Euan Semple talked about his experiences implementing wikis and social software at the BBC. The forum is now used by 18,500 of 23,000 employees … 89 bloggers collaborated to produce a corporate blogging policy. There are now around 3,000 wikis in use in a variety of scenarios from creating corporate policy to developing programmes. They have a social networking tool to bring together like minded individuals. Euan favours separate tools, loosely joined rather than trying to tackle the problem with one corporate combined approach. Source: Euan Semple speaking at the London Wiki Wednesday (21-Feb-2007)

One obvious message from how the BBC leveraged the various aspects of social software is:

1. adopt one feature at a time; make it effective for your organization; get people using it
2. determine what problem you are trying to solve; determine what tool you will use; document a single way to use the tool; educate (turns out I interjected my own opinion on this one. Thanks Euan for correcting me.)
3. don’t go overboard - blogs, wikis, etc. are not the solution to all problems; proper use of the tools is key (reflects back to #2)

The machinist fabricated a vertical stand for the escapement arbor. If you look at the two versions of the clock in “Is it lefhanded or righthanded” you will see the right clock has a small vertical stand holding the escapement arbor in the middle of the A-frame whereas my clock has a cross brace. There were holes drilled and tapped in the A-frame of my clock so I assume it was designed for the vertical stand but was changed. I opted to change it back. In the picture below, the stand is raw steel. It will get the same satin black finish as the A-frame.

I still have to install the reverse preventer on the far left and the third gear in the train. I have some touch-up paint before these can go into place.

I am also waiting on the “minute” pilot face. It goes around the end of the arbor of the second gear in the train (from left to right). I have already installed the gears in the back that would start the lead-off to the large clock faces on the exterior of the building.

You may also notice the small semi-circle to the left of the escarpment stand. This is the old “seconds” pilot face. The new one has not yet been drilled for the mounting screws. However, the face also serves as a bushing for the forth gear in the train so I needed to temporarily place the old one in position to check alignment.

ttd = 86

I recently bid on an item on eBay. I didn’t win the bid and figured “that was that”. Then, over the weekend I received a notice from eBay that the auction completed but the high bidder did not complete the transaction and the seller was offering the item to me (the second highest bidder). Everything was in order and I was thrilled.

I followed the eBay instructions but as the transaction proceeded, I started have questions. I won’t go into all the details but here are some highlights.

The original notification has all the usual eBay tags - they had my eBay ID; it came to the email address I use for eBay auctions; they had the eBay links, etc. Understand, if you looked at the auction, you could not get any eBay IDs from the bid history - all you would see is “Bidder 1″, “Bidder 4″, etc. so the fact that the email had my ID implied they were aware of information internal to eBay.

 After contacting the seller to conclude the transaction, I was asked for address information and was told I would receive an eBay message confirming I had accepted the “second change” bid. Then came another message from eBay with all the usual tags and information about the use of an escrow account for the transaction - complete with the steps that would insure the escrow secured the transaction.

I asked about the fact that the transaction was using Western Union rather than PayPal and he explained he was resolving a fraudulent transaction and thus his PayPal account was on hold.

 I noticed the Western Union address did not match the reported location of the auction item. The seller explained he was traveling.

 I Googled the seller’s name and found an address near where the money was destined. It appeared to be a case of “work address” vs “home address”.

The seller asked to be notified as soon as the funds were transferred. Once he confirmed receipt of the funds, he would ship the auction item. That was odd since the auction clearly stated “item pick up only” and “no shipping”.

 The follow up email from the seller repeated he would release the item as soon as he confirmed receipt of the funds. He said, “I will ship using UPS next day service”. That was even more odd since the item is much larger than what I thought UPS would handle (both is size and weight). I checked the UPS site to confirm.

This last mistake on the seller’s part was the red flag of all red flags. Obviously, the seller, was not actually the “seller” !

I contacted eBay fraud alert. Within about 30 minutes they had confirmed the attempt. By this time, the only personal information the “seller” had was my name and address. BUT, the fact he got that much irks me. I can imagine if someone were not as alert.

What is really amazing was that I expressed concern to a colleague right after the initial email and yet it still went on for a while before I put a halt to everything. I’ve since placed an alert on my credit as a safety precaution.

It just goes to show … we build a better mouse trap and the mice get smarter <argh>

There’s a fan-looking like assembly to the left of the escapement assembly.. Is that an air governor to slow the speed of the strike train or is its purpose to cushion the action of the escapement itself?

