The Inventive Mind

This and This... Cool New Tech and Old Movies

2012-02-02T23:13:00.003-06:00

Ok not so Old...
This

"Sandia Labs engineers create 'self-guided' bullet"

Is REALLY cool!!...

But it reminds me of this...

I just hope it kills its victims, can you imagine having circuit board shrapnel in your body...but I guess killing people is the point...

Motorola ATRIX 4G Lost Contacts

2011-08-31T21:23:00.000-06:00

Many users of the Motorola Atrix 4g were blindsided when their phones updated to gingerbread without asking them very plainly if they wanted to. What *MUCH* worse is that most of their contacts were missing when the update had finished.

Thankfully this happened enough for Motorola to release a fix.(thanks to Mark at https://supportforums.motorola.com/ ) for the quote

To get the application, search the Android Market for an app called "Contacts Restoration for Atrix" or, push the application to your ATRIX from a computer using this Android Market link:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.motorola.contactsrestore

And here's the forum thread where he linked this program..
Motorola Support Forums

It restored 53 of my wife's contacts, and I get to be the hero :D

Hemispherical Omnidirectional Gimbaled (HOG) Wheel = FAST Robots!

2011-07-14T21:35:00.000-06:00

This invention uses my favorite electromechanical component, the BLDC motor, Brushless Direct Current Motor. The motor is attached to a hemispherical wheel, this wheel's contact with the ground both propels and steers the vehicle.

The point is , the motor is a Airplane motor and it moves the car across the ground as fast as an airplane propeller rotates! I saw three or four websites embed this video and they just said "It's cool" but I wanna tell you what you'll see....IT'S Fast!

From: Engadget

New Fundamental Radio Technology

2011-07-14T21:20:00.003-06:00

New radio technology (hopefully) coming soon, I also hope all these guys become billionaires, the implications are unfathomable..

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/onlive-ceo-reveals-entirely-new-approach-to-wireless-credits/

*fast forward to 55minutes to hear about the radio*

Here's a Webpage with a little more explanation

And Then some more

Link/Tab Dump

2011-07-14T21:14:00.001-06:00

It has taken me alot more time than I expected every time I try to editorialize a post on this blog. So while there's tons of things I would like to share, the time taken to write about them is intention crushing...

And so today I bring you another post with many links and few words, I hope you see something interesting..

Huge and Hugely Impressive Modular Analog Synth Cabinet
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/07/gigantic-modular-synth-enclosure.html

Google Bids on Patents with Number Constants
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/07/02/1335202/Google-Bid-Pi-Billion-Dollars-For-Nortel-Patents

I'll be honest I haven't read this yet, I guess i like my mouse too much!
http://www.itworld.com/software/177989/7-days-using-only-keyboard-shortcuts-no-mouse-no-trackpad-no-problem

These are little wheels designed to build camera motion rigs, they look incredibly smooth and easy, but pricey
http://www.rigwheels.com/

This will show you how to build an alternative camera strap configuration
http://www.diyphotography.net/sling-your-camera-with-a-diy-c-loop-for-under-5

There are certainly alot more posts on this site about building and rigging for your camera and photo setups
http://www.diyphotography.net

This is how I want my tool drawers to be, I don't know if I want to buy in just now..
http://www.dailygrommet.com/products/drawerdecor-custom-drawer-organizer

GPU's are revolutionizing the processing of anything that used to require supercomputers
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/password-recovery-gpu,2945.html

This seems like such a great idea...What took so long?!
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/16/griffins-beacon-for-ios-devices-now-shipping-post-remote-livin/

This allows your Android device's camera to be used as a Webcam for your computer (be careful the first time I tried it it hard crashed my computer; then i tried it again and got it working)
http://www.dev47apps.com/#

This is a really cool bench power supply build..
http://www.tuxgraphics.org/electronics/200707/bench-power-supply-unit.shtml

Intel is working on Massively Parallel Chips! (Too bad the GPU guys are WAY Ahead of them)
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100531comp.htm

Wow this is cool, many Android devices can also be gaming systems...
http://gizmodo.com/5809240/playstation-suite-makes-lots-of-android-phones-playstation-phones

The future of software is very different from the past...
http://0install.net/

I wish I had the resources to try some of these SSD's the bandwidth seems amazing..
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216873/TMS_releases_PCIe_SSD_with_900GB_capacity_2GB_sec_throughput

This Car looks tough...but zombies? I dunno..
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/05/18/best-car-survive-zombie-apocalypse/

Nevermind the desk (its amazing) look into the comments for Captain Picard
http://lifehacker.com/5803394/the-compudesk-an-epic-custom+built-all+in+one-desk

I hope the future looks (and works) like this software
http://acko.net/blog/on-termkit
http://blog.easytech.com.ar/2011/05/21/playing-with-termkit-with-chrome/

Sometimes its crazy how simple the solutions to very tough (medical) problems are...
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/11/05/16/0325258/Spoonful-of-Sugar-Helps-the-Persistent-Bacteria-Go-Down

I always hoped the browser history would be like this..
http://lifehacker.com/5801972/fromwheretowhere-threads-your-firefox-browsing-history

What Fun...makes me wanna travel (and not be afraid of heights)
http://www.oobject.com/category/12-wonderful-water-slides/

This Company builds a custom pc called the shift, it lets the heat go up out of the case like it wants to, they are geniuses
http://www.maingear.com/index.php

How to build the most powerful computer system: Pointers to Inferno OS and portability

2010-11-20T13:59:00.002-06:00

Image credit: Wikimedia

So this morning I got on a wikipedia wild hair.

It all started when I surfed to the AdaFruit blog and found this video about programming "pointers"

So then I searched for the pointers article from wikipedia. I've always wondered about pointers. Why do you want a variable that stores the memory location of a variable? Seems redundant to me cause then you have to store an additional variable that stores the location of the pointers location. Where does it end? I still don't understand fully, except that pointers can be changed by other programs/hardware/whatever outside of your program, as opposed to variables that can only be changed inside your program or through an interface of some kind.

Apparently though, not using pointers takes longer from a compiling/runtime perspective.

This lead me into all kinds of programming articles that I half read/understood.

Eventually that lead me to reading about Operating systems

Where the names Oberon and Plan9 kept coming up...

These were developed experimentally by Bell Labs (later Lucent Technologies). With distributed operation, concurrency, and access to all of the computer's peripherals with one interface as the main focuses. (as far as I can tell).

Those experiments led ultimately to the release of Inferno.

This operating system is built on a virtual machine framework.

To handle the diversity of network environments it was intended to be used in, the designers decided a virtual machine was a necessary component of the system. This is the same conclusion of the Oak project that became Java, but arrived at independently. The Dis virtual machine is a register machine intended to closely match the architecture it runs on, as opposed to the stack machine of the Java Virtual Machine. An advantage of this approach is the relative simplicity of creating a just-in-time compiler for new architectures.

Also:

-Portability across processors: it currently runs on ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, PowerPC, SPARC, and x86 architectures and is readily portable to others.

-Portability across environments: it runs as a stand-alone operating system on small terminals, and also as a user application under Plan 9, Windows NT,Windows 95, and Unix (Irix, Solaris, FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, AIX, HP-UX). In all of these environments, Inferno applications see an identical interface.

-Distributed design: the identical environment is established at the user's terminal and at the server, and each may import the resources (for example, the attached I/O devices or networks) of the other. Aided by the communications facilities of the run-time system, applications may be split easily (and even dynamically) between client and server.

-Minimal hardware requirements: it runs useful applications stand-alone on machines with as little as 1 MB of memory, and does not require memory-mapping hardware.

-Portable applications: Inferno applications are written in the type-safe language Limbo, whose binary representation is identical over all platforms.

-Dynamic adaptability: applications may, depending on the hardware or other resources available, load different program modules to perform a specific function. For example, a video player application might use any of several different decoder modules.

One more quote:

-Inferno can also be hosted by a plugin to Internet Explorer. According to Vita Nuova, plugins for others browsers are underway.[3]

-Inferno is also ported to Openmoko[4], Nintendo DS[5] and SheevaPlug[6].

So, it runs on nearly every platform, using a virtual machine, which masks the underlying hardware or even operating system or even as it were, web browser. That virtual machine runs identical code within all platforms and the OS is built so that interfaces for any hardware or files are identically accesible (no API's needed).

This makes me wonder if there is a bit of software that is more poweful. There are a lot of metrics used to measure software power. For example speed, or concurrent calculations (related to speed) or memory size or network speed capability. But maybe being able to run on multiple architectures like nothing has changed is the ultimate.

Remember this ridiculous plot point? From Independence day, where Jeff Goldblum uploads a virus to an alien ship of unknown origin.

What if....and this is a big one. You could somehow code a program that could (if you were really really clever) indepently explore the architechure of an unknown computer. (ok that is impossible)

But if you could....

Then you could (if you were also really clever but not necessarily as clever as the first miracle worker above) build a compiler/builder that could make the needed inferno virtual machine without your interaction. Then begin running inferno on that platform.

Then if you had a virus handy, you really could hang that alien computer system. Or if you had an AI handy you could have something much more sinister.

Oh wait...you need a time machine to develop that one.

I guess we are safe....for now.

In reality computers seem to always need our interaction and brainpower to do anything.

That's why my first rule of computers is: Computers ONLY do EXACTLY what they are told.

Whether you or some programmer somewhere, it is doing exactly what it was told to do. (Unless your running windows).. :P

(Edited for significant reformatting)

USB SNES Gamepad

2010-10-23T00:09:00.001-06:00

When I was a kid. I wanted an SNES just about as bad as anything. I loved playing Super Mario and F-Zero and Metroid and Contra3. My family would make trips to Walmart where they had a SNES kiosk. As long as there wasn't too long of a line I could play for hours on end. I would get a crick in my neck (staring at the CRT tube placed on a stand taller than me) and my thumbs and forefingers would be red and barely able to move.

This project could allow me to re-live my youth (at least the sore thumbs) on a modern computer.

It could also be a really fantastic first project for getting into microprocessors. The button presses are simply sent to the computer as keyboard presses and the accelerometer data sent over as mouse movements. Here is a video of one of the authors playing Portal with it (that one made my fingertips and wrist sore).

Thanks Adafruit and Teensy. :)

See Here if you just want to buy an adapter board (for a wide variety of consoles :) )

Low Buck Internet Radio

2010-09-14T00:51:00.001-06:00

Makezine posted a video showing how to mate a USB sound card with a cheap WIFI router, a little open source software and this combination becomes a cheap and easy internet radio. No computer required (for the audio output).

Heck add a LCD and a few buttons and there would be no need for a computer anywhere in this setup. But I guess that would make it more like the cost of the radios he shows at the start of the video...

Anyone wanna donate the supplies so I can try this (to get my Christianrock.net fix in the kitchen or outside for example)

3DTV Apparently down in the poles

2010-09-14T00:40:00.001-06:00

Hardocp links to Rueters which says

Although 57 percent of viewers agreed that watching 3D television made them feel they were part of the action, 77 percent said they thought the technology was best suited for special events like sports or movies, rather than everyday viewing.

Here's my question, how easy is it to switch between 2D and 3D.

My ideal (or idea if no one else has thought of it) would be that the tv would automatically detect if the 3D headsets are being worn or not being worn. If no one is wearing them switch to showing 2D (in this case probably the left or the right side frame would work). If you have to actually pick up the remote and change a setting in a menu to make this switch happen, that's way too hard.

Do they already work that way? I'm sure I haven't tried it at all.

If not they should try it.

Polishing metal the easy way..

2010-09-14T00:33:00.001-06:00

Lifehacker sent along a tip on how to make a non-toxic metal polish with stuff you almost certainly have in your kitchen (they are cheap and easy to get if you don't)...

Make a nontoxic metal polish from pantry staples

I generally avoid polishing metals because a. the elbow grease involved and b. what caustic nasty chemical to use.

I might actually give this a try though.

CNC Camera Scanner

2010-09-14T00:19:00.001-06:00

Tormach has developed hardware/software to scan a part with high accuracy with your CNC milling machine..

Tormach is a company that makes on of the most prominent CAM software packages around, Mach3.

CAM stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing. The CAM software is what sends the commands to a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine.

Tormach has built a milling machine attachment and a software package. At the end of the attachment is a microscope USB camera.

The CNC machine (commanded by the CAM software (Mach3)) moves the camera around over a part that you want scanned. While commanding the camera to take a series of pictures which are then stitched together and entered into another plugin that helps you to draw that part in your CAD software with a large amount of accuracy. Build Log claims accuracy down to a few thousands.

This is reverse engineering and copying to the N-th level.

Open Source WIFI Drivers

2010-09-14T00:03:00.001-06:00

Broadcom recently announced releasing the drivers for their very common wireless chipsets.

This means suddenly the software to run WIFI in linux isn't such a hassle or a hack for anyone who is using (or might use) and Broadcom chipset.

It also means drivers and software will be included in Linux and other Open Source Operating systems, without any wonky licensing issues.

Way to go Broadcom!!

Check out their website..

News Via Hardocp and Here

A more refined ride

2010-09-13T01:12:00.001-06:00

I previously posted about an industrial robot arm being repurposed to simulate motion and play video games

Well this time they wrapped a whole helicopter cockpit around the arm....

Picture from here

They are using this as a safe alternative to training new pilots. The arm provides 6 degrees of motion and allows a safe solo flight to be tried without risking a high dollar helicopter.

Homemade Laser

2010-09-13T01:03:00.000-06:00

Homemade Ultraviolet Lasers
Found on Make: and Hackaday

Who knew lasers were so easy to build?..

I remember reading How the Laser Happened recently.
In it Charles Townes said it was amazing no one figured out just the right mix of known physics and conditions to make a laser 30yrs before him. (if I still had the book that would be a direct quote).

Magnetic Levitator

2010-09-13T00:54:00.001-06:00

This is a DIY magnetic levitator project.

The amazing thing about this project is the extremely low parts count, including no microprocessor.

Plus: Lego==Awesome

Via: Hackaday

Portable/Consolidated Workbenches

2010-09-13T00:48:00.001-06:00

Make: Ran a picture of a portable electronics workbench recently and previously an instructive piece on how to build a handy bench/toolbox.

I can't decide if I'd rather have my tools and supplies all in the same place or have a separate tool storage and supplies storage. Right now mine are segregated Tools/Supplies. I've been moving my stuff into my house and shed the last couple of weeks. Soon I will be finally unloading all the hardware and parts and bits I have into some drawers/storage. When I get around to it....

Essay about Machining and Making things

2010-09-13T00:00:00.001-06:00

Mikey turned in an excellent essay about how he ended up knowing how to machine and what satisfaction is in it for him.

Honest - all I ever wanted to do was make some stuff ...

I didn’t set out to be a machinist, hobby or any other kind. I simply had a whole slew of other interests that I was involved with and machining was supposed to be a supporting activity. I realized that it was a major advantage to be able to repair almost anything, make something that is difficult to find or doesn’t even exist, or improve something that could be made better. So rather than make do, I decided to make parts.

It's a great story and effectively explains while many DIYer's do what we do.

I also perused the blog/website that posted this.

Machinist's Blog

It looks to be an excellent source of machining information.

Btw, I got there via Make: (as usual)

Blowing away the mess

2010-09-11T00:02:00.001-06:00

Dust is a recurring problem for anyone willing to open a computer case. No matter how careful you are with your computer's environment or conditions modern air cooled systems are eventually going to need the dust cleared out.

The normal route for this hassle is to take a can of compressed air and spray the computer out. These cans are $3.50 per can and you might get 3 cleanings out of a can, if things aren't too dirty and you dont try to actually really eradicate the dust. But I like to really clean things, so I would be lucky to get 2 cleanings. That gets expensive fast.

Two common solutions that I've personally used are Vacuums and Air Compressors. Unfortunately vacuum cleaners can build up static and air compressors often spray water or oil instead of just air....Internet proof here.. Of course with my experience working in a shop I've seen water spray out of the air system plenty of times.. Dunno about the vacuum=static thing. I love my shopvac, better not to risk it though.

So what to do?

This would work great. It's portable and from what I understand the same hookup as a paintball CO2 can. So you can avoid the big box price for a new can. You can get these cans here and I've heard refills at a paintball store are only a couple of dollars (more internet proof). I had always hoped if I could work out the right set of adapters and regulators I could get under lowes' $90 price but in looking into it tonight it looks like a regulator is about $40 and the can is $10 and add in more fittings/adapters and it could easily reach Lowes' price.

Although this instructable is an interesting setup. But less portable than I would like for blowing out computers.

SO that brings me to what brought this whole blog post on...
Hardocp is urging everyone to clean their PCs this weekend. I was gonna post in the comments that I just did last week before I finally got my desktop installed in my house. In the comments I found a reference to the ED-500.

The ED-500 is a 500W electric blower designed for blowing out electronics. Looks like the best way to go. Glad to finally have that resolved. :)

My living room (construction zone)

2010-08-30T23:39:00.001-06:00

This is my living room this evening...

This is a shelf I'm building. The tan colored pieces are reclaimed from a pine twin size bed, the brown piece in the middle is one of the shelves.

I modeled the design in sketchup..

I didn't design it really, it designed itself. This was the best way to arrange the pieces of wood that I had. To get the maximum shelf.

I was concerned about the size and other furniture getting moved into our living room...so I modeled that too...(I tell myself it was good practice since I couldn't build the shelf saturday because it was raining...)

I made the walls transparent because I kept getting stuck in them. :)

It looks like it fits in this picture, but in real life, in the room (being assembled) it looks Massive!

We are really looking forward to this new arrangement and having more shelving.

I was really hoping to be done tonight, but the rain fouled up my plans again.

Simplified Mechanical System Part 4

2010-08-28T00:46:00.003-06:00

There is one more important component.

What to bolt the brackets to?
How about a standardized grid of holes, of specified diameter...

Like this...

There is one more component I came up with early on.

A cam arm. Cams are used to do lots of things and it seemed like it would be easy to model so...

So there you have it. The Simplified Mechanical System...

I will soon send these models to Google's 3d Warehouse, and also post them here as well.

I would love to build some of these components, but I haven't gotten a chance yet.

This system would be particularly useful if you wanted to prototype something (much like the arduino). You could prototype in wood or plastic, then for final assembly build it in metal.

It shares alot in common with Makerbeam and Contraptor and MicroRax and Vex and of course where I got my start mechanically... Lego Technics

Simplified Mechanical System Part 3

2010-08-28T00:08:00.001-06:00

This is where it gets interesting. :)

We now have a shaft we can mount a bearing to and hold the bearing in place. Without any custom machining. But what holds the bearing? This does..

This is a bracket with a bearing placed in it.

Here are two brackets capturing a bearing..

You then can hold the brackets with a stationary bracket..

But there's another type of bracket that is useful...

The axle bracket.

This bracket has the 8mm D-profile cut into the middle. This bracket can either hold a shaft stationary to your assembly. Or it can engage a shaft that is made to rotate smoothly by riding in a set of bearings..

Such as here in my trebuchet model.

But either of these brackets can be used for yet another purpose. Given any gear or pulley. If you can center it up properly and drill your holes right. You can bolt any gear or pulley or sprocket to one of these brackets.

The possibilities are endless.

Simplified Mechanical System Part 2

2010-08-27T23:39:00.001-06:00

Secondly we need a shaft/axle that will work for the following functions (as mentioned previously)..

1. They hold components where they need to be. But they also need to be held in place on the shaft.
2. Shafts give various components a common rotational axis.
3. Shafts transmit motion from one component to another

Let's tackle number three first.

A D-profile shaft will allow components to spin on the shaft, as well as being able to transmit power. Also its easier to go from a store bought shaft to a d-profile, than it is to put a key slot into the shaft.

But this still doesn't place a component somewhere along the length.

This is where standards come in again. If your components could be a certain thickness, then maybe we can avoid making a custom shaft, a common design will do for many different setups.

We can cut concentric slots in the axle of specified width with specific spacing, then we can make our component thickness match those measurements.

Like this..

Then E-clips hold the components in place along the shaft.

Kinda like this..

Simplified Mechanical System Part 1

2010-08-27T23:00:00.001-06:00

I had an idea.

I was talking to my brother and as I talked I was frustrated at how hard it was to build things. The biggest problem in my opinion is. Everytime I want to build something, it pretty much always involves some kind of shafts.

Shafts have several functions:

1. They hold components where they need to be. But they also need to be held in place on the shaft.

2. Shafts give various components a common rotational axis.

3. Shafts transmit motion from one component to another

If you want to place a component on a shaft and have it perform reliably, it needs to be held in place on the shaft. If you want a component to spin smoothly, then you need a bearing placed on your shaft. The bearing needs to have the same inner diameter as the shaft's outer diameter, within a few thousandths, if not things will vibrate and wobble and all kinds of problems. Most shafts get stacked on with a different diameter for each component. Thats alot of custom machining.

Borrow from: Wikipedia

I don't have the resources to machine custom shafts each time I have an idea, and I'm not alone in not having them.

Bearings are the next big problem. Some things need to free-spin on shafts and some things need to be engaged on the shaft. Again with each component needing a different inner and outer diameter.

What's needed is a standard, a system.

Kinda like the Arduino. Standard shields fit standard sockets with standard pinouts. It works for electronics, it works with Personal computers, PCI cards fit in PCI slots. Serial ATA drives plug into Serial ATA cables. Standards make building things (relatively) simple. (USB has got to be the best example Ever!)

Then I realized. I've used skate bearings in several things. Skate bearings are ubiquitous and standardized. Here you can get 100 for $35, $0.35 a piece!

They have an exactly 8mm inner diameter and 22mm outer diameter, they are 7mm thick. But they don't come with any mounting help, no flange, no bearing block...

So an 8mm shaft will mesh up into a skate bearing exactly.

Skate bearings are perfect for a simplified mechanical system...

