Friday, March 27, 2009

Who Is Arming the Mexican Drug Cartels? by Michael Gaddy

Who Is Arming the Mexican Drug Cartels? by Michael Gaddy:
"This week, Secretary of Homeland Defense, Janet Napolitano, announced a new plan to curb the alleged flow of weapons from the US into Mexico. This program, which will cost the overwhelmed US Taxpayer another 700 million dollars plus, includes machines that employ what is referred to as 'virtual strip search.' This plan will supposedly slow down the number of guns traveling south from the US to the drug cartels in Mexico. If this program has the same success rate as the government’s efforts at stopping the flow of contraband north into the US, the Mexican drug cartels will have nuclear weapons by the end of April!"

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Airport Extreme error (-5) after firmware upgrade

I upgraded my Airport Extreme to 7.4.1 (74100.25) firmware and immediately after the upgrade Airport Utility reported "An error occurred while reading the configuration. Make sure your Apple wireless device is plugged in and in range of your computer or connected via Ethernet and try again. (-5)"

Additionally the wireless would not assign a valid IP address to my MacBook Pro.

I resolved this by connecting to the Airport Extreme via ethernet. Then I launched Airport Utility and chose File - Configure Other. I entered the IP address (10.0.1.1) of the device and my password. This brought up the configuration options. I chose from the menu "Base Station", Upload Firmware. This presented a list of firmware choices and I chose 7.3.2. The downgrade completed and I was able to use the wireless again as well as normally configure the Airport Extreme via wireless or ethernet. No more Error -5.

I found this information in the Apple Discussions forum.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

True Colors

British government environmental ministers are showing their true colors, aping the Earth First line that people are a parasite on the planet, and the population must be reduced. (link to google search; work firewall won't let me view their site)

How much? 30,000,000 people in Britain alone - about 50% of the population. Assuming you extrapolate that out, that's around 3,000,000,000 'excess population' that needs to be removed to match the planets carrying capacity.

Stalin would be proud.

Oh - sorry - we can't "treat the world’s population as a homogenous unit, as deep ecologists so often do." Only the industrially developed nations need to be de-populated, in order to match the carrying capacity of the planet.

Any volunteers for depopulation?



OK, this really isn't news, it's been bandied about by Malthusian and growth sides, as well as the NWO tinfoil hat crowd for years. The interesting bit is that it's an official government position statement, rather than tweedy academics or gun-toting art-bell-listening tweakers bringing it up.

EPA takes first step

EPA Takes first step toward outlawing deadly carbon dioxide dumping; setting it's sites on even more dangerous Dihydrogen Monoxide.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Land Hurricaine?

No, just a wicked low pressure front. But wow - what a cool radar image! Snagged at 7:15 PM from weather.gov


Er, make that under the bed


Er, make that under the bed
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour
Sam the Dog, sleeping and hiding from the wind

Sleepy day


Sleepy day
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour
Alec is off school today, i am working from home. Alec is sleeping on the bed in the office, Random the Cat is under his arm, and Sam the Dog is asleep on the floor.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

Matt Taibbi writes this excellent article clearly explaining the basics of what the hell just happened: The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Twheel

Fancy. Getting closer to the crazy AI powered wheels from Heavy Weather

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Tiny microphone for iPod Touch

Switcheasy announces thumbtack-size iPod mic | Accessories | Playlist | Macworld: "The microphone plugs directly into the headphone jack of compatible iPods, letting you record audio using either the iPod’s built-in voice-recording feature or, in the case of the iPod touch, third-party software."

Yeah, but will it work for using the Touch as a VOIP phone?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

National Pi Day

National Pi Day? Congress makes it official | Politics and Law - CNET News
: "Washington politicians took time from bailouts and earmark-laden spending packages on Wednesday for what might seem like an unusual act: officially designating a National Pi Day.
That's Pi as in ratio-of-a-circle's-circumference-to-diameter, better known as the mathematical constant beginning with 3.14159.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and 'engage them about the study of mathematics.'"

Friday, March 06, 2009

Sam and Snowball


Sam and Snowball
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Yaesu VX-8R and Motorcycles

At first glance, the new Yaesu VX-8R Ham radio looks like it's perfect for motorcycle use. Waterproof, receives DC to light (530khz to 999mhz) APRS built in, etc. But one problem - in order to use the APRS, you have to either plug the GPS puck into the microphone jack, or use an external speaker mic with a slot for the GPS puck. In order to use the HT with external mic and speakers (like hooked to an Autocom) you have to hook an adapter dongle to the microphone jack.

The adapter dongle doesn't have a provision for the GPS puck - so no dice running APRS and using it with your Autocom.

Now it does have a Bluetooth option coming out, so it may be possible to use Bluetooth for audio and transmit, while having the GPS puck attached to the radio. We'll see . . .

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Sam the Dog Howling

Got lucky today and Sam was howling on the deck while I was sitting here with the camera ready.

New Photos Up

Finally got around to copying the photos from the camera and uploading them to Mylanders. Below are links to the new albums - click the photo to check out the rest of the pictures!