June 30, 2011

           This was almost the new digs. At 32 feet wide and 72 feet long, it is one of the largest units on the market. But it is in Ft. Lauderdale, too far away for convenience. And if you want to live in Ft. Lauderdale anywhere except the beach you go right ahead. This unit’s asking price was $4,000 and is typical of the bargains available these days. Note it also has a matching carport on the left. I decided against the purchase for my own reasons.
           Unusual events for the day, I was under anesthetic for twenty minutes and had a full-color dream. I was on stage with Mary Chapin Carpenter singing a bass duet of “Passionate Kisses”. I had her eating out of my hand when somebody is waking me up asking if I want a cup of coffee. Coffee? Now?
           Eddie came by to give me a lift home. Always get Eddie for a ride because he used to work for Memorial and knows where all their sprawling offices and clinics are. And again, Memorial is recognized for top-notch patient care.
           The results? Another slight change of diet with some good news. Peanut butter is okay again. Do they realize what they just said? (Only kidding, I take it easy with that product.) Milk seems to have a bad name again and all my vegetables now have to be cooked. This is for the next three months. All you budding med students can try to make a reverse diagnosis with that.
           I also signed a form saying I would not make any business decisions today. As if a twenty minute exam that costs $778 isn’t precisely that. Or drink alcohol or drive and such. So I told Eddie I was going to give him a lift uptown for happy hour to discuss our million dollar recording contract, but it had to wait
           There is one part I didn’t like. During the run-up, I was asked to confirm my ID by four different people. Okay, so there is insurance fraud, but that is not my problem and they should pay me for any inconvenience because it is not my problem. Let them circulate pictures of the bad guys instead of this two-bit pestering of everybody else. Then the bad guys can complain instead of the good guys. They say that is the horrible “profiling”, but didn’t these hypocrites just profile me? My doctor knows who I am and that should be good enough.
           Here’s an item. I’ve had an anesthetic “hangover” since noon, can’t sleep, can’t read. It’s a groggy brain-numb that can’t be shaken, only waited out. For it, I’m watching TV. One can actually enjoy TV while droopy. It’s been seven hours. I doze off for ten minutes and miss nothing, even with the news. We have a potential explanation why the clueless find it so addicting.
           In keeping with last day’s club decision, I am rigging up two old wireless routers as source signals for the dipole antennas. These will also serve as a testbed to examine new packet-sniffing software, including two dedicated computers to monitor the readings in tandem. The record has not changed, we still have not built and successfully tested a working antenna. So we do it the hard way.
           We’ve decided to look closer at the transmitters, rather than the receivers. I mean, people who work in antenna factories must learn the trade. It can’t be that difficult. There has to be a source of information that spells it out. The usual on-line searches remain next to useless. I want to build it, not buy it or sign any memberships.
           There. That’s enough controversy for one blog.

June 29, 2011

           Here’s something you never saw before. This is not your generic dash GPS, but a fully functional iPhone interface built into Agt. M’s car. All apps are available, including said GPS, and it is the next generation of convenience. Those who recognize the vehicle say where’s the radio? It is moved down below his hand shown here. Yes, the movies and tunes will play and it is touch screen. Meet RoboCar. Total cost? Around $123 once you know how.
           Agt. M is still a heavy fan of the antenna technology. I wanted to shelve it as taking too long without results, but after hearing his reasons, I will study the topic again. In particular, folded dipoles. The talk of extending WiFi cover comes and goes over the years but until the coverage is universal, there will always be a need for long range antennas.
           Some statistics are due here today, says the rulebook. The average person who worked their entire lives will be getting only $1,178 per month Social Security. That is really a piss poor return on investment. (It still does not rival my worst retirement investment which will pay $392 per month and I have to wait until 60 for that.) And get this, guess what the Social Service admin people are advising people? To “test out a smaller budget”. Gee, doesn’t that sound like my very own “practice retirement” of six years ago? Next damn thing they’ll be telling them to move into trailers.
           Ray-B came over, he’s on summer vacation. Visitors welcome, I was housebound all day for preparations for my stay in the clinic tomorrow. Ray-B is amenable to the idea of helping out with the backing tracks. I may have to target some of the smaller clubs on weekdays but anything is better than staying at home and doing nothing on a weekend. I even look forward to bingo if things get slow enough.
           Ray-B has developed a series of chord inversions that use octaves and register changes in response to the traditional dead spots that develop if a rhythm player tries to do lead breaks without accompaniment. It is beyond what I could learn but it would be ideal if I could record the parts. Midi tracks have never been up to par with guitar sounds.
           He has also seen a battery powered PA system by Roland. For me, it would depend on the weight and size, but I will be looking closely at it soon. He owns a battery bass amp and reports a decent battery life from the same company. I’m about 2/3 of where I need to be in vocals to carry a full gig by myself, so now is the time to be making up the tracks. No matter what, they would be a valuable asset. So the sooner the better.
           Testing the water for bass playing, I also read Craigslist today. Something truly funny is the occasional ad for a “stand up bassist”. This worn out concept is one of the more ossified forms of “guitar think”. I’ve got five bucks says it is some third rate guitarist “into jazz” exhibiting his best original thinking. Gee, a bass player that will never be a threat to his impeccable on-stage charisma but is so quaint and kewl with that beast of an instrument way back there. Where he belongs.

June 28, 2011

           In the background, you see the HMCS Kenora. This ship is your example of what happens to people who try to run a business in Florida without a reliable local manager. One supposes the tugboat is not a total loss because, after all, it is still floating. Like the Canadian dollar.
           This week finds me looking for some device that can instantly trigger music on and off, similar to my drum box. The delay between click and start on most computers is unacceptable, most markedly with the dreaded Windows Media Player and its dismal playlist feature. I’m looking more at DVD technology.

           Calculations are that I lost $280 in time and money with that last singer who did not work out. Um, in fact, she did not work on the material at all, I suspect. I dread backing tracks yet that may be the only way I’ll be playing in a band this year. I keep coming back to that. Good old south Florida, with 150 musicians like myself all saying they can’t find anybody who wants to play the right material. To them, the right material is what they took lessons to play. To me the novelty of the show is everything, and that means playing other music.
           On my scooter tour last day, I picked up the unusual book of the decade. It is nearly 300 pages of perfect writing, no errors, and concerns wine. Called “The Billionaire’s Vinegar”, it succeeds in being informative while moving along like a mystery novel. I’m reading it a second time, for I originally mistook it for a recounting of wine-tasting snobbery. It actually has very little to do with the tasting except for describing how many of the top European tasters were self-taught. The book is a masterpiece. Read it.

           Today was largely concerned with medical tests for me. The news is mixed, for example, the good news is that my heart condition is not caused by diet, lifestyle or habits. The bad news it is now known to be genetic. Strange how I could get that from parents who had no heart to speak of. They’re probably still wondering when I’m going to pay them back for raising me. Yes, they actually said that many times. The total was around $8,000 in an era where $140,000 per child was normal.
           By evening, I was at Starbucks to read some more chapters of “The Billionaire’s Vinegar”. It is partly an expose of the wine-tasting festivals cooked up by two Europeans (Broadbent and Rodenstock) in 1962 as a way to hoodwink the North American market. They even invented a bogus scale of 1 to 100. The vintage wine market, explains the author, is “awash in fakes” and recorking, rebottling and relabeling of phoney aged wines commonly takes place even at the winery level.

           New tests which detect radiation in the wines from 1962 onward when atmospheric testing was discontinued show the entire million-dollar wine collections housed in galleries from Montreal to San Diego are largely counterfeits whose labels were cut from wallpaper. As for the millions of wine tasters, the Europeans classify them as suckers with “a built-in preference for the obvious”.
           The corner of Starbucks was taken over by a meeting of FYP for Florida Young Professionals. I could not help noticing the vast gulf in education standards from my day. You know, back when we really had to learn things to pass the tests. No doubt they are part of the new elite, but there was not a free thinker in the lot. Even their mannerisms were standard TV meme and they all dressed and acted like BrandsMart sales staff. And as far as the exchange of real and useful information, at the Robotics Club in five minutes they’d be bewildered what was going on. There was one guy kind of in charge, mostly pushing his own agenda. It was all amusing to overhear.

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June 27, 2011

           Mondays can be interesting for it’s the take-up day for the previous week spent as a musician. Here is the stretch limo of motor scooters up on 441 somewhere in north Hollywood. I don’t know if it is street legal or functional, but it draws in the business. I drove my scooter 100 miles today just to see what it could do. I was semi-disappointed. Top sustained speed was barely over 46 mph. I wound up in Del Ray and headed back in time for the club meeting.
           Agt. M has done amazing things with the materials at hand. The delineation between us is the way he can connect unmatched equipment. My humble ability is to program them things. I can’t describe every topic we cover, but neither of us is dreaming of quitting now. (My Doorman project? He found a French company with one on sale for 9 of their currency.) Intelligent, educated contacts are the rarest of Florida species.

           I also did some small scale investing, an ounce of silver. It was to test the water and find a local source in case I am able to purchase over a longer period. I have experience with the long term, and after tomorrow, I hope that horizon has again become more than ten years (reference to my medical situation). Why silver? I’m one of the rare ones who have lost money on gold. You might say that as a preference, I prefer silver. Try to parse that sentence.
           Dave-O came by later y’day and we went out for coffee. His union is going to bat for him, getting him recertified as a welder and putting him back on light duty. What I would not give to go back to work for another five lousy years. I’d have my Cadillac back, a house, and you name it, I know how to get it. There’s nothing you can’t buy in America with $10,000 down. That’s what, 8 weeks wages at a slack-ass job?


           [Author's note: the trip never happened. Dave-O neglected to mention he owed the powers that be some time at their place.]

           The trip is shaping up, we are both anxious to get back on the road for a few days. His truck is back in top shape and as I said, I have my share of the cash put away already. And nothing to do until then but study robotics. It is so hot we are pretty much decided to head north. If you just go to Georgia, it gets cooler, like you’ve crossed a thermocline or something.
           I told him I’ll pay for the extra gas if we can drive with the windows open instead of A/C, just cruisin’ along looking for women and scenery. In that order. Drinking thermos coffee and eating ginger snaps, not a care in the world. That’s my kind of driving holiday. If it’s on the map, I don’t wanna see it. I haven’t been out of state since 2003.

           I brought up some of my project ideas. The one Dave-O liked best was Project 24, as mentioned above. The idea was good. Have you ever left a note on your door you’d be out, but could not be too specific in case a burglar saw it first? Computer cell phone age or not, there are times you have to do that. My idea is an LCD with a number pad. It attaches to your door and is wireless to your computer. You can leave messages for any number of people. All they do is key in their secret code or phone number and it displays their message.
           Who remembers I was to check in on the sewing machine? I did, and there seems to be a discrepancy over which model I chose. Two suddenly similar machines appeared side by side, one costing $80 more than the other. Similar is not identical and that is why I snapped the picture earlier – so there would be no confusion. I was quoted the price on the wrong machine. Nice try.

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June 26, 2011

           I am completely impressed. I’ve been looking at LED displays, but always from the point of view of typing the resulting message on a keyboard. Here is one where you walk up to the display and press some of the 4,750 ordinary rocker switches. Kudos and accolades to Valentin Ruhry, whoever you are. You are brilliant.

           What are the boundaries of coincidence? Here’s a tough question: what am I to think when several major publishers, like Time and Newsweek, suddenly in the past year have feature articles on topics first mentioned in this blog? Six articles to date, and this month Reader’s Digest makes seven. The topics are completely re-written without any common phrases, but it is the choice of topic that has me wondering.

           In the past year, dozens of items have appeared on my themes of food price inflation, the housing disaster, identity theft and now, human resources. You don’t have to read back far to find I questioned current HR practices. Reader’s Digest has a spread on the exact same subject, with the angle suitably changed to “what they don’t want you to know”. Is somebody using this blog to get their ideas?
           I can’t prove a thing, and if I did it would be difficult to establish damages, since this blog is free, even from advertising. But darn tootin’ I’ll be watching those people now. One untidy piece of corroborating evidence I’d like to find out is do these various authors in these various magazines know each other?

           On top of that, we have a new problem with bingo. You see, I work for tips. I am not an employee. If it falls within the realm of bingo, I should be allowed to do anything that maximizes those tips. The finish time of the regular games can fall anywhere from 9:20 PM to 10:10 PM (and the bar is open until 2:00 AM).
           If, as tonight, the game finishes early and the crowd wants to continue, I consider this the equivalent of an encore. Regular bingo crowds do not stand up and chant for more. I should not have to ask anyone’s permission to continue if the crowd so wants. It means the place is booming.
           But bars have barmaids. No matter who they think they are, they are still barmaids. And I am still the banjo player. The big difference is there is a chance I might amount to something else.

           That’s why I came home and invented a solo bass line to “Passionate Kisses”, a tune that always reminds me of Sharon B. from the corporation.. She’s the middle-aged lady I once dated who had totally adolescent concepts of romantic love. The gal who had four VCRs because she couldn’t figure out how to program any one of them to record her soaps when she was working late shift. The bass line does not match the vocals making this tune among the most complicated in my repertoire. But hey, I’ve played Beethoven and I can play Mary Chapin Carpenter and sing at the same time.
           Another of my predictions has come true. Some guy named Bumgardner is being held in jail for refusing to give the authorities the password to his encrypted hard drive. This is where you can test if you deserve to live in a free country. Some people say he is in contempt of court, others say he is pleading the Fifth, his right to remain silent. Most people see the following possibilities:

           A) He is guilty and hiding evidence.
           B) He has legitimately forgotten the password.
           C) He is not guilty and defending his rights.

           The first case I totally discount because you have a duty to presume him innocent. If you did not do so, you should move to a dictatorship where you can feel more at home, for you are rotten to the core. The second instance is iffy because it has been used so often the authorities don’t believe it. But nonetheless, he is under no obligation to speak and some people are forgetting that is a basic principle of freedom. He is being questioned as a suspect, not a witness, dammit! That significance should penetrate all but the thickest of skulls.
           The last case is a curious one. Most people are too pessimistic to believe Bumgardner is accepting jail time over his principles. Here’s were I part company with most, for I see a variation on the third item that escapes too many people. Suppose he is innocent of the crime for which he is charged, but there is something else on the hard drive that makes him guilty of a different crime? This is the single most disgusting aspect of American law. Where there is nothing that says you have to, but a ton of laws what they can do to you if you don't.

           In this scenario the police are intentionally creating double jeopardy. The police know they have no reasonable and probably grounds so they are trying to turn the second crime into a “plain view” incident. If so, he is within his rights to refuse and I suspect the police use this dirty tactic far more often than the public is aware.
           Again, the law is clear on this. He is under no obligation to prove his own innocence nor to testify against himself. It is those who are keeping him in jail that are in contempt of the law. Silence is neither false nor misleading. The authorities are aware a person in jail has limited resources to defend themselves. They make it so. Therefore, they are conducting a Trial by Ordeal.
           That’s another thing you thought was outlawed in this great country.

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June 25, 2011

           Oh no, here’s more “extensive damage”. This time replacing some light bulbs on the scooter this morning before sun up. China is the new Russia for copying patented parts, and the bulbs are duplicates of standard Sylvania LLs from the local auto shop. I was warned in advance about the poor wiring on these scooters, but I had just started studying electronics and had utter faith in my ability to learn to fix these things.
           The bulbs give more trouble than the wiring, and beware every second one is a right hand thread in a fragile plastic housing. The side marker and headlight indicator bulbs cost me $10.58. But that is nothing compared to the tiniest repair on my old Ford Taurus. Another thing with the Taurus was I tended to buy the cheapest parts that worked. With the scooter, each step is usually an upgrade.

           Dave-O came by last night so we ate popcorn and watched cops and robbers videos. The talk is still that out of town trip. How about that? Six months ago we didn’t have $20 between us and now we are planning a vacation. (By coincidence, we both are under a series of medical appointments that end on the 11th.) I actually built a logic circuit while we were distracted and watching DVDs. Good, for it took two weeks of doldrums and study to get there. That’s another reason I’m suspicious of these high school “robot” teams mentioned y’day. They are moving too fast for what I know to be the correct pace.
           You see, I remember crystal clear what I was like compared to other students in my high school and I don’t believe for a second students today are really any brighter. I recall the limitations and capabilities of my classmates and things have not changed. These new students have got to be assembling kits, which is not the real deal. I’m also skeptical of teams. Unless I’m the captain. There are far too many teams out there for the number of smart-enough students and that is that. And yeah, I am smarter than a twelfth-grader.

           Mind you, I don’t discount circumstances. Like the fact they (the other twelfth-graders) have money, parents, support and encouragement. For instance, I went to school with Sheila G., the ungifted daughter of a banker. So when I hear she became a famous lawyer, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m suspicious. People like Sheila who have to study every day just to maintain a B average in elementary are not famous lawyer material. True, she did it, but that can’t be the whole story. Therefore, I’ll check if these robot shows are open to the public. Until I see for myself, I’m not buying into any hype.

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June 24, 2011

           Here is some “extensive damage” done to my new bedroom. This is the A/C unit from my original unit over on B West. Of course, it has not been inspected by a deficiency expert, but this is the back wall of a Florida mobile home, for Christ’s sake, not some condo in Whistler. I like individual room A/C. It is more efficient as I do not wander from room to room all day like some people.
           Success at the club meeting y’day, in that we got our first logic circuit to work properly. I had given up on it after several hours, but when we got the circuit onto the test bench with two pairs of eyes looking for the problem, it was working in no time. (There was a 100,000Ω resistor where it should have been 470Ω.) This circuit does nothing more than test itself. Yet skipping this test would have been “pretty stupid” in the real of things.

           The club so far has been a very productive association. While we have not yet manufactured anything, the ground covered is many times what was possible operating independently. For example, he didn’t know how to make a voltage divider and I didn’t know how to recharge a wall A/C unit using gas from the auto store.
           Agt. M is a fan of gadgetry. He’s got the iPhone and cables to connect it to his computer or TV. I tend to be conservative with expensive toys, particularly when what I see so often is not actually new, and electronically, much of it fits into an existing category. Like “Dick Tracey” watches. I’m slowly getting convinced by the iPhone apps although my spider sense says there is something fishy about the way the apps are sold.

           While there are no adult robotics clubs in Florida, I see there are some 90 teams of high-school students who compete for prizes. By the looks of their web sites, they are well-funded beyond our dreams. But, are they true clubs when they speak of “uncrating” their robots and using joysticks. We are now just known as the BRC for “Broward Robotics Club”. If you are a stickler for correct terminology, our robots will be nonholonomic.
           If there are robotics clubs in Florida, they do not show up anywhere. The old saying rings true, “The first robot is the hardest.” By virtue of the disciplines that need mastering, that is true enough stop most people. And [it is] why we allowed for a year to get something off the drawing board. If only Wallace’s relations were here to help, we could do it in a week. That’s if you believe what you hear.

           Why pick on Wallace? Well, because. I drove past the old place last night to notice the rent sign still in the window. Are they actually trying to run that place without me? What are they thinking? In two more months it will have lost a third of its value. With me, it would now have a new roof, a complete new air conditioning system, and have a room rented year round. With the way those people read others, they are probably lucky it is vacant. That way they will only lose their shirts instead of their shorts, too.
           How rare I start reading a book I don’t finish, but another author has managed. Paul West. I read the first 24 pages of his “Rat Man of Paris” before closing the covers forever. West is one of those authors who tries to “write in circles”, as it were. While the story has a flow, it is all over the place meanwhile. Snippets of unrelated nonsense in every second sentence give the opposite impression than he is trying for.
           As near as I figure, the book is about a Jew or not about a Jew who keeps a dead or not dead rat or fox tied around his neck or not tied around his neck. He flashes tourists and while they are distracted, the pickpockets help themselves and pay him a share. Or he fishes old WWII airplanes out of lakes and sells the metal. Something like that. Or not something like that. One thing is certain. I got nothing out of this book but a sense of wasted time.

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June 23, 2011

           Here’s the sure sign of Florida summertime. A menacing late afternoon thunderstorm. This is my view to the west, something most people will never see because you can’t really walk into this enclosed street, and driving is one-way from the far end shown here. Notice only two overhead wires? The French guy pulled all the others down this Spring.
           This morning I read the newspaper (first time this year), but mainly to get to the crossword puzzle. Houses are selling again, but at record low prices. Time magazine also has an article concerning the myths about this economic recovery. They are finally admitting it won’t happen soon. For example, people cannot move to where the jobs are when they owe more on their house than they can sell it for.

           The only realistic strategy when you are underwater is to stay put and hope you get your money’s worth over the passing years. There was a time thirty years ago you could just walk away from a bad debt and start over again someplace new. But all the people who now wish they could do that were the same ones who kept saying they had “nothing to hide”. Serves them right.
           Want a great laugh? If you haven’t seen “Balls of Fury”, get a copy at Big Lots. It’s a spoof on martial arts tournaments but concerns ping pong. It is hard to tell where trick photography takes over as most of the scenes are believable. Like when he plays against the Siamese twins. If only for some totally different comedy, this one makes the grade.

           Thanks to the scooter I was able to chase around in the supreme heat today. A lot of my gear got worn out over the previous two-year stretch when I was only budgeted for necessities. So I had to spend $73 today on cables, batteries, spare parts, that type of thing. The scooter now has 2,230 miles on it. That’s well on the way to repaying for itself in convenience and while I don’t mind riding the bus, time is money.
           Let me report an unexpected bonus. The scooter is candy red because that was the one on sale. Women like that color and it is not uncommon for a lady to ask me for a ride. This has always happened when they were obviously joking, like when I stop to let them cross the street or when loading up groceries. Mind you, let one who is slim, good-looking, and under 30 ask . . . .

          The summer heat has stopped all outdoor activities. My wall A/C units cannot keep it in the comfort zone, same as all mobile homes in Florida. Unless you have an external unit that is, and money for the electric bill on those puppies. I use plenty of fans to keep the indoors comfortable. The insulated work shed has a metal frame so one can work in there about a half hour. Then the heat of the shade will get you, a dank heat.
           I found a book on Linux, which I’ll read even though it will disappoint. I’ve used Linux but found it to be a whacked-out system of weird commands and strange terminology. One day some psychiatrist will find out why computer programmers can’t name commands as easy, descriptive words, although I personally suspect it has strong ties to the legendary nerd lack of a sex life.

           Glancing at microscopes again, I saw the Keyence VHX-1000 video. The price, however, seems to be a secret that depends on your personal information and what you intend to use the apparatus for. Don’t you just love Keyence already? Rumor is the scope, at its highest setting, can almost resolve the brain sizes of their marketing department.
           I see England is up for net censorship. They are considering instituting a method to stop streaming broadcasts of live events. It is always scary the way these things start. And an ever shorter stretch until the enforcement technology is used to erode privacy and human rights. I mean, how can the authorities really catch those bad guys without a warrantless search of your personal data storage? Englanders, take it from us. Prohibition does not work.

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June 22, 2011

           Here is the most unusual microscope I’ve ever seen. It consists of a (green) laser pointer shining through a drop of pond water held at the tip of a syringe. The blotch on the wall is full tiny plants and animals, quite live. The idea of laser scanning scopes is not new, but it took real genius for somebody to come up with this one for $50. The lab tech is Maker Magazine’s version of a babe. Hey, I kind of like her.
           Today is the anniversary of Barbarossa. Sixty years since Hitler attacked Russia and sent the USA into the biggest boom-bust spiral in history. Look out the window and take a stab which phase we are at? Times must be tough, for I again looked on Craigslist for bands seeking bassists. I have to laugh at ads who want fusion or experimental or “serious” bass players. You know, the hypocrites wanting somebody original but who will “follow along”. Another tip-off is when they list their home recording gear or brand of strings. That entire mentality is such indoctrinated “guitar-think” it isn’t funny.

           There is an ad for bass lessons where the teacher totally blasts another theory, the one that bass is just a guitar with 4 strings. He details how learning guitar first can wreck you as a bassist, and here’s a direct quote: “The bass is surprisingly mysterious, especially to guitarists. It is a completely different instrument from a guitar with different techniques, different fingerings, different functions, different range, different tone and different needs and guitarists are often surprised how much they end up struggling when they try to transition to it under the assumption that it's just another guitar.”
           Well put. I can think of several guitarists who could stand for bass lessons. No names mentioned. Names like the Hippie. Maybe they’d appreciate how little they know about the instrument and go into shock. But more likely they’d claim the teacher was wrong and anyway, they are into “new age” bass.

           Craigslist is also interesting to see how the cheap-ass middle class does their advertising. Like they discovered craigslist or something. Want a laugh? Read the real estate ads. Was it Pat-B who likened things to people rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic? There are sellers trying to unload mobile homes with pad rentals of “only” $650 per month. And you gotta love those real estate agents who slip in a listing for $2,600 in the buying section when that is the monthly rent on beachfront property. They are so smart I am at a loss for words.
           Also being tracked was (past tense) the salaries of pharmacy technicians. I may discontinue this due to overwhelming reports of employer abuse and bad working conditions. It is not my next career, just one of those occupations chosen as a benchmark to watch developments in a medically-related field. The complaints are too consistent and detailed to ignore as mere spouting off.

           Despite the nature of the defined job duties, far too many techs report they are being required to deal with customers and answer phones. Clerical work. Most common complaint: being blamed for errors made by employees higher up the food chain. Unusually high numbers of male workers are leaving the field, which instantly sets off my bullshit detectors. My guess is men are using the position as a springboard to better jobs. Besides, why go to school to make $8.87 per hour?
           I could not help noticing the cost of airline tickets to Denver. All the major carriers, that’s Continental, Frontier, United, Air Tran and American Airlines charge the exact same amount: $309.00. You don’t suppose these people, like, know each other or something? And you thought price-fixing was only for the National Parks and inkjet cartridges.
           Next, I found one antenna that my Darlington pair works on. Cable TV. Not every channel, though. It mysteriously seems to favor stations I don’t watch like sports, religion, weather and Latino stations. Question for all of the people who don’t believe in racial stereotyping: Why is it, on cooking shows, it is always the Chinese chef showing the Anglo how to cook? Oh, I see. I mean, I get it.

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June 21, 2011

           Nine out of ten police agree, this guy should launch his boat in deeper water. Dave-O came by early this morning so we sat around talking Texan till noon. We were going to take a weekend drive in his truck back before I had to move and got broke for a while. Also, somebody busted his ignition trying to steal the vehicle. It’s fixed now and he wants to get out of town for a few days. I told him count me in and showed him the $140 I got saved up for just such an opportunity. Two guys shift-driving can see a lot of the country. Gimme one hour’s notice, that’s all.
           As luck would have it, I found a supplier of Integrated Chips, and only three miles from here. I still don’t trust the Internet when items might have to be returned. While the place here is expensive and doesn’t have everything, they’ve enough to keep me busy. I glanced at their homebuilt panel and knew exactly how the store alarm system worked somewhat to the amazement of the clerk.
           I returned here with the goodies, three ICs. A 4001, a 4011 and a 4051. You’ll probably find out what they do shortly. Today I stuck with the 4011, something called a “quad NAND gate”. That’s a fancy way of saying it contains 4 switches called gates, each of which has two inputs and one output. You can easily look up a truth table for this type of gate. By midnight I still had not got one working, which is precisely the right kind of learning curve for me.
           Stopping by the library, I found some large scale maps of Florida and Alabama. This library has zero books on electronics. So I looked in some carpentry and medical books. I was seeking information on a malady called “mahogany poisoning”. The Internet is silent on that subject and I found nothing in the library either. It is a serious condition that woodworkers get from sawing mahogany veneer. So that will have to be your trivia for today.
           This month’s Popular Mechanics talks about inventions. I was more interested what they had to say about musical inventions, in particular, the MP3 format. This is the music style I switched over to in 2006. It was only invented in 2003 and I am normally very slow to adopt any new and untried format. (CDs took me 15 years.) But I knew MP3 was going to change everything. By 2007, my music show was entirely dependent on it. The ability to buy songs one by one instead of an entire album was a boon to Apple, but not to the music industry.
           You see, when CDs were the only format, the average American spent something like $65 per year on music. Now that has dropped to an all time low of around $23, and that is more trivia for today. Myself, I don’t care if music-selling companies go under. They control the distribution system and that’s what you are paying for. The Internet takes care of distribution now, so maybe it is goodbye CD store. Why pay $20 to get one or two good tracks.
           I’ll say it again, I would like to see music return to touring musicians in front of small live audiences. No one hit wonders, no $400 stadium tickets, no recording contracts. You pay to hear your favorite performer and his band live at the local auditorium or club. Performers learn to get along without a half-million in road gear. The artist makes good money only if he works a full 40-hour week and puts on a good show. It’ll never happen, but I’d like to see it.
           There’s an app for that? The person who thought of allowing users to write apps was a genius. Two apps that impressed me today? One that zaps a loud but inaudible beam at barking dogs. And you know how people flick their bic at concerts? Now you can bring up a perfectly safe flame on your iPhone. Brilliant, as it were.

June 20, 2011

           My first integrated circuit is the 555 timer chip mentioned y’day. Not surprisingly, there is a ton of disinformation on the Internet. I’ve seen expensive, well-known outfits who post diagrams with missing wires and components. The tendency of mass communication is to even out the world’s IQ, a sad event for humanity. I’ve already discussed how the Internet has removed a lot of the shame from being professionally wrong.
           Despite the UMP, the United Morons of the Planet, I’ve learned enough that the age of the unknown IC is fast dwindling. I’ve investigated only three chips so far, two of which I’ve never seen in real life. But shown here I have a working 555 timer circuit on my desk right now that is flashing a light, and I did so without any fancy calculations.

