Striving to become the person

Congress upset by capitol evac, suggest mailing every pilot "a map"

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:17:24 GMT

FoxNews Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said every time an evacuation [of the capitol] is ordered, it has usually been caused by a private pilot in a small plane using an old map. Ross suggested that the size of the plane is irrelevant because one dirty bomb could do a lot of damage. But, he said, sending everyone a map could be done for the money spent on one evacuation.

"I'm sure its running a million dollars every time there's an evacuation, wouldn't it make a lot more sense to send every private pilot in America one of the updated maps?" he asked.

Maybe the congressman can get a clue before he opens his mouth. Sectionals are about $7 each, and updated every few months, and pilots are required by regulations to have current information. Any pilot with half a clue knows where the ADIZ is located, congressman. The problem isn't a lack of maps, it is pilots who aren't doing what they are supposed to, or just get lost. And they get busted for it. There is no reason for any pilot not to have current information. Sending the ones who are going to violate the ADIZ a map is going to waste OUR $55, because they're not going to use it anyways. (Thats how much each sectional would cost to send to every registered pilot of congress decided it had to be done.)

If it costs a million dollars to evacuate the capitol building, maybe we can not evacuate and see how happy they are.

OS X Default keys

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:12:46 GMT

Some default key bindings in OS X are, honestly, annoying. Especially the home/end keys. Of the "big three" desktop OSes, Mac seems to be the odd man out. Most windows/linux applications treat home/end the same way. In the OS X terminal application, the home key sends you to the top of the scroll buffer. The end key sends you to the end of the window's scroll buffer. Not the expected behavior. Home means "home" - the beginning of the line. End means "end" - the end of the line. Pgup and pgdn are supposed to serve to move in large chunks around the buffer. I can't count the number of times I've hit the end key expecting to get to the end of the line (like while I'm typing this post) and instead get the end of the buffer. Highly annoying to have my work interrupted by this constantly. Instead of me trying to learn how to use yet another interface/computer, I'm making the computer learn this time.

Here is how to remap the home/end keys in the terminal application

Terminal>Window Settings>Keyboard

end:

\033[4~

home:

\033[1~

the 033 part can be obtained by ^[ (aka ctrl+[ )

After doing that, you need to modify (or create) your .inputrc file to contain the following

# Be 8 bit clean.
set input-meta on
set output-meta on
set convert-meta off

# allow the use of the Home/End keys
"\e[1~": beginning-of-line
"\e[4~": end-of-line

# allow the use of the Delete/Insert keys
"\e[3~": delete-char
"\e[2~": quoted-insert

Restart the terminal and you'll be good. Firefox, however still acts whacked out. That one is more complicated.

My Dog Ate My Homework ... No, really

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:40:03 GMT

Taking an aviation survey class this quarter. Our first assignment involved two different paper airplanes. It sounds really cliche, but my dog ate my homework. The scraps are what is left of my delta wing plane. Fortunately I already ran my flight tests, wrote and turned in the paper before she got to it...

Please don't e-mail us offline

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:57:56 GMT

From a tech support reply message outlining some troubleshooting tips, apparently email is now an "offline" communication:

*** Please do not respond to this email as all conversations on this matter would be best handled online. **

OS X 10.5 (Leopard) First Impressions

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:19:57 GMT

Upgraded my Macbook from OS X 10.4 to .5 (Leopard) today. First impressions are mixed. The install/upgrade process took a while, but was hands-off for the most part. After a couple of reboots for software updates - including an ominous /!\ dialog about boot caches needing to be updated, and a hang during boot, it seems to have installed fine.

However, the one thing that probably drives me more nuts than anything in a computer, is when it tells me I don't have sufficient access to perform an operation. Windows does this often enough when I try to kill a hung process. As an administrator, I should be able to kill any process or delete any file I want. The consequences are mine to bear. In Leopard's case, I was simply trying to rename a folder. I have a folder aptly called 'downloads' where I store applications, tarballs, etc that I've downloaded from the 'net. I point Firefox at it so that files go there automagically. Leopard figured out this was a special folder and gave it a pretty icon. I decided to rename the folder "Downloads" (capital D) to be more consistent with the other folders (Documents, Movies, etc). Except, I'm not allowed. The Finder says "You do not have sufficient privileges to perform this operation" or so such nonsense. Thankfully someone has a solution

skyhawk:~ $ mv downloads/ Downloads
mv: rename downloads/ to Downloads: Permission denied
skyhawk:~ $ ls -ld downloads/
drwxr-xr-x+ 153 sj sj 5202 Jan 10 13:13 downloads/
skyhawk:~ $ chmod -RN downloads
skyhawk:~ $ mv downloads/ Downloads

I don't know what the trailing + means, and I have no idea what the N is either. But it worked.

