June 30, 2012

           Here’s my weekly poke around real estate. The target remains West Palm Beach near the downtown area. This post got my attention for being right off Okeechobee. That’s walk to downtown, and look at them not-too-shabby grounds. (That trailer in the background is not the one for sale, rather a three bedroom.) The decision was no, because it had only one bathroom and I want the land. But at $2,400 the price was right.
           I’ve also watched rent-to-own where the deals get better as September approaches. I will never own an expensive piece of property again. Fools I say, especially those who fantasize a home represents retirement security are already making more mistakes than I ever did.
           Get a load of that singer advertising on Craigslist. What a golfball. He’s 62 and writes somebody said he could sing. States he is a “tener to baratone” who can do a “barbershop cortected”. Would like to try out for America’s Got Talent, if “you know anyone that can help me”. Says he checks his e-mail in the library twice a week. Ex-military, as was predicted a moment ago.
           It always gets me how grossly similar the ads are in the music list, both offers and requests, year after year. The same junk and that same “Rock,funk,blues,latin,reggae,etc” bass player from Hollywood has been available since 2006. (There is an exceedingly similar ad running in Tennessee.) And rock bands? Same over-40 rock bands of stocky househusbands who missed the boat. I check for country bassist ads. The market is pretty dry though it is not customary for country bands to advertise for a bassist.
           The reasons for no [country bass] ads is easy. First, most musicians do not want to play country bass because it has a reputation for being simple. If it is, you aren’t doing it right. Bass players also tend to be less nomadic with fewer delusions. But if you ever see an ad for a country bassist, you’ll notice how they desperately need him. You know, to me when I hear a bassist faking rock and roll, it sounds very similar to a bassist faking country roots and fifths. Like a lot of people, I associate simple country bass lines as being “too redneck”.
           More heat means more progress and it’s 94 out there (105 on the heat index). It’s only 84 degrees in Rangoon. I’m slowly deciphering the directions for the Boss recorder and learning techniques that apply to the bigger studio production picture. Remember, I am NOT pushing buttons on the machine, I am reading manuals, watching videos, taking on-line tutorials, and writing copious notes. I do not believe the average musician, as opposed to a studio technician, would ever put in so much effort. But I have little choice.
           I’ve also found these devices have more than one way to skin a cat. When faced with that, I prefer any automatic function, what some might call a wizard. Since I never went to recording school, functions, especially electronic functions, make more sense to me. I’ve likely already lost any hope of working with a trained sound engineer.
           In fact, I exclusively use auto settings for punching, which is to record over a bad section very precisely. I recorded four songs to develop a system that works for me and already I’ve filled the memory card. The background lyric thing from y’day worked so well I went through every one of the vocal FX settings until I found one that sounds like distant harmony and I may have a winner on that. Hey, if it works for McCartney.
           Next and last, bingo was surprisingly active for pre-rent week, with a lively crowd. And enough extra to set me up for the weekend, always a nice feeling. But no celebrating yet, I’m still faced with a quandary. That situation where I could do something rash now and get by, but if I wait just a little longer, I’ll get more. But how often can one continue to wait in life? And in this case, more would actually turn out to be more than I can use. A tough decision. Believe you me.


Five Things I’ve Done Less Than Five Times in My Life
Attend a rock or blues concert
Borrow money
Date a woman without sex
Live in the same house over three years
Drive across America

June 29, 2012

           I did some recording. The only things I can get right are, you guessed it, the drums and the bass. Well, the singing, but I mean instruments. Avoid the BR-600, they are not suitable for non-engineering types like myself. The worst feature is the finished tunes cannot be burned directly to a disk. They have to be connected to a real time (analog input) recording device, and I haven’t had anything like that around here since 2004.
           What you see here is the settings to record the bass. Note how tiny and cryptic the display is, not user-friendly at all. Every menu has to be navigated several layers deep to get to the good things. It is labor intensive and the controls are not that great for an expensive Boss. The natural sound is bad so every track has to have effects applied, most unlike a Tascam.
           But, hot damn, I learned a lot. If I continue with the two tracks, bass and drum, I can add a hint of piano. I left a track free in case I can get a real guitar player to do some accompaniment. Here’s a trick I learned, stay with me here. I record my vocals on one track so I don’t have to keep a log or count measures. The plan was to erase it and sing live, but I’ve discovered if I adeptly use the fader slide control to leave a word or two at quarter-volume every verse, it becomes far easier to remember the lyrics. Since it is my own voice in unison, nobody is the wiser.
           How close to stage work am I? Maybe 1%. Kids born with access to tools have no appreciation for what the rest of us endure. Where would I be if I had some decent equipment? It will be weeks before I get something useable with the BR-600 and I regret that I didn’t launch right into recording the moment the first Florida guitar player let me down eleven years ago. Look at the time wasted on other bands in just the past three years.
           The American decline continues. I priced out a few things, such as the train ride to Atlanta and the City of New Orleans to Chicago. The price has doubled. And groceries, too. A gallon of orange juice is now six dollars. Apples are a buck-sixty a pound. It won’t be long now until we hear the squawking. Taxation through inflation. It may be the only thing that can make house prices go up this year. Think about it. Sell the house for 100k and only have 60k purchasing power. Those between 40 and 55 today should be very worried.
           We’re talking $460 for an Amtrak round trip to Atlanta. And that is why I want a motorcycle. There and back on $48 in gas and for the money saved I could do some fancy food and accommodations. Same with Denver. The train is $850 but the gas only $150. I tanked up my scooter for $4 this morning. I never thought travel in the USA would become a luxury. It’s another 101 heat index day and I’d rather be riding.
           Virgin Mobile, in yet another attempt to improve their cash holdings, now require up to 42 hours after the transaction before applying your payment. It’s the same reason Delta jets used to sit on the tarmac nearly an hour before takeoff. Their cash flow looks better the longer they hold on to your money before paying their bills.
           The local fuzz are on a July 4th crackdown. Do drive carefully, they especially target motorcycles. Some confusion exists over the existence of a company that hires people to drive cars around the country. Yes, they really exist, and one is in Ft. Lauderdale, called Auto Driveaway. I’ve looked, but there are so few cars that it is unlikely you’ll get a ride back. They don’t pay, but give you the first tank and say, fifty bucks for the second tank. I leave it as an option down the line. I hitchhiked when I was in university, but it got too depressing to be picked up by a student younger on his way to the same class in a sports car.
           There is always Ridester if you can, as I do, pay half the gas. The price quoted is usually that much at least. I always rent my own room when there is an overnight stop, but I generally prefer to shift-drive straight through. My record was Miami to San Diego in 41 hours in 2003, with one sleep stop for six hours in Deming.
           Friday, my day off, and I did what the middle class called puttering. The eBike is flimsy, a light frame. At over a year old, it needs constant attention and today I dismantled the bracket that holds the battery. For the most part, the prongs are kept there by gravity, so hitting a curb or pothole bounces the battery, causing the power to flicker and catch again. Then the heavy battery slams back down on the plastic casing.
           One thing led to another and I was in the front yard six hours, finding all manner of wear and tear. A $400 eBike is meant for a slow trip to the park twice a week, not the daily pounding I put it through. I should just rewire the thing with automotive cable and weld the brackets in place. The chassis is a 1960 design, as it took me around twelve different tools to work on it and often had to remove parts to get at what I wanted.
           So, what did the rest of the world do or learn that was new or different today?


