Dave Bullock / eecue

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BMC: Basic Mountaineering Course

This weekend I attended the San Bernardino Sheriffs Search and Rescue Basic Mountaineering Course. This course covered all the skills necessary for an alpine search and rescue mission in the San Bernardino mountains.

BMC

The course actually started a month ago with 16 hours of classroom time. This weekend was the field exercises where we got a chance to apply the skills we learned about in the classroom. It was important to know the skills at a level known as unconscious competence, which means you can execute the task correctly without having to think about it.

  • Here are some of the skills we covered:
  • Ice Axe Self Arrest
  • 2 and 3 Person Roped Travel
  • Snow Anchors
    • Picket
    • Ice Axe
    • Deadman
    • Bollard
  • Crampon Travel
  • Ice Axe Travel
  • Snowshoe Travel
  • Snow Shelters
  • Belaying
  • Avalanche Beacons

All in all it was a great training and I had a great time and learned many valuable skills. I plan on attending the next two trainings.

Here are the pictures I took.

Monday, December 13th, 2004 - Read more...

Old Photos Imported!

Ok I have imported all my eecue.com photos from before I was using gallery. Check them out... note that the dates are totally incorrect on most of them because I never set the time on my old camera... oh well... the japan photos are coming soon! =]

Saturday, December 4th, 2004 - Read more...

Check the Archive Feature!

Ok so during the update I added a really cool feature. The calendar now displays thumbnails for each event / photo group / post from this site... check it out: June 2004 (a busy month!) July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004

It may take a second for all the thumbnails to load so be patient! Also there is a problem viewing the page in Internet Explorer (it looks like a long list of links instead of a calendar...) So use Mozilla or Safari.

=]

Friday, December 3rd, 2004 - Read more...

Importing Old Photos

So I am now working on getting all my old digital photos in this gallery. The list of photos I will be importing includes: Old eecue.com photos (everything from before i set up gallery) Japan Photos Drive Slagging Photos Junglescene Photos (I will also be updating junglescene.com's photo section to be like the eecue.com section) Old junglescene.com photos (before they were linked to calendar items) Original junglescene.com photos (from 1999-2000)

I think that is everything.... keep an eye out! I will feature the imported photo groups on here... Some will get their own linked pages, like the Japan Photos...

Friday, December 3rd, 2004 - Read more...

Uploaded Tons of New Photos....

I have been so busy programming this newest version of my website / slacker, I have neglected to upload photos from the last 2 months... here they are: DJ SUV @ Respect Art Show: Peace Warriors Blurry Photos Barbara Ramone Scoobies Muse #38 Wreckignition #24 Machines Never Die John B @ Respect Thunder Canyon Cave Rescue Training (I got stuck for 40 minutes... it was fun) Klute @ Respect Antidote (Halloween Party) Monster Massive

Enjoy!

-eek

Friday, December 3rd, 2004 - Read more...

Kevin Sites Posts About Iraq

Kevin Sites in an embedded journalist in Iraq. I have been reading his blog for a few months and I recently read that he was the journalist who filmed the Marine shooting the unarmed soldier. He wrote about it in his blog:

[Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1](http://www.kevinsites.net/ 2004_11_21_archive.html#110107420331292115)

(Via kevinsites.)

Wednesday, December 1st, 2004 - Read more...

Major Updates...

I have radically updated my website. I was using a program called serendipity for my news / blog and one called gallery for my photo galleries. There were some really good features, most of which I have emulated in my own code, and there were some bad features, which I have replaced with good features.

I am still importing my photos from a few other sites that I currently have them on.... soon enough they will all be on here.

Read on for the complete list of changes...

Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 - Read more...

GO VOTE!!!!

Do your country / state / county / city a favor and VOTE! Request a paper ballot while you are at it and make sure your vote counts!

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2004 - Read more...

