Shadow/Brooke — LiveJournal
Jun. 25th, 2022
10:59 am - No new postings
Due to password problems on LJ's end, I can't auto-post stuff from DW anymore. So I won't be posting much (if anything) here for the forseeable future.
You can follow me on Dreamwidth, same username as here (kengr)
It's been fun
Jan. 23rd, 2022
04:37 pm - The tale of a power strip
The other morning (way-too-dark-thirty) I realized my CPAP had stopped. I rolled over and the clock was off too. But the room lights were on.
Ok, not a power outage. I crawled over to where I could reach things and the clock & CPAP started up again. I tried to check the plugs and they all seemed to be ok.
A while later, it happened again. This time I managed to get to where I could see things without things coming back on. A notable item was the the power switch for the strip was lit up. So the *strip* was getting power...
But as soon as I messed with it, things came back on. *sigh*
This happened several more times throughout the early morning. I just tried to deal.
Finally, when things went out again I heard a distinct "bzzap!" noise. Something was arcing. This is very much not a good thing.
So I wound up unplugging everything from the strip and unplugging it from the wall. I searched my stock of spare cords, etc, but didn't see another power strip.
Arrgh,, that meant waiting until Albertsons opened at 6am and hoping they had some in stock.
Then I remember that I had another power strip plugged into the outlet at the foot of the bed for use if I moved some things over to this side of the room.
After more fun contortions, I managed to get it out and plugged in in place of the arcing one.
Hours later I took apart the bad strip. Only thing I found was a dust bunny a bit smaller than the cotton bud on a Q-tip, but a lot less substantial. It was sitting between the black and white wires on the power switch. There were a couple of black dots wjhere it was almost touching the wires.
That appears to be what was the problem, but I just finished disassembling the power strip and tossed the pieces in the trash. Didn't want to tempt anyone to retrieve and use it.
That was a very strange incident. I'm surprised that the dust bunny could carry enough current to cause the power to the outlets to fail, but not enough to catch fire.
The gods of electricity are weird.
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Jan. 16th, 2022
02:14 pm - kludged "soup"
So, I've had this package of Bob's Red Mill Whole Grains and Beans Soup Mix for some time (it was in a food box).
I finally decided to use it. I looked at the basic instructions (not the fancier recipes). It was pretty simple, take 4 cups of stock (I used chicken vegetable, also left over from a food box) , a cup of the soup mix, and whatever meat of veggies.
I had some chicken legs (drumstick & thigh as one unit) in the freezer. So I tossed them in the crockpot and cooked them.
When they were done, I pulled two out and put them in a container in the fridge. I took the remaining one, and use a fork to strip the meat of the bones. Tossed the bones and left the meat in the crockpot along with the liquid that had cooked out of the chicken.
Then I added the soup stock and soup mix. Cooked for a few hours on high. Then I took a sample, kinda bland and the beans and grains were still a little chewy. Also not quite as hot as I though it should be. And a bit thin too. So I added another cup of the soup mix and cooked for a few more houras.
This time it was definitely simmering, and stuff was properly cooked. still a bit bland. And *way* thicker. More of a stew than a soup.
Served some up stirred in some seasoning, and it was great. I've got enough for several more bowls, and I'll probably try it again to use up the rest of the soup mix.
Probably won't buy the mix, but it's given me some idea for all the lentils, oat groats, rice and other stuff that's built up from the food boxes.
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Jan. 11th, 2022
10:43 pm - Gizmo design
I'm playing with an idea fir a gizmo for stories, and figured I'd try to get some "user feedback" on the design.
The device is a "water purifier". That's what they are sold as, though they do have other uses.
Their first appearance was donations to isolated medical clinics in third world countries. They later started being sold in such areas and slowly spread.
They are about the size & shape of a mid-size tower case for a computer, but turned sideways. The front has two vertical recesses. It comes with a pair of pitchers with tight fitting lids. They are different shapes. (I'm thinking that the recesses have a sliding cover for when the pitchers aren't going to be in them)
One (for input) fits in the left hand recess. The inside is basically square but with the corners and edges rounded with about a 1 cm radius). This is to make it easier to clean. No corners for things to catch in.
The second (for output) only fits in the right hand recess. Its inside is cylindrical with a hemispherical bottom.
