Let’s have a black celebration…
August 1, 2006
I just hooked the test MIDIbox SID-NUXX to my stereo for the first time, and I’m sitting here listening to a SID track which is a compilation of Depeche Mode songs. And it sounds great!
Category moved from livejournal
Tomorrow’s Lunch
July 31, 2006
Tomorrow’s Lunch, and a few other meals…
Yeah, I know, the photo is crap. Right there is where a daylight fluorescent, two halogen cans, and some normal incandescent converge. I think I should have turned off the incandescent, but I wanted to get them wrapped up and sort of forgot the importance of decent light. Then I stuck the grey card at the wrong angle… etc.
Anyway, that will hopefully be tomorrow’s lunch, and maybe a few other meals. It’s a baguette which I first brushed with olive oil sprinkled with freshly ground pepper. Then I added brie slices, basil chiffonade, and topped with seeded roma tomatoes.
Hopefully it’ll be good, and hopefully the oil will keep the bread from getting too soggy, even though the cheese and tomatoes aren’t especially moist.
UPDATE: I played with the white balance a bit… I think the food itself was lit more by the incandescent lights and reflections from the living room, so when it is colored appropriately the countertop looks off. Ah well.
July 31, 2006
Crystalfontz CFAP2002A-Y-ECS PLED / OLED Module
(Click for full res view…)
Uhm… Wow. The Crystalfontz CFAP2002A-Y-ECS PLED / OLED Module looks absolutely amazing. The power draw from it is also amazingly minimal. It’s just… Wow. Yeah. I can’t wait to see this in the finished synths. :D
Oh, here’s another photo of the display from much closer if you’d like: Crystalfontz CFAP2002A-Y-ECS PLED / OLED Module
dreamhost.com
July 31, 2006
So. DreamHost is disappointing me again. I’m within about a day of dropping $1300 (and 2.5x per month) on a 1U server and going back to colocation with Waveform.
This is pissing me off.
UPDATE: Yep, looks like MySQL problems.
MIDIbox SID-NUXX Boards Complete
July 30, 2006
There we go, the three MIDIbox SID-NUXXs which I’m assembling.
The top one is
The other two are mine, with the top one being a 12V version for a 6581 SID, and the bottom being 9V for an 8580. Neither of these have been fitted with their socketed ICs, and I also left out the resistors which control LED brightness. Of course, this means that neither of mine have been tested, but they should work.
With any luck I’ll have a pair of OLEDs to play with sometime within the next few days. Provided these work as expected, they are what I’ll be using to display things on my MIDIbox SID-NUXXs.
< smile > This is finally all coming together.
Herbs
July 30, 2006
(Click for full res…)
Well, the herbs are growing quite well. There’s parsley, green onion, dill, and basil almost fully grown. In fact, the basil has begun flowering. The small sprouts between the green onion and basil are cilantro, which I planted a few weeks ago. Hopefully that’ll grow nicely as well.
Now, what to do with it all… I’ve got no use for that much parsley, but the basil could become some great peso. If I only had cheese…
Ah well, I’ll worry about that later. For now I’m going to go finish building the last MIDIbox SID-NUXX PCB, the one for my MOS 6581-based box.
Stuff
July 30, 2006
1) Thanks to everyone who reminded me that Mail.app pretty much does what I want email-wise. I’m also investigating Google’s hosting of email. Not sure if I want to give up this much control, though…
2) I’m trying to figure a way to more simplify things around my office. That is, I’m looking at moving my computer and printer to the basement. I also want to hang the speakers and monitor off the wall, freeing up more desk space.
Just need to figure out how to best route a DVI cable through the wall, along with what to do about my CF reader and the occasional need for access to an optical drive. Maybe a USB hub mounted in the desk and a cobbled together external drive would meet these needs…
Email with ‘views’ not ‘folders’.
July 30, 2006
More and more I’m finding myself wanting an email client which doesn’t have folders for sorting things, but instead has ‘views’. That is, everything goes into one giant bucket and where one would normally find folders there are what amount to canned search queries. For example, ‘LJ’ for all things from LiveJournal, or maybe ‘Honda’, for all messages which contain the string Honda.
Still having folders available would be good for some, but I’m not sure I’d use it.
I’m fairly certain newer versions of Outlook almost meet all these requirements… But why not Mail.app or some other simpler mail client?
< sigh >
Cicada Killer
July 29, 2006
While wandering around Holland Ponds Park today I came across three cicada killer wasps flying close to each other and regularly landing on some flowers. From what I’ve read, while they are very large, noisy, and somewhat intimidating, they are barely a harmful to people, and their sting (if they happen to sting you — which is rare) won’t hurt you, unless you happen to be allergic to them.
I managed to get that photo above, and these other two: 1 · 2
That one there was probably around 1 1/2″ long… Definitely big enough to make me wonder / worry slightly.
This page, Prof. Chuck Holliday’s Cicada-Killer Page has a bunch more info about them.
Now, to shower and get the DEET off.
Parts Oops
July 27, 2006
Yay! Leave it up to me to screw up yet something else on this synth project…
1) The black screws from McMaster-Carr are a bit larger than I’d figured, so they won’t sit quite right in the holes on the front panel. And since I want them to match on both panels… Well… I need to try and cancel the orders tomorrow, then resubmit them.
2) I ordered a $9 bag of 4-40 bolts with captive lock washers. Not bad… Except I needed 6-32. I must have clicked the wrong fscking thing. :\
Ah well…