Easily Distracted

To access the Internet on my desktop computer, I must use wireless. Unfortunately, it’s about as far away from the access point as possible: opposite corners of the house and different floors. And the wireless card I’ve got in my desktop is a little old and pretty cheap. Basically, I’ve had to battle with a poor connection for years. Often, I would have to manually move the antenna an inch this way or that, try reconnecting, and repeat. I vented to my friend, Shirley, about my connection, and she said her friend was having similar issues, so Shirley recommended she make a signal booster. That’s something I’d been thinking about doing, and thought it was about time. I googled how to make a booster. Enter the Parabolic Reflector available here. I’m sure there are lots others, but this is the one I decided to try out.

I made 3 of them. the first was made entirely with paper and tinfoil and it worked fine, but I figured I would try making a couple more with different materials: 2 different strengths of card. It’s good I did that too, as I ended up using 2 of them and giving the paper prototype to Shirley’s friend who most likely has better things to do than build paper parabolas. (I, on the other hand, do not.)

What does it do? It turns your omni-directional antenna into a directional antenna with a stronger signal. The tinfoil does the radio wave reflecting and the shape (the parabola) just happens to be an efficient way to do that. Using this new direction, I’ve “pointed” the antenna on my wireless router towards my room – even on a bit of an angle through the floor. In my room, on my desktop PC, I’ve just pointed it horizontally in the direction of the access point.

The results have been great. Without any home-made boosters, I received 25-35%, with one on the access point, i received 35-55%, and with one on both the access point and my desktop antennas, I’m receiving a pretty steady 62-68% (see the graph, above). I still receive disconnects, but it’s now much easier to reconnect… usually happens automatically on the first try – I don’t even have to do anything!

So if you’re having wireless issues, give it a shot! It certainly doesn’t cost much.

Did this FlipNote animation on the bus, yesterday.

The pumpkins, this year:

I did the one on the left (least effort!). ^.^ And it should resemble the pumpkin in the FlipNote animation, above.

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend, I finally got a car. I’m not a car guy and know next to nothing about them, so I just mentioned some criteria to the car people in my family and asked them to tell me about it if they figured it was a good deal and fit my criteria. My primary criteria was this:

1. Get me to the mountain (Cypress) and back with snowboard gear and maybe friend or two +their gear.
2. Doesn’t consume too much gas doing #1.
3. Doesn’t beg to be broken into. I want to be able to leave it places without being paranoid.
4. Isn’t huge. I hate parking huge vehicles. I don’t even like driving them very much. I don’t need a huge vehicle. (More than 2 seats would be nice, however….)
5. Doesn’t cost a lot to insure.
6. Doesn’t cost much in any regard, really. ^.^ CHEAP. But works.
7. I’m not looking for an investment. I may only insure it for the ski season, and sell it afterward, depending on circumstances.

Basically, I wanted a cheap, reliable car so I could go snowboarding whenever I wanted. I bought a discounted (due to the 2010 Olympics) season’s pass to Cypress Mountain this year and plan on using it intensely.

I received a few suggestions from everyone, but they were either a little too expensive or not quite what I was looking for. But then my uncle came across this 1993 Honda Accord EX-R with 193,000 km that was in great condition. Long-ish story short: I bought it, last weekend, Saturday October 24. It’s not super sexy, but it drives great and was a good deal ($2500 before tax). Actually, I do find it pretty hot….

The things I love about it: 4 cylinder (good on gas) yet seems to have very decent acceleration, back seats fold down to easily accommodate snowboard/ski gear, it’s manual and front-wheel drive to give better control in snow, and it just feels great to drive. The one problem with it, which is really more of a nuisance: the ignition alarm on the driver’s side that indicates you still have the keys in the ignition when the door is open, goes off even when the keys are not in the ignition (getting in/out of the car). My dad and I poked around in the fuse box to see if we could cut it off, but it was connected to the interior lights, so I’ll live with it for now. In the process, however, we disconnected the stereo from the battery, which activated some kind of anti-theft mechanism. Now the stereo requests a 5-digit code before it will start working again! I managed to find the code hand-written in the manual, and tried entering it many times, but I couldn’t get it to work. So I drive in silence, for now. ^.^ It’s not so bad, as the stereo only has a radio and a tape deck; one thing I wanted to upgrade soon, anyway. We actually have a spare car stereo (doesn’t everyone?), I just need to find someone to install it.

Anyway, except for a couple little things, I’m very happy with my first car. Yay

Another potluck lunch at the office, and I took another easy way out. But these really are great, and ridiculously simple.

Ingredients

• 2 c flour
• 4 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t cream of tartar
• 2 t sugar
• 1/2 c shortening
• 2/3 c milk

Instructions

Sift the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening. (Optional: Add grated cheese.) Stir in milk. Knead. Pat out to 1/2″-3/4″ thick. Cut with floured cutter. Bake at 450F (230C) for 10-15 minutes.

Makes 6-16 biscuits, depending on size. (This recipe would probably only make 6 of the large pictured biscuits).

Had a bit of excitement on the way home, today. As I was walking home from the bus stop, after work, I noticed a lot of muddy water bubbling up from the street. A water pipe had broke. I must have just caught it in the early stages. Went home, my mom had already contacted the municipality, and went out later to check on it. The bubbling puddle had become a lake. Some neighbours were directing traffic around the hole initially, and then eventually telling people to take the long way around. We couldn’t use our water for a while, and now it’s a little brown, but at least we can use it!! Just don’t plan on drinking it for a while. Hours later, people are still working on it. Not quite sure what the status is.

(photos below)

My beloved Canon IXY (ELPH) digital camera has finally (mostly) died, thanks to me putting it in a bag that had falsely secure liquids. (It got beer on it and now it behaves very strange and lacks some features, such as playback.) Oops. Anyway, I don’t like having to be so careful with my camera; it interferes with my lifestyle. So, a logical choice for my next camera would be… a waterproof camera? And since I know I like Canon cameras already, a waterproof Canon would be great! Luckily, Canon released their first waterproof camera, this year.

I’ve had the Canon PowerShot D10 (youtube, dpreview, dpreview group test) for 2 weeks now and taken over 100 photos. The interface and features are a nice refinement over my old Canon camera, but there are a few notable things that irritate me. It’s a little larger and heavier than I would like for a point-and-shoot; most importantly, I can’t put it in my pocket. It lacks HD video, which I would love and is common for digital cameras this size and price point. It seems to select a rather high ISO setting, compared to my IXY, when on Auto and in lower-light situations – I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or not, but I have to get used to it. And, of course, making a camera waterproof puts some restrictions on the physical interface: no sliders, no knobs or dials… just buttons. But overall, I have tested it indoors and outdoors in different lighting, in the pool, the ocean, and the rain, and it seems to work pretty good. It turns on really quickly, and the battery life is fantastic (it’s just started flashing for the first time, and I’ve taken a lot of video, as well). In addition to being waterproof to 10 metres, it’s shock resistant and cold-resistant, so I will definitely be using it on the mountain, this ski season. It’s certainly not perfect, but I think I’m going to keep it.

Here are a selection of photos taken with it: