Powering a Floor Stop with a Linear Actuator

Works, but how can I make it quieter? Should i be looking at soundproofing, or are there quieter actuators that can push with 200lbs or so?

Rockin' The Suburbs

BREAKING NEWS: Barbra Streisand: "I Don't Want to Talk to the Maid"

This is why i keep all my spam filters off -- every once in awhile you get a phishing attempt or spam that is priceless -- in this case an entire series of emails that send you a website that makes a pitiful attempt to get you to download an .exe. But click on the image below to see the emails -- the subjects are priceless. I laughed out almost as loud as i did when i repeatedly hit reload on this site.

Carlos Santana

If you are a guitar player, your only possible reaction to this is, "Wow"

American Soldiers

4th of July just passed. I know not all would agree. Some might even claim the opposite. But to me, these videos are proof that our soldiers are awesome, capable of operating at a level that I and many others can't even envision. I am not speaking tongue in cheek. I am completely serious, mainly because these videos are not serious.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Time



This is Why I'm Hot

Various Pictures In France

O, How Times have Changed...

I took this picture in New York a couple of Novembers ago...

Anais Ballet Recital

At the Roswell Cultural Arts Center

This one is the real recital. NOTE: The first 34 seconds of semi-darkness are the dancers getting to their places without spike marks.



This one is just her messing around after the show improvising to the house music:

Kathy Hangin' With Russert (and others)

Tim Russert interviewed Hillary Clinton in the WIS-TV studios in our hometown Columbia SC. (WIS stands for "Wonderful Iodine State" if you didn't know) My sister Kathy was in a green room or something like it after the interview, talking with Tim Russert about Bruce Springsteen, and Hillary Clinton walks in and interrupts them. (Kathy is a big Russert fan and was there to see Russert). A small clip of that ends up on the WIS news, about 45 seconds into the video you see Kathy back there:

Roswell City Council Election Results

I need to fix these images so they fit on the page better, but for now, here they are.

Winners are Rich Dippolito, Becky Wynn, and David Tolleson.

Anais Sings Annie

Listen to this: Anais Sings Annie

J'aime La Glace!

Happy Easter!

After the backyard hunt:

Roswell Theater

"roswellblogger" was talking about an old movie theater in Roswell in the historic district. I think this is the one he is talking about. It looks like the theater was probably a little to the right (North) of where Pastis Restaurant is now:

Televisions In Restaurants

This from nataliedee.com is so true:

The last couple times we went as a family to a restaurant, we might as well have stayed home and ordered pizza in front of the TV. The whole reason to eat together evaporated as each person locked onto their favorite silent TV hanging on a wall across the room and fixated on it the entire meal, oblivious to the fact they were even in a restaurant. I guess we need to start a list of the places that have a table or two with no sightline to a wall of hanging silent TVs.

R. I. P. 96 Rock

I didn't listen to 96 Rock all the time, but always just assumed it would be there. I listened to it when "I needed it".



Well, it is gone now.

This post is old but captures some of the "atlanta-ness" of 96rock. I'm sure someone will correct me, but i am pretty sure "96rock" at the moment it died last month had the longest continuous run of a commercial atlanta FM station still alive at that moment (in name, call sign, and format). All the others have gone thru many many cyclical renamings and repurposings throughout the years.

My buddy Darin and his family won the annual 96 Rock Memorial Day Ramblin' Raft Race on the Chattahoochee twice in a row i think, in the '70's. "the rafts were manifestations of that peculiar Southern genius for spare-parts engineering." (but not the ones that won). Darin's Dad, legendary Atlanta diver George Krasle, has pictures of the whole family on a raft on the cover of the AJC framed on his wall. This was not some race with a couple thousand people. It was like 100,000 people or something totally ridiculous.

The next closest continuous run in recent times of a station format might have been the period between the late '80's and 2004 that Z93 existed as a "oldies" station. I remember when they switched from top 40 to oldies and it didn't seem that long ago but i guess it was 15+ years ago.