           [Author’s note: This "non-usage" of formulas is important to me, for as a legacy of my upbringing I missed much of the practical side of things. I can grasp all manner of complicated theory but not build anything with it. You see, a theory is safe inside one’s head, but anything you build can be “shared”, meaning broken, stolen, criticized, sabotaged, and argued as proof one hasn’t have enough grunt work to do. In such a situation, one builds very little.]

           The flashing rate of my LED is determined by the combined values of a resistor and capacitor. I’ve learned to put in the capacitor first and vary the resistor, as only a few values of capacitor are commonly available. I can set the mark time, but not the space time (you can look up those meanings). My LED does not flash on instantly, but glows in stages. All pins of the LED must be tied to voltage or ground even if not used in a given circuit. The learning experience left me enthusiastic.

           The significance of a 555 in robotics is that it can produce PWM, pulse width modulation. There is a difficulty controlling the speed of DC motors. The accepted method is PWM and a 555 fits the bill. The output of the 555 is an on/off digital signal where I need only figure out how to mechanically control the mark and space. I know of one other way to PWM that works superfine, but it costs a lot of money: the Arduino. (The difference is 39 cents versus 30 dollars.)
           The said calculation turns out to be surprisingly easy, but there is always a tradeoff in accuracy using passive (mechanical) components. For example, the closest I can get to 1 second total cycle is 0.9773 seconds with 2x100KΩ resistors and a 4.7µF capacitor, and it is not a 50/50 cycle. More like 66/37. My old science degree, which I never used, is again becoming handy to understand units of micro, milli, pico, and nano. This is because the equations can lead to ridiculous answers such as 2 billion femtoseconds, although I admit I was playing “what if” on that one.

           Don’t you hate sites that take you to their home page when you do a search on a specific item? I do. Yes, I know how hard it is to program a link to every item on a site, but once you’ve built the page, why not add the little bit of extra code? It takes too long to figure out how each business categorizes things. Do I want parts, sales, customer service, store locations or index? When I’m looking for one item and I get this type of home page, I usually just close without bothering. Did you get my drift, Meccano?
           And here’s a strange one. The catch phrase I’ve used in my profile for years shows up as unique on the Internet. “They never fall who never climb.” Try it. My point is, I did not write that. I distinctly remember hearing it years ago and adopting it. When I went to locate the author, all I get is my own words back. I tried all the major search engines. Even if I’m first to publish it, I did not create it.
           Later, we record an extremely successful club meeting. The 555 chip is now familiar territory. We are unable to find sources for the next two chips we wish to analyze, the 4011 and the 4017. We still do not have any books or research material other than what is on-line.

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June 19, 2011

           Summer is here. A broiling hot day followed by late afternoon rain. I spent the day reading, including an in depth study of a popular chip called a 555 timer. This provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how asinine electronics authors can be. This chip has been in common use for forty years and one expects there to be dozens of sources about just what the chip is and what it does. Wrong. The world is full of magnificent morons.
           To see an example of degenerate documentation, try reading the Wikipedia description of the 555 timer written by a constipated ape. You can read it, but you won’t know anything more when you are done. By comparison, allow me to write a few paragraphs description of the same chip and decide which source gives you more information.

           Here’s my version: Have you ever wondered how those bicycle LED flashers work? That’s probably a 555 timer, although in reality, it doesn’t time anything. But when you connect it to a resistor and a capacitor, it turns off and on in a precise manner, allowing it to be used to “time” very accurate intervals. Electronically, this is most useful, as you can change intervals by changing any combination of the resistor and capacitor. This on/off action is instant; it does not slowly fade in and out.
           At very low on/off rates (say 120 times per minute), it can make a speaker click. That is an electronic metronome. At mid speeds (3,000 times per minute), it can make speaker buzz, like a doorbell. And above that speed, who cares? The 555 can be used to operate electronic switches. It does this in two ways. The first way is you press the switch and say a light comes on. When you release the switch, the light stays on (it is actually pulsing on/off really fast). If you want to sound like a nerd, you call this the “astable mode”. You can tell it is astable if you look at the chip and see pins 2 and 6 are connected.

           The second way a 555 operates a switch is quite different. When you press it, the light comes on but when you release it, the light goes off. That’s called the “monostable mode” and pins 6 and 7 are connected. It probably seems dumb to use an integrated circuit for such a simple tasks, but when you need to be exact, this is the way you do it.
           Thanks to these features, the 555 can be used in almost countless ways. Since you followed my explanation so well, I’ll tell you about one technical use for the 555. Sometimes, like in computer hardware, you want many things to happen at the same time. Well, you connect a reliable 555 circuit that is flashing on and off, and design your other components to wait until the next 555 “on” signal and then all work at once.

           There, was that so bad? The rain lets up later and I went to Big Lots for some DVD movies on sale. Hey, even I don’t study all day long. I read for relaxation, too. Many times I’ve praised the paradise of Borocay Island in the Philippines. Today I read an article in some English newspaper that, sadly, says the world has discovered the place. I don’t mean that literally because millions of people know where it is. Now it is like Mexico.
           When I was there, no motor vehicles were allowed and therefore there were no roads. But they’ve built resorts and put in electricity. It was a sad day for the island when that happened. I have not been there in 25 years. Paradise isn’t good enough for some tourists. They need a hot tub as well. Thank goodness I saw it before it got civilized.

           I studied some old documents concerning the German exploration of Antarctica. Since this happened in 1939, it is generally glossed over in history books. The expedition and Schirmacher Oasis are not even mentioned in the otherwise complete work “A Continent For Science”. Of course, there is always the crowd that believes it was a Nazi UFO base. What is known for certain is that photos of German flying saucers had a lasting effect on post-war American hub cap design.
           Guess who is instituting DNA testing for membership? Indians with casinos, that’s who. It seems where Indians in America have established casino profit-sharing, they have relations “coming out of the woodwork”. One tribe grew from 30 members to 1,000 in one generation. The testing is nothing new. Over 500 tribes already use them to catch freeloaders. Critics say the testing undermines cultural values (huh?) and could wreck families over paternity issues. Critics who don’t want to be caught, that is.

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June 18, 2011

           The Bozo of The Decade award goes to U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes. This joke of a Judge has ruled that the citizenry of Houston, TX, cannot vote to overturn unpopular city ordinances. WTF? The issue is clouded in legalese, but the bottom line is a federal judge has arbitrarily removed yet another basic American freedom, the right to petition for redress. But what other behavior could one expect from a boy named “Lynn”.
           I looked at Craigslist today. Craigslist and I don’t get along. Still, I like to keep tabs on the security measures they’ve had to take because I like to think I was responsible. They surmised that I again cracked their reply codes and they now handle all such correspondence through their own server. Try it; you will no longer see a scrambled code as the reply address, but a Craigslist propreitory link.

           At this point, I call it a draw in that it is no longer worth it to toy with those people. They are the washroom wall of the Internet. (You can read back many years to find out what I have against them.) The w4m section was always a hoot to peruse, though it is now taken over by overage fat black single mothers. Whose only hope in this universe for a date is if a District Judge comes to town.
           By 10:00 AM I was out on Taft and University to check out Harbor Freight, a local tool company that advertises real bargains. My first time there and what I wouldn’t give for a $5,000 shopping spree in that place. It is similar to Northern Tools, but with lots of extra goodies. I followed my rule of no spending on anything the first time around despite the fact I was in there for two hours.

           One thing I’d like to get my hands on soon is their miniature 4” table saw, and if they have it, a matching jig saw. I am not a traditionalist, I don’t believe one has to learn a trade by hand before moving to power tools. In fact, I think people who say so are stupid. If a tool is available, use it. Mind you, anything can be carried to extremes. You’ll notice most people under 30 who use a word processor can’t spell worth a damn.
           The new super computer goes back to the shop again. It will not boot properly when a second hard drive is connected. Almost all of my work involves two drives, a lesson I learned long ago concerning complete backup copies. The unit is still under warranty. Good, since I have no extra cash. This has been one incredibly slow month, though as I mentioned, the difference between a record high and record low is, for me, a very narrow range.

           Which brings us to bingo tonight. It was a crowd of pro players, so the pots were right up there. Smaller crowds mean a longer call time, that is, each game is longer before somebody wins. That means I didn’t get out of there until 10:30 PM. That’s a long day, it’s a good thing I accidentally bought so much coffee last week. That reminds me let me check something, yes, the blog schedule says I must mention food today.
           The consumer price index for food has shot up 32% in the past two years. Or put another way, everything costs 1/3 more that it did. The 11.5 oz package of coffee sells for $5.99 which equates to $9.38 per pound. Time to plant a garden, folks. Apples at Winn/Dixie are $3.00 a pound. And things aren’t going to get any better.
           The daytime temperature dropped to 96 degrees so I took advantage of the cool spell to get home and cook for the week. Iced tea, chicken, that kind of thing. It is still a struggle to find food I like that is not forbidden on my new diet. There, I talked food and I’m so hungry I could almost eat the sandwiches at Starbucks. Almost.

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June 17, 2011

           What is it? It is a hand-powered washing machine, available from Clean Air Gardening . No kidding. It takes around two minutes to wash five pounds of clothes, which is a couple pairs of jeans or 25 pairs of socks. It costs fifty bucks and is made in Thailand. It drains with a hose (included). Wash cycle is two minutes, rinse is 30 seconds. An interesting web page.
           I was researching small houses, which I define as less than 960 square feet. (One site I check is always Tumbleweed but do be careful with their free downloads. They try to trick you into activating a “subscription”.) The claim is small houses can be built with 14 hand tools and around $20,000. Take a look, but I suggest all the housing you could want will soon be available with a much smaller price tag.

           I like stats on the baby boomers, they were the single best and worst influence on my life, and will likely be that for others the next few generations to come. I didn’t say I liked them, just the stats. I’ve been forced to compete with them and their credit cards my entire life.
           So I’m not unhappy to learn as a group their number one goal after retirement is to become debt-free. That tells us they are retiring still owing money! That’s how you spell “wasted life”. There were almost 3 million foreclosures last year. The boomers kept electing governments that told them what they wanted to hear for forty years, and it was all lies.

           Furthermore, the average boomer has only $88,000 put away. In the finest circumstances, that might last two years. Another third will rely on Social Security. This is nothing new to me. What is new is the Sakshat, India’s new $30 Android tablet. Now maybe a few dickweed companies in the USA will realize they could not export our jobs without giving away our expensive western technology for free. They saved money and lost the lead, and created a climate where these tablets will sell like mad because you don’t need a credit rating to buy one. (Remember my remarks about prices having to drop to what people can afford to pay cash.)
           I’m currently downloading material on robotics and have noticed a distinct departure from what I am pursuing and the local hobby shops. The shops sell gear as part of a fixed system. Their machines rely on computer code to operate. To me this is the wrong approach. I cannot imagine the difficulty to programming a computer to fly an airplane by itself, and neither can they because they are holding a remote control.

           My goal is different, stay with me here. No remote control. The robot makes its own decisions based on feedback. The code is important. Think of it this way: all the mechanics needed for robotics already exists. There is nothing essentially new in the robot catalog, but what is missing is the software to make it independent. Just thought I’d clear that up here since I decided early to avoid externally controlled behavior. I believe researchers call my approach “machine learning” but don’t quote me on that.
           I watched the DVD “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. Not recommended. It attempts to be mysterious using the ho-hum tricks. Inverted time lines, missing logic, unexplained random events. It becomes tedious after the first half-hour, I only kept watching because the actress had nice buns for a scritch (the type who thinks because you sleep with her, she can start talking shit).
           What do you know, my old home town has a job web page. There were seven jobs listed, if you count security guard as a job. The highest paying was manager of the local liquor store, paying $15.60 per hour. Scary.

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June 16, 2011

           Here is our planned 2012 WiFi antenna. Ah, you knew I just kidding. This is some television tower out west in Pembroke Pines. It is hurricane proof, but you can see nobody in real estate has built condos near the beast. I like that word “festooned”, as was this tower with 27 other antennas that I could see.
           The scooter be praised. Without it (meaning with a car), I may not have found my doctor’s new office on time this morning. Google and MapQuest say they are current but their satellite needs a swift kick in the modules. In the end, I turned around and drove the scooter 2.8 miles up the sidewalk against the one-way traffic until I found the address. Nobody said a word.

           Not a word. That could be that although I made this trip in what is the traditional morning grid-lock jam, there were so few cars on the road I arrived almost 45 minutes early, wasted trying to find the correct exit. I realize it isn’t meaningful to everyone, but I’ve lived here twelve years and the lack of traffic on the roads is a true phenomenon. Something serious is wrong.
           I passed the test of a half-mile on the treadmill, something impossible a year back. It was like mountain climbing. But I did it. Then another hour with the blood sample people. I arrived home seven hours later with hardly the energy to stand, yet the club meeting was on time. We are diverging into two departments: Planning and Production. For all our early inefficiencies, it would be crazy for anyone to quit now. Read on.

           For the fourth time in five months, I’ve sought components and been informed as of recently, they are not in stock. One expects that with car parts, not integrated circuits. It almost seems stores are discontinuing stock the week or month before I need it. Four times in a row. The common reason was given by Radio Shack, “Nobody was buying them.” How strange my timing, I get into the business just as others are getting out. That should tell you what an intellectual wasteland Florida truly is.
           Because we could not get any straight answers from anyone, the club admits we have encountered a roadblock with our antennas. In the interim, it is going to be store-bought units to keep communications secure. Agt. M had completed the solar-powered camera unit, making it far better than I could have. That guy can repair anything with hot glue and duct tape. We have also modified the scooter to flash a bright light (brighter than the sun) when I forget to cancel a turn signal.

           This signal device demonstrates our differing backgrounds. Agt. M as raised in Romania with practically an entire junkyard at his disposal and the encouragement to learn all he could by any means. One the other hand, I had no tools and no access to even scraps of material, not to mention attempting to gain a useful skill in my family was a punishable offense. Thus, Agt. M was astonished when I designed the circuit on paper with three parts, whereas his pragmatic approach would have worked, but with ten times the complication. At the same time, I could not have built his version. Our skill sets are meshing grandly.
           As proof of faith in his abilities, he may soon be permitted the supreme honor of actually installing some electronics on my bass. Meanwhile, research continues on logic gates. We already have a few people regretting they didn’t join up for what would essentially been a free ride to where we are today. Or as I like to put it, I gave myself six months to get two years experience.

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June 15, 2011

           Our favorite fugitive is still on the run. I hope Jason Derek Brown, whose rap sheet reads like a Who’s Who listing, is comfortably off. I take his side for a simple reason: he has never been convicted of anything and is therefore, in my not-so-humble opinion, the victim of a smear campaign. I believe people truly presumed innocent have the right to remain anonymous until after they are convicted.
           No matter what happens now, this guy has already been condemned on suspicion. The record is not clear, but if he is only wanted for questioning, what’s with the arrest warrant? Nor do I buy the story that he is armed and dangerous, somebody just wants an excuse to shoot.

           It is well known cops really hate people smart enough not to talk to cops. It is also known a lot of people are in jail because they talked to cops. And the part that he is bisexual was obviously cooked up after they couldn’t make him sound bad enough with the truth. Here is his age-enhanced photo, showing the Feds expect us to believe he spent his loot on hair transplants.
           A few idle replies from my new ad for a guitarist, nothing definite. This town is choked with guitarists blind to the reality they will never amount to a hill of whatever vegetable they grew in 1980-land. Fantasies of stardom is part of the game to keep them buying lessons. No serious inquiries arriving, mostly out of work types wanting something to do until they get discovered.

           I chatted with Tex up at Guitar Center, who says they are next playing in August. It’s dispiriting when established bands aren’t getting regular work. She plays washboard with Boise Bob and his Backyard Band. They play odd material with a gutbucket (washtub bass). Myself, it’s as if I live in a room full of nobody guitarists who are terrified that playing a little country will tarnish their precious rock/blues image. Yeah, of themselves.
           Country is a niche market that is vacant around here. The right local duo could wrap up things up. I saw this situation once before in my life, in the middle of the prairies. There was one country band, with one speed and one beat. There was nobody else, so they played every weekend. They were called “The Comets” which quickly became the vomits. They were never my heroes because they were so old. Like already in their twenties.

           If you ain’t in the mood to learn anything today, skip ahead. My studies are going quite well. Today I blistered my brain reading about Integrated Circuits. Twenty-three pages of pure mental agony entirely worth it. I gotta smile, since parts of my old physics degree began to make sense. Like many fourth year students, I studied to pass exams, not to learn anything. That means, I passed tests about Binary Coded Decimal and logic gates without a clue what they were used for. Now, I am learning the missing parts.
           If you look at a panel of four binary switches, they can represent decimal numbers 0 through 15 with binary values 0000 through 1111. Binary coded decimal uses 0000 through 1001, that is, 0 through 9 decimal. It ignores the other combinations, like 1011 and 1110. I always wondered why they bothered with that and see it has to do with least and most significant digits. That’s another concept I’ll have to relearn.
           I will shortly redo that 7-segment LED using an Integrated Circuit. Unlike my university days, I now understand 1,000% of what is going on because I built one from scratch why just last month. And I can mentally walk through NAND and NOR gates with ease. Told ya it would happen, and I’m still in kindergarten.
           The supercomputer is still acting up. Random cursor freezes and messages to restart the browser. I dropped by to see Dave-O, who has the amazing ability to sleep sitting up and looking like he is reading. He must have been a good college student. For all his wishing to get back to work, he is not near ready. I well know the early symptoms of guys who won’t admit they are disabled.

           If you want to know 99% of what I know about electronics, you can visit All About Circuits . But you won’t learn more reading their forums. . Even their “super moderators” talk in circles. My half-career at the phone company taught me to recognize horse hockey a mile away. I asked specifically that nobody reply with links or advice to go back to school, and that’s how I encountered “bertus & beenthere”, who sent me links and advice to, you guessed it. You can also guess what I thought about that. You too, huh?
           Last, I found a bottle of Old Spice, the aftershave, not the cologne. It’s the real McCoy from the company established 1938. The packaging carried the statement, “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.” My family doesn’t believe in early marriages. My grandfather on my father’s side was born in 1857.

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June 14, 2011

           It was hot and I felt like staying inside all day. Turns out I’m not that bad at it. I spent some time checking new software suggested by Agent M, shown here adapting a camera housing to hold a solar panel in place. He works for a church group that keeps him current on what’s new out there. The applications that passed the test today are SketchUp and Dropbox, which you can find on your own. I don’t like linking to pages that represent a moving target.
           SketchUp (a Google tool) models 3D shapes, just remember if you are not already an artist, the learning curve is barely worth the effort. But try the 3D lettering, that definitely has potential. Dropbox is an elaborate way to share folders or transfer files without having to use portable media. I’m no expert at it yet. You can store files on their web site. We are establishing this connection for the club.

           Add a few more hours configuring the new computer. It still exhibits glitches but is as fast as anything I’ve connected to it. These are not intense hours, I take it easy, a cup of tea, a snack, some reading. If the world is out there, I didn’t pay attention today. See, it is easy to tell when I’m getting along financially. When the pressure is off, I’ll take random days off. I flipped through Imgur. I watched Riverdance on youTube. Kind of a stop and smell the roses day.
           I was hoping to find some tutorials on integrated circuits, but all I found was advertising and data on how they are made. One day, somebody will invent a search engine that blocks sites that advertise when they know quite well you are not looking to buy anything. Remember when the Internet was supposed to make everything cheaper because the sellers didn’t have to pay for a brick and mortar store front?

           I like history and watched many older newsreels. Somebody should tell certain dumbfecks out there that a series of stills with blaring background music is not a video and doesn’t belong on a site for real videos. Then again, I ran my name through Google, Altavista, and Yahoo. There are ten people in the USA with the same name, they live from Pasadena to Boston, and I can get their life histories for 95 cents each. The profile that most closely matches me says I am 37, live in Doral, Florida, and am married to a 41 year old lady named Veronica. Ah, close enough.
           But most fun of all was the research, it is plain something I like to do in my spare time. And I have the ex-girlfriends to prove it. These days, I have a lot of spare time. Electronics is not to be confused with electric circuits. The difference is that in electronics, you have electricity controlling electricity rather than control by a host of mechanical devices. I’m still learning both and I’ve not been pleased with the help I’ve been getting on-line. For example, the lack of documentation on how components are connected once you’ve soldered them to a board. It was not obvious, at least not to me, until I saw the mess other people were making of it.

           [Author's note 2020: the link to the Manhattan photo is gone, but here is a photo of the concept. The two resistors on the left are soldered in this style. Also, the above reference to the drop boxes is not a recommendation. The club rules confined their use to a select type of file, no identifying information is ever stored on the fake "cloud" systems of the Internet.]

           Then, you stub your toe on something interesting. Have you ever heard of Manhattan style construction for prototyping? Me neither, and like most electronic “terms”, if you don’t already know it, you can hardly go looking for it. This technique involves glue and little copper pads you punch out of thin metal or nibble from old copper boards. They are glued, not soldered, onto the surface a grounding plate and from there the soldering is incredibly easy compared to continually flipping the board over. The style “Manhattan” arrives from the different architecture of mounting the components. When viewed from the side, one evaluator thought it resembled a city skyline.
           I will be giving this a try. With my rudimentary skills, I will likely build a circuit with needlessly wide-spaced components, lots of mistaken paths that will be expensive to fix later, and leave scraps all over the place. Therefore, would I be correct in naming this style “Hialeah”?

June 13, 2011

           Remember Churchill’s, the sort of English pub in Miami? They have an in-house anarchists club. Here is their logo, without permission from anyone, of course, right? They don’t seem to have a single website (probably a good idea) and can be found by searching for Miami Anarchist. There are related groups in Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. They report being hassled by the authorities, but what does one expect from anarchists who announce their identities and meeting places?
           After oversleeping, I awoke in a dozy daze, feeling fit and qualified to watch some TV. The weather people, in an action-packed three-hour documentary, have predicted a record hot summer and that the next lottery will again be won by somebody “from up north”. Middle East terrorists, failing to find a replacement leader, are consulting with Palm Beach elections officials. The end of the recession was announced for the 2,347th time and NBC, who, with an eye to the emerging seniors segment, plan a September series titled, “Nutrition and the Manual Can Opener”.

           The stock market is playing hopscotch with your portfolio and over the big pond, Charles has married Diana again. Satellite photos of the Sahara have discovered 17 pyramids under the sand, the final resting place of the Pharoahs and possibly Jimmy Hoffa. When asked how one buries something like a pyramid, SEC officials shrugged, explaining they had recently downsized their staff because there are no more Enrons and Madoffs.
           The White House proclaimed the creation of 388,002 new jobs last month, a lobbying triumph by America’s main growth industry, Telemarketing. Thugs in the Amazon basin assassinated a prominent rain forest conservationalist, a move not unnoticed by our very own Forestry Department. Tourism and air travel are down despite what Homeland Security touts as “the very finest in panty X-rays” and user-friendly pat-downs from off-season Disney eunuchs in ill-fitting uniforms.

           Time! This is a serious blog where we learn many new things the easy way. But, but, I was being serious about the politics, it just came out that way. Hey, more serious than the anarchists. Their publications are rather dry reading. On the other hand I report a record 10,693 hits on my material.
           The club meeting lasted three hours today as we went over progress and plans. We are narrowing in on a robot that follows a beam, much like a dog will chase a laser dot. We have collected all the parts except the brainboard which has to wait until somebody can afford it. The antennas still do not work and I will be asking for help later in the week.

           One of my austerity measures is to buy second-hand books at the library sale, where they also have DVDs. I picked up one called “Blood Diamond” and it has a very disturbing message. Concerned with smuggling, it accurately portrays the reasons a lot of the civilized world doesn't have the best impression of the place. The movie is not for everybody, but I’d give it a thumbs-up for anyone who thinks cut diamonds are pretty. I have never personally owned a diamond.
           Today's trivia? The word "blog" does not pass this blog's spell checker. They must be taking lessons from Google.

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June 12, 2011

           Here’s a “Before” picture of the Hewlett-Packard. Note hammer, carbide tooth saw, and scooter tire. The tire is a coincidence, but yes, I did want to drive over the thing. In a rare move, I watched the mummy movie twice within a day. Fantastic scenery even if it is backdrops. I didn’t know they had Foster Grants in the Himalayas in 1947, or rayon jackets, either. Most Chinese (Mandarin) customs are accurately portrayed but the actors have terrible accents. And they didn’t study Russian before calling a “Pay Pay Shay” a PPS. Look that one up on your own.
           I’d like to take a scooter trip today. The streets are deserted. But, the weekend budget is determined by my tips, equating to no road travel this time, so I'll stay local this time around. I need distraction, so off to the bookstore. Distraction is required from the fifth day of my new diet where my morning reading material consists of every package label. Other than odd industrial chemicals, there are few surprises. My lemon tea contains no lemon. Oatmeal is oatmeal and while this food fills you up, it is a different kind of full.

           At least I empathize a mite more with people who have to lose like a hundred pounds. Your mind tricks you and drives you insane with constant appetite triggers. I can easier understand how those with weak willpower could never last the day. Myself, I learned these cravings and I can unlearn them. Do other societies advertise food like Americans? Every TV show, radio program, even billboards. Maybe at the bookstore I’ll check into which magazines have the least food ads, a different perspective.
           Here’s a little more info on the scooter not contained in the owner’s manual. You get around 100 miles per tank, which is 5 liters. Current cost of a tankful is approximately $6, be sure you burn 93 octane or better as these things have poor carburetors. Regularly add carb cleaner, as in every tenth fill up. Don’t push the 100 miles either, as a slight headwind can easily take off 20% of the distance. And carry a spare gas bottle, as the gas gauge is also made in China.

           Off to the bookstore. It was spitting a little rain or I’d have taken the long way for a Sunday drive. It doesn’t take much to turn south Broward into a ghost town. I even got a chair at Barnes & Noble without waiting. The place doubles for some of the better girl-watching in this town, one of the few places to see women on their own, though I’ve never had a date out of there. But today, I had a mission. I bought an electronics book.
           To test if I’m getting anywhere, I bought an edition of “Nuts & Volts” with the intention of picking a circuit and building it. And to read the magazine cover to cover to find anything I don’t understand. This is a challenge, as I mentioned how authors in this field tend to assume too much. I got you some trivia in the process.

           Why is Chinese history hard to follow? I mean other than the fact it is Chinese. Too many dynasties and not enough kings, for I found out that once the Emperor dies, they give him a different name. So there was a Ming dynasty but nobody called Ming on the throne. I think. I often wondered about that. Oh, and I heard the definition of a practical nurse: one who dates me. There you go.
           Since I was in the store four hours, I read all the available material on electronics and I may have already built most of the circuits associated with beginners. Time to tackle integrated circuits. Why do I just know that will be an uphill struggle against bad texts and worse directions? I built an advanced Darlington y’day with capacitors to smooth out what I thought might be spikes or dropouts in the surrounding electromagnetic field. It performed no better than the basic design.

           Here’s some insight into my distractions when I’ve got time off. I further read some cookbooks, mostly vegetarian to see what I’m in for, and for diversion, a book on knitting socks. I’d like to find a book on how to sew ties, as well. What else? I found some Florida road maps with incredible satellite detail. Tons of back roads and different routes up the coast. However, keep in mind that Florida is a very large state. It is the way it is portrayed on Mercator maps that makes it look smaller than it is.
           I was again appalled at the “Men’s” section in the magazine rack. Guns, ammo, weight-lifting, race cars, and virtually anything juvenile that would attract gorfs with an IQ of less than 95. Speed boats, overly posed swimsuit models, rolling cigars, and other brain dead pastimes. I found my magazine over in the “Computer” section next to “Arts & Crafts” and “Teen Literature”.

           Later. I finished the magazine. While I didn’t gain much new information, several mysteries have been cleared up. For instance, the use of “shields” on the Arduino, the existence of smoked glass front panels for LED circuits, and how copper-plated prototype boards are connected. That last one was late coming, as I have already developed my own wire-wrap technique. They say the trick is to bend the component leads and solder them. I never thought of that because it is a messy process. I’ve actually become proficient at wrapping the jumpers and soldering them, which takes longer but makes for a strong and somewhat flexible joint that is easy to repair or replace.
           I can’t state how often these answers did not come about in the proper places, but were encountered while reading elsewhere. Shame on the original authors, that is not performance. I found the strip boards, parallel copper perf boards in the magazine, the first time I’ve seen then pictured in use. They are, it appears, more popular in England. And I made a pot of chicken soup. With garlic. Call it a day.

           That was a hasty decision. Not being tired, I stayed up and reverse engineered a laser mouse. It is driven by an LED. No laser at all. Then again, I learned that LEDs emit a single wavelength of light, a laser-like quality (in a real laser the waves are in phase, not merely the same color). The receiver is an integrated circuit, that is, an off-the-shelf part. I was also struck by the miniature mechanics of the switches. I sure miss my microscope, which I would have had two years ago except for treachery.
           As a more fitting conclusion to a long day, I tested a design of my own to prove that transistors don’t really amplify anything. I rigged up a transistor with a 2.2V LED on the collector and another on the emitter. The collector LED had the standard 1,000Ω resistor, the other had no resistor. At this threshold level, if either the voltage or current truly was amplified, the second LED would fry, as in go poof. It didn’t.
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