com podguide.tv videopodcasts.tv http://otweb.com/phramework/pw/module/blog/index.php?id=852 During the past several Sunday evenings, I gave four talks at church on the "Creation of God". It was the first time that I've ever given a series on Creationism. Since everyone pretty much believed what I believed, it was an easy talk to give. The only time people seemed to be at odds with what I was saying was when I said I believed in the Big Bang. But, after I went into more detail about it, people seemed to accept my version of the Big Bang, or more correctly, the White Hole Model. Afterwards, Pastor Jonathan said I should give this talk to the surrounding churches. And I'd be open to it. And I'm also now starting to contemplate about trying to write a book on this. Here are the talks that I gave: Creation of God - Universe Creation of God - Earth Creation of God - Life Creation of God - Flood