I'm lucky. The old timers I know think Echolink is cool, and run solid state rigs, while talking about how cool their old boat anchors were.
Morse code is an art, not a requirement, Tubes are for fun, and having echolink on my Android is cool. So far I haven't ran into any of those cranky old bastards you describe, except online at QRZ.com
I've been a ham since I was 29, and got into it after bugging myself for a few years to do it, especially since the code requirement was dropped. Local 2 meter is fun, and what is way cool is playing with 20m, and calling Alaska, and learning why the Bellingham net control couldn't hear me in Olympia, but Alaska could copy me. And stuff like that.
I finally decided that when I run into some cranky old bastard pining for the days of spark gap transmitters, and enough tubes to heat his house, that I just won't care. I've got my solid state rigs, I've got a tube AM receiver for retro cool, and I got such a killer deal on a couple of tube amps I'm gonna buy 'em.
Screw the intolerant ones. This is a hobby about technology. Keep up with it, or fall behind. Old tech is fun stuff, and I love playing with vintage gear, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be treated like a second class ham because I don't know code beyond my callsign yet, and don't have toobz in my radios. Bah. I earned my license by golly gee whiz.
Dear Reader has a website. Now he get up to date with 21st century right quick! Next upgrade website with Adobe Frash prayer, and piss off riberal Apper fanboiz who can't see furr webpage on iphone.
T Mobile does the same with their mobile wifi. I pay to tether my phone, and full speed caps at 5 gig, and slows after that. I'm quite happy with it. Now if they'd offer a plan to restore speed after 5 gigs for a price, I might even do that.
I pay for 5gb at full speed, and then anything over that at reduced speeds. Then I pay another $15 to purchase tethering, and use my HTC Magic as my home internet connection, which I believe gives me more data as well. With 500 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited data (with the first 5 gigs at full speed) and unlimited tethering and wifi sharing, fees, etc... my bill is $95 per month. I'm happy. I hope this never goes away.
Fair enough.
Actually all US calls are available via the FCC, and then through several other databases that just regurgitate the FCC.
It's annoying to be sure.
But I hope band conditions keep improving. I got a bit obsessed with 10m before I got my General ticket, and I'm still annoyed at how closed it is. Of course now I have more stuff to work, but damnit I want ten to open up on sheer principle.
The question is, what super villain will want the secret mutated iron eating bacteria to use in some fiendish plot to take over the world? My money is on the Iranians.
Pay the fee, or accept a lien on your property for the full cost of the fire suppression. Seems reasonable to me. And I'll wager his insurance company would have happily paid the full cost of suppression, vs what they are going to have to pay out now for the lost goods. And then I imagine he would see a higher insurance rate for his own negligence not only in maintaining good fire safety practices on his property, but for failing to pay the local fire department. Win all around. Fire department gets paid, guy gets the fire put out. If he has to deal with a $7500 or whatever lien, that is his responsibility. Or barring that, perhaps his local community will get together, and create a fire district.
Haven't heard that one. I see you are in my neck of the woods though. Still working on getting my general ticket, and upgrading my antennas so I can get out of the RF hole in the marina that I live in.
KF7GEH
And my choice in lighting involves "raping" people for a buck how? What if I decide to use kerosene lighting? Or run a coleman lantern for my light? Will the government step in and tell me I have to use electric power? Ban candles next? Or maybe they decide that because I'm running Linux, I'm not contributing as much money to the economy, and I have to buy a certain amount of closed source software? Or maybe they think my amateur radio gear uses too much power, and they want me to get rid of my vintage gear? Where the fucking hell does it end? Who the fuck gets to decide what I personally use in my own damned home, with energy I fucking pay for? Why don't we all just let the government make all our choices for us, eh comrade? I'm sure it's for the greater fucking good. Just ask a North Korean how that works.
I purchase my power from a private company, who creates it from their own plants, or purchases it on the open market from hydro electric projects. Unless I sign a contract that states what I will do with that energy, I'm free to do with it as I please. I purchased it, I'm paying for it, who cares what lightbulbs I use?
Now try this one. Let's say I've gone off the grid (I live on my sailboat, it's not too far from happening). Soon I will make all my own electric power from solar or wind. Why should the government then be able to force me to use only certain light bulbs WITH THE POWER I MAKE? I make some of my own power now. I buy some of my power. But the key thing is, I either make it myself, or purchase it myself. Mine. Once it hits my outlets, it's mine to do with as I please. Especially if I make the stuff.
Because now that the Eurorpeans pretty much have what few guns they own locked away and registered, the government there can start doing stupid shit.:p Ok, not really, but I had to say that. But it does set a scary slippery slope. What right does the government have to decide how I can light my home? The US is scheduled to ban incandescents for the same reason in another couple of years. I plan to have a large stockpile of them before that happens. You can have my incandescents and firearms when...
That we are starting to move away from standalone devices for a single task. I read nearly all my email on my phone. By the time my laptop is booted up, I'm already partway through the night's email. The tiny keyboard is the limitation for me right now, I use my computer for anything requiring a reply of more than a few sentences. Meanwhile, my computer makes phone calls, my amateur radio sends data, my cell phone browses the web, I make a phone call with my handheld 2 meter radio, and on and on and on.
Personally, I'm thrilled to have a tiny computer in my pocket. And if I could somehow dock it, run it off of AC power, and connect a keyboard, mouse and larger display to it (and possibly external data storage) I wager a modern Android phone would handle nearly all of my communication. A good cellphone with a decent dock could be a very useful tool. The next ten years of mobile phone evolution excites me to no great end.
I never thought I'd see the day when their stock was worth so much more than Microsoft's, and that they had ubiquitous products in huge demand by the consumer public.
I am ashamed of how heavy handed and insane our government has gotten. I do my part, but not enough are. Even if the kid made threats, unless they are credible threats chalk it up to stupid. I hear abusive and threatening language about any dozen politicians in a given day. It's just a fact of life. If it isn't credible then chalk it up to stupid. Sadly the insane notion of "zero tolerance" is alive and well, with no wiggle room.
To those who say the kid would have a copy of his email, that may not be so. I use yahoo mail for a lot of things, and have it set to not save a copy of the email in my sent folder. I'm sure I'm not the only person on earth who doesn't want the annoyance of a sent folder.
We don't need no steenkin' privacy. In fact, if we don't roll over and submit our every move for scrutiny to our governments, the UN, and the space aliens occupying the ISS, then clearly we have something to hide, and must be locked up for our own good and the good of society.
Mmmm you have a point there. I think a comfortable "looking" environment might serve as a suitable jumping off point for certain people. If you handed them a Linux system, with a Windows looking desktop, carefully eased them into what "acts wrong", it can facilitate transition. Different people have different learning curves. It's not too hard for a person to transition from one windows version to another, but harder to transition from Windows to Linux. But there is no reason to deny the opportunity to give them a comfortable looking desktop if that's what helps. Sooner or later most will realize that it's silly to go that route anyway.
Indeed. Still, I let a friend use my laptop with Fedora 12 and Gnome, and first they looked for a start menu-esque feature in the usual place, then poked around some more until they found the applications toolbar, and then couldn't figure out the network manager...
Nearly all people will pick it up fairly quickly, but if you are moving someone into a new system anything you can do to set them at ease will make it better.
One problem I've had with showing some people (especially older folks, or folks who are very set in their ways) a linux desktop is that they get bogged down fairly quick when they see something that doesn't look "right." Having a Windows-esque desktop could be helpful in transitioning people over.
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I'm lucky. The old timers I know think Echolink is cool, and run solid state rigs, while talking about how cool their old boat anchors were.
Morse code is an art, not a requirement, Tubes are for fun, and having echolink on my Android is cool. So far I haven't ran into any of those cranky old bastards you describe, except online at QRZ.com
I've been a ham since I was 29, and got into it after bugging myself for a few years to do it, especially since the code requirement was dropped. Local 2 meter is fun, and what is way cool is playing with 20m, and calling Alaska, and learning why the Bellingham net control couldn't hear me in Olympia, but Alaska could copy me. And stuff like that.
I finally decided that when I run into some cranky old bastard pining for the days of spark gap transmitters, and enough tubes to heat his house, that I just won't care. I've got my solid state rigs, I've got a tube AM receiver for retro cool, and I got such a killer deal on a couple of tube amps I'm gonna buy 'em.
Screw the intolerant ones. This is a hobby about technology. Keep up with it, or fall behind. Old tech is fun stuff, and I love playing with vintage gear, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be treated like a second class ham because I don't know code beyond my callsign yet, and don't have toobz in my radios. Bah. I earned my license by golly gee whiz.
Dear Reader has a website. Now he get up to date with 21st century right quick! Next upgrade website with Adobe Frash prayer, and piss off riberal Apper fanboiz who can't see furr webpage on iphone.
HTC Magic with custom 2.1 ROM. I'm still looking for a seamless bit of software, but that still won't help me if I go over 5 gigs in a month.
T Mobile does the same with their mobile wifi. I pay to tether my phone, and full speed caps at 5 gig, and slows after that. I'm quite happy with it. Now if they'd offer a plan to restore speed after 5 gigs for a price, I might even do that.
I pay for 5gb at full speed, and then anything over that at reduced speeds. Then I pay another $15 to purchase tethering, and use my HTC Magic as my home internet connection, which I believe gives me more data as well. With 500 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited data (with the first 5 gigs at full speed) and unlimited tethering and wifi sharing, fees, etc... my bill is $95 per month. I'm happy. I hope this never goes away.
