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GRAFFITI -- March 23, 2009 thru March 29, 2009 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

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March 23, 2009

2126 - You know, I despise the way that the 24-hour "news" culture is driving the crap reporting and hounding people related to the AIG bonus story. This was all known months ago, and in the much, much larger scheme of things, is a real molehill. Do you think there's more important things to focus on than a few hundred folks, and a few hundred million? Sure, it's a "big" deal - less than a buck per citizen of the USA. Now STFU and move on. And don't start messing with tax laws to play get-even politics. SRSLY. Let the failing businesses fail. It'll hurt now, sure. It'll hurt more later. Get it over with. Now, get back to Octomom, and the Tom/Giselle story. Or you can go for the seriously creepy, as you scroll further and further down this page... Ciao!

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March 24, 2009

2111 - What's special about my textbook for this semester? How about this gem:

"Although this is obviously a crucial step in developing a program, this book presents programming concepts in a language-free environment."

Um, say what?

Therefore, we will have little to say about the translation of the design into actual code.

Where I come from, if the design doesn't get implemented in actual code, it ain't programming! Fortunately, that's not how this course is being actually taught, as such. There is plenty of (reasonably good, in the case of this particular course) online supplementary material, including code examples and exercises. They're all profoundly 35 years ago for me, but that's to be expected. Unfortunately, the school doesn't appear to be much interested in saying, "You already know most of this stuff, we'll let you take a bunch of interesting stuff instead, to complete your degree."

And school work has eaten the rest of my energy. Ciao!

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March 25, 2009

2008 - I've cleared a bit of woodshop so that I can roast coffee. One batch down, another yet to go. A moderately successful day at work, with (as usual) three new tasks uncovered for every two completed. Still, better to be busy than the alternative. Ciao!

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March 26, 2009

1905 - Back from a cross-county adventure. Of course the meeting is scheduled to allow me to drive a long commute home in the rain with everyone's favorite group of forgot-how-to-drive-in-the-damp morons. Sigh.

Nice. There's always one more side to the story. I wonder if any in Congress will react to this resignation letter from AIG VP Jake DeSantis. From me to you, Jake, you rock! Thanks to Jerry for posting the missive that brought this to my attention.

Speaking of bringing to attention, I neglected my duty on Sunday last. Six casualties were announced last week, six service members who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen. They are:

• Staff Sgt. Timothy L. Bowles, 24, of Tucson, Arizona, died March 15 near Kot, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.
• Staff Sgt. Archie A. Taylor, 37, of Tomball, Texas, died March 14 as a result of a non-hostile incident in Kabul province, Afghanistan.
• Sgt. Christopher P. Abeyta, 23, of Midlothian, Illinois, died March 15th as a result of injuries sustained in Kot, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Robert M. Weinger, 24, of Round Lake Beach, Illinois, died March 15th as a result of injuries sustained in Kot, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Spc. Norman L. Cain III, 22, of Oregon, Illinois, died March 15th as a result of injuries sustained in Kot, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Spc. Gary L. Moore, 25, of Del City, Okla., died March 16 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an explosive device struck his vehicle.

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March 27, 2009

0925 - Richard Micko wrote in with a request:

Brian:

If you agree, would you please re-post the list of the casualties at the bottom of last Sunday. �I am in the habit of remembering the sacrifices of our soldiers with a "click on last week, press end and repeat." �It helps to remind me of the debt I owe to fellow citizens. �I hope this makes sense.

Regardless, thank you for continuing to post the list of our fallen.

tx,
Rich

Easily done... and done. Back later, ciao!

Leg tuning fixture

2148 - I have some more systems at work to update, so I'll be brief, but I wanted to share a bit more of the latest woodworking mojo. One of the reasons that I keep virtually every bit of scrap lumber that comes through my shop is because I *know* I'll need it someday, some way, even if just to back a workpiece while I drill holes in it. But today I quickly fabricated this fixture you see at left, to position square-ish things (in this case, legs for the new sewing table) while I worked on them. I wanted to ease the corners of these poplar legs, but I didn't want to ease them all the way to the top. I wanted square corners where they interact with the table and brackets. So I marked the tops of the legs, position them in this new fixture, and use the buck plane to chamfer each of the corners (about 5 passes each), leaving three inches unchamfered at the top. Worked like a charm.

