Last update December 4, 2011

John Vernooy

Logo

Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind

Site search Web search

    These days so much is happening throughout the world that the link to today's news is the most important part of this website. It is important for Christians to know what is happening in the world around them. It is even more important to know what to do or not do about what is happening in the world around them.

    I closed my computer business December 23, 2009 to concentrate more on College courses. I graduated from college this January with a BA in Theology from Atlantic Union College, a Seventh-day Adventist college. I've been a Seventh-day Adventist since 1985.

    An Atlantic Union College professor emeritus, head of the Theology Department before he retired, wrote a book titled The Heavenly Court Judgment of Revelation 4-5 (1992 - Hardcover - ISBN-13: 9780819186133 and ISBN-10: 0819186139). For a college professor to write a book dealing with one or more of the subjects he teaches is not unusual. Many do for various reasons. They are usually used as a text book at the college where they teach, and sometimes a few others. What is unusual is the wide range of colleges where The Heavenly Court Judgment of Revelation 4-5 is used. If you search the internet for the title of that book you can find out a lot more about that book and related subjects.
____________________________________________________________
A movie is going to be filmed on the campus of Atlantic Union College while the college is closed.

Watch the news report about this at NECN
__________________________________________________________

    Just lately a very interesting situation has arisen which very likely will cause me to take a closer look at the religious organization. Since I have learned to write detailed reports I might have an interesting one to publish here once the situation has come to a conclusion. All I will say about it for now is that I do not have any questions about the core beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Whether it is God's doing or the enemy's doing is unclear to me. I'm not one of those Christians who claims to hear God's voice to know, with certainty, God's will. God leads me somewhat like a herdsman guides his cattle. God shows me a path and makes other paths more difficult to follow while making His determined path the most sensible to follow.

I'm very concerned that I find and teach truth so I certainly can't turn my back on what might be revealed by a trying situation. It seems only right that I keep notes and write a report evaluating what happens. In studying the history of the Seventh-day Adventist church I've noticed how many times leaders have acted when they should have waited and stood by waiting when they should have acted (this is true of almost every church and organization that I've ever studied).
___________________________________________________________

    Computers have been one of my interests for a considerable amount of years, ranging from 1970 with time out from 1972 to 1993. My reason for taking that time out from computers was that I came to think that, in spite of some advantages to certain types of productivity, computers had the potential to be a great waste of time and dangerous to society in general.

    In 1993, my two children were in school and needed computers for schoolwork. I rediscovered computers because I couldn't deny that they were useful educational tools. There were programs that taught reading. programs that taught math, and programs that taught reasoning and research skills. We began with one computer and it was placed in the dining room which is the center of the first floor in the house. There was no way for anyone using the computer to do anything that was not easily noticed by a parent. I was already accustomed to finding out what a computer had been doing because of my previous schooling in computers and computer programming in college in 1970-1972 for my associates degree in Electrical Technology. I knew how to make a computer tell the truth and I knew the methods used to make a computer tell lies so there was no hiding a computer's actions and travels from me.

     The number of computers in our household only went to two by the time our children were adults and for the whole time the computers stayed in the dining room with complete parental oversight over both computers. Both of our children knew they couldn't get away with any unauthorized use of the computers. We also made sure our children's' friends' parents exercised the same level of oversight of their children's computer use. Any Computer can be good or evil and do both quite well dependent upon the person controlling it. With our computers connected to the internet, first with AOL from 1993, we had to be diligent in our oversight of their use.

     In 1995 there was Windows 3.1 operating on top of DOS 5, with Internet Explorer 2 and Netscape 2 and NCSA Mosaic 2 on our home-built PC with a 386 processor running at 20MHZ.

    As computer operating systems and programs demanded faster computers we upgraded time after time. Being able to piece together a computer certainly has been a great advantage. We never had the fastest computer and because of this I had to be a bit wiser in my choices of operating systems and programs. I always was on the lookout for the software that was kindest to a computer that was technically very close to obsolete. I only recently got rid of an IBM 8088 based PC, and then only because it stopped working quite catastrophically.

    Operating systems are the organizing and operating software that tells the computer how to use the other software that we call programs. Since a computer cannot operate without an operating (software) system this is an important part of computers. One of the best operating systems is Linux. Most people know about Microsoft and Apple. Only the fortunate ones know about Linux.

    I've used Linux ever since Red Hat to created these pages. (First I used Red Hat, then Mandriva, then Slackware. I have left those all behind. Presently I use Sabayon.)

Linux is a freely distributed operating system that can be downloaded and used legally or you may buy a retail distribution that will be easier to use for those who don't want to find solutions without help from a technical staff. In other words it is available in retail sets for those who, either need or want, all the help they can get running a computer. With the free distributions of Linux you get only support from helpful people in the Linux community (often all most of us need) and with the retail version you get some retail help from the people who sold it to you. I've been using one Linux or another ever since Red Hat 3. I'm now using Mandriva 2011. It is all an operating system should be and in many ways much, much, more. It's a free version so if you use it you will have to think for yourself sometimes which is, in itself, a good reason to use it.

If you want to know more about Linux any search engine can find more than you ever wanted to now about it.

New!

