Random projects

I have been keeping my self busy this summer with things other than Inventor, and now I have time to post what else I have been up to.

I have been reading the sci-fi space opera The Mote in God's Eye for the past week and a half. I have to say for a book from the 70's, it shares very similar ideas as to what we presently believe to be coming in the future. It is also possible that a great deal of other books that have come out recently use some of the same ideas that The Mote in God's Eye uses. There are special jumping points within systems that allow people to travel instantaneously using a special jump drive (other sci-fi that uses this is EVE online, Stargate, and the Halo Universe). The book also uses the classic force-field, laser cannons etc.. However, their communications and computing technology come straight out of the 70's. Ships utilize telescopes to find objects outside of their normal range of vision, a lot different and more realistic than the classic "Enlarge it and put it on the viewscreen." The humans in the novel also have a more realistic approach to communicating than most other sci-fi by using a pulsed laser to send information between planets and ships, however this communication is limited by line of sight and time lag at great distances, a problem that most works of science fiction choose to ignore. The one thing that I found the most shocking in terms of their computing technology was that they still used magnetic tape to store information. The book takes place 1000 years into the future and apparently the best way to keep track of data is to haul it around in gigantic magnetic reels. At least the aliens in the book are not humans with some modification to their foreheads. I have to say The Mote in God's Eye has been an interesting read so far, albeit a little slow-going, the climax took me roughly 350 pages to get to with 200 pages remaining, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is a fan of the classic first contact with an alien race storyline.

I have also been working on trying to improve my soldering and circuitry skills. So far I have had one failure and one success.  I'll show the failure first to keep the success fresh in your mind.

This is a very simple circuit I tried to make using a playing card as a board. I think I may have put the anode in the wrong orientation and that is whats holding this from working, but I tested it with a voltmeter and found that the button I used does not transmit any current through it while its depressed. Either way, the whole thing was very "prof-of-concept" to see if I could solder directly onto a playing card, and as it turns out, you can. 

So on to my success with soldering. This is the first real circuit I have ever put together using a soldering iron. The circuit takes sound in as an input and modulates a signal/voltage to the LED cluster to make them glow depending on the volume of the voice. I made it from a Dual White LED Stroboscope # MK147 (kit requires soldering assembly) (not this one but a similar one, could not find the link for it) that I bought at Fry's.  I made a few mistakes here and there while making it like my first two components I soldered on it are not level with the card, but I feel like it was a great learning experience and I highly recommend it for anyone who has never soldered before. 

  

 The beginning of  the Enterprise NX-01  that Sandy got me for Christmas. A nifty little model that I put together in about half an hour. Unfortunately I did not realize that you need to apply the decals before assembly because you have to soak the whole thing in water so that they will stick. It still turned out great though!

The completed model.

And finally, my display of another skill I decided to try this summer, knitting.

Not a whole lot to say about this besides that I have great difficulty doing it. The one on the left started with 20 stitches and somehow grew to 40 something along the way. The one on the right ended up a lot nicer but I messed up near the end and was unable to finish it correctly. 

And for Joey... A furry visconti grip. 

I don't know why he requested it, but I did it.....