Comments for OFF TOPIC http://k5dkz.com/blog A log of interesting experiences Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:27:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 Comment on Camry Transaxle Repair by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/11/06/camry-transaxle-repair/comment-page-1#comment-4957 admin Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:27:22 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=771#comment-4957 The day following this repair the car was driven to Austin and back. The day after its return from Austin it was checked for leaks. No leaks were found. Miraculous? No, just overly pessimistic and faulty diagnosis. The day following this repair the car was driven to Austin and back. The day after its return from Austin it was checked for leaks. No leaks were found. Miraculous? No, just overly pessimistic and faulty diagnosis.

]]> Comment on Too Big to Fail by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/10/26/too-big-to-fail/comment-page-1#comment-4956 admin Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:48:55 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=757#comment-4956 Then there is the most obvious and logical conclusion. If it is too big to fail, why are we talking aqbout its failure? Some would say it is not big enough. You can always find useful idiots. Then there is the most obvious and logical conclusion.

If it is too big to fail, why are we talking aqbout its failure?

Some would say it is not big enough.

You can always find useful idiots.

]]> Comment on GM by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/10/26/gm/comment-page-1#comment-4955 admin Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:46 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=746#comment-4955 Out of curiosity I checked resale value of all three models being considered. I allowed an age of 5 years, 50k miles, and excellent condition. The results from Kelly Blue book were as follows: Impala with a purchase price of $24k had a resale of $8k. Taurus with a purchase price of $25k had a resale of $9k Toyota with a purchase price of $20k had a resale of $13k. It appears that if you do business with Ford or GM you get screwed when you buy and also when you sell. Maybe that is why Ford and GM are in trouble. Out of curiosity I checked resale value of all three models being considered. I allowed an age of 5 years, 50k miles, and excellent condition.

The results from Kelly Blue book were as follows:

Impala with a purchase price of $24k had a resale of $8k.

Taurus with a purchase price of $25k had a resale of $9k

Toyota with a purchase price of $20k had a resale of $13k.

It appears that if you do business with Ford or GM you get screwed when you buy and also when you sell.

Maybe that is why Ford and GM are in trouble.

]]> Comment on GM by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/10/26/gm/comment-page-1#comment-4954 admin Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:33:21 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=746#comment-4954 I just checked prices on the Ford Taurus. It starts at $25k and goes to $38k! Guess maybe it has more cup holders than the Impala. After seeing the pricing on the Impala I suspected we were on a slide into hell. After seeing the Ford pricing I am not so sure that we have arrived in hell already. Maybe I am the only person who thinks $40k is a little over the top for a domestic car. Hey, maybe only the brands are domestic. Maybe manufacturing is off shore in North Korea or Iran. Well, if I had $40k to waste on a car it would be something a little more exotic than a chevy, ford, or even toyota. If $40k could not get me into a new car I would settle for used in good condition as long as it had plenty of class. I just checked prices on the Ford Taurus. It starts at $25k and goes to $38k! Guess maybe it has more cup holders than the Impala.

After seeing the pricing on the Impala I suspected we were on a slide into hell. After seeing the Ford pricing I am not so sure that we have arrived in hell already.

Maybe I am the only person who thinks $40k is a little over the top for a domestic car. Hey, maybe only the brands are domestic. Maybe manufacturing is off shore in North Korea or Iran.

Well, if I had $40k to waste on a car it would be something a little more exotic than a chevy, ford, or even toyota. If $40k could not get me into a new car I would settle for used in good condition as long as it had plenty of class.

