We were using a Telebit T3000 modem (14.4K) and a 286 running Phil Karn's KA9Q NOS as a router. Telebit modems were expensive and huge compared to the USR/etc ones that came later, but they were much faster than anything else available at the time. Pretty much the only thing you could buy in the early 90s that would do better than 2400 baud.



--Ian

 

I have a "Wink" hub that interfaces with my Echo, EcoBee thermostat, and some of the lights in my house. Once it's set up it's pretty slick. It can do simple things like turn on lights via voice command or more complicated if-then actions through the "robot" tool feature. The next thing I want to add is an electrically controlled valve on my house water supply paired with moisture sensors to avoid or mitigate possible water disasters while I'm travelling for work.

 

Out setup was in '95/'96, so we blessedly had faster modems by then. Zach & I each donated our personal modem to the pool, then the three of us all pitched in to buy two more.

Because Mauricio insisted that we keep a voice line available, we wound up with five lines in total. That means that the phone company had to trench all the way out to the main road to install a new trunk. Didn't cost us a penny, but it wasn't a good way to make friends with the neighbors...


I remember the first BBS I was on, circa 1991 or so, had a Courier HST modem. 9600 baud, but only to another HST modem. Like your Telebit, it was huge and expensive. (SysOps got a big discount from USR).


Finally found the attic entrance. There's a removable wall panel in the back of the room over the garage:









Not really the greatest work environment. I could use it if I had to, but I've figured out workarounds for pretty much everything at this point, including the right-rear surround speaker. That one's gonna be a whole post of its own...

 

^^ looks like a piece of cake.

One another note, OMG, the room you could have up there if it were stick framed as opposed to trusses.

 

Waaaaaaaaaaay too goddamned hot up there to have a room. Granted, the roof sheeting is totally uninsulated, but the room over the garage is fully insulated to R-13 and it's only slightly less unbearable during the day.

Funny you make this comment regarding the trusses. Remember that this is hurricane country. And as compared to a modern home in FL, this is an amazingly open and uncluttered attic.


Also, I learned something today. If you've recently moved from a temperate / cool place to a hot / humid place, and are unenthusiastic about the performance of the AC system in your car (which you've never actually used before, except for the windshield defog function), check the refrigerant pressure in the system. Granted, it'll never compare to a brand new Chevy Suburban, but it actually works pretty well if the low-side pressure is greater than 5 PSI.

I seriously had no idea that the system would even function with the pressure this low, but having looked at the diagram, it only has a high-pressure cutoff, not a low-pressure cutoff.




EDIT: Also, does anyone want a half-dozen cans of R-12? I've been lugging these around for 20+ years, and will never use them at this point. Some are genuine DuPont brand Freon (pure R-12), and some are a mix of generic R-12 plus stop-leak.

I seriously just want to be rid of these at this point. Someone must still have an unmodified R-12 system in a hot climate that's in need of a top-up. First person to send me a PM saying "I will send you some random pony **** in exchange for your freon" gets 'em all for the cost of shipping.

 

Pfff, R-13 is barely adequate for walls. You'd need some R-38 to cut out attic heat. A radiant barrier would help too, but you've got humidity issues to contend with as well. Ughh, I do not envy you there though. I absolutely H A T E humidity. I could take dry triple digits all day long before I'd put up with something like 85* with 95% humidity for a just few hours. Of course, if you have to crawl around up there, you do it in the wee hours of the morning before the steamer gets turned back on.

Also, that R12 is like gold man. You can seriously sell that ****. Awfully nice of you to pass it on to your fellow pony boyz.

 

Last year, I replaced, like, all the windows in my house with those expensive, double-pane, energy-efficient kind.
Today, I, like, got a call from the contractor who installed them.
He complained that the work had been completed a year ago. and I still hadn't, like, paid for them. OMG!
Hellloooo,............ Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I'm, like, automatically stupid.
So, I told him just what his fast-talking sales guy told me last year -- that these windows would, like, pay for themselves in a year.
Helllooooo? It's been a year, so they're, like, paid for, I told him.
There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally hung up. He never called back.
I bet he felt like an idiot.

 

^ Lol.


Joe, if you wait until October it will be comfortable enough in the attic to string some cable and fish it down through the walls to where you need it. But it's too hot at 7am to be in my attic right now.

I wish there was that kind of space in my attic. Mine has so many triangulations it is impossible to climb through carrying anything.

 

Scotland is breathtakingly beautiful. I miss it already.

 

That copper A/C line strapped to the floor is kinda lame.

 

The gas pipe sitting loosely next to it is even lamer.

But not my circus, not my monkeys...

 

Didn't you literally buy that circus?

 

He's renting. I believe earlier he said the plan was to rent and if he likes the job, buy/build, if not, move on to the next thing.

 

^ Correct. I always prefer to rent for a year or two when moving to a new place.

 

So this happened today...

Linkin Park Singer Chester Bennington Dead, Commits Suicide by Hanging | TMZ.com

 

So should I still try to win those Lincoln park tickets this afternoon? Winning song is Boys of Summer/Ataris.

 

No.

Linkin Park sucks.

Lincoln Park is nice in the summertime, but can be crowded. It is also an inconveniently long drive from from New Jersey. (I've done it. You don't want to.)



Anyway, I want to put the right-rear speaker here in this corner:



And yet, these two walkways are between it and the receiver:




Solution? The most hilariously complex speaker wiring job I've ever done.

Behind the receiver are two cable outlets. Why two? Frak if I know. They both go to the same demarc outside. And I ain't usin' neither of 'em.




Near the speaker location there are no cable outlets. But there is this phone jack...




And, conveniently, the phone demarc is right next to the cable demarc outside:




Yeah, you can see where this is going. It involves these:





It's almost as though this specific requirement were foretold by prophecy back in 2013 when they nailed some sticks together to make this shed. Aaaaaand, here we go...












Bada-bing! The audiophiles are no doubt freaking out about the horribly mis-matched paths to the two surround speakers. And the EEs will freak out a bit about the fact that I'm using CAT5 in what is clearly a massively unbalanced, non-differential configuration. (Because any idiot with a degree in electrical engineering knows that, due to intentionally differing twist ratios, the conductor lengths are unequal between the four pairs in a UTP cable.) But you know what? It works. There's some attenuation and some high-frequency rolloff, but this is a surround speaker, not the center channel. It is, as we say, good enough. That's what this menu is for:

 

Sp Distance is probably more important than speaker level cal. Get out your tape measure.

also next time, just cut a 1 inch slit in the carpet and fish the cable under there. why overcomplicate.

 

^^ THIS
(or don't even cut, just peel it back, run wire, then kick it back nice and tight)

 

I already did that menu a few days ago. Last night was just compensating for line-loss.

Trying not to be too much of a dick. Already pulled up the carpet around the fireplace to do the left side.