Weer terug naar school !

De zomervakantie van 2011 zit er weer op -- helaas -- en vanochtend moesten de kinderen weer vroeg op: voor Timothy geen probleem, maar voor Sophy en Sebastian ging het wat minder makkelijk.
Hoe dan ook -- het lukte om keurig op tijd op school te zijn:

Timothy zit nu in klas 7A, bij juffrouw Anneke .. en speciaal voor school had hij (weer) besloten om zijn haar maar eens niet te kammen.










Sophy zit nu in klas 5A bij juffrouws Joeska en Anja en had van de drie kinderen het meeste zin om weer te beginnen ...










En Sebastian had van de drie het minste zin .. (aan het einde van vorig schooljaar had hij heel veel heimwee) .. maar vanochtend ging het goed, nu in groep 2A bij (dezelfde) juffrouw Renske.

Total eclipse of the moon

Last night the moon gave a free show. Contrary to expectations, the sky was nice and clear allowing a reasonable view of the eclipse of the moon (well, it was more of an un-eclipsing).
First shot at 23:04 local time:

And here's a bit of an experiment - I discovered that Lumix TZ7 can take time-lapse shots: here's one with a 60 second shutter opening -- see how the moon has moved !!

And here's the final shot at 23:20. By then I was convinced that the moon could manage the un-eclipsing without my help -- so I headed to bed.

Simplicity

(I don't know who to credit for this but kudos to them nonetheless - the image is hosted all over the place - and now here).

Regarding Libya and the imposition of the no-fly zone

Modern government and thus the UN appear to govern on basis of whimsies. Whimsies which make good media, to impress us, the people.

Regarding the no-fly zone: what is the end situation the UN desires ? All I see is the application of tactics without a strategy and this is bound to go awry.


How long does the UN want to stick this out - and how will the participating nations finance this ? Looking at most western governments (e.g. the UK), the one moment dramatic cuts are being made to the military's budget, the next moment that same military is being asked to engage on extremely expensive operations. How many wars do you have to fight simultaneously before realising you're overstretched ?
(A cynical thought pops to mind, does this then allow the budget to be increased surreptitiously through emergency funding ?).

Libya is now in a state of civil war - the UN's external influence will benefit one side (a rebel organisation of which we know next to nothing) and disadvantage the other side (a government with which the West was very happy to deal up to just over a month ago).

Unfortunately for the innocent, only the parties involved will be able to end this. External military might won't help - external diplomacy might.

Disclaimer: this is a more serious post than normal - but I was triggered by the media focusing on the military porn of the Western intervention in Libya. As long as it makes good video, it must be good. The above comment was submitted to the BBC's "Have your say"; I wonder if it gets posted ...

Guess what ?

Yes -- of course, it could only be that I've had to replace the carbon brushes on the washing machine again. I must say, this last pair lasted slightly longer (since 7 November 2010 - an upward trend I hope).

No photos as it's now "same old - same old" (see previous posts). Should I ever need to find a new job, I mustn't dismiss my ample experience at repairing washing machines (...). (And quickly - it took me just over 45 minutes this time).

And now .. as this needs to be celebrated .. a nice glass of whisky (Glenmorangie).

Spot the difference

As it was such lovely weather yesterday, I just had to get out in the garden and move earth. Here's the result.

Before

After

Spot the difference (and no, I don't mean my gloves, shovel, bucket or 2 orange cricket stumps).

Yes, I moved the flowering shrub to a position where it has more place to grow. Unfortunately, I still haven't found out the name of it yet - help! - but I'm thinking along the lines of an Azalea (or another deciduous subspecies of the Rhodendron family (subgenus Pentanthera ?)). I'll have to place some close-ups of it so you can help me discover what it is.

Anyhoo .. it was quite a job as with a sizeable clout it weighs a tonne. But thanks to Timothy & Sebastian we got it over, fertilized the hole we'd (I'd) dug for it and soaked the ground underneath and around it. So now it has room to grow -- when it was next to the path, I had to keep pruning it, because it kept blocking the path and the apple tree.
(Of course, it's a bit of a risk to move a plant when it's flowering, but hey, it was a job that had  to be done -- and my green fingers work magic (I hope)).

Repairing the Apple 60W Power Adapter

After yesterday's outing to Kidzcity, I returned home to find that the power to the MacBook was failing; moving the (low voltage) power cable next to the transformer affected power delivery. Looking closer, I noticed the cable showed short circuiting signs (i.e. the cable had fused):

As such, a straightforward repair job; cut the damaged wire and reattach to the transformer. Unfortunately, of course, the Power Adapter isn't meant to be repaired - there is no way to open the unit without damaging it (thanks to the "Leader for Success" blog for making this painfully clear).

