IRS Welcomes Hillary's IGS

The computer man has no idea who the forty-fourth (44th) President of The United States will be, but one or two things are certain. One is that the American people as a whole are fed up with forty-three (43) and with the Bush dynasty. A member of the remote helpdesk team has observed that should Hillary become number forty-four (44), it would not take two terms for the people to also have more of the Clinton dynasty than they could stomach.

America's sons and daughters think Bush - Chaney was in the pocket of big business. But, the Tennessee Mountain Man fears that a Hillary Presidency would make all previous favors won by lobbyists seem little more than the proverbial "drop in a bucket".

Mike Huckabee wanted to "nail the going out of business sign on the doors of the IRS". A great idea. Why not a fair tax? But, realistically, we know the IRS is going nowhere soon. In fact Hillary will need to create a sister agency for them. She wants a federal law forcing everyone to pay a heath care tax.

Hillary talks about it in glowing terms of health insurance for everyone. The one catch to her plan is, everyone will be required by law to purchase this coverage from companies who have always tried to avoid "preventative care". Why? Money! It is cheaper to wait until people are dying and spend a few dollars in their final days or months than to prolong their life and care for their health for extended years.

A Clinton dynasty would not only mean four (4) more years of Bill Clinton running around a White House full of young impressionable interns fishing with his trousers down, but doing so with plenty of time on his hands as the first lady simply does not have the responsibilities and demand on time the President does.

Do we really want to spend the next four (4) years suffering the Clinton's condescension, contempt, and chicanery while we are required to pay off their insurance company friends? What she has planned for those who can least afford it is a federally sanctioned good old fashion shake down in the name of universal health care.

Obama says he understands the need for universal health care but also knows the reason most people who are not insured or who are under insured is not because those folks don't want insurance. But, rather it is because they simply can't afford it, and that there has to be another way. Hillary's other way is wage garnishment or jail or both.

Here come da IGS (Insurance Garnishment Service) or some such federal bureaucracy that will make the IRS seem like the girl next door. Vern Beachy's blogspot refers to it as Hillabeast, and that sounds about right. She has taken special interest money from everyone and their brother. Ask them where Bill made all his money! It may have been American Dollars but it was not from
Americans or our friends and allies. And, they expect you and I to repay it. Obama, on the other hand, has taken no money from anyone except you and I. He owes no one but us. You must ask yourself, "to whom do I wish to be indebted for the next decade?".

The United States government already knows how much money you spend and on what. Do you recall the pony tail bandit? A girl of means, by no means. She should have been under the radar, but not hardly. Big brother is here to stay, but we need not give big sister a lift up.

It is apparently not enough for Hillary that former employers, former spouses, lending companies, financial institutions, the state, and the federal government and a host of other plaintiffs can garnish your wages. We need, she believes, another federal agency to keep the lower and middle classes of this country in line. The result - we already miss John Edwards.

If a person receiving Medicaid or Medicare needs certain services now, especially long term care, he will find his car, his home, and any funds he may have managed to put away seized. Hillary wants to do this on the front end and get it over with all in the name, again, of federally required universal health care.

In the United Kingdom, the Debtors Act of 1869 abolished imprisonment for debt and the United States soon followed suit covering most instances. Although for ostensibly different reasons and under somewhat different circumstances there are those like Jes Beard and Hillary Clinton who want them reinstituted.

The computer man lost tens of thousands of dollars because bad things happen to good people. People who never saw their financial problems looming lost their life as they knew it and because of circumstances beyond their control hurt the computerman. That does not give the computerman or anyone else the right to add insult to injury.

There was a time in the United States when you did not want to be found by the cops with no money in your pocket. It was off to jail. Now you get stopped with "too much" money in your pocket and it is off to jail. The coming twist thanks to President Hillary Clinton, should that come to pass, is to be found sick with no health insurance, and you guessed it..... Here come da IGS! And, God only knows what and who else would befall the American public to enrich the Clinton dynasty should Hillary become number forty-four (44).. Hillary's IGS would make J. Edgar Hoover look like the diminutive little ego maniac he was, and his law enforcement arm like the cub scouts.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Super Delegates vs. Electoral College

Grand Pa's Republic

All of his life, the Tennessee Mountain Man has heard the call to exercise your right to vote. Even fighting in one of the country's wars was not sufficient in the eyes of many. Voting was some how more than a right, it was a constitutional requirement of any and every son of the United States.

