k2h

spring update

2008-05-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

for archives sake, i'll update the blog. I've been in SoCal now since last september. continuing on the MBA. I took 1 class in the fall (business law), 2 over winter (2 hrs each, workplace spirituality and social entrepreneurship. both require for the core program) and one in the spring (MGMT 691 Management Strategies / Policy Analysis). I have found that as I move from one MBA program to another (UNR) its hard to remember the classes i've taken and show proof. a transcript isn't enough these days, and i really need to be saving a copy of the syllabus for records sake. when i applied in the current program they wanted to know more than a title and grade could provide. whats wrong with stupid transcripts anyway? if schools need more, then put more in there. oh well. A's so far. employer is still paying, (up to $3k a year i think) but since jen teaches there I get 16 credits a year for free or something. not alot of time to take more than 4 credits at a time anyway. The less I care, the better the grades. its been all A's down here. I do go to class, and I do read (right before the professor calls on me) and I do prepare (the night before an assignment is due or there is a presentation), but nothing like I use to do in Engineering.

Work is work. to much work and not enough leadership. I'm now recognizing that most companies are reactionary and despite the need for true business planning and forecasting, no one has a crystal ball and NO ONE really knows what they are doing. Business is starting to turn out to be a bit of a disappointment (Written from the point of view of a scum sucking bottom of the rung operations manager) I have 4 employees. we can build a box and sell it for $25k in a little less than 1/2 a day. we spend the majority of our time looking for parts, fixing poor quality designs and fighting a paper based inventory / rework process. for the life of me i can't figure out why any company would structure itself this way? I'm stuck in the middle and i can't figure out how to fix it. an ERP system will start definition in June, but i wasn't even invited to participate. I had to remind my manager (director of operations) that yes, the test and calibration group, THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE SURE IT WORKS before it goes out the door would like to be involved. stupid.

I ran the first tank of biodiesel (B40 blend). i'm sure that will clog the filter / water seperator. hopefully it doesn't give out when i'm far from home. If I donate my labor, and we get the oil for free, the cost for methanol and Koh is amounts to around $1.50 a gallon which isn't to bad compared to the $4.50+ for diesel at the pump. i've started looking into how to pay tax on homemade biofuel. i'll check into that again when i care more.

The clutch sensor on the bike isn't working. I wish BMW would have caught that last time they serviced it. it means if you stall in traffic (happens about once every few months) that you have to peck for neutral to start the bike. it can be done, but its not the safest thing. for the non riders out there. a bike will usually start (turn the starter) when yo have the bike in neutral, OR have the clutch pulled in. typical ride speed is between 80 and 90 down here on the freeways. thats much faster than i was use to in nevada and has taken some getting use to. with all of the lane splitting and nutjob wacco drivers out there it is a little higher no the danger scale than i would like. who knows, i may have to give the bike up after kids. jens talking kids now. who was it that said 30 is the big year?!! who where you! i wish i could remember. at any rate, you were right. the negotiations (i mean discussions) have begun.

some of the utility costs are actually lower in socal than in reno, NV, so that was a nice unexpected surprise.

we are about 98% done with our painting. 3 rooms were painted. the Pink room is now a sand color with cinnamon accent wall. the purple room with hidiuos stripes is now sand color with a chocolate accent wall, and the 3rd room that was never painted is also the sand with chocolate accent. i can't say i'm super crazy about the colors, but I am really happy to have it done. My artistic taste is inversely proportional to my engineering education and experience so I try not to stall progress to much.

As was shown on nerdy, the lawn looks like its taking. we have plans for the back yard. fruit trees and what not, we just haven't made it to far yet. the next door neighbor liked to offer friendly advice on our new home and was glad to see we got our first home! I Had to kindly inform him its not our 1st home, its our 4th. that didn't slow him down on the recommendations for redoing the backyard, how to kill termites, and how to work with the neighbor behind me who didn't complete a retaining wall and now there is erosion under the fence. after my first attempt to look mildly intelligent i just gave up and let him educate me on this whole home ownership thing.

theres one thing I have learned, and that is you can't learn from somebody if your talking. even if you don't think someone has something useful to say, you'd be surprised what you can learn (or accomplish) if your just quit talking and listen.

update

2007-08-08T22:45:00.001-07:00

I never post here any more, cause the nice folks over on nerdy tales let me post there. heres the update. I'm on my second 'leadership role', instead of assemblers, I now have 7 engineers working under me. I no longer have 3 years left on the MBA, i'm down to just over a year left.

I completed a 150k service on the TDI VW. new timing belt, new serpentine belt (i screwed up and didn't change it when i did the 80k service, so i got a whoping 150k miles out of the serpentine! it was pretty much SHREDDED when i pulled it off. yup, i got my money out of that one)

I put in a new brass impeller water pump, the orgigional had a plastic impleller. i'm still undedecided which is better, but i shelled out the high dollars for the brass (roughly twice as expensive) so i might as well use it. changing the water pump invovled a gallon of new coolant. i was smart though, and saved a little of the old stuff when I was draining it and sure enough, the gallon of new stuff wasn't quite enough, so i topped off with the stuff i saved. i'm just so proud of myself on that one to have the forethought to think before doing! (wheres some wood, i'm feeling the urge to nock on wood as i'm sure i've just seriously jinksed myself )

I advanced the timing slightly. the car revs better now, and i'm hoping my mpg will increase from 47mpg to over 50. we'll see.

that was 3-4 nights in the garage. no mishaps, just elbow grease. thanks for the help dad.

new cabin air filter (kind of expensive)
new air filter (cheep)
new fuel filter (busted the nozzle off the bottom when I was admiring it, but it still works)
new stretch bolts, new seal on the vacuum pump

todo: change the glow plug harness, clean the N75 solenoid. whatever that is. decide if i'm going to change the struts or burn another set of tires (hey, 150k miles on 1.7 sets of tires isn't bad. if i burn the rest of the rubber i have, i'll be looking for new tires next spring) i'm leaning towards another set of tires, and then look at struts in the 215k mile range. i'm thinking if i do struts, i have to do alignment too, and if I gottal do all that, i might as well do a 1" lift on the front. and if i do ALL THAT, thats another $500+ into the car that I don't absolutely have to do. so i'll just wait.

wheel alignment

2007-01-07T15:33:00.000-08:00

the alignment may be a tad off on the VW, i'll read more of alignment later

google spreadsheet

2006-11-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

you'll have to excuse the horendous inappropriate use of the GIF format, but my paintbrush is missing the JPG filter on my 'other' machine... the one 'not at home'. anyway, I post this to point out yet another effective way of converting something to PDF, which seems to have become THE document format if you want to send info across platforms. check out google spreadsheets ohh.. wait. upone closer inspection, it looks like it has now become google docs which probably has pseudo word capabilities as well. awesome.

1150 around the world

2006-11-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

Bunkiesadventure.com 30 countires, 21 months on an 1150GS

G 650 X Challenge

2006-11-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

I just ran across one of BMW's next bikes for 2007, (this bike and its 2 brothers are listed under enduro, and 'urban' respectivly. I must say. it looks ALOT like jens XT225. it looks like fun, but I must ask, what are these guys thinking? it better have a price around the XT225 and i'll buy 2, but if its more than the 650GS, forget it.

dynamic DNS

2006-10-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

its been a while since i've needed a dynamic DNS host, but next time I need one, I'll get mine from afraid.org

asian cookware

2006-10-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/ gives some interesting ideas, many passive reflectors which means i don't have to solder anything. i like that idea.

sum

2006-10-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

from mathpages.com quotes

I do hate sums.  There is no greater mistake than to call
arithmetic an exact science.  There are hidden laws of number
which it requires a mind like mine to perceive.  For instance,
if you add a sum from the bottom up, and then again from the
top down, the result is always different.
                                 Mrs. La Touche, 19th c.

