Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
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$428 later I’ve upgraded from the CadSoft EAGLE Non-Profit License for Windows to a dual-platform (OS X and Windows) Standard Schematic + Layout license. This allows me to release PCB designs under whichever license I see fit, and was one of the prerequisites I had to meet in order to sell the SDrive NUXX PCBs. This version is without the autorouter, but as I didn’t care for it I don’t feel not having it is a loss.
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Last month sometime I purchased SparkFun‘s DEV-08857, which is an Olimex dev board for the AT90USB162. While playing with some sample USB CDC (serial port) firmware on it today I needed to loop TXD back to RXD. Not having any wire handy (since I’m at work), the next best option was used. Good thing those holes are through-plated.
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Danielle picked up a pack of these gingerbread pigs when in Mexicantown last week. They are not particularly sweet, have a firm cake-ish texture, and a nice ginger flavor. It made a great breakfast.
In more of the moblog photos, here is a Dimension bike stem which I purchased at lunch from someone on the MMBA forum. This should allow me to try out the On-One Mary Bar which I’ve been borrowing for a few months now.
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One of the most frustrating parts of acquiring a new CadSoft EAGLE license is waiting for the license to actually arrive. CadSoft insists on sending them via UPS, along with a full new set of manuals and paperwork. This incurs a $15 shipping charge, plus a 3-5 day wait for it all to arrive. Also, if one is following some upgrade path one ends up with quite a few redundant manuals.
I’ll be taking the 4.1 manuals out for recycling today.
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Normally my support of Wahhabism comes from purchasing things made of petroleum, but today’s oily Saudi acquisition is a 1kg jar of “Al Nahkal” Excellent Tahina from the local Middle Eastern-ish market. Danielle acquired this along with two bags of pita and some yerba maté. The first two will be used to make some hummus which we plan to take to a Super Bowl party tomorrow while the latter will be used to keep Danielle awake at work.
Actually, since the container is made of plastic I guess this is actually a Saudi two-fer. Thankfully, as the side of the container tells is, this product is FREE FROM CHEMICAL WHITENING AGENTS. There’s also something I really enjoy about seeing the ink jet printed manufacture and expiration date up at the top in a non-Latin character set.
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Quite often when riding in below-freezing temperatures just gloves aren’t enough to keep your hands warm. While the Pearl Izumi Gavia Gloves are quite windproof, they don’t do a very good job of keeping icy wind from chilling my hands. I haven’t had much luck with other gloves either, as my hands still tended to get cold pretty quick. So, on recommendation from a number of friends I went ahead and ordered a set of AMF Threadworks / Trail’s Edge Moose Mitts. I received them this evening and went for a reasonably quick (for snow) test ride on my single speed (the D.I.S.S.) through Clinton River Park with some friends of mine.
While these moose mitts look like the sort of thing which would tie one to a bike, I found that I never really felt as if I was stuck to the bike. Even as I took a fall (tires slid out as I rounded a corner) that hand was just suddenly out of the mitt without any problems.
Warmth-wise, wearing those Gavia Gloves beneath the Moose Mitts proved to be a bit too much as my hands were sweaty after riding. For the next ride I think I’ll try going back to my normal fingerless, clearance bin gloves from REI. If the wind blocking / insulating isn’t enough, inside of each mitt are small pockets for chemical hand warmers and loops for hooking them to the ends of the bars and keeping them solidly in place when inserting one’s hands. One could also store gels in there so they remain liquid and easily edible.
All in all, I’m really glad that I bought these. They kept my hands properly warm, didn’t get in the way when I fell, and were overall comfortable. Being made out of a really heavy nylon I also suspect that they’ll last quite a while. Here is a photo of me with my hands in the Moose Mitts, standing over the bike.
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For Christmas I received some air which has been exhaled by a Chinese person into a Bodum Bistro double-walled mug.
Go globalization!
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I’d intended to hold off on purchasing a new bike for a while, but over the weekend Nick pointed me at this thread at mmba.org where someone was offering up a Bianchi D.I.S.S. (Disc Integrated Single Speed) with decent specs and in approximately my size (large) for US$300. It looked to have some good quality parts on it (including pedals which fit my current cleats), so I made arrangements to check it out and possibly buy it. Conveniently, I was owed just about the sale price by my parents so I was even able to purchase it without affecting CC or bank account balances.
Shaun (the seller) and I met up today and when I took a look at the bike it seemed to be just what I’d been wanting a few months back when I was considering a much more expensive Raleigh. It needed a bit of adjusting, but after tweaking the brakes, tightening the crankshaft, tightening up the chain a little, putting some screws in the bottle cage mount holes, and adjusting the stem it feels like quite a nice fit and was definitely a good buy.
The only thing I have left to do is reseat the rear tire (it’s a little off and has a slight skip) and possibly rebuild the rear hub (bearings are audible; or maybe that’s the freewheel). There is one non-fixable problem with it, as the tool surface for dust cap for the crank is stripped, but as the crank can still be adjusted it’s not an actual problem. I might replace the dust cap anyway, if I come across one.
