First licensed as KE5DYA (Tech with code) on March 1, 2005. Switched to K1GPL vanity callsign and upgraded to General a month later. Upgraded to Extra in February, 2008, and changed calls again (hopefully for the last time) in order to become "geographically correct" as W5CT shortly thereafter.

QSL via LOTW, eQSL, or direct.

Primary interests are CW and RTTY, and learning how to improve my DX and contesting skills. See you on the bands, and may Baud have mercy on your dipole!

Three good movies

Here's a summary of three movies we've seen during/since the holiday season. All three were good, one may be great. The three films are, in the order we saw them, No Country for Old Men, The Great Debaters, and Atonement. Warning: spoilers may lurk within.

One penguin down

Susan and I enjoyed a quiet morning drive with the dogs, a DVD of Amazing Grace, and a traditional feast of honey glazed ham and black-eyed peas on New Year's day before I headed back to the ranch that afternoon. I arrived after all the excitement of a roaring fire that burnt 20 acres, evacuated a hundred neighbors, and took two helicopters and volunteer fire-fighters from 8 rural communities to extinguish.

Good news/bad news about the OLPC G1G1 campaign

The good news is that the "Give one/Get one" campaign by the One Laptop Per Child project is proving very popular. The bad news is, if you're one of those who paid $400.00 in order to get one and to give one, there may be delays in shipment, it may be difficult to get information about it, and — and this is the killer — it may not work when you get it. At least that's what happened to me.

Homeland Security for Sale

Yep. It's even got its own website. Amazing stuff. Amazing how stupid we are to tolerate this crap, and the stone cold criminal element we call the administration.

Avoiding BSD v. GPL licensing issues

In the wake of recent flareups over the inclusion of BSD licensed code in GPL licensed programs, a little extra vigilance can go a long way. Recently, Fedora package managers manually reviewing code licenses in a new version of Joop Stakenborg's popular XLog program — used by amateur radio enthusiasts around the globe to record their contacts — discovered a change in the licensing of one of the included files which impacted the licensing of the program as a whole.

H. E. B. has their thumb on the scale

H.E.B. has been a popular chain of grocery stores in Texas for as long as I can remember. Over the past few years, they seem to have become more popular than ever, but over the past few years they've changed. Instead of being a grocery store you can trust, they have become sleezy scum bags trying to squeeze every last penny they can from you. It's not their fault, I guess, it is just the way corporations work these days.

Warning: Do not read this poem

Especially while thinking about the current administration, and its center, or of the Cheney-Bush plan to lead us into World War III, beginning in Iraq and now marching steadily towards Teheran. It's best for the best to remain silent, shackled and herded into the end of the world out of blind, misplaced fealty and a horribly mistaken notion of patriotism. But if you do read it, please don't think about it. Just swallow it whole and try to ignore it, the same way you do with stories produced by Rupert Murdoch's global News Corp.

Let's "not torture" Bush and Cheney to get the truth

Never in our history has a more duplicitous, two-faced pair of scumbags sat in the White House than Cheney and Bush, but still, they deserve the same protections of law that is granted everyone. It's a pity that we can't torture them, though, because cowardice is the most the prevalent hallmark of their lives , and torture is most effective on cowards.

Johnny Cache is not an Apple hater

One of the recurring themes at ToorCon this year was the undercurrent of support for Jon Ellch — AKA Johnny Cache — and Dave Maynor, whose presentation on Apple wifi-exploits at Black Hat 2006 was hampered by Apple and who were consequently vilified both in the press and in the blogosphere for having dared to suggest Apple had security issues. It was like, "what's the matter with those guys, haven't they seen our ad campaign on the TV?"

The essence of Bill O'Reilly

Neatly captured in a few simple frames by Darrin Bell.

Good news/bad news about the OLPC G1G1 campaign

The good news is that the "Give one/Get one" campaign by the One Laptop Per Child project is proving very popular. The bad news is, if you're one of those who paid $400.00 in order to get one and to give one, there may be delays in shipment, it may be difficult to get information about it, and — and this is the killer — it may not work when you get it. At least that's what happened to me.

Homeland Security for Sale

Yep. It's even got its own website. Amazing stuff. Amazing how stupid we are to tolerate this crap, and the stone cold criminal element we call the administration.

Avoiding BSD v. GPL licensing issues

In the wake of recent flareups over the inclusion of BSD licensed code in GPL licensed programs, a little extra vigilance can go a long way. Recently, Fedora package managers manually reviewing code licenses in a new version of Joop Stakenborg's popular XLog program — used by amateur radio enthusiasts around the globe to record their contacts — discovered a change in the licensing of one of the included files which impacted the licensing of the program as a whole.

H. E. B. has their thumb on the scale

H.E.B. has been a popular chain of grocery stores in Texas for as long as I can remember. Over the past few years, they seem to have become more popular than ever, but over the past few years they've changed. Instead of being a grocery store you can trust, they have become sleezy scum bags trying to squeeze every last penny they can from you. It's not their fault, I guess, it is just the way corporations work these days.

Warning: Do not read this poem

Especially while thinking about the current administration, and its center, or of the Cheney-Bush plan to lead us into World War III, beginning in Iraq and now marching steadily towards Teheran. It's best for the best to remain silent, shackled and herded into the end of the world out of blind, misplaced fealty and a horribly mistaken notion of patriotism. But if you do read it, please don't think about it. Just swallow it whole and try to ignore it, the same way you do with stories produced by Rupert Murdoch's global News Corp.

Let's "not torture" Bush and Cheney to get the truth

Never in our history has a more duplicitous, two-faced pair of scumbags sat in the White House than Cheney and Bush, but still, they deserve the same protections of law that is granted everyone. It's a pity that we can't torture them, though, because cowardice is the most the prevalent hallmark of their lives , and torture is most effective on cowards.

The American health-care system

It's a joke. But who's laughing?

Blackwater and other mercenary firms

Trained killers. SEALS, Green Berets, the whole lot of the "special forces" outfits. They've done the government's nasty, illegal, dirty-business since the Nam. Assassination teams, that's what they boil down to. Now, thanks to the privatize-everything mentality of the neo-con junta currently in power in the White House, we are blessed with an abundance of killer security outfits.