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Chosen for EXPLORE on June 8, 2024, No. 438. Thank you so much, dear Flickereenos!!!
Created for MIXMASTER CHALLENGE #70 (Winner, 3rd PL)
CHEF skagitrenee wants us to be very still!
➤ Use a solid black (or very dark) background -or- a significant black (or dark) vignette.
➤ Your image should consist entirely of an artistic still life arrangement with at least three different elements.
➤ Include at least one complete vintage doll or figurine (not just the face) as one of the elements.
➤ Stick to a dominant color theme (such as the purple and green in Renee's entry below).
➤ But NO ANIMALS in any way, shape or form!
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1st Real Flowers BG, from PD.
Spanish dancer figurine, from Pexels.
Vintage Lamp & hanging Pearl Broch, purchased from MCircus.
Gold hanging elements, purchased from Renderosity.
Gold jewel (on hair and dress) from PNGWing (before malware)
2nd BG (in front) with Roses & other real flowers, plus pearl necklace & 3 spheres, my photos.
SciFi texture, mine (not published)
There's NO AI in this image.
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© All rights reserved. This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. Thanks.
~ Thank you for visiting my photostream, for the invites, faves, awards and kind words. It's all much appreciated. ~
busy year so far, unfortunately not busy shooting. I recently found out from a potential client my website seemed to have been infected with a malware. So I spent the last couple of weeks rebuilding. I can now finally get back in the swing of shooting....
check it out, there are a couple of images I haven't posted on here....hope everyone's year started of great...
Iris is spunky hacker who loves using her custom multi-function prosthetic to cause chaos for the crime syndicates and corrupt law enforcement in the Layered City.
Iris prefers to use her hacking and programming skills to support Ode's team from the background. Iris has spent months implanting malware in the Layered City's computer system, and she uses the holo-computer built into her arm to exercise near absolute control over the city's many automated functions.
When she is forced to engage in combat, Iris has an emergency set of Phase-Tech claws and a Plasma beam emitter built into her arm.
Iris fills an invaluable role on Ode's team, and her upbeat attitude and general positivity keep her team's spirit high. While she appears to support Ode's goal of ridding the Layered City of corruption, it is unclear if she has an ulterior motive. She is incredibly secretive about her past and how she became such a proficient hacker without detection.
Build Notes:
This one was an adventure. The concept for "Hacker Girl" started with the mechanical arm with the computer built in. The colors and hair for her changed a bunch when I was working on her (RIP purple shoes). A lot of the decisions of the appearance of this character were made based on parts limitations (the crop top for example was because I ran out of black curved slopes half way through building the shirt). The end result is really flexible and can hold lots of dynamic poses. As always, face and some of the hair design by Eero Okkonen. I promise I'll quit ripping off his stuff eventually.
Comrades in light, this has been a long time coming.
“Absent Friends” is a 130-page, large-format, Illustrated book. At its heart are 117 previously unpublished “found photographs” from my collection. These unique images depict photographers and their cameras from around 1890 to 1970 and are comprehensively annotated. The captions discuss equipment, context and many other issues. There are pictures from five continents and numerous countries. Some are of the greatest historical, psychological and artistic interest.
I believe this collection will be enjoyed by all those intrigued by photographic history and the experience of photography. It was always my intention to make the book freely available and at the end of this post you will find a link to download a copy. The file is clean of malware and viruses, although its size means that it cannot be scanned by google drive during download. The nervous can safely read on-line. But I recommend courage - and browsing rather than reading straight through :) As a replica of the printed version, there are several blank pages towards the beginning. These are not a mistake :)
All I would ask is that anyone with any thoughts on “Absent Friends” comments below - further developments continue and need feedback!:) . I will not be available for a good few days, but In a subsequent post will talk about this project and how it came about :)
You can download a free copy here. If you have any problems please send a flickr message and I will send a copy to your e-mail :)
Happy New Year, dear friends :)
Ian :)
I'VE BEEN SCAMMED!!! My son informed me that the whole computer VIRUS thing was a SCAM! My Bank said the first step is to phone the company and cancel the 5-year Protection I paid for and to ask for a refund, which I have just done. Doubt that will happen. Also have to now take my computer in to be cleaned of all the malware, etc. they have installed on my hard drive. What a PAIN! I'm always very careful of scams, but I sure fell for this one.
A very early start for me today, (despite the forecast for rain all day) as I need to get away from my computer after yesterday's stress, thanks to a Virus that shut down my computer. It took me three hours to deal with it, while a technician went through my whole computer remotely, deleting every virus that has accumulated. I was told that I phoned them just in time, as I was not far away from losing everything on my computer. I always have Norton installed on my computer, but apparently the last three months I have not had Network Security working on my computer. Can you believe I had 5,614 viruses and if I had reached 6,000, everything on my computer would have been lost? Yikes! Funny, as the last few days, I have been backing up my photos to external hard drives and a flash drive. A very costly morning, but now my computer is fine and I have a five-year Security. Before all this, I was on Facebook and had clicked on a video link from a friend's Facebook page. Suddenly, my whole screen was filled with the Virus alert, which gave me a phone number to call. I don't know if that link was the actual cause of all this problem, or if it was 'the last straw'. Thankful for the clear help from the technician! Much appreciated.
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This particular young American Kestrel resides at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale, southern Alberta. This is a wonderful place that rehabilitates and releases (whenever possible) various birds of prey - hawks, owls, Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures,and Golden Eagles. Some of these birds act as Wildlife Ambassadors, too, including educating the public away from the Centre. Sometimes, a bird is used as a foster parent, too. I didn't see a Turkey Vulture or a Golden Eagle this time. This Kestrel was inside the Gift Store/entrance building, so I wasn't sure if any of my photos would come out (as I didn't want to use flash).
