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Email mind control

August 30th, 2003 12:01pm. General

From Kathyphrog:

This is strange…..

While sitting in a chair, make clockwise circles with your right foot.

While doing this, draw the number “6″ in the air with your right hand.

Keep it up and read the end…..

Your foot will change direction… and be rotating counter clockwise. . .

PVPOA Newsletter list

August 30th, 2003 12:00pm. General

Configuring it so it works just the way I want it. I spent almost 4 hours fiddling with UI-ish crap. But it’s important so…

Charging Zagi KR-1700AU batteries, Silicon didn’t help, new motor did, Being eaten alive!, A nice day

August 29th, 2003 12:00pm. RC

Charging Zagi KR-1700AU batteries

The Zagi Trick RC manual says, “SANYO RECOMMENDS CHARGING THE KR 1700AE CELL AT A RATE UP TO 1
AMP….SOME MODELERS REGULARLY CHARGE THEM FOR 40 MINUTES AT 2 AMPS.” This is simply not true. Sanyo’s recommendation is a fast charge of 2.6 amps. That is the exact same recommendation they give for their “fast charging” (4 mega-ohm) N-1700SCR battery, and their “high capacity” (16 mega-ohm) KR-1500AUL. The KR-1700AU has 17 mega-ohms of resistance. I now feel completely safe charging at a maximum of 2.5C… 4.2 amps… a 25 minute charge. I’m staying shy of the often recommended 3C charge because of the fairly high internal resistance in the battery. When I don’t need a speedy charge, I’ll keep it at 1C. I’ll do this for a while and then gauge (mostly by heat build-up patterns in the battery) how to modify this strategy.

See Sanyo.com or my flying homepage for references.

Silicon didn’t help, new motor did

I went out flying today with the spinner held on tightly with silicon glue. It didn’t work. I went through one battery, brought it in, tossed it with a second battery and it only went 50 feet before it started making the spinner’s-gonna-fall-off-any-second noise. FYI: the prop gets quieter and the motor spins faster, making a very quiet high pitched whir as it starts to slip. That’s the sign for you to prepare for a landing and start watching for the prop because then there’s this almost imperceptible clicky-poppy noise when the prop pops off. Now your electric wing is now a glider.

So I took the motor off and tried the Promaxx 7.2 volt motor. I bought this a while ago but never got to try it out. Actually, I’m glad I waited because swapping motors with my new motor mount was a snap… or rather a ‘zip’, pulling the velcro stays off and resoldering (with my snazzy-and-quick soldering gun). The new motor has a bit less power but it flew a LOT longer than the old motor, maybe 20 minutes per battery WOT the whole time! That’s pretty much in keeping with my style so I’m very happy with the new motor. I checked the temperature of the motor after 2 batteries and it was quite a bit cooler than the old motor. My temperature measurement is very scientific: After flying one battery on the old motor, the top of the motor (nearest the prop) was “Ow! I burned myself! [insert finger in mouth]” hot. After flying two batteries on the new motor, the top of the new motor was “Eww. I wouldn’t want to leave my finger on there too long!” hot. Using my handy-dandy temper-lee conversion calculator, those temperatures are 400 and 250 Fahrenheit, respectfully.

Now I have a motor I can rip apart for mad experimentation!

Being eaten alive!

I find myself going out between 5 and 7pm most of the time. The mosquitoes can me AWFUL at this time of the day! Today, I tried dousing myself in DEET bug repellent. Even with the repellent, I had to keep constantly walking around or I’d be chewed on by the bugs! I’ve got marks all over from where those little buggers got me!

A nice day

Julian gave this to me. It’s from several few weeks ago. I suppose I’m a tall fellow by some standards, yes?

a-nice-day.jpg

Vitamins

August 28th, 2003 12:01pm. General, Product Reviews

So I keep hearing that the USDA’s food pyramid thingy and vitamin recommendations are “outdated”. Everybody who knows anything about vitamins knows that the USDA is behind on the times… So being a person with some desire to do the right thing, I tried to find out what vitamins I SHOULD take.

Nobody friggin knows.

The best I could find is listed below.

http://www4.nas.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/webtablevitamins/$file/webtablevitamins.pdf
biotin 30 mcg ND
Choline 550 mg 3500
Folic Acid 400 mcg 1000
niacin 16 mg 35
Pantothenic Acid 5 mg ND
Riboflavin/B2 1.3 mg ND
Thiamin/B1 1.2 mg ND
A 900 mcg 3000
B6 1.3 mg 100
B12 2.4 mcg ND
C 90 mg 2000
D 5 mcg 50
E 15 mg 1000
K 120 mcg ND

http://www4.nas.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/Webtableminerals/$file/Webtableminerals.pdf
calcium 1000 mg 2500
chromium 35 mcg ND
copper 900 mcg 10,000
iodine 150 mcg 1,100
iron 8 mg 45
magnesium 400 mg 400
manganese 2.3 mg 11
molybdenum 45 mcg 2000
phosphorus 700 mg 4000
selenium 55 mcg 400
zinc 11 mg 40

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamins.html

vitamin A is 5,000 IU. no more than 10,000
vitamin C is 90 mg
folic acid, at least 400 micrograms (women only?)
vitamin B6 1.3 to 1.7 milligrams of
B12 is 6 micrograms
vitamin D is 5 micrograms
vitamin E 22-400 IU

vitamin K is 80 micrograms

I’m just going to keep taking Centrum. And when I start to feel sick, I’ll take extra Vitamin C like my dad demands I do; At least it makes him feel better.

PVPOA Announcements Mailing List

August 28th, 2003 12:00pm. General

After months of working with committees , we’re just about ready to launch the PVPOA’s announcement-only mailing list. My real goal is to get a discussion mailing list going. We’ll get there… baby-steps. Baby-steps.

The State of Computers Today

August 27th, 2003 12:02pm. General

from an exchange between TJIC and me.

>Mail is going wonky. Web page load times are way up. There may be
>some sort of huge worm/virus attack going on as well, according to
>some reports.

I’ve gone to maybe 15 people’s homes in the last 2 months to help them with computers. NONE of these people had any idea what a firewall was or what Windows Update was. Heck, I tried to make the analogy to my cousins that updating Windows was like changing the oil in your car… getting it done is really easy and you have to do it or you won’t have a car for long. I got what amounted to a blank stare from all of them, including the 17 and 15 year olds. I decided to set their computers to automatically go to Windows Update and not even tell them about it.

But then if I can convince these people to have their “oil changed” by me, I can do well…

Why people buy from repeat advertising

August 27th, 2003 12:01pm. General

I think that one big reason people buy from repeat advertising is that they (consciously or unconsciously) hope that by buying the product, they’ll stop being inundated with ads.

After seeing an ad for the Paypal credit card EVERY FRIGGING TIME I logged in to Paypal, I relented for the above reason. Of course, now I get ads for some other Paypal service instead.

So if I bought from all of those enis-pay enlarging spammers, do you think they’d go away?

Today’s Spam Poetry

August 27th, 2003 12:00pm. General

Today we have a poem in two parts. These emails were sent to me a few hours apart by the nice folks at VP-RX. Please pause between the two parts for maximum effect.

I

Gain 3+ inches in length
Stop premature ejaculation
Produce stronger erections
100% Safe to use, no side effects
Your partner will be astounded
Get VP-RX now!

II

VP-RX will take your sex life to new levels…Guaranteéd!

Your penís will grow up to 3 ínches
Your erectíons will be rock hard
Your sex drive will be supercharged
Your orgasms will be more intense
Your partner will be astounded
Clíck here to get VP-RXnow!

No more please

Burning through props quickly, Jaybyrds can’t fly

August 27th, 2003 12:00pm. RC

Lately, I’ve been burning up a lot of props. The black plastic press-on spinner has gone loose a couple times. Each time, I have to get out a new Gunther prop-spinner combination. I think what’s happening is that my home-made EPP motor mount and motor strap are trapping extra heat in the motor. This heat goes down the axel and melts the spinner. I think this is the case because I noticed a couple spinners where the black plastic looked like it has been deformed by heat. To fix the problem, I’m changing how the strapping sits on the motor to increase airflow a bit and following a recommendation by Kenvil Hobbies and using clear silicon sealant to glue the spinner on. I also scraped up the axel with tin snips to improve it’s bite and adhesion. The silicon takes 24 hours to dry so I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs while it dries. Maybe I’ll also scrape out some ridges on the motor mount so more air gets to it.

