12/5/09.
On the Web (December 1st - 5th, 2009):
Links of Interest:
Fabrikant Fine Diamonds Inc
XP Wallpapers, Vista Wallpapers
News Items of Interest
(submitted by Josh Peryea):
From Cave to Castle
Study Reveals the Angriest Americans
Changes at Facebook:
An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg:
It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.
To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we've built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.
Facebook's current privacy model revolves around "networks" - communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.
Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.
However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we've concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.
The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.
We're adding something that many of you have asked for - the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we'll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.
Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we'll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You'll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you're finished, we'll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you're done you'll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.
We've worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone's needs are different. We'll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you're sharing with online.
Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.
Mark Zuckerberg
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From Dave's Camera:
United Office Building
(Niagara Falls, New York, USA):
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Inside JefferyGuide:
11/30/09: The JefferyGuide 2009 Christmas card is now available for viewing. To view the card, click here.
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11/16/09: JefferyGuide now has an area devoted to the Babylon 5 tv series. To view the Babylon 5 area, click here.
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11/9/09: JefferyGuide now has a page devoted to the American Gothic tv series that ran on CBS from 1995 to 1996. To view the American Gothic page, click here.
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11/2/09: Why are quiet people the way they are? JefferyGuide now has a page that will give you a better understanding of quiet people. To view the quiet people page, click here.
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10/26/09: JefferyGuide's Ghost Story Links page has been updated with some new links.
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Interesting Fact:
A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
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Special Items:
10/2/09:
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7/15/09:
God Bless Ed Freeman
JefferyGuide received an e-mail from Eldon Kutz about a true hero named Ed Freeman. Those who knew Ed, as well as those who have heard about Ed, have been passing around this e-mail to bring attention to Ed's death in June and his special story.
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God bless Ed and all others like him.
We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives! Maya Angelou
Ed Freeman
You're a 19-year-old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the Medi-Vac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter and you look up to see an unarmed Huey, but it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out, through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses.
And he kept coming back, 13 more times, and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died on Wednesday, June 25th, 2009, at the age of 80, in Boise, ID. May God rest his soul.
Medal of Honor Winner
Ed Freeman!
Thanks again, Ed, for what you did for our country.
Rest in Peace.
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Special Report:
Digital Television (DTV) Transition (United States and Canada):
In the United States (after June 12th of 2009), and in Canada (after August 31st of 2011), full-power TV stations will broadcast only in digital. The DTV transition will affect those who watch free over-the-air television (through a rooftop antenna or "rabbit ears"). If you live in the United States and you watch over-the-air programs on an analog TV, you need to take action now. If you live in Canada and you watch over-the-air programs on an analog TV, you need to take action before August 31st of 2011.
If you watch free over-the-air programs on an analog TV, what should you do to be ready for the DTV transition? You have three choices: 1) connect your analog TV to a digital-to-analog converter box; 2) buy a digital television (a TV with a built-in digital tuner); or 3) subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service.
Analog-only televisions will continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players and similar products.
More information on the DTV transition is available by going to JefferyGuide's DTV / HDTV Information Page.
Niagara-Area TV stations which have gone all-digital:
In the United States, the switch to digital TV took place on Friday, June 12th. At that time, the following Niagara-area analog tv stations stopped analog broadcasting and switched over to digital only broadcasting: Analog Channel 2 (WGRZ), Analog Channel 4 (WIVB), Analog Channel 7 (WKBW), Analog Channel 23 (WNLO), and Analog Channel 49 (WNYO)(please note that WNYO, which use to be on digital channels 34-1 and 34-2, is now on digital channels 49-1 and 49-2). Analog Channel 51 (WPXJ) also switched over to digital only broadcasting, but is not viewable with a rooftop antenna or "rabbit ears" in Niagara Falls.
Analog Channel 17 (WNED), Analog Channel 26 (WNYB), and Analog Channel 29 (WUTV) made the switch to digital only broadcasting before June 12th. Meanwhile, Analog Channel 15 (WBFN-CA) is considered a low power tv station, and therefore is allowed to continue to broadcast in analog.
On Friday, June 12th, WNGS (Analog Channel 67) did not switch over to digital only broadcasting and opted instead to cease broadcasting.
Niagara-Area over-the-air digital tv channels are as follows:
STATION NETWORK DIGITAL CHANNEL
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WGRZ 2-1 NBC 33-1
WGRZ 2-2 NBC Universal Sports 33-2
WGRZ 2-3 RTN 33-3
WIVB 4-1 CBS 39-1
WKBW 7-1 ABC 38-1
WNED 17-1 PBS HD 43-1
WNED 17-2 PBS 43-2
WNED 17-3 PBS Think Bright 43-3
WNLO 23-1 The CW 32-1
WNYB 26-1 TCT 26-1
WNYB 26-2 TCT HD 26-2
WUTV 29-1 Fox HD 14-1
WUTV 29-2 Fox 14-2
WNYO 49-1 My Network TV HD 49-1
WNYO 49-2 My Network TV 49-2
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