I got nothin

DNS, DNS, where art thou DNS?

2012-01-24T12:55:00.000-05:00

While configuring my router last night I began to wonder what the DNS settings were. Windows 7 now indicates that DNS is at an external address - being that of the router (of course the gateway). I stumbled across a post on the comcast6 website where they published the IPv6 DNS entries and began to wonder if my network was using those values? After poking around for awhile I was unable to determine what DNS my PC is actually using. Windows 7 is simply forwarding all DNS requests to the gateway address.

The router allows one to override certain settings in the IPv4 configuration. This particular router allows a hybrid autoconfig scheme where it pulls in settings via DHCP and the user may then override specific settings as needed. However no such interface exists on the IPv6 configuration UI. Actually, I wasn't able to find a place to define any network based settings at this level for IPv6.

This is more of an academic quest - IPv6 DNS is working. I know that DHCP has morphed under IPv6, and I need to read the IPv6 specification a bit more closely than I have so far.

I'll get right on that as soon as I catch up on back episodes of TopGear.

Win7 IPv6 disabling 6to4

2012-01-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

I spent some time this evening making sure that my Windows 7 laptop wasn't directly accessing 6to4. I wanted to make sure that the Win7 computer was properly routing traffic to the router - and the router then pushing data through the tunnel.

First thing was to disable the IPv6 traffic through tunnel interfaces. The fix-it programs on the MS website are quite handy for this job (See KB 929852). After rebooting I used regedit to view the local settings for the PC (as described on the KB) just to verify all settings.Because IPv6 was previously enabled using the full-tilt option, everything continues to work. Using a tracert, nslookup, and ping, I verified that traffic is indeed flowing through the gateway address (the router).

The reason I disabled the local 6to4 was because the Win7 computer could have tunneled through the IPv4 address of the router. So even if the new modem allows native IPv6 the Win7 PC may have continued to seek out the network using the 6to4 adapter. These kinds of changes should be encapsulated at the router thus enabling access for all devices.

In other news, I purchased the Motorola SB6121 SURFboard modem. That should be hooked up and ready to go by the end of this week. I hope to see if native IPv6 is available in my area this weekend.

Comcast has also updated their blog site indicating support for World IPv6 Day 2012 as well as announcing a pilot of IPv6 in select California markets. See http://www.comcast6.net/.

World IPv6 Day - this time it's for real!

2012-01-18T12:38:00.000-05:00

Just announced, June 6th 2012 will be World IPv6 Day.

...and this time they promise to leave it on afterwards!

More details...
http://www.worldipv6launch.org/

Last year was a connect-a-thon. After 24-hours they unplugged everything and went home. Not this year. We can keep using it and work out the kinks.

In preparation I'm buying a new DOCSIS 3.0 Cable "modem" (Motorola SB6120 SURFboard) which has native support for IPv6. Comcast is listed as a supporter of IPv6 day, so I'm hoping to have native IPv6 to my house rather than my current 6to4 tunnel.

Show your inner dork. Get your running shoes on, this is the kind of thing that'll cause people to chase you down and beat you up.

Adventures in IPv6

2012-01-12T19:39:00.001-05:00

A little over a year ago I heard about a world wide event called World IPv6 Day which was supposed to give everyone a preview of IPv6. In the months prior I began researching what changes I could make to my home network and give it a try. IPv6 is the next big thing, it will save the world. Since I work for a company that owns a class A network (not running out anytime soon), the only way to learn IPv6 was to screw around with my home network.

My ISP is Comcast. After poking around I discovered that they have a great technology area on their website. It contains blogs and howto articles, readiness site, as well as progress reports towards technology adoption. Around the same time there was some DNS highjacking going on and DNSSEC was top of mind too. Comcast was in the early days of providing DNSSEC too and had published instructions on how to setup your home to use it (they recently announced that DNSSEC has been rolled out to all users - no special configuration required).

Google is your friend

I found the Comcast technology website by searching for "comcast ipv6." After figuring out what kind of IPv6 I would be able to use (6to4) - I had to read up on that. And later when everything seemed to be configured correctly and still not working... a quick search sent me to the Microsoft KB articles for a few "fix-it" scripts. Cox has limited information, and it looks like TimeWarner has a lot of detail like Comcast. All three claim to have started trials in 2011 with plans to roll out in 2012. Some plan to address their Business customers first and then upgrade Home customers later. Comcast is rather specific with their plans - they even discuss the address width that they plan on using (very wide) during initial rollout, and then plan to shrink it later once all the bugs are shaken out.

When in doubt - Google it.

Equipment Check

First off was to check my equipment and determine what might and might not work. I use a Netgear N600 WNDR3700 (gen1) Wifi Firewall/Router, Comcast provides the Cable "modem" (RCA DCM425), and my OS is Windows 7 (x64).

The first stop is probably your home router, if it won't do IPv6 go to jail and do not collect $200. While I haven't tried it - Comcast is providing a 6to4, so maybe you can tunnel from the PC all they through to the other end - some assembly required. Thankfully Netgear released a firmware update early last year that provided support for IPv6.

Comcast has provided details regarding which equipment will support IPv6 at http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/. First thing noted, the cable "modem" I have doesn't support IPv6 (and I've only had it a year!). No matter, a bit more searching turned up that Comcast is offering 6to4 technology, which is basically a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that tunnels traffic over the legacy IPv4. So my router and PC both see an IPv6 network, but the traffic tunnels through IPv4 technology. Not truly IPv6 - but my computer won't know the difference (well - that isn't completely true). It is important to note that 6to4 technology is a temporary solution until native IPv6 is rolled out. It allows two ends of the conversation to support and test IPv6 while the infrastructure between the two nodes uses legacy IPv4.

Configuration

Netgear has an IPv6 setup page that allows one to manually enter the configuration information. For grins and giggles I pressed the "auto-detect" button rather than entering all of the required data. To my surprise the router correctly found the 6to4 gateway and the configuration was complete!

Windows 7 out of the box has IPv6 configured. ipconfig showed that the router had assigned an IPv6 address already. So that seemed to all that was necessary.

Test the configuration.

Alternate name for this section: Nothing Works

Again - back to Google. I found a website called Test Your IPv6 at http://test-ipv6.com/. I later would find a duplication of this site at Comcast http://test-ipv6.comcast.net/#

First attempt - all tests failed. However it gave great diagnostic information, everything from "your browser prefers IPv4 over IPv6" and "DNS isn't working." More poking around, a few more configuration changes, and still nothing worked.

I began to wonder if Windows was correctly talking to the router, which maybe wasn't forwarding traffic through the tunnel. Harder yet was trying to determine how to get my software to "prefer" IPv6. I use Google Chrome as my browser and couldn't find any settings Under the Hood. The Chrome webpage indicates the Chrome is IPv6 ready. I also know from my day job that Chrome likes to use Windows and IE network settings. This was a good hint - I guessed that the problem had to be in the OS, fix that and other things might work.

Finally I stumbled across a few MS KB articles. One specifically talked about changing Windows 7 to use different IPv6 settings and 6to4 adapter (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852). The KB was long and had many many choices - I think this was the first time I had ever used their "Fix it" download option. So I let it make the changes for me. Still - nothing worked.

I slapped the laptop shut and went to bed. Days later I decided to pickup the project once more. Strangely - it was working.

Not all Tests are Equal

One things I hadn't considered was the dual stack issue. IPv4 will be around for awhile. Some of these tests provide details around whether IPv4 will work after turning on IPv6.

Now that I could access ipv6.google.com I tried running the tests just to make sure I wasn't imagining things. test-ipv6.com gave a score of 7/10. As I noted above, I found the same webpage at Comcast - so I ran that one too... it gave a score of 10/10. After using profanity in the form of a question - I decided to put that on hold.

All hooked up and nowhere to go

So now that it works, what can you do? Google offers search at http://ipv6.google.com. According to the Google IPv6 Day page, GMail and YouTube are supposed offer IPv6 access too. I wasn't able to figure that out - it seems that much of the World IPv6 Day have been shutdown.

Personally I think it should all be turned on all the time. It's the only way we're going to knock the bugs out.

Next?

Where am I now? I wonder if my PC has it's own 6to4 tunnel into Comcast. My next step along this path is to undo some of the Windows changes (and read more about them). Both ping and tracert for Windows 7 have a few IPv6 options ("tracert -6" for instance). I'm trying to decipher the output to determine where the tunnel is and how the home router is involved.

I plan to head back to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 and run some of the other scripts. While writing this post I discovered that one of the choices is "change DNS to prefer IPv6." My goal is to verify that devices on my network are talking to the router, and the router is sending data through the 6to4 tunnel.

And if you read this and wondered what they heck IPv6 is and why do I care? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

This is one of those "yeah, kind of important" but don't worry, somebody else will take care of it. Go back to sleep.

Unless you are a software developer. Be on the lookout for IPv6. Do you have any code that assumes an IPAddress is either 15 characters long or has Dots in the addresss (like string s.Split(".")) - you have work to do.

Links

Test your configuration http://test-ipv6.com/
Windows 7 configuration fix-it: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852
Windows 7 6to4 adapter http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980486
Google Search, IPv6 enabled: http://ipv6.google.com
World IPv6 Day: http://www.worldipv6day.org/

Mt Washington, Climb to the Clouds 2011

2011-12-20T19:17:00.000-05:00

Subaru USA - D. Higgins

David Higgins start of record breaking run. I think he broke the record on both of his runs, but the sky was clear at the top for all second runs of the day. According to Nick, one couldn't see more than 25ft near the top during the first run.

Nick Wheelock - second run

You'll notice that part of Nick's front left bumper is missing - he slid off on his first run doing minor damage to the car. After coming to a full stop he turned the wheel and drove back on the roadway and continued his run to the top. The fog was so thick he said he could have used a cane out the window to feel around for the road.

Score board first run - Click to zoom

As I walked back to the parking area at the end of the day I was able to see the top of the mountain and the sun reflecting off the windshields of the cars as they drove back down. Pretty amazing change considering that I drove to the base that morning in rain and fog.

Winter storm, March 2011.

2011-12-20T19:14:00.000-05:00

Frosty waits patiently by the door not realizing it's going to be awhile before he can go out. I had to get a snow shovel from the garage and shovel snow by standing in the living room.

Later the snow climbed up the glass, covering the first row of squares. The wind was blowing the snow off the roof and by the time the storm was over one had to look up to see out the window. The strange part was that about 25ft from the house the grass was exposed. The winds were very strong throughout the day, and the snow accumulated very fast during the morning. At times the visibility was near zero.

The neighbors kid got out his snowboard and asked if he could try out the drift. I said, "go for it."

This snowdrift was nearly 7ft tall by the end of the day, and the deck is 3ft off the ground. Therefore I estimate the total height to be about 10-11ft. For the fun of it (and partly necessity) I dug a tunnel down the stairs to the ground below.

Welcome to PA

2011-09-07T19:29:00.000-04:00

So far a pleasant drive.

A bit behind schedule. Left late, ferry wasn't on schedule, and tried a different route. Plus it rained really hard requiring reduced speeds for an hour.

Testing new phone

2010-02-12T21:39:00.001-05:00

Camera phone on my pre plus

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Agile begins again

2010-01-14T22:27:00.001-05:00

We've begun doing Agile again. We hired an agile coach to come in and help us get back on track. Many years ago (about 12) I began learning about Scrum for the first time. Our teacher and mentor was Ken Schwaber one of the creators. After several weeks of learning the process I remember how obvious the exercise seemed to be - almost as if we should have been able to figure it out ourselves.

