FlashLadyBug.com

I’m not going to list reasons why you should wear your seatbelt.
I’m simply going to show you what happens when you DON’T wear your seatbelt.

If you’d like to have an impression of your face on the steering wheel at 30mph, thats up to you.

And, if you must have them :

In 2005, 43,443 people were killed in the estimated 6,159,000
police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes, 2,699,000 people were
injured, and 4,304,000 crashes involved property damage only.

It is estimated that seatbelts saved 15,632 lives in 2005.

(NHTSA)

Seventy-three percent of the passenger vehicle occupants who were in a
fatal crash in 2002 and were restrained survived; of those who were not
restrained, only 43 percent survived. [NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts
2002, October 2003]

In fatal crashes, 73 percent of all
vehicle occupants who were totally ejected were killed. Only 1 percent
of restrained occupants were ejected. Safety belts are effective in
preventing total ejections. [NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts 2002 -
Overview, July 2003]

In 2000, safety belts prevented nearly 11,900 fatalities and 325,000
serious injuries, saving $50 billion in medical care, lost
productivity, and other injury-related costs. [NHTSA, Economic Impact
of Crashes, May 2002]
In the year 2000, the total economic cost of
motor vehicle crashes in the United States was $230.6 billion. This
represents an amount equal to 2.3 percent of the gross domestic
product, or $820 for every person living in the United States. [NHTSA,
Economic Impact of Crashes, May 2002]

The lifetime economic cost to society for each fatality is over
$977,000. Over 80 percent of this amount is attributable to lost
workplace and household productivity. [NHTSA, Economic Impact of
Crashes, May 2002]

[Ed. comment - Even if YOU wear your seatbelt, and your buddy DOESN’T]

Overall, those not directly involved in crashes pay for nearly
three-quarters of all crashcosts, primarily through insurance premiums,
taxes and travel delay. In 2000 these costs, borne by society rather
than by crash victims, totaled over $170 billion. [NHTSA,Economic
Impact of Crashes, May 2002]

Stats from THIS page.

Although not exactly a computer tech post, I think this is at least just as important, if not more so
Besides, a computer is only as good as the commands and programs that the end users tries to run on it.

“New research conducted by brain researcher Avi Karni of the University
of Haifa in Israel explores the possibility that naps help lock in
sometimes fleeting long-term memories. A 90-minute daytime snooze might
help the most, the study finds.

“We still don’t know the exact mechanism of the memory process that
occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the
possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation,”
Karni said. “In the future, we may be able to do it artificially.”"

Read more about these promising developments, and what you can currently do to help improve your memory, and feel better and more awake, here :
http://www.livescience.com/health/080107-90-minute-nap.html

Okay, time to link to something different for a post. . .
(it’s been a while since we had a real PSA)

Its almost time for the Blogathon 2007. The idea behind the blogathon is a 24-hr marathon fundraiser of blogging every 30 minutes for 24 hrs straight, to raise money for charities around the world. You support the people you know doing it by either giving them blog topics to blog about, or by sponsoring their blog and making a $$$ donation.
Read more about it here

http://www.blogathon.org/faq/2007/07/10/history_of_the_blogathon.php

Flashladybug isn’t participating this year (a bit of a lack of time, and I only found out about this yesterday. . . .), but we might next year, and I know someone who IS participating this year, raising money and blogging for the National Kidney Foundation. Her blog is here http://hotarunohikari.livejournal.com/profile.
If you want to search for other charities to donate to, take a look at the list here http://www.blogathon.org/list.php?sort=charalph

Okay, funny headline, serious idea.

Mike Elgan of Computerworld.com has written a very good bill of lights for gadget makers, proposing that they stop putting LEDs and other “cool” lights into our tech gear, because it can be downright annoying at times, especially at night.

“Despite general design ingenuity, it seems that nobody at Palm ever
considered the effect of that hideous green light on the Treo. When I
would go to bed, the entire room would flash: GREEN! GREEN! GREEN!
Turning the phone upside down reduced, but didn’t stop, the annoying
assault. I typically would have to bury the device under something or
hide it in a drawer. Annoyingly, nobody knows what that green light is
for, and even worse, you can’t turn it off.”

. . .

“My PC and other computing equipment make my office look like a jet
cockpit. I have two LCD monitors, each of which has two indicator
lights that flash even when the PC is turned off. The attached sound
control has a light on it. My keyboard has multiple lights. The power
cord has lights, the printer has lights, and the power button is
illuminated. My cable modem and Linksys router flash like crazy all the
time. Together, these useless lights create a visual cacophony of
blinking, multicolored lights that make me feel like I’m taking part in
a NASA stress test for astronaut candidates.”