Three Tips To Try From Lifehacker

2010-08-27T01:53:00.000-06:00

Here's three tips from lifehacker, I want to share them in case anyone else needs them, and maybe try them myself one day..

Goto deepsurplus to get cheap chords and cables

I keep almost every chord I acquire, just because it sucks SO BAD to buy them. You buy a $10 network card and it comes with a 12ft Cat-6 cable. Goto bestbuy looking for the same cable $17 (IIRC). It's insane to buy cables...

Use coffee grounds to clean sticky/grimy tools

My wife loves coffee so I have as many coffee grounds as I could need...

Tweak Me! tweaks windows from a portable app

I will be trying this one sooner rather than later. It always annoyed me to actually have to install TweakUI

There that frees up 3 more tabs...now maybe my computer can actually run from the ram rather than the virtual memory (nah...it's windows it can't do that)

I'm dreaming right?

2010-08-27T01:41:00.000-06:00

This can't be real...
The jetpack is finally becoming a reality...
This is just amazing..
Martin Jetpack Final Testing

Gotta say it looks pretty good too...

I hope next time I goto an airshow someone will be demonstrating one of these. :)

Another Video Game Replica

2010-08-27T01:23:00.000-06:00

These replica guys really know how to make things look fantastic. This time its a Mass Effect assault rifle...

Found via: Hardocp

Rustic Mallet How-To

2010-08-27T01:11:00.001-06:00

We recently stayed in a very rustic log cabin for our vacation. It was great. But I don't necessarily really "Get" the rustic thing, the mindset. Doesn't particularly appeal to me, in and of itself.
This does though..

This mallet is a pretty cool little project that I would like to undertake..

Problem is logs of these hardwoods aren't just laying around everywhere in lower alabama like they are most places. Here everything EVERYTHING is Pine. I think my best bet would be to find some hardwood pallets and carve some mallets out of that material. I think I will get some branches/logs and stow them in the top of my shed to let them dry then maybe attempt this....

Found Via Make:Online

I also found another neat little workshop project on her site. Non-skid boosters..

CNC Hacking

2010-08-25T23:40:00.000-06:00

Thats hacking, as in building things...

Peter who works with Reprap has had two blog posts come across my screen lately...

First his entirely laser cut rack and pinion cnc axis.

Although having something cut with a laser cutter or cnc'd is still out of my reach (not by much). This does lower the bar for making a repeatable cnc machine significantly..

But there are still cheaper/easier options... And thats what his more recent post shows..

Reciprocating Laser Cutter

There's two innovations here. The use of Optical disk drive carriages makes for a low power and small scale axis. This uses three.

Secondly he's using a low power (for a cutter) laser. It's a 1watt unit. He's reciprocating the laser on the Z axis to move the focal point through the material. Giving just enough heat to melt some plastic and cut a part.

If Peter gets a chance to read this. I'd just like him to know I'm impressed and I have plenty of old cd-roms if he needs more.

Robot Arm Turned Into F1 Ferrari Simulator

2010-08-25T23:03:00.000-06:00

Robot Arm F1 Simulator

Via: Hackedgadgets

This is a very complicated hack, looking into simulating the extreme acceleration of an F1 car. Looks like the ULTIMATE video game console to me!

My cousin was designing his own motion sim but somehow I dont think a KUKA robot arm would fit in his budget (or his garage). But I do think this one has the heave axis covered. :)

Hidden Home Theater Computers

2010-08-25T20:10:00.000-06:00

A while back I was reading Computer Power User (I think) and they had a little sideboard about Orange Amps. An old company from the UK that makes guitar amps. They had a new product that meshed a computer into the back of a guitar amp. Here look, it's genius...

Orange Amps PC division website

This is a really really good idea. My friends in production tell me its pretty hard to get a computer hardy enough to meet the demands of stage and recording. Even after you've picked a PC then it needs a case that is ok with being kicked and generally abused. Most choose the hardened but limited choice of using a laptop.

So the orange amps pc is a great solution.

This got me to thinking...they are just putting a PC in a big speaker box. What if I did the same. Maybe I could get an old busted amp and place a PC inside. It would look better than most other solutions for the living room or what not.

Which made me think of an even better idea...

Home theaters need subwoofers. Subwoofers are usually in big wooden boxes and made to look good for the living room/media room. What about getting an old sub and using the box. With smaller computers you could even place another..smaller sub inside the old sub box and have a Sub+HTPC.

Well...of course, before I could get all this written down and posted (or built then posted would have been even better) someone built almost the same thing..!

Hidden Home Theater PC from Lifehacker

This is a really good implementation.

I would like build something a little more space efficient, and in a subwoofer

...one day...

Sketchup Ruby Scripts

2010-08-25T16:46:00.000-06:00

I've been designing some things in sketchup...
It's been a struggle at times.

Today my friend Ben told me how he was getting a ruby script to add-on to sketchup.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through the trouble.. Then I find this..

The Engineering Toolbox

This plugin adds standard and custom parametric components that you can add to your sketchup models. Things like piping, I-beams, standard bulding lumber and so on...

I found that plugin Via Ruby Library Depot. Which literally has hundreds of sketchup ruby plugins...

Two of note to me are Tomatoes and Woodwork both of which should make designing cabinets and desks and other such furniture and fixtures MUCH easier in sketchup. :)

Fallout 3 replica weapons

2010-08-25T16:14:00.001-06:00

Fallout 3 replica weapons

These video game replica guns look fantastic! Now if they only worked.

Via Make:Online

What does it Do!?

2010-08-12T00:18:00.006-06:00

A while back I had an idea for greatly simplifying mechanical design, but everyone I told about it (with 2 exceptions) just said "What does it do though?" to which I said "Anything!". Which didn't make sense. So then I set out to draw this idea in sketchup and to make an assembly that can "do" something.

I finally completed that model.

Here's a pic.

Come to think of it, it was December when I had the idea. 8months is WAY too long for something like this.

I will be detailing the how's what's and why's of this system here in my blog in coming weeks.

Stay Tuned...

R/C Wipeout

2010-08-05T23:56:00.006-06:00

As usual this is something I've often wanted to build. But someone beat me to it with a couple of really cool twists.

I've always wanted to build an remote control car with a camera mounted on top. But I never thought to build a cardboard clone of a Wipeout (video racing game) track to race the car on. And I never thought to hook up the controls to an arcade style cockpit and drivers seat. This is genius!

Make sure you don't miss the video! (love the music)

I think maybe I should find an art grant somewhere and really start building things...

You can now actually build a UAV!

2010-08-02T23:28:00.003-06:00

This is a incredible project, maybe even a little scary.

Its a processor and peripheral board that can control a remote control plane. Same as the military has. But this board and its software are open source and available for a rather low price (for what it is).

Also: I've bought some things from Sparkfun before, their service was really good!

Open Source Graphing Calculator

2010-08-02T23:14:00.003-06:00

Really less of a dedicated calculator platform and more of a handheld linux computer with a touchscreen interface.

This graphing calculator is built using a beagle board a particularly well apportioned open-source single board computing platform.

I personally wish for a calculator with gigahertz class processing (like the beagle board) and easy to use software (like the ti-89).

Not that a format like a kindle or i-pad wouldn't work just fin. It's simply a matter of the software.

This is Amazing

2010-07-31T13:39:00.003-06:00

A few days ago I read an article (on Make: then by the builder: Achim Sack )

Detailing how to build the world's smallest intervalometer.

In that article he used a microprocessor from MicroChip the Pic10F222 in a 6-Pin SOT-23 package.

Look at this picture..

This is a picture I staged for size comparison. The little graphic next to the arrow is the same size as the SOT-23 package from MicroChip!!! The vertical line next to the chip diagram is one inch in length. (sketchup wouldn't let me scale it properly so the chip is actually 0.008mm smaller than it should be :P)

Now lets look at some specs for this chip this is so amazing (to me)!

TABLE 1-1: PIC10F222 DEVICES
PIC10F222
Clock Maximum Frequency of Operation (MHz) 8
Memory Flash Program Memory 512
Data Memory (bytes) 23
Peripherals Timer Module(s) TMR0
Analog inputs 2
Features I/O Pins 3
Input Only Pins 1
In-Circuit Serial Programming™ Yes
Packages 6-pin SOT-23,
Operating Voltage Range (V)• Operating Current:- <>
Note 1: The PIC10F222 devices have Power-on Reset, selectable Watchdog Timer, selectable code-protect, high I/O

(copied from Microchip's datasheet(pdf) )

Yes...8mhz!! From a chip that you could reasonably accidentally swallow (without being TOO painful).

Additionally, this chip executes all instructions (except program branches) in a single cycle. So it can achieve up to 2MIPS (reference).

Furthermore it can run at 4mhz on 2volts and 170 microvolts!! That's 0.000170volts !! Standby adds three more zeros!!

I went digging around the internet to find out what the old school equivalent would be in terms of math ability.

I found the venerable Intel 286 chip can also achieve about 2MIPS (depending on clock speed). I haven't been able to find size specifications, but I remember the 286 being about an inch square. I did manage to find the power specs though. 3.3 watts at 5volts so current draw of about 660milliamps. Or about 66 MILLION times the current the microchip part draws.

The 286 was state of the art in 1982. I knew we had made progress but this is a real eye opener.

The cost is also interesting. Microchip describes the Pic10f222 as being "So inexpensive its practically disposable". It's available for less than 50 cents.

When I see spy gear on movies and tv. My mind usually responds with "they cant really do that" but I had no idea such a capable chip was available down at this size. Some of the spy gear is possible. Without even building custom chips for everything. This chip was available to the general public in 2008 and I'm sure there are things in development and secret that are even more miniaturized now.

I showed this to one friend this week and he said "You'd have to be a magician to solder that". I would say you would have to be a robot. I can barely see it.

I know what your thinking...what can you do with it. Well you can make an intervalometer (camera timer) like the guy who turned me on to it. Or you could do one of the projects on this page, or you could use it to blink leds, like so many people use their Arduinos for, the pic would be MUCH smaller and use alot less power too. Or you could use it for embedding intelligence in far flung systems (I'm thinking car door actuators and switches or similar applications). It would also be good or running servos or steppers (through an amplifier circuit). I would like to build a remote receiver/motor to turn the volume up and down on my stereo (or maybe use a digital resistor chip hacked in place of the volume knob). The 222 should be just right for that...

I also took a look at some other options in very small/cheap/low power processors while preparing for this.

I like the Texas Instruments MSP430. The usb part of the stick is the programmer. You enter your program in the IDE and send it to that little stick. It programs the very end piece. The processor is 16mhz and there are 14 user assignable pins. The great thing is the programmer (usb stick) is only $20 and then the target boards are only $3 a piece. The programmer for the PIC processors is $70. Not quite as easy to write programs for as an arduino but much more economical.

Why we should keep going to space

2010-07-31T00:08:00.003-06:00

This video was just posted on Make: today.

This demonstrates how little we know about the universe and how much going to space teaches us.

It may seem uselessly stupid to study alka seltzer in micro-gravity. But many things that seemed pointless to study at the time ended up being useful.

