Creative Commons

For some time now, I've been meaning to update my blog with a CC-By-SA license and finally got around to it today. I've used the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike as the default on my Flickr account from about the time I signed up.

I've chosen this license because I think it is important to allow others to use my work to be creative and I want those that enjoy derived works to also be able to find and enjoy mine. The most important aspect to me is the "Share Alike" provision that applies copyleft to my work.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.

Snoqualmie Pass Photos

Parked in the Snow
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Yesterday I made the trek over to Ephrata, WA to drop off the trailer load of stuff I brought up from SoCal for a friend. While I was there, I talked with my mom on the phone and she wanted pictures of the snow I saw on Snoqualmie Pass. So on the way back I stopped and took some pictures.

Made it home to Woodinville, Wa.

Made it home safe and sound, at least temporarily.

After Vaulting practice tomorrow, I'm going to head over the mountains to Jim's place in Ephrata, WA. I'm planning to drop off the contents of my trailer and spend the night east of the Cascades. Then come back on Sunday.

Tigard again.

Stopped for a weather update and dinner near Tigard, OR.

Current plan is to head to directly home to Woodinville after dinner. Need to confirm with Jim regarding side trip to Centeral Washingtion. [His phone didn't seem to be on.]

Eureka, Ca.

Had a nice lunch with Grandma, and other relatives in San Jose yeaterday. Also got some nice photos near the Golden Gate Bridge at sundown.

 

Made it to the planned motel about 11:30, two hours behind the origional schedule, due to the moring detour around SoCal snow. Planning to lunch in Grants Pass and stop near Tigard for a weather update.

Golden Gate at Rush Hour

Golden Gate at Rush Hour
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Here are some photos I took on the way home from SoCal.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsayles/tags/sanfrancisco/

Lunch with Grandma

On my way back from Southern California, I stopped in San Jose, where I had lunch with my Grandma Carol. Also lunching with us were my Aunt Anne, Uncle Barry and his mom Phillis.


It's always good to get to spend an hour or two with my Grandma.

Photos courtesy of Barry Briggs

Buellton, Ca.

Quick stop for food and fuel.

I-5 Closed over Grapevine

Detouring through Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Ready to Head Home

A week with the folks is about enough and I'm ready to head home. I've got the Jeep all loaded up (no additional stitches needed), and am planning to head out about six AM.

I'm planning to have lunch with my Grandma and Aunt (and Uncle?) in San Jose around noon.

The mountains in northern Cal are looking rather snowy, so my plan is to go up the coast route [US-101] from San Jose and over night in Eureka, CA. Then Friday morning head up to Grants Pass, OR via US-199. I'm also hoping to hit the Kinko's in Eureka, CA and Tualatin, OR for weather and blog updates.

Arrived Glendale

Traffic between San Francisco and LA wasn't as bad as I had expected, so I arrived about thirty minutes earlier then I had expected. So I was upstairs in my parent's condo by 12:30 AM. All in all the trip went well and very close to my origional plans.

After I arrived I spend a couple of hours chatting with my Mom, as the effects of the day's caffeine intake wore off.

Dinner and Gas

Stopped for dinner and gas in Flag City, outside
Stockton. All is well.

Gas Stop

Stopped for gas near Tacoma. Raining. Alls well.

Slipped and Fell

While loading my jeep, I slipped, dropped a computer, and whacked my arm as I slid down a flight of stairs. After a quick clean up and first aid, I finished loading the Jeep. Then while my housemates went out for first aid supplies, I took a shower and did some more wound cleaning and decised I probably need a stitch or two. I drove myself down to urgent care and and got two stitches. By the time I got home it was 2 AM!

So I called into the toothbrush factory and let them know that I would be in a bit late. I hoping to still make the drive down to Glendale on schedule.

Evacuate = Power On

About ten minutes after I packed up and drove out to spend the night with my friends Chris and Gretta, the power came back on.

The power still hasn't been restored at the the toothbrush factory, so I get the day off (with pay I think). It should give me a chance to finish up on the jeep work I wanted to do.

48 Hours Without Power

I gave up and went to Kinkos to check my e-mail and update my blog. My power is still out so no comouters, no Internet and no central heat.

Vaulting practice went okay this morning. Cali was a bit grouchy, and several of out vaulters couldn't make it.

