miscellany: Thanks, Andy.

Since biogas was the prior topic, this museum fits right in.

And it's in Worcester, too.

DIY: hot tubs and biogas production, oh my.

A bunch of information re: small scale biogas (methane) production courtesy of Journey To Forever.

Methane Digesters for Fuel Gas and Fertilizer
Nepal Biogas Plant -- Construction Manual

Lots of other resources available in the Journey To Forever Biofuels Library.

Also found a few hot tub plans :)

BUILD A HOT TUB! Mother Earth News, Issue # 62 - March/April 1980
How to build a hot tub Steward Community Woodland
Our woodland wood fired hot tub Steward Community Woodland

DIY: just a couple yurt manufacturers

There's a nice little yurt-building instructional page here. (A complete guide to making a Mongolian Ger by P.R. King)

The following two vendors offer yurts with solid walls.

Smiling Woods Yurts (note the metal roof kit available)
Oregon Yurtworks (offers two-story yurts, as well as a number of optional additions)

miscellany: send in the clowns

Springfield Residents will be Charged $90 for Trash Removal

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) -- Springfield residents can expect to be paying a ninety dollar yearly trash-removal fee. Officials say the trash fee will generate four million dollars a year, which is needed to help balance the budget.

I wonder if it'll be $90 per household, or if it'll end up costing us $450.

Why not just reassess all the homes for another $20-30,000?

(Oh, wait, the city's already assessed our house for $40,000 more than its initial assessment six years ago. Before any significant improvements had been made.)

miscellany: a bit of wandering memory...

Remembered the old password for the original TMP site at GeoCities. Put up a temp redirect to the page at DS (.net, not .com). The webring we started back in 1996 apparently still exists-- though it's dwindled down to less than 25 sites. And the new admin changed the damn picture. Couldn't be buggered to change the description I wrote, naturally-- funny, when it was intended to be a writing ring of sorts. Just changed the picture.

Checked on a bunch of the old domain names-- three occupied, several still vacant. Managed to get one of them back in January.

I hate domain name snipers, hate 'em to itsy bitsy little pieces. Imagine seeing someone else wearing a tattoo that you designed for yourself. That's what I get for being broke when domain renewal time came around (more than once).

Bitter. Nothing new, there.

miscellany: more random taxation to follow...

It isn't enough to up the property taxes by re-evaluating property values. It isn't enough to start charging extra for certain types of trash pickup. So, it looks like we're in for even more good times.

Springfield Announces $320 Million Capital Plan

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - For years the city of Springfield hasn't had enough money for major improvements like school renovations, road construction and the demolition of abandoned buildings.

I hate this "city".

Here's the article from WWLP.

Anarchy Online: Lost Eden Q&A #4

A quickie link to Funcom's fourth Lost Eden Q&A.

Don't really have anything exciting to say about it, since it's almost completely about the PVP features. Might be willing to visit reclaim a few times to try it out, but I can't say that I'm very excited about the prospects of such...

More information on the alien missions would be welcome.

Anarchy Online: since my brother doesn't appear to be awake yet...

Might as well catch another kretek or two, then log into AO.

Think I'll try the 160 incarnator in Marble Orchards (Scheol) instead of the 170 near Adonis City. I think the 160's the one I used for the Scheol keys, anyway.

Nicotine awaits...

... and I need another 505 nanoprogramming to be able to combine the pattern for the Diviner with the novictum. Bah.

Anarchy Online: laziness prevails!

Finally getting around to the Adonis sanctuary quest. Decided to take the easy method, and buy the completed demon pattern, along with the needed crystals filled by the Source, and the necessary novictum for the demon and the diviner.

Should finish it up tomorrow- just need to go to an incarnator. Maybe then I'll get back to running missions on Rubi-Ka.

(It's tomorrow. Actually, didn't even log in. Maybe later.)

miscellany: Do you have trouble sleeping, or sleep all of the time?

Fun fun fun! My darling e-mailed me a link to this video.

Reminds me of an old skit on Talk Soup.

