I hear that windpower can provide about 20 percent of our electrical needs. That means something else must provide the remaining 80 percent.
Assuming that the something else exists, maybe we should spend time and money on it instead of windmills.
It might be easier getting to 100 percent by starting at 80 percent than trying to grow 20 percent to something useful.
I hear more than the usual number of ads offering services and product at ‘half off’. I keep wondering ‘half off’ what? My budget is based on dollars American. It has no provisions for including things ‘half off’.
I find it interesting that most of these ‘half off’ deals are on services and products that are questionable at best and outright frauds at worst.
For instance, one outfit wants to spray paint the underside of your attic with aluminum paint. Claims it cools the attic in the summer and reduces the heat load on your air-conditioning. I bet they also claim it heats your attic in the winter.
Another scammer offers you a third party warranty on anything you feel needs it. They claim the warranty can save you money on replacement costs of various equipment. Evidently they have figured out how to fix things at low or no cost.
There are a number of insurance companies who have policies that are not available in all states but they are only 20 percent off.
I think a consumer has to be 100 percent OFF to fall for any of these scams.
We have been residents of the Richardson Texas area for over thirty years. Until this morning we have maintained an active, land-line, telephone service during those thirty years and never experienced problems until a few months ago.
The first indication of trouble was an additional charge of eight dollars. After investigating the reason for the charge we found it was for caller ID. We did not order caller ID. The charge was removed and we were credited for the overcharge and assured it would not happen again.
This month it happened again.
I do not need to be paying for a service that requires me to supervise them without providing compensation. Something is broken at ATT land-line telephone service and I am not interested in helping them fix it. So, we closed our account after thirty years. That is one solution when a venodor’s service becomes unfit for public consumption.
Another solution would have been to work with the vendor and help him correct the problem. In this case there was an alternate service available that made it unnecessary to get more heavily involved with an organization that had lost its ability to provide a reasonable service.
I was not interested in installing a horizontal loop but I did not have the tower height needed for a vertical full wave loop. Not easy to support 257 feet of wire as a right triangle when your highest support is only 55 feet. So I ended up with a somewhat square configuration. Three supports at 30 feet two supports at 15 feet. The feedline is 300 ohm twinlead, the good stuff, not the cheap flimsey ribbon line.
My old Johnson KW matchbox would not tune it on 75 meters but an old homebrew Z-match got the match down to 1:1 SWR.
Prior to using the loop I was running an inverted vee dipole, apex at 50 feet, ends at 20 feet. Running about 500 watts to the antenna I was getting consistent reports of 9 plus 10db from a regularly scheduled sched with another ham about 150 miles to the north of my QTH. We had been running a Sunday morning sched for the better part of 20 years from the same locations. He had always been 10db over 9 too.
The horizontal loop has us trading signals at 20db over 9.
Last Sunday was the first time the loop was used. We will see if it works as well this Sunday.
Initial indications appear to be telling us that the loop has a 10db advantage over the old inverted vee. That is probably too good to be true but we do know that the loop works better than the inverted vee.
Judging from the amount of spam, unwanted regular mail, popup trash on the internet, annoying interruptions of so-so programming on tv and radio, worthless infomercials about worthless products on cable, current marketing strategy seems to be ‘Piss them off and they will buy your shit’.
Am I the only one immune to this shockingly unconventional marketing ploy?
I recently had a couple of trees trimmed. These are mature sycamores located in my back yard. They top out at around 70 feet. I had the lower branches removed leaving the lowest branch remaining at around 30 feet. A good height for supporting a 75 meter horizontal loop. The problem now became one of getting the wire up to the 30 foot level.
Not too long ago I would climb up there. Can’t do that anymore. Too old and the longest ladder I have will not reach the lower limbs of either tree. So I decided to ‘launch’ some twine into the air and over the lower limbs of the tree.
Twine attached to a large nut to be propelled by a slingshot. The slingshot certainly was capable of propelling the nut and the twine. Trouble was that the twine got tangled in the slingshot elastic. Oh well, it only cost five bucks at Wallmart and I had always wanted a good slingshot.
Next we tried a fishing rod and reel. Discovered that we are lousy at casting and even worse at finding the little weight and invisible ten pound fishing line.
Found some golf balls. Drilled a small hole in the golf ball. Installed a small padeye. Attached the black nylon twine to the padeye and threw the golf ball up into the tree. On the sixth try it got tangled up in some branches and refused to come down. Went to modify another golfball. This one had a liquid center. Spewed some sort of liquid all over my shirt.
