Amazon today unveiled the new Kindle e-reader, though it was not personally revealed by Bezos, as we heard rumored. The new device has a 6″ display like the old Kindle, but is the newer type of E-ink display found in the Kindle DX Graphite. There are other differences, but the main one would be price: the brand-new Kindle will be sold at $139 for the Wi-Fi only version, undercutting even the bare bones readers out there. Continue reading… … Read More

via TechCrunch

He will be with you, always, so you will no longer need to feel alone in dark places; including not only the ones that find us but also the ones we find or create for ourselves. You will no longer have a need to feel lonely, angry, or frustrated. You can and should learn to keep more of a focus on the eternal perspective; why we are here, our purpose in being here.

Indeed, “Men are that they might have joy.” We may still fall, from time to time, into misery and despair but we can know how to get back; know that God loves us no matter what and we can feel that love for ourselves. As a husband and father the Holy Ghost has helped me to sleep at night and have the courage to get out of bed the next morning. It’s more than just having a conscience; He is and has been a close personal friend.

As I’ve told many times before, I’d taken the missionary discussions three times before I was actually baptized. It took joining the Navy and essentially losing everything I had before I could hear the Lord calling out to me; I had to be able to listen …and that’s when I knew; after all the other distractions were gone.

I do, however, remember darker days since then…

A daughter lying in a hospital bed battling for her life…
Quiet times in the hospital with my mother in her last days…
The first holidays without grandma being a part of them…

Though it wasn’t easy in the least little bit, the light from the Lord through the presence of the Holy Ghost eventually gave me the strength to come back fully into the light…it would have been so easy on so many occasions to just give up to bitterness, anger, frustration…and in some cases I did…

We do have to remember that His companionship is not unconditional; I highly encourage you to keep a journal (starting today?) and remember how you feel today. If you ever forget how you feel today you may end up rather lost and find it much more difficult to find your way back.

Robert D. Hales said, “He cannot be with us if we are angry in our hearts, contentious with our companions, or critical of the Lord’s anointed. He departs whenever we are rebellious, are immoral, dress or act immodestly, are unclean or profane in mind or body, are slothful in priesthood callings and duties, or commit other sins, for ‘the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples’.” We must continue to earn his companionship everyday by making right choices and walking the straight and narrow path. He can be back in an instant if we ask, listen, and repent as necessary; but just as quickly we can be left to our own devices.

He will warn us of danger, give us strength in our trials, testify of truth, and help us to recognize true happiness when we find it. That’s what the Holy Ghost is to me…happiness…even in trials…even in pain…

President Hinckley said, “If we keep the commandments ‘the Holy Ghost shall be [our] constant companion’ (D&C 121:46) to buoy us up, to teach us, lead us, comfort us, and sustain us. To obtain this companionship, we need to ask for it, to live for it, to be loyal to the Lord.”

Live your life to the level of happiness you are qualified for as a son (or daughter) of Heavenly Father…the Holy Ghost will tell you how and will be your guide…if you; if all of us just listen and follow…

“The World At Night (TWAN) is a program to create and exhibit a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s most beautiful and historic sites against a nighttime backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events.”

The photographs at this site really are absolutely stunning!

Source: The World at Night (TWAN) in Photos and Videos.

First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.

As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes..

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren’t overweight. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing…

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have PlayStations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.

We had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from those accidents.

We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms, and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever.

The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

If YOU are one of those born between 1925-1970, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?

The quote of the month by Jay Leno:

“With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?”

She said I wasn’t funny, but she couldn’t have been right, everyone else in the class laughed.

My parents told me to always be truthful and honest, and I am. Fried chicken is my favorite animal. I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much. I do, too. Especially chicken, pork and beef.

Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal’s office. I told him what  happened, and he laughed too. Then he told me not to do it again.

The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was. I told her it was chicken. She asked me why, just like she’d asked the other children. So I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken. She sent me back to the principal’s office again. He laughed, and told me not to do it again.

I don’t understand. My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn’t like it when I am. Today, my teacher asked us to tell her what famous person we admire most.

I told her, “Colonel Sanders.”

Guess where I am now…

Source: Malware Threatens to Sue BitTorrent Downloaders | Wired.com.
Source: Trojan threatens legal action – The H Security: News and Features.

The article below discusses a case where a business person was using her computer as she normally would for online banking.  She had also most likely been using the computer for casual web surfing and in doing so had contracted a nasty trojan horse.  The trojan horse installed software allowing the theft of passwords and other login information.  The thieves then caused her computer to crash through use of software downloaded by the trojan horse.  While she was dealing with the computer crash the crooks made off with her money.

Lesson learned…the computer you use for banking must be secure.  You should not bank on the same computer you use to surf without making sure you surf safely.  Ideally you should bank on a completely separate computer (or virtual machine) used only for banking and NEVER for surfing.  For many this is just not realistic so I’ll put together a “Safe Surfing” article later…

Source: N.Y. Firm Faces Bankruptcy from $164,000 E-Banking Loss — Krebs on Security.

As the late Adrian Rogers said, “You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

A friend passed on the following…

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.  All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A…

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else..

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Can’t really make it any simpler than that.

“I believe we must constantly nourish the seeds of love, harmony, and unity in our homes and families. Fathers are to preside over their families in kindness, remembering that “no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.” (D&C 121:41) Husbands and wives are to love each other with a pure love that transcends selfishness. In a single-parent family, the parent presides. Parents are to nurture their children and teach them the principles of right living. Regardless of the help other individuals or institutions may give, the Lord has placed this responsibility ultimately with parents. Children are to honor their parents (see Ex. 20:12) by obeying them, living as they are taught, and fostering peace in the home.

“Parents should plant deeply the seed of the work ethic into the hearts and habits of their children. As society has shifted from an agrarian to an urban structure, the joy and necessity of diligent, hard work have been neglected. If our young people do not learn to work while in their homes, they likely will be compelled to learn later in a setting where the lesson may be painful.”

Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Seeds of Renewal,” Ensign, May 1989, 7

“Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. …

“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other”

Marvin J. Ashton (1915–94) “The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword,” Ensign, May 1992, 19

As far as I know I’ve never actually seen one.  Just be safe and be observant…if a machine doesn’t look quite right then go somewhere else.

Source: Would You Have Spotted the Fraud? — Krebs on Security.