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By Dave, September 26, 2006 10:10 pm

Been working on a OSCommerce website for the last few days when not in the middle of the Airsoft War.  Starting to see the light and hope to be through with the basic setup tomorrow.

For those interested, it’s an artists site to sell his work.  URL is http://southernlifestyleart.com/shop/index.php.  The site belongs to Frank Andrus.

If you have a chance take a look and give me some feedback.  Still poking and prodding the code and uploading better copies of the artwork.  Getting closer, just hope my hands will hold up.

Been working between the iBook and the pclosBox with the graphics.  Doing the basic prep work in Graphic Converter on the iBook then transfering it to Gimp on the other machine and adding the watermark and reducing the jpgs from 100% to 85%.  Doing it that way on the linux box to keep from having to strip mac data from the files before uploading them to the site.

Will try to get back to posting regular later in the week.  Gots to get back to the pixel mines…

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By Dave, September 23, 2006 11:33 pm

Has been a long few days but am back among the blogging. War is over and masses were fed without misshap. Or not many problems.

Today has been spent in front of and over fires and I am SO glad it’s done and yet strangely enough still looking forward to the next one. Fed 30+ as near as I can tell. They ate 35 burgers, 30 hot dogs, 3/4 gallon of baked beans, 2 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound onions, one pound carrots, 30+ hamburger buns, 25+ hot dog buns, many sodas, 10 pounds ice, 1 pound assorted sliced cheese, 1 pound chips, assorted biscuts & cornbread & bread, 1/2 gallon chilli, and many pickle spears…

Much more was put in the freezer for eating later. Next game I am gonna figure on more meat and less vegatables. Also need to get more chairs and look at building a LARGE eating area/feast hall.

Had several compliments on the food and site. Several said that it was one of the best maintained sites they had ever played at. One of my/our next goals is to see about clearing for and building additonal buildings/objectivies. throughout the property.

Long day done. 1220 posts in my feed reader too catch up on but as storms are due later tonight and tomorrow will close for now and try to get some much needed rest before they hit…

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By Dave, September 5, 2006 12:01 pm

Just a quick post to say to Steve that this post is being written on a machine using the damaged hard drive. Got the latest and greatest pclos distro and after a fairly short time installing and then a LONG time finding a good ethernet card seems to be working fine. Am upgrading it to the most current software now. So it will come back to you with pclos preloaded. You’ll have to configure some of it but it should work. And the drive seems to be fine now… 😉

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By Dave, September 4, 2006 11:56 pm

Guess it’s about time to get back to work. Got the end room about ready to work in.  Fixed a couple or 5 things today.

Started with a power strip with a cord which had had the grounding pin removed.  That’s a no-no around me so I cut the female end off an old computer cord and took the strip apart and after a bit of stripping of wires and soldering of the same had a useable power strip again.  20 minutes and maybe 5 cents in solder and electricity.  I figure it was a cost effective repair.

Next was my power control, isolation, and limiting station.  Put a couple of side boards on it and plugged it in.  Relabled the outlets and it was ready to go.

Then spent a couple of hours on a Hitachi 36 inch tv.  No joy.   Someone has already been the distance and I am about to the point of taking it to the landfill.

Came back over here and got a computer and monitor and took them back over and hooked up for a bit of hard drive repair.

After spending a half hour or so on repairing the laptop to standard drive adaptors, I started on Steves 80 gb laptop drive with the overly stressed plug.  Repaired 6 pins that had cracked loose from the print and tried it.  Nothing.  Checked continuity on all of the MANY pins.  Everything checked ok.  Tried again.  Nothing.  Check for 5 volts.  Got it at the plug and to one side of a SMD that is marked N.  After looking at the circuit I decided that it was most likely either a fuse or 0 ohm resister and since this one is not covered by warrenty that translates to nothing ventured nothing gained.  So got a small piece of copper wire and bridged it.  Put it back together and tried it again and the sucker came up!

Tried to install pclos on it but due to a flakey power supply and close to 800 feet of power wire just from the building I am working in to the meter which is another 350/400 from the transformer (all this means that I have a LOT of power fluctuations) I couldn’t get it to stay up long enough to get the install done.

