CoCo SDC and Strongware Case

Recently I went down memory highway and enjoyed a few clover leaves. My first two computers were a Timex Sinclair 1000 with a 16K memory expansion, and a Color Computer 2 by Tandy (Radio Shack).

Ebay is a wonderful place to purchase older technology, buyer beware of course. Of the two Timex computers I purchased one worked perfectly, the other has a bad video output and broken Mylar keyboard. The Color Computer 2 I purchased had a bit of mouse detritus in it and very stuck together keys. A bit of cleaning and it was ready for use.

One thing I wanted was a SD card reader/writer for the CoCo. Using cassette was an option, and using DriveWire was also an option. Floppies were not considered other than for nostalgic reasons.

After a bit of research I found where to purchase the CoCo SDC,  The Zippster Zone !
A couple of emails and less than a week later I had the CoCo SDC board in hand and a tip for the Strongware CoCo SDC Case. Thank you Ed!

Another week and I had the case in hand. ( Source Strongware)

Time to demonstrate...

The long nose pliers were used to hold the screws as I set them to hold the board in place. (Magnetic screwdriver on wish list).

With the 2GB card I am using there should be enough room for every program I ever had as a teen, plus most of the Color Computer software out there! If you are into retro computing these type of card adapters are available for Apples, CoCo/Dragon, Commodores, and I think I even saw some for Texas Instruments machines.

(For more details about operating the CoCo SDC please visit this page.)

Decorating Idea

Ebay is a wonderful place to find unusual decorations, especially for Halloween. For instance this morning while shopping for a store display a suggested purchase was an ornate old perfume bottle.

Wait, what is this mysterious glass jar? What does it contain? The adventurers pondered the consequences of touching the wizards collection of rare tinctures and potions.

The price is often what you would expect to pay at Wal-Mart, Target or Halloween shops but unlike the mass produced items de jour that everyone else is purchasing yours will seem unique. On top of that bonus is the fact that you may get an actual collectible out of the deal and of course helping to keep another person's business/hobby afloat (or maybe just help them clean out their storage space.)

Sneaker net to the rescue!

I have a very bad habit of starting new projects before finishing old ones. I am not sure if it attention deficit or just a thing about finishing projects. In any case, this weekend I ran into a wee bit of a dilemma which limited my ability to start new projects, or so I thought. Just because funds are not there does not mean I will not start a project...

I used to operate a site that was for role playing games such as GURPS or D&D. It was not much of a site, but at the time I had a loose dream and started to follow it. This project was side lined for several years, oh ok so this is not a new project after all! I started the site over again after rebuilding a LAMP server on my old laptop.

The server rebuild is still being worked on as I am not able to remote into it for some settings reason. Sneaker net to the rescue! As I dove head first into the project it became quickly apparent that I had lost many skill sets, learning curve was faster this time though. Then it was the realization that the site code was mostly gone, ah well, new code will be better in any case.

Now I am on a roll, slowly creating the pages and scripts that will be needed to accomplish the tasks.

Beads 2008

The same friend I mentioned yesterday handed me a contest entry about the same time, for Interweave's Beads 2008. I decided to enter a set of beads I had just designed for Thanksgiving.

I was surprised when they not only were chosen, but ended up as Editor's Choice!

That set was made of pewter that I then plated in copper. Here is a picture of a matching set I made into a bracelet.

A Change Of Use

A while back a friend of mine suggested I market my creations using my name instead of my current business name ( +Purple Dragon Gifts ) . I did not follow her advice until this week. As of today this blog is changing format from a semi-political essay and neat stuff I like blog into the publishing of myself as an artist blog.

My name is Greg Krynen and my artwork uses many mediums for expression. If part of being a professional means earning money then I have been a professional artist since about fourth grade. During that year of school I found a short piece of telephone trunk cabling on the side of the road. Upon looking at the wires I saw all of the different colored coatings and decided to start wire wrapping them into rings and such to give to my friends. Shortly thereafter I received requests from my male friends to custom make items for them so they could give them to their female friends. An entrepreneur was formed.

Since that time I have dabbled in silver work, aluminum casting, brass casting, machine tool operation, pewter casting, wood working, cement casting, welding, polymer clay, paper crafts, sewing, costuming and props, lapidary, ceramics and many other forms of artistic media expression. Heck, I have even tried my hand at visual arts through acting, film shooting, video shorts, print, and audio recordings. I will never claim to be a master but recognition has been bestowed upon me.

