As I’m coming out of my 3 days of sniffly sickness, my mind is at its typical fever pitch, so here’s some randomness.
The Model Engine
Jessica and I tried to complete the Smithsonian Motor-Works Engine kit last night. Not only did 1 of the parts not fit (way off), it looked like the package had been opened before and one of the wires that fires one of the LED “spark plugs” broke free from the LED with zero force. Did I say it looked like the package had been opened? I meant to say the package had been opened. A whole “rack” of plastic pieces had been removed from their plastic attachment grid. If you’ve ever assembled a model before, you know what I am talking about. Anyway, these aren’t acceptable things after you’ve spent 2 hours shaving nibs off of tiny plastic pieces and wearing your hand raw on the end of a screwdriver while driving no less than 30 tiny screws into plastic. It ended up in a trash bag then the dumpster in the alley. I wrote a review today at the site linked above but I’m not real confident they’ll publish it (no swearing, I promise). You can also get the same kit, theoretically unopened, from The Discovery Store (just search for engine). Here’s a video from someone else who had better luck. It’s a shame, too, because Jessica was completely into it and wanted to learn.
The Car
After 72,000 miles, 20+ autocross events, and 1 track day at Sebring, my rear wheel bearings let me know that they were ready to be laid to rest. Turns out I also had a used AC compressor I had been avoiding installing. $1100 in parts and labor later, I have air conditioning and rear wheels that aren’t about to fall off.
Last week I finished up my install of my Sun Auto HyperForce system. I had to make a custom bracket and shorten the wiring harness significantly due to my lack of stock engine bay layout, but that was mostly expected. We’ll see if it does anything power-wise when I can get around to datalogging some. The car does feel like it revs more smoothly though.
The Reading Pile
Too lazy for links:
- Distributed Services with OpenAFS
- MAKE Magazine latest issue
- Juxtapoz latest issue
- Thinking with Type
- Your Money or Your Life
- The Practice of System and Network Administration (2nd Edition) — 1st edition was awesome
And now Jessica is home, so I’m going to sign out here. Peace and chicken grease.
