Cop Car's Beat

Computer ventures

For the past few years, I've spent a small (teeny tiny) fortune with Amazon buying mp3 files of music - mostly for Hunky Husband, but also for myself. Our cars have built-in mp3 players to which I feed flash drives full of judicious choices from all of that music from Amazon. I kept gnashing my teeth because I couldn't rip music from our CDs for this purpose. Now, I'm kicking myself. Why did I assume that, because I couldn't get it to work, it couldn't be done? I assumed that the anti-piracy systems on our old CDs were keeping it from happening. Boy, am I stooooopid!

The local Senior Center hosts various groups of people who wish to play cards, sing, exercise, etc, Monday through Friday 0800-1700. There is a group of women who meet a couple of times each week (Monday PM and Wednesday AM) with each person bringing some sort of needle work (knitting, crocheting, tatting, quilting, embroidery...) to work at as we chat. Monday, a woman unknown to us dropped in on the group. It turns out that she contracts with the Red Cross to teach swimming at the Derby Recreation Center. Somehow, in chatting with her, I lamented about spending so much money on mp3 files of music that I already owned on CDs. She says, "Oh! That's simple if you have a Windows OS." We went into the computer room (10-15 computers are set up in it) and she showed me how! Yay!

Rushing home (it's only a 20-minute walk), I gave it a try. You are kidding me! The commands she was using did not appear when I used Windows Media Player. Grrrrrrrr! However, now that capability had been demonstrated, I went online to see what others were experiencing. Surely enough, there were several different approaches listed that had solved the issue for various people.

After trying a few of the approaches, to no good end, I was becoming discouraged. Plugging on, I tried the last approach - modifying the Registry. Good grief, Lucy, it works! I just had to add one file that contained one character! After getting my desktop set up, I set up my laptop - while I could remember how to do it. That was yesterday.

Today, I've spent 2 or 3 hours ripping music from CDs. HH is excited that I'll be able to rip music off of his CDs for the flash drive for his car. During those past few years, I've assiduously sought an mp3 version of Margaret Whiting's "All I Want Is All There Is and Then Some" - to no avail. A few minutes ago, I made another search. Wonders never cease - I found it! It is the words that I find so fascinating. It expresses my theory of life, so well.

Margaret-whiting-all-i-want-is-all-there-is-and-then-some

I had previously bought a version of the song by Eartha Kitt. (I think that falls under the category of, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.") As much as I like Ms Kitt's voice, I don't like the wording as well and, in this case, think Ms Whiting's voice matches the song, better. You may judge for yourself.

Eartha Kitt-All I Want Is All There Is and Then Some

 

Dreary Tuesday

Yesterday morning, when I first awoke (about 4 am), the radio was reporting that the temperature was a balmy 64 degrees Fahrenheit - warmer than it had been all day on Sunday. By the time I actually arose (about 5 am), the temperature had dropped by 6 degrees. The temperature dropped more, during the day and the wind was gusting to 50 miles/hour. It didn't feel bad if one was in the sunshine and out of the wind; but, it did feel chilly out in the shade and wind.

This morning, when I first awoke (about 4 am), the radio was reporting that the temperature was 27 degrees. I could see/hear thunder and lightning and hear rain pelting against the house. Of course, at 27 degrees, the rain instantly froze where it landed. By the time I arose, it was 22 degrees, at which temperature it has remained, all day.

At about 10:00 am, Elegant Friend called to ask me NOT to pick her up to go out for lunch as she had no intention of going out in the nastiness. Numerous announcements were being made that one should stay off of the roads, if possible, and that the Emergency Accident Reporting System was in effect. That is, if one is involved in a fender-bender in which both vehicles remain operable, in which no person is injured, and in which driving under the influence is not apparent, the drivers might exchange names, contact information, and liability insurance information, and go on one's way - reporting the incident to the police within a couple of days (forms are available at police stations and many convenience stores.) There was one catch for those of us who live in Derby KS: today is the day on which a special vote is being held to determine the fate of three bond issues that the Unified School District 260 wishes to sell.