My actual destination on 21 August 2018 was the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre. I know some people feel that photographing birds that are not out in the wild is cheating. I kind of agree, though I think it's fine as long as someone says where it was taken.
On the spur of the moment the previous night, I decided that I might just try and get up early the next morning and go for a drive. The smoke from the British Columbia wildfires hasn't been hanging around the last few days, so I knew I really should make the most of a clear day.
It turned out to be such a great day, with some much-appreciated sightings. I must have spent about 8 or 9 hours driving and almost every inch of my body ached like crazy. Now, each summer, I try and do two or three longer (for me) drives, making sure I don't lose confidence to get there. I left home at 9:00 am, just a bit later than I had hoped. Arrived back home somewhere around 8:30 pm.
Weather-wise, it was around 24C, so not too hot. Unfortunately, I discovered that it was still smokey from the British Columbia wildfires, making distant hills barely visible and deleting mountains from view, but it didn't have too much effect on closer photography.
It was a good day for Hawks, seeing three on the way south and a few on the way home. I almost missed two of the hawks, as the hay bale was way out in a large field. At first, I thought there were three hawks together, but when I stopped to take a few photos, I realized that there were only two - one looked almost like two hawks close together, but then I saw that it had its wings mantled. I guess it wanted to make sure that the second hawk behind it couldn't steal any of the food from it.
A lone Common Nighthawk also helped make my day. For several years, I had longed to see one of these unusual birds and, finally last year (2017), I managed to find four of them. That time was almost two months earlier than my recent find, so I wasn't expecting to see any in late August. I would still love to find one lying on a wooden railing rather than a metal railing. Last year, I got a photo of one on a fence post, but the angle was not the greatest. These birds are 9½ inches from the tip of bill to the tip of tail.
A Horned Lark, a Vesper Sparrow, a Mourning Dove, and a Western Meadowlark gave me the chance for a photo or two and, to my delight, a hawk I spotted way in the distance did turn out to be a Ferruginous Hawk. A happy sighting, as they tend to be few and far between.
A lot of people seemed to like this shot so I thought I'd post it! This photo, and the other three I posted this chilly evening, are just a taste of all the abstract work I have done!
I've been out of action; our computer got infected with malware and had to be cleaned. But I'm back and better than ever!
2016 was the year of colossal cyberhacks. It was revealed that cyberdata from corporations, consumer credit and debit cards used at certain large retail chains, a billion individual Internet accounts, government departments and private national election committee information were stolen by private and state actors.
In retailing, 2016 was largely a transition year in which consumer credit cards were upgraded from magnetic strips to the more secure EMV chips. It took cyberbreaches of millions of consumers among retail chains in the couple of years before to create the change to the new cards. Many retailers and merchants still do not have EMV readers.
Are we ready for the next technology revolution that is happening right now -- the Internet of Things in which everything is cyberlinked?
More pictures can be found here: board.ttvchannel.com/t/herofebruary-vex-span/72365?u=ajtazt
“This is the Hero Hotline, what is your situation?”
“Yes, I’m calling to file a complaint against the Hero Factory.”
Lucy’s digital eyes rolled and was about to retort that this was an emergency line, not the complaint center. Only for a clawed fist to shove itself out of her headset, pushing said headset off her cranium as the hand gripped it. A one-eyed head pushed itself through the headset speaker, followed by the top end of an old phone it was holding.
“And I’d like to make it personal,” he said with a villain’s scoffing laugh.
She barely got a scream before he pulled himself and her inside the headset, which clattered against the floor.
___
ex-Span, the infamous military recruitment agent and telemarketer. Many know his voice from the constant calls to sell useless junk, get people to donate to various false charities, and many other such annoyances. Few, however, had seen him in person, until he attacked the Hero Factory.
Using his tech and resources, he flooded Hero Factory’s call center with false reports until the tower was empty. When all Heroes were seemingly gone, he merged out of the phone calls and captured all the call center workers and mission managers. He dragged them all into the Inioxospace, the old analog cyberspace, to hold them hostage and cripple the Hero Factory.
Aside from being able to traverse through both inioxospace and cyberspace, Vex-Span can use his giant phone to call anyone, and any device, in the known galaxy. The phone can be used as a blunt, hammer-like weapon to smash foolish heroes, or send sonic screams and shockwaves. His rotary-dial shield can slaw through Hero armor with its claw, block standard energy projectiles, and can be used as a grinding wheel. The attached Meteor Blaster is infected with malware that scrambles any bot’s communication systems and focuses all nearby bot callers to them.
ϟ Hey Folkers!
Technofolk_Malware Outfit.
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✧ It includes
✧ Shirt - With 04 different textures.
✧ Shorts - With 04 different textures.
✧ Rigged for Legacy,Perky,eBODY Reborn and Waifu,Maitreya Lara X and Petite x.
✧ Inworld Mainstore - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Viktel%20Aria/164/77/2625
✧ Please test the demo before purchasing!
✧ все авторские права.
_______________________________________________
Original Version Technofolk ®
Оригинальная версия Технофолк ®
Built to counter attacks on corporate servers, these agents are walking malware. Once jacked-in the NIC can scramble the brains of even the most careful of hackers.
What a blast from the past. Digging through my old camera SD card I found this gem. Built back in 2015, I never got around to uploading her, but I'm glad I found these photos.