Malfunctioning Toshiba TV Emits 121.5 MHz Distress Signal

A TV set in Oregon broadcasted a strong enough signal to send searchers to a man's apartment.

"They'd never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance," said van Rossmann. "They were quite surprised. I think we all were."

Authorities had expected to find a boat or small plane with a malfunctioning transponder, the usual culprit in such incidents, emitting the 121.5 MHz frequency of the distress signal used internationally.

(Via rhianblock.)

Sunday, October 24th, 2004 - Read more...

Toshiba TV Broadcasts 121.5 MHz Distress Signal

A TV set in Oregon broadcasted a strong enough signal to send searchers to a man's apartment.

"They'd never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance," said van Rossmann. "They were quite surprised. I think we all were."

Authorities had expected to find a boat or small plane with a malfunctioning transponder, the usual culprit in such incidents, emitting the 121.5 MHz frequency of the distress signal used internationally.

(Via rhianblock.)

Sunday, October 24th, 2004 - Read more...

Register to vote!

Are you sure your voter registration is up to date? Are you planning to make sure your vote is counted by voting early with an absentee form?

JohnKerry.com has a new resource that helps you prepare voter registration forms or request an absentee voter ballot from your state.

This is an easy and fast way to make sure that you're registered and that your vote is counted. Absentee ballots-sometimes called early voting-are especially important since something could come up at the last minute that prevents you from voting on Election Day.

Please take a couple of minutes right now to get started with your voter registration and absentee ballot requests by clicking on the link below.

Click here to register to vote

Click here to request an absentee ballot

We all have to make sure our vote is protected on Election Day. Please get started today.

Tuesday, October 5th, 2004 - Read more...

Join me in supporting John Kerry

I want to invite you to join me as a volunteer on the John Kerry campaign. Our success on Election Day depends on having the largest grassroots movement in history. There are lots of ways you can help-- in the field or on the computer, but to participate you need to sign up as a volunteer today.

As a volunteer you will be given your own online account to plan or attend John Kerry events, recruit other volunteers, raise money and participate in many more exciting activities. You will also receive emails with the latest campaign news, insider updates, and critical action alerts.

Election Day is just around the corner. Be a part of the group that has put George Bush on the defensive. We cannot slow down now; John Kerry can win this election but he needs all of our help.

Join the Campaign Today!

Tuesday, October 5th, 2004 - Read more...

NSS Western Regional Trip Report

I just got back from Sonora, California after a fun weekend of caving and partying at the NSS Western Regional. It is an annual meeting of all the grottos on the west coast... mostly from California. I had a great time and met some really cool people. I took a bunch of pictures from our trip to Crystal Palace cave. The gallery can be found here in its entirety.

Sunday, October 3rd, 2004 - Read more...

Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs Anti-Spyware and Spam Bounty Bills

The govinator has signed into law several tech related bills that are great moves in the fight against spam and spyware. First of all is the law that bans the installation of spyware on computers and secondly the law that makes the senders of spam liable for $1000 per email sent that doesn't include the email address and contact info of the sender.

Who wants to join with me and become spam bounty hunters?

(Via topix los angeles.)

Friday, October 1st, 2004 - Read more...

TOPO! / USB-Serial Dongle / Garmin Rhino

I've been tracking us on our trip using my Rhino, which is a cool FRS/GPS radio from Garmin. It's quite cool, as it allows you to broadcast your location to your friends who also have Rhinos. You then show up on a little map on the screen of the radio.

It is also working well to give my G4 laptop a GPS fix so the program TOPO can show us exactly where we are on a nice topo map (which have almost no use for driving and are really meant for mountaineering).

When i was in Hong Kong, I picked up a cheapo USB to Serial Port adapter that looks like a little dongle with USB on one side and a Serial Port on the other. It worked great on my PC laptop which i never use, but the Keyspan software for the Mac didn't recognize it. I decided to check VersionTracker to see what was available to drive it and I still had no luck, then i googled and found a company that offered a similar generic USB-Serial adapter and low-and-behold it worked great.

