Vegas Revolution

Whilst I was out bouncing around the walls of a hollowed out 727 last September we had one extra surprise for our trip. The Travel Channel was out filming for their new series recently aired "Vegas Revolution". It is a series about all the things you can do in Vegas besides gamble. Trust me, you can find just about anything there. The episode they were filming for that day was aptly named "Adrenalin" and featured fun things like indoor skydiving, race car driving, the Stratosphere, and us, Zero G. I remember signing a waiver (as did everyone else) so they could show us on tv, and they followed us around a great deal on our trip.

After Zero G ended I totally forgot about the Travel Channel episode until I was walking down the factory where I work and someone stopped me and said they had seen me on tv.

Travel Channel, Vegas Revolution: Adrenalin. Go watch. :)

OMG Snow (part 2)

Weeeeee!

Well *someone* is having fun in the snow :)

RAWR evil snowflakes! *chomp*

OMG Snow!!11!

uh huh... So apparently this is blizzard season now. Everyone is freaking out because of the *gasp* ~.130" of snow and currently above freezing temps. Better keep your eyes glued to the news! Don't want to miss any of this here storm coverage. Yep. It be winter time.

Would be kinda nice to get some real snow though.

*update: weell we got some (points up to next post) weeeee*

It's Over!

57 Days of strike and back to work on Monday. Yay!

btw this is what I was working on last at the college (probably won't get much further now).
Oh well, it will still be waiting for me next time I get free time.

Is it Over?

After 52 days on strike an agreement was reached between the union and the Boeing. Making this what could be the third longest strike in Boeing history (according to linked article) It could still be a week or two before I go back to work but it looks like things are wrapping up.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/385222_boeingstrike28.html


*hurries to get all the side projects I have started finished up* hehe

Hypotrochoidal fun

Just for fun I decided to make a simplified spirograph on the wire. The gears are 32 DP and have tooth ranges from 16 to 80 teeth. I have one or two more gears I am going to make for it but it is basically done. The gears run with the ring gear creating hypotrochoidal curves (or epitrochoidal if two externals are used). The tiny gear has one large hole because I wasn't sure what size to make them and I decided later to make the remaining holes smaller so the pen holds the gear better.

I may do something with the edges of the ring gear piece at some point also.

3/4 of a gear

Well I just got back from the shop. I got the first gear (20 tooth, 10 DP) burned out today. (There it is shown on the comparator) Going to make the second identical gear tomarrow. Then they need to have the bores done and the faces ground. Looks more like a gear anyways

Half a Gear

Well there is it. My one of my favorite machines at the college machine shop. Also the machine I made 'snoopy' on. It is a 5 axis Charmilles wire EDM. Electrical Discharge Machining has its advantages over other forms of machining because of its ability to cut just about anything that conducts electricity and of just about any shape and size that will physically fit in the machine. I thought of using this machine as a way to make gears for my evil bidding (aka all those weird gear related projects I like to do but never have the right equipment) a couple years ago and have done a couple (square gears, etc.) but haven't had a lot of time to just poke at it and see just how good of a gear you can make on this machine. I would like to determine what sort of gear quality I can get by EDM. So, I designed a simple planetary gear train to get things rolling.

I will be curious to see just how well the EDM does with the elemental parts of the gear teeth. Correct profile, lead, PD size, even things like finish. How well they run with each other which will depend on things like correct tooth spacing, runout, as well as everything listed above. I might not be able to check all these things but I will do what I can. I am almost more curious about the quality of the gears than anything else in this project.

I ran a test part through the wire and size held within about .0003. Not too bad. I can see it getting a lot worse though with something that has a lot of geometry (like the gears). One of the biggest things is the finish. Surface finish from this EDM isn't the greatest but We'll see what we end up with.

Tons of fun :)

Update: 11-5-08

I have cut a few gears on the EDM and they actually ended up really good! Nice profile, a tiny bit of lead error (taper), and decent dual flank composite variation results. Better than expected! yay!

Not a Gear

Here's something for *SOMEONE* who thinks my gear project was a boring idea :P

I made you a Snoopy :)

He's about 2.5" tall and made out of aluminum. I needed a practice job to get the hang of setting up the wire EDM so I burned out this little guy. I didn't draw it (it was a pre-loaded job) but it made me remember how to run the machine somewhat so it did it's job.

As for the gears; I got the files mostly done tonight. The first one should be ready to go tomorrow. I need to make the blank which shouldn't take too long but you never know. Finding the proper material in a college shop isn't always easy.

Back to School

well sorta..

It is day 31 of the Boeing strike and in a fit of boredom I went down to the local college machine shop and signed up for a special projects class so I can use their equipment. I will be going down in the mornings (and maybe evenings) to run their wire EDM to make GEARS! wee! mmmm.. Gears..

*cough* anyways.. so I am going to be making a planetary gear train that I designed (last night) just for the fun of it. I don't really have any other way to make the internal gear with any machine over there except wire EDM so I am just going to do the whole thing (minus the housing, etc.) on it. This will also be an experiment to determine what sort of quality you can get out of an EDM for gears. I am thinking profile is going to be the most iffy.. but maybe lead, runout, spacing errors too O_o We'll see..

I'll post pics :)

I figure now that I have signed up for something fun they will resolve the strike and I will be having to go back to work. That's how my luck goes.

Geeks in Spaaaaaaace

So I finally got my trip with Zero G. Sunday morning I took a cab to the training building just a couple miles from the hotel we were staying at. I arrived way too early but hung around in the lobby until others started showing up. I got checked in, met some of the crew including my team captain. They divide the group up into 3 sections denoted by the color of the bracelet and socks they give you. Silver, blue, and gold are the three teams. As you can see from the pic, I am in the silver team. This just makes it easier for the team leaders to keep track of people. Since there were only 16 of us instead of the usual 35 we had a lot more room and the colors didn't play too huge a roll. They got me a flightsuit and I started getting my hat camera wiring ready to go and got the ok from them to bring it with me. I designed my system for wearing it so that it wouldn't be like rocket science taking it on and off which turned out to be a very good thing. The one downside is I started noticing the adhesive on the velcro holding the camera to my hat was starting to wear out.

As more people started showing up they had a nice zero gravity friendly breakfast lined up. We ate a light meal and talked amongst ourselves and with Buzz Aldrin until it was time for the pre-flight videos and safety briefing. They played us a video describing the trip we were about to go on, some fun things to do in zero g, and all the required safety information and features of the modified 727 named G Force One.

Following the videos and other information, we were again encouraged to have a light snack and then to security screening. Like any other commercial flight you have to go through TSA screening before you can get on the plane. They operate a little differently though. We flew out of McCarran airport like a normal commercial airplane out of Vegas but we didn't go through the terminal. Instead an official screened us with metal detectors and sent us to wait in a bus to go directly to the plane on the tarmac. We rode in through a secure gate at one of the private jet companies at McCarran and drove out to the 727.

We got off the bus and gathered for some group photos and began lining up with boarding passes in hand to enter the plane. Unlike boarding your normal jets, we climbed up a staircase in the very rear of the plane. The 727 has no windows (except in the emergency exits), no bathroom (wouldn't want to have to use one on a parabolic flight anyways!), and few seats. It is basically a big, flying, hollow tube. It is a good looking plane though and doesn't show it's age. They keep it in pretty good shape.

I took my seat in the middle (won't catch me doing that on a normal airline either :) window seat or else! but no windows, so I guess my rule didn't apply ;) ) of the front-most row and got belted in. As we waited for what seemed like hours waiting in line with all the other airplanes trying to leave LAS we got the usual spiel about the emergency exits, oxygen and how to use it (as a side note, oxygen is located below you on this plane due to the fact that there are no overhead compartments), in the event of a water landing, etc. etc...

