Archive for June, 2006

iPodding in the rain

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

It is pouring rain here this morning. The rain is falling so hard that after I parked the land barge, I readied my umbrella to walk the 100 feet from my vehicle to the entrance of the salt mine.

Just as I am about to turn off my iPod that is playing through the car radio, guess what song randomly starts up next? Now, mind you, my iPod has 6,762 songs stored in it and is programmed to randomly play songs in no particular order. Anyway, the song my iPod started playing was Singing in the Rain by Gene Kelly.

As Mel Allen used to say, “How about that!”

States I’ve Visited

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Texas were just plane changes at airports in Chicago, Omaha, St. Louis, and Dallas-Fort Worth, but I guess they count as “visits.”

create your own personalized map of the USA

Prada Previewed

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Maybe I need to get out more.

Since we got a satellite dish, I seldom go to the movies (maybe once per year). To take a break from last weekend’s deluge, daughter Hayley wanted to go the movies and asked us to join her. I agreed to take her up on the offer if she agreed to drive (I was exhausted from a hot and humid morning of installing window air conditioners for my mother and sister). She agreed and drove to the nearby Loews movie complex in Plainville, which coincidentally sits right next to a Lowe’s home improvement store.

We needed a few laughs, so we decided to see The Break-Up with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston. We bought our tickets and were directed to theatre number 8.

Soon after seating ourselves in the middle of the top row of the stadium seating in number 8, the advertisements and previews began to roll. After 10 minutes or so, something strange occurred that made us believe that number 8 was the wrong theatre.

After a preview for Clerks II, they began showing what seemed to be the opening scene of the feature movie. The problem was that the feature movie was The Devil Wears Prada, not The Break-Up. After about two minutes, Hayley and I both came to the realization that we were in the wrong theatre.

I asked what did she want to do: watch Prada or go find the theatre where Break-Up was actually playing? I just as soon stay and watch Prada. It looked like a funny movie and I hate to walk in on a movie that had already started, which might be the case if we had to leave and find Break-Up.

Just as we were deciding what to do, the scene ended and revealed itself to be another preview, not the feature film. Fooled us!

That was different! Instead of showing a bunch of short clips from the movie, the Prada preview showed one, long continuous scene plunked from the beginning of the movie. (It might be the opening scene from the movie for all I know because I have not seen the movie yet.) Like I said, I need to get out more. I never saw a preview like that one before! (You can view it for yourself here.)

By the way, we both enjoyed The Break-Up.

Surfin’: What on Google Earth!

Sunday, June 25th, 2006

Read this week’s installment of Surfin’: What on Google Earth!, then leave your comments here.

just when you thought it was safe to archive your data…

Thursday, June 22nd, 2006

I found this bit of bad news on digg today:

IBM: CD-ROMs Last Two Years, Maybe Five

Mr Gerecke, IBM expert on data storage. told PC World that two years is about the average life expectancy of a burned disc, and if you keep it in a dark, cool place it might last for five.

Here is the rest of the story.

garden update

Saturday, June 17th, 2006

The veggies have been in the Earthboxes for about 3-1/2 weeks now. We have already picked and eaten romaine lettuce. Meanwhile, the tomoatoes, broccoli, and peppers are doing great, but we lost some seedlings early on due to the poor placement of the boxes under our gutterless eaves. (The seedlings drowned.)

Earthboxed vegetable garden on June 16, 2006

Meanwhile, the roses have gone nuts. The last couple of years, they did poorly with only a handful of flowers blossoming each summer. I had just about given up on them and was planning to pull them up and plant something else. But, lo and behold, this spring, the roses have more flowers then ever before. I did nothing different this year, so I attribute their improvement to all the rain we had this spring.

roses on June 16, 2006

St. Louis monolith revisited

Saturday, June 17th, 2006

Steve Katz, N8WL, e-mailed me about the monolith that replaced the Gateway Arch when I viewed St. Louis using Google Earth. Seems that if you turn off the “3D Buildings” option in Google Earth, the monolith goes away and the arch returns.

Gateway Arch

Actually, it is hard to see the arch, but it’s there… honest!

Surfin’: Ogling the Earth with Google

Saturday, June 17th, 2006
Read this week’s installment of Surfin’: Ogling the Earth with Google, then leave your comments here.

new radio at the WA1LOU APRS digi

Thursday, June 15th, 2006

I am testing a new radio on the air at the WA1LOU APRS digipeater. It is a Yaesu FT-1802M and it replaces a Kenwood TM-621A.

After many years of service, the TM-621A is on its last leg. Its transmitter output is low; I believe that the final amplifier is blown. Also, the front panel no longer lights, so I cannot see any of the radio’s settings including the operating frequency! The radio is almost useless with an invisible front panel, but I managed to keep the radio running on 144.39 MHz for over a year in that condition.

I got a good deal on the Yaesu and I hope it serves me as well as the Kenwood.

new version of Google Earth and the St. Louis monolith

Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

There is a new version of Google Earth and it features 3D textured buildings… just what I’ve been waiting for.

I started Google Earth, upgraded to the new version, and began exploring. The Manhattan and Boston skylines looked great. What should I check out next?

I remembered how impressed Hayley was when she drove by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis on Sunday afternoon, so I headed west. I was in for a surprise. Instead of the arch, I found a monolith with the shadow of an arch. I guess the software could not interpret a curve and thought it was a rectangle. Despite this, the new version of Google Earth is still great!

Gateway Monolith