That worked well while America's back room whiskey swigging, cheap cigar puffing, wheelers and dealers enjoyed an illiterate voting public. Then along came Sam! No... not the cartoon character, Yosemite Sam, nor the gunslinger immortalized in song, but our Uncle Sam. The uncle fed prodigiously by President Lyndon B. Johnson in pursuit of the Great Society.

Forget a chicken in every pot! What America needed was a new car in every drive, money in the hands and pockets of everyone to buy the junk food they craved... forget the government cheese. Every day of his senior years the Computer Man's maternal grand pa asked grand ma for some jingling money, and having received same set off for the county square.

Grand pa made sure he had in his pockets his sharpest folding knife, his old old pocket watch which he set at noon everyday with the sounding of the surrounding factory lunch whistles, a stick of cedar for whittling, a twist of King-B for chewing, and a little pocket change for jingling... grand pa was now prepared for his day, indeed for the remainder of his days.

Wearing his worn out gray felt hat, grand dad would set out walking down the street. The state had long ago taken his drivers license and his children had finally taken all of his automobiles. Not that anyone wanted them. The last one the computerman recalls had the startling ability to be hand cranked. One need not necessarily be concerned with the state of the battery. It represented the old man's last ditch effort at his brand of freedom and to have a car no one would take from him. It didn't work. He was simply not safe on the road nor was anyone on the road with him safe.

As he walked along his way, grand pa jingled the little bit of coins grand ma had provided for his pockets and sang old book songs from the Hardshell Baptist Hymnal. You know... they only sang the notes, not the words... yours truly never understood that, but I digress.

Upon arriving at his destination, grand pa took a seat along side the other old timers gathered outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Scottsboro, Alabama, just before dawn, and producing his pocket knife and a newly split piece of cedar that cost him two bits he began to smooth off the edges of the stick preparing for a full day of "visiting, reminiscing, conversation and piddling". Oh! The smell of that cedar, and the sound of his booming voice which reverberated around the square.

What does grand pa have to do with anything? Well, he was not always an old man ignored by most and simply forgotten by others. No, grand dad, a Justice Of The Peace in his day, was one of those back room shakers and movers in one party or the other in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He knew the system inside and out. He was a ward captain. He decided who run for what office and made sure however he had to, including a little well placed hooch - and just maybe some of that walking around or as he called it jingling money, who got elected.

Grand dad used to say he was a republican for one reason and one reason only. I just can't remember what that reason was. Shades of the old man, I suppose. What I can be sure of is grand pa's generation never conceived of super delegates for either party. Not withstanding the republican and democratic parties are both private entities, and as such they can allow and restrict membership as they see fit. They can nominate and withhold as they wish. They and they alone decide who their power base, movers and shakers, and insiders are.

What has this to do with a democracy? Not nearly as much as grand dad had to do with politics in Alabama. As the Tennessee Mountain Man perceives the democrats since the days of LBJ to slide more and more toward socialism and the republicans to move more and more to fill the democratic shoes of yore he feels the need for independent involvement in the American Political process. A painful and foreboding journey to be sure.

Grand pa, although a self professed republican, always believed President Lyndon Johnson to be on the right track although improperly executed. He long wanted to abolish the electoral college in favor of the popular vote - the nemeses of professional politicians. Today, I often wonder how many times the old man has rolled over in his grave considering how dumb Americans have become as the state has spent more and more to educate the masses. It seems, the more we learn about less and less, the more we dumb down.

Along with the computerman, grand pa's question, today, I believe, would be "super delegates!... where in heaven's name (like that phrase? It stops the holier than thou crowd's sausage grinder dead in it's tracks!) did my republic go?".

Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design and remote online computer repair

Hillary vs. Obama

The older the Tennessee Mountain Man gets the more he finds himself contemplating the history written in his lifetime, and how that history effects the present. In the midst of the 2008 political season there are inescapable memories and applications both good and bad of yesteryear.

A recent visit between the computer man and a politically well connected lawyer friend turned on the topics of politics, the election season at hand, and how the 2008 elections bring memories of the "good run" the two men had enjoyed in their life as well as the pain they had endured. Both now finding themselves leaning right recalled their happier years growing up in democratic
households and finding that sixty (60) years of living, loving, and maturing gives one quiet a perspective.