After an undetermined amount of time we finally got off the ground and headed into our allocated airspace somewhere out in the middle of the Nevada desert. Their airspace allows them freedom from ~24,000 ft to ~35,000 ft and so the parabolas are within that window. We did 15 parabolas. 1 martian (1/3 normal gravity), 2 lunar (1/6 normal gravity), and 12 zero g. During the periods when we are not in reduced gravity environment the g's range typically around 1.8 which means you feel nearly twice as heavy as you normally would. The reduced gravity portions last ~30 seconds each.

It was all great fun! I am sure I look really goofy but I don't care. It is hard to control yourself and I pretty much stopped caring and just had fun and wherever I went is where I was. On the second zero g parabola we chased skittles around, on a later one we played around with water and on the last one I did some flips (although I did a few on other parabolas by the looks of it too lol). Fly like superman or worm your way around the fuselage there isn't much you can't do. On one I managed to get myself to one of the little windows in the door and attempted to get a good shot of the outside with mixed results and on one of the lunar parabolas I did a mid-air somersault with help of my team leader. Buzz Aldrin roamed between the different groups and we all had fun floating around with him. We had two small breaks of straight and level flight to give everyone a little break. Most people did pretty good. I saw a few people get sick and have to sit out some or the rest of the trip but I was fine and so was most everyone else. I didn't take any chances though, I took motion sickness medication before we left.

The whole trip lasted just under 2 hours with a combined total of ~8 minutes of weightlessness. We posed for some last minute group photos and got back to our seats for landing. We de-planed and got our pictures taken with Buzz and two of the very nice people of Zero G at the rear of the plane and got back on the bus back to the training facility.

When we got back there were sandwiches and champagne waiting for us and we had a little event where they handed us certificates and shook hands with Buzz Aldrin. Shortly thereafter I got a ride back to the Luxor from one of the flyers and a few hours later was dinner.

Dinner as mentioned in the previous post was at the Fluer De Lys at Mandalay Bay. Right next to the Luxor I just walked over. There I had a wonderful evening with the group and crew of our flight. Buzz stayed for a while but had to catch a plane and I stayed talking with everyone until about 9:15. I had a lot of fun and it was well worth the hassle I went through. The people at Zero-G made everything right and I would gladly fly again. Thanks.

Vegas: Round 2

We got into Vegas on Saturday 9/13. Just enough time to wander around before going to bed. We stayed at the other end of the strip this time at the Luxor. Not near as nice as the Bellagio but *shrug* it was a place to sleep. We toured the hotels and casinos in the immediate area, Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, and New York, New York.

I am a sucker for rides and I had to try out the roller coaster at New York, New York. I have to say for such a small roller coaster it is very well done. It doesn't jerk you around like a cheap ride at a county fair.

We grabbed some dinner and headed for downtown Vegas. We stopped to check out the light show at the Fremont and Golden Nugget and listened to the street musicians for a while and wandered around the Golden Nugget for a while and headed back.

Sunday was zero g day. I won't go into detail here because in the next post (above) covers it but, it was awesome. I took a cab to their training facility about 2 miles away from the hotel (which brought the cab fare to ~$20 lol) and proceeded to spend most of the day there and on the plane.

Following the flight and re gravitation party back on the ground I had a few hours to kill before dinner. One of the flyers who was staying at the same hotel as me let me ride back to the hotel with her which was very nice as I didn't have to get in another taxi.

First thing I did when I got back to the hotel was go wander about some more. Dinner was at 6:30 and I had a few hours to go. I was getting pretty sleepy at that point and went back to the room to take a short nap before getting ready and wandering my way down to dinner at Fluer De Lyes at Mandalay Bay. Dinner was put on by Zero-G and I had a very nice evening with the flyers and crew of our flight plus Buzz Aldrin. I said goodbye around 9:15 and headed back to the Luxor.

Monday morning and it was time to go. I packed up my bags and headed back to the airport. LAS is always crowded and going through security there is never very much fun. Fortunatly my big mass of wiring from my hat camera didn't cause me any trouble with security.

