Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.
• Do all pending laundry.  DONE.

Log

09:15 AM: I’m up. 

10:00 AM: Added 200 words more content to the   How To Attract Women   piece in the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog.

10:15 AM: Worked the   Laptop Shuts Off: 2010-07-15   project. 

11:00 AM: Finished adding all music to my library from Promo Only’s Country Radio series (up through the August, 2010 issue).

12:15 PM: Listened to a recent interview of Susan Jacks, where she discusses her years with the Poppy Family and tells some of the stories behind their (and her) most popular hits.  Currently, you can access this interview on the   Ronnie Remembers   radio show web site.  Susan also mentions the show on  her  site as well. 

03:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR. 

05:00 PM: Heated up the leftover pork roast for dinner that I made this past Thursday.  While its flavor did indeed degrade somewhat from the initial serving, it was still plenty good enough to satiate my appetite.  [Emmy] reports that she enjoyed this roast more than those ones we’ve been getting that come prepackaged with the vegetables. 

06:00 PM: I set up Mom’s little water fountain on the east porch.  The trickling sound it makes has an exceedingly calming effect and sends the stresses of the day away almost as effectively as a good night’s sleep.  The fountain would make a great sleep machine. 

06:10 PM: Nap time.

07:45 PM: I’m back up. 

08:45 PM: Walked over to Sheetz for some ice cream for dessert.  Tonight, we got Breyer’s Reese’s peanut butter cup flavor.  While it tasted like peanut butter for sure, the sensation did not come very close to the original peanut butter cup flavor.  But hey, at least they tried. 

09:30 PM: [Emmy] and I read the introduction to Mary Shelly’s book: Frankenstein  as supplied in the Cliffs Notes. 

11:00 PM: Watched   CNN’s AC 360,   which mostly focused on the gulf oil spill as it has since the beginning of the crisis 91 days ago. 

11:35 PM: Watched   KDKA TV’s Local News at 11:00 PM. 

12:30 AM: Blogged a bit and perused through the daily stats.  I’m pleased to see that I’m getting more referrals to my sites from self help and do it yourself web sites.  It appears that the word about my personal love quest is starting to get around.  Nice. 

02:30 AM: I Finally located on Amazon, Haydn’s string Quartette #30 in E Flat Major, Op. 33 No. 2 “The Joke,” performed by the Kodaly Quartet.  I studied this piece extensively in my second music appreciation class in college during the winter and spring of 1985.  God, this brings back some good memories of flea markets with the Parkers, Moorhead, Pitt, the many foot treks I made between north and south Oakland, the music building on the corner of 5th and Bellefield avenues, Hines Chapel, and all the great stuff I learned that year in Pittsburgh about music, writing, computers, and life in general.  1985, though full of struggle,  was nonetheless a very good year. I became a seasoned college student at that time. 

02:35 AM: Well, my nap energy has run out again.  So I’m off to bed.  Pleasant dreams to you  and I hope you visit here again tomorrow.  Good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Promo Only’s EADFF music series; the 2010-07-03 issue. 

Related Posts

• Book: Frankenstein
• Facebook Tid Bits: 2010-07-19
• Laptop Shuts Off: 2010-07-15
• Today’s Diet: 2010-07-19
• Weight Loss: 2010

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

07:30 AM: I’m up.     

08:30 AM: Started the pork roast cooking, with the netting intact as per advice I received on Facebook yesterday.  Since this is a significantly larger roast than I usually cook, I’m allowing at least ten hours for it to completely cook in the crock pot on the high heat setting. 

09:15 AM: Well, Sheetz had no mushroom soup. But I do have some canned mushrooms. So I’ll just throw a couple of those into this pork roast in leu of the soup, and perhaps add a little whole milk as the cooking nears completion — if I get bold enough that is. I wouldn’t want to ruin such a big piece of meat with untested ingredients.

09:45 AM: Added the July through August, 2010 issues of Promo Only’s Country Radio music series to my DJ library. 

01:00 PM: Dusted and vacuumed the bedroom. 

01:55 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR. 

02:10 PM: Worked the   Laptop Shuts Off: 2010-07-15   project and Facebooked

02:20 PM: [Mentat]  just arrived; driven here by his sister.  We’re headed to the pavilion to catch up. 

03:45 PM: [Mentat] says that he and his girlfriend are back together and that his plans to move to Ohio to live with her have been reinstated.  I had hoped that he’d remain in this area, but realize that his happiness is paramount.  If he needs to move there to maximize his happiness, then that’s what he must do, and I support him though I’m said to see him leave. 

04:50 PM: It got pretty warm as the sun began shining into the western side of the pavilion.  So we’re going back up to the house to check on the roast and check out a little TV.

06:00 PM: We had supper — just the roast and vegetables, and were both pleased with how it turned out.  We’re going to make cat fish for supper tomorrow. 

08:00 PM: We watched   Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest;   a spoof on Star Wars that was rather funny. 

11:15 PM: Watched tonight episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   and   CNN’s AC 360   on the DVR.  We also took in the   Star Trek: The Next Generation   episode called   Q Who   from season two.  This is the episode that first introduces the borg beings.  Great TV.

11:50 PM:  The roast really turned out well, and I have a few meals worth of leftovers too.  The mushrooms were a pleasantly flavorful touch, and a little added ham bouillon made the dish just a touch more porky.  The only shock was that the DONE button popped out four hours before we were ready to eat supper.  Surprising that the roast cooked so quickly in a crock pot.  In fact, not really trusting the button, I continued cooking the meat on low heat for the interim, and It still tasted great; not overcooked.  Then, we topped it all of with Breyer’s chocolate ice cream for dessert.  Yum.  Seriously.  YUM!  I’m already looking forward to the leftovers this weekend. 

12:00 PM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Ad sheet for Windy Hill Furniture store.  They have great stuff and I’ve purchased from them before.  But we need not furniture at present.
• Balance transfer offer.
• Misc. medical insurance papers.
• Credit card offer from JC Penney.  Not at this time, thanks.
• Vehicle registration renewal forms from PennDOT. 

Related Posts

• Laptop Shuts Off: 2010-07-15
• Today’s Diet: 2010-07-15
• Weight Loss: 2010

Today’s project: An IBM ThinkPad laptop that the customer says shuts off and reboots unexpectedly. So far, I’ve not been able to reproduce what she’s seeing. But I’ll do an Avast scan for viruses, check the battery and power supply, look for overheating, and determine if a corrupt application / program might be causing this.  Check the comments below for further updates as this project progresses.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-07-15

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.    

08:30 AM: Facebooked a while this morning.  Friend count is now 206.

09:45 PM: Added more content to  the   Gulf Oil Spill Thoughts: 2010-06-23   piece to the   Tom’s Views   blog.

10:45 AM: Added the   Therapy   category to the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog.  Posts in this group detail my experiences with and impressions of the therapy I sought through the years, to aid me in winning my love quest.

01:05 PM: Posted the   Our Government: 2010-06-24    piece to the   Tom’s Views   blog.

02:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.  Sharon came face-to-face with Adam.  Victor is forced to fly back home to testify in Nick’s trial.  Sky comes face-t0-face with Victor at the poker table. 

04:45 PM: Watched today’s rerun episode of   Dr. Phil; pertaining to Moms who drink and the problems this causes for their children and anyone who must coexist with them really. 

06:00 PM: Facebooked for the past couple hours, and told my friends about Mom’s need to go to the hospital.  I’ve received numerous well-wishes.  That’s nice. 

07:20 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR.  

07:45 PM: Watered all of Mom’s plants outside per her request while she’s away. 

09:00 PM: iPodded at the pavilion for the past hour.  The new iOS 4.0 does work better.  Should play be interrupted by a weak WiFi signal, the AOL Radio app recovers now.  Before the station would stop playing, but not start again even after the signal strength rose until you pressed the play button again.  But now, it automatically restarts when I walk into a strong portion of the WiFi bubble.  Cool.  The Touch seems a bit more sluggish than before; I get some long pauses when touching the screen to switch to different stations.  But perhaps this is something they’ll work out in a maintenance release soon. I do hope so. 

10:30 PM: Tried calling [Emmy] tonight.  But there was no answer.  She’s been getting tired earlier in the evening these days.  So she probably just went to bed.  I’ll catch her tomorrow. 

10:58 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of    CNN’s AC 360   live.

11:00 PM: Looked for some older pictures that I was sure I’d stored on this computer.  But a whole folder was missing.  I checked my backups from as far back as a year ago, and apparently the folder has been gone at least that long.  So, fortunately, I was able to find many of those pics in my older email files; I’d sent them to numerous folks and saved copies of all my sent email.  Still though, I’m curious about what could have happened to that folder.  Hmmm. 

01:00 AM: Facebooked a while.  Friend count is up to 215.

01:05 AM: Well, I’m going to pull out of here for the night.  Have a good one yourself, and I’ll be back out here again in under ten hours.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Coupon card from   Papa John’s   pizza.  No thanks.  I’m on a diet at present. 
• Notice from Mom’s medical insurance company of coverage they’re providing for a blood-glucose test she had run recently. 
• Credit card offer from BankAmericard.  Hmmm.  Haven’t heard that name in three decades.  Aren’t they what turned into today’s VISA?  Well, it looks like someone is resurrecting that old name these days.   But the longer I live, the more against credit cards for toy purchase I become.  So no thanks, but thanks anyway for the offer though. 

Related Posts

• Facebook Tid Bits: 2010-06-24
• Mom’s Status: 2010-06-24
• Quest Revisions: 2010-06-24
• Today’s Diet: 2010-06-24
• Tom’s Views –> Gulf Oil Spill Thoughts: 2010-06-23
• Weight Loss: 2010

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

10:00 AM: I’m up. Fully sunny and warm so far.

10:15 AM: Sister Jojo called, offering to take [Emmy] and I to the park.  However, since I’ve just gotten up, and [Emmy] is still sleeping, I had to decline, as we could not be ready by the time she wanted to depart.  Oh well.  Perhaps we’ll go tomorrow with one of the lions, when he drives there to work Bingo. 

11:00 AM: Posted the    Dear Susan Jacks   piece to the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog.

02:00 PM: Heading to DelGrosso park to spend the afternoon sitting in the lounge chairs at the water park.  We’ll also stroll over to the main concourse and ride the merry-go-round perhaps.

02:10 PM: We’re at the park and just paid $25.90 for admission for the two of us.  Not bad for a whole day’s worth of fun. 

03:00 PM: I took a little note pad and jotted some notes while people-watching.  Well, to perfectly honest, I was girl-watching.    I’ll write about the experience at some point, should inspiration to do so encourage me. 

04:30 PM: Okay, we’ve spent two hours at the water park, enjoying our iPods and the music through the park PA systems.  Now we’re headed across East Pleasant Valley Boulevard to where the rides are. 

05:45 PM: Let’s see, we did indeed ride the merry-go-round, the Crazy Mouse, and the little train.  Now, we’re grabbing a little supper at the outdoor restaurant close to game land. 

065:00 PM: We enjoyed a couple of steak sandwiches at Murf’s Kitchen.  Unfortunately however, I couldn’t get their free outdoor WiFi to work with my iPod Touch.  I was able to connect to it, but could not access any of my favorite Internet radio stations.  Something must be wrong with their Internet connection.

06:20 PM: We then met sister Jojo near the park’s main office for our ride home.  She had come to pick up her daughter, who had come to the park with a friend for the day, and her younger son, who was working as a life guard at the park. 

06:30 PM: We’re home again.

06:45 PM: After enjoying some cream cheese jello, we’re taking a nap.  Being out in that bright sun this afternoon has really played me out. 

08:45 PM: While dozing, we listened to  the 2010-05-27 episode of   KDKA’s local news at 5:00 PM   on the DVR.

09:50 PM: Watched last night’s and tonight’s episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR.

12:35 AM: Watched the 2010-05-28 episode of   Dr. Phil,  and the 2010-05-23 episode of   NBC’s Nightly News; both from the DVR.

12:40 AM: Going to bed now.  Good night, take care, and see you tomorrow. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• The 2010-05 issue of  Consumer Reports   magazine.
• Notice that plastic and paper recycling is coming to our area.
• TigerDirect catalog.
• Invitation to nephew Trey’s graduation party.  We’re going.
• Balance transfer offer from Capital One bank.  No thanks.

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2010-05-29
• Quest Revisions: 2010-05-29
• Site Stats: 2010-05-29
• Today’s Diet: 2010-05-29
• Tom’s Love Quest –> Dear Susan Jacks
• Weekly Backups: 2010-05-29
• Weight Loss: 2010

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

07:30 AM: I’m up. Starting off fully sunny.  However, there’s rain in the forecast for later today.

