Final Faraday Can With Plastic Liner

I realized that I wanted some more protection for critical gear. I have a lifetime of software and documents that I do not want to lose either. I also have a nice solar powered radio which would work find after an earthquake but would be dead after an EMP.

What is the solution? No, not a Faraday Cage. That was what I thought at first. It seemed simple, protect electronics=Faraday Cage. Then I looked at the pricing for copper mesh. It is very expensive. That is when I realized I did not need a cage at all. The only reason people use mesh is to cover the walls of rooms with no gaps. If you want to protect electronics then you can simply surround them with metal that is grounded. The solution was obvious. I needed a metal can!

Some quick price checks showed I could get a metal trash can at Home Depot for $23 which is cheaper than a couple of square feet of any mesh.

I needed a liner to protect the things inside the can in case an EMP hit and the can was suddenly a high voltage skin. I already had a plastic trash can which was only about $25 when I bought it some time ago.

This was simple enough. I connected an old air-conditioner cord to the can by mounting the ground wire to the can along with a copper wire lug. I cut most of the power prongs off leaving only the ground prong. I left enough of the flat spades to keep the plug from spinning and sealed the hot wire ends so there was no chance of any current making it to the can.

I then connected the lug to the lid with a heavy guage wire as extra protection. Now I can plug this into any outlet or connect a clamp to any grounded water pipe or ground electrode easily.

That is all there was to making a Faraday Can. I can now put my backup hard drives, emergency radio, night vision, and an old laptop in the can. I will ground it to make sure it is protected and double check with a continunity meter.

I put in the old laptop because I have an old laptop I am not using and if my main computer is killed by EMP, it is likely everyone’s computer will also be dead and it could be months before more are available so I want a protected computer and an old one is better than none.

When any visitor who may be at my house and who does not know what a Faraday Can is sees it, they will think it is a regular electric garbage can.

Mac users are stupid video and stupid phone order people:

Stop sending twenty messages without giving customer support a chance to respond


 

Advice for people seeking customer support:

You can be stupid or rude, but don’t be both.

If you want better customer service, be a better customer.

Do you want to write in your journal in an encrypted way so the meaning is obfuscated?

The Ford Improved  Shorthand method is meant as both shorthand and coding for personal  journals.

This method allows you to take rapidly written notes anywhere without the  average person being able to read what you have written.

Advantages of Ford  Improved Shorthand

• 50% faster than  regular cursive writing on average
• no dependence  on placement above or below centerline
• no additional  marks are needed
• no special writing instruments are needed(such as thick or thin lines as in the Pittman system)
• works with  languages other than English
• every character  is one stroke without lifting the pen
• easy to read  even after time has passed
• easy to write
• easy to learn
• can be written  with any pen or pencil

Ford Improved  Shorthand Features

You may notice that  Ford shorthand and Teeline are similar. This is because the same  methodology was used for both. Teeline is based on the idea of using  the first stroke or defining stroke to identify a character. The same idea was used for some other earlier shorthand versions which are seen in the Teeline system too. For  example the Ford Improved Shorthand A is the outside stroke of the capital A. The E symbol is  the back and bottom stroke of the capital E. The I symbol is the dot  and line of the lower case “i” drawn in one stroke without  lifting the pen. W and M are simplified by omitting the middle  strokes. F is the first stroke of the lower case “f”. S can be written either as shown or in mirror image, both  ways are still S and are a faster way of making a similar stroke. O  is drawn as an alpha which is faster because the ends do not have to  connect. Q(the defining top and spine stroke with serif) is  differentiated from N(the second defining stroke of the lower case  letter) by the serif and straight top line.

Teeline also used  strokes from Pittman and Gregg methods. The method used in the Ford  Improved Shorthand system is similar which means many characters are  similar. The Ford method uses the first stroke, a defining stroke or  motion, or the character itself for the Ford Improved Shorthand  character.

However, there are  also many important differences between Ford Improved Shorthand and  other systems. There are no rules to remember  for the Ford Improved Shorthand method. With Teeline you have to  remember to omit vowels unless they are the first or last character  and you combine some characters and there are other methods taught  with Teeline. In my testing I found that these simply were not worth  learning and were unnecessary. The speed advantage was not that significant when compared to the difficult of reading what was written later. That is why the Ford system has no  similar rules. Teeline has some other issues, like using one  character or character-appearing-symbol  to represent a different  character or using a symbol that is not related to the character. For  example, the alternate __ for D is similar to T but depends on  placement relative to the baseline. The Teeline F looks like D or a  deflated balloon, O looked like U but so did U and Q, S looked like O(so  why have O looking like U and S looking like O?). In Teeline Q, O, U and Y look basically the same with Q looking like a big U that had nothing to do with the  form of Q. These character choices meant that you could never use the  actual letter if you forgot when writing what the Teeline character  was because it would look like another letter. It also made it much harder to learn the alphabet because some letters are replaced with other letters without rhyme or reason. If you forgot the symbol for O and just wrote “o” it would look like S when you read it back in  Teeline. Teeline also combines characters even when there is no speed  advantage to doing this so a simple set of characters suddenly  becomes complex and hard to understand. There were a lot of problems  with Teeline which is why I set out to make my own alphabet.

