On Dec 9, 2005, at 5:12 PM, Ernest L. Gunerius wrote:
Thanks Mike;
For what I need to do, OSX is just a money hole. There are some
services though that become more difficult to access as technology
progresses.
I must confess that I am a Technology "junkey" having started as an
E.E. working with Tube computers in 1953, I find I am loath to give
it all up now that "the sun is beginning to set". Actually I
performed my first Electrical experiment at age 4 in the nineteen
thirties and that event got me started.
I freely confess I've been fascinated with electrical/electronic
stuff since I stumbled on a book in 6th grade (circa 1970) explaining
the magic of ham radio. I finally got a ticket in '77, albeit the
old 2 yr Novice--WD8LNZ. Did some 40 m work out the bedroom window
on a dipole and a Swan 350, er 3 Drifty. The ticket expired but I
was looking for phone work. Life wasn't the greatest in '79 and an
excursion into the Navy helped get some priorities straight. I went
in to be a reactor operator but ended up being a fossil fuel burner.
Since then most of my life has consisted of getting through my
undergrad and then an M.Div. and another M.A. along with 15 yrs of
wonderful marriage and two neat kids. Just before the kids came into
play I bought a Powerbook Duo 230 and reactivated my ham ticket and
subsequently took the tests somehow convincing the examiners I could
copy 20wpm and got the Extra--AA8MG.
I always had the bug of taking things apart and I learned how the
modem board fit in the MiniDock and that subsequently got me on the
path of understanding the basics of PC assembly. I do the 2m thing
every so often (mostly weather spotter) and if we ever get a house we
can call our own I want to get a couple antennas up plus a decent HF
rig. Additionally this would likely relieve my beloved of seeing the
seemingly multiplying pile of computer parts--drives, boards, cables
out of the living room. She thinks they must have litters of little
parts that somehow grow up. There's always something, I say, for
that drive or card; I can't just toss this stuff.
I think there are numerous similarities between the hams of the tube
days and the hardware hackers/overclockers today. I think there is a
curiosity just simply to know what the limits really are to a
particular design and maybe improve it. What really is the frontier
and what really lies beyond? Pushing a CPU/motherboard combo to a
ridiculous multiplier isn't that much different than catching a
fleeting QSO off the tail of a meteor shower with a handheld
parabolic homebrew. Plus there's the satisfaction that I did this
myself. I learned enough in order to tackle this project from start
to finish. The easy way out is just buying the latest and greatest
but concocting something truly functional out of a box (or pile in my
case) of disparate wires, boards, plugs, etc. really gets the mojo
stirring. Even something so pedestrian as making an ethernet cable
is enough to do the Happy Dance or a Marv Albert "YES!"
Yeah, that's why we're still here--making things work and keeping
them working.
Pax,
Mike McDonald
Made on a Macintosh.
Windows is for Solitaire.
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