Since the garage is too dark, I haven't been able to get some of the Jeep work done that I had wanted to do. I did get the wiper drive replaced. And despite their not having any power, Les Shawb {spell?} did manage to do the breaks on Friday. I still want to replace the transmission mount before my trip to CA. If the power doesn't come back on until Monday or Tuesday, I may have to delay my departure until late Friday or Saturday.

Power Still Out

Wind storm on Thursday knocked out our power about ten
pm. Power has been out now for more then 24 hours.
Only Internet access is my phone. Good thing we like
camping and are well equiped.

Could an Iraq Pullout Combat Global Warming?

Could a pull out of western troops from Iraq reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus combat global warming? It just might.

I'm not saying that this is necessarily a good idea, as the human costs would be very large. But if the US and other western powers were to pullout of Iraq and let the Middle East fall into a broader regional sectarian war, it would surely drive up the price of oil.

As oil gets more expensive two things happen that are both good from a global warming point of view. First the developed world cuts back on the amount they drive their automobiles, thus quickly and directly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Second somewhere around $4/gal USD (0.80 €/l) many alternative energy sources start to become cost competitive. At least this is the case in the US and given the global economy is probably true in most developed and developing countries.

And who's to say that the obsession with martyrdom by at least a portion of Arab culture might not serve humanity well if it can save the entire world from environmental devastation? Would a million or two war causalities be worth while if it saved tens or hundreds of millions of lives from natural disasters like storms, floods, drought and famine?

All that said, I still think the better solution would be to devote 5% of global GDP to space research, development, exploration and expansion. Perhaps by taxing carbon emissions. IMHO we should really be learning to terraform on Mars not Earth and the best long term solution for religious and social oppression is colonization of a fronter not forced democracy.

Fw: creepy quiz

Got this from one of the vaulters. The mind's ability to rationalize is amazing. I'd be interested in opinions about why this seems to work.

----- Forwarded Message ----
Subject: FW: creepy quiz

ENJOY!!!

-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: "Hawkeye Loynes" <hawk-eye-4@hot.....
To: vaultinggirl2008@com.....
Subject: FW: creepy quiz
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 02:37:46 +0000


Now, this is freaky...DO NOT CHEAT (You'll will kick yourself later) I

>was a little skeptical trying this, but if you follow the instructions to
>the "t" you'll be surprised!!!!
>
>All of my answers were accurate. We'll see tomorrow if the wish comes true.

>I'll let you know. Take 3 minutes and try this...it will freak you out! The

>person who sent it to me said her wish came true 10 minutes after they read

>the mail. BUT NO CHEATING! This game has a funny/spooky outcome.
>
>Don't read ahead...just do it in order! It takes about three minutes...it's

>worth a try :)
>
>Fi rst..get a pen and paper. When you actually choose names, make sure it's
>people you actually know and go with your first instinct.
>
>Scroll down one line at a time...and don't read ahead or you'll ruin it!
>
>1. First, write the numbers 1 through 11 in a column.
>
>
>
>
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>
>2. Then, beside numbers 1 and 2, write down any two numbers you want.
>
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>3. Beside the 3 and 7, write down the names of members of the opposite
>s/e/x.
>
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>NO LOOKING AHEAD...OR IT WON"T TURN OUT RIGHT!
>
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>4. Write anyone's name (like friends or family....) in the 4th, 5th and 6th

>spots.
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>
&g t;5. Write down four song titles in 8,9,10, and 11.
>
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>GO WITH YOUR INSTINCT PEOPLE!!!!
>
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>6. Finally, make a wish.
>
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>And now the key for the game.....
>
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>
>1. You must tell (the number in space 2) people about this game.
>
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>2. The person in space 3 is the one that you love.
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>3. The person in 7 is one you like but can't work out.
>
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>4. You care most about the person you put in 4
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>5. The person you name in number 5 is the one who knows you very well.
>
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>6. The person you name in 6 is your lucky star.
>
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>7. The song in 8 is the song that matches with the person in number 3.
>
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>8. The title in 9 is the song for the person in 7.
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>9. The tenth space is the song that tells you most about YOUR mind.
>
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>10. and 11 is the song telling you how you feel about life
>
>
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>
>NOW...put this on ur syt within the hour you read this...IF you do..your
>wish will come true. If you don't it will become the opposite!!!

Time for some Jeep Work

Turn Signal Housing, Bumber & Endcap
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

With my plans to drive down to Glendale for Christmas, It's time to do some work on the Geek Jeep. So I'm ordering some parts from J&W Jeep. Most of the parts are just fixing cosmetic stuff.