In the Ford method  you do not omit vowels. The Ford method speeds up  writing and allows you to  keep your writing relatively private(as  long as no one looking over your shoulder knows this method). It is not meant to be as fast  as Gregg. It is meant to be easier to understand and write.

Ford Improved Shorthand Alphabet

For more information visit www.FordShorthand.com

I did not want Nitrous. What good is it? It only works when you have the accelerator all the way to the floor and then you have to arm it first, plus it burns up your engine. No, I did not want a baby bottle that injected pretend power. A turbo? No, too much heat and it is too slow to engage. I don’t care about high speed, I want instant acceleration and drivability. I wanted real power so I went with a supercharger. It does not ruin gas mileage, it bolts on and provides instant power.

I had it installed by A&A Corvette in Oxnard California. They are experts and had a kit that would fit under my stock hood for a stealthy installation. I kept my stock exhaust because I like it quiet.

The installation looked great as you can see.

It is supposed to run on pump gas. That is something I will have to test. When I first got the car back it knocked like a baby rattle whenever I hit the gas. It was terrible. I added two bottles of octane booster and filled the tank. I thought I might have to mix my own racing fuel but it turned out to just be an issue with adjusting timing in the computer for higher gears. Update: I have since discovered that the octane booster you buy in the plastic bottles is a scam. It does NOT increase your octane rating, not more than a few fractions of a point at best. It is a waste of money. In California they also pollute the gas with ethanol which limits the octane rating of gas and makes it detonate prematurely. Nowhere sells good gas in California unless you buy racing fuel for around $7 a gallon and mix it with the 91 octane crap. I did talk to A&A and they said they could fix the problem with some tuning tweaks. He described it exactly, I only have the problem when in 4th gear or higher and under acceleration. That is when the engine is the most loaded. I am sure he can fix it with a tuning fix when I get back.

My radiator was the stock one which was not adequate. It was swapped for a Z06 radiator. When I turn the car off it makes a cool whining sound like an aircraft engine spinning down now too. I am not sure if that is the fans for the new radiator or the supercharger but it is attention catching.

I also had a cam shaft installed based on Andy’s recomendation from A&A Corvette.

I will try the car out for a while and let you know. So far, it has been worth the upgrade. I went from 350 RWHP to 521 RWHP and I have an automatic transmission. I don’t see how anyone can call a car a sports car with less than 500 RWHP. It feels just right.

Update: I had to take the car back to adjust timing in higher gears to stop very bad knocking. That tweak fixed it. The car drives great. I should have ketp my 2005 corvette and added the supercharger to it instead of buying a new corvette and then adding the supercharger. It would have made my C5 what I was hoping to get from the C6. This supercharger really makes it peppy in lower gears which is what I wanted. It was well worth the upgrade.

It made me think about how many days I had left. I did some web searches for Death Clock and strangely there were no sites that really had such a thing. I wanted a count down clock to put on my desk for some morbid inspiration. Anytime I wanted to slack off, I could look at that clock.

I checked ebay and found a Retirement Countdown Clock.

That was not exactly what I was looking for but it was a start. At least it counted down a large number of days. I also found some websites that would estimate how long you would live and give an estimated date of death. So I ordered the clock and I knew how to set it. It still did not look right so I had to replace the graphics.

It was easy to take apart and the insert was just a printed piece of paper.

I then designed a replacement and printed it out, then trimmed with a sharp utility knife.

Right Click on the image to save and you can print your own.

Then I applied it to the clock and replaced the clear cover.

This is my finished Death Clock. I know how long I have left to get everything done.

Put one of these by the TV and look at it the next time you are eating potato chips and watching Jersey’s Dumbest Housewives.

Makes a great gift for someone too.

I have to scratch my head. This is not 1995. In this modern day who orders anything by phone? It does not even make sense to do so. I have spent thousands of dollars on a website that explains various products then provides an ordering system that makes it fast and easy to order, no chance of miscommunication because the customer types in his own address, the website is monitored 24/7 by a web security service, it is checked weekly for explots by another, it is on a hardened server that has never been hacked, it is offering 4096 SSL encrypted pages which are the strongest available. Yet, this is not good enough for some people. They are more comfortable handing their card to a stranger in the pizza parlor and letting that person disappear into the back room with it though.

Phone ordering is expensive. The company can save costs by doing away with a full time order person. The order taker is not needed. That is why companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in online ordering systems and website catalogs. I guarantee if this person was told there would be a $5 charge to order by phone he would be upset that he had to pay even though he asked for a special service that costs more.

Let’s look at the facts. The person who makes a request to order by phone actually wants to call a stranger in some location he does not know, give this stranger and anyone else who might be listening his credit card number and somehow he thinks this is more secure than online ordering? How could anyone think ordering by phone is more secure? Almost every company that does offer phone orders still use their website to place the orders. These companies spend a lot of money building these sites and secure ordering systems so why in the world would they invest in a second system for their order takers? The wouldn’t !

When these people call someone to order by phone the person who answers brings up the company website(the one the customer was just looking at), enters the information for the customer and places the order for the customer. It is NOT safer to order by phone because the order goes into the same website in the same way. So, I have to ask, why do people who want to order by phone think that it is more secure to involve a stranger in the transaction than to leave a stranger out?

If the customer is so worried about the security of his card then why does he not simply use a virtual card number so he can control the amount charged? That is the only way I order online. It is the only way that makes sense. Even if the number is compromised you have limited the amount that can be charged and the expiration date can be set as short as two months. If the website is hacked and the card compromised in three months, who cares! Your card is no longer valid because the virtual number has expired.

Aside from this, why does anyone worry about credit card numbers anyway? When a number is given to a company, almost all companies validate the number then erase it. They only keep the last four digits. There are excpetions like amazon and ebay or other companies that need to charge for monthly services, but that is not the majority of sites. So again I must ask, why would someone want to call a stranger, give that person(and anyone listening in) his real card number and think it is more secure than providing the card over an SSL encrypted webpage that no one else can listen-in on, let this person do some unknown procedure with the number, possibly write it down on the desk blotter or a post-it note. Why would this person not want to enter his number on a secure encrypted site, have it immediately erased after it is validated, without anyone ever seeing it other than the card processor who has the number anyway. It makes no sense.

Any order by telephone is just typed into the company website anyway.

Whenever someone asks for a phone number to order, I still scratch my head. What are these people thinking?

I have always thought Nixie Tube displays were amazing. I have seen webpages where people created clocks and I wanted one. Unfortunately I could not find one I liked and the ones that were pre-made were very expensive. I found a kit from pvelectronics.co.uk called Frank 2 IN-14 which uses IN-14 Nixie tubes(which I happened to have a box of). It was the perfect size and the tubes look great.

In the photos you see my work bench for assembly, the final board, and the board installed in my box with and without flash. It was hard to photograph it, but you get the idea.

Nixie Tubes On Ebay Now

I ordered the kit and started soldering. The kit only contains the electronics, no tubes and no box. You can find tubes on ebay if you need them. By chance I already had some and some spares. It was good I had spares because I dropped one and broke it during the building process.

I followed the instructions pvelectronics.co.uk included which were very well written. I would suggest you be very careful with solder because some connections are very close and can bridge easily. The site owner was also very helpful and really went out of his way to help me with some issues I had.

Finally, after putting together a few parts each night, I eventually had everything assembled and working.

I wanted a nice display but I also wanted something that looked old. I liked the look of the 1930′s radios but also did not want anything overly-fancy. I picked a sewing machine parts box. These are the old boxes that once held sewing machine parts for the old foot pedal Singer machines. They are also available on ebay and are not expensive. I got a box. Fortunately, I knew what I was going do do so I had already scanned the PCB before putting my components on it. I printed out the pcb at 1:1 size and used it as a template to drill holes. I carefully drilled my holes and made sure they were as straight as possible. The board still did not fit so I had to use a belt sander to thin out the sides until the board would slide into place. I then inserted the board and used two small screws to hold it in place.

And there we have a Nixie Tube clock that looks like it was right out of the 1940′s or a steampunk movie(Yes, I know they were only introduced in 1955 but they look older in my box from the 40s).

I set the clock to blank out at night and much of the day to extend the life of my tubes. They would be a real pain to replace so I do not want to replace them for a long time.

It was a bit of trouble to build the board from a kit but not as bad as I thought it would be. I am very happy with the end result.