(Updated Sept. 10, 1995) Well some stuff has happened since I last wrote one of these... The computers at home keep evolving. I got the scanner, but still haven’t had the time (or the space on this server) to get much else put online lately. There are quite a few more products listed on the VR Resources page, but those were mostly things I found already on the web. That market is starting to really heat up by the way; it’s getting to the point where in a year or two all the cool people will have HMD’s of one kind or another I think. Not necessarily hi-res, but color, and good enough for Descent and such.

Anyhow, I also have a gig drive and a 540 megger in the 486, and a 17” monitor, 16 megs of RAM, a Zip drive (those sure are cool!), and a new 540 meg drive in the 386 as well. Both machines can run Linux now; I have a partition for it on my 486, but most of the space is for Windows 95 at the moment. I’m not terribly impressed with Windows 95; some programs don’t run right, like Photoshop for instance. But the Internet stuff still all works; I was sure glad to see that. I have X window running on both machines now too, and just last night I got the first packets to finally go across the network between the two machines. I can’t do much yet, just ping and ftp, but at least now I know the hardware is working. The ham radio stuff hooked up to the Linux machine has grown a bit too; I now have a KPC9612, which is a TNC that can do 1200 baud and 9600 baud simultaneously with two separate radios. As soon as I figure out how to get the 9600 baud part working, I’ll probably set up a gateway between the two ports. I also intend to get a TCP/IP connection via radio going very soon. The trouble as it turns out is that here in the Phoenix area very few people are doing any advanced packet stuff at all. They’re threatening to close down our one 9600 baud mountaintop repeater because it isn’t getting any use. I’m going to try to talk them out of that of course... I also wanted to try 56K packet, but I think that’s on the back burner now, since it seems no one at all is using that mode here! Just a bunch of low-tech old farts around here I guess... yet they’re the ones complaining that no-code tech licensees (like me!) are too lazy or brainless to do anything interesting; we supposedly just stay on 2 meters, which is getting to be the ham version of CB, all the time. Yeah right. They think operating HF makes them so special. Bunch of bloody hypocrites. So anyway, for now I am just running plain old 1200 baud, and getting my mail via a plain old BBS, just like all the other plain old hams. (Isn’t it disgusting?) My packet address is KB7PWD@N7MRP.AZ.US.NOAM. Feel free to write me if you’re on packet.

I did really graduate BTW. Got the diploma in the mail a month or so ago.

I’m still working at Acoustic Imaging, and the pressure to get lots of stuff done keeps getting more intense there lately. It’s almost stressful now! I’ve shifted from doing low-level stuff to doing quite high-level OO programming, on a subsystem we call Patient Exam, which includes the patient database, calculations and measurements performed on the ultrasound image, and quite a bit of user interaction stuff. We’re still careening willy-nilly towards the annual industry trade show this month, and still trying to maintain the naive hope that we will have something that resembles an actual ultrasound machine to take to the show. Also trying to maintain the hope that it will actually be all done by the end of this year.

The plans for getting myself my own web server running on the Linux machine aren’t looking too good at the moment. It turns out anything approaching full-time service is incredibly expensive. And I’m not sure a part-time connection would cut it; it would mean you could only read these (highly interesting!) pages (ha ha ha brag brag brag) certain times of the day. I could have regular online hours, automated by cron or something. So I might just get an account with a regular PPP provider and use their server for the pages, despite the fact that isn’t as macho as having my own server at home. Or, come up with a really good excuse to fork out the dough and get say a 56K link to my place. Probably not until after I move. I’m thinking of moving; I don’t know how long this job at AI will be worthwhile, but I do sure know I’m getting sick and tired of this old trailer. I wanted to move out of state and get out of this hot weather. I will still do that eventually, but in the mean time, I suspect the job thing will go on exactly as it has for quite a while longer. We probably won’t get the project done, but those absent-minded Germans probably won’t get around to cutting our funding either, so we will probably be able to go right on continuing to develop it well into next year. I hope. In which case I could probably afford to move into a house for a year or so. Maybe. I’m juggling around all the options in my mind; I could move out of state now, assuming I find a job first of course, and get it over with. But that would look bad on my resume, to have less than a year at my present job. I don’t like that idea. And if I’m going to stick around at least a year, why not stick around yet longer. Especially since I really want to move right now, not a whole ‘nother year from now. I could just move into a house, get that over with, and live comfortably, and have more security, electricity that stays on all the time, a carport, more space for my junk, more space to do things at home, and probably a much improved state of mind. Could also have big parties...

The reason I want a carport is I finally got my dream car: an 84 300ZX. (I know, I need a bigger dream now!) For now it’s perfect. Digital dash, leather, beautiful paint job, T-tops, etc. I found out yesterday that it needs some work though; I thought it was running a bit lousier than those cars are supposed to; turns out it is running quite a bit lousier than it’s supposed to. The injectors are missing part of the time, because their connectors are corroded. There are a couple other things too. So one of these weekends I have a big project to do. Meantime it runs well enough; a Z with those small problems still runs better than most of the other pieces of crap I’ve ever driven! :-) Wonder if I can get a house with a carport in a week or two so I can work on the car there rather than here... I’m also keeping the ole ‘68 Datsun pickup; a friend is supposed to be helping me get that running again before too long. And the 77 Ranchero is up for sale. (You want to buy it? C’mon, sure you do!) It needs tranny work - reverse and 3d gears don’t work. But it has more power than the Z!

Well I’m gonna wrap it up for now. CYA next time.

Shawn T. Rutledge

ecloud@goodnet.com

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