Shown here is the super-sharp new mechanic over at the shop. Imagine my joy when he kick-started the scooter, proving it was not a serious problem. Turns out there is a trick to kick-starting which explains why everybody else failed at it. The starter parts won’t arrive until next week, all covered by warranty. This new guy has a complete shop set up at his place, but he lives in Sebastian, a four hour drive.
The scooter took up most of y’day. Agent M and I held the club meeting anyway as these talks are important for the near future. We have purchased new antennas of known performance and we will shortly have a drill press, a metal bending machine, and our first sensors and servo motors. Things are sailing smoother (just like I told anyone who cared to listen two years ago). The club has planned a secure communications link between our two houses, and we have made serious discussions about establishing the only triple-redundant IP service in the area. We could undercut all others simply because we don’t have to buy retail and can build and service our own equipment. While only at the planning stage, we already know we could give that two-bit “Hollywood Access” outfit a lesson in quality. That’s the “free” service that in reality only works downtown at slow and unreliable speeds, and won’t go through a thick pane of glass. Remember Justin? There isn’t a provider I know that does not complain about having to pay top dollar for maintenance. This tips us off they don’t know how to do it themselves.
The IP idea was not on the first agenda, but came about as the result of a cost study and discussion of the best way to make money with the antennas. The antennas that are not yet working. They will be, for we are not the types to put a “For Rent” sign in the window and consider ourselves international magnates. The club would have revenues of around $1,900 per month for less than a half-hour of work in that time, plus the potential for ten times that amount.
I am a believer that when it comes to Internet service, there is no customer loyalty, that people will buy the cheapest available. It is the industries own fault for their bad reputation. They turned themselves into something people love to hate, so badly that the monthly hosting bill has become as irksome as another utility. How do I know we would be popular? Because we will take cash, checks, and money orders.
The old computer office is still vacant after nearly a year. It would likely remain so, but the landlady has decided to move their own office onto the premises. They’ve painted the walls pink and put down a tile floor. The profusion of outlets on some of the walls betrays the fact it once was full of electronics.Just now, I finished a mango shake. If you add soy milk, orange juice, malt, and bananas, you can barely taste the mango. That’s the way I like it. I’m reading a 1995 book by John Grisham, “Rainmaker”. In many ways it is better than his usual, clearly going through lengths to keep every passage readable at street level. Then again, his depiction of law school could discourage the next Darrow.
Time for a new scanner. Hours spent with that useless Brother bring back nothing but a “cannot communicate” message which suspiciously comes on at the same moment the fake “empty cartridge” display. The cartridges are ¾ full. Maybe I should look seriously at a photograph scanner, learn that technology and make some money with it. I mean the high quality gear, not the $99 special at Best Buy.
[Author's note 2016-06-02: the following makes more sense if I had explained I was comparing a modern computer design with my first Apple ][e, which required four days to run a program that created screen graphics. Today we were testing CAD software. It is really slow on a non-graphic computer system.]
There’s more. Due to the profit potential of the club, money is getting looser. I remember when Gates said “640 KB ought to be enough for anybody”. (That was 1981 and he denies saying it. If he wasn’t with MicroSoft, somebody might believe him.) Today, most computers have at least 1 Gigabyte. Agent M and I have reviewed the new i7 boards with 24 GB, a blistering performer. There is a memory controller that will reputedly address 60 GB.
Although this new RAM is surprisingly cheap, we are sticking with older but stable technology. Using XP pro, the new 3.4 GHz unit arrives here this Sunday. RAM is 2 GB of DDR2 at top 5200 speed. This will allow me to render club designs that today take six hours in a mere nine seconds. Last, if I had known that a bench vise today retails for $70, I would not have left my old one behind at Wallace’s place. That’s okay. One antenna sale and we’ll buy the new laser vise for $400 with the automatic pipe cutter and digital bender.
