GM Rigging Truck Emissions?

General Motors Accused of Rigging Diesel Pickup Truck Emissions

A class-action suit accuses 2011-2016 Chevy and GMC pickups of causing environmental damage potentially exceeding VW's cheating TDIs.

Chevrolet

By David Muller

A class-action lawsuit accuses General Motors of rigging emission-control systems on 2011–2016 Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD pickups with GM's Duramax turbo-diesel 6.6-liter V-8 engine. If the allegations are proved true, the environmental damage from these 705,000 trucks, which the lawsuit said emit two to five times the legal limit of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in typical driving conditions, could easily exceed that of Volkswagen's emission-test-cheating TDI engines.

The complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, cites tailpipe emissions for nitrogen oxides (NOx) with these turbo-diesel 6.6-liter V-8 engines that are well beyond the legal limits. The document also frequently mentions Volkswagen and suggests that, to be brought within compliance, these GM trucks are likely to need modifications that could hinder performance as well as fuel economy.The suit claims that GM used at least three defeat-device tricks in these trucks. The automaker is alleged to have programmed the emissions software to relax or "derate" its emission controls after five to eight minutes of steady highway driving—a use case that isn't part of an emission test cycle. Such behavior would also likely extend the interval for adding urea-based diesel emissions fluid (DEF), which serves to reduce NOx in the exhaust stream. With second and third defeat-device software hoops, GM also reduced emission controls below an ambient temperature of 68 degrees or above 86 degrees—the specified range in which the EPA emissions test cycle must be run.

It's important to note that, so far, these are consumer statements. There's not yet any accusation from regulators or any federal investigation announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

The suit names both GM and the German supplier Bosch, with Bosch called "an active and knowing participant in the scheme to evade U.S. emissions requirements."

Cheating or Cleverness?

"A defeat device, as defined by the EPA, is any apparatus that unduly reduces the effectiveness of emissions control systems under conditions a vehicle may reasonably be expected to experience," the complaint notes.

At the center of the continued woes for automakers and diesel-emission claims is a disconnect. While emission regulations might be based on legal limits, vehicle compliance is based around measurements during closely defined driving cycles. The EU is in the process of adopting new Real Driving Emission (RDE) test procedures that would help better align legal limits with tailpipe output. One study, published in Nature this month, said that NOx emissions of U.S. Tier 2 light-diesel vehicles—including but not limited to VW vehicles with defeat devices—are estimated to be about five times actual limits.

The firm that filed this suit on behalf of consumers, Hagens Berman, has a full roster of other current automotive-litigation cases, including active lawsuits regarding the Chevrolet Cruze diesel and the Dodge Ram 1500 EcoDiesel and Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's also the firm behind the massive consumer settlement regarding Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche diesels.

GM released a statement flatly denying the claims in the lawsuit, saying they "are baseless, and we will vigorously defend ourselves. The Duramax Diesel Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra comply with all U.S. EPA and CARB emissions regulations."The GM case joins other allegations that have been active for some time, including an ongoing federal investigation of Mercedes-Benz diesels and FCA's effort to make good with EPA and CARB and current status as the subject of a U.S. civil suit,While the future and merit of accusations toward GM are uncertain at this point, it's increasingly clear that the VW scandal has cast every automaker's diesel engines in a new and unflattering light, and it's equally clear that regulators and law firms now smell blood—or is that diesel fuel?—in the water.

Todays HaHa

Disable and Remove OneDrive

How to Disable OneDrive and Remove It From File Explorer on Windows 10

By Chris Hoffman


Windows 10 includes OneDrive, but if you’d rather not see it, there are several ways to disable OneDrive and remove it from File Explorer on Windows 10.

Home Users: Uninstall OneDrive Normally

Starting in Windows 10’s Creators Update, you can now easily uninstall OneDrive like you would any other desktop program. Only Windows 10 Home users should do this. If you’re using Windows 10 Professional, Enterprise, or Education, skip this step and use the below Group Policy Editor method instead.

Head to either Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a Program or Settings > Apps > Apps & features. You’ll see a “Microsoft OneDrive” program appear in the list of installed software. Click it and click the “Uninstall” button.



Windows will immediately uninstall OneDrive, and the OneDrive icon will disappear from the notification area.

(If you ever want to reinstall OneDrive in the future, you’ll need to run the OneDrive installer buried in the Windows system folder. Just head to the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ folder on a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or the C:\Windows\System32 folder on a 32-bit version of Windows 10. Double-click the “OneDriveSetup.exe” file here and Windows will reinstall OneDrive.)

There’s one problem with uninstalling OneDrive this way: The empty OneDrive folder will still appear in File Explorer’s sidebar. If you’re fine with that, you can stop now. OneDrive has been removed and is no longer doing anything. However, if the empty OneDrive folder bothers you, you’ll need to use the below tricks.

Home Users: Remove the OneDrive Folder From File Explorer by Editing the Registry

If you have Windows 10 Home, you will have to edit the Windows Registry to remove the OneDrive folder from the File Explorer’s left sidebar. You can also do it this way on Windows Pro or Enterprise, but the Group Policy Editor method is a better solution for cleanly disabling OneDrive.

