Another fiscal conservative/social libertarian

William F Buckley on Wordstar

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:51:03 GMT

From a Time Magazine article: “I’m told there are better programs, but I’m also told there are better alphabets.”

Sci Fi Convention update

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:45:56 GMT

We just got back, here is the report:

The "boat race". I really thought that we were going to win this one. Our boat worked so good in the tub here at home. Cyndee made the best boat. It was made of Styrofoam, with the cut up milk carton hot glued to the Styrofoam (the rules did say that the HULL needed to be made from a milk carton). She then coated the boat with a fresh coat of wax. For power we drilled a hole big enough for a CO2 cartridge in the stern of the boat. I made a device out of pipe fittings, a spring and all-thread to puncture the seal on the CO2 cartridge.

It worked so good here, but the CO2 cartridges I had purchased smelled very bad. I had purchased air rifle cartridges which I think have some oil mixed with the gas. I went to the bike store and bought some of the same sized cartridges which were meant to fill bicycle tires. I assumed without the oil it should not smell bad.

Well, when the race started I tried to puncture the cartridge, the impact pushed the boat a few feet, but the seal was not punctured. I re-cocked the launcher and tried again, still no puncture. I guess the bicycle cartridges have a much thicker seal than the air gun cartridges. I asked to go again and tried one of the air gun cartridges. This time we got a small hole off center, the boat slowly went about 4 feet then slowly spun in circles while stinking up the pool.

I guess the bicycle CO2 cartridge dulled my launcher. Cyndee did want to test before the race, but I didn't want to because we only had 4 bicycle cartridges, and the air gun cartridges (which we had plenty of) smelled bad. I guess we should have tested, but I don't know what we could have done differently.

The "robot competition" went really well. I wasn't going to enter after the boat race, but Cyndee convinced me to do it. I spent about 5 hours Saturday evening writing the firmware (programming) which controlled following other robots, and backing away from the edges of the stage if the robot was about to fall off.

The first time I was able to test the robot on the stage was at 12:00, and the competition was at 3:00. I made about 3 firmware changes and was "as good as it was going to get". We didn't win any of the 10 matches we fought, but that's what I expected, after all it was a autonomous robot fighting a remote controlled vehicle.

I thought it went well. A major problem was that every time I went over the printing on the stage (on the wood) I interpreted it as the edge of the board and tried to back away from it. I was also very slow compared to the other robots. I got a lot of compliments on how well the robot was built (better than most there), and that they couldn't believe how low my center of gravity was, they couldn't get under my robot to flip it over, HA! The other robot in the video that follows could barely push mine off the stage. None of the other robots in the 20 pound class had wireless remote control, they were all hard wired to a few switches.

Here is a video of a match. I came up with the name Ria when they asked for a name, after our bird. May not have been a good idea when some kids started yelling "die Ria".

Update

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:52:57 GMT

Incredibly busy week at work. A few projects which just keep going and going and going.

Put a new alternator in my car tonight (thats the third time in the five years we have had it, but the first replacement alternator was older than the broken one and had 200,000 miles on it). Replaced the battery and the negative battery terminal also. Probably didn't need the battery, but it tested at six times it's rated capacity (was the bad alternator over charging it????). I didn't want to argue with the store who thought that the battery was at fault for the broken alternator, and the $140.00 alternator was covered under warrenty at Checkers.

The robot is coming along nicly (9 days until the competition). I have fixed the self destructing h-bridge motor drivers. The sonar works great now. Both (main and backup) CPU boards are working great and provide the correct voltage to run the infrared edge detectors. It has a key fob remote control for on and off this year too!

At this point I need to mount the sonors (probably wont be rotating) and the edge detectors, then its firmware time.

Got a flu shot today, the nurse didn't think the jokes I and the next guy in line were making about getting a discount if we shared dirty needles were very funny.

Wrote some great Delphi code today, when I was done I decided that the old code would have worked just as well, but it was cool code.

Cyndees merchandising job went realy bad today. She was supposed to have a four hour job putting all the bras at a walmart into new packaging, but the inventory was such a bad mess that she spent nine hours organizing and didn't even get started repackaging. She will spend another full day tomorrow finishing the job. That sucks.

