All The News Thats Fit But Skipped
This has been floating around the web for years. I brought it up in #linuxcult, and to my surprise, some people have never heard of it. Props to anyone whop can watch the whole thing.
If the above link does not work for you,
1) press windows key + r
2) type “cmd.exe”
3) in the terminal, type “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl”
4) enjoy
El Granada, California always had the best mix of suburban housing mixed in with empty lots and huge groves of Eucalyptus trees. This created a great enviroment for kids to built tree houses, forts and neighborhood jumps. The town is much more devleloped now, so most of the places I remember from my youth have become new houses. Other tree forts and jumps have been destroyed purposedly in this new age of liability. However, a few of these old masterpieces survive, and a couple are still built and manage to stay alive for a while before being torn down by scared property owners and uptight dog walkers. Here are two I viseted today:
A smaller, closer to the ground fort with the big one just visible in the background.
The big house up in the trees.
Climbing Up. Much higher than it appears in the picture.
View from inside.
Ground fort, view from above. It has a rain cover and camo.
Nice place to chill.
One of the exits/entrances to the ground fort.
Just like any other good nerd, I started on a new project a few days ago. I wanted to put an old computer in with the house’s stereo equipment to act as a jukebox. I’ve mentioned the idea before in an earlier post. Now I actually wanted to put it to practice. I set up all the software easy enough - I installed Linux, MPD plus a webclient and a samba share. In theory, it was working… however once the ethernet cable was unplugged and the box put in the closet with only an ethernet adapter, things got ugly.
I plugged in the power and booted up the computer. To my dismay, the box did not pick up any wifi signal. Not even a trace. The computer was sitting in a complete dead zone. To be honest, I was not surprised. The signal had to travel up a floor, to the opposite side of the house, through a kitchen. Kitchens are notoriously bad for wifi, all the equipment tends to block the RF waves.
So I did some research on the net. What could I do to increase my routers power and thus give life to my new jukebox? Thats when this link, like an angel out of heaven, found its way to my eyes.
The EZ 12 from freeantennas.com
Its a template for a parabola you can attach to your wireless rotuer’s antennas. All you have to do is cut out the template, resize it to your liking, glue on some tinfoil and attach it. I made one for each antenna and it only took me about 10 minutes.
The thing worked much better than I would have ever thought! All of a sudden my jukebox could pick up signal, not that great, but better than nothing. I also noticed that the signal strength in my room with my laptop went from 80% to 95% +.
My D-Link router with the windsurfers attached.
The windsurfers work by focusing all of the RF waves in one direction, instead of all directions like the antennas without them. If you are anywhere in front of the direction of the router, you will see a significant increase in signal. From behind, not so much.
The directions on the site say that you need to use thick paper, but I found that regular printer paper works just fine. After you insert the tabs into the reflector, just bend the tabs up and use a piece of scotch tape to hold them there.
Bigger is better, so I edited the image to a size thats big enough to just barely fit on a piece of printer paper:
The Windsurfer Template (click for fullsize)
Enjoy the increased signal! I know I am.
LinuxCult.org is a new linux forum some of my friends have been working on lately. Its still in the infant stages, but I really encourage any linux users to stop by and check it out. Its going to be great.
The board is going to have many great features. One of the cool things already housed there are the helper scripts - written by myself - that attempt to solve several common problems people have with linux. The first one has already been written. If you have problems with Linux, Ubuntu and Flash not working or not having sound, you should give this a try:
http://www.linuxcult.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5
See you there!
This website’s server is located on what appears to be a dirt lot in San Francisco’s south of Market Neighborhood according to Geotool. I always knew Laughing Squid had secret undreground headquarters.
So here I am, sitting at this desk that I’ve written so many posts from before. Scattered around me are miscellaneous notes and papers crying for attention, “Study me!” says my Geology Final review sheet, “Fill me out so you don’t get a $50 fee!” says my end of the year dorm checkout packet. Its the end of my freshman year at Southern Oregon University. Some of the time has been great, some bad. Here are my thoughts for anyone interested in the school:
First of all, lets talk about the size of the school. Its small, really small, for a university. There are only about 5,000 students in all. Now I never quite understood why this turned people off, but I think its great. The average class size is only about 20 people. When you combine that with the fact that 90% of all the professors have a PhD in their field you get some really good personal education. The classes here are absolutely top notch, every day I go to sleep feeling like I’ve learned a lot. Professors are also very acessible. Because there aren’t too many studnets office hours aren’t very cramped, and its usually possible to see a professor for help without an appointment.
Many of the professors also run extra curricular clubs after class. This can be really beneficial to students interested in the subjects they are studying.
If you like the outdoors you will like Ashland. SOU lies under the shadow of Mt. Ashland, which has skiing in the winter and top notch mountain biking during the summer. The Rogue and Klamath rivers are just as stone’s throw away as well abundant hiking trails in pretty much any direction. Make sure to pack your boots.
Dorm life. I know this can be a matter of opinion but living in the dorms is a nightmare and there is no way it should be “required” for incoming freshman. You pay nearly $800 a month to be put in a little 15×20 room with another person. I could practically tell what my roommate had for dinner every night just from the smell of his breath even though he was on the opposite side of the room. In the summer there is no air conditioning, during the winter we had our heater up 100% for 3 months straight and it never got warm. Its loud, there is no privacy, it smells and the bathrooms are absolutely horrid. On top of that you get a bunch of drunk idiots wandering around all the time thinking they are your friends just because you were unfortunate enough to be stuck in the same hall as them. Now I can only speak for myself, but I don’t enjoy being treated like a child. There are special “campus public safety” officers wandering the halls all the time trying to keep an eye on you making sure you aren’t doing anything naughty. No, dorms were not for me.
SOU also comes across as a little money grubbing at times. This is understandable considering the economic state of schools in Oregon but it has to be mentioned anyway. Lately the school has been renting out the F&G classroom, which is basically the main entrance to the Forest Hall where I live, and us students often have to go around. How would they like it if we held a party in their living room and made them go around? Often us students feel like second class citizens to anyone else using the school even though we pay the most to be here. Also, there are fines for everything here, but I think that comes with the territory of running a profitable institution.
The Cascade Food Court where freshmen can spend their meal points which come as part of the dorm package. This place has literally made people sick, and its made me skinny. We are talking bottom of the barrel low quality generic Sysco food that is left in steaming buckets for way too long. The food has often times been known to be inedible, and sometimes students say that they would prefer just to skip a meal or two than to dine in cascade. I would encourage dropping the meal points and learning how to cook.
I think SOU is a great school and I will be returning next year. Although it does have its share of bad parts, I believe most of them are associated with being a freshman. Next year should be great for a number of reasons, mainly because I wont be living in the dorms any longer and I can take some of the higher level classes I have been waiting for. Have a good summer all!
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