sw00996d59-Progress

after security update surprise is being made,
however slowly and thumpily.  6 PM is about to be.
One of the major problems I had was with links in
sidebar sections.  They simply would not connect
to the destinations they pointed toward.  That is,
no connection could be established.  However,
strangely, a few did not have that problem.  Had
to flip my go-to browser from Google to AOL
and also download and run the AOL toolbar.
May yet have other challenges, but this change
I did not want to make has helped.




Brian A. J. Salchert      2008-09-05

sw00995d58-Security

update surprise late last night changed my system.
So I have been spending much of today trying to
figure out what it did and what I now must do to
complete tasks I can no longer complete as I did
before.  Have made some progress, but it looks
like I will be firmly in the discomfort zone a while.




Brian A. J. Salchert      2008-09-04 

sw00765st76-2topics

          nature                              computer technology


   From what I read somewhere, the juncos that winter here in
Springfield, Missouri, are slant-eyed juncos.  Could be.  Flocks
of them continue to flit about, flaunting the white shafts on their
tails.  They seem to like using the bush I call Sturdy Bush as a 
place to sit while they look about.  Sturdy is back to being an
empty thing, its many wands curving tall-man up, laddered with
twigs for bird blossoms such as the lone cardinal one.

Got an answer to one of my questions at the ZoneAlarm forum.
Also, my AOL/AIM OpenID comment was allowed by the admin- 
istrator of the blog I entered it at.  Glad I put my first name and
the first letter of my surname in the text/ because the ID on
my comment is my screenname.  Google asserts using OpenID
will end spoofing.  There's a YouTube video I want to post.
Know a little about how to.  Guess I'll just have to ready a page,
sign in at YT, locate that video, paste its code, and attempt to
copy it on the page waiting for it.  On the WWW/Internet there
is just no end to learning for those who are willing to learn.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00764st75-3topics

  jet exhaust clouds       The Undulant Trees       AOL/AIM OpenID


   Busy day yesterday, both on this computer and out in Springfield.
Most of my online time was spent reading and watching.  Still trying
to figure out how to deal with several software programs.  May try
to learn about making and posting videos.  Do have some photos of 
clouds I intend to share.  Today the sky is clear// and all the clouds
are jet exhaust ones.  Took 4 photos of them through my bedroom
window.  Each of two of those caught a jet.  Won't know for some
while how they turned out.

Went to archives to count what's in The Undulant Trees, a not yet
complete book/ of mostly poems only incidentally about trees.  In
34 entries are 88 objects: 1 ditty, 5 muttobs, and 82 poems.  How
many objects this book will contain when I sense it is complete is--
to me at least--an unknown.  Given the variousness of what I am/
putting in it, its title is more metaphorical than descriptive.

9:15 PM - May have made my first AOL/AIM OpenID comment.
Encountered the blog which is using Open ID last night.  Tried to
make a comment as I usually do, using my Blogger account.  Did
not seem to work, though the blog owner could have decided he
did not want to allow it.  Spent many minutes learning about yo
Open ID, but never was quite able to understand it.  That is why
I went to give it another try.  The process is fairly simple, but
is more involved than the usual method.  Anyway, the message
stating that "your comment has been saved" did show tonight. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00760st72-tech.forums

  I have long had an aversion to forum sites,
but the important experiences I have had
at two technology forums this week changed
my opinion about them.  Thought is needed
to use them effectively, but the best forums
reward such care.

It is after 5 PM, and though the sky is clear,
Earth's spin is deepening darkness.  The sun
sinks somewhere/ I cannot see.  Earth rising/
sunset is.

It is after 11 PM, and I am waiting for an
answer to a question.  I doubt one will be
posted tonight.  Am hoping my concern
is due to my lack of knowledge, and so 
is moot.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00757st70-tech.lessons

  Maybe all/ will be well/ but it's still too early to tell.
Was able to get some program questions answered.
Discovered www.neuber.com has an excellent forum.
Of course they also want to sell products.  When the
name of a program such as mantispm is searched at
Google, Neuber's site often comes up.  Take a look.

For my needs/ My Routine is not useful.  However,
the address bar is, especially now that it empties
each time I sign off AOL.  I use Go to get to AOL
Search, and the arrow to get to a session's history.
It is replacing my now deleted offline homepage/
which the house icon brought up when its file was
the current page in Internet Explorer.  One day I
may go back to that method of connecting.

