Dave’s blog

I’ve recently been playing Valve’s Team Fortress 2, technically still in beta. So far in my experience, this is a beta on par with a google beta - i.e. a fully functional app that’s 99% working and completely awesome.

I’ve not experienced any of the more ‘beta’ like qualities yet - to me its been pure joy. As an afficianado of the original Team Fortress mod for Quake 1, I’ve literally been waiting 10 years for this game to come out. Its probably not surprising to hear that I’ve moved on since then, but the game being set in the Source engine, and rejiggered to have a cartoony feel only accentuates the positives from the original game. It brings me back to another time in my life, in a way. It has the feel of an old pair of gloves, but at the same time, its new and different. Valve did a top-notch job with TF2. I dare say it was worth the wait.

On a cue from Team Fortress 2, in the form of a sometimes abysmal framerate and generally getting my ass whooped, I upgraded my video card from an ATI X1300 series card to a 2900PRO series card. My framerate in the Half Life Lost Coast video stress test more than doubled (from 30 to 71). When I maxed out the graphics options on the HLLC test, it only slowed to 65 frames per second. Not bad! Back in game, I took the newly recommended video settings (nearly maxed) and was delighted to a see a significant difference. Not only was my framerate improved, but everything was so much more shiny, like freshly unpacked vinyl figurines.

I still am a hair nervous that my power supply is woefully underpowered for the graphics card I chose, but after 2 straight hours or scoreboard-topping play yesterday, my confidence is way up. Now I just wonder what the rest of the Orange Box has in store for me next week…

I’m a big iTunes / ITMS fan, but I just have to say that I really wish the My Ratings thing differentiated between “not rated” and “i hate this song”. 1 star is too much sometimes.

So far this summer my schedule has been nothing short of insane. Since it began, let’s say when Dori was done with school around the end of May, we’ve had 2 or 3 weekends free here - the rest of the time we’ve either been traveling down to NYC, had guests, or been out of town for work. Its been a lot of fun but a bit of a grind.

Last week I attended a work retreat which dovetailed with the Yearly Kos convention, in Chicago. This was by far the best work retreat I’ve ever been on. Here’s a brief overview of my trip:

Arrive Wednesday midday, realized in the cab that O’Hare is significantly farther from downtown than I expected.

Half-day of work meetings, which are interesting and not drowned in process-oriented discussions. Dinner + bowling in the evening. The lanes were vintage - no covered ball return and no electronic scoring. I bowled a 136!

Thursday - full day of work stuff, which was really interesting, then at 4 we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. I was really impressed by the collection there, particularly the impressionists. I saw 10 or so Picasso pieces, some by Monet, Manet, Seurat (including the giant one). Elsewhere I saw the American Gothic. After the art institute, Matt led a group of us to his favorite burrito place, and to a beer garden near where he lives. We celebrated the evening with rounds of PBR!

Friday - the retreat ended earlier than I expected, midday on Friday, so I suddenly had a lot more free time than expected. Patrick had rented a car (the Beef bus!) to facilitate the shooting event, so he drove a small group of us to Al’s #1 Beef - a Chicago landmark, for some dipped roast beef sandwiches. Suffice to say these were fantastic, and the lemon ices sold by the guys across the street were a perfect compliment. We headed back and relaxed for a few hours, then the whole group went to Gino’s Pizza along with a small crew of blogger friends from the convention. That much was ok - the pizza was great - but I wasn’t entirely interested in talking to random bloggers. Next we hit a bar of Anna’s choice with a smaller group, and this place was a classic dive, with badly-done pornographic paintings above the bar and some vintage pieces (the jukebox selections were a hint). Afterwards, still more hotel-bar antics were in order.

