Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Quick Update

    The weather outside has been nice this week. Still a little cold, as far as base temperature is concerned, with highs in the mid 60s (℉). But the skies have been sunny or mostly sunny. I have made it out for several walks by the Tanana this week. I have been seeing a lot of wild flowers out there, and I have some notes on that, but I want to look through my field guide first before sharing details. I also took one day off from work to take my family down to Chena Lakes Recreation Area, which has an artificial sand beach for swimming and relaxing, and that was pleasant.

    I haven't had much time lately for my usual studies and explorations in analog computing, physics, etc. due to busyness at work. A number of issue popped up, or were discovered, in our main simulator, and fixing them has involved a lot of deep dives into ancient FORTRAN code and old schematics. Home life has been very busy as well due to difficult getting reorganized after dumping all our belongings into the new apartment. I sacrificed my office so that the boys could have separate rooms — one room for the older boys and one for the younger — and we are still trying to figure out where to put most of my stuff including my books, my computer, my astronomy equipment, and so forth.

  • Directionally dislexic

    Up front, Bunny is still doing well at rehabilitation for her broken shoulder [1].

    As I was getting ready to visit her, my car complained about one of the tires being underinflated. Seriously underinflated. And looking at the in-car display showing the tire pressure, yes, that was at a level that I would not feel safe driving. But no problem, we have an air compressor and the adaptor to inflate tires for it. Okay, slight problem in that I have to dig it out from behind some stuff and set it up, and remember to close the air release valve (ahem) but within 10 minutes I'm inflating the tire.

  • How many English words to you actually know?

    From the video “How Many Words Do You ACTUALLY Know? [1]” comes this quiz VocabOwl: The Scientific Word Count [2], which claims to measure how large of a vocabulary you know.

    I took the quiz, which asks for the definitions of 100 words (twenty each from a basic list, intermediate list, advanced, export and grandmaster) and from that, estimates how many you know. I missed 6 out of the 100 words (two from the advanced category, and four from the grandmaster) and so, according to this quiz, my vocabulary consists of some 76,000 English words, for what it's worth.

  • Study Solves the Mystery of Why Humans Are Mostly Right Handed

    Speaking of left-handed people [1], here's a video of why so many people are right-handed [2]. An executive summary might be, beacuse of our brains and how parts of it specialize for certain tasks. It's worth a watch.

  • Extreme Kobolds, Boca Raton edition

    As my tires were being addressed at a local tire shop [1], I meandered across the street to have lunch and browse at some stores to kill some time. At a gaming store, I came across this little fellow defending this terroritory:

    [A life sized and colored statue of a D&D kobold in a defensive stance] He spoke softly and carried a very big and pointy stick to make his point. [2] He seemed very keen on keeping this corner of the store to himself. I let him be.

  • Getting things done

    I have tried to maintain a goal for this year. It is to finish things. Seeing efforts through to the end. We're nearly halfway through the year (goodness), and I figured I'd take the time to put some thoughts out on my goal.

  • My library should just be for me

    I have a growing collection of books about Christianity in my personal library. These books are not devotionals, commentaries, or other theological pondering from seminary graduates: my shelf is filled with the folks who are willing to ask actual questions and provide unflinching answers about the Bible that wouldn't ever be likely published by the Zondervans or Thomas Nelsons.

    I built up my collection of books for my own interests; many of these are healing from my past where I felt fooled into accepting weak answers. In many cases I collect books on the chance I meet someone similar to my younger self who might benefit from better instruction.

  • cold sheets

    these sheets are too cold
    I'm a little short on body heat
    would you mind sharing
    some of yours?
    

• Technology and Free Software

  • Gavin Kohn's 3D-Printed Spectrometer Turns a DSLR and Three Lenses Into an Optical Science Tool

    Maker Gavin Kohn has released a guide to turning a digital SLR camera into a spectrometer for measuring any light's spectral output, from LEDs to stars — by combining a trio of lenses and a pair of razor blades.

    "This is a DIY spectrometer that can be used with DSLR lenses," Kohn explains of his creation. "This design incorporates a diffraction grating, adjustable slit, and three DSLR lenses to produce a spectrometer that can be used to measure the light spectrum from lights or even stars. It can be used as a teaching tool or a fun way to learn about light spectrums."