Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Flu is for the Avians
The day before the flu hit me, I ran 11 miles at a sub 9 minute pace. More than two weeks later, I ran just 7 miles and I was almost 40 seconds per mile slower.
Ninjas in the House
They said it couldn't happen... Me and the misses were upstairs counting my blog money. (Sometimes I even like to roll around in it after a hard days work linking.) We were discussing our various options for redecorating - I especially wanted to get rid of that made-in-china-faux-American-traditional-knockoff-metal corner shelfy thing. My wife had bought that black metal shelf as a way to trick thieves into thinking there was nothing of value in the house. (As you will see that didn't work out too good.) We were also considering some dark green carpeting to go with the money theme I was developing, but I digress.
So to recap, quiet evening counting money... That's when I heard a noise. We don't have a lot of crime In My The City, TN, but I'm always prepared. I started to grab my shotgun or glorious soviet Mosin Nagant rifle with bayonet fixed, but I had picked up this new Crimson Trace Lightguard and wanted to try it out. (I briefly considered turning on all the lights in the house, but even I cannot afford crazy electrical bills!)
So, I grabbed my trusty Smith & Wesson M&P9 equipped with both a Crimson Trace Lasergrip and the new Lightguard. I proceeded in a high speed, low drag tactical sashay to the top of the stairs. Oh noes! Ninjas! Ninjas intent on executing an unscheduled estate appraisal!
Given there were five (count them - FIVE!) ninjas in my house, I was glad there were no switches to fumble with and no extra steps introduced when I wanted to be focused on firing my pistol. (I'm really glad that there weren't more than six ninjas - I don't have an aunt Gertrude!) Good news for me is that these Ninjas brought only their hands to a gun fight. I really wish I had put up some sort of mirror system, so I could have caught a glimpse of them around the corner. (I'll add that to the redecorating to do list.) I completed a combat roll to get into position and yelled, "Geronimo! Don't you know who I am? Also, I have a gun! And I've called 911!" I pulled a chaise lounge in front of the stairs in order to have some sort of barrier object to take cover behind. At this point, I realized that one of the ninjas was a little person and I really regretted installing the redundant/auxiliary hand rail along the stairs.
I won't bore you with the details (but if Larry wants to write some up, I'll insert them here - feel free to spice it up with grenades, claymores, and tactical bats), but suffice it to say that I dispatched the ninjas with extreme prejudice. Unfortunately, the light fixture was a victim of friendly fire.
After dealing with the initial Ninja Five, I went room to room to make sure they were clear. (That takes a long time when you have 4 floors and 65 rooms.)
What would I do differently? Really, not much given the positive outcome. Maybe some day I might pick up a Ninja Glock just for this sort of occasion. A last note - no cats were harmed during the course of these events.
No offense was intended to persons real or from the internet. This thing basically wrote itself here, here, and here.
So to recap, quiet evening counting money... That's when I heard a noise. We don't have a lot of crime In My The City, TN, but I'm always prepared. I started to grab my shotgun or glorious soviet Mosin Nagant rifle with bayonet fixed, but I had picked up this new Crimson Trace Lightguard and wanted to try it out. (I briefly considered turning on all the lights in the house, but even I cannot afford crazy electrical bills!)
So, I grabbed my trusty Smith & Wesson M&P9 equipped with both a Crimson Trace Lasergrip and the new Lightguard. I proceeded in a high speed, low drag tactical sashay to the top of the stairs. Oh noes! Ninjas! Ninjas intent on executing an unscheduled estate appraisal!
Given there were five (count them - FIVE!) ninjas in my house, I was glad there were no switches to fumble with and no extra steps introduced when I wanted to be focused on firing my pistol. (I'm really glad that there weren't more than six ninjas - I don't have an aunt Gertrude!) Good news for me is that these Ninjas brought only their hands to a gun fight. I really wish I had put up some sort of mirror system, so I could have caught a glimpse of them around the corner. (I'll add that to the redecorating to do list.) I completed a combat roll to get into position and yelled, "Geronimo! Don't you know who I am? Also, I have a gun! And I've called 911!" I pulled a chaise lounge in front of the stairs in order to have some sort of barrier object to take cover behind. At this point, I realized that one of the ninjas was a little person and I really regretted installing the redundant/auxiliary hand rail along the stairs.
I won't bore you with the details (but if Larry wants to write some up, I'll insert them here - feel free to spice it up with grenades, claymores, and tactical bats), but suffice it to say that I dispatched the ninjas with extreme prejudice. Unfortunately, the light fixture was a victim of friendly fire.
After dealing with the initial Ninja Five, I went room to room to make sure they were clear. (That takes a long time when you have 4 floors and 65 rooms.)
What would I do differently? Really, not much given the positive outcome. Maybe some day I might pick up a Ninja Glock just for this sort of occasion. A last note - no cats were harmed during the course of these events.