Saturday - slept in a bit to deal with the aforementioned hotel-bar antics (Mari’s tab was very, very generous), then hit up a Matt-recommended place for brunch in a neighborhood where the hipster army was still gaining a foothold. Patrick transformed the beef bus into a Simpson’s Movie bus, and we picked up another group and got to go see that. I was a bit disappointed with the movie honestly - it was funny, and it had a great setup, but the end wasn’t really worth that build up. That evening we went to Italian at Vivere (I think), Tom’s choice. Who should appear at dinner but my old buddy, Josh Hendler. It was really great to run into him, and to spend time catching up. After dinner, Sam and I got to play our second Go game (the other was Friday, I think), at 6 stones, and it was pretty close, but I resigned after a few mid-game mistakes. I turned in early that night, to prepare for shooting the next day.

On Sunday about 8 of us, led by Patrick, drove over to Deer Creek Hunt Club in Michigan. This was a totally new experience for me since I had never fired a gun, let alone a 12 gauge shotgun! There we met up with Patrick’s father and uncle and got some basic gun safety instruction. It was off to the clays after that, and those little things sure can fly! There were about 14 stations in the course, each throwing 2 different clays. Sometimes they would roll them down a slope, or come at you, go straight across the field, or just float up in the distance. It was really hard!

Now I’m looking for places to go with Scott when Dori and I are down to visit next.

Spicy times ahead!

Last week I wrangled myself free of work for an hour or so and was able to attempt the maiden flight of my T-Rex 450. I had some difficulty with the rudder and gyro, specifically when the bird would get light on the skids it would spin very quickly in circles. Next, when I pushed the tail to try and compensate, it only made it worse! After a bit of head scratching, I realized that both my rudder channel and gyro were reversed. When I applied the changes, the tail held, but it was ‘hunting’ (i.e. it was oscillating back and forth, trying to find the right position to stop the motion).

I called it a day, but when I got back inside I was able to find some better pictures on how the rudder servo should be mounted. I adjusted it by shortening the servo arm (the shorter it is, the higher the resolution of the servo), as well as making some other very minor adjustments. The following day, after a busy morning I went out again and the tail was locked in pretty well. I was also able to see the tracking “paint” I applied to one of the blades, and went from about 1 centimeter out of track to near perfect with 2 turns of one of the links.

With the blades in track, I played around a little. Having a brand new toy up in the air was pretty fun - I just did some basic tail-in hovering and flew some big box patterns to get a feel for the heli. It definitely handles much better than the HoneyBee, and for 3-4 times the price it had better! I was not disappointed, by any means.

The only downside of the day was that I probably over-discharged my LiPo batteries a hair. I had a hard time making out the little gas-gauge I bought, so by the time I realized I was over, the gauge was showing red, and briefly red+green. I flew 2 packs this way, because, ya know, I learn. I did manage to follow some instructions on rcgroups about doing a booster charge up to 10V, then continuing at a slower rate. That seemed to work fine - the cells didn’t vent or anything. Next time I fly I’ll have to see how they hold up. At least now I’ve changed my transmitter timer to 6 minutes instead of 10.

Definitely going to need more batteries with a 6-minute flight time.

I’ve posted my T-Rex build pics, just a few snapshots to give an idea of my experience, over at Gallerama. The gallery is here. I added descriptions to hopefully make it vaguely comprehensible.

Over Memorial Day weekend Dori and I went up to Portland, Maine, for a quasi-early anniversary present to ourselves. We also visited Karin, my co-worker from MoveOn, had a lobster BBQ, and just kinda relaxed around town.

We kept it to a short trip; I went up Friday to meet Dori in Portland, since she was able to get a ride back from her work event in Augusta (apparently Mainers call that town ‘Disgusta’ - nice!). She got to our hotel first, so I got to skip the formalities and just show up. The hotel was really nice, but oddly our room was one that didn’t have a proper window, rather it had a large skylight. It was interesting, and frankly didn’t make much difference; I suppose that’s what you get when you convert an old armory.

