I was just reading the latest issue of
<a href="http://www.homepower.com/">Home Power</a>
-magazine, which is celebrating 20 years of publication with this issue.
-One of the articles, by Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze, talks about the value of
+magazine, which is celebrating 20 years of publication with this issue. One
+of the articles, by Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze, talks about the value of
reusable cotton bags for shopping instead of accepting the usual "paper or
-plastic". It caught my eye because my wife Karen is an avid cotton-bag user.
-Kathleen ends the article with an idea that I think is worth repeating:
+plastic". It caught my eye because my wife Karen is an avid cotton-bag
+user. Kathleen ends the article with an idea that I think is worth repeating:
<blockquote>
<p>
</p>
</blockquote>
-I like that. Conservation, courtesy, and generosity should never go out of style...
+I like that. Conservation, courtesy, and generosity should never
+go out of style...
[[!tag tags/misc]]
In between keeping things going at work and hanging out more than usual with
-my kids (who are off from school on spring break this week), I've been trying
+my kids (who are off from school on spring break), I've been trying
to help out around the edges with
<a href="http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer">Debian Installer</a>
-this week.
-Probably the most significant thing I've done is to provide access to one of
+this week. Probably the most significant thing I've done is to provide
+access to one of
my hppa systems so that nightly builds of d-i for hppa can happen. However,
trying to help out has finally gotten me to organize "my other rack" in a way
that testing stuff like this will be easier in the future.
switch got damaged a while back. So, I've been thinking about replacing it,
and today I finally ordered a new
<a href="http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/-/-/-/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=STRDE895%2fB&CategoryName=hav_HiFiComponents_Receivers_HiFiReceivers">Sony STR-DE895</a>
-from <a href="http://www.jandr.com/">J&R</a>.
-Should be here next week.
+from <a href="http://www.jandr.com/">J&R</a>. Should be here next week.
I'll move the current receiver to the basement so that I have something to test
5.1 audio with. Taking it out of routine use also means I can take it
While I've smiled for a lot of photographs at speaking engagements around the
world in the last year or three,
to the best of my knowledge Elizabeth Gordon-Werner is
-the first person who ever painted me during one of my talks. Pretty cool.
-She has the
+the first person who ever painted me during one of my
+talks. Pretty cool. She has the
<a href="http://www.artsmitten.com/gallery/people/det_oss6.htm">painting
of me</a> online, along with lots of others from this and other events at her
<a href="http://www.artsmitten.com">Art Smitten</a> site.
and I even came home from Malaga with a CD containing their packages! But
I just hadn't ever gotten around to actually doing anything with Squeak.
-Now I have... and even better, so have my kids. ;-)
-In fact, while I think I understand
-what's actually going on better, my daughter now has spent much more time
+Now I have... and even better, so have my kids. ;-) In fact, while I
+think I understand what's actually going on better, my daughter now
+has spent much more time
playing with eToys than I have. I'm really curious to see how far she
goes with this...
[[!tag tags/rockets]]
As some of you know, the first weekend in October was a big deal for me,
-because it was [NCR's](http://ncrocketry.org) Oktoberfest launch event.
-My son and I spent the weekend camped out on the prairie
+because it was [NCR's](http://ncrocketry.org) Oktoberfest launch event. My
+son and I spent the weekend camped out on the prairie
with Keith Packard and many of our other friends. Keith successfully went
-from nothing to a "level 2" high power certification, which was pretty cool.
-I wasn't quite so lucky.
+from nothing to a "level 2" high power certification, which was pretty
+cool. I wasn't quite so lucky.
On Saturday morning, I flew my custom-designed rocket YikStik for a "level 3"
certification attempt. The name comes from the word my wife uses to describe
[Aerotech](http://www.aerotech-rocketry.com)
M1297W reload. This is a 75mm diameter motor 66.5cm in length with 2722 grams
of propellant yielding 5417 Newton-seconds of total impulse. It was also on
-sale earlier this year for cert attempts.
-My simulations
+sale earlier this year for cert attempts. My simulations
said YikStik should have flown to about 14,800 feet above ground level at the
NCR north site on this motor.
-The launch went perfectly, and the rocket was stunningly beautiful under boost.
-It disappeared into some high clouds, but we continued to have strong signals
+The launch went perfectly, and the rocket was stunningly beautiful under
+boost. It disappeared into some high clouds,
+but we continued to have strong signals
from the two tracking transmitters installed in the payload bay behind the
nose cone. About the anticipated time after launch, we saw a rocket descending
under chute in the distance, and headed in that direction. A few minutes
the main should have had a slightly higher descent rate than the nose cone,
I expected to find the rest of the rocket somewhere near a line between the
launch rail and where the nose cone was discovered. So last Wednesday I
-spent about 5.5 hours walking around the area searching... but no luck.
-Since then, several other people have been out looking for my rocket,
+spent about 5.5 hours walking around the area searching... but no luck. Since
+then, several other people have been out looking for my rocket,
including two friends who flew over the area today in a light plane looking
down into all the washes. Still nothing.