I’ve been looking at digital pianos for a while now. Since I wanted something I can learn piano on, a couple of things were important. First, it had to be full-sized (88 keys). Second, it had to have “real” piano action (with full-sized keys). Third, it had to fit into my budget. I ended up with the Casio CPD-100 digital piano. It had good reviews (excellent for learning) and felt a lot more real to me — even comparing it to digital pianos twice its price (I had my eye on a couple of Yamahas). It’s not a synth, so no whiz-bang functions, but it should be a good instrument to learn on.

The piano is pretty big — about 52″ wide and 25 pounds, so I needed a sturdy stand. I didn’t feel like spending $50 on “X” metal stage stands, and the wooden stand from Casio was $120, so I decided to make my own. I went with a shaker bench design, increasing the leg height to 24″. This give me a keyboard height (to top of keys) of 28″.

In the above photo, the top is 52″ long by 12″ wide. Legs are 24″ tall, 12″ wide. The stretcher is 44″ wide and is a 1×4. The lumber was cut to length on my big Makita miter saw, then cutouts done with my Bosch saber saw.

I actually built the stool first, because I wanted to work through the plans and figure out any tricky parts:

The stool top is about 20″ wide. Legs are 18″ tall. I didn’t cut the parts as carefully as I should have (especially the stretcher part), so the stool was not as strong as I wanted it to be. To compensate I added that lower reinforcement. It’s not the best, but it will do.

Here are the two of them together. All sanded up and waiting for a glossy black paint job.

To save money, this project used glued up pine 1x12s. I got them at Lowes for about $15 a board. So, the total cost of lumber was about $30. The downside of using these pre-glued boards is that they aren’t stain friendly — they’d look a bit weird. However, an opaque paint job avoids that issue. (You can get stain-ready boards, but they are more costly.)

If you’d like to make your own, check out the plans at Popular Woodworking. The “Mud Room Bench” is part of their “I Can Do That” series of plans — woodworking projects that don’t require a ton of skill or a lot of expensive equipment. Highly recommended.

Check out the plans (including PDF) here: Mud Room Bench at Popular Woodworking

Not too much shop or project work recently. I’ve been at the PC most of the time working on a couple of projects.

Speaking of PCs, I finally got us a Netbook computer. Since I’m late to the Netbook party, I decided to go with a vendor that was also late to arrive: Toshiba. The nice thing is that they looked at the stuff that sucked about Netbooks (like unusable keyboards, limited ports, crappy screens) and fixed the problems.

They have two generations out now, their 300 and 200 series. If you need a knock-around Netbook, take a look at their 1st gen NB 205 models.

Here’s a great money saver: Get the white one from Buy.com. The black/brown/etc models are running about $329. If you buy the white one (which is no longer listed on the Toshiba site) you can get it for $289. That’s $40 off just because of the color! The killer joke (as Evelyn would say) is that only the cover and bezel is white — everything else is silver! So save your money and get the white one. It actually looks quite nice. (The photo above is the brown one. The white is exactly the same except for a white bezel around the screen and a silver rounded area.)

Toshiba NB205-N325WH at Buy.com

Update: As of March 2nd they don’t appear to have this killer deal anymore. Sorry about that. I guess I lucked out.

Now keep in mind that it’s not the latest Netbook, but it will run you three bills instead of four or five. You can read a good review of it on the Maximum PC site: Review

I’ll let you know how it works out. I’ve been spending the afternoon removing all the crapware, in-place upgrading to Windows 7 Pro (it comes with Windows 7 Starter), and getting full versions of Office, etc, on it. We’ll see how the power situation is.

I saw this in a catalog the other day and thought it was a pretty neat idea. Simple and useful.

You plug it into an outlet and it provides a little shelf for the phone. It wouldn’t work in all situations, but I can see more than a few people with phone charging in the kitchen using this.