Standard warning: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing it can render your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn’t have any problems. That said, if you’ve never worked with it before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you get started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

To get started, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit”. Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC.



In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key. In the Creators Update, you can also just copy and paste this address into the Registry Editor’s address bar.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}\

Double-click the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree option in the right pane. Set it to 0and click “OK”.



If you’re using a 64-bit version of Windows 10, you will also need to navigate to the following key in the left sidebar.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6\

Double-click the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree option in the right pane. Set it to 0and click “OK”.



The OneDrive folder will vanish from the File Explorer’s sidebar immediately. If it doesn’t, try rebooting your computer.

Download Our One-Click Registry Hack


If you don’t feel like diving into the Registry yourself, we’ve created downloadable registry hacks you can use. One hack removes the OneDrive folder from File Explorer, while another hack restores it. We’ve included versions for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10. Double-click the one you want to use, click through the prompts, and then restart your computer.

Download Remove OneDrive From File Explorer Hacks


To check whether you’re using a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 10, head to Settings > System > About. Look at “System type” and see whether it says you’re using a “64-bit operating system” or “32-bit operating system.”

These hacks just change the same settings we changed above. Running the “Hide OneDrive From File Explorer” hack sets the value to 0, while running the “Restore OneDrive to File Explorer” hack sets the value back to 1. And if you enjoy fiddling with the Registry, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to make your own Registry hacks.

Pro and Enterprise Users: Disable OneDrive with the Local Group Policy Editor

If you’re using Windows 10 Professional, Enterprise, or Education, the easiest way to disable and hide OneDrive is by using the Local Group Policy Editor. It’s a pretty powerful tool, so if you’ve never used it before, it’s worth taking some time to learn what it can do. Also, if you’re on a company network, do everyone a favor and check with your admin first. If your work computer is part of a domain, it’s also likely that it’s part of a domain group policy that will supersede the local group policy, anyway.

In Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, hit Start, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.



In the Local Group Policy editor’s left pane, drill down to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive. Double-click the “Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage” policy setting in the right pane, set it to “Enabled,” and click “OK.”

This completely disables access to OneDrive. OneDrive will be hidden from File Explorer and users won’t be allowed to launch it. You won’t be able to access OneDrive at all, not even from within Windows Store apps or use the camera roll upload feature.



You shouldn’t uninstall OneDrive from the Control Panel or Settings application if you use this method. If you do, you’ll continue to see an empty OneDrive folder in File Explorer. If you see an empty OneDrive folder in File Explorer after changing this group policy setting, you’ll need to reinstall OneDrive from the Windows system folder. Once you do, the empty OneDrive folder will vanish from File Explorer.

To undo this change, just head back to here and change the policy to “Not Configured” instead of “Enabled.”

There doesn’t seem to be an associated registry setting you can modify to get the same effect as the group policy setting on Windows 10. The “DisableFileSync” and “DisableFileSyncNGSC” registry settings that worked on Windows 8.1 no longer works on Windows 10.

If any local copies of your OneDrive files have synced to your PC, you may want to delete them to free up space. Navigate to the C:\Users\NAME\OneDrive folder, which contains your user’s downloaded OneDrive files. These won’t be automatically deleted when you unlink your account and stop syncing. Deleting them won’t delete them from OneDrive if your account is unlinked from OneDrive—they’ll just be deleted from your local device.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy an SSD?

Is Now a Good Time to Buy an SSD?

By Michael Crider


Solid state drives are the future! Actually, they’re the present. While SSDs were a luxury for computer buyers a few years ago, now they’re more or less standard unless you’re going super-cheap or storing multiple terabytes of data, where conventional hard drives still rule. But if you’re looking to update to a super-speedy flash storage drive, is right now a good time?

Short answer: No, unless you can find a really good sale. Despite an increase in industrial production, consumer-level SSDs have remained stagnant in price as of late, even going up in price for some models. With new and improved technology on the horizon, you’ll want to wait for a much better drive (or just a better deal on the older ones).

Prices Are Going Nowhere Fast

We’ve been waiting several years for a big, dramatic price drop in the SSD market that just hasn’t happened. Let’s use the popular CamelCamelCamel price tracker to look at Amazon’s prices for a few popular consumer models. First up, a SanDisk 240GB SSD, a good starting point for a laptop upgrade:



You can see that despite a sizable drop of almost half its maximum price from 2014 to 2016, it’s now been steadily climbing in price for almost six months.

It’s pretty much the same story for this Samsung EVO 850 500GB model, an excellent starter for a gaming PC:



This 1TB consumer model from Crucial has occasional deep sales, but has held steady around $275 for almost all of 2017:



This 2TB Samsung 850 EVO PRO, an SSD for a serious gaming or production build, seems to plateau around $860:



M.2 SSD drives—long, compact alternatives plugged directly into the motherboard of a high-end laptop or desktop—don’t seem particularly fluid either. This Samsung model has only dropped a couple of dollars in half a year.



The consumer market for these drives at all levels isn’t improving as fast as it should. Unless you can find one on a significant sale, you’ll want to hold off on a purchase.

Manufacturers Can’t Keep Up With Demand

Analysts of the hardware market say that while both consumers and PC manufacturers are eager to fill their machines with speedy solid state drives, the OEM suppliers of the actual flash storage are hitting roadblocks in their efforts to expand. Prices are hovering around the same spots for the same drives, even going up slightly, as their various customers max out current production.



Add to that another crunch factor: a shift from 2D NAND to 3D NAND. This more complex manufacturing process allows for denser flash modules, letting M.2 and 2.5-inch SATA drives cram in double or triple the storage capacity in the same physical space. But transitioning production to these new methods is yet another strain on the supply, while demand only increases. Simple economics would seem to indicate that we’re at least a year away, maybe more, from any significant price shifts.

New Technology Might Hit The Market…But Not Soon

There’s a lot of industrial research going into the SSD market right now, a strategic move for manufacturers who see a huge potential for growth. The aforementioned 3D NAND transition means we’re seeing gigantic capacities in SSD drives, sometimes meeting even the best of hard drives, albeit at a huge price premium. And all that’s on top of general advancements in storage controllers and software components. We’re going to have to wait for the market to make prices on those more capacious drives drop, moving bigger capacities into the budget-focused models, which will take a while.



Intel is also working on what it calls Optane storage, a new proprietary type of flash memory with dramatic increases in read time. At the moment it’s only being made available as a cache drive and an industrial server-level storage solution, and even then, it’s limited to the latest Kaby Lake processors and motherboards for support right now. There’s no indication of when these drives will be available in more conventional storage formats.

The long and the short of it is, whether you want more capacity, faster speeds, or just a better deal, you should probably hold off on a purchase for at least the next few months.

Update Chromebook

How to Update Your Chromebook When Using a Mobile Network

By Cameron Summerson on May 25th, 2017


There are plenty of Chromebooks out there too choose from, and many users are opting to make one of those their primary (and only) laptop. While a handful of modern Chromebooks have mobile network connections built-in, they all make great mobile companions when tethered to smartphone for an always-on connection.


As it turns out, there is a small subset of consumers out there who choose to only use their Chromebooks while tethered to their phone’s mobile connection. While there don’t seem to be many drawbacks to doing this (aside from the obvious cell data usage), there’s one issue many users may not know about right out of the gate: Chromebooks won’t update while tethered to a mobile network.

You see, Google built Chrome OS to be smart about how it handles data connections, and it can actually tell the difference between being connected to a “real” Wi-Fi network and being tethered to a phone’s mobile hotspot. It does this with the intention of saving data while on a cellular network by disabling certain background features, like pulling OS update, which can be rather large in size. That’s smart…unless you rarely connect to Wi-Fi.

If you try to update Chrome OS while tethered to a cellular network, it will simply tell you that it’s up to date, leaving many users understandably confused. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to bypass this restriction so you can update your Chromebook when and how you see fit, regardless of what type of network you’re on. Here’s the skinny.

First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your Chromebook to open the crosh terminal. It’s a plain, slightly daunting black screen with minimal text and a cursor waiting for your input. Don’t get freaked out—this is going to be simple.



Type the following command exactly as you see it below, then hit enter:

update_over_cellular enable



A note will pop up letting you know that auto-updates are enabled any time the computer is powered on. Close the terminal.



Now, you should be able to jump into Settings > About Chrome OS > Check for updates and pull the latest version.



Note that this will use more of your cellular data, since Chrome will be updating more regularly! If, at any point, you want to disable this feature, just jump back into the terminal and type the following:

update_over_cellular disable

Done.

Banning All Laptops on Flights

Feds Consider Banning All Laptops on Flights to and From U.S.

"I might," said Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

Wikipedia
 
By Associated Press

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says he's considering banning laptops from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.

That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks.

The ban prevents travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board with them in their carry-on bags. All electronics bigger than a smartphone must be checked in.

Kelly was asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether he would expand the ban to cover laptops on all international flights into and out of the U.S.

His answer: "I might."

Movie Preview - Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Entertainment News

Hollywood's summer has flopped so far. Here comes 'Wonder Woman' to the rescue

Hollywood just suffered its worst Memorial Day weekend in 18 years, an eye-popping omen for what’s shaping up to be a bleak summer box office.

All signs suggest Warner Bros. is about to deliver a much-needed hit with Diana of Themyscira, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, whose long-awaited feature film gets its wide release this weekend.

But that probably won’t be enough to lift the movie business out if its funk, with summer ticket sales down 9% from the same period last year, according to ComScore. Last weekend’s debut of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” topped the charts with $77 million in the U.S. and Canada, down significantly from its 2011 predecessor “On Stranger Tides.” Paramount Pictures’ “Baywatch” wiped out with $27.6 million in five days, thanks to poor reviews.

“Summer box office is off to a terrible start,” Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz said in a Tuesday note to clients.

Individual movies are not the only problem, analysts say. This summer has been hampered by Hollywood’s over-reliance on tent poles and aging franchises, coupled with worsening attendance levels because of increased competition from at-home entertainment.

Why so glum?

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” started May off in a big way ($338 million to date), but it’s been mostly downhill since then. Warner Bros’ “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” was a $175-million flop, and Fox’s “Alien: Covenant" was a lackluster performer.

