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Jan. 27th, 2010 @ 06:31 pm Thrice around the pattern.
Current Mood: happy
My pilot's license is clinging to life. I realized on Monday that the 90-day period since I last flew the 172 ended on Thursday, so I hastily scheduled a plane for this afternoon. The insurance companies generally require all renters to make at least one flight every 90 days in the particular type of aircraft. I flew out of Nashua in a late-model 172SP (fuel-injected, very nice). Once I got the crazy nose cover off - it had what seemed like a dozen velcro straps, fasteners, and bungees - the rest of the preflight was uneventful. I just did 3 trips around the pattern, the bare minimum to satisfy the requirement. The SP has a lot of horsepower and I was hitting pattern altitude about the time I turned crosswind. My first two landings were silky smooth, but the third was a bit bumpy... the plane really dropped as I throttled back over the numbers and my recovery was rough. All in all it was a good flight and it put a smile on my face. I have to get a medical exam next month to stay current.
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Jan. 23rd, 2010 @ 08:12 pm Snowmobiling the lakes region.
Current Mood: content
Today the wife and I trailered up to Weird Beach to go snowmobiling. We went out onto Meredith Bay and up to Meredith for gas, then all the way back down, around, and up to Center Harbor. Lake Winnipesaukee is frozen solid and is practically land. There are pickup trucks and ice shacks all over the lake... some of the shacks have propane tanks and heaters going. The lake is big and there are lots of islands... we found it difficult to navigate. From Center Harbor we got on land and went east into Moultonborough, past the Castle in the Clouds, and up to the summit of Mt Shaw. The end of that leg was a great hill climb, although I could have done without the stream of idiots flying downhill around the corners on the wrong side of the trail. After many near misses we made it to the top and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the Presidental Range. We took a different route back to Center Harbor and then bumbled our way across the lake in search of Laconia. We got back just as the sun was setting... it was a good day.

Some friends of ours gave us a telescope that they didn't want a few weeks ago. I've been trying to learn how to use it, but it is difficult. It has a computer to help find things but it's really hard to align properly. I'm not a very good astronomizer and I don't know where things are in the sky. My best observations yet have been of the Moon, which is the easiest thing to locate.
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Jan. 21st, 2010 @ 08:36 pm My trip to Boston Logan tower
Current Mood: excited
Yesterday I did something very exciting... I went on my first Lab-sanctioned field trip and visited the control tower at Boston Logan airport. I parked in the Central Garage and was escorted in the door at the base of the tower. After taking the elevator all the way to the top there are still 60-some steps to climb. As you would expect the tower has a fantastic view of the airport as well as the city. My purpose in visiting was to observe the displays that are currently in use and gather information that can help us improve what we are creating at the Lab. The controllers are quite an interesting bunch... a lot of camraderie, and an uncanny ability to switch between casual conversation and on-the-air transmissions. I observed them at work for about 2 hours 15 minutes, and it was great. I would have stayed all night if they let me, but I didn't want to be a nuisance.

I'm listening to ground control on LiveATC and I recognize the voice of one of the controllers I met yesterday...
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Jan. 3rd, 2010 @ 06:44 pm AVATAR!
Current Mood: enthralled
Stop whatever you are doing and get online to purchase your tickets to Avatar! Wait through whatever line you have to in order to get a decent seat near the middle of the theater. James Cameron just completely owned George Lucas... rumor has it that he now keeps him as a pet with a collar around his neck.
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Dec. 17th, 2009 @ 06:05 pm The Star Wars universe is out of control.
Current Mood: amused
I spent a bit of time browsing on Wookieepedia a few days ago. My conclusion is that the storyverse has been polluted to the point of absurdity. Apparently every crummy video game plot and comic book is considered to be canon, with hilarious results. For example, it is claimed that Boba Fett fell into the Sarlacc not once, but twice, escaping both times! He also fought Darth Vader and shot him in the face. Yeah, OK.
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Nov. 30th, 2009 @ 06:46 pm Mystified
Current Mood: busy
A few months ago Lesley mentioned that she used to be fond of the Myst series of games. I never played them, so when I saw the first three in a $20 box set at Best Buy I quickly bought them. We've been playing them on the weekends for quite a while now. Myst 1 took 24 hours... Riven took a lot longer and seems to be the best of the series so far. Myst 3 wasn't as good and took a moderate amount of time. We are currently working our way through Myst 4, and 5 is on the shelf. I like the graphics of 4... the best yet. On the other hand, there seems to be a bunch of new-age junk that has crept in. Myst should be about levers and pulleys, not dream worlds and monkeys on tightropes!

