Entropy

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy part IV

Post by JR. »

That lawnmower just keep getting on my last nerve...

Yesterday I go to start it and the pull starter just free spins, refusing to grip the crank shaft.. arghhh

Since I had a lawn to mow, I took it apart to see what I could see.... The pull start clutch is a clever arrangement of cams and cogs, with 1/4" diameter ball bearings that roll down and jam the cogs to the cam and let the pull starter grip the crankshaft, but once the crankshaft is moving faster than the starter, the ball bearings are pushed out of the way by the cam design and held out of the way by centrifugal force. Well all 6 of my ball bearings were dirty and stuck in their disengaged position away from the cogs. Just one loose ball bearing of the six and the starter would engage, but noooooo.

Easy enough to fix with some gasoline and an old toothbrush, but that's another hour I will never get back... At least it was cheaper to fix than all my other recent repairs.

JR
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

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It's been a while since I updated the constant race toward disorder that my house and equipment are on.

New things that broke.
1- curtain pull string on living room window used every day.

2-counter spring on heavy washing machine door

3- intermittent push buttons on my coffee roaster

4- one basketball shoe literally separated at the last between the sole and top, last thurs night at the gym.

Things i've repaired

1- I broke down and bought a new carburetor for my lawnmower, since I didn't care for the bandaid of adding a cut off valve. It was an easy install and my mower is happy now for a while.

2- I glued my broken shoe back together hoping it will hold together for one more night- my new shoes aren't due in until friday a day late.

Lots more stuff to fix,, this entropy is getting ahead of me...

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Thanks for the update John.

John forgot to mention that problem with persistent cookies...
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

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mediatechnology wrote:Thanks for the update John.

John forgot to mention that problem with persistent cookies...
computer nonsense is a given..

running a BB may be a PIA but PCI compliance for credit card security is like Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill.

At the moment I am getting pinged for two compliance vulnerabilities.

In the report from the service bureau supposedly the answer man for all things PCI they say just go to this link for patch..

But the link is broken... no such website found any more..

So after pestering the experts for a better link, they tell me,, ok there's new link, run another site scan,

Yesterday the frigging website to order a scan from doesn't accept my password and locks me out after 5 tries
OK, so I pretend to be a dumbass and say I forgot my password to get a new one..

but nooooo,, the new website bounces me around to some upgrade then locks me out again..

Finally this morning the website recognizes my old password but says I'm locked out, so I try the dumbass forgot my password and this time it lets me get a new password and in.. but I'm still waiting for the scan resuklts with the supposedly good link to a patch...

computers really suck...

=============

Also for security, under pressure from the CC service bureau i finally loaded a (Macafee) virus scan on my PC I use for the web business.. it has made my PC so slow it is barely usable.. I ordered some new memory to try to help speed it up, but I am not optimistic,,, I get running out of virtual memory errors which is evidence of crappy code (memory leak) in the macafee software.. more hard memory may not help.

computers suck

It's hard to blame entropy for this... ironically I never lost a hard drive until I got a MAC???

arghhh

At least my lawnmower is happy... and come friday I'll have some new basketball shoes.

The air conditioner is hardly keeping up, but the beer is chilling... so today will get better...

JR
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Well speaking of things fixed or at least returned to an orderly state, I hope I am not premature in declaring victory over my cookie monster. My access to this forum seems rock solid now for more than a day.

My advice to other safari users is that deleted cookies, may need to be deleted more than once (and safari restarted) to completely remove any bad pastry crumbs.

I saw an article today about some website code, that harvests users cookies to gain personal data from visitors computers, be careful out there boys and girls.

I wish safari would allow me to turn off or allow cookies on a per website basis. I think some browsers may be that specific.

JR
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

While this doesn't strictly count as entropy, some puke hacked my website again,,,

now here's something maybe there should be a law against...

while it's hard to get to the pukes on some distant continent.

Glad to see these kids working on their computer skills but come on... Do something productive.

I need to invent a way to send electricity back through the internet to zap the back guys.. they can do it in the movies, it must be real.

JR
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Am I the only one surrounded by decay and deterioration? Maybe I'm the only one talking about it.

Last night i fixed my coffee grinder. It was not a cheap one (a burr grinder for better coffee consistency), about $150 and not even 2 years old. It chewed up a drive gear, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a replacement gear from the importer (from Italy) for only $4. I don't know if this is a new trend or a very old one (probably the latter) but I like it. :D

The drive gear on the motor is steel and the gear on the burr is soft, probably aluminum, so I guess this is intentional to work as a torque stress relief to shear in case the burr gets jammed, it is a relatively heavy motor for the task. We'll see how long it lasts on this new gear.. Maybe I need softer coffee beans.

To remind me this effort is never ending, last night I broke the string on the overhead light in my laundry room as I was going back and forth to get tools, so I need to fix that today.

Last week I had a clogged drain, and my plunger broke before the clog gave way... arghhhh new plunger and problem solved.

The toilet shut of valve is making a new noise when it shuts off, kind of a whine, so I bought a new one to have on hand when that stops working.

I wish that was all I need to fix, but that's enough for today's report.

JR
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Re: Entropy

Post by emrr »

Need a new lawnmower, the old deck has rusted through and is falling apart.

Dishwasher died in April. Haven't looked at it, other than occasionally to make sure there's no mold growing inside.

