Ubuntu for Idiots: the new Lenovo X1 Carbon and its USB Ethernet Dongle

So I recently received the best laptop I have ever owned - by far - the Lenovo X1 Carbon. I won't go into all its glory, but it is a very nice machine indeed. And Ubuntu seems to be custom-tailored to it - installing flawlessly, running seamlessly, and requiring nothing special to make go. In fact, it works so well out of the box compared to Windows (which requires a boatload of specialized drivers for the hardware) that it is almost shocking. Of course, most Windows users won't notice because Lenovo does all the hard work with the pre-installation.

But that's besides the issue. Back to the topic at hand.

One thing that the X1 Carbon does not come with is an Ethernet port, on account of just how thin it is. A port simply wouldn't fit in the slim profile. So instead, Lenovo sends you a USB-to-Ethernet dongle that allows the use of a wired connection.

What Lenovo does not do, however, is send you the drivers for it (I mean for Windows, forget Linux, Lenovo doesn't recognize Linux). So users of both operating systems are on their own.

It took me a bit to locate the proper drivers for this device, and a bit more to figure out how to get it working properly, and I figured you might have run across the same problem, too. So without further ado, here are the full instructions on how to get this thing working in Ubuntu. I have only tried it (successfully) on an X1C running both 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) and 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal), but the process should work elsewhere, too, both on other laptops and other Ubuntu versions.

First of all, the Lenovo dongle is based on an Asix chipset, as are many of these from most manufacturers. So you first have to download the driver source code.

Then you need to find your device ID. You do this by opening a command prompt (CTRL+ALT+T) and running: lsusb

This should produce a list that looks like this (from my machine):

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c03d Logitech, Inc. M-BT96a Pilot Optical Mouse
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0bdb:1926 Ericsson Business Mobile Networks BV
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 17ef:7203 Lenovo
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 147e:2020 Upek
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0a5c:21e6 Broadcom Corp.
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 04f2:b315 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd

I highlighted the important bits. The word "Lenovo" by its own little self is your clue to the dongle.

Next, you should disconnect (if it is connected) and (re)connect the dongle to your USB 2.0 port (the left one on the X1C). Then type dmesg, and you should get something like this (again from my machine):

[ 3975.632981] eth1: unregister 'asix' usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2, ASIX AX88772B USB 2.0 Ethernet
[ 3977.876228] usb 1-1.2: >new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci_hcd
[ 3977.986504] usb 1-1.2: >New USB device found, idVendor=17ef, idProduct=7203
[ 3977.986510] usb 1-1.2: >New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 3977.986513] usb 1-1.2: >Product: AX88772B
[ 3977.986516] usb 1-1.2: >Manufacturer: Lenovo
[ 3977.986519] usb 1-1.2: >SerialNumber: 580B27

I again highlighted the important bits. The two numbers confirm the lsusb information, and the product ID (AX...) is also necessary.

We will call the first number (in this case 17ef) the Manufacturer ID, the second number (in this case 7203) the Device ID, and the third number (in this case AX88772B) the Product ID.

With this information in hand, time to compile the driver.

Extract the zip file you just downloaded into its default folder. Then double click on the file called "asix.c" to edit it (it should open in gedit, or the "Ubuntu notepad").

Once in editing mode, search for the phrase "usb_device_id". You should come across a section in the file that starts with something like this:

static const struct usb_device_id products [] = {
{
// 88178
USB_DEVICE (0x0b95, 0x1780),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88178_info,
}, {
// 88178 for billianton linksys
USB_DEVICE (0x077b, 0x2226),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88178_info,
}, {

Here is what you want to do. You want to insert a new section here right after the first one, with the information you discovered, like so:

{
// Lenovo 10/100
USB_DEVICE (Manufacturer ID, Device ID),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &Product ID_info,
},

In our example, the modified file should look like this (note that I inserted the three ID's in their proper places):

static const struct usb_device_id products [] = {
{
// 88178
USB_DEVICE (0x0b95, 0x1780),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88178_info,
}, {
// Lenovo 10/100
USB_DEVICE (0x17ef, 0x7203),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88772b_info,
}, {
// 88178 for billianton linksys
USB_DEVICE (0x077b, 0x2226),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88178_info,
}, {

That was the hard part.

Now open a terminal window in the folder where these files reside, and type the following commands: make and then sudo make install

That's it. You may need to reboot, but it should work now. Huzzah!

Hacking California Family Law

Cool title, huh?

Anyway, having over the past few years gone through the entire process of drafting and filing a legal separation, and then a divorce, in the state of California, without lawyers involved, I wanted to share something with y'all who might be thinking about this. And if you are, then you must be wondering about the same things I was wondering about, namely:

Can a legal separation be subsequently "converted into" a divorce?

Good luck finding the answer to this one out there. In fact, I can tell you what you will find: a lot of negatives, no, you can't, you have to go through a divorce.

But then, you might well be asking yourself, what is the purpose of legal separation? after all, the state pretty clearly describes this as a "divorce lite", wherein you go through the entire divorce process, including things like a settlement and custody agreement.

So, which is it? is a legal separation really like a divorce, or isn't it? and if it is, then why do all these people - including the ones giving free advice in the courthouse, who at least aren't lawyers with a vested interest in telling you whatever generates the most fees - tell you that you can't simply convert it to a divorce later?

None of it makes sense. So I figured, like my posts about Ubuntu for the stupid user, I will make another post about family law for the simple man (and woman).

Obligatory part of the post: I am not a lawyer. If you take anything I say as legal advice, you're being silly. I'm just an anonymous blogger on the interwebs.

What I am, however, is someone with very relevant recent experience. What I am about to share is completely real, true and easy to prove (court filings being public matter).

So there you go: yes, from a practical standpoint, you can very easily "convert" a legal separation to a divorce in the state of CA. It's quick, it's simple, and there is no proper legal definition for it. I don't know why the courts find it necessary to muddle the waters around this issue so much, because it doesn't need to be that way.

The points that need to be made:

1) a legal separation is exactly like a divorce. You follow the same exact process, only you check a different checkbox on a couple of the forms. This means that it does, indeed, include full settlement and custody agreements. Community property ceases to exist once you're done, and it takes effect immediately.

2) there is no "legal option" to FILE a "conversion" from a legal separation to a divorce. That is the part that is so confusing. To subsequently divorce, you do indeed need to go through the entire process again.

However:

3) assuming nothing changes between the two of you when you file for the divorce, the process is greatly simplified. You do not need a new settlement agreement, a new custody agreement, or in fact, a new anything. You can literally use the same forms you used previously, changing the checkbox and dates. You don't even have to submit the agreements again. In other words, you will be going through an exercise in paperwork, and that's all.

So, how to effect a "conversion"?

Simple. Use the same forms you went through for the legal separation. Refill them the same way, except change to "divorce". Update the dates. File the same way.

THEN, when you get the final forms - the ones about settlement (FL180) - instead of filing a new agreement, you only need to file a one-pager, that says the following (I am highlighting the important portion, the one that creates the "conversion" effect; the rest is just boilerplate):

=======================
MARITAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

AGREEMENT made on this __ day of __, 20__, by and between __ (hereinafter referred to
as "Wife"), residing at ____, and __ (hereinafter referred to as "Husband"), residing at ____

PURSUANT TO FAMILY CODE SECTION 3048(A):
1. This Court exercises jurisdiction under Family Code Sections 3421-3424.
2. Notice and opportunity to be heard were given under Family Code Section 3425.
3. A clear description of the custody and visitation rights of each party is set forth herein.
4. Violation of the order may subject the party in violation to civil or criminal penalties, or both.
5. The habitual residence of the child/ren is the United States of America.

WHEREAS, we were married on the __ day of __, 20__, in ____, State of ____, and we now mutually desire to dissolve our marriage and mutually agree to live permanently separate and apart from
each other, as if we were single;

WHEREAS, we each have exercised good faith and have made fair, accurate, and complete disclosure to each other regarding all financial and property matters pertaining to this marital settlement agreement;

WHEREAS, we mutually desire to settle by agreement all matters regarding our marital affairs, child custody and visitation, personal and real property, and finances;

WHEREAS, we mutually intend this agreement to be a final disposition regarding the marital issues addressed herein and intend that this agreement be incorporated into any subsequent FINAL JUDGEMENT OF DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE.

THEREFORE, in exchange for the mutual promises herein contained, we agree to live separately and to divide our property and finances according to the following mutually agreed upon terms and conditions:

ALL MATTERS

Husband and Wife are already legally separated.

