Late Starts. Sorry for the very late posting. The problems started with our Toyota Corolla last night. It wouldn't start. The motor would turn over, slowly. But it would not start. The battery is one of those Delco jobs with the little indicator that's supposed to show the state of the charge. But I guess it doesn't really work because it was showing blue, but did not have enough current to get things going.
So, this morning was eaten up by jump starting the car and taking it to the nearest Toyota dealership for them to look at it. And of course, while there, everything worked fine. But they said, leave the car and they would have a look at it later.
Later turned out to be a couple of hours and lo and behold, it was the battery. So they replace that with a new one - no charge. A new battery and no labor charge. I guess their three year warranty on the car extends to the battery (which usually has a separate warranty).
The next problem was replacing the faucet in our kitchen. We have a very shallow sink. So when we put deep pots and pans in there the spigot tends to be too low. I had been promising SWMBO that I would change it one of these days. Today was that day. Now I like to think I'm pretty good with my hands. I mean, I can tear down a small block Chevy and rebuild it before the oil gets cold. But plumbing, and working in small, dark, confined spaces is not my cup 'a tea.
Especially given the gorillas that did the plumbing on this house. I have never seen two hot water lines coming into a faucet. I have no idea why there are two...But back to the story. When they installed the current faucet they used Teflon (R) tape. That part is OK, the problem is they put the tape on before tightening the nylon nut. These nuts are designed to be tightened by hand. But if you get bits of Teflon tape stuck in the treads you have a problem. And it seems the plumber used a pliers to solve the problem. Which is Okay until you want to remove the faucet. At that point, I was thinking about where my acetylene (sp.?) cutting torch was.
After much cursing and scraping of knuckles, I got the nut free and the old faucet out. After that everything went smoothly. Wrong. That would be too easy. There was one small problem. You see, the end of the spigot rotates. Now, I don't know what possible use that would be, short of being able to wash the ceiling perhaps? Or may be for washing the ears of some poor four-legged creature? But I digress.
The reason the rotating spigot of death is a problem is because we have a water purifier sitting there. Now, don't get me wrong, Hawai'i has some of the cleanest water around. But our local supplier recently started chlorinating the water and it tastes awful. So we went to Costco and got one of those thingies that fits on the end of the faucet that has a charcoal filter in it. Works fine. But weighs kind of a lot. And when you attach it to a rotating wheel of carnage it tends to spin round and round. Not having a need to wash the ceiling right now, this is not a good thing.
And then, once I got that sorted out, and the car picked up, and I was ready to start writing my post for the day, I forgot this is a new hard drive. So it doesn't have all the utilities I use. Fir'instance, WS_FTP and HTML-Kit (my HTML editor. No FrontPage (hawk, spit) for me. No siree, Bob). So I did a couple of quick downloads and here we are. And a happy Monday to you also.
Aloha!
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Tuesday - 27 March 2001
CubicEye. So having just one web page on screen at once doesn't charge your batteries. Well, then you need CubicEye. This browser displays five pages at once by creating something like looking into a carton with each side of the carton displaying a page (see it here. Note that the demo requires FLASH, hawk, spit).
Hubble Heritage. Check out some of the stunning astro-photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shown at the Space Telescope Science Institute site here. Below is just one of their spectacular images - Edge on Galaxy NGC-4013.
Spell Checker. Want to learn from the mistakes of others? Well, then go to the humanspellcheck.com site and see the spelling errors of the rich and famous. Or not.
I'm still recovering from the adventures of the past weekend (see Monday's post above if you missed it). It's Spring Break so I don't have classes this week. However, we do have a 20 minute presentation to give when we get back so its not like I don't have anything to do...<G>
Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 28 March 2001
Condolences. My deepest condolences to fellow Daynoter Sjon Svenson. His Monday post (see it here) indicates his father passed away. It's times like these that put my trivial problems into perspective.
Small World. I got a nice note yesterday from humanspellcheck.com (see yesterday's post). It seems they used to live in Hawai'i a long time ago (at least it seems a long time ago). I hope they get to return here 'bumbai.
I have to go to a Legislative hearing this morning so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Thursday - 29 March 2001
Quantum Flotsam. The New York Times has an interesting article (see it here) on a device which may be able to measure the stuff of space itself.
Many physicists have theorized that space is not uniform but instead consists of fluctuating patches, something like ripples or bubbles, smaller than a trillion-trillionth of an ordinary atom. The problem is the patches, often referred to collectively as "quantum foam," are so small that scientists have sometimes despaired of ever testing the theory.
However, Dr. Jack Ng, a physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, hypothesizes that the $300 million (USD) Laser Inferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory could detect this foam. Dr. Ng makes his case in a paper to be published on Monday in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Speaking of Space. Another story from the Hubble Heritage people is an image of a star blowing bubbles (see the image here). The new Hubble images, located in the nebula N83B, also known as NGC 1748, were made just as these stars were created and emerging from the molecular cloud that surrounded them before birth.
Astronomers from France, Germany and the United States used Hubble to study the interplay of gas, dust, and radiation from the newly born stars in this nebula, revealing its turbulent structure for the first time.
Well, I'm spaced out so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 30 March 2001
It's Friday!
Things are hopping around here. We suddenly seem to have decided that the problem with the Judiciary is that it doesn't have a strategic plan. Well, of course! What an insight! We should have realized that not having a plan was the root problem here. Okay everyone, lets make a strategic plan (saying so in his best Mickey Rooney voice)!
By they way, we're supposed to create the plan without first getting input from the stake holders. Without first determining what the mission, goals, or objectives are. Without regard to fiscal realities. Indeed, without regard to common sense. Hmmm. Here's another one of those situations that are usually referred to in the US Army as a cluster fu%*, ahem, festival. What? Me worried? Never. Situation Normal.
Speaking of Plans. The Los Angeles Times is reporting gasoline will be in short supply (that is, prices will rise) this summer driving season. The report says (see it here) the shortage is due to rising demand and decreasing supply.
U.S. refining capacity has been on a downward spiral, as many oil firms have closed their facilities instead of upgrading them to meet new federal environmental regulations.Over the last 20 years, the number of domestic refineries has fallen by almost half to 152, while refining capacity has dropped from 17.9 million to 16.5 million barrels per day. In the same period, gasoline demand has soared by 20 percent.
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like the problems with the electrical power industry. So this summer, not only will you not have electricity, you won't have gasoline to drive anywhere. The US is rapidly turning into a Third World country. Or at least, the UK <G>.
But seriously folks. We are rapidly heading into a situation which will have dire consequences. Consequences such as a deepening recession and high energy costs translating to hyper-inflation (albeit affecting mostly the auto/travel/tourism and finance/housing/construction industries). The worst thing about it is that it could have been avoided with a little forethought and planning. And when it does happen, don't say no one could have seen it coming because I just told you it would. YMMV.
Have a Great Weekend Everyone! - Aloha!
© 2001 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.