]]> Comment on Drake Twins by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/05/31/drake-twins/comment-page-1#comment-4952 admin Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:31:29 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=625#comment-4952 Wow! It only took one day of being lit for one of the replacement #47s to burn out. Difficult to explain. Both these rigs were first made in the 1970's (I believe). Regardless of when they were made it was a long time ago. More than 30 years. The pilot lights in them are at least 10 years old. That is how long I have had them. The replacement bulb was purchased at RS. Maybe that is why it burned out after 48 housr. Time to figure out how many and where and what color LEDs are needed to iluminate the dial properly. Wow! It only took one day of being lit for one of the replacement #47s to burn out. Difficult to explain. Both these rigs were first made in the 1970’s (I believe). Regardless of when they were made it was a long time ago. More than 30 years. The pilot lights in them are at least 10 years old. That is how long I have had them. The replacement bulb was purchased at RS. Maybe that is why it burned out after 48 housr.

Time to figure out how many and where and what color LEDs are needed to iluminate the dial properly.

]]> Comment on Win98 Surprize by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/05/28/win98-surprize/comment-page-1#comment-4951 admin Sat, 30 May 2009 16:46:22 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=617#comment-4951 So much for Firefox 2.0. I kept getting complaints from the win98 system that Firefox was doing something illegal and needed to be closed. I finally got tired of this nonsense and now Firefox is closed and gone. Too bad, it was such a nice browser before it got upgraded. Now it seems to have two pounds of stuff in a one pound bag. I don't think I need two pounds of stuff when I really don't know what is in there. So we will dump it just like we did Opera and hope that K-Meleon behaves. We have used K-Meleon before without incicent. Got tired of looking at a lizard. Guess maybe I would prefer looking at a lizard than an error message. So much for Firefox 2.0. I kept getting complaints from the win98 system that Firefox was doing something illegal and needed to be closed.

I finally got tired of this nonsense and now Firefox is closed and gone. Too bad, it was such a nice browser before it got upgraded. Now it seems to have two pounds of stuff in a one pound bag. I don’t think I need two pounds of stuff when I really don’t know what is in there. So we will dump it just like we did Opera and hope that K-Meleon behaves.

We have used K-Meleon before without incicent. Got tired of looking at a lizard. Guess maybe I would prefer looking at a lizard than an error message.

]]> Comment on Kenwood TS-120S by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/05/27/kenwood-ts-120s/comment-page-1#comment-4950 admin Wed, 27 May 2009 23:40:26 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=613#comment-4950 What is it worth? Not sure but I bet you could get one for under $300 complete with P-30 power supply. It might have minor problems. Minor problems are problems you know how to fix. My radio is worth $300 because it has no problems at all. That is without the P-30 supply which I would not sell. What is it worth? Not sure but I bet you could get one for under $300 complete with P-30 power supply. It might have minor problems. Minor problems are problems you know how to fix.

My radio is worth $300 because it has no problems at all. That is without the P-30 supply which I would not sell.

]]> Comment on Video Jitter by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/05/09/video-jitter/comment-page-1#comment-4949 admin Wed, 27 May 2009 23:20:58 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=597#comment-4949 The jitter finally ended in a complete failure of the TV capture function. At first we thought the TV capture card had failed. It was installed into another higher speed machine and found to work. So now we are using the second high speed machine to do video capture for now. The offending computer is being used as a Netflix portal and being monitored for further problems. Most likely the real problem is in the buss driver for the PCI buss. Those chips are soldered in and tough to get. The solution is a new motherboard. Need to find a motherboard with proper documentation and I/O shield of ATX form factor that can use the same processor and memory now on the old motherboard. That may be more difficult than just going with an entirely new system. Besides, I am not sure that the old memory is not part of the problem. Or for that matter the old CPU might also have a screw loose even though the system appears to work just fine as a netflix portal. The jitter finally ended in a complete failure of the TV capture function. At first we thought the TV capture card had failed. It was installed into another higher speed machine and found to work. So now we are using the second high speed machine to do video capture for now.

The offending computer is being used as a Netflix portal and being monitored for further problems. Most likely the real problem is in the buss driver for the PCI buss. Those chips are soldered in and tough to get. The solution is a new motherboard.

Need to find a motherboard with proper documentation and I/O shield of ATX form factor that can use the same processor and memory now on the old motherboard.

