Best Free Games for the PC
Tech Support Alert has an extensive and recently updated list of the best free games for the PC. If you’re into PC gaming, it is worth checking out.
“Fascinating”
Well done, Audi. They’ve created an extended commercial for their A7 automobile on YouTube featuring Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, both of whom have played or are currently playing Spock on Star Trek. It plays off of the character in a very funny way.
Synchronizing e-Sword Across Multiple Computers Using Dropbox – Revisited
Some time ago, I wrote about synchronizing e-Sword resources across multiple computers using Dropbox based on a change implemented with version 9 of e-Sword. Based on a comment that was made on that post today, I’ve updated the information and wanted to refresh the post.
e-Sword now lets you open most resources in a file location other than the e-Sword program file, typically C:\Program Files (x86)\e-Sword. This allows you to synchronize those e-Sword resources across multiple computers using Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, SkyDrive, or another similar service. This is really slick.
I had been using this feature to synchronize downloaded resources, like commentaries, Bibles, and topic files. But it works just as well for your personal study information, like verse markups, study notes, journal notes, and topic notes. Setup is just a bit different for those resources.
To set e-Sword up to look for Bibles, commentaries, and the like from a Dropbox file directory, first create the directory in your Dropbox folder. Move the Bible (*.bblx), commentary (*.cmtx), dictionary (*.dctx), devotion (*.devx), and topic (*.topx) files to that directory and let Dropbox synchronize them.
Open e-Sword, click Options – Resource, click the little file folder icon in the lower right corner and select the e-Sword folder you created above. Restart e-Sword and you ought to be set.
I had written about this much in my original post. What I didn’t adequately cover in that article is how to reset e-Sword to write your personal study information to that folder. I strongly suggest backing up your files before you do this, but a strong backup strategy ought to be part of your computing experience already!
To do this, you’ll first need to create new journal notes, markup, study notes, and topic notes files in your Dropbox folder. Do this from the computer where you have your personal information saved. This will create blank files in those locations. You can then exit e-Sword and copy files from your My Documents/e-Sword folder to your Dropbox folder, overwriting the blank files you just created. When you next open e-Sword, your notes ought to be there.
On your other computers, you need to tell e-Sword to open the new file. For markup, this is under Bible – Markup File – Open. For journal, study, and topic notes, you need to press CTRL and right click in the respective window and select Open.
I don’t know whether this can synchronize with the new e-Sword iPad app. It would be useful if that app used the same files as the PC version, but I just don’t know if that’s the case. If someone wants to buy me an iPad, I’d be more than willing to figure it out and write about it! :-)
I hope this helps you. It is certainly a useful feature for me.
Bad Links
Somewhere along the line, many of the internal links on the annual Bible reading plan and 30-day New Testament Bible reading plan websites here were changed and broken. They were changed from absolute to relative references and the middle part of the path – to the specific weblog – was dropped. I don’t know how or when this happened. It wasn’t something I changed intentionally.
I believe I’ve corrected them in the archives of both weblogs and have them set so they should be correct in future posts. If you find a bad link, please let me know.
Thanks. Gary
Bad Design – Or Part of Why I’ll Never Buy Another Chrysler Vehicle
I had mentioned sometime back my decision (at the time) to not buy a Chrysler vehicle when we last bought a new car. Nothing has happened in the last three and a half years has changed my mind. Our Town and Country van continues to have occasional problems, with hints of second-time failures, where something that was fixed under warranty is acting like it might want to fail again – out of warranty of course.
I also had the occasion to drive a brand new 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan minivan to Chicago and back last week. Its design has been updated quit a bit since the 2006 van we bought, which makes perfect sense, but there are serious design problems with this van. So much so that I’m now in the camp of never planning to buy another Chrysler product.
The very first two things I tried to do with this van were to fold down the seats to open up cargo space and open up the side doors. Our van has Stow and Go seating, which was a great feature Chrysler added several years back. The middle and rear seats are Stow and Go seats that fold down into the floor. It was the killer feature that, along with a good history with Dodge vans, led us to buy the van we have now.
Our current van has a three step process to fold down the rear bench seats. There are three loops that are numbered and you pull each in succession. The 2012 van has four. I pulled and pulled on the first one and couldn’t get it to budge no matter what I did or how hard I pulled. It just wouldn’t move at all. On a whim, I pulled on the second tab and it folded down the seat back, same as the number one tab on our current van does. I have no idea what the number one tab on the 2012 van does, but it certainly seems superfluous.
The next thing I did should have been drop-dead simple. I tried to open one of the sliding middle doors. Our current van has power middle doors that open when you push a button inside the cabin. The will also actuate if we don’t completely close the door. Otherwise, the door opens and closes manually. This is, by the way, the problem that appears to be repeating on our van. The electrical cables that slide back and forth with the door wore out and failed on one of our doors. That same door is acting up every now and again in the same way.
Any way, I went to the passenger side door on the 2012 van, grabbed the handle, and pulled on it to open the door. The door opened about six inches and stuck. Its actuator tried to start, but wouldn’t. The door set there, stuck, with the power opener starting and stopping, but not moving the door. I tried to open and close it manually, but it wouldn’t budge.
After what seemed like a minute or so, the door actuator finally stopped starting and stopping. I don’t recall if I was then able to close or open it or if pulling on the handle again started the actuator which then opened the door, but I finally got it open. I figured out that you could just tug on the handle and it would open or close the door.