Over the years we forgot what we were taught, many left through natural attrition, and new PMP certified project managers hired. And slowly overtime we left agile behind and returned to Waterfall. Finally we became mired in the muck and doing Big Requirements Up Front again - program descriptions that included the kitchen sink, and having struggling to meet release dates.

We are all excited to begin again. A sort of reboot if you will. Training begins next week.

Some are fearful. We are able to ask questions faster than answers can be found. However we need to remember that we have the ability to find those answers and that we do know enough to push forward.

One important exercise is breaking seemingly immutable tasks into smaller tasks. Once you do this you begin to realize how you might have had too much design. When trying to move a mountain of sand, simply remember that you finish it by moving one cupful at a time.

Tired

2009-12-24T14:36:00.001-05:00

Spend time with me.

2009-12-13T11:49:00.001-05:00

Merry christmas

2009-12-13T11:48:00.001-05:00

Patient dog.

2009-12-08T17:39:00.001-05:00

This a real working cement truck. Every year they do this.

2009-10-10T18:32:00.001-04:00

The flume In NH

David Sedaris

2009-10-06T19:48:00.001-04:00

Pre show. Burlington memorial auditorium.

Soup?! Midway geyser

2009-09-01T22:01:00.000-04:00

This is a very large pool of water - maybe the size of a small pond (a hundred yards across). What is cool is that the whole thing is simply boiling non-stop. On the far side is a large stream and water fall from the run off which is pouring boiling water into the river. You can't see it in this low-res scanned image, but the water is churning just like when you boil water in a pot on the stove. It does appear on the negative (maybe when I get my good Nikon scanner hooked up again I'll scan this frame again).

Devils Tower

2009-09-01T21:54:00.000-04:00

The folklore is that some boys were out for a walk when a giant bear chased them. They ran up on top of a large rock and the bear clawed at them. Hence the huge "claw" marks all around the sides - and that is a pretty good description of what the feature looks like. I saw a painting of this story in the visitors area but couldn't find an explaination of the story - so I had to use my friend wikipedia. (read the folklore section).

Crazy Horse Bus tour

2009-09-01T21:43:00.000-04:00

I think it was worth the extra money. This is how close you can get (I was using a 300mm lens)

Crazy Horse

2009-09-01T21:41:00.000-04:00

Crazy Horse was never photographed - so nobody really knows what he looks like. This was a really neat memorial carving and definetly worth the stop. They have a nice visitors center with a small movie theater that plays a mini-documentary detailing the history of this monument. We paid extra to take the bus tour up the side of the mountain. It doesn't go all the way to the top - but it does get you close enough to take better pictures. They only allow visitors at the top once a year (see their web site for more info).

The one statistic that I found amazing is that all four of the heads on Mt Rushmore fit into the single head of Crazy Horse. This thing is huge. They had their largest ever blast the day that I was there. I knew about it before hand but we couldn't make it fit into our schedule.

This was the day we drove to Devils Tower in Wyoming and then came back around to Crazy Horse in the afternoon (with a second and longer stop at Mt Rushmore in between). We ate dinner at the Crazy Horse Memorial center.

I'll also recommend the Holiday Inn Express in Custer, SD (a short distance from Crazy Horse Memorial). It rivals many of the Hilton's and Marriot's I've stay at.

Grand Tetons

2009-09-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Grand Teton National Park is not part of Yellowstone, rather it is its own park. The road between the two is called the "John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway." Mr. Rockefeller didn't want all of us paying twice to get into these two parks, so be bought the land between the two and gave it over to us. I learned a bit more about our national park system and the visionaries who created it (Rockefeller being one of them).

Of course the next day was clear and sunny. What is amazing is that the road is at an elevation of about 7000 ft above sea level... and those darn peaks just keep going up. I'm on a flat road that is higher than the top of Mt Washington!

