My Hobbies

So, what do I do in my spare time? (what precious little I have...)

Sports

I enjoy playing football. I especially enjoy knocking the quarterback on his hind end...)

Basketball: One thing you learn in Kentucky is how important basketball is compared to football. So I like to play, even though I am horrible at it.

I also like to lift weights. This is another way for me to burn off the steam I am known to accumulate. While I can't lift as much as I used to, I still enjoy it.

Other sports I like to play include racquetball, a little tennis, and soccer.

I also enjoy a good long walk (it clears the mind) and a good swim (especially in this Texas heat) to cool off.

Most of the time though, I'm not really all that active. I'm your classic geek that prefers some of the other things I am about to talk about than physical activity.

Music

My tastes run all over the road. I actively listen to most popular music, alternative rock, some metal, some country, some jazz, and some classical. I don't really like opera much, but I don't hate it as much as I used to.

I am also interested in the reproduction of music (in other words: sound equipment) A good CD or movie on a good system is one of my favorite indulgences. I used to be a big basshead, but now a more balanced, musical sound is what I like. Lately (2002) I seem to be listening mostly to jazz or country. Rock all sounds the same now.

I have a small CD collection, since supplemented by dabbling in the MP3 Scene.  I'm a big fan of the various peer to peer trading programs out there, and I absolutely hate the RIAA.  Most of my downloading is from usenet, but I use WinMX or Kazaa Lite when I am after single tracks.

Most other programs have spyware or other noxious things wrong with them. I also download quite a bit of media from Usenet and use News Shark for that

A MP3 player is a nice thing to have, and I have a Nike PSA/Play 60, recently retired in favor of an Ipod. I usually use Ephpod to manage the songs on it, though I will probably use the new Itunes now that it has been released for Windows.

Reading

I like science fiction novels (I used to have an impressive Star Trek novel collection) and military fiction like Tom Clancy or Stephen Coonts.

When I read non-fiction, it could be about anything. Most of the time, it's computer-related. O' Reilly's UNIX series cannot be beaten for their information. I also have a subscription to Linux Journal, the only magazine in the world completely devoted to Linux.

I also like to read Sport Truck to get ideas and suggestions for my future sport truck (I drive a stock GMC Sonoma now) and Stereo Review to keep up with what's going on in that field. I don't have the money to spend on these hobbies right now, but a man must have dreams....

Online sites I frequent are Slashdot and Kuro5hin.I also participate in several other online forums, some technical, some not.

I read several Usenet groups too, but mostly lurk.

Movies and Television

I've enjoyed Star Trek since I was a kid. I like all of the various TV series (the original, the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager) and I've seen all the movies of course. Normally that is the only thing that will ensure that I will see a particular movie

Lately I have been watching the new Enterprise series, and that is growing on me.

I also like to see movies that are techno-thrillers. This would include The Matrix and Antitrust..  But I couldn't stand Swordfish.
Of course I loved Spider Man and the Star Wars Movies (except I still want to murder Jar Jar).

Most recent movies I have seen are Star Trek Nemesis and Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers. I'll be in line for the next two Matrix movies and Return of the King.

Computer animated movies have been a recent new interest.  I highly enjoyed Shrek and recently got to see Monsters Incorporated. I also enjoy TechTV's Eye Drops series in the same vein.

I don't watch much TV any more, but I am lately enjoying The West Wing and ER, and like to watch Animal Planet and TechTV. I don't believe it, but Charter came through for me and finally gave me my TechTV!!! Thanks Charter. You rock.

I own a TiVo, and can't say enough good things about it. Yes, the advertisements for it are dumb, but it is the Ultimate VCR. No more tapes, no more Networks changing the schedule. Just tell it what you want to see and it goes and records it. Hate ads? Well, blow through them at 600x speed.

You have to try it. Once you do, you will be addicted and won't want to watch TV without it.

I've got a small DVD collection as well. Apex DVD players will play anything you can put in them. Good for those home-made SVCDs. I sometimes joke that they can play a peanut butter sandwich if you could fit it into the tray, and they are cheap to boot.

Computing, of Course!

I like just about everything about computers (except the crashes). I've been exposed to them since a young age (6) and was programming at the age of 7.
I'm a bit rusty in programming these days but know enough to get by.  I don't really enjoy it as much as I used to, though.
I enjoy bringing new machines to life. I build computers from scratch for friends and family, and I have my own little LAN connected to the Internet by Verizon ADSL.

Everyone seems to refer to me as the "computer guru". I don't know if I can aspire to guru status yet (there is a lot I don't know) but I do have people come to me with their tough problems and usually I can help them fix their problem.

I am a heavy Linux user and have my own dedicated server machine now, which is hosting this very web page.
Other recent nifty projects include hacking a TiVo to add more space, a Web Server, and some video extraction capability. This is great for making SVCDs of various television programming. Sure beats old VHS stuff.

I am particularly interested in network security. Nothing gets me more interested than reading about the cat and mouse game crackers play with security professionals. (note that Hackers program enthusiastically and generally play with computers, crackers violate security, deface websites, and steal your personal information). It is much like the Westerns of old... the White Hats versus the Black Hats. I hope to be a decent White Hat someday.

Lately I am experimenting with 802.11 wireless networking. I've actually gone wardriving and it amazes me how far the tiny transmitters in the access points can go. They aren't limited to the inside of your house or office, so.....

Please secure your access points.