Vista "User Account Control"

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:13:08 GMT

As a follow up to the previous post, I had my first direct experience with UAC in Vista yesterday. While I own a Macbook, I'm not a huge Apple fan boy. However, the Apple ad doesn't even come close. What a royal PITA. It is obviously turned on by default and I seriously cannot see any point except to do two things: shift the blame for the OS's insecurity to the user (ie "the user clicked "Ok" so they must really understand what they're doing and anything afterwards is on them!") and just to be annoying.

Unfortunately, UAC doesn't stop at being merely annoying. It actively gets in the way. I accidentally unzipped a driver package from dell onto the desktop. I couldn't delete most of the files until I turned off UAC. I created the files, and they're in a directory owned by me. And I'm a system Administrator. But still after clicking through 3 or 4 prompts, I get "Permission denied". The UAC setting is not in the screen that tells you UAC is turned on and "protecting" you, another problem. I guess they don't want you to find it. Once you turn it off, you get a nagging little bubble every few minutes that tells you your computer is insecure. Well, no frickin' duh.

The biggest problem I see with UAC is the one that most techs I've read and heard say - it asks too many questions. Instead of asking about only the really important things, it asks more than once about mundane things. I'm a tech and I don't feel like reading every stupid dialog that comes up and determining the correct answer. How is the average user supposed to cope with this?

I think part of the problem is that because Windows is slow and bloated, too many things run in kernel space. Meaning that the process gets an artificial speed increase in exchange for the security normally provided by running in userspace. So Vista tries to compensate by asking inane questions about if you really really want to do something. It reminds me of the priv separation nightmare that I experienced with Windows 2000. Non-priv users could not burn CDs. Even using the special "Run As..." wasn't enough - you could get a little bit further but for some reason of the forked processes wasn't inheriting the elevated privileges, so no CD for you. Unless you log out and log back in as an administrative-level user.

Several companies, including Dell, have felt the Vista backlash from customers and are allowing them in some cases to upgrade from to XP. However, my personal recommendation for anyone buying new systems, especially laptops, is to go Mac, especially if your preferred system vendor refuses to give you the option of XP or wants to charge some extra fee for it. If you're savvy enough, at least you have the option to dump Vista and run Linux on a PC. But for most folks, save yourself the trouble and hassle of Vista. In general, OS X just works. I'm planning to upgrade this macbook to Leopard sometime within the next two weeks, so we'll see how that goes.

Vista "Server Execution Failed" message

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:07:27 GMT

I re-installed Vista (bleh) on my sister's Inspiron 1501. Apparently Vista sucks. The WLAN card was being flaky, and the dell drivers CD shipped with the system is useless - the autorun app which is the driver manager installer app crashes. Spent more than an hour on the phone with dell last night trying to explain the problem. Finally found a solution to the problems with the WLAN card:

http://www.xoxideforums.com/972144-post11.html

there is now a simple fix for Vista Home users, as well, for the "server execution error" and red "x" over the wireless networking icon.

Simply run a command prompt as an administrator (right-click on it and click "Open as Administrator") then enter the following command line:

net localgroup "Administrators" "NT Authority\Local Service" /add

That should do it. We should thank God for the each other because Microsoft sure has no F-ing idea what they are doing yet.

docinventor

GPS wish-list

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 02:26:12 GMT

I'm on a road trip, and borrowing a co-worker's GPS because I'm looking at purchasing one for myself. It is an old TomTom, a discontinued model. It has the latest software, so it should be as updated as it can be. It has a few short comings, which is good to find out so I can see what I want in a GPS.

Text-to-speech The unit should speak the name of the road it expects you to turn onto. This helps avoid confusion when roads move or the database is otherwise outdated.

Common POI Common points of interest on a road trip are things like hotels, gas stations, and restaurants. This particular unit gives 6 or 7 button access to the "nearest" POI. That is, starting from the moving map display, it takes roughly 7 different buttons and choices to punch up a route to the nearest gas station. That is way too many if you're the one working the GPS and trying not to hit the guy in front of you.

Addresses A POI doesn't necessarily have to have a phone number with it (although this would be nice, ie making reservations) but an address would certainly be helpful - so you can call someone else and tell them where you're going.

Where am I? You should have quick and easy access (no more than 2 buttons) to a screen that tells you where you are at any given point. Lon/Lat, nearest intersection, approximate address if possible - and from there 1-touch access to the nearest emergency services - hospital, police and/or fire station.

