Driving the Nissan Altima Hybrid

I got a chance to drive the latest Nissan Altima Hybrid. The Sentra was getting new wheels and the dealer gave this as a loaner. I didn't get to drive it too far; just a mile. I'm very impressed. It's very quiet and sounds like a mini-jet taking off. Very comfortable car and looks much better than a Toyota Prius.

Restarting the blog

I think I should be more constructive with my time on the computer. Now looks like a good time to start blogging again. At least it will help with my writing skills.

DIYbio activity

Has DIYbio activity decreased? That's what I wondered when I didn't see that large amount of emails from the DIYbio mailing list that I used to receive each month. So I decided to do some research. On the Google Groups About page for DIYbio, I found the amount of posts on the site per month. Using my trusty Google Spreadsheets, I made a simple line graph plotting posts vs month. It seems that the posts peaked at 975 on February 2, 2009. The trend seems to show a decline in posts after that period. We'll have to wait to see where this is going. The real question is the reason. Is it the frustration with the politics of DIYbio, equipment, etc.




Months | Posts
4 2008 | 70
5 2008 | 37
6 2008 | 91
7 2008 | 105
8 2008 | 30
9 2008 | 83
10 2008| 193
11 2008| 140
12 2008| 394
1 2009 | 595
2 2009 | 975
3 2009 | 543
4 2009 | 715
5 2009 | 331
6 2009 | 411
7 2009 | 501
8 2009 | 273
9 2009 | 70

Folding@Home

Yesterday, I set up F@H to so that my unused processes will go to do calculations for Stanford's protein folding problems. The program is so easy to set up. All I did was download the latest file and create a username. Then I joined the Maximum PC folding team (ID: 11108).
You can view the Instructables on this as a quick read on the setup.

Here's the other links:
Official Stanford Folding site

Maximum PC Folding Forum

Building the stereo mic Part 1

I attached and soldered the wires to the jack as the schematic showed. It worked and it picked up the sounds. I couldn't find a housing at first. I later found some clear tubing that could make a tight fit for the mics. Now I have to trim the wires and shove it all in a tube about 4 cm in length.

Finally: How to make stereo mics

It took a couple of hours in this world of instant information but I finally got some simple information on creating a stereo microphone for my voice recorder. Go here to get the full details including schematics:

http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/computer_microphone.php



The TRS connector has 3 sections on its tip: left and right channel signal input, and ground. To make the stereo mic, all one has to do is:
1) Join the ground wires on the electrets together and connect them both to the GND of the stereo plug.
2) Connect one positive electret wire to the left channel of the stereo plug and the other electrets positive terminal to the right channel of the plug.

Easy as pie. I haven't used it much but I will during lectures. It seems to be a good addition to the on board stereo mic of the recorder.

I got interested in building one after I saw this home built mic:
http://www.diycamera.com/audio/audioindex.htm



Only problem was, he didn't say how the wiring went. Well, now I know.

Obscure Modem to Modem Data Transfer

I have an old Compaq 2256 from 1999 (or 1998?) running Windows 98. I wanted to use it to to program a AVR as described in The Ghetto Programming tutorial. I had trouble with the USB drives so I looked for alternative file transfer methods. Without an NIC card, I couldn't get it online. After much thinking, I wondered if I could transfer data using the modem. I came across an article "Transferring Data between Standard Dial-Up Modems". After setting up Hyperterminal and my modems, I used a telephone cable to connect to my XP loaded computer to the old Compaq. I needed to transfer usb drivers in order to recognize flash drives. As I watched the files transfer very slowly, I was reminded of the old days of dial up internet. The speed was around 4 or 5 kb/s. Sadly, after all that work, turns out that the WinAVR program I wanted won't recognize the parallel port. Looks like I got to install Linux.