I've been playing around with some wireless networking stuff lately. Small projects and digging through my collection of gear.

I added an external RP-SMA port to my netbook, bought a pigtail from Jefa Tech and mounted the jack where the Kensington lock would go. Took a bit of work and some dremelling, but it works and doesn't look too bad. I also put a new pigtail on my old 2.4ghz omni antenna with an RP-SMA instead of the goofy connector I used to use with the Orinoco card. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to make any difference to the signal received, I'm not sure why. I suppose I'll have to test range, though it definitely doesn't see any more APs around here (of which there are a lot). The antenna on my old setup had rather amazing range, I recall seeing a signal 5 miles away once.

I've also been playing with the pair of RouterBOARD 411 wireless setups I have. They're long range point to point rigs with high gain panel antennas, out door enclosures and mounts, POE, the whole 9 yards. Pretty nice gear but I don't really have a use for them. They don't have the license to be an AP so I can't use them for that, though the level 4 license is pretty cheap I'll probably just leave them as-is. I did upgrade them to the RouterOS 4.10 and reset them to default config so they're ready to go if I find a use for them.

Found the articles that were written out us when we were on a mission in Iraq: Diyala Offensive Part One: A Whole Lot of Gray and Diyala Offensive Part Two: The Ghosts in the Canals.

So today was full of happenings.

Went to English in the morning, it was as entertaining as usual, nothing special there. Went to lunch at Rosita's with Colleen, who had contact me on one of the dating sites I used to use. Since I so rarely get responses from those sites I always make a point to pay special attention to the ones who make first contact. She works just a few miles from me, though she lives in Peoria. Will have to see how that develops.

The big event came when I was on my way to my Architecture class. I wiped out on my bike, the loose front forks finally gave up the ghost and I went flying. Got my bell rung pretty good, cracked my helmet and had to sit there for about 10 minutes before the stars went away. Banged up my left shoulder and arm, some road rash but not horrible but the shoulder is going to be really painful in the morning, I can already tell.

This evening I went to the ASU vs UofA baseball game at Packard Stadium with Uncle Mark and Carl. ASU lost despite being the best team in the country with a record of 31-3 (now 31-4 I suppose). Still had a pretty good time, took some pictures which I haven't looked at yet with the 300mm. It's definitely not a good sports lens (f/4 is too slow), at least not for nighttime but I may salvage a few pictures out of it.

Not much to say about spring break, really. I went to the Renaissance Festival and did a lot of hiking. That and homework, Calculus mostly, I have the mastery exam on the 25th. I need to process and upload a whole lot of photos, I haven't done it since around Christmas!

Trails hiked:
Sunrise Trail
Boulder Canyon
Black Mountain
Pinnacle Peak
The usual trails around where I live