Edge of the World

For Pi Day (3.14), I ordered two Larsen NNO-K antenna mounts for the Honda Element.   Goal is to install two meter VHF and a 220 band amateur radios.  I will run 8 AWG power from the 12V battery to power this equipment.  On the HF scene, I am ready to bolt my Yaesu FT-897D and LDG AT-897+ together.  Looking at a Kent SP-1 single paddle code key for CW "morse code".  This is a side swipper "Cootie" key ;)

It’s about time for a 2012 blog update, still of big fan of Linux and Android. I have been an Ubuntu fan since around 2005 but bloat and the Unity desktop has got me pretty devoted to Linux Mint. I have Linux Mint Debian on my Dell OptiPlex and Linux Mint 12 on the Dell 2400.  I usually use an Xfce desktop but Gnome isn’t bad with Mint. I just like Xfce, I know how it works and I just love the little mouse. I was even a KDE fan for years but I gave up for a while after the KDE 2.4 confusion, I downloaded Linux Mint KDE 12 the other night and might even give it a try again, been hearing KDE is getting more stable lately. My trusty Dell Mini 9 has run Peppermint Two Linux for some time but instead of the typical OpenBox desktop, I use Xfce 4.8 and I am quite pleased with performance. This is my favorite web surfing, Google+ box. A new Acer Iconia A100 tablet has been in the etech inventory, it’s fun for very mobile web use, gmail and Twitter. I had to root it after about a week ...

Being one of the original nerds, a bit to the right of Attila the Hun. a crazy electronics tech, General Class Radio Op, US Army veteran and an Xfce computer geek. I traded the 2008 Honda Fit and got a 2011 Honda Element EX before Honda stopped production of the Elements. I love the Element so far, it feels so much more solid than the Fit. I do plan on on drilling a 3/4" home in the center of the roof later for a Larsen NMO antenna mount. Need a new Yaesu dual band FT-7900R (2-meter/70-cm) VHF/UHF radio then add the Larsen NMO2/70B antenna. Billy, etech18 @ Twitter

Being a Linux monkey and ham radio operator, I just got my "spare" WRT54GL router setup with as a HSMM-MESH node, N5EVD-1.  I find HSMM-MESH interesting since it combines my loves of ham radio, networking and Linux computing.  Already thinking about a Mini-ITX Ubuntu server in a NEMA box with my node ;)  I would like experiment with fixed and mobile Mesh networking for use in future public service and emergency response events.   Also looking at Freifunk Firmware used to build citywide wireless intranets by meshing with layer-3  OLSR routing. Check out http://www.hsmm-mesh.org/ http://wiki.freifunk.net/Freifunk_Firmware_(English)

Thinking of moving the Dell Mini 9 back to Peppermint Ice. Peppermint Ice is a derivative of Peppermint One. It replaces Firefox as the default browser with Chromium, as well as replacing Mozilla Prism in favor of Kendall Tristan's Ice SSB. Ice also drops printer support and other minor features in an attempt to be faster and lighter than Peppermint One. Default Ice applications include: Pixlr [Image Editor] Facebook Hulu Last.FM Pandora Seesmic Web The Cloud Player YouTube Google Calendar Google Docs Google Mail Google Reader Locally installed applications: Chromium Web Browser Dropbox Xnoise [Music Management & Player] Ice X-Chat [IRC Client] Transmission [Bit Torrent Client] Release history Peppermint OS uses a hybrid release schedule. Updates are rolled out as needed in a rolling release fashion. Periodically a re-spin is released which incorporates minor bug fixes and recent updates pre-installed. Initial Release July 20, 2010 Respin 10...

Being a Xfce nut, I got Linux Mint! Xfce RC (201104) running great on the Dell Mini 9, finally got wireless working with "sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer" for the mini9 B43 driver, loaded HeyBuddy, Viewnior and all my backed up data.. I just love the #Xfce mouse! You can read more @ http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1708

Ok, I got to post an update.  I now have a QR code for my blog @ Life in the Sugar Bowl.. You can get these 2-D barcodes from http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ For more info on QR codes, check out the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code For other news, the Dell Mini 9 is now back on Xubuntu 10.10.1, I just gotta have my Xfce desktop and it runs good my the Dell with my 32GB SSD and 2 Megs of RAM.  I tried the Xbuntu 11.04 Natty Alpha-2 last night on my trusty Panasonic CF-72 Toughbook and it's not too bad for Alpha and new new Xfce 4.8.