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From Fozzee.net
No News
They say no news is good news, but I beg to differ. I discovered today that my random issues with my (relatively new) Ubuntu VMWare host seem to be UPS related, AGAIN. The APC 1500 that I got back in 2003 seems to be trying to bite it. I'm not sure if it's the batteries or something internal, but when it tries to transfer from line to battery, it freaks out and goes into overload, regardless of what's actually plugged in. As soon as I get a viable surge protector, I'll take things off the UPS and do some testing, starting with the batteries.
Jason sent me a link today, describing how to "recover" your windows XP password. It involves a recovery CD, and lots of rebooting. I suppose the saying "Once they're on the console, you're 0wned" holds true again... A former boss of mine liked that phrase a lot.
On the gaming front, my Meta-Physicist has arrived. At level 110, he is capable of self-casting the following nanoprograms: Mochams Gift, Odins Missing Eye, Belamorte and Cacodemon. Basically, what this means is that until the Shadowlands level-locked pets around level 165, there's really no advancement for him but to grind levels. For anyone who doesnt understand a word I just said, no big deal. It's an Online Game thing.
Posted: 29 June 2009
Lathe'd Again
It's been a busy week, again, but I have at least a bit of breathing room tonight. My parts for my miter saw showed up today, and seem to have resolved most of what ailed it. I ordered brushes, brush holders and some cosmetic plastic bits. For about $20 bucks, it should last a while now, though the armature still needs to be turned smooth... I also found out that my super-secret RC Car Project has ended its first phase with positive results. Seth had some issues with tapping the holes in his parts, though his friend Jeff reports that his holes are tapped and the parts run well. This means that we'll be doing a short production run, thereby using up the remainder of our stock. This marks two things: The first "production" parts off the lathe (Since being in my possession anyhow) and the first time (again, since I've owned it) that its cut "virgin" material (ie not something someone else was throwing away). Yay!
Posted: 22 June 2009
New Template
This is my first attempt at posting to the front page with the new template format. In this setup, the post's content is actually stored on a separate page, so as not to clutter up the front page. I had previously considered switching to a different CMS, but decided against it, instead favoring a more awesome setup for my current Mediawiki installation. Enjoy the new format, and if you find any glitches, please let me know.
Posted: 17 June 2009
Two in One Day - Auto Linker
So I was trying to make Mediawiki's Autolink extension work, but it has some issues with the way I use links as parameters for templates. It has a nasty habit of ending the template and screwing up my formatting. It should be noted that, if you're not me, Autolink is much slicker than I'd imagined. I'd initially thought that it was a run-time substitution, so that pages created since the "linking from" page was created/edited would still be auto-linked to. This is not the case. It's actually a save time routine, that modifies your wikicode as your document is being saved (yes, this means that it doesn't work as expected on preview). Overall slick, but that parser anomaly makes it entirely useless to me.
Posted: 11 June 2009
Big Changes in the works
As usual, it's taken me entirely too long to post again (over a week, really?!) but I'm trying to improve, really. I'm thinking, right now, that I'll be staying with Mediawiki, but with a number of massive template changes to make managing the front page slicker. To that end, I'm going to have to revisit my RSS Feed Generator, and am considering wiping the front page of old articles. So if you see a ton of content disappear, one day, it's not really gone, it's just me working.
In other news, my Basil project has picked up, with plant B2 sprouting 6 days after planting. A whole article is forthcoming on the whole "mini-gardening" thing. Work with the Arduino has basically stalled, pending a real "purpose" (I have plenty of purposes, just not a ton of time to work on them). I've been working on modifying a roof rack for my car recently, but am having some trouble making the clips clear the doors properly. I think Ron has me on the right track, though, with an alternate method to bend them cleanly.
Posted: 11 June 2009
PHP vs Russian
Wow, It's been a whole month... My bad. I've been pretty busy, among other things, investigating new software solutions for this site. Wordpress is the "obvious" choice, according to Dave, but I'm also interested in exploring MovableType, since it's written in Perl... So to my point:
Dave tells me that considering MT "because it's Perl" is dumb, and I should just learn PHP and be done with it. I told him that I'd learn PHP if he learned Russian. He argued that more people "spoke" PHP than Russian. This is not true. Russian has a total of 278 million speakers whereas PHP is installed on [only] 20 million websites and 1 million web servers. So there you have it. Dave, if you want to end the PHP/Perl wars, Learn Russian!
