Never been one to let the carrier drop

I’ve been having lots of fun with my intelligent lights. I’m going to put ’em on stands in the basement tomorrow, and then I can simultaneously play music and do pretty and colorful things. Should be interesting to see Ron’s reaction the first time I stab him with 1500W of white light.. 😉

Anyway, so I’ve also been doing lots of parking-meter-related stuff, moving ever forwards. And I’ve even found time to do some EV stuff. In general, I feel like my life is progressing forward nicely aside from the fact that it’s freezing in Seattle. For three days in a row, when I turned in (@ 4 am naturally) it’s been _snowing_. P. actually is spending the night because she can’t face the cold.. [well, there might be other reasons too.. one could hope anyway..]

Global warming indeed.

Must be getting warmer somewhere, but it’s not here.

My sister managed to blind herself getting lased.. (well, only in one eye and they think they can fix it.. but this makes two people I’ve heard of in the last month who had significant vision degradation as a result of getting their eyes laser corrected – kind of makes you stop and think. And then think some more. ;-)]

And I need to go to doctor [I keep developing new, and strangely discolored spots on my skin.. I’ve had a bunch of spots, moles really, as long as I can remember, but now there are way more of them.. maybe I’ve got skin cancer or something? I hope not] and to the dentist [for one of those cleaning-check-up thingies] and to a psychologist [who, me, crazy? ;-)] and then if I have any money left, I think I’ll buy a new pair of shoes..

Hmm. This is a very mundane journal entry. Oh well. Things are very mundane right now…

S.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted in this thing.. H. came last week, and he tends to demand 110% of my attention. His favorite trick is getting me thoroughly trashed and then pressing me for dates and time commitments.

At least he seems to have given up on wanting me to do 16 hours of work while he’s here, which is encouraging.

This morning I couldn’t really get myself interested in getting out of bed.. but I had to get something to the mail place before noon. I did manage (by like 2 minutes, the fedex guy came in as I was signing..) but it’s sort of alarming. i can’t get seriously interested in anything.. I just feel like going back to sleep and waking up when it’s summer again.

I did have fun last night playing with lasers and intelligent lights. With six heads, I’m getting pretty close to a nifty light show. Sadly, one of the heads sucks – I think I will auction it back off on E-bay (where I bought it). Whoever programmed the DJ-Scan 250 should turn in their programmer’s badge. And American DJ should have the firmware rewritten. It’s really horrid. You tell it to scan from one position to the other, and it thinks about it for a second, and then scans in two or three short hops – the visual effect is, hmm, irksome.

On the other hand, the KLS I-Scan 362s came in, and they _rock_. Software dimmable, which means they don’t always have to be in-your-face, a super-wide optical path that means a whole lot of light makes it to the apeture, easily focused, fast and slow strobing, really quiet operation.. I bid on two more of them. 😉

There is no excuse for any DMX fixture not to do software dimming in this day and age..

I’m thinking of writing a DMX control plugin for WinAmp [if no one has already, which would sort of suprise me] – at the very least, researching if anyone has already done so. Just imagine the coolness factor!

Okay, so maybe I can get interested in something.

Saturday I went to a rave.. okay, party, I’ve been informed that the proper word is no longer rave for reasons that have to do with vocabulary shift – kind of like hacker is no longer a good thing – anyway.. it was great. The decorations were wonderful, the sound was excellent – first class, balanced out almost exactly the way I would have done it, not pushing the amps harder than they were ready to give (well, integrated speakers, so hard to do ;-)), cool laser effects, friendly people.. I had a breif moment of panic when I discovered I knew no one there [all my friends left at 2ish] but was reassured by a really nice guy.. left at about 6a, because I was afraid if I left any later I’d fall asleep on the way home.

Some visual artifacts that I will always wonder about.. decorations, hallucinations, or somewhere in between? Anyway, it was a awesome party and I’ll be looking forward to the next one.

