Month: January 2022

January 12, 2022 – Up Your Complexity and Cost with Electric Bikes

January 12, 2022 /

My son is at the age where he is too young to drive and doesn’t want to walk. He has been an avid bike rider to school since he started middle school, about five years ago. Last semester we rewarded his straight A’s with an electric bike.

Now me… I am old fashioned. I don’t want any additional complexity on a bicycle. That is the point. My son want’s to electrify his 1969 Cougar. Maybe the new generation of car people will find originally restored not appealing or valuable? I think it is a mistake, nevertheless I told him it is his car.

This bike is heavy, it is almost 60 pounds. It is also designed to used with electric assist. That being said, it is very difficult to pedal without the motor working. Last week, it stopped working at least consistently. What I know, which is not much is that replacement parts are difficult to find, bicycle shops are out of sorts with this technology and anything on the drivetrain is proprietary and expensive. This leads to the odds of getting help as low. We are going to have to figure this one out ourselves.

We bought the bike used, so we do not know the origins or the complete history. Apparently, it is only sold on Amazon which makes getting help more difficult. I was able to reach out to the broker, but they are primarily interested in a warranty resolution, which I think we are beyond at this point. Here is what I think I know to date.

  • The charger is working
  • The battery seems to put out the right voltage
  • The switch sometimes works and sometimes does not.

Ultimately, I was hoping to find a bad solder joint or something loose. The switch is mounted to the board on the bottom with the two red wires. I cant see anything obvious from this angle and to get to it, I will need to entirely disassemble the battery. I am pretty sure that the problem is with the switch in that it works intermittently.

Here is my logic. A new battery unit is $250 which would integrate a switch and battery. However, I can cut the wires and bypass the built in switch with a new switch and mitigate the problem for $5. The worst case scenario is that it doesn’t work and I am out $5 plus the time. But, I would lay odds on the problem being the integrated switch. Further, The chances of me getting a replacement switch (or board) that works in the OEM configuration are extremely low. So, I don’t think I want to tear the battery apart for low probability fix.

I am going to give the manufacturer some of these details and we will see if they come through with any technical help. I am not holding my breath.

End Your Programming Routine: There are sometimes problems in life that we are going to have a difficult time handing over to someone else to solve. This happens to be one of them. I suppose I could just buy the new battery unit and solve the problem with money, but then I could just buy a new bike too. Truth be told, the battery could be rebuilt as well by identifying the bad cell and replacing it in the pack. Today I am point out the proper solution is to isolate the problem and then target a specific fix. This will likely be a video coming up.

January 11, 2022 – The First 47 Years

January 11, 2022 /

Yesterday was my birthday. Another thing that I think makes me different than most people is that it seems like just another day. This is another huge difference between my feelings and my wife’s. For instance, through the years my celebrations are getting smaller and more subdued. Whereas my wife’s are getting bigger, grander and take a week’s worth of work to prep and several days to clean-up. I think that it is difficult for her to accept that I really don’t want much fuss to be made.

Last year, my birthday was on Sunday. It also happens to be the week of the month that we are committed to leading Children’s church. The pastor seemed genuinely surprised that I would do such a thing on my birthday. In fact, he has mentioned it several times over the year. I saw it as my commitment, regardless of what day it was and how crappy and selfish it would be to bow out at the last minute and cause extra work just because it was my birthday.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely don’t want to work on my birthday. But that’s not different than the next day or any day for that matter. I suppose when you are born during the school year, it seems normal that it is a day of schedule and commitment from as far as I can remember. Transition that to work, it is the same as school and we just had a bunch of holidays.

Sunday, we had a nice dinner with my brother’s family and my parents. We drove about an hour to meet in the middle for everyone. Since we skipped our traditional Christmas Eve gathering this last year because of our caretaking responsibilities, it was nice to get together for a short period of time. I suppose that is my idea of an ideal party; people that want to get together, have a nice time and share some laughter.

I was thinking Sunday night as I was trying to fall asleep that I am 47. That is only three years to fifty and I will be on the back side of middle age, if I am not already. The strange part of it seems like this decade has been more enjoyable than the twenties or the thirties. Those two seem like a blur and were here and gone, but not the forties. This decade seems like it really has been six years since I was 40.