Regardless of the medium being worked with I often find myself creating jewelry pieces. Currently a few projects are leaning towards housewares and decor.

Some of my past work can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/117581393452618724394/PastArtwork and https://picasaweb.google.com/117581393452618724394/OOAKsold

You want miracles?

You want miracles? You live during a time where once in a lifetime heavenly movements are at hand, the infirm are not only kept alive but excel at living that life, the common man is able to go to the edge of space, there is light available non-stop, connections to anyone in the world in a mere moment of time, and you get to share it all with the ones you love and those you may not even know!

And that is the tiny tip of the iceberg.

Evaluating Education

I have been following the conversations Bill Gates has had this past week on the subject of education. One entry was about how to evaluate the quality of education.

I am not a fan of our current national and state systems of evaluation. I find that Student Learning Outcomes can be altered too easily allowing for a dumbing down of our educational system. Combined with standardized testing and No Child Left Behind this combination has actually left a larger percentage of students to be left behind upon graduation than at any other time in the US educational system.

As an educator I believe in teaching students to think, not regurgitate. Regurgitation is great for knowing some blips of information but it is almost useless when it comes to the day to grind of living life and advancing our endeavors. Does it matter that I can spout off what day an event happened? No it does not. What should matter is the understanding of the importance of that happening, the critical analysis of the situation.

I use Blackboard as an educator and use many of the question types built into it, not just the multiple choice type. Using the other question types, even if I have to go in and manual grade a test provides greater benefit for my students. Their minds are so used to looking at multiple choice (other wise known as multiple guess) that they truly have issues with any other form of question. I have worked with high school and community college students and many of them have learned top play a numbers game; if they do not know the answer they remove to the obvious wrong choices and guess from the remainder.

So how do we as educators evaluate the knowledge base of our students? In the past instructors were allowed to recommend the holding back of a student that was under performing. While this basically is a good idea education needs to be more proactive, if a student is starting to fall behind we need to get tutoring in place. Tutoring, one on one (or few) education is a great tool to help students. The delivery of the teaching materials is different in this scenario than the delivery in a group situation. It allows for more questions to be asked and answered in a style that matches the particular student.

Get rid of standardized tests. The tests are a useless metric to use for evaluating student success. Each person is an individual with topics they will do well in, exceed expectations in, or even perform poorly in (at least for a time). I will use myself as an example. Through grade school I was a top performer, challenged by my teachers and my parents to excel. Upon reaching high school I faltered, partly from rebellion partly from a change in the instructional style that I trouble grasping. In particular math was a troublesome subject for me. I failed algebra the first year, received a C- the second year, a B in geometry (which made sense to me where the numbers in algebra did not), then I completed high school by taking business math as I could not go beyond basic geometry. My brain at the time had difficulty with the subject.

That did not stop me however, all of my other subjects I did well to exceptional in, including the arts. After graduation I started college, then dropped out to enter the service. After my time in the service I graduated and started into management and eventually running my own service based business. Eventually I became bored with that line of work and decided to go back to school. Thanks to my job experience and a brain that had changed I was able, with some difficulty, to complete math through calculus and statistics with a B average.

Individuals can only be standardized at a low level, beyond that each will perform best at a subject they enjoy and have sub-performance in subject matter they do not enjoy. From early childhood education through high school I believe more teacher involvement and the use of tutors will provide more meaningful outcomes than our current evaluation systems.

Parents too should get in the mix much more than they do. Few parents evaluate their children, leaving it up to the schools instead. Expand your own knowledge as a parent, just because you had problems learning as a child does not mean that is true now. The kids are learning the same subjects you learned, it really has not advanced as much as some people might think. Talk with your children, ask them questions about the workd around them, challenge them to THINK.

Gluten Free Cookies

Just finished up a three mile walk with my dog and figured we deserved a treat. Last week while shopping at WinCo I picked up a box of Hodson Mill Gluten Free Cookie Mix. The mix smelled nice and mixed easily with the real butter, peanut butter, hen house fresh egg and vanilla. The first batch is in the oven now, tasting to follow soon.
Some kitchen notes: New Black and Decker hand mixer works very nicely, use the large end of a melon baller to get that rounded (literally in this case) teaspoon of dough, mix in the sink in case you are like me and a bit messy when mixing.
The first batch has some chocolate sprinkles on half of the batch and green sugar crystal on the other half. It was in for 15 minutes and the cookies came out a bit overdone. The second batch is going in for 13 minutes.
Okay the verdict is in, with my oven 13 minutes was perfect. The cookies are a bit crumbly but for a box mix of gluten free it is rather tasty.

For those persons worried about my diet, I had a bowl full of fresh shrimp stir fry over steamed rice. One item left out of the picture is a jar of Mowse's Special Ginger Stuff, which I added half the jar to the stir fry. So delicious!

I have to disagree with the new Proposed Calendar Change. I like the way the current calendar rolls. It gives each person the chance to experience their birthday on a weekend. It breaks up monotony of doing the same thing over and over, it is like life, full of change.

Have you ever noticed that after Monday and Tuesday even the calendar goes WTF?

It has been a long time since I last blogged, reasons abound. Any who, a lot of small projects are being worked on around my little homestead, trying to make a livable place out of my chunk of the western Mojave. Yesterday while digging a trench I hit a small 1 foot wide patch of hard as cement sand, Caliche I believe it is called. I chiseled away on it for about an hour from both sides and decided that is where the last valve on that line would go, thus bridging the dirt from ages past.

I have been on my soapbox in other venues about the food we eat (and should not), the use of materials, nuclear energy, and a plethora of belief systems. I occasionally get interesting and well though out responses. More often than not I get short form answers that have been fed to the flocks or handed down by political agenda. If I have one goal during my life (outside of personal happiness) I believe it would be to wake up the minds of others and make then think critically of events around them.

I do like Halloween. It allows for creativity based both on the real, surreal and outlandish! A crafters paradise! This year I am wearing a DIY piece, made from a baseball cap (brim cut off), caulk, a bit of gauze and some acrylic paint. For a gander go check out my profile on https://plus.google.com/u/0/117581393452618724394 or on Facebook!

Computing State of the Art

Nintendo unveiled the video game industry's first new major home console since 2006. 


Not 'A' new console, the sole new console since 2006!


Think about this for a moment, computer games require more horsepower to run than anything else most humans use computers for. Scientists obviously use a lot more power for modelling and crunching data, and the world governments use a crap load of power to watch us and each other. Normal users however browse the web and maybe do a little office work or watch a movie, none of which requires much power at all.


So, 5 years ago was the last real advance in gaming horsepower. Now get a load of this, Nintendo has always used technology that is actually a little out of date. Why? Well it costs less and it gets the job done. They have more units sold than Microsoft and Sony combined.


My thought on this subject though is a bit closer to home. Why does the computer industry try to tell me I need a quad core machine with no less than 4 gigs of RAM when it is running the same basic software I started using in 1995? I use that year because it was my first Windows based system. In reality I have watched video, ran spreadsheets and word processing, plus played high quality games since 1987 on the Amiga 1000 I bought that year. The software has not changed that much but mysteriously it uses a lot more resources to do the same basic job.


Lets compare...

Amiga	Windows PC - Toshiba Satellite
Motorola 68000 @ 7.16MHz	Intel Core i3 @ 2.3GHz
512KB RAM	3GB RAM
July 23,1985	Current

These two sets of numbers say a lot.My laptop has more power than an Amiga by several hundred percent! The RAM is no less than 500% more on most systems than an Amiga 1000.


If I could do all those nifty things on the Amiga back in 1987, why does it take so much more power to do it today?! Speedier? Not really. More features? Sure there are more features but do I use them, nope!


Plain and simple it is bloat. If a Word Processor only did its job rather than constantly add code in the background so it can be instantly placed as a web page, or used for video presentation (yeah it can do that too!). Or how about those video playbacks? Back then it was equal to low quality VHS, but today the best you can use is HDR, most people don't, they still use DVD quality or less if streaming across the web.


I am glad prices have fallen on equipment, but I would like my new computer to be as stable as my Amiga was, and actually run everything as smoothly. After all, my Motorola Droid can! (512KB memory and 512MHz processor running Android/Linux)

Overthought Ideas

I was reading an article at Fast Company about a French engineer that wants to tow icebergs from Greenland to Saudi Arabia in order to provide fresh water.

At least one commentor pointed out it would be cheaper to use a tanker and pull the water from the flow under the glacial icecap, or melt them on site using mirrors into a tanker system.

