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Spearfish Lake Tales
Spearfish Lake Tales Message Board
Welcome! This board is intended for discussion of Wes Boyd's writings as posted on Spearfish Lake Tales; Stories Online; Beyond The Far Horizon,
or other message boards. Discussion of other authors that frequent these boards or sites is not off topic.

Please keep it clean and somewhere close to being on topic.
Spearfish Lake Tales
Subject: Wiki frustration


Author:
Hal
[Edit]
Date Posted: 21:03:39 05/13/09 Wed
OK, I went to the Wiki page[I'm logged in]:
http://spearfishlaketaleswiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page#Instructions_for_New_Users

Being a good kid, I go to the SPLTstyle like it says I should.
http://spearfishlaketaleswiki.com/index.php?title=SPLTstyle

That says I should go to Shared Documents from Users:
http://spearfishlaketaleswiki.com/index.php?title=Shared_Documents_from_Users

It appears that I should download and study "How To Create a Character Page":

To download the file in Windows use "right click" "Save Target as ". I don't have that option with up-to-the-minute updated XP. I can "save link as" or copy link location. If I click on "How To Create a Character Page" to read it, I get " Login Required

For your protection, this page can only be accessed through the Hosting Control Panel."

Near as I can tell, I AM logged in - it says so in upper right corner: "Hal (Talk)
Log out | Preferences | Help "

So now what? {unclench jaw and go read something....}
Replies:
Subject: FtS 33


Author:
Vlad
[Edit]
Date Posted: 09:54:33 05/15/09 Fri

Jennifer turned to Blake. "That's about what Mom told me," she said. "I guess that's our deadline if we want to get in Saturday Night with Jenny Easton this fall."


"It's going to be tight," he agreed. "There are a couple things we can do to speed it up, though. It isn't going to be that expensive to shoot, and it'll actually be easier to sell if it's in the can."


She nodded. "If it's in the can, and Jenny can't do retakes, we're not going to get that much whining about wanting this changed or that changed," she said.


"Uh, I hate to be a buttinski," Phil interjected, "But what are you two talking about?"


Replies:
Subject: Artwork needed


Author:
Wes
[Edit]
Date Posted: 13:58:52 02/16/09 Mon
Farther down the page there's a discussion about a map of the Spearfish Lake region. There's a rough sketch map in the "Snowplow Extra" archive, but frankly it's a crappy map. Longtime fan Hal has made the suggestion that if someone with artistic skills or a good eye with a plotter would like to make a better appearing map, I could pay in a free download or two.

That strikes me as a pretty good idea and I'll go one better: if someone would like to take a swing at it and it turns out better than the one I did with a ball point pen so that I can use it on the web page, I'll burp up a free dead tree copy of "Snowplow Extra" and another book of your choice.

And while we're at it: in another few posts, we'll be seeing Crystal in a pretty distinctive T-shirt: "She had on a white T-shirt with a cartoon of a fat little guy on a surfboard wearing red checked hunting clothes, against a background of the outline of Lake Superior. The T-shirt was lettered, 'Northern Michigan Surfing . . . Superior Waves.'"

I'm thinking this would make a nice bit of merchandise for my website. I have no idea of how many I would sell, but probably not many. A local shop says that he can do this as a transfer without too much difficulty, but I'd have to supply the artwork. I'd also like to have "spearfishlaketales.com" under the "Superior Waves." Since this would be a transfer the number of colors is not an issue. I figure this ought to be worth a couple T-shirts and/or a dead tree book or two.

I've already asked the guy that did the artwork for the donation box, but his time issues preclude doing further commissions.

Anybody like to take a swing at either one of them? Let me know, so we can discuss the issues in a little more detail.

-- Wes
Replies:
Subject: Wiki Administrivia


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 15:10:01 05/14/09 Thu
In order to free the forum up for the purpose Wes created it (discussing his books) we have created a talk page on the wiki. If you go to the bottom of the style page there is a link that you can click to get to the talk page. If you enter a question or a comment there anyone who has set the page to watch mode (a check box at the bottom of the editing window) will be notified that an entry has been made and we can jump in and add comments.

