Rusted Sky

One Business Lunch.

Afterward, an insurance pitch...

J.

Who needs a bayonette when you can have something a bit more... potent?

Admittedly it'd be a bit messier...

J.

The 11 lamest blogs on the Internet - PC World- msnbc.com

Well, there's always next year. (Grin)

J.

Videogames come and go. Pong's LONG gone, yet it showed that people were so excited about playing with electrons that they'd shove quarters into machinery so they could move a potentiometer and control a paddle on the screen. Since then there's been so many videogames made that it would be hard to count them all - but all had in common that electrons were manipulated, and people ended up happier and less burdened with the root of all evil.

And every so often there was something that flipped the world of videogames on its head. You had the Playstations, the Gamecubes, the early XBoxes, then Playstation 3, Xbox360, and the Wii... each introduced better graphics, better games, a better playing experience. The XBox I got last Christmas was head and shoulders above any videogame system I'd seen before - even through the old RF converter we were using. (Old? A good 8 years or more.)

Then toss in the clarity of an LCD or plasma screen, and things got interesting. The screen itself was bigger than the CRT- so more detail was available. Direct connection into the TV, bypassing the old RF converter, improved the picture considerably. But then we connected the HDMI cable...

Imagine, if you will, growing up nearsighted. Oh, not terribly so - just enough so everything beyond arm's reach was slightly out of focus, had a slight fuzziness to it. Say about 20-40 vision - good enough to drive, but it's a bit hard to make out street signs and the like.

Then you go to an optometrist, and get corrected to 20-15. Suddenly everything in your vision is clear, and a level of sharpness is attained where you can see branches and leaves on trees so far away that before all you could see before was a blob. Where you could read posters and billboards that were blurry before, and fine details leapt out at you.

That's what it's like using the XBox with an hdmi feed to a large LCD TV. Man, talk about an early Christmas present - there's not much on my list for THIS year!

J.

Seems like they're everywhere, those little double-green lines under a word on a web page, and if your cursor goes across it, up pops a box with supposed 'relevant' content.

Look, if I wanted the content in the FIRST place, you think I wouldn't be able to find it on my own?

And apparently the 'disable' you can do on it is cookie-based, after a couple of weeks you've got the things back.

So I did a search on 'disable vibrant ads' - and came up with Disabling Vibrant Advertising - The Elder Geek on Windows XP. There's a number of reasonable fixes there - but I'm going to go with Post #4 and see how that works out...

Whoever came up with that dumb 'Vibrant' idea ought to have their heads examined. Preferably with a 5-lb hammer.

J.

Popular Mechanics - Google Book Search

Funny the things that keep getting invented or developed. Here's a vehicle with slide-outs that give significantly more room inside it. But somehow, it never quite caught on in the recreational vehicle market.

Now? It's a normal thing.

It's also interesting contrasting the amount of information in the early issues of PM to the later ones. It's gone from a 'how to do darn near everything, from electronics to blacksmithing to woodworking AND we've got a lot of neat stuff to give you ideas" to "Here's some neat stuff. And we've got one or two shop projects".

Well, guess editorial pressures change what's included - but there's times I wish there was a lot more detail included in the articles in current issues...

Enjoy!

J.

Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California. : Conejo Valley : Ventura County Star

"Temperatures in Siberia, Russia will be -81 degrees this week, "said Martin. "With those type of temperatures the arctic air mass has to spill somewhere. Our answer of the exact track will become more clear this week. All residents in the mountain communities should prepare this week for very cold, winter weather, with snow."

Indications are a second, colder storm could hit near the 18th-22nd time-frame. The details on that will have to be sorted out.

J.

Popular Science - November 1940

An easy how-to on running power to a mantle above a fireplace to put in power sockets and lights. A procedure like that would be useful for putting in a large TV in the same position today, and running both electricity and data lines to it.

Well - with the economy tightening maybe we'll see more 'How-To' stuff in upcoming issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Then again - would I really want that to be the reason they start doing things like that again?

J.

Intelligence predicts sperm quality | Balls and brains | The Economist

THERE are few better ways of upsetting a certain sort of politically correct person than to suggest that intelligence (or, rather, the variation in intelligence between individuals) is under genetic control. That, however, is one implication of a paper about to be published in Intelligence by Rosalind Arden of King’s College, London, and her colleagues. Another is that brainy people are intrinsically healthier than those less intellectually endowed. And the third, a consequence of the second, is that intelligence is sexy. The most surprising thing of all, though, is that these results have emerged from an unrelated study of the quality of men’s sperm.

J.

Sleet, snow tail off in New Orleans - Breaking News from New Orleans - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com

New Orleans can't catch a break, can it? Katrina, an incompetent mayor, and now this...

What's next? Glaciers on the Gulf Coast?

J.

Next Big Future: Blacklight Power Signs First Commercial Deal with Estacado Energy

The game may be changing very soon...

J.

Back in the day, a new TV or stereo was something you didn't let the kids mess with. At least in our house, Father was the one who plugged stuff in and made sure it worked. (Remember, we're talking the olden Tube-type days here, and early Transistors.)

Recently, we've been upgrading our systems. (As described in earlier posts...)

The little guy hooked up the new HD/DVR cable box, and got things working okay with the XBox, DVD player, and a VHS recorder.

I didn't help him.

Admittedly, HDMI cabling is a whole lot simpler than component cabling - it's difficult to get stuff wrong when you've got only one cable to mess with aside from the power cord.

Yesterday, I spotted a sale at MicroCenter - a Sony Blu-Ray player on sale for $199. I checked the ratings on Amazon, and they were pretty decent... certainly worth a shot from a local vender at that price. I'd been looking at Blu-ray players anyway, and the $50 cut was the decider.

The little guy wanted to know if he could install it also - I thought about it for a moment then talked with him about what was going to have to come out. Gone would be the Samsung 5-disc 'home theater' that developed a really bad case of bearing grind about four months back. Gone would be the VHS, and the new dvd player we got a couple of months back. (Hey, it was cheap, and it had an HDMI output along with other video. It worked with the old RF converter pretty well.)

Then I told him to go by the instructions in the manual - and left him to it while I worked on Christmas lights.

He got THAT up and running too, with no problems. My lovely bride just shakes her head, and when I told Mother about it, she said "You're turning him into quite a technician." I corrected her - and told her he was turning himself into what he wanted to be. Let him gain confidence on the easy stuff, and he'll be much more inclined to take on stuff that's a bit more challenging.

(We're already talking a bit about a computer he wants to build to do video editing on.)

That's my boy, and I'm sure proud of him!

J.

Okay - we're upgraded to HD-TV and Blu-Ray. What's the next thing down the pike as far as video goes? What's the new format, the hot tech?

Could it be 3-D?

We've seen a few 3-D movies lately - it's a technology that's a far cry from the old 3-D glasses, but still requiring polarizing shades and a movie theater. I'm not at all sure how it's going to translate to current HD technology...

Of course, with the high capacity of blu-ray disks, it's not going to be a problem with storing the data. The problem will be, as always, getting it to the eye in a 3-D format....

And how will they be doing that?

J.

Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY

Should be able to find an idea or two here...

Enjoy!

J.

Found this neat site which gives details on how to take a Linksys wireless router and turn it into an XBox360 wireless adapter. Seeing I didn't want to shell out $100+ just to check out XBox Live, and I didn't want to run a cable out to it - I've avoided that part of the XBox experience.

But hey - free? I found my old router, downloaded the files, followed instructions, did the resets... and the thing worked pretty much as advertised. I had to disable the wireless adapter in my system temporarily - and when I got it going I started getting network errors like crazy. I couldn't hook up to the network again, even when the other router was shut down completely. I reset my router, checked the WEP code, made sure all was as it should be... but nothing worked.

I figured a reboot would solve the problem - so I saved everything I was working on and... the system wouldn't come up. It came up in safe mode, so I figured things weren't too hosed - but I was puzzled. I hadn't done anything to the OS, so why was it balking? I used MSCONFIG to shut stuff off - but it still wouldn't cooperate and boot fully. Seeing it was 2 AM, I figured I needed sleep more than a working system.

After a refreshing 4.5 hours, I tried to start the system up after checking all the cabling. The system started - fans spun up, BIOS showed on the screen... then *CLICK* - *CLICK* - *CLICK*.

Yeah, I know that sound. I've heard it a number of times. It's not so much in money, but in time and effort to recover what was on the drive. It's the sound of a drive that's almost dead.

Normally about once a year I do a data transfer from the current primary drive to a new one. I get a larger drive, a backup I can put on the shelf, and peace of mind. Unfortunately, it's been about 16-18 months since the last drive was put in... So Murphy strikes right before Christmas. Dang!

