I know TuscanyCircle's SSL certificate is expired. I renewed it weeks ago but was unable to load it onto the server due to some problem introduced by my webhoster, likely as a result of last year's NOC move. I filled out a help ticket on Sept. 19, but it seems nothing has progressed. I've not heard anything in response, nor has any visible condition changed (other than the ticket getting put on HOLD). » read more »

My credo is sola scriptura but, even so, that (IMHO) must needs be tempered with the interpretation of Scripture by others, lest one become a heretic. And so, there is a place for tradition as a check against ‘private interpretation’. Even so, I also believe in semper reformanda, as long the change brings one closer to God and truth. » read more »

Microsoft's Live Search has been banned from TuscanyCircle for spamming! Live Search has instituted a "referrer spam" campaign for the last several months, upsetting countless webmasters. Apparently, it's some sophomoric attempt to drive traffic to their search engine. Too bad. They're out. I don't even care if they ban TuscanyCircle from their pathetic excuse for a search engine. Legitimate traffic from Live Search approaches nil anyway. I don't need 'em. Note: Live has also been removed from my external-search-engine options. » read more »

I think I just put two and two together and learned how the blogosphere may die. The key ingredient of the blogosphere that may lead to its downfall is simply this: it's written. The problem with blogs is that they're written language--as opposed to video clips or audio podcasts. Too many with theoretically high IQs (130s?) are seemingly incapable of even basic reading comprehension. If those brighter than 98% of the population are unable to comprehend even the simplest of articles, what hope does the 98% have? » read more »

AT&T's wireless data networks (3G, GSM) are down, apparently across several markets. The impression I got was it's nationwide though not [yet] total. They've been having intermittent yet isolated problems for a while, but now it's "spread" to the bulk of their network. As of this morning, all my phones (NE Atlanta) have lost all data connection. There is no ETA, nor do I have further details.

The symptom on my WM6 PPC device is, "Unable to connect for an unknown reason." Informative, eh? On my other WM6 Smartphones, the error is even more useless. » read more »

That lightning strike a few weeks ago seems to have taken out our old desktop computer. It was almost 8 years old, running Windows 98 SE. We used it mainly as the kids' computer, and my husband used it to keep his files on.

The pc won't boot up now, but does have power. I've gotten a quote from a computer store... they want between $65 - 250 to get files off the hard drive, and that's of course if it's possible. They want $65 just to do diagnostics on it. » read more »

Everybody's pushing fluorescent lamps these days. Finding an incandescent bulb with the desired wattage is getting increasingly difficult. For example, I was looking for a 150 watt flood lamp a few months ago--couldn't find one anywhere. The best I could find was 90 watts. I have 150 watt 3-way bulbs inside my home, for crying out loud; why can't I find 150 watt flood lamps? » read more »

The die is cast. Really, it was cast when Microsoft released Vista, though I did not know it at the time. It wasn't long before I started reading about Vista, and negative impressions began to form. » read more »

I've been waiting a very long time for a plug-in/add-on/extension for Firefox so I can use regular expressions to search a web page. It's finally arrived: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addo...

TuscanyCircle has undergone some minor changes recently. First, you'll notice the link colors have changed. Next, you should notice that the URL for its "All nodes" feed has changed from http://tuscanycircle.net/node/feed to http://tuscanycircle.net/view/recent/feed. The former is now named "Front Page" and does not contain all new content but only that which has been promoted to the front pages. » read more »