Posted: 2 June 2009
I got Lathe this weekend
So I finally had a project requiring a lathe, and one magically appeared on craigslist about the same time. More details on that will be along shortly, once I'm sure it works :)
$200 included quite a bit of C5 tooling, most of which looks unused. The only major disappointment was the lack of a tailstock drill chuck, but I picked one of those up at Harbor Freight (they stock one in the store, with the current 7x10)... Got it home and set on the bench; At 100#, it was a bit of a beast to manhandle like that alone, but I got it done without too much disassembly.
Posted: 3 May 2009
A Break from furnace making
Recently, I've been taking a break from the ongoing shop projects and working on picking up the garage a bit. I've ended up moving the Desulfation Station for easier access and am trying to get some more of my storage enclosed. I'm so sick of looking at "storage" crap, but doors take space and whatnot.
Over the weekend, I came into an entertainment centers' worth of scrap materials including drawers, slides, lumber, etc. I'm in the process of fashioning said scrap into a base for my machine tool bench, to better use the storage space underneath it. When it's done, it'll have a page of its own, but for now, enjoy a pic in progress.
Posted: 27 April 2009
Finally a new update
It's been a wild two weeks... I just dont have the "journalist" template, that causes me to /want/ to write the way I should. Anyhow, I've started on the Metalcasting projects, finishing my first attempt at a furnace body, and have at least a pretty good start on a blower/burner assembly. Also, finally uploaded photos of the monitor gantry. It'll probably be at least another two weeks before I have furnace pictures.
On Wednesday, my desulfator showed up and I've already started recovering some batterys for my bike, among other things. Some of those batteries won't be recoverable, I think, though I may be surprised. Even the manual suggests that it can take "A Long Time" to recover significantly damaged batteries.
Posted: 18 April 2009
Monitor Gantry Mk. 2
It's been a crazy week, and the quality of my web site updates shows it. This week, I've taken two characters in AO to level 100 (giving me 3 total characters above that point). I've also been working on the new incarnation of my monitor gantry. This one is entirely made of angle iron and will be much stronger and more compact. Basically, the arced frame is made of 1.5" angle (three segments) and the monitor brackets hang on larger chunks of angle. The brackets will be clamped to the gantry in a way I haven't quite figured out yet. Lots of precision drilling involved, and I discovered that something in my clamping setup wasn't quite square, as the prototype bracket sits just a tiny bit out of square with it's associated pan-tilt module. Either way, I can probably adjust that out when I clamp the bracket to the rail.
Also this week, I finished my garage door monitoring system. Basically, it flashes a light upstairs if the garage door is open. Yes, it's mundane; it's taken too long and it's excessively complex, but I feel that it's mostly "done right" in how it's looping system works (think like an alarm system)... It should be very reliable.
Posted: 1 April 2009
Scrap Heap Challenge
Well, I'm back from my road trip and things are crazy busy as usual, both at work and at home, trying to get things finished up. I took the time last night to acquire a junk bedframe off of Craigslist, which I promptly scrapped for the angle iron. This was a "single/full" convertible frame, and yielded between 15 and 20 feet of ~1.5" angle. The rivets were either drilled (for pop-style ones) or ground with a cutoff wheel and punched. The frame itself is fairly hard, as others have noted, but the rivets seemed very soft, especially the pop-rivets. I'd expected to use cutoff wheels much faster than I actually did.
Posted: 26 March 2009
Oil Change
Finally changed oil in the Jetta last night. It's really not so bad, once you've forked over the $40 in materials... It took less than an hour, including prep and cleanup. The Rotella oil I used this time doesn't seem to come in quarts (at least, locally), but is pretty reasonable, at $20/gal. The unfortunate part, this time, is that I had to buy a whole second gallon, for about a half a quart...
Posted: 2009-03-18
National Pi Day
In case anyone forgot, Pi Day is this Saturday, March 14th. Directly related to this, a resolution has been introduced in the House to nationally recognize Pi Day, along with the NSF. Read about it on piday.org and on THOMAS.
Posted: 10 March 2009
Door Problems
Well, I resolved my car door sensor problem tonight (the problem is that the switch has failed, so the car (incorrectly) thinks that the door is either open or closed (depending on mood))...
