He’s there on the right next to his brothers of various ages – isn’t
he cute?

I had wanted a smaller device to use while traveling and while
watching TV (it’s fab to lookup stuff/stars/stats while watching!)

I had high hopes for the Apple iPad but the first version that came
out a few weeks ago just didn’t meet my needs or expectations (no
flash player Apple? Come on now…that’s just dumb no matter what)

So I finally got a "netbook" – and it’s pretty neat. One inch thick
and about 2.5 pounds. 10 inch screen running Windows 7. Intel Atom
N450 processor (the very newest Atom processor) and 2 gigs memory.
Keyboard is more useable than it looks. It’s a sweet little dealie
and performs great.

Oh, and here’s the fun part… It’s a Gateway. Yep, remember them
cows? I was going for the highest rated and reviewed HP netbook but
found this little gem that just came out while researching for the
others. The specs beat the others and price was right so I got it.
Hopefully this little guy will continue to perform.

YAY – new toys!

While this is certainly an interesting point in a time line, it’s really only an electronic analogue to a diary. I’m sure many people have been keeping diaries for longer. Nonetheless I’m kinda tickled to meet this milestone. I started “blogging” before “blog” was even a noun or a verb; indeed before it was even a popular catchphrase. Indeed I had my first web page back in 1995 (See my “Deep Archive” link above)

That’s a lot of time and bandwidth (timewidth?) dedicated to my own banter. What have I accomplished in that time?

As it turns out quite a bit. I became a true adult (still out for some debate). I had a successful consulting company (official corporation even!) and then transferred clients/closed it after my clients became successful and got gobbled-up by other, bigger corps in what became the dot com bomb. I moved to California and back. I bought a house. Got cats. Sold a house. Bought a condo. Used five different types of blogging software. Stumbled into a great relationship. And generally observed what made me laugh and ranted upon the stuff that irritated.

As I look back at some of my entries it makes me smile and laugh a lot. Also I cringe a lot…was I THAT shrill, really? Or was I THAT stupid, really? But that’s the deliciousness of time and becoming older — the cumulative benefit of your experiences always makes you wiser and wiser.

So what will the next decade have in store? Who knows….That is what is fun, and worth living!

-Garrett

1998:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1998/

1999:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/2/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/3/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/1999/

2000:

http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/1/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/2/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2000/3/

2002
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2003/1/

2003:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2003/2/

2004:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2004/1/

2005:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2005/1/
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2005/2/

2006:
http://www.gmwnet.com/archive/2006/1/

P.S.: I’m going to attempt to add these old entries to my database. So if you subscribe to the RSS feed you may see a slew of new entries. I’ll be careful to set the date in the posts properly, but I’m unsure if they will appear in the RSS feed because they are “new” entries as far as the database is concerned…

I’ve previously run a Commodore 64 emulator, and that was nice, but without the software it wasn’t particularly interesting (Anyone remember GEOS?!)

No, the real fun was re-visiting those tried-and-true Windows versions I remember from College. So I whipped out my old CD drawer and what did I find

But damn, cable and sat service is getting pricey! As I get older I’m finding I view TV less and watch movies and Internet videos more. Actual “TV” is only for live events and local news. And with KOMO and Dish Network feuding over some asinine reason (So KOMO got dropped from my sat feed) there is even less of a reason for me to partake in the whole package. The only reason I pay for cable/sat is because I thought that was the only way to get a clear signal….until know.

…Enter the digital TV switch into the proverbial picture….

So with the recent brew-ha-ha of the digital TV switch/delay/etc. I decided to just see what I could get and see what the fuss was about. Being at the top of Capitol Hill, I practically stare at the Seattle TV station broadcast antennas from my deck only 2 miles away. My plasma TV has both the old analog and new digital tuners built-in, as mandated several years ago. So having not used an antenna in decades I attached a simple 6 foot length of coax cable to my TV antenna input and had the TV search for channels…

Holy smokes!

It found them. Not only the new digital channels for all the main stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, WB, CW and some others), but it also found some of the old analog channels still broadcasting. This enabled me to do a complete side-by-side comparison.

Rarely am I impressed, but what I’m seeing on my HDTV on the digital channels (with a complete ghetto “cable” antenna nonetheless) is nothing short of amazing. I’m floored. Full HDTV and stereo surround sound on all major networks. The analog channel equivalents still come-in, but are that lovely snow-storm of interference we’ve all come to know and love, but now are glad to get rid of. It really is that spectacular. I’ve never seen reception and picture quality like this from OVER-THE-AIR broadcast in my life. The comparison is really that striking.

So now I mull some thoughts….If a 6-foot length of coax dangling from the back of my TV can get excellent DTV (and, might I add, *FREE*) reception, what could a modern little antenna pick-up? My mind is full of thoughts.

