Me
That's what it's all about
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July 2008
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The Perfect Image
by McGehee
If I wanted a picture to illustrate the “can’t help themselves” level of stupidity exhibited by some people, it would be the one associated with this old article I stumbled on while following some silly internet bunny trail this evening. Of course, it’s really unfair to the squirrel, because it really didn’t know any better—whereas people (theoretically) do.
[Me] [Boreblogger Nirvana™] [People] [Here's Your Sign]
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June 2008
12:11 pm Saturday
June 28, 2008
» McGehee
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...it’s field day
Today at 2:00 p.m., hams across the country begin “Field Day,” a 24-hour activity designed to practice emergency-power operations, make contact with a lot of other hams far away, and if possible show off the hobby to interested prospective new hams.
My club will be having its Field Day fun at the Coweta County Fairgrounds in Newnan.
[Me] [AK4MC] [Humor?] [People] [Coweta County]
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9:27 pm Saturday
June 21, 2008
» McGehee
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...Firefox 3 (final) for Ubuntu Linux?
My Linux laptop is still stuck with Firefox 3b5—I can’t find a package for a more recent version, Firefox’s “Check for Updates” Help menu item is grayed out, and I never have figured out how to install unpackaged software on Ubuntu.
So far what little experience I’m getting with Linux leaves me underwhelmed.
Update: No sooner did I post this, than the update manager found a passel of updates it missed just moments ago—including FF3.
So, never mind.
The “Check for Updates” Help menu item is still grayed out…
[Me] [Asides]
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I Know It’s Dangerous, This ‘Thinking’ Business
by McGehee
86°F. and sunny in Coweta County, GA
I’ve been thinking about that whole “writing up my vacation” thing.
I’ve been home for over a week now, and still haven’t even started writing, let alone posting. The reason is, simply, that nobody’s asking to read it.
Which is cool, if nobody does want to read about it. I’m not sure I could make it interesting anyway. It was one of those “you had to be there” vacations, except for such dribbles and drabs as I may already have posted, or may think to mention at some future time. But that leads to other thoughts:
I’m not going to try to drag out a narrative if nobody’s interested, and if anybody is interested I’d just as soon not feel obligated to write it up for them either. I just don’t want to write.
Then again, I also don’t seem to have the discipline to just stop posting altogether.
Something’s got to change around here, but I really don’t know what I want to do.
[Me]
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Cruise Control Means Not Hitting Your Target
by McGehee
...however much he may deserve it.
The recent cross-country drive was my first real long-distance opportunity to enjoy the use of cruise control. I already knew it wasn’t helpful on congested highways, which means just about any paved surface within 200 miles of here, but on the relatively uncongested rural interstates of the western U.S. I rather quickly developed one simple technique that enabled me to avoid most possible negative interactions with other drivers:
I settled on keeping the cruise set to one or two MPH above the posted limit. Generally speaking, unless there’s a crackdown ordered from on-high most troopers won’t bother someone who’s within a few ticks of what the signs say, as long as they’re driving safely otherwise. Since my top priority was to minimize maneuvers, I needed a setting that would enable me to pass the excruciatingly law-abiding, who tend to bunch up in packs—while also allowing the more daring to glide smoothly on by whenever they overtook me. The 67- or 72-mph bracket is very little occupied and was almost perfect for me. It left only three categories of drivers for me to be concerned about: - The occasional driver just like me who had sought and found the same in-between “sweet spot,” and who thus threatened to bunch up with me if I didn’t manage to shake him loose and put more distance between us.
The seemingly increasingly rare long-haul driver who either doesn’t have, or prefers not to use, cruise control—and who is too inattentive to maintain consistent, predictable driving behavior. These tended to exhibit wide variations of speed, requiring me first to pass them, then to let them pass, and quite often to find some way to shake them loose and get away from them. On more than one occasion I had to do this repeatedly to the same driver, using different tactics until one finally worked. In Kentucky I even had to exit the highway and take a lunch break to get rid of one especially egregious idiot.
Slightly-faster, cruise-using drivers who hadn’t learned good passing etiquette. The number of offenses in this category could merit a post of its own, but the worst is committed by those who crawl past the vehicle on their right, especially when several other cars are lined out behind them, also wanting to pass. Next worst is, after crawling past the slower vehicle, FAILING TO GET BACK OVER TO THE RIGHT. I avoided cruising in the left lane. When passing another vehicle that was moving at a speed too close to my cruise setting, I used my gas pedal to speed up at least a little even when there was no one else on the road. I always made sure I left plenty of space between me and the other vehicle before I moved back over, and I gently eased up afterward to let the cruise re-engage. And then I kept an eye on the vehicle I’d just passed to make sure the space between us was getting wider rather than narrower.In Kentucky (what is it about Kentucky?) I watched a guy (not the one mentioned above) in a pickup actually run another car off the road after he discovered that tailgating me wasn’t going to make me go any faster than the cars ahead of me were going. The car he tangled with was able to avoid leaving the paved shoulder and recovered almost immediately—but I was sure the guy in the pickup was going to end up killing somebody eventually.
If he did, I wasn’t around for it. He somehow managed to get through the congestion and disappear into the distance. At the freeway accident scene we passed in Nashville I looked for his truck but didn’t see it.
Since moving here and dealing with Atlanta-area freeways I’ve watched my opinion of big-rig drivers go from generally positive to generally negative, but the overwhelming majority of those encountered on this trip were no trouble at all. We did see a trucker defy the requirement to exit the highway for a brake inspection on I-24 before descending the steep grade at Monteagle, Tennessee, but that was the worst of it. I think if the freeways around here are just too congested for my nerves, they’re probably affecting the pros too.
[Me]
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