Friday, October 1st, 2004 - Read more...

NSS Western Regional

This weekend is the NSS western regional in Sonora. Here is a list of caves trips that will be available...

Located in the heart of the Mother Lode, we have an excellent lineup of fun caving trips planned. We're currently planning on trips to the following spots:

Grapevine Gulch Caves (Grapevine, Bobcat, Porcupine, Rabbit Hole, Clutch) Volcano Caves (Santa Claus, Mushroom/Lulubel, Connie's) Rippled Natural Bridges Pinnacle Point Toppled Table Talus Crystal Palace

I drove to SF last weekend so Penelope is giving me a break and driving up this time. I just got the new EVDO wireless card from Verizon and it works great... so far i have had a signal and have been on the internet the whole trip!!! That's really spiffy if you ask me... actually i'm speaking too soon because as i type this we are driving through La Vina on our way to Madera and there is no signal here... guess i will have to wait a minute to post this!

Friday, October 1st, 2004 - Read more...

AP Reports on Debate before it happens

The Daily show joked about this last night:

ABC news reports on "debate" that hasn't happened yet: "Mark Frauenfelder: The rules for tonight's poor-substitute-for-a-debate are so restrictive, and the sound-bites that will come out of the mouths of both men are so easy to guess, that ABC news was able to file a story about the results of the "debate" several hours before it takes place. Link Story removed by ABC, but you can find copies here. (Thanks, Certron!)"

Spin much AP?

(Via boing-boing.)

Thursday, September 30th, 2004 - Read more...

Bush Team Prepares Net Assault

Wonder if the dems are going to do something like this?

Bush Team Prepares Net Assault: "The Bush campaign is setting up an extensive war room to monitor Thursday's debate with John Kerry. The plan? Pounce on Kerry misstatements or exaggerations and send responses to thousands of partisan websites through a live feed. By Louise Witt."

(Via wired news.)

Thursday, September 30th, 2004 - Read more...

Diebold Rep Now Runs Elections

This is really insane and should be investigated:

Diebold Rep Now Runs Elections: "A former sales rep for Diebold Election Systems becomes a county election official in California. She sold the state millions of dollars worth of untested machines, which led to a scandal. Critics are asking, 'What's wrong with this picture?' By Kim Zetter."

(Via wired news.)

Thursday, September 30th, 2004 - Read more...

Verizon EVDO High Speed Wireless

Well just a few days ago Verizon released their new high speed wireless access in the greater LA area... I just got my card and this is my first post using their service... cool deal!

Thursday, September 30th, 2004 - Read more...

SpacheShipOne Flight a Success

It went good... almost out of batteries! The SS1 did a twist at the top of the climb, but everything went smoothly!

Photos coming soon... as soon as I get back to my car which we left at a Park and Ride near Palmdale... then i can charge my phone and upload the pictures that Arclight took....

Wednesday, September 29th, 2004 - Read more...

SpaceShipOne Successful Take-Off

Ok well the takeoff went without a hitch and now we are waiting the hour it takes for it to reach the point where the SS1 will seperate from the White Knight. The crowd was excited to see the launch. We are hanging out at the car listening to our scanners.

Wednesday, September 29th, 2004 - Read more...

Live from the Mojave Space Port

I am typing this at the Mojave Space Port, in Mojave California. We are eagerly awaiting the flight of SpaceShipOne. We have been here since about 0200 and the launch is at 0630. I'm using my G4 and my T610 to access the net. Cool =]

Wednesday, September 29th, 2004 - Read more...

SpaceShipOne X Prize Attempt Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Scaled Composites, will attempt to win the Ansari X Prize. This will be the first of two flights in order to win the prize. A short description of the prize:

... $10 million prize ... will be awarded to the team that designs the first private spaceship that successfully launches three humans to a sub-orbital altitude of 100 km on two consecutive flights within two weeks. All teams must be privately financed.