A google (and a look at the manual) suggests that the glass and everything needs to come out to get to the latch mechanism, to replace or resolder the faulty microswitch... Book suggests 4hrs shop time... Given that it's going to snow tomorrow, I discovered that I can just unplug the big door connector that contains (Among other things) the CAN-bus connection... The Computer doesn't seem to care that the back door is "not present", and it cant throw the "door ajar" code with the door controller missing. Only downside is that nothing in the door, speaker included, works... I'll fix it for real once it's warm...
Posted: 10 March 2009
Man Purse
I replaced my briefcase today with a full on "man bag". It's made by Wenger (the "swiss army" people) and was bought at Target. I'd take a picture of it, but my camera is currently in for warranty, getting a tuneup for the zoom.
Overall, it's been a pretty lazy week. Busy at work makes one less motivated to do great things when you get home. Spent like an hour and a half cleaning the bathroom sink drain last night; No pictures, but it was pretty interesting. Hopefully with the warmer weather this week, I'll get back to the garage and finish up some pending projects.
Posted: 6 March 2009
Scope It Out
I finally bought an oscilloscope. I found it on craigslist and went to check it out tonight. It's a naval surplus DuMont that seems to be roughly equivalent to a Tektronix 4000... dual channel, 50mhz... It's built like a tank, but not as heavy as I'd thought it would be. It's in nice shape and came with a 1x and a 10x probe for less than $100. Pics to come.
Now, back to work on that desulficator to finish the Bike.
Posted: 2009-02-27
Anniversary Pi
It's been a while, as I've been busy around the house recently, but here goes... The Bike is on hold, pending batteries, which hopefully I'll be able to fix, if I can acquire an oscilloscope tonight to build a desulficator. Becky and I were in KC this weekend for our 3rd anniversary. We stayed one night with friends, and one night at the Hyatt, which was pretty nice for the $75 Priceline charged us for it, but totally not worth the $225 sticker price. Becky wrote a post about this also.
I've wondered for years when Pi Day was going to make slashdot, and am still left wondering. I was amazed, however, tonight, when I got home to see that the Make:Blog had an article about it.
On another note, I have a new email-in photo gallery, to which I post photos mostly taken with my phone. When I get the new site layout done (after Piday, most likely), the most recent image will be displayed on the front page. Until then, look at it here.
Posted: 2009-02-26
Something Nice About Apple
I was reading over at Holy Scrap Hot Springs the other day and noticed that a variety of their Flikr pictures were taken with an iPhone. I further noticed that the EXIF information for said shirts includes the GPS data from the phone. I knew EXIF had fields for it, but I'd never seen it implemented. Anyhow, my conversation with Dave went something like this (paraphrased, since I misplaced my chat log):
I found something cool about the iPhone today... It puts the GPS data into the EXIF information. This seems pretty useful, as both GPS and camera phones tend to work (basically) only outdoors; GPS for want of a sky-view, and the cameras for want of bright light. Disclaimer: I speak generally about cell phones and GPS, and have limited experience with the iPhone as the only only photos I've ever seen from it were taken outside.
The funny part about this is that usually, when speaking about Apple, my entire opinion, basically, is that "Apple is Crap". For balance: The iPhone camera function is pretty slick. Unfortunately, you can only take so many photos, for it's lack of expandable storage media. Moreover, God help you if you need to charge it, with it's non-standard plug :)
I just couldn't bring myself to write an entirely positive post about the iPhone.
Posted: 2009-02-19
Dead Presidents
Well, it's Presidents Day again, where we honor some guys who used to be in charge. Sure, they did some good stuff, like flee England and run the Civil war, but the point is, they DID STUFF. To celebrate, I'll be doing stuff all week including: Electronic rust removal, finishing finishing the datacenter and generally cleaning the garage and office. If I can ever find an oscilloscope, I'll be building a desulficator to get the electric bike project back on track.
Posted: 2009-02-16
Taking a break from lots of things
I've worked in the garage and Datacenter almost every night this week... I think tonight I'll generally hang out, watch some BSG, and maybe play some games. In Weather, it snowed about a foot here today. It was crazy. No clouds at 10pm last night, clouds but no snow by 8am, and by noon, like a foot of snow. Now, by like 5pm, the snow is stopped and already melting in places... Not to mention, it was like 55F not 5 days ago. Go figure.
