Xity of Kambridgeshire

chorl

 

Now with more sodium!

What happens when you insert a subtle note into a popular web comic? One of many things. Today was the day; the official transition from Summer to Autumn, as well as the XKCD party. A few hundred people converged on a small playground/park somewhere in Northcambridgeshire, MA and celebrated the essence of XKCD. Randall Munroe himself was there to sign autographs.

Using the panorama mode on my camera, I did a 180 degree scan of the area from the convenient perch of a jungle gym. Bonus points if you spot the stitching artifacts!

The pan mode only ever works in bright daylight with lots of objects.

Alot of fun and merry was made, then the mobs proceeded on the way. Enterprising businesses took the opportunity to plant fliers and advertisements. Some people came from as far away as California and several from Canada.

After the madness was over, I headed back for some peace, quiet, and calculus homework.

Some videos from the event!

 

 

 

It starts again!

chorl

Even though I left 99% of my random stuff collection behind in Atlanta, it probably won’t take me long to accumulate the same amount all over again! In fact, I already have an decent collection of cruft , a MITism (like hack) which means old or obsolete equipment.

 

I can never resist something with a brushless motor in it.

 The first bits were salvaged from a cruft-smashing contest. Then I got lucky and found some large spindle motors (LaserDisc spindles?) at one of the swapfests. The power supply and CD drives were snapped off the Reuse mailing list, which often has parts and pieces on it. All of the above pictured items contain brushless motors to some degree, as well as small mechanical parts and in the case of the Zip drive guts, linear motors!

 

Don’t worry, I have four more drawers and two more shelves to fill.