Gave up for a while. Took a break to continue cleaning up the garage. Found a softball. Installed a padeye into the softball. Attached the twine. My arm is still sore from throwing that thing up to the tree. The first tree took six tries and the second tree took twelve tries before both supports were installed. A length of scrap coax was hoisted up by the twine. Up and over the limb at thirty feet. A pulley was installed at one end of the coax. The other end was attached to a larger padeye installed at the base of the tree. The loop wire was allowed to run free through the pulley and the wire was hoisted to the 30 foot level by pulling up on the length of coax attached to the pulley. Nothing was tied around the tree trunk of any of its limbs.
The softball launcher works well. It is easy to find and has enough weight to pull down the twine after the ball is thrown over the desired limb. I imagine a baseball would work too.
I have also heard that sand filled tennis balls work well. I did not try that because I did not have any tennis balls and had already blown my budget on fishing reels, slingshots, twine, and padeyes. Besides, the only way I have of filling a tennis ball with sand would also have the sand falling out as the ball is used. Don’t have to worry about the sand when you use a softball.
It used to be that when you needed financial services, you selected the best deal from a bank and rewarded them by paying a fee for the service. Now they pretend to pay you for being a customer.
Many decades ago you might get a cheap toaster or other trivial appliance for opening up an account at a financial institution but none were silly enough to offer to pay you for doing business with them.
When you consider that these folks only income derives from fees collected from customers, where do you suppose they get the funds to support those ‘Rewards Programs’?
To make those ‘Rewards Programs’ work they have to overcharge you for services and then dribble back some of the overcharges to you through the ‘Rewards Program’. You are not being rewarded, you are being screwed.
It is best to deal with institutions that have fairly priced services and no rewards programs.
My mother-in-law has an inactive credit card account with Bank America. Recently she received a letter from them detailing changes in their rewards program. Seems they have become less than generous with the rewards. That is okay. She does not use the account and has no intention to do so in the future.
In fact, after reading the official Bank America privacy policy none of us are ever going to be doing business with Bank America. Their privacy policy states that customers can request that their private information be kept private but Bank America reserves the right to share that information with third parties anyway. WHAT!!!!? What right?
As usual, anytime a company rolls out a privacy policy it usually is designed to screw the customer. No thanks. Our privacy policy is not to share private information with folk who can’t be trusted.
When you are dealing with the lowest bidder in both software as well as hardware (Microsoft and China) you don’t deserve superb results all the time.
For the last few months I have been living with lousy results and blaming the software.
Last week the computer finally refused to boot. Maybe because it was boycotting the lousy software. Or so I thought.
Turns out the power supply had finally given up the ghost (or whatever it is that makes it work).
Went to Microcenter and bought another made in China bit of computer junk but this one works and the limited three year warranty gives us a false sense of security. But we will enjoy proper operation while it lasts.
With the new power supply performance is back to original levels. I have no idea how this computer even worked with the old power supply. Then again, maybe it did not work and I was not smart enough to realize it had a problem. Now all those annoying, quirky malfunctions are gone and the computer appears to be running at a speed indicative of a higher speed machine.
Ever wonder why some items come with a mail-in rebate? Well, it does a number of things.
First, it attracts buyers. Nothing works as well as the promise of money returned after the sale. Skeptics might well ask why they have to mail it in. They would be smart to demand an instant rebate. Let the store mail it in.
Second, there is a good chance that you will never see the rebate. Depending on the people you are dealing with, there can be all kinds of hoops you have to jump through, qualifications you have to meet before they will even consider sending you a rebate. Check these requirements before you get sucked into the deal of a lifetime. If there is even the remote hint that you may be required to provide personal information in order to qualify for the rebate, leave. No need to explain why. Just turn and walk away. Rude? No, not nearly as rude as the jerks who are trying to scam you.
Third, mail-in rebates are a means stores use to get interest free short term loans at your expense. Ask yourself, why does it take four to twelve weeks to get the rebate? They have your money and you have an overpriced new toy. What a deal! It really gets interesting when the new toy breaks before you get the rebate.
So you see, stores offering mail-in rebates on items are not doing you any favors. On the contrary, they are trying to take unfair advantage of you.
A rebate of any kind is the stores admission that the item is over priced. A sensible person will go find the item at a fair price elsewhere. It takes a desperate and confused shopper to agree to pay the inflated price on the promise of receiving a refund sometime later. It is similar to Whimpy promising to pay tomorrow for a hamburger today. Don’t do it. Chances of becoming a fraud victim are too great.
Finally, if the rebate is substantial and the item is a very big ticket item (like an automobile), ask yourself why is the rebate more than you would normally be willing to pay for the item. That is a dead give away that something is terribly wrong. Don’t waste time trying to ‘right’ it. Just walk away.
Imagine my surprise to discover an on-line store sporting low prices and free ground shipping. I was in the market for a new video graphics card, one that had a usable TV/out feature. This new vendor was offering an ATI card with TV/out for $19.99. I placed my order. Only took about four days and the card arrived in a plain cardboard box.
The card was enclosed in an anti-static bag and accompanied by a CD. Both items were stuffed into a priority mail envelope which was stuffed into the plain cardboard box. Nothing in the shipment, except the invoice, indicated this was an ATI card. No manufacturers box or manuals.
The CD turned out to be intended for an NVIDIA product, not the ATI card that was ordered and received. I downloaded the ATI drivers needed from the ATI website and installed the card in my computer, an Athlon +1800 with 2gig memory and 80gig hard drive.
The computer booted up with the new card but the video did a few vertical flip flops before stabilizing. The display setup software showed a second display, the TV/out, but attempts to route the output to the video connection on a TV failed to present anything but diagonal horizontal lines across the face of the screen.
The card was flakey and the TV/out did not work. Since the whole purpose of buying the card was for the TV/out feature, my new purchase had become worthless. Oh it still worked in a flakey way as a main display card but I had one of those that was not flakey before I purchased this new defective card.
My new purchase was obviously used and most likely a reject or second or rescued from a pile of floor sweepings. Certainly not worth the $19.99 purchase price or my time. I filled out an on-line RMA request with 3btech advising them of the situation and my desire for a refund.
That was two days ago.
Since then I have come to the realization that I have absolutely no reason to believe that an outfit that ships junk is going to fix their problem. I have already spent more time on this fiasco than the card is worth. I really don’t want to spend more time and do not want to invest any money is sending the junk back to the vendor.
So, I threw the offending hardware into the trash along with all records of its purchase and consider the time and money I lost as an investment in discovering that 3btech is an unreliable and unsuitable vendor.
Never mind that their prices are good and their shipping is free. Those things do not matter since their merchandise is no good.
Don’t you wish you had some? No, I would rather own real estate or dollars that were worth something. Gold is not worth more than it was worth 100 years ago. The dollar just does not buy much these days. How much less? Well I remember when gold was priced at $25 an ounce and was used to back the dollar. This kept the government from printing more money than it had gold for backing.
Then some moron decided to sell all the gold in fort knox and start printing federal reserve notes. That prevented folk from converting their greenbacks to gold. Soon after, conversion became impossibile because the government no longer had any gold.
So now when you see gold at $1000 an ounce, what it really means is that it now takes $1000 to buy today what could have been purchased for $25 in the 1950s.
The only folk making money off gold investments are those who sell it. Even then they only make profits off the shipping and handling.
We often hear that the same $20 dollar gold coin that would have bought you a nice suit in 1850 will still buy you a nice suit today. Very true. What they do not tell you is that had you invested that $20 in a savings account in 1850, your decendents could buy the entire clothing store today.
Sometimes even historians don’t learn from history. Guess it is not good enough to know how to read. You also need to understand what is being read.
Our house is heated and cooled by central air. We have a combination unit made by Carrier sitting in the mechanical equipment closet provided by the architect along with the water heater. The furnace part of the unit is gas fired. It is only ten years old.
During those ten years we have already had to service the unit twice beyond the usual cleaning and filter replacement. In both cases it was the flame sensor and the repair was simple. It just needed to have the powdery carbon buildup wiped off.
This summer we had a lightning storm. I am pretty sure we were not struck directly but it was close enough to take out the cable modem. Later I discovered it had also taken out the HVAC controller. The blower motor refused to energize even though the compressor was pumping freon through the A-coil. Plenty of cold. Just no airflow.
When we had the HVAC system replaced, we did not upgrade the thermostat. We kept the old mechanical device which is nothing more than a big spring with limit switches mounted to it. The spring contracts and expands with temperature, moving the limit swiches, and energizing the start relays for blower and compressor.
The thermostat was not effected. It still controlled the airconditioning compressor outside as the temperature changed. For a quick fix, I hot wired the power to the blower motor to a switchable 110volt outlet. When I wanted to cool the house all I had to do was switch on the blower motor. The same outlet also provided power for the 24vac circuit to the thermostat. So by turning it off I disabled both the blower and compressor. That allowed me time to find a new HVAC controller. Something I would need in order to use the furnace.
As usual, I waited until the last minute. Waited for it to get cold before taking action. An exact and direct replacement was not available but I did find a conversion kit. One week and 250 dollars later I received the kit.