Five Things I Do Differently Than Most People
Travel
Relax
Make friends
Learn
Concentrate

June 28, 2012

           If you miss my electronics posts, here's why. Every breadboard I've got is used up already. And it may be a month before I get more. Shown here is that one single circuit I'm still working on. The chips are hard to spot, but I've bought all the immediately useful ones available in town. I can't afford to keep spending twenty times the on-line price to get it today. I'll wait.
           The Boss BR-600 is a piece of junk and it cost me a hundred to find that out. It suffers heavily from “Microsoft Syndrome”. Where they know what you want better than you do. The chorus effect loop can’t be turned off, although you can record dry, it always comes through the monitor, and I cannot sing to a choruser. Plus, it has serious other defects, including inability to export a song as a WAV, proprietory file formats, and the mastered final is an analog signal.
           But I’m stuck with it for a while. See below, I’ll use it to find out which version of my act is strongest. Even the backup function is screwed on that thing, because it exports the file, meaning it takes as long to create it as to play it, and as pointed out, it won’t export songs, only one track at a time. My simplest productions have four tracks.
           Trivia. The “Vasa” was the wooden warship that sank in front of the King of Sweden on its maiden voyage. Archeological magazine issued a finding that the ship may have weighed more on one side. Two sets of carpenter’s rulers were recovered from the raised wreck, used by different styles of ship designers. The ship would have had the cannon ports open for the King, put it in the water and there you go. An interesting study in fluid dynamics.
           In the same vein, here is a video about building a nuclear submarine. It points out what I never thought on my own, like the guy who’s spent 15 years underwater. The documentary stresses the American-like “just another business” angle and never that the boat is designed to kill a hundred million people in one hour. I was surprised at how much meta-information they presented. Then again, the bad guys know all that by other means.
           Examples would be that to build such a boat, you need 600 engineers and draftsmen. The boats are built in series, four at a time. Plasma cutters slice the plate, which looks 7/8ths of an inch thick. It takes ten minutes to test the Rolls Royce reactor. And the sub costs five times more than stated on the contract.
           We have a virtual 98 degrees out there, I was indoors most of the day. These are near-record temperatures and a good time to stay put in the shade. Good, because the less I spend here, the more I have for Colorado. That’s who keeps me in line, by the way. That’s who is allowed to review the facts and tell me off to my face. And did I ever catch it this week for not dating women my own age. What can I say, I’ve never found older women attractive that way. Personalities or whatever they got, you want me to lie like other men? What? Oh, trust me, they are lying. I got two brothers, you know.
           My thinking is that women are humans first, female second. They don’t confuse me a fraction as much as they think. They never change and never learn from their mistakes (in a social sense). They never grow up, they cling to their fantasies, they dislike it when others get away with what they can’t. I play in a band because that makes me the bad boy. And I get more by accident that you do on purpose. But, that also means I enter old age with no particular skill at long-term boredom. That’s the trade-off and now that I want it, yes, it’s been a struggle.
           Planning is part of my daily habits, I’m aware planning isn’t for everyone. But, gee, my plans are so darn interesting and chock full of valuable advice and information. And obviously failure does not bother me. Today I had to extrapolate my future with music and my need to be the world’s oldest bad boy, on paper. In person, I’m actually one heck of a swell guy, say all the world’s greatest women, and I just play the jerk to pick up the doctor’s daughters and such. I’ll, ahem, cut to the chase.
           My solo music act is not a matter of learning guitar. I need backing tracks and I hesitate to use the same ones as everybody else, or go midi. Like web pages and jet fighters, midi is a never-ending circus of change and expense. And the one thing midi cannot do right is produce guitar sounds. That’s why your common Karaoke sounds ticky-bop.
           It would probably be wise to buy only gear I can carry on a scooter. Changing instruments on stage sends a downer jack-of-all-trades message, so I have to choose carefully. Do I strum to bass and drums, or play bass to rhythm and bass? Like my women, I’m not shooting for perfection but I’ve still got standards. My decision is to create four tunes of each style and ruthlessly critique myself on video.
           Medical tests again. I’ve given up keeping track anymore, but I detect a change in the type or purpose. I am now being tested for prevention rather than treatment, a big upvote for me. My profile fits those at risk for things like diabetes and arthritis, so if those happen, it won’t be by surprise like that heart attack. My point is, I must be healthy enough for this shift to a wider spectrum of tests. Ride that bicycle, I say.
           And it is time to admit I have a hereditary weight problem. No amount of diet or exercise that my heart permits has done any good in four years. My diet has averaged 1100 calories per day for four years without results, and my recent prescription to cut out all carbs leaves me on a nothing diet with still no results. Time to re-evalute my situation. Question, if I do all the diet things they say work, and they don’t work, what’s left? The diet things they say not to do.

ADDENDUM
           The feedback over here says most of us don’t like the “Internet of Things”. But too bad. If you didn’t protest back when it mattered, of course you will get slapped around by the consequences. So you know, there are other markers already available, such as DNA powder that can be mixed with everything from paint to baby powder. There will even be a black market for items hoarded before marking began. The difference is, you would usually know if somebody steals your paint.
           RFID is silent and doesn’t require a lab for results. I know a lot of super-mellow men who don’t like protesting anything. We’ll be laughing presently when his type gets home and his civil-servant wife asks him how come he bought two brands of cigarettes last Tuesday. Guys, I’ve found there is no middle ground, either you were against invasion of privacy your whole life, or you were supporting it if only by silence and complacency. And it is far too late to change sides.
           The internetwork of products is only the beginning. Enforcement is not far behind. One day, maybe soon, an alarm will ring at the police station before you reach for your third beer. The bar stool detected your body weight. Your license tag reported the time you arrived. Your conviction will arrive by e-mail. Don’t even think of driving to work next day, your license is revoked and your car won’t start. It’s all a laugh until it happens to you, or more likely, to your grandson. The rewards for stupidity are often delayed so late in life, but they are myriad.
           Nor will it matter that you intended to leave your car at the bar and take a cab. Or that the next morning you had to get to a hospital, not to work. See, when most people are asked to take a stand on privacy, they selfishly assume the topic is their privacy when in fact it is everybody else’s. And now they will suffer the consequences when others don’t respect them back.


Five Famous People I Wish Would Drop Dead
Madonna – for setting a bad example
Woody Allen – if he hasn’t already
Eric Clapton – enough is enough
Elvis Presley – this time for real
Steve Fosset – because he’s only missing

June 27, 2012

           I've done some bonehead things in my life, but one of them was never to throw out a music jack adaptor. Some of these plugs go back to 1975 and often result in monstrosities like this arrangement. But I believe I've estimated the replacement cost of the jar of goodies I've got at $480 and that's assuming all could be bought locally. In this photo I'm taking the RCA left and right off the back of the Boss down to a stereo 1/4" down to a stereo 1/8". Sold separately, you are looking at probably $30 from the Shack. (If they don't like me saying that, tell them to publish ALL their prices on their web page.)
           Ray-B is back from the boonies. May I add that he finally knows I’m right about country music and about how bad the situation is here in Florida? T’is true, he was in Tennessee and got bowled over at what he saw, which is exactly what I’d said and nobody believed me. He checked out all kinds of clubs and reports the caliber of musicianship is far above this area. Got that right.
           What’s more, he finally saw the effect of country music. People were, he reports with some astonishment, “paying attention”. (The opposite of my complaint they’ll turn back to their beers after the first verse of any blues music.) All the Florida zekes need is a distant disco beat, drums in the jungle. Ray-B reports rooms full of blonde babes going wild, and bands with fiddles and steel guitars. No admission fee. It’s what I’ve been saying all along to anyone who would listen. But Florida has gone without country music so long that even the demand dried up.
           I find Tennessee quaint. It’s a has-been area. No famous country bands have come out of there in twenty years. Every band is still chasing that golden ring, yet we are in an era of solo chick singers and pretty-boy crooners. Maybe, just maybe Ray-B will follow my logic that a single dynamite country duo around here will pick up all the $1200 conventions, upscale weddings, and private yacht parties.
           A new diet pill is on the market. After a dozen years of research, they claim the pill helps reduce weight by 5%. Doesn’t sound like much of a leap forward if you ask me. And the drug works only in conjunction with a diet and exercise program, which, if done right, would lose all the extra pounds without any drug.
           Colorado was on the phone. We are both working full tilt on the visit and I’ve arranged to have a heart test before leaving. That’s where I was this morning when the rainstorm hit. From clear sky to drenching downpour in less time than it took me to slow down and pull under a handy canopy. Which was the front of a second hand store. I bought a book on Mississippi so outdated it was a laugh.
           I’ve only been through Mississippi twice and once was at night. But I know the state is full of “ghost towns” caused by the railway or politics or freeways that bypassed them. It’s a misnomer because usually a few people still live there. The whole coastal strip was populated for so long there seems to be a rundown group of shacks every five miles, though I wonder if they could still be there. The last time I saw anything was 1984. I would like to drive through again, this time a lot slower.
           And how did my six-month medical go? There are no objections to the trip though I’ll wait for a heart test before asking about any return to work (part time). The heart murmur is apparently under control provided I leave it alone. The lower back pain when I walk has got to be a side effect. The regimen is to go off the prescription which affects my kidneys and see if the condition clears. I love walking, my record is something like 850 miles in two months.
           More banking information. Remember that foreign currency check that took 19 weeks for my money? Well, monolithic US banks are taking up to 45 days to “clear”. Who came up with that one? They encode the check, send it to the “treasury” which sends it to the other country’s “treasury” and waits for the issuing bank to okay the funds. What a joke.
           They are living in the Stone Ages. US banks teleport you back to 1962. But who knows, one day they will hear of a “computer” connected to the “Internet”. Even Venezuela and Thailand have faster systems. The authorities say it is to prevent fraud and terrorism and whatever, but the whole setup spells hidden agenda.
           I mean, people, Canada is only 1100 miles that way. It’s closer than Las Vegas. It’s a first-world country, with real telephones and electricity. A check from there should clear in 45 seconds, not 45 days. Get real. Somebody’s got their head up their azz.
           One piece is good enough. Show me one piece of Canada ID and prove you have a SIN number, and I would cash any government, welfare, tax refund, pension or certified check you got. That’s a plum ripe for the plucking.
           Factoid: I used to run my own loan and check cashing business from my desk at the phone company. Even had payday advances and the only thing I needed to see was your employee ID card. Think about it. The banking system here sucks.


ADDENDUM
           Time for a robot update. Most study and programming since May last year hasn’t been logged as it was often refinements of earlier topics. We’ve tested more than enough individual components (in isolation) that, if combined, would produce impressive results. I’ve motioned that prior to any club commitments to build any combination, we retest what’s been learned.
           Aside: Retesting will take time though much faster than the agony of first learning. I swear for all the damn help we got around here, we might as well have operated in a vacuum. Thanks for nothing, all you authors, tutorials, and libraries. None of you made any bleeding sense until we did everything the hard way. The way you people write is as if you are the town dimwits who took your bicycle apart and forgot how to put it back together and dad’ll be home soon.
           I’ve also tabled that what we are best at is the micro-controlled operation of small motors. You may have seen my early video. I always felt, wrongly, if it didn’t move, it wasn’t a robot. Without coding, the speed and direction of these motors is a mechanical swampland. And we studied hard to be this dumb because we know that those last mentioned elements are useless for robotics unless the acceleration is delicately managed.
           You read it here first. I believe we are first, at a beginner’s level where it is most important, to mention this critical factor. There is another hugely important point the experts don’t stress. No, a few disjointed examples after you’ve confused us with serial data and muxing doesn’t cut it. It’s this: begin to think of the microcontroller as a device that inputs an analog signal, processes it, and outputs a digital signal. That’s not gospel, but you’ll thank me later.
           Furthermore, I unilaterally decided that transistors will control all acceleration although we are not strong in that sector. For precision, I also mean negative acceleration, or deceleration in street lingo. Within a week, I will propose standardized variables for writing modular subroutines that we can copy and paste. Also, after four months of sidelined study with integrated circuits, I now thoroughly grasp how the Arduino creates digital output, so all speed control (PWM) signals will be programmed rather generated by specialty chips as once planned.
           This time, we will be constructing to our own designs and filling in the leftover gaps.


Five Instances Where I Would Break The Law
To save a the life of a child (without question)
To save my own life (against unprovoked attack)
To steal ten million dollars (teach ‘em a lesson)
To avoid jury duty (on principle)
To avoid unwelcome involvement (I see nothing)

June 26, 2012

           At the risk of repeating a topic, blog rules say I must report the newest thing learned. This is a Hungarian radish. It has a white skin (this example has been peeled) and has a sharper flavor. So the topic is the vegetable, not the snack as shown. For details, read below, but because I have a regular morning coffee at the bakery, I have an extra $23 home budget for something special. What's it gonna be? I don't like caviar.
           The Internet of Things. (That was a link, but I killed it because I strive to avoid links that disable your return button.) Some people haven’t heard of it yet. This is the interconnectivity of everything in the world via the Internet. Right how, around 1% of what’s out there is on-line, but wait five years. Your refrigerator will be connected to your running shoe, so your cola only gets perfectly cooled as you approach your house, saving the electricity keeping it cold all the time.
           A big part of this system is RFID tags, so that’s another item the club looked into well in advance. And we are barely keeping up. These are the radio frequency id tags you see appearing everywhere. Manufacturers plan to embed 66 billion of these tags into everyday objects over the next six years. The tags are supposed to increase efficiency by monitoring usage. It is only a matter of time before “monitor” becomes synonymous with “control”.
           One positive thing about the double standard is that so many people completely understand it. Black and proud? Good for you. White and proud? You’re racist! But my favorite remains older women who live in the fantasy they’ll find romance and their prince will come. But they turn around and hate men who fantasize about younger women. So, I speak out for the double standard. At least the majority are adapted to it.
           Here’s an item. In the process of investigating why, six years ago, it took me 19 weeks to cash a check in a foreign currency, I discovered there is no law that requires banks to do this. It is their chicken policy (they don’t like risk), but it was quoted to me as if law. So I queried a branch manager friend of mine how banks process those checks. You can follow that up on your own, because I found out something even interesting.
           Only banks are subject to banking laws. The check-cashing stores are regulated differently, though that may change after one of them stole $65 million in Medicare and sent it to Cuba. My focus is baby boomers. If you think living on a social security check is tough, try living on a Canadian pension plan check. However, living on Canadian welfare in Florida is not that tough at all – provided the Canadian government doesn’t know you are here. If Ontario finds out, they cut you off at the knees. So, don’t let them find out.
           Around eight million Canadians are due to retire in the next two decades. Assume a tiny percent will be needing a place to cash those foreign money checks without a paper trail leading back to Ottowa. The thinking man could easily undercut local bank fees. I estimate there are 320 such transactions per day in this general area. Those Canadians would flock to a place that let them cash checks for say, $20 each. That’s $6,400 per day. You simple charge a membership fee and a deposit that covers their checks in case of a default, and you are going to get rich. And if any laws get broken, they’d be Canadian.
           Slow down, folks. The electronic equipment shown y’day was never intended to give the impression that using it was easy. I studied for over a year. No, it is not a matter of plugging the pieces in and playing robot. For example, the terminal* software used to configure the XBee radio transceivers must be downloaded. Using it requires experience of the right kind. Checking your email on a $2,000 laptop doesn’t qualify. But no, none of this is easy and I said it was.
           Happy. I won a bet. It is false that all contracts have to be in writing. That is a misconception of the uneducated. Anyone who passes Business Law 101 learns only certain real estate contracts are required to be written, but I bet there must be others. And I was right. One is called Power of Attorney and if, after you have given it to other party, you subsequently revoke that power, the revocation MUST be in writing. Hmmm, such a letter would prove you are alive, sane, and capable of communication. I won five bucks over it and Trent gets a free coffee.
           Myself, thanks to the bakery, I don’t drink much coffee at home any more. Sure, even that luxury will wear off, but I have my Trump-the-Trump breakfast far healthier than bacon and eggs. That’s why I’m drinking tea and watching free movies, in this case, “Escape from Absolom”, which was filmed on the same set as “Waterworld”. Get your own links today, I’m tired. (The movie was also released as “No Escape”)
           Next, I need one of those old yellow car headlight lenses to experiment on. You know that $30 lens cleaner that doesn’t work. I tried something of my own on the scooter, and a month later it is still crystal clear, albeit with a slight yellow tinge. But even the tinge is clear. If it stays that way, I may just have something for $15. It hit me one day, one does not need to get rid of the color, just make the color clear again, and behold, I was able to repurpose an “art supply” that does just that.

