What have you been up to lately?

[Ylem]

I am now in full time house painting mode to get the house ready to list. Oh fun.

[a100171]

Laptop Repair/Maintenance!

After some quite successful imaging exercises, it was abundantly clear that I had to fix some things. The guiding all worked quite well, as did image capture.
Behind the scenes, an IBM T43 was running PHD2 on WinXP. The CMOS battery was dead, so any momentary slip to the power plug meant a lengthy reboot and time/date set. I also have a nearly identical T41, which also needed a CMOS battery. Both have some other applications too good to discard (e.g. serial radio programming)so I have kept them somewhat safe. There was one good battery between them, and a not ancient aftermarket one that is dead. The T43 had been dropped dozens of times and needed minor chassis work, but it had an IDE SSD so it was a comparatively quick boot.
Both CMOS batteries went in OK (and I even have extra screws!) and I disassembled the bad battery for repair. One cell was damaged (evidence of leak) with evidence of corrosion. I had 18650 cells already on hand.

I don't know if anyone has ever seen those very-inexpensive Spot Welder tools (mine was around $50 when I got it), but I was dying to try this out. After a few practice attempts, I was able to re-affix the assembly using a combination of the old strips and a strip of the supplied Nickel strip material. I could not believe how well it worked. These were replacement "flat-top" cells, and they were a perfect fit. The partially re-assembled battery is getting epoxied back together at a few places. It cot pretty hemmed-up during disassembly.
If I had known this bad-boy worked this well, I would not have purchased the replacement CMOS battery assembly; I would have spot-welded a strategic piece of nickel strip on a 50-cent button-cell and soldered the old wired to the strips.

Will work on the T510 that I use for the video capture portion, running either BackYard EOS for the Canon T3i, or ASI Studio for the other cameras. That battery is dead as a door nail.

BTW, saving all my money for Dirt! Spring will mean finally having at least some of the yard to observatory-appropriate levels.

[GCoyote]

I tried something new (to me) mead.
.
.

[Butterfly Maiden]

I tried something new (to me) mead.

Did you enjoy it Gary?

We have only ever tried mead once, and found it to be very sweet - sickly sweet actually, so we haven't bothered with it since.

[GCoyote]

It was sweeter than what I'm used to drinking but no more than many dessert wines and the citrus notes really balanced it well. I had a small cup to sip on during evening reading the past few nights. I call it a welcome change of pace.

[pakarinen]

I've been using the laptop version of Stellarium for planning and SkySafari+ on my phone from when I had push-to encoders. I always felt the laptop Stellarium was a bit cluttered / clunky. However, I just downloaded the free iPhone Stellarium app and I have to say I like it.

If I think about it, I really don't need all the features on SS+ like crosshairs and orbits and whatever since I no longer connect to a scope. Free Stellarium gives a very nice sky map IMO and realtime alt-az which is all I need for my Wixey and az circle.

The question is how accurate the Stellarium coords are. That'll have to wait a few days as it's overcast and up to 10 inches of snow is forecast for tomorrow.

[helicon]

Mead consumption goes back to the time of Beowulf. Never tried it but 12 percent ABV and 750 milliliters would pack a punch!

I'm heading out to the podiatrist to try to figure out what's going on with my feet. Discomfort while walking. Age related degeneration I guess.

[Makuser]

Hi Gary and Michael. You are correct as it is written Mead Hall in Beowulf (Heorot was in Beowulf's center). Sheri and I used to find and enjoy this hydromel (fermenting honey mixed with water) made by Merrydown in the UK many years ago, but haven't seen it available here for a long time.

[Ylem]

Look what the post man brought!

Romarin et sei de mer!

Now I just need some Montreal smoked meat

[SkyHiker]

I ordered an Ooma box as a Wifi-based telephone after I had to return my work cell phone. Curious how that works. I may get a cell phone later to replace the one I had for work that I returned.

I also ordered a 4-bay Synology server with 3 4-TB hard disks. I want to set up 2 of them as RAID, and the 3rd one as backup disk, also for some of the RAID data. I may add a 4th disk later on. Should be good for setting up SVN, VPN, cloud, backup, encryption, file server, and a lot more. I used one at work and found it very convenient to configure, it worked flawlessly. I want something better than just a laptop with a backup disk.

Both should be here this afternoon.

[Frankskywatcher]

I figured I would post in this section and let everyone know what I’ve been up to lately,
This is quite the tail so you might want to get a cool drink and sit down. Lol.

