December 31, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 31, 2014, the new Tascam recorder.
Two years ago today: December 31, 2013, okay, one Elvis tune.
Three years ago today: December 31, 2012, an evening with Estelle.
Four years ago today: December 31, 2011, cancel King Mango.
Five years ago today: December 31, 2010, where’s my Arduino!
Six years ago today: December 31, 2009, on respect for law . . .
Seven years ago today: December 31, 2008, excerpts from 1780 A.D.
(and “not of the dress”.)
Eight years ago today: December 31, 2007, on Ellie-Mae Clampett.
Nine years ago today: December 31, 2006, one song, one lousy song.
Twelve years ago today: December 31, 2003, last chance, BB King.

MORNING
           I’m having a late breakfast of grits and cornbread, but that’s the point. I should be having biscuits and gravy at Glady’s up in Okeechobee. At launch minus 15 this morning, the long-planned New Year’s Eve party and trip to the interior was canceled. JZ will not leave town unless he has his own money, which is probably a good idea most of the time. The sad part is I did not have a backup plan, the camper still needs the rear hatch installed before I can travel.

           This gave me time to read “Fiddle Fever”, the tale of a Cajun kid who built his own violin by carving pieces like the pictures he saw in the Sears catalog. Although we were not Cajuns, I completely identified with what the kid had to go through. Otherwise, I would have tossed the book because it was so obviously written by an adult trying to sound like a kid.

           Don’t confuse this style with books that are written specifically with children as the target audience. I’m referring to regular books authored by adults about usually their own childhood experiences but who have developed misplaced idyllic notions about how children look at things or how children think. I got news for such authors. Children swear, they are expert blackmailers, they know more than you do about sex, they steal and lie, and they know when you tell them something isn’t good for them, you are lying because you’re too cheap to spend the money. And they certainly know you just don’t want them to ever have any fun.
           And last, there is nothing romantic, charming, or uplifting about poverty. It teaches nothing, it does not inspire its victims to greatness in any meaningful numbers, there are no life lessons to found in it. People who glorify poverty are truly disgusting oafs or Libtards who studied poverty at Yale. Poverty can be a great motivator, at least if the size of our prison population is any indication.
           Of course, the book has the predictable happy ending. It’s a bit too homespun for me but I can confirm what it says at the end, that the only two occupations where everybody has to pay their full dues are music and farming. Absolutely true. But you won’t find me behind the plow.

NOON
           The upset schedule (referring to the canceled trip) will never be enough to catch me with nothing to do. I got me some extra coffee time and plenty of thinking about my “steam engine” contraption. It was a full day, I visited the bakery, where I got caught unable to remember the name of the baker’s little girl born just a year ago. But my explanation was well-received. I thought her name was “Yo-yo” because every body that sees her says that. Apparently it means something like “how are you” or “pretty baby”. So to me, she is Yo-yo or “Hoit-voit”. I have no idea what that means.

           The “steam engine” is not driven by steam, it would melt. Rather, it is more of a project to, I suppose, demonstrate that even if I never build a useful robot (due to the $20,000 cost), there has been reasonable progress toward the ability to produce small working parts, albeit of dreadful inefficiency. I happy, a year ago I would not have attempted this.
           As usual, each seemingly complicated step, like the value parts shown here, gets quickly accumulated into the pool of “ten year’s experience in six weeks”. Makes me wonder where this one will lead—and they always lead somewhere even when they don’t work, guys. I’m compiling a short video of the process, hoping I can hack this blog’s restrictions on video posts.

           Dee-Dee was in (the bakery), talkative but has evolved into not my type. So I helped her replace the license plate on her car, see what a swell guy I can be? Then, over to Barnet’s, the hardware store of millionaires. I’m okay, I have a few hundred unspent dollar thanks to JZ, but don’t you dare tell him I said so. I had a grand afternoon playing the old mad-scientist inventor, mostly seen only in comic books. I had around 35 comic books when I was a kid and read them each once a week. My prized collection because nobody else in my family read anything.
           Boy, after comic books, could I read after that, top in my class in every category except PhysEd. Remember, back then they only called it PhysEd. Today they have rules against bullies. So much for the crowd who say comics are bad for kids. People whose thinking is that messed up should go write fiddle books. Besides, the world needs somebody to give mad scientists a fair shake in the press. Pick me. And note the extreme clarity of the new camera pictures, by comparison. Nikon camera, Kodak lens.

EVENING
           Trent called to meet up at the old club, which we wound up over-staying. Sometimes you just need a honky-tonk where the primary entertainment is old bar-flies, neighborhood yahoos, and other people’s rotten taste in jukebox music. We still have a master plan to hit the coffeehouses. You only need three, well four, tunes for a joint like that. In case you get an encore. Plus, he’s met that lady who does the natural harmonies. Say, he showed me her picture and she is, what’s the word, “elegant”?
           There is a note on this day four years ago that I met a guitar player who was a professional. Is that Trent? He’s the pro, but I mean was it really four years ago? I know it’s been a long time, that’s for sure.
           As for New Year’s, meh. We called it an early night, though where I live the fireworks will notify me when the hour arrives. I thought about testing the new videocam’s “fireworks” setting, but other than chasing women, I’ve never really gone all out for New Year’s. The few times I invested in a pre-paid party (usually a fancy club or lounge), I found it boring and I over-indulged. Plus, you really did have to bring your own entertainment.
And November was the longest month. It just went on forever by my standards. I wonder if this is one of the stages of learning retirement. I can tell you, nothing except doing it will ever prepare anyone for retirement. Well, except the idle rich, who are essentially born retired. That 1% whose concerns are nothing like yours or mine, who live their lives in one long inept party and fancy clothes "all of which was theirs without thought nor effort".

           As for a review of 2015, that won’t take long. I found it to be the longest year of my life. I’ve said it before, but those who say life flies swiftly by are doing something wrong. I see it only in the pace at which other people’s children grow up, which essentially is twelve years, from the time they quit being babies to the time they inform you it isn’t their fault they were born. Twelve short years, twice as long ago as I learned to sing.

ADDENDUM
           Personally, I think Trent should take that fancy job up north. I know little of Washington, DC, but I know a lot of the lifestyle there since the wars has been “partying the world away”. I see it very much like playing in a band, where the idea is surround oneself with others who are witty, socially adept, and well-dressed. It’s all clothes, glitter, and social success. When Trump says the country is run by stupid people, he simply must be referring to that crowd, who spend their time handing each other awards and government job titles. They are the ruination of America and Trent would slice through them.

