Fred's Blog
This page is maintained by Fred H Olson. Fred's Link page
Note to those browsing with a smart phone
Fred's Bike Blog was formerly separate on Fred's Bike Page
Entries from there are now integrated below
Blog entries have a header with date and 2 underscores.
There is an an INDEX to this blog entries up to May 2020 .
or Search repeatedly for 2 underscores to step thru blog entries.
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3-06-2026 __ ICE and Trump: Out of Minnesota .
This blog is usually about rather mundane things but what's been happening in Minnesota,
the Twin Cities and Minneapolis requires some comment. There has been plenty written about
the ICE seige by folks more qualified than me. I'm proud of how the people here have
resisted. The climate of opinion is overwhelmingly opposed to ICE's actions. Few
defenders of ICE's actions speak publicly. From my perspective ICE's actions here are a
symptom of Trump's absurd often illegal actions of retribution for opposing him and his
attempts to grab authoritarian powers.
Characterizing protesters as domestic terrorists is absurd. I think the vast majority of
protesters have not done anything illegal. Below is a picture of Becca and me at a NO
Kings protest in downtown Minneapolis in Oct 2025 (Big NO KING event #2.5 here, the way I
count, #3 will be Sat Mar 28, 2026). They have had 20,000 to 30,000 people. (reliable
numbers are hard to come by)
The smiles on our faces are typical of the mood at these events. People are upbeat about
the large numbers of people and the prospects of defeating Trump (eventually). My "NO
KING" sign gets used multiple ways and times. Note the aluminum reinforcement in the lower
left corner which is part of how it attaches to the back on my recumbent bike on the way
to be held weekly over I-35W with a group of folks. Folks are encouraged to honk to
indicate their support. I get honks while biking with the sign.
Also note the small sign in the upper right corner borrowed from an earlier sign: TROMP
TRUMP IN NOV. 2026 ELECTION which I think is our best single hope to stop this madness.
5-16-2025 __ Are Physical Buttons And Knobs Making A Comeback? .
Science Friday had a segment with this title. The idea is that buttons are
easier to use than screen buttons in cars for example. As part of the segment they
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/buttons-and-knobs-cars-ergonomics/
invited people to comment and were deluged by people who like Physical Buttons
and asked about favorite buttons. Mine:
1) The button to disable all other buttons on portable devices to prevent unintended activating.
2) The reassigned keyboard buttons in my SDAP program:
Original New use
Print Screen "<" (back 5 seconds in stream)
Scroll Lock "||" (pause +...)
Pause/Break ">" (forward 5 seconds in stream)
4-10-2025 __ Up/down washer/dryer with shower in place of bath tub .
During the repair saga (below) we considered getting a different washing machine.
I'd like to have it on the main floor instead of in the basement. Our bathroom is quite
small. It has a tub with shower head. We use the shower.
I'd like to have the washer/dryer in the bathroom. I have pondered replacing the bath tub
with a small shower stall and a stacked washer/dryer. It would be tight fit but I
think it might work. Anyone know of this having been done?
4-10-2025 __ Washing machine repair saga .
agitator of our 1985 vintage Whirlpool washing machine not turning
Saga started in 2023 but updated now...
See Washing machine repair saga
Note: I know I am erratic about posting here but today I was surprized to see that
I had not posted here in 2024.
8-10-2023 __ relationship building contacts .
I think it would be desireable that whenever possible contacting an institution one has
a connection to (e.g.bank, library, clinic) that the first contact would be an individual
you "know". This could be done on the phone by the initial menu offering to connect to
that person from a database the institution maintains and your caller ID.
It may well offer a pick list:
"Do you want Fred's doctor, Patrick 1 or his nurse, Shelly 2
or do you want Becca's ..."
Alternatively my contact list could be structured to facilitate this.
8-10-2023 __ MN map with counties and coordinate scale based on approximate latitude / longitude .
I hacked together this map for fun.
7-24-2023 __ Towing a dead Tesla EV .
In 2022 Becca and I went to a the Cohousing Conference in Madison,
Wisc. We had arranged for 12 of us conference goers to camp at a
county park group camp about 6 miles from the downtown conference
(with a bike path to downtown - I biked down twice). Camping went
pretty well (there was some rain).
A fellow from Pennsylvania) drove his Tesla madel S electric vehicle
to the conference with one other person and camped with us. They
arrived about 10 pm at the group camp after we were in bed. The next
morning when I met Dave he told me about his problem.
When they arrived he had 12 miles worth of charge in the car's battery
which he thought would be enough to get to a charger the next day.
But over night that charge was used up and the car would not go anywhere.
The group camp is about .8 mile off the paved road - about half of it
dirt (and half on a paved/shared bike path). AAA road service would
not come out there due to the dirt. I had biked to the main camp
ground (showers etc) a mile away and knew there was a car charging
station there. The park is all solar. We ended up towing the Tesla
with Becca's Prius to the main campground to the charger there. I'd
brought a 10 foot chain to lock up bikes that worked well for towing.
I found it amusing that a Tesla had to be towed by a Prius.
I have since learned that towing EV's requires special care. I think
there is an interlock that impeds towing (to discourage theft) UNLESS
there is a weight in the drivers seat (and the car is in neutral).
7-23-2023 __ Searching Youtube transcripts .
There is a way to search some Youtube videos for a certain word or
phrase by searching the transcript. Once you find a keyword,
the datestamp allows you to cue up and watch the relevant section.
Here is a page about doing this: Searching Youtube transcripts
One organization I participate in puts a recording of zoom meetings on
youtube and they can be searched. So far it looks like you can only
search one transcript at a time so you have to know (or find) which
recording is of interest or search multiple recordings :(
7-05-2023 __ Electric Vehicle trip notes .
NOTE: I update, tweak and add to (at end) this entry periodically.
In June 2023 my partner and I made a 700 mile trip around New England
to visit relatives. In order to get some experience with an EV
(electric vehicle) , we rented one for 9 days. We flew to Providence
RI. We visited in that area and drove to Maine and back visiting.
Our experience with the EV was great but there were two major special
conditions. See observations below.
Enterprise Rental at the airport did not
have a Nissan Leaf available as we expected so we rented a Hyundai
KONA. It has a 60 Kwh battery and a range of 258-300 miles. When we
got it, it had "300 miles" of range according to the estimate of miles
the car could gow with the current battery charge and useage. Note
that this actual number varies with driving speed, air condition use,
heat use etc. The estimate take current use into account.
Below is a table of our trip / charging.
Below that are notes and observations.
--- charging details ----- miles miles of
date -odo- range _%_ Destination type tm-est actual KW-rate driven range lost
1 6/20 1189? 300? 99? leave PVD airport hr:min hr:min
2 6/20 1196 270 Cranston,RI
3 6/21 1273 210? 71 Sandwich,MA
4 6/21+ chg 292 95 1 18:20 ~19:00 1.3 84 90?
5 6/22 1298 249 Falmouth
6 6/22 1324 236 ? Sandwich
7 6/22+ chg 304 100 1 9:30 -- 1.3 51 56
8 6/23 1389 243 Malden
9 6/23 1425 236 Seabrook rest area
10 6/23 1453 185 Kittery,ME visitor info
11 6/23 1486 150? 53 Saco,ME Bill Dodge Nissan (free charging)
12 6/23 chg 288 91 DC 1:28 0:50 46,35,24,1 162 154?
13 6/23 1546 236 76 Five Islands,ME arv 7pm
14 6/23+ chg 302 97 1 15:50 15:30 1.3 60 52
15 6/25 1625 237 ? Limington,ME
16 6/25 chg 245 80 2 0:10? 6.7 79 65 *16
17 6/25 1637 236 78 Limerick,ME
18 6/25+ chg 312 100 1 13:50 -- 1.4 12 9
19 6/27 1655 308 Gorham - pizza
20 6/27 1672 291 Limerick
21 6/28 1740 191 enter MA mm90 info
22 6/28 1799 124 Sawyer Hill, Berlin, MA
23 6/28 1864 68 Cranston,RI
24 6/28 1866 Cranston,restaurant
25 6/28 1868 Cranston
25 6/28 chg 71 1 52:20 2:00 1.4 231 241 *25
26 6/27 1875 60 20? PVD airport to turn in car
*16 we only used this private level 2 charger briefly for experience
*25 We decided not to charge overnight due to 3:30am departure to airport and
rental tolerance of any charge state on return.
Log notes and observations.
"range" is the estimated miles that can be driven with the current charge.
"%" is percent charge, the KONA only gives % charge when charging.
Charging gets a separate line in my log with final range and % charge;
the preceding line gets % charge before charging.
"tm-est" is initial reported estimated time to reach full charge.
"actual" is elapsed time when unplugged. Note that before reaching 100%,
charging slows down considerably above 80% If allowed to charge till
it stops at 100%, charger may stay plugged in for some time. So time
100% is so reached is unknown. Then "actual" entry is just "--"
Observations.
Our experience with the EV was great but there were two major special
conditions:
1) distances are relatively short in New England
2) we made 3 about 2 day visits where we could charge overnight at level 1
by just plugging into normal 110 volt socket.
Our longest trip between charges was just before we returned the car
with mostly depleted of charge and not ready to be driven far that
day without charging. The only public charger we used was the fast DC
charger near the end of our second longest drive. Having larger
battery / greater range than the older Leaf made things easier.
We did not use any public level 2 chargers.
Charger levels: ** mg/hr
level 1 - 110 volt usually 12 amp. Most EVs have portable level 1 charger 3-4
level 2 - 220 volt Some but not all EV homes have level 2 20-30
DC (sometimes incorrectly called level 3) 440 volt, much faster 100+ 300 typical, Tesla:700
** mg/hr= miles of range gained per hour of charging -- roughly, it varies
Time to charge depends on a number of factors:
Charger Level used,
starting level of charge, ending level of charge **
charger capabilities (they vary within levels)
EV's battery size,
EV's charging capability (it varies)
temperature
Here is an overview of EV charging time
** optimum: Starting with 20% (or more) to 80-90% Charging slows as full charge is approached.
Finding available public chargers is pretty easy with the website Plugshare.com
and it's cellphone app. It is powered by more than 1 million monthly members.
Also most EV's have naviagtion systems that include charging stations.
I think the large number of public level 2 chargers are mostly quite
inconvenient. Level 2 charging takes considerable time (hours) tho
less than level 1 (110 volt). Level 2 charging at home or work or
quite close to where one spends time would be fine. However in a
public place where waiting or "leave to charge and return from a
significant distance" would be a hassle. Having a shared bicycle at
Level 2 stations would help. Having a folding bike in the EV would
help. Fast DC chargers are still not widely available and many of
these are part of corporate networks and seem expensive and some
require the network's app which is a hassle IMHO.
I think inductive in road charging would make driving long distances
in EV's much more practical and could make smaller batteries practical
for most (local) driving. For example:
Popular science
Search results for "ev inductive charging in road"
A great List comparing EV's
--- Post script to EV trip notes Jul 23, 2023 ---
When I tell this story to friends I get asked if I plan to buy an EV
now. We have no current plans to do so for several reasons. We (my
wife and I) have been a one car household except when our son was very
young. We do not want to have an EV as a second car and the 2011 Prius
we have still has many miles in it - lots of embedded CO2 that we'll
use up.
What would be ideal would be to share the Prius with other EV only
folks who live in easy walking / biking distance of us, for long trips
for example.
29 Jun 2023 Second-largest US electric vehicle fast-charging network to add Tesla connectors
On road EV charging system segment on NPR Marketplace Tech Aug 15, 2023
being developed in Sweden by company Elonroad. It uses a segmented
contact strip in the road. Segments are only powered when an
identifiable vehicle is above the segment. See How it works video
5-13-2023 __ Selected list 2023 Open Doors Mpls .
I did not get to all of these, missed some because they were only open
Saturday or required registration that I did not realize.
` Hennepin, The d 900 Hennepin
` Manhole Entrance d 520 Nic Mall
` Minneapolis City Hall d 350 S Fifth St
` Minneapolis Fire Station #1 d 299 5th St S
` Target Plaza Lights d 1000 Nic Mall
` Westin Minneapolis d 88 S 6th St
` K&K Metal Recycling not on venues? n 1728 N 2nd St
` Minneapolis Animal Care and Control Ctr n 212 17th Ave N
` Plymouth Avenue Art Studio n 2404 Plym Ave N
` ZaRah n 1200 W Broadway
` Avalon Theater ( Heart of the Beast ) 1500 E Lake St
` Lift Garage, The s Sat 2401 E Lake St
` Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder s 3744 4th Ave S
` Minneapolis Traffic Management Center d Sat 300 Border Ave
` Star Tribune, The n Sat 800 N 1st St
11-18-2022 __ Limiting saved bytes .
Tho disk space is cheap now, there are still reasons to not save everything.
Generally I use two ways to limit saved bytes.
1) limit size of files
2) limit number of files
--- Limit size of files ---
limit number of entries in file, once limit is reached, oldest entries
drop off when new entries added. e.g. Recent files / tsefiles.dat
Actually, because of the way tsefiles.dat is maintained the entries
that are dropped are the least recently used entries.
Limit files size - e.g. oldest part of file deleted
(assumes a way to identify oldest)
--- limit number of files ---
use file in tse but never save
Use same file name that gets reused with old uses discarded (e.g. temp.txt)
save to temporary folder that is mostly empty after boot ( Linux: /tmp )
(assumes periodic rebooting)
save to RAM disk that is empty at boot.
Keep files for a number of days
I use the "Keep files for a number of days" approach in a software "system"
that I created that generates large files on on an automated schedule (typically
about 250MB per day) It is has many pieces with the top level being a TSE Macro
but it also calls two other applications, has some shell scripts and global
key assignments. The system which I call SDAP - selective digital
audio player - captures streaming audio and later plays it with vary
easy user interface to pause/resume, skip forward/back.
The connection to "Limiting saved bytes" is that recordings are stored in a
special folder and part of one periodically executed script deletes
files that are more than 5 days old. Still the folder typically has
1.5 gigabytes in it.
TSE makes it easy to to create files some more worthy of saving than others.
Some are clearly temporary. So I create file in the /tmp folder a lot and later
typically before shut down) I decided what to same and move those appropriately.
I formerly used a RAM disk for this purpose.
I have been so pleased with the SDAP 6 days of files I am considering
creating a special folder for general use that deletes file after a few days.
This would replace most of my use of /tmp. I think I would still move files
I know I want to save at shutdown but this would give me time to reconsider.
Within a program that maintains a file, discarding portions of the file
older than so many days might be worth exploring. Tho simply limiting file
size would probably be much simpler.
3-30-2022 __ Zoom glasses - reducing glare on Zoom .
2-21-2022 __ Fred's dream snow shovel .
Here in Minneapolis we get snow in winter. Clearing sidewalks and driveways is
a regular task for many of us. I dont like snow blowers. They are noisy, polluting and
mostly unnecessary IMHO. I enjoys shoveling. I get exercise shoveling when I dont bike much
in winter. I sometimes see neighbors shoveling that I seldom see in winter.
I have a couple ideas that would make shoveling easier. I prefer a "push shovel" when the
snow conditions permit. That is, mostly when the accumulated depth is not too great. With most
push shovels, once enough snow is accumulated in front, further pushing is blocked. The
type of snow is also a factor. I'd like to have a push shovel angled so snow sluffs off to
right which would reduce the blocking considerably. The angle should also prevent snow
sluffing off the left side. It should also be curved vertically enough that snow usually
is redirected forward rather than coming over the top.
I imagine such a shovel would clear about a three foot wide path and coming back the other
direction sluffing off to the other side without a trail of snow down the middle. There
is a picture of such a angled push show shovel
I imagine two other features. Having a strut coming vertically down from the handle just
behind the blade with skate wheels that almost reach the sidewalk when being pushed
normally. This would allow pushing down on the handle to lever the blade up a small amount
to get over irregularities in the sidewalk. I'd also like to have a place along the handle
where a light weight plastic regular shovel could be carried hands free. Regular shovels are
needed sometimes and having one handy would be very helpful.
Another way to make shoveling easier would be to have a way to grind down discontinuties in
sidewalks around homes so shovels could be pushed over them. I imagine grinders coming
to a neighborhoods in summer and grinding down eveyone's sidewalks.
12-21-2021 __ Our season greetings image .
The peace symbol is hanging on a small tree in our front yard. Fred made it with a bike wheel rim
and as string of led lights. Note that the words are added to the image and are not in the front yard.
The blue on our faces was not planned...
05-06-2021 __ Bike boxes .
I finally documented the bike boxes I built. I've been very pleased with them. Unlike most bike
boxes they can be mounted and removed easily so I only use them when needed. I also documented
Fred's bike use in general
Illustrated details about bike boxes
04-19-2021 __ Pondering / listing / measuring hills again .
Compile list of some noteworthy hills in the Twin Cities.
see 07-01-2019 entry
03-18-2021 __ The whole Luce Line bike trail .
The whole Luce Line bike trail is about 77 miles long from the
Mississippi River in Minneapolis to Cosmos, MN. There are 3 sections
maintained by 3 different jurisdictions. The sections are well
connected on the ground but the information on the web is on
several sites that as of March 2021 make little reference to each
other.
I created Fred's Whole Luce Line bike trail page
to knit together the various web pages.
10-13-2020 __ Blue Line proposals 2020-21 - Mpls, MN .
Blue Line proposals 2020
which lists advantages and has a link to a Google map
showing the proposed route.
Metropolitan Council and Hennepin County Introduce
New Blue Line Extension LRT Route Options 3/11/21
METRO Blue Line Extension (with better map)
05-02-2020 __ Plan to install Ubuntu 20.04 .
Download page 2.5 GB
04-02-2020 __ Home made cloth masks can slow the spread of Covid-19 .
There is conflicting information regarding the advisability of
home made cloth masks. The 4/2/20 version of MPR's (MN Public Radio)
Your_COVID-19_questions_answered includes:
>MacIntyre notes that cloth masks ... there's no evidence to show they
>have any benefit,
BBC segment about 5:45am 4/2/20 suggests otherwise
I think cloth masks DO prevent airborn droplets from the WEARER from
being as widely distributed. If used widely (including asymptomatic
carriers of the virus) this could reduce the spread of the virus.
See this video by a "data ethicist" 34 minute video from a data scientist
which points out, some materials including cloth while not as good as N95
they do stop a high percent of droplets. The goal of universal mask
use would not be to stop all transmission but to slow transmission so
hospitals are not overwhelmed. Also mask use is more effective at
protecting people other than the person wearing the mask. At this
time we need to protect each other.
Flattening the Curve: The South Korean Approach to COVID-19 ,
a text article with similar deductions based on data to the video.
After stay-at-home and lockdown orders have gotten the spread under
control universal face mask use could allow more people to get back to
work until a vaccine becomes available.
Also on MPR this morning it was mentioned that MN officials are
encouraging the home production of cloth masks. So far I have not
found details on this, where can I find details?
Fred
Fred and Becca in masks and a few details
Face mask pattern we use
5//21 update. As masks became more available Becca made few masks but after the above was
written we adopted a "duck bill" mask from Becca's sister. Another feature is that it
uses two behind the head cords with one continuous tie thru loops on the sides of the mask
with one elastic section. Once adjusted this makes it easy to take on and off and it can
hang from the lower one when not in use. We also keep simpler masks in various places like
a plastic bag in my back pocket for when we forget when leaving the house.
