Comments for brainwagon

Comment on Zinc based audio oscillators by Tom Duff

Tom Duff — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:48:23 +0000

Wow! Steiner is a master — he was the solo synthesizer player on the Apocalypse Now soundtrack, playing a trumpet-like synthesizer of his own design (the Electronic Valve Instrument.)

Comment on YouTube - How to make fractals without a computer by Robert Liesenfeld

Robert Liesenfeld — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:42:54 +0000

Very cool

Comment on Scrappy by Karen

Karen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:06:19 +0000

Thanks for taking in this beautiful boy. He sure is lucky. I bet you guys think you are lucky too. What a hunk.

Comment on The Schupmann Telescope Patent by Gus

Gus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:56:25 +0000

Hi,

I found the book below at a local thrift store for .50cents a few days before you posted this and have been meaning to share the title with you. I have the first edition (1992) - looks like he has updated the book since then.

http://www.tomclarkbooks.com/tomclarkbooks.com/The_Modern_Dobsonian.html

Editor’s note: I have that one. As it turns out, I have most books published in the last 50 years on building telescopes.

Comment on Dog Eating Burrito by Gus

Gus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:41:38 +0000

Hi,

That is amazing, I have never seen that before. I read your blog off and on (i’m subscribed to it via Google Reader).

Thank you for sharing this funny video.

Comment on K6HX beaconing on 30m with WSPR/MEPT by Mark VandeWettering

Mark VandeWettering — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:29:19 +0000

That’s very cool Eric. My own efforts aren’t very impressive, but my antenna isn’t exactly great either. I’m using my 40m dipole, which is generously 12 feet off the ground. I suspect that most of my energy is just heating the clouds. I suspect I could do a lot better with something different. A good project for the new year.

73s K6HX

Comment on K6HX beaconing on 30m with WSPR/MEPT by Eric

Eric — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:49:41 +0000

Copied your WSPR signal, did not copy the MV.

But I was heard in ZL and VK with just 0.5 Watts with db to spare!

73, WY7USA

Comment on Unboxing The Past: The Nintendo Virtual Boy by J.R. Raith

J.R. Raith — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:14:11 +0000

Posting in a 2-year old blog post… heh.

Anyway, thanks for doing this. I love the Virtual Boy and it’s always good to see box pictures and stuff.

Comment on I hate CSI: Miami! by KF

KF — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:10:26 +0000

Why do I waste my very important personal time watching this stupid show?
The only thing I can think of is I live in South Floria and I like seeing secenes from where I live on TV.

I just watched the episode where the baby was kidnapped for 500K
It is so unreal. UGG I am pissed!

Why cant they put something real on TV!

Comment on The History of Electronic Musical Instruments by Montreal Drum Store

Montreal Drum Store — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:33:31 +0000

That’s a great resource! Thanks for sharing it. I am thinking of launchng a blog sometime soon in the new year for my music store. This information is a great way to impart knowledge of facts about musical instruments.

Comment on The Cinnamon Bear by Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:47:03 +0000

I can’t believe I found all these replies. My sister and I were just talking about the Cinnamon Bear TV show yesterday and wondering why it’s never reshown at Christmastime like Hardrock, Cocoa and Joe or Susie Snowflake. Coming home from school and watching the Cinnamon Bear was so wonderful and fun. My sisters and brothers and I would gather round the tv and just be mesmerized while the show was on. I’m so glad others found the show as magical and we did.

Comment on Hacking the Hummer DTV Game by Scott Houdek

Scott Houdek — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:58:55 +0000

There website does NOT have that item!
duh’

Comment on Short Movie Review: Twilight by marxy

marxy — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:38:47 +0000

Your review is completely at odds with the views of my sixteen year old daughter. She thought it was great.

I haven’t seen it but I’m sure the metaphor isn’t lost on her and probably pretty powerful at that age.

Like you, I want to see the day the earth stood still, but I fear my strong memories of the wonderful original will doom it.