My Experiences Hauling to Nationals

Below are some of my experiences hauling to Nationals. I know that others in our region have also hauled to Denver, and I'd be interested in hearing their experiences too.

I've attended every nationals since '02, Livermore, Denver, Lexington, Denver, and City of Industry. I helped Tammy Denault (Emerald City / Mtn. Wind) haul to Nationals '04 (Lexington, VA) and Nationals '05 (Denver, CO). On both trips we stopped overnight at "Horse Motels" along a route she pioneered to Mt. Holyoke for Nationals '01 where she and the Emerald City Vaulters won the National Trot Team Championship.

The first night out (& last night back) we stopped at Mountain View Arena in Dear Lodge, MT. Their place is right off the Interstate, well maintained with good size stalls. They also have an indoor arena that we have used to work the horses before departing in the morning and were even able to get in some vaulting practice on the way to Nationals '04. They have plenty of stalls so getting reservations isn't usually difficult. Tammy likes to stay at the Super 8 Motel that is across the Interstate from Mtn. View Arena.

The place we've stayed outside Sheridan, WY (in Big Horn) is a family owned and operated bed & breakfast. Their stalls have attached runs and they have a large paddock where we have also been able to work horses in the AM. From Sheridan, WY Denver is an easy day's haul. They have fewer stalls then the place in Deer Lodge, so if we travel as a group we'll have to make sure they have space for our horses and humans or get their help finding additional accommodations in the area. In '04 when their B&B was booked up, but they had space for the horses we stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Sheridan. That Super 8 was a little close to active train tracks for me to get a good night's sleep, so next time we can't stay at the B&B, I'd suggest trying the newer Motel 6, also in Sheridan.


Tammy's Rig
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

When hauling with Tammy, a typically road day from these locations begins with breakfast for the horses then the humans. After breakfast we would give the horses a light work out then loaded the horses and hit the highway. We'd usually make a quick late morning stop to check on and offer water to the horses. Midday we'd make a longer stop while we made and ate lunch under her trailer's awning. In the mid-afternoon we typically would make another stop to check and water the horses. We'd also check and water any time we needed to stop for gas or restrooms. On the shorter legs we'd arrive at our overnight stop off load and settle the horses, then hit a local restaurant for dinner. On the longer legs in '04 (WY <-> IA and IA <-> IN) or if we got a late start ('05) we'd stop at a restaurant along the way for dinner.

In '04 we had two vaulters and two horses traveling with us and once they learned the hauling routine the operation was relatively quick and efficient. The vaulters got to sleep much of the day so they could do most of the loading and unloading work while Tammy and I did the driving and supervised. In '05 it was just me and Tammy with five horses going to Denver, which was very exhausting. Coming back we had only two horses, so the work load was better, but we still wished we had a vaulter or two along to help.

And finally as others can also attest to, traveling with Tammy is always an adventure. That said, I'm ready and willing to sign on with her for my third long haul trip. And probably again in '08 to Kentucky!

__________________________________________________
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Tom's 2006 Thanksgiving Turkey

Tom's 2006 Thanksgiving Turkey
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Not my best turkey. But still a good one.

Nine point eight pounds. Brined for six hours. Roasted for four hours with fresh herbs and basted every 30 minutes with extra light olive oil.

Standing on Cali

Tom Standing on Cali
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Last Saturday I actually vaulted during our regular practice. I did manage to mount again at trot though only during this practice.

This photo is a little on the blurry side, but in it I'm standing at trot. During a standing contest I stood at trot for 42 strides.

I really need to work on my flexibility if I'm going to compete in the spring. If I can get into a regular stretching routine, like a yoga class, I confident that I can manage a set of trot compulsories and a trot freestyle in the spring. I've gota show up Wendy who did walk at Regionals.

Look what I found on YouTube!

In this video they aren't as good as they were in July when I saw them at Nationals. But it's still way COOL!

Dressage artistique/Artistic dressage

Very cool You-Tube video.

Idea: Four Freedoms for the Physical World

Given the liberating effects seen in free / open source software and the coming development of personal fabrication, why shouldn't we adapt GNU's four kinds of freedom to the physical world?

In furtherance of that idea, I propose that for a thing to be free as in free speech, its user must have the following four freedoms:

• The freedom to use the thing, for any legal purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the thing works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the design is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the thing, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the design is a precondition for this.

