Free oriental rug

I stopped at a recycling dumpster to get some cardboard boxes, and found an oriental rug in the trash, 3'x4'. It still had a price tag on it, $55. It's a bit worn already, so I'm going to hang it up. I like the peacock.

Punched Tin Lantern

I posted an instructable here (did this for a Valentine's day present)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Punched-Tin-Lantern/

some assembly required

I got the PCBs for the reprap today. The Arduino came last week, so now it's time to start having fun. One of my neighbors let me use his tablesaw to make parts for the gantry (thanks!)

Look at them all!

Rochester Freecycle RSS

I set up an RSS feed for Rochester freecycle, so you don't have to deal with all the e-mails.

http://www.mailbucket.org/rochester-freecycle.xml

dot matrix dissection

Recent videos from Make magazine inspired me to want to make a 3-D printer. How far I get remains to be seen, but for now you can find me taking apart old electrical devices to salvage parts.

I got an old coffee table that someone threw out when they moved out. After realizing it was solid poplar under the stain, I decided it would make a good base to anchor down components (my dad says I am a good German).

I've amassed a pile of LEDs (some that change color!), screws, and most importantly, stepper motors. A stepper motor differs from a simple electric motor in that you can tell it to turn a discrete intervals, which is how the printer positions itself to spray ink everywhere.

Last week I dissected an old keyboard and a inkjet printer. Tonight I took apart an old dot matrix, and it was the most exciting thing yet. The thing was built like a tank, and a little more adventurous since it previously leaked ink everywhere. Looking inside was awe inspiring. The folks at Xerox put in tons of little gears, at least a dozen LEDs, and 3 stepper motors, one of which powers a little ink pump! The printer pumps ink to an ink pad, which apparently is used by the print head. The little pump is bound to be useful for something - I posted a picture so you can all share in my joy :)

neat software

I found a neat piece of planetarium software, free, for windows/linux/mac, called Stellarium. Once you set your location, you can see what the sky looks right now, complete with an accurate sunset. I played around with it after listening to the first three weeks of astronomy lectures by Richard Pogge. Tonight I found Venus, Saturn, Procion, and Sirius. Some day I'll have to find a place to sit outside with my laptop and look at the sky.

lunar eclipse

I watched the moon vanish Saturday night!

I've been listening to podcasted classes when I have downtime at work, and I've gotten through the first 10 or so lectures of an astronomy class- which is quite interesting, as I never took earth science or astronomy.