Projector

It begins.
Lenses 72.53 LumenLab.com standard lens kit
LCD Monitor -iCuePC.com 169.00 (sale) CMV CT-520D - two inputs, analog and digital.

sunset

when the sun sets is a pretty big deal for many relegions.
check out the 'discussion' that was email from our communications department as they are preparing next years callendar and choosing 'sunset times' to put in it.

I have not got a clear answer on how many degrees they have adopted.

------begin email -----
I came across these definitions for sunset while researching sunset times for the Trust department's sunset calendar. These definitions may come in handy for those who need a few more minutes on Friday to finish washing the car, mowing the lawn, or vacuuming the carpet. :-)


SunriseSunset.com
Sunset Definitions

Civil Twilight
Civil twilight is defined when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. This is the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under good weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; at the beginning of morning civil twilight, or end of evening civil twilight, the horizon is clearly defined and the brightest stars are visible under good atmospheric conditions in the absence of moonlight or other illumination. In the morning before the beginning of civil twilight and in the evening after the end of civil twilight, artificial illumination is normally required to carry on ordinary outdoor activities.

Nautical Twilight
Nautical twilight is defined when the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon. At the beginning or end of nautical twilight, under good atmospheric conditions and in the absence of other illumination, general outlines of ground objects may be distinguishable, but detailed outdoor operations are not possible, and the horizon is indistinct.

Astronomical Twilight
Astronomical twilight is defined when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. Before the beginning of astronomical twilight in the morning and after the end of astronomical twilight in the evening the sun does not contribute to sky illumination; for a considerable interval after the beginning of morning twilight and before the end of evening twilight, sky illumination is so faint that it is practically imperceptible.

bowl and pitcher

we're going to the bowl and pitcher after church today.
ya'll are invited.
i almost hit a herron with a rock (hit from a stick like a baseball bat) when dave and i went there last summer. oops. that bird was a long way down there and i did not see it hidden behind a tree. the screeching and flapping after i startled it let me know it was not too happy about the whole ordeal.
it's a good thing dave it not with us this time: poor alodia was so bored with dave and i wondering around and hitting rocks into the water (while continuing trying to one up eachother with a better hittin stick found).

elliptical

this is a short confession to the masses.
we spent WAY to long looking and not buying. We (the other half and myself) have concluded that haveing an elliptical trainer (like a stairclimber that got in a fight with a treadmill) would be a good idea.
it's quiet, it's low impact, and it'll end up right in front of the tv.
well, leave it to ME to make a simple idea unbearable.
We've been looking for one since the beginig of december. i've searched and read, and searched, and formed theories, and we've even tried a few.
the more i think about them, the more the 700$ ones just don't seem like the one's i want. well, she's ready to settle for a sears sale, and i must say, it's not a bad idea.

BUT, faced with the option of actually spending money today for a tool that does not have me holding down my divit in front of the tv and i buckled. The top two local machines we liked will be off sale by tomarrow evening.

what's a guy to do? strap two milk jugs to his ankles, fill them with 700$ of quarters, and install a chinup bar over the couch as penance?

I fear by the time we get to the bottom of this process the flowers will be out of the ground and exercising indoors with no AC will be VERY warm. Maybe i'll then take the tv outside and walk around it or something.

brator. -who?

alodia wrote me an email that said:

Keith: “vibrator just has a way of waking you up in a meeting.� (speaking of his cell phone)

Now, naturally i'm confused, as thisis all it said, and k2h has been talking about c phones for a while so it seems almost appropriate.
after thinking about it for a bit, i realize she's describing the keith at work that wonders by her desk and usually is mumbling to himslf about odd things.

office politic spam

but at least it's a catchy toon.
http://www.jibjab.com/lowband/default.htm

good site.

lots of funny pics.
http://go.to/funpic
i think this is my new favorite site for this week.

times have changed.

more spam.

email with pics of odd pets doing odd things. i liked this pic.

more corporate spam: Administratium

New Element Discovered . . . . Administratium

A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. This new element has been tentatively named "Administratium." Administratium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 111 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Administratium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Administratium causes one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

Administratium has a normal half-life of 3 years; it does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Administratium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization causes some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Administratium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass." You will know it when you see it.

saw a thing on the news

saw a thing on the news about assisted care living center in spokane giving the residents an oportunity to have a snow ball fight ... mith marshallows.
it was the best news coverage i've seen in days.
i'm sick of watching people die - marshmallows at least get my spirits up.

LumanLab

I rolled out the 20$ for their 'guide'.
I must say - it's worth it.
good discussion, good community.
i've got enough reading here before i finalize my plans to last several weeks.
check out lumanlab.com

a good read

revelation-tsunami-disaster-explained

subaru christmas eve stuck

Christmas Eve sledding my passegers joked that i could not make it up a hill.
I tried it. They were wrong. I made it up a ways. it was the backing down I screwed up on.
pictures have poor depth of field - if i were much closer to the edge, i'd of slipped off and i'd need a tow truck or a winch and a day to get out.
it was not high centered, but the drivers side just SUNK into the snow, and the passengers side was on a sheet of ice: pretty funny to leave it in drive and watch BOTH passenger side wheels just spin slowly. I guess subaru got something right because 1st gear on the automatic force 50% power to front and 50% power to back differentials. I think there is some computer controlled limit slip in teh differentials 'cuz even on the sheet of ice it managed to claw out after we ripped down a snag, tore it in half length wise, and drove out on it.

