Monthly Archives: March 2007

Who thought of using this name for a new global communications system?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Skynet satellite launch postponed

Remember judgment day was only postponed. 

Today we went to grill the first time of the season.  Went to light the grill, no light, no gas flow, nothing.  I have a nice new grill level gauge, it shows a full tank.   Lifted the tank, full tank. 
Turns out that the regulator/check valve went bad over the cold winter months. 

I thought, no problem, it’s a $17 repair or so.  Go to the local Home Depot (shudder) and look at the generic regulators.  The regulators with a hose has a 3/8″ compression fitting.  The gill has a 1/8″ NPT fitting.   So, what I end up having to to is get a 1/8″ nipple, to a 1/8″ to 1/4″ reducer coupling, to a 1/4″ to 3/8″ compression fitting.  Use a little yellow pipe tape (DO NOT USE THE REGULAR TEFLON TAPE, THE PROPANE WILL EAT IT UP) and I have a grill with a standard 3/8″ compression fitting.  If the regulator fails again, it is an easy replacement.  I have a Char-Broil grill, so this may be useful information for anyone who has a Char-Broil (Preformance Series) who doesn’t want to pay $50 to get the official replacement part from them.   It works great!

One more thing, the pipe fitting section at Home Depot is HORRID.  You might as well throw all the crap on the floor in a big pile.  It would be easier to find what you need!  I ended up going to Ace Hardware.  They had everything in stock, organized, and the salesperson was helpful and found just what I needed.

Alright, for you Windows/Mac users, let me know which of these files plays properly:
MPEG2 Video, AAC Audio : latest.mpg
MPEG2 Video, MP2 Audio: latest2.mpg

Glenn has been very cute lately, with more talking and moving around.  However, he is now in the habit of waking up every morning between 2 and 4 a.m.  I am looking forward to this summer and taking a little vacation.  I used it all up last year when he was born.

At home, finally broke down and bought one of them fancy high definition teevees.  The picture is really nice and DVDs look pretty amazing.  We were waiting for the pricing to come way down, they did.  Now, if only there was more programming in HD…

Been keeping busy at work, almost done with my vision tester, and I am always working on the encoder tester. 
One of the other engineers is leaving, but another is starting, so we shall see how that goes.  Greg is a good engineer, and shall be missed. 

Took an ironically inspirational photo of a church a few days ago.  I liked how I caught the sun just as it was behind the peak of the steeple.