Articles
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Bike upgrade
January 25, 2010
Read moreBike Chick’s “ride around town” bike, a venerable Trek of uncertain heritage but vintage ~1986, and veteran of many adventures, has been the recipient of much TLC on my part. First, the pedal threads on one of the crankarms stripped out (while we were out trying to do errands, resulting in a long, one-legged ride home.) Thus I discovered that the left and right crankarms were actually of not only different brands, but different lengths! This led to prompt replacement of the crankset with whatever I had handy, which just happened to be a nice Dura Ace 39x53. The gearing was a little stiff for a town/touring bike, but Bike Chick is strong, and this was what was available at no cost.
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Just riding.
January 25, 2010
Back in the day, I knew a fellow, Sheldon, who would come on our training rides sometimes. He was a few years older than the rest of us, he had raced as a top amateur (a “Cat 1” on a name-brand team). Several years into his cycling career, he developed bad allergies and “retired” from racing to go back to school and get a degree. Sheldon would say to us: “I don’t train anymore - I just ride.” And that’s what he did; he wasn’t trying to get faster, or peak for an event. He had nothing to prove to anyone, and perhaps, especially, to himself. So Sheldon simply rode, and enjoyed the time he spent on the bike, and he was still faster than most any of the rest of us on any given day.
There’s a lesson to be learned from Sheldon, applicable to more than just bike racing.
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DIY Drones interview
January 18, 2010
I had a great time as the featured guest on the DIY Drones podcast recently (10 January), talking about future opportunities and applications for civilian use of UAVs, as well as NASA’s involvement. The community of enthusiasts at DIY Drones amazes me with the sophistication and eagerness they are bringing to the world of small UAVs – they truly represent the future.
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Kickstarter
January 6, 2010
I just ran across Kickstarter, and it’s brilliant. Go look. Now.
They also have a blog.
Basic idea: provide a “funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, exploreres…” that lets said creative folks offer up a concept, solicit contributions, and if a threshold amount is achieved, launch the project. There are some great (and some greatly kooky) projects at Kickstarter!
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Christmas project
January 4, 2010
Read moreI made a little project for some friends and relatives this Christmas… using an Arduino microcontroller board, an Altoids tin, and some assorted bits, I built a simple interface to a virtual Etch-a-Sketch (written in Processing). Two knobs control the up-down and left-right drawing of a line on the computer screen; a pushbutton changes the color of the line being drawn; a toggle switch changes between keeping the line continuously on the screen, and fading out the tail as the head of the line is being drawn. Just like a real Etch-a-Sketch, shaking the box erases the screen (using a tilt-switch inside the tin.)
Isn't it cute? 