The Man Wore Motley

Updates for ArduinoISP

2012-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

I've pushed a few updated for ArduinoISP. I'm using the AVR toolkit from Arduino 1.0 to test it. Good news is that you don't need to worry about auto-reset on the Arduino UNO. If you connect with the toolkit avrdude the board doesn't get reset. (If you connect using the serial console it does reset, so they must have made a change in avrdude.)

Arduino 1.0 includes a recent ArduinoISP sketch, with the 'write to larger eeprom' fix.

ArduinoISP will continue to focus primarily on burning bootloaders. More advanced users should submit requests to the mega-isp project on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/mega-isp. The source code is available from http://github.com/rsbohn/arduinoisp.

2012 starts Sunday

2011-12-29T14:06:00.001-08:00

Enjoy it while it lasts!

Canvas 19

2011-02-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

More knifework.

Ice on Utah Lake

2011-02-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

2011-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

Rime of the Ancient Mariner via Project Gutenberg

Fun With CouchDB

2010-12-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

I'm learning to use CouchDB. It's a fun way to keep track of stuff. You can put JSON documents in the db, and you can attach files too. I've always like the idea of having a template in the cloud that you can use to build a working environment on any given computer. I'm setting one up now. You download a single script from CouchDB that will install other tools and create folders and so on.

gsl

2010-04-04T06:30:00.001-07:00

IMG_1124
Originally uploaded by kd7mvk.

It's a rock, on a rock.

What was I thinking?

2010-03-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

My dwarves have been busy digging an underground empire.

I watched Rise of the Fallen with William. This is a Transformers movie.

We also watched GI Joe together. That's a fun movie.

Cindy went to Arizona with her mom. She came back with a cold.

Image via Wikipedia

I've been using Enso on my computer. I'm liking it.

My go development box is a virtual machine

2009-11-13T18:10:00.001-08:00

I've been playing around with the new go language from Google. It is a very interesting computer language. It is currently only supported on Linux and MacOSX. I've been watching the #go-nuts IRC channel on freenode.net the past few days. A lot of the messages there are pleading for a Windows implementation. I also saw complaints about the mercurial source code version control system used (Oh no, not another version control system...).

Haven't any of these people heard of virtual machines?

I set up a Gentoo Linux image in Qemu and use that for learning Go. It doesn't matter that my laptop is running Windows, the tools I need for Go are right there in the vm. Install mercurial? All I had to do was emerge it. And since I wasn't installing it on my primary machine I didn't think twice.

With all the work I've done on embedded systems and Processing I just don't care so much about what OS or device some software will run on. I have the tools to connect the different platforms. This early release of Go seems especially suited for running network services, and I can whip up a Processing GUI for that, no problem. I do think that a ready-built vm image, either for Qemu or a VMWare appliance, would be a great thing.

Google Go Language

Arduino Audio Sandbox

2009-11-07T07:05:00.000-08:00

I'm listening to my rendition of the 4ms Autonomous Bassline Generator. Here's how I put it together. First I needed a reasonable audio generator for the Arduino. I found an Adrian Freed Arduino sketch that makes a good sine wave using the PWM2 output. Adrian uses a 256 slot wavetable and some fixed point math. I took his wavetable and his interrupt routine and got that running. Next I wanted one octave of musical notes, so I looked up the frequency values and put them into a 12 slot array. I started with five notes in a melody array that I would cycle through over and over, but now that has grown to eight notes. I play that three times in a row, then generate a new set of melody nodes and run that.

The sine wave I was getting was good, but I wanted a raspier sound, so I added a second wave table (this one in RAM) and filled it with random values. My first attempt at mixing this with the sine wave failed. All I got was noise. I worked with the values some and got it working, but I think the next build will have a total volume level. The noise level is user variable, and the sine level is the master volume minus the noise level.

I used a LDR (light sensor) to set the noise level, but it was more fun to use it to alter the tempo. My desk gets a sliver of sunlight crossing it around 12:30 pm, so I set the Arduino on the desk. The music starts out slow, getting faster as the light moves over it, then slowing again as darkness returns. If a cloud passes in front of the sun that also slows the tempo.

This is more fun than you might expect already, but I have several ideas for continuing the project. I'm going to use one of my Arduino Pro boards to build this as a permanent fixture. I'll have to build an enclosure for it, with a built-in audio amplifier and speaker. I'll mount the LDR on top and a few variable resistors. I also want to try IR synchronization like the original ABG project. I'll probably add a breadboard section for experimenting with the generated audio.