Hillary Clinton for example dredges up memories like the Rose Law Firm, Kathleen Willy, lost files, "that woman, Miss Lewinsky", perjury, Gennifer Flowers, smoking pot without inhaling, Paula Jones, white water, Susan McDougal ad infinitum.

Barack Obama stirs up memories as well. Memories like the pride that swells up in a boy's heart for his country as he watches Chet Huntley and David Brinkley televise and report on the operations of the republican and democratic conventions in real time.

As Hillary, like Tammy Wynette, stands by her man she conjures up recollections not of The Possum (George Jones) but of George Wallace and his wife, Lurleen who ruled as Governors of Alabama during the 1960s and 1970s. A time most people would rather not revisit.

On the other hand Obama is trailed by the legacy of another young man of that era. A United States Senator, a Roman Catholic, by the name of John F. Kennedy stirred a nation and caught the imagination and hope of the American people when he dared run for and win the Presidency of the United States.

The Clintons bring back memories of Bull Conner and his attack dogs while Obama brings ringing memories of Freedom Marches, of Martin Luther King, of Jack Kennedy and of Robert Kennedy.

The Clinton's win at any price hardball back room politics bring back memories of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and his abuse of power taping and spying on Dr King and political operatives of both parties for his personal aggrandizement. He black mailed our leaders of the day keeping the pressure on. With certain kinds of people, the end justifies the means.

George and Laurleen bought black votes by buying off the religious leaders. The fact was that they could not have stayed in power without the support of the African-Americans living in Alabama. At least one Fox reporter has said the Clinton Machine is providing Black church clerics with "walking around money" for their support against Obama, one of their own. Hello! Bill Clinton was not the first black president, but Obama could be. Clinton was and is the "other white meat", you know, the one the Holy Bible warns you against.

Obama having run a clean campaign faces a Clinton Machine which, to state only a couple of examples, first introduced racial issues into the democratic primary by race baiting, and which raised the youthful indiscretions of Obama trying to make the masses believe him to be an addict and drug dealer. What ever happened to the old adage, "don't throw rocks if you live in a glass
house"? Or the rule requiring a plaintiff to have clean hands to bring an action?

If the Clinton Machine is not bonking you they are pimping you and whether they like it or not they got caught pimping their daughter. Yet they appear to be able feign pain as well as Hillary does tears and get all out of joint when called on it. It brings back the memories of Bill's righteous indignation over what the meaning of "is" - "is". Makes one remember Hillary's "vast right wing conspiracy" which turned out to be nothing more than Bill Clinton's zipper. They don't, however, seem to have an issue with our troops fighting a war on foreign soil being referred to as pimps.

The Clinton Machine changed its collective mind and expressed a desire to seat Michigan and Florida delegates after they fudged on campaigning and managed to win an election in states that were not supposed to count for anything in the 2008 democratic party nominating process. But no caucus says Billary, we would lose that.

Billary always wanting to change the rules in the middle of the game. They remind yours truly of the kid who always managed to empty a playground by just showing up.

Hillary vs. Obama. The 2008 election truly is a choice between yesterday and tomorrow.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Unstoppable Pop Ups

Do you remember this little trick? Ever figure it out?

Or perhaps you spent hard earned money to purchase the program. Perhaps you don't have the program, but would like to know how it works. Read on. We will give it to you not for $97.95, not $67.95, not $24.95, not even $1.95 but Free!! First, however, there are a few things you need to know and understand.

Properly used the popup can dispense data, bring you extra visitors, collect e-mail addresses, and increase your revenue without being perceived as intrusive. On the other hand, abuse it and loose visitors as quickly as the pop up launches... visitors who will in all probability never return.

King Solomon said, "there is nothing new under the sun". What do you think has changed since Solomon's reign?

This neat effect has been important to websites and internet marketers since commerce and the public discovered the world wide web. There are at least two ways to accomplish the unstoppable popup. How do I know? Because some of our websites employ one or both concepts and to date both work equally well.

Pop up stopper programmers are working diligently as we speak to prevent the unstoppable pop up but have, so far, been unable to do so.

Before employing the pop up in any form webmasters must consider that there are reasons why pop up blockers are everywhere. The final nail in the coffin of the pop up was driven by adult web sites. People were tired of these sexually explicit ads popping up in mixed company, in front of their mother, on the church computer and as their children surfed the web.

