Entertainment Weekend

Watched "The Hard Word" Friday night at home on DVD with Anne. A pretty good robbery caper movie. Guy Pearce, from Memento and a few other films I've seen. There were a couple of love interests along the way that just got dropped, very unsatisfactory. And we never did find out what happened to the money.

Dad and Johnny and I went to a production of "An Inspector Calls" at Aloha High School Saturday afternoon. Well done, the players did a good job with their parts, they didn't muff their lines. Well done, but a bit tedious. All talking, one set and one subject.

Watched "Hollywood Homicide" Saturday night at home on DVD with Anne and Johnny. Action/Comedy? It was like two movies in one. There was the basic story line of a murder and investigation and the cops tracking down the bad guys. But then there was the second story about the private lives of the two cops, and that brought in all the humor. Enjoyable.

Took the boys and a couple of Ross's friends to "Matrix Revolutions" Saturday afternoon at the theater in Cornelius. There was a lot packed into this movie, so much that I can't remember it all. Lots of action, not as much kung fu fighting, though there was plenty of that. Lots of mechanized warfare. A couple of existential bits. And it still leaves me with a couple of questions. Maybe if I watch it again, I'll figure out the answers.

Trumpet

The mouthpiece in Johnnie's trumpet got stuck. My brother Dan facetiously recommended using Visegrips to get it out. I didn't use my Vise-Grips, I couldn't find them. I had a brand new pair of genuine Vise-grips, too. A few months (years?) ago, I finally got tired of having to make do with old, worn out, off brand Vise-Grips, and went out and bought a brand new pair of genuine Vise-Grips.

But I couldn't find them. So I used a big adjustable wrench instead. Adjusted it so if was just big enough to go around the mouthpiece, just below the flange at the end. Had Johnny hold the trumpet straight up, with the mouthpiece pointing to the ground. Held the wrench with one hand and gave it a wap with a hammer and out came the mouthpiece.

Florida Aquifers

Water's Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida
http://www.floridasprings.org/expedition/

This show was on OPB (Channel 10) last night. It's about the Florida aquifers. Interesting for a couple of reasons:
1) they've got people scuba diving in caves, which is always a hazardous business.
2) they are communicating underwater and through rock.

The show is about a group of people who are trying to map at least some of the Florida aquifers. They have two teams. One team is underwater, underground, wearing scuba gear and carrying a special tracking device. The second team is walking around above ground carrying a GPS (to keep track of their location) and a special radio receiver to track the scuba team.

As you may know, sending radio signals through water is a tricky business. The US Navy can send messages to their submarines, but their data rate is so low it makes GOES look fast. You may remember a scene from the movie "Crimson Tide" where they are aboard the submarine. There is a message coming in , character .... by .... character ..... That was not just a dramatic effect, that's about how fast it goes. A few years ago the Navy wanted to bury an antennae under most of Michigan to improve their communications with submarines. Last I heard the residents of Michigan had put a stop to it. Good thing, too, I think. They were going to be pumping megawatts of very low frequency radio waves into the ground so they could talk to their submarines.

Back to the Florida operation. The scuba divers have some kind device that let's them communicate with each other. A little research on the web leads me to believe it is probably an ultrasonic system. See: http://www.divelink.net The divers voice is picked up by a microphone and converted to an ultrasonic signal that is broadcast into the water. The second diver has an ultrasonic transducer that picks up the sound waves from the water. The receiver converts the electrical signal from the transducer, and sends it to the second diver's earphones.

Tracking is done with radio devices. The transmitter and receiver were specially made for this project by (take a big guess) an ex-Navy radio man. These devices were not extremely high-powered, as the divers and the tracking team were able to carry the devices on their persons without having to resort to carts or sleds.

I saw a couple of other interesting things in this show.

• The divers appear to be swimming very easily, not having to work very hard, which led me to think they were swimming downstream,which made me a little nervous. What happens if you come to a narrow spot? The flow of water could trap you there. But later on I saw them trying to get through a small spot, and you could see from the sand blowing by them that they were swimming upstream. All of which makes me think the current in the main stream is not very strong.
• At one point they came across the a homeowners well pump on the end of a pipe stuck right through the middle of natural tunnel.
• At some points in their travels the scuba divers were almost 200 feet below the surface.

Calculating the timezone offset from the Longitude

Here is an example of the kind of math I had to deal with today. Thought R & K might be amused. Or not. OK, so maybe my job is a little oddball.

Calculating the timezone offset from the Longitude that we get from the GPS.

(GPS - Global Positioning System). We have a GPS module we use in our radio to get the current time. But the current time is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), which doesn't mean much to someone in Timbuktu. We also can get our longitude from the GPS. So from the Longitude and the GMT, we can calculate what timezone we are in, and with that we can figure out what the local time is.

Longitude is given in milli-arc-seconds (mas).
There are 3,600,000 mas in one degree (60 minutes * 60 seconds * 1000)
There are 15 degrees per time zone (360 degrees divided by 24 hours per day).

Divide Longitude by 3,600,000 gives longitude in degrees.
Divide result by 15 gives timezone, which is the same as the hourly difference.
Multiply result by 3600 to get timezone in seconds
Multiply result by -1 to get the direction to agree with Microsoft's timezone variable.

Combined, we have:

Longitude * 3,600 * -1
----------------------------
15 * 3,600,000

Reduced we get:

Timezone = Longitude / -15,000

Furniture

Furniture

We are looking for:

• Chairs for the kitchen
• Chair for daughter's room
• Computer desk/table for new computer.

We looked at a bunch of furniture stores:

• Dania, the big new store facing Highway 26
• Dinettes & Office Furniture unlimited next to the Laz-E-Boy store
• B.J.'s coffee
• Dinettes & Office Furniture unlimited on TV highway. Same outfit as above?
• Banner's furniture of TV highway
• Furniture Mart (?) on TV highway just West of Sunset Esplanade shopping center.

We found a computer desk at Dania just like the one we have for our old computer.

• $220.
• Particle board construction
• Cherry veneer
• 2 drawer file cabinet: $190 extra.
• Pencil drawer: $90 extra.
• Total for all three pieces: $490.
  

The good points:

• It looks nice. It's cherry. It is exactly the same as the old one. It has solid end panels so you can't see the mess of cables from the kitchen.
• The table by itself is only $220.
  

The not so good points:

• It's heavy (it's made of particle board), which means it is hard to move.
• It's made of particle board, which means you have to be careful when you move it that you don't snag a piece of veneer on the vertical end panels and break off a piece. On the other hard, in the five or so years we have had this table, it has survived fairly well. None of the veneer has come loose and none of the veneer has cracked. Of course we haven't moved it much since it is heavy.
• The table top has numerous dents which makes me think cherry isn't the hardest of woods.
• The two tables will always be slightly different colors. Cherry wood gets darker when it is exposed to light. So the new table will be lighter in color, and it will probably always be lighter in color.
• There are a mess of cables behind the computer and they are visible from the open side of the desk.

The table by itself would not be too expensive, but the lack of drawers and the color mismatch would not be good. It would be a quick and easy solution.

I would like to talk to a custom furniture maker and have a desk custom made from furniture grade plywood. Things I would do differently:

• Mount it on casters so it is easy to pull out from the wall for changing the computer cables.
• Include a shelf to support the computer so it is off the floor, which would reduce the exposure to dust. Make the shelf adjustable, in one inch increments. That way it can be moved higher so access to the removable media (disks) was easier.
• On the back side would be a shelf with a fold down panel to hold all the cords. All the cords from the equipment on the desktop would go over the back edge and into a slot above the folding panel. All the cords from the computer would go up into a large hole in the bottom of the shelf. If we want to get fancy we could add a "modesty panel" to cover the back of the computer. With all the cables stored in the tray, the only ones on the floor would be the power cord and modem cable. The only thing lacking is access to the master power switch. I suppose this will have to be bolted to the underside of the tabletop.

Kitchen chairs

B.J.'s Coffee at the corner of Cornelius Pass Road and Baseline has some nice chairs. There are a simple round back design made of oak. You see them everywhere chairs are sold. Fred Meyers has them, all the furniture stores have them. They are solid wood and reasonably comfortable (they don't have upholstered seats). Out kitchen cabinets are oak, so oak chairs would be a pretty good choice. Unfortunately not all of these oak chairs are created equal. At first glance they are all the same, but if you look closer, you see minor differences in the shape of the seats, legs, braces and spindles. None of that matters. What matters is how comfortable they are, and most of them aren't. The backs on most don't so much support you as force you to sit up straight. Not very comfortable. We found a couple that allowed you to lean back a bit and so have the chair support you, but there were other problems.

Color. There are two shades of oak available. One is very light, the other is slightly darker. We would prefer the darker shade, it would more closely match our kitchen. None of the ones that were the right color had supporting backs. None of the ones with supporting backs were the right color.

Weight. Most of these chairs are fairly light, which is nice for easy handling, but we found one model that was comfortable and the right color, but it was made from thicker pieces of wood and was substantially heavier. Also slightly more costly at $90. The cheapest chair we found was $45. My dad and mom bought a table and four similar chairs, on sale no doubt, for $100.

We would buy six chairs, five for our family and one extra that we could squeeze in at the kitchen table.
- 6 * 45 = $270
- 6 * 90 = $540

Chair for daughter's room.

We have had the chair daughter is using at her desk since before we were married. It may be Dania, it is teak. The frame is still solid, but the upholstery has given out. The easiest solution is to buy a new chair. You would think getting the seat reupholstered would be cheaper, but with the cost of goods made in China these days, maybe not. If you do want to get it reupholstered, you have to find a shop, pick out a fabric, go there when they are open, which means taking time off of work. Or just go to Office Depot and buy a chair for $50 and be done with it. But then daughter got on this purple kick, and we got the idea that maybe she would like a purple chair. We found one for like $90, but we don't know if it's the right shade of purple. I don't know what we will do about this.

I could probably reupholster the chair if we could get the fabric. It shouldn't be too difficult.

Stop lights on Evergreen Road

It has been my fate to commute between Hillsboro and Beaverton for the last ten years or so. First I lived in Beaverton and worked at Intel in Hillsboro. I eventually moved to Hillsboro, close enough to Intel that I was able to walk to work. That lasted a year or two. Now I have a job in Beaverton, about a mile from where I used to live, but I still live in Hillsboro, about a mile from where I used to work.

So I have driven up and down Evergreen Parkway a few times.

I would like to see the timing of the traffic lights on this stretch of road improved. (Evergreen Parkway between Shute Road and Glencoe.)

The light at the corner of Evergreen Parkway and Dawson Creek Drive is particularly annoying. A horde of cars can be descending on that light on Evergreen from both directions and one car will appear at the cross street. Two dozen cars will have to stop to let this one car out. Anyone who pulls up to that light and wants to turn left onto Evergreen should be forced to wait for at least a minute, just to balance the waiting time they will cause all the people who have to stop for them.

Even worse is when the light changes when there are NO cars at the cross street. This has happened at least twice in the last six months. Almost as bad is when the light changes to stop Westbound traffic when someone wants to turn right from Dawson Creek.

Next is the light at 25th street. I pulled up behind 4 or 5 cars in the left lane (Eastbound on Evergreen) at this light this afternoon. The light turned green. By the time the third car had gotten into the intersection, the light had already turned yellow! This was to let TWO cars from 25th street turn onto Evergreen. Talk about aggravating. This happens to me on regular basis, at least once a week.

Last is the left turn light that allows Westbound traffic on Evergreen Parkway to turn South onto Jackson School Road. I was glad to see a traffic light installed at this intersection, it certainly needed it. But I am not sure we need a separate left turn control light. I have never seen the need for it. Perhaps there are times of the day when it is needed, or maybe it will be needed in the future. But mostly it's just an annoyance.

