Whisper from the past....
jdev...@gate.net
connectivity for a long time, and when my legacy ISP Cybergate
was purchased by Earthlink, they only accepted posting from machines
within their own address space, at least for dial-up users. I keep my
dial-up account because I've grown fond of my 14 year old email address,
but I haven't used a dial-up connection in a long time, at least two or
three years. I had been assuming that they'd trend to tighter lockage,
and basically gave up on posting to Usenet. I mean, it IS going extinct,
right?
Anyway, I was bored (my wife is out of town), so I dropped in to see
if there was any life left in alt.hackers. If you're reading this, you
know that there isn't much life left. BUT what the hey, Eli the Bearded
and Wim Lewis are still here!
Okay, now I need something that will pass as an ObHack....
<obhack>
I've got an in-ground sprinkler system installed by the previous owner
and it has one zone (The Garden) that only has 4 sprinklers on it, where
the others have upward of 9. I also have an area that is overgrown
with wild huckleberry bushes that don't seem to bear much fruit. So
I want to add a T into the existing garden zone which requires finding
the existing line. I had resigned myself to digging a massive trench
since I had no idea how deep or exactly where the line would be, but
after I got about three shovels full of dirt out, it hit me.
I carefully dug a trench about 5 inches deep. The edge of the hole
exposed about three inches of dark topsoil over yellow sand. About
4 feet from where I started, the topsoil was grayish, and continued
to the bottom of the trench. I dug straight down there, and found the
1.5" black plastic pipe less than a foot down.
Behold the 2nd law of thermodynamics: Anything you do creates
more entropy. So, if you're looking for something that isn't natural,
it's right there next to the chaos.
</obhack>
Now, if only I could get up the ambition to actually dig the trenches
to put in the new zone.
Eli, Wim, etc. Thanks for keeping the cobwebs cleared.
Jim DeVries
Now in Michigan!
jdev...@gate.net, ja...@devries.name
[Shields up and holding]
jdev...@gate.net
forgot to include Kirk Israel in my list of the faithful who still post.
Y'all think Big Bad Bombastic Bob will cancel my posts for not
mentioning him.
Luckily, while reading back, I ran across a post regarding
moving a bunch of clothes, and I have a similar ObHack.
Moving Books! I have LOTS of books. If you fold a normal
bath towel into thirds parallel to it's long axis, and pile the
center two thirds of the length with books on edge, you
can grasp the remaining ends and carry the whole mess
from room to room. You have to try it to appreciate it, and
if you have a lot of books, you should.
Well, gotta go.
Jim DeVries <jdev...@gate.net>, <ja...@devries.name>
------------------------
If all mankind were of one opinon....paging Mr. John Galt,
John Galt please pick up a white courtesy phone...
Eli the Bearded
> Anyway, I was bored (my wife is out of town), so I dropped in to see
> if there was any life left in alt.hackers. If you're reading this, you
> know that there isn't much life left. BUT what the hey, Eli the Bearded
> and Wim Lewis are still here!
For some value of here, at least. I don't check it very often these
days.
ObHack:
Does a recipe count as a hack? I've discovered that my office kitchen
has everything needed to make a nice ice coffee drink at least as good
as some restuarants. Maybe not up the quality of a real coffee place,
but nice in the morning on hot days.
Take a cup, and dump a bunch of sugar in it. More than you'd use for a
regular cup of coffee. I generally drink proper coffee with no sugar,
but use four packs for this. Half fill with coffee and give a quick
stir. A restuarant will be using a syrup, probaly simple syrup, which
mixes faster. I compensate by mixing as hot as possible.
Next fill to about 75% to 80% with crushed ice. The fridge in the
many kitchen at my office has a water hook-up and can do this easily.
The fridge in the second kitchen has to be filled with manually made
ice to do this. Full size ice works, okay, but doesn't cool as fast.
Stir again.
Top off with milk or cream. Stir and drink.
Elijah
------
has been enduring some unseasonably hot days this year
David Wolff
<jdev...@gate.net> wrote:
> Aw, man. I just looked at another page or two, and I realize I
> forgot to include Kirk Israel in my list of the faithful who still post.
> Y'all think Big Bad Bombastic Bob will cancel my posts for not
> mentioning him.
>
> Luckily, while reading back, I ran across a post regarding
> moving a bunch of clothes, and I have a similar ObHack.
>
> Moving Books! I have LOTS of books. If you fold a normal
> bath towel into thirds parallel to it's long axis, and pile the
> center two thirds of the length with books on edge, you
> can grasp the remaining ends and carry the whole mess
> from room to room. You have to try it to appreciate it, and
> if you have a lot of books, you should.
If you have a lot of standard-size paperback books, two stacks of them
fit into a standard-size paper grocery bag with just enough slack to
work well:
|==| "=" is one paperback book lying flat
|==|
|==|
|==|
----
Thanks --
David
(Remove "xx" to reply.)
Eli the Bearded
"Very nice!" Hmmm. Someone doesn't read the RFCs.
> If you have a lot of standard-size paperback books, two stacks of them
> fit into a standard-size paper grocery bag with just enough slack to
> work well:
Is that a hack? Posts are required to have one. And where are you that
paper grocery bags are common? I thought it was just San Francisco ...