Athlete Alert

NYRR Alert Service brought to you by Road Runner High Speed Online
Event: ING New York City Marathon
Runner: Jean-Clau Hermel-Villevieille

Below are the latest runner's results:
--------------------------------------
Location: 5 Kilometers
Time: 00:34:45.80
Pace/mile: 00:11:10.67
--------------------------------------
Location: 10 Kilometers
Time: 01:03:55.20
Pace/mile: 00:10:17.58
--------------------------------------
Location: 15 Kilometers
Time: 01:33:14.00
Pace/mile: 00:10:00.21
--------------------------------------
Location: Half-Marathon
Time: 02:09:10.50
Pace/mile: 00:09:51.64
--------------------------------------
Location: 25 Kilometers
Time: 02:33:44.45
Pace/mile: 00:09:53.97
--------------------------------------
Location: 30 Kilometers
Time: 03:05:29.60
Pace/mile: 00:09:57.08
--------------------------------------
Location: 35 Kilometers
Time: 03:44:18.00
Pace/mile: 00:10:18.75
--------------------------------------
Location: 40 Kilometers
Time: 04:26:15.40
Pace/mile: 00:10:42.87
--------------------------------------
Location: Finish
Time: 04:45:20.00
Pace/mile: 00:10:53.43
--------------------------------------
All times are unofficial. Times may vary in post race official results.

Please note: This e-mail was sent from the NYRR Automated E-mail Notification System. Please do not reply.
You receive this alert because your e-mail address was added to our notification list by a runner or yourself.

If you no longer wish to receive notification alerts from New York Road Runners, you can unsubscribe by visiting
http://athletealert.ingnycmarathon.org/unsubscribe.aspx.

Roswell is a Safe Place to Live

More national ranking for little ol' Roswell!

First we were the third best place in the whole country to raise a family (Roswell Third Best Place to Raise a Family)

Then we were recognized as one of the most bicycle friendly cities in America. ( Roswell One of the Most Bicycle-Friendly Cities in America)

Now we are the 18th safest city in the whole country (The most, least dangerous U.S. cities)

New York Marathon Info for Finding Runners

Find out when they pass 1 of 3 cameras: Runner Cam Tracker

Find out location: Race Day Tracker (Spectators can enter up to 5 runners’ bib numbers on race day at the ING New York City Marathon website and find out where those participants are on the course.)

Register email address to get notifications of key milestones: Athlete Alert (You must sign up for Athlete Alert and submit e-mail addresses by midnight Saturday, November 4.)

Subway: Subway Map

Viewing Locations and how to get to them: Subway Spectator Map

Approximate Splits: Arrival Times Chart

General Spectator Hints: here

Voting Machines Need A Paper Trail

Could Hugo Chavez have control over U.S. voting machines? Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties (mirror)

The bad thing about this is not whether he does or doesn't (I'm sure someone will make the usual open-ended "we know of no evidence" statement). It is that whether Vic has a back door into our voting machines or not, there is no technology reason he could not. It is only the artificial steps inserted into the process such as documenting the custody of the software, rigorous code review, etc. that can protect the elections. And a paper trail is an important part of this process.

Imagine telling buyers of lottery tickets: "No receipt but don't worry -- we know what numbers you picked -- if you win we will call you". If lottery machines get a paper trail, then voting, which is way more important, should get at least the same courtesy.

This is so obvious to most programmers. Oddly enough, anecdotally, it seems the closer we are to the business of writing software, the more likely we are to distrust the machines and want the paper trail. The electronic voting machine system needs a physical paper trail. There should be a dot-matrix line printer sitting there in a locked box, one per precinct, attached to the local network of voting machines, printing a couple lines everytime someone votes. It should be a trail such that in the case of a total system failure, total theft of the precinct's voting machines, etc, (or, a challenge to the reported results), that the results of that precinct's election could be totally recreated from the paper trail. It has to be a dot matrix printer because (a) it is the only kind of printer that prints a line immediately when requested instead of saving up lines in memory and printing only when it has enough data to make a whole page and (b) you get audible feedback that the printer is still working.

There is a lot more to it, of course. The software should be secure enough that the entirety of the source code can be made available to anyone who wants to see it without compromosing security one bit. Any programmer should be able to review all the code and point out vulnerabilities. If the security of any system depends on people not knowing how the software works, it is fundamentally insecure. This is known as "Security Through Obscurity" which really means "not secure". C'mon this would be so easy.