Highlights of 2011: Satellite dish

This was the year I finally indulged in a hobby I’ve long wanted to try: satellite reception! In January, as a birthday present, I answered a Craigslist ad for a few Free-To-Air (FTA) satellite receivers and dishes that were being sold. I got a few used receivers and dishes for a great price and went right to work figuring out how to get everything connected.

What resulted was an opening to a world I had only imagined before. So many TV and radio stations were available to me, many of them from distant lands. I became obsessed with finding new signals and perfecting my reception. I even planted two dishes instead of just one, working around the trees in my yard as best I could.
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Deal with it: spammers already have your email

A postscript to the state park spam snafu: some folks seem to be under the mistaken impression that this incident exposed their email address to spammers. I hate to break it to them, but spammers already have their email addresses. They have yours and mine and everyone else’s. If you’ve ever emailed anyone, anywhere, then your email address is ripe for the picking by spammers.

There’s nothing magical about your email address that keeps it from being easily guessed by spammers, if not outright copied. Why some people still think that by keeping their address “secret” they’ll somehow cut down on spam is beyond me.

State park spam

Over the holiday weekend my inbox filled up with angry messages as the North Carolina State Parks system inadvertently set up an open email list with 47,000 subscribers. One person, apparently having made one too many trips to the eggnog bowl, sent an anti-tax tirade to the entire list, which caused a chain-reaction that lasted for days and days. One after another, subscribers demanded to be removed from the list, which only perpetuated the problem as each fruitless request needlessly clogged the inbox of 47,000 other subscribers.

Having run mailing lists for several years, I know these things can happen. Thus, I was more amused than angry as several dozens of clueless people continued to annoy everyone else with their unsubscription requests. In spite of this week’s snafu, I hope the state continues to use email and other means to tout our beautiful state parks!

NCSU Chancellor’s home

N.C. State recently built an updated home for its chancellor. The home, with 5,000sf of entertaining space and a cost of $3.5 million, immediately drew the ire of local conservatives who held it up as an example of the misplaced priorities of academia. Or a waste of taxpayer dollars, or … something. The protests are a little unclear.

I know many of these conservatives simply can’t live without having something to be angry about but before they go blowing a gasket they should note that their ire is misguided. Private donations paid for the home in its entirety.

Let me say that again: private donations paid for the home in its entirety. The cost to taxpayers (and students)? Nothing. Zip. Zilch.
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Covert Naval Blog

While searching for information on Iranian submarines, I discovered this fascinating blog which provides open source intelligence on the world’s navies. It’s good reading to a former Navy spook such as myself!

Since before the Second World War, Italy has been a prolific designer and producer of small submarines. The CA and CB-class midget submarines and their operational histories are already well-known, but those produced post-WWII are much less known, poorly documented and the subjects of confusion and misinformation. Fincantieri, Maritalia and Cos.Mo.S. are all known to have produced viable small submarine designs, however only Cos.Mo.S. is known to have definitely produced actual small submarines, albeit all for export.

via Covert Naval Blog.

Hall of Human Origins

Me as Homo neanderthalensis


The day after Christmas, Kelly and I spent the day in downtown DC, checking out museums. While Kelly wanted to see the Hirshhorn Museum, I was fascinated by the National Museum of Natural History. All the time I lived in Great Falls, VA, I never once ventured inside this museum until yesterday.

While the dinosaur bones were intriguing to me, I was really fascinated by the Hall of Human Origins showing the evolution of man over millions of years. I’ve long been fascinated by the thought of human species that once co-occupied the earth and here I was getting my first look at them.
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Raleigh issues press release on my RCAC election

The City of Raleigh issued a press release Wednesday morning on my election as Chair to the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council. It’s nice to get some recognition, and I’m looking forward to working with my fellow CAC chairs to improve our effectiveness.

Mark Turner, outgoing chair of the East Citizens Advisory Council, has been elected to lead the Raleigh Citizens Advisory Council (RCAC) in the coming year.

The RCAC is made up of the chairs and other leaders of each of the 18 geographically based Citizens Advisory Councils in Raleigh. It provides a forum for these leaders to discuss citywide issues.

“The dialogue between the City and the community is the most valuable thing the RCAC provides,” Mr. Turner said. “It’s been the traditional role for the RCAC.”
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The Kmart “layaway angels”

Call my cynical, but I’m really suspicious of the “Kmart layaway angels” story. I love thinking that there are good people out there who would help anonymous others out of a jam. The cynic in me, however, wonders if Kmart set this up as a viral marketing campaign. And the protective person in me worries that poor people are now going to load up their layaway purchases in the remote chance that an angel will sweep in and rescue them for free.

It was Dec. 6 when a woman paid off the layaway for three strangers at a Kmart in Michigan. Since then, scores of people from Missoula to Las Vegas have followed her lead.

“There are people in line and they will just start paying off people’s layaways,” Aldridge says. “It’s given people big hearts this year. It’s bringing people together.”

via Layaway angels’ payoffs snowball at Kmarts | layaway, kmart, woman – The Orange County Register.

Louis CK tops $1 million in downloads

Comedian Louis CK filmed his standup act and, rather than putting it into the Hollywood distribution system, posted it on his website for a $5 download. This weekend he surpassed $1 million in sales, just 12 days after he posted it. He’s tripled the money he put into it and the money’s still flowing in. The best part is that he gets to decide how to divvy it up, not Hollywood with its shady accounting!

It’s a great example of an artist connecting directly with his fans, cutting out the middleman. No wonder those Hollywood suits are pushing for dictatorial control over the Internet with the SOPA bill. They’re losing control and they know it.

hi. So it’s been about 12 days since the thing started and yesterday we hit the crazy number. One million dollars. That’s a lot of money. Really too much money. I’ve never had a million dollars all of a sudden. and since we’re all sharing this experience and since it’s really your money, I wanted to let you know what I’m doing with it. People are paying attention to what’s going on with this thing. So I guess I want to set an example of what you can do if you all of a sudden have a million dollars that people just gave to you directly because you told jokes.

via Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater.