Duelin’ Deals Blog by Marlaine

Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, formally called Vienna, Midori….. (I had ME on my first computer – 2000.) XP came out in 2003? Vista showed up in 2006. Windows 7 is scheduled for early January 2010. Midori is still way in development but whispered to be coming out in 2013. (Obviously a bit of planned obsolescence here!) Each update costs about $400. And each version has more spyware in it and greater and greater DRM – Digital Rights Management – included. (In otherwords, don’t count on downloading anything to your computer that MIGHT have a copyright infringement issue. Even copying your own paid-for CDs or DVDs to your computer as a backup, which is legally allowed, is being blocked by Microsoft software, citing DMCA and the RIAA rules which don’t allow you to bypass encryption – and can put you in jail!)

Microsoft is also in the process of trying to establish an internet based operating system that would store all your computer files on an internet data base and effectively will not allow you to have your own files on your computer – in the Midori Operating System. You will not have a choice once it comes out – you will have to let Microsoft have a copy of everything on your computer if you install Midori. In other words, your computer would not be in your control in your home if you do not have the internet or access to it. Even on the internet, Microsoft would have complete access to everything on your computer. And they say they are doing you a favor………………………. by storing your information on their servers.

Hmmmmmmmmmm………. if my bank buys that Operating System and uses it, I am going to close all my accounts with them.

If you had downloaded Ubuntu/Linux instead of XP – you would now and forever have free downloads to all the new operating systems and updates that are constantly coming out from Ubuntu – in effect, making your Operating System forever free, including the original installation. If you request it, Ubuntu will send you – completely free of charge – copies of their operating system on CD. Yes I said COPIES, as many as you want – completely free of shipping or handling or any charges! Hand them out to your friends, relatives, or students. The CDs are either for Desktop or Server (if you want to host databases, websites, and other internet business) systems. You can use them to install on your computer or to boot from the CD to just give Ubuntu a try.

Sigh – if that wasn’t enough, it comes with everything you need to get running fast. You choose what you want to install on your computer from an almost endless list of software. Most of it is on the CD but an internet connection is needed to upgrade to whatever the newest, coolest, fastest, best software is available. Allllllllllllllllll for FREE!

Here is a quote directly from the Ubuntu home page:

The Ubuntu promise

* Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.
* Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.
* Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.
* Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

I am putting up a much more detailed explanation of Ubuntu up on eHow because it is seriously a great Operating System. How to Get Ubuntu – A Totally Forever Free Operating System! With all this crazy stuff Microsoft is doing – including some of the lamest commercials I have ever seen – I welcome an alternative to Windows! We design websites and have two good computers. Brad has Ubuntu on his and I keep Windows XP on mine – no I do NOT want or will I ever get Vista!!!!!! My father-in-law, Norm, has told us that Vista is problematic over any software that is not genuine – including all those movies they buy from a local store that they want to save to their computer to watch. (DVDs do run hot on a computer while you are watching it and it’s easier on your DVD Rom to just save it to watch later.) Internet
Explorer will not install on Ubuntu which makes checking web page design a little pain in the rear. Browsershots.org is a very handy site that lets you test out all of your designs on all of the browsers out there to see what works or doesn’t – especially on Internet Explorer, which is usually the one that has major glitches because it is not W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards compliant.

I just finished an article concerning diabetes that I did for my brother, Cyclecyco. Our mother had diabetes and so did quite a few of our other relatives – on both sides of the family. I hope that this information is compact enough that those who need quick info find it helpful and easy to read. I did a whole lot of research on the subject and got pretty tired of reading four or five pages of long winded info that bored me in order to get a tidbit or two of real usable help here and there.

Here is the article in its entirety:

How to Treat And Control Diabetes Type 1 & 2

By MarlaineMarie on eHow

Type 1 diabetes requires daily insulin shots. Type 2 diabetes gives you more options for successful treatment, including oral medication, diet and exercise. Eating the right foods can help reduce the need for insulin even in Type 1.

Test your blood sugar often using whatever equipment has been ordered for you. Always take medications as prescribed, whether it’s oral or insulin injections.

