Went to Duke hospital this morning and got a prostate screening. They will mail the result by Thanksgiving. When i got home I started looking at the temp probe and found I was programmed for the old One Wire Temp device which is a single byte temperature. The new family. code 28, uses two bytes for temp with 4 decimal point precision. Before I could test my new algorithm I had lunch with Libbie - she fixed some nice BLT's. Next I went on the porch roof and washed windows and put up the rest of the shutters. Ran out of screws so I switched to metal screws with plastic inserts for two of the fasteners. This looks like it will work OK.

Worked on the temperature probe in the morning checking all the timings of read and write of ones and zeros to see where the problem may be. It seems to be reading FF for the temperature as confirmed on the scope. After changing the timings I'm now getting AD. Found that I need to set the output to a strong one (active) or else the bus droops to 1.5 volts with just the pullup after commanding a conversion. In the afternoon I took all the shutters off over the porch. I stretched a ladder across the porch roof to give me some balance. After this Libbie and I went to Lowes and then the greenhouse and nailed boards on the bottom of the plastic over the cool cells. Got home and Libbie fixed a nice dinner of flounder stuffed with crab and Brocolli. Made some more calls in the evening to get convention committees signed up.

Still reeling from the preferred losses in the market. Hope things recover some day but the banking crisis seems to be getting worse.

Great news - a Fed bailout of bad mortgages is causing the market to soar. Worked on shutters today. I'm trying for one a day.

Irwin agreed to be treasurer for MAAVS.

Dinner was barbecue chicken with veggies.

Found out the internet is out this morning. Called the Time Warner repair number and found that there is an area wide outage that is supposed to be fixed "in 90 minutes". The Internet came back. In the meantime, i got the LCD and Keypad working on the second controller card but can't get the temperature probe to read. The market is down 450 today. I found my CEG-A was down to $15. I paid $25 for it and own 1,000 shares. I'm hoping this abandoning of stocks and even preferreds is a temporary phenomena which will recover in a few months when Wall Street gets some financial confidence back. It seems a mess today. Talked to Kathy Lahti about the convention. We now have a signed contract and need to start assigning people to the various roles.
Talked to George McDonald about the Treasurer position but he turned me down. Will try Irwin Wagman next. Talked to Fay but Irwin was not home.
Dinner tonight was a veggie entree from Trader joes. Libbie did not like it because it was all carbs but I loved it - potatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, brocolli and snow peas in a very tasty sauce.

Cut some copper tubing to make some probes for the microwave. Market is doing a little better today although it's a pretty glum rainy day outside. Talked to Arlene today about the insurance policies that Aunt Helen has. Still don't know if they are viable. Made a grocery run today to both Krogers and Trader Joes. It's a pretty lackadaisical day. Dinner tonight was pasta from trader Joe's. After dinner I finished the microwave probe - soldered the chip to the wire, applied some thermal grease and put the heat shrink on, The heat gun does a nice job shrinking the tubing, way better than how I used to do it with a soldering iron or flame. It seems to be a worthwhile purchase.

After the bankruptcy of Lehman yesterday the market is down over 500 today. Not a good day for the preferreds either. Went to Walmart and picked up another microwave which I modified fairly easily. Need to make some probes as well. Dinner was stir fry from Trader Joes. Ran quilt on my Linux distro for the AVR32 and made the changes for 2 usarts. It seemed to compile OK. The truth will be when I burn it to the board. This is way more complicated than I ever would have thought.

After reading the traditional Sunday paper I printed the RSVP cards and printed our names on the envelopes. Libbie addressed the invitations while I worked outdoors finishing the mowing and weeding around the Roses. After a lunch of BLT's we went to Lowes and Walgreens for Isopropyl Alcohol and a microwave. Lowes doesn't carry the Sharp anymore but are switching to GE. Home Depot carries Magic Chef so we went home empty handed. I checked online and found that Walmart in Holly Spring has the Sharp microwave or I could buy it from Amazon. I'll go to Holly Springs tomorrow and pick one up since they list it at $57 and Amazon shows $82. Libbie has perfected her ultra thin crust pizza crust with Olive Oil and a topping containing garden tomatoes - Yum!!!

