Fall is definitely in the air

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September 10, 2022

Upon after having the 90-100 degree days over the past weeks, it’s nice that the days after Labor Day are being true-to-form.

I scrambled to take care of a few clients that required some out-side work be done before the weather turned and I was able to make it on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Now the temps are much lower. We’re seeing the Montana summer give way to the fall season without any (so far) sharp extremes.

What I mean by sharp extremes is that a few years ago, the weather turned so sharply that all of the green leaves on the trees froze hard. So much so that we didn’t have the gentle turning of the leaves from green to yellow/orange. The leaves froze, and fell later on as green leaves.

Logan Pass sits at 6646 feet. It is the highest elevation reachable by car in the park. (tap or click image to enlarge)

We may have one or possibly two days of the warmer 80-90 degree days, but for the most part our trend will be mid 60’s to mid 70’s for the duration of the fall season.
Logan Pass actually saw snowfall yesterday and I’m fairly certain that the going-to-the-sun road will close on schedule this year. As far as Logan Pass is concerned, it seemed to take a little longer this year to open the road due to the copious amounts of snow that needed to be cleared in the spring.

We had a rather long period of cool weather this year during the spring, so the snow stayed for a much longer period in the high country. The late melt caused many of the boat launches on Canyon Ferry lake to remain high and dry until later in the season.

Today we’re sitting at about 55 degrees and it’s 11 o’clock in the morning. Forecast 90 degrees for Sunday, but it’s going to cool off again right away after.

Though I’m not real big on getting the coolest fall pictures, I might stand somewhat of a chance to grab some with this new phone. Dumped the Android for an iPhone a while back so we’ll see how it all goes going forward.

I snapped a picture the other day of a rainbow over town and it turned out pretty good, so at least there’s some hope for more really cool pictures to come.

In home internet of things

By

Alan

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September 10, 2022

Sometime in the very near future I’ll be building our new house.
Building or otherwise acquiring your brand new home can be an exciting thing, what with all of the latest building techniques employed throughout, coupled with some of the latest technological advances incorporated into the home — what’s not to like?

Last year a friend of mine installed a brand new air conditioner at his place. This thing had all of the bells and whistles that included an app for his phone that allowed him to either turn his new air conditioner on or off from clear across town. He could even set the temp remotely — Pretty cool huh?

Another friend of mine installed a security system at his place, and now he can answer the door remotely regardless of whether he is across town or across the state. He can see who it is and have a real-time conversation all from the comfort of his own phone.

When people talk about IoT (the internet of things), one of the first questions that pop up is, “What about privacy?”.

Most who hook the internet up to their refrigerator, dishwasher, or door bell usually aren’t even remotely concerned about privacy until something goes wrong. As far as security is concerned, IoT devices are the very least secure out of them all, second only to webcams.

If you’ve already set up wireless IoT devices in your home, the ship for concern about privacy has already sailed — you’ve missed the boat. Now, about the only thing you can do is worry about the security. I mean, the security on these devices is so poor that if breached, one can turn your refrigerator totally off while you are away, and all you’ll have left when you come home is warm beer.

“A recent survey of 2,000 UK adults, commissioned by Studio Graphene, showed there was a clear preference for simplicity. More than half (60 percent) said there is simply too much new technology, with little thought applied to whether it is really necessary.” — betanews

When it comes to building our new home, it will have all of the latest in technological advances when it comes to appliances and cooling/heating. What will be very conspicuously absent however, will be the internet of things. Though I might be able to, I still won’t allow my new appliances to play on the internet. There won’t be any of those fancy apps on my phone that will tell the house what and what not to do while I’m away. No one will be able to set my thermostat from a remote location.

Though the processes for control are currently voluntary in some areas, it wouldn’t be that much of a leap to make those same processes for control mandatory:

“Thankfully, smart thermostats have the ability to alleviate some of these power consumption woes. You see, not only are these connected devices convenient, they can be controlled by the power companies during power usage spikes. With your permission, the power company can adjust your air conditioning slightly so that blackouts and brownouts can hopefully be prevented. Sometimes you will even be compensated for participating in such a thing.” — betanews

About the only thing that will very possibly be remotely controlled, will be the new electrical service that has to be upgraded. I’ll end up having to get a digital meter for the service, and it very likely will have the sort of internet capability to allow the power company to control the service from a remote location.

By and large, innovation can be a good thing. Computer operating systems are a marvel all on their own. What muddies the water on technology however, is the ever present urge to include things no one needs. Doesn’t make much of a difference really, every operating system is chocked full of garbage that can’t be deleted because someone, somewhere, pretends to have your best interests at heart. We have phones these days that will track you regardless of whether you’ve turned tracking off or not. Vehicles that can be controlled remotely on a whim. Refrigerators that won’t know you from Adams Off Ox and will do whatever they’re told by anyone, anywhere.