I wish I was dashing about like this Common Green Darner, but instead I have been trying to install my programs on my new computer.
Luckily I made a restore point early on because I messed everything up royally. I had adware and malware with something I downloaded. I couldn't install Photoshop - I couldn't activate it. I removed it and reinstalled it several times and spent many hours chatting with the nice Adobe folks. Nothing worked.
My Firefox browser had me view a security certificate each time I opened a page. Plus I had annoying pop-ups everywhere.
So I started over. Deleted everything I could from each folder, uninstalled, and went back to a restore point.
Finally I got everything back in order
The good news is I could sync my add-ons in Firefox and load my Award Counter settings from the cloud. I should be good to go now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Common Green Darner
Anax junius
Member of the Nature’s Spirit
Good Stewards of Nature
© 2014 Patricia Ware -All Rights Reserved
Thank you again to Dave Johnson, birding4ever, for the correct ID.
From Gars-bheinn. Stitch of four.
Sorry if I'm missing some contacts at the moment - my Flickr isn't working very well - I can't view photos from individual photostreams - only from the collective contacts' pages. I can hover over the thumbs and they definitely appear to be hyperlinked, but the pics never resolve. Is anyone else getting this please? I get the same on three unconnected PCs.
I had another problem a few weeks ago with Javascript on Firefox, but I'm on Google Chrome now, the other two PCs run IE, by the way.
I've also had occasional uploading problems and not being able to add to the map, but that seems OK now.
My computer's free from malware and works fine otherwise.
This is a stack of two of the sharpest images. I used my Nikon 500mm f/4.0P lens with my D3x, mounted like this photo-
www.flickr.com/photos/cassidyphotography/31492258522/
I tried using just the naked eyeball looking through my View Finder, then again using a Nikon DR-5 Right Angle Magnifier-
www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/viewfinders/dr...
I set Color temperature at 5,260°Kelvin.
I noted the angle of elevation of my Manfrotto's geared head was 30°
The slightest touch with my index finger and thumb would cause the extreme magnification of the Moon to vibrate, making focusing a challenge. "Breathe, hold, micro-adjustments" I would tell myself.. The renderings made with Live View at maximum magnigication were terrible. Well, maybe not to some who regularly view my wrok, but to my trained and critical eye, they were not as sharp as I was trying for.
The next challenge was to select the sharpest and most detailed image(s), when viewed at 100-300% on my monitor.
In the Astronauts own words from Apollo 11:
General Surface Characteristics
Color
"The general color of the surface as viewed close at hand is comparable to that we observed from orbit at the same Sun elevation of about 10°. Actually, the surface is pretty much without color other than shades of gray. Along the zero phase angle line (down Sun), the color is a light, chalky gray with a tan shade. As one looks toward 90° to the sunline, the color becomes a darker ashen gray with no apparent tan shades. At all phase angles, the surfaces of rock frag-ments appear to be a lighter gray than their immediate surroundings; however, where such fragments are freshly broken, the broken sur-faces are very dark gray, much like country basalt. Small gradations in color resulting from very small topographical changes were visible. Upon looking closely at the surface material (particularly the fine soil) during our excursion, we observed a charcoal-gray to gray-cocoa color, similar to that of a graded lead pencil."
_ _ _
But then, there are these NASA photos that show color, not shades of gray-
waterfordwhispersnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/eart...
www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/apollo1...
i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6e2c71958564509a87a59c1336d2186d0d...
airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow_l...
www.gadcollection.com/1902/apollo-11-buzz-aldrin-lunar-mo...
secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01471/rock_14...
So, I am going with my gut feeling that the Moon does not actually look white, neutral gray, nor is it made of cheese.
_ _ _
Was this description of the Moon's surface color localized in the Sea of Tranquility or the entire surface of the Moon?
The photos of Lunar samples I have seen do not look like shades of gray.
How does one rationalize this? Maybe the Gold Coating on the Astronauts' helmet visor cause a misperception of color. I do not know.
To me, it makes sense that if the Moon was blasted from the Earth, after a collision with another body, 4.51 billion years ago, then it should be composed of the same matter. The incessant bombardment of meteorites and cosmic radiation would alter the surface and its color, but not entirely.
Well, been super busy, for months, so this was really all I have time for. Not helped by some wanker from www.essayyoda website hacking into my photography website to intersperse their website, a sample essay PDF, and malware. I had to spend from March 10 to 14th identifying malware files, removing them, restoring my website, updating, backing everything up one it was perfect. Why someone would do that is beyond me. What did that person gain? Anyway, it all takes time away rom thing I need to do or rather do. Regardless how robust you think your computer/website secuity is . . . there is always some bored little shit out there, some where in the world having fun at your expense. My website Host advised I would need to hire a "Developer" to make all repairs. Fuck 'em! I am smart enough for an old guy to do it myself. And, I did.
My advice:
•Don't sweat it. No need to know computer code.
•First thing to do is Change Your Password to something "Strong" and randomly generated.
•Disable Plug-ins.
•If you know you have a 100% clean Backup, restore it.
•If not, find the corrupted files, delete them, restore core files, admin files, and content, then do another malware scan.
•Best to update to the latest files.
•Once your have restored everything and your website is working fine, do an immediate backup.
•In the future, when the bored bastards are at play, simply change your password and restore from the Backup.
