Stargazer's Garage

While Roam Mobility worked fine for us in Portland, coverage in rural areas is severely lacking. Despite their access map showing coverage along Highway 20 as far east as Hamilton, in reality, we lost data on the outskirts of Sedro Woolley. At the campground, I switched in the AT&T SIM card and all is good again. Data is my oxygen.

Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle 2 is a video that shows how much fun skilled drivers/riders with capable machines can have on a twisty, closed-circuit road. After watching this my heart was racing and my foot and wrists were twitchy. I didn't know if I felt more like getting back into my Subaru Impreza WRX STI or Suzuki Burgman 400c scooter. By the way, the road in the video is the Maryhill Loops Road in Washington. It's closed to public vehicles, but available to rent for special events. Too cool. Drive safe!

I was at Fred Meyer on the weekend and bought the Clickfree Automatic Backup Transformer SE . It's a small USB device that allows you to convert any external hard drive (or any iPod/iPhone) into a Clickfree drive . I bought it not so much for the backup function, but mostly for the "Bonus Feature" listed on the back of the package that says "Automatically copy the music from any iPod to your computer." I thought that this would be very handy in case the music on my desktop was ever lost. I'm so happy with the way that this worked that I had to write a review. When I first plugged the Clickfree into my computer, the program opened up and asked me to plug in the hard drive or iPod. However, when I did that, the software did not respond. I went to the Clickfree website for customer support and they had a page that showed very clearly how to update the Clickfree Transformer to the latest version. Once I updated to the latest version, I started over and everyt...

Mid-lunar eclipse Originally uploaded by istargazer . This is a hand-held shot taken through the eye-piece of a 10" Dobsonian telescope from the west coast of Canada, August 28, 2007.

Lunar eclipse Originally uploaded by istargazer . The lunar eclipse that occurred tonight on Winter Solstice was not visible in Vancouver because of cloud cover. The picture above was a handheld shot taken on August 28, 2007 through the eyepiece a 10" Dobsonian telescope.

This a very cool effect using the XBox 360 Kinect. More details can be found here: Kinect Camouflage Hack .

Awesome. The Nissan GR-R takes off like a slingshot!

I heard this song by The Black Keys on 94/7 Alternative Portland today. I like it.

Kinda catchy, really.

I decided to start Geocaching with the kids this summer. Instead of buying a separate GPS device, I downloaded a free geocaching Android app for my LG EVE GW620 smartphone. It works reasonably well. We started close to home and found this one near the old Westwood Race Track. You can find more information about geocaching here: Geocaching.com

My LG Eve GW620R Android smartphone hasn't been very reliable since I bought it back in December. First it got bricked when I tried to update the firmware and the entire mainboard had to be replaced. Then about a month ago the system software got corrupted and I lost half of all the function on my phone. Online technical support didn't help and when I went to Cellcom at Coquitlam Centre for help, the person there was COMPLETELY UNHELPFUL so much so the guy turned me away and basically said he would not help me at all. I just about gave up on getting my phone fixed at all. Today I tried one more time and with the help of telephone support I was able to do a factory reset by pressing the VOL Down , Menu , and Camera buttons at the same time while the phone was on. I thought I had tried that already, but this time it worked and I got full function on the phone again.... I have to thank William at Wireless Wave who seemed really to care about helping and directed me to the correct...

All My Days by Alexi Murdoch Now I see clearly It's you I'm looking for All of my days Soon I'll smile I know I feel this loneliness no more All of my days

I went across the border to Washington state yesterday to buy a AT&T pre-paid SIM card for my unlocked LG GW620 Eve Android phone . I did some research on different carriers and found that AT&T was my best choice for a GSM network with 3G data access for pre-paid accounts. Despite the Verizon advertisements that like you to believe otherwise, coverage was actually better than some other carriers I checked out. (Verizon is not GSM so I didn't consider them at all.) On eBay, you can buy a AT&T pre-paid SIM card for just under $10. I decided to take my chances and stop at a kiosk at a mall since I was going down to the US to do some shopping anyway. I was pleasantly surprised that the SIM card was free. All they asked for was my first and last name (no ID required) and they scanned my phone for the IMEI number. And that was it. No charge, no fuss. They told me to buy minutes at the Radio Shack in the mall. I bought $100 because that would give me 1 year before it expired. ...

