Music Monday: Cool Change – Little River Band 1979
Posted By RichC on November 18, 2019
This content is restricted.
Woodworking: Making a couple new clamping jigs for frames
Posted By RichC on November 17, 2019
When it comes to clamping, I ascribe to the rule of thumb that you can never have too many clamps when woodworking. That said, I often don’t have enough when I’m working on a project … and lately it has been even worse since a few of my tools are in Florida (Condo1718 projects).
Currently I’m working on a couple small projects that require frames to be clamped and glued and I’ve never been happy with my hodgepodge methods to square up and clamp frames, 
be they panels, doors or just simple frames. I decided that for the upcoming project I was going to spend a little time making a few clamp jigs that should be able to hold each corner with just one trigger clamp. I’ve always liked the hole saw method for squaring up and centering clamping 
pressure so decided to use it on these jigs.
Also since I don’t want to use any brads on the frames I’m making, I decided to add a small spline for alignment and added strength besides just the end to end grain gluing. So I’m making a small jig that attaches to my tendon cutting tool on my table saw to cut the spline slot. (more…)
Pretty soon we won’t need to think at all – WIRED article
Posted By RichC on November 16, 2019
Here’s a WIRED article that made me think … although it has a misleading title line, even if that is what caught my attention and started me reading it.
When does user-friendliness, algorithms and anticipatory artificial intelligence that is designed to help us make decisions, end up becoming "I don’t need to think at all" or eventually sap our free-will to think, plan and make decisions?
Call me old, but I don’t want too much more of this “helping” me in my life.
How the Dumb Design of a WWII Plane Led to the Macintosh
At first, pilots took the blame for crashes. The true cause, however, lay with the design. That lesson led us into our user-friendly age—but there’s peril to come.
The B-17 Flying Fortress rolled off the drawing board and onto the runway in a mere 12 months, just in time to become the fearsome workhorse of the US Air Force during World War II. Its astounding toughness made pilots adore it: The B-17 could roar through angry squalls of shrapnel and bullets, emerging pockmarked but still airworthy. It was a symbol of American ingenuity, held aloft by four engines, bristling with a dozen machine guns.
Imagine being a pilot of that mighty plane. You know your primary enemy—the Germans and Japanese in your gunsights. But you have another enemy that you can’t see, and it strikes at the most baffling times. Say you’re easing in for another routine landing. You reach down to deploy your landing gear. Suddenly, you hear the scream of metal tearing into the tarmac. You’re rag-dolling around the cockpit while your plane skitters across the runway. A thought flickers across your mind about the gunners below and the other crew: "Whatever has happened to them now, it’s my fault." When your plane finally lurches to a halt, you wonder to yourself: "How on earth did my plane just crash when everything was going fine? What have I done?"
For all the triumph of America’s new planes and tanks during World War II, a silent reaper stalked the battlefield: accidental deaths and mysterious crashes that no amount of training ever seemed to fix. And it wasn’t until the end of the war that the Air Force finally resolved to figure out what had happened.
To do that, the Air Force called upon a young psychologist at the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. Paul Fitts was a handsome man with a soft Tennessee drawl, analytically minded but with a shiny wave of Brylcreemed hair, Elvis-like, which projected a certain suave nonconformity. Decades later, he’d become known as one of the Air Force’s great minds, the person tasked with hardest, weirdest problems—such as figuring out why people saw UFOs.
Read more at WIRED (also archived below)
TechFriday: When shopping online isn’t quite right #humor
Posted By RichC on November 15, 2019
While looking to purchase a can of the highly regarded CRC Heavy Duty Corrosion Inhibitor, the shipping can sometimes become an eye opener. Perhaps Amazon Prime shipping is a good thing? (let’s hope this is an Ace Hardware – Google Shopping glitch?)
The final season 4 of The Man In The High Castle airs 11/15/2019
Posted By RichC on November 14, 2019
Not often, but once in a while there is a television series that hooks both Brenda and me. When “binge-watching” started in earnest, a decade or so ago, it
was Jericho for us (although we Tivo-ed it weekly), then 24 (although in 2009 we watch DVDs pre-streaming), and then one of our favorites, FX Networks The Americans. Finally, we are currently hooked on Phillip K Dick’s book to television series called The Man in the High Castle. Ok, so we watch Stranger Things too … but we got a late start with that series.
Anyway, on Friday 11/15/2019 begins the highly anticipated season 4 (at least for us) and hopeful conclusion that will the resistance movement succeed in gaining back the United States from the Nazis and Japanese (as the storyline goes, the Germans and Japanese won World War Two and split control of the country as they continued on the verge of nuclear war into the 1960s – oh, there are also “different” realities and travelers who know and move back and forth between worlds. Very interesting.
So if you need a new “very well done series,” watch the now four season of Man In The High Castle on Amazon Prime.
My one and a half armed brother heads for surgery #TBT
Posted By RichC on November 14, 2019
I probably shouldn’t make a joke about my brother Ron going in for a surgical repair to his shoulder on Friday, but since he was the one joking with me about how he has felt like a “one and a half armed man” since summer, I continue the joke.
Hopefully, he will “slice” (ouch!) right through surgery and quickly recover, but one should never take surgery lightly. His shoulder repair (besides a little smoothing clean up of the socket) is to rework a groove for a tendon that will not stay in place and causes him significant pain. Since he really hasn’t been able to use his arm, there really isn’t an option besides surgery. Likely the most difficult part will be the rehab of his shoulder when he gets home — I’ll see how that is going over Thanksgiving when we are together.
I’ll be praying for you tomorrow Ron … oh, and here’s a Throwback Thursday #TBT photo of you in the tub a few years ago! 😊
A pair of large healthy howling coyotes are hanging around
Posted By RichC on November 13, 2019
For years in our increasingly populated (with people) Liberty Township, Ohio community has had a fair amount of wildlife roaming our neighborhoods. I’ve commented several times before and have never really been concerned when the critters are of the fox and smaller variety. Raccoons are still my least favorite, but those pesky chipmunks have recently been outsmarting me (payback for me squirting insulation foam down their holes). On the other hand, trapping a skunk was not one of my finer moments either … and the feral cat was a classic!
Recently a couple of coyotes have been making our backyard a regular hangout … probably because Tootsie is no longer around to keep them away. Bigger outdoor dogs aside, smaller pet owners need to remember that their furballs might be looked at as “dinner” … and if coyotes aren’t alone, even bigger dogs could suffer in a scrape.
(more…)
Temporarily fixed our TV remote by substituting a CR2016 3 volt battery and a washer for a CR2032 3 volt battery
Posted By RichC on November 12, 2019
Oh the crazy things we do in order to watch Monday Night Football.
The remote I use in the Home Theater has been failing and finally would no longer work. Unlike years ago when you could walk up to a TV and change the channels, our new set-up require a remote control to change nearly everything. In other words, with a dead battery in the remote and no CR2032 3V lithium replacement, the projection TV and associated gear will not work. Yikes, what is an old time Jerry Rigger to do???
Well, I opted to use the last of my smaller CR2016 3V batteries and added washer to give it the appropriate thickness. It works and hopefully will hold me until the next batch of a zillion batteries I ordered on Amazon today arrives (if one is needed, order dozens)! 😊
Music Monday: Ballad of the Green Berets for Veterans Day
Posted By RichC on November 11, 2019
This content is restricted.
Baby Reveal: GrandDAUGHTER #2 is three months away! [video]
Posted By RichC on November 10, 2019
This content is restricted.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.