If I were to speculate, I would guess that there is a reason. In the early part of the twenties, I was focused on getting my degree. Then it was getting married, searching to find the ideal living situation and positioning in the career space. In my thirties, I had family born and solidifying career and sort of setting roots. Now, in my forties those roots have taken hold and the fruit is starting to come on.

With a fair degree of comfort and stability, I can fill up my gas tank if I want to, I don’t have anxiety over picking one holiday celebration or the other and I can find my way down the hallway in the dark. I think those are the things that make this decade more enjoyable than the previous ones.

End Your Programming Routine: I have had birthdays where it snowed (although that has been a while), I have had birthdays with flooding, I have had birthdays where I have been lucky to be on ‘Christmas break’ still but usually, it is a work day. I did have a good day. I enjoyed my time with the family and we had dinner and played a game. It’s not that it didn’t have some conflict and struggle, we did. But everyone made an effort to be more polite and accommodating. That was a great gift.

January 10, 2022 – The AM Antenna Video Anyway

January 10, 2022 /

I was thinking that I spent a bunch of time taking video about the process and that maybe I would get some feedback on how to make it better if I posted it.  So, that is what I did.

Not having done this a ton, I am always surprised at how much work creating videos are.   Whether it is holding the phone the wrong orientation or trimming beginning and end of clips to make good transitions, this five minute video took a couple of hours to edit (and that is with very little actual editing).

I suppose that if I am going to do more of this, I should invest in a few items to produce better quality.  I need a tripod so I can get action shots as there is only so much you can do one handed.  I may need another camera for better angles as well, like a GoPro for head mountability, I don’t know.  Part of my hesitation is that is I am not terribly interested in creating a lot of video.  What I do, I want to do well.  

I was thinking about my interest in antennas and old tech and I started thinking about radios.  I think I could get into amateur radio.  I like approachable tech, science and DIY that seems tailor made.  Plus, at least traditionally these were the ‘good guys’ in disasters like Hurricane Katrina.  That seems right up my ally as well.

I don’t know yet, I need to do more research.  I certainly don’t need another expensive or gear and time intensive hobby.  I think preferably where I would start is a secondhand CB and a DIY antenna project.  

End Your Programming Routine:  I am keeping it short today.  The whole point of spending time on the video was to use it.  Since this video has been up a couple of days, I have already gotten some tips, so there may be another version in the works.  I can probably reuse many of the components making this faster yet to do.

January 7, 2022 – Brave New World, Chapters 7-12

January 7, 2022 /

We are now in the mid section of the book.  All of the newness has worn off and this section is largely about plot development.    Sticking with the idea concepts rather than revealing the story, I have compiled a more concise and less chapter by chapter analysis.

The truth is, as I am writing this I have already finished to book.  I suppose I am now able to stand back a little better and take a higher level look at things rather that trying to see everything as it is happening.   However, my notes I took before I finished the book so hopefully it is non-bias enough.

My book is 220 pages long.  In my opinion, the story really doesn’t start until Chapter 8 which begins on page 104.  While some of the preceding pages are interesting, it makes for a very slow beginning.  This is where John, aka The Savage tells Bernard his life story.  John was born to Linda who was abandoned on the reservation by her boyfriend (and father of John), the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Tomakin.

If you haven’t read the book, then that is enough spoilers.  But suffice to say, the rest of the book is about John’s interaction with London’s civilized society and how the clash of his upbringing is irreconcilable to the rest of civilization.  Below are the concepts I observed in this chapter group.

Acceptance in Society – The Reservation is not succinctly described, however it seems to be a combination of Native, Latino, possibly Asian or Indian as well people.  They believe in God, perform Native American rituals and speak in a non-English language. They seem to eat southwestern or Mexican food, drink alcohol like mescal and live a life that we might recognize as compared to rocket travel and scent organ indulgence.

John being born to an English woman did not fit in to the reservation with blond hair and blue eyes.  Linda accepted her fate as there was nothing she could do to leave seemed to survive as a call girl.  I think this concept is perfectly understandable to us.  If you don’t look like us and are not from here, then you are an outsider.  John and Linda were outsiders at the reservation.  But they were also outsiders in civilization as well.  

