Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Ball Pt. vs Fountain

Photobucket
Photobucket
See if you can tell the difference. The fountain pen made reviewing on Sunday night for Monday's midterm so much easier, it took me so much longer to go through the notes done in ball point pen and gel pen than the notes done in fountain.
Sure, my handwriting still needs work, but it's easier work now :D.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

COFFEE!


Hooray,
I fixed my coffeemaker!
Here's the story:
While moving out a few months ago, I had to store this thing in a box. Being stupid, I hadn't removed the old coffee grounds from the last time I brewed, so they naturally moved around in the machine. When I tried it up again, the water level in the reservoir was staying the same, and it was making the sound, the sound it was only supposed to make when it finished, early.
So, of course, I figure there's a clog somewhere. I pour water into the reservoir and out of it repeatedly, and see some grounds leave, but still nothing. A week or so later, I figure I'll go deeper, try harder. All of the coffeemaker troubleshooting I find on Google don't help, they just tell me to check the wiring and the heating element.
I open it up anyway, and what do I find?
A series of tubes! Of course. Okay, only two tubes, hope you got the reference though. It draws water from the reservoir, pumps it into a heating element, and then pumps it up into the spout to drizzle over the coffee grounds. I pull out one of the tubes, and find a one-way valve inside and lots of old COFFEE. The pics are post-cleaning though, no old coffee here.

So I put everything back together and VOILA, COFFEE! I was spending ~$2 2 to 3 times a week on slow mornings at Starbucks D: . Now I can make my own, for cheap, very cheap, using a reusable container so I'm making less waste as well. However, don't take this as me caring for the environment, please.

The moral of the story? Always immediately throw away the old coffee when you're finished brewing, or at least never turn your drip coffeemaker on its side or any other way than upright if there's old coffee in there.

Man, I wonder if anyone's reading this. Why even post? No, that kind of thinking would repel any readers, if they exist :D. Please, if you read this and are into tech, and building stuff, I do like to do that sort of thing. All my tools are almost 200 miles away at the moment. You might see something like this posted if I had them:

Friday, July 25, 2008

More K'nex (and a pen)


Here's a teaser:

There's still a lot of things I don't like about this chassis, so it keeps changing. I'm starting to see the limitations to k'nex. However, yes, that is rwd and yes it has suspension and steering.

Also, I spent the most money I've ever spent on a pen today, $30. And just like it is with headphones, the sky is the limit and I bought an entry-level model. The pen itself was $30, but I wanted bottle ink so I had to buy a converter, and some ink.


The ink was the cheapest in the store, and it was by the same company as the pen, so I couldn't resist. The included blotting paper is very convenient and effective.
It writes so nicely, and with the ink it never goes dry (not yet at least).

Saturday, July 19, 2008

First instructable done!

Yay, I finished the instructable on the K'nex truck!

Photobucket

Here's the link:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Knex-or-Knex-4wd-truck/

Friday, July 18, 2008

Remote

Can't let this blog rot like the last one, now can I? Time for a new post!

Here's what my apartment mates and I used as a TV remote for a while since the owner couldn't find it:

Photobucket

uh huh. it's a pole.

now here's what we use:

Photobucket

A Palm Tungsten T3 I got waaaaaay back in high school, with a remote program. I remembered my sister's palm had a remote program built-in, and since my T3 had been rotting in my drawer since I stopped using its graphing calculator function, this remote was practically free. Screw the universal. This has a touchscreen and is much cooler.

The T3 served me well. Still, I never got onto the internet with it. I never did buy a Palm WiFi SD card, and when I asked Sprint for their cheapest phone with bluetooth a few years ago, it only supported bluetooth headsets, not bluetooth internet transfer. It had long been my dream to put the internet on the T3. Still, it served as my mp3 player, graphing calculator, pic/video viewer and general purpose pda (schedule, notes, etc etc) for quite a few years.

Now I have a Centro.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

K'nex!

OK. First post of chintabo. Welcome.

I started playing with K'nex. A week later, this!
truck

Full-time 4wd, functional doors biased to 4 set positions, motor access under hood, opening tailgate, spare tire, functional bed, steering wheel and gear shift.

wheel and shifter

front

more pics
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j17/jeetoi/PICT1497.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j17/jeetoi/PICT1503.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j17/jeetoi/PICT1504.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j17/jeetoi/PICT1506.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j17/jeetoi/PICT1507.jpg

An instructables is coming, as are more pics, either there or here.
You can expect more from chintabo. Topics include, but are not limited to, RC, headphones, computers, more K'nex, games, pens, etc.