My “Summer Reading List” has been getting a bit long, with Post-Its everywhere. So, I decided to pull out an old Palm V that my friend mailed to me a while back. As my brother Dave would say: Perfect for what it does. It’s small, it’s light, and it still works after 10 years. Take that, smart phones.

Anyhow, I did have a problem with the Palm Desktop 4.1 software and the Palm 5. The digitizer kept getting out of whack after every sync. I tried stuff like Digifix, but it didn’t do anything. Finally, I ran across this post. It worked for me, so I thought I’d repost:

The bad digitizer function most likely is result of the desktop version you are utilizing.

Starting with version 4.1 and newer the problem began to appear, for users with the original bundled version that upgraded and those that utilizied the download for new desktop installs.

The UPDATE folder created during the install provides OS updates to th eunits automatically, and unfortunately the updates inclduded are not friendly or compatible with the V and Vx models, (only)?

To correct, with My Computer, locate the \Palm\Updates folder and rename to WrongUpdates.

Then since you already have hotsynced, locate the \Palm\[truncated user name]\Backup folder and rename to OLDbackup.

Then HARD Reset the Vx to clear all contents and confirm digitizer function restored.

Now perform a Hotsync, selecting same user name as the backup folder was renamed. This will establish the correct folder structure and new backup folder with the correct system files and preferences. And post HS the digitizer should be yet functional.

Digifix is an utility employed by many handheld users, V and Vx especialy, it will be beneficial if another compatibility isssue arises with a third party app that can occur.

Here are some photos of our newest product, the LED Silhouette light:

The art piece starts with a hand painted reverse silhouette, resulting in translucent white patterns on a glossy black background. The silhouette is then installed in a Ribba shadowbox frame and protected by a glass front.

Inside sits a custom LED lighting assembly, designed and built by Evelyn. The twelve hand-soldered LEDs are driven by a microcontroller, resulting in a series of unique lighting effects. When turned on, the unit can display a variety of different color effects, from random colors, to warm glows and solid colors.

On the back a single button controls the LED lighting. Simply press the button to cycle through the effects. It’s designed to fit your mood or your favorite colors and is very easy to use.

The art piece is ideal for placement on mantels, end tables, bookshelves, or any flat surface near a wall outlet. As the power plug is found in the back, this piece cannot be hung on a wall.

The frame is 10” x 10” square and 1 ¾” deep. The unit requires 2” of clearance toward the back to accommodate the power plug.

Forgive the slow posting. Our summer vacation turned into an exercise in illness, and we’ve both been sick since late June. With any luck, health will return, and with it innovation.

While scanning through the blogs today I saw the results of a survey. The survey asked what people would like robots to do for them. People wanted robots which:

• Clean the floors
• Clean the windows
• Clean blah blah blah

In other words, people wanted a maid.

What didn’t they want from a robot?

• Driving
• Helping children
• Keeping one company

If you were designing robots you’d take this and say “well, I guess I better make a robot maid” to which I would say “you’re out of your fucking mind”.

In other words: Ignore the results.

Why? Because a survey tells you what people are thinking about now, and the “now” is just about as useless as you can get. Honestly, how many people do you know — yourself included — who are visionary? Almost nobody.

Ask someone 10 years ago if they needed / wanted a web based video streaming service. Ask them about storing thousands of songs and applications on a phone. Ask then about a way to connect with old friends and play inane games hours on end. Would they want / need this stuff? Probably not.

That’s the point with innovation. If you follow the survey, you’ll develop a bunch of fucking robot vacuums. Instead, you should be developing for markets that don’t yet exist.

It’s not rocket science. Just look around you. What is more important to people — having a clean floor, or having someone to talk to? I’ll wager that most people would like a companion, human or robot, before they want a maid.

I’ve written about my Dahon Folding Bike before. It’s the one that I configured as a city apartment bike (read more here). The Dahon is a fun bike to ride. With its tiny tires you feel like you’re on a kids bike. It has a three speed hub gear system, so it’s easy to use. And it has fenders and chain guards, so you don’t have to be outfitted in bicycling gear to ride it.

While I had previously outfitted it with a lighting system, etc, it was lacking a good way to carry stuff. It has a really nice rear rack — but the wheels are so small that you can’t use regular pannier bags. It needed something like a milk crate.

Trouble with milk crates is that they look like milk crates. And any attempt to make it look nicer simply resulting in a nicer looking milk crate. I’d have to build my own.

So, out come some 1×12 scrap boards, and some knowledge recently gained from a new Super Secret Project. Here is the core:

The front, angled parts, and sides are all 1×12 pine boards. The front is 6″, angled 4″, and sides 8″. These dimensions were chosen because (a) my scrap of wood was only 30″ long and (b) it just happens to be exactly the right size for my rack.

In this shot you can see the angle cuts:

This is where having a gigantic miter saw really paid off. I was able to make those 22.5 degree bevel cuts right on the Makita. You can also use a portable circular saw, a good straight edge, and a steady hand.

Why 22.5 degrees? Because if you cut your lumber equally you’ll make a hexagon. I wanted a hexagon-like shape for my box, since I didn’t want it to look like a cube. The other huge added benefit it that the angled parts allow my feet to clear — if I made a cube my my pedals/feet would have whacked into the box. Luckily, my aesthetic choice was also a good usability choice.

The sides were glued up and allowed to dry using a strap clamp to hold it in place (this was a big pain and the hardest part of the project).

If you look carefully in the above photo you can see that I also used small pieces (cut at 45 degree angles) as braces. Why 45 degrees? Because 45 + 22.5 + 22.5 = 90. Geometry in action. The braces are glued in and then bradded (using 2″ brads — thank goodness for my DeWalt nail gun).