After many years of resisting, I recently jumped into the world of cell phone ownership and purchased the new LG Eve GW620. It's the first Android phone from LG and Canada is one of the first countries in the world to receive it. I'm not a big talker, but I wanted the phone for the 3G data access and the ability to run different apps. I already own a 32GB iPod Touch so the natural transition would have been to get an iPhone 3GS. However, restrictive Apple policies (regarding their products and App store) as well as the high cost of the iPhone ($300 for the 32GB, even with a 3-year contract) turned me off. The LG Eve GW620 cost $50 with a 3-year contract but I got it basically for free because it came from Costco with a $75 gift card and a car charger as a bonus. Rogers has a current promotion right now selling the Eve for $0.99 with no activation fee and a $50 gift card. A much better value than the iPhone where no bonuses or deals are offered. The Android market isn't as e...

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Originally uploaded by istargazer . This is my Halloween costume this year. I made the mask to go with my grim reaper robe so that I could be the Blue Screen of Death. I also made an "Any" button prop that I could dare people to press :0) Of course, after I finished making the costume Thursday morning, I got an email from admin that we wouldn't be allowed to wear masks at work. Bummer.

The orange ribbon of an early morning sunrise Originally uploaded by istargazer . I was honored to receive a request that my photos be used in a contemporary ballet called Intersection that will be performed in Denver, Colorado area later this month. Very cool! Dear istargazer, I would like to request the use of your photography under the Creative Commons license you have applied to your work. My name is Garrett Ammon, and I am the Artistic Director of Ballet Nouveau Colorado. I am currently in the process of creating a new contemporary ballet, in collaboration with Poet Michael J. Henry, entitled Intersection. The ballet will be an evening length work incorporating poetry, music and dance, as well as projections of photographs, video and text. The ballet will be presented in the denver area from October 30 through November 8, 2009. Your photography will be incorporated into projections that will be displayed across two screens above the stage and/or on a television that will be uti...

The Wiki @ Stargazer's Garage I created a wiki to better organize the information posted on our blog. It is an archive of the specifications and modifications of the different vehicles that have occupied Stargazer's Garage as well as the experiences of ownership. I think it will be easier to have everything like mods, links, and resources all in one location rather than in separate blog posts all over the place. I'll still be posting my most immediate updates on Twitter and I'll use the blog to give more detailed information. The wiki will be used as an archive to gather all the info from the blog posts.

Sunnyside Campground Cultus Lake BC The date has been set. Our spot has been reserved. The destination for our very first RV trip, the "Shakedown" trip, will be a campground within walking distance of the Cultus Lake Waterslides. A tip that I've read in every RV book and website is to take a short 2-3 day trip in the RV at the beginning of the season before you head off for a long trip. That way you can make sure that everything is working and deal with any issues close to home before you hit the road. The is commonly called the shakedown trip. Having never been RVing before, I feel that we still have a long journey before we get to that point with our new travel trailer. Wish us luck!

We jumped through another hoop today and the financing has been approved for our new 2009 Tango Travel Trailer. We're another step closer to parking this behemoth on our driveway. Overall, we must have looked at over 25 different RVs over this past month. This particular Tango happened to be the very first one we saw when we started this journey. On that first day, it was shown to us as a high-end trailer with high-quality materials throughout. But the $33000+ CAD list price was a lot of money. The sales person showed us different trailers and configurations (even used ones) until we reached an entry-level double-bunk model with slides that was very reasonably priced. We left the lot that day with a handful of brochures and our heads about to explode. We went to other RV dealers and looked at many more models and realized that there were certain things we liked and didn't like.... Click below to read more. Some things just seemed to be standard issue so we didn't concern o...

Well, once again there was a pathetic voter turnout in the May 12 BC provincial election and the referendum for proportional representation failed miserably. Talking to some colleagues afterwards, I found out they voted "No" because they didn't completely understand what it was about. Kinda sad, really. I don't see voter turnout in BC improving any time soon or in the distant future because without proportional representation, my vote in this riding is pointless.