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cheap electronics (Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - 12:32:57 PM)
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I just love cheap electronics--it can be fun to work within the limitations of the simple hardware. Within the past few months, I've gotten three different things I wanted to talk about here. The first two are related.
MP3 Player
http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA2019.htm
$15 (includes shipping)
I can't emphasize enough how cheap the hardware is for this thing. It works as advertised--it plays MP3s, but with no frills whatsoever. To keep the cost down, you have to provide your own SD or MMC card to hold the mp3s. At first, I just used a 16Mb card we had as a backup for Carolaina's digital camera. At that size, I could get only 30 minutes of audio if I compressed the files enough. Needless to say, that got old in a hurry. I convinced Carolaina to let me buy a 256Mb SD card for about $20. It holds about 4 hours worth of music/audio and I've used it since.
When I say this player has no frills--I mean it. It can't do any kind of shuffle or random play. The order in which you copy the files to the card is the order it plays the files. Once it gets to the end, it loops back and plays them all again from the beginning. I suspect the hardware reads the FAT table at a low level to get to the files. It's also rather fussy about the files themselves. Any mp3 encoded at mono or less than 64kbps gets played too fast, like an old 33rpm vinyl record played at 70rpms. Any file encoded at anything other than the standard 44khz just doesn't get played at all. The playback quality for everything else it does like isn't the greatest, but it does work.
The website claims only 5 hours of play time on the one AAA battery, but I've consistently gotten just over 10 hours per battery.
Car FM Transmitter
http://www.ledshoppe.com/Product/com/CA4002.htm
$8
I got this since my car radio is the factory install and doesn't have an auxillary input jack. Like the mp3 player, all I can say about it is that it does work, but not well.
It transmits on 88.7 and 106.4, but I've gotten better results when I use 88.7. Unfortunately, it puts out a rather weak mono signal. I have to turn the car radio's volume up at least halfway and turn the volume on the mp3 player all the way up before I can hear anything. To test the range, I got out a small hand-held radio. While it could pick up the signal within the car, it got nothing at all outside of it. I haven't yet tested with a better radio or another vehicle's radio. The weak signal could be considered an advantage, but I don't listen to anything more subversive than 80's top-40 songs and astronomy podcasts as it is.
Philips keychain digital camera
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B8YH3W/103-3924369-9576647?v=glance&n=502394
$14.95 at Wal-Mart
I've seen this little camera available under different names and in different places, so I suspect it's one of these situations where the hardware is made by some small no-name company in China and re-branded by anyone who wants to sell one. Again, the best thing I can say about it is that it does work. At only 1/4 of a megapixel, you won't be taking any Pulitzer-prize-winning photos with this thing. At the highest quality setting, it takes 20 photos at 358x288 resolution. I've found that even at the "high quality" setting, the pictures come out a little pixelated, but I've been able to compensate by doing a little light processing in Paint Shop Pro. It can also take about a minute of video, but you have to put it in low-quality/high-compression mode. At that setting, the photos and video just aren't worth it. Here's some example photos I took on the way home last Friday. A powerful little storm was bearing down on Little Rock early that evening and I had to outrun it on the way home. I've reduced the photo size down just a bit--it tends to help the quality some.
Storm over Little Rock from the I-30 river bridge |
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Storm over North Little Rock from the I-440 bypass |
If you're interested, you can download all 12 of the uncompressed photos I took of that storm: keychain_camera_photos_8-11-2006.zip (2.56 Mb)
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I finally managed to drag my butt out of bed at 4:00 am this morning to get the scope out and do some morning stargazing. I finally got to see the planet Uranus and the Andromeda galaxy! Uranus didn't look like much more than a blue dot, but because of it's distance I didn't expect much of it anyway. Since the moon was out, I took a look at it again as well. The more I stared at the Moon, I would notice more and more details: small craters within craters, mountain ranges, maria within some of the larger craters. I normally don't care for the Moon since it outshines the deep sky objects I'm interested in, but it kept my attention this morning.
This Saturday, I was finally able to make it over to Ace Hardware. The tripod for our scope is rather cheap and has felt a little flimsy ever since we got it. Recently, the metal dowels at some of the pivot points started to work their way out, causing the tripod to fall over. I got the bright idea to replace them all with screws and nuts. Now, for less than $2 and some elbow grease, the tripod now feels rock-solid. Sure, it still doesn't compare to a Losmandy mount, but hey--it's a major improvement.
Little over a two weeks ago, the Celestron NexImage webcam we ordered arrived. It's especially made for planetary astrophotography. After some much appreciated tutoring by some of the experienced members of the astronomy club, I got a picture of Jupiter on Friday night that I wasn't actually unhappy with. Because of my current hardware limitations, the picture isn't very large, nor is there much detail. The size you see it at below is the size it was taken at. If you're not familiar with how webcams are used for planetary imaging, you use it to take video of the object then use software to process & combine the frames into a (usually) beautiful picture. Here's it is with stats, if you're interested:
Jupiter - 7-14-2006
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Telescope: 5.1" Newtonian reflector on an alt/az mount
Video taken with AMCap
10fps at 1/75 shutter speed for 90 seconds
Processed in Registax
Used 60 good frames out of 900
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On Friday before last, we had something happen to our bank account that had us concerned. We keep an eagle eye on it most of the time, so we were aware when a large amount appeared to be unavailable for our use. After checking with the bank, they said some company had a hold on the account for the exact amount I had calculated was unavailable. This is normal for credit card transactions: while the money is working it way through the banking system from one end to another, the money will be marked as "on hold" in your account before it's actually shows up as a charge. Well, that evening we went out to eat and found that our checking card was now being rejected. Luckily, I had more than enough cash with me to take care of it.