To settle all matters of this dissolution of marriage, Husband and Wife both agree that the terms outlined in the legal separation case, previously entered and approved by the court, also known as California Family Law Case No. ____ are all to remain fully intact, without change in either terms or associated timelines.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Husband and Wife acknowledge that each has entered into this agreement in good faith, without any duress or undue influence. Each understands his or her right to seek independent counsel regarding this agreement, and each has had the opportunity to seek independent counsel prior to signing this agreement.

CHOICE OF LAW

Husband and Wife agree that this agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California.

Signed and dated this __________ day of _______________________, 20_____.

________________________________ ________________________________
Wife Husband
===================================

Presto! you have converted your legal separation into a divorce. Sure, you didn't technically "convert" anything, but doesn't this sound a whole lot easier than "filing a new divorce case"? in other words, all the effort you put in the legal separation is not for naught. When the time comes to effect a divorce, assuming you're still agreeing on the same things the way you did before, it is very easy to go through.

And now, back to Ubuntu for Idiots.

More Ubuntu - Nook Colors into Androids

I had just finished spending a couple very frustrating hours attempting to convert the Nook Colors I had bought my kids for Christmas into Android Tablets. I don't care what B&N thinks about their device, my kids are not getting them so that they can be better book readers... the entire point of the platform, from their perspective, is access to games, games, games. By blocking out the Android market from the Nook, B&N are shooting themselves in the foot, because instead of my kids having exposure to the brand (and even occasionally buying a kid's e-book), they will simply have no clue that this is a Barnes and Noble device, because their Nooks will be running Cyanogenmod.

Another example of idiotic policy: if you install Android on your Nook, it will void your warranty. I actually ordered the extended warranty at $49 per device originally, then found out about this, and cancelled that part of the order. Result? B&N losing out on the extra $100. What relationship the software I am running on the device has to do with hardware breakages (which is really what the extended warranty is for), I don't know, but there you have it.

Idiot corporate executives and their moronic decisions aside, there are smart geeks out there with excellent drives to undo said stupidities in everyday life, and of course, the Nook Colors have long been "broken", or "hacked", or "rooted", all meaning the same thing: taken out of their B&N box and made into full-fledged Android tablets.

The best known of these is Cyanogenmod, which is pretty nifty, well-tested, and stable. That's what I chose. And that's when I ran into trouble, because of one of life's great truisms:

Geeks write shitty instructions.

You can click here for the nicely detailed explanation of how to install this on your Book. I will, in fact, not repeat most of it here. Instead, my goal is solve the one problem that I, and many many others, run into when trying to do this, and which breaks the entire process right at the start:

The Nook will not boot onto the SD card.

And let me tell you, it's a stumper. Go ahead, follow the instructions, and see what happens. In fact, I urge you to find and follow instructions on many others sites, all revolving around a very similar process. You will find that nobody seems to think that an issue might arise with creating the SD card in the first place. It's a given. An assumption. Something too stupid to discuss.

Well, like previous posts in this sort-of series, as a public service to dumb users anywhere, me chief amongst then, here is the missing piece from all those instructions.

So you bought your card, downloaded Clockworkmod, burned it to the SD card, stuck it in the Nook... and it boots normally. Annoying, isn't it? so you try it again, then look for other posts around this issue, blame the hardware, run to the store to get a different reader or SD card or both, and swear the whole way.

But see, just like other things that are too stupid to discuss, this one is, too. The problem is so simple, that most geeks don't even see it as a problem. Here it is:

To create a properly booting SD card, you need to write the image to the master boot record, rather than the (data) partition (more or less, anyway).

So what does this mean, in practice?

When you get your SD card, I strongly recommend that after you stick it in the slot, you run the following command: palimpsest.

This will bring up a cute little GUI, with your drive in there somewhere.

Click on the drive on the left side, and you will see something interesting: it will have not one, but TWO records on the right. The top one is the "device" record, the bottom the "partition" record.

Now format the device, not the partition. It won't give you a typical file system choice, but rather ask if you want to format the master boot record. Nod stupidly. Say yes. Then remember that the computer needs you to click on something to confirm.

Go out of Palimpsest, and only then, run the "dd" command as listed in the original instructions. But you have to use the DEVICE as the target, not the partition.

What this means is that you need "/dev/sdd" instead of "/dev/sdd1" (in the case where /dev/sdd is the SD-card). Where can you find this info? again in palimpsest. Just make sure you use the device name at the top record on the right (for the device) and not the bottom (for the partition).

That's it. Your SD card is now truly ready to go. Continue the normal part (copying the files and booting the Nook with the SD card) and it will be a breeze from there. Good luck.

Shelter Cove

I'm still so new to this flying thing, that every flight is an adventure. But this weekend's adventure was, by far, the most amazing yet.

I wanted to share the experience.

The decision was made earlier in the week to try and go to a place I have had on my sights for a while now - from since before I even got my license, actually. The kids were going to spend a night at grandma's.

So I called the lovely lady I'm seeing and said "Don't ask too many questions, just pack an overnight bag". She's flown with me before, and was excited. Our destination?

Shelter Cove, CA.

Now, I knew there was a decent chance of flying out there and having to go back or go somewhere else, on account of the foggy marine layer this time of year. But the forecasts all said it was going to be gorgeous, with plenty of time in the afternoon hours with little to no fog. So I planned to arrive somewhere around 4PM, maximizing the chances of making it through.

We took off yesterday a bit after 2PM, with an almost direct routing to Shelter Cove. I first flew over Clear Lake, just because it's so pretty from the air, then headed towards the coast to see the conditions. It was truly a beautiful day, and the views were breathtaking all the way through.

And then we got to the coastline. If ever there was a low-lying, completely unbroken white sheet of clouds, this was it. It hugged the coast and inland at about 1000ft. There was no way we were going to do this.

Or was there?

What the heck, we got that far, let's see what we can see. A couple minutes heading north along the coast gave us our first view of the ocean, as a small tear formed in that white sheet. We could see clearly to the water, and more importantly, that layer was very thin - a couple hundred feet top-to-bottom.

I tried ducking under right there, had a quick look around, and climbed back up. We were still over 20 nautical miles south of Shelter Cove, and I didn't want to try and fly so low to the water for that long. Hoping we might get lucky closer to the airport, we soldiered on.

My heart was sinking as the GPS counted down the miles. 10. 5. 3. 2. 1. 0. We were right over the airport, but with simply no way to make it down. Oh well. Time to turn inland. I was headed to Garberville.

But wait!

As we turned around that little pointy area at Shelter Cove jutting into the ocean, my copilot saw it first: there was another tear! almost perfectly round, less than 1000ft across, right above the water, maybe a half mile north of Shelter Cove. Clear to the bottom, and more importantly, immediate confirmation that the layer was thin and hung 800-1000ft above water. It was completely crisp under it. With no air movement at all, it was still. Perfect conditions to try something cool.

I went for it. I drilled - maybe corkscrewed is a better term, as I was literally doing a continuing tight (45 degree) left turn descending into that hole. It felt like a skater in a ring, going round and round a wall. Three or maybe four turns like that, and we were 500ft under the cloud and still 400ft above water. It was gorgeous, vivid, and crisper than I'd ever seen anything - partly due to my heightened concentration and senses, I'm certain. I straightened and went back to the airport slowly. The runway popped up so quickly I was almost over it before I knew it, but with a shallow direct headwind, landing was easy.

My heart was sure racing though!

As we got into the inn where we were staying, the guy at the front desk said the other four pilots that were scheduled to come in canceled after overflying the area earlier in the day. Apparently that hole in the marine layer did not form until 30 minutes before we showed up. By the time we got our stuff into the room, it was already closing, and 30 minutes later, the sky was completely covered everywhere.

Hey, I DID think 4PM would give the best chance, right? *grin*

Shelter Cove itself is just astounding, and I fell in love with it. I am DEFINITELY going back. But that's a different story.

The next day - today - we had to come back. We woke up. That white sheet was hanging all over the place. The guy at the inn said "just stay for as long as you need", and I took him up on it. We spent a lazy morning doing this and that, as I was watching the sky. Around noon, I saw a couple tears starting to form, then closing, then opening again. That's all I needed; all I wanted to see was that the layer was the same as the previous day. It sure was.

We took off less than an hour later on same runway. As soon as we got off the ground, I pointed the nose 30 degrees to the right, towards the ocean, set myself on a steady-but-not-too-steep climb, and ignored pretty much everything but the Attitude Indicator, just like I'd been taught under the hood, and in actual clouds (thank goodness for good instructors that showed me what it really felt like). As we hit the cloud I felt... well, nothing really. I wasn't looking outside. My eyes were fixed on the instruments. It took less than a minute and then we popped out into a beautiful blue sky. I was pointed a bit to the right of where I wanted to be heading, which was perfectly fine; it was easy enough to turn back towards the coast and head back to Concord.

