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?

  • The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

    We’re reading Sydney Padua’s The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage as our evening story, so I gave a Lightning talk at the MHV LUG meeting last week:

    MHVLUG – Lovelace and Babbage – Book Report

    Earlier versions of the comics graphic novel are on her blog, including several stories that didn’t make the final book cut.

    Highly recommended; if you don’t have wet eyes occasionally, you’re entirely too hard-hearted.

    You should read Ada’s Analytical Engine Programming Guide; that’s not her title, but that’s what she wrote. If you’ve ever done any assembly language programming, you’ll feel right at home.

    Also, get historical documents, commentary, and Analytical Engine emulators (!) at Fourmilab.

    Makes me wish I lived in that Pocket Universe, it does:

    econ3_005 - Brunel
    econ3_005 – Brunel

    That picture is ©www.sydneypadua.com, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. There exist T-shirts & mugs.

  • Pheasant Sighting

    I rolled the bike around the corner of the garage, saw something move, and spotted an exceedingly agitated Ring-necked Pheasant atop the shredded leaf compost:

    Pheasant in compost bin
    Pheasant in compost bin

    He ran back and forth on the pile inside the cage, apparently having forgotten he had wings, while I fumbled with the camera. Just after I took the picture, he managed a short-field takeoff and flew away through the trees away from me.

    A pair of female pheasants then emerged from the forsythia behind the pile at a dead run, made a hard turn to their left, and ran off in the general direction the male had flown. One of the pair seemed smaller and may have been a chick this year, but it’s hard to say.

    We haven’t seen any pheasants in the yard before and hope they return …

    Taken with the Canon SX-230HS through a layer of deer netting, alas.

  • Insouciant Squirrel

    Squirrels spend most of their time on all fours and, when they do pop up for a look around, generally seem hunched forward, ready to drop-and-run.

    Not this critter:

    Squirrel leaning back
    Squirrel leaning back

    Definitely brandishing a big leaning ‘tude…

  • Amazon Packaging: Lack Thereof, Redux

    Fortunately, it’s hard to damage an aluminum-body “tactical” flashlight:

    J5-V2 Flashlight - Amazon packaging
    J5-V2 Flashlight – Amazon packaging

    A keyboard and cylindrical cell charger arrived intact, with absolutely no credit due to Amazon’s careful packaging:

    Keyboard and charger - Amazon packaging
    Keyboard and charger – Amazon packaging

    Sometimes, a box does arrive with a token scrap of padding dropped inside, but, as nearly as I can tell, it’s cheaper for Amazon to replace the occasional damaged item than to waste time and material stuffing the boxes with air pillows, eco-foam peanuts, or, heaven forfend, space-filling foam.

  • Supermoon!

    One of the three Supermoons in late 2016 rose over the end of our driveway:

    Supermoon - 2016-11-13
    Supermoon – 2016-11-13

    Moonrise always looks bigger in person, particularly through all those trees, and we always enjoy watching …

  • Monthly Image: Potholes in Wappinger Creek at Red Oaks Mill

    The Mighty Wappinger Creek runs low after months with very little rain and we saw more of the rocky streambed than any time in recent memory:

    Wappinger Creek - streambed at Red Oaks Mill - 2016-09-23
    Wappinger Creek – streambed at Red Oaks Mill – 2016-09-23

    Much of the deteriorated Red Oaks Mill Dam stands high and dry:

    Wappinger Creek - Red Oaks Mill Dam - 2016-09-23
    Wappinger Creek – Red Oaks Mill Dam – 2016-09-23

    Just upstream from the bridge, you can see how water carves potholes into the rock:

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    Back in the day, my parents took us to see the far more impressive Susquehanna River potholes (*) near Harrisburg. They range from finger-size pits up to craters large enough to comfortably hold an adult. I’m sure one of their photo albums, now tucked in our closet, contains similar pictures of those holes.

    Searching for red oaks mill dam will turn up previous posts and pictures for comparison.

    (*) Exploration of the pages linked there will show how, with sufficient mental effort, one can force-fit a non-erosion-based explanation of eroded potholes to match a pre-conceived timeline and narrative. Your opinion of that narrative and the effort required to fit evidence into it may differ from mine.

  • Money For Nothing: Gfk MRI TV Survey

    This arrived a week ago:

    GfK MRI postcard
    GfK MRI postcard

    You cannot imagine my excitement when the actual survey arrived, complete with a crisp $5 bill:

    GfK MRI Survey
    GfK MRI Survey

    These folks are cheapskates; Nielsen paid better, although I haven’t gotten anything further from them.

    It didn’t take long to fill out; my fat Sharpie slashed through the NO columns at a pretty good clip. I did attach a note saying we didn’t have a TV and regarded all TV programs as crap, just in case they didn’t get the message.

    Now they know.

    FWIW, I did not fill out the form that would enter us in a drawing for one of five $500 prizes, because that would let them associate my name with my response without fattening my wallet. The survey itself probably encodes my identity, even though it didn’t have any obvious bar codes or other ID; they could simply print the questions in a unique order in each survey.