Windows Tweaks and Protection July 26, 2004- New page (click here) linking to software that tweaks and protects Microsoft Windows operating systems. Anti Virus - AntiSpyware - Browsers - Firewall - Internet Connection Optimizer - PopUp Stopper.

New links added under Linux and Etc. May 29, 2004 - New links to news about SCO's fight against Linux have been added under Links > Linux below. New link to WiFi Hotspots has been added under Links > Etc. below.

New link added under Links, Etc, (below), to the website of the New York State Education Department School Report Cards for New York State public schools - Evaluations of New York State public schools.

There are two categories of bicycles that have been around for over a century with little change - the 3 speed English Roadster and the 3 speed English Sports bicycles. In the U.S. they have been improperly called English racing bikes. They are really not racing bikes but they probably got that name because they were so much easier to ride and therefore faster than the balloon tire bikes that were popular in the U. S. when 3 speed bikes began being imported in quantity from England. Since I have been adjusting and repairing them for the last 44 years, 35 years professionally (getting paid for it), the last 28 years working in the bike shop at Bob Lounsbury Sporting Goods, I decided to write a few pages about them.

For my pages about 3 speed bicycles click here

What Have Bicycles Got to do With Computers?

Links (these links are a little dated and this list is due for an update)

Linux	Windows
Linux - A superior, stable, freely distributed operating system for server, desktop, notebook, and other devices.	Windows - Links relating to the Microsoft Windows Operating System.
What Linux looks like - Screenshots of Linux on a desktop.	Image Viewers - Eyebrowse Shell Picture.
The GIMP - Graphic Image Manipulation Program - GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program With this program you can modify images and even easily save them in a different format.	Explor2000 - A file manager that does more than Windows Explorer, looks similar to the file manager that came with Windows 3.1, works on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, and combines the qualities of Windows Explorer, Winfile, Norton Commander, and XT Gold for DOS.
Linux Distributions.	Software 602 Suite - Free Office Suite that can be used in place of Microsoft Office
Desktops and Window Managers for Linux.	The GIMP - Graphic Image Manipulation Program - GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program The Gimp for Windows is the same as it is for Linux
Other Linux Information	Windows Tweaks and Protection - Protect Windows from Viruses, Spy ware, and popups. Optimize your dialup, cable, or DSL connection.
Why is SCO fighting Linux? - What Brian Proffitt, managing editor of Linux Today thinks. Click here .	Belarc Advisor - gives you a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware.

Hardware	Etc.
Computers	Contact
Who has the fastest CPU - On this page there's a link to a page that rates real CPU speeds.	News - Computer related, local, and general news links.
Winmodems- These are also called software modems or controllerless modems and are still not as good as hardware modems, (also called controller-based modems). Controllerless modems are half the price of a hardware modem and if your computer can even use one it will be slower than a hardware modem. Avoid them.	Middletown, NY Local Links Photographs of Middletown and the Wallkill Precinct, Inc. from the Historical Society of Middletown - On Thrall Library's Website - A photographic history of Middletown NY.
You don't really want the cheapest computer. No, you really don't. Why not? The motherboard is an important part of a computer, and their quality varies widely. If the motherboard isn't good, the computer isn't good. Here are some sites discussing motherboards from worst to best. MURC Forums - Lowest Quality Motherboards on the market? - A forum discussion. Bad Motherboards - How to recognize and avoid them. - A bit dated but history repeats itself. They made some good points that are still applicable.	School Report Cards for New York State Public Schools - Recent Annual School Academic Performance Records See how Public Schools in New York State compare. - click here - for 2001 Report - click here - for 2002 Report
Better Ink Refills at Lower Prices These may be the lowest prices on ink for ink jet printers, laser and fax toner, printer and POS ribbons, and fax thermal rolls and cartridges. Highest Quality and Guaranteed all perform equal to OEM. For price quotes for what isn't listed here email; jmvernooy@hotmail.com	Three Speed Bicycles - Three Speed Roadsters, Sportsters and new internal hub gear bicycles still make the most sense for most casual riding and commuting. The gears are enclosed where dirt and water can't reach. If the concept weren't over 100 years old it could be mistaken for the best new idea for bicycles in years.

Best viewed with any browser.

This site has been written to look best in the following browsers:

Amaya , Arachne , Arena , Chimera , Firefox, Internet Explorer , Mozilla, NCSA Mosaic , Netscape Navigator/Communicator , some versions of Net-Tamer , or a text based browser such as Doslynx , Lynx , (test drive Lynx) , some versions of Net-Tamer , and others. In other words, my pages are not browser specific. They are universal, the way the internet was originally designed. (Some versions of Net-Tamer are just text as for a PC-XT, and some versions of Net-Tamer can be set for text-only or graphics capable, for computers above PC-XT level.

Click here for someone else's listing of browsers that is much more extensive than what is listed above.

Want to know more about others who support the viewpoint that you should not be chased out just because you don't have a certain browser? Click on either the button above or below.

Visitors since January 11, 2009 14:52 UTC

Information and documents provided on this web site are provided "as is" without any warranty. All tips and solutions have been researched and tested and have worked for me in all instances. They are offered free to be helpful to those who have the required experience to use them. As is always the case, you should make backups of any important data before making any changes to your computer. Even if you are not making any changes, you should make well scheduled backups of any data that you can't afford to lose.