The voice The unit I'm borrowing has a voice of an older English woman. The unit doesn't speak unless it needs to, but after an hour of silence, it is so loud and bordering on shrill that it is startling and sounds like she is yelling at you. I would prefer someone who starts off quieter - and maybe builds up to the preset volume, and doesn't have such a shrill voice.

Reasonable directions I was driving down the freeway and punched up "gas stations" where I was presented with a list - although not in the apparent order of closest to me. I picked the first one in the list and got off the freeway, where the unit promptly told me to get back on the freeway - in the opposite direction I was going.

Planning tools It would be much easier to be able to plan your route before you leave. This includes the ability to tell the GPS how many miles you want to go between fuel stops. It could then suggest along the way when you should stop and where. As it is, it seems with this unit that while I can pre-program waypoints, the fastest way to punch up the nearest gas station means interrupting the already programmed route to your final destination.
Third-party tools

POI sub-categories I think some modern units can do this, but it would be nice to search for POIs by a subcategory, such as food type or hotel star rating (ie find me the nearest 3-star hotel).

Some GPS units have some really nifty features, like Bluetooth so you can use your phone hands-free. Others include the ability to connect an iPod (You then connect your GPS to your car radio through an AUX port or some include an FM transmitter). This means that you combine three items into one interface - so you only have one screen to look at and can put your phone and iPod somewhere else out of the way. Neither of those affect the navigation, but they do have the opportunity to make your cockpit management easier and reducing your workload by giving you fewer gadgets to deal with. They also jack up the price of the unit.

S3 channel changing bug?

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:41:37 GMT

Called TiVo support this morning, been noticing some strange behavior with my S3. I discovered a trick on my S2 a while back, I have it set to manually record 5 minutes of cable news at 0600 every day. That way when I wake up the news is already on, and if I want I can go back and watch the previous 30 minutes. The S3 works the same way most of the time. Except when the night before and I've tuned to one of the cable operator's digital music channels.

In those cases, when I wake up the S3 has recorded the five minute block of news, but then switched both tuners to the music channel. The TiVo support guy figures it is recording a suggestion from the music channel. Except 1) there is nothing in the suggestions (the entire channel is 2-hour blocks of music in the guide) that has been recorded. 2) Why would the TiVo switch both tuners to the channel to record a suggestion 3) A service update from quite a while back makes it so that after recording a suggestion, the TiVo returns to the channel it was on previously. I also mentioned to him that there is something different about the music channels because the music skips for about 10 seconds after tuning - sort of like the content is being buffered or something.

This certainly seems like a bug to me. It might be a minor one, but the behavior seems irrational and un-TiVo-like.

Technical support on Sundays

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:29:44 GMT

Apparently calling technical support for anything on a Sunday is a bad idea. I haven't opened Quicken in months (bleh) but decided it was time to update my financial picture. I don't expect participating institutions to troubleshoot Quicken, only their stuff. The first problem I ran into was that it couldn't do an online update my Citibank account, it just said there was an error and to call Citibank. The guy asked me if I could log in to my account online through the website. I said yes. He asked what browser I was using (?), and when I told him Firefox he put me on hold. He came back a couple of minutes later and said they don't support Firefox or Safari. I tried explaining to him that the browser wasn't relevant, but he wouldn't listen.

So I fired up Internet Explorer and logged in, successfully. Then he has me go and reset some random settings in IE. Then try to restart Quicken. This is ridiculous. I finally gave up and told him this wasn't helping that I was going to go figure it out on my own. I did later figure out that Quicken had an old account number. You'd think that me giving him the exact error code (their system was reporting back to Quicken) and message that it would be a clue. Nope.

Then I was trying to add my car loan to Quicken, and add it as an "electronic" account. Apparently there are some steps you have to go through on the bank's website to initialize the account in Quicken. No big deal. I find the form that says "All Dates" and "Quicken Webconnect" and I hit "(Download)" to be greeted with this: The server is unable to find the requested file /servlet/efsonline/ValidateExportFilterData

Hmm, thats odd. I tried again and got the same message. I called the bank to see if they knew what was up, and to let them know there appeared to be a problem with their site. She said that I wasn't able to download any information about my loan - only checking account info (which I don't have with them). I tried explaining to her that I understood, but that this was a pretty strange way of saying that I wasn't able/allowed to download my loan history from the website. She explained to *me* that I was trying to ask the computer to do something it didn't understand, so that it was giving me a random error message and that I should basically stop trying because I was confusing the computers. Nice, eh?

GasPowerGames: How many patches do I need?

