Blog Tinkering, Part Deux....

At the request of a very good friend, I've bumped up the font size to 16, and changed to color to black.

I'm completely open for ideas as to color and size, as *my* eyes aren't all that good anymore, either.

Frankly, I'm surprised I can hit the target at 100 yards with the iron sights on my Marlin 336 or 1894, let alone get it in the black better than 90% of the time!

Guess I had some pretty good teachers, and the lessons stuck.

And for those that have asked, I'm feeling better, haven't had a cigarette since May 10th, and my caffeine intake is about 5% of what it used to be.

And I have the gouges in the Radio Room walls from trying to climb them to prove it.......

The hives have disappeared, thanks to a medication/dosage change, but I still get the "itchies" from time to time.

If *I* Could Play The Electric Guitar.....

I'd want to be able to play it like this......



You know I smoked a lot of grass.
Oh Lord! I popped a lot of pills.
But I've never touched nothin'
That my spirit couldn't kill.
You know I've seen a lot of people walking 'round
With tombstones in their eyes.
But the pusher don't care
If you live -- or if you die.
God Damn! The pusher.
God Damn! The pusher.
I said God Damn! God damn the pusher man.
You know the dealer, the dealer is a man
With a lump of grass in his hand.
But the pusher is a monster
Not a natural man.
The dealer for a nickel
Goin to sell you lots of sweet dreams.
Ah...but the pusher will ruin your body;
Lord he'll leave your mind to scream.
God Damn! The pusher.
God Damn! God damn the pusher.
I said God Damn! God damn the pusher man.
Well now if I were the president of this land
You know I'd declare total war on the pusher man.
I'd cut him if he stands, and I'd shoot him if he run,
And I'd kill him with my bible, and my razor and my gun....
GOD DAMN! The pusher
God damn the pusher.
I said God damn! God damn the pusher man!

Kids Are Gone, Dogs Are Gone, Wife Is Bawling Her Eyes Out......

And the house is strangely quiet......

Between the NO cigarettes, NO Diet Coke, and now NO dogs and kids, this place is starting to feel like something Rod Serling should give the voiceover intro for.

Cue music...........

Beretta To Leave Maryland And Kaliforniastan To Tax Ammunition

And I say good for them.

Read the whole thing here.

And my wife's retirement, and our departure from Kaliforniastan, grows closer each day.

Just hope we can hold out until then.

Kaliforniastan to tax ammunition.

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Hives Again........ARRRRGHH!

WELL....changing from Brilinta to Plavix didn't get rid of the hives, and the Prednisone hasn't done anything, either.

Since I have to drop by the lab today for some blood tests, I'll swing by the walk-in to see what they say.

I was up and down all night long, and I've got to stop scratching the damn things because I don't want to get an infection.

I'm gonna need an ocean,
Of Calamine lotion..............!

The Amazing Omegadrill

Every bust a tap in a hole you were threading?

Ever bust off an E Z Out while trying to remove a busted bolt?

If you have, then you know what a PITA it is to get a broken tap out of a hole.

Sometimes you can break the tap up into individual pieces and pick them out, but what if you can't?

When I worked at Hughes Aircraft, if somebody broke a tap in one of the very expensive milled aluminum housings we used, we'd strip the housing down to bare metal, and send it out the have the tap "burned" out with an EDM process.

It worked beautifully, but was expensive and time consuming.

I happened to find several references where guys were raving over how good The Omegadrill  worked at an automotive website I like to visit, and it looks like somebody has come up with an answer to the busted tap problem.

They're not cheap, at $175 for a 9 piece set, but if they get you out of a jam, they're could be money well spent!

HIVES!!!!

Geez....maybe I should start a "Drjim's Medical Blog"....

Anyway.....when I was showering up yesterday I noticed an area on my right bicep that was covered with little red "pimples". I didn't think too much about it, and went out for a short walk.

