Now that Windows XP is no longer a supported operating system you will find more and more of these older computers being pulled from service simply because it is thought that they are not safe and will bring harm to any network they might be connected to.

Disconnecting your old XP Computers from the network (particularly the internet) is probably good advice. Setting your XP driven computers on the curb is just plain wasteful. These old systems may well have much life left in them - particularly those older tank-built Pentium 4 machines manufactured for business use.

Before parting with your old XP computer think about whether it can be used in a single purpose capacity, also known as a computer kiosk. Is there a single program that the computer could run that might take a burden from your shiny new Windows 7 (or ok 8) computer? Imagine rather than booting-up, logging-in and starting the program; you need only turn on the machine to start the program you need.

Kiosk Mode

Regardless of your reason for running your machine in kiosk mode the key steps are going to be: 1.) disabling the log-in screen and 2.) Changing the default "SHELL" from Microsoft Windows Explorer to the program of your choice.

It is a good idea to first create a restricted user named "Kiosk" and don't even bother giving them a password.

I have already detailed the steps for disabling XP logins in a previous article [See BlogDogIt: Disable XP Login]

Here are the steps to having your computer go straight to the program of your choice when it first starts up:

Perhaps one of the most used Windows XP applications in the world of business has been the program known as "Solitaire." This is a specialized business app that would be well suited for use on a dedicated machine in an office environment. This example will show how to set up Solitaire to run on start-up. You can apply these steps to your program of choice (PINBALL.EXE perhaps?)

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The new year brought with it a devastating storm that wrought havok in the Midwest U.S. Many in my area had to endure power outages that lasted for nearly a week as countless power lines were broken from falling tree limbs succumbing to the Blizzard of Twenty-Fourteen.

January 7, 2014

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We were fortunate at our homestead in that the worst of our damage was the TV antenna that went kabluey. This antenna and me go way back and I have been waiting for the day when mild weather and my weekend would align and allow me the opportunity to rescue this storm ravaged trooper.

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Yesterday (Saturday) was a beautiful day and I knew what I had to do. Up on the housetop with my  back-pocket for a tool caddy I began the procedure that would ultimately consume my afternoon.

With the project at ground level I could survey the damages and begin to formulate a plan for restoring the log periodic to this array. Ultimately I return once again to my 1/4 inch thick Plexi-Glass scrap [See BlogDogIt - Bridge Head Template] to fabricate the fix. A trip to the hardware store for the nuts and bolts and...

let the tinkerin' begin

Total cost of repair: less than $10 - Result: Good as new!

Shoddy Onion graphic by BlogDogIt - For Dale if he wants it [smiley::D]

Friends of Dale Harkness and his blog "The Hindenburg Principle" will be pleased to know that after the  "Oh, The Humanity!" moments that resulted in the demise of that blog, Dale has announced the creation of a brand new site - rising up from the ashes - called "The Shoddy Onion"!

Why not stop by The Shoddy Onion and say hello... (Take a clothespin along for your nose if you have an aversion to the pungent smell of bulb-sprouted veggies.)

Shoddy? Well, that is in the nose of the beholder. I have been a fan of this blogger for a while now and encourage you to add him to your rotation - always thought provoking, entertaining and educational.

Here is a sample - the first post of many for The Shoddy Onion:

Welcome back!

Jenn Bostic "Jealous Of The Angels" (Official Video)

One of the more useful things you can do with a computer is to control another computer from a remote location. If you have never used a computer via a remote desktop session then you are probably not aware of the benefits. Imagine using an old junky laptop here to control that high-powered state-of-the-art PC over there. The laptop and PC can be in the same room or opposite hemispheres. All you really need is that ever-present internet connection and a job to do.

Of course there are limitations on what you can do in this scenario. You are not going to have much fun if you try to watch videos or play video games via this sort of connection but you will be able to leverage a minimal amount of resources to access all the computing power of that remote system. Your laptop (or any computer you have handy) will serve as the Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor to interface with whatever the remote system has to offer.

This is not meant to be a tutorial on Remote Desktop Computing; there are already countless resources for that information. I wanted to post this article to present a bit of information I found to be just a little too valuable to be as obscure as it turned out to be when I set about educating myself.

