bad days

aircar

I was reading over on howstuffworks.com on the history of the flying car and ran across this gem. it crashed on the 3rd flight. I wonder why. it looks like they thought "hey, with some bailing wire and duct tape we can make a flying car!" 2 days later i'm sure the cheif engineer said "see! only took a few days!"




ohh wait.a little more research and I determined this design is not lost in the past. check out aerocar.com and you find this monstrosity.

chemists that poke their eyes out

I found this from one of the articles that was referenced from something epics post state of mind. I'm not sure how to link to it directly so I'll just reference it this way..

anyway.. onto what I found HERE

One of the most tedious tasks I have to do is review chemistry analysis logs for errors, and initial the bottom. Even if I just initial without even looking at them, it's a PITA (not to mention embarassing when I miss gross errors).

To make it more fun, I challenge myself to find an error, no matter how miniscule or inconsequential. Then I amuse myself by writing a huge harangue on the "corrections required" sheet, complete with fictitious explanation about the catastrophes that could have happened had I not caught this. Side benefit - the chemists enjoy reading their "errors" to each other, and actually fix significant errors much faster instead of ignoring them.

You would think it takes longer, but since I'm having fun instead of thinking about how I'd rather poke my own eyes out, it goes faster in both apparent time and, surprisingly, real time.

DOI

so one thing that is pretty neat about JabRef (program to manage references for use primarily in BibTeX) is that you can enter a DOI for a reference. so cool, because then if i happen to loose my pdf copy or share this file with someone else, just click and ta-da you are in the position to view (or buy viewing rights if needed) the document. awesome.
check out doi.org

#1 result

I did a google search for "kevin xxx" where xxx = his last name and low and behold this picture was imbedded in the first result that popped up. note the PAIR OF SHOES. I think he still owns those some 4 years later.

now the uneducated in folklore of kevin, these things actually came from a dumpster and had a good 3 years of use prior to his intervention. they were then worn for probably 2-3 years BEFORE he graduated, making these the longest running shoes on the plannet. fill us in kev, you still got those uglies?

Nerdy Word Processing

so i'm diving into the full nerdiness of LaTeX. thus far i am impressed. it means i can write my disseration and not worry about the format. instead of trying to number my figures, schemes, and molecules, i'll just reference them and let it do the numbering. instead of buying a program with mediocre reviews for at least $100 to track my references, BibTeX will keep track of it for me, free. most of all, i won't have to battle word or word perfect to get it to display my images or wait for either to crunch on my 200 page dissertation.

want to play too? i'm using MikTeX, JabRef, Eclipse, and the Eclipse plug-ins TeXclipse and a spell checker.

something dead?

whats with someething epic being down? I tried to cruise over and it does not wish to respond to my inquiring persistance.

Ever wonder

whilst looking for some other information regarding the visible spectrum i came upon the reason why blue signs aren't as good as red signs for stores etc. check out the incomprable hyper-physics.

Scion

Check out the Scion website and let me know what you think is wrong with it...

How many could I help?

The place where I work sends out magazines and newsletters. I got a request the other day saying "Please stop sending these magazines to Jane Doe. She is blind and no one reads to her."

I wanted to cry.

subaru - whining sound

spark plugs and subaru: don't get the high quality wires.
stupid plastic inserts AND the fact those spark plugs are so far in there it took alodia and I about 3 hours to get the plugs back in.
that aside, we started it up and it ran fine. then we noticed this high pitched sound that was pretty faint. hmm. wonder what that is. reved the engine a bit and by 2k rpms it was MUCH more pronounced. shut it all down, looked it over, and i'd failed to tighten a pully down (used to sinch up the belt to the air condition pump).
took it for a spin, sound great.
we'll give you a call tomarrow if we don't get to work in once peice. i'm pretty confident it's up to speed, but i've got this desire to pack my 3 toolboxes of tools with me, ya know, just to be safe.

overclock your toothbrush

http://www.g4tv.com/flashpop.aspx?video_key=8874

NASA's Return to Flight

Check out NASA's website. They has some pretty cool video on the newest shuttle mission and superficial but somewhat geeky statements on what has been improved. I had a fun time wandering around on the site.NASA's Return to Flight

transportation.

