....This just in
Here is the second page of facts and figures for reaching us here at this end or if you like it would be like the second section of the newspaper where the local events are written. I will again cover whatever comes to mind about projects and activity around here & blah, blah, blah, blah. Most pages are about this size in content, with few exceptions. Once the comfortable size has been reached, this happens, a sequel. Clique this for the original Mail & News page or for more up-to-date Mail & News 3. Updated when possible and average so far has been more than once per month somewhere on the site. A date will preceed each time I add a new paragraph here on this page.
eMAILMail around here is an issue as I'm sure it is there. The current address that should be used is d2m@email.com. I forward this address to the ISP of choice at the moment. Try the link at the bottom and top of most pages to send me a note. More crap about this was on the first Mail & News page.
The mail problem aside, if you have a moment to comment on the recent new look of the site or anything else, I would be grateful.
The above graphic takes you to where the Site changes are noted. Visit often? You may have to reload, often.
Whaddaya think? Print too small? Too big? Too many columns? Not enough? Too many questions?
The site pages as I touch them will change to what you see here. There is more on the What's New page.
Remember, to get the most out of this use a Mac, Netscape 3 or 4, and if you can change your screen to 800x600 you will see it as I wrote it. I use 256 colors for most things which is enough and yet the fewer images that I have now are just this, it may change very soon.
Yes kids, my pennies are rolled and McLellan has gone shopping to the Mac dealer and they sent me a Video card and TV/FM tuner card. Way too much fun!
Those clowns in Cupertino have deemed the TV/FM tuner card obsolete and this necessitated my need to immediate. With all the newly released hardware and such they are going PCI and the traditional method is just not chic. I have pondered this at lengths myself.
This all means in the end I can now capture and edit live, still, and several images at once. Pennies are being saved at the moment to supplement the video stuff with a scanner. At the same time you thought it safe to visit here? Not no more, soon there will be images O'plenty but if the proper image can be found, that is the question. I could put old home movies up here, alright I'm shaking my head, relax.
980921 - So they are not home movies but clips of those same home movies. You are in for a treat, a look into vintage footage of 1984.
When you have had enough of this try some recent pict's on for size.
The Tree Project980810:
Look to the Tree Page for the current family tree project events. The task at hand is to make distribution of the job easier for me and all. Zip disks are now cheap and easy to get it around and I could also upload it to the site. This has it's problems and this is the file format. A the moment it is a HUGE FileMaker dbase. I am actively shopping for something to complement this. Suggestions? I hear Family Tree Maker from Broderbund is the best out there but I found it to be sloppy. Not well written, unflexable and a few holes in it. "just my opinion".
The Weather
980809 HOT
980822 Very nice, not too hot, no wind, a few clouds, fewer bugs, cool beer...
980921 - The last day of summer, sigh. On a better note I have a photo of the global adventurer's, the Smith's. Check out the tourists!
981017 Mid October and a cool nip is in the air. Snow has been reported in surounding areas but none seen here yet.
Summer '98
I recently noticed a newspaper comic showing an elevator with a person staring at the sign posted beside the buttons stating, "Please avoid talking about the weather".
I will take this advise and not talk but just say it's been great, well a little too great. Hot and sticky at times just so un-laxing in a lawn chair is the only thing required.
Busy around here and at the same time nice to take some time to get as little done as possible if you know what I mean.
A few chores have been completed on the 15 year project of household renovation, which puts me about 10 years ahead of schedule. We recently put a new storm door on the back of the house and I put (at the chagrin of wife and daughter) the old one on the garage. The carpet up the stairs to the bedrooms is going to be replaced the last weekend of August and not a day too soon. This is long over due really! The color and style is post '70's but not much life in it and yet we have succumb to better taste and style.
This just in.
Nothing yet just waiting patiently for the guy who writes this to get busy and think of something else to put here rather than one very long run on sentence ranting about absolutely nothing and likely ridden with grammatical errors and spelling misteaks.
Travel '98Travel has not amounted to much due to extreme heat and the realization that why sweat it out just to get somewhere and sweat it out there. This may in fact be the next large purchase, a newer car with A/C. Actually the dollar has kept us away from the annual trip to the states and shop. With the way it is you can shop here for less, which we did. I know what you are thinking and it's true we went to the city of the far north and spent a couple of days in the "mall from hell". This was also a very favourable time to see the Wife's sister and fam off to the Middle East.
The Smiths are very brave souls to enter the land of extreme heat with complete abandon. They have my complete and earnest respect. Mind you they love their jobs in the music field but it is still near 50 degrees C in the summer!! Murray jokes about it getting down to a comfortable 28 at night, man alive. The weather aside they are getting into the part of the world where they are not content to live life as peaceful as we have come to expect. This worries us. nuf said.
Back here on the other hand we are always ridden with plenty of tales spent doing what is best described as necessary. The trip described above to the Mall could be summed up as a journey in footwear acquisition. The hardware and software merchants are sadly represented, nary is there an automotive supplier, nor could I find a suitable general hardware store. Like what is the deal here anyway? This is a mall filled with shoe and clothes stores! Thousands of stores and not a single door hinge to be found in any of them!
Great news
I have finally created a "door bell buffer". You may well know that when visiting here that when you press the button upon arrival that the phone system springs into action. This was a time honoured problem that started years ago when being home alone (girls shopping, etc) and a unfamiliar person came to one of the doors. If I was out in the shop or down by the stereo and the door button was pushed, it appeared I was ignoring the caller, not so. It was just not heard. Now that the phone system was recently changed to yet another, the problem of doors was still there. But now I have it fixed.
A new 2 stage time delayed isolated buffer with voltage regulation and current control is now up and wired into the house of D2M. May I say it is not any of that CMOS or TTL logic that required a buffer of it's own, no-siree, good old mechanical relays and reed switches for this guy. Actually the problem of power within the same enclosure where the speaker control is housed presented yet another feat. Large power swings and surges would mess with the regulated power supplies and my filters (among other things) were taking a beating.