Update: The Contest is over, and I lost. I’m not too dissappointed, though I think I’ll sulk for a few days at least. The links below do not work. If you want to actually see the image, click here.

Vote for me, pleeeeease!

This is NOT a pathetic plea to vote for me, however, if you could:

vote for my photo

then look at the other photos, and be satisfied you voted for me. But vote for me first, just so you don’t forget…

Please.

The thumbnail doesn’t do it justice. Those of you on a mac, to see the full image, need to drag the file to your desktop, and open in Preview. IE and Firefox SHOULD resize the image, Firefox on the mac WILL resize the image.

If I had known the image would be opened in a browser window, without ANY resizing, I’d have sent them a 750 px wide image.

More or less, yeah. This time it’s traveling back in time to the wonderful ME 350. Now this was one class I thoroughly enjoyed. The semester I took it, the course was split into two “parts” - the first part designing a pump, the second modeling a linkage in Adams. The second part was OK, but not as exciting, fun, or fulfilling as the pump project (nor as filling if you’re a bucket).

Were there problems with it? Yeah. Did it leak? Of course. What pressure did it get? 14psi (well… 13.9). If I had to do it over again, there are only a few things I’d do differently, namely: create an adjustable inlet, so we could see what varying that did; attach the tubes neatly to the pump housing and acrylic plates; try rubber instead of cork for the gasket material; and one thing I would have done had I not come down sick the week our team built the pump, multiple pulley sizes on the pump side.

Nikon Coolpix 995

Nikon Coolpix 995

Nikon Coolpix 995

Nikon Coolpix 995

You may not have realized this yet, but I use Apple computers.

After the shock wears off, you may be surprised to find out that I was born and raised on Windows boxen, from a lowly 286 to a PI Gateway tower. Not only that, but my Apple loving cousins tell me that I used to ask them when they were getting a “real computer.” Shudder. I cannot believe I said that. This always brings me to remember my first encounter with a mac - well, not “the” first. In grade school our computer lab had Apple’s, but to me those were essentially the same as a 286, since both used a command prompt. No, this was a Macintosh, GUI, I can’t remember much else. I was with my dad, I think he was looking at a new machine, and the store had this funny computer with a game on it! You moved a mouse (not too sure if I had ever used a mouse before) and put stuff in a trash can at the bottom! When my dad - and the sales clerk - saw what I was doing, well, I can’t remember much past this point. I seem to think that he told me to stop, and the store owner chuckling (all the while he’d be thinking, “If I act nice, they will buy a computer”).

Frankly, it being a Mac, not much damage could have been done since I didn’t know how to empty the trash.

Yeah, well, whatever. Here’s a picture of my ME 395 end of semester project. ME 395 is a glorified lab - a semester of labs that introduce the student to hours of data analysis, multiple papers, and methods of testing. Or, as the Course Description says:

Weekly lectures and experiments designed to introduce the student to the basics of experimentation, instrumentation, data collection and analysis, error analysis, and reporting. Topics will include fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, mechancis, materials, and dynamical systems. Emphasis is placed on report writing and team-building skills.

The final lab was an exercise in quantifying drag. In the lab, each team received a balsa wood block, and was required to shape, test, shape, test till they reached an “optimized” drag and lift force, while maximizing volume.

Nikon Coolpix 995

I’m not too sure how well we placed in the class, but in our lab section we won the “prize” - a bar of dark chocolate (mmmm, chocolate). I can look back on my experience in the class and say I enjoyed it, though at times I felt like I was never going to make it through the semester!

“What?”, you say incredulously, doubting my sanity. But yes, I suggest we adopt a new measurement system.

Based on the iPod

Yes, I know, what I am saying is silly, perhaps even foolhardy. But take a look at history, as J J O’Connor and E F Robertson see it:

The earliest weights seem to have been based on the objects being weighed, for example seeds and beans. Ancient measurement of length was based on the human body, for example the length of a foot, the length of a stride, the span of a hand, and the breadth of a thumb. There were unbelievably many different measurement systems developed in early times, most of them only being used in a small locality. One which gained a certain universal nature was that of the Egyptian cubit developed around 3000 BC. Based on the human body, it was taken to be the length of an arm from the elbow to the extended fingertips. Since different people have different lengths of arm, the Egyptians developed a standard royal cubit which was preserved in the form of a black granite rod against which everyone could standardise their own measuring rods.

Why not use the iPod as a universal form of measurement, since someone is more likely to have an iPod with them than a ruler? Not only that, but an iPod conveys length, depth, and width in one quick glance.

We could even return to the days of the Egyptians, where we make a special trip to visit the granite iPod, and receive a blessing from Pharaoh Jobs. There we would make sure our iPod was up to date with the current size standard.

Since we would be starting out with a totally new measurement system, we could unify all measurement systems! Forget units of mass or weight - specify how many iPod Click Wheels it would equal. Or take length. Is it a foot? A meter? Or 5.5 iPod mini’s? Certainly the last measurement makes the most sense. But don’t take my word for it - check out Engadget or Gizmodo. Quite often they’ll have an iPod on top of the latest gadget, for easy size comparison. Soon enough, there will be an official iPod size rating, sort of like the insane Dell laptop-milk gallon comparison used to convey how much their laptops weighed.

I’ll be putting instructions inline, as some people might not have Acrobat or another type of PDF viewer.

Sapphire what??? The Sapphire XVIII was one radio (of many) found in VW’s throughout their aircooled days. A place to see more pictures of these radios can be found here: Volkswagen Radios The “hacking” I did consisted of rearranging some wires, and adding a line in so I could use my iPod with this radio. Sure it’s mono, but hey—I’m driving a car from 1973. Plus it has pushbuttons—a real novelty to me!

I’ve attached a PDF explaining what I did to hack the radio to install a line in. It’s not true line in, but is much better than the cassette adapter I was using before.

Sapphire XVIII Hacking

Not much else to say! I’m playing with a template. Expect it to look pretty bad for quite a few days.