September 2010

There were 42 posts published in September 2010 (this is page 1 of 5).

Able Archer: almost armegeddon?

I’m amazed sometimes that the world survived the year 1983. We came dangerously close to being blown up that year. Dangerously close. Able Archer was a NATO military exercise that place in November of that year. The exercise simulated an attack on Soviet forces, only the Soviets were convinced it was the real thing.

It was said that the misunderstanding so disturbed Reagan that he began to work towards defusing the standoff with the Soviets, leading to historic arms control treaties and eventually peace with the Russians. He toned down his rhetoric from then on, fortunately.

Able Archer 83 was a ten-day NATO command post exercise starting on November 2, 1983 that spanned Western Europe, centred on SHAPE’s Headquarters situated at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons. Able Archer exercises simulated a period of conflict escalation, culminating in a coordinated nuclear release. The 1983 exercise incorporated a new, unique format of coded communication, radio silences, participation by heads of state, and a simulated DEFCON 1 nuclear alert.
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North Korea’s Supreme Internet Experts

Internet Expert

I’ve already given props to Great Commander Kim Jong-Il for his Great Internet Expertness. Now it turns out his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-Un, is also an Internet genius. Word on the street is that he’s such a wizard at the keyboard that his nickname is Computer Numerical Control, or C.N.C.

That’s right. Not only was he promoted to an instant four-star general and groomed to take over the country, Kim Jong-Un has a kick-ass Internet screen name, too.

No wonder North Korea is so cool. Its leaders are off the hook!

Partial power outage

Around 11:11 this morning I was working at my desk when the power flickered. A moment later the power came back on, but at much lower voltage! When my VoIP phone began going nuts I remembered how bad it is for electronics to be fed low voltage, so I began racing frantically around the house, shutting down all the electronics and CFL bulbs I could find. Soon the power was lost completely, ending the apparent danger.

An hour later the power returned and things seemed to be fine. All the gear I turned off came back on again. I thought we were out of the woods … until late afternoon. Kelly asked me if I had done something to the refrigerator as the ice tray was filled with water instead of ice. That’s when I realized I should’ve turned off the refrigerator, too. I think the compressor has been damaged by the low power, too.

When the ice storm hit the Triangle in 2002 the heat pump in our Garner home fell victim to low voltage. Had we waited for the power to stabilize in the neighborhood that night we wouldn’t have had to buy a new heat pump. I don’t know if I could’ve switched the power off to the refrigerator fast enough for it to have protected it but I might have done something.

The freezer and fridge are both cooling down again now, but it’s taking much longer for it to happen than it once did. It’s as if the compressor has lost 50% of its power, too. We could be facing an expensive repair, or an outright replacement of our refrigerator.

Don’t let it be said that we’re not doing our part to stimulate the economy.

Update 1 Oct: Fridge appears fine, after all. Not sure how it warmed up like it did but so far so good.

So much to say, so little time

I’ve been busting it for the past few weeks, working to get up to speed on work issues, shepherding a room renovation at home, and doing all of my public service stuff. Yesterday my day began with a meeting with Raleigh city manager Russell Allen, phone calls and labs at work, a reception for a city councilor at which I chatted with the police chief and others, visiting with the family, and painting that room until 11:30 PM. Is it any wonder that I fell asleep when reading at bedtime with Hallie?

I also took that voiceover class I’d been looking forward to for months. I’ll fill in the details later, as there’s a lot to blog about. Look for a string of updates soon!

I <3 ImageMagick


I was looking for a way to stitch together multiple scans I’ve made into a multiple-page PDF. Each page when scanned became a separate image file and I didn’t want to attach each one separately.

Fortunately, ImageMagick came to the rescue! All it took was this command:

convert -adjoin *.png report.pdf

… and my PDF was created instantly. What useful little tools ImageMagick are!

Whole-house battery backup?

Tonight’s power failure reminded me of a scheme I thought of this afternoon. Having been recently reminded that nighttime power rates are dirt cheap, I have been considering building out a battery bank in the house that can power the home during the day (peak hours) and be recharged during the night. This might seem like a lot of effort to save a few bucks but it would have another role: the equipment would be used if and when we ever get solar panels put on the house. The battery bank could be used if we chose to go completely off-grid.

Near the end of our power outage I remembered the deep-cycle boat battery I’ve kept trickle-charging in the garage. Just to see what would happen, I plugged in my 300-watt square-wave inverter and then plugged in a lamp into that. The CFL bulb in the lamp flickered a few times at first but soon it was shining brightly. Moments later our power returned, but it was a good demonstration of powering the home on batteries.

Power outage

We had a power outage this evening from 8:30 to 10:00 PM. Afterward our home fileserver did not boot, so personal email accounts and home phone are temporarily down. Hopefully I can get things straightened out Monday. The server issue is with the motherboard and/or (more likely) the power supply. The drives should be fine so I don’t expect any data loss.

The power failure took the opportunity to interrupt my breadmaking. I had kicked off a new flavor, Italian wheat, only to have the power pull the plug on it after 90 minutes. It was a short blip but enough to knock the breadmaker out of its cycle. Fortunately, I found another cycle that heads to the bake cycle relatively quickly and got it going again. Then the power failed again, this time for the 90 minute outage. I still would not give up on my bread, though, and resumed baking it after the power returned. Against all odds it turned out great!
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Thriving neighborhood

Friday morning I walked the dog as usual around the neighborhood. This particular morning I saw no fewer than 5 separate groups of people, either walking their dogs, jogging, or biking around. Not bad for 7 AM.

I also saw a group of eight 40-something people out playing Ultimate Frisbee in the park. Now that made me smile. Sure, they were hooting and hollering and probably waking up my neighbors, but what a sight that was! Folks were out using the park for what it’s meant to be used for. Two years ago I’d walk through that park in the morning and shady individuals would be there hanging out in their cars. They would often bolt when they saw me walking by. Now to see folks out exercising in the park in the morning really makes me happy. I don’t care how loud they are, that is just awesome.

Seeing people being comfortable coming to the park in the morning and the folks out walking around shows how healthy our neighborhood has become.