           *Terminal software is probably something you’ve never used. That’s all there was back when I started. First, before you download, make sure you live in a country where such software is legal. Most countries that prohibit encryption have also outlawed terminal software. I won’t go into detail, but a skilled operator can emulate any computer, including the private, secure one you think you are using right now.
           Even where legal, terminal software is usually rigged to time out rapidly. It could be tricked by a very clever programmer and a room full of computers where only one is emulating at a time, but nobody is smart enough to set up something like that, not even Patsie, don’t you agree?


Five Best Books I’ve Read
Voyage of the Beagle – C. Darwin
Gone With The Wind – M. Mitchell
Foundation Trilogy – I. Asimov
Memoirs of Georgi Zhukov – G. Zhukov
Nope, four’s all I can come up with.

June 25, 2012

           Notice to youTube posters. We automatically delete videos that start with some dorkboy saying, “Hi guyzzzzzz”. Today’s snap is the gear needed for two-way wireless communication with the Arduino. At this time, I am the proud owner of one of these pieces. The pieces as shown here are, clockwise from the little red circuit on the left are:


           1 x USB breakout board
           2 x Arduino Uno
           2 x XBee wireless transceivers
           2 x Xbee shields (adaptor boards)

           This is the minimum requirement if you want your robot sensors to talk back to your computer. The club has decided not to devote resources to building a simple robot, such as a line-follower or obstacle avoider. We are satisfied that we could do that but I believe I warned everybody that robotics is not a cheap hobby. This picture shows that, even if I cannot afford the equipment, I am personally satisfied to have gotten far enough to even know how and what the pieces do. Even this unsophisticated setup will tax my resources and brainpower to the limit. (So Patsie, I can only imagine how you must feel.)
           Houston, we have a problem. I will not be able to afford to travel to Colorado in time for a real visit. The trip was always a matter of tricky timing and the Nashville delay has cost this critical and wasted month. There were also some people who failed to keep their promises and that slowed up the train. Anyway, the fact is, my best friend (Marion) is in ill health and will not be able to keep the house. It looks more like September as the soonest before I can travel because now I'll have to rent a room. Thanks, Nashville.

           A new virus-like condition is hitting local computers. It is one I can’t fix. It runs something in the background that shuts itself down instantly when you open the task manager. The computer runs slow and sometimes the windows cascade like the old Russian virus of 2009/10. Time to call Fred and see what can be done. (Later, turns out he has not encountered it yet.)

           The new band has missed an important deadline. That does it. No matter how badly I perform as a single, at least I don’t let myself down. They did not call for the same old reason which again is: when I join a band, I make it clear they must learn some of my music. This makes sure they put in enough effort to make it harder to quit over some little disagreement. Trust me, the small crap is what breaks up most bands.
           They didn’t learn a thing while I learned 15 of their tunes. That is precisely the situation I set out to avoid. So by the third practice I hinted that I would not be learning any more of their material until they caught up to what they had agreed to. That broke the camel’s back. I’m not surprised because 100% of the bands I’ve joined in Florida did the same thing. They want a bassist to be a flunky who follows, meaning they don't have to learn anything -- and they cannot figure out why the last guy quit. Even if they call back, the momentum is gone.
           And, Trent is out of circulation, at least in the short run. Those were the only rehearsals that were not a grind in the past few years. My backup plan decision is to go solo, although I’ve never had a strong enough act to do the better rooms. I have less experience at playing and singing than most beginners. I’ll work the angle there has to be some place out there for even a mediocre country-like show. The worse case is I have that three disk Karaoke machine I fixed up a few years ago. It still works real fine.

           Ha, did you see the fuss between Wikipedia and the weirdo church? Seems the encyclopedia people have excluded Scientology from posting or editing anything on their web pages. I would side with Wikipedia for a number of strong reasons. First, whatever claims are made on freedom of speech, the Wikipedia site is private property they can exclude whoever they please. Second, when you use something for free, you tacitly agree not to abuse that privilege. Third, Wikipedia’s condition to publish is a neutral viewpoint, a condition which cannot not met by any religious advocacy group.
           It seems whenever anybody posts an article critical of their Scientology, they set groups of editors using multiple IPs that make subtle changes (a process pioneered by myself on Craigslist back in 2006, except when they do it they are weirdos). The weirdos were also caught using fake accounts to establish phony references and links. And won’t tell me how they did it. I’d say getting the boot was their own fault. If everybody hates you, blame yourself.

ADDENDUM
           It was 103 degrees in Denver this afternoon. For those who got this far today, yes, we are quite aware one does not “delete” youTube videos, but the phrase was chosen so that our policy would be clear to all. Here’s a development: Register4Less no longer has phone clerks. They have “Happiness Engineers”. Look left and cough.

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June 24, 2012

           Who remembers the classic landmark fruit stand at the corner of Federal and Miami Shores? That's the east entrance to the Mardis Gras casino, for those bent that way. This is what it looks like today. Nobody at street level knows what's going in there, but the land would be ten times too pricey for a gas station or any imaginable retail outlet. My money says it is condos. We'll keep an eye on it, not because I care, but because I have to drive past it to use my favorite ATM.
           I listed a scathing review of the Boss BR-600. I carefully outlined that it was not an 8-track recorder as advertised, but a 1-track recorder with 5-track playback, "the functional equivalent of a thirty dollar 1980 cassette recorder with overdub". That's a fair assessment. For more money facts about these reviews, see below.

           There’s wise investments, but dad-nerb-it they take a long time. Sooner or later, you have enough of the wise and dabble in the clever. That time lag is the difference. If you see a new car in front of my place by August, you can guess what kind I just made. I was thinking on that this morning gawking at the skinny Hungarian babes, er, I mean, reading “Rainmaker” at the bakery. It’s a 600 pager. It helps if the reader knows a little about courtroom procedures though anyone can follow the plot easily enough.
           It can be an infuriating read for another reason. There are so many revelations of what is wrong with American law. How money pre-empts truth, and the disgusting emergence of jury consultants. This is a breed of scum that shadow and profile prospective jurists for the bigger law firms that can afford it. My objection is the use of “public records” and that folks, is the worst case scenario for all of you. Records kept for a different purpose being used against your wishes by a third party with a hidden agenda and an ulterior motive. And the more free information you’ve supplied them, the worse you will be judged. At that point having something to hide isn’t even an issue.

           I’m on page 457 [of the book] and the trial is just starting. This is Grisham’s belwether book about the poor folks who take on the door-to-door insurance companies. Lawyer movies are relatively cheap to produce. The Wiki people point out that “It differs from most of his other novels in that it is written almost completely in the simple present tense.” Well, now, just how do you suppose about that, Perry Mason? Grisham’s no dummie, the book, written in ’95, was a movie by ’97.
           Who should show up but Guitar Eddy, denying all the rumors about his living in Georgia and the missing convertible? Says he missed our phone calls (all of them) because he was driving through the mountains to Illinois. That’s plausible. He’s on holidays and in town for the week with no car. Well, no convertible, anyway.
           That reminds me, I’ve found the answer to the filler material I need to bulk up my lampoon on guitar players. I’m on a roll with lists of ten, for instance, the ten songs a gittarist will never play, the ten most boring lead solos, etc. But the winner has to be case histories. I noticed how self-help books always give examples like Barry M. or Thomas C. Aha, my ticket home. I must know twenty pages of lame gittarists.

           Here’s a free sample (I wrote this morning):

Artie:
Got out of milking cows on the farm by claiming he needed long fingernails to play flamenco. Once walked right past Charles Bronson and didn’t say a word. Owns two 64-channel mixers. Well known at Starbucks for doing his daily best to keep them Craigslist posters in line. Artie can’t actually play guitar, but contracted pseudo-gittaritis from using one as a prop during his Elvis years at the floof clubs.

           And the neat part is, I actually know enough of these twerps to fill half a book. Remembering these jackasses one at a time is far easier than striving to stay creative. Sure, I embellish the odd part, but this is nimble work indeed.
           My ePinion posts bring in another round of top marks but the cash return remains a pitiful 7/10ths of one cent per hit. Ten thousand hits would bring in $70 lousy bucks. My research shows the reason is despite the high quality of my reviews, the ePinion system is geared to quantity over quality. If I wrote dozens of poor quality reviews, I would make more. Boo, there ePinion. Some dork key-enters specs off the factory package and they call it a review. Plus, their [ePinion's] site is evolving into another virtual store, you search for something you want to review and all you get are links to vendors and advertising.
           For a different kind of movie, there’s “Big Miracle”, but don’t pay to see it. The story is three whales get frozen in by ice too far to swim to open water. If you can stand Drew Barrymore (I can’t) it’s worth the casual watch. It’s hard to say there is any scenery because of all the ice. The only thing flatter is the grade B acting, but like I said, different enough to stay interesting.
           Scary thought. “Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos?” --onlinerz.net

June 23, 2012

           No photos of my own, but here’s one that interested me from the Internet. Ed Sullivan so clueless he probably doesn’t realize he’s holding a left-handed instrument. But there’s my heroes, not because of their music, but because they tackled the system. Well, three of my heroes. That other guy, what’s his name, isn’t in the picture. Rather prophetic if you ask me.
           I can’t believe how trapped I am this month. Can’t accelerate in any direction, but quit whining I say. Even standing still I’m getting more done than some people. You know, people who lose money on real estate and people like that. But shut my mouth, because when the time comes, if I can’t unload this place, I’ll just walk away from it. And unlike some, I’d be leaving with my bank account intact.
           Morning coffee kept me until noon, some of the prettiest women I’ve seen lately walk into that bakery. It would appear the Hungarian community is much larger than I thought. I’ve seen at least thirty hot babes in there but I deduce only married Hungarian women buy bread. Which reminds me, still no word from the new band so I think it has just become the old band. Trios are a difficult formation and an even harder sell in this town, even if you can find a big enough stage.
           Bingo was one of those nights when every thing went wrong, but the show was a pleasant success. See what happens when you hire the best. A group of fussy new people showed up just as my microphone batteries went dead. The game went ahead and an unusual crowd-pleaser turned out to be the recordings of a Munich radio station, particular a version of “Clementine”.
           I thought I had mentioned that tune, but can’t find it. The Huckleberry Hound theme song, “Oh My Darling Clementine” is a popular schlager (older light pop music) ditty in Germany. For various reasons, not the least because it was Winston Churchill’s wife’s name, Clementine has been replaced by Caroline. Now explain why such a song is well received at a Florida saloon during a bingo game?
           I finally watched “Don’t Mess With The Zohan” and had a riot. Even without the Arab-Israeli premise, the plot is/was first rate. Every cliché and stereotype was squeezed for comedy effect exactly the right amount. I would have passed if I had not noticed it was based on a true story. An Israeli Mossad agent dreams of becoming a hairdresser. Wow, all Israeli and New York young women are perfect without an ounce of fat. The Arab actors don’t say the word for “seven” correctly. But it’s a gooder.

ARMCHAIR ECONOMICIS 101
           There is a truck with Florida plates parking in front of the doublewide, meaning Wallace finally unloaded the place. So much for his big $1,200 per month rental plans and family reunions in the ensuite. What a tribe of dumb jokers they all turned out to be. A child could have figured out any profit on that place was always dependent on my directorship. So, let’s figure out what he lost.
           The original price was $28,000 which I got down to $18,000 (after six months and after I surreptitiously found out the owners had bought another place up north). So Mr. Genius lost all the rent he had to pay himself thanks to big-mouth Patsie. That’s six months at $200 and twenty-one months at $400. We’ll ignore the electric and the general rent increase of 12.5% since I left. And the sorry lack of repairs caused by his recalcitrance (wouldn’t fix it himself, wouldn’t let me fix it).
           So, he lost at least $10,000 for being a smart-ass. That brings his out of pocket back to the $28,000. That amount is his breakeven point. Now, like a Canuck, he thinks he’s shrewd when he’s actually a shrew. Business acumen is not a strong trait in his family, so he’ll conveniently forget about the lost rent and repairs. He should have got at least $24,500 because that was the inherent resale value resulting from my superior negotiating.
           I’ll bet he was dumb enough to take $22,000. So blabbermouth Patsie cost him $6,000 plus the price of wasted trips here, plus the friendship of what is, by the way things turned out, the only smart person he ever really knew in his life. Well, Wallace, see what happens when you shit-house lawyers think you don’t have to keep your promises. And that is in writing. So the world can continue laughing at you and Miss Piggy long after you kick off, broker but no wiser.
           At least you now know where your family stands in the brains department. You should be thanking me ‘stead a floss-if-eye-zen ‘bout mind control. Come to think of it, we never did see Patsie and clan arrive for their annual retreat. What’s the matter? Is she having a little trouble getting across the border these days? Oh, and quit embarrassing yourself with that line that she’s a computer programmer. She’s so dumb she thinks nobody knows all her passwords.