And as if this wasn't enough excitement, we then decided to make a lunch and fuel stop at Ukiah on the way back. It's a beautiful spot, except that it's surrounded by pretty steep hills and mountains requiring one to fly at 5500ft from the northwest (as we were), until the very last moment where you come out and it all drops rather dramatically into a valley and a 600ft elevation airport. So I got to do another cool maneuver, forward-slipping 4000ft very rapidly into a left pattern, sinking far faster than I ever have. My copilot said it was the only time she felt nervous at all, because we were in such an extreme attitude with that rather violent slip it very much confused her system. Oh, and someone was taking off as we were overflying like that (we coordinated well on the radio, and it was kinda neat actually). But the pattern entry was at perfect altitude, angle and distance. I was so proud of myself for just how precisely the maneuver ended up getting executed... and oh, the adrenaline rush. Yow.

The last leg of the trip was quite uneventful. But I needed that after all the rest.

What an incredible experience.

Diabetic pilots

So I finally managed to track down the formal numbers around diabetes and flying... seems like there are about 1,300 certified pilots, worldwide, flying with type I insulin dependent diabetes.

I feel like I belong to a very exclusive club, now.

About being a new pilot

Someone in one of the forums I participate in posted a rant about the verbal abuse they suffer simply for being a low-hour pilot - about unsafe they are, and so on, just based on logged hours.

Then someone responded with: Many of us older pilots have developed habits over the years that keep us out of trouble, we know what we can get away with, and what we can't. we seldom go any place we haven't been many times before in aircraft that we don't have a lot of time in.

I wanted to share my reply with you. Here it is:

That.

I am a new pilot - three weeks, and my logbook has a total of what, 76 hours in it? I'm 39 and did it for recreation, 1-2 times a week over 6 months. I don't have much time to fly, but I enjoy every moment I do.

Here is the thing in the post above: pretty much everywhere I go is a place I haven't been to one time, let alone many. Sure, my home airport, and the one in the practice area, I know pretty well. The one random strip 100m away where I ended my XC trips during training is next - been there 3 times. There are maybe a half dozen more where I have landed once. That's it.

So everything is new. But at the same time, because it is like that, I do believe I tend to spend a lot more time figuring out where I'm going, what challenges lie along the way, and what particular issues I might encounter over there, before I set foot outside my front door to go to the airport. Hopefully, that mitigates the lack of experience.

I have done something stupid pretty much every flight since passing my checkride (heck, I did something pretty gosh darn stupid DURING my checkride, but the examiner liked everything else well enough that he was satisfied with shouting at me for about 30 seconds when I did it). I write about them in forums because it helps me both get feedback but also the process of writing "firms up" the experience in my mind so that I don't forget it. And I do notice the improvements; I don't tend to make the same mistake twice. I just find new ones to make!

Flying is such a thrill, but also such a challenge. There are no safety guards, like they have on cars (airbags, lane change warnings, auto-distance-keeping-braking-sensors, and a gadzillion other doodahs). There is something amazingly special about aviation, for me, which is that it is still, somehow, an area where personal accountability well and truly matters - and in the most basic sense: It's up to me to stay alive. Period. That's what makes it so different than any other risky endeavor I can choose to undertake. I don't know if and how long it can stay that way. But dear god, if all it takes is for me to suffer some verbal abuse from arrogant a-holes just for my well-established lack of experience to keep it that way... bring it on. Bring it on.

I'm a pilot!

So following my failed checkride from two weeks ago, I came back in today to do it again. I was filled with trepidation. I slept only 2 1/2 hours last night, which was the most I could manage; Pink Panther and Dr. Phil kept me company from about 3AM onwards (luckily, I had the discipline to not go back to the books, which would have scuttled any chance of my passing the oral again).

At 7:15 I left the house, and drove to the airport, arriving at 7:45. My instructor was there already, and we quickly wrapped up the IACRA application and additional endorsement in my logbook. I went to the examiner's office; he was late, which gave me just the perfect opportunity to consider again where I was, what I was about to do, and freak out of my mind. Again.

Honestly, with all the hyperventilating I'm surprised I wasn't hypoxic.

Eventually he got there around 8:20AM and we went into his office. Most of the next 45 minutes were spent fighting the IACRA website while at the same time going over some of the oral portions. But we've had a much longer session last Friday so he mostly just tried to make sure I didn't forget critical stuff and trip me up on practical questions of various sorts that he never asked me before (what do you do if the engine starts running rough during flight? basic stuff, but not previously mentioned).

We were done at 9:15AM. I went to get the plane; scheduling mixup. No plane. So they frantically called another instructor and had them give me the plane he was about to fly with his student. It was the only other 172R available, so it was either that or piss off the DPE. The school fears this guy, I'm telling you.

The winds were horrific - 20kn at an angle, gusting to 30kn from multiple directions. Talk about increasing confidence!

I preflighted, a quart of oil missing, got that taken care of (and made the DPE happy). We got in, and for the next 10 minutes, I did nothing BUT screw up. Well, sort of; I taxied fine, but then ATC gave me an unusual instruction that I never heard before ("hold the line") which I thought meant "hold short" but really meant "enter the runway and wait". He got upset with me. He got even more upset when I got nervous and ended up taxing off the runway after getting on it. I'm surprised he didn't fail me then. But he let me proceed.

Did the best soft field takeoff I've ever done, literally textbook. Inside I was shocked; I have never managed to do it quite so perfectly, taking almost the entire runway to accelerate slowly to Vy before climbing. We did our turn, and he started by giving me a simulated engine failure. No problem; I like those. But this one was just textbook again. In fact, it was better than textbook; I took precise accounting of the wind and got the plane utterly controlled, at the proper speed, right past the numbers. He made me go around instead of actually landing, but his voice softened. I was getting on a roll.

Then I WAS on a roll. I executed the best series of performance landings I have ever done in my life. Engine failure, short, slip... one after the other, perfect airspeeds, well-controlled, right on the numbers each and every time. And he varied all my takeoffs, too. Considering the winds in play, I gained confidence more rapidly throughout this series than I ever have.

Then another oopsie. I forgot my XC flight plan in the car. He yelled at me a little, but then I pulled out the sectional, showed him my path, and quoted from memory the course and headings, times and fuel, for the first couple of legs. They were all spot-on, so he let it go.

Literally. He just let it go, and immediately asked for a diversion to an unknown airport. We did that and made a normal landing; took a full stop so he can visit the head, then back on. Short field takeoff, again textbook. Low airwork - Esses and around-a-point, even stronger winds, no problem. Hood came next. That got me flustered, not because I can't do it, but because for some reason it kept slipping and distracting me, leading me to repeatedly get "just near" to busting the various PTS requirements. But I didn't. We did a quick VOR interception, unusual attitude recovery, and took the hood off. Next came slow flight, easy. Stalls, easy. Steep turns - ohhh, good steep turns today. Smooth, and nicely level all the way through.

And then he said "OK, take me back to the airport, and give me a soft field landing to a full stop". I pissed him off again by using "incoming" instead of "inbound" on the radio, but the setup to land and airspeed control was still as precise as before, and we landed nicely and smoothly (and STILL just beyond the numbers). I didn't let the eleveator down until we slowed down a lot, while remembering to correct for crosswind even after landing, and he really liked that. I was so busy though, that when tower asked me to taxi off at Lima I forgot to answer; he looked at me and said "did you hear the tower?" and, in a spot of coolness I did not really feel, I was on the radio confirming the instruction I never heard. Luckily, I guessed right, and was able to follow with "yeah, I was just making sure I had full control of the plane before I answered". I'm such a bullshitter, but I got away with that one.

And with that, it all came to an end. We taxied back, turned the engine off, and he said "I'm going to pass you, but you still have a problem with being distracted. You really need to work on that. I strongly recommend you fly with an instructor at least once a month for a while, and get them to help you with that. But your airspeed were really good and your control of the aircraft was also very good, so I'm going to pass you". Then he was gone.

And I got out of the plane, went to grab the tow-bar, and out of nowhere, sat on the ground and started crying like a baby. I just couldn't stop it for a couple minutes. I was shaking so hard it was difficult to get the plane back to its parking spot, and it took another 40 minutes to work the stupid IACRA and get my temporary certificate printed. And then it was over, and I became a private pilot.

Didcha hear me? I earned my ticket!

Failing my oral a couple weeks ago was a hard blow. Coming back in today and being so in the zone felt like a really nice comeback. I don't know if I could pull off another series like that in this sort of wind. For some reason, today, all my training and hard work came together in difficult conditions and made me seem a lot more experienced than I really am. And it felt so... gosh... darned... good.