Could this be the end of a $100/month bill and the beginning of a post-modern rabbit ears revolution for me? It makes me giggle with glee.

So for all the hype it’s been given, if you live close to town, or have a good antenna, The DTV switch is totally worth it. Proven by a small, 10-minute experiment I never thought I’d do.

Solution to IT Helpdesk

This pleases me very much in a very sinister way…

For those not in the know here’s the Wikipedia article on Kevin Mitnick, old-school cracker of the early Internet.

The best quote of that entire article (emphasis mine): “Mitnick states that he compromised computers solely by using passwords and codes that he gained by social engineering. It is notable that Mitnick did not use software programs or hacking tools for cracking passwords or otherwise exploiting computer or phone security.”

People: beware.

As a geek-in-residence, I have about 5 different web browsers that I banter back and forth in my web surfing. Each one of them had advantages and weak spots.

So the Mozilla people released Firefox 3.0 with much fanfare this week, so of course I upgraded. I have used earlier versions and thought it was a competent browser, but wasn’t my favorite. Well, I got to give kudos — FF3, at least to me, seems so much more polished, faster and “ready”

The killer deal for me was a select set of “addons” that you can install within Firefox. These addons have become so important and complete that it’s almost like another operating system. I can do most things Internet-related within my web browser session. I use:

• Ad Blocker Plus
• All-in-one sidebar
• Sage-Too for RSS feeds
• Webmail notifier
• Download Statusbar
• IE Tab

IE Tab is what makes Firefox my primary browser now. Some of their sites just won’t work without it. IE Tab allows you to open a new tab/window within FF using the IE rendering engine so that all that stuff works. As a bonus you can write rules that look at URLs you click and open all such certain web addresses using IE Tab automatically. So now when I visit anything with “microsoft.com” in it, IE Tab takes over and the web pages work. Everything else Firefox handles. Nice!

Anyways, I encourage you all to give FF3 a try.

Since I moved to Capitol Hill, I’m able to receive Air Traffic Control (ATC) frequencies into Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport. In fact, I live 1,420 Ft from the imaginary airspace “intersection” that marks the start of the final approach from the north to Seattle.

So I decided to sponsor a live Internet audio stream of Air Traffic Control. You can listen to it at http://www.liveatc.net/ (click the “listen to Live ATC feeds” in the sidebar and scroll-down to “SEA Final” — there are a number of SEA feeds, actually. I’m the one with 133.65 as the only frequency)

133.65 is the final approach sector for KSEA — Seattle-Tacoma International. Busiest times seem to be around noon, 4-6PM and 8-10PM.

Seattle has 2 (soon to be 3) close parallel runways oriented north-south — named runways 16/34. You can click on the chart to the right to see a bigger image of this. When landing and departing to the south 16C is used mostly for arrivals, with 16L used for departures. When the weather is really bad or foggy they switch to the Instrument Landing System (ILS) on 16L as the ILS for 16C appears to not support bad weather CAT2/3 operations anymore because of contruction of the third runway.

In the summer, and in better winter weather, Seattle usually lands the other way to the north, using runways 34C for arrivals and 34R for departures

After-hours this frequency can be combined with one or all of the feeder arrival sectors, so you’ll hear ATC, but not pilots. Also sometimes you’ll hear some bleed-over of a Seattle radio station in the background — their main broadcast antenna is only 1 mile from me, so with it’s huge power output sometimes you’ll be stuck listening to Seattle’s best smooth jazz — sorry! Could be worse…

Here are charts and info for KSEA

Here is an airspace illustration I created of major arrival and departure routes into SEA. The triangle symbols are the major intersections along the routes (Imaginary places in the air programmed into aircraft navigation databases) The hexigonal-type symbols are actual radio navigation stations on the ground. The 3-letter acronyms you see are the codes for other radio navigation stations outside of the chart

This is far from complete, but a good intro into how traffic is sent in/out of the Seattle area.

This is a website where you enter all the details of your travels and it then spits-out maps and statistics for you. I totally got into this just being lazy today. Spent hours putting in my flights and travels, all from memory.

Then you start to remember trips you forgot! Like I vividly remember flying on Delta Airlines through Cincinnati once, and Northwest via Detroit — but I can’t remember what for!

*Highly* entertaining for an aviation/travel nerd such as myself.

View my Flight memory maps and stats here!

Highlights (And I’m far from complete!):

In Miles 167,658
In Kilometer 269,821
Earth Circumnavigation 6.73 x
Distance to the Moon 0.702 x
Distance to the Sun 0.0018 x
Total Airports 53
Total Airlines 16
Total Aircraft type 28
Total Routes 106

Total Countries 8

Me likey!

Oh, also bought some clothes for spring/summer. There are some articles of clothing I needed to retire. So I’m not a total technology hermit.