Both hold one liter. Extra pitchers are cheap.
If switched on, a power light goes on. With no pitchers in place in a pair of rectangles in the area between where they would go light up around the edges. The rectangles are next to the slots for the pitchers.
The one on the left flashes red. The one on the right flashes blue. When you place an empty output pitcher in the in the right, the outline of the rectangle quits flashing and stays steady.
When you place an empty pitcher in the input side the outline of the rectangle goes red.
If you put something in the input pitcher and then put it in its slot, The rectangle flashes solid red, and then if their is any water in the contents it turns solid green. Then a button lights up (with an icon?). If you press the button the rectangle flashes again and then the top of the green rectangle starts turning red. And the same time the hollow blue rectangle next to the output pitcher starts turning blue from the bottom.
As the water is removed from the input side, the rectangle has the red process down until the rectangle is solid red when all the water has been extracted.
The blue output rectangle will fill from the bottom as the water is extracted. It won't go solid blue until the pitcher has a liter of water in it.
When the input rectangle is solid red, the start button goes out, and you can remove either pitcher.
If you remove the input pitcher, you can put another one in and repeat the process until the output pitcher is full. At that point the start button goes out, and the blue output rectangle is solid blue and flashing. You can remove the output pitcher and transfer the water inside to another container.
The water inside is chemically pure and sterile.
The leftover stuff in the input pitcher is dry unless there were liquids other than water in it. Solids, silt, mud, etc and dissolved substances are a powders (again unless there were other liquids in there) if animal or vegetable material was in there it looks the same, except the water is gone.
The input will even works with minerals that contain "bound" water. Though in that case, the rocks may change appearance or crumble due to the missing water.
Oh yeah the contents of the input pitcher while still contain any infectious material that there originally, but it'll be dehydrated. That will kill most organisms, but won't affect viruses, prions and some spores.
That's one reason for having multiple pitchers. You can use one pitcher for chemically or biologically hazardous materials, and others for things like foodstuffs you want to dry. And yes, someone early on discovered that if you put beer or wine in the input pitcher, what got left behind was mostly alcohol and flavorings. :-)
Oh yeah, if there's anything in the output pitcher when you place it in its slot, the blue rectangle outline will keep flashing until you replace it with an empty one.
And you can remove a partially filled output pitcher when the input pitcher needs changing.
Likewise if the output pitcher is full and the input pitcher display still shows some green.
you can replace the full pitcher with an empty and and press the start button again.
So, any suggestions for changes or questions about how it operates?
note: they are your classic "black box" system. *What* they do is known. How to operate them is known (and hopefully very obvious). *how* they do it is not known
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04:44 am - needed skills
Been reading a lot of Tales from Tech Support, as well as other videos about Reddit posts.
I've noticed a ubiquitous problem that I first noted in second or third grade. People can't read something out loud.
Oh, they can "read" it. But what they say is *not* what the text says. They change words. Usually to some other word that they *think* is the same thing, but isn't. Other times it's a *completely* different word that only shares a few characters.
Some people go as far as "hearing* things this way. That it's, they are told X, and "hear" Y.
An example from one of the tech support stories was the tech telling the guy he needed to clean out his mailbox and the guy hearing it as "wash the computer". "Clean" and "wash" do *not* mean the same thing!!
More commonly this sort of thing comes up when the tech asks the person what the error message on the computer is. What they tell you is paraphrased, usually *badly*.
Now, I don't expect end users to know all the "technical terms" (though they really should know the difference between a monitor and a computer for just one example). Details *matter* with many, MANY things in modern life.
But people *really* need to be able to read back the *exact* wording on an error message. And to read the *actual* instructions on the screen or on a page *without* rewording them.
Yet even back in grade school I noticed folks misreading stuff when asked to read a passage from a book aloud. And the teachers rarely said anything about it.
Yeah, being able to get across the gist of something in your own words usually (but not always!) indicates that you understood what you read.
But we *really* need to start teaching people that young that details matter. When asked to *read* something aloud, you need to read what's written. Not give your interpretation odf the text. If you are asked what it *means* that's a different situation.
The concept that *details matter* needs to be taught. As well as the concept that there are times when you should *not* paraphrase things. Especially when some asks you to read back something that they can't see but you can.
Maybe also spend more time on the concept that different words really do mean *different* things. They don't exist just to be fancy or something. Synonyms *do not* mean the same thing. They have *similar* weirds, but they aren't the same.
Crimson and burgundy are *not* the same color even if both can be called "red".
these skills would prevent *(so* many problems and misunderstandings...
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Jan. 10th, 2022
11:45 am - more solar calendars
Ok, the other day I went into how you could set up markers for the solstices, equinoxes and the cross-quarter days.
That seems to have been popular in Britain and western Europe.
I the American Southwest, the natives did it differently.
They set up sun daggers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajada_Butte
They started with a spot where sunlight coming thru a gap in a formation created a wedge shape spot of sunlight on a rock wall. Then they marked where the point was on the summer solstice. They placed petroglgyphs on the rock face to mark this.
Interesting solution to a "common" problem.
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Jan. 9th, 2022
03:57 am - ethical design
I was thinking about fabbers. That is, the ultimate version of 3D printers.
input a design/template, feed in a bunch of whatever that contains the required elements, and it builds the desired object atom (or molecule) by atom. Unneeded stuff from the feedstock gets output as blocks of something convenient to use when you need more of X element or molecule.
I realized that if you are ethical, a primary design criterion would be that *every* part of a fabber of a given size needs to be such that you can "print" it with that size fabber. this may make designing parts of it (like the outer shell) a bit more complicated, but it means that you can us a fabber to make a backup for itself.
Yeah, that tends to cost repeat sales, but in a society with fabbers, there aren't going to be a lot of sale anyway. mostly of templates and raw materials.
Which brings up another point. The starting set of templates should include ones for all the parts of the fabber.
If neither of these are true, you've got a nasty little monopoly there.
This sort of fabber (with the "dump whatever in" input) makes recycling fairly trivial. Just dump in the "junk" and have it output it as blocks of convenient compounds.
For some things (a lot of metals) just output blocks of the metal of a convenient size. For others, pick some reasonable inert compound, and output blocks of that. For some, you'll want a shell of something to encase them to protect them (like blocks of salt will need protection from water).
I'd advise not breaking down organic molecules unless there's a *very* good reason.
Gonna have a rather different sort of "cheap as dirt" things in a society with fabbers. Silicon and quartz will be that cheap. Aluminum and sapphire will be almost as cheap.
I won't bother listing what else would be that cheap. Just looking at a list of common minerals (and common things that go into dumps) will let you figure it out on your own.
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Jan. 8th, 2022
05:30 am - clocks and calendars
I'm reading a story about some folks throw back in the distant past. They are talking about how to determine the season and set up a calendar. They aren't doing too bad, but they obviously don't know a couple of important tricks.
Ok, for time of day, set up a crude sundial to start. Just a flat piece of cleared ground with a tall stick or pole in the middle.
Have someone keep an eye on it and set small stones at the end of the shadow every so often, or poke twigs in the ground.
After a few days you'll have the longest shadow pinned down, and that's noon. If you still have working watches or clocks, you can use those to lay out markers for the hours. Just remember that you'll have to shift them every week or two.
For setting up a calendar, you need a hunk of flat ground with a good view of the horizon (east or west) so you can observe surise or sunset.
It works best if the horizon is flat, but you can still work with it even if its hilly.
Set up a pole just tall enough that you can sight over the top. Use a rope or cord to darw a circular arc around it in the direction of sunrise or sunset.
Each day at sunrise, have one person at the sighting stick and another with a tall pole standing on the arc. Use hand signals to move them right or left until the pole lines up with the rising/setting sun. Place a marker on the arc at that point.
Over the course of the year, the markers will shift to one side until they hit a max and start moving back. Those two ends of the arc mark the solstices. The point in the middle of the arc marks the equinoxes.
Most ultures also noted the points halfway in between the solstices and the equinoxes. Those are the cross-quarter days.
All 8 points (remember the ends only get hit once a year while the other six get hit twice a year) are festivals. Because they are important seasonal markers if you are outside the tropics.
You've got about 45 days between each, which is good enough for a crude calendar.
If you've got more gear you can do better on the sundial. Use a rod pointing at the Celestial pole, and a couple of half-circle bands to support it. The hour marks on the band at right angles to the rod will be evenly spaced and not need to be changed over the course of the year.
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Jan. 6th, 2022
06:22 am - Not so harmless
Came up with a weird idea while half awake.
Gypsy style wagon. Drawn by flamingos.
Ok, weird, maybe some nice local color. Then I remembered that pic of a T-Rex skeleton covered in lawn flamingos (caption: A flock of flamingos can strip a T-Rex to the bone in 90 seconds)
Suddenly that wagon isn't silly...
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Jan. 4th, 2022
04:16 pm - Poor ninja...
Something I'm reading reminded me of nightingale floors. And free association led me to something Id read about flooring that generated power from footsteps and was bio-luminescent as well.
Which led to this image od a ninja confronted by a floor where the boards light up in different colors *and* played an associated note as you walked on them.
Talk about chalenging!
I bet everyone who used it would have an associated tune. Which would alert the guards as well as "announce" a visitor.
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Jan. 1st, 2022
04:44 pm - Sewing question
I want to make a sort of sleeve to cover something. It needs to be *very* flexible (floppy, even). But it also needs to maintain its length and not fold "in" on itself.
First thought was boning. That'd maintain the length all right but wouldn't be flexible.
Any ideas/suggestions?
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Dec. 31st, 2021
05:06 pm - Attention SF geeks
(mostly old time fans will get this)
Ok which one is supposed to be Delos D. Harriman? Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson?
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08:44 am - My so-called life
First of all, I'd like to state that hot flashes suck. especially when you have just gotten comfortable in bed and were about to go to sleep. Grrr.
And for my second presentation...
I was thinking about kid's "monsters". And my mind transposed a couple of words. Thus --
The Monster Under the Closet
The Monster in the Bed
Those would certainly be different!
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Dec. 15th, 2021
11:09 am - ecomnomics
This is also why it's better to buy from a local store than a national chain.
In both cases the wages of the workers get spent locally and help the local community.
But with the national chain most of the profits leave the area.
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Dec. 14th, 2021
12:56 pm - It's been a long time....
Dec 14, 1972. At 2:54 pm PST, the last humans departed from the lunar surface.
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Nov. 15th, 2021
06:14 am - Attention Rock fans..
... it really *is* DEATH metal when the band has a gigawatt speaker stack.
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Nov. 13th, 2021
11:45 am - Farmer's market
*Finally got around to making a run to the farmers market in Hollywood.
I've been needing to for months to use the "Farm Direct Nutrition" checks I get every year (6 checks for $4 each that they issue to "seniors). They expire on November 30th so I was cutting it a bit close.
I got myself a big bunch 0of some broad-leaved green I didn't recognize, but should cook up nicely. Also a huge bunch of some purple "green" with ruffled edges. Got a bunch of carrots (3 orange, 2 purple), a huge bunch of celery, a bunch of turnips and beets (2 turnips, one beet) A few pounds of apples, and a stalk of brussel sprouts.
Filled the cart about 2/3rds of the way but was light enough to haul up the stairs in one go.
Got the green on the carrots and the turnips/beets, so that's extra food :-)
I forgot to get onions, but I can do that at the store later.
My glasses were fogging up badly, plus I'm still way out of shape from "hiding" in the apartment so much. That's why I didn't check out everything more thoroughly. Maybe next time.
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Nov. 11th, 2021
02:23 am - Happy Birthday
Woodrow Wilson Smith born, 1912-11-11
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Nov. 5th, 2021
10:58 pm - Hidden stuff
I like the bush!
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Nov. 3rd, 2021
11:38 am - Body disposal
I was reading something with the typical "put the body in the hole before they pour the concrete bit.
This is practically a cliche, and the void that will result in the concrete could cause the foundation to fail. Which gets things looked at. Not good.
Then I recalled a scene I've seen in downtown Portland several times over the years when they were putting up skyscrapers. Piledrivers driving pilings for the foundations.
Now, I'm not certain how they start that process, but I'm assuming they dig a hole to act as a starter, then lower the piling in and start pounding on it to drive it deeper until it is deep enough (or hits bedrock).
So it occurred to me that dropping the body in the pilot hole, with a foot or two of dirt over it ought to work nicely,
Shouldn't take long for the body to be mush and bone chips. Even if anybody was going to dig down that for to look, I doubt there'd be much identifiable left.
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