05.29.06
Posted in Generic at 9:49 pm by Randy
So, to follow up my earlier post regarding cell phone repeaters: my test using the high-gain antenna were successful. I was able to get two whole bars of reception with the antenna mounted on a portable mast and pointed generally at the valley below.
This, of course, doesn’t mean all that much; I’m currently looking at what it will take to get a proper post and mast installed further up on the ranch, then have a really low-loss cable run down near the ranch house for the repeater amp. But, the point is that I can have something up and working that even temporarily provides mobile phone reception at least inside the ranch house, if not all around the ranch. And that, as they say, is a good thing.
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05.25.06
Posted in Generic at 4:12 pm by Randy
This thing rocks. [p3international.com] It rocks so much, people want to share them [greenermiami.com].
P3 International’s Kill-A-Watt, as many other sites/blogs have reported, is designed to give you the power of knowledge. What kind of knowledge, you ask? Well, let me tell you, brother:
This will tell you how good your electricity is (from a voltage standpoint), it tells you instantaneous (updated every second) amps, watts, volt-amps [wikipedia.org] (not the same as watts, to be sure), how many cycles/sec (i.e. hertz), and the kilowatt-hours [wikipedia.org] of whatever you plug into it.
I plugged our entertainment center into it (including TV, DVD, DirecTiVo, VCR, and 5.1 receiver), and was actually surprised that it drew an average of 150W when we watched stuff, and about 35W when “idle” (DirecTiVo never truly turns off, you know). Apparently watching the boob tube isn’t quite the load on our PG&E bill that I once thought.
Most telling was to find out that my PowerMac G5 pulls a nominal 200W, when it’s doing light workloads. If it involves hard disks and the processors get worked, it can easily double to around 400W. A sobering notion, which makes me wonder if I should sell the beast and get myself a MacBook Pro [apple.com].
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05.24.06
Posted in Generic at 7:31 am by Randy
Anybody who knows the location and terrain of the ranch realizes that there’s basically no cell phone coverage down in the meadow or up at the house. In order to make or receive a call, you have to walk about halfway to the vineyard, and that’s to get just one bar of coverage (about -90dBi).
So I’ve undertaken a quest to find a cell phone repeater solution that:
- Allows me to aim a high-gain directional antenna up near the vineyard, in sight of the commercial radio tower across the Sonoma valley, and
- Allows me to place an omnidirectional antenna down near the house, in order to provide mobile phone coverage to the canyon.
- Doesn’t cost thousands of dollars.
To start, I’ve purchased the high-gain antenna along with a cable and adapter to allow me to aim the antenna. I’m going to experiment with temporarily installing the antenna at the ranch house and aim it down into the valley to see how much better the signal is.
Of course, the added wrinkle here is that in order to place a repeater like that, I’ll need electricity…
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Posted in Generic at 1:30 am by Randy
I am now in full job-hunt mode. I’ve stopped just short of outright quitting my current job (mostly to keep the house paid up and the lights on). The situation at my current job has a lot to do with the resolve to find something else. But facing the very real and increasingly imminent move north to the ranch tends to crystalize my thinking.
I’m looking naturally at IT-related positions, though I continue to find personal interest in moving toward a more marketing or public relations area. Do they hire analysts to analyze the analysts that analyze a company? I gotta believe that somewhere, someone’s doing exactly that.
Bottom line: there’s jobs in them thar hills, and I only have to find one.
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Posted in Generic at 12:57 am by Randy
I walked into work Monday sporting my new (now one-generation-behind) Moto RAZR V3 [Wikipedia]. This sparked a controversy to which I was previously oblivious: apparently, I have the reputation amongst my friends at work that I somehow suffer from “mobile phone ADD” [Urban Dictionary] or somesuch. They claim that I get a new phone every couple months (which is, of course, patently false).
At first, I attempt to reason with my friends. This naturally gets me nowhere, since I’m being double-teamed at the time. Then I up the ante by starting to raise my voice, at which point we invoke my good friend Mark’s infamous “Mr. Furious” [Wikipedia] schtick, where they just keep saying, “No, Randy, you’re wrong,” no matter how much I present logic and facts, until I get so frustrated that I want to start caving heads in with blunt objects. Then of course we laugh at the top of our lungs (or, at least I do) and continue walking to lunch.
The only truth I take away from the episode is this: perception is reality. I apparently need to work on my reality-shaping skills.
Edited to update the sites to where the links in the post go. I’ve seen it done, and am conflicted; does anybody care if this is done?
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