Gadgets:

Testing Plogit again, had to reset my Tungsten C to get WiFi working again.

Environment:

So I'll admit that this is not current news at all, but I only recently learned about PZEV rated automobiles. This is a California certification for extraordinarily clean cars. I have been saying for months that my next car will be a CVT Hybrid (after experiencing the sheer joy of driving my wife's Honda Civic Hybrid CVT). The CVT transmission is the first "automatic" transmission I have ever liked, and it is the only way I'll give up a manual shifter. She is getting between 37 and 45 mpg depending on traffic and hills and it is very clean (I believe SULEV). I am just now learning that both the Civic and the Toyota Prius come in PZEV versions that are even cleaner, for only a few hundred dollars more, and this sounds fantastic. I am likely to drive my current car into the ground, then replace with a CVT Hybrid with a PZEV rating, but if a manufacturer makes at CVT Hybrid PZEV with cooled seats and a wagon/hatchback with fold-down seats so I can carry my longbows, I'd trade in my Saab 9-5 today.

This is more current news: there is a company called TerraPass that is allowing ordinary drivers to purchase greenhouse gas credits for their driving habits and car. They claim that only 10% of their revenue will be used for profit and the rest is used to run the company and to fund environmentally positive projects that take greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere! If that is true it could go a long way into helping offset the impact of driving. I am looking for ways to find out how legit the company is, and how much overhead they have, but I am very interested in some TerraPass like credits for my car, my house, my computers, and even my bicycle (it has plastic parts).

Computers:

My employer's internal computing arm finally upgraded my desktop machine at work from a February 2000 issued PowerMac G4 (500Mhz, 256MB, 25GB, Zip100, DVD-RAM, ATI RagePro) to a brand new PowerMac G5 (dual 1.8GHz, 512MB, 160GB, SuperDrive, GeForce 5200). So far the largest noticeable difference has been that the firewire ports work (the old machine's firewire controller burned out years ago) and backup/restore to an external firewire/usb drive is much easier and faster. I have a Terminal.app saved session with about a dozen Terminal windows (one for each of the UNIX and Tandem hosts I routinely log into), and they all come up much faster than on the old machine.

At the moment I am simply running the cloned copy of Mac OS X 10.3.9 I had on the old G4, but eventually I'll re-install from scratch to see if there are any benefits from optimization for dual G5 processors. I have no plans to upgrade to 10.4.x (Tiger) because I use a few applications that are not "Tiger-ready" yet, and because the new OS offers me no compelling reasons to upgrade. I'll need to get more memory because of a bit of crapware they make us use at work called "Argus" which likes to have a few gigabytes of free memory to run properly (groan).

The G5 is really quiet. I can't hear it at all (but so was the G4/500 except for it's disk drive). The loudest thing in my office is still my trusty old SGI O2 workstation. The G5 is taller than the G4 was, which is an issue as it does not fit under my desk the way I'd like it to. I don't think I will miss the Zip drive that much - I have not used it in over a year anyway. I am using the built-in secure erase function in OS X 10.3's "Disk Utility" application to completely erase my old drive before I re-image it with internal computing's scratch install.

Home and Garden:

Last Friday morning, after several days of research into my choices, I ordered a new Ariens Mini Zoom 1540 riding lawn mower from Lawn & Leisure of Sterling, VA. Joel at Lawn & Leisure was very helpful and applied no high pressure sales tactics. Buying any riding, rotary mower was hard for me to do. I wanted to do something more environmentally friendly, but I have about 2 acres of yard to mow regularly, and though I can mow it all with a manual reel push mower (did it last weekend, took 9 hours over three days), I want to get it done much faster. I've been using the ancient Sears Craftsman 4hp 22" self propelled walk behind we bought used in 1996, but it is literally falling to pieces (one of the drive wheels has been broken for years, but now a second wheel is falling off and it leaks gas). That mower was taking me around 5 hours to do the whole 2 acres, again not exactly timely.

I looked at and almost ordered a Quick 36 Fox (36" self-propelled walk behind), but Erci pointed out that at roughly $2000 she'd be happier if whatever mower we bought could do a few other things, such as tow a cart or spreader. She is of course, correct - but that Quick 36 does look like an excellent choice for people who need to mow 1-3 acres of hilly ground with lots of obstructions and no need to tow a cart around.

We considered a John Deere L 100 series lawn tractor, which also looks like a pretty good deal. The theory is that we'll be able to mow the lawn in half the time with the zero turn from Ariens though, and time is precious.

I plan to further cut the time down by buying a small Pro Mow gang of reels to tow behind the rider. The reels do a better job of cutting grass than any rotary mower would, and the wide swath will allow us to cut in just a few sweeps and with less gas than the normal deck, which will still be available just in case the weeds take over (weeds are tough on reel mowers).

I wish someone made a small gang of perhaps 3 reels I could push around by hand, that would have made the rider unessential. I really like the little 18" Brill Lexus 38 I have (and intend to still use it inside our fence (about 1/10th of an acre). It is quiet, clean, easy, and cuts beautifully... it is just too small to tackle the big field with.

Looking forward to playing with the Ariens when it arrives.

Politics:

Last night Erci and I went over to Virginia Assembly candidate Bruce Roemmelt's house to help with his campaign. Last night this meant stuffing envelopes, and sorting bulk mail. Reminded us of newsletter production back in our Society for Creative Anachronism days. The crew at Bruce and Beth and Sam's house are really nice; a good mix of concerned citizens (several who are veterans), irate voters, and people insitgating for change.

Last Saturday morning I walked around Sterling going door to door with Christian, Nicole, and Vince from the Bruce Roemmelt campaign trying to make people aware of their choices in November and get a feel for the issues that are important to voters in that area. I guess this is called 'canvassing', and it was my first experience with it. It was fun, and I got to meet a lot of people.

Politics:
This morning Erci and I went to vote in Virginia's primary elections and we ran into Bruce Roemmelt, who is running for State Assembly district 13 this November. I have been very excited to meet Bruce since I first discovered he was running against our current delegate (a completely useless man), and that for the first time in years we'd actually have a choice in the general elections for this one office.

If you live anywhere near the 13th district (South-central Loudon County and the Northern half of Prince William County excluding Manassas itself) you should sit up and take notice. Spend a little time to figure out what your current delegate has been spending his time and energy doing in the state legislature, and ask yourself if it is worthwhile. His voting record and the bills he introduced are all a matter of public record.
I think it would be hard to find a more embarassing resume anywhere than the record of what the state assembly has done in the past two years. Compare that record, specifically the laws sponsored by your delegate, to the issues that Bruce Roemmelt claims to have taken to heart; then vote your conscience.

Bruce's campaign website is http://www.bruce2005.org/ and Bruce and his campaign workers maintain an informative and entertaining blog of their efforts at http://www.electroemmelt.org/. Check it out and see why I am so excited about the possibility for change.