One year ago today: October 26, 2014, welders & festivals.
Five years ago today: October 26, 2010, the silver nugget.
Six years ago today: October 26, 2009, guitar class.
MORNING
I reviewed the laser cutter, “Glowforge” and have the same conclusion as a 3D printer. Don’t buy one unless you are a pro design artist. All the work is setting up the print template. The cutter can basically make an object from an ordinary scan, but that’s not exactly striking out on your own. At $2,000 a piece, I’d insist on seeing one in action first. There is no such thing to be seen in this area. As usual, the demos show only the easy parts, the model taking the perfect finished product out in her pristine studio, and labeling it for sale for $39.95. For a book cover.
So many of you are thinking, “Whatever happened to the LED digital counting display?” It’s still counting, that’s what. Yes it worked, a successful experiment with three digits that counts without the employment of shift registers or any “chips”. Wasn’t I supposed to write it up for the science magazines? Yes, but I’ve decided to take it to the next level first, the maximum number of positions possible from an Arduino Uno output pin count, or I run out of LEDs.
That’s like an 18 digit number or something. There is another technical matter. The LEDs are classic 7-digit displays, and when run off the tiny milliwatt supply pins of the Arduino, digits with fewer segments light up brighter than those with more. A “ones” digit is brightest, and “eight” is dimmest. The internal structure is series. The way around that is relays and I’m contemplating that. The clicking of the relays may even add to the “clock ticking” effect.
While this is happening, I’m watching episodes of “Dune”. I’ve never seen the movie or the television versions. That’s easily explainable, it came out the same time as all the dragons and dungeons rage, neither of which I was ever into. I regard it as a childish fantasy that society kind of says is okay for grown men. It annoys me that so much science fiction is based on glorification of those medieval practices, with hero peasants instead of knights. Always a hero peasant who gets the princess, who is basically quite a useless twit.
But what really bugs me is I have lost three important small pieces of equipment I require to build a NiCad battery discharger. These are the minimum design of rechargeables for robotic work, but they must be completely discharged before they are recharged, and should be regularly put through that cycle whether used or not. And I’ve lost the pieces, which were far more rugged than just using an old incandescent flashlight. Don’t you hate it when that happens?
And just when you think hipsters can’t get any more idiotic, along comes eHow and their instructions on how to recharge NiCads. Three steps. Place batteries in charger. Wait. Remove batteries. Top rated source, 62,000 hits. Sixty-two thousand, my friends, there are that many people who gained something by those instructions. That’s really scary, but scary like that Millennial who keeps posting videos of Trumps “YUGE” rallies.
But still not as scary as Trump must be making the other candy-ass opponents of both parties. Trump said “shithouse” in Jacksonville and got cheered. He wants to return Bergdahl to his buddies in the middle east. This “insanity” plea has gone too far. The lady who plowed her car into a parade is claiming a mental problem. Listen, if she knew she had the problem and still drove a car, that’s guilty. Like those bipolar people who love to go the airports first, then freak out. After the fifth time or so, you just don’t buy it anymore.
NOON
Here’s is some of the neatest woodworking projects I’ve seen yet. It’s a video, but here is the one thing in it that I could probably build. These neat zig-zag shelves.
Or I could take the batbike to the bookstore. They have rotten coffee but it is a much nicer neighborhood. You know, where only nice people can afford to live. Nice as in nobody steals your bicycle. Nice as in quiet most of the time. Nice as in good-looking daughters who aren’t total you-know-whats. And they buy enough books to keep a store alive.
I’m having hoops connecting with a lady who plays acoustic because she insists on Facebook rather than give me real e-mail addy. I’d slam the door on her but I think it might be a blond chick I jammed with at a festival five or six years ago. I’m skeptical about chicks that only sound good when they have a full band backing them up, that might be her. When you form a duo, they always want to keep adding members. I told her I’d come hear her next gig, probably in November. But without an e-mail, we can’t even exchange music files.
If she wants to find me, you know what I should tell her? Walk into every library, or pub, or coffeeshop in South Broward and announce you are looking for the smartest person in the room. When you find a room where everybody instantly points to only one person, come over and say hello. But the majority of mature Americans don’t do Facebook.
NIGHT
To show I’m not totally inept at carpentry, take a look at this. Know what it is? A block of wood, but with a little extra. Remember the Forstner bits I bought up at Harbor Frieght? Inside this solid piece of wood, in a hollowed out space lined with foam so nothing jiggles, is a motion detector. Like the kind you put on glass or anything that might get a jolt. It sets off the alarm, and being a solid piece of wood, there is no way to turn it off. Ha!
They are not a high-speed drill, nor are they good for deep cuts. They will overheat. Next, I want to look at dowel pegs. Because I’ve never done anything like that before. I’ll bet those zig-zag shelves have dowels or something in at the joints. That’s another thing I’ve never really done, though it likely requires only ordinary drill bits. But I like saying “Forstner”. Like a Brit with a lisp.
Here’s trivia. The original tanks used in WWI were slow because they didn’t need to be fast. They were developed by the navy to be used as a barbed wire clearing device. The tank dragged an anchor behind it. First, the weight of the tracks would squash the wire flat. Then two tanks would drive through, snagging the barbed wire. When through the belt, one tank would turn left, the other turn right and between them pull open a path for the infantry to pour through. I didn’t know that.
And I’ll say it again since some people are really thick-headed. Cloud computing, my eye. Only a moron keeps his business or personal files on any type of network, much less a computer owned by somebody else. They haven’t heard of the “Darwin Awards”.
Last Laugh
(Scarred for life.)
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