Incremental Backup

• So far, I've lost about 55 lbs. That's 4 or 5 pant sizes, I think, plus now my winter coat doesn't fit anymore. Naturally my workplace has NOW decided to have a Biggest Loser contest. I could have won one of these fabulous prizes! I'm almost tempted to regain it all so I can lose it for the free iPhone. (Actual prize may vary.)


• The PVC piston idea doesn't work. Or rather, it works really well, but not for high temperatures. Maybe a water pumping thing might work, but otherwise it just gets gummed up with melty yuck. Also using insulation for the displacer is contraindicated as a fire hazard. /turns off smoke alarm. Needless to say, the engine was unsalvageable.


• Because of the above, I'm starting a new engine. For various reasons, probably all stupid, I'm thinking of going rhombic. I sat down the other day to quickly figure out the stroke length given stuff like the gear diameter. Just an easy little geometry problem until my face imploded. Also, finding cots (commercial/off-the-shelf) hardware that can be used for a medium-sized Stirling is non-trivial.


• This cool thing is in free beta. I hope that doesn't mean they are going to charge for it later, because then we won't have future classics like Two Regular Guys.


• I got a Moleskine "square" (i.e. graph) paper notebook for Christmas. Coupled with my mechanical drawing pencils, it is really awesome. I should post some pics of what I've been doing with it.


• Read Clock of the Long Now. It was very interesting and enlightening and life-changing and so forth, but they left out sufficient detail for my geekiness: Details on the mechanism. It's a single-function, mechanical, binary computer. Like the Difference Engine only in binary. Should be a snap to implement in Lego. I even started designing it but I just don't have enough time to do more than that.

Tic Tac Lego

The building where I work has several "closed areas" where cellphones aren't allowed in. But of course people still bring their cells to work, plus there are visitors, random construction workers, etc and these people need a place to put their phones while they are inside. So they recently installed a cellphone cubby outside the door to the closed area. The cubby isn't just outside the door, it is also directly across from the main stairwell door that leads to it. It has a very prominent placement, is what I'm saying.

The cubby is a 3x3 array of squares. Every single time I pass it I think of tic-tac-toe. Surely I can't be the only one that thinks of this, so I thought it would be funny to put Xs and Os in there for everyone else to enjoy. But how to make them? Eventually my officemate thought of Lego. Of course!

We actually went through a few designs that were rejected because of strength issues or ugliness or size. Finally I hit on a pretty strong design for both pieces that, if I do say so myself, looks very nice.

Don't these look great? They look like very font-like, I think. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. Anyway, they are exactly the same height and width, which is also exactly the right size to fit the cubbies.

Unfortunately, cameras are even less allowed than cellphones, so I can't take a picture in situ. However, I'm posting this a while after putting it up, so here's a sample of coworker reactions:

• nothing
• small, confused smile
• swapping of X for O to change outcome of illustrated game (happened many times)
• "Niiiiiice" (in a Korean cleaning lady accent)
• "Are you the LegoMeister? Nicely done."
• From my boss's boss: something whispered about tic tac toe I guess he was trying to keep my identity secret?
• I've noticed many games in progress, with one move played by each passer-by. Also, I've heard reports of some people just standing in front of the cubbies to play a whole game.