Let's see how this works.

The Editors
Subject: New help files


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 15:00:28 05/14/09 Thu
I have posted a couple of help files on the Shared Documents Page. They are files that I use to help make data entry and editing easier. Try them and if they help great.

Kirby
Subject: Wiki Questions


Author:
Steve
[Edit]
Date Posted: 15:08:01 05/13/09 Wed
Thanks for all the work in setting up the Wiki. I think it will be useful.

I created user ID and logged in. When I try to access the new timeline pages, and also the "How to Create a Character Page" PDF, I get an error messasge that says "Login Required. For your protection, this page can only be accessed through the Hosting Control Panel." How can I get to these pages?

How will different names for the same person be handled? For example, Judith Niven, Judy Niven, Judith Sorensen, and Judy Sorensen should all get to the same place.

I noticed in a couple of places warnings against including copyrighted material. Do we have Wes's permission to include brief quotes from the stories? One thing that comes to mind is that there are good descriptions of a couple of people (Lisa DeLine, Hjamler) from the Reporter's Handbook in Andromeda Chained that might be useful to include in the character pages.

I have noticed several errors in names of books and people. Just to get my feet wet, I fixed one of them (Andy Bairnsfether's last name was misspelled). Other repeated errors are Axle misspelled as Axel, and Snowplow Extra misnamed as Snowplow Express. I will go in and fix these if nobody beats me to it. I found a good way to check stuff like this, which I even used in composing this messasge -- I wanted to verify the spelling of Judy's last name. Good thing I did, I though it was Nivens instead of Niven, and wanted to see if it was Sorenson or Sorensen. Anyhow, I found out that in Google (and I think Yahoo, and maybe other search engines), you can put "site:spearfishlaketales.com" after the search term(s), and it will show results from that site only, which eliminates a lot of noise in the search results.

Seems like a had a couple other questions as well, but can't remember them off the top of my head, so I'll quit here for now.

--
Steve
Replies:
Subject: WIKI Notice!!!!!!!


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 09:59:43 05/12/09 Tue
I have had to delete and re-create the following pages because users did not follow the wiki convention for naming character pages..

Randy Clark
Ryan Clark
Donna Clark
Linda Clark
brent
Wayne clark

The convention is to create the page "Last Name then Comma then First Name" always using caps were indicated.

In this case it was easy to move what little content there was to the corrected page.

In the future if this gets out of hand and time is short pages that do not comply with the conventions may just be deleted without a replacement page being created. So please be careful to follow the conventions.

The conventions were developed so that the site would be more than just a jumble of content. We have tried to keep the rules/conventions to as few as necessary so that there will be as much room as possible for creativity. So please follow what rules/conventions there are.

Thank You
Kirby
Replies:
Subject: Wiki Update


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 11:20:45 05/13/09 Wed
Our wiki guru Mike has added some new graphics and new navigation links to the site. He will continue to tweak things now that he is back at home.

User gEMUSER from down under has submitted a time line in 3 different versions. They are available for down load on the Time Lines page.

Mike and I will continue to work on the bugs as they appear so things should only improve.

Wes thanks for letting us do this and to you the fans thanks for your support.

Kirby
Subject: Wiki News


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 19:18:57 05/12/09 Tue
By the time this evening that Wes posts the next chapter of Facing The Storm.the wiki will have been open for about 48 hours.

In that time more than 40 Character Pages have been started and at least 6 Location Pages have been started.

Also better instructions for how to start and link pages have been provided.

Keep up the good work "Fanatiks".

Kirby
Subject: Spearfish lake Tales Wiki


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 22:35:38 05/10/09 Sun
Attention all Spearfish Lake Tales fanatics.

The new information wiki for fans of Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales is now open.

Please remember that what is currently on the site is still a work in progress.
There are several basics of the design that we have not finished (i.e.: logos, book covers, file up-load links just to name a few). Hopefully with everyone’s input it will grow into a useful tool.

If you will study what has been done and read the style sheet and the users guide you should be able to get started. If you need to see edit samples for clarification click the edit link at the top of an existing page and study how that formatting was done. The formatting is similar to html tagging or to go back a ways to formatting Word Perfect in DOS.

