OT: Movie Magic

[rbowman]

Years ago I went to a pre-production fund raiser for 'A Single Woman'

The bulk of the film was still in the green screen stage. I should put it on my netflix queue so I can see it with the blanks filled in.

Rankin was an interesting woman. She was the first female Congressman, elected before women could vote. That put her in the unique position of being the only woman to have voted to give women the right to vote.

She was one of 56 who voted against the US entry into WWI and the only congresscritter to vote against declaring war on Japan in WWII.

Now there would have been a good first female president... Right or wrong she didn't need a focus group to know which way the wind was blowing.

[Don Y]

Wow: "Simpson has many times denounced the film as 'horrible' and said that it is the biggest disappointment of her life"

Ah, I'm sure she -- and that vote -- rankled most of her male counterparts!

Pols aren't stupid (despite APPEARING so!). They act to preserve their primary interest -- themselves! I suspect LBJ was one of the last to "do what was right" -- despite obvious personal cost to himself!

[rbowman]

It wasn't the greatest film and being pre-production didn't help. I don't know if they had any skin in the game but the preview was sponsored by the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center:

Missoula has this little quirk:

After they reflector was removed a peace sign made of rocks grew by the

4 pillars that supported the reflector. It's on a trail I walk frequently and I was up on the ridge on winter day when it was so foggy you could barely see 50'. The rocks had been strewn around and I was making repairs when a woman of a certain age appeared from the fog, saw what I was doing, said, 'God bless you' and kept on going off into the fog. It was a bit eerie.

Ironically, while there were rallies and marches during the Bush years not much comment has been made as Obama and Clinton destabilize the mid-East and Africa.

[Don Y]

I'm not sure I understand this: "It has been six years since they removed the Missoula Peace Sign but the nine aluminum panels that comprise the remains are still around, protected by their loyal caretakers, waiting for the right time and place to come back together."

I assume that "the communications company" is responsible for removing it (May 2001 -- a wee bit more than "six years" ago!). Yet, the above suggests they LEFT it's pieces lying around (which were then secreted away by "their loyal caretakers"?

And, why isn't "now" the "right time" to come back together (are they just looking for another "right place"?

Heh heh heh. One of SWMBO's classmates walked up to her in class, rubbed the back of her hand against her face and said "You're so smooooooothhh!"

Talk about eerie!

I suspect Bush made the biggest mess. Obama at least *claims* he's trying to extricate us -- despite what the Perpetual War Party wants. Maybe we need to reinstate the draft? And, put congresscritters' kids in the first wave??

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Micky:

No coax involved except for TV antenna => tuners.

Using IP Cameras as the example instead of the SiliconDust tuners (because I have a network diagram already with IP Cams):

Garden Shed's TV Antenna => Garden Shed's Tuner => Garden Shed's NanoLoco#1..... (100' of air .... House's NanoLoco#2 => House's router => (whatever in the house is connected to the LAN).

Network diagram of the IP cam setup (change 100' of air to .7 miles of air):

I got all obsessive with the initial setup down the shore... but it turned out that they were really about as plug-and-play as something like that can be:

- Fire them up

- Assign static IP addresses

- Configure one to the he "Station" (i.e. remote)

- Configure the other to be the "Access point" (i.e. local)

- Aim them at least roughly at each other

- Check to see what WiFi frequencies are most available and set them accordingly

- .... and they're up and running.

[rbowman]

Qwest took it down and gave the panels to interested people. I think with the current mayor the city might have just bought the land and sign. It was enclosed in a chain link fence so the biggest liability was climbing over the fence to repaint the peace sign after Qwest whitewashed it. Qwest claimed it reduced the efficiency of the reflector but I think that was just a cover story since it had the sign on it most of the time. It was more a contest of wills.

As you noticed, the website was old so I have no idea what the status is. There is an official Peace Park but it's much lower on the hill. There is sort of a peace sign made out of what looks like old bed sheets but it's only visible from a few locations in town. The old reflector could be seen everywhere.

The photo at the bottom of the page shows the base supports for the reflector. Then there is the Buddha head. It's poured concrete and about

2' high. There is a gated road to access some radio equipment halfway up the hill but the head is away from the road. I suppose if someone drove up the road they could have rolled the head down into place.

Last spring persons unknown dug a larger, more visible one.

The phlox is a sensitive issue. 'Don't step on the phlox, Sam'. This is a very outdoorsy town with a lot of city owned open space.

[Micky]

Oh, cool. I couldn't tell anything from the Amazon listing.

I know I'm not the only one who thought there was coax because someone made a referenct to a trench.

Now I just need a shed!

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Micky:

There *is* a trench - and it has AC and Ethernet in it currently.

The Good-Right-And-Holy Path is to replace the Ethernet in the trench with fiberoptic.... but I have not had the fortitude to climb that learning curve yet.

[Don Y]

IIRC, a cloud-to-ground strike within half a mile can potentially develop enough of a voltage spike to exceed the ~2KV protection afforded by most network interfaces.

Much depends on the type of soil, how "effective" your grounds are, etc. When you're dealing with tens of kilo-amps, 0.0x ohms is HUGE! (i.e., what's the "resistance" between the ground in your outbuilding and the ground in your home?)

:>

*Direct* strikes are an order of magnitude more severe -- but, hopefully far less common!

One guy's observations:

I simply avoided the issue and don't let anything leave the confines of the house. (If I want to sit under a tree and surf the web, I'll have to resort to WiFi)

[Don Y]

Ah, OK. "We don't want to have to deal with this, YOU can!"

Well, don't want to set a precedent by tolerating the "vandalism". Next, someone will hurt themselves and courts decide YOU have KNOWINGLY assumed responsibility...

The round, galvanized, "corrugated" cylinders with people sitting on them?

Whatever floats their boat -- it's THEIR home!

Really never understood things like "repainting A mountain", etc.

OTOH, I looked forward to seeing the Citgo sign when I drove into Beantown!

[rbowman]

Yes.

There are two mountains on the east side of town separated by Hellgate Canyon. There is a M on the southern one which is the University of Montana's work and is poured concrete.

To the north, there is an L for Loyola High. For years that was a low rent project. The kids would assemble the plentiful native rocks on the hillside and whitewash them. Every now and then the rocks would morph into something other than an L. Finally they did the concrete thing. I'm not sure how that was accomplished. The M has a fireroad above it, but there is no road near the L, nor is there any water. Unless they used a helo, that was a lot to hump up the mountain.

[bob haller]

!!!!!YES!!!!!!

just do what i did buy a used tivo with lifetime service, and pay zero in future fees

if you want a brand new tivo, buy it with lifetime service. pricey at 300 bucks for a brand new tivo, but new boxes have nicer features

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Oren:

My limited investigation so far leaves me thinking that a home installer should not even *think* about terminating their own cables - and buy pre-cut/pre-terminated cables only.

[Don Y]

(sigh) Too bad the other wasn't 'R'!

"Youthful exuberance"?

The summit hut on Mt Washington (IIRC... maybe Lafayette?) is inaccessible except by trail. College students used to haul the propane tanks (think: heat, fuel) up the mountain on their backs.

[Micky]

I'll look at your drawing some more. It's complicated.

[rbowman]

Washington has a road up one side and the cog railway on the other. I hiked up the Ammonoosuc Ravine trail the last time I was back east. That passes the Lake of the Clouds hut a little below the summit. It's disconcerting to get to the top and find the crowds of tourons. The fog had moved in about when I got to the hut so I took the train down. The trailhead where I parked is close to the tram terminal.

A friend in college worked as a hut boy for the AMC summers. They would carry insane weight trying to outdo each other. The AMC tried mules and decided the college kids were more efficient. There is an amusement park in Glen called 'Story Land'. The hut boys managed to get banned en masse. I think it had something to do with inappropriate comments to Cinderella.

They had a cabin near Pinkham Notch and had an annual Old Hutmen's Reunion. I went to a couple and they were about what you would expect. I carried a propane tank from the road up to the cabin but that was as close as I got to being a hut boy.

[Don Y]

I never hiked Washington so it had to be some other peak in the Presidential Range / Franconia Notch. (My bet is on Lafayette)

Heh heh heh...

Given the amount of WORK (displacing a mass through a distance) required, it's not the sort of "club" I'd probably want to join! :>

[Micky]

I assume this was the one that is only 250 at the channel master website.

But this has been for sale for 2.4 years, and I can't believe I never noticed it before. Only $35. 1/7th the price of the competition. Takes an external HDD, and I already have a spare.

There are two related modes 180 and 260 or something.

Reading comments, I see that the biggest problem is that you can't watch one recording while making another, so if you get home in the middle of a recording, you have to have a setup where you can change tuners altogther, or you have not watch tv, or you have to watch what's being recorded, starting in the middle.

[rbowman]

No. I enjoy hiking but just a normal pack is fine by me, not a couple of bags of cement. I wonder how many of them are still on their original knees?

[Don Y]

I won't even wear a (back/fanny) pack. If I can't hold it in my hands while walking, then it's not worth bringing along (incl hydration).

But, then again, I don't "hike" but, rather, "exercise" -- the difference being I want mine over with ASAP.

I'm debating joining a friend's group for a *hike* into the Canyon later this year (south rim to river, overnight, then back out). But, not sure I'm keen on walking for hours -- nor having to adjust my pace to that of others (faster OR slower). I could spend all those hours doing a lot of OTHER things...