In another funny coincidence that made me happy for no good reason - the third page in my logbook was just happened to get filled with this flight. In other words, I am literally "opening a new page" as a private pilot.

Something else I just remembered:

I did not do a single clearing turn the entire checkride.

I was surprised myself. But it turned out that way. We did the low airwork right as we came out of the airport, and they weren't needed because we emerged from the pattern (which is "self clearing", basically, considering the rectangular course to 800ft).

Then when I did high airwork, he started with steep turns, which ARE self-clearing. I asked if he wanted a clearing turn and he said no. The rest was either hood work or immediately followed the steeps. My writeup above mixed the high airwork up in that sense; steeps came first, not last.

We also never did emergency no-engine landing beyond the simulated engine failure to the runway. So no ABCD. Another surprise.

Lovefusion

When the time comes
it will hurt,
I promise you that.

Remember my touch
my smell
my eyes
looking into yours
reaching inside
pulling you out
gently,
gently.

If I was the one
you searched for
your entire life
like you said
then letting me
go
this way
was dumb,
honey.

And if I was not
if it was all a lie
an elaborate game
a mask
then it was one
of shame
for I fell into
your trap
loved you beyond
what you could
ever
have hoped
to attain.

Which one was it?
did you ever really
love me?
did you merely
use me?
as what?
as your tool?
for what purpose?
when I asked
you
to marry
to conceive
with me
did you stop
for a moment
and wonder
how far to go?

Confused
dazed even
I sit here
my heart
bleeding
hating you
loving you
missing your
touch
your voice
your laughter
shedding tears
over something
that may
never
have been.

I don't know
cannot tell
if you loved me
ever
but if you did
like you said
then
when the time comes
it will hurt.

I promise you that.

---
EDIT: interestingly enough, simply writing this made me feel a whole lot better. There's definitely something in the saying that putting your feelings down on paper lets you work through them in those sad moments.

Broken Heart

The thing that really sucks about a breakup from a serious relationship and the associated broken heart is this: you take a few weeks, think you're finally over the worst of it, take a deep breath, look around, go out on a date and even enjoy yourself - and a day later it comes back to bite you real hard and you find yourself with a wet pillow.

Dammit!

Breakup

How do you break up
with someone you love?
Where do you reach
inside
to find the strength
to say
"it's done"
when the last thing you said
and then heard
was "I love you"
and "A lot".
What will you say
to yourself
in old age
when the one that you want
is long gone
on a path of their own
even though you both
wanted to grow old
together?
Which of life's chances
will you remember
the ones that you took
boldly
followed your heart
or those of the calculated
measured approach?
Why does it hurt
so much?
Why does it hurt
so much?
Why does it hurt
so much?

(I wrote this a few days ago, and the pain is subsiding, but wanted to share)

Switching Flight Instructors

So I had a falling out of sorts with my main instructor, Matt. I wrote a long email to him yesterday telling him of my various frustrations, namely:

1) my cost of training had gone up nearly 30% in two months, due to the merger of my school with the neighboring one, resulting in an across-the-board 10-15% hourly rate increase, coming on top of the cheapest 172 and the one I was training with going out of commissions and their decision not to fix it.

The rate increase is particularly incensing, as the only way they could do it was by allowing one to take over the other, thereby eliminating competition and allowing them monopoly power.

2) more importantly, I'm just not "gelling" well with my primary instructor. I have to admit that I'm a little afraid of him. But the main point is that I am on edge when we fly together, as I continually try to satisfy his very strict requirements, and as a result I perform poorly. Sure, it's my problem, but at the same time, if I can fly with someone that I can feel more relaxed with, I know I'll do better.

On the other hand, switching right as I'm training for the check ride is difficult. I really want to finish the course. But it keeps slipping away from me, and it's driving me nuts.

I just want this to be done.

Theory done. Dummy checkrides next.

So yesterday was my FAA written (theory) test.

I went to the testing site in the morning as scheduled. I got there a bit early, which turned out to be a good thing, as they couldn't get their system running. I waited 45 minutes, then asked them to send me somewhere else. Another 45 minutes later, I arrived at the new place, with about 45 minutes available to finish the test (see a pattern here?).

Nothing like a bit of stress and time pressure to make these things more fun.

Ended up finishing the test in about 25 minutes. Just before I hit submit I changed my answers on 3 questions. After grading, turned out all my original answers were right, and the changed ones wrong.

slaps forehead

So instead of getting a 93, I got an 88. Oh well. Still a decent passing score.

I also had a solo in the afternoon... had a weird thing happen that totally freaked me out. On my last landing, it finally went really well - smooth, perfect positioning, perfect directional movement, the whole thing. As I am congratulation myself on a nice landing, maybe a second later the plane suddenly jerks violently to the right, nose moving 20-30 degree and I'm suddenly headed to the grass at 50 miles an hour.

Yikes.

I must admit my initial reaction was not the best - I pulled the mixture all the way out to kill the engine. Not sure why I reacted that way; I think my brain was screaming "stop the car... er, plane!"

Of course, a split second later I realize what I just did (as I am working the rudders and breaks to go back to centerline) so I push the mixture all the way in... and also the throttle.

Little planes get up to take-off speed pretty quickly.

Anyway, I did manage to get off the runway eventually without an inadvertent touch-n-go at about two thirds down the runway. My heart was thumping and I was feeling deeply embarrassed. They did go and check to make sure nothing was wrong with the breaks (it felt like the right wheel locked spontaneously), but it seems like the plane was fine. So this had to be put down to idiot error (the idiot being me). Best guess is a sudden severe gust of wind or even some wake turbulence (tons of planes today, including a couple business jets, on two parallels) moving across the runway. Live and learn for next time.

Next up - starting tomorrow, I will be doing dummy checkrides. All my requirements are met at this point except for a couple solo hours I'll get out of the way doing just landings and takeoffs.

Night flight

So last night I scheduled a flight from KCCR to KMOD... weather was a little iffy, but I spoke to John on the phone and he said to come on over. I checked the METARs and while they reported overcast skies, the ceiling was between 3500ft and 5500ft along the way - more than high enough for my planned route.

I got there around 730PM. The entire place was locked, but John was in his office; he asked me a few questions and then we went out to the plane.

Boy, is night different than day!

In some ways it's easier - there is a lot less noise in the environment in terms of recognizing major features (like the runways). But in other ways, it's a lot more difficult, as I learned on my second landing attempt. My depth perception was completely off because the visual cues are different, and instead of landing properly, I literally planted the nosewheel on the ground first.

Ick.

The plane bumped and jumped but luckily my instincts held up, and I got the place down without any more drama. Then it was time to head off to Modesto.

I got the clearance, and started towards the hills north of Concord in order to follow hwy 4. I crosses the hills at about 2300ft, and almost immediately run into a fully formed cloud that came out of nowhere fast. Everything is white. I just did what the FAA calls dryly "VFR into IMC" - the number one killer of VFR pilots.

I mutter to John on the radio "I am not comfortable with this".

He says back "so what are you going to do about it?"

I say, while turning the yoke and watching my altitude, "turn back and abort".

He says "Great! that's exactly the lesson I wanted you to learn tonight".

I was miffed at first, but then realized he was completely right. This was an excellent experience. I certainly wouldn't try to brave a cloud again, not without an instrument rating. It was very disorienting to lose all visual clues like that. And the weather reports are great, but actual weather can be an entirely different thing. That cloud was well, well below the 3500ft in the report.

Doing a 180 while staying level was easy enough, and in about 30 seconds I emerged out of the cloud into the beautiful and clear sky above Concord. I did a few more full stop landings, and called it a night. I even had the controller change the intensity of the runway lights for me just so I could see them in different settings (which is important before I try to go to an uncontrolled airport at night).

First Cross-Country Solo

So 3 days after my cross-country flight with John, I came back to the airport. We had discussed this on the phone, and I was rearing to go. I would make my first cross-country solo that day (4/14/2011), same route as we did together.

I got there around 9:30 only to learn that John was on a "gift certificate" flight and was going to be gone until 10AM. No problem; I'll just preflight the plane... except that they took it for the flight he was on.

*sigh*

OK. I knew I had stuff I had to complete. I took the release forms and solo planning forms and this and that and sat down to fill them. By the time I was done, John had just landed, and I went to wait for him in his office.

A few minutes later he got there. I was all nervous energy, but he was like "so, did you complete flight planning?". I proudly show him the forms. He repeats the question. I sit down and ask "OK, what am I missing?".

He laughs.

And starts asking me to do stuff.