Things not pointed out is that we now have global modelling systems to see what the effects would be and no one has run this scenario. Without the model I can see reduced desalinity in the water at the proper time and place, reduction of krill habitat that feed under icebergs as they melt, reduction of resting sites for sea birds and sea mammals that use icebergs. Not to mention the carbon footprint of towing or shipping that much water.

I have a better idea for those Saudi princes and really the world near a coast line...
Use salt water through an extra line entering each house to provide clean salt water for use in bathing, swimming pools, and get this toilets!

Salt water is naturally a bit of an anti bacterial, the salt also mildly scrubs surfaces. Look at that would ya! Two things we like, clean toilets and less bacteria! Why do we need clean potable (drinkable) water to flush detrius out of our homes? Or to shower in when a salt bath works better (read how many salts are in your shower products folks!)? Many pool owners are switching to saline water since it is more environmentally friendly.

Today I saw a Pooka!

Just a musing that is amusing. The Easter bunny, a pooka, sold to the masses to celebrate spring and rebirth. Loosely tied to another religion in which many of it's patrons eat chocolate bunnies and collect eggs hidden by the pooka, while acknowledging their belief in the rising of Christ.

Thank you Mister James Stewart for introducing me to Harvey! (Film from 1950)

A Perfect Landing

Live Streaming by Ustream.TVThe shuttle Discovery makes another amazing landing this morning. As the thought of what they have to do to get that bird out of the sky. It is essentially a brick with wings, unlike a plane they do not have a second chance if something goes wrong. If the landing gear does not deploy correctly can you imagine trying to land on one set of tires in a plane with no engines? Or what if the tires blew out? Wind shear cutting the runway?

I am glad the crew made it home. Congratulations Crew! A few more shuttle trips to go till the end of a space flight era arrives.

First Sunburn of the Year

Today was filled with tearing out the weeds and replacing them with rather all too orderly garden rows. Seriously, they are in a line one after another with no real planning involved. I think the next time I will be planing the squash and those I will do in some diagonal pattern or something. Straight lines.... what was I thinking?!

I saved most of my head but my arms and neck are burnt, yup I am a redneck in that respect. Staring at the ground for too long causes it. Pondering what will come from my labors in the months ahead. The great news is my greenhouse is doing its job. I have been starting my seeds in there and am ready to plant within two weeks each time. Such a time saver and seed saver. Plus my crops can be started a month earlier than normal, a frost does not usually affect a full plant in a harmful way, but it does prevent seeds from sprouting.

I love the part where I planted enough for a small army of people, and I am the only one living here. Good news for those I consider friends and nice neighbors. When I grow large gardens I like to offer the food for free or a donation, my way of showing love for my fellow humans, and animals of course. I make sure there is enough for the birds, bunnies, squirrels and dogs.

The Right Tool For The Job

Yesterday during the local snow storm I was out in the garage working on a special order for a client. When I attend shows I take a special display setup with me that many people love and it is sturdy, almost wind proof (do gales count as wind?) and fairly light weight. In the past I have hand made each display using a hand held jig saw, circular saw, hand drill and a large plunge router. My eyes saw all the imperfections, gaps, odd angles, uneven sizes, etcetera. It would take me 2 days to complete the assembly of one three foot display, then another day for varnish.

This year the tax return went to some new tools. The table router made fast work of edges and it was a breeze to use on the 1x wood I use for these displays. The table saw, oh my, a quick rip and the wood was angled precisely and evenly all along the length, no more waves. Band saws are awesome for doing flat work several layers thick at once. Last but not least using a forstner bit in the drill press was magic, instant aligned holes thanks to a couple of clamps. Almost forgot a tiny but oh so useful tool, no electricity needed needed, a frame clamp to hold the material together while I drilled for the wooden dowel connecting pins (I like mine to show rather than being hidden).

I just about completed two full displays in about 5 hours! That was with much needed improvements in the design and having to think through using the new tools, ah, I am still alive, I learned something new.