Posted: 2009-02-13
The wheels on... Well...Everything
I've spent some time in the garage the last few days, since it's been so warm out. The Datacenter Closet is painted and now just needs some finish work to complete the look. The Bike is basically just in need of batteries (and I'm in need of a 'Scope to get there) and I have a few new wheeled implements. I have this idea that my garage should be rapid-reconfigurable, in that I can move shelves, benches, etc easily to make the space fit any given project. To that end, I've taken to wheeling various benches and stuff. My toolbox has been on wheels from the get-go, as has my rolling worktable. I'm finally getting around to putting retractable wheels on my workbench, and building a 4-wheeled Platform Cart to haul heavy things around the shop.
In other news, Becky and I will have been married 3 years at the end of this month. I'm a bit surprised that she's put up with me this long, especially considering all the garage stuff... She must really love me. :)
Posted: 2009-02-10
Pressing Words
Finally sold Becky today on having her "own" web page not directly related to a service. Her site, Growing Into Rebecca, runs Wordpress and is generally pretty slick. I've got a bit to learn about hacking Wordpress, but it seems pretty straight forward.
In other news, I've been working quite a bit in the garage this weekend, mostly doing cleanings up, but also trying to finish off the bike. I had it up and running on the scooter frame, but I generally dislike how it looks and feels, so I swapped back in the suspended donor's aluminum frame. The basic reassembly is complete, less a bit of wiring. Batteries are also provisionally mounted, pending getting a fully working set of batteries; The current set soften a bit under load (like 25%, to 18v), so that'll be worked out after I get a desulficator running... Frank has generously agreed to help me out a bit with getting appropriate coils wound, and I'm hoping to start recovering batteries sometime this week.
Posted: 2009-02-02
Getting it all under Control
Well, I've been busy this week, starting with some major work in the Datacenter on Thursday night. Richard was over to cut up some bar stools (they needed to be shorter) and I figured I'd have him help me carry a server. We ended up decommissioning the old UPS, and moving my existing 1500 downstairs, as well as actually installing the server i the rack. We then discovered that I had some sort of wiring weirdness (the newer APC complained), so we solved that. This week, I'll finish cleaning things up and take some pictures. I also did Over-Cabinet Lighting in the kitchen. It ended up looking really nice. 73 watts of CFL and about $20 total parts (including 6 CFL bulbs). Not too shabby.
On other fronts, just 48 days until Piday, and less than that till Becky and I's Anniversary. Also, the bike is almost functional. I've been working on getting a good rack of batteries together recently, and think I'm about there. This week, I'll hopefully finalize the batteries and get basic on-off control of the motor going.
Posted: 2009-01-25
Projects, Projects Everywhere
It's been a while since my last update (16 days to be exact) but I've been crazy busy with stuff. In the past few weeks, I've got the new file server up and running (complete with 1.8TB of formatted, RAID5'd space), done some general home improvements (They didnt bother to finish resealing the windows after having replaced them last fall) and done some other stuff around the house. Perhaps more interestingly, I've made additional progress on my bike, having fabricated and installed a working chain tensioner and the battery box this last few weeks. On the downside, I learned that at least one of the batteries I had earmarked is trash, drawing down under a volt under the motor's load. So back to the battery pile to try to find a pair... At worst, I'm hoping to salvage some batteries in the process of my Datacenter Remodel, as my current UPS isn't terribly functional ATM. I'm considering ordering a 2nd APC BR1500, so I have one upstairs and one downstairs, but that's another project.
On an unrelated note, I noticed a $9.99 charge on Becky's Sprint bill for "SJA Mobile". A Google search quickly turned up that something was fishy. I "chatted" Sprint's customer service to inquire as to what it was for, and before I even got my question fully out, the rep was offering a refund and to block the charges. Fishy indeed. I found this Skydeck report, which formed the basis for my suspicions.
In the next few weeks, watch this website, as I've got plans to make some major improvements to the front page.
Posted: 2009-01-19
It's ALIVE!
The "bike" lives! There's still a few bugs to work out, mostly related to keeping the chain tight, but the rear wheel spins under it's own power. Check it out.
In other news, I've continued working on some Home Automation and security projects. More details on those, as I get to it. Also, not being one to do just 3 projects at once, I've started drawings for my CNC Mill project. Basically, all this work is inspired by the new year, thinking about everything I want to do in 2009. At some point, I'll be posting the 2009 Project Roadmap for all to see. Hopefully the limitless scorn of the Internet will help keep me on track.
Posted: 2009-01-03
T'was the week after Christmas...
I've been really lazy about updating, or doing much of anything productive with Christmas and whatnot. I'd thought I'd have an opportunity to play some Anarchy, but it wasn't to be. I got some nice things for Christmas, including an auto-dimming welding helmet, which is, in fact, the most awesome piece of technology ever. It's super convenient, especially in working on small, detailed things, where you're "checking" often. This statement implies (Correctly) that I had a chance to weld something.
I did a bit of work (yesterday) on the gearbox for my "bike", mainly welding up the input sprocket adapter. I also assembled the primary drive chain, which turns the jack shaft. Still to do to finish up the drive train, I have to clean up the gearbox and get it mounted to the swing arm. Finally, a final drive chain needs to be created. Given my successes with with chain making so far, this shouldn't be too much effort, if I can get the gearbox mounted straight and rigid. From there, it's basically just a matter of electronics to having a "working" bike. I'm still leaning towards a canned controller, possibly to drive my own "heavy duty" output stage... Frank has had some good luck with daisy chaining or beefing up off-the-shelf controllers.
Posted: 2008-12-30
New Hacks in the Cold
It's December and it finally got cold around here. That leads to things like snow, ice and preglow. Yea, it's true Diesels don't like the cold very much. Since I replaced a failed glowplug last winter, I don't have problems
starting, even at the -8F (-22C) we saw earlier this week. Anyhow, Diesels don't make much waste heat, which would ordinarily be used to heat the cabin (and the driver). I have the "cold weather package", which in '02 included (Among other mundane things) heated front seats. They're freaking awesome. That car would be undrivable in the winter without them. My butt is toasty warm within 2 blocks. The rest of me, however, waits about 3 miles, depending on traffic (it doesn't really increase coolant temp unless I'm on the throttle, so idling in traffic is BAD). I did some research, and other VWs (and Audis) heat the steering wheel. Unfortunately, it's mostly in the Touareg and A8 and stuff, nothing that shares a bolt-pattern with the Jetta.
What the TDI does offer, though, is an "auxiliary water heater", comprised of a modified water manifold and 3 additional glowplugs to heat the coolant electrically. I'm looking for a part number for said manifold, which seems to be used only on the manual transmission models; it's the one that contains the temperature sensor. They must have thought that the drag from the torque converter would be sufficient to heat the engine up at idle.... NOT!
In other news, I ordered a new battery for my laptop, but when it came in, it turned out to be the wrong one. Any reasonable person would have just cut their losses, and returned it. I decided to get creative.
Posted: 2008-12-17
Power Games
Last night, Dave, Richard and I whipped up a new Gaming Table for use when we play D&D at Richard's place. It turned out pretty good, for less than 5 hours of work.
Dan and Emily were here today, we went to lunch at Mimi's Cafe, which was pretty good. I described it to Dan as "an upscale Village Inn". We checked out a few things on his Jetta, including measuring the timing belt and reading codes.
Yesterday, at 6:53am, my UPS decided it didn't want to work right anymore. Some things on the UPS seem to work fine, like my VMWare server. Other things, like wireless access points, switches, etc, dont work at all. Those devices work fine, plugged directly into mains power. A volt meter put on the UPS' output shows about 50vac. As my meter isn't True RMS, and I don't have a scope, I wonder if that's really the peak-to-peak voltage, or if it's miscalculating somehow. In any case, I'm done fighting it, and it'll be decommissioned and scrapped yet this week.
Posted: 2008-11-15
Campaigning
On Saturday night, we finished up the first of 3 "campaigns" in Dave's Eberron game. 13 sessions. It was a blast. Anyhow, on a gaming note, Richard and I are going to be doing some construction, building a gaming "table topper", as he doesn't think his table is large enough. I've found a few links with ideas:
- "The Avenger"
- Tabletop Projection (Not likely to try this...)
- "The Sultan"
Posted: 2008-11-10
Projects
Been crazy busy lately with work, work, and stuff around the house. The Carputer has tested beautifully, and now just needs final installation. My "bike" has been the sink for most of my spare time lately, but I've accomplished a ton. I expect to be finished with the major mechanical aspects within 2 weeks. In the meantime, check out my progress.