There were two dogs that were being neglected.
They were in a junkyard that was out in the middle of nowhere in the woods in rural South Carolina.
The owner of the junkyard had them both chained to empty, huge water containers that you see on the back of flatbed trucks with just a cut out with a way for them to get in there.

The problem was this horrible human being would leave these dogs for days at a time with no water, no food the whole place would get flooded out when it rained , the dog houses would be all wet inside and they would be in standing water.

So this woman that I know through social media, who actually I met thru one of my rescued dogs one of the two hound dogs that I have I rescued thru her
So anyway, this woman told the guy that owns the junkyard “you need to surrender the dogs to me before the authorities come down on you “as a veiled threat.
What does idiot do he hemmed and hawed but she finally convinced him to surrender the dogs to him.
So we to constructed a Portable chain-link 10’ x 12’ pen for both of them.
That was a few weeks ago but my neighbor who I helped him build a huge pole barn had a lot of leftover lumber and let me take whatever I needed .
So we went back today to her home, which is about half an hour from where I live out the country and we constructed roofing to keep them both out of the sun, rain in the elements.
I started a Go fund me page off of the blog that I have for the two rescued hound dogs @ daily dose of Daisy Mae & Beautiful Bella on Facebook.
The fund me drive on and my dogs blog generated $475 today for these two dogs, food and medical expenses going forward!
So I’m closing today was a dog day for me, but it was worth it!

PS I also included one picture of my two hound dogs. They were both skin and bone and dumped and hot. One positive when we rescued them the tri-colored one ( Daisy Mae)was so weak. It couldn’t get up on a her own for close to a week and the Redbone( Bella )was rescued from a cornfield where it had lived for three or four months as a puppy..

[DeanD]

I ordered an Ooma box as a Wifi-based telephone after I had to return my work cell phone. Curious how that works. I may get a cell phone later to replace the one I had for work that I returned.

I also ordered a 4-bay Synology server with 3 4-TB hard disks. I want to set up 2 of them as RAID, and the 3rd one as backup disk, also for some of the RAID data. I may add a 4th disk later on. Should be good for setting up SVN, VPN, cloud, backup, encryption, file server, and a lot more. I used one at work and found it very convenient to configure, it worked flawlessly. I want something better than just a laptop with a backup disk.

Both should be here this afternoon.

Lots of new words and acronyms for me here!

I had to look up "Ooma box", "Synology server", "RAID" and "SVN" so I am bit the wiser now.
I even found out the difference between "SVN" and "Git" (although I am not much the wiser there!)

At least I did know what the other words mean...

I'll go back to my cave now.

Have fun with all that data!

All the best,

Dean

[Butterfly Maiden]

Thank you for posting that heart-wrenching story Frank

It always angers me when I read of tales where animals of any kind have been mistreated.

This one had a happy outcome thanks to you (with help from the other lady), so I am proud of you for doing that

[Butterfly Maiden]

@SkyHiker Henk, just as Dean mentioned, I don't have a clue what all that computer terminology meant

I hope it all works well for you anyway.

[SkyHiker]

@SkyHiker Henk, just as Dean mentioned, I don't have a clue what all that computer terminology meant

Let me explain it a bit more then. it may sound nerdy, but it is really pretty common for software developers, and many non-developers too, I think, so to those, skip the rest of this message.

I am not a fan of cell phones and, since with my retirement I lost my cell phone that was provided by work, would not mind having a land line instead. Ooma is a VOIP system (Voice Over IP, IP=Internet Protocol) that lets you set up a phone number and comes with an app that lets you use any Wifi device to connect and check messages - for instance a PC or an Android tablet, to make phone calls. They charge just fees and taxes, so it is much cheaper than a regular land line and certainly cheaper than a cell phone. You can connect from any hot spot not just your own home.

The Synology server (that's just a brand name) is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution that comes with several utilities such as:
- SVN: I develop software, and SVN is a configuration management system that lets you browse the history of your code development and make file comparisons of different versions, manage custom derivatives (branches). It is indispensable for any software developer and should always run on a separate machine to ensure integrity. You will never have to fear losing anything you did in the past, so it offers a lot of freedom to develop new stuff and revert if it turns out to be no good.
- RAID: This protects against hardware failures by using multiple disks so that if one fails, the other one can correct it, automatically. I am currently on a 12-year-old Toshiba laptop and worry about disk failures. If I keep my important files on that RAID system, the chances of losing my files are a lot less.
- File server: I can store my files on that server and mount them on my other computers, Linux or Windows, as folders that can be accessed directly. This is also handy for making periodic backup over the network, since the server is always on, and I don't have to manually connect a backup disk.
- VPN: A Virtual Private Network, that can be used to access my network securely away from home if there is a need for it. That way I don't have to carry my laptop with me and still have access to my files and/or computers by cell phone or tablet.
- Cloud: This is makes it possible to access data that I want to share via web browsers, for instance photo series of hikes, or astronomy pictures. I could also set up a message board like TSS, a mail server or FTP file server on it. I find it nice to keep everything on my own computer instead of using Google or Microsoft cloud solutions.

Hope this explains it. The server was about $300, the disks $60 each. There are other solutions for some of these features, but it is nice to have a single, central NAS system that is meant to provide this. It worked very well for the office.

I hope it all works well for you anyway.

We'll see. It will be useful in the long run.

[GCoyote]

Say Henk, did you consider SSD storage? It's getting so common now you can buy 2TB portable SSDs at Costco.
The idea of not having any moving parts to fail is very appealing to me.

[Ylem]

Frank, give those doggies a hug from me!

What a heartwarming story!

[SkyHiker]

Say Henk, did you consider SSD storage? It's getting so common now you can buy 2TB portable SSDs at Costco.
The idea of not having any moving parts to fail is very appealing to me.

I have a 1 TB SSD on my laptop, but I am not convinced that it is a more robust storage than disks. I want this NAS for more reasons than just for backup. I also want it to be online not yet another device to carry with me. But thanks for the suggestion Gary!

[Juno16]

I figured I would post in this section and let everyone know what I’ve been up to lately,
This is quite the tail so you might want to get a cool drink and sit down. Lol.

There were two dogs that were being neglected.
They were in a junkyard that was out in the middle of nowhere in the woods in rural South Carolina.
The owner of the junkyard had them both chained to empty, huge water containers that you see on the back of flatbed trucks with just a cut out with a way for them to get in there.

The problem was this horrible human being would leave these dogs for days at a time with no water, no food the whole place would get flooded out when it rained , the dog houses would be all wet inside and they would be in standing water.

So this woman that I know through social media, who actually I met thru one of my rescued dogs one of the two hound dogs that I have I rescued thru her
So anyway, this woman told the guy that owns the junkyard “you need to surrender the dogs to me before the authorities come down on you “as a veiled threat.
What does idiot do he hemmed and hawed but she finally convinced him to surrender the dogs to him.
So we to constructed a Portable chain-link 10’ x 12’ pen for both of them.
That was a few weeks ago but my neighbor who I helped him build a huge pole barn had a lot of leftover lumber and let me take whatever I needed .
So we went back today to her home, which is about half an hour from where I live out the country and we constructed roofing to keep them both out of the sun, rain in the elements.
I started a Go fund me page off of the blog that I have for the two rescued hound dogs @ daily dose of Daisy Mae & Beautiful Bella on Facebook.
The fund me drive on and my dogs blog generated $475 today for these two dogs, food and medical expenses going forward!
So I’m closing today was a dog day for me, but it was worth it!

PS I also included one picture of my two hound dogs. They were both skin and bone and dumped and hot. One positive when we rescued them the tri-colored one ( Daisy Mae)was so weak. It couldn’t get up on a her own for close to a week and the Redbone( Bella )was rescued from a cornfield where it had lived for three or four months as a puppy..

You are my kind of guy Frank!
What you and your social media friend are wonderful folks!

To me, dogs are just special and even the ones with issues have an amazing sweet side. I know that this will sound strange to some folks, but I personally prefer dogs to lots of people.

I live in the south (Mississippi) and it is appalling how some people treat these sweet animals. It is not just MS, but other nearby southern states too. The shelters are overflowing!

I have fostered many dogs that have been abandoned or stray, that are cared for and sent north to well vetted new families. Dogs are great, but there are wonderful people out there too!

I was lucky to find my dog Jack at a shelter almost 6 years ago. He has given me so much in that time!
He has been having trouble walking recently, so I brought him in for evaluation earlier this week. Both of his hips are pretty bad (dyplaysia) and one knee needed surgery too (worse than the hips). I spent my astro budget (for quite some time) to have a TPLO surgery on his knee. I am very fortunate to have him and my wonderful wife (who was good with me spending the money for Jack's surgery).
He is the dog on the left in my avatar. A foster pup is on the right biting his tail.

You are a good man Frank. We need more folks like you!

[Frankskywatcher]

Juno 16 thank you so much for the kind works and I Agee with you animals are better than people especially dogs because they love you unconditionally well you are my kind of people too my friend !