Linda had grown old.  Despite being 44, she is described as someone of eighty,  Without access to the drugs and hormones, the natural aging process happened, apparently so did poor hygiene and lack of medical care.  John would never be accepted in civilization as he was born and not hatched as the rest of the people.  Living in society no matter how detached we may want to be is imperative survival.  It is the same reason why living out your days in a bunker is ultimately a failure.  We are meant to be some degree of social creatures.

Coping through medication – Despite Linda’s desire to be re-introduced into society, she would never be accepted.  Her looks and many years on the reservation had made it impossible for her to fit back in.  Supposedly, Soma was non-addictive but essentially Linda checked out with the drug as soon as she realized that this was not going to be the reunion fantasy that she had in her mind.  We will find out her fate later in the book but she is as good as gone at this point. 

Again, there is nothing too earth shattering about self-medication.  Both Bernard and John shunned the practice preferring to feel emotion and pain rather than push it away.  This is what makes this concept significant.  Humanness needs to feel both sides of emotion, not just the high side.  That was the whole point of providing the drug in the first place, to dehumanize civilization.

Division of the family unit – The book is written in a fashion that sort of portrays John as codependent.   He seems to simultaneously have love and rage for Linda.  The fact that all civilized humans are hatched and the words mother and father are titled pornographic.  I think that means shockingly vulgar, like a racial slur rather than our current definition.

Despite that, John clearly has love for Linda and he wanted to have the same with Tomakin.  That puts him at odds with society and of course has consequences to to the director.  There is extensive talk about this later in the book but this is where I first realized it was going to be a theme.  

Power of the State and Disobedience –  I would call this foreshadowing.  But there is strong indication that Bernard, Helmholtz and John are going to have a clash with the state before this book is over.  Helmholtz is some kind of English Professor and is having treasonous thoughts to borrow from 1984.  You can’t be alone, write about it or even talk about it.  

Good thing the book is short because I was starting to struggle.  I didn’t really get a sense of where things were going until we got there.  I will talk more about this in my wrap-up in a couple of weeks.  The first three concepts today are really very strong in dystopian fiction and are good tools of totalitarian governments.  Divide the society if you disobey, drug them if they don’t fit and weaken the family unit.

End Your Programming Routine:  I am going to take this back to masks for a minute.  Do you know what I never see when out and about?  I never see a child wearing a mask and a parent not or vice versa.  It is always parent and child acting in the same fashion. It isn’t until they get to the age of my children (teenagers) that you start to see a divergence.  My kids actually hassle me to the point that they don’t want to be seen with me not wearing a mask.  How does this happen?  They have been separated and socialized in a way that makes them shun if you are not fitting the social norm.  Think about that.

January 6, 2022 – ‘Taticool’ Thursday

January 6, 2022 /

I got out to the range last weekend for my months delayed trip.  I was so exited to go, I muffed some items and kind of wasted the trip as well as the ammunition, which was already skinny to begin with.  Let me explain.

I talked about my red dot sight I bought over a year ago.  I wanted to sight it in with my new barrel and then compare how the sight functions with different loads and barrels.  My going in premise is that loads and barrels will make a big difference and I wanted to see when setup for hunting how that might effect would be with a shorter barrel installed.

Sabot slugs (for rifled barrels) have always been expensive.  With purchasing limits in place as well as extremely limited availability, I was able to buy some at $4/round.  Fortunately, it is still hunting season in states where shotguns are required or I probably wouldn’t be able to get any at all.  I figured (or hoped) with the sight bore sighted, that I could do the job with 15 rounds.  That turned out not to be the case in my ill-fated trip.

The first thing I did wrong was make assumptions that were not true.  A classic scope typically uses something like 1 adjustment unit on the dial makes a 1/4″ change at 100 yards.  I didn’t read the manual before leaving for the range and it turns out with this sight, 1 click was a one inch adjustment.  So, I was over adjusting four times the amount that I was supposed to each time.  Needless to say, my first shots were all over the place.  

Since I bore sighted in the basement, I was going to try and redo it at the range to try and correct my wild inaccuracies.  Of course, I left my laser at home so I ended up holding the firearm on target and looking over it at the target while I squeezed the trigger to visually see where the slug was hitting on the berm and then making a guess from there.  

I did get it on paper but then (I didn’t know) I over adjusted and was off again.  Finally, with three shots left I was going to see how they group and not do any more adjusting.  I shot two and then the sight stopped working.  My speculation was that it was too cold as it was right at freezing or the batteries were dead.