Open Source Computer Hardware

A couple of recent episodes of podcasts that I regularly listen to [the Linux Link Tech Show #165 and LUG Radio Season 4 Episode 5] both had discussions on the need for openness in computer hardware like is starting to mature in free and open source software. All of these guys need to check out MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms' "Fab Lab" outreach program, and probably interview Neil Gershenfeld.

This ties into my previous posts on Open Source Electronics and Fab Labs.

Distributed Family / Home Backup Networks working

My Distributed Family / Home Backup Network is settling into regular use, albeit with some minimal manual interaction, i.e. running a few bash scripts and entering passwords. After setting up the bash scripts and getting through the initial transfers, the periodic (almost daily) rsync sessions are going well and finish in a reasonable amount of time, normally within 3 to 10 minutes.

The next steps in the development are to setup some dedicated user accounts with SSH keys and run the rsync-bak scripts automagically. To do this I need to figure out: how to let these dedicated user accounts access all the files that I want to get backed-up; and how to setup chron-tabs to run the rsync-bak scripts automatically.

I'm also going to try to put the commands for this set-up in one or two bash scripts too so that I can add additional "target" computers easily. I also need to fix a problem with the dyndns updates from my parents condo.

Past posts on this subject are here, here and here.

Evangelical Christian leader paid for gay hooker and took drugs!

hyp·o·crite -- a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

AP Story
read more | digg story

Is it sad or just fitting when reality smashes into fundamentalist religious zealots?

Incorrect Route Shield, SR-202 @ 292nd Ave NE

The resent signal project on SR-202 west of Fall City at 292nd Ave NE placed a confirmation sign with a US-202 route shield along the eastbound departure from the intersection. [US-202 runs from from Delaware to Maine.] The correct sign should have a George Washington silhouette.

Day Against DRM

DefectiveByDesign.org is sponsoring a "Day Against DRM" today in an effort to spread the word about the trials, tribulations, and general badness of digital rights management schemes.

"Defeating DRM is all about awareness. The direct actions that we have taken are all about this. Whether it means protesting outside Apple Stores in Hazmat suits or getting HUGE press coverage for announcing the Bono petition. Action gets attention, and creates space for debate. And as our friends at Disney recognize, if there is a debate, we will have won." -- DefectiveByDesign.org

Digital Rights Management is a myth. Any content or intellectual property that can be used, weather it be audio, video, software, or even designs of physical devices, can and will be copied or functionally replicated by anyone anywhere at an ever decreasing cost. This is a direct and irrepressible result of the cost of communication approaching zero. There is no technology that has ever existed or will ever exist that can prevent this in a free and open society.

Passing legislation and regulations in an attempt to keep the Earth at the center of the Universe did not change reality and it seriously impeded the progress of human culture and society. Likewise our current system of intellectual property has out lived its usefulness and is causing more harm to our society and culture then benefit.

It's time for those that normally sit on the sidelines of political debates to stand up, speak out, and take back our culture, our communities and our nation.

read more | digg story

Ancient Rome's 9/11 - and what happened after

Extremely interesting read! Could this be a prediction of what is to come in America?

read more | digg story

AVA Forum Feedback

Jan --

    I think your efforts launching the new AVA forums are well intentioned, I wish you the best of luck and will do what I can to help.

    But, based on my thirty plus years of experience with on-line communities, I think that there is not yet enough organic critical mass on-line in the AVA to support phpBB forums. 

    Over the past five years the AVAMembers@yahoogroups.com list has averaged less then 15 posts a month.  This means that, even if all the AVAMembers@yahoogroups.com traffic was on the AVA forums instead, on most days members who bother to check the forums will find that there are no new messages and they will feel that they wasted their time checking.  Other AVA Yahoo lists get even less traffic.

    IMHO, mailing lists really are the best solution for communities, like the AVA, that tend to have less then one posting a day.  The AVA might do better with some other forum package that has better e-mail integration and support for RSS [or similar] subscriptions, much like Yahoo Groups does.  The down side to running a mailing is that many ISPs are blocking independent mailing to prevent spam and charging thousands of dollars to unblock them. Thus service providers like Yahoo Groups, MSN and Google are the current best options for low traffic groups.

    Another way to kick start the forums, is to make sure there is something new and relevant posted at least once a day.  For content to entice people into the forums, you might want to dig through the message archives on the yahoo lists [here & here] and post some summaries on various topics to the forum, then announce your posting on the various yahoo mailing lists. 

