Travel to and from AHR in Chicago

Interesting metering, dashboard and cloud showings at AHR... new devices/sensors/technologies too.

BUT report herein is about travel challenge for the day... to get all the way Home -> AHR -> Home without automobiles.

2:30 Up and tended to son/wife (sick) and prepared for travel.
4:50 Walk to Oak Grove.
5:15 First MBTA Orange Line train Oak Grove to State.
5:35 MBTA Blue Line State to Airport.
5:55 Airport shuttle 55 to Terminal B stop 3 AA.
6:05 No luggage. Had printed boarding pass. Through TSA.
6:15 At gate and get return boarding pass.
6:30 Boarding.
6:55 Flight departs - ginger ale - hour nap.
8:30 Flight arrives Chicago.
8:45 CTA Blue Line from O-Hare to Jefferson.
9:30 CTA Red Line from Jefferson to Cermak/Chinatown.
9:45 Walgreens for bottled water and walk to McCormick and AHR.
10:15 Arrive McCormick and get Exhibitor registration.
10:30 Walk AHR floor.
14:00 Granola bars - bottled water.
16:00 AHR ends.
16:10 Booth close up - bottled water.
16:30 Walk to Cermak.
16:45 CTA Red Line from Cermak to Jefferson.
16:55 CTA Blue Line from Jefferson to O'Hare.
17:40 Arrive O'Hare.
17:50 No luggage. Had printed boarding pass. Through TSA.
18:00 At gate and checked boarding pass - okay.
18:45 Boarding.
19:15 Flight departs - ginger ale - hour nap.
22:30 Flight arrives Boston.
22:40 Airport shuttle 55 to from Terminal B to MBTA.
22:50 MBTA Blue Line Airport to State.
23:10 MBTA Orange Line train State to Oak Grove.
23:30 Walk home.
23:50 Arrive home.

All completed with walking, mass transit and air flight.

Miniatures - Roadside America

Posting by Mark Frauenfelder about Roadside America in PA.
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/16/be-prepared-to-see-more-than-y.html
Tried to login and post comment using boingboing account, but something about "Real-time updating is paused. Logout Add New Comment Please wait..."

Great posting. Have been near there in PA and never realized. Minatures = wonderful.

Anyone been to Bekonscot? http://www.bekonscot.co.uk/
Legoland(s)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legoland
Hidden gem found while visiting in-laws in MO... http://wfprr.com/
Anyone visited Romney Hythe & Dymchurch? http://www.rhdr.org.uk/
Kudos to Robert Little in comments to boingboing article for G&D reference http://www.gdlines.com/

Cutting Styrofoam

Wanted to cut inch thick (pink/blue) styrofoam insulation sheets. Considered hot knives/wire, but they are tricky to wield, generate odor/fumes, have small chance of burns, and often generate less than straight lines (like a jigsaw in wood). Some suggest using a fine saw blade (like from a hacksaw), but that generates a foam dust mess. Some suggest scoring and snapping (with varying degrees of sucess in getting a good clean edge), but scoring and snapping only works well for straight cuts. Arcs and curves are hard to score and snap.

Read about using a serrated knife coated with wax to cut styrofoam. Was skeptical. Was very skeptical after prurchasing an old beatup knife (Goodwill) and rubbing beeswax (A.C.Moore lifetime supply one pound block) on it. Knife looked a mess, with varying thicknesses of wax gooped all over the blade. Beeswax is not very fluid/smooth at room temperature.

Seemed like wax would do more to make the styrofoam chip and gouge, than help make a clean cut, but wax-on-serrated-knife worked like a charm. The starting carving stroke generates friction, but the serrated blade makes a initial clean cut. The side friction warms up the blade and starts the wax flowing and every stroke after warm up is superb. It is almost like cutting a stick of cold butter. Would not have believed it.

Caveat is that working too fast and cutting too far (say about a metre) completely cleans the wax off the working area of the blade. One must regularly get out the wax block/candle and coat the blade again. But that is a small price to pay for a clean cut (straight or curved).

LED Lighting

What technology has been revolutionary in the past quarter century? Many ways of looking at this. Even defining "technology" and "revolutionary" might be debatable.

LED lighting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_lamp
(and even CFL when well implemented)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp
are amazing.

LED bulbs are available at Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart. Such technology at retail here and now is amazing.

Even simple holiday lights are amazing. Can get at CVS a string of 60 warm white lights (string handles heat and light distribution) that consume about 4W (total) and put out about 400 lumens (total - like a 40W bulb). They twinkle a bit, but not a major annoyance. Thinking of supplementing lighting in basement and attic with LED strings.

"The Future of Light Is the LED"
By Dan Koeppel August 19, 2011 12:53 pm Wired September 2011
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/08/ff_lightbulbs/all/1

Article Points:
Brett Sharenow, CFO, Switch demos LED bulb. New regulations on light bulb efficiency upcoming. 100/60 watt race. Haitz law: x20 light /10 cost per decade. CFL problems. The L Prize (short for Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize). LED history. Heat transfer (new idea) via fluid. History of Switch. Developments by others.

Sidebar: battle of bulbs (6) including:
+ Philips Ambientled - The first commercially available 60-watt-equivalent LED.
+ Switch60 Warm White

Tour de Chooch

Self guided tour of model railroad layouts in MA and NH (sometimes farther afield). Websearch. Look for PDF. 2011 reference...
http://www.rrmodelcraftsman.com/timetable/cm_timetable_details.php?id=649&sortBy=byDate

Did not get to but a couple this year over Thanksgiving weekend...

Carl Senftleben - great steam era modeling. http://www.opsig.org/convention/hartford_layouts/senftleben.shtml

Scott Jewel - excellent On30 and HO use of constrained space.

Enjoyed Stan Ames garden railway a few years back
http://www.tttrains.com/sjrp/
http://dccsig.org/sra/

Stunt or Gimmick Books

Mentioned before stumbling upon the business novel genre (chiefly Japanese). Much more vogue today is the stunt or gimmick book, often represented as stunt or gimmick journalism. Is the sun setting on this style? Who knows? Gimmick is often funny and thought provoking.

Wired, August 2010, Mathew Honan - Print: One Man's Journey Into Stunt Books
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/07/pl_print_jacobs/

LA Times, September 5, 2009, Scott Timberg - Entertainment: Books & Ideas: Meet the gimmick books
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-gimmick-books5-2009sep05,0,4104835.story

A.J.Jacobs always comes up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._Jacobs

One of my favorites:
Esquire, September 1, 2005, A.J.Jacobs - Home/Features: My outsourced Life
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0905OUTSOURCING_214
-

Embedded Systems Boston 2011

Attended ESC Boston 2011.
http://esc.eetimes.com/boston/expo

Was hoping to meet up with a few of the familiar faces and ask them about new trends in the industry. Keen interest in...

managed code/language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed_code

ARM processors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture

Power over Ethernet 802.3af and 802.3at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_over_Ethernet

To twist Archimedes -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
Give me enough memory and processing power ....