Come to find out, an unscrupulous internet company had somehow gotten a hold of our checking card number and tried to make a fraudulent charge. I won't mention the name of the company here since I don't want to bring attention to them or advertise their existence in any way. Thankfully, our bank recognized it as a fraudulent charge, rejected it and it never cleared our account. It was a major relief to have them take care of it for us. Unfortunately, I had to wait until after the holiday, July 5th, to request a new card with a new card number. They told me it would take 7-10 business days to arrive, so I'm still waiting.
Since I've been without it, I've had to go back to using cash and checks. Ug. It's been a long, long time since I've had to. I've found out that gas stations are all now require pre-paying for gas if you don't use a card. This means I can never quite fill up the tank and it takes twice as long since I have to wait in line for the cashier. This trouble also means that I can't order anything online. Sure, I could use PayPal, but very few online stores accept it and eBay won't get it's head out of it's butt and make PayPal work with the site more than half the time. (Not that I've tried or had a need to order anything, but it would be nice to have the ability or have the option available, if needed.)
Carolaina continues to be sicky while/with recovering, and we're both rather tired of it. "This too shall pass." "All good things in their time." Yes, all that, but it's frustrating and wearying having to go through all this.
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I might as well make this post a little more permanent. This is mostly just to remind me of some astronomy stuff I want to get (one of these days). In order of importance:
Orion Medium Aluminum Accessory Case
Meade 2x-3x Variable Barlow Lens 1.25"
Celestron filters: Light Pollution Filter, Color Filter Set 1, Set 2, Set 3 and Set 4
Televue 18mm Radian 1.25" Eyepiece
Orion Atlas 11 EQ-G Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope with GoTo Controller
Brass Classic 12x30 Monocular (or something very much like it)
Meade ETX-80AT-TC - just a nice, portable little scope to take to star parties
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Warning: I'm in a foul mood on a foul day, but I'll try not to let it befoul this post too much, for it may be offensive enough (to some) on it's own.
I came across a news story on NPR about two graphic novels dealing with cancer. Normally, I'm fairly sympathetic toward those with cancer--I lost a high-school friend of mine to a form of cancer while I was in college. They included a set of panels about smokers from Mom's Cancer, that resonated strongly with me. I really agree with the last two lines, especially with the foul mood I'm in. I'll quote it here:
Walking to the grocery, I see a teenage girl. Sandals, tube top, denim shorts. Navel peeking over her snap.
Cute kid. Too cool to spare a glance at a man old enough to be her dad.
Her cigarette protrudes at a right angle from her fingers, as pert as the rest of her.
A Rite of Passage.
- - - - - -
Stopped at a traffic light, I see two women in a PT Cruiser. Early thirties, well dressed, lips and nails brilliant red. Same hair style.
Chat chat, laugh laugh.
Their cigarettes are the same length, lit at the same time.
A Rite of Friendship.
- - - - - -
In front of the cancer clinic, I see the walking dead. Old people with oxygen strapped to their wheelchairs...
Sucking down a cigarette before going inside to let steel, chemicals, and radiation pierce the dusty meat dangling from their gristled bones.
A Last Rite.
- - - - - -
The girl, the women, the dead: points on a straight line.
Their weak, willful, selfish stupidity disgusts me.
They deserve whatever they get.
ALL of them.
It wouldn't be so bad if smokers only killed themselves, but study after study shows that second-hand smoke is far nastier than the dose the smoker gives themselves. They kill all those around themselves as well. Not to mention the effect it has on them alone: constant bad smell, breathing problems, yellowed skin and teeth. In short, smoking disgusts me.
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book recommendation (Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - 12:36:53 PM)
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I've recently finished an really great book I found last time we went up to Pioneer Days in Melbourne. Every year, we stop by the Manna House and look through what they have in their store. It's one of those donation/ministry/junk stores. In the back they have a bookshelf I look over each time.
This past visit, I found Tailchaser's Song. It's really, really good. It seems I've managed to get a hold of the origional paperback from 1985, not the reprint from 2000--I like that. First, here's the blurb from the back:
Meet Fritti Tailchaser, a ginger tom cat of rare courage and curiosity, a born survivor in a world of heroes and villains, of powerful feline gods and whiskery legends about those strange, furless, erect creatures called M'an. Join Tailchaser on his magical quest to rescue his catfriend Hushpad--a quest that will take him all the way to cat hell and beyond...
Yes, it's a little corny, I know. But you can tell that the author has been heavily influenced by Tolkien, but in a good way. He understand the underlying basics of what makes Lord of the Rings great: extensive history behind the story, songs and tales, an invented (but plausible) language, and ordinary beings getting caught up in epic adventures.
Now, just like Tolkien can be, this book isn't really for kids just because it's about cats. It gets deadly serious in later parts of the book. Not giving away any spoilers, but at one point a dog gets eviscerated and eaten alive by a gang of evil panther-like cats. Try to avoid reviews for this book that you might find on some fantasy/sci-fi websites--some have major spoilers.
Finally, if you want to read part of the first chapter, it's available on Amazon. Another excerpt is available on the author's website.
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