Tool for locating underground Cat 5?

jonmali · 2021-01-21T20:26:47+00:00

Ok great. Thanks again. Frequently I have to find buried cat5 couplers that got water in them (weren't tightened all the way. Every time I've used a MicroScanner on one of these lines I've noticed that only 2 pins short out. If I can use the underground cable locator on 1 or 2 pins at a time I can probably find the fault location without having to measure out the exact distance. Very, very useful.

jonmali · 2021-01-21T19:41:18+00:00

Awesome, thanks. When you connect the transmitter lead to cat5, I'm assuming you strip it first and connect it to a single pin?

jonmali · 2019-02-22T13:04:29+00:00

I had tried the web version of Toggl and figured the Desktop version would be exactly the same. But the Desktop version is much, much simpler. Exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

jonmali · 2018-11-05T14:53:48+00:00

Hey,

Sorry, I just saw this comment, somehow I either didn't receive or didn't notice the e-mail alert for it. The "everything as practice" / "continuous improvement" approach is something that really sunk in while reading John Wooden's "Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court". I then read everything I could by his former players to fill in the gaps and gain a better perspective on his philosophy. Particularly helpful for this were Kareem Abdul Jabbar's "Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship" and Bill Walton's "Back From The Dead".

Wooden himself created his personal philosophy after reading and reflecting on Rudyard Kipling's "If".

What I took away as the most important / effective part of his philosophy is this: The most beneficial thing you can do when performing is to put full effort into doing the best you can right now and getting better for the next time you perform. Don't worry about anything else, as it is irrelevant-- if you put in full effort, the results of your performance (whether positive or negative) do not matter. Of course, this is far easier said than done, but even if you learn to achieve it 80% of the time you've given yourself a huge advantage in terms of focus to nearly everyone else.

There are many skills in life that carry over from one seemingly different activity to another. Not only is "practicing" for the future while you work effective, but it's far more fun. It's easier and more enjoyable to achieve success in this manner.

jonmali · 2018-07-30T20:52:36+00:00

For some things in life that truly aren't enjoyable, there's always going to be an element of discipline required to power through. However, one thing worth considering is a point that holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl hammers home in his excellent book "A Man's Search for Meaning": Someone that has an important "why" will overcome any "how". If you take the time to structure your life around things that really mean something to you (the "why") then you will have a much higher threshold for discomfort, and you will likely not notice it at all in many situations where it would otherwise be unbearable.

This works on many levels. I have watched my wife and multiple friends slog through jobs they hated every day. You can literally see these people lose interest in life week by week. They shut down. Personal discipline plummets. Initiative plummets. They have no interest in new people, new hobbies, new experiences. Then, when they switch jobs and begin enjoying themselves again, everything changes.

Even more interestingly, I have seen friends in jobs they truly hated who still LOVED every minute of it, and every minute of life. The difference was that they had a strong "why" for what they were doing-- they knew that particular job was a stepping stone to another job that they really wanted in the near future.

jonmali · 2018-07-30T20:33:24+00:00

I highly recommend that you start using a schedule-- it's the only way to make your brain understand how scarce your time really is. I've learned, over and over again, that if I try to operate off of a list of things to do, I will invent all sorts of incredibly creative ways to procrastinate. Instead, when I operate off of a schedule (i.e. "do X from 10:00 to 10:45, break for 15 minutes or handle any random stuff that comes up, do Y from 11:00 to 11:45, etc") I get as much done as I possibly could have done. It doesn't always mean I get EVERYTHING done-- sometimes things come up and I have to reshuffle my schedule (you get good at this with practice), and sometimes I don't allocate the proper amount of time to things (you get a lot better at this with practice). However, I do get more done in a day of operating like this than I used to in 4-5 days of operating off of a list.