The reason for posting this is to describe the method I am using to connect to a Remote Desktop Session through an SSH Tunneled connection between two Linux machines. This information presumes that the Remote Desktop Server is running TigerVNC-Server and Xrdp or is otherwise able to accept remote desktop connections via the Local Area Network. The Remote Desktop Client (say laptop) must be able to connect to the remote server via an SSH connection. The Client should have xfreerdp installed.  Connecting two Linux computers via SSH should be within the basic skill-set of any Linux OS user and if you are using Linux and are not familiar with the terminal environment - trust me - you are missing out on the "Power" (as these instructions may suggest.)

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Come on along to the 500 World of Wheels Auto Show. There is something for everyone... Hot-rods and Customs, Classic and Imports. Anything on 2, 3 or 4 wheels. A 4 hour visit is condensed into 15 minutes. This is BlogDogIt YouTube Video Number Four.

Image stabilization provided courtesy of YouTube.

While editing this collection of clips I was simultaneously exploring archive.org for some appropriate high-energy music. There were skads of really excellent songs available; I settled on the following three selections:

• Gavica Band - Live, LA Rock Night
  
• Space Invaderz - Syntax
  
• Kimiko Ishizaka - Variatio 2 a 1 Clav.

I tell you what, my wife is so lucky at "being the eighth caller" to WISH-TV Channel 8 and winning prizes that the station should hire her just to make her ineligible [smiley:;)]

This latest prize package was 4 tickets to The World Of Wheels Autorama in Indianapolis. Today we cashed them in.

I decided this would be a good chance to blow the dust out of the sprockets of the video camera so I loaded in some fresh batteries and brought it along. I am glad I did too... You dont normally associate auto shows with "Action" but these dudes of the BMX Extreme Stunt Show brought it by the trailer load.

I collected a great many shots of some very cool cars but this section of the "clip haul" - shot from the bleachers - stands on it's own. I wanted to get this posted now while I edit the Auto Show stuff for release in the not too distant future.

Enjoy the show!

A while back I was needing to create a bunch of DVDs for personal distribution and remembered seeing a "life-hack" that described a method for folding a single sheet of 8-1/2" X 11" paper to hold a CD or DVD disk. A well known search-engine presented the following link that gave step-by-step instructions with some great pictures illustrating the steps: Via SnapHow.com.

 That was several months ago...

Today I once again needed to make up some more of those handy-dandy paper sleeves and - as before - I was intending to add some custom graphics to to the project. I ended up spending nearly 30 minutes just tracking down my custom made template file (for positioning the layout) so I would not have to resort to "reinventing the wheel."

No doubt I will be needing this information again, so I have decided to post the template and a "refresher course" slide presentation right here on BlogDogIt. Next time I will know exactly where to look. I normally work in CorelDRAW for this sort of designing so I am posting a CDR(10) file, I am also offering in Illustrator5 AI  format and in TIFF and PDF for good measure. 

I hope you find this resource as helpful as I know I will!

Download a layout template to suit your needs:
DVD-SleeveTemplate10.cdr [ 13 KB ]
DVD-SleeveTemplate5.ai [ 3 KB ]
DVD-SleeveTemplate.tif [ 574 KB ]
DVD-SleeveTemplate.pdf [ 2 KB ]

While catching up on my blog reading I noticed I had been falling behind on all the latest from PJ Woodside on ThisOldBitchMakesHorrorFlicks. A recent post of hers titled "What Makes Scary" had me thinking about a theory I once studied involving "The Seven Basic Childhood Fears" and how they "play-into" the horror film genre. But then she asked for her readers to tell what has made them truly scared. After responding to her post with a tale from my own life I decided I would rework the reply into a post for BlogDogIt

~

You pose an interesting question PJ. What would be some of my scariest moments? What has happened in my life that has caused me to experience honest to goodness fear? ...

Being startled of things that happen “all of a sudden” and without warning is only natural and beyond my control. I think that is why my reaction – following such a start – is to find it humorous; that the gasping for air and the hair raising on the back of my neck only seems to be out of my control when in fact it is my subconscious “autopilot” doing its job. I worry about folks who were not jolted by that hand from the grave (at the end of Carrie.) They are lacking a basic mechanism for staying alive (as far as I’m concerned.)

The scariest moments in a persons life must truly come when their life is on the line. Thankfully as I reflect on my life there are not too many such times. There is however one incident that ranks as a genuine scary time...

In my younger days I was quite the spelunker – a big fan of cave exploring. Sometimes my party and I would become “misplaced” and that in itself was never so scary as it was inconvenient. Although there was one time that we had such a difficult time finding the exit that we exhausted every source of light except a candle and a Zippo lighter. Let me tell you that was certainly nerve-racking but pales when compared to the time that I found myself utterly stuck in a cave.