From the LB fans, just in…

This is the first time I’ve seen video of her playing the laser harp.

Also this is with the new higher power laser projector.

Very Cool!

Sutekh the Destroyer

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m completely hooked on the last season of ABC’s Lost.

I avoided the show for so long, first of all assuming it was Y.A.R.S.*, then assuming it was a drama about a bunch of people stuck on a desert island. My buddy Mike kept talking about it, but wouldn’t give me the one-page summary, telling me it was too complex and you had to watch it from the beginning.

(So after sitting down with a complete set of the first 5 seasons I can confirm – It is.)

But anyway the more I watch, the more I’m reminded of elements from the 1975 Doctor Who story “The Pyramids of Mars”. In that, the Egyptian god Sutekh has been imprisoned on Earth by Horus and requires external intervention to destroy his “prison” so he can be free. So I did some reading up to see if any of this made sense…

Checking here:

“In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Set (also spelled Seth, Sutekh or Seteh) is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, storms, darkness, and chaos.

...and that bloke from "Lost"

According to various online sources the four toed statue on the island is of “Tawaret”

Wikipedia has this to say:

“…He (Set) gradually took over the position of Apep, as the god of evil. With this change away from Apep, Taweret became seen only as the concubine of Set.”

There appears to be very strong Egyptian themes on the island in Lost, but this could all be red herrings after all.

The only thing I can’t find any reference to is the “imprisonment” of Sutekh by Horus – so this may well have been creative license on the part of the Doctor Who writers.

* Yet Another Reality Show

Highline Ballroom, NY

I just saw this picture of Little Boots using the laser harp in the Highline Ballroom in New York.

Looks like a great gig, there are more images here…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlcblog/sets/72157623420965375/show/with/4402787899/

Bill Fredette just sent me this link to his successful laser harp build…

Laser Harps are notoriously difficult to film – so top marks to Bill for completing the build and getting some good quality footage.

Oooh feel the burn...

Nowhere near the 16,000 RPM+ that this guy gets, but my own personal blister-inducing record.

There are a few circuit simulation packages out there – and most of them are rather expensive. A colleague at work recently gave me a link to this cool Java based simulator written by Paul Falstad:

http://www.falstad.com/circuit/

(Obviously you will need the Java plugin to run it)

What really sets this one apart is that it visually models the electrical flow along the connecting wires – so it really makes it obvious how the circuit will behave.

If you are new to electronics this is an absolutely brilliant way to learn what transistors, diodes, gates and op-amps do.

*And*

Here’s another great prototyping product:

http://fritzing.org/

Great stuff!

I took the Dalek along to a local cub scouts meeting.

They were having a Robot night, and my buddy Lloyd asked me if I’d be able to get the Dalek transported.

I just wish I’d had another operator – or at least someone to run the camera while I controlled the Dalek.

Pushing a Dalek through a blizzard is not the easiest of tasks – but we did it.

I’ve been messing around with linear resistor tracks recently – looking to create a new kind of controller for my PAIA 9700 analogue synth, when I came across this clip:

Initially it didn’t seem to offer anything new, but just check out the volume control – utter genius!

The guy has a neat concept website too:

http://www.maywadenki.com/english/00main_e_content.html

OK, So how annoyed was I at 6:30 today when, after finishing all the final gear alignments and tweaks, I dropped the escapement gear and broke off two of the teeth?  Grrr…

Luckily I still had the toolpath saved and so I cranked up the mill and cut another one – this one fits a little too snugly and is going to need a bit of work to get it running as smoothly as the original.

I even found a place for the first gear I ever cut on the new mill – although this one is only for decoration, as if came from a completely different clock plan.

I just need to attach the weights and the pendulum to get it ticking.

Oooh… so very very close now…

I bought the $85 dust collector from Harbor Freight, and added this to my router setup. It makes a big difference to the amount of “airborne particulates” that get thrown up by this set up.

I also borrowed an adapted the technique described on the www.buildyourowncnc.com site about using bookshelf pins and driven wedges to hold the work-piece down.

If it’s good enough for building the pyramids, then it’s good enough for me…