![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On the day I returned from Portland (July 28th), I turned 24. It has solidified one thing I've been thinking about for a few years now with birthdays and christmas. Beyond an excuse to speak to family or grab dinner, these annual occurances mean absolutely nothing. I went out for dinner Friday evening with my parents.
My maternal grandfather (still residing in East London, Eastern Cape province, South Africa) phoned my cellphone on Thursday evening to wish me the best, and express regrets at being unable to attend my wedding due to age and deterioriating health. It was nice to talk to him out of the blue.
Marissa gave me a gift right before I left for Portland. It was a giant wooden puzzle, that unfortuntely turned out to have a nasty crack in the middle, so I need to return it at some point very soon, possibly Saturday morning.
Monday this week I decided to get myself a gift - I mean, there's no reason I can't. I'm not generally a materialist - there have been christmas/birthdays in the past where I specifically asked for various items of clothing, because I actually needed them, not because I wanted them. However, just as much as the next person, having a new toy to play with is worthwhile. I do actively limit my unnessicary budgetary expenditures where possible, and occasionally sell off old computer gear (buy my FibreChannel stuff folks!).
Anyway, I picked up a Samsung 940B-HAS 19" LCD for $250CDN, and a Bluetooth GPS unit for $110CDN, both on special at NCIX. The LCD works great, ddccontrol in Linux provides _more_ controls than the Windows Samsung utility, and now I've got a lot more space on my desk (and no excuse not to finish cleaning up my desk now.
The GPS unit works great with Bluetooth, but I'm mildly disappointed with it otherwise, because of the manufacters decision to use a USB mini-B connector on it for charging the battery, but NOT being able to use a normal USB mini-B to A cable to connect to the device in a serial port mode. Apparently I need to buy a special $20 cable, so I'll have to see about that tommorow. I strongly suspect that the manufacter (Holux) cheated and abused the Data+/Data- pins on the mini USB socket to be TTL-level RS-232 TX/RX on the GPS unit. I'll dismantle the magic cable to confirm this, and let other people know about it too.
My maternal grandfather (still residing in East London, Eastern Cape province, South Africa) phoned my cellphone on Thursday evening to wish me the best, and express regrets at being unable to attend my wedding due to age and deterioriating health. It was nice to talk to him out of the blue.
Marissa gave me a gift right before I left for Portland. It was a giant wooden puzzle, that unfortuntely turned out to have a nasty crack in the middle, so I need to return it at some point very soon, possibly Saturday morning.
Monday this week I decided to get myself a gift - I mean, there's no reason I can't. I'm not generally a materialist - there have been christmas/birthdays in the past where I specifically asked for various items of clothing, because I actually needed them, not because I wanted them. However, just as much as the next person, having a new toy to play with is worthwhile. I do actively limit my unnessicary budgetary expenditures where possible, and occasionally sell off old computer gear (buy my FibreChannel stuff folks!).
Anyway, I picked up a Samsung 940B-HAS 19" LCD for $250CDN, and a Bluetooth GPS unit for $110CDN, both on special at NCIX. The LCD works great, ddccontrol in Linux provides _more_ controls than the Windows Samsung utility, and now I've got a lot more space on my desk (and no excuse not to finish cleaning up my desk now.
The GPS unit works great with Bluetooth, but I'm mildly disappointed with it otherwise, because of the manufacters decision to use a USB mini-B connector on it for charging the battery, but NOT being able to use a normal USB mini-B to A cable to connect to the device in a serial port mode. Apparently I need to buy a special $20 cable, so I'll have to see about that tommorow. I strongly suspect that the manufacter (Holux) cheated and abused the Data+/Data- pins on the mini USB socket to be TTL-level RS-232 TX/RX on the GPS unit. I'll dismantle the magic cable to confirm this, and let other people know about it too.
