What a Way to Start The Day

And I missed it all. Well not all maybe but the exciting part, the part with all the action, the part where the car went flying and spinning. But Jim sure didn't, though I bet he wishes he did. On his way to work he had a fender bender. Right outside the office right in full view of my window if I had been looking out at that moment but no, I had my nose in my work. I didn't even hear anything.

My buddy Jim was on his way to work. He was slowing down to make the turn into the parking lot fortunately, when an idiot ran a stop sign right in front of him. The idiot almost made it. Jim couldn't stop and hit the back end of his car. The idiot spun around twice and ended up crosswise across the road. I didn't see it but a young girl in a car right behind Jim did. We only saw the aftermath, that's Dave Z and me, and he was just as upset at missing it as I was probably more because he would have had a better view.

Now its not that we want a big accident but in the years we have been in the new office, we have seen the traffic increase on the road over 100 percent. We have watched the city police set up a regular radar trap at the bottom of the hill and nab speeders at will until they had more than enough donut money for the whole squad. We regularly hear squealing tires as we have yet another near miss. And when we finally have an accident involving one of our own no less we missed it.


So that was how Jim started the day with a bang not a whimper. And it caused a good deal of excitement for a while this morning. No injuries or gore, hell the idiot didn't even spill his coffee. Totaled his car most likely but kept the extra large double double. Now Jim gets to try and get his car fixed. It is drivable but all the plastic on the front, and these days that's a lot, and with insurance rates and accidents and shortages of help, etc. etc. Its going to be December before they can get Jim's car in.


And whatever good came out of it, Jim owes to his witness. Jim really didn't see the Idiot till it was too late but his witness saw him, she saw Jim hit his brakes, she saw the guy run the stop sign and more importantly she told the police and kept the Idiot on the straight and narrow when his story started to change to the police. It seems she though that it could have as easily been her rather than Jim and the Idiot was not going to get away with it. She saw to that.


So all and all it was an exciting morning. And I missed it.


Keeping a better eye out ...



Randy

Pet Tricks

It was a "Dog Disneyland" weekend. Dog Disneyland is the off leash area where we take the girls for extra special long walks. They can go off leash because they would take off at the first scent but the other dogs come over to them so they still get socialized. This weekend was Indian Summer and the park was wall to wall dogs and people. The girls loved it. Two laps on Saturday and a quick lap on Sunday. It must have been Take a Beagle to the park day on Saturday because it looked like a beagle family reunion. There were Tricolors galore and even a black and white that could have been Dixie's brother. But he didn't have her speckled ears.

So we walked the girls in the sun for what may have been the last good weekend of the fall. The forecast is for colder weather so we took advantage of the sun and the colors.

Belle was her usual self. Happy go lucky. Just having fun. She had a good day but then that's Belle she always has good days.

Dixie had a bad day. She found a treasure. Well a treasure for her anyway. To you and I it was a stick. But to her it was a treasure. Still green about a half an inch thick and a foot long, just right for chewing. Laying there by the side of the path and no other dog had picked it up. So by all the rules of the dog park it was hers. She picked it up and was walking down the path carrying the treasure. She made it nearly three quarters of the way around as the proud owner of a stick. Tail up a big grin and a treasure. You could see it made her happy.

Now I know you are not supposed to attribute human characteristics to animals but you could just see it made her happy. And what happened next proved it. Just as we were coming along the river a golden lab cam galumphing along. The brute up and took her treasure without so much as a by your leave. Well Dixie was crest fallen. Her ears dropped, tail went down and she looked like she might cry. She was visibly disappointed. Fortunately the Lab's master made the cad give her treasure back. I think she could see how it had affected Dixie too. It put the spring right back in step to get her treasure back. But its a sad tale, she started playing with a pair of beagles dropped the treasure and forgot to bring it with her.

She found another chunk of wood but it was big and ungainly and it didn't have the cachet of the original treasure so she dropped it. But she can't wait till we go to dog Disneyland where she can find a another treasure.

Hoping for another Indian Summer weekend

Randy

On the Air

Well with some help from my brother and remote access I am on the air with the new wireless network. It works slick. I don't have to hide in the front room tethered to my desktop and router. I can now sit up here in the kitchen and get right under foot. In fact I am in the way right as I type this. Normally you would have to be a beagle to get in the way this well. Ha! My my what technology can do.

It wasn't that tough either once I was able to turn over the set up to my brother. Thanks to high speed connections on both ends he was able to get it up and running no problem. I wonder what people who don't have tech support in the families do? Thanks for your help Ted. Hello to Duncan the only nephew I didn't talk to today. Hello Kim who I did not talk to at all either.