That may be more difficult than just going with an entirely new system. Besides, I am not sure that the old memory is not part of the problem. Or for that matter the old CPU might also have a screw loose even though the system appears to work just fine as a netflix portal.

]]> Comment on Video Jitter by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/05/09/video-jitter/comment-page-1#comment-4946 admin Sat, 16 May 2009 16:40:38 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=597#comment-4946 Still have the jitter but at least the PVR is working. Not sure now where the jitter is coming from. Did not have the jitter a month ago so something has changed. The next step is to install the PVR card in a different machine and see if the jitter goes away. Maybe test it out on a spare machine running linux. Trouble with linux is that we don't have the video editing software needed. All that stuff runs under XP. If we had the editing software running under linux we would not need XP. Still have the jitter but at least the PVR is working. Not sure now where the jitter is coming from. Did not have the jitter a month ago so something has changed. The next step is to install the PVR card in a different machine and see if the jitter goes away.

Maybe test it out on a spare machine running linux. Trouble with linux is that we don’t have the video editing software needed. All that stuff runs under XP. If we had the editing software running under linux we would not need XP.

]]> Comment on Video Jitter by admin http://k5dkz.com/blog/2009/05/09/video-jitter/comment-page-1#comment-4945 admin Fri, 15 May 2009 01:30:10 +0000 http://k5dkz.com/blog/?p=597#comment-4945 Well it did not take more than a few hours to discover a REAL problem. Was cloning to the old hard drive that I used when the PVR quit working. Turns out that drive is fried. Perhaps it was working earlier but now it is definately fried. So out it goes with the rest of the trash and we are now using a 10gig wester digital cheapie as a clone backup. Perphaps a brief description of the setup is in order. In order that I don't forget once altzheimers sets in. Got several drives in this machine. A 3.5 inch floppy that gets little if any use. A boot drive either the 27gig or the 10 gig clone, as drive C. Drive C is the workhorse holding a fully updated XP professional with SP2 and all application software. Drive C is not for data or intended to grow. Need to keep is clean and hungry so we can clone it to a 10gig drive. The running drive is 27gig because that is all we had. Drive D is DVD burner. Does DVDs and CDs. Drive E is about 250gig and half of a 500gig serial interface drive. Shows up as an scsi but it really is a ATA. Drive F is the same as E and run off the same ATA drive. Then we have an external 80 gig firewire drive that sits unused most of the time. This thing is for backup. We also have a 250gig external USB drive that is also reserved for backup. We are a little unballanced here having about 300gig of backup for a 500gig drive. Soon we will add another 250 gig for additional backup. Hopefully we can add the extra backup required before we fill up the two halves of the 500 gig drive. Well it did not take more than a few hours to discover a REAL problem. Was cloning to the old hard drive that I used when the PVR quit working. Turns out that drive is fried. Perhaps it was working earlier but now it is definately fried. So out it goes with the rest of the trash and we are now using a 10gig wester digital cheapie as a clone backup.

Perphaps a brief description of the setup is in order. In order that I don’t forget once altzheimers sets in.

Got several drives in this machine. A 3.5 inch floppy that gets little if any use. A boot drive either the 27gig or the 10 gig clone, as drive C. Drive C is the workhorse holding a fully updated XP professional with SP2 and all application software. Drive C is not for data or intended to grow. Need to keep is clean and hungry so we can clone it to a 10gig drive. The running drive is 27gig because that is all we had.

Drive D is DVD burner. Does DVDs and CDs.

Drive E is about 250gig and half of a 500gig serial interface drive. Shows up as an scsi but it really is a ATA.

Drive F is the same as E and run off the same ATA drive.

Then we have an external 80 gig firewire drive that sits unused most of the time. This thing is for backup.

We also have a 250gig external USB drive that is also reserved for backup.

We are a little unballanced here having about 300gig of backup for a 500gig drive. Soon we will add another 250 gig for additional backup.

Hopefully we can add the extra backup required before we fill up the two halves of the 500 gig drive.

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