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I could simply make a list of those who regularly participate in the Word for Wednesday meme because they think about and share the Son’s light and there’s nothing more “Sonshiney” than that.  But as they’re already listed in the sidebar, I’ve decided to list other blogs that I regularly visit.  Here are some of my haunts:

Disloyal Opposition - JD Tuccille writes mostly about libertarian issues, always with a thought-provoking angle.  He lives in Arizona, and has added his first-hand viewpoint to the immigration debates.

Herescope – A few years ago, I met some of the authors of this blog, which monitors the heresies invading the church in our age.  These are lovely people, watchmen on the wall, who research and document some incredibly difficult-to-stomach material, day after day, year after year.  Their motivation to persevere is always the hope that fellow Christians will be delivered from the deception of this age.

Sola Sisters This is a blog by two Christian sisters who stand, as the name indicates, on the rallying cry of the Reformation: Sola Fide (by faith alone), Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone), Sola Gratia (by grace alone), Solus Christus (through Christ alone), Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory). While I don’t often agree with their Calvinistic viewpoint, it usually challenges me to re-examine my own position on various issues.  This post about God’s judgment, with a video by John MacArthur,  is a real thought-provoker.

Brainbiter Dave writes about many sacred cows, often with a Christian viewpoint, always with an acerbic tongue.  Worth a visit.

Northview Diary This is my neighbor across the river, a farm wife who writes consistently about dairy farming in general, and her life in particular.  She always responds to comments, and often posts great photos.  Check her out.

Chicken Tracks, Etc. Sara is another farming woman who keeps us abreast of the struggles dairy farmers are dealing with today.  She does great photos, too, but you should especially check out the one of her goat, Phoenix – which I named!  Woohoo!

The Chestnut Tree Cafe While Jim is a regular in the WFW meme, his other posts are usually political commentary.  He’s not often kind to the beltway shills, but he’s always honest, and usually zooms right in to the heart of the issue.  He often leaves me thinking, “I wish I’d written that.”

The Older Geek Rebecca is another who participates in the WFW meme, but at this particular blog she shares her hard-earned knowledge of all things blogging.  She often writes posts about things I’ve thought, “Gee, I wonder how/if I could do that.”  And if she hasn’t already written it, let her know, and she will – a very helpful lady.

Pro Libertate “Observations and commentary from a Christian libertarian perspective, written by a freedom-obsessed father of six children and husband to one exquisitely lovely wife.”  William Grigg takes the issues of the day and digs in deep.  He often expresses the things that I just think about.

Pro Life Blogs This is where I keep track of the political climate on abortion efforts.  I don’t miss much.

LibertarianChristians.com This is a relatively new blog by Norman Horn, who rationally addresses the issues of the day.  Check out this post about gay marriage – it’s not what you would expect from an American Christian.

And that’s only part of my list.  No wonder I spend so much time on the computer!

The other day Rebecca posted this story from CBS.  It seems that many copiers have hard drives that store all the images they copy.  If that copier is recycled or the lease runs out, (or the cops confiscate it?) all that personal information is up for grabs.  Watch and learn:

Then tonight I read this at  the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):

Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer – and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of “Alias,” right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn’t fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you’re using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what’s worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

The ACLU recently issued a report revealing that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on the organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups, including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. In the current political climate, it’s not hard to imagine the government using the ability to determine who may have printed what document for purposes other than identifying counterfeiters.

EFF is compiling a list of printers that appear to have some type of coding.  It includes most of the popular brands.

My husband watched a TV show tonight about the effects a large solar flare could have on our earthly electronics.  The technical effect is “Poof!  All gone!”

Given the increased privacy issues that keep popping up, maybe we’d be better off with a solar flare.

So now I need something to play it on, and I’m looking for recommendations from all you savvy folks – or better yet, you unsavvy folks who’ve managed to use an MP3 anyhow.  Here are my requirements:

• it needs to be easy to use
• I’ll need 1.9 GB to load the Bible, plus I’ll want to add some music
• it needs to be easy to use
• I don’t care about a lot of bells and whistles
• it needs to be easy to use
• I don’t want to spend a fortune
• have I mentioned that it needs to be easy to use?

So I await the wisdom of all you who have traveled this road before me:  the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that the secret negotiations for the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) are including draconian provisions:

…according to the leaks, ACTA member countries will be required to provide for third-party (Internet Intermediary) liability. This is not required by any of the major international IP treaties — not by the 1994 Trade Related Aspects of IP agreement, nor the WIPO Copyright and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. However, US copyright owners have long sought this.

The “third party” here is your ISP. What this means is that if you share files on the Internet, your ISP can be held legally responsible, even though they’re only providing you a communications channel and not hosting the content. (This is like holding the phone company responsible if you read passages aloud from Atlas Shrugged during a phone call.) Predictable consequences: (1) ISPs will be required to monitor all of your Internet traffic; (2) ISPs will shut down your connection at the slightest hint of legal liability.

Read the rest here.

The only problem is the little “yeah, right” title on the left side shouldn’t be visible. (Okay, I shrunk it down so you have to look real hard, but I still know it’s there.) The post said I needed to look for something called an H1 tag and delete it, but I couldn’t find one.

If any of you techies out there have any ideas, I’m all ears.

Why bother, you ask? Because, unlike Google, who stores every search you do, just waiting for some government bureaucrat to come looking for it, Scroogle:

• doesn’t use cookies
• doesn’t save search terms
• deletes logs within 48 hours

When you search using Scroogle:

• Google cannot set a cookie
• doesn’t see your IP address
• and cannot tell which searches are from the same person

They have a secure link if you want, and if you click Browser support, Firefox, (which is what I use) there’s a search engine plug-in available. What’s more, Scroogle is an official non-profit.

If you think Google is getting a little too big for its britches – not to mention they’re a little too happy to cooperate with whatever government is around – check out Scroogle!

Users of Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer have been warned of a flaw that could let hackers gain access to their computers and steal personal data, and told them to swap to a rival browser.

Swallowing my pride, I questioned my blogger buddy, Mrs. Mecomber, who knows about this kind of stuff. Well, not only did she provide me all the information I needed, she did it in English so even I could understand. To top it off? She didn’t even say, “Well, how dumb are you?” Now that’s a buddy!

So, in case you’re in the same position, I’m going to pass along her sage advice … and advise you to take it! Thanks a bunch, Mrs. M!

I’m finally getting back to you about backing up Blogger blogs. Google/Blogger sure hasn’t made it easy!

I’ve touched on this a few times here

http://mrsmecombersscrapbook.com/2008/08/a-blogger-backup-tool.html

and here (template backup)

http://mrsmecombersscrapbook.com/2007/12/how-to-backup-your-blogger-template.html

Actually, if you search Categories for “Blogger” in the drop-down menu, you’ll find a bunch of posts related to Blogger that may be useful to you.

There’s another way to backup your Blogger posts, and that is starting up a free WordPress.com blog. WP allows you to import your posts from Blogger. Two things to think about with this: you don’t want duplicate content on the web, so I advise making your WordPress blog private. Google and other search engines have penalties for the same posts on the Net. And two, as you add newer posts and have WordPress import them, WP doesn’t seem to know the difference between your old and new posts; it will import everything old again as well as the new. It’s not harmful, but it can be very tedious, going over hundreds and hundreds of posts and checking them off as “do not import.”

So… there is no easy way to save your Blogger blog. The third low-tech option is to just copy your post when it is done (in the “Edit Html” mode so that you get all the links included) and paste it into Notepad. I don’t advise pasting it in Word, because Word doesn’t read html and will mess up the links and formatting.