One of my good friends and coworkers, Sara, had a good weekend – his brother was voted in as mayor of his city of 20,000 people. Here’s a link to a website that has a copy of the newspaper article announcing his win. I know at least one person reading this blog knows French, which is going to help – his brother won the election in a city in Senegal.
http://mayacine.org/
I work with, and live near, a lot of people who grew up in other countries and speak multiple languages. In comparison I’m pretty lame, having grown up, gone to college, gotten married, and settled down with a family within a radius of about 45 miles from where I was born. That’s not a bad thing by any means – in fact, while people from other countries have interesting stories to tell me about their cultures, I can tell them what TV shows were like in the 70’s, and provide background information on popular rock bands and TV personalities. It can be hard to work ‘The Love Boat’, Grand Funk Railroad, and Mr. T into everyday conversations, but if I work hard at it, I can usually do it.
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For the past two days I have been walking around like I left my brain at home in its jar of liquid preservative. Yesterday at work I managed to call on my years of experience as a project lead and go-to developer to clobber a bunch of data in our working database, and this morning I did ANOTHER similar clobbering that was only fixed by restoring some backups. The problem with working on a live database (“live” meaning several people might be using it at any time, and it’s always accepting requests) is that one wrong move can be a huge problem. It’s not like making a mistake in Microsoft Word, where you can hit the Undo button until you’re back in good shape – once you’ve deleted something in SQL Server, it’s gone forever. There’s no Undo.
Fortunately, our users (the ones who pay us money) are not using the databases that I work in daily, so it didn’t affect what we would call “production” data. But leaving your brain home in the jar does not help your database maintenance skills.
(As an aside, it’s common to give your brain jar a nickname. Mine is nicknamed “Bjar”, pronounced “Bee-yarr”, which is a Norwegian word I made up. It’s not uncommon in our house for Jennifer to tell me I left Bjar in the laundry room again. Runner up nickname: “Abby Normal”. If you don’t get that joke, you should watch more Mel Brooks movies. )
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I know everyone reading this knows what serial commas are, but since I expect a flood of readers on this site any day now, I’ll explain for the comma challenged.
When you list a few words in sentence, you can put commas in the sentence one of two ways:
1) Don, Jennifer and Ringo Starr went to the Farmer’s Market.
2) Don, Jennifer, and Ringo Starr went to the Farmer’s Market.
Note the comma after Jennifer in the second sentence.
I always use serial commas because, as a pretend engineer/scientist/writer, I like to find one single rule I can follow all the time, so I choose to use serial commas.
The other day M brought home a worksheet he did in class that asked them to insert commas into sentences, and the teacher was requesting that they always use serial commas. I was glad to see that. Any time I read something that doesn’t have serial commas, I wonder if the writer left his or her brain in the Bjar that morning.
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Fun link of the day: a capacitor-powered flashlight. Some people think capacitors are good candidates to replace batteries in cars, etc. They’re dicey, though, and you can read about the drawbacks of this design at the link below.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/03/how-to_build_a_battery-free_flashli.html
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J and I are going to see "Movin' Out" this weekend, which is a musical full of Billy Joel songs. The choreography was done by Twyla Tharp. It's at the Fox, a place we haven't been in several years. The last time we were there, we saw Dora the Explorer's Live Show, which was OK for the kids but there wasn't much for the parents.
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The roofers will be here in the next few weeks. Oh boy!
Don's Invisible Blog
J asked me yesterday if I had heard anything about the new iPod Shuffle, how small it was, and how the controls were on the headphones.
Following up on lots of items
The Science Fair was a big success -we had about 140 projects by over 200 students, and we could have used a bigger auditorium. This is the first time I've been in charge of it (with help, of course) and I learned a lot from it. It was a lot of fun, and Mom and Dad even stopped by to hobnob with the Lawton Elementary School scientific community. Dad wore his "Amateur Radio Nerd Hat" so he fit right in with all the other nerds, including me, wearing my "Stand Back - I'm going to try science!" shirt. What a bunch of nerds. Gotta love it.
I was at the school for about 8 hours on Wednesday and about 13 hours on Thursday. We had a small army of volunteers who showed up at various times to help out, and everyone showed up when they said they would, so I'd count that as a big win.