Well, it is an air governor of sorts but the clock is a “single train” or “time only” so it’s not for a strike.

There is a drawing of the double three-legged escapement on page 91 of “A Rudimentary Treatise on Clocks, Watches and Bells” by Edmund Beckett. (You can download the eBook and the link is elsewhere in this blog.) The description starts on page 85, with the four-legged escapement and by the time you get to page 87, the “fly” is finally referenced.

The great feature of them is the regulation of the velocity and the avoidance of the banging on the pallets and the risk of tripping, either actual or approximate, by putting a common fan-fly on the scapewheel arbor.

So, it is, for all intents and purposes, an air brake. It is help in place by friction so when the escapement arbor is arrested on a stop, the fan continues to rotate forward by inertia and there by preventing a bounce. Further, it applies a small amount of resistance, at the start of the release, to prevent a trip.

The picture is an enlargement of the center of the fly. The fly is loose on the horizontal arbor. If you click on the picture and look closely, you will see there is a second “plate” that is slightly bowed. The second plate is trapped along with the fly between a fixed brass disk (on the right) and a pinned brass disk (on the left). The distance between the two disks is enough to allow the fly to rotate but close enough to compress the spring plate slightly - creating the necessary friction.

Early in the clock project I tried to explain the escapement. The description leaves a bit to be desired but I make reference to a video clip (from Mark Frank’s website) that does a great job of showing the escapement and the fly in action.

I spend a bit more than half of two days over the long weekend, working in the shop.

I created a “paint box” - a mini option to my full sized paint booth. I took a 2′x2′x3′ box and cut a hole in the bottom for a furnace filter. I placed one of my Patton house fans in a window in my garage (facing out) and, laying the box on its side, push the bottom / filter up against the fan. It allows me to place small parts in the opening of the box and fan pulls air thru the box while I spray at the open end.

The bummer of this weekend’s “clock progress” is that most of it was a “re-do”. I shot lacquer more than 5 weeks ago. Unfortunately, I shot with too much air and too quickly. the result ? All of that work was junk (a rough cloudy finish). So, this weekend, I use scotch brite to remove the old finish, then back to the buffing machine for cleaning and polishing. Next the parts are cleaned with lacquer thinner to remove any buffing compound, oil, finger prints, etc. Finally, it’s time to spray, dry, and spray again.

I did the smallest and most delicate parts first. The parts to the gravity escapement were top of the list. The whole purpose of the escapement is to turn the motion of the pendulum into controlling the gear train. The gravity escapement is a bit complicated - I had to finish 29 different parts - not including the various support brackets and bushings. The pendulum suspension is another 9 parts. I even had to refinish 11 bolts. (There are a lot more bolts still to do, but the first 11 got the “A-frame” assembled.)

So, over the next few evenings I hope to get a few more hours in. I have all of the gears in the train to re-do <ugh>. But the end is in sight and then I get to hear the clock come back to life once more !

ttd = 74

So, if you look at the basic real estate sales process, there is: listing, showing, offer, acceptance, inspection, and closing. At what point do you consider the real estate as “sold” ? I’m the guy who says it’s not “sold” until the check in in the bank. But that’s a long way down the path. Perhaps I should look for a bit of optimism and call is “go” after a successful inspection.

What do you think ?

I signed on with another Realtor - one who is well known in my neighborhood and has a number of referral recommendations.

I think things are working out much better. Time will tell. I like the look of the virtual tour they created for the house. Since many of my family and friends have either not seen the house or not seen it in a long time, I thought I’d post a link here. I don’t expect the link to work forever - especially once the house sells. But for now, anyone interested can take a look at the Virtual Tour of my House.

Title: 24 Hr Short : Time Out

By: Contestant Team #3 - Zach Lipovsky, Sam Friedlander, Adam Stein

Description: 24-Hour Shorts. Contestants were given the theme of “Out Of Time” for these films which had to be made from start to finish in a 24-Hour period. (Edit: Fox has chosen to remove all the content so here is a link to a lesser quality copy on YouTube.)

Source: On The Lot: Episodes

The production was amazing for many reasons. First, it was well done. Second, it was done in 24 linear hours with nothing more than digital cameras and laptop computers. Third, given the time and the tools, everyone - including the judges - were left with perplexed looks. They liked the storyline but had no idea how the team pulled it off.

Watch for yourself (click above). Just remember, three directors, digital camcorders, and laptop editing software. Oh, yeah - just 24 quick ticking hours !