On the software side I want to expand the melody section to three 'passages'. The default will be to cycle through each in turn, over and over again. A second mode will change just one or two notes in each passage. There will also be a way to replace all the notes in the melody at once. The goal here is to make a kind of musical game, with the Arduino playing the bassline and the human improvising over the top.

USBtiny build notes

2009-10-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

Spent a few hours this morning building the USBtinyISP AVR Programmer from adafruit.com. Very happy to report that it went together easily and worked the first time out. Awesome! I did make one small blunder though. I should have read through the installation instructions before starting. You are supposed to put the LEDs one half inch over the pc board. I mounted them flush to the board, and now you have to look down into the enclosure to see them. I'm hoping a little work with coffee stirrers and perhaps a little hot glue can remedy the situation.

The online assembly instructions are very good. I did wait to install R7 as suggested and I was glad for it. One change I would make is to put the USB jack on after the 6 and 10 pin headers. The headers have a lower profile and I had to prop them up on something when I soldered them. Also, my kit had a smaller C2 100 microfarad capacitor than in the instructions. It fits in beside the '125 buffer chip so I didn't bend it over the '125.

After it was all assembled I turned off the solder iron and downloaded the Windows drivers. The USBtinyISP runs as an actual USB device and not as a serial port emulator, so for AVRDude you just use "-c usbtiny". That's a lot nicer than plugging in the Arduino and then trying to figure out what COM port it got. I connected it first to a project I have installed on the Evil Mad Scientist MegaXX8 target board but that didn't work. I'll have to sort that out later. Next I connected it to the six pin port on an Arduino. This time it connected and read out the device signature just fine. Last I hooked it up to a Larson Scanner I built with a Tiny2313 chip. Read that one also. This is so cool, now I have an AVR programmer that I can just plug in and use!

Saturday Is Over

2009-08-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

I didn't work on the morse code trainer or the dresser for Sarah. We went to the zoo and saw the baby giraffe. Then I went over to my inlaws and helped set up a new television. Why can't they just put up an external antenna? They need one if they want over-the-air television. Then I loaded the dishwasher, after that I took Cindy out for dinner at Mimi's.

A Sprinkler

2009-07-26T11:49:00.001-07:00

2009-07-26T10:54:00.001-07:00

Beetle

2009-07-24T17:31:00.001-07:00

August Challenge: Three Projects

2009-07-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since I actually finished a project, so I'm doing a challenge: Complete three projects by the end of August. The goal is to complete the (final) design, construction, and programming of three projects. They will be all put together and provided with a safe home (installed in a box).

Here are the three I'm going to do:
-Morse Code Trainer
-In-car Thermometer
-Audio Signal Detector

More details will follow. Wish me luck!

Artishop Update

2009-07-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

The 'Choose Liberty' shirt is doing well. It is based on a scripture from Second Nephi:
Men are free to choose Liberty and Eternal Life --2 Nephi 2:27.

See for yourself at the Art Shirt Shop.

Watching Events

2009-06-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Suppose you have an event you want to monitor. It happens usually every 24 hours but could take as long as 72 hours, or longer in rare cases. Each time the event happens a log file is updated. Here's what I've come up with, using Powershell, Arduino, and a voltmeter:

#powershell - read time, update meter
$log = dir c:\logs\logfile.txt
$age = ((get-date) - $log.LastWriteTime).TotalHours
$meter = $age / 72.0
$serialPort.write("meter $meter")

Ok, that works, but you get a linear meter reading (0.0 to 1.0). Using a logarithmic scale makes sense here: Most of the time the event happens about daily. With a log scale the first day will take up the first 3/4 of the meter. If the meter gets beyond 75% (red zone?) something might be amiss.

$log = dir c:\logs\logfile.txt
$age = ((get-date) - $log.LastWriteTime).TotalHours
$meter = [math]::log($age) /4.27
$serialPort.write("meter $meter")

How does that distribute the time (from 0.0 to 1.0)? Try this:

1..15 | % {$_ * 6} | % {"$_ $([math]::log($_)/4.27)"}

If you run that (powershell again) you will see that at 24 hours you are using up to 0.74778. After 48 hours you get 0.91, and 72 hours is at 1.0.

For the Arduino you can make it easier by writing "meter $($meter * 256)". Then you can analogWrite the value to one of the PWM pins and connect that to your voltmeter. If the meter in question has a 3V scale you would use a voltage divider to scale the maximum 5V out to 3V full scale.

I currently have the Powershell side of this working, but instead of the Arduino I'm running the serial out through the MixW serial port bridge and back into a Processing applet.

