Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I do. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t. In fact, while we may disagree about what particular type of music we like, I would find someone who doesn’t like any music weird.

I sometimes listen to music when I can’t get to sleep. I have a small MP3 player that I plug some tiny earbuds into and relax while listening. I put it on shuffle and lie there amazed by the random mix I get. It’s seldom produces any jarring transitions and sometimes plays songs that go together better than I could arrange them if I tried myself. Of course, the first part of the formula is that the only songs on the player are songs I like, otherwise I wouldn’t have put them there.

This is the second Zen V Plus I’ve owned. I left one in a hotel room once and was kicking myself so bad, that I went online and searched another one out. Even back then, it was an obsolete model and I had to go through third party sellers to get one. But I like the small size. It’s like a fat book of matches. And it’s pretty easy to put music on it. I don’t use special software anymore. It shows up in Winamp (another lost cause) and is easily loaded from there. Continue Reading…

Yeah, so? First riding bicycles, now what?

Well, I’ve gone back to my electronics roots and have recreated a crystal radio that was my first electronics project back in about fifth or sixth grade.

Finished set. Click to enlarge.

Back in my early teen years, I was a fierce reader. I spent many hours in the Children’s and Young Adult sections of the Lockport Library. I made at least one trip a week during summer vacation bringing back an armfull of books each time.

I read all sorts of things, including science fiction, but that’s another story. The library had a small section of books on technology aimed at young people. In it I discovered a series of books by Alfred Powell Morgan and made my way through some of them. Continue Reading…

I got a new cell phone today; it’s another Android smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy S4 or SIV, whichever you prefer. It’s a pretty sweet phone, according to everyone in the know on such things.
Continue Reading…

This is a followup to two earlier posts I made about bicycle taillights. Bike lighting is something I’ve been interested in because it’s become a fascinating area of the application of new technology to an old problem. That and I guess I’m obsessed with bright lights!

I received an email today from the developer of the LucidBrake Bike Tailight. They had found my post that mentioned their prototype and wanted to let me know that they have begun a Kickstarter project to get it up and running.

The light has evolved quite a bit since the video I showed in the post two years ago. It is now a octagonal PC board with the LEDs arranged in the corners. It is completely automatic, sensing motion and turning itself off when parked. It flashes while riding, but the big feature is that when it senses you coming to a stop, it flashes all the LEDS together brightly signalling a stop. It also has a different mode when it senses a sudden stop vs. a normal stop. Both should enhance a cyclists safety greatly. Continue Reading…