My Thoughts

"Knoppix is a GNU/Linux distribution that boots and runs completely from CD or DVD and can be used to read and write Windows and other partitions (among other clever tricks)."

I burned it to a DVD and booted the computer which died. I was able to copy my pictures, documents and development files to a USB drive. I am very happy! Now I am thinking about swapping the hard drive from my other dead computer, see if there is anything on there that I missed.

Knoppix is very easy to use. If you know how to navigate around in Windows, then you would have no trouble with Knoppix. Recommended!

In a follow up to my post earlier today, I thought that I might mention a few things. When I tried to get the wireless web cam working, Vista locked up on me, which then crashed my web cam. I had to run a network cable to it in order to get in online. During the set up, I got a message from Windows saying that it's firewall had blocked a connection. I thought that odd, since the first thing I did when I first started this system was to kill the firewall. I checked, it IS turned off. After I got both web cams online, I could not view them in IE. It repeatedly asked to install an ActiveX object, which I kept saying 'yes' to. I put it in the safe list and turned off IE's web site checker. I still cannot view my web cams in IE. Not that I care, they work fine in Firefox.

This is the 64 bit version of Vista. I can no longer sync my handheld, the software will not install on a 64 bit system. I thought the problems with my last system were caused primarily because I only had 2 GB (!) of memory. I added two more, but I fried the system before I could tell if that was the cause. Being as this system has 6 GB and it still is a POS, I'm guessing the two extra GB would not have helped.

I gave up on the idea of going back to XP, MS made it too much of a PIA. On the other hand, Vista clearly is a POS. My XP system runs at least a week at a time without a re-boot. The last system with Vista never made it that far, and so far this one doesn't seem like it will, either. I saw a thread on Weather-Watch about Vista, and some were saying that they were very happy with it. I am at a total loss to understand that!

If you have read this blog for awhile, you may know that I am no fan of Windows Vista! I have finally reached my limit! I have GR Level 3 radar running on two computers. The XP machine runs for weeks at a time with no problem. The Vista machine is lucky to make it three days in a row. I have researched the problem on the GR LevelX forums, and all they say is to turn off all screen savers and power management. This I have done, repeatedly! Vista seems to have a mind of it's own. I have some folders sorted by Date Modified. They will be sorted with this setting for a few days, then the folders will mysteriously switch to sort by Name. If I right click to sort by Date Modified, that option will not even be in the menu! So I bought a license for Win XP. Maybe Microsoft's New OS will be better than Vista, it sure couldn't be much worse.

I found the following post from last year, and I think this is a good time to repost it! I would like to add, this ride is growing in popularity, and people do come from all over to ride it. Also, the queue sheets are available to download from their site.

It's time to start getting in shape for the Pedal to Preserve Ride. They have 6, 20 and 51 mile courses. 51 sounds like a lot of miles, but it really isn't. If you start now you can easily do it! Proceeds for this ride buy farmland, to keep it from being developed. This is a good cause and a good ride!

If you visit the weather page, you may have noticed an unusually large number of unique hits the other day. They cane from a post I made last summer in the US Eastern Weather forum. It was a topic about the GR3 radar, and I posted a link to my radar page. Someone revived that thread and everyone checked my site. When I last I checked the USA Weather Finder, it showed 65 hits! This was at 11:00 PM. It doesn't reset until 2:00 AM, so I'm sure there were even more than that.

NH Pa Weather got a write up in Manufacturing Moments, our company's news letter. I was a bit surprised at this, because they do not allow Internet access in the shop anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to hear people complaining about that, again.

Team Discovery is the Green Team for Tour De France
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"At the outset of the conference call, team marketing manger P.J. Rabice announced that beginning at the prologue in London, the team's jerseys, shorts, helmets and cars would all be accented in green in deference to a new environmental awareness program."

"The main goal is making a long-term commitment to offsetting 100 percent of the carbon emissions from all caravan vehicles," Rabice explained. "Even though the program will officially launch on July 5, we will back-date to January and make the team completely carbon neutral."

Planting Trees
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"While cycling is an environmentally friendly way of travelling, Discovery Channel intend to offset the carbon emissions from the cars they use during races by planting trees in the Mendocino Forest near team leader Levi Leipheimer's home in California."

