What goes up must come down

And this is poor Krsitine, who, for the first time,
managed to climb up all the way to the top.
But couldn't get down.

Kristiner and her sister

We were still quite woried that Kristine might not take it well. She could be jealous and take it out on the baby. Still, we had to try and make things right. Which is fine for now. Although the baby needed more attention, we did try our best to make sure Kristine was not left out.

We let Kristine hold her sister for awhile, which was ok
until she realised that her sister was too heavy


But she does not hesitate to hold her if given the
chance. At one time, she even gave the baby
some of her clothes and food

Just swing it!!!

This time, I allowed Kristine to swing higher. The last time, she got so excited, she nearly fell off. Also, it was a good time to test out my borrowed camera (Canon Powershot A700) which I have to return soon, courtesy of one of my Best Men.

Jaundice Alert!! Part III

OK, so it happened to her as well. It was the same for Kristine when she first came out. we had to send her back to the Hospital for UV treatment. But for her, it was more like, "Should we go or not?" as every visit, the (same) Doctor told us that it was not necessary as she believed that it was Mommy's BF which made the baby turn yellow. So, her advise was to wean her off for two days and gave her formulas instead. And if we got "excited" then we would have to send her in on Sunday.

So, after exposing the baby to the Sun this morning, she was still yellow and my Mum decided to take her to the Hospital (for the third time) and the Doctor said her (blood thingy) went down from borderline to an acceptable level and there is now, no guarantee that the UV treatment would make it better. So, the next visit would be on this coming Tuesday.

Does she look yellow to you?


Well, she does and the whites of her eyes
is yellow


Grandma Sunning with the baby in the Sun

Things went downhill once we put on the makeshift
sunshade for her eyes and she woke up........

Nerfs

While I was helping my technician to install a keyphone system, there was a big basket nearby. It was used to store his children's toys which were mainly guns and swords. But there, I came across some very nice ones which I could not resist in taking the pictures. Later on, I found them on the Internet and are known as Nerf guns. Unfortunately, searching for them in Malaysian's Toys R Us was futile. But there were some on eBay which, I am sure, would cost me a lot on shipping and taxes. Damn.

But I really do want them............ second hand also can.

They looked so nice, especially the one in the middle where
the grip was so "reassuring". Ha ha ha ha
The blue thingy is not a missile but shaped like so.
It is to store water for a large watergun.


With some midifications, this would not look out of place
in a Sci-Fi movie or show


Later on, from the Internet, I found out these are called Nerf
guns and the one above, is from the N-Strike series. Its a Unity
system which you can combine other weapons with it. Wow


And this one is called the Firefly which shoots glow in the
dark foam darts from its rotating barrel. What it does is
flash the darts before each shot. But the gun itself is a
beautiful design though. Some small modification and
a but of paint would make it look as if it came from
Matsamune Shirow


This is called the Maverick, which, again, is nice too
The barrel flips out (on the other side) for you to
load the bullets

The Phaser Rifle VI

I have managed to complete the software part of the LED display for the Phaser Rifle. At the moment, there are three switches:
1) Left Button
2) Right button, and
3) Trigger

In the software simulation, when the circuit is first started up, the rifle will not fire when you pull the trigger. The display will not work too. At this point, if you press the right button, you will get three short warning beeps. Only when you press the left button, will the display come to life, just like in the Star Trek:Insurrection movie:

It will start lighting up the LEDs from left to right, pause for a second before showing the rifle's power setting, which is the first LED (or, I think, is Phaser setting #8). At this time, pressing the left and right button will make the LEDs move left or right. Every press of the button will have a beep.

But if you move the LED too far right, it will give you three short beeps (beep. beep. beeeep) and too far to the left, you will get two double short beeps (beep.beep....beep.beep) OK, these parts were made up by me just so that I know when I have reached the minimum or maximum Phaser setting.

Once the rifle is active, and when you pull the trigger, there will be another circuit to light up the Luxeon LED for about half a second.

I am having problem with the programmer's compiler at the moment, so once I get this solved, I will build the circuit. Maybe later on, I'll explore on the "Overload" part. But I have to explore the "sound" part first.

Now, if only the $@#&ing compiler compiles without error!
And I know nuts about this. Dammit!

The Phaser Rifle V

So, in Star Trek Nemesis, in the scene where they start handing out the Type III Phaser rifles, you can see two Starfleet personnel checking the rifles as it was being handed out to them. One is opening the slide which contains the power cell or something and the other, pressing the left button where the leds light up in sequence from left to right. So, I think this powercell thing started from Star Trek: Enterprise's Phase pistols and so, they have to carriy this over to the present future (hah?). Even the Type II Phasers has it.

Since we do not know how the rifle works there were theories from sliding the cover as if to "load" the rifle to pressing the left button to "switch" it on.

So, the debate is still on.

Personally, my theory is this:
1) The sliding of the cover is nothing else other than to check the state of the rirle's charge
2) Pressing any of the two buttons (left or right) would bring the rifle out of stanby mode

This power cell is created from Google's free Sketchup software
Just find 20 5mm x 10mm trnapsrent red beads, slot them into metal
rods and use four high-brightness LEDs to ligth them up, pointing to
opposite directions. However, these are all guesses as I am not sure
if anyone has seen the real prop and taken measurements

Kristine's little sister

So, today is the first chance I get to see the baby and boy, is she temperamental. And she likes to be held and in the correct way too. Well, she still looks angry. Just like me. Heh.

Everyone is now commenting how much Kristine looked like her mom and how the baby looked like me. OK, both did look like me when they're less than one year old anyway.

Still, we have less than 14 days to make up our mind on naming her. Kaelynn sounds nice.

Mommy, Kristine and little sis together
Kristine seems to be taking this well


I am not sure if its true or not, but Wife believed that
if she ate Kiwi fruits, the baby would have a lot of hair
So, this little girl had a lot, even on her back and forehead

She came out pissed

After 36 hours of labour, we finally saw result at 1554 this afternoon, just a week too early. She was supposed to be due on 28th but I guess, Someone wants to give me a happy weekend. Luckily, I managed to borrow another camera (in fact, two) so, all the precious moments have been captured. Unfortunately, I cannot show them to you since it would require an 18SX. Ha ha ha ha

And boy, I think I am going to have a big problem. For you see, she came out looking quite angry and screamed at everyone as if we had just pulled her out from her slumber. I shudder to think what would happen in a year's time.

And to think Kristine was very quiet when she arrived but turned out to be a monster.

Yep, I am in deep doo-doo.

One brief second before she started screaming again
Oh, and she had a lot more hair, this time round

As this was so "sudden", she doesn't even have a name yet. I am thinking:

1) Michelle
2) Kaelynn
3) Jaenni

I would very much like to name her after some famous person in Star Trek but she would grow up to hate me forever and break all my toys.

Flavour of the month

Yeah, she likes soup now, and it does not matter
if she is holding a spoon or a fork to get at them
More headache for Mommy

Tick... tock... tick... tock....

Wife is having contractions every 15 minutes now. And last night, it was every 5 minutes. We were about to go to the Hospital this morning but then, her contractions went back to every 15 minutes. So, I am planning to take her in this evening.

And what of Mr. Fuji-san?
Sadly, in this critical moment, he is dead (again). I have made sure he has enough juice to keep going but he can't even move a millimetre. I don't think the Service Centre will be able to help me in time nor do I have enough to pay for the procedure again, if their warranty does not help.

Damn it! $@#%&*!!!!!!

How am I going to get another camera at this short time!

Kristine and the Egg Tart

Lesson for the day

Never give your spouse food in front of your children.


OK, so Kristine saw the egg tart and wants it
She bit it, she licked it and she grabbed it


And the next thing, it crumbled to the floor,
with all the crumbs


And the crumbs were all over her face


Which means bath-time for her
And that is Lesson Number One

Time, time, please pass quickly

The trip to Kuantan today is just one heck of a long drive
Felt like driving for hours (I was chauffered this time)


I wished the car would fly so I can finish my job
and go home earlier to see my Wife


And when I got home.......... OMG!

The signs are here!

Oh-oh. And I am going to Kuantan today
Keep calm, man. Keep calm.

The Phaser Rifle IV

So, which is which?

That is the question I keep asking myself.

It is not easy to fast forward and rewind and also zooming into each scene in a DVD. Not only would your mind go nuts but your remote would go as well. The problem I have at the moment is how would the trigger looked like.

In the original Star Trek Megazine, the trigger was never shown. They just point a red line at what seemed to be it and labeled it as the trigger. But after searching at the StarTrek.com website, the props showed otherwise. So, if I want to do either versions, I could but it would look hokey.

Then again, these movie props are usually made from resin and therefore, in order to save time and cost, (I assume) the propmakers would just drill a hole and bung in an electrical switch there.
So, aesthetics aside, I think I shall push away this problem until I have the electronic circuits up and running.

