smhardesty

After following this thread, I'm surprised at a couple of things. First, I'm surprised by the number of guys that are as anti-Facebook as I am. I guess maybe I shouldn't be considering the high percentage of "grumpy old men" on this forum. The older generation seems to have a greater contempt of social media sites and apps. Secondly, I'm really surprised at the number of guys that have taken steps to protect their computers and protect their personal info and data. This hasn't always been the case for sure. Thinking back to the days of Win95 and Win98 brings back memories of badly infected PCs, no anti-virus protection installed, no firewalls, and 15 to 20 minute lectures on why these things are important. I will venture out on a limb and say that you guys are still the exception and not the rule. The younger generation that primarily use their phones for all things technical run with no protection at all. Although I know nothing at all about the new touchscreen PCs and not a lot about netbooks and Chromebooks, I understand that there is usually no protection run on these. That info came to me from a couple of buddies still in the PC business. I trust they are right.

X2

"Everyone" doesn't matter. Your tastes are all that matter. If a few other guys like it, so much the better. Model on!

Watched the Bears game. They actually looked like a real football team. Tampa isn't the best team in the league, but they're not exactly slouches either. Time will tell if today's game was a fluke or a preview of great things to come for the Bears.

You're 100% correct. To be 100% secure, never turn it on. Even if you're not connected to the 'Net you're not safe. I learned that a LOT of years ago. I was called in by a customer with a strange problem. They didn't even have a modem on the PC, or a phone line anywhere nearby, but the machine was exhibiting problems consistent with a viral infection. I did some checking and threw on my floppy disc anti-virus checker. The PC was infected. But HOW? So I started questioning the family. Turned out they had installed a joy stick recently and the problem started shortly after. I installed my anti-virus on the PC, then ran a check of the driver disc that was included with the joy stick. Sure enough it was infected. Long story short, they contacted the manufacturer who confirmed the problem and explained that a disgruntled employee intentionally infected a whole batch of driver discs. The family received their money back, an amount equal to my bill, and a check for an additional $100. It was the very first time I had even heard of such a thing. So, to be 100% safe, don't even turn it on.

Phenomenal collection! There are some beautiful builds there. I'm not even a fan of the antiques, but I'm jealous of that collection. 2 thumbs up!

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. I noticed that right off. And Aydin, I've been back in the hobby a couple years and have at least twice what you have. It's not a problem. Prices have gotten a little silly in the past few months. It that trend keeps up you'll be happy you have a large stash.

You'd never know if a successful hack of your PC or Facebook's servers had happened. It's what takes place after the hack that's dangerous. Take it from a former hacker. The fun is in being able to hack whatever, whenever, and however you want without being found. I spent one summer several years ago playing with bookkeepers and accountants in a large financial institution. I'd take some money out of an account so their books wouldn't balance. They would eventually do a write off and get things in balance. So I'd put the money back in, then add a little extra to throw them back out of balance. It was fun for a 2 to 3 month period. I've been inside an awful lot of supposedly secure systems. I finally gave it up mostly because it was too easy to do. And as for your statement that your Facebook is "locked down", well, I did get a pretty good chuckle out of that.

I've bought quite a bit of stuff from them, kits and supplies. Sometimes you have to watch closely because they'll have the same item listed 2 or 3 times with different prices. Seems that happens mostly with supply type stuff. I don't recall having run into that with the kits. The price of kits does change from time to time for what seems like no apparent reason. I keep a couple of lists going at all times. I can be ready to place an order on very short notice if need be. I like to try spreading the shipping charge across multiple items if I can.

You're dead on there, for sure. My wife has an account against my strenuous objections. Nothing is set to "Public", but her activity stream is filled with ads for everything under the sun. How do they manage to slip through all that wonderful security Zuckerberg claims they have in place?

That's a good deal, but you still leave your computer open to all sorts of nefarious probing. Data on your hard drive is vulnerable as well as the very real possibility of malware being planted. You have to be sure and provide an extra layer of protection to your PC.