Our flight was delayed about a half hour because of traffic on the ground but otherwise an uneventfull flight. Southwest has open seating which makes getting a good seat kind of a pain if your at the back of the line but I got a window at the very last row.

When we got to southern Oregon I shot this pic of Crater Lake and one of the couple wildfires still burning down there. The smoke was so thick it continued all the way through southern Washington.

T-minus 3 days and counting

Well it is the end of day 5 of the Boeing strike and less than 3 days till my schedualed Zero-G flight (again). My flight to Vegas is mid-day saturday and my zero-g flight is sunday and my return trip is monday. woohoo! 3 flights in 3 days! I am currently watching my e-mail and phone like a hawk to make sure I don't miss any important (read: bad news) messages from Zero G (better not be any!) and they had better get it right this time!!

I'll post pics as soon as I can :)

Wish me luck!

Math count

Well I have either lost it or something.. My apprenticeship math book has been driving me nuts so I am going to just get it over with. I don't know how long the strike will last but I am going to get as close to *done* with this thing as I can. I am already burnt out on it so what's a little more insanity eh? ;)

Current chapter: 24 of 105
Last updated: 9/8

What's even nicer about this pic? The book only has ODD numbered answers!

Strike!

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. My first strike at Boeing. With an overwhelming majority Boeing's best and final offer was rejected. It was actually rejected 48 hours ago but the government stepped in and called for a federal mediator and a 48 hour 'hold'. So we worked the last two days and now that time is up. There has been no other offers so at 12:01 we'll walk. My picket duty isn't until Sunday but it will be interesting. I hope to use the time off to catch up on my apprenticeship math (which I have ridiculously too much of) and I hope we end up with a good contract :)

Lets see where this goes...

I'm waaaaiting....

Well it is less than 2 weeks until my scheduled ultra spiffy zero g flight. I have not received my final schedule yet and am starting to get annoyed. Mostly concerned but a bit annoyed. Not like they have ever given me any reason to doubt them *dripping sarcasm* but I would just like to know that everything is still good (lest my wrath be unleashed). This is the *last* chance for them to make this work for me and I *really* want to go so it would be really nice to have some good news.

*crossing fingers* I think I will just call them tomorrow (again) if I don't hear anything.

Update: I called them at work today (9/3) and had a new itinerary sent to me. Apparently it got lost on its way to my inbox(s) :/ but, that's good! I have an official schedual! (again) *keeping fingers crossed*

Kumoricon '08

Oh boy! it's that time of year again. I had been putting off Kumoricon thinking that I didn't feel like going but of course I changed my mind at the last moment. It was held at the Double Tree by Lloyd Center again and I still can't help but laugh everytime someone who has never seen this stuff before stares as they walk, ride, or drive by. Being that I waited until the last minute I missed Pre-reg so I got to spend 5 hours in line. Weee! It wasn't so bad though, I waited with some good people and there were sandwiches involved.

Surviving the registration process I proceded to do what I do every 'con, buy stuff and take pictures. I don't do much of either anymore as I already have a zillion megabytes of con photos eating up HD space on my computer but hey, it beats sitting around the house. I liked the vender room selection this year. I don't really follow a specific anime but I like some and I enjoy Japanease culture so I am not really looking for the limited edition action figure from *insert anime here* but I did like the hand made and small shop items like the EMOblock plushies and some handmade katamari phone charms. I also ran into a really neat Kimono booth run by KimonoMomo
http://www.kimonomomo.com/ .
I had a Kimono that I had bought cheap at Sakuracon a year or two ago but haven't worn much because I was missing some pieces. The lady there was really nice and helpful and set me up with the remaining pieces (plus some extras lol) and showed me how to put it all on without it falling off or needing 4 hands to do it. The Obi is the hardest part (the 'belt' ). It is about 10 feet long and depending on how fancy you want to get, is a pain to tie. I make a simple bow on the back but it is still kinda tricky. She also showed me how to store the kimono (not on hangers!) so that they would last. Some of my kimono stuff (like the Haori in the picture) is pre- WW2 so I don't want it to get in any worse shape. None of my kimono stuff is very fancy but for a con like this it is fun to wear.

