The Linear Canvas
This journal is about the wrongs and rights of the world, as I see them.

The Linear Canvas

Adobe Flash and Firefox Browser Problems

February 28th, 2010 . by Alexander Fisher

Recently I started having problems with the Adobe Flash animation plug-in in my Firefox web browser. This is at least the second time since I started using Firefox that the Flash plug-in has gone AWOL.

Just like last time I tried uninstalling the plug-in using the Windows Add/Remove programs applet in the Control Panel, and then reinstalling Flash with no luck.

That’s when I remembered that I had found an Adobe Flash uninstallation program on the Adobe web site last time, that could get rid of the program completely, so that I could reinstall it.

I found the program and ran it. It got rid of all traces of the Flash application. I then reinstalled Flash and everything is fine again. For how long, I don’t know.

This problem seems to be tied to plug-in updates not “taking”, but I’m not certain of that. The download link for the uninstaller is below.

Adobe Uninstaller
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/uninstall_flash_player.exe

You can then download the Adobe Flash Player at the web page below.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Pizza House Rumble

February 19th, 2010 . by Alexander Fisher

Mt. Sterling wasn’t always a very friendly place for someone who went to high school in London.  Many times, I had been in a car driving there with several other London teenagers hell-bent on kicking some Sterling ass once they arrived there. Usually over some minor incident, trivial or imagined.  It was a slightly smaller town, about 15 miles from London, and that made for a nice little ride before you got there so that you could strategize on the coming carnage, yet not one ass ever got kicked on any one of the trips I went on.  By high school I had made many friends in Mt. Sterling.  Once on an ass kicking trip, one of my London “friends” told me he would personally kick my ass if I didn’t help him beat up someone from Mt. Sterling that evening.  I told him he might just have to try that.

My Friend Dennis.

By 1974, I had a mostly different set of friends.  I had known Dennis for several years but we had grown closer in the recent past.  We also continued to be friends for years to come, even sharing an apartment after high school. Dennis’ father was a single parent with two other older children.  He worked for the state like my father, but both were better acquainted from the local taverns.  His father was very strict, so anything that caused Dennis to arrive home after his established curfew could be stressful for me and my parents as well.  Many nights I would arrive home late only to find my mother on the telephone with his father.

Dennis by far got the most severe punishments for anything that we got caught doing.  Sometimes he would be grounded for months.  I spent many Friday and Saturday nights with him at his house, when he was even allowed to have company.  I could easily get out of my punishments after a few days. As a teenager being annoying sometimes had its benefits.  Dennis never could get out of anything.  His father was a stone wall.
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Jim Croce – Operator (video)

February 4th, 2010 . by Alexander Fisher

I bought Operator on a 45 RPM record back in the 70’s. I saw Jim Croce a lot on TV back then, He played a light folk-y style pop rock that was real popular at the time. I guess he was really a pretty wild fun loving guy. His tragic death in 1973 at the age of 30, deprived us of all of the songs he never was able to write. 

He sings this song so effortlessly.

 

If The Above Player Does Not Work Or Appear Here, Click Here

De-throttling YouTube

February 1st, 2010 . by Alexander Fisher

One of the problems I have always had with video sites like YouTube has been that the videos occasionally stop and start over and over again in Windows. If I am watching an interesting video, that can be especially annoying.

The issue is that, usually, the video’s speed is being throttled by Windows itself. I am not sure how that is supposed to help anything, except on a business network, but it is fairly easy to fix by editing the Windows registry.

(I have never ruined my Windows registry by editing it. Especially if done correctly, nothing will go wrong. I don’t back it up before I do any editing either. I run a separate backup program and there’s always Windows System Restore. Still if you are afraid that you will screw something up. find someone more capable to make this change for you)

 

Here’s how to do it:

Press <Windows key> R

In the Open: text box, type regedit then press <enter>

In the left pane navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Multimedia \ SystemProfile

In the right pane double-click NetworkThrottlingIndex, which causes a dialog box to appear. In the box, you can raise or lower the value data to change the throttling effect. Change the base to decimal and you will see the default is 10. Change the decimal value to 70. Press the OK button and then close RegEdit.

Hexadecimal default is a and the recommended value is 46. I think decimal just gives you a clearer understanding of the percentage of data throttling by Windows.

My assumption is this value could be from 0 to 100. Zero would obviously be complete throttling and 100 is no throttling at all. Microsoft recommends that this not be set over 70, but experimenting shouldn’t cause any real harm. Just change it back if it doesn’t work for you. I changed my throttling to 70 and am satisfied with the performance, so far.