Memorial Day weekend ticket sales totaled $173 million in the United States and Canada, the lowest result for the four-day holiday frame since 1999, according to data from ComScore. The sluggish results are validating pre-summer predictions that the season would fall as much as 10% from last year.

American audiences seem to be growing weary of the preponderance of sequels and reboots of old franchises. The latest “Alien” movie opened with $36 million in ticket sales, nearly 30% lower than its predecessor “Prometheus.” The three-day opening of the latest “Pirates” was also down 30% from “On Stranger Tides,” though the movie is making up ground internationally.

Growing competition from buzzed-about prestige TV and streaming shows may also be siphoning attention from summer film fare, making it harder for would-be blockbusters to lure patrons.

“There are so many options for entertainment, and that certainly raises the bar,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “But the main thing is, you need movies that keep people coming back to the theaters.”

Smaller movies normally billed as “counter programming” are getting squeezed. Amy Schumer’s R-rated comedy “Snatched” did modest business, and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul” also failed to register at the box office. Not even the charisma of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could save the raunchy “Baywatch.”

It’s not all gloom-and-doom, though. The 2017 full-year box office is still running about 2% higher than last year because of earlier hits like “The Fate of the Furious,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Logan.”

Need a hero?

The summer blues are bringing even more attention to “Wonder Woman,” a $150-million production starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins. The film is expected to make history as the first female-fronted superhero blockbuster and a rare big-budget picture directed by a woman.


"Wonder Woman" director Patty Jenkins, left, with stars Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)

The 75-year-old character’s first stand-alone movie is likely to gross $80 million to $90 million in ticket sales Friday through Sunday, according to people who have reviewed pre-release audience surveys. The studio is trying to keep expectations in check, projecting $65 million to $70 million. In one promising sign, early reviews for the film have been overwhelmingly positive, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Online ticket seller Fandango last week named “Wonder Woman” as the summer’s most-anticipated movie.

“We need a reset, and ‘Wonder Woman’ gives us that reset,” Dergarabedian said.

Analysts caution that it will take more than one big hit to revive Hollywood from its summer doldrums. Industry observers are closely watching what happens to other big summer movies including “War for the Planet of the Apes” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

This weekend, 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation are hoping to attract family audiences with the new cartoon “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.” The PG-rated flick is expected to take in a modest $20 million domestically.

Shaped by Your Thoughts

Your Life Is Shaped by Your Thoughts

Your Life Is Shaped by Your Thoughts
By Rick Warren

“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2b NLT).

You cannot become all God created you to be until you understand the five factors that influence your identity. The first two are chemistry (how you are made) and connections (your relationships). You are a product of the way God created you and of the relationships in your life.

Your identity is also influenced by two other factors that we’ll examine today: your circumstances and your consciousness.

Circumstances are the things that happen to you and around you — none of which you control. You are a product of the trauma, troubles, suffering, shame, shock, pressures, and pain that have shaped your life. Perhaps even abuse has affected your identity. If you’ve ever had a series of failures or a catastrophe, it has left an indelible mark on who you are.

Consciousness is how you talk to yourself. And you know what? If you talked to your friends the way you talk to yourself, you probably wouldn’t be friends anymore, because our thoughts are filled with the lies we’ve heard from other people that we’ve let simmer and fester. When we repeat other people’s thoughts in our head, they go deeper and deeper into our consciousness, and they begin to shape our identity.

In Proverbs 4:23, the Bible says, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts” (GNT). Your thoughts don’t have to be true to hurt you; you just have to believe them. If you tell yourself your marriage won’t last, then it won’t. If you’re afraid you can’t do something, then you won’t. Your thoughts run your life!

Your circumstances may be out of your control, but God is in control of everything. Your thoughts shape who you are, but you can change the way you think. Your circumstances and consciousness have shaped who you are, but the way you respond to your circumstances and the thoughts you choose to believe will shape the rest of your life.

Pray for Your Prodigal

How to Pray for Your Prodigal

by Phil Waldrep

“I don’t know what to pray anymore! God knows my pain and I’ve pleaded for change, but nothing happens.”

The tears flowed as she buried her face in her hands. I sat quietly for a few moments as she sobbed, allowing my presence to be her comfort.

I was trying to hold my emotions in check. She wasn’t the first who spoke these words to me, nor would she be the last. Like thousands of others, she is the parent of a prodigal.

Her story doesn’t differ much from others I have heard. Her daughter enjoyed church as a child, stayed involved during her teen years and even joined a Bible study in college. Then, her daughter started dating a young man who slowly began influencing her daughter in a negative way.

Before long, this precious lady’s daughter quit college, starting drinking excessively, and moved into the apartment of her boyfriend. Her attitude changed from one of a loving, respectful young lady to an angry, rebellious woman.

“Sarah, may I share with you what I have learned about prodigals?” I asked as I gently took her hand.

“Please!” she replied as she continued to weep.

I shared some of my research into the thoughts and lives of rebellious people, especially those reared in church. Then I added, “I think I can help you with your praying. I discovered there are things that God often uses to bring prodigals to himself. Don’t you think this is what you should pray?”