           Then he’s have time to play in the band, har-dee-har. Well, didn’t Clinton do the saxophone thing? Of course I’m kidding. If he goes to DC, he’ll remember this town about as much as I will when I get to Winter Haven or Arcadia. “That place down south.” What would I remember most about Miami? That would be the train museum. Beside the zoo, you remember, where you now pay extra to see the Ferdinand Magellan.
           That’s the presidential sleeping car. Steel-plated, with a bomb-proof floor, and submarine escape hatches. What a laughing stock I consider it when an elected leader has to ride in a mobile jail. The matching baggage car carries his motor cars for parades, so I find it appropriate that car was originally used by the circus to transport the monkeys. The picture is inside the restored rail car, I’ve been in this room as shown.


Last Laugh
( . . . and don’t slam the door . . .)


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December 30, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 30, 2014, “NO” means normally open. . .
Five years ago today: December 30, 2010, breakfast special, my eye.
Nine years ago today: December 30, 2006, dodo-brained geeks.
Random years ago today: December 30, 2012, electronics, tea, casinos.

MORNING
           Another amusing thought, if the rest of the world would quit trying to behave, there would not be a shortage of anything. There is no mandate that everybody in the whole world has to drive a car and have a cell phone. Remember, these “ancient” cultures consider themselves to be vastly superior to Americans, To this day, the Japanese still consider America to be the land of jazz music, booze, and prostitutes. The Chinese know that definition is mostly New Orleans and metropolitan area, New York (both city and state) and vast tracts of western desert.

           This is what I call a sleeve valve, because I have no idea what a sleeve valve is, but I like the way it sounds. And this is, connotatively, what I imagine it would be. With the drill press in the background, you can see there are three holes in the pipe, but one of them is blocked off. That’s because I have pulled the “piston” with my left hand out far enough to block one hole. If I pulled it to the right, a different set of holes would be opened. Man, you have no idea how difficult it was for me to figure this out.

           Next, up to Homeless Depot to find some fittings. I should know they don’t stock fittings and I will have to go up to MacDonalds in Ft. Lauderdale. But I did find this ½” inside diameter pipe, it is called CPVC. I figure the fittings I need are those plastic things used for aquarium hoses. On my way out I saw a scary display. The Depot is now selling 3D printers. They offer Makerbot, one of more reputable brands, but I have to repeat my warnings over this product: 3D printers are an immensely long way from becoming a household product.
           This is a bit of a cluttered photo, but there’s the display showing two printers and an acrylic case of samples. Be further informed the product is brittle plastic, similar to “Lego” material. There are other plastics, but you don’t want to pay for them. The printer is best suited for prototype objects and face it, how many people do any of us know that are inventors or developers?

           In more detail, I refer to the lengthy printout times and the lack of any easy method to design what you need. And you don’t need a thousand dollar rig to print up a plastic version of a 30-cent bolt. While there is a growing pool of free downloadable patterns, it will never be quite what you need. Maybe a few, but not many people need another lecture on things that start out free. Let’s talk consumables.
           You need to buy spools of plastic. Right now, those who buy the printer are paying a premium price because you are helping pay back the loans that built the printer factory. Once the market gets the printers down in price, you can bet your ascii that some outfit is already planning on pulling a Hewlett-Packard. That would make the price of the filament go from $40 spool to $420 per spool. Then move the factory to Ireland to escape any class actions.

NOON
           Returning from the lumber place with my cash still in pocket, I went into the Goodwill. Look what I scored for $8. Nearly brand new, real leather, real brass fittings. They sell for about $45 on eBay for the chintzy knock-off models, so make that over $55 by the time you are done with the eBay bullshit. Now I got my executive “tatchie-case” so will the competition take two giant steps back.

           I’ve got a topic that relates to this evening and the Z-A Theory that Okeechobee is a meteor lake, or at least of extraterrestrial origin. Trent brought up a photo that I think leaves no doubt that something of that class is responsible not only for that lake, but hundreds of lakes in the immediate area, and uncounted lakes splattered toward the northwest. I have not time to calculate the splatter (coriolis) effect on the overall pattern of those depressions.
           Trent introduced the concept that the meteor strike may have occurred at a period when the terrain was underwater. That contributes (does it not) to the “skipping-stone” effect, even though an important component of that is still imagination. Yet, would that not help explain the lack of debris and the shallowness of the lakes? We discussed the real absence of ordinary lake-formation geography in the area. No rifts, no faults, no natural drainage pattern or real reason for why we got what we got.
           He also found a snap on the Internet that makes the meteor pattern incredibly obvious, but I somehow didn't ask for it. I'll see if he can find it again. If so, you'll see the picture here.

EVENING
           Trent called from the airport, we met up at the club. What happened was Trent got off the afternoon flight just up the road and we decided to slum it. That was a total hoot. Let me count, yep, four women came onto us, one of which had to be thrown out of the joint for being overly-boisterous. Can't do that while there were gentlemen present. Um, Ken, that would be Trent & I. You, on the other hand, would have followed that one out the door and come back in three minutes forty dollars poorer.
           Now last day you remember the report on the “guilele” and this is something new. Trent brought it into the club, and in fact it was so new nobody knew how to play it. He brought up a chord conversion chart and I was so tempted to say, “see, if everybody had listened to me about the I-IV-V rule, we’d be slamming this joint by now”. With remarkable self-control, I remained silent, ahem. More women came on to us tonight than many a man experiences in a lifetime. Four, that’s how many. What? Some guy says what? He’s plainly lying. Again. I got brothers like that.

           Trent has an opportunity to relocate up north, and a grand position to advance himself. Ha, I got a semi-promise to meet one of my heroes, Ann Coulter, if that happens. No, not her political stance, but her clear thinking and her behavior when slimy commentators tried to (what’s the term for trying to twist questions or answers to botherate a person). I like the way Ann keeps them in No names, like Oprah, mentioned.
           Now while this is going on, I remain used to the ebb and flow of the club. I like veterans who were not wounded. And musicians who did not sell their banjo for $300 back in the 90s. I may have been more focused on my “sleeve valve” project that I should have been. But there were also fewer total babes in the room than to my liking. For instance, the one who came over that was decidedly more integrated than you’d expect to be advertising her wares in such a redneck bar. Then again, I tend to have more experience rejecting women than your average guy. I you ever have time, ask me about this.

           I opted out on that lady, as I often do, and began to examine the valve system. This is why I carry my notebook on outings, I always have work to do when there is no work to do. More that one lady can tell you that. It took a while but I finally spotted that two drill holes in the reciprocating mechanism will do the job of three. I subscribe to “simpler is better” and am getting okay with designing every linkage to be adjustable a little bit rather than one big adjusting screw with 53 settings, the way Sony would do it.

ADDENDUM
           Another tale from the trailer court. You been good. Actually, that title isn’t just random. I doubt I ever explained where it came about, since it is probably not what most people assume. Yes, I do live in a trailer court, but it was meant to be temporary while I scooped up enough cash to buy a house. I did not know it would turn out to be so comfy I’d stay in one for what, nine years now? It’s the “tales” part I’ll cover today.
           I thought what a coup it would be, if while living in a “trailer”, I discovered or invented something that pulled me in a cool million. In the end, I got about 10% of that combined, but the idea was to record the process. Experience tells us most people are all talk. Sooner or later, everyone gets fed up with such people, which explains why Trump is so far ahead of politicians. As time went by, people were not bothering to vote because there was nobody to vote for.
           Same with inventiveness. I often hear people with big ideas that go nowhere, just like politics. The premise of the blog title was to record those ideas when they came along, but to contrast them with the tiny fraction of projects I actually manage to undertake. And that segment of my life has, as you’ve seen, grown both absolutely and relatively since I retired.
           The tale today was a guy who wants to invent gloves with reinforced fingertips. But he has a brilliant idea to do it a certain way and I’m not telling that part. It would be complicated and no, there is nothing like it on the market. But I could use a pair many a time. As usual, the odds of that idea getting anywhere are practically zilch. You might as well bet the money on a 3D printer or something.

           You know what surprised me? Hearing the mainstream media admit over the past few days that Trump “just might” win because people that have not voted for decades realize he is the last chance for America. They weren't voting, that is, because there was nobody to vote for and they didn't want their hands dirty voting for yet another establishment crook. Another four years of the establishment, says Trump, and America is finished. How about that crazy broad that wrote into the Herald this morning, that if Trump gets in, democracy as we know it will be finished?
           I thought that one through because, if you put the emphasis on the correct clause of that sentence, she may unwittingly be absolutely correct. Democracy, “as we know it” has not existed in this country since the day the first dollar of income tax was collected.

Last Laugh

December 29, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 29, 2014, my dream machine.
Five years ago today: December 29, 2010, hotels, legalized Mafia!
Nine years ago today: December 29, 2006, signed, “Donald Duck”.
Random years ago today: December 29, 2013, US financial colonies.

MORNING
           I have another theory. No matter how rich or how poor a man might be, you can judge the quality of his retirement by the number of spring clamps that he owns. Before retirement, you have as many as you can afford. Ah, but after retirement, the game changes, see? You’ll need all sizes, from small clothespins to the hand-held models. I’d say the average requirement for a happy camper would be around 72 clamps total. That’s just the hand-held, I’m not even talking C-clamps or pipe clamps.

           Also, you can ask does he have a wagon? Ask that, because as of this morning, I do! No, not one of those plastic “Flyer”, I tried that. Get a real wagon with pneumatic tires. These puppies retail for up to $160. Watch me go shopping for used books now. Rated at 400 pounds load, this wagon will haul the club welder and accessories without having to go get the car. Yes, the club has a car, but you gotta put ten bucks of gas in each time you use it.
           So I got the wagon for $40 but add the $10 for gas. You get the idea, nothing is free in Florida. And if by chance you find something you think is free, step over it and keep on truckin’. I made a short video of the wagon already, but more to test the parameters of the modified Nikon-Samsung-Panasonic recorder. Which I also got to take stills, a feature I thought was broken, but started working again on its own. The pictures you see today are really a test of the camera system, which should be an improvement in clarity but not so much in content. Trust me, it is very hard to take interesting pictures day after day.

           These tests increased my dislike of Windows and Android. These are no longer operating systems designed to do a job, they are strictly optimized for idle entertainment. If I try to erase a flash drive or SD card on Windows 8.1, it can take several minutes for it to even read and inventory the card. Often I get fed up and walk over to my old XP machine and perform the task instantly. I was testing a variety of microphones to record better sound than the Nikon, which only seems to work well in a quiet, interior setting.
           Wait, there is more bad news. Further testing has directed my attention to more damage caused by the solar panels. I stress at this point that the panels were installed exactly to spec, not one step of the process was taken without complete understanding of the functions and pitfalls. Yet, I now have three expensive lead acid batteries, a 225 watt DC/AC converter, an electric blanket, and a set of bad side marker lights that have one thing in common. They were all powered by or connected to a charge controller driven by solar panels.
           If this is the case, that was a $500 mistake. There’s little else I can test other than destroying good equipment or dismantling unfamiliar electronic components. It may yet turn to be a simple problem, or a defect in one of the panels, so all is not lost. As usual, stick around and eventually, we’ll get to it.

NOON
           Here’s a picture by request—though I do not encourage requests because they funnel a blog to what others think should be written. Hey, my life is just about as boring as I ever intend to let it get, and this blog was meant to reflect that. But I will answer why I rebuilt the camera housing. Why did I bother to build a case for the old Nikon when you can see the old case when you peek through the covering. Because, I explain, I salvaged those parts of the covering because they contained the button covers. This picture is what you get without the new (wooden) shell.

           And I might add the video quality is reasonable but I’m old school where any video is better than no video. Due to the bad equipment just mentioned, I won’t have any power for the camera for a while, since the supply I rigged up works off 110V. It’s strange how the world of electronics, instead of improving, has degenerated into this quagmire of incompatible standards.
           I’ll add the same for testing the audio. From this morning, I found I have at least four types of jacks and my best gear will connect to a PA system, but not any recording devices or my computer. It is becoming evident that I am going to need a powered mixer that has true multi-channel capability. These Tascam style single-track-at-a-time toys do not cut it. Tascam should be shortened to just “scam” because you cannot really produce anything worthwhile on these recorders unless you spend an inordinate amount of time learning and tweaking the settings.

           By luck, I found that old “Gigware” microphone seems to work with my Olympus recorder. I’ve had difficulty aligning audio and video tracks with my Movie Maker software, but I can produce reasonable results much faster than even a few years ago. It is important, I feel, to learn how these things work to avoid the slick but completely standardized type of videos generally produced by Apple or other brand name movie editing software.
           If it sounds like I’m off on a techie tangent, sorry, that is not what’s going on. Instead, I am hacking some of my older gear to produce better results with equipment that I already own. For instance, look at the clarity of this shot of one of the pair of shoes I bought at the shop so recommended by Theresa. The “leather” finish is flaking off after one wearing. But what I’m after is the clarity of the pictures at a closer distance from the camera lens that I could before. It’s a dumb and unconnected picture, but it shows I can get them much clearer now.

NIGHT
           I’m going to attempt a project in the New Year. Entertainment, which for me means something different than routine for most people, has become expensive. That’s my point, without my house gig, I go out a few times a week and spend money. I didn’t do that before and there was no real budget for it. I just never thought I’d go so long (over a year now) without some type of gig income. Hence, for me “entertainment” is an expense category on my budget card.
           I’m going to try to log what I spend on entertainment for an entire year, 2016. This is often talked about but the only places I’ve actually seen it done was for business expense accounts. And I don’t trust those for two reasons. People fudge the amounts whenever they get employer reimbursement. And they will over-spend even if the result is only a tax deduction. I seek to find out, within reason, what I spend and how I spend it. This should be interesting, because if I buy a house as planned, that upsets my biggest expense category.
           The last thing I need is to find out I should be living in Belize or something to stretch the budget dollar. I’ll need some type of handy recording method while I go out. And I’m not used to that. I usually have a scribbler, but no way am I co-mingling accounting data with my “brain notes”.

ADDENDUM
           Trent writes from Texas confirming the severity of the storms. Bad luck, pal, that was the entire time he went visiting this season. The news is he writes about getting himself a “guilele”, and it is about what it sounds. A cross between a guitar and a ukulele. I tried to search some demos but kept getting some finger-pickers showing off flamenco riffs. Naturally, I want to know what the thing sounds like when it is strummed. I gather it is tuned an octave higher, similar to my small practice guitar.

           I read up on this implement to discover it uses a special set of strings. The tuning is indeed different, so one would have to learn a completely new set of “farmer chord” patterns. I also question how useful it is for strumming because again, you have six strings and a maximum of four fingers.

           For reading this far, I’ll give you another tale from the trailer court. I met the lady whose father got shafted on a patent design. Like myself, he had signed an employment agreement that anything he invented while on the job was company property. This is a very strong reason why I did not let the company know where or what it was with me when I was not on the job. Anyway, these contracts can be vicious. I know that to this day the phone company uses forms I designed and systems I created that were never meant to be covered by that contract.
           I felt that way particularly about computers, since as I’ve mentioned, in 1981 I was the only person in the entire company (14,000 employees) who had ever touched a computer—ergo, how could I have knowlingly signed away my rights to anything I invented? I know what some will think, but computers were never part of the deal if only because they had not enough knowledge to ask.
           Anyway, she says to his dying day, he was bitter as hell about that invention. What was it? The Pringle's can. Not the chips, the round container. I'll ask her for more information, she's a little hottie.

Last Laugh

December 28, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 28, 2014, my fashion statement.
Five years ago today: December 28, 2010, vacuuming up fish.
Nine years ago today: December 28, 2006, pushy sales types.
Random years ago today: December 28, 2003, free corkage, wow.

MORNING
           Ha, did I score a bicycle this morning. My gripe with my old unit, before it was stolen, was the inherent weakness of the frame. It was an ordinary cheap bike with an electric motor. Take a look at this puppy. It’s a custom designed frame missing a couple parts. One is the battery, I’ll get to that. Two, it is missing the pedal assist cable. Three, it needs a new controller. The expensive part is the battery.

           This is an expensive bike and somebody stole the battery. It was in a locking bracket, so they stole the whole bracket. This bike sat in the garage after that for a year, until they donated it to the club on Xmas morning. And, quick show of hands, who in the club has the cash to replace that battery? I test drove it in regular mode this morning and it will be a relatively cheap replacement for my old unit. The bike retails for something like $1,000.
           That calls for a breakfast meeting later, during which time we went over the outstanding club projects. Two things stand apart. First, the majority of what we do has nothing to do with robots. Second, like it or not, we have two departments. The light duty work here and the heavier work over at the clubhouse.
           This bicycle is not a runner yet, but if all goes to spec, I’ll have one excellent eBike at around 30% of the cost of new. One telltale mark of quality is that heavy duty front pipe up to the handlebars. This step-through design is not “for old people”, but a normal result of the battery case being mounted over the rear tire. This makes it difficult for all riders to swing a leg over the top as on a regular bicycle. If you have a cargo basket on top of the battery, that probably can’t be done anyway.

           Now when I say light work, I am not referring to fine cabinetry word. I am a prototyper, not a finishing carpenter. Here’s the example of the new wooden case for the Nikon camera, a video gadget that normally would be thrown out as not worth repairing. This is the sort of project that regularly does not get reported here because it isn’t robotics, instead it is gronk ordinary. But isn’t that how things get discovered? Tell you what, let’s go over this otherwise drab project.
           You’ll see two types of wood on the casing. The front, sides and bottom are ¼” plywood, clamped and glued. The back and top are article board, somewhat flexible, as the buttons are now all recessed. Not that you’ll be impressed, but notice how clear the photo is, because it is the result of one tripod taking a picture of another.
           You can see the steel tripod, now forming the mount for this camera. One side effect is that people do not mind this wooden camera anywhere near as much as a plastic unit pointed in their direction. I intend to mount a lens hood on it for that specific reason. Then label it “infrared camera” or something scientific-sounding.

Note the permanent power cable dangling to the left. That goes to a small box of defunct motorcycle batteries. These hold enough power to operated my old 110VAC converter, which then goes through a transformer back to 3 VDC. Inefficient as hell, but the price is right. This makes the unit as transportable as many low-end television rigs.
When complete, this rig will be carried like a fishing pole, with the power supply and recording equipment in a small suitcase. This is not a handycam, this is modified to be a barely adequate replacement for a ton of more expensive gear.
The smaller holes in the camera casing are for the flash, the rangefinder, and the microphone. This camera does not have a microphone jack. I’m rigging up two test recording devices. One, the wireless lapel mic. Two, the lapel mic directly into the Olympus digital recorder. Both have quality issues, but both produce a more consistent volume than possible from the built-in microphone, although indoors I find that microphone to be of exceptional quality.


NOON
           Here’s one of those, I dunno, call it a mini-Segway. It certainly lacks the intimidation factor of one of the big units coming your way. It seems to be very accurate to control. I had been looking at reports on the “OneWheel” after seeing advertising of the thing going cross-country. This would not be possible with the tiny wheels shown here. Also, they appeared to be of fairly rigid material. That makes it useless off the pavement. Mind you, the kid says the range is several miles. I’d confirm that before buying.

           Another ho-hum project would be the repair of the sticking key on the Yamaha keyboard. No way could I find the problem with a probe, so I dismantled it. Come on, guess what I found? Wedged into the hollow behind the key—and it was middle C, wouldn’t you know—was, tell you what, Try to guess again. Long ago, I had been using a tiny drill bit half-way across the room. The chuck was not tight enough and that eentsy bit flew off the drill and disappeared. Until now. A drill bit, folks, a friggen drill bit!

           The next thing that interested me was steam engine valves. That’s correct, and here is a site with some interesting animations. I did not know the original Newcomen engine had manually operated valves. That’s correct, the operator, no doubt one of the original drop-outs, stood by and flipped the valves at the far end of each stroke. The slow movement and low pressure made the job safe. They say.
           What got me interested in the valve system was reading about flywheels and then remembering my toy steam engine. I didn’t know then, but the system on that toy was a “wobbler”, a type of single throw piston that was brought back to position by the momentum of a flywheel. What I did not know is there was no “compression” stroke. The steam was already compressed and it was a valve that allowed the pressure into the cylinder at the “top” of the piston travel.
This got me thinking it is possible to make such a valve using flat sliding wooden plates. Or, more accurately, using the one technology that I have any experience at when it comes to building anything of the sort.