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I wrote in my last blog entry that I'd like to get the book "The Art Of Electronics" which apparently has a huge following and is supposed to be the best electronics book ever (or "evar!" as the kids write these days.) I was able to get it through an inter-library loan. This is probably one of those books that a bunch of people used when they were in school, and remember it fondly like a prom date or winning the football championship. I say that because it's pretty hard to follow, and the first set of exercises listed asked a question about a topic that wasn't discussed until a few pages later. Maybe someday I'll look fondly on this book as they do, but I doubt it.
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When I see how popular books like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" are, I think I should try to get in on the gravy train of dollars that these books rake in. Since I'm not a publisher (who get 90% of the book sale price, leaving the author and agent to split the remaining 10%), I guess I'll have to be an author. (J told me about the 90/10 split, she heard it from an author who came to the library where she works.)
I've decided I'm going to write a book about kids who are interested in science and use science to solve problems and play tricks on people, and ultimately save the world/town/school/dog. Depending on how old the kids turn to be they might win the girl in the end - hugging/kissing to be determined. For the younger kids, maybe they'll get a new bike or something. The main characters will naturally be boys, because everyone knows girls are awful at science. (I know that's not true - not everyone knows.)
As with all books by every author, this will be semi-autobiographical, and will take place in a town just like Jackson, and the main character will have a brother, a sister, and parents who travel with the circus 11 months a year, just like my parents. I'll try not to reveal anything too personal.
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On the topic of work, we actually got a bonus a few weeks ago, which was a reflection of the company's performance in 2008. We met some of our goals, and not others, so it wasn't like it's been in years past. But any company that's giving out bonuses these days is something to celebrate, especially if I'm a recipient. It's not enough to retire on but I'll take it.
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We're going to drive around a little today to look at roofs - we have a few colors to choose from ("Black", "Really Really Dark Grey", "Indistinguishable From Black But Not Actually Black", "Almost Completely Black", etc.) I think you see where I'm going with this. We may be able to schedule the roofers in the next few weeks, and once that's finished we'll invite everyone over for a barbeque and we can all sit and stare at the new roof.
I was at the school for about 8 hours on Wednesday and about 13 hours on Thursday. We had a small army of volunteers who showed up at various times to help out, and everyone showed up when they said they would, so I'd count that as a big win.
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I wrote in my last blog entry that I'd like to get the book "The Art Of Electronics" which apparently has a huge following and is supposed to be the best electronics book ever (or "evar!" as the kids write these days.) I was able to get it through an inter-library loan. This is probably one of those books that a bunch of people used when they were in school, and remember it fondly like a prom date or winning the football championship. I say that because it's pretty hard to follow, and the first set of exercises listed asked a question about a topic that wasn't discussed until a few pages later. Maybe someday I'll look fondly on this book as they do, but I doubt it.
----------------------------------
When I see how popular books like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" are, I think I should try to get in on the gravy train of dollars that these books rake in. Since I'm not a publisher (who get 90% of the book sale price, leaving the author and agent to split the remaining 10%), I guess I'll have to be an author. (J told me about the 90/10 split, she heard it from an author who came to the library where she works.)
I've decided I'm going to write a book about kids who are interested in science and use science to solve problems and play tricks on people, and ultimately save the world/town/school/dog. Depending on how old the kids turn to be they might win the girl in the end - hugging/kissing to be determined. For the younger kids, maybe they'll get a new bike or something. The main characters will naturally be boys, because everyone knows girls are awful at science. (I know that's not true - not everyone knows.)
As with all books by every author, this will be semi-autobiographical, and will take place in a town just like Jackson, and the main character will have a brother, a sister, and parents who travel with the circus 11 months a year, just like my parents. I'll try not to reveal anything too personal.
---------------------
On the topic of work, we actually got a bonus a few weeks ago, which was a reflection of the company's performance in 2008. We met some of our goals, and not others, so it wasn't like it's been in years past. But any company that's giving out bonuses these days is something to celebrate, especially if I'm a recipient. It's not enough to retire on but I'll take it.
---------------------
We're going to drive around a little today to look at roofs - we have a few colors to choose from ("Black", "Really Really Dark Grey", "Indistinguishable From Black But Not Actually Black", "Almost Completely Black", etc.) I think you see where I'm going with this. We may be able to schedule the roofers in the next few weeks, and once that's finished we'll invite everyone over for a barbeque and we can all sit and stare at the new roof.
Expensive Books That Look Neat
If I found $100 in the street I'd consider buying this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070486174/jamesnewtonspers
If I found slightly less money in the street, I'd consider this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237330403&sr=1-1
I found links to both on this page, which is an interesting, if scatterbrained, read:
http://www.piclist.com/tecHREF/begin.htm
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In other news, tomorrow is the Science Fair setup and check-in for projects. It doesn't seem like this should have taken so much time and effort, but it did. If I work on the next Science Fair, I will cut the fat out of the process that we've been following. This year we just followed the steps that were followed in the past, and the more I've looked at how it was done, the more I've seen unnecessary steps and lots of overhead that results in no benefit to anyone, but adds a lot of work.
Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather - we are, especially the kids who were outside most of the weekend and some today. I got my bike out over the weekend and pumped up the tires and even rode around a little. M has been taking bike rides around our neighborhood, taking the walkie-talkie with him to keep in touch. It gives him a sense of freedom and he really enjoys doing it. We're glad he's getting the exercise.
We've decided on a roofer and we hope to get on their schedule soon. They're a Manchester company that has a good reputation, and they were recommended by some contractor friends of ours, so we have an opinion that we respect.
If I find $7000 in the street, I know what I'll buy with it.
Have a great week!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070486174/jamesnewtonspers
If I found slightly less money in the street, I'd consider this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237330403&sr=1-1
I found links to both on this page, which is an interesting, if scatterbrained, read:
http://www.piclist.com/tecHREF/begin.htm
---
In other news, tomorrow is the Science Fair setup and check-in for projects. It doesn't seem like this should have taken so much time and effort, but it did. If I work on the next Science Fair, I will cut the fat out of the process that we've been following. This year we just followed the steps that were followed in the past, and the more I've looked at how it was done, the more I've seen unnecessary steps and lots of overhead that results in no benefit to anyone, but adds a lot of work.
Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather - we are, especially the kids who were outside most of the weekend and some today. I got my bike out over the weekend and pumped up the tires and even rode around a little. M has been taking bike rides around our neighborhood, taking the walkie-talkie with him to keep in touch. It gives him a sense of freedom and he really enjoys doing it. We're glad he's getting the exercise.
We've decided on a roofer and we hope to get on their schedule soon. They're a Manchester company that has a good reputation, and they were recommended by some contractor friends of ours, so we have an opinion that we respect.
If I find $7000 in the street, I know what I'll buy with it.
Have a great week!
The New iPod is Coming to a Very Small Space Near You
This is interesting – the new iPod shuffle. Any smaller and you’ll mistake it for pocket lint.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/03/ipod_shuffle_firstlook_and_takeapar.html
This thing has NO buttons on it – all the controls to play/stop/shuffle/etc. are on the headphone cords. I’ll bet replacement headphones will be $20-25.
I think I would not be able to use this - it's too small. How could you keep track of it? Tape it to a big piece of cardboard, maybe, or a hubcap, like a restroom key at the gas station.
It reminds me of some of the super-compact digital cameras - they may fit in my pocket, but they're almost too small to hold and operate. A lot of new cell phones are the same way - you don't feel like you're using a phone. This is one reason why people talk so loud when they're on their cell phone - they think they have to yell to get the sound all the way up to the mic.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/03/ipod_shuffle_firstlook_and_takeapar.html
This thing has NO buttons on it – all the controls to play/stop/shuffle/etc. are on the headphone cords. I’ll bet replacement headphones will be $20-25.
I think I would not be able to use this - it's too small. How could you keep track of it? Tape it to a big piece of cardboard, maybe, or a hubcap, like a restroom key at the gas station.
It reminds me of some of the super-compact digital cameras - they may fit in my pocket, but they're almost too small to hold and operate. A lot of new cell phones are the same way - you don't feel like you're using a phone. This is one reason why people talk so loud when they're on their cell phone - they think they have to yell to get the sound all the way up to the mic.
