08/05/03 Blocking Pop-Ups
Saugus Photos Online and Saugus.net never use pop-ups. Pop-ups are annoying, unrequested advertisements which open in a new window on your Web Browser. Some Web site spring dozens of pop-ups on every visitor. Some of the sites I've made links to, use pop-ups. The Saugus Weather forecast for example. The Boston Globe Web site is another case where pop-ups are widely used.
Yesterday I downloaded and installed the newest version of Netscape's browser after reading recent news about how vulnerable users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook Express are to hackers, virus initiators etc.
To my surprise, Netscape's new browser allows the blocking of pop-ups. By default, it asks the user for pop-up preferences the first time pop-ups are encountered. This is a GREAT feature. I'll be switching back Netscape for these and other reasons.
Will Microsoft's Internet Explorer ever offer such a feature? I doubt it. Too much is at stake for too many advertisers.
Ironically, when you go to Netscape.com, you get pop-ups and those are not blocked! You must remove them and several others from the "allowed sites" under the privacy settings to block their ads. But I did not expect anything different since Netscape was bought by AOL. AOL blasts their members with more ads than any ISP I've seen. AOL users can't even read their e-mail without ads (from AOL) embedded in just about every window.
Be aware that switching to Netscape requires experience in setting up e-mail accounts and default browser/e-mail preferences. If you do download Netscape, be sure to do a custom set up to avoid installing software that you don't want to install. Read the entire user agreement.
12/9/02 Blizzard of '78
Do you have Saugus pictures from the Blizzard of 78? Send them this way. Jim will do his best to get the pictures on-line and give the photographers credit. If you can e-mail pictures, as opposed to snail-mailing prints, that would be best. ( My flatbed scanner is out of commission.) If you have 35 MM negatives or slides, I can scan those for the on-line versions. Call Jim at 781-233-2996 if you'd like to share your "Blizzard of 1978" images from Saugus. The images don't need to show local landmarks but some of those would be nice.
Visit this page for Blizzard of "78 photos from Boston.
Less than 50 copies remain of A Gathering of Memories Saugus 1900-2000. The book will make a great gift. Get a copy now, before it's too late.
4/10/02
While attending a Gathering of Memories book committee meeting, I was made aware of a book called Conceptual Physics for Everyone. The book was written by Paul G. Hewitt. I was told Paul graduated from Saugus High School in 1949. Check out his Website at Conceptual Physics.com.
2/7/02 Saugus Chamber of Commerce
The Saugus Chamber of Commerce has a new Web site. The URL for it is www.sauguschamber.org. The chamber Web site was created by Saugus.net. The site features a monthly newsletter from the president of the chamber, a searchable database of chamber members, and lots of other information about the chamber.
Recently you may have noticed a lag in updates to Saugus Photos Online. As of today, the lag has come to an end. As you may know, my Saugus Photos Online web pages are hosted by the good people at Saugus.net. Saugus.net has recently undergone a major upgrade. New servers and a much faster "T1" connection will provide viewers with quicker loading pages and faster service all around for all pages hosted by Saugus.net.
1/13/02 Speech Recognition
There have been very few updates lately to this notices page. You might find them occurring more frequently now that I have speech recognition software. This is not to say that I've given up typing, I just found a quicker away to get my words into text. The software is IBM ViaVoice. I bought Release 9, Business Edition. My only regret is this version will only dictate into its own text editor called "SpeakPad" or Microsoft word. I believe speech recognition software called Dragon Naturally Speaking will dictate to virtually any Windows application.
I never did learn to type with proficiency. I type quickly but look to the keys and make lots of mistakes. This speech recognition software probably makes less mistakes than I do. Speech recognition software isn't perfect. It does require a significant amount of time to learn your voice and it's user dependent.
9/10/01
Shrunken Images
For those of you who have Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 6.X, be aware of the following. The browser comes with "automatic image resizing" enabled by default. This means when you encounter an image larger than your browser window, the image will be shrunk to fit. This is not a good thing if you want to see details. Examples of images you may not want shrunk are this one at www.photo.net of the Colosseum (not my image) and my 7065 pixel wide panoramic image made on Vinegar Hill.To turn off auto image resizing in MS Explorer 6.0, click Tools at the top, Internet options, click the advanced tab at the top, scroll down to the multimedia heading, remove the check mark next to automatic image resizing.
On my system, my panoramic image (361K) does not display at all unless auto resizing is turned off. Last time I checked, AOL's browser had it's own issues displaying images.
Maximize the viewing area in MS Internet Explorer, toggle on and off with F11.
7/27/01
Virus/ E-mail Worm notice
— W32/SirCam@mm (Sir Cam Virus)—
I have received several (about 6 in the last 5 days) e-mails from different sources all with the same message and all have an attachment about (167 K) but one attachment was (4 MB) The message contained in the e-mail is the same each time. It is:'Hi! How are you?
I send you this file in order to have your advice
See you later. Thanks"It seems the infected e-mail is sent out unknowingly by those who's systems are infected. The subject line and sender is different each time. It seems opening the e-mail does not cause the receiver to become infected but opening the attached files might cause your system to spread this virus via e-mail. I checked at www.macafee.com and found this page with the virus info. You should read this also.
6/18/01
I was recently called upon to produce a Marblehead, MA image for the Northshore Dental Center Web site. The site was created by Einstein Medical.After taking many photos of Marblehead harbor, my wife suggested a shot of the harbor with trees in the foreground. It turns out the image she suggested was the one chosen for the site. She deserves credit. The image was made under heavy overcast and required buffing up by Steve S. at Einstein Medical so he deserves credit too.
Web sites that have used my images with permission:
4/16/01
I put together a panoramic image of Saugus made on Vinegar Hill.
3/6/01
Links to Amazon.com recently appeared on some of my pages. Amazon offers a 5%-15% (up to $10.00 per item) referral payment to me when purchases are made to me directly through these links. I've shopped with Amazon.com several times and I've had good luck with them. If you've got purchases to make at Amazon.com, please enter their site through the links on my pages. Thank you!
1/28/01
Added a water drop image to photo.net. It's almost as interesting as the image I mentioned in the Recent Updates section. Some of you might not find these images interesting at all. Tell me about it either way.Did you know that you can upload your own pictures to www.photo.net ? You can set up them up for private or public viewing and it's very easy to navigate the process. Photo.net is free of charge.
1/27/01
My nephew John spotted this wild turkey today on Central St. in Saugus so we just had to stop for a picture.Last December, 2000 I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a coyote darting across Winter St. from inside the cemetery and it ran up the hill onto Orcutt Ave. It was dark and I didn't get a clear view of the creature but it looked more like a coyote than a dog. Who let the dogs out? Better keep the cats in! Maybe coyotes eat turkeys!
1/5/01
I've just acquired a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera and I'll be experimenting with it. I'll soon be adding digital images to this Web site.
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