Of Windchimes, Foghorns, And The Wonders Of Science

It's been a bit windy around here the last few days, which led us, over supper last night, to ponder the age-old question: could the wind be harnessed not just for the pleasant tinklings of windchimes, but also to produce the mellifluous hoot of the glass bottle? Blowing across the bottle undoubtedly works for mere humans, so it seems it could also be possible to use nature's breath to do the same thing, there being a lot more of it.

However, there still remain a few questions to be answered by prototyping:

• What airspeed is required to produce sound?
  
• Is it necessary to funnel/control the airflow in order to produce sound?
• Can we sound up to a three-note chord, with each note denoting a higher windspeed?
  
• What will the neighbors think?
• And, most importantly, will it keep Mom awake at night?

We may or may not have too much time on our hands this summer... so the prototype may or may not get built.

The Bane Of Browsing

I love tabs. I love Firefox sessions. But sometimes it gets out of control...



Is there a support group for this sort of thing?

How Not To Design Stuff: Dellusions Of Power

The University of Southern Maine employs the use of a large number of Dell Optiplex GX280 computers in labs and classrooms. They are modern computers, pretty fast, quiet, not real pretty, and the power button of these computers looks pretty much like any other typical power button on the planet: it's round, it has that funky little circle-with-a-line-symbol-of-power-thingy, and it glows green. However, one unfortunate design flaw has caused lost time and headaches.

How, you ask, can the design of a power button result in confusion and lost work? Visual feedback.

Fact: The button glows green when the computer is on.
Fact: People expect something on the computer to glow green when the computer is on.
However: In order to tell that the button is glowing, one must look almost straight at it from the front. If you are a little to the side - which is the normal arrangement for the Labs - you can't see the light.

Result: If the computer is positioned anywhere but in front of the user, the little green glow is invisible unless one leans over and peers at the button.

One would not think this to be a terrible problem, a dinky little light doesn't make that much difference. After all, you can also tell if the computer is on by looking at the monitor.

That logic is conveniently defeated by two different circumstances.

1) Some classroom computers are attached solely to a projector - if the projector isn't on (or is blanked), there is no feedback from the screen.
2) In the John Mitchell Center CAD lab, all the monitors are on a separate power circuit and can be turned off at the professor's whim.

We are back to using the power button glow as the sole indicator of computer status. This is a dangerous prospect to entertain if the glow cannot be easily seen - and did I mention that pushing the power button when the computer is on immediately shuts it down?

(Cue scary theme music.)

You push the button. Nothing seems to happen for a couple seconds. You push the power button again. The computer you just turned on shuts off again. You wait longer this time, and are confused. You push the power button again, firmly, and wait longer and something finally shows up on the screen. You can now do useful work before class starts.

Then, the monitors are shut off during lecture and you forget the computer is on - and there are no visible glowy lights to tell you either way. The lecture is over and you push the power button to start the machine up. It shuts off. And, since the computers have DeepFreeze (or equivalent) installed, anything that you saved to the internal drive is wiped clean at boot.

It sounds ridiculous, but I've seen people lose valuable work because of that. Extra frustration, problems, and lost work - all because the power button doesn't provide a good (i.e., visible!) visual cue.

The Modern Wonders of Letter-Folders

Have you ever gotten a ridiculous sense of excitement and/or satisfaction from watching some mechanical gadget work? Do you know the exquisite feeling of childish glee when exploring some technological wonder?

It's absurd, really. Why should I be so fascinated with the operation of an automatic letter folder? What is so riveting that I could sit, feeding paper into it, for hours? But there is so much satisfaction in the snatching "ka-chunk" and sudden exit of a magically folded piece of paper! The perfect creases! Ah, it is so beautiful! *sigh*

Why do I feel like a total geek right now?

The Horrors Of The Everything Button

We just got a Samsung ML-2010 laser printer. It's a great printer - cheap, compact....and it has an Everything button.

Truly, you cannot know the power of the everything button unless you have experienced it in person. For what can this innocuous grey button do? Everything! (Ok, almost everything.) It can cancel print jobs, print test pages, it can turn the Toner Save feature on and off, and it can change the paper feed.

I think Samsung might have labeled it wrong, though, the text underneath says "Cancel" and it only cancels a print job if the "On Line/Error" light is blinking. If you push the button in "Ready" mode, it turns the Toner Save feature on or off. But only if you press the button for about a second. If you just hit it real quick it doesn't do anything.

Don't press it too long, though - if you hold the button for two seconds then the printer will spit out a test page at you, informing anyone who cares the RAM size, CPU speed, and current settings of the printer.

Oh, you want to use one sheet from the manual feed tray instead of the bottom auto-feed tray? There's a really simple solution. Just load a sheet and press the "Cancel" button.

The Saga Of The iMacs

We just got a new iMac. That is, if you count a 1999 Graphite DV/SE as new. It's a University cast-off which Mom is particularly happy to have since the current iMac is a pile of disembodied computer parts under the printer shelf.

It is in such a state because that (formerly) Blueberry iMac's Power/Analog/Video board died, and death of PAV boards pretty much renders the whole computer a large, 40-pound doorstop. Which, in a household as computer dependant as ours, is a distinct predicament. Thank God that there's a lot of info on rigging an iMac board to run off of a regular PC power supply, because that's what it's doing and otherwise we'd be sunk. (Not exactly proverbially, either.) I can't say I'm complaining too much, though, since we got that computer from an different local university for, effectively, the cost of a new logic board. (Read: cheap.)

We got that castoff Blueberry machine because the analog board in our original Rev. A Bondi iMac died. When that happened we could at least plug in an external monitor and use it, but using an iMac with an external monitor seems a bit of a waste of space. That machine was also getting, shall we say, rather dated and slow.

So here I am, shuffling files and parts around yet again to make everything work. I just wish you could move OS X system files around with the ease of OS 7/8/9. But alas, the days of simply copying a System Folder to another computer and having it just work are over. Oh well. I've learned more about iMac history and the innards of OS X in the past month than I ever knew before. That's gotta be worth something, right?

Sing I The Praises Of The UPS

I finally got around to reconfiguring things around here and put that UPS that I got a couple weeks ago into service. Now, unless you have a UPS (or a laptop), you have no idea how awesome a feeling it is the first time it goes into action. Oh, to be working on a forum post when the power goes out three times inside of thirteen seconds and then decides to stay there, I, basking calmly in the light of my screen, oblivious to the chaos of young siblings proclaiming near and far that the power has gone out.

Until, of course, the chirps of that most brick-like of saving angels grow more worried of the impending doom of an empty battery. Then one must, unfortunately, finish the forum post, power down the server, and shut everything off, awaiting eagerly such time as the electrons cometh again.

Score! (The Ridiculous-Lot-Of-Miscellany Edition)

Work has been good to me this week. I have saved from extinction in the netherworld of Dumpster a two-port KVM complete with cables, a couple ancient modems, a raft of storage bins, a box of miscellaneous mice, power cables and data cables, an APC 1000VA UPS (dead batteries), and a handheld inventory scanner thingy, apparently still in it's original box.

And yesterday at a yardsale I acquired a DVD player, a drafting chair, Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, all for $12. Now if only I could find the sword so I can go talk to the Great Deku Tree, my life would be so much better.

I Should Have Called This Blog "Diary of Sporadic Man"

Actually, that sounds sort of like I'm some sort of mushroom superhero, so maybe not.

So to recap the last month:

• Work.
• More Work.
• Housesitting.
• Along with work.

And that's why I haven't blogged. I have fixed my computer (new power supply & a real case to boot), acquired a real (if somewhat dorky looking) CB antenna for Genny, and collected a lot of other neat junk for free.

There are some advantages to working for a moving company: Sometimes people want to get rid of things and we have the priviledge of doing so for them and good stuff goes to the nearest guy who wants it. That is how I have become the owner of a Samsung Syncmaster 700IFT 17" monitor, an HP DesignJet 350C plotter, a couple IBM 380 laptops, another old computer & HP 17 monitor, and a large piece of corkboard, among other small odds and ends. Yes folks, this is a "Score!" post, edition "Super Stuff I Don't Have Room For But Can't Pass Up For The Life Of Me". But I guess that's ok because the plotter is going to a friend who might actually use it.

I Went And Saw "Pirates Of The Caribbean" And My Computer Died

Though not in that order. This morning my computer refused to boot. It still does. I think it's the power supply. (I hope.)

So maybe I was just in a grouchy mood because of that, but I didn't really think the latest installment of Jack Sparrow & Co. was terribly exceptional. Sure, it's entertaining, outrageous, a little zany, often witty - but it's the sort of thing I wish I'd seen in someone's living room instead of paying $7 to see. And it doesn't even have an ending, but a terribly obvious set-up for the next episode.

Though I will admit I did like Davy Jones and his Organ. Classic tribute to Jules Verne for you, right there.

Daisy, Daisy, Dilly Dilly Dee

Give me the time....it's quarter to three? Huh?

I built a clock last week. It was my final project for Intro to Ornamental Metalworking, my Art/Humanities credit for school. (Excellent class, by the way, highly reccomended; ART-192 at SMCC, make sure you get Mark Legel. He's totally awesome.)

It really came out pretty well, the Daisy Clock. Brushed aluminum petals, hammered copper center, $1.99 clock movement from Goodwill's Wesclox stock... except that something seems to be convincing the clock that a minute is 66 seconds. I need to take it back apart and un-convince it.

Score! (The Maybe-Useful-Definitely-Geeky-Junk edition)

Talking Alarm Clock
Originally uploaded by The One True Stickman.

I think maybe I'll make this a regular feature thing. As regular as anything is around here, anyway. Sure it's just a chance to brag about the weird stuff I've picked up for cheap or free, but what are blogs for, anyway?

This edition brings you the Talking Alarm Clock, an ancient kit I found assembled and stuffed forlornly in a small cardboard box in the dark and dusty recesses of the back room at school. Mr. Feeney said to Deep-Six it, and I mused that, oddly enough, my basement is about that deep.

It's a neat find - it had all the paperwork with it, right down to schematics, construction notes, and board masks, and it still works despite being older than I am. (The papers are dated from 1983.) It's pretty easy to use, as well. The three push buttons are for Hour Set, Minutes Set, and Speak Time. You hold the set buttons and it counts, you let go when you get to where you want to be. Push the Speak button to hear the current time. Simple. The slide switches set the speak mode and alarm - one just turns on the alarm (the Time Set switches then set the alarm time) and the other two set the Speak mode: No auto, on the hour, quarter hour, or minute. Every minute gets pretty annoying.

It is, however, extremely, dorkily, geeky. When you plug it in a deep male voice jerkily proclaims:

"*boop* Power, failed. Set, the, time. Power, failed. Set, the, time."

When announcing the time a feminine voice says:

"Good evening, the time, is, nine, twenty, five, P, M."

Better yet, the alarm:

"*boop* (female voice) Good morning, the, time, is, six, forty, five, A, M. *boop* (male voice) Time, to, get, up. *boop*"

And it repeats that every minute until you shut it off. I guess it would probably do it's job.

I suppose one really can't expect too much more from eighty's vintage speech synthesis being run from a Z80 micro - you can only do so much at 2.5Mhz. At least the TMS5220 speech chip does have some inflection and isn't totally monotonal.

Score!

Poking my nose into Goodwill today in celebration of the start of break week, I stumbled across the greatest find of the month: an IBM Model M, the Keyboard Grail of Geekdom, for $1.99 (plus tax).

This is a keyboard such that it has spawned a loyal following, fanatics, even official reviews and instructions for care and feeding, and has been labeled the loudest, best, most solid and most likely to be used as an emergency office weapon. The very fact that ten or twenty-year-old keyboards would still be alive after that much abuse is amazing in itself, particularly given the life span of some more modern equipment.

I have entered the realm of the enlightened, bragging rights included. So what if mine is one of the later Blue Logo models made by Lexmark? It's still way cooler than anything else I've got.

Hey, Look! It's A Flying Clock!