According to Wikipedia, today anyway, "Opera was the first major browser to incorporate tools to block pop-up ads; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only pop-ups generated as the page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer allowed the user to block unwanted pop-ups almost completely." Notice their caveat, "almost completely".

In 2004, Microsoft finally built one into their Windows XP SP2 operating system along with a fire wall and ad filtering as if it was not slow enough. Microsoft playing the role of a political hack tries to be all things to all people and while that is part of what propelled their operating system to prominence, it may prove to be their undoing in the final analysis.

Remote Helpdesk 1, back in the good old days, purchased Netscape and apparently like many others was incensed at continually having to download plug-ins for anything and everything you wanted to do. Along comes Microsoft with their operating system including a free web browser and the most commonly used plug-ins. Can you say, "jump ship!"?

Now everyone is jumping ship again. Back to the future springs eternal and Linux with its many editions is right on target. Download and install the basics and then get the plug-ins needed as they are needed. How many times have you heard your mother say, "what goes around, comes around"? And, it has been our experience that Linux (Remote Help Desk 1 and Computer Man Website Design use the Debian edition) blocks more pop ups and does much more to protect a computer than most other operating systems while maintaining open source integrity for the computer user.

Like almost everyone else, the Tennessee Mountain Man Computer Man hates to have research interrupted by the couple of seconds it takes for a pop up to launch and be dispatched especially if that intrusion (as often happens) has nothing to do with the subject matter at hand.

That being said it is simply a matter of proper programming. Don't go reinventing the wheel until it no longer serves your purpose.

Option 1: Grab the pop up that occurs at http://remotehelpdesk1.com. Copy the code from the page source and change the information to meet your needs.

Option 2: Assuming you can prepare a standard pop up script, it should have about a 5 second delay, perhaps the easiest and maybe the best way in the end is to encrypt your source code. You can do this free of cost at http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/free_webmaster_tools_of_computer_man.htm or http://remotehelpdesk1.com/html_encrypter.htm

There is a lot of hype that this or that retail (notice you have to buy it to test it and once software is opened it is yours) pup up blocker intercepts and stops all pop-ups. No... not yet anyway!

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

We Live In An Algorithmic World

Old timers like the Tennessee Mountain Man have a hard enough time dealing with all these new fangled gadgets and methods of research, advertising, shopping and communicating without the added insult of having to deal with the geek speak of the nerds. Take algorithm for instance. What is an algorithm, and why should anyone care?

Please allow the computer man to attempt to bring the algorithmic world in which we must live, worship, work, and play to a place where we old dogs can understand it.

Do you recall grade school? Our grade school is what is most often called middle school in the early 21st century. That is where much to our dismay, everything we had learned about adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying went up in smoke. Do you remember your introduction to mathematical skills beyond basic arithmetic? Were you frustrated with algebra, graphing, and calculus? Ever doubt that, Albert Einstein not withstanding, it was a real science?

Have you ever wished you had been more committed to the development of your mathematical skills? Ever wished you had paid more attention? Have you found the answer to every high school student's burning question, "What will I ever use this stuff for"?

In a generation where there are seemingly overwhelming problems grappling with counting by ten (10), we are now challenged to grasp a new math and count by bits and bytes or by multiples of eight (8), if you will. Forget those math tables you were forced to memorize in the second grade. With the possible exception of the multiples of eight (8) such rote memory is of little value now except to balance the checkbook. Those tables are of little use or importance in an algorithmic world where we have been forced to accept that not all things are of equal value.

Oh, an algorithm is, simply stated, a specific set of instructions for carrying out a procedure or solving a problem. It may be simplistic or unbelievably convoluted depending on the data to be analyzed, how it is to be processed, what weight or values are to be attributed or given to what information and or its' sources, whether free radicals are allowed and if so what and to what extent, and the desired outcome parameters.

An algorithm is in the final analysis just a way to get the job done, and to be fair most of us cannot articulate the protocol or reduce it to a specific applicable diagram. The Tennessee Mountain Man's father, who had only a sixth grade education, was one of those brilliant people who could apply advanced mathematical principles, but was at a loss to explain his reasoning or reduce it to paper.

The day you set down in your high school science lab and defined a protocol for the experiment you were about to conduct, you built a an algorithm in it's most simple form although we certainly did not understand it in those terms back in the day. When a math teacher said, 'your answer is correct, but show me how you got there', he was simply asking for the algorithm.