I watched the first ever privately funded space flight earlier this year and took pictures of it.

(Via topix ca.)

Tuesday, September 28th, 2004 - Read more...

Spam Reversal

On of my friends who is a print broker got a 10 identical copies of a mor.t.gag.e spam so he decided to fill out the form and send it out. So far he had received about 8 calls. Every time he gets a call he turns it around and tries to sell printing to the agent. He now has a couple of new clients.

Tuesday, September 21st, 2004 - Read more...

Local Google Search Upgrade

from [google]:

Demo: cheap restaurants in palo alto.

  • Enhanced user interface - a new, cleaner design that now includes maps on results pages displaying the location of businesses in the search results
  • New mapping capabilities - users can now zoom and pan different directions on the maps without reloading the page
  • Improved comprehensiveness - search results provide links to even more web pages like business homepages and related ratings and reviews
  • More relevant results - improved relevance technology returns even more precise results

Wednesday, September 15th, 2004 - Read more...

My OTR Trip

This weekend I went to my first OTR, which happened to be the 55th annual Old Timers Reunion which is held every year in West Virginia. It is a massive party for cavers and the cavers come from all around county (and canada if not further) for it every year. Here are some of the pictures i took i'll plan on returning next year for sure.

-eek

Tuesday, September 7th, 2004 - Read more...

AZ Cave-a-thon

This weekend i went to Northern Arizona and helped survey the main passage of a cave, build a cave gate, and an outhouse. Here are some pictures from the cave-a-thon.=]

Monday, August 30th, 2004 - Read more...

RNC-NYC: Update on arrest of Joshua Kinberg, Bikes Against Bush

from [boing-boing] -----

Xeni Jardin: Snipped from MSNBC.com. Correspondent Ron Reagan was interviewing Joshua Kinberg when he was arrested yesterday (Link to previous BB post for story background):

Released from the "Tombs" after police arrested me (Joshua Kinberg of Bikes Against Bush) I'm now sitting in the MSNBC trailer at Herald Sq., NYC, with Ron Reagan and Joe Trippi after spending 24 hours in the "Tombs" with several hundred Critical Mass cyclists, who were arrested the night before.

Joshua Kinberg: I was arrested while Ron was interviewing me about my invention-- a bicycle that prints text messages on the street in water-soluble chalk. While we were conducting the interview, the police stopped me and asked for my ID. After I produced identification, the police waited for their sergeant to arrive before placing me under arrest without stating the charge. I was doing nothing more than describing my invention to the media and explaining my disagreements with the Bush administration.

When I arrived in the Tombs, I was placed in a cell with around 30 other cyclists. They had spent the previous night in a location they were affectionately calling "Lil' Gitmo," a makeshift detention center on the West Side piers converted from a former bus depot. Lil' Gitmo had cells sectioned off with chain link fence and razor wire, and a floor covered in motor oil, transmission fluid, and other toxic chemicals. The cyclists detained there were forced to sleep on this hazardous floor wearing nothing more than bicycling shorts and t-shirts. Consequently, several developed serious skin rashes the following day. After 36 hours most of the cyclists had been released with a pending court date. Several had been arrested when specifically following police directions to exit the peaceful bike ride. Others had not been part of Critical Mass, but had simply been on the streets with a bicycle at the wrong time.

I was released after 24 hours in detention with a court date set for Friday. Unfortunately, all my equipment-- bicycle, laptop, cell phone, and custom designed electronics-- has been confiscated. Thus, the Bikes Against Bush performance, where I would accept and print messages sent from web users, is likely to be cancelled. A volunteer lawyer from the National Lawyers Guild is confident that my case will be dismissed on grounds of the First Amendment, but we will have to wait until Friday to see. A video of the arrest recorded and edited by Yury Gitman has been posted online (BitTorrent), and the story of my arrest has already been blogged on SlashDot, BoingBoing, Kottke, and JuliaSet.

