Instruments Part I
One of the things I never liked about the Maverick was it's instrumentation, or lack there of. Missing primarily is the tachometer, volts , water temp and oil pressure. Plus a few other gages that I might decide to add later.
The Instruments I have is the "Classic Series" by Classic Instruments. These 5 inch speedometer and tach fit perfectly into the space of the old instruments. They are all electric including the speedometer. I liked that better then having a cable run up from the tranny. Plus when I build the computer system for the car it will be able to track speed via the speedo.
From the pictures you can see that I kept most of the original mountings only modifying them to fit the new gages. I mad my one custom wiring harness so I can just plug the whole mess in when I'm ready.
Now, I just have to figure out a place to put the other gauges...
Networking Fun
On Christmas day I hauled my PC with us over to my Girlfriends sisters house. My "brother-in-law" and I both play a game called Aces High. It's a flight combat simulator using World War II vitage planes. It's PC only game and one of the few things I use my PC for.
Usally he brings his rig over to my house, since I have the broadband. He hooks his PC into my router and it's up and running. He has dial-up so the plan was for me to hook my PC to his PC via ethernet and he would enable internet sharing. With my Mac way of thinking I figured I could use a regular ethernet cable to connect the two. That's because Mac released in the last few years have auto sensing ethernet jacks. That means that the ethernet port knows what the wire configuration needs to be depending on how you have them hooked up. Otherwise for this sort of computer to computer connection you need a cross over cable that has some wire swapped.
Neither of the ethernet ports on our PCs had auto sensing ports. And we didn't have a cross over cable. Hmmm... What to do. I had an idea! I hooked my Powerbook up to his computer via ethernet. Internet sharing worked with my Mac since I had the auto sensing ethernet jacks. I also have firewire ports on my PC and Mac. So I connected the Mac to the PC via a firewire cable. Enabled internet connection sharing on the mac via the firewire port and enable the firewire network port on Windows. I turned off the firewire on the the Mac and viola! The PC had a network connection via the Mac which had one via his PC.
Believe it or not Aces High was very playable with both of us on his dial-up. I think it's because A: He has a very clean line and gets a pretty fast connection for dial-up and B: Aces High has low bandwidth requirements.
Merry Christmas
It's officially Christmas day here in New Mexico. We've already opened our presents at the 'ol homestead. My girlfriend has a weird tradition where they open everything on Christmas eve. Doesn't make sense to me. Since I look like the weird-o waiting till Christmas morning to open my presents I pretty much loose that battle. Regardless we all got nice stuff. Hope everyone else has a equally good Christmas.
New Math?
Try this for yourself and let me know if you get the same results.
Updated 8/12/04: See this article and see this Apple article on "rounding errors".
This Is Not A Shark
Want so more info on this photo, go directly to the source. "This was shot in Malibu, California on April 19th, 2003. It was shot with a Canon Eos 1D digital SLR camera. The lens was a Canon EF 400 2.8L with a 1.4xII extender. This is NOT altered in anyway. It is a DOLPHIN !!!!!!"
This is one of those once in a life time photos. I'm almost tempted to buy a print myself.
The Robots Are Going To Take Over!
One of my faviorite electronics companies is Sony. I'm not sure what it is but they seem to have a nack for designing hardware with a certain style and functionality that most companies cannot. Apple and Sony are closely related in this way. The Japanese electronic companies seem to be obsessed with building human like robots. Recently I came across a video showing some dancing robots from a Japanese PC site (babblefish translation). Dancing robots seems to be the favorite way to show them off, but this is far different. It's a very amazing "rain dance" that shows 4 robots dancing together. If I didn't know better I would think there were people dressed up in suits.
Heres a link to the video. For Mac Users: If you have the latest version of Windows Media Player installed it should launch automatically and play for you. Otherwise you will need to download it.
Right Back At You
A new web site is out to salute the Hummer H2, but not in a good way. I admit that I want a H2. If I had $50,000 to buy one I would be at the dealer right away. Except... I wouldn't. Because I wouldn't be able to afford the gas. I would however buy one if it ran on Hydrogen or Vegetable oil. Detroit, are you listing?
I Am A Lego Nerd
At nearly 30 years old I can't help but still play with Legos. This year I set the Santa Fe Super Chief up around the Chrismas tree with some bridges so it would clear the legs of the tree stand.
Legos have always been my favorite toys. I still have all of them from when I was a kid. I guess it's what has inspired and trained me to be an engineer for my real job. There's some really nice stuff out now, a lego theme for just about everything. Why didn't they have Star Wars Legos when I was a kid? I guess it was better that I just created my own Star Wars Lego sets. It didn't stop me from buying them though, I own several of the sets today.
Some Is Better Then None
I love the snow. Growing up in Arizona I didn't get to live in snow let alone see much of it. Therefore I get really excited where there's a chance for snow
My first day in Albuquerque it snowed. I woke up that morning for my first day of work. Outside there find probably 6-12" of snow on the ground. I didn't even know it snowed overnight and the day before there was no sign of snow. I remember that it was very quite. Not only because it was 5am but because there is something about the sound deadening quality of a think layer of snow, it's very peaceful.
It was quite an adventure trying to drive a '72 Ford Maverick equipped to dissipate heat as quick as possible in the 100+ degree Arizona weather. It worked well in Arizona but with the cold weather of that morning I couldn't keep it running. It wouldn't warm up even when I covered the radiator. I had to ditch the car on a side street, walk back to my apartment and call my cousin to pick me up.
Today we just got a dusting of snow. It hasn't snowed that good in a few years at least. I still enjoy it. Looks like there will be another chance on Monday for more snow and I look forward to it.
FInally!
Long URLs
Uh, Not Exactly
The article is mostly a bunch of ego fluff about how the author was a Mac user until we went to work for the real world where they made him switch to windows. Blah blah blah, why don't you just give us beauty tips instead.
The author refers to this security advisory as an example (the only example he gives) of how insecure MacOS is. What he fails to do is research. This exploit requires a "malicious DHCP" server. Meaning someone has to hook up to your network and be the DHCP server for your network. That counts out most home users, since they are likely going to know about any servers in their home. Even with the wireless scenario that the Carrel.org claims could happen, It's no easy exploit, your in much more trouble then you think if it happens to you and not just because of this exploit.
The register has an excellent article on Linux vs Windows security. To quote "To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just need to work on it". This applies to MacOS X as well. This article has been out since July.
[Update:] See, I'm not the only one that thinks this guy was "incorrect" in his "article".
Another Snow Possibility
[Update:] Dam lying weather-persons. Not a spec of snow to be seen.
It's Funny Because It's True
The people have spoken...
Signal Sucking Or Not?
This weekend I finally got around to working on my HA system. Many weeks ago half my house stopped sending or responding to X10 commands. I thought something was fishy about the way this worked because I would see the lights flash when a signal was sent out. Thanks to a tip from James Sentman over on the Xtension list I have partially solved my problem. I reset the X10 address of all the SwitchLincs and viola! Almost all of them are now working like they use to. All except the KeypadLinc in the kitchen, the Compose Fan Controller and Switchlinc in the master bedroom. Must have been a power failure that caused it. Not sure if it was one in particular or all of them since I just went through and reset all of them without checking.
I got Sailing Clicker set up to work with Indigo. Now I can control my HA system with my T3 via Bluetooth. This isn't meant to be a universal remote, but more of a advanced troubleshooting tool when I'm to lazy to get up from the couch and go into the computer room (plus the battery life on the T3 isn't so great). It works pretty good and responds instantly. I'm pretty impressed.
Unfortunately I think I have been pushing my Lombard to it's limits. When ever I launch iCal to look at what events were logged, it will cause the entire computer to lock up. I see this when doing other things sometimes. With 256MB of RAM I may need to invest in a upgrade. Not sure if it's worth it or to just start looking for a used G4 Powerbook.
Museum of the Hand Written Sign
[Update:] If this doesn't do it for you then check out the Package Museum.
Only A Real Geek
iCaputre
Blogshares Closes Down
Another One Bites The Dust
The NR70V came out May 31st 2002. I bought one locally as soon as a store had one. It was my 5th PDA. My 1st was a orginal Palm Pilot. I bought it on eBay (my first eBay purchase that I paid way to much for) and I dropped it on a metal floor after 1 week. My 2nd was a Palm II, 3rd a Palm IIIxe. I may have broken the screen on one of them and the other one had problems from dropping it. In either case I was just looking for an excuse to replace them. My 4th PDA was a Handspring Color Visor. Nothing was wrong with it except it was big and clunky compared to the newest handhelds. I think I covered them all.
Sony has been the most innovative for years now. The NR70V was a great machine and although I had been dying to replace it with a Palm OS 5 machine I just haven't seen anything worth it. The UX50 is nice but I never use the keyboard and would rather have the tablet form factor. Since I had to replace it I went with the Palm Tungsten T3.
The only problem with it is it doesn't have WiFi. It does however have bluetooth and a tablet mode (virtual graffiti). I already have a bluetooth cell phone and mouse. The Sony's have some cool stuff but there not worth the extra coupla of hundred dollars.
