Webs’ Random Ideas

So I am still having trouble with my spam filter catching comments left by people that is not spam.  I apologize for this.  If my spam filter had some kind of a rule list where I could tell it, hey these people specifically are not spammers, it would make things easier.  But it doesn't, so please bear with me.  If in a 12 hour period you tried posting a message and do not see it, try emailing me before re-posting another comment.  Also, the NUMBER ONE way to get around my spam filter, is to become a user on my blog, this way you should be able to bypass the spam filter.  Becoming a user is really easy, all you have to do is click the "Register" link at the top right corner of my website.  Then on subsequent visits, you can click the login link.  This keeps you from having to enter in your information when posting a comment.  Instead once you are logged in, you can just comment away without putting in any info.

Thanks for being patient with me and enjoy!!

Who killed the electric car?   Well regardless of what you think, Tesla Motors took it upon themselves to create there own.  It looks as though it is going to be incredibly expensive, but with all new technology, the price is usually up there.  Give it some time and that price tag should drop, especially when other companies come out with their own version.

Big thanks to Felix Kramer and CalCars for the catch! 

Well I really couldn't tell ya.  I don't have the knowledge or experience.  But yesterday, my landlord (which is my roommates Dad) rented a jackhammer because we are expanding the driveway and part of the existing driveway is cracked so we decided to pull it up and re-surface it.  I had never used a jackhammer before, but it was actually kind of fun.  I know that sounds weird because all you do is hold the machine while it pounds away enough to break up the concrete, but as a kid I was always interested in construction and always wanted to use a jackhammer.  I finally got to try it out, and it was an interesting experience to say the least.

The basic theory behind a jackhammer, at least when your breaking up driveway concrete that is only about 5 inches thick, is to use the attachment that has the longer edge.  I have no idea what the name of this is, but we got two attachments from the rental place, one was a spike, and the other, instead of having a point, had about a two inch long point.  So instead of hitting the ground with a single point that drives right through the concrete, you have this longer point that bangs away at the concrete until cracks start to form.  Sometimes it can take a good minute or two, but in the long run it is the fastest way to do it.  Once the cracks start to form, which you can not only see, but you can hear, you keep going and slowly start to pull back on the jackhammer.  So once the crack widens, you end up pushing the broken up concrete section away from the main section.  Then you have your chunk you can dispose of.  I think the quickest way to do things is have a friend help you.  That way one person moves the broken-up sections away from where the jackhammer is running so there is plenty of room, while the other hammers away.  Then when the one using the jackhammer gets tired, you switch off. 

It was kind of funny though when I took over, because I had never used one before, nor did I do any research before hand.  All I did was listen to the neighbor that came over that had 22 years of experience.  And he appeared to be impressed with my abilities to use the jackhammer, even more so than my roommate or his father.  Consequently, they were getting impatient with the slow moving pace of the jackhammer, and did not listen to the Guru, so there chunks took longer to form and were smaller.  Also once the crack started to form, they would pick up the hammer and move down the crack, which is pointless, because once the crack forms it is really just a matter of seconds before you have your chunks.  The smaller size can be a good thing since we have to move them from the ground to the truck to dispose of them.  But to me it made more sense to get bigger chunks broken off the main slab, and then use the jackhammer to break the big chunks into little chunks which is incredibly easy once they are broken off the main slab.   A good lesson learned here is take your time and do the job right, not only will it save you time in the long run, but less accidents will occur.

P.S. as a side note, no one was injured in the operation of the jackhammer, but some of us have some minor bruises and scrapes.  And I am considering a job in the jackhammer business .

This weekend my girlfriend and I went to Chicago to see my brother and his girlfriend.  It was a great time.  I haven't had a chance to see my brother in awhile, so I was really looking forward to it.  The trip started when we met my brother and his girlfriend at the Ravinia Festival.  The particular day we went, the festival was celebrating the works of George Gershwin.  It was 1936 when people climbed the trees at the festival to see the performance of An American in Paris.  The concert was great, people we just spread out relaxing listening to some great classical music.  The food and drinks at the place were outlandish, so we all held our appetite as best we could.  The concert was at 7:00P so by the time we got to my brother's it was around 11:00p, this includes the time spent driving around trying to find a place still open.  After hanging out for a bit, we all decided to crash, since we would be getting up around 8:00A to make it to the museum as early as possible. 

We got to the Field Museum around 10:00A, and to our dismay tickets for the King Tut exhibit were already sold out (however, tickets are an extra $15, so maybe it was better this way).  This was one of our main reasons for going to the Field Museum, but we made the most of what we had, which was three floors of science.  The first thing we went to was the evolving planet which taught you about where plants and animals came from, as well as theory into the evolution of the planet.  One of the first diagrams we came across was one of cells in plants, and how they turn energy from the sun into energy the plant can use as food.  To show this there was a the picture of a cell in four states (the cell was a little guy that had small arms, legs and two eyes).  The first state, the cell was in was taking carbon dioxide and water.  The second state, the cell captured the sun's energy using photocells.  The third state showed the cell using heat from the sun to change carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen.  The last state showed the cell displacing it's bi-product known as oxygen.  But it was how the cell was shown here in this state.  It appeared as though the cell was farting it out, and had his arms open to the sides as if to say, excuse me.  The thing that made this whole diagram great was the cartoonish drawings used to display the message, and it was a very effective way of showing the process.  After the evolving planet exhibit, which was quite long, we went to grab a bite to eat at the bakery in the museum, and then proceeded to ancient Egypt exhibit.  We called it the "I couldn't afford to see King Tut" exhibit.  I really enjoyed this as well, because the museum recreated what they pictured one of these societies may have looked like.  They had some really interesting facts and information, such as a piece of Egyptian engineering.  The Egyptian engineers actually figured out a way to track the river heights over the years.  They did this because the river fluctuations really affected Egyptian crops, some years the river would be high, and kill the crops by flooding, and other years it would be low, causing drought.  What the Egyptians did was mark stones along the river with the height of the river from previous years using there own system.  This way they could make predictions.