Overall, I had fun. I think next time I will definity be pre-registering though so I don't have to repeat the 5 hour in line bit though.

*grrr bad formatting *twitch*.... oh well. I don't feel like fixing it.*

Vegas: Round 1

Friday:

After the call that I won't be flying on zero-g this weekend I was pretty disappointed but still wanting to go to Vegas and have a good time. We arrived about 1 pm and made our way via shuttle to the Bellagio. Having never been to Vegas before I figured a few things: it would be hot, it would be crowded, and it would be expensive. I was more or less right on all three. The crowd was surprisingly small though. Maybe it's the economy but we didn't have too many problems with lines. Surprising since we went on the worst days of the week. Friday-Sunday.

The first stop was the Star Trek experiance at the Hilton. Ate lunch at Quark's Bar which despite not looking exactly like one on tv was pretty fun. Blue Beer!

The museum was pretty cool but a bit small. It seems though that I am a few years late in visiting here. Unfortunately, the whole Star Trek Experience will be closing this fall. A real bummer. Even though everything is closing up shop and there isn't as much to look at, it was still quite a bit of fun. The museum contains a lot of neat stuff from the movies including the toaster Mac that Scotty 'talked to' in Star Trek 4 ("Hello, Computer..") and the hover boots that Spock wore to chase after Kirk when he fell off El Capitan in Star Trek 5. I got my pic taken on the bridge of the Enterprise D from Star Trek TNG (I'll scan it and post it later). Right before leaving I also had a chance to meet Beverly Washburn. She played Lt. Arlene Galway in Star Trek TOS as well as roles in Old Yeller, Dragnet, and Superman. She was really nice to talk to and since it wasn't horribly crowded it was even better.

Following the Hilton we took another cab and headed to the Stratosphere. I was disappointed to find out that they no longer had the rollercoaster up there and didn't really feel like riding any of the other rides so I basically went up and took pictures and watched people freak out. It was a nice view complete with thunder and lightning from a quickly passing storm. Seems a bit unsafe standing on the tallest thing in Las Vegas during an electrical storm but hey, i'm still alive. The storm was short lived and we didn't even get wet but we saw a few bolts of lightning out in the distance. I didn't do much more than look around up there. When we got back down to the ground level I played a few hands of blackjack and actually didn't do too bad. I made a few bucks and called it good. It was the only thing I played that I actually won. Of course though, I didn't play much of anything else.

Back to the Bellagio afterward to find dinner. We managed to survive the cab ride (other thing I learned: cabbies are crazy O_O) and hung around until it got dark. It only made it to something of the order of 103 degrees but my feet were starting to get a bit sore from all the walking. It also seems like it is easier to get alcohol than water in Vegas so I was somewhat thirsty. The Bellagio has a huge water fountain in front where they play music to the water fountian spraying up into the air. It was starting to gather quite a crowd so I wasn't in the best of spots but it was fun to watch never the less.













Saturday:

Woke up way to early in the morning (ok, so it was like 10:30 am.. whatever.) and we continued our journey to somewhere. We started at the Bellagio and headed towards Bally's and Ceaser's Palace. Little did I know that Ceaser's Palace is like a black hole of casino and shopping. I have seen it from the ground, seen it from the air, but nothing seems to compare to the physically impossible large-ness of inside. It goes on forever! (and ever, and ever...) It took us probably 4 hours to meander through the shops and slot machines that go on through eternity. This isn't the best shot of the forum shops as they are called but it was the best of the several attempts I made. The ceiling is painted like sky and the lighting is weird which apparently confuses the living daylights out of the little Canon camera I was carrying.

Somehow we made it out of Ceaser's Palace and we headed towards the Paris. It's half scale Eifel Tower was too much for me to resist so up I went. Yep. Total tourist. It was actually pretty cool. It wasn't over crowded (albit, a bit overpriced) and since it was something on the order of 450 feet in the air was nice and breezy compared to the hot air down on the strip. There is a cage that emcompases the whole observation deck which made taking pictures a bit interesting but every so often there would be a hole big enough that I could stick the camera out and take an unobstructed picture. The pic of one of the swiming pools
at Bally's gives a good indication of how high we were. (btw: I know the page formatting is getting a bit weird with all the pics, click on the pic to enlarge.) Pretty much the rest of the day was more of the same. Looked around, took lots of pictures, walked past a lot of fancy clothing stores that I had no interest in, etc. It was fun though.

Around 6:00 pm we made our way to the Rio for the show we had bought tickets to. Penn and Teller. I am not much of a magic fan but these two guys are different. They are *funny* and the magic they do reflects that. Penn is a very tall, very flamboyant person while Teller is very much smaller and quieter but they make the perfect pair. The show was fun and I am very glad I went. After the show I had the oppritunity to breifly meet the two of them whilst they signed autographs and took pictures with the crowd. Yeah, I was one of them too. I had my program and a book signed and got to have a pic taken with each of them.

It was about 11:00 pm when we started our trek back to the Bellagio once again but I wasn't quite done yet so I stopped to take some last minute pictures. I figured I would be too tired on sunday to want to do anything (I was right) so I finally ended up crashing somewhere around 12:30 am.

Sunday:

Sleepwalked my way home.

4th chance?

Ok. Maybe I am nuts but whatever. I am giving them a 4th and final chance to actually go zero g. I hadn't planned on it and I am still pretty unhappy with them for canceling on me AGAIN but they have made me and offer I can't in my right mind refuse. Next month barring meteor showers, full moon, the FAA, or some other excuse I will be going back to zero g not only for the normal flight but for their Platinum flight. Half the people, twice the room, more stuff, and get this... Buzz Aldrin. Normaly this flight goes for about $9,000 a person. Nearly twice as much as I paid for their normal flight but they have offered me a seat on that flight (no extra charge). So. That means back to Vegas I go next month so more hotel and airfare but if all goes according to plan (you can probably understand my skeptisim) I will be in for a pretty awesome trip.

skydive photos

These are from last November but I thought I'd stick them up here. It was fun. It was cold (being November and all). I'd do it again. :)

The pics like this one were taken by a photographer who jumped with us but they are still using film in their cameras. I used a negative scanner to get most of these digitized hence a few artifacts in the images. The guy at Walgreen's who developed my film did a not so good job so I didn't scan the prints.
More pics: http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii153/weldergeek/skydive/?albumview=grid
Use Guest passwd: picsofstuff1

Flugtag Portland 2008

It's peeeeeople.
According to the Red Bull website I was somewhere in the crowd of ~80,000 people who turned out to watch people jump into the Willamette today. In addition to the flying creations launched into the river, there were the Red Bull skydive team, music DJ'ed by Gustav of 94.7 KNRK, and did I mention more people than you can shake a stick at? I was in the main 'mass' of people at Waterfront Park and in my pictures I didn't much of any shots behind me because it was just too crowded but notice the people in boats, people on the other side of the river, people stacked up on the hawthorne bridge, and just rows and rows of spectators lined up as far out as OMSI. Never really been to anything this crowded.

We got really lucky with parking and getting in and out. We found parking about 6 blocks or so away around 9:30 am which was before the parking attendent showed up (or knew about this event) this was nice because we only had to pay the flat weekend rate of $4. (by the time we left he had jacked up the price to $10 and there was not a parking space to be seen for quite a long ways.) We didn't stay for the whole show. I had to be somewhere else later in the day plus we wanted to avoid traffic. So we left about 45 minutes early. The last craft I saw launch ended up being the winner. A giant tricycle with a hanglider like structure built on top.

