In my junior high school, woodshop classes were overseen by Mr. Witt. Mr. Witt was a large and somewhat dour man, seemingly with a slightly short temper. On the other hand, Mr. Witt had to ride herd on a couple dozen barely adolescent males (mostly males, anyway) who had free run in a large room full of things with sharp edges and large motors, so the onus was upon Mr. Witt to impose some degree of discipline on us. Mr. Witt also turned out to be quite jovial if you happened to show an unusual interest in some project or process related to his classes, after summoning the nerve to approach him directly to broach the subject. read more

SparkFun had a free day about a year ago, on which they gave away $100,000 in free orders (up to $100 per customer). Not surprisingly, it brought their web site to its knees in a fairly short period of time. Ostensibly part of the hidden motivation for this event was to evaluate the load-handling capabilities of their web servers. They decided to do it again today, this time giving away $150,000 (with slightly different rules) and making some donations to local charities. They also made much ado about how they’ve increased their server power by an order of magnitude (I think that’s part of what they said, anyway–I could be wrong), tuned various things, etc. I thought I’d join in the fun, just to see what happened. Here’s a chronology of what I observed: read more

You can tell that something has been around for a long time if it has a name that you can’t say in polite company without smirking. One of the toilets has been running longer than it should after being flushed and I finally got around to investigating the cause. As usual for such household-problem situations, I started by pulling out my trusty copy of Black & Decker’s The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair–a rather good reference if you happen to be a homeowner. Therein, in the 11-page section on toilets, I learned that the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty ballcock. Yes, the valve that controls the incoming water is called a ballcock. This is clearly a term coined in a kinder, gentler era. I mean, imagine walking into your local Home Depot and telling one of the orange-aproned employees that you need a new ballcock. Could you do it with a straight face? I couldn’t. read more

2010 is ending on a cold note here in Boulder. We finally received a proper snowfall yesterday–the first of the season–and the low temperature last night was 3 (three!) degrees F. It’s going to be a brisk morning for shoveling the walk and steps.

Thanks for reading my blog, despite its intermittent and unfocused nature. May 2011 be a healthy, happy, and prosperous year for you!

I realize that it might seem insensitive of me to complain about dry weather when southern California is flooded and people are stranded in the Paris airport because of snow, but I’d be quite happy to a decent snowfall in Boulder before the year is out. It hasn’t happened yet this season, which is unprecedented in the 26 previous winters I’ve seen here. A quick check of the ski reports shows that most areas have most of their lifts open, so I guess the mountains are getting snow, but we’re not getting any down here and, frankly, I miss it. read more

I knew this day would arrive: you can now buy strings of RGB LEDs for Christmas decoration that cycle through different patterns of colors, and you can now control them with a microcontroller to do whatever you want them to do. Info is here. I’m delighted.

Chris just brought it to my attention that nearly all, if not all, of H. P. Lovecraft’s short stories and novellas are now available in e-book form, for free, here.

There’s a cool video here which is apparently a promotion for GE’s new GPS-based flight guidance system. You don’t have to know why it was made to enjoy it, however. Chris and I also think that Axon may have been used for the marimba pattern in the soundtrack.

Whoops, it seems that the permalink that the site offered for that video isn’t targeted that well. You’re looking for the video called Segment One: Paths of Flight.

I’m saddened to learn that Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson died today. I knew of Mr. Christopherson as a member of Throbbing Gristle, the pioneering industrial band. Throbbing Gristle, despite their relative obscurity in this country, was a huge influence on the development of my musical aesthetic. It is not an exaggeration to say that Audio Damage products do what they do in part because of my listening to Throbbing Gristle during my teens and twenties.

I was completely unaware, until I read his Wikipedia entry this morning, that Mr. Christopherson was also a member of Hipgnosis, the design group responsible for some of the most striking album-cover art done during the 1970s and 80s. (Remember album-cover art?) Mr. Christopherson himself was the creator of the covers of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and all three of Peter Gabriel’s first albums (here, here, and here), all of which I own, among others. He also directed a long list of music videos for a diverse array of artists, including Erasure’s Chains of Love, Robert Plant’s Tall Cool One, and the startling, Kafkaesque Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes. His works are often surreal, macabre, and sometimes grotesque. He saw things differently than the rest of us, and wasn’t afraid to show us what he saw. He made many contributions to my life–some of which I knew were his work at the time, many of which I didn’t–and I’m sorry that he’s gone. read more

A letter I just sent to a company who shall remain nameless, at least for now:

Hello,

I placed an order on 11/12, order #S03847[xxx]. The email I received stating that my order has shipped contains tracking information which makes no sense. The shipping method is stated as “UPS GROUND” but the tracking number given is M011440[xxx] which does not appear to formatted as a normal UPS Ground tracking number. Also, the link for the tracking number in your message goes to the US Postal Service website, not the UPS website. However, the Postal Service site says that there is no record of this tracking number. Out of desperation I tried the FedEx site also and got the same result. read more