So apparently, I never really understood what went into planning a flight... I got a crash course in the E6B, calling for weather, using a plotter, figuring out times and estimated fuel usage and calculating headings and correcting for wind and figuring out the TAFs along the way and... and... and...

... an hour later, I was done. I showed it all to John. He looks at me and say "so what about the rest?" I sat down heavily.

He laughs again. "You're good to go buddy. Give me your logbook, so I can endorse it. You sure you're ready to do this?"

I nodded, dumb-founded. He signs the forms and endorses my logbook. I take everything, go back to the office, check out the plane, and walk to the ramp. My brain is still not registering this. I preflight. I get inside. I finish my preflight checklist. I put the headset on. I get the ATIS report. I set the altimeter, I call ground and ask for taxi...

... and something in my brain snaps.

I'm doing this!

Understand something: my two solo flights prior to this one had been merely multiple touch&go's at the airport. Now I'm about to take the plane to two other airports, the second being over 100m away. All by myself.

I get to the run-up. I finish the checklist. I get clearance to take off. I take off. I head north. I call Travis. I get to Rio Vista. I call Travis to tell them I'm landing at Rio Vista.

Someone whispers on the radio "wrong frequency".

Seems like I was "talking" to Travis on the Rio Vista traffic frequency.

Oops.

Oh well. I did say "student pilot".

Rio Vista has a lot of traffic that day, or at least so it seems to me. Myself and three other pilots coordinate all our traffic, and I land to a full stop. Go around. Take off again. Get on Travis approach - and a new wrinkle comes up. They transfer me to Travis Arrival. I have never spoken to Travis Arrival. Why am I talking to Travis Arrival?

The C17 passing under me and the fighter jet taking off at right angles towards me sort of explains things. The C17 about to pass over me adds to my jitters. Wake turbulence from one of those might not be very fun. The guy at Travis Arrivals is very nice as he is warning me about all these things... I do a quick mental calculation and get back to him.

"Travis Arrivals, zero one whiskey, I'll be about 30 seconds out when they all get by."

I sound a lot more confident than I really feel.

I swear he chuckled.

I don't get lost over Vacaville this time. I head north over 505, and over Madison ask to cancel following. The guy at Travis sounds surprised. No wonder. He KNOWS I'm a rookie student. But I want to be a big boy. I'm Pilot in Command, so I get to make the choice. He lets me off.

In about a minute I realize that I am no longer on the radio with anyone. I'm all alone. There is no one to warn me about anything, no one to help me if I am about to run into another plane, no one to ask clarifications from. Nothing.

This was the first time I got a little scared in the entire experience. The sense of loneliness up there was eerie. I considered contacting Norcal approach, but decided against it. I will do this the way it was meant to be. I'm a big boy now.

The weather was calm and the sky was clear. I started taking in the scenery. It was beautiful. I had already trimmed the plane for straight-and-level, and therefore had very little to do other than scan the horizon. The next 20 minutes were one of the most stunning experiences I have ever had, cruising at 3,000ft, my hands crossed, my eyes slowly moving right to left and left to right, enjoying the sights.

Over Willows I contacted Chico, not because I had to but because I wanted human contact again. I started looking for Haigh. I couldn't find it. I started circling. Where IS that dang airport? then I remembered my flight with John. Damn! I made the same error John and I made three days earlier. That chart really IS confusing.

Reoriented, found Haigh, landed, got off, went to the bathroom, came back, took a picture for posterity and uploaded it to Facebook.

Got back in the air. My phone was out because I had taken that picture. At 3,000, I got a text. Surprised, I checked my phone. Excellent reception. I kept it on out of curiosity. I had excellent reception at 3,000 all the way back. Funny, that.

The rest of the flight was uneventful. Made it back to KCCR, did one touch&go, then came back to a full stop. 2.9 hours total, and an absolute blast. As I tied down the plane, I felt proud, of having achieved something really big. And also a strange sense of calmness, as if I had overcome a huge obstacle, and the confidence that I could do it again.

Next up - night flying. The checkride will come soon after that, I'm sure. But I'm not worried about it now. I know I can do it. I know I'm safe. I felt it this time. I wore the plane on this flight. I didn't have to think much about operating it - it all came naturally, especially on the leg back. What a feeling.

Man, what a feeling.

Cross-country

So my instructor sent me a note last weekend, saying he had a family emergency he had to attend back in the UK, and transferring me over to my fall-back instructor, John, who also happens to be the chief pilot of my flight school. I've flown with him before a few times and while I appreciate the very structured methods my regular instructor utilizes, John just lets me fly; he has so much experience that it is a lot more difficult to faze him, and I get to stretch my elbows a bit. He's not a chatterbox either (as per the classic pilot joke: "what's the best thing about finally going solo? getting rid of the chatterbox on your right!").

Anyway, I came in Monday morning, and we started chatting. We were going to follow the incremental plan I had laid out with my regular instructor, when the discussion turned to requirements, and cross-country. John has seen me operate a plane safely in very harsh conditions; he is the one that had remarked once after one of my difficult experiences "three perfect maximum crosswind component landings in a row; that's skill, not luck". So I knew he trusted me a lot more than my regular instructor does.

But even I did not expect the next thing that came out of his mouth, which was something along the lines of: "OK, let's do your cross-country then".

Nice.

So we picked an airport - Orland Haigh, O37, west of Chico, CA - and made a plan. We would fly out to Rio Vista (O88), do a touch&go, then proceed to Haigh, land there, refuel if need be, then come back. It's a long trip - O37 is over 100 miles away from CCR. Anyway, we discuss it a bit longer, then hop on the plane, and take off.

I do the T&G at O88, then head northwest to try and find I-505. Almost immediately, I get lost. John, bless his heart, refuses to help me; instead, he keeps telling me to look at the chart and figure out where I am. I start by blind-guessing, and true to form, he refuses to tell me if I'm right or wrong, instead forcing me to think. Yes, I was panicking. But eventually I calmed down and started following the Pilotage advice I had heard before. In 5 minutes I got reoriented, found the freeway, and went back on course.

We did some dead reckoning, then VOR, before hitting Willows and starting to look for Haigh. I was pretty certain I was dead-on when John started saying "I think we passed it". I was, like, "wait, have you ever been there?", and he goes "nah, figured you'd be able to find it". I swear I glared at him. We went a bit higher and started looking. The damn thing nowhere in sight. We looked at the chart. It should be right beneath us!

Nope.

Eventually I went back to Willows and tried again, this time relying on dead reckoning. Sure enough, the chart (current, updated) was misleading! Haigh was about 3 miles north of where you would expect it to be based on the chart. John saw it first, but a split second later I did as well.

Landing was a cinch, but we had used so much fuel already that we had to refill the tanks. That was a fun experience and I learned something really new and unexpected!

The flight back was pretty uneventful, so John decided to stick me under the hood and get me lost and see if I can recover still under the hood. No problem, dude. Instruments are fun.

Came back to find the Hobbs indicating exactly 3 hours.... which is exactly the minimum requirement for dual cross-country. All that time getting lost? well, that enabled me to check that box in my training... and set me up for the next big milestone:

My first solo cross-country.

That will come in the next post.

My first solo flight

I had posted this on Facebook already, but figure it should be here too... I'll be making a few more posts shortly about this amazing experience. The date for my solo was 3/30/2011.

====

TITLE: Just wanted to share my excitement...

... with all of you.

I have been a type I diabetic for going on 27 years now. I got it when, at least in the country I grew up (Israel), there was no concept of diet drinks, let alone sugar-free desserts and such. Heck, diet Coke only started becoming available there in 1986.

My big dream, which was shattered completely and utterly when I was diagnosed, was to become a pilot. That, of course, had to be shelved, or maybe better to say discarded, as soon as I became insulin-dependent. Later going through several years of hypo-unawareness (eventually recognized as an allergy to a specific kind of insulin, and resolved by switching to a different kind) made it impossible for me to sleep alone, let alone think of flying. Getting a driver's license was hard enough.

I did take a couple dual instructed intro flights; they were fun, but also tremendously disappointing, because I knew I could never get to do it myself.

Well, in 1999 I moved to this wonderful country, the US of A. I had forgotten about my dream, because it couldn't ever be possible. Then a couple years back I acquired a CGM system (first the Dexcom, now on the Navigator), and somehow, somewhere, a spark ignited a flame that apparently was burning low for all this time. I started doing some research and found out that in the USA, unlike many other places, it IS in fact possible for a type I diabetic to get a class III airmen medical certificate - the one necessary to become a private pilot.

I remember how astounded, shocked, and delighted I was. I started the process of figuring out how to be allowed to fly. It took a year, and a rather involved appeals process with the FAA, but eventually last September I received my medical certificate.

