Filed under: Uncategorized — jmac @ 3:49 pm
Well, picked up Robbie. Jared and Jeremy, 2 younger first-cousins-once-removed (my cousins’ kids) went along.
Trip down was great, bright and sunny. Trip back was blizzardlike, 40-60mph winds, snow, etc. Not a huge deal, even with my rather worn all-season tires 55-65mph had comfortable control.
But… people lose chains on roads like that…. so I lost a tire. Nearly completely lost a tire. Car jerked right slightly, then left, then went straight. Bit of a thud. Figured ESP/AWD had just dealt with a patch of ice as was happening from time to time. Then there was the odd sound. And the odd smell.
Now… my car was not originally setup for the all-season snow-going aspects of life. My spare is a summer tire rated to 186mph. New top speed: 25mph. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the tire yet (and am too tired right now to get up and photograph it) and no one thought to take phtoos of the replacement in 30-40mph winds and blowing snow.
Other photos follow, many are from a rest stop we stopped at to grab the camera.
Filed under: Uncategorized — jmac @ 10:10 pm
I now have a black macbook again. It has been shipped but delayed by the storm. It’s a core 2 duo. Kinda nifty.
Apple “found” my macbook in their warehouse… it was shipped overnight more than 2 weeks ago. They also responded to my BBB complaint stating that they will not issue a refund as that is not covered by my warranty. Forget the fact that my computer has been unusable or not in my possession for as much time as it has been since I purchased it and that I had to purchase a replacement as a result.
Dear John MacDonald,
Thank you for contacting AppleCare.
‘The Apple warehouse has located the packages you returned. Within
one business day, AppleCare has sent a notification to have the
replacement product released. Tracking information will be sent to
you as it becomes available.
If you have questions, please contact the agent with whom you made
this agreement. If you do not have the agent’s contact information
please call 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273) with your case ID.
Sincerely,
AppleCare Specialist Admin Team
Apple Notice of Confidentiality: This communication is intended ONLY
for the recipient(s) identified in the message, and may contain
information that is confidential, privileged, or otherwise protected
by law. If you are not the intended recipient, please disregard this
communication and notify the sender.
Well, the great storm of 12/2006 was fun and exciting. Power’s out on Snoqualmie, I wandered down to my parents’ place. My car suffered a bit, I took photos to post tomorrow.
Filed under: Uncategorized — jmac @ 6:32 pm
Well, dropped OLSR and went with just WDS, network is in 2 pieces (Sundance East, Sundance West) but everything works and goes through wifidog. Eventually we are going to go to just 1 DSL connection, so it’ll all be unified then. Maybe slowly add more equipment to reduce the WDS congestion at some point.
Check it out at wifidog.hyakdev.com
I post this message from behind the OLSR network here.
The funny thing is that I know people must have implemented exactly what I want to do before, but I can’t find anything on it. So, I’m flying a bit blind, but I have it mostly working, sans a lot of features I want to get in.
I’ll document it all when it works. Wifidog is up too.
Picked up 2 more Buffalo routers today, flashed one to OpenWRT, will flash the other tomorrow. If this works, that will give me 4 locations with routers, one at each corner of the building.
I’ve also chosen OLSR instead of WDS. In part because I like it better, and in part because I want more experience working with it.
I’ve also decided to go with a donation based system. Equipment cost was about $275, monthly it’s about $80. Now, I’m the one using a fair portion of that monthly cost, but other users will diminish my capacity to some degree, and the other equipment is unecessary in general.
If I add the wifi based phone in the lobbyish area, that’s another $200, but all equipment I have on hand.
Going to suggest a $5/day or $15/month donation, I think, but not block anyone not paying, unless their use is ridiculous.
I’ll add another post tomorrow (ok, later today) with how things are going.
Filed under: Uncategorized — jmac @ 12:28 am
Currently (yes, at almost midnight) watching the movie Silent Hill. Based on the video games of the same title.
I have never played the videogames to any large degree (I’ve rented, but do not own them) so can’t give a complete comparison, nor have I finished watching the movie. But, I thought I’d make some comments anyway.
Both the games and the movie are rather creepy. No doubt can be said about that.
There’s a big difference though that I am seeing with the movie. In the movie I am an observer, not only of Rose, the lead character, but of her husband. The multiple characters are necessary to advance the requirement of a movie plot, but pull you away from feeling just the sense of what is happening to a single character, and so far, also outside of the terrors of Silent Hill itself. The other difference is that in the games, you are the lead character. Many gamers even interchange the charactername/pronoun (she in this case) with “I” from time to time. “Yeah, I was playing through and I went and did this or that.” In the movie it’s all happening to someone else, scary yes, but not me, in playing a game, it’s all happening to me, the player.
The difference of immersion is what I feel the movie is unable to provide, and therefore falls short, compared to the games. The feeling of the game can not be replicated in the motion picture medium. Tough luck.
Still, enjoying the creativity of the movie.
