Aliens, lavalamps, carpet, telecommunications networks, M&M’s, and friends.

Well, it's the end of this '2008' thing, which means that I can file another year away as successfully completed. A lot of stuff happened this year, some good, some bad.

Regardless, I have learnt heaps this year, done so many new things, seen, felt and experienced so much!

And as you learn, the years can only ever improve. Experience sharpens life.

Here's wishing to a most awesome and memorable 2009.

New Year's Resolution: Prove my point better, even if it means getting angry more (which only happened once in 2008, over a pizza order).

Have a fantastic evening everyone!

Riding Shotgun, Doggy Style...

Power to the Project!

After a couple of months of bitching, someone finally granted me a spare few months of spare time. In my first week of this spare time, I've been both bored, and inventive.

Sitting next to me is my now finished ATX power supply. With it, I am able to hook up my future projects to whatever voltage I desire without the need for masses of batteries, something that will no doubt save me many dollars in the future. Total cost of my money saving project: $3 plus a few hours of my spare time.

Parts required:

• That shit ATX PSU from that old PC sitting around. Under 600W, else you might as well re-sell it.
  
• Brain; if you have one already, then you won't need to find someone with one.
  
• Tools; call your nearest one over.
  
• Your preferred method of connecting wires (in my case, a terminal block).
  
• Switch; SPST is the minimum; rated to anything. You'll almost always have one in your spare parts box.
  
• LED's; any colour. Yes, don't lie; you do have some just sitting around.
  
• Two resistors; people recommend 330Ω, I used 470Ω. Reality: any that will make your LED's turn on with 5V will do.
  
• Heatshrink; compulsory. Yes, I know you wasted it on your last project because it's fun to use, this time you actually need it.
  
• Some form of non-conductive glue. Hot glue is perfect, I used bathroom sealant. Make your own choice here.

How to:

• After snipping off the assorted connectors take out your multimeter and measure the voltages from all the wires. Black is always ground, and if you don't know that, find someone to do the rest for you. After discovering that none of the wires seem to have any voltage, connect the green wire up to a black one. Try again. Oh... The green wire seems to be some sort of switch... Take note of that, as well as the voltages from all the wires. Also take note that same coloured wires are the same. Fancy that.
  
• Measure the internal resistance between 5V and ground. It's a switched mode power supply, and needs some sort of load to work. Mine was 100Ω. If it doesn't have a load, it might need a power resistor later on. If it works without, give yourself a pat on the back. Else you might need to look into a load later in the project.
  
• Leave it sit around for a couple of hours, disconnected from the mains. Anything with mains power these days is dangerous because of the quantity of components that hold power long after it is off. I've heard people recommend leaving it around for days. Your discretion here. If you feel like poking your hand around a capacitor with a couple thousand volts charged, be my guest; I take no blame for your stupidity; I did add "brain" to the parts required list.
  

• Open it up, once you've read the above note. Serious. I like you alive.
  
• Find some method for connecting a switch between the green wire and a ground one, use heatshrink to cover your shitty solder work and more importantly to prevent bare wire touching the case. Attach the switch to the outside of the PSU in your preferred fashion. I used the assorted nuts and washers that come with the switch, works a charm.
  

• Track down the purple, grey and two black wires and separate. Be inventive to connect up the LED's and the resistors here (series for those that are "brilliant" enough to ask). Again, heatshrink is compulsory. The purple will be your "Mains On" light; the grey your "Power Good" light. Mount. I used bathroom sealant.
  
• Close up that PSU. You should be done on the inside now. Test that plugging into active power lights the "Mains On" light and flicking that switch lights the "Power Good" light. Not working? See if I care, it worked for me...
  

• Separate the wires you want for your future projects. Can't remember what was what? I told you to write it down. Blue = -12V; White = -5V; Orange = 3.3V; Red = 5V; Yellow = 12V for most systems. Got a small brown wire? I'm informed it needs to be connected up to either 5V or 12V to work. Someone get back to me on this if that was your case. I had no such wire. Snip off the wires you don't want.
  
• Attach to your preferred method of connecting wires and neaten up remaining wires. I chose a terminal block because I can hook up anything with a screwdriver. I've seen people use banana plugs and mount them on the case of the PSU. It's already cramped in there in my opinion; the top of the PSU has plenty of room. If you do decide to protrude something from the case see my note before opening it up, and use heatshrink (it's like a condom for wires; protects you from shorts running around all over the place).
  

• Finalise... It took twenty four hours for my terminal to set in place on top of the case due to using bathroom sealant. It has a nice smell though now. Test. The case is part of the circuit, and you'll blow stuff letting wires touch it. Like the RCD in your house. It's there for your safety...
  
  

I'm now looking for more stuff to build/invent. If you have an idea of something I can build, pass it on. I have spare time and a desire to get electrocuted at least once these holidays.

Happy Blog Day

Whooo! Two years old now!

Let's go get shit-faced!

Any excuse will do!

Those stubborn hairs

Right, I'm halfway through cleaning the inside of my car, which the astute of you know I haven't done in two years. The reason why I've stopped for the time being is two-fold.

First, I just blew a fuse. There I am, sucking away at the carpet and the suction dies. So this is me allowing time for the vacuum cleaner to cool down before trying again (or something, I do know that it won't work, and I'll just blow it again, but it's a mental thing).

Next, this vacuum cleaner sucks (not literally), and I'm waiting for approval from Mum for her to let me use the good one. The new one has all sorts of attachments, and is probably built to not blow fuses.

So while I wait for my reply I'm going to add this picture of everything I pulled out of my car:



Yup, I have hockey sticks, towels, pieces of seamboard with orders for Hungry Jacks written on them, four half-full water bottles, a blue rubber duck, assorted hairpins, six rolls of tape, an empty box of body pens, my jacket and a coathanger (this isn't even the stuff in the glovebox). Most of it has a story, feel free to ask!

Some of it will be placed back inside, most will go back in the car (like the tape).

Isn't this what Sundays are for?

Hawaii, Uni, and the races...

What could have been three separate posts I've merged into one. Aren't I smart?

Let's start with Hawaii.

Recently went on a trip to Hawaii. I had a great time, lots and lots of fun. I'd love to go back one day. Yes, I went surfing; yes, I went shopping; yes, I did the beach thing; yes, I stayed in the penthouse suite of the hotel; yup, I climbed Diamond Head... It was a very busy week away, and I did a lot of things and come back with my own set of scars, mementos, presents and tattoos...

I experienced food like I've never witnessed before. Some things Australia is clearly better at. First is conservation of energy. Most of you will have already heard me rant about the continual and massive waste of electricity, water and petrol over there, so I won't repeat it. Next would be food, while their portions were very decent sizes (ie. Too much) and it tasted nice; by the end of the week I ended up wanting something healthy... Like a salad... Yes, America is the only thing in the world that will get me to eat my vegetables... (As a side note, can anyone say free refills?). Finally, I think Australian's would have to do far better with driving and road rules too. I was happy to be back on the left side of the road when I got home. None of this "the light is red but we can still turn here" shit. If the light is red, then you stop. I like our method...

But the place is just so different that it's something you have to go back to. We explored about 85% of the beaches of O'ahu, the third largest island of Hawaii, and I still want to go back for more. Every day was a different beach. Whether it was surfing at Waikiki, swimming at Kailua, skin diving at Sunset Beach, or face planting while body surfing further along Kailua Beach (It was ranked #1 US Beach in 1998). The beaches were a whole different experience too. I think the main things that made them so amazing were the views you enjoyed while swimming, and the fact the weather was always perfect.

Yup, I'm browner too for those that did notice.

The last week of uni was recently, and it's now exam time. I had one yesterday, one tomorrow, and another Friday. Then my last one is next week. I could do very well on these exams, if I was willing to put in the effort. Mostly I know that I've been doing well, and am not putting in as much effort as I probably should. The weather is too nice to be studying. I think my best result will be from Engineering Design, even though I attended a grand total of three lectures, because I find the subject quite cruisey. Some might struggle with this one, and I can see why if it's your first time around logic gates, but logic happens to be what I'm good at. Though last semester the subject I felt I was going to do the best in was the one I did the worst, so I'm not going to hold my breath for fantastic results.

