Digital Choke Daynotes

 Sunday, January 9, 2005       mail    link   the story

Another pleasant valley Sunday. Partly cloudy, although lots of snow up in the mountains. The road over Donner Summit (I-80, elevation about 7200 ft), has snow about 8-10 feet deep, so it's like driving through a canyon. One of the ski resorts has had 18 feet of snow this year (so far).

But down here at about 300 feet elevation, just partly cloudy skies. Although I didn't see much of it, since there were lots of meetings at church today. But I did get a break about 2pm, and came home to some freshly baked home-made cinnimon rolls. And then dinner was a prime rib with baked potatoes. Good stuff.

 Monday, January 10, 2005       mail    link   the story

A security presentation today at one of the other offices. One of the things discussed was physical security of server rooms. I explained that they should always be locked to prevent any possible damage via someone just walking up to the console keyboard.

Then I pointedly looked out the conference room door, to the server room door just across the hall. At the open door to the server room. And the office manager jumped up and closed the door to the server room. Heh.

So the presentation went pretty well. Lots of interest in the various subjects, such as the 'phishing' screens that I took from my 'phishing report' I did for Dr. Pournelle.

I finished up the GPG 'cheat sheet' about file encryption today. Made sure that all the commands worked right.

Outside, it was a partly cloudy day, but cold. It seems that most of the storm went around our area. Lots of rain down in Dr. Pournelle's area (he lives in Studio City outside of Los Angeles). And lots of snow just up the road in the Sierras. They have had over 18 feet of snow in the last couple of weeks, and there will quite a bit more up there with this latest system. As I write this (in the evening), it is starting to rain again, sometimes quite hard. And it's cold outside, so there will be lots of snow up in the hills.

Down in L.A., they are getting a lot of rain brought in by the "Pineapple Express". That's rain systems that are coming in from fellow Daynoter Dan Seto's area in Hawaii. Although they are having lots of problems with that in L.A., it would be worse if that system headed our way, and into the Sierra Nevada mountains. That system is usually a bit warmer, and would cause warm rain to fall on all that snow.

In fact, that happened in 1997. There was a lot of snow up in the mountains, and then we had about a week of the "Pineapple Express" bringing rain up there. That melted all the snow, and caused quite a bit of flood damage in the mountains and down here in the Sacramento valley. (Here's an intereting report on that event."

If you have ever driven on Highway 50 from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe, you go along a two-lane highway that follows the American River. Along the way, you pass a series of cabins just above the Ice House road. These cabins are right on the river, the other side from the highway. There are a couple of one-lane bridges over the river that provide access to the cabins.

When the warm rain melted all that snow, the river got high and strong enough to wash two of those steel girder bridges down the river. Some of the cabins that were closer to the river were also heavily damaged.

I recall one cabin there (it is actually at a place called "Whitehall") that had several old covered wagons around a fire-pit area. And the swollen river washed that away.

Our cabin, farther up the hill at Strawberry, is right on the same river, but about 6 feet above the normal level of the river. The opposite bank is not as high, so even though there was a lot of water, there was no damage to our cabin. (Here's a link to a to the weather page for thecabin a few lots away from ours. If you look at today's pictures, you'll see that a big pile of snow has fallen off the roof.)

During the same storm, the level of Lake Folsom, which is the first major dam on the American River just east of Sacramento, got very high. Just below Folsom Lake is another dam (Nimbus Dam), which was also very full. So the water releases into the American River were very high; extremely close to flood stage. Sacramento just barely escaped a major flood; I recall that the water level was within inches of the top of the levees. If the rain had continued one more day, the levees could have failed.

So, while I commiserate with the folks down in L.A., it is fortunate for us that the Pineapple Express is not moving into our area. With the record snows in the mountains (there hasn't been this much snow up there since about 1908), a warm rain in the mountains would not be welcome. (That link details the problem that Seattle has with the Pineapple Express.)

 Tuesday, January 11, 2005       mail    link   the story

The day started out with a bit of rain. Not as much as L.A., but right during the commute hour. That means the usual slowdowns. Not too bad for me, since I get to use the car pool lane (Pam and I both work in downtown Sacramento). Mostly cloudy the rest of the day, but looks to be clearing tonight. The local weather dweebs are saying that if you are looking for a good day to get up to the snow, tomorrow would be it. I never got into the skiing thing, though.

A few years back (probably ten, now that I think about it), I was a bit more involved in the local Boy Scout group with my son Jason. The leader was Steve Willis, a guy that really likes to get outdoors. So we arranged for an overnight snow camp. Although fellow Daynoter John Dominik would not be impressed (he lives in Minnesota, so he has month-long overnight snow experiences), it was an good experience for the boys.

We left about noon on a Friday, and headed up highway 50 to the Ice House reservoir turnoff. That's a bit above Pollock Pines, which is above Placerville ("Old Hangtown"), which is about an hour from Sacramento. Highway 50 is the road to Lake Tahoe from Sacramento. A map of the area is here.

"Ice House Reservoir is located approximately 35 miles northeast of Placerville at an elevation of 5,500 feet in the beautiful El Dorado National Forest. The surface area of the lake is 678 acres. There are four camping facilities available suitable for both tents and RV's. All boating is permitted as well as water skiing, and swimming; launching facilities available. Ice House is well known for its trophy class brown trout and also holds a good population of rainbow trout and kokanee salmon."