“Of course,” Sarah replied.

Your story may be different from Sarah. For you, it might be your son, rather than a daughter. Their choices may resemble Sarah’s daughter or they are not like them at all.

One thing is clear: you have a prodigal and you want to know how you can pray.

First, ask God to remove the feelings of guilt you may have.

As parents of prodigals, we tend to blame ourselves for the sinfulness of our children. The guilt we feel, however, empowers the prodigal to manipulate us. We are unable to practice tough love and tell them “no.” Instead of helping our prodigal, our guilt causes us to try and “fix” them. Until the Holy Spirit reveals what you did wrong, you must assume that you did nothing wrong.

Second, ask God to bring friends into your prodigal’s life who love the Lord.

Sadly, most prodigals reject the comments of their parents regarding church and their Christian life. Friends, on the other hand, are different stories.

Friends who come into the life of your prodigal that have a heart for God can be the strongest positive influence in their lives. It is true that may not be how they pick their friends, but through an association a friendship begins to grow.

Think about the possibilities for these friendships. It could be a coworker, a neighbor or an individual on a committee with them in the community. Or it might be the coach on a sports team for the kids or a parent at the dance school. The list is endless.

Your prayer is to ask God to bring these people into your prodigal’s life. When he does, ask the Lord to give these new friends wisdom to talk with your prodigal.

Third, ask the Lord to help you avoid pushing your prodigal further away.

Parents often think they are encouraging their prodigal when they mention their sin or rebellious attitude. Time causes them to discover more damage than good is done.

Asking the Lord for wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent is vital in your relationship with your prodigal.

Finally, ask God to make you a willing vessel.

That is, lay your life before the Lord telling Him that you are willing to do what is necessary for Him to get the attention of your prodigal.

When I interviewed prodigals, I discovered it was often the sickness or death of a parent or grandparent that caused a prodigal to evaluate his or her life. Doesn’t that mean that you should be willing to suffer and die, if necessary, to get your prodigal to change?

The toughest prayer is asking the Lord to do whatever it takes to get to the heart of your prodigal. God may use something other than suffering. Our willingness, however, allows the Holy Spirit to control our actions. When He does, the Lord can work to bring your prodigal home!

Live Rightly

Live Rightly

By Touching Lives 

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Ephesians 6:1

 In parenting, the home is also a school and the professors are mom and dad. The first lesson in the school of life that every child must be taught is obedience. This instruction must start from the time a child is born.

Children are not bent towards obedience. They must be trained to obey. On the other hand, they do not have to be taught to disobey or throw a tantrum. Children don’t have to be taught to be selfish or to get angry. They are perfectly capable of doing both on their own from a very young age.

Proverbs 22:6 says, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” If parents don’t start up children in the way they should go, they will naturally go in a way they shouldn’t. Why is this? Why don’t children have to be taught to misbehave? Why is the natural urge towards wrong instead of right?

Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” As precious as newborn babies are, they are sinful. While they have not yet chosen sin, the sinful nature is there, lying dormant. When the time and conditions are right, this sleeping monster will rear its ugly head. As parents we have different phrases for this, like, “The Terrible Twos.” Whatever we call it, all of the sudden our precious angels look us straight in the eye and say, “No!” From that first defiant act, we must train our children to obey.

Notice in Ephesians 6:1 why children are to obey their parents…because this is right. It is the job of parents, early on, to teach children the difference between right and wrong, and to do what is right. There are three basic lessons that we need to teach our kids from the time they come out of the womb: 1) There is a difference between right and wrong; and God decides which is which; 2) You are to do right and not wrong; and 3) If you choose to do wrong you will suffer the consequences.

Wed Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

I am convinced that the single most important part of your life and mine is how we see God. Two sociologists from Baylor University surveyed almost 4000 adults in America and asked them about their views on God. They discovered that 9-out-of-10 Americans believe in God, but the way they picture God determines their attitudes on everything from economics to justice, social morality, war, natural disasters, science, politics and love.

Which raises a question, “How do you view God?” When I talk to people and I listen to people I find out there are all kinds of god’s out there that we believe in. Here are just a few. There is the “mean old man ” who is angry, not only hates sin, but doesn’t care for sinners and he is always trying to catch us doing something wrong so he can whip us or beat us and if he ever invites you to a barbeque be careful because you are the one that will be on the grill!

Then there is the “good ole boy.” He is my buddy. He is my homeboy. He is always cool and loves to just chill out and hang out. He is the “I hang out with” god.

Then some believe in the “bellhop.” God has only one job and only one concern and that is to give me what I want, when I want it and the way I want it. I am not here to serve Him; He is here to serve me. When things are right we are tight, but when things are not we are not.

Then there is the “indifferent hippie.” He sits in the cosmos somewhere lounging on a sofa of stars shrugging his shoulders not really caring what happens down here. He has made us all the way we are. So there is really no such thing as right or wrong. If it feels good to you do it. In fact, He is not just all that concerned about what is going on down here. He just looks at this world and says “Whatever.”

What is your picture of God? An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to her first graders and at the back of the classroom a little girl, who normally doesn’t pay a lot of attention was drawing like mad. For more than 20 minutes she sat with her arms curled around her paper totally absorbed in this picture she was drawing. The teacher found this fascinating. She walked over to the girl and said, “What are you drawing?” Without even looking up the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher said, “Nobody knows what God looks like.” The girl said, “They will when I am finished.”

In truth, there is only one picture of God that really matters and that is His picture. What you and I think of God should really be based on what God thinks of God. This message is based on the most amazing thought about God I believe you can ever have and that thought is this: The God who created the universe wants to have a personal, eternal relationship with you. There is one thing true about our relationship with God that is true about our relationship with each other and that is this – relationship is based on reality.

Fragmentation Isn’t Android’s Fault

Fragmentation Isn’t Android’s Fault, It’s the Manufacturers’

By Cameron Summerson


It’s 2017, and I still see people criticizing Android for “fragmentation”. This gives Android in general a bad name, and I want to make the facts clear: this isn’t Google or Android’s fault. It’s the fault of your manufacturer.

While this has been a talked about issue for some time, a recent piece from Boy Genius Report got me thinking about it—infuriatingly titled “No iPhone user can even imagine dealing with what Android users have to tolerate”. I want to set the record straight: this type of thinking isn’t just unfair to Android, it’s flat out wrong.

What Is Fragmentation?

Basically, when people talk about fragmentation, they’re referring to the spread of Android versions that are still running on devices “in the wild,” because the adoption rate of new version of Android is much slower than that of iOS. It makes sense, really—there are a handful of iPhones, but hundreds of different Android phones, from a variety of manufacturers, and they don’t all update to the latest version at the same time.


May 2017 Android Distribution numbers

So, when we talk about Android “fragmentation” as a downside compared to iOS, it suggests that there’s an issue with Android, software development, or the update schedule in general. Articles like the one from Boy Genius Report imply that the issue comes from Google, which isn’t the case. Ever since Google purchased Android, the company has been responsible for pushing updates to the platform. And while it was definitely hit and miss in its infancy, we’ve seen Google take a much more structured approach to OS updates for Android in recent years. In fact, it’s almost clockwork now.

But here we are, still acting like Android has an update issue, when that’s just not the case. The primary argument against Android when it comes to updates is the comparison to Apple and the iPhone. “But nearly 80 percent of iPhones are running the latest version of iOS!” I hear people say. But that’s not an argument at all—unless it’s done fairly. Allow me to explain.


iOS Distribution numbers as of Feb 20th 2017.

Comparing Apples to Apples

Basically, Apple produces the iPhone, as well as iOS. It sends updates directly to the iPhone. Apple is solely responsible for updating its own hardware using its own software. It doesn’t work the same way for Android. If you really want a fair comparison, it’s Google hardware/software versus Apple hardware/software. In other words, it’s Pixel/Nexus versus iPhone.

That’s the only real comparison that can be used fairly—it’s an apples to apples comparison, for lack of a better analogy. Google’s official stance on Nexus and Pixel updates is pretty straightforward: these phones get Android version updates for “at least 2 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store” and security updates “for at least 3 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store, or at least 18 months from when the Google Store last sold the device, whichever is longer.“ That’s straight from Google’s mouth.


Google Pixel update periods.

That means under the current rules, three generations of Nexus/Pixel devices are being supported by Google: the Nexus 6, 6P, and 5x, as well as the Pixel and Pixel XL. And yes, the Android ecosystem is bigger than that, but those devices are really just alternative options: Google has just as many phone options as Apple does, and they’re all kept up to date.

By contrast, Apple is actually less transparent with its update timelines and commitments. Five generations of Apple iPhones are running the latest software (iOS 10): iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, and 7 Plus. The writing is on the wall for the iPhone 5, but at the time of writing it’s still being supported so I’m listing it here and not trusting speculation.

When you break the numbers down and compare the release dates, that means the iPhone 5—which was release in September of 2012—has been actively supported for nearly five years. The Nexus 6, on the other hand, was release two years after the iPhone 5—November of 2014—and is the oldest model supported by Google.


Google Nexus update periods.

Of course, Apple also “waters down” OS updates on older hardware, so the actual level of support devices receive is arguable there—one might even say it’s slightly fragmented, but that’s a line I don’t think we want to cross here. At least with Google, it’s either full updates or security updates—nothing in between.

That said, in a direct comparison, Apple devices typically have longer support than Nexus or Pixel phones. But this isn’t an argument about who has the best or longest support. It’s about supposed “fragmentation.”

Now, that was a lot of information to load on you at once, and I promise it was for good reason. I needed to paint a clear picture of Google’s Android compared to iOS—that apples to apples thing we talked about earlier.

So, Who Causes “Fragmentation?”



If Google releases updates in such a timely fashion, why are so many recent phones running old versions of Android? Samsung, LG, Huawei, HTC, Motorola, and other manufacturers are the ones to blame for fragmentation, and they should be the ones held accountable.

Basically, when Google finishes a new version of Android, it get shipped off to chip manufacturers (Qualcomm, Samsung, etc.) so they can build drivers. From there, it goes to the OEMs (Samsung, HTC, LG, etc.) so they can add all of bells/whistles/fluff into the OS. Lastly, it has to hit carriers so they can approve the update. While many users like to blame carriers for update issues, that’s not where most of the hangup is—it starts with the manufacturers.

