The Spechtacle

A site for sharing information, dropping dimes and plotting overthrows...

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Manufacturers dirty war against DIY…

July 2, 2009 / / 0 Comments

For some time now, all sorts of manufacturers have been conducting a secret dirty war against repairing anything. This is also aided by a jaded public who seems to be averse to even reading owners manuals, let alone try to fix something.

shredder

I just took apart our ailing Staples paper shredder. To it’s credit, this thing was built tough. No plastic parts in there. Also, no parts you can afford either. The rollers and plates and bearings that failed add up to more than the cost of a new one, so off to the landfill with the rest of it. It’s a shame too, as there is a certain joy or satisfaction gained from repairing something. Personally (much to the chagrin of my wife) I don’t let anything go till it’s reached it’s absolute bitter end. (She absolutely refused to drive that escort any longer, a shame really, it was a pretty good little car!)

The same thing is happening to cars too. Sure you can replace brake parts, rebuild engines and such, but after a car gets to be 10 years old, the manufacturers want to drop it like a hot rock. They also piddle around making parts available for them so that you are forced to look elsewhere it you want to keep it going. And where you really get into trouble is the cost of the failed subassemblies. Take your air conditioner in your car for example. The big failure rate includes compressors and evaporator assemblies. These things can be hugely expensive, and in the case of evaporators, aren’t built very well to start with. (You won’t get the manufacturers to admit it though.) Also, try and even buy a part for your home HVAC system, you won’t get many places to even sell you the parts.

But maybe this refrigerator mentality isn’t so bad. After all, it is spawning a huge recycling industry. On the other hand, the landfills around here are starting to look like little mountains. On a positive note, I fixed my toilet the other day, the handle wore out, and a replacement was actually available. Of course, the replacement was made out of plastic, and won’t last as long as the brass one I took out, but you take your victory’s when you can.

greg

2009 Suzuki GSX R-1000.. a beast in beasts clothing.

June 17, 2009 / / 0 Comments
Pic from Bikeland.org

Pic from Bikeland.org

I really love motorcycles. I’ve been riding since 1976, and it’s the closest thing to flying without airplanes or drugs. It’s a blast. But, I think we’ve gone too far.

The new Suzuki is a hot rod. It’s about as refined as you can get in a scooter. Gobs of horsepower, revs up to the sky, computers to control all sort of power functions, great feedback from the chassis and on and on.

But, this thing gets to 60 mile an hour in 2 seconds. 2 SECONDS! Not only that but you can get to a hundred miles an hour in 1st gear! Cut it out. what ever happened to running these machines up and down the gears and working the gearbox? Looks like you only need one gear.

It looks to me that only race bike drivers will ever be able to control this thing. It’s too much. As humans, I think we are too good at what we build. We need to back off a little.

greg

Electrical connectors.. an automotive conundrum..

June 16, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I like electricity. I like everything it does for me, between listening to Neil Young on the Ipod to firing the spark plugs and fuel injectors in my Saab. But for the guy who has to fix his own car, it has a price.

connectors

And that price involves connectors. No matter how your car is set up, things have to be plugged in, and therein is the rub. I saw some statistics somewhere that electrical problems consume 80 percent of warrenty expenditures. And of that 80%, the majority is connection problems. Auto engineers are hot on the trail of this problem too, but they are really getting on my nerves.

They have made some progress though. 40 years ago, there was only one kind of connector. For each wire. And these connectors could be plugged into anything, so you really had to have some kind of idea where they went. This wasn’t to big of a problem because there were few wires.

Then they started gathering wires into groups. There were connectors with 2 wires in them, then 3, 4, 5 and up. However, all the 2 wire connectors were all the same, so you wouldn’t be able to plug a 3 wire connector into the item, but any 2 wire one would fit. You still had to know where the wires all went.

Engineers finally got the problem, and now no 2 connectors will plug into the same thing. Every last one is different, even though they might look the same. One problem solved, and another problem resulted from this.

Connector locks.

Now connectors hardly ever fall off, but we have new problems. Getting them disconnected. Engineers have bent over backwards to devise locks and even extra locks to keep them from falling off. But sometimes to fix something you have to take it off. And trying to figure out how this or that lock even works is almost a race against your sanity. With the advent of unique connectors for every electrical item in the car comes a unique lock solution for that individual connector. And worse that that, Engineers have devised an extra lock system that locks the original connector lock. This is called the quality assurance locks.

