Weatherheads

Want to learn more about weather and weather forecasting? Follow the link in the title of this post. It will take you to an experimental section of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK website. Here you can learn about the dynamics of severe storm forecasting, a subject that has always interested me. I credit my mother's father, J W Martin with developing my interest in weather. When I was quite young, I would spend the summers on his farm in Camp Creek, WV and quite frequently in the afternoons we would get thunderstorms. Grandaddy and I would sit on their enormous front porch and watch the storms roll in over the mountains. Ever since, Ive had a keen interest. I watch the Weather Channel more than most people (drives Lisa nuts). I signed up several years ago to become a weather spotter through Amateur Radio and the NWS's Skywarn program. KE4KLD, spotter # CHF-031.
Anyway, check out the link and see if you find it as interesting as I do. Each day they post three areas of concern, indicated by the boxes on the map. Click on one and you will go to a larger view with a navigation bar on the left that will provide various analyses of the current map. The description link at the top of the page gives you further material to research, if you're interested. If you just want forecasts and warnings, use the link under the "Links" section on this here blog. "If the thunder don't get ya, then the lightning will" -"The Wheel" by Grateful Dead.

Podcasts

OK,
I thought podcasts were a passing fad. I had never really checked them out. Turns out they are cool. One of my Sunday morning things is "Meet The Press" with Tim Russert. Tim asks some tough questions (well tough by network TV standards) and I like to see guests from both the left and right writhe and squirm. So MSNBC has been advertising podcasts of their shows so I figure I'll check them out. Pretty safe way to get into some already familiar territory. I had missed last week, so it was kind of interesting to hear Trent Lott writhe and squirm under David Gregory's questions (guest host-Tim's on vacation). So anyway, I decided to try Al Franken's show. I like Al. He's been a Deadhead since , well if you can remember, you really weren't there. His diatribe against fellow druggie Rush Limbaugh is hilarious. So I tried Todd Cochrane's Geek News Weekly. Now I really start to se the potential. Todd turns me on to the Flickr Magazine Cover (see previous post). If I had been listening to Kim Kommando, I would have missed the URL. With a podcast, you can rewind. So it's kind of like a radio talk show, only you are in control. This morning, I checked out TWiT with Leo Laporte. I laughed my ass off all the way to work. It was John-Boy and Billy for geeks. John Dvorak as the crusty old curmudgeon (i.e. Robert D. Raeford). Only he makes sense, most of the time. I'm hooked. BTW, Cool new radio station in Williamsburg, WTYD "The Tide". Not a lot of commercials (yet) and some cool "hand picked " setlists. 107.9 on I64 east out of Richmond and streaming audio soon as well as another xmtr on 92.3. Got a real college radio thing going on, but they are not afraid to throw some old CSN&Y or Joni Mitchell in there.------- Content.------- COOL!

This website lets you make a magazine cover from any Flickr image.

Cathedral Rock

Cathedral Rock
Originally uploaded by b3nd3r.

A pic from the Sedona AZ trip

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Good things

First, some kind words for the folks at Thales Navigation. They make the Magellan line of gps receivers. My Map 330M started getting wiggy, powering off for no reason or keyboard not responding. Sometimes EPROM's need to be zapped, so I tried uploading new firmware. Nada. I contacted their support staff through email and they gave me an RA (this thing was way out of warranty). So I sent it to them with $65+ph and they sent me a brand new unit. I guess they couldn't zapp it either.

The company I work for is trying to get into the home automation market. I just put a system in at the lake house. Pretty basic, but very convenient. Open the back door, the hallway light comes on. Call the controller from home and turn on the AC. This past weekend, I installed a 30a X-10 relay on the water heater (also acts as an X-10 signal bridge/repeater). Now I can program it based on our usage habits. The controller offers lighting control, security, HVAC, and event logging. There are many devices out there that interface with it, even plumbing devices. I see tremendous potential for this in resort areas. People that own multiple rental properties will find it useful. There is an interface for Windows Media Center, too. Future projects will include an outlet for heat tape under the house and since we are getting a new deck, some cool mood lighting.

Has it really been 9 months since I last posted? I was checking Adam's blog the other day and read his post about being part of the revolution, and it inspired we to get of my ass and write "something....anything" (great Todd Rundgren record). So here goes: the job has worked out great, it was nerve racking at first, but I have discovered that I can still do electrical construction. We pulled off a 2300v switch gear replacement job in the power house at Anheuser Busch in Williamsburg. Had we failed, they could not have made beer for the July 4th holiday and they get highly upset when that happens. This was not an easy task and took some really creative thinking to get-r-done. Problem was there was no head room to get the old gear out and the load wiring all came into the bottom of the gear. The trick was being able to lift each section (1500lbs.) high enough to clear the conduit and cables. So just how did we do it? We found a "walkie" fork truck that had a very small footprint, small enough to maneuver in the narrow aisles between the gear. It also had extendable/retractable forks. (see pic at right) The problem was that in order to get the forks high enough to get on top of the gear, the mast would hit the conduit racks above. So how did we solve that problem? A jib boom! I got the idea from a gear handling website in the UK. We put the jib boom on the walkie, rigged some logging chain around the bus bars in the top of the gear, made our lift, dropped the sections on a pallet jack, and out the door they went. To set the new gear we just reversed the process. It all went like clockwork. There were those who said it couldn't be done...HA! I love solving problems like that. Especially when it works.
More later...we got a lot of catching up to do.