Sam-I-Am's Blog

Like a few other people, I couldnt help but notice that RoadRunner monkeyed with their service recently with the result that my day to day internet activity has slowed to a crawl. You know something's wrong when you go to search on google and get a rr.com page saying host google.com not found (and offering all sorts of sponsored links and searches). Today I reached my bullshit threshold and went looking for a solution. OpenDNS was exactly as simple and successful as promised. I just plugged in the new DNS IPs into my router config and like magic the internet was fast again. They have walkthroughs for configuring lots of OS and router variations and it was utterly painless. I tried to contact RR support, but they have a voice-driven menu system now which pushed me over the edge and spattered the remnants of any patience I had left as spittle on my screen.

Yesterday I put the final piece in place to our solar powered lawn-mowing solution. At the old house, I used the reel-mower - not a terribly onerous task provided it was kept sharp. But at the new house we are on a corner lot, and inheriting our predecessor's love of lawn. We are slowly eating away at it with vegetable and xeric beds... but a lot remains. Too much to feasibly manage with the reel mower - especially if I want to share the task with other members of the family.

So, we bought us a Neuton Electric Mower which has the useful distinction of being powered by a removable 24volt sealed lead-acid rechargable battery. We also bought an extra battery. While they dont supply a solar recharger (it comes with a big-brick mains recharger), eBay (for example) does - I was able to buy a simple 24v recharger package with a solar panel, recharging circuit and leads.

I hooked it all together at the weekend, quickly corrected the polarity (+1 for testing) and plugged it in. Yay, the little charging light on the batter lit up. I secured the PV panel (little one about 6" square) to a bit of wood, and repositioned it a couple times over the course of the day.

I have fingers crossed. My tests showed I was getting close to the same output (in volts) from the PV panel, in almost full sun. But, not quite. I know just a little about battery charging, but enough to be aware that it needs to exceed the rated voltage of the battery to work.

Its raining today, so the results are not yet in. But worst case is that I have to tweak the battery-charging circuit piece of this solution (the component - I'm not proposing to tweak the circuit itself, not yet). Neuton said they have had other customers do the solar recharging thing too. Maybe they or a 3rd party could be persuaded to produce an off-the-shelf solution to put solar-powered moving easily into the hands of the masses. We need one badly here in the south - where sun and lawns are both in abundance.

The mower itself: works pretty well. As you'd expect, its quiet (another plus, you can carry on a conversation while mowing). A full charge gets me around our lawn about twice (very approximately 3500 sq ft). Its powered appropriately, my only reservation is the width of the cut - about 15" - so the whole task takes a little longer that your average gas-hog mower might. But it doesn't leave your nerves on edge, can be carried out in the cool early mornings without waking neighbors, and shared across the whole family. I think its a winner.

Labels: home, sustainable

I stumbled on instructables.com looking for I forget what. They have a nice format of a series of illustrated and annotated steps. I was looking at electronic projects, but there's a broad range of crafty/makey topics.

Labels: howto, review, website

As if to underline the already bleeding obvious, today my desk clutter hit the point of self-destruction when I exitted my chair and pulled the headphone cord with me. It snapped at the plug. Worse would have been to break the actual jack in the laptop (or maybe drag the laptop off the desk). It wasn't a happy moment though.

I was undaunted. Radio Shack sold me a new plug, I scoffed at the assistant when he apologized that the only one he had required soldering, and set it aside at home for later.

Later, I snipped off the broken plug and explored it a little. There's 3 wires in there - red, orange (uncoated?) and green. It was just possible to determine which had gone where, and the new plug was similar in form. Some fiddly work later, I had all 3 wires hooked into their little holes and ready for soldering. The paint/laquer seemed to be all that was insulting the wires (from each other), and I scraped some of that off. I started to sweat when the solder wouldnt take. The gold plated terminals loved it - the wire didnt. I dont think the result would get me a diploma anywhere, but after some more scuffing it took. Not quite in that nice flowing way where the wire sucks the solder onto it. But good enough.

I screwed the thing back together, and held my breath as I fired up iTunes and plugged the headphones back in. Sods Law (or Murphy's Law in these parts) holds sway always at these moments: If It Can Go Wrong It Will. When did you ever lurch over-confidently into any project not really knowing what the hell you were doing and pull it off first time? Especially when there's expensive equipment at stake. So I was pleasantly surprised when I got audio. My little grin got wider when I listened hard to a cd and discovered no hiss, no crackle or fuzz. A happy moment.

Then and only then did it occur to me to Google. First hit: How to Replace a Headphone Plug. Always RTFM - preferably before - but if its already worked you get the added bonus that it will actually make sense, and maybe pick up a couple of tips for next time.

Never sure if this is "work" or play. But I got tired of the pond weed look on this site and refreshed it. I mostly just switched a couple colors and a few graphics to make "Lentil 1.1".

Maybe I'll even do the blog templates this time? nah... I'm sitting on that while I ponder migrating the blog - which will make me address the more difficult question of what navigation around a blog and its archives should actually look like.

We are half-way through the mess of moving house - from Payne Ave, Austin, to just 5 miles north of there nr. N. Lamar @ Braker. So, some things are going to take a little while to settle back down while we reconnect services, unpack things from boxes, and deal with the 1001 tasks involved in putting our old house on the market. Apologies in advance!

Labels: home

This looks like fun: a computer programming board game

Labels: website

A long train of thought (naps, forty winks, wombles) wound me up at the official wombles site, where I briefly wallowed in nostalgia. It has been speculated that the wombles were inspired by the art students at Wimbledon School of Art, just down the hill from Wimbledon Common - who were (and are) great scavengers. The same art school just happens to be my alma mater, so I'll stake my claim to this lineage and pronounce myself part womble.

More tips and tricks for sound effect design than is reasonable to expect in one place: Favorite effects tips from the trenches.

Labels: website

Today I suffered my first injury by cheese. My left thumb aches and has swollen from the cut I received under the nail. It happened like this:

At lunchtime I discovered the office microwave had been the site of a small explosion - probably featuring lasagna - and the debris had since baked on in a uneven patina of tomato red splotches. Not wanting to be a part of the problem in baking it on further (and being an occasional nice-guy,) I set about cleaning it. With a little soapy water and a few minutes to soak most came right off, but some residue on the glass turntable was more stubborn. I flipped the sponge and leaned hard on the scourer. That was when it struck. A flake of cheese, hardened to a vicious point, dug in deep under my thumbnail and drew blood. I was able to complete my task and heat my bean wraps with a clear conscience, but the damage was done and a small piece of history was made.