Author Archives: Pat

I have been tinkering with some small simple robots from  a wonderful book  called “Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels”. They are easy to build and lots of fun to play with. They are cool on a completely different level than my first generation “Lego Mindstorm” gear and I am really enjoying the scrounging, found art-aspect of the … Continue reading »

Restoring a “Time-machine” backup today on an OSX server. I am really not sure I can wait around that long, maybe I should go do lunch…

When we moved out from the Commonwealth and I took the job here at Cochise County, the bigest challenge that I faced was turning the department around. It had a poor reputation throughout the county as an insular non-partner and  very poor service provider. Moral was shot and everyone was either rowing in a different direction, or not rowing … Continue reading »

Today I dumped the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (9.10) on my Lenovo S10 in favor of trying the Moblin 2.1 Beta . I did the install from a DVD and it went very smoothly. The only thing that doesn’t work out of the box is the Wireless due to the S10’s Broadcom Drivers. You can however find a … Continue reading »

One of the advantages of living in the high-desert is that at 5000 plus feet, we have incredibly clear night skies.  The only place I have ever been where the stars have been brighter is the middle of the Mojave. I am breaking out my little 4.25″ Newtonian reflector this week to gaze upon the heavens. I wonder … Continue reading »

Spent most of Sunday  night back and forth to our microwave/radio hop up in Mule Mountain updating some routers and testing some new connections with ‘topher. The weather came in really strong and we went from about a quarter inch of snow, to nearly four inches in just a few hours. Driving was exciting to say the … Continue reading »

Just received a National Weather Service warning here at work that the County is under sever weather watch until Thursday afternoon. Seems the snow level is at 3000 feet ( I live at 5020 feet…) and that we are supposed to get 1-4 inches in the valleys and 6 – 10 inches in the mountains. So far … Continue reading »

As you probably already know from reading past posts, I really enjoy going to the target range and shooting. Well I recently ran across a series of targets from Law Enforcement Target Inc. that are designed to be life size (or is that undead size…?) Zombie silhouettes. They are inexpensive and very high quality. I … Continue reading »

I have the TV in the garage set-up next to my Bowflex and bike so that while I am working out I can watch movies or TV series of interest. Currently on the set are all nine Episodes of “Wolf Lake” staring Lou Diamond Phillips and lots of other talent you will recognize. The story … Continue reading »

Well, a couple short weeks after my post, I received a new Crossfire Pistol from Penguin. I could not be more pleased. The new pistol works very well and plays really nicely with “Dead Space”. So my advice is that if your’s is not working correctly, contact the company. They seem to really want to make this right!