http://thaltech.com/houseblog Home Ownership Terrors, Recreation, and Hobbies Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:57:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This post is in reference to this ladies horrible experience, outlined in this link regarding a Toyota accelerator problem. I know I'll probably be jumped for being a terrible person supporting the corporate greed. This is, unfortunately, just another step in the evolution of drive-by-wire or technology in control of our ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2010/02/24/toyota-recall/ Well I went and dumped my old Samsung flip phone I've had for a few years in exchange for a Nexus One when they came out. I had been waiting for a good Android phone to come around that didn't require me to switch providers, and the Nexus One finally ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2010/02/04/my-nexus-one-user-review/ This is just a quick post about the Heli-Max Novus CP R/C Helicopter I picked up the other day. It's a pretty great tiny helicopter so I wanted to share it with you folks. I hope every had a great Christmas and New Years this year and kept plenty warm.  Things ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2010/01/01/heli-max-novus-cp-rc-helicopter/ We've gotten some of the Christmas lights up around here, I was a bit slow in initiating it and the holidays are sneaking up on us quickly.  These are the lights we've put up this year so far, all LED (of course). It's kind of weird around here, few of the ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/12/14/some-of-the-christmas-lights-up/ I was sitting at my computer yesterday after Saturday's snowfall, enjoying a nice day in the warm indoors when my buddy Ollie called to see if I wanted to go flying. I started off with 'I've been flying every weekend and thought I might take one off since it's so ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/12/07/rc-flying-on-a-cold-sunday-in-december/ I woke up this morning planning to get some flying in.  Got out of bed, peered out the window and nothing.  So I went to grab a shower, and was saying to myself moments before looking out the hallway window 'It's quite unlikely it'll snow today' (yes I talk to ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/12/05/winter-is-officially-here/ My friend Bryn and I went out flying on Saturday and had a lot of fun. My local flying field was closed for hunting so we went down to my old field which is about an hour away.  We took a few planes with us.  The Great Planes Reactor Biplane, ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/11/23/reactor-bipe-ep-sky-fly-2-hangar-9-twist-60-with-saito-1-15-video/ Hi folks, I know it's been forever since I posted.  I've been caught up with work, it's the busy season and I don't get a lot of time to post on the blog. I do however have plenty of time to work on the front sidewalk and build a radio controlled ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/11/16/hangar-9-twist-60-and-the-sidewalk/ Wow, it's been a while since I've updated the blog, sorry for the long delay I have been extremely busy with work and non computer related hobbies. It's incredible how the time flies.  We've been working on digging the trench for the sidewalk, the soil is tough to dig in ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/09/02/reactor-biplane-copper-vapor-laser-and-the-sidewalk-project/ Well it looks like Summer has -finally- arrive, we've had a few 90 degree days this week. Not nearly as bad as they got out west, but I don't do well in 90 deg days and 80+ % humidity.  I was planning to start digging out for the front sidewalk ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/08/15/weather-slow-down/ Sorry folks, I know I've been pretty slow to update the site, it's just that I bought an Arduino Duemilanove development board , an Ethernet shield from sparkfun electronics and some MegaBrite, ShiftBrite and OctoBrite modules from MaceTech.   I have some experience in programming the atmel Mega series of micro-controllers ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/08/11/arduino-has-slowed-me-down/ Sorry, I didn't get any reall testing done with this problem this weekend. Instead I spent the weekend working on a nitrogen laser. Much more fun than flushing the toilet repetively. I'll maybe look into it somethime this week and see if I can find the cause. I don't think ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/07/27/general-update-toilet-dimming-lights-lasers-weather-air-conditioners-lawn/ Okay, right... so this has been bugging me for quite a few months now. I notice that every time I flush the toilet, the lights dim. Well that's downright crazy! I think I already know what the problem is. I'm thinking that the toilet is plumbed into the hot water ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/07/25/lights-dim-when-the-toilet-flushes/ Earlier this week I spotted a new flower peeking out through the forsythia along the main highway. They're very colorful and have a really neat way of growing and sprouting. The Orange Trumpet vine flower buds poke out as hard looking pods which split open and another pod, the flower ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/07/20/new-flower-bloomed-orange-trumpet-vine/ The Scott's PatchMaster has been doing well so far.  It grew in pretty fast and has just been thickening up.  It has now been mowed quite a few times.  We started mowing when it 'looked decent' and have just kept mowing it as part of the normal yard. It's not ... http://thaltech.com/houseblog/2009/07/20/another-scotts-patchmaster-update/