Dale's blog. Why would you care?
For the past couple of days I have been working on assembling and figuring out the wiring and setup for the newest tool in the tool box. OK, it would be a BIG tool box. I’m just waiting for the rotary tool heads to arrive so I can do some real work with this sucker…
Well, it looks like one or more of the WordPress.com blog hosting site’s server(s) was/were hacked. Among the things the attackers got were, apparently, the keys used to interface WordPress.com blogs with Twitter and Facebook.
If you know me, you probably know I have a fairly low opinion of Facebook and a much, much lower opinion of Twitter (which could simply shorten its name by three letters to improve accuracy). There has been a disturbing, headlong rush over the past few years to concentrate far too many people’s personal lives onto the servers run by Facebook, Google, and a few others. I see this as problematic for a number of reasons.
First of all, I see a very great threat to personal privacy. It may be tempting to use these “services” for their intended purpose, but people tend to either ignore or forget basic common sense. OK, so Google lets you search the entire internet for “stuff”. Great, I love that. But shall we take a Google search as the Gospel truth? Google is a multi-billion-dollar corporation. They make lots of that money by selling advertising space. Where are those ads? In your search results. At the top of your search results. They also provide “free” email through Gmail. Free? Well, not really. Your email is examined, indexed, and used by Google to (can you guess it?) sell more advertising. “OK”, you say, “It’s not hurting me, I get free email out of the deal”. Great. Then you won’t mind if I stand by your mailbox, open all of your email, read it and sell a general synopsis of the contents to marketing companies who will use it to stand outside your house and wave advertising banners as you pull out of your garage – right? I mean, I’ll do it for free, and hand your mail to you after I’m done with it.
For some people Facebook is replacing email – not to mention phone calls, text messages, and in-person meetings. I lost count long ago of how many arguments have spiraled completely out of control due to simple misunderstandings and miscommunication. Some people’s newfound refusal to just pick up the phone and call someone, or drive ten minutes to visit in person and discuss things face to face, has been the cause of at least two family feuds that I know are going on at this moment. Brothers and sisters not speaking to each other, sons and daughters, friends falling apart — largely because we seem to be losing our willingness to communicate in ways that involve more than a few seconds of typing. Hurtful, horrible things that we would never dream of saying to someone in person just seem to slide right out of the keyboard and onto a website, to be seen by people who have absolutely no business knowing your business.
But I’ve strayed away from the WordPress thing. Yes, I run WordPress (the open source blog software) for my blog as well as another. But no, I don’t use the WordPress.com site. Why not? Well, this is one huge reason. By keeping my own data on my own systems, I am responsible for what’s there and how secure it is. I have control over how the site is run, the advertising supporting that site (or complete lack thereof), and whether my blog has to co-exist with those with whom I don’t want to be associated.
I’m sitting at a little table at a Chili’s in the Charlotte airport, writing a new blog entry using my cell phone. While it’s true that the keyboard is a little small for my massive mitts, if I want I can pull out the laptop and use it instead… connected to the Internet through the cell phone, of course.
I made it through the TSA checkpoint with no printed boarding pass, and will board the plane the same way. A new electronic boarding pass displays a 2-D barcode, which I can scan both places. This time I printed a copy just to be safe.
This morning I was able to remotely log into my server at home, and from there make a complete backup of the four web sites I am currently running on a GoDaddy server.
This is some cool stuff.
After having a Truxedo Lo-Pro on my Sport Trac pretty much the whole time I owned it, I knew I wanted to put one on the F150. They’re not cheap by any means, but quality products seldom are. And the Truxedo covers are definitely high quality! The fit is perfect, installation is quick and painless, and the materials are all top notch. The new cover looks great and works exactly as it should.
I ordered mine from Mechanics Warehouse and got it the next day — they shipped it from a warehouse in Kansas City via FedEx ground that day. I chose them becuase their price was the same as the lowest I found anywhere else, they also had the rubber bed mat I wanted, and they threw in some goodies for free. Lots of them. There is a ratcheting cargo bar, a telescoping retriever hook (for stuff that is up in the front of the bed), a tailgate weather seal, and a set of four Bull Ring tie-downs. I can’t use the Bull Rings, but will either sell them or give them away.