I took my time reading the instructions cover to cover, making notes, and finally had the new controller installed and connected. Self test seemed to work fine. I finished connecting the thermostat wires, closed up the unit, turned on the thermostat, and set it to a high temperature to start the furnace. The furnace came on normally. Everything seemed to be working fine. Five minutes later the flame went out and the furnace shut down.
I knew it had to be the flame sensor which was serviced and replaced but I still could not make the furnace work. It would start up with the blower motor on. Error code started out as 13 and advanced to 33 after a few minutes. A 33 error code is a limit circuit fault and has a long list of possible causes.
I went back to the controller self test and was horrified to find it no longer worked. After a short delay, the blower would come on and stay on. It stayed on for over three hours with nothing else happening as I searched for answers.
Finally I started to inspect the wiring. Lots of wires and all connections made with spade lugs pushed onto spade terminals. One of the spade lugs had been pulled free of the over temperature limit switch. I restored the connection and the furnace worked fine.
I do my own repair because it is easier than finding a technician I can trust. Besides, when you have more time than money DIY becomes a necessity.
Ever notice that titles eliciting feelings of trust, honor, empathy, fellowship, and good will are often used by organizations and individuals that show no evidence of ever having done anything to support those titles?
I have.
For many years now we have paid the price for cable. Not cable TV but cable access to the internet. Cable is good, reliable, but expensive especially if it is not included as a package deal with cable TV.
Cable modem speed is around 1500kbps download and 300kbps upload. Since we do more downloading than uploading, we never considered the lower upload speed a problem. The worst thing about cable internet access is the high cost, but it can also slow down in speed during peak hours, and our local ISP has changed hands about four times
We looked into DSL several times but never followed through. It was either not available in our area, too much trouble to fool with, or did not offer any cost advantage over cable.
We started with Direct TV many years ago. My son got a Direct TV installation package for Christmas from a friend and never used it. He gave it to us. We installed it and made it work but it only had one reciever and no PVR capability.
We upgraded to Dishnetwork and got the second, and third, recievers as well as PVR capability. The cost for that was higher than what we were paying for Direct TV but still much cheaper than going to real cable TV. The only problem with Dishnetwork was the free installation cost us $50 and they did not provide us with all the local stations. Seems we needed a second dish to do that and they found excuses not to install it. We finally gave up and told them we did not want the local channel package. We had and still have a perfectly good outside TV antenna that does well for local station reception. No point in paying someone for something you already have.
About six months or so ago our neighborhood was wired for optical fiber. Originally only the telephones were connected to the new fiber optic cables. Later and very recently ATT offered wifi internet service and cable TV packages that were about half the price of anything available elsewhere. The U-Verse 100 package is what we got along with an extra receiver to support the TV in the bedroom. That way if one of us wanted to see a favorite program on one TV the other could watch a differenct favorite program on the second TV.
The ATT internet is not DSL. They call it broadband and it runs at 1500kbps download and 900kbps upload. About three times the upload speed of the cable modem. The ATT wifi works fine but the wireless modem/router also has wired ethernet ports and usb ports. It all comes out of the big box they provide. The box runs off the fiber optic box outside through catagory 5 cable. The settop boxes for the TVs run off the wireless modem/router which also provides wifi for desktops and laptops equipped with wifi capability.
The ATT solution is about half the cost of cable modem and dishnetwork combined, provides the same service, and seems to be faster than either the cable modem or the dishnetwork stuff. No more loss of signal when it rains.
I am not sure if there is such a thing as usual weather. I think we use the term usual to indicate a repeat performance of past observances. You get the same result, season after season, for maybe 10 years and you expect that trend to maintain momentum. You expect a repeat performance in the eleventh year.
Two, maybe three years ago we were experiencing a drought in north texas. The weather had not taken a real turn for an increased temperature. There was just a lack of rain.
This year the trend has been for excess moisture. Currently we have had some rain every day for the last month or so. When it does rain it does not mist or sprinkle. It comes down hard and for at least half an hour. Total rain for 2007 in this area has been over 20 inches.
For the last few weeks we have been enjoying some unusually moderate temperatures. Highs in the low 80’s and lows in the low 70’s. Those who have an whole house attic fan have been able to do without airconditioning for some time now. Very nice but very unusual for being close to the middle of the summer.
Today is July 6, 2007 and again we have lows in the low 70’s and highs in the low 80’s. Lets see, we have the rest of July, then August, September, and October to worry about. Seems that cooler weather always sets in at the end of October. Halloween marks more than just ghosts and goblins. Looks like we have about 12 weeks during which temperatures could still rise and drought conditions could still return.