The most frustrating thing is that we have had to get little hints here and there. Every single time the issue was not brainpower, but the fact that we failed to click on the magic spot to go somewhere or reveal some clue. Even in 4 they have not solved the problem of making the interface intuitive. In the real world you know exactly where you can go and what you can manipulate... the game is terrible at conveying this to the player. I hate having to use the help.
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Nov. 23rd, 2009 @ 07:34 pm House troubles.
Current Mood: busy
The guy who built my house must be the biggest idiot in the world. I've been working on installing a range hood in the kitchen, which is a fair amount of work under the best of circumstances. I was very keen on venting it to the outside, as I've never seen the point of having one otherwise. I punched out the back vent panel and we got the outline of the hole traced. I started to cut into the drywall only to discover a 3" thick PVC pipe directly in the center of the hole. Stepping back to the front hall I realized that it is the drain pipe from the second bathroom upstairs. There's also a stud in the way of where the hole needs to be. The guy couldn't have done a better job if I asked him to center a pipe there... it's obvious he never thought about somebody venting a range hood, even though it was his kitchen design that I followed. I just gave up, patched the hole, and reconfigured the hood to vent internally. I may take another stab at it but it will require cutting up the exhaust duct to fit around the obstacles... I'm not sure if it can be done.
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Nov. 17th, 2009 @ 06:17 pm Open sourcing.
Current Mood: busy
I've taken the plunge and created my first open-source project...
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Nov. 16th, 2009 @ 06:25 pm Skinny Puppy
Current Mood: busy
I found out Saturday evening that Skinny Puppy is on tour, and that they were playing Worcester Sunday night (yeah, I'm out of the loop). I immediately bought tickets and convinced the wife to come along... this is one of those old bands you never expect to see again. I'm glad I went to the show, but it was somewhat of a disappointment. First off, they need to immediately fire their sound guy. I'm pretty sure that Skinny Puppy uses keyboards in their music, but you would never know from the drum-heavy mud that this clown was putting out the FOH. Every thump of the kick threw off the mix and caused a boomy reverberation in the theater space. The stage show was decent, with the theatrics that you would expect, but it seems they are on a budget compared to previous tours. Definitely not the glory days. Lesley was mostly confused by the whole thing (and the terrible mix made it worse) but she did bop a little in the middle of the show.
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Nov. 2nd, 2009 @ 08:32 pm Aviation wins
Current Mood: impressed
Continental and Lycoming are dinosaurs. Mistral is the future of aviation engines.

Garmin once ahead leaps ahead of the competition with the G3000 flight deck. A touch screen avionics system! Makes the Honeywell system in the Pilatus PC-12 look antiquated.
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Oct. 29th, 2009 @ 06:35 pm Flying.
Current Mood: busy
I am going to be a pilot again! Today I did the ground portion of my biennial flight review, and tomorrow I go flying at noon. Working right next to an airport is very convenient... I can cut right through the air force base and get to Hanscom Field in a few minutes. Once the review is out of the way I plan on finishing the complex endorsement that I started a long time ago.
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Oct. 13th, 2009 @ 04:05 pm Building boxes
Current Mood: busy
I spent the weekend at Lesley's house. Water and heat are now fully restored, and we spent most of our time constructing wooden boxes around the exposed pipes. It's not too difficult to put something together out of 2x6's, and once painted they look very nice and conceal the ugly pipes. I also cast a 300lb concrete step in front of the basement door, which will prevent anyone from ever knocking the threshold out again. It's looking like a slight price drop is in order to keep potential buyers looking at the property. I sure hope she finds someone soon and doesn't have to spend winter down there.
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Oct. 7th, 2009 @ 10:47 am Google really is controlling everything.
Current Mood: surprised
Last week I noticed that if you zoom in on Boston in Google Maps (or other large cities) you now see wireframe outlines of the major buildings downtown, labelled as to what the buildings are. This could be a handy thing for navigating an unfamiliar city. I joked to my friend that Google would eventually track all manmade structures.

Today I see that if you zoom in on certain parts of MA you see little light grey lines all over the place. From their layout and orientation they appear to be property boundaries. This is, in theory, public information that you can get by going to your local town hall, but it's pretty creepy to see it on a Google map.
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Oct. 5th, 2009 @ 09:46 am Happy birthday, Monty Python
Current Mood: amused
Today is the 40th anniversary of the first television broadcast of Monty Python!
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Sep. 23rd, 2009 @ 12:00 am Is there any good in the world?
Current Mood: exhausted
I feel like my wife and I are living in some sort of Greek tragedy, where the gods pile disaster after disaster upon some unsuspecting mortal. We flew to Ohio over the weekend for [info]android23's wedding (which was a damn good time, BTW). When Lesley stopped by her house this morning she discovered that the home had been ransacked. The thieves stole her boiler and all of the copper piping they could get their hands on, completely destroying the heating and plumbing system. In order to get in they broke down the basement doors that we just finished working on last weekend. I spent yesterday and today dealing with the insurance company, plumbers, and alarm system installers (plus a hysterical wife). It took some work to get things arranged but Thursday morning work will commence on repairs. My father-in-law and I repaired the damaged doors, reinforcing them substantially in the process. Anyone who manages to get through them will promptly trigger the motion detector that will be watching the basement.