"The team will also pledge to plant 30 trees each time a Discovery Channel rider wins a stage or wears a classification jersey during the race."

I rode the 51 miles of The Peddle To Preserve today. I was very pleased with the whole event. The course was well marked and I had no problem following it. The people were friendly, and everyone seemed to get along fine. I passed quite a few farms with signs saying, this farm preserved.

Now for the downside. I work for CNH. We make farm equipment under the Case and New Holland brand name. The NH part of CNH was founded right here, in New Holland. There were pages of sponsors for this ride, PPL, Kelloggs' and Tyson, to name a few. I did NOT see CNH listed.

Update: Today I asked why we were not a sponsor, they said no one had contacted them. They said they would be willing to be a sponsor next year, so I passed on the contact info. Now I have to wait a year to find out!

I saw this posted at the Eastern US Weather forum and thought I would have to pass it on. The story is from the BBC online. Highlights are "The US appears to have rejected draft proposals by Germany for G8 members to agree tough measures in greenhouse gas emissions, leaked documents have shown." and "Greenpeace Director John Sauven described the US position as 'criminal' ".

Way to go Bush.

I added a footer on my home page: Lancaster, PA Ranked Eleventh Most Polluted Metropolitan Area, by Year-Round Particle Pollution (Annual PM2.5) Lancaster is the thirteenth worst county.

The Harrisburg ABC affiliate, WHTM, reported the poor rating for the Lancaster air quality. This surprised Alicia Richards at the news desk. She said, 'we do have a lot of trucks'. She didn't say why Lancaster has more trucks than anywhere else. Note that this is the ranking for fine particulates, not ozone. A few months back, another local station did a story about a church group that wanted to do something about the air quality. They wanted legislation to limit the amount of idle time for diesel engines.

I am sure trucks do not improve the air quality, but they are not the cause of our poor air. To quote lungaction.org
"Unfortunately, levels of particle pollution rose in the eastern United States, likely because coal-fired power plants increased their production of electricity by seven percent."

I suppose that I should not pick on Alicia Richards, but should she spout her ill informed ideas during a newscast? At least I think it was an innocent mistake on her part, but it was irresponsible of WHTM to run this story and not even mention the cause of the air quality problem. If people are not aware of the cause of the pollution, you can be sure the government won't do anything that would cost big business.

It's time to start getting in shape for the Pedal to Preserve Ride. This is a great bicycle ride through Lancaster county. This will be the 10th annual, and the 4th or 5th for me. They have 6, 20 and 51 mile courses. 51 sounds like a lot of miles, but it really isn't. If you start now you can easily do it! Proceeds for this ride buy farmland, to keep it from being developed. This is a good cause and a good ride!

I saw 4 robins hopping around in my driveway, so Spring must be around the corner. According to the calendar it's already here, but the temperature was in the 40's today. Now if those robins would only use the other bird feeder.

I have this DVD in my Netflix queue. I have not seen the DVD, but I have seen other programs on PBS and The Science Channel about global warming. I looked at the CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR 2006 FOR HARRISBURG and it does seem to be a wake up call. I don't want to quote the whole page, but some highlights,
" ...ONE OF THE WARMEST YEARS ON RECORD IN THE STATE CAPITOL..."

" *NOTE THAT 4 OF THE 5 WARMEST YEARS HAVE OCCURRED SINCE 1990. "

"IN A NORMAL YEAR ABOUT 36.9 INCHES OF SNOW CAN BE EXPECTED.
THIS MADE THE YEAR ABOUT 31.2 INCHES SHY OF NORMAL. "

I would urge you to see the An Inconvenient Truth DVD.

Station Notes about the nhpaweather station and web site

I'm starting fresh, and decided not to copy the old blog over. This should look familiar if you have seen the blog on user3166.com, I pretty much copied the look and feel. I've noticed the hits have dropped off on the user3166 home page, I hope that's not because I've changed the look of it.

The move to the new URL is shaping up. I hope to make the transfer sometime during the week of 12/17/06. I plan to have all the files in place, then set up a re-direct. This means, don't try the new site before you get re-directed, because it won't work.

Don't forget to email me, or leave a comment here, if you do/don't like the new home page's look.

edit: Here is a link to my old web log.