My Small Corner

Technoidiot

We've been running CERT classes in town for new members.  They are being conducted at our local Fire Dept. 

It Is All About The Timing

Fun Photos

Why I Love Teenagers

A New Jersey teen has broken the lock on the i-phone limiting service to AT&T.

It Wasn't Me - No, Really!

Scanner update:  I ran into the next door neighbor who is a ham radio operator and also has a scanner.  He popped right over and programmed in a few of the local police, ems and fire channels in under 5 minutes.  He also said that the instruction manual is impossible to read and that only masochists use it.  Then he took my email and emailed me a link to a website that contains an idiot's guide to using my model of scanner.

So now all I have to do is program in a few more channels and I'm set.  Of course I've been listening to the thing all day and have come to the conclusion that this is a very.quiet.town.  The highlight of the day was teenagers on some guy's lawn throwing snowballs at cars, oh yeah and that 10 minutes that they couldn't raise one of the cops on the radio.  I find that I like listening to it better than the radio or tv.  Mostly it is quiet and there there is a small burst of conversation, and then quiet again.

To the Tune of "I'm Too Sexy"

I'm too stupid for my Scanner, too stupid for my Scanner...

I bought a police scanner last week.  Our town has a major gas pipe-line that follows the the border for a distance.  A few weeks ago we had a significant gas leak and there was discussion of evacuations.  In fact, the neighboring town supposedly actually started some.  I didn't know any of this and I occurred to me that I would like that information in the future.  So I ran right out and bought a police scanner, trunking features, hundreds of preprogrammed channels, NOAA updates (insert caveman noises here).

I spent two days reading the instructions, playing with the unit and reading websites and forums.  I could pick up several towns that are not in the immediate area but nothing immediately local and I couldn't figure out how to program in our local frequencies, which I have on the computer.  And I felt pretty stupid. 

So I worked out a deal with the husband for him to program it for me, which he did, incorrectly.  (Hey, I can't really fault him when I couldn't do it either)  Now not only do I not have the local towns but I lost the ability to pick up the other towns signals. And we don't know why or how to fix it.  So now I have to try to track down someone who knows how to work these things - not likely anytime soon or return it for stupidity.

So:  I'm too stupid for my Scanner, too stupid for my scanner, my scanners going to leave me...