    When you mail your announcements about the forums, be sure to include a direct link to your forum post.  To get from your e-mail to the AVARegionIII list to your post in the AVA forums I had to:

1. type the URL of the AVA Members site [AmericanVaulting.org/members] from memory;
   
2. if I hadn't already been logged in I would have had to also type my username and password;
   
3. then click on the "Forums" button on the side bar (or the featured item button);
4. then refer back to your message and click on the "General Information" subject link,
5. then click on the "ARMBANDS and Vaulter numbers" subject link.

    From a members perspective, that was a lot of effort to discover that your post only had questions in it and not any information relevant to me or my club. 

    Other content ideas to kick start the forum might include e-mail interviews with AVA notables, like WEG participants, Judges, respected horse trainers, "A" Team coaches, etc.

    I hope this is at least a little helpful.

    BTW -- I've been kicking around the idea of starting a monthly vaulting podcast with some of the content ideas that I'm giving you above. I've even got the "VaultingCast.com" domain name registered.  At this point I'm looking for a co-host that's willing to commit to an hour a month of prep time and an hour a month on the phone recording.

TTFN
    Tom Sayles
    Region III, Mover & Shaker

Wanted: Star Map

A couple of recent news articles reminded me that I never learned the constellations of the night sky. Over the years I've looked for a sky map in a particular form but have never found it. What I'd like is a map of the night sky in a Mercator projection with the celestial equator across the middle and the celestial poles at the top and bottom. I'd also like to have the Ecliptic shown (as the appropriate sign wave) and marked with the sun's position on each day. Of course, I'd also like the star names and constellations shown.

If you have access to the tools to make such a map and can produce a 11"x17" or bigger plot for under $20 I'd be very interested in getting a copy.

I got mentioned on Slashdot Review!

My recent blog post about "Distributed Family / Home Backup Networks" was featured on the August 14th edition of Slashdot Review, which is one of the many podcasts I listen to.

I only found this out today. While trying to catch up on older podcasts I haven't yet listened to, I heard a head line that sounded very familiar. It took a moment or two to realize that it was familiar because I had written it. Needless to say I was excited that

Follow-up: Fab Lab & Open Source Electronics

The world is several steps closer to the kind of open source innovation in electronics that I predicted back in February. I recently heard a podcast interview with MIT's Neil Gershenfeld about their Center for Bits and Atoms' "Fab Lab" outreach program that brings prototyping capabilities to under-served communities that have been beyond the reach of conventional technology development and deployment. The abilities of these "Fab Labs" is almost exactly what I was describing as "custom electronics manufacturers".

The availability of this kind of rapid and personal fabrication will greatly accelerate the pace of innovation, especially of open design that allow others to freely create derivative designs that build on earlier work of others. One of the strongest assets of open source development techniques is accelerated design progress through the rapid application of small individually applied design tweaks.

Quote: Eleanor Roosevelt

While looking for tip on baking bacon in the oven,I ran across the following quote on Discuss Cooking.

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. -Eleanor Roosevelt-"

Random Dream: Composite Team

As my alarm went off this morning, I was dreaming about coaching a high level Region III composite vaulting team. The along with the other coaches and parents I was just informing the vaulters that we had secured a large, centrally located, living space and that we would be able to begin training more or less full time. This was being made possible by a sponsorship by or a grant from National Geographic, who would be filming a documentary about our training and competition.

Update: Distributed Family / Home Backup Networks

While I was down visiting my parents, and attending the National Vaulting Championships at the end of July, I reconfigured one of their old computers, PopsHP, as a LAMP server similar my LampCat.

PopsHP started out as an HP Pavilion 6545c. A couple of years ago we replaced the internal hard drive with a new one (approximately 110 GB). On my recent trip I resized the Windows 98 2nd edition partition (hda1) and installed the LAMP server version of Ubuntu 6.06 [Dapper Drake]. I also installed a new USB-2 card and a 500GB external hard drive.

Next I got PopsHP and my parent's home network configured to allow me to connect to PopsHP via SSH from my home computers, LampCat and LinCat64 [my AMD 64 desktop]. The I then installed, setup and configured Samba to allow my parents to access PopsHP like a windows file server. I even setup drive mappings from their desktop and laptop computers to their /home/ directories located on PopsHP's new external HD, while instructing them to save anything they wanted to keep safe onto PopsHP using these mappings. I also booted their main desktop machine off a Live Ubuntu CD and rsync-ed a complete backup to shared directory in PopsHP's /home/ directory. The final task before I returned home was to make sure that whenever PopsHP reboots (like after a rolling blackout) it boots into linux and starts up the various services / daemons.