You could also enter the text in any text edit program, format there and then upload. Please always remember to check your formatting with the preview button before you save.

If you are unsure about posting to the wiki, go ahead and upload your text into the edit box for the appropriate page. At the top of the page enter an email address along with a request for help with formatting. As soon as one of the team has time we will format a part of your entry, at least enough to show you how, and then notify you via email. You can then study how the formatting was done and then work up the rest of your entry. If you are uncomfortable with posting your email address on the page come back to this forum and start a new topic requesting help. Since most of us have a life beyond Spearfish Lake (darn it) it may take a bit for one of us to get back to you. Please title entries “Wiki Formatting Help”.

Since we do not have email links up to the administrators please use this forum as a way to share info and to ask questions. Please title all entries for this purpose “Wiki Help!”.

Remember this wiki will only be as good and informative as we the users make it. Keep in mind that while we may build the wiki “Spearfish Lake” and all it encompasses is and always will be the creation of Wes Boyd and it all ultimately belongs to him.

The address is http://www.spearfishlaketaleswiki.com.

Dive in and have fun!

Mike Slade, Kirby Lambert & The Editorial Team.
Replies:
Subject: SLT Wiki Page instructions


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 23:27:40 05/11/09 Mon
I have posted on the "Shared Documents from Users" page of the wiki a .pdf file that give a step by step set of instructions for creating a new character page and linking it to the rest of the site. Instructions for down loading the .pdf are on the page.

I hope this helps.

Kirby
Subject: Reported Trojan Horse


Author:
Hal
[Edit]
Date Posted: 15:39:12 05/02/09 Sat
I started to read Snow Plow Extra again. I am using avast! anti-virus and when I tried to open chapter 3 it is reporting this file as a

Trojan Horse: http://addtracker.info/index.php\{gzip
malware name: JS:ScriptIP-inf [Trj]

This is way beyond my sphere of competence so I don't have a clue, [except I just remembered I have the zip file on my hard drive - maybe I get to read it after all]!
Replies:
Subject: the (former) virus problem


Author:
Hal
[Edit]
Date Posted: 00:51:09 05/08/09 Fri
Wes, I haven't been able to find a problem tonight, even with the Snow Plow Extra Map. Congratulations, I think. What did you need to do?
Hal
Replies:
Subject: Arthur C. Clarke, what did you do?


Author:
Wes
[Edit]
Date Posted: 15:13:22 04/28/09 Tue
I've been having trouble with my Internet service provider here of late. I realize there are such things as equipment problems, but the high speed capability has become important to me and it's frustrating to be without it.

I'm not totally without Internet service at home, since I still have a dialup modem on my laptop. The only thing is that the fastest the modem wants to connect on dialup is 16.3 kb, which is very slow in this day and age -- when it will connect at all.

It wasn't always thus. My first modem was a 2400 baud job and it seemed neat as all getout. If I haven't cleaned it out, I may still have a 9600 baud job stuffed in a cabinet somewhere, and when it was new it really seemed like it was something. But 16.3 kb these days is so slow that it's very frustrating.

Now, I live out in the country so normal high speed service is more difficult than living in town, since I don't have cable service available. I do, however, have a satellite dish, and after my adventure with trying to get one of those digital converter boxes to work earlier this year, I decided the heck with it and now receive all local TV signals over satellite. I was going to have the TV antenna mast painted this spring, but on thinking about it I realized that I'm not using it for anything any more and I might as well take the unsightly thing down and be done with it.

So, it was no great trick to think about getting a satellite feed for the Internet and be done with some of those other problems. I haven't done it yet but if my high speed problems don't clear up soon I'm retaining the option.

So, while I was considering the problem, I got to thinking that having the service connected to a wireless router might have some advantages. I have two working computers at home (and a lot of nonworking or partly working junk), and they're at the opposite ends of the house. Then, when my daughter gets home, there'll be the need for another feed. All that adds up to a pain in the butt, or more wiring which amounts to the same thing. Wireless might well prove to be the answer, I thought.

Then the thought struck me. Wireless satellite Internet. Three technologies that didn't exist at the time I was born. More than that, they hadn't been dreamed of. Communications satellites in earth synchronious orbits were nothing more than a brain flash by an obscure science fiction writer. I remember well the first Trans-Atlantic satellite transmissions via the Telstar satellite, and that was really something at the time. Computers used tons of vacuum tubes. Internet -- what's that? As late as the early seventies the computers envisioned by the best science fiction writers of the day were huge mainframes with speed and capacities we would consider marginal today -- nobody could have imagined, or did imagine the stuff we take for granted today.

Right at the moment I can't imagine being around in another sixty years, but I can't help but wonder how much things will have changed by then, and what things we can't even dream of today will be commonplace problems then.

-- Wes
Replies:
Subject: Hmmmmmm...pure speculation


Author:
SweetOneVT
[Edit]
Date Posted: 08:59:11 04/28/09 Tue
"My stomach is feeling a little rocky," Jennifer said. "I guess something I ate last night didn't set too well with me. I'll be all right."

Having tea and toast because her stomach is rocky this morning.........smells a little fishy to me. Just wondering if it will take her a couple of months to feel alright in the morning.
Replies:
Subject: Late update again


Author:
Wes
[Edit]
Date Posted: 00:18:20 04/24/09 Fri
Sorry about another late update. The connection problems I'm having from home are maddening. I couldn't even get online via dialup until three hours late.

Someone ragged me a few days ago about having April 15 in the story fall on April 15 IRL. Well, guess what? This chapter has NASCAR running at Talledaga, and guess what's happening Sunday?

-- Wes
Replies:
Subject: Phil at the Grand Canyon


Author:
boballab
[Edit]
Date Posted: 19:45:46 04/22/09 Wed
"I don't know that I'm all that anxious to head right back," Phil said. "Are you up for a day or two sightseeing in the high country? We could maybe head over to the Grand Canyon. I've never been there."

Yeah I can see the scene where Phil runs into Crystal and her mother at the Grand Canyon. Karin would be apologizing all the time to Phil for what he had to put up with from Pete.
Replies:
Subject: Bashing Windows


Author:
Vlad
[Edit]
Date Posted: 02:46:49 04/13/09 Mon
If I had that, then I could go back through and rewrite it in C++ set to run in a Linux environment. That way, you don't lose so much speed to the Windows overhead.

umm, not that I have ever programmed Windows (or Linux) but:
  • afaik neither Windows nor Linux will have a significant speed difference over the other one. Running 16-bit Dos code on a 32-bit NT4 machine isn't the best strategy ever for a program which sounds like it needs a lot of memory but . . . it does need rewriting.

  • the Linux X11 (graphical) user interfaces were more difficult to write for back when this story was set, even deciding which one to use was non-trivial.

  • if Phil's beast needs to be booted into Linux to run, but the rest of the package runs under Windows, you would presumably need two networked machines.

This message comes to you from a Linux workstation ;-)
Replies:
Subject: Jason Bailey or Brown


Author:
Chris
[Edit]
Date Posted: 18:03:57 04/21/09 Tue
In Andromeda Chained I noticed the boy who was bullied was called Jason Bailey up to chapter 13 while in chapter 14 he is called Jason Brown. I presume this is a typo that slipped through.
Subject: Spearfishlake Wiki


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 15:51:32 04/20/09 Mon
I have discussed the idea of a fan supported wiki with Wes and he thinks that it is a good idea. There are a couple of caveats:

1) All of the conten would need to be owned by wes and protected by his copywrite.

2) Wes would need to own the domain name used.

3) It would have to be a fan supported and run enterprise.

4) There would need to be a fan governing/editorial board that would shield Wes from having to monitor the site for accuracy.

5) Unless someone has a better idea for a name we are kicking around "spearfishlakegenealogy.com".

Under those conditions I would be able to offer hosting for the site. I would not be able to design or maintain the site someone else would have to do that.

Anyone who might be interested in this please contact me and we can start discussions.

