TECH: free app to magically discover the serial numbers for all of the Microsoft software

Monday, September 18, 2006

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/09/18/keyfinder-thing-find-those-microsoft-serials-and-cd-keys/

Keyfinder Thing: Find those Microsoft serials and CD keys
Posted Sep 18th 2006 3:45PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

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It’s a free app for Windows that will magically discover the serial numbers for all of the Microsoft software you have installed with just a few clicks. Keyfinder Thing comes in two versions: Full and Lite. Both are free and both do basically the same thing, but the former has a few more features and requires the .NET 2.0 FX library which you may or may not have. The latest version of Keyfinder Thing is capable of digging up the keys for more than 90 titles.

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Very useful. If for no other reason than catching all those rotten codes in one place. Arghh! Probably right after WGA, and all the other various forms of “legitimate user frustration”, those darned serial numbers are the gigantic pia. while not as complete as that inventory utility I have run from time to time, this is good.

This is a keeper imho

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Using gold and silver as civil disobedience.

Monday, September 18, 2006

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/39/5993/time.asp?wid=39&nid=5993

TIME FOR A LITTLE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Monday, September 18, 2006

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Wallace, Idaho – Perversely just in time for Silver Summit 2006, the United States Mint Thursday threw a wrench at Bernard von NotHaus’ Liberty Dollar program with secretion of a Sept. 14 press release, declaring: “Prosecutors with the Department of Justice have determined that the use of these gold and silver NORFED “Liberty Dollar” medallions as circulating money is a Federal crime.”

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Merchants participating in the Liberty Dollar program simply accept Liberty dollars in either coin (silver) or paper form in exchange for goods and services. The difference between Liberty paper dollars and the (now, apparently compulsory) fiat fednotes is that Liberty paper dollars are backed in full by physical silver, whereas fiat paper dollars are backed by, um, snicker, the full faith and credit of the United States government, which broke that same faith with its own subjects in 1964 when it took silver out of the money and later declined even to redeem its Silver Certificates in silver. Such was the lesson of our adolescence: This is a government that cannot be trusted or believed.

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And, I don’t like the idea of civil disobedience, because it implies that the gang in power has some right to demand obedience. They get obedience because they’ll kill you if you don’t obey. I’d prefer the phrase non-violent self-determination.
Interesting timing for the “illegal” declaration?

This story is note worthy in that its an economics and history lesson rolled up into one. I don’t know about you, but the “full faith and credit” guarantee isn’t worth a lot when you look at: (1) the Federal debt; (2) the Federal deficit; (3) the unfunded Social Security Insurance (which is NOT insurance; it’s a Ponzi scheme); (4) the unfunded Federal promises, guarantees, and “insurances”; and (5) the unfunded Federal pension obligations due to its retirees and to others thru the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. One has to wonder how much air can be blown into this balloon before it pops?

Perhaps, the NORFED folks are striking too close the root of this illusion. Who’s behind the curtain? The grim reaper called reality.

Now I think that NORFED should have not used the word “dollar”. You can’t take a word that is already owned by another in the mind.

I’d have made a new word — silver ounce => sil-nce — gold ounce => go-nce. Or, call a gold ounce, a Ludwid for Ludwig von Mises. A silver ounce, a Rothfarb.

Anything, but a dollar.

So, Americans should begin using Ludwigs and Rothfarbs in everyday commerce.

2 Comments | LIBERTY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “finger print lock” doesn’t

Monday, September 18, 2006

Ahh yes, security technology 0, hackers 1!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: microsoft bug in windoz and word?

Monday, September 18, 2006

Interesting. Copy a fragment from a webpage. Paste it to word pad – note pad – or your favorite text editor. (I like EditPadPro http://www.editpadpro.com/) You know it is there. Fire up microsoft word. (Fire may be a bad choice of an action verb!) Try to paste. Nada. Back to that editor. Try to paste. It’s el gonno. (Tech term for “what cha talkin bout Willis?”) What cut? Who supposed to paste? And word and windoze all do a sargent shultz. (“I no nuthin. Nuthin! nuthin at all!) Redo the copy. Go to word. And magically it works. Interesting!?!

Doctor Watson, do you think that maybe microsoft took liberties in handoffs between windoze, word, and lookout? says Sherlock

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Posted by reinkefj

WRITING: TYVM … “thank you very much”

Monday, September 18, 2006

Sarcasm!

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Worth studying … middle class is on a slipery slope of debt … caused by basics and taxes?

Monday, September 18, 2006

http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/010682.html

The Middle Class on the Precipice
Rising financial risks for American families
by Elizabeth Warren
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So where did their money go? It went to the basics. The real increases in family spending are for the items that make a family middle class and keep them safe (housing, health insurance), that educate their children (pre-school and college), and that let them earn a living (transportation, childcare, and taxes).

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It’s interesting that the author in this summary includes taxes as part of the basics.  It’s also interesting that there is no action plan for how to get out of this mess.

I’d suggest to those at risk:

(1) Increased awareness of the risks. Having been caught unaware in my life, I know that wake up call is a real slap in hte face.

(2) Knowledge is power. Know where every dime goes. Put every nickle to work. Cash management will be rewarded. Do people have any idea what their current run rate is? What is the minimum cash burn if nothing was coming in? What is the life boat run rate? It’s amazing how many people don’t even have these concepts in their vocabulary.

(3) An emergency fund suitable for your risk level. A year’s worth of run rate, invested in short term certificates, is probably the minimum. The size of the fund has to be adjusted for age. Over forty? Getting a job is twice as hard as under. Over fifty? Four times as hard. Over sixty? Forget it. Corporate Amerika doesn’t want you.

(4)  Cut expenses to the bone like the ww2 generation did. Manage long term mortgage debt like an investment portfolio. Minimize the amount you’re paying. Notice – I didn’t say take cash and pay it off like some radio talk show hosts advise. One raving looney said sell the house to pay it off. That might be correct in SPECIFIC cases, but not as a general rule. A home mortgage is like sleeping in your bank. Following his strategy, you might wind up paying more in taxes and have nothing to fall back on. To be free and clear and debt free? not sure tht’s the best advice for everyone. But also, if you have an adjustable, then you have a problem.

(5) Simplify.

(6) Develop alternate earning streams, skills, and investments. (An investment is something that gives you a return.)

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Posted by reinkefj