Some more random web cruising:
"The notion of specific drug treatments for specific psychiatric disorders helped to bolster the case that psychiatry was no different from other medical specialties..."

Anarchy Online: more procrastinating...

Started in on the Adonis sanctuary quest- and just bought myself another month of time in which I can put off doing the next step.

Hurray for /terminate for quick transport!

NS: don't know if you've seen the Omni-Tek Board of Directors website before.

crazy: a few more things to connect

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found.

"It's unavoidable that glacial retreat will induce tectonic activity," says geoscientist Allen Glazner of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Mount Merapi's unstable lava dome has partially collapsed, easing pressure that threatened to make the Indonesian volcano erupt.

TOKYO (AFP) - A 6.2-magnitude earthquake nearly as strong as last month's deadly tremor in Indonesia has shaken large areas of southwestern Japan

The independent Oxford Research Group says in its report Global Responses to Global Threats that the effects of climate change - displacement of peoples, food shortages, social unrest - have long-term security implications far greater than those of terrorism

Anarchy Online: Lost Eden Q&A #3

Looks like there's good news about how much XP can be placed into research:

How high a percent of experience will players be able to donate to global research? Will we be able to set it at 100% so that we don't get personal exp at all?

Yes! If a player wants to dedicate all their earned XP/SK into research they are free to do so.

So I'll be grinding missions for research perks and credits instead of levelling and credits :)

The full article is available from Funcom's site here.

crazy: where are the brakes on this thing, anyway?

Everything's just a little too fast, a little too sharp. Have to be able to slow this down...

crazy: got my blinders on

Limited eyesight is a good thing.

I stopped wearing contact lenses years ago- having decent peripheral vision and nothing to limit my field of view meant that I'd notice more things going on around me. Global events and personal events whorl around in giant ugly patterns that can weave into a rather hideous tapestry, when seen in the light of day.

So I've taken to wearing sunglasses most of the time. They work reasonably well-- though that pair of old safety glasses is waiting for an upgrade. Selective vision works: why worry, when one can simply crash from one mishap to another, never knowing what lead to that point, or considering what might be around the corner?

miscellany: I hate Verizon, yes indeedy.

So the internet connection went down for no apparent good reason again.

The last time this happened, I wised up a bit and left the Verizon provided modem in a conspicuous place, so I wouldn't drop the fucker down the stairs again, like I did not the last time, but the time before that. Not the time before that, where my modem got fried during an electrical storm.

Which is nice. So I got to poke around with the browser-based admins for both the modem I'm using (not Verizon supported) and the Westell.

Connection works again, after about two hours of having the modem connect, sign in, and then disconnect.

So at least I've saved myself the headache of having to call Verizon and have them tell me nothing's wrong on their end. (Which is when I'd normally break out the tracert timeouts, but couldn't even get that far this time. Besides, "virtual circuit xxxxx status down" indicates a problem with their end, not mine.)

Thankfully it didn't require a password reset, like the usual every few months Verizon DSL crashola.

miscellany: various game engines.

I miss being able to alter things while playing Anarchy Online. I miss hex editing saved games, changing item headers, retexturing, fooling with scripts. Not that I have a superlative grasp of said things.

So, NS, if you want to check some of these freely available (some limitations may apply, beware) game engines, let me know.

Reality Factory (website) (downloads page)

Crystal Space (website) (downloads)

Kaneva Game Platform (website) (download)

Or, you can poke around Google and see if you like some other engine more.

(If anyone from Funcom happens to be looking around-- pretty please, make a way for us to at least do some skinning for Anarchy Online, or run contests for player-made content. Quest storylines, creature models, textures, what have you.)

crazy: no, really!

Welcome to the modern world...

More antipsychotics being prescribed for children

Study says millions have 'rage' disorder

miscellany: raining again.

Thankfully, it's nice and cool out. If only my eyes didn't feel like I've been wearing my contacts for too long, and my knuckles didn't feel like I went a few rounds with a cinderblock wall, it wouldn't be so bad.

And I haven't worn contacts in years.

Time to break out the double vodka quarter cranberry. Would if I weren't worried about some unknown calamity occurring, which I wouldn't be able to correct if inebriated.

Anarchy Online: what's a bored advy to do?

Back to soloing, I guess. Not that I've done much teaming with the old group, mind you.

(Wish I had a fast way to level NS up to where we could team.)

Might try leveling the alts a bit, ha ha ha.

Might try getting the Adonis sanctuary key, then go on to Penumbra. Maybe not any time this week. Should work on increasing faction.

I hate the Shadowlands.

miscellany: houseboats :)

A houseboat might be fun to try- not at sea, but maybe in a lake or pond.

There's a roomy (sleeps up to 10 people!) cabin type fiberglass boat here.
Some beautiful vessels here, though the @!#%$! would require me to look into financing- not really an option, given my credit history. Unless someone wants to give me $350,000 plus the additional amount needed to bring said houseboat to MA...

(Not to mention the additional $1,000,000 or so needed for a nice sized plot of land that happens to have a reasonable amount of suitable waterfront property. Er, and qualify for a mortgage. *ahem*)

Which leaves out the two manufacturers above, and pretty much any of the custom houseboat manufacturers. I'd be hard pressed to find a lender for a Big Wheel, much less a boat.

Though given enough time and money, I might be able to hobble together something like this with the right plans.

(Side note: "The American Boy's Handy Book"-- it's been a number of years since I flipped through it, but it included several different boat plans. Nothing I'd feel safe having as the family domicile, but shy of financing a boat, it'd probably be the only way I could afford a seafaring vessel at the moment.)

(Looks like the down payment on a boat loan is similar to the down payment on undeveloped land- 20-25%. No, not that I'm seriously considering buying a new or used boat, but sometimes I like to let strange notions wander around a little.)

crazy: random web strands, mix together with caution.

MIT Institute For Soldier Nanotechnologies

FDA approves computer chip for humans

we examined the effect of Transcranial Electrostimulation Treatment (TCET)"

Rocket Boots

electroactive polymers (original .pdf here)

Boffins invent grenade vaporising ‘electric force field’

Porphyrins As Photosensitizers To Enhance Night Vision

Optobionics’ Artificial Silicon Retina™ microchip

Certainly, all of this stuff is old news... place contents in a blender and have fun.

Anarchy Online: time to look for a new org...

Ah, well. The organization I joined last summer has sold off its city, after months of decreasing member activity. Haven't really been playing Anarchy Online much with my main after the decision to disband was made. Had been mission grinding for cash to try and help support the city (either a group purchasing attempt, or to help defray the city fees). Seemed rather unnecessary, not to mention futile, since everyone else who had been interested in purchasing the city either moved to another org or left the game.

On the good side, I've now got a few extra million credits than I did before I started missioning.

Anarchy Online: Lost Eden Q&A #2

A bit more information about Lost Eden from the Anarchy Online site.

Hoping there isn't some sort of mission timer on the mothership missions limiting players to a certain number of missions per time period, as collecting attuned CRUs is a pain in the behind.

Article here.

Anarchy Online: patching to a reinstall, w00t!

Or, check the version of Anarchy Online you're running, and manually download and install the patches if you aren't running 16.2.6.

June 2nd - Crashes / errors after Patching

There appears to be an issue with the patcher causing difficulties for people who had to patch more then one of the 16.2.x patches (i.e. patching from 16.2.4 or .5 to the latest version) that caused the client to not get one of the patches.

This is causing the client to crash. Unfortunately the only way to overcome this issue is to reinstall the client form the download build.

The patches can be downloaded from Funcom here.

crazy: slotted screwdriver vs. fingertip

... and the fingertip won. That is, the skin didn't break. Let's hear it for trying to install metal mending brackets without predrilling the holes, while trying to keep the kids away from the workspace.

The thought of biometric identification cards is really bothersome; so instead, I'm looking at this emulator (OS images here).

Also trying to find the most durable means of turning the frame of an old pair of safety goggles black. Might do the electrochemical etching- probably won't do any electroplating, spray painting, or enameling.

Was toying with the idea of setting up some thin client PCs for the children, but don't really feel like setting up an app server. Not today, anyway.