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Man, that was a great lazy Sunday! What a way to get a jump on the week. I managed to get one or two things done and even got some blading in. ...after finding out the brand of blades I'm test flying takes a proprietary hub/bolt setup. Sheesh. Well, that stuff is all tucked away; I'm pretty sure I can use them as replacements for Daniel's current set when he wears them out. ...and my normal setup up ''non-stock'' bearings, brass axles and metal rocker mounts went on just fine. After I came back, I reset the ''rockering'' as I think I need less offset with this pair. I'll test that our today if things go as planned.
...and did the game go as you planned yesterday? Shelley and I had a good time watching it, especially the commercials. Interesting enough (although I shouldn't have been surprised), we laughed at different sets of commercials. ...must be that male/female thing.
But we both enjoyed the game. The bonus for us was watching Trent Dilfer turn in a reasonable performance: Trent played his college ball here and still visits the community from time to time. He was just flat great in college and it's nice to see him make good after the Tampa Bay deal.
Speaking of deals, I have a few to work on at the office today. I fell behind on some things last week and it's now time to see if I can get ahead. I don't teach Saturday (Lee has the class) and I'd like to roll through this week and into the weekend at full steam.
''Honey, the network's down!'' That was the page (freely translated) I received while at class on Saturday (fixed; DHCP issue). Right now, I don't imagine all that many homes are set up for networking; but I can't help but think of what is coming in the next few years.
I know of several Mac users who I communicate with on a regular basis who use AirPorts at home (and one of them linked up to 'something' at work the other day); the expansion of those systems is more expensive that Cat5 or fiber, but the ease of use offsets that completely.
I say that from my last few weeks playing with my 'obsolete' wireless cards in a Linux environment. Things have been rock steady throughout the house and I've been able to do my basic browsing and email alongside Daniel while he does his homework and with Bradley while we watched the game.
The next iteration will add on WordPerfect and drive mapping to the server to allow me to work on class prep. After that, I'll try out a spreadsheet or two and see what I can do about budget work from the kitchen and living room.
If I had the bucks, I'd try this in a Windows environment; but as it stands, Aunt Minnie's system is getting closer and closer to reality. ...and the wireless gig cannot hurt.
Hmmm, I no sooner spout off about wireless networking (based on the marketing inroads made by Proxim and Intel in the office supply stores), than I wander by Best Bait and Switch to find at least two other brands of wireless goodies on the shelf. That's more potential that I thought was there.
...and they're in a position to pick up that group of consumers who were looking at one of the phone line network systems rather than having to string new wire. Those systems work fine in theory, but there's that darned wire again. ...and with most of the wireless home network systems touting the benefits of Internet Connection Sharing with your Windows System, the consumer has to ask himself why on earth to bother with wires.
...and at least one system I saw was a DSL/Cable modem router/wireless hub. Whoa. I think we may be seeing more of this stuff if the economy stays strong enough to allow discretionary spending. Me? There's Cat5 everywhere but the living room and kitchen...
Well, well, well... I see that CSO finally shipped my Celerons that were on back order. Darn that Dave anyway... If he hadn't mentioned that blasted el cheapo grande motherboard, I wouldn't be ordering Celeron processors. ...and putting together a decent obsolete system. Man, this is too close to cutting edge stuff for me. I mean, like, you know, my P-200s were doing just fine...
...and I now have all the stuff I need to relegate Tux back to test bed status and create Tux^2 as a for real Linux workstation. ...over on the main desk area with Wolf and Athena. ...and I should be able to take Athena down and rebuild that box with a new mobo. ...after I pull that shotgun out and deal with that partridge again. He's fallen out of that tree for about the last time!
I did something last night I haven't done for years and years: I grabbed a couple of toolkits and headed out to work on some electronics...
The church organ had evidently been acting up. At least that was my thought the other week when I saw the keyboard guru hit "that one corner 'just right' ". Oh, you know what I mean. I could see it from across the aisle.
So I asked him if he'd like me to look at it. "Sure, happy to have someone who knows what they're doing around." Right...
So I waltzed over while the worship team was practicing last night and hung around while they finished up. When we went to work on the organ, all the little problems were gone, gone, gone. I explained to Tim, the keyboard wizard, about how certain machines can sense the presence of toolkits and those who know how to use them, "Devices like this fear men like me."
...however, the ex-music director/Mac Geek/mixMaster wandered over and mentioned that the Leslie wasn't working correctly and why didn't we have a go at that. Oh, my... Like Dan Seto seeing that green light hit at the bottom of the Christmas tree at the strip.
So we tore out the entire Leslie speaker assembly and gave it a lube and tune. Really... They even had a spare belt on hand. ...and all the time Dave (the Mac Geek) and I were chattering away like chipmunks over a new batch of nuts. (...and yes that sentence could likely be turned around to reflect who the real nuts were.)
...in the meantime, Tim, the keyboard dude, is playing the Hammond as we're working; we're just plugging the Leslie back in to test as we go. ...and that's one heck of a way to test! It seemed pretty much like checking the decibel levels of a jet engine at the exhaust. I mean, like, we're holding this speaker frame in our hands while he ramps the speed up and down... At full volume...
But it's all back together. ...and it all works. ...and it was just a wonderful kind of 'hands on' night that I haven't had since my father passed on. That was the kind of thing we used to together: just tear something apart and then rebuild it. Man, what a cool evening.
Coupla' comments: Thanks, honey; it was really worth it. ...and: if you have to ask what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. ...and if you don't have to ask, that should be a grin on your face<g>...
The last word this morning goes to Svenson; he has the answer to keeping that blasted partridge in the tree:
Sports Night will continue in a moment... Ah heck, here's the local report on how things are going in Central Cal (link rot alert):
Trent Dilfer is coming back to town today. It's a for-real local boy makes good story. As I mentioned Monday, Trent attended the local state university and has a house here (his in-laws are local). Man, he must have gotten bored at DisneyWorld real quickly...
Not doing as well is the local basketball team. Man, they got spanked by Hawai'i Thursday night. They'd best get their act back together (jet-lag and all) before tonight's game at San Jose or they can kiss that top twenty-five listing goodbye...
...and Gary Scelzi is off on his quest for yet another NHRA title. Hey Steve! Do you have a decent link with information on this year's Winternationals? I couldn't find anything current last night. ...and I know he raced Thursday.
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First up is the obligatory picture from a new chunk of state highway as we head toward the hills. The flower is the Golden Poppy; they've been blooming for a week or so now.
The middle picture is Shelley's walking stick.
The right-hand shot is the start of the boys' first snowman...
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Here we have the completed snowman on the left, the Slide of Death in the middle and me headed down the slide as a snowball impacts the camera!
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In the last row, Shelley and Bradley take a break, I snap a shot of our helicopter headed for the local ski resort, and Shelley grabs a shot of the sunset on the way to dinner.
All content Copyright 1999->2001 Daniel C. Bowman. All rights reserved.