--
Fred H. Olson Minneapolis,MN 55411 USA (near north Mpls)
Email: fholson at cohousing.org 612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org
02-05-2020 __ My responsive ISP - Tigertech .
I continue to be impressed with my ISP - Internet Service Provider's
prompt support. Below is an excerpt of a recent exchange in under 10
minutes. It was a simple question but was , in my experience, typical
responsiveness from Tigertech. I typically put an item 4 days after I
make an inquiry of an organization to follow up if I have had no
response... Note that my question was sent after 5pm in MN. In this
instance, it helped that my ISP is in Calif. - 2 hours earlier.
See more that I have written about ISP - Tigertech
----- 3 message exchange ---------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 17:32:18
From: Fred H Olson
To: Tigertech support
Subject: .coop TLD
Can Tigertech host domains at the .coop top level domain?
---------- auto acknowledgement reply -------------
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 17:32:20
From: Tiger Technologies
To: Fred H Olson
Subject: Re: .coop TLD [TT#: 1922925]
Thank you for contacting Tiger Technologies! We have assigned your
message tracking number 1922925.
----- WHEN TO EXPECT A REPLY FROM A HUMAN BEING ----------------------
If you wrote to us before 5 PM Pacific time (8 PM Eastern) with a
time-sensitive question, you will receive a same-day reply, every day
of the year.
Questions that are not time-sensitive, such as billing questions, will
be answered within one business day during our regular Monday-Friday
office hours.
------------ answer to question - 9 minutes after question -----------
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2020 17:41:16
From: Tiger Technologies
To: Fred H Olson
Subject: Re: .coop TLD [TT#: 1922925]
...
While we aren't able to be the registrar for ".coop" domain names, we
can certainly be the email and web host for them.
... (5 line more detailed explanation not shown here)
07-01-2019 __ Measuring hills .
Saturday I biked on the Rice Creek trail just north of I-694 east of the Mississippi.
That trail has sections along the creek connected by street level sections
which results in some steep slopes between. How steep? We did not
measure them but it again got me to thinking about measuring hills.
This video explains nicely one way to measure slope: Measuring steepness of a hill
A couple other online resources:
How does one measure the steepness of a-hill
Gradients and cycling-an introduction
The measured rise over run calculation is simple and straight forward
but can not be done while on the bike. Further more real hills vary
in slope over their length. Where does a hill start and end? Often
they start out slowly - is that part of the hill? And length of a hill
greatly affects the difficulty of biking up it.
Here is an illustration of these as well as a sketch of a "Special
bubble level". The bubble level (inclinometer) would be like a regular
carpenter's level except it would be longer and curved and calibrated
to indicate the slope. I imagine it could give a fair indication of
steepness and could be mounted on a bike. I have not seen such a
device or built one (yet). A fellow at a maker shop suggested that an
electronic device to do this could be made. Are there Apps to measure
hills? (click bottom and later top and calculate) Hill-measure.png
Does the illustrated hill start at C of D? Does it end at F or G?
4/19/21 Pondering / listing / measuring hills again
Noteworthy hills in the Twin Cities.
"Hill" is a nice short word which I use here to refer
to a relatively steep slope one might bike up.
Images were taken with care to take picture horizontally to show slope better.
Slope length rise direction location / address (usually bottom of hill)
% feet feet uphill Google map link (in new tab)
21.6% 111 24 E Img Rice Creek Bike Trail (up to Central Av from Creek level)
6.7 400 27 N 2100 Sheridan Av N
4.4 844 37 W Golden Valley Rd @Thomas Av N
4.5 740 33 E Golden Valley Rd @Wirth Parkway
15.3 194 30 NE Pedestrian trail from creek up to Wirth Parkway - S of GV Rd
6.1 686 30 N Wirth Pkwy between Plymouth & GV Rd (slope varies)
6.1 264 16 E Luce Line Trail up to Wirth Parkway from west
7.1 580 41 W Luce Line Trail in Wirth Park .28 mile west of Parkway
7.9 369 26 W Luce Line Trail in Wirth Park .43 mile west of Parkway
6.3 420 27 N Wirth Pkwy N of Hwy 55
10.1 150 15 N Pedestrian trail beside Wirth Pkwy N of Hwy 55
430 S Wirth Pkwy 800 ft S of Glenwood Near parking for Tamarack bog.
S/N Pedestrian trail up and down steep rise beside bike trail along Wirth Pkwy 800 ft S of Glenwood Near parking for Tamarack bog.
430 SW 1121 Kenwood Pkwy
350 S Bryant Av S & Vineland Pl
350 S Dupont Av S & Groveland
700 S Van White Blvd (from Creek to bridge over RR)
400 S 160 Penn Av N
3000 N W River Pkwy under Washington Av & 10th Av bridges
900 NW S 22nd Av & W River Pkwy
1100 NW S 4th St & W River Pkwy
1200 S W River Pkwy (under Franklin Av)
2000 S W River Pkwy (ramp to Franklin Av)
1200 S W River Pkwy (under Lake St)
550 S W River Pkwy (ramp to Lake St)
900 N Luce Line Trail out of Schaper park back up to RR
4/19/21 note: I intend to bike to these locations and make an estimate of the average slope
with a tape measure and level and yardstick. Slope = rise / run (x100 to get %)
I lay out a tape measure about 20 feet along typical section of slope, I hold a level laser at the low end
and hold it high enough to shine on the high end to get rise and run (hypotenuse but for small angles it is close).
Rough guide to how various slopes (gradients) might feel:
0%: A flat road
1-3%: Slightly uphill but not particularly challenging. A bit like riding into the wind.
4-6%: A manageable gradient that can cause fatigue over long periods.
7-9%: Starting to become uncomfortable for seasoned riders, and very challenging for new climbers.
10%-15%: A painful gradient, especially if maintained for any length of time
16%+: Very challenging for riders of all abilities. Maintaining this sort of incline for any length of time is very painful.
From: Gradients and cycling:an introduction
06-22-2019 __ Street painting proposal / Peace symbol de colores .
See Street painting
05-13-2019 __ Trike trailer (tandem) .
When I could not easily find a tandem bike to borrow I came up with a way to
connect our trike to the back of my bike with a tongue bent from 1/2" electrical conduit.
trike-trailer
04-27-2019 __ Ematic Analog to Digital TV Converter Box WITH recording Capabilities .
When DTV first became available and few TV's had DTV tuners one needed an Analog to Digital TV Converter Box
to get DTV. But as TV's with DTV builtin become more available the converter boxes are less needed.
However now there is one with RECORDING capability. I've had the Ematic one
for a while now and it works pretty well. Recordings are stored on a USB device -
I'm using a 32 GB flash drive which will store about 8 hours of TV.
The Ematic is available currently at Target for $37. I tried another brand
from Micro Center with software that seemed very similar but prefer the Ematic.
The Ematic software seems to have some glitches and idiosyncrasies. The documentation is
pretty sparse.
Input of date/time of recordings is flaky
EPG / right/left arrow goes to next channel but just keeps "searching" -
(exit and hit EPG again)
Once in a while it seems to get lost and not function (cycle power - I've
considered plugging it in thru a long cord near my seat... but so far it is not needed often)
When playing recordings that have been played before, the "resume?" prompt is easy
to not notice except that other functions like "Hold" to go to full screen
dont work till you respond to the prompt.
The User Interface is not particularly well thought out and
the labels on the numerous buttons are hard to read.
If you have one, please send me comments.
May 2019 update. A while back to get better reception
(fewer times when the image broke up or dropped out),
I put up a cheap "yagi" directional antenna ** indoors by a window near the TV
It helped but tho there were still occasional reception problems.
This month I moved it outside at about roof height tho getting higher - like
in the attic would probably help too. The location might depend on where
feedline can most easily be run. Reception is even better except maybe in the rain.
** like image of GE model 32647 Longest elements are
about 30" from end to end and it is very light and easy to mount.
About $20 or less than $10 on closeout at Target or Micro Center etc.
04-04-2019 __ Biking between St Paul and Mpls along Univ av .
Now that winter is finally mostly over in the Twin Cities, I've been thinking about
biking. Last year I found myself wanting to bike along Univ Av to Mpls. But Univ Av
itself is not an attractive place to bike now. I suppose one could get on the LRT with
ones bike but I'd usually prefer to keep pedaling. From the capitol to a bit west of
Snelling the Charles Av on street bikeway (2 blocks north of Univ) works well. But then
west of that, there are few alternatives. It would be great if one could continue west
and connect to the Univ of MN transitway bike path but the rail corridor just west of Prior
(Menards) is quite a barrier. Anyone know of good alternatives - either as a current
workaround or a proposed development? See Map along Univ Av near 280 in St Paul
7//19 update: The yellow line added as a current route thru the area, suggested by my friend
Lynn who lives nearby and walks in the area. It is about a one mile detour.
Note that depending on trip origin/destination one may want to just use Minnehaha instead of Charles.
Btw a couple possible stops while biking a bit east of this are:
Frogtown Park and Farm 946 W Minnehaha Ave, St Paul, MN 55104
Horton Park mini-arboretum, 1383 W Minnehaha Ave, St Paul, MN 55104
03-21-2019 __ S Mpls tenants try to avoid eviction, become a coop .
United renters housing cooperative Crowd funding site
Related:
United Renters For Justice
In unprecedented move, Minneapolis seeks an administrator for 23 apartment buildings housing 1,200 tenants
By Randy Furst , Star Tribune December 22, 2017
Latest fight over controversial landlord's Minneapolis properties puts spotlight on housing court
MinnPost By Taryn Phaneuf | 11/28/2018
12-01-2018 __ Google map of Twin Cites Legislative Districts .
04-26-2018 __ Establishing a 100% renewable electricity goal for Minneapolis .
RESOLUTION By Gordon, Fletcher, and Schroeder
07-06-2018 __ Better streaming audio User Interface .
There seem to be many ways to stream audio on the Internet and lots of
variations in the user Interface (UI). Some UI's are better than others.
I like ones that allows one to navigate back and forth in the stream
back to what was heard earlier, maybe to when one started playing the
stream. For example, the one currently available at
Minnesota Public Radio - news (new tab). (no longer there)
Getting to this one is a bit tricky.
The Screenshot of MPR streaming UI (new tab) has annotations:
When the arrow in the upper right with a green "circle" is clicked the link in red circle
shows up. When that is clicked a small window with a stream UI appears. I resize this
window to be even smaller and make it always on top on the desktop (an option in Ubuntu
Linux that I use).
In the MPR stream UI window, a blue line with a white dot represents the stream that has
played. Dragging the white dot to the left will cause earlier part of the stream to be
played. So for example, if you want to hear something over. Hitting the double vertical
bar pauses the playing of the stream. Hitting it again it resumes where it left off. So,
for example, you want to discuss something and not compete with / miss the stream audio.
Note that you can mute the audio so when you unmute you will not hear what played while
you are muted.
This user interface could be improved... The MPR UI shows the elapsed time since playing
of the stream ("2:25:15" in the screen shot) and where the dot is in the stream
("1:59:54"). The latter changes when you drag the dot. For live streams like this MPR
stream it would be nice if it gave real time instead of elapsed time for this. (A
workaround is to start playing on the hour.)
Dragging the dot to a precise time is difficult.
WOW... I just discovered that when this MPR streaming UI window is selected, the right and
left arrow keys go forward / back a few seconds (15 seconds? ). Control right/left goes
about 20 minutes. ( The buffer may need to have a minimal amount and maybe have been
backed up some for this to work.)
I sometimes listen to the stream many minutes after the audio was broadcast due to wanting
to postpone listening while I do other things like go get breakfast.
07-01-2017 __ Truth and politicians .
I took numbers from a "dispatch" on politician's truthfullness from
Progressive Populist Dispatches July 1-15, 2017 *3
("TRUMP HAS A RECORD AS A LIAR" about 4th screenful down, Search for PolitiFact ))
and put the numbers in tabular format below for easier comparison.
The original source of the numbers is Politifact
Who *1 Trump Ryan Cruz Comey Obama Clinton Sanders
# checked *2 410 75 121 0 597 294 113
True 5% 13% 6% 21% 24% 12%
mostly true 12% 20% 16% 27% 26% 38%
half true 15% 25% 13% 27% 23% 21%
half or more true 32% 58% 35% 75% 73% 71%
mostly false 20% 27% 30% 12% 14% 17%
false 33% 9% 28% 12% 10% 12%
Pants On Fire lies 16% 5% 7% 2% 2% 0%
half or more false 69% 41% 65% 26% 26% 29%
*1 Full names of who:
President Trump
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
James Comey Director of the FBI Sep 2013 until May 9, 2017.
President Obama
Hillary Clinton
Sen. Bernie Sanders
*2 number statements checked since 2011
*3 The Progressive Populist is edited by Jim Cullen who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize
for the other paper he edits, The Storm Lake Times, Storm Lake, IA "For distinguished
editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound
reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the
right direction, using any available journalistic tool, Fifteen thousand dollars
($15,000).
For editorials fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing
that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa."
03-24-2017 __ Compose good email subject for more effectiveness .
When many people receive email, the appearance of a message's subject line in their email
program's index has a big influence on whether and when they read a message. If they recognize
the subject as something of interest or the sender as someone that likely has something of
interest to say, they are much more likely to open it (promptly).
I often compare the subject line to prime real estate. It is the most valuable part of
the message. The message's appearance in the recipient's inbox index which includes some
of the subject line and the sender's real name greatly influence whether it gets read.
What's written there is seen and read much more than even the first line in the body of a
message (the body is like less prime real estate).
In the worst case a wanted message will get deleted before opening because it looks like
spam. Many people delete spam without opening it.
Good subject lines make it much easier to search for and refer back to email messages as
well so thery get read again.
Therefore I encourage spending disproportionate time and effort in composing the subject
line.
o Avoid terse, "cute" and generic subject lines such as "Read this" or
"2 events". Note that spammers can write such subject lines.
o Try to summarize succinctly the main item discussed in the body
such as: "NMpls Bike mtg - new paths - Tue Jun 17"
o The number of characters of the subject line shown in people's index
varies considerably. But the most read are the first characters --
make them meaningful. Avoid long words that use up space. Try to
make the first 30 characters meaningful.
If the sender's name is recognized as someone who's email is likely to
be of interest, people are more likely to read it.
Be sure your real name field is set. If it is not set, your email
address (or a part of it) will show up as the sender in the recipient's
email index. If your username in not meaningful to the recipient as
well, your email will appear to come from that obscure username.
For example, if your address is st107@earthlink.net and your Real name
is not set, your message might look like:
From: st107 Subject: Isn't this cute
Such a message is likely to be deleted as spam!
If sending for an organization and people will not recognize your name, consider including
the organization's name in the Real Name field. E.g. "Sue at Gardenmatters". Remember
space is limited. Don't include "Association" etc. Send yourself a message to see what it
looks like but remember it may look different in to other people depending on how they get
their mail.
How to set your real name field usually depends on what email software you use. Try the
email program's >Edit >Preferences sub menu tho it may be elsewhere. Usually you can test
to see how their email appears to recipients by sending themselves a message. (GMAIL does
not deliver mail sent from a gmail account back to that account.)
01-28-2017 __ Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online .
from the John R. Borchert Map Library
02-20-2017 __ Wide spread stealthy privacy invasion by nonprofit orgs - Tracking URLs .
I am concerned about the wide use of tracking URLs or more generally
email tracking.
Tracking URLS allow keeping track of what / when individuals follow links in email.
I object to this.
Tracking URLs are special URLs that are used to track when a link is clicked. Many bulk
email systems include individual-specific tracking URLs in email. Constantcontact and
Mailchimp for example.
More about tracking URLS:
Wikipedia article on Email tracking
One marketing firm's description (in search result context)
From Mailchimp promotion page
Unlike print and traditional direct marketing, email marketing allows
you to track how many people opened your email campaigns and see
exactly what they clicked.
I use a text based email program most of the time. It is much less vulnerable to phishing
and such, allows much better search / selection of messages as well as copy/paste for
moving text around. I am old school in many ways about how I use the net and computers
generally. One consequence is that I see the long ugly tracking URLs by default.
It is my policy with very few exceptions to not follow tracking URLs and thus not be
tracked. I sometimes will try to find documents that tracking URLs go to by seaching the
org's website but not often since this is a fair amount of extra effort.
Unfortunately, so far most people (as recipients) are not aware of tracking URLs.
IF MOST PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD tracking URLs, there would be a big backlash against them.
Maybe sometime an incident involving tracking will go viral. I'm hoping.
It is surprizing how many organizations that I support use email services that use email
tracking. Most organizations probably do not analyze individual's viewing history in
detail. Maybe orgs are not aware that they could. They do use aggregated info - what pages
are popular etc. But I still dont click on them. Are there any bulk mail systems that do
not have tracking URLs? Can organizations opt not to include tracking URLs from bulk email
system mailings?
There is an easy way organizations can use these tracking email services and still give
individuals a fairly easy way to opt out of being tracked when using their links in email.
Organizations can simply include in the name of their tracking URLs the "real URL" to
which the tracking URL leads. Recipients can then copy/paste the real URL into their
browser to access the information without being tracked. See examples below.
As an added benefit, IMHO, showing the "real URL" conveys the message that the
organization respects privacy.
There are other ways to be tracked. To avoid having my searches tracked, I use the Duck duck search site
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is email excerpt example of tracking URL in mailing from ConstantContact as
viewed in html email program (tracking URL intentionally broken)
Note that if you hover the mouse over the link before clicking on it, some
browsers (e.g. Firefox) will show the long ugly URL at the bottom of the window.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 May 2016 06:12:15
From: Cohousing Association of the US
To: fholson {at} cohousing.org
Subject: Coho Now #90: One Day a Fact of Life
Hear, hear! Creating a cohousing-friendly environment - and making cohousing a household
word - is front and center in the Coho/US strategic plan.
We all want cohousing to become mainstream, and our models and culture
to fundamentally influence conventional housing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is same email excerpt example of tracking URL in mailing from ConstantContact
as viewed in html email program (tracking URL intentionally broken)
but with real URL in text in link name so it can be copy/pasted by recipient:
To go to "Coho/US strategic plan page" from example without being tracked:
copy from Right to Left- starting to right of link name and going left thru "www",
then paste into browser and delete the parenthesis. Hit return.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 May 2016 06:12:15
From: Cohousing Association of the US
To: fholson {at} cohousing.org
Subject: Coho Now #90: One Day a Fact of Life
Hear, hear! Creating a cohousing-friendly environment - and making cohousing a household
word - is front and center in the Coho/US strategic plan - www.cohousing.org/node/3052
We all want cohousing to become mainstream, and our models and culture
to fundamentally influence conventional housing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is same email excerpt example of tracking URL in mailing from ConstantContact as
viewed in TEXT email program (tracking URL intentionally broken) :
Ugly, ugly but safer. (I don't expect many people will switch to text email but
fyi: I use the Alpine email client .)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 May 2016 06:12:15
From: Cohousing Association of the US
To: fholson {at} cohousing.org
Subject: Coho Now #90: One Day a Fact of Life
Hear, hear! Creating a cohousing-friendly environment - and making cohousing
a household word - is front and center in the Coho/US strategic plan
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001b_bjjUYL-tYMZ_6y86kL4JPMjQ0T9sspjk9AraGs3J43
oUgQrjIcboT4RCXds3jzeN1n0ny-BRvm-ebLqMwQqlvsYF8HJQbsks_SiQAgIZNzpgzAx7AOemJg
2l8KK9Z1GFzU-FwVFHAl2GjRxQuFuTetd0n2sOH5Erkff5zEBrGMIChGqnDV0A==&c=LOeDDcJsM
H7tbzfrjHgO_Jb6K_vHR-d_ImNRG0jyaq4a8xJIyz6JuQ==&ch=ZT1QwTx4Ffjd8QVUsj4HjpVYd
GDz4rOYNzDVIVAk06vyRa1D6oDg8w==].