Still not up to the Grand Walking Tour of the neighborhood, but at least I can go down to the end of the street and back without any discomfort at all. Still not up to getting dragged around the block by one of the dogs, but we'll get there....

Sweet little wife came home about 1630, and sometime later I went into the bedroom to get the hand-carved bamboo back scratcher my Dad brought back from "somewhere" in the South Pacific during WWII.

As I was scratching my back through my shirt, I noticed my back felt "bumpy". I asked my wife to come look at it, and she said it looked like the worst case of measles she'd ever seen!

My back was covered in little red pimples/bumps, and was itching like crazy.

I called the Doctor's office (it was 1730 by now), and got the answering service who took down all the info, and then transferred me to an "ER Nurse" who took it all down again, asked me a bunch of questions, and (probably following a script or "expert system") said it didn't sound major, and to contact my Doctor directly ASAP, meaning this morning when the office was open.

About 30 minutes later, the Doctor's office called to say one of my insurance forms for work was completed, and I could pick it up. Since it was my Doctor's regular nurse, and I had him on the phone, I went ahead and told him about the hives. He checked his computer (the info from my call was already there!), and said he'd tell the Doctor.

About 2015, my Doctor called (does this poor guy ever sleep?), talked to me for a while, and decided to take me off Brilinta (Ticagrelor), and put me on Plavix (Clopidogrel).

He's  pretty sure that switching drugs will stop the allergic hives, as well as help with the shortness-of-breath I've been having.

And it's been FIVE WHOLE DAYS since I had a cigarette!

I still want a smoke, but my wife's decision to "allow" me (huh?) ONE can of Diet Coke per day has helped. Coming down off caffeine AND nicotine at the same time is NOT fun.

Oh, well......off to the pharmacy. My stepson is going to drive me, even though I think I'm perfectly capable of driving the 1.8 miles round trip.

Gee...I could probably WALK it if I had to!

Precision Guided Firearms?

This is neat.

Probably costs more than my Jeep.....

Thanks, Everybody

For all your support.

I really appreciate it!

I had my first post-op meeting with my Doctor this morning, and we discussed all of the ramifications of having a heart attack, and the changes in lifestyle, and new medications, that are required for a continued successful recovery.

One of the things I didn't know was that continued smoking can cause my brand-new, shiny stents to clog up in a remarkably short time.

If all goes well, these new type should be good for at least ten, and more like 15, years before a replacement is needed.

In 15 years, there may be something entirely new, although with the current state of the economy, I won't hold my breath.

We spent some time clearing up the confusion/consternation I had over one of the new meds, and the "banning" of one of my older ones, Benadryl.

As far as the stopping smoking goes, all my friends (and my wife) who have quit tell me the first 7~10 days is the worst, and once I'm past that, my chances of staying "quit" increase dramatically.

BUT....between the NO cigarettes, and NO caffeine, I'm going to call the Doctor tomorrow and ask him if there's something mild he can prescribe to help me slide through this.

I'm getting a bit antsy, and I have a feeling I might be climbing the walls by Thursday or Friday!

And I've lost about 7 pounds, which I suspect was mostly retained water, as I'm no longer drinking 8 or 9 cans of Diet Soda per day.

No, I'm not comfortable, and I'm still pretty sore (and bruised) where they made the incision to get at the femoral artery, but I guess I'm in a whole lot better shape than I was 5 days ago when the pain came on, and stayed with me until I woke up after surgery Sunday afternoon.

Back Home Again....

And really tired.

And slightly short of breath.

And I'd knock down someone's grandma for a cigarette!

I also have a headache from the various meds, and 4 new ones to take.

One "anti-platelet" to prevent the stent from clogging up, two for "high blood pressure" which I've NEVER had (gonna talk to my regular Doctor about that tomorrow morning), and a different cholesterol lowering drug.

And.....

NO more smoking

NO more caffeine (we'll see about that one..)

GREATLY increased exercise when I'm able to get around better

LOSE ~50 pounds

NO driving for a few days (dear wife is taking me to Primary Care Provider tomorrow)

NO heavy lifting for a few months

NO stair climbing until cleared to do so (cool....keeps me OFF the launch platform!)

And a dietary change.

Since I married my sweetie, I *have* been eating much better than when I was by myself, so these coronary artery blockages probably go back years, and have been steadily closing down, and finally caught up with me.

Some of the weight gain I attribute to the workplace accident I suffered last August, which cut down my mobility in walking long distances.

When I was laid-off from Boeing back in 2009, and became a "House Husband", I dropped about 30 pounds, felt great, and my A1c was down to ~5.6 or so.

Within a few months of getting called back to work for the project's new owners, I'd gained the weight back, and my A1c was creeping upwards.

I respond very well to exercise to control my weight and diabetes, and I have to get back to the regimen I was on before I went back to work.

Early retirement is looking better every day.....

Three Stents, No Further Damage or Complicactions.

Just woke up a few minutes ago.They installed three stents, and told me everything elses was OK.

Nice be able to use a real keyboard again!

I'm in the hospital.....

Had a heart attack Friday night. Getting an angiogram and stent or two todoay.blogger on the hone sucks.

Happy Birthday, Col Cooper.

Jeff Cooper would have been 93 today.

Whole lotta good stuff over at Fr. Frog's place.

Rest easy, Jeff!

Spock vs Spock

Shamelessly pilfered from Tam.

Enjoy!!

The Nest Is Almost Empty Today......

The stepson and his girlfriend will be moving to the Fort Collins area at the end of the month, and her Dad (a really cool guy) got down here Saturday morning to load up her car and most of her stuff to haul back later today.

"The Kids" have been working pretty non-stop all week sorting things out, packing stuff up, and help her Dad load the truck. They made a really big dent over the weekend, and I'm astounded how much stuff they got loaded.

Her entire car is floor-to-ceiling with her belongings, and loaded on the flatbed he towed down here.

The box of his crew cab dually is completely packed, up to about 6 feet! He had plenty of tarps and tie downs, but I gave him a 4-pack of ratcheting cargo straps "just in case".

So, now that we're back from dinner, the hands have been shaken, the hugs exchanged, and we waved them off on their way to Fort Collins.

They're going to overnight in Las Vegas, and then finish the trip Monday.

She'll be coming back out here in two weeks to be Maid of Honor at her best friend's wedding, and then she and stepson will load up the rest of her/his/their stuff, and motor on out of Kaliforniastan.

I wish them well, but DAMN....they're taking BOTH dogs with them.

Looks like we'll have to start the puppy search again.....

Vacuum Tubes, a "Modern Aladdin's Lamp" by AT&T

Some of the early glass tubes used in transmitters were truly works of the glassblower's art.

When I worked at Fermilab, the RF Power Amplifiers used in the Booster and Main Accelerators used water-cooled metal-ceramic tubes made by Eimac.

They were 4CW100000X, indicating they had a Plate Dissipation of 100,000 Watts!

A quick look at the "Eimac" website doesn't show them listed anymore, so I'll have to get a hold of my buddy Dave who still works there and find out what they're using these days.

Anyway....a friend of mine sent me the link to this AT&T video about the Good Old Days.

Enjoy!

The Twelve Truths In Engineering

This was originally published as an April Fool's Day RFC, but I thought it was relevant to all of us who do geeky things.

Enjoy!

The Fundamental Truths


   (1)  It Has To Work.

   (2)  No matter how hard you push and no matter what the priority,
        you can't increase the speed of light.

        (2a) (corollary). No matter how hard you try, you can't make a
             baby in much less than 9 months. Trying to speed this up
             *might* make it slower, but it won't make it happen any
             quicker.

   (3)  With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
        not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
        are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
        as they fly overhead.

   (4)  Some things in life can never be fully appreciated nor
        understood unless experienced firsthand. Some things in
        networking can never be fully understood by someone who neither
        builds commercial networking equipment nor runs an operational
        network.

   (5)  It is always possible to aglutenate multiple separate problems
        into a single complex interdependent solution. In most cases
        this is a bad idea.

   (6)  It is easier to move a problem around (for example, by moving
        the problem to a different part of the overall network
        architecture) than it is to solve it.

        (6a) (corollary). It is always possible to add another level of
             indirection.

   (7)  It is always something

        (7a) (corollary). Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't
            have all three).

   (8)  It is more complicated than you think.

   (9)  For all resources, whatever it is, you need more.

       (9a) (corollary) Every networking problem always takes longer to
            solve than it seems like it should.

   (10) One size never fits all.

   (11) Every old idea will be proposed again with a different name and
        a different presentation, regardless of whether it works.

        (11a) (corollary). See rule 6a.

   (12) In protocol design, perfection has been reached not when there
        is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take
        away.

OUCH....Hard Drive Failure In My Weather System

Well.....Sunday afternoon I decided to clean all the dust bunnies out of the little PC that controls and logs the data from my Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station.

I shut it down, unplugged all the cables, took the cover off, and took it out on the back porch to blow the dust out like I've done many times before.

Yes, both the PC *and* the air gun were properly grounded. I've seen boards get blown out (pun intended) by blasting them with compressed air, which can generate quite a healthy static charge if the air gun isn't grounded.

Got it all cleaned, put it back together, and it wouldn't boot.

Going into the BIOS showed that it recognized a SATA drive was in there, but couldn't read it.

Thinking I'd maybe (crossed fingers!) knocked a cable loose, I pulled it out, took it apart again, and reseated all the cables.

No dice....

So, off to Newegg to order a new drive, as all the drives I have "in stock" were way too big to dedicate to this PC.

A new 120GB Samsung Solid-State Disk was installed, and I'm loading OpenSUSE 12.3 64-bit on it now.

Then I'll update it, download the wview software and all the special libraries it requires, and configure the whole shebang.

*IF* I'm lucky, I might be able to recover the archived data from the "failed" disk, and transfer it to the new SSD.

Otherwise, well......I "start the clock" all over again recording weather data, and sending it to the CWOP, and on to NOAA.

Really OLD Radio/Electrical Magazines

I was at a board meeting for my radio club this afternoon, and one of the board members had a sack of OLD magazines with him.

He saved them from the dumpster as he figured they have some historical value, and I agreed to scan them.

They're from 1911!

They're in remarkably good condition, but some have tape holding the covers on, and some of the pages are starting to deteriorate, so I'm going to be extra careful as I scan them.

After I get them all scanned, I'll make a DVD with the magazines in pdf format, and I'll also post them on the web if I can find a place that doesn't charge.

In the meantime, here's a scan of the cover of one of them.

RCA "Indian Head" Test Card et al

Most people call these a "Test Pattern", but this particular one is more accurately referred to as a "Test Card" since in the early days of television, it was printed on heavy card stock, and held or positioned in front of the camera.

Wikipedia (where else these days?) has a very good article on this particular RCA Test Card, along with some external links to a guy who found one of the originals in a dumpster back in 1970.

When I worked for DirecTV, we used one of these, showing how far technology has advanced sine the early days of TV.

The history of optical targets, or "test patterns" is quite interesting if you're geeky, and covers everything from the TV test patterns to the strange markings painted on aircraft and missiles to track them during flight, and conversely, strange patterns painted on the ground or roof tops to serve as resolution checks for high-flying cameras.

Unusual Movie Prop Gun Cartridge

During the last few weeks when I was off work on Medical Leave, a movie production company that had contracted with us came in and set up all their gear.

They did a lot of filming up on the bridge, down in the engine room, the Launch Control Center, and what we call "Room 101", which is the Rocket Assembly Room where the payload gets mated to the rocket and tested before we transfer it over to the Launch Platform.

