Greetings Earthlings.
I apologize for not posing in a couple years, but I have been busy.
My last post was about the passing of my Dad, and despite however easy you think things are after the death of a loved one, let me tell you they are not. I know he was a crusty old buzzard, but I still miss him from time to time, and soon we will be traveling to his grave-site to check on the installation of his new headstone. (Thank you Barrack Obama and the VA...)
Anyway, Before I get into this years Field Day fiasco, I thought I might try to lighten things up by announcing my latest venture into the unknown, a new banjo. I can already hear it - 'What are you gonna do with that?' and 'Another stringed instrument you will never play!' So no need to say it.
More importantly, it is more of an adventure than anything else, since I am sick of expanding my horizons elsewhere. I have read all the books and magazines I wanted to read, I have watched practically every TV show and movie I could ever wanna watch, and I am just sick of computers and networking. All that leaves is Ham Radio, and Music. And Photography of course. Staying out of bars, and not spending a lot of money elsewhere tends to allow me to purchase a new toy now and then, and I figured since I am not wasting cash on new radios, cameras or even golf clubs, why not venture into the unknown and try something different?
Since I have access to two of the best banjo players I have ever heard, I am hoping to get a free lesson here and there. (Alex and Randy - you are on notice!) That part played heavily into my decision. Since I can already strum a note or two on a guitar (Marshall Amp, Gibson Les Paul, Fender Strat and Ovation Celebrity Deluxe) I figured a side-step into the world of bluegrass might be fun. After all, I am a BIG fan of the Pickin' On series of albums...
Little did I know that batteries were not included and that some assembly would be required. Since this was my very first banjo, I didn't really know what to expect. I had read a little online about banjos and which were better than others, etc. so I had just enough knowledge to make me dangerous. I decided on a name-brand banjo, mid price range (not cheapest, not the best) and a hard-shell case.
I chose a Fender FB-55, and the hard-shell case for a FB-54. I didn't know if it would fit, but believe me when I say this case was meant for this banjo. Now I know there can't be a lot of difference between banjo sizes, so my assumption that it would be fine was a lucky guess. I always try to get the fitted hard-shell case for my instruments, no matter what the cost. What actually surprised me was the little bag of parts that shipped with the banjo.
Because the banjo and the case shipped separately, the banjo came somewhat unassembled. The bridge for the banjo shipped in a little bag with a screwdriver and an allen wrench. (I still have not figured out what the allen wrench is for...) The strings were installed, but as I will continue to explain, there were still many adjustments to be made...
First let me say this is a gorgeous instrument. Even though it states 'Crafted in China' this is a wonderfully finished banjo. The fit and trim leave nothing to be desired, although the setup from the factory was a nightmare. The neck is exceptionally straight (no truss rod adjustment required) and the chromed parts all fit extremely well and looked beautifully finished. This is an instrument that will look good and last a long time. The head was tight and even, tuned to approximately G (G# maybe...) but the compensator rod was somewhat out of alignment and loose. The tuning pegs, while not geared, were also loose and required much tightening before the banjo could be tuned. Here is a shot that doesn't show a lot of detail, but you can still see this is a beautiful instrument:
Having played guitars before (even a violin and a cello once or twice) I knew the bridge had to be used to set the intonation. Here is another spot where I got extremely lucky... In all reality, I used my electronic tuner to help set the proper pitch, but it still may be off a bit because the tuner has difficulty with a banjo. In all honesty I couldn't believe the thing required so much setup. It was almost like I had to carve the thing outta mahogany myself. Getting the tuners tightened, bridge set and everything lined up was the first part of the battle. I looked at the action, and realized I either had the bridge too high or something else was wrong. This would be painful if I had to play something this far outta alignment.
I was thinking I had to adjust the truss rod, then it came to me! There has got to be a way to either set or shim the neck to the right position. Never having setup or played a banjo made me a bit leery of taking it all apart, but apparently that is what I needed to do in order to get this baby setup properly. I got to use the supplied screwdriver to take 4 big screws off that held the back (also called the pot) off, and the single compensator rod (really nice banjos have two compensator rods) took about 1/4 turn to set everything perfectly. I put it all back together, tuned it up quickly and I was AMAZED at how close the action was past the 12th fret. Unbelievable! I wish my guitars could be setup this nice (actually the Les Paul is close...).
Here are some shots of the innards, I used my wife's Nikon P90 for these macro shots.
Check the close action in these next few shots, it is incredible how close and smooth this thing plays! I hope Randy approves...
