Judebert.com

Monocular Depth Perception

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2012-01-30T15:48:26Z

I was thinking about the depth perception techniques we use for automated vehicles. The one that one the DARPA Grand Challenge used a laser rangefinder, as well as a camera; many of the contestants used lasers, radar, or a combination of the two.

It's generally well-known that human depth perception is provided by two eyes at an offset (binocular vision). There was one Grand Challenge car that used two cameras as its sole sensing equipment; I liked that solution, not only because of its simplicity, but because it modeled human vision. (They finished second, as I recall.)

However, wouldn't it be simpler to do it with a single camera?

Continue reading "Monocular Depth Perception"

Rating UML Editors

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2009-03-03T20:28:15Z

In my job, I go through a Software Design phase for every task I'm given. That includes drawing a class diagram and a sequence diagram in more-or-less standard UML.

Now, I've drawn my diagrams in a variety of tools in the past, ranging from the highly specialized to the wildly simplistic (like PowerPoint). I've come to understand the shortcomings of UML modeling tools in general. And as a good geek, I'm going to write them down.

Rather than being negative, I'm going to write down what I want from a modeling tool. Then I can use that wishlist as criteria for evaluating the available tools, until I find a good one. If any such thing exists.

Continue reading "Rating UML Editors"

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Decommissioned

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-10-03T09:29:00Z

I still haven't fixed the batteries, and insurance is expensive, so...

Today we decommissioned Silent E.

I'm saving up for a lithium-ion pack. Maybe I can get some of those new ones, with the polymer anode, that store six times the energy. That would be awesome.

I haven't turned in the plate yet, but we've cancelled the insurance. Yes, I "Killed the Electric Car".

BUT! She will rise again!

Ace Plumbing in Kissimmee is Horrible

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2012-01-12T15:37:35Z

We recently clogged our kitchen sink. We just put too much stuff down the disposal, I think.

I bought a snake, disassembled the drain, and went to work. It was DISGUSTING! About 10 feet in, I found a clog, and managed to do a little something... but not enough. It wouldn't drain.

I tried using the CLR compressed-air kit. It blew a bunch of water out the roof air vent. Very impressive, but not helpful.

I used an entire bottle of Draino gel. It sat overnight, but the water didn't move.

We called a plumber recommended by a friend: Ace Plumbing in Kissimmee. They were HORRIBLE. They charged $80 to come give us an estimate -- that should have been our first clue that something was wrong, since the guy just opened up his notebook and quoted a fixed price directly from it. Oh, and it costs $750 for Ace Plumbing to snake your kitchen drain!

We later found out Lowe's will do it for $150. But it's hard to make this kind of comparison when you've already paid $80 just for the guy to show up, and then he's standing there waiting for you to make a decision.

He also broke the seal on the kitchen sink drain, then claimed that I had caused the damage when I added the Draino. He further claimed that the seal couldn't be purchased separately, and quoted $150 to replace the drain.

We found the seal later for $15 at Ace Hardware in Oviedo -- a fine institution, which has been helpful to me many times in the past. Despite the name similarity, they have no relation to the nefarious organization that I mistakenly hired.

I'm considering whether there's some way I can retrieve the lost $600. Could I claim fraud in small claims court? Probably not: I hired him and signed the receipt without comparison shopping. Sigh.

I still feel like I've been ripped off. I'm never using them again.

Christmas Report

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2012-01-09T11:39:35Z

Christmas was interesting as usual at my house. I played Santa again, and that means I got to ride the fire truck! I ran out of candy a little early this year, but I think we made up for it at the "Sit on Santa's Knee" event.

Luckily, that was before I caught the cold. That laid me out for a week, even though I was treating it aggressively. I probably caught it from Melissa; however, the doctor said she had a sinus infection, which shouldn't be contagious.

Eri got me a bicycle fender rack and saddlebags! I can start riding to work AND bring a lunch! That should help me get fit, along with tracking my intake on myFitnessPal.

I still haven't published my first app. I'm sidetracked trying to make money on oDesk. Thus far, I'm not impressed: it's a lot of work for very little reward. Still, it's spending cash.

