Awesome Hat…

Well, I like hats... they keep my head warm and sunburnt free. A month or two ago I got a hat for riding my bike in the winter. I got the hat from REI, but of course there are other places where one can get similar hats. My wife likes the hat (on me), Katja like the hat (on her), and I like the hat even when I am not on the bike. Evidently I am not the only one who likes these hats either.Some call the hat style a swrve Belgian Wool Cap, but all I knew was that it was highly functional and stylish.

brimbini from REI

brimbini from REI

About two weeks ago a friend, who is also a biker (of the human powered kind), asked where I got the hat from... that got me thinking: How hard would it be to make one of these hats? I should try and sew one sometime, it only took this lady five tries
Me holding my newborn nephew while wearing my swrve hat

Me holding my newborn nephew while wearing my swrve hat.

The big chair

When I was little (like three years old) my parents got a lazy boy rocker.  I have many fond memories in that chair. First sitting next to my mom or my dad, and then on their lap because I had gotten bigger. Then on the arm because a sibling had taken the lap position. That chair left many lasting impressions. It was the place where I was read the books: the cross and the switchblade, brother andrew, and the silver chair. I would also read many of my own books in that chair.  

Today I went to a furniture store to look at table designs. They happens to have some lazy boy recliners.  None that felt the same as the one growing up. But it left me wondering… if I am going to have a chair like that in my house with my kids.  

oversize wide lazyboy chair

lazy boy chair with room for a little one

CNC Laser

Continuing on my thoughts about woodworking, I was looking at laser engraved wood and CNC machines. Here are a couple of DIY videos from YouTube.

There is a company here in Eugene which specializes in this.

Here is a DIY project page: http://davidegironi.blogspot.it/2014/07/38mm-x-38mm-laser-engraver-build-using.html
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/PCB-milling-machine-CNC-2020B-DIY-cnc-wood-carving-machine-mini-engraving-machine-3050114A/32428314987.html

It also seems that andrio or bananna pi are also used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Pi

Life drainers…

I have been struggling for the last few months with an addiction... an IKEA addiction. An addition that I am not sure I was completely responsible for creating, but more on that later.

It is a habit which, I really had to learn the hard way, that I needed to kick. Here is my problem: Their product line has a really powerful draw. Their products all look like they fit together (with each other). This gives the impression of harmony. Meanwhile many of their products look like they are minimalistic in design. That is, they are smooth and sexy and and visually simplistic. I say look minimalistic, because most of the products from IKEA have a well designed (short) life span. That is, the products simply do not last beyond the first intended use - and this is by design. The way I understand the product is that in the IKEA business model, the products are not what create the business money, rather it is the service of distributing the products which is viewed as the money maker. So, the business metrics are set up as: "How many products do I distribute?", not "How products do I sell?". While both metics are important, The first puts an importance on the distribution, the second puts an emphasis on the monetary value of the sale, or the value of a lasting product (value presented to the customer). This is why I suggest that the IKEA product's life cycle is also designed. I have had to learn that the hard way. I like the look, but beyond that "IKEA life" seems to be designed to bring the customer into a consumer relationship with IKEA, such that the customer must buy multiple products due to short life spans. Consider the difference between the IKEA Expedit series and their KALLAX series (several differences are exposited well by Peter Robinson). Expedit was a series with solid construction and a production run of several decades. However, The Expedit product had a fantastic secondary market because they lasted and were hearty. The Expedit series was replaced by KALLAX. A less hearty, physically lighter product series.

Consider the following review from YouTube.

From a management perspective, IKEA has applied design principles not only to the product but also to the acquisition process and to the life cycle of the product. They have put new design requirements on the life span, causing a redesign of the product. In a way, this de-emphasizes the product and elevates the need for service mechanism of delivering the product - The service has been assessed and re-designed. For a good book about applying these principals to your business read: Service Design Thinking. Or for a quick check Service Design look at Wikipedia.

My distain for IKEA rivals my distain for Facebook. They also have an interesting product, but one is never sure where the platform is going. This makes the product life span (as a user understands it) quite susceptible to uncertainty. Apple products could also be similarly considered to have gone through this design phase. Consider when Apple started soldering RAM to the motherboard (because their secondary market has been limited by making certain parts "non-upgradable").

I have been plotting my escape from life drainers. This means that I need to be able to find solutions elsewhere with other products. I think I found my solution to the IKEA wormhole on a DIY site or two: http://www.ana-white.com , and http://designsbystudioc.com.

There are several projects I have been looking at doing. One is a shoe rack for my front door area. These sites were a good place to get ideas and example plans - to see how things go together. Another project in progress is a coffee table on casters for my living room.

Shoe Racks

http://www.ana-white.com/2011/01/shoe-dresser
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/06/shoe-organizer
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/08/free_plans/grandy-sliding-door-console
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/02/free_plans/wall-cubby-crate-shelves
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/03/entry-shoe-bench
http://www.ana-white.com/2012/07/big-crate-shoe-box-test-bri-wax
http://fixthisbuildthat.com/adjustable-shoe-storage-bench/
http://www.ana-white.com/2013/04/shoe-bench
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/08/shoe-cabinet-aka-my-kitchens-best-friend

Coffee Table

http://designsbystudioc.com/diy-plans-build-westport-coffee-table/
http://www.ana-white.com/2013/01/plans/chalkboard-produce-crate
http://www.ana-white.com/2010/09/vintage-crate-carts.html
http://www.ana-white.com/2011/08/shoe-crates
http://www.ana-white.com/2010/03/plans-simple-spa-bench-inpsired-by.html

Dinning room table

http://www.ana-white.com/2015/07/free_plans/2x4-truss-benches-alaska-lake-cabin
http://www.ana-white.com/2015/07/free_plans/2x4-truss-table-alaska-lake-cabin

Laundry Basket solution

http://www.ana-white.com/2011/01/sausha%E2%80%99s-washerdryer-pedestals

kitchen Ideas

http://www.ana-white.com/2015/12/free_plans/diy-apothecary-style-kitchen-cabinets

Other Stuff

http://fixthisbuildthat.com/diy-wooden-drink-coasters-plans/

Some interesting links about Apple and design:
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/apples_products_are.html
http://www.idgconnect.com/abstract/10261/design-guru-don-norman-slams-apple-ease-disservice
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/16/9743996/apple-designer-interview-bruce-tog-tognazzini-don-norman
These are here because I talk about Apple designing the life cycle of their products. I don't link to them because they are not a major thrust of this post.

The Living Room

When we bought our house in June of 2015, we knew there were several thing which needed to be done to make the place livable. One of those was to fix the leak around the chimney into the fireplace area in the living room. The leak was bad enough to cause discoloration, mold and mushrooms to grow. It required pulling down some 50 year old Douglas Fir paneling and finding a replacement. Here are some photos with dates to show how the project proceeded. 

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Projector

This week Becky and I started looking for projector. Here are the requirements we found​

  • We want to projector with 3000 lumens
  • Have a 50,000 hour light bulb life-LED
  • At least a 3000:1 contrast ratio
  • Display dimensions of at least WUXGA
  • Wi-Fi enabled so that we can do presentations wirelessly (from OS X or iOS)

Some of the models we looked at are:

For the un informed (like I was), there was some good reading at the following websites:

Pollen station

I wonder if I should become a pollen station reporter...

I was looking here at pollen stations:
http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations/become-a-counter.aspx
http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations.aspx
http://pollen.aaaai.org/nab/index.cfm?p=allergenreport&stationid=1&datecount=10%2F14%2F2015
http://www.aaaai.org/global/nab-pollen-counts/counting-stations/start-a-station.aspx