Anyway for an instrument Crafted in China, I cannot find a single thing to complain about. No scratches, the finish is perfect, and everything fits perfectly. The setup on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. If I had to take this to a luthier, it could have easily been $50-$150 for the setup. (I think that is my next career...) Luckily I have a keen-eyed son and no fear of taking things apart. I still need to take it apart again, in order to add a drop of oil to all the threads and check things now that I have them set the way I prefer.
I have heard a lot of complaints about this particular model (Fender FB-55) but I do have to say that I would put this up against any banjo, this one is a player, and not to be hung on a wall somewhere as an ornament. Is it a $4K Gibson? No way. Does it play and sound great? For sure! Now all I need to do is learn how to play it! Earl Scruggs, watch out!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Milton Walter Corrow
June 11, 1930 - July 3, 2009
RIP old buzzard...
My dad passed away last week. He was 79. As well as being a father, he was a grandfather and a great-grandfather. He was an uncle, a brother and a friend to many.
I will post his obit here soon.
RIP old buzzard...
My dad passed away last week. He was 79. As well as being a father, he was a grandfather and a great-grandfather. He was an uncle, a brother and a friend to many.
I will post his obit here soon.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Where are my logs?
No not wooden logs, contest logs.
Field Day 2009 was great. (photos HERE) The club did well, but not as good as I would have imagined we could do. The DVK setup was a miserable failure. I had to resort to manual phone operation. But still, that aspect did not prevent any contacts. We got the contacts we got (524), and didn't 'lose' any, band conditions were miserable on 40M. More about that in another post...
So it's 2:PM or so on Sunday, and I am shutting stuff down and packing it up, I go to save the log to a USB flash drive, and nada. N3FJP Field Day logging software saves it in the Program Files (i86) folder. So I go looking for them. Nada. Nothing. WHERE'S MY LOG FILES?!?!
Apparently, starting in Vista, Microshaft started 'caching' files in an obscure location. Apparently M$ doesn't trust us to do things normally, so they need to do things abnormally for us. Seems like there is an AppData folder somewhere that contains all sort of 'user' files that we aren't trusted or even allowed to access. It is called 'Compatibility Files' in Microgeek talk.
In my opinion, virtualization is another way for Microsux to say "I know something you don't know"...
The official word on this is that starting in Vista, the rules are that if you don't have explicit (by requesting) elevated permissions to write to C:\Program Files, the system lets you think you are writing there but actually redirects (virtualizes) your writes elsewhere. (or so Scott Hanselman sez...)
On the surface, this sucks in a huge way, especially for ANYBODY in the "where are my files" kind of way. As far as programs on my system, there's a number of "mal-behaved" programs that are getting their writer redirected to the "Virtual Store." Of note are MSN Messenger, the new Nero, and FireFox. I think it is the main reason Win 7 was destroyed (went FUBAR) by Directory Opus 9 a week before Field Day. On a 64-bit system the implications are even worse...
Hanselman also sez:
The other really bad UI issue is that there's no way to get to the compatibility-based Virtual Store from the common file open/save dialogs. The same redirection CAN happen with apps that try to write to registry in HKLM, so watch for that also if something "goes missing."
I can see how hard they're working to make Vista more secure while still maintaining extensive backward compatibility. I haven't had any apps (other than one Java app) bork under Vista yet, but things like this Virtual Store will be confusing until new minor releases of apps with a modicum of Vista-awareness come out.
So where are my logs? When you open Windoze Explorer and you access a folder that has 'virtualized' files, a toolbar button appears that is labeled 'Compatibility Files', click on that button, and voila! There are your files. You can treat them as if they actually exist where you see them...
Field Day 2009 was great. (photos HERE) The club did well, but not as good as I would have imagined we could do. The DVK setup was a miserable failure. I had to resort to manual phone operation. But still, that aspect did not prevent any contacts. We got the contacts we got (524), and didn't 'lose' any, band conditions were miserable on 40M. More about that in another post...
So it's 2:PM or so on Sunday, and I am shutting stuff down and packing it up, I go to save the log to a USB flash drive, and nada. N3FJP Field Day logging software saves it in the Program Files (i86) folder. So I go looking for them. Nada. Nothing. WHERE'S MY LOG FILES?!?!
Apparently, starting in Vista, Microshaft started 'caching' files in an obscure location. Apparently M$ doesn't trust us to do things normally, so they need to do things abnormally for us. Seems like there is an AppData folder somewhere that contains all sort of 'user' files that we aren't trusted or even allowed to access. It is called 'Compatibility Files' in Microgeek talk.
In my opinion, virtualization is another way for Microsux to say "I know something you don't know"...
