Comments for Thoughts and other brain dumps

Comment on Continued Conversations With AT&T by NatashaDib

NatashaDib — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:17:25 +0000

How to download X-Rumer 7.0.10 ??
Give me URL please!
It is the best program for mass posting on forums! XRumer can break most types of captchas!

Comment on 2m / 440 Copper Pipe Super J-Pole by Radio 2m | Attackonhold

Radio 2m | Attackonhold — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:08:51 +0000

[...] 2m / 440 Copper Pipe Super J-PoleThe 2m/440 Super J-Pole … I picked up from Radio Shack. The mount is somewhat of a pain to put up and I don’t think it’s a high quality ratchet system on the mount, but it seems solid and doesn’t move. [...]

Comment on 2m / 440 Copper Pipe Super J-Pole by N2UHC

N2UHC — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:00:49 +0000

I’ve been using a super J-pole for nearly 15 years now. You really can’t beat it for a good, excellently-performing 2m antenna. And the best part is they’re not hard to build.

I used a wooden dowel rod between the upper element and the lower element (between the phasing harness) and even though it was coated with epoxy and well-painted, it eventually broke. I solved the problem by splitting a length of PVC pipe and fitting that over the upper & lower elements, with the phasing harness coming out of the split piece. That was held in place by four screws & nuts, though it fit so tight it probably wasn’t necessary. Since at my new QTH my antenna mounted near trees, I painted it with camouflage colors and it’s nearly impossible to see next to the tree.

Comment on A day of random distractions tops itself by Evan 'JabberWokky' Edwards

Evan 'JabberWokky' Edwards — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:20:52 +0000

You are correct. An excellent story! I’m glad the snake took the rat along rather than fleeing when you moved it.

I especially appreciate the random encounter tables. I’m also glad you had the Dex to use the makeshift snake hook.

Comment on A day of random distractions tops itself by Wes

Wes — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:28:16 +0000

I believe, but am not a snake expert, that it’s a common garter snake.

Comment on A day of random distractions tops itself by Mom

Mom — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:20:15 +0000

Oh good Lord – a snake and a rat. My two worst ickies. Glad the two became one. What kind of a snake is t h a t!

Comment on Death of a Server by Wes

Wes — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:09:16 +0000

Bill,

I actually have off-sites for most critical things. Like photos. But there is a delay while “I process, copy, etc”, photos I’ve just taken. I think I may change this process to include “backup right away” now…

And you’re right, UPSes aren’t fantastic. But they’re still “better than nothing”. I’m still fairly confident that it was the PS itself, but you’re right that there was always the chance it wasn’t.

Personally, I think we should do 12V around the house and have a converter at the edge. The DC lines in a house should be short enough to limit the voltage drop to a reasonable amount.

Comment on A day of random distractions tops itself by Wes

Wes — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:04:06 +0000

I’d prefer snakes over rats any day, any place!

Comment on A day of random distractions tops itself by Jimmi

Jimmi — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:35:39 +0000

Yeay snake! I would like a few of these in my yard, to go after our local rodent population… and yes, as long as they’re not rattlers, I would prefer snakes in my attic to rats in my attic, any day…

Comment on Death of a Server by Bill Broadley

Bill Broadley — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:44:53 +0000

Youch, yeah happens. I’d replace \electrically isolated\ to offsite, especially for photos. Ship a dsl/cable enabled friend/family a driver, or backup to S3 or something. Use rsync, one of the rsync based, or duplicity (if to s3).

Sadly UPSs provide minimal if any protection against spikes unless they are the more expensive, heavier, noisier, and hotter fully online variety that continuously puts the power from AC -> DC -> AC again. Of course powerstrips are even more limited in their protection. To test just unplug your UPS, if you hear a loud click then it’s not online and you can hear the latency between power flicker and UPS switch over.

Hmmm, there’s a big loss going from ac -> dc -> ac -> dc (wall -> ups -> power cable -> power supply. I wonder if laptops run online… if so a usb drive connect to (and powered by) a laptop might be significantly more reliable than a usb connected to a desktop.

BTW, typically only the 2.5\ drives can be powered by USB.

Not sure a surge that destroys a power supply, motherboard, and down the molex connect to 3 drives is going to stop just because it’s going over USB.

Where any other computers online, in the house, and fine?