September 11th

Timeline.

FDNY Radio Messages

Airplane Filling Station

I posted about the Airplane Filling Station 8 years ago. The old links are dead, but check out the update and pictures of the restored site.

The building also got a new steward. Knox Heritage, an East Tennessee preservation group active in Knoxville and the surrounding area, assumed ownership of the building in November of 2018. When the AFSPA approached them about selling the plane two years ago, Morgan says, Knox Heritage initially suggested a preservation easement. “They said, ‘Well, I think we would just feel better turning it over to an organization like Knox Heritage,’” Morgan repeats, laughing. “We’re just proud they thought of us! It really is an honor for us.”

An easement through the Tennessee Historical Association protects the plane through 2025; in the future, Knox Heritage will continue to preserve it, Morgan says. The airplane is the group’s first commercial property, and the rent it generates will help fund its other preservation efforts. 

C64 Mini

I need a miniature version of the Commodore 64 like I need a whole in the head. I still want one. A friend of mine had a VIC-20 when we were growing up.

VHS Opportunity

Looking at this chart, I may invest in VHS. I think it is due for a come-back. No DRM. No privacy issues.

First Computers

Lifehacker asks "what was your first computer?"

My uncle loaned us a Kaypro of some flavor. I remember playing a lot of an ASCII Donkey Kong clone. (About this time, a friend has a Commodore VIC-20 that we played with as well.)

We then bought an IBM PCjr. I saved my pennies and we bought the BASIC cartridge, so I could do some simple programming.

When I went off to college, I bought a new computer. I think it may have been an AT&T branded 286. I remember connecting it via a null modem cable to the computer of the guy in the dorm room next door, so we could play a submarine game together.

A few years later, I bought a Radio Shack 486. It had a modem and I could dial up to various BBS. I think I had an AOL account then, too.

My wife claims I fell for her only because when we met, she had just taken delivery of her new Pentium Gateway computer.

The next one, I built using an Intel Celeron 300A - that was easily over-clocked to 450 MHz by changing the FSB to 100 MHz in the BIOS. Toss in a 3D video card along with my ISDN connection and I had an awesome Quake II gaming rig!

Cannon

Forget 9mm vs .40 or .45.

Forget AR vs. AK.

Forget Glock vs M&P.

Forget 1911 vs. whatever.

Forget revolvers vs. semi-auto.


I'm getting a cannon.


Via SayUncle

Airplane Filling Station

If you've been in the Knoxville area for any amount of time, you have most likely driven by the Airplane Filling Station (aka the Gas Station Airplane as I always called it). A project is underway to "save the plane" and restore the building. I had no idea that it was so old. Image via McClung.

The History of Android Phones

They've come a long way, baby, in three years.

The First Problem Solved by Computer: Four Color Theorem

From LifeHacker:

"Even during the 1970s, when computers were harder to come by and problems were weightier, computers were routinely brought in to solve things for the people who had access to them. But prior to 1976, they weren't required to prove any math problem. They just made things easier. That is, until Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken used a computer to prove a 124-year-old conjecture. In 1852, Francis Guthrie came up with what's known as the Four-Color Theorem. That theorem stated that no map needed more than four colors to delineate territories. Generally, different countries, states, or provinces, were given different colors on a map. If a mapmaker were armed with four different colors, there was no territory, or set of them, that could be arranged in such a way that two adjoining territories were the same color."

I think the first actual use (not problem solving) of a computer must have been to start a flame war, play solitaire, or look at "adult" content.

W.E.B. Griffin

Slim recommended W.E.B. Griffin to me before my first beach trip this year. I picked up The Lieutenants: Brotherhood of War and finally read it at home, since I can't read a ton of books on my vacations due to the preschooler factor. I really enjoyed it, so I ran over to McKay's before this trip to get the next book in the series, but McKay's is like a box of chocolates. I ended up getting the first and second book in his Presidential Agent series. I finished By Order of the President and liked it as well. Lovely... another author and several series that I'm going to spend lots of time reading.