GPS Struggles ...

Sometimes, posts are just for my use later. This might help someone else, though:

http://www.cooldrives.com/lib/cooldrives/vista-prolific-chip-driver-for-serial-adapters.zip

Why this link? I'm utilizing a GPS unit for my upcoming job so we can start mapping CA plots, villages, distances, areas, etc., etc. The simplest unit from Garmin is the eTrex for about $90-99 retail ... it tells me plenty and I'm not one for maps, graphics, etc., on the unit itself ... just want the data points, lat./long., and in a pinch, how far is it back to someplace that you know where you are. Durable unit, low battery use, great signal acquistion, etc.

Anyway, the eTrex lacks a USB connection (join the early 2000s, friends at Garmin), and sports instead a 9-pin serial connection ... whoo-hoo we're hooking up to the mainframe! You need to buy the serial cable (~$20) and a 9-pin serial-to-USB connector (it goes by the handle PL2303, $7-10). And then, as the fishermen bound for Newfoundland say, your troubles have just begun.

I purchased my cable from Prolific, which has something like a billion drivers out there for all manners of OS (I just got a new laptop running Windows 7-64 bit). Well, there is no plug-and-play; I downloaded the driver for WIN7-64, got nothing; went to various discussion boards ... nothing. Eventually (about 4.5 hours over two days) I managed to find a fix ... you download a driver for Vista from a non-Prolific website.

The end justifies the means though ... the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has a piece of freeware (DNR Garmin) that downloads/uploads data to/from your GPS, puts it into a spreadsheet, makes .kmz, shapefiles, GPSformat, etc. We are going to put it through the paces in Western Province.

Blah-blah-blah ... I'll look this up when we're installing it remotely on the extension officers' laptops.

All for today! Off to Dublin next Saturday!

Resolutions 2012

Happy New Year!

I'm going to try to keep the blog and the dream alive. Simple resolutions / goals this year:

1. Get my siLozi to a level higher than my kiKaonde was a few years ago (it's pretty sloppy right now).
2. Pull up my statistics. It is also really rusty from unintentional neglect.
3. Read the Bible (aka Bibele ya Kinele) all the way through. If you want to track our [US] involvement in Israel, read Genesis, Chapter 13. Then the questions get really deep ...  
4. Exercise more regularly.
5. Eat simply.
6. Live simply. Less is more. 
7. Write, write, write.

I'll be honest; 4-6 will be far easier in Zambia. Even the communication-deprived Upper Peninsula is comparatively full of stuff. America is collectively drowning in stuff, but I won't go into that here. 

Well, all for now ... I have to squeeze in all my Internet time into two hours I spend at our local bar which has WiFi. The way we are up here, all the bandwidth tends to be mine. Then I go home and grind rust off cast iron pans (everyone has their quirks to kill time).

Here's a blog I'm following that is far more honest than I'd care to be about expat development workers:

http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com. To quote Homer Simpson, "It's funny because it's true."