Category: Tech

Max GPM

The Symmons shower head in the master bath was shot. The adjustment knob wouldn’t turn, and water was spraying from only part of the nozzle.

As I recall, it cost upwards of $200 when the bathroom was remodeled over 15 years ago. Off to Lowe’s I went, with no intention of spending that much again. Ten bucks was more like it, with thread tape included in the package.

As mentioned a while ago, my last home heating oil delivery was a budget-destroying $6/gallon. With that in mind, and my hot water maker coming from a zone on the boiler, I chose the 1.8 gallon per minute max option over 2.5 GPM, and it works nicely.

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/showerheads

By the way, I had some trouble removing the Symmons shower head. It was metal-on-metal, and not enough thread tape had been used, so it didn’t extend past where the shower head and pipe met. The result was rust, and after applying 3-in-1 oil to the seam I carefully used a crescent wrench until the fitting finally loosened. I cleaned off the threads of the pipe with silicone lubricant before applying a couple wrappings of thread tape. When I had the new shower head installed, I said this to myself.

Going Straight and Pivoting

Long ago I bought a Sony linear tracking turntable as a present for my buddy Denro, fitted with a Grado P-Mount cartridge. Plugged into his Sony stereo receiver, that was one of the few times I heard a phono setup with no hum at all, when the volume was turned all the way up while not playing a record.

At that time my primary turntable was the Thorens TD-166 MKII, and it continues to be my main table. I have done some minor servicing on it with parts purchased from Dave Archambault at Vinyl Nirvana, up in New Hampshire.

Although I never owned a linear tracking turntable, their potential for zero geometry tracking error has always intrigued me. This setup — which is not P-Mount — looks and sounds very good.

Other than linear tracking, the smallest potential geometry error is with a properly mounted 12-inch tonearm, as seen in this video, playing the other side of the same record.

Dave at Vinyl Nirvana recently offered six high-end vintage Thorens turntables, each with a new 12-inch tonearm. There is only one left, available for more than $4000 with cartridge options starting at a grand.

https://vinylnirvana.com/vintage-turntables-for-sale/2022-the-legend-thorens-td-125-long-base-turntable

That’s the way to go for those who insist on the absolute best, and can afford it. I’m doing okay with my Thorens, purchased 40 years ago next Spring.

Burn it Like Beckett

Recently I had routine annual oil burner servicing*, and now a problem from last year has returned, likewise when the burner is needed only for the hot water maker. The Beckett 7505 burner controller is shutting down the system and the reset button flashes. The button can be pressed only so many times to fire it up before there’s a hard lock-out. So far I have pressed it twice.

The first step in last year’s troubleshooting was to replace the 7505, despite a diagnostic reporting the original unit was fine. The problem returned only minutes after the technician had left. Later, a complete disassembly of the burner by a different technician revealed a worn-out part. It was replaced, and the burner has been trouble-free for well over a year.

Maintenance is supposed to prevent problems, not cause them. I almost didn’t schedule routine servicing this year, out of concern the very situation that I am in would occur, but it’s included in the service contract.

Being Labor Day weekend, I have a service call scheduled for Tuesday morning. This time, if the diagnostic doesn’t report an internal controller failure, and the technician wants to replace it anyway, I’ll suggest that he keep looking for the underlying cause of the problem.

* Many New England homes rely on #2 home heating oil, which is mostly kerosene, rather than natural gas. The price tracks diesel fairly closely, and the last oil delivery I had cost $6/gallon. Six dollars per gallon, for a bio-fuel mix that has a tendency to clog the fuel nozzle in a burner. Which could be the underlying cause of my present problem. Will I be paying less than $6/gal. this coming heating season?

https://apnews.com/article/heating-oil-diesel-inventories-low-in-northeast-192f998c29bcb05fd0fcd4f680f1faf6

Siriusly Broken

Streaming of live SiriusXM stations is having serious problems. The Android app works for a while, but every so often it has gone silent. [Update: It seems stable now.] A Web browser plays only archived shows, and the Roku app completely locks up making the attempt before crashing. I was fine with the PC app being a no-op, but obviously they are having much more Sirius difficulties going on at XM. The satellite radio signal is unaffected.

After all this time, so many years into the digital revolution, it’s still all so fragile. One tiny change anywhere in the process — intentional or not, malicious or not — can bring it all crashing down. At least the satellites are still up there.

Update: The problem appears to be limited, at least for me, to Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel. I didn’t see how a single streaming source could break the application, but it was the last thing to check, and that was it. I have the phone number for “advanced support” at SiriusXM. Assuming it will be closed on Labor Day, I’ll call on Tuesday.

Update: No need for me to call. When you need action, make a DJ request!

Chris Carter’s British Invasion
We know about the complaints about the stream that some of you are having. We can’t really do anything about it at the moment, because it’s the weekend (moreover, a long holiday weekend).
But believe us… it WILL be addressed on Tuesday.
Thanks for listening, as always.

Bits of Film to Bits of Data

Part 4 of Light & Magic gets into ILM of the 80’s when, by that time, they were turning the crank on analog/optical special effects. There was some burnout within the ranks, along with a feeling that they’d reached the limit of what could be done with cameras and physical objects.

The EditDroid, that I discussed here previously, is credited as the start of the push by George Lucas into digital technology. After that, Photoshop and Pixar were created. (Yes, Photoshop had a Lucas connection.) That’s a DEC VAX 11/780 minicomputer shown at the start of the video.