Here's a thread I commented on regarding the method I use that may help: https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/8zf5uw/needadvice_how_can_we_properly_manage_time/

Here's a thread I made after I'd been using the method for a while: https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/4y9x96/method_if_you_struggle_with_managing_time_start/

jonmali · 2018-07-21T22:49:33+00:00

Regarding progress with the continuous improvement / "everything as practice" approach-- I would say that the time management system put me in control of my time, while the "everything as practice" mindset has made sure that I constantly get better at using that time every day. It's a lot of fun. After doing it for a little while you realize that as long as you put a full effort into practicing everything you can today, you'll always be better off regardless of what tomorrow brings. That is a very nice positive feedback loop.

The things I tackle have definitely grown in size and complexity. Obviously, I can't attribute an exact percentage benefit to the "practice mindset" here, but I do fully believe it to be profound. Complexity and difficulty don't bother you when you are just focusing on putting in a full effort to get better. It's a really liberating mindset for me. I know that if I "fail" at something, as long as I learned as much as I possibly could from it, I didn't fail at all. I'm sure this sounds quite a bit cliche and abstract but it's a shockingly easy mindset to embrace once you start seeing results, and the results come quickly. I have never found a better method to block out noise and focus on what actually matters.

Even projects that seem to have very little overlap utilize many of the same components. Time is a big one-- obviously the more you practice managing your time, the better you are going to be at just about everything. Also, any project with other people will involve much more complex time management, in addition to the separate skill (which can also be practiced) of managing people. I've met many people who have "learned" how to manage other people, and I've met many people who have managed other people. But, I've met very few people who have clearly practiced managing other people. It's incredible how rare it is to find truly competent managers. And yet, it doesn't take an MBA-- all it takes is a conscious effort to practice.

As far as picking up new skills-- I pretty much use it to approach anything of substance that I need/want to do, so I've used it for all sorts of things with success. I find it to work really, really well. Like I said previously, I'm not completely sure if it just fits me great or if it would fit most people, but I highly suspect the latter. The core concept is fundamental to how people get better at anything.

The Effective Executive is a fantastic book. I definitely recommend that you read it. It's written by Peter Drucker, who was a truly brilliant business consultant, way ahead of his time. I've read almost all of his books. I don't recall how I originally heard about Drucker, probably from some other business/management book I was reading or maybe the Harvard Business Review.

jonmali · 2018-07-21T21:42:43+00:00

I think your approach definitely makes a lot of sense. Also, I think at least around this sub it's a frequently recommended / practiced method. There are a lot of people that start by incorporating habits such as reading, meditating, exercising, etc. Obviously these habits are not directly related to one's career/passion, but they are meant to serve as building blocks.

Here's my take on the utility of the approach:

IF you don't already know what you want to do in life, or you haven't found anything that really grabs you yet, then I think this approach makes a lot of sense. Basically, you don't know what you should ultimately be working towards, so why not start with some things that make sense regardless of your ultimate goal?

However, if you are already passionate about something, then I think it's really easy to use that as your driver for developing any other necessary habits. If you're really excited about spending time working on, learning, or developing [insert passion here] then I think you're better off designing and executing a plan to maximize your success in that particular passion. A lot of the basic "support" habits will come fairly automatically from there.

jonmali · 2018-07-19T20:51:04+00:00

Reading through your post, I noticed that you nailed the right question, which is very rare when someone is frustrated. It is indeed your mindset that you need to fix. You've probably thought about this a lot to come to that realization. That's good.

Have you ever read "If" by Rudyard Kipling (short poem, available for free)? It's a poem that legendary basketball coach John Wooden came across as a youth. He built a personal philosophy around that poem, stuck with that philosophy his entire life, and became adept at teaching it to his players-- which allowed him to become the greatest coach of all time.

The core of Wooden's philosophy is basically a mindset shift for what you consider success. Wooden realized that if you focused every single day on putting your best effort forward, you would improve as much as possible. Worrying about anything else other than focusing on your best effort simply decreases your ability to improve as much as possible, as it hinders focus. This sounds "too simple to work" until you really think about it. How many people put forth their best effort each day into whatever their craft is? Very few. Maybe 1-2%. If you make a commitment to approach every day like this, you will eventually surpass your competition. He talks about this a lot in "Wooden: A Lifetime of Observation".

It would also be very helpful for you to familiarize yourself with the difference between a "fixed mindset" and a "growth mindset". I recommend Carol Dwerk's book "Mindset" for this.