It wasn't enough to keep us out of the hole, though. Christmas and Hanukkah used up all our cash, and now we're limping along, paycheck to paycheck.

Well, time to go wake the youngest. It's her first day back at school after the break. Here's hoping it's a good one!

Starcraft 2 Build Planner

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-11-17T02:49:40Z

I found a web-based tool for trying Starcraft 2 builds. It's fully Javascript, and a little unintuitive, but once you get the hang of it, it's worthwhile.

On my Vista system, both Firefox and IE9 don't update the URL as you build. Chrome works, though. Then you can save links like this: SC2Planner 4-gate.

Continue reading "Starcraft 2 Build Planner"

Silly After-Hours Clinic

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-12-19T18:46:45Z

My daughter tripped yesterday while running down the driveway; she scraped up her knee really badly, ripped open a big flap of skin on her foot, and scraped her elbows and hip.

I figured we'd be heading to the after-hours clinic, and I was right. They referred us directly to the emergency room, saying they weren't confident in stitching up the flap because it wasn't straight, and they didn't want to check for tendon damage.

I don't know why we even have an after-hours clinic.

The emergency room was empty, so we were admitted immediately. It took an hour or so to get to us, though. Since it was too painful to stand on, they x-rayed the knee and foot.

Nothing. In fact, when the doctor came to look at it, she asked, "Did they see something I'm not seeing?" We should've cleaned it out ourselves; nothing was done that we couldn't have done just as well at home.

Except the x-ray. It is nice to know that there are no internal injuries.

Continue reading "Silly After-Hours Clinic"

Climbing Up

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-12-07T23:42:00Z

Yesterday my wife took the bike to a nearby bike shop and fixed the flat. Since the wheels were dry-rotted, she also got a new tire... but only for the flat back wheel.

Everything else was really expensive, so no rack, no saddlebags, and no bike carrier for the car. I'm stuck with my laptop bag until further notice.

BUT! Today I got to work in under 30 minutes, with no significant pain. And then I did it again on the way home!

I'm starting to think a decent bike might be a good investment. It is Christmas time; maybe Goodwill or a pawn shop will have something. Then again, maybe I should leave that for some kid who wants it more.

Biking again tomorrow. We'll see how it goes!

Rock Bottom?

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-12-01T11:09:00Z

Remember how I said I'm climbing down the vehicle prestige ladder? Well, I think I've just hit the bottom. My bike got a flat.

Of course, I have no repair kit. This bike is more than 20 years old; the steel wheels are RUSTING. I have no desire to spend money on fancy bits like an attached repair kit. On that note, it has neither rack nor saddlebags; I have to carry my change of clothes in a laptop bag, and it only barely fits. There's no space for a repair kit.

I have no idea how I'm going to get to work the next time my daughter needs the car. What's below "beat-up pink female bicycle" on the vehicle prestige ladder? Roller skates?

Unicycle?

Watashi wa Nihongo go Skoshi Wakarimas

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-11-30T11:17:00Z

I've always loved anime, and I've picked up a couple of Japanese words from watching. Then I got Obenkyo for Android, to help me learn the hiragana and katakana. (Seriously, folks, Obenkyo is awesome.) Now I can read Japanese, but not understand it; nevertheless, it's always interesting to find the hidden English words in Japanese videos.

Six months ago or so, my parents found a Pimsleur Japanese CD set laying around, and brought it over for me.

Today (see how my spare time goes?) I started listening to it, with my daughter, on the way to the grocery store.

It's pretty neat. The only problem is that you're getting actual native speakers, so sometimes what you hear is different from what you're supposed to hear.

For instance, "English" sounds like "Eigo" on the tape. But later, when they introduce "Japanese" (Nihongo), the narrator talks about the "ng" sound. Then he asks if you heard it in "Eigo".

Well, no. No, I didn't. But now I think I do! Is it there or not?

