A quick update

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd give a quick update on happenings here.

Everyone is happy and well. The kids are starting school soon. I think we're looking forward to that more than they are. With the exception of Adam. He was rather disappointed when Kindergarten was over and he didn't get to start 1st grade right away. I guess we never explained about summer vacation and just assumed he knew about it.

We're also in the planning stages for a trip to Walt Disney World. It's been 12 years since we've been there. And 3 years since I've been to Disneyland. It's killing me. I need my Disney park fix!

If you followed along on my last geek post from a few months ago here's a brief follow-up:

1) I finished the motion flash and it turned out really well. My friend was giddy with excitement when I turned it in to him. I should probably post the documentation for it just for posterity and geeky completeness.

2) The donor laptop for my photo frame died. So that project is dead until I can find another. It was on it's last legs anyway. Then one day it booted up but wasn't finding the wireless network. When I tried to fix that it just wouldn't boot at all. So I did what anyone else would do and took it apart. ;) I'm sure some of its guts will make for another interesting project someday (if they don't make it to the electronics recyclers first).

3 & 4) The hacked router and NSLU2 are humming along just fine. Nice and stable. If it wasn't for the occasional power outages we've been having recently they wouldn't have had any downtime since I first got them up and running. And they've survived some of my own mistakes as well too. I'm really liking them.

5) My other server has been painted a nice dark forest green to blend in well with the wall behind my office desk. It got a newer, heftier, quieter, and more efficient power supply. So it's running along very stealthily. I still haven't installed the raid array though, so it's not serving as a NAS just yet.

I got a great deal on Windows Server 2003 (free, and it's 100% legal!) So it's running Windows Server right now instead of Linux. On that same deal I also got a (free and legal) copy of Visual Studio so I'm teaching myself C# and nudging David along to do the same. He's reluctant and I can't really understand why. I think it's because he's still in summer mode and doesn't want to pick up any books. Anyway, the server is also running Folding@Home, so it's idle time is at least taken up to doing some good.

6) The rocket cam has been at a stand-still as I've been using what free-time I have for more Linux tinkering, C# learning, and I've even taken up some reading. (Gasp!) I did get the camera mounted into the nosecone though. I just need to wire up a different battery, poke a hole so it can see out, and mount a mirror so it can be looking downward. Not a whole lot and I should probably finish it up before the weather turns bad for another 9 months of rain and clouds (welcome to the Pacific Northwest). I guess I should try to knock that project out this week since I have the time and there really isn't a whole lot left to do.