It looks like space exploration (as we have known it in the past) is mostly dead in America and around the world. But I still believe there are many benefits to a vibrant space program.

Daily Reading

2010-07-30T23:27:00.004-06:00

There are some sites I read daily. Because I am continuously entranced and fascinated by technology and wanting to possibly build something cool or useful for myself, most of these links are focused on DIY and technologies...

Hackaday.com

Makezine Blog

Lifehacker.com (I especially like the featured workspaces and workspace organization tips)

/. (of course) (I've gotta actually admit I have no idea what slashdot means (oh wait wikipedia knows )

Toolmonger A blog all about tools.

CNCCookBook A blog about CNC

DPCars Cars documented from concept to building and testing (I've been reading this one since about 2002, I think)

If you watch these sites most of what I post will be ancient news to you. But maybe I can offer another perspective or help aggregate from these sources.

Is there anything cooler?

2010-07-30T22:44:00.005-06:00

This video (youtube) is one of the coolest ideas I've seen anywhere (aside from the whole wasting one of my favorite foods aspect).

Who knew throwing 10,000 volts through a watermelon makes a simple gourd into a bomb!!

via: Makezine blog

Btw: Your probably wondering why I didn't embed the video. It's because I don't believe in embedding dozens of videos. I have to operate from a slower/older laptop and embedding dozens of videos on a blog or a website slows my computer to a crawl. Its very frustrating. If I can figure out how to make blogger build in a break maybe I will embed videos in the future. But for now my website is usable for those on older/slower hardware and slower connections...

I'm back..

2010-07-30T22:38:00.002-06:00

It's been almost two years since I posted.

There's lotsa reasons why, and I'll probably get into some of the reasons later.

I am gonna get back to writing and linking more in this space.

I'm also going to get over my fear of short posts (starting now) even ones mostly linking cool things going on around the net.

Hopefully I can engage your interest and show you some of the things that are possible and inspire you to what may be possible.

Had to stop and take a picture....

2008-09-15T19:53:00.002-06:00

I know it's been a long time since I updated. There's been alot going on in my life (that I could blog about if I had the time... :P ). Also I had an image hosting problem (putfile doesn't work anymore), I finally decided to use picasa. It may be temporary or maybe permanent. At first I was thrown off by the 1-gigabyte free storage limit. Then I started uploading and realized the full size pics weren't being stored so I can actually fit Hundreds of pictures.

Here's a couple.

From Blog Sep 1

I was driving to go pick some stuff up at my friend's house earlier today and this vista just opened up in front of me and I realized where I was, was gonna be the best unblocked perspective, so I pulled off for two minutes and snapped a few shots.

Sand and Plans

2008-07-05T23:43:00.005-06:00

July 4th was pretty awesome.

First we went biking in Chickasabogue park. But I didn't take any pictures. But if you know me, you know I LOVE to bike!!

Then in the evening went with some friends to the Battleship to see the Mobile City fireworks show. Several friends and my sisters got to come it was a rather fun night. :D

Here's my sisters Red, White, Blue...

This was not intentional but makes a great picture of us anyways.

On Saturday Here was "Plan A"
- Goto Pensacola to Weatherford's Outback in the morning
- Climb their rock wall
- Goto beach? Maybe. Maybe play some volleyball...
- Come back by 5 to Mobile to play Ultimate frisbee

By 8pm we were on "Plan H". Which involved
- Goto Weatherfords and find out the rock wall hours are 3pm to 9pm (it was 11am).
- Goto "Shiny Diny" for lunch and wait an hour to get food (sitdown to eating 1hr), but admittedly everyone thought it was Excellent!
- Take Nearly an hour to get to the beach (arrived at ~2pm) drive around for 30min and NOT find a parking spot.
- Continue EAST on hwy 399 till there were no more buildings and FINALLY find somewhere to park (along the road).
- Play some volleyball, hang out on the beach, 4pm time to go.
- Art and Amy arrive as we are walking out (I was NO help in getting them there sooner).
- Decide we really don't need to go back to Mobile so soon, Go back to the beach.
- Swim/Float/Frisbee/Sand Castles
- Theres suddenly a storm rolling, in take a picture, its time to Go.
- Go back to the pavilion/public safety building to change and watch the pandemonium as 5000 beach goers are trying to scurry out of the rain, and get clean, and in their normal clothes, same as us.
- Start driving to Mobile only to get separated from Art and Amy again.
- We're hungry where do we eat? Malbis Ma Bella's ...ok.
- Arrive in Malbis only to find ALLL the power is out and the Jubilee center is a ghost town with no lights on at all and no cars around. Daphne too, WEIRD!
- Continue to Mobile and eat at Logan's.
- Disband for the night....

Weatherford's Outback is a pretty cool store on highway 90 in pensacola. It sits right across from the water and just down the street from the shiny diny. They have all manner of backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, skiing, and climbing gear and clothing. They also have a really cool Golden Labrador dog. This is the Weatherford's Outdoor Climbing wall..

This is two pictures of the indoor. I plan to climb this one.

Not this part..

I felt it necessary to show these because in all my searching I couldn't find a single picture of the rock wall or the store. I will take more when we go and actually climb.

This is our group at the beach. This picture confirms several things for me. We actually did get Marshall to goto the beach (weird). We were all there and had a good time. Thusly today really did happen and some of our plans actually (Eventually) worked out.

The beach we found at the end of the buildings in Pensacola was actually pretty cool. It wasn't totally secluded, but there weren't a thousand people to get around either (and not alot of retirees like on gulf shores).

On the ride to Pensacola, Marshall was talking about "living in the moment" and how that somehow enhanced life. :) Then later when Weatherford's didn't work out Cherold mentioned how you make plans and hope they work, but when they don't you have something to swing from. Then on the way back to Mobile Marshall kept saying that he felt "Existential" this evening and how time seemed to be standing still.

I should tell you more about this, scenario. I told you about the plans, but as we were driving back it was raining and the rain was sheeting off the windshield. The sun was going down in front of us (we were heading west), but behind the clouds. Making everything a pale orange and blue. :)

It did seem time was at a standstill and very much like we didn't know anything about the next moment (except maybe that I would somehow mention Mutemath again). It was overall VERY VERY surreal. Then we arrive in Malbis, and there are no electric lights on AT ALL.

Once we got to Logan's I was talking to Marshall and managed to sum it up like this.. .
It's like looking at a waterfall and each moment is a little water drop and they just keep flowing and falling down. But looked at wider the water seems almost not to move as if time were at a standstill and nothing was happening.

Before today I was really worried the plan wasn't gonna work out, for a while I thought only me and Marshall were gonna climb and going to Pensacola just for that wouldn't be worthwhile. Additionally neither of us is really a climber (I don't like the hieghts personally). But in the end it worked out in spite of my inability to connect and communicate with Art in operational matters (sorry we left you behind twice). But in the end very glad everyone came and I think we all will have great memories of this adventure of a day.

It's often said it's not the destination but the ride. But I would interject that it is usually the destination, but you probably won't find what you expected once you get there, so you better appreciate the ride as well.

Tigers and Friends

2008-06-15T00:32:00.005-06:00

This week the exploreum brought in a small bengal tiger exhibition (the exhibition's small not the tigers).

Naomi and I went with our friends Charles, Natalie, and Nathan.

Nathan was SO HAPPY to be going to see tigers, he talked about it the whole way there, so I took a little video of him talking about it.

Nathan-Tigers - Hosted by Putfile.com

Here's a few of the better pictures I took of the big cats.

And a Short Video, here they were telling us the trainer was getting the tiger riled up to hunt him.

Tigers-58 - Hosted by Putfile.com

They made a big deal of not making the tigers do anything they wouldn't normally do, so the tricks were kind of basic but still better than just watching cats laze around.

About half way through the presentation I noticed two of my friends sitting on the other side, then I noticed a third as well. It was Cale, Ben and Amanda.

(He asked me to post this picture)

Mass Tram America

2007-10-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

This Article introduces a new proposal for a tram/monorail system. It uses an elevated monorail and old 747 airplane bodies to achieve a small footprint and efficient operation. I am only writing this because after I read the following

"Fixed routes and tracks means that there’s little to no crossing traffic and high speeds can be maintained (estimated at between 100 and 200 miles per hour average speeds)."

The first thing I thought was...I hope it has a large windshield washer tank to get all those dead bugs off the front. :)

Unreal Tournament 3 Demo Torrent

2007-10-13T17:48:00.000-06:00

The Unreal Tournament Demo was released today.

I would like to say its awesome, but on my computer it pretty much sucks. :P But thats just because I only get 30fps with it set at minimal detail 640x480.

Anyways heres the torrent
Instructions:
1. If you are using IE go download a real browser (ostensibly Opera)
2. Click the download torrent link on the torrent page.
3. Opera will download the torrent and then the demo for you (should be plenty of peers for the next couple days)
4. Double click the demo installer.
You can handle the rest (Ashley)

Hopefully it runs better on your system than mine.

Hosting Dilemna

2007-06-27T22:16:00.000-06:00

Me and my programmer have been working on my website. I intend to use a PhpWiki as a data storage structure. Upon installing PhpWiki on my server, it runs a setup script, which places Dba files in the /tmp directory, where they are deleted every week. So the wiki's storage is deleted, great. The help files instruct you to simply copy the Dba files to a directory, then change your config file so the PhpWiki knows where your files are.

None of that is possible with my current host. With my current account there is no access to my /tmp directory, I cant get below my /home/user/ directory. The tech support won't do it for me (how hard is it honestly?).

So I need a new host, possibly one with root access to my files. Privileges like that are mostly (but not necessarily) only available in a VPS (Virtual Private Server).

I've been looking into this hosting thing, and I had decided on "gate" hosting. They have a great package, and furthermore their hosting is run by an "Advanced Cluster", just like Google. I was going to sign up for a $30/month VPS account. I was into the second step of signing up, and just then decided to stay my hand. I Googled Gate hosting, and trying to find anything on any host is nearly impossible. :P So I didn't find much.

Except a blog entry where a guy complained about them, he said they took 5 days to answer a support call. Gate wasn't looking so good...so I started looking elsewhere

Which lead back to http://hosting-review.com/top-10-lists/top-10-vps-hosts.shtml

That's how I got to Gate (they are at the top). So I started exploring the rest of the list. The next on the list is midPhase. Under support they list "True 24/7 phone support - skeptics welcome to call us anytime at 1-866-MIDPHASE to test things out. (and yes, you can do it at 3:15AM on Sunday)" ...So I did :) And I got a human on the other line (possibly a Vulcan but there's no reason to assume that) (incidentally the human's name was Cisco :P) but definitely not a computer.

I asked him if I would have root access and explained the problem with my wiki (yes with VPS, no with a lesser account), but then he asked one of his techs about using a wiki and after a coupla minutes he came back on and said she said I shouldn't be a problem even with the lesser account. And said that she (a female technician?!) had a wiki on her own domain with no problems. I said "great" and got off the line.

