Month: August 2006

  • One more thing finally off the project stack (for now)…

    Terrarium for hot, humid, picky little plants Keeping my Boston-intolerant carnivores in cut-up 3-liter Coke bottles was a litte..um..ghetto, so I built this. The box It’s basically a regular off-the-shelf 10-gallon aquarium with a few extras thrown in. The lid is a seamless piece of Lexan from the hardware store. Lexan can be somewhat of…

  • I Did Not Write This Firmware!

    The parking lot at JR’s building is guarded by a formidible adversary, an automated parking system that doles out timestamped magnetic tickets. When ready to leave, you (hopefully get the ticket validated inside and) pop it into a machine along with your credit card*, and now feeding the magnetic ticket back in at the exit…

  • Protected: All I can do is close my eyes…close my eyes and watch.

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  • Staatsgevaarlijke

    Yeah, I have one. Over 70% of people do, even though the vast majority of these despise them. It’s one of those discount cards from a major east-coast grocery chain. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a MARK in their right hand, or in their…

  • Why you can’t charge your Ipod* while downloading songs

    Ever wondered why so few portable USB devices can be recharged from the USB port, even though it provides half an amp of relatively clean power at 5V? Here’s why. * Technically, now Ipods can be charged with USB power, avoiding the patent by using the docking cradle as sort of an electron-laundering middleman so…

  • Scotland pics

    Ok, getting them online took a wee bit longer than expected. But there are sheep, castles, and McCondoms galore. The entire big photo album! Funny story: On our 2nd night in Stornoway, I ran into our driver*, F, having a smoke outside a pub. We went in, had a few drinks and met some people**,…