Dec 25, 2011
Letters
From: SJROSS1R@aol.com [mailto:SJROSS1R@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 7:49 AM To: john@pretto.com Subject: Hello John How are you sir? My name is Stephen Pretto...
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Geez, I wrote this last year and saw a saw a blog by Michael Arrington that reminded me of it: United States Patent Proposal Temporal Social Network Pretto July 15, 2006...
Read MoreTechnology
Ocarina and the other virtual instruments on the iPhone will born an all iPhone band soon! You heard it here first!!
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Great Photography Site
Take a look here: www.pix-perfect.com
Wow, is blogging dead?
It appears that FB is killing blogging
Email from Stephen Pretto Rossillo
From: SJROSS1R@aol.com [mailto:SJROSS1R@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 7:49 AM
To: john@pretto.com
Subject: Hello John
How are you sir? My name is Stephen Pretto Rossillo.
My mother was Vitalina Pretto, daughter of Giovanni Pretto and Cecilia Povolo Pretto, who came from the village of Muschi, in the town of Recoaro Terme, Vicenza.
I have many cousins over there that I see every couple of years or so. Some of their names are:
- Roberto Pretto
- Luca Pretto
- Massimo Pretto
- Stefano Pretto
- Antonio Pretto
- Bruno Pretto
- Eugenio Pretto
…and of course many more.
~
I am from the NYC tri-state area — Ridgefield, Bergen county, NJ.
Talk to you soon.
-Steve
How far is the Horizon??
Jan 17, 2009

Horizon Geometry
“The square root of your height (or elevation) in feet times 1.2 equals the distance to your horizon in miles.
So, how high would Sarah Palin’s house have to be inorder to see Russia?:
Wasilla, Alaska, is 1130 km from Russia.
How high above the Earth’s surface do you have to be to see a point 1130 km away along the Earth’s surface? If we start plugging numbers into myDistance To Horizon Calculator, we see that the answer is 101425.88 meters. You have to go 101 km (63 miles!) above Wasilla before you can see Russia. You can knock 104 meters off of that if you like to account for Wasilla’s elevation above sea level.
| Height (meters) | Distance (km) | Height(feet) | Distance (miles) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 1 | 3.6 | 3.3 | 2.1 |
| 2 | 5.1 | 6.6 | 3.0 |
| 3 | 6.2 | 9.8 | 3.7 |
| 4 | 7.1 | 13.1 | 4.3 |
| 5 | 8.0 | 16.4 | 4.8 |
| 6 | 8.7 | 19.7 | 5.2 |
| 7 | 9.4 | 23.0 | 5.7 |
| 8 | 10.1 | 26.2 | 6.1 |
| 9 | 10.7 | 29.5 | 6.4 |
| 10 | 11.3 | 32.8 | 6.8 |
| 20 | 16.0 | 65.6 | 9.6 |
| 30 | 19.5 | 98.4 | 11.7 |
| 40 | 22.6 | 131.2 | 13.5 |
| 50 | 25.2 | 164.0 | 15.1 |
| 60 | 27.6 | 196.8 | 16.6 |
| 70 | 29.9 | 229.6 | 17.9 |
| 80 | 31.9 | 262.4 | 19.2 |
| 90 | 33.9 | 295.2 | 20.3 |
| 100 | 35.7 | 328.0 | 21.4 |
| 1000 | 112.8 | 3280.0 | 67.7 |
| 2000 | 159.6 | 6560.0 | 95.7 |
| 5000 | 252.3 | 16,400.0 | 151.4 |
| 10,000 | 356.9 | 32,800.0 | 214.2 |
| 12,000 | 391.0 | 39,360.0 | 234.6 |
| 100,000 | 1,132.7 | 328,000.0 | 679.6 |
| 500,000 | 2,572.0 | 1,640,000.0 | 1543.2 |
| 1,000,000,000 | 1,006,344.9 | 3,280,000,000.0 | 603,806.9 |
Windows 7 Build 7000 Install on older laptop
Jan 3, 2009

Windows 7 Ultimate Installation log
1. Burn copy of Window 7 Build 7000 ISO on Mac “just in case.”
2. Backup data files on Dell Inspiron laptop (Window Vista Capable) 1Gig Ram 1.87G Duo 140GHDD
3. Put Windows Disc in Machine and boot from CD
a. Select Upgrade Path
i. “Cannot Upgrade from Window XP. Can only upgrade from Windows Vista SP1”
b. Reboot machine from XP partition
c. Boot from Windows 7 Disc
i. “Do you wish to check for updates prior to installing – YES
1. This check took about 4 minutes to check and didn’t give any response or dialog back.??? (hmmm, is MS checking on us?)
ii. Create New Partition
1. Windows created two partitions
a. A 200MB “boot” partition
b. The remainder as “primary” partition
iii. “Installing Windows
1. Copying files Fast about 30 sec
2. Expanding files About seven minutes
3. Installing Features just about 10 seconds
4. Installing Updates seconds
5. Completing Installation it completed this after the below reboot
iv. First reboot
v. Setup is updating registry settings
vi. Setup is starting services
vii. Second reboot
viii. Setup is preparing for first time us
ix. Setup is checking video performance
x. Setup prompt for Product Key
xi. Displays list of wireless access points
xii. Do you wish to create a home group?
1. Select Libaries
a. Pictures
b. Videos
c. Music
d. Documents
2. Remember this key
xiii. Windows if finalizing
xiv. Start desktop
4. Finished!!!!
Summary:
Deja Vu: I remember installing Vista in the Fall of 2005 and having a “bear” of a time getting things to work. In comparison, I installed Windows 7 on an older Dell Inspiron (1.87Ghz Duo) and everythig including aero is working great. I haven’t found anything so far that is NOT working. I’ll keep you posted.
Overall: pretty darn good. Microsoft eventually gets things right.