Check them out here: Driinn Mobile Phone Holder

It’s been nearly a year since I first got my Chumby. It’s a neat little gadget, with wireless widget goodness. However, it didn’t have a “killer app”. But now, finally, I think it does. That app is Pandora.

The Chumby already had internet radio stations, but I really didn’t have the time to wade through them. With Pandora I put in “Kate Bush” and it goes out and builds a playlist of songs by and like Kate. It’s a neat way to hear music from artists you may like, but have never heard. Some of the stuff is a little obvious (too much Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan for my Kate Bush taste) but it’s pretty good at guessing.

And, believe it or not, but the little Chumby, with its rear-firing speakers, sounds pretty darn good. I’ve got it sitting in front of my keyboard, snuggled between my two monitors.

I’ve always liked Minox cameras. They make those “spy” cameras you see all the time in movies. The only trouble is that they use film, and dealing with specialty film is not something I’m interested in.

Well, rumor has it that they will be releasing their first digital spy cam. Now I know that there are already (cheaper) ones out there, but they aren’t, well, a Minox. Take a look:

If those photos are accurate, it breaks into two pieces. The one of the left is the bare-bones portion, with just the camera and no flash. Add on the other part and it appears that you get a display and flash. I’m guessing that part is bigger to handle the batteries for the flash.

Pretty slick looking. The official announcement will be next Tuesday. Hopefully it’s as cool as it looks and (somewhat) affordable. (I know it will be pricy, I hope not too pricy.) I guess I really like this camera because of the size. Something tiny that you can always carry, yet not a piece of junk.

Well, I guess I must have slept through the end of the world again. The Large Hadron Collider had its full loop test and didn’t create any black holes. I didn’t wake up with a goatee or scars, so I guess we didn’t end up in an alternate universe, either. Maybe you did, but we’ll never know, will we? Science 1, Fear Mongering 0.

Friday Update: Well, it’s been on for three days now and we’re still here. No baby black holes. No deadly particles. Science 2, Fear Mongering 0.

The Roku Netflix player has been out for a bit now, but I had held off considering it. It seemed a little too much money (about $110, shipped) for the amount of content available. Plus, we were able to watch the shows on the computer (which we have in the bedroom), so there wasn’t too much point.

However, ever since Netflix made their on-demand service unlimited we’ve been using it like crazy. We don’t use it for current movies or anything, but old TV programs. Stuff like Dragnet, Emergency, Adam 12, and other 60s-70s TV shows. And a good selection of Mystery and PBS and BBC, too. We don’t have cable TV, so Netflix on-demand has been a great way to watch good TV without all the BS.

Recently, after reading some updated (positive) reviews, I decided to get their player. It arrived today and I’ve been playing around with it a bit. Here’s what it looks like:

it’s about five inches square and about two inches high. The front panel just has a little white LED to indicate status (thankfully, it’s not a super-bright-blind-you blue LED). The top is vented and so far it’s running pretty cool (no fan, so it’s silent).

Here’s the back view. It has an amazing amount of outputs, making it super easy to hook up to your existing TV setup. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 10 year old CRT or a brand new LCD. Take a look:

It’s really quite amazing what they can stuff into a little box these days. You’ve got S-Video, Composite Video, Component Video, Optical Audo, and HDMI. Talk about the kitchen-sink! In addition, you have a wired ethernet connection and the power jack. Wired ethernet? Don’t worry, it has wireless, too. So, if you have good wireless reception, use that. If not, you can fall back to copper.

To hook it up to your TV, just choose your connection (I used HDMI) and plug the thing in. It literally took me longer to figure out how to open the remote (for the batteries) than it did to connect the unit.

Once you have it connected to your TV and powered up it walks you through the setup process. You can choose either wired or wireless. If you choose wireless, it scans the local network, at which point you can either choose from the list or enter your own SSID (if you have yours hidden, as you should). You can also enter a wireless password, if you use one (you should). Even on my cranky network, it took all of 2 minutes to configure the wireless.

