Don’t ask me why they do it, but the new antenna turns out to be one of the most complicated undertakings yet. It connects and pulls in the signals, but seems otherwise to be totally incompatible with Windows TCP/IP settings. The problem is likely Windows, but there are some 512 different combinations so trial and error is out. As usual, each individual step tests okay, but the overall structure will not function. Worse, the procedure so far has caused IRQ conflicts with my mouse and knocked out my regular wireless connection. Technically, they are both wireless, but one of the things we had to figure out that is not mentioned in the directions is the NIC card sees the incoming signal as wired. We will get it working, but right there means I cannot recommend the company EnGenius. Undocumented problems always get a negative from me, and a poorly written manual is off the bottom of my scale. Sorry, there Engenius, even if we fix it all, you are douchebags. These days an antenna should be plug-n-play but instead three days later we are still screwing around with the thing. The antenna itself has some 23 different options and settings which are not explained. Do I need tree stemming? Oh, and your help lines and on-line directions suck the big green hemorrhoid , too.
So I am incommunicado with my people the day before this year’s most important seminar, the printed circuit board session scheduled tomorrow. I finally had to travel out to the turnpike to get reasonably priced safety glasses. The days are cooling off enough to make the trips enjoyable, although there is no place in eastern Florida you can actually go for a quiet drive. I’ve mentioned before how traffic here does not string itself out and travel along at the same speed. There is always some macho Cuban type trying to overtake and pass you, because as you know, they all have tiny hood ornaments.
Upon reading many articles about in-house PCB etching, I am not so certain we will ever do much of it. But that isn’t the point. We didn’t do much with antennas or radios either, but we learned a lot. Etching involves caustic chemicals and doing it professionally requires costly equipment such as heated dunk tanks and cutting knives. I still want to acquire the skill since it is the only reasonable approach to robotics that can survive the bumps and bangs certain to be part of the situation. Plus, we get a chance to meet E24. Where he learned so much so fast is beyond me, since I know they are not teaching this material in grade school.
You remember the robot test bench that is under construction. This difficult and somewhat expensive step is very educational. I have come to consider it like a mid-term exam. I had to build the components that didn’t exist. Most of them worked the first time, although for reasons still unknown, the performance parameters were out of whack. For example, my 7805 voltage regulator does not produce the standard 5 volts, but instead 4.2 volts. Perfectly acceptable and Arduino-compatible but not what I expected.
The Arduino is still too new for there to be a selection of used books. The controller is selling well, I was one of the first 150,000 and I see the sales are now over 1,000,000. A lot of the standard book publishers have jumped on the bandwagon and offer their traditionally expensive and poorly written after-market manuals. Arduino could well become the standard although it will always be hobbled by using the C language, the most unfriendly computer language ever invented, and that includes Assembler which at least isn’t choked by useless, inconsistent punctuation marks.
Ray-B was on the line, he did notice the effect we had on the crowd. For me, giving them more than they expect is standard procedure. We’ve agreed to work up a two-hour set and see if we can duplicate the results, actually, I know we can because I’ve done it before. The last time I had a band where everything clicked was with Robyn and Three Good Reasons. Like myself, he is very protective of his standing gigs, so I’ll have to see if I can shoehorn us in someplace similar. Both of our shows are geared toward tourist crowds on the beach.
But the real money is the tourist lounges, although I’d settle for the beaches any day. The female tourists don’t wear bikinis in the lounges. Anyway, we’ve agreed to give it a try. I miss the days of fives and tens in the tip jar, I’ve played clubs so long I actually expect one dollar bills most of the time. Things have really gone downhill in that category. Then, Ray-B tells me that Ron Paul has predicted that without changes, the USA could disappear in a year just like happened to the Soviet Union, and for much the same reasons. Too many people raking off the top without putting anything back in at the bottom.
I watched a video of a debate in which Ron Paul outlined some difficult facts about our military presence around the world. We can’t afford it, period. Then off all things, I could hear some people booing in the background. Are there really people that stupid out there that they can’t even stand to hear the truth? They didn’t argue, wisely, they just booed. It is one thing to not like the truth, and a similar thing not to agree with the truth, but to try to stifle it is a new record in how low some people’s mentality can sink. Embarrassingly, this happened in Texas.