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:17:12 GMT

I bought Supreme Commander a few months ago but have had near constant problems with it crashing. Typically I'm playing a skirmish against the computer and I get most of my base built up and the game causes the computer to crash requiring a hard reset. The graphics are excellent, but crashing is not.

I'm reinstalling the game in Windows XP 32-bit and instead of trying to manually patch the game, I'm trying to let the GPGnet (online multi-player wizard thing) run the updates because I was having a hard time getting it right apparently. The GPGnet client has restarted about 6 times now - each time finding a new patch. And each time, prompting me to log back into GPGnet. Except, it says I'm already logged in. And each time it does that, it seems to take a little bit longer before it will stop saying "already logged in". Needless to say I'm getting pretty peeved. This is not how you treat your customers who kindly paid for the software and didn't pirate it.

Night flying

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 02:56:26 GMT

Did my first night flight last night. Was way different than I expected. I expected it to be easier to find things than it was. I'm surprised at how much I was relying on fixed objects on the ground to determine my position during the day. It was a pretty strong cross-wind, which made the stop-and-go landings that much harder.

Stolen Code

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:23:37 GMT

There was a posting on /. today about what to do if you're working for someone and find stolen code. I thought the Google ad was a pretty obvious hint:

Soft-field landings, grass strip

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:24:53 GMT

Visiting family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Between my schedule and lousy weather around TZR the last couple of weeks, there hasn't been much flying. Picked up 1.1 this afternoon at KSMS. Got some good instruction in ground reference maneuvers, and actually did some short/soft field work on an actual grass strip - not just pretending the asphalt was grass. I'm sure there are places around TZR to work on grass strips, but the FBO rules prohibit landing their planes on non-paved surfaces, except of course unless you contact 121.5 first.

The particular aircraft I flew today was a little bit different - there was no flap position switch ie set it and forget it. This one was press and hold to extend the flaps, and toggle up to retract. The grass strip wasn't too much different than paved, but trying to do short-field was a little strange - especially considering I nearly hit the top of a tree of my first attempt, landed long on the next two, but managed to do pretty well on the fourth. One of the things that I kept forgetting was to pull the yoke back to the stop as soon as I touched down. Flaps have to be immediately retracted, and carb heat closed - things which normally wait until after I'm clear of the active unless I'm doing a touch and go.

Three of the four IPs at KSMS (who had business cards at the desk) are CFIIs. I didn't realize it until after he was gone and I saw his card, but the IP I flew with is ex Airforce - a Lt Colonel. Very cool.

ILS approach, cross country

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:26:00 GMT

Shot my first ILS approach yesterday - in simulated IFR conditions. Wasn't hard, but was definitely different not being able to see what I was doing. We didn't actually follow the approach plate instructions, just to the NDB and then followed the needles down. Also did some working figuring out how to use the VORs. The DG was crap tho. Had to basically reset it after every turn.

Simulated Instrument

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:42:57 GMT

Got some time "under the hood" as they call it. Basically you fly around with these crazy safety glasses that block your vision so you can't see much of anything except the instruments. The idea is that even as a VFR pilot, you need to be able to deal with inadvertent flight into IFR conditions - ie into a cloud where there are no outside references for your speed or attitude.

After we were done I overheard my instructor say to another IP that I was going to make a pretty good instrument pilot. I think that is because I'm very detail-oriented. As he put it in a briefing last week "meticulous" or as another fellow pilot who is keeping tabs on me said, "anal"

Putzing around in the practice area

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:52:32 GMT

Went out today and did my first solo to, from, and in the practice area today. The wind might have kept me on the ground, it was 7 knots gusting to 11. But it was within the parameters of my endorsement and was a great day to fly otherwise. Mostly I just wandered around. Did a little bit of slow flight - not quite stalls - and a few steep turns. Figured I'd take it easy on the first flight out there. Need to work on my CTAF calls though. Came back and entered the pattern downwind at the midfield as instructed, but the landing came faster than I expected. It was a little rough, but nothing bent. Building up my solo time slowly, 4 hours now.

Mustangs and Legends

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:30:22 GMT

Went out to the Mustangs and Legends show yesterday for a few hours. Way cool. There were over 100 P-51s in attendance - the largest gathering of Mustangs since WWII. The Thunderbirds were also there. Several demonstrations included things like pyrotechnics with B-17s, P-41s, and several others. It was very cool to see the 51s escorting the bombers. You could start to get a sense of what it would have looked like back then to have the fighters come roaring overhead.

One really interesting thing was that they had a Jap Zero on display, and the placard mentioned that there were only two flying zeros left in the world. With so many P-51s and all the rest of the WWII era American aircraft, I thought it was neat that so many across the country work so hard to preserve vintage aircraft - in flying condition no less.