(Ooh, and there goes a toaster, too!)

Time really gets away from one at times. Like when school starts and you're back to the usual work-a-week world. Oh well.

The real reason for todays post is to bring you the very sad news that an important age in communications has come to a close. Western Union has stopped sending telegrams. I'm not really sure what else to say now. *sniff*

iTower Progress

Formerly an iMac...
Originally uploaded by The One True Stickman.

Heralding the first photo post from Flickr and previously mentioned here, the now-named iTower (Gromit) is progressing. The next step is building another chassis piece so he can stand up properly. The ports you see on top are technically the back of the machine. The stand piece will also house such things as the speakers, airflow, and possibly a fan, and make it possible to connect a monitor cable without tipping the whole rig over - currently the mac Video connector is pointing straight down, requiring some extra room. Normally it won't be too much of a problem, given that he's going to be a server, but we'll need it occasionally.

Oh, and it all runs! Debian Sarge installed and booting, though not quite all set up. I mostly wanted to make sure it was good to go before school started and before I finished things off. The last thing I want to have to do is pull it all apart again just to hook up a CD-ROM drive to (re)install.

Once I've got further along (and got my conversion done website) I'll post a full write-up with lots more pictures of construction detail. Promise.

On Preserving Dead iMacs

Since well before the analog board on my parents Bondi iMac died, I've been contemplating what to do with it. Well, ok, not what to do with it, just how. Since most of the bulk of an iMac is the monitor, the obvious solution is to put the brains in a smaller box. There have been a number of ATX powersupply conversions - such as the kMac, this other site and a bunch of others - but I don't have to do that, my power supply works fine. It's just the monitor bit that doesn't. Why go through all the bother of rigging a boxy ATX supply when I've got a working one with about the same form factor as the motherboard and it Just Works(tm)? This guy did it with his iBox and there's the infamous 21-inch iMac. The only problems are 1) the iBox is sorta ugly, and 2) I don't have any extra big monitors lying around to hack up even if I wanted to. So, since necessity is the mother of invention and insanity the father, we set higher goals: we want to take the guts (mobo, PS, hard drive, switch board, speakers, and irDA port) and stick them in a nice, Mac-looking box. Hopefully.

We'll tackle the size thing first. I can fit it in a box smaller than a NeXT cube, but (obviously) larger than the G4 Cube. The thing is getting the components together with in a way that a) uses as much stock cabling as possible, b) allows access to external ports, c) fits in the smallest box possible, and d) allows for adequate air flow and some service without complete disassebly. So far I've got the Motherboard assembly and power supply board mostly bracketed together and the hard drive mount integrated. We're mostly good on (b) - the monitor port is slightly awkward, but this is probably going to be a server so heck - and (a) is doing spiffy except for the IDE cable. (c) is bigger than I'd like, but really can't get any smaller. (d) will be fine, once I figure out the fan placement, and I'm doing as well as can be expected on the service end. PS replacement will require a lot of take-apart, but we have decent access to the HD and Proc./RAM.

Once we've got that done up a little more, it gets itself more of a chassis structure of some sort (Still need more of an exoskeleton in some parts, legs, and (maybe) CD mount) and then we figure out how to make a decent looking box for it all. Simple, quoth the beautiful beast of theoreticals. Not so simple if you have great visions of nicely bent lexan and all that jazz, but we'll cross that bridge after we burn all the others.

The Troubles With Websites

Scalability. That's the bugger - especially with sites that start out small and simple. After a while, they grow and end up not so simple. Which is why I'm trying to convert my personal site over to use a template based pre-processing system to generate the static site prior to upload.

So far the one I've settled on is tt2site. (Reasons: it's easy to install and it looked simpler than WML.) Now if I can only figure it out: the features are plenty but the documents few, and Google's no help either.

The main problem is that there is little explanation of operation. Sure, I can figure out how to run the final generation command. That's easy. But how do I set up templates exactly? (I don't know how Perl's template thing works, and why should I? Tell me.) What exactly do all these config files do? Providing example configs is great - how do they work? I don't know. Tutorials would be nice. Start here. Do this, and why. See what happens? Great, now if you want to change it, do this. Cool, you just made a simple site! Now, add this file structure. Ok, in order to set up the menu things you need this config file, this is how the options work, this is how it will interpret that file structure.