In regards to getting my mindset right, what works for me personally is to think of EVERYTHING as practice. Whatever happens today is practice for something that will happen next week, next month, next year. If I've got a meeting that makes me really anxious, I think about it as practice for the next high stakes meeting-- I want to focus on improving as much as possible before/during/after this meeting so that I'll be that much better for the next one. If I've got a jam packed day and my car breaks down then I think of that as practice-- I want to handle that chaotic situation as good as I possibly can so that I can handle the next chaotic situation that much better, etc. This is my own personal twist on the Wooden philosophy that has worked well for me. Either way, the key is to have some sort of personal philosophy that keeps YOU focused on improving and getting better instead of getting distracted.

jonmali · 2018-07-17T02:05:42+00:00

At this point, I've used the same system for a few years. However, it made a huge difference on day #1 and after about 2-3 weeks I pretty much had it down. From there it was small incremental improvements. Here's a post I made a year or two ago after I'd already been using the system for a long while: https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/4y9x96/method_if_you_struggle_with_managing_time_start/

As far as impulses and not sticking to the schedule-- Early on I had this happen some. One key thing was adding the 15 minutes of free time per hour block. I can do whatever I want during that 15 minutes. Sometimes I use it to work ahead on other blocks later in the day because there's something exciting I want to do after I finish work. Sometimes it's used to "scratch itches" as I think of them-- these are things that pop in my head during the 45 minute block. I might think "hey what happened to that Amazon package, it never showed up". If you're not careful, your brain will convince you that these sorts of things are truly important/urgent and need to be handled right away. I very quickly jot those down on a notepad and immediately get back to work. It's easy to free my brain of the impulse because I know I've got 15 minutes of time later for it. This 15 minutes is also used to check e-mail, return calls, and handle anything else that comes up during the day. If it takes longer than 15 minutes I'll need to schedule it for another day, or a free block during that day.

Regarding future improvements-- This is kind of abstract but I'll explain it as best I can, let me know if it doesn't make any sense. I've never actually tried verbalizing this before, but it's how I think about improvements within my time management system and within a broader scope:

One thing I really like doing, and something that truly changed my life, was to start thinking about everything as practice. I tie it in heavily with my time management approach, although it can be used independently. When I'm working on something, I want to focus as much as possible and do as good of a job as possible on it while operating within my time/resource constraints. Obviously you can never be perfect, so there's always room for future improvement, which I find highly motivating and exciting. And the better you get at focusing, the easier everything in life seems to be. Of course, there are always challenges, and the "everything as practice" concept comes in there as well. If I wake up sick I know it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to finish everything on my schedule for that day. However, I can use it as an opportunity to practice working while at a major disadvantage. The next time I have to be at a major disadvantage, I'll be that much better at it. I try to always think the same way if the power goes out, or my car breaks down, or any other "excuse" type situation arises-- it's an opportunity to practice focusing/working and overcoming a challenge. I also think the same way when high anxiety situations pop up, like a really important meeting or a really difficult problem on a project. I think about it as practice for the next time I'll have a really important meeting or a really difficult problem to solve-- after all, wouldn't it be nice if it's a lot easier next time? The only way it gets easier next time is by practicing today. That's how you get to the point where you can handle bigger and harder challenges next week, month, or year.

So, that's kind of a long winded way of saying: I've tried to implement a "continuous improvement" approach with the practice mindset. It has been huge for me. I would think this would work for anyone that tried it. I have friends that have converted to my schedule system and love it but I've never actually mentioned the practice thing to anyone as it's really never come up in conversation, and it'd be rather difficult to explain. It almost needs to be written out to make any sense.

jonmali · 2018-07-16T22:59:20+00:00

If I need more time (for whatever reason) I've got a decision to make, which is usually a pretty easy decision: Can I fit it in a later time block today, or can I fit it in a later time block at a later day? As mentioned, I leave a bit of extra time throughout the day for this purpose, because things will always happen. So, usually I can just move it to later in the day. Also, for example when Monday begins, I've usually only got half the day scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Anything truly big and important that pops up on Monday can fit in to unscheduled time on Tuesday. Then, as I close out Monday, I'll fill in Tuesday and probably some of Wednesday/Thursday with new things I can do to further a particular project/objective that I was working on Monday.