Kirby
Replies:
Subject: What we need is...


Author:
Bob Stevens
[Edit]
Date Posted: 08:13:56 03/02/09 Mon
As I have said before, great stories well told.

My problem is that the characters are getting mixed up in my mind. The stories hop back and forth through time. It would be helpful to have a list of characters by family and in which stories they occur.

Bob and Lori seem familiar and I think they were in a previous story. I think we read about them as teenagers. Is this the same Phil?

How about a "map" of the people now that we have a map of the geography?
Replies:
Subject: A Couple of Thoughts


Author:
Emm Sea
[Edit]
Date Posted: 09:26:36 04/16/09 Thu
I just had the urge to re-read 'Alone Together' and these came to mind ...

So Jennifer wants Josh & Tiff to take a break ... I wonder if a trip down the Colorado river is in their future? Imagine the after dinner chats on that trip with 2 veterans of the big 'I' travelling!! Where do I make a booking!!

It seems (to me at least) there is more to Tanisha & Jon's story. Will we be meeting them again in the future?

Be safe,

MC
Subject: Alone Together cover and hardcopy


Author:
Wes
[Edit]
Date Posted: 14:47:15 02/20/09 Fri
It's a slow Friday afternoon, so I thought I'd get some stuff done on the web site that needed doing. You will see a few changes.

Alone Together cover: I've had communications from several people that said they didn't like the old cover for Alone Together. Well, I'm right at the head of that list. I was never real thrilled with the artwork and several people pointed out things that they thought were wrong with it that I hadn't noticed. Two or three weeks ago I went hunting around in my files and came up with a photo I liked a lot better, but I was up to my fanny in Randy and the Alien, and reviewing the proofreading for Facing the Storm, the new book that starts the week after next, so I just didn't get around to changing it until this afternoon. I think the new one is much more my style.

Alone Together in dead tree format: This is something else that I should have done two or three weeks ago but got shoved to the side. As of now, Alone Together is available in hardcopy, and with the new cover, to boot! The cost is $21.95 from lulu.com. You can also go to the "Store" page on the website to order. Downloads in PDF format are also available from there, at $10.00.

Maps: Reader Andy Haworth and I have been working on maps of the area of several of the stories. We just wrapped up work on the map of the Spearfish Lake area, and while I was messing around I figured that I might as well get it up on the website. You can get to it under the new link "Maps" in the left column of the main page of the website. There will be a couple more maps along in the near future. See if your mental picture of Spearfish Lake matches my mental picture of it!

-- Wes
Replies:
Subject: Hadley-Monroe Alumni Association - Potential Spoiler


Author:
GeorgeTheCar
[Edit]
Date Posted: 22:33:42 04/12/09 Sun
I have been re-reading "Facing the Storm" and "Alone Together" looking to see if I can cross reference a time line but part of Phil's future may be a link to Jon and Tanisha's world via a Spearfish Lake connection.

BTW when we we hear about Randy? he should be close to all of this?
Replies:
Subject: Phil


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 21:11:58 04/11/09 Sat
I have seen Phil's name as both "Wine" (Facing The Storm) and "Wines" (Next generation).

Which is correct.

Kirby
Replies:
Subject: Judith Niven


Author:
Chris
[Edit]
Date Posted: 20:18:07 04/07/09 Tue
Is the little girl Judith who appears in ROCINANTE towards the end at the Griswolds Judith Niven?, the time line would appear to be right.
Replies:
Subject: Andromeda Chained


Author:
Hal
[Edit]
Date Posted: 22:11:58 04/07/09 Tue
One of the events I have really enjoyed has been re-reading your stories as they are re-posted on other forums, like Beyond the Far Horizons, and Stories On Line after they had finished on Spearfish Lake Tales. I found that with Dawnwalker the stories were very far out of sync because of the length of the story, and it was almost like picking up a book after a few weeks or months and reading it again. Andromeda Chained is much shorter, and so the postings aren't as out of sync, so it hasn't been as dramatic. But I found the ending tonight on BtFH was as moving as the first telling here. Wes, you swing on hell of an emotional hammer with your stories. Almost as effective as the Belgian stainless steel of Brenda's Soliels. I love it!
Subject: The universe of Spearfish Lake


Author:
Kirby Lambert
[Edit]
Date Posted: 17:08:59 04/06/09 Mon
Wes:

I think that I will have to read Absent Friend again very slowly AND make lots of notes. That story has so much back story and dating that it is a "gold mine" of information.

