Down With The Flu

Well at least it's not bird flu.

We weren't able to go to Caliraya with ALP. I could feel the flu taking hold even on Friday night while I was repairing the telescope. And, true enough, it got worse. I'm fortunate I didn't go, because I'd probably be worse off with a night of no sleep and all that dew.

So I'm sitting at home writing this. Didn't go to work today.

Finished Repairing The Telescope

Gads, it's 4:18 a.m. of Saturday morning. I spent the whole darn night fixing up the telescope so hopefully we can observe in Caliraya tonight with ALP.

I cut off the hacksaw blades at the right length (hacksaw blades are hard -- the Dremel with cutoff wheel had quite a time going through them, lots of sparks flying and stuff). I also got some black plastic folders to use as upper-cage shroud (total cost 40 pesos).

On a side-note, Blogger has some pretty annoying image upload bugs, at least when using Firefox. Typical of them.


After I shortened the mirror box and rocker box, the whole thing has become top-heavy. And a 10-pound barbell weight can't be bolted to the underside of the mirror box, because the collimation bolts get in the way. But, even a 5-pound barbell weight (I have lots of these! you'd think I'd have buff biceps by now..) when on top of the mirror box (on that white putty material part) is imbalanced: it's not enough to counterbalance the upper cage at low altitudes, but at high altitudes it's too heavy and forces the dob to vertical.

So I went back to using a cheap door spring. Which I bought in Lingayen two to three years ago for the first iteration of this dobsonian.

And what do we have here.. a view of the upper cage, showing my "novel" PVC hex coupling diagonal holder, curved hacksaw blade spiders, and that nice black plastic folder shroud.

And also, a closer view: my helical focuser (from a 135mm "Carenar" telephoto lens that was Sacrificed For Science), homemade 70-degree 24mm widefield eyepiece from Surplus Shed components, and 50mm finder from Surplus Shed $5 cemented 52mm achromat doublet. Also note the 8.50 peso hose clamps securing it to the upper cage. Can one spell cheap?

Cheap Reading For Nerds

Got this book for a measly 249 pesos ($5) at National Bookstore! It's an O'Reilly! and a book after my own heart. Trivia for JAPH wannabes.

They also had .NET programming and a Web/Tcl-Tk (huh? is what I thought) O'Reilly books for the same princely price.

It Works! It Works! Hurray It Works!

Turns out there was an idiotic misconfiguration of the phone. Who knew that the streaming client on the Series 60 (RealPlayer) had a proxy setting?

Anyway, with that out of the way, I was able to watch (postage-stamp sized) trailers of North Country and Lady In The Water. I'm pretty techno-jaded but it was still a small kick. A bigger kick was seeing the sample_50kbit.3gp sample movie from the Darwin Streaming Server distribution. Hurray! we can now dish out movies to 3G phones!

On a wholly unrelated topic, Lalai and I just watched V For Vendetta. It was either that, or She's The Man, or Ultraviolet. While I have a partiality to Milla Jovovich (one can't forget the robotic Milla with the band-aid underwear in The Fifth Element) I knew that UV had been critically panned. And She's The Man is adolescent pap (although I'm sure I'd have been amused, I quite liked What A Girl Wants). The Wachowski brothers (still brothers, whatever happened to that rumor that one of them was getting a sex change?) meanwhile are the darlings of the faux art film crowd.

Anyhow, Hugo Weaving once again did his magic. Natalie Portman was OK, but Iris Johanssen could probably do as well. But Mr. Smith was quite fit for the role. A recommended movie. Even though all three of my choices are probably downloadable from BitTorrent.

Stuck in the slow lane with Smart 3G

I've been trying to get Smart 3G working for more than a week now. It seems here in our office, even though a 3G signal is detected, I can't get a connection. So I went to Smart Tower across Ayala to complain. Well.. I ended up with egg on my face as the Nokia 6680 got connected immediately. Glory be! Download speeds were around 60 - 70 kbps which is not world-shattering (not much better than GPRS Class 8!) but already quite good. I never expected the WCDMA 384 kbps rated. Heck GPRS is rated at 57.6 kbps but nobody ever gets that much throughput. So all is as expected.

Unfortunately Smart's 3G "walled garden" isn't totally open yet. I was able to browse Google and Nokia.com but the high ports (RTSP) are not open. Even the streaming content on Smart's own site was inaccessible. Oh well..

On another topic, I've discovered why the no-brand "Muse" 1GB SD card only costs 2,700 pesos. It's pretty slow. I expect part of that is due to the giveaway USB 1.1 SD reader I was using (a free gift from Palm) but transferring 750MB of data took well over half an hour. Throughput was only about 450 kbytes per second. On the other hand, the Ixus SD500 can write 2 frames per second to the card, sustained, at full resolution. Given that the files are about 600 - 800 kbytes each, that means the card has a throughput of around 1.5 Mbytes per second at least. Not too shabby.

Refurbishing the 10" Reflector

Components for a new curved-vane spider:

1. a sawed-off portion of a PVC hex coupler
2. used-up (purol) hacksaw blades
3. some tiny machine screws

The hacksaw blades were courtesy of Ken, who must be using them up at a tremendous rate what with all the kiosks he's manufacturing.

After drilling small holes in the hex coupler, I bolted the hacksaw blades (via their existing holes) to the coupler using the tiny machine screws (I believe they are 3/32" screws, with matching nuts).

Then, a rather inefficient use of resources: I filled up the "gap" in the inside of the hex coupler with more than half a tube of epoxy putty (about $2 worth). Taking care to put a big-ass bolt, wrapped in masking tape, in the middle. That way I won't have to drill a big hole for the bolt of the secondary holder.


The finished assembly can be seen below. Nicely curved hacksaw blade vanes to reduce diffraction effects.

And here's a "through the eyepiece holder" view of collimation. The best I've done so far, I'd think. And a view of the upper-cage assembly (badly in need of a paint job..) along with the homemade eyepiece and 50mm finder, attached with some P 8.50 hose clamps.

The Answer To The High Cost of Transportation

It turns out that a Honda Wave 100 with drum brakes front and back (the most entry-level of Honda scooters), and a 4-stroke, 100cc, 7-horsepower engine goes for the suggested retail price of 42,800 pesos.

That's just about the cost of an Olympus E-300 digital SLR with the 14-45mm kit zoom.

I'm sure that at the dealers, such a scooter would go for perhaps 10,000 pesos downpayment and 3,200 pesos a month for a year. That monthly amortization is less than our fuel bill for a month. Or even (for the truly economically-challenged) around 2,500 a month for two years.

These scooters get roughly 40-50 kilometers per liter of fuel. Because the Honda is a 4-stroke, no nasty refilling with engine oil every 500 kilometers. And no dinky blue smoke when accelerating away from a stop. Basically fuel cost with this thing would add up to around 15 pesos per day. Even factoring in the monthly amortization to buy the damn thing, it's much much cheaper than fueling our existing gas-guzzling more-than-a-decade-old "executive" sedan. Not even mentioning the costs of maintaining the car.

On the other hand, cheapness comes at a price: sweat, dust, throat-choking pollution, and complete loss of poise. If we consider using the scooter only on the car-coding day, the value proposition drops tremendously (well, by a factor of seven).

Drool-Inducing Gadgetry

I was at Villman Computers in Park Square 1 yesterday with Lalai, looking for a 1GB Secure Digital card. Amazingly, one can purchase a no-name "Muse" 1GB SD card for 2,700 pesos (about $53) while a Kingston branded card of the same capacity is almost $100.

But 1GB SD cards do not qualify as "drool-inducing gadgetry."

What does qualify is Villman's current BPI "installment madness" promotion. They are selling an Olympus E-300 digital SLR kit, with the 14-45mm standard zoom, for around 40,000 pesos with an option for 1-year installment payments of 3,332 pesos per month.



This same product costs $650 from B&H in New York, or about 33,500 pesos. A 6,500-peso premium for a local warranty and stretching payments over a year doesn't seem so bad..

By comparison, the Canon EOS 350D kit costs $780 at B&H (also with the standard zoom, an 18-55mm EF-S lens) or about 41,000 pesos. Villman is selling the exact same model for about 4,200 pesos a month or a tad over 50,000 pesos (a 10,000-peso premium over B&H price).

The EOS 350D is technically a superior camera: larger sensor, faster, the Canon cachet, mature technology.

Olympus E-300:

• 2.1 seconds turn-on time
• 0.37 seconds full AF lag
• 2.0X 4/3rds system sensor
• 1.0X viewfinder magnification with a 50mm lens (e.g. 0.5X magnification, 35mm equivalent)

Canon EOS 350D:

• 0.2 seconds turn-on time (much faster than the EOS 300D)
  
• 0.24 seconds full AF lag
• 1.6X APS-C sensor
• 0.8X viewfinder magnification with a 50mm lens (e.g. 0.5X magnification, 35mm equivalent)

But the price difference is not inconsiderable. Assuming a 1-year payment period, that 900 pesos per month difference is like the cost of my Smart broadband service. One might argue that said amount is not that large, and they'd be right. I would also get to re-use my existing (minimal) investment in Canon gear.

Well.. hopefully after the wedding I can avail myself of either of these things.

Gadget Fantasyland

I've been playing with a couple of 3G phones (sadly, not mine), the chunky Nokia N6680, and the drool-inducing Nokia N90.