Editor’s note: Of course my review is completely at odds with that of a sixteen year old girl. That’s who this film was quite obviously made for, and it works. For the rest of the world though, it’s just silly (but admittedly mostly harmless) fluff.

Comment on Lots of Morse, via SDR by AlexC

AlexC — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:36:02 +0000

I couldn’t find an email address here, but I know you’d find this interesting..

http://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2008/12/das_derelicht_ham_radio_transm.html?CMP=OTC-7G2N43923558

Ham Radios + CFL light bulbs?

thanks.
-alex KB3QFC

Comment on Be Skeptable! by Jorge

Jorge — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:00:04 +0000

Isn’t this one way new words evolve into the English language?
i.e bastardization of existing words?

I bet “my-bad!” also drives you nuts!

Comment on Merry Christmas All… by NT7S

NT7S — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:12:49 +0000

Mark, I’m very glad you made it home in time to be with your wife at Christmas. Crazy luck being stuck here during a 40-year storm. Merry Christmas!

Comment on Merry Christmas All… by Eric

Eric — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:07:52 +0000

Merry Christmas Mark,

Glad you made it back in time. Two years ago I was stuck at Denver Airport for four days on my way home for the holidays.

I really enjoy your blog and check for updates just about every day.

Eric

Comment on Viewing a V4L webcam with mplayer… by Brett

Brett — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:39:20 +0000

Need to use ‘v4l2′ driver on Hardy 8.04 (Linux thor 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 06:42:44 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux):

mplayer -fps 30 -cache 128 -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 tv://

This is rockin!! Long live mplayer!
Still one of my fav apps for almost a decade.

Cheers

Comment on On the three year anniversary of… by Blizzak, Lord of the Snowpocalypse, Destroys Portland - Ripples in the Ether

Blizzak, Lord of the Snowpocalypse, Destroys Portland - Ripples in the Ether — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:00:11 +0000

[...] and all I have to say about this [...]

Comment on Mr. Plow, take me away! by KC0ZMX

KC0ZMX — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:08:11 +0000

If you’re stuck somewhere, I hope you at least have your FT-817 to keep you occupied!

Comment on On the three year anniversary of… by Carmen

Carmen — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:45:04 +0000

i miss you too, honey. I hope you can make it back soon, but most importantly, safely.

love you.

Comment on Career advice from XKCD by Andy

Andy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:54:55 +0000

Perhaps the tooltip is most true.

Comment on The Cinnamon Bear by Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:39:36 +0000

It looks like I’m not the only person who remembers the Cinnamon Bear on TV. I bought episode #23 from Chuck Schaden who does a Saturday show called ‘Those Were the Days’. From a book Chuck put out a few years ago the show aired from 1951-1954. I have a photo from Christmas 1954 where I’m on Santa’s lap wearing a Paddy O’Cinnamon pin on my coat. If Chuck Ferrara reads this I’d like to know how to buy episode #10 that he is selling on eBay.
Thanx, Ralph

Comment on Linus is channelling me! by anon

anon — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:58:45 +0000

“Sorry, but I like C++ … While one can rant against STL I’m sick and tired of writing C linked lists, trees, etc.,etc.”
Well using plain C and something like http://apr.apache.org/ and you have the few good things that C++ delivered without all the ugly and bad stuff. And for real high-level stuff (like frontends etc.), you are better of with Python and Friends anyway.

Comment on The Cinnamon Bear by carol

carol — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:59:40 +0000

hi to all cinnamon bear groupies!!!! it was so nice to know i haven’t been hallucinating all these years.

i remember coming home after school and watching these magical episodes of children’s tv. although my long term memory deficits do not allow me to recall actual story lines, i just remember loving this show. i will look for the dvds on e-bay, for sure.

other favorite tv shows from back then were, of course, garfield goose, lunchtime little theatre, susan’s show, and two-ton baker (forgot the name of his program).

happy holidays to all my “boomer-peeps” from chicago!!! carol