Posted by Jerry on March 6th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Technology, Travel
A backpack that recharges your laptop/PDA/phone – now that’s what I’d like! Great for folk festivals where the power isn’t always plentiful, but you really need to keep things running – like an MP3 recorder for the music sessions to help you learn a new tune. All you need now is a backpack that recharges with a little ray of sunshine – and in a five year drought there’s plenty of that in Australia 🙂
The Reware Juice Bag is just that – a backpack covered with flexible solar cells. They come in bright colours and with a built-in car lighter socket to plug in your adapter for whatever you need to keep charged – your camera, your laptop your PDA or phone. The thing is water resistant, light and padded to keep your electronics safe. And they’re made from recycled drink plastic drink bottles woven into a strong textile fibre.
I guess there are two things that give me pause before jumping straight in with my credit card. The first is price – these things aren’t cheap at around US$275, and the second, and bigger concern is how they travel through airports these days. I can just see the security guys having a sense of humour failure as they run it through the x-ray machines and see all those wires … Anyone been through an airport lately with one of these? I’d love to hear from you if you have.
And for the more fashion conscious there are other more discreet handbags – that actually look more like fashion bags than technology.
But it’s a question of taste – Sharon would prefer more of a shoulder tote bag than either a backpack or a bag that just keeps your hands full. So the technology is coming – but I guess the designers still have a bit of a way to go yet 🙂
Some go part way, like this Eclipse shoulder bag – but it kinda looks like an anti-fashion statement
But these Voltaic ones are starting to look the part
Either way I like the direction this is going – would’ve been really handy in the aftermath of the Great Fire of Canberra when we were without power for a week.
It has the potential to be great travel technology if they can keep it tough enough and flexible enough to take the wear. Thanks to Popgadget via Angela’s blog
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 5th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling
Progress! The Honda CT110 oversize piston kit arrived and the cylinder has now been rebored to fit the new piston.
And with Sharon starting to be on the mend I took the opportunity during her sleep to start reassembly of Eve’s bike. First the new piston went on smoothly – the new piston pin slid neatly onto the connecting rod and the pisoton was secured with the new piston clips.
After fitting the piston rings it was time to start on the barrel – there was a lot of rust and dirt on the barrel so I cleaned the exterior using kero brushed on and then a drill-mounted bronze wire brush.
Then the tricky bit – fitting the cylinder without breaking the piston rings. After fitting a new bottom gasket I tackled the fitting. Not having a piston ring compression tool I used finger pressure to squeeze the rings closed as I gently lowered the barrel over the piston. This requires patience and eventually got it ride smoothly over the piston.
taking care to thread the cam chain through. Then I fitted the cam sprocket to the cam chain and held it all in place with some thin wire.
Now for the head. I cleaned the carbon out of the combustion chamber and the valves, and removed the remnants of the previous gasket, before cleaning the outside of the head thoroughly and fitting a new head gasket.
I lowered this gently in place and then, after making sure the crankshaft was at top dead centre, I installed the cam through the cam chain sprocket and bolted it in place, using a small 10mmsocket wrench. I set the other socket wrench on the timing end of the crankshaft to stop the cranckshaft rotating when I tightened up the sprocket bolts.
Once in place it was a relatively quick process to install the covers with their respective new gaskets, so it looks nearly complete.
Next step was to refit the carburettor inlet manifold – with its new gasket – and then the exhaust.
Looks like a new engine now! And in many ways it is – it will need running in of course. But before I can test start it I want to get the footpegs and bash-plate back on – so more to come on this rebuild 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 4th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, New media, Technology
I would have to agree with Henry Jenkins where he notes in his video interview that social networking is here to stay – irrespective of whether it’s YouTube, Myspace or the new leading space FaceBook. Jenkins makes the point that as new young people join online spaces, they want to be in a space that’s not inhabited by their older brothers – making MySpace “so 20 minutes ago”.
Check it out on Angela Thomas’ blog.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on March 1st, 2007 — Posted in Journal, New media, Technology
With all the exotic means to get around in Second Life – who’d have thought that some bright spark would come up with … a London Underground tube stop! Does that mean someone has actually built a whole Tube system?
Thanks to the Going Underound’s Blog for this link – there are some great vid clips too of lego folk catching the tube and a wonderful French one advertising the Metro!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on February 28th, 2007 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
Okay I was actually looking at woodworking sites, but I came across the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA and saw a couple of delightful samplers by the Gould sisters – amazing work for ones so young
There’s a lot more to see – lovely period furniture in abundance on the MESDA site
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