Inside of the Zenith DTT900Remember back when I got my DTV Deputy certificate? Well, today the DTV2009 coupon arrived, so I went out to Circuit City, waited an infuriating 15 minutes to pay, then acquired a Zenith DTT900 DTV converter box (photo gallery retired). I haven’t actually tried it yet, but I did tear it apart.
So, want to see the inside of a DTV converter? Click here (photo gallery retired).
My Old BeltThat’s my old belt. A rather worn US military issue belt and belt buckle. Today I finally grew tired enough of it to put together a new one from these parts, literally a new belt and buckle.
Also, this Adobe Lightroom to Gallery plugin works well. I’m going to add the setting of summary field from metadata when I get some time to poke with it, but it shouldn’t be hard to do.
New (to me) WhiteboardWhen
Hopefully now I can stop scrawling quick notes on Post-It(-ish) notes and sticking them to the back of the workbench.
2007 Electra Townie 3Here’s Danielle’s new bike, a lime green 2007 Electra Townie 3. That is, three speed, internal gearing, with a rear coaster brake and a front V-brake. It also has the optional black plastic fenders fitted, which I think look great. The thing I particularly like about the plastic accessory fenders is that should something happen to them, they can be replaced. Bikes which come with metal painted to match fenders would be really hard to replace should they get scraped / scratched / bent.
Honda / Acura Music Link for AuctionAfter a rather complex day (good wandering around at the park, bad DIY experiences not at my house), I came home and went for a nice 5.11 mile bike ride around the neighborhoods, condos, and sidewalks around here. I was a bit limited by some non-cleared areas which still had 6″ of slush on them, but otherwise things were pretty good. I finished it off by riding one lap around my neighborhood as fast as possible, which left me plenty winded when I got home. That was nice.
After rather slowly carrying the trash out I headed downstairs and took some pictures of my original Honda Music Link, the one which prompted the Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review and, to some degree, caused me to learn quite a bit about electronics, firmware programming, etc. Listing the auction was really simple, as I used my previous HML auction as a template. Here is the current auction, #290207606818, if you are interested.
Now I’m just sitting here sipping a tasty beer, which will be the subject of another post… Then maybe I’ll watch some Trailer Park Boys.
Shimano SH-MT40 Mountain Bike ShoesToday Danielle and I headed out to some bike shops attempting to find other places which would have the Electra Townie she wants. We didn’t have much luck, but did end up at REI, where a bunch of stuff was on clearance. I ended up getting that pair of bike shoes seen there for $54.93.
See, I normally wear boots. For the last 12 years or so, my standard shoes have been issue US military combat boots. They are comfortable, wear very well, and (now) are rather padded with cloth uppers and Gore-Tex lining. While I’ve been wearing them for biking, they really aren’t the best choice, so I had hoped to get some running or trail shoes. When at REI I decided to try on some bike shoes and ended up deciding to (eventually) purchase a pair of these Keen bike sandals. While wandering around and getting ready to leave I ended up coming across these Shimano SH-MT40 shoes in a size which fits me (12.5, of all things) at a rather nice discount.
It’s a bit odd to me to be wearing normal shoes, especially biking ones, but they seem pretty nice. They are snugly comfortable width-wise with the (expectedly) very solid sole, with mounting for cleats. I’m tempted to get some manner of pedal / cleat setup for it, but I’m not quite sure what I want yet. Shimano makes a nice looking platform / clip in combination pedal which I think would work well for my type of casual use. There’s also the reasonably priced Crank Bros. Eggbeaters at the other end of the spectrum, but I’m not sure about those either. If any of you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
I also ended up picking up a pair of Ergon GP1-L handgrips. After playing with these a few months back I’d been wanting them, and as expected they are really comfortable. I went for a short ride around the neighborhood after installing them and it’s just simply a lot more comfortable than using normal soft rubber grips. Here is a photo of those grips on my bike, without the endcaps fitted.
Bike in StandToday I ran by Fraser Bike with Danielle and picked up second bottle cage for my bike. While there I asked if they also sell the stands used on their floor models, and it turns out that they do, for $41.99. This stand, the RK-B RAKK STORAGE STAND is just a nice, simple roll-in stand which is extremely stable.
You can also see the rear rack, snap-in bag, light, and second bottle cage there.
I questioned getting the rack and bag (and basket) for a while, but it’s pretty light weight and seems to work out quite well. Unfortunately that bag there, the Topeak RX TrunkBag EX, is the smallest one which will latch into the rack. It holds everything I’d want to bring with me (spare tube, pump, Cliff bar, multi-tool, patch kit, phone, wallet, keys, lights, etc) with plenty of room to spare, so (for now) I’ve had to stuff a inflatable packing bubble thing in there. At least it’ll be good when going for multi-hour rides down the trails near here. I can stick a sandwhich or whatnot in there and stop to eat a bit before continuing on.
Now I think it’s time to go get some dinner. I’m thinking some decent beer, and maybe pizza… although… that’s not sounding so hot either. Hrm.
Compaq NC3134 / NC3135The NC3134/NC3135 set purchased via eBay for the Trashwall arrived today. It’s in such good shape (likely new, as described) that it threatens the Trashwall idea. Thankfully it clearly wasn’t wanted by someone so they let it go for cheap…
Now…
# ifconfig | cut -f1 | sed '/^$/d' | cut -f1 -d":" | paste - - - lo0 fxp0 fxp1 fxp2 fxp3 fxp4 fxp5 fxp6 fxp7 gem0 enc0 bridge0 #
That’s a lot of network.
I also took a few photos of the various bits (photo gallery retired), including the G4Port (1, 2, 3), all the ports on the back of the case, all the NICs in the case, the console cable, and a few other things (photo gallery retired).
Many of these photos were integrated into the main Trashwall article, and now I just have to wait for the CF reader so I can finish putting it all together.
Do any of you happen to have an old Apple AirPort card you’d like to sell (or give) me? I’m looking for the old PCMCIA one with the white label which was used in older iBooks, Power Mac G3s and G4s, and other machines like that.
I want to use it in the Trashwall to provide an open, public access point.
Thanks!
(A similar Orinoco card will work too, provided it can fit inside the Power Mac G4 AGP and use the internal antennas.)
Working Panasonic PV-D4743S Found In TrashTwo weeks ago I mentioned a DVD player / VCR combo I found in the trash. As I thought, it works great. This afternoon I gave it a test, and both the DVD and VCR halves work great. While there isn’t a remote, it doesn’t really seem to be needed. Or, one could easily purchase a universal remote to use with it.
So, that said, would any of you like it? Obviously, you’d have to come get it, but I’d like to be rid of it. I don’t have a need for it, but hopefully someone I know does. And yes, I mean actually use, not just have to add to a pile of other stuff.
If no one here wants it I’ll just take it to the Salvation Army. I’m sure they can find someone who could make good use of it.
Anyway, let me know if you want it…
