Travels and Images
WEEK 9 2004
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Picture of the Week
Saturday 28 February 2004
Saturday - I've been thinking about that Saturn V again. If one were to upgrade the materials only, use composite fuel and oxidizer tanks, and composite materials for the thrust structure ( 17 tons of aluminium and steel by itself! ) what sort of improvement would it be. Considerable, I think.
I've been reading some mysteries that a friend loaned me, by Laura Joh Rowland. Basically they are mysteries set in Japans medieval period. Roughly the same period as "Shogun" I assume. An interesting setting, though the reader might argue he isn't given quite enough info to actually SOLVE the mystery. Not that I ever do, so I'll happily be looking for whatever is left after the first three books...
A number of storms have passed through here. Today there is snow on all the hills about the Antelope Valley - looks like a 5000 foot level. Fun but cold.
Friday 27 February
2004
Friday - not too much going on. Did some shopping, and some reading.
Thursday 26 February 2004
Thursday - retrieved my car. The wiper problem was simply a loose nut.
It seems as though there might be progress on the unemployment front - more as it comes to pass.
I watched a bit of the space walk today. The media ( and NASA ) has
billed it as dangerous and unsafe - despite the fact that the Russians
did it often on MIR, we did it when on the moon, and so on. Today there
was a problem with one of the space suits, so they stopped for the day
and went inside...
Wednesday 25 February 2004
Wednesday - went back and worked some more on that
computer - hey, there was a free meal offered in payment, we unemployed
sorts can't just ignore that sort of thing. I put the anti-virus on,
put a spyware checker on, started the firewall, disabled windows
messenger, cleaned and defragmented the hard drive. The install
packages for the DVD and CD seem to be missing. The DVD sort of works,
but won't, for example, play "Fellowship of the Ring". Downloading an
update from the website, a slow process with an intrusive interface at
38K dialup, did not help. The CD burner software was Adaptec 4.0; I may
have that around somewhere, to finish the install. I think the printer
is toast.
Compaq was bought by HP, and it is hard to find any drivers or information on the not very old system. May Carly Fiorina rot! I understand she's on the NASA review board right now - that's not good.
When I drove over to my friends house it started raining. When I turned
on the wipers they worked briefly, then the left (drivers side) wiper
rotated so far that it was sticking out over the rear view mirror. So,
since it was pouring rain when I got done, I had to get a ride home and
leave the car there. I just had the wipers fixed a week or two ago -
maybe they forgot to hook them up properly. Argghhh. I'll get it
tomorrow!
Tuesday 24 February 2004
Tuesday - worked on a friend's computer. The hard
drive in it was failing so it was replaced, and a new version of the OS
put on the new hard drive. Then AOL was moved over, and some other user
programs. Unfortunately the inkjet printer seems to have given up the
ghost - it makes unhappy mechanical noises when things try to print!
I couldn't finish everything I wanted to do, but it's a good
start. I'll go back in a couple of days to finish things up - install
the anti-virus and load the windows updates and make sure the XP
firewall is running reasonably. And make sure the CD burner and DVD
player are working OK.
In the afternoon I went to see "Return of the King" again, with some
friends. What a movie. Spoiled only a bit by having to reprove some
talkers in the back. Grrrr.
My brother stopped by on Monday evening and we talked for a bit about
job prospects, and home buying and building. He likes his neighborhood,
but not the house he is renting. There may be some possibility of
buying it from his landlord, and then remodeling.
Me, I desire to be even more remote, far far away from all the garage bands.
Monday 23 February 2004
Monday - my friend arrived and we had a
beer and sat about talking books and whatnot. After requesting that a
neighbor rein in his kid's garage band ( at 10:30pm on Sunday night ) we turned in to bed.
In the morning we went out to breakfast at Crazy Otto's with another friend and their son, who was delighted with the huge pancakes and who found a waitress sympathetic to the ease with which the whipped cream vanishes from one's cocoa - she came back with an entire bowl of the stuff for him!
I understand that he underwent some mild gastrointestinal repercussions later in the day. Poor guy.
Then it was time for us to work on the project - feet for a hide-away
bed. The idea was to take large wooden dowels, 1.5" in diameter,
countersink a .75" hole halfway through, and finish with a 5/16" hole
for a bolt to protrude through. The hole, after placement of the bolt
would be filled with epoxy, and the whole thing varnished.
The first attempt with the drill press was not a success :-( The 0.75" hole was offset from the dowel's center, and the 5/16" bolt hole offset from that, and crooked
to boot! It's possible to get repeatable accuracy from a drill press,
if you set up a jig, and measure carefully. We decided instead to use
the metal lathe.
It is possible to use a metal lathe as a drill press with remarkable
ease. The drill does not rotate, but rather is fixed in the tail stock,
and slowly driven into the work piece. The work piece is held in the
chuck and rotates. The procedure was simple:
(1) chuck the dowel into the lathe
(2) use the dead center in the tail stock to indent the center of the dowel
(3) exchange the tailstock's dead center for a drill chuck with a 5/16" drill bit and drill through the work piece
(4) exchange the 5/16" drill for a 3/4" drill and drill halfway through the work.
(5) repeat for each dowel.
Now, this is overkill, but it is also easy to do. In a more professional
shop the work pieces would all have been center punched first, then all
drilled out to 5/16", and then all drilled out to 3/4", to avoid the
waste of time involved in changing the cutters. On the other hand no
one in their right mind would hire a professional machine shop to make five wooden peg legs...
Sunday 22 February 2004
Sunday - the rain is threatening again.
Off and on showers lately - unusual for the Antelope Valley. I have
been trying to clean up around the work areas in the garage - I've a
friend coming in tonight that wants to use the (nearly inaccessible)
drill press. Because of this I won't be able to join my friends for
roller skating...
Photo Notes: A frond, with a raindrops, in my Dads' back yard.
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