Link to MSNBC item, with link to video of Reagan's interview with Kinberg (in which he describes "what happened, and what The Tombs was like.")

Monday, August 30th, 2004 - Read more...

University of Texas not keen on taking over LANL

When i heard about the security problems at LANL and about how some newly appointed Bush cabinet members were going to strip The Regents of the University of California control of the Lab i hypothesized that Haliburton would get the contract... i was wrong, but big surprise that one of the main bidders was the University of Texas... several other bidders are also from Texas, including Texas A&M... i really hope it goes back to UC.

Friday, August 13th, 2004 - Read more...

University of California will no longer manage Los Alamos National Laboratory

Last week, LANL was closed upon a security review from National Nuclear Security Administration director and Bush appointee, Linton Brooks and Bush apointee Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow who are now back in DC. The reason for closing the all nonessential sections of the lab (even high security areas like the museum and cafeteria) was a missing removable storage device that contained classified material.

From the Albuquerque Journal:

The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassments that have prompted federal officials to put the Los Alamos management contract up for bid for the first time in the 61-year history of the lab that built the atomic bomb.

Gee, I wonder if Haliburton wil get the contract worth billions of dollars? We're going to start a new cold war.

Monday, July 19th, 2004 - Read more...

Mexican officials get the mark of the beast...

From [boing-boing] :

Dave sez: El Universal (Mexico City) is reporting that the Attorney General of Mexico, Rafael Macedo, had a microchip inserted under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he is ever abducted.

Bloomberg news added "about 160 Mexican officials will carry the microchip" and that "the chip can't be removed, but will be deactivated after Macedo's term as attorney general expires." Link

Tuesday, July 13th, 2004 - Read more...

Finally recovered from G4 laptop hard drive crash.

My laptop's hard drive died a nasty death, that started with slowing and freezing and ended up in complete and total data loss. Between those two stages i was able to back up my data. I am now catching up on the 900+ news items in NetNewsWire... i wonder if the same thing happened to boogah:

99 problems and an ibook is one

it would seem that the venerable ibook is acting up again.

over the weekend i've seen more beach balls than a lifeguard, which is odd because things were running okay on friday night. so i decided to repair permissions, run the periodic maintenance scripts, update the prebindings, boot into single user mode, run fsck and zap the pram. twice.

still, i can't have more than one app open without getting a beach ball every time i issue a command. ichat gives me a continual beach ball after ten minutes. itunes skips every time i play a song. my computer is absolutley unuseable.

every bit of diagnostics i've run says all my hardware is fine. the only option i seem to have at this point is to reinstall. bollocks. [gomi]

Tuesday, July 13th, 2004 - Read more...

Ron Reagan to Speak at Democratic National Convention

[from ATSNN] The 46 year old son of Ronald Reagan will speak at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this year. A move that has stunned many on the Republican side. Ron Reagan spoke with amazing reverence of his late father and has shown an amazing skill for the spoken word such as his father (Former President and Republican leader)

Tuesday, July 13th, 2004 - Read more...

Fahrenheit 9/11 available for free download on Internet Archive

From http://www.fahrenheit911.com: "Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore's searing examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering the facts, Moore considers the presidency of George W. Bush and where it has led us."Michael Moore says:"I don't agree with copyright laws, and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it...as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labor.... I make these movies and books and TV shows because I want things to change, and so the more people who get to see them, the better."

Download Fahrenheit 911... Collection: movies/featurefilms [Internet Archive]

Wednesday, July 7th, 2004 - Read more...

Perseid Meteor Shower Could Be Best Ever

Scientists at nasa have predicted the coming Perseid meteor showers (starting mid-July and peaking on August 12th) will be some of the best ever seen. The reasons they give are two-fold, one being that the moon will be new, and another being that our planet is crossing a new filament of space dust stemming from the Swift-Tuttle comet.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2004 - Read more...

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