Category: del.icio.us

After noticing my van’s (the family car) showing signs of running a little hot (the temperature gauge would actually move), I took it to my mechanic this morning. I actually need:

• a new radiator (the existing one has come apart, with the top part of the tank leaking coolant with very little encouragement needed), with a new temperature sensor and gasket(s)
• a new drive axle and rubber boot, as the one in place has split and allowed rocks and road grit to commingle with the bearing — leaving the mess in place, even cleaned up, is a gamble I’d rather not take
• a timing belt replacement (recommended after 5-6 years or 90k miles: a 98 model with 80K is overdue) as a broken belt is a shortcut to a ruined engine.

About $1700 in expenses. If only the thrill of driving a Dodge Caliber (with satellite radio — 193 channels and still nothing on!) made up for it . . .
Is it true you can make money on the Internet? Wish it were so . . .

how to derive a heuristic like this?

If you find 3 or more typos in the menu, ask for bottled water; 6 or more, consume only that water; 9 or more, take the menu home as a souvenir. Submitted by: abrador, Professor, Berkeley, CA, USA [From ORTHOGRAPHY AND HYGIENE IN RESTAURANTS]

Google, with some other players, is laying a transoceanic cable for data.

We’re not competing with telecom providers, but the volume of data we need to move around the world has grown to the point where in some cases we’ve exceeded the ability traditional players can offer. [From About the Unity bandwidth consortium]

Consider that a moment. A handful of companies — Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel — (well, more accurately, their customers) have saturated the network bandwidth provided by companies whose sole purpose is to provide network bandwidth.

• Eight comic books to read before you die
  I’ve only read 4, but I have have read the whole series of those. Time to reserve some books.
  (tags: books reading lists comix)

I was reading my latest MAKE [issue 13, should be up there real soon now] and I came across the article about making an internal combustion engine demo with all parts “available from Home Depot.”

The author insists that the convention IC engine is powered by “explosions, front and center,” not the burning of fuel. Unless things have changed radically since I went through my formative car phase, he has it exactly backwards. The whole notion of engine timing and fuel injection systems (seen a new car with a carburetor lately?) is based on making sure the fuel mixture is introduced and burned at the right (most efficient) time. In fact, incomplete combustion or detonation is the cause of the pinging or knocking you can hear in an engine that is not properly adjusted or has the wrong grade of fuel and is considered to a Bad Thing, for reasons of efficiency and the life of the engine.

It seems to be a commonly held misconception, as some of the Google search results I found refer to an explosion as the result of the spark plug igniting the mixture. But I think that is an oversimplification, given the speed of the reaction: it is called combustion, not explosion or detonation, after all.

Disappointing to learn that this is how 11 year olds are being taught about this (that’s about when I learned it myself from a small plane owner and pilot).

Continue reading “we write letters”

• Two phones for every pocket?
  This is really insightful stuff. When we level the playing field — when everyone is connected — how do you manage those connections? with devices *and* identities/accounts?
  (tags: culture technology networking connections society)
• Request: The Incredibly Bad Art of Motherboard Companies
  yeah, why is all hardware box art made by “artists from middle schools obsessed with warrior women, fantasy animals, and monster trucks?”
  (tags: art markets hardware values)
• Build A Tilt-Shift Lens for Your SLR for Cheap
  this is a great hack. Worth doing, I thinlk.
  (tags: cleverideas photography diy hacking cameras)

And speaking of fitness, I got this in my inbox this morning:

just thought you’d like to know your old bike is well appreciated and getting good use. I’ve just about doubled the odometer. Nice features my old bike didn’t have, like the extra chain ring for going up these Seattle hills. Way to help save the planet by putting unused resources back into the ring!

That’s about 500 miles in the few weeks he’s had it. He plainly needed it more than I did.

On the Mittster’s departure suspension:

“Because I love this country, I entered this race, and because I love this country, I am leaving it.” Unfortunately, he means the race, not the country; [From The Beast is Red, Chapter 5: Soy un Perdidor]

Looks like the internets were down last night from 10:23 until 7:47, and this after that nice phone call from Speakeasy.

<sigh>

I did open a ticket to report slow connection speeds right before it went down, but I’m sure that was coincidence. Anyway, things are looking up.

take a look here to see how Obama-centric my ‘hood is.

Or look into your’n.