Those square metal plates on roads

I decided I was going to figure out what those square metal plates you find on roads around here are. 

As it turns out, and how they're used at least in Stark County Ohio, they are considered to be surveyor benchmarks used to mark things like the center line of roads. I was able to find a webpage that has some GIS data released that indicates where these are. The compressed file is about 5.26MB, and considering there's a lot of these surveyor benchmarks, that file size sounds about right. Only thing is, you have to use Google Earth Pro if you want something to easily and directly import that data. There appear to be tools to do it without Google Earth Pro, but with 50 MEGS of data, I'm not going to even begin.

I just wanted to know what they are. And I found out.

Fun little digital picture frames

A friend kindly handed to me this little video playing digital picture frame to play with. It has an onboard 111MB flash drive and plays Xvid/MP3 AVI video files. Until I get something to fill it up and run for an hour, right now it's playing an Ika Musume music clip. Oh and if I forget to rename the video to '00.avi' I found out you have to hold down the button while turning it on, then it will stay on long enough to have WinXP recognize it. I had to look it up to fix that goof. Thank goodness I did.

You know, if someone wanted to be extra evil, they could sneak in to some stores with these displays with a little netbook laptop, plug these little annoyances in and put nasty clips on these things. Oh the fun they could have.

The video file that used to be on it was 480x272 and 15mb big. I wish it would play every file you could fit onto it, but apparently it's not made that way - or could it be made to do that? I don't have a manual for it, so I don't know.

Aldi's FAIL

Some book prices are just INSANE

What is it with Sugar Sugar Rune manga? Volumes 4 and 8 are rip-off priced more often than not, and then those volumes are either Sold Out or some seller lists the Spanish editions. And the one copy of SSR V.8 that I do find for $13, the seller shipped it Media Mail and promptly did not arrive when it should have. I got a refund, the seller apologized for not having a 2nd copy in stock. Well, crap, if you saw the prices, you'd think someone stole my copy and sold it for drug money.

I managed to get SSR books 1 to 5 off eBay from a seller in Alaska of all places and ended up being $6 a book. Vol.6 and 7 aren't so expensive, but V.8?? What did Del Rey do? Print it with gold?

I found another not-as ripoff priced copy of V.8 of Sugar Sugar Rune but still more than reasonable, and this time it better arrive. AND IT BETTER NOT BE IN SPANISH.

Idiot

Guy at the gas pump at Sam's Club didn't pay attention to which side of his vehicle the filling cap is on.

Junction boxes are good, mmkay?

The sign I posted

So the shut off problem was cleverly averted with a junction box (of sorts) that was put in at some point. Now we have the locals waking me up at 9:15 am by pressing the door bell. At both back and front doors. You've just activated my pissed off card. Anyway, I posted a sign by the front door, wrote "Hands off!" and "You're being videotaped" on the old heaters with a Sharpie during which I was spotted, so I got back inside and locked all the doors.

It's a simple case of physics, right?

So let me get this straight. No electricity needed to be turned off except for the circuit that went to the old electric water heater when it was removed, but now that a new one is being installed, ALL ELECTRICITY to the place has to be turned off?

Big sis came over to begin a look at things and warns me that she "might" have to turn the electric off, meaning ALL electric, just to install something that already has the electric to it turned off. I warn her that if she turns off ALL electric, the TV which I've been having problems with might not turn back on. I see absolutely no need to turn all the electric off for a circuit that's already off and was off when the old wires were being disconnected from the old heater. By that logic, shouldn't have all electric been shut off THEN?

I don't know if she got irked at me telling her that she shouldn't need to turn all electric off, because she comes back with that I don't know what she'll need to do to hook up the new heater, among other things, took a look at something, then left.

If I can replace electrical sockets without turning off a breaker, she should be able to hook up electric service to a water heater on a circuit that's already off without depriving the rest of the place of electric. It's simple physics. Don't Cross The Streams.

Fixed the bass subwoofer!

This is just another example of messing with something in a different way leading to an unexpected solution. I've been trying to remember what the last thing was that I fixed in this manner - while messing with something in a different way that I probably would not think of right away leading to the solution of fixing it. But today lead to fixing the subwoofer for the Dolby sound system, which hasn't worked in 10 years since we moved out of the house on Euclid.

When Mom lost the house due to foreclosure 10 years ago, we packed up everything and minimally unpacked some things at my grandparents' house. One of the things that did not get set up was the Dolby sound system. It wasn't until when we moved in where we ended up did that get pulled out - and in fact I had to look for the subwoofer because I forgot which box it was in.