Well, MicroCenter's having sales - a 1TB drive wasn't too expensive and they even had an OEM Windows XP Pro SP3 package on sale for not too much more than I wanted to pay. Since my XP was upgraded from Win2k, which was an upgraded Win98, which was an upgraded Win95, which was an upgraded Win 3.1... I figured it was time to bite the bullet and get a full copy. I could have put some flavor of Linux on - but I don't really want to take the time to dig into all the distributions, pick one, and then try to find the Linux-flavored equivalent utilities that do the same things I know how to do in XP. I even thought about getting an OEM Vista Home - but decided against it... This is bad enough, why should I also leap into a snake pit?

So tonight I'll install the new drive and try to recover off the old. If I can't, then I'll go ahead and do a fresh install of WinXP and then try to copy data - I'll lose a lot of the programs I've got installed, but them's the breaks.

Oh, and that XBox router? I wish I could report that it worked perfectly... but I can't. YET. Got sidetracked, you know? Sorry, but some things take priority! I'm thinking I should know something by Thursday or Friday...

J.

more animals

more animals

And no way would I try riding one of THESE! Luckily, the Army didn't go with the idea. It did make the cover though the expression on the rider's face makes you think he realized that he was about to be slammed into the dirt at a rather uncomfortable speed...

J.

Gov. David Paterson unveils dire New York State budget that includes new taxes, layoffs and cuts

Getting down to crunch time - something's going to give - the question is what. Will it be nanny-state government, massive unionization or what?

J.

Dang.

The drive seems pretty much unresponsive. I can see the drive's bios (Or rather the system can) but it errors out. Aargh.

I haven't hooked up the other drives in the system, but seeing I had a lot of stuff on my desktop, and the desktop folder is on C: - well, I think I just lost a whole lot of pictures and files...

The drive itself has been in the system for about two years - not the year I was thinking about. Goes to show - if you've got a backup system, even if it's an annual HD swapout, it's not a good idea to go off your schedule for it.

As it is, I was depending on the S.M.A.R.T. drive monitoring system to indicate a problem. HAH!

Well, anyone got any suggestions? I'm thinking about doing the 'freezing' thing with it, see how that works...

J.

Senate Hopeful Kennedy Takes A Beating From Upstate Media - wcbstv.com

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Caroline Kennedy took a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook and began an upstate listening tour On Wednesday.

The road trip included stops in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo to help convince Gov. David Paterson and voters she's the one to replace Clinton in the U.S. Senate.

Heard a talk show today, where a caller said she'd be a good Senator because she was a Kennedy, and she probably had a big Rolodex. Excuse me? Do the qualifications for Senator now boil down to DNA and office equipment?

She hasn't DONE anything of political note - but neither did Obama...

Sigh. Apparently some would rather have a name or a skin color than any actual experience or qualifications. What do you think - did TV do it? (Short attention spans and all that, and an emphasis on appearance over substance?)

J.

YouTube - Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat aircraft

... and appropriate sound effects. A silenced engine and an ominous humming, perhaps?

J.

What can I say? I had extra outputs on my video cards...

And something else - three monitors on a desktop is fine - 4's just too many. So it's off to the side, I'll be usning it to run system monitor utilities and the occasional movie. #4's best resolution is 1024x768 - but that'll do. Got a copy of "Destination Moon" on it right now...

J.

One, unfortunately, is the loss of hearing acuity, especially in the higher frequencies.

This was born out tonight... I ran across a reference to a 'mosquito ringtone' that teenagers and younger can hear, but adults can't.

So naturally, I had to try it.

I tried - but even ranking up the volume to max didn't do the job. However - the little guy woke up, wandered into the room, and asked me what I was doing. I asked him why, and he said "there was this wierd high-pitched sound"...

I was using headphones for the experiment, by the way - I didn't want to disturb anyone else. I had him slip them on, hit the tone - and he winced at how loud it was.

I didn't hear a thing.

Looks like I'm topping out about 12-14k... Well - that's likely better than my father's range, which runs from slightly hard of hearing to darn near deaf.

But... man. Something like this just hits you - I realize I'm aging - but...

Well, at least I can hear SOME stuff...

J.

Santa in 2007.

Enjoy!

(Hmmm. Wonder what he used as a lifing gas?)

J.

New stuff on the right...

You'll see a reasonably(within last hour or so) current image of the sun. No spots? The sun's being quiet.

Below that is radio data - the flux number currently is 69, which essentially means the sun's activity is low.