Bras, not the best thing in the world, but next to it. :)

The Nobel prize is now completely irrelevant

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:34:16 GMT

BHO wins Nobel peace prize:

Don't even ask what he has done to deserve this (nothing). Ask what he did in his first fourteen days in office to deserve this, because that is when the nomination process ended.

First a Nobel prize for a study on why the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard bothers people, then Al Gore for his fictitious movie, and now this. The Nobel prize is now completely irrelevant.

Good bye Saturn

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:12:29 GMT

General Motors said today it would shut down Saturn after respected Detroit businessman Roger Penske shocked GM and 350 Saturn dealers by saying that his plans to buy the storied brand had fallen apart.

Funny health care cartoon

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:38:56 GMT

Happy Anniversary

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 18:17:46 GMT

Yesterday was out 22nd wedding anniversary.

We went to health care plan rally. I was called many interesting things. Apparently my sign saying "Read the bill" qualifies me as a racist. There were 400-500 anti reform bill (as it exists now) people, and about 10 pro reform bill people (who all showed up in one double decker bus). All the police hung out on the pro reform corner, things that make you go hmmmm. After about a hour of standing on the corner with signs, they all marched down to Representative Betsy Markey's office to leave a package of letters on her door step.

Cyndee took many great pictures and made a video which we will post later.

I was interviewed by a reporter from the CSU Collegian (college paper), I don't know why I would expect her to give a accurate report on what I told her.

Diagnosed with AAADD

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:21:12 GMT

Recently, I was Diagnosed with AAADD - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only 1 check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
1) The car isn't washed
2) The bills aren't paid
3) There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter
4) The flowers don't have enough water,
5) There is still only 1 check in my check book,
6) I can't find the remote,
7) I can't find my glasses,
8) And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.

Ok, who DOESN'T want one of these

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:29:56 GMT

Thought of the day

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:18:59 GMT

The government can't give you anything they haven't taken from someone else...

More bad news about "cash for clunkers"

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:06:36 GMT

Given that the 250,000 cars which were traded in under this program have been destroyed, there is now a huge shortage of used cars, and the price of used cars is skyrocketing.

Thanks a lot.

Crunch

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:47:36 GMT

This week we built a model rocket and newspaper kites.
We went to shoot model rockets today. We of course lost our new rocket the second time we launched it.

After we had lost our new rocket, we only had two engines left in the box, both of which were booster stage engines. I had the great idea of taping them together and making a two stage rocket. The first stage went up about 75 feet. The second stage took of sideways and slightly downward, burying itself in the ground about 300 feet away. There were two kids on the bike path who had stopped to watch what we were doing, the rocket impacted about 10 feet from them. Fortunatly they both thought that it was the coolest thing they had ever seen, it scared the crap out of me.

I guess the lesson is to not tape engines together.

I think the kites would have worked better with more wind. Were able to get them up to about 100 feet, but only briefly. The fun part is making them anyhow.

The result of this experience:

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:05:07 GMT

Dog pack attacks aligator, very graphic.

AMD Socket A dispair

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:38:18 GMT

I tried once again to speed up the media PC today with a AMD Athelon 2500 motherboard and CPU purchased on EBay. I got a brief message about a corrupted bios, and a no disk in A message. That was it.

I have finaly discovered that the fan / heatsink from the P3 on the old motherboard wont work on the AMD chip. The AMD chip has standoffs on each corner, and the Intel heatsink didn't even touch the chip.

Off to Fort Collins to try and find a AMD Socket A CPU.

Grumble.....

Torchwood

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:04:56 GMT

This years torchwood was good. It leaves me wondering if they can do a fourth season.