A gentle reminder about copyright and intellectual property-
Ⓒ Cassidy Photography (All images in this Flickr portfolio)
#LimpiarMiMac ¿Cómo evitar la entrada de malware en tu Mac? bit.ly/2c3KLoN bit.ly/2auYN30 (twitter.com/ComoLimpiarMac/status/775039417090052097)
via Twitter ComoLimpiarMac
#LimpiarMiMac
via KrakyLand.net Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.2.0.1024 www.krakyland.net/2016/01/malwarebytes-anti-malware-22010...
People got confused as to which way this structure was genuinely facing. They were dumbfounded to hear that it is actually coming towards them.
I've been out of action; our computer got infected with malware and had to be cleaned. But I'm back and better than ever!
Built to counter attacks on corporate servers, these agents are walking malware. Once jacked-in the NIC can scramble the brains of even the most careful of hackers.
Here is the wire used for infiltration.
Installed Open Suse Linux on the laptop I am using now in one day with all functions except access to my network drives. That will come later. Connected Canon camera and uploaded photos. Used Gimp to modify image. Saved to Flickr via Firefox.
All without any real problem.
Tried to upgrade this same laptop to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. Had so many errors that I found the situation almost unbelievable. I almost ran out of storage space on my Samsung phone with images of the problems. Frozen applications, all icons on the desktop disappearing, Internet disconnections, cannot connect to group policy client, File Manager taking an absolute age to do anything and so on and so on. It appears to me that if you have a laptop much more than a year old you will have problems.
I also had a large number of problems with upgrading a desktop to Windows 10. Would not write iso files to a dvd amongst other problems. It also got stuck in a loop saying something like Windows has encountered an error, the system will be restarted for you. It only started when I switched the power off to the desktop and switched it back on again.
In case you ask were there any viruses, malware, system issues. No, no way. two well known virus packages reported nothing, chkdsk was used to check the disks, scannow was used to check the system and so on and so on. I also never switch off a machine if I know an upgrade is in process. Updates seem to be at the heart of some of my problems. I know about and have edited the GPSvcGroup corruption to the registry and have solved some problems doing this. There were a lot of other problems that were solved by other methods.
I ask myself how there is such a difference between the systems. I have used Windows since the very first version. Then you had to reboot occasionally because of a memory addressing problem, but at least that was normally a reliable recovery method. You can't even do that now.
Microsoft is in trouble as far as Windows 10 is concerned. They should have reduced the complexity of the operating systems and separated tablet from desktop, and business requirements from domestic. They are carrying so much baggage from previous systems and hardware that it is becoming almost impossible to support Windows.
I have been in IT since 1963 and I understand the problems with staff and expectations that may also be a crippling problem that Microsoft has to deal with. But you don't get rid of all your experienced staff even though they might not be as fast as the new young IT staff. You might need some of their knowledge when making changes to legacy type code.
Note added 18/11/2015. Found I could not use the Internet. I shutdown Windows 10 and tried to Reboot. On Rebooting the login screen came up, I input the password, the pc started the boot process and then froze for more than 15 minutes. Had to do a hard shutdown and reboot in the end. The message came up saying it could not connect to Onedrive. I don't want Onedrive, and am incredibly angry wasting more time with Windows 10. Have stopped Onedrive loading now but will go to Apple soon. What a terrible operating system Windows 10 is now.
Just had several other problems, probably caused by an update. Randomly, Windows explorer is coming up with the message. File access has timed out when attempting to open a .jpeg file in the Photo app.
I also had Windows Explorer freeze when trying to get to a folder on my C drive. Shut down and re-started the machine. Message indicates the system was trying to carry out updates. Why does it not tell you instead of freezing.
This is totally ridiculous. I now cannot access my Synology drives after an update. Windows 10 is also saying 'cannot connect to group policy client'. Seen this before. why has it appeared again after a few months. This fault I suspect is due to Microsoft falling foul of the user security options available under previous versions of Windows not being available under Windows 10 update. When is Windows ever going to be reliable?
Windows 10 is still a bloody mess. Almost every time a Windows update is applied there is another problem. 20/03/2016. Just switched my desktop computer on and found Start button not working, Cortana not working, time not appearing, system errors occurring with Color Munki. Ran sfc / scannow and it found nothing. I am sure there are other problems. Windows must be re-built and simplified to suit the modern hardware environment.
Started using a windows 10 laptop again early June 2016. Found the DVD writer/reader had disappeared. In the end I disabled, shutdown, rebooted, re-enabled the drive and everything was o.k.with the drive. While fixing the drive, probably a registry setting that Windows could not process, I noticed there was a windows update download going on. Too late, I was trying to fix the DVD and set in motion a shutdown. Low and behold after the DVD was fixed the message 'Could not connect to group policy client occurred again.' Fixed Windows update problem as well, message
Could not connect has disappeared at last, getting more confident about Windows 10 now.
Still won't buy an Apple machine when you realise that a £20 extra cost for a 256gb ssd over a 128 gb ssd to buy and upgrade yourself on a pc means a £200 extra cost on the Apple laptop.
I've been having problems with my computer since January 8 or so, with its Internet connection for the past 2-3 days. I've run several virus scan / malware removal programs, but I may have to re-install Windows. What a pain!
#LimpiarMiMac Nuevo malware está atacando a computadoras Mac bit.ly/2i2GAHL bit.ly/2g6ieR8 (twitter.com/ComoLimpiarMac/status/817830304064753665)
via Twitter ComoLimpiarMac
#LimpiarMiMac
I'VE BEEN SCAMMED and my computer HACKED!!! My son informed me that the whole computer VIRUS thing I mentioned the other day was a SCAM! My Bank said the first step is to phone the company and cancel the 5-year Protection I paid for and to ask for a refund, which I have just done. Doubt that will happen. Also have to now take my computer in to be cleaned of all the malware, etc. they have installed on my hard drive. What a PAIN! I'm always very careful of scams and hoaxes, but I sure fell for this one.