Once the network is set up, it give you an Authorization code. What you do is go to Netflix and enter the code. Your device is then validated and connected to your Netflix account.

I really have to give credit to the team who designed the setup process. It really is dead simple. Very step-by-step, very clear. It took me longer to find a free power jack than it did to configure the device. It’s nice when something is properly designed! The “getting started” guide is also very clear.

So, how do you watch programs on it? Well, you can’t add programs with the player. You have to add them to your Netflix On Demand queue (the Roku player is one of the reasons why you now have that “On Demand” queue). Once you have added programs to your queue, they automatically appear on the player. You scroll through them kinda like the “cover art” view in iTunes. Very simple.

Dealing with TV Series programs is also dead-simple. You first go into the series (ex. “Yes, Minister”) and then you can scroll through the episodes. Each one shows a little synopsis, so it’s easy to find the esisode you want to play. It also keeps track of what you’ve watched, and where you left off, which is very handy.

To control all this, you use what must be my new favorite remote control:

Ah, I love it. Menu (home), directions & select, reverse, play/pause, and forward. That’s it. It’s a beautiful thing (though, I don’t look forward to having another remote in the house; maybe Logitech has codes for it, I’ll have to check). Home brings you to the browsing menu, where you use the direction keys to select a show, and the big Select button in the middle is your “click”. It’s very easy to deal with.

So, how’s the video quality? Well, I live in a crowded wireless area, and it’s pretty darn good on my 37″ Sharp Aquos. When I first started it, it switched to lower (1 of 4) quality, but that may have been a fluke. Ever since then I’ve been getting high (4 of 4) quality over the wireless. I’ve got wired near the TV if I find the wireless a problem, but so far so good.

It takes about 10-15 seconds for a program to start up (similar to the computer version; but no need to hit that damn “full screen” button all the time–Netflix users know what I mean). I’ve yet to have it stutter at all; though most of my connection problems are due to the cable company and not Netflix.

Note that this is NOT some HD device. It runs at 480p. It ain’t BluRay, but I’m also watching shows from the 60′s, so who cares? Also, it comes with composite cables, which is nice, but if you want HDMI you need your own cable. (Be sure to hunt down a cheap one; overpriced cables are just that–overpriced. It’s digital. All the ‘gold plated oxygen free’ hype won’t mean anything.)

If you have a Netflix subscription already, and can find enough programming on their On Demand service, then I’d recommend getting this little box. I have a feeling that the content is going to improve over time and it’s nice to watch old TV shows on the bigger screen in the living room.

On the downside, it’s tied to the Netflix service, so if the content you want isn’t there, then it will serve you no purpose. However, I’ve heard that Roku is making their firmware Open Source. Methinks you’ll soon see the coders out there writing firmware updates to allow for other service tie-ins. YouTube? Joost? Comedy Central? Who knows.

Those are some of my initial thoughts. I’ll post an update in a couple of weeks, after I’ve lived with it for a while. But, so far so good.

Update: I’ve watched a couple of programs on it and things seem good. It actually takes between 25 and 30 seconds to start a program (over wireless). Not sure if wired is any faster. Other than that, it’s fine. Images seem a little more blocky, but that might because I’m watching it on a much bigger screen than usual (37″ versus 20″).

Also, my Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote works fine with it, so I don’t need to have the extra remote. That’s nice. Just make sure you’re using the latest Logitech software, or simply do the IR programming. I looked for Roku under the PVR/DVR section. The heading doesn’t matter, as you can rename everything on the Harmony 880. I have mine as “Netflix Roku”.

I’ve bitched before about the million different user names and passwords I must maintain for all the on-line sites I use. Even if you count only my frequently accessed sites, it’s at least 20 different accounts.

Up to now, I’ve used a page or two out of a spiral notebook. It did the job, but it was impossible to keep it in order. More of a list than something easy to access. And so, I’d have to keep scanning down the list, looking for an entry.

