The Scanning Begins

For like the past, forever, I have been trying to get around to either myself or my Dad scanning all of their photo albums.

Last trip home I actually kidnapped the first two - there are maybe 20 - and brought them home with me to start the project myself.

Of course that meant getting my scanner going - the one with the dead power supply. No luck there. But today I finally stopped looking at scanners and bought a new one. I'm glad I did. This one is mucho faster than its predecessor, and it seems like there must be people all over the place doing exactly the same project I am. The software seems specifically set up for large volume scanning of photos. You can scan multiple pieces at one time, do color correction and scratch restoration while scanning. Its all fairly slick.

And that's not counting all the archiving options which I am too overwhelmed to wade into. I think I will stick to directories now.

Would you look at the wallpaper.

Anyway, I officially have another project for my spare time. And I am fairly sure that the scanner and my monitor might join the missus's laptop on the next trip to Chicago - better than trucking priceless albums across the country. Plus I think I will wind up chasing down a lot of emails to make pictures available to them.

No need to look for that guy's email though.

Squeaky Wheel

Did you notice the other day that the format of the page was screwed up? The ad banner at the bottom of the referrer thing had grown to full page width and was cocking up everything.

I was fairly irritated.

So much so that I clicked the banner, looked for a "contact us" thingy and complained:

"hey,

the adwindow on my referrers links just decided it wants to be full screen width - and its messing up my formatting something nasty.

Anything that can be done aside from dumping the whole applet?

Happening in firefox and in IE - although slightly differently.
Site address: [http://mydaddidntliketheurl.blogspot.com/]

db"

and do you know what happened? I actually got a message back, and in just an hour or two:

"Hi David ---

Sorry about that. The new scrolling ad has been hard to get right in all
layouts. I changed yours to a fixed-width that looks like it works for
your page.

Thanks for letting me know; if you see any other problems (or if it
still seems broken for any reason) please just drop me a note.

---S"

And presto, the page is fixed. So thank you Mr. Sean for being such a stand up person and helping keep my blog from looking stupid.

Now That's a Snowball

Oh to be in college...

Someone must have had some spare time during last night's snowshower:


These things are six feet if they're an inch. Couldn't tell you how many people they would take to roll. Although they were at the bottom of Flagstaff Hill, so momentum may have had something to do with it.

Talk about freerolls!!! Look out below!

Did you know...

...that they couldn't "straighten" the leaning tower of Pisa even if they wanted to?

I gave this assignment to one of my classes that had a component where they had to make up a portfolio for a fictional project management company. One of the groups put in their list of projects a long time concentrated effort to straighten the leaning tower of Pisa. This rattled loose something in my head from an old Nova or something where they were explaining that this was in fact not possible.

See, its not just that the thing is falling over, it is also that it is in fact shaped somewhat like a banana.

And no matter what angle you stand up a banana, its going to be leaning, yes?

Apparently what happened is that the foundation started to shift even before the constuction on the tower was complete. When that happened the building started to pitch to one side. Having absolutely no way to correct the actualy problem with the foundation, the builders decided that they would at least fix the remainder of their tower. So for several of the upper stories, the floor and the ceiling are actually not parallel - purposely pitching the top of the building in the opposite direction and spreading the correction over several courses.

So, should you be successful in getting the bottom of the tower true to the world, the top of the building would now be leaning the other way. A genuine damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The rest ofthe story is pretty interesting as well. Its basically a story of several attempts to stop the tower from falling - because actually it is the very slowly toppling over tower of Pisa, or at least that would be more accurate than "leaning." At some point someone discovered that the rate of pitch was increasing alarmingly and that they ought to do something about it or they would lose their landmark.

Because really who would come to see the pile of rubble of Pisa?

Of course, all intentions aside, everything they tried to do to fix the thing actually threatened to make it worse. My recollection is that they had finally stabilzed things with a ballast and cable system. I don't know what the present day situation is.

So, something new every day, eh? I make no official claim as to the actual voracity of the retelling, but I think I got it right.

Router - Day 2

Today I went for a coke, stopped in the shop for a minute and then two hours later there was this:


Kevin had done the CAD and Norm had started to get the thing into the computer. I just sort of came down and pushed it through the end. The number of steps and small values that have to be set is pretty daunting considering I've had like 25 minutes introduction.

And yet - there it is.

Now of course I still have to get that soda - and then do all the work I was going to do this afternoon. Still, a good waste of time.

We Get Into the 90's

CMU took delivery today of our brand spankin new CNC Router. Its a big day for us. The video above is of the first cut we made. (This is also the first video I have posted - I apologize to my parents and anyone else viewing on dial up. I am fairly certain we will all hate this by mid day tomorrow. If you click on it it will stop.). This is real good for us, as most of the technology we have at the moment lives in the lighting and sound areas. We do have access to rent automation gear at a real good deal. But it is still nice to have something decidedly high tech right on the shop floor.

Here is a piece we finished today:


Start to finish, including doing the part path was about 20-25 minutes. Its a little hard to see, but there is a bunch of engraving work on the surface around the cross. This is going to be the back of a throne for the set of Nathan the Wise. The layout alone would have taken that long by hand. So its fast, and this is only the first day we have the thing.

Here's another video. I like to call this one:

No Mister Bond, I expect you to die

The guy from the router company asked me to post it so they can have it for their website.

So, one more thing to learn over break. I wonder how many CNC projects I can work into the School of Music opera, and how many volunteers I can get to work on it if we execute the pieces that way.

Be Careful What You Say

Someone might just hear you. Today I saw this on my referrers list:

Number 4. I think it is possible that my own irrational disdain for this particular ad campaign might reach a few more people than regular readers of this blog. Oh well, its a free country I guess.

So far its only the one referral. Nothing like the number of people winding up on this site through their typo and my semester reviews poem last year.

Still reading the back and forth on the marketing post a few days ago. Nice thoughts all.

Saturday

"You have suffered a humiliating space race loss in 3 hours 28 minutes and 34 seconds"

One way to spend a Saturday evening I guess - well that and reading the comment war developing on the last post. Fairly timely too as the Production Planning class just got the "we the few" treatment.

Advertising/Marketing

Hey, if you are a CMU type person, or a theatre type person, or a college type person, could you take a look at this thing and let me know if I got the nail on the head?

PTM One Sheet

It's an insert for our regular full school brochure - which doesn't have much information. I can't tell if I've forgotten something or someone important, or got something wrong, or just not used good language or sense or whatever.

Give a peek, let me know? Thanks.

Ellipses...

I have found a blog called "ellipses"... The only thing worse than an overstock.com commercial is an overstock.com Christmas commercial...The #1 movie quote was "frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" - sounds like our vice president... I swear, the things designers come up with - a two foot tall Grand Central flippy clock; it's supposed to go clackclackclak I think its more likely to go whumpwhumpwhump...Why do we let them use the word "detainee" they are prisoners taken during a war, we already had a word for that...The countdown clock has gone caput... I really am worried that the US is disappearing people, can't stand for that... the referrers thing was gone for a while too, my blog infrastructure is strained I think... Just what does it take to be a controversial speaker, besides someone saying that they're a controversial speaker... I am missing the fact that I didn't have some sort of ceremony abound the disposition of Trinity's remains... To read the paper about the NYC Sweeney Todd you would think they thought they invented small theatre... This past week a congressman actually proposed we create a new tax on hybrid cars - now there's a dare to be stupid solution... What about "improvised explosive device," was there something wrong with the word bomb... I wonder if Miami will be able to get up for the Indy game like they got up for the '85 Bears... It would be so cool if podcasting and on demand meant the end of advertising as we know it... I think someone should write a series of musicals based on Oklahoma! but replacing the word - maybe Manatoba? Rothlesberger? Disentary? So many jokes so little time... It seems now that we need a rubric for everything, I miss being able to flip a coin... America really does have a problem dealing with the concept of best when looked at against most popular... I've been thinking of doing a froogle wish list, or maybe Amazon, but I am uncertain anyone would look at it besides me... I can't be sure, but I think the new Superman movie may be from the Bible... I think maybe the two city vacation thing will become a regular occurrence, there's a way to put some miles on the truck... Still trying to come up with good stops for the All David Reality tour... Why does John Kerry insist on sending me emails, I thought the election ended quite some time ago - and the last time I checked I did not live in Massachusetts... The #2 movie quote was "I'll make them an offer they can't refuse," sounds like our President... Its cold here again, I think it might stick this time... I have to write a new final for Production Planning to include the NewsBeat... I am really out of gas for the semester, and have already taken work for break, oops... Penn Gillette has inspired me to write my own "This I believe," of course that will happen in my spare time... The truck is now two months and 2000 miles overdue for an oil change, can I have a GA do that?.. I think maybe the wireless router is doing what the hardware firewall would do...