UGH....PC Repair....MY OWN

Well, after listen to this thing make strange noises when I first powered it up, and then watching the temperature of the GPU on the video card go over TWO-HUNDRED degrees, I figured it might be a good time to pull this one the desk, take the covers off, and see what was going on.
Sure enough, the fan on the video card was barely turning. I have some good video cards "in stock" here, but I really didn't want to use one as I've had people call me at 6pm on a Sunday night saying they needed their PC fixed RIGHT NOW, and they were wiling to pay a premium for 'after hours' service.
So off to Best Buy to get another video card. I'd much rather get one from Newegg, as they're always 25%~40% cheaper than Best Buy, but what the heck....it was a nice day and I wanted to get out of the house.
Blew about 3 pounds of dust bunnies out of this one, and then did the YF's as long as I had the compressor set up (drier on the air outlet, grounding strap on the blow gun to discharge static) to clean PC's.
Got this one all spiffied up, plugged in the new video card, and upgraded the hard disk while I was at it.
I did a fresh install of OpenSUSE 11.4, migrated my data from the old hard disk, and here I am.
The new video card barely breaks 100*, and the new drive is noticeably faster than the old one. Should be good for at least another 50,000 miles....

My First (and other) Car MEME....

Idea courtesy of Old NFO.
The first car I got to drive on a regular basis was my Mom's 1964 Corvair Monza Spyder. Fun little car until my sister got rear-ended by a semi one day. She was OK, but the car was never the same after we got it out of the shop. I learned more than I wanted to know about "Trailing-Throttle Oversteer" in that little guy. It was "Monza Red" with a black interior. It also had one of the neatest radios in it I'd ever seen. It was a Sony MDL-something that had AM, FM, SW, and LW, and it hung under the dash in an accessory bracket that let you pull the radio out, and carry it along as a portable.
I spent many a cold winter night listening to WRVA ("The Lou Dean Show") while laying in bed with the headphones on.
Mom traded that one in for a 1967 Corvair Monza, with the 110 HP engine, and a POWERGLIDE.
Oh, the ignominy of going from a 4-speed to a two-speed AUTOMATIC right when I was getting my driver's license!
The '67 Monza was "Marina Blue", one of the prettiest colors you could ever paint a car.
The next car we got, which was still my Mom's car, was a graduation present for me. We got a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with the Special Edition package. I was bummed when it came in because the dealer we order it from was a grade school friend of my Mom's, and he checked the "Delete R/T Stripe" on the option box because he didn't think my Mom would like having that big white stripe around the tail. They substituted some chrome and red R/T emblems on the rear fenders, and the thing wound up being a real sleeper. Wit the f-70x14 bias ply tires it wouldn't hook up for sh1t (I could lay rubber for blocks with that thing!) but once it was rolling, hang on!
We kept it for a couple of years, and then the insurance companies came down on "Muscle Cars".....HARD. Even though I was an "A" student, had NO accidents or tickets, and was getting the good driver/good student discount, or insurance went from $186 a year to $483 EVERY SIX MONTHS! The Charger was "T5 Copper Metallic" with a tan interior.
So, we got rid of it, and I moved on to....
A 1971 Ford Capri. It had the 1600 "Kent" engine, with a four speed, and the tiniest one barrel carb I'd ever seen. The "Kent" 1600 was a pretty stout engine (it was the basis for the early Formula Ford cars), but this thing was seriously DE-tuned. It wouldn't pull more than 5000RPM in NEUTRAL! I swear, you could put a brick on the accelerator, walk away for a week, and it would still be running when you came back.
Really a stone, but it handled pretty well, got great mileage, and got me through college in style. It was some kind of non-descript medium blue metallic with a white ( ! ) interior.
I could go on about the cars I've "owned", but these were the ones I was driving during my 'formative years'.
Maybe I'll just do a post listing all the cars I've owned. It covers the gamut, from Corvairs to Jeeps, and Corvettes to El Caminos.....

For Wirecutter....(among others)....

A buddy of mine sent me this, and I *immediately* thought about Kenny.

Enjoy!

BEWILDERED TEXAN

While walking down along the Rio Grande this morning, I saw a Muslim extremist fall into the water ; he was struggling to stay afloat because of all the guns and bombs he was carrying. Along with him was a Mexican who was also struggling to stay afloat because of the large backpack of drugs that was strapped to his back. If they didn't get help, they'd surely drown. Being a responsible Texan and abiding by the law to help those in distress, I informed the County Sheriff 's Office and Homeland Security in Austin. It is now 4 PM, both have drowned, and neither authority has responded.

