Antikythera Mechanism

The Antikythera Mechanism was discovered in 1900. It appears to have been an ancient computer that was used to calculate the position of astronomical objects. It has been dated to around 150-100 BC. It was so technologically advanced that nothing of comparable complexity appears for nearly 1000 years.

Here is an article from today's NY Times

Phone/DSL Saga

Ever since we have moved into the new house I have been fiddling with the phone lines to try to get rid of some audible crackling. It was annoying to hear and I was suspicious that it was reducing the bandwith for my DSL because of having to resend garbled packets.

First I found some obviously bad connections that were cobbled together by somebody else, and then checked the wiring inside the jacks. I added a new punchblock to tidy up the 4 connections on the kitchen side of the house. I disconnected a tapped line that was connected to nothing. No real improvement.

Then I simplified things. I disconnected everything where it comes into the house. I cleaned up the incoming wire ends with a little sandpaper. They were a little dirty after 40 years. Then I hooked up a jack directly to the incoming line. No Static. That meant that my problem was inside the house and not outside. Now I have bypassed the old punchblock and hooked up only the extensions that are absolutely necessary directly to the incoming line.

My bandwidth went from about 250 kbps to about 1,450 kbps. Major improvement. Very little cost.

A good, long, weekend

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was a very good, long, weekend. Thanksgiving day itself was thoroughly enjoyable. Debbie made a very good dinner, complete with turkey and all of the necessary accompaniments. Later in the day Dad helped me redo the gas fireplace. It was not installed correctly. We moved it forward about 5 or six inches and dressed it up with some nice glowing embers and some small black gravel to give it a finished look.

I put up the outside Christmas decorations on Friday and Saturday while Debbie worked on the inside ones. Things are pretty festive now with two Christmas trees and a nice warm fire.

In the middle of all of that we got to see Maureen and Joe a couple of times at the parents house.

Christmas Dishes

When I got home yesterday the Christmas dishes were int he cupboards. It seems that the holiday season has begun. Although it seems like the fall is flying by, I am ready for Thanksgiving. It will be a quiet one this year. Just five of us. Mom, Dad, Debbie, Seth and me.

That is a lot different than when I was a kid and we had dinners with 25 or 30 people.

Girls Night Out

Debbie has gone out to dinner this evening so Seth and I are at home. I had to fiddle with the computer a little. Looks like some secondary hard disk trouble, but I have things up and running now.

I put Seth to bed at his usual time and he is asleep now, although I just heard him make some little sounds.

Putting Seth to Bed

Debbie is putting Seth to bed this evening. Usually that is my job, but, for some reason, not tonight.

It is good to be at home on a quiet Friday evening with nothing planned for tomorrow. I will end up doing something around the house I am sure, but for now it is good to just be here.

Water Filters, Plumbing and Such

When you are a homeowner you get to do "projects." Usually these projects are fun, sometimes they are frustrating, often they are puzzling, and many times one project leads to (or creates) another. Yesterday I decided to change the water filter for the kitchen sink and ice maker.

Sometimes our water can smell a little fishy, as in "it smells like fish." This is because of algae, I think, and although it is smelly it is not harmful. This only happens now and then. I suspect that it is some sort of algae bloom.

Our new house, conveniently, has an in-line water filter that cleans the water for the kitchen, and removes the fishy smell. However, according to the previous homeowner, he had never changed the filter in the three years that he lived there. Hmm. That's probably not good.

I have made several half hearted attempts to loosen the filter housing since we have lived there, but until yesterday I was not successful I was afraid I would break the plastic tank that holds the filter. What I actually succeeded in breaking yesterday was a soldered joint in the water pipe.

This required a call for help. Dad came over and brought his solder and flux and we set to work. First of all we had to get that filter off. So what does Dad do? He grabs that plastic tank that I was so concerned about breaking, gives it a huge twist, and off it comes. He made it look easy.

Then we sweated the broken joint apart with the torch, cleaned it up and soldered it back together better than it was in the first place. In went the new filter and we were good to go.

We only own one house now

The settlement for the Silver Spring house is finally completed. Debbie and I went out to dinner last evening to celebrate. I am really glad to have both houses sold before the holiday season. I was getting a little worried that we might be stuck with the last one until the spring.

According to the real estate agent, there were about 50 houses on the market in our area in October and only three were sold. I'm glad it is done.

On to the next thing...

Halloween Pictures

Seth had a good time with Halloween, I think. He was an alligator. (Debbie borrowed a costume from our friends arund the corner)

Dad posted his halloween pictures on his blog today. Here is the link to them.
http://reinsel.blogspot.com/

The house in Silver Spring is sold. The settlement was last evening. It was scheduled for 4:30, the bank sent the papers over at about 5 and we sat down to sign them about 6:30. BLARGHHH! Oh well, it's done.