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Our weather forecast for this morning gives a temperature of -2C (windchill -4C). We are under a Freezing Drizzle Advisory, too. Whatever happened to sunshine and warmth? Recently, we have been having rainy, dreary (and the day before yesterday, very foggy!) weather. A decision needed to be made - to go or not go on a birding day trip east of the city. Usually, people don't have to register for most outings, but the trip on 20 September 2018 was different, thanks to a change in how outings will be run in the future. I had registered, which helped push me out of the door on a day with a forecast for rain all day. So glad I did go, though, as once the dense fog eventually pretty much lifted half way through the day, the sun came out and it was beautiful.
Our route took us to places such as (very foggy) Weed Lake and, much further east, Marsland Basin. I love our trips in this direction from the city, even more so because I very rarely do the drive myself. At the location where I took the photo above, there were so many Blackbirds - Yellow-headed, Red-winged, Brewer's, plus a few Grackles mixed in with them.
As for birds, 56 species were spotted, most at extremely far distances. As usually happens, I only saw some of them, but was happy with the ones I did see. Not much chance to take photos of birds, but as usual, my camera lens turned to everything else around me - scenery, wildflowers, insects, old barns and sheds, and a few beautifully delicate spider webs covered in dew, rain or fog drops. I loved finding these! I wish I knew what kind of spiders create the much more random webs - different from the full-circle ones I normally come across. I can only imagine what these webs might have looked like in sunshine, instead of heavy fog. Still, I'm happy that a few photos are fit to post, to remind me of nature's beauty this day.
After our first stop, we decided to have an early coffee break, in hopes that the fog would improve. Eventually, it did, slightly. Fog is definitely not what one wants on a birding trip! I think we had seven stops in total, including one at Marsland Basin, our most distant destination. Such a great place to visit and enjoy. While everyone else was peering through their binoculars at the distant wetland, I was wandering through the trees and grounds surrounding Lynn and Sue's home, catching a Sunflower shot here and a donkey shot there, and so on. One of my favourite places. Sorry we missed you, Lynn!
Many thanks as always, Andrew, for yet another very enjoyable trip. Thanks, too, for everyone combining to create the list of total species. So many great pairs of eyes. It felt so good to be away from my computer for hours, too, especially after getting a Virus the previous day and coming very close to losing everything on my computer! Then, what happens this morning, after my computer was fixed remotely by a technician? I go to Facebook to wish my grandson a Happy Birthday, and I get the Blue Screen of Death!!! Wish I could say I love computers - but definitely not the last three days!
Created for DUC October 2024 challenge.
(Winner 1st PL)
Source image with thanks, from PaulO Classic.
Butterfly & Bokeh texture, purchased from Renderosity.
Frame from PNGWing (before malware)
BG from my archives.
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All rights reserved. This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. Thanks.
~ Thank you for visiting my photostream, for the invites, faves, awards and kind words. It's all much appreciated. ~
A few days ago my PC fell victim to a very nasty piece of malware. It was so bad that drastic measures needed to be taken and now I'm running a fresh install of Windows 7 on a new hard drive. I'm slowly getting my software re-installed and I'll hopefully be able to retrieve my data from the old hard drive some time over the next few days. (As you can see, I've already got Olympus Viewer 2 back on my machine, Photoshop CS5 comes back next.) I should be able to retrieve all of the image files I didn't have backed up yet... so hopefully everything will be good again soon! Seen in the front window of Aritzia, Robson Street, downtown Vancouver. February 12, 2012.
The taste of shame is what Kenzero loves the most. The Kenzero Twins work together, one half investigating, uncovering every deepest secret of their victim, just so the other half can reveal everything as loud as it can, to everyone. If you have something to hide, it's already too late: everybody will know what you've done.
My contribution to #crisisspread
Check out the other awesome contributions from the other builders part of this project on Instagram:
Trojan - @ok_susu_0
Hijack - @ezreel_thebluemoonmocist
Malware - @ems_mocs
Nyxem - @bonklesmocs
Cryptlock - @goldenarpeggio
Phishing - @rons_oc
Kenzero - @petersheikah
Confiker - @_quanto_mocs_
Huuuge thanks to @ezreel_bluemoonmocist for putting together this amazing collab and editing the pics!
I'VE BEEN SCAMMED!!! My son informed me that the whole computer VIRUS thing that I mentioned the other day was a SCAM! My Bank said the first step is to phone the company and cancel the 5-year Protection I paid for and to ask for a refund, which I have just done. Doubt that will happen. Also have to now take my computer in to be cleaned of all the malware, etc. they have installed on my hard drive. What a PAIN! I'm always very careful of scams, but I sure fell for this one.
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Our weather forecast for this morning gives a temperature of -2C (windchill -4C). We are under a Freezing Drizzle Advisory, too. Whatever happened to sunshine and warmth? Recently, we have been having rainy, dreary (and the day before yesterday, very foggy!) weather. A decision needed to be made - to go or not go on a birding day trip east of the city. Usually, people don't have to register for most outings, but the trip on 20 September 2018 was different, thanks to a change in how outings will be run in the future. I had registered, which helped push me out of the door on a day with a forecast for rain all day. So glad I did go, though, as once the dense fog eventually pretty much lifted half way through the day, the sun came out and it was beautiful.
