Snowulf

As I have previously noted, on last Friday I passed the test for Amateur Radio Technician level. Ever since then I've been eagerly awaiting my new callsign. The Volunteer Examiners said it would take about a week to a week and a half, but that didn't stop me from logging into the FCC every 6 hours or so to see if it was up yet. A very frustrating wait... until last night.

I found out very quickly that the FCC system was down every night from 12:00 am to 02:00 am (Or 2100 to 2300 PST). Last night at just after 2300 I decided to login, and voila! KJ6FQN was listed in the system. I quickly and nervously got out my radio, tuned into the local repeater, and introduced myself. It didn't work initially, seems I had forgotten the PL code setting, I got that fixed, and tried again. A minute later, response! My first contact!

Oh, it was quite exciting. Even though it was late at night within a few minutes there were a few other people commenting in and out. I had been listening to this particular repeater for several weeks and it was nice to finally be able to interact with the people. There were more than a few times over the last few weeks that I really wanted to break in and put my 2 cents worth, but couldn't because I didn't have a license. Regardless, I spent about an hour online which went much faster than I expected, which was quite troubling since I was supposed to be asleep by then. The group was very nice and complimented me on my ease of radio'ing (it is nice to make the newbie feel like he's not an idiot and doing it all wrong), they also said I had social skills (Editor's note - obviously they don't know him very well).

Just for the record, us IT people don't like people to think we have social skills. In fact we prefer it if you think we are terribly anti-social, and too abrasive to even deal with in the first place. That way you're less likely to ask for a "favor".

In case you haven't heard, Apple recently decided to ban most "sexy" applications from the iTunes app store, nearly 6,000 in total. In brief, they removed anything that had any implied sexuality up to anything showing skin at all. CNN Money put forth the theory that they are doing this because of the upcoming iPad release (ah, the biggest flop we all know and love).
So I titled my post "Thank You Apple", and you might be wondering: why? Because this is fantastic news. The more stupid stuff Apple pulls like this, the more disillusioned developers will become. The more people that become publicly jaded by Apple's bible thumping antics, the less likely they will want to develop for it and the quicker Apple will die a slow, painful death.

Let's look at it realistically. Here are nearly 6,000 applications which were previously allowed, that no longer are, through no fault of the developers of these applications. Even if the application was nothing but gratuitous tits and ass, it cost money to make. Someone had to put in the time writing the code and compiling the application. Someone had to take or license the media used in these applications. Someone had to take the time to go through the app submission and approval process. It may not have been a lot of time to program; it may have been a lot of money to license the images, but it did cost actual time and money. Money these developers can no longer recoup, just because Apple woke up one morning and decided that's the way it is. Hell, even if you're marketing is a bit risque (and by risque I mean risque as used by the Islamic militants, or maybe the puritanical Amish) like in the case of Wobble, you get delisted.
Continue reading "Thank you Apple for cleaning up the AppStore" »

A long time ago, when I was but a wee little chibi, still in middle school, I was interested in Ham Radio. I checked out the book to study, even when to a local convention type thing (well I convinced my father to take me, then proceeded to key up the radios that were out for sale and annoy people in general (Editor's note - it's kind of his thing)). For whatever reason, I never followed through, though I think partially it had to do with the cost of the equipment and as a young child having no money. Through the sands of time, I forgot about the ham radio desires... until recently. When I started into the Disaster Prep research, I realized one of the important, but sometimes overlooked areas of disaster preparation is communications. The only logical solution for disaster communication during an emergency, assuming that power and phones are out, is Amateur Radio.

After doing this research, and remembering about my previous ham desires, I decided I would go ahead and get licensed. I bought the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual (Technician) and read that. I have to say, I recommend the book. It provides all the information you need in a clear and logical fashion, along with why you should care. It even has a bonus section on what to look for when buying your first radio (in case you don't know anyone to help you with that). That was just over a month ago. On Friday, I went to the monthly meeting of my local amateur radio club and tested for the Technician level (which is the entry level certification).

I'm pleased to announce that I passed and am now officially a ham. On Saturday morning, John attended a local testing session in his area and also passed. Not only did he pass, he 100%'d the test, just to show me up. Unfortunately it takes about a week to get our assigned call signs, so I can't transmit yet. I am looking forward to exploring the spectrums a bit, especially since I bought myself a shiny new radio (which I'll be covering in a later post).

Until then, 73

Also, if you are curious as to why an Amateur radio operator is refereed to as a "ham", you can thank Wikipedia and their article on the Etymology of ham radio. Personally I like the "Ham-fisted" story.

If you're a regular user of Firefox (as I have been since way back before 1.0), or ANY OTHER piece of software that has tabs in it, you know that when you open a new tab, it opens all the way at the fucking end (on the right). As of Firefox 3.6 they changed this behavior. I figured that if they made the change a default, they must think that this is a "better" way of doing things, ok, I can adapt and try it out. I've been using Firefox for years, so it'll take me some time to get used to it, no big deal.

Well. Fuck. That. Noise. Today, I've officially become sick and tired of this new features since it is a piece of shit for any serious work. The first problem is that is hard to predict. Say you are on Tab A (For the sake of argument, say this is for instructions on how to install something) and open some links into new tab (Ex: Software you need to install in order), say B, C and D. You go check on something in tab B real quick then go back to tab A. Now open another few links from tab A, they are E & F. What tab order would you expect to have? A, B, C, D, E, F. But is that the order your tabs are in? Nope, because they are relative to the tab you are on. Your tab order is A, E, F, B, C, D. This is a fairly simple example, but even an idiot could see how it might be a problem if you have to... say... FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN ORDER.

How do you turn off the bat shit features?

• Goto about:config
  
• Accept the anti-idiot warning
  
• Find browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent (You can just type in 'related' and hit enter)
  
• Right click on it, and hit Toggle (This will change it from 'false' to 'true')

Open some tabs, rejoice to lord Jesus that they open in a a logical manner again. Translation: New tabs open on the RIGHT and always on the RIGHT and not wandering through the middle of your tabs like a drunk looking for the shitter.

"Gasp!" you say to yourself, "He is so anti-social now that even the concept of people makes him ill". Ok, well, maybe not exactly. I'm sick sick, as in I have a cold. It annoys me to no great end. The problem isn't the sniffling or the coughing or anything like that, those symptoms might be problematic, but not truly annoying. What truly annoys me about having a cold, is how it turns my brain into fuzz and makes it very difficult to concentrate or have the energy to get things done. I have many personal projects going on right now, and I'd like to get them done, but having a cold makes it very difficult.

Hence, I hate people for getting me sick. This is one of the odd bonuses to telecommuting that you don't hear about. You're not in an office, so generally you are less likely to contract ailments since you don't have nearly as much human contact. Especially if you're someone like me who doesn't have a family/wife/girlfriend/significant other to pester you. Even if you work in a place as great as our company, where the boss orders you home if you are in the least bit sick, people still tend to show up and get everyone sick. Hell, I remember once the resident German came into the office sick, even though we yelled at him to stay home... and you know what? He got EVERYONE in the office sick. So to remind him why this is a Bad Thing™ I bought him a Bubonic plague (Black Plague/Black death) plushie for Christmas. Something that now remains in his cube for all time.

So, I hate you all; you make me sick.

PS. This is why you've gotten to enjoy a filler "Happy Holiday" post along two posts in a row from John in one week. With any luck I'll be able to suckerconvince him to write another entry for tomorrow.