Jaybyrds can’t fly

I took the plane down to my cousin Jason’s house and we flew a little on Tuesday. Before the spinner (held in place with CA) melted off, I let him try the controls. Ha. Jaybyrds are a flightless species! But that’s ok, we had fun.

Hitting Stuff

August 23rd, 2003 12:00pm. RC

Went flying at Great Meadows today. It was pretty crazy… I was trying to get inverted and… well, the battery was a little far forward, which gives better penetration and stability but decreased vertical turning performance… So I flew out away from me, did an inside 1/2 turn back toward me… and then realized that I couldn’t pull up. I went right into the roof of the little stand that holds the radio pins. It skidded up and off the peak of the roof and flopped down onto the ground. I’m very happy that no one was over there at the time, but it made me very uncomfortable. I keep telling myself that there never really was any danger in the first place; Heck, I’ve hit myself in the head with the plane while trying to catch it and neither the plane or my head were damaged in the slightest.The motor had fallen out of it’s home-made mount, the prop had gone missing, and an elevon had broken AGAIN. After calming down and getting around to laughing at the incident, I glued her back together and gave her a toss! She was aerodynamically sound but the motor didn’t have nearly as much umph as before. I was worried that the motor was internally damaged. I flew out the battery as Jason, his girlfriend, father and another flyer (sorry I forget your name!) left. I stuck another battery in and the plane was totally fine, with plenty of power. Apparently (and strangely) the battery I had been using (#3) was near empty after only 4 minutes and 1 crash of flying time. Weird.

Hey Jason, if you’re reading this…. (and even if you’re not, nya) the plane is -totally- fine! The motor wasn’t damaged as I thought. Wee!

My last flight of the night ROCKED. I’m sad that everyone else missed it! It was full of zooping and zipping, cartwheeling turns, powerful leaps, graceful slooping, connectedness, and a gorgeous sunset! I love to fly!

Oh and one last thing… It was a bit windy today. I flew 1 battery at the Allamuchy field and was having a pretty sucky time. The wind was rolling off the trees and tossing the plane around a bit. I could hold on without too much trouble but it wasn’t very fun. At Great Meadows, the distant trees smoothed out the wind and flying in the 10mph winds was fun. What a difference!

Maybe I’ll just learn everything on my own

August 22nd, 2003 12:03pm. General

MIT Open Courseware

Electric Motors

Interview went very well

August 22nd, 2003 12:02pm. General

My interview at Informedia Group went very well. They’ll get back to me at the beginning of next week.

Sussex Model Air Show

August 22nd, 2003 12:01pm. General

Very nice.

Good Term to Know

August 22nd, 2003 12:00pm. General

Ad Hominem

Description of Ad Hominem [from this site]
Translated from Latin to English, “Ad Hominem” means “against the man” or “against the person.”

An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of “argument” has the following form:

1 Person A makes claim X.
2 Person B makes an attack on person A.
3 Therefore A’s claim is false.

The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).

Example of Ad Hominem

Bill: “I believe that abortion is morally wrong.”
Dave: “Of course you would say that, you’re a priest.”
Bill: “What about the arguments I gave to support my position?”
Dave: “Those don’t count. Like I said, you’re a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope, so I can’t believe what you say.”

My Wishlist

August 22nd, 2003 12:00pm. RC

from The Sussex Air Showsimba-hotliner.jpgSimba F5B electric hotliner. This thing is so frigging fast! And maneuverable too! 10 2400 mah zapped cells power a brushless motor. The motor draws around 100 amps, leaving the batteries too hot to touch for several minutes. The pilot says he only gets around 50 flights on a battery pack before they’re toast.