If you’re looking for a soft tonneau cover for your truck, I can recommend the Truxedo line without reservation. I like the Lo Pro QT because of its automatic tension adjustment and the single release on the rear bar. You won’t be adjusting the cover when the weather changes, and getting it rolled out of the way to load stuff into the bed (and putting it back in place afterward) is quick and easy even for one person.
I finally took a few minutes (or maybe a couple of hours) to play around with QR codes. Those are the odd-looking square bar codes you see in a lot of places now, including on product boxes, in ads and on signs. Naturally there’s a free Linux program to generate them, so I did…
A sample contact card |
HamGadgets news blog |
This blog (home page) |
Link to MasterKeyer product page |
You get the idea. If you scan these with your Android, iPhone or Crackberry you’ll see that you can encode a lot of different stuff into one. I’ll be using these for sure… easy way to point people with smart phones to a web site, or to exchange contact information.
Well, it’s all in, and I’m very happy with the result. It looks good, it works as it should. Right down to the delayed shutoff — I can park and shut off the engine, the rig stays powered until I open a door (or some delay times out). I mounted the control head with Command foam tape mounting tabs for easy removal if needed. Also, my old roll of 3M foam tape finally got too old and these were all Wally World had. 🙂 You can click a picture for larger views.
The only thing I’m not sure about is the foam tape mounting for the control head. If that doesn’t hold over the long term, I’ll probably switch to a ProClip. It’s working for now, but it’s amazing how much you can see in a high-resolution picture that you don’t see when your eyeballs start aging. The transceiver isn’t hard mounted; I’ll stick the hook side of some industrial strength Velcro to the top surface (it’s upside down) to keep it secure but it’s not shifting around even under hard braking.
I’ve spent the past couple of days working on getting the dual-band VHF/UHF ham radio (a Kenwood TM-G707A) installed in the new F-150. As of today it’s mostly done. All that’s left to do now is to mount the control head on the dash, and finish the antenna mount. I took it apart last night and re-painted it, since the original black paint had mostly flaked off of part of it.
The new truck is more installation-friendly than the Sport Trac, that’s for sure. Dashboard panels pop out with a simple tug, door sill plates pop up without breaking parts, and of course there is a lot more room for working under the dash. There’s a convenient pocket in the dash for the microphone, and plenty of room behind the rear seats for the transceiver. Much to my surprise, I found out the rear seats will flip down with no hassle to gain access to the area behind them.
F150forum.com has been a huge help in getting this done, from the tip about the rear seat latches to wiring ideas to someone mentioning ProClip mounts. When I’m finally finished with this project I’ll have a very nice looking and functional installation. On the off chance I ever decide to upgrade to a different radio, I’ll be able to keep most of the stuff in place and re-use the mounts. Given how little I use the mobile rig, though, I give that a pretty low probability.
Lisa and I took the new F150 to Des Moines and back this past weekend. It’s every bit as smooth and quiet as we had hoped; I would say it probably comes close to most luxury cars. Gas mileage was not spectacular, but I’ll reserve judgment on that issue. We’re still in the break-in phase; in fact, there was under 100 miles on the odometer when we left. Temperatures hovered at or below freezing for most of the weekend, and we had a stiff cross wind both ways. I also have not put a bed cover on yet, and I know that will make a difference.
The EcoBoost engine pulls smooth and strong from idle to highway speeds; you really have no indication you have a V6 under the hood. Horsepower and torque are higher than the new 5 liter V8. In fact, it outperforms last year’s 5.4 liter by a good margin (320 HP/390 ft-lb for the 5.4, 365 HP/420 ft-lb for the little 3.5 EcoBoost). This engine is amazing. No turbo lag or whine, just quiet power from an engine that pulls like a mule.
I’m looking at what to do to get the ham rig installed. There really isn’t a hidden spot in the cavernous F150 cab for the transceiver; I may be able to wedge it in under the seat, but I’m not sure yet. I think there’s plenty of room under the dash, but I’m not inclined to drill anywhere. I’ll have to do some looking. The antenna might be a challenge as well; I believe that’s a fiberglass hood.
It occurred to me that the weblog was looking somewhat dated. The Blueberry theme was OK when I started it, but I liked the one I picked for the HamGadgets news blog a lot better.
One of the things I like is that it’s totally customizable… I can move, add and delete things at will, change the colors, the background, everything. I like it. Oh, and I’ll be posting pictures of the new truck in a couple of days. It’s awesome. 😀