This blog posts about aviation, automobiles, electronics, programming, politics and such other subjects as catch my interest. The blog is based in northern New Hampshire, USA
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Broadband dies
So I wiggled some cables and started up the hardware troubleshooter program and bingo, the cable became connected, Internet returned, and I could read my email. This lasted for about an hour and then that pesky cable popped out and the Internet went away.
After a while the urge to get on line became irresistible. Maybe it's something wrong with trusty disktop? I pulled antique laptop out of its carry case, unpacked, unrolled, and plugged in the power pack and the mouse, and booted antique up. She was unable to find the house wireless router signal. Argh. Must be something wrong with the broadband.
Maybe that flaky router is finally dying? Router will lock up and refuse to connect until it gets "reset" actually I pull his plug out of the wall for the count of ten, then plug him in again. And, believe it or not, I have a spare router, just lying around the house. So I swap out the router, see the new router's LEDS light up, and go back up stairs to my computer farm. No luck. No Internet.
Well maybe Comcast is down? That happens now and then. So the rest of the day goes by, I go to bed, and next morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I try for Internet. No dice. Windows still thinks the cable is unplugged. Just to be sure I look at the cable again, it's plugged in, but the LED that was glowing green the day before is out. I inspect the router, and notice, the router ain't showing any lights either. I check the wall wart that powers the router and AHAH, it ain't giving out 12 volts like it ought to. It's showing a measly 2.46 volts DC on my new-to-me B&K DMM.
I rummage in my junk box, and wonder of wonders, I have another 12 volt wall wart, and it still works. And the plug matches! So I put the backup wall wart to work, and lo and behold, Internet returns.
Anyhow, that's why no post on Saturday. (Is that a Harry Potter line?)
Friday, January 6, 2012
Polyanna rides again
No talk about how much defense we were giving up. Like how many combat soldiers, tanks, aircraft, and Navy ships the US would have this coming year. For extra credit they could tell us how many we had last year. Nor did they mention the number of dollars involved. Chalk this up partly to the general innumeracy of the chattering classes, and largely to a desire to conceal the size of the armed forces under Obama's new regime.
Citizens who bothered to listen to this drivel learned nothing worth learning.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Science Fiction Project canceled
The project has been going for 16 years, and has consumed $5 billion. Which is a lot of money for a single aircraft. In testing, a few missiles were zapped out of the air, and more were tracked.
Lets hope we obtained $5 billion worth of technological advancements, 'cause we certainly did not obtain a working weapon system for all that spending.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Innumeracy by the newsie's
Then, at least twice, I hear some pundit say "Well, Iowa is full of evangelical voters but New Hampshire is different." Yeah right. Come up my way and I'll show you a humungous bunch of very conservative voters.
No Fly List
Continental Airlines has been on my no fly list for 40 years. I was on a Continental charter to go to Viet Nam back during the war. The plane got as far as Hawaii and made a fuel stop. Then it took off and climbed up to altitude. A few minutes later the captain came on the PA system to announce that something was broken and he was turning back to Hawaii for repairs. And a few minutes after that, the captain came back on the PA system to announce that what ever it was has got well and he was going to press on. I haven’t flown Continental since.
Youngest son is flying to DC and now that we can all book out own flights, he books an 8:30 Continental out of Manchester for DC. So we get on the road in the pitch darkness of 5:30 AM and get to the airport on time. Just in time to find out that Continental had cancelled the flight. “Weather” they said. It was a beautiful clear morning, and the day before had been nice too. If Continental won’t fly in that kind of weather they are Class I wimps.
So they get the boy onto a US Air flight that doesn’t leave til 11:30, has a layover in Philadelphia and doesn’t get into DC until 4 PM. If you have time to spare, go by air.
Anyhow Continental is still on my no fly list.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Nuclear Iran
What to do? Diplomacy is a waste of time, the Iranians are bound and determined to get nukes and not amount of talking will change that. Air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities might not work and they will certainly strengthen the regime and its determination.
There might be a third way. This suggests that the Iranian regime has powerful internal enemies. Surely there is something we could do to help them along. Money, web access, passports, explosives, prepaid cell phones, computer viruses, you name it, we have it. Come to think of it, the Iranians have been having a bunch of serious industrial accidents. Perhaps the Green party has a hand in that.
If we are doing useful work in this area, I hope our leaky CIA and State Dept can keep it secret. A news headline "Iranian Green Party is CIA catspaw" would wreck the whole thing.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Iowa
Well, I have some hopes too. I hope the GOP's most electable candidate wins. That ought to be Mitt Romney. Trouble with Mitt is, he never says anything, no promises to fix what's broken, stop the federal gravy train, repeal job killing bureaucratic regulation, nothing substantive. Mitt has learned that saying anything substantive just makes you enemies, never friends. For any policy issue there are people on both sides. Take a stand, and the people on the other side become your mortal enemies, the people on your side pay little attention. So the safe and election winning strategy is to say nothing at all, except perhaps to declare yourself in favor of motherhood and apple pie. Romney has been that way thru out this primary. It seems to be working for him, but it's hard to get excited about him.
Here's hoping Iowa votes for Mitt.