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.
Who’d’a thunk it?
The Vassar Library could be a model for J.K. Rowling’s work:
A closer look at the jarringly contemporary containers along the mid-left edge of that picture:
Pop quiz: How many books did they find in the trash before they added the placards?
Bonus: How much did that reduce the burn rate? It’s surely still nonzero, because nobody reads instructions. Right?
Double bonus: Does the real book drop sport a “This is NOT a trash can” placard?
Imagine “updating” these windows with modern high-efficiency glass:
That’s the end wall of the 1738 Terwilliger House on the Locust Lawn site. I’m sure the woodwork doesn’t date back that far, but the glazier demonstrated genius-level mastery.
We were on a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour, marred by a visitor who knew the rules about not touching the exhibits didn’t apply to her. My parents ran a restaurant / gift shop and, to this day, my hands automatically find their way into my pockets when I enter a store, let alone a museum.
Spotted a new sign at the Van Wyck Road entrance to the Dutchess Rail Trail:
The tiny print on the top sign still reads No Motorized Vehicles, but the bottom sign makes it explicit that that particular prohibition applies only to ordinary citizens.
Which matches up with the Sheriff’s ATVs I spotted a weeks earlier:
As of late May, the No All Terrain Vehicles signs were still up. Maybe they still are.
According to the New York Times style guide and other reasonably erudite sources, the plural of ATV should be ATVS (or, if you have the luxury of mixed case, ATVs), not ATV’S.
Dragorn of Kismet gave me a handful of identical mystery chips that might date back to the 1980s. They’re surprisingly large and covered with contacts:
There are no logos or identification anywhere on the chip. The back side is blank silicon.
The visible patterns don’t suggest anything obvious:
The metallization layers aren’t particularly intricate:
Surely there’s something tucked under the top metallization; I have neither the materials nor inclination to dissolve the thing one layer at a time.
I gave a sampling to our Larval Engineer, who says she may turn them into fancy jewelry. I’m sure the solder bumps contain lead, but …
Spotted this in Salamanca NY:
According to Wikipedia, the M110A2 8 inch / 203 mm Self-Propelled Howitzer became obsolete when improvements in smaller guns matched its range and firepower. The double-vent muzzle brake is diagnostic for the A2 model.
It seemed an odd decoration for a town inside an Indian reservation; we didn’t stop to read the plaque.
Spotted this at an Ohio rest area along I-90:
The slanted stake isn’t a normal vector for the sign surface, but you could derive one…
For whatever it’s worth, Ohio wins the Interstate Highway paving quality award, hands-down, in comparison with New York.
Within the memory of those yet living, these rooms had a purpose:
That’s at the fancy Chautauqua Lake rest area on eastbound I-86.
The majority of NY Interstate rest areas are, suffice it to say, far less ornate. Their walls now sport bare phone mounting plates and cut-off cables.
They don’t have any phone books these days, either…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 