Most people would just love to have a smart home, what with all of the goodies, gadgets, and gizmos — to go right along with their smart car, smart phone, smart water, and smart bread.

I, on the other hand, would prefer that intelligence be the order of the day, in that by not allowing my new home to play on the internet, it could very well end up being the most intelligent home on the block.

Vintage Gigabyte ga-60xt motherboard – Pentium 3 processor

By

Alan

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September 10, 2022

This is the motherboard that came inside of our son’s very first PC.

I bought the PC used at the time for about $40 and gave it to our son when he was just 4 years old.

The tower, original 40GB IDE drive, and the original sound and graphics cards are long gone of course, but the primary motherboard components are still in tact.

Dug this out of the box a while ago and though it needed, and still needs a good cleaning, I paired it with a 60GB IDE drive, an MSI N1996 (VGA) graphics card, and a Compaq netelligent n119 ethernet card.

I’ve got a Startech Pexsound7ch sound card that I’ve been thinking to try out, but since this mobo is so old, I may have to dig around a bit for an older card for the sake of compatibility.

This particular Pentium 3 processor is pretty slow by the standards of today, but back in the day, it might have been the Bee’s Knee’s to a lot of people.

Specs:

» P6 microarchitecture
» 0.18 micron
» Desktop CPU
» Up to 1.13 GHz
» 100 and 133 MHz FSB
» 256 KB L2 cache
» 32-bit
» MMX, SSE instructions
» GTL+ system bus
» 2-way processing

The Intel 815EP/ICH2 chipset was introduced in 2000 with 16-bit color only.

The current 60GB drive has Linux Mint 32bit installed, and it does as well as you might expect it to with 300mb DDR RAM.

The whole thing is powered by a rather generic HIPRO power plant at 240W.

I’ve decided to start looking for an original tower for this particular set up (if any of you guys know where I might find one, let me know). Finding the cream colored generic towers that were so prevalent back in the day might be a bit difficult, but I’ll keep pressing on. This particular set up isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I’ve got the time.
I’ll be trying to keep this thing as close to original as possible, and I just might find a working CRT monitor for it as well.

With any luck, I might stumble upon a tower that’s in relatively mint condition.

The motherboard has 5 PCI slots available, so I might install a 54mbps AirCruiser G Desktop Adapter wireless card. Since the HD has Linux Mint installed on it, I don’t suppose that it would have any trouble writing to the wireless card.

Thanks for the read

Happy Trails

Your children need Self-Care too

By

Alan

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August 8, 2022

Guest post by Anya Willis

Today’s kids have a lot more on their plate than their parents or grandparents did. Technology has helped them to connect to the world in ways we could never have imagined. But that comes with a price, too, since they seldom have downtime. They are always connected, always busy because having all that content and connections in the palm of their hand is almost irresistible. It’s a double-edged sword that is overwhelming many of them.

Find Fun Activities That Help the Whole Family Unwind

• If your children are carrying a lot of stress, it’s up to you as their parent to help them learn how to reduce that. It starts at home, where you and your family spend most of your time, so be mindful about putting your kids first, no matter how busy your days become. Carve out time to connect with your kids and do something fun, and look for opportunities to make memories together.

• Good old-fashioned board games like Monopoly and Scrabble never go out of style, but the store shelves are filled with a lot more your kids might want to try instead. Take them to your local Target or WalMart, and let them pick out one or two so they’ll be more likely to enjoy your family game night.

• A family outing to a ball game is something everyone can enjoy. Either go to your local stadium or turn it into a weekend getaway if you don’t have a local team.

• Outdoor activities are the ultimate unplugging family activities. National and state parks offer family passes and have designated free-pass days throughout the year. If you don’t want to invest in all the camping gear you’ll need for extended camping trips, AFAR notes that it’s possible to rent a lot of the more expensive items like tents, sleeping bags, and cooking gear.

• Set up some fun and exciting art and crafts projects for your kids. You can even take the fun outdoors! That allows kids to get messy with their work, plus they can connect with nature. It’s a win in all regards.

Create a Stress-Free Home

When your home is a stress-free zone, it’s not only good for them, it’s good for you too. If you find your family is arguing too much, that the kids are whining and complaining unreasonably, your home could be one of the reasons it’s happening. Try some of these tips to get rid of any bad vibes in your house that can be causing problems.

• Get rid of clutter. It may take a day or a couple of weekends to get rid of the things that you no longer need and are just taking up space. If you let the kids participate and even offer to hold a yard sale where they can set the price on the things they want to sell, it’s more likely they’ll want to finally part with that video game they no longer play.