When I brought it down, it still powered on but the speaker wasn't doing anything. Not knowing what the problem was, it just sat unplugged and unused. Which was a shame since Mom spent so much on the speakers, bought at Circuit City.

Thankfully, instead of tossing it out like so many others would have, we left it sit where I put it. Eventually it would get fixed or replaced, right? And in all this time, I kept bringing up the idea that I would at least try to figure out what the problem was, but due to lack of energy, I wouldn't touch it for a while. Life just went on around it. Things got piled on it from time to time. This thing sounded GREAT when it worked back in town. It's a shame it stopped working. Or did it?

It would power up, light up the LEDs on the back (for Off or On), but the speaker would do nothing. Not like it's supposed to - a nice big loud Thump when turned on. So it's getting power but why not the speaker?

Today I finally decided I had enough of this nonsense and opened it for the 3rd time (must be anyway) looking for obvious signs of component failure. No leaking capacitors. No burst or burnt transistors - I don't even have a tool to test those components. I looked it over and couldn't find anything. I tested the speaker, and it did make a noise as I checked the impeding resistance (aka impedance) and even registered a value. OK, so why isn't it working?

I checked where the connector for the subwoofer went into the 2nd board (the power board presumably) and saw where some of the circuit traces went. I couldn't tell a thing. It wasn't until I was putting it back together out of defeat that I decided - Hmm, maybe the relay that turns it on in Auto mode isn't doing enough to connect? Thinking of something my dad would have done, I got out a wood back scratcher, and while turning on the subwoofer from Off, began tapping it, and that's when the speaker started to suddenly show some signs of doing something. Hmmm....! 

So further tapping and slight pressing on the power board started to yield interesting results. There was a solder connection that somehow went a bit out of spec to the point where it should be visible and a simple connection somewhere just needs a little heat and solder to make it work again. I found one spot that looked like it needed it, but still didn't have it nailed down yet. Some more tapping with a chopstick brought me closer to the immediate local area where somehow the solder connection just didn't work anymore, gave them all decent heat and a touch more solder, and tested it.

Turn on and THUMP! The speaker is working again!! HOLY CRAP. Was this the problem? A slightly less than decent soldering job that went out of spec by an invisible micrometer? The tapping helped me find the part of the circuit board where the problem was, and careful precise probing (shut up) helped me localize more of the solder points that needed touched up. I tried looking at solder points that just didn't look right, and eventually got them, hopefully all of them.

It's a big difference between what I had been hearing and what I can get out of my DVDs now.
And I saved a LOT OF MONEY being able to fix it myself.

Progress or something like it

Got the Fred Exploder back today - the power steering works, but I have to turn slowly otherwise it shakes. I figure this could be due to improperly inflated tires, a damaged power steering pump (because it had to run without fluid), the new lines put in are to narrow to feed hydraulic fluid fast enough, or there's some of the fluid I tried putting in but should have been interchangeable with the specified fluids. Or it could be something bent and / or out of spec and the technicians at the dealership didn't catch it.

The hot water heater has both water inlet and the electric shut off, as they have been since I went to see what the noise was about 2 days ago. Now I just need a new one really soon because cold showers at this time of year really aren't fun. I knew enough at the time that both of those should be shut off. Maybe I'll get lucky and this won't be a leak but some odd overflow problem and it might reset itself.

The TV though has its share of things. The odd discolored patches went away when I shut it off for a few moments and then turned it back on, so it must have some sort of self-degaussing. But the power section has issues. Being 17 years old, probably not surprising to some. The capacitors probably need changed, but for one being rated at 200 volts, it's not something for my level of skill to tackle. If changing out that huge capacitor solves problems, by all means I'd love some help.

How do I know the power supply section has issues? When turning it on this morning, it did one of its "turn off immediately" things it would do every other time the electric went out. I'd have to keep trying to get it to stay on until it would finally agree. And then I'd have to let it remain on to "warm up" or it would get all crazy when a white or mostly white screen would come up. It also doesn't like cold room temperatures. It would do it until it got adjusted to such screens. At any rate, I've set the brightness and contrast down to give it a break.