I wonder how long it will take to dry out to the point where lawns are endangered for lack of rain?
Welcome me to the 21st century. I have finally sucumbed to using Paypal. I was forced into it because nearly everyone I deal with uses it. Congradulations Paypal.
To Celebrate I have added a Paypal Donate button to the bottom of the sidebar at the right of the page. Feel free to use it often. A couple of bucks would be appreciated and you can donate more if the power moves you.
The Paypal Donate button is not just a shameless beggar sign. It can also be used to purchase some of the items listed for sale on the website. Before purchasing, make sure the item is still for sale. Kits are always for sale in any quantity but verify availability and delivery on quanties above 10. Verification by e-mail.
I will also be adding plans and detailed assembly instructions for old and new items. These items will be low priced and available immediately by download. You purchase a special password for access, then download.
You don’t know what frustration is until you have tried to use a marginally functioning regenerative receiver as a communications receiver. Then I guess marginally functioning equipment of any type would frustrate the user. It is just that regenerative receivers have so much more to become frustrating.
Drift, hand capacity effects, flakey regeneration control, dial setting jumps when you touch it, headphones are uncomfortable, not sensitive enough normally and when you increase sensitivity, you can’t keep the signal tuned in. Those are just a few of the ‘fun’ experiences you are opening yourself up to.
Here are a few tips on how to deal with these frustrations.
Choose your tuning capacitors and dials very carefully. Ball bearing capacitors and zero backlash dials are best. If it is good enough to be used in building a VFO, it will probably work fine in a regen.
Wooden cabinets are fine but the front panel needs to be made of metal and connected to ground to prevent hand capacitance effects to the circuitry. Any part of the circuit could be effected by hand capacitance, not just the coil.
You don’t need RF amplification but you could benefit from RF isolation from the antenna. A grounded grid triode amp at the input will prevent the antenna from loading down the oscillator.
A triode makes a decent regenerative detector but a pentode makes an even better detector and allows smooth control of the regeneration threshold by varying the screen grid voltage.
The screen grid voltage to the detector needs to be well regulated. Using a VR tube here is a good idea.
Although a pentode detector has good output, it is not good enough to drive a headset under all conditions. Follow the detector with at least one audio stage before the headphones.
If you want speaker volume, then add another audio stage (maybe a 6V6) after the first.
If you have kept up with the tube count we are now up to five tubes. We might want to re-evaluate the design. Maybe go with a single conversion heterodyne.
Run the radio off batteries or a separate AC power supply. With the high sensitivity of the detector it will be nearly impossible to keep hum out of the radio if the power supply is built into the radio case.
You probably decided on a regenerative receiver thinking it would be a simple project. It can be simple but to get decent performance the regen becomes as big a project as a simple heterodyne.
Also, the same problems you experience using a single conversion heterodyne at higher frequencies also plague the regenerative receiver. At the very least, stability will suffer. Even so, both of these receivers can do very well on 80 and 40 meters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a crystal controlled converter, making the system a dual conversion, regardless of whether you decide on a single conversion heterodyne or regenerative.
Grayson age 2 days
We are going to assume that you will be using PHP, Apache2, and mysql and that all this software is already installed and running on the computer that will have wordpress installed on it.
First unzip the wordpress software. After it unzip, it will have formed a wordpress directory with all the software located in that directory or in directories beneath it. This should occur in the home directory of the target machine running a version of Linux.
While in that home directory with the new wordpress directory in view while you are in a terminal as root or at least with root privileges issue the following command:
Debian-Etch#mv wordpress /var/www/apache2-default/
This will move the wordpress software into the apache2-default directory. It is assumed that the webserver Apache2 is installed such that it will allow software to be served from the apache2-default directory.
Go to /var/www/apache2-default and issue the following command:
chmod 755 wordpress
Now go to /var/www/apache2-default/wordpress/
Do an ls or dir. Locate the file wp-sample-config.php.
Now
Debian-Etch#vi wp-sample-config.php
Edit the file by changing the mysql user (root) and the mysql password (root_pwd) and make sure that the database title is correct. It should be wordpress.
Save the file as wp-config.php.
Now startup a browser either on the Linux machine or on a machine that is on the LAN.
Address the IP of the the machine that has the target wordpress software. For example http://192.168.1.220/apache2-default/wordpress
You will get a screen complaining that wordpress has not yet been installed. There will be a blue link to a file that will take care of the installation. Just click on that link and follow the instructions on the screen. There are only three steps and the first two don’t count. The third step will give you a password and user name (probably admin) that you can use to get into the wordpress blog and begin blogging.