Not so faithful

2009-09-01T21:18:00.000-04:00

I didn't realize this before I arrived, but old faithful stopped being faithful back in the 1950's. Apparently it is still "almost every 90 minutes" plus or minus 10. It depends upon the length of the previous eruption. Eruptions less than 2 minutes will cause the next one to be 65 minutes away, and eruptions more than 2 minutes will cause the next to occur within 90 minutes (makes sense, takes longer to recover).

Anyhow - all of these geysers are really cool to watch. There is an extensive boardwalk setup that allows you can get up close and personal with some of them. It's neat to watch the water recede and the hole to become empty, then it slowly rises again and begins to peculate violently until finally it shoots up into the air. Some of them don't shoot into the air, they just keep sloshing water up over the sides like an ocean wave pounding a rocky shore.

Badlands South Dakota

2009-09-01T21:04:00.001-04:00

They get their name from the french for "it sucks to hike across this area." (les mauvaises terres a traversers). Okay - it really translates to "bad lands to travel across." It was a really cool stop. There is so much to see - we only had time to drive through the ring road and make several stops along the road. However there is so much more to see.
In some areas the colors of each layer are very different (yellows, reds, gray). In one area the hills looks like little piles of salt that were poured from above. The green in the photos are plants that are attempting to grow.

Hunter

2009-09-01T20:51:00.000-04:00

I caught this guy hunting in the river just beside me. He was almost directly overhead.

Mad dog

2009-09-01T20:44:00.001-04:00

Prairie dog at Devils Tower. As you drive into the Devils Tower park there is a prairie dog colony along the road. You can actually see their mounds in the satellite photos from Google Maps.

Follow the red road

2009-09-01T20:28:00.001-04:00

I took this photo from Rt-14 in Wyoming at this turn-out. (looking west). As you can see the pavement is red. I saw this throughout Wyoming - even parts of I-90 used this material. I found it interesting how the local rock changes the color of the asphalt - I think I've only ever seen black asphalt.

Post trip notes

2009-08-31T18:50:00.001-04:00

Cool mountain passage.

We drove south from Thermopolis WY on Rt 20. The road was downhill to the south... however the river was flowing North!!!

Go figure. Another really cool feature of nature.

Home again

2009-08-31T11:25:00.002-04:00

Almost home - still in NY

2009-08-31T10:09:00.002-04:00

Cooperstown NY

2009-08-30T16:40:00.001-04:00

Entrance to the baseball hall of fame.

Cooperstown founding info

2009-08-30T16:31:00.002-04:00

Home stretch

2009-08-29T20:06:00.002-04:00

In jamestown ny home of Lucille ball. Ate at Fenton's - Great place. Headed to cooperstown tomorrow.

closing the loop - Pennsylvania

2009-08-29T17:02:00.003-04:00

I was in the other lane going the other way exactly 2 weeks ago.

Rock and roll

2009-08-29T12:56:00.001-04:00

Back in cleveland.

Pictures

2009-08-28T17:48:00.001-04:00

2gb digital and a dozen rolls of film. Hoping for a bulk discount.

2009-08-28T17:06:00.001-04:00

2009-08-28T15:35:00.001-04:00

2009-08-28T15:34:00.001-04:00

My dad remembers when these were in burlington.

2009-08-28T15:31:00.001-04:00

2009-08-28T14:25:00.001-04:00

Airforce museum Dayton

2009-08-28T14:19:00.001-04:00

Just went through the presidential and exp section.

Ohio

2009-08-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

Indiana

2009-08-28T09:57:00.001-04:00

Now we can do multiple states in one day. Todays destination is dayton and the airforce museum.

Iowa

2009-08-27T09:34:00.001-04:00

Council Bluffs IA

2009-08-26T22:34:00.002-04:00

We're staying in Council Bluffs IA (across the river from Omaha). This is a large city area.

