Stormbringer's Thunder

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Hopefully, my experiences both before and after the crash may prove helpful to some folks. Here is what happened. In July 2020, I decided to replace my Windows 7 computer. That underrated eMachine was a workhorse, and I asked a lot by simultaneously running programs that were heavy on resources, and I ran some at the same time. It was showing its age, so I was proactive and replaced it with an Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 Desktop. Pixabay / Gerd Altmann Not a bad price, and it had a DVD ROM. Yes, some of us still need those things. Don't be a tech snob. Gave it a bit more RAM, and I was off to the races. Important Computer Precautions Yeah, some race. I had to learn how to use Windows 10. Fortunately, I have experience with computers, including Windows all the way back to Win95 (not much with Vista, and I utterly detested Win8 on my wife's laptop). Since I already have a Microsoft account and know some of the basics of operating systems, getting online was n...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  It seems that every day has been designated as a national or world day for an observance, whether to "raise awareness", celebrate, or something prosaic. October 10 is World Mental Health Day. Fine, I reckon it is a good idea to point out that millions of people have mental health issues. Many are simply things we just learn to deal with, others are debilitating and need counseling as well as medication. Several times, this child has admitted to dealing with depression. Everyone probably has it to some degree on occasion, and other times it is a lifelong struggle due to chemical imbalances in the brain. My hypertension medications contribute to it. People in the Bible were troubled with depression. My photo of the Hudson River, the Rondout Lighthouse is very small on the left side Some of those problems were short-term based on circumstances, others seemed to be lifelong. David wrote some psalms showing his depression over events and his own sins, and E...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  A bane of social media, especially for those who present information, is that too many people are self-appointed experts on whatever topic is presented; they have opinions are are not afraid to express them. Christians and creationists deal with atheists who spout off with prejudicial conjecture , which often means, " I know nothing about the subject but I must cast aspersions anyway ." It happens on other subjects as well. We also have to deal with uninformed conjecture . Mostly made at PhotoFunia Expressing an opinion on a subject folks know little or nothing about is common. Watch some of those interviews of people in the street ( like the one included here ) and you'll see that even though many know nothing, they seem to feel compelled to say something anyway. I try to avoid using questions in titles of my own material, that's just asking for it. For example, I recently posted, " Is Jesus the Creator? " Atheopaths laugh at those t...

There are people who appeal to science as an authority on what they want to hear. The secular science industry has   become increasingly leftist in recent years  (which probably frustrates scientists who want to do actual science without dealing with political agendas). It is still a scientific fact there are only two sexes. Basic biology is not changed  have so-called gender reassignment surgery. Despite a few abnormalities that actually prove the rule,  you cannot change the sex God gave you . Credit: Unsplash /  Jose Chomali When I was doing medical data entry, claim forms had check boxes for male and female. That's it. Nor was there anyplace to note how someone felt that day. It's not just the obvious physical differences, but body chemistry as well. Some medications and treatments for men may react quite differently for women. There are individuals who develop psychological issues lumped as “gender dysphoria” for various reasons, often due to faulty relatio...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen In the thrilling days of internet yesteryear, people were using emoticons to express reactions with face-like symbols. This platform automatically turns the text version into a picture so I am unable to make one of the old styles, but you know: Those things with a combination of a colon, dash, right parenthesis to make a smiley face. They evolved into graphic emojis, and people do not need to turn their heads to see them. Credit: Unsplash / Lidya Nada Now the things are ubiquitous on social media, and even show up in more serious online posts and articles. (In my opinion, they should be avoided or at least used sparingly, depending on the article, subject matter, and so on.) Smartphones make them exceptionally easy to use. Text messages are an entirely different animal, so it's obviously up to the individual in that regard. Using desktop browsers, I have an option insert them 😸 as well as other special characters. Also, this dreadful Blogger platform has a s...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Back in the 1960s, there was a fad with a ball made of synthetic rubber that would bounce back very efficiently. Throw it in the living room, it bounces a lot, maybe breaks your mother's favorite lamp, makes the cat hide behind the couch, scuffs the walls, and so on. My articles on browsers and security have been bouncing around. The first one is here , then a few more, and something a bit tangential is over at " How to Conduct Insufficient Research ". Now I bounced over to this weblog again. Credit: Pexels /  energepic.com We hear so much about internet security nowadays, and reports seem conflicting and incomplete. Some of them touted certain lesser-known browsers as the safest, while others specifically condemned them. The big players I discussed in previous articles had varying reviews, and sometimes that is from people doing tests of a clinical nature. They were pretty much deemed reliable. From what I gather, on browsers were out-of-the-box a...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  For many years, Firefox was my main browser. It has several features that I were very useful to me. After my bad breakup with it , I ended up using a fork known as Waterfox. It has been pretty good, but is not my default browser and more like a utility that I use on occasion. Something I like in FFX and forks is the download indicators. Those in Chromium-based browsers irritate me. Except... Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos / Stuart Miles As stated before, I have the perspective of a Windows 10 user, so this article is unhelpful for users with mobile devices. While I use a smartphone, it's a derringer compared to my .44-40 desktop. When I do research and obtain information, I want the downloads on the big gun, not on the little thing where they are inconvenient to obtain. Many people like to hate Microsoft. I'll allow that they rush things to market before thorough testing (one reason I don't hurry to download new software releases right away), love money t...