The Cult of The Cool Mac

I took the pickguard off of my Kramer Strat clone to check the joints on the volume pot (it crackled when the knob was jostled) and discovered that the pot was falling apart. Even though I thought I was being careful the *&^%$! ground somehow pulled off of the back of the bridge when I lifted the pickguard.

Now, in addition to replacing the potentiometer -- which is an almost insufferable pain -- I also have to break down the bridge/whammy-springs to get to the spot where the ground popped off and resolder it. I figure that it's gonna be be at least an hour's hard work and I have to be very careful when I solder because my apartment's smoke alarm is sensitive to the slightest hint of fumes.

The wires inside are so short that it's hard to see how they got the pickguard on in the first place. I know they're saving a couple of pennies by cutting tolerances so tight, but with an electric guitar the *&^%$! parts should be user-serviceable.

Feh!

Guitar Center's the nearest place that I know of to match the part and it's a haul from here so I ordered a new potentiometer from a guy I've dealt with on eBay. Surgery is going to wait until the part gets here.

'Not looking forward to it.

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Now Software Now Defunct

Written by Andrew

Tuesday, 23 March 2010 03:43

Now Utilities

Startup Manager
Folder Menus
WYSIWYG Menus
NowMenus/MultiMaster
Super Boomerang
QuickFiler
NowSave
Now Profile
Now Scrapbook

Now Fun!

FunColors
FunScreensavers
FunCursors
FunPictures
FunSounds/SoundMaster

Now Contact
Now Up-to-Date

Now X

Now out of business.

Premiere amalgamator of shareware for System 6 and System 7. Mostly obsoleted by System 8 and OS 9. Purchased by Qualcomm in 1997. Sold to Power On Software in 1999. Their only remaining products -- Now Contact and Now Up-To-Date -- were never fully updated for OS X. Last year, they finally made a PIM that was OS X-friendly, but it was (IMHO) a piece of crap.

I'm pretty sure that I have purchased every piece of shareware they have ever made or distributed. Except for "Now X."

Reqiescat in Pace.

More info: http://sites.google.com/site/nowsoftwarecom/home

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I Tied a Camera to a Rocket...

Written by Andrew

Sunday, 20 June 2010 20:31

What happens when video cameras become so cheap and so light that they can practically go anywhere?

This happens!

The camera was placed behind a clear section of the fuselage and later was ejected with the nose cone. It's swinging wildly after the first few seconds because it's bouncing at the end of an elastic cord.

For future launches I'll probably give the camera its own parachute.

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Quantum used to make really great hard drives...

Written by Andrew

Thursday, 08 April 2010 09:25

I'm getting rid of a stack of 2GB, 3GB, 4GB and 6GB hard drives that have been accumulating in a corner of my bench, all going to an electronics-recycler.

These drives were all made more than 10 years ago. The were all in regular use and known to be good right up to the day they were pulled. None has sat on the bench for more than 3 years. All were stored in anti-static bags.

Of 9 drives...

(2) Seagates were dead.

(3) Western Digital drives spun up, but wouldn't mount.

(1) IBM mounted, but died with a loud head-crash during a 7-pass erase.^*

(3) Quantum Fireballs all mounted and all survived a 7-pass erase.^*

^*Why a 7-pass erase? Do you know how long it takes to do a 7-pass erase on a modern 7200RPM 1TB SATA drive? It takes the whole weekend and maybe more. You know how long it takes on a 6GB 4200RPM PATA drive? A bit over Forty minutes. Did you know that before? Well, I didn't.