I any of this stuff does not work as expected, you may be missing some of the prerequisites.
Need to have the following installed and running in the background.
Apache or some other server
The server also needs to have any php enabling software installed if required. Apache needs the php software that allows it to talk via php programs to the database.
The database must be running. The database is mysql. It also needs to be set up with a password and have a database created that the wp-config.php file will call for.
Once all that is satisfied, the thing should work.
If you have gotten this far and it still will not work, seek help from someone who knows what he is doing. No, no internet browsing or phone help or other remote support. You need a real live person to come show you what needs to be done.
I have been using Debian Sarge, the latest stable release, for some time now on two computers. It has been stable. At least I have not experienced any incidences that I would consider unstable.
Still, I have always been wanting to upgrade to the 2.6 kernel. Debian Sarge uses the 2.4 kernel. The 2.6 kernel has some nice features that are missing from the 2.4 kernel.
So, I decided to investigate what it would take to upgrade. Forget it. Too much effort for an upgrade. Which is a real disappointment because I was so happy to find such a nice net installation for Sarge.
Well, there is also a nice net installation for Etch, the 2.6 version of the kernel. The best way (for me) to upgrade was to nuke everything in the 2.4 version and start over by installing Etch. That was easy for me to do since I did not have much invested. I did have mysql, apache2 and wordpress installed but those things are easy to reinstall. Much easier that it would have been to try and upgrade from the 2.4 kernel.
This Thanksgiving we made a trip to Austin. We left at around 10AM on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and arrived at 2PM with much to be thankful for.
I have never seen so many accidents on one 200 mile stretch of road in my entire life.
We were south bound on I-35 from Dallas. We were still north of Waco when we traffic became stop and go. The problem was a wreaked, maroon, motor home the size of a greyhound bus. It had a Texas Aggie logo on the back.
The thing was turned around the wrong way in the northbound lane and was sitting on some concrete center dividers that were off to the shoulder of the northbound lane. No clue as to what happened. There did not seem to be any other vehicles involved. The highway was not blocked. The slow traffic was being caused by rubber neckers. Morbid curiosity on the part of the general public.
A few miles further on, traffic got back to normal and we again set the cruise to 70 and settled back.
I guess it is no longer fashionable to drive the speed limit. We were being passed on a regular basis by people in more of a hurry than we were. The old high speed convoy syndrome was in full effect. Bumper to bumper they drove and at speeds ten to fifteen miles above the speed limit.
I am not one of those who believe that speed kills. No more than I subscribe to the false theory that guns kill. People kill. Sometimes they use guns. Sometimes they use cars. Speeding while driving recklessly is never a safe or smart activity. The number of accidents we saw on our way to Austin were proof positive of our suppositions.
Just south of Waco traffic slowed again. This time it was chain reaction collision involving five cars in the fast lane of the northbound lane. That was accident number two.
Not long after that there was another traffic slow down. Same thing all over again. This time six cars were involved in a chain reaction collision in the fast lane. Luckily it was the northbound lane and did not block traffic flow in the southbound lane. That was accident number three.
At that point I was resigned to be on the road for a very long time. There was no way that ALL the accidents would only occur in the northbound lane. High speed, tail gateing, convoys were also southbound and passing me every few minutes.
Before we arrived in Austin around 2PM we saw three more chain reaction collisions in the northbound lane yet none in the southbound lane.
After we arrived, we felt very lucky not to have been effected by the insanity we witnessed on the highway. We had lots to be thankful for.
The return trip was somewhat less exciting. There was only one wreak but it added an additional hour to our trip. Stop and go traffic on all four lanes of the highway and all lanes on the access roads. Somewhere in the vicinity of Waco an 18 wheeler had decided to lay down in the middle of the center median. The tractor was in there somewhere but it was a barely recognizable, twisted mass of sheet metal. The trailer had been opened at the front and the impact had strewn hundreds of small parcels out onto the grassy ground in front of the tractor. A real mess. The trailer did not have any distinctive markings. That and the number of packages laying around made me suspect that this must have been a mail truck.
We passed by the accident site and made it home without incident. Later we discovered on the news that the truck accident had resulted in I-35 being shut down for four hours while they tried to recover the truck and contents. We must have been one of the few lucky that got through before the REAL accident happened.
Seems that the crane the brought out to the scene to lift the truck back onto its wheels, fell over and took out one of the fire trucks that were on guard against fuel fires. Now there was a story that will probably never get told completely. The crane fell over and destroyed a fire truck. I can understand bad things happening to good people, but this does not sound like that sort of event. I was not there. I did not see what happened, but I do know it did happen and it should not have happened. Probably would not have happened to people who knew what they were doing.
