Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

House numbers and mobile phones

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Something that I see all over west Africa is houses will have long numbers written on them either on the door or near it.  They tend to be spray painted. They aren’t house numbers, they are mobile phone numbers. It is interesting to me that they use their phone number to define where they live.

The way the mobiles work here is they are all prepaid and you can always receive calls, but can only make them if you have credit. So none of them have any credit on their phones. They use them to receive calls and texts and play music, but not to make calls because that costs money.

Plate holders

Sunday, January 25th, 2009



IMG_0047 (Large)

Originally uploaded by Fronzel

We needed a china cabinet, but don’t have the room to put one and didn’t want to really invest in a nice piece of furniture for a house we don’t intend to stay in.

So we got a Billy bookcase from Ikea and started using that. The main problem was the plates were a little too large to lay flat.

So my plan was to build some plate holders to make them stay up. After a first disastrous attempt, I realized I needed a drill press to make my holes straight. I got a drill press for Christmas, but then we were at Ikea and found their plate holder for three dollars.

As much as I would have liked to build my own, I couldn’t beat the price. And the plates look so nice standing up.

RS232

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

I want to build an animatronic bird(Finally) and I’m looking at servo controllers. The large bulk of them use RS232 to talk to the computer.

Why won’t it die? I don’t think I have a computer with 9 pin serial ports.

Manifesto in the hood

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008



IMG_1075 (Large)

Originally uploaded by Fronzel

A 5 page article ranting about how evil the Republicans are.

I wish this would end when the election does, but I know it won’t.

Radio Controlled C-17

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

I think when I get a few other projects out of the way, I might try R/C planes. Things like this excite me.

And why can’t I buy SMD resistors in bags less then 10,000 units? Turns out to not have been needed, but Jesus. Surely somebody sells them in amateur quantities.

tumbleweed

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008



tumbleweed

Originally uploaded by Fronzel

If you want to know what it is like working in California, this hit my truck one day. As I was driving.

It managed to scare the poop out of me.

Gatorade flavored Gatorade

Saturday, September 27th, 2008



themanyflavorsofgatorade

Originally uploaded by Fronzel

I’m spending a lot of time on locations that have no facilities for drinking. So I bring an ice chest filled with Coke and Gatorade.

One thing I’ve noticed is you can’t get the lemony-orangey vaguely chemical waste tasting Gatorade from my youth. Now it tastes almost Kool-aidy.

I’m not complaining, but I don’t like the marketing versions of Gatorade. They even sell a breakfast drink version of Gatorade.

Am I the only one to notice?

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

This election is turning out to sound like the plot for a Sitcom.

“He’s a grizzled Washington veteran.  His partner is a young and inexperienced African American demagogue. And now, they have to lead the nation!”

“He’s a grizzled Washington veteran, She’s a young and inexperienced former beauty queen and now they share one office!”

I mean it this time

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

I really, really will update this one.

Hello world!

Friday, January 25th, 2008

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