I kept thinking about the problem. A little while later I pulled up the help files for PhpWiki and called them back, I wanted to talk to the technician and find out which wiki they had installed. I called sales, and got "Cisco" ("Sysco?") again, what luck. I explained I wanted to talk to the technician about the wiki problem, he told me her name and transfered me. I was finally talking to the technician, I asked her what wiki she was using, (hey she Knows what a wiki is!!(some technicians don't)). She was using mediawiki, the engine that runs www.wikipedia.com, she assured me the setup didn't cause problems.

Then she started to check on something, it ends up the management software included with the lesser account includes a "package" that installs PhpWiki automagically(they've heard of it and included setup files!!), GREAT!!

I then asked about getting Dugg or Slashdotted, she said with the lesser account there would be a "Account Suspended" page and with the VPS account you could at least get at your server even if its overloaded.

You've got to realize at this point, I still am not a client of midPhase. I'm just a random caller and they helped me with all this....at 7pm in the evening...Awesome!

So how does Gate compare?!

I dunno, so I called them as well. I dialed into the support department, I got a person. He immediately asked for my domain name....I told him I was thinking about using Gate and wanted to know about some features. From the first mention of wiki's he had NO IDEA what I was talking about, I mentioned it was the kind of software that runs Wikipedia, this is getting SCARY, again NO IDEA!! I said thank you and hung up. He wasn't able to help me, and apparently neither is Gate. Now, I could get the wiki working under their VPS account, but support has never HEARD of a wiki, that is simply unacceptable. I mean seriously have they heard of the latest search engine, something called Google??! Maybe they should look it up in their Encyclopedia Brittanica, honestly.

Then I asked about getting Dugg or Slashdotted, he'd never heard of those either. So I decided I would put his rock back on top of him and move on.

So I think I will go with midPhase!
Boy that was a hard decision. :P

Engine out!

2007-06-24T20:48:00.000-06:00

I've bought a new car, a 97 Honda Civic. But it needs a new motor, It ends up I've already sold the old motor. So I've spent the last week and a half pulling the motor (an hour here and there). But particularly yesterday, I spent 7hrs working on it.

Anyways the engine is out. :D

Do the Wachowsky Brothers watch Star Trek?!

2007-06-09T22:24:00.000-06:00

I just watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager, Episode 39 The Thaw.

This episode begins with finding a planet that had gone through environmental collapse, and its inhabitants developed a stasis system that linked their minds inside of a virtual environment.

Which then developed a frightening clown from their collective fears.

All the same the stasis system and the linked virtual environment is very similar to concepts in The Matrix. :)

Makes you wonder which came first.

Feel free to write more similar references in the comments.

This is Not Good

2007-06-05T23:24:00.000-06:00

This is not good at all! (please excuse the scewed, non-screenshot picture) This is an iBook 700, that just got a fresh install of OSX 10.4 and a coupla updates, but something went very wrong.

I've already reinstalled OSX 10.4 and it works again, I wonder what happens/happened when I hit the update button.

X Windows Graphics Drivers problems

2007-05-28T12:31:00.001-06:00

Installing the graphics drivers in Linux can be rather tricky, but I recently discovered a way to get out of the command line and into the easier to understand graphical interface. These tips should work for most distributions, but the only one I have done it with is Ubuntu. If your in Debian or Ubuntu and using an ATI or NVIDIA card then Automatix or Envy are definitely the way to go for installing your video drivers. Although envy can also be run in text mode I couldn't get it to work.

I worked on the problem for quite a while and although there is a moderately easy solution I didn't see it anywhere that I looked on the Internet, I don't know if its one of the few remaining "everybody should know that" things in Ubuntu or if everyone else really does use the more complicated methods....

Anyways, here's how to get out of text mode so you can install your drivers. Just change the video driver to vesa!

The easier way to do this (in Ubuntu/Debian) is to type:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This command runs the Xorg setup script, the very first question is which video driver the server should use, there should be a Vesa driver in that list, just hit enter once you have it highlighted, then just hit enter for the rest of the options (unless you really want to change something else). Then after the program exits just type:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$startx

Of course there is also the good old method of manually editing your Xorg.conf

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then you need to find the part that looks like:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia" ....

Then just change Driver to "vesa" then save the file and:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$startx

X should start now, it might be a bit slower and not able to do Beryl, but at least you can use this mode to get Envy or Automatix going and get the proper drivers installed without having to muck about in the CLI. :D

(P.S. if I got anything wrong Please correct me in the comments)

Sunset

2007-05-06T23:34:00.000-06:00

I was heading home from Spanish Fort and saw this amazing sunset and started to think of a way to get a Good picture of it. I knew it was a ways off so I had to start speeding or miss it. Halfway across the causeway there was a good place, but I JUST BARELY caught it.

Mobius Chess

2007-04-05T21:04:00.000-06:00

I am so building one of these! (Eventually)

I will use a wood base that will be the anchor point for one (or two) vertical bars, and those will support a flat section of steel bent into the mobius shape and etched with the Chessboard pattern

Then the pieces will have magnetic bottoms...

But maybe glass with strips of steel embedded inside would be better for seeing all your pieces, or just plain glass and suction cup pieces...

So...who's up for a game?

(idea via: Make Blog)

This one's for Ashley

2007-04-01T23:16:00.000-06:00

Hey Ash, my (I think) sole reader (or at least commenter).

One of my favorite bands Mutemath recently released a brilliant video for their song "Typical".

This is for Ashley because tommorow he is moving to Atlanta because God told him to. :)
So to the question "Can I break the Spell of the Typical?..." Ashley can certainly answer "Yes!"..

Good Luck Ashley!

M.C. Escher

2007-03-31T22:54:00.000-06:00

Like alotta geeks M.C. Escher is one of my favorite artists. His paintings play on perspective and twist realities.

This evening after reading the Wikipedia entry on him, I found an excellent gallery of his drawings. So go there and boggle at his amazing abilities.

I was looking for this one in particular (I would put it directly on this page but dont want to infringe copyrights...or something). Somewhere I have a copy of this print, one of the few things I used to display in my room.

Amazing Provision

2006-10-29T15:36:00.000-06:00

Every now and again a friend of mine will tell me an unbelievable story about God's amazing provision in their lives. A story of prayers directly answered exactly on time, often in abundance.

My friend Basil recently told me such a story of God's grace. So here goes....

Basil was in Mobile, when he had been planning to be in Bradenton, FL for few weeks but every time he tried to go there, something came up in Mobile. He had plans to be at a conference in Kansas City , but his flight was out of Tampa(because he didnt know he would still be in Mobile). There was no way he could change the reservations to Mobile. So he rented a car and drove down (one way) to catch his flight to Kansas City.

After having a great weekend at the conference, he and his leader were sitting in the airport and the leader (who had booked the flight for Basil) wished he had booked it to take Basil back to Mobile instead of Tampa. Basil was nearly penniless and faced the choice of getting a hotel room (which he couldn't afford) after the flight or sleeping in the airport, to wait for his brother to come. And then what? Come back to Mobile? He didn't have money for that.....

So then God provided him a way.

An airline official came over the intercom and asked for anyone willing to reschedule their flight out to the next morning. Basil jumped at the chance, they were offering a free room for the night (no sleeping in the airport), the rescheduled flight(no biggy), a $400 certificate (money to get back to Mobile), and 2 free meals as well.

They put him up in the Hilton nearby, he got up in the morning got a free shuttle to the airport and got some breakfast then waited for his flight out. There was more good news when he got seated, it ended up the only open seat was in first class! He had a drink, a salad, and a light nap before the plane even got off the ground. :D

So the lesson kids, is to have just a little seed of faith, and Go. Have faith that God can get you back where he wants you, in style even. :)

This is Basil, back in Mobile after he told me this story of Amazing Provision.

What took so long?!

2006-09-15T21:29:00.000-05:00

Ok another link I stole from Digg. This link leads to the most incredibly fun program ever, smoothteddy. Watch the demonstration video and then try the applet. They are distributing this work of genius for free, God Bless them. :]

I just wanna know...what took so long? Why has 3d always been about creating and editing every single point and line and polygon?

Drawing on a computer should have always been this way. It's genius and I guarantee you will have fun with this and be able to create something vaguely resembling what you wanted (as long as its curvy and topologically sound).

Vacuum Forming

2006-08-28T00:19:00.000-05:00

Several years ago I was asked to help put together some costumes. As usual I never actually pulled it off. I couldn't find what kind of plastic I needed. There's lots of pages on vacuum forming, but they always seem to assume you know where to get random sheets of plastic...

Well tonight I made that particular discovery.

From this page on www.tk560.com

Sometimes called HIPs [High-Impact Polystyrene Sheet] I've had the best luck searching for HIS [High-Impact Styrene Sheet] Below are some suggested sources.

:D

The problem that brought this up was, I'm wondering if this is a practical way to build some new trim pieces for my car. The old pieces just arent holding up. Or maybe just use the plastic to mold more durable fiberglass bits.

Of course that would require a nearly 4ft vacuum table. :)

More of what I've been up to...

2006-08-22T23:20:00.000-05:00

In June I worked on my car for nearly two weeks.

My clutch was headed out so I decided to go ahead and replace it. Unfortunately in
the final step of removal I broke the return spring of the throwout bearing. I would not suggest you do the same. Otherwise this job would have only taken a couple of days.

In the above picture there is a cordless impact wrench. That particular one was $70 from home depot (bought at 8:45 one night while working on my dad's car (home depot closes at 9)). I highly suggest you go buy one of these if you work on your car and don't have a compressor, its a true life saver!

That's the spring there, the out of focus brass colored thing..

A couple of weeks after that I finally made it out to Barry's U-Pull-It Junkyard, I had a hot tip that there was a CRX with the front fender I needed for my car.

This was the generous donor CRX.

The Recovered bumper posing on my car, right before I made out of there like a bandit! :]

Look a CRX SI!!

Barry's is a heavenly place to be for me...so many possibilities.....

The bumper still isn't on my car. I intend to back it up with some fiberglass to reinforce it before mounting it to my car.

The week after the 4th of July Hyrum and Allie and Ian came down to Alabama to visit.

Before this visit I was frantically trying to get the projector panel working. It needed power then I would test it to see if it really worked at all, then I would build the necessary adapter cable for video. So I got all my electronics stuff out and made my work area on the dining room table....

Then I built a little circuit to adapt power from an ATX power supply to a cable stolen from an old keyboard.

I checked everything 4 times, but everytime I turned on the supply with everything hooked up, the power supply blipped its fan then acted dead. After I was CERTAIN that everything was hooked up right I gave up. The panel IS DEAD! After I had spent at least $50 on supplies and hookups, and the other $60 I spent on the panel...Nothing.

Then A New Hope.

When Hyrum and Allie arrived, Hyrum brought an offcast LCD monitor that he had rescued from disposal at his work. So what did we do? We took it apart! :D

Then I built a holder for it to sit over the Overhead Projector, so the projector could cast light through the LCD delivering an image to my screen.