This is one of the pictures where the trigger is
actually an electrical push-button switch
(pic from www.startrek.com)


This version has a long tube for a switch instead
(pic from www.startrek.com)


Or, I could just make a trigger that looks like this
(Photo courtesy of nexus from startrek.com.my)


This is from John Eaves, who created the Phaser rifle,
his sketch indicated an extendable butt stock and
a folding grip. I wanted to use the foregrip as housing
for the batteries. So, this idea might have to change


The extendable butt conflicts with the diagram drawn in
Deep Space Nine's Technical manual. But then again,
John's sketches might just be a proposal, unless they
(Paramount) say the website is canon


The picture from the startrek.com website is too small
for me to see the details. Maybe I should invest in the
Deep Space Nine DVDs as it was mentioned his sketches
were in there. However, it did not say anything about the
Phaser Rifle being included although it was being used in
the TV series just before the "First Contact" movie

The Time-sharing Stall

With the Carrefour building about to be finished in another few months time, there has been a lot of traffic next to our office. With the new shoplots completed already the traffic is quite significant. And with that, a lot of stalls have opened up too. Even the local Pisang Goreng stall have opened up another "branch" nearby. Ha ha ha ha

By day, the spot has been taken up by the nasi lemak
lady. Previously, it was manned by a pair of couples,
all four of them were very young. Sometimes they are
there, and sometimes, not. Eventually, they gave up
and this lady moved into their spot from her old place
just a few metres away. Anyhow, this created some
obstruction to the traffic, especially in the morning.


Then at night, the occasional Durian stall since this is
the Durian season.

The Phaser Rifle III

So, after digging about, I found a site which has blueprints of the Phaser Rifle. Although it is not official, it is quite nice to have the files. So, I began to use Sketch-up to make the model. It turned out funny because I do not know how to tackle curve surfaces of the scope. So, you will definitely spot a lot of mistakes.

But one thing for sure, if the blueprint is correct, my proposal for the scope would be too big and I would have to use a smaller diameter tube instead.

Hoo-boy. Its too big to fit into the actual rifle scope!

The Phaser Rifle III

Since I have not had the chance to view the rifle up close, I woul dhave to assume a lot of things. So, I am assuming this little plastic thingy here would fit the rifle's scope. Its about 39mm at the front. This is for the scope in the front.

So, what I am proposing is to fit a 3W White Luxeon LED (5W is too much) into that pipe. But in the middle, I would be fitting a RM8.81 collimator lens which would narrow the radiating beam into a 10º spot, more or less. And by coincidence, the inner tube of the pipe measures about 21.6mm, which is quite OK for the 20mm lens.

How am I going to secure them? Well, I am thinking of using non conducting epoxy puttyto seal the whole area except for the other side of the Luxeon Star where the other side of the metal heatsink must connect to another larger part of a heatsink to draw away the Luxeon's heat. Since the rifle scope will be on all the time, I would either have to make a big heatsink or use a Luxeon Driver circuit or both.

This is the RM0.30 pipe


Click this to see the bigger picture
Pipe <--Collimator Lens <-- Luxeon Emitter

My new 3Watt "LUXEON" MXDL Torch II

OK, so, its not so new anymore. I have been using this torch for awhile and lately, it was giving me problems. At first I thought it was the switch at the rear end but when I checked it with my meter, it was fine. Maybe it was the barrel which was not screwed tightly to provide a good electrical path. Nope.

Then I began to examine the LED itself. Aha! One of its legs was snapped off. You see, the Luxeon LED was soldered to the metal plate and that was it. There was no other mechanical means of securing the component reliably. So, when I dropped the torch, the shock from the fall vibrated the head unit where, I guessed, the Luxeon LED and the metal plate vibrated against each other sp hard that the generated stress snapped off its tiny leg right at the body.

I had to use a blade to scrape off some of the LED's body so that there are more contact area for the solder to melt to. Dang! Maybe I should have puttied the surounding area and also get a double-sided heatsink transfer tape which costs a lot of $$$. Then again, its just a torchlight, not a RM1000K chandelier. Ha ha ha ha ha!

The read circle was where the leg snapped off and
I had cut into the body for more contact area. The
white wire above it is just a small solution to secure
the LED to the plate. I cannot use any glue as the
underside of the LED must touch the plate which
acts as the heatsink. Yeah, Luxeons are hot

A Parent's worst nightmare

You know, after a long hard day of working, I would like to come home to the Wife and Kids, have a nice bath and also some family time.

But this is the worst scenario one can come home to:

(Image taken from www.neatorama.com)

To defiant967

After seeing b26354's WIP prop, I have a rough guess on how the lighting would be. This is his picture:

http://www.b26354.co.nz/kd_prog/pictures/dsc_1695.jpg

So, the requirements are:
1. One Red LED near the barrel
2. Three 7-Segment LED Displays near the muzzle
3. Possibly a Blue LED at the handle (one pair)

So, here is a circuit diagram, assuming you're going to use a 9V battