PFC: A Little Old-School Knowledge

Power Factor Correction: Boring for anyone not interested in Power Factor of AC power.

 PFC: A Little Old-School Knowledge.

Pigeon Impossible

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEjUAnPc2VA

Jerry & Caroline

[singlepic id=133 w=320 h=240 float=left]We spent most of Saturday on Jerry & Caroline’s boat boat out on the river.  We enjoyed the outing.  Today we returned but the wind was too high and so we just looked at boats and went to West Marine to drool and talk of upgrade plans.  Specifically, we discussed modifying alternators for external 3 stage charging as relates to Jerry’s boat.

Later we drove to Martha’s but she was not at home so we made some soop and started washing the clothes.  End of weekend.

Martha’s

I spent all day at Martha’s working on the computer. I installed XPSP3 and the new AVG 9.x. This took a long time. This morning I put her Hotmail account on Outlook so all her emails come into Outlook. There seems to be a persistent virus on the computer that keeps coming back – something to work on later.

The Walk

I was at the airport by 0945 waiting for the General Partner to show up for the “Hangar Walk Through” for this winter. It is about 1/2 mile of walking in and out of each hangar at the airport to check of contraband articles – like avgas in open containers, electrical heaters that are just running & running , etc. We found one heater running blowing hot air into an engine compartment. That is about $20 per month just for one heater. As usual there was a controversy or two. Two doors had been re-keyed and we could not get inside. Also, one the renters is a bit petulant. However, all-in-all everything was pretty good this winter.  The winter is about half over and I am ready for warmer weather. 

The General Partner told me that electricity usage was double what the previous month was and I attribute this to the cold weather plus the electric heater I mentioned above.  The cold weather was a factor because we have two hangars that have Propane heat and the air blowers are on a lot in cold weather.

Google China cyberattack part of vast espionage campaign

 Link to complete The Washington Post article.

Computer attacks on Google that the search giant said originated in China were part of a concerted political and corporate espionage effort that exploited security flaws in e-mail attachments to sneak into the networks of major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the United States, security experts said….

Want to pay $4/gal?

You can do something about it. Listen to this link http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1847353721?bctid=61485469001
and then go to http://www.pickensplan.com/petition .
Make a difference!

Excellent Vid on Flight 1549

Think of yourself piloting a big airplane and then watch this video (there is audio later).

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE_5eiYn0D0&feature=player_embedded

It arrived!

Garmin Nuvi 255W

The awaited day materialized today when we got the mail. My brand new Garmin Nuvi 255W gps arrived. Of course, I had to mount it in the car and drive somewhere. The quick start instructions were not too good and neither were the online manuals.

Anyway, without reading anything I jumped in the car and off we go using Map Mode. The default factory setting is 3D mode so I drove to Angola and stopped and changed it back to 2D. I also entered a GoTo address and off we go. Drat – no voice street names occurred.

After I got back home I looked in the manual – nothing about spoken street names – so I called Support & after 35 minutes a guy came on and said you have to set the American English voice to either Jack or Samantha. I have to test it tomorrow. It is very easy to use.

Saugatuck, MI

We made a quick trip in the truck to Saugatuck to do a small amount of work on the boat.  We got there about 3:30PM and had time to plug her in and get some charging on the battery.  We left it plugged in overnight.  After that we went down to the beach to see the waves and back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  SAM decided Butler’s was a good place to go to eat and I concurred.  The dinner was pretty good and we enjoyed the relaxed pace.  Back at the hotel, I soon went to sleep.

This morning we departed the hotel and went to the boat and did a small amount of cleaning on the deck and downstairs as well.  Soon it was time to disconnect the power and stow the gear and depart.  We left around noon and stopped in Otsego an an Antique Store and Herb Shoppe SAM wanted to see.  We were back in Indiana facing bright sunshine and good roads and all was well.