new post

well i haven't posted in a while, and i keep getting sh^t for it. Here's the latest stupid stuff that i find mildly amusing....

Apparently, i have beaten my previous record, and have purchased a new, "largest dvd case ever" dvd for my collection. I tried to take a picture of it with my phone, but it didn't work.... Its the big lebowski dvd that i have discussed previously. Its about the size of lets say 3/4 of the box that pictionary comes in. so not very big for a board game... but fricken huge for a dvd.

The box amazon sent it in was even bigger. I thougt they had accidentally sent me a tv or something, but it was only 1 dvd ...kinda dissapointing. Well i don't think i'm gunna open it for fear of monsters or some other realated even. Maybe after halloween i'll check out the inside of this oversized case. and maybe then i'll figure out why my whole posting pictures to my blog via my cell phone isn't working either.

ok...
later

new bike

Here's another post.

So i just bought a new old bike for me to mess around with over the winter. Which leaves me with another project open to suggestions from viewers like you. the bike is an old "fuji sports 10" from what i can only assume to be the 80s. For the most part its in pretty decent shape. But i like having projects. So i think i'm gunna mess it up. Probably make it fixed at least partially. But first things first. I've decided it needs a new paint job. Any body have any good ideas for a fun/sweet/hott paint job for this thing? Here are some bikes with similar frames that i think have been made up to look pretty rockin.... 1, 2, 3, etc.

sigh...more dvds

Well yet again,a company informed me via email that i need more dvds. I'm not sure exactly where they get my address, but their intel is pretty dead on. First amazon sends me a link for the super-duper bowling towel included Big Lebowski Special Edition to replace my screwed up copy, and now it appears that they have got my number again. Another DVD has come to my attention. And yes...yet again i already have both seen and have access to the entirety of the movie...but i need it.

Apparently "The Hire" is out and has been out on DVD and i only have 10 more days to buy it before they stop selling it. Someone should have informed of this earlier They talk it up a whole lot in the email...if only they'd put out moreof them. Everyone loves them, and it sure as sh^t makes me want to buy a BMW. Also, it appears that based on the website they might be selling them for free. And even more for free if you happen to own a BMW i think. I'll look into it and get back to everyone on this.

Soldering Simple Circuits

Well, i can't sleep....therefore i guess i'll briefly blog about overly complex storage systems for my many movies on Digital video Discs. ... Having four shelves makes it too tall for the one side up one side down idea. But maybe if we turn the dvds on their side (so that what was height is now depth) they won't be as tall and things will work out. This will make it harder to find them, so we'll have to implement a system of LEDs that light up over the requested DVD. This will be hooked up to a computer's parrallel port, and linked to a database which hopefully can be updated by the use of a barcode scanner on the shelving unit.

Also, the way to make a motor power something in two different directions with it only turning in one direction has also been solved...conceptually. Pretty obvious upon closer inspection. Picture a a motorized spinning gear on the orgin. Then place two more gears out a little ways one on the positive and one on the negative x axis. if a chain runs in a loop around all three it works out pretty well. just attach the cable to one of the links, and it'll be powerd first in the positive x direction, and then back to negative x and so on, as the middle gear is only turning in one direction. Huzzah!

This besides blatently obvious problems, also has a problem with adding new dvds to a system of 8 seperate shelves. Trying to keep them in any order would create problems. Because when one shelf fills up, to add another dvd within the shelf you need to bump the dvd on the end to the next segment of shelf and repeat. That would be no good. So in this system perhaps the best orginizational technique is to have them be randomly ordered sorta. When you want to put a DVD back, you pass it over the bar code reader and a light illuminates over a spot in a shelf segment that has a place for a DVD (probably always on the far left or right side of a shelf to avoid confusion).

dvdeee...dvdeee...Eye on the Prize

I said i'd post information about the current ideas for this DVD storage system on Monday. I guess i lied. I'm feeling a bit of post ultimate laze, so i don't think i'll be posting any diagrams. Iinstead i'll just give a simplified description and allow all of you to fill in the holes in a somewhat madlib like way.
The current idea involves pushing the couch away from the wall aprox. 6 inches. This will create room for storing dvds secretly behind the couch.
The shelving system would have a top on it, of course, creating a raised table behind the couch to place drinks, magazines, or any other kind of whathaveyou. The problem with this idea is that you can't actually get to the dvds without moving the couch. So everyone is gunna need to put on their thinking caps if we are going to run with this. Moving the couch is out of the question, however moving the shelves with the dvds on them is very much in the question.

There have been two ideas of merit so far. Both involve attaching the shelves to some type of base which extends up to the top of the shelves, allowing the shelves to be on vertical runners and hoisted up above the couch (i'll get some crude diagrams up later).


First Idea: Lift all the shelves and DVDs at once.
To do this we would of course have to employ some type of motor and pulley system. I have acquired a half horsepower motor. But this thing may weigh about 500 pounds, so i'm not sure how userful it will be with out a counterweight to help it out. Also even if the motor will lift it, how would we let it down gently (perhaps a dimmer switch).

Second Idea: Half of the shelves and DVDs at Once
Picture the previous idea, but split the shelves down the vertical axis in the middle, not float the shelves in the air (hung on cables from the base with pulleys and such). The cable and pulley are run in such a way that pushing down on one half of the system forces the other to rise. This would be sweet. But there is a problem with this too. for 500 DVDs behind the couch we would need at least four levels of shelves (the top is not a level). This would be about 3 Feet high, so the top of the entire system would need to be about 6? feet high or somethign making the whole hidden dvd aspect, and useful shelf for drinks pretty much useless.

So does anyone have any other ideas or thought on how to make these workable?

I just bought the following while i posted this:

Tape
Edward Scissorhands (Widescreen Anniversary Edition)
Short Cuts - Criterion Collection
Slacker - Criterion Collection
The Big Lebowski - Achiever's Edition
and Finding Neverland

So the situation is becoming more pressing at every moment.