The official word on this is that starting in Vista, the rules are that if you don't have explicit (by requesting) elevated permissions to write to C:\Program Files, the system lets you think you are writing there but actually redirects (virtualizes) your writes elsewhere. (or so Scott Hanselman sez...)
On the surface, this sucks in a huge way, especially for ANYBODY in the "where are my files" kind of way. As far as programs on my system, there's a number of "mal-behaved" programs that are getting their writer redirected to the "Virtual Store." Of note are MSN Messenger, the new Nero, and FireFox. I think it is the main reason Win 7 was destroyed (went FUBAR) by Directory Opus 9 a week before Field Day. On a 64-bit system the implications are even worse...
Hanselman also sez:
The other really bad UI issue is that there's no way to get to the compatibility-based Virtual Store from the common file open/save dialogs. The same redirection CAN happen with apps that try to write to registry in HKLM, so watch for that also if something "goes missing."
I can see how hard they're working to make Vista more secure while still maintaining extensive backward compatibility. I haven't had any apps (other than one Java app) bork under Vista yet, but things like this Virtual Store will be confusing until new minor releases of apps with a modicum of Vista-awareness come out.
So where are my logs? When you open Windoze Explorer and you access a folder that has 'virtualized' files, a toolbar button appears that is labeled 'Compatibility Files', click on that button, and voila! There are your files. You can treat them as if they actually exist where you see them...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Another Laptop Arrives...
New Dell Latitude E6500 15.4" Demo Laptop
First thing I did was wipe XP off it and install Win 7. Now yet again I am struggling with drivers as well as the initial setup. One would think I would learn after awhile...
This machine scores a 4.0 on the Experience Index, lowest performance is the Aero Graphics. Everything else is a 5 or above. I think it is usable. It only has 4G RAM and a 160Gb HD, but so far the laptop isn't too bad. It is heavy though, and size has its advantages as well as disadvantages. There is plenty of audio (more about full-duplex later) and I kinda like the keyboard. There is a really slim power adapter, whose led power-on indicator is a blue led ring around the power plug where it connects to the laptop. Cool, but more glitz I can live without. Probably necessary for those idiots who cannot tell if there is power coming outta their adapter...
The WI-FI adapter is an Intel 5100 AGN, and I am not impressed with its performance. Seems it only connects at 52 mps, where an Intel 4965 will connect from this same spot at 130 mps. I will look into that. It has the obligatory fingerprint swipe device, which I chose not to install drivers for. Biometrics is nice, but I have yet to find a device that doesn't act like a TSR and leak memory like a sieve. Oh well.
Bigger is generally better, but in this case I think it may be a big drawback. If you are looking for a desktop replacement, then sure, this is your baby. If it won't leave your desk (or kitchen table) except for Sunday dinner, then you won't mind how heavy it is. But if you have to carry this to meetings, and then home each day, I think the size and weight is a showstopper. Sure a 15.4" widescreen laptop is nice when you play a movie, or edit a photo, the resolution (1920X1200 WUXGA) makes it shine. But walk a hallway every day with this beast, and I can guarantee you will prefer to take notes with a pencil and paper rather than drag this monster to another meeting.
If I had to buy one for my own use, I would equip it with 8G RAM (doesn't support 16G), the WUXGA display, 500Gb 7200RPM drive and the nVidia NVS graphics adapter. Maybe then I could eek out a 5.0 on the EI, as long as I had the T9800 Core2 Duo. Even better yet, configure an E6400 like that and shed a pound or two minimum. 9-cell batteries, even LI-ION add quite a bit of weight. The E6500 STARTS at 5.17 lbs, with the 4-cell battery and no optical drive. Load it up and it makes a great door stop...
The wireless works better now, I adjusted the 802.11n settings and I consistently get 120-135 mps connect speeds now. All I need to do is test the thruput. That, and test the audio. I will need to get full-duplex working in some sort of fashion in order to use it with the ham radio equipment. I will TRY the default 'listen' control before I start hacking the registry. I promise. All I need to do is find the time...
First thing I did was wipe XP off it and install Win 7. Now yet again I am struggling with drivers as well as the initial setup. One would think I would learn after awhile...
This machine scores a 4.0 on the Experience Index, lowest performance is the Aero Graphics. Everything else is a 5 or above. I think it is usable. It only has 4G RAM and a 160Gb HD, but so far the laptop isn't too bad. It is heavy though, and size has its advantages as well as disadvantages. There is plenty of audio (more about full-duplex later) and I kinda like the keyboard. There is a really slim power adapter, whose led power-on indicator is a blue led ring around the power plug where it connects to the laptop. Cool, but more glitz I can live without. Probably necessary for those idiots who cannot tell if there is power coming outta their adapter...