Frequency Counter Assembled

2009-05-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

My frequency counter kit arrived today from SparkFun.com. The board wasn't exactly as described on nuxie1.com but it was easy to put together. I put a red LED from my stock on it instead of the supplied green LED. I connected it to my USB hub, tweaked the LCD contrast, and there it was: 0 hz.

The circuit board was nicely done. When they added a USB miniB SMT connector they crowded the LCD contrast control against the 6 pin ICSP connector, but it looks like it will still work. The ICSP header wasn't included in the kit, so I added one, again from stock.

I want to build some radio frequency circuits, so hopefully this will help me tune them up. I'll probably add a divide-by-ten front end to it and some signal conditioning. The kit claims to work to 2MHz or higher. If I can get it up to 30 MHz with a prescaler I think it will suit me fine.

Soccer and Bowling

2009-05-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

We went to William's last soccer game for the season, but the other team didn't show. So it was Parents and other family members versus the Blue Strikers. I played about 30 minutes. It was a fun game.

Then Ellen needed a couple of bowling games for her PE class, so I took Sarah and Ellen and we all bowled two games. I had the high score for the second game.

I'm not used to this much fun on weekends. Sunday I was tired and sore. But I got all kinds of wii fit credit now!

So Much Snow

2009-04-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

We woke up with four inches of snow on the ground! A large branch broke off our willow tree and barely missed our neighbor's truck. The willow had started putting on leaves, so when the snow fell on it it stuck and overloaded the tree. The other trees in our yard are probably fine, but we may not get any apricots this year. I spent half an hour shoveling snow this morning before I left for work. How much snow at work (30 miles north of home)? Just a trace, the grass is green and the sun is shining. Just a typical spring day here in Utah.

Art Bohn 1938-2009

2009-04-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

My father passed away on March 31, 2009. He lived in West Jordan, Utah, with my older brother. We did manage to gather all my brothers and sisters, and we were all with him when he died. Dad always had a sunny disposition and he touched the lives of all he met. You can see a picture of him on the right of this blog.

I miss him, but I know we'll meet again someday.

Apollo Guidance Computer

2009-03-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

Wish I had one of these: Build your own NASA Apollo landing computer. Maybe I'll just build the DSKY terminal and use it for a desktop clock!

This is the sort of thing that cries out for a VHDL implementation. Any takers?

Unbricking a Tiny13

2009-02-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

I set the fuses on my Tiny13 wrong. The firmware on it didn't seem to be working, and it wouldn't respond to the ISP programmer. Time to enter the exotic world of High Voltage Programming! OK, to me 12 volts isn't that high, but it's more than you normally provide for a Tiny13. The details of the protocol are in the datasheet, but they don't go into a whole lot of detail. HV serial programming is used on the low-pin-count Atmel parts. The larger Mega8 uses HV parallel programming, and there are published plans etc. if you need that. I didn't find much help online for HV serial.

I built a HV Serial programmer using a Tiny2313 chip. I matched PB0-3 to the same pins on the Tiny13, and used PB4 to switch the 12V line (pin 1 on the Tiny13) using a transistor. I wanted it to work like MightyOhm's HV Parallel Programmer, where you plug in the chip, then press a button to reset the chip. The LED on the board goes off when it starts the procedure, then back on when it is done. So I added a button and a signal LED to my circuit. I found an 18V wall wart to power the whole system. I used a 7812 voltage regulator, then fed that into the Arduino. I then pulled 5 volts from the Arduino to power the Tiny2313 programmer chip and the Tiny13 target chip.

I started the firmware by writing a skeleton that would wait for a keypress, then call the fuseReset function. I figured I would want to read the signature from the Tiny13 to show that the HV mode was working, so I made the LED flash a 'binary morse code' for the three signature bytes. This flashes four 'high nibble' bits (long for zero, short for 1) followed by a short pause, then the four 'low nibble' bits followed by a longer pause. I put three test values into memory and had the LED flash the values out one at a time.

So now I had test firmware running on the '2313 that would light the LED, wait for a keypress, turn the LED off, pause with the 12V line activated, then turn the 12V line off and flash my test values out in binary morse code. Now time to do the HV programming protocol. This involves waiting a bit for the HV enable signals to latch, then sending from three to six instruction (SII) and data (SDI) bytes while you toggle the clock line (SCI). The target chip responds over the SDO line. My hvx() function rotates through the Instruction and Data bytes (II and DI), sets the SII and SDI lines, turns on SCI, waits, reads SDO, then turns SCI off. I added two LED's so I could watch SCI and SDO as the chip was programmed. I had to slow the SCI clock way down so I could actually read the LED's.