By the time we got home, the sight was working again.  It was something to with the temperature, I think but I am not 100% sure.  I read the manual and I didn’t see any operating temperature restrictions.  Even so, I wouldn’t expect 33 degrees to be under the limit.  There are definitely some lessons here.

First of all, most of the time, this shotgun is going to have the 18 1/2″ barrel on it.  If you listen to the talking heads in the industry, a defensive shotgun is recommended to have a sight that is useful in low light.  That could be a red dot or it could be a glow in the dark or big loop.  The theory being that at close range, shotgun patterns should be aimed and not pointed like in bird hunting. 

My concern is really around the operating temperature.  It is rarely consistently this cold including hunting season, however I have proved there is something going on here.  I also don’t have a dialed in sight yet, so this thing is still nearly useless.  Yeah I can use the  ‘Kentucky Windage’ by holding it where I think it should be, but even that I am not confident yet.

End Your Programming Routine:  This was a perfect, know your equipment moment.  It is where the saying “Beware the man with one gun” comes from.  The person that has one firearm uses it consistently in all situations.  Had I done this test in the summer I probably would have never seen the problem.  In fact, I prefer to use the indoor range in the winter because I can turn on the heat.  I only was at the rifle range because I postponed for three months.  

It is also quite possible that had I not been dicking around with the adjustments and guessing why I wasn’t hitting paper that I would not have seen the problem either.   So the lesson is know your equipment.  Know it when you are setting up, know its operational limits and possible faults.  My plan is to work on this test again this month.

January 5, 2022 – PC Audio Comparison

January 5, 2022 /

Where are we going today?  It’s time to move beyond the year end wrap ups and goals for the new year for now.  I have recently bought two sets of PC speakers.  One retails for $30 and the other originally $200.  

I have never had the opportunity to compare items like this side by side so, I purchased them blindly.  The set on the right was purchased to give me consistent sound on my work setup.  In that case, the monitor had built in speakers but I was always having it changed to the built in sound and I was hoping that using the headphone output would be more reliable.

The set on the left, I purchase as sort of a luxury.  I had a set of speakers that was originally purchased in 2005 attached.  They worked fine, I was hoping to upgrade because I stream music and podcasts while I work.  Plus, I am also eventually going to send the old ones back to the Linux machine I setup so I can continue to play around with that setup (as soon as I get another monitor).

First and foremost, I cannot easily tell the difference between the expensive audio and the ones that were on there.  Yes, it also has a subwoofer and I think that I hear a richer and more balanced sound largely when I play music and I happen to be listening.  It doesn’t really happen when I have it on in the background and I am working away.

I did also test the set on the right before I plugged everything in for the final setup on my work side.  I thought that they sounded fine and everything works like I hoped it would.  I was considering buying a second set until I ran across the the Klispsch speakers.  I had seen them at Costco about a year ago and thought I might appreciate them on my computer audio since I play them a large part of the day but I couldn’t justify the price.  These were used (returns I think) and about a third of the original cost, so I thought why not.

Two years ago, I wrote about Amazon Warehouse and my opinion has only been reinforced with my continued trial of that business unit.  I bought another item from Amazon Warehouse where it works, however the on/off switch always gets stuck in the off position.  I have to manually flip it up each time I want to use the device. but it is not worth sending back as it does work. This is two in a row that there was some sort of defect or I didn’t get the deal that I thought I was getting.  I would say buyer beware when buying used items from Amazon Warehouse.  These particular speakers came in better description than described and were from a third party vendor, not Amazon.  But, I was already resolved to send them back immediately if there was some sort of defect other than cosmetic.

I do think the more expensive pair does a better job of more clear sound at higher volumes.  I can hear the subwoofer in the background along with the music which still sounds good.  That being said, I rarely have the volume up high enough to hear that difference.  I am perfectly happy with the performance of the more inexpensive speakers even though I do know what I am missing now.

End Your Programming Routine: I think it is hard to appreciate the subtle differences of more expensive PC audio.  I saw them advertised for use in gaming as well.  That may be a better justification as you are spending larger amounts of time in front of the computer than having it on in the background.  My recommendation, save the extra money and space and buy the cheaper set. 