Hunky Husband drove (his car being the heavier) us to the polling place that is a bit more than one mile WSW of us, as the crow flies, but a bit more than 2 miles to drive. We voted. Next we went to Dillon's to fill HH's gas tank with gasoline. When we finished, HH decided that he would like to have lunch "out". Service was slow and the food not cooked to HH's prescription, so it was a pretty tense meal. That said, we made it home without incident.

The streets were badly rutted with built-up ice; but, here at home, we get to appreciate the ice-encrusted trees and icicles hanging from the eaves.

The patio ice is thick enough to skate only if one doesn't use blades! HH pointed out the icicles hanging from the back porch railings.
 

For truly nasty weather, one must go to Bogie's part of the world! BTW, Bogie: I like your roof's curly "do".  Are you jealous because our roof's is "straight"?

 

Slide Rules

Either memory fails me (again!) or my research capabilities have dwindled. Surely, I posted about slide rules some years ago, no? If so, I can't find it. I find My first college campus - MSM; but it mentions, not, a slide rule. I find all sorts of STEM postings; but, they mention, not, a slide rule. This posting was prompted by, and expands upon, comments to the previous posting Proof.

Family history of slide rules

The photo, below, shows my own repository of slide rules. Slide rules are kept in a plant pot atop a corner shelf in our front room (AKA "The Piano Room"). Until this morning (2/11/2018), the slide rules comprised Hunky Husband's late father's slide rule (Pop was a chemist who worked as a chemical engineer until deciding to return to school to complete a degree in pharmacy - which he financed by teaching chemistry), and my own 12" and 6" slide rules. [Thirty years ago I had given away another, less expensive but more modern, 12" slide rule to my nephew's wife or there would have been one more. In addition, HH could not tell me where to find his 6" slide rule. And...I returned "my" Curta Calculator to its original owner, Elder Brother.] Since gathering items for the photo, I've added my E6B and, by his permission, HH's slide rule to the plant pot.

The two photos, below, take a closer look at all of those slide rules. The first two photos show the slide rules nestled within their cases - obverse and reverse sides.

Left-to-right in either photo: Pop's 12" bamboo Keuffel & Esser (K+E) from the late 1930s; HH's 12" bamboo K+E from the mid 1950s; my 12" aluminum Dual-Base Log Log (Model 3-T) Pickett & Eckel (P&E) from 1955; my 6" plastic (Model CSG-1P) Jeppesen Slide Graphic Computer from the early 1960s; my 6" aluminum Log Log (Model N300-ES) P&E from the early 1970s

Not Pictured, because we own none, are any Post or Dietzgen slide rules although they were popular brands in the 1950s

Note the hanging hardware on the 1950s-era slide rule cases. Note, too, that HH has the clip-on belt attachment loop clipped to the slide rule case hardware. Since I carried my slide rule instead of hanging it from a belt, I had no such additional hardware. I suspect that the reason the leather of my slide rule case is darker than is HH's would be the oils picked up by the additional handling it experienced.

The next two photos show the slide rules themselves, obverse and reverse sides.

In case of power failure, we are well equipped to carry on with any required calculations!

Stu's contributions

Since most of his school and career years were spent in the UK and Europe, the equipment Stu used for calculations had slight variations from that with which I was familiar. With his kind permission, I'll include Stu's photo of one of his slide rules, a VEB Mantissa DDR school slide rule, below. Via email Stu clarified, as follows:

"It is an East German school slide rule which means there are NO scales on the other side, it is blank.

"All my Brit slide rules had scales on both sides."

Without Stu's permission, the below photo was stolen from Pooley's Flight Computers. It shows a European "E6B" that is probably similar to what he has since his is the same brand, at least.

_______________________________________________________

I had thought that this posting was complete - ready to publish. I was wrong. Stu sent me a couple more emails, one of which had the following images attached showing more views of the Aviat. Thank you, Stu. As usual, a larger version of each image may be accessed by clicking on it.

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Late Addition (2/12/2018): My father's calculators

Back in the early 1980s, I gave my father a Private Pilot's training kit from Cessna. (He would not learn to fly, but he loved nothing better than to study - usually technical stuff.) His training kit included a 12" aluminum E6B. The photos, below, show that calculator and a small paper "Air Navigation Slide Rule" that was in the (plain red plastic) case with the E6B.

Also in the training kit, I found a small ledger-type, bound book in which Dad had made notes on things that he had studied, so I know for certain that he spent many happy hours with that birthday present. Yay! _______________________________________________________

Delightful reading:

1) Basic Slide Rule Instructions from The Museum of HP Calculators 

2) Math with your brain...THE SLIDE RULE from IEEE Entity Web Hosting

3) Scales for Building Your Own Slide Rule from International Slide Rule Museum

4) A history of logs, and A precursor to BMI ;-) from Stu's blog

5) An eBay listing of slide rules for sale which happens to list a 12" P&E slide rule like mine for $39.99 (I've no idea how much mine cost in 1955) and a 6" P&E slide rule like mine for $20 (again, no idea).

More delightful reading from Stu:

1) The Oughtred Society

2) A Most Unusual Slide Rule from Commonsense Design

 

Proof

To prove that he really was at a meeting in Omaha NE for the three days he was away from home, last week, Hunky Husband sent me a link to the photos that were taken by the meeting sponsor. Below is the photo that the photographer, Jose, took of HH. He looks good enough to keep, doesn’t he? [And he's my hot date for many of the physics seminars!]

I stayed at home to deep clean HH's bedroom and walk-in closet - including trading his bed mattress and springs for the ones in the guest room (sorry, Bogie). That took the first two days.

The third day, I did some cleaning (windows, dusting, etc) in the public part of the house and ran errands. The most important errand was to purchase a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream to replace HH's pint that I had eaten the night before. Well...I had worked hard for two days and deserved it! (HH said it was OK. Whew!)

Guilty pleasures - cartoons

One of my "guilty" pleasures is reading cartoons (comics or funnies) in daily newspapers (wherever I happen to live) and, for the past several years, in The New Yorker. (Well, I also enjoyed reading The New Yorker in the early 1950s while working part-time at the branch of the Kansas City MO Public Library that was housed in the Southeast High School building.)

Our current daily newspaper is the Wichita Eagle , which we fondly call "The Beagle". In 1960, The Wichita Eagle (morning newspaper) bought The Wichita Beacon (evening newspaper), continuing publication of both newspapers. In1974, the evening newspaper was discontinued and the morning newspaper became The Eagle-Beacon. In 1989, the newspaper was renamed "The Eagle". These shenanigans took place over variously changing ownership of the enterprise - see Wikipedia.

At any rate, frequently, there is nothing in the newspaper comics page(s) that I find note-worthy; but, this morning's Wichita Eagle contained a couple of cartoons that I liked. *whew!* Finally, I get to the point.

Funny

One of the cartoons that I usually enjoy is titled Pickles, by Brian Crane. Don't ask me how he came up with the name; but, the main characters include an old couple, a grandson, a dog, and a cat. Today's offering, which I found funny, is below. As usual, please click to enlarge.

Thoughtful

For some years The Wichita Eagle has carried a cartoon titled Pearls before Swine, by Stephan Pastis. Until a couple of years ago, I did not read it. It seemed too dumb. In retrospect, I realize that the first time I tried reading the comic strip, it featured an alligator that "spoke" in a dialect that I found annoying since I equated it with speech patterns I had never liked. (OK...I do not like "hick, southern" speech!) Upon learning that Hunky Husband was a fan of the comic strip, I gave it another try. I do, now, appreciate Pearls before Swine as long as the alligator is not in the particular strip - which inclusion causes me to skip reading that strip for the day. Below is today's Pearls before Swine that I found thoughtful.