Now, I really have to study the connector to figure how it comes apart. And every now and then I don’t figure it out and end up destroying it. (Oh Well…) I’ve got this problem right now on a vacuum motor for a brake booster on a 2008 Saab Combi. I still haven’t figured it out, but a new motor is coming in tomorrow. Maybe I can get some clues from that…

greg

North Korea menacing Alaska?

June 7, 2009 / / 2 Comments

Big news story today about Alaskan worries over the North Korean missile threat, The estimated range of the North Korean missile is about 4000 miles, just enough to reach most of Alaska.

The thrust of the article is that Alaska is home to some high profile targets, like the army bases at Fairbanks and Anchorage, and the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay and the oil pipeline terminal at Valdez. To protect these assets, political leaders want more missile interceptor bases and more F-22’s.

It seems to me that North Korea could give a damn about those targets. If anything, it probably would like to land something on Fairbanks or Anchorage just to get the press. But the statement by Rep. Don Young (R) takes the cake. “while 30 F-22’s may be enough to counter the North Korean threat now, it is clear that it won’t be enough in the future.”

Your kidding. What North Korean aircraft could even make it to Alaska? F-22s are no good against their only card, the missile. While they do have an imposing military from a next door neighbors point of view, they are not about to range out of their own back yard. The fact that they have a few missiles that can reach out put them in scud territory. (although with bigger warheads.) It’s not like they can aim them or anything.

And once they fire them off, they’ll have shot their wad. Their only recourse then will be to hide behind their tanks and artillery till someone roots them out. And you’ll only have to root out the top guys. I know regime change is a bad word these days, but can the world afford maniacs in charge of a country in the sacred name of Nationalism? It seems that if you are a bad guy with a taste for the good life, all you have to do is get control of a country, (any country) and it’s hands off from the rest of the world.

Until the upper echelon of North Korea go away, this threat will not go away.

greg

The many lives of the Zulu..

May 31, 2009 / / 0 Comments

My old Zulu has been around. Not one of the Zulu’s who wacked the British at Isandlwana, but an old humble 12 gauge single shot shotgun.

212

This old thing started life as a musket in Napoleons Grand Armee. Well, soon after the Grand Armee became less grand. About 1835 this thing was hammered out. Smoothbore, around 70 caliber. It was more of an artillery peice than it was a musket. It fired a huge ball of lead that had to be aimed over the targets head to hit him. With a pound of lead you could only get 15 musket balls. Ballistics were terrible, and with no rifling, worse yet. It’s only saving grace was a lot of them in a group, just fire up in the air at the other group, and down comes a hail of lead.

Wars came and went, and along came the Franco-Prussian war. Breechloaders became the weapon of choce by then, and every available weapon was converted to the new system. The first line French troups were using Chassepot’s, but the rear area guys needed guns too. They were kind of on the back burner, as resources dwindled and the war dragged on. With Paris surrounded and beseiged, some enterprising soul thought of melting down church bells for the receivers conversion and lots were made under duress. With the Prussians on their doorstep, the French converted my old zulu to a breechloader, with a brass receiver and taking a huge short fat bullet. If anything, the ballistics were worse, but could be reloaded quickly!

tabat7a

Years later, some entrepreneurial Belgians bought up all those old breechloading muskets and converted them to shotguns for the American market. Poor people heading out west needed a gun to get food more than defending against Indians, and lots of them were bought up by these settlers. Sellers even gave them away with parcels of land. Not much of a weapon, but a 12 guage shotgun is still nothing to trifle with.

This old thing is quite handsome, and the old cut down musket stock, and brass receiver really stand out. Not many machines still work perfectly after 180 years, but this thing will still provide for the table. Can’t use modern shells in it, but an old brass 12 gauge shell and a pile of blackpowder and bird shot and your ready to go!

And it will give a real Zulu a run for his money…

greg

GM and the retirees…

May 28, 2009 / / 0 Comments

mad-max-4

Looks like GM is heading for bankruptcy court soon. I guess it was inevitable anyway.. Anyway this makes it easier for GM to do something that they’ve been trying to do for years… get rid of their retirees.

It’s true that GM workers have had a good deal in the past. They usually enjoyed above average wages, and get what I think are great benefits when they retire. And they usually retire young. Almost all the GM retirees I know retired at 50. I’m 59 with no end in sight.

I don’t hold it against those guys though. It’s an American’s duty to do the best he can. Hell, he’s got kids to raise and bills to pay like everybody else. I don’t get that kind of a deal, but if I signed up with a company that promised retirement and worked 30 years for them, and they dropped me like a hot rock, I’d be pretty upset.

