A Philosopher's Blog

Philosophical Essays on Many Subjects

DIY/Recipes

DIY: SSD & Headlights

by Leave a Comment

 

Samsung SSD 830 Series 128Gb 2,5
 (Photo credit: Tolbxela)

 

Today’s post is about two of my recent DIY projects (or, rather, DIM-Do It Myself). As a general rule, I endeavor to do as much myself as possible. First, I do this to save money and time. I work cheap and I do things quickly-plus I know I am always available when I need something done. Being sensible, I do consider the value of my time and will pay other people to do stuff if they can do it as good for less (in terms of the dollar value of my time).  Second, I do this because I believe that people should be as self-sufficient as possible. I hold to this on both moral and practical grounds. Morally, a person is acting wrongly when he is an unwarranted burden on others-that is, he expects others to do for him what he could reasonably do for himself.  Naturally, if a person cannot do it herself, hiring others is morally acceptable (in general). Also, being a competent human being is very useful. Third, I often find such things satisfying-it is nice to work with actual physical objects  since I spend most of my time working with words.

Recently I repaired my door, my sink, added an SSD to my PC and “de-yellowed” the plastic headlight covers on my truck. I thought I’d share how to install an SSD and get the yellow out.

After reading an article in PC World about upgrading to a SSD (Solid State Drive) I decided to give it a shot. As I noted in an earlier post, this was an experience in blue screens-but it was ultimately worth it.

Now, as far as why you might want to do this upgrade to a desktop, the main answer is speed-an SDD is much faster than a traditional hard drive so you’ll enjoy faster boot times and your programs will be snappier. A secondary answer is that SSDs do not have moving parts (well, on the macro level) so they tend to break less than traditional mechanical drives. For laptops,an  SSD is lighter and is vastly less susceptible to problems caused by motion relative to a traditional drive.

If you plan to upgrade a laptop, make sure that 1) you have the right (SATA) interface for the drive and that 2) you have the right sized SSD. While SSDs are generally laptop sized drives, they do not fit all laptops. In general, you’d want to get a 7 mm drive with an adapter unless you are sure of the size of your existing drive.

If you plan to upgrade a desktop, you will probably want to get an adapter so the SSD will fit into the normal drive bay-as noted above, the typical SSD is a laptop style drive and will not mount as is in a desktop bay. Fortunately, the adapter is cheap. If you are using a card (see below) that allow you to mount the drive on it, then you would not need an adapter.

Before spending any money, you will want to check to see what your options are and a rather important factor to consider is what sort of hard drive connectors your computer supports. Really old PCs have IDE connectors. If you have that, you should just get a new computer rather than spending money to try to stick in a SSD. If you have SATA connectors, check to see what version you have. My aging PC has SATA II. New PCs should have SATA III.

If you have SATA II connectors and want the most speed, check to see if your PC has a free PCI Express slot. These come in various sizes-such as the PCI Express x16 slot that is commonly used for video cards. Since my PC only has SATA II, I got a the Apricorn Velocity PCI Express card Solo X1. It will fit in a PCI Express x1 slot (or larger). This card (and others like it) add SATA III support and have a mount for attaching an SSD. The one I bought also has another SATA connector (internal) that can be used to speed up another internal drive.

Once the drive is on the card and the card is installed, be sure to format the drive. Once it is formatted, then clone your boot drive to the SSD. Since I was using the Apricorn card, I used the EZ Gig IV software. Since SSDs tend to smaller than traditional hard drives (my SSD is 256 GB) you’ll need to clean up your drive and will want to use what are probably the advanced options in the cloning software to only copy Windows and your programs.  Cloning software tends to default to just copying everything-including any data or recovery partitions on the drive. Of course, you can also just do a new install on the SSD.

After you have your boot drive cloned (or Windows installed), reboot and set your BIOS so that the SSD is the boot drive. If you don’t get any blue screens, then you can enjoy the new speed.

Yellowed

CleanedTurning now to headlights, yesterday I decided to replace the headlight bulbs in my 2001 Tacoma. I  noticed that the plastic covers over the lights were foggy and yellowed. I had seen various kits for de-yellowing headlights, but had also heard that Scratch Out (or similar products) would also do the trick. Since I had some Scratch Out, I put some on a paper towel and rubbed the plastic. Turns out that it does work. Of course, I suspect that even toothpaste would work. So, if you have yellowed/foggy headlights and some Scratch Out (or maybe toothpaste) give it a try

Enhanced by Zemanta

Super Sunday Pancakes

by 2 Comments

Stack of blueberry pancakes
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like all rational beings, I like pancakes. While I used to be content to just use an instant mix, I decided to create a better sort of pancake-one with the illusion of being more healthy yet also easy and tasty. I came up with this:

You’ll need

  • 2 cups of Bisquick mix.
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • 2 cups of milk (soy or cow)
  • 1/4 cup ground golden flax seed
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or to taste)
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • Blueberries, strawberries, butterscotch bits, or other such things (optional).
Using a wire whisk, combine all the ingredients. Do not over beat the mixture or your pancakes will not be as good. Use about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. I cook mine on an electric griddle that works great, thanks to the even temperature and the non-stick surface. Being from Maine, I like to add blueberries to mine, but tastes vary.
Getting a good pancake is a matter of timing: cook the pancakes until the edges are “dry”, the center is bubbling and the bottom is golden brown. Flip once (if you flip twice or more, you’ll have inferior cakes) and cook until the bottom is browned. This will happen fairly quickly. Being a traditionalist, I like mine with butter and Maine syrup. Blueberry sauce is also good. Crushed walnuts are also good when sprinkled on the top.
If you want to make non-plain pancakes by adding blueberries or whatever, you can mix those into the batter. I usually make blueberry pancakes and butterscotch pancakes. So, I add the extras right after I put the batter on the griddle.
The recipe is designed to make “fluffy” pancakes. If you want cakes that are thicker, cut the milk to 1 cup.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Of Showers & Grout

by Leave a Comment

Grey and white tilling grout.
Image via Wikipedia

Since I bought my house over a decade ago, this year it was due for some major improvements. The process began when my AC exploded and continued through painting and various other tasks. In July my tile shower started leaking badly and none of my fixes could stop it. So I had to resort to replacing it.

Busting out an old tile shower is an ordeal. If it was put in properly, there will be a layer of tile (and grout) over a backer board (typically cement on a mesh) and behind that might be a layer of drywall. Getting the tiles off is easy. If you like living dangerously, you can bop them with a hammer (at least wear safety glasses and protective clothing-tile shards can cut like blades). If you want to be a bit less destructive, a chisel for masonry work can be used to pry them off. Getting the backer out is usually a matter of force-either busting it out or prying it off the walls. Drywall is easy to remove. Some folks take a very direct approach and just hammer through the walls in square sections, pulling out everything at once. If you do this, be very careful to avoid bashing the pipes, supports and the other walls. A typically full shower is made up of a hell of a lot of stuff-so a cart can be handy for getting the stuff out. Tearing out a shower will typically generate a lot of dust-wear a proper respirator (don’t settle for those little white masks) and be sure to cover everything you’d rather not have buried in dust.

You will also need to remove the floor of the shower. That will consist of a layer of tile that can usually just be removed with a chisel and hammer (tap into the grout and then under the tile). Under that you might find, as I did, a lot of sand that was used to create the slope to the drain. You’ll have to shovel all that stuff (use a cart or wheel barrel to transport it) to get to the pan. You will probably have to break up some of it with a chisel. It will most likely be damp (did you pee in your shower…if so you’ll be handling some sand that filtered your pee). The pan is what keeps the water from going all the way through the shower wall. Oh, one interesting fact about showers: water will seep through the tile/grout walls and hence the need for waterproof backers and the pan. Pans are typically made by using a sheet of water proof material that is folded into a square pan shape and nailed to the supports. Some older ones are lead and some newer ones are metal and pre-made. In my shower, the pan had failed in several places and the tiles had also cracked in many places.

Once the sand is out, the pan is remove. Mine was “plastic” and hence I just popped out the nails and cut it to manageable pieces. I then removed all the rotted wood.

Rebuilding a shower is even more fun that tearing one out. Since I wanted my shower to not leak, I hired a contractor to do that for more. The main steps are replacing the rotted wood,  getting the pan installed (by a plumber) nailing in the backer (in my case, a Hardie backer), sealing the backer, tiling and then grouting the shower. After the shower is grouted (a nasty and time consuming process) the residue gout has to be removed-once right after the grouting and then about a day latter. This involves wiping down the tiles with a cloth/towel-although a wire brush (use gently) and a paint scraper can be handy. Dampening the towel with a bit of tile cleaner (but be careful not to dampen the grout) can help keep the dust down (this is also a dusty process).

The last annoying step is sealing the grout. Normal grout is porous. This means that it will absorb liquids. This is, obviously enough, bad in a shower-hence the need to seal it. There are many types of sealers with various means of application. Perhaps the most tedious method of applying it is with a small brush (be sure to keep as much of the sealer off the tile as possible). There are also spray sealers which are fast, but might not be the best choice in terms of their durability and water resisting properties. I went with a 3M sealer that had a one-coat application and a 20 year warranty. Sealers tend to produce obnoxious vapors, so when working in the confine of the shower stall a respirator and frequent air breaks are a good idea.

Grout will eventually wear out and develop cracks, so if you have a tile shower be sure to check your grout. Using a cleaner & sealer product regularly can help protect it, but it seems inevitable that it will need to be repaired. When I was using the shower in the other bathroom (which hadn’t been used in about four years), I noticed that the 27 year old grout had cracked in places, so my next project is repairing that.

