Maker Faire 2010

This weekend! I will be there, will you? If you see me, please say hello! In addition to wandering around, I will be MCing the Center Stage.

Who else is going? D+R's own Mark Frauenfelder. D+R guest Garth Johnson will be and I think D+R guest Kevin Kidney will also be making the scene. And I wouldn't be surprised to see D+R guest Todd Lappin.

Ultradeluxe, Deluxe Version

Following my post on the ultradeluxe rattle can gold package, David of the Hemmings blog has taken to testing our patience by withholding full details about this 24K plated Austin Healey. We are waiting for further information with great anticipation.

1958 Austin Healey 100-6

Ultradeluxe

This is not one of my vehicles but does look like something I would do. That is not, necessarily, a compliment.

Searching and Replacing Jobs' Flash Statement

Steve Jobs wrote a well-reasoned argument for Apple's resistance to Flash. I thought it was articulate, clear and technical without being overly so. I found myself nodding along. He doesn't sweep Apple's propriety systems under the carpet, he acknowledges them right up front.

However, a big chunk of his criticism could be equally applied to Apple's own policies. For kicks I did some search and replacing:

• Replace Adobe with Apple
• Replace Flash with closed, as a catchall for Apple's myriad of closed technology

Of course, Job's statement is very specific to Flash technology so the search and replace is not seamless, but it does create some funny paragraphs.

Before:

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

After:

Apple’s closed products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Apple, and Apple has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Apple’s closed products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Apple and available only from Apple. By almost any definition, closed is a closed system.

I like that last sentence. Wish I came up with it.

Gas Filler Neck Hose

Know what happens when the hose between the gas cap and the tank disintegrates? The gas pours on your feet at the gas station. Besides being awful for the environment, it is terribly embarrassing.

Corvette Summer Living

The question is not do you want to buy the car, but who is that sitting on the fender? Showing up to purchase this vehicle would necessitate a trip with the seller to their local bar. There would be some excuse to accompany like "the only blue ball point pen in 30 miles." Once there, if you were cordial, you would be able to satisfy this social contract, have a beer and still emerge a 'good guy', squinting in the late, low slung sun of Reseda. However, if you managed to hang in there for a couple of beers and - god forbid - a shot, well then you are sort of stuck. Like a cross between novel plaything and a prisoner. Though, in those dark moments, you may learn the sexual orientation of the individual sitting on the car.

Corvette on eBay

Hard Earned Experience - 20 Things I Learned About Antennas

As I own a coin laundry with three television sets, the digital television conversion has been a particularly thorny transition. Admittedly, the coin laundry industry deals with a more complex matrix of considerations than would present themselves to consumers and most businesses. For example, the theft deterrent aspect of a tube television is of great benefit.

For years, analog antenna reception has been a wonderfully worry-free proposition. It was cheap, reliable and yielded a high quality picture. Digital TV has been less successful.

1. Winegard offers an impressive array of products.
2. Antennaweb is great.
3. VHF/UHF/FM antennas are not great at VHF, UHF or FM. They are a compromise for everything.
4. Antennas are fairly cheap, very light and mounting bracket choices are plentiful.
5. Antennas are sharp and will cut you.
6. Distribution amplifiers from Radio Shack are worthless.
7. Mast mount amplifiers from Winegard help quite a bit.
8. KMEX channel 34 is a particularly popular TV channel. Interruption of that channel causes great aggravation.
9. KMEX Channel 34 is a particularly difficult channel to receive.
10. The digital TV signal is in the same frequency ranges as UHF/VHF. Therefore, a digital TV antenna is no different than a regular TV antenna.
11. The different length antenna tines are tuned to different frequencies. The short ones are for UHF.
12. UHF is directional, so if you are trying to tweak and peak UHF channels, like KMEX Channel 34, point the short tines towards the signal per antennaweb.
13. 300 ohm to 75 ohm converters are still required.
14. The true geeked out solution is to have a tall mast with separate VHF, UHF and FM antennas daisy chained together with twin lead wire.
15. Cable and satellite service for a business is about 8 times more expensive than the same service for home.
16. Electronic City in Burbank is always impressive and their knowledge of TV antenna technology is very robust. They are generous with good advice which is a great value.
17. Digital TV is a much more difficult signal to capture. Analog is much, much more forgiving.
18. It is very difficult to find digital tube TVs.
19. Mistake - trying individual powered 35db gain antennas on each TV because you think that you are over-splitting the signal is a bad approach.
20. Overkill it. Buy bigger antennas and taller masts.

In the end, I have two masts, two VHF/UHF/FM antennas, 1 UHF antenna, a mast mount amplifier, 2 new Coby TVs, 1 new Coby TV that arrived DOA and 1 broken TV power switch caused by individual so angry that they couldn't watch the telenovelas that they hit the television with a stick.

Wiring Harness

After on-again/off-again working on this wiring harness, today I finally decided to just start from scratch. To rebuild the harness was a fraction of the time I had dedicated to troubleshooting. A couple of things to remember for next time: solid core wire is definitely the way to go with that style of light socket and solderless crimp connectors are for suckers.

The Type of Screw That Holds Plastic Bullshit Together

I have always loved the term 'nail straightener' as it refers to an individual so pragmatic and so frugal that they will straighten an old nail for reuse. When the term is used, which is infrequent, it is often a term of derision to poke at the sensibilities of an individual who has such a low opinion of the value of their own time that they would engage in such penny folly.

Though I don't straighten nails, I do cut the power cords off discarded VCRs that have been left in alleys. And before I throw away a plastic coffee maker or inkjet printer, I salvage all the screws that hold it shut. Beyond being frugal, it is an issue of not being able to buy that type of screw. Screws for holding plastic cases shut are vaguely self tapping, usually chrome plated, with threads finer than a wood screw but not as aggressive as a drywall screw. Ubiquitous in the world, holding our junk together, this type of screw never makes an appearance in even the most well stocked hardware stores.

I suppose if you are specing hardware for manufacture, you know the real name, but I simply know it as The Type of Screw that Holds Plastic Bullshit Together.

Lettering, Part 2

I wanted to open a sticker department at Coco's Variety and considered taking this old wood flat file to Jose to have the top painted. Having painted the facade of Coco's, our parking signs, our chisel and our bicycles, I knew that he could do the job with style and panache. Although he is extremely reasonably priced, times are tight and we are counting every penny so I decided to give hand lettering another try.

Rather than engage in the extraordinarily amateurish efforts of freehand again, I used the magic of Photo-Lettering to create a template to work from. Excepting the disastrous connecting of the C and the K into a giant blob, I think it turned out pretty well.

Apologies to House Industries, Photo-Lettering and Ed Benguiat.