Since returning home from my parents condo, I've been using rsync to push copies of my main /home/ directory from from LinCat64 to LampCat and then to PopsHP. I'm using an exclude list on the first transfer to only back-up worth while files, but on the second [off-site] transfer I am doing a full mirror of the primary backup. To keep our [Comcast] cable modem usable for basic web browsing, e-mail, etc., and keep my housemates from complaining, I've had to limit the upstream bandwidth that rsync uses to only 35k/s, so the initial 31GB transfer is taking a long time. [67.7% in a little over a week so far with various stops and restarts.]

This afternoon, I've started the first rsync backup going the other way, from PopsHP to LampCat. My parents [SBC] ADLS line seems to have much better upstream bandwidth and as a result the initial 9.4GB transfer is going much faster, over 7% in just a few hours.

The next steps in the development of my Distributed Family / Home Backup Network will be to install passwordless certificates for the underlying ssh connections and setup chron jobs to automate the transfers. I also want to setup access to my Dad's home folder via shttp so that he can access his files while on his consulting assignments.

Longer term, I'll be looking to add a web based configuration and management application. I'd also like to get a server box set up for my brother and his family, to get offsite backups going for them too.

At Christmas time we might also set my Dad up with a MythTV backend in my parents condo and a portable front end that he can take with him on his assignments.

BTW -- If anyone wants me to set up a "Distributed Family / Home Backup Network" like this for their own private use, my normal consulting rate is $50USD/hr plus expenses and my time is subject to limited availability.

Expanding the Patriot Act would mean the Terrorists win.

I found the following quote in the comments on Chris Prillo's blog.

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. -- Benjamin Franklin

This bring to mind another quote from that same era.

... "all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government" ... -- The Declaration of Independence

We must stand up, speak out, take political action and if necessary fight and die, to protect our freedoms and liberties from the attacks of religious fundamentalists both inside and outside our governments.

How I got from roads to robots

I recently got reconnected with one of my fiends from college through LinkedIn, and he asked:

"How did you move from Civil engineering to IT and robotics? The Civil Engineering has continuous needs while other fields are more unsettled."

Well, back in 1996 I got somewhat disillusioned with the impacts of political decisions on public safety and decided to take the first reasonable opportunity to get out of state government. That first reasonable opportunity ended up being a job as a network admin for a small multi-media start-up in Bethesda, MD.

After eight months in what turned out to be a very different job from what was described in the interview process, I got on with a small minority owned government contractor as a database admin / software developer. Both of these jobs built on the inter-networking and software skills I acquired at Virginia Tech and at VDOT. Aside from a boss who was an idiot that managed to loose the contract we were working on, the government contractor gig was a good one. It payed well and the work was very interesting.

In the same time frame, Jen Williams got me really hooked on the sport of equestrian vaulting. Throughout the years I lived in the Baltimore / Washington area I helped out with her team first as longeur / groom and later as an assistant coach.

After a stint as an independent consultant through the dot-com crash, I moved to the Seattle area and got on with a company that had been recently acquired by {Employer’s Name Removed} building high end electronic toothbrushes. However, I was making less the half what I was before the bust, but the work was interesting and the pay was enough to live on.

I also hooked up with a vaulting club, the Redwing Vaulters in Redmond Wa., and continued as an assistant coach. While volunteering with the Redwing I traveled to the national vaulting championships in 2002, 2003 & 2004. When Redwing 's head coach decided to scaled back her club after nationals in 2004, I started up a new club with some of its former members.

In the past 18 to 24 months the work at the toothbrush factory has gotten less interesting and the overall compensation has diminished significantly as our benefits got harmonized with the global conglomerate. However in that same time frame my volunteer work, as Head Coach of the Cascade Vaulters, has intensified in an incredibly satisfying way and I find that I don't really have time or energy to look for a better job.

In what spare time I do have I've been messing around with open source software, especially Linux, and both blogging and podcasting and may try to spin these into a better paying and more flexible gig.

BitTorrent Tips and Tricks ~ Chris Pirillo

There isn't enough emphasis on rhyming these days.

Check out this apparent abuse of a Seuss. (Well maybe it's just a chat with the Cat.)

