I’ve been bitching lately (why should today be any different then any other day) about the cost of electricity. It seems that we keep using more and more of it - last month we used over 2800 KWH. So it was with great enthusiasm when Jon offered me a Kill A Watt electrical usage monitoring device. I brought the device home and put it right on the server and discovered that it was using just over 400 watts - so, in essence it’s costing me about $23 / month to run it. That’ll probably be one of my big hitters, but I still have 2400 KWH to account for - I can tell I’m going to get some real use out of this device.

Now that I’m running Linksys’ unreleased firmware (1.3.4) on my RV0041 it seems like all my VPN issues have vanished. So what better time to make a change to things! I decided that I was going to replace my WAN backbone with fiber, and leverage the RV0041’s built in mini-gbic sfp socket - but I didn’t get very far. It seems that Linksys makes 3 mini-gbic transceivers (2 fiber, 1 cat5) and none of them are compatible with the RV0041. Further investigation reveals that there is, in fact, only 1 sfp that will work with the RV0041: Copax’ LPS-301F2-XX. Unfortunately, it also appears that Copax’ products are only sold in Taiwan… Oh well, so much for fiber.

So we’re in need of a new copier, and a printer / fax, at work. We decided to redeploy some assets, and combine the copier and printer into a single / larger / more bells & whistles machine. We came up with our requirements, put put our feelers out and began interviewing sales people.

First, let me say that I can’t believe we have to talk to sales people to get a copier - it’s nothing more then a high priced multifunctioned printer. Why can’t I just go to Staples and see all the models in my price range? That being (obviously) out of the question, why can’t I go somewhere online to see comparisons of all the models and get pricing information? It makes no sense to me, that in this day and age there are still copier sales people and that their sales information is so secret.

Second, if I have to deal with sales people (and it appears that I do) is it too much to expect that they know something about their products? If I tell them on their prequal call that I must be able to print with CUPS should they still be unsure if the machine is Linux compatible when they arrive to sell to me? Maybe CUPS is too much for the average salesperson to know about, but what about FAXing? Surely they should know about that, and I shouldn’t have to point things out to them in their brochures - should I?

It’s been a week, we’ve seen a half dozen sales people and none of them knew half of what they should have about the machines they were trying to sell to us. Worse then that, none of them knew how to sell. Tomorrow we see the machine that the State of Utah picked, and that we pre-picked. Hopefully the guy can sell…

After several weeks of trouble shooting, I think I’ve isolated my network problems. To recap / bring you up to speed: My 8 Mbps connection peaks at about 6 Mbps, then gradually drops to under 1 Mbps. My VPN tunnels stay nailed up for about an hour and then all fail simultaneously - attempts to reconnect them always fail, unless my Linksys / Cisco RV0041 router is IPLd. To try and resolve the problem I’ve moved my cable modem as close to the network demarkation point as possible (2”). I’ve replaced the cable modem. I’ve removed all extraneous switches from my network. And I’ve run fiber from the modem to the router. So last night, when my VPN tunnels failed, and I went to restart the router (from its system management screen) the router woudn’t let me in I started looking at that piece of hardware…

I finally got tired of hearing “your downloads aren’t working” (thank you Kevin), so I just fixed the Carrots page. The stuff on the page is really old code, but if you need it or just want to take a look at it you can again. Sorry for any inconvenience that it’s absense might have caused.

I think I owe a lot of people an appology… I have been a longtime vocal critic of creationalist theories. That is until the other day - over lunch. I was eating a plate of Heinz Spaghetti (Surprise) when I saw the light and “was touched by his noodly apendages!” I for one, will never again doubt the fact that this great earth of ours was created by none other then the great one - the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I have already ordered Pirate Fish decals for my cars, and I will make it my charge to take the Great One’s teachings to the unenlightened. I will also support the various Caribbean missionaries efforts to reestablish pirates in their native lands - as we all know that the pirates’ demise is the real cause of the sad state of our environment.

I got a letter today from Fred Beans VW, of Devon PA, and it reminded me just how much I dislike them. Back in July I took my TDI Jetta in for a state inspection and a 40k checkup - and the car was promised to be done in a day. I called each of the following 4 business days (I didn’t call over the weekend) to see if it was finished… When I finally got the car back the headlight was burned out (even though you can’t inspect a car in PA with a burned out headlight) and the electric lock in the rear driver side door no longer worked. Of course Fred’s crack team of VW engineers assured me that everything had been working before they drove it around the back of the shop to bring it out to me!

The people over at Fry-O-Diesel contacted me this morning to let me know that hope is on the way! Apparently, there is a consumer bio-diesel (B20) filling station scheduled to open this fall at 12th and Vine right here in Philadelphia. They also told me about the fine folks over at the Energy Cooperative who are working on the bio-diesel distribution infrastructure for home heating oil and fleet fuel! As much as I’m against the sky rocketing fuel prices these days I’m thinking that this is exactly what the bio-diesel industry needs to help it really get off the ground.

I”ve been a longtime proponent of biodiesel, despite my never having used it. Infact, biodiesel was one of the leading reasons for my having purchased my TDI several years ago even though I’ve never lived in a market that offered a bio fuel source. This summer my hopes were raised when the gas dock (Indian River Marina), at the beach, began selling B20 at par with dino-diesel - but, alas, there was no way to get my car onto the dock and they prohibited my carrying the fuel away… Tonight, I stumbled upon the Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel project and it renewed my hopes of being able to burn an alternative fuel - both in my car, and my boiler. Though I had always planned on running the car on biodiesel, burning it in my furnace had never occurred to me. I hope their small scale tests work, and that they’re able to grow so that they can offer everyone (who wants it) biofuel. I’ll be following their progress closely, now that I know about them.

I went into Wayne last night, after we got back from our trip, to top off the tanks for the week. Not that I’m dumb enough to use it (few engines, certainly none of my cars, need high octane fuel), but both the BP and Sunoco in Wayne PA were out of all but regular gas. I think Jon, who has been looking at hybrid cars lately, has the right idea. I know that with fuel prices what they are I’m going to be taking the Jetta (42 mpg lifetime!) alot more then I’ll be driving the Landcruiser.

What the hell is going on!? A little over a year ago everyone was yelling and screaming about $2.00 / gallon gas prices. Now I’m seeing upper $3 / gallon everywhere. USA Today is reporting that some stations are selling gas for over $6 / gallon, and that PA Governor Rendell is talking about rationing fuel! Today, on the way home from the cottage I filled the rig up and the bill was (are you sitting down?) over $100! I know that oil is becoming scarcer, and that recent events both here and abroad have really messed with the markets, but this absolutely can’t continue without causing the economy to collapse. Why isn’t the administration pushing for higher CAFE standards? Why aren’t they supporting alternative fuels - ethanol, bio-diesel, etc.? And why isn’t oil gushing out of the strategic oil reserve?!

Post maze we went looking for cheese and lighthouses. We got some cheese, gave up on the lighthouse, and stumbled upon Vicki’s Organically Grown Produce road side stand, and Hippy Commune!

We took a trip to the county’s Corn Maize this afternoon… The kids had never been in a corn field before, and none of us had been in such a huge maze. We all had a great time. Thanks Jon for picking up the tab!

…for the Labour Day weekend show! Well, we’re not exactly going to San Fran, but we are heading out - to the cottage - for the weekend. Can’t wait to see the new & improved DunRoven, and to tackle the very long punch list.