Your creation of the world/universe of Spearfish Lake is an incredible accomplishment.

As far as your readers go (including myself) we should probably establish a support/12 step group for "The Spearfish Lake Obsessed" people of the world.

As far as I am concerned the world would be a less enjoyable and inspiring place if Spearfish Lake were not part of it.

Kirby
Replies:
Subject: Wes's Newsbox


Author:
Dmitri
[Edit]
Date Posted: 22:36:16 04/05/09 Sun
Wes says:
>Got to get back to doing some writing but I'm enjoying
>rereading old favorites too much. We're better than a
>third of the way through Facing the Storm, and I hope
>you're liking it! -- Wes

I'm saving it until it's all posted. Never can tell when one of these flighty author types will just up and quit posting you know! (GRIN)

What are your old favorites, Wes? Just curious.

Thanks,

Dmitri
Replies:
Subject: Facing the Storm Ch15


Author:
Allen
[Edit]
Date Posted: 07:33:53 04/03/09 Fri
"GEORGE" was Tiffany's Maid of Honor!!!! Tiffany & Kristen had "heated" words about wearing a dress!

It certainly sounds as if there is a good story in there! We never did get told about Josh & Tiff's wedding. Does it come up in another book somewhere?

Allen
Replies:
Subject: Facing the Storm Ch13


Author:
emmsea
[Edit]
Date Posted: 21:37:29 03/29/09 Sun
Wes, another good chapter!

Nice to see Josh, Tiff & the gang facing the same sorts of problems we all face as life goes on. Unlike many other tales we read here & there where problems are rarely - or never - seen.
Thanks again,

MC
Replies:
Subject: Iditarod & the timing of "Facing the Storm"


Author:
Hal
[Edit]
Date Posted: 21:05:31 03/22/09 Sun
Wes, did you time the story to coincide with the running and finish of the 2009 Iditarod? That seems to stretch coincidence to the limit ;) Did you have to add or drop chapters to make it work? But in any case this is the 1st time I made any attempt to follow the race and I found it interesting. And of course the story is interesting and more... goes without saying.

Thanks, Hal
Replies:
Subject: Board of Trade


Author:
Joe
[Edit]
Date Posted: 11:13:02 03/23/09 Mon
I saw the Part 2 heading a few chapters ago. I didn't get the connection Runner's Moon and asked myself should I question the section heading? With this chapter the curosity was answered.

Thanks
Subject: Digital TV


Author:
Wes
[Edit]
Date Posted: 14:38:36 02/19/09 Thu
This probably won't be of a lot of interest to non-US readers, but what the heck. I sometime write a column for the paper where I work, mostly if I need to fill a hole on the editorial page. I thought about putting this on the "Shorts, outtakes and rants" page, but figured the interest in it would be transitory. But what the heck, here goes.

-------------------


In case no one noticed, Tuesday was the vaunted February 17 when we were supposed to have the long-advertised changeover between analog and digital TV broadcasting.

Never being one to let things to to absolutely the last minute, last Sunday I started hooking up the two digital converter boxes we've gotten so far. Let's just bypass the details and the foul language involved, but after two hours of messing with the (expletive deleted) things, I couldn't get either of them to work.

I spent a considerable amount of time over the next day or so contemplating the ancestry and habits of the joker that dreamed this up in the first place. By Monday after work, I'd come up with only one idea -- maybe the VCRs involved were messing the boxes up somehow. So, I disconnected the VCR (also cursing the idiot that put the screw-on antenna fittings on the VCR in a well where I couldn't get at them with a wrench.) After longer than it should have taken, I turned the TV and converter on. Lo and behold, it worked! So out of sheer curiosity and the wife saying that she needed the VCR, I put everything back the way it had been before I started messing with it. It worked like it was supposed to.