Accessibility
R/C Full Size Cars
Santa Fe
I'm having some problems with my Camera. Take the image titled "Looking tword the cathedral", Images that are dark sometimes have some graininess to them. I also find that I get about 2-3 corrupt pictures. I don't know if this is some problem with the memory card or the camera. There are a few images I took of the monument in the center of the square, where they removed the word savage describing the indians, that were corrupt.
There wasn't any protesters in the plaza today but there were some along the way.
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Santa Fe
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Near the cathedral
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Native American art work
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Rooftops
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Down town square
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Santa Fe Public Library
Apple Is First In Something
Self Arrest Form
Thanksgiving
The main dish, the bird, was made using the Alton Brown "Good Eats" method. It involves brining the turkey the night before. To prepare, I made a test turkey a few weeks before the big day. It was a small 10 pound turkey and the experiment proved that it was the way to go. The boys ate it like it was going out of style.
The next new thing was gravy. I had always wanted to make homemade gravy. Most recipes call for using the internal organs, but I find that to be gross. Considering that things like the liver are waste creation factories. I did however find a good one using the neck bone. Normally I would use the Alton Brown recipe but it seemed a bit complicated for the first try as it requires two recipes. I thought I had the "Gravy Confidential" episode on my Tivo, but looks like it mislabeled it. None the less, the results were delicious. Another hit.
I had wanted to make some mashed cauliflower but went with traditional mashed potatoes instead. Mashed cauliflower tastes almost like mashed potatoes but without the carbs and more fiber.
Nothing else real fancy besides that. We had stuffing, pumpkin pie, the normal stuff.
Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
Arizona June 2003
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Why Best Buy Sucks
Spyware
I support a few PCs at work that are shared among many users. I came in yesterday and was told one of them didn't work. Internet Exploder pops up lots of windows when launched and Outlook doesn't launch properly. I knew what it was. I ran AdAware and found 5 different Spyware programs running on the system. Not to mention the gazillion of cookies, support files, folder and registry entries (something like 600 total). Only took and hour to run the scan.
Once all that was removed it all worked fine. What a pain in the arse.
Halo For Mac
A Few Before And After Pictures
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Another Theming Utility
The people over at Unsanity have come up with another little application, called ShapeShifter, for themeing the MacOS. I remember back in the good old days of theme-ing the MacOS in OS9 using Kaleidoscope. There were some truly great themes with that and some great themes but-not-so-functional themes and then there were some just bad ones. I had Kaleidoscope, I believe that I even paid for it. But I don't recall that I ever used a particular theme for any amount of time except maybe a OSX looking theme. Mainly because I was interested in using the new OS.
ShapeShifter does appear to take some of the "danger" out of using themes on MacOS X. According to their press release "It does not touch any of your system files. It simply tells application to look for them elsewhere. This means that a theme will no longer be dangerous to use and you will never have to use "Aqua Restores" again. And you will no longer have to worry about uninstalling themes before you update the OS." I admit that I haven't tried themes on MacOS X because of this issue. There also seems to be other themeing programs out there, but I'm not sure of the difference or compatibility of the file formats, if any.
I won't be buying ShapeShifter anytime soon. I have already paid for FruitMenu and XSounds, neither of which has been updated for Panther. I've also been hearing more and more complaints about Unsanity programs causing problems with peoples system.
If It Were Only So Easy With Real Money...
You have successfully sold 1250 shares in Calvin Likes to Ramble at $ 69.39 ea. for a total income of $86,734.40.
This brings your total to zero shares.
Price for this stock changed from $ 69.39 to $ 54.66 (P/E 168.82 now, public will tolerate a max. )
http://www.jroller.com/page/danielqo
You have successfully sold 1250 shares in Daniel's TODO list at $ 87.98 ea. for a total income of $109,975.48.
This brings your total to zero shares. You have done 1 transactions in the last 24 hours.
Price for this stock changed from $ 87.98 to $ 44.08 (P/E 141.72 now, public will tolerate a max. )
Cash Balance
$228,726.62
ActiveWire Driver For OSX
Because ActiveWire, Inc. was dragging their feet in releasing an OS X version of their driver, I wrote one myself. It provides all the functionality (and more!) that the OS 9 version did.
Version 1.0 has many enhancements over version 0.1:
? REALbasic support!
? Much more memory efficient (fixed many memory leaks)
? Uses much less CPU
? Much more stable (plugging-in and unplugging a board used to make the driver crash occasionally)
It costs a mere $6 for everything - the driver, REALbasic plugin, and Cocoa framework. For more information, please visit:
http://www.docdave.com/apps/activewire.html
If you have any suggestions, comments, etc. please don't hesitate to email me!
