Lost - The Beginning Of The End

More info, more questions. That can only mean one thing, Lost is back. Check out the new season 4 screen caps and commentary over on www.berryjooks.com.

You've gotta check out...

the latest Bill Simmons piece: Sox win Most Valuable Team award. It sums up the 2007 Sox very nicely and I love his description of Papelbon at the end.

Simmons can be a very polarizing figure, people either love him or hate him. I enjoy his humor and his love of Boston sports, but what really strikes a chord with me is his relationship with his dad. My own dad is a rabid and lifelong Sox, Pats and BC fan and is enjoying his golden years in sunny Florida. I go down and visit him during spring training and he spends his summers up here with us, so we get to enjoy the Sox together for most of the season. The rest of the time we watch together over the phone and this post season has been no exception.

We had a very similar conversation on Sunday night and came to the same conclusion as the Simmons' men, the whole team could get the MVP. It was almost impossible to single anyone out of the team effort. We also would never have discussed the subject pre-final out back in '04. This one was waaaaay different.

The Sox seem to have turned that same corner that the Pats turned a few years back. You don't worry because you know they'll find a way to pull it out. That's because like the Pats, the current Red Sox are a team, first and foremost, and that's the key to success.

Safe Computing

I'm going to give you some information today that may save you a lot of time and aggravation. First thing I want to talk about is targeted ads. Have you ever noticed that sometimes websites seem to be able to read your mind? You go to Autofinder or the Ford website and for the next couple of weeks every site you go to is showing you ads for cars and trucks. Thats because sites put tracking cookies on your hard drive.

Targeted ads cue on your cookies and from the sites you redirect from, among other things. Most websites use tools to collect your info. All you need is to be on them for a second and they have a ton of info about you. They map your location and system info to the stories and the ads you click on so they can use it to adjust what they present. It also tells them how the user found the site, whether searching Google or redirecting from another page's link.

Not all of them collect personal info like IP address, computer names, etc. but some sites do. It's a good reason not to use your name when you are configuring your computer i.e. "Frothington family computer". You should also make it a practice to clean your cache. Get rid of the cookies, offline internet pages and mru lists.

The quickest way is to open Internet Explorer, go to Tools (Top left of the IE window next to Favorites), scroll down to Internet Options at the bottom of the drop down list. This will bring up a window of IE options and on the first tab or page (General) you will see Delete Cookies, Delete files, and Settings. Click on both Cookies and Files. When you hit the delete files button, be sure to select the offline content checkbox. Piece of cake, but it can be even easier...

If we're talking about your home machine, you should install Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. The personal version is free and it's the best tool out there. It not only roots out spyware but also blows away all your cookies. There are some upgraded versions that have more functionality like real time (constant) scans and a version for buisness computers, but the free one is fine for home use. Update it and run it weekly. Please note that Ad-Aware is not a replacement for Norton/Symantec anti virus. You need them both.

Second thing I'm going to talk about is music downloading and P2P (peer to peer) file sharing in general. Don't do it. There is no such thing as a free lunch, or free music. What you are doing is opening up your hard drive so that any unscrupulous person can put anything they want on it. Think spyware or malware. I see a steady stream of people whos PC's are virtually unusable because they are so polluted. The crap comes from music downloading, surfing porn, or both. You need to stick to trusted sites like iTunes or Amazon. If you're concerned about DRM's and cost, you should read my article on DRM free downloads on berryjooks.com. You'll find it on the berry's shuffle page.

OK, I've rambled enough for tonight. The Sox start back up tomorrow night and I need my beauty rest.

Sox club Tribe 12-2 and it's down to game 7

Schilling was good for 7, Drew came through, Youk used his head, Ellsbury was inspiring and Gagne was lights out. How can you not love these guys?

The game 6 win sets up a Sunday to remember in Boston. The undefeated Pats in the afternoon and then a winner takes all nightcap at Fenway. The new millenium has been very, very good to us.

Go Pats! Go Sox!

Sox win 7-1 and it's back to Boston!

How about those Red Sox, is Josh Beckett the man or what?

Youk and Pedroia are hitting again and we even saw a brief glimpse of Jacoby Ellsbury filling in for Manny in left. That gives me hope that he may play for Coco Crispy on Saturday.

I still think Manny got robbed on the wall ball, the yellow line shouldn't extend over the wall, but that being said he should have been running regardless.

Well, it's back to Fenway for a Schilling Carmona matchup and my Dad can come down off the roof for a couple more days. Thank God the next 2 are weekend games, I've gotta get some sleep!

berry's new blog

Hi, you've found berry's new blog. I've got a website @ www.berryjooks.com with technology reviews and how-to's along with music and sports news but I thought it would be fun to ramble a bit on here.

This space is where I'm going to vent and pontificate and perhaps even entice you over to my site for a closer look at what I'm up to. My real passion is for building large scale voice and data networks but I love all things electronic. I'm also a real nut job for the Patriots, the Red Sox and ABC's Lost. Quite the strange brew... and speaking of strange brew, Clapton has a new autobiography and a new compilation CD out. The book is getting great reviews and the CD is on my gottagetit list as most of my Cream collection is still on vinyl (yup, I'm that old).

As you can see I'm already all over the place, but that's exactly why I wanted to start this blog. I try to keep to the subject on my website, this place I can be a little more free form.

Well, that's it for now, but I'll leave you with these thoughts:

The Sox can win 3 playoff games in a row and have done it as recently as 2004. You've just gotta believe.

The Pats will continue to crush all opponents and finish every game with, as Bill Simmons so succinctly put it in his last column, the eff you touchdown.

Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest. Mark Twain