This has been a very interesting and thanks provoking Thanksgiving. We had just as much to be thankful for after the return trip as we had on the trip down there.
Not looking forward to any more holiday driving this year.
What do passwords and pain have in common? They are both PIAs.
Why is it that the first thing I do with a password is forget to write it down? Oh, you are not supposed to write it down?
I know you are not supposed to publish it but if I don’t write it down, I spend hours trying different combinations of familiar things before I can do what I need done. Just like I did for the last hour or so. This time it was not just the password, it was the user name too. It is really hell when you forget your name. Even worse if you forget the URL of the place you need to use it.
I am reluctant to attribute this new found talent to age. It makes me feel better to blame it on over reliance on bookmarks and computer stored passwords. Computer assistance is great until you are caught off guard without the computer. Guess I am going to have to update my cribsheet and start using it again.
I am in Austin for the weekend. Watching reruns of Dora, Super Pets, and other assorted Noggin classics with the grandkids.
Austin is only about 200 miles south of Dallas. It is three to four hours depending on how many times you stop or are stopped. It seems a lot longer when you are actually on the road.
After the first hour on the road this time I remember commenting that it seems like we have been traveling for at least a week. I always underestimate how long it takes to get to Waco. Maybe because the signs to Waco are too optimistically placed. I am of the opinion that small towns should not be announced by a sign unless you are closer than 30 miles to the place. I keep seeing signs like 50 miles to Waco, then 40 miles to Waco. This time it seemed that there was an entire hour between the 50 and 40 mile signs. I was begining to wonder if Waco was also underway and traveling away from us to the south.
It must have been a big football weekend. I know that A&M played OU but I don’t remember who won. I am not much of a football fan. I have often thought that teams should have thier own balls so they won’t have to fight over the same scrap of pigskin. I believe they used to be made of pigskin. At least that is what they were called. Nowdays, footballs are probably made of rubber somewhere in China.
During this trip there were more than a few orange colored, temporary flags flying from car windows. Lots of orange longhorn decals all affixed to vehicles doing at least ten miles over the speed limit. Wonder why they don’t get stopped. I guess it is considered more dangerous to have a burned out brake light than to be travelling under a 95mph head of steam.
Some time ago that was me as well. Travelling at speed in the fast lane. Not exactly bumper to bumper but there was not much room between vehicles. A chain reaction pileup looking for a place to happen. You didn’t dare allow more room between vehicles. Riding bumper was the only way to let the car in front know that you wanted to pass. They, in turn sped up as that was the only way they had of letting you know they did not want you to pass.
And so it went, sometimes all the way to the ultimate destination. Safety in numbers. There was no way the highway patrol could pull over ALL of that convoy at the same time.
Nowdays I let them pass me. I am content to plod along in the right lane with the cruise control set to 65mph. Sometimes I will wave as they pass. Sometimes I will hold up all four fingers when I wave.
I have to admit that I used to be a speed freak because I enjoyed the thrill. I was never in the hurry that my speed would have indicated. No fire to go to, just having fun pretending to be a Nascar driver.
Then I discovered that my old Camry could deliver 32 miles per gallon if I drove no faster than 65mph. Back when gasoline was under 1.50 a gallon the good mpg was not that much a factor. Now, when it costs twice as much fill a tank I have discovered my miser threshold. Speeding in a convoy was costing me as much as five bucks a trip extra. More if I ended up getting stopped. So I don’t do that anymore. I leave that to the truckers.
It took me a long time to understand why truckers speed. Turns out they get paid by the mile. The more miles, the more money. The more miles per hour, the more dollars per hour. When you can make 50 bucks an hour doing 90mph compared to 30 bucks an hour doing 65mph which would you choose. The difference in speed is not going to save you the 20 bucks difference if you go slower. More importantly, it is going to cost you much less than 20 bucks more for fuel at the higher speed.
There are plenty more words in this processor but I am begining to have trouble arranging them so they make sense. Some might call this writers block. Others might not be so kind. I call it ‘thats it, I am done.’
After nearly 400 sales over the last few years through ebay auctions I have decided to throw in the towel with regard to future ebay dealings. I now have other options that are more attractive.
I came to this conclusion during the recent sale of a higher ticket item. I had some electronics equipment that was worth upwards of 2000 dollars. Listing it on ebay and paying a percentage of the final bid price would have cost me 200 dollars or more.