I think I get this one. I'm so proud of myself.

ok.. a few more. I do so love these

Your manuscript is both good and original.  However, that which
is good is not original, and that which is original is not good.
                                             Samuel Johnson

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the
time to make it shorter.
                                               Blaise Pascal

book binding

2006-10-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

one more post before I leave the world wide web of freedom for the night. I clicked on my own advertisement on this blog (cause it looked interesting) and found that lulu.com does book binding! $5 binding fee, .02/page for BW and .15/page for color.

seems WAY REASONABLE compared to what i heard a special someone tell me their thesis cost. yeah.. its not 8.5x11, but it is a book. check it out.

spam central

2006-10-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering, why is it that the email address I have on this psuedo-anonymouse blog (k2h.admin) have LESS SPAM than the email address I don't publish? compare the 55 to the ~150 I have in the other account. maybe I clicked delete and forgot or something. this just seems antiintuitive

open office solver

2006-10-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

found an open office solver here I'm working on yet another pipe dream model for stock prediction. (think simple linear solve plus asin(wt+b)) it'll never work, but I gotta find someway to make a free dollar.

background check

2006-09-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

for my notes, http://adpro.com/ seems to do pretty good background checks.

sarcasm

2006-09-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Mental note: when having a fight with a coworker, NEVER, EVER under any circumstance call the person and leave a message stating you dislike the person. probable outcome will be that the phone is brought in as evidence, the message played to a HR representative, and you will be cited with unprofessional conduct. the result? skip 3 levels of displine, and you find yourself dazed and confused wondering what happened.

better method? have a one on one argument with someone, hash it out. and then its their word against yours. no witnesses (just a little blood if the situation warrants)

is what makes this particularly painful is it happened to one of my best people.

result to business? best person gives 2 week notice.

housing blog

2006-09-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

housing-boom.com

two equations

2006-09-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

two unknowns
it is to save me 10seconds on homework.

gmini 120

2006-07-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

we are prepping for our trip and pulled the Gmini 120 0ut after a prolonged sleep. we fully expected the battery to be completly dead, or worse yet not work at all due to a year of neglect, but it worked perfectly and the battery still had a charge.

should I need to work on this baby later, i'm putting a note to self that more info is available HERE

mastercard?

2006-07-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

I got my new corporate credit card (mastercard), called to activate it, and was transferred all over the system until a person finally picked up and said the computer systems were down and they could not activate the card. they then proceeded to ask me if there was anything else they could help me with.

hmmmm....... let me think, your a technology based company, and YOUR COMPUTERS ARE DOWN.... no.. theres nothing you can help me with india.... thankyou.

On The way out

2006-07-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Today I had my 6 month evaluation, as if once a year isn't good enough, they break it down into 6 month intervals now.basically it boils down to the department I work for is black listed and 'officially sucks' as viewed by the upper ups, and everyone that has control over the destinies. I'm viewed as having too many HR problems (either personally, or direct-reports that have HR problems, i'm not sure) and am given a ranking of LEP, least effective performer.in GE lingo, thats you suck and need to find a new job.I'll run limited damage control before the alaska trip, and continue when I get back, but its starting to look like the smog is more appealing.

photography

2006-07-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

i found a very good article on basic photography. I keep forgetting to keep an eye out for a very low Fstop lense, just so I can see the difference.

Fin. Management

2006-07-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I get my $600 back! (work reimburses me if I get a B or better) I passed my class that I took this summer. I am now officially 1/3 done with the MBA. THis was the best class i've taken so far and I got to learn how to use a new (to me) style calculator. the HP 10BII financial marvel with 80's technology. I highly recommend ANY class from our fine instructor Sheri F. from UNR. by far the most educated, helpful and entertaining instructor (phd) we'd had thus far. I think she will be a hard one to top and i'm not saying that cause I got an A. I deserved a B, and would have been happy with that. the class was great!

wiki on a stick

2006-07-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

wiki on a stick is an AWESOME implentation of wiki! I have been looking for an easy way to create and maintain simple FAQ and HELP pages for my direct reports at work. most people use an archaic system of crappy word .DOCS that look terrible, print terrible, and are horendous to create. I had resigned myself to writing straight HTML and using my less than steller style to put it all together.

I started reading up on wiki. I found out about wiki from wikipiedia.org, an online user generated repository of information. afterall, if you can't find what you want in google, its probably in wikipedia. as I looked around, I found complex database driven wiki's, and thats not what i'm interested in. I want something simple, easy, and fast.

This implementation lives in a single HTML file. the base file is around 50kb. no servers to install and maintain, and nothing to setup. just start clicking and creating. Thanks WIKI on a STICK!!

*note, a similar program,
tiddlywiki may be more feature rich, but seems bloated to me.

troubled employees

2006-06-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

My direct reports are extremely troubled. my office door is always open, mainly because I live in a cubicle and don't have one. I was lending an ear for about 6 hours straight today, and finally got to lunch at 3pm. I kid you not.

notes for next weeks staff meeting

handy google search
cnn.com annoying coworkers
usatoday bannanas

hp2 - thunderdome

2006-06-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

The other day I did a ride with a few buddies from work and one of them made an observation about the bike, that I feel has been the best complement so far...

"...your bike looks like it came straight out of thunderdome"

if you can't get enough of the movies, try reading some of this to tie you over until you can watch it again.

headset - cheap

2006-05-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

jen and I found a set of these for $30 @ compusaincludes two radios, two chargers, two headsets, and the radios use an ultra small li-ion battery. who knows how the life will be, but it looks like a good cheap first pass effort for helmet to helmet comm. has built in VOX, which does actually work. not sure how resistant to wind noise it will be, but you do have to speek a little loud to get it to turn on so it does stand a chance. you can use the PTT button with the headset (can turn vox on and off) so its a pretty good all around product. no subcodes, but for $30.. i'll give it a shot.

for you paintballing gurus out there... this just might be the ticket!

hp2 - other half

2006-05-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

on the way home, one of the two bungee cords holding my trunk bag on snapped when I jumped a curb. I had just left the parking lot and someone honked so I turned around to see what happened. as it turns out, the person that honked is a Temp worker that just started for me, any way.... I stopped, found one half of the bunjee cord and the pulled a spare out, tied it back down and headed off for my 40 mile commute. when I got home, I found the other half in my spokes. on the way home I thought the rear brake felt a little inadequate, and it was because the rubber inside the cord was melting to the disk. it looks like no major damage done, but remember, always look for the other half!

helmet headsets

2006-05-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some research on headsets for bike to bike communication and come to the conclusion that there are only two that are potentials for what I need. both are bluetooth solutions, the idea being that BT connects your helmet headset to a (FRS) radio which does the actual communication between bikes

1) Motorola HS830 pros: has intercom mode (for rider/passenger link), so you don't have to have another box to do the transfer, and can dock in general headphone pod to use for other things. Cons: suppose to have connects to side of helmet with sticky, so not transferrable from helmet to helmet, also does not include generic BT receiver to attach to the radio, so that would cost an additional $30-$50

2) Cardo Scala-Rider pros: clamps on to side of helmet so easy to transfer, AND includes BT receiver to plug into phone (or radio hopefully). Cons: read one report of the ultra thin speaker rubbing too much on the ear. looks like it only mounts on the left side of helmet.

this baby (complete headset and receiver) goes for $104 from tiger direct thats a pretty rockin deal considering for alot of the systems just the mic and speakers are $70 or more.