I'm starting to think I wasted a postage stamp...

Wow....10 Meters is WIDE OPEN!

I haven't seen the 10 Meter band open like this in YEARS! There's stations calling CQ out past 28.500, and the band is supporting propagation from all over.
I worked T32C earlier today on 10, and then half an hour later worked him on 15.
Great day to play radio!

Bullet Impacts Filmed at ONE MILLION Frames Per Second

Amazing stuff!

Steve Jobs -February, 1955 ~ October, 2011-

May the place you go to be Insanely Great beyond your wildest dreams.....

UVB-76, The Russian "Buzzer" Shortwave Station

One of the 'bad' things about going out on launch missions is that I miss about a 3-week chunk of my mail. When I got back Monday, I stopped at my mailbox and picked up my mail, and my latest issue of "WIRED" magazine was there.
Lo and behold, they had an article on the UVB-76 "Buzzer" shortwave station. I've heard this station several times in the past, and first found out about it reading "Monitoring Times" magazine. It's an interesting station, probably in the same category as a numbers station, but transmits a different format of information, consisting of various audio tones, and an occasional human voice. It's pretty boring to listen to, but one of those things I'll have on in the background once in a while.
The WIRED article had a reference to a live audio stream, so I looked it up. It's better than listening to it on my radio, as I really don't have an antenna that's suitable for 4.625 MHz, and the Internet relay is close enough that I don't have to worry about propagation from there to here.
A lot of people are bemoaning that shortwave radio listening is "dead", but there's still a lot of things to listen to.

The Floor Has Finally Stopped Moving....

Yep it's true. After you've been out at sea for a few days your inner-ear adjusts to the constant motion it's subjected to, and you compensate for it as you walk. It's a strange feeling at first to be walking down a passageway, only to be walking UP the passageway a few seconds later as the ship rolls a bit.
You know you have your Sea Legs when you can walk down the stairs ("ladders" on a ship) from the mess hall with your left hand on a rail, a full cup of coffee in your right hand, and not spill a drop.
It took most of the morning, but now I can walk a straight line through the house without wandering as I do it!

AND...Sunday on way back in, somewhere in the vicinity of Guadalupe Island, we started hearing jets. I saw some F-18 Hornets around, and wondered what they'd be doing that far out. About an hour later I went up on deck, and was greeted by an Nimitz-class carrier, and an Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer!

I'll post some pix after I get them downloaded from my camera.

Back Home...To A DEAD Battery!

RATS! I forgot to unplug my Kenwood TM-D700 in the Jeep before I left. The radio draws almost nothing when it's off, but the Garmin "Hockey Puck" GPS receiver I have connected to it draws about 65mA, more than enough to drain a battery after 22 days away!
We first tried using one of those jumper boxes with a big GelCell battery in it, but IT was dead, so one of the logistics guys brought over a 400 Amp battery charger/booster, and a Honda Eu2000i generator.

We fired up the generator, connected everything, let it sit for a few minutes, and my Hemi rumbled to life.

It's connected to my trickle charger now, and I hope I didn't damage the battery. Ignition/Starting batteries are NOT meant to have a small, constant load connected to them, and the plates can get sulphated if you do that to them.

Hopefully the trickle charge will clean things up.

And my dogs went absolutely bonkers when I got home. I thoguh they were going to crash through the gate when I pulled in the driveway and got out of the Jeep!

Final Position Report.....

.....Before we drop our satcom link.

We're at 31* 15' N, and 120* 10' W.

We *easily* could have been home today, or even yesterday if they would have spent a few more $$ on fuel.

Oh, well.......

Revised ETA...Home MONDAY at 0800

Well, after realizing they'd have to roust everybody from home, and muster them at Home Port for our arrival Sunday night, The Management decided to slow us down to 14 knots.
This means we'll be at the pier at 0800 Monday morning. What's frustrating to us all, is that if they would have cruised the distance at ONE additional knot, we'd be home already!
And our satcom system will be going down at 1600 since we'll be within 200 miles of CONUS, and our license requires us to be dark within 200 miles.
Glad I brought a good selection of DVD's with me.
I've already watched "Seven Days In May", "THEM!", "Le Mans" with Steve McQueen, "TRON Legacy", and several others.
Maybe I'll watch "Iron Man 2" and/or "Blade Runner" later today. Several people want me to screen "The Enemy Below" in our lounge area, so that will probably be tonight's after dinner entertainment.
At least Saturday was "colored clothes" day for the ship's laundry, so all my laundry is done and packed, and I'm 90% done with packing the rest of my gear up.
Talk to you all later!