laurion

Back to the ruins! On day 9 we docked at Katakolon, which is a cluster of one and two story buildings with almost no residences. The whole place serves as solely a port for the tourists who come to see the ruins of Olympia. Centuries ago, Olympia itself was on the water, but no longer. Once home to the Temple of Zeus, which housed one of the Seven Wonders of the world, now it is a collection of mostly untouched ruins, and a museum. The archaeologists who have been in charge of the site for decades are in the ‘leave it as it lies’ camp, and have done minimal restoration, instead conducting preservation and excavation efforts to reclaim the site from the swamps. There is an excellent museum at the site with all sorts of finds.

From Olympia

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

Day seven, after a day at sea, we arrive at the second country on our tour, Turkey. We docked at Kusadasi and took a tour to see Ephesus, an excellently preserved and restored site. Our tickets also included access to the still-under-excavation Terrace Houses, which are carefully being preserved inside a well roofed area, and with glass walkways so that as little of the site is disturbed by tourism as possible. They offer limited admission to this area for an additional fee, the proceeds of which fund the archaeological work. We took a lot of pictures here as well, because there was a lot to see. By the way, the Library of Celsius is a stunning piece of work that any city public library should consider emulating. Afterward, we returned to Kusadasi proper, and were treated to a carpet weaving demonstration and sales pitch. The afternoon was characterized by an overpriced lunch and souvenir shopping.

Pictures up at Picasa.

From Kusadasi and Ephesus

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Our first port of call was Naples. There were shore excursions to the area beaches, and of course to Pompeii, but we decided on the tour to Herculaneum. Why? Everyone goes to Pompeii. Any time you travel to that region you can easily pick up a guided tour of Pompeii. Herculaneum was a smaller seaside resort for the wealthy that was also destroyed by the 79 C.E. explosion of Vesuvius. The site is smaller, having been excavated less, and having the modern day town of Ercolano still on top of it (literally - they can’t excavate some areas because they go under people’s houses), but it does have some things to recommend it. Primarily, it was buried by mud, not ash, so is much better preserved, including original timbers that charred and fossilized, but did not burn away. Having a classics minor, and knowing an expert on the area (she was in a PBS special narrated by Leonard Nimoy!), we took more pictures here than at any other spot, I think. I’ve posted the gallery up at picasaweb.google.com… of course.

From Herculaneum

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I’ve uploaded the first wave of pictures to Picasa for you all to see. These are the pictures from the wedding itself, taken by the professional photographer. If you were there, and you took pictures, please let me know, and send copies to me - we’d love to collect them all together!

Over the next few days I plan on going through the pictures we took on the cruise, and will be posting them as well.

All of these can be found at : picasaweb.google.com…

From Wedding

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

As of tomorrow, RCN in my area is shutting off all analog signals, and switching everything to digital.  Not a problem for the average person, who will either use an analog converter box, or who is already using a digital box from RCN.

Big annoyance for me.  I have a home built DVR.  I’ve been using the analog tuner in it, but it has a digital tuner, so I should be all set, right?  Not entirely.  You need something called a CableCard in your DVR or HDTV to get the advanced digital network features, such as premium channels and pay-per-view.  I don’t get nor want any of those, and even if I did, TiVo HD is the only non-cable company DVR that can take a CableCard.  Because the CableCard folks are… hm…. how should I put this…?  Oh yes.  Morons.  So I don’t need CableCard, because I only want basic channels, right?

No.  RCN (and all the other providers are going this way) are now encrypting _all_ their digital channels, and sending none in the clear (Clear QAM vs. Encrypted QAM, vs. ATSC which is what over-the-air broadcast digital is).  So now you *MUST* have a CableCard or a sanctioned set-top converter box.

And if I want the true digital set-top box it is an extra $12 a month.  And if I want multiple boxes for multiple TVs, anything more than the first is at least $3 a month.  Which is one of the drivers behind the change… more rental fees.  Plus, with a set-top box, you must change channels on the set-top box.  Can’t change channels on the TV, or in my case, obnoxiously enough, on the DVR.  So the DVR will have to change channels on the box, using an IR blaster, which is a little like taping the remote control to the computer so it can press the buttons.  It’s unreliable, slow, and there’s no communication from the box to the computer, so there is no error correction capability.

So now I’ve been forced to a digital world, but can’t use my digital tuner.  I’m still getting converted analog, but can no longer use my DVR the way I built it.  I’ll have to splice in a new device, finding another outlet to plug it into (ask me about the wonky electrical wiring in this apartment sometime!), rigging up the IR from the DVR, and hoping that everything works well.  RCN’s excuse for all this mumbo-jumbo is that the upstream providers (the TV stations and networks) require RCN to encrypt the channels.  And that they are going through with this transition so I can get more channels at the same price.  I don’t watch a lot of TV.  I don’t want more channels, especially channels like the Horse Racing Channel, that I’m _never_ going to watch.  I’d rather have the same number of channels I have now at half the price.  Congress and the FCC can’t move fast enough on a-la carte cable for my tastes.

I am *very* tempted to dump the cable TV, keeping just the internet connection.  I’ll get what I can from over-the-air broadcast, and have to get all my sci-fi, usa, and other networks through less than honest means on the internet.  Because television from the internet has no DRM, no commercials, and lets me watch my TV the way I want, when I want, which is why I built the DVR in the first place.  When companies go out of their way to make piracy _easier_ than honesty (and not just more convenient), they really shouldn’t be surprised when piracy increases.

So, now that RCN is persona non grata with me, give me your recommendations for alternate companies, alternate solutions, etc.  Keep in mind that I’m poor and cheap.

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

I don’t think this is what most people mean when they use the phrase ‘car camping’.  Still….

This is closer, but I still don’t think it is what most people mean…

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

Route 30 parallels the Pike for quite a stretch, at times with sufficient elevation that looking across 30 you cannot see the pike below.

Except for when a car carrier goes by and you can see just enough of the top.  Seeing a line of cars ‘driving’ backwards on the Pike was very amusing.

Played poker tonight, at Jducoeur’s invitation (thank you!), and had a lot of fun.  Not having played anything but the ubiquitous Texas Hold ‘Em for quite some time, the variety of variations called at the table were at times mind-bending.  Particularly, I occasionally had troubles with some of the more convoluted split-pot high-low variations.  Not strategy-wise, typically, but I did flub a few action sequences, to my embarrassment.  Overall though, thanks to some good choices in Liege Lord, and some good fortunes in being the only high hand in Anaconda, (both split-pot games, oddly), I ended up more than doubling my stake (after factoring in chips bought from me at the very end).  But the money would have been well spent had I lost it all, as I had a really good time.  Of course, now I must find an opportunity to give some of the money back at another poker night.

And now I must to bed before I lose too much more sleep.

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

Seen on the side of a bottle of Poland Springs ‘fruit a’peel’ spritzer:

WARNING: Spritzers under pressure. Point away from people you like. If you like my bubbles keep me cool.

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

As part of an ongoing project at work, I’ve started up a new blog over at chadberg.edublogs.org… .  What better way to make sure I’m fully familiar with the tool than to use it?  That’s a bit of a misdirection though; it’s a customized WordPress solution, so I’m already very familiar with the core.  But I do need to be familiar with the custom changes made for educational purposes.  So over there I’ll be blogging about my professional world (is that ‘plogging’?).

I’ve only a couple of posts there at the moment, but more in draft form.  Interested parties are welcome to subscribe.  Uninterested parties are too, but I don’t know as that will happen.  Bizarrely interested people are welcome to subscribe to that one and unsubscribe from this one.

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.

Sci-Fi channel is running their new mini-series version of Andromeda Strain starting on Monday.  Previews look pretty good.

Just a note so interested parties can set their TiVos.

Originally published at lebor.net. You can comment here or there.