Our route took us to places such as (very foggy) Weed Lake and, much further east, Marsland Basin. I love our trips in this direction from the city, even more so because I very rarely do the drive myself.
As for birds, 56 species were spotted, most at extremely far distances. As usually happens, I only saw some of them, but was happy with the ones I did see. Not much chance to take photos of birds, but as usual, my camera lens turned to everything else around me - scenery, wildflowers, insects, old barns and sheds, and a few beautifully delicate spider webs covered in dew, rain or fog drops. I loved finding these! I wish I knew what kind of spiders create the much more random webs - different from the full-circle ones I normally come across. I can only imagine what these webs might have looked like in sunshine, instead of heavy fog. Still, I'm happy that a few photos are fit to post, to remind me of nature's beauty this day.
After our first stop, we decided to have an early coffee break, in hopes that the fog would improve. Eventually, it did, slightly. Fog is definitely not what one wants on a birding trip! I think we had seven stops in total, including one at Marsland Basin, our most distant destination. Such a great place to visit and enjoy. While everyone else was peering through their binoculars at the distant wetland, I was wandering through the trees and grounds surrounding Lynn and Sue's home, catching a Sunflower shot here and a donkey shot there, and so on. One of my favourite places. Sorry we missed you, Lynn!
Many thanks as always, Andrew, for yet another very enjoyable trip. Thanks, too, for everyone combining to create the list of total species. So many great pairs of eyes. It felt so good to be away from my computer for hours, too, especially after getting a Virus the previous day and coming very close to losing everything on my computer!
print with linocut
the code links to an online news article from jan 2022 on t-online.de. It said that the FBI warns about qrcodes being used for phishing or for downloading malware
Five more photos from my archives. If I wrote a description under other photos taken on the same outing/drive, I will add it to these five shots.
"This photo is from 25 September 2018, when the weather forecast finally looked a little more promising. We have had so many gloomy, rainy days and when I woke up that morning and saw that the sun was shining, I knew I had better get out to the mountains before the fall colours disappeared.
It was almost 11:00 am before I left home, so I was limited time-wise, but still managed to get to my destination. I had taken my computer to be fixed the previous day, to clear a virus and malware after being hacked, so I had more time to get out with my camera.
I thought this might just be my last chance to see fall colours and, if I was lucky, a little Pika. Luck was on my side and I saw both. Getting photos of the little Pika required an awful lot of patience : ) A few days later, our first snowstorm arrived, bringing as much as 60 cm of snow to Kananaskis and about 38 cm to our city. How lucky we are to live so close to such magnificent scenery!"
Anglin's Fishing Pier, Commercial Blvd, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and wishing you a great week. Here's something for the Monday blues. ;-)
View on Fluidr | All My Photos on Fluidr
I wanted to share a new shot taking this weekend with you, but at the moment this will have to do until I figure out what's going on with my computer. Yesterday afternoon as I was processing my new shots it decided it had enough and my programs started to run at a crawl. What normally takes 30 seconds at the most (tone-mapping one of my HDRs) all of a sudden took between 65 and 90 seconds. Yawn...
I tried everything I could think of to speed things up (several reboots, disk clean, registry clean, virus scan, adware and malware scan, disk defrag even though according to Windows it didn't need it...), all to no avail. The thing is Windows starts up and runs fine, programs open fine too, but when I want to do something, lets say in Dynamic-Photo HDR, the program becomes quite unresponsive. It doesn't crash, if I leave it it'll get there eventually... but it takes forever.
Sorry for the rant, but I am out of ides and open to any suggestions of what else I could try to get things going again.
or at least my computer is. I opened up IE and Chrome both and and have these stupid adverts now on flickr that I understand is some kind of virus malware :( CouponDropDown and the sites that say how to get rid of it you have to find Coupon Drop Down on your computer ... but arghhhhhh it is not there :( so now I have these stupid ads on my flickr :(
Update: got it fixed ;) woot woot flickr is back to it's old self :)
I'VE BEEN SCAMMED!!! My son informed me that the whole computer VIRUS thing that I mentioned the other day was a SCAM! My Bank said the first step is to phone the company and cancel the 5-year Protection I paid for and to ask for a refund, which I have just done. Doubt that will happen. Also have to now take my computer in to be cleaned of all the malware, etc. they have installed on my hard drive. What a PAIN! I'm always very careful of scams, but I sure fell for this one.
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"The American Avocet takes elegance to a new level. This long-legged wader glides through shallow waters swishing its slender, upturned bill from side to side to catch aquatic invertebrates. It dons a sophisticated look for summer with a black-and-white body and a rusty head and neck. During the winter the head and neck turn a grayish white, but the bird loses none of its elegance as it forages along coastal waters or rests while standing on one leg." From AllAboutBirds.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Avocet/overview
Our weather forecast for this morning gives a temperature of -2C (windchill -4C). We are under a Freezing Drizzle Advisory, too. Whatever happened to sunshine and warmth? Recently, we have been having rainy, dreary (and the day before yesterday, very foggy!) weather. A decision needed to be made - to go or not go on a birding day trip east of the city. Usually, people don't have to register for most outings, but the trip on 20 September 2018 was different, thanks to a change in how outings will be run in the future. I had registered, which helped push me out of the door on a day with a forecast for rain all day. So glad I did go, though, as once the dense fog eventually pretty much lifted half way through the day, the sun came out and it was beautiful.
Our route took us to places such as (very foggy) Weed Lake and, much further east, Marsland Basin. I love our trips in this direction from the city, even more so because I very rarely do the drive myself.
