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over the Fourth of July I was in Vermont with my family. I had not spent time at the house for several years.it is very reassuring that the place is still there. It smells the same as it has for more than 30 years now. Oh my, 30 years.

The best moment I had all week was when Julia and I went on the Bromley slide. We hadn’t really planned on going on the slide, Julia has a hard time getting into new adventurous things. Riding down the longest alpine slide in America at full speed would probably not be at the top of her list… well, read on.

I was surprised that she wasn’t freaked out by the chair lift… I would be. No, that was not an issue. We went up the chair lift saying that we would just “check it out at the top”. The lift operators said that we could go on a “scenic ride”, no problem. Though frankly I was a little worried about getting back on the lift on the way back down. Well, we got to the top and just sat around for awhile. We watched some people go down but not with any intention. I suggested that we go pick flowers at the top of the mountain but she was a little uncomfortable and said “no”. After a few minutes, Julia was ready to go back down the chair lift; we started walking up toward the lift. If I were Julia walking back up toward the chair lift I would have been a little bit unnerved at all of the activity… the people getting off the lift, the people helping, the chairs spinning around. Well, in one movement she turned around and started running back down toward the slide saying that she wanted to go. I grabbed a sled and that was that!

But much much more than that, watch the video.

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When we got down to the bottom, she ran to the chair lift. On the second run, we went down just as fast as we dared!

Look and laugh.

And dispair a little for getting the joke

This reprint is worthwhile

The Washington DC handgun ban was repealed by the US Supreme Court on June 26, 2008. Here is the ruling: (local) Supreme Court Ruling on the Washington DC handgun ban

Short Form: DC made laws making it impossible for anyone to keep or bear (own or carry…) a handgun in the city. And everyone knows how effective that has been (IE “murder capital of the United States”). A police officer wanted to keep a gun in his home so he sued for the right. He won in a 5-4 split decision in the Supreme Court.

For all you Second Amendment nay-sayers, the very first statement made on page 1 is this:

Held:
1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a
firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for
traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

There is a good bit of discussion and clarification about the wording of the Second Amendment starting at the end of page 2. If there are any questions about it, I recomend you read it.

Some excerpts (this is non-inclusive, I recommend you read the whole thing)

Some have made the argument, bordering on the frivolous,
that only those arms in existence in the 18th century
are protected by the Second Amendment. We do not interpret
constitutional rights that way.

.

In numerous instances,
“bear arms” was unambiguously used to refer to
the carrying of weapons outside of an organized militia.

.

The phrase “bear Arms” also had at the time of the
founding an idiomatic meaning that was significantly
different from its natural meaning: “to serve as a soldier,

After this decision, there have been a flurry of lawsuits. One of which is in San Francisco. Take a look.

Saw WALL-E with Charlotte Friday night. Very enjoyable. Reminds me of Charlie Chaplin.  :-)

Want to learn about Copyright Law? Read this: (local copy)
Copyright Law Second Edition by Robert Gorman

I found it at the Federal Judicial Center.

I paid $3 apiece for two Vanson NiCad NiMH battery chargers at BatteriesandButter.com. I’m astounded that this same charger and many like it are for sale on Amazon for $20+.

I also got 28 GP Brand 1700MaH AA batteries for $1 each.

We’ll see how it works out. In the mean time, here are the instructions for the charger. The most useful details are this:

For AA batteries

• When set to “Nicad” it delivers 200mAh for 5 hours
• When set to “NiMH” it delivers 200mAh for 10 hours

For AAA batteries

• When set to “Nicad” it delivers 100mAh for 5 hours
• When set to “NiMH” it delivers 100mAh for 10 hours

After it’s finished, it delivers 10 mAh until unplugged.

I verified with a multimeter that it delivers the same amount of power to each cell regardless of how many batteries are plugged in. That’s good.

It looks like I got a super-duper deal. Check back on this page in a few months and if you don’t see me swearing, then they’re probably peachy keen.

(The instructions OCR-ed with no proofreading)

AUTOMATIC Ni-CD / Ni-MH BATTERY CHARGER WITH IC TIMER CONTROL FOR 8PIECES AA & AAA

OPERATIN6 INSTRUTIONS:

1 .     Set the battery type switch according to the type of your battery. ie. NiCd or NiMH.
2.     Place 2, 4, 6 or 8 pieces of batteries (AA or AAA) in the battery charging compartment. Do not place batteries of different size or kind in a charging group. The charging group provides the correct charging current when only 2 rechargeable batteries of the same size are in 1 battery group. In case, accidentally, put in 1 charging group are placed different batteries (AA and AAA), then automatically both batteries are charged with the charging current of the AAA battery. DO NOT MIX NICKEL-METAL HYDRIDE AND NICKEL-CADMIUM BATTERIES.
3.     Plug the AC plug into the wall outlet.
4.     Each compartment’s indicator lights where batteries are inserted.    ^
If you have inserted batteries in a compartment, and the charging indicator for that
compartment does not light, unplug the charger immediately. Remove the batteries
and clean their contacts. Then, re-insert the batteries, confirm correct polarity, plug
in the charger again. If the charging indicator still does not light, either the charger
is not working properly or the batteries you are trying to Charge are defective.
5.     After the 5 hours charging for NiCd (AA: 600-800mAh; AAA: 200-300mAh) or 10 hours charging for NiMH (AA: 1300-2000mAh; AAA: 500-800mAh) battery, the recharging System has delivered 80-90% of Charge cycle to the batteries and LED goes off. The charger automatically switch to trickle Charge to assure a safe 100% füll Charge. (At trickle Charge Status, it will keep the batteries füll for instant use.)
6.     Unplug and then replug the charger each time when you recharge the empty batteries.
7.     Unplug the charger and remove the batteries from the charger when not in use. CHARGING CURRENT:

FAST CHARGE:-

‘AA    -200mA
‘AAA’    -80mA

TRICKLE CHARGE:-

‘AA/AAA    - 15-20mA(APPROX.)

CAUTION:
1 . Before charging, read instruction.
2. This charger is intended for use with Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries only. Attempting to Charge other types of batteries may cause personal injury and damage to the charger.
3. Recharge only one type of battery (Ni-Cd or Ni-MH) at each time.
4. Do not Charge longer than time specified. Overcharging may cause damage to the charger and battery.
5. Do not expose charger to rain or moisture. Indoor use only.
6. Remove from mains when not in use.
7. The supply cord of this charger cannot be replaced; if the cord is damaged, the charger should be discarded or retumed to the supplier for repair.
8. This charger is intended to be correctly orientated in a vertical or floor mount position.

V-868B

I’ve spent hours catching up on my emails from being away for a week.

Yesterday I responded to someone who was looking for a welder for a short job. It turns out they had already found someone to do the work. But at the end of the email, the would-be weldee, who found my website via my email address wrote this:

P.S. spent the last hour+ on your blog.

:-)

I heard on Security Now about Crash Plan. It looks like it might be an excellent online backup tool. I had been fiddling with the idea of using BoxBackup (local mention). But it was too much of a bother to set up (and limited to <2 GB files).

Right now I use Mozy and I’m very happy with it. I needed it a few days ago when AVG Antivirus thought it would delete some files it thought were viruses. One of them was an .mbox file of a mailing list I ran several years ago that did indeed have a virus. The trouble is, it DELETED the file instead of putting it in the virus vault or the “Recycle bin”. It would have been GONE forever, fuckers.

And if you want to get Mozy, I will split the referral fee I get from them if you follow these instructions.

That said, Crash Plan looks very interesting. The demo shows a very pretty interface. You can backup files to your friends’ computers securely (so there’s no ongoing monthly payments). The $60 Pro version allows versioning. When my subscription is coming up, I’ll seriously think about using it. I know that if I had a total crash, I’d be grumbling at the time it takes to download the 90+ GB I have on the Mozy servers. They have a $30/DVD plan where you can burn copies of your data. That’d be quicker but still a bother. If the files were on a relative’s computer, I’d have them mail it to me.

Hmm, and with a linux install, maybe I could put my Dreamhost disk space to good use.

Last night Charlotte and I went to Valentina Ristorante in Bernal Heights. It was just terrific.