HOWTO: Connect AOL DSL to a Linksys Router

To connect your AOL high speed internet service to a router is fairly simple if you have good information. AOL tech support gave me some bad advice in the beginning which caused me about an hour of headache before I called them back. To connect takes a couple of AOL specific setup instructions which I'll show you here:

1. Log into your Linksys router. To do this, open a web browserand type: http://192.168.1.1 an authentication box will open and you willneed to type in admin for the username and admin for the password.
2. Once logged in, you will need to change the Internet Connection Type to PPPoE. This is only if you are using a DSL connection. 
3. You will need to set a User name and Password. Both are the phone number you use to dial your DSL connection (probably your home number). The user name is your phone number @ aol-hs while the password is just your phone number. An example user name and password would be: u:5035552424@aol-hs p: 5035552424 . The other settings are pre-set and work fine. You can click on the picture above for more detail.
4. The next step is to actually initiate the connection. Click on the Status tab at the top of the screen. In the middle of the page, you will need to click the connect button. The router will attempt to connect to your DSL service. This may take a couple of minutes. If you entered the user name and password correctly, the router should connect and everything should be useable.  After the login succeeds, the Login Status will show "Connected" and you should be connected to the Internet.

Please feel free to post questions in the comments if you run into any trouble.

Vernonia Flood Experience

Last weekend, Lauri and I had the pleasure of driving out to Vernonia Oregon to help the residents recover from a flood. Three weeks prior, several inches of rain had caused the water table in that area to rise to around 8 feet. Lower floors of people's houses had been flooded.

Our church led a team of around 60 people to help with the cleanup. I was impressed by how organized the recovery effort was being handled. FEMA was there and directing the efforts. Given the criticisms of the agency's handling of Hurricane Katrina, I was ready for some real bureaucratic slowness. The opposite was more true. Volunteers were driving in and the volunteer department had a great grasp on what needed to be done, who was where, and how the next volunteer could do the most good.

My crew was assigned to pick up debris from the streets. Residents whose house had flooded had been working for the last couple of weeks on cutting out wet sheet rock, insulation and anything else that was damaged. These materials were stacked on the curb. Our job was to take these six foot piles, load them into the back of a big ol' truck and then take the load to the drop zone. A few others and I brought our pickup trucks and those were designated for overflow and other materials. On one block other materials meant gasoline, propane, paint thinner and fertilizer that was all loaded into my bed and driven to the drop zone. That was a fun trip and I can only imagine the chemistry that must have been going on back there.

Overall the residents were really happy to see us. They were obviously tired from three weeks of demolition work, but they were helping us to know which projects still needed to be done. They were thankful and participatory which made the whole day run even more smooth.

Below is a picture of my truck bed. The picture really doesn't do it justice; the cab was a sheet of mud and there was mud in every corner of the outside. All in all though it was great to help our neighbors to the west recover from a devistating flood. If you would like to help, contact the volunteer department at (503) 791-9629 or go to the City of Vernonia website.

Had to Share This Too:

After posting my last blog, I wanted to make sure everything was working right. So I read the blog and then took a look at the ads. Here's a picture:

Apparently even my blog reeks of beer and booze (a great message for all the children) and you can even save 70% when you buy me from the Google Store.

Music and Genomes: Pandora Nails It!

Many artists don't get math. Conversely, a lot of mathematicians can't do art. It's rare to find a person who appreciates both and even more inimitable to replicate the synthesis of art and science Pandora has created. 

Pandora is not just an online music station, it's also a music genome project combing through the irreducible aspects of millions of songs and discovering the nuances of why we listeners like a particular song. Log on to Pandora and type in an artist you like. A song starts playing and you rate if they chose well for you. If not, you get a new song. If so, the song plays through and then Pandora creates a playlist for you on the fly according to your musical tastes. As more songs play, you continue to rate the songs you hear. Pandora evolves a customized playlist that you are sure to like.

Staffers of Pandora are combing through millions of songs and tagging each song with a series of more than 400 attributes. As you, the user, indicate which songs you like, a personalized list of attributes are created and the service is able to recommend songs to you based on your previous judgements. It's a customized radio station just for you without ads!

The Music Genome Project is a clever name for such an innovative service. Members of Pandora are helping the program to learn the science of why we like music. It's the science and personalization of art. Give it a try at www.pandora.com ; user registration is free well worth the music experience.

Hunting Christmas Trees

Yup, this weekend was the McDonnell family Christmas tree hunt. This event is always well attended by both Lauri and I and is a great time to get the annual tree. While I could go on and on describing the great hunt, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

1. Lauri wanted something she could carry:
2. I wanted something that would fill the area in our great room:
3. Lauri went to the bathroom for a minute and I got to work:
4. We compromised and now we have a great tree in our great room:

Rob Klingel: One Step Closer to the Looney Bin

This is my father in law, whom I have the utmost respect for, on a bender and cruising for chicks.

It warms my heart to think that our offspring will share these genes.

Hippos Eating People

This is too strange not to post here. I can't tell if this is true or not, but my friend Jared made me aware of this and he rarely lies; he's very professional. Anyway, just had to share this: