Bowl Control II

They were everywhere.

RGBW

A product of many small adventures in suburbia, where life is wonderful all the time.

Red

Green

Blue

White

Bicycles are cheap

Thus, warm weather saves money. I don't remember the last time I got gas. I think the reason is the last time I stopped at the gas station was in February, at least judging by the receipts in the car.

Another Reptilian Escape Artist

Eat. Sleep. Hibernate. Try to Escape.

Work it, work it, work it.

The killer part of digital photography is you get overwhelmed with selection and volume of photos. It takes a specially zen practice to nuke photos down to ones worth keeping.

There's a bigger question of if any particular moment is worth keeping at all. Everything will eventually be forgotten, after all.

You normally miss this part. But I thought I'd share. For fun. This once.

Case studies.

I wanted the date on the old filter:

I wanted to show the dirt:

I really wanted both:

A little light:

A stop darker:

A different plant in the same repose:

Closer:

Further:

Man W917 Filter for Volvo B230F engine:

Fram PH7328 Filter for volvo b230F engine, used:

Mann and Fram side by side:

Mann and Fram full profile:

Good morning

I love the way this house looks in the morning. The big windows soak up the early sun, and the sheers glow light through house. It feels open and happy, and you can see what the day will be like.

High Milage

 Several years ago, I thought I would need new bike tires. In particular, the front tire looked a little cracked.

I had inherited them from a bike I bought from Packrat and parted out. They replaced the (then beloved) velociraptors that I spent many happy hours grinding through the Socorro single track on. They were reduced to rubber straps filled with goat heads.

 I miss Socorro.

Those tires are an awkward mismatch that make cornering a little funny (the rear tire has lugs that make it very wide, so the front of the bike climbs into curves). For a while, I worried about various performance aspects of these tires on pavement. Sheldon Brown ha(s/d) deep discussions about this, but I think they are targeted at bicycles with thinner tires and different rider geometries. After various turning and breaking tests, I concluded that the performance envelope of a mountain bike is such that there is virtually no situation on pavement and packed dirt where the tires will be the overriding factor in emergency response, unless, of course, they have no air.

Last year I suffered a rash of flat tires, and the cracks grew more obvious. I was certain I would need to replace the tires to make the bike reliable again. But then I found the tire liner was pinching the tube, causing holes. I rolled for the rest of the summer with few issues.

I have concluded I will simply ride, and wait no more.

Creeping Technology

I read all about cameras and their technical specifications until I got the D200.

Then, I read a bunch about how to work them, and memorized a bunch of different techniques. I wouldn't say that's all wrote and 100% memorized, but I have most of what I need engrained.

I still wish I had some more lenses, but I don't wish so badly that I've tried to own.

Now, I look at pictures, think about taking pictures, periodically take pictures, and dread actually sitting in front of the computer to view, and edit them.

I went through a series of mediocre point and shoot cameras after the Sony DSC-P73 croaked. Shortly after grad school, really, when the first paycheck that came that wasn't obviously for disaster recovery came, I splashed out on the Canon S95. The things has a quite beauty to it: small and powerful, it almost always pulls through with great quality images. It is so much better than the progenitors that it's a unique experience. Closer to the D200. Better, if you count live view, and the ability to put it in your pocket.

I was looking at my flower photos. (I take so many pictures of flowers and so few of my wife. I'm doing it wrong!) The detail and focus are simply wonderful. I pushed the button and it worked.

It's up to the photographer to focus on art and being creative.

I've got you...

...in my leafy grip.

Cleaner Air

After 4 years and 30000 miles, the old air filter was starting to collapse a bit.

Wrinkled Metal

Volvo B230 Oil Filter Cursory Comparison

I changed the oil in the Volvo for the first time in 19 months. To be clear, after 19 months and 3000 miles. In the future I will just use synthetic oil, not necessarily the expensive Mobil1.

I also took a moment to compare oil filters, since the replacement I had on hand was a Mann, and the filter I was pulling out was a Fram.

Everybody hates on Fram oil filters. It's a wrench junky past time. Search for your personal brand of car, and Fram is likely to be at or near the bottom of the list of oil filters that anybody lists. This finding raises my doubts about using Fram filters, but in many stores, they are the dominant or only filter available, especially for my aging pile of rust buckets.

Worse, and more confusing, there is little verifiable oil filter performance data available. What size particles are removed? How many particles can the filter carry before it clogs? Does it have (or need?) a bipass filter? Does it create excessive back pressure for the oil pump?  A table of SAE J1858 results for each oil filter on the market would be very useful.

The volvo dorks all say Mann or nothing. There are even claims that the Fram filters don't fit the B230F volvo engine without hitting the frame (patently untrue!).

Without any real solid facts to go on, I use oil filters that I can easily make handy in time to change oil. Last time I did the volvo's oil, I ordered a bunch of parts from rock-auto, and the filter came out as Fram. This last time, I capped an order from IPD with a Mann.

It is obvious that they are not the same filter. They both have a bypass valve in the back, though the assembly is different. The Mann has 4 large vent holes around the threaded center hole, while the Fram has 8 smaller holes.  The Frams threaded plate puckers in a little. The Mann puckers out. The Fram has a nice grippy rubber coating, while the enamel on the Mann makes getting it truly hand tight a bit of a challenge.

What happened to your wings?

Sit Down...

I have something to tell you.

Culturally speaking, the internet has become a norm. It's not new-thing cool anymore. In a lot of ways, it's not even cool anymore. The show jumped the shark.

You knew this day was coming, of course. Your first inclination was the arrival of the Eternal September. Things have snowballed a million different ways since then. Now, access is nearly universal, and everyone has some easy avenue of digital self expression. It is no longer some advante garde form of expression to have a personal webpage or blog, and a bajillion (active!) social networking accounts; it's almost expected. Those places are also no longer the domain of a select group of people, they're open to everyone, including your mother, your boss, and your government. So, it's not like it's a great place to harbor subversive or experimental ideas. You can now put something online and there are stupid people who genuinely think it's real and expect you to believe it. The careful selection of 160 characters (1220 bits). all incapable of doing anything malicious on their own, are grounds for imprisonment. The previous disassociation with online and meatspace is closing.
 

All this self expression does not appear to be making us better. More ADD. Less focused. More shallow. More disconnected. More reactive.

There is a lot more to the world than the internet. A lot more than computers, and a lot more of computers.

Since everyone is doing it now. Including your grandmother, you should probably try to push somewhere else to see what happens.


.

Too much focus

I was so busy signing the birthday cards that I didn't stop to consider that I might not be signing the right ones.

Intel Ruins Things

I have a little subroutine in Igor that I use to calculate gas solubilities. I'm using it to make some nice plots for a presentation I'm giving in a few weeks. A function that calls it kept throwing an error when it reached Xenon. Every other gas was fine. I could change the order and number of gases, but Xenon refused to calculate. The debugger claimed that the output wave didn't exist.

I sipped my coffee and squinted.

 What was wrong with this stupid code?

Before:

        Helium=HL(x,0)
Neon=HL(x,1)
Argon=HL(x,2)
Krypton=HL(x,3)
Xeon=HL(x,4)
Radon=HL(x,5)
Nitrogen=HL(x,6)


After:



        Helium=HL(x,0)
Neon=HL(x,1)
Argon=HL(x,2)
Krypton=HL(x,3)
Xenon=HL(x,4)
Radon=HL(x,5)
Nitrogen=HL(x,6)