We all want cohousing to become mainstream, and our models and culture to
fundamentally influence conventional housing.
11-29-2016 __ Bike priorities ideas .
Today I got an email message from the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition - now Our Streets
asking for help by taking their 2017 bicycle priorities survey
There were the usual bike route questions but I found myself using the
open ended box so much I decided to put my suggestions here and the
URL of this there...
One thing that would help me make infrastructure suggestions is having a better way to
collect thoughts WHILE I am biking. (particularly about "bottle necks", missing reasonable
links, curb cuts etc) Maybe a waterproof note book and pencil attached to my bike so I
could make a quick note. Maybe bike organizations could provide them (very cheaply) like
bike lights and such.
Also the infrastructure that I would like to see is not necessarily near where I live (I
know that well enough and know alternatives etc). But when I get to other areas, developed
infrastructure helps more. Sometimes it is more "way finding" on existing streets that are
suitable for biking that I need.
For example, over the years I have developed what I call the
3 seasons route (it uses parts of various streets including spring,
summer and winter streets) to get roughly between the Plymouth Av bridge over the river to
East Hennepin/Larpenteur or the Diagonal Trail. It works pretty well but anyone with less
experience in the area would have difficulty. I still do have difficulty further north a
bit where I go less often. That area has designated lanes but I can't find them when I am
on the bike over there...
While infrastructure and better way finding tools are important, I think we need to build
useage. Little used bike facilities are vulnerable to political attack.
One thing that would build usage is to have better bikes that served a higher percentage
of a biker's transportation needs.
o ALL WEATHER low maintenance bikes. I hate to clean bike chains and bikes (almost as
much as I hate rust). So I basically only bike in good weather (tho my definition of
"good" is fairly broad - dry streets and above 20 degrees F. )
More knowledge of and access to the best available equipment (like rust proof chains)
would be helpful. Maybe even efforts to develop or encourage the development of better
equipment.
o Carrying stuff. I have a bike box / side boxes system for the back of my bike that
easily goes on/off the rack, so I only have it on when I need it. (Further the 3 boxes
nest to take less space to store). Maybe promote something like that.
o Shared bikes. For me and many people, having my own bike serves most of my needs best
but a better occasional use shared bike system would be nice. Minneapolis' "Nice Ride" share
bike system is not a reasonable cost alternative unless you use it a lot. An annual
subscription is reasonable if you use it a lot. If one works downtown, lives more than a
bike ride away and often uses a Nice Ride bike around downtown (where most Nice Ride bikes
are located) Nice Ride is a great deal.
Similarly a short term pass that is used a lot during that time is great.
But using a Nice Ride bike as a non-subscriber (e.g. visitor or a bike owner) to make
one trip makes little economic sense. See Nice Ride critique
o Bikes on vehicles. The multimodal bike on a car or bike on transit practice greatly
expands ones range. But carrying a bike on either is cumbersome. I wish there were
bikes that were designed to facilitate transporting on a vehicle. They need not be like a
folding bike but handle bars and pedals that fold plus standardized brackets on bike that
mate with standardized mounts of vehicles (that include security) could make this
intermodal use much easier. Bike racks for such bikes could be much more compact. Another
idea is to design cars to have a streamlined bike carrying feature built in.
01-10-2016 __ Morpheus - local band that covers 1968-1972 rock with horns .
We attended a recording session at North West Community Television (NWCT)
with the local band Morpheus. It was great for us having been in college in 1969.
Tho the studio speakers were inadequate with all that brass which made it hard
to hear the singers. I understand the recording will be fine. It will be aired on NWCT.
They have 11 members including lots of brass.
They perform at fundraisers for charities - sounds like a labor of love to me.
Morpheus Facebook page
They covered tunes from about 1968 to 1972 done by (among others) :
Chicago The Eagles
Blood, Sweat and Tears Santana
The Doors Steppeinwolf
Credence Clearwater Revival
08-23-2015 __ Annoying audio advertising via the web .
Today I actually listened to some of those annoying audio advertising via the web in order
to get the advertisers name to contact them with a complaint. Below is my complaint letter
content that I am sending to: Boycott: Andersen Windows
http://www.andersenwindows.com/contact-us/ Boycott: Ball Park Franks
http://www.hillshirebrands.com/ContactUs.aspx
Note that some contact forms (like Andersen Windows limit the number of characters of the
message so what I sent them was actually:
I am writing to complain about your "audio ad" that just came through my computer. I find
such ads VERY ANNOYING. I especially regret your ads since you are a local MN company
with an otherwise great reputation. For more details see my blog entry:
http://fholson.cohousing.org/blog/#p8d
Fred
------ full msg: Annoying audio advertising via the web ----------
Hello,
I am writing to complain about your "audio ad" that just came through my computer. I find
such ads VERY ANNOYING.
I generally ignore ads that do not interest me but this time I listened to identify the
advertiser so I can be sure to NOT BUY their products. Please be aware that such ads give
me a NEGATIVE impression of the advertiser. I will do my best to be LESS likely to buy
their products despite the "any publicity is good publicity" notion.
Unlike radio and TV ads I have not implicitly agreed to have these ads by watching. I
presume the audio came via a web page that I have open in a "tab" (like a window) in my
Firefox browser but I typically have 12 or more tabs and I do not know which one your ad
came from or I would stop leaving a tab to that site open.
Sometimes I have bursts of audio - presumably such ads - despite my audio being muted.
Fortunately my speakers have a volume / on/off switch that software can not overcome. Tho
if it gets turned down and I miss desired audio (like a timer alarm) my annoyance of the
advertisers comes back.
Please stop advertising this way.
Fred p8d_
07-22-2015 __ First attempt at labeling RR's in Twin Cities .
Railroads in the Twin Cities
Periscope I made to help run cable at FUSM .
Am. Experience: The Forgotten Plague
2/10/15: The impact of tuberculosis in America, once the deadliest killer in human history.
09-23-2014 __ Economic alternatives and the .coop domain .
In April 2013 Becca and I attended a talk sponsored by
cominnesota.coop by the Marjorie Kelly, author of the book
_Owning Our Future, The Emerging Ownership Revolution, Journeys to a
Generative Economy_. She argues that there are many alternate
economic structures being tried and that we need some of them as an
alternative to corporations narrowly focused on short term profits.
Her website is: www.marjoriekelly.com
There is no widely accepted term for the various alternatives
collectively and little sense that they are part of a movement. The
.coop domain is currently used for cooperatives. I would like to see its use
broadened and used for various economic alternatives and thereby helping them
to start being seen as a movement as well as having a higher profile generally.
According to List of Internet top-level domains
"The .coop [top level domain] is limited to cooperatives as defined by the Rochdale Principles."
But over time the wording of the Rochdale Principles has become more generalized.
I'd also like to see a way for coop supporters to get email aliases
at the .coop domain. This would give the domain more exposure.
My favorite URL shortener is s.coop
09-21-2014 __ Fred's Computer operating system 2014 .
A few weeks ago I finally got around to doing GPT partitioning of my 1Tbyte drive and installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
An 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' like situation kept me using the 12.04 version longer than I intended
and some hesitance to do the GPT partitioning (which turned out to be simple using Linux gparted program from
the 14.04 live DVD). I am still using bios rather than UEFI.
I don't install a new operating system very often (every couple years) because I do
extensive customization with variations each time that I prefer not to do very often. I
use a separate partition for my files with numerous symbolic links in the home directory
that make the subdirectories look like they are in subdirectories of the home directory. I
have extensive shell command aliases and in 2014 I decided to finally start using the bash
shell which is pretty standard on Linux systems - I had long used tcsh. The bash format
for defining command aliases is different that tcsh's. I've converting aliases that I
actually use thus weeding out obsolete ones.
In mid September my new operating system developed what I call a "Weird keyboard input failure"
It appears to be software since the keyboard works in some situations but fails
in the GUI environment of my account (works in Guest account). The problem has persisted
for a week or so as of this writing and I have observed a number of possibly related
anomolies and symptoms. I've documented details in Weird keyboard input failure
EVENTUALLY SOLVED: >Universal Access >Typing Slow Keys was unintentually active.
07-08-2014 __ Caponi Art Park .
Becca saw sculptures by Anthony Caponi in St Cloud recently.
We plan to visit the park soon. Fred's modified map of/to park
07-02-2014 __ The Hearth Community .
Cohousing that we have long been interested in is only one form of intentional community.
Another that we have participated in is the Hearth Community. Hearth is what I call a
'commuter community'. That is, Hearth members don't generally live close to each other
but travel to periodic gatherings including annual group camping Up North (Northern
Minnesota). Hearth folks mostly live in the western half of the Twin Cities tho some live
25 miles west of Mpls. Hearth folks tend to have a similar outlook on life to us, various
members share various interests, background etc but no one thing draws us together other
than a shared intentional community building interest. Hearth folks have explored
cohousing but we have not attempted to develop cohousing. One member lived at Monterey
Cohousing for a while.
I am currently bringing up the idea of starting a cohousing community in the Twin Cities
again. [ 11/2014: I only got a few positive responses from the people I emailed so nothing
has become of it. I still think that a robust enough effort might succeed. I only sent
email to people and groups I knew had had people with interest.]
02-08-2014 __ Fred's Computer 2014 .
UNDER CONSTRUCTION See also FRED's COMPUTER Sept 2005
After the 09-28-2013 entry below about my computer problems, I ended up buying components
and assembling a new computer including:
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H motherboard with INTEL CORE I5-4670K processor 3.4 GHZ, 6MB Cache, 8MB RAM, 1TB drive
I am using my old (2012) operating system on new hardware until April 2014
Screenshot of Fred's desktop 2014-02-08
which shows programs/windows I typically have running:
Operating system: Ubuntu Linux version 12.04 (the last "long term support" (LTS) version;
I plan to install the next Long Term Support (LTS) version 14.04 in April when it becomes available.
Desktop: Unity
A) Firefox (upper right tho usually is full screen)
Note tabs "Weath...", List ms..." etc. I usually start up with 11 tabs
(using bookmarks Open All [in this folder] in Tabs )
B) Terminal emulator (lower left ) with 3 tabs:
1) TSE Linux text editor (beta - not shown) from semware.com
2) ssh to my ISP where I run Alpine email program (shown)
3) command line for misc use
C) File browser (full screen behind A) and B) )
Icons on the left are programs I run often enough (or at some time intended to...)
to warrant icons. Note tiny arrows or lines to left of some icons. Arrow indicates
program is running and has a window. With this desktop these icons serve to both start up
the corresponding program or if it is running to put it's window on top - sort of like
Macintosh's desktop. List of icons: (to do)
Screenshot of Fred's desktop 2014-12-02
Similar to above with Ubuntu 14.04, Spider card game and wider monitor
09-28-2013 __ Computer problems / General Nanosystems Store Closing .
My computer which I bought new in 2006 ("Nano6") has been failing to boot for a week or
so. So far the symptoms have been confusing and puzzling. I was fearful at first that I
had a hard drive failure but that did not turn out to be the case. My backups are not too
great :( Maybe I'll write more later about it but will put a few more comments below.
In the process of dealing with it I finally became aware that the local computer store
where I got our last two computers including Nano6 and upgrades, General Nanosystems,
closed in July. The store's service department will continue to exist in a smaller
building next door as a new company, Logic
Systems.
About Nanosystems closing in Daily Planet (Originally in MN Daily)
A few new computer insights
A) I confirmed that my 2010 hard drive is ok by booting it on our other computer. SATA
hard drives (hd) have become more popular since I got Nano6 in 2006. I upgraded to a 500
GByte SATA drive in 2010. SATA hd's do not have master/slave jumpers which is unlike the
older IDE (aka PATA) drives. This makes it much easier to move a drive to another
computer. SATA hd's seem to be able to be just plugged in (I power down first but am not
sure that is required) and they just work. I plugged in my hd while leaving the one in the
second computer alone. There are typically several SATA connectors on mother boards.
Once plugged in it is usually possible to interact with the bios (sometimes at boot time)
to boot off the recent SATA drive. On our 2009 computer one presses F11 * repeatedly at
bootup and it will give a menu of which drive to boot - original hd, "recent" hd or CD.
Choosing the recent drive puts me into my usual highly customized Ubuntu 12.04 Linux
environment.
* 9/21/14 Note: My new computer's bios uses F12 to get to the boot menu. I dont use the
boot menu often enough to remember which key to use. The key is usually documented on the
display briefly at boot but often, not long enough to act on it so I end up booting once
(or more) to learn what key to press to get to the boot menu, and then reboot while
pressing that key repeatedly (to insure I hit it in time). I have now taped a smal note
on each computer with the function key to press to get to the boot menu on that
computer...
B) Even tho Nano6 has a somewhat "crippled" AMD Sempron 2800+ processor, it is 64 bit and
the installed Ubuntu is 64-bit. I've been thinking of replacing Nano6 with a used
computer from Free Geek Twin Cities which is
a nonprofit organization with the mission "to reuse or recycle computers and to provide
access to computers, the internet, education and job skills in exchange for community
service. is to reuse or recycle computers and to provide access to computers, the
internet, education and job skills in exchange for community service."
One of my requirements is that I be able to boot my hard drive. So far I have not found a
SATA 64 bit computer at Geek that will boot my hd.
Sometimes it seems that the problem is a computer that is not 64 bit in which case it
takes a long time trying to boot but does not - not very elegant. It sure would be nice
if attempting to boot a 64 bit OS on a 32 bit computer would simple give an informative
error message.
I have found it is often difficult to determine if a computer is 64 bit.
Some ways to tell if a computer is 32 or 64 bit: .
1) BIOS will sometimes have this info.
2) If Ubuntu is booted, the System Info gui program will indicate under >System
3) From the Linux command line, open the terminal prompt and run:
grep --color=always -iw lm /proc/cpuinfo
If this command returns lm as one of the flags, then your
processor is capable of 64-bit. "lm" means Long Mode and should be highlighted
in color by this command.
4) From MS Windows, download, install, and run CPU-Z to check for
AMD64 (AMD processors) or EM64T (Intel processors).
Note: 3) and 4) is from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/32bit_and_64bit which also
recommends "unless you have specific reasons to choose 32-bit, we recommend 64-bit to
utilize the full capacity of your hardware".
C) I am pondering a backup system using a standard SATA drive that I plug into our
computers occasionally thru an available / empty drive bay to which I leave and extra set
of SATA power / data cables. I'm thinking of fashioning a little pull out shelf (drawer)
out of a piece of paneling to set the drive on while connecting cables. The cables could
be secured to the back of the drawer. A hole in the plastic empty drive bay cover would
allow it to be easily opened up and also hold it while it is open. Once the backup was
updated using a suitable rsync script (from both computers) the drive could be stored in
the bank safety deposit box. (I checked it will fit in ours - the smallest box.) I'm
thinking I might try to do this monthly. Key files would continue to be backed up on line
the way I do my html files tho I am thinking of defining more file to be "key".
09-21-2013 __ Recumbent bikes at Lowry Ave N Open Streets .
Here in Minneapolis this year there will be 4 "Open Streets" events --
one each month this summer. For these events about 20 blocks of a major street
are closed to motor vehicles for a weekday afternoon. People on bike and walking
fill the street with a party atmosphere. Organizations and businesses have
booths and activities. For example Nice Ride (the Mpls bike sharing system)
has "slow races" (who can take the longest between two points without putting
one's foot on the ground).
I plan to have a display of recumbent bikes along the Lowry Ave N Open Streets route.
When I ride my recumbent bike around North Minneapolis I get a lot of comments from people
on the street like "nice bike". So I think there is interest. I think it is unfortunate
that upright bikes are so dominant in the "market" and that recumbents are more the way
bikes should be designed. ( I also think bikes should be designed to be much more
tolerant of inclement weather and sloppy wet streets. )
I will have at least 4 recumbent bikes on display including some being ridden by their
owners in an fenced parking area adjacent to the route. I do not plan to allow passersby
to ride the recumbents at the display due to various possible complications including
liability and supervision staffing requirements. I encourage people who have a
recumbent bike to bring it to this event - either to have at the display for a while or
just to ride in the event. For details contact fred by email: fholson at cohousing.org or
call [ Mpls five eight eight - 9532 ]
Note that the date on this entry has not yet arrived as of this writing; I'll be adding to
this entry as the date approaches.
08-08-2013 __ Danish family slide show .
The end of July we went to a family reunion on my Danish side. Preben, a distant cousin
from Denmark joined us. He is writing a book about relatives who emigrated to the US. He
showed a slide show about our relatives lives in Denmark before the came to the US.
I am now trying to get the his presentation into a form that I can share with relatives
that were not at the reunion. I got his iworks Keynote presentation with 110 slides and
we recorded his narration on Becca's iphone. The text notes are pretty sketchy and in
Danish... In addition some of the image file names had Danish characters that caused them
to fail to convert (to powerpoint) at zamzar.com. The two bits of info that I lack are
when the slides should advance relative to the narration and where the laser pointer was
on the images... From powerpoint I converted to multi-pane html format. I may eventually
get something presentable. I wish I knew how to have an mp3 player embedded in the html...
I'd like it to have a pause/play button, elapsed time display and a slider to change it.
06-25-2013 __ DOMA falls ; Love legal in MN .
Wow! The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was largely overturned by the current rather
conservative US Supreme Court. Hurrah. This comes a few months after Minnesota where I
live defeated a ban on gay marriage and shortly after our legislature legalized gay
marriage. For several years I have thought such changes were inevitable - eventually. In
2004 I wrote "We believe ALL people have the right to reach their potential, be healthy,
and a part of loving families." ( http://justcomm.org/#about ) But I never expected these
changes to happen so soon. I'n very pleased to have been wrong.
In retrospect it seems in some ways not so surprising. The arguments for the ban here in
Minnesota were weak. The claim that somehow gay marriage threatened traditional straight
marriage was always a stretch. It essentially was "other people having rights diminishes
mine". Absurd. But logic does not always win the day if enough people believe something,
however absurd it, rules in a democracy. Fortunately in the long run such absurdities
tend to fall. And sometimes as in this case it happens sooner than may have been expected.
Now we need to get the issue of Climate Change to gain momentum in the right direction --
less carbon dioxide releases into the atmosphere. Those who deny the huge human role in
climate change are clearly denying reality. When will they realize that this too will
ultimately not be a viable position. What price will they pay for being wrong on this
issue?
04-29-2013 __ Real names - howmanyofme .
Our system of real names for people in the Internet age has problems. Lots of people in
the US have the same first and last name and so a name is not enough to identify a person.
Surprisingly few web registration forms and such accept a middle name or initial which
helps distinguish people a lot.