Which is probably more than you wanted or need to know.

I was driving an old truck, and it was having some engine stuttering problems. It would lose power, running real rough. Not a good idea on a windy road to the camp spot. But we made it.

There were about 15 of us, adults and boys. There was about 3 feet of snow on the ground. After the initial snowball fights, we got the boys started on their camp sites. They split into groups, and used shovels to create their sleeping area. Some created a snow cave, others just dug out a flat area.

But Steve Willis had a better idea. He had a couple of wooden boxes, which he packed with snow, then used that packed snow as building blocks for a large ice cabin. I was about 6 x 8 feet when he finished, and had a raised platform of snow for his sleeping bag. And he covered it all with a big tarp.

While he was building his snow house, I set up the camp stoves for some chili-cheese-chips. An easy recipe for camping, and quite good. Just get a couple of big cans of chili and heat it up. Then put some tortilla chips in a bowl, add a pile of chili, then top it off with grated cheddar cheese. Add some hot chocolate, and you've got a good and filling meal. But it's best to have those types of meals outdoors.

By the time dinner was ready, everyone had built their sleeping area, using tents or tarps with ground covers. Since I was working on dinner, I just used an air mattress in the truck bed, a very warm sleeping bag, and a tarp on top. It was quite comfortable.

One thing that Steve Willis always bragged about is bartering for the boy's needs. There was always someone who forgot essentials. A boy would come up to him and ask to use some TP because he didn't bring any (even though they were given a list). Steve would agree, but they boy had to give up something they brought (usually a candy bar), or he'd make them do other chores (like building snow blocks).

I wanted to do one better than Steve. So I brought along a container of ice cream, some sponge cake, chocolate syrup, and a can of cherry pie filling. And I used that for a great dessert. Of course, Steve wanted some. That was OK with me, but I asked him "What's it worth to you?" And I got some of the candy bars that he got from the boys. Good dessert.

We finally all settled down to sleep. Of course, some boys didn't prepare well. They were sleeping on snow, with a plastic tarp under their sleeping bag, but they didn't figure out the drainage for the snow that was melted by their body heat. A couple of the boys got their sleeping bags wet, and their clothes, so didn't have a very comfortable night.

But we all survived the night. Breakfast was pancakes and sausages, with hot chocolate. After breakfast, the local park rangers showed up. Since we had camped at the parking lot, we had to move out of there in the morning. But the boys (and the adults) all had a good time.

Steve Willis really enjoyed the snow camping. He wanted to do one the next year. He was planning on bringing a wood stove for his ice tent so he would be even warmer. But we never got around to doing one. We did do other campouts that were just as much fun.

Tomorrow's weather is supposed to clear up. Probably get some fog in the morning. But it looks like the "Pineapple Express" is rearranging itself to give us (and L.A.) a break. As you recall, the "Pineapple Express" comes from our friend Dan Seto's neighborhood (in Hawaii). He writes:

Sometimes, it's no fun being on the other end of the Express either. Although, I think California is getting the worst of it...

I appreciate his comments (and he has an interesting "Daynotes" site; it's a regular daily stop -- check out his Tuesday post for a picture of a computer case made out of Legos). It's a bit hard to have too much sympathy for a guy that lives in Hawaii <grin>. A quick check at the weather page for Honolulu shows that the weather at his place is mostly sunny, with a high temperature of 78 degrees, and a low of about 65 degrees, with light winds.

And we'll finish off with a short security note. Today was the Microsoft "Patch Tuesday", and there are a couple of high-priority updates that you should install. Of course, you all have automatic updates enabled, right? If not, get to the Windows Update site. Tomorrow (Wed) is McAfee update day.

So, be safe out there.

 Wednesday, January 12, 2005       mail    link   the story

Just the usual stuff in the computer security neighborhood.

You regular readers (yes, you two in the back) might recall the occaisonal reference to Brian Chessman ("Brian C."), who was kind enough to send me comments when I had some punctuational difficulties. I usually have problems with the proper use of the apostrophe, and Brian would kindly help me remember the rules.

I read on Robert Thompson's site that Brian passed away last month after a short illness.

I never met Brian, but enjoyed it when he took the time to write a short note.

He will be fondly remembered each time that I use the apostrophe key.

 Thursday, January 13, 2005       mail    link   the story

Friday the 13th on Thursday this month...but no problems experienced.

Wandered down to the medical lab for the monthly check on my blood clotting level. I take Warfarin (anti-coagulent) as part of the therapy for my occaisional atrial fibrillation. A monthly blood test is required to make sure that I stay within a safe range.

And since I changed health care providers, my new doctor wanted to do a few more tests, so the lab tech took about four tubes. Then a trip into the restroom for a different kind of fluid sample into a plastic bottle.

The interesting thing about that is that the lab tech said to put my bottle in a little tray by the door when I was done. And in the tray were several other samples. Not very secure -- allows an opportunity to mix up or swap samples. It would seem that it would be safer to ensure that samples are not left unattended.

Long weekend coming up, so no posts until Sunday. Keep well.