Gah, my angst just isn’t angsting any more. I guess that’s good. But I really did intend to write one of those I hate the world I’m going to go jump off a bridge everything is hopeless kind of entries…

So, today it’s not parking meters, but Access/VBA code. Good clean fun. Then tomorrow, back to parking meters. 😉

GOt to go see if I can find Access 97 SP 2.

and send Psyphyte her serial number, which I keep flaking on doing..

Is it wrong to pretend to be a rock star?

I’ve always wondered – I mean, I have the PA – the number of watts requisite.. and now a intelligent lighting system –

and I wonder, is it so in my mind I can pretend to be what I always wanted to be, but actually have not enough talent for?

[Of course, that last point is also somewhat open to debate.. as I practice more and more, I get better and better.. and someday maybe I’ll be good enough to have people want to go see me. On the other hand, I can’t imagine after going to see Simon & Garfunkel and the Indigo Girls that I’ll ever be in their league.. ]

So yes, I think there is a tinge of walter mitty in my overly electronic basement. But there are worse ways to entertain yourself. My hobby hurts no one.. and while it might be a drain on the bank account, the truth of the matter is it’s not that big of one. I figure I spend a average of $4000 a year on music equipment. I probably spend a average of 45 minutes a day playing. That’s 273 hours a year, divide by $4000 and you find my hobby costs me $14 a hour. A bit more than the movies, but not a lot more.

And it gets more entertaining all the time, too. Most hobbies get steadily more boring the more time I put into them.. but this, the more I do, the more fun it is..

Ron is gonna shit when he sees my new badass lighting set-up. 😉

Practice in real-world conditions!

Well, last night me and went to see the Indigo Girls. It was lovely – they seem to have gotten over their avante-guarde period, and all their new material was beautiful and much of it quite meaningful as well. And they played lots of old favorites, including Galleleo, Closer To Fine, Chicken Man, Power of Two, Least Complicated..

Indigo Girls music is just amazing in how much wisdom it packs – how much experience – how universal it is to all of us. [Or nearly all of us].

The night before, we went to see Peices of April – this is a _wonderful_ movie – anyone from Gen X will recognize April – we’ve all known someone like her – and the movie alters between hilarious and heartbreaking as it follows her travails through trying to set up a thanksgiving dinner for her estranged mother. Mostly, it just seems so – real. All the charicters – including the sister who you just want to strangle – are right out of everyday life – and, a very compelling story.

Went to see it at the movie theatre with the killer popcorn flavorings, and noticed this time that on the bottom of the box was a URL – so I ordered myself some ranch popcorn flavoring! 😉 [for those of you who were curious, see www.nomorenakedpopcorn.com]

And, the first of my intelligent / DMX lights got here. Of course, without a controller my ability to do interesting things with it is sort of limited, but it’s amazingly cool how it can cover most of a room with it’s moving beam and wander through colors and shapes.

One thing I didn’t expect – although I guess I should have – is how _bright_ the thing is. For some reason I was thinking 250W isn’t very much in the way of lighting.. and this may be true when you’re doing area lighting, but when you’re focusing it on a single very small beam, well.. let’s just say looking into the apeture is a bad idea. 😉

Next week should be interesting – arriving will be my boss for the parking meter project, who will be staying here – and while he’s here, I expect large piles of boxes will arrive – several intelligent lighting fixtures, lasers, fog machines, speakers, amplifiers – he’s gonna think I’m setting up a rave or something.

I should do that..

CENTER>
My life is rated NC-17.
What is your life rated?

http://www.umaxsearch.com/search.php?aid=14&q=search+site+hijacking+google&r=24695

These poeple have somehow found a way to hijack my browser. Adware scanners can’t find it. Virus scanners can’t find it. It isn’t obviously in any of my internet settings. But yet, about every third google link I try takes me to their lame excuse for a sex-promoting web site.

I’m starting to get somewhere between annoyed and about-to-go-agro about this. IT persists beyond a reboot. Does anyone out ther ein Sheer’s-journal-land have any idea how this particular bit of evil was perpitrated?

You belong in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. You
value freedom above all else. You would fight
and die for your family and your home.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?
brought to you by Quizilla

I think it was the ‘which would you rather own’. A sentient computer – well, duh!