Putting a new AC fan motor on a 27 year old central AC today, hoping nothing else is wrong.

Killed a box fan using it to test the AC unit.

Found a stray torn piece of roof shingle on the deck, can't spot where it came from. I'm sure the current roof was put on in 1989.

Wife and I each have cars over 15 years old, where do you wanna start?

New ceiling fan I installed 2 years ago breaks the pull cord on the switch every time I try it. I have yet to use the fan because the cord just severs. Bad design, where there's no place for the pull cord to go once you add the lighting attachment, so it does a right angle in a tube.

Intermittent points on studio patchbay.

Sytek preamp needs a trip to the manufacturer for repair. Can't sort it myself.

New projects? HA!
Best,

Doug Williams
Electromagnetic Radiation Recorders
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

emrr wrote:Need a new lawnmower, the old deck has rusted through and is falling apart.
When I first moved down south from CT in the mid '80s I took my yankee lawnmower down with me... It was too small to cut serious grass, but I used it for trim. It was rusting apart, and so wimpy it would stall out every two minutes when trying to mow my rain ditches. I broke down and replaced it a few years ago, and the new improved version trim mower is 6.5 HP... It doesn't stall out so much any more, but drinks more gas. :lol:
Dishwasher died in April. Haven't looked at it, other than occasionally to make sure there's no mold growing inside.
I replaced this dishwasher a few years after buying this house... The no longer new one, is still working but falling apart. The soap compartment that is supposed to hold a second dose of soap to dump mid wash, no longer latches so that doesn't work, A couple months ago the counter spring to offset the weight of the rather heavy front door broke. I don't know if the spring itself broke, or where it was attached rusted off,, I can see the spring hanging down, and now I have to be careful to not let the door fall open and swing against the stop since it will probably bend something with all the weight slamming against the stop.
Putting a new AC fan motor on a 27 year old central AC today, hoping nothing else is wrong.

Killed a box fan using it to test the AC unit.
good luck
Found a stray torn piece of roof shingle on the deck, can't spot where it came from. I'm sure the current roof was put on in 1989.
It seems roofs should be more robust,, but I guess they're better than old thatched straw.
Wife and I each have cars over 15 years old, where do you wanna start?
I'm still driving my '97 (mustang cobra). The good news about a car that old is I dropped the collision insurance and cut my bill in half...They probably wouldn't pay me squat for an accident on a 14 YO car anyhow.
New ceiling fan I installed 2 years ago breaks the pull cord on the switch every time I try it. I have yet to use the fan because the cord just severs. Bad design, where there's no place for the pull cord to go once you add the lighting attachment, so it does a right angle in a tube.
I just leave my kitchen ceiling fan on slow speed all the time...
Intermittent points on studio patchbay.

Sytek preamp needs a trip to the manufacturer for repair. Can't sort it myself.

New projects? HA!
I am pretty proud of being able to fix almost anything... and I need to say "almost".

I just bought a new timer switch (actually bought two). I use one for my electric blanket in the winter to turn it on and off automatically, I use another timer to switch a box fan I point at my in wall radiant unit so I can heat up the large living area warmer for the day time and not as much at night. The motorized timers, usually wear out their timer motor after a couple years of constant operation. So this time I invested in a modern, electronic timer switch for one, $13 at Walmart. Another problem with the motorized timer switches is they get noisy before they fail, and that isn't good when you're trying to fall asleep in a quiet room.

Well brand new out of the box, the cheap motorized timer works fine, but the more expensive high tech microcomputer based version doesn't. The clock part works good enough, and I can program in up to 6 on.off times, but the sucker doesn't run the programs. I can manually switch it on and off, so the mains voltage control part works, and the micro computer works, it just doesn't do what it is supposed to do.

I took it apart to fix, and I can trace the 3 position selector switch (program on, programs off, programs random) all the way to three lines on the PCB that apparently go to the microprocessor sitting under a small black blob (epoxy?). The three switch positions correspond to one of three lines being shorted to ground, so the switch is OK and doing what it should.

The 4 layer PCB has a 25-40 pin square footprint roughly 3/8" square for a larger normal small sized SMD microprocessor, with smaller lump covered by a black blob in the middle of that footprint. I speculate there is tiny BGA package under the black (epoxy?). I'm not sure how much success I will have removing the black protective blob and re flowing the tiny BGA part.

So from now on, I only claim to be good at fixing things that worked when new, while I have a list too...

JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by emrr »

Someone hit my old car 2 years ago, their insurance wanted to pay me $200 and total the car. This points out what a sham insurance is, at the low end. I'm sure it works great for those who keep a new car, and pay the high insurance.

Dishwasher is probably 20 years old, and I can't see the time to try troubleshooting. Appears to be a dead pump, and I'll bet the right part isn't out there anymore.

The roof is 2 story on the front, 3 on the back, and steep pitch. I don't even have a ladder that will reach a lot of it. When the time comes, I'm thinking about tin. I've done both tin and shingle replacements on other family members houses with low pitch and height.

I'd like to say I had the time to take all of these on, but some it'll be more expedient to throw it in someone else's lap, and pay the bill.

Should be up to 74 on Wed, so hope to fire up the AC then. All new caps and new fan motor.
Best,

Doug Williams
Electromagnetic Radiation Recorders
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