It has been all gloom and doom for windows XP users and Microsoft’s decision to discontinue it’s use post June?30th?2008. If you really want to use Windows XP there has to be a loophole in the fine print.
Yes indeed there are loopholes around the June 30th deadline and Dell, HP and Lenovo have all found them!!!!
The loophole is very simple, ship the customer their PC with Vista installed however there will be an option to downgrade to Windows XP!!!!
The companies selling the software can’t oficially charge for XP but might consider it as a “give away”.
So if you can’t live without XP you?or your organization has a workaround for a while.
I wrote about the life-cycle of the grub and the result of an invasion. The next step is to get rid of the grubs.
The first thing that comes to mind are chemicals however this is not the best solution. Other animals/birds that prey on the grubs are now exposed to these chemicals thus harming them. These chemicals will eventually enter the water table hence entering the water supply which will affect water plants/fish.
Secondly application of chemicals only take care of the problem for the current season as new larvae will be present in the fall and your lawn could be “dirt” by spring again needing more applications of chemicals.
Planting new grass is not an option as the grubs will eat the roots again. The best option are the “go green” solutions.
The simplest is to get a pet to eat the grubs i.e. a skunk for example. You will get free aeration at the same time : ) Seriously though what are the options?
- hand pick the beetles
- it’s the best time to turn the patch of dirt into a flower bed or rock garden
- beneficial nematodes
- milky spore
Flower beds or rock gardens are very easy to maintain especially if they are mulched well. More on that later this summer.
Beneficial nematodes are naturally occurring organisms that are not harmful to humans, pets, wildlife, birds, soil, earthworms, water sources or the atmosphere. Nematodes migrate through the soil finding insect larvae by detecting either a slight increase in temperature or release of methane gas. The nematodes enter the larvae and release a symbiotic bacteria within days. This kills the host.
Milky spore are beneficial bacteria, more specifically “Bacillus popilliae”. It infects the Japanese Beetles with Milky Spore disease. The disease paralyzes and kills the host grub. When the dead grub breaks down, it releases billions of new spores into the soil. This in turn will infect and kill other grubs. An infected grub will die within one to three weeks of being infected by Milky Spores.
It requires only one application but it could take 2 to 4 years to have any significant effect. This one application could last up to 15 years due to the release of new spores into the soil. Milky spore are not affected by freezing or other adverse conditions.? They are generally not affected by most fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides or other lawn care products.
There you have it two green solutions to getting rid of them grubs.
I had attended a very interesting session by Barclay McMillan about “Your voice – your calling card”. At the age of 60 Barclay figured out what he wanted to do when he grew up. It was a series of health problems that embarked him on his journey and he now shares his insights with people. He provided advice on putting your best self forward through your most neglected but most important selling tool – your voice.
When we were babies we were very good at communicating our needs verbally. As we grew up we developed words and various social filters that made us loose our voice so to speak. By adulthood our voice lost its ability of the soul.
He offers a course called Life Song – it’s part physical and part psychological.
Getting back the ability of the voice to connect with the pain and passion. Your natural voice is bigger, carries desires, pain, passion, hopes and dreams to greater effect.
Words are made up of vowels and clicks (syllables). When we speak we tend to close down on the vowels and move onto the next click instead of making the vowels jump. If we speak authentically the air comes in contact with our musculature and guts. Our authentic emotions are alive. It lives in our bodies. It colors our sound as it goes through our larynx.
Slowing down a little so that the vowels are full makes an immediate improvement in the authenticity of your speaking. You do not have to slow down. Speak more deliberately so that the vowels are longer and fuller.
“Make your vowels big – take your time and your voice will come alive.”
Read at Work is exactly what it says, you can read stories at work.? When you click on the link it opens up a windows interface that looks just like the one you have, if you have windows on your computer.? I wonder what it will look like if? you have a MAC?
It has directories that are categorized by the different types of stories.? Clicking on these will open a powerpoint presentation that has graphics and flow diagrams however they are not presentations but STORIES!!!
Check it out.
My computer is finally up and running again so here are some pictures from the Canada Day Celebrations in downtown Ottawa.
Changing of the guard
Lying down on a bed of nails!!!
Juggling knives on top of ladder
Fire in mouth, on top of ladder!!!
? flag lady
Upside down on bike
Let go of bike!!!
? Hat guy
body painting
We in the developed world have always prided ourselves in our technology to accomplish tasks faster, easier and with minimal manual labour. Manual labour was for the developing world. The recent focus on green house gases has now made us re-evaluate our use of technology in our daily life. Words like environmental/ecological footprint have been added to our vocabulary.
An ecological footprint is a number that represents the human demand on the earth’s ecosystem and natural resources. At current rates of resource consumption, we need at least 2 more planet earths to sustain our North American lifestyles.
The Royal Saskatchewan Museum has an Ecological Footprint calculator. This does have a bias towards city living and the calculator is based on the choices we make around food, goods, services, shelter and mobility.
It goes through a series of multiple choice questions and gives you a number at the end which is your footprint. The average Canadian footpring is 6.9 hectares the size of two football fields. By clicking around on the icons you can see how the numbers change, thus how you can lower your number.
Here are some more calculators
So what is your ecological footprint?
I was getting my regular dose of updates from Startup Ottawa where I learnt about the Startup Index. This is an awesome idea, a list of startups Canada wide.
Once upon a time I was working on a project and needed to identify new companies and let me tell you it was a very hard task. It involved going through old newspaper articles and lots of Google searches.
It also has a list of investors and who they invested in. Perhaps it could be expanded to include a section for private funders too.
Startup Index has a lot of potential and once the word gets around it will be a one stop shopping so to speak. Perhaps an expansion to other countries, a Global startup index, how cool is that.
I usually write about DemoCamps in Ottawa. This time there is a slight twist on these camps and it’s called an Eclipse DemoCamp. This is to celebrate the Eclipse Banymede release and it’s an opportunity to showcase all fo the cool interesting technology being built by the Eclipse community.
When: Wednesday June 26th
Time: 7:00-10:00pm
Where: Clock Tower Brew Pub, 575 Bank St.
Visiting the moon has been on my to do list for a while.? Alas I am not an astranaut or millionaire therefore space travel is out for me at the moment.?
NASA has come to the rescue by launching their send your name to the moon as an alternative for moon tourism.?
Today’s the deadline to get your Certificate of participation.?
Bill Gates had a dream, it was to put a PC on every desktop in every home, office etc. That dream has certainly come true in the developed world. So when Microsoft announced that they will no longer sell Windows XP to OEMs as of June 30th this year there was quite an outcry from the users.
Vista has not turned out to be what was promised and a lot of people are reverting back to Windows XP. Some businesses have invested heavily in getting their processes and systems to be compatible with XP. What will be the impact of this decision on these businesses and Microsoft? Some speculate that this is a bad decision on Microsoft’s part. Before we can jump to conclusions we have to understand our options.
- Open Office an open source software for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more
- Source Forge opensource software development website
- Novell Open Workgroup Suite replacement for microsoft small business solution
- Mircosoft alternate products listing
- There’s always the MAC
Open source appears the way to go however there is not one company out there that offers one stop shopping like Microsoft does. So has Microsoft made the right decision or are there any loopholes?
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