July 2006 Archives

I couldn't resist the title - sorry. I have now been running Fedora Core 5 for almost two months using VMware Workstation and it works like a champ. I had originally set the maximum disk size at 8GB which I thought would be more than adequate to grow into. Wrong! Now, that I have been finding more and more meteorology tools, I needed to double the size to do some testing on another data gathering process that I will eventually put up on the research server at school. So, after getting rid of the precautionary snapshot files, I used a nifty little wrapper for vmware-vdiskmanager to take it up to 16GB. So now I am off to configure the process to start using that new free space. It can churn while I continue purifying the pool.

Well, mary is off to the state capital for a training session, Dan is snoozing in the air condtioning, and I have been out working on the pool. Funny, feels like Mayberry, and since Mary is the one off to Raleigh, I guess that makes me Aunt Bee. Nevermind... It seems like most have gotten power back in the area, although I was talking with a guy at the station this morning and his section of the township still is out after almost 40 hours. Forget modern technology when PECO still has to go out and put the wires back on the poles. We are all still getting remnant calls for wires and trees down, and the fire cops in the northern part of the county are still coping with traffic control where traffic lights are still out. Things are gradually getting back to normal. Of interest, the NWS documentation for the severe thunderstorm event has been posted. The peak gust reported in this area was 71 mph in Glenmoore, PA, about 6 miles northwest of here, along with nickel-sized hail. Trust me, I was out during the strongest part of the storm and my car was rocking side to side. The only good side effect of the storm was that it did cool down a bit, at least for the evening. Today, the humidity is back up higher than it was over the weekend, another hot day ahead. So I am back to playing Aunt Bee, the pool boy.

While I am finishing up grabbing hourly METAR data for my professor, I also wrote some code to grab temperature data every minute from a selection of local stations. We are gathering a wealth of meteorological data. One area that I have always been interested in are the text products produced by the National Weather Service. Those are the severe weather bulletins, short-term and local forecasts that you will be likely to hear on radio and TV, as well as on weather web sites. They are not the usual endless strings of numbers and symbols that need to be decoded, but words and sentences understandable by humans. One way to get the data would be to screen scrape the wide range of NWS web sites, a boring task when you can get the same products pushed from several sources. I am working on getting such a server up and running - more details on that soon!

I am off to school to work on cleaning up some of my research projects (behind in my work as usual), but I just had one of those wonderful Internet moments. I usually, when I set up a profile on AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, or the other chat programs, include key phrases and such to dredge up old classmates and acquaintances. And, you know, it works. I have started using gaim on Linux, mostly because I can bring up my whole suite of IM names in one box. I use ICQ infrequently but, since I have a very low ICQ number (early adopter), I have always kept it active. Lo and behold, I got a legitimate IM on ICQ today (most are just spammers anymore). It was from a relative of someone I went to grade school with. We had a nice chat and I was able to pass along info about how the school is starting an alumni group. Instant messaging is just another way that we can get back in touch with those who have fallen away from us, as well as strike up new conversations. Off to school to crunch some data, work on the seismograph, and clean up a few specimens, too! Oops! Almost forgot - my grade school, St Charles in Arlington, Virgina has started an alumni web page. If you attended, please stop over and sign up!

Ok, now that I have MT humming right along, I think it is time to open comments back up. Why? Because I like comments (the real ones). I just set up the Akismet plugin for MT, one thing that I had great luck with when I used WordPress. So, the comments are open again - leave a nice one, please. On the topic of WP, I find it comforting that since I removed all traces of php from our servers that things are running much smoother. Score one for perl and well-written code. Editor's Note: I will have to fixup the templates a bit to re-include the commenting facility. It will be up later today or tomorrow - not my most pressing issue at the moment...

Hello? Does anybody see something wrong with this picture? Only one thing to say to all those iPod junkies that buy this: get a life! Disconnect from the device and do something worthwhile with your time. Maybe take a walk with someone and actually talk to them (not via cell phone) or volunteer to do something for your community or your school. (via Ananova and the Left Coast Conspiracy)

My old laptop is really limping along now. It is a good thing that its replacement is already up and running. The funny thing - it appears to be a problem with the Windows installation now and writing to the hard drive. So, I think that since I just backed up all the data on it (thank goodness for that), I think I will load up Fedora Core 5 on it. Granted, it is not the fastest machine, but it is still usable. Wow - what a concept - don't add to the garage graveyard but reuse it! Sounds like a project for later in the month.