Posted: 2008-11-4
Starting Up
With the Carputer in final testing, I've turned some attention to my power assist "bike". A friend got me the hookup for some "junk" bikes at a local bike shop; In my opinion, they're not such junk, with a bit of work. I've completed most of the disassembly and a mockup of how the finished vehicle might work.
Posted: 2008-10-21
5 Years of Fusselman.org
Last Friday was the 5th anniversary of my owning the Fusselman.org domain name. I did some looking back and there doesnt seem to be any Archive.org pages for it, since, until it started mirroring my "Real" site Fozzee.net, it didn't really have any content. Next year, for the 10th anniversary of Fozzee.net, I'll be chronicling a bunch of old content from there.
In other news, I've just about completed work on the Carputer and am in final testing, pending a permanent installation, As soon as I'm sure it's stable. Right now, it's just rattling around in my trunk. I just don't want to have to rearrange everything if I discover another issue like the power holdup issue I'd had.
Posted: 2008-10-20
Tying up Loose Ends
It's been an insane week, attempting to tie up some loose ends in the shop. I'm attempting to implement some "project management", to help things actually get finished, instead of partially done forever, and then discarded. The projects I've been focusing on are my Digital Photo Frame and the Media Laptop for the car. The first project ended in (relative) failure, since the display quality is so poor. I'm sure something will come of it, but it's just unfortunate that it didn't come out better.
The carputer project is faring significantly better. I discovered that my DC-DC power supply sucks quite a bit of juice, even at idle (ie laptop and car off), so I whipped up a controller circuit to let the laptop power it off when it's shut down. Now, I'm just waiting on a part from VW Germany to give me a switch on the dash for this thing.
Other things in mind tonight:
- Saw a TON of kids tonight with electric scooters. Makes me want to finish (start?) mine.
- Many people commented on Freecycle today about the same things I've felt for some time. It's nice to be agreed with.
- Synergy rocks!
Posted: 2008-10-10
Into the Fray
Spent a few hours this week (like 10) fixing my brother Justin's Jeep's power windows and locks. It's a cool ride, if a bit silly as a daily driver. Anyhow, we found the problem, and it's better now. Hopefully, the next project will be more fun.
Posted: 2008-10-02
Tons of Fun!
We've been comparing cruises and ships recently. It got me thinking about Cruise Ship Tonnage relative to the number of passengers aboard. Heavier ships fare better in rough weather, and carry more amenities. Smaller ships seem to have better routes to the places we want to go (must be that we go places that less people want to go). Anyhow, enjoy the writeup. Amazingly to me, smaller ships seem to have more tons per passenger than larger ones.
Improvements
I'm currently working on a number of improvements to the website, mostly in the form of various useful MediaWiki templates. In particular, I'm working on a widget using Parser:XML that will allow me to render dynamic XML content directly into the site's pages. In related news, the site is pending a redesign, to look less MediaWiki-ish. That's an "As Dan has time" sort of thing, though, so we'll see when it happens, as he's a busy guy. I'm also considering templates for "Currently Reading", as well as a Twitter-esq thingi, except geared toward Mobile Web, instead of SMS.
Resolved!
Finally got the UPS back into service, having finally assembled my battery string. Built a Rolling Worktable for the shop, which I'll be detailing here soon. Also, finally put into writing my knowledge / feelings about Monitor Resolutions. Hopefully I'll be doing some more useful projects in the near future; I just really had to get caught up on some housekeeping stuff, which included actually working on the house. Let's just say I'm not cut out to be a painter.
Untitled
Not much doing tonight; Got my UPS back in action, mostly... I'm still having some trouble finding a 48v battery string that all works. Testing batteries from my pile is slow business, as I have only one charger, and want to charge at 2A to avoid damaging what I believe to be about 20ah batteries. To this end, I did throw together a Battery Load Tester as a sub-project to both my UPS and Light EV projects. I also did some updates and rearranging to the Jetta pages, mostly adding part numbers for my personal reference.
Dish'n it Out
So we switched to Dish this week for our TV service. The whole HD-OTA thing didn't quite work out, so far as integrating with Tivo. Tivo wanted us to buy new digital unit and some stuff, and we decided that it just wasn't a cost-effective option. We scheduled our install, and they sent out a guy (sorry, I don't remember your name!) from Blue Sky Satellite to do the install. This guy's work was amazing. He did a nice job hiding cable, and whatnot, and overall just did a very good install. Much better than I'd expected.