I could learn how to fly.

I started lessons in November. Today, my instructor rode me particularly hard; I couldn't understand why he was so upset with me. We did what is called "pattern work", which involves repeated takeoffs and landings, and after seven of those, he asked me to come to a full stop and taxi back to the flight school. I knew we were supposed to fly over and do some practice maneuvers, and was feeling really guilty because I apparently upset him so much he decided to terminate my flight. I was going through my post-flight checklist when I heard him get on the radio and tell the tower "I'm gonna drop off at the ramp, and my student is going to go on his first solo".

I choked. I couldn't believe it. I had tears in my eyes all the way to dropping him off and all the way back to the runway. But there it was. Me, alone, in an airplane, fully certified and endorsed.

I did my first solo.

From here on it's a matter of polishing my technique, completing a few more requirements and doing my written knowledge test and FAA checkride. But in the world of pilots, today I became a pilot. Today I was pilot in command and sole occupant of a fixed-wing, single engine aircraft. Today, I was accepted to the club.

With my diabetes.

I flew.

I just wanted to share this. In 2-3 months, I am certain, I will complete the rest of the requirements to get my license, but that's just procedure. What I did today meant more to me than I could ever describe. And I wanted to tell you all: don't ever give up on your dreams, especially not because of your diabetes.

Don't let anything stop you. You CAN do it, no matter what it is and what ittakes. You hear me?

You can do it.

Another Navigator supply related horror

So after the interruption in December, and eventual resumption of ordering on 12/27, I was very acutely aware that CCS Medical, my device supplier, is supposedly having some issues.

Well, my new sensor order was supposed to come out 1/24, but as 1/26 came and went, I had a sinking feeling this was going to be bad. I called on 1/27.

CCS: your insurance company didn't authorize the shipment

Me: why?

CCS: missing documentation.

Me: what do you need?

CCS: it's not from you, it's from your doctor. We tried reaching them but they are not replying.

Me: I'll take care of it.

So I did. On 1/28 CCS received the fax back from my doctor's office, but it was after closing time EST so I had to wait until Monday to speak to CCS again.

Monday morning came, and I called them.

Me: I got the doctor's office to send you the information.

CCS: OK, we'll take it from here.

Me: please let me know when the order goes out.

CCS: Sure, we'll put a note about that.

Tuesday afternoon, I call CCS.

Me: so what's the deal?

CCS: oh, sorry, there's more documentation needed. We're getting a package out to your doctor.

Me: what?!

CCS: not our fault, it's your insurance.

I call Blue Cross.

Me: what is this all about?

BC: what is what all about?

Me: what documentation do you still need? how can I make this happen? my last sensor is in, I'm going to be out Thursday.

BC: sorry sir, we have no idea. Our system doesn't even show a request for authorization from CCS Medical.

Me: Wha...?!!

BC: tell you what. Why don't we conference CCS into the call.

Me: great idea!

The wonderful lady at BC (Gloria, you're my hero!) conferences in someone at CCS Billing.

CCS billing: explain please.

Me: you guys are not sending me the sensors saying BC is not authorizing due to missing documentation. I have BC on the line, and they don't even see an order coming from you.

CCS billing: ah... don't know. Let me get CCS pump supplies on the line.

[...]

CCS pump supplies: explain please.

Me: you were supposed to send my sensor order on 1/24. You didn't because you claimed the insurance company did not authorize shipment due to documentation missing. BC, can you please confirm you have no clue what they are talking about?

BC: no clue, confirmed. They should just send the request.

CCS billing: mute

CCS pump supplies: wait a sec... no, you're right, this isn't BC, it's our own internal documentation team requirement.

At this point I exploded. I admit I yelled. I even swore once, I think.

Me: WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!!! IF MY DOCTOR THINKS I NEED THIS, AND MY INSURANCE COMPANY AGREES, WHO THE HELL SAID YOU CAN DECIDE NOT TO SEND ME MY SUPPLIES AND PUT MY LIFE AT RISK?!!!

CCS billing: mute

BC: mute

CCS pump supplies: ah... well, there's nothing I can do, we have to wait until tomorrow.

Me: NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

CCS pump: ok... wait, let me get a supervisor.

[...]

CCS supervisor: explain please

Me: angrily going through the story again, also mentioning that they lied to me about why this was being held up, and that it is a significant health issue.

CCS supervisor: well, I'm sure documentation had a reason but

[call drops]

ARGH!

Well, I called again, but couldn't get anyone but the lady in billing (Wanda, you are also my hero!). But she got off the phone and went to look for the supervisor (Brian) and found him, and HE did some stuff (Brian, you are my other hero!) and called me back 20m later to say "seems like a miscommunication here. We'll take care of it, and you'll get your shipment on Thursday".

In between, I cried for 10m out of sheer frustration.

*sigh*

New beginnings

I toured another independent school today, out of a half dozen recently.

This comes on account of the kids current school utterly failing to serve our son, and to add to my guilt as a parent, for a long while I believed them. So poor Joshua got a lot of anger and frustration from me, for no reason other than that the adults that his well-being was entrusted to failed miserably and consistently in meeting his needs, even though they were paid very well to do just that. When you make the choice to pay $20,000 a year for something you can get for free, I believe that you have every right to expect better.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. More importantly, today I was blown away. It finally - finally! - felt like the enormous associated expense would be justified. I fell in love with the place. I truly hope the kids like it too. Yes, it will be much less convenient for us parents. Who cares?

I just wish I did better due diligence and learned of it four years ago when we first signed them up. Notch another one for parental guilt.

Civ 4 DRM free!

OK, sorry folks, but blame Facebook; I post there what I used to post here. I will try and get back in the habit of coming here too.

But this deserved significant mention: I just bought a DVD called "Civilization IV the Complete Edition". It's a $40 DVD of the last-gen Civ.

As background, I will state that the only reason I refuse (and will continue to refuse) to buy and play Civ 5 is because it requires Steam, which is absolutely offensive to me. At least in the old days of DRM I could use a no-cd exe to run MY software (do you hear me, software companies? once I buy it, it's mine, not yours) on my laptop, which simply doesn't have a CD drive. I install the game using an external drive, replace the exe with the cracked one, and off I go.

Well, in Civ 5's case, that's no longer possible, because of the Steam requirement. So I won't purchase it. Enough said.

But it did reignite the taste of Civ for me. I was going to reinstall Civ 4 on my laptop using the above method, since I already own the game. Why am I bolding the last statement? because at Best Buy I found this complete edition, and on the very back of the DVD case it said, very clearly, "DRM free version".

Well, at that point I had to buy it, even if only to encourage 2K to do the same with other software. So I bought a game I already owned, instead of spending a penny on one that has DRM, and because of DRM. Yes, I gained some value beyond personal satisfaction; I had not owned any of the expansions, which the complete edition comes with. But it would have been cheaper to buy those separately. It was the "DRM free" aspect that made this a must-buy for me. I just hope others feel the same way. Maybe there's still a tiny chance to rid the world of idiocies like Steam (I wouldn't hold my breath).

Oh, and also, I lovelovelove WINE. Civ 4 installs and run flawlessly through WINE on my Ubuntu Linux. Good job, WINE geeks!

National Opt-IN Day

So I'm sick and tired of the increasing use of FUD (that's Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) by everyone, everywhere.

As such, I would like to offer a counter-campaign for the idiocy called "national opt-out day" proposed for November 24th by people who have nothing better to do than to delay airport security checks through the country on one of the busiest fly days of the year.

I propose a "national opt-in day". I will personally let the TSA person know "I opt in" as soon as I get to the check-in line, even if they wouldn't otherwise ask me to go through the scanner. As a courtesy to you and everybody else in that same line that day, I will insist on taking the simplest, quickest route through security. And if the TSA checker who has to do this mind-numbing job for 8-12 hours a day behind the screen of the terminal that examines my body for hidden explosives somehow still manages to get aroused by my highly robotic-looking "body image" - all the more power to them. Personally, if that's the case, I think a Playboy's subscription in order.

Sheesh.

Israel to the (shopping) rescue... twice

So today I had my folks pick up a copy of Bakugan Helios Maxus 7 in 1 at a Toys'R'Us in Israel... because there is simply no way to get it here in the US anymore and for some odd reason it seems like it has become a collector's item. On the other hand, their local store had like a dozen copies on the shelf for the roughly $50 MSRP. So my son will have one in his hands in a couple weeks.

Coming on top of the Abbott Navigator - both products being American and made here - I find it rather amusing that they had to be acquired in Israel.

I'm embarrassed

Really.