All I could do was stand there and say, "Go figure."

Just about the same thing happened with the other TV. It doesn't have to make sense, I guess.
So, I was busy working in the shop last evening when the wife got home from whatever meeting she'd been at. The first I knew of it was when she called down to the shop to complain that the VCR had recorded nothing but fuzz.

It took a little figuring, out, but finally I asked her, "What did you have the VCR set on?"

"Channel 13 and later Channel 24," she replied.

"That's the problem," I told her. "The TVs and VCRs effectively now only have two channels, 3 for broadcast and 60 for satellite."

"But how am I supposed to record and switch channels?"

"You don't," I told her. "At least not until we get a digital VCR."

Again, let's defer the details save to say that she was not very happy. Nor was I. After some discussion we worked out how to deal with the issue in the short run, although the long run is going to have to involve more converter boxes or that digital VCR. "You mean I have to have four remotes now?" Yep.

OK. I've heard all the reasons about how this is supposed to clear bandwidth and like this. I would be just about ready to believe any conspiracy theorist that is ready to charge that this whole digital TV thing is just a plot to get the ever-strapped American consumer to buy more unnecessary electronics. The only reason I don't think this is the case is that all of this stuff is being made in China, anyway, by the same idiots that recess screw-on fittings so you can't get a wrench on them.

I for one don't see any improvement in picture quality; in fact, I think it's a little worse. What's worse yet is that the number of TV channels I can receive has been severely cut. I can't pick up any Detroit stations now, for example. Goodbye to some good Canadian TV I occasionally watched on Channel 9, for example.

If you've read my column before you know I'm not a big TV freak, so when you get right down to it, it's not a great loss to me. But I think I can say that to most people, digital TV is like modern cars: an unnecessary pain in the rear end disguised as an improvement.
Replies:
Subject: Ken & Judy


Author:
byte mangler
[Edit]
Date Posted: 22:26:51 03/19/09 Thu
fts 8 mentions Ken & Judy leading the Isle Royale tours. I know that Judy made the jump from Arvata Center to Spearfish when she got a dogsled ride to Norms cabin, but this is the first I've noticed anything about them doing these tours, or about Ken being a part of that. I wonder how the farm routine would allow them that much time away?
Replies:
Subject: Rhodesia?


Author:
Noelle
[Edit]
Date Posted: 02:48:38 03/13/09 Fri
I'm wondering why they are referring to "Rhodesia" in Chapter 6 of Facing the Storm. This term is EXTREMELY out of date for a story set in 1999, as the countries Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe had not been known as Rhodesia for 20 years prior to that date.
Replies:
Subject: Iditarod 37


Author:
Lew
[Edit]
Date Posted: 16:38:17 03/18/09 Wed
ADN flash--Lance Mackey wins his third straigh Iditard arriving at 11:30AM local time.

Lew
Replies:
Subject: Yahoo Search Results


Author:
Lew
[Edit]
Date Posted: 18:25:36 03/11/09 Wed
I was doing a Yahoo search on the Iditarod specificaly looking for the words and music of "The Iditarod Trail" and found the following entry:

"Runner's Moon by Wes Boyd
A familiar song came onto the radio, but Josh was still ... I did, I did, I did the ... I get back to my home, then I can tell the tale: I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail. ...www.spearfishlaketales.com/rm/rm15.htm - 58k - Cached"

How 'bout that, Wes?

Lew
Replies:
Subject: Dog sledding pictures


Author:
Shadowhawk
[Edit]
Date Posted: 16:16:42 03/10/09 Tue
I have just found via Digg very nice series of images of dog sledding, including Iditariod. A companion for reading "Runner's Moon" ;-)

* http://digg.com/pets_animals/Dog_sledding_The_Big_Picture
* http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/dog_sledding.html?s_campaign=8315
Subject: Iditarod


Author:
SweetOneVT
[Edit]
Date Posted: 07:55:37 03/08/09 Sun
It's that time of year again. If you'd like to follow the race, this is my favorite site to do so.

http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherlisting.html
Replies:
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