Dave
Javascript Popups For iBlog
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To make this work I did the following things:
I stole the javascript file popup.js directly from the site listed above (you can download it here).
I put the following code inbetween the <HEAD></HEAD> tags of my template files:
<script SRC="PATHTOFILE/popup.js" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></script>
You will need to replace PATHTOFILE with the path to the location. If your using iBlog I would recommend the full path to the file.
Lastly is the code to make the popus work. This needs to be pure HTML, so if your using iBlog put it in between HTMLCode tags. This is an example of the code:
< a href="javascript:popitup5('http://homepage.mac.com/gregjsmith/.Pictures/PhotoAlbumPictures/livermore2003/Images/IMG_3674.jpg','Pasture', 800, 533,'white')"><img src="http://homepage.mac.com/gregjsmith/.Pictures/PhotoAlbumPictures/livermore2003/Thumbs/IMG_3674.jpg" width="160" border="0" height="106" hspace="10" vspace="5" alt="Pasture" align=right></a></div>
In the javascript function you need to supply the path of the image (no spaces in the path), the name of the popup window, and the size of the popup window. From there it's a normal link.
This is how I plan to use create my "photo blog". I will have it mostly automated using BetterHTMLExport with iPhoto, but I have some work to do to make the templates.
[Update:] You can put the thumbnail photos in your iblog entry and then add a link to just the javascript portion with the larger image. You still have to upload the large image separately.
How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog
I think this is important because some bloggers just may not get it (regardless of what software you use). Especially the younger types. I don't talk about my work here. My work photos stay at work. I will often start a blog at work, just as I surf. But only during lunch and break. Unfortunately i have to produce results so i really don't have a lot of time for this during the day anyways.
G4 Cube Into Aquarium
Blog-Referrer-Google-Tricks for Porn Sites
Speaking of cheating Google, MSN has copied (in the grand tradition of Microsoft not coming out with anything original and coping everyone else) Googles news site with their newsbot service. Blah, looks like crap. They even copied the beta sig.
Pure CSS Baby!
Sleeping Giants
Thank You For The Open AP
I fired up MacStumbler. I turned into the first residential neighborhood and within 30 seconds I found 5 Access Points. The next one that MacStumbler speaks out is called "default". I pull over, I get connected, look up the hotel address and plug it into the Hertz Neverlost GPS system.
So thank you who ever you are that didn't configure their wireless router, thank you very much.
Welcome
Snow?
[Update:] I think I saw snow for a minute. Other than that all we got was rain in Albuquerque. Plenty of snow in the Sandias and Santa Fe though. We really needed the moisture otherwise so I'm not complaining.
All Your Patches...
If your a Windows Users there are 4 Patches from MS for "a cumulative patch for Internet Explorer, a fixfor a buffer overflow vulnerability in components of Microsoft's FrontPage Server and a patch for a flaw with Workstation Service that could crackers to inject code on vulnerable systems are all deemed critical by Redmond. A fix for a flaw in Microsoft Word and that could allow arbitrary Code to run is given the lower category of "important".
This means more forced reboots here at work and I am so looking forward to that. I have a taste of the MS proposal to force future version of Windows to Update wether you like it or not and it's sure a pain in the arse.
Joint Strike Fighter Begins Construction
This plane is based off the X35 prototype by Lockheed Martin. Luckly the double ugly Boeing version didn't win the contest. This plane will be used by all the services, but in different versions:
- USAF-Multi-role aircraft (primarily air-to-ground) to replace F-16 and A-10 and to complement F-22. The Air Force JSF variant poses the smallest relative engineering challenge. The aircraft has no hover criteria to satisfy, and the characteristics and handling qualities associated with carrier operations do not come into play. As the biggest customer for the JSF, the service will not accept a multirole F-16 fighter replacement that doesn't significantly improve on the original.
- USN-Multi-role, stealthy strike fighter to complement F/A-18E/F. Carrier operations account for most of the differences between the Navy version and the other JSF variants. The aircraft has larger wing and tail control surfaces to better manage low-speed approaches. The internal structure of the Navy variant is strengthened up to handle the loads associated with catapult launches and arrested landings. The aircraft has a carrier-suitable tailhook. Its landing gear has a longer stroke and higher load capacity. The aircraft has almost twice the range of an F-18C on internal fuel. The design is also optimized for survivability.
- USMC-Multi-role Short Take-Off & Vertical Landing (STOVL) strike fighter to replace AV-8B and F/A-18A/C/D. The Marine variant distinguishes itself from the other variants with its short takeoff/vertical landing capability.
- UK-STOVL (supersonic) aircraft to replace the Sea Harrier. Britain's Royal Navy JSF will be very similar to the U.S. Marine variant.
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