08:30 AM: Heading out the door for   shopping   now. 

01:30 PM: On the way home from   shopping, we went by sister Jojo’s house to see the new puppies.  It turned out that they were experiencing problems with their cable TV reception, and the cable guy just happened to arrive just after we did.  We found that the Channel Plus DA-500 booster amplifier that I installed back in 1994 had stopped working.  This became immediately apparent upon touching the amplifier, which, when operating normally, should have felt lukewarm.  However this unit was cool to the touch, indicating that the circuits inside were no longer functioning.  The 12-volt power supply that feeds the amp was still humming, but showed some discoloration on the top.  Overheating was indicated by this as well as a faint, smokey smell I noted from the supply itself.  Subsequent inspection of the supply’sinterior revealed  further darkening of the circuit board, close to the bridge rectifier diodes.  The supply thus, defenitely encountered some trouble.  So I’m hopeful that only the power supply went bad and that the amplifier is still okay.  If that’s the case, I can get this thing working again easily, simply by changing the power adapter.  Otherwise, the amplifier might have to be scrapped.  I’ll figure this out sometime soon. 

Once the amp was determined to be malfunctioning, the cable guy bypassed it in the system, and fairly good reception returned to all televisions in the house.  He then went around, checking all connections and replacing all the old-style crimp F fittings with the newer, more reliable compression fittings.  He also discovered a frayed cable; probably from Jojo’s rabbit chewing it.  He replaced this and a few dated splitters, and improved reception was noted on all sets afterwards.  In fact, picture clarity improved enough that a booster amplifier is no longer needed at Jojo’s. 

After he finished, the cable technician and I had an enlightening conversation, and he gave me lots of great information about our cable system, including the following:

• They no longer offer FM radio service in this community.  A few years ago, he said, the supporting equipment was deemed too expensive and antiquated to maintain.  Besides, they needed the FM radio spectrum space for additional TV channels. 
• Maximum residential Internet speed: 8 mbps down and 512 kbps up; though higher speeds with special arrangements could be made available.
• They use fiber optic lines to carry the the cable signals from Altoona to the various communities around Blair county, and then convert it to RF for distribution within those communities. 
• On our entire cable system, there are only two channels allocated for Internet data transfers; there’s potential for many more, particularly once the analog channels are phased out in favor of digital ones. 
• They use RG-11 cable for short runs.  The preferred distribution cable from a fiber hub is RG-500.  Older residential cable installations employ RG-59 coaxial cable.  But all new drops are run with RG-6. 
• An underground cable can become more lossy over time, as the elements slowly work their way inside its outer jacket.  Rocks can nick the insulation, allowing water and dirt to get into the dielectric. 

03:00 PM: We’re back home again.  

03:15 PM: All groceries are now put away.

03:45 PM: The Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000 I ordered earlier this week arrived today.  This duplicates the one I already have.  I’ll configure it to mirror the network names and other settings that the original has so that in the event of a WAP (WiFi access point) failure, I can quickly substitute the new one for the faulty one. 

04:00 PM: Tested the new (used actually) BWRG1000 briefly.  The iPod Touch picks it up just fine; though I’ve not yet connected it to the Internet for a full test.  It first must be reconfigured for that.   

09:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of    The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.  Adam may not be dead, and another fellow may have died in his place.  Abby steals Victoria and Billy’s wedding video, and secretly records a party with high gossip potential.  Finally, Emily avoided losing her medical license for the sins that Patty committed in her name. 

12:00 AM: Watched tonight’s episode of   CNN’s AC 360.  The president visited the oil spill zone earlier and much of the coverage focused on the merits and criticisms of his trip to the gulf. 

3:15 AM: Facebooked, looking for new friends.  Up to 234 friends now, including pop singer Susan Jacks  (Which Way You Going Billy,   That’s Where I Went Wrong,  Where Evil Grows,  Etc.), a boyhood favorite of mine as the 1970s began.  Finding her and being able to thank her for the tunes was a unanticipated yet thrilling treasure.  In fact, when she accepted my friend request, I wrote her a heartfelt letter to do just that.  See it   here.  Facebook is great!

03:30 AM: Time to shut down for the night.  So have a good one, and I’ll chat at you some more tomorrow.  Take care. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Offer for higher education classes at YTI Career Institute.  Not at this time, thanks.
• Summary of Mom’s medicine expenses so far this year. 

Related Posts

• Facebook Tid Bits: 2010-05-28
• Shopping Trip: 2010-05-28
• Today’s Diet: 2010-05-28
• Tom’s Love Quest –> Dear Susan Jacks
• Weight Loss: 2010

Pink’s daughter just brought her computer for repair.  Same problem as Pink’s machine a couple weeks ago; slow response and lots of no-longer-used applications to delete.  So I’ll just erase all that is on it now, and install a fresh copy of XP.  I’ll track the progress in the comments below.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Projects Page
• Today’s Business: 2010-04-14

So, my nephew Grant complained on Friday that his IBM ThinkPad (Lenovo R60) laptop computer runs too slowly, and he asked if I could restore it to normal operation for him.  So, I took on the project; starting work on it this morning. 

11:20 AM: Verified that the ThinkPad does run quite slow; I observed nearly constant hard disk activity and slow screen drawing of windows and text.  Also, several warning messages popped up, saying that the machine has multiple viruses.  Yep, a drive-reformatting and complete re install of Windows XP should fix things up for him. 

11:30 AM: The computer would not boot from the first copy of the XP CD ROM I inserted.  So I played with the device boot order in the BIOS settings, placing the CD ROM drive as the first boot device.  Still though it wouldn’t boot from the CD ROM.

11:40 AM: So I tried a different copy of the XP CD ROM.  This solved the boot issue, and booting from CD finally worked. 

11:45 AM: I chose to delete the existing drive partition (there was only one, so no recovery partition to utilize).  Then, I created a new partition out of the entire free space available on the drive (roughly 38 GB). 

11:49 AM: The computer is now formatting the new partition to NTFS.  I did not choose the quick formatting option. So this could take a little while.

12:02 PM: Reformatting just finished.  It’s now copying the installation files to the freshly partitioned hard drive from the CD ROM.

12:06 PM: The file copying just finished and the ThinkPad is now rebooting.

12:07 PM: Now, it’s  preparing the installation. 

12:08 PM: Now, it’s  installing windows.

12:11 PM: Now it’s asking for Regional and Language Options.

12:12 PM: Entering the product key.

12:15 PM: It’s installing the network software now.

12:18 PM: It’s installing the   start menu items.

12:19 PM: Now, it’s   registering components.

12:21 PM: Saving settings.

12:24 PM: Rebooting.

12:26 PM: Created two users on this machine (Grant and his mother).

12:28 PM: Windows XP installation complete.  Next, I need to install the drivers for sound and Ethernet access.  But I’ll do that after lunch.  Stand by… 

12:50 PM: Located the drivers on the Lenovo site.  Burning them to CD ROM now. 

01:15 PM: Installed the Ethernet driver and network connectivity has been successfully established.   Now, I’m applying all XP service packs and updates, becuase the wireless driver will not install without a later XP service pack installed first. 

01:20 PM: Windows update, latest components just installed. Now rebooting…

01:24 PM: Now installing the XP Service Pack 2 update…

02:25 PM: XP Service Pack 2 just finished installing successfully.  Now installing XP Service Pack 3…  

03:30 PM: XP Service Pack 3 just finished installing successfully.  Now, I’m applying the remaining updates…

06:10 PM: All updates applied successfully. 

06:20 PM: Installed the WiFi adapter driver software. 

06:25 PM: Successfully installed the audio driver (this is the one that failed before upgrading to XP Service Pack 3).

06:40 PM: Successfully installed the Intel chip set drivers and programs from the Lenovo web site. 

07:00 PM: All work on this project is complete, and everything seems to be functioning properly except one   Unknown Device   that’s showing up in the Device Manager under  Other Devices.  This may be normal for this particular machine, and since the Ethernet, wireless Ethernet, HDD, video device, CD ROM, keyboard, and pointing device (all the important devices) are all working properly, I’m not going to bother tracking down this unknown device. 