I'm getting close to ordering one. someone talk me in or out of it!

.. no boundaries....

2006-05-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

I was riding through the capital and noticed they changed the banner across the street. the banner changes all the time, usually telling of local events or initiatives in the city. this one read "hepatis knows no boundaries" and had 5 or 6 pictures of people of various demographics, old, young, male, female, and varied race.

what better way to say WELCOME TO OUR CITY than to put a banner out like that. at least it gives you fair warning about the kit kat ranch

reverse engineer

2006-05-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

found here, one firm does a little talk on the subject. if your company has has crap for documentation, buy a clue and get it documented before you fire the employee. This was why I had to do so much travel last year.. to reverse engineer for 'the sister company'. too bad it didn't influence my review or raise.

Ironically, many companies come to us not to reverse engineer a competitors product, but to reverse engineer their own designs, because they have poor or no documentation on their product, because their current design firm or manufacturer refuses to release it, or because they have lost a key employee.

Many companies learn the hard way that there is an inherent conflict of interest in using a contract manufacturer (CM) to do design work. If you retain a contract manufacturer to do the design as well as the manufacturing of the product, there is little motivation for the (CM) to give you accurate documentation, enabling you to use a different manufacturer if you become dissatisfied at a later time.

cheap VOIP

2006-05-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

I ran across a circuit here to convert mic/speaker to RJ11 for your old crappy cordless phone you have laying around.

from mobilewhack.com

MSP430

2006-05-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

I saw this in nuts and volt magazine. for $20, you get the USB programmer in the shape of a USB flash memory module and an attached daughter board. how cool is that! if your new to micro controller programming and want something to screw around with I'd DEFINALTY start with this baby. cheap and easy.. just like... (comparison deleted) project links
hobby store
MSP430 dev boards

Paddle HP2

2006-05-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

The other day I was riding home and it started to rain. I was on a section of divided highway with two lanes of traffic going my direction. At about 75 MPH I look down just in time to see i'm running over a paddle that fell out of a boat being towed by a truck a few vehicles in front of me. it kicked up and flew into the lane behind me, but no damage to the bike or me.

lessons learned:
1) dont' follow the vehicle in front of your too closely, there may be a paddle in the road
2) for all those times you've followed a vehicle and wondered to yourself "what woud happen if that fell out of the vehicle", don't wonder, change lanes.

google reader

2006-05-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

i'm ready to save some time, and join the modern era of pulling content. i'm finding i'm having to click alot to get the info I need and most of the time its a dead end anyway?

so... thats a long and drawn out way of saying "i'm sick of clicking on everyones blog just to find there is no new content"

the solution? google reader. for our blogs, just ad a link of /atom.xml to the end and theres the reader feed. now all I need is the RSS feed link for dan and sarahs blogs. then it will be 'one click' reading.

maybe I can share my starred items. oh wait. thats if I highlite something I like. I was hoping that would......... ah never mind....

google page creator

2006-05-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

pages.google.com also known as google page creator seems to have gone live now. I thought I'd give it a whirl. the nice thing about google is once you have an account it lets you into most all of their stuff without having to create a new account for each service... I really like that

view my test here

can change layout independent of content, instant saving, click a 'tell friends' button and it starts gmail with a link in the body.

limitations
can't drag and drop photos exactly where I want. you can drag around, but they snap to what ever boxes you have. i'm not sure how to use the GUI to format the txt AROUND an image, but they are getting there.

where do i upload a real file? real content, not just a picture. I was really hoping I could use this to publish real data. oh well.

free MS

2006-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

I think someone already posted about it, but I can't remember, so I'll just post about it. it seems MS is giving something away now? it was suppose to be an introductor thing, limited time, but it was so so successful microsoft is releasing 'hobby / student' versions of their compilers for FREE. dubbed the 'express' versions, it gives the average joe a reason to persue closed source offerings over open source. to note, the accompanying coding4fun website. one interesting place was the TextToSpeach site on MSDN here that said vista will have much better support. I think I should setup a service to digitize textbooks and then convert them to usable to txt to speach so people can listen to their class material on the commute

a friend at work already loaded it up and wrote a few things.. I may have to do the same.

hp2 tires

2006-05-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

I have about 1600 miles on the stock Metzeler Karoo's. I've run them at normal street pressure off road and haven't had any problems. I haven't done any extremely rocky terrain, but have done some deep sand and I made it without crashing, so for me that means they are fine. I don't notice the nobs on the street, and cornering is fine. I really like these tires, i just wish they lasted longer. I'm not a very agressive rider on or off road, so at most i'll probably get 1.5x the miles on these that most will. maybe double.

I was talking with the parts guy at sierra, and I think I'll move to the Metzeler Tourance Tires for the next round. should be perfect for the AK trip with tread to spare (burn) when I get back.

I was also talking to the parts guy about patching tubeless and he said best to carry a 21" tube. that will fit the front and can be crammed in the back if need be. you can get tubeless repair kit and can be used for the rear (he got 1500 miles on one repair) but warned against any use in the front. just not worth the chance. the tubeless repair kits say limited to 30 miles at 37mph so the disclaimer indicates they are extremely temporary.

at this point i'm kind of torn... I know I should carry at least one tube, but to use it that means i have to bring tire irons and possibly a bead breaker?. another unfortunate difficuly in the HP2 is the lack of center stand, so road side tire repair could be very challening. hmmm....... what to do.

BMW in AK

2006-05-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through bmw dealers in 2006 and found 2 dealers in AK! cool. if we have problems (of course not with the HP2 =).. just limp to the finish line. one in Anchorage, and the other in Fairbanks. The website for the Anchorage shop links to alaska.net/~bmwclub which will probably be worth a read to put the finishing touches on planning for the trip.

hp2 gear failure

2006-05-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

first failure on the HP2, and i'm glad to say it wasn't because of anything I did. The gear indicator in the instrument pannel and the netural indicator light both went out. the neutral indicator wouldn't work at all, but he gear would show during up shift and crusing, but as soon as the clutch was pulled, or downshift, the indicator would go blank.

took it into Sierra BMW, and didn't want to press them, but instead of demanding immediate service ask to schedule a time to take the bike in. they had me wait a few minutes and then hooked it up to the machine. while they played with it I shopped for tires. $350 for tires.... ouch.. including mounting. i REALLY hope I can coax these tires to 6000 so I can get the next ones brand new for alaska. i'm going to go to something a little less agressive to ensure I can do the full 6000 to alaska without any trouble.

turns out, the failure was a loose electrical connection, probably both at the sensor and into the main computer. they have some name for it.. something like hspk or something.. can't remember. but they cleaned it with air, put dielectric griese on it and relearned the potentiometer settings for gear positions and its fine.

took about 1.5 hours from the time I pulled up because they were finishing some other work before they got going on mine. also got the factory update tire size sticker installed.

one other fault in the computer, something about loss of speed data, probably in line with the intermitten wiring contacts. that was cleared and i'm sure won't be a problem.

either no one noticed, or no one cared I patched the side of the valve cover with $2 epoxy. I was kind of wondering what they would say but no one mentioned it.

rock lake

2006-05-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

$25 bmw motorcycle

2006-05-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

anyone want a bmw for $25? seems the local shop does a raffle each year. a 1200gs went out last year and you don't have to be present to win. tempting. it is nevada, this may be gambeling I could live with.

flikr

2006-05-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

in one of my MBA classes the instructor mentioned flikr, as in its the best place to plagarize pics for a presentation. sure enough, check out the hp2 pics

I was hoping to find some ideas for rear luggage but came up short. I guess i'll have to truly design it myself.

hp2 vs 650L

2006-05-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

XR650L Mine has a 5 gal tank, and a soft trunk. this is some random picture of the net to give you an idea what an XR650L is if you've never seen one.

mine has the offroad kit, (plastic on the bottom of the heads) again, some random pic off the net

dad got my old xr650L up and running. I think he's going to take it to work off and on cause the starter on his truck is going out. he came by tonight and I let him ride the hp2. he had trouble even tiptoeing so all he did on it was street.

