Desk Building completion

So the desk is done... well a while ago actually. I got a nice good coat of stain and polyurethane to make the surfaces dark and smooth.
I had to make a last minute extension since I got a measurement wrong (or read it wrong) for the new 24ch mixer (which we have not picked up yet). Either way everything seems to fit rather well. The only minor setback that I noticed once installed was that the cabinet door didnt close properly, but that could be due to the floor sloping or something under the carpet that is pushing up somewhere.
What's not showing here is the lid that closes on top of the mixer, this keeps wondering hands from adjusting things.

Upgrade to my phone

So way back in march I got a HTC (Fuze) Touch Pro and have since 'modified' the original behavior. I finally moved away from the stock rom that the phone came with. Last night I upgraded to a new rom with a new OS version and I have to say one thing: why didn't I do this before? Besides the obvious answer that the custom roms were buggy and WM 6.5 was very beta I'm not sure why. Now 6.5 is more stable and cooked roms are better than ever.

I upgraded to a rom from ShEp found over at xda developers. This upgrade has improved the performance of the phone by at least 4x, things respond faster and even better I have more ram and rom available to me! Another surprising benefit seems that battery life remains about the same as my tweaked ATT rom, maybe better but too early to tell.

So you've heard of this 'MyFi' stuff from verizon huh? Think it's snazy that this is a mobile hotspot? Well I got that as well in my phone :) While I don't have the 'teathering' plan which is an arm+leg more I can use my phone to connect my laptop in emergencies (say @ airport and flight gets canceled) or comca$t goes down or is slower than dialup again... Yes I'm bitter about it. They probably aren't fixing it because they know our whole street will go to fios once installed.

Never again will I use an ATT rom and have the ability to use Windows Mobile!

Desk building update

After spending time in the garage and cutting and gluing lots of wood together things are coming along quickly.
The most difficult part was the curved portion. I used a long piece of aluminum stock (had a straight edge) and clamped it to the board surface to guide a circular saw. It's not the round stuff I was looking for but it's probably 95% accurate for a curve. 4 cuts seems to have done a very nice job. It helped that i sketched everything up and used that to measure... otherwise I would need to remember my geometry skills :)

I'm using some screws in special places so that they are both hidden and provide extra structural support. I'm going to fill most in with some wood filler once completed... most as in those that need to be covered. Some of the screws will be left alone, and covered by equipment anyway, so that the large flat surface can be removed for transportation.

Things left to do:
1. Large side support leg (probably more painful than the curved top)
2. Surface container stuff (lid holders)
3. Router edges so they are rounded and not sharp
4. Sand like crazy
5. Stain (got one of those dual action stainer with the poly in it)
6. Stain
7. Find a truck and install

Desk building

So I'm tasked with building a desk for my church's new mixer location. With the renovations we (band) decided to move the mixer location into the balcony where the sound is better and the operator can see the band. The desk is highly customized to fit curved railings and to hold the equipment. I used google sketchup to create the drawings based on measurements I took since I don't have the luxury to measure on the fly like I normally do and it needs to be accurate because I really only get one shot.

The idea behind the desk is simple, flat top to hold up to a 24ch mixer and a cabinet for the rack/amp and what not.The idea behind this is to hold the mixer so that it can have a cover to prevent tampering by little hands (lots of kids) and to hold a few laptops for recording/projector. Inside the well ventilated cabinet will house the conditioner/effects/compressor/amp and other components. It's a large L shaped cabinet to work with the existing railing and the post.

After going to my local Home Depot I got the supplies and wood stock (solid pine) to start building. I got most of the cabinet done to date but need to glue some pieces together since the larger surfaces exceeded the wood sizes. So far I've only used my table saw to make the rectangle pieces. Once everything is dry-fitted together to make sure it works I will begin bonding the components. The desk (mixer area) will be removable so it can be transported but most of this wont have screws to enhance the aesthetics. I may end up getting a finish nailer to help with the difficult areas since I have a compressor handy (plus it will also be useful when I redo my floor). As soon as everything is together and bonded it will be time to take out the router and round the edges and then stain+seal everything which will probably take the longest. I should take pictures as I get further along.

As for all the saw dust I'm collecting I may try to create my own fire log(s) :) Add a little water in a box and compress the pulp.

Bluetooth

So I just got a new laptop for work but unfortunately it didn't come with bluetooth! Bah, why would it not come with such a simple and low power device? Anyway I browsed amazon for a bluetooth adapter that is low profile and found the perfect solution
This thing is small... It's basically the standard USB plug plus some small plastic (antenna). I like this because I'm able to leave it in the laptop without worrying too much of it snapping off (probably the idea anyway).