The N6680 is an annoying beast. After using a bunch of Series 60 phones, I cannot understand how Nokia manages to sell these things. The interface is clunky and slow. Heck, the Series 40 has a more intuitive and snappier UI. When I first used a 7650, I chalked up the clunkiness to the fact it's ancient. But the 6680 is no better. It's still far too slow.

Now I understand the popularity of the Handspring Treo650. You can't beat a 312-MHz ARM processor and the PalmOS is still (in my opinion) far superior to the misbegotten mutant daughter of Psion EPOC that is Symbian (and it sounds like an infamous sex toy, to boot).



But anyway. Back to the drool-inducing N90. Unfortunately, it's still a Series 60 phone. But it has the brightest, sharpest, most fluid viewfinder I've ever seen on a phone. Or on a digital camera, for that matter. Beats the heck out of the screen on the Samsung D500, that's for sure. It probably bests the live display on the Canon Ixus SD500, which although superseded by the SD550 is still a top-tier compact digital camera. Also, Nokia's brazen "Carl Zeiss optics" monicker does nothing but draw a wince. The damnable lens has two aperture settings. I'm sure this piece of Carl Zeiss' leftovers is a hyperfocal distance queen. So why bother label it with Carl Zeiss? it's like sticking a disegno Pininfarina emblem on the boxy Hyundai Matrix.


I still want one of each though.

On another topic, Nokia seems to be on a roll. Their E60 handset has built-in wifi and, more interestingly, a VoIP client. I assume it's SIP-based somehow. Now that is interesting..

On The Rising Cost of Transportation

Who am I kidding? people worried about the rising cost of transportation take the bus. Or the FX shuttle. Or the tricycle.

It takes approximately 160 pesos for Lalai and me to commute to and from the office. That's inclusive of the tricycle ride in the morning, a loooooong line at the FX shuttle terminal, a jeepney ride from Salcedo Village to the MRT terminal in the evening, and another FX ride.

That's approximately 25 km travel distance (both ways). For a cost of approximately 6.4 pesos per kilometer. This same 25 km would take about 3.3 liters of fuel to traverse, for a fuel cost of about 130 pesos per day or 5.2 pesos per kilometer.

Aha! driving is cheaper than commuting! I am tempted to conclude.



Unfortunately, an aging (thirteen year old), midsized Japanese car of dubious provenance is rather expensive to maintain. Over the last three years, I calculate that total non-fuel operating cost hovers around 45000 pesos a year, inclusive of the incessant repairs, comprehensive insurance, and registration. This is based on about 8000 km travel per year. So, maintenance costs (other than fuel) are roughly 5.6 pesos per kilometer.

So the actual cost of operation is 10.8 pesos per kilometer. And that's not even including the acquisition cost of the vehicle. If you look at a typical 10-year old midsize Japanese car, they go for around 180k to 200k. Over a 24000-kilometer period of ownership, 200k is about 8.3 pesos per kilometer. For a grand total operating cost of around 19 pesos per kilometer.

Moral of the story: as David over on Tsikot.com said so succintly, the car-owning experience is very much like taking the taxi everyday.


However, let us compare these costs to a more contemporary problem. I believe Mazda Philippines has a current promotion on the Mazda3 1.6L 'S' variant where the victim, err, car buyer puts down 88888 pesos for the downpayment and pays another 16000 pesos per month for the next five years. Kind of indentured servitude.

So that's about 1050k acquisition cost. Add 120k for insurance and registration (for five years' worth) and 25k for maintenance (we're assuming nothing breaks, since this is a new car under warranty). Assuming 8000km per year, total non-fuel operating cost is 30 pesos per kilometer. Add fuel cost of 5.2 pesos per kilometer (the Mazda3 is not any lighter than the GE model Mazda 626, and it has an automatic transmission, so I assume even with the smaller engine it will guzzle just as much fuel) and the total cost of that "new car smell" is 35 pesos per kilometer or almost twice the cost of purchasing and maintaining a ten-year old car.

But there's a catch: after five years, you can then dispatch the by-then squeaky and rattly Mazda3 for, say, half its original price. So you get back 375k worth. Bringing down your cost of ownership to 26 pesos per kilometer. Hmmm.. all of a sudden that doesn't seem so bad versus contending with an ancient car that could have parts fall off or break down without warning.


The case is even better if you choose Toyota. The Corolla Altis 1.6 'E' variant costs about the same as the Mazda3 'S' variant. But, Toyota has unrealistically high resale values in the Philippines. You could probably get 450k back. Plus, the VVT-i engine of the Toyota is more fuel-efficient than the S-VT mutant Ford/Mazda engine in the Mazda3. So going the Corolla way would probably cost around 23 pesos per kilometer. Even closer to used-car territory.

Of course there's that massive monthly amortization always hanging over your head. I have been telling Lalai that if we put aside even 3500 per month for the upkeep of our old car, we can restore it to non-demoralizing condition rather quickly. And best of all, we won't be paying anything other than fuel costs.

