Hanging Light Parts

❦ Wednesday, 8 May, 2024

Like hanging lights and want to make your own?

In the spirit of learning to do things by yourself, here are the names of the parts needed to make a hanging light.

Canopy, Hook

The canopy is the decorative plate that is mounted on the ceiling and covers the electrical box. If you are using an extension cord plugged into a wall socket you might screw a hook into the ceiling.

Cord, Chain, Downrod

Lengths of cord, chain, or downrod suspend the light from the ceiling. Light lights, like beautiful bamboo and rice paper lampshades, can have the electrical wire cord itself holding the light.

Heavier light fixtures need chains or metal downrods to prevent the whole thing from crashing down on your head or floor.

Shade

The lamp shade is the part that diffuses the light. It can be made from many materials, like paper, fabric, glass, and metal. My favorites are made from paper and wood, usually bambo. Light, simple, beautiful.

Sockets, Harps, Shade Rings, Strain Relief

The socket is where the light bulb is attached, usually via a screw thread.

Lamp harps are harp-shaped pieces of metal that hold some types of lampshade in place. They’re usually found on standing lamps with trapezoid lamp shades, but can also be used in hanging lights, though I’m not sure whether they are called harps =todo: find out.

There is often a plastic threaded washer to fasten the socket to the lamp shade via a shade ring.

A strain relief is important to hold the weight of heavier shades and protect cord and socket connections from being pulled out.

Finial

The finial is a decorative piece attached to the bottom of the fixture. Chandeliers and other over-designed lights have lots of these. I prefer simpler lights, unless I am directing a film or managing a hotel trying to attract snobby customers.

Bulbs and Diodes

Bulbs and diodes are the things that emit the light. Previously incandescent light bulbs were the most common. Currently light-emitting diodes (LEDs) inside transparent or semi-transparent bulb-shaped enclosures are the norm.

=todo:

• Illustrate each hanging light part
• Instructions for a simple hanging light, with photos of the process
• Talk about dimmers

3 Reasons To Pass on PC Game Pass

❦ Monday, 6 May, 2024

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Here are three reasons I’m not renewing my PC Game Pass subscription, which was kindly given to me by a friend.

Time is Expensive

Needs, like electricity, internet, food, and taxes to keep civilization going, are where money goes regularly, subscription-like, in recurring payments.

Wants, like video games and other situations don’t merit monthly moneys, because given the amount of time we have, choosing is very important.

Too many choices without having to think about spending money for each one is very expensive when the currency is time.

But Hyper, how about subscriptions to your channel?

Those are certainly worth your money, of course.

I’m joking.

Twitch subs, too, probably aren’t worth it, unless you have so much money that you don’t know what else to do with it but use it to buy a streamer you like a beer, coffee, or gummy bear every month. I do appreciate it.

Bloody Difficult To Take Screenshots

I need to press two keys to make a “Game Bar” appear, then click on an icon, to take a picture of the video game on my screen. And:

1. It doesn’t seem to work as there is no visual or aural indication of a screenshot being taken.
2. I can’t find where the screenshots are saved, if they were indeed taken.
3. There’s seemingly no way to configure which key I need to press to take a screenshot.

On Steam I hit F12 to take an instant screen photograph, which gets saved in a path_to_game_you_are_playing/Screenshots directory, and I can choose the key I prefer to press in preferences.

Video Games Aren’t Microsoft’s Main Business

Microsoft is a gigantonormous company focussed on profits for its shareholders, and video games are not their primary business, even with bright spots like Flight Simulator and expensive aquisitions that include Starfields in the clouds.

The Xbox app user interface is messy, as is the user login flow, and you are limited to 12 letters for your PC Game Pass username.

Valve is a private company focussed on video games, customers who like video games, and developers who make video games. This is why Steam is so much better than Xbox/PC Game Pass.

I hope Microsoft, Epic, Ubisoft, Good Old Games, and others get even better, since healthy competition is good for us video game players. And I pray Valve doesn’t sell out.

KitHack Model Club

❦ Sunday, 28 April, 2024

Kerbal Space Program creator Felipe “HarvesteR” Falanghe’s KitHack Model Club, previously known as Balsa Model Flight Simulator, has taken off from a grassy field on a beautiful sunny day.

I’ll be playing it fairly regularly to make things that fly, drive, and float live on Twitch, while keeping ongoing notes with thoughts about the game here. Links to past streams on my YouTube channel below:

Notes

Audio

Sounds and soundscapes sound good. I love the sounds of crashes and pieces breaking off and of hitting foliage and other surfaces! Custom sounds for each type of collision really help the immersion. I like the sound of the wind.

Strange not to hear anything when you walk, as your avatar has no legs :)

Sound balance does need work. Given the loudness and high-picthed, treble rich nature of aero RC engines, some sort of automatic audo setting like [ ] Auto-reduce volume of loud engines in Vehicle View would be useful for when you change camera views from ground controller view to vehicle/chase view to avoid having to go to volume settings regularly. I’d keep the engine volume at or slightly above the wind volume. This would also be very useful for streamers of the game.

My Current Volume Levels

World: 0 dB Vehicles: -75 dB (air) 0dB (ground) Environment: -60 dB UI: 20 dB Master: -30 dB

Consider also increasing the volume of, or having a dedicated volume slider for wheels touching surfaces. This can make landings and touchdowns feel more dramatic and rewarding.

You can build cars and boats as well as planes now, and there is a single, very large island with moving cars and others avatars.

It’s lovely to be able to build on tables in different parts of the landscape, outdoors, listening to the soundscapes.

Very good that you can quickly test what you are building at the location you are at with minimal load times after click “Go!”

The interface has quite learning curve. It’ll be easier for people with experience with 3D modelling and aerodynamics. The game is a teacher of the latter, I feel. Here is a video with good beginner tips from TrimBarkTree.

There’s 3D attitude indicator on the interface which activates when you have vehicle control.

Controller was (8BitDo Pro 2) was automatically identified and mapped. Good! I don’t have experience controlling RC (radio controlled) models, so maybe this is normal, but I found it weird to have roll mapped to Q/E and yaw to A/D on the keyboard (usually I am used to the opposite). No matter, you can change keybindings.

There is a very basic tutorial and then it’s up to you. For the release a more detailed tutorial would be nice, or maybe we’ll just need to RTFM for this one!

A series of missions including “glider golf” are available, and you can make your own.

Graphics look nice, with an old-school vibe.

There is multiplayer. Hope there is PvE and not PvP only!

The physics simulation seems very detailed, with weight, aerodynamics, suspension stiffness, and even internal “wobble” physics modelled. The “blue B” graph overlay thing is very helpful to have turned on while moving bits around to try and make a model airplane fly.

There are many parts like wings, control surfaces, motors, engines, ducted fans, batteries, rockets, paintball guns, and procedural parts that adjust shapes automatically like bulkheads. These can be combined to make custom imaginary vehicles or replicas of your favorite real life machines.

I love the names of places and things in the game. Wirraway Bay. Imaginative, humorous, and creative.

There is a scenario editor, and I think a world editor will be included as an SDK so we can make our own maps.

Excited about this one, as it gives me the feeling I had when playing with kites and a balsa model that I made with my dad when I was a kid in Brazil!

Abração!

Airplanes, Friends, Gardening, Electricity, Video Ninja

❦ Thursday, 25 April, 2024

Morning

Worked on solutions to work tasks, replied to emails, managed mom’s affairs.

Edited photos of airplanes and Tim after we met at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo yesterday. Excellent person and place! I wish I could have met Bruce, too, when he was at Lake Geneva. Next time!

Seeing so many airplanes from so many eras made me want to fly again, both in simulators and in real life! Private pilot’s license first for the experience, and then maybe go the ultralight route, perhaps electric, later?

Sat in a F-16 cockpit used for training, and even bought a little C-172 model to keep on my computer, because they didn’t have a C-152 one.

Afternoon

Called Nesh and played a messy version of Happy Birthday to You.

Covered part of the garden with plastic to “solarize” the weeds (heat the ground to kill the poor weeds and their seeds). Dug paths around the garden beds in preparation for more planting.

So far we have radishes, broccoletti, komatsuna, spinach, swiss chard, peas, garlic, onions, fennel, and cavolo nero. Will the bunnies eat everything? They didn’t last year, and neither did the raccoons, moles, “woodchucks”, chipmunks, various birdies, animalcetera. Maybe the cats help keep the plant peace.

Later installed a cover over an electrical breaker box and set up vdo.ninja (cheat sheet) on a second pocket computer to observe lamps remotely and find out which breaker breaks what connection in a bizarre house wiring setup.

Am about 1/4 of the way done with this, and will begin playing Wired soon to help me learn more about electricity, which is becoming another strong interest in addition to airplanes and video games.

Ciao ciao!