Now we begin to understand algorithms, that everything has its' own algorithm, that each of us deals with algorithms all day every day and that it is a term we should neither fear or be intimidated by.

Let us build a simple algorithm that actually happened to the computer man not long ago. On a service call the company van gave up the ghost. The transmission died a horrible death and the vehicle refused to move except in reverse. Now what to do? No time, money or need for PhD's and engineers. A little common sense would work.

The need: Rent A Van

The algorithm: 1. Get the cell phone, 2. Call Hertz, 3. Rent Van, 4. Proceed to next appointment.

Four simple algorithmic steps and problem is solved without think tanks, PhDs, engineers, committees, weeks of planning, etc, etc.

A similar algorithm or protocol, if you please, determines what operating system runs on your computer or lap top, how it processes data, how you see virtual or non existent documents on your monitor. What you see on your TV screen is real to the extent it lives somewhere, if only on film. What you produce with bits and bytes on your computer through predetermined algorithms is little more than a figment of your imagination unless and until it is produced in some tangible form such a print out or prototype. Why do you think it is called virtual as opposed to literal? Which is easier to rebuild, a virtual house design on your PC or a framed or sketched literal design?

It is an algorithmic world. It defines what you fix for and how you prepare dinner, and it determines where your website shows up in Yahoo's index and Google's Page Rank System. It is used by webmasters everyday to determine how often a page can be viewed. The answer may be always, hourly, once a day, or only once depending on the desire of the webmaster. A good example is when you install a new Microsoft operating system and on first run you are redirected to their "run once" page. Can you say, 'hello, algorithm'? It is fairly straight forward. You use it daily. Go forth and embrace it. Go forth an enjoy it.

So, the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous (AA) is the program algorithm. There. Who says, 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks'?

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

The Demise of Yahoo!?

Johnny Cash sang an old song that appears most apropos as Microsoft launches a hostile take over attempt of Yahoo. The song reminisced about Martin, Abraham and John. Asking the question wondered about all deceased, 'where have my old friends gone?'. As the computerman lay sleepless on his bed after hearing the news he pondered the possibilities, being an old U.S. Army
Intel Officer taps even played in his head.

We can all hope that like Mark Twain, Yahoo will be able to answer in the end that the reports and fears of my death have been greatly exaggerated. In the meantime, however, the inflated price in cash and stock that Microsoft has offered Yahoo stock holders will be hard to resist. It is another important consideration for family owned or closely held businesses before seriously thinking of making public offerings which make it far too easy to lose control. In fact one has to give up control to keep the regulators happy. Such is the essence of a publicly held stock. Really? How then do certain people like the Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs manage to keep such a tight grip and control of day to day operations?

Not that Microsoft don't know how to make money, they surely do. But, Yahoo has been an old friend. I don't anyone who considers Microsoft a friend. Yahoo has been reliable. Can Microsoft claim any modicum of reliability with a straight face?

Then there are those who started, sweated and built Yahoo watching their masterpiece being reduced to just another cheap (I never said inexpensive) painting hanging in Microsoft's gallery. The Tennessee Mountain Man's heart bleeds for them.

Yahoo has produced irreplaceable targeted traffic for many a business and website including your truly. MSN has produced little. We understand Microsoft's desire to compete more vigorously with Google, but they can't do what they now do well. Why bite off more? Why ruin the reputation of a great company like Yahoo by dragging it down to Microsoft's performance and reliability level?

Remote Helpdesk 1 has received several requests to join the Microsoft product testing and evaluation team which drew the ire of several staff members who detests Microsoft. The position comes with several benefits and the appointment is for one year... much like setting on any board. But, haven't we all tested Microsoft long enough? Is it not a love - hate relationship at best? Why add to
it by using, testing, and recommending improvements to their beta products only to be required to purchase them at a later date if you want to continue to use them?

Where are the feds in this picture? In 1984 under the Ronald Reagan Presidential Administration they had no qualms about breaking up Ma Bell because, said the government regulators, it was a monopoly. In the early 21st century when the phone companies are once again forming what appears to be monopolies one has to ask where is the George W. Bush Administration. Microsoft has long been operating and ruling through fear, intimidation, and threat of legal action like a monopoly or gangster. Some of us including the European Governments as ruled by their legal systems have believed it to be a monopoly verging on evil. Again, where is the protection of the people by the feds in this scenario?