I need more detail, a little bit of hand holding. I guess I'll just have to do a lot of poking and write my own Tutorial. Grokking someone else's creation is always so much harder than using something you thought up. If anyone wants to help, by all means - leave a comment or drop me an email.

The Joys of Technology

I'm working on creating the most complicated desktop computer setup possible. Start with four computers. Add a KVM to switch so I only need one keyboard, monitor, and mouse. Now add a second head to the main desktop, so I have a 15" monitor connected through the KVM and a 19" that isn't. Got that all right?

But what if I'm using my Windows box on the KVM head and want to access something on the main Linux desktop's big monitor? I have tried, quite a number of times (unsucessfully), to move the mouse off the KVM screen over to other monitor like I can on the dual head rig. And then when I switch to it I can't see what's on the Windows machine. Conundrum.

Enter Synergy, which acts like a sort of network based KVM. One computer is the server, it has the keyboard and mouse, and you can move to any of the client's monitors. (So it's really only a KM switch.) Ah Hah! If we set up the Windows box as the server and the Linux desktop as a client, presto! We can then access both the Windows and Linux machines at the same time, but fortunately only when the KVM is pointing to the Windows box. Just think how confusing it would be to acess the screen of a computer you can't see...

Merry Christmas!

Why I'm up at this hour working on reinstalling and restoring 1.9 gig of files to a friends laptop I'm not really sure. Particularly since I have to be up tomorrow for usual Christmas morning and church, too. It's the spirit of Christmas, I guess.

And last night, of course, I was up till 3:00 (am) getting schroeder fully upgraded. He's been needing a good apt-get dist-upgrade for a while, not having had the chance since early May. But, of course, I had to pick a slow day for RoadRunner(tm) and had to do other stuff all afternoon, so the morning was spent watching him download (1.5 gig of packages to DL - at 30-80kB/s) and the late evening and wee hours babysitting the rest of the process. Fun fun fun.

Aside from that, however, this week has been remarkably relaxing and productive. Cleaned out my pack and filed (most of) my junk from this semester, hacked up an A/V connector and tested my $15 Nintendo 64 (it works! Goodwill rocks), got my Flickr thing going, spent a bunch of time getting acquainted with LibraryThing, fixed the powersupply for my Boss multieffects pedal (broken wire), reassembled a friend's Digitech RP-2000 and fixed the powersupply for that (two broken wires), whacked together a dual head linux config for my cousin, updated schroeder, completely dissasembled the old iMac (dead analog board, but PS & mobo still fine - build a linux firewall/router box, I think), slept in a lot, and did a whole lot of research on website pre-processing tools. I think I'm going with tt2site for now, I just have to figure it all out and migrate NateNet over. More fun for the Holidays. No school until January 17th, though, so plenty of time to work on Things In General(tm), read and see if I can help Dad get more of the basement organized. I need more boxes to put stuff in...

After the Holidays. I've got a solid week of goofing off to do with family, the other stuff can wait until post-New Years.

The Pyrotechnic Qualities Of Capacitors

Ok kiddies, you know how your circuits lab instructor always said to make sure to put your electrolytic capacitors in the right way around so they don't pop? Well, if you connect a ~25Vdc cap to 140VAC (RMS) and hold the 15-amp breaker closed so it doesn't trip, the capacitor will not only pop, it will blow up.

Completely.

There is a loud bang (which naturally brings your instructor running, since you wouldn't think of doing this sort of thing when he's actually in the room), a cloud of white smoke (which smells really nice), and drifting fuzz from the stuff inside the cap. Probably some shrapnel, too, but I didn't actually see any of that. One should also note that your instructor will probably be rather put out, due to safety concerns and destruction of school property, however small and cheap the property.

Names have been withheld to protect the very guilty. And no, I didn't do it, although now I know why you shouldn't. And now I can say that yes, I have seen a capacitor blow up.