Teyrnon

I was going through the pockets on my travel pack and found an old WiFi signal detector. It just had some lights to indicate signal strength. I recall using it to figure out how far into the yard the wireless network extended. That worked back when there were much fewer wireless networks in the yard but nowadays with a wireless router in every house near me knowing the signal strength isn't helpful without knowing which network it's picking up.

Nowadays a cheap low end Android tablet or even an iPod Touch would probably work better as a handheld device to determine the reach of a particular wireless network.

So, what kind of tools have you had over the years that were useful at one time but aren't so useful now?

So anybody out there? I'm having a pretty lonely Saturday night.

Anyrate I've almost decided against the tablet netbook. As far as those goes it'll probably be better to wait a year or two and see what comes out. Which brings me back to eee PC 1001P that I was seriously considering before I was enticed tabletward. This netbook boasts an 11 hour battery life which is a major plus given how I plan to use it. If all goes well I'll probably purchase one in mid May.

June will be my month for traveling. Looking into bus and train travel since I don't think I have the patience these days to deal with the travesty we laughingly or not call airport security in the early 21st century. To those who might ask, a trip to Seattle is certainly a possibility, so let me know if June is good. Minnesota is next to definite, knock on wood.

In other news I'm giving thought to just deactivating my Facebook account. I've been on Facebook for 2 years now and quite frankly I've yet to see much point to it.

Nothing really new this week. Getting a little tired of hearing about the Apple iPad but what can you do? I wouldn't mind having one but it's not a must have item. Nor does it appear to be what I've been looking for these past four months.

Speaking of which at the moment I'm leaning strongly towards just getting a netbook to serve as a take-along journal replacement. AN Asus Eee PC 1001P seems the most promising at the moment. Now that companies are starting to announce prices for the tablet devices they'll be releasing in the coming months I'm seeing a clear trend of pricing them at $500 or more and I'm not really interested in putting that kind of money down for something potentially less flexible than what I could get in a netbook for $300.

This past week I got some work done on the projects I'm supposed to be working on. Really not much to be said there.

I got that box spring out the door. Decided not to ponder what those large yellow stains were overmuch. It was picked up this morning. It's now possible to get to just about everything in the room so that's a definite improvement. Now, I have the huge chair, computer table, a hamper full of blankets(?), two chests of drawers, a hospital bed, a strange exercise contraption, a desk chair, a sewing machine table with sewing machine mounted, a wheeled cabinet, and the contents of the two closets and everything stuffed into everything else to deal with.

I finally picked up the holiday debris in the living room. Shipping boxes and wrapping paper for the most part. Calling that room the living room is questionable. I don't spend much time in there and it really only gets used during special occasions and such. I'd refer to it as a parlor but that tends to get confused looks. This house really has two rooms that could be called a living room. The one that the front door opens into and the really large room in the back. I tend to think of the latter as the living room. Those who've been in the house will know what I'm talking about. Anyrate, the front room has been picked up and swept.

No news on my search for an electronic notebook/PDA this week. Right now, I'm waiting for various products to be released and we'll see what turns up. I'd like to get something by summer since it's possible I may be doing some traveling this year.

That's pretty much it for this past week.

I've decided for the nonce that I'm going to try to post every week. There isn't much to say this week. I'll just address a couple things and we'll see what else comes to mind if anything.

I think this is the year I need to finally empty my mother's old room and get things squared away for whatever repairs need to be done to that room. I've been putting it off for four years now. Just need to get the bed out of there so I can have enough room to move around in there. My mother liked to keep rooms tightly packed wall to wall with furniture and stuff. The bed will probably go to the side of the road a component at a time since I now know the trash collector will pick up one and only large item a week. Maybe getting it out of the house will help my sinuses a little. Who knows?

Apple announced the iPad today which is certainly going on my list of candidates for journal book replacement. It would seem more viable for the role than the iPod Touch. However, a cheaper netbook is still looking like what I'll end up getting.

I'm currently reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman and Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. Also reading a collection of essays about Firefly/Serenity which so far has been a little annoying in that the first few essays seem more about tearing down every other bit of television science fiction in attempt to show how wonderful Firefly is in comparison. I'm hoping that the essays get better further in. I also loaded the Kindle with a few collections of H.P. Lovecraft's fiction the other night. I've been meaning to catch up on my reading of his work and now seems like as good a time as any.