So ... time for some controlled violence; using a sharp screwdriver, I "punch-opened" the plastic casing:

And so, after attacking three of the four sides (not the side opposite the cable), the unit could be opened (note that the insides are also glued (not too tightly) to the outside plastic, the inside is surrounded by copper plating and the outside plastic parts are lined with aluminium for heat dissipation):

Eureka ! After removing the copper plating from the insides (the inner plate is soldered to the circuit board), I had access to the circuit board (note the paste to connect the hot components to the copper plate heatsink):

I then cut the low voltage power cable just past the point where it had fused and was surprised to see that it's a coax cable. I then "unsoldered" (for want of a better word) the 2 wires from the circuit board and fiddled them out of the rubber plug:

After all this destruction, it was time to put things back together again. The intact cable was fiddled through the rubber plug and I added a knot so any tension on the cable would not affect the solder points. 

I stripped about 3,5 cm of the outer shielding and formed a wire, covered it with insulating tape and soldered it to the circuit board. The inner core was then soldered to the circuit board and finally I soldered back the (first and inner) copper plate. (See the notes on the second photo up). The other two copper plates were taped in place (as they were originally).

Then it was time to see if it would all fit in the plastic casing - nicely. I removed the burrs from the plastic where the screwdriver had damaged it and - lo and behold - it all fit !

Before closing it up for good, I tested the unit and was pleased to see it worked .. time to put it back together for good. As the edges of the two sides of the plastic case had been damaged, glue wouldn't be enough to hold it together so tape was needed:

.. You have to look really hard to see that it's been opened ..

Paul finally buys a new bike (shock horror)

Here's an overdue posting - I've finally invested in a new bicycle - admittedly this was more than a month ago .. but time as a parent is fluid and it too easily slips through your fingers. (And now, I'm sat in Kidzcity in Utrecht, an indoor play ground; the kids are burning up energy as I just sit ..).

Back to the bike: everyone in my direct neighbourhood knows I've been going on about a new bike for ages (2+ years). As I use my bike a lot - for my daily (no exceptions) commute to work (25 km round trip) - they tend to see a fair bit of wear and tear.

The general pattern in my adult cycling life so far has been:

1. I've invested in a sporty (ATB, Racer, Hybrid) bike with gears;
2. After about 1,5 years use the gears are knackered;
3. I invest in new (better) gears;
4. After about 1,5 years the gears are knackered;
5. I decide not to invest in gears - but start stripping the bike down and invest in a single chainwheel, sprocket and new chain;
6. After about 1,5 years I return to bullet 5.
7. (A new bike arrives when the old bike is really starting to require too much maintenance - like when a wheel rim detaches).

All in all, for my purposes 1 gear suffices; yes it's annoying when there's a lot of wind:

• The gearing is too high (I struggle against the wind);
• The gearing is too low (my legs go around like crazy).
• (My gear ratio is always around the 2,7 mark).

But .. it's generally a very simple, enjoyable, light-weight cycling experience.

Anyhoo .. I digress. My set of requirements for my bike:

1. It has to be the epitome of cycling:
1. Efficient (energy in = energy out);
2. Effective (it does what it's meant for - and no more);
3. Cost effective (why is it that the more minimal the bike, the higher the price ?);
4. Reliable (it has to survive without being serviced every 50 km);
2. The above requirements can be translated to (items aren't ordered):
• Light-weight;
• 1 gear (not a fixie);
• Cruise speed just over 30 km/h;
• Touring / city geometry (fairly comfortable);
• Mudguards;
• Reliable;
• Costs under EUR 1000.

Apart from the 1 gear requirement - this will fit quite a lot of bikes. For instance, my colleagues at work asked why I didn't invest in a standard Dutch "stadsfiets" (e.g. the Batavus Commuter): they're not too expensive, reliable, have gears and are very suited to commuting. 

At this point I should make it clear that I've forgotten one of my requirements:

1. It should be special.

So .. I looked into (albeit from the internet) bikes with a Gates Carbon Drive; nice - but very quickly very expensive. (I must say that at the beginning of 2009 I attempted to to buy a Trek Soho in England; the pound was extremely low and the English price hadn't been corrected yet so I would have saved myself roughly EUR 350 over the Dutch price (then). Unfortunately it didn't work out. Trek have a complete stranglehold on how bikes are supplied and the internet shop wasn't allowed to supply. Even trying to have it delivered to an English address failed; the bike had to be picked up. Since this event, I've gone off Trek   - in hindsight I should've contacted the EU over consumer protection - cause it all reeked of a manufacturer interfering with the rights to fair supply).

