Triple Threat
What is spinning around my head in a bad way this morning? Nearby forest fire smoke in our house, a heat wave, distance learning, the pandemic, and our fascist narcissist idiot president and those suckered in by him.
Archive for the ‘General’ Category.
Which Mesh Router Should I Get?
9-1-20 Update: I got an eero mesh router with 3 nodes for the house and it’s great :-)
My single-router hopes are dashed: I got a pretty good one (TP-Link Archer A7) but the kitchen appliances block the far side of the house no matter what I do. I thought about rewiring stuff in the crawlspace to relocate the router but I’d rather just pay money to fix the problem.
I’ve got a 2-day old powerline wifi adapter sitting on my desk. the trouble is, none of my computing devices are nailed down. Mannually switching networks every time I go into or out of my music room is a terrible option!
In the living room, I have a great signal on my laptop on my router. When I bring my laptop into the music room, I’ve got a crappy signal to the router and a great signal on the wifi extender. But my computer doesn’t switch over to the extender, it suffers it’s way through my refrigerator.
On Having a Little Free Library
We are thinking about getting a Little Free Library. I wrote to a neighbor with one about their experience and got a really great response. If you’re thinking of getting one, read on:
I wrote, “Hi, we saw that you have a Little Free Library. We live just down the road and were wondering how it has worked out for you. Any tips? We’re thinking of getting one for our front yard. :-)”
Their response:
Hi Lee and Megan-
4 households in a row put up the LFL. I am the steward of it. Surprisingly, it has been slow during COVID. We keep it filled though. And I wipe it down with disinfectant every day. I see people looking at it regularly and people donate as well. People leave boxes of books on my front porch. I cull from my own collection. What we are low in are children’s picture books.During precovid we had BART commuters checking it out so that was good.
Our library has been swept a couple of times (that’s when someone comes and takes all of them). Nothing we can really do about that. But if they were going for a group in need that would be ok. But these sweepers I think take them and try to sell them.Joining the group on Facebook or getting the LFL email gives some good info.
The object to me is get people reading.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hope you do it!
L S / Junction LFL
Locally Produced Home Gyms, Power Racks
Do you want a power rack or other home gym equipment? (and COVID making it both nessesary and hard to get?) A good friend and professional fabricator will be building and selling a set of about 10 power racks and other equipment in the Bay Area. He’s aiming for it to be competitively priced and (of course) local pickup/delivery.
Message me if interested!
How to Download Most Online Videos
If you need to download a video on Youtube or Vimeo or wherever, this process will often do it for you, fer free and without downloading some likely-spammy-scammy software.
The key is: most video online is HTML5. VLC can play any HTML5 video… and get you the link to download it. (via)
Ensoniq KT-88 Manual (KT-76 too)
The KT-88 is an electronic keyboard made by Ensoniq. I found the manual graciously left on TheSoniq.com. Hurray!
Good COVID Reading
Here is This is a very good article about how not to get the ‘rona, The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them. He talks about many actual cases as examples. All of the posts by Erin Bromage are good Covid reading.
Some Bread
Bread baking friends, celebrate with me the videos made by the Proof Bread company in Phoenix! I’m linking to the video that got me hooked but the whole channel is a wonderment.
I took some hints from the videos and came up with this:
1 1/2 cups of white flour, 1/8 cup whole wheat, 475 for 30 minutes covered, 12 minutes uncovered. Made a nice sandwich bread with a crackling crust :-)
Replacing the Battery on an Ensoniq KT-88 Electronic Keyboard
I replaced the battery on my Ensoniq KT-88 electronic keyboard piano today. It wasn’t hard. Took about 45 minutes of unscrewing, fiddling with connectors, and soldering. (actually, the keyboard is on long-term loan from a good friend :-) )
I bought the battery from Syntaur. Maybe I could have found it for a few dollars cheaper but it wasn’t expensive and I wanted to make sure it was a good battery and had the right tabs on it! These guys rock.
After I was done replacing the battery, none of the controls worked! Argh! I did a factory reset thanks to the internet (local archive), to reset the Ensoniq KT-88 “PRESS EDIT/SEQUENCES (PRESETS). PRESS AND HOLD THE UPPER 9 BUTTON AND THEN PRESS THE LOWER 9.RELEASE BOTH AND PRESS YES AT THE PROMPT.”. That didn’t actually fix it. But I now find that if I turn it on and power cycle it once quickly (off for about 1/2 second) controls respond perfectly until I turn it off for a length of time. It’s finicky but it works! Hurray!
Escape the City: a How-To Homesteading Guide
One of my oldest friends is writing a homesteading book. He’s literally an award-winning author which is pretty awesome. I ordered a copy :-)
“Seven years ago I moved from the city to a farm where I taught myself to garden, raise animals & cook “farm to table”. I show you how”
Find out more about the book and pre-order it.