I would like to see a system of Internet People Names (IPN) that would assure that the IPN
is unique. It could be based on the current "real" name ( RNm ) but have provision for
distinguishing between people with the addition of the birth year and additionally
characters if needed. So I might be fred.harlan.olson.1947 but I may have to be something
like fred.harlan.olson.1947.k2 As long as we are at it lets assign a permanent contact
address that works like and email alias that the individual (?) keeps updated to get to
them. so my email address might be fred.harlan.olson.1947.k2@em similarly my phone "#"
might be fred.harlan.olson.1947.k2@ph It's way past time when we most people should need
to keep track of phone numbers. Imagine if we had to keep track of IP addresses for email
and web sites! So why do we still do it for phone calls?
See also Namespace at Wikipedia
Obviously you would not want to type in that long address very often
but that is what addressbooks are for.
Today a friend told me about a web site howmanyofme.com
that will estimate how many people have a given name that you enter. It says there are 241
Fred Olson's in the US. Unfortunately the web site does not accept middle names/initials.
I think the number of Fred H Olson's is considerably smaller. Even fholson's is not too
big. If I had thought of it when I was 17 I wish I had taken my mother's last name and my
name would be pretty unique.
- howmanyofme
03-14-2013 __ USING Bread machine by streamlining recipe .
4/29 update. I'm still making a high percentage of our bread this way.
I have varied the flour I use and add powdered gluten (1-3 tsp depending on what kind of
flour - "bread" flour - less gluten) Instead of the recipe below I now use a ckecklist
with room for variation - 2 flours gluten a checkmark means standard amt, # means amt "="
on second flour means amount to get to 400 grams total flour. I developed a code to describe
the type of flour succinctly e.g.: W=whole wheat, B=white flour (blanco) P=bread flour
(pan)
I also record the height of the resulting bread and comments.
We had some baking sugar that was not getting used but it was caked up and hard to measure
with a measuring spoon. It dissolves quickly so I am using it up by weight - eventually
I'll use up the 1/2 gallon milk like carton of it.
I have not figured out how to get the mixing paddle to consistently pull off the shaft
when the bread is done. Lately it pulls a big hunk out of the bread. If it comes off the
shaft I can carefully cut it out of the bread and leave a smaller hole. I need an edible
lubricant that keeps lubricating when the baking happens and displaces the dough. Oh
well.
- end 4/29 update -
In my experience a fair number of people have purchased bread machines but few use them
significantly after they have had them for a while. That was the case for us. About 10
years ago I bought one at a yard sale that had been used very little. Until recently we
used it very little. Somehow all the possible recipes was confusing and a nuisance to
use. I made wone attempt to streamline the process that failed - I made dedicated
measures from plastic grape juice containers.
Recently I made another attempt and so far it seems to be working. I can get the machine
set up in about 3-5 minutes. One key was to WEIGH 3 key ingredients which eliminated
washing measuring tools. I do this with a Weightwatchers electronic scale that has a
"zero" function so one can put an empty container on the scale and hit the on/zero button
and thereafter the readout is the weight of the contents of the container added after the
Zero. I also put dedicated measuring spoons in other ingredients and have dedicated
storage containers near my prep area / scale for two ingredients. Also (for now) I only
make the basic white bread.
If you want to try this, you may have to adapt to your machine.
If you do not have a bread machine, they can be purchased used,
search Craig's List - I found a bunch at $20-$50
Following is my current recipe (which I keep covered / taped to the top of the microwave
oven where I do the prep. It makes about 1.5 pound loaf (somewhat larger cross section /
slices than normal US bread. (I saw one on Craig's list with two mixer paddles that
appeared more conventional size but would have two holes where the paddles were.)
NOTE this recipe may continue to evolve.
---------------------------
Fred's streamlined bread recipe as of May 31, 2021
- Amount ingredient
ZERO 266 grams water
ZERO 27 grams oil
ZERO 50 grams sugar
ZERO 400 grams bread flour
.5 tsp salt
2 Tblsp powdered milk IF delayed start keep dry by putting on top of flour
.5 tsp gluten "
1 tsp yeast "
--------------------------
Directions:
Put bread machine bucket with paddle on scale.
**ZERO scale** Add weighed ingredient with scale.
Repeat preceding line for all weighed ingredients BE SURE TO ZERO SCALE EACH TIME
Add volume measured ingredients
Put bucket in machine. Plug in machine (note "UP").
If baking immediately (ready in 3 hours) press Start (using defaults)
When done hit stop and take bucket out with pot holder. Slide clean table
knife around edges gently. Shake bucket vigorously over bread board to
get bread out. If padle came out with bread, carefully cut around it to get it
out and leave minimum sized hole.
10-31-2012 __ Purgatory Creek and parks along it .
I've gotten interested in Purgatory Creek in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis and the parks,
trails and bike trails near it. The creek starts a few miles southeast of Lake Minne/tonka and
flows generally southeast to the Minnesota River. The Hennepin County bike map gives a good
overview of the creek route and bike trails in the area. See Fred's Purgatory park page
06-05-2012 __ Fred's bike mishap .
Saturday June 2, 2012 was a beautiful day in Minneapolis and first day of Bike Walk week.
At 2:15 pm I was on my way to meet with a cohousing person at at Monterey Cohousing
(Mococo) at 2pm... When I had realized I was going to be late I did not have the phone
number available (mistake 1) to inform her. So I was rushing too much (mistake 2).
In my haste I took a downhill stretch of the bike trail along the parkway near Brownie
Lake too fast and lost control. I think I hit an uneven dip that had sand in it on a small
curve. The path seems to slope toward the lake / outside of the curve some too - opposite
from a banked turn.
The bike and I went into brush and little stumps (and one 6" stump). But missed the trees.
I ended up off the side of the path toward the lake somewhat downhill from the path with a
big slice in my right arm just below the elbow. Later I learned it was called an
"avulsion" (skinned). I've visited the site 3 times since the mishap. I suspect my arm may
have hit the 6" stump but it had no blood on it. I did not find any blood or evidence at
the scene.
Skin down to the fat layer was ripped and pushed back (but still attached at the far end).
I had some other bruises, and nicks etc but the avulsion was the worst. I remember my
helmet taking a few bumps. Fortunately my face was spared unlike my other bike crash 16
years ago.
Becca was at a "tea party" not far away. Another bicyclist called her for me; he stayed
with me until she got there and helped load the bike on her car. A woman bicyclist also
stopped and seemed to have some medical expertise. They both gave me handkerchiefs to wrap
around the wound and my arm as a tourniquet.
Becca came and took me to Urgent Care at her clinic also not far away. They cleaned me up
and I got 5 stitches to hold the skin of the avulsion back in place and an ace bandage over
the pads for 5 days to hold the skin in place to help it heal in place. I'm taking
antibiotics for five days. I was lucky that my injuries were not worse and that I was
cared for so well so promptly.
It would have been better to have been a even more late and made it to Mococo. Live and
learn.
The main causal factors seem to have been going too fast for conditions (tho I did not
realize I was at the time); poor condition of the path. The small (16 inch) front wheel
and the underseat steered recumbent bike may have been a factor in losing control under
the extreme conditions. Here is a picture of the Vision Under seat
steering Despite the accident, the Vision remains my favorite bike.
There is a plan to upgrade the bike path where my mishap took place as well as access to
little Brownie Lake. See Brownie Lake Improvements
Not sure about the timeline. [ The major upgrade of the bike path was completed in 2014(?)
and the "downhill stretch" that veered nearer the lake only to come back up to the bridge
over the Cedar Lake Trail has been eliminated by keeping the trail up by the parkway. And
of course the new trail is smooth. ]
The bike seems to be fine. The handlebars were twisted a bit at the goose neck and easily
twisted back.
My recovery is coming along. In the week after my mishap I biked several times.
Bike Walk week here has a number of events. Today I will go to the Bike Walk to work event
downtown. Next weekend is the Ciclovia (Latin American term that I prefer tho they seem
to be calling it "Open Streets" more this year - a 20 block section of a major arterial in
S Mpls (Lyndale) is closed to motor vehicles for the day for bicycles and pedestrians. It
is basically a big party with lots of moving around. I plan to go and volunteer to talk
to people the first 2 hours about Bike Walk infrastructure efforts here as well as other
tranportation efforts.
04-10-2012 __ Get another recumbent bike .
Vision Under seat steering
Vision from front
09-12-2011 __ Light rail open house / Penn Broadway .
The open house last weekend (26 hours over 3 days) sponsored by Northside Transportation Network
seemed to be successful at helping many people understand the LRT proposal near us better. I
learned things during the 8 hours I spent there. Nothing like trying to explain something to
deepen one's understanding.
One question was about how many houses alternatives D2a and D2b would take. I think D2a would
take several houses near Broadway to make room for north bound car traffic on Oliver to rejoin
Penn before intersecting Broadway. I wonder about having Oliver extend more straight up to
Broadway (tho the actual intersection should be at right angles to facilitate access to/from
east on Broadway.). To help examine this I extracted these two images:
D2a near Penn Av and Broadway (LRT on Penn) Extracted from D2a pdf *B
D2b near Penn Av and Broadway (LRT on Oliver) Extracted from D2b pdf *B
07-27-2011 __ New arch at Lincoln Garden .
Fred with help from Becca and friends built new arch for roses at
see Lincoln Garden Arch
07-17-2011 __ Cruise on the Mississippi River .
06-17-2011 __ Howe School site cohousing proposal .
The school has been closed since 2005, the cohousing proposal was made in late May 2011.
See Howe School site cohousing proposal
06-10-2011 __ Buy a Terra Trike Rover Recumbent "tadpole" trike for Becca .
This is a new simpler cheaper design with a higher seat than most tadpoles (18.5 inches off ground.
Rover trike picture Terra Trike site
06-02-2011 __ Minnesota budget crisis .
Explanation of distorted MN budget numbers being cited
05-25-2011 __ Tornado near our house ... .
overview of tornado in City pages
Map of tornado damage in Minneapolis
Our block circled in blue on part of Damage map
Personal notes:
Wed May 25
The storm track was sw to nnw and the closest damage to our house was about 2 block west
of us with many uprooted trees, a roof blown off some windows smashed and shingles blown
off. May be worse damage north of us. We had no damage tho our power was out from 2:15
pm cdt Sunday 5/22. Power was restored across the street east of us Sunday evening. Ours
came back Monday evening.
Even not having electricity seems like a major hinderance to normal functioning. It sure
demonstrates how dependent we are of electricity. Even finding phone numbers is crippled
tho I had a 10 year old printed phone list. Not having net access at home is a pain too.
We sent stuff from the freezer compartment in coolers to Becca's work where she has a
fridge. She got a ride to work with our neighbor Sam. We have great neighbors which helps
a lot.
Thur May 26 10:30 am
Finally on Thursday I've found a way and time to get full net access near home. See
below. I've decided to create a blog entries... Probably not formatted too well since I'm
not at my usual computer... The Wednesday entry was hacked together from an email I'd
sent.
We still do not have net access... Just discovered that my little green computer OLPC XO-1
that I rarely use (and my only laptop) is working - battery is suspect and green fully
charged led never comes on) but after charging it says it is 99% charged. Mpls wireless
node 3 blocks from my house (penn & plym) is working. So I am sitting at bus stop
online...
Fri May 27
Our Internet access was back about 3 pm today
03-17-2011 __ Drive by huge gas main fireball near I-35W .
On the way to the airport this morning southbound on I-35W we saw huge flames ahead.
At one point they appeared to be over the Russian Art Museum in the former church on west side at 50th St.
Aerial image of gas main fireball clipped from KSTP TV segment *B that shows location just west
of I 35W on 60th Street. Fortunately there is a cub parking lot to the north and a pond to the south so there
was little nearby to catch fire. Some parked cars got scorched paint, melted rubber. Glass at cub broke.
There were no injuries. The first images available that I found were Youtube video from fellow on the way to work
Both I35W and Hwy 62 freeways were closed for a couple hours shortly after we went by.
03-03-2011 __ Experiment converting .pdf to an .png file .
10-07-2010 __ Exhaust system problem .
The connection on our old (1995) Saturn between the catalytic converter ( "catcon" ) and
the tailpipe was corroded to the point the bottom bolt no longer held it together. ( ~1/8"
gap). I looked for a way to get it repaired that might last a year or two until a vehicle
with high enough fuel efficiency becomes available here that we'd be happy with. Possibly
the all electric Nissan Leaf which
my friend who is converting a pickup to run on batteries says looks promising.
I consulted several people and places about the exhaust problem.
Saturn would only replace the the catcon and the tailpipe for about $500. The catcon is
particlularly expensive to replace.
Midas would cut out the bad connection and attempt to weld in a short piece of pipe to
bridge the gap ( $50) but warned that if there was not enough metal left in the pipes to
weld they may have to replace the catcon (with a generic one) and pipe ($350)
I stopped at an auto parts place and they suggested that one could cut out the bad
connection and clamp in a short piece of pipe to bridge the gap. (Tho others warned this
would likely leak a bit and make some noise.
I consulted two local friends. My 80 year old neighbor thought the clamped solution might
be ok. I considered doing this myself but getting the car up to work on it would be a
problem and weldiong would be better.
The catcon and exhaust pipe seemed to be otherwise in fair shape I banged on them with a
cold chisel and they seemed fairly solid.
Here's a picture of the area of exhaust system that failed
(The green lines are where the bad part could be cut out and a new piece of pipe could be
clamped or welded in place.)
I decided to have Midas attempt to weld in a new piece. When they cut out the bad
connection (about 3.5" long) with a sawzall one could see that the pipes were in good
shape and they predicted welding in a piece about 8" long would weld ok. It seems to be
fine. At my request they also welded in a rod across the main hanger for the system to
reinforce it. It was quite rusted. Total bill $57.50. I was quite pleased the service
from our local Midas shop ( 20 West Broadway Minneapolis, MN 55411 612-529-9559 )
10-03-2010 __ PBS rebroadcasts .
An email message I sent today. If I get a response I'll update this line.
Dear TPT / PBS etal ** ,
It took me several days a couple sessions digging on the web to finally conclude that the
episodes of Scientific American Frontiers being aired on Twin Cities Public TV (TPT)
currently (Oct 2010) are indeed from 2005 - 5 years ago.. My first step was to consult
Wikipedia which indeed said "until the show ended in 2005" but given the nature of
Wikipedia and the way most TPT and PBS web pages talked about the show, I still thought
maybe these were more recent episodes.
Finally I found Scientific American Frontiers archives
and by searching for the episode titles there I found the
associated dates in 2005.
While the episodes are surely still interesting information, even the descriptions imply a
timeliness aspect. For example the episode Friday 10/1/10 :
Surgical Slimmers
In spite of the risks, people are lining up to solve their weight
problems in the operating room. And if the latest device - an
implantable stomach "pacer" - works out, millions more will be taking
the surgical way out.
"Latest device" is obviously subject to no longer being true and by now there is probably
evidence whether it "worked out".
I am not complaining that TPT is airing five year old shows but that the dates they were
produced is not readily available. Why can't TPT and/or PBS simply include production
dates with program schedules and descriptions?
Long time PBS watchers like myself are aware that shows get re-aired and may have been
produced some time ago. But in this case I was truly confused. and if youall were more
forthcoming about dates, I think viewers would be truly appreciative.
When one reads a book one does not assume it was published a few months ago but with TV, I
think most people expect shows were recently produced unless otherwise indicated ( or on
PBS ? ). With books the publication date is recorded in a very standard and easily
accessible way. Production dates of PBS shows should be similarly accessible.
Thanks,
Fred
** Note about recipients of this message.
From: SAF contact
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS is produced by The Chedd-Angier-Lewis
Production Company in association with SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine,
and presented on PBS by Connecticut Public Television.
So the recipients of this message include addresses for the above
organizations.
09-24-2010 __ 10 minute video: Cycling Copenhagen, Through North American Eyes .
Note that Streetfilms.org has many liveable streets /city transportation videos.
09-07-2010 __ We go wild ricing .
Over Labor Day weekend 2010 Fred and Becca took a wild rice harvesting course
at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN on the North Shore (of Lake
Superior northeast of Duluth. See Wild ricing pictures
06-10-2010 __ Nice Ride MN Public Bike system grand opening ( expensiveniceride ) .
On Bike Walk day 2010 I attended the grand opening. It was threatening to rain but mostly did
not. It was interesting to see the southbound lane on Nicollet Mall clogged with bikes - many of
them Nice Ride bikes.
This non-profit high tech system (computer networked, credit card based) is partly funded
with cigarette lawsuit proceeds and quite extensive in downtown Minneapolis down to the
Midtown Greenway / Lake street and over to the University.
I have a few concerns. It appears that the structure of the system will serve some
people's needs but not others. I hope it serves enough people to be sustainable.
There is no provison for helmets - logistics to do so would be too complicated.
[Following section updated 3/21/2011]
Very Expensive for one ride
The price structure - a "subscription" for a day, month or year plus an escalating fee per
30 minutes after the first 30 minutes is clearly designed to encourage short trips. The
people it will serve best are people who get to downtown often by some means other than
bike who can use Nice Ride often to get around downtown from one station to another. A
yearly subscription ($60) and first 30 minutes of each trip free make this very
reasonable. ( $60 / (8 months x 20 weekdays = $0.40/weekday) Even a monthly subscription
is comparable to one bus ride per day ( $30 / 20 weekdays = $1.50/weekday ). For a person
who wants to spend a day exploring the area covered by making many short tips using Nice
Ride, it's very reasonable 24 hours for $5.00 and the free 30 min per trip.
HOWEVER it seems to me that a person who wants to make one or two trips, the
minimum $5.00 daily subscription requirement is very steep. This would be $5.00 for one
(or $2.50 for two) rides of less than 30 minutes. Considerably higher than 40 cents or
$1.50 per day with lomger subscription.
Clearly this pricing structure is limiting usage. In the first year of Nice Ride MN, I
never observed a station without bikes available. Tho usage was statistics were adequate
to justify the system. BUT the demand at WITH THIS PRICE STRUCTURE was not high. I
am sure that a lower price, and particularly would guess that a lower price for one or two
rides would result in much higher demand. The goal that I propose would be to have a
price structure that got about 90% utilization during dry daylight hours. (10% or some
similar number or so would mean there some were bikes available at most stations at most
times.)
In support of my argument that a modified pricing structure would increase usage
substantially, I cite my direct observation: In 1999 I used the Copenhagen public bike
system. It was free but required small ($2-$3) deposit in a system that resembles the
shopping cart deposit system at Aldi grocery stores in the US now. There were seldom bikes
available after early morning until evening. Clearly there was very high
utilization.
Note that they did not have the 30 minute free aspect which would bring bikes back to
stations more promptly and muddies my comparison. Bikes were supposed to only be parked at
stations which with the deposit was incentive to return them. Also bike useage generally
was already very high there in 1999. And Copenhagen has many tourists who could use
bikes. But I think the argument still is valid.
Pictures of Copenhagen city bike #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6
I think Copenhagen is implementing a new system, I hope they do not implement a pricing
structure that needlessly limits usage.
Another situation where Nice Ride MN pricing is high: if you wanted to take one 125 minute
trip (outside the service area maybe around the lakes), would be $21.50 which seems to me
excessive. But the system was not designed for this type of use.
See also Wikipedia: Bicycle sharing system
[end update]
We'll see how much use this pricing structure draws. I think the argument recently made
that parking should be priced so there are SOME free parking places could apply here. That
is, price the use so most but not all bikes are in use as much as possible. This might
mean some time of day factor in the pricing. Maybe weekends could be priced lower. Since
the system is already computer / network based a more flexible pricing system should not
bee too difficult.
The Niceridemn.org web site has a Station map (use link on the right down one screen on home page).