AFTERNOON & EVENING
           Here is a shelf of light bulbs up at Home Depot. These are not the “new” style of bulbs that remain frightfully expensive and falsely claim to last 28 years. I’ve had two that lasted less than one year. Where, I ask, is the law when people go around saying a $9 light bulb is “saving you money”. The thing to notice about this rack of ordinary filament bulbs is something that Home Depot somehow manages to not notice.

           In each display, all of the 60 watt bulbs are gone. Sold out. Yet the 40s and 75s on either side are barely touched. What part of “duh” is Home Depot not getting? This happens up there time after time, which tells us the people who make decisions over at that outfit are not quite as bright as the missing 60 watt bulbs. Further, these bulbs are placed inconveniently down at floor level while the shoulder-height ledges were packed with the “new” ecology bulbs, in your face. Your bulb is “obsolete”.

           Help me create a term or find out if the term already exists and I don’t know. I conclude the marketplace is overdue for a replacement term for “planned obsolescence”. That term is misunderstood to imply a product breaking or becoming unserviceable shortly after the manufacturer’s deadline for return. Wrong, it is merely the way a product becomes “outdated” in the eyes of the consumer. Like last year’s car. It is probably in fine condition, but it looks and acts out of date.
           The term I seek applies to a more sinister situation. I’m talking about the situation where you must go along with something you know to be wrong (the “new” mercury bulbs are poisonous) just to get your job done. I seek a term or phrase that describes how manufacturers deliberately put junk on the market, calculating that mass sales will cause something shoddy and overpriced to become the standard. The goal is to rope you into purchasing more of their bad product just to keep yourself afloat.
           It isn’t the same as lock-ins or predatory pricing, which are already illegal. It is more of an indirect but still methodical coercion on the consumer to buy something he would likely not otherwise. That is, to use obsolescence like a vulture. Prime example is Hewlett-Packard ink jets, where price-gouging is the rule (see addendum). It is their greedy policy of making ink cartridges that will not fit different models of their own printers—even though they contain the identical product. You are forced to buy a new printer to get cartridges that fit.
           The difference is subtle, but it’s there. They now indirectly force the obsolescence upon you. Where before it was merely planned, now it is out for plunder. You can’t plan around them like before, since they now have paid squadrons of Millennials waiting for you to even try. The strategy seems to be dumping some half-baked technology on teens, who have been indoctrinated by the public education system to believe they are the smartest generation ever, until that slipshod contrivance becomes a standard. Then even those who don’t want it are forced to use it.
           Example, in New York City, it is practically impossible to get a pizza or a taxi without using a smart phone. And you take away pizza and taxi from NYC and whaddaya get? All the excitement and cultural finesse of Washington, DC. The trick is to stay awake long enough to spot it before it swirls down the pipes.

ADDENDUM
           I’m the worst enemy of ink-jet printer companies, and I’ll prove it again. I realize I’ve credited those bastard-rats with too much intelligence. You see, I never questioned their price-gouging on the cartridges, but never wondered where they came up with that plan. Maybe I presumed it was sheer greed. Then, this morning while looking for pencils (I’m a huge consumer of pencils) I found a tray of my old ballpoint pens.
           Stay with me, these pens were around a long time before printers. I found that the ink refills for all the older Bic pens were compatible. But when it came to American-designed (often Japanese-built) pens, there were all kinds of different sizes and shapes of refills. So, HP even copied that. They didn’t have the brain power to come up with that one on their own. I hate those numbskulls. (As I’ve said, they are selling ink at $1 million per barrel. Do the math.)

           Here's a picture post added here later. It should be some irrelevant scene, but it that scene should be a crystal clear closeup. That would be the modified Nikon camera on the new tripod. There, I see it, a Charleston Chew. Who remembers those when they were 5¢. Not me, they were twice that in my day. Chocolate and vanilla, who could ask for anything more? The picture is solely here to test the suitability of the new camera settings.
           Mind you, the bar didn’t even come in the dollar size shown here, but there were a lot fewer fat piggy people back in those days. In fact, no candy back then came in a size this big.

           Anyway, my experiment with the video link last day was successful, some of you may have noticed. I remind all this blog is primarily prose, it is not for the idly entertained. All who read this blog regularly will easily notice you come away with some new knowledge that you can use, which means this blog is inherently worth more than the Liberal media. Got that, Huntington?
           The problem is the upload to youTube is no longer automatic. Nor are the settings, and of course you now need an “account” for both Google and youTube, it didn’t used to be that way, you know. I’ll see if it is possible to tinker with the systems, but I’m not so sure I would be posting many videos here. I do like the idea of going to a real blog rather than one of the countless clone video blogs. Let’s see what I come up with.
           For those who have never tried it, a 4 minute finished video requires about an hour of skilled labor to produce. Even that timing is dependent on a skilled cameraman, good subject material (hard to find), and the slightest special effects or fancy inclusions can easily double all the requirements besides the time, which I stated optimistically.
           The tunnel video had no titles, no fades, it was a single clip, and the sound was definitely native. Don’t expect instant results. Besides, I am still modifying the Nikon camera, including the task of building a new casing, and no, it will not be waterproof. One change will be making the default a video instead of a still. I find it better to take stills out of a video than to snap individual pix on the same camera—but only when that still is intended for use in a video. Mind you, I’ve gotten some damn good quality shots that way.


Last Laugh


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December 27, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 27, 2014, mystery Morse code.
Five years ago today: December 27, 2010, perfectly circular thinking.
Nine years ago today: December 27, 2006, there is little evidence . . .
Random years ago today: December 27, 2007, Dr. Skrbc, bat-shit crazy.

MORNING
           Told ya, I went shopping. Spent $17, including a big 2-lb reel of solder to replace what JZ used up on my water tank. I think I’ll buy a tankless from his brother, who says he has never had a problem with the identical model he uses. Now, take a look at this photo and see if you can spot the less than obvious. This object was once the hub of an experimental wind turbine, but is now my fancy pencil holder. I’m about to relate what you see to both photography and music.

           What’s remarkable is that other than the pencil, the two pictures are as utterly identical as possible. I could not achieve this with my old system, which consisted of an aluminum tripod. The crux of the matter is that to achieve lightness, the aluminum tripods also become unsteady. More than once, an ordinary camera mounted on the place caused the assembly to be so top-heavy I barely caught it from blowing over in the wind.
           There may be slight differences, but that is more likely due to my placement error and my cheap Argus camera. Return tomorrow for a photo of my new, heavy-duty steel tripod. I have not seen one of these in fifty years and until I spotted it under a junk pile at the Frenchie flea market. The plan is to use it for my videocam, which is modified from the old battery-chomping Nikon to have a permanent power supply.

           Which brings me to recording music. I have a theory you already know, that Indie music sounds alike because it is layered up and often the same musician plays many instruments. Well, there is another aspect that is trickier to follow, but I ran up against it when trying to get the Nikon to record from my lapel mic. Why is simultaneous recording of both video and audio important to me. That’s what I’m getting at.
           To me, “live” music contains elements that are impossible to recapture when music is layered. Try it. Right now, my best recording device (remind me I owe Trent fifty bucks for that) will only record on instrument at a time. Anyone who has used a real multi-track recorder will know that if you record five takes of a song, one of those takes will be superior. It’s because, goes my theory, the musicians can interact in a way that is unachievable if you go back later and add on track by track.
           I instantly recognize indie (independent) music on this count, even my own. Usually I’ll have the whole band play to the drum track while recording the rhythm guitar and the vocals. (I said my recorder does only one instrument at a time. It can record two tracks if one is the vocals.) Then, when I go back to record the bass, the moment is gone. I instantly start recording my bass lines to fit the sound of the playback tracks, a far narrower concern that if I was doing my best to meld with the live band. End of this mini-theory lesson.
           But let’s wait to see what a difference this vastly superior tripod system makes. Today I will design and build a weatherproof box to contain the Nikon and see if I have time for some test footage.

           This next section is a test. There was a time before Google stuck it’s nose into this blog that it was possible to post videos. No, not gif animated clips. I’m testing to see if Google left that capability in the system. If it works, you should see a video of me driving the Kenney Tunnel in Fort Lauderdale on November 27, 2007, which will look like a gif, but if I am successful, there will be real sound. What a boon it would be to this blog to be able to post such videos. It's still a youTube link, but I could work with that. I’m an amateur video editor, you know.



NOON
           This is my test setup for the solar panel battery keeper, you saw something similar here two years ago. No, not battery charger, I already told you that portable solar panels do not have the power density to actually recharge a dead battery. And the models that can charge are due to a charge controller device, not the raw juice coming off a solar panel. The wag meters shown here are there to detect the wavering pulse of power that emerges from the charging capacitor inside the solar panels. The needle never stops moving when there is power, that is, the power that comes from these panels is never steady.

           No wait, this isn’t the picture I wanted. This is the wooden camera lens plate for the Nikon case. If you look around it, you can make out the small solar panel and the meter attachment. I have still not found any conclusive cause why my batteries die when connected to these panels.

           The wag meters are necessary to follow a wavering power reading, which digital meters have trouble with. It takes three meters to test one panel. The volts and amps each need a meter, as does the power that emerges after the controller. This controller seems to be the source of the trouble. The idea is to test the ability of the controller to keep the power within the correct parameters. It should put out 115% of the rated voltage. For a 12 volt battery, you need 13.7 volts to charge it.
           The test became needed after these solar panels not only failed to keep my expensive marine battery topped up, they finally wrecked the battery after only two years. I was leery as to why it went dead in Colorado, eastern Nebraska, and on that run home from Canaveral last year. These systems were triple-tested to the best of my hundreds of hours of research on the matter. I still suspect the only part that I do not know how it works down to the molecular level—the charge controller itself.
           And yes, since I’m looking for movement on the meters, not actual readings, this getup makes for an excellent first test of the new video tripod system. Is that a fluke or what? I see the newer models of solar panels now contain a tiny sticker on the back stating that a charge controller is, after all, necessary.

           I took some time to think about the Arduino problem, where you cannot tell what program is uploaded unless you keep separate track. I see ever more kits for oddball uses, why not a kit that uses that LCD module to display the program info, say, whenever the reset button is pressed. This would require the programmer to include that code, but considering how ridiculously convoluted C+ code is to begin with, who could realistically complain?
           Speaking of idiot programmers, I see the jerkoffs who invented the system that spellchecks the period at the end of the sentence are at it again. This time, they’ve changed the commands when Android plays music. When you click on a song title, I’ll bet a thousand bucks people want to hear that music play. Now, one time in three, Android enters edit mode and tries to change the title of the song. Way to go, Google. Now you appeal to the crowd that regularly changes the titles of their music.
           My concept of Millennial-think: “Gee, I don’t like the song titles of all my favorite music. I think I’ll take a day off from illegal telemarketing, phone plan scams, and publishing get-rich-quick schemes, and go change the names of all 5,000 songs in my music directory. I’m so proud of my collection, even though most of the songs only get listened to once every other year.”

EVENING
           A day with NPR, with music and commentary from famous people you don’t recognize.. Acclaimed musicians you cannot name. Renowned writers you’ve never read. Legendary singers you’ve never heard. Now, it seems there is a hepatitis epidemic. That’s them, not me. Every person they interviewed caught it you-know-how. The program centered on public concern instead of personal responsibility. It was mostly heavily accented women who can’t figure out why they still have this disease even after they have “put all that behind”. Duh.

           Aha, I do have a picture of the new tripod. There you go, anodized stainless steel and hefty enough to trust with expensive gear on top. The legs are self-splaying, they do not require stays like an aluminum type. What a find this was. And in perfect condition. You know, one day I am going to actually buy some nice camera and video equipment.
           This type of tripod sells for close to $200 new these days. It is not portable nor meant to be. It is a solid workmanlike heavy piece of equipment.

           I also watched documentaries that got past my filters. Including one on the pilots that flew the P-51 Mustang, a fighter aircraft that was in fact designed by a German. They are more likely to give credit to enemy pilots than your armchair historians. The one guy describes how a German pilot bailed out and stood at attention, saluting the American as he sailed past, and only then pulled the ripcord. Or the German pilots who attacked the bombers head-on. I have a hard time even imagining somebody would do that.
           If you watch the videos, you may not the few scenes of bomber gunners downing a fighter are played over and over. That’s because it so rarely happened. By 1943, the Germans had equipped their fighters with cannon that could down a bomber from outside of the range of the 50 caliber machine guns.

ADDENDUM
           What’s happening with the property search. Nothing, because there is nothing decent for sale. It’s that time of year when all the newspapers carry falsely optimistic reports of the upcoming sales market. There is a lot of property listed at twice what it was bought for one and two years back. JZ and I are not the only ones looking at flipping, but the difference is, we’ll do better than giving the place a paint job.
           Areas looked at today: Arcadia, Ft. Meyers, Haines City, Davenport, Bartow, Auburndale, Plant City, Lakeland, Winter Haven, and good old Mulberry. It all seems to be small operators rather than for sale by owner type listings. The entire Tampa to Orlando swoop is getting nearly daily attention for now, it just takes that one hit.
           By February 1, I plan to embark on a plan of bottom-fishing. Trolling for somebody who has to sell at a loss. Folks, this is not tiddleywinks and it is not like people who buy with borrowed money are playing fair themselves. That plan will be in place within two weeks, and if it is a go, it will be a reality in a few more. I’m not saying I’ll do it, I’m just saying the plan will be ready.


Last Laugh
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December 26, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 26, 2014, on self-supporting women.
Five years ago today: December 26, 2010, Liechtenstein?
Nine years ago today: December 26, 2006, 10% higher than recorded.
Random years ago today: December 26, 2012, read the cost . . .

MORNING
           Here’s an ad from Popular Mechanics. I’ll be looking into this machine. I thought it was a mini-table saw, which I’ve wanted for years. The literature says it uses a jig-saw blade and that dude is definitely cutting a plank. I trust reciprocating more than circular. I’m always hesitant about tools that I don’t use all the time and this could be the exception. It weighs “less than 15 pounds” and it says perfect for rip, scroll, crosscut or “intricate” miter cuts.

           I watched some videos and it is really an upside down jigsaw. The “arm” is just a guide and clamp, not connected to the blade at all. It seems to retail for $99, which is more than I would spend without seeing some actual projects. And those don’t appear easy to find. The manufacturer, Rockwell, is reputable and the testimonials by and large are ordinary people and totally believable.
           The videos show that the jigsaw blades are too wide for any type of sharp curves, so don’t toss your scroll saw yet. The newest model has no speed control, probably one of the most useful features of the tool. Hence, I think it would be smarter to build a table plate for an old jigsaw and turn the thing over. Say, maybe I’ll do that. The club definitely has the tools to build new tools, a frontier that has to be crossed for any serious robot enthusiast.
           While this is going on, I made up some more of my specialties: wooden cleats to wind up power cords on “modern” tools and appliances that lack them. Remember when all quality tools had them, or at least that rubber molded end that you could clip the wound up cord to itself?

           [Author's note 2019: I did not purchase this tool, which is basically an upside-down jig saw. It suffers all the same shortcomings. Underpowered. weak blade, slow cutting, difficult to keep sharp, ornery to change, and prone to dulling in the middle while the ends rarely get used. I'll stick with my real jig saw. For ripping, circular saws wear the teeth more evenly.]

NOON
           This would have made my Xmas, a Kassoy digital microscope. Alas, the price was misquoted at $399, but I had to call and ask. It was, indeed, $3,999. But worth every penny of it. I won’t go into the specs except to say this is the type of microscope used in gemology, of which I know very little, except for a course I took in the 80s or 90s at night class. This makes it ideal for looking at diatoms, since the silicon structure is better visible with these “3D” Leica lenses.

           Now back to the property. JZ & I had planned a look, but cancel that. We had also planned a trip out of town for New Years, so maybe combine the two. Here’s the details of the cancel decision, you can make up your own mind. I feel buying a cabin for less than $15,000 could be either the smart move or the dumb move of 2016. The seller would not budge on the price and he is convinced people who will not take his “owner financing” deal are just being difficult.
           He does not have a concept of not borrowing money. Like most retards, he thinks that is how things are always sold and those who won’t borrow are either deadbeats or holding out on him. I say let him stew a bit, the bottom line is we have money and he does not. Who knows, maybe his rich uncle gave him $500 for Xmas and he’s feeling flush.
           You may not like what I say next, but some truths always hurt. You see, he has to be careful that somebody of the wrong type doesn’t offer him full price. He lives in a small town and is thus somewhat beholden to his neighbors to keep the status quo.

           Here’s something to chew on. I often do the map work in a coffee shop or a pub, which are generally occupied by the bored do-nothing sorts. Just ask Wallace. Anyway, this concept of a cottage in the interior is vastly more popular than at first glance. Almost anybody who sees what I’m looking at loves the idea and I’ve even had offers to rent or move in with me (none of the ladies are suitable for that). There are a few who consider it a total waste of money, but generally they are the ones I can’t explain to them that it is not likely I’d actually live there long term.
           It’s a shack, they say, but that is precisely why the price is low and is also what it would be used for. This is not Buckingham Palace or a country estate. I remember my own disappointment when a guy I worked with retired and told us he was going to go live in his fishing cabin. I guess we thought after 40 years at the company, he’d have something pretty nice. It was a 16 x 24 plywood shack. Still, I did not laugh as much as the others. At least Pete isn’t going to die on a big pile of house that the kids will fight over.
           It’s a shack they say. But it is supposed to be. A shack bought and paid for cash. That part, they don’t say.

           Who remembers Arcadia? It was that sleepy little town when we were there this summer, but it seems to have changed into a high-crime area overnight. Y’day I was looking at the maps of places we’ve been this year and there was a bright blob of orange stood out where it should not be. Arcadia. I have no knowledge what that is about, but worst hit is the southeast end which I sort of rejected anyway. It’s okay but it just kind of looked like it could be trouble.
           I’m telling you (see photo) six months ago this would have had some activity in the “southwest” corner, but now, it looks like a crime wave.
           Other localities checked [today] but rejected for outrageous prices include Bowling Green, Haines City, and Wauchula. Who would spend $100,000 on a one-bedroom mobile in Bowling Green? Even the town name is a rip-off.

NIGHT
           OMG, look here! Silver has flat-lined. We are doomed. Take all your valuables to the church basement before dawn and over-inflate your car tires by 15% immediately. Either that or just relax, the market does this every long holiday weekend. I’m twenty bucks over budget so I’m going shopping tomorrow, but none of this Black Friday or whatever. I mean the swapmeet, where I only spend on tremendous bargains.

           Return to find out what fancy things I get my paws on. I just got rid of the company and will spend a quiet evening right here, pondering projects, fixing small items, you know, the way educated gentlemen opt to spend early retirement. Let me calculate. I’ve been retired now 10.5 years, I’ll certainly have the experience to do it right when I turn 65.
           It has been 19 years since I quit the phone company, or more accurately, sold them back my job for 6 figures, what a steal that was. Pity, so many people worship the false god of counting money. Oh, by all means, have a go at it. But if you are not on cloud 8 by age 21, time to quit chasing rainbows. Since it could be argued what I did at the phone place was not a real job, you might say I have not worked a day in my life since 1981. That, children, is a form of success—the more so because never have I been on public assistance or accepted charity.
           So with that in mind, tomorrow I take the day off and putter around. Nope, I’m not rich in the money sense, but my chances of making it big by being correctly positioned are infinitely greater than those whose viewpoints are limited by having their noses to a grindstone.

           I’m on page 126 of the Great Powers book, and it is finally more interesting as we get to around 1905 when Germany and America take over the world from England. The Empire is corrupt and bankrupt but nobody knows it yet. England, trying to clutch onto the dying “Free Trade” system, will plunge all of Europe into two wars that will reduce most of the continent to rubble within the next 40 years. England focuses on destroying Germany only because she perceives the US as being too far away to be a threat to the world power structure.
           Meanwhile the US is building up to twenty warships at a time, controls a canal that spans both big oceans, and has amassed a horde of a third of the gold in the world. This is beginning to attract the attention of the large International Jewish European banking concerns. Especially considering America's Liberal immigration policies and lack of a strong central authoritarian government. America is ripe for the plucking.