The Providence police, who appear to be the most incompetent buffoons on the planet, appear to have no interest in solving this or any other theft-related crime. The officer who showed up spent barely five minutes on the case, assigned a number, and wandered off without collecting any evidence or doing any sort of investigative work. The plumbers have been telling me that this is happening all the time (although usually to vacant, foreclosed homes, not occupied ones). I'm surprised that the insurance companies aren't screaming bloody murder as they are the ones stuck with the bill. Lesley's is being pretty cool and will cover the repairs as well as some property that was stolen (tools, furniture, kitchen appliances). The realtor is still bringing people through but it becomes an even harder sell when there is a gaping hole in the basement where a boiler should stand. It will be a miracle when this house gets sold. West Providence looks like a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

I'm trying to find out if I am all set to start my new job next Monday. I think all the paperwork is in place but I have not heard a confirmation...
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Aug. 1st, 2009 @ 08:54 pm Married
Current Mood: happy
I'm married. Film at eleven.
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Jul. 23rd, 2009 @ 06:04 pm I'll stick to Java, thanks
Current Mood: accomplished
After 9 days of pretty serious hacking the traffic counter is basically complete. The final hurdle was implementing USB communication between a host PC and the device. This turned out to be pretty complex... I had to integrate Microchip's USB stack into the PIC code as well as purchase a commercial library for Java USB support. I initially tried to use USB low speed but this doesn't work as bulk transfers are prohibited. Once I figured out the speed issue, and some quirks of the PIC memory architecture the communications worked just fine. I wrote a simple GUI in Java to configure the device... I don't have the tools or the expertise to do Windows GUIs, so it made sense. I'm letting the device run overnight to test the full data capture period (24 hours) as well as battery draw, which seems to be high.

After 10 years of Java programming going back to C was quite a shock. What a wasteland that language is! It's very difficult to find things and there is no convenient documentation system. Plus the lack of OO means that functions are just sprinkled about wherever you feel like placing them. I did this project as a favor to my dad but I have no desire to go back to the embedded world any time soon.
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Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 07:05 pm Back to the grind.
Current Mood: busy
Porc Fest was awesome this year. I just relaxed, ignored the bad people, and took everything easy. Well, except for the 4000-footer hike that we did on Thursday up Mt Waumbek. I wasn't too concerned about the actual events and just hung out. Attendance was a new record... I think we broke 500 people. Some of the ladies got together and threw Lesley a surprise shower on Saturday night. She was basically blown away and very happy.

We came home to find out that all of the outlets in the basement were dead. No garage door openers, hot water, water filter, dehumidifier, computer, or internet. I ran some extension cords from upstairs to get things running and called an electrician to come first thing this morning. I took the cover off the breaker panel expecting to find a bad breaker. The meter showed it was live, so I got a little suspicious. Eventually I figured out that every single GFCI on that circuit had tripped due to a big lightning storm a few days ago. I had to track down and reset an outlet in the garage that I had forgetten even existed. I was very relieved that I didn't need an expensive emergency visit from the electrician.
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Jun. 17th, 2009 @ 09:39 pm There aren't enough hours in the day.
Current Mood: tired
My brain is frying like an egg. Each day I work 8-9 hours in the office, generally with a very short lunch, and come home. If it's nice I do an hour or two of yard work. Then I get back on the computer and work until midnight on various projects. I'm still working on my Developer's Exam... it's getting close to completion. Once it's done I have to go over everything and spruce it up, then submit it. Afterwards I should be able to dial things back a bit...
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Jun. 2nd, 2009 @ 11:59 pm Developer's exam
Current Mood: busy
It's midnight and I've been cranking away on the Java Developer assignment. So far it has been an enjoyable experience and I'm actually learning a few things. I set up some pretty heavy unit testing to exercise my "database" code (it's actually reading/writing a flat file) and I believe at this point all of the methods are working. Next I have to decide how the remote communication will work and implement that, and finally build a GUI for the whole thing. I think this project will be done pretty quickly. I should have done this exam years ago!
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