It really wasn’t Christmas unless you had a model train chugging around the Christmas tree.  I remember those trains and Christmases.

Years later, I set up my own trains around the tree for family and frineds to enjoy.

But there is absolutely no way, no matter how large the Christmas tree, I can ever beat the above layout!  Wow!

Up on the PCLinuxOS forums, a member shared with everyone a recent Windows computer repair expereince.  Dragynn (His forum name) allowed me to share his comments.

“Just had a horrible run in with windoze 7.  And it was truly a moment where I realized how grateful I should be.

“My neighbor’s mom, nice little old lady, got an HP mini, little netbook with an Atom cpu and a gig of ram, asks me to look at her machine …..(arrgh)…..Windoze 7, which in the first place should not be on a computer with specs this low….so ate up with malware, trojans, OEM garbageware, toolbars (spyware)….omg….it was running over 70 processes at idle, using 700-800 mb of ram, if you even touched anything the cpu spikes to 100%, the mouse jumps all over the screen, killed malware processes re-spawn themselves instantly, she’s already been locked out of un-installing programs……

“I just couldn’t do it, too much work…told her i’d be happy to wipe the whole thing and install something that worked, but no way i’m cleaning up that mess.

“And she’s a little old lady, all she does is surf a bit, and play some games, occasionally skype to her family….there is no way that somebody like that, should have her machine in that kind of state, in such a short amount of time. What a huge scam that is, it makes me a little sick to ponder on it for too long.

“And then I come home, to my shiny PCLOS desktop, 100 times faster than her machine on hardware that’s half a decade old (a lifetime in Moore’s Law-years), humming along at barely over 100 mb of ram at idle, it has never known a virus, any software I choose to install has been specifically packaged for my system, and absolutely safe…and FREE. Laptops that are over a decade old, and have 1/4 of the memory of her machine, run better than hers ever will.

“So, thank you. Thank you Texstar and all the PCLOS devs and contributors, for free-ing me from the nightmare that is that terrible corporate cartel and their lifelong death-grip on my wallet.”

Not to worry, Dragynn did fix the neighbor’s computer.  But he installed Linux!  (PCLinuxOS, to be specific).

His next post revealed his method.

“Fired up a liveUSB, she likes it a lot had to add a wireless package I missed putting on the iso, and having some small issue with right-click, I don’t ever use the touchpad on my laptops (I use USB travel mouse), so have to dig around in some settings I reckon. Oh man it is sooooooo much quicker on her machine, just unreal, she says it never ran that fast even brand new with windoze. It even dims the backlight properly on this little machine with no configuring needed. Ethernet detected immediately when I plugged that in, wireless connected instantly once I had the broadcom package installed, in fact there were several managed and unmanaged wireless signals found and it auto-connected immediately to the strongest unmanaged signal.”

See?  It’s easy! Install PCLinuxOS from a CD/DVD or right from a USB pendrive!  Your system will run faster and be more secure. Best of all, it’ll  be free of viruses and other Windows Malware.

Get Linux.  Get PCLinuxOS.

It’s the holiday season, so it’s about time for one of these.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pelto-bulldogges–puppy-cam

Dave Astor wrote  a very inspiring column over the Thanksgiving weekend.   I met Dave through cartooning.  Dave was the Syndicates reporter at Editor and Publisher. Though the years of attending various NCS events, it was always a pleasure running into Dave.  And, through social media and the internet, I’ve been able to stay on touch with Dave.

Anyhow, Dave’s Facebook page lead me to his latest column.  As I read it, I recalled my own leap into literary adulthood.  The big jump came in Junior High School.  My English teacher assigned  Great Exectations by Charles Dickens.  I can still recall her telling the class, emphasizing to us, the need to slow down from our hectic 20th century pace when reading this novel.  Dickens required patience and attention.  He’s a very detailed writer.

Now, wonderfully, I’ve rediscovered all these great literary treasures.  I’ve been reading a lot of Mark Twain.  I blogged about Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Artur’s Court.  I recently finished Mr. Twains two volume work Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.  I agree with Mark Twain, this is his greatest work.  If you read only one book by Mark Twain, Joan of Arc is the one to read!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is also in the wings when I want to go on an adventure with Holmes and Watson.  I also discovered the early 20th century named James Oliver Curwood and his love of nature.

All these and more are right at my fingertips thanks to The Kindle and Project Gutenberg.  For the price of four hardback books, you can get the newest Kindle.  Once you have a Kindle, all these classics books can be downloaded for free.  No need to gas up the car and drive to a bookstore.  No more buying boks online and paying for shipping.  You can even borrow E-books from your local library!

But the really big selling point is the thousands of free books available from  Project Gutenberg (and even amazon.com!  Just use the search term “classics” in their Kindle store).

Rediscover a good book.   Sit down with classic literature.  Get a Kindle.

Happy Thanksgiving!  You probably have some time on your hands today as you wait for the turkey and dressing to cook.  Why not try a new graphics editing software application?

It’s called Aviary Feather.  It’s easy to use and  free with the Google Chrome web browser.

If you haven’t already tried Google Chrome, stop off at their site and install this terrific browser. Linux users can install Google Chromium from their respective repository.

Once you have Google Chrome, simply go to the Chrome store and install Aviary Feather from the productivity area.

Aviary Feather is meant to be an easy one step photo editing solution.  It comes with many intuitive adjustment tools at your immediate disposal and ready to go.

Just upload a photo and start editing.

Aviary Feather also has a few fun filters you can play with.  I used the “Instant!” filter on the above left photo.  (That’s me with legendary Australian cartoonist Jim Russell.  If you want to learn more about this wonderful cartoonist and gentleman, check out Steve Panozzo’s tribute page to Jim.)  The filter turns your digital photo into one that may have been taken by an old Polaroid Instant camera.

So before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade begins or after you settle in from that second piece of pumpkin pie, give Aviary Feather a try.