Author Archives: BoB

post

A Maker Family

Posted on by

A few weeks back, my wife (Rozenn) came home with a broken cane chair, which looked something like this, and wanted to try repairing the seat. A few tours through youtube videos, a visit to Amazon and some time with my Dremmel (she’s logged more hours on that thing than I have) and she managed to replace the seat.  Even I can sit in it!

Now that it’s completed, I think we both agree that the project was very doable.  The hardest part was removing the old spline (don’t believe those Youtube videos where it comes out with one tap of a chisel).  Once the spline was removed, however, the rest of the process was a breeze.  Yard-sale season may be wrapping up, but I’m sure we’ll find a few more broken chairs at rock-bottom prices that will not only give us a fun project, but also result in a nice-looking chair in the end.

Mandy gets some street cred

The staff over at the Wolfram Community have recognized Mandy – the bright Periodic Table as one of their Staff Picks.  The forum post, which can be viewed here, highlights how Mathematica was used in various parts of the project.  In the design phase, Mathematica was used to create the layout of the periodic table, which then could be exported to Inkscape/Adobe Illustrator for final processing of an image that could be recognized by the laser cutter.  The curated data provided by the Wolfram platform is used to create the trends, and I used some notebook Manipulate commands to visualize the RGB-LED output for (rapid) rapid prototyping.  The actual operation of Mandy uses a Python-based speech recognition script that calls on Mathematica to communicate to the Arduino controlling all of the LEDs.  (Yes, this is an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ project.)

Thanks, WC Staff, for the recognition.

post

Amazon hurts consumerism in Western New York

Posted on by

I just recently completed my move from Chicago to Brockport, NY.  Happily, all of our belongings survived the move more-or-less undamaged, and we are close to having everything unpacked and in its new location.  One problem we had during the unpacking was the box spring for our bed; there was no way that a queen-size box spring was going to make it through the small space occupied by our stairway.  The box spring is ancient and we had intended to leave it in Chicago, so purchasing a new one was in the plans.  I didn’t realize what a pain it would be.

Continue reading →

4th of July in Brockport

Posted on by

We have been busy with our move to Brockport, NY.  More importantly, we have just finished getting internet installed so the website can be updated!  Trying to conduct a cross-country move over a national holiday has its challenges, but one advantage is that it feels like your new home town is throwing a welcome party!

post

Sankyu very much

Posted on by

This past weekend, I successfully tested for my brown belt (Sankyu) in Judo.  I had started Judo in college (last century) and for over 15 years couldn’t find the willpower to get back in to the sport.  Then Kayla Harrison won gold in the 2012 Olympics.  Something about an American finally winning Judo gold gave me the motivation I needed to find Sensai Barnett at the Jiu Jitsu Institute in downtown Chicago. Searching the internet for judo clubs in Chicago, you’ll find the current web page is optimized for the Mosaic browser — (note: a new website is in the works) — but perhaps the club’s web presence is an allegory for the style of training one will receive: traditional.

Roneye (left), James (Right) and me (the only guy who broke a sweat).

Continue reading →