Fair enough. Actually all US calls are available via the FCC, and then through several other databases that just regurgitate the FCC. It's annoying to be sure. But I hope band conditions keep improving. I got a bit obsessed with 10m before I got my General ticket, and I'm still annoyed at how closed it is. Of course now I have more stuff to work, but damnit I want ten to open up on sheer principle.
Now there you go posting that without your call. KF7MJF
The question is, what super villain will want the secret mutated iron eating bacteria to use in some fiendish plot to take over the world? My money is on the Iranians.
In Soviet Russia, pun make you!
http://xkcd.com/651/
Pay the fee, or accept a lien on your property for the full cost of the fire suppression. Seems reasonable to me. And I'll wager his insurance company would have happily paid the full cost of suppression, vs what they are going to have to pay out now for the lost goods. And then I imagine he would see a higher insurance rate for his own negligence not only in maintaining good fire safety practices on his property, but for failing to pay the local fire department. Win all around. Fire department gets paid, guy gets the fire put out. If he has to deal with a $7500 or whatever lien, that is his responsibility. Or barring that, perhaps his local community will get together, and create a fire district.
Haven't heard that one. I see you are in my neck of the woods though. Still working on getting my general ticket, and upgrading my antennas so I can get out of the RF hole in the marina that I live in. KF7GEH
And my choice in lighting involves "raping" people for a buck how? What if I decide to use kerosene lighting? Or run a coleman lantern for my light? Will the government step in and tell me I have to use electric power? Ban candles next? Or maybe they decide that because I'm running Linux, I'm not contributing as much money to the economy, and I have to buy a certain amount of closed source software? Or maybe they think my amateur radio gear uses too much power, and they want me to get rid of my vintage gear? Where the fucking hell does it end? Who the fuck gets to decide what I personally use in my own damned home, with energy I fucking pay for? Why don't we all just let the government make all our choices for us, eh comrade? I'm sure it's for the greater fucking good. Just ask a North Korean how that works.
Now try this one. Let's say I've gone off the grid (I live on my sailboat, it's not too far from happening). Soon I will make all my own electric power from solar or wind. Why should the government then be able to force me to use only certain light bulbs WITH THE POWER I MAKE? I make some of my own power now. I buy some of my power. But the key thing is, I either make it myself, or purchase it myself. Mine. Once it hits my outlets, it's mine to do with as I please. Especially if I make the stuff.
Because now that the Eurorpeans pretty much have what few guns they own locked away and registered, the government there can start doing stupid shit. :p Ok, not really, but I had to say that. But it does set a scary slippery slope. What right does the government have to decide how I can light my home? The US is scheduled to ban incandescents for the same reason in another couple of years. I plan to have a large stockpile of them before that happens. You can have my incandescents and firearms when...
Personally, I'm thrilled to have a tiny computer in my pocket. And if I could somehow dock it, run it off of AC power, and connect a keyboard, mouse and larger display to it (and possibly external data storage) I wager a modern Android phone would handle nearly all of my communication. A good cellphone with a decent dock could be a very useful tool. The next ten years of mobile phone evolution excites me to no great end.
I hope this takes off. It would be great to have a good OSS voice codec for amateur radio.
I never thought I'd see the day when their stock was worth so much more than Microsoft's, and that they had ubiquitous products in huge demand by the consumer public.
To those who say the kid would have a copy of his email, that may not be so. I use yahoo mail for a lot of things, and have it set to not save a copy of the email in my sent folder. I'm sure I'm not the only person on earth who doesn't want the annoyance of a sent folder.
Also, they are notoriously anti gun. I use gpal instead On the rare times I force myself to buy something on ebay, I try to pay without using paypal
We don't need no steenkin' privacy. In fact, if we don't roll over and submit our every move for scrutiny to our governments, the UN, and the space aliens occupying the ISS, then clearly we have something to hide, and must be locked up for our own good and the good of society.
Oh if I only had mod points today. Would have gone for insightful as opposed to funny :D
Mmmm you have a point there. I think a comfortable "looking" environment might serve as a suitable jumping off point for certain people. If you handed them a Linux system, with a Windows looking desktop, carefully eased them into what "acts wrong", it can facilitate transition. Different people have different learning curves. It's not too hard for a person to transition from one windows version to another, but harder to transition from Windows to Linux. But there is no reason to deny the opportunity to give them a comfortable looking desktop if that's what helps. Sooner or later most will realize that it's silly to go that route anyway.
Nearly all people will pick it up fairly quickly, but if you are moving someone into a new system anything you can do to set them at ease will make it better.
One problem I've had with showing some people (especially older folks, or folks who are very set in their ways) a linux desktop is that they get bogged down fairly quick when they see something that doesn't look "right." Having a Windows-esque desktop could be helpful in transitioning people over.