Living Without Internet

We have been without Internet for 2+ days and a service call is scheduled for today at 1-5PM.  I do not know haow Mediacom can offer IP Telephony when it takes days to get a repair call.  I almost know what it is now- The barrel connector on the pole has picked up moisture and when the temperature drop and freezes the connection breaks.

Jess is here for the weekend holiday festivities at Ann’s.  We had a nice talk this morning about her company and the business prospects.  They appear good from that perspective.

I finished a very good fiction book called “The Shack”.  It started off rapidly, slowed about a third of the way through and picked up from there to a bang up finish.  If one keeps an open mind it could be a life changing experience.  If you start to read it just promise you will finish it within one week.

SAM is out at the stores with the cell phone off.  I hope she is having a good time.  I was hoping to wash the car but think a nap sounds like a good idea.  Andy is on his way up and we will be going out with the whole family tonight to Carusoe’s Italian Restaurant.  Most of our family like the place so majority rules.  Tomorrow is the Christmas at Ann’s with a supper to follow.  Merry Christmas to all.

Winter Storm – NE Indiana

AN INTENSE WINTER STORM OVER MISSOURI THIS MORNING WILL RACE
EASTWARD INTO EASTERN OHIO BY THIS AFTERNOON. HEAVY SNOW…SLEET
AND FREEZING RAIN WILL DIMINISH TO SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS THIS AFTERNOON.

GENERALLY 4 TO 8 INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED NORTH OF THE
INDIANA/MICHIGAN STATE LINE…AND HEAVY ICING SOUTH WITH ICE
ACCRUAL OF ONE QUARTER TO 1 INCH.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN…SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY

ANOTHER STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE THROUGH THE GREAT LAKES SATURDAY
NIGHT AND SUNDAY WITH A BLAST OF ARCTIC AIR FOLLOWING IN BEHIND.
BITTERLY COLD TEMPERATURES AND STRONG WINDS SUNDAY AFTERNOON WILL
LEAD TO DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS OF 15 TO 25 BELOW ZERO. IN
ADDITION…NUMEROUS LAKE ENHANCED SNOW SHOWERS ARE EXPECTED WITH
MINOR ACCUMULATIONS. STRONG WINDS MAY ALSO LEAD TO ADDITIONAL
POWER OUTAGES AS ICE DAMAGED AND OR WEAKENED TREE LIMBS WILL BE
SUSCEPTIBLE TO COMING DOWN.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT…

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED. HOWEVER SNOW SPOTTERS ARE
ENCOURAGE TO CALL IN SNOW AND OR ICE REPORTS TODAY.

USA disappearing industrial base

By Greg Grant Monday, December 15th, 2008 12:22 pm
Posted in Policy

Many Americans will be watching this week to see whether the Bush administration decides to bail out the ailing auto industry as one of its last official acts. Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the Lexington Institute, has written a number of important briefs in the last few weeks warning about the disappearance of American manufacturing and the potential long term implications that would have on this country’s future.

Thompson lists some deeply troubling data on the decline of American manufacturing. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, manufacturing made up nearly 25 percent of the economy, compared to 12 percent today. Today, one third of our manufactured goods come from overseas, versus a tenth in the 1970s. In the past eight years of the Bush administration, the U.S. share of global economic output dropped from 31 percent to 27 percent, while our merchandise trade deficit doubled to $800 billion. Those trends are driven by the erosion of domestic manufacturing and the auto industry is biggest component of that sector.

Thompson, who is no liberal, chides devotees to the Republican economic model that goes something like this: “deregulate everything and then stand back so the market can work its magic.” That model has presided over decline of the U.S. shipbuilding, electronics and steel industries and it’s about to work its magic on the auto industry. “We are destroying the foundation of our economy, not to mention the arsenal of democracy. If America loses what’s left of its auto industry, or its aerospace industry, or its chemical industry, our superpower status will ebb away,” Thompson writes.

America’s aerospace industry remains a global leader because the government shovels money into it to maintain the huge U.S. arsenal. “It gets a lot more money from taxpayers in a typical year than the auto industry is going to get from any federal bailout, and much of the aerospace sector would cease to exist in the absence of government support.” Its not that foreigners are better at manufacturing than we are, they’re just better at protecting their manufacturing base, Thompson says. In 1981, Reagan cancelled subsidies to commercial shipbuilders, by the end of his second term the industry had collapsed, now U.S. trade moves on foreign built ships.

The long term implication is that soon the U.S. will no longer build anything. Most U.S. job growth in this decade has been to provide services to consumers. If the country is ever to get out of this economic mess, it will need an industrial base that can provide goods for a global marketplace. Wall Street has been kneecapped and the consumer is shriveling as jobs and wages are cut. At some point the U.S. must go back to actually making things of value.

As Thompson says, the U.S. needs leaders who grasp that “economic growth generated by making world-class products is more sustainable than growth generated by having lots of lawyers.”

End of the Day

It is getting close to the end of my day.  I just returned from the church security detail.  It was cold outside tonight and I did not have my heavy coat.  It was still wet from snow blowing this AM.

The driveway is clear of deep snow.  So is the drive down to the building.  We are expecting much more snow tomorrow night – up to 5 inches and later on Saturday and Sunday.  Boy, we sure getting blasted this winter.

Snow, Cold, Routers and Internet

I have a cold.  It started coming on yesterday afternoon.  Last night my nose was stuffed up so I could not sleep well.  I was up at 0400.  I tried to access the Internet but could not so I went up to look at the modem – the 2 solid 1 blinking was present.  In vain, I tried resetting the modem but I knew it would not help so I called Mediacom.  They said the Angola area was under service and would be back on by 6 or 7.  In fact it came back on at 0500.

I look out on at least three inches of snow.  There is supposed to be freezing drizzle until 1000 hrs and after that just plain overcast and depressing.  I gave up on the Wireless addition to the household.  I thought I could do almost everything with networks but this one has me stumped.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.  When it works it works great  but when it doesn’t I can see the whole LAN perfect but not the Internet.  I tried opening ports, using static IP’s, using different WLAN cards.  It works until I shut it down and on reboot the WLAN does not see the Internet.

Wireless Router – FAILURE

I never did get the DLink DI-624 working with the DI-808HV.  I tried all my bag of tricks and it would work until I shut the notebook down and then would not work when I booted up the next time.  I have such a complicated routing table and port structure that I do not want to get rid of the DI-808HV.   If any of the wireless routers had 5 connectors then I would be OK but all of the devices I have looked at are only 4.

Septic & Winter Storage

Dilts came and pumped tank #1 that had never been pumped since we owned the house – 20+ years.  It had not been pumped because we did not know where it was located.  Earlier in the week we had an excavator come in and add some more risers so the – would be above ground.  The total bill for locating and pump-out was nearly $450.  Not too bad considering the price of everything lately.

While Dilts was here I drove the tractor up the hill and proceeded to drain the oil and change the filter for the winter layup.  I did the same thing to the chopper.  Now I can rest easy that all the winter chores are done.  Well, I have one left and that is to cut down the last remaining Ash tree that died 3 or 4 years ago.  It is about 20″ at the base.  Soon as the frost is in the ground down it will come with a thud.  It will make the yard look bare down by the lake.

The Pickens Plan

Below you will see the YouTube showing of the Pickens Plan.  I am a believer in this plan and have been active with Pickens Plan Group.  In essence the plan is to become energy independent within the USA in the next decade.  The Obama Plan is similar and hopefully will be fashioned after the PP goals.  The aim is to convince Congress that it is in their best re-election interests to support the goals of the President, who in turn supports the PP and “Green” movements.  Here is the PP explained- take the time to watch it is fascinating.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQa-ibNOKM

Here is another one:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDua06jrghQ&NR=1

Christmas Letter 2008 Sent

I finally got around to sending the Christmas Letter.  Unfortunately, I sent it from my newly acquired 2.7GHz Optiplex.  I have Outlook 2K and I had it set to RTF format.  As a result about half of my Family & Friends received the infamous Winmail.dat file.  Microsoft should be taken out behind the barn and …………………………   No, I will not say it!

I installed Opera today just to see what it is like.  It has a nice feel and has some good features.  That is good because my Firefox is locking up every time I select eBay and do a search on a given subject.  When that happens my CPU usage goes to 100% for about 15-30 seconds and FF locks.  I have to use the Task Manager to kill it.

I have fiddled all day trying to get my email all in one or two spots.  I will warn you not to try to use Windows Live to consolidate.  It simply does not work.  I also tried to link all my Hotmail accounts and that does not work either.  Evidently they were making a few mods today as the “Account” function is no longer there.  Now how do you link all the files?

I ordered SAM’s Christmas presents today.  I am glad that is done.  I hope the presents are appreciated but I am not hopeful because if you turn a geek loose in a store what does he buy?�

Slideshow: PLake Family Pics

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