I rode the XR650L and impressions are it feels smaller than jens XT225. yup.. it felt like a pocket bike in comparison to the HP2. I was shocked how much smaller the XR650L felt. its only been 3 months since I rode it but I guesse i've grown into the HP2. I've got about 1400 miles now, and have been doing 5+ miles of deep sand on my return from work. its some work, but the bike can do it. totally impressed, the HP2 is exactly what I want

summer is here

2006-05-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Summer is here. and if your not sure if summer is where you are at, heres some ways to tell...

1) did you have trouble turning the sprinkler system on because the key is 2 feet long instead of needed 3 feet? when you did turn it on, did the valve shoot water in your ear.

2)did your lawnmower start on last years varnish in the tank?

3)did you refill your gas can with supreme so you could use the fuel in the lawnmower or the motorcycle?

4)did you let the lawn get so long before cutting it you had trouble pushing the mower through it?

5) does 10 minutes in the sun leave a red mark on your neck / or arm?

6) does your helmet lose visibility due to gnats, masquittos and grass hoppers?

7) have you taken a grass hopper to the the adams apple? [at speed]

8) are your winter riding gloves too hot, but your wife is still waiting to get you $20 summer ones?

9) is the liner in your motorcycle coat too hot in the afternoon AND the morning commute?

10) are you leaving your windows cracked in the car when you park?

HP2 - dropped bike

2006-04-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

about 3 weeks ago I was riding the new bike up a canyon not far from the house. we have had alot of flooding this winter (think torential) and the road I remember was gone, just leaving bad rocks in its place. I had attempted this road earlier this year and had to admit defeat. The first go around I was able to claim defeat without dropping the bike, this time I wasn't so lucky.

I made it past the section I did last time, but stalled out in a little rocky trench. I got my composure and headed on but had a bad start. the front end went up on a rock and I lost it, slamming the right head into the ground. My foot was crushed so I thought had saved the bike! then I find all this gas running out. hmm.......... that can't be good. I tilt the bike back up, takea look at it and determine thats not gas, thats oil. ohhhhhhhh........... thats not good. big gash in the valve cover. exactly where I figured I do it when I did it. now i'm stuck halfway up a bad road with a bike half out of oil and i have to decide.. do I go up, or admit defeat and go back.

defeat? no way. I fired it up and headed up. a few more turns and I hit snow. now snow and mud with a 400lb dirt bike don't quit mix on bad terrain. I slid out and slammed the left head into the ground. since the road was so muddy no damage done, but the mud glob was pretty big.

defeat? turn around. now way. I'm just getting started. I power through the snow and mud, up around the bend and finally hit pavement. about 10 miles of coasting/limping down a paved mountain road to get back home. I did my best to keep from shooting oil out the side but every now and again I had to use the engine.

Damage:
one 'holed' valve cover. its made out of magnesium and BMW likes them alot, so its around $150 for a new one. since i'm pretty sure this won't be my only time on the ground I opt for the 'in training solution' and head to home depot. I got some 2 part epoxy putty for $2 and patched the hole. since then I've got about another 400 miles on it with zero problems. that epoxy putty stuff is DEFINATLY going to alaska with us.

in the end, the real damage was my pride.

hp2 fuel tank - update

2006-04-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

the last word was that the larger tank for the HP2 would be available in march. its the middle of april and i haven't heard much so I thought I'd shoot an email out to HPN and see what the status was, and the reply:

the current delivery time is July for the lager tank - it gaves a lot of problems in the developement, sorry. No price, no picture at this time available.

tech talks by google

2006-03-25T14:58:00.000-08:00

I watched part of the one FPGA's. pretty good. if you miss college lecture, dial one up and learn something.

google engedu

dirt bike <100lbs

2006-03-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I love the new ride, but if i had to pick the bike up alot and didn't ever need to break 30mph an fxbike could just very well be the next ticket.

BMW market analysis

2006-03-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

I did a little paper for my marketing class, origionaly written in word, and I did a 5minute cut-paste to openoffice for the export to PDF. its a little rough around the gills, but the content is there. It has some pictures, and a few sources that pertain to the 1200GS and how the HP2 has been entered in almost every major off road race. my conclusion is that the HP2 is being used to prove the technology of the 1200GS so that the 1200GS can be more closely associated with off road capability instead of the behemouth monstrosity that the 1150GS has turned into and people saw in long way round. I tried a free hosting site, upload2.net, so an we'll see if the link works bmw north american market analysis I have omiited my name from the file, so if anyone is going to reference it, email me and I'll give you my name. the high level page for upload2.net is here in case the first link doesn't wrok. If you want the presentation I used for my 5-min class discussion you can have it. it was just a few slides to talk to abou the history, the current market position, and what my take of the strategy was. my bike is on the last slide. (CTRL-L) is the shortcut for full screen in acrobat

snowshoe yosemite

2006-03-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

We have headed out this weekend to hit yosemite and do a little snowshowing. We left home around 4pm, and got to where we are staying (about 45 min outside the park) at 11:30 pm. We did a nice little 2 mile snow hike yesterday, and took some pictures in the park. today we head back for one more quick round of pictures and then its back home. we plan to stop at the spagehetti factory and get the 'brown butter and mazithra' on the way back. what a great weekend.

hp2 pic

2006-02-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

This ones mine. we went on a little trip to pyramid lake. saw some crusty brain looking rocks at the alkalai lake. On a different note, it takes a special person to race one of these monsters up a ski slope

new job!

2006-02-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

with a title like that you'd expect my smile-ic-on to look a little diferent

I have heard some new rumors that even more qualified people are applying for the new job I applied for. not just your average Jo, but people that are being moved from even higher jobs. so.... yeah... I'm not even a candidate. at this point I'll be lucky for an interview.

sick

2006-02-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

this fall will make 5 years for me at my current employer (who shall rename nameless). in that time i've been sick a grand total of 2 days. that is until this week. missed monday and tuesday, and wasn't going to come in today but I decided unpacking boxes wasn't helping me get better so maybe looking at my employees with blood-shot eyes would perk my spirits.

sure enough, they said 'you look like hell' first thing when I walked in. they all tried to send me back home but then I found I have a meeting with the leader of our ~2500 person business at 5pm.

so..... no going home early. crap.. on top of that I have school tomarrow so I can't ditch tomarrow, and their is holiday on monday, so i'd look like a weasle for missing friday,

thus, i'm stuck at work sick.

[update]
I just re-read this and I am quite proud of the standard typos / spelling I fall prey to. =)

hp2 fuel tank!

2006-02-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

I just heard back from HPN! I'm so happy SOMEONE is thinking about it.

From: HPN-Motorradtechnik GmbH
Date: Feb 9, 2006 12:27 AM
Subject: AW: BMW HP2 larger fuel tank?
To: k2h

Hello k2h,
thanks for your email. HPN develope a larger tank - we hope it can be available at the end of March, capacity ca. 26ltr, price is unknown at the moment.

best regards

Caroline
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: k2h [mailto:k2h.admin@gmail.com]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 2. Februar 2006 21:36
An: info@hpn.de
Betreff: BMW HP2 larger fuel tank?

Do you have a larger fuel tank for the BMW HP2? I wasn't able to find one on your web site, but I heard rumors that you may be in the process of making one. what capacity are you targeting, and how much do you think the tank will cost?

~keith

seems someone strapped a 12L on the backhere

hp2 update

2006-02-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

Call me psycho, but I'm loving the $20k dirtbike, and that is all anyone will ever see in it. I was parked outside taco bell and some old chap walks up and says 'is that the 20k one?'. like I said.. thats all anyone will see in it.

and I am crazy. already had it off road. nothing to gnarly, but through some sand (keep above 40mph..) the thing is awesome!

fuel consumption is a bit of a concern. the specs says 4.1l/100km at 90kmph and 5.5l/100km at 120kph, (google makes it easy) and I can assure you I've been riding it much faster than 65. I'm getting around 40mpg, which is way to little on a 3 gallon gas tank to take it to alaska, so I'm going to have to address that. I really don't want a 2gal can hanging of the back, but thats the cheapest and easiest. if I could increase my metal working skills I could make some dakar style side tanks for it. that would be awesome, but a bit out of my current skill set.

I've got to address the night light situation, and get some cheep 20$ walmart light up there. its nice to know that the HP2 shares the same H4 bulb as the F650 (jens bike). at least I think it does.

one more thing. hand warmers! mom gave me some hand warmers a while ago and I got a chance to use them (the same ones we used paint balling). my commute is about 1hour, and I've done it in sub freezing temps (28degF?) its weird beccause its the wind speed (80mph) that has the worst effect on hand warmth. I slow down to 30mph and pass a sign that says 32F and my hands actually start to warm up.. its weird. its around $400 to add heated grips. it would be nice but i'm not sure its worth the money. I've got to address the fuel situation first.

hand warmer secret: the hand warmers from mycoal grabber are carbon and iron. as the iron oxides in O2 it creates heat. they come in a sealed bag for a reason. to extend the life of your warmers, reseal them in a ziplock. they take a little bit longer to heat up the second go around, but they still work. so far I've used one twice (for 1 hr each time). in theory it should work for 3 or 4 1hr events. they say 5 or 7 hours on them but i'll be happy if I get 4 uses.

The 'cold weather' gear consists of only a few things.

Gloves, some old alpine stars that jens dad got for me when we did our FIRST motorcycle tour thorugh oregon and washington. that was way back when we were still in college. over 5 years ago. maybe 6 now? they are still very good, and well worth the origional 30$ cost.

Coat: mom got it for me for my birthday about 7 years ago. touratech short coat. was around $150. still works great and has a polysters wind proof liner which helps a ton.

Polyester pants, for under the jeans. cost $25 from sierra trading post. well wroth it.

over pants: $20 wind/semi water proof pants from walmart. they actually work quite well.

boots: not realy cold weather gear, as I wear boots no matter what the temp, but full grain water proof boots from target cost $25. I got them for wood cutting a few years ago and they have since been to alaska and back on a bike and still are reasonably water proof. the only thing to take them down to date was kevs game of paintball. I have motorcross boots as well, but not really needed for my commute jaunts. it'll be a few months before I workup the skillset to actually need the motorcross boots off road.

the neck warmer, $15 gift from jen is a MUST. impossible to ride fast in cold weather without neck/chin protection. I have augmented this with wind proof nylon. I a small bag used to keep your round sun shades in the car in. I cut a hole through t he top and it just BARELY fits over my head. put the neck warmer underneath and the wind proof over it and your good to go. oh yeah.. the sun shades were turned into sleds last year and we're still using them for that.

When I show up at work wearing all this junk I've got called quite a few weird things. my favorite so far is 'the ice man'

Crash bars are now avilable from the US distributor and are $300. I priced out the valve covers (what the crash bars protect basically) and they are 130-$150 each, so maybe I'll wait till I 'hole one' and then get the bars.

rant against home depot

2006-02-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

I promised my brother I was going to get him a garbage disposal for christmas, but didn't get around to getting one until way after the holidays. I have a gift card to home depot, so I walked into home depot and explained I want to purchase something, but pick it up at another store (in another state) so I don't have to pay to ship it any where. that makes sense right? part of the leverage of a chain store is that they have stores in different locations that [should] work together to satisfy the customer.

The lady at customer serviced explained she couldn't do that, but there would be no problem if I called the 800 number. I thought to myself 'yeah right' but I proceeded to call when I got home. not surprisingly, the 800# went straight to india. I don't have anything against the india call centers, I really don't, its just that they [the company that contracts with india call center] doesn't sufficiently train or give sufficient power to those on the phone to actually do ANYTHING to help you. they mean well, but theres really nothing they can do.

after about 20 minutes he 3-wayed me in to the store I wanted to pick the merchandise up from (in washington) and we had a little conversation about how it wasn't possible with a gift card, but if I wanted to call and do a credit card order they could handle it no problem. something about how they actually had to SCAN the gift card.

I explained that below the barcode there was a series of numbers that I could give him over the phone, just like a CC and that should work. no-can-do. home depot won't even take their own currency!

I'm a lowes man now. unfortunatly the home depot is still closer to I am a more freqent patron of HomeDepot than lowes. it really tears me up inside when I walk in there Cuase i KNOW lowes is better.

so... kev.. did you get the card?

Gasoline faq

2006-02-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

faqs.org has a great article on gasoline. it drives our society, so why not educate yourself. for starters, oil isn't dead dinos, its dead vegetarian dinos dinner. I thought that was a good tidbit.

For all you people that want to run your engine off of water, I suggest reading section 9.8.2, where it says it is possible. (water mixed with gas of course)

section 10.2 gives some good insite into how to turn a 1.5L honda civic engine into a 1000hp formula 1 racer. very intersting.

other good tidbist:

A complete Octane Rating engine system costs about $200,000 with all the services installed. Only one company manufactures these engines, the Waukesha Engine Division of Dresser Industries, Waukesha. WI 53186.
Also ensure that the service stationstorage tank has not been refilled recently. retailers are supposed to wait several hours before bringing a refilled tank online, to allow suspended undissolved water to settle out, but they do not always wait the full period.
The legend of mothballs as an octane enhancer arose well before WWII hennaphthalene was used as the active ingredient. Today, the majority of mothballs use para-dichlorobenzene in place of naphthalene, so choose carefully if you wish to experiment :-). There have been some concerns about the toxicity of para-dichlorobenzene, and naphthalene mothballs have againbecome popular. In the 1920s, typical gasoline octane ratings were 40-60 [11], and during the 1930s and 40s, the ratings increased by approximately 20 units as alkyl leads and improved refining processes became widespread [12]

applied for new job!

2006-02-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

big news!

