A showcase of things we've done, things we like and other random rantings...
28.4.10
THIS IS THE END. THE END, MY ONLY FRIEND. MY ONLY FRIEND THE END. NOW YOU TWO HAVE MET.
ftp support for carbonbased.biz/blog.htm ends in like 3 days, so it may be a long minute before i get's to rebuilding how this site works.
see, this page your looking at is really a google page (per blogspot), generated by a bastard child of some guys code + my sites code + a pile of css formatting + lots of secret ftp accounts, with the end result being a seemless transition between this page and the rest of my site.
well, i guess all good (aka, overly complex good-god-why-did-i-bother kinds of) things come to an end, and that end is explicitly may 1.
bass death is a project im working on that consists of the theory behind a bass cannon, but scaled down, and with all found parts. (bass cannon = bass of death = bass death.) essentially its an experiment to see if bass cannon theory is scalable.
the theory is that off either side of any driver come equal but opposite polarity signals (in wave form) that we recognize as "tom waits" or "john coltrane doing is strangled goose noise thing", but what we may not realize is that half of that speakers signal had to be killed so that we can hear the other half - otherwise these two opposite polarity signals neutralize each other, and this is exactly what "active noise cancellation" is all about. essentially, this is what a speaker "enclosure" aka speaker boxx is for - to deaden one half of any given speakers signal.
so Dr. Amar Gopal Bose - of Bose, and a resident lecturer and all around "cool guy" at MIT - goes, 'ok, how can we capitalize on both signals - what needs to happen so that we can use both?'
and that answer lies in matching polarity!
and the way to match polarity? send one signal out a tube of distance X, and the other signal out a tube of distance 2X. now, the (extremely limited and thin) theory ive read on this is that higher than subsonics, and it doesnt work - but is should work for anything below, say, 150 hz. only in my minds eye, it should only work for one very specific frequency. never the less, those who have executed Dr. Bose's strange and wonderous beast (and to scale), have reported success and have implemented it for various warehouse party situations - but im not about to invest in a 15" sub, 1000 watt mono amp, or the concrete column forms.
having found many discarded, but working subs from 2.1 computer systems, i decided to use a 4" yamaha driver, in combination with a few smaller but sturdy mailing tubes that house the rolls of banner we use at my shop. measuring 6 wide x 56 tall, these are about the best things going outside of actually purchasing the recommended solution, and the only thing left to procure was the mounts that would bring the whole thing together.
after a few beers, twice as many measurements ("measure twice, cut once") and an evening of laying out in illustrator, i was ready to send my creations to the router. using scraps of 1/2 inch black pvc from some other job, i was able to bust out one test plate to check the measurements of the seat that the tube sits in - out by 1/10 of an inch! re-adjust measurements, and send the whole thing to cook!
next up was the glueing of the struts to the tube and plate that mostly hold it together. i used a silicon compound of some sort that seemed the most appropriate - really, what i had at hand wasnt all that good, so it was the best of the worst so to speak, but its held together fine.
here im testing the tightness of the tube-to-flange-groove mate - strong enough to lift it up no problem!
not knowing how to size the struts, i decide to create some rythym and use an alternating 5/7 inch pattern - but the real question will come when i mount the two halves - matched? or offset?
after that dried, i then went at 'er with a drill and screws, to really make sure she holds tight - 8 x 2" drywall screws for each side, from flange to strut, and in tight enough to draw under so their heads dont interfere with the final mating, and 8 x 3/4" screws / side from strut to tube, just to really make sure everyhing holds. once completed i then placed, marked, drilled and then mounted the sub to the tube with the slightly smaller plate (smaller so it can receive screws, while the other plate is big enough to clear the sub during mounting). initial tests of just the one tube with driver were positive, but the (fully working regular) speaker that i powered off the other channel of the same amp, with the same power and signal still outperformed it.
you can just make out the alternating "drywall screw, hole for bolt, drywall screw..." pattern visible on the top surface. the foam thing is a some sort of vibration isolator for the cable. i think.
that part was last night.