No offense was intended to persons real or from the internet. This thing basically wrote itself here, here, and here.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Grammar Humor
tim #occupylsx lols RT @torquespeak The protestors still haven't realised the irony of writing 'CAPITALISM IS CRISIS' in upper case I see...Fri, Oct 21 11:27:15 from web
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Nest - Learning WiFi Thermostat
How about a smart WiFi enabled thermostat? The Nest Learning Thermostat is just that. What makes it smart? Data from several sensors - Temperature (as you would expect), Humidity, Proximity, Far-field activity, Near-field activity, and Ambient light. It knows when you are home using the activity sensors. It lights up when you get close. You supply it with your zip code, so it knows what the weather is outside. It builds a history and develops a schedule for you based on the changes you make over time. It calculates how long it will take to reach a certain temperature. (In the summer that may be calculated in hours instead of minutes when we hit 100 and I want to get in the low 70's.) It has WiFi and you can control it remotely. I like where all this is going. I manually changed my thermostats, so I'm not sure if this would ever pay for itself, but I like gadgets.
Via Uncrate
Via Uncrate
Baofeng UV-3R: Alpha Tags
While they do not display on the radio, you can enable the alpha tags in the UV-3R Mark II software.
- Close the UV-3R software if you have it running.
- Browse to folder where the software is installed. (The default is C:\Program Files\UV3R.)
- Double-click the "setting.ini" file.
- In the first section, [setup], change the value for name to 1. The line should now read "name=1" without the quotes.
- Close the file and save the changes.
- Run the UV-3R software.
Baofeng UV-3R: Mark II Software
[ Don't have a UV-3R yet? Get one here. ]
UPDATE 11-12-12: A new version (1.10) has been released under the UV-X4 model. It adds the ability to update the FM Broadcast memories via the software.With the release of the new Baofeng UV-3R Mark II, the original software has also been updated. (You still have the option of using CHIRP.) And, as usual, Julian is ahead of the curve with his post about the updated software.
To use the software, you will need a few obvious items - the UV-3R (Amazon), the free software, and a programming cable. Download the software here for version 1.09. You can order the programming cable or build one. If you don't have a radio, then you can order one here, there, and yonder.
Before walking through the install, here are some trouble-shooting tips to keep in mind.
- Make sure the first memory location is populated. It will cause errors if it is left blank.
- Always read from the radio first and save the file as backup. It is nice to have a known good config. This practice does assume you can read from the radio without writing first.
- As you may have gathered from the lines just above, sometimes you must write a file to the radio first. An example of this situation is when you get an NKT_3R.EXE Error Signature.
- Likewise, if you get both rows on the display showing DDD.D25 then try adding some frequencies via the software and write to the radio.
- Make sure your cable is good.
- Confirm in Device Manager that the USB driver installed correctly.
- Verify that the COM Port used by the USB device matches what you have configured in the software - see screen shots below.
- Set the baud rate to 1200 if you have inconsistent results using the software.
Also, you should note that the old software created ".dat" files. The new software creates ".3R" files. You cannot simply rename a ".dat" to ".3R". However, you can open the new ".3R" files in the old software.
The install process is fairly simple.
I plugged the USB cable into the radio and then into my computer. I turned on the radio and Windows 7 installed the Prolific appropriate driver. In this case, it is using COM8.
As I mentioned in the trouble-shooting, you may need to change the baud rate to 1200. Right-click the device and select Properties. You can change the baud rate (Bits per second) using the drop-down box.
Now that we know the USB driver is installed correctly and which port it is using, we can start installing the software. Double-click the file you downloaded (extracting it from the compressed file if needed - if you need something to open .RAR files, try 7-zip.) Click Next.
If you are okay with the default install location, click Next. Otherwise, use the Browse button to change the location.
Click next to use the default name for the Program Folder that will be visible under your Program Files.
Confirm your settings and click Next.
Once the file copies are complete, click Finish.
You get one more screen showing the version. Click OK to complete the install.
To launch the application, double-click the short-cut it created.
Click Settings the Communication Port to make sure your configuration matches the COM Port the USB device is actually using and then you are off to the races!
What is in a name? Test is Forever!
All too often we end up succumbing to the pressures of customers or shareholders and find ourselves with something in production that really was meant to be a test only. In fact, sometimes these tests are named "test_procedure" but end up in production. Or, you get things like TRIG002. That's helpful. Of course, these problems are small scale compared to:
Hindsight is 20/20 by eldavojohn
If there was one thing you could go back and change about TCP/IP -- something that is far too entrenched to change now -- what would it be?
VC: Well, I wish I had realized we'd need more than 32 bits of address space! At the time, I thought this was still an experiment and that, if successful, we would develop a production version. I guess IPv6 is the production version!VC is Vint Cerf and he is answering questions about IPv6 at Slashdot.org.
I'm a Deadbeat!
From the NY Times article:
"In particular, people who pay the full balance on their cards each month – lenders call such customers “convenience users” or, more colorfully, “deadbeats,” because they do not pay interest and therefore are less profitable — may not regard that balance as “true” debt, and therefore choose not to report it. The industry, however, simply reports the total volume of outstanding loans. "
And I'm proud of it. Thirty days to use someone else's money. No fees. And even a little cash back.
Via:
ramit Look how Americans don't even realize how much they owe. http://t.co/RvKeueZB From a psychological standpoint, how would you address this?Tue, Oct 25 05:51:03 from Timely by Demandforce
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