I’ve tried software based stuff, like KeePass, and they are okay. However, they are only available from my computer, and if the computer goes bye-bye, so does my password store. (I’m thinking hard drive failure, not theft.)

Anyhow, while looking around my local second hand store I had one of those “Why didn’t I think of this before?” moments. I present a bit of mid-20th century technology that’s the perfect password storage device. The telephone / address book.

This one is small (about 2″ x 6″) and has tabs for each letter, like a good address book should. It’s got a hard cover and plenty of pages, idea for my overflowing list of accounts. A simple solution to an ever growing problem.

You can also have some fun with this, and look for an antique or retro device. You can usually find them for dirt cheap, as people have gone to auto-dialers on their phones. Here’s a really tank-like one we picked up a couple of months ago. You spin the knob on the right and the letters whiz by in-frame. It’s a neat piece of history, about 70 years old, and still works like new.

I love how they put a long red diagonal strip on the paper, so when it’s spinning you can see where you are at (it “moves” left and right under the letters above). It’s the perfect “steam punk” password management system.

I’m a long-time user of the Opera web browser, and I recently upgraded to 9.5. I wish I hadn’t. The right-click search doesn’t work. The skins seem messed up. The Speed Dial doesn’t update. And on and on. I tried some of the recommended fixes, but no luck so far. The ever-updating (spin-spin-spin) Speed Dial is one thing, but breaking the right-click search really really sucks. I use that all the time.

Is it me, or is Open Source software reaching that same point as commercial did a while ago? So bloated and bug filled that you are spending more time working-around issues than actually working. Perhaps it’s because the projects have gone far beyond the original (tiny) development teams. I was (and am) pissed off at WordPress 2.5 and the bugs it had, and the same goes for Opera 9.5 They are taking their good reputations and tossing them in the garbage can. Come on, guys! Quality Control!

(And I won’t even get to mocking the Mozilla people who hyped up their “download record” for FireFox 3 and yet couldn’t keep their own webservers up. Nice going. Just goes to show that being a good developer does not mean you’re a good engineer. Developers build features. Engineers build foundations. What’s the point of a fancy bathroom faucet when your roof leaks?)

Anyhow, if anyone out there is using Opera 9.5 and knows how to get the old color schemes back (so that I can actually TELL WHAT TAB I’M ON) and get right-click Search to work (the default search one; Google), please let me know.

I’ve been dealing with two product recently which have been driving me up a wall, and for simple reasons. Here’s the first:

The OXO Pepper Grinder : Designed By Oxen

The below photo is of their flax grinder (why you’d want to grind flax at home is a whole other question). I couldn’t find a photo of their pepper grinder, maybe because they were so ashamed of it.

I picked up mine at a second-hand store, and now I think I know why. For a while it worked well, and I really liked it. It was handy, a good shape, has a nice ceramic grinder, and so on. But there are two big problems with this grinder. First, you have to tip it upside down to get it to grind (so the glass is facing up). You are seeing this more and more in “high end” grinders. That’s okay, I guess, but it feeds the FATAL FLAW: The sloppy, unreliable, locking mechanism.

See that big button on the side of the grinder? That’s the release button, that allows the black grinder part to separate from the glass container. You press it under one condition: To refill the grinder.

The problem is, you have to hold the glass and twist the black part to grind (taking off the colored cap first). You can see where this is going, right? It’s unusually simple for a finger to slip and press that button. Then, thanks to the “upside down” design, the glass bowl unlocks, and you have a 1/2 cup of peppercorns scatter throughout your kitchen.

About a week ago I had such a misadventure while trying to grind pepper over eggs. Peppercorns everywhere. It was the first time it happened, so I thought it was a fluke. Well, I spent a good part of Saturday cleaning up the Kitchen, and picking up the million peppercorns (after destroying breakfast). And I carefully cleaned out the grinder.