Union Pacific Golden Spike Tower was cool and worth the stop over. We spoke with a guy who is a model train hobbyist. He told us that the local club had acquired a working N-scale model of the North Platte "East Hump." (25 ft by 5 ft) It was originally created in the 1980's as a working scale model used to train people on how the hump yard worked. They are working to reassemble it and get it back into working order. It was housed in a box car and then removed sometime in the mid-80's and given to the university. Union Pacific was able to find the box car sitting on a side rail somewhere in Mexico. The hope is to get the car back to North Platte and put the whole thing onto a rail beside the museum by 2010.

Golden spike tower

2009-08-26T21:41:00.001-04:00

The largest classification rail yard in the world. Operated by union pacific. 2850 acres. www.Goldenspiketower.Com Computer run with remote control engines. We decided to stop because we probably wont be back this way for a long time.

Welcome to colorado

2009-08-26T21:40:00.001-04:00

Well. Since we were driving by we made a short detour to colorado.

Nebraska

2009-08-26T10:36:00.001-04:00

Better photo

Nebraska

2009-08-26T10:26:00.002-04:00

Goodbye Cheyenne

2009-08-26T09:40:00.000-04:00

testing

2009-08-25T23:31:00.002-04:00

Just text. okay - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. no idea why. Anyhow I've lost many great master pieces of prose.

dang - text not working

2009-08-25T23:13:00.002-04:00

Okay - I just realized that many (most) of my TXT posts aren't exactly readable. dang. This is the first time I've used the laptop in a week - maybe now I will get a smart phone.

We're in Cheyenne WY. There is an amazing thunder storm rolling through right now. Oh and a huge Union Pacific rail yard too. It would be cool to stay here just to watch them move trains.

A few days ago we drove south of Yellowstone into the Tetons. While talking to a Park Ranger about road conditions to Cheyenne he told us that our planned route was pretty dug up. 30 miles of "by escort pilot car only" - plan on "many hour" delays - so long that they come by and give you a newspaper and tell you turn off your car. So we rerouted for today and went back through the park to Cody and then down south through Casper. 65-75 mph most of the way.

We are now officially East bound on I-80, be back in a week.

passing Casper WY

2009-08-25T17:48:00.002-04:00

Just passing through Casper WY.

Last day

2009-08-24T15:07:00.001-04:00

Figured i'd get a picture of the sign before we leave.

Animal crossing

2009-08-22T18:53:00.002-04:00

Bison Induced traffic jam. I don't know if you can see it in this low res photo - but the traffic goes all the way up the hill to the right. There was a large herd of Bison crossing the road, and they don't exactly "cross" like cows do to get to the other side. They kind of take their sweet old time (and they can - each one is as big as a honda civic)... plus all us tourists stop in the middle of the road to take pictures rather than pull off.

Eastern side grand loop

2009-08-22T18:12:00.001-04:00

We watched Osprey fly below us.

West yellowstone

2009-08-21T23:27:00.000-04:00

Downtown west yellowstone MT. Nice little spot. Turns out the road between madison and noris is closed. This means a 112 Mile detour to get to the north end of the park. At 40 mph it will take about three hours. Today was spent at old faithful. Maybe mammoth tomorow and everything else north.

2009-08-21T23:25:00.001-04:00

Long beautiful drive to the park last night. Lesson learned stay in Cody next time.

Cody WY

2009-08-20T18:51:00.001-04:00

Sheridan WY

2009-08-20T14:08:00.001-04:00

Stopped to have lunch. Pretty big town. Good place to stop. They have one of everything.

Crazy horse

2009-08-19T21:12:00.001-04:00

2009-08-19T16:34:00.001-04:00

Sorry. There are out of order. Digital signal is sparse so i send when i can.

Now entering SD

2009-08-19T16:20:00.002-04:00

2009-08-19T16:19:00.001-04:00

Hiked around base. Beautiful drive from Custer This morning. It started out as a rainy day but cleared up when we got to devils tower. The speed limit on country roads has been 65. Elevation around 4500-5600.