Weight reduction can often reduce your medication or eliminate it if you are a boarder line diabetic. Daily exercise stimulates all the organs in the body and helps to reduce weight – of course. The body itself can produce everything you need to be healthy. A daily workout of 15 minutes a day can help get the body right.

Set up a meal plan you can live with and stick to it. Try new foods but pay attention to how they effect you. Have sweet things only as a special occasion treat!

Eat proteins in moderation but try to include some in every meal because they help even out the swing of insulin and glucagon production while countering the surge of insulin that carbohydrates produce. Eat fish, soy protein and poultry over red meats and avoid high fat content. Reduce sugar based things like soda and liquor.

Even fat is major in maintaining your hormonal balance, blood sugar level, increasing your immune system, giving you energy, and helps control hunger by producing a peptide hormone that triggers a sense of fullness 10 to 20 minutes after eating. It also helps give you supple skin, glowing hair and better nails. Eat natural fats – saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. Avoid oxidized or rancid fats, trans-fatty acids and hydrogenated fats – that are in foods like peanut butters, margarine, non-dairy creamers, some mayonnaise, and deep fried foods.

Carbohydrates are considered sugar by the body and are stored away if not used by physical activity. You need carbs to keep the insulin–glucagon balance. A no carbohydrate diet will cause your insulin level to drop even further. Complex carbohydrates break down more slowly in the digestive tract, causing a less dramatic surge in blood sugar levels – and your brain needs the glucose that carbs produce. So if you are more active – more carbs and vise versa.

Non-starchy vegetables are also important because they contain fiber and important vitamins, minerals, and micro-nutrients your body needs to get and stay in balance.

Foods that significantly help regulate insulin and/or blood sugar:
Apple – beneficial because of its pectin.
Artichoke – contain large amounts of insulin.
Bananas – ripe and baked.
Butter milk – the lactic acid stimulates the pancreas, which produces more insulin.
Yogurt – strong antibacterial and boosts the immune system, while helping the pancreas produce more insulin.
Onions – virtually a cure all. Strong antioxidant and helps the body regulate itself.
Oats and oatmeal – it helps stabilize blood sugar and contains antioxidants.
Broccoli – great source of chromium that helps regulate insulin and blood sugar. It is also another cure all food for many diseases as well. It also has anti-viral and anti-ulcer properties, too.
Legumes – (Fava beans, anyone? Perhaps garbanzo, kidney or lima beans, instead?) beans and soybean products help regulate the blood sugar levels. One half cup a day reduces cholesterol by about 10%.
Garlic lowers blood sugar levels and increases insulin. Highly recommended for diabetics.
Groundnuts – (peanuts) help control blood sugar and a handful a day is recommended.
Grapefruit is excellent because it not only controls blood sugar but can help prevent diabetes in those who are at greater risk of developing it.

Tips & Warnings:
* Even if you have a food or drink you can’t give up – reduce the intake. Savor every bite or swallow – hold it in your mouth and let it linger. You will enjoy it longer – isn’t that the point of eating it? Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
* Oh – and as an added tip – olive oil. Give yourself a facial with it and let it soak in. Your body will absorb the best parts of it and benefit your skin as well! Or do a hot oil treatment on your hair with it! Shower or wash off after 20 minutes.
! This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Consult with your doctor if you are contemplating any major changes such as an new exercise regime.
! No matter what you might eat that regulates insulin and blood sugar, always do the daily blood checks!

One of my first friends on eHow – WriterGig – writes great articles on how to earn money online. She’s published a great book titled, How to Earn Passive Income at eHow.com!

It explains, in detail, how to earn money online by writing for eHow. I have personally seen my income going up every month by leaps and bounds. Even my brother, CycleCyco, has been earning money on his articles without doing much after uploading the articles he’s written. WriterGig can explain it a whole lot better than I can. Her recent blog post headline is:

My Work At Home Mom Blog
Thursday, October 2, 2008 eHow Earnings Just Shy of $900 for September

She is not kidding either! She shows her earnings page on her blog post! It is the legit earnings page I see when I log into my account, too – just not as much income yet! WriterGig – Congrats on your success! That is just a stepping stone to what she will be earning next month and then more the month after that!

