I have been checking into wireless networks lately. Things like NoCat and others.

Yesterday, I found a very cool linux application called Splat! It lets you map transmitter characteristics across terrain.

Such an app is very useful when building a wireless network. Or any network where line of sight is very important.

I also made a call on the ham radio to another PC-savvy ham, John, N1GMV. He sounded very excited about getting an 802.11 network going in Raleigh.

Hopefully, we’re not alone and can get a group together to make it reality. We’ll see.

My idea is to organize it as a cooperative. We can’t make it free because of the costs involved with tower space rental, bandwidth, and other expenses. But a coop could keep the overhead low and allow for some room to grow the network as the membership increases.

This is by far the most ambitious idea I’ve had. I haven’t a clue about 90% of the important stuff, too. But every grand scheme starts as a dream.

And that’s what I’m good at: dreaming.

The other day I went to the local warehouse club to buy some diapers and to send some film off for developing. The warehouse’s checkout lines are notoriously slow, so I decided to use my time in line to fill out my film envelope.

The cashier, an ebullent, middle-aged black woman, was kidding with her customers as well as proving my slow-line theory wrong.

Suddenly, it was my turn to pay. I didn’t want to slow her down, so I punched in my debit card pin number in a frenzy.

As I was sorting through the keypad’s prompts, she asked “no pictures today?”

I had to pull my head out of prompts and pin numbers to decode what she said.

“Pictures? Ah! She thinks I’m pretty hip,” I thought. “She can tell I’m down with the brotherhood.” After all, any street-smart homeboy knows that “pictures” is slang for cash. I smiled a knowing smile and answered “no.”

A few beats later, I realized I had gone through her line carrying my empty film envelope. She wasn’t talking cash, she was talking photographs.

I hung my head and drove my lily-white-feeling self home.

Also, I’ve been keeping busy updating Hallie’s Baby Blog. It’s an ongoing diary of her progress at the hospital.

I will probably keep it going even after she comes home with us. It’s nice to keep a record of events, isn’t it?

I was going to register “SiliconHallie.com” for her page, but Kelly shot me down. 🙁

We were delighted to look at Monday’s Raleigh News and Observer and see our whole family on the front page!

It was on a story about WakeMed’s donor milk program. We got a big picture right under the headline! Cool!

A local copy is here.

I’ve got a few resumes out there, waiting for some calls. The economy is in a free-fall, so the job market is tight.

We got lots of rain yesterday and today. Reports indicate two inches fell at RDU Airport. This will go a long way in alleviating our drought.

I’m thinking of writing a letter to the local paper to compare a state lottery to the recent accounting scandals. Same difference, in my opinion.

“Same Difference” is a contradiction in terms, isn’t it?

Tonight I realized that this isn’t just a place for me to observe the world. Each entry I write changes the world.

So, using this forum, I will hereby change the world. The blueprints for the future will be created right here.

And the revolution will “be televised!” I don’t give a damn what anybody says.

Be prepared for a fun ride in the near future, kiddies. The “old ways” of doing things aren’t working anymore. Conventional wisdom is crumbling daily. The more we know, the more we know we don’t know.

The world in which my daughter will grow up will be radically different than any other in recent memory.

And dammit, I am already jealous of her.

So the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals has ruled that “under God” makes the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.

As unpopular as this decision is, you can’t argue that it isn’t the correct decision.

Even though senators have huffed and puffed about it, saying it will be struck down because it’s so far out of the mainstream, they miss the point.

The Constitution isn’t designed to protect the mainstream.

It’s to protect everyone.

There is little argument that adding “under God” to the Pledge was meant to bolster faith. President Eisenhower said so himself when he approved the addition.

So why is everyone in a tizzy about something that should be blatantly obvious? It didn’t belong there in 1954 and it still doesn’t belong there.

While we’re at it, why not do away with the Pledge all together? I do not agree to always agree with the decisions of this country. The Pledge has always seemed to be something a controlling, communist country would do: force its citizens to vow allegiance. Isn’t freedom of dissent one of the things that makes America great?

Fix the Pledge, or better yet, scrap it. Fix the currency (please!). Then get on with the millions of more important tasks to be done in the world.

This afternoon it rained for the first time in almost a month. This area has had so little rain lately that I’d forgotten what it looked like.

We got a couple of good downpours after lunch today, probably a half an inch at the most. It doesn’t do the drought much good, seeing how we are 6.5 inches below normal for the year. But it’s great to see it nontheless.

It breaks the cycle of monotonous dry, sunny days.

I just finished reading an engaging book about reincarnation. A interesting chap from Charleston wrote it. In fact, while we were visiting Charleston, we learned this chap still haunted his home.

Anyhow, he was an engineer who, at an early age, discovered he was psychic. He lived a mostly normal life until his retirement, when he had more time to exploring his talent.

These experiments lead to his discovering many past life associations with people around him. The book detailed many of these associations.

In fact, it detailed far too many, trading quantity for quality. The “meat” of these lives was largely left out.

The topic does intrigue me, however.

He learned that massive changes are in store for mankind in this century. It’s about time, I say.