Steve’s son Aaron came by and went to get some old power supplies he had.

While waiting for the install to finish or quit again I decided since things were going fairly well I would tear into a Zip drive that Steve had sent my way to fix.  Checked the usb cable and connection and both were fine.  Seperated the transport and board and after futzing with it for a while resoldered the USB connections just to make sure they weren’t broken loose on top.  I also noted that at the points where the board connections contacted the film the film was indented.  Some of the connections were also not quite as far out as others so I repositioned all of them to the same distance from the base.  Reassembled and tried it and it worked, so some of the above corrected the problem.  One to remember.

When Aaron got back with the power supplies I tried one and after it stinking and getting hot, tried another that Steve (thanks Steve!) had given him to bring over, and it worked and didn’t smoke so used it. And started the reinstall again.

Went to eat and when I came back it was still going.  Not sure if it is a drive problem or a cd problem.  Gave up after another 2 tries.  Downloaded the newest version of pclos on this machine and am going to burn it to cd and try again tomorrow.

While I was waiting for it to install the last two times, started to check out the power supply board for Mark H’s pinball machine.  Found a transistor and 4 diodes bad so far.  Suspect that there is other stuff bad in the machine. Since the damaged parts are all in the floriscan display high voltage circuitry I suspect that one or more of the score displays are damage also.  Will get back on that one tomorrow.
So all in all a good day of repairs.

More in the pipe already for tomorrow so will close for the nonce… 😉

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By Dave, August 31, 2006 1:32 pm

Main Page – Grayton Beach » Florida State Parks

Been wanting to get away from it all and take a trip. Was here several years ago (20 or so it seems now that I think back on it) and enjoyed it quite a bit. Nothing much to do but lots of sun and sand. Camping price has gone up quite a bit. But everything else has too. Got to get the tent cleaned up and get the other stuff ready. I wanna head out sometime this coming month if we can.

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By Dave, August 21, 2006 12:18 pm

The meal on Sat. was a success. Menu was pretty much as planned in previous post. Far to much food was cooked but that which wasn’t eaten was frozen or in the case of the burgers and dogs, refridgerated and being eaten by us. Next Airsoft event is Sept 23rd(?) AFAIK. We may try to have some kind(s) of cookout/food based event(s) between now and then depending on life, the universe and everything. I really want to try the mud/brick oven soon! If interested in attending/more information email (depatty@fake-gmail.com) or skype me at davidepatty.

Sunday was Cathy’s birthday and after letting her sleep late we went to the No. 1 China Buffet. Was not bad but the Seven Star on South Quintard has better food.

After eating we went to 2 different great hall’s of evil (wally world) in search of large internal hard drives which it appears that they have quit stocking. Largest (and only) internal in either store was 80 gb. Guess we try Circuit City next time we get that way.

Then to the folks and when the afternoon storms arose a mad dash back here to secure things at the camping area. Done, done and done.

Today I am really paying for the energy usage Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Numb hands and arms, sore legs and arms. Head full of cotton or or something. Suspect it will be an inside day for me even though I need to do other things. I’ve found that taking the time to recover fully seems to be better than trying to work through the tiredness. Ah well nothing new, just wish I didn’t have to have 3 or 4 down days for one or two of work. Moan, growl, bitch…

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By Dave, April 22, 2006 1:35 pm

Just got a router back online after a close hit destroyed our wifi hub, and the ethernet card in my desktop computer. This is the second wifi router that has taken a hit here. At present I have taken an old PII 350 mhz with a 128 mb sim and added 2 old ethernet cards and installed Freesco on it. Took me several hours to get all the bugs worked out but tis now working properly (I think). At least I can browse and do email and such. Ping is (now) working and can reach the Freesco box via the browser to make changes. Almost time to take it all down and put the machine in a corner under the desk so I can kick it from time to time just to make sure it is still there. 😉

Got my iBook hooked up to the 5 port hub on the incoming side and using the wifi card in it to share the connection to Cat’s iBook. Guess the next thing to do is to get a wifi card for the Freesco box and see if I can get it working that way…

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By Dave, January 15, 2006 12:45 am

Got both woodburners and the kerosene heater AND the electric oil filled going and it’s 73.4 up here. 24.8 outside so I can’t complain.

