Posts

Beam to Deck Joist End Bracket

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This took me the better part of an hour. This is the top beam bracket for the end of the beams that sit on the concrete pylons to tie in the deck joist.  It is set up for a double deck end joist.  I will post more later. Peace JD

AR or Not

It's augmented reality ready for work?  My take on it is that not quite.  I liked Google glass, but I see the problems.  I also see the potential, but it is only one part of the augmented reality.  In addition to vision, there needs to be other senses.  In addition the devices need to interact with applications, and with the world around us. I am thinking it will take a while, but there are some VR offerings that are getting better, but they lack the ability to interact with the world.  It will be a while, but at least things are moving, and that is something. Peace JD

Another Tesla X

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/01/teslas-model-x-a-lovely-roadtripper-with-stiff-daily-driving-competition/?amp=1 This article is a decent in-depth look at the Tesla X, the SUV from Tesla.  Like a lot of their offerings, for most people it is too soon, but given another five or ten years and they will be definitely a great choice to make. Still if you have the money and just have to be that person, then any of the Tesla offerings would be a good choice.  As of right now, their stock is the thing to watch.  I think if they continue to work on the commercial vehicle and powerplant areas, it really could propel the company forward. Release of the model 3, will help, if they can work out their issues and continue to innovate, they will at least be a good but for quite some time. Peace JD

New Colonial sort of not

Not even going to attempt to post an updated picture of the design, as I have to start over.  I realized I was doing the post completely wrong.  I tried to make it work, but I want to do it right, so back to the scratch pad.  I am going to try to use the newest version of Sketchup Make, the one that is on the browser, and see if that is any better.  It might be easier as I might have better access to the warehouse, so I won't have to construct all the materials myself.  This will be especially useful when it comes to the post ties, as I am using concrete pylons with 6x6 post above the grade. I thought I was making good progress, and then the whole thing just dawned on me that it was all impossible to accomplish the way I was doing it.  It is not that big of a deal, but it does set me back some, and I won't be posting any new pictures any time soon as the detail work is definitely far more detail than I like to do, so I do so in small burst. I will try ...

New Colonial sort of update 2

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Well I have thought about the colonial, and I am still working on it, but I have considered a little update to the roof line.  So I did a quick sketch edit, and I am not real good with MS draw, so it is a dirty edit, but I think it shows where I am headed.  I will be doing the edit in Google Sketch-up soon, and that will be published to show the updates. I have some additional updates coming, as I am starting the foundation build in Google Sketch-up.  It is going to be built on a pier foundation, though it could be built on any foundation.  I also will have a lot of window and door details that are not present in the sketch.  Once I start the frame up there is going to be some shifting around of the lines, the stairs are moving over about 2' so even out the upstairs, which will give a bigger bedroom downstairs, and a smaller pantry area, though I may shift a few other details, to give more pantry room. The mechanicals will be presented in this design, as th...

New Colonial Sorta

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A work in progress, this is the first two story I have attempted.  This is the first draft, now the real work begins as I attempt to figure out all the structure and other details.  I do not like the roof line at all, it looks too much like a hat.  I want it to be simple enough to be a basic build.  I will have so see how it goes with the structure and final designs.  

Tesla Buy and Hold

I was reading about Elon Musk and his latest tweet about his plans to make a pick-up truck.  While I think this is a great thought, I do not know if it really is the best place to focus.  The PU truck owner is usually about HP and loudness.  While this would be a good platform, if it were built as a platform, it could be used for other vehicles as well.  It would need to be at least 1 ton, and would have to have all wheel drive (4 wheel drive is the past).  It would be difficult with dual rear wheels to have all wheel steering, but that leads me to another line of thought. All cars made today should be not only all wheel drive, but should also be all wheel steering.  Vehicles like Tesla make are especially well suited to such things as they are built on the platform style of building.  Such as the case, it should not be hard to develop an all wheel steering system that would work with all wheel drive.  The model S is a good example.  Usi...

