Steampunk

Well I've been drunk a lot. There is also the holidaze I've been running around for, but I have started a new project. I enjoy the look of steampunk. I don't want to dress up in period costume talk funny and look down at people who think it's weird... but I enjoy the look of some of the things they created... SO I looked around for something that I could mod and not care if it came out looking like crap.
I picked this.


So I took it that the idea was to make it look homemade, overengineered and brass/copper. Ok so first I need to look at things.. which I did. Googlesearch for steampunk, click on images got some ideas. good. now to start hacking. I realized quickly that if I paint this thing, then in some forseeable future, I'll forget what the hell it is. Out came the soldering iron and used it to melt the bluetooth emblem into the plastic... as deep as I could. Next it needed a screw...perhaps some odd plug in... headed for the junk drawer.


I've learned some important lessons.. 1. be patient. epoxy (JB Weld to be precice) takes hours to dry and cure... if you don't wait it wont stay. 2. work on one side at a time. Otherwise it becomes a juggling act. So I've commited myself to this project... and if it doesn't turn out then the wife... well lets say I won't be able to steampunk anything else...

Still alive...

Just mired in homework and tests.

I have been playing with a new cad program. Came recommended from Hackaday
Eagle came highly recommended, and it seems to produce. I haven't played with it too much but it defiantly looks like it would be very handy to the hobbiest... IF you want to pay 200bucks. Im running the freeware version right now. I was using Tinycad which did just fine for homework in my basic Digital Design class clear up until decoders. Why it doesn't have a decoder in the library I don't know.. Shouldn't be hard to put one in if you really needed one, I just didn't bother to. There is actually quite a bit of support for tinycad on yahoo, which suprised me. Probally why OSS is better.

Apperent Lack of Projects.

Yea I know.

I've been trying to clear my desk for the holidays. Not as easy as it sounds. Getting my homework caught up and ahead so I have nothing to worry about over Thanksgiving. Not to say I haven't been doing other things.

Kernel update. I used Windoz for well over two decades in my own home. So I did cringe when it said it was updating the kernel... went off without a hitch, other than it took awhile for my soundcard to figure itself out, but that was all worked out fine. I haven't tried the Wine programs yet, but for what I'm using it for right now it's working just fine.

eeeepc 701. le sigh. I don't work on this one much. I did crack open the OS like a melon, now it looks like a computer normally does. Xandros is a Debian thing and so it has a package manager that is pretty extensive. Samba is having a problem on it, as soon as I get it worked out I will have aircrack up and running. I assist people as a hire on nerd for their home systems, and may need to help someone back into their wireless network.

I've hit an interesting project that is a bit outside of my realm of expertise. Mental fitness. My brother is required to do mental fitness games. I was reading about it, and the brain is, for lack of better terminology, subject to atrophy. So to develop a way to exorcise the brain. Not as bad for a student, who has to constantly track long term projects as well as short term projects and is subject to constant social interaction. But particularly problematic for elderly. I'll put it on the back burner and let it simmer.

Back to the homework machine.

Google Wave

As you can see I've been watching Google Wave for some time now. With mixed emotions. I got my own wave invite (don beg me Juan) and it quickly degenerated to an argument between a close friend of mine and a chatbot. I can see that it is a good collaboration tool. I can see the point that it is merely another distraction in the office. Most of all what I saw, was an interesting new way to expand usability. The bot. Not the chatbot, she is just annoying. But if you ever find yourself asking the same questions over and over again, a chatbot is something you might want to look into. Their answers are all there, the chatbot can actually form them into a nicely packed form. "I have an Idea." "what is your Idea" "my Idea is A" "How would that work?" and so on. But the bot itself is a nice concept. You could write a bot to translate between English and Spanish and it would do the rest. NOW you can talk internationally with anyone. Write a bot that points out deadlines, and gives you heads up. A bot that makes you aware of timezones. Still can't make one that makes coffee.

"Hipcat, WTF is your point with all this"

It's another level of automation, to make life easier. In a setting that is... well.. more a distraction at this point, but still. They are currently only working with Java and Python. I have been looking for a challenge, perhaps this is it. But what do I personally think of the GW? It has potential, we shall wait and see.

First Posts are normally the most difficult, but this time...

We will take an exception.

I'm an Electrical Engineering student that honestly enjoys electronics. Opposed to those that just heard that they get paid a lot. So I do do a bit on the side. Of course I'm notorious for taking things apart.

Today is Veteran's day. I support the veterans wholeheartedly. I have my reasons. I took on a project today, Was kind of a surprise. It was a fiber optic ghost, they had dismantled the ghost part was was left with a geared motor that turned the filter, and a halogen light. That is what surprised me. I was expecting a set of white LEDs and a filter and a motor, but the whole thing ran on 7vac. That was the other surprise. I'm pretty sure it was AC power. The light wasn't coming on and they wanted me to check the voltages... no big deal those types of bulbs don't always 'look' burned out, and they are easy to mishandle.

The other project I took up was a video of WOW playing. I fraps ed it, put it together with some music I had lying around on the hard drive and sent it to him to see what he thought. We'll see I had always considered doing some tutorials, but never did. Perhaps I'll do them.