At least it did so some of the time. While traveling, maybe half the time I’d tug on the handle when the door was open and it wouldn’t close automatically. It would move an inch or two and just sit there. When that happened, I could close it manually.
I have no idea whether the doors are designed to open and close only under power or if they can be opened and closed manually without the power assist. They functioned so inconsistently that I can’t tell how they are supposed to work. I only know that they didn’t work the same every time and that’s not good.
I don’t know whether the door function is a design problem or a manufacturing problem. I’m pretty sure the rear seat fold down issue is a design problem. Either way, I think the only thing about Chrysler that has gotten better in the last several years is their advertising. The vehicles themselves leave a lot to be desired. And the management of the company has been especially weak, in my opinion. I have no current plans to buy a new car. Whenever I do get in the market next, I can’t imagine what would happen for me to even consider buying a Chrysler product again.
People Get Lots of Things About the Obama Presidency
Outstanding tech blogger Fred Langa has been posting his thoughts on the presidential election on his blog recently. He asked the question “How can people not get this?” today and linked to this chart showing monthly changes in employment under President Obama and the last part of President Bush’s two terms.
I commented on his weblog with the following, which I believe bears repeating here. I think the picture is much bigger than that one chart and tried to address part of that in my comment.
That is as close, I believe, as you’ve come to giving a reason for why President Obama should receive a second term. All of what you’ve posted before this has been negative stuff about Romney.
Any way, I suspect many people do get that chart. But there are many other things they also get that they consider in addition to it.
Like this chart showing unemployment rates projected by the Obama administration with and without the stimulus.
http://www.aei-ideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/RomerBernsteinAugust1.jpg
And this one showing deficits under the Obama administration.
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/153013/
Those two, taken together, start to show how ineffective the stimulus was and the cost with which we are now saddled. I suspect they remember how the stimulus was passed as well.
I think people also consider this chart showing how long people are remaining unemployed in the economy after President Obama’s policies affected it and think of family or friends who are unemployed or underemployed in the Obama economy.
http://twitpic.com/b87r42
Or this chart showing gas prices having more than doubled under an Obama presidency, fulfilling a promise he made to drive energy prices up. I think they feel the impact this has on their own financial situation.
http://twitpic.com/b88q0e
I believe many people heard the President and his staff and administrators say the attack on the embassy in Libya was caused by a video for weeks after the attack when they knew within hours of the attack that it wasn’t.
I believe some even remember President Obama saying his presidency would be a one-term proposition if he wasn’t able to make the economy improve within three years and perhaps even wonder why he’s running anyway.
I believe they’ve heard President Obama not be able to explain what he’s accomplished in his first term that warrants him getting a second one and, like you’ve been doing, spend just about all of his time in the campaign attacking Governor Romney.
Some of those may remember then candidate Obama saying that if a candidate doesn’t have anything substantive to talk about, they make the campaign about unimportant small things, then doing exactly that as president while talking about Big Bird and “Romnesia”.
I think they get it, Fred. But they see the bigger picture that is much more complete and much bleaker that that one.
Thinking About Losing
I watched some of tonight’s debate, the third and final between President Obama and Governor Romney. John Hinderaker summed it up well, I think, at Power Line this way:
My impression, during the time I watched, was that Romney was thinking about America, and Obama was thinking about losing the election.
Seems about right. And not just for tonight’s debate, but for much of the last few weeks of the campaign.
Okay, So Not Everything on Google is Useful
But it is fun! Heh!
Google now lets you search by Bacon number. The Bacon number is the number of degrees of separation an actor has from Kevin Bacon. It is the output of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, which postulated that any actor is separated from Kevin Bacon by no more than six connections. Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon appeared together in Apollo 13, so Tom’s Bacon number is 1.
Charlie Chaplin’s Bacon number is 2, as he appeared in A Countess from Hong Kong with Tippi Hendren and she appeared with Kevin Bacon in Jayne Mansfield’s Car.
Google now lets you search by Bacon number. Just search for an actor’s name with the text bacon number in the search, like Charlie Chaplin Bacon number or James Earl Jones Bacon number.
Not necessarily useful, but pretty darn cool.
He’ll Work with Others – But Only On His Terms
President Clinton had one of the prime speaking slots in last week’s Democratic National Convention. Comparisons between him and President Obama were sure to come and President Obama just clearly defined one. Here’s the headline summarizing part of it:
Obama: I’ll Work with Republicans If They Agree to Raise Taxes
He’s willing to work with Republicans, but only on his terms. The implication that he won’t work with them is both obvious and backed up by recent history with President Obama who hasn’t worked with Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives which they’ve controlled for the last two years.
That’s a significant difference from President Clinton, who did work with Republicans. Don’t get me wrong, President Clinton is no role model. His moral failings were many and extreme, but he did lead in many ways that President Obama hasn’t.
Thinking about it, I’m not really sure that President Obama has been working with Democrats, either. His last two budget proposals were voted down without any support, Democratic or Republican.
That’s part of the problem with the President – his leadership style. Or perhaps more accurately, his lack of leadership (stylish or otherwise).
Firsts
MakeUseOf has today a list of firsts on the Internet. Including the first…
- website
- image posted to the Internet
- email message
- YouTube video
- Tweet
- Wikipedia article
- item sold on Amazon
- item sold on eBay
An interesting walk in Internet history. Go and read.