June 22, 2012

           Happy Barbarossa Day. Just kidding. That is the day Hitler invaded the Russia seventy years ago, after a fateful ten week delay while he overran the Balkans. And I want to talk about WWII. This photo is the first rocket powered fighter aircraft to fly, and it did so around a year earlier than the more famous German Komet. It is Russian (not Soviet), which you may have guessed from the skis. The skis under the plane, not the designers’ last names.
           Note the more conventional frame, and also how Russian aircraft tended to be smaller to start with. The pilot looks hunched down. Like many early designs, this aircraft was cancelled in favor of what could be mass produced with existing plant. I believe this rocket plane was called the BI. It never saw combat.
           Friday I stay home unless I’ve got a gig. I don’t. I’m re-reading Grisham’s “Rainmaker” and sipping tea. Except for a noon break at the bakery, I stayed inside watching the storm. And the new band never called back for the next practice. I’m old enough to know what that means.
           I toyed with the idea of Karoke again, but I have been doing the same ten songs for the last six months. Of course, I figured by now I’d be doing them in another town, but that was before I met that crooked lawyer up on Commercial. No action for me this month. I get to watch silver plunge, play music, and wonder what all those notices I get from Facebook mean in my e-mail. I use Facebook for amusement and am not really into it as a lifestyle.
           Now, for a moment, let’s look why silver might be falling when it should not be. The government has not brought out QE3, their policy of buying treasury bonds as discussed here a few days ago. That means there is less money floating around which causes lower demand and in turn prices will drop, particularly for non-essentials. Like silver. Is that what we are seeing here?
           I do know one thing, the government is terrified of deflation and I have no idea why. But it has something to do with people not spending money if they think prices are going to drop. Much like my position on real estate: who would borrow money to buy a house if it will cost less in a year? Less is sold, so less is produced, a situation economists call a “spiral”. But so what? That would only hurt the type of people who desperately need to be taught a lesson anyway.
           Most people know inflation is measured by the CPI (consumer price index), which by coincidence is published in the middle of next month. I’ve lost all faith in it because they keep adjusting the base year and changing the basket of goods. Myself, I’d have to see a long, slow downward trend in prices of essentials over a couple of years, before I would worry. I wrote extensively in the 90s about how credit distorted American life, about how few new houses and cars would be seen if people had to pay cash.
           I also published ePinion reviews of the Boss BR-600 and the Arduino, instantly garnering twelve “Very Helpful” ratings, the top they give. And four of those were from leads or advisors, if you know their system. That’s damn good but this does not translate into any real money. Plus, reviews can only be published for items on their list and it took a year for the Arduino to appear. (There is, technically, a higher rating, but it can only be given by company officers under special conditions.)
           The balance of today was spent writing. Face it, this blog is only a hobby, and one that doesn’t pay very well. Yet. After the recent ease which Professor Howard published his Kindle book, I can’t ignore the opportunity. Since I won’t commit to a full-fledged 400 page work, I’m eye-balling something along the lines of Grizzard and Barry, a type of “the truth can be funny” offering. The thing is, to write 64 pages of material with the same level of readability, it isn’t that easy.
           Here’s some inside information, no names mentioned. One of the inner circle over here is a major buyer for a very large chain of grocery stores in this part of the world. And she declares in her firm knowledge of the supply system that “people are not going to believe what’s about to happen to food prices”. No prices are discussed, but that’s where Professor Howard and I step in. We know damn well “people are not going to believe” bread for $10 per loaf. What’s so hard to figure?
           Furthermore, the Prof and I went over predictions to year-end 2012, and we conclude essentials will inflate, non-essentials will deflate. Silver drops in price because people need all their money for food. He has also received a new batch of information about e-book publishing and we meet next week to pore over that. The new software is so easy to use there is an impending sense something we author is going to connect.
           And the robot club has decided to continue meetings through the summer, if sporadically. When I first decided to try organizing a robotics club, I had cause to look at what already existed. We may not be the a fun and popular club, but compared to us the rest of Florida are gangs of rabble. The computer clubs are Facebook addicts, the social clubs are beneath dignity, and the sports clubs are synonymous with semi-literate beer drinking cliques. By comparison, we are an academic powerhouse. Look out world if we get anything off the ground since money is the only reason we have not yet.

ASIDE TO “ANONYMOUS” COMMENTERS:
           I read all comments but I am not organized to acknowledge or respond to anonymous e-mails. There is a possibility in the future I may accept advertising but there is no urgency over it, so please don’t offer unless you quote dollar amounts. Valid comments are kept on file but correspondence that contains even a single commercial link is deleted forthwith. As an exception to my rule of not publishing comments, I will quote below an item received y’day because it conveys the essence of 99.9% of what I find in my mailbox.

“You're so interesting! I don't believe I've truly read a single thing like this before. So great to find another person with unique thoughts on this topic. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This site is something that is required on the web, someone with a little originality!”

My determination is that this is a fake. My blog does not cover only a single topic, so the letter is generic. But I included it as an example because, like most authors, I vainly like to believe that at least some tiny part of my fan mail is genuine.


My Five Most Useful Degrees or Certificates
Associate, Military History
Bachelor of Education
Bachelor of Science, Computer Systems
Associate, Accounting
Masters, Business Administration

June 21, 2012

           Happy summer solstice. Did you know there are Chinese vampires? I discovered there is a production called “The Gods Must Be Crazy 3”. It’s a follow-on but employs the same bushmen in the unlikely plot of finding the corpse and thinking it is their ancestor. Oriental vampires are immobilized by sticking pieces of yellow paper on their foreheads and leading them around with a bell. They move by jumping. African vampires, well, that’s enough already.
           I doubt I would have made it through electronics school. If the material is taught half as crazily as the texts are written, I would have quit on my own. I know from reading a bit on engineering, the same nonsense exists there as well.
           I could say I read the text countless times, but my habit of writing the date in the margin means we can find the actual count. I’ve read the section shown 12 times over the past year and I’m not done yet. There are several ways to interpret that; let’s see who reaches the right one.
           How’s this hobby going? I don’t know; there is nothing to compare it to. We’ve built some sophisticated circuits yet can’t repair a radio. The fairest conclusion is don’t gauge it by the same standards as college. Right now, the infusion of a thousand dollars would make a huge difference. We need select integrated circuit chips by the hundreds and the largest breadboards made. I’ve had to use as many as nine breadboards on one circuit because I ran out of room. Progress in the past year is thus highly dependent on what is being evaluated.
           The day was completely taken up by a lengthy club meeting. Please don’t conclude we sit around a table in the boardroom discussing strategy. Ut-tut, we are always working on something while the discussion is happening. Here is a remote gate mechanism that quit working at the church. The sharper-eyed will quickly note the increasing appearance of club-standard equipment in these photos and the empirical way it gets used. If it’s on a test bench, it’s me; if it’s on the ground, it’s Agt. M. If it’s a picture of a puppy, you’ve reached Imgur by mistake.
           Independent study is kind of my department. Agt. M would rather tear things apart and put them back together. We have established roles, where he will present a circuit board, I will identify the functions of the pieces, and we communally diagnose the problem. It works quite well, especially when the club buys lunch. At the bakery.
           Sadly, the extent of the flood damage is great. More than I care to calculate at this point. All prototype boards are lost, along with most metal tools except the drill press, which was located up on a platform. Everything stored was a completed lesson or little used item, so it was more like losing some favorite toys than anything that could hurt us financially. To make up for it, when we went online for information, the best that came up was what I’d published myself and then forgotten. Complete with color diagrams.
           By late evening it cleared enough for me to head over to Karaoke. The place was deserted except for the few camp followers. I sang six songs but find I can’t really get into a tune with an empty house. Plus, there are never any single women at these shows. Afterward I stopped (on the way home) at Show-Offs to find much the same situation. And the new band has not called back this week, not a good sign. I hope they call, but I was not impressed by how they faked all my songs while I sat down and learned the list they gave me to perfection. That’s show biz.
           Canadians and stupid people will only keep their promises if it is easy to do so when the time rolls around. Never you mind what brought that on.

ADDENDUM
           I’m was cooped up half the day, resulting in much more book learning, planning, reading, and the usual stuff any enterprising person would do with an unexpected day off. It’s not that I don’t watch Tarzan reruns every summer, because if they were entertaining, I surely would. Besides, living with a budget is a dynamic thing, not a one-time sit-down. I keep an eye on most things, for example, this week I paid my first bank fee of the year.
           That’s a good item to example out. My bank fees in the past six years are:
           2006: $ 7.50
           2007: $71.50
           2008: $22.50
           2009: $ 0.00
           2010: $ 2.00
           2011: $8.00
           2012: $2.00

Reasoning says the total in six years of $113.50 is too much. Early records are not as complete for I often did not add explanations. In 2007, my illustrious ex-business partner sent me a check in foreign currency that cost me a lot to cash—and took sixteen weeks to get the money. I have no idea what he was thinking.
           Still, that’s $113.50 less enjoyment I got out of life because of the banking system’s mania of pecking away at smaller accounts they perceive as working class. My goal is zero fees, well within the capability of anyone who can plan a month ahead. Budget constraints began for me September 18, 2006.
           Now might be a chance to check inflation as it applies to me. The point where I began keeping track was January 1, 2011. Nothing spells inflation for me better than the rate at which I take money out of the bank. Those are my fixed expenses. Fixed is not to be confused unchanging. The blue line shows my expenses, the pink line is the rate at which those expenses change. There is no way to extrapolate dollars off this chart, though I’m sure somebody will try.
           This represents the data for the previous 17 months and the trend is apparent. See if you can spot in the chart these other events.
           A) Where point I began operating the scooter (pink)
           B) How scooter travel saves me money over staying in town (blue)
           C) Where inflation caught up with my lifestyle

           Inflation for fixed expenses hit me 14%. The primary cost increase has been the scooter. Unlike a lot of people my age, I know I can’t afford to operate a car. Who wants to know what the yellow line is? Easy, rent is still my biggest expense. The line is not my rent, but where I’d be, on average, if I didn’t have to pay it. The argument to buy could hardly be more earnest. Once I purchase, it will be decades before inflation will outpace me again. Others who don’t feel the need to plan will probably get what they deserve.