Unfortunately, When we turned on the LCD , in spite of my efforts it was a mirror image (left to right) of what it should have been, BUT it DID display an image. Ever since I heard about this LCD projection thing I was always a bit skeptical, but now I've seen it works. But the combination of the screen being flipped and the FFL (flat flexible cable (as they call it on the lumenlab forums)) problem, which meant the top 10 percent and the left 20 percent of the image were blocked by circuit boards, and I couldn't find a video card setting/tweaker to fix the mirror flip...

So i decided to reassemble the LCD as a regular monitor. At some point in the future I WILL build a proper lumenlabs style LCD projector. But I cant yet. :P

The last thing I would like to talk about is some shelves me and Oliver salvaged from disposal. I saw these driving home one day. They were setup there outside an A/C supply place. They intended to break them down and put them in the dumpster. So I called them the next day and found out they were destined for the dump and salvaged them.

This is some serious shelving folks, I could make any kind of mount/base/structure with this stuff. I Got about 9 shelves worth. So I went ahead and set one up in my storage..

I LOVE my car, the versatility of a CRX as you can see, is incredible! :D

Oliver said it looked like a computer store in my storage....I cant see why he said that, HAHA!

Sometimes....

2006-08-22T22:05:00.000-05:00

Sometimes my ideas come to me all at once....
And sometimes I even draw them out....
Then a very few times I scan that drawing and post the idea on my blog :D

So, I was laying on my bed a minute ago, thinking as I have many times before how much I would just like to use the computer from right there. Then I realized that I had an LCD monitor sitting right in front of me and it began to become a possibility, if only I had a monitor arm that could reach over my bed...(or a projector...but anyways). I started thinking about the process of building a monitor arm (buying one is for people flush with cash....and who don't know how to weld :](which gives me another idea...). So I ruled out wood because I don't think its strong enough and really like using metal. So I started to think about what an arm would look like, it would need an arm with a pivot on the end, hmm sounds hard....unless.

So I hit on the idea of using the remains of discarded bikes, I would use a bottom tube for the top arm and another for the vertical mounting piece. Then I drew the whole thing up.

By the way, my other idea from above was a bumper sticker that would say.
"Buying things is for People who don't know how to weld"

I made it onto Makezine!

2006-08-13T00:34:00.000-05:00

Check it out, I posted a little article on making a pizza sauce can furnace and then Makezine posted it on their blog. :D

Edit: Sorry I forgot to post the links...here they are...
Makezine Blog
Instructable

4 Month Old Pictures

2006-08-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

What have I been up to, since the last time I really posted in January?
And why haven't I posted any on the blog?
Well, Alotta things I've been meaning to blog, but haven't managed to get around to till now... (plus picture upload was broke last time I tried this post)

In April I went to Blakely Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama; then followed that mini-trip up with a real one to Sand Rock, Alabama; Birmingham and Finally to Montgomery to see MuteMath, I couldn't rent a car for the whole weekend and stay in mobile.

Here's some of the better pics :]

The two above are from sunset on the river at blakely. This was the highlight of the trip (visually at least). Unfortunately after it got dark I noticed (would be hard not to) that a couple of sites down they had an elaborate tent replete with a generator running an a/c ( yeah that's camping! ). So it was quite hard to rest, or think, or do anything other than listen to that thing run all night!!

This is the view from Rock Village, in Sand Rock, Alabama! Next time I go I have definitely gotta camp out and see what dawn looks like! (the first is facing east, the second is south, it was near sunset at the time). Sand Rock is one of my absolute favorite places (or at least..of the ones I've been to so far). This view is mezmorizing to me, it completely consumes my attention. :D Then there's the fact that to get this view REQUIRES you scramble up onto the rocks, and your right there on the edge, no safety rails or ropes, it is fully possible you could fall off. It's a good kind of exhilaration. I guess to get the long view (from the mountainside) risk is required. :)

Look someone wrote my name on the rocks. :) (not me)

This is an attempted picture of Mutemath. The camera I took this with (that I borrowed from Ashley), absolutely refuses to take a good picture at a concert.

Look its my name again, on Mutemath's keyboard this time. Sweet!

Chemistry class

2006-05-13T00:02:00.000-05:00

I always knew chemistry class had the potential to be like this...

Best free videos accross the net.

Keeping the peace

2006-01-23T00:32:00.000-06:00

As I was growing up, sunday mornings getting ready for church were always umm Interesting. You see we had 6 ppl in my family and usually only one bathroom. And we aren't the kind of family to walk in on each other.

I was reflecting back on this yesterday and how I, always really wanted to solve this problem. The best thing I had come up with to date involved parabolic mirrors, so it wasnt terribly practical.

I think I might have it licked though...
In a bathroom with this configuration, 3-4 ppl can operate simutaneously without any interference. At least, that is, as long as someone has evacuated before the person in the shower comes out. :P

Google in the Fire

2006-01-19T23:19:00.000-06:00

Bellsouth (my service provider...unfortunately) recently hatched this crazy(greedy!) idea to make websites share the cost of bandwidth. Google isnt budging

For those of you that havent heard, the federal government is asking Google to hand over search records to help track sexually explicit content on the web. Google isnt budging, so far.

Google...pick your guns carefully, and stick to them!

Power Idea

2006-01-19T21:15:00.000-06:00

So this one is so obivous and simple I should probably hold onto it....

How about a series of power strips that are controlled (on/off, maybe for individual plugs) through Buetooth!!?

Btw, Mpower Systems is looking for a person with electronic fabrication skills. If you can design a good circuit to control two power window motors with a standard analog joystick, between now and breakfast please email me.

Robot Marketplace

2006-01-15T23:36:00.000-06:00

The Robot Marketplace

They've got some great parts/kits. I am especially eyeing the pre-slotted axles. :)

Interfacing

2006-01-15T23:10:00.000-06:00

Bear with me this is a complex one....

I have been thinking about how to make computers do things alot. In particular I was thinking about whether you could call your own phone, have your computer take the call and then bark commands to your computer over the phone. Well I dont know if it would work but if it did, you would have to somehow control the computer without seeing the screen.

Then I thought about how my friend Ashley is HUGE on using the keyboard for everything, any program he finds without keyboard shortcuts he refuses to use. There often arent shortcuts for everything the program can do...

I myself find it hard to remember more than a few without spending loads of time working on it.

And then theres the CLI (command line interface) crowd. They build software that works solidly (thankfully) if you can string the commands together in the right sequence (doh!).

What if, a program had a single key, Alt, or Ctrl shortcut for EVERY function! And was built where these could be used in the command line. Then in order to give the program a GUI you would just have to map all your buttons to feed the program each key. (which is essntially what the linux guys do except the commands are more grammatic)

Then you could possibly get the phone call control working, the computer would have to work out the focus (for example when a dialog pops up), but you would be that much closer. Scripting would become that much easier as well.

You gotta remember that this is coming from a guy that doesnt really script or program that much.

2 Games

2006-01-10T19:21:00.000-06:00

The easiest game ever created:1D- Tetris

and one of the hardest: N

Lunch post

2006-01-03T12:00:00.000-06:00

I was thinking as I drove home for lunch about the Matrix movies, and why the last two sucked so much more than the first (cause the first one really rocked).

I bet it comes down to the time they had to chew on the concepts and scripts. As in for the first one they probably had the idea years and years before they got the go ahead and funding to make it. So for years and years this movie was being ground down to the smallest details and the concepts and visuals refined, till it was incredibly well developed.

On the other hand the last two were probably on a schedule and there was stress and worry all around to get it out on time. And after it was completed..That was it..Onto making them. I think this happens ALOT in creative endeavors.

I read an article recently that lamented that so many people spend such large amounts of thier life building junk (cant remember where I read it). Junk that gets a little use, or makes us smile a little but quickly degrades and ends up in a landfill. What if those products had just a little more refinement, what if someone had taken a couple more days and thought about its flaws?

What if they had gone into farming and grown some food instead?

So if your reading this and involved in creative endeavors, just take a couple more hard looks at your creation, think about its ultimate end. Will it end up discarded, or an hierloom. Will it still be useful or enjoyable in 5yrs time?

If it isnt, then consider going into farming (we can always use more food).

Projector Update

2005-12-04T09:54:00.000-06:00

I did finally get the panel in....
But it didnt come with any cables, power or vga. So now if I want to use the thing I have to build those. Luckily it did come with a manual that includes the pinouts of the connectors. Unluckily the needed connector is a hd 26pin D-sub connector. Mouser to the rescue...

The Triumph of Organization

2005-12-04T09:35:00.000-06:00

While reading a woodworking magazine a while back there was a little tip for building a toolbox with vertical panels which hold the tools.

Well after screwing up on the projector box I had 4 good pieces of plywood leftover. So I decided to finally build this project and organize some of my tools. I figured out a way to make the project using JUST plywood and some 1" by 2" boards, thier design used pegboard and dado cuts for the slots.

So Here I give you the Super Simplified Toolroom in a Box.

These two pics (above) illustrate how the slats are nailed down, and some of the tools that will eventually make it into the box. Below are two of the panels in full trim, and the an overview of the box.

I still have to figure out somewhere good to put the box itself. :P

Progress (towards what?)

2005-11-20T00:18:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to show off my handy work for the day....

Yup thats my new screen and the projector box with the back off, in pre-paint form.

Notably it was also my last day at Papa Johns today. :]

Schemes, Plans, and Travels

2005-11-17T23:46:00.000-06:00

Tonight I finally received the projector I bought off eBay (not that it took that long really), now I am waiting for the LCD projection panel. So I can complete my plans and build a wood box and have a projector :D. So from now on when we are sitting around staring at each other trying to figure out where to watch a movie, it can be at my place. Also so when Hyrum comes down; we aren't always complaining about the old TV with only a coax connection....

I got some inspiration from this page , then more digging led me to www.lumenlab.com , which has got me itching to build a bigger better more expensive version...Of course. Which is what I showed to Wayne and he wants to build one as well...

This last weekend I drove my eyes off, I left mobile Saturday at about 2pm headed to an 8pm concert in Tallahassee ( www.mutemath.com ), then drove right back home, barely barely made it home, at about 5. Then I got up 4.5 hours later and headed to Birmingham with grandma. Managed to stay awake till we started back, about 1.5hrs into that trip I bombed. Just praise the Lord I made it home in both instances without incident....Well aside from a burning rv...

No I didn't set that fire....You will notice I am on the OTHER side of the interstate....

While at Waynes place he told me about a hard drive that crashed and burned on him, which is why this article today on hackaday really got my attention . (Wayne: if you aren't confident enough to try the surgery I will do it for you..)

While in Birmingham I also got some Great pictures of the sunset ...
If anyone reading this was in Birmingham Sunday night, then you saw how awesome the sunset was. :] I was just glad to change my surroundings for a few hours, and get to meet Cooper, and see where Wayne and Kelli are living...And see Mutemath play 4 songs O_o

Just had an idea....

