Categories
Esoterica

Should you use the ‘Popcorn’ button?

Recently my local grocery store made a change to their store brand microwave popcorn. The new packages have different packaging design on the outside, and the popcorn bags inside are clearly being provided by a different vendor.

The new ones include the ominous ‘Do not use the Popcorn Button!’ warning, which wasn’t on the old packages. I’ve seen this on the instructions for other brands of microwave popcorn, and have often wondered why. I’ve also consistently ignored them ever since I’ve gotten a microwave with a popcorn button, with no ill effects.

This YouTube video provides a pretty good answer to the whole issue — the manufacturers have no idea which microwave you have, so they take no chances and tell you to babysit things and turn off the microwave when you hit 2 seconds between pops.

Of course, this is overly cautious. Some dumb microwaves just have a fixed time on their popcorn setting, so you do risk burning if you aren’t listening. Others, however, use moisture sensors to detect the steam that is released when the bag bursts its seams, then time out the rest of the way. Top-of-the-line models use accoustic sensors to actually detect when the popping slows down.

But the best advice from this video doesn’t require a 15-minute explanation, and comes at the very beginning: Orville Reddenbacher may not know anything about your microwave, but you do, so just push the button and try it out. If it’s trying to run too long, shut it down. Problem solved.

Categories
Blog

(Meta) Talking to oneself online

There’s a certain liberation to having a blog nobody really reads. I’m mostly documenting things I’m setting up just to understand it better as I go and maybe help others, but I’m not really thinking about an audience per se.

I’m in that age range where I’m old enough to remember Jerry Pournelle’s columns in BYTE magazine, though too young to have read his books, which seem to me to be more a thing of their time. I ended up reading more Robert Silverberg, who was a mainstay for short stories in magazines like Omni and Playboy. The one thing I remember about him was he co-wrote the infamous “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex” essay. His work, as I say, was of a certain time.

Pournelle’s columns were basically him documenting how he was using computers and software as writing tools. He’d go on about updating graphics cards, new versions of WordPerfect, or whatever he was using at the time, building out new machines, etc. He’d talk about handing down hardware to his son, setting up a work machine for his wife, and other mundane tasks involved with keeping home computers running. He’d give all of the computers names. I think they were mostly custom-built from off-the-shelf hardware running CP/M, much of this was before the IBM PC came out, let alone luggables and compatibles.

It was interesting to read, you wouldn’t know that he wasn’t a software professional, but this was a fair amount of activity just to support his day job of writing. Overall there was this philosophy of not letting the tools get in the way of the work, to keep your eye on the end product.

So, that’s kind of what I’m going for. It’s a side-quest, though Jerry Pournelle probably got paid pretty well for his columns, which no doubt helped pay the bills between books.

Categories
Uncategorized

Meta: doing a little bit of maintenance

So, have been behind on maintaining the blog again, which is no surprise given that I hardly update it. Did an update to the current version of WP, which was long overdue.

Also made a few tweaks to the CSS on the theme, which I’m now not seeing in the editor — think what I did next might have wiped it out.

WordPress was giving me warnings about the security risk of having unused themes laying around, so I took a little time to look at what themes I had. Some were pretty old. The main thing about older themes is that they aren’t responsive for mobile, so those had to go. Other themes that had to go were ones that don’t look good with the current content I have. Most of those are set up to have an image with each post, and so they have huge blank spaces.

I’ve kept a couple themes that I might use yet, but that’s another session.

Categories
Blog Random Ideas

Brain sprinkle: LED Lava Lamps.

Was just thinking about how one would retrofit an old Lava Lamp to use LEDs. The classic Lava Lamp uses incandescent bulbs as both the light source and a heat source to melt and animate the wax inside. So, an LED replacement would require not only the light source, but also a heat source.

CREE makes high power LEDS which certainly put off some heat, but you’d really need a separate heating element to melt the wax. If this element or elements were digitally controlled, they could be pulsed to perhaps create variations in the thermal currents inside the bulb to give some sort of control over the wax motion.

The other thing you would be able to do is put in RGB LEDs, or even black light LEDs, which would give you the ability change colors, and maybe run different colors at once illuminating different areas of the glass enclosure.

This unit could perhaps be retrofitted into any classic Lava Lamp base, if you just made it in a bulb format. Newer lamps could be made with a redesigned base.

Of course, as with all ideas of this type, the next step is to search to see what has been done in this area already. And sure enough, the Lava company has an LED Lava Lamp, It’s really disappointing, though. Runs on Batteries, it’s all plastic, and has molded plastic in the shape of the wax bloop. Boring. https://lavalamp.com/product/ledll/

They also have this, an LED mini-volcano, which is probably closer to what I’ve described, but not something that could be retrofitted on a classic Lava Lamp.

And, they have https://lavalamp.com/product/llmyol/, a do-it-yourself Lava Lamp kit with a color LED base, stuff to decorate the lamp base and top, and different kinds of glitter to put inside. This is actually pretty close to what I’m proposing, but it appears to use different material for the motion, basically two types of oil that don’t mix rather than the classic wax. I should get one, it looks kind of fun. It’s battery operated, and pretty low-temperature, so very well-suited for kids.

Yup, this is where my brain goes when there’s laundry to be folded, and stuff that should be going to Goodwill.

Categories
Blog Uncategorized

Sometimes healing from DV requires a trip to the dentist. You can help.

One aspect of domestic violence that is generally overlooked is that financial and physical abuse can lead to severe dental issues for survivors.

There are charitable foundations which match survivors with dentists who can help survivors with free or low-cost dental work.

https://www.givebackasmile.com is one such foundation.

This kind of assistance can be crucial in helping DV survivors recover a normal life. It’s hard to successfully interview for jobs or perform in a public facing job if you have damaged or missing teeth, and often poor dental health results in other health issues.

Note: will add more resources as I find them.

Categories
Art Art Model Camp Burning Man

Art Model Camp at Burning Man 2023

Art Model Camp is returning to Burning Man for 2023. This will be our 15th appearance at Burning Man for our drawing salon. We’re once again located in the Alternative Energy Zone, and will probably be at the corner of 4:00 and F. (may be subject to change depending on placement).

You can see photos from past years on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/artmodelcamp/. If you would like more information, we also have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064907041039.