Last Laugh


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December 25, 2015

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 25, 2014, the old red Mazda.
Five years ago today: December 25, 2010, that memory is DNA.
Nine years ago today: December 25, 2006, 40 clicks bike ride.
Random years ago today: December 25, 2011, a study day.

MORNING
           This is what the Xmas Day looks like to a man who writes his own ticket. It’s what you don’t see here that counts. Just me in an empty coffee shop, Starbucks which I dislike, but the self-service has become better than the bad service at Denny’s, my choice before they went wrong with the counter service. No screaming relatives, no backstabbing gossip, and I won’t have to listen to anyone who attended complain about all those things instead of ever growing the huevos to just not go there in the first place.

           And the satisfaction of knowing the world is still full of people far stoopider than I am. Like the US military, who never seems to learn their lesson about training third world apes to operate space-age weapons systems. Popular Mechanics, which is maybe a notch or two better than PopSci these days for quality of reporting, features the training of Iraqi pilots to fly F-16s.
           Them soldier-boys seem to have forgotten what happened to their 2,600 Humvees just the other day. But they’ll be first to scream when they meet them again on the other side. What’s the bets these Iraqi pilots quickly defect to ISIS and take their F-16s with them? Well, none, actually, because the jets have built in GPS disabling systems if that should occur, but that is hardly the point. If you train them to fly a General Dynamics , before you know it, they’ll be coming at you with a Chengdu. Which, in sufficient quantities, have a quality of their own.
           How stoopid can our military be? We keep finding out, but never learning. Let me rephrase that, how stoopid are the brass? The dolts who make the orders, not the others who have to follow them. Um, on the other hand, it is a volunteer force, so technically, nobody has to follow orders. This is why, if the world were people like me, there would be no military. Nobody would voluntarily follow orders.

           December 25, the semi-traditional day of quiet study and reading for me. Just me, the coffee pot and some books. Although these times a good Internet documentary will find its way in there. Today, I watched a program on the design of wooden aircraft wings. I have no idea why, since airplane design is totally not on my list of interests. Maybe it was just time. That, and my other tradition, a hot sandwich in a sit-down restaurant set me back $10. Add it up. $6.95 for the sandwich, $1.95 for the coffee and a $1.00 tip. Inflation is your Xmas present from the central banking system.
           Let me scan back and see if I’ve printed any photos of the property in focus. It does not appear so. Yeah, I did, y'day afternoon, the place with the green trim. The only reason I originally looked at this was it was the lowest price non-mobile home. It looks rather well maintained. The satellite shows it to be in the middle of the block in the northeast end of town. This is within the city limits, so I would get a lawyer or title company involved before any final decision.
           This morning was different in that I examined the cottage in more detail. It was built in 1940, so it must be solid, but many evils can be hidden by aluminum siding. The point is, the structure only has to last longer than I do. And if it doesn’t, I’ll have a built in pity-story to follow the lead of other Florida residents if disaster should strike. The only crime reported within 2 miles of this place was a car theft on Xmas Eve 2014. Some kid hot-wired his neighbor’s 67 Corvette, maybe?
           I’m running a half-dozen spreadsheets on the property and I’m coming around to the other point of view. If I get the right price on this puppy, I will be ready to pounce again in six and a half months. That’s what, June 2016. Whether prices go up or down hardly matters if I get a place cheaply enough. And I can always pull the money for an extra trip to the interior out of the burgeoning PA system fund. (That’s the fund for the Fishman PA system I haven’t bought yet.)

NOON
           I am still at a loss to figure out why nothing has come along to replace the now out-dated and over regulated Internet. All of the original premises for the Internet have been defeated by the traditional system. The Internet is about censorship, propaganda, in-your-face advertising, privacy invasion, and imposition of unpopular government mandates world-wide. Here is an example of an ordinary talk show posting shut down by the authorities. The premise is that the public, if allowed to view this type of material, “is not educated enough” to draw the "correct" conclusions. No doubt they mean "politically correct".

           Okay, ask me anything about fiberglass reinforced airplane wing laminates. Betcha can’t, because I found out the only time the technique was used large scale was by the Soviets in the Great Patriotic War. I have no evidence it was ever used in robot construction. So it is nice to know. You see, the back yard of this little house is huge. As in big enough for a real workshed. Or a small barn.
           Whichever decision I make will be wrong in some way. But yes, I’d live in a place like that. It’s a beauty for a guy like me. The additional rationale is put in an exterior entrance around back, keep that as a place to crash, and rent out the rest as a one bedroom. Or just keep it as a summer cottage. It sold, less the new aluminum siding, for $8,000 three years ago.
           For no better reason than that I have experience doing so, I sat down and calculated why this property owner has to sell. He did not factor in the “standing costs” of ownership in that county. Without going into detail, the true cost of “isolating” this shack, that is, to prevent another panic sell, is $7,260. Whatever you buy the place for, you will need that amount of money held in reserve for the first two years before you make anything. At the same time, the startup costs of being a near-total idiot remain at $0.00. Just ask Wallace’s daughter.

NIGHT
           For anyone who hasn’t seen, this is a typical “crime map” as displayed by Trulia. It is gleaned from Google Maps, so right there is an alert they are not being honest with you. How can a map lie to you? Well, easy. On these maps, green means “safer” and “red” means “less safe”. Shown yere, you do not want to live in downtown Dade City, Florida. Ha, looks more like Dodge City.

           Note the moron Android color scheme, where on a regular computer, there is almost no contrast between the lettering and the background. It takes a special kind of Millennial to come up with that kind of retardation.
           Anyway, the thrust here is that the colors are relative, not absolute. I have seen areas with 53 and 61 crimes per mile radius that appear green—but only because the next map area over had 312 crimes. Google knows what you want, but they have to be pricks about everything.
           Be sure to click and review the nature of the crimes. Jaywalking is probably a safer bet than “shooting of a person in prog”. Anyway, stay on the freeway past Dade City, and same with Fort Pierce. In fact, you might even want to avoid properties that have a view of those places.

           Here’s another warning, The website Realtor.com sets off so many of my intruder alarms that I rarely logged onto it. I don’t know what it is with that site, but you only think it is you looking up their information. You done been told. For that matter, the site won’t even work if you have Kaspersky on your computer, or if you have an ad blocker active. And you should have an ad blocker on principle alone. The blockers are all equally bad, but I use ABP.
           Be further aware that many of the new anti-malware apps are extensions and will turn themselves off when you reboot the computer. Always check your extension manager after a boot. MicroSoft Outlook now establishes a “user account” whether or not you asked for one, and regularly steals a copy of your address book, or contacts. The button to manage your contacts has been removed. (You now have to go into the “people.live” section of the account you didn’t ask for. There are restrictions on which of your own addresses you are able to delete.


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