This year they did a five episode mini-series

100 Essential Skills for Geeks - I got 65

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:02:06 GMT

1. Properly secure a wireless router.
2. Crack the WEP key on a wireless router.
3. Leech Wifi from your neighbor.
4. Screw with Wifi leeches.
5. Setup and use a VPN.
6. Work from home or a coffee shop as effectively as you do at the office.
7. Wire your own home with Ethernet cable.
8. Turn a web camera into security camera.
9. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point.
10. Understand what “There’s no Place Like 127.0.0.1″ means.
11. Identify key-loggers.
12. Properly connect a TV, Tivo, XBox, Wii, and Apple TV so they all work together with the one remote.
13. Program a universal remote.
14. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone.
15. Benchmark Your Computer
16. Identify all computer components on sight.
17. Know which parts to order from NewEgg.com, and how to assemble them into a working PC.
18. Troubleshoot any computer/gadget problem, over the phone.
19. Use any piece of technology intuitively, without instruction or prior knowledge.
20. How to irrecoverably protect data.
21. Recover data from a dead hard drive.
22. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network.
23. Install a Linux distribution. (Hint: Ubuntu 9.04 is easier than installing Windows)
24. Remove a virus from a computer.
25. Dual (or more) boot a computer.
26. Boot a computer off a thumb drive.
27. Boot a computer off a network drive.
28. Replace or repair a laptop keyboard.
29. Run more than two monitors on a single computer.
30. Successfully disassemble and reassemble a laptop.
31. Know at least 10 software easter eggs off the top of your head.
32. Bypass a computer password on all major operating systems
33. Carrying a computer cleaning arsenal on your USB drive.
34. Bypass content filters on public computers.
35. Protect your privacy when using a public computer.
36. Surf the web anonymously from home.
37. Buy a domain, configure bind, apache, MySQL, php, and Wordpress without Googling a how-to.
38. Basic *nix command shell knowledge with the ability to edit and save a file with vi.
39. Create a web site using vi.
40. Transcode a DVD to play on a portable device.
41. Hide a File Behind a JPEG.
42. Share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple computers without a KVM switch.
43. Google obscure facts in under 3 searches. Bonus point if you can use I Feel Lucky.
44. Build amazing structures with LEGO and invent a compelling back story for the creation.
45. Understand that it is LEGO, not Lego, Legos, or Lego’s.
46. Build a two story house out of LEGO, in monochrome, with a balcony.
47. Construct a costume for you or your kid out of scraps, duct tape, paper mâché, and imagination.
48. Be able to pick a lock.
49. Determine the combination of a Master combination padlock in under 10 minutes.
50. Assemble IKEA furniture without looking at the instructions. Bonus point if you don’t have to backtrack.
51. Use a digital SLR in full manual mode.
52. Do cool things to Altoids tins.
53. Be able to construct paper craft versions of space ships.
54. Origami! Bonus point for duct tape origami. (Ductigami)
55. Fix anything with duct tape, chewing gum and wire.
56. Knowing how to avoid being eaten by a grue.
57. Know what a grue is.
58. Understand wherre XYZZY came from, and have used it.
59. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator.
60. Burn the rope.
61. Know the Konami code, and where to use it.
62. Whistle, hum, or play on an iPhone, the Cantina song.
63. Learning to play the theme songs to the kids favorite TV shows.
64. Solve a Rubik’s Cube.
65. Calculate THAC0.
66. Know the difference between skills and traits.
67. Explain special relativity in terms an eight-year-old can grasp.
68. Recite pi to 10 places or more.
69. Be able to calculate tip and split the check, all in your head.
70. Explain that the colours in a rainbow are roygbiv.
71. Understand the electromagnetic spectrum - xray, uv, visible, infrared, microwave, radio.
72. Know the difference between radiation and radioactive contamination.
73. Understand basic electronics components like resistors, capacitors, inductors and transistors.
74. Solder a circuit while bottle feeding an infant. (lead free solder please.)
75. The meaning of technical acronyms.
76. The coffee dash, blindfolded (or blurry eyed). Coffee [cream] [sugar]. In under a minute.
77. Build a fighting robot.
78. Program a fighting robot.
79. Build a failsafe into a fighting robot so it doesn’t kill you.
80. Be able to trace the Fellowship’s journey on a map of Middle Earth.
81. Know all the names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit.
82. Understand the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
83. Know where your towel is and why it is important.
84. Knowing the answer to life, the universe and everything.
85. Re-enact the parrot sketch.
86. Know the words to The Lumberjack Song.
87. Reciting key scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
88. Be able to recite at least one Geek Movie word for word.
89. Know what the 8th Chevron does on a Stargate and how much power is required to get a lock.
90. Be able to explain why it’s important that Han shot first.
91. Know why it is just wrong for Luke and Leia to kiss.
92. Stop talking Star Wars long enough to get laid.
93. The ability to name actors, characters and plotlines from the majority of sci-fi movies produced since 1968.
94. Cite Mythbusters when debunking a myth or urban legend.
95. Sleep with a Cricket bat next to your bed.
96. Have a documented plan on what to do during a zombie or robot uprising.
97. Identify evil alternate universe versions of friends, family, co-workers or self.
98. Be able to convince TSA that the electronic parts you are carrying are really not a threat to passengers.
99. Talk about things that aren’t tech related.
100. Get something on the front page of Digg.