So Facebook has once again been hacked to the extent they've been forced to publicly admit it. Some very personal data belonging to 50 million or more (most likely lots more) has been gleaned from Facebook servers. I've actually lost track of how many breaches they have admitted publicly. You can bet there have been dozens more minor events that they managed to contain or cover up. Hopefully, you won't take Zuckerberg's word for how much, and what type of data was gleaned from their systems. The real question is, "Have you had enough?" I get all sorts of strange responses when I ask people that question. One of my favorites has to be, "Well I don't put my credit card info on Facebook so I'm OK." They don't want your credit card info. They want your name, address, phone number, email address, and SSN if possible. Maybe you don't have all that data in one spot on Facebook, but then again maybe they got the rest of the info when they hacked into a bank or some other site. And whether they ever admit it, data in the PMs you send and receive on Facebook aren't immune to hackers. Think hard about what info you have shared with others via PMs. Scary, ain't it? Facebook is dangerous. Most social diseases are. The question isn't if, it's when. Just one man's opinion.

I just clicked through your link and the price I'm seeing is $16.92. Am I missing something?

I feel for you guys still running non-Linux computers. I read the problems you suffer and think about how great it is to never have a problem like that. You really should try Linux. It's free, and it's free. No, not a typo. "Free" meaning two different things here. Most importantly it's 99.9% trouble free. I loaded my wife's laptop well over a year ago and haven't seen it since. She is nowhere near a computer guru. In fact, in a lot of ways, she is computer illiterate. Yet I haven't had to touch her laptop in over a year. In the past, when I was still in the business, I had desktop PCs running Linux that had not been turned off or re-booted in years. One had run Red Hat for over 7 years. If interested, try Linux Lite. Simple, easy, and free.

Private Browsing should have no effect what-so-ever on pop-up ads.

A fine gun, for certain.

Now there is a big B-I-N-G-O. We have media totally out of control. There is no way a completely impartial jury can be seated for any of these big legal battles. I also think the media has far overstepped their bounds making some of the comments they make about our political leaders. Like them or not, they are the current elected officials and that SHOULD garner a certain deal of respect from the media.

No, it's more like - The fact he is going to prison is proof positive that he was FOUND GUILTY BY A COURT OF LAW beyond a reasonable doubt, Only Cosby and the women involved really know for sure. Understand, I'm not advocating for him or for the women. We just have to remember that lawyers on both sides can twist the facts to the point they are unrecognizable. It's too bad the real truth can't somehow be extracted in a court of law, but it's the best system we have so we live with it. And like others, it sure bothers me that some of these things happened 30 - 40 years ago and nothing was ever said until now.

That kind of thing has happened over and over again with M$ products. You can count on it happening again. Linux for freedom, and for free.

Gorgeous build. Exceptionally neat and clean. 2 thumbs up!

He just joined the forum Thursday. Maybe he doesn't know how. Charlie, if you need help or have questions, just holler.

Just FYI. For the most part, all riding mowers and lawn tractors use either Briggs & Stratton or Kohler engines. The parts for the engines are not dependent on the brand of mower. Each engine has an identification number on it. You can do an online search for "how to find small engine identification number" that will tell you where to look for the number on different engines. Then just use that number to look up your needed part(s) on a site like Jack's. Parts for an engine are the same regardless of the brand of mower, but if you need parts like belts, blades, or any other part on the tractor you'll need to find those elsewhere. This works fine for Briggs or Kohler. Things are a little different if you happen to have a Honda, Kawasaki, or other engine.

I was just looking back over this thread and enjoying the photos. It's a really great build. I guess I'll have to get one for my stash. These cars would definitely have been seen racing in the early to mid 60s, which is the era I've got the biggest bug for. One thing did catch my eye today that I missed when I viewed the thread before. What's up with the dollar signs on the windshield?

You might try ordering parts from Jack's. I ran a small engine repair business part time as relief from working on computers all day. It was more of a therapy than a business. Kept me from going postal after chasing network problems down. I had a really great small engine supply house near my home and ordered most of my parts from them, but when they weren't able to provide the needed part I turned to Jack's. They usually had what I needed. It's been a few years since I ordered from there, but you can always try looking the part up to see if they have it. https://www.jackssmallengines.com/manufacturer/craftsman

It's creepy all the same. That happened in Texas a few years ago. Turned out the problem there was an overabundance of some type of small flies the spiders liked really well. What had the experts all confused for a while was that it wasn't just one kind of spider. 17 or so different kinds all spun webs in the same area. And just like this case, when the flies were are thinned out and gone, the spiders left and the webs eventually just blew away. It would still scare the krap out of the average guy. That's a whole lot of web.