I have applied for the next level up job. they gave my bosses job to someone else and this other (lateral) job is now posted. out of about 5 or 6 people I expected to apply only myself and my friend have applied. I'm pretty sure he'll beat me out, but I've got a few things going for me. MBA student, Pro engineering certified, and I'm younger.

sounds weird huh? since when did less experience get you any where? around here they seem to be taking the 'long term' persepective on people and the last few jobs have actually been filled with the younger candidates. maybe they think younger ones are more maulable. thats probably the case, but who cares. better take advantage of it while I still can.

the new job would be leader of the machine shop. about 65 full time machinest / misc. workers report to that leader. lucky for me I know nothing about machinest so when the work gets behind I'd just get a bigger loudspeaker.

maps

2006-02-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

its so hard to get good maps, and good data! all I want is a list of gas stations in north america and an approximate GPS coordinate, I'd even settle for a city name next to the gas station, but alas, all I can find so far is some pseudo accurate search tool demo.kivera.com. I found a reasonable article talking about digital maps on gpsinformation.org

january update

2006-01-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

I have done a terrible job of keeping everyone informed of my activities, so here is my january update.

1) the new bike is awesome. I have not had the time or endurance for 28degF weather to get more than about 100 miles on it, but I'm very happy. the other day a person stopped next to me at the stop light and rolled down the window to admire the bike. he started in on how he had an -80GS in 80's and he made three trips from sandiego to alaska on it.. loved it..... etc.. I get the feeling I'm going to get alot of these stories.

2) I may be applying for my bosses job. she moves to california to oversee another plant and after all the pieces fall back to earth a similar job (over a sister division) will most likely be posted as open. I don't think I stand a very good chance. I will mostly likely be beat out by my best friend at work. but its all good. should I get it, I could be making 20 grand more in about 2 yrs time. its all about the money for me.

3) the new house is great! no major deffects, and the neighbors have temporarily stopped parking in front of our house as the builders have finshed repair work on many peoples driveway curbs. we'll see how long it lasts. the joy of being in a coldesac is that you have tons of curb space, the reality is that everyone thinks since you have lots of curb space your happy to share it with them. I'm thinking of posting a sign out front that says "is your driveway full? why don't you go back and check" but haven't resorted to it yet.

4) we got a new kitty door, but haven't had time to install it yet. I hope the kitty remembers how nice it is outside and starts using the sand pile out there.'

5)school starts tomarrow night. ugggg... I was able to clep out of one class, but this other one, marketing managmenet, it for sure going to suck. the teacher already assigned HW before the class started, and the lab fees are pretty high, and we have 40$ of supplimental material to purchase.... on and on........ yeah.. it'll suck.

6) people keep getting hurt at work. usually its not a big deal, if its people that work for someeone else, but I own about half of the recent incidents in an 800 person plant. the joy of overseeing hourly employees. they mean well. but they arn't all.. well.... theres no polictially correct way to say it so i won't.

and this.... this is the end of my 5 minute lunch. until the end of next month.

~keith

Human Genome

2006-01-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

anyone remember the big human genome project? cancer still isn't cured, but i'm sure there will still be big advances made from it. I found some visuals on homosapien genome view that seemed pretty interesting. well, as interesting as biology can look to an EE.

patents

2006-01-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

every now and again I want some inspiration. why come up with something origional when you can just borrow an idea from freepatensonline.com the US gov use to have a patent search but it sucked. this one seems to actually be usable. check it out.

paris-dakar

2006-01-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

here is a day by day update on the 2006 paris to dakar race. it looks like this year there are a few F650GS's competing as well as a modified VW toureg II (I didn't know they had a second version) I think someone died yesterday. I havne't figured out who or why yet, but I'll keep reading.

hp2 gearing

2006-01-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

this is so I can figure out what 5000RPM is without a Tac. I calculated it with info found in the manual. I figure its probalby wrong but with 10 miles on the bike it seems I may have got close. it passes the 'smell' test anyway.

links

2006-01-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

nerdy tails
things i drop
Ambition Run Amok
k1h
prairie home
simple ramblings
Wanderings..
Something Epic
Kseb.net
HP2 forum

hackaday

freeware
imagefap
google videos download
Post Pics
Post files
Bt
BT-btjunkie.org
BT-TVrss.net
BT - grizzly
BT - torrentspy
CR
crackteam
logons
pushfile host files

hp2 manual
hp2 parts
bmw gear

erzberg Rally

2005-12-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

I love rally racing. soop up a WRX, slide it around corners until you roll it. Thats the kind of fun the entire family can learn to love. thats kind of what I thought I was going to be watching when I fired up a clip from what i think is the erzberg rally. found on advrider.com.

I think think this is what one of the guys was trying to tell me about awhile back where they race out of an open mine pit. looks brutal.

sat maps

2005-12-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

more arial (sp?) sat maps. check out windows live local powered by virtual earth.

BMW HP2

2005-12-21T21:05:00.000-08:00

I pick mine up on dec 30,
watch an early version in germany here
watch another race

gmail spoof

2005-12-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

Like a sucker, I fell for this one, the link is not a link to gmail.com, it is to redscream.com, I suppose to fish for account passwords. if you get this one, don't click it.
------------------------

Gmail@gmail.com to me More options Dec 16 (23 hours ago)

This is an automated message from The Gmail Team. Please do not reply!

Our bot has detected that your account has been inactive for about 2 months.

This information may be wrong, because the bots are still in beta stage. So
if you are still using this account please click link below and verify.

http://www.mail.google.com/mail/?

vrfy=3DDQAAAG0AAAD129VxFL5IuCb0DVL
UKGtdfAgm6xFWJZi2GtdfAgmkB8hglfH8u

We are terribly sorry for any inconveniences.

Thanks,

The Gmail Team

$500 for less

2005-12-12T15:59:00.000-08:00

We are purchasing a fridge for our new house. something in the vacinity of $1,000 seemed semi reasonable so we targeted that price point. we came up with a very nice fridge. before purchasing it we drove down to the developer and measured on last time. we decided 10 inches of sticking out was a little excessive for a fridge, so we looked at getting one that wasn't quite as deep. how much does less cost you? in our case $500. now we are paying around $1,500 for basically the same fridge, just not quite as deep. gotta love that.

vw relay update

2005-12-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

a little update for all of my avid readers. I replaced the relay 109 with the real one, and with great reverence retired the switch hack job to a semi-safe location in the boot (trunk). this go around it was as easy as three Torx T15 screws, prying plastic around on the bottom of the dash, removing the large bigger relay bellow 109, replacing 109, putting large big relay back in and screwing it all together while forcing the plastic to fit on the underside of the dash. all in all, a 5 minute job. so...... in good car fashion, I'm sure you thinking whats wrong now? well.. the drivers side door has begun to squeek again. its winter, and its cold, and since I have boycotted the dealer the door has never been greased in its life. someday I'll have to grease it... but not today.

macro lense

2005-12-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

I was reading slashdot and ran across how to make a macro lense from a pringles can. it seems the pringles can is the new duct tape, or the new zip tie, or something. the results were astonishing, I give you a ballpoint pen.