On a recent wardriving expedition in a local neighborhood I was able to detect over 100 wireless access points and 75 % of them had no security at all enabled. I don't go spying into other's networks or abuse their connection as a matter of professional ethics, but other individuals are bound to be less scrupulous. I agree that 802.11s security is pretty weak but please enable what security you have.

Gaming

Games: I spend a lot of time playing Quake III ,Star Trek: Armada, and Voyager: Elite Force, but also enjoy some older games like Duke Nukem and the two older Quake titles.  The list has been expanded to include Serious Sam and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. My machine isn't tough enough for some of the latest games, but I have tried MorrowWind and Neverwinter Nights.

Wanna see an Athlon cry? Mine does when I play Unreal Tournament 2003!

Lately I have taken up playing console games (particularly Intellivision and NES) under emulation. I can recommend Rocknes as a great NES emulator. It's almost better than playing the games on the original hardware! I am working my way through Zelda II again. Never beat it (got close) when I had the original hardware.

My first console was an Intellivision. I miss that old guy. Fortunately I can still play most of the games in emulation.

The only console I currently have is an aging Nintendo 64. The games are cheap now and still very playable, and friends and family have all of the newer consoles anyway. They have come a long way since my old Intellivision, but for the best graphics and sound, I still feel the PC is king.

Radio (of various kinds!)

I own a Radio Shack PRO-95 handheld trunking scanner to listen to the public-safety radio systems in the area. Although I have only been doing this for a month I really am enjoying it. I have learned more about radio and how the police and fire departments operate in these few weeks than I have ever learned before. What I really wanted was to hear the tornado siren activation tones go out, and I am now able to do that too.

I routinely monitor the City of Denton, Denton County, and Lewisville Public Safety Systems, all of which are Motorola 800 mhz Type II trunking systems.

D/FW is pretty much scanner heaven as there are more trunked public-safety radio systems here than anyplace else in the US. Shame that I am just too far north to hear most of the systems in the Metroplex. I love to drive around with my scanner mobile, and have a suitable external antenna, which makes a great difference in the performance of the scanner while I am mobile.

I have listened to shortwave radio off and on throughout my life. My old receiver gave up the ghost recently so I bought a halfway-decent portable receiver, a Grunding Yacht Boy 400. This is a great receiver, again subject to the RF blackhole I live in. A shame that it eats HF just as bad as higher frequencies. The fact that there are transformers outside causing all kinds of interference doesn't help matters.

I also occasionally try some distant listening (DXing) on the AM band, seeing how far away I can receive a station from. (my record is WOR-AM in New York City, over 1000 miles away from Denton!)

These two hobbies exposed me to the world of amateur radio.

I recently tested for my amateur radio (ham) license and passed, garnering a Technican-class license. My call is KD5WYU (usually explained as "Who'd You Upset?)

I hope to eventually upgrade all the way to Extra, but the code requirement is a major stumbling block at this point.

In the meantime, I enjoy chatting on several of the local FM repeaters in the area. D/FW is blessed with over 70 2 meter (144 mhz) and 50 70cm (440 mhz) repeaters. I lurk far more often than I talk, but I usually monitor the W5NGU and W5FKN repeater systems as well as a few FM simplex frequencies.

Occasionally I will fire up Echolink and chat. It is an interesting mode, but not "really radio" though I can use it entirely with radio. My node number is 133013, and you can also find me lurking on 165165, the W5NGU-R 444.050+ (110.9) repeater here in Denton.

I am an active member of the Denton County Amateur Radio Association, Denton County A.R.E.S and the American Radio Relay League.

I currently have a Icom T7H handheld transceiver. This is a dual-band HT that transmits and receives on the 2 meter and 70 centimeter (usually called "440") bands. I carry it with me almost everywhere I go and operate it portable often. If you are looking for a good HT, give it a try.

Finally I have a good mobile in the truck, a Kenwood TM-V7A. Combined with a Larsen 5/8 wave antenna on the roof of the truck (an NMO 2/70-B) I can work almost any machine in the D/FW metroplex that I wish. The Kenwood will cross band repeat and is remotely-controllable with an HT while doing so! How is that for cool?

I also occasionally beacon on APRS from home (just connected to the internet, not on RF yet, unfortunately) with my bare callsign of KD5WYU.
If I ever get my TinyTrack built, I will probably have a mobile tracker running as well.

I am a trained storm spotter for Denton County and try to check into nets when I can.

I also enjoy public service work like providing communications for events such as the MADD Rally or the annual Turkey Roll.

Amateur radio is an amazingly diverse hobby, with lots of different things to do. I doubt I will ever get bored with it, and have met some very nice folks in my short time in the hobby.

Civil Defense Sirens

I know it sounds very strange, but I am interested in the old Cold-war era siren systems.  This is probably because I am interested in (and scared of) tornadoes and the sirens are used to warn people of these nasty storms.  Thankfully they don't have to be used for their original purpose any longer (warning the public of a nuclear attack)

I take pictures and record sound clips of different sirens, and sometimes will go to hear the monthly test procedures in the towns around me. Thankfully I have an Olympus D-510 Zoom to capture these elusive prey.

I have a small gallery of images here on my Civil Defense Siren Pages, with pictures and commentary about the sirens in the communities I live and work in. There are also links to other siren pages and discussion groups on the Internet there.

My favorite siren is the Federal Signal Thunderbolt.  One of my goals in life is to get one and strip it down in a restoration process, making it good as new.

You've probably seen one before.  They look like this, and emit a roar that is like nothing else I have ever heard in my life.
 

(sadly this particular siren is no longer there anymore)

I don't have a Thunderbolt yet, but I do have a small Klaxon Super-M siren of my own.