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-5% + -10% = -14.5%

Published March 16, 2009

Since The Reg has now posted about it, I think I can discuss it publicly: Back on 18-Feb, right before taking off on vacation, I was informed that I’d be receiving a 5% pay cut. This isn’t terrible, and I’d rather have a job than less pay.

However, last Friday I was informed that my salary will be cut by an additional 10% for the month of April. This brings my total pay cut to 14.5% from a few months ago. While this won’t cause the world to come crashing down and isn’t terribly drastically life changing, it does mean that I’ll be saving less, likely won’t be taking any far-away vacations this year, and will need to re-balance (and drastically reassess) a number of financial things.

It’s an understatement to say that this is a little frustrating.

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Zingerman’s 27th Anniversary Tasting

Published March 15, 2009

Vanessa cuts bread while Ari Weinzweig gives the introduction at Zingerman's 27th Anniversary Tasting.

Please excuse the terrible image, but this is from earlier today when Danielle and I headed to Zingerman’s Next Door for their 27th Anniversary Tasting. Neither of us had been to a Zingerman’s food tasting event before, but it ended up being Ari and Paul, two of the founders, telling stories about the history of the company while a number of good foods were handed out and explained / detailed, with anecdotes and stories related to each item.

There seemed to be two focuses of today food-wise, one being items they had been serving for years and which were influential early on, and the other was simply good, more recent things. It’s a very good thing that we arrived hungry, because the quantity of food served amounted to a medium sized and very delicious meal. Here’s a list of the items served, of which we each tried all of it except for the 2K Caraway Rye, as one of the other people at our table took the whole chunk:

· Sesame Semolina Bread
· Farm Bread
· 2 Kg Caraway Rye Bread
· 2 Kg Roadhouse Rye Bread
· Mushroom Beef Barley Soup
· Oswald’s Mile High Sandwhich (Corned Beef and Mustard on Rye)
· Bagel Sandwich (Cream Cheese, Red Onion, Tomato, and Cold Smoked Salmon)
· Fennel Pollen (Eaten straight, and on the Bagel Sandwich.)
· Chopped Liver (I did not care for this; too iron-y.)
· Chicken Salad
· Tongue (I did not care for this either, mostly the texture bothered me.)
· Smoked Sable
· Edward’s Berkshire Bacon
· Couscous with Harissa & Pasolivo Olive Oil
· Cara Cara Orange Salad with Chilean Vinegar Vinaigrette
· Stitchelton Cheese (a raw milk Stilton)
· Comte Cheese
· Ulmo Honey
· Hamentaschen
· Zzang Bar
· El Rustico Chocolate Bar
· Noodle Kugel

After the tasting Danielle and I purchased some Chicken Salad, Blondies, Pecan Raisin Bread (for making sandwiches with the chicken salad), bagels, Stitchelton, Ginger Beer, Gelato, Berkshire Bacon, and a jar of the harissa.

This has been a tremendous day food-wise. After returning home I ate some of the quiche which Danielle made on Saturday night (portabello, onion, and broccoli) with harissa on it, and it was incredibly, amazingly good. I should probably post a photo of it tomorrow, as I’ll probably be eating more of it for dinner.

Mmm. I am full of good food.

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Bananaphone Not Answered

Published March 14, 2009

Meijer at Hayes and Hall Road (M-59) seems to be out of bananas. This disappoints me greatly.

Tonight when I went to Meijer I found that they are, for all intents and purposes, lacking bananas. I do not appreciate this. Instead I bought grapes, butter, and beer. Note that none of these three have conjoining intended uses.

Also, this is a photo of what happens when my neighbor buys a concrete downspout splash guard thingie, doesn’t remove it when it begins to degrade, and a big storm comes through.

On a wholly unrelated note, I am listening to Stabbing Westward‘s Wither Blister Burn & Peel and I’m amazed at how bad this album really is. I hadn’t listened to it since (at least) 2003 when I ripped all my CDs into iTunes, and likely not since 1999 or 2000. Back in the mid/late 90s I listened to this regularly. Now I wonder what I was thinking.

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Rochester to Richmond

Published March 14, 2009

Everyone who rode the Rochester to Richmond ride on the Macomb Orchard Trail on 14-Mar-2009, except for me as I was taking the photo.

Today some friends (Left to Right: Mike, Brad, Jon, Krug, Bob, Eric) from the MMBA Forum and I rode from Rochester to Richmond and back, totaling just over 51 miles. One person was towing two kids (Trail-a-Bike and trailer) (Eric), another had one trailer (Mike), and yet another rode a fixie mountain bike (Brad).

The route was up the Macomb Orchard Trail to Powell Road, to 33 Mile, to Armada Ridge, then back on the trail to Richmond. This is done because, as illustrated last year, the part of MOT which we skipped is topped with what’s essentially pea gravel.

After reaching Richmond we rode over to the Richmond Family Diner for some lunch, then headed back to the trail and back to Richmond. On the way back the trailer was handed off from Eric to John, as the first long ride of the year and rough dirt road were dragging a little much for Eric. All in all it was a fun and relatively uneventful ride, save for when we arrived at Onyx Ice Arena in Rochester.

For some reason a helicopter was parked at the side of the parking lot, and it was (obviously) attracting a lot of attention from people passing by. People were stopping to show their kids, another group of kids was taking each others’ pictures in front of it, and everyone was generally gawking at what appeared to be a parked helicopter. Suddenly a man appeared, came over, and seemed to be telling people that it is private property, dangerous, was accusing kids of touching it (which I hadn’t seen), and saying that if anyone wants to look that they need to stay at least six feet away. He wasn’t implying that it was his helicopter, just that it was parked on private property and they had no right to be there looking at it.

I can’t imagine that someone would believe they can leave a helicopter alone in a parking lot – much less one along the side of a busy road and well traveled public trail – and not have people looking at it. Such things are generally fairly rare around here. Regardless, this didn’t spoil today’s really nice ride. Nice people, great weather, and a pretty darn good route.

Here’s some more photos from today:

· What would be the brake side of Brad’s Quiring, showing the flip-flopped hub making it a fixie mountain bike.
· View of the drive side of Brad’s Quiring mountain bike. It is currently set up as a fixed gear using a drilled cog.
· Heading out of the Rochester / Shelby Township area, towards our eventual destination of Richmond.
· Everyone who rode the Rochester to Richmond ride on the Macomb Orchard Trail on 14-Mar-2009, except for me as I was taking the photo.
· After reaching Richmond we stopped at Richmond Family Diner and got food. Bike parking was quite conveient.
· Brad on his fixed gear Quiring.
· This helicopter was parked outside ONYX ice area when we went past there.

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AVR Dragon

Published March 13, 2009

Overview of the Atmel AVR Dragon with extra pin headers, LRF, and DIP40 ZIF socket in place.

Yesterday the Atmel AVR Dragon which I’d ordered earlier in the week from Digi-Key arrived. This is a low cost ($50) dev device and programmer which does in-system programming, high voltage serial programming, parallel programming, JTAG programming. It also does full emulation of devices with less than 32kB of memory, with debugging support available via JTAG and debugWire.

In short, it can do a lot. The only downside is that it comes as a rather sparse kit requiring one to bolt on a few extra parts to make it nicely usable. My first desire is to use it as a batch programmer, so I set it up with a ZIF socket and pin headers which, when properly connected together, any DIP part to be installed and programmed. It’s also supported by a whole bunch of different (legally) free programming tools, which is really nice.

It’s too bad that I’m waiting on this set of jumpers from seeed_studio to arrive so I can easily plug it all together. Hopefully these will be here next week.

If you’d like to see photos of the AVR Dragon that arrived today, including some of the ZIF socket and add-on LRF support, please take a look here: Atmel’s AVR Dragon.

Some people just don’t get it, though. Take :

19:59 <BleuLlama> like an arduino for programming AVRs
20:18 <c0nsumer> haha
20:18 <c0nsumer> no.

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New Glarus Brewing Company’s Spotted Cow

Published March 13, 2009

New Glarus Brewing Company's Spotted Cow poured into a glass. It reminds me of both Blue Moon and Oberon, which means that I don't particularly care for it.

Being his favorite beer, a friend of mine’s girlfriend’s brother drives purchases a few cases of New Glarus Brewing Company‘s Spotted Cow whenever he is in Wisconsin. I ended up with a bottle, so here it is.

I’m not sure what to make of this beer, as it reminds me a bit of both Bell’s Oberon and Blue Moon. While I can see how it’d be well liked, it’s just not for me. New Glarus does have quite a few other beers which look nice to try, unfortunately I can’t get any of them here in Michigan.

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SDrive NUXX Parts Now For Sale

Published March 11, 2009

Prototype 1 PCB (v1.0) in the enclosure with v1.0 end panel artwork.

It’s happened. The SDrive NUXX parts are finally available for ordering over on the SDrive NUXX Ordering Page. As noted here on the AtariAge forum I’ve got four things for sale:

· SDrive NUXX PCB & End Panel Set – US$35 – One SDrive NUXX PCB v1.1, one set (front and rear) SDrive NUXX End Panels, two thread-cutting screws for mounting thick-wing SIO connectors, and two 4-40 screw/nut sets for mounting thin-wing SIO connectors.

· Preprogrammed Microcontroller – US$5 – One Atmega ATmega8-16PU (PDIP28 package) microcontroller, programmed with the SDrive firmware with the Brown-Out Detection (BODEN and BODLEVEL) fuses programmed. Only available with the purchase of an SDrive NUXX PCB & End Panel Set or SDrive NUXX Kit.

· SDrive NUXX Kit – US$100 – The aforementioned PCB & End Panel Set, plus a preprogrammed Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller, and all the other parts for building one SDrive NUXX except for an SIO connector. This includes a black Hammond Manufacturing 1455L1201BK enclosure. Note that if you wish to use the enclosed DB15 connector instead of your own SIO connector, some slight modification of the IO Connector hole on the rear panel will be required to ensure that the mounting screws fit.

· Completely Assembled and Tested SDrive NUXX – US$150 – One completely assembled SDrive NUXX with SIO connector, tested and ready to use. Includes a 2GB Kingston SD card containing SDRIVE.ATR, tested to work with the SDrive NUXX. As I only have access to a limited number of SIO connectors, this is limited to a total of 10 items, to be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

All aforementioned items ship FOR FREE via First-Class Mail to US addresses. For international destinations, postage (via First-Class Mail) is a flat-rate US$7 to international destinations for each complete SDrive NUXX, SDrive NUXX Kit, or every five SDrive NUXX PCB & End Panel sets.

From now through 03-April-2009 I will be accepting orders. After 03-April-2009 the ordering window will be closed and I will begin ordering the parts. The PCB and end panel manufacturers have quoted me three weeks lead time for manufacturing, and then a week (or so) for shipping, meaning that I should receive these parts around the beginning of May. As soon as the PCBs and end panels are received I will begin assembling and shipping orders. I will have all orders shipped out as soon as possible.

So, that said, if you’d like to place an order, please head on over to the SDrive NUXX Ordering Page. The payments are handled via Google Checkout. Note that if you are wanting to order an assembled SDrive NUXX (or get on the waiting list for in the case that ordering is full) an assembled SDrive NUXX you will need to email me directly. (See the ordering page for more information on this.)

And, finally, please be sure to review the SDrive NUXX, SDrive, and SDrive NUXX Ordering pages before ordering, to ensure that you have a good understanding of what it is that you are buying. This is a DIY project, and while all parts are guaranteed to be free from defects they are otherwise without warranty or technical support.

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Micro Center Customer Service: Win!

Published March 10, 2009

A bottle of Bawls for a coworker and a clearance USB SATA disk enclosure for Danielle. The disk enclosure turned out to be missing screws.

Today at lunch I headed over to Micro Center to return some parts† and purchase a 2.5″ SATA to USB 2.0 disk enclosure for Danielle’s old hard drive and a bottle of Bawls which I cowrker asked me to pick up for him. I was fortunate (or so I thought) to find the disk enclosure I wanted for $11.96, on clearance because it’d been returned. It was listed as complete and a quick peek inside the package showed that all parts seemed to be there, so I purchased it.

Once I got out to the car (where I snapped that photo) I opened up the box again, but found the enclosure to be missing the screws used for holding the chassis together. Making the enclosure essentially unusable I went back inside, to the same Customer Service person who had returned my previous items, and explained to her that despite saying complete it was actually missing parts. She ended up just doing a like-for-like swap, resulting in my acquiring a brand new enclosure for the clearance price. The difference is only a few dollars, but it was still nice.

This, combined with my original return and previous customer service experiences at Micro Center lead me to believe that, contrary to their terribly inaccurate, misinformed, and misleading commissioned sales people, the customer service folks seem to be pretty okay to deal with.

Continue readingMicro Center Customer Service: Win!
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HW-group’s Hercules

Published March 10, 2009

Since Dominic / is doing some serial port troubleshooting today, I dug up a link to one of my favorite serial port troubleshooting tools: HW-group’s Hercules. This is made available ostensibly for use with their RS232 / network / remote serial port devices, but it works great for all manner of serial port work.

I’ve used this utility quite often in the past when testing out serial ports, USB to serial adapters, and various serial devices that I’ve made. I like it because it shows the status of things in virual LEDs and allows you to send arbitrary data, manually toggle DTS/RTS on and off, and just generally generate and receive serial data at will. It also has some nice built-in network features that allow one to virtually use a serial port across a network, and other features which are generally useful for those doing serial network stuff.

Here’s a quote from HW-group’s Hercules page which lists its basic features:

· All basic TCP and UDP utilities in one file, no installation required (just one .EXE file)
· Implemented Serial Port Terminal is working with the Virtual Serial Ports (COM12 for example). You can check and control all serial port lines (CTS, RTS, DTR, DSR, RI, CD)
· Simple TCP client (like the Hyperterminal) with the TEA support, view format, file transfers, macros..
· Easy to use TCP Server with the TEA support, view format, file transfers, macros..
· Hercules contains simple UDP/IP “Terminal” with view formats, echo, file transfers, macros..
· Support the NVT (Network Virtual Terminal) in the Test mode tab, as like as NVT debuging features..
· Using Telnet extended with NVT allows serial port configuration (RFC2217), device identification, confirmation of data sequence, etc.
· It’s FREEWARE you can use and share this software free – check the licence!

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