Free Republic

Turn your PC into a green-eyed monster Redmond has released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15002 – one of the biggest updates to its cloudy operating system – ahead of the release of the Creators Update later this year. There's a whole host of upgrades and additions in the new build, but one that will be immediately noticeable to developers is the axing of the traditional Blue Screen of Death whenever the operating system throws its toys out of the playpen. Now it will be green. "In an effort to more easily distinguish Windows Insider reports vs the reports of...

It's not quite the clear-cut win for consumers that Microsoft is portraying, but at least it's transparent with its decision. Microsoft said Tuesday that it plans to simplify the privacy options in the upcoming Creators’ Update, though some may see one component as limiting user choice as well. Microsoft plans to revamp how privacy is managed in the upcoming Creators Update to Windows 10, both as part of the initial setup as well as the amount of data it collects in day-to-day diagnostics. That amount will actually decrease, if a user so chooses. But Microsoft has also eliminated an intermediary...

A woman has saved tens of thousands of dollars after she vowed to buy nothing for a whole year. It may sound extreme, but caught up in a consumerist society, Michelle McGagh thought it would change her relationship with money forever. The personal financial journalist became a minimalist, and stopped cluttering her house with possessions and making unnecessary purchases. Now she is about $27,000 better off for it.

Dear Cooking-Thread Friends; A very dear relative of mine has become quite ill, and I will be caring for him for the foreseeable future. I expect that things will be turned a little ‘upside-down’ here for a while, and I won’t be able to continue the weekly posting of this thread. I will resume when I am able, but in the meantime we can just continue this thread. I will check in when I can. Alternatively, if anyone would like to take up the thread in the interim, the ping list is on my profile page. My current patient is...

Victor Light Opera Company--Gems from "Follow Thru" and "Hold Everything"

The Royal Navy at Sea

Driven by terror threats and a potential Hillary Rodham Clinton administration, sales of guns in America soared to record levels in 2016, according to the FBI. Just released FBI background check numbers, which roughly equate gun sales, totalled some 27,538,673, 4 million more than in 2015 and nearly double the number in President Obama's first year.

My favorite YouTuber, Dale Calder, posted a video today about Hogmanay, which is the Scots word for the last day of the year. He showed how to make ‘Tablet’, a fudge-like treat that is traditional for this day and very easy to make. Here is a link to his video, where he also tells some New Year memories from his boyhood in Canada; and also one to Wild-Eyed Southern Celt’s recipe, which includes a link to making a whiskey-flavored tablet: http://dalecaldersblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/making-tablet-for-hogmanay-stories.htmlhttp://wildeyedsoutherncelt.com/traditional-scottish-tablet/************************************* I think it was Freeper Boatbums who posted a nice recipe for Zucchini Pie last week, and reminded me...

Because it’s not complicated enough already, Windows 10’s Start menu will support folders in a forthcoming release. The Windows 10 Redstone 2 release, also dubbed the “Creators Update”, will allow apps to be nested, much as with Windows Phone 8, and the mobile edition of Windows 10. The update is expected around April, and aggregates work since the Anniversary Update in early August. Around a dozen builds have been released via the Insider Preview program since the official announcement in October. The folders appear in an unofficial leaked build (14997) and MS Power User blog has a nice GIF of...

ABU DHABI // Camels owned by Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed, the President’s Representative, have won top prizes in the camel ‘mazayna’ beauty contest at this year’s Al Dhafra Festival. Sheikh Sultan’s camels won the Aayel category for the golden-red camel breed, originally from Oman. Camels belonging to Khamis Al Mazrouie scooped the Majahim category, the black camels of Saudi Arabia. Held in Madinat Zayed in Al Gharbia from December 13 to 29, the 10th edition of Al Dhafra Festival was organised by the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee - Abu Dhabi

I do love Windows 10. For me it has made Windows into an operating system that I really enjoy using. But there are also a couple of things about how it operates that annoy both me, and power users. Essentially, Windows Updates are a pain and force users to restart at times that aren't convenient, or might automatically reboot a computer with no notice. Users, like Sergey Tkachenko from WinAero, on the Windows Insider preview program have noticed that a new option has been added to the Windows Update system that allows them to defer all updates for as long...

Rookie quarterback Carson Wentz bought each of his offensive linemen a personalized Beretta shotgun for Christmas, a twist on the time-honored tradition of a quarterback rewarding the men who keep him upright each week, ESPN reported. “This is an awesome gun. I’m excited about it,” said Allen Barbre, who, like Wentz, is an avid Hunter. “I don’t know if I’ll shoot it, though. It’s pretty nice.” The shotguns are being engraved with each player’s number on the butt of the weapon, which is believed to be a Beretta Silver Pigeon – a $2,000 model. “I like to go clay shooting...

A (Cocagne) New Brunswick trapper received an unexpected gift on Christmas Day—a rare melanistic bobcat. Studies show there has only been one other black bobcat caught in Canada. "I thought it was a house cat," said Oswald McFadden, who has run the same trapline for the last decade. "When I saw the tail I knew it wasn't a house cat. Then I looked at the ears, I knew it was definitely a bobcat." Melanism is a genetic trait that displays a black-coloured pigment and can often be found in species like squirrels and jaguars. Much like jaguars, this bobcat's spots...

Excerpt from the article: Juliet Johnson said her father had been "ailing for some time" but "died peacefully" on Christmas Eve. Watership Down, a children's classic about a group of rabbits in search of a new home after their warren was destroyed, was first published in 1972.

Over the past decade or so, South Beach has honed its reputation as a playground for the rich and famous, where money is no object. It's so common to see a $400,000 Maybach pulling up to the valet at Prime One Twelve for a $300 slab of Japanese A5 Kobe that we don't even look twice anymore. So when dropping a few Gs on a typical Thursday is commonplace, whatever do you do on New Year's Eve? How about a $10,000 mojito? Nikki Beach Miami is offering a $10,000 Dom Pérignon rosé strawberry mojito for the big night. This one-night-only...

Like a good American dad, my holster broke on me today while sliding down the slide at the public park with my daughter...

1. bicentennial Usage of the word bicentennial, meaning occurring every 200 years, has been steadily increasing since the 1880s. The usage rose sharply in the 1970s, probably due to the United State Bicentennial, and then again in the mid-1980s, perhaps due to the bicentennial of the Statue of Liberty. Example: "New Orleans intended to fittingly celebrate, this present year, the bicentennial anniversary of this illustrious event; but when the time came, all her energies and surplus money were required in other directions, for the flood was upon the land then, making havoc and devastation everywhere." — Life on the Mississippi,...

I am blessed to be running Windows 10 Version 10.0.10586, Build 10586, and have customized it a quite a bit, but under power management (powercfg.cpl) there are processor settings which i never saw before, though i have been there before and adjusted things. " I am looking for for Max performance (and still be able to Sleep), and made sure the Max. CPU state is 100%, but wondered what the best would be for the rest. I have searched the Internet for the best settings for these new options but saw nothing yet. Feel free to chip in (pun not...

As he approached his 50th birthday, Steve Ludwin felt like he might finally be growing out of his long-term habit. For nearly 30 years, he has been injecting himself with snake venom out of sheer curiosity, despite receiving multiple warnings from researchers and medical experts the practice was extremely dangerous and could endanger his life. It instead took some severe bites from a snake – two in the past year – for Ludwin to begin understanding just how reckless his pastime could be. “The pain is like someone has taken a sledgehammer, smashed it on your hand and then holds...

Every year at Christmas my mother-in-law sends us a big box of cookies. I think she makes the best chocolate chip cookies I've had, but this year I tried the Raisin Jumbos, which were really excellent. She makes most of her cookies with butter, but uses Crisco for this one; and she doesn't add nuts, which I think would be 'gilding the lily': JUMBO RAISIN COOKIES Preheat oven to 375 degrees.   1 c. water 1 c. shortening 3 eggs, beaten 1 c. nuts (optional) 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. allspice 2 c. raisins 2 c....