ObHack:
Something's happened with the main water pipe and the garage door. As
of a few weeks ago they happily co-existed side by side, very close
but not touching. Since last Friday the garage door started to make a
funny clunking noise while opening and closing. Turns out that it was
part of the sliding mechanism from the garage door opener bumping the
water pipe. I examined the pipe and saw it had a U-shaped clamp that
used to hold it to the ceiling, but one of the nails had come loose.
I replaced that nail, but the pipe was still hanging a bit low. The
day was getting late, and hardware stores were no longer open, and I
wanted to put another U clamp on, but didn't have one. Looking around
I found a spare clamp to hold a ceiling light to an electrical box.
It was stiff metal, and a good length. I hammered out the orignal bends
and hammered in suitable U shape. Making the attachment flaps on the
side was trickier than I'd like, but I did it. (More and more I think
about buying, or making, a brake press to bend metal.) I put the clamp
up, and now the pipe clears the garage door again.
Elijah
------
might upgrade the clamp to a a well secured wood support
David Wolff
Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
> In alt.hackers, David Wolff <dwol...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> "Very nice!" Hmmm. Someone doesn't read the RFCs.
That's right (not recently, anyway). I see a lot of interesting items
in that header, and this one amuses me.
>> If you have a lot of standard-size paperback books, two stacks of them
>> fit into a standard-size paper grocery bag with just enough slack to
>> work well:
>
> Is that a hack? Posts are required to have one. And where are you that
> paper grocery bags are common? I thought it was just San Francisco ...
If you ever have to move 1,000 paperback books, it might be a hack. If
not, you can report me to the Internet Police.
Paper grocery bags are common everywhere I've been (which is generally
large cities). Let me just say "Massachusetts" for my recent
experience; large stores give you a choice of paper or plastic.
Dang, now I need another...
obHack: I was concerned that I might lose my digital camera. So I made
a quick document on my computer that said, "Help! I am lost! If found,
please contact <name and phone>". Then I took a picture of it. NB,
when photographing your computer's screen, turning off the flash will
help.
jdev...@gate.net
>obHack: I was concerned that I might lose my digital camera. So I made
>a quick document on my computer that said, "Help! I am lost! If found,
>please contact <name and phone>". Then I took a picture of it. NB,
>when photographing your computer's screen, turning off the flash will
>help.
<ObHacks>
<ObHack Category="Joke" Timeframe="Future">
I've got a drinkin' buddy who spends a lot of time wandering about looking
for his beer. I'm thinking I'm going to buy one of those key-ring finder things
and hot-glue it to a beer cozy and give it to him as a gift.</ObHack>
<ObHack Category="Tool" Timeframe="Recent">
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my fondness for toy hot air balloons in this
newsgroup before. Well, last week I built the coolest little tool for speeding
up the process. My soldering iron, which I'd been using in it's OEM form for
quite a while accepts a 1/4" diameter tip. I found an appropriately sized
piece of brass rod and cut a 1/2" deep notch in the end with a Dremel.
Then I drilled a small hole through the rod perpendicular to the slot, about
1/8" from the end. I cut out a 1/2" diameter disk of sheet metal and put
a similar small hole through it's center. A small brad goes through the rod
and the disk, making a really small 'pizza cutter' that fits in my 40W
soldering iron.
Two pieces of lightweight plastic under a sheet of waxed paper can be
cut and fused together merely by slowly rolling over it with the heated cutter.
It's a lot less trouble than sliding the iron along, and it makes a nicer looking
joint.
See http://www.jdevsoftware.com/jdevries/gargan.htm for some old balloon
info.
</ObHack>
</ObHacks>
Jim DeVries
Eli the Bearded
> ... 1/8" from the end. I cut out a 1/2" diameter disk of sheet metal and
> put a similar small hole through it's center. A small brad goes through
> the rod and the disk, making a really small 'pizza cutter' that fits in
> my 40W soldering iron.
>
> Two pieces of lightweight plastic under a sheet of waxed paper can be
> cut and fused together merely by slowly rolling over it with the heated
I've only once used a soldiering iron for such a task and I came up with
a different solution. Yours sounds more reliable. What I did was take a
spare tip, drill a small hole in it, then run some wire through the hole.
One end of the wire got wrapped around the tip to fasten it, the other
end I bent into a gentle curve, like a section of the golden spiral. Then
I used the spiral part of the wire to do the fusing. The idea behind the
spiral shape was to (a) have a non sharp wire edge to use instead of the
point and (b) to allow temperature control by how far from the iron tip
to make contact with.
It worked for me that once, and I've still got it sitting in the tool
chest with the rest of my soldiering equipment.
ObHack:
I've got a set of measuring cups (which includes odd sizes like 3/4 cup
and 2/3 cup which can easily be mistaken for each other) that have handles
which are poorly welded on. When the handles come off, I've tried various
ways to reattach them. Epoxy, pop rivet, and I've considered silver
soldier. The reattached handles come off more easily than the original
spot welded ones. To ease use during the time when the handles are not
attached, I used a set of metal punches to mark the inside bottoms of
all the cups. No more need to compare an unknown with a known to get the
right size.
Elijah
------
didn't have any punctuation punches, so fractions are by number position only