• Take the family out for a plant-buying trip. Let the kids choose the one they’ll want to be responsible for. HGTV points out that plants are a great way to teach responsibility and allow them to have a non-virtual project that is theirs alone.

• Gear up and go on the road for a Sunday drive. Trusted reviews help you buy with confidence, whether you bring along a wagon to tote kids through a local park or need a backpack to stash their favorite toys and snacks.

• Going to the library together is a way to remind you of how much they were important to you when you were young and a chance to introduce them to all that libraries have to offer besides books, which they may be reading on electronic devices. While you’re there, check out a book on how to decorate using the ancient philosophy of Feng Shui. Shop for some crystals and let them choose one based on the energy they give off.

• Bring your lawn to life and with healthy green grass, and encourage the kids to play in the yard. A carpet of green is easier on knees and joints during rough-and-tumble activities, plus it’s a great way to avoid dirt and mud when the kiddos really get playing hard. If you haven’t done so for a while, aerating the lawn works wonders. Look for aeration companies near me and check trusted reviews to hire the right contractor for the job. Make sure you talk with at least a few pros, and get any pricing information in writing.

Model Stress-Free Living at Work and Home

Get rid of your own stressors. If you’re stressed at work, it’s almost a certainty that you’re letting that stress filter down to your children. Here are some ideas for reducing workplace stress:

• If you have a project looming that you’re procrastinating getting to, tell yourself you’re only going to spend five minutes on it. Those five minutes may be just what you need to show you that you can do it. If not, at least you’ve got five minutes of that chore done.

• Take time to stop and eat and drink. Keep healthy snacks nearby to boost your energy levels and keep you from crazing coffee and sugar in the mid-afternoon.

Follow these tips to prioritize your kids and guide them on their self-care routine, and don’t forget to take care of yourself at the same time!

—

sourced by Anya Willis:

Anya Willis is a mother of three and has been a yoga instructor for the past 12 years. For most of her childhood Anya struggled with her weight. She was a bookworm since the moment she could read, and had zero interest in physical activity. In school, she was bullied because of her weight, and it wasn’t until she took a yoga class in college that things started to change. She fell in love with how yoga used her whole body and mind. For Anya this was the catalyst she needed, she found a new interest in her physical health and started striving for a healthier life. Reflecting on her younger years, Anya became passionate about kids being active and healthy.

Learn more by visiting Anya at https://fitkids.info/

The new F-150 Ford Lightning

By

Alan

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August 7, 2022

While walking around the Montana State Fair on Friday, I happened across the Ford Motor Company display booth where they had the new Ford F-150 Lightning on display.

Base price for one of these beauties is $40K .. The unit shown here has a starting price of $70K.

Though these EV’s (electric vehicles) are somewhat extremely impractical for our Montana weather and year ’round road conditions, I thought that it would be nice to get one.
Besides the fact that I’ll be able to go from zero to the 4th of July in 2.0 seconds, I think it might look just damned good sitting in the driveway.
We’ll be building our new house in 2023, so I’m planning on having a charging station installed right in the garage.

At a charging station:
120 power takes 26 hours to charge.
220 power takes 18 hours to charge.
You can get the charging time down to 12 hours if you have a 220 charging station installed at home.

Many Montanan’s don’t see EV’s (any EV’s) as being such a good investment, but given for the sake of sheer novelty, it will do the trick if you feel like showing off to all of your buddies. As far as a charging station being built right into the garage? Well, let’s just say that it would be a major selling point should we ever decide to roll this property over at some point in the future.

The price for charging depends solely on the company supplying the power and can range per kilowatt hour (15 cents to 30 cents).

Our Son was pretty impressed with it as well. He sat in the driver seat and checked out all of the gizmos and gadgets (see the video below).
He has his eye set to driving something like this to school eventually, and with good insurance, I don’t see a problem with that.

The truck weighs in at 2K more pounds than our current F-150 does, and the battery range isn’t exactly something to write home to Mother about either at right around 250 miles. Ford has another add-on battery available that has a range of about 150 more miles.

According to the Rep, battery replacement currently for this particular rig is right around 15K. The price for the replacement battery may or may not change going forward depending on the markets and just how badly we might have pissed China off on any given day.

The F-150 Lightning is pretty bad-ass, but it does have it’s limitations just so’s you know. I already know where the electricity comes from for charging, so I’m not going to sit here and B.S. anyone about my trying to save the environment. EV’s are a novelty item that’s not too unlike the Volkswagen Thing, or the Dune Buggy you built on your living room floor back in the day. EV’s are here and they look cool, and are the latest addition to many of our already well recognized play things. Trust me on this. The folks in Bozeman are spending twice the amount of money on things with a whole lot less coolness factor than the Ford F-150 Lightning has, and they seem quite happy about that.