Vintage David Letterman: 6 Year Old Ham

The 6 year-old girl is demonstrating ham radio on the David Letterman Show in 1993. I'm sure the test she passed was harder than the one I took. Oh, the shame.

The Station Agent

The Station Agent is a great example of a movie that doesn't occur on some grand scale - it is just a movie about people, their personal struggles, and their evolving relationships. I have no idea why the XYL and I picked up this movie. We watched it some years ago and were quite surprised how much we enjoyed it. If you want more info regarding the plot, Wikipedia has the usual write-up. I generally enjoy action movies and thrillers with lots of twists, so the fact that I liked this says something I think.

Unboxing the ICOM IC-7000

I posted some time ago that I had ordered an ICOM IC-7000 radio. Below is the unboxing video. The IC-7000 covers both the HF bands as well as 2M and 70cm. It will do 100W on HF and 50W on 2M. One big selling point was the nice color screen. If I'm gonna have to struggle to learn something like this, I don't want to be messing around with a tiny screen and little buttons. It has a removable head unit and I got the separation kit for free with my order. For now, I will be using this as a base station.



Next up, a video of my rig connected and running in my shack.

My stuff

Just messing around with Picasa today...

From Brick O'Lore

Pictured:
CZ 75 SP-01
Ontario RAT Model 1
Yaesu VX-3
Fenix LD-20

Solar and HF Propagation Gadget

You can get a neat little gadget to add to your Windows desktop or webpage (like below) from N0NBH's Solar and HF Propagation Website.

Realism

Along with my complaint that every plot shouldn't involve saving the world, I wish movies and tv shows would more realistically portray gun fights.

I think the video on this link is much more representative of what happens - missing at point blank, lots of shots that don't connect, etc.

There is also this shootout at a bar - unsurprisingly, it looks nothing like the movies.

George R.R. Martin

George R. R. Martin is a favorite author of mine. (Of course, like most of his fans, I hate him, too because he can't hit a deadline to save his life.)

His Song of Ice and Fire series is probably my favorite of all time. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Magic is rare. Magic isn't so powerful that it makes armies meaningless. There is balance.
2. He isn't afraid to kill (or maim) the primary characters - even the likable ones.
3. The scope is realistic - it isn't about saving the world from the "Big Bad," but rather about families and kingdoms as they struggle to survive and conquer.

Congressman Tweets in Morse Code

Via eHam.net...

Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), aka W7EQI, used twitter to announce that he had been named Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. This subcommittee oversees the FCC.

Here is the text of his message:
.-- .. .-.. .-.. / -.-. .... .- .. .-. / -.-. --- -- -- / .- -. -.. / - . -.-. .... / ... ..- -... / --... ...-- ... / .-- --... . --.- ..

You can copy and paste the text into a Morse Code Translator, but I've saved you the trouble:

WILL CHAIR COMM AND TECH SUB 73S W7EQI

Security in 2020

Apologies for being such a Schneier fanboy, but the guy just makes a lot of sense to me.

Security in 2020

"One old trend: deperimeterization. Two current trends: consumerization and decentralization. Three future trends: deconcentration, decustomerization, and depersonization. That’s IT in 2020—­it’s not under your control, it’s doing things without your knowledge and consent, and it’s not necessarily acting in your best interests. And this is how things will be when they’re working as they’re intended to work; I haven't even started talking about the bad guys yet."

We are all going to end up like the passengers on the ship in WALL-E.

From Brick O'Lore

More Google

New tools all the time...

Google Advanced Search Reading Level - Google ranks the complexity of the language used on a web page. You can specify if you want to view Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced results.

Google Body Browser - a tool to view the various systems that make up the body. You can view start with the nervous system and add layers of muscle, bone, etc. You can also turn labels on or off.

Google Books NGram Viewer - a tool to map the frequency of a word appearing in books over time. You can determine when a word first came into use or grew in popularity.