Continue reading "Watashi wa Nihongo go Skoshi Wakarimas"

Back on the Bike

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-11-21T13:36:57Z

It seems I'm climbing down the prestige vehicle ladder: electric car, gas car, scooter, and now bicycle. I was having real problems with... ummm... how to put it delicately?... the bicycle saddle. Yeah.

I just spent a week traveling for work, and it's done me a world of good. I could barely even feel the saddle when I climbed on the bike this morning, and I was still in pretty good shape when I got to work.

I think I may be insufficiently hydrated, though: my heart rate kept rocketing up. At least that's a lot easier to fix than a bicycle saddle!

Riding The Red Devil

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-10-13T19:23:18Z

I've been riding The Red Devil to work for almost two weeks now.

While I hear lots of talk about scooters and motorcycles being invisible to normal drivers, I've had very little trouble. Almost everybody notices me and gives me safe space.

Oddly, all the problems I've had have been with giant trucks and SUVs. In the scariest incident, I was going 30 in a 25mph zone; the giant black SUV behind me wanted to go 40, and decided he could share the lane with me while he roared up to the red light. Doofus.

Continue reading "Riding The Red Devil"

RIP Red Devil

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-10-18T10:36:04Z

After riding the scooter for 8 trips, it's quit on me. It's been going so well, too! It started so easily, and worked so well. Now it stalls whenever I try to accelerate. I can even sit on it, hold it back with my feet on the ground, and stall it by applying some throttle.

I asked the Honda Spree scooter forums what was going wrong; they told me to clean the carburetor. So this weekend I took it apart and checked on some other problems I had, too.

Continue reading "RIP Red Devil"

The Red Devil

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-10-04T09:34:08Z

I wouldn't have decommissioned Silent E without another way to get to work. About three weeks ago, Dad sold me his motor scooter, The Red Devil.

It's a red 1995 Honda Elite SR, model number SA50. It's got a 50cc two-stroke motor, and its top speed is supposedly 30 MPH. Obviously it's not named for its performance.

Continue reading "The Red Devil"

Yes, You Can Film the Policeman

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-08-30T14:19:47Z

There's an article at MetaPixel explaining a Federal court's decision that citizens can film police officers.

I have long believed that filming police officers and other authorities is legal. Considering how easily authority gets out of hand, I could make a case for it being a citizen's duty to watch the police.

The only other problem is how long this took. The original filming was in October, 2007; the lawsuit just settled was filed in February, 2010. That's more than a year to admit that watching the watchers is not criminal.

And it's not really even over yet. They've only settled that filming doesn't expose an officer to harassment, nor causes him to be personally liable for reasonably performing his public duties. The police can still appeal on other grounds.

Bulletproof Theming with Serendipity

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2008-03-04T21:05:00Z

The "criterion" Template

Judebert.com may be powered by the Serendipity blog engine, but it's really more like a website than a blog. There's a lot of information, some of which is not dynamic, like Contraction Timer or the EV conversion diary.

To make the information more available, I decided to redesign. I visited Free CSS Templates to find a template with big, immediately visible tabs, clear text, and a well-defined separation for links and sidebar items.

After some searching among many excellent alternatives, I picked criterion for my website. Although it was presented as a corporate template, it looked like it would fit my layout without too much modification. An easy fit was important because this would be my first template port.

The Bulletproof template made porting a breeze. Here's how I did it.

Continue reading "Bulletproof Theming with Serendipity"

Shrimp in Political Commercials

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-08-18T11:59:00Z

I was recently exposed to another stupid political commercial, this one ridiculing the government spending $500,000 to "see how sick shrimp performed on a treadmill". I've seen a lot of knee-jerk reaction on this, but I'm not the kind to react without investigation.

Here's what I found.

Continue reading "Shrimp in Political Commercials"

Setting Up A Gaming LAN with OpenVPN

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2006-02-28T21:30:18Z

Age of Empires has a very nice feature: two people can play the same civilization, as a single player. This is different from teaming up, because you can give conflicting orders to the villagers. My wife and I love to play this way, especially when we can play against... I mean, with... our other friends.

Unfortunately, if you want to play with multiple players behind a firewall, and at least one player outside the firewall, you're out of luck: DirectPlay doesn't allow you to remap the ports.

One solution is to set up a VPN. That way the players behind the firewall can keep their IP addresses, and the players outside the firewall look like they're on the local LAN. Businesses often use a VPN service, and one even comes with Windows (PPTP). I recently set up a gaming LAN with OpenVPN. Here's how.

Continue reading "Setting Up A Gaming LAN with OpenVPN"

New Android

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-08-12T23:07:42Z

My old phone had GPS, reset, and other issues. I recently got a replacement. Now I'm trying to get Google to fix their Android Market webpage so I can install my old apps.

I'm really confused about why a company with as much talent as Google would make such a crappy page. There's no way to delete the apps; there's no way to delete an old device; and worst of all, it just plain FAILS: on the My Library page, you can't see any apps beyond the 11th page. The pages after the 11th are all blank. Sucks for us people with a lot of apps.

Meanwhile, if you play around with FireBug, you'll see that all the pages are actually loaded. They're just not displayed correctly. Deleting a few of the earlier pages makes them visible again. That's how I found all my old apps and got them re-installed.

Anyway, that's had me busy for a bit. Between that and my actual job, it's taking me forever to finish this app I'm working on.

SwagBucks

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-07-28T10:48:00Z

So I've signed on to SwagBucks. My review: it stinks. It's really slow to accumulate tokens, it requires a bunch of your personal data, and when you fill out data for a survey, it's often for nothing.

At least I haven't gotten a bunch of spam or anything. Yet. It's only been three days; let's see where it goes.

Continue reading "SwagBucks"

Android PIM: Note App Review

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-05-27T10:12:00Z

Ever since my first Franklin Planner, I've been a big believer in PIM (Personal Information Management). Boy, was I ever glad to get rid of the paper and go digital with my Palm Pilot. I went through a succession of Palm products, including the Sony Clie and a Treo. When I heard that Palm was giving up on smartphones after the Pre, I was devastated; I had no idea what I would do when my Treo finally broke down.

The decision was forced upon me, shortly after I took my Treo for a swim. (Note to self: ziploc bags aren't waterproof, even three layers deep.) I'd seen Apple's idea of PIM from my wife's iPhone: barely functional, unless you paid for their Mobile Me service, in which case it was tolerable. I decided to go with Android and got a Samsung Galaxy S.

Good lord the AT&T Samsung Captivate sucks. But the hardware itself is a post for another time; right now, I'm considering the Android PIM software independently. I rate it about equal to the iPhone: barely functional. The one big advantage is automatic sync with Google Calendar.

Notes are a big piece of PIM, though. Over the next few weeks, I intend to run several note-taking apps through my personal PIM wringer. The winner will get the coveted "place on my phone" award. And I'll have a record of what made the losers... well, losers.

Let's get to the rules!

Continue reading "Android PIM: Note App Review"

Android PIM Review: GooMemo

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-07-15T10:25:00Z

Ugh, I can't stand it any more. Catch works nicely for me. Why must I keep reviewing Android notepad apps?

Because maybe something will be even better. Maybe something will be as good as Catch, but sync with Google. Maybe something will be so awesome it'll erase the horrible stain that is Evernote from my mind.

Could it be GooMemo?

The only way to find out is to get my review on!

Continue reading "Android PIM Review: GooMemo"

Android PIM: Evernote

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-07-12T11:14:00Z

I'm on a quest to find the best PIM notepad app for Android phones. If reviews are any indication, Evernote just might take the crown from Catch.

Evernote is free, as is its web service, "Evernote Web". However, you have to pay for premium services. I'm too cheap to pay for a premium account. I'm using version 3.0.2(public).

Well, let's get started checking out the important points!

Continue reading "Android PIM: Evernote"

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Third Birthday

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-07-05T12:26:00Z

I've always considered Independence Day to be Silent E's birthday.

This makes it her third, and I'm sorry to say it hasn't been a happy one. The most recent battery problem has sidelined her while I decide what to do next.

