The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Category: Home Ec

Things around the home & hearth

  • Verizon FiOS: What’s the Real Price?

    So FiOS has finally arrived here in the hinterlands and the latest teaser deal is $70/month for 10/2 Internet and anywhere-in-the-US VOIP. The ad mailers always tout the blazing speed (although that’s not what they offer in the teaser) and voice clarity.

    But there’s an asterisk: the prices are always “plus taxes and fees”.

    So I called the FiOS order line (877-896-2263) with two simple questions:

    • What, exactly, are those taxes and fees?
    • What, exactly, will they add up to each month?

    After five minutes of telling the nice man everything they already know about me and giving him permission to read their own records of our account, I managed to push him off his script long enough to get a word in edgewise.

    He tells me that the taxes and fees depend on my exact location and the services I sign up for. I point out that we’ve just established my address and he should know what services he’s offering, soooo what’s the price?

    We go around and around:

    • He says the only way to find out is to sign up and get my first bill
    • I refuse to buy something without knowing the price

    Eventually he offers to transfer me to billing, where he says (and I have no reason to doubt) that they’ll certainly tell me the same thing. Sounds like a good idea to me, if only to get to the next screen. He’s obviously miffed that I’m not following my lines in his script and just buying FiOS like a good sheeple.

    I hear the usual beeps & boops, a snippet of their on-hold blather, and dead silence. Ten seconds later, the call disconnects and I get the usual “If you’d like to make a call, please hang up and dial again” message.

    They don’t care. They don’t have to. They’re the phone company.

    Right now we’re getting 13/2 Internet from Cablevision (aka Optimum Online) for $50 and a Verizon landline for $25.

    Let’s see: slower Internet and marginally cheaper phone service, plus the asterisk. Not a compelling value proposition in our situation. But, then, we’re cheapskates.

    Incidentally, the “taxes and fees” make up $10.61 of this month’s $25.09 phone bill. I have good reason to believe that if we buy two services from Verizon, the fees will add up to $20 or so. But there’s no way to find out without buying them first, of course.

    I’m seriously thinking of killing the damn landline and struggling along with VOIP and our $5/month cellphone.

    Update: Today’s mail brings an even better teaser with a different phone number: 877-896-5322. It’s still $70/month for a one-year “agreement”, but now with free activation and a $100 cash card and they guarantee the rate for two years. The kickbacks push it just under $60/month for the first year. Still has that asterisk, though. Not to mention that the offers just keep getting better and better … I’m sure the early adopters are astonished at Verizon’s sliding incentive scale.

    Update 2: If you ignore the flyer and sign up for FiOS via the Verizon website, you get an additional $5/month off and you don’t have to deal with Verizon customer service. That brings it down to $55 plus the dreaded asterisk… I wonder what next month’s mail will bring?

    Update 3: Another flyer and the offer is still $70/month, free activation, and $100 cash back. Somehow I think FiOS uptake around here isn’t living up to their expectations.

  • Bad Gas!

    No, not that kind!

    Over the last several years, more or less coincident with the switch from MTBE to ethanol, all of my small internal-combustion engines have stopped working with stored gasoline, even when it’s treated with StaBil, even for just a few months.

    After plenty of putzing around, pouring in fresh gasoline has solved the problem in every engine.

    For example, I’d left the snow thrower’s tank empty after tracking down the bad gas problem in 2007. I filled it with gas from about November when we did the last of the leaf shredding; I think I’d dosed it with Sta-Bil, but in any event that’s relatively young gas by my standards.

    The blower didn’t even cough when I leaned on the starter button; not a single pop. I fired a dose of starting fluid up its snout and it still didn’t fire. At all. Period. As a friend puts it, starting fluid should wake the dead.

    Pulled the plug, blew compressed air into the cylinder to dry it out, went out for a can of New Gas, drained the Old Gas, filled the tank, and it fired right up. Surges a bit at idle with no choke, but I can deal with that.

    Lessons learned:

    • You cannot store ethanol-treated New Gas for more than a month or maybe two, tops, at least for use in small engines.
    • Sta-Bil doesn’t work on New Gas. I’d love to be proven wrong, but this whole bad running thing began with well-treated gasoline stored in a closed container.
    • There is no longer any way to have an emergency gasoline stash on hand so you don’t have to go out in the FFC (that’s Freezing obscene-gerund Cold) dawn for a fresh tank.

    Even with fresh gas, the engines surge under light load, which is a classic symptom of an air leak around the carburetor: lean running. But in all the engines? And with no detectable leaks? Even after replacing the gaskets?

    As nearly as I can tell, the problem stems from the 10% ethanol added as an oxygenate. The additional oxygen reduces pollution in modern engines, but causes small engines (at least the ones without electronic mixture control, which are all of mine) to run very very lean.

    The cheap solution seems to be setting the engine at about 1/3 choke for normal running. That richens the mixture enough to make the engine happy, but without farting black smoke out the muffler.