During breakfast we watched some of the early pictures of hurricane Ike in Galveston and Houston. I mowed the backyard today then worked on the landscape lights. Put a new light up on the tree that used to carry the IR sensor which was never used. Dinner was stuffed flounder and a delicious Butternut squash. After dinner we went to Staples and purchased Rehearsal Dinner Invitations.

Got Ubuntu updates and all the build essentials loaded thanks to a few web pages describing what I needed. I then ran through the make source and make config successfully. Not sure if the buildroot worked because one file could not be found - I suspect it's a versioning problem. The buildroot took several hours. While this was going on I mowed the front lawn but had to abandon the back because it was too wet. The mower kept choking on the grass and stalling. I got cleaned up then climbed the ladder to look at the lights. Did a trip to home Depot and got a pack of 2 halogen bulbs ($7.50 - ouch!). Replaced the two bad bulbs but one of the original plastic lights has the wires cut at the base and it seems to be weathered. I'll prepare one of the metal lights that I have and replace it tomorrow. Came back in and found the build had finished. Hurray. Libbie made barbecued chicken with her own sauce - yummy. We had it with steamfresh peas and a bottle of Shiraz.

I'm feeling much more chipper this morning thanks to reduced eating yesterday. I'm going to start researching how to modify the Linux boot image. Tried loading Ubuntu Linux on an old computer several times. In the end I found that Ubuntu doesn't include the development tools by default. It's not set up to be a developers machine. think I will switch back to Debian. Could not get the Linux image to build on this machine - seem to be missing a few packages. Had some email chats with Joe Bruns about the wisdom of what AVSA is doing in regards to web software. Sold half of my position in MWE today. I got tired of it falling few cents each day for no reason. My target for buying it back is November at about $25. I sold for 29.50. Received a quote from Spark - their least expensive package was $52. We went with LaCapilla for $12.95 per plate all inclusive. Pitchers of margaritas are $18.95. I put a $200 deposit on my credit card.

I'm a little slow this morning. Ate too much yesterday and didn't sleep well. The rains all day stopped me from going out to cut the lawn. Went to Harris Teeter with Libbie this afternoon to get 24 grain bread for BLT's tonight for dinner. Got a $500 check from John today for the microwave which was a surprise. I'll return a majority of it. I did some reading and scoping of my TTY port on Rembrandt. I found that I have to recompile the image to enable the other USARTs on the card. I'm very tired today. Went to bed at10 and slept very well.

After getting in at 1:30 this morning I didn't get up until 7. Worked on the serial routines under Linux for the one wire bus. I gave up trying to compile any programs I found and read the spec and started writing my own. This is the easiest way and it seems to be going well. I'll need to put a scope on the uart outputs to see if it's really doing what I hope it is.
I'm putting together a Mouser order for driver GasFETS and schottky diodes for the one wire assembly. I may do a separate proto board with 3 RJ45 connectors and the driver stuff at first to put in a box with the Linux board for Stoneybrook.
Did the grocery store later in the day. Met Tom Herner in Kroger's - he talked about doing a Danube cruise next week for 2 weeks. When I got home I ordered tickets for opening night of the Met HD series on Sept 22. Looked in my eMail and saw there was a 10% off coupon code for Carolina Ballet. Called the Ballet line and got ballet tickets for Sunday afternoon Sept 21. The arts season is up and running!!!
Downloaded Lib's camera containing the pictures from her California trip. Pretty nice places she visited. We checked on the owner of the rental house today to see if he's legit. Not a problem, Libbie talked to the realtor selling the rental house and I researched the owner.
Dinner was pasta that I picked up in Trader Joe's today.

Got up at 6 which was before the radio went off. Continued looking at the serial programming for One Wire interfacing. I'm fat - I feel very bloated this morning. I may do two walks - one in the morning and then again in the afternoon by driving over to the park. Had trouble with the blog this morning. I found that when I enter without logging in there is no way to login and no way to make an entry. I added another entry into Tom's Musings which is the login page. Let's see if this works.
The login page seems to help get to the blog when it appears to be stuck at read only.
I struggled most of today trying to compile a one wire serial module. I may have to strip it down to nothing and essentially write my own. I put out the MAAVS eMemo today. Now I need to work on the BB web site.
Had some troubles updating the BB web site. When there are no streps in a category, the program barfs with an illegal function call or something like that. Added one fake strep to get around the problem.
I started looking at doing the onewire routines from scratch based on the uart, The PD kit from maxim is too complicated and won't readily compile.
Libbie encountered thunderstorms this evening in Las Vegas. Her plane took off 1 1/2 hours late because they didn't want to fuel the plane in a thunderstorm.
Left the house at 12:15 and arrived at the Sheetz gas station at 12:45. Libbie called at 12:54 saying she just got off the plane. Picked her up outside the terminal at 1:05 and got home by 1:30 AM. this is pretty late but I was up and wide awake.

Sunday. Picked up the paper as usual at 7:05 AM. I noticed the $10 off Lowes coupon from Libbie expires today so I'll go down and pick up another roll of aluminum foil for the crawl space. Late last night I changed the port for Rembrandt and can now access the http server on port 9320. Next step is to compile a "hello world" program before I compile my own temperature reading program.
After lunch went to Lowes and picked up the roll of foil. Back home I collected pine straw off the driveway and picked up tree limbs in the backyard as well as pruned the roses and weeded.
After a quick shower I settled down and compiled a hello world program using Cygwin and GCC on my PC, Mazeppa. Downloaded Hello World to the Rembrandt and executed it OK.
Next step is to write a One Wire program derived from lots of examples on the web. I'm going to either use a serial port or the TWI port on the AVR32.
Studied some one wire interfacing techniques using 3 volts which is a problem. The Uart will provide the timing but will have to buy some GasFet transistors from Digikey or Mouser. Cost is $.14 each which is more than acceptable but will have to buy 100. because of quantity pricing. Started writing the interface program using Digitemp as a guide. I also need to look at OWFS to see how they did serial port I/O. Fell asleep downstairs watching IFC, went to bed at midnight.

The alarm went off at 6 as always but I was very tired and felt like sleeping in but I didn't. We got 4 inches of rain last night and it's still raining. Elizabeth said it will rain for 3 more hours. Talked to Lib while she was in bed at the Lapworths. The sun came out at noon so I went over to the greenhouse. Everything looks OK. I ran a generator test then turned the monitor system on. The garage is flooded. I was thinking of adding a drain out the back which Libbie doesn't want. Perhaps if I add a pipe with a sewer cap it might win her approval. Picked up the mail, my Walgreens rebate for shampoo came today. will take that with the Eckerds $5 gillette rebate to the CU on Monday. I finally made progress with Linux. Got the SD card functioning and used it to transfer the networking file to the card. It now boots with networking. Still no web services. I get a forbidden 403 error.
I got past the web thing. The conf file has a restriction of what IP addresses can access the thing. This is stupidity on Atmel's part. I made it available to all and now can get to the web page. Had to also modify the S91httpd script to change the port of the web server. Interestingly, Firefox wouldn't allow a port of 87 so I changed it to 2287 and all is well. I wanted something more meaningful. Maybe for Stoneybrook I'll use the build ing address, 9320, and see if that works. I also took a look at OWFS and templogger which comes with it. I rejected this stuff as too complicated. I'll probably write my own based on Digitemp. Digitemp also has a script to output the data to the RRDtool. I'll make the whole thing C to hopefully simplify things. Dinner and lunch was a Stouffers French Bread pizza. While studying one wire temps under Linux I had the spanish channel, Gigante Sabado on. This is an old fashioned variety show with lots of T&A.

I read an interesting recommendation by an author on MSN about how MLP's are going to come back strong and the time to get in is now. IV is back and seems to be faster than ever. I studied how the Round Robin Database tool (RRD) works this morning. It looks to be pretty powerful and may be just what I need to log temperature and humidity data. It contains nice tools to create graphs for display in web pages. I'm going to get it working first in Linux, possibly on an NSLU2. It also seems to work in Windows, at least there is a windows binary that I've been using. Hanna is supposed to hit today with 1 to 2 inches of rain and some wind gusts. Not sure about the greenhouse but around here the generator is all set to go. I need to check the chain saw gas since I recall running out this summer.
The NGW100 came this afternoon. Atmel providesnothing in the way of instructions, cables or even how to hook it up. After muddling around a bit I found that Linux bootup comes out of the DB9 rs232 connection. There is no indication what the baud or flow control should be. I was able to change the IP and access the device but I ended up having to change the switch in my office to an 8 port Netgear switch instead of the 5 port Linksys I was using. Went to the greenhouse in advance of tropical storm Hanna and ran a generator test cycle then I turned the monitor system off. We don't need it when the overnight temp is in the 70s. Dinner was a Lean Cuisine, Parmesan fish.