Considering that this kind of stuff was the reason I was originally hired out of Israel and brought to the US, it's truly shameful that it took me a few weeks to get around to solving this problem. I suspected what it was but, I suppose, just never became irritated quite enough to punch through and get it done.

What am I talking about?

Well, we have Comcast broadband - which is really pretty awesome in terms of things like download speeds (download speeds usually at over 10mb/s, up to 22mb/s on a good day! uploads at 3-4mb/s quite consistently). Thing is... it has also been a pain in the royal behind in terms of browsing, because new pages could take ages to start loading.

I mean, sure, I knew it was a DNS problem. What else could it be? and... well... this is the embarrassing part. I just didn't reconfigure my home network to use a public server, instead trusting Comcast to solve their own problem at some point. Took me literally weeks to realize that they can't, or won't. Weeks!

*sigh*

To make a long story short, Google's public DNS servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), like everything else they set their mind to doing when it comes to internet plumbing, work really well.

I wonder if there is some sort of cream to take the redness off my face?

Elections

I've been saying the same thing for months to friends in our political discussions, and someone challenged me to say it publicly too, so here goes: I predict that the republicans will NOT gain control of EITHER house in November. They'll get close in both, but not quite enough.

There. Challenge met.

I am...

... an atheist, agnostic, and skeptic.

There, just wanted to get that off my chest.

Please proceed to your normal programming.




p.s. what, still here? wonder why I had to say that? cause I'm sick and tired of "atheist" being the new bugaboo, the pariah, the unspeakable and untouchable. Are we truly going to become afraid of telling the world "I don't believe in god, can't tell if one exists, and honestly, couldn't care less"? yo, Russell, can we have some tea please?

5 things about Israel in summer

Things I forgot about Israel in summer (I have avoided the it on my last few trips, so it's been about a decade since my last summer trip). To make this readable, I am listing them below, one per comment:

1) It's friggin' humid. It gets comparably hot back home, but not so darn wet. I now remember why I used to shower twice a day in summer.

2) The Mediterranean waters are warm. I was walking along the beach gingerly avoiding the water when a big wave came ashore. I cringed expecting the chill of the ocean water, and was pleasantly surprised when the water lapped my feet. Salty yes, but oh so wonderful.

3) The women on those beaches - or at least the one in Haifa - are oh so pretty. But where did all the blondes come from?

4) People really don't expect you to be courteous. I was walking down the aisle in a drugstore and reached an intersection when two women were crossing perpendicular to me. Naturally, I stopped to let them through. They stopped too. For a couple seconds, we literally stared at each other - me in discomfort, they in puzzlement. And that's just one example.

5) Everybody's got a great tan.

Nav problem

So I am now going through my worst Navigator experience ever - excluding when they break down completely. I am not sure if this is something to do with the v1.5, or with the Nav in general, as I seem to find reports of similar issues with the v1.0 even if I never encountered them myself.

Basically, for the past 12 hours or so, my system is refusing to calibrate and is reporting terrifically low BG's ("lo" or 20-40 most of the time), even though my actual BG's are in the low to mid 100's.

I keep doing a calibration every hour, but while it isn't rejecting them, it is also not adjusting to the actual values.

What the heck? any ideas? is this a sensor problem? I am very frustrated with this, and I can't help but think it's something to do with the v1.5, although there is no causal connection (that is, even though this is the first time I've encountered this and it's the first time I use the v1.5, there is clear causation between the two).

Navigator 1.5 Discussion Thread

Since I'm running a thread discussing my experiences in a forum, I figured I'd link it here.

Abbott Navigator v1.5 - The Opening

Alright,

So I just landed in Israel, and have reached my parents' home, where the v1.5 Navigator was waiting for me. I wanted to share my first impressions with y'all together with some pictures.


First of all, one thing that is definitely more efficient is the packaging. I used a magazine next to the new box for illustrative purposes.







For those wondering where this one is manufactured, the label clearly shows that pretty much the entire thing is made in California.

This irritates me to a great degree; we have no availability of these units in the US even though they are made in the US! I had to fly to Israel to get one, for heaven's sake.









Here you go, proof positive of the version number.














The new calibration page, with the new intervals and 1-hour start time.














The new packaging on the inside. It's similar to v1.0, but packed more tightly.













And here they are, side by side. Completely identical externally.

I have already opened the battery compartment (I'll follow up with another side-by-side comparison later) and checked the quality of the build for the battery connectors. They are bigger and a much better fit inside the compartment than before, so hopefully no more soldering of loose connectors... although who knows. I wonder if there are other minor improvements in the design that are not immediately obvious.









On the back - see the difference? the new one says "rev B".





New sensor will go in about 3 hours from now. I will post more later.

Languages and how we think

Fascinating article from the NY Times.

And my own experience suggests it's true. For example, I have been stating repeatedly that I cannot express my emotions in Hebrew, which is my mother tongue, but I can easily do so in English, where I am considered to be at the level of a native speaker. In fact, I have an amusing dynamic with my current therapist, who is fluent in both languages as well; I will often discuss events from an observational viewpoint in Hebrew, but when it comes to describing my experience, I unfailingly switch to English - with no ability to even attempt the same expression in Hebrew. And it's not just a loss for words; when I try to consider expressing myself in Hebrew, I grow frustrated and then very rapidly, lose the emotion entirely. I no longer feel it the same way, and then it's impossible to describe it in English as well.

My explanation has always been that English had a much greater store of vocabulary, many more subtleties available for use. I just never imagined quite how true that last statement was.

I am also beginning to think that there is a tremendous advantage to having two very different languages at a native level. Hebrew and English are extremely different. For one thing, it allows switching points of view in a very deep sense.

Wow (new laptop ordered)

So yes, I know the x301 and the x3xx series in general are on their way out forever, but it is still a formidable machine in its own right even if it hasn't gotten the new Intel core CPU's.

Still, the time has come to replace my aging x61s, and while I would not have bought the x301 on account of it being a bit long in the tooth, Lenovo then hit me with their one day sale yesterday. It was 7 hours, phone orders only, but included a whopping $1369 discount!

It worked.

So a loaded x301 (4GB RAM and all the cool options) with a 3-year onsite warranty, an additional 3-cell ultrabay battery for extended operation, and their sexy ultraslim combo adapter - both absolutely necessary for us road warriors - in about 10 days.

Total cost, taxed and shipped: $1,532.74.

Not bad, eh?

New Abbott Navigator Nightmare

And the saga continues.

About three days ago, my Navigator spontaneously rebooted itself several times in a row. Of course as a result I lost a sensor, but it was also a very odd behavior; there seemed to be no issues at all with the hardware. I opened and moved batteries around and replaced them and it became stable again.

Seemed to be an electrical connection problem. But where?

Yesterday it did it again. I again opened the battery compartment this time for a closer look, and an obvious culprit quickly emerged. One of the four battery contacts seemed a bit awkwardly placed, twisted at a weird angle. So I poked at it. It popped out like a jack-in-the-box.

Aha!

My first thought was - crazy glue. A small enough amount should bond it back to its contact plate, without killing conductivity too badly. It worked for about an hour but then went haywire again. While the battery contact was stable, it seemed like conductivity wasn't good enough.

I honestly wasn't thinking well by that time and last night I applied even more superglue. It bonded alright, but now there was no conductivity at all; the device simply went dead. Yes, yes, it's obvious, but I was involved in an intense and heated emotional discussion while dealing with this and my head wasn't screwed on straight.

I finally got back home and got to tinkering again. Took me 40 minutes to scrape off most of the crazy glue and put the contact back on (loosely, not bonded), just to see if the device would turn back on. It did, and stayed that way through the night. But that was not a good solution; the merest bump would send the contact moving again and I'd be back to the same problem.

Of course you know the answer. So I went and bought a soldering pen, and on the way home stopped at a shop and let a professional do it for me instead. He did get the contact and plate soldered well, but a new problem emerged; there was a big blob of flux now, which made it hard to fit the battery in.

So I got home, used my soldering pen to soften some of it up, and scrape it out. Then I pushed the battery in, closed the compartment (it was all bent and the like because the blob was still pretty big), and the device came to life. Yay! so I put a new sensor in and went on my way.

Less than an hour later the thing died again. I'm glad I was looking at it all the time because it was warm to the touch. I immediately opened the battery compartment to pull the batteries out. One of them was HOT, so hot it burned me. Ouch.

I cooled it off enough to be able to examine it, and sure enough, the battery wrapper was punctured in two locations from the flux blob, essentially shorting it onto itself and causing it to discharge at a high rate. Hence the heat. I believe that if I had not caught it then, 2-3 minutes later it would have fried the entire device too.

