What's the word? Thunderbird

One of my all time favorite bands is the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

E-mal cient Thunderbird 3 is now out but I can't rate it as fabulous. I have used Eudora as my main e-mail client for many years. It's no longer being supported and many recommend a move to Thunderbird.

Thunderbird 3 is now out and the Mozilla folks have some cool features. One is for the situation where you promise to attach a file to a message and then forget to attach. Thunderbird 3 will scan your message for words like 'attachment' and then prompt you if you don't actually attach anything.

The tabbed model, a la their web browser Firefox is also cool. But they still don't have a separate line for CC or BCC when you create an e-mail. Any addresses go to the To field by default and then you have to move to CC or BCC. That's too kludgy.

I wonder about the future of e-mail clients when so many seem to be going to the cloud (gmail, etc) for their mail.

More Jerry Stiller

We just added some terrific sound bites from the Jerry Stiller interview.

Listen to him talk about the Browns moving from Cleveland, his family excursions (with wife Anne Meara, son Ben Stiller and daughter Amy), Cain Park, Alpine Village, Kenley Players and more Cleveland stuff.

He even calls Cleveland the Catskills of the Midwest! Take a listen.

Jerry Stiller and Cleveland

Watching Seinfeld or King of Queens you would think that Jerry Stiller, who played George Costanza's father and Dough Heffernan's father-in-law, would be a loud, obnoxious boor.

Actually he is a soft-spoken fascinating man with a font of stories from the glory days of comedy up through the present.

My sister Debbie interviewed him last week about his current role in Hallmark's Ice Dreams and they started talking about his memories of Cleveland and the good old days.

Read about Jerry Stiller and Cleveland and much more.

Happy belated Festivus, Jerry!

99 cent software - one day only

WinPatrol Plus has always been a pretty good security program. Now, as an experiment, they are offering a lifetime license for the grand sum of 99 cents.

This is a one-day only experiment starting at midnight EST on Jan 29th and will last 24 hours. It will be available at WinPatrol.com.

It normally sells for $29.95 and the 99 cent license will be good for life.

Get more details at GreatLakesGeek.com

Jerry Stiller - Love him or hate him?

I don't know of anyone who is indifferent about Jerry Stiller. In recent years he is of course best known for his roles as George Costanza's father on Seinfeld and as Arthur Spooner on King of Queens.

My sister did an interview with him this week (will be posted soon) about his new Hallmark movie called Ice Dreams



But mention his name and some people will recoil with "I can't stand him!" while others gush "He's hilarious!"

However you feel, it's a fascinating story of a relatively minor comic (teaming up with his wife Anne Meara) who hit the big time on TV.

He does a great job on the Hallmark Ice Dreams special too.

He has some Cleveland connections which will be exposed in the upcoming interview.

So, what do you think of the actor?

Empty Sky?

What happens when you point the Hubble Space Telescope at a seemingly blank patch of sky?

It's not so empty. Watch the results of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 3D project.




Our puniness (is that a word?) is further exemplified in these planet and solar system models.

Elder Abuse

I heard on the news today about some punks who are targeting the elderly. One pretends to shovel their snow and the other goes through their house and grabs anything of value. What punks!

Targeting the helpless - seniors, kids, disabled, etc - is particularly vile and disgusting. Unfortunately we hear these news stories too often. But there is much that we never hear.

It's not just criminals. Sometimes elder abuse comes at the hands of caretakers and even family members.

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland published a great article on Elder Abuse in their newsletter and let us reprint it on ClevelandSeniors.Com.

One of the sad things was when I was searching for books on the subject, I found 361 on Amazon alone. It's really a shame how prevalent this problem is.

Health Care system with IBM CEO Sam Palmisano

In these days of Web 2.0, Google and Twitter it is easy to forget that the largest computer company in the world is Big Blue, IBM.

Sam Palmisano was keynote speaker at the annual Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit on October 6, 2009. He used the occasion to introduce IBM's new Personal DNA Sequencer Project.



He also spoke about the health care system and the 4 essential qualities of any reliable system.

And IBM knows systems!

Palmisano's best line? The health care system isn't broken... because it's not really a system!

See more and watch video snippets of Sam Palmisano's keynote

Gumby creator dies

Gumby animator Art Clokey died yesterday in California at age 89.

Clokey first molded Gumby for a surreal student project at the University of Southern California called "Gumbasia." That led to his making shorts for the "Howdy Doody Show" and several series through the years.

Clokey had said he modeled Gumby's funky sweeping head on his father's hairdo.

Gumby's reaction to the passing? He was... wait for it... bent out of shape.

Google Tax in France

Andreas Pouros, COO of Greenlight wrote today that France’s “Google tax” – Sounds like protectionism - and I agree.

Porous says "A report has been made public proposing that France begins taxing the likes of Google to subsidise its own creative industry. The authors of the report suggest that this new taxation could raise up to the equivalent of $28 million, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t much money at all.

The suggestion that the tax will help France subsidize music artists and book publishers doesn’t therefore sound like the sole objective here, given that this amount of money won’t make much of a difference if it’s spread so thinly across France’s creative community.

On this basis it feels like protectionism of the worst sort – instead of collaborating with successful, innovative companies, or creating an environment that promotes innovation domestically, France appears to want to give its own industries an unfair commercial advantage by taking money from non-French firms.

More on France's Google Tax and Pouros' comments.

Toughest American

I was fortunate. Too young for Vietnam and tool old for Iraq. But I really respect the brave men and women who defended and still protect us.

My Dad, like many of his era, lied about his age so he could enlist in the Army at age 17. He was a tough dude.

I just came across the story of Colonel Robert Howard who died last year from cancer and he was probably the toughest of them all.

As you can watch in this short video news report from NBC's Brian Williams, Howard was nominated for the Medal of Honor an astounding 3 times! You can only win this ultimate award once in a lifetime but maybe he deserved more than one.

He earned 8 Purple Hearts and numerous other decorations - watch the video for the details.

Cancer finally claimed Bob Howard but what a great American and tough dude. We need to hear more about heroes like him.

Door chalk on the Epiphany

Have you ever noticed that soem Catholics homes have a few numbers and letters written in chalk above one of their doorways?

That's a reminder to ask God to bless the house.

Each year at the Epiphany, it's a good time to update and re-inscribe for the new year.

Details of what to write, do and why in the Catholic section of ClevelandPeople.Com

CAP Volunteer - Plain Dealer Hero

Dan Davenport is featured on the front page of this morning's Plain Dealer as a Local Hero. Dan is a super volunteer and is well deserving of the honor.

You can read the article online here.

You can learn more about Dan Davenport the man in his profile on ClevelandSeniors.Com