To launch: Hold upright. Turn motor on. Let go…. straight up as high as you like. It went about 100-120 after a dive on the flats and loops like…. It’s hard to describe… It goes into the loops so fast and barely loses any speed even though the motor is off when in the loop.

simodels-biplane.jpgSIModels biplane. There were larger planes out there but this one had the most stability and commanded the most attention of any plane in the air. That thing is at home in the air like a Lazy-Boy! The engine purred wonderfully. The plane costs what you think it does, in the $5,000 range. Powerful, smooth, commanding, beautiful.

lazy-ace.jpgThis Lazy Ace is for sale by Chuck Howarth (I’ve saved his phone number). I’m very tempted! I think it was $750 complete minus receiver and transmitter.

Sussex Air Show, Battery uses estimate

August 21st, 2003 12:00pm. RC

Going to the Sussex model air show tomorrow. Yip!

Battery uses estimate

  1 2 3

previous
totals

19 0 19
7-22 1 2 1
7-23 1 2 1
7-24 1 1 1
7-28 1 3 2
7-29 1 2 2
8-12 1 1 1
8-24 1 2 1
total 26 13 28

I have to fly battery #2 13 times more than #1 before I can charge #1 and #2 together. Ugh.

Hey, I’ve flown over 10 hours! 64 flights * approx 10 minutes per flight = 10.6 hours!

Replaced battery in transmitter

August 14th, 2003 12:00pm. RC

I replaced one battery in my transmitter battery pack. For as long as I’ve had it, the transmitter was only good for just barely 1 1/2 hrs of flying time per charge. I finally tested it and found that one cell was completely shorted out, 0 volts. I think that it’s always been like this but I never looked into it. The new battery is a Radio Shack 700mah AA cell. The other batteries are 600mah cells. I hope it works alright.

Job Application

August 13th, 2003 12:01pm. General

I applied for a job at my sister’s company. They make templated websites for real estate agents. I’d likely be some sort of tech support / client engineer guy. It felt nice when my sister told me they said I was probably overqualified. I’ll have an interview soon.

Good Power Assisted Bike Story

August 13th, 2003 12:00pm. General

I saw this story on power-assist@yahoogroups

I commute daily (only a few miles)from my home to my job with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Olympia Washington. I got into an Ebike (2000 Currie USPD) mainly because I sweat even thinking about exercise and didn’t want to get to work sweaty. At the headquarters building where I work on the State Capitol Campus, there are many dedicated bike commuters, some of whom are lycra types, and many of whom are certainly “purists.”

We have these nice bike cages at work inside which you can securely store your bike. These cages hold about 15-20 bikes and are located in different areas across the campus. You access them through an electronic keypad. One day, while locking-up the bike and going through my shutdown routine in the bike cage, a couple of dedicated purists came in to lock-up their bikes. While doing so, they started glancing at my bike, snickering, and generally making fun of my nerdy bike (and its owner). Although a little embarrassed, I took it in stride.

A few days later, while pulling the not-so-steep but long hill home, I spotted one of the offenders up ahead in my sights. I can’t tell you the pleasure I experienced when I passed him while I was sitting and he standing. I came-up on him and said (without panting, of course) “passing on the left” while simultaneously ringing my little dainty and nerdy bell. He looked back over his shoulder but I was already pretty much past him which made him do a double-take of sorts. He looked shocked.

The next morning, while locking-up my bike in the bike cage, the guy I passed came in with his bike. I didn’t say a thing about the afternoon before. After he locked-up his bike and was heading-out of the cage, he came over and said very seriously and respectfully, “so…what kind of bike is that anyway?”

Cheers
Eric

Regime Change Cards

August 12th, 2003 12:01pm. General

These cards were made by an old classmate of mine. They depict the people that some think are the real perpetrators of war and destruction of late, George W. and company. I think they’re pretty darn funny.

Regime Change Cards

You’ve seen them before. Many times. That now infamous deck of playing cards detailing the images and job descriptions of the “most wanted” in the Iraqi leadership, according to the U.S. military.

Now you can have your own personal deck describing the truly scary people: the members and facilitators of the George W. Bush Administration!

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