So I went home and went to work again. This time I shaved and pried and sliced off as much flux as I could to flatten it out, then fit new batteries in. At this point I was kinda wondering if the Nav was dead after all it had gone through and it's inherent finickiness. Some of the plastic around the battery compartment was now melted and messed up, it ain't pretty in there.

Lo and behold, it came back to life without complaint. The compartment door closed easily, and I now seem to have a working Nav again. How sad that because of Abbott's astoundingly poor customer service* I have to resort to such lengths to revive my unit. And what a testament to the strength of the underlying technology that I am so loyal to it even so.

Please Nav, live. Live until the new ones get to the US. Live.

* this Nav is under warranty but they can't replace it because they don't have any units in stock, as it has been since February and will last at least through December; all this while the Nav is currently selling and easily available in Europe.

I called it

Not that I'm particularly smart or anything... but it feels good to see the story unfolding pretty much as expected.

I do believe the 9th circuit will uphold this. As for the supreme court... who knows? I think they will uphold state rights basically.

Poem

I know I haven't posted in a while... apologies. Between Facebook and life, I admit to having deserted this medium.

Anyway, this just came out. I wanted to share it with you. It is emergent from my current therapy sessions, and is the result of an analogy I made in my last one with my therapist, related to how I see psychological healing, how I experience it.

===
MIND
===
Seven lanes
in each direction
towers of steel
cement
cats eyes
and lights

Well traveled
Smooth
Many signs
pointing
urging
"go here!"
it's safe
"come through!"
it's free

The chasm below
deep
wide
no scaling down
no climbing up
there is no bottom
there is no way
to move across
but on the bridge
safe
and easy

So who cares
about the toll booths?
they don't charge money
no need to slow down
they simply stand there
shadows inside them
don't pay attention
safe
and sound

it's only voices
that come from them
wafting in
whispering
you can barely hear them
until the blast
"we'll protect you"
just keep on crossing
until the day
you die

but they take their toll alright
a forever payment
you can't avoid
you can't decline
there is no hiding
from the voices
besides,
where would you go instead?

it may be years
decades before
you look around
and suddenly
notice a path
it's dusty, not even paved
just gravel
rough
it goes off into the distance
have you tried it once?
you wonder
maybe again
maybe just this once

and there it is
a rope bridge
barely secured
across the gap
it's hard to cross
it wobbles
but it has no toll booth
no voices past

it takes a while
much longer
you miss the smoothness
of the bridge
the easy travel
with no bumps
it is so compelling
to go back there at once

rope bridge?
toll booths?
where next?
what now?
one is harder
shaking
scary
the other known
safe
even comforting
who cares about a little
whisper?

but there is a memory now
of clean air
crisp
fresh
and most important
silence
so clear
you can suddenly hear
the world around you
and open your eyes
no voices
no terror
it melts away
you like it now

and you cross it again
and again
the ropes seem to strengthen
then turn into wood
then stone
you visit the bridge
it's a little worn now
falling into
disrepair
and the voices are stronger
they are the ones
who are scared now

and you suddenly get it
you suddenly see
all this time
they were protecting
not you
but themselves

so you go back
to the stone walkway
which is rapidly building
becoming a bridge
and you cross
and you cross
and you shout in joy
for there are no toll booths
with shadows
in here

the air remains crisp
just remember
that old bridge is there
and you know the route

Ubuntu tip: upgrading to 10.04 fails with a cryptic message

So today I decided to upgrade my Karmic Koala installation to Lucid Lynx, the newest and baddest long-term Ubuntu release that came out late last month.

In the past, upgrades have gone very smoothly for me; you click the upgrade the button, and Ubuntu does all the rest. This time around, when I clicked upgrade, a few minutes later I was faced with this unpleasant error:

(Could not calculate the upgrade)




















Ouch.

I fumbled around for a bit, but it was like a blind man groping in the dark; for the life of me I could not figure this out.

Google came next, but surprisingly little information of value could be derived from repeated searches. The same for Ubuntu forums. Other people ran into this issue, but all the related threads seemed to end with "I'll just wait till it fixes itself" or "solved it" with no further detail.

I became rather frustrated. But also motivated. I am here to tell you how to solve this problem, regardless of its origin on your system.

The problem is actually the one stated; indeed, a package on your system is causing the update breakage. The one good thing that the error message gives you is a clue as to where to figure out more about the issue. So the steps to fix this are as follows:

1) CD to /var/log/dist-upgrade/

2) CD to the most recent directory in there. For example, my most recent at that point was 20100519-1513/

3) Examine the main.log file (use "more", or "less", or "tail", or even "gedit")

4) The last block of information will tell you, quite specifically, which package caused the break. In my case it showed the following:

2010-05-19 13:48:34,180 DEBUG Installing 'xserver-xorg-video-all' (Distro KeepInstalledPkgs rule)
2010-05-19 13:49:00,365 ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'E:Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.'
2010-05-19 13:49:00,365 DEBUG abort called
2010-05-19 13:49:00,369 DEBUG openCache()
2010-05-19 13:49:00,369 DEBUG failed to SystemUnLock() (E:Not locked)
2010-05-19 13:49:05,333 DEBUG /openCache(), new cache size 29420
2010-05-19 13:49:05,334 DEBUG enabling apt cron job

The above lines will look more or less the same in your case, except that the first line may have a different package listed.

5) Keep the terminal or gedit open so you have this information, and open Synaptics Package Manager. The next few steps are designed to easily find the offending package and its related brethren, which is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack otherwise.

6) Open "settings", "repositories", and under the "other software" tab uncheck everything.

7) In the "settings" menu, choose "filters" and click on "new" to create a new filter. Give it a name (something like "irritating packages" would be quite appropriate).

8) In the "status" tab, click "deselect all", then check ONLY the "installed" checkbox under "current". That is the ONLY one that should be checked.

9) In the "section" tab, make sure that nothing is selected and that the radio button at the bottom is on "exclude selected sections" (we are essentially trying to exclude nothing)

10) In the "properties" tab, click "new", then choose "origin" from the pulldown menu, and type in ".ubuntu.com" in the text box. Note that the leading dot is important here! that stumped me for a couple minutes. The idea is that we are basically excluding all packages that come from Ubuntu, thereby finding all the others ones, including the pesky little thing that is causing all the trouble in the first place.

Click "OK". You've created the filter. That was the hard part.

11) Go to "custom filters" (bottom left) and look at your newly created filter. Look for your package and all its related packages (for example, in my case there were about a dozen xorg related packages). Now, for each one of those:

11a) select it
11b) under the "packages" menu, click on "force version"
11c) from the pulldown menu, pick the version that has "(karmic)" next to it. This will guarantee that you will downgrade to the plain-vanilla Ubuntu supported version.

12) Click "apply"

That should do it. Now try to run the update again. Should work like a charm.

Abbott's offer - sounds like a buyout to me

I just received a call from Abbott Diabetes Care, the folks in charge of the Navigator.

They let me know that at this time, they have no expectation of resumption of supply any time soon.

But this is where it gets interesting. They also offered a "refund" for the system of $2,000 (!), plus an additional refund for any sensors I may have lying around, PLUS a 90-day supply of strips and new regular meter.

Holy moly. Sounds like a buyout to me.

So I asked questions. The information I did get was:

- Abbott is not pulling the product off the market. Systems that are working will continue to be supported.
- The inventory interruption is the result of an internal investigation into product quality issues.
- They do not have or do not know a time table for when the issues will be resolved.

They then suggested I contact my doctor to get a scrip for a competing product from another manufacturer. Those were her exact words.

Wowza. At least now we know; the product qualify problems have resulted in a decision to halt production of the system in order to allow a redesign. And the $2,000 offer sounds like a buyout of sorts... hush money. "Here, let's toss a couple grand at you folks, just don't sue us" is what it screams out to me.

So; at this point I do not expect a replacement, but rather a completely new system when they finally come out with one. And the class-action sounds more tempting with every passing day.

Abbott and the Navigator

Still no transmitter.

However, today brought at least some information. In my frustration, I launched a search in Europe for the unit. They do, in fact, exist over there, at least in the UK. However, the Abbott rep suggested that shipping one to the US would not be a good idea, because "shipping in the low pressure low temperature environment of an airplane would irreparably damage the unit".

Interesting.

He then went further to suggest that there should be a shipment of these destined for US shores on a ship somewhere. He was rather surprised to hear of the inventory issue in the US though, as it had the largest client base. Seems like Abbott UK is siloed from Abbott Diabetes Care in the US.

I am considering flying out to the UK to pick one up in person. I am also considering a class-action. Anyone interested in that?