The WI-FI adapter is an Intel 5100 AGN, and I am not impressed with its performance. Seems it only connects at 52 mps, where an Intel 4965 will connect from this same spot at 130 mps. I will look into that. It has the obligatory fingerprint swipe device, which I chose not to install drivers for. Biometrics is nice, but I have yet to find a device that doesn't act like a TSR and leak memory like a sieve. Oh well.
Bigger is generally better, but in this case I think it may be a big drawback. If you are looking for a desktop replacement, then sure, this is your baby. If it won't leave your desk (or kitchen table) except for Sunday dinner, then you won't mind how heavy it is. But if you have to carry this to meetings, and then home each day, I think the size and weight is a showstopper. Sure a 15.4" widescreen laptop is nice when you play a movie, or edit a photo, the resolution (1920X1200 WUXGA) makes it shine. But walk a hallway every day with this beast, and I can guarantee you will prefer to take notes with a pencil and paper rather than drag this monster to another meeting.
If I had to buy one for my own use, I would equip it with 8G RAM (doesn't support 16G), the WUXGA display, 500Gb 7200RPM drive and the nVidia NVS graphics adapter. Maybe then I could eek out a 5.0 on the EI, as long as I had the T9800 Core2 Duo. Even better yet, configure an E6400 like that and shed a pound or two minimum. 9-cell batteries, even LI-ION add quite a bit of weight. The E6500 STARTS at 5.17 lbs, with the 4-cell battery and no optical drive. Load it up and it makes a great door stop...
The wireless works better now, I adjusted the 802.11n settings and I consistently get 120-135 mps connect speeds now. All I need to do is test the thruput. That, and test the audio. I will need to get full-duplex working in some sort of fashion in order to use it with the ham radio equipment. I will TRY the default 'listen' control before I start hacking the registry. I promise. All I need to do is find the time...
Friday, June 19, 2009
Time Grows Near...
Next Weekend is Field Day...
Time for a setup shakedown. Clean off the table, wake the kids, turn off the TV... This Sunday, I am gonna unpack the crap again, set it up and make a contact.
But wait! What about an antenna? I am certain I can whip something up... after all this IS a ham radio station here - K1XH. Besides, I have an LDG tuner, I should be able to tune a window shade into a 75M something-or-other. But make a contact? Jeez, i haven't done that in months!
And labels! I gotta make labels and label everything, especially connectors, or I will never get them back. That, and dig out some coax. Lord knows we will probably need it. I think the computer setup is ready, I have been tuning things for a couple weeks now as time permits. With the end of the school year and graduation, including all the graduation parties (another one tonite) things have been hectic to say the least. The weather looks shitty for the next few days so I think it will be safe to spend some time insuring all the gear is ready to go.
Time for a setup shakedown. Clean off the table, wake the kids, turn off the TV... This Sunday, I am gonna unpack the crap again, set it up and make a contact.
But wait! What about an antenna? I am certain I can whip something up... after all this IS a ham radio station here - K1XH. Besides, I have an LDG tuner, I should be able to tune a window shade into a 75M something-or-other. But make a contact? Jeez, i haven't done that in months!
And labels! I gotta make labels and label everything, especially connectors, or I will never get them back. That, and dig out some coax. Lord knows we will probably need it. I think the computer setup is ready, I have been tuning things for a couple weeks now as time permits. With the end of the school year and graduation, including all the graduation parties (another one tonite) things have been hectic to say the least. The weather looks shitty for the next few days so I think it will be safe to spend some time insuring all the gear is ready to go.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
What Win 7 WON'T do...
Direct cable connection is gone...
I guess I should say that I haven't figured it out yet rather than that it doesn't work... Just like everything else in Win 7 it takes a bit more time to figure out because it is new. In all reality I don't even know how important it is anyway.
Last night I was xferring a couple files (Win 7 RC ISO file so I can burn a disk...) and they were rather large, over 3Gb each. This Dell Latitude D630 has an Intel 4965 AGN wireless adapter, which connects at a minimum of 130 mps, but the IBM ThinkPad T60 has only an Intel 3945 ABG that will max out at 54 mps. Ever transfer a file at 54 mps?
I used to, back when slow networks were all the rage. Here at home I have a gigabit ethernet backbone thru a Link-Sys (Cisco) switch, with a D-Link DIR-655 wireless N router connected to the DSL modem. With a 25/2 connection, shit screams across the Internet here. It easily supports all I wanna do, as well as the other dozen or so computers on the network at any one given moment. The local gigabit speeds aren't really necessary, unless you are xferring large files and want to do it in a short amount of time. Nice to have though, seeing how almost everything I have on the network has a gigabit adapter.