Well, I guess that’s the American way now, lower wages and no benefits. Sound to me though that GM isn’t living up to their bargains. The 3rd Mad Max movie, Beyond Thunderdome, had the answer. “Break a deal, face the wheel!”

It’s a shame corporations are faceless and unfeeling entities, I’d like to see a few CEO’s face the wheel.

greg

Flying over the lake

May 27, 2009 / / 1 Comment

Saturday, May 23rd, my Radio Control Club hosted a Float-fly at Freeman Lake, in Elizabethtown KY. Of course, we had to mount a camera to a 110 inch wing spanned float equipped airplane, and fly over the lake. Boy with toys. What can we say?

Photos at www.hcrcm.org

Trains, buses, and cars, Chicago Style..

May 25, 2009 / / 0 Comments

train

We went up to Chicago for a small vacation just before Memorial Day. My wife didn’t want to fly, because getting in those cramped tin cans has been freaking her out lately. Me too. So into the car and off we went with map and Google in hand.

I plotted and planned this trip so not to be caught off guard by a new city. However things don’t always go as planned. (Actually they never do..) Of course, the first problem is road construction. I thought last year was the worst, but with stimulus money floating all around, I fear this year will be the winner. Luckily we didn’t get hung up too bad, and got into Chicago, sailing up Lake Shore Drive, but missed a turn because a bus was sitting in front of the sign, and drove all over Chicago to find my hotel..

Since there is no place to park in Chicago, we used mass transit. The idea is pretty cool.. every bus and every train run about every 10 minutes. So we’re off to a play, and are waiting by the bus stop. Forever. Then I notice this paper tacked to the bottom of the pole. This bus isn’t running today because of construction. But it did suggest another a couple of blocks up.

The next day we thought we would ride the Blue Line train up to Wicker Park. Sorry, the train wasn’t running because of construction today. Where have I heard that before? But luckily they found a bus to haul us up there.

So then it was time to go home. We’re all packed up and headed over to Lake Shore drive for a scenic ride home. Nope. Today they are having a biking event on Lake Shore Drive, with thousands of bicyclists, and the road is closed for the day.

This stuff can be extremely frustrating, but, as with all human plans, oft go awry. However Chicago is one fabulous city, and we’ll be back

greg

Swine Flu.. early warning indicator

May 10, 2009 / / 0 Comments

The swine flu is the latest pandemic threat facing the human race. What makes it bad is it can be transferred from human to human rather than getting it from some animal. The human to human spread is the killer.

In order to protect myself, I’ve devised an early warning indicator. Catholics.

communion

Catholics have some very bad habits. They are completely hands on. If you go to church and sit through a Catholic mass, one of the first things you have to do is shake everyone’s hand. This is called the sign of peace, and you share it with all your neighbors. Then if you live through that, when communion time comes, a Priest lays a wafer in your mouth, (with his bare hands) and offers you a drink of wine from the communal cup. (Which everyone drinks out of)

Yes, when all the Catholics start dropping dead, I’ll be heading for the mountains. Preferably mountains that don’t have any Catholic Churches in them.

greg

Old IBM Thinkpad resurrected

May 5, 2009 / / 0 Comments

So my friend is throwing out an old IBM Celeron powered Laptop. I intercepted it before it became trash. Not much to talk about, a couple usb ports, really small harddrive, small everything, battery dead, etc.

It did have a PCMCIA network card. First I loaded Damn Small Linux, and it all worked fine. I connected to the internet, did a little research on Newegg, and ordered a linux compatible Edimax PCMCIA wireless card for $19 bucks. DSL however, wouldn’t recognize the card. I found myself in NDISWrapper hell. I did have linux drivers, but they wouldn’t compile, and this is documented in multiple discussion forums.

I decided to try loading several distros, to see if any of them would recognize the card. I loaded PCLINUX, which looked great, but no see card. I tried SLITAZ, same result. I tried Ubuntu, etc etc. No luck. Then I tried Freespire. Finally, success. Freespire took about 30 minutes to install, and it was painless. It immediately recognized the PCMCIA Card. I setup wireless networking, with WEP (WPA is still flaky in this distro) and then installed the network printer. I now have the laptop downstairs in the “man cave” for access to the internet, etc. If I wasn’t so cheap, I’d buy a battery of Ebay for $50 bucks. Or I may hack it myself. It’s a Nickel Metal hydride battery, pretty easy to replace. Maybe Someday…

Bill

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