Keanen is the other funny looking guy.


and yes, we did manage to make it sledding. chester the dog and all.

Link --> ImageShack

Imageshack rocks.
k2h turned me on to it. a fast simple way of hosting images. no bells, no frills, no problems.
looks like i've already violated the tos/ user agreement.
i zipped, renamed, uploaded and transported a file.
hmm. that's not allowed.
what surprised me is that it let me do it and it did NOT read the header info from the image and delete files based on BAD headers immediatly.
i realize stenography (one form implemented: saving files inside graphics) would be harder to detect... but it just let me do it flagrently and didn't complain.
i've lost the link to the file.
maybe there is a sweeper service that runs ever 24h or something.

a high day

aside from email, internet, bookstore manager, and timeclock being down when I showed up this morning (one server rebooted it's self and froze, and another server just ran exchange store.exe like a snail) this morning has been awesome

Lizzy added my blog to her blog's she reads list = a high day!

It's the little things that make me happy in the wake of catastrophic system failure.

15 minutes with my server room (which reminds me of a nearly completed game of Jenga in more ways then one) and things are back to normal.

smitten

I found this on white skinny goddess blog.
A discussion of a smitten. funny.

recent posts hack

ripped from nerdytales. now, why is the date screwed up for each recent post?
oh well, it gets the job done.

cool site _ torrents

surfing and i found del.icio.us.
which featured Orb's Torrent Site Status.
this was a good way to get caught up as i've been out of the torrent loop since long before suprnova went down.

xbox hack

#xbins efnet - /msg xbins !list
http://www.xbox-scene.com
http://www.xbox4noobs.com/ - very simplified

research softmoding the xbox.

i'm torn between building the video projector, and softmodding my xbox (hacking it with linux so i can run other programs on it) first. it'll bypass the origional bios and load 1 off the encryped hd - to do this i'll exploit a bug in splinter cell - load saved game- which will ACCIDENTLY run unsighed code. this will give me ftp access to the box, i can save the whole hd to my pc, then modify the consoles and run more unsigned code (game pirates/backups and homebrew doom! games.)

Splinter cell went gold and that never got fixed. that and 2 other games i'm aware of. oops on microsoft's part.
today i'll purchase some cables so i can cut them up and splice my usb penstick into my xbox to begin the softmodding procedure.
it may have the side effect of a 150$ paperweight. we'll see how it goes.

projector notes

good discussion about the resistors needed.
http://www.dansdata.com/caselight.htm http://home.att.net/~basicelectronics/
http://www.siliconsolar.com/super_bright_led.htm
W-3010 InGaN / Sapphire chip .77 10000-12000mcd
W-1510 InGaN / Sapphire chip .74 10000-12000mcd
leds! http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=cwithk&iid=3857504364&frm=284
http://stores.ebay.com/Chi-Wing-LED-product-shop
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread/t-37328.html
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay/f-20.html

edit 12.17.04 lenses
http://www.diylabs.org/
http://www.lumenlab.com/store/

scantron boxes and 1024x768 lcds - look towards 500:1 contrast :) <200$ http://store.ambery.com/tvtopcvgavic.htmlhttp://store.ambery.com/altvvitovgav.html
ebay search: VIDEO TO VGA CONVERTERSuper Video to XGA/ VGA Converter ~ 1024x768 XGA High Defintion OutputSuper Video to VGA/ XGA Converter for LCD/TFT displays 1024x768 off of composit in deinterlaced for 75$
AVerMedia TVBox 5 TV Tuner - 100$
http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=219&products_id=3235&
Multinorm PAL & NTSC

RECOMMENDED: tvbox9 from newegg.

newegg for 15" displayes = good value.
good price http://www.icuepc.com/www/productdetail.asp?did=328 --> 200$ shipped

CMV CT-522A 15" LCD Monitor w/ Speakers -RETAIL are strippable
the benq v2 claims to have a better quality. BenQ 567s V2

more places:
http://www.hommie.net/index.htm
parts and why leds not good: http://www.diyprojectorcompany.com/theory/lighting.htm

bulbs
USHIO UHI-S400DD from http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com (it is under Metal Halide retrofit on HPS, what is HPS?) is far better in color
http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com/ecart/pg0827/41256.htm

lighting research
http://www.nasatech.com/Briefs/June01/NPO20824.html
http://www.wavien.com/works/worksframe.html

Monitor --- $200 (Liquid Video A150)
Ballast + Lamp -- $200 (BlueLine Electronic and Ushio from LumenLab)
Lenses --- $65 (Standard LumenLab Set)
Misc. Hardware -- $35 (Home Depot, Lowes, Radio Shack)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=351228
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1770&st=20
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=351228
http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showforum=3
http://allinbox.com/

wrecked day