Add 'em both together... and you're looking at long-john weather across much of the US.

Info and pictures from NASA, www.hamqsl.com/solar.html and Spaceweather.com.

J.

I'm about to pass my father an old laptop and lcd monitor. Now, he's not been on-line much before, he's got an email account (which I'm holding off on setting up on the laptop until we see whether there's any sort of wireless availability where he's at...) BUT...

You knew that was coming, didn't you?

My father, bless his heart, isn't the most skeptical of folks when it comes to snail-mail junk. He's come very close in the past to being scammed out of significant sums of money ($10k or so) to someone who just called him up and promised to deliver $100k if he wired $10k to be via Western Union. (There must have been an insider waiting to intercept that...)

So the idea of him getting on-line... (shudder) with e-mail (double shudder) is, well, worrisome. He's already aware of the Nigerian scam artists, and I'm trying to impress on him that there's all sorts of OTHER scam artists out there, ready to strip his accounts to the bone given half a chance. The WU scam helped out, I think, making him realize that not everyone is looking to deal honestly with him.

It seems wierd to be establishing rules about what he can do on-line.

The problem is - he's bored. Badly bored - he doesn't have a shop he can putter around in, and although he can get around pretty well he's not as spry as he used to be. The internet would let him follow news, and whatever interests he may have.

So. There's Snopes.com, of course. And Google. What other anti-scam links could you folks provide?

Frankly, I'm thinking he doesn't need internet access at all. But I can't decide that for him.

J.

Client Mode - DD-WRT Wiki has the info on how to set it up as a client bridge - which should enable it to work with an XBox360.

We'll see if it does. Got it configured, was using it tonight for a while to surf - from computer to bridge to router to cable-modem... technology sure is fun, isn't it?

J.

Client Mode - DD-WRT
details the final steps involved in reprogramming the flash bios in an old Linksys router, and turning it into a remote client. Basically, the Dd-WRT software lets you configure it so it will attach wirelessly to your primary router, and then you can hook up a network-enabled item (such as an XBox360) to it, and have Internet access, and it'll hook up to the XBox Live service.

Alternatively, I could have bought a $99 adapter. But I already had a router I wasn't using, and some time. Basically, I wanted to see if it could be done. And it can, but I went down a few wrong roads while doing it. (Note - follow the info at DD-WRT.com - they wrote the software, they've got a clue.)

However, you don't do just one thing with something like this. Apparently I had a free month of XBox Live Gold I never used - so we're trying that service out. And we're already Netflix subscribers - and Microsoft has a partnership with Netflix that enables you to stream movies across... your XBox, direct to your TV.

I feel I'm getting sucked into an electronic web. Oh, I'm going willingly all right - nobody twisted my arm to get me to attach the old Linksys, after all. But when, with all this amazing new content, am I supposed to sleep?

J.

The old SMC 802.11b card I had in the laptop I passed Father today couldn't detect any wireless routers in the area.

That's a great relief, in a way. Now I won't have to worry about spam and scammers. He's quite willing to do without internet access right now - and he's looking forward to learning the ins and outs of the various programs available to him. In a few months (he thinks six or so) we'll look at the situation again.

Many, many thanks to everyone who responded. Suek, LindaY, and OTPU, you guys are great.

(BTW, OTPU, you might be interested to know it was the Dell Latitude laptop you sold me about 4-5 years back... that thing's still ticking along! With the old LCD monitor and an external keyboard and mouse attached, it can sit to one side of his desk and take up minimal space. Father didn't mind it wasn't a fast machine - he says he's not as fast as HE used to be, either!)

Side note: his first experience with computers was with a digital ballistic computer at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico - it had all of 2K of ferrite core memory.

2000 8-bit bytes.

The machine filled a small warehouse.

Now, his MONITOR likely has more memory than that. We've come a hell of a long way in the last 50 years...

J.

Oddly enough, of strings of non-standard ASCII letters. (vowels and consonants with accent marks of all stripes, cryllic letters and the like) I've been putting the stuff into filters - but now they're going to random regular alphabeticals. I think I'm going to have to enable whitelists soon if it doesn't cease. So, if you put in a comment and it doesn't appear immediately, please be patient, it's just being moderated...

J.

833 22nd St S, Arlington, VA 22202 - Zillow Real Estate

That's just plain insane... 90 year old house, 998 sq ft.

$469k.

Found via the Volokh Conspiracy...

Must be the location, eh?

J.