Category Archives: Uncategorized

hey, sorry about the delays on any replies. my main mailserver is down. :-< For workbench users, here's the info:

yes, trace to it, ALGX has fucked up their routes again for all of michigan… no ETR time from them… quote "we're working on it"… total assholes.

:-/

Anyway, I reloaded my internal router/firewall that will be external when I get DSL soon (hopefully). blah. It's linux now, and it doesn't randomly crash like openbsd did. w00t.

Becky made an awesome lunch today. it was leet.

Doing a little research, I found why my nextel phone screws with everything.
Its transmitter is almost twice as powerful as my 8260, and that is when the 8260 is running at full power, which it often isnt.
The nextel operates at 0.744 watts in the 806Mhz to 821Mhz band.
The nokia operates at a maximum of 0.132 watts in the 824mhz-849mhz band, and 0.437 watts in the 1850mhz-1910mhz band.

God, I gotta keep this thing away from my nuts. 😉

Amateur radio satellite, dead for more than 27 years, returns to life

QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 006 ARLS006
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT June 25, 2002
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS006
ARLS006 AMSAT-OSCAR 7 returns to life

The AMSAT-OSCAR 7 satellite suddenly has come back to life after
being dormant for more than 20 years. First heard June 21 by Pat
Gowan, G3IOR, AO-7 subsequently has been monitored and used by
several other amateurs. AO-7 was launched November 15, 1974. It
remained operational for more than six years before succumbing to
battery failure in 1981.

"I'm blown away," was the reaction of AO-7 Project Manager Jan King,
W3GEY. "So, this old war horse of a spacecraft seems to have come
back from the dead if only for a few moments."

Exclaimed satellite enthusiast and AMSAT Vice President for User
Services Bruce Paige, KK5DO, "This is really awesome." Paige said
the latest turn of events makes AO-7 is the oldest amateur satellite
that's still working. AMSAT-NA has now listed AO-7 as
"semi-operational."

AMSAT says it seems certain the satellite is running only off its
solar panels, not from the onboard batteries, so it will be
operational only while it's in sunlight. King speculates that the
batteries, which shorted as they failed two decades ago, now are
"un-shorting" and causing the satellite to come back to life.
click here for the rest (just instructions on how to use it)

heh, tried that "lifetest quiz" that posted a url to. It's funny.
1. Becky is the one that you love (obviously, since I entered that female's name first)
2. Darcie is the one you like but won't work out (it's my friggin stepmom. eeeew.)
3. Josh you care most about (I care a whole hell of alot, but equally with all my other friends)
4. zer0 is the one who knows you really well (actually, I'd say it was a tie with Josh)
5. pikachu is my lucky star (whatever that means)
6. The song november rain matches with becky (again, because I mentioned it first, and was preconditioned by a question prior asking about the opposite sex)
7. The song "let the bodies hit the floor" matches with Darcie (hmm, I doubt that.)
8. The song "dayton bia busta mafia" tells you most about your mind
9. The song "Pikachu Song" tells your most about your life

Finally I remembered to cancel my old pager service. No more paying for a pager I haven't used in a year. :-> YAY!

I am (according to google)
1. Involved in ipv6 research (me)
2. One of the people who run the Macintosh User Group of Ontario (not me)
3. A balding career coordinator at University of Minnesota (not me)
4. A telecom geek (me)
5. Operator of timmins.net (me)
6. Employee of a soundsystem rental company (not me)
7. A user of netbsd/dreamcast (me)
8. A HAM radio operator (me)

2 questions:

  • One, why the hell is someone on attbi mail flooding me? I've recieved probably 100 virus infected emails in the past 12 hours from an attbi user "pkothera". ugh. Someone stop this crap. Hopefully their abuse team will handle it.
  • Two, why is ATTBI's abuse team only open from 8am mountain time to 5pm mountain time? What's with that? Who attacks during those time periods? AT&T, you're friggin stupid.

Weekend summary

Damn, I'm sunburned.

Anyway, the correct answer to my "brakes" quiz turned out to be "add more fluid and ignore it". I checked and my brake fluid was running low. See, my drivers side front caliper has a verrrry small leak in the cylender from when my brakes failed entirely about a year and a half ago. The rubber gasket around the cylender took some damage when the cylender extended too far as a result of my brake pad falling off the metal holder, and while I got it to maintain a seal again, it's never been the same. It's been a year and a half since the last time I screwed with it, and leaking that tiny bit over the course of 1.5 years isn't bad, all things considered.

Currently there's a dead tie for first direct-connect between and "a random number". I even encouraged people to cheat, and noone did. What the heck? Anyway, in case you were too busy friday to cheat, cheat today. Poll #41987-

I got a few sealed lead-acid batteries, and a hook up for some more of them. If you have a use for them, they're 13 amp hour alarm batteries. Hit me up and I'll see if I can get a few more if you're gonna actually use them. :-> The cost is free, but it would be my recommendation that you actually use them, because disposal is technically illegal.

My ISDN ISP is being a pain in the nuts today. I ended up temporarily connecting to my old ISP until I can brow-beat my current ISP into fixing their crap.

My shower still wasn't fixed when I got home. I made a point of leaving one of the most vitrolic flames I have ever made on the answering machine of the complex. I truly pity the person who has to listen to the message, which contains several instances of "fucking pissed" and "bullshit", as in "I've gone without a working shower for 2 weeks now, I've made 3 support calls, only one recieved a response, and the person who came fucked it up more than it was before. That's bullshit. I'm fucking pissed, and I want a working shower. That's not too much to ask. Come and fix it tomorrow. Make sure the repairman actually checks to see if his repair worked, because he didn't last time."

Anyway, enough of my long ass post. I had an awesome weekend at field day.