So I figure that I can use the gigabit adapters in these 2 laptops to xfer files much quicker than the 54 mps the IBM will max out at. Again, I figured wrong. Connecting a crossover ethernet cable and setting static IP addresses was all anyone needed to do with XP, and I have used it numerous times in the past. Even at a lowly 100 mps things go rather quickly.
Win7 is advanced enough that I don't even need to use a crossover cable, a regular CAT5e cable will work, apparently. They connect easy enough, but if you think I could get them to talk to each other, boy were you wrong. I still haven't figured this out. Luckily I have the hard drives with the previous OS still intact, and if I can't figure this out in Win7 I am gonna pop the old drives back in just to test Vista and XP to see if the laptops actually do work in this direct-connect configuration.
Anyway, one thing Win7 WILL do is burn an image file, natively. Just double click the ISO file, and Windows Disk Image Burner pops up and prompts you to choose or verify your CD/DVD burner drive. Kinda cool, really. I wonder what else will surprise me next...
I imagine if I can get this direct connect thing working, it will surprise me. M$ dropped direct connect FireWire support with Vista, but I imagine you can get 480 mps throughput with USB. Or so they claim. Kinda like new car MPG ratings. You only get that mileage going downhill, coasting in neutral with a tailwind. In order to get 480 mps throughput with USB you need to connect two supercomputers in a refrigerated server room and use pure gold cable. Go figure.
Anyway it appears as though Win7 is pretty stable, I have installed it on a few machines and except for one installation in particular, they have all been rock-solid stable. Other than the few annoyances detailed in this blog things run OK, and if they don't run OK, there are tricks you can pull to get then going. Like running video drivers in compatibility mode. Sure, it isn't the best thing to do, but to me, the end always justifies the means.
I guess I should say that I haven't figured it out yet rather than that it doesn't work... Just like everything else in Win 7 it takes a bit more time to figure out because it is new. In all reality I don't even know how important it is anyway.
Last night I was xferring a couple files (Win 7 RC ISO file so I can burn a disk...) and they were rather large, over 3Gb each. This Dell Latitude D630 has an Intel 4965 AGN wireless adapter, which connects at a minimum of 130 mps, but the IBM ThinkPad T60 has only an Intel 3945 ABG that will max out at 54 mps. Ever transfer a file at 54 mps?
I used to, back when slow networks were all the rage. Here at home I have a gigabit ethernet backbone thru a Link-Sys (Cisco) switch, with a D-Link DIR-655 wireless N router connected to the DSL modem. With a 25/2 connection, shit screams across the Internet here. It easily supports all I wanna do, as well as the other dozen or so computers on the network at any one given moment. The local gigabit speeds aren't really necessary, unless you are xferring large files and want to do it in a short amount of time. Nice to have though, seeing how almost everything I have on the network has a gigabit adapter.
So I figure that I can use the gigabit adapters in these 2 laptops to xfer files much quicker than the 54 mps the IBM will max out at. Again, I figured wrong. Connecting a crossover ethernet cable and setting static IP addresses was all anyone needed to do with XP, and I have used it numerous times in the past. Even at a lowly 100 mps things go rather quickly.
Win7 is advanced enough that I don't even need to use a crossover cable, a regular CAT5e cable will work, apparently. They connect easy enough, but if you think I could get them to talk to each other, boy were you wrong. I still haven't figured this out. Luckily I have the hard drives with the previous OS still intact, and if I can't figure this out in Win7 I am gonna pop the old drives back in just to test Vista and XP to see if the laptops actually do work in this direct-connect configuration.
Anyway, one thing Win7 WILL do is burn an image file, natively. Just double click the ISO file, and Windows Disk Image Burner pops up and prompts you to choose or verify your CD/DVD burner drive. Kinda cool, really. I wonder what else will surprise me next...
I imagine if I can get this direct connect thing working, it will surprise me. M$ dropped direct connect FireWire support with Vista, but I imagine you can get 480 mps throughput with USB. Or so they claim. Kinda like new car MPG ratings. You only get that mileage going downhill, coasting in neutral with a tailwind. In order to get 480 mps throughput with USB you need to connect two supercomputers in a refrigerated server room and use pure gold cable. Go figure.
Anyway it appears as though Win7 is pretty stable, I have installed it on a few machines and except for one installation in particular, they have all been rock-solid stable. Other than the few annoyances detailed in this blog things run OK, and if they don't run OK, there are tricks you can pull to get then going. Like running video drivers in compatibility mode. Sure, it isn't the best thing to do, but to me, the end always justifies the means.
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