Obviously, the right thing to do is to replace the battery pack. But the original pack suffered from two problems: insufficient capacity and clamp-on terminals. I believe -- without much evidence, I must admit -- that the clamps to the 2/0 wires are the source of a lot of heat, and it's killing batteries. However, switching to higher-capacity batteries means rebuilding the battery boxes. And switching to screw-on terminals means rebuilding all the wires. And returning to 144V means buying a bunch of new regulators (I've blown up a bunch of mine).

If I'm going to go to that expense, I may as well go for some serious range. I'm considering large AGMs, or even lithium. I've run some numbers, and I've discovered that about 200Ah in a 144V battery pack will get me close to 100 miles.

All I have to do is sell all my spare internal organs. Or make it big with an iPhone app in a difficult economy.

Well, happy birthday anyway, Silent E. I promise to get you back on the road as soon as I can afford it.

Android PIM: Docs

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-06-16T10:46:00Z

With one good notepad app for Android on my phone, you might think I'd stop looking. And you'd be right... for about a week. Catch is nice and all, but there's always room for improvement. Like syncing with Google Docs.

The simply-named Docs promises just that. But will it do everything else I need from a note keeper?

Continue reading "Android PIM: Docs"

King of the Losers!

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-06-10T12:06:45Z

That's right! Today I made it to number 1 in the bronze league!

Yesterday I had a terrible, terrible day. Today was the exact opposite. I even beat off a Protoss who tried to proxy me twice. The adrenaline had me playing at platinum level.

The last opponent -- a Terran -- accused me of using "hacsk". Since I don't, I'm taking that as a compliment.

I'm King of the Losers! Eat it, all you lesser losers!

Android PIM: AK Notepad

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-06-06T11:08:00Z

Continuing the Android PIM Note App Review, we've got AK Notepad. (That's right, I spent so much time massaging my data that, to make up for the delay, you get two reviews in one day!)

AK Notepad is the stripped-down, streamlined predecessor to Catch. Version 2.3.1 is still for free available on the Android Market, so I thought I'd give it a try. How'd it do? Click through to find out.

Continue reading "Android PIM: AK Notepad"

Android PIM: Catch

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-06-08T10:30:00Z

I almost didn't review Catch, because AK Notepad also uses catch.com. I believed Catch would just be a refinement on the already-unsuitable AK Notepad.

Boy, am I glad I didn't let my emotions make that decision. Catch rocks!

Continue reading "Android PIM: Catch"

Android PIM: Note Everything

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-06-06T10:28:00Z

First up in the Android PIM Note App Review (I've got to think of a shorter name for that): Note Everything. Sorry it took me so long; I was fooling around with saving my Palm notes in a format suitable for multiple programs, and I didn't want to review Note Everything until I'd tried out its Palm Memo import feature.

Note Everything comes in free and pro versions. It is nicely-arranged, and has lots of preferences to customize to your liking. An additional free app, NE GDocs, is available for syncing with Google.

I checked out the free version, 4.0.3a, with NE GDocs. On to the review!

Continue reading "Android PIM: Note Everything"

Analogy Man: Terrorism

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-05-02T14:44:17Z

Everybody on the planet has heard by now that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. My Facebook feed is showing a range of reactions, mostly triumphant, with only two cynics.

Count me with the cynics. I don't believe "Justice has been done". I'm not even convinced we've made progress, on either justice or terrorism.

Here's why: terrorism is like spam.

Continue reading "Analogy Man: Terrorism"

Insensitivity

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-04-24T22:08:00Z

Friday was Good Friday, and as I was waiting for a meeting to start, a coworker walked in and really hurt my feelings. (Yeah, I guess I'm emo now.) In a loud voice, he joked, "Yeah, all those people that want to take God out of the schools, and remove "under God" from the Pledge, but they sure don't have any problem taking off our holidays!"

I was so shocked that I couldn't say anything. All that came to mind was, "Bigot!", but that wasn't quite correct. I couldn't quite figure out why, either; it's not like people were missing from work. In fact, the only organization that had officially declared a holiday (so far as I knew) was the school system. I had to let it go to pay attention to the meeting, but it's been eating me up ever since.

I've finally managed to categorize the problem: he was basically complaining that anyone who didn't share his beliefs, but willingly kept their kids out of school on Good Friday, was a hypocrite. I hate hypocrisy, and I work hard to eliminate it in myself and my children. But I willingly let my kids stay home on Good Friday. (First off, what else was I going to do with them? Secondly, I'll take any holiday I can get.) So naturally I felt I was being insulted.

To be clear, I am one of those people who wants to "take God out of our schools" and Pledge. Precisely, I don't want my government forcing my kids to pray or to invoke god in any way. If you stop to consider it for a moment, I think you'll agree: do you really want the government deciding which religion is correct? What if they decide to pray the Muslim way? Or even the Catholic way, or the Baptist way, when you're a Methodist?

This incident perfectly highlights, in my mind, the "Christian Persecution" problem. On the one hand, he insists that the US is a "Christian Nation"; on the other, he claims to be persecuted by loud heathen minorities who want to force him to stop practicing his religion.

In this particular case, I have to wonder: who made Good Friday a school holiday, anyway? Was it one of those loud minorities? Let's check out the Seminole County School Board! Karen Almond: Catholic. Diane Bauer: Christian. Tina Calderone: Methodist. Sylvia Pond: Baptist. Dede Schaffner: unknown. Bill Vogel: Presbyterian. So, at least 5 out of the 6 people who made this decision were Christians. Where, exactly, did the "people who want to take God out of our schools" come in?

In fact, I believe your faith is so important that the government should have no hand in it whatsoever. Now, look at our legislation, national holidays, and political debates, and ask yourself: which religion does the government make the most allowances for? Do we make more Jewish, Hindu, or Christian holidays? When we debate medical care, do we find ourselves arguing over Shinto, Muslim, or Christian concepts? Heck, I've even received email claiming that we should only elect Christian politicians. Ever heard a claim like that for any other religion?

I contend that if anyone's being hypocritical here, it's not me. I think I'll have to confront this guy on Monday. Privately, though; I think the only thing I can even possibly expect is an apology. I doubt I'm going to get anyone to reconsider their opinions or attitudes.

Edit Wednesday, 2010-04-27: I stayed home Monday to help resolve some problems with my wife's business. She recommended not confronting the guy at all, since the only possible result would be to damage our business relationship further. I'll just ignore him until he says something similar again.

Analogy Man: Education Cuts

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-03-09T11:30:46Z

It's time for the first ever installment of Analogy Man!

I find myself coming up with analogies all the time. Sometimes my family and friends find them clever enough that it starts a good conversations. Sometimes I'm surprised they don't spread like viral memes.

Analogy Man will be my attempt to make a few analogies spread like viral memes.

Psh, right. Like anybody reads my website any more anyway.

Today: what education budget cuts are like. I'm looking at you, governor Rick Scott.

Continue reading "Analogy Man: Education Cuts"

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Meltdown

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2011-03-08T11:05:08Z

I lost another battery; I'm down to 8, the bare minimum. (My voltage converter will reportedly die if I try to run it under 96V.) This one literally melted.

Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Meltdown"

Poisonous Politics

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-08-31T13:37:37Z

For years, I've been subscribing to multiple political party mailing lists. I've read and saved every one, sorting them into folders based on their content. So far I've really only needed three: fundraising, fallacies, and namecalling. I thought they would keep me informed and help me pick candidates during the primaries and elections.

I believe that we desperately need politicians who know how to compromise. We're getting nowhere with demagogues who follow a straight party line and refuse to bend under any circumstances. The common practice of vilifying and denigrating any person or position that varies at all from the party's is only making things worse.

We've lost the ability to think and to debate in politics.

The vast majority of political missives I receive from the Democrats and Libertarians go to the "fundraising" folder. A few of the Democrats' go in "fallacies". The Republican mails always wind up in "namecalling", with a few in "fallacies". I'm not any better informed about candidates or issues; I only know who's yelling about what.

It's all poison. I'm unsubscribing. The NRCC won't let me; pparently I'll have to mark them as spam.

Phone Follies

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-08-17T10:45:19Z

I went swimming in a nearby river with my middle daughter, and I brought along my trusty Treo in case of emergencies. Of course, it's not waterproof, so I double-bagged it in Ziplocs.

Turns out they're not waterproof. I took it apart, dried it out, and used it for two days, when it stopped working altogether.

My wife upgraded me to a Samsung Galaxy S. On our AT&T network, it's called a Captivate. Very nice phone! But no keyboard. So I exchanged it for a Motorola Backflip, saving $155 in the bargain.

Biggest mistake ever.

Continue reading "Phone Follies"

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Roadworthy Birthday

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-07-04T10:26:00Z

I've been lazy long enough. Today is Silent E's birthday; time to replace that wire and get her back on the road!

This is a very simple operation. Remove the old wire, cut a new wire to length, attach new terminal clamps, and put on the finished wire. Why have I been putting it off so long?

The wire in question was getting so hot it melted its plastic terminal covers. Rather than fixing the problem, I removed the terminal covers. Eventually it got so hot it literally melted the terminal clamps. That's right. Drops of solidified lead on my battery tops. Yikes. They must have made a conduction path somewhere, because the terminals started sparking under load. That's when I stopped driving.

The operation went pretty smoothly, except for one disturbing problem: There's a ground somewhere. Even with the main power switch off, putting the wire back on caused sparks. I washed the tops of the batteries with a baking soda solution, as best as I could. (One of my regulators got wet; I hope I didn't break it.)

Including a dead-end wire that was too short, forgetting to turn off the main power switch, and spraying the nearby wasps (not in my car, thank RNG), the whole thing took me an hour. I used only the tools in my emergency kit, just to be sure I could replace a wire in an emergency.

Happy Birthday, Silent E! Tuesday, it's back to work!

Gettin' Her Geek On

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-06-22T10:10:32Z

I must be doing something right: my eldest daughter went to a sleepover at a friend's house. They wanted to play Sims 3, but the computer wasn't working.

We had discussed this earlier, so she new it didn't have the appropriate drivers. She and her friend took the computer apart to figure out what model of motherboard they were dealing with, then put it back together, downloaded the appropriate drivers, and got everything running.

Alright, it took them 3 hours. But that's not bad for a first time. And they treated a difficult problem with perseverance and initiative.

Alpha Geek approves. Well done, Grasshopper!

Still Kicking

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-05-24T18:09:41Z

I'm still here. Just nothing interesting to report. It's been hectic, in a family-personal kind of way. The car still works, nothing new or interesting on that front. The family is still together, the job is still paying. Exercise wasn't going as well as I'd like, but I'm improving.

Further news as events unfold.

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Sparks

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-06-08T21:21:43Z

I've been living with a hot wire for a while now. (No, not my wife. ) Fixing it is just a matter of replacing the wire, but I've been putting it off. A few days ago, on the way home from work, I could actually hear it sparking.

It's not the first time it's done that, but this time it was really loud and sustained. I saw the voltage go down at the same time; it must really have been pulling some current out of the other batteries.

The odd thing is... this means there's a path to ground somewhere. Luckily, it didn't short out the 12V system, or even blow any fuses. That means the short is probably among the batteries themselves. I'm betting it's splattered lead and/or dust.

In any case, I'm not moving the car until I replace the wire. With everything else going on, that could take a while.

I really need a vacation.

Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: RubeRally

judebert@judebert.com (Judebert) — 2010-03-21T00:02:00Z

People just love Silent E

Thanks to my good friend Clark, today I attended the RubeLab RubeRally alternative fuel vehicle rally. Rather like a scavenger hunt, really. Silent E took second place! Well, the first place car ran on CNG -- a fossil fuel -- so I contend it should've been disqualified, but hey...

I also pushed my car beyond its limits, saw some other neat vehicles, and enjoyed hanging out with my brother. Read on for details and more pictures.

Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: RubeRally"