Boston Red Sox mystery

I won a bunch of Boston Red Sox postcards on eBay. All were labeled except one. I thought it might be Felix Mantilla, but I am not sure. If anyone knows who is pictured on the postcard below, I'd appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.

Surfin': Tubes, Groundhogs, and Software Defined Radios

This week's installment of Surfin' has three topics: tubes, groundhogs, and Software Defined Radios. After you read it, you can leave your comments (if any) here.

Surfin': Brew Your Own Software Defined Radio, Revisited

"Brew Your Own Software Defined Radio, Revisited" is the title of this week's installment of Surfin'.

Read it here, then come back here and leave your comments, if any.

bad apple

My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I. My second, a kit, was the Timex Sinclair 1000. My third was the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100. In 1984, I bought the first Apple Macintosh computer and I have been a Mac guy ever since having owned a slew of Macs that served me well.

My current Mac is a 17-inch Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz "Aluminum." It's hard disk gave up the ghost in November, but I won't hold that against. I've lost a number of hard disks over the years and I expect I will lose others in the future (I do a back-up daily, just in case).

However, another problem occurred in the fall that is making me reconsider my allegiance to Mac. It seems that a batch of 17-inch Powerbooks manufactured in Shanghai in April 2005 have defective screens that begin breaking down 12 to 18 months after their date of manufacture. The defect is the appearance of one-pixel-wide vertical lines on the screen. One line showed up on my screen in the fall and now there are four.

The lines are very distracting and I expect the problem will worsen because most 17-inch Powerbook owners have it a lot worse than I do (see what I am talking about here).

The straw that is breaking this camel's back is that Apple is refusing to recognize their manufacturing defect and recall the defective computers for a fix. Instead, they are recommending that owners fix themselves at $1000 a pop for a new LCD!

Surfin': Becoming a Pipsqueak

"Becoming a Pipsqueak" is the title of this week's installment of Surfin'.

Read it and post your comments, if any, here.

snowless no more

We made it to February 2 before we experienced a real snowstorm. Between 6 PM and 11 PM, we received about 4 inches of snow.

Last night, it was great snowball-making snow, but it lost something overnight and this morning, it was not very good snowball-making snow.

Surfin': It's Groundhog Day Again!

"It's Groundhog Day Again!" is the title of this week's installment of Surfin'. Read it here, then come back here and leave your comments (if any).