Absent mindedness

I just forgot what I was about to do. I just needed to do one thing before I did it, and that small act derailed me.

I tried retracing my steps. I almost remember, but not quite. I start getting that "ah ha!" feeling, but then the feeling itself distracts me and I don't capture the memory. Just a glimpse, as it slinks back into my subconscious.

The feeling of almost having remembered, having it on the tip of your tongue, is not so bad. Trying hard to remember and not having a clue, that's frustrating. Like fishing all day with no bites. At least you know you've got a decent chance, when you're getting nibbles. The longer it takes, the bigger the "ah ha!" moment will be, but it'll probably come. Sometimes it will even happen multiple times, before finally getting there. (I wonder if that's how it is for girls...)

When I come close to remembering, I'm usually fine with just waiting for it to click. Unless there's an imminent deadline, I can go about my business--it will usually come back to me at some point. Similar to déjà vu, it's not usually something one can consciously achieve. Trying harder is usually counterproductive.

I remember that I needed to go into my bedroom to do this thing, and it was something I'd been intending to do for a little while. Not napping, not cleaning.

Time to stroll back to the scene of the thought. It's a little risky, as the conscious effort of remembrance might only throw me further off track. Sometimes the familiar sights will lure it out again, and it's too tempting not to try.

Nope.

Now I'm totally off track. The only thing to do now is give up and wait.

Conjecture About Lyme Susceptibility

It's a fact, mosquitoes are more attracted to certain people. I always wondered why I was the only one complaining about mosquitoes whenever I went camping, and why they would still bite even when I was wearing repellent.

Hypothesis: what if the same holds true for other biting insects, such as ticks? What if so-called "mosquito magnets" are also tick magnets?

I wonder if this merits experimentation. If true, it would make sense for "mosquito magnets" to be even more vigilant about preventing tick exposure and bites. I was an active Boy Scout for many years, yet I never heard of anyone else in my troop getting Lyme disease. Hmm...

DIY GPS Vehicle Tracking for $100 + $40/year

1) Motorola Mini-USB Car Charger ($9.61 w/ shipping)



2) Mini-USB Lightning Harness Adapter ($39.99 w/ shipping)



3) Motorola i290 ($49.99 before tax and/or shipping)



4) Instamapper.com + Tracking Application (free)



Boost Mobile's $.35/day unlimited data plan (via the "wireless web" activation option) is unnecessary. One only needs to add $10 (the minimum) to the phone's balance every 90 days, to keep it activated. The balance never gets used (unless you use the phone for calls), it just expires after 90 days.

Other Boost Mobile phones, such as the i335 or i425, should work fine. Check the Instamapper.com discussion forums to read about others' experiences. I've only tried the i425, but it's no longer available. The i290 is currently the cheapest available option. For iDEN phones without a mini-USB port, one may need to replace the "Lightning Harness Adapter" above with the Falcon Wiring Harness. This might be even cheaper, but may require a bit more work to install. (FYI, the adapter is what turns on the phone when the car is started).

I've been using a similar setup for about 8 months, it's awesome!

Laptop AC power cable routing mod

While using my laptop, I'm usually on the couch, and it's usually plugged into AC power. The power connector gets tugged occasionally, whenever I move the laptop. Invariably, a few months of this loosens the plug or causes the cord to start coming apart, leading to mechanical failure. Not being one to simply accept a problematic design, I fixed it quite satisfactorily with a few self-adhesive wire clips from my local hardware store, as shown above. If the adhesive isn't strong enough, I can just replace it with epoxy. So far, it's worked great.

Why 802.11b/g wifi channel 1 is the best

I recently spent a few minutes figuring out why my microwave was causing my wifi connection to drop. I was able to resolve the problem entirely by switching my wifi router from channel 11 to channel 1. Here's why I think channel 1 is the best channel for 802.11b/g:

1. Standard 802.11b/g hardware can make use of up to fourteen 802.11b/g wifi channels in the 2.4Ghz ISM band.


2. Each channel is essentially up to 22Mhz "wide", thus, at most three channels may be used in a particular location without significant "overlap" (such as channels 1, 6, and 11).


3. Simultaneous activity on overlapping channels can cause interference, resulting in overall performance degradation (slower speeds, lost connections).


4. Most 2.4Ghz wifi equipment is factory set to use channel 6, making it one of the most frequently used 802.11b/g channels.


5. Microwaves are well known for interfering with wifi. They operate at 2450Mhz, which corresponds approximately to channel 9. Microwaves can cause measurably significant interference on channels 7 through 13, though channels 8 through 11 are affected the most.


6. Lower EM frequencies have longer wavelengths, and thus longer range at the same signal power. Admittedly, the difference between channel 1 and channel 14 is only 72Mhz, which is fairly trivial difference at 2.4Ghz. I suppose it's also arguable that lower frequencies have lower bandwidth capacity?

Note: I'm only using 802.11g because I prefer the Flexview display in my older R51 Thinkpad, which only supports 802.11g wifi. I'd certainly be using 802.11n otherwise, which doesn't face the same interference problems, partially due to its ability to use multiple frequency bands.

Tonight's abortion discussion on the Daily Show

Kudos to both Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee for maintaining an interesting and fairly rational discourse on the topic of abortion. Very interesting, and suprisingly free of Stewart's usual overwhelming one-sidedness. I was disappointed they never got around to discussing the root of the debate, at least on air. (In a nutshell, I think it has to do with our society's arbitrary and ill-defined mandate about a person's right to life.) I'll have to check out the full version shortly.

Anna made a great point that she wishes Huckabee would have had to defend his clearly stated "every human life is equal" belief in the context of an LGBTQ discussion. Unsurprisingly, Huckabee is apparently quite "pro-family" (read "against equality, independent of sexual preference"). He seems like a nice and intelligent guy to me...I wonder if he genuinely believes his opinions, and why.

A welcome robocall from Congresswoman Susan Davis

Last night I received a robocall from the office of San Diego's Congresswoman Susan Davis, inviting me to join a public townhall teleconference in progress. It told to just remain on the line to be automatically joined to the conference, or to press 2 to opt-out of any future calls. How great is that?

I stayed on the line and joined, to be treated to a few disappointing call-in questions (and Ms. Davis' responses) before my cordless phone lost reception from only 25 feet away (a 5.8 GHz Uniden with new batteries). Sadly, it's status quo for the phone, call reception seems rather unreliable in my urban abode.

The robocall recording had never given me a callback number (or option), and I don't pay for caller ID on my landline, so I had no way to call back into the teleconference. I could have tried *69, but I wondered what charges I would end up paying for that, if it would have even worked. I tried a quick Google search, but didn't find any information about the town hall teleconference on her official web site. I was getting ready to go out anyway, so I gave up. Ah well, it was cool while it lasted.

Kudos to Susan Davis for going to great lengths to interact with her constituents! Now, if only they could find a better way to filter out the paranoid wackos and senile old ladies.