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: Oddities

Who’d’a thunk it?

  • Turkey vs. Hawk: Aftermath

    Based on this evidence, the hawks seem to be tackling larger prey:

    Turkey feathers in the garden
    Turkey feathers in the garden

    Mary found turkey feathers drifting across the garden, with the largest concentration near this assortment, much along the lines of the pile left at our back door. Given the 6 ft deer fence surrounding the garden and the complete absence of yummy debris, we think this wasn’t the work of a land-based predator.

    Parents, guard your children…

    Along those lines, once upon a time, long ago and far away, we attended a show-n-tell featuring a (rescued) California Condor. The exhibitors ushered us into a tight group and told parents to keep their small children close beside them, because condors attack stray animals and pay particular attention to infants of herd animals. Of course, one couple didn’t get the word (or didn’t think it applied to them) and let their toddler wander off. As soon as the kid got a few feet away from the pack of people, the inert condor abruptly powered up and got weapons lock on the kid; a warning from the exhibitor sent the parents scurrying to correct collect their blunder.

    Raptors are not friendly birds.

  • Cash Register: Useless Error Message

    This message may be useful, in the sense that it reports something about the internal state of the cash register:

    Walmart cash register - buffer full message
    Walmart cash register – buffer full message

    But the fact that it appears on the customer-facing display means that the cashier won’t see it and can’t do anything about it. I’m not sure if the floor personnel know anything about buffers, either.

    The cashier-facing display says: “Welcome to Walmart!”

  • Public Facilities Maintenance: Lack Thereof

    I have a deep and abiding cynicism about the wisdom of building Special Facilities for bicycles and pedestrians. We very much enjoy biking along the Dutchess County Rail Trail, but I fear the County’s initial enthusiasm and funding will quickly wear off, leaving us with another poorly maintained facility.

    For example, the section of trail just south of Morgan Lake (a.k.a., Phase II) opened in July 2009, a mere four years ago. This view shows the North Grand Avenue at-grade crossing:

    DCRT N Grand - overview
    DCRT N Grand – overview

    Shortly after the opening, the ADA-mandated vision-impaired tactile pavement strips at that crossing began to deteriorate and, by now, they’re just rubble-filled depressions across the trail on either side of the road.

    The south strip:

    DCRT N Grand - South ADA Strip
    DCRT N Grand – South ADA Strip

    The north strip:

    DCRT N Grand - north ADA strip
    DCRT N Grand – north ADA strip

    Evidently, the Official Personnel traversing the DCRT lack the responsibility / authority / initiative to apply a broom and sweep the pebbles out of the path, much less schedule a repair crew. I suppose I should haul a shovel along on one of our trips and privatize the upkeep; it’s been two years, so further waiting will be pointless.

    It’s not as though there’s no Official Traffic, as witnessed by this well-worn informal entrance at the south end of that trail segment:

    DCRT Overocker - vehicle tracks
    DCRT Overocker – vehicle tracks

    There’s an Official Gate just to the left of the trail at that crossing, but, judging from the weeds, it’s evidently easier to stay in the car or truck than get out and unlock the barrier:

    DCRT Overocker - vehicle gate
    DCRT Overocker – vehicle gate

    Perhaps pebbles now count as tactile paving.

  • Starrett No 185 Time Saver: Drill and Tap Drill Gauge Chart

    Back in the day, this was a “chart”:

    Starret No 185 Time Saver Chart - front
    Starret No 185 Time Saver Chart – front

    The back sports an 1889 copyright date:

    Starret No 185 Time Saver Chart - back
    Starret No 185 Time Saver Chart – back

    It’s a steel slab about 3/16 inch thick.

    Perhaps the original owner, one “E Dunbeck”, scribed his name on the back. Perhaps he gave / sold it to Mad Phil, who passed it on to me. Although I may not use it much, it has a place of honor in the tool cabinet…

    You could get a new 185 Time Saver direct from Starrett, with the front and back sides reversed: same holes, mostly the same printing, just flipped.

    Verily, they don’t make ’em like they used to!

  • Poughkeepsie Waterfront Reclamation

    Back in the day, long before the environmental movement got any traction, the Poughkeepsie waterfront along the Hudson River used to be an industrial hotbed. That tapered off and, after a while, only the Dutton Lumber treatment facility remained; they manufactured classic CCA pressure-treated lumber. Quite some years after (IIRC) they went bankrupt and abandoned the facility, various buildings burned and the site seems to be slated for redvelopment into condos and suchlike.

    The wisdom of siting condominiums along a tidal estuary, just a few meters above the current waterline and well below the future projected flood stage, seems dubious to me, but, then, I’m not a developer.

    Anyhow, a recent ride across the Walkway showed that they’re sealing off the contaminated soil under what was once the lumberyard:

    Poughkeepsie waterfront brownfield reclamation - overview
    Poughkeepsie waterfront brownfield reclamation – overview

    An excavator moves gravel from the barge, which probably came a few miles upriver (or downriver, depending on the aforementioned tidal flow) from the Tilcon quarry at Clinton (no relation) Point, into the dump trucks:

    Poughkeepsie waterfront brownfield reclamation - gravel barge
    Poughkeepsie waterfront brownfield reclamation – gravel barge

    The scale of the operation snaps into focus when you notice the guy standing on the quay:

    Poughkeepsie waterfront brownfield reclamation - truck detail
    Poughkeepsie waterfront brownfield reclamation – truck detail

    An old joke defines the difference between electrical and civil engineers: electrical engineers build weapon systems, civil engineers build targets…

  • Hazards of Being a Mouse

    Before washing the bedroom windows, I moved the garden tool rack and a bunch of clutter away… only to find a remarkable amount of litter below the plastic base:

    Litter under garden tool rack
    Litter under garden tool rack

    One of those lumps consisted of tightly packed fluff, much like the mouse nest inside the barbie a few years ago, so this was surely a winter home.

    But it seems at least one mouse didn’t make it through the winter:

    Dessicated mouse under tool rack
    Dessicated mouse under tool rack

    Given its dessicated nature, I think the poor critter probably expired during the depths of the winter freeze.

  • One Problem With Electronic Medical Records

    This seems innocent enough:

    Medical eRecord Security
    Medical eRecord Security

    Of course, that laptop:

    • Runs Windows
    • Has unused USB and Firewire ports
    • Has active WiFi networking
    • Doesn’t have a screensaver timeout
    • Was left alone with a patient
    • Is not locked

    I mentioned to my doctor that, if I were of malign intent, I would now have complete control of every PC on their network. That didn’t make much of an impression, as the same thing happened on my next visit.

    Of course, moving to electronic records makes a lot of sense, but if you think they’ll be any more secure than any other online personal information, you’re wrong.