Microsoft vs. Yahoo vs. Google vs. BlogLines vs. Newsgator vs. You: Make no mistake about it there is much more here than meets the eye... more than the battle of the titans. It determines whether or not there is competition in the search engine, internet advertising, and web indexing protocols all online business depends on and which determines in great measure whether or not an online entrepreneur lives or dies.

The final disposition of this matter will determine whether or not the internet user is forced into a box of ever decreasing parameters controlled by the few, financed (like the federal government) with the publics money.

Do we want, can we afford one less independent major search engine? There are currently only three: MSN, Google and Yahoo. To let either one force out or even agreeably buy the other is not desirable.

The demise of Yahoo? Yahoo! We need it... we even like it. It is profitable as is for all of us. Maybe Congress will get involved if all else fails and say, 'no this creates another undesirable monopoly'. We hope it is not the end for Yahoo as we know it lest we all be singing where is my old friend...

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Your Computer Is Your Enemy

The old cliché, "If you want a friend, get a dog" still stands in the 21st Century. It is well established in the medical community that animals can do much to extend the human life span as well as improve the quality of life. Don't live on or vicariously through your computer.

A pastor once said his job was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Thus we have the difference between a real live pet and an inanimate electro-mechanical object - in this case the personal computer. The pet comforts while the computer, improperly used and/or over used, is a thief and a murderer.

Besides, the computer, especially if you run a Microsoft Operating System and Microsoft production software, requires much more maintenance than does a pet. This alone is enough to drive most users' blood pressure through the roof. How many times do you suspect that needs to happen before it begins to take a toll on the human body? It is even more aggravating than the days when we only received three (3) snowy channels on a small black and white television and each channel required another trip outside in the rain, in the cold, in the snow, in the heat to adjust the huge antenna attached to a corner of the house which spilled the rain directly into your face as you looked up to see in which direction the antenna was pointing. If you were lucky someone was in the house calling to you when you got the best picture.

You know what I am talking about... like when your computer locks up with a box popping up on the monitor's screen saying it needs to restart now, and won't let you do anything else until you acquiesce and reboot. There goes your last few minutes of work. Another blood pressure jump! It sure is for the Tennessee Mountain Man!

Father may know best, but mother knows even better and she always made the children set across the room from the TV concerned about it ruining their vision. Now that same mom allows the children and grandchildren to set on top of a twenty-one (21) inch monitor, even closer to a laptop, and play games ad infinitum. The result being more and more of our children are wearing glasses and contact lenses at younger and younger ages.

Mom also insisted that little ones spend much more time outside playing in the yard than obsessing over the magic box in the corner, and the children were healthier. There were fewer cases of childhood diabetes and hardly any childhood obesity.

Children learned skills greater than cheating x-box and PSP, and mom and pop never heard of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The computer man and everyone else is seemingly required to work on or at computer consoles to some extent these days. As a result, the entire family now either suffers from a computer related ailment or is at real risk of developing one.

With the advent and prevalence of the personal computer and gaming gizmos, the heart, which is a muscle, gets little or no exercise. As if the TV did not create enough couch potatoes resulting in what amounts to atrophy of the heart muscle, the PC seems to have claimed the remainder of man.

A computer cannot hold you on cold nights or enjoy a walk hand-n-hand with you in the moonlight. It cannot comfort you when you are sick or improve your mood when you are sad. It cannot feed you when you are hungry nor give you a drink when you are thirsty... at least not yet. The PC cannot yet carry on a civil or reasoned conversation. Irrespective of one's addictions and all the attractions on the internet, it is not true social interaction and it certainly cannot satisfy the libido try as some may.

Used improperly it can and does drive wedges between husbands and wives, and between children and parents. Like a drug, once addicted, and it is addictive, it can cost one his job and it has. Like a nosy gossiping neighbor or ticked off lover, it has the propensity to tell the world (friend and foe alike) everything it knows (both good and bad) about you. And, in case you didn't
know, there are hackers from people with malicious intentions, to your employer, to Microsoft, to insurance companies, to financial institutions, to the government who have the ability to ask your computer what it knows about you whenever they wish. And, your computer... your friend in whom you confide everything, like a spurned lover is more than willing to betray her paramour and spill her guts literally.

My computer... my friend? With such friends who needs enemies?

If you don't know how to protect yourself from a gabby computer you might want to seek the help of professionals like the folks at Remote Helpdesk 1. Now shut the glib computer down, and go outside and play.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.