Lotta wood going up in smoke tonight but tis all deadwood anyway. Burning a mix of cedar and willow with a bit of sweetgum thrown in for giggles and longer burning times. Cedar goes hot and fast which tends to dry the others out and catch them up nicely.

Tis late and I am overdue on Z’s so will close for the night.

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By Dave, January 13, 2006 10:16 am

Or is right now. Got the truck (yellow Toyota) cranked and after a trip through the creek and over the bridge was able to drive right to the cedars. A bit of back and fill here and there but after I get the time to finish the privit twill have a nice road into that area. And more important a beginning to the perimeter road on that side of the creek.

Got a load of branches and broken pieces and didn’t even crank the chain saw. Or didn’t crank it at that time. Cause I did cut them up but that was after getting back to the dwelling.

Also got a few rock that we had piled up earlier in the week. Got a lot more up there to get too.

And back I came. To crank the saw and cut a couple of wheelbarrow loads of firewood, unload the rock, and cover the rest of the wood still in the back of the truck.

Then breakfast and the rain. So after stoking the fire I retired to my aerie to watch the weather.

Got lots that I could be doing inside but after spending a good 7 hours of the day riding the MF-135 yesterday I am taking a bit of a break. Can hardly move as it is.

Bit of an interlude there as we had some real close lightnening and then I went out to clear the ditches. Got them clear enough I think/hope. Now for me to dry out a bit. Was (and is) pouring out there. Radar is showing that we are right in the middle of the worst of it right now. Another half hour to 45 minutes and should start letting up (10:16 cst now).

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By Dave, January 13, 2006 8:00 am

Got to get the bod in motion. Rain coming in within the hour and dry wood on the ground to cut and gather.

Cleared a new road along the west side of the bamboo yesterday. Main reason was two large dead cedar trees that I am heading up to relieve of some of their limbs in a bit. And a really large oak that the beavers undercut a few years ago. Still some good burnable wood there I think.

Rain is coming so must run for the nonce. Back in a bit.

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By Dave, January 12, 2006 2:03 pm

Going in another direction than I had planned today.

Got the blade on the tractor and am clearing and leveling in several places. Main one being around the bamboo thicket. Been trying to get to it for several years and the ground is just right now to rip the privit out by the roots so am taking a day and doing the tractor thingie…

More later.

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By Dave, November 6, 2005 9:38 pm

ddec2 (GOOD PAGE)

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A bit about the engine in my John Deere 440 dozer. I’ll try to talk more about the experiences I have been having with it soon…

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By Dave, March 31, 2005 7:07 am

Started the day with a trip to the hilltop and taking a few pictures of early wild flowers.

Came back down and spent a few minutes paying all the bills I could online.

Fixed breakfast and got a shower and draped the frame for contact with humans.

First stop was Jacksonville at Cat’s bank and then we went to Marvin’s Building Materials in Anniston.

Got 30 8 ft landscape timbers, 10 pounds of 6″ spiral timber nails, 2 – 40 grit 3 x 21 sanding belts and 2 – 80 grit 3 x 21 sanding belts.

Looked at the receipt when we got back to the truck and discovered that we were charged 2.64 each rather than 2.49 each for the timbers. So back in and through the line to be told that I had to go to another line. Which I did and received nearly $5 back that they had over charged.

Head back here to the farm to swap to the van for the rest of the running around.

Next stop Jacksonville (again) to pay the power bill.

Then to Sav-a-lots grocery store for general provisions and AAA batteries as they have them 12 16 for a buck.

Next stop is a friends house to pick up an anvil and hammer that he is loaning me for my copper work. (and the word copper once again looks right)

While there we talk about a project I am consulting on among other things and thus manage to spend an hour and a half getting nowhere…

From there we head to Wright’s Dairy for milk.

Next stop Alexandria Food Outlet for ground chuck and ice cream.

Then home…

Unload the groceries and eat a bowl of warmed over mac and cheese and hotdogs.

Then take the truck to the creek to unload the landscape timbers. I unload a few and Bill takes over. Was at the end of my energy.

And in to email and check/read feeds and just sit for a while.