Hardware Woes Continue

I finally got a dual-processor motherboard that boots (a Tyan S2885) only to discover that I only have 2GB of "registered" DDRAM, making my other 4GB of RAM worthless on this computer. Well, easy enough to deal with later, I think, happily screwing the motherboard down into my case. Now …

more ...

Post Korean Missile Test, I Bet Star Wars Comes to Hawaii

Apparently the North Koreans aimed their Taepodong towards Hawaii . I'll bet anything that our congressmen will demand an anti-missile base now. Sigh.

more ...

Solstice Dive: I Love Living in Hawai'i!

Yesterday, Tina and I went for a dive off Honokohau Harbor just north of Kailua Kona on the Big Island of Hawai'i, a 10-minute drive from our house. Tina and I mostly freedive; this was the first time we had tanks on our backs in five months. Two eagle rays …

more ...

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Sanctuary

Good environmental news is all too rare: The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have become the world's largest protected oceanic environment.

A few weeks ago we saw a presentation by the author of "Archipelago." Her photos were incredible, but the thing that stuck with me was the statistic that 55% of the …

more ...

USPS Tracking Stinks

Living in Hawaii makes you aware of the shortcomings of the USPS. I received a Christmas present on April 17 (and yes, it was sent in December). A few weeks ago, we Express Mailed some x-rays to Oahu, a distance of about 80 miles as the sooty shearwater flies. It …

more ...

Back to work at 6 a.m.

Hawaii doesn't have "Daylight Savings Time." In the winter, we're 2 hours behind the West Coast and I work from 7 AM to 3 PM in an attempt to make my location as little of an issue as possible. In the summer, we're 3 hours behind. So I have to …

more ...

Wahoo!

::: {.Section1}

Some friends took us fishing yesterday and we hooked up 32 pounds of Acanthocybium solandri aka wahoo aka ono. "Ono" is the Hawaiian word for "delicious." It's one of my favorite fishes, but I think I'm going to get tired of it in the coming weeks!

P.S. Troll …

more ...

Closing Out 2005 As An Independent

I just posted my three final invoices for 2005, my first full year of living in Hawai'i. The good news is that I beat my budget targets by 16%. The bad news is that, because of the move, I reduced those targets by 15%! The other bad news is that …

more ...

Sunsets growing later...

Since the Earth orbits the sun elliptically and therefore a) accelerates and b) has to turn about a degree more than a full circle to bring the sun into the same position, sunrise and sunset are not symmetrical around local noon. Here in Hawaii, the sun set today at 5 …

more ...

Scored an Xbox360

Much to my surprise, my local Costco had 23 units. When I arrived an hour before opening, I was 9th in line and, when I left the store they still had at least 4 units sitting in the cage. (Ah, the joys of living in a small town!)

Now, in …

more ...