The first time I tried it I could read three signature bytes, but only two of them matched the Tiny13. The other one was reading as '0xFF'. I realized that I was trying to read bytes 1 to 3, when I should have been reading 0 through 2. Got that fixed and it was working. Next I put in the code to set the lfuse to 0x6A and then read the value back. It kept coming back as 0xFF, turns out I had misread the datasheet and put in the wrong II values. When I got that fixed it would read back 0x6A. I tested it out on the 'normal' ISP system and sure enough, Tiny13 back from the brickyard!

As I worked on this project I had to ask myself, 'This is a $1.50 part. Is it worth all this trouble?' I think that I learned enough so say with certainty, 'Yes, it was worth it!' Next time I brick a chip I can repair it using my own firmware.

NGW100

2009-02-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

Got myself the NGW100. This board has two ethernet interfaces and runs Linux. The processor is the AVR32 AP7 chip. I've got the buildroot software installed on my Linux laptop. I built the software and put it on a 512MB SD card, then I used uBoot to load the software. I like the newer kernel better than the one that ships on the board. I want to update the flash memory on the board.

Wii for Christmas

2008-12-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

We pooled our money and got a Wii for Christmas. Cheeky little box tells me my age is 63. Pbbbt!

I got a fun game, Pass the Popcorn. It helps to know a lot about movies when you play this game.

What is that?

2008-12-10T20:31:00.001-08:00

View Larger Map

A Visit From Lean Cuisine

2008-09-25T06:06:00.001-07:00

Lean Cuisine stopped by recently with her three boys. We had a fun visit. I let the boys play with my banjo, then we went outside and threw the frisbee around. We also shared a snack.

Quarter Turn to the Right

2008-09-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

Most mornings I get up around 6:30 and walk for half an hour. I usually walk back and forth in my living room. It gives me a chance to wake up and think about things while the rest of the house is sleeping. This morning I tried something different. I decided to warm up by walking in place. I was there with the curtains closed but the windows open, a cool breeze floating in under the curtains to my right. There was some light streaming in through the kitchen on my left. I closed my eyes and started walking, focussing mostly on my posture as I walked. When I opened my eyes about a minute later I was facing the window. I hadn't turned intentionally, it just happened. So I tried it again. I stood in front of the couch with the window on my right. I figured this time around I would be more aware of my position instead of my posture but I tried to block that. Sure enough, when I opened my eyes I was again facing the window. I tried it again, this time facing the kitchen, with the window behind me. I wondered if I was subconsciously turning towards the light. I focussed again on my posture and when I opened my eyes I had done the same quarter turn to the right.

Not sure what it all means, but exercising in the morning helps me have a better day.

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

2008-08-31T07:41:00.000-07:00

Cindy and I went to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival last night. Hard to believe this is their 19th year. Anyway, we had a great time. It was hot when we got there, but it cooled off after a while. The show started with the Stormy Mountain Boys. They were good, but the sound system wasn't working for them. For most of their set you just couldn't hear the banjo. Since I play the banjo this was really disappointing. The guy on the dobro was awesome, as was the bass fiddle player. One of the last songs they played was a bluegrass adaptation of a Mongolian folk song. They said it was in G minor, a hard key for the mandolin. It sounded great, but again the banjo wasn't coming through.

After a (long) intermission they started with the storytellers. Victoria Burnett had us up on our feet singing for the BBC. Kevin Kling taught us to speak Minnesotan. Motoko told the story of a bride in Japan with strange powers. Bill Harley wrapped it all up with a song about saying goodbye when your children leave home. By this time the wind was picking up, so we left just in time. We had a great evening; I hope we can go again next year.

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

Lasertag Event

2008-08-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Played Laser Tag at Laser Assault last night. It was so much fun. I had to defend our base and keep the green team at bay. My accuracy was about 5%, not too bad. Scoutmaster Shumway had the best score for the evening. I'm glad the young men and there leaders came along, it made it that much more fun.

William hurt his ankle, so I gave him crutches this morning. He was trying to use them as he went down the stairs and wound up getting hurt again. Poor William!

Last Day of Summer Vacation

2008-08-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

The kids head back to school on Monday, so today we had our end-of-summer picnic up Provo Canyon. We were going to stop at Vivian Park, but there were cars all over the place. The parking lot was full and people were parked along the main highway. It was too crazy, so we continued up the road to South Fork park. We had a nice time and we got to eat right next to the river. William threw rocks into the river. We ate sandwiches and chips and some grapes that grew in our yard.

After the picnic I took Sarah to the movies. We saw Prince Caspian at the dollar movies. It was a fun movie, with plenty of action. I'm always afraid when I go into the subways that the walls might suddenly disappear and I'll be there on the beach. Hasn't happened yet, but who knows?

TeamChiari 2008

2008-07-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Cindy suffers from Chiari I Malformation. She is in constant pain from this condition. She had an MRI scan (see the photo) to determine how bad it was. It looks like she will need surgery to correct it.

We're selling tee shirts to help cover the expenses related to her surgery and post-operative care. Please visit the TeamChiari shirt shop at CafePress and buy one of our shirts. Every little bit helps. We also ask that you send your prayers and good wishes Cindy's way as she goes through this.

July 4 at the Bohn's

2008-07-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

We had a fun holiday, even with some illness in the family. Sarah woke up with a nasty head cold, and Ellen's voice was raw all day long. I drove out to Albertsons to buy some cold medicine, but the pharmacy was closed. Sarah had to tough it out, but she did get a little better as the day wore on. I think I managed to catch her cold somehow during the day.

We had Cindy's family over for lunch. I moved the charcoal grill into the front yard. That's where all the shade is in the morning. I cooked hamburgers for the girls, a hot dog for William, and pork chops for Cindy and myself. The chops turned out great! I also cooked some food for Cindy's parents. We rounded out the meal with potato chips, baked beans, and lemon bars.

Ellen and Sarah were in the flag ceremony at Stadium of Fire. I told them some people would be impressed that they shared a stage with Hannah Montana. They didn't think it was such a big deal. When I went to drop them off we went down the wrong road and got shouted at by one of Provo's Finest. We managed to find the back lane that led to the proper parking lot. Dropping them off was a breeze, no problem at all. When I went to pick them up things were much more interesting, in a boring sort of way. I was driving there as the fireworks were going off, and I pulled into the lane just after they ended. There were all kinds of cars trying to leave the stadium, and the road was quite narrow. Add in the pedestrian traffic, and motorcycles and scooters trying to go the wrong way: it wasn't pretty. I finally pulled over about a block and a half short of the parking lot and just waited. Eventually the girls showed up and we tried to turn around and leave. Took more than an hour just to get on the main road, and that was going slowly in parts. We made it home after midnight, everyone tired and getting a little silly. We started making up our own lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody.

They didn't think much of the headliner, but both girls enjoyed Blue Man Group. I'd kind of like to see them perform someday. We all enjoyed our holiday, and I wish my dad could have been here.

Orem Owlz over Chukars 4-2

2008-07-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

The Orem Owlz played the Idaho Falls Chukars last night. The weather was great for a ball game, and the Owlz' pitchers did a great job. My nephew got his picture made with Hootz.

The Owlz (12-4) now lead the Pioneer League Southern Division. Go Owlz!

I Can't Believe I Won!

2008-07-02T11:46:00.001-07:00

In today's email:

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Nine Hundred and Fifty thousand, Great Britain Pound Starlings (Ј950.000.00) for the month of July 2008.

What!? But I don't even like starlings. Guess they'll have to give them to someone else.

Field Day 2008

2008-07-02T09:17:00.001-07:00

Field Day 2008
Originally uploaded by rsbohn.

UCARES set up a field day station in the park in downtown Orem. I worked the 40 meters station and logged seven contacts over the course of two hours. We were working QRP (low power, 5 watts). Most of the stations I talked with were in California. I was just thrilled that they could hear me. It made me wish I had a working HF station.

Bindweed

2008-06-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

Also known as Morning Glory.

“After two or three years of spraying, mulching, pulling and cursing, field bindweed will weaken and become less of a problem,” Goodspeed says. “After that, only occasional weeding and control will be needed over the next 45 years.” -- USU Extension Office

We didn't have any until we got a load of topsoil delivered. It was full of the nasty stuff.

Famous Artists

2008-06-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

Here are two artists whose work I value:

Edgar Allen Poe wrote stories that are still entertaining and relevant. He deals with dark themes, including murder, revenge, death, and loss. His writings really draw you in to the story. I especially like 'The Cask of Amontillado' (obviously) and 'Fall of the House of Usher'. The circumstances of his death in October 1849 are still unclear.

Douglas Adams is best known for the Hitchhiker's Guide series. He also was a scriptwriter for Dr. Who. I really like his detective stories with Dirk Gently. These are a long way from your standard 'whodunit' style mysteries. Dirk believes in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, and refuses to eliminate the impossible as Sherlock Holmes would do. Adams died a tragic death back in 2001.

Well, that's quite depressing so I'll stop here. Look for more posts like this in the coming weeks.

Released: Spore Creature Creator

2008-06-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Spore Creature Creator is now available for download. I've been looking forward to this all year! The full Spore game won't be out until fall.

http://www.spore.com/

Cub Scout Day Camp

2008-06-12T07:28:00.001-07:00

I had a good time at Camp Jeremiah Johnson, but it sure was cold. We arrived at the camp about 7:10 am, before the sun was good and up. There were some menacing clouds off to the west, but the sky above us was blue. Lucky that we all wore coats. We had a good pack cheer:

Bow and Arrow, B-B Gun!
We are Thirteen Thirty One!

(Pack 1331 that is).

Our first activity was B-B Guns! It made me think perhaps I should own one...

We did more fun stuff, including sling shots and rain gutter regatta. Then lunch time arrived and it was even colder. Christian Fairbanks was sitting there shivering as he ate his sandwich, so I gave him an extra coat that I'd brought along. It was so cold!

After lunch the cubs made swords out of fun-noodles and pvc pipe. A round of swashbuckling warmed everyone up. Then it was off to the archery range. By the time we had finished and loaded up to go home the sun was shining and it was warming up.

I'm glad I went, I think everyone had a good time and they brought home some cool stuff.

2008-06-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

(I wrote this back in 1999)

% Bad bugs bad bugs whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
% Carps - See real space travelers in action!
[Narrator] Today we take in the scene with Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. Join us for a half hour of excitement with this oh-so-interesting being!
[Inside Wowbagger's ship] Hey, we're headed for Omnithrush Gamma. An eight-legged megamonkey named Danielwooz. I think I was going to call it a "Tofu swilling nunkifrump". That should do the turlingdrome.
You see, I'm on a quest.
Insult the universe.
It keeps me busy.

[a bell sounds] We've arrived. Should take the computer just a few...there he is, in that forest. We'll just set down in that clearing. I see him now, in that tree.
[camera follows W down the landing ramp] You! Hey, You! Danielwooz!
[megamonkey awakes, looks startled]
You tofu swilling nunkifrump!

[monkey is shocked, starts to growl]

[W makes a check mark on his computer]
Yeah, never made it out of the trees, did you?

[W re-enters the ship as the monkey roars] You know, I think I've been here before. Something to do with an eel or something. I've been to most planets in the galaxy many times over.
Let's see, next on the list is Daniel W. Oozer. Hmm...He'll be at the Big Bang Burger Bar. That will do nicely. Deflate him in front of his friends. May as well catch a snack while I'm there.

Fab410 Blog

2008-06-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

I've created a new blog: Fab410 a Fab Lab for Orem, Utah. Just getting started, but it will take the place of fundamental.antville.org.

The Cask of Amontillado

2008-06-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled --but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at the thought of his immolation.

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Services for model railroad people

2008-05-31T06:19:00.001-07:00

outhouse2
Originally uploaded by rsbohn.

Even tiny plastic people need a place to think...why not put it in the middle of a field of poppies?

This is my first attempt at fake tilt-shift photography. You can start with about any photo, and by applying a few modifications it looks like a miniature model. I looked at several photos to try, and this one by Doc Searls did the trick.

It might help to look at the large size (just click to follow the link to flickr) and compare it with the original.

William - Hot Dog King

2008-05-29T12:14:00.001-07:00

William - Hot Dog King
Originally uploaded by rsbohn.

William and I have one place we would eat every Saturday if we could...Hot Dog King! I think William is trying to decide what to get.

Flipping Burgers

2008-05-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

We weren't sure if we would do a cookout for Memorial Day, but when the skies cleared and dinnertime approached I decided to go ahead. I started a fire in our small barbecue and let it smolder for a while. Eventually all the briquettes turned white and it was ready to go. I started by searing an apple. Grilled apples are good if you just get them warm. Leave them on the fire too long and they turn to mush (yuck). They give me something to snack on while I'm cooking the rest of the food.

I cooked a bunch of hamburger patties, one veggie-chicken (Mandee likes them crispy), and two black bean patties. Then I put the hot dogs on for Xander and William. After we started eating I found that Bob also wanted hot dogs, so I cooked a few more, and then the girls wanted another burger each, so I cooked a few more. I enjoy cooking on the grill.

After dinner it started raining again, but the sun was still out and produced a beautiful rainbow.

Mud Pits

2008-05-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

William isn't supposed to use the water without asking, but sometimes he forgets. He also likes to start fires. But this past Saturday he mowed the lawn for the first time. Will is awesome!