It is a zoomable Google Map. Clicking on station icons on map give real time information
on number of bikes and "docks" available. This could expand to include the current price
if there were experimentation with prices.
03-23-2010 __ Health Care Reform Passed! .
After a torturous effort, Health Care Reform Passed! I am very pleased (and
disappointed. ) It is not what I or many people wanted but it is a huge
improvement. I think we really need a Single Payer system or at least a robust public
option and that it would work much better.
It's like a glass half full for a person whose life in danger from thirst. I'll take it
but we should have something better.
2010 US Health Care Reform Summary
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at Wikipedia
Annimated summary from Obama
During the reform effort I've had these two links in my email signature and my Fred's link page in a huge font on urging steps
toward 'better reform' :
June 8, 2009: Stop the plan to kill real health care reform
Jun 22, 2009: Robert Reich's Rx for real health care reform
I wish I had a succinct critique of the bill comparable to the summary of the
good things it will do, when I find one I'll post it here.
02-28-2010 __ Record icy streets in Minneapolis this winter .
This was originally a Jan 17 email to a friend
Subject: Re: Why our streets are worse the Hibbing's
Minneapolis streets have had a lot of ice and snow this year. The city has imposed a
parking ban on the even side of residential streets till April since the space between
parked cars was getting so narrow that fire trucks could not get thru.
The following are my explanation of how this happened.
I suspect the difference (between Minneapolis and Hibbing that accounts for Minneapolis'
worse condition on streets) is temperature. It was above freezing on Xams day but got
cold and then very cold after that before the streets got plowed. That along with packed
show from traffic meant we had icy snow by the time the plowing got done which is much
harder to plow.
In addition to the temperature, another big factor was the timing - holiday and weekend
and consequently no trash pickup with which alley plowing is coordinated. In adition there
may have been some postponement of plowing (I dont know this for sure) in order to avoid
multiple "snow emergencies" and still get it all; that is wait til it stopped snowing to
plow.
And of course there was also the long cold spell afterward - about 3 weeks not getting
above or even near freezing, often -10 degrees F meant that the frozen mess could not be
easily removed.
Another complication was the combination of snow/water that came down after the last
shoveling (few of us shoveled in the wee hours as the temp dropped) The resulting thin
frozen slush layer was slippery and over time got polished and more slippery.
On sidewalks that had not been shoveled foot traffic made foot steps of packed snow that
became frozen irregular surfaces that are hard to walk on. In alleys and side streets
traffic on unplowed streets made for deep frozen ruts. Some plowing furrows at
intersections became frozen barriers to the first plowed roadway.
All of this resulted in a near "perfect storm" of factors to make for a
mess.
From: Wikipedia Perfect storm article
A "perfect storm" is an expression that describes an event where a rare
combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically.
Feb 28th update (message to Whomail - neighborhood mailing list)
The street drains on both sides of 12th Av N just west of Penn Av (by
Lincoln Peace Garden that we maintain )
were totally covered with ice and snow and as a result water several
inches deep across the street extended nearly a half block west. My wife
and I used a pickaxe to open them up yesterday.
Anyone else have lots of standing water on streets?
Next summer I'll make notes on the exact location of drains around us
to make such tasks easier...
March 18 update. The one side parking ban was lifted in early March. We've actually had
relatively warm weather the last few weeks Snow and ice is virtually gone from streets and
are largely dry as are sidewalks. A few big piles of snow and shaded areas still have
remnants of snow. The bike path thru Wirth Park has a bit of snow left in spots and
running over it in places We have a record number of pot holes. Bike lanes and other
places have lots of sand and gravel till sweeping gets done. Temp today was in 60's.
10-30-2009 __ Max's costume .
At Andrew's request Becca has been making a costume like Max's in _Where the Wild Things Are_
Here are some pictures of Max in costume from the web:
Max's costume 1 *B Max's costume 2 Max's costume 3 Max's costume 4
Here are pix of Becca's Max coustume 1 Becca's Max coustume 2 Becca's Max coustume 3
10-28-2009 __ Light Rail Transit (LRT) on streets .
I've created a web page about North Minneapolis Transit
Maybe I'll get this blog entry integrated into it some time...
There is currently a proposal for the Bottineau Transitway going North and West of
downtown thru or around North Minneapolis and then on out along Highway 81. Public info
sessions have been held recently. Construction is probably 10 years away if it ever
happens. Tho the Penn Av route would make crossing Penn Av and driving on it less
convenient, I think that alternative is clearly preferable because the stations would be
much more convenient and therefore used more by North Minneapolis. I think it also offers
suprior development potential for North Minneapolis.
The official Bottineau Transitway has a
lot of information -- so much it is easy to be overwhelmed or lost. The recently posted
"Alignment Alternative Concept Drawings" are very detailed and useful about the route but
they are huge.
Monday I took my recumbent bike on the bus and LRT ** to the VA Hospital station
of the existing Hiawatha LRT line that goes SW from downtown to the airport and Megamall
to look at the LRT layout there. On the two blocks north of E 54th St the tracks are in
the middle of the street with one car lane on each side. This resembles how I think Penn
Av near our house would look tho on Penn there would be only one wider one-way south car
lane on the west side of the tracks.
Note that cars cannot cross the LRT between 54th and 52nd but pedestrians can walk across
(AFTER CAREFULLY LOOKING BOTH WAYS) but this is discouraged. The electric powered trains
are quiet so do no depend on hearing them.
Open Street Map of LRT route north of VA
Google map (Satellite view) of LRT route north of VA (Note that LRT not show between 52nd and 54th
and Minnehaha is mislabeled "Hiawatha". Zoom and "Street View" allow closer examination.
Track on street looking south from turn by 52nd St
Track on street looking north from 54th St (New townhouses in background)
New Condos site SW of 53rd St
New Condos NW of E 53rd St and 48th Av S looking NW from along LRT
New Condos NE of E 53rd St and Minnehaha looking NE with train passing
Olin Crossings illustration of 6 multifamily housing building they are developing north of E 54th St.
South of 54th the LRT is on the West side with two way traffic on the East and
the tracks are on crushed rock and have a fence along them.
I started a custom Google map of the route with "pins" color code like the maps on page:
1 of Open House Flyer *B (3.7 Mb)
I've started drawing lines for the "D2" (Penn Av) but have not gotten that done as of today.
The under reconstruction version is at Fred's Bottineau LRT map (much improved 10/30, click on 'map')
** All Minneapolis buses have fold down racks for two bikes on the front. Bikes on Buses
Mpls LRT cars have racks for four bikes in each car.
"the middle two doors are closest to the onboard racks" From: Bikes on Train
What's an LRT "car"? Note that "cars" are 94 feet long and articulated. There
are two doors on each end on each side. Trains can have two cars and soon (when
stations have been expanded) 3 cars per train.
10-05-2009 __ Used Sun EZ-Speedster CX Recumbent Bike .
Yesterday I bought a used Sun EZ-Speedster CX Recumbent Bike from Jory in Carver, MN
which I learned of from the Craigslist TC bikes for sale area.
(Only a few 'bents show up here; I searched for "bent" back about a month periodically. BUT...
In May 2011 I found a better way... Use Google alerts which sends an email message when
a search finds new results to get notified when a used 'bent is for sale on Craigslist . )
Sun EZ Speedster CX Recumbent Bike Higher resolution Fred on the Sun bent Nov 2009
On 10/7 I studied the bent closer. Some observations:
1) the front "Promax" disk brake's rotor is not centered in brake and is rubbing
on one side. Red knob does not seem to alter centering (it does on back).
(Later, it needed lubrication .)
Seat slides about 8" . For Fred about 6" from back of square tube to seat
bracket seems about right
Seat back braces has minor deficiencies. Width at seat back is different than lower tubes.
Length adjustment is minimally adequate and awkward. Where braces attach to frame near
rear hub should allow tubes to pivot while being secure.
Recently installed rack was only loosely attached in front (to seat back braces with wire
ties). Tight attachment there would inhibit seat adjustment. Plan a tube from front of
rack down to frame by "down tube". Done.
Update 11/29/09. I've ridden the bent a fair amount thanks to the good weather we've had
including a long ride on bike trails out to Lake Minnetonka. I'm quite pleased with it.
10-05-2009 __ Navigation problems... .
Yesterday I bought a used Sun EZ-Speedster CX Recumbent Bike from
Jory in Carver, MN. See entry at Used Sun EZ-Speedster CX Recumbent Bike in Fred's bike blog
I had multiple navigation problems resulting in a half hour delay
getting to his house.
In reviewing my problems on the trip out, I concluded that there were several main
problems (note that I do not have GPS) :
1) No navigator; it's much easier when my wife Becca and I are together so one of us can
be following the map. I had to stop to consult the maps and therefore did not do so very
often.
2) Out of date labeling on maps I had.
k) 2004 King's street map book pg 145 +
m) Metro map on 2007 MN map
g) hand drawn map from Google Maps
o) OpenStreetMap.org ("osm" is kind of the Wikipedia (user contributed) map)
which I consulted today (not yesterday) OSM map that includes Jory's location
I had attended an introduction to osm a couple months ago but have not continued
to contribute changes to it or use it much. It is not as good as Google in some ways
yet but could be customized by local people to have bikeways better than Google could
ever have, for example.
The new 212 was not labeled "212" on my maps the way it is now posted.
212 IS correct on o)
Also the north south road just west of Jory's has various labels
Jonathon Carver Rd (signs) "11" on m) , townline Rd on g)
"147" k) and o)
When I realized I'd missed the new 212 I stayed on 5 and turned south on
41 (after a few stops to check map)
I overshot old hwy 212 in downtown Chaska by a few blocks (it is no longer labeled "212"
-- now signed "Chaska Rd"). I recovered from this fairly quickly but stopped again once I
got on Chaska Rd til I decided decided it was the road I should be on.
3) Detour around my destination with complications related to route names.
The turn onto 40 was closed with detour west to mislabeled 147. I stayed on "147" till I
got to sign for East Union when I finally turned around. (I had suspected I was off course
but did not know where I was...)
This time the other intersection with 40 which also was closed to thru traffic also had a
sign something like "historic Carver village". I took that and finally got to downtown
Carver and found my way to Jory's with k)
05-16-2009 __ Html aware wordwrap .
I maintain most of my very simple web pages / html with TSE editor .
Most of my pages use "pre" "/pre" tags for the whole page. pre tags are "preformatted" and
format lines based on the end of line characters in the file. ( "Normal" html ignores eol
char. and reformats lines based on the setup.)
With pre tags source lines have to be longer if there are html tags (like links) in the
line since these are not displayed as long as the source.
It would be nice if the TSE macro mWrapPara() (or similar) could treat html tags special
and wrap paragraphs containing them so RENDERED lines are all about the length as
determined by the TSE Right Margin variable.
05-15-2009 __ DC-SC driving trip -- Mom's final hospitalization .
~ 3/14 - 3/31/09 We drove to a family wedding in Greenville, SC by way of Washington, DC
with several visits on the way. A great trip to a part of the country I had never been
in.
A few days after getting home, we went to Iowa for the weekend to visit my mom in the
hospital and I ended up staying about 2 weeks thru her funeral. My sister was there a bit
longer. Other family came too.
While she was in the hospital we did not know if she was going to recover. Seemed like
she might but other times it did not. A day or so before she died we finally accepted
that she would not recover and put her in in-hospital hospice.
She was 90 and had a good life. And a good death too. The two weeks stay with her in the
hospital (my sister and I took turns staying all night) was good in retrospect. A long
chance to say goodbye.
Since then I have made a trip back to Iowa to deal with her financial affairs which she
had made very simple but still the experience of being her executor has been a challenge
for me. It's the sort of thing which takes some time to learn how to do but I or most
people are not likely to use this knowledge more than once.
Maybe some time I will blog more here about these experiences. I've written lots of email
about it to draw from. ( Two paragraphs added Oct '09)
02-20-2009 __ WUMB - U Mass Boston 's "Contemporary Folk" streaming radio .
I've been enjoying WUMB Contemporary Folk stream
Still am Oct '09
01-10-2009 __ UHF antenna Fred built for DTV from youtube video .
See also: Fred's DTV notes for Minneapolis-St Paul
11-24-2008 __ My new Ubuntu Version 8.10 operating system .
comes with the local temperature displayed on the top status line. It also has an
extension to the pull down calendar (click on current time) that shows up to six a
configurable locations ( For me set to Singapore, Copenhagen, Portland, ME , Lima, Peru ,
Mpls, Casper, WY ) They appear to be in East to West (time) sequence).
For each location, it shows:
0) Location name
1) a clock face with current time and shaded to current daylight
2) current weather symbol
4) current time and time zone
If one mouses over the weather symbol a little popup window appears with a brief
weather description temp, windchill, wind dir and speed, sunrise and set times.
If you are using Firefox (if not, why not???) use <F11> to view in full screen:
Screen shot of Fred's desktop with calendar pulled down
Alternate Screen shot (explanation ABOVE ibn_ AFTER you've viewed it)
--- About Ubuntu 8.10 ---
I had been using Ubuntu version 6.06 since it came out in June 2006. It was a 'long term
support' (LTS) version. The next LTS version came out in April 2008 but I did not get
around to installing it till 8.10 was available. I actually have both 6.06 and 8.10
installed so I can compare them. It only takes about 90 seconds to reboot into the other
operating system.
I particularly needed to go back to see the many customizations I've made. Unlike when I
first made them I am trying hard to keep detailed records of what and how I added such
things to make it easier to make them again next time.
A summary:
My /home (where Linux stores a user's data files) is effectively the same partition used
with version 6.06 by having links in my real 8.10 /home folder to sub directories of /home
partition.
I aim to put very few files in /home directly ( I put them in subdirectories linked from
it instead). Software of course puts configuration files in hidden directories directly in
the /home directory. I intend to have a carefully selected set of directories,
preferably 25 or so main ones starting with digit 1 so they can be displayed mostly on one
screen one per line. I'd also like to have this set of directories correspond closely to
my bookmark folders.
Other links I add include: in / (root dir) to mirror directories of my
web pages (see f9m_) to allow URLs like file:///fholson.cohousing.org .
Other links are for alternate/easier command line navigation.
I use tcsh as default shell since I've used it for about 20 years and have never learned
bash as well. I use the shell for some things (50% ? ) , GUI for some things depending on
what I find easier. Generally things I do infrequently (e.g. network setup, apt-get
installs)for which there is a good GUI alternative). Some things are easier becuase I
have aliases and scripts for them. Some things are done via TSE (editor) macros.
I like to have several terminals automatically set up for various uses including one
dedicated to ssh to my online shell account. (The GUI SSH client now looks very useable
but I see no need to switch yet.)
Firefox: Port bookmarks and a few other configuration tweaks. I keep an automatically
updated copy of my bookmarks on the web (password protected).
Ramdisk auto created on bootup (mounted as ~/l ) with near empty working
file: "~/l/temp" that I use for scratch pad.
Tho Ubuntu automatically installs* most standard applications I install a few more
including dosemu so I can use a few legacy programs including my old dos based editor TSE
ver 2.00, and the PAF genealogy program. I also install a flash player*, gnucash, minicom
pine, audio codecs* needed. * Copyright issues prevent automatically installing some
things :( Installing other sortware is amazingly easy with the GUI Synaptic program that
uses apt-get packaging tool.
BTW today's Public Radio feature 'Future Tense' recommended a minimum computer spec of 2
GB memory for Vista... I'm only using 512 KB with Ubuntu 8.10 and have not noticed any
problem. I should upgrade anyway since memory is so cheap. Similarly, I understand 4 GB
flash drives are now available for $10
ALTERNATE SCREEN SHOT was made by viewing first screenshot (with Ubuntu's
Eye of Gnome image viewer) , rotated 180 degrees in full screen mode
and taking another screenshot. One of these days I'll leave it showing
fullscreen on my computer when I expect Becca to come use my computer...
11-23-2008 __ Bike rack prototype .
See also 05-06-2021 Bike boxes
I've been pondering a new way to haul groceries and such on the back of a
bicycle. Reusable bags are starting to replace one time use plastic and
paper bags. Bikes with elongated frames (behind pedals) are showing up
that can carry more cargo, in part by allowing cargo to be further back
away from pedalling feet.
My design suspends two reusable bags on the sides of the rack but moves them back a few
inches. A piece of plywood attaches to a the top of a typical bike rack and extends back
and has two cross pieces that slip into sleeves added to the bags. The cross pieces can be
removed and stowed parallel to the bike and the plywood can be slid forward over the rack
when not being used. The latter is needed to allow the bike to be maneuvered vertically in
tight spaces (like the garage) which I do often. Here are 3 pictures of my prototype:
Bike rack 22
Bike rack 23
Bike rack 24
10-17-2008 __ Tour de bike pumps on way home from GCOS .
This year I've been biking to Roosevelt High School (RSH) to help with an inovative
installaltion of computers in a science classroom (see GCOS ). It's about an 8 mile ride
across Minneapolis. One day in Sept. when I got close to RSH I noticed my front tire was
going flat. I got to RSH ok - walking a few blocks. I thought the leak was quite slow so
I decided to try and limp home with it as is. I made stops for air: (many bike shops
have a loaner bike pump to use on site)
Hub Bike on Minnehaha for air
Hub Bike on West Bank for air
One on One Bike just N of Downtown for air (curiously it had not lost
much if any air since the west bank ). I got home in about an hour.
This route followed the LRT/bus routes so I could bail out and ride transit with the bike
if the leak was too fast to keep inflated enough to get home. All Minneapolis city buses
now have a fold down rack for two bikes. They are used a lot. (Some bikes get forgotten
on the rack :) If I have a suspicious tire, I'll take a pump and maybe a patch kit. There
are enough resources in the city that I don't carry them routinely.
08-29-2008 __ Growing Communities Of Scientists (GCOS) computers in classrooms .
This summer I have been working with some Mpls science teachers who are setting up a new
version of their computer system IN their science classroom / labs (to be more accessible
than in typical separate computer lab. 2 students per computer to encourage collaboration,
monitor under glass tabletop so they do not impeded face to face interaction or use of
other materials). The old system used Apple computers suspended under the tables; the new
system uses 10 year old pc's which function as "Thin Clients".
One of the 4 GCOS classrooms will be at Nellie Stone Johnson school (NSJ) here in North
Minneapolis - a much easier bike ride from my house than to Roosevelt HS where the other
classrooms are located.
At some point I hope to explore the effective similarities between GCOS and the OLPC,
One Laptop Per Child learning environment.
Links about the project:
General Ubuntu thin client in education wiki page
Minneapolis project that David is pursuing
Notes on the progress of getting the thin client classrooms set up in Mpls
The July 11th blog entry still has the best image of what the tables will look like when set up
07-19-2008 __ Wellstone Crash Site Memorial on the way to Bearhead .
This year we visited the Wellstone Memorial on the way to Bearhead State Park where we go
group camping. On two previous attempts when we were up that way we did not plan far
enough in advance and did not find it / take the right route.
The Wellstone Memorial and Historic Site is near the location of the plane crash that took
the lives of Paul and Sheila Wellstone and six others.