FINALLY today im going to drill the last hole, feed the supply wiring through, mount the two halves, and power that baby up. although i might put in a (im guessing) better driver pulled from an altec lansing 2.1 system of similar proportions, but hopefully higher power handling.
this clock looks like a combination of a latin proverb and an oscar wilde quote... anyways, yeah, its beauty is in its brain or something. apparently this guy both makes these, and sells plans that you can inturn execute via your own (at home?) CnC machine...
Monica's hair salon needed to get outfitted with a lightbox (backlit printed thing), banner, and a number of door signs, all with a "pink and green" color scheme that frankly hurts your eyes. trying my best to negate those harmful effects, i delivered:
"... [L]ook at the cities with stable and recovering home markets. On this coast, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and San Diego come to mind. All of these cities have fairly strict development codes, trying to hem in their excess sprawl. Developers, many of them, hate these restrictions. They said the coastal cities would eventually price the middle class out, and start to empty.
It hasn’t happened. Just the opposite. The developers’ favorite role models, the laissez faire free-for-alls — Las Vegas, the Phoenix metro area, South Florida, this valley — are the most troubled, the suburban slums.
Bean burritos, which are high in protein and low in saturated fat have been touted for their health benefits. Black bean burritos are also a good source of dietary fiber and phytochemicals.[14]
much like the champagnes of bubble wines, or the stilton, gorganzola & roquefort's of blue cheeses, parmasan can only come from one region, and only has one real name, "Parmigiano-Reggiano."
otherwise known in the "industry" as a 'car wrap', essentially you take a very two dimensional idea and superimpose (for better or worse) onto a real life, honest to god, tangible object - in this case, some sort of ford van. big, off-white, and otherwise boring.
until now.
Welcome, Captain America and your Car-Pool Associates.
that last picture features Steve, my multitalented and endlessly skilled production artist, who turns dreams into vinyl-covered car realities.
heres a new section ill be updating every now and then when i get the real doozies: crappy ideas from people who i then update, clean or otherwise improve (normal), only to have them un-design it and go with their microsoft word layed out crap (not normal).
first is caldarazzo's pizzeria; the orders were burgundy text, yellow background. they picked the lower.
second, we have caddyshack expresss: they picked three pms colors for their 4x12 banners, a brown, cream and rust. i proofed, and they rejected every color (and spacing, and fonts), opting instead for a two color scan of their place mat instead.
new photos from various events recently, namely some furniture repainting, a pumkin carved and tonights meal, enchildas horizone grandes. we ran out of green sowse early, so we substituted with free-joles re-free-tos.
just clearing out my draftbox (read: sending unsent-but-now-edited messages to sarah), and i found a list of movie previews - a sort of porn really - recommendations that i used to compile and send out to people. perhaps a blog is a better house for this. shoot - i dont even know if these links are still live!
k, there are a few too many major chords here, but the concept is strong - and its got an excellent joke at the cost of a big tough guy right in the middle! http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/musicwithin/
Just got a photo back from my installer showing the recently completed bent neon signage for a news stand straightforwardly titled, The News Stand. Im just happy i could introduce a little more Futura into the world.
man, this is scary; from a nytimes article (here), "Americans are still the undisputed champions of trash, dumping 4.6 pounds per person per day, according to the E.P.A.’s most recent figures. "
does that include "human" wastes? where does 4.6 pounds of trash come from? i mean, i know our house is really quite strict about recycling as much as possible, throwing away only food bits, scary jars, and the weird "cant be recycled now, because its two things stuck together."
i mean, right now, its 11:31 eastern standard time, and i have thrown away
a) old coffee grinds plus filter, and
b) one piece of aluminum foil, maybe 10x10 inches, from my breakfast sandwich.
granted the aluminum can be recycled (and easily), but seriously, is the rest of my day going to be extremely trash productive? are they counting my portion of the energy used by the bus i took this morning? i mean obviously its averaged out, but seriously for every person like me, there's some mega-jerk who just cant throw stuff away fast enough?
anyways, jenn and i just got back from a trip to New Orleans (pronounced n'orlens), for my friends Alma & David's most glorious, wonderous, beautious and exciting wedding. the weather was astounding, the city was amazing (and still destroyed in some places), the outfits (it was cowboy and indian themed) were awesome, and the food was great.
and yes, we did fly. so maybe thats were all todays trash is coming from. amortized jet fuel.
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