Freeware alternatives

There is a trend towards better and better free and/or open source software. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for Microsoft Office, try OpenOffice.

Link= OpenOffice


Firefox is one of the leading alternative Internet browsers.

Link= Firefox


Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer. It has some advantages over the Adobe Acrobat reader (which is also free).

Link= FoxIt PDF reader

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The Universe is a doily

A new possibly-important theory in physics has been released by Garrett Lisi. I've gathered up some useful links and put them into a blog:
Link= An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything

It can also be reached via:
Link= The Universe is a doily

Post-tropical storm Noel

My Mosley TA-33Jr 3-element Yagi antenna installed half-way up a tree was dancing around in the 100+ kmh winds. The short mast even jumped off the clip at the bottom. Right now the whole thing is hanging from the ropes at the top end. I'll fix it later today.

A small loose section of siding broke off the leading edge of my roof. Not serious at all.

Mike's local Hurricane blogs:

Hurricane, we're all gonna die... blog

Hurricane Noel NS Damage... blog

Greenwood Flea Market 2007 - missed it...

Didn't feel well. Stormy day. 90-minute drive each way.

Skipped it.

Oh well. Maybe next year.

Summer 2007 - visited the REAL DX-land (Philippines)

From early-August to early-September, the family and I visited the Philippines and a couple of days in Hong Kong. The specific places visited included several days in Cebu and several days in Mactan at Plantation Bay Resort, a week in Davao City at the Marco Polo, several days on Bohol Island at Bohol Tropics, a week on Siquijor Island at Coco Grove, and a few days in Manila. In HK we stayed at the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

Davao is actually the real 'DX-land' since the radio prefix there really is DX (but not for hams normally).

Link to our vacation blog: 2007 Philippines - family vacation. Plenty of nice pictures.

HARC Flea market 2007

Another nice Halifax Amateur Radio Club ham radio flea market again this year. Great to see the local folks again. I got rid of some old ham radio magazines. Didn't buy much at all.

Xmas 2006 - The Year of the GigaByte

Everything is GB these days...

Many cell phones are now equipped with 1GB of flash for storing music and photos. 1GB USB Sticks are super cheap. MP3 players are pretty much all 1GB+ these days. Digital cameras typically don't come with much, but it is cheap to make them multi-GB.

When I go to work, I'm packing 3GB. ...sometimes 7GB.