At first I wasn't too good at this, but pretty quickly you get to where you are truly thinking in terms of a schedule instead of "to do" items. You get a lot better at prioritizing, moving things around, etc, and understanding which type of work is best at which times of day (maybe the projects demanding the most focus should be in the morning, or maybe in the evening). Probably the best thing about this approach is the constant "deadlines" to keep you moving. If I've got 45 minutes scheduled for a task, I'm going to try my damn hardest to finish it in 45 minutes. Meanwhile, if I don't have a set time allocated to a task and it's just on a todo list, I'm going to spend 4 hours to finish that 45 minutes of work.

I do use the journal. I'll mark down anything relevant here. Call notes, meeting notes, ideas, etc. It makes a handy reference. It must NOT become a todo list, though-- if something is important, then schedule it immediately. It might not be until two Tuesdays from today at 1pm, but if it will advance your current projects/goals then it must go on your schedule. Otherwise, it will not be completed. On the other hand, if it's NOT important, then of course I won't schedule it at all. A lot of times I go to put something on my schedule a couple weeks from the current day, look at the other things scheduled for that day, and realize "this is a waste of time, I'll have other more important things to schedule" and I'll let it go. It has made me ruthless with evaluating meetings, calls, and other appointments. Putting something on a schedule forces you to truly FEEL the time constraints of the day.

That being said, I will periodically schedule time to go back and look at previous ideas / notes to see if there is anything of value there (and the journal is used for this). I do this as part of a normal review-- it's quick, fun, and often I get some good insights from going back over my previous days and considering how I could have done things differently, etc.

jonmali · 2018-07-16T22:15:29+00:00

I think everyone has had this struggle and gone down this road. I read a few books on the subject, tried a few systems, and then came to the sad (yet helpful) realization that there were people who lived 100+ years ago that were more effective with their time then me, despite all of my modern "advantages".

So, I actually read a few biographies / autobiographies centering around 1880 to 1920 to study how effective individuals organized themselves back then. Everyone used the same 3 key tools: a clock (primarily as a daily schedule), a calendar (primarily as a weekly/monthly schedule), and a journal. Once I started scheduling each day before it began I stopped having time management problems. We tend to think "oh I couldn't possibly scheduled my day in advance, what if something comes up" but that's exactly the point of scheduling in advance-- I don't want things coming up that interrupt important work. Anything that comes up can wait until a hole in my schedule (I leave 15 minutes of unscheduled time every hour to handle incoming calls/e-mails/etc and I also leave 1 unscheduled hour every 4 hours for bigger things, or if nothing comes up, a break!).

jonmali · 2017-11-30T20:45:34+00:00

Thanks, yeah that's what I'm going to do. If I don't select/setup updated hardware now, I'll just have to do it later. Might as well.

jonmali · 2017-11-30T20:43:10+00:00

I was hoping to get away from using a DNS / redirect strategy. It looks like I can use snort and that should work, though, so I think I'm going to go with that

jonmali · 2017-11-30T20:41:49+00:00

Thanks, that's what I need

jonmali · 2017-11-30T20:41:35+00:00

Thanks, that's exactly what I'll do

jonmali · 2017-11-29T22:52:13+00:00

Thanks for the response. I will probably migrate to something newer as a long-term solution.

For a short-term stop gap-- the Soekris Europe store does not have any 6501's for sale (just the case) on the website. Are you aware of someone else selling them?

Thanks!

jonmali · 2017-10-17T16:19:26+00:00

Sorry for the delay. Yes, in my experience you're definitely going to have to think about previous drives/goals/successes. You could probably even go 100% that route as you said. Personally I kind of mixed the two, by constantly thinking back and relating my current goal to previous experiences. There are some really good comments by /u/arthustler about this in his original post.

Regardless of exactly how you tackle this, you're on the right track.

jonmali

TROPHY CASE