Senior Surfers Blog

Thursday, April 11, 2024

A Workshop by Yvonne Settle

The Monarch Butterfly cycle of life ...

Topics & Links of the Day:

SpaceX's Starship Integrated Test Flight 3 occurred this morning. Itgot much farther than LTF-2. Still lots of work to do. Mars is a long way off, but the first steps have been made.
Crew8 arrived at the International Space Station, it's getting crowded there. Crew7 returns this week. The ISS has been continuously occupied for 23 years and counting.
Marcus House does a great job in reviewing and giving the details of all space activities. Phenomenal close-up videos, better than any news channels. Here is his channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarcusHouse Check them out!
Buy Microsoft Office: <link> Scroll down for the one-time, use forever 2021 version.
Or, use the free On-line Office with a Microsoft Account: <link>
Or, LibreOffice is 100% free and does all the same things as Microsoft Office: <link>
Thunderbird is the best email client for Windows, and it's free: <link> It also does contacts and calendaring.
The best way to look at Photos is IrfanView. <link> Fast opening, reviewing, minor edits, and slide shows. Handles all formats transparently.
The best way to look at Videos is is VLC. <link> Fast opening, reviewing, and flipping through multiple ones. Handles all formats transparently.

Topics of the Day:

DelDot is having another meeting on the Old Baltimore Pike / Battle Drive intersection. {link} The Pencader Museum is against it. Next meeting: Glasgow HS, March 25th, 5:30pm.
There is a webpage {link} to report power outages. Bob used the DelMarVa Power App to report his one-house outage. (A device on the pole to his house failed, they fixed it in 4 hours)
Check out O'Reilly Auto Parts part #121G {link}
"In the beginning" AT&T Bell Labs wrote UNIX which they would only sell {link}. Richard Stallman {link} thought "Information wants to be free" and wrote the free GNU. And that lead to Linux {link}. Everything now seems to be based on Linux.
What's the best browser is like asking what is the best car. All have there advantages, except Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Don't use IE.
Different Browsers are like different models of cars to go to the same place. Does it matter if you take a Ford or Chevy to go to the Walmart? It shouldn't, where you are going, the web site, is more important. Though I like my Toyota Prius and FireFox!
How to security store, retrieve and use Passwords? Use a Password Manager. We like the free BitWarden. {link} Use an extension in your browser to automatically fill-in your saved passwords.