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Paul's Journal

paul
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03/12/2006 20:55 #32519

Sugar Gliders
Category: pets
The sugar glider found an organic crunchy cheese stick.

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And then spent the next half hour nibbling it.
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Eventually, the other sugar glider came to investigate and snuggle
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leetee - 03/13/06 10:08
aweee... they are so cute. I hope i get to meet them some day... I remember before you got them, you asked me if i would be mom to them if you were alergic. So i feel like i am thier almost foster mom. lol

03/12/2006 20:06 #32518

GPS comes so far
Category: gps
I remember when (e:jacob) stole my first Delorme Earthmate GPS for my iBook. I loved it. The maps it used were so innaccurate and Arizona was developing so fast . that it often showed us simply driving through the desert. Using it was the utmost complicated endeavor as it required a serial to USB converter, batteries, plenty of sky view and like ten minutes of setup before it was ready. No tto mention the software and iBook itself were flaky.

Then when I worked on Public Transphere we had some 2000 serial GPS unit that was a little more sophisticated but the interface was just as bad.

Recently I ordered a bluetooth gps for my phone and today I started actually playing wiht it. It is so incredible. It is tiny, like the size of a pack of gum, fully rechargable via usb and even works in the house. Furthmore, it is so accurate that it can detect me lifting up and putting down the phone or the speed at which I walk down the driveway. The potential is incredible and it output fully standard compliant NMEA sentences.

Look at the data mapped to google earth as I drive down elmwood. It's really great because my phone is also a 700k-1MB/s modem for my laptop.

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Before I even used it I ordered another GPS but this time just the little chip which can record to a SD card. The advantage of this setup is that it can be standalone and tiny, not much bigger than a quarter. I can attach it to anywhing and it will reocrd its position for up to two weeks.

Soon enough, I want to make my journal track me as I move around the city. To bad I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day. It might be kind of boring.



03/12/2006 18:18 #32517

Last Glimpses
Category: last
This journal is dedicated to last glimpses

The last glimpse of being sick
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The last glimpse of snow in the sun
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the last glimpse of my chicago burger at Jimmy Macs
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the last glimpse of my beard that got shaved
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metalpeter - 03/13/06 19:56
That Burger really looks good. Someday I will have to go to Jimmy Macs.

03/11/2006 20:59 #32516

Daylight Savings Time
Category: energy
Has anyone really thought about daylight savings time? I never really thought about it much. (e:robin) cam eover and her and (e:matthew) were talking about when it begins this year. I looked it up an dfound ou that it begins the first sunday in April but starting in 2007, it is extended a month an begins in march.

The reason is that it saves a ton of energy. According to this site

Daylight Saving Time Saves Energy

Spring Graphic One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is that it saves energy. Energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. Bedtime for most of us is late evening through the year. When we go to bed, we turn off the lights and TV.

In the average home, 25 percent of all the electricity we use is for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs, VCRs and stereos. A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock ahead one hour, we can cut the amount of electricity we consume each day.

Studies done in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about one percent EACH DAY with Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour. This means that less electricity would be used for lighting and appliances late in the day.


03/11/2006 11:48 #32515

Outside but warm
Category: weather
My friend chris is visiting from San Francisco this weekend. Luckily, he is sick too. Pretty much everyone is.

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We went to his mom's house to surprise her. she was having an openhouse and didn't know she was in town. Unfortunately, she has cats so I couldn't hang out otuside but it is 60 out today!

It's so nice to sit in the sun.

One of chris's relatives is an electrician who specializes in people with RF and EMT sensitivity. I never knew there was such a thing. Those poor people are not going to make the next evolutionary jump. Imagine being "alergic" to RF. You might as well move to a commune in the middle of the desert and line your house in aluminum foil.

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