Another weekend

It's Saturday morning now, 12:28 a.m. to be exact.

I'm going to be confirmed today!! leaving the unbelievers aghast, and the pious equally flabbergasted: it's not often that a thirty year old is confirmed in the Holy Catholic Church. But, well, one must be confirmed in order to be married. And it can't hurt to follow a 2,000-year old tradition.

On a useless impious issue though, the Primate formerly known as Josef Ratzinger really does look kind of scary. Something like this.. (not original):


Anyway.. I went to Buendia Auto Center last Monday (was late at work as a result). The famous Richard was away, but his assistant estimated the damage at 1500 to 1800 pesos (a piddling $30 to $35). So my initial estimate was correct. Unfortunately, as the Dent Master was away, I had to leave. The assistant told me to come back the following day.

The dent's still on the car.

The next day, I used half of the "dent money" to pay our internet bill. And the rest of the cash just.. kind of evaporated. "Money doth flow like water," as my old buddy Patrick used to complain loudly whenever he was lacking in funds.

I tried to "push out" the dent with my fingers. Getting that fender liner off is real tough. All I ended up with was lots of small scratches and bleeding fingers. Richard certainly earns his money's worth. That metal is pretty hard! I mean it looks like a tin can and it feels like a tin can but it's much harder than a tin can. But not hard enough to resist the pressures of a rampaging Revo bumper.

Refurbishing the 50mm finder

I went up to the roof deck clothes drying area, where my 10" telescope languishes in exile, and brought down some stuff.

Was chatting with Joel Munoz of ALP yesterday and he described a pretty nifty way to retrofit crosshairs to an ordinary eyepiece, turning it into.. a reticle eyepiece! Pretty darn useful for a finder. So I decided to retrieve my optical stuff and try it out.

Anyway, first item on the agenda: refurbishing the finder. The finder is made from a 52mm Surplus Shed 52mm cemented achromatic doublet (with some haze in the cement.. but what do you expect for less than $5 each?) and an orange schedule 40 PVC pipe of 2 inches (50.8mm) diameter of the right length. I had to sand a bit of the inside of the PVC pipe so that the 52mm diameter achromat would fit.

I taped a sheet of sandpaper inside the PVC tube to act as a nonreflective surface (PVC can be pretty shiny). I used a 1.25" eyepiece holder from an old plastic focuser (also from Surplus Shed) and a plastic drain pipe assembly as the helical focuser. Since the PVC pipe was orange and had a lousy acrylic paint job (I bought the paint from the craft supply section of National Bookstore), I decided to wrap it in butyl self-fusing tape for that faux shockproof finish.

Right now I'm using a 25mm Meade Kellner eyepiece (from our ETX-60 "robotic telescope") but I have an extra set of lenses from the Surplus Shed 26mm Super Plossl eyepiece set (two doublets and one double-convex) which I will use as the finder eyepiece. Or something.. on the other hand, having a 35mm eyepiece around is useful for the 10" (not to mention it's less lossy than my super-duper home-made wide-angle 24mm eyepiece with 7 elements, also courtesy of the Shed).

A Wedding and a Fender Bender

Lalai and I attended Cris' and Barney's wedding yesterday at Fernwood Garden. It was a generally great time, although the priest seemed to have dyslexia or something. We had lots of fun there. Unfortunately, on the way to Auntie Nenet's afterwards (to pick up my baptismal certificate so I can get confirmed next weekend so I can get married..) some idiot of a Revo driver tried to sneak into our lane and stove in the driver side fender with his bumper.

Bastard even tried to claim it wasn't his fault.

Boy I was pissed. Anyway in the end after lots of arguing, the owner of the vehicle agreed to pay me $40 or so to make the problem go away. Which is what they should have done in the first place rather than argue. Cheapskate bastards. That $40 is relatively small, but it will pay for my insurance deductible. I've gonna visit Richard at Buendia Auto Center first; maybe he can make the dent disappear for that amount or less; if so, I won't bother to claim the insurance.

Fixing A Power Window Motor

That's the Koito power window motor that the Banawe repair boys in front of the Orthopedic Hospital gave back to me after replacing. I repaired it with nothing more than a kitchen knife. That's quite a lot of money wasted ($40 plus). So they rewound it for nothing, and replaced it, again for nothing.

There was nothing wrong with the wretched motor, even though it was missing one brush. The plastic worm wheel had damaged teeth, that was all. Hence the thing was jamming. It was so blindingly obvious when I opened up the worm gear assembly that the worm was binding on the plastic worm wheel. I guess it's not so obvious to the Banawe repair boys.

I just cut down the damaged teeth with a kitchen knife and it now rotates freely. And too fast for my astrophotography barn-door mount. Oh well, at least now I have a spare power window motor.

And more importantly, I can now repair any of the power windows if ever they get damaged.