total.pardo

Any lawful device: 40 years after the Carterfone decision

great article - it was the convergence of ideas and legislation that gave us the internet we have today.

for those of you not so inclined, Region 2 (North America) amateur radio operators had their vaunted Field Day preparedness event contest this past weekend.  the telling quote regarding this exercise is from wikipedia:

Field Day is an annual amateur radio exercise, widely sponsored by IARU regions and member organizations, encouraging emergency communications preparedness among amateur radio operators. In the United States, it is typically the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country, with over 30,000 operators participating each year.

yes, i understand the need to wrap a contest around the test of emergency preparedness. what i don’t understand is the audacity and downright rudeness of the amateur in general. would less people operate if there were no contest aspect to this exercise?

the day’s high lowlights:

• tune to 14.280 MHz.  listen for 3 minutes to static.  send out the obligatory gentlemen’s agreement query, “is the frequency in use?”  wait.  upon no response, send out the general CQ call.  get back a cocky - “thanks for asking if the frequency is in use” comment – with the expected cream-on-the-cake desultory tone.
• tune to 14.325 MHz.  listen to an american southern-sounding voice drone on:  CQ CQ CQ for the “no contest” contest – stations not participating in field day call now – QRzed.  over and over.  then, when a person calls, and asks why, the inevitable battering begins.
• tune to 14.175. listen to an argument between several “rag-chewers” (an example of a rag chewing group is http://www.ragchewers.net/about.html DISCLAIMER – this group was not at the root of the described issue – I use them to help my reader understand what a group of rag chewers is.) regarding their “ownership” of the frequency in question.  last i looked part 97 has no codicil offering exclusivity to any single group or operator.

the level of hate, impatience, and ignorance was despicable.  i am lucky enough to have a few hams at my work with which to discuss this issue – and they agree the activity on 20 meters was higher than it has been in years.  one comment regarding cockroaches was telling - “this contest brings out the ‘extras’” – the no-code, test takers who don’t know the difference between a dipole and and a diphthong. 

i operated from home – designated 1D station – meaning i operated only one transceiver  (i own and regularly operate several) on commercial power.  i did operate 1E for about an hour – that designation meant i used emergency power.  i understand the purpose of field day – it does serve to allow hams to practice skills necessary to justify the existence of the hobby.  i don’t understand the rudeness and sense of entitlement.  its a shame.

final tally for me – 48 contacts on 20m.  20 of them were under the 1E designator.

i was offered two different sites to go out and help with club station operations.  the 95 degree weather kept me home.  the indifference and hate will keep me away from the event going forward.

One who acts without moral restraint; a dissolute person.  One who defies established religious precepts; a freethinker.
libertine

A new trailer from:

“Days of the Office Matrix”

starring:

Robert Duvall as Morpheus
Ron Livingston as Peter/Neo
Jennifer Anniston as Trinity
Aja Nadu as Samir
Brian Oettel as Michael Boulton
Hugo Weaving as Lumbergh
Pardo as Himself

(Pink Floyd’s “Terminal Frost” plays in the background)
(Set - Office cubicles at Pocono Raceway)
(cut to Morpheus speaking to Peter Anderson/Neo, who is eating ice cream)

Morpheus - “Now Peter, ehe, ehe, ehe, when you are on this PC, trying to fax your TPS reports and the little CPU gauge reads 9000% utilized, that’s bad…)

Samir - “Yeah, Neo. Didn’t you get that memo?”

Michael Boulton - “At least here I can change my name so I don’t have to remember that no talent ass clown…”

Peter - “I am the one…”

Morpheus - “Now Peter, uh….we are on an open line, and I don’t think those NASCAR agents will appreciate you eating ice cream over that keyboard, you can barely type as it is…”

Agent Lumbergh - “Uh, yeaaaahhh, are we having some sort of problem here?”

Trinity - “Yeah, dodge this!”

(Aims 9MM pistol at Lumbergh. Agent jumps up and hides behind the “Is this good for the Company” sign.)

Samir - “So, Peter, if you’re so in love with the hottie in the black leather outfit, why don’t you just….ask…her…out?”

Peter - “I know what you’re trying to do…”

Morpheus - “He’s just trying to free your mind, Peter. Do you think that’s ice cream you’re eating now? Hmmm? Do you think Trinity will actually go out with you…in…this…place?”

Peter - (pointing at Lumbergh) “He represents all that is soulless and wrong!”

Morpheus - “You can ask her out - I know it in my heart - you can hold…”

Guy from Marketing - “Hey baby - wanna ride on the bone roller coaster? Woohoo!”