Once again, I digress. I kind of knew what I wanted, but I couldn't find a manufacturer (should I make a bike myself ?- if only I had more time).

And then - on 7 January (2011) I noticed that Wiggle was selling the 2010 Charge Plug Grinder  for next to nothing (well ... GBP 270 less than the 2011 model). And as the 2010 model doesn't seem to be inferior to the 2011 model (looking at the specs), I decided to go for it - the price was what drew me over the line in the end. 

And so far, I'm very pleased I've done it (see the following post). 

And funnily enough the Wiggle price of the 2010 Charge Plug Grinder has gone up again, by GBP 220 !! Now that puts a smile on my face.

AM returns to the Prius radio

More than three years ago, the AM reception on the Prius's (2005) radio failed, no stations could be found; all I got was static. As an avid listener to the BBC World Service (648kHz in Holland), this was annoying, but after the local garage had told me the costs of discovering the problem (and more than likely having to replace the radio) I came to 'kind of' accept it.
I write 'kind of' because I searched the internet and quite a few posts mentioned that it was nothing other than an aerial or coaxial cable (between radio and aerial) problem. Unfortunately accessing the rear of the radio means taking the dashboard apart.
Well, a couple of weekends ago, I was sat in the car, waiting for Sophy's swimming lesson to end. With a small hour to spare and nothing to read (I'd forgotten my book) I gingerly started taking the dashboard apart.
My initial discovery was that with a bit of force, you soon discover which sections have to come out first and which of the three fastening methods are employed: screw, plug or bolt (only for the radio and monitor). So when Sophy returned from the swimming, a bit of the dashboard was lying on the back seat (to Sophy's surprise).
The day after (Sunday), I decided to continue (otherwise nothing would have been gained). The result:

Note that my excuse to the family ("oh no, Dada's taking something apart, again") was Christina's discovery that the CD player had stopped working as Sebastian (at a younger age) had inserted coins in the CD slot. So after taking the radio module out I managed to get the coins out (not through the slot but the bottom of the unit):

(I'm rich !!!). Unfortunately this didn't solve the AM reception problem. Bearing my maxim in mind that most electrical failures are caused by mechanical failure I tried the obvious; the connection of the coaxial (antenna) cable to the unit .. unfortunately powering the radio up didn't make any difference. (Here's the rear of the module, note that not all of the connectors are used (unfortunately I didn't make a note which one wasn't used (presumably for a telephone)):)

Anyhoo .. I traced the coaxial cable (which head's out to the passenger side and up the A pillar (behind the airbag) under the roof to the aerial. It's there that I noticed the bolt which holds the aerial in place and which also (presumably) earths the aerial (sharp teeth on a ring under the bolt) to the roof and thus the car (view is looking forward from the boot, under the roof lining (which is held in place with three plugs)):

Tightening this bolt made a big difference !! (Note that the reception still isn't as good as it was originally, I have to crank the volume up, but I can once again listen to the World Service).
While I was at it, I also took the aerial apart (see if this was all wired up OK) and was surprised by the electronics there (see where the white core of the coaxial cable comes up and the copper wire is connected to the body of the aerial):

Note that after putting everything back together caused a slight panic as the (auxiliary) battery seemed to have drained (I'd had the radio on (loud) for quite a time ??) and after recharging the monitor displayed a warning 'Problem' with no further context. (The car could still be driven, but it left me worried). After dinner though, I went for a test drive and the problem / warning had disappeared .. phew. (I can only think that the charger I use for the auxiliary battery is too powerful .. possibly overcharging the battery ??).
Anyhoo .. said the preacher: don't be afraid, a lot can be achieved and learned by taking things apart.

The Japanese t-shirt folding technique

Eeyup,

Everyone must have seen the video's by now .. of how to fold a t-shirt really quickly and easily. Well, I had to go and try it myself; is it true or is it faked:

Conclusion: it really works (oh, I'm so happy).

Sebastian's first day at school

A new era has arrived, all the kids are at school: today is Sebastian's first day (proper) in "groep 1A" with "juffrouw" Renske (the teacher).

He was fairly relaxed about it all .. and in fact over the past month we've noticed a change in his attitude; he's a big boy now (in his words). He's definitely become more cocky, more outspoken.
Last night, he awoke once, presumably because of slight anxiety. That said,  all of us left him behind in his class and he was quite happy:

(The only telltale sign that he's slightly anxious is him sticking his fingers in his mouth).

(Now, what am I going to do with all my spare time ?).