Because of Android’s open source nature, each manufacturer is allowed to download the source code and add its own features, skins, apps, and more. As a result, it takes most manufacturers much longer to build Android updates for its devices than it does Google. The reason it takes longer is twofold:

• Most manufacturers have a lot of code that has to be added to Android to bring in all these new features, and
• Each manufacturer has multiple devices to develop for.

When it comes to the latter, economics comes into play here: deciding which devices to continually support and how big of a team to dedicate to such a task takes planning. And it takes planning because it costs money. If a phone didn’t sell as well as expected, its support isn’t going to be that great, because there just isn’t as much justifiable money to dedicate.

For example, at some point, Samsung has to decide what sort of lifespan the S7 deserves to have—all while it was planning the S8, as well as continuing to develop for the older platforms like the S6. It’s a juggling act, and it takes a lot of time and planning.

But here’s the thing: Apple and Google have to do the same thing. And at this point, both have done an exemplary job of providing updates to several devices at the same time. The other Android manufacturers should take note—and this is the primary reason the whole fragmentation talk came to be in the first place. Apple simply makes most Android Manufacturers look bad.



To put that a little more clearly, there is no reason a giant like Samsung can’t do the same thing. If Apple and Google can both do it, there’s no reason Samsung can’t. In fact, Google allows its partners—companies like Samsung—early access to Android’s base code so they can actually start developing updates for the various line of phones months before this software is available to the public on Nexus or Pixel phones.

To take things a step further, Google recently announced “Project Treble“—a new effort to streamline the update process at the chip maker level. While it’s nice to see Google taking steps towards faster updates, this new program won’t really have much bearing on the manufacturers or the carriers—it only streamlines updates for the first step that we talked about earlier. Ars Technica actually has an excellent write-up on Treble, what it means, and why it only addresses a third of Android’s update woes.

But yeah, there are no excuses. Android itself isn’t fragmented—Samsung is fragmented. HTC is fragmented. LG is fragmented. Motorola is fragmented. But if you’re going to compare it to iOS, at least compare it fairly—Google’s “iPhones” get updates regularly and for a long time.

Android manufacturers are just lazy and don’t take it seriously enough that you purchased their device. If you work for your money, and I’m going to assume you do, and you choose to spend that money on a certain manufacturer’s smartphone, then they owe it to you to provide timely and consistent updates. Period.

But, at the same time, if you’re still complaining about how your Samsung phone isn’t on the latest version of Android, you should have known better. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me for seven years…I should have bought a Pixel. Vote with your wallet. And for the love of all that is holy, stop pretending like Android is inherently inferior to iOS because of fragmentation.

When it comes down to it, Android in its purest form is just like iOS. Much like iPhone users can choose the iPhone or iPhone Plus, Android users only have two real choices to avoid update issues: Pixel or Pixel XL. As much as Android users love choice, I really see this as somewhat of an illusion—the only choice you really have is whether or not to support the manufacturers that don’t support you.

Clear Your Google History

How to Clear Your Google Search History

By Michael Crider 

Google knows quite a lot about you based on your search history. That’s kind of the point of search, to learn about people and serve them relevant advertising. But fortunately, the company’s user-facing tools allow you to remove that knowledge at your leisure.

1. Open your browser and head to myactivity.google.com.
2. Click the menu in the upper left-hand corner of the page, and choose “Activity Controls” from the list.
3. Under Web & App Activity, click “Manage Activity.” Click on the three-dots menu next to any individual session to delete those items, or the three-dots menu at the top to delete your entire history.

History can be cleared in a total “clean slate” fashion, or individual entries can be deleted for those (ahem) delicate inquiries that you’d rather no one else know about. Here’s how to do both. (Note: You can also do some of this on Android, as well, if you aren’t near a computer.)

How to Delete Your Entire Search History (Plus Other Stuff)

Your history with Google Search, along with all the other Google services you use like Android, the Chrome Browser, and YouTube, is stored in your My Activity page. Go to myactivity.google.com and you can see more or less everything you’ve done that Google knows about. Don’t worry, you’re the only user who has access to this stuff—Google anonymizes the data as it uses it to serve ads and analyze trends.

To clear your history, click on the hamburger menu on the upper left-hand side of the myactivity.google.com page (that’s the three horizontal bars next to “Google”), then click “Activity Controls” in the side menu.

Under the first item, Web & App Activity, click “Manage Activity.” You’ll see all of the items you searched for, and if you use Android and Chrome with the account you’re signed into, all of the apps and websites you visited as well. They’re separated into “sessions,” grouped bits of activity based on time. It’s possible to delete these individually with the three-dot menus in the upper-right corner of each.

To delete absolutely everything here, click the three-dot menu in the top blue bar, then click “Delete activity by.”

From this page, you can delete all of your activity for all monitored searches, websites, and Android apps. Under “Delete by date,” select “All time.” You can leave the default “All products” selected, or choose only “Search” to delete just your Google search history.

