- Dave's PC and LCD (Running Windows XP)
- Shane's PC and LCD (Running Windows XP)
- Shane's laptop (Running Slackware Linux 9.1)
- Dave's hub
- A lot of cables
- Wilson's PC (Running Windows 2000)
- Colin's PC (Running Windows XP)
- Hutson's LCD
- Shane's wireless access point
~8:00 PM - The first problem happens. When all hardware in Shane's car is turned on, a fuse is blown in the car. Shane's car goes to Hutson's house to see if the inverter was broken by plugging it into Colin's car. The inverter is fine. The fuse is replaced, and a decision is made to only use Dave's PC and Shane's laptop in Shane's car.
~10:00 PM - Shane's car goes to mac's house to use his wireless internet and then Futureshop to use the wireless internet available in the parking lot. We want to download an IRC server to install on the laptop.
Dave makes a post on bluekaffee from in front of mac's house before going to futureshop (Thread here)
Dave visits bluekaffee on his PC
using the internet access in futureshop's parking lot
Dave googles in futureshop's
parking lot
Neil pings the access point in
futureshop to test the connection stability
We then meet at the 24 hour sobeys and stock up on junk food. The people in Shane's car write a song about compiling programs in linux while driving 100 km/h on the TCH. When they meet the people in Colin's car the song is sung amid beeps from the power inverter. Lyrics here. Everybody is excited and hyper.
11:30 PM - After fucking around with the internet connectivitiy and playing with computers, we finally set off for gander. While on the highway we create the wireless link and ping between cars. The link isn't very strong due to the low power nature of the pcmcia card in the laptop. Still, however, a live webcam feed is streamed from Shane's car to Colin's car. After fooling around with it for a while, it becomes too much effort to try to maintain the link and the people in each car amuse themselves. Hutson plays video games in Colin's car, using the car stereo to listen to the sounds. Dave plays music in Shane's car.
~1:00 AM - We pull into a gas station to get more gas for Shane's car. As well, something has happened in Colin's car such that the computers will not turn on. We look at the fuses, they appear to be fine. The cigartte lighter in colin's car just will not work. Mildly annoyed, we set off once more for gander. Along the way, tiredness causes everybody to go a little insane. Hilarity ensuses in Shane's car. Neil draws amusing pictures in paint on the computer. Good times. At one point the cars pull over and Shane runs around on the deserted highway in the darkness.
Neil drew this picture in paint. It was hilarious/frightening at 4:00 AM when we were all very, very tired.
4:30 AM- Arrived in Gander. We drive around looking for a place to park and sleep. Colin vaguley remembers a location in gander where we might stay. It turns out to be on a skidoo trail and it is winter. We cannot stay there. We drive down a strange road that is very very long and seems to go into the woods. It seems to be a road for hauling lumber on. We decide not to sleep there in case it snows and does not get plowed because its not a well used road.
6:10 AM - We finally find a place to park on the side of an infrequently used highway. We go to sleep.
7:30 AM - We wake up. We can't really get back to sleep. At 6:10 it was very very dark, and at 7:30 it is very daylight. Our bodies seem to think we have had a full nights rest. In fact, at first it seems unbelievable that it is 7:30 AM. We decide to depart. We get ready to go. The people in Colin's car still seem to be asleep. None of us wants to be the one to do it, but eventually one of us wakes up the people in the other car using the FRS radios we have brought.
8:10 AM - Shane's car leaves early because it is thought we have broken another fuse, but it turns out the inverter was just unplugged. We all find this very amusing. We wait at McDonalds a bit, but give up waiting for Colin's car and we return. We find that they have become stuck in the snow overnight, but are easily pushed out and we set off. At first Colin's car seems to be having trouble but it turns out to be that he forgot to turn off the parking brake. We meet at McDonalds.
The McDonalds has a two lane drive through!
The people in Colin's car really want to go home. Their computers dont work and they are tired. They also dont have the money to spend on gas. They decide to head home early. Shane's car remains in Gander and continues to explore Gander. Both cars go to the gas station, Colin's car gets gas and they leave.
~9:30 AM - Shane's car drives around Gander looking for wireless LANs. We find one at some sort of school, but we have a hard time staying connected.
This school has THREE wireless LAN's inside!
9:50 AM - We take a break from wardriving to go to McDonalds to eat some breakfast.
Shane waits to be served
Dave makes a face at the
camera
10:10 AM - We begain exploring Gander a little bit. We take pictures of some places with amusing names.
Dave's screen name is flyer
Greg wanted a picture of the
courthouse
I pity the fool who doesn't shop
at Mr. T's convenience
There were ONLY skidoos at this
gas station, no cars. And it was Mr. T's convenience. Had we slipped into
bizaro world?!
11:01 AM - For some reason somebody takes a picture of the power bar.
The powerbar duct taped to the front seat for easy access
11:25 AM - We drive by a Ches's Fish and Chips. Shane goes in to order but they are not ready yet. They say they will be ready by 11:45.
11:45 AM - Shane buys a 3 piece fish and chips. He is given coupons for Ches's that are only valid in Gander. We plan to return some day and use them. On the way out Shane realizes that the Ches's is connected to a mall. We decide to return after Shane is finished eating. We drive around a bit.
11:50 AM - We return to the mall and wander around looking in the stores. We go into the dollar store and into some sort of department store. By this time the lack of sleep is really getting to us in hilarious ways. We keep seeing stuff to buy and cracking up laughing. Even seeing the dollar store selling a short cat5 cable makes as laugh. As does the spoon with holes in it in the department store. Neil sees a long metal spiral thing in the pet section. He claims it is for people who are cheap to do home operations on animals. We decide that this is crazy and we see that the tag says it is for digging into the ground to attach a dog to so it wont escape. We laugh some more. We wander around the mall in a tired state looking like we're crazy or on drugs or something.
The mall has a cinema. It can show only one movie at a time
Dave plays with children's toys
We see a department store named
"SAAN"
The mall has a whole floor for
offices, but there's only one really there! d'oh
Neil plays some sort of pinball
game that uses gumballs. For some reason the thing has skeletons playing
hockey painted on it.
There is a store in the mall that
sells tumbstones for some reason. They even have a picnic table made out
of tumbstones on display... creepy.
12:05 PM - Shane's nose starts bleeing spontanously in the middle of the mall. Before he gets to the bathroom it stops by itself. We laugh because we think that people will think we were snorting cocaine and went to the mall and went crazy.
12:10 PM - We go back to the car. Nothing is stolen.
The front seat
Dave checks out the back
seat
12:15 PM - We want to listen to loud music in the car, however, the tape adapter for the car is broken. We decide to try to find a place to buy one. We drive around until we see a "Music Store and Computer Repair Shop". Dave runs in and asks. They dont have any, but they tell us that there is apparently a mall in gander and this mall has a radio shack! We quickly go to "Gander Mall".
12:20 PM - We arrive at the radio shack in Gander Mall. Shane uses the computer to post on BK, as does Greg. Dave uses the computer to look up info on wireless lan cards. We totally forget about the tape adapter when we see they sell wireless lan cards. Dave borrows $60 from Shane and $60 from Greg to buy a PCI wireless 802.11g card on the spur of the moment. We to the car to set up the PCI card in the PC.
Shane posts in the thread on bluekaffee (Thread here)
Shane posts a journal to
which Greg immediatly replies (Journal here)
Dave looks up wireless lan card
info
12:30 PM - While everybody in the car is focused on setting up the PCI 802.11g card, Greg takes the wheel and drives around taking pictures of things. He parks in the Mayor's parking spot, and visits the airport. The airport's pretty much the most important thing in Gander.
Parked in the mayor's spot
Typing in the front and back
seats. Shane eats cake roll and holds the new PCI wireless NIC.
The entrance of the airport
The runway in the airport
The inside of the airport
A sign in the airport
There's a radar thing in a
security zone with barbed wire next to the airport
1:05 PM - The PCI card is set up, and we go off to find wireless lans to access with it.
1:30 PM - After driving around, we find one in a residential neighbourhood. We are very excited, and we try to load bluekaffee to post an entry, but we can't stay connected long enough. We notice that the house we are getting internet from has a police car in front. This amuses us.
Dave is excited about the connection
There's a police car in front of
the house!
The logo on the side
1:40 PM - We drive around looking for another wireless lan. We see a Collage of the North Atlantic campus and drive behind it for some reason. Weirdly, there are two broken planes behind it and we drive up to them.
This plane will have a hard time flying with no wings
This plane is half buried in the
snow
1:50 PM - We drive around looking for wireless lans some more. We take pictures of ourselves and of random stuff.
Dave's head
Shane driving
Greg contemplating
Neil playing linux games
We have a friend named Mitch. He
should work here
2:15 PM - We decide to go back and try connecting at that school again. Success! It works this time! Both the PCI card in the PC and the PCMCIA card in the laptop are able to connect. Dave posts on bluekaffee, and goes on IRC and talks to people. Neil checks the weather forcast... there is a heavy snowfall warning.
Dave using IRC
We are parked outside the school.
You can see Dave's LCD in the window
Snow is beginning to fall, and the
sky doesn't look good.
Dave tries to download an IRC
server so him and Neil can talk to each other through the network during
the drive home
Dave on bluekaffee
This is the post he made on
bluekaffee. "eteach" is the network name of the wireless lan. (Thread
here)
Neil checks the weather
forcast
2:30 PM - There is only one thing we want to do before we return home. The night before, when we arrived in gander, we drove up a very long road in the woods that led to nowhere. We wanted to see what was at the end of the road as we had given up before.
The road is near the airport. You can see the runway behind this sign and as such there are low flying aircraft. The night before, in fact, several planes flew overhead and were very loud.
We see this sign very far down the
road
This road leads out into
wilderness
3:00 PM - We eventually reach a fork in the road. We decide that we dont have any more time to explore, as the weather is slowly turning bad. We figure that the road simply goes in a loop at this fork, and decide to go back home.
The fork
The amount of electronics in this
car is a contrast to the amount surrounding it
There are signs like this all
along the road
Dave takes a picture of the PCI
card while we drive back along the road
Dave computes while Shane drives
These are runway lights that guide
planes to the runway
3:30 PM - After getting gas, we set off for home. The weather gets worse and worse.
Dave adjusts his case. It's made of K-nex
We are driving down the highway.
There is a lot of snow and it is easy to skid
Neil eats pretzels
~4:45 PM - Shane is exhausted. Greg starts driving for a while. It is starting to get dark.
Forsyth drives and Dave watches. It is very dark
~5:10 PM - Dave sleeps. Shane and Neil amuse themselves by playing with lighters in the back seat. Neil lights marshmellow on fire and throws it out the window. Shane duct tapes things to his window. He also wraps duct tape around the cake roll container that is made of plastic and hangs it out the window as a flag. It is all very amusing.
Shane gets bored and duct tapes things to his window
5:30 PM - After Greg has a rather large and scary skid because of the snow, Shane decides to drive again. However both Shane and Greg have difficulty getting into and out of the back seat due the crap duct taped to the window. We all laugh.
Greg sits in the back next to the crap
6:30 PM - It seems to be both snowing and raining at the same time. We try to photograph the weather.
Water splashes up on the window
Snow falls from the sky
Snow flies by the window
Snow flies over the roof. The flag
has been ripped to shreads by the weather
More rain
St. John's is now only 15 km away
Water on the front window
Downtown St. John's only 1 km away
We take the exit for downtown St.
John's
8:00 PM - We arrive home. Shane drops everybody at their houses and proceeds to go to his house and sleep for 14 hours.
We must do this again someday. It was excellent.
Greg wrote a song about it.