 

January 4, 2022 – New Year, New Plans

January 4, 2022 /

I won’t deny that I kind of checked out around Christmas time. Yes, I did some obligatory retrospectives and I think that there was a lot of value doing that, I also didn’t spend a lot of time looking ahead. I didn’t really want to, I wanted to make a fresh break.

Both last year and this year, I didn’t take any extra time off around the holidays.  Last year, I needed to work as much as possible.  This year, I didn’t have the time off to take.  I also happened to catch a sickness New Year’s Eve.  It was really mild, but I took the opportunity to just rest as much as I could (that is a story for another day).  

Now that I am feeling pretty much normal, rested (restless?) and the work week is starting, it is time to start getting serious about 2022.  What do I want to accomplish?  I am going to save most of that for myself this year.  But, I am going to talk about how I am going to go about things.

It is no secret that I dream of spending time on the range.  At the beginning of the year, I try to outline what I want to accomplish each month.  My going in proposition (or goal) is to try to get to the range once a month.  I have a running list of new things to work on so I have a supply of things that I attribute to each month.  It usually takes a little thought as well to orient hunting preparation before hunting season for instance.   

I do the same thing with my other projects.  In fact, they go on the same list.  I am not so neurotic that I schedule everything, but this is the basic technique that I use to push what I want to do for the year.  Often times,  things get moved around or one thing gets priority over other things, like building my office for instance got priority of most every other project.

The process is more dynamic than once a year.  As things get shuffled around, the items that get displaced get shifted.  In other words, the process is ongoing throughout the year.  Occasionally, I also change my mind an remove things, but that is pretty rare.  When that happens, it is something that perennially gets pushed and I ultimately decide that the project I really don’t want to do, hence the reason it gets pushed in the first place.

For example, I have had something on my list since 2005.  Under the kitchen crawlspace, there is a beam that supports the floor joists.  That beam has a post that rests on a foundation of a couple of bricks in the dirt (I am not sure if there is an actual footer or not).  The post itself is not treated and I highly suspect the post is taking water every year in the wet season.  The floor also has some sag to it.  It was one of my goals to jack the floor and raise or replace the post so that it does not eventually rot.  It is my belief that it is only a matter of time before this is a bigger problem.  but it is not enough of a problem that I have been motivated to do it.

There are other problems, like the foundation has failed around the kitchen.  We also have penciled around the idea of a kitchen remodel.  For those reasons plus it is not going to be fun or easy that project has been reprioritized.  Even though it is a matter of time before there is problem in that specific scenario, ultimately there is a larger project somewhere on the horizon.  After pushing this project forward over ten years, I removed it from my list a couple of years ago.

End Your Programming Routine:  There are no hard an fast rules, in fact I don’t schedule all year long because I know that things are going to change.  I have eight to ten months penciled out depending on what task I am looking at.  This is a way that I sort of guide how I want things to go as the year moves on.  Anytime is a good time to start something like this, I choose this time because it is a natural transition.

 

January 3, 2022- Welcome to the Future

January 3, 2022 /

I really like Brad Paisley’s work. His sense of humor appeals to me and most of his songs are pretty lighthearted. This one did get radio play, but it is not one of his best known. Sometimes, you just hear something that resonates with you and this is one of them.

Back when I lead a team, I would put together a Friday playlist that would describe the week.  Then, I would open it up for the rest of the team to add to after I started it.  Usually, it was silly, sometimes angry and sometimes I would just let them make their own connections to the songs on the list.  We would then release it Friday at lunch time.  

I used to play this song a lot on Friday mornings while I was early in the office and no one was around.  I suppose what it said to me was at the time was that things can get better.  That was a message that I wanted to hear and believe.  

I am not going to do a deep analysis of the lyrics today.  According to what I read, Paisley wrote the song in relation to Obama’s nomination to run for President.  As someone that is mid-life, the amount attitude changes around race has changed dramatically in the last forty years.   To go a little abstract, this song is about observing the impossible to possible through technology or attitude.  It appears that Brad and I are not going to agree on politics, but it doesn’t mean the message or the intent is wrong.  

End Your Programming Routine: To boil it all down, what we do today does matter for the outcomes of tomorrow.  My hope is that some day, we will look back with the benefit of time past and be able to have a clearer understanding of how we got there.  As Brad eludes, today is always the future from a different perspective.  Here’s to 2022.