I’ll let this computer run all night to “burn it in,” and if no problems surface, sister Christine will pick it up either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Garrett’s Computer Problen
• Pink’s PC Problems
• Projects Page
• Today’s Business: 2010-04-11

I’ve tested another strategy for getting a stronger, more reliable WiFi feed at my pavilion that’s easy to implement in this particular environment.  I’ve found during the past week, that moving the WiFi Access Point (WAP) just 20 feet closer to the pavilion with a more line-of-sight setup, removed nearly all dropped-connection problems.  They still happen; but only once or twice an hour.  Now I can swing as high as I like on the porch swings there, with iPod Touch in hand, without losing Internet radio stations much at all.

Specifically, I repositioned the WAP from the office (in the center of the house) to the pavilion-facing window in the attic; on the east side of our dwelling.  Not only did this get the WAP ten percent closer (the pavilion is approximately 200 feet away), but it also eliminated two walls from the signal path (one drywall and one roof) through which the signal must pass to reach the pavilion.  While this did not raise the number of signal strength bars reported by the iPod Touch at the pavilion (I still get just one bar down there), the reliability of the connections rose a great deal, still. 

I’m concerned however that the attic climate extremes might not be good for this particular WAP, which is a Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000) that was intended for indoor use only.  So investing in a “beefier” WAP that has a sealed enclosure, or building such a box for the one I have might be prudent.  While our attic is technically considered “indoors,” dampness and large temperature swings typically intrude; it can go from below freezing at dawn to nearly a hundred degrees in the afternoon, and that’s even with the exhaust fan running.  Further, since our house has aluminum siding, the WAP must be located near the only attic window on the pavilion side of the house, for maximum WiFi signal at the pavilion.  Metal attenuates the signal significantly.  So getting all metal out of the signal path is paramount.  But the sun shines there on clear mornings, and falls on the WAP, heating it up perhaps too much.  Indeed, I have noticed since relocating the WAP to the attic that it requires more reboots.  If this proves to be a trend, an outdoor WAP will be necessary.

Though the enhanced coverage area doesn’t extend very far past the pavilion on the east side toward the river, the bubble of useable WiFi now nonetheless completely envelops the pavilion.  Ideally though, it’d be nice to have that bubble encompass our whole yard, so I can listen while mowing the grass without having to stop to reset the iPod Touch so often when entering those fringe signal areas.  That may be possible by either putting a high-gain dish-style antenna outside the attic window and aiming it at the pavilion, or installing an outdoor access point at the pavilion itself.  I’ll post more on that later.   

The antenna route would be the cheapest (around a hundred dollars), as it requires no additional access point.  However, there is a row of tall green spruce trees between the house and the back yard where the pavilion is, that may reduce the signal to unusable levels in the part of the yard on the opposite side of the pavilion from the house.  This can’t be determined for certain unless I get an antenna, mount it outside the attic, and test it.  It probably wouldn’t be an issue though, because even with small omni directional antennas that come with the BWRG1000, the signal is still pretty good at the pavilion, despite their low amount of gain.  The dish antenna I have in mind though, offers 24 DBi gain which, on the S-unit scale at least, is enough to increase the signal strength from S-1 to S-10+ (almost no signal to full-scale signal).   Of course, the effective gain of this antenna wouldn’t quite reach 24 DBi because of the couple of DB signal loss in the coaxial cable and connectors that would be required to attach the WAP to it.  But still though, we’d have roughly 20 DBi of gain. 

This would probably be enough to eliminate all fringe signal areas in and immediately around the pavilion.  But the questions remain: How much would the dish antenna lengthen the strong-signal bubble toward the river?  Would it in fact, cover the entire yard with dropout-free WiFi reception?  I’m not sure.  The pavilion is midway down the yard between the house and the river, and the edge of current bubble just barely covers the pavilion.  This still leaves the lower half of the yard unusable on the Touch.   While I’m sure there would be SOME signal enhancements with the dish, it’s not clear if these would be enough to reach the river (the river is about 500 Ft. from the house).