The crash site memorial is located about 4 miles south of Eveleth, MN and about 3 miles
East of US Hwy 53 on Bodas Road (County Hwy 95). Hwy 95 intersects Hwy 53 about a half
mile north of where State Hwy 37 goes west from Hwy 53. All of these Hwy's appear on MN
State map. You will see signs On Hwy 95 for the site and directions for parking. Google map to crash memorial site (zoom in)
A crushed stone path meanders through the woods with periodic stops that have plaques
about the Wellstone legasy. There is a boardwalk to a viewing platform toward the actual
site. Very impressive and felt sacred. (note this paragraph added 3/23/13 after the
second link (wellstone.org) I had below broke. This page is as permanent as I can make
it. Fred )
Web sites about the Memorial:
Wellstone Memorial at Historical Marker Database has pictures and description.
Wellstone Memorial at Wellstone Action as of 3/13 mostly a link to:
Wellstone Memorial at MPR
WCCO 3 minute video about the memorial *B WCCO: "Those links no longer exist and are unavailable."
Wikipedia on Wellstone
07-02-2008 __ Reading blogs / helping friends / still showing OLPC .
I happened onto the blog of our former neighbor Jenell Williams Paris *B . She wanted her web
page at the college to show up with google, so the link above should do that.
I found her blog by way of the blog of a neighbor who lives where Jenell formerly lived on my block.
I was also reading the blog of David Groos recently Growing Communities of Scientists
I helped David a bit on Tuesday with his computers lab in his high school science class.
The new lab will be using an Ubuntu Linux "thin client" system with older, readily available
computers acting as terminals on a central server.
Reading blogs for the first time, one lacks context. Often an "About" section is absent or
does not provide much context. One way to gain context is to read / browse older entries.
Trying to read older entries in chronological order -- is a bit of a challenge. You have to go
to the oldest entry you wish to read; read / don thru the entry then to read the next, scroll
up to the beginning of the preceding entry and read down, etc. I'm beginning to rethink the use
of reverse chronological order for entries in blogs and archives. I used this order when I set
up the Archives of Cohousing-L after the last reorganization / move in 2004.
This order clearly has the advantage of putting recent entries at the top of the page. But
following a sequence on messages - recent or otherwise - seems unnatural with "rev. chron."
order. I have been using "blogs" on my computer (not online) to keep notes etc on various
topics. Many on my top level folders have a "start" file that includes a blog. I've recently
pondered converting them to chronological order but have a very easy way to "get to" the (top
of) the most recent entry... This online blog, like all my web pages is basically a very
simple web page that I maintain with a text editor. For a while I've been thinking of having a
an index to entries here. But now I'm thinking that I may reverse the order too.
While I'm at it, a couple things about blogs (that use blog software ) that bug me:
Often they do not have an adequate (IMHO) introduction / overview / profile / "about" page.
This may be that the blogger simply has not set that up or it may be that the software does
not provide facility for it. Second I'm surprised how often no email contact for the blogger
is provided. Maybe they figure any contact with the blogger should be via a comment / response
to a blog entry but some times a private note is more appropriate and I prefer to do that by
email. One reason I prefer this is that a copy of my message ends up in my sent mail archive
where I can more easily find it. If more blog comment forms (and web contact forms in general)
provided the option for sending a copy of messages left to the sender, this would reason would
be reduced. (Tho such copies end up in the inbox instead of the sent mail where they are harder
to find ( bigger haystack to lose them in.) Many blogs these days provide an option for an RSS feed
which is helpful for following new entries. I don't currently use RSS, I prefer to get a
brief email message saying there is a new entry. Some how finding how to set this up is harder
than setting up an RSS feed. Sometimes it is not offered, sometimes it is obscure how to
set it up. Maybe we need a new term / icon like "MSS" (Mail notification simple setup).
I continue to show the One Laptop Per Child laptop to interested people (see earlier blog entry).
The Walker Art Center has an exhibit currently "Design for the Other 90%" of mostly practical designs
for the third world - shelters, water carrying, human powered transport etc. They have two OLPC's
on display - under glass with a nice little write up. On their family day on Sat, I plan to take my
OLPC and show it.
05-02-2008 __ Our "mystery weekend" trip to North House Folk School .
4/23-25/08 we went on a "mystery weekend' that Becca planned without Fred's involvement. She
got Fred to consent to the dates well in advance but otherwise did not reveal details tho some
slipped out. She signed us up for classes at North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN on the
north shore.
Fred: hands on solar electricity
Becca: twig chair building.
In order to attend a bike trail meeting (about Cedar Lake trail to the river under the new
stadium) Thur night before the classes that started at 9:00 am Friday, we left at 3 am Friday.
Worked fine and we missed the fog other folks encountered Thur night. We stayed in a 5 unit
little motel two blocks up the hill from the folk school that happened to be owned by the
instructor of Fred's class. While there Fred used the net access at the library a few blocks
away (twice - mid day Friday and Sat). He also showed the OLPC XO to folks but was only able to
get connected usefully once. Becca took Monday off to give plenty of time to get home. We came
home by way of Grand Rapids where we visited a very distant Brackett cousin who we stay in touch
with.
04-30-2008 __ Python (computer language) book / MN Barcamp .
Yesterday I found an online book that I plan to read:
_A Byte of Python_ by C H Swaroop
> This book will help you to learn the Python programming language,
> whether you are new to computers or are an experienced programmer.
While reading about the book I came on reference to Barcamps.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences
open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by
participants often focusing on early-stage web applications, and
related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data
formats.
I plan to go to the Barcamp here in Minneapolis on May 10th: MinneBar
04-07-2008 __ Playing with webcams .
Last weekend I played with webcams i.e. searched for and looked at webcam pages in locations where friends live etc.
I created this page (by extracting html for the webcams folder in my bookmarks and modifying it and adding comments.
Fred's links to webcams
I intend to add to bookmark and my webcam page the time between updates for some more of the
webcams. Update time varies from 1 sec to one hour (and broken ones that "never" update).
Some webcams have "control" options pan, zoom, update time.
Idea: Have a non-default option to open new updates in a separate browser. This might be
implemented at the web site (with a way of selecting the option. Or maybe there is a way
to implement it the brower end which would allow it to be done with any webcam.
04-05-2008 __ Final spurt of winter 07-08 ? .
This winter seems to have hung on and on. Repeatedly I've said I hope this is the last cold spell.
And Sunday, Monday Tuesday we had up to 8+ inches of snow. The temperature was around or a bit above freezing
and warmer weather was predicted so it was a wet snow (about an inch of moisture) that was not expected
to last long. Some people did not bother to shovel tho I did. Here's a couple of pictures:
Russell Av N after snow (in new window , compare)
Russell Av N a few days later
Note that the first picture had the date stamp "03/31/2008" (which I overwrote)
turns out that for months the date/time in the camera had been off by 12 hours...
It felt a lot more like spring the next day tho there was more snow left than show in the after picture.
03-24-2008 __ Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan .
I've never been to Asia. My knowledge of that part of the world has long been lacking.
In particular I realize I confuse Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
A friend is moving to Singapore for 3 years for a job and I decided to summarize a bit of
research here. As usual I turned to a map and Wikipedia. See eastmap.htm
02-24-2008 __ I WON a little One Laptop Per Child ( OLPC) laptop .
It looks like a toy. Wikipedia:Olpc
I won it at the Linux meeting I went to yesterday (see prev
blog entry for details about linux group). The goal of this education program is to
get one of these kid friendly devices to kids everywhere in the third world so they can have
a powerful education tool that can access the Internet.
Fred's OLPC page / links
A few highlights: Picture of OLPC 'XO-1' laptop With features labeled
o hardware design goals:rugged, low cost, long battery life laptop.
Modest performance accepted to get this.
o 433 MHz AMD Geode LX700 cpu
o no hard drive - 1 Gigabyte Flash drive, 256 MB ram (currently) 3 USB ports
o innovative dual mode (backlit-color/sunlit-monochrome) LCD display
o built-in wifi with ability to access / serve others
o rugged, downsized (about 9x9x1.25 inches), moisture resistant membrane useable keypad,
low/flexible power requirements including solar and hand cranked options coming,
relatively environmenatlly friendly
o Special Linux based evolving, upgradeable open source software that uses collaborative
learning environment metaphor gui instead of just usual desktop metaphor with numerous
built-in applications - "activities". Gui hides filesystem which is frustrating to experienced
computer users since it seems (is?) less flexible.
o goal of mass production at $100 per laptop in 2008 in support of...
o goal is universal education of world's children via access learning to communities and
to the Internet using purpose built laptops
I plan to study and use the laptop to promote the idea, demonstrate it to groups.
I may even USE the laptop as my portable computing capability (I don't have another
laptop tho my son does (Mac) and my wife may get one ( MS Windows for work compatibility :(
The Timeline of ideas that led to OLPC *B starts with the introduction of Logo, the first
programming language written especially for children. I tutored kids in math / Logo in the
early 1980's here in north Minneapolis. The activities include "Pippy" an intro. to programming.
Update: 3/24/08 I've learned much more about the OLPC, shown it to many people and will be giving a presentation
at Penguins Unbound Linux Group meeting in May (last Sat). Here's a page that summarizes the XO nicely
David Pogue (NYTimes) video / Eric Pettifor review *B
I've been invited to write an article about it for a local community paper.
Note that the "Wikipedia:Olpc" link at in above is about the organization; the "$100 laptop" link on that page
is a detailed wikipedia article about the XO laptop.
02-23-2008 __ Penguins Unbound Linux Group meeting this morning on Audacity Topic Audacity sound editing program .
File made by our camera that "chirps" instead of playing in Audacity.
Other Topics I'd like to ask:
show and tell with Ruckus DONE
flash install problem mentioned
various streaming media formats and clients and problems
should I install new Ubuntu version? Is there an upgrade path instead?
partitinns on nano6 (and sectors not in a partition).
have both old and new ubuntu installed?
Install questions again apt/rpm tool that supports both?
automating my config preferences when installing new OS version
pping.bat script that I wrote this morning to help track down reason for
ssh and streaming audio being interrupted (due to occasional Wireless disconnects (?)) :
#! /bin/bash
# This script will be run periodically (extra "p") - once every 30-60 seconds (later: runs ever 10 sec)
# to check usiw connection (which as of 2/23/08 is getting disconnected a few times a day brieflywhile true ; do
#infinite loop!
# use ^c to exit
sleep 10
if ping -c1 usiwireless.com >nul ; then
echo -n "ok " ; date
else
# if this ping fails....
# log that fact "ppdn" and make a bell sound
echo -n "fail " ; date ;
echo -n ppdn >> ~/log-conn ; date >> ~/log-conn ;
aplay -c 1 -t raw -r 22050 -f mu_law 1nix/bell1.wav
fi
done
02-01-2008 __ Fred gets community wireless net access .
See also Keeping 'em down on the farm in the computer age
Yesterday (1/30/08) I finally upgraded from dialup access to the net.
I'd been waiting a long time for the Minneapolis municipal network . Recently
the phase of the build out by USIWireless was completed in my area. Earlier
this week I signed up on line after consulting their techs about a few
details (I wanted to get the Ruckus modem (model 2211 , ruckuswireless.com )
that has external antenna connection in case I ever need that (units
with this feature had been expected but not shipped until recently)).
Currently there is a 'rubber duck antenna' connected here which is used
along with the internal directional antenna system. The external Ruckus
connects to the computer via Ethernet so no drivers are required.
I fashioned a "shelf" that supports the Ruckus near the top of a window
on the back of our house where one can see the
USIW node we use at 12th and Sheridan Av N across the block.
I got the 1Mb/s package for 2 years for $240 special deal (2 years for
the price of one year's month to month price / 50% less than regular
cost of annual payment price) I purchased the modem for $80 (it can be
rented for $5/month).
I'm using Ubuntu 6.06 currently and I had no problems using the USIW
and performance has seemed fine. To put things in perspective tho,
1Mb/s is not particularly fast but compared to dialup it is fast.
Compared to fiber to the door it is slow; see first 'related link' below.
For me the cost/performance tradeoff is for my needs the best available
here that I know of.
Speed test result Fri Feb 1 08:28:22 CST 2008 at Download test at pcpitstop.com :
Time done: 8:28am 10:15am 10:55M
Download speed in kilobits per second (1477 1508 1587 )
Test details: Time to 3200 kilobytes downloaded in seconds: (17.334 16.98 16.134 )
--- ping statistics --- estimates of round-trip time. See wikipedia: Ping
usiwireless.com 17 packets transmitted, 17 received, 0% packet loss, time 16059ms
ave: 37ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 19.809/37.014/79.784/17.424 ms
yahoo.com 23 packets transmitted, 23 received, 0% packet loss, time 22092ms
ave: 105ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 76.691/121.560/158.442/25.154 ms
google.com 35 packets transmitted, 25 received, 28% packet loss, time 34111ms
ave: 81 ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 56.717/80.870/247.315/39.309 ms
cnet.com 25 packets transmitted, 24 received, 4% packet loss, time 24099ms
ave: 105 rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 91.208/104.506/134.688/10.736 ms
espn.com 30 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 29127ms
blogger.com 28 packets transmitted, 28 received, 0% packet loss, time 27111ms
ave: 66 ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 54.430/66.380/86.699/9.161 ms
Ping time norms from pcpitstop.com
less than or =100 ms Great, typical of a high-speed cable or DSL connection.
100 to 200 ms Good, common for cable and DSL connections.
200 to 400 ms Fair, usually seen with dialup connections or faraway sites.
400 to 600 ms Slow, either the connection or the remote site is slow.
600 to 1999 ms Poor, high latency. Typical for satellite connections.
greater than 1999 ms No response, the ping was blocked or the site did not reply.
There seems to be more latency in response when I first fetch a web
page from a site than when I access additional pages at that site.
Does this have to do with lookups that have to be done initially that
are cached for subsequent accesses that I never noticed before?
Practical example of improved performance
I have an archiving process for my listservs ( justcomm.org
that I perform the first of each month. It fetches a bunch of many html
pages with wget (non interactive content retrieval from web servers) and
extracts selected info to text files on my computer. I did that today
and it took less than 11 minutes instead of the 26 minutes using
dialup on Jan 1.
Related links:
Interesting table of 'broadband access in vtop 20 countries
Wikipedia: Broadband Internet access
Wikipedia: Measuring network throughput
UPDATE 10/16/08. I've been using Mpls wireless for 9.5 months now and continue to be fairly
pleased with it. I continue to get about 1Mb/s download tho I don't check it often; right now I'm
getting 700-800 Kb/s (I was getting 1.5 Mb/s initially but that was a benefit to compensate for
other initial shortcomings) I think there have been two outages that lasted hours to 2-3 days
due to equipment failure / weather, USWI provided temporary dialup access during those periods.
I continue to have SSH disconnects tho the frequency has dropped off from about daily to only
twice in the last two weeks. The problem may be a software issue on my computer related to long
ssh connections. I's been easier to tolerate than investigate so far.
I still think radio is not the best solution for the last mile problem; I still dream of having
fiber optic cable all the way to my computer but for now I think the cost benefit of Mpls
Wireless is hard to beat for my needs. I also think the main benefit is not speed tho that is
certainly an improvement over dialup. The "always on" nature is the most useful - no waiting to
connect or grouping net uses for the next time I am connected.
One continues to hear anecdotes about people having poor performance from USWI at their
residence but it is quite difficult to get a balanced picture of the degree of the problem. I
have concluded that performance is quite location dependant but do not have enough experience
with enough locations to conclude how widespread inadequate performance is.
I have used the USWI roaming from various places in the city some with the OLPC.
It seems to be quite location dependant but often works fine.
12-15-2007 __ Wikipedia is a great resource .
I find Wikipedia to be a very useful source of information.
Tho it can potentially have less than valid information due to it's open collaborative nature,
I find the information to be better and more useful than say TV ad, TV news, TV generally.
To find useful information on it requires much less sifting than using Google (tho of course
there are still topics that Google can find info on that are not in Wikipedia. I've been surprised how
useful Wikipedia can be for current news sometimes (with background available if one needs it
and of course much less repetition of the same main points). I'm thinking of making a monetary contribution.
10-26-2007 __ Note to community station KAXE on MN Iron Range .
Sent via KAXE talk back *B
Good morning from near north Minneapolis, the home of US Congressman Keith
Ellison.
I've been listening to KAXE a bit via the Internet lately and appreciate the low bandwidth
24kbps mp3 stream which works over a dialup connection. It works pretty well and I can use the
net for other things at the same time as long as I don't use too much bandwidth. We are still
waiting for the municipal wireless system to get installed in our part of town.
We went to the five year memorial of the Wellstone plane crash at the College of St Catherine
last night and blogged a bit about it {below!}
Thanks KAXE, keep up the good work. Fred fholson.cohousing.org
10-25-2007 __ Five Year memorial Wellstone plane crash .
Last night we went to the 5 Year memorial of the plane crash that killed Paul and Shiela
Wellstone and 4 others. Our friend Mark Ritchie who is now MN Secretary of State committed to
getting as many people to vote as possible. He gave one of the main remembrances and (as did
others) spoke of the ongoing legacy and challenges. A Picture of and tiny audio clip of Mark
speaking captured off TV taken off the TV news on Ch 11 (crudely):
Mark Ritchie (196 kB)
Mark Ritchie Audio clip (244kB .wav)
10-06-2007 __ Banking hassles related to computers .
I don't currently use online banking except when I'm using MS Windows
somewhere away from home. (I try to keep my computer free of software
produced by the monopoly Microsoft.) My bank http://franklinbankmpls.com/ *1
has online banking that I can not / do not currently use it from my
computer (Ubuntu 6.06 Linux / Firefox 2.0.0.7 browser see Fred's system).
This is because of several "hassles" (numbered below based on chronology).
I have never used online banking extensively (my "offline banking" is
easier for most things). About the only thing I need online banking for is
to look up the image of a cleared check once in a while. In the US it
seems banks no longer return cleared checks - maybe if you pay an extra
charge.
Hassle #1 The online banking requires the pass word to change
periodically - with about the same frequency as I use online banking so
I have trouble keeping track of the current pass word.
Hassle #2) I get an error when I try to log in with their "new improved
security" feature. I can't get past an error after entering my username.
Curiously I can log in using Firefox running on MS Windows! Also curiously
I was able to get logged in and use the system from my computer when I
FIRST used the "new improved security" system. There may be a workaround
by always telling the system I am a new user - I have not pursued this - I
don't need a another hassle. Of course the support folks generally
consider the problem to be with my computer not using Internet Explorer;
I consider it their software's requiring IE...
Hassle #3 Not online banking related. On the bank statement (we may be
unusual in that we reconcile our records with bank statements) debit
card transaction entries are poorly structured. They lack a something
like a check number - a sequential id by which entries can be ordered
and identified. This means they are not listed in a very useful order
and hard to identify. Theoretically the transaction date could serve
this purpose but the various dates related to a transaction (actual time
of transaction, time transaction gets reported to bank etc) vary enough
(a few days) that it is not very helpful. Also the payee is identified
inconsistently. I try to record the address *2 when I use my debit card
since that is sometimes listed in the statement. Debit card entries also
have alpha numeric information that is meaningless to me but which takes
up room - enough to spread the info so the entries take multiple awkward
lines each.
*1 I am generally quite pleased with Franklin Bank . They are relatively
small - enough to give me the impression that they can legitimately
offer "personal service". They have a great record of service to the
community and other public spirited programs and such. I think the
hassles above are largely out of their control and based on vendor
software. They probably are not big enough to have enough clout to
effectively pressure vendors to fix their lame software but this blog
entry is part of an effort in that direction anyway. Anyone know of a
bank that supports Open Source software ( http://www.opensource.org ) to a
reasonable extent?