All seemed well, until yesterday, where I got to not only dump an entire refilled container of peppercorns into my sloppy joes, but also got the treat of burning my hands in the process, desperately trying to prevent an abundance of peppercorns from destroying dinner.

Of course, I followed the time honored Nelson tradition of crappy tools: I smashed that fucking thing into the garbage. It was a pleasing sound when I saw it hit a beer bottle, causing the grinder to  crack in half. Good riddance.

My thoughts to the bonehead who designed this grinder: Never, ever put a release button close to a holding surface. That’s stupid. Second, that “neato” flip-it-upside-down-to-grind idea is turning out to be pretty dumb. If the cap of my old wooden William Bounds grinder falls off, all I lose is the cap. The pepper can go nowhere. If your gigantic pepper container goes loose, you get peppercorns everywhere. Brilliant!

Also, a big cockpunch goes out to the moron who decided that making the container out of regular glass, instead of tempered, was a great way to save money. If that container hit the floor, I would have had shards everywhere.

Dremel 7.2V MultiPro : When Tools Are Designed By Interns

Meet the Dremel MultipPro, battery powered version. We picked this up a while ago, as we thought it would be handy to have a Dremel which didn’t have a cord. (Important for our tiny, power-lacking, apartment.)

I’ve typically found Dremels to be pretty good tools. I’ve had a corded one for ages, and it never gave me problems. The primary exception is their utterly annoying collet system for holding bits. I understand that collets are good for highspeed and accurate work, but come-on, this is 2008. Come up with a design that doesn’t take me 2 minutes to change a bit. (I know they have a chuck accessory, but that could be included, not a $10 add-on.)

Anyhow, let’s take a look at this tool. First, it feels a lot cheaper than their other tools. Mostly lightweight plastic. Second, and more annoying, is the horrific power switch. It is too hard to swich, it doesn’t stay in position, and there are too many instances where you think it’s “off” but it’s just barely. Very dangerous. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is, like the OXO, the battery release.

See that ribbed oval-shaped blue tab toward the battery end? That’s one of two battery release tabs. (You have to release the battery to charge it in a wall charger.) See how it, like the OXO, is EXACTLY where you would place your hand? And guess what happens? Nine times out of ten the battery unlatches RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of your work. This is no fun when you have a 10,000 RPM diamond bit cutting through something. I’ve fucked up more than one piece because of this idiotic battery design.

Now, normally, you might be able to hold the tool closer to the bit. That’s why there is a rounded “finger stopper” area near the collet. The problem is, the tool is bottom heavy (toward the battery, at the one end). So, you end up shifting your hand position away from the bit (losing accuracy) and toward the battery (increasing your chances of unlatching the battery).

I honestly can’t think of one instance where the battery hasn’t fallen out on me while working. I’d wrap the thing in electrical tape to hold it on, but I can’t, since the battery has to come off to charge. What a fucking pain in the ass. This tool is riding a razer edge toward going in the garbage. One more slip up and it will get kicked to the curb.

A Wrap Up

Both of these product show tools gone bad. What I don’t understand is why two companies, known for making good tools (be it kitchen or workshop) can come up with such clunkers. Did they let the college interns design them?

Perhaps more concerning is how these tools ever got out of testing. Didn’t ANYONE say, gee, the balance of this tool is off, people might disconnect the batteries / unlock the lids? Didn’t ANY testing occur? Christ, it takes about 10 minutes with the Dremel to realize that the battery “locks” are in probably the WORST place to have them.

The frustrating part is knowing that these tools should never had made it to manufacturing, let alone in consumers hands. There is no reason why either of them should have the flaws they do. The problems simply aren’t subtle, they are glaring mistakes that should have been caught by at least a dozen people along the line from product concept to manufacturing. Didn’t ANYONE say, or have the authority to, stop the process?

Are we so wrapped up in throw-away junk that we can’t design anything properly anymore? I don’t think so, but some of the current products get me awfully discouraged.