The toilet paper in the middle stall at work is currently broken. It seems as if glue (or something) ended up on the middle of the roll at the factory, which results in the paper tearing off in four thin strips. One for each half, then the separated layers. This was a hassle.
The sorting of parts and confirming kit contents against the BOM is tedious. On the upside, this x0xb0x kit (#888) is not missing any parts and now that everything is sorted I can begin putting it together. That’ll be tomorrow or thursday’s task, and hopefully I’ll finish up this weekend.
This kit is slightly different from the past ones I’ve received, because it came with domed red LEDs like the ones I had to purchase separately in the past. I’ll have to order a red RUN button and some knurled black aluminum knobs from Digi-Key to match the last piece of custom artwork which it will be fitted with (photo gallery retired), but that shouldn’t be a big deal. I should probably put a power switch on this one as well.
Here, have some moblog images:
· I do not like seeing oil slicks like this in a parking lot. This is from the snow plow / salt spreading people.
· Car with YOU SUCK @ PARKING written in paint marker on the side window.
· Engrish on a model helicopter box at Microcenter. (Click to read more.)
· Deatheater standing near the console at IPM.
· It’s December 1st, time to start on the advent calendar my mom gave me.
· DBAN having just finished running on my old D610.
· Bye bye, D610. Time for me to begin using another laptop at work.
· The bathroom at work has a shiny new air freshener installed.
I’m now running Vista on my work laptop, and while I had no problem finding Bluetooth drivers for it, I didn’t like the default Bluetooth OBEX program which only allowed one file at a time to be exchanged. Looking around online I came across ObeXplorer, a free OBEX tool written by Giorgi Dalakishvili. It provides exactly the basic browsing and copying functionality that I wanted, and now whenever I’m using a PC I use this to pull files off of my phone for upload to my moblog. On OS X I still use Bluetooth File Exchange.
If you’d like a copy of it, please visit Giorgi’s post about it, or download it from my mirror here: 2008_10_ObeXplorer.zip
Not long ago John pointed me to a sale at Woot for a device which destroys CDs or DVDs. Having a huge stack of discs to dispose of and costing only $4.99 (+$5 shipping) I decided to order one. Today my Sanyo “The Claw” CD/DVD Media Destroyer arrived.
Yes, that’s exactly what it says on the box, not far from the part which shows that it is Compact Disc and DVD compatible. Too bad it doesn’t do Blu-ray.
After eating some dinner I set to work processing discs, and with a ~2 second cycle time per disc I was able to get through 163 discs (one after another) before The Claw stopped working, with a FreeBSD 3.2 CD stuck in the drive. Thankfully it was just a thermal shutdown, and after allowing it to rest in the garage for half an hour I was able to continue processing the discs, chewing through the remaining 70 or so in no time flat.
The Claw works by pinching the media between two spiked rollers, which put a bunch of small indentations all over both sides of the disc while at the same time somewhat deforming the plastic so that the disc isn’t really flat nor round. A test audio CD made a bunch of horrible noises when placed in a top load radio, so I can only imagine what putting one of these discs in a normal reader would do.
Here is a detailed image of what The Claw did to a NT 5.0 beta CD and here’s similar damage to a CD-R, including delamination of the foil. Here is a 600dpi scan of a processed CD-R showing the typical damage pattern.
Now that I’m done processing that giant stack of discs I’m not sure what to do with it. I could relabel it as a DVD cleaner and drop it off a the Salvation Army, but that’d just be mean.
It’s two weeks since Danielle and I returned from the UK and I finally captioned the photos I took while there. So, if you’d like to see them, here they are: London (November 2008) (photo gallery retired)
Here’s a few of the more notable photos:
· Danielle’s giant kosher meals via NWA: 1, 2, 3
· Mornington Crescent!
· Camden Lock.
· Food cooking near our hotel at Best Mangal.
· Remains of Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth.
· Church of Scientology London.
· Toilet at Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing may have pooped.