Read the full article (very good), and send in the Gadget Bill of Lights to any tech designer you know who continues to INSIST on using loads of useless flashing lights.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=
viewArticleBasic&articleId=9019163&pageNumber=1

.

Okay, I guess the title of this is a little odd….I don’t know anyone who’s ever tried to use their computer tower to support an air conditioner, or anyone who’s ever tried to air condition a hard drive to improve performance by sticking it in front of a window-mounted unit.

The real PSA in here to to be careful to protect your computer from power surges over the summer. Air conditioners, in particular, put a huge load on the average home electrical system (especially in older homes.) When an air conditioner turns on, or shuts off, its possible to have a power surge that runs through the electrical system into your computer, and can fry hard drives, among other important computer components.

I suppose while I’m on it, I may as well mention that during the summer, computers can also be subject to power outages and brownouts. Make sure that you save data when you’re not using your computer, just in case the power shuts off while you’re away. More importantly, do your part to prevent brownouts in the first place. Remember to turn off your computer when you’re not around, or out for the day. Check to see if your monitor has a sleep mode that it goes into when you’re away. Not only will you help prevent brownouts, you’ll save the cost of the electricity too.

Read more about it here
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/237648/air_conditioners
_may_pose_threat_to.html

###
Additional Notes:

If your computer is plugged into a different circuit than your air conditioner (If you turn off the circuit breaker / pull out the fuse that your air conditioner is plugged into (and it shuts off) but your computer stays on), you’re most likely OK. And, It’s always a good idea to use a UPS or other quality surge protector with your computer.
-Joe

###
Another additional note : Be careful if you have a large laminator plugged into the same circuit as multiple computers and and air conditioner. When the circuit breaker goes, neither the computer, or the air conditioning user will be very happy. No further comment.
###

Haha, NOT FUNNY
- Joe

.

.

.

Although I don’t backup everything on my computer, I do keep a backup of all my important files - mainly music and photos at the moment.  (I was going to get another internal drive, but found an external drive much cheaper.  It’s also easy to take my files on the road, without filling up my laptop.)

So the lesson for today : Backup the important stuff on your computer!
You’ll be glad you did.  It can be as easy as copy and paste, overwrite the old backup, and you’re all done, or you can program an automated file transfer to update the backup.  Your choice of how to do it, but a potential killer if it isn’t done at all.

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/business_20the_
business_magazine_should_practice_what_it_preaches.php

Powered by ScribeFire.

For people who use computers alot….and their computers that don’t have batteries…or external drives…either make sure you have a nice trusty ups, or some pretty reliable power service
Here i was…burning a 4 gig dvd. Half way through, whirrrr, zeeeeeee, silence. “AH CRAP!” I was burning from my network pc. Well….theres a coaster. Waits patiently for the power to return. YAY! Pops in a new dvd and starts burning. 3 gigs in, whirrrrrr, silence. “OMG. WHY?”
….
Twice. Two coasters, and corrupt data on my network now. Its just great…lol. then again, we’re talking about my laptop which has a battery life of an hour when its on low everything. So…do what i just did if you dont want this happening to ya: EBAY>>Search>>UPS>>Buy.>>Pay…>>>Happy!
lol…this is a normal public service message brought to you by Brian’s crazy paranoid house that has too many packages arriving at his door every day.

“

Some of your friends may still be hardpressed to describe what one
is, and you may well be feeling guilty about not updating your own
often enough - but hang out the bunting because blogging is now 10
years old, write Bobbie Johnson and Mark Oliver.

Blogs might still feel rather novel, but there are now something like 70m of them around the globe. . . .”

Quote from
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/04/07/blogs_turn_10.html

I’m not really certain what to comment about this one…
I’m sure that there were people doing “blogging” before 1997, but I agree that around 97 blogging really got to be popular, as it was introduced to the masses, and made considerably easier to read and write a blog.

So, happy 10th birthday blogging, don’t go away anytime soon.

After a brief hiatus….i’m back
And here with a command from the ladybug itself. USE LONG PASSWORDS!
i can tell you right now, that my usual password consists of around 16-17 chars, with one non-alpha numeric char thrown in just for fun. Joe know part of it, but he only knows the easy part
But, yes, someone did a study on password lengths. Just lookit it:

impressive…
thanks downloadsquad

Technically, because the earlier posts are towards the bottom of the page, the one below this came first.  Odd coincidence?  Possibly.  I had NO IDEA Brian was looking at that…

Don’t try and beat the train, and don’t stop on the tracks.

So, on to the link…
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/472994/train_hitting_a_car/