As for birds, 56 species were spotted, most at extremely far distances. As usually happens, I only saw some of them, but was happy with the ones I did see. Not much chance to take photos of birds, but as usual, my camera lens turned to everything else around me - scenery, wildflowers, insects, old barns and sheds, and a few beautifully delicate spider webs covered in dew, rain or fog drops. I loved finding these! I wish I knew what kind of spiders create the much more random webs - different from the full-circle ones I normally come across. I can only imagine what these webs might have looked like in sunshine, instead of heavy fog. Still, I'm happy that a few photos are fit to post, to remind me of nature's beauty this day.
After our first stop, we decided to have an early coffee break, in hopes that the fog would improve. Eventually, it did, slightly. Fog is definitely not what one wants on a birding trip! I think we had seven stops in total, including one at Marsland Basin, our most distant destination. Such a great place to visit and enjoy. While everyone else was peering through their binoculars at the distant wetland, I was wandering through the trees and grounds surrounding Lynn and Sue's home, catching a Sunflower shot here and a donkey shot there, and so on. One of my favourite places. Sorry we missed you, Lynn!
Many thanks as always, Andrew, for yet another very enjoyable trip. Thanks, too, for everyone combining to create the list of total species. So many great pairs of eyes. It felt so good to be away from my computer for hours, too, especially after getting a Virus the previous day and coming very close to losing everything on my computer!
An nginx HTTP server extension. The server returns no information to the client and closes the connection (useful as a deterrent for malware).
imagespam might come later ... have more to post. right now busy removing mostly harmless but still extremely gross malware from my computer first.
this is free to use as a texture for anyone who wants it, see my new texture set for more details.
created in iOS apps Fragment and DistressedFX
Built to counter attacks on corporate servers, these agents are walking malware. Once jacked-in the NIC can scramble the brains of even the most careful of hackers.
The cyborg is also programmed for physical self defense.
Morston, North Norfolk.
An image from earlier in the year, thanks for looking. Just spent the last to days fighting malware off my computers. Time I will not get back, these people who do this need to have their knickers twisted.
© All rights reserved. Do not use without permission.
Iris is spunky hacker who loves using her custom multi-function prosthetic to cause chaos for the crime syndicates and corrupt law enforcement in the Layered City.
Iris prefers to use her hacking and programming skills to support Ode's team from the background. Iris has spent months implanting malware in the Layered City's computer system, and she uses the holo-computer built into her arm to exercise near absolute control over the city's many automated functions.
When she is forced to engage in combat, Iris has an emergency set of Phase-Tech claws and a Plasma beam emitter built into her arm.
Iris fills an invaluable role on Ode's team, and her upbeat attitude and general positivity keep her team's spirit high. While she appears to support Ode's goal of ridding the Layered City of corruption, it is unclear if she has an ulterior motive. She is incredibly secretive about her past and how she became such a proficient hacker without detection.
Build Notes:
This one was an adventure. The concept for "Hacker Girl" started with the mechanical arm with the computer built in. The colors and hair for her changed a bunch when I was working on her (RIP purple shoes). A lot of the decisions of the appearance of this character were made based on parts limitations (the crop top for example was because I ran out of black curved slopes half way through building the shirt). The end result is really flexible and can hold lots of dynamic poses. As always, face and some of the hair design by Eero Okkonen. I promise I'll quit ripping off his stuff eventually.
copyright © Mim Eisenberg/mimbrava studio. All rights reserved.
As promised, here is the life-cycle mosaic of the leek. It was fun to conceptualize and create the photos, and, with the help of Ribbet.com, to create the mosaic.
Warning to all Mac and PC users: Please go to this page and click on the quick and easy test to make sure your computer does not have the malware on it that could make it lose its link to the Internet.
Just a couple of related articles to show that this is a real threat.
www.tomsguide.com/us/FBI-Botnet-DNS-Changer-Rove-Digital-...
www.dcwg.org/detect/checking-osx-for-infections/
And confirmation by Snopes that the threat is real:
www.snopes.com/computer/virus/dnschanger.asp
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See my photos on 500px
Or on 72dpi
Or on fluidr.
I invite you to stroll through My Galleries.
#LimpiarMiMac La versión gratuita de Spotify puede infectar tu Mac con Malware bit.ly/2cWQBsv bit.ly/2auYN30 (twitter.com/ComoLimpiarMac/status/784381314283679744)
via Twitter ComoLimpiarMac
#LimpiarMiMac
this is me posing with some of my best friends the traffic cones...
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Café Frequenters episode 162
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Hello Dearest Maud! here come a snippet of actions story of the pulp fiction kind... admit it you were waiting for the next episode... Warning! this story is not suitable for the younger human creatures since it contains soft-gore! (don´t read it to your daughter until she is at least 18!)
Jimmy studied the victim, he had turned off all non-biological enhancements since he was afraid that some foreign secret service had installed some spy-ware, since the bio-scan had run haywire...
..so there he was studying the you lad he had just knocked out...
...why did he ask so many questions? he wouldn´t have to had knocked him out if he wasn´t so inquisitive, he was a charming you guy... actually he had to admit that he was better looking than himself, and he spoke in a weird and gentle way...
What to do now? jimmy thought, he couldn´t let him live, when he would wake up, there would be trouble... he could absorb him, but that would mean him turning on his infra-tech again... what if the supposed spy-were had taken control of the absorber...