Also, the dish would blast practically all the WiFi signal toward the river.  So I’m wondering if there’d be enough back-side signals radiated to still provide good coverage in and around the house here. This is also a requirement.  If yes, then we’ll be done.  If not, then I may go the route of installing a second WAP at the pavilion.  Clearly though, further experimentation is necessary to get these answers, and I will do that as time and available money permits.  J  So stay tuned, and take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Improving Pavilion WiFi #1
• Improving Pavilion WiFi #2
• Today’s Business: 2010-04-11

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty. DONE.
• Set up automatic monthly bill payments for Mom’s medical insurance premiums.  DONE.
• Pay all two pending bills.  DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up. My weight did not change from yesterday.  It’s still 173.5 Lbs.    See   here   for a summary of the progress on this goal so far in 2010.

08:05 AM: Read more of the   Classics for Pleasure   book overnight. 

09:25 AM: Got Mom signed up for automatic checking account deductions for her medical insurance premiums. 

10:15 AM: Paid all outstanding bills this morning.

10:50 AM: [Emmy] called to update me on our mutual friend [Jack], and to say that the Penguins are playing their last hockey game at Mellon Arena tonight.  They’ll have lots of former Penguins players, general managers, et al at this game.  Next season, the Penguins will pay at their new facility.  Not sure what they’re going to do with Mellon Arena (formerly Civic Arena). 

01:00 PM: Replaced the CPU fan in this computer because the fan alarm sounded this morning and subsequent inspection of the original fan showed bad bearings.  It was barely turning at all and emitted this grinding noise besides.  Unfortunately, I had no exact replacement Cooler Master CPU fan (part # A8025-22RB-3AN-F1, 12-volt, 0.18 Amp., 3-wire motherboard connection).  There was one used one on eBay for $28 (including shipping).  But that price seemed awfully high for a sold-as-is, used fan.  So instead, I rooted around and found a similarly-sized fan in the basement, which I fastened to the CPU heat sink with two pieces of chicken wire.  It’s pretty tight and the heat sink is running very cool.  I’ll hold off a few days before putting the case back together, just in case other problems appear. 

03:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

04:15 PM: Watched the 2010-04-04 episode of   NBC’s Meet The Press   on the DVR.

06:00 PM: Read more of the   Classics for Pleasure  book.  Hmmm, I will have to read that book  Utopia  as well.  That was discussed briefly in this book, and it sounds intriguing.   But at the moment, it’s nap time.

07:00 PM: I’m awake once again.

07:30 PM: Calling [Emmy].  We’re listening to the Penguins last regular season game at Mellon (Civic) Arena. 

09:15 PM: [Emmy's] audio on her phone began cutting out a lot, and she lost her Internet connection for the IRIS WebRadio for a time as well.  Things worked better once she rebooted her cable modem. 

09:30 PM: Mom was blow-drying her hair when the dryer shut down and the lamp beside her as well.  Inspection of the circuit breakers in the basement revealed no tripped breakers however.  But, we have a power strip near her chair, and the breaker in that was what dropped out.  Pressing it back in resolved this ”highly localized” power outage.    Mom threw the dryer away, saying that it had a loose connection and that it was quite old.  Actually, it was pretty aged; I purchased it in early 1997, when Mom, the twins, and Joann came to visit, and Dianne forgot her suitcase, and threw quite the hysterical fit of frustration.  Anyway, I bought this dryer so they’d have something to use for hair drying for the weekend.  That was a bad-luck weekend as I recall – a safety switch on my water heater went bad as well, and we all had to take cold showers.  Cost $80 to have repaired.  Ah yes, those good old memories. 

10:30 PM: The Penguins won, 7 to 3.

12:30 AM: Created a new personal category for long-time friend,   [Lynn].   Haven’t spoken with her in six years.  So I really should call her and see how she’s doing.  After all, we communicated a great deal via email and telephone through the first several years of our friendship / romance, and I do think about her from time to time. 

12:55 AM: Okay, I’m off to bed again (how many different ways are there to say that I’m going to bed?)  Anyway, I am headed there now; although I may read a little more tonight. So sweet dreams to you all, and I’ll see you back out here when next I am awake.  Later. 

Tom

Received Mail and Shipments

• Wedding invitation from someone we don’t even know. 
• Mom’s wheelchair rental bill.
• Platinum business rewards credit card offer from one of my banks.  No thanks.
• Mom’s updated / correct tax forms from the preparer. 

Related Posts

• Book: Classics For Pleasure
• Diary Revisions: 2010-04-08
• Today’s Diet: 2010-04-08
• Weight Loss: 2010