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Monday, Jan. 12, 2004 - 8:19 p.m. Yes, Lease�s car is acting up again. She pulled into the driveway tonight, and honked her horn for me to come outside. Seems the light came on when she left Springpatch, and it stayed on all the way home. The car ran fine until she pulled up to a stoplight. It ran rough until she pulled into the driveway. Of course, it didn�t do any of this for me. I checked all of the plug wires, and finding them all tight, I drove the Grand Am over to Auto Zone again. After hooking it to the handheld computer, the only code that came up was �misfire-cylinder 3�. Yes, the same one that popped up last June. Then, I was able to solve the problem by changing the wires and spark plugs. Why this would happen again TO THE SAME DAMN CYLINDER, I have no idea. It ran fine for me, and I gunned it for a little while in the driveway with no misfiring. As long as the car runs, this kind of problem is just an annoyance. Nothing majorly wrong should happen due to a plug not firing all of the time (if it even is doing this now. I might have to see what I have to do to clear the codes out of the engine, and then see if it happens again) I told Lease to drive it again tomorrow, and let me know if any problems happen again. The check engine light is still on, so it might still be sensing something is wrong. It might just want to scare the Hell out of Lease, too�� Do you ever visit web pages that use Java programming? You know- any site that runs an �applet� on you browsers page? Stock tickers, weather forecast bars and such all use this technology, as do many online games. I don�t want to turn technogeeky here, but I read in my Internet Tourbus newsletter that Microsoft will be abandoning their version of Java this summer. It comes loaded on your computer (in the Internet explorer program), but their version is much less secure and buggy (sound like other Microsoft programs, don�t it?) than the one available free from the company that invented Java in the first place, Sun Microsystems . Anyway�.I will let you read what the folks at Tourbus wrote about this issue last week. I think they do a better job of explaining what to do than I can anyway: Now, remember how I said that Java applets automatically download from the web and run on your computer? Think about that for a minute. Considering the number of viruses and Trojan horses out there, do we *REALLY* want downloaded Java programs auto-executing on our computers? Well, it depends. Java applets run in something called a "sandbox" (actually it's called the "Java RunTime Environment"). The sandbox is just a special zone on your computer fenced off from your operating system and other applications. In theory, Java applets can't get outside of the sandbox and damage your computer. In theory. The problem is that there are two major "flavors" of Java: 1. Microsoft's (which you already have if you own a PC) and 2. Sun's (which you don't have). In Microsoft's version of Java, the sandbox is better known as "Windows." Okay, that's an exaggeration. But, it is not an exaggeration to say that in Microsoft's version of Java there are some pretty significant security holes in the wall between the sandbox and the OS. And that's a bad thing. Even worse, Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine (the software on PCs that actually runs Java applets) is - Buggy, - Proprietary, and - Not long for this world. By way of comparison, Sun's version of Java is - Newer - Safer (because it has a MUCH better sandbox), and - Official (because, after all, Sun invented Java.) Oh, and what did I mean when I said that Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine is not long for this world? Well, Microsoft will stop supporting their JVM version on September 30th, 2004. And, because of Microsoft's recent court settlement with Sun, there will be no replacement. Microsoft recommends that, after 9/30, you lock down Microsoft Internet Explorer security zones so that the MSJVM works only with trusted sites. Microsoft has even created a page that talks about transitioning from the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine [you can find the page at http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/java/] but a MUCH better solution for folks like you and me is to hop on over to http://www.java.com/en/index.jsp and get Sun's official Java software. The process couldn't be simpler: Just click on the "Get It Now" button and Sun automatically downloads and installs the official Java software your computer. And Sun's free Java software is available for the PC, Mac, Linux, and (obviously) Sun Solaris. Pretty important stuff, and I don�t think Bill Gates will be sending you any emails in the near future to warn you about the soon-to-happen problems with his version of Java. I went to the link and downloaded the Sun version in about 2 minutes. You have to open the file to install it, but it isn�t that hard to do (if you have downloaded any other program from an Internet site, you can do this. There is even a page of link to free online games that play through Java. Cool stuff BTW- the Tourbus newsletter is still free, and aimed at non-computer literates like me. You can sign up here to get it in your email. Usually, it comes once a week, but when a major virus comes out he might send you something that very day. I know I have mentioned this newsletter before, but I like to repeat myself sometimes�. Speaking of repeating myself:
This is number 8 (since last July). He was captured with only a un-peanut buttered chunk of field corn as bait. I noticed a furry thief hanging around my bird feeder yesterday, so I just moved the Havahart from the front yard to the back without reapplying the peanut butter (missing since birds removed it last week). He must have wanted to be caught. Missed one of the ones who went before him, I guess..... Looks like I might get a decent peach crop next summer. That is, if we don�t have a late frost/freeze that causes the peach blossoms to whither and die. That�s about my luck. Relocate most of the peach-stealing tree rats, and then nature gets me anyway��..
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