Author Archive

End of 2009 tasks

Posted: 29th December 2009 by Craig Rettig in Life
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Yes, it’s been a while, but between the holiday bustle and a nasty head cold, I haven’t been extremely chatty as of late. In any case, the end of the year brings with it certain things that need done, and the changing of the calendar is a good time as any. Maybe these will help [...]

Using Startpage to maximize your search privacy

Posted: 11th December 2009 by Craig Rettig in Internet
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Some stink is being made about Google’s retention and tracking of search data. A director at Mozilla has even claimed that Microsoft has better privacy practices, and he recommends users change their default web search to Bing. Allow me to introduce Startpage: Startpage claims no retention of user search data, and you have the option [...]

Tunesday: Joe Satriani – Silent Night/Holy Night Jam

Posted: 8th December 2009 by Craig Rettig in Entertainment
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From the album Merry Axemas – A Guitar Christmas.

Call me old, but I still love Lynx

Posted: 7th December 2009 by Craig Rettig in Computers
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Back in the days before GUI operating systems, the web was a completely different animal. Relying on text-only presentation, the king of Internet browsing was a program called Lynx. Of course, back in those days, you had 9600 baud modems, unless you were a bleeding-edge person with a whopping 28.8 kbps one. However, even in [...]

Things Everyone Should Have – Programmable Thermostat

Posted: 4th December 2009 by Craig Rettig in Life
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As winter begins to kick in here in the Mid-South, the inevitable sound of the furnace running begins as well. Possibly the best investment I made shortly after buying my home was a programmable thermostat. My house had a standard thermostat installed when I moved in, and I just set it on 70°F and left [...]

Free Software I Love – 2009 Edition

Posted: 2nd December 2009 by Craig Rettig in Computers
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I’d given a list of freeware I like several years ago, and while several are repeated, there are some new ones to add to the mix. So without further adieu, here’s my list for 2009:

Tunesday: Toxicity by two violins and drums

Posted: 17th November 2009 by Craig Rettig in Entertainment
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I’m not a System of a Down fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I really like this cover by these three ladies. For as young as they appear to be, their musical skills are impressive.

Spiffy is pretty spiffy

Posted: 12th November 2009 by Craig Rettig in Computers
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If you want to keep on top of your GMail account, but don’t want to have a browser or e-mail program open all the time, check out Spiffy. Spiffy is a tiny, free application that pops up a notification window when you have new mail. From this pop-up, you can have it open your browser [...]

The Matrix: 1920 version

Posted: 11th November 2009 by Craig Rettig in Entertainment
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This is a rather well-done parody by a Russian actors’ group called “Big Difference”. Enjoy.

Tunesday: Nightwish – The Islander

Posted: 10th November 2009 by Craig Rettig in Entertainment
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Nightwish is a symphonic power metal band from Kitee, Finland, and was one of the first melodic female-fronted metal bands. Originally fronted by classical-opera-trained Tarja Turunen, a split forced them to find a new singer, the more mainstream-sounding Anette Olzon. I had the pleasure of seeing them live this past summer, and they were amazing. [...]