2005-10-10T21:17:00.000-06:00

Ok i was reading this article tonight (which i got from digg as usual) and something occurred to me.
"Lyon still wanted to find out who was behind the attacks. He and Brown scanned the traffic data, found a zombie, and, thanks to an opening in Microsoft Windows, were able to see what other computers it had been connected to. This led them to a chat server in Kazakhstan; when they connected to it, they saw more attacks in progress. They notified the F.B.I. and the Secret Service, but, Brown said, “they sort of threw up their arms, because it was in Kazakhstan.” To Lyon, however, the lesson was clear: with clever techniques and a little luck, any attacker could
be found."

"thanks to an opening in Microsoft Windows"
This gives me an idea; whats the best way to find a zombie army, by being in control of the zombies themselves.....

SO on with the idea, what if there was a piece of software similar to the bot software that resided on a good bit of the machines involved, similar but different in that it would be used by a good network to gather information about a given attack, and could possibly either disrupt that attack (by commanding the pcs under its control to quit participating) or could just gather information about the attack to be given to the authorities. The software could be installed on a voluntary basis, like seti@home.

The idea that enables this is, the criminals running these bots dont know/care what else is running on the bots themselves. So your program could run alongside thiers without them realizing you are gathering data on them.

In fact the ppl like Lyon, could theoretically setup a farm of machines and just let them be infected and maybe then one of thier machines would be one of the bots attacking, and could be used to trackback to the attackers....

Note to self: always finish reading the article before posting idea to blog, there are alotta ppl alot smarter than me. :/

The Great Depression

2005-10-09T20:29:00.000-06:00

The other night me and my grandma were sitting at dinner talking and I decided to ask her "what caused the Great depression?" And she didnt know, she said "well the stock markets crashed" so I asked "why?" and she said "well money had no value" and I said "but why? What caused it?"

Ultimately it had never been explained to either of us so for the purpose of educating my already very clever readers....

The answer is the leaders in countries with the most influence were having a problem with deflation (money wasnt worth anything) and they in turn used solutions that would work on inflation to try and solve this problem. Most americans (or at least I didnt) dont realize the great depression was worldwide.

So to compress it down more, alotta really "smart" ppl had a whole string of bad ideas which ultimately lead up to the stock market crashing, banks folding, and ten years of turmoil.

Luckily we came out of it, and eventually someone had a bright idea to network computers which eventually snowballed into the idea of wikipedia, which happens to be where I got my information. :)

My router is fixed :D

2005-09-25T00:21:00.000-05:00

I have been having a huge problem with my internet. For several months whenever I would try to log into my yahoo email it would login and get to the front page but clicking the inbox resulted in "document contains no data". Similar things were happening on Ebay and Cingular's website.

Well Ashley was over today and insisted on me letting him try to fix the problem, he got in there and changed the MTU size, and everything started working. Apparently he talked to D-Link support (I have a netgear) a while back and they showed him this solution.

Niether of us even knows what an MTU size is and I especially cant see why it needs to be a certain size for some websites to work and others to not..... It really demonstrates how complex our system (the internet) is and how fallible it is.

I remember learning about the OSI 7 layer system years ago when I was studying for A+ exam. Even then I was blown away by the shallowness of most ppl's (mine included) knowledge of what makes networking work. I bet most sys admins never venture to learn about more than the first layer or two. That is to say, comprehensive in depth knowledge is often left to somebody else.

Shallow knowledge is becoming common in Chip design as well (of all places), these days the guys designing computer chips deal mainly in blocks. The blocks are composed of what are really higher level assembly commands, they know how to combine the blocks and make something work. But they dont really bother to delve into what the blocks are composed of, what really makes thier chips tick. It's the same thing that happened when every piece of electronic gear went from having discrete components to having chips everywhere. Previously in fact the blocks that modern chip designers fiddle with were chips that you would see in the previous gadgets.

Whats the problem?....your probably asking. Well when you put the blocks together and it takes 12 nanoseconds for the command to go through the chip, you just have to accept it, cause thats as fast as the blocks can go. If you knew the internals then you might be able to do something about it, but you dont, your professor never taught you that, and you just wanna go home and hang out with your kids anyways. So churn out another crappy/buggy chip and make the boss happy and go home. :P

Dont get me wrong I am all for standardized components and all that, yay for standardization. But I also TOTALLY believe in popping the hood and taking the covers off and tweaking things.

I also believe in full disclosure and fully endorse the idea of Open source Hardware.

Remind me to go off on more tangents...then maybe I would update more than every three weeks. :P

I hope any readers I may have enjoy my rambling...
And btw, Ashley, Thanks a ton for fixing my internet even though you SUCK!

Want some links?..hehe I have a month's worth to unload

http://www.mpja.com/ supply house for tinkerers

http://www.camerahacker.com/Car_Camera_Mount/index.html
Marshall...are you out there?
http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia thanks cale
http://www.vintageprojects.com/ What a great website, I have thought of this website several times but never
followed up :P
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/ Their converters can up-switch voltage
http://forums.howwhatwhy.com/ubbthreads.php The perfect forum subject/format
http://jlnlabs.online.fr/ Crazy to hard to believe experiments
http://www.solutionscatalog.com
http://www.bbcworld.com/content/clickonline_archive_14_2005.asp?pageid=665&co_pageid=3
...do NOT do this...
http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2005/08/27/web_20.html
Power in the new age of internet
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml Give it a loose description of a word and it will
"hopefully" give you the word, I need a portable version of this implanted in my head. :P
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/2005/09/02/the_latest_ip_crime_boxwrap_patent_infringement.php
This is getting really old and outta hand (but then you realize this guy misinterpreted the ruling)
http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/ The science hobbyist
http://amasci.com/ele-edu.html More than enough info on electricity
http://eio.com/resorcin.htm Robotics/Electronics Information/Article site
http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/h2new.htm Cool new gasoline to Hydrogen conversion company
http://www.uktech.freeserve.co.uk/report/report.htm An open sourced CNC mill
http://photobucket.com/albums/b124/jrou111/ A moment of silence for James' car
http://diybanter.com/ Diy internet forum
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=295 A guide to slipstreaming I can actually follow, see thier
article on putting it on a cd too
http://www.smh.com.au/news/icon/shoot-to-thrill/2005/09/14/1126377359164.html

Dontbuyjunk.com The name says it all
AutoSpeed This is what I am talking about, these guys dont only mind getting under the hood but they arent afraid to etch a circuitboard either, all to make thier cars faster...
New trigonometry I would like to investigate this more, because I never did get a good grasp of trig
MetaEfficient Blog about efficiency and cleaner living
boevhomyak.jpg Why didnt I think of this...

things I should read...
http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/
https://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/baict/bac/jf/labs/scope/

Words dont cover this

2005-09-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

Katrina came by, and didnt manage to blow our house down, and for that we are blessed. She did knock out power for about 3 days (at my house) and put everyone out of work for about a week.

Not sure what to say about everything that has happened to the west of Mobile because of Katrina. I feel like I should write something but I cant seem to get it started on the right foot, perhaps I will just hand you a dandy link instead. Read it if you have the time (warning: *some* offensive language (nothing unusual for the net though)).

I cant seem to wrap my head around the real problem and what should be done about it. Which is why I cant write about it. I just thank God for all the resources that are being thrown at it and pray the right ppl will get the right things done in good time. That is, rather than more patchwork and stopgap solutions.

I am also interested in what this will hopefully do to american attitudes towards our waste and use of resources (ie gasoline), and where we build our "homes".

I also wish I was a little greyer (see link above).

Ugly Hack job!

2005-08-27T14:03:00.000-05:00

I did something extraordinary yesterday, I totally did a quick ugly hack job.

I have always wanted a light to read by above my bed so I wouldnt have to turn off my room light at night.

The light came from the upper console of a car I rescued from the dumpster while I was at Joe Bullard previously. The power supply was given to me and I bought the Erector set a coupla years ago. It took me about an hour to do it (from inception to completion), which is a new record for me, usually I have to draw everything out and have it perfect and everything. I guess it shows you can have function devoid of form. :P

Here's some pics

N.A.D.D.

2005-08-26T01:51:00.000-05:00

An eloquent description of what keeps me on the internet all the time...
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2003/07/10/nadd.html
Maybe not eloquent but definitely accurate.

Today in Crappy Pics

2005-08-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

The day started by responding to crisis for Naomi, her car was overheating and leaking water. So I went out and took a look at it and attempted to fix it. I replaced a hose and two clamps, but am not 100% confident I had the problem nailed down. In the process...
"Oh there's the bleeder valve". The fabled coolant system bleeder valve which was supposed to be there but has never been found before. :P

After leaving South I went home and cut the grass, nice huh?

After cutting the grass, I started working on the actual building phase of The Spotlight Project for Ashley. I started by experimenting with bending the aluminum I planned to use for the swiveling mount, the experiment was a success. To bend the thick aluminum I mounted the piece into my vise clamp then grabbed a big piece of square tubing and torqued down on the thing.
So next i needed to figure out how much clearance a spinning QBeam Max would need. So I mocked up a model and measured the necessary values..... (yes I am the duke of Ghetto, because James is the king).

Then I transferred all this to the aluminum....
Broke out the level in an attempt to prevent my bends from being twisted.

Proceeded to make my two bends..

Then I went to the computer and used Graph Paper Printer to print out a piece of paper with 1/8th inch divisions, then used that to check my bends for being right and to layout where I needed to drill (as if it was gonna help)

Next I took on punching a good pilot then drilled two holes completely off center :/ . I have got to be missing something about drilling, other ppl's hand drilled holes come out reasonably right...

Then I continuted mutilating the project by using a bit intented for something completely other than aluminum.

Once I had done my worst the bushings more or less fit, hopefully well enough for the axles to line up....
Finally I went to Big Lots and bought this 99 cent turkey baster, but I had other plans for it than flavorful poultry. I intented to shove JB weld through it, in order to bind the pulley I bought to the motor I scavenged. It worked wonderfully, this is an aftermath picture of the setup....

And these are the pieces drying.... A good (hopefully) successful day of building :]

And now... for something completely different

Killer 7ft Spider AHHH!!!
I saw this spider in the bushes while mowing the grass, she is HUGE at least 3in long. So I got Grandma and my camera out there and snapped a few pics. When I uploaded the pictures I had no idea this was waiting for me, LOL. Gotta love unsuspecting optical effects. :D

Net Highlights

2005-08-22T03:04:00.000-05:00

Once again mostly nabbed from the illustrious www.digg.com

http://www.propertyroom.com/ Interesting site ,with lots of great buys (ok I havent actually perused it yet, the very similar http://www.govliquidation.com/ has my brother thinking of selling lotsa things on Ebay, anyone wanna front some seed money?

http://www.shelter-systems.com/ This site features tons of tents for different purposes all built around a Yurt-like design, it also has a guide for building a twig and tarp kayak, in under four hours....

Quantum Diaries - Follow physicists from around the world as they live the World Year of Physics : You can all thank Marshall for this one and the next one.

NOVA | The Elegant Universe | A Conversation with Brian Greene | PBS This was a very well produced program that attempted to explain string theory, which attempts to explain everything else...No matter how far they probe they arent gonna find God. :P

StopIE: Help stop Internet Explorer, the worlds most pop ular and worst internet browser - StopIE.com Stop the Madness!! Use Firefox or Opera!