This morning, I called Cox to cancel our cable TV, and was in for quite a shock... As was expected, the rep (Who's name I'm withholding) ask all the usual questions. "Why are you leaving", "what does it cost", etc etc. He tried to tell me how their option was oh so much cheaper (in reality, we expect to save about $25/mo), how this was just a 6-month price (from Dish) and so on. I found it quite ironic that Cox, king of the 6-month promotion, would accuse someone of advertising a temporary price. Anyhow, my beef isn't with the fact that they tried to retain me as a customer (I expect that), but it was how they did it, trying to smear the competition, and in general acting very confrontational. I don't know if this is a matter of their policy, or a guy who just didn't have enough saves last month and was upset, taking it out on me.
In any case, it's done now. I'll be reporting back on this regularly. If you're considering signing up for Dish, drop me a line. I'll answer any questions I can, and they've got an awesome referral program, that benefits both the referrer and referee.
I Saw it Again
Another busy week. Did quite a bit of work rebuilding my UPS, which trashed a second set of batteries. I'm redesigning it to run only on an external pack, to help keep the pack cool. I also intend on adding a cooling fan or 2, and the case has been resized so there's no empty space where the internal pack used to be. I'm currently pending a second test, as the unit can't cold-start (IE start with no AC power), as the inverter wont stay engaged.
On a similar note, I acquired a miter saw. The Freecycler discarding it believed that it had a power switch issue (I dont think it does), but it definitely needs brushes... The motor sparks quite a bit, and I've already cleaned the comm... Anyhow, it works alright for now. I plan on dropping an abrasive blade in it, and running it to cut off metal stock.
Further down the junk collecting trail, I've begun to acquire materials for my light electric vehicle. Jason brought me a trashed wheel. It had a useful hub (which I will probably use as a jackshaft), as well as an aluminum rim, which will end up recast as something else.
Antiquated Technology
I was at Borders the other day and found myself a bit overwhelmed. There's something inexplicably emotional about a room full of ground up dead tree. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm revamping my personal organization system a bit, and was actually considering buying a hardbound, blank paged book. A bit more thinking reminded me that my handwriting is almost entirely illegible (even to me), so that even if I were to commit things to this stack of dead tree, my ability to retrieve that data would be severely limited. I was surprised again while browsing the business section (hey, I was there a while), which is laid out such that the books are stacked to the ceiling. There was something comforting about being in that narrow aisle, surrounded by all kinds of knowledge that I mostly didn't care about. Someday, when I have a real office, it'll have shelves of random books taller than I am. On a somewhat related note, Jason recently got my wife a shirt that reads "I don't need Wikipedia, my spouse knows everything"... I suspect this feeling has something to do with that. The book resembles an empty table, while the shelves represent a database, packed with relatively useless information... So I guess I can relate :)
In other news, the UPS Chop Job is going well... It's having all it's fuses replaced with circuit breakers, getting generally rewired, and possibly getting a rebuilt transformer (if I can find someone to do it, this beast is a bit hairy for me... too many taps...) Anyhow, I'll keep you posted.
Going Crazy
This week seems like I'm going crazy. Have spent more time outside (with the dog) in the last two weeks than I have in two years (not literally). On the upside, my laptop works great out here :) I've recently taken to reading David Allen's Ready for Anything
On another note, in relation to an ongoing debate with Dave, I was I was researching my phone the other night, when I found disassembly instructions, along with another site that uses Mediawiki as a blog/personal site. His format is a bit different, but the same general idea. Also of note, I've rearranged my left-nav bar, after seeing his site. I did this to highlight more of my projects.
The Dog Days of Summer
For those of you who haven't heard, Becky finally got her Dog!!! Lil' Molly is pretty cute, now that she makes less messes in the house. I did manage to rewire the TV and whatnot, and added an external HD tuner. Jason came over and we built a pair of HD Antennas (which are really the same thing as any other TV antenna, just tuned for the HD range... Tonight, I put in some time disassembling my UPS and doing some experimenting for Ron's Foam Cannon. Neither went so well.
On a more capitalistic note, my cousin (and her husband) are trying to sell their house. She describes it as "a great starter home in the Millard area". Check it out!
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