WRT Firmware

2005-12-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

a little rundown of links for me that covers some of the available firmware for the WRT54G

www.dd-wrt.com
openwrt.com
sveasoft.com $20 subscription
sourceforge wifi-box
batbox

VW stops

2005-11-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

It started about two months ago. I would be driving the 2000 VW TDI Golf down the road and the engine would just STOP. It happened about once a week (500 miles). In the last few days it has become much worse. one day it happened 3 times on the way to work (50 miles). I'm not sure if you've looked at your daily commute like I have, but after you start having to look at a place like you have to make an emergency stop, it gets pretty scrary. I did a little reading on the net, and it looks like it could be one of two things. Injector pump (800$?) or Relay 109, the main relay that applies power to the ECU and a few other circuits in the car. if you have a TDI, make sure you head on over to tdiclub.com those guys are awesome. so I pulled out the torx screw driver, took a few bits a and pieces apart off the dash and ripped out relay 109. I called up the local VW shop, and they said the relay weas $28 (I thought it use to be $150, but maybe the price went down). conveniently enough, it was a special order part. hmm.... strange. any compentant shop would have a part that is KNOWN to be defective in stock so people arn't stranded. if your in reno, looking for a good vw shop, just keep on driving. Lithia VW is WORTHLESS.

I pulled Relay109 out, and proceeded to solder a bypass switch in the event it failed again, I could just flip a switch to bypass. I got that all soldered up and installed right before the big Turkey-Day trip. we didn't even make it out of town and the car failed. I flipped the switch, it started right up and were off!

if you find yourself needing relay 109, head on over to dieselgeek.com to get your own very own replacement Relay 109 for $16. I got mine shipped to our Turkey-day destination and we'll install it half way through the trip.

Sold

2005-11-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

We are officially homeless

purchased wrt

2005-11-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

wrt54g overview
I stopped by good old compusa and picked up a V4 WRT54G. approx $45 after I get the money back from the mail in rebates. not a great deal, but not a bad deal. gives me something to play with over christmas.

I've gotta go off on a tangent about compusa. as one of my instructors says "i'm getting up on my soap box" (and then make gesture for size/shape of box, and then 'step' onto said box). Compusa is sub best-buy. bestbuy sucketh because they bought geeksquad and made geeks even lamor than they already were... as if thats possible. what kind of geek drives his girlfriends BUG. thats no way to run a business. pasty geeks never see the light of day and then you stuff em in a car like that and no one will ever let them out in public again.

oh yeah.. compusa. so why is compusa sub best buy? becuase their parking lot is CRAP. yup. you heard me. here in town it is the most ghetto parking lot around. I never felt I was impressed one way or the other painted asphalt, but let me tell you, after you see the decaying lumpy turf these guys call a parking lot you want to puke. I actually had to look twice at the store as I was sure the banner out front was a going out of business sign. I made it through the door and was greeted by geeks only slightly above the tallent of 'the squad' at the rival yellow electronic store.

I found the isle with the router and they were sold out. not wanting to admit defeat so quickly I spoke with 'customer service', and yes, that does need to be in quotes, and no the thought does not count. they said they had 68 in invetory even though none were on the shelf. turns out they don't stock them on the shelf, they stock them k-mart style on a shelf way up in the middle of no where where you actually need some little ladder to get them down.

I got mine, and like an idiot forgot the serial number list to cross reference the serial number to board rev. I looked all over the box for a version and couldn't find it. I figured it'd be version 5 (vx works... pass on that) and asked the cashier if I could take it back once opened if it wasn't what I wanted. they said I had 21 days or something. so when i purchase it the guy scans the serial number on the outside of the box!! I was like wooooo... hang on man. why are you tieing the serial number to my name (I always pay with credit card, maybe I should re-evaluate that). He actually didn't take it too hard and explained they have alot of people that purchase one, swap it out for a dead one and return it. chalk one up for the getto compusa. I can live with that but I still don't like the serial being tied to my name. oh well...

first impressions:
I'm thinking this is the router that dan had. I can't remember. its about twice the size of my netgear (i have two of those). I think it runs a little hot (had it on for 10 minutes), and the default IP is 192.168.1.1 instead of the more traditional 192.168.0.1 that my netgear ones come with.

is it a keeper?
yup.. I haven't put new firmware in it yet, but since its a verion 4 it is suppose to be linux based so I'll be playing with openwrt. it has two antenna slots (switched, not truly dual) with standard connectors. my thoughts are to run power and cat5 on a pole and mount this baby and its new antenna on a pole and see how far I can go. theres some fun antenna designs (see cantena bellow) so I'm looking forward to that. I'm thinking worst case I could actually canabolize one of the antennas that came with it to use the connector, and then tell openwrt to just use the slot I plug a good antenna into.

I actually got it up and running and dialing my SBC modem in about 10 minutes. the stock FW doesn't seem that terrible, despite what you may read.

for grins and giggles..
a funky omni design
more antennas
I knew I wanted the dish!
antenna modeling

WRT54G

2005-11-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

I've been reading about the linux enabled router, and it seems I've read about it before but I must have forgotten about it before I had a chance to purchase one. for when I decide to get one, I'm giving a list of links to open firmware (linux) for it.
version 5 of the unit uses VXworks so don't get that one.

from here
CDF0 = WRT54G v1.0 / ADM6996L Chipset
CDF1 = WRT54G v1.0 / ADM6996L Chipset
CDF2 = WRT54G v1.1 / ADM6996L Chipset
CDF3 = WRT54G v1.1 / ADM6996L Chipset
CDF5 = WRT54G v2.0 / ADM6996L Chipset
CDF7 = WRT54G v2.2 / BCM5325EKQM Chipset
CDF8 = WRT54G v3.0 / BCM5325EKQM Chipset
CDF9 = WRT53G v3.1 / BCM5325EKQM Chipset
CDFA = WRT54G v4.0 / BCM5352E Chipset
CDFB = WRT54G v5.0 / BCM5352EKPB Chipset --

inside the wrt54g(s)
HW that openwrt will run on
wiki wireless bridge
openwrt.org
batbox.org
sourceforge wifi
*wrt54 basic hacking*
asus WL-500 has usb functionality as well

cantenna

2005-11-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

here it talks about the cantenna. I have started to move utilites as we are moving and SBC wanted to peg me with a $200 'early termination' fee for moving my dsl. I explained to them that we would be moving out, and the service would sit idle for 1.5 months but I was happy to pay the bill and not receive any service at all. they said the DSL had to be tied to something. so I suggested tieing the number to my cell phone and they didn't like that very much.

in the end, after 2 days of back and forth on the phone, we found that it appears we can cancel our current service, and as long as we APPLY for new service at the new place within 30 days we don't get charged the early cancelation fee. BUT, we are still stuck with a service contract. at least it's down to 6 months instead of one year. I'm seriously considering just paying the month to month rate (probably $5 more) and then canceling as soon as I find a nice neighbor to share broadband with.

its high time we build wifi networks like bittorrent. it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a system where people can share their connections for free, or set a flag to sell their bandwidth. theres a $1 a month connnction fee for all that want to be part of the network, and you just set what you want your bandwidth to be worth if your selling, and if your the leacher you set how much yoru willing to pay, and boom. instant network, everyones happy.

mesh networks:
tropos 5110
plugnplay solutions
communitywireless.org
mesh with WRT54gs
WRT54 open
openwrt.org
mesh discussion
locustworld.com

Smashed

2005-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

A friend at work got rear-ended on the way home last night. I was driving home and was coming up on what appeared to be someone waiving over traffic because a car was getting a tire changed, but when I passed I saw it was my friend that had been hit by another guy at work. that makes for a real awkward situation. everyone was ok, and the saturn is stil drivable, but the ford ranger that did the hitting seemed almost perfect. a little tweek on the front bumper resulted in a completly caved in trunk on the saturn. So... those of you with saturns (*caugh* DAN/Sarah) when a ford ranger is coming up quick in the rear view, move over.

