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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Most Rightardia political posts have been moved to Facebook.

Rightardia moved most of the political articles to FB many years ago. 

The Facebook page is at

https://www.facebook.com/rightardia


Send a friend request if you want to see the private page.


The change was necessary for troll control.

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Found rogue DNS server adresses on Windows 7


You need Domain Name Services (DNS) to connect to the Internet.  Essentially when you type an alphanumerical Uniform Resource Locater (URL) such as http://www.cnn.com, the DNS server converts this human readable address to an Internet Protocol IP) address such as 157.166.226.26.



Most home routers use a local DNS address such as 192.168.1.1 and will pass the request for DNS services to the cable modem. The DNS address is important because you will not be able to browse the Internet if the address is incorrect.

Likewise, if you are using a virtual Private network (VPN), you don't want commonly used DNS servers to respond to your requests for an IP address.

The DNS server can log your IP address and as well as the IP address of the web site you wish to visit. This defeats the point of the VPN. In fact, there is a DNS leak test fix for Windows to make sure you VPN connection does not communicate with insecure DNS servers.

I was checking my wireless connections when I noticed my Windows wireless adapters were using the DNS addresses of 156.154.70.22 and 156.154.71.22. Have to believe some sort of stealthy malware changed the DNS addresses on my Windows PC. My PC should not have been able to browse he Internet at all, but Firfox browser has been working fine,

Did find out ho owns the these addresses from Abongo.com:

156.154.20.22
Sterling, VA, United States
Provider: NeuStar

NeuStar, Inc.
45980 Center Oak Plaza Network Operations Center, Sterling, VA 20166 US
+1-866-638-6622 +1-866-638-6622

Neustar offers internal and external managed DNS services that play a role in directing and managing traffic on the Internet, cloud-based DDoS attack protection and website performance management tools.

Check your network configuration in Windows and make sure the DNS server address is correct. Comodo claims its DNS severs are secure: if you need a DNS address, try these:

Comodo Secure DNS

8.26.56.26
8.20.247.20

 source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neustar

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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

What the election of Republican president would portend.


1. The Republicans would try to rationalize a war with Iran.

2. US diplomacy would stop and a neo-conservative like John Bolton would probably become Secretary of State. The US ambassador to the UN would take a belligerent stance. Diplomatic efforts with Cuba would cease. 

3. Keystone XL would be built directly over the biggest aquifer in the US. Environmental regulation would be relaxed, fracking would increase and federal lands sold of to corporate interests. 

4. The National Labor Relations board would be filed with GOP lackeys and all labor complaints would be voted down. 

5. Two Supreme Court justices are expected to retire after 2016: Justice Ginsberg and Justice Scalia. A 5-4 conservative majority in the Supreme Court would become 7-2. Any law the Republicans didn't like would be challenged in courts with the intent of getting the law stuck down.

A 5-4 conservative majority in the Supreme 

Court would become 7-2.

6. The IRS would see additional severe budget cuts and the auditors would be directed to audit Earned Income Tax Credit returns from the poor rather than tax filings form the most affluent Americans. (GW Bush actually did this while he was president).

7. Republicans would attempt to reduce or eliminate the Estate Tax and the capital gain taxes as well as flatten federal income tax under the guise of “tax reform.” This would, indeed, make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

8. Republicans would “reform” welfare by cutting funds to food stamps (SNAP) and school lunches.

9. The Retirement age for Social Security and Medicare would be raised. Republicans would divert revenues from Standard Medicare to Medicare Part D. Essentially Standard Medicare would again subsidize the privatized Medicare program that was never properly funded.

10. The GOP would attempt to privatize the VA with a voucher program. This is easier said than done become many vets have very serous disabilities and a “one size fits all” voucher program would be unworkable. 

11. The reproductive rights of women and he human rights of the LGBT communities would now be attacked at the federal level.

12. New immigrants would be sent home without little due process. In contrast, the HI-B Visa program would be expanded to let more educated and high tech foreign workers into the country. New immigrants generally compete for jobs that high school dropoutswant; yard, work, fast food, roofing and other construction jobs. HI-B visas let foreign workers take information technology and university positions. 

Do you really think the next election doesn't matter? 


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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Rise of Nations fix


Rise of Nations (RON) is  a real time strategy (RTS) game  developed for Windows XP. It works intermittently or not at all on Windows 7and 8. In fact, it doesn't play  well with my Windows 7 third party firewall and nearly trashed the Windows install.

After recovering Windows, I reinstalled RON. After the install, I used Explorer to get  into the CD-Rom and executed  rise.exe form the CD-Rom on the D-drive. You can use the DOS box to do this as well. Type cmd is the little window at the bottom of the`Windows 7 menu:

Enter "cmd" at the bottom of the Windows 7 menu and go to the D-drive.

A DOS box will open
When I entered the Rise executable  command, Windows indicated a file patchw32.dll was missing. Checked  the RON directory under the MS Games directory and noticed the .dll fie had already been installed.

Figured out this was a "path" problem. Recalled that Windows 7 has a System or System32 directory for .dll files. After looking around, I found the Windows 7 directory for .dll files in c:\windows\system.

Copied the patchw32.dll file to the C:\windows\system directory and started RON with the windows shortcut on the desktop. The program has worked perfectly ever since.

CodeWeavers claims to have an installable that will allow you to play the game on a MAC or Linux based PC.

Having experimented with Wine and Play On Linux with Rise of Nations, strongly enecourage you to check out the trial to make sure the installable really works before you purchase the CodeWeavers software.

If you have Steam, you can also play Rise of Nations extended edition online. 


sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_Nations
https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/rise-of-nations


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Saturday, April 25, 2015

Russian Victory Day rehearsal.


Sputnik News has big limitations on  reuse of the original article, but it did provide an embed for video. Victory Day is on May 9.

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Friday, April 3, 2015

Buying new or used car.

Do some research first


Don't be 'Barefoot Pilgrim' 


That’s  slang term for an unsophisticated buyer. A barefoot pilgrim is someone who has taken on more risk than necessary or entered into the purchase carelessly, without doing the proper research

Have been buying new and late model used cars for nearly half a century.  First thing you need to do is research the car. I started using the ConsumerReports Auto Buying Guide in the 1990s. if you go online, you can even get a price for the car of your dreams.

You can buy a month subscription to ConsumerReports Online for about $7. Once you drill down to the engines and features of the car, you will get a cost coupon you can take to the dealer,

Of interest, if you have USAA insurance, you can log in to your account and use the USAA Auto Buying service. There is no cost and once you have identified, the engine, drive type and options you will be able to print out a coupon you can take to a dealer. The ConsumerReports and USAA bottom line prices are identical!

Suggest you talk to two or three dealers. If a dealer refuses to talk price on the phone, email  or by fax, find another dealer. Tell the dealer if you are a ConsumerReports/USAA member or use another auto buying service like Costco.

Can you beat the online ConsumerReports or USAA prices?

The short answer is yes. The different auto manufacturers have promotions and my car was purchased in a promotion month.

Be aware that auto dealers receive hold backs. A the end of each year, the dealers get 10s of thousands of dollars back from the auto manufactures, depending on their annual volume.

Finance considerations

Have suggested in the past that large banks be avoided,  Credit unions and smaller local community banks are a better option for an auto loan.

If you want to expedite the purchase of the car, go to your credit union and get pre-authorized. The bank will pull your credit and and if everything is satisfactory, issue you a draft somewhat over the amount of the purchase.  Essentially,the bank is issuing you a line of credit.

Once you are finished with the dealer sales person, you will be turned over to finance. When you present the draft, the finance officer will generate a purchase order that will be faxed to the bank.

You can now drive away with the car.

Watch out for dealer financing

Years ago I wanted to purchase a Mercury Cougar for my spouse. The dealer was offering 0 per cent financing and asked if I would finance the car through their corporation. I told them I would call my credit union and compare loan costs. Whoever had the better deal would get the finance the loan. As I recall, the credit union had a 4 per cent interest rate. Even with the higher interest rate, the monthly car payments were less through the credit union.

How can that be?

Dealers may tell you they are not making money on the deal and will want you to finance through them so they can get a finder's fee of $500 from your credit union or bank. My credit union offers no auto dealers finder's fee, so such a comment was bogus.

Dealers can also add charges for documentary stamps (doc stamps) which may add $20 to the monthly cost of the loan. The finance officer explained the credit union had computed the loan payment incorrectly. Actually,he was trying to hide the monthly cost of the doc stamps.

The credit union does not require doc stamps Of course, why would you want to finance doc stamps? When you purchase a home, this a one time charge.

The auto dealer may also try to sell you a warranty. Now think about that for a minute. Most new cars have a full 36 month or 36,000 mile warranty, whatever comes first. Why would you need another warranty on a new car?

A used car is a different story. Most banks or credit unions will offer used car warranties as part of the monthly finance charge.

The credit union advised us to buy an additional warranty one month before the new car warranty expired. This made more sense to my spouse and I.

Some auto dealers will also try to pad the finance charges with loan insurance. That might sound like a good idea, but essentially you are buying insurance for the dealer, If you were to default on the loan, the dealer  get the loan insurance payout. The dealer should be paying for this insurance, not the auto buyer.

However, he credit union offered life insurance for the auto. If either my wife or I died during the term of the loan, the auto would be paid off. You may be able to get this insurance up to the age of 72.

Recommend auto buyers get pre-qualified at a bank or credit union. The dealer has a different view of finance charges than the bank. From the writer's perspective, the banks approach to the auto warranty, doc stamps and auto insurance is more beneficial to the buyer,.

Likewise, after the dealer has accepted your offer for the car, do you really want to set in the finance office for another two hours getting additional sales spiels.

The draft from the credit union or bank will save time and you should be able to drive away in your new vehicle in another 15 minutes after giving finance the bank draft.

An automobile is the second most expensive purchase you will make in your life. Do some research before your purchase a vehicle. It can save you thousands.

source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/barefootpilgrim.asp

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