Oh, and one of the best parts? Since it’s a single speed it has sliding dropouts, and these normally make it a pain to seat the rear wheel after removing it. However, this bike has a Surly Tuggnut on it, which doubles as a bottle opener. I don’t really have an interest in drinking and riding, but I did make a point of using it tonight, with nothing less than Arbor Brewing Company’s Tree Fort Beer.
Here are a couple more photos I took of the bike and its various bits tonight:
· Bianchi D.I.S.S. which I purchased for $300.
· Detail of the Salsa seat clamp on the Bianchi D.I.S.S., along with the Cars-R-Coffins art.
· Surly Tuggnut on the Bianchi D.I.S.S.. Yes, it is also a bottle opener.
· The dust cap on the crank set has been stripped. I’m not sure how this happened, but at least I can still remove the crank.
· Edoardo Bianchi badge on the head tube of the Bianchi D.I.S.S..
· My somewhat modified Specialized Rockhopper and Bianchi D.I.S.S., sitting side by side in my office.
· Bianchi D.I.S.S., photo #1 sent to me prior to the sale.
· Bianchi D.I.S.S., photo #2 sent to me prior to the sale.
After getting home with the bike I put Roxie in the car, locked myself out of the house (thankfully my parents happened to be near by and helped me out), then drove over to Fraser Bicycle & Fitness and picked up a bike stand, floor pump (because the SKS Airworx one I got before doesn’t work right), and some spare bottle cage bolts. Roxie loved the ride.
Leave a CommentFor years I’ve had Comcast for data services here at my house. I’ve had few problems with them, my IP rarely changes, and the service seems decent. However, I’m trying to figure out a few things about it and searching at Google isn’t providing many results, so I’m hoping that some of you can help me.
I currently pay $62.95 for just data from Comcast. In researching getting a better deal I came across a package from WOW! with 2Mb/sec uploads with digital cable for $99/mo. This package is WOW!’s Xtreme Turbo 15Mbps (2Mbps Upload) Internet and Digital Value Cable Bundle:
WOW! Xtreme 15Mbps Internet is ideal for online gaming, video streaming, downloading large photos and accessing video-rich website content, and includes 5 e-mail accounts, 3 IP addresses and 10 MB of web space. WOW! Digital Value Cable delivers your local broadcast networks and Basic Cable, with an on-screen Interactive Program Guide, 45 channels of commercial-free CD-quality digital music, multiple channels of your primary premium services, expanded pay-per-view selections and access to WOW! OnDemand, our Video OnDemand service with a continually updated library of over a thousand titles including movies, kids’ shows, sports, music, and events.
· How do you like the service overall? What sort of problems have you had? Is the HD content decent or degraded ala Comcast?
· In this it says that I’d get three IPs, but do any of you know how those are allocated? Does the modem (or upstream stuff) just hand out that many, or are they statically set?
· If addressing is done via DHCP, what’s the lease time from WOW!?
· WOW!’s Additional Services & Equipment page lists CableCARDs as costing $3.50/mo. Do you know if this is an M-type? I’m needing to put this in a S3 TiVo, so it’ll have to be either an M-type or I’ll have to get two S-type.
UPDATE: I just signed up for WOW! with an install date of Monday. I was told the first CableCARD is free, and is an M-type. Installation is free, and the referral program should get $25 for both my aunt and I after a couple months. All three IPs appear to be allocated via DHCP, so it’ll take some fancy stuff to have multiple IPs on Trashwall, but I’ll see if I can do it. Ideally everything will be natted via main IP except the Xbox 360 which will be binatted to a second IP to get around Xbox Live / NAT issues.
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I’ve been having problems getting Time Machine to reliably back up to a 750 GB disk attached to my AirPort Extreme. Things will work great for a while, but then the backups will just start failing as if the .sparsebundle has become corrupt. This seems to happen if I sleep my machine while Time Machine is backing things up, wake it briefly, then sleep it again before TM completes. On the next backup things will simply fail and never work again.
This wouldn’t be so bad, except that since 10.5.5 or so this speedup for the initial Time Machine backup doesn’t seem to work any more. It’s almost as if Apple removed (or broke?) .sparsebundle TM support locally.
I decided that the best fix would be to sidestep the problem and just start doing Time Machine backups locally, but I’m out of disk slots in my Mac Pro. Wanting this done quickly (and as cheaply as possible) I ran over to Micro Center†, picked up a plate for the back of the computer which adapts two internal SATA to eSATA ($7.99) and a cheap eSATA disk enclosure ($26.99). The adapter cables were fit to the ODD SATA ports in the Mac Pro, which are two unused SATA ports on the board apparently reserved for optical drive use.
Not having right angle connectors made this a tight fit, but everything set nicely in place once the connectors were seated. The plate was mounted in the unused second video card slot, 750GB disk (from the AirPort) fitted in the enclosure, and everything setup on a shiny new partition. Time Machine is now doing its thing, about 10% done in one hour, and hopefully it’ll all continue working.
† I do not like this store, but it’s the only reasonably priced local computer parts shop. The whole building, customers, and staff all feel as sleezey as what one would find at Gibralter Trade Center. Sales staff that can regularly be overheard selling products based on the wrong information, commission sales, and returned / defective products sold as ‘refurbished’. Think Fry’s with a layer of skin oil on it, like an old keyboard.
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