Pigs In Poke. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

House with no Windows(tm)

2008-05-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

"It's always amusing to see how these folks respond to a house without windows. They are drilled in the art of telling windows users to reboot to make things work. I said, this is a Mac, you don't need to reboot."

from marxy's musing on technology

Left it to the Cubmaster

2008-05-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

Our cub scout theme this month is "Leaf it to the Cubs". I was all ready to run the pack meeting, but I came down with some kind of stomach bug. I left work early and drove home through the pouring rain. I enjoy our pack meetings, but there was no way I could make it this time. So it was all up to Spencer, our cubmaster. I'm sure he did a great job, he always does.

Fox Hunt Weekend

2008-05-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

OK, not real foxes--hidden transmitters. From WA7BZO:

Once again the annual National Fox Hunt Weekend will be coming to Utah this coming
Saturday. There will be a hidden transmitter activated Friday afternoon on the frequency of
146.56 with a second "Mini-Fox" on 146.50. These will be active through the weekend for
your radio direction finding pleasure. A log book will be on site for your comments.

Last year this was in Salt Lake valley, probably the same this time around.

Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-05T07:51:00.001-07:00

mariachi band
Originally uploaded by buckaroo kid.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Go out and have a big fiesta today.

Heat Wave

2008-04-29T06:17:00.001-07:00

We're having a heat wave here in Orem. I'm not sure how hot it got yesterday, but we had all the windows open and even the sliding glass door for a while. Today (Tuesday) the forecast is 86 F. Hot! Tomorrow it only makes it to 59.

Our plum trees are in full bloom today. They look nice. Maybe we'll get some apricots and plums later this year.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Blue Hat

2008-04-21T15:45:00.000-07:00

My Crafty Notebook on Evernote. I made the hat for William during General Conference.

Mayfield Utah

2008-04-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

Drove my Dad down to Mayfield Tuesday. We went to the funeral of my Dad's cousin, Bud. It was a windy day all over, and there was a lot of dust or something in the air in Provo. After we passed Nephi the air started to clear. In Mayfield the sun was out making a beautiful but still windy day.

I didn't really know Bud or his family. He was my grandmother's sister's son. He was buried with military honors. Three active duty soldiers were at the gravesite. They played taps and then folded the flag and presented it Bud's wife Maryanna, then the American Legion did a three gun salute. I was impressed, this was a very moving ceremony.

The drive home was quiet, and the air just got murkier and murkier the farther north we drove. After I got back home it was cold and snowed a little.

A Busy Saturday

2008-04-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

Spent most of the day cleaning out the garage. Threw out a bunch of useless junk, don't know what I was saving it for. I also put a kickstand that I found on Ellen's bike, which needed it. Moved a bunch of boxes into the shed.

My dad just gave me an old drill press and a rock/tile saw. I've wanted a drill press for awhile, this one looks very powerful, and has a way long power cord. I'm not sure where I'll put the rock saw, but William will want to cut some rocks I'm sure of that.

My neighbor came over and helped me remove the old faucet in the bathroom. I bought a replacement back in January and just haven't been motivated to install it yet. We had to fight to get the old one off, then buy some more hardware to adapt the old plumbing to the new fixture. Still, it looks smart (nicer than the old one) and I think we did a good job on it. It's been a full day.

When Bears Attack

2008-04-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

I visited our cub scout Bear Den yesterday. We learned some rope tricks, then played several rounds of charades. Our theme this month is Abracadabra, so we started of miming different magic tricks. Then we let the boys chose their own subjects. Never seen so many knife fights, or people chucking televisions out the window.

Oh, I took the geek test at Innergeek.us and am proud to report that I am a Supergeek (50.29%). That's all I want to say at the moment.

periscope554

2008-04-09T14:43:00.001-07:00

periscope554
Originally uploaded by xporttester.

Gotta hate it when this happens. See you on the other side!

Incident at Rottingdean

2008-03-20T16:00:00.001-07:00

2004_MAY_Rottingdean_Mill_004.JPG
Originally uploaded by Justin Brice.

Does a strange creature live in the English Channel near Rottingdean?

Incident at Rottingdean

Embedded Blogging

2008-03-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Think about this:

Your Next Keyboard

2008-02-20T05:17:00.001-08:00

WOSP input device
Originally uploaded by rsbohn.

Flip the switches, set the scan code, then press the fire button. What could be easier? (now to find a USB keyboard I can remake...)

Generator

2007-07-25T09:05:00.001-07:00

Stairs

2007-07-24T13:31:00.001-07:00

Tomatoes and Water Repellent Dirt

2007-06-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

Planted some tomatoes. I put them in a bag of topsoil. The topsoil will get wet to about 1/2 inch, then below that it is still dry. Maybe I should add some soap to the mix.

googly eyes

2007-05-08T10:45:00.001-07:00

googly eyes
Originally uploaded by rsbohn.

Got lucky catching this one. I had the camera on, he had the glasses.

Cindy's New Wheels

2007-03-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

We just bought a Mercury Villager for Cindy. She likes it. Instead of a front bench seat it has two captain's chairs. The kids like that. Seems to run good too. Our old van, a '97 Ford Windstar, ran out of transmission and had to be scrapped. That car went through the ringer. Maybe we won't have as many thrills and spills with the Villager.

We went back to the zoo last weekend. Loaded the whole crew into the Escort and made a day of it. The weather was just perfect (unlike today) and we enjoyed seeing the elephants and giraffes. I spent some time with the crocodiles. They seemed to like their winter home in the small animal enclosure. Our membership is up at the end of the month, next time we go we will have to pay.

Saturday Evening

2007-03-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

There goes William, dancing like a banshee. Whatever happened to Augustus Gloop?

We got snow

2007-01-12T07:04:00.001-08:00

Yeah, plenty of snow. Time to get the snowshoes out...

Welcome to December

2006-12-05T10:00:00.001-08:00

So cold here. So cold.

My good friend

2006-10-18T10:22:00.001-07:00

zoo 054
Originally uploaded by rsbohn.

We went back to the zoo on Saturday. The giraffe was there. We had a nice time there, but it was more crowded than I like. More fun was the night we spent in a tent near the Elephant Experience. That was great!

More Improv

2006-10-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Took Sarah to Laugh Out Loud on Saturday night. We had a great time. It was props night. Someone brought in a spinning vent off of some building. Whew! The high point of the night for us was singing along to 'I Like Donuts', chorus lyrics by Sarah!

Thinking about Time

2006-09-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

The time it takes you to read this will be less than the time it takes me to write it. Maybe that is a good thing. For more information check out http://www.notam02.no/9/

Inferno

2006-09-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

The Inferno Programmer's Notebook makes me think...

Bad News from the Dentist

2006-09-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Four cavities. And more on the way! This hasn't been a good morning for me.

William Goes to the Improv

2006-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Took William to the LOL show last Saturday. A boy in his element. He starts laughing during the opening bit, and the host asks him his name and why he was there. They took his suggestion for one of the first games: "A bug that kills".

The Man Wore Motley

2006-09-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.

So it began, with a quote from Poe. But it doesn't end here. Expect more: movies, literature, computers, electronics hackery, maybe a thought or two along the way.

The Man Wore Motley, a blog by RSBohn.

The Man Wore Motley

Updates for ArduinoISP

2012 starts Sunday

Canvas 19

Ice on Utah Lake

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

It is an ancient Mariner,And he stoppeth one of three."By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

Fun With CouchDB

gsl

What was I thinking?

My go development box is a virtual machine

Arduino Audio Sandbox

USBtiny build notes

Saturday Is Over

A Sprinkler

Beetle

August Challenge: Three Projects

Artishop Update

Watching Events

Frequency Counter Assembled

Soccer and Bowling

So Much Snow

Art Bohn 1938-2009

Apollo Guidance Computer

Unbricking a Tiny13

NGW100

Wii for Christmas

What is that?

A Visit From Lean Cuisine

Quarter Turn to the Right

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

Lasertag Event

Last Day of Summer Vacation

TeamChiari 2008

July 4 at the Bohn's

Orem Owlz over Chukars 4-2

I Can't Believe I Won!

Field Day 2008

Bindweed

Famous Artists

Released: Spore Creature Creator

Cub Scout Day Camp

Fab410 Blog

The Cask of Amontillado

Services for model railroad people

William - Hot Dog King

Flipping Burgers

Mud Pits

House with no Windows(tm)

Left it to the Cubmaster

Fox Hunt Weekend

Cinco de Mayo

Heat Wave

Blue Hat

Mayfield Utah

A Busy Saturday

When Bears Attack

periscope554

Incident at Rottingdean

Embedded Blogging

Your Next Keyboard

Generator

Stairs

Tomatoes and Water Repellent Dirt

googly eyes

Cindy's New Wheels

Saturday Evening

We got snow

Welcome to December

My good friend

More Improv

Thinking about Time

Inferno

Bad News from the Dentist

William Goes to the Improv

The Man Wore Motley

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?