Finally, the Spring Cup Carnival. I've been working at a bunch of the races so far (Geelong Cup, Cox Plate) and will be working at quite a few more I hope (Melbourne Cup, Oaks Day) so make some money. I always enjoy watching people progress from sober to blind drunk over a period of time, and there's no better time to do that than when working at the Spring Carnival. Already had people offer me $20 for my nametag (free money, I have several nametags) and I made something like $14 worth of tips, all in 10c pieces at the Cox Plate. Straight to my car for them, they aren't staying in my pocket. Working Melbourne Cup should be good, because it seems they've finally figured out that I'd prefer to be bartending than holding a platter of food in my arms all day (Marble platters are heavy, and you get dead arms by the end of the day). Instead, I come home with hands that get pretty badly cut up from bottle tops and cans. Sigh... Long live the invention of the teaspoon and the bottle opener (though some fucker nicked mine the other day).

Overall, I come home with more money than most people went to the races with, so I'm one of the few that get away on a profit. If you're going to bet, chances are you'll lose. That's why TAB and bookies exist, they actually make money. The math says you will lose more than you'll win. Same goes for casinos. Don't bother unless you're really good (or can card count).

Until after exams,

James!

Checkmarks

So I have this little *cough cough* to-do list at the moment that I'm frantically trying to do before I leave. So I thought I might get a bit of help from you guys and gals...

Where am I leaving? Haven't I told you? I know some of you only found out last week, even though I had been making a couple of massive hints I was going somewhere. Some of you have known for quite a while, a couple of months...

Either way; I'm going to Hawaii...!

Yes, I'll be soaking up the sun while the weather here fulfils its usual Melbournistic style of 18°C and raining, just like it's doing right now as I look out the window. I hope it stays that way while I'm gone...

Of course, this means taking a week off uni... Most of you have holidays at this point, when my "holiday" was a couple of weeks ago (yeah... mid-semester break is nothing really, you end up at uni everyday anyway...). As a result I've been flat out busy making sure I don't fall behind in my classes. At uni they have two teaching speeds, unbearably fast and unbearably slow. It would not be difficult to disappear for a week and come back to discover you missed all the chapters of stuff that's on the exam, and ended up in a lecture on Quantum Computing, which without the week of stuff you missed, is a long way away from understandable. On the other end of the scale, I'm half expecting to come back and find that some of my lecturers are still talking about the same thing they were talking about three weeks ago, hoping that the portion of the class that hasn't attended for the past three week will attend to listen. For those lecturers, the reason why they are not there is because they got bored of you tapping the microphone, apologising, or just repeating the same things, over and over...

Hey, it can't be worse than being taught to add to quantities though, can it? (What's 1000 grams plus 250 grams? Seriously...).

I've picked out my "favourites" for this semester now. Engineering Design 1; which is where I hold the record for latest attendance to a lecture (I walked in, to hear him tell us the lecture is over, so I was there about 20 seconds). It's also the class where I get to play with logic circuits and build stuff. Last weekend I thought I'd be clever and design the "perfect" system for our project we're working on, but then got told I couldn't build it because it's a later assessment, and they'd have nothing to mark me on now... (*cough* I wouldn't mind some harder work?).

And my other favourite is just the one I've dubbed "C++" (as opposed to "MATLAB" for those that care). I like the change in language...

And if you've made it this far, you've witnessed me checking off "Blog" on my to-do list...

I said you could help me with this list, and you still can:

You all know how you can plug your new "state of the art, high definition" TV into your home network and stream movies from your laptop or what not? Well; the first person to find out the maximum network speed of high definition televisions or receivers gets a metaphorical silver foil wrapped choc chip cookie... Not a single employee at any appliance store has any clue... The answer is either "Fast Ethernet" or "Gigabit Ethernet" and it's starting to shit me...

Check...