Had been wondering why my firewall / anti-virus /
anti-spyware product stopped giving the number
of attempted intrusions.  Learned today that the 
NAT technology in my wireless product blocks
such intrusions before they get to the protections
provided by the fw/a-v/a-s product. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00752st65-aol.live.help

   At 8:02 this morning there were 15 Mourning Doves at the apex of
the roof of the apartment building just north of this one/ and a single
Mourning Dove on a telephone wire between the buildings.  They
were having a foggy morning meeting.

Notes about my journal edit troubles:
-
As I indicated in st64, my situation has improved, for now at least.
-
Since a LIVE HELP tech wished to know how things were going
with me, I sent an email yesterday to one of them.  Do hope they
have read it because it contains useful information.  I have kept 
copies of it.  Still will be doing more investigating on my end.
-
Save button sometimes gets stuck.
Cancel key did not get stuck when I clicked it moments ago.
It is AM 9:28.
-
Well, made several security changes on my system.  Seems to
have made no difference.  Did chat with tech person about
blocking cookies from 2 ad locations.
-
2:15 PM
Need to know certain things it may be difficult to find out about.
Found a site via Google which answered a question concerning 
TopSpeed & Footprints.  I did 1 clearing action to find out more.
Doing so did not get rid of my edit annoyances.  Save button is 
back to sticking again on my first use of it.  Of course, the last
two times it didn't stick.  Maybe it saw what I wrote about it.
As I have 7 months of my blog to check, I'm returning to that
need.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00751st64-edit.problems

  Still having edit problems, but they are slightly diminished because of a 
change I made in IE/ and also because I have found a more general way
to stay connected to my blog.  Am not going to share the details here.
Want to continue my investigations for a while first.  If the malfunction
routine consistently stays as it now is, I can be assured that on my third
entry attempt I will get the error message by which I know my edit has
been saved.  This means that after the second malfunction I can safely
enter more characters.
-
Did a defragmentation which finished at AM 10:44.  Helped a smidgen.
Can't say whether it will last, but for now--though the error messages
have not gone away--the Save and Cancel keys are not getting stuck. 



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00748st61-blog.snags

Deleted S H link in F P.  Why?  A post from Joe I found on G said to.
Only 1 edit saved properly so far.  Usually getting J i u / J i u / P c b f.
J i u = AOL Journals is unavailable error message.  Erases HTML edits.
P c b f = Page cannot be found error message.  Untrue: saves HTML edits.
Homepage link saved properly.  Tags are not saving.  Went offline.
Set hover for links.  Returned here via Community.  Got a tag to save.
Still usually J i u / J i u / P c b f.  Read sw00747st below.  When a SAVE
gets an immediate Done but the page does not turn over, the page must
be closed out.  That Done = dead.  Yesterday, per instructions, I cleared
the AOL Utilities cache to 0 MB and rebuilt the Adapter.  PM 2:55 - I
just did an AOL ARTWORK PURGE as per instructions.  Sometimes when
I click SAVE// nothing happens.  Am going back to revising my journal.
8 PM  Removed the dates from the other 60 st entries.  It was not easy.
It did not cure my editing problems.  One entry kicked me out about 12
times before it went into the J / J / P routine.  9:27 PM  Was offline and
over at Google for several reasons.  Found one possibly useful item in IE:
days to keep pages in history feature.  I've known about it but can never
decide how many days to set it at.  400?  Something's amiss in javascript.
And it's been amiss since 11-27-07.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00747st60-caches.adapter

 Tunnelling is still off, but I printed the instructions sent to me 12/11/2007,
and followed them.  I've lost my IE hyperlink hover as a result, but that is
not as important as I felt it was.  Since I never had to concern myself with
footprint clearing before (especially on a daily basis), I do not get why I
have to now; but my SAVE button is working properly again.

Darn.  T on.  Tough day.  Sent status report at PM 6:06.
The Fates are snickering.

Got more info.  Cleared Utilities cache and rebuilt Adapter.  It's PM 8:26.
Will see how it goes.  Re-instated old special IE homepage.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00746st59-memory

Hazy day.   Had a RAM upgrade installed this morning.

Trying another fix idea.

Birds about: blue jay, mourning doves, juncos, cardinal,
and maybe a sparrow and a starling



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00743st57-save.button

My SAVE button problem was fixed by an online AOL technician.
I have sent a (no text) email to Joseph Manna about it.  All I had 
to do was follow his instructions, two of which involved clearing files
in Internet Explorer.  I requested that he email me his instructions.
He did.
-
For Live Help go to Settings.  Once there, scroll to bottom of page
and click on Contact Us.  Click the link to Live Help.  

