Geeky – lee-lawmaster.com

Promises Kept

October 23rd, 2022 was a grand day for Star Trek, Bloomington & The Janeway Collective. On that day, Kate Mulgrew kept the promise she made on October 24th, 2020 when The Janeway Statue was unveiled.

On that cold, socially distanced day in 2020 she made a promise that she would come visit, and that it would be a great day. She was right.

The stars aligned and we were able to have an event with Kate. So many questions had to be answered, so many problems solved to make it happen however. Unfortunately, with my back problems and job change I hadn’t been able to give what I gave to the unveiling.

Event space near the statue was expensive, prohibitively. But the old Woolery Mill, that has been revamped by One World Enterprises wasn’t. It was out of town compared to the statue and other options, but it was overly welcoming. It was there where we held an event titled “A Conversation with Kate” which was a sell out, with close to 500 in attendance. The maximum occupancy was 520.

Kate had a long day that day, driving all the way from Iowa where she is from. Arriving at the statue I’m sure she was a combination of tired and excited at the same time, as we had roughly the same audience size in attendance as we did for the unveiling. There was also plenty of media there, from Indiana Public Media, to The Bloomingtonian, our own crew that was recording and streaming the goings on via Facebook, and a few others that I didn’t know or recognize.

While at the statue, Kate gave a speech and then took some photos. Due to the size of the crowd, and an angry older lady with a walker – the situation quickly became one of fear of the security of our esteemed guest. So I, our security team and other members of the collective quickly formed a bubble and whisked Ms. Mulgrew away.

We then proceeded to the event space, where I had helped do some setup. The event began with The Nerdy Flutist, who had also played at the statue before Kate arrived. She and her friends had made some videos on Tik Tok. It was then that I knew we had to invite her for such an event. I’m very happy the collective continued my motivations.

@thenerdyflutist
It’s been a while since I posted this, and now the @janewaystatue is on TikTok! #startrek #voyager #janeway #janewaystatue #trektok #trektokcrew #nx85313 #nxcosplay #flutequartet
♬ Voyager Flute Quartet – TheNerdyFlutist | Kelly 🎶

This is the video in question

When she was done with her set, Kate made her way to the stage. I’ll never forget Kelly’s words on the experience for her. As Kate bowed to her, it made her feel appreciated, it made her feel seen and loved. And loved she is, for just being herself.

After the event, we had a private dinner with Kate at The Irish Lion. I was told only the board would be present, but we had some other guests including said flutist, who sat next to me. She felt like she was in a dream that she didn’t want to wake from, and I was so happy for her. I told Kate about how the place we were having dinner was featured on the TV show Cheers, which she was on several times. It was a great day, and a great evening.

In many ways, it was the dream realized for the rag tag group of people that got together in 2019 wanting to build a statue for “our” captain.

Blocked by Security

This entire website has been stripped from the entirety of the internet for a few weeks. My SSL certificate, what makes this a HTTPS website opposed to a HTTP website expired.

In my foolishness, I assumed the one I purchased would just renew the old one. I was wrong. It took me the greater part of the evening, but I finally got it resolved and this website working again.

I’ve got quite a few things to post about, thankfully I can do that again.

Non-Profit Creator

That’s a line I should add to my resume. It’s not something I was ever interested in. Along with others I was a part of the creation of The Janeway Collective, and built a statue for a certain Star Trek captain.

After our unveiling on October 24th, 2020 our group was in free fall. There were several arguments that led up to that point that spilled over afterwards; ones based on items I was not involved in nor had real decision making capabilities on. Something had to be done, or this trip was over.

The Reddit contingent saw more to be done. The possibility of scholarships, to be stewards of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics). I told both of my daughters that this was a lifelong commitment. I meant that.

So I did what I do, when indecision is running rampant; and I see a clear path forward, I make that decision. Firstly, I incorporated the Janeway Collective as a non-profit. I then applied for an EIN for us. We then had to make and agree to a set of by-laws to govern our activities. Once that was complete; I applied for federal 501c3 non-profit status, which involved a $250 fee.

Then we waited, and waited some more.

The first sign of anything was a response from the IRS, asking for our income/expenses over the last 3 years. Thankfully we had that information, which I was able to provide to them. They also had a few other questions; which we were able to answer quickly.

Last Sunday night, I checked my mailbox and inside of it was a singular envelope from the IRS. IT WAS A DETERMINATION LETTER! We did it. It was a group effort, but I did a lot of the leg work needed.

I then applied and received state designation on the same day.

We are now able to give Artisan Alley our 30 days notice. While they did us a world of good when it came to raising funds, and connecting us with artists for the statue; the rest has been quite over reaching. We have been obligated to name them in anything we do, but I have not seen anything in kind done for us. It’s quite frustrating.

Financially it has been draining as well, as they have charged us a pretty steep amount, monthly for well over a year now. We don’t sell things; we aren’t in the business of “making money.” Each dollar we receive really counts. From a simple point of view, that cost has been HUGE for not much benefit received.

I’m excited for the future of The Janeway Collective. I am proud that the cornerstone of my presidency will be this. I am incredibly happy that most of the original people have stayed on. I’m also exicted about our new people; and what marks they may leave on this legacy I am happy to be a part of.

Hey Look Ma, We Made it!

For almost two years, I have been on a journey with other Bloomingtonians to complete something others had tried, but never completed. Over the weekend, we did the thing, and completed it.

Three disconnected groups of Bloomington area residents joined forces, doing what they say couldn’t be done. I take no credit for anything major here, but I was involved as much as I could be.

For those reading this who aren’t familiar with the Star Trek universe, Kathryn Janeway was the first Captain of a Star Trek series, Voyager. Her character was born in Bloomington, Indiana. This immediately became a source of pride for trekkies in the area.

The monument and event took place on the B-Line trail, with an immense crowd of fans. So many that it made social distancing almost impossible. I played my typical role of jack of all trades, giving a hand to make sure what needed to be done, was. I’m not fond of the limelight, and prefer to stay out of it as much as possible.

The monument is a bronze bust on a limestone base with an inset stainless steel plate. Beside it is a informational table, that has my name on it twice.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to lean on live streaming harder than we originally planned for the event. We had some difficulties with the microphones causing echo on the videos we played but otherwise it went well. Later on that day I had checked the stats for the live video, and 16.1k people had viewed it!

Kate Mulgrew has such an infectious smile

We were fortunate that Kate Mulgrew agreed to join us virtually. The event was at 11am but she was in California, where it was 8am. I was so happy to be behind the scenes, where I got these excellent photos of her reactions to this monument of a character she played and is reprising in the new series Prodigy.

The press photographing the sculptor Aaron Eby

The Herald-Times was there, The Bloomingtonian was there and so was our local PBS station, WTIU. That night, I started to see the information spread across the internet on trek centric sites and a TV station in Iowa, that covers the area where Mulgrew is from.

If you look closely, you will see my name – twice!

The informational table tells the story of Janeway, and her creator Jeri Taylor who spent her childhood in Bloomington and graduated from Indiana University. The papers in which the Janeway character was created are housed at the Lilly Library. A display of these papers was in the original plan for the unveiling event.

I’m not a fan of pictures of myself, but here I am.

I began the day at 7am, and it was full go until everything ended roughly at 2pm. I was tired, I was exhausted but I was also immensely humbled and fulfilled by the days events. My youngest daughter was there with me to be witness to the event. My eldest joined the live stream, as did one of my aunts in Oklahoma. The next day was my 40th birthday, and this is the best present a guy could have.

We produced a booklet for the unveiling. I’m unsure of how many were produced exactly, but we ran out of them before the unveiling actually happened. I grabbed four of them because I knew they would go quickly. One of them I gave to Jeremy Hogan, who runs The Bloomingtonian, I gave my girlfriend another. One of them I saved for Steve Volan, who without his connection I would have never been involved in this. I made sure he would be added to the special thanks portion. Leaving one for myself.

We haven’t discussed our long term goals or plans as of yet, I am currently working on a Wikipedia page for the monument, which is currently just a section on the main Janeway page.

Breaking Ground

Yesterday, I ceremoniously broke ground on a monument to be unveiled this fall, along with the rest of the Janeway Collective. The event was covered by our local newspaper and an award winning photojournalist who runs his own operation, aptly named The Bloomingtonian.

Roughly one year and three months ago two groups of people working on the same goal merged, forming the Janeway Collective.

What is this monument? It’s a future birthplace monument for captain Kathryn Janeway, from the Star Trek Series Voyager. The creator of her character Jeri Taylor, grew up in Bloomington and graduated from IU. She in kind, made the good captain’s birthplace the same.

James T. Kirk has one, why can’t she? Personally I think all of the Star Trek captains should have monuments. This seems to be a huge subject these days.

If you have not watched Voyager, it’s an inspiring piece of small screen cinema. Stuck in the delta quadrant, so far away from home that it would be impossible to make it back home in their lifetime. Through her strength in leadership and courage to think outside the box, they made it back.

An inspiration to scientists and astronauts, Janeway deserves this honor. In a world where women still make less than men on average. Where what they do with their bodies are often controlled and legislated by men, Janeway deserves this honor.

This monument is a dedication to women everywhere. Through the ages, you have been the giver of life but treated as less than. I am proud to be a member of a group who publicly states this is not the case. As a father of two daughters, these subjects are important to me. They should not be valued based on their biological functions but on their contributions to our world.

In this time where our country is seemingly divided on any issue there is, this is the singular thing that makes me happy to be a part of society. It is the only thing that reinforces that there are people who celebrate the good parts of life, instead of focusing on the bad.

After the ground breaking, the collective went to the secret location where the bronze bust is being held to view it. For most of us, this was the first time. It’s absolutely beautiful. However, we are keeping images of it a secret until the official unveiling on October 24th, 2020. It’s the most excellent birthday present I could ever receive.

I cannot end this post without giving thanks to other members of the Janeway Collective. Peter & Mary, for their undying love and passion for “making this so.” Mary M. (MAM), for your spiritual guidance and wisdom through all of this, always coming to the table with mindfulness. Adam, for your connections in the artist community that brought thoughts to reality. Melissa, for your abilities in helping us plan and reach out to the hospitality trades. Josh, for your wicked abilities in web building, marketing and showing me a different way to do things. And to all other members of the Janeway Collective, who much like me pitch in and do what we can to help this come to light.

Close But No Cigar

In my ongoing cutting the cord adventures. I finally got the replacement antenna. I assembled it last night, and installed it this morning.

The rear section of the antenna. My camera was set on panoramic mode to take this image.

At first I was puzzled, as it was receiving nothing – just like what the last one did out of the blue. I power cycled the pre-amp, distribution amp and my external tuner. Boom, I started getting reception.

So I aimed for the place I really wanted to get TV from, Indianapolis. I was picking up all of the TV stations there except for the NBC affiliate WTHR. No matter how I adjusted it – nothing. I was sad. I’ve spent so much time, effort and money on this to settle on not receiving a major TV network.

To understand the scale here, that mast is 8′ tall. I cannot reach the top of the antenna.

So I aimed it towards Terre Haute. The same location I had my old antenna pointed towards. Both cities carry all of the major and minor networks. The only thing that is different is the local content. Indianapolis based stations tend to carry more content focused towards my locality, whereas Terre Haute stations do not.

Not all is lost however, as I still receive content from 1 Indianapolis TV station. So if I need to watch something Indy specific, I can.

Now it’s just a matter of time. We must see if these results remain.

Technology My Way

Two years ago, my wife and I signed a contract for cellular phones. It was a basic contract with the only extra being a small texting plan for each of us that added $10 a month to our bill. It soon became overwhelmingly apparent how much we (the US) doesn’t realize how much it is overcharged for cellular telephone service. We were paying $75 a month for 2 phones that we didn’t use tremendously. We didn’t feel like we were getting a good value.

We decided a few months into the contract that once it was over we would re-evaluate the situation, and decide to make a change.

My phone was a smart phone (Samsung Blackjack II), and I soon came to love all the bells and whistles having that phone provided me. I didn’t want to lose the “non phone” functionality I had with this device to save money.

Because of my chosen line of work, I have been privileged to just about every kind of mobile device you can think of. I’ve seen all Apple “i” devices, Google Android devices of all shapes and sizes, Amazon Kindles, Barnes & Noble Nook’s, and even some devices from overseas that aren’t sold in the states.

While I enjoy what technology has to bring us, I don’t enjoy the trend of being “connected” all the time. What really boggles my mind about this trend are the costs. Instead of just paying for cellular phone service, now for smart devices there are required data plans, and sometimes required texting plans. The costs of these plans can be equal to or even more than just the basic calling service.

What I have done that has differentiated myself from the masses is by combining the capabilities of a smart phone, with the affordable qualities of a pre-paid cell phone, utilizing an Apple iPhone 3g.

There are many guides online, explaining how to do such a feat with the iPhone. I found many to be informative and factual. They all have at least 1 step incorrect however. Many will tell you to purchase a SIM card and then activate it via AT&T’s website, which is impossible. I found this out the hard way, but a SIM card is only a couple of bucks, so it wasn’t a huge deal. Others tell you to purchase a “Go-Phone” and move the SIM card. This isn’t a good idea either, as this option actually locks the SIM card to that Go-Phone for a period of 6 months.

I ended up going to an AT&T store with my old phone after our contract had expired, and requested to switch to pre-paid. It was that simple. I then just moved the SIM card to the iPhone and voila!

While I can’t access data services when most iPhone users can, that doesn’t bother me. What makes me happy is knowing that I’m paying 8 times less for basically the same service as they are!

It’s been a little bit over a month since I went pre-paid, and I’ve only spent $11.30! With VOIP options such as Skype and TextFree, I only need to use my “paid” minutes when I don’t have a wireless connection.

And that, my friends, is how you have your cake and eat it too!

Day One

My first day as a student at IU was exciting, exhausting and fulfilling.

I first worked my job at Technology Services at KSoB. I then rushed over to McNutt for my other job with UITS/TCC. When I arrived and started to settle in, I received a call asking me to go to Read due to some staffing issues. So I rushed over to the other end of campus as quick as I could to fulfill this request.

When I arrived I was in shock. Whomever had worked there last had left the supply cabinet unlocked, and all of it’s contents inside unlocked. We keep a radio, laptop, hubs and other supplies in it. Someone could have simply walked in and taken them without worry.

The consultant that should have been there arrived about 30 minutes late, he’s obviously a underclassmen, he didn’t show any sense of responsibility. We had many tickets and a few appointments to go on as there are many people around campus having problems connecting to IU’s network. We called many people and were able to resolve the issue on the phone, or close the ticket because the issue had been fixed.

Printing was also basically down across the whole campus. The printing system was migrated to a new system without any time for testing that is normally done. Basically what was once many was migrated to a few and all hell broke loose. As I write this printing is down again. I hope this issue gets resolved soon, as I genuinely feel bad for these students who rely on university printers.

It was a good, hard and hot shift, but we were productive.

I then rode my bike over to Ballantine Hall, where my American Studies class is. I arrived almost an hour early, so I had time to relax from the fast paced day I had.

I was amazed to find that my class is very small, only about 10 students! The topic of this class is how the computer changed history and culture. I think it’s going to be a fun and interesting class. Since I’m the geek that I am with regards to computers and history I think it’s the perfect fit for me.

After class I caught the Bloomington Transit, the city’s public bus system. I get to ride it free since I’m a student at IU. My bike and I rode over to Wal-Mart where Rachel and Amelia were waiting on me. This is a better alternative than Rachel packing her up and driving back to campus to pick me up. I haven’t rode the bus since I was in middle school! The one thing I can say is bus design has changed significantly since then.

Once we got home, I basically crashed from the days’ activities. I hope I can keep up the pace.

Today is going to be a whole new adventure that I will update you on tomorrow.

Capturing Complete

I honestly can’t count how many times I have captured all of the season 1 ROX episodes, but it’s been too many times. Between all the issues I’ve had, there isn’t really an exact source to point the blame to. I’ve had a hard drive crash, which put me to tears. I have some tapes that CATS made for me which have been in bad shape since the day I got them.

The hard drive crash made me seriously look for backup solutions and I found one. I created a backup server, which backs up my files to a mirrored raid. Should 1 drive fail, I can simply replace it and lose no data. The system has expandability for more hard drives in the future should I need them. The only item I haven’t done is off site or cloud backup, mainly due to the file size of video files.

For a while I was transferring video using a USB device, which worked well for a while but now leaves a video frame in places where they shouldn’t be. I think it’s a bandwidth issue. Now I’m transferring with a capture card, and haven’t seen any of the issues I had with the USB device.

As of right now I have over 600 gigabytes of files solely dedicated to ROX. Most of those are simply draft episodes which have been captured, but aren’t suitable for release. They are either missing one piece here or there, or just need fade effects added to the beginning and end.

That’s what I do. I’m not interpreting the original work, merely trying to make 1 good episode from a sea of bad ones. It’s not easy work. I go over each episode frame by frame and look for things such as heat damage (which has been the biggest issue thus far) y-axis video track issues and a plethora of audio issues.

Now the real work begins. I’m hoping to edit and render 1 episode a night. If I’m able to keep on this schedule I might be able to start DVD authoring within a month.

Without Context

Over the weekend, I tested the capabilities of my newly operating LAN. I read an article on lifehacker about a program designed to test the speed of your home network. This article basically shouted “try me.” And so I did.

While my LAN should theoretically be gigabit in speed, it has been almost impossible for me to find what exactly gigabit is. The only absolute I can find is that the term gigabit means 1 billion bits. The problem is finding the context of that. What is truly considered a gigabit network?

This program creates a file on another computer on your network and calculates the data for you. I sent 1 gigabyte files to my server and HTPC. By sending this large of a file, it tests more than speed, but throughput of the network. Every computer on my network has a gigabit network card except for my server, which has a 10/100 network card. This is where I’m somewhat confused, as the results were somewhat similar for both machines.

Results:

Server

	—Writing—	—Reading—
Packet length :	1,048,576,000	1,048,576,000
Time to complete:	98.0580000	148.7040000
Bytes per second:	10,693,426	7,051,431
Bits per second :	85,547,408	56,411,448
	————-	————-
Mbps:	81.5843658	53.7981491

HTPC

	—Writing—	—Reading—
Packet length :	1,048,576,000	1,048,576,000
Time to complete:	92.2800000	92.9600000
Bytes per second:	11,362,982	11,279,862
Bits per second :	90,903,856	90,238,896
	————-	————-
Mbps:	86.6926727	86.0585175

What I’d really like to find out is if these numbers are “in line” with what a cat5e LAN with a gigabit router and gigabit switch should be.

While I’ve done a fair amount of “googling” this, I haven’t found any information that hits a home run. Most of what I’ve found is out of date, or goes off on a tangent in a completely different direction.

If you happen upon this blog and are a network engineer, or knowledgeable on this subject, please let me know!