...another thing that scared him was that he have never used the absorber before, but he remembered when a fellow agent once absorbed a victim at a lunatic asylum, he turned even more loony that the nutter he absorbed, Jimmy had to kill him and grind him down and flush him down the lunatic-asylum WC-porcelain stool...
... but this young man was so handsome and so charming that it would probably improve his statistics, his mind his looks....
Jimmy turned on the absorber, it seemed not to be affected by the enemy malware...
...his mouth started to frown and saliva formed small stings, he started to cocoon first the victim, then himself then joining them together...
luckily none of the café frequenters seemed to need the toilet, but jimmy had a backup plant, if he had too he would climb up the ceiling and unscrew the lightbulb and hide up in the shadows...
...now they both had started to dissolve the important part would be when they were both totally dissolved was to get all the undissolved tech at the right spots that needed careful planning...
He had to focus all of his dissolving brain on to the process
when the final calculations was made it was time for a merger, jimmy was really afraid, would his old persona become the dominant?
no time to care about that, this was way beyond the regret-phase, the last thoughts his brain had before it all became black was the youths beautiful eyes, his charming, smile...
Please don't use this image without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
Por favor, no uses esta imagen sin mi permiso explícito. Todos los derechos reservados.
Todas las imágenes se encuentran disponibles para su venta. Envíame un mail a juampiter@gmail.com si estás interesado en alguna.
All my images are available for sale. Send me an email to juampiter@gmail.com if you are interested
Back to digging into my archives. I did go for just a short drive today, SE of Calgary, but I haven't downloaded the few photos I took yet.
"I'VE BEEN SCAMMED!!! My son informed me that the whole computer VIRUS thing was a SCAM! My Bank said the first step is to phone the company and cancel the 5-year Protection I paid for and to ask for a refund, which I have just done. Doubt that will happen. Also have to now take my computer in to be cleaned of all the malware, etc. they have installed on my hard drive. What a PAIN! I'm always very careful of scams, but I sure fell for this one.
A very early start for me today, (despite the forecast for rain all day) as I need to get away from my computer after yesterday's stress, thanks to a Virus that shut down my computer. It took me three hours to deal with it, while a technician went through my whole computer remotely, deleting every virus that has accumulated. I was told that I phoned them just in time, as I was not far away from losing everything on my computer. I always have Norton installed on my computer, but apparently the last three months I have not had Network Security working on my computer. Can you believe I had 5,614 viruses and if I had reached 6,000, everything on my computer would have been lost? Yikes! Funny, as the last few days, I have been backing up my photos to external hard drives and a flash drive. A very costly morning, but now my computer is fine and I have a five-year Security. Before all this, I was on Facebook and had clicked on a video link from a friend's Facebook page. Suddenly, my whole screen was filled with the Virus alert, which gave me a phone number to call. I don't know if that link was the actual cause of all this problem, or if it was 'the last straw'. Thankful for the clear help from the technician! Much appreciated.
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This particular young American Kestrel resides at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale, southern Alberta. This is a wonderful place that rehabilitates and releases (whenever possible) various birds of prey - hawks, owls, Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures,and Golden Eagles. Some of these birds act as Wildlife Ambassadors, too, including educating the public away from the Centre. Sometimes, a bird is used as a foster parent, too. I didn't see a Turkey Vulture or a Golden Eagle this time. This Kestrel was inside the Gift Store/entrance building, so I wasn't sure if any of my photos would come out (as I didn't want to use flash).
My actual destination on 21 August 2018 was the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre. I know some people feel that photographing birds that are not out in the wild is cheating. I kind of agree, though I think it's fine as long as someone says where it was taken.
On the spur of the moment the previous night, I decided that I might just try and get up early the next morning and go for a drive. The smoke from the British Columbia wildfires hasn't been hanging around the last few days, so I knew I really should make the most of a clear day.
It turned out to be such a great day, with some much-appreciated sightings. I must have spent about 8 or 9 hours driving and almost every inch of my body ached like crazy. Now, each summer, I try and do two or three longer (for me) drives, making sure I don't lose confidence to get there. I left home at 9:00 am, just a bit later than I had hoped. Arrived back home somewhere around 8:30 pm.
Weather-wise, it was around 24C, so not too hot. Unfortunately, I discovered that it was still smokey from the British Columbia wildfires, making distant hills barely visible and deleting mountains from view, but it didn't have too much effect on closer photography.
It was a good day for Hawks, seeing three on the way south and a few on the way home. I almost missed two of the hawks, as the hay bale was way out in a large field. At first, I thought there were three hawks together, but when I stopped to take a few photos, I realized that there were only two - one looked almost like two hawks close together, but then I saw that it had its wings mantled. I guess it wanted to make sure that the second hawk behind it couldn't steal any of the food from it.
A lone Common Nighthawk also helped make my day. For several years, I had longed to see one of these unusual birds and, finally last year (2017), I managed to find four of them. That time was almost two months earlier than my recent find, so I wasn't expecting to see any in late August. I would still love to find one lying on a wooden railing rather than a metal railing. Last year, I got a photo of one on a fence post, but the angle was not the greatest. These birds are 9½ inches from the tip of bill to the tip of tail.
A Horned Lark, a Vesper Sparrow, a Mourning Dove, and a Western Meadowlark gave me the chance for a photo or two and, to my delight, a hawk I spotted way in the distance did turn out to be a Ferruginous Hawk. A happy sighting, as they tend to be few and far between."
People told me this photo was trippy xD Is that a pun because it shows some stairs?
I've been out of action; our computer got infected with malware and had to be cleaned. But I'm back and better than ever!