I dont know of any service that ebay provides now or would ever be capable of providing that I could value at more than 50 dollars. Not willing to cut them in for such a large share of the sale, I decided to sell it off ebay. It took a little longer but it was worth it.
Then it occured to me that if it was becoming too expensive to use ebay for big ticket items, maybe I should stop using ebay altogether. Seems that ebay was increasingly being targeted by scammers and cheats and not providing any real options to deal with the increasingly prevelant fraud potential. When you add those two negatives together, you end up with an easy decision.
I allowed my billing information to expire and did not renew it.
So bye bye ebay. It was fun while it lasted but I can’t afford you anymore.
I consider the Twilight Zone TV series one of the last remnants of creativity in science fiction progam material. Most of those episodes presented original ideas and stories. Most of them were good too.
I am refering to the first four seasons of the program only because that is all I have familiarity with.
Now I can become even more familliar with those episodes. I Have finally managed to digitally store all the episodes aired in the first four seasons of the program.
Over 100 episodes taking up space on 17-4gig DVDs in the form of mpeg2 movies. They are cataloged, indexed, and ready to be transfered back to hard disk to become a Twilight Zone video jukebox. All I need is 100gig hard drive, something not all that uncommon or expensive.
Your favorite entertainer or sports figure shows up on TV and proclaims he would not use anything but ’scratchy’ underwear. Why? Well, because the label has lots of colorful fruit on it.
Later, in a very personal interview on some cable channel, you find out that this person does not wear underwear of ANY kind.
What just happened?
It is called making money. Fame is great but it wont pay for things. When you are famous you need lots of ‘things’ and they all cost money. Money you may not have but that is okay as long as there are people out there willing to pay you for the use of some of your fame.
Are all endorsements of product by famous people fraudulent? Nothing is 100 percent, not even fraud, but if the person is being paid to say something, most likely it is going to be something the guy providing the cash wants him to say.
So the next time you see an actor, or singer, or athlete expound on the virtues of products and services requiring specialized knowledge for evaluation don’t be taken in by the unqualified endorsement. Rather realize that if the sales department of the company providing the product believes you are unsophisticated enough to fall for sales tricks, they may be willing to take advantage of you in other ways as well.
‘Based upon communication with a usually reliable source…’
Note the clever use of usually. They are telling you that this may not be reliable. There is no detail about the nature of the communciation and they will not divulge the source. In short, this may be pure crap.
(Anyone know what pure crap is before it is purified? Come to think of it, I am not familiar with the purification process either. Most of the stinky stuff I step in is ordinary crap.)
A more realistic opening statement might be, ‘Based on our need to sell news, attract advertisers, and boost our ratings we offer you this cow patty’.
As the problem with spam became more and more severe people began to fight back. Nowdays, the majority of serious email users filter their email and have the software remove and discard anything that might even remotely appear to be spam.
So, if you want your email to be received, you need to be careful that it looks like a genuine e-mail and not something from a spammer.
You may also want to check and make sure you have a subject and fullfilled ALL the requirements that turn a bunch of words into an official E-Mail worthy of taking up bandwidth.
Missing subject, poor grammar, atrocious spelling, bad language; these are things that may very well convince people your email may not be worth reading.
Holy War
Holy sh*t!, some people really are screwed in the head. What could possibly mess up a person enough to have him declare’Holy War’?
Think about it. Those words, holy and war, should never be used in a sentence, at least not by reasonable, normal, peace loving, people.
How important is your private information? Do you concern yourself with privacy policies on various websites? Ever bother to read one of these policies in its entirety? I can save you the trouble. Basically they all say that the people you are dealing with can use any and all information you give them for anything they see fit.
Privacy policies merely protect others from prosecution. It is a legal disclaimer. Should you incurr some sort of difficulty regarding disclosure of your private information, they are covered with no real legal liability.
So, here we are again. How important is your private information? If it has any importance at all, dont give it out. If the site you are dealing with requires information for registration, make something up. But that is fraudulent! Indeed, and so is their privacy policy. Goose and gander situation. What works on one should be good for the other.
Let your concience by your guide. Just dont get taken by the nonsense in privacy policies.
If you have ever been frustrated as a member of an email reflector that had a strict ‘off topic’ policy, this blog may be for you.
This is a place that welcomes off topic posts. Comment on anything that is of interest to you. Who knows, it might be of interest to others as well.
Keep it clean. Be curteous and tolerant of others even if they exhibit moronic behavior. Just remember, being moronic is not a career goal for most people. It is a passing phase of inexpllicably poor behavior to which none of us are immune.
No, you dont need to press 1 for English. English is prefered. Good spelling and decent grammar are also welcome.