BitTorrent Tips and Tricks ~ Chris Pirillo

Nationals 2006 -- Wednesday

Industry Expo Center, City of Industry, CA -- Every thing is settling in for this year's AVA/USEF National Vaulting Championships. Today the main vaulting competition rings and the two warm up rings were in place by mid day in the Expo Center's Grand arena. Following the required vet checks the competitors began practicing on their horses. Many of the vaulters showed significant improvements during the afternoon practice sessions as they and their horses became accustomed to the surroundings. Several of the team freestyle routines look like they will be very impressive this year.
Setup was also completed of the "white arena" [barrel area] in the west end of the Expo Center's Grand arena. At a few minutes past two in the afternoon the Para-Nationals competition began in the "white arena". Performing in this pre-nationals event were vaulters from Valley View, Flying Stars, Elkhorn Equestrian, Half Moon Bay, Oak Hills, Starlite, Flying Stars, Flying B clubs. Many of these vaulters performed for the crowd of about 60 spectators despite significant disabilities.
As the afternoon advanced, the overhead misters and an afternoon breeze brought temperatures in the stands down to comfortable temperatures. The moderating temperatures in the Los Angles area should only make things better as the weekend's events unfold.
It looks like every thing is ready for the AVA & USEF recognized events to kick off tomorrow morning.
Watch these pages for more reports and in the near future VaultingCast.com interviews with competitors, coaches, trainers and [hopefully] a judge or two.

Progress: Distributed Family / Home Backup Networks

I've made some significant progress toward setting up a Distributed Family / Home Backup Network. Over the past few weeks I've been squeezing in some time hacking on my Linux server. I successfully got the Server version of Ubuntu Linux installed on my <$100 used IBM Personal Computer 300GL, aptly named LampCat. LampCat is a 400MHz PII with 376 MB RAM, an 8GB internal hard drive and a 100GB external USB 2.0 hard disk. Using just SSH connections I installed and configured Apache and a few other apps. I've also been backing-up the home directory off my AMD64 desktop machine, LinCat64, (running the AMD64 version of Ubuntu Linux) to LampCat using rsync.

The big acomplishment came this past weekend when I finially configured the various NAT routers in our house to allow access to LampCat from the outside Internet. For some reasion my SpeedStream 2604 won't forward port 80 properly, but forwards HTTP fine on another arbitrary port. I also was able do a rsync back-up after to opening the SSH port and using the fully qualified domain name.

On LampCat I still need to configure some file permissions so the backup process can be done as some user other then root and configure secure access to the backed-up filed via the HTTP server. I might also install wordpress.

Horse Show

I entered my first horse show in at least twenty five years this past Sunday. [I may have been in one near my grandparents farm when I was a kid.] The show at Farrel McWhirter Park in Redmond was just a local schooling show, so it wasn't too serious an affair, and thus I didn't spend as much time practicing as I might have.

It took us about forty minutes to ride down to the park with a couple of other horses from our barn. Cali and I entered two classes, finishing fourth in the English, Walk-Trot Equitation class and third in the Open Halter class. Our friends from Mecca finished their entries before the lunch break so after the show Cali and I rode back up the hill to Mecca by ourselves.

This and more photos are on my Flickr account.

Re: Christian Humor

I was skeptical when I read the subject. But it's a good one.

Carol Sayles <teacher_carol@ya...> wrote:

This came from Dave Pritcherd of Iowa State Days.

I LOL so thought you might too.

 

SOME CHRISTIAN HUMOR

 

 Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer.  They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

 

 Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough.  I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job."

 

 So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

 

 They moused.

 

 They faxed.

 

 They e-mailed.

 

 They e-mailed with attachments.

 

  They downloaded.

 

 They did spreadsheets.

 

 They wrote reports.

 

 They created labels and cards.

 

 They created charts and graphs.

 

 They did some genealogy reports

 

 They did every job known to man.

 

 Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

 

 Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.

 

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

 

Jesus just sighed.

 

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers.  Satan started searching frantically, screaming:

 

 "It's gone! It's all GONE!

 

 "I lost everything when the power went out!"

 

 Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.

 

 Satan observed this and became irate.

 

 "Wait!" he screamed.

 

 "That's not fair! He cheated!

 

How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"

 

 God just shrugged and said, JESUS SAVES.

 

---

Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.

[howto] General 6.06 - SCRIPT: Take back the Firefox & Thunderbird logo - Ubuntu Support Forums

This a way cool script for Dapper Drake.

