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Let There Be Light!

Published November 6, 2009

Today my NiteRider TriNewt headlight was returned after being sent out for repair. NiteRider actually replaced the cable which had a short, replaced the switch, and sent a new helmet mount; all under warranty and free of charge. I was a bit surprised at the switch replacement, although in retrospect I had noticed that it felt a bit odd. I’d previously thought that I simply wasn’t familiar with its operation, but it turned out to be faulty as well.

As can be seen above it was also tested, with the battery illuminating the light for 3:16:00. I presume this to be on high, and this is plenty of time for my uses. Now I can get back to riding more at night. I’ve was loaned an HID which I’ve used from time to time, but being prone to fall damage and not being my light, I was hesitant to take it out very many places. Hopefully tomorrow evening when the weather is a bit nicer I’ll be able to head out for another ride.

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Cascaded USB Hubs

Published November 3, 2009

As part of rewiring my office I purchased this seven-port USB hub from Firefold for $22.99, part number USB-7P-HUBSP. It turns out that this hub is actually two Genesys Logic GL852G hub chips, with one cascaded off of the other. The three ports shown above on the left are connected to the first hub, then the other four are connected to the second hub chip. Thus when the case is closed up (as seen here) ports 1-4 are on one hub which is connected to the hub that ports 5-7 are on. This shouldn’t cause a problem, but it’s a much cheaper design than using a seven port hub chip and having everything at the same level.

The hub also ships with a 5V 2.5A switching power supply. Having seven ports which can supply a maximum of 500mA each, this power supply cannot fully power the hub. That said, most devices never pull anywhere near 500mA, so this shouldn’t be a problem either.

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Clean Celeriac

Published November 2, 2009

Danielle received a celeriac from the CSA, but we’ve yet to use it. It’s been stored in a bowl of water for a while, but the large amount of dirt in the roots was rotting and smelling very bad while changing the water, so tonight I washed it off and changed the water. On the upside it now smells like only celeriac, but unfortunately my hands also smell like celeriac. No amount of washing with Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps seem to cover it up. Oh well.

Hopefully we’ll use the celeriac in soup. Perhaps I’ll make some up this week, or maybe there will be time this weekend. Or maybe this particularly great looking recipe for celeriac and mascarpone puree. Mmm!

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Printed In The Closet

Published November 2, 2009

Over the weekend I moved the printer into the closet. It’s much happier in there as there isn’t much dust, and it’s much more out of the way. After the Mac Pro is gone I can remove the rack, freeing up even more space. I’d originally had some network cable issues where things would link but not work, but a quick test tonight showed that one end wasn’t as well crimped as it should have been, so redoing that end sorted out the network.

Time was also spent on more mundane around the house chores, with some dishes being done, dead plants being removed from planters, patio furniture put away, and glass put in the storm doors. I’m hoping to clean some every day up until I leave on vacation. With the forecast of rain and snow for this week I don’t think I’ll be doing much biking, so there should be plenty of time. There’s something very nice about coming back from vacation to a clean house.

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Nokian Hakka WXC300

Published November 2, 2009

Through the Daily Deal at Alfred E. Bike I was able to get a set of Nokian Hakka WXC300 studded mountain bike tires for just under $150. This is far cheaper than normal, and so low that should I not like / need / want the tires I will be able to sell them for what I paid.

When the tires are brand new, Nokian recommends that one ride for 30 miles on paved surfaces to finish setting the studs in the tires. I intend to do this, but only after looking over the tires and fixing the not-quite-seated ones, as shown above. I’m hoping that the tread of these, combined with the spikes, will make for nice winter riding on the mixed ice/snow that ends up covering local paths. Normally the ice isn’t an issue, but there were quite a few times where I flopped over quickly as the front wheel slid out from under me.

Here is a photo of the Nokian Hakka WXC300 tire in the package showing the general tread pattern and the terrible “Deserve Them” company slogan. I expect that the large well-spaced, abstract edge knobs will work nicely in snow.

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Acoustically Dampened Hard Disk Shelf

Published October 31, 2009

With an iMac soon to replace my Mac Pro, I’ve had to set up some external disks to take care of extra storage and backup needs. Most hard disk enclosures contain fans and are a bit noisy, so I decided to move them to a place where I won’t be able to hear them: in the floor beneath my desk. As was done back when I had a fibre channel disk array in the basement I’m running a cable through the wall and floor, except this time the drives will be located sitting on an acoustically dampened (with neoprene) shelf, and connected via Firewire / IEEE1394b.