Left this morning at 9 after breakfast to take Libbie to the airport for her 10:30 flight to California. she has a stop in Denver. In the meantime I worked on the Linux stamp I will be developing. The name is going to be Rembrandt. I need a free web site to host it - I started looking at Google Sites. In the interim I have started collecting info on Traviata in the Wiki. this is a great idea to organize my thoughts andplan what I want to do. When the Gateway board comes I want to fire it up, compile an application or two, possibly get the web server and a temperature probe working. This eventually will be a multi device platform. I was thinking of calling the collective bunch "Network Toys". This would fit the goal of hosting NCID on the thing, possibly hosting a weather station with http and one wire stuff running. I will put one in Stoneybrook to monitor HVAC, one as a zigbee to LAN gateway or something like that and of course there's the fish pond and greenhouse to consider.

Got up at 5:12 am, the alarm was actually set for 5:15. Did all the morning stuff - filled my thermos, had cereal, put the stuff in the car and left at 5:40 AM. Short delay in Tampa where there was a 3 car accident at I-4. I made some pretty good time. Stopped for gas in Brooksville at 3.59 and again in Reevesville, SC for 3.59 where I stopped at McD for a bathroom break. Got home at 4:30 - Libbie wasn't home. Unpacked and she showed up later. We went out to the Mexican place for Margaritas and food. I had the Pollo chipotle again which I took home in a takeout box for tomorrow. In the evening I fell sound asleep and was awoke y the telephone. when it rang I was so out of it that I didn't know where I was. Went to bed at 10:20 - it felt good to be home.

Took a walk around the block through the housing development in Stoneybrook which I like very much. I imagined myself living there some day. Came home and studied MLP's and data formatting a little. Bought some MLP's in my IRA accounts. The IRA accounts are doing pretty poorly. Is it poor management? The two mutual funds in the Roth are both underwater with little hope for recovery but I'll keep the money there just in case a miracle happens. I ordered a Network Gateway board from Mouser today. This has the AVR32 with Linux kernel. I would like to build a Linux stamp equivalent of my own design.
Enjoyed T Boone Pickins on GMA this morning. I may get his book at Amazon. He talks about his natural gas powered Honda. Went to Publix and got some trip fixins: Plums and trail mix in addition to the few Apples I have leftover that I brought with me. Have to cleanup this place today which shouldn't be too hard. A few loads of laundry and wash the floors.

Woke on time and had my cereal and coffee. It looks like it's going to be a nice day after the big storm yesterday. I'm wearing one of the new Covington shirts this morning and it feels good. I'll probably go out for a morning walk ahead of any possible afternoon rain showers. Took my walk out to the wetland boardwalk in front. Missed lunch at the clubhouse. Even though I was there at 1:30 they said they were closed. Got hold of Lib in the PM and together we worked through the trip arrangements for Corrie's wedding. We're going to the evil empire on Friday and returning on Sunday. I vehemently dislike Rhode Island and New England and think it's a pretty shitty place to be going in the Fall. I would much rather it be a southernly trip. Dinner was some chicken from Publix.

Went out at 7 to get newspaper and use my Wendys free breakfast coupon which expires today. Wendys near the Sarasota mall is closed in the morning. Went home and had cereal. Read the paper then went to Sears to get a roller cover to paint the bathroom and also get some paint masking tape. While there I bought 3 more of the Covington shirts I like. They were on Sale further marked down to 8.99. I paid 11.99 on Friday. Took down the mirror, removed the electrical plates and taped all the moldings and sink counter top in prep for painting. It's a windy day out with on and off rain as the hurricane passes. As part of the Social Security analysis, I built a model spreadsheet to see if I could take early SS payments, invest the proceeds, return all the benefits and reset my rate. This looks promising.
Did the painting which didn't take too long. Cleaned the tools in the kitchen sink at the advice of Libbie. This worked well. The painting looks good. It rained buckets all day long - sometimes horizontally. When the rain let up a little around 8 PM I ran out to Publix and got a 1/2 gallon of skim milk for breakfast tomorrow.