Firefox Extensions FAQ - The Extensions Mirror Very useful for firefox users, for those that arent, just look at all the different things it can do!

13 things that do not mak e sense: He's not kidding these things dont make much sense at all.

Tracker Trail - Fire From Ice - Rob Bicevskis This site revealed to me a very simple method that can be used to machine globes, something I had always wondered about. Also shows how to make fire..or something....

InternetFrog.com: Network Tools, Internet Speed T est and Website Tools How fast is your internet?

Ergonomics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This is an article I always wanted to find, I am as very interested in the design of various things, especially chairs and other furniture. :P

Interestingly enough I found this site while looking for something I saw in an old popular science years ago. It was a chair that was supposedly designed using what NASA had found to be the most nuetral position (muscularly) for the body. They found this out by observing the astronauts floating around in skylab (is that the right name), particularly what position thier bodies rested in, in zero gravity. I ended up finding the flogiston chair , which is decidely less sexy than the chair I was looking for but based on the same concept.

I want to build one, in particular

I want to build one which can be used as a computer chair, I also want to base subsequent workstation ideas on the same basic shape, btw a coupla my concepts can be seen at my bellsouth site (i gotta watch my bandwidth though that site has a mere 30mb PER MONTH dl rate) but here's a pic anyways....
And now for the lighter side :D

Funny: Why Women Live Longer Than Men

Fun Stuff : World's Worst Women Drivers : GopherGas

40 Things That Only Happen In Movies

The Shirt Fold a shirt from a dollar bill, I am soon gonna try this...as soon as I get a dollar bill!

eBay Motors: DETGEP Industries Gas Saving Device ! L@@K ! NO RESERVE (item 7993916387 end time Aug-23-05 14:50:17 PDT) This is the solution to our fuel problems!!

Homertage For all my Halo fans out there (you know who you are!)

Ok no more enthusiasm for today, I used up my exclamation quota.

Thanks for reading

Philoshophy, Truth, And Paradox (and a bit of "The Good" thrown in for good measure)

2005-08-19T01:16:00.000-05:00

Mainly this is just an update in justification for having not finished any projects yet this week....

I was gonna add pictures so look for them as soon as I figure out where to put them.

Tues I finished mounting the bearings (aka engines), then yesterday me and Marshall spent alotta time walking to and from the car mounting all of that to the arm...

Then we proceeded to watch two episodes of the old Hitchhiker's Guide Tv Show, until the cd decided to not work on the last file. Which led us to complain that current OS's file managers and so on still hang on a file having a simple read error, same as on an Apple II, you'd think in 20-30yrs we could work out a way for this not to happen, and it happens in every OS I've seen too.

Today I got up in the morning and Marshall, Dorothy, Anna and I got up early and went canoeing (early for us) . Then after work tonight I proceeded to Ben's house and we talked about...paradoxes and nothing and exploding cows. Mainly about paradoxes and the nature of metaphysical vs physical.

The trebuchet isnt done and due to YET ANOTHER REDESIGN also known as Y.A.R.D. it wont be finished till december. But at least it gives me plenty of time to find a counterweight.

I am about 90-95% sure I will be going back to Joe Bullard. Probably be working there by Tues Next week. I am wondering where this leaves my very strong desire to go with Ben and company to the Highlands for labor day, I need to figure out how to present it so as to not cause a power struggle between me and John :/. Oh well... maybe with marshall gone this weekend I can write some of the other stuff in my head, but then a dozen other things are happening as well....oh well we'll see :P

Must Finish Trebuchet!

2005-08-17T00:17:00.000-05:00

So I have a fairly heavy problem on my mind, its about (iirc) 16in wide, 3ft High (at the very top max) and 3-4ft wide. I need a solution like yesterday for the trebuchet counterwieght, I need it fast and I need it cheap (like maybe we can manage $100 MAYBE). That is as you can probably tell a fairly bad combination. :P

I'm trying to complete this project before marshall leaves and everything looks to be lining up nicely, except for this. My current ideas for this problem involve somehow getting various scraps of metal. Including (but not limited to)

-Big Hunks of steel
-Disposed Train wheels (where?)
-Discarded large flywheels (or lots of little ones?)
-600lbs of machining filings (how to contain them?)
-Discarded big rig brakes

-Earthen Materials
-water (containing 600lbs of water moving at x mph is no easy thing)
-sand/dirt
-concrete (the easiest but also the one my team is most opposed to)

-Dangerous things
-600lb of lead acid batteries (gotta be against the law)

Then after I figure out what material and how to mount it I have to figure out how to transport it. That used to be an easy problem, but now that i lack a running pickup its not nearly so trivial. :/

Any ANY input and suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
I will try to keep a more open mind than my other teammates, if your solution has enough merit I will try to pitch it to them. :P

If the material is sufficiently cheap I may even try to weld up a box to contain it (in this kind of shape) .

Coming soon to this blog: :P
Unfufilled Potential: How computers have let us down....
I want credit for this: An idea I have long kept to myself that may soon be possible and I want to be noted as a creator so I will release it publicly...finally

Recent Progress

2005-08-16T01:27:00.000-05:00

I've been spending the last few days working on about 3-4 projects and hanging out with ppl I dont get to see much.

The projects I've been working on include retrofitting the trebuchet to working order, a lego electronics kit for my sister, ashley's motorized spotlight project, and what will eventually become a lathe. :]

Btw, I had that interview, but I dont think it went well enough for them to call me back. I have pretty much decided to stay in mobile and to go back to work at joe bullard and start working towards being debt free, seems the right thing to do.

I still want to construct an engineering style analysis of the situation just for kicks...if I get around to it.

Backlog of links

2005-08-16T01:22:00.000-05:00

Oh, this is gonna be a long one....

The last week or so I have spent DOZENS of hours on the internet, and I intend to get alotta those links and some of the ideas and thoughts about those into this blog.

Categorically.... or randomly whichever works better

Ok Most of these links come from

Thanks to Hyrum for showing me an article about http://www.consciousconsumers.net/a_hydristor.html this transmission. Which is what led me to digg and then that led me to makezine, that little link may be a HUGE thing in the next few * insert randomly large period of time * . Anyways about the transmission http://hydristor.com/news.html if it works as advertised it is pure genius. So this guy has this great idea and he takes it to the car companies in America and they totally blow him off. Any company that doesnt eventually change, and not just within its own bounds but in response to the world, will die, goodbye big three...

Anyways, those two sites evetually led me to some things I am gonna do.

http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteecn.html Really inexpensive CNC , I have a plan in play to beat this!

MAKE: Blog: CVS camcorder usably hacked!

What Business Can Learn from Open Source

Free, Amazing Secrets, Household Hints, Saving Money

CNCzone.com-Machinist Community Forums - Welcome Page

OhGizmo!

GPX2 already linked this one but i really like it a lot

Free Online Language Courses

Nokia codes

Linux Newbie Guide by Stan, Peter and Marie Klimas

Why I Will Never Have A Girlfriend -- nothingisreal.com

The Pirate Bay - The worlds largest BitTorrent tracker Worked for me

Coudal Partners Marshall and Basil get all the credit for solving this one (I helped too) only to find out Annie had solved it all by herself...quicker :P

PAPER CRAFTS | ENTERTAINMENT | YAMAHA MOTOR

The whispering wheel ...So what ! :/

MILITANTPLATYPUS A good Blog with losta links and updates (way more than me)

quotes | A Mountain Top

Hello, Dollar! - Question for Readers: Finance Software and "Virtual Accounts"? --Money tips never a bad thing...

BRL-CAD Home Page --The most powerful modelling softtware i would say, cant tell if its available or not and probably only in source code which doesnt help me :P

FreeCAD Homepage

QCad Screenshots

AVR Butterfly MP3

Bowden's Hobby Circuits

LinuxDevices.com -- your embedded Linux resource

WELCOME TO ROUNDABOUT OUTDOOR AMAZING invention, why didnt I come up with this?

David Randolph - Articles - Why should everyone mod everything? Check out his http://www.bigorangecouch.com/modules/articles/article.php?id=2

OZ2CPU - Homebrew electronics page If I ever start building circuits this would be the site to be on

Silicon Sam's Technology Resource (SSTR) - Main Table of Contents I havent even started to tap this resource

Welcome to Dan's Workshop - a photo repository of advanced home shop projects – this ones been around for a while but he's got some really great projects, and his lost foam casting is the ONLY way to go

Parellel port output Everythin you ever wanted to know about interfacing the pc parallel port

BillyReisinger.com :: The Ridiculously Thorough Guide to Making Your Own Pizza Pizza Possibly better than mine

DigitalCamera@101reviews » Totally Customizable Keyboard Marshall are you reading this?

Hacking A Mouse For Encoders My kinda article

Boondog Automation More CNC stuff

http://tiletoy.blogspot.com/ Havent figured out the point of this yet, except maybe a wireless sign

5 Bears - Home An amazing machinist

http://www.ata.org.au/articles/articles.htm Articles about Solar energy

VGA over Cat-5 cable

Bicycle frame building for the rest of us. You can BUILD a custom bike, thats amazing

Cooking For Engineers - Test Recipes: Marshmallows Much like Good Eats.

pcd8544 based displays (serdisplib) I thought all discarded lcds were useless, i was wrong...

Surplus Stores

Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs

Mad Physics :: Ask Mad Physics These guys are nuts, hey that gives me an idea :D

MetalGeek : Code, Metal and Cleverness: How to Bend Tubing and Pipe by Hand

Return of Tetris Shelves : Gizmodo

http://www.techmanifesto.com/archives/2005/07/25/find-a-human-fast/

Speeding through video games.

Messiah Entertainment, Inc. :: Online Store “New” version of the NES

Experimental Balloon Building The name says it all

NOTE TAKING:THE CORNELL SYSTEM Need to remember this next time I step into a classroom

DIYParts.org This is a computer part trading network

9 reasons we dont do what we should

http://www.dosgames.com/ find your favorite DOS game

New hydrogen generation technique announced What Can't the Israeli's figure out?

http://www.multimachine.net/

There are more...I will get to posting them eventually....

Things could be moving.....

2005-08-09T23:31:00.000-05:00

Well,
Thanks to Ben, I landed an interview for tommorow morning with http://www.logicalcomm.net/ at 8:15am O_o. So if any of you read this before then please toss up a prayer or two, a job in a computer field would be more than I had hoped for. :)

Also I applied at South today, for a A/V Technician Position.

Things could be moving......

Goals and Other Realizations

2005-08-09T00:50:00.000-05:00

I need to make this brief because i need to goto bed

I have been working on having some overarching long term goals, and I think i have a couple figured out.

1. Achieve independence --this would be mainly in the financial realm, which would mean not having to depend on grandma for my expenses, and paying back ALL my debts..

2. Refine and position myself so that my talents can be utilized productively and profitably everyday. Particularly my talent with invention and creative problem solving.

I will flesh out current options for attaining these goals next time I post..

Thanks for reading,
Goodnight :P