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As if you needed one more reason not to “upgrade” to Microsoft’s Vista operating system; how about the fact, confirmed by MS, that something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation. Ouch! That comes on top of the Windows Slowdown, caused when Microsoft forced the installation of Windows Desktop Search. Is there something in the water in Redmond?

James Bannan has the whole Vista deactivation story over at APC Mag.

Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, Special Counsel for the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, has decided not to retire. He had announced last week that he would leave the FCC in January 2008.

Riley states, “After spending the entire weekend thinking about the decision [to retire], it became more and more clear to me that it just isn’t the right decision for me right now. There are several issues on the table that I want to continue to work through with the amateur community.”

The Enforcement Bureau is the primary organizational unit within the Federal Communications Commission that is responsible for enforcement of provisions of the Communications Act, the Commission’s rules, Commission orders and terms and conditions of station authorizations, as well as enforcement of Amateur Radio rules (Part 97).

SOURCE: ARRL

A hunter, James Harris, 37, of Tama, Iowa was shot in the leg by his dog when the dog stepped on the trigger of the man’s shotgun. The hunter was hit in the calf Saturday, the opening day of pheasant season, said Alan Foster, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Harris put his gun on the ground and crossed a fence when he went to retrieve a shot bird. As he crossed the fence, his hunting dog stepped on the gun, Foster said. Harris was listed in good condition Tuesday, officials at University Hospitals in Iowa City said. Foster said no citations have been issued.

There is apparently no truth to the rumor that the dog was previously owned by Dick Cheney.

Speaking of “Dead Eye Dick”, he is back in the news today after visiting the exclusive Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club in Union Vale, NY. The club is a sprawling preserve along the western slope of Clove Mountain, where a 5-foot-by-5-foot Confederate flag hung in a garage at tached to the club headquarters.

That story and photos of the flag are in the New York Post.

I recently ran across this tongue-in-cheek guide to food freshness. It caused me to stick my head into our refrigerator to start reading expiration dates. I belive you will, also.

The Layman’s version of how to tell if an item is still good (just for fun, of course)

THE GAG TEST: Anything that makes you gag is spoiled (except for leftovers from what you cooked for yourself last night).

EGGS: When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime. (Read more)

We here in Michigan are preparing for the annual deluge of snow that could start any day now. I am giving serious consideration to the purchase of a Silver Bear Snow Scoop.

The manufacturer claims, “Silver Bear snow scoops and roof rakes are SAFER, FASTER and EASIER to use than snow shovels, and less expensive and more environmentally friendly than snow blowers”

Silver Bear Manufacturing is located in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. They have been making their world famous snow removal products for over 30 years. The impetus for the design came from the fact that they are located in a region that receives more than 200 inches of snow annually. (Read more)

I have enjoyed reading, but haven’t always agreed with, Jerry Pournelle’s opinions since I started reading his Chaos Manor column in BYTE magazine in the early eighties. This week he let fly at our friends over at FEMA. This article deserves a full reading and some deep thought.

We’ve all seen the preposterous "Press Conference" in which FEMA employees — bureaucrats, cubicle workers — stood in for reporters to ask questions. The excuse was that there wasn’t time to get a proper press conference organized, and this was a way to get the information out without simply having a bunch of press releases. One can see how that might make sense — to public information bureaucrats in FEMA. "Mister Secretary, are you pleased with the performance of your people?"

Oh, Yeah. (Read more)

Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, Special Counsel in the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, announced his retirement this week, effective Friday, January 3, 2008. Speaking at the New England Division ARRL Convention in August 2000, Hollingsworth offered his 10 personal suggestions to secure a sound future for Amateur Radio.

1. Be proud of what you have and let your feelings be known. Let the public know what you are, what Amateur Radio is, and why it’s valuable. Let your feelings be known to Congress, to the FCC, to the media, to your states and to emergency agencies. Sprint does. AT&T does. Motorola does.

2. Operate as if the whole world is listening. It is! (Read more)

As fires raged through parts of the San Diego area and other areas in Southern California, ham radio operators did their part to ensure the safety of residents either affected or threatened by the fires. ARES groups in San Diego were activated on Monday, October 22 and continued to assist their served agencies until early Wednesday morning. Sixty hams were called to service by the County of San Diego’s Emergency Medical Service.

According to ARRL San Diego Section Emergency Coordinator James J. Cammarano II, KG6R, hams assisted at the San Diego Medical Operations Center, six trauma centers and 16 community hospitals. Hams served as a resource, Cammarano said, “to be used in case primary circuits to hospital communications were lost due to either overload or power interruptions.” In addition to these 60 amateurs, another dozen or so hams were activated by the Red Cross. (Read more)

Got an iPhone that has been turned into a “brick” because you updated an unlocked device? Never fear, the iPhone Elite dev team created a tool to restore it to its origional virgin state. Safely back up and restore the seczone area of the phone, thus undoing the bug created by the inital unlock code.

This hits a bit close to home.

Recent comments on some of the amateur radio web forums have attempted to posit the point that someone is not a “REAL HAM” unless he or she meets certain arbitrary criteria.  Those include such requirements as passing a code test to get licensed, using equipment with tubes in it, or being able to build a transceiver from scratch, using only a pie tin, a set of shoe laces, and a handful of grab-bag parts from a swap meet. (Read more)