steelhead failure

Went out for steelhead a few times over Thanksgiving break. I caught 2 tiny hatchery fish, steelhead jacks I guess, both about 20″ long missing an adipose. Calawah was low and really clear, I never do well when the river looks like that.

Also hooked what looked like a sockeye in the dickey although it would be really late for that so more likely a coho. It was dark and pretty beat up. Good trip, I really needed a vacation, bad fishing though.

Fantastic Contraption

Fantastic Contraption is a simple physics game where you try to get a wheel/ball thing into a goal.

Lots of levels and the forums are great. There are so many unique solutions to every level. I tend to go pretty simple but some of the things people come up with are mind boggling.

Here are a few solutions I’m proud of

Awash: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=2440801
Handling: http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=2442932
Unpossible: http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=2654974

Narrows park fishing

Finally got around to attempting a little beach fishing after some advice from the gamefishin forums. I set out on Saturday a little later than I wanted but hit the beach around 2pm. I figured I’d give it a shot for a few hours hitting the slack low-tide. High tide would of been better but it was a lazy sleep-in weekend.

Walked up the beach about 1/2 a mile casting every which way and throwing everything I had. Buzzbombs, spoons, and coho spinners. I saw a few flyfisherman but didn’t see anything hooked/landed while I was there. There was no crowd at all. The view was pretty good too. (cell phone pic)

Looking north below Narrows Park

Welcome change from the Skok or Nisqually.

ActiveSync errors

I started the morning with this - Critical Errors in the Event Logs: 150. At least they were all the same error:

Unexpected Exchange mailbox Server error: Server: [server.local] User: [user@domain.com] HTTP status code: [422]. Verify that the Exchange mailbox Server is working correctly.

So after ~1 hour of searching I find at least  5 solutions including deleteing/recreating virtual folders, editing \etc\hosts, editing registry settings, removing SSL encryption requirements, and tweaking some IIS settings.

Right before embarking on this huge list of fixes I read the last comment in this thread.

I have hunted high and low and finally grabbed the users phone and found that there were items in the outbox that could not be sent and there were a few old drafts. Looks like the outgoing mail that was stuck was the culprit.
So I asked if I could delete them and no errors in 30 minutes so far from that user.

I asked the user to delete everything in drafts/outbox and sure enought here was an email about 1 week old stuck in there. Here we are about 1 hour later and no errors. So if this behavior is only presenting on a few devices and not all users I suggest you ask them to delete anything stuck in the outbox/drafts folder.

PDF USGS Topo Maps

The USGS Topo Map Locator lets you download USGS maps for free. It’s a good resource if you want to go hiking/exploring or driving logging roads. You can download the PDF maps all for free, the only troublesome part is getting each section individually.

I hate printers

The culprit: HP Officejet 5610
The offense: Refusing to print PNG images

The printer is connected by USB. I’ve reset the printer multiple times. I’ve replaced the drivers multiple times. I try to print a PNG image (color) and it comes out.. blank? I can print the same exact image to any network printer in the office without problems. I convert the image to a JPG and it prints out just fine.

In my research I found that some printers using Postscript drivers have problem with PNG transparency but I couldn’t get any details beyond “sometimes it doesn’t work”. I’m about to have an Office Space moment.

Salmon invade Chile/Argentina

Saw this on the steelheader.net forums

Chinook are rapidly spreading into the rivers of Chile and Argentina.
Hard to believe it’s the same species. But the chinook salmon, conservation heartbreak of the U.S. West Coast, is invading and thriving in South America.

Full story: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33067/title/Invasion_of_the_salmon

4th of July Weekend

Met up with Ron in Port Angeles on Thursday night. Did the fireworks and beer thing then got down to business. We hooked up with Rons buddy Geoff, he’s the guy with a lot of toys including a bright shiny boat. I’ve never fished the ocean before so this was a wicked trip to start with.

We eventually rolled out around 12pm, everyone needed to catch up on some sleep I think.

Toward the end of our first pass one of the rods jumped up. I ran over and set the hook, fish on.

Two big runs then it was game over. I like fishing in the ocean, whenever I hook something like that in the river I’m worried it’s going to find some big rocks or a random tree to break you off. They’ve also got a lot more energy out in the salt.

We followed it up a little later with another king, wild again.

Port Angeles’ relatively-safe catch.

Nothing but starfish :(

This all took place over the course of 3-4 hours but it was definitely the highlight of my vacation. Stopped in to see my Mom in Forks and tried the Sol Duc out. I ended up with a broken rod and no fish. Lots of Springers jumping around but unwilling to take a bite. Still a bit early for Sockeye but I’ll be back in 2 weeks to put the hurt on them.

It’s Hot

I broke down and bought an air conditioner. GWHD6507R from Home Depot. This thing needs to work faster.

thewebsiteisdown

Hilarious. http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com