Posted by Jerry on June 23rd, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Technology, Writing
Well I’m doing a happy dance tonight – I’m now the proud user of a gmail account – thanks to Mick of ToBlogOrNotToBlog – a fellow Canberra blogger – who had a few on offer for the asking.
I had my suspicions that the service was really a hoax as it was launched on April fools Day (1st april!) But I was wrong – The service offers one gigabyte of storage space so you can use it as an email archive. Of course there is a price – Google gets to run an ad-bot over the emails to provide discrete targeted ads – which are pretty unobtrusive. Privacy advocates are raising questions – but really, it’s not like humans are reading the mails for some strange voyeuristic kicks – and we get the benefit of Google’s search technology to be able to retrieve old mails.
The advantages for me well outweigh the disadvantages – when I travel I have web access to all my old mails, and the account is independent of my ISP – so if I change ISP my email address will remain the same.
So thanks again Mike!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 18th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Writing
My hand-turned wooden-bodied fountain pen is in the throes of giving up the ghost – the lid is now markedly cracked, and although still quite useable, I thought it was time to consider its replacement. A week or so ago, when I was in the specialist paper shop where I buy my moleskine notebooks, I noticed they were showcasing a particular fountain pen with an aluminium body – I gave it a try and thought it seemed like a good robust pen with a suitably fine nib. But not to be rushed, I demurred, thinking that i would try a few others and possibly come back to this one. Today I went into town and tried out a range of pens, including some good solid Parkers and a quite inexpensive Spanish one. But they were somehow too light or too boring in style. I glanced at the Waterman pens – knowing they would be more than I was prepared to pay, and the helpful assistant suggested I might try one. Okay, I thought, no harm in trying one.
What a lovely balance and weight. No it’s probably not rugged enough for my rough treatment, and the nib is too broad… “do you have a fine nib?” I asked. “No they all come with medium nibs, but we can send it off to have a fine nib fitted – it should take about two weeks.” That’s it then I thought. At AU$115 it was more than I would want to pay anyhow. “oh, by the way…” says the assistant sensing my hesitation… “all our pens are 25 percent off due to the Winter sale…” Well the pen did have a nice balance, and the nib did have a nice glide… but then again the enamel will probably peel off … “I think I should think about it” I said to the assistant – AU$86 was still more than the aluminium one I had looked at previously. Yup, I thought, it is more expensive – by at least the price of a magazine. And I would have to defer my pleasure for at least a fortnight.
I thanked the assistant and walked out of the store. I ate a sausage roll (I like health foods). I went into a book shop – that’s normally enough to inflict a serious wound on my wallet – saw nothing I wanted to buy. I went to several stationers and checked out pens. They sold magazines. I wouldn’t normally think twice about buying a magazine. It was a lovely red colour. The pen, not the magazines. I could get a cheap pen plus a magazine, or I could get a nicely balanced pen – a Waterman – not that brands mean much to me, and forego a magazine. My wooden pen will probably last until the next Working with Wood show – when I could get another similar one. That would probably last for a year or two – like my current one. The assistant had said something relevant here – “… and they come with a lifetime warranty…”
I walked back to the car, and dumped my other purchases – some Darrell Lea chocolates and a pair of RM Williams moleskine pants. I phoned my daughter – perhaps she had finished her shopping – oh just another half hour… okay I thought, maybe I’ll dawdle back to the store and just have another look at the pen. But if she phones me before I get there, I’ll turn around and leave it – and that will be it. That leaves it up to Fate.
I headed back slowly, had a bit of a wander into another bookshop, and finally went into … oh no this is the Other store… I decided not to buy some ink cartridges there. Retrace some steps and find the right one. “so… you can send it straight off to get a fine nib fitted?” “Yes sir, it will probably be about a fortnight – you can change it up to 28 days after purchase” she said, judging that I was generally not one to defer gratification. But i thought, for a pen that feels so right, a fortnight is not long to wait. “I’ll take it” I said, adding: “And I’ll get you to send it off for a fine nib please”. I paid the assistant and started heading back through the store. My phone rang…
Glenn Marcus writes about a visit to the Waterman pen factory
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 17th, 2004 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel, Writing
Ever since I spent a bit of time poking around the UK I have been fascinated by the phenomenon of gargoyles – part rook plumbing devices, part caricature, and part irreverent iconography. The site above discusses the history of these strange carvings, and this one is of a modern maker of gargoyles I was intrigued also at the discovery that Star Wars’ Darth Vader appears as a gargoyle gracing the roof line of the cathedral in Washington DC in the USA!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 14th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling
Much progress this weekend on my moped restoration project – I have now got the headlight, tail light and brake lights all working. The indicators light up, but they don’t flash. I suspect that either the globes are draining too much power, being 12 volt – and the moped uses a six volt system, or the flasher unit is broken – which could be a big problem since I don’t know of any six volt systems being run today! The only other thing not working is the horn – it still makes no sound. Not that it made much more than a dull ‘quack’ sound when it did work, but I’ll need to fix it somehow if I’m ever to get it registered.
The bike runs well and I got it up to 45kph on level bitumen today. There is a little weepage around the exhaust and around the head and base gaskets – so I may need to replace those when the time comes for a complete strip down to do the cosmetic side of the restoration.
I’m in two minds about the restoration – whether to try to get it up to showroom/museum condition or to allow the bike to show its age, while keeping it fully functional. You will have seen from my earlier photos that the bike already looks fairly good considering its length of time in storage. The key thing is to arrest any further rust, and to get the thing as mechanically sound as possible.
Motobecane 40V
If I aim for museum quality I will certainly need to replace the rear wheel – the rim was badly dented/torn by the previous owner – back in the early 1970s – and it had been hammered fairly straight (so there was never an issue of tyres being compromised) but the scars are there. At least any barriers will be over the little things – the bike is essentially complete 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on June 11th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Steam, Technology
Now this is something I didn’t expect to see – I’ve seen various kinds of machines built with lego, but a working steam engine made from lego is a new one on me – I’m impressed at this guy’s creativity, and what’s more, it appears to work.
Daniel Hartman has various versions of the engine, including single and double cylinder versions, and single and double acting. They use square pistons and seem to run quite well on compressed air or with a vacuum cleaner. It seems a great way to demonstrate the basics of steam engines.
This is an animation of Daniel Hartman’s double-acting twin cylinder engine The whole site is worth a close look 🙂
cheers
Jerry
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