I always forget the luxery of basic transportation. wheather it be walking, running, biking, motorcycling, or having a full blown car. you know... basic transportation. There are 4 of us currently on corporation travel and we share 1 car. thats not much of a problem in my book. we are afterall all businessmen at the same local, with basically the same schedule.. and wouldn't you know it, we are staying at the same set of condos.... so to me its not much of a problem.

this morning I made the not so unreasonable request to get breakfast on the way to work. well a 2 of the 4 would rather sleep (or work out) that eat breakfast so so that pretty much became the reason to get a second car. approx 310$ later for the rental, which we will pick up tomarrow will leave our party of 4 with 2 partys of 2. which now begs the question..... how much does the party of 2 schedule have to differ to justify a 3rd or even a 4'th car?

the company will pay for all of it. its business justified, where do you draw the line?

like I said.. i'm happy with one car. and I don't need breakfast, there is the water left over after you take a shower. it works for the kitty. see how smooth her coat is? imagine how us humans would be if we drank shower water from the floor.

so what should I do this weekend? I told dave I'd go to sunday church with him (check out his religion) but what should we do on the other day? I'm thinking of hitting the nasa meuseum or whatever it is. i'm near cleveland ohio, so if you guys come up with something interesting, or some weird soil sample for me to bring back let me know.

the ice is now gone from the lake, so I have to rule out hiking out on the lake like I did last time (there were cracks in the ice but that didn't stop 'smart' engineers)

its like 60 deg days, but rumor has it it will snow by the end of the week =(. i heard it may snow in reno to.. and we just took the studs off!

10:30 estern (local) time. after all this crap about no breakfast we just got called into the plant at 7am tomarrow so what we could have used for breakfast is now working time! how ironic is that...

subaru - garage resident now.

the beloved subaru has blown some sort of gasket, or hose, or something and leaked all its antifreeze out. now when i try to turn it over (aka start it) it makes a very odd sound and it bothers me. i only tried this for about 3 seconds before i decided to take appart the engine before i tried THAT again.

alodia smelled what we thought was ciggerette smoke when we were driving today.
we got home and i popped the hood and smelled antifreze. as i kicked the drip pan BACK under the subaru (it had no been under it today) i noticed it had antifreeze on it at least 4 tablesspoons. these seemed odd, but no red flags whent up. I SMELLED antifreeze when i lfted the hooded, it smelled warm. so i pulled the cap on the radiator. bad idea. engine was still hot. anyays, i poked around briefly and found nothing. no big deal.

on the way to small groups tongiht i stopped at a stop sign, and when i excelerated it sounded like a stone was lodged in the drivers side front brake. as i accellerated the grinding squeeling sound got louder and sounded like the cycle became more rapid. hoping to dislodge the stone, i stomped on the breaks at the next block's stop sign and excellarted again and noticed no change. at this point i CLEARLY smelled something, like buring breaks. I went about 70 yards and pulled it into a parking lot (shopko, always were you need them).
i got out and found a pool of antifreeze forming under the font of the car. nothing leaking down the radiator, and liquid coming from the front of the engine in MULTIPLE spots (at least that is what the little droplets looked like - not just running down the engine and dripping from multple places, clearly multiple places leaking across the bottom front of the engine)
so i squeezed some hoses and checked the coolant level (not visible). turned the engine over to find the VERY bad noise that sounded like a compression leak or water in the pistons or something bad, who knows - and proceeded to walk to small groups.
they laughed at me when i showed up 20 minutes late and darin, my co-worker made a snyde remark about me having to walk there (no knowing that my car died) and i said 'oh no, just from shopko' - which was 2 blocks away. they asked why, and i said because my car died. that amused me.
Bill, from small groups towed me the 5 miles home after the meeting. good thing i had my chiltons manuel with me: i remeberd to pull a fuse and engage 'front wheel drive only' mode. subaru says the automatic transmission can be towed 6 miles with all four wheels on the ground as long as speed does not exceed 20 mph. looks like God was watching out for me. I didn't go to far, made it to small groups, and got home with my car. what more can you ask for?

Mmmm tasty

You all have seen Google's latest offering, right? :)