    Although I no longer keep a 5-gallon can of gas for emergencies (which I’m sure will come back to haunt me one of these days), I do keep a gallon with dose of StaBil for the yard equipment.

    Update: As of late-Feb 2009, that entire Cornell website has been dead since I posted the link. If it never comes up again or the link stays broken, here’s the punchline. The link pointed you to their evaluation of Cherokee Trail Of Tears beans, with this review from someone with *cough* experience:

    This is my favorite dry bean for black bean soup. It’s not called “Trail of Tears” for nothing. If you walk behind someone who’s eaten a mess of these beans, your eyes will be burning. It’s a very gassy bean.

    This Internet thing isn’t ready for prime time; stuff just softly and suddenly vanishes away.

    Update 2: Cornell is back online again. It seems their servers got pwned… after their desktops got infected. But, eh, they’re running Windows, what do they expect?

  • Vanquishing the Power Vampires

    Every gadget comes with its own battery charger wall wart, every single one of which dissipates a watt or two even when it’s not charging. Add ’em up, multiply by $2 per watt per year (check your electric bill; that’s closer than you think!), and realize that you could afford some nice new tools just by unplugging the things between charges.

    But that’s too much trouble and, really, AC outlets aren’t meant for that many mate/unmate cycles. I had one contact fall loose inside a power strip a while ago and the carnage was spectacular.

    What to do?

    Recharging Corner
    Recharging Corner

    Find an otherwise unoccupied flat spot (or build a shelf near an outlet), buy two or three Power Squid adapters (you don’t need surge suppression for this assignment, so get ’em on sale cheap), plug all your chargers into the Squids, and turn everything off with a single switch when you’re not charging anything.

    Bonus: You certainly have some low duty cycle power tools that always have dead batteries when you need them. Plug ’em into the Squid you use most often for other batteries. That way, they’ll get a boost whenever you charge something else, which should keep ’em up to speed.

    I set this tangle up before Power Squids existed, so I just plugged a bunch of Y-splitters into an ordinary power strip. It makes for a fearsome tangle of cords, but at least it’s out of the way atop the never-sufficiently-to-be-damned radon air exchanger in the basement.

  • Digital Camera Resolution: It’s Not The Dots

    Overview of the scene - 8 MP image
    Overview of the scene – 8 MP image

    A rule of thumb for cameras is that more glass is better, so I’ve always been skeptical of those little bitty chips o’ glass in front of all those pocket-sized camera CCDs.

    A while ago I took some shots with my Casio EX-Z850 at various resolutions, chopped out a chunk with some good detail from the middle of the images, and resized (cubic interpolation) the smaller ones to match the 8 MP image. The exposure was automagic: 1/200 sec at f/7.4. Zoomed as far as the optical zoom would go, hand-held ’cause at that shutter speed it’s OK, sharpness and contrast one click higher than the default.

    As nearly as I can tell, there’s only a slight difference between 8 & 6 MP, enough to be noticeable at 4 MP, and it’s getting on toward icky at 2 MP. The picture isn’t any bigger because I wanted to preserve the actual dots in the 8 MP image.

    Resolution Test - Shield
    Resolution Test – Shield

    Notice the weird color gradations in the shields with bright primary colors. This was hand-held, so the camera reached the same image conversion conclusions each time, starting with different physical pixels. A bit of rummaging turns up the Island Coffee Co logo at http://www.islandcoffee.net/.

    Just to show that resolution doesn’t matter in real life, check out the snail. Zoomed all the way out, macro focus, 1/125 f/2.8 (wide open), hand held, resized as above.

    Snail
    Resolution Test Images: Snail

    As nearly as I can tell, the 2 MP image is the only one that’s noticeably worse and it’s still just fine. The other three are different, but even the 2 MP one isn’t bad.

    Moral of the story: lots o’ dots is good, but beyond a few MP it just doesn’t matter. I think 4 MP is the sweet spot, based on an entirely insufficient sample, with 8 MP if you’re planning tight cropping. Otherwise, save 2 MB per image: 8 MP -> 4-5 MB, 4 MP -> 2-3 MB.

    The other High Truth: lots of light is a Good Thing. You get really crappy pictures when there’s not enough light, but it seems that’s where all the interesting stuff happens.

    Update: Uploaded the PNG version of the shield resolution test, as the JPG was fairly crappy, plus 8 MP overviews of the scenes. The text is antialiased and looks awful when you zoom in, but the whole point is to show the actual dots produced by the camera: there aren’t that many dots for the letters.

    Snail overview - 8 MP image
    Snail overview – 8 MP image

  • Pocket Camera: Griptivity Thereof

    Casio EX-Z850 and homebrew case
    Casio EX-Z850 and homebrew case

    I carry a small camera with me at all times and find it invaluable for recording details and documenting events; now I never say “I wish I had a camera!”

