Car Battery

So a few weeks ago, my mom was picking her car up from the dealership after some repairs needed after being rear ended. At first it didn't start because they let it run down by starting it all the time and never leaving it on long enough to let the battery charge. It takes several minutes of run time to recover the energy used in starting, and that's never going to happen when it's started just to move a few feet and then immediately shut down. When the service guy came out to jump it, he said the the battery was reaching the end of it's life and my mom is the type to go ahead and get a new battery before stuff gets really bad. And of course my dad is whining up a storm about how I don't need a battery and how it's going to be a pain to get rid of if we don't give it to the place where we got the new battery. Fast forward to today, the ignition in the truck is weird and sometimes thinks the key is still in and therefore plays that "you left the keys in the ignition dummy" tone. Well it's the same tone as the "headlights on and door open" tone and my dad forgot about it and left the lights on so the battery ran down so low that even the computer stopped working properly. So when I used the old van battery to start the truck, I got to rub it in his face about how epic I am for keeping it around.

tl;dr My mom's van has a new battery, I have a spare battery with a good bit of life left on it, and I used said spare battery to save my dad's sorry butt.

Pants...OF DUCT TAPE!

This post is kinda off topic for a tech blog but I haven't updated in forever and it's still in the realm of geek stuff. For the longest time, I've wanted pants made out of duct tape. A few years back, I convinced a friend to make a pair if I provided the duct tape. Well that never happened because I never got around to getting the loads of tape and giving it to him. Later I thought, "How am I ever going to get the pants to fit properly?" when I got the idea to wrap an old pair instead of making a pair using just tape. Also wrapping real pants means fabric on the inside which is a lot better than tape when it comes to sweat. Well, like the initial idea, that thought sat rotting in my mind never to see the light of day until; a few hours ago, I thought, "Hey! I have this old pair of pants that's a bit short but still comfy, why not wrap these!" So I started wrapping till I ran out of black tape. Now they are sitting in my room waiting for me to go get some more tape to finish the job. I'll model the finished pants.

Electric S-10

So for the longest time I've wanted an electric vehicle. Why? First, the only reoccurring cost for me is maintenance since I get a flat rate for electricity. Second, I might be able to get a government incentive for driving a ZEV. Third, electrics make this faint high pitched tone which just sounds cool. Lastly, I can drop the hammer and not feel guilty for using a ton of gas. I've thought about converting my dad's '95 Ranger if the engine ever dies, but I don't really like the look of the Ranger, and I know someone who has a '92 S-10 that has engine problems. So I might be able to convince her into trading me the truck for some work. Now on to the reasons I picked a truck to convert. I like trucks, there's a possibility that I can get one really easily, they have a full bed to store batteries (like at least 4 batterypacks from a prius), and they are RWD so the weight of the batteries will help with traction a lot. Now before I made this post, I mentioned this idea to a friend and she's like, you'll loose the ability to use it as a pickup. Well not necessarily, just becasuse I have the room for loads of batteries doesn't mean I have the money for it. And besides, even if I did fill the whole bed, I could always cover it with a large piece of wood and than put a cap on top of that to stop stuff from sliding off. Besides, I rarely use the bed for much anyway. I'd like to give you some drawlings, but I can't get my scanner to work atm.

mobile web around $11/month > $10 dial-up + $X phone bill

So for all you dial-up users out there, why be tethered to a land line? Boost mobile prepaid data is only 35¢ a day which equates to $10.85 per 31 day month. The speed is about the same as dial up in most areas. According to the forum topic at link 2, if you're using a phone with a WiDEN radio, speeds should be somewhat faster than dial-up. And at $11 a month, why not? For those of you who have been forced to revert from to broadband back to dial-up do to the economy, why not use the mobile internet system. It's about the same price and it works anywhere that there is a nextel tower.

Link 1 http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090217/D96DFKGG0.html

Link 2 http://www.freedomlist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30864

Fun with VNC

So I read bash.org periodically and from time to time, I'll get ideas from posts made there. The other day I was reading and I read this post, and I got thinking. What if I tried this with several computers set up in a line instead of a loop? In other words, what if I took 10 computers and had a chain of VNC sessions running on all of them. I.E. I was on computer 1 which was controlling computer 2, which was controlling computer 3, all the way to computer 10 which was running mine sweeper or something pointless like that? It would be one of the most epic uses for a bunch of spare computers ever. If I ever got the chance, I would totally do it just for the lulz.

The Connors

So I've had this crazy idea for floating around my head for the past year or so. A sitcom called "The Connors" with all the various versions of John Connor that we've seen over the years all living together and just living daily life. Said versions would include 12 year old from T2, 2o something from T3, 16 or so from the show, and grown adult from the upcoming T4. Maybe even throw in versions of Sarah.

Water Phone

So my mom accidently washed my sister's phone, and being a maker, I just had to do something about it.