My area is suffering from snow and high winds, so power may not be very reliable at the moment. Although I am using my Deuce and a Half as a backup power system it can take some time to switch things over from regular house wiring to backup power. If the site goes down it is either in the process of having the power source switched or my internet connection has been physically separated.
Fun fun fun.
We got somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 inches this past weekend (the “Snowpocalypse” according to the media) which effectively immobilized all of the vehicles on my street… except for my Deuce. The snow plows don’t usually come down my road until well after the storms so I decided to take maters into my own hands. Using the 18,000lbs of the truck I compacted the snow to a much more manageable 2 inches so that other cars and trucks could drive again.
Throughout the course of the day John and I also helped pull/push/winch a car to safety and helped a lady in another part of the neighborhood get to work. We also had a lot of fun in the process.
I got a new tablet computer / netbook last week for taking notes in class. I really like this tablet, but it has a few quirks that really need to be ironed out. I’ll get to the complaints in a moment.
The first thing I noticed about this computer once it arrived is that it is very small and very light. It has an 8.9 inch LED backlit display and weighs around 2lbs; it is very portable. It only has 32GB of hard drive space, of which the operating system accounts for nearly half. Asus makes up for the small drive by having TWO SD card slots, which is wonderful. One of the slots is protected by a semi-permanent cover and is labelled “Expansion Slot” while the other slot is the more traditional front facing open access design. Both slots are spring loaded.
They key asset that this netbook leverages is that Read more…
This weekend John and I installed the raceway on the driver’s side of the box. The network cables are now neatly tucked behind the metal raceway. Unfortunately, either the windows or the power strip that came with the truck was installed crooked, so it looks a little off. We also took a look at the driver’s side door henge which is bent and preventing the door from closing completely. John ran a new power cable from the network box to the main breaker box, but since we didn’t have enough raceway we had to just let the cable hang in place. Hopefully next weekend we will have more materials and be able to tidy it up.
Not the most interesting video, but some people requested that I post what video I had of the most recent LAN party. The game of choice was Warcraft III with DoTA, Castle Fight, Line Tower Wars, and Battle Tanks. There were about 12 people (depending on what specific time). We had 5 people in the Deuce and a Half and another 5 people in my computer room.
This weekend John and I worked wiring the 120v electrical system for the M185a3. Over the span of two days we were able to wire and test the electrical umbilical connections, about half of the Ethernet cables, and install the network box. More videos will be posted as progress is made.
I’ve decided to start posting some videos of the progress John and I are making on the deuce and a half. This video glosses over the progress we have made so far. Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting more videos showing specific sub-projects, such as setting up the network box, installing a seccondary breaker pannel, charging the battery bank, and other various things.
John and I spent most of this past weekend working on the truck. The primary goal that we accomplished was connecting the alternator to the rear battery pack (henceforth referred to as the “Atomic Pile,” a reference to Batman). In order to tap into the 60 Amp output of the alternator we had to run some wire from the Atomic Pile and into either the stock battery box or the engine compartment. John thought it would be nice to be able to disconnect and monitor the power flow from the cabin, so we decided on routing the cable under the cab, through the engine bay, and into the cab. Once inside the cab the circuit runs through a 60 Amp fuse, an ammeter, and (hopefully soon) a heavy duty switch. We weren’t able to get our hands on a switch this weekend, but we’re going to keep looking for one.
I wonder if I will ever be able to beat this record…
Today is the day that I finally had to reboot my Linux router. It was able to stay running for 390 days and 57 minutes. I was able to keep it running through multiple hour long power outages, migrating ISPs, and countless other daily issues. Alas, a problem with the hard drive caused the system to start haning any time it needed to access the drive, causing the internet to become practically unuseable. It took a reboot, disk check, and some error correction to get it working again. It worked fine after that for 15 minutes or so, but now I’m back to the same problem. A temporary solution might be cutting the bittorrent sharing of the new ubuntu release. There might be too many open connections for the router to handle in ram, or it might be trying to cache something. I’ll update when I’ve figured it out.
I just finished watching this animated comedy, and I have to say that it was very enjoyable. It’s a shame that not even all of the episodes were aired in America. The jokes are repetitive, the plot is predictable, and the characters are stereotypical, but the creators managed to do it all in a unique and entertaining manner. It unfortunately ends on a cliffhanger and a 2nd season will likely never be produced, but if you’re looking for a original, cheesy, animated comedy to spend a few hours watching I would recommend ordering the DVD online.
Disclaimer: The image above is promotional in nature and is used under fair use in American copyright law.