*2 Sometimes I have a debit transaction with only an address that I do not
recognize so I google the address and can sometimes figure out the store name.
10- -2007 __ This image, 4 bike vertical rack , is a mockup that attempts to illustrate an idea for a bike .
rack that holds bikes vertically and overlapping side to side by having alternate bikes higher
thus allowing bikes to be stored more densely. This is probably more dense than realistic since
the bikes are all the same. I expect that only with experience will it be possible to arrive at
a practical density. Maybe some racks set up at different density for different bikes -- mostly
touring bikes vs mountain bikes and maybe different style handlebars. I would hope that the
rack could be used for short wheelbase (about 40" between axles) recumbent bikes. These
would only be used where there are many bikes parked like around dorms. There will be need for
some conventional racks for bikes and riders for whom these racks don't work. Bicyclists can be
given incentive to use them such as availability of space, proximity, maybe reserved spots,
maybe shelter from rain. Note that in some ways bikes are actually more maneuverable when they
are walked vertically than walked conventionally since one can walk behind the bike and thus
maneuver in a narrower space. I often walk my bike into the garage on end (where I have a
vertical rack).
In this image:
o red by the front tires represents hooks
o longer red line by the stem represents the top of a loop tub which
the bike can be locked to and which stablizes the bike side to side
( see crude attempt at a side view of bike in vertical rack )
o lower red is a channel where the rear tire sits.
o Not shown is a ramp for the raised bikes to roll up into position.
Note that Dero Bike Rack Co. (here in Mpls) has several space saving racks
including one that suspends bikes from trolleys that allow you to push neighboring bikes
apart when hanging or removing a bike so bikes can be stored about 8" apart.
09-17-2007 __ Scouting and ham radio .
Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) -- From the ARRL -- Annual event in which
Boy and Girl Scouts and Guides from all over the world speak to each
other by means of Amateur (ham) Radio. http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/jota.html *B
The official site for the most current JOTA information sponsored by the
World Scouting Organization:
http://www.scout.org/jota/
You'll find additional resources at ARRL:
http://www.arrl.org/scouts/jota-resources *B
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/scouthbk/ic.html *B
http://www.starc-corpuschristi.org/USS_Lexington/gs_radio_badge.htm
http://www.ac6v.com/scouts.htm
http://www.arrl.org/scouts/
http://www2.arrl.org/FandES/ead/youthskeds... *B
http://www.radio-scouting.org.uk
http://www.k0bsa.org *B
See misc blog same date.
==========
08-02-2007 __ Interstate 35W bridge collapse .
I had this note about the I-35W bridge collapse on the top of
Fred's link page ( fholson.cohousing.org) for most of August
SPECIAL NOTE 8/2/07 None of my family or any one I know (so far) was on the I-35W
bridge when it collapsed at 6:05 pm on 8/1. We use that bridge occasionally but not
often and not often at rush hour. I do bike under a section (north end) that
collapsed ** sometimes when I am headed over toward the Dinkytown area by the U of MN.
Andrew will be living in a dorm about two blocks from where I bike under the bridge.
** Turns out this was wrong the section over 2nd St SE did not collapse tho some adjacent sections did.
The section on the other side of the river over the parkway and bike path did collapse.
Three images that summarize the collapse:
( Note: the images open in new windows so you can come back to this window to
open the second and third image and then go back and forth to compare.)
Middle section of collapsed bridge on the day after the collapse,
as seen from the nearby 10th Avenue Bridge, looking north.
This picture is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge
As of 4/17/13 small version of picture is shown in
the upper right corner at: Collapse section of Wiki article.
Collapsed bridge looking south on the evening of the collapse.
North end of the bridge A freight train was traveling under the bridge when it collapsed.
Note that tho this is the "North end of the bridge" there are more
elevated sections of the approach to the left of this image - one of
which had one end collapse so it rested at a steep angle. Also that
the tall building on the left is the dorm (Sanford Hall) where
Andrew will be living for the 2007-8 school year.
Note that all three images have some common items which help relate
them. There is a big straight truck with a red boom and "clamshell"
bucket on a partially collapsed section of the approach on the north end
of the bridge. There are also long white train cars under and west of
the truck in all three pictures.
computerworld.com article New Wi-Fi network proves critical in Minneapolis bridge disaster
UPDATE
Fred's I-35W replacement bridge construction archive of close shots on 6/18/08
07-19-2007 __ Environmental impact vs price of production .
Lately there has been a discussion on Cohousing-L that I found interesting.
Searching for (w/o quotes) for "Walking gently 2007" at
Cohousing-L archives
07- -2007 __ Today I got a large old yellow Schwinn bike from a friend. I hauled it .
on the trailer behind my bike. I held it vertically using a "tray" that is normally used
on a car top rack -- the kind that keeps both wheels on and has a brace that
clamps on the down tube. I usually use the trailer to haul water and supplies to the garden.
Bike on trailer
06- -2007 __ Pondering conversion of a used aluminum "women's" frame with 7-speed hub and internal brakes .
to a recumbent... Replace forks with those for 20" bike for a 20" wheel. Mount a strong tube to
support cranks out front and seat (red line in picture): Yellow aluminium bike
Compare to this 29 pound Volae with 650 C wheels
Compare to this to this Vision VR-50 USS Short WheelBase with Underseat steering recumbent
bike for sale in Aug '07 for $695 (It was sold before I saw it) Note that it has Full Suspension.
03-19-2007 __ Flash 'puter" -- Virtual use of Fred's computer via UsbDisk on other computers .
Decide to develop ways to be able to use copies of Fred's disk files
from Flash drive (UsbDisk) on friend's computer (Win XP also potentially on
other computers) as compatibly as possible to the way they are used ON
Fred's computer (Nano6) including some software.
1) have copies of most used files on flash drive including those accessed via QuickBrowse ( qb)
2) have qb init things upon boot including:
detect where root 0start file is (d: (Nano6) or g: (flash at friends)
If at friend's, use dos subst command so files look like they are at d:
Hopefully this will also allow Firefox to access start page, bookmarks, cookies
3) if this works well enough it will be like having Nano6 in my pocket and thus the
term "Flash puter"
4) files on Flash drive would be kept current by special rsync macro.
5) Unresolved problem - how to be able to make file changes on Flash puter and get them
Nano6 back in sync with these changes since it would normally be the Prime copy)
Not ready to consider the Flash copy prime ... but maybe someday. That is use
Flash puter technique even when using Nano6...
02-10-2007 __ Mike Casper passed recently, We'll go to funeral in Northfield .
Mike was a buddy and collaborator with Paul Wellstone.
Like Paul we knew Mike after Becca's days at Carleton related to the
1980's reincarnation of the Farmer Labor Association.
History of the 1930's Farmer-Labor Movement
Found while googling to see if there is a physical memorial to Paul in N'fld:
0) Mike Casper's funeral (see http://northfield.org/node/2585
1) Abt Paul's Memorial's political result: http://www.collegenews.org/x2886.xml *B
2) They love Paul back in NC: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct04/wellstone100604.html
I presume Mike's funeral will maintain decorum but with Molly's spirit recently
in turmoil (see below) who knows.
Update: h2m_ It did maintain decorum - more or less, some subtle comments
during funeral reflections from about 10 people. The reception
afterward was a great opportunity to catch up with friends and
acquaintences and swap stories and meet some folks. The goodies Becca baked and
brought got their own little table and consumed. The catered food was great.
There is no memorial to Paul in Northfield presently. I have two modest proposals
to remedy this:
1) A Carleton Classroom dedicated to Mike Casper (and Paul Wellstone)
Maybe the classroom in the framed picture of them that was at Mike's funeral reception that
has Paul informally dressed sitting on table at front with big smile and big gestures while
Mike stands nearby in suit with his arms folded and a somewhat more reserved smile.
That picture should be on the wall of the memorial classroom. Other
considerations for which classroom are accessibility and open on
weekends.
2) Some sort of plaque dedicated to Paul Wellstone (and Mike Casper) at a spot in
the Arb, maybe on the route they typically ran, Maybe a site that resembles
the crash site (where Paul's US Senate re-election campaign plane crashed in 2002).
h6c_ Today I stopped by Paul and Shiela and Marcia's grave - in the northwest corner of Lakewood
cemetery. The memorial stone with carved epitaph on it's irregular natural shape reminded me
of Olof Palme Monument stone in Stockholm that I visited in 1999; it has his signature carved in it.
i7j_ See also Wellstone Crash Site Memorial
02-01-2007 __ Feb/1/07 I mourn Molly Ivins passing too soon. .
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Ivins
The above was at the top of my email "signature" from Feb 1-11,2007
08-22-2006 __ Learning to modify that Open source .
My approach to computers has always been from low level software up.
That is I like to know how things work, often create my own solutions
from simple tools that I understand rather than use a more complicated
tool that I dont understand in depth. This is partly because the Forth
language that I used was oriented this way.
Another influence in this was my first personal computer - a 6502 based
single board Sym. The Sym had an "open" "monitor" - prom based 8 Kbyte
'operating system' callm "Mon". Mon was provided with complete source
code and ram based pointers to key functions (initialized at boot) that
allowed one to redirect those functions to ones own routines. For
example one could write character inout routines to get them from a full
keybard rather than the default keypad.
My text editor with flexible macro language has allowed me to solve many
problems that go well beyond basic editng.
But it is not always possible. Software and operating systems have
gotten more complicated Since I started using computers back around
1970.
Along comes Linux.
Linux, based on Unix is a very large and complicated system.
Particularly when used with a GUI like Gnome. On the other hand the
"Open Source" philosophy makes it theoretically possible to write or
software change to suit one's preferences. My guess is that very few
people actually do this much tho scripts, command aliases and many
configuration options allow much customizations which I have done.
Tho I've been quite happy with Ubuntu Linux that I've been using for a
couple months, the terminal program has one feature that can be annoying.
I've decided to try making a minor change to that program as an exercise
that will involve learning some C programming in the Linux / Gnome
environment.
I knew this would be a big undertaking but various unexpected hurdles
have come up and gotten solved but I still have a long way to go. I
decided to blog about the exercise here in case it might be helpful to
others.
My first step was to post a note to the gnome on July 17, 2006 and got some
useful replies particularly Don Scorgie's. See archived note
I also had some off list correspondence that came from this post
including Don's reply about my asking for more info on API's:
An API reference is basically a list of functions and constants within a
library. This allows you to see what a function actually does and what
parameters can / should be passed in to it. There are various gtk+ /
gnome API references for the different libraries available at:
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/ *B
They can also be viewed offline using devhelp (although, I don't know
how to set this up or use it).
In the code, any function starting with gtk_ is from the gtk library, g_
come from the glib library and gnome_ are from libgnome library. The
glib library also has an object system (gobjects) that are used by GNOME
to make C more object-orientated. The reference for these functions
etc. are split out from the main glib docs to a separate document
(gobject).
Looking through the gnome-hello code, it appears most of it is gtk /
glib calls. There is a couple of other calls (at the start of the main
function to bindtextdomain etc.). These are calls to set up
internationalization stuff. Other than this, all the functions should
be listed in the glib / gobject / gtk documentation.
I'm reading the C book at: http://publications.gbdirect.co.uk/c_book/
~8/20 Cant "find" GCC... GCC compiler not installed on Ubuntu (tho
related ("base") is).. Install it.
8/21 Header files for standard library not installed either or by installing
GCC. Install them.
8/21 Compile first program from book.
8/22 Running low on disk space in / partition (not solved yet 8/22/06)
8/22 start this blog.
Update 2/07 , like all my attempts so far this one did not last long.
I've learned to live with the close button on tabs.
07-17-2006 __ Community contributor recognition and validated community participant system. .
Sometimes when I write email the ideas start flowing and evolving and the recipient gets
a longer message than I probably should have sent them. But if the
ideas have merit (sometimes they do I hope) it may be worth it. Below is such a message
generalized a bit to set the context for presentation here.
Gnome is an easy to understand desktop (graphical user interface including many tools)
for a Linux or UNIX computer. Gnome is Open Source Software (OSS), roughly that means
developed and maintained by a vast range of volunteers and there is no charge to use it.
I am using the current version of Gnome which came with the OSS operating system
Ubuntu version of the GNU/Linux. Open Source Software is an
alternative to the proprietary and often monopolistic software including Microsoft.
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 00:21:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Fred H Olson fholson@cohousing.org
To: fundraising@gnome.org
Subject: Idea: optional info "about" Gnome Friends
Hi,
I've just been browsing the http://www.gnome.org/ site (I think for the first time).
I'm very impressed (with version 2.14 which was released recently as well).
I had an idea that I decided to share with you..
I think recognition of Friends ( contributors ) is great - we all like to be appreciated
and this is a great way. How about offering Friends the option of
listing something about themselves e.g.
o home location (encouraged)
o a few words about interests
o a URL or email addr (preferable: URL to page that has email)
All this would be limited to what could be displayed on one line in
columns (that were retained when captured) for sorting. Remember all is
optional.
A couple thoughts on displaying of Friends
It might be nice to be able to list all friends in one page (till that
becomes impractical :) with a tag for what years they contributed at what
level. Having this sortable by location would be neat. If all years are
not in one page some way to search all would be nice.
One last thought, the folks who work on Gnome as volunteers deserve
recognition as well. Maybe monetary contributors and work contributors
could be recognized in an integrated list. Of course some are both.
I lied, on more last (blue sky) thought. Gnome is not the only OSS
project that people can contribute ($ or wk) to and it is unreasonable to
expect any one person to contribute much ($ or wk) to multiple / many
deserving projects. Therefore maybe someday there could be an integrated
OSS member / $ or work contributor recognition system.
I lied again, one last even bluer sky idea. OSS is only one part of
a bunch of alternative better visions for the world to which people can
volunteer $ and work. Maybe someday we can have an even broader
recognition system.
BTW in my chosen volunteer field ( Communications for Justice ( http://justcomm.org )
(using Mailman for good causes)), I dream of someday having some kind of
"validated community participant" system that many different discussion
and announcement systems etc could share the validation we now do
usually on a per list basis (thru subscribe / confirmation email /
response to complete subscription). This would allow one to choose what
to participate in with a simple checkbox from a page (hierarchy of
pages) once they had logged with their validated community participant
(VCP) username and password. This came to mind since the consolidated
contributor system and the VCP system might be usefully integrated.
Obviously there are many challenges including privacy and trust issues.
But one needs a vision. Dream on.
Sorry this message got way out of hand... Feel free to forward it to
whomever if you feel appropriate.
Keep up the good work.
06-06-2006 __ Fred's computer system - (This entry updated periodically) ** .
Operating system: Ubuntu Gnu Linux Version 6.06
(Version 6.06 is "Long term support" version - not the newest)
Desktop: Gnome (often use it's File browser, Terminal (automatically open with 4 tabs
for shell (2), editing, ssh) , Spider solitare game various multimedia, vieweres etc etc)
Web Browser: Foxfire Version 2.0.0.6
Email: Pine running at my ISP (I use SSH to access it) (can access main folders via webmail too)
Text editing: TSEPro version 2.0 (ancient. it's dos based running under dosemu --
native Linux version of Tsepro is under development.
Info access: homebrew Quick Browse macro in Tsepro
Reminders/calendar: Another homebrew Quick Browse macro in Tsepro
Html editing: Another homebrew Quick Browse macro in Tsepro. Note I keep primary copy of
web pages on my computer where I generally do editing and keep a mirror of them at ISP with:
Upload / sychronise software: Rsync
Office Suite: Open Office
Image editing: Gimp
IM: Pidgin (actually still (10/07) using Gaim - pre name change version)
(lots of other less used software not listed yet. No Microsoft software.)
** sorry no links for details here yet - look up program names at
Wikipedia
04-03-2006 __ Back online... For several weeks in March modem problems .
kept my main computer offline and therefore few of my web pages got updated.
A few were updated online. Today I got this computer back on line and
downloaded the few "updated online" files and then resynced accumulated
changes made locally.
At the same time I have been working on setting up a new computer
with a new Linux distribution (Ubuntu) which will eventually be set up
as my main computer and have the local copy of web pages.
But all the little scripts, macros, command aliases, installed programs
etc take a while to get set up, so it is easier to use this computer
till that all gets done.
12-13-2005 __ Format modification / Radix 36 .
I've added some html links to sections of this document to ease cross
references... And other of other tweaks and updates.
I decided "Radix 36" (used in my Date Code) needed explanation.
The "radix" of a number system is also known as it's base. It's probably
most easily understood by comparison to familiar systems. Note that the
radix is generally expressed in decimal. Symbols used when radix is
greater than 10 are letters of the alphabet.
Decimal is base/radix 10
Binary is base/radix 2
Octal is base/radix 8
Hexadecimal is base/radix 16 a=10, b=11, c=12, d=13, e=14, f=15
Radix 36 is ... base/radix 36 a=10 ... k=20 ... u=30 ... z=35
I use radix 36 sometimes when I want a very compact way to encode and record
numbers in ascii.
12-12-2005 __ The Rev Billy Stop Shopping Gospel Choir 'revival' was great .
Yesterday we went to hear Rev billy and the Choir (www.revbilly.com
There were about 25 people; most in red robes, two trumpets, electronic
organ and drums. Rev Billy was in a bright white suit with his blond
hair in a pompadour resembling what Billy Graham looked like in his
younger years. Note that that Billy moved his organization headquarters
away from Minneapolis a few years ago; the building is now a college
building.
Rev Billy's revival was a cross between great music, a revival meeting, a
spoof, and a campaign for a noble cause - to resist the over
commercialization of life to the detriment of more worthwhile lives. He
even brought tears when he remembered Richard Prior and Eugene McCarthy
who died the day before. The question was addressed: 'how can you
really totally stop shopping?' which friends have asked. The Rev considered
calling themselves something more moderate which would acknowledged that
commerce is part of life but still addressed the rampant over
commercialization in the US; but there is only so much that can be said
in a name...
Here's a nice picture of Rev Billy and a few of the Choir members *B
This picture is currently on their home page. Note that their web page
is updated often including blogs - check in often. There's already some
references to their time in Minneapolis and pictures of the bus that was
hit by a truck in Ohio. One group member is still in the hospital.
After the show some people (tho not us) boarded their biodiesel buses to go
to the Megamall in their 100 extra robes to confront the beast.
A few observations:
Sometimes it was difficult to understand the words of the singers.
Unlike the usual gospel choir, the words are not familiar enough to
understand despite a suboptimal sound system, loud instruments, echoes
etc. A few measures come to me - lyric/song sheets tho this would
reduce some of the surprises that add fun to the show and of course the
words probably vary from time to time and place to place. A high tech
approach would display the words electronically above the choir. A
third approach appeals to me - something like Bob Dylan's video where he
has placards with the main words that he discards as they are sung to
reveal the next next placard with words coming up. This would require
experimentation, practice and coordination to show words most usefully.
The choir was maybe 20 percent African American, the audience seemed
overwhelmingly white which is a bit ironic since it was at Sabathani
Community Center which serves the Black community. This may have been in
part due the way publicity was done (the publicity in Minneapolis was a
problem). I wonder how authentic African American gospel choir's react
to Rev Billy's choir.
