Being heavily involved in the local amateur radio community has resulted in some interesting adventures, but one for the memory books took place on an otherwise unassuming Tuesday in September. For the past few years I’ve been tangentially involved with the University of Victoria’s amateur radio club – helping out with projects and the administration of the lab’s network. I’ve become a reasonably well known fixture in the lab and so it was not a huge surprise when I was invited to help out with an antenna install on the director’s property on Sidney Island. Sidney Island is an 8.6 Continue Reading
technology
Review of the Unihertz Atom XL
It was after I nearly dropped my phone during an early morning walk while trying to juggle an umbrella and operate my cell phone one-handed that I came to a conclusion – my phone was too damn big! Back in ye ‘olden times (around 2007) I purchased my first cell phone which was a flip phone. At the time small was in, the smaller your cellphone was the cooler it was and the devices fit in a pocket with ease. Not long after, Apple would shake up the phone industry when they released the first iPhone with a 3.5″ touchscreen. Continue Reading
A Trip to Coronation
As I sit on a plane to Vancouver, over 24 hours after my original scheduled departure, with at least four more hours of buses and ferries ahead of me, I find myself contemplating the past 6 days of ridiculousness and how I managed to get here. But, before we get to the day of travel hell, let’s start at the beginning – with a small town of just under 900 people named Coronation. I found myself the owner of a small, 2800 sq ft plot of land in Eastern Alberta. My plan for the property was to set it up Continue Reading
Guns, Grub and a Satellite Ground Station – My trip to Alberta
I am sitting in a restaurant surrounded by co-workers. A server comes comes by with a skewer of beef and looks at me; As I ponder whether I trying to fit more delicious meat into my already full stomach was a good idea, one of my co-workers nodes ‘yup’ and another slice is loaded onto my plate. This was my first evening of a week in Calgary. Things had been a bit challenging of late at work. The company was growing from a small operation to a medium-sized business and was experiencing all the associated growing pains that go along Continue Reading
Two dishes, one scrap yard and no pole
It all started with a Reddit post. A buddy of mine sent me a message linking to a thread where someone was looking for a 1+ meter satellite dish to build what sounded like a laser cannon. While I’m not into death rays, I do enjoy vacuuming up satellite signals, and I was in the market for a new dish to replace my aging mesh dish which had seen better days. And so it was that on a Tuesday afternoon I found myself exchanging messages with two C-Band dish owners eager to part ways with their possession. I know from Continue Reading
Accidentally Solving Robocalls
My phone rings, I glance at it and contemplate answering. It rings a second time and I reach for the handset, then, just as suddenly as it began the ringing stopped and I was left in peace. I smiled to myself and continued what I was doing. No robocalls today! Bringing my phone into the Matrix Those of you who are regular followers of this blog will know that I have fully embraced Matrix as my chat platform of choice. While Matrix is a fantastic standalone product that offers exceptional features like federation, end-to-end encryption and the ability to self-host; Continue Reading
Fun with FAXes
In my years of working in IT and technology I’ve never heard of anyone who considered dealing with FAXes “fun.” Most of the time my fellow sysadmins react to FAX tickets with either terror because they’re too young to have experienced the technology, or with absolute disgust as they remember the old-days of troubleshooting with buttsets, tone generators and termination blocks. Nevertheless, one day when digging through a box of old electronics I found a USB FAX modem, and decided to see if I could resurrect this old technology get it working in a modern environment. So what is a Continue Reading
Shenanigans with Servers in the Middle of the night
At an hour when any reasonable person should have been asleep, I found myself sitting in front of a closed gate at a datacenter on the outskirts of Vancouver. While I waited for my friend to return with access cards, I heard a beeping sound, almost like an alarm, and the gate began to move. It was about 1:30 in the morning and I was sitting in a car with my roommate outside the Cologix datacenter in Vancouver helping a friend move servers. Why? Because, well, I’m not really a “normal” person and this is what passes for entertainment in Continue Reading
Getting Chipped – The Story of my NFC Implant
I climb the concrete steps of the parking garage and walk the 100 ft length of the second floor to the Western wall. About halfway along I find myself in front of a metal door, a card reader to my left. I wave my hand in front of the reader and smile as the LED turns green and the door clicks open – no badge required. NFC Implants The door opening trick wasn’t a slight of hand, nor was it a faulty sensor. It was the end result of a high tech upgrade my body had received days prior; an Continue Reading
Running Linux on the Desktop
“Have you heard the good news?! 2021 is the year of the Linux Desktop!” This is, of course, the line that I have been hearing for more then a decade; ever since Dell started shipping laptops with the option of having pre-installed Ubuntu in 2007. Since then, Linux affectionadios have been shouting from the rooftops about how “this year will be the year that Linux breaks into the consumer desktop market.” While Linux has thus far failed to break into the consumer market in a large way, it has been steadily gaining device share over the years. With Steam announcing Continue Reading