06.27.07
Posted in Generic at 8:15 am by Randy
JD 450C crawler, right side
Originally uploaded by randy_hall
Oh man, what a sweet ride.
Or at least, what a hunk of heavy machinery. 14,000 pounds of steel, oil, diesel and hydraulic fluid.
The hydraulics leak like a sieve, the bushings at just about every pivot point are shot, the seat is completely ruined, the hour meter has never worked (at least that’s what the neighbor said when I asked him about it), and the front loader bucket is bent in the middle.
Isn’t it purdy though?
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11.21.06
Posted in Generic at 12:25 pm by Randy
So, I started posting forum entries (lighly abridged) from my guild web site. They detail the “adventure” (for want of a better term) of my family’s quest for broadband, in whatever form it might be. Having read and re-read these entries, I have made sure that the names have been changed to protect the guilty, and to ensure the lack of libelous content. Apologies in advance for some language, I lost my composure on a few occasions.
It basically spells out our trials and tribulations, from mid-summer to now, that my family has gone through to get broadband to our somewhat remote house, located in the hills of eastern Sonoma County. Let this serve as a lesson to those who claim that broadband is widely available and competitive…
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08.31.06
Posted in Generic at 1:14 pm by Randy
Yes, I realize it’s been many, many moons since posting here. This space is not forgotten however.
We have made the move north to Sonoma, we now have all of our stuff (and Jen’s grandmother’s stuff) crowded into the house up there. The last couple months have been spent clearing boxes, cleaning out the old house (not to mention dealing with the handy man who is fixing it up for sale) and starting a new job in Napa.
Add on top of that, no solar yet (scheduled now for mid-September) and no broadband (”any day now” is the answer we keep getting), and you might better understand why the blog world has been getting less than my full attention. My bad.
Anyhow, the time for stability is coming; I have the feeling that in the next few weeks, we’ll be truly settled in at the new house, just in time for Ellie’s 4th(!) birthday.
Can you say “housewarming?” I knew you could.
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07.10.06
Posted in Generic at 10:20 pm by Randy
So, Ellie got to tear up the sidewalk on her tricycle for basically the first time ever. We took her on a trip around the block, and got to see all kinds of interesting things. About 5 minutes into the walk, I realized that I should be taking video of the proceedings (such as I could with a RAZR and it’s stunning 176×144 pixel video capture).
Enjoy.
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06.25.06
Posted in Generic at 4:39 pm by Randy
So, there’s a few items on the laundry list that haven’t been mentioned in a while:
- The “terrestrial wireless broadband” company we’ve been talking to looks like they’ll be able to get a signal up to the ranch using the 900MHz spectrum. I have to check back with them the week after Independence Day.
- We visited a “neighbor” (who spend weekends at their house on Cavedale Dr., only a couple ridges over from us) who has grid-tied solar installed by one of the solar companies from whom we got a bid. We visited their installation, which was very slick (though it wasn’t entirely relevant, since we’re off-the-grid). Very friendly folks, and a gorgeous view (imagine being able to see Mt. Tam from the hills due north of Sonoma, that tells you the view they have)
- I’m frantically updating my knowledge of Java. Just to give perspective: when I last was a Java expert, there were about 230 classes, now there’s 3500+.
- We’ve got a modest budget together to do the highest-level repairs and preparations for selling the house. Topping the list: replacing the wood floors.
- We’re mere days away from knowing definitively which solar installer we’re going to go with, and the money’s together; it’s now just a question of how soon can they start, and how soon the install can be finished.
Yeah, that ought to do it.
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06.23.06
Posted in Generic at 10:26 pm by Randy
So, no more equivocating. No more denying, procrastinating, and otherwise delaying. I have a new job coming (it is 99% official; awaiting background check and drug screen results, neither of which has me sweating), and that means it’s time for Green Acres to really happen.
CRAP.
That means I really have to sell and move out of this house that I’m comfortably seated in. It means I have to move myself to a location that is still pretty foreign to me. And it means I’m in for the adventure I swore I was going to undertake more than a year ago.
CRAP.
So, instead of packing and boxing all of my belongings, I’m stalling for time. Of course, the fact that it is Jen’s birthday today gives me an excuse. The trouble begins in the morning, when we’re day-tripping to the ranch to move more boxes. The $650 Trailer(tm) that I purchased already needs repairs, and I’ll have to do that in the morning before loading it up and hitching it to the truck for the 100-mile journey.
CRAP.
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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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