Author: Darius

A Quiet Sunday Morning

I was up early today. When the hounds wanted out at 5am, I decided I would get some coffee, write and think. It’s the beginning of a quiet and reflective Sunday morning that Joell and I have been planning for a few days.

The last week has been difficult. It started close to our hearts, but trivial: the loss of our dear little pygmy goat, Chocolate, who had been a part of our Square Peg family for a decade. Then, when we were still a bit sad over our silly little goat, a young man killed 9 people after sitting in church with them for over an hour. It’s been reported that he’s confessed that he almost didn’t go through with it because they were so kind to him. That’s the kind of people he killed, people who showed nothing but kindness to a stranger.

Nothing is going to instantly fix this hole in my heart, calm the rage I feel, purge my disgust for the racists who fly that flag, but this morning we will take another step toward healing and spend the morning in celebration at Glide.

Thinking about product design

I had an interesting discussion this weekend about computers and devices and Internet of Things. I’m still sorting out how exactly to articulate this, and then this morning this great example from Marco Arment came to my news feed:

From Redesigning Overcast’s Apple Watch app – Marco.org:

It’s unwise and futile to try to shove iPhone interfaces and paradigms into the Apple Watch. Instead, design for what the Watch really is.

All these devices are testing the creativity and interaction concepts of designers and developers. Whether it’s the Apple Watch, some new “Internet of Things” device, or even something as straightforward, but polarizing, as the new Apple MacBook, Thinking about what the thing is for, and understanding the subtle ways that people will use the new thing — that’s where the magic happens.

Read Marco’s post about his app. The specific are interesting, and the more general lessons essential.

Turntable Repair Project Update

My old turntable may be back in action soon.

I roped my friend Cliff into giving me a hand figuring out how to repair the cracked and wobbling plastic drive belt pulley. It doubles as a strobe indicator, so repairing it is best. This turntable is a somewhat rare thing from the 70’s. Some parts are still available, but not this strobe pulley.

I think Cliff’s repair job is going to work. Here are a couple photos…

IMG_0882 IMG_0883

You can see the cracked plastic in the close-up picture above. Cliff cut a copper tube for the inner post sleeve, glued in the shards of the original part, and then packed it all in a special epoxy modeling clay. the larger outercopper tube then adds structure and also cut away a bit of excess clay.

Here is what it will look like in position, shown here with the drive belt pulled aside, since the strobe pulley repair is not yet set. it spins freely with no discernible wobble. I think this is going to work!

Pulley in position

Back to the Hack

I took a break this afternoon while my old friend Cliff was here with his kids. Cliff and I fiddled with the repair project on my old turntable (more about that later) while the kids played my piano and guitar and took some photos of the horses.

Now I’m back into the WordPress hacking to get all my IndieWeb stuff set up just-so. This post is a test of my POSSE to Twitter and Facebook.