See the biography entry of James Solomon Benn -- Choir Director, Soloist' at
Choir bios
Here in Minneapolis most people had not / have not heard of Rev Billy
and even after I had it was hard to be sure what to expect. I suspect
"Word of mouth" could be used more systematically to encourage people
who have seen the Choir to alert their friends who might have an
opportunity to see the choir. Today I finally subscribed to the Choir's
"bulletin" even tho it does not say how much mail to expect or indicate
how I can get off again should I decide to. I previously subscribed to
the Rev Billy Mailman list (so I could read the archives) and
unsubscribed. It's very inactive.
11-23-2005 __ Are George Bush's lies finally catching up to him? Two articles: .
1) Here is an article that lays out a sober case for impeachment.
"George W. Bush [and associates] ... used half-truths and recklessly
false statements to manipulate people who trusted them."
The White House Criminal Conspiracy
By Elizabeth de la Vega The Nation November 14,2005
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051114/delavega
------
2) Pre-Iraq War Intelligence: A Look at the Facts
by Don Gonyea and Jackie Northam
Morning Edition, November 23, 2005 "Critics of President Bush say he
misled the nation. In speeches, the president and Vice President Dick
Cheney now accuse their critics of rewriting history. We check the facts
with a pair of reporters who covered some of that history."
Listen to the report via link at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5024408
10-13-2005 __ Visually comparing two files by "flashing" between them. / Scanner lab .
I sometimes like to compare two files - slightly different
versions of the same document such as program source code so that I can
spot differences down to an individual character difference in context.
One way that I sometimes do this is to "flash" quickly between two files
on the computer monitor to compare them. I have yet to implement a quick
and easy way to do this short of only having two files open. It's a
matter of coming up with a convenient user interface.
see flash.s (TSE macros source file - on Fred's computer...)
Update. I have implemented this tho the routine to pick the two files is
still awkward. They include shift routines so both files shift one
screen up, down, side to side (for long lines), home and end. I'm
pondering an extension of shift routines to more than two files that
compares all files open.
Aside: About 20 years ago (~1984) I did some low level software work at
the U of MN Astronomy Scanner Lab that implemented a computerized system
to compare two images of the same location in space ( at different
times). As I understand it, astronomers have long used mechanical
systems to "flash" between two sky images so a human observer could
easily look for noteworthy differences. The scanner lab scanned a large
collection of images (and stored data in a special format that basically
noted location of "bright spots"). Software compared this data in a way
analogous to "flashing" between two images.
The scanner was built on the base of a precision metal working machine
that could move an image (a glass plate up to about one foot
square) in two dimensions. The scanner moved the plate "raster fashion"
so that strips (about an inch wide (?) ) were scanned by a laser and
receptor system that sent a stream of data to the main computer - a VAX
system at that time running Forth. Multiple passes of adjacent strips
collected precision data for the whole plate.
I worked on routines on a microcomputer that controlled the motion of
the plate in response to commands from the main computer.
09-22-2005 __ Using Rsync to facilitate Web page management .
I see it's been well over a month since I set this up and no
entries.... (except for entry f9l_ whose date I faked to make easier
reference to it...) It is not because it's difficult. Adding an entry is as
simple as editing a file on my computer since "rsync" makes updating
files online so easy. The system works something like this.
o web pages are actually at my ISP (Tigertech.net)
o on my computer I have a similar set of directories and files which are
actually the "originals" and the ones at the ISP are copies.
I have a small script (like an MsDos batch file) that calls a Unix
program called "rsync" which very efficiently and quickly compares the
original files and the copies and uploads differences. The script file
excludes backup copies and certain other files that are in this directory
structure.
For a good introduction to rsync see Wikipedia on rsync which starts:
rsync is a free software computer program for Unix systems which
synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while
minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate.
o I have a command alias "rsf" which calls that script which makes it 4 keystrokes
to insure that all local updates are moved online.
Of course, I use rsf to update all the web pages in these directories
that I maintain. And I don't have to be online to be assured that a
change gets made to the online copy. The next time I am online and use
rsf, if updates all files that have changed.
09-21-2005 __ 3 letter date code format .
I've used it for years as part of 8.3 dos file names... Sometimes as the
extension, sometimes as the last 3 of 8 char file name. Since the year comes first
they sort into chronological order easily.
Basically one char each for Year, Month, Day in fcd_ radix 36 with years starting in 1990.
Some examples: (Full code below)
011 - 1990 Jan 1
357 - 1993 May 7th
9ab - 1999 Oct 11th
eat - 2004 Oct 29th
fcp - 2005 Dec 25th
zcv - 2035 Dec 31st (date by which I'll have to have a new system - I'll be
84 years old.)
Fred's date code is a 3 characters YMD - Year/Month/Day
Year Month #days Day
2025 z Jan 1 31 1 1
2024 y Feb 2 28/29 2 2
2023 x Mar 3 31 3 3
2022 w Apr 4 30 4 4
2021 v May 5 31 5 5
2020 u Jun 6 30 6 6
2019 t Jul 7 31 7 7
2018 s Aug 8 31 8 8
2017 r Sep 9 30 9 9
2016 q Oct A 31 10 a
2015 p Nov B 30 11 b
2014 o Dec C 31 12 c
2013 n 13 d
2012 m 14 e
2011 l 15 f
2010 k 16 g
2009 j 17 h
2008 i 18 i
2007 h 19 j
2006 g 20 k
2005 f 21 l
2004 e 22 m
2003 d 23 n
2002 c 24 o
2001 b 25 p
2000 a 26 q
1999 9 27 r
1990 0 28 s
29 t
30 u
31 v
08-12-2005 __ FRED's COMPUTER Sept 2005 .
As of 10/05 I'm running Linux exclusively on one of the last PC-AT
format motherboards. I use a highly adapted MSDos based text editor
under Dos emulation. Thus the "d:" drive designator which is really my
Linux home directory. The editor is Version 2.0 of The Semware Editor
(TSE) Version 2.0 is ancient (about 1995). A native Linux version is
being developed and most TSE users use a MS Windows version now. All
versions of TSE have many convenient features including a very flexible
macro language which can also be used to modify the editor functioning
itself. See semware.com
I use text to develop my simple web pages and maintain listserv records
and email and numerous other files. I have some macros to facilitate
some of these. Curiously I don't currently use some html writing macros
that I do have. (12/05 wrote a simpler html aid macro that I use some.)
I use Rsync to facilitate Web page management (see f9m_ Using Rsync)
This requires a directory structure that is similar to the one at my isp
the directory d:\1html (aka in Unix terms: /home/fholson/1html )
corresponds to my www.cohousing.org (tho I do not maintain that web
space). I do have several subdomains of cohousing.org which correspond to
subdirectories of the 1html directory on my system. Thus files accessed by TSE in:
d:\1html\fholson appear on the web at: fholson.cohousing.org
d:\1html\mn appear on the web at: mn.cohousing.org
Tho the way it all fits together is a bit convoluted it really works
slick. (again, see f9m_ Using Rsync)
08-11-2005 __ I will try a blog in my computer QBC format (see next entry below) .
I'm going to try having a Blog that is just like the 'blog' text files I
use on my computer extensively to organize text information in many
files. This is mostly for my convenience since it is easy for me to
create and maintain. The explanation without software to facilitate use
of features is probably hard to appreciate. Sorry.
11-20-2009: I decided to hide my 3 character date codes and replaced them with
regular format date codes.
On my computer it is the quick browse links that are most useful. I
have a root text file with links to other text files I consult and add to
etc with varying frequency. The second level files often have links to
other text files etc so the result is my personal web. Unlike the html
files used on World Wide Web there is no separation between source and
rendered version - everything is text files and everything is
immediately editable. It's much simpler. It works for me.
08-10-2005 __ Fred's "quick browse" format for text files .
Note this entry originally included "FORMAT OF THIS FILE" but the blog has evolved
so no longer uses this format.
"QB" (or "QBC") is short for Quick-browse, Blog, C3*_sections ( C3* means 'See 3 asterisks')
Quick-browse: Links to other files of format ** {path/filename}
Example: a link to Fred's Link page (on Fred's computer): ** d:\1html\fholson\index.htm
[UPDATE 8//18: After adopting Linux native TSE editor the format ** ~\1html\fholson\index.htm
is used tho the old "d:" still works for compatibility. I've also created so symlinks
at the root level so for example ** /fholson.cohousing.org/index.htm works for the same file.
This format is much closer to the URL for the file...
Having a bunch of Quick browse links makes maneuvering to desired information in other files
much easier.
See section about ON FRED's COMPUTER a few paragraphs below and f8c_ FRED's COMPUTER Sept 2005)
Note: Files with qb links must start with a designator I call the "D-Path" :
q: or
// q: or (a TSE macro comment)
<!-- q: --> (an html comment)
BLOG: Log entries w/ most recent at top of Blog section date or 3 character date code
followed by 2 underscores and a space.
( References to log entries have ONE underscore) (see f9l_ Date code format)
C3* sections: Lines with '***' tag important entries and sections.
Commands (in TSE editor ON FRED's COMPUTER) to facilitate use of QBC
format files:
Open another QB file (full path preceded by "**" [F12][F12]
Get picklist of BLOG entries [F12][7] (compressed view search for "__ " )
Get picklist of c3* sections [F12][8] ("*" w/o shift) (compressed view search for "*** " )
(Note that a picklist is easier to implement than point to point links
and works pretty well as long as the number items is not excessive (as
in case sometimes of Blog entries). It's also helpful if words in
section headings (with 3*'s ) are in a similar format and not too wordy.)
04-30-2000 __ Interracial flat tire story .
This story is from an email I sent myself 3 May 2000 to record the story.
It took place on a Sunday morning in Minneapolis. It could use some editing...
Subject: 4/30 Yusef Mgeni at FUS and flat tire
On Sunday 4/30 I went to FUS forum and heard Yusef Mgeni
from the Urban Coalition http://www.UrbanCoalition.org
He was an interesting speaker.
I had taken a bicycle and biked home around 10:45. When I got to Glenwood
on Penn I noticed an Asian woman with two children in the parking lot of
the convenience store pondering how to jack up her car to change a flat
tire. She seemed to be considering putting the jack ahead of the front
tire on the body which would not work very well.
I stopped and asked if she needed help which she did. We got the car
jacked up and discovered that the cover over the lug nuts on the sports
rims was secured with a bolt that required and allen wrench. We looked
thru her trunk and glove compartment and did not find and allen wrench. It
appeared that a vice grip might also be able to turn it. I asked other
people coming to the store and that the store clerks but no one had a
tool. The woman walked to her house to try to find a tool. I introduced
myself to the daughter (about 8 years old). Her name is "La". She said
they lived at 2109 4th Av - a couple blocks away. La's English was a bit
hard to understand, her mother's English was very minimal. I decided to
keep asking in case she did not find a tool. As she was returning I found
an African American man with a folding allen wrench tool that worked. So
we got the tire changed and put some air in the (small) spare. The whole
process probably took about 30-45 minutes. La's mom tried to give me $10
for my help but I refused to accept it and urged her to help someone for
me some day. As I was leaving, La said goodbye to me by name.
Tuesday we drove by their house on the way to Milda's for breakfast and
saw the little black car in their driveway. I may bike by there from time
to time since I come by there some. [ Note. I never talked to them again.]
Fred
01-01-1970 __ Keeping 'em down on the farm in the computer age .
This entry is really being written on Feb 1, 2008 but I've been observing this computer age
phenomenon analogous to "How do you keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen Paris" since
about 1973 at least.
Basically once one has experienced better, faster performance of a technology for a task,
it is difficult to tolerate the previous way of doing the task. A few examples:
Old way New way Next way?
black & white TV color TV HDTV
300 baud mechanical terminal 1200 Baud Video Terminal PC w/ large flat display
30 baud modem 1200, 9600, 14.4K, 56K, "broadband" Fiber to the door
CP/M, MSDOS cmd line ui MAC OS, MSWindows, Linux w/ Gnome or KDE ?
walk...bus...bike...car
Gopher protocol HTML (Web)
Text graphic/multimedia
Sometimes there are significant drawbacks to a better/faster way
sustainability e.g. private cars
often high cost
limits on future choices (locked in to proprietary software)
Inability to customize, update, fix (proprietary software) Better way: Open source.
Sometimes there are less obvious advantages of "old" ways of doing things, e.g.
the exercise, low resource use, pleasure of walking and biking.
The joy of seeing friends versus only electronic mediated communications.
I think that "appropriate technology" takes into account these drawbacks and advantages.
One can use a variety of technologies to accomplish some tasks depending on the specifics.
For example, our household has one small car, many bicycles, lots of bus maps and we use
radio, text messages etc to coordinate shared use, multipurpose trips, multimodal trips etc.
To avoid some of the drawbacks I often resist the latest and greatest
for a while. My frugal nature prevents me from being an "early adopter"
in general. I typically use a computer that is a few years old design
when I get it, I also tend to keep my computers for a long time
(6 years - for 5 main computers in the last 28 years or so.
First computer ( Sym-1 ('80))
Previous "Main" computers:
Osborne ('81),
8Mhz Xt ('87),
Zeos 33 Mhz 486 PC ('93),
Cyber used 266 Mhz AT ('99),
Nano6 "ATX" (1.6Ghz AMD ('06) (old design at the time, probably a mistake)
Ivan INTEL CORE I5-4670K based system ('14) 3.4 GHZ, 6MB Cache, 8MB RAM, 1TB drive
In addition to these "main" computers I've had a variety of other computers and made upgrades to
some of these including a new mother board on Cyber. I even used my son's MS Windows computer
a fair amount at one time. And I used computers several places (colleges) before I had my own.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/realestate/microgrid-solar-power-energy.html
text:
By Kaya Laterman
Aug. 7, 2023
Blog Index as of 5/2/20
05-02-2020 Plan to install Ubuntu 20.04
04-02-2020 Home made cloth masks can slow the spread of Covid-19
02-05-2020 My responsive ISP - Tigertech
07-01-2019 Measuring hills
06-22-2019 Street painting proposal / Peace symbol de colores
05-13-2019 Trike trailer (tandem)
04-27-2019 Ematic Analog to Digital TV Converter Box with recording Capabilities
04-04-2019 Biking between St Paul and Mpls along Univ av
03-21-2019 S Mpls tenants try to avoid eviction, become a coop
12-01-2018 Google map of Twin Cites Legislative Districts
04-26-2018 Establishing a 100% renewable electricity goal for Minneapolis
07-06-2018 Better streaming audio User Interface
07-01-2017 Truth and politicians
03-24-2017 Compose good email subject for more effectiveness
01-28-2017 Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online
02-20-2017 Wide spread stealthy privacy invasion by nonprofit orgs - Tracking URLs
11-29-2016 Bike priorities ideas
01-10-2016 Morpheus - local band that covers 1968-1972 rock with horns
08-23-2015 Annoying audio advertising via the web
07-22-2015 First attempt at labeling RR's in Twin Cities
09-23-2014 Economic alternatives and the .coop domain
09-21-2014 Fred's Computer operating system 2014
07-08-2014 Caponi Art Park
07-02-2014 The Hearth Community
02-08-2014 Fred's Computer 2014
09-28-2013 Computer problems / General Nanosystems Store Closing
09-21-2013 Recumbent bikes at Lowry Ave N Open Streets
08-08-2013 Danish family slide show
06-25-2013 DOMA falls ; Love legal in MN
04-29-2013 Real names - howmanyofme
03-14-2013 USING Bread machine by streamlining recipe
10-31-2012 Purgatory Creek and parks along it
06-05-2012 Fred's bike mishap
04-10-2012 Get another recumbent bike
09-12-2011 Light rail open house / Penn Broadway
07-27-2011 New arch at Lincoln Garden
07-17-2011 Cruise on the Mississippi River
06-17-2011 Howe School site cohousing proposal
06-10-2011 Buy a Terra Trike Rover Recumbent "tadpole" trike for Becca
06-02-2011 Minnesota budget crisis
05-25-2011 Tornado near our house ...
03-17-2011 Drive by huge gas main fireball near I-35W
03-03-2011 Experiment converting .pdf to an .png file
10-07-2010 Exhaust system problem
10-03-2010 PBS rebroadcasts
09-24-2010 10 minute video: Cycling Copenhagen, Through North American Eyes
09-07-2010 We go wild ricing
06-10-2010 Nice Ride MN Public Bike system grand opening ( expensiveniceride )
03-23-2010 Health Care Reform Passed!
02-28-2010 Record icy streets in Minneapolis this winter
10-30-2009 Max's costume
10-28-2009 Light Rail Transit (LRT) on streets
10-05-2009 Used Sun EZ-Speedster CX Recumbent Bike
10-05-2009 Navigation problems...
05-16-2009 Html aware wordwrap
05-15-2009 DC-SC driving trip -- Mom's final hospitalization
02-20-2009 WUMB - U Mass Boston 's "Contemporary Folk" streaming radio
01-10-2009 UHF antenna Fred built for DTV from youtube video
11-24-2008 My new Ubuntu Version 8.10 operating system
11-23-2008 Bike rack prototype
10-17-2008 Tour de bike pumps on way home from GCOS
08-29-2008 Growing Communities Of Scientists (GCOS) computers in classrooms
07-19-2008 Wellstone Crash Site Memorial on the way to Bearhead
07-02-2008 Reading blogs / helping friends / still showing OLPC
05-02-2008 Our "mystery weekend" trip to North House Folk School
04-30-2008 Python (computer language) book / MN Barcamp
04-07-2008 Playing with webcams
04-05-2008 Final spurt of winter 07-08 ?
03-24-2008 Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan
02-24-2008 I WON a little One Laptop Per Child ( OLPC) laptop
02-23-2008 Penguins Unbound Linux Group meeting this morning on Audacity Topic Audacity sound editing program
02-01-2008 Fred gets community wireless net access
12-15-2007 Wikipedia is a great resource
10-26-2007 Note to community station KAXE on MN Iron Range
10-25-2007 Five Year memorial Wellstone plane crash
10-06-2007 Banking hassles related to computers
10- -2007 This image, 4 bike vertical rack , is a mockup that attempts to illustrate an idea for a bike
09-17-2007 Scouting and ham radio
08-02-2007 Interstate 35W bridge collapse
07-19-2007 Environmental impact vs price of production
07- -2007 Today I got a large old yellow Schwinn bike from a friend. I hauled it
06- -2007 Pondering conversion of a used aluminum "women's" frame with 7-speed hub and internal brakes
03-19-2007 Flash 'puter" -- Virtual use of Fred's computer via UsbDisk on other computers
02-10-2007 Mike Casper passed recently, We'll go to funeral in Northfield
02-01-2007 Feb/1/07 I mourn Molly Ivins passing too soon.
08-22-2006 Learning to modify that Open source
07-17-2006 Community contributor recognition and validated community participant system.
06-06-2006 Fred's computer system - (This entry updated periodically) **
04-03-2006 Back online... For several weeks in March modem problems
12-13-2005 Format modification / Radix 36
12-12-2005 The Rev Billy Stop Shopping Gospel Choir 'revival' was great
11-23-2005 Are George Bush's lies finally catching up to him? Two articles:
10-13-2005 Visually comparing two files by "flashing" between them. / Scanner lab
09-22-2005 Using Rsync to facilitate Web page management
09-21-2005 3 letter date code format
08-12-2005 FRED's COMPUTER Sept 2005
08-11-2005 I will try a blog in my computer QBC format (see next entry below)
08-10-2005 Fred's "QBC" format for text files
04-30-2000 Interracial flat tire story
01-01-1970 Keeping 'em down on the farm in the computer age
This page is maintained by Fred H Olson. Fred's Link page