How to Delete Your Activity for Individual Services

Follow the instructions above, arriving at the “Delete activity by” section. But before clicking the “Delete” button, open the final drop-down menu. Here you can delete your search and usage data for a staggering amount of Google services. It’s a bit hard to see at once on the web, so here’s the full list:

• Ads
• Android
• Assistant
• Books
• Chrome
• Developers
• Express
• Finance
• Google+
• Help
• Image Search
• Maps
• Maps Timeline
• News
• Play
• Play Music
• Search
• Shopping

Note that the itemized list isn’t exactly straightforward. For example, if you performed a Google Search for “Couches” in the browser, but then clicked on “Images” for image-based results, you’ve left separate histories in both the standard Google Search and Google Image Search. Some of Google’s services also don’t appear here, like YouTube (see below).

The date settings mentioned earlier can be used here, allowing users to select one or all services and delete by “Today,” “Yesterday,” “Last 7 days,” “Last 30 days,” “All time,” or a custom range of dates selected with the calendar tool.

When you’ve selected your date range and service, click “Delete” to clear out that particular history.

How to Delete Individual Search Items

If there’s just one thing you want to delete, leaving the rest of your Google history intact, head back to the Google My Activity page, myactivity.google.com.

If you know the precise date and time of the search or activity you want to clear, you can find it on the reverse timeline on this page. You may need to click the “X items” under a timed session to expand the view. The timeline scrolls infinitely; you can just keep going to the bottom of the page for more results.

To delete the full timed session, click the three-dot menu button at the top of the section, then “Delete.”  To delete only a single entry, click “details” under the single item, then once again choose the three-dot menu and “delete.”

If you don’t know the date of the item you want to get rid of, search for it using field at the top of the page. You can further narrow the results with the “Filter by date & product” option. Here you can select specific Google services and a date range to find whatever activity you want to delete. Once again, when you find it click the three-dot menu and then delete.

How to Delete Your Location History, YouTube History, and Voice Activity

A few Google services aren’t included in the full deletion tools above. These are:

• Location History
• Device Information (Android and Chrome OS contacts, calendars, technical data, and certain app usage)
• Voice & Audio History (“OK Google” searches and similar)
• YouTube Search History
• YouTube Watch History

To get to the deletion tools for these specific services, click the side-menu on myactivity.google.com again, then click “Activity Controls.” You’ll be taken back to the Google-wide management page, with a new card-style section for each service.

The history for each of them can be turned on or off by clicking the blue toggle underneath the header image. Click “Manage” and you’ll be taken to another page…which is unfortunately a different page for each service.

For Location History, you’re taken to the page below. Click the settings icon (the gear logo) in the bottom-right corner, then “Delete all Location History.” You can also pause your location history with this menu.

For the rest of the services on this list, the user interface is the same. Click “manage,” then on the next page click the three-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner. Click “Delete all” or “Delete activity by” depending on the service, which presents you with the same date range as the multi-service tool above.

Remember that Google uses tracking on Search and all its other services to inform your personal search results, among other things. So if you’re systematically clearing out all of the historical data from your Google account. Don’t be surprised if your search results change significantly for the affected account.

What Are the $GetCurrent and $SysReset Folders

What Are the $GetCurrent and $SysReset Folders, and Can You Delete Them?

By Chris Hoffman


Windows 10 automatically creates the $GetCurrent and $SysReset folders in your C:\ drive in certain situations. These folders can use gigabytes of space, but what to they do, and can you delete them?

These are hidden files, so you’ll have to show hidden files in File Explorer to see them.

What Is $GetCurrent?

The $GetCurrent directory is created during the upgrade process. It contains log files about that last Windows upgrade process and may also contain the installation files for that update. On our system, the $GetCurrent folder took up 3.38 gigabytes after upgrading to the Creators Update. This is because the folder contains leftover Windows Update installation files.

Assuming you don’t need to review the log files stored here and you’ve finished installing the latest Windows Update, this folder is safe to remove. In theory, Windows should automatically delete these files itself after 30 days at most. In practice, we noticed that this folder was still lying around more than a month after upgrading to the Creators Update, so we had to delete it ourselves.



What Is $SysReset?

The $SysReset folder is created when a Refresh or Reset operation fails. It contains a log folder that may be useful to system administrators experiencing a problem with refreshing or resetting a PC.

On our system, the folder was very small—less than a megabyte at 636 KB in size.

Assuming you aren’t having any problems with the Refresh or Reset features and you don’t need to review the logs here, this folder is safe to remove.

Can You Delete Them, and How?

The Windows Disk Cleanup tool doesn’t automatically delete these folders. However, it does delete the $WINDOWS.~BT and ~WINDOWS.~WS folders you may also see in your C: drive.

To get rid of these folders, you can just delete them the old fashioned way. Select the folders in File Explorer, right-click them, and select “Delete”. File Explorer will prompt you to provide administrator permission to delete them, and you can then empty your Recycle Bin to free up the space they take on your device.

Deleting these folders won’t cause any problems if you don’t need to review the log files they contain and if you aren’t in the middle of installing a new update to Windows. Even if Windows does need the files to install an update, it will just download them again.