(Trinity snaps three swift kicks to guy from marketing’s groin - he flounders in extreme pain.)

Pardo - (In his best Sean Connery voice) “How do you think he feels now, better or worse?”

(Peter smirks at Pardo - Pardo flips Peter the bird and leaves, spitting on Nina from Corporate accounts payable.)

Samir - “Has anyone seen Milton lately?”

Peter - “We must rescue Milton from the basement storage and the cockroach problem - no is our time!”

Trinity - “Yeah!”

(Peter grabs two red Swingline staplers and mounts them in the pockets of his trousers. Trinity coos.)

Morpheus - “He’s the one.”

(Peter, Morpheus, and Trinity escape to the basement - Agent Lumbergh follows cautiously.)

Samir - “Perhaps I need to go back to Bahrain?”

Michael Boulton - “Nah, lets just to Chochkies - I am in the mood for some extreme fajitas!”

(end scene)

i wanted something a bit more robust than leopard’s “preview” for reading pdf files on pardobook.

to the rescue comes a slick piece of freeware called “skim” downloadable at:

http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/

from their site, the feature list is very full:

Viewing PDFs
Adding and editing notes
Highlighting important text, including one-swipe highlight modes
Making “snapshots” for easy reference
Navigation using table of contents or thumbnails, with visual history
View all your notes and highlights
Convenient reading in full screen
Giving powerful presentations, with build-in transitions
Handy preview of internal links
Focus using a reading bar
Magnification tool
Smart cropping tools
Extensive AppleScript support
Bookmarks
Saving passwords in Keychain
Export notes as text
Automatic download of remote PDFs
Support for Apple Remote Control
Interaction with LaTeX and PDFSync
Integration with BibDesk
Spotlight support

most notably is the way it handles full screen viewing and the variations of how it handles page transitions.

very slick.

A person with superior, usually specialized knowledge or highly refined taste; a connoisseur.
cognoscente

from this site:

http://www.lionhead.com/fable2/about.html

• Xbox LIVE Arcade mini-games earn major cash. Carbonated Games has partnered with Lionhead Studios Ltd. to bring an unparalleled experience to gamers through Xbox LIVE Arcade. Gamers can start earning in-game currency for the Fable 2 world later this year, before the game’s release to retail, by downloading and playing exclusive mini-games, which will be available for download on Xbox LIVE Arcade and allow gamers to purchase weapons, armor and more for their hero.

in short, you will earn more money/stuff for the main game by playing the mini game. neat.
my pre-order is in - let’s hope this gets close to elder scrolls - oblivion.

Found this on a few sites, re-blogged, and am adding it here since it could be huge - especially the code re-writes to decrease the footprint of the OS. The Newton Web Tablet is going to be something else.

AppleInsider | Five undisclosed features of Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Although Apple is marketing Mac OS X Snow Leopard as an operating system update with “no new features,” under the hood improvements will actually translate into a slew of new enhancements, five of which are described herein.

Somewhat tumid. Becoming swollen; swelling.
tumescent

dead at 71.  it must have been a good ride for one of the greats…

the link to the page i made is:

http://web.mac.com/totalpardo/pardolot/Blog/Blog.html

my first impression of the product is its an above average attempt at mainstream web publishing with very little learning curve. it does have limitations as compared to other CMS packages. i wouldn’t call it the AOL of web publishing - but some might. and that’s a shame.

above is scootch – the girl cat from my pack – this picture was not set up, i got lucky and caught her sitting on the chair next to plates set up for a quick dinner of burgers and fries.

i managed to snap several shots but this one seemed to show the dismay in her face of a cheeseburger without the burger.

cute, no?

while you are at it, feel free to vote up this photo on icanhascheeseburger:

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=1384227

credit W2JTD with help on building the caption onto the photo.

sidenote - an interesting stickies replacement

http://www.chatelp.org/?page_id=5

photo posted from my iPhone

my best guess on this hat is that its a small brim fedora. it was $15 USD (down from $50) and it fits my bulbous head like a champ.

more on the hat is here:

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/03/01/bringing-back-the-hat/

i sure do wish it make a comeback.  kennedy be damned.  (sorry, jack.)

Getting started with ScribeFire - ScribeFire: Fire up your blogging

so far, it looks like scribe fire will replace m$ live writer for me while blogging on pardobook. i used to use this tool over in vista until live writer came along.

if you click on the above link, you will get a quick overview of what this handy, FREE, add on for firefox can do for you if you blog.

good on shortcuts, low memory load, and all the features you need for multiblog support - it beats out any paid for products i have demoed.

for now, we are on fire with scribefire.