Lookin' for a new cell phone, are ya', Bippy? Check these two out.

31 Flavors! No, wait, it's 31 patches for the Mack (no, wait again, it's not for trucks...it's for the Mac! OS 10.4 and 10.5) See here.

Also note there's an increased interest by hackers in the Mac...

Jeez, Pretty soon the Mac OS is gonna' be just like Windows. I've got Tiger on my iBook which I rarely use, & its predecessor on the desktop. I guess I better open the iBook & get the OS updates.

Wrestling with an unusable graphics messin'-with program. Try this; download links on the left.

You'll have to register, but Adobe is one of the safer places to do so.

More luv from Microsoft: article here.

You did set your OS for automatic patches, didn't you, Bippy?

More JOY! If you're using Sprint's cellular internet access, you may want to read this.

This ain't you, is it, Bippy?

So, yer contemplating a new LCD TV or monitor, are ya' Bippy? Ya' just might want to check this out.

Yeah, I see that the Chinese are learning quickly how to be real capitalists. Well, I have a response to them and all the other manufacturers who have decided to raise their prices, (and their corporate profits). "Screw you! I don't have to buy your junk". We consumers do have power, the power to JUST SAY NO!!! Cut back on your driving, cut back on your eating out, cut back on all your discretionary spending and just watch how quickly prices fall, including gas. It's about time that the consumer stops putting up with getting screwed.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
Cut back on your driving, cut back on your eating out, cut back on all your discretionary spending and just watch how quickly prices fall,

If the prices of necessities rises faster than our wages, we will indeed cut back on our discretionary spending. Wage cuts will do the same thing, while increasing corporate profits.

True indeed, for Jim & Tere & El Segundo Bill, as well. But any wide-ranging public effort to cut back personal expenditures is unlikely. Most of us will, of necessity, cut back as income fails to keep up with increasing costs. We're all in the grip of economic forces largely beyond our personal control.

The fundamental rule of economics is this: "If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall."

For the past quarter-century, through every administration but Clinton, our government reduced its income by cutting taxes, increased its outgo by spending more, & borrowed money to pay the bills.

As individuals, we followed our government's example by leveraging our tax savings with credit cards & easy mortgages. Our personal fiscal irresponsibility chickens are coming home to roost in foreclosures & bankruptcies, & the situation is exacerbated by rising costs of fuel & food.

We got away with it this long because our economy is large & strong. But a strong dollar & a weak yuan enticed us to buy all those TVs & toys while the Chinese government lent its dollar surplus to our government to support its deficits.

The dollar is no longer the world's favorite currency, it's now the Euro, & the world is in the process of returning to international economic equilibrium. The sins of our government & our own profligacy will be visited on us individually through inflation & a cheap dollar. The downfall resulting from our outgo exceeding our income is just beginning for our government & ourselves.

Us ordinary folks are coming into some tough times. If you own physical assets like machinery & real estate, they will retain economic value whatever happens to the dollar & prices. Money in the bank is likely to lose value as inflation rises, & stocks don't seem to be doing terribly well, at least in the short run.

This is economic & political fact, not criticism, or political rhetoric. As the late Walt Kelly lamented through his comic creation, Pogo, of the Okefenokee Swamp, "We has met the enemy, & they is us."

Amen to that Olroy. My wife and I live on Social Security and a small pension, but 40% of our expenditures are in the discretionary category. So we can deal with the rising fuel/food/etc costs. But the real key is that we have no debt and choose to live in a small guest apartment on our daughters farm in Tennessee. Plus, you and I are old enough to remember when a typical evening at home was reading a book and listening to the radio or perhaps the tree frogs. And we were happy then.

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Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
listening to the radio or perhaps the tree frogs. And we were happy then.

Yesterday evening I drove past a wetland area on my motorcycle, wearing a really quiet helmet, and the frogs were really loud. Couldn't believe it! Tonite is taken, but tomorrow night we will picnic there.

Thanks for bringing that up.

Yeah, I heaved a great big nostalgic sigh remembering soft Spring nights sitting on the front steps with peepers chirping in the background, & fireflies winking in the front yard.

Unfortunately we're townies now; only have an occasional flock of quail wandering through. And The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, & Jack, Doc, & Reggie from I Love A Mystery are nowhere to be found on today's radio dial.

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Originally posted by olroy:
And The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, & Jack, Doc, & Reggie from I Love A Mystery are nowhere to be found on today's radio dial.

Until about 5 years ago, a station out here, KNX, ran those old programs every night.

My youngest son was so taken with those programs, especially The Shadow, that his first puppy, a black Schnauzer, was named Shadow. Keeping the family tradition of pets named after radio or comic figures.