anything dealing with *NIX or what ever I want to write about
Not sure how I feel now that Sun is no longer Sun. Kinda weird watching the Oracle web cast of their purchase of Sun and what is going to happen. One thing I can’t understand is they are all wearing badges saying “We’re Hiring!”. But yet they let go SO many good Sun employees. I just don’t think it is going to be the same old Sun that I have used since 1994.
RIP Sun 1982 – 2010
Why is it that every-time I make a new UHF antenna to see if it works, we have a good tropo DX available? Tonight I tried to make a UHF yagi antenna specifically for UHF51 (WTAE TV 4) since it is usually the one that had the most signal, even though I could not get it all the time. So I spent about an hour making the make-shift antenna, hooked it up to the amp and the converter box and instantly had about 75% signal strength on it in my dining room. I thought wow that is awesome. So I went and grabbed the little Radio Shack Yagi that I had (rated for about 40miles) and plugged it in, damn it, it works too for just that one channel. So the test will be tomorrow when the tropo effect goes away if my home-made one still works or not. If it does, I might try modifying it to get some of the other channels.
The yagi was made using calculations on this site: http://www.k7mem.com/Electronic_Notebook/antennas/yagi_vhf.html. Since I was making a “tuned” antenna, it was basically only for one frequency. To find the frequency, I used http://www.csgnetwork.com/tvfreqtable.html and used the bottom number for the channel (i.e. 692MHz for Channel 51).
Also to see when DX’ing might be good check out http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html
Just released, another exploit to Internet Explorer 6 & 7, that allows “hackers” to install software on your machine… What do the major Antivirus people say:
“To minimize the chances of being affected by this issue, Internet Explorer users should ensure their antivirus definitions are up to date, disable JavaScript and only visit Web sites they trust until fixes are available from Microsoft,” Symantec said.
How many mom and pop’s out there even know how to disable java script, and only visit sites they trust? Let alone make sure their antivirus definitions are updated. I have seen some virus trick Symantec’s AV in to thinking the definitions were up to date, and then I go to find hundreds of virus’ on my parents computer. This is just another reason why building the web browser in to the OS is a bad thing and why it should be sandbox’d off in to its own little area.
Went last night with some friends to see Avenue Q. For those who have never heard of it or seen it, think of Sesame Street for adults. It was a blast. Some how we ended up with front row center seats. If you ever get to New York city, London or select city’s in Australia you should really see it. (Assuming that adult humor does not offend you.) They also have some national tours going on right now which would be another way to see it.
I was so surprised at the number of kids that came with their parents. It was clearly labeled as not for kids, yet I saw parents bringing their kids assuming that since there are “puppets” that it was a kids show. If they didn’t find out in the first couple of minutes that it wasn’t a kids show, they surely found out when they did the bit about how the “Internet is for Porn”.
Some links for Avenue Q:
This weekend I went to the southern part of West Virginia ( 37°38’15.41″N / 81°56’16.29″W , Mingo County) for a memorial for a Co-worker/Friend who passed away on October 21, 2009 from lung cancer (he was a non-smoker and only 33 years old.) This was the first time I had been to the southern part of the state (furthest south before that was Charleston). It was hard to tell that they had major flooding there back in May ( youtube video of floods). It is more of a shock to see how people live down there compared to where I live. Some of the most shocking is the sheer number of mobile homes (aka trailers) and the bridges that go over little creeks to their home. Those bridges look rather unstable to me. The other interesting sight was that in one small town I drove through there was a church that actually had a 6 foot tall fence around it with a fenched gate for the entrance to the parking lot. I always thought church’s were supposed to be an “open” place, but this present it as some what of a private church. Interestingly the house right next to it was completely fenched in as well. So I can only guess that it was a high crime area? Another site I saw, and didn’t get to take a picture of it, was a house that looked like it had caught on fire, but they hadn’t demolished it yet. It was leaning so far to the left it almost looked like it was going to fall on the house next to it.
The other weird thing is that the mountains are so steep in that area, that there is no cell coverage and it made my XM Radio cut out. And if you ever out for an adventure in driving, drive the stretch of road east on US-52 from where WV-44 meets US52. There is a reason they call it Horsepen mountain.
Probably about the closet video to represent some of what I saw is Jesco White Dancing Outlaw on youtube.
Finally just one to take a moment to mention that my Friend served his country for 11 years in the Navy. I had only known him for a year through work. He was a great person and will be missed, but never forgotten by any of his co-workers or family.