Day 83

My three beautiful daughters posing with their Aunt Judie. I captured this image at Heather's baby shower. 

Left to right: Sherylin, Judie, Heather, and Jenn.

How can I look at this and not feel blessed!

Day 82

These are some old AMD CPUs (Central Processing Units). The two on the bottom are AMD Athlon CPUs and both are the same. The actual area of the chip is seen on the left -- not very big is it?. The big heat sinks pull all heat away from that small area or the chip would burn up. The one on the right just shows all the connections (pins) that connect into the motherboard. The one on top is an older AMD K6 2 that runs about 25% of the speed of the other two. The chip is under the metal piece and about the same size as the one on the bottom left. 


I could go on all night about microcode, machine code, memory registers, accumulators,  chip logic and a whole lot more, but I won't ... tonight.

Day 81

I've always been a bit curious and have wanted to see what makes something tick. This is a CD burner from one of my older computers. And no, it wasn't working before I operated on it...

The circuit board on the left in each picture handles the electronics such as how fast to spin the CD, how to move the laser assembly, how to talk to the computer via the IDE interface, and all that stuff.

The picture in the right shows the laser assembly which is just to the right of the large black wheel. The small round blue-green piece is a plastic lens that focuses the laser beam. That light shoots down on  your CD and either gets reflected back or doesn't. A clean unrecorded CD will reflect light. When "data" is written, the laser light burns a tiny pit that won't reflect light. So as the CD turns you'll get laser light reflected or not-reflected. That's the 1's and 0's of computer talk.

For those of you who remember vinyl... The laser is like the needle and the CD is like the record. Instead of the laser sitting on the record and following the grooves, the motor assembly will move the laser back and forth above the pitting in the CD. And that pitting is like the grooves cut in a record.  So I guess you could say that a CD is like a modern day record.

When you scratch a CD on the shiny side that the laser looks at, all is not lost. If you can buff it out or fill in the scratches so the laser light shines cleanly through it you can "fix" it. You can find these at the stores and if you are patient you can fix up a CD.

But don't scratch the side that has the label and picture because that is the same material that has the pitting or the real information on your CD. Scratch that and you could permanently ruin it. Hold it up to light and if you see light coming through holes in the media you have a problem.

Speaking of records, have you ever taken something like the end of a pin and used that for a needle?  I have and you can hear the actual record playing. Not loud mind you and more than likely you'll ruin the grooves and the record, but it's a fun thing to do. (Kids, go find Dad's best record and try it out...but don't tell him I told you to...that was my evil twin)

Now, if anyone is still with me, the motor is in the left picture in the lower right. It has the flat green colored wire traces going to it. The long rod sticking out to its left spins and the grooves cause the laser assembly to move back and forth as the electronics think it should.

And those four bluish rings in the corners of that rectangular assembly?  Ever hear a high speed CD make all that noise as it starts spinning fast?  You'll swear it's a jet taking off. Those blue soft rubber grommets will help dampen the vibrations. Not all of it as you can hear and feel, but it does an amazing job.Without those it could damage your CD.

I've just scratched the surface, but isn't technology amazing?  And the best thing is you don't even have to know how it works. You just put in the CD and play. Hopefully some good tunes, nice family pics or some fun game like Starcraft or some flight simulator. Or as more likely these days, something from NetFlix.

Day 80

Fast food? Talk about slow cooked!

Update: This image taken 6/12/2010.

Day 79

This tea set if of significance to my sweet wife Collette. When she was a girl of 8 or 9 she would visit her paternal grandmother. Tea was of great importance to her grandmother so she acquired this smaller set which is a near duplicate of her own except smaller. The larger cup in front was from her grandmother's set. The other pieces are the duplicate. Even though these are inanimate objects, they bring back many wonderful memories for her. After all that's what it's all about isn't it?  We can't take things with us, just who we are, our intellect, our emotions, our friendships, our loves. What kind of kingdom are you building up? What are you striving to accomplish? What will be your legacy? All questions I ponder from time to time. What kind of kingdom will you build. "For in my Father's house are many mansions...". I think perhaps if you build up the "right" things here and now you can live in one of those mansions.  Just something to ponder.

Day 78

I picked this up in Beijing last year. It's made from one solid piece of soft jade.Each of the inner pieces move independently of each other. The tradition was that the first Father carved the outer shell. His son then carved the next inner piece making it move independent from the out piece. Then his son would carve the next inner shell. This one has 4 shells and one inner ball making this a 5 generation work of art. This particular one was probably carved for tourist consumption, but it's the thought that counts.

So, I'm sitting here thinking what legacy I'll pass on to my son (and daughters!). I have no great works of art, but hopefully I'll pass on my ideals, ethics, hopes and dreams (if I can find them still). My avid hope is that they are better than I am. And I'm not talking financially, although I hope that as well.  No, in ways that reveal a person's true worth -- self esteem, intelligence and wisdom. I have many faults -- ask my kids and they'll tell you. But I firmly and wholeheartedly believe in their great value and worth. I've always believed that. I've always told them to take the best of what I have, throw out the bad stuff and become even better. That's the way I think it should be, each generation improving and getting better. No matter where you are in life I believe in you. Even if you've given up on yourself, I believe in you. I can't explain it, but that's the way it is. Just as I have a belief, there is one who has a sure knowledge of your worth. You know of Whom I speak of. There's an old cowboy song with the lyrics of "He'll find a way to speak to you one day".

Day 77