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When I was in school, I had to learn all kinds of useless knowledge. I had an English teacher who insisted we work through the Reader's Digest "Increase Your Word Power" book, and one of the words I had to learn to spell was sphygmomanometer (Wiki link provided for your learning pleasure if you?re not familiar with it). As a parent, I felt duly compelled to pass some of this useless information on to my (at the time) young male offspring. I mean really ? you must admit, it?s pretty funny to see little tiny kids spout out big words. Besides, if I had to have all these useless things floating around in my head then I was going share them with someone (even if he was too little to care.)

In addition to making him lean how to say the word, I also made him learn the definition. Now I know, he probably didn?t really understand, but still, I made the effort to make it more than just a little-kid-sounds-cute-saying-big-stuff-they-don?t-understand thing. I taught him how to say sphygmomanometer, and he could spit it out when he was at the pediatrician?s office. He also knew the fun fill in the blank: The sum of the square of the sides of a right triangle equals the square of the ______. Oh come now! You know it right? I know some of you do. (For those of you who are geometrically challenged ? the answer would be hypotenuse.) He could then follow it up by answering the question - And that?s called the?? (Pythagorean theorem is the correct answer to that one.)

But the topper for me was always the really big one. It?s the longest word in the English language (so I?m told by my male offspring). Not only could he spout it out but it was followed instantly by ?and that means the separation between church and state and that means the government shouldn?t be involved in the church and the church shouldn?t be involved in the government.? And the little bugger managed to say the entire thing, big word from the title included, without stopping for a breath. (Yes ? he gets that fro me. Seems we a knack for managing the flow of air fro our lungs when necessary to say big long impressive things or when we're on a roll and stopping for air would be simply a waste of valuable time or perhaps we hit 40 and we're afraid we'll forget what we were saying if we don't get it out all at one time. Now where was I?...)

So the other day when he insisted I stop what I was doing to watch a commercial on TV, although I was less than enthusiastic about doing do, I found myself with a big grin on my face. Take a peek at this:

I?ve added it to my funny videos so whenever I need a good smile I can take a gander at this wee little guy! And for the record ? male offspring was not much older than this when he learned to say it. Ah the good old days - when they said what you wanted on cue. Not so anymore I'm afraid. I just don't know where he got his stubborn and opinionated ways! (NO...NO...NO! No comments from the peanut gallery!! I know what you're thinking and surely he didn't inherit that from me.)

Java software (from Sun Microsystems) lets you to run applications called "applets" written in the Java programming language. Applets are "small programs" often designed to run inside a web browser to perform specific tasks. Applets are small files, work with many different platforms, and cannot be used to access a user's hard drive. For this reason, they are very secure and ideal for use on the internet.

Applets are often used in online games, chat programs, interactive tools used for calculations and viewing images such as animated graphics or 3D images (such as streaming webcams.) On their own, applets are somewhat useless. They require interaction with a host (website or program) so they may perform their given task. (There are other specific types of applets besides Java, but their basic function is the same.) Together with their "host" these applets run as a Java application.

In order to use these applications you need to have Java installed on your computer. Unless you're building your own machine, it's likely Java came pre-installed. However, depending on how you've set your preferences for updates, it can get out of date. Java, like any other program, has routine updates to fix problems and enhance it's functionality. If your Java is severely out of date, you may experience problems running Java applications, or in some instances the applets may not work at all.

Some Java applets open and run in a pop-up window. If you try to access a Java site and all you get is a blank white screen, it's likely the application is being blocked due to your pop-up blocker settings. There are lots of places pop-up blockers hide. If you want to turn pop-up blockers off, check your settings in your internet properties and any and all extra toolbars you may have installed. Firefox has it's own pop-up blocker so if you use it as your browser be sure to check it as well. Even one pop-up blocker on can cause this to happen. Some people do prefer to block pop-ups (as they can be annoying on other sites.) A workaround to this is simply holding down the Shift+Control keys when you click the link to the Java application, this bypasses your pop-up blockers.

If you find yourself with a little free time, and an interest in learning more about Java, how it's used or to find webcams, games downloads etc. check out Java.com.

18 Feb 2008 Update: My good friend Eagle_Kiwi begs to differ on the fact Java comes pre-installed on most machines. I personally have had it pre-installed on the last 3 machines I purchased, but he's NOT experienced the same thing. If you go to Control Panel you can look for the Java coffee cup symbol which will just be labeled "Java" and see if you have it. If not, you can download it from Filehippo.

Gifts for different occasions can add up to lots of dollars spent. Gift baskets you put together yourself are a fantastic cost cutting alternative. Recipients are likely to enjoy them, as the contents were selected specifically for them. Commercial gift baskets can cost quite a bit, but a homemade frugal version is easy to do.

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