To build the shelf I used 1/2″ birch plywood and applied neoprene to most of it using contact cement (picture). A space was left for an APC Back-UPS ES (BE550G) which will be used to provide power to the disk enclosures (picture). The space above where the shelf will fit was then lined with the remaining neoprene, stapled in place using my Dad’s staple gun (picture). The board was then screwed in place using a number of drywall screws, with them concentrated around the UPS end, as it will bear more weight (picture). With a layer of neoprene between the base and the joists I didn’t tighten the screws down fully, as this should provide some additional isolation between the board and the floor.

I expect that once they are located on the shelf I will not be able to hear the fan in the rather noisy Vantec NexStar NST-400MX-UFB or the disk access in either it or the Macally PHR-100ACB. This will make for a nicely quiet computing experience in my office, with plenty of room to fit more Firewire disk enclosures should the iMac need additional expansion.

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It’s Made Of People!

Published October 29, 2009

This power supply, the Solytech Enterprise Corporation AC Adapter Model AD5012G came with the Vantec NexStar NST-400MX-UFB that arrived today and I keep misreading the label as ‘Soylentech’. This disk enclosure will eventually be used with the replacement for my Mac Pro, a 27″ iMac with Core i7 processors. Since the iMac only has one internal disk I’ll be using Firewire disks to add additional spindles for virtual machines, Time Machine, etc. I’m still not sure where I’ll put the drives, but my current thought is either on the back side of my desk, or in the basement, suspended from the ceiling.

After first disconnecting it I found the fan in the NST-400MX-UFB to be necessary, as the drives were becoming quite warm without it. As this fan is fairly loud, I think I’ll be placing the drives in the basement, in a slightly soundproofed enclosure. Today after work I picked up a rather lengthy roll of neoprene from the foam factory and it should go quite a ways towards eliminating fan noise that may emanate from the enclosure through the floor. Some smart baffeling may cut down one the sound in the basement too.

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I Love Michigan’s Scanner Law

Published October 27, 2009

I love what is known as Michigan’s Scanner Law. In short, this law states that if one is charged more than the stickered price for an item rung up via a computer scanning a bar code, one is legally eligable to be refunded the overcharged amount plus ten times the overcharged amount, with a cap of $5 on this surplus. In this case I went in to Office Max to check the price on a Logitech LX8 mouse. It was marked as $29.99, so I purchased it. As expected, it rang up for the normal price of $39.99 and the cashier didn’t notice the stickered price.

After a quick walk out of the store then back in I returned to the cashier and asked her about the difference, which she promptly refunded. I had to remind her about the aforementioned Michigan Scanner Law, but doing so resulted in a manager being called over and my receiving an extra $5 cash. Thus, what’s normally a $39.99 MSRP mouse ($49.99 at Office Depot) was obtained for $26.79.

The last time I took advantage of this I obtained a large quantity of 2GB SD (20 or so) cards from Micro Center, most of which were marked $5.99. I was charged $6.99 per card, and upon visiting the customer service desk I was refunded $1/card. When I reminded the cashier of the scanner law she simply re-rang all the cards at $1.99/ea, essentially a $5 penalty per item. When multiple items have their price adjusted the store must correct the price on all and refund the difference, but they are only obligated to pay the 10x penalty once, but if Micro Center wanted to do otherwise, I was not going to go out of my way to correct them.

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Mapping River Bends

Published October 26, 2009

For tonight’s bike ride I headed over to River Bends to poke around the paths and experiment with using my phone for producing maps. I found that the phone should be sufficient, as long as I mark every intersection with a waypoint. Most likely I’ll need to head back out and do the mapping / marking again, stopping more often to mark every interesting intersection and point. From there I’ll be able to make a proper map of the hiking / bike trail, and any other interesting bits of trail that I may come across.

It’s interesting to see that the asphalt (yes, what was limestone a week ago is now paved) to dirt transition occurs directly in line with 21 Mile Road, right behind Utica High School. This makes me wonder what the eventual route will be for connecting River Bends and the Clinton River Park (or whatever the trail is called), just on the other side of Utica.

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