    This one is a Casio EX-Z850, which trades off nearly everything in favor of compact size. It has great battery life, enough resolution (the optics could be better), and manual controls (so it serves nicely as a microscope camera). It’s obsolete, of course, but you get the idea.

    I have bigger & better cameras, but this one is always with me and that counts for nearly everything. The camera in a cellphone or PDA is not the same as a real camera.

    Unfortunately, the thing has the griptivity of a bar of soap: all stylin’ metal and plastic. The black nubbly surfaces in the photo are my idea of a Good Thing: chunks of stair-tread tape providing enough traction that the camera no longer flies out of my hand with the greatest of ease.

    Despite that, I always slip the lanyard over my wrist when I take it out of my pocket; often I do that before removing it from the case. That nervous tic saves me the cost of a new camera about twice a year.

    If your camera fits into a desktop charging / USB cradle, as this one does, make sure you don’t stick the tape where the cradle fits against the camera. It’s really tough to peel off after the adhesive sets up…

    Mary made that nice packcloth (she says “Cordura“) case, with a fuzzy fleece liner facing the LCD panel. The hook-and-loop closure is a tad noisy in quiet places, but it’s better than buttons or a zipper for this application.

    I’ve learned to not keep tissues in the same pocket as the camera.

  • Cheap cellphone service for non-talkers

    Basically, we don’t need a cellphone except for the occasional biz trip and to tote along while cycling Just In Case. Paying a buck or two a day for something we don’t need doesn’t sit well with us.

    So here’s the cheapest alternative we’ve found…

    Go to virginmobileusa.com and buy a $10 phone. Some are free, but as of right now the Kyocera Marbl has the longest battery life and the fewest features. It’ll be obsolete by the time you see this; struggle through their “compare phones” and specs to find the really valuable number: standby battery life.

    They strongly encourage a monthly plan. If you actually use the phone, a monthly plan might make sense. If you never do any talking and don’t expect any calls, skip all that.

    The key step: sign up for Auto Top-up with either a credit card or PayPal. That reduces the mandatory payment to $15 every three months. Well, it’s really $16.22 after title, taxes, tags, and tip, but you get the idea: five-and-change a month for a phone.

    The cost per minute is staggering: 20 cents/minute or some such. That’s 75-ish minutes of air time per month, far more than we ever talk. We must occasionally talk to somebody and burn down the account just to keep it under control.

    Text messaging is worse: 10 or 15 cents each. A major ripoff. ‘Nuff said.

    Coverage is by Sprint, so you take your chances. It’s marginal in the house, OK outdoors, better elsewhere.

    Their Website is choked with gratuitous Flash, difficult to navigate, has no search function, and suffers from terrible layout. Oh, yeah and their customer service is stunningly bad.

    I did get an actual competent human when I had to swap out the first Marbl: the hinge spring broke, holding it slightly open. As they say on the website: For everything else, give us a call at 1-888-322-1122.

    It’s not obvious that paying more gets you better service, though.

  • Inkjet Refilling: Economics of the Empire

    A year ago I bought an Epson R380 printer along with a $10 piece-of-crap digital camera for 90 bucks, then got a $75 rebate. I figure the printer cost 15 bucks and the camera was free.

    cimg2863-continuous-ink-for-epson-r380
    Continuous inking system for Epson R380 printer

    I also bought a $55 continuous flow ink system from a place that no longer sells them. Turns out that Epson won a patent lawsuit that forced most of those vendors out of the reinking business and made the remaining systems staggeringly expensive.

    Well, maybe not.

    I print a bunch of text (I hate reading long documents on the screen), plenty of schematics & diagrams, low-quality pictures (webbish junk), relatively few photo-quality pictures, and the Annual Christmas Letter. The printer spends an inordinate amount of time blowing its nose and clearing its throat at the start of each session, so I suspect most of the ink goes directly into the diaper inside the printer.

    Genuine Epson 78-series cartridges contain 11 ml of ink and cost $20: $1.80 / ml or, in US terms, $2k per quart. In the last year, I’ve used about 200 ml of black and 110 ml of each of the five colors: $360 + 5 * $200 = $1360, if I were stupid enough to pay full price for 68 cartridges.

    That makes the $150-ish I actually paid for seven 8-ounce (250 ml) bottles of ink a downright bargain: $0.09 / ml.

    No, the color isn’t the same as the Epson inks and I’m certain it won’t last as long on the page, but that’s not what I’m using this printer for. When I need long-lasting, high-quality prints, I send ’em to an online service… which right now is running a sale on 4×6″ prints at $0.09 each. What’s not to like?

    When I hear printer companies boast about how ecological their printers are, I say bad things. If they wanted to be green, they’d make it trivially easy to connect bulk-ink tanks to their printers.

    I’ll put up with a few colorful spots on my fingers and the occasional sploosh on the table to save that much coin o’ the realm…