Internet Score Card

2005-10-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

I guess the 'net had some troubles yesterday/today? with help from the internet score card we can see who's stock not to buy.

OOO 2.0

2005-10-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

for the tech impaired, it looks like today marks the release of openoffice 2.0 its actually very useful even if you use it for nothing else than its single 'print to pdf' feature. I remember way back when, when I started with the predecessor to office 95 and it sucked. to bad this wasn't as advanaced way back then and none of us would be in the proprietary microsoft bed with a very useful, but very pricey office suite.

225 all of america

2005-10-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

loisontheloose.com is about a chick from the BBC that rode the 225 from alaska to the tip (or as close as you can get) of south america. pretty cool.

Gypsies

2005-10-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

in todays staff meeting I announced that this years halloween thing is Gypsies. I let them know that I never participate in things like this and that there would be no cash awards this year but they were free to participate. I made the mistake of showing them in the staff meeting where a picture of me was and they mutilated it. I love the people that work for me!

flexible paper

2005-10-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

I'm glad they are still working on the flexible paper I'd use this.

color lasers watermark pages

2005-10-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

I was reading some news articles about how some color laser printers actually watermark the pages they print with information. some CIA conspiracy for anti money making or something. this guy modded his scanner with a whole bus of blue LEDS so his scanner could see the watermarks. pretty cool!

'da throne

2005-10-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

something tells me it may look better with the throne attached. and yes, the new house is wired with cat5. they used it to also run the phone circuits. so I bet I could terminate with an RJ11 AND a cat5 end. I betcha I could even fit two phone lines AND a computer connection in there but whats the point. we'll be on voip in a few years anyway. dan, you need to let me know how VGA over cat5 cabeling works and how long your run was.

hire / fire

2005-10-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

at times, I think I have the worst possible job in the world. I have to hire people. which seems like a pretty straightforward task. find someone qualified, and give them a job. well our temp service, and yes I will say their name so you can all AVOID them, ADECCO SUX. they do not screen for valid candidates. I will not go into specifics lest someone does not agree with what I consider the BASICS of a qualified candidate, but they are not doing their job. they are not screening for what we ask. they are not administering the health and safety tests that we request. they suck. the contact person they gave me at adecco is someone that thinks she is to high and mighty to talk to me so I never get a straight answer when I talk with her. she ingores my requeests, and ignores the requests of my other co-managers that talk with her. they are idiots.

so.. the hiring sux, but today I found the firing sux as well. its not really firing when you just ask for a replacement temp, and for them to take back one that they sent you but it still makes you feel all icky inside for telling someone they wern't worthy, as if a $9 job doesn't have 99.9% of the population qualififed right off the bat. the upper ups expect WAY TO MUCH from this level of employee, and these poor guys give way more than they should for what they are compensated for. I don't let that out due mostly in part that I don't want a severe mutiny on my hands but its the truth. the person I let go actually called me after she was let go (the firing was done through proxy) and I was honest and told her areas to improve upon. I was actually glad I got to talk with her. hopefully I'll help her in the long run to be a more productive person. yeah.. thats a bunch of crap. is what it really comes down to is she was a 9$ person. no more than we were offering, and the company wants a $20 person. how do you tell someone its not their fault? it really isn't. its the crushing power of the big machine.

end of rant.

new description

2005-10-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

I had to change the description of the blog. it now more accuratly reflects my limbo-ness in society.

fraps

2005-10-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

fraps seems to be a halfway decent screen (movie) capture utility. it appears to be targeted at gaiming but I was able to successfully use it to capture some flying around I did in world wind 1.3 and then try to convert to xvid to play on a xvid compatible dvd player. it almost worked but I screwed the codec up on the final conversion but the idea is sound. now I gotta find some way to free up my 150gig. I really am trying to figure out why theres only 500meg on this machine. maybe it IS time to reformat. with limited space the capture time is severly limited. ohh.. if you do use fraps, get it registered (i'll leave the method to you) as the record time is unlimited then. I was really hoping that dvd shrink would do the conversion for me, but that seems to only work on dvd's (very well too). so I moved on to virtual dub which seems it needs more than 30 seconds to perfect and learn. powerful, but not a simple sit down thing, as proof by the fact that my final result looked awesome in media player classic but like CRAP on the philips DVP642. at least it played. its not the 642's fault. I screwed the conversion up. of that I'm sure.

suprnova?

2005-10-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

any remember suprnova? seems somone is capitalizing on the name.

free codecs

2005-10-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

free-codecs.com has a plugin to play real media wihtout realmedia player.....

Bittorrents Bram Cohen

2005-10-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Fortune did an article on Bram Cohen. It looks like he somehow started a company with 8.75 million in startup. I use to think thats alot, and it is, but its not as much as I use to think it was. I'm really glad someone is giving him a chance to capitalize on his success. The bittorrent technology has definatly changed the face of the 'net and Cohen should be duely rewarded.

I LOVE the ending to the article. 'always more puzzles'

3d engines

2005-10-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

some more 3d engines
irrlicht
a little link page on irrlicht
free programmingresources.com
doom remake
Jdoom

30 gigs

2005-10-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

so, if your one of the few who thinks Gmails 2.5gig isn't enough, maybe you should hop on over to 30gigs.com and fatten yourself up.

sucky games

2005-09-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of stupid games. if get about 10x more bored than I currently am (which could happen) maybe I'll get an engine on devmaster.net and entertain myself.

maybe vterrain.org will help with modeling the hikes and motorcycling i've done. that could be fun.

gps tools for DEMS and STMS 3dlinks.com

motard

2005-09-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

stupid stuff to do to an xr650. I use to hate the pavement, but after about 10k miles from around town, commuting and the last trip to alaska i'm starting to get a nack for it. the big problem is deciding what kinda bike I want for the next trip.

options:
1-1.5)1100 or 1150gs BMW
2) some street bike
3) convert the xr650L to more street worthness and leave it sit where it stops in alaska

people thought I was stupid with option #3 but given my desire to reamain not poor #3 is looking more and more interseting. i'm sure the riders I go with would dis own me... that could be a problem if the bike does stop.

credit cards

2005-09-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

I found this linked from one of the news sources I read. If i'm bored I may watch it and see what it has to say. credit (and the protection of information) has been an interest.

World Wind

2005-09-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

I found World Wind on sourceforge.net. it seems it may be just the tool i've been looking for to render earth elevation models (including SRTM). should be fun to play with. I hope it allows me to overlay tracks and it'd be super awesome if It would allow little flyby movies, but thats probably a bit hopeful.

mt. St. Helens

vlookup

2005-09-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

I continue to be amazed by the power of a modern spreadsheet. during some random surfing I ran across a tutorial for open office that talks about Vlookup and gives and example of application.

millions

2005-09-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

after running through some misc. stuff on the net, we stumbled across Millions an english film that was well.. different. We very much enjoyed the photography, as well as the music. the plot line was sincere and family values based for a change. but check out what this IMDB reviewer had to say about the director

Millions reinforces the fact that Danny Boyle cannot be pigeonholed as a director. One does not expect to see the director of acclaimed drug abuse and zombie movies come out with such wholesome entertainment.

hasbro projector

2005-09-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

here it talks about a 300$ projector targeted at kids...