[howto] General 6.06 - SCRIPT: Take back the Firefox & Thunderbird logo - Ubuntu Support Forums

Upgraded to 64 bit Ubuntu

On after trying to print a complex document (with lots of other programs running) Wednesday morning, when I hot home Wednesday evening I found that my main desktop machine had hung (black screen / screen saver). I'm still not sure if this was due to a hardware issue (likely a hard drive write-back failure) or some other software bug. After a bit of fiddling attempting to recover, I went ahead and installed the AMD64 version of Ubuntu's recent Dapper Drake (ver 6.06) release onto an empty partition. It took a couple of passes to get it up and going, but all seems well at this point. I also had to set back up a few hardware items like my $29.99 HP Photosmart 1215 printer.

Fortunately all of my personal data was on a separate hard drive partition and was quickly and easily backed up to an external USB hard drive. So with the new Linux install I still have all my settings, preferences and data files.

Hard Drive Failure?

I think the hard drive with the boot partition on my main desktop machine is on having problems. So my e-mail access on my soot-n-smoke account may be a bit flakly until I can diagnose it.

My /home is on a different disk and I'm running a complete back-up tonight.

Ten Years of Soot-n-Smoke.com

It was ten years ago this month that I first registered the Soot-n-Smoke.com domain name.

First Bread

The present from my parents was a "Breadman Ultimate" [TR2200C]. I opened it Thursday evening [6/8] because I was leaving for a competition in Canada on Friday. I also made the first loaf (1 lb) with it using the "100% Whole Wheat Bread" recipe from the Instruction Manual & Recipe Guide.
It's a nice machine with lots of features including three different loaf sizes, 1, 1.5 & 2 lbs. It cleans up easily.
My only problem so far is that the loaf shape is a bit awkward. The Breadman machine that my friend Josh has makes a tall skinny loaf that has the aspect ratio of a normal store loaf stood on end, and thus slices fit nicely in the toaster. The larger (2 lbs) loaf from my machine ends up being the same width as a normal loaf but taller.
This past week I've been working out a recipe similar to the one I used back when I lived with Josh. I'm going for sweet and dense with a flaky crust that isn't too bad nutritionally.

[Fwd: Important - Your Web Addresses have expired]

I'm getting expiration notices for my domain, when I have in fact transfered it to another domain registrar, GoDaddy.com. [Check WhoIs.net.]

This is either poor marketing on your part, or more likely a bug in your system.

Please pass this information on to your managers and automated mail system developers.

TTFN
    Tom Sayles


Note: Links below have been modified.
-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Important - Your Web Addresses have expired
Date:	Sun, 11 Jun 2006 14:03:02 -0400
From:	Renewals - Register.com <renewals@imail.register.com>
Reply-To:	Renewals - Register.com <renewals.L2SZW.151795@imail.register.com>
To:	tsayles@... .com

YOUR WEB ADDRESSES HAVE EXPIRED! If you do not renew the domain names below, you will lose them! You have received this email because you have not yet renewed your names, or Register.com could not process the credit card on file for your names. Your Web addresses expired: 06-JUN-06 Click here and renew with Invitation Code S#####7 THE LONGER YOU RENEW, THE MORE YOU SAVE! SOOT-N-SMOKE.COM 06-JUN-06 The more years you choose, the more you save with invitation code SYS547*   RENEW FOR     SPECIAL PRICE     YOU SAVE     1 Year     $35.00     -     2 Years     $49.95     28%     3 Years     $65.95     37%     5 Years     $92.95     46%     7 Years     $115.95     52%     *savings off year-by-year renewal at $35/year Don't forget to enter invitation code S####7 to receive these special prices. *You will not lose any time on your current term by renewing today* When you renew your addresses with Register.com, you'll continue to enjoy:        24/7 customer service    Web site forwarding - point your Web address to an existing site    1 page template-based Web page Please note that once your domain name expires, you will no longer have rights to that name and Register.com may make it available for sale or auction to third parties.** To avoid having your name auctioned, sold or deleted, please click here to renew. Thank you for using Register.com. Customer Support http://www.register.com Forget your password? Click here Questions? More information about renewing your domain names through Register.com Get online Customer Support Or call us toll free in the U.S. and Canada:    (877) 731-4440 Outside the U.S. and Canada:    +1 (902) 749-5917 *Please do not reply to this email. Replying to this email will not secure your domain names* **For more information on auctioning domain names, please click here Please be aware that if you do not renew your domain names, all products and services associated with them will be deactivated. All domain name registrations and renewals are subject to the terms and conditions of our Services Agreement. © 2006 Register.com, Inc. All rights reserved. 575 Eighth Avenue, 11th Floor New York, NY 10018