This warrants a new category: stupidity. When I head for the station when we get a call, I always try and pay special attention driving through the neighborhood. Yes, I turn on the blue light and the headlights (day or night), but I really need to keep it slow with all the kids on bikes and playing in their yards. Yesterday, I was heading out for a call and I saw that there were a couple of kids and their mother on bikes down by the small stream down the street. Well, the kids were already pulling off the road, but the mother was circling in the middle of the street, talking on her cell phone. No, she wasn't watching her kids (youngish, 6 or 7) or for traffic (me), but yak, yak, yakking on her freaking cell phone. When I got closer, seeing that she was totally oblivious to me trying to get to the fire house, I tapped the horn once, a courtesy tap, not a long get-the-you-know-what out of my way. Her reaction was to look up from her important conversation and extend the one-finger salute to me with the hand she was holding her precious communications device. Go figure - this is the same kind of person who bitches when the fire department doesn't get to her house in 10 seconds when she burns the toast and sets off the alarms. This kind of behavior reminds me of something from our company's web site. It goes like this... “We Can’t Win” When the fire trucks are delayed 40 seconds in traffic, People say: "It took them 20 minutes to get here." When the truck races at 40 m.p.h., it's: "Look at those reckless fools." When four men struggle with an eight-man ladder: "They don't even know how to raise a ladder." When firemen open windows for ventilation to reduce heat in fighting a fire: "Look at the wrecking crew." When they open the floor to get at a blaze: "There goes the axe squad." If the chief stands back where he can see and direct his men, people say: "He's afraid to go where he sends his men." If they lose a building: "It's a lousy department." If they make a good "stop" folks say: "The fire didn't amount to much." If lots of water is necessary: "They are doing more damage with water than the flames." If a fireman gets hurt: "He was a careless guy." It a citizen gets hurt: "It's a crazy department." If a fireman inspects a citizen's property: "He's meddling in somebody's business." If he wants a fire hazard corrected: "I'll see the mayor." If he gets killed and leaves a family destitute: "That's the chance he took when he joined the fire department."

Yes, I know it's goofy, but I just had to do it! I was searching around for some fire gear and happened upon this nifty, Flash-driven badge designer. No, I am not going to post the link although I am sure you can Google it. I am always amazed at some of the interesting applications that have popped up on web site to make it easy to order custom items like, in this case, a badge. Also, it was fun for the first time to use KSnapshot (no more Ctrl-Print Screen for me) and the Gimp to get it just right. I am using FC5 more and more and Windows less and less. Still tied to Windows for GIS and other high-end applications that are just not available elsewhere. Nice, though, to be able to have the best of both worlds, courtesy of VMWare.

For a number of years, Mary and I played the long commute game, driving to and from Center City every day, battling traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway and 202. When it was just me doing the daily trek, I decided to convert to using Amtrak. What a wonderful decision it was! Gone were the sitting in the usual standstills, trying to find an alternate route to avoid an accident, and the jangled nerves associated with it all. It was a short hop from home to the Exton Train Station and an enjoyable stroll from 30th Street to the workplace. In between, I could snooze, read the paper, play on my laptop, converse with a fellow commuter, or all of the above. Amazing part was that it was faster and cheaper. Sure, there were days when the train gods didn't cooperate, but I didn't need to cope with the problems other than being delayed. I was just reading an article entitled Tailing the X-Commuter:

The drive to get out of big cities is turning the United States into a land of nomads. "Extreme commuters" who travel more than 90 minutes to work, one way, are the fastest-growing group of commuters, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They are also an increasingly important economic force shaping everything from real-estate markets to fast-food menus.

That makes sense, since we are all searching for our little plot in the 'burbs, one that is affordable in our current economy, but what is unsettling is the response that is being made to facilitate the commuter's woes...

But the real action is inside the cockpit. Cup holders, first introduced in 1982, now outnumber seats in many cars. The new Nissan Altima has three cup holders just for the driver: one for bottled water, one for coffee and one for juice. There are even slots for bottle caps. The new Dodge Caliber offers an optional refrigerated glove box, and its front passenger seat transforms into a dining table when you fold it flat.

What a concept - a home away from home on the road. Problem is that it all leads to even more distractions that can create accidents.

Americans today eat an average of 32 meals a year in their cars, according to researcher Harry Balzer at the NPD Group. And they order one in four restaurant meals from the car. So McDonald's is rolling out products that fit in cup holders, like its new Fruit 'n Yogurt Parfait.

I think that is a gross underestimate, one that is leading to other problems like obesity. The old addage "garbage in, garbage out" comes to mind. Where the hell are people's heads? Oh, that's right, they are connected to their iPods! Stupid me, I forgot. With all of the urban development moving beyond the city, we are paving over more and more of the Earth with concrete and macadam to accomodate the daily migration patterns of these folks. Whatever happened to planning an efficient and affordable mass transit system including high speed rail? Oh, I forgot, that would make too much sense. God forbid we do something sensible. Instead, let's just add to the pollution and keep these idiots happy with their SUV's with DVD players for each person in the vehicle. So, just plug into your latest tunes and become another single occupant vehicle cruising down the road to ruin. You won't have to worry about the consequences - let your grandchildren worry about it.