Flying the Borders

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 21:00:32 GMT

Went out and flew the practice area borders last night. It is a little crazy here because of the show at Rick this weekend. Took an IP and one of his students with me. I was trying to not think about the fact that I had someone in the back. It did cross my mind that he might have been the guy who called the wrong tail number when I was doing my solo, but I didn't ask.

Took longer than I expected to get off the runway. Crazy how much difference an extra 180lb px in the rear seat makes. Landing, well, it wasn't rough. But it took a few attempts to get the wheels to stick to the pavement. I asked the IP and he says I didn't keep it in the ground effect long enough.

First solo

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:52:35 GMT

First solo tonight. Wasn't feeling 100%, but couldn't decide if it was because I'm still sick or because of nerves, so I decided to just suck it up and go. We were scheduled for 12 touch-and-gos, and then for me to do 3 on my own. We did 4 and the instructor decided that was enough and took the plane in for a full stop where he got out and went up to the tower.

I taxied around the local news chopper who was warming up and then out to runway 22 and did another run-up. Called up the tower and they told me to hold short. Switched the transponder back to standby because the checklist said not to switch it to active until I was ready for takeoff. Mis-heard my pattern clearance as "left closed traffic" because thats what we've been doing so much. The tower was being nice and giving me right traffic to help me avoid the hot air balloon north of the field. Except, we usually don't fly right traffic, so I had basically no ground references except the field itself, which turned out to be mostly fine.

The first two touch-and-gos I thought were fine. Called the tower for a full stop, and they said the instructor wanted me to do another touch-and-go. Pretty much botched that attempt, was way left of center after crossing over the numbers and ended up touching down pretty hard. In retrospect, I probably should have gone around.

Called up the tower on the downwind for a real full stop this time, and was given clearance to land. Then I hear "Bolton tower, Cessna one-six-niner-four-echo midfield touch and go". The guy who called the tower was actually flying 9547W. I was flying 94E. After a few seconds, the tower asked him "Uhm, did you mean four-seven-whiskey?" Yes, he did, but for a few seconds I wasn't sure what to do. Fortunately the KTZR tower guys are great and very forgiving of student pilots. I managed to make the 4th landing, but bounced it a little bit after coming down too hard.

Turned off the runway and told the tower I was clear of the active and he gave me clearance to taxi. Cleaning up (FCTL), I realized the transponder mistake. Taxied back to the ramp and managed to park dead center on the T. The instructor cut my shirt, and we got to put 0.5 solo hours in my logbook. I flew the plane by myself! Many years ago as a kid watching the F4s scream overhead in and out of Wright Pat, I wanted to fly. And now I'm well on my way to actually becoming a pilot.

Another 9 landings and 1.7 hours in the book.

1 Landing

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:34:54 GMT

Was supposed to solo tonight, but woke up sick this morning. Tried flying but did horrible. Couldn't manage a proper soft-field, almost stalled on takeoff. Turned past the crosswind leg, called the tower for a touch-and-go, and then ended up +200 ft crossing the numbers on downwind, which set me up for a really high approach. By then I was getting pretty nauseous. Turned final still way too high, and bounced pretty hard on touchdown because I wasn't concentrating on what I was doing. Needless to say we called the tower and told them we weren't going around again.

Better to find my limit with an IP than trying to solo only to figure out I'm too sick.

Soft-field landings

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:27:25 GMT

So instead of trying to figure out how to land, we decided to work on soft field landings. Apparently by doing that I learned how to land the plane. 15 landings later, my instructor figures I'll be ready to solo next week.

More landings

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:24:41 GMT

Couldn't ask for better weather to fly in. Blue skies, no wind, and cool. More touch and go work. Still trying to figure out when I'm supposed to flare. Instructor says I have to pull back harder. I can't decide when. 1.6 hours.

I learned something new. When you call the tower to report your position in the pattern, and he tells you that you're #2 following some other aircraft, that isn't your clearance to do whatever you requested (touch and go, full stop, etc). Acknowledge that you have the traffic in sight, and then he'll clear you.

Crosswind Landings

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:19:38 GMT

It was too windy to fly most of today, 12-15 with gusts upwards of 20 at times. I went out to the field anyways and the wind had calmed down a little bit, but not much. So we got to do a few crosswind landings, and the instructor demonstrated a slip landing. A flying pig becomes a kite. 0.6 hours.

Landings

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:41:16 GMT

Spent the entire time tonight doing touch-and-go work. I need to learn to trim the airplane on climb out because now my arm is tired from pulling back on the yoke and doing 52 left turns. Flying pig is about right. 13 landings, 1.5 hours.