Adobe and Apple use a script called Bonjour that can kill internet access in Vista/Win7 boxes after installation of one of their products.

This is what my access problem came down to: a tool designed to help networking killed the net. I could still access my router and home network, just not the internet. Just an FYI.

Ironically enough, an Apple tool designed to deliver zero-configuration networking to Windows clients manages to kill off Internet access for Windows Vista Service Pack 2, according to Microsoft. The Redmond company indicated that all Vista editions could be affected, whether from the RTM, SP1 or SP2 releases. In certain scenarios, installing the Apple Bonjour on a Vista machine causes the service to create a default gateway of 0.0.0.0. Microsoft pointed the finger at Bonjour and the service’s logic used to add a route designed to identify a default gateway, which, if set incorrectly to 0.0.0.0, is not removed subsequently, even if the correct connection data is provided via DHCP.

The software giant explained that the problems were related to Vista computers that did “not receive an address through DHCP prior to the Bonjour service start. Under this condition, the Bonjour service adds a default route to the computer indicating that all internet hosts are “onlink”. The computer is subsequently able to receive an address through DHCP. Bonjour does not remove the default route, leaving an incorrect default gateway configured on the machine. This gateway usurps the proper gateway configuration DHCP provides and prevents Internet access.”

There is no update or hotfix from Microsoft or Apple designed to resolve this issue. The Redmond company did however provide end users with the guidance necessary to manually remove the erroneous route. End users will have to open command prompt with elevated privileges. In cmd, running the following command “route delete 0.0.0.0” will delete the route created by Bonjour.

Microsoft emphasized that manually removing route 0.0.0.0 could be nothing more than a temporary solution. While Vista will indeed be able to regain Internet access, the problem could repeat itself. “This does not ensure that the Bonjour service will never create the route again as this depends on the sequence of events under ‘Cause’ occurring,” the company said. In this context, users will simply need to run the “route delete 0.0.0.0” command yet again.

Hubby disabled the script in services and everything is fine once again.

Hello, my name is Pam and I’m a Farmville addict.

On September 11th I once again deleted my Farmville and Facebook accounts. It had only happened once before and by the end of that day I was back looking for eggs in my chicken coop full of prize hens along with 60 million other farmers.

Not this time.

To be honest, I love my farm. It’s everything else that has sprung out of that patch of virtual land that makes me crazy. I planned activities around my planting/harvesting schedule. Can’t spontaneously go to dinner; there are crops to get in!
The pressure was even more intense to harvest on time if in a co-op with others, lest I face the derision of people I’d never even met. Most folks that play are very nice, but some are hard core.

There are responsibilities and obligations in Farmville the same as real life; the dog runs away if not fed every day and so do the bees in the hive. There’s a dairy barn, nursery barn, stable, pig sty and hen house that need be tended on a regular basis.

None of it really matters yet people devote many hours a day to fertilizing others’ farms, tending to their own and taking what others have posted to the Facebook wall. Eggs, bushels for their businesses, calves… the list is endless and so is the work, so it seems. For some the driving force is mastering all the crops; for others it’s XP, being ‘above’ everyone in points.

You have to hand it to Zynga; they know how to make money. We ‘sad’, addicted, OCD afflicted are sucked in with new livestock and the ability to breed them, new buildings in which to put them and decorations for any type of experience desired, from beach motif to Tuscan green. Described as a ‘compulsion loop’, we Farmville neighbors feed off the need for seed… and each others involvement.

And we spend money – real dollars – on our habit. Go to 7/11 and buy slushies to get codes that unlock ‘special’ prizes. Wait with bated breath for the next release of new… well, anything.

The addicted dream of our farms at night and get up early to work on it. Worry about it while away from home and check on it several times a day.

No more.

Lucky are the people who can keep virtual farming where it belongs; those of us who can’t may be doomed to repeat the behavior with other apps, but at least once in a while we break free. We used to say that cocaine was God’s way of telling you that you’re making too much money… maybe Farmville addiction is His way of telling us that we have too much time on our hands.

It ain’t easy – just looking at the image at the top gave me a yearning pang for my cows and horses… and yes, I know how insufferably pathetic that sounds. But I had several breeds of the most beautiful mares in my stable…

I know how weird it sounds… but they’re doing it and now goats are giving spider web laced milk. Sounds like the sci-fi movie subplot…

ON a farm in Wyoming, USA, goats are being milked for their spider webs.

And if that sounds bizarre, molecular biologist Randy Lewis claims that within two years, spider silk milked from goats could replace your body’s tired or strained tendons and ligaments – maybe even bones.

Professor Lewis and his team at the University of Wyoming have successfully implanted the silk-making genes from a golden orb spider into a herd of goats and are now, finally, producing one of nature’s strongest products in useable quantities.

The technology is cutting edge, but the science isn’t. Spider silk has been used for centuries to dress wounds with varying degrees of success, but the problem has until now been how to get it.

“We needed a way to produce large quantities of the spider silk proteins,” Prof Lewis told news.com.au.

“Spiders can’t be farmed, so that route is out and since they make six different silks, even that would not work if you could.”

Spiders also had a tendency to eat each other, so milking one thread from six out of a solo spider was clearly never going to service the entire human race.

Prof Lewis and his team singled out the “dragline” – the outer strand of the web – as the strongest of the six types of silk.

They spliced the DNA that creates the silk into a female goat’s DNA, then waited for it to give birth and start lactating.

“(The splicing) turned out to be relatively easy as there are known gene promoters that only produce expression in the mammary gland during lactation,” he said.

“Those were hooked up to our spider silk genes.”

After the milk is collected, it’s taken back to a laboratory where the silk protein is filtered out. It solidifies when exposed to air and is wound onto a roller.

Prof Lewis said the team collected about four metres of silk for every four drops of protein they gathered.

The pure material had a wide range of medicinal applications as sutures and binding agents – including ligament replacement – but its use could extend well beyond our hospitals.

Interesting…

To celebrate its 50th Anniversary, the IIHS crash tested a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air into a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu.

This is the frontal offset test.

This blows a lot of my misconceptions out of the water, unless my father’s ’53 Chrysler was built a lot stronger, which is probably a silly notion. Nothing could touch that thing… other, lesser, cars just bounced off. Which of course leads me to wonder how it would have fared in this test.

If not the greatest invention of the 20th century, video chat is certainly one of the coolest.

Installing the cam and the software was a breeze and using it with Skype is even easier. Now, almost all day I have a window up, looking into a room of my SIL’s home. We don’t need phones any more. And we can see each other. She can see beyond my chair into the kitchen, so we can even chat while I cook.

I saw the puppies and watched while she fed each one..

We don’t sit and talk constantly, of course… but we keep the connection up and when one of us wants to talk to the other we simply say ‘Hello!’ and the other responds. I usually mute my mic so Pandora tunes don’t come through her speakers. We found out about that issue early. Heh…

There’s one problem, though… I keep thinking I can go through this door. Sometimes it feels so real…

What a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and relatives! I heartily recommend this way of communicating; it brings everyone just a little closer…