S.

So one of the recent advances in power amplifiers is switching power supplies. I find this interesting because most switching power supplies will ‘eat’ DC just as happily as AC.

The question is, will modern amps run directly off my car’s traction pack without the need for inverters? This could substantially increase the amount of power output I could achive if I were using my car for (hypothetically) power during a party.

Right now I’m limited to about 3kW continuous by the limitations of the DC/DC converter. If I could run amps directly off the traction pack, the only theoretical limit becomes the energy stored in the traction pack – 10kW is only doable for 2 hours, for example.

On the other hand, a PA stack rated 10kW is seldom _drawing_ 10kW – because the only time the transistors are actually conducting massively is during the heavy bass notes or kick drum beats.

It might be possible to do 8 hours of audio at 10kW, given the power consumption ratio

10kW would seem to me to be about the target output for a outdoor show.

(And I’m 1500W closer to it today thanks to the wonders of E-bay)

Let’s see.

Output capacity online:

1400W in the subs
3300W in the mains (with new additions)

Total: 4700W. Halfway there. 😉

I need to find a party that needs sound, to test out my latest additions.

In other news, I’m trying to get rid of a motorcycle. Anyone in Seattle want a motorcycle that doesn’t run? $100, you pick it up or use my shop facilities to clean carbs and change battery after which you could probably drive it home. Full disclosure: needs carbs cleaned, new battery, new left shock, new front tire, new right mirror. 750CC, twin, with shop manual and clear title. 10k miles.

Also, anyone need a folding e-bike? Again, doesn’t run (on batteries.. you can pedal it and it’s got a 3-speed transmission) – it could almost certainly be repaired since it’s only obvious problem is the motor mount is bent but it might need other things too. This one is free to the first person to come pick it up.

Also, is anyone interested in buying a gas board scooter? $600/obo, ran good the last time it was started (6 months ago), heavily modded with custom deck, exhuast resonator, extra big air intakes. I’ve never driven it so I can’t say how it performs.. it was collatoral on a loan that was never repayed. If there is any potential interest I can get model number, pictures, things like that.

Anyone want a rolling 19″ rack? This is the old-skool SKB rack that held 12U on the bottom and a 18U mixer (would fit the Alesis studio 32, several other 16-channel mixers). This is the style with two big wheels on the back and two casters, good for going up and down stairs and other offroad activities. I still have all the body plates for it. $35.

Or, how about a Digitech Vocalist MIDI Vocoder? This I’ll probably e-bay off unless someone is interested – I’ve done many good and creative things with this beastie, but I upgraded to a TC Helicon for lead pitch correction and whatnot, and it does so much more. $100

Any takers for a Midiman USB/serial to 8X midi adapter? Drivers for every OS you could name. $100, cosmetically perfect, electrically perfect, I replaced with a MTP AV because I needed better clock control

How about a roland SC-880 sound module? Great drums, great strings, $200

Last but not least, is anyone interested in some monitor speakers.. electrovoice ported 10″ with high-compression horn tweeters – one of them has minorly damaged high frequency driver (no longer performs as well as the other one). $50 (this is a kickass price, for this you can well afford to replace the blown driver from MCM electronics and still be way cheaper than the $200 these would cost you new). Program capacity: 100W RMS – and they aren’t kidding. 😉 [Hence the damaged driver – I hooked ’em up to a 900W RMS amp, then someone cranked up the keyboards and damaged]I’ll even through in some 1/4″ speaker cables to get ’em hooked up to your amps.

S. [who is trying to get some of this CRAP OUT OF MY BASEMENT! ARGHHHH!!]

http://www.dti3d.com/products.asp

a real, honest to goodness stereographic display.

Pictures from trip to Thailand and Japan:

card1
card2
card3

Those will take you to thumbnail galleries made with Sheer’s Incredibly Cheesy PHP Thumbnail Script. [Yes, I know there are ten million packages that make thumbnails. But it was faster for me to bang something togeather than to figure out how to install one of them. 😉 This script took 10 minutes. Quit complaining.]