Again, by lucky happenstance, my scrap lumber and it’s dimensions lead me to one very important conclusion: It’s ideally sized to hold a 6 pack of bottled beer. If you are going to build your own, make sure it can accommodate 6″ x 8″ x 10″ tall. Unless you drink from cans, then you can reduce the height.

For the back, I used a piece of scrap 5mm plywood held in place with brads. You can use 1x if you have it (I was out). The bottom is another piece of high-quality 1×12 that I’ve had around. It’s held in place with about eight 1 5/8″ deck screws. Make sure the bottom is fastened well — it’s the primary mounting point to the bike.

Now that I knew this would hold beer, or a picnic lunch, or both, it was important to add some insulation. Two reasons for this: (a) to keep stuff cool in the hot Texas summer and (b) to keep things from rattling around while I’m riding.

I had some spare garage door insulator lying around (it’s like silvered bubble swap) which would work perfectly:

The insulation on the sides is one piece, held in place with construction adhesive. The bottom is more insulation, but is NOT adhered to the bottom. It has to be removable so that you can bolt the box to the bike rack.

This being Austin, I knew that I couldn’t leave the box plain black. That would be too boring. So we finally put to use some of the many, many bottle caps we have collected:

The caps are hot glued to a piece of Kommerling Komacel. Komacel is a plastic material that is weatherproof, cuts like wood, and can be purchased in a variety of colors. It’s a great material to work with. We had a scrap of white, so I spray painted it matte black. The resulting panel is then mounted to the rear 5mm back using 4 machine screws and nuts.

You can see that the top is cut to mirror the shape of the box, has the edges rounded over, and then mounted with a single hinge. Since I was out of larger boards, I biscuited and glued up two 1×6 boards and then cut to shape. Insulation was also glued into place so that the entire box is insulated.

Next up, some designs for the side:

A nighttime test ride:

I’ll try and get some photos of how the box gets mounted to the rack, and some more of the top.

For the final touches, we’ll decorate the sides some more, and probably put a latch (perhaps magnetic) on the lid so it doesn’t bounce around. (I noticed a little movement in the top — mainly because I used a cheap leftover hinge. If you have one, use a piano hinge.)

Our prototype panel is above. We decided that the black background looked better than white.

I realize that there are a bunch of marinates out there, and I’ve tried more than a few. Recently, I’ve cut back on the complex stuff and let the veggies and meat stand on their own more. More of tasting the nicely charred food and less burnt spices.

This is an easy “middle Eastern” one that goes well with a side of couscous.

1/4 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup parsley, minced
2 cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice, sometimes I use Ship Curry Powder instead
1/4 teaspoon cayenne

In a small bowl, mix together above marinate ingredients. Make sure they are well combined. Don’t bother with measuring spoons, just do it by palm & eye.

Cut up a chicken breast into chunks. Cut up red (or white/yellow) onions into quartered chunks. Cut up some peppers (bell, or whatever you have) into quartered chunks. If you have other kebab type veggies, do some of those. Everything should be about the same size, and big enough to put on a wooden skewer.

Put the meat and veggies in a airtight container, pour marinate over, shake around so everything is well coated. Let sit while the grill heats up. (Since there are no acids in here, you can keep overnight without “cold cooking” the chicken).

Alternating veggies and meat, thread onto wooden skewers. Cook on a hot covered grill, turning every couple of minutes, until charred and cooked through. You know your grill best, so just keep an eye on them and keep turning until they look delicious.

Serve with a bed of couscous.

I’ve been doing a good deal of IT work, so nothing exciting to report there. It has kept me out of the shop, but is necessary to get food on the table and rent checks paid.

The coop stuff has tapered off a bit since the pre and post tour rush. This is a good thing, as we have two big projects in the works (non coop related). One is an art-type product which we will be selling through one of the crafty stores (ex. Esty). The other isn’t a product, but a fun thing that might lead to other stuff. It’s all very hush-hush because it’s Halloween related. I’ll leave you with that as a teaser.

Things around the house are pretty everyday. We’re growing a small garden this year (all it pots). Tomatoes (we’ve already harvested 6), bell peppers, Serranos, jalapeños, Anaheim, along with a few flowers. All the peppers have been grown from seed, with two plants surviving from last year, so that’s been fun for Evelyn. This is the first time we’ve raised vegetables. It’s nice having a back yard.

With some prodding from Evelyn, I finally pulled out our two bikes (the nice ones we got in PR — which have been in storage for 4 years). Surprisingly they survived pretty well, only needing air in their very flat tires. I might need to clean up my chain a bit, but otherwise it’s running fine.

We managed to take short rides over the Memorial Day weekend, but the last day or so has been rainy, so no riding. To motivate me I’ve put the bikes inside the house, in the front room. This makes it easier to get them out of the house (we have no service door on our garage) and I have to look at them — meaning I’m more likely to get out and ride. (The guilt factor.) They say that after 21 days you get into a habit, and riding a bike is a habit I need to get back to after all these years.

Boring, but useful for anyone writing Reports in MS Access 2K7.

I found that the Report Builder was VERY slow. Every time you moved a field around, resized, etc it would lock up for a few seconds. Extremely annoying when you are trying to organize a new report.

I found that if I turned off error checking it dramatically improved the situation. Go under Office button, Access Options. Go to Object Designers and scroll down to the bottom. Under Error Checking, uncheck “check for common report errors”.

You may also want to turn off other Error checking if you find them unnecessary. Shutting that stuff off speeds up the designers.