I slept until 7:10 AM this morning. What a good, deep sleep. Had breakfast then called Libbie at 8:15. She still did not have breakfast yet. Watching hurricane Gustav on the weather channel. It appears to be curving further and further West. I'm guessing it will eventually make landfall West of Galveston.
Went out to Penneys and Sears to price shirts. I have a $15 coupon for a purchase over $75. Tall dress shirts by Van Huessen list at $44 but retail for $17 on sale. I also found a sport jacket in 46L that fits. Went over at 4 and bought the shirts and two ties. The guy gave me the coupon back and said I could use it again. After talking with Libbie at home, she convinced me I should return and get the jacket. Talked with Vicki on the phone about 40 minutes regarding Aunt Helen then went back to Penneys at 8:30PM. Picked up the jacket, looked at several more and bought it with the $15 coupon. It was $99 less the $15 for a total of $84 plus tax. Stopped at Publix on the way home and got some Sherbet. Did some computer analysis in the evening.

Started out this morning by going to Penneys and returning the shirt which didn't fit. While there I tried on suit jackets. The sizes were a mixed bag - a few styles in my size then nothing. Went over to Macys and did the same although the prices were a tad higher. They have Donald Trump clothes which tend to be pricier. Drove up Tamiami and stopped in Barnes and Noble to browse the book recommended by Phil Wasserman on local channel 7 but couldn't find it. Went next door to Best Buy and got a new network card. It's there brand, Dynex and was on sale. Drove further up Tamiami and saw the Mens Wearhouse. Proceeded to Selby, walked around, had lunch at "Local Coffee" in Selby since I had a $5 gift card. It was still valid - I got a veggie wrap sandwich and bottle of water. I wanted the water mostly for the bottle. Sat on a bench in the shade and enjoyed the outdoors and the sweeping lawn at Selby while having lunch. Afterwards I cooled down in the car on the way to Mens Wearhouse. I like the store - bought a suit and a sports jacket. The suit pants need cuffs. They will be ready Tuesday night. When I got back I put a limit order in for Selective Insurance at 19.75. The $188 divvy in September should defray some of my clothing costs. After talking to Lib i ordered a turkey sandwich and fruit from the clubhouse at 4. They close today at 5 for a Chuckwagon dinner tonight. The limit order executed so I had to move $3900 over to Scottrade.
Walked all the way around the 1.5 mile loop then had my Turkey sandwich which was very good. We have 2 bikini clad girls in our pool at Clubside. Very nice. Talked to Lib about the suit - I will return the extra jacket but pick up the shirts and ties for a no net difference or close to it. The newspaper has a $15 coupon good at Pennys Sat from 4 to 10 PM. I may use it then and take a look at their sport jackets.

Woke at the normal time and watched GMA during my bowl of cereal. Took a ride to Selby and enjoyed the tropicals. Inside the Mansion the exhibit was an exhibit of art by Selbys instructors. Enjoyed the watercolors. Afterwards took a ride over to Siesta beach and enjoyed a young mother in a very skimpy red and white flower bikini that did not cover her shapely rear end. Stopped at Sears for clothes shopping. Found a few golf shirts, have to take back an Arrow silk shirt because it's too big for me. It's a nice day here and over 90 which we haven't seen much of in Raleigh this august.

Tried to leave a little after 7 this morning in a light rain but didn't get far. A tree fell across the driveway from the remnants of Fay. Libbie helped move the logs that I cut up with the chain saw. We stacked it out by the street. Left at 7:36 AM. Around Fayetteville the weather got pretty nasty as it started raining pretty hard. In SC the sun came out and I had blue skies the rest of the way. The trip was uneventful. Breezed through Baldwin and Starke as well as through Tampa without any delay or stopping. Gas in Florence was 3.38. In Southern Georgia it was 3.59 but in Florida I saw lots of prices around 3.54. Got here at 6:30. Ordered a parmesan crustd Tilapia from the restaurant which is operating out of a trailer. While the meal was cooking I ran over to Publix and got milk and juice for breakfast. Found out that board member Joe Knipper died yesterday. His daughter sent an eMail.