Mt Rushmore

2009-08-18T19:42:00.001-04:00

Bad lands

2009-08-18T15:48:00.001-04:00

2009-08-18T14:08:00.000-04:00

Beautiful country

Rest Area in South Dakota

2009-08-18T12:29:00.002-04:00

If you read closely it contains LAT LONG

(edit) Here's a link of Google maps using these coordinates. It appears close - I'm not quite sure gmaps has exactly the right spot - either that or my conversion lost a few digits.

Corn palace

2009-08-18T10:33:00.002-04:00

Totally decorated with corn - lots and lots of corn. The birds are stealing it and living within the art work. I didn't check if the corn is dyed or they used different natural colors of corn. The stalk is also used (or maybe both). For those interested check this out

2009-08-18T09:44:00.001-04:00

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??u:??.??o??? ?????????n2?? ??e8(| ?Att9 ???l ?<^???? 4G??s??lv???w D ??? 4~??i??L ??

2009-08-17T20:48:00.001-04:00

Would have sent earlier no signal

2009-08-17T20:45:00.001-04:00

Ge in sioux falls

entering Minnesota

2009-08-17T12:54:00.002-04:00

2009-08-16T19:50:00.001-04:00

Made it through chicago - heavy traffic. Later we hit a big storm - black sky and super heavy rain. Pretty smooth sailing north of chicago

entering Chicago

2009-08-16T14:26:00.002-04:00

2009-08-16T08:50:00.001-04:00

It really was a big left turn looks like a few miss it regularly

2009-08-15T17:29:00.001-04:00

Almost done for the day

Yellowstone trip begins tomorrow

2009-08-14T20:31:00.003-04:00

6:30 am - ready or not. Just need to finish packing and get to bed.

Cleveland, Madison, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Yellowstone West.

Strange info

2009-08-11T18:13:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure, but I think I can walk that far in 240 days.

Big bug

2009-07-30T21:09:00.003-04:00

Last night I got home after a trip to the store. I had all of the windows open - as I shutoff the engine I heard this very strange noise coming from the front engine area.

I got out... put my head next to the hood and listened to what sounded like a boiling sound... water gurgling through the pipes. I'm going on a trip to Albany tomorrow and I'm thinking "great - what could be wrong?!?!"

So I popped the hood and kept listening around for what might be making the noise. Then the noise got a bit louder and I realized it was right next to my ear and I jumped back thinking something was about to "pop". Then this big-ass dragon fly crawled out of the front grill.

I jumped like the chicken that I am and whacked the little bugger.

Latent Inhibition

2009-07-30T17:38:00.001-04:00

and it has nothing to do with asking somebody out in a bar (although…)

Rather it is defined as “an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs.”

I found this article to be very interesting, it has been shown that “creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition” and that research is starting to show why there is a correlation between madness and creativity.

Original article:

University Of Toronto (2003, October 1). Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031001061055.htm#

UAE Blackberry users being spied upon

2009-07-23T21:33:00.003-04:00

Stuff like this makes me nervous. Hopefully nobody in the USA is trying to do this to us (although with Google owning everything - there is an easy place to tap into).

Blackberry users in the UAE were instructed by their cell-phone provider to install a "Performance Enhancement" patch - which turned out to be spyware that intercepted all outgoing emails and sent them to a central location. RIM says they know nothing and offered a spyware removal patch on their web site.

Google Voice

2009-07-20T09:34:00.002-04:00

I received my invite for Google Voice last week and activated it over the weekend. I really like the “pick your phone#” wizard which lets you type in “words” and find #’s that match it. Unfortunately “beer” wasn’t available (a friend used to have 862-BEER back in college).

The only thing I found that needed a bit of improvement was SMS handling. Voice messages arrive in your gmail inbox, however SMS only goes to your Voice inbox (although they are immediately sent to your cell phone if so configured). Gmail and Voice aren’t tightly integrated – two separate systems with hyperlinks between them.