The weather in SW Missouri is in a state of uncertainty, but it is
considerably warmer than it was yesterday.  That means/ if this
area gets anything, it will be rain.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                    

sw00727st50-followup

Sent an important email to the Social Media blogmaster.  If I do not
get a response, either directly or indirectly, I am going to post it.
-
4:32 PM -- Here's part of the response I got:
.
"Thanks, Brian.  We're working on a huge follow-up post
that addresses the many concerns and questions that people
have had."  . . . .  "Re: Journals page.  We know the lack of
Journals are there, but we're working on fixing it."
-
For me this is satisfactory, but every AOL user needs to be
aware of it.  This blog, being what it is, does not attract many
visitors.  Yet, this is top-now AOL news.

12.01.07 - See Magic Smoke main message about journals.



-
Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00724st48-blogging.notes

Found another interior way to get to my blog.  The steps are:
Click Community, then Journals.  If this takes you to the Blogs
page, enter one word in the Search Blogs space that relates 
directly to your blog.  My blog's name has two words.  The
first of those two is the most significant and unique.  Type in
your one word and proceed to search.  This will take you to
a page that--in my case at least--appears to be unhelpful.  Do
NOT read the search suggestions if this is what occurs.  Scroll
down to Journals in the box at the left and click it.  This should
get you to a link to your journal (blog).  That is the way I got
in moments ago.  Also, yesterday I placed a link to my blog in 
Favorite Places.  One other thing: though I do not know if it
matters, I decided to turn on Safe Search.
-
Regarding Chat:  Once you get to the general area, you need
to choose a topic, and so on from there.  I am not a chat user
so I cannot tell you more.
-
Regarding Profiles:  Put the screen name you use in the primary
search space, but do not search.  Beneath this space advanced
choices are given.  I chose to limit country to United States.
Beneath the choices is a gray search.  Use it.  That is how I 
got to my profile.  What I found there I liked. 



-------------------------
  Brian A. J. Salchert                   

sw00722st47-boppo

The following is a comment I made 25nov07 on Silliman's Blog.
It was an attempt to insert some levity into the comment stream
because all the comments were responses to Ron's comment-
control decision.  Since what I tried to do did not work, today
I suggested the removal of my comment.  Will check later.

     Change of direction, I think.
     -
     Took the link ride to Gatza's PDF.
     I have read The Chinese Notebook.
     This is about the pot holder called "boppo":
     If said pot holder had a loop sewn near its opening,
     a loop through which one finger could be slipped,
     then--and this may be from childhood memories of mine,
     if one does not place one's hand into the pot holder,
     but does place one's index finger through the loop
     and one's thumb inside the pot holder
     and one's other 3 fingers
     of whichever hand one is using/
     outside the pot holder,
     and whacks someone on the head with it,
     the pot holder instantly becomes a "boppo"--no?

Silliman posted my levity and remove comment, and///
did not remove my original comment.  So there you are. 

*
AOL changed things again without even a note on Magic Smoke,
and where they did have information it was insufficient.  Besides,
the feedback link takes one to an email connection which appears
to be fine but causes an error message which voids attempts to 
use it.  Users of products need instructions which are step-by-step/ 
simple and clear.  How did I get here?  I'm not going to tell you, 
but I did find a way.  It is not a way, however, I prefer to take.
-
Got a response from Joseph at socialmedia.aol.com.  He suggested
an alternative which is similar to the way I had found: bookmark
http://      peopleconnection.aol.com/blogs                    Also,
the last comment at the time I was there is by some Steven.  He
obviously understands and uses much of what AOL provides,
but he did say--which is true--the editors blog list needs to be
updated.  Even though I may never use most of what's available,
his comment was interesting.
-
About getting back to this blog:  I knew (as Joseph said) I had
to go from the Main page to the Blogs page.  I also knew about
clicking on the    update your blog   link       but that was getting
me nowhere.  In the upper right corner--which cannot be seen
unless the page is widened--is a Sign In/Sign Out box.  My screen
name was showing Logged in.  Now, if I have       remembered
this correctly, when I clicked on the   update your blog   link,
I was taken back to the Main page/ where, when I clicked on
the Blogs again, I was taken to my blog.  I will need to try this
circuitous routine again to make sure that is what I need to do.
-
Thank you.
-
Just checked the routine for getting to my blog.  It is correct.
One thing though:  When I left here, I just clicked the x box in
the upper right corner, which was the common way to leave.
When I returned via Community / Journals, my screen name
was still showing Logged in.  My sense is that that now exists
for security.  Therefore, it appears that after I leave via the x
box, I need to return to Community / Journals and Sign Out.
-
Well, my method for getting in stopped working.
-
Ended up placing a link to this journal in my Favorites.
* 


Brian A. J. Salchert