Remember to visit the Ronald Regan Presidential library
Remember to visit the Ronald Regan Presidential library, especially because it has planes. I like planes.
Back on the road again
James and I are driving back to Los Angeles today. We're not running any cameras at the moment, basically because while I now have two nice cameras with better optics and a nice external antenna for the EDGE card, I am having trouble finding a video4linux 2 web cam application. I've got some code which does the job, but it needs more hacking to make it usable, and frankly I'm more interested in getting home to the wife and kids for now. So, if anyone has a v4l2 web cam application recommendation, feel free to let me know and we can use it tomorrow for the LA to Mountain View drive.
Los Angeles to Tempe
Another video! This time from Los Angeles to Tempe, along the I-10 E, thru the desert and part a nuclear reactor.
Driving from Mountain View to Los Angeles
Today we stopped off at a house in Los Angeles where one of James' friends lives. We're on the way to Tempe, Arizona -- that's another six hours or so away tomorrow.
Kern County oil wells on I-5
Wow, and then we drove past a bunch of oil wells in the middle of an otherwise pleasant rural area called Kern County. I didn't realize that the Kern County area is responsible for two thirds of all oil produced in California. So there you go. There was even a 1950s truck next to one of the wells, which looked like it had just been abandoned one day from the look of the vegetation around it. If I wasn't going 130 kilometres an hour with the camera in the boot I would have taken a picture. Here is someone else's shot:
Are you required to wear a seat belt in California? I thought you were…
And then I saw a dude sitting in the back of a pickup, wrapped in many blankets, taking pictures as they drove down the road with his big SLR. Now that's dedication to getting a good shot. I would have a picture to show you, except that the OV511 driver oopsed, so the webcam wasn't working at the time. Damn Linux. [btags:road trip]
Meh, 3G coverage with Verizon is patchy
At least between Mountain View and LA the coverage is a bit patchy. We're back online again, but were off line for a couple of hours. I guess we should take the data from the GPS and provide a map of where Verizon failed to work for us...
On the road
Well, we've set off on our trip to Tempe, AZ. The first leg of the trip is to drive down to LA today. There we'll meet up with one of James' friends, and have dinner and so forth. Remember we're tracking the trip online, assuming the 3G coverage is good.
Where in the world are Mikal and James
Tomorrow we will be driving to LA. The day after we continue on to Tempe, Arizona for a week in the Phoenix office. Then we drive home. We got bored this afternoon, so you can track our movements here: http://blog.jdns.org/traveltracker.
Please report to the municipal hall of justice
Catherine rang me while I was at work yesterday to let me know that I had a letter from the courthouse in Santa Clara country demanding (it doesn't make it sound all that optional) that I attend at the "Municipal Hall of Justice" for jury duty. Yes, they really called it that. Yes, I thought it sounded like something from a bad 1980's film too. So, I apparently can get out of the jury duty by proving to them that I am not a citizen. In fact, it's much more onerous to show that you're not a citizen than it is for many of the other escape clauses. They want a copy of my passport for example. The letter also doesn't make it particularly clear if being a non-citizen excludes me from jury duty or not. Oh, and the only contact details on the letter are a web site, and a 24 hour recorded message line. I don't know if I would serve or not if given the option -- I probably would. So, am I able to serve? Should I? Will the Demolition Man be at the municipal hall of justice? What about Judge Dredd?