Next we headed to an Exhibit dedicated to the Tsavo Lions of Kenya.  This was pretty interesting as well.  Apparently these lions are known to get rather large, and were first reported to have killed 28 British railroad workers in the 1800's.  We then made our way out of the museum and ended the day in Chinatown which happened to have a festival going on at the time.  What a great weekend!!

If you haven't laughed your ass off in awhile this is a MUST SEE!!!!!

Last weekend DOF helped me do some work on my bike.  I have an old Fuji as I stated in my original Pimp My Ride post , and I still needed some work done on it.  So I headed over to his place and I knew which house was his without seeing a number, because he has a classic VW bug.  I would say more about it, but I'm not sure of the year and such, but that doesn't matter because the ride is sweet!  Anyway we got to working on my bike and after awhile I really got a better sense of how DOF ticks.  I have worked with him at my current job for about two years, but I got to see him work outside of the job.  Most of the work I do at my job are things that can be done by myself, so I don't get many opportunities to work with others.  I was not very surprised to find out that how he works off the job is how he functions on the job, in a methodical and logical way.  This didn't surprise me much, because I frequent his blog, and I have seen some of the things he does.  With DOF, Things are thought through, and if he runs into a road block, a plan is devised, and work continues on.  Even if the roadblock involves me screwing up by cutting the wrong thing and showing off my young ignorance.  We were pulling out the rear brake line, and I cut the wire that holds the brakes in place, instead of the tip of the brake line.  Woops!  I think things through myself, but sometimes I find it hard to engineer things on the fly, certainly not as quick as DOF does.  I have seen him do things that are absolutely fascinating.  One of my favorites is when he used hard drives platters and cable ties to route the networking cables in our server room at work.

I am always fascinated to work with people that think differently from myself.  I enjoy watching people and trying to see what makes them tick, so when I get a chance to work with someone whose intelligence is vastly beyond mine, I jump at the opportunity.  Well, I'm rambling again, but anyways, I just wanted to say thanks a lot DOF I really appreciate you being able to fit me into your schedule and I look forward to other opportunities to working with you.

Absolutely hilarious

Within the last year or so I have stepped up my guitar playing.  Instead of being a novice, I would say I am an advanced novice… if such a thing exists.  But lately I haven't found much time.  I have been busy doing other worthless crap.  So I decided to start playing more.  Music is one of those wonderful things people on this planet have come up with.  I don't know what I would do without it.  I could seriously sit in a room completely silenced and have the music in my head to keep me company.  I just wish I was better at the guitar so I could play all my favorite songs.  But anyways, I started again and I really enjoyed it.  The thing that really amazed me was that I was able to pick up the guitar and start playing as if I never stopped.  I thought I would have re-teach myself some things, but I was able to play a lot of things I was able to before with little trouble.  And I quickly taught myself some new things.  If any of you have never picked up an instrument in your life, or if you've set one down, I strongly urge you to pick it back up and give it a shot.  I bet you'd be pleasantly surprised.

After my roommate and I moved into our house, we noticed that the washing machine took forever to fill up.  At first it was just slow.  Then after awhile, it got really bad.  At it's worst moment, the water would barely trickle down.  So I went on the Internet after I got to the point of having no clothes, and found advice that recommended to replace the water valve.  This is the thing in the back of the washer where the cold and hot water lines connect to the washer.  The valve essentially decides how much of each water type to let in per your selection on the machine.  So after we got the new part… Night and day difference.  Wow.  I couldn't believe how fast the water comes in now.  I thought, when I first moved in, that we just got stuck with a crappy washer.

So as a tip, if your washer fills up incredibly slow, check out the valve in the back.  It is incredibly simple.  Just turn off the water lines, unplug them and the electric plug for the washer, unscrew the mounting bracket for the valve, and then pull it out, or position it so you can unplug a couple more things.  For the water line going to the washer you should see a big thick black rubber hose.  Loosen it up, and unplug it, this step might take a little muscle.  The last thing you should see are four electrical wires plugged into the valve.  Label them in a way so you wont get confused as to how they plut back in place, my roommate and I labeled them 1,2,3,4, in the order of left to right starting from the side where we unplugged the big black rubber hose.  Then from there we went to a store called "Parts Depot" on Main street located across from the old high school.  That store had everything, including the part we needed.  I would say the whole job of taking it apart, and putting it back together took 30min to 45min.  If I had to do it again it would probably take no more than 15minutes.

53% of media reports suggest that there is no global warming consensus.  Even though 928 articles from scientific journals show that there is a 100% consensus on global warming existing.  It's nice to see the media still believes in scientific evidence.  Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the link!