September 2012 Archives
September 28, 2012 @ 21:17 EDT
21/365: Full Moon
Full moon tonight, and I tried to get a few shots in my back yard. This was my favorite, captured handheld @200mm:
I then went inside, grabbed my 500mm mirror lens and a tripod, and tried to get something a little more detailed. This is the best one of the lot, cropped down a bit:
Not bad for a backyard shot..
September 21, 2012 @ 23:52 EDT
Where does this Ocean go?
all day the city's selling something always, the busy people spinning 'round busier dizzier 'til they go back home to somewhere
and taxies stop to say "hello" "want a ride? I'll take you there" "to anywhere, just tell my driver"
the sun is casting shadows an afternoon is fading I ask, but no one knows the answer to the question my life is like an island where does this ocean go?
shyly, a wino sips his wine slowly, cause to him that is all that matters he sees a cat he knows so well now sleeping on a bench together
a woman waiting by herself, selling flowers "please buy some, so I can help my daughter, will you?"
the man with spider eyebrows is standing on a corner "who wants to see a show?" his head looks like a melon he turns into an alley then stops to blow his nose sky is filled with neon the buildings stand electric and almost seem to glow want answers to the question my life is like an island where does the ocean go? I really want to know my life is like an island it's time for me now to fly where does the ocean go?
This song is one of the many, many reasons why the Ghost in the Shell series is such an incredible work of awesomeness.
...nearly every song touches on some factet of my emotions this evening. Check 'em out, if you're so inclined.
Time for bed. Maybe I'll even sleep tonight.
September 21, 2012 @ 21:39 EDT
14/365: The Curse of the Black Spot
This is a shot of a brand-new monitor that I just finished unboxing. The manufacturer's warranty policy covers up to three bright pixels or five dark pixels. There's at least 25 pixels in this blob, so it was boxed back up thirty minutes after I'd opened it.
It looks like that one of the LEDs that provide the backlighting failed or there's a defect in the surface. This is most visible from this crop:
Having a macro lens is nice, eh?
What makes this particularly frustrating is that I bought this screen to replace a four-year-old one that started acting up three days ago; there's apparently a short in the control panel that causes the on-screen-display to keep popping up.
Yesterday, the old screen started working properly. Today, I got the new screen, and it's defective. It looks like I'm in the middle of another run of random hardware failures..
The new screen was MuchMoreAwesomer(tm) than the old one; vastly better color reproduction, much lighter, brighter, and used two-thirds of the power. A pity I had to send it back..
September 18, 2012 @ 13:19 EDT
Oooh, I can haz missle launcher?
[pizza@stuffed ~]$ lsusb Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f9:0039 Brother Industries, Ltd Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1941:8021 Dream Link WH1080 Weather Station / USB Missile Launcher Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Unfortunately, what I have hooked up to my system is a rather pedestrian weather station, not the more interesting missile launcher. And yes, I know it just fires nerf darts or something like that, but I can still dream about an Anti-Air missile installation controlled via USB, can't I?
On the other hand, I doubt .mil publishes their interface specifications, and reverse engineering a missile launcher is likely rather expensive. Not to mention mildly dangerous..
September 15, 2012 @ 21:02 EDT
Premature Baldness
Got new tires mounted onto the tin can today. The old ones lasted just over 2.5 years, which is better than I'd expected given how um, spirited my driving tends to be.
Like the old ones, these are "ultra-high-performance" summer tires. But unlike the old ones, they're not Yokohamas, which is a real departure for me.
The first tires I bought (once I had something approaching a clue about what I was doing) were a set of Yokohama AVS Intermediates (as opposed to "AVS Wet" or "AVS Dry") in the 215/60R15 size my Maxima could use. They were loads better (grippier, quieter) than the Tigers Paw GTH4 205/65R15s I had on there before.
Eighteen months later, I'd worn out my set of AVS Intermediates only to find they'd been discontinued and no more were to be had. Fortunately, Yokohama introduced the AVS ES100, which turned out to be better in every way -- except for tread life, a paltry 17,000 miles (as opposed to the 22K miles the Intermediates were rated for). Not that I tended to see that kind of life..
In part due to camber problems causing uneven wear, but mostly due to my driving, I tended to go through a set of those ES100s a year. This continued until my Maxima was backed into by a big-ass pickup truck.
Then I ended up with a tin can of a Hyundai Accent shorn with cheapo 175/75R13 tires. I replaced those with a set of Sumitomo HTR 200s, which gripped better wet than the original ones did when dry. While they were the best ones available in that size, they were a far cry from what I'd been used to.
As those tires wore out, I scored a set of 15" Saturn OE rims which I wrapped with a set of Yokohama S.drives in the 195/50R15 size. Once again, Yokohama managed to make the best (non-track) tires in the size I needed. Once again, their wet grip was better than the old Sumos managed in the dry. And the dry grip was phenomenal! I was finally able to take my favorite corners at almost the same speed as my Maxima could manage, and unless I truly tried something insane (or it was quite wet) I was unable to break their grip.
But all things come to an end, and as you can see from the photo, the tires were no exception. Being basically slick, their grip was even better -- until it started raining. And being Florida, it tends to do that a lot.
This time, I decided to take a chance and I picked up a set of BFGoodrich g-Force Sport COMP-2s. Aside from having the longest name of any tire I've owned, they've apparently dethroned the S.drives as the best tires in their class.
So far, they're a bit noiser, but I've only driven about five miles and I need to check the pressures before I really start comparing things. That included my favorite 15-mph corner, which I managed at 42 with a little bit of squeal. That's what I could do with the old tires, though my Maxima could do 45 before the back end would start to float. I need to get used to them before I push things harder..
Yeah, I need to get my thrills somehow.
UPDATE [2012-09-27]: The new tires are quite nice; they are indeed noisier, but also give better aural feedback of what they're doing. They also grip a little better, and the steering response and ride quality is also improved. Color me impressed! I have yet to test their wet traction, but the weather is indeed fickle in this fine state.
September 15, 2012 @ 19:11 EDT
8/365: My Baby Shot Me Down
It's always gratifying when you shoot out part of the target. Granted, this was at a mere seven yards, but my grouping has improved considerably.
When I moved out to fifteen yards, I maintained the same two major groupings, though they spread out a bit more due to the increased distance.
(The groups on top and the left were deliberate, and not done by me)
I should hang this target up so someone sneaking an illicit peek through the window sees this...
September 08, 2012 @ 19:56 EDT
I can haz weather!
Three weeks ago, I picked up a cheapie Personal Weather Station, an Ambient Weather WS-2080. The instruments aren't of the highest quality, but it was cheap and included a USB port so I could log everything to my server.
Today, two cuts, a skinned knuckle, several bruises, one broken drill bit, and several quarts of water later, I finally mounted it to the house. It's bolted through the siding, through the plywood decking, and into some 2x4s on the other side, which are then braced against the interior trusses.
It's already online at The Weather Underground as KFLMELBO62
I have yet to hook it up to a local, self-hosted graphing solution, but I'll be workong on that tomorrow. I'll include the data from my smart thermostat too.
(Pardon the crummy photo; was taken with a grimy cell phone with even grimier fingers...)
It's a shame I didn't have it mounted when Tropical Storm Isaac barrelled by. That would have made for some pretty graphs!
Anyway. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.