On the last day of August, the last Summer Concert Series performance for 2010 took place at the Assembly of God Church. The featured performers were the LaPlants. The show featured Lloyd LaPlant with his sons Bill and Don, and Don's daughter Emily and son Jed. Filled with music and laughs, this entertaining program was recorded by ICTV staff and can be seen on ICTV's public access channel beginning Friday, September 3 at 5:30pm. It is also scheduled to play on Sunday, September 5 at 2:00pm; Wednesday, September 8 at 5:30pm; and Friday, September 10 at 2:00pm. Don't miss this great concert!

I know September 21, 2010 is the last official day of summer but once we pass the Labor Day holiday it feels like summer is over. Our ICTV calendar is less colorful this month. No more summer concerts, parades, or festivals to videotape. School age kids definitely know summer is over because most of them start back to school on Tuesday, September 7. The Bovey Farmer’s Day parade takes place every year on Labor Day. This year the parade begins at 10:30 am. This will also be the last event taped by our summer intern. So what I’m trying to say is get out and enjoy the last big weekend of the summer because the fall season is right around the corner.

August is Cataract Awareness Month. A cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light. Early in the development of age-related cataract the power of the lens may be increased, causing near-sightedness (myopia), and the gradual yellowing and opacification of the lens may reduce the perception of blue colors. Cataracts typically progress slowly to cause vision loss and are potentially blinding if untreated. The condition usually affects both the eyes, but almost always one eye is affected earlier than the other. A senile cataract, occurring in the elderly, is characterized by an initial opacity in the lens, subsequent swelling of the lens and final shrinkage with complete loss of transparency. Moreover, with time the cataract cortex liquefies to form a milky white fluid in a Morgagnian cataract, which can cause severe inflammation if the lens capsule ruptures and leaks. Untreated, the cataract can cause phacomorphic glaucoma. Very advanced cataracts with weak zonules are liable to dislocation anteriorly or posteriorly. Such spontaneous posterior dislocations in ancient times were regarded as a blessing from the heavens, because some perception of light was restored in the patients with cataracts.  read more »

On Tuesday, August 24, the Grand Rapids United Methodist Church was filled with people. They were gathered to hear Cheri Troumbly and Friends perform various show tunes. The performance featured the talents of Betsy Schroeder, John Schroeder, Christian Londos, Marie Nitke, Andy Mundt, Jim Mason and of course Cheri Troumbly. This performance was a part of the Summer Concert Series, which will have it's final show on August 31 at noon at the Assemblies of God Church. That show will feature the LaPlants and Friends. These great concerts can be seen on ICTV's public access channel. Be sure to watch our schedule for showtimes.

TipsI answered a question recently from someone who was using WEP (the so-called "Wired Equivalent Privacy") encryption on their wireless network. They were considering changing to WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). The real answer is that they need to change to the second generation of WPA — WPA2.

The biggest question in their mind was whether they'd have to change the wireless passphrases on all their computers (quick answer: yes).

WPA replaced WEP as the choice for encryption. Then, it fell prey to cracking techniques, too.

Even more worrisome, increased computing power made the tools available to anyone who really wanted to crack a neighbor's network. Now, we don't have to worry about a bad guy, but also the neighbor's kid...

WPA2 subsequently replaced WPA, and is still the best we've got for home use.

If you're running Windows 7 or Windows XP with Service Pack 3, you've got WPA2 drivers already installed in Windows. You just have to select it on your router and in Windows.

My Computer System refers to WPA Enterprise and WPA Personal PSK (pre-shared key). It does not make reference to WPA2, although that's what it's using — it has to be WPA2, since that's what my router is doing.  read more »