Monthly Archives: August 2005

New Motorcycle Luggage

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Gas prices here in Dallas are insane and now that I’m feeling better, it’s back to riding the motorcycle as much as possible. I just can’t afford $2.50 a gallon when I’m only getting 14 miles per gallon. At least the Sportster gets 50 miles per gallon.

The only problem has been the old pack that I’ve been using to carry my laptop, backpack, and Hydrapak. It’s small and the bottom isn’t rigid so it’s sagged over the luggage rack. So I went over to Cycle Customizing and ordered T-Bags‘ Sidekick. It looks a lot better than what I have been doing and ought to work well. A review will follow.

Krystal’s

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Johnny, Roger, and I rode up to Krystal‘s to try out some of their burgers. I’ve never eaten at one before but both of them being from Tennessee they remember them fondly. It was pretty good for what it was, cheap, greasy burgers. Definitely something to try at least once.

I’m A Jinx

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It’s official. I’m a jinx. I put together the new Windows XP machine last night out of a spare Athlon 2000+ that I had laying around. Well, I powered it up this morning to finish patching it and the CPU let the magic smoke out. Literally smoked the CPU.

So I went to Fry’s at lunch and picked up a 2.8GHz Celeron-D, a new motherboard, a gig of ram, and a new video card. No more used parts!

Then the real fun started. This was my first XP installation and I had to call Microsoft and read off a 48 digit number and get one read back to me in order to reactivate the installation. That’s just stupid. Maybe the next version of Windows can move back to a hardware dongle instead of this crap.

So it’s finally up and running and will be undergoing a burn-in for the next few days. Then the HAM Radio apps go on so that I can get the rest of the shack put together. PSK-31’s a must!

Scalping The Shrubs

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I’m so done with the ugly, overgrown bushes that have really made the front of the house look bad. So I scalped them. They’re now just stumps and the front of the house looks a heck of a lot better. Hopefully the boxwoods will grow back, they’re kind of lopsided now. I’m thinking this is going to be the start of a complete redoing of the landscaping in the front of the house.

Looking for a T-81A

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If you’re selling an ICOM T-81A, I’m looking for one. The 1.2GHz bug has bitten and this one will take the place of my current HT and give me two more bands at the same time.

All New Wireless Network

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Fry’s was having a really good sale on wireless gear and so now I’m the proud owner of some Netgear Double 108 hardware. The access point is a lot better than the old one I was using. A single AP is covering the whole house and the back yard where before I needed two. Plus it’s using WPA instead of the much less secure WEP, so the annoying neighbors that keep trying to get into my AP are going to have a much tougher go of it.

And I cheated and bought a router/access point and just disabled the router portion. It’s pretty crazy that the router/access points are cheaper than a standalone access point, but it works just the same.

Back In The Saddle

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I was under doctor’s orders not to ride the motorcycle until August, and since today’s the first of August, I rode in to work. It was good to be on two wheels again, but the bike’s not happy. It’s backfiring under deceleration, not the usual popping but real bangs. So I’m going to run the rest of this tank and if it doesn’t get better I’ll pull the carb and see if a good cleaning will help.

The ride was good, but I’m a tiny bit sore in the abdomen from upset unused muscles, so I’m going to drive tomorrow to give myself a break.

But it was really nice to be back on the road.