Enough about traffic lights. I have a couple of suggestions about other problems.

The stop lines at some intersections are too close to the light. The stop line in the left turn lane on Northbound Jackson School Road at Evergreen Parkway is too close to the light. Many drivers turning left from Evergreen Parkway cut across this line if there are no cars there. To avoid crossing the line, a driver would have to drive straight into the intersection for a distance and then turn sharply to make the turn. Moving the stop line back could improve this situation.

The same problem exists at the intersection of Shute Road and Highway 26. Westbound traffic from 26 turning South onto Shute face the same problem.

Another bad spot is the intersection of Northbound exit from Highway 217 to Allen boulevard. Turning East onto Allen is handicapped by the visibility. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I've noticed that when I am trying to turn right on red (after a complete stop), I will creep up until I can see well enough to see that there is no traffic coming before I turn. Problem is that by the time I can see well enough, I almost completely across the first Eastbound lane of Allen. And I drive a pickup truck so I am sitting up high. I suspect the problem is amplified for people in cars.

Speed Limits

Shute Road (between Evergreen Parkway and Highway 26) concerns me a little bit. The speed limit is 55 mph (as high as it is on Highway 26!), and there is no shoulder on either side of the road, in fact there are large obstacles lining the road on both sides. Telephone poles on one side and trees on the other. If the trees are not be large enough to stop a car now, they will be soon. I suspect that one of these days some yo-yo will jump the curb and collide with one of these immovable objects. I don't know what you would do about this one either.

I think the speed limit on Harewood Drive between the apartment complex and Glencoe Road could be raised. I realize this is a very short stretch of road, but I can see no reason for the speed to be limited to 25 there. Speed trap is the word that comes to mind. Or maybe I'm just scared of driving through the woods.

Modern electronic equipment

Modern electronic equipment is like a house of cards held together by faith. Any little thing, a breath of fresh air, a slight lapse of faith, and the whole thing will collapse. In our modern temples (offices) where we worship our electronic deities, such sacrilege is forbidden, and, for the most part, our electronic symbiots work as they should.

However, out in the field, where our customers place our products, faith is not as strong, and fresh air, with all it's attendant phenomena, is rampant. It's a miracle that our products work in the field at all.

I was talking to one of our customer's a while back and they were planning on replacing a server in their office because it was three years old, not because they had had any problems with it, but because they didn't want to have any trouble with it.

Electronic devices can be very reliable, but that reliability depends on a safe environment. No temperature changes, no stray electrical currents, no stray electronic signals. Deviate from this ideal, and flaws will appear.

Most electronic circuits probably use about 10% of their circuitry 90% of the time. If a fault should appear somewhere outside the core 10%, it may not be noticed for quite a while. And it may not even cause a problem every time, it may be intermittent, one of the electronic technician's least favorite words.

Lightening strikes, even if they do not directly strike our equipment, produce large currents and high voltages in their immediate area. These currents can cause damage to electronic components that is not visible to the naked eye, but will none-the-less make them inoperative. If the damaged component is not in the core 10% (and there is a 90% probability that it isn't), the damage may not be immediately noticeable, and may even be impossible to detect except under a specific set of circumstances.

Given the preponderance of lightening in Florida, we might want to offer periodic replacement of electronic equipment. If an electronic device has been in the field for three years, they should send it back to us, even if it appears to be working fine. We would replace all of the electronic circuits with new ones and send it back to the customer. Naturally, there would be a charge for this service, perhaps half of what the original unit sells for.

The failures in Florida seem to be intermittent and sporadic. Very difficult to track down. Planned replacement of aging equipment could alleviate these problems.

An alternative would be to redesign our electronic equipment so that all circuits were equipped with parallel diagnostic circuits that would enable us to detect any time any component or trace or solder joint failed. This would make our equipment at least four times more complicated and probably twice as expensive to produce. But it could make it more reliable and would make service and repair a snap.