And the Call Presentation feature needs a tad more work. First – don’t do what I did when I first tried it, “hey this is a test” --- you can’t delete the announcement recording (at least I couldn’t find a way). Second – the audio so far has been horribly garbled, I’m not sure I’d actually know who was calling.

Now I see the Google master plan. They now know who emails each other, what you search for, calls between people, and since Voice also includes the ability to transcribe vmail to text… they also know What We’re Talking About. Add that information to a social website like Facebook and they can play the Kevin Bacon game on each of us… with context!

It will be a matter of time before some bank or insurance company tries to buy a social website. Years ago I would have thought that wasn’t a good fit. Now I’d think it was right in line with their algorithms that attempt to figure out who we are and build risk based products for each individual. Have you ever looked at the information you are giving up when playing a “game” in Facebook? The game is like the candy that a creepy old guy gives out when trying to lure a kid away in a park – remember your childhood training - don’t take it and run!

Strip VerizonWireless messages

2009-07-16T22:13:00.002-04:00

I was getting annoyed that VerizonWireless couldn't (wouldn't) remove the text message that they include at the bottom of every picture message sent from my phone ("This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless! ... blah blah"). I called VZW tech support and they suggested I post something to the suggestion box.

Anyhow after digging around I found a post on the Blogger web site detailing a feature on Blogger intended for this kind of purpose. Simply include the text "#end" in the message and blogger will throw away the remainder of the message.

So I then stumbled across a setup option on my phone.. I can have it automatically attach a signature to each Pic's message ... and I'll let you guess what my signature is. Works like a charm - no more having to edit my picture posts to this blog.

Is VerizonWireless in the same place Microsoft was 6 years ago.. not getting the Internet?!

Weekend project

2009-07-16T18:36:00.002-04:00

I (re)applied the finish to my sidewalk. Looks like brick - really stamped concrete. The only maintenance is putting the top coat on it every few years.

HP packing

2009-07-13T13:36:00.002-04:00

Big box small part.

This is my HP packing story - you'll find stories like this all over the web. It was a huge box full of air packing, I couldn't even put my arms around it. It's about 24 inches wide. The box inside contained the actual part - a set of rack rails (think of the metal sliders in your filing cabinet). I understand they don't want to have the part get crushed by the shipper.

New Toy

2009-07-11T19:49:00.003-04:00

I just receive my new toy, a Garmin nuvi 755T GPS Nav. I've done a few quick trips with it, working the kinks out getting ready for the big trip.

I found a web site http://www.takitwithme.com (Take It without the "e") that allows you to export your Google MyMaps to the Garmin as a Route. So I have my trip to Yellow Stone figured out day-by-day and am working to save them as daily Routes. It's actually why I bought the 755T over the 265wt, the 7x5 series supports Routes where-as the 2x5 only does point-to-point.

It's a neat web site. I was having a minor problem so I sent some feedback to them at 10pm Sunday night... and the developer replied to me in less than 15 minutes!

Eaton's Sugarhouse

2009-06-27T17:19:00.003-04:00

While on a little drive I found this shop.

Google Map of this location

Road Trip 2009

2009-06-14T23:41:00.003-04:00

Vermont to Yellowstone and back again. The current plan is I-90 West and I-80 East with planned stops in Cleveland, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and Denver. And since my name is on "the list" I'll be traveling wholly within the USA, I don't have time for those special "chats" at the border.

The goal is to spend the majority of the time in Yellowstone (okay okay - the majority will be spent on the road).

Places to stop in between? Ideas? I don't have any good ideas for I-80 yet.

Thanks

Sleepy Dog

2009-06-12T21:25:00.002-04:00

Summer Day

2009-06-12T21:23:00.000-04:00

Northern Lights

2009-06-12T21:18:00.001-04:00

Photo from my backyard captured in 2003...

Backyard

2009-06-09T07:40:00.004-04:00

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2009-06-07T14:27:00.001-04:00

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