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I’m Jim Barr, and jimstips.com is one of my little corners of the Internet, my voice for all things tech. I love riding on the bleeding edge of technology, and I love exploring new gadgets, services, Web sites, programs, and anything interesting! Here you will find all sorts of tips and information about those things that interest me.
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Faster, faster, faster!?!
I had the opportunity to attend the Order of the Temple work at another local lodge, and I must say that I was very impressed. There were about 25 people with three candidates, and the work was done very well. One of the older men had been doing his part for many years, and he had everything memorized–very impressive. It was nice to see the work done again since I went through it. Every time…
York Rite Degree Work – Some ponderings
The local York Rite membership is a very dedicated group of Masons, but like so many Masonic groups, it tends to be somewhat “older-leaning” in its membership. The group that with which I went through the degree work is a bit younger than most of the membership (though I don’t know if my age of 42 constitutes being young or old!) Anyway, we all expressed a desire to join, the members were very excited that…
Seeking More Light – Part Two
After completing the Royal Arch and Cryptic Masonry degrees, the final steps on the path of the York Rite are the “Chivalric Orders”. These Degrees (called Orders in this group) include the the “Illustrious Order of the Red Cross” which is an Order that emphasizes the lesson of truth; the “Order of Malta” which emphasizes the lesson of faith; and the “Order of the Temple” (also called Order of the Knights Templar) which emphasizes the…
Seeking More Light – Part One
Since my journey in Freemasonry began, I have always been interested in Freemasonry’s Appendant Bodies, specifically the York Rite. My father was a Master Mason, went through the Scottish Rite, and eventually became a Shriner. (In his day, it was a requirement that to become a Shriner, you had to go through either the Scottish Rite or the York Rite. This requirement has since been lifted.) After some reading and research about the Scottish and…
The York Rite Background
The York Rite, like the Scottish, is one of Freemasonry’s Appendant Bodies which is open to a Master Mason to join to further his knowledge of Freemasonry. While Freemasonry officially culminates with the third degree of the Blue Lodge, the nine additional degrees of the the York Rite are considered to expand upon and complete the Blue Lodge degrees. The York Rite is broken down into three “bodies”, each governing and controlling the degree work…
Google Chrome Tip #6: Where’s the Status bar?
Google has really gone to great lengths to try to increase the viewing space in its Google Chrome browser such as moving the tabs into the window’s Title bar, etc. One thing that appears to be missing, though, is the Status bar at the bottom. So how do you see what URL you are hovering over? How do you know what URL is loading? The status bar is there on the lower right of the…
Google Chrome Tip #5: How to see Browsing History
Unlike in Firefox and Internet Explorer, Google Chrome has no dropdown integrated in the back and forward buttons, so how do you view your recent browsing history? Simple! Just click and hold either button, and if there is history, a dropdown menu will appear. You can alternately right-click on either arrow with the same effect. To view your full browsing history, select the “Show full history” selection from the same menu, select “History” from the…
Google Chrome Tip #4: about:stuff
Enter about:memory into the Omni bar (the address bar) and Google Chrome will display a nice summary of your memory useage and all Google Chrome-related processes. As a bonus, the summary section also displays the memory usage information for all other open browsers giving you a nice comparison! Here is a list of other “about:” commands that provide interesting information and do some interesting things: about:cache about:crash about:dns about:hang about:histograms about:internets about:memory about:network about:plugins about:stats…