· Working rebuild of Colossus.
· Wire wrapped and soldered terminals in a Marconi computer.
· Danielle’s seafood curry from a vendor in Borough Market London.
· Chorizo and rocket sandwich.
· Toasted cheese sandwhich from Kappacasein.
· Obama bumper sticker on a Mazda Miata.
· Portabello road on market day.
· Danielle outside a TARDIS.
· Empty Piccadilly line Tube platform because we got there too early.
· Nearly empty plane for the flight home.
· Nifty shadow / rainbow effect caused by the sun being behind the aircraft.
Danielle also now has a photo gallery and all of her pictures have been uploaded. She doesn’t have them captioned yet, but if you’d like to look through them, they are here: Danielle’s London 2008 Photos
Tonight I’m sipping a snifter of Founders‘ Backwoods Bastard while trying to figure out a Time Machine problem I’m having. Thankfully, the need to let the beer warm up to a bit below room temperature for drinking tied in well with time spent working on the backup.
This beer is interesting, and tastes quite a bit like their Curmudgeon, but with lots of oak. It’s nifty and worth drinking, if you like potent, strongly flavored beers.
Back in the early 1980s my grandma bought my grandpa a bicycle for his birthday, but my grandpa ended up not really riding it. So, for more than 25 years, it sat, until they were clearing things out and gave it to me; my very own Sears Free Spirit 10-Speed 26-In. Lightweight Bicycle.
Despite its name, this bike isn’t particularly lightweight, and probably is somewhere around the weight of Danielle’s Townie and my bike combined. It’s also not particularly high quality, as the various frame pieces and joints seem a bit undersized. That said, I think there’s something particularly nifty about it. Maybe it’s the bottle generator / dynamo and the lights, maybe it’s the big chrome pie plates, or maybe it’s just knowing that it’s a cheap department store from a time I don’t really remember.
Yesterday when visiting with my Grandparents they gave me the instruction manual for it, as they’d found it when going through some drawers. I’ve taken the whole manual, scanned it, then posted it online because it’s really amusing for someone interested in bikes to read. I find these line art drawings to be particularly entertaining. This exploded drawing of the bike is also great.
I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with this bike. I may fix it up, but being unsure of whether or not I’ll actually use it, I’m tempted to just give it away or donate to The Hub of Detroit / Back Alley Bikes. That’s a decision for later.
For now, please enjoy this album of photos of the new-to-me Free Spirit (Sears 10-Speed 26-In. Lightweight Bicycle) (photo gallery retired) and the Free Spirit Owner’s Manual (photo gallery retired).
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It works, and the only real problem I know of with it is that the joystick feels a bit odd. It either needs some work; maybe a bit of adjustment or replacement. I’ve also got an original copy of the manual, including schematics and whatnot, and that will be included in the sale. If you end up wanting to replace the joystick, I can help you out with selecting one. They are very easy to install, simply bolting inside the control panel and connecting with eight push-on connectors.
Photos of the cab, inside and out, are available on these two pages: 1 (photo gallery retired) · 2 (photo gallery retired)
I can’t deliver it, but it’s available for inspection and pickup at my house. If you’re interested, please let me know. I’ve also got it posted here on Craigslist, so hopefully it’ll go quickly.
EDIT: This game is sold.
A while back I had the chance to acquire a NiteRider MiNewt Mini-USB Plus bike / helmet light for a very good price. It took a while to arrive, but I received it just before Thanksgiving and decided to take a few photos of the unboxing of it. At 110 lumens it’s not a particularly powerful light, but it should be nice to throw on the handlebars to provide some contrast with my head light. I also hope to use it on both Danielle’s bike and, if I get it, a Surly Cross Check. It should be just great alone for paved area / path riding.
I hope to do a light comparison later with it, the TriNewt (photo gallery retired), and a few other lights, but for now please feel free to browse the MiNewt Mini-USB Plus album (photo gallery retired).