Thanks again Ted for the clever network name which must remain private (publishing it would not be a good idea). The wife's reaction when she heard it was "Oh Cute". Coming from her that is high praise indeed. She says South Park is "Just stupid" which is the worst slur she can direct at anything. I think we did a good job because when I look for a network on this thing mine does not show up but there are a couple of others that come up with what I think are the manufacturer's defaults. So we are safe and secure. No need to try to hack my network when there are 2 more with open doors.

Broadcasting from the heart of Calgary and well underfoot...

Randy

A Computer in Every Pot

It would be nice to have a computer in every room of my house so I could use it where I want to be not where I have to be where the connections are. The desk top would stay put. But it has to it weighs enough to anchor the Titanic. Not very portable. But I have a laptop. Nice small light eminently portable. But It has to stay leashed to my router so unless I want to drag wires through the house I am stuck. Two computers on one desk (and no its not that desk yet) is silly.

Now I know there are wireless routers and hubs and I could set up a wireless network but I really don't know thing one about them. As Blanche DuBois said, "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers." especially for my serious techie stuff. Yeah I work in computers, and yeah I been doing it for more years than I care to remember but this new stuff is way past me.

Give me a database, I will normalize the sucker till hell won't have it. Program design modularity no problemo but I never was a hardware kinda guy. And all the new stuff is hardware. On the plus side they are making it so that Joe Sixpack can set up his own network in the basement so it can't be too hard. Heck if the pimply faced "You-want-fries-with-that" can do it so can I.

But what is the best way or the best gear to buy. Do I want or need the best of the best or will the best of the cheapest be a better option. I know I don't want the cheapest of the cheap because you do get what you pay for (to a point.) I know that the top dollar does not mean top product (case in point Microsoft there are better and cheaper tools out there). And maybe there is something to be said for being a lemming. If I get the most commonly used stuff maybe someone will know what is snafued if I run into problems.

I guess I will just have to call my brother the techie in Winnipeg and get the dope. You see he is a techie who plays with this stuff all day every day. For work and for fun. He has a job doing what he likes to do and he gets into it big time. He also does not have a big budget for his hobbies, three kids, a cat, a dog and a mortgage will do that to you. So he has a knack of getting the best bang for the buck. That is why his opinions are usually on the money.

He will also be able to help me set it up so that I am not the local hot-spot. We already have a few of those in the neighborhood. You can tell when there is some guy sitting outside a house on the street in his car with his lap top surfing the net. Saving big bucks hitting hot spots not having to pay for his Internet. Shrewd or what. Except that with gas at a buck something a litre its costing him just as much to pay to idle his car while he surfs as it would to get a connection at home. (Probably more since Mommy and Daddy might just pay for the connection to their basement.) I'm not selfish but I think if you want to surf it should be on your own dime. The net is like a utility but it is pay as you go. Also I would not be able to control what some geek would do over my connection so better to not have them on it.

Anyway, I think a wireless network in the house would be great. I use the Internet like a phone book now it would be nice not to be sent to Coventry every time I want to use it. It would also make it handy (just like the remote for the TV). So the plan for the weekend is to find out what I need for a wireless network. First stop Winnipeg I just hope it ain't snowing out there.

Now should this thingy be smoking like that and what were those sparks about?

Randy

Well Duh?

So Washington state passed a law that makes it illegal to text message while operating a motor vehicle. A no brainer that was due. I cannot imagine trying to compose a text message in traffic. At least not without causing a major accident. But that is just me. Apparently, according to one woman interviewed about it, she does that all the time. And she has only had once close call. She also went on record that she would be opposed to to any such law here. Well of course she would. The fact that she texts while driving is an indicator of how good her decision making is, which is to say not very.

But just like cell phones these text addicts cannot go from A to B without being constantly in touch with everyone they know. Now I have to worry that some crack berry addicted moron is cruising down the street in and overpowered rice rocket texting a message to his buddies while careening at me. Nice. I think technology is making people more and more stupid. It is lowering the common denominator to record lows. If someone can take a piece of technology and devise the most stupid use or way to use it they will.

Take texting in the first place. It is a matter of using 10 keys to replace 50 keys on a keyboard on a screen that will hold 40 characters max, not the best platform but what the heck! And to become efficient you have to shrink the English language to the equivalent of a few hundred TLA's (three letter acronyms). Hey whack job you are holding a telephone! Call the person, talk that's what the device was built for! Oh no I forgot your phone is not for talking it is for listening to music playing games and taking pictures. Of course that is why you can't live without it.


I digress. To get back to the Washington state law. It is illegal to text while driving but you cannot be stooped for it. You can only be charged if you are doing something else wrong at the same time. Washington is being criticized for that saying it makes the law much less effective. But I disagree, the Washington law makers have a loop hole. You see to my way of thinking if you are text messaging while driving you are, by definition, driving with undue care and attention. Surely they have laws against that in Washington. And if they do, voila, there is the first thing they did wrong and you can now nail them for the secondary infraction. Pretty clever I think.

Not texting anyone behind the wheel...


Randy