Cat Food

Writing this with Floyd on my lap, she is my rockin' little kitty cat. Since she was given to me I have raised her on various kitten branded pet foods. Last night I decided it is time to start moving her up the chain to adult cat food. Since I was in a Walmart there were a decent selection of dry foods. I started my minor quest by looking at the ingredients label of the kitten food I had been feeding her, Purina Kitten Chow. Corn. Yup corn was the main ingredient as I recall. My cat does not eat corn. How do I know this? I like corn, sweet yellow or white with dairy cream butter and fresh cracked pepper, the cat does not. Left on a counter she will lick the butter but not chew on the corn. The dog will eat corn, but he seems to eat almost anything.
At that point I must have looked like a insane person as I started picking up bag after bag of dry food for cats from every company Walmart had, including Iams. Until I hit a tiny section for natural foods all the major labels primary ingredients, including Iams was corn. I even had a brief discussion with a random stranger also buying food for his pet about corn and we both started listing things like our food, pet food, cow feed, car fuel, and plastic food containers all made of corn. He did not know of the food containers.
So I turned my attention to the tiny naturals section of dry cat food. Newman's own had decent ingredients but the price was a premium. There was a name I had never heard of, also a bit pricey. This was starting to remind me of shopping for food for my own consumption, the better the food the higher the price, the junkier and more marketed the cheaper. My eye was drawn to a small card board box of 'Purina One beyOnd' Chicken and Whole Oat Meal. I was impressed to find Chicken listed first, then chicken meal, whole brown rice (which my cat does eat from my plate, always seems to be sneaking nibbles from my plate), soy bean meal and a host of other ingredients including eggs, beets, fish oil, apples, etc. Guess what was missing. CORN! Yay for Purina. I say that here because the 1 lb box was a stunningly low $2. Real food at a decent price.
I purchased the food, took it home and immediately had the opportunity to fill a bowl that was nearly empty. Floyd hopped up and sniffed the small nuggets of her new food. She nosed around in it a second then tested a dark morsel with a tentative crunch. I was sort of expecting her to turn and look at me with a pensive, what is this stuff look, instead she plunged face first into the food and was munching away.
I only endorse products I feel  deserve it and this product I freely (as in not being paid for it, though I won't turn my nose up at a check Purina!) endorse, as I fairly certain does Floyd.

Boredom in a Universe Full of Wonder?

I was watching Discworld, the episode about Hogwatch, and at the end Death says something akin to, 'In a universe so filled with wonder humans have managed to invent boredom.' Just then I looked out the widow and saw some amazing lighting on my yard. The greens popped, the trees turned ghostly white and the sky was formidably dark, yet a very small section of a rainbows arch (out of frame to the right) was showing above the neighbors palm tree. Such richness in color and the contrast of bright sun to dark storm in the same section of valley. Beautiful!

How often do we miss beauty or amazing events because we looked the wrong way or were too busy to care? The old saying stop to smell the roses is great advice, but don't forget to look around while you do it!

Misconceptions of Food Advancements 2

This morning while eating my breakfast the flavors in my mouth reminded me to continue this article. Last time I covered briefly that food is often ripened using hormones and chemicals after the fruit has been picked way too early. The lack of essential nutrient load was mentioned.

Food that is picked too early also is missing many flavor compounds. Lackluster taste is the hallmark of early picked food. I currently live in an agricultural area and at the end of summer I bought a crate of nectarines for the low sum of $9. An entire crate, what did I do with it all? I ate some fresh, I made juice, added them to Jello, I handed them out to city friends, and I prepared some for freezing. Freezing preserves the fruit with a small breakdown in cellular structure from the water in it expanding. In the case of the nectarines this is a useful feature. I like to freeze then in small containers so I can use them easily.

Yesterday I defrosted a container of nectarines and this morning I opened them up. Yum! The aroma of late summer filled my kitchen and I had not even done anything with the fruit yet. Going to the cupboard I pulled out the rolled oats and bottle of ground cinnamon (grinding fresh spices is a great way to add mega flavor). A layer of oas, some cinnamon, a layer of oats, the fruit spooned in, a layer of oats, some sugar crystal (just a pinch) then some water. I put it in the microwave for a minute. Took it out and oh my goodness, the scent was so good, reminded me of peach pie, stir and replace for another minute. Piping hot greatness! Notice I said greatness not goodness, the flavor is so intense because the fruit was not picked until ripe and about ready to fall on the ground.

The orchard I picked them up from supplies grocery chains in California and abroad with many types of fresh fruit. The thing is, for the shipment the fruit is picked a week earlier than what I purchased at their roadside stand. The difference is really noticeable.

The same can be said of the groceries I am growing in my backyard. Fresh out of the ground, with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Heck even the wild bunnies and fowl like going in the garden to help themselves it is so good. No need for me to fret, I planted enough to go around.

If you get the chance grow some fresh herbs, vegetables or fruit and visit your local farmer's markets. Seasonal food surprises that will not find on any grocery shelf await your taste buds!