fell asleep reading

fell asleep reading
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Boy chose this book to read and ended up falling asleep. Too sweet. (he's still six isn't he?!?)

Safari 3.0 works with Blogger!

Finally!  The Rich Text editor works in Safari.  Now I can:

1. Stop using Firefox for blog posts 
2. Show my mom how to set up a blog

I've been running the new Safari 3.0 for, um, 90 seconds now and haven't found any bugs.  Nice.  Other neat thing - the built in spellchecker checks spelling in the 'edit html' view on Blogger.  

How to kill brown recluse spiders

Great publication on how to kill brown recluse spiders from the University of Tenn. Even names specific product names - Demon and Tempo are the highest recommended products.

However, the University of Kansas has found that nothing really works as well as good old fashioned glue traps - they use Catchmaster brand.

Gut Rumbles

Gut Rumbles : "If my blog does not meet your standards, then LOWER YOUR STANDARDS. Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?"
Backwoods hill-scoggin who has a down-home folksy style of writing. Fairly offensive, but still a good read.

More photos from New Mexico

Welcome, eh?
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

I added some more photos from the Memorial Weekend trip to New Mexico - click the picture to the right, check the 'motorcycle touring' set. Enjoy!

W.

Photohosting, blogging

Funny bits - Picasa from Google now offers integrated tools to upload photos from your Mac, even directly in iPhoto. Very nice, very easy. But! There is no way to create a blog post from a photo in the Picasa web interface. Last time I czeched, Picasa and Blogger were owned by the same company.

However, Flickr by Yahoo! (a direct competitor to Google) makes it bog simple to post a photo, caption, story etc to Blogger from any image - yours or other peoples!

Just one of those odd things I've noticed...

The Interstate Highway System: Road to the Future or Innocence Lost?

The Interstate Highway System: Road to the Future or Innocence Lost?: "Missouri was the first state to start interstate construction, with groundbreaking for I-70 in St. Charles County on August 2, 1956. Less than two months later, on September 26, eight miles of U.S. 40 near Topeka, Kansas, became the first interstate highway project completed."

They'll finance anyone these days!

Me and my 2007 Subaru Forester
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

After nearly 80,000 miles the Isuzu was a bit creaky around the edges - starting to leak from the steering rack ($1500), the front differential ($500) and the shocks were worn ($800). And, my divorce decree mandated that I close out the loan on the truck no later than the end of this month.

I thought about going to a finance company to re-write the loan, but decided a better way to clear out the loan was to trade in the Isuzu, and it's loan, for something smaller, more efficient, and cooler.

So, overloaded credit and all, Olathe Subaru managed to set up a relatively nice loan on this new (10 miles on it) 2007 Subaru Forester X. With a sunroof. w00t! Quite a bit nicer than the Isuzu that it's replacing, and nearly double the gas mileage! (and SMILEage!)

Now, where to go for the first roadtrip?

How the other half lives

Had a meeting today in the 'Executive" building where I work. I snuck off for a minute and saw their reception room:

Quartz Composer iSight Prank - O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog

Quartz Composer iSight Prank - O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog

Capulin Volcano at sunset

Capulin Volcano at sunset
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Rode out to New Mexico over Memorial Day weekend. As usual for a motorcycle trip, it rained. And rained. And rained some more. I finally broke out of the rain just over the NM border on US64. The sun was just setting behind the Cauplin Volcano and I snapped a few shots before heading on into Raton to meet the rest of the HSTA crew.

Trying new photo hosting

I've set up a Flickr account for some of my 'best' photos - I'll still do dumps of all the photos to the classic gallery.

Check out the new Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcsporttour/

(update) Wow - Flickr completely fails to suck. Flash-based slideshows. Notes on the photos. Geo-location for photos (put them on a map). Fast simple template-based posting of photos to this blog. (see above).

That sucks so much less than my Gallery software...

Map of internet connections

AT&T map from 2000 - I can't imagine what it'd look like now...


And an un-dated Quest network map...

Damn Im bored

My sweet Alec

Archiving the Past

I found a box of reel-to-reel tapes in the garage - seems to be from 1956 through about 1959. I'm not sure who all is on it - mostly my grandfather and his children it appears, along with some mixed musical selections. It's all 1/4" two-track mono stuff; not the easiest to recover. I got a quote from a local recording studio of $1.00 per minute (!) to copy it over to CD. I thought I may be able to do a bit better job myself; or at least a *cheaper* job anyway.

I got to reading up on reel to reel formats and tapes and more; didn't seem like it would be too impossible. I found several very nice rigs on eBay - for $500 or more! Then I ran across this little consumer grade Sony rig for $70.00 shipped. Not bad - and it even works! Here's the first track I've snarffed off a tape. I think it's RKD Sr. speaking of one of his kids going on to first grade.


So, here's the setup for now - Mac laptop, Grado cans, Sony RTR, and a stack of odd tapes to clear out . . .



(Some people spend their Saturday nights going out to the bar; some going on a date; me? I copy tapes. AV Geek.)


Side note: It's interesting that I can play back 50 year old recordings without too much hassle, but I have video tapes from just ten years ago that are no longer supported - the players are no longer made! Technological innovation keeps on going, I guess . . .

RPN Engineering Calculator - for your PHONE

A real calculator using Reverse Polish Notation, scientific, statistic, financial, graphic analysis, blah blah blah. Free. For your cell phone. Wow.

Calc - Java Calculator: Scientific, Statistical, Financial,
Programmable, Graphing, RPN

Alec likes root beer

Mike relm

Opening dj

You have new Picture Mail!