FDA Panel votes to ban Vicodin

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:03:37 GMT

This is odd.

Vicodin is codine and Tylenol. I thought the reason for the Tylenol was to prevent abuse of the codine (too much Tylenol will kill you).

The panel is suggesting high dose Tylenol products like Excedrin to be reduced. 1000mg Tylenol would become prescription only.

They are also looking at removing or reducing the Tylenol in combination products which have tylenol mixed with other things like cough syrup, because people are taking these in combination with tylenol and over dosing.

Quite a week

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:03:56 GMT

Don't even remeber all that happened this week.

Donated blood. Up to 3 gallons now.

Tried to fix a power issue at my mother in laws house. Couldn't find the missing power. Opened the breaker panel and measured voltage coming out of each breaker. Finaly discovered the garage door opener is powered through the bathroom GFI soucket.

I have the greenhouse's web page working well again: http://www.lh1.org/ghwebpage/ Now it text's Cyndee when the temperature goes over 110 or below 34.

Our exchange student Mak goes home Tuesday.

Had a Cyndees family reunion at her moms house.

Kodak retires Kodachrome

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:03:37 GMT

Kodachrome going away after 74 years. I dodn't know that it was a special process to develop Kodachrome.

Heres the link:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1162584&_blg=1,1162584

Netfilx Microsoft Silverlight sucks

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:35:58 GMT

I just upgraded multimedia PCs (slightly), from a 800Mhz Celeron, 256mb, 8gb to a 733Mhz P3, 768mb, 40gb. Everything should be better right? Wrong, Netflix now requires that all new instalations use the new Microsoft Silverlight player, The old Celleron played streaming movives fine (other things were VERY slow), but the new faster computer does about 5 frames per second and there is no way to go back. Whats worse, our Netflix account is now "upgraded", so we can't watch movies the old way from any computer.

Hasn't hapened in quite a while

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:07:00 GMT

We went out for pizza tonight. I handed the cashier my debit card, she looked at it and said "Your name isn't Leslie".

I said "Realy, I need to talk to my parents about that."

She said "I need to see your ID"

I hand her my ID.....

She says "Oh my God! That is your name. Thats so cute!"

So cute? I have never got that response before.

Ammo chess

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:30:49 GMT

This is cool!

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:51:10 GMT

Another interting thing seen yesterday.

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:35:39 GMT

I saw the eye doctor yesterday. He had just had his shoulder replaced, and was unable to use his phoropter. Whats a phoropter? Its one of these:

He had a computer controlled one with no knobs or dials on it, which he could control with a single knob and a GUI display on the counter.

Cool car seen yesterday

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:31:44 GMT

Leaving town yesterday I save a HUGE travel trailer. I thought it was an Airstream, but the license plate identified it as a 1950 Spartan. It was at least 35 foot. This is nothing unusual I suppose, but it was being pulled by a 1935 Cadilac, and it took off like a bat out of you know where. I thought the Caddy might be a V16 (452 CID, 185 horsepower), but when I pulled up next to it, the badge said it was a V8 (352 CID, 130 HP), so I don't think it could have possibly been the original engine.