Almost all of the filming was done on 2nd and 3rd shifts, and since I was AWL (Absent With Leave!) when the schedules were made, I didn't get asked to assist the production company while they were on board.

It was mostly assistance to keep them from getting lost, making sure they didn't get into places they shouldn't go, and escorting them to the rest room.

Well, they finished filming over the weekend, and started breaking things down and moving them off the ship Monday morning.

The filming they did was a lot of "action" sequences, and according to my friends who were observing, involved  LOT of prop gun shooting.

So much so, in fact, that people were sliding around on the spent brass in between takes before they could get the floor swept up for the next take!

One of my friends said they were taking 5 gallon buckets of brass off the ship!

Even after "cleaning up", they were still finding brass rolling around, so one of my friends saved a spent case for me.

He had no idea what kind of gun they were firing, other than "It was some kind of machine gun!", and since it was a prop gun, might have been rechambered to fire these blanks.

It's obviously a blank from the crimped end, but the head stamp indicates it's a "9MM Win Mag", which I had never heard of.

A wikipedia search turned up that it's considered an obsolete cartridge, designed in the 1970's to duplicate the ballistics of a 357 Magnum in an auto pistol cartridge, sort of like a prehistoric 357SIG, I guess.

So, here's a couple of pictures of a cartridge you may have never seen before.

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Bringing the Mighty Saturn F-1 Engine Back to Life

Interesting article over here.

Never thought I'd see the F-1 roar again.....

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Salesman Joke

From a buddy of mine.....

A young guy from North Dakota moves to Florida and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?" The kid says "Yeah. I was a vacuum salesman back in North Dakota."

Well, the boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot, so he gave him the job.

"You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor.

"How many customers bought something from you today?" The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One". The boss says "Just one??? Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day.

That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here. We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida. One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Dakota, but you're not on the farm anymore, son."

The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day. He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?"

The kid looks up at his boss and says "$101,237.65".

The boss, astonished, says $101,237.65! What the hell did you sell?"

The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks. Then I sold him a new fishing rod to go with his new hooks. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition."

The boss said "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK?" 

The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing'".

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WTF Is Going On With Blogger???

Well.....DUH!

I've tried to reply to posts on other blogs, and it will NOT let me post with my super-secret "drjim" ID.

It keeps insisting I use an old ID that I only use for a few Yahoo! groups.

This is getting REALLY annoying!

Maybe I should just move to Wordpress, or just get another domain, and run everything from there....

VERY Good News From The Hospital

My wife's grandson has been released, and he's back home.

They held him and extra week so they could wean him off the drugs they had him on. I don't know what they used to put him in the induced coma, but after they took him off that, they put him on Methadone so he wouldn't go into withdrawl.

They finally got him off that, and he went home on Tuesday morning.

Pretty amazing when you consider they had the Chaplain and the grief counselor team team there not that many days ago.

Again, THANK YOU for all the prayers and support. My wife was amazed at the number of people I "know" through this blog that poured out sympathy and prayers.

Thank you all, again......

Tinkering.....

I'm digging into the HTML code. I figure if they won't give me what I want, I'll just dig out my O'Reilly HTML book, read the code (Use The SOURCE, Luke!), and MAKE it do what I want!

I'm trying to get this set up so it nicely fills a 1280 x 1084 screen.

If it spills over on yours, or wraps around, or does anything that make it unreadable, PLEASE let me know.

Like I said, my HTML-foo hasn't been used in (quite!) a while, so I fully expect to get this looking real purdy on my 1920 x 1080 monitor, only to have it look like sh1t on other people's monitors.

Once I get the scaling and width correct, I'll try and do something about these rather lurid colors.

Please Stand By.........

Blog Tinkering

Spent some time this morning trying different templates.

Since my HTML-foo is low these days, I'll just keep putzing around with what blogger supplies until I find one I like, and then tweak it a bit.

Bear with me.....the blog might look pretty weird from time to time!
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