I have learned to hate grout.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Ramblings on DIY, With Some Useful Advice (Maybe)

by Leave a Comment

Basic DIY Tools
Image via Wikipedia

Thanks to the budget cuts, I do not have a summer class. I have been using my time off to crank out books to sell on Amazon and to do a variety of DIY projects. Interestingly enough, I suspect that the value of the work I will do over the summer will exceed what I would have made while teaching.

Thanks to inhaling paint fumes for about two weeks, I am now prone to some writing rambles. I did, however, refresh my memory of painting and paints. I learned once again that paint adheres best to human skin. This has always surprised me a bit. After all, when you paint a surface, it is supposed to be dry, free of oils and so on. When I paint in Florida, my skin is far from dry and is rather oily. Yet, the damn latex paint just sticks and dries amazingly well on my skin. The very same paint that will peel up in the slightest moisture coming from wood will cling tenaciously to me over the course of a ten mile run in 90+ degree weather (I did this as a test). I am, of course, sweating like mad. After painting in a confined space, the fumes got me thinking that perhaps human skin should be vat grown and used as a wall covering. After I got some fresh air, I considered that maybe I should speak to a counselor about such ideas. Or a venture capitalist.

Speaking of bathrooms, I removed all the fixtures, towel racks and hooks when I painted. Some of these I replaced with new ones that came with handy paper templates. However, I had some hooks and other items that either did not come with templates or whose templates were long gone. Rather than marking my newly painted wall, I decided to make my own templates. While blank paper can be used for this, as a gaming nerd I realized that graph paper would be ideal for laying out a template. After all, it has a nice grid that makes it very easy to lay out where the holes should be drilled. So, I placed the hooks on the graph paper, lined them up, spaced them out, marked the holes and had a template. I used some painter’s tape to attach it to the wall, checked it with my level, drilled and installed. For those of you who are not math or gaming nerds, here is a pdf file of the  graph paper I created using Freehand. Use it to create templates or dungeons.

Enhanced by Zemanta

The Joys of DIY

by Leave a Comment

Gravity Wall Typed
Image via Wikipedia

Although I am a professor, I have a reasonable assortment of practical skills. Many of these were picked up during my youth: my parents fully endorsed the idea of character building through chores. These skills were refined and added to by my essential Yankee frugality (“why pay someone to do what you can do yourself?”) which is not to be confused with corporate frugality (“why pay an American to do what someone else will do for way less?”).

I will be the first to admit that my skills are not professional grade. My friend Ron thinks that there should be some sort of law against me doing trim painting (although I can do an adequate job using the right tools, namely someone else). However, they are good enough to get things done and, in some cases, are up to doing very good work (mostly in the area of computers and other such technology).

My latest project has been repainting my house. As with any DIY project, it has taken longer than anticipated. As a general rule, when I plan a DIY project, I estimate the base time and then double it. I always end up being wrong, no matter what. I suspect, but cannot prove, that there is some sort of quantum effect at work here: when you attempt to predict the duration of the event, the observation changes the duration (and might kill a cat or three). Less mysteriously, I have found that each DIY project almost always leads to other things that need to be done. For example, doing the painting involved removing all the fixtures and such from the walls. This caused me to replace these things, which now looked old next to the new paint. Mounting all this new stuff requires the usual effort-that is to say, twice what is expected plus the variable factor.

On the plus side, the major projects (like repainting the house) only occur every 5-15 years, thus making it manageable. However, as Ron and I agreed, when you own a house there is always something to do. Ron’s upcoming project seems to involve his backyard and a wall aimed at repelling the squirrel hordes. Or maybe it is just a retaining wall. Hard to say, what with the flame thrower mounts in the schematics.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Cheeta

by Leave a Comment

Cheese Pita=Cheeta As a great philosopher once said “I can’t think with my tummy growling.” So, here is my next entry in my erratic series of “cooking so easy a philosopher can do it.”

The picture to the left shows the Cheeta (Cheese Pita) prior to spending some quality time in the oven. The Cheeta was invented when all I had on hand for lunch was some pita bread, hummus and cheese. Here is how to make the dreaded Cheeta:

Ingredients:

  • Shredded cheese. Cheddar is the standard, but any cheese will work.
  • Pita bread.
  • Olive oil.
  • Oregano.
  • Grated Parmesan cheese.

Directions:

Slice a pita in half and stuff each  half with shredded cheese.  Place the sliced and stuffed pita on a cookie sheet. Brush on a light coating of olive oil and then sprinkle with oregano and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes or until the pita is toasted and the cheese is melted. Bake longer for a really crispy Cheeta, less for a soft Cheeta. A toaster oven would also work fine, but not a toaster (unless you like a little appliance fire in your life).

The Cheeta can be eaten as is or used to scoop hummus. Goes well with most philosophers, except for Heidegger.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
%d bloggers like this: