Saturday, July 31, 2010

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/898460131.png[/IMG][/URL]
http://www.speedtest.net/result/898460131.png

I have this here because on 08/09/2010, we will be getting an upgrade in service and I want to see the comparison.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Don't leave it on the desk...

This is not my own writing...someone emailed this to me and I thought I should pass it along.

DON'T LEAVE IT ON THE DESK"
There was a certain Professor of Religion named Dr. Christianson, a studious man who taught at a small college in the western United States.

Dr. Christianson taught the required survey course in Christianity at this particular institution. Every student was required to take this course their freshman year, regardless of his or her major.

Although Dr. Christianson tried hard to communicate the essence of the gospel in his class, he found that most of his students looked upon the course as nothing but required drudgery. Despite his best efforts, most students refused to take Christianity seriously.

This year, Dr. Christianson had a special student named Steve. Steve was only a freshman, but was studying with the intent of going onto seminary for the ministry. Steve was popular, he was well liked, and he was an imposing physical specimen. He was now the starting center on the school football team, and was the best student in the professor's class.

One day, Dr. Christianson asked Steve to stay after class so he could talk with him.

"How many push-ups can you do?"

Steve said, "I do about 200 every night."

"200? That's pretty good, Steve," Dr. Christianson said. "Do you think you could do 300?"

Steve replied, "I don't know.... I've never done 300 at a time"

"Do you think you could?" again asked Dr. Christianson.

"Well, I can try," said Steve.

"Can you do 300 in sets of 10? I have a class project in mind and I need you to do about 300 push-ups in sets of ten for this to work. Can you do it? I need you to tell me you can do it," said the professor.

Steve said, "Well... I think I can...yeah, I can do it."

Dr. Christianson said, "Good! I need you to do this on Friday.. Let me explain what I have in mind."

Friday came and Steve got to class early and sat in the front of the room. When class started, the professor pulled out a big box of donuts. No, these weren't the normal kinds of donuts, they were the extra fancy BIG kind, with cream centers and frosting swirls. Everyone was pretty excited it was Friday, the last class of the day, and they were going to get an early start on the weekend with a party in Dr. Christianson's class.

Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the first row and asked, "Cynthia, do you want to have one of these donuts?"

Cynthia said, "Yes."

Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?"

"Sure!" Steve jumped down from his desk to do a quick ten. Then Steve again sat in his desk. Dr. Christianson put a donut on Cynthia's desk.

Dr. Christianson then went to Joe, the next person, and asked, "Joe, do you want a donut?"

Joe said, "Yes."
Dr. Christianson asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so Joe can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups, Joe got a donut. And so it went, down the first aisle, Steve did ten push-ups for every person before they got their donut.

Walking down the second aisle, Dr. Christianson came to Scott. Scott was on the basketball team, and in as good condition as Steve. He was very popular and never lacking for female companionship.

When the professor asked, "Scott do you want a donut?"

Scott's reply was, "Well, can I do my own push-ups?"

Dr. Christianson said, "No, Steve has to do them."

Then Scott said, "Well, I don't want one then."

Dr.. Christianson shrugged and then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Scott can have a donut he doesn't want?"

With perfect obedience Steve started to do ten push-ups.

Scott said, "HEY! I said I didn't want one!"

Dr. Christianson said, "Look! This is my classroom, my class, my desks, and these are my donuts. Just leave it on the desk if you don't want it." And
he put a donut on Scott's desk.

Now by this time, Steve had begun to slow down a little. He just stayed on the floor between sets because it took too much effort to be getting up and
down. You could start to see a little perspiration coming out around his brow.

Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Now the students were beginning to get a little angry. Dr. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a
donut?"

Sternly, Jenny said, "No."

Then Dr. Christianson asked Steve, "Steve, would you do ten more push-ups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn't want?"

Steve did ten....Jenny got a donut.

By now, a growing sense of uneasiness filled the room. The students were beginning to say, "No!" and there were all these uneaten donuts on the desks.

Steve also had to really put forth a lot of extra effort to get these push-ups done for each donut. There began to be a small pool of sweat on
the floor beneath his face, his arms and brow were beginning to get red because of the physical effort involved.

Dr. Christianson asked Robert, who was the most vocal unbeliever in the class, to watch Steve do each push up to make sure he did the full ten push-ups in a set because he couldn't bear to watch all of Steve's work for all of those uneaten donuts. He sent Robert over to where Steve was so Robert count the set and watch Steve closely.

Dr. Christianson started down the fourth row.. During his class, however, some students from other classes had wandered in and sat down on the steps
along the radiators that ran down the sides of the room. When the professor realized this, he did a quick count and saw that now there were 34 students
in the room. He started to worry if Steve would be able to make it.

Dr. Christianson went on to the next person and the next and the next. Near the end of that row, Steve was really having a rough time. He was taking a
lot more time to complete each set.

Steve asked Dr. Christianson, "Do I have to make my nose touch on each one?"

Dr. Christianson thought for a moment, "Well, they're your push-ups. You are in charge now. You can do them any way that you want." And Dr.
Christianson went on.

A few moments later, Jason, a recent transfer student, came to the room and was about to come in when all the students yelled in one voice, "NO! Don't
come in! Stay out!"

Jason didn't know what was going on. Steve picked up his head and said, "No, let him come."

Professor Christianson said, "You realize that if Jason comes in you will have to do ten push-ups for him?"

Steve said, "Yes, let him come in. Give him a donut."

Dr. Christianson said, "Okay, Steve, I'll let you get Jason's out of the way right now. Jason, do you want a donut?"

Jason, new to the room, hardly knew what was going on. "Yes," he said, "give me a donut."

"Steve, will you do ten push-ups so that Jason can have a donut?"

Steve did ten push-ups very slowly and with great effort. Jason, bewildered, was handed a donut and sat down.

Dr Christianson finished the fourth row, and then started on those visitors seated by the heaters. Steve's arms were now shaking with each push-up in a struggle to lift himself against the force of gravity. By this time sweat was profusely dropping off of his face, there was no sound except his heavy
breathing; there was not a dry eye in the room.

The very last two students in the room were two young women, both cheerleaders, and very popular. Dr. Christianson went to Linda, the second to last, and asked, "Linda, do you want a doughnut?"

Linda said, very sadly, "No, thank you."

Professor Christianson quietly asked, "Steve, would you do ten push-ups so that Linda can have a donut she doesn't want?"

Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push-ups for Linda.

Then Dr. Christianson turned to the last girl, Susan. "Susan, do you want a donut?"

Susan, with tears flowing down her face, began to cry. "Dr. Christianson, why can't I help him?"

Dr Christianson, with tears of his own, said, "No, Steve has to do it alone; I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut whether they want it or not. When I decided to have a party this last day of class, I looked at my grade book. Steve here is the only student with a perfect grade. Everyone else has failed a test, skipped class, or offered me inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push-ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push-ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes."

"Steve, would you do ten push-ups so Susan can have a donut?"

As Steve very slowly finished his last push-up, with the understanding that he had accomplished all that was required of him, having done 350 push-ups,
his arms buckled beneath him and he fell to the floor.

Dr. Christianson turned to the room and said, "And so it was, that our Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross, plead to the Father, 'Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' With the understanding that He had done everything that was required of Him, He yielded up His life. And like some of those in this room, many of us leave the gift on the desk, uneaten. "

Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted, but wearing a thin smile.

"Well done, good and faithful servant," said the professor, adding, "Not all sermons are preached in words."

Turning to his class, the professor said, "My wish is that you might understand and fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He spared not His Only Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all, for the whole Church, now and forever. Whether or not we choose to accept His gift to us, the price has been paid."

"Wouldn't you be foolish and ungrateful to leave it lying on the desk?"

Share this with someone. It's bound to touch their heart and demonstrate Salvation in a very special way.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Low battery msg fix

If any of you have a Logitech wireless mouse, and you have the Logitech Setpoint software installed, you've surely noticed that the Low Battery Warning popup gets annoying, really quick.

It's not very accurate. When it starts reporting my batteries as being "CRITICAL", it means that I have about two weeks of using my mouse left before the mouse starts having communication issues. I'd rather not be forced to buy new batteries every three weeks just to shut up an annoying popup.

I really like the extra buttons on my mouse, so shutting down Setpoint isn't a good option.

Searching the Logitech Forums proved fruitless. Not only is there not a way to turn the blasted thing off, but the programmers seem to have no motivation to program that functionality in.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. After some searching, I found the xml file where Setpoint keeps its language information. I played with the settings a bit, and found a solution.

Browse to your Setpoint program folder. It's probably in Program Files/Logitech/SetPoint

With your favorite text editor (Notepad will work fine), open KEM.xml, and find the following lines:

Your %1's batteries are %2

If you change that line to:



(look at the code fo rthe actual text...don't know how to fix this, don't have time now)

You will find that the popup never rears its ugly head, again. The great thing about this fix is that you can still hover over the tray icon, and see your battery status.

As a side note, if you wish, you can change that text to whatever you would like. I changed it to something more amusing, and found that, although it was still annoying, the popup wasn't nearly as bad if it were cursing at me.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Happy New Year 2010!

Well...a day late, but close enough. I am not going to make myself any promises about posting more often this year, but we shall see. I finished Baldur's Gate 2 yesterday after many attempts to kill Irenicus. I am now on to the addon and hopefully it won't take me as long to finish that.
I am winding down my (wonderful) 16 day break from work. I have to go back on Monday, but it will be nice to get back to a more regular grind...for a little while I guess.
Hopefully will be meeting Spencer Williams from Control Point today before my family goes to see Sherlock Holmes. He is bringing something to me on his way back from CPCon#3 in Alabama...I wonder what it could be?

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Guild Season 3 - Episode 6

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&amp;from=sp&amp;vid=09ca7e47-a094-46b3-ace4-d28658ee76a1" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 6: Newbtastic">Video: Season 3 - Episode 6: Newbtastic</a>

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The Guild Season 3 - Episode 5

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=d492d422-9f08-481f-a6c7-e0f096cf614e" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 5: Application&#39;d">Video: Season 3 - Episode 5: Application&#39;d</a>

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Rain Rain Go Away...

Well, I worked from home today due to all of the flooding and resulting traffic problems. I am glad that I brought some work home Monday night for just such an emergency. We have had around 16" of rain over the last few days and flooding got pretty bad all around. Fortunately we are not affected directly by flood waters, but we are under a boil notice and are just getting our water pressure back from last night. It has been dry and sunny most of the day, so hopefully that will help out quite a bit. Keep the folks in bad shape in your prayers.

The Guild Season 3 - Gag Reel Ep 1-4

<br /> <a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=2408c4d7-0526-464d-bb55-aee3c0543077" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Gag Reel: Episodes 1-4">Video: Season 3 - Gag Reel: Episodes 1-4</a>

The Guild Season 3 - Episode 4

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=2db36212-baaf-4fe6-9cc5-cdefe4b27f40" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 4: Get it back!">Video: Season 3 - Episode 4: Get it back!</a>

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Abstract Compilation 001


Abstract Compilation 001 by ~ClydeFrogDA on deviantART

The Guild Season 3 Episode 3

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=80a029bc-7a7a-4f6e-b63c-8c4e73975e20" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 3: Player Down">Video: Season 3 - Episode 3: Player Down</a>

Thursday, September 10, 2009

My Faith

(note: I am not a writer and tend to ramble, but bear with me and hopefully this can be helpful to someone. The message is the main thing, but any writing criticism is welcome as well.)
"I am a Christian"
   Making that statement to someone can bring all sorts of reactions. Some acknowledge the statement from the perspective of "Hey, that's great, me too!" Still others may react with sarcasm or disdainful statements like "Oh...you're one of those types." Fortunately, most are pretty polite about it, even if they are apathetic towards the whole thing. I usually try to simply live my life in a Christian manner and don't just offer the statement up unless it fits the conversation.
   These days, Christianity can be synonymous with religion in its negative connotations, which is unfortunate. Christianity is really more about a relationship with Jesus than it is about religion and denomination. Some of the worst portrayal of Christianity is found in the media, as can be expected. Groups like the KKK and Westboro Baptist Church are prime examples of the extremes people go under the name of Christianity. If you are reading this, please...please don't think that things like this represent what we are all about,
   I wanted to write this in order to share my faith in Jesus to all who care to read. I want to try and explain why and how I believe and how I try to share this through my life. I am not a "bible-thumper" and would never try to force anyone to believe in God & Jesus. It isn't possible to force anyone to truly believe in anything...you have to prove it to yourself.
   I have not lead a perfect life by any means, nor have I always done what I should to "be a Christian." We are all human, and we have all been given free will by God to choose what we believe in and what we do with our lives. God wants us to love Him, and to choose good over evil. He sent his Son to die on the cross so that he would be the ultimate sacrifice for us in our sinful nature.http://www.carm.org/christianity/christian-doctrine/jesus-saves This link gives the basics and is what I believe. I actually hesitated to put this link in because it is stated very matter of fact and serious, which it is. I hesitated, because even though what is said is true, to most it will come across as very harsh and unfeeling/clinical. I urge you to read it and take it to heart though. it is a very serious matter. When I share my faith, I try to explain the same truths, but people have to be talked to in a way they understand, and they have to see the example in how you live your life. Even writing this, I have to stop and think..."does this come across wrong", or "are people going to take this the way I mean?"
   I feel like the bottom line is this: where do you want to spend eternity? We all die, and I cannot conceive of non-existence. Therefore, through the evidence of the world and from what I read in the Bible, I see two classic forces at work, good and evil. I certainly want to spend eternity with God in Heaven, rather than with Satan in Hell. Those are the two choices...that is it. I know, this is a product of my upbringing and my faith and some may think it narrow minded, but it makes sense to me. Accepting that Jesus is God's son, that he was sent to die for our salvation, and turning away from your sinful nature, is what will save you from eternal damnation. God asks nothing for this but your faith, love and acceptance.
   Once you become a Christian...you will have no more problems and all will be great! Yeah, right. The old cliche' of "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" really has a lot of truth to it, even if it can come across as a little condescending. Yes, we are forgiven...but that doesn't mean that we have a free pass. Like I have said before, we are all human and we all make mistakes. Please don't let any one individual's or group's actions or words cause you to have a bad taste about Christianity. It comes down to you and God. Search out the truth yourself, even ask God to reveal Himself to you...he will listen. If you don't know what you believe, or you don't believe and want to challenge God...ask him to reveal His truth to you and I bet you will be surprised. Be willing to know the truth and it will be revealed to you.
   OK, I told you that I ramble...sorry. This has been on my mind and I wanted to get it out in some form or another. Those of you that know me, know I am sincere in my beliefs and wish only the best for anyone. Please post comments, I don't really want to debate things as I am not a great debater, but if you have questions you want to ask, feel free and I will try to give you as good of an answer as I can give.
Take care and thanks for reading.
ClydeFrog