Red Fox in Back Yard

Even though we're about a mile and a half from the city limits of Philadelphia, we've seen several red fox in the back yard and around the neighborhood. Yesterday morning, I saw this fox in a neighbor's back yard. The neighbor had trapped a grey squirrel in a 'have-a-heart' cage (I have no idea why he did that), and the fox was trying to get it. At first, I thought it was two fox cubs playing together, then I thought it was one fox with prey, and finally we realized that the squirrel was in a cage.

I grabbed a camera, and was able to get this picture:
The fox is looking directly at the camera..... I'll try to get a better shot next time. I suspect there's a den somewhere in the neighborhood. This looked like a mature male. He is definitely big with a massively bushy tail (which doesn't show in the photo).

Bike Ride on DandR Canal path

Excellent ride this weekend on the D&R Canal Path, which is part of the New Jersey D&R Canal State Park. I took the SUN EZ Cruiser recumbent with fat tires (weighs about 35 lbs, but needed on the unpaved path), and rode from above Lambertville through Trenton. I calculed about 32 miles, round-trip. Since I rode at a stately 8-10 mph on the SUN, it took about 4 hours, but the ride is worth the trip.
I had ridden on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware Canal path before - from New Hope to Easton, but the New Jersey side is much better. For one thing, the PA side deals with canal bridges by making you either dismount or ride down a step incline to go under the bridge. The New Jersey side just continues the path through the bridge surface. Even in places where the path is narrow, it's still wide enough for two bikes. The PA side is frequently just 6 inches of dirt.
I had intended to ride from the Canal Park through Trenton and up the main part of the path to the 5 miles lock (or as close as I could get to it), but it looked a little unwise to ride completely through Trenton alone, so I stopped at Montgomery street in Trenton, and turned around.
It's an excellent path - very flat, very clean, and not heavily used. I only ran into other bikes and foot traffic around Lambertville - probably because they had the Shad Festival that day.
Next time - I'll ride from the 5 mile lock down to Trenton and back.

5,000 miles on my bike !

On April 17, I logged 5,000 miles on my main bike. This will be it's 4th season, and I hope to add another 1,200 miles by end of bike season in October.  It's a Haluzak (which are no longer made, unfortunately).  The picture is from the Bicycle Man site (http://www.bicycleman.com). 

I wondered how far 5,000 miles is in real-world miles,  so I found a web site (http://www.GPSvisualizer.com), which lets you make your own overlays over Google Maps. So, I used it to draw a 5,000 mile circle on the Earth, with my home as the center point. Here's the map:

So, that was the highpoint of my week: hitting 5,000 miles on a bike.  I rode additional miles on other bikes, but this is the only one where I keep track of cumulative miles on the computer.

OPLC - and WPA Security

The automatic OPLC update function works great. I was able to get the command to work, downloaded the latest stable version of the OS (656), and I can now use the computer on my home network to access the internet.
I used the on-line update feature, which required activation of the T-Mobile account, and taking the OLPC for an outing to the closest Borders, but it was worth it. I also submitted a request for a developer key, which should be activated within 24 hours. This lets you boot and, in general, treat the computer like any other.
Next step: figuring out why the version of Fedora that the OLPC organization calls "Sugar" is missing (I think) some key commands in the CLI. More to come on that, as well as what I eventually use this computer for.

Bicycles: Traffic Lights, Drive-Thrus, etc.

I found this article on INSTRUCTIBLES http://www.instructables.com/id/Trigger-GREEN-Traffic-Lights/ - using small but powerful Neodymium magnets, you can complete the electrical circuit to trigger a green light for traffic stops, use a drive-thru window at banks, etc. while on your bike.

This explains how the circuits work, where to get the magnets, and everything else you need to know so that your bike is no longer a second-class vehicle on streets !

Project Rwanda: Coffee and Bicycles

Project Rwanda (http://www.projectrwanda.org)
is an excellent way to get some good coffee bean, help family coffee farmers in Rwanda, and help the general economy of Rwanda.

The "bicycle part" of the project:
Coffee grown on small family farms in Rwanda is taken to market on wooden "bicycles". They're actually more push scooters made completely from wood - even the wheels are wood. One of the bicycle projects is to replace these with low-cost specially-made bicycles that can replace the wooden bicycles.

The "coffee" - you can order it from a U.S. partner in Project Rwanda (located in California). It ships as vacuum-packed whole beans and is quite good - it has a very 'earthy' taste.

XO (aka "OLPC") - getting started

I haven't had as much time as I expected to explore the wonders of the XO, but I'm starting to work on it. The first challenge is to ignore everything that you learned in order to function with MS Windows, Apple, and commercial Unix systems. Also - it helps to pretend that you're 9 years old. "What would a 9-year old do in this situation ?" is a very helpful mantra.

Internet Connectivity
The first thing I noticed is that the XO, as shipped, does not handle WPA network encryption. Since we all have (at least) WPA encryption, this is a pain in the neck. According to the FAQ at the official OLPC web site, WPA encryption will be supported by the end of December 2007. You will probably have to load the patch to another PC, and make the transfer via a USB-access device (flash memory, etc.).

In the meantime, the Support FAQ page http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ#Connectivity_and_the_Internet

lists several work-arounds:

• Using your (initially) free T-Mobile hot spot account (requires that you hike over to a T-Mobile hot spot location, but that should we easy with this ulta-portable XO). Support for this approach starts on this page: http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/pin.php



• Getting right into the Linux roots of the XO and manually setting up WPA access. Support for this approach starts here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/WPA_Manual_Setting



• Avoid wireless entirely: get a USB-to-Ethernet cable. Although, I'm not sure how that will help you connect to your DSL or cable modem.

Since I want to make the XO connect to my home network, I'm going for the WPA Manual Setting. The directions were simple: the hard part was guessing which WPA version I have - the directions indicate "guess 1; if that doesn't work, try 2".

Results: I did everything, and it all looked fine. As promised, my home network showed in the XO "neighborhood" without a lock symbol (indicating that a password wasn't needed). However, I had to go through the process twice: one with WPA version 1 and once with WPA version 2. Both times, it still asked for the network password.....It's still not working - it asks for a password for the AP..... According to some responses on the wiki, I may need to update the firmware on the DSL modem. Not a pleasant task, but I'll try that next....

OLPC has arrived

The green computer baby arrived this morning. Here it is on my desk between two 'normal' sized laptops. I haven't done much with it yet except navigate and look for other mesh networks.... here it is - between its big brothers.

The keyboard is really small, which I expected. but it's so light I might use this for traveling, if all of the functions are there.

OLPC (One Laptop per Child) - BUY NOW !

Starting today, you can buy a laptop from the One Laptop Per Child program and give a laptop to a child in one of the program countries. The program ends on Nov. 27).

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php

The cost is $399, plus shipping (for your laptop only).

Wish List - Christmas 2007

Gifts for me ? Donations to Doctors Without Borders

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/home.cfm

I'm also eagerly waiting for Nov. 11 so i can "buy one get one" of the 1 Laptop Per Child........

http://laptop.org/

That's all for this year........