One of the first things I learned about websites and making money online was concerning passive income as the best possible way to set up earnings that continue to build. The second thing was the mantra – Content is Everything! The third – Have multiple streams of income to truly make decent money working on the web. I know that eHow is a great way to make money every month.

I have just been writing writing writing lately. Mostly for eHow and Marlaine’s Musings blog. I’ve accomplished one of my goals – 75 articles written and posted on eHow! My next goal is to write and post 100! I see some people putting up 100 articles in their first month on eHow but their content is short and sometimes pointless. I have been trying to go the extra 10 miles to find out all I can about something – even if it is something I already know a lot about – and give extra tips and hints whenever I can. I do the same thing for Marlaine’s Musings quest guides and general guides for Runescape.

Someone on eHow said that they wished someone would write guides for WoW like the guides I have up for Runescape, making me tempted to go try World Of Warcraft out – but I’ve been told that it’s mostly a war game so not quite what I am looking for. I will probably look into it soon though.

I am working at putting together some kind of blog or site that I can start “managing” my eHow articles in a more logical and organized way. On eHow, they show what catagories you have articles in but……. you can’t go to that author’s articles on those subjects specifically. eHow sent a notice that they will be redesigning their tools and setup but it won’t be implemented until November. There is a lot of time between now and November. Even I am having a problem remembering all the articles. I need to store my eHow articles somehow…. So we’ve decided on a domain name of StoreHows.com. We haven’t got anything online yet but we did buy the domain name already. I’ll be working on the design for a couple of days and then we’ll start with a blog.

A friend on eHow recently lost her main account, losing over 500 articles! She has no idea how that happened but I can almost guess. If any of you have tried to earn money with AdSense – you might have experienced the “You have been banned for suspect clicks” syndrome with no other explanations or communication from AdSense once they “kicked” you. Brad and I experienced that and could never get an answer from them about why. We changed to AdBrite and they work with their clients a whole lot nicer! You can have suspect IP addresses blocked or even your own so you don’t accidentally click your own ads. I always put adblock on when I go to my articles on eHow, or when I work here or on Musings. I wish I didn’t have to use ads at all though…….

The days of submitting an article or story to a publication and selling all copyrights are over now though with the way the net works! Even when I was submitting hard copy to magazines, I never submitted to places that bought All Rights….. Selling First Rights is fine – I’ve sold to Woman’s World, Star and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, among other places, and was paid fairly well but reprints rights are still mine! (I am trying to find the best ways to use my work and eHow so far has been the best for me.)

All that aside, I suggested to my friend that she should always make copies of her work for just-in-case. I do routine backup as I work through pieces I am working on but after giving her that tidbit of advise – I checked my “database” of articles. Raised eyebrow! I shall cut to the punchline here and save the sarcasm for later – I only had 24 of my 75 articles saved as posted on eHow! Tisk! Sure, I had lots and lots of saved drafts. I gather info, write up a brief draft and then tweak and fiddle with it, adding more research and whatever. Then I start working on the final draft on the eHow site, using their extended wizard. Rarely is the last draft I wrote in my word processing program the same as the one that ends up online! I spent most of yesterday copying and pasting the articles as they appear into a special file. I set up a document file much like the My Documents that is just for my writing! Now I am backing that up on a memory stick that my wonderful In-Laws in Australia sent to me! Mum and Dad – my writing files are over 900 MB now – Thanks again! (Lordy I would be so sick if I lost all that writing!) Eventually all that content (and more) will end up online somewhere – snickering! Geeeeeeeeeee – just finished the backup and it’s 1.01 GB now – see, I have been writing like a maniac!

I am starting to plan a cookbook, too….. Easy, Quick, Inexpensive, but don’t invite the Food Police to dinner!

One of the articles I have a draft of for this blog is how to make your computer run faster. You can find it on eHow but I will put it up in here soon. For now, I have more articles to write and designs to work on……

Have a great rest of the day!