Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Author: Jan Dembowski (page 53 of 96)

November 28, 2008

Got some Speed Grade models

Gundam Speed Grade Collection

My soon to be 7 year old son is fascinated whenever I build a model.  He really enjoys just watching me and examining the parts I put together. It’s part of that whole son dad thing and I like him watching me too.

His school teacher wants him to work on things that have  step by step instructions to get him to work on his patience.  She knows about the models so we agreed that I would work with him on some easy models.  After looking some over with him, I ordered a set of  Speed Grade models, 2 of each, and tomorrow I’ll start one with him.

It’s going to be interesting.  I’ve explained that he will make mistakes and should not get frustrated.  He is really pumped about working with me on this.  He knows the difference between models and toys and I know he’ll work on this seriously. Today we picked up some clippers so he can remove the pieces from the mold.

These are pre-painted and meant for small kids. Once we’ve completed one I’ll post it on Flickr.

November 25, 2008

Not Gundam models

I ordered some 1/144 scale FG models from Hobby Search and was excited to see they arrived. I ordered 6 and each one was 285 yen, so with EMS shipping charge of 2,800 yen I spent ~$47.

tamiya-truckWhat I actually got instead of 6 FG Gundam models was two Tamiya 1/48 scale German 3ton 4×2 Cargo Truck Kfz. 305 each worth 1,900 yen.  All six FG models combined were 1,710 yen.

Gah. I’ve never been into WWII models and I’m out my 6 FG models. I’ll e-mail Hobby Search and see what they want to do.  They’re in Japan so this should be fun. I’ve ordered from them before and never had any problems.

Somewhere someone probably received my 6 models and is miffed that they did not get the two trucks.

Update: Hobby Search is the best. I sent an e-mail to them and they replied almost immediately.  All they have requested is that I send them a picture of what they shipped to me which I just did.

November 15, 2008

Might not be a civil liberties problem

I like the ACLU and by extension the NYCLU.  I think that people questioning their government is the right thing to do and civil liberties are very important.

But sometimes I read something like this and I think that they should prioritize what they spend their efforts and attention on.  Here is a quote:

”When a guy with nothing more than a chair in his hands ends up dead, that raises lots of questions about the propriety of a police shooting,” said Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “When a guy like that ends up dead, you definitely have to ask yourself, ‘How can that be?’”

via Police Defend Shooting of Man Swinging a Chair – NYTimes.com.

There are cases of Police shooting people under questionable circumstances. Those need to be addressed and made right but that’s a different problem.  Civil liberties groups perform a valuable service to us all when they ask questions of the government and try to hold officials to the law.

Here’s why I think this case is not a good one for the civil liberties groups: the officer was in real danger and that apparently warranted her discharging her weapon. At that point the confrontation was over and sadly someone died.

Guns are lethal weapons and if the officer tried to “shoot to wound” then she may have hit a bystander.  TV and movies play up the idea that you can shoot someone and disarm or just wound them but that really romanticizes guns.

Guns kill, that’s what they are designed for. Last time I checked, the NYPD did not hire professional wrestlers or martial artists.  NYPD are trained for physical confrontation but they have to measure the risk and keep people out of harms way including themselves.

When a Police officer discharges their gun, they are supposed to do so aiming for the center of the targets body mass.  No movie scenes, no John Wayne moments, and someone will end up seriously wounded or dead. There are alternatives such as using a Taser, but how is that working out?

November 12, 2008

Watching the shower get fixed

Yesterday Lily stayed at home and got the contractors started on our bathroom.  They have done work for us before and don’t need us but we wanted to start off right.

Today it was my turn so I took a day off and ran errands.  Me and the owner of the contracting company went to Home Depot looking for tiles.  The ride there was fun.  I was the passenger explaining how to get to Home Depot and the driver spoke English very poorly.

The Home Depots around here don’t really have much selection of tile so I ended up buying the tiles from a local seller.  The store did not have it in stock, so I took a 15 mile ride by myself to their warehouse.  I had to get 7 boxes of tiles.

The ride was in my MINI Cooper and my only GPS was my iPhone.  It was in Old Westbury and when I got to a light I pulled out my iPhone and checked my position in the GPS.

Drive, stop, check GPS. I must have been the poster boy for why you can’t use cell phones while driving.

Once I got there I filled up the back of the MINI and came home.

November 11, 2008

Oh sure, it’s just a little leak

Broken shower

We thought we had a little leak in the shower faucet.  After we started looking at the damage it became apparent that it was much more than we thought.