The skydivers were pretty cool. They jumped from a helicopter only a few thousand feet up, did a bunch of crazy looking spins and dives and all three landed right on the launch ramp. My favorite one I think was team 'Lego My Red Bull'. They had not only a craft made of what looked from a distance like perfect jumbo sized lego blocks but had awesome lego people costumes to match. For the record though, their craft flew like a brick ;)

It was fun, I would go again but I would not want to get there and leave at the sametime as everyone else. Get there early!
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii153/weldergeek/flugtag/
use guest password: picsofstuff1

Yay! toys :D

I got my new 'helmet camera' today. I got it for my upcoming trip on zero-g. I will be playing around the next few days with the wiring harness and position of the 'guts' (the main recording camera, battery pack, wires, etc.) but it looks like it should do what I want it to do :) More to follow later.

Airfare = expensive *grumble*

*Rant*
Why is it that a simple $4,000 trip to ride a vomit comet can't cost $4,000?! Hasn't my wallet suffered enough? Apparently buying tickets to Las Vegas less than a month away plus hotel is not cheap O_o . *pout* Plus I am sure I will not get my coveted window seat on the trip to/from Las Vegas now. *double pout* I just hope it goes smoothly and they don't overbook (HA!) I just want to get where I'm going.
*/Rant*

Saturday in McMinnville

A long fun day involving gliders, airplanes, and lunch. I am sleepy now so instead of writing a bunch of boring things, I will do this in gallery form. yay! Pics are in slideshow at the bottom of the page.

Take that TiVO :P

I have been wanting for some time the functionality of a DVR without the annoying part of a DVR subscription. When I had pc's I had a tv tuner in one where I could record TV to the hard drive. Well, I run all macs now and have a lot of free HDD space and figured it would be usefull for storing tv shows. Recording tv shouldn't cost money. You could do it with VCR's why not hard drives? Companies like DirectTV and TiVO would love to sell you a lovely self contained recording unit that can record and store your favorite inconviently schedualed TV shows but they seem to think they need to charge you a monthly fee to do it. Screw that noise. Nothing much like rocket science, I went down to the local Best Buy (granted not *the* "best buy" in town but hey, they had what I was looking for) and purchased a TV tuner for my Mac Pro (Pinnacle's USB HD tuner stick).

So far, I have been really impressed with it. It's small, it doesn't take up much or any of my very limited desk space, it comes with this nifty remote that even has a windowed/full screen toggle, and the software seems pretty un-invasive and well laied out. EyeTV is the software that comes stock with the tuner and I can pre-program it with any of the shows and times that I want recorded. So back to DVR's. Mac Pro + TV tuner + wifi/AppleTV = DVR I hope. I am going to get an AppleTV next and see what happens. I can get the files into iTunes and so an appleTV should be able to play them without too much greif. I would much rather deal with a little file shuffling than pay for a DVR subscription. My only choices shouldn't be DVR subscription/ VCR tape/ or paid downloads for something I can watch for free.

Boeing Frontiers Magazine for July

I made it into the Boeing Frontiers magazine this month :D

page 46.
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/index.html
(update: this is old now. Link goes to current issue. The issue I was in is now here: http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2008/july/index.html)

Zero-G Aug 16th!

Well Hopefully after being canceled twice and flip-flopping on the day/location of my zero-g flight on more than one occasion I think I will finally *actually* be going :D
It will be in Las Vegas this time. (I was originally supposed to fly out of San Jose waay back on May 25th but it was canceled due to low sign-up). This time they have enough people and barring a major set back (which would suck but honestly wouldn't surprise me at this point) I'll be going! Woohoo! Vomit Comet, here I come :D

URU Round 3

In an article by the Spokesman Review, GameTap has given the rights to Myst Online: URU Live back to Cyan.
Spokesman Review

Woohoo! An online URU player since sept. '04 and playing Myst since the early to mid '90's.

I'll be waiting!

*Placeholder.. Needed a place to put this, I am going to make a page for URU projects. Eventually.*

Test

This thing on?
Soo...
More later

This is just a space for my messing around. Don't expect anything interesting.