It failed miserably. There was not sufficient volume in the jar to allow the velocity of the content to slow down (should be fast at the bottom slow at the top) to let the blades do their work. In stead, the entire contents of the jar spin up and the ice just goes round and round and never gets broken up.

Oh well. Consider this a scientific experiment that proves the hypothosis wrong. It’s still a valid experiment with a valid outcome - just not the refreshing result I had hoped for.

1. setup a “community” to manage membership and let participants choose to subscribe and un-subscribe. GOOD
2. setup a Wiki to establish a calendar of meeting topics. OK
3. setup a “quick” file sharing site for posting presentations. GOOD
4. email out the links to the above three sites. BAD, BAD, BAD

The email is not ideal but it is one way to get out the work to likely participants. The really bad part is the the three different spaces were not integrated. There should have been a single place that all of the content appeared - even if it were in three different tools.

The community makes self-registration easy. The Wiki supports simple group editing of the calendar topics. The file sharing means there is no need to email or forward slides and demo files around.

A mashup of all three capabilities would have given all users a single URL to bookmark. Ideally, there would be a small number of RSS/ATOM feeds for new content - one for everything, one for everything but community changes, one for meetings and files, etc.Users choose how much information they get. The “team space” appears as a single solution and functions as a single solution - not as separate pieces left to the user to manage.

Editorial: I don’t think this is too much to ask. If you want people to use your soluitons, you need to make then user friendly.

Today I stumbled across a pretty common thread - using a mason jar with a standard blender.

I like the idea and will give it a try, but as some have said, the glass in a standard mason jar is *not* the same as the glass hopper of a blender (and nothing compared to the stainless steel hopper of my blender). I already found polycarbonate “mason jar glasses” and plastic mayonnaise containers also match up to the mason jar so I have some safer options. If I could find polycarbonate mason jars in various sizes I’d have all bases covered.

I’ve found a good map and it is available in two sizes - one is huge and if you run Firefox, it defaults to scaling to your browser window and clicking on a part of the image, it zooms to original size centered on your click! There are also regional animated maps.

The main website is www.weather.gov and has a lot of useful information for the amateur (and professional weather forecaster).

And for those with a mobile device with internet access, you might like to check out this live radar mobile map. It lets you choose a region (by letter) - currently USA only - and then zoom/pan (zoom with “I” and “O” and pan with “N”, “S”, “E”, and “W”). Once you zoom in to an area, it provides an up to date animated weather loop. You can also bookmark an area once you have it on-screen. Great for knowing if you are about to drive into “fowl” weather or for checking your aviation route as part of your “go / no-go” preparations.

 

I am taking a lesson from my grandfather; “when working with odd shaped pieces of wood or needing to repeat a task many times, use a jig.” I think this is a perfect time to heed my grandfather’s advice - especially in light of the Mala instructions warning …

The guru bead needs to have three holes in it. The third hole at the top is used to channel the Mala cord straight up through to the tassel. It?s difficult to find three-holed beads .. So ? I make my own with the tools available to me.

This is a dangerous way to make a guru bead. There?s probably a much better and safer way to do it. I include this next section only as a record of how I have made them. Don?t let kids do this by themselves.

I think making a Guru bead is a great idea. The dremel or a small drill is the right tool for the job. I just don’t trust myself. Given how small an 8mm or 10mm bead is, I am nervous about holding the bead with the pliers - both for the safety of the bead and of my fingers.

My solution - as of yet untested - is a jig that will hold various sized beads. The jig pictured here has a conical pocket in the center, bisected by a grove. A small wire or strait paperclip is passed through the hole in the bead, then the bead is dropped into the conical pocket with the paperclip resting in the slot.

If all goes as planned, the bead will stay in the conical pocket and the paperclip will prevent it from rotating when the dremel / drill is applied.

The jig is pictured on the left. The paperclip is resting across the top. The picture on the right is a close-up of the conical pocket in the center of the jig. You can see the bisecting slot goes almost to the bottom. The “cone” is large enough to accommodate beads from 6mm up to 20mm.

The jig is a bit crude but my entire workshop is in storage 500 miles away and I only have a few hand tools at my disposal. So I have made do. Also, I should point out that the jig is black for no good reason other than I stumbled across a can of spray paint shortly after completing the jig. I may regret it if the pain ends up transferring to the beads. If this jig were just for my own purposes, I would have left it unfinished.

Update: I appear to be the last stop for the delivery woman and/or the holidays are really taking their toll - UPS arrived at 6:45pm ! (Plus it’s cold out side and the van is all metal. It can’t be much fun. Anyway, the beads arrived so I took two 12mm Old Palmwood beads and set out to test the jig.

The jig works as expected. The dremel - when on high - vibrates the bead a bit so I will likely line the conical pocket with a thin rubber layer. The through-hole in the 12mm bead is unnoticeable larger in diameter than a paperclip. I think the perfect match is the wire handle to a Chinese take-out box. Guess what I’m having for dinner this weekend ? <grin> Here is the jig ready for use and an “action” shot (but the flash froze the action <bummer>). The jig holds the bead so well, it was easy to have a free hand for the camera.

Tip 1 - working with screws or nuts which are recessed inside a case or chassis: If you are removing a small screw, apply a little grease to the end of the screw driver to make the screw stick so you can remove it without it falling down inside the case. If you are working with a larger screw, apply a little rubber cement for the same purpose. If you are working with a nut or a bolt head, put some putty in the end of the socket.

Tip 2 - snaking a wire through a hidden space: This trick works when you are replacing a broken item with a new part and there is a wiring harness involved. Tie a string to the end of the old wire when you first disconnect it. Then, when you remove the part, the string will thread through any hidden places as it gets extracted. When you install the replacement part tie the string to the end of the wire and slowly pull it back into place as you fit the new part back in.

 The usual solution is to quickly get them into the wash before the stain sets. In some cases, that is not possible so I try to rub some soap on the stain and hope it will keep it from setting until wash day. Now I have a better solution …

I still use the soap method but now I “rub it in” to the stain using one of those inexpensive ($5) electric toothbrushes. I have had a good Braun unit for years and licked up a Crest SpinBrush at the grocery store to compare. I prefer my Braun - which left the SpinBrush in the vanity drawer. Then I had the idea to use it as a spot remover. Bingo ! I wet it and add a little laundry soap. It works great and it is gentle on the fabric (my old clothes never had it so good).

The idea is not new and I don’t take credit for it. One example to demonstrated the value was a simple “setup your home wireless security” video. It was not more than 3 minutes long. Another example was “building a Google Maps application”. Again, the instruction was under 10 minutes.

The idea never took off at my company. But, it does seem to have a live on the internet. LessonBites has come up with an interesting business model for the idea …

LessonBites provides a marketplace for instructors to sell their lessons using internet-based video. LessonBites provides lessons in bite sizes (like individual tracks of a CD) so you can learn what you want. The price of each video is 99 cents.

The product model is the same as “just in time education”. What is interesting is the business model. At 99c a lesson, the price might be right for personal training.

I’m not keen on their solution to piracy but I’m sure they felt they needed to do something.The quality of  some videos is not what I would expect and there appears to be some bandwidth issues. The value wil only come from volume of lessons.

Of course, YouTube and other sites may have made this business model moot. Of course, “content” is still the big issue. There is more “how to” videos for bad things then generally useful things <uh oh>. If you are looking for “how to” videos, here is a “top 10 list” of places to start.