Fun Things to Share
There is (was?) a guy at the Ann Arbor Art Fair* who used to weld together small pieces of nuts bolts, watch faces, etc. and make little figures like people playing golf or reading a newspaper. One particularly detailed sculpture was of a motorcycle. I thought they were pretty ingenious.
The internet has pointed me to even neater and more inventive sculptures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27965417@N06/
I like this one the best.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27965417@N06/2605295977/
Same idea, different materials and subjects…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockwasher/sets/72157602020950948/
Dad, I can hear the wheels in your head spinning right now... I know you're going to ebay to find some old radios to weld to something.
*I know there are four different fairs, but I call all of them collectively the “Art Fair” and if they don’t like it I’ll stop going there and buying Gyros from the Greek Orthodox Church’s food tent. There’s no need to hurt the Greeks, Art Fair Name Compliance Police. They’re just trying to raise money for a new domed roof.)
The internet has pointed me to even neater and more inventive sculptures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27965417@N06/
I like this one the best.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27965417@N06/2605295977/
Same idea, different materials and subjects…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockwasher/sets/72157602020950948/
Dad, I can hear the wheels in your head spinning right now... I know you're going to ebay to find some old radios to weld to something.
*I know there are four different fairs, but I call all of them collectively the “Art Fair” and if they don’t like it I’ll stop going there and buying Gyros from the Greek Orthodox Church’s food tent. There’s no need to hurt the Greeks, Art Fair Name Compliance Police. They’re just trying to raise money for a new domed roof.)
Friday Night Update - Miscellaneous Nonsense Edition
Hello to my legion (legions?) of followers. It's better to have legions than lesions. Does everyone know the story of Legionnaires Disease? It's interesting.
I'm in the home stretch for Science Fair. Mostly it's in good shape, just have to wait 10 more days until the fun starts. The check-in night is actually the busy night, and after that has been endured it's more fun. I'm looking forward to seeing the projects all done - we have a list at home of all the kids and their projects, and there are a lot of neat ideas.
M and I finished his project yesterday, and mom and K are almost done, they just have to glue everything together. They look great. I'll make sure everyone at least gets to see a picture of the finished projects.
This is a link to a fun story - it's a blog by a guy who normally writes about programming topics that are so deep sometimes I scratch my head, but this time he writes about a neat boat-moving machine. http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2009/03/05/what-are-the-horns-for.aspx
This is just for fun: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/YD1ITAKAEBc/two-angry-camels-in.html
I'm in the home stretch for Science Fair. Mostly it's in good shape, just have to wait 10 more days until the fun starts. The check-in night is actually the busy night, and after that has been endured it's more fun. I'm looking forward to seeing the projects all done - we have a list at home of all the kids and their projects, and there are a lot of neat ideas.
M and I finished his project yesterday, and mom and K are almost done, they just have to glue everything together. They look great. I'll make sure everyone at least gets to see a picture of the finished projects.
This is a link to a fun story - it's a blog by a guy who normally writes about programming topics that are so deep sometimes I scratch my head, but this time he writes about a neat boat-moving machine. http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2009/03/05/what-are-the-horns-for.aspx
This is just for fun: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/YD1ITAKAEBc/two-angry-camels-in.html
And I found this on the MAKE magazine blog, which is a really neat place to visit: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/04/video-explains-what.html
More later. Hope everyone's enjoying the warm weather! I know I am.
Saturday Adventures with a Tap and Die Set (Updated 3/2)
I bought a frame saw with a gift certificate I got for my birthday. (Thanks, Roger and Nancy.)
Here is a link to that saw at the tool company's web site: http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/12372
The tension on the blade can be adjusted by turning the turnbuckle attached to the two threaded rods at the top of the saw.
The problem I've had with this is that turning the turnbuckle sometimes turns the nuts at the end of the rod as well, and a few times a nut has completely turned off the end and fallen on the bench.
Yesterday, I wasn't paying attention and the nut fell off again. I looked for it a while and couldn't figure out where it went.
My first reaction was to get a new nut. I looked at the nuts I had in my nuts and bolts drawer and couldn't find one. I got the thread gauges out of the tap and die set I have (thanks, Dad) and discovered the threads were 3/16 - 32, meaning the rod is 3/16" in diameter and there are 32 threads per inch.
I tried to use the 3/16-32 tap in the tap and die set to convert an existing nut in my drawer to the desired threads, but it didn't work. I didn't have anything that gave me a good start, and I couldn't get a clean cut.
I went to the hardware store, but the smallest nuts they sell in their normal displays are 1/4". I finally found some 3/16 nuts in some of the specialty drawers, but they were 24 threads per inch.
Plan B: Get some brass rod and thread it. I checked the dies I had before I left and I knew I had a 10-24 die. This is about the same as 3/16-24. The problem with this is that I could make the threaded rods but the turnbuckle wouldn't fit them. It's 32 tpi.
(Update 3/2/09: Previously I wrote that 10-24 means 10mm, 24 tpi. It doesn't, and I clearly didn't do the metric conversion before I wrote that. 10mm is about .4 inches, not 3/16" (.1875 inches). The "10" is a value that specifies a special diameter used in sizing tap and dies which in this case equals .19". See http://www.micromark.com/html_pages/instructions/tap-die.pdf for how to compute what "10" means.)
I decided to buy the brass rod, some new nuts and some washers, and make a new rod. Instead of using a turnbuckle, I'm running the rod all the way across and tensioning the blade using a wrench.
This picture shows the saw, and the two rods (click on it to see a bigger version). The original adjuster is second from the right, and you can see the turnbuckle that connects the two smaller rods. The new rod is on the right. The die is at the middle top - once I got it started, it just required turning and a little oil to keep it lubricated.
A close-up of the new threads:
The only thing I have left to do now is to shorten the new rod a little so it doesn't stick out so much.
Here is a link to that saw at the tool company's web site: http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/12372
The tension on the blade can be adjusted by turning the turnbuckle attached to the two threaded rods at the top of the saw.
The problem I've had with this is that turning the turnbuckle sometimes turns the nuts at the end of the rod as well, and a few times a nut has completely turned off the end and fallen on the bench.
Yesterday, I wasn't paying attention and the nut fell off again. I looked for it a while and couldn't figure out where it went.
My first reaction was to get a new nut. I looked at the nuts I had in my nuts and bolts drawer and couldn't find one. I got the thread gauges out of the tap and die set I have (thanks, Dad) and discovered the threads were 3/16 - 32, meaning the rod is 3/16" in diameter and there are 32 threads per inch.
I tried to use the 3/16-32 tap in the tap and die set to convert an existing nut in my drawer to the desired threads, but it didn't work. I didn't have anything that gave me a good start, and I couldn't get a clean cut.
I went to the hardware store, but the smallest nuts they sell in their normal displays are 1/4". I finally found some 3/16 nuts in some of the specialty drawers, but they were 24 threads per inch.
Plan B: Get some brass rod and thread it. I checked the dies I had before I left and I knew I had a 10-24 die. This is about the same as 3/16-24. The problem with this is that I could make the threaded rods but the turnbuckle wouldn't fit them. It's 32 tpi.
(Update 3/2/09: Previously I wrote that 10-24 means 10mm, 24 tpi. It doesn't, and I clearly didn't do the metric conversion before I wrote that. 10mm is about .4 inches, not 3/16" (.1875 inches). The "10" is a value that specifies a special diameter used in sizing tap and dies which in this case equals .19". See http://www.micromark.com/html_pages/instructions/tap-die.pdf for how to compute what "10" means.)
I decided to buy the brass rod, some new nuts and some washers, and make a new rod. Instead of using a turnbuckle, I'm running the rod all the way across and tensioning the blade using a wrench.
This picture shows the saw, and the two rods (click on it to see a bigger version). The original adjuster is second from the right, and you can see the turnbuckle that connects the two smaller rods. The new rod is on the right. The die is at the middle top - once I got it started, it just required turning and a little oil to keep it lubricated.
A close-up of the new threads:
The only thing I have left to do now is to shorten the new rod a little so it doesn't stick out so much.
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