The sky has been full of thunderstorms. Watching bolts get dangerously close to the house has made me wonder what I could do to protect our house.

I found the answer on a ham radio mailing list today: a site called Radio Station Grounding. It is the most thorough, practical resource I’ve ever seen to describe the destructive effects of lightning and how they can be mitigated through grounding and bonding.

It’s loads of technical information, but you’ll learn something even if you’re not a radio operator. It’s truly fascinating stuff!

I’m the proud owner of a UHF Radio Repeater System. Now, what to do with it?

I helped my friend Mike install Windows 9x on his iBook using the freeware emulator QEMU. To his surprise and mine, everything worked perfectly, aside from some minor keyboard mapping problems.

QEMU is teh bomb. I’m going to use it to install OS X on my Dell Latitude laptop.

On my way to work I spotted the vans of F. Scott Davis Chimney Sweep Inc.

Their slogan? “Your ASH is mine!”

For those of you who asked, ultrasound pictures of The Boy are now up

The MyDoom virus has returned, this time bringing web search engines to a crawl. I just got my first copy, and I feel left out.

As always, don’t open attachments without scanning them. And switch to Linux or OS X. Anything is better than Windows.

Got a special treat this morning when I tagged along to Kelly’s ultrasound appointment. The Boy is growing very well. In fact, he’s jumped about a week ahead, according to the measurements. We got some nice pictures of his face, his hands, and his big feet.

He was doing some good squirming, too. It was wild watching him move around so much. If only he would keep his playtime to daytime. He kept Kelly awake last night with his antics.

Estimated weight now is 2 pounds, 5 ounces. Not too far from Hallie’s birthweight.

I’ve been looking around for radio station automation software for Linux. My goal is to set up a Part 15 radio station for my neighborhood. Today, I found some that might fit the bill: UBS: Uninterrupted Broadcast System. Also, see the RadioStation project over at Linux Gazette.

All of this is inspired, of course, by Radio Margaritaville, which has inspired me to buy Jimmy Buffett’s fantastic new album, License to Chill.

I spent some time yesterday hooking up a few more of the instruments to my weather station. Now online again are outdoor temperature/humidity readings and rain measurements. Still to go is the wind direction and speed. Because that’s bound for the roof of the house, I may need to check with the HOA before I mount that.

Stats are on the right of this page under “My Weather” and “Weather Graphs.”