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Gone but not forgotten

October 30, 2009 by kevinmmullins

One of the nicest guys that I have met at MIT is leaving to go to Tufts University. His name is Mark Damian and is will be missed in the Student Services group at MIT.

A long time ago someone told me that the good people always leave so do whatever you can to keep them happy and they may stay around a little longer, however what I have come to realize is, do not count on that.

Mark is leaving us and we had a nice week with a lunch, a dinner and a couple of nights out. I took a couple of pictures of Mark with my iPhone however none of them we worth using so I googled Mark and this is what I found …..

 

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Now that is one big fish ……

Take Care Mark ….

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Fall is Here

October 25, 2009 by kevinmmullins

I took the camera with me this weekend when I went to Home Depot, Costco, Russos, Stop and Shop and Whole Foods and got caught up taking pictures along the way.

Here are a couple …

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MIT Museum in Cambridge

September 29, 2009 by kevinmmullins

Coming to Boston, check out the MIT Museum on the other side of the river in Cambridge. Everything from Art to Tech ….

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New Movie called Paranormal Activity

September 26, 2009 by kevinmmullins

This looks interesting and will be on my list but Cathie will not like it …..

Does it loose some credibility because it’s a movie and they are reproducing the activity as opposed to shows like Paranormal State and Ghost Hunters?

Either way, Check it Out

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Good bye Teddy

August 29, 2009 by kevinmmullins

Cathie and I spent most of the day watching the Ted Kennedy funeral and precession to Arlington National Cemetery. I was really touched by what I saw today and I became very emotional and actually cried two or three times.

Ted Kennedy has been my Senator for as long as I can remember, and there were times when he was not very enduring. Early on in his Senatorial career he earned the distain that comes with being a spoiled, rich politician who could get away with anything. However to his credit, he turned himself around and really became a force for social change. Everyone knows his story, and I truly believe that his shortcomings and failures made him a better person, and we benefited from that. 

The eulogies from both of his son’s and President Obama were very kennedy_funeral_44a[1]fitting and appropriate, however what I was really struck by was the people stopping and lining the Funeral precession in the rain to honor Teddy. That really touched me and not because I live in Massachusetts but instead because I knew that Teddy had touched all of these people as well. Another reason for the outpouring of support could be that we just lost the heart and the soul of the Liberal Movement, and that would explain why many Massachusetts residents took to the streets to see Teddy. However, what really made me proud for Teddy was the show of support in Washington DC and in particular, the informal gathering that took place on the steps of the Senate by Senate staffers and Teddy’s friends.

Teddy really touched a lot of people and he will be missed.

 

Thank-you Teddy

 

Photos Credit: www.Time.com

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Home Router Upgrade

August 2, 2009 by kevinmmullins

I replaced my old Linksys Befsr81 Router today after weeks of problems. I have had this router for about four years and this router has been powered on and P1010148running for the entire four years. Over the past few weeks, connectivity to the internet would hang from one computer or all computers and would require powering off the Linksys Befsr81 and restarting the router. This was happening on a daily basis and occasionally would not resolve the connectivity issue so I had to reset the router, which resulted in loosing my customized password and log file settings. This was getting annoying and my family was complaining so I decided to replace my old Linksys with a new one.

Most of the computers in my office have Gigabyte Nic cards however the older Linksys router was a 10/100Mbps router and that may have been causing the problem. I decided to move to a Linksys RVS4000 router which includes a four port built in P1010163Gigabyte switch that allows connections from 10/100/1000Mbps network cards. I also added a five port Gigabyte switch to the configuration, however I should have purchased the eight port switch as I am already out of ports. Setup was easy as the new router had the ability to clone my old mac address so I did not have to call Comcast, and this router is VPN capable which will gives me the flexibility to connect to my home network remotely. After a half-day of use, our home network has been up all day and performance appears to be better.

Having a gigabyte router at home sets the stage to connect a computer to our TV in the family room. I am considering a Mac Mini because of the cost and footprint. I want something, functional, quiet and small for my TV cabinet and want the functionality to be able to move files to it easily and quickly. More on the Mac Mini and TV project later …

Right now I am happy with our move and I will let you know if I have any problems with the Linksys RVS4000.

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Apollo 11

July 26, 2009 by kevinmmullins

This past Monday was the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 and man’s trip to the Moon and back. There was a lot of discussion at MIT this week about Apollo 11 and here is a short video to commemorate the event:

For more pictures, information and video about Apollo 11, visit the NASA site the and NASA’s 40th Anniversary pages that include a great movie by the astronauts themselves.

Posted in Kevin | Tagged | 2 Comments »

Audiobooks …

July 14, 2009 by kevinmmullins

For the last few months I have been listening to more audiobooks and less podcasts. I have been listening to audiobooks for a while now and I still try and listen to my podcasts however lately I am finding the audiobooks more captivating. I recently listened to Angels and Demon and The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown and both were great.

Now I am listening to Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner and I am really enjoying it however it is also making me mad. I never realized how screwed up the CIA is and how many people died because of their lack of intelligence and their constant lying and manipulation of the truth. We spent billions of dollars, overthrew 3 governments, tried to overthrow 4 others and I am only up to 1962. I am more disgusted with government and politicians than ever before and I am only half way thru the book. I usually do not go for stories about politics and government however my son convinced me that I should look at this story and I am glad I did.

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Windows 7 RC Network Issue

June 17, 2009 by kevinmmullins

images Both of my Windows 7 RC PC’s were having network problems this morning. Both PC’s were on however network connectivity to the internet kept dropping and reconnecting. At first I thought it was just my new PC however when my wife told me that she had a problem I was skeptical. What was odd was my work laptop running Windows XP was on and did not have a problem, however both Windows 7 RC PC’s could not connect to the internet.

I rebooted both boxes and swapped out the ethernet cable on my PC but that did not work. I rebooted my Linksys router but that did not work so I rebooted my cable modem and then rebooted both PC’s again and that resolved the problem.  I really do not know what happened but I will investigate later tonight.

Posted in Family, Internet, Microsoft | Tagged | 1 Comment »

Your Friendly Computer Repairman

June 13, 2009 by kevinmmullins

For the last month I have been the Family Computer Repairman, working thru 3 different issues and setting up 3 new computers. This is a common occurrence for those folks who work in the computer field, however when it comes in spurts like this it becomes time consuming.

My brother and I worked with my father to get him a new computer. We contributed on a new monitor and my father bought the computer. I went to Microcenter and picked up a Powerspec Computer with Windows XP, a dual core processor, 2gigs of Ram and a 500gig hard drive for $399.00. This is the perfect low end system which was a major upgrade for my Dad.

My sister-in-law Barbra got a new laptop, (a hand down from a friend) however it was a nice old HP laptop running Windows XP. I cleaned it up, defragged the drive, installed MacAfee and my favorite Spam preventer Trojan Remover, and convinced her to get a Cable modem. Now that everything is setup and working “I am a Genius” according to Barbra, however it really was the cable modem that I convinced her to get that made the difference.

After two or three trips to Microcenter in Cambridge I started looking at Quad Core systems and found a nice gateway for 629.00. It is a dual quad core with 4gig of ram, a 650gig hard drive, a decent video card and Vista Home Premium.

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I really started looking and I found similar configurations in $800.00 to $1,200.00 range depending on the configuration and the vendor, however I decided on the Gateway LX4710-01 from Microcenter and I am really pleased with speed and how quite this PC is.

I had been testing Windows 7 Beta at work and decided to put Windows 7 on my new PC, so I wiped the drive and installed Windows 7. What really jumped out at me was the fact that I did not have to go out and find drivers, everything just worked. I had and old 500gig external drive that I used to move my data from my old Pentium 3 PC and after installing the basics, I was in business.

Both Kevin and Cathie have IBM T60 laptops running XP. I rebuilt Kevin’s laptop about 6 months ago after it was infested with Spam bots and Viruses. Cathie’s laptop started acting funny but was in ok shape. Running MacAfee and Trojan Remover took care of most of Cathie’s problems with the exception of Yahoo widgets and an occasional network hang-up. After the Windows 7 success I had with my new PC I decided to wipe Cathie’s T60 and install Windows 7. Again, it was a nice clean install and everything worked.

So, after all this work I would certainly recommend staying away from Vista and would recommend waiting for Windows 7.

Posted in Family, Kevin, Microsoft | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

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