Cold Bitch

All sorts of things have come to mind this week.  I do not even know where to begin.  First a debate on a video I watched.  It goes to a core problem I have with people using the argument of Mac vs PC.  I do not know why it bothers me so much but it does.  It is Mac vs Windows!  Both Macintosh and Windows OS are run on Personal Computers (PCs).  Apple has only attempted servers and other than personal computers a few times, all of which never went anywhere.  Even smart phones are PCs, usually running iOS or Android OS, but still they are PCs, albeit very small ones, they are still PCs and not phones.  Smart phones are small PCs, not phones, but they do have cellular phone capabilities, so in that respect they are like a phone.  Telephones are a specific device designed to conduct voice data over distances through analog connections.  They are based on the same technology that was used for telegraph systems, hence the name telephon...

Win10 Update, A Lose

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All I have to say is that this latest update from Microsoft had better have some decent benefits, and not just be some type of graphic update, because it's now three hours in and it is still at about 15%, give or take a bit. I started at 8 am this morning, it is now almost 10:30 am as I write this, and it is still working on updates. Let us pray, as we always must with anything Microsoft releases that it is better for the anguish, aggravation, and just plain ridiculous time it takes, that it is at least worth it. Though I don't see how it could be.  Hope is, that three hours can be given back to me, while I look at the computer, and am not able to use it.  Sad that I have to have two computers and an Android tablet, because at least one of them will be incapacitated by the OS at some point. AI, please don't make me laugh, not if it is run on the current crop of crap that the tech companies are touting, it will be stuck in updates or some other such nonsense, because as ...

Working Title

I am still working on a few things, one of which is a personal brand.  I already have a brand, Doud Dairy Farm, that is tied too closely to me to really easily leverage.  At some point I would like to purchase a dairy operation and attach the brand, but that is where I am with that right now. I've got a couple of private label ideas I am working through, just to start them, will obviously cost quite a bit, but they are still in the discovery stage. Then there is my personal brand.  Besides publishing a few books, I want to get back into photography (digital this time), with an angle towards stock and product photography.  I also would like to publish a few non-fiction books.  I am working on a cookbook, I guess as a way to also highlight my photography and my belief in simple foods.  I would like to publish a book of my cabin designs, I have four of them already, but I think I need at least ten to make the book worthwhile. The fiction books are much hard...

GMW 11-30-17

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Good morning world, if it is morning where you are at.  I have fed the puppies, so I could go back to sleep, but I thought I would irritate you all for a bit. I want to talk about a little heater.  The Mr Heater Little Buddy propane radiant heater.  This is a great little propane heater, unless it gets real cold.  Even then it still tries, it just does not have the it umph to hear up the van when the temperature drop below freezing.  Especially if there is any wind.  That is more the vehicle than the heater.  I imagine in a good shanty the Mr Heater Little Buddy works great.  It certainly pots out enough heat, but our van is full of holes and has no insulation whatsoever. Now I I've had the Mr Heater Little Buddy for almost a year now.  A real good friends of ours helped us get one last year when we were in Tennessee and it was snowing.  I did not think it snowed in Tennessee, at least not that much.  Anyway we got this Mr Heater...

Blogger Evaluation 11-27-17

After looking at my blog, three things stand out to me.  One that I need to get an url, two that it needs a better template, and three, that I need to control the advertising links. If you want to support my work, and perhaps see more of it, you can donate to my cause by using my Amazon affiliate link, which I will begin publishing soon.  I will also include a PayPal link, so you can subscribe to the blog.  Other than that, click on the advertisements, comment, share, the usual stuff.  Contact me if you would like to have me link to your blog or vlog, and I will check it out. Peace JD

Fire of Desires ( first position)

I danced on the pyers Of the love and desire Those that borne me Paid with their suffering Through anguish and pain Their sorrow and tears Echoes of their memories The fuel fed to my fire Will know me as I am After I have released And ceased to spin the illusion JD 11-27-17

The Other Side

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/451/some-thoughts-on-mercy I could not finish this essay.  Why?  It is about the perspective of a black man and his prescription of an interaction with a police officer.  While I am certain that it is as he says, it is not exclusive to color. He talks of the cop asking questions like does he have any drugs, guns, or anything illegal in the car.  I have been asked the same questions by police officers.  Perhaps my reaction is different, I do not look away, I do not back down in difference to the officer.  I do not take their bait when they threaten to bring dogs, or another cup shows up.  I have had enough experience to know that the cop sees my long hair, my style of clothing, and assumes I must have drugs, or at least an high.  I use that to my advantage, and use my knowledge of law against him.  Though I have often been told to get out of the car, I really do.  If I do so, I lock the car, and do ...

Puppies for Sale

So far I have looked at several of the major websites for listing puppies, and they all use the same model.  They tell you,  you can list your puppies for free, but the buyers will have to pay for contact information.  Now who the hell is going to bother with your ad if they have to pay for it? That is just deceptive and petty business practice.  If you want to pay for insertion you can by becoming a subscribing member, either by the month or in blocks or by the year, whatever.  Unfortunately, they wait to tell you that after you have submitted a listing. Of course you want to pay for the listing, because the buyers should not and will not pay to view your ad.  If they were at all reputable they would state that it is a paid insertion site right from the beginning, and state their fees even before you sign up for anything. I have to sell my puppies, and I don't even mind paying for insertion, that is the cost of doing business.  Back in the days of ...

Yea That's Right

I am the greatest cook.  How do I know this, because I can even make oatmeal delicious.  I would tell you my secret, but you will have to buy the book to find out how to elevate oatmeal from boring to delicious. Coming soon a cookbook filled with such things, from us, with pictures.  I will post the link as soon as it goes live on Amazon. Peace JD

Playlist Lose (Smart BS)

I just looked up the process of making a playlist, on any service provider, and while most of them have different processes, they all fail.  Why do they all fail?  Because they all claim some sort of benefit to their playlist, and since I have to do the work of selecting songs (YouTube, being the exception), to fill the playlist, they all fail.  Five years ago I would have been like okay, but I have spent the last five years listening to music almost exclusively online, and yet I still have to tell them how to make a playlist of my preferred music. These providers can deliver targeted advertising to me browser based on what I search for, videos I watch, music I listen to, etc., But they can not somehow manage to compile a playlist of twenty songs I frequently listen to.  That in my book is a complete fail.  If you can not use all that data you collect on my online presence for anything other than your own benefit, and claim it is for my benefit, yet it does not...

Amazon Win

Amazon has won, in the battle for my home, between Google and Amazon, the release of the Amazon security camera that controls my lock wins.  Especially for such things as for services.  That I do not need to worry about my home and Amazon will take care of it, that is awesome.  By installing the Amazon security camera they take on the liability for anything that happens to my home.  Sweet, now I can trust Amazon to protect my home.  Even if they do not protect my home, they are liable for it once they take on that contract. A win for Amazon, now to see what the volley will be from Google.  This is turning into quite the fun competition.  Another year from now when I start the build of my home, maybe the winner will be declared. Peace JD

I Right Sea

I'm reading, thinking, doing, watching, all this I stop, and I write, scratch symbols into life.  Not this, as digital simulation is not the same.  It is not real, just virtual, it holds no power. I write, on the page, with ink like blood it flows into indentations made by my chisel.  It is sacrifice, the giving of one's breath to the symbols, each one etched into linen or wood or stone.  To be transferred, read, by unseen energy into the universe, or sung by voices unheard. A line, a dot, a pictograph, a hieroglyph, a cuneiform, letters as we call them, words we give them names, but who are we to know the language of the universe, the sounds we hear but know not their meaning, as foreign to our deaf ears as the call of the lioness, or the sparrow, or the hiss of the snake. You cannot breathe these digital points of light.  You cannot drink its electric impulses, though you feel them in your empty brains.  Hear the echo of its signature as it dances acro...

Mobile Trade-off

I do not understand human behavior.  I probably have said this many times before, but it still boggles my mind. Texting behavior, or the use of a mobile phone at all is just strange to me.  How did the human race exist before mobile phones anyway?  Immediacy has increased, but intimacy has decreased, not sure if the trade-off was worth it.