Five Musicians I Cover
Johnny Cash
Don Gibson
Don Wilson
Trish Yearwood
Nancy Sinatra

June 20, 2012

           The rain caused the cancellation of the club meeting today. Alas, we got us some water damage. We have not yet calculated the loss, but most of it was the prototyping boards and switches, priceless mementoes of our early days. That includes the careful and expensive hard-wired simulator of a micro chip motor controller. We believe the drill press is safe, but it too got soaked. Florida.
           This photo is a circuit using an op-amp (operational amplifier), a chip whose function causes the electronics community to begin talking gibberish. They can’t say how it works, so they go on about differentials and saturations. See the two little white potentiometers? When you twist them to the same value, the light comes on. Now was that so hard to say?
           Circuit-wise, I’ve gone about as far as I can without more equipment. I’ve built every example in the textbooks, often exceeding my ability to understand, measure, or control the results. I’ve apparently rigged up a “comparator” that works when two voltages are the same. No, that was not obvious, it is amazing the desperate lengths to which all known electronics authors have gone to avoid simply stating that. Thus, I’ve built and tested another gadget I don’t have the tools to operate or enough meters to measure.
           How’s all this study going, anyway? We could write a small book on integrated circuits by now. And such books desperately need to be written. Searching for plain English descriptions [of components] is like “trying to find the midget waiter in a flock of penguins”. By now, we’ve covered the entire scope of common ICs. We vastly overestimated what these could do. I’m reminded of the bushmen in “The Gods Must Be Crazy” who warned N!xau that the end of the Earth could be as far away as twenty days. ICs can add, divide, store, count, and compare. That’s about it. There are hundreds of boring slight variants but really not so many different types. A lot like South Beach, I’ve heard tell.
           My contention that anyone who passes the law exams should be allowed to practice receives another boost. But not one that makes me happy. California has given a license to an illegal immigrant. My contention is that bar associations stack the courtroom by blocking anyone who might buck the system. I say it should be the marketplace, not some rarified guild, that determines who gets the business.
           Like any private organization, they can restrict membership, I’m not disputing that. But if practicing law is contingent on membership, too many potential court-room fire-eaters are being excluded for the wrong reasons. It is undiluted fantasy to think a fair trial is possible when the judge and defense attorney play poker at the same country club. A defense attorney should have no personal qualms over pouncing on a judge who shows favoritism. Anybody who’s lost a “his-word-against-mine” to a court that prefers the cop’s version knows what I mean.
           Still, California’s granting a license to a person openly committing a felony is a step toward granting the same to a person who has merely been convicted of one.
           Don’t you love rainy days when I’ve obviously been reading the newspaper? How about that “top” story of the shootings outside a Houston strip club? Ermagard, let’s have a moment of silence for men and women at, in, or near strip clubs. They are people, too. In equally profound news, you know those 50 top-rated reviews I did for ePinions? In the last three years they’ve earned me a whopping $37.44. The quality of what you read on the Internet general reflects what they pay for.
           Not that you would, but if you read the want ads for writers, all they want is hacks. Sports, restaurants, ad copy. Not one intellectual or academic topic. Their idea of thought-provoking is a lone page of puzzles sandwiched in the comic section. Despite publishers losing ground to other formats, the editors continue to pump out the hum-drum to the faceless masses.

Five People I Would Have Liked To Meet
Margaret Thatcher
Wolfgang Mozart
Leonardo Da Vinci
John Lennon
Isaac Newton

June 19, 2012

           I’m afraid the new recording mixer, the Boss BR-600, is not adequate. At least it only cost me $100 to find out. The problems are many, none of which are spelled out in the manual. The first problem, of course, is setting start and stop points, which should be easy. It isn’t. The unit is useless for stage work. It has limited memory even with the most expensive memory cartridge. The worst feature is that each card will only hold one song. One lousy song. (I have not downloaded anything to the computer yet, but that is a different animal I was trying to avoid.)
           The unit is good for learning what to avoid. It will record two tracks at once, but only insofar as those tracks have the same line levels as a guitar and a microphone. All other tracks must be overdubbed one at a time, rendering it useless for live recording. I believe I mentioned each track lowers the remaining recording time by its full duration, for instance, three four-minute tracks take the full twelve minutes of memory.
           But learning is what I’m doing. It is plain these mini recorders aren’t for serious work. Let’s suppose you had the time and inclination to produce a hit on this toy. Your first priority would be to rush out and buy a real mixer. That’s a serious downvote for Boss, charging hundreds of dollars for these finicky gizmos. I’ve had fun with it, for example, I recorded a four track vocal of myself doing childhood rounds. Rounds are songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”, which I commented back in July, 2007 when I could not sing.
           The novelty is where each round should begin, I substitute another song. Now I know why I could not get others to try this. The rounds have different timings that only fit together if you can think like I do. I’m unlikely to post the results, but I have scrutinized the recording closely. I do need a studio microphone. And despite the different lyrics, the middle passage sounds like a chanted “uhmmmmm, uhmmmm”. Not unlike a chorus of chanting ancient monks. Kind of makes one think.
           Wow, I had no idea those red toy bricks were so popular; I sure sparked a lot of memories. Nope, I don’t know where you could get them, have you tried eBay? I recall they came in a cardboard tube with pictures of things that could not be built with the pieces inside. I built every thing in the booklet that could be built. Some schools had these bricks as teaching aids, but I cannot find even a photo of the type I knew.
           For the nostalgia buffs, here is a website where people advertise to buy older toys. It’s called Phil Lea’s and if you scroll far enough, you’ll find all kinds of 50s and 60s goodies. Toys back then were built to last. The red bricks I remember are not the “Halsam” brand with the round pins. Mine were square, and would make a popping noise if you pried them apart just right. The bricks were soft and you could bend them easily. They were scored on the outside to resemble real bricks.
           [Author’s note: My most ambitious venture was a model Swiss Chalet. You know how second story overhangs the ground floor? I accomplished that, but to give you an idea of the environment, when I went to get mother to show her my accomplishment, my sister quickly squatted and pissed on it. It turned the bricks a yellowish color. There was nothing unusual about this behavior in that household. Trust me, I know, some of you still think I’m making all this up.]
           Trivia. There was talk during WWII about how complicated and well-constructed German equipment was compared to the mass-produced equipment of the Allies. Yet today I watched a group of three men who, using old German blueprints and modern tools, cut and assemble a Horten (jet fighter) airframe in one day. That’s a seventh of the man-hours needed to product the average airplane on our side during the war. And they weren’t even sweating.
           Here is a still of a German bomber launching a cruise missile in combat back in 1944. More trivia. When London civilians were killed by the buzz bombs, the government had newspapers print obituaries as if the deaths were in the extreme northern outskirts. This convinced German intelligence that the bombs were over-flying downtown London. The Germans shortened the range and many V-1s fell into cow pastures near Croydon.
           There is a misconception that the V-1 had to be moving before the engine would ignite. Wrong, a pulse-jet will start standing still. The fallacy comes from the steam ramps used to launch the V-1. This was done to save fuel and to prevent a low-speed stalling problem. Also, the low thrust of the jet engine would have required a very long runway to take off under its own power.


Five Unusual Things I Own
Sewing Machine
Arduino Microcomputer
Chinese Scooter
One Million Toothpicks
Electric Bicycle

June 18, 2012

           Visible progress? The slow upgrade of the ebike continues. Can you spot the improvement this time? Say no. The clue is the air pump. If you peer close, you’ll see the new front rim and heavier duty tire. These replace the cheap original and the slightly fatter tire gives a better ride. The back is next, due for the largest tire that will fit in the space. But the electric drive means that is a major undertaking for later.
           Further, the new inner tube is an over-inflated Hutchinson racing model reinforced by the factory rubber which leaked slowly from day one. This double shield has always served better than either slime, which costs as much as a new tube, and so-called heavy duty tubes. However, boo to Hutchinson for packaging their special-use (racing) tubes in a misleading manner. Careful folks, don’t mistake Hutchinson “universal” tubes for regular universal tubes, like they hope you will.

           How is that ebike doing, anyway? It has certainly paid for itself a few times over but it isn’t perfect. I estimate 1,800 miles on it, nothing compared to the 7,000+ on the pedal-driven Jamus. As a matter of fact, the ebike has probably paid for itself alone in saved parking fees, wasted time and gas looking for parking, and repairs. True, I just sank $65 into a $400 bicycle, but that represents a material improvement. Besides, my system can easily absorb that level of expense, unlike a car that drains the bank account even when sitting parked.
           My next stop was Burger King for coffee and inflation weighs in at 31%. The dollar items on the value menu have leapt to $1.29. Before you say that is a different percentage, are you forgetting the higher base adds two more cents sales tax? The fries and the spicy chicken have quietly been dropped. For those on a coffee budget, that’s 7-3/4 fewer daily cups per month. That will give many time to sit at home and ponder how for years they ignored the warning signs and smugly bragged a mortgage was like a little piggy bank that only good people deserved.

           I’m reminded of my crazy landlady near Doral when I was recovering in 2004. She sat around in the dark burning candles and wouldn’t run the A/C on weekends. She talked incessantly how the only important thing was paying off her mortgage and how wonderful life would be after that. She had it all figured out. If I recall, that area was one of the hardest hit for price drops. Her plan was to remortgage the house and live good forever and ever. I hope she took out a mortgage because she was nasty and looked at everything the wearisome way you’d expect from the uneducated.
           Morgan Stanley says the shadow inventory of US homes (repossessed, foreclosed, reo, but not on the market for sale) is 8,000,000. The market value of all this property is $1,680,000,000,000 (1.68 trillion). Do the math. The average price of each house is still $210,000. There are not eight million jobs in the USA that pay enough to buy such expensive places. I say even if there were such jobs, people have lost confidence in homes as a store of value.

           If I had 200 large right now, I’d buy precious metal and wait. I’m waiting anyway. One of the neatest parts about investing is the waiting, because most people can’t. Like my family, they lack the concept of delayed reward and are thus speaking the truth when they make excuses for not putting money away. Hell, according to them, I “decided” not to finish school in my early twenties and take six years off and go work for a living “to see what it was like”. They’ll swear to that under oath.
           More revealing yet is the typewriter listed below as a favorite toy. All eight people in my family had access to that it. For all the squealing they did that we were "equal", I am the only one who ever learned to type. So, I won't mention the encyclopedias, the piano, or the other things that really make them look bad. Not a peep out of me.

           No replies on my ad for a shift-driver to Colorado, but I’ve got inquiries from others needing the same, If I get three total, I’ll suggest we rent a car one-way (around $90 per day) and drive non-stop. I can understand the aversions to the bus and what the authorities have done to air travel, but strange how many people want to go to Denver that need a ride.
           The list below contains an item that is no longer available, which is a pity. Those interlocking soft red plastic bricks from Playskool. The canister also contained plastic windows and doors and cardboard roofing, which I never used. Here’s a model hotel showing what could be done. I always liked these bricks better than the Lego junk, which is brittle and harder to work with if you ask me.

           I don’t like those figurines that Lego uses, the ones that all look like the Mario Bros. Plus, Lego has too many specialty kits that don’t require imagination. It took brains to visualize and build the model hotel, whereas Lego would just market a hotel kit, complete with a little doorman who needs the Atkins diet.
           Note that Lego paid the original red brick factory a fee which is rumored to have included the condition never to refer to the red bricks as “pre-Lego”. But that’s what they were. There was a slight flurry about choking danger which Lego was quick to point out did not apply to their larger product. The red bricks were discontinued in the late 70’s when the toy market changed to what toys will do rather than what the child does.


My Five Favorite Childhood Toys
Mecanno Set
Typewriter
Bicycle
Firecrackers
Red (toy) bricks

June 17, 2012

           Here’s Ray-B and I leaving the beach last week. I’m on to something because they (at the City) are trying to distract my question. I never asked for directions on how to apply for a permit, I want the law that says I have to have a permit in the first place. I’ve narrowed things down to the head of the “enforcement” department, who is saying I should check with other people. Nice try, buddy, but if other people need checking with, you can do it on your own time. He’s sweating, alright. Hollywood, where do you even find these people? The upcoming week should bring embarrassing developments.
           This morning’s paper contained an article about deployment of a new missile guided onto target by a camera. TV-guided missiles are old news but this one weighs six pounds. The idea is to take out a sniper without calling in a drone that flattens the whole building. Good news? Not when the terrorists capture one and realize that they can build one with off the shelf components. I know I could. Remember a year back when I speculated about a flying news camera into a burning building? Same concept. The military version is called Switchblade and is classified as an anti-loitering device.
           While the robot club has slowed to a crawl for lack of components, we have continued with the study of this type of device. One major justification for the added complexity of the feedback monitor on our master flowchart always was the wireless communication of the back to an observer. While we have not done so with hardware, the details of short-range radio (X-Bee, Bluetooth, RFID) are very much required reading.
           Trust me, if we got this far on a hobby basis and a $300 budget, it is only a matter of time until somebody starts flying these contraptions up the government’s nostrils. The target will be the administration since the whole world knows the government no longer represents the people, making them a separate entity that can be assailed if you have the right equipment. Watch for the proliferation of these tiny missiles, which by the way, are propeller driven. For all we know, the innards could be some rubber bands.
           I’m reminded of how, as a child, I pieced together a balsa frame plane from three kits and regularly flew this up to 360 feet as measured by a protractor. I climbed up on the roof and launched it upward with a large slingshot. More than once it flew high enough to disappear, not bad for an eleven year old. For those who absolutely must know, the Switchblade sells for $40,000 to $50,000 per missile. Yeah, I know, that’s pure “balsa” when we’ve got 30 million unemployed.
           There’s a Lexulous game in the background. I have a cautious but worthy opponent (Cathy C.) and we play about one round per day, a game taking up to one week. Her major defensive tactic is to play tight groupings. She produces some real surprises but generally she looks at every possible play and invariably chooses the move with the highest immediate score rather than what will produce overall victory. (That means she won our first game but nothing since.) She keeps me on my toes.
           The new band passed the milestone of a third practice. Idiosyncrasies and personalities are showing through, but nothing that’s a death knell for the project. I’ll quickly tally some of those items for those who’ve never been in a group. Each musician, particularly guitarists, fall into a habit of doing things a certain way. I do this when following unfamiliar music. These habits give the band the impression they are good at comping, an outdated term for faking along. Musicians who claim they can “play hundreds of tunes” are probably comping.
           In the new band, I already know the guitarist is inconsistent with his V-IV turnarounds, one of the most difficult situations for a bassist since there are no common scale tones. One the other hand, I can be impossible for certain guitarists to follow, as I never pump out root notes and don’t like bassists who try to fake it that way. I’m amazed by how many “pro” guitarists will change to a IV because they see me hit a third.
           As a soloist, I play entire gigs without ever repeating the same bass pattern in any two songs. This makes me practically impossible to follow unless you really know the music. I expect tune familiarity in a band when we agree to learn each other’s tunes. Nor do I like bands that change too many parts of a song. Customizing over-much disappoints the audience. And then you can’t play the music with any other band.

Five Women I’m Still In Love With
Judith M.
Elizabeth F.
Julia K
Sandra M.
Elizabeth B.