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ZIETGEIST
Doug Stanhope on Nationalism
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January 13 , 2012 :: 3:14 PM Oh yeah, I have a website! Guess I should plug my Etsy store on here: Silicon Valet I'm going to have some oil paintings on there fairly soon. Gonna have to update my "art" section, too... October 19, 2011 :: 4:49 PM Finally added something new in Art, an oil painting. October 7, 2011 :: 8:49 AM Have I mentioned that Liberty Tool Company has an online storefront on eBay? Just in case, it's here. There's some neat stuff on there right now--a Celestron C14 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, a Stanley No. 1 Plane, and a Benjamin Darling drill, possibly the rarest and most collectible bit brace ever made. July 27 , 2011 :: 11:22 AM A callback to my earlier post re: Asus and their terrible, terrible product quality lately...the 1215N / 1215T /1215B notebook series has an issue with the touchpads behaving erratically. If you ask Asus, they'll try to get you to reinstall the drivers, then send it back for a replacement, which will have the exact same problem. The issue is with a short occurring due to bad engineering and assembly, and can be fixed either by moving a silver pad (1215T) or using lots and lots of electrical tape (1215N). Here's a forum with pictures of the fix. May 13, 2011 :: 6:04 AM Here's the reason I love working at the Davistown Museum: We get really amazing old artifacts in every once in a while. This device is an Edison Reproducer, the player for the first widely publicly available form of recorded audio media, which consisted of "wax" or "Amberol" cylinders. Each one holds about 4 minutes of audio and, rather than transducing electronic signals into sound waves like a modern speaker, has a tiny topographical etching in the grooves which the needle skips across, thus vibrating a tiny piece of mica and metal foil. The vibrations are amplified by the giant horn, producing sound. The cylinders were recorded in the exact opposite process--the sounds being recorded vibrated the piece of mica causing the needle to write to the cylinders. This is all timed by a gear mechanism inside: the whole device is essentially a kazoo hooked up to a clock. I wasn't really sure what I was looking at, being from over 100 years from the future relative to when this was made, but the construction was so simple and straightforward it was a simple joy to repair and make functional again. I hate to give Edison (that elephant electrocuting piece of shit) credit for anything so ingeniously simple and effective, but there it is. May 12, 2011 :: 6:04 AM After having done business with Asus for years, I'm disappointed to say the quality of their products has finally dipped below the acceptable level for me. The last series of ridiculous charades started with me attempting to assemble a computer built around the M4A79T Deluxe motherboard last year...and I'm still finding product defects with what I've gotten from them. I'm currently running an M4N75TD which has been RMA'd twice. The last one I got back was having serious northbridge overheating issues, so I popped off the sink to replace the thermal paste in case it somehow went dry in the short span of time I've had it and discovered there was a paper sticker backing stuck halfway in the thermal paste, keeping the chip and sink from making contact. Worst. Manufacturing. Ever. And quality control. And RMA services. I got my first netbook (a 701) from these guys, but popularity has not been good to their company. So much for product loyalty. May 8, 2011 :: 10:37 AM Another year of interesting times. Bin Laden is dead, some random inbred English people got married, and all the wacky anti-nuclear environmentalists get to say "I told you so" because of myopic corporate greed. And some raw data: MEXT - Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology regularly posts readings by prefecture Measuring Radiation - How to convert measures of radiation and actually know what people are talking about TORCH - A report comparing and contrasting various analyses of the extent of Chernobyl, which everyone else has already forgotten about, too. Radiation map Roundup - A collection of maps tracking and forecasting contamination NILU of Norway's Monitoring Page - forecasts of theoretical dispersion September 18 , 2010 :: 6:50 PM At the request of a friend who has a friend who didn't believe people can break coconuts, I took a quick video that exemplifies why you shouldn't buy coconuts if you don't live relatively near the equator... August 27, 2010 :: eleventeen AM I've been working out on the bridge over the stream near my house that David McLaughlin built while he was living down there. It's a tranquil little spot. My amateurish attempts at some of the kata from my style of karate: Tensho -- definitely not the Chojin Miyagi version, though it sure does reek of white crane. If anyone practices this kata and learned it by another name, please let me know! Pinan -- This kata is usually taught broken down into five parts. Called "Heian" in Shotokan and other Japanese styles. Nobody really knows how the original kata looked, but if you stick the pieces back together you get a few new bunkai. July 13, 2010 :: 12:30 PM http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12744540 June 16, 2010 :: 12:30 PM New oil painting in the art section. May 21, 2010 :: 9:00 AM Added a photos section to the site. Some fairly recent shots in there from Rhode Island on. February 17, 2010 :: 1:40 PM Updated some links. Sean Walker forged a ring at the Davistown Museum the other night--videos can be found here: February 11, 2010 :: 11:22 PM Photos from the aforementioned gathering are up here, and I've added links to a karate section (since I do enough of it). February 4, 2010 :: 11:22 PM The biannual Gasshuku my dojo throws in Midland, Texas just finished up. Good times were had by all, was very impressed with the Shotokan dojo that showed up from El Paso. Honorable, respectful, open-minded, all-around top-notch karateka. I hope to see more of them when I come down next. Photos and video soon to follow! |
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All site content copyright Sett Balise 2008 |