The ceiling in the living room below was showing some water damage but not like this.  The board behind the tiles was not water proof, so very little cracks in the grout caused the beams to get soaked.  It’s probably been going on for months.

. . .

Oh well, we’ll get this fixed and repair the room below.  It’ll be nice to not worry about the this anymore but gah, you never have small problems when you own a house.

November 10, 2008

Palin seems to know why they lost

Massive irony alert.

I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration?
via Palin: GOP ticket was too ‘status quo’ – Andy Barr – Politico.com

Governor Palin’s 20/20 hindsight is working pretty well; she noticed the 10 trillion debt so that shows some growth. I don’t think she’ll have a prayer in 2012 but hey, you never know.

It’s too bad their campaign also spent all that time disparaging Senator Obama’s associations and “socialist” leanings.  She should have included that in her reasons for not getting elected.

November 8, 2008

The iPhone 3G

iphone-3g-desk

I’ve had the iPhone 3G for a week now and have come to one inescapable conclusion:

I need to buy a watch.

The iPhone 3G is well designed and easy to use.  The screen is larger than my old BlackBerry Pearl but not too large. The built in applications are generally okay but a little on the “more is less” side. For example, the e-mail client is very functional.  I am able to have my mail delivered using my own SSL based SMTP AUTH relay (open SMTP relays are criminally stupid) and the client works well with my own IMAPS server.  Using IMAPS I get full access to my mail folders on my phone (finally!) via an SSL connection. I can view attachments such as PDF and Word documents with ease.  But the e-mail client looks sparse and drab.  It works well but could be spruced up a little.

The web browser is Safari, plain and simple.  It’s good but given the screen size I find myself visiting websites that support the iPhone directly.  Both CNN and Newsweek have good mobile websites and all of Google’s web sites are built to work well in the iPhone.

You can’t run multiple applications at the same time, so instant messenger is pretty much useless.  The only thing that will run in the background is the iPod application for playing music.  That works out for me since I read RSS feeds in Google Reader while listening to music.

The built in assisted GPS is great and I have enough apps that will let me find the nearest you-name it store.  I have not played with Google Earth on my phone but I’m told that it is insanely good and fun to play with.

Applications are plentiful and readily available from the app store. The price ranges from free to around $15, with most being less that $3.  I can recommend TouchTerm as an adequate ssh client and everyone should buy the addictive Bejeweled 2 game.  The free Facebook app is really easy to use. I have not been tempted to jail break my iPhone because I have no need to.  Except for IM, everything I want to do works.  Why hack my phone?

The video capabilities is surprisingly good.  If you have a collection of videos on your PC (oh, for talking purposes, say English subtitled Anime) you can convert them for using on the iPhone with WinFF. It’s a GUI wrapper for ffmpeg and works well.  One thing to watch out for is the audio.  Set the optional arguments in WinFF for “-async 1” and this will fix any audio sync problems.

My old phone only went as fast as EDGE so to me the 3G network is really fast.  On my first day using the iPhone and firmware 2.1, I took the LIRR train to the office.  I listened to the radio via the 3G network using an iPhone app.  I had to restart the stream twice but that’s pretty good for a 55 minute train ride.  In Manhattan I listened to the radio via the 3G network all week as I walked to Penn Station.

The iPhone 3G comes with an A/C adapter and a USB cable.  No software CD, no docking station, nada.  That’s generally OK as iTunes is available on Apple’s web site and you can buy lots of accessories.

Tonight I went back to the Apple Store and bought another USB cable and an Air Jacket set.  This contains a clear hard plastic case that protects the shiny back of the iPhone and a film for the LCD cover.  I’m using the anti-glare one and it works really well.  No residue and all I did was clean the screen with my lens cloth and used the pre-installation film for picking up any dust.  This second visit to the Apple Store makes it official; I am now one of the Apple Undead (a repeat customer).

Oh, and the reason I need to buy a watch?  With my old BlackBerry I would use it as a time piece.  The iPhone is slightly too large to keep pulling out of my belt clip to do that. So I need to buy a watch.

November 8, 2008

Zaku II version 2.0

zaku-ii-v2

I’ve picked up on making the Zaku II version 2.0 again and have completed the torso and head.  It’s a good model and when I have it complete I’ll put the old 1995 version next to the 2007 version for comparisons.

My kids love watching me build these.  I have some left in the basement *cough* 25 MG, HG and a couple of PG models*cough* waiting to be made. The kids have picked out a few that they want to go into their rooms when their made.

I don’t have the time to spray paint my models anymore so I’ll sand the seams and nubs to make it look as good as I can.  Maybe I’ll put the decals on too.

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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