When it's plugged in it extrudes a small amount but not enough to snag on things or cause issues. It does have and annoying little blue light that is somewhat bright but is tollerable in a well lit room but not so much in a dark room.

So now I can use my bluetooth mouse again without the ride-along usb dongle it came with. The best part was i got this for ~$15!

Car + Alignment DIY

So I decided to align my car over the weekend after tinkering with the suspension to find an annoying vibration at highway speeds+. In turn I threw out my from wheel tow. I was considering taking the car into a shop for one of those $40-50 alignments but thought I would give it a try.

I did some theory and trials (both on my car and my wife's car). I came up with an idea of using the center of the rim as a pivot point and using a string to create a parallel line between each side. I'll use ascii to describe :)

[ignore the '.' - blogger thought my multiple spaces were invalid]
Wheels: .....-----..............-----
Measure: ......|..................|
String: -------------------------

As the crude drawing shows I measured 70mm from the center of each rim (alloys so no hubcap to worry about). The down side is that if the front or rear has been shoved in/out this would mess things up badly, to check I measured the rear wheel (since it has no tow) on both ends of the rim and if they match then the line is parallel with the car. The most I can determine is if i was off by ~ .3mm which would be an error of about .004 deg. The only thing this can't do is camber/caster alignments but unless you hit a massive pothole or slam into a curb this typically wont be thrown off.

The alignment process is the somewhat painful part. Since lifting the wheel off the ground would invalidate the line I needed to adjust it without moving the car, cardboard and long arms for a low-clearance car! Oh an make sure to have the steering wheel straight first :) Do the same procedure as the back tires (measure along line the front and tail of the rim, not tire) and make the measurements equal. It took me a few tries because the steering arm rotated on me when re-tightening the nut. Also use a metal ruler and a level bubble otherwise you could be off by +- 1mm which could be ~.14 deg. (seems small but at highway speed will cause a drift!)

Take it for a test drive -- go on a highway and on a straight let go and wave to everyone! My car went straight as an arrow and had no wondering (tow-out) [helps not having a wind or slant]. I brought it back to the garage and checked it again to make sure things stayed in place (and to double check the setup) and things looked good. Saved $50 :)

[Blah legal stuff, only takes one fool to mess up your life... Note: You take full responsibility for your own safety and car, don't blame me for your screw-up!]

GT5 - Prologue

Gran Turismo 5 - Prologue.

I got this game for the PS3 from my brother a while back and at first it wasn't quite what I expected it.. Unlike the earlier generations (GT2) where you could overly power a car up (Pikes Peak - 1000HP car on a 1000lb frame.. hmmm) this version is based on real cars and the only tuning one can do is basic HP addition (no buying parts like massive Stage 4 turbos), downforce and traditional racetuning once you're in S class. Once I got into it the game is quite fun and challenging. I basically had 3 cars that got me though the whole game. the Subaru WRX for class C/B, the Viper/tuned for B/A/S and then the S2000 for the really hard S class races (S10 for instance).

I did fairly well and got first place in almost all races except a few, namely S10 which took me quite a few hours and painful frustration to get 3rd. How did I do it? well I used my Logitech G25 racing wheel, the S2000 and basically gave as much traction as possible and tried to keep the HP up as possible while under the 750 point limit (I added an extra 10% weight). This didnt make me scream past everyone, in fact it was a bit slower on straights... BUT it did take control of the windy track very well! For anyone who races this event all I can say is use the S2000 since it has the best overall control of most cars (doesn't loose traction or spin out easily) AND take it slow/steady though corners! The first lap I passed 4 cars (out of 16), pass 2 in the second lap (out of 5), 3rd lap passed 1 and 4/5 lap is where you finally catch up with the rest of them. To me it seemed that by not powering though corners (power slides, going crazy fast and burning rubber) makes the AI run slower, like the S10 is trying to teach you to go slow and steady to get the super class license. I spent many hours pounding cars up with 700HP and couldn't pass 13th place or over power any car but as soon as I slowed down and took corners.. well smoother I was passing people fairly easily. It also helps if you have a real wheel instead of thumbs and fingers for throttle/steering.

(FYI, I bought the Ford GT test, Lotus Eclis 111/tuned(CRAP IMHO) and a few others that online forums suggested, the Ford GT is a MR car and can easily spin or slide corners which can work well if you really know exactly when to brake and turn. I was able to do this and did very well for a few laps (passing 6 in first lap) but with that risk of sliding, once you hit the dirt slightly or just overdo a corner slightly you're done for it, same thing with the Eclis or any other MR car).

Now that I have the S-class license the F2007 (Formula car) is quite something! Dont expect to use this for any of the S-class races since the min point is around 920 but it's sure fun to lap everyone in the other classes >:)