I did look on Craigslist and found at least 1 person offering a 36 inch CRT Toshiba model (hopefully with remote) not exactly close by but not too far away for $15. I think I would want to tackle replacing the capacitors in the power section of the one I have first. I might as well turn it to the black screen when set to the SVHS input and just leave it on. *sigh* I don't have $500-800 extra just laying around for a flat screen with composite video inputs that's tall enough to actually be able to replace this Magnavox MX which for all intents and purposes has a great picture and sound when it works.

And on Melody - after reading up on Milk Thistle, which is a supplement sold to help liver function, even in spite of damage due to hepatitis, cirrhosis, or eating poison mushrooms  - I have a feeling Melody's habit of eating anything she found remotely edible got her into trouble, and she ate some toxic mushrooms. The variety known as Death Cap can certainly damage the liver and Milk Thistle is known to help regenerate liver function and help get toxins out of the body. Due to the humidity and general conditions around here, there have been fungi pop up out of the lawn and Melody probably ate some. She's not been known to eat mushrooms, but the advantageous eater she is got herself into trouble.

1:50 am and Melody just puked up everything she ate. She has not been able to keep food down for long. If she has to be put down, I don't want to be the one to do it. I paid over $300 to try to figure out what the f^ck is wrong with her and try save her life, but if nothing can keep her from puking which is goddamned frustrating, she doesn't stand much of a chance.

I just hope the next dog I get doesn't like mushrooms.

I can only hope the Milk Thistle helps Melody. She is the last gift my Mom left behind when she passed away. Much of Melody's personality is due to my mom. I just want to keep her a while longer if you don't mind.

Magnavox MX TV and another annoyances

If anything else goes bad today, I'm going to flip out.

Friday the 13th, actually this whole week/ past month or so has been annoying and trying.

1. Finally got the muffler on the Ford Exploder replaced, only to have my power steering lose fluid 3 hours later and on my way home from doing things on Wednesday. It's at the dealership and will be a $500 hit to fix. At least it's really quiet as far as the exhaust goes. Mechanic said all the lines were rusted out and were blowing fluid. Odd that I would have this for 9 months and this happens.

2. Sick dog for the past month, finally got an Xray on Tuesday, signs still indicate liver function problem. Administering meds, food, and Milk Thistle.

3. For the past few days or week, the hot water heater has been leaking water. Flooded basement to about 2 inches deep, as the drain on the floor is clogged with silt and my sister still hasn't snaked it out (or perhaps the septic tank needs drained).

And then to this:
4. Power outage overnight caused the Magnavox MX TV to not want to turn on.

In the past after an electric outage, and over the past few years, it has developed the annoyance of not wanting to stay turned on after being asked to turn on after one of these outages. I've had to keep turning it on only to have it click right off and requiring me to try again. Today it wasn't having any of that. So I found a 6.5mm socket to take the screws out of the back and get my can of air duster and blow it clean.

It may have been the dusting or the replugging of the cord to make a snap as it touched the current, but it finally started doing the clicking back off after being asked to turn on. Eventually, it decided to stay on.

I suspect that after 17 years (it was made in 1996), the capacitors need replaced. Not something to do on a TV, as one is rated to 200 volts, by someone such as me with my skills. Supposedly it was made with some amount of surge suppression protection.

Another thing it does is during completely white or mostly bright screens, it doesn't seem to like them. I have to wait a while to get it to "warm up" before a bright screen doesn't cause it to bend in and out until it adjusts for it. Which leads me back to the capacitors. Which ones, Not sure. I've had to adjust the brightness and picture (contrast) settings down to give it a break.

But after taking the back off and putting it back on, I have oddly colored areas on the tube. A hint of green mostly in the lower left, some odd fades of red or blue at the top. Most of the center, where lots of letterboxed video lives, mostly OK. Really apparent during full screens and certain colors. Maybe the back has bumped something. I was trying to be extremely careful putting the back on, but it was doing this even on the black screen I put it on before I got the back put in place. Maybe it needs degaussed.

I still have my grandfather's Toshiba big screen similar to the MX, but it doesn't respond to the remote anymore, and it needs dust blown out as well. It will shut off the screen and audio unless I rap on the outside, and then when it's decently warm, it will work without too much fuss, but definitely needs dust out of it. If I can't get the remote sensor to respond, watching TV without being able to mute stuff will be annoying.

So I either live with this MX, see if it just needs some adjustment, or (can't really afford it) replace it cheaply or find a suitably sized wide screen with composite video input, which I really need.

I bet my dad would know what to do in order to replace the caps, and maybe to see what's affecting the discolored patches. I would think the image processor is working just fine, getting it to the screen has a problem.