I like the National Weather Service‘s PDA-enabled forecast pages so much that I recently wrote an email to the webmaster. I told her how impressed I am that the NWS uses such cutting-edge technologies like RSS feeds, DVB broadcasts, and PDA-sized pages to get the forecast into the hands of the public. The webmaster wrote back, thanking me for noticing and basically saying I made her day.

As much as I love to take digs at the government, there are some things it does outstandingly well. One of these things is our public weather forecasting. I belive the United States has one of the finest meterological services on the planet. Hurricanes and other disasters which might otherwise claim thousands of lives are easily avoided through the professionalism, technology, and diligence of the National Weather Service (and its network of weather spotters).

So I was quite perplexed to understand how Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) could sponsor a bill which would prohibit the weather service from issuing public forecast data. Of course, a little more digging reveals that Pennsylvania is home to AccuWeather, which hopes to make you pay for the same data your taxes have already bought through the NWS.

“It is not an easy prospect for a business to attract advertisers, subscribers or investors when the government is providing similar products and services for free,” Santorum said.

The National Weather Service predates AccuWeather by about, oh, a hundred years. If AccuWeather can’t compete, it should have picked another business.

Can you believe any of this? Santorum is a loser. If the people of Pennsylvania have any shame, they’ll send him packing next year.

There’s a reason the sidewalk is littered with dead worms: the dry ground is like concrete! I went out to water some dry patches of my lawn last night and literally needed a hammer to put the sprinkler in the ground.

I like having a warm spring like the next guy, but so much heat and so little rain has put a hurting on my lawn. Time to break out more sprinklers before its too late.

I got a chance to try out my HomePlug networking around the neighborhood. The next-door neighbor’s house picked up the signal just fine. No such luck few doors down at the house of my fellow computer geek, however. We’ll have to network the old-fashioned way with WiFi.

I haven’t tried any other homes, though, so there’s still lots of potential. There are twelve or thirteen (!) identified access points within a stone’s throw of my home, which makes it ripe for a community network. It should be a fun little project.

Yesterday, my pair of HomePlug powerline Ethernet bridges arrived. I have to say they work as advertised. I can plug a bridge into any electrical outlet in my house and instantly have a 14Mbs Ethernet connection there. It’s really pretty slick. You can even remotely manage other bridge endpoints in-band (changing their password, for instance).

The only drawback for me is that a Windows software utility is needed to set any encryption or do any management to the bridge. Maybe WINE can alleviate that problem. I haven’t had time to try it.

Another thing I haven’t had time to try is seeing how many other homes near us can receive the signal. My ultimate goal is to create a neighborhood network. Maybe I can catch up with my neighbors before this weekend and try pushing some bits.

I don’t normally get affected by springtime allergens, but the past few days have been pretty brutal for my head. I’ve been waking up with sinus headaches, which I never have. Fortunately, they’re pretty mild and don’t last long.

I’ll be glad when all this pollen gets washed away and my head returns to normal.

Interestingly, in spite of my allergen woes, my sense of smell has been greatly accentuated. Go figure.

Just another day at the office.

I’ve heard the rumors and I want to put an end to the speculation. If I’m elected pope, I will not serve. Sure, you’ve get those great digs, and the adulation of millions, but it’s just not for me. For one thing, I’ve already got millions of fans from MT.Net. And there’s the fact that I’m not even Catholic. That commute to the Vatican would be a killer, too.

So please, save your votes for some other candidate.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled useless blogging.

I’ve been geekdreaming again about ways I could get my neighborhood connected. The thought of creating one, big neighborhood network has been appealing for a long time.

Robert Cringley, the computer columnist, is a genius. His column on neighborhood multimedia servers has me exploring what it would take to build one. The first challenge I face is how to network the neighborhood. WiFi might have the range, but its all dependent on the placement of antennas. Some neighbors might consider that an eyesore, which I can understand.

Then I saw a sales circular in today’s paper offering a Netgear Powerline WiFi extender. To put it in Fark parlance, WiFi is old and busted, but Ethernet-over-powerlines is hot and new. I poked around more and found that, yes, Cringley has covered this, too. His article called “Ever Hear of a HomePlug network? You Will” ran almost three years ago!

The HomePlug networking gear turns ordinary home electrical wiring into a giant Ethernet segment. The bridge equipment encrypts traffic using a 56-bit DES key, which can keep your packets secure. And security is a good thing, since the HomePlug signals reach all the way out to the electrical transformer servicing your home, and from there on to all the other homes that transformer services. In other words, your network is shared with 6-10 of your nearest neighbors.

But that’s also a good thing, since it allows a super-cheap WAN to be built between surrounding homes! It may be the perfect medium for my wild and crazy networked neighborhood idea.

The only drawback is that the speed limit for version 1.0 of HomePlug is 14Mbs. That’s pretty modest by today’s wired standards, but considering cable modem connections are 3Mbs down, and 802.11b is 11Mbs on a good day, its not bad for a WAN. The good news is that the next version of HomePlug, dubbed HomePlug AV, will increase speeds to 100Mbs.

So let me say again: Cringley is a genius. If you want to know what I’ll be spending my tinker time doing, read his column.

Now, time to go get my neighborhood connected!

I don’t have many people mistaking me for a celebrity. Thank goodness, since I hate to sign autographs! On occasion, though, I’ve been mistaken for Mike Connell, of the band The Connells.

If I had to pick a celebrity that I look like, I’d pick country singer Brad Paisley, who will be playing here this weekend. Maybe I’ll don a cowboy hat and walk around Walnut Creek Ampitheatre with a fake entourage. Maybe I could score some free beer or something.