A few minutes ago, I used a length of spare 1/4" ply and some left over brackets to make a fixture to suspend the legs while I apply finish (tomorrow, and the next several days) - picture of that tomorrow, perhaps. I would actually build the whole table and finish it as a piece downstairs, then bring it up and place it ... but the doorway at the top of the stairs leading into the kitchen is but 28.5 inches wide on the inner jams, and the table with legs is 3' wide x 7' tall x 30" tall. That dog won't hunt. So I'll finish the legs and stringers and top downstairs, then bring it all upstairs and assemble up here, perhaps next weekend, if I can get coats of finish on it three days in a row, and let it cure for three more.

Now, to work with me. Ciao!

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March 28, 2009

No Post.

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March 29, 2009

Tabletop grain w/polyurethane

Leg finishing fixture

1558 - Friday night, I finished all of the first round sanding on the components of Marcia's new sewing table. I took everything down to 220 grit. Instead of using a sanding primer to raise the grain and resand, I simply decided to multi-coat with polyurethane. I put the first coat on yesterday (Saturday) and took on a couple of other shop projects, too: assembling my router table, and setting my new and astonishingly inexpensive ($110) Skil benchtop drill press.

The pictures show how well the grain of the birch plywood is coming out with the polyurethane. Mostly birch plywood is fairly plain, in keeping with its being a nice paintable surface. I dug through the available materials when making the purchase, though, to find a piece with some fairly complex figuring. It sure is coming up nicely, and what's shown here is only after first coat. At right, you can see the six table legs in their drying fixture (I mentioned that on Friday night)

Today, after the shopping, I lightly sanded everything again with 320 grit, knocking off the raised grain and preparing for the next coat. Then I wiped all the components down, first with a damp cloth to get the bulk dust off, then a second pass with the tack cloth to get a really clean surface. Then I second-coated everything with polyurethane. Depending on how the tabletop shapes up in the next day, I may swipe at it with steel wool, and put a third coat on it, Tuesday night. Then I'll just let everything cure until Saturday, when I can dismantle the old table, and bring in the new one.

Oh, hey. Here's my favorite junior slayer (Felicia Day, duh) wielding an M4 out at the range. Fun, she is having.

Back on schedule, folks. Eight more armed service members were reported casualties by DoD in the past week, continuing the trend of Afghanistan heating up as Iraq winds down. A side-note: Later reports indicate that the last two casualties reported this week were killed not by an Afghan soldier, but by an insurgent dressed as an Afghan soldier. The report items below, as usual, are all direct from the DoD DefenseLink news site. I only fill out the state names to deal with the inconsistencies in reporting styles from the various services. Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen.

• Pfc. Adam J. Hardt, 19, of Avondale, Arizona, died March 22, at Forward Operating Base Airborne in Wardak Province, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident.
• Lance Cpl. Daniel J. Geary, 22, of Rome, New York, died March 20 while supporting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan.
• Corporals Anthony L. Williams, 21, of Oxford, Pennsylvania, died March 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
• Michael W. Ouellette, 28, of Manchester, New Hampshire, died March 22 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
• Sgt. Jose R. Escobedo Jr., 32, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, died March 20 in Baghdad, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident the night before at Forward Operating Base Kalsu in Iskandariyah, Iraq.
• Staff Sgt. Raphael A. Futrell, 26, of Anderson, South Carolina, died March 25 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident.
• Lt. Florence B. Choe, 35, of El Cajon, California, died March 27 when an Afghan National Army soldier opened fire on personnel assigned to Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan at Camp Shaheen, Mazar-E-Sharif, Afghanistan.
• Lt. j.g. Francis L. Toner IV, 26, of Narragansett, Rhode Island, died March 27 when an Afghan National Army soldier opened fire on personnel assigned to Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan at Camp Shaheen, Mazar-E-Sharif, Afghanistan.

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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