Later that evening we met up with Karin for the grilling festivities. Dori and I loved Karin’s place. She has this giant garden that her landlady uses as therapy, and the house itself has a cozy charm that makes it very welcoming. Or perhaps it was our gracious host, with her mild, delicious mojitos. Either way, we felt at home.

I mentioned we had a lobster barbecue; this was a first for all in attendance so I, being a purist for experience, insisted on killing the lobsters myself rather than having the guy at the fish store do it. The procedure sure sounds simple, take large knife, find the point to start cutting, cut its head in half, and the lobster is now dead. The above instructions, which we used at the BBQ, fail to mention that the lobster will not only wince in pain as you cleave its head ajar, but it will continue to move and flail about if you fail to fully sever its spiral cord (I was 0/3). There was lobster poop all over the place, and a massive amount of blood dripping down the table. Most gruesome was the sight of one was still moving as we put him on the grill.

Being both a real and philosophical omnivore I have somehow pushed aside the moral arguments about killing animals to eat them. I make no effort to refute them, nor to rationalize my behavior. That said, I have tried, almost as if through an effort to appease some cosmic karmic force, to appreciate my food. To understand that the animals I eat have somehow given me their life, and to thank them for it, even if just in my own thoughts. Why? I’m not sure honestly. Maybe guilt.

The experience of killing the lobster was one I think I’ll remember for a while. Its a single ray of light into the dark world that serves me my favorite foods.

And - they were very tasty.

The rest of the trip did not revolve around killing lobsters. We did a lot of your typical day-trip-in-a-new-city type things. We went shopping for condiments down at the old port (what, you don’t buy jam in every city you visit?), we took a ferry to Peak’s Island (where we rented bikes), ate dinner out, and generally just walked around and explored. Portland is definitely a very fun town, the city is clean, and there are nice benches and little squares to sit around the sip a cup of coffee from one of the ~75 coffee shops. Ok, exaggerating there, but there are a lot!

On Sunday we were leaving early, so we had a delicious brunch at Bintliff’s, then visited the Promenade at the eastern end of the peninsula (about a stone’s throw from Karin’s house on Munjoy Hill). The prom, as its referred, is really a fantastic bit of land. Sadly Google’s street view doesn’t have data for Portland yet, or I’d link you. Its a steep, grassy hill with a few criss-crossing paved walkways (with benches dotting the paths) and a road that winds down to a few boat launches. There is a sandy beach at the bottom and walking trails that extend a ways in each direction. There’s also a fairly ridiculous looking old train that would ferry people around. The view from the hill is of the bay and of several of the nearby islands.

The other day I ordered a bluetooth headset - a Plantronics Voyager 510. I plan on using it with Skype, and theoretically if I ever get a new phone, with that. My initial experience was confounded by the crappy MS bluetooth driver, which doesn’t actually support the ‘headset’ service. Quite fantastically, you actually do need that to make a phone call. Who would have guessed.

After fiddling around, I found some instructions on disabling the MS driver and installing the one from the D-Link website (I’m using a little DBT-120 USB bluetooth adapter for the desktop), and then everything was happy. Skype recognized it, and my test calls were flawless.

Generally the headset is pretty light and has a nice fit. I haven’t tried any heavy, or even medium usage yet, but at least the plastic is comfortable.

Oh, and it worked perfectly on my Mac on the first try. Apple - one, MS - zero.

That’s “Yet Another Quick T-Rex Update”.

The frame and body are totally constructed, the electronics are installed and placed, and the blades are balanced and installed. All that’s left is to tie down the wires, do a radio range-check, and track the blades. Technically I have to re-solder one battery pack but that’s technically optional since the other one is happy. There is still a minor issue with one blade “sticking” more than the other. Not exactly sure whats causing that but I may try and get a first-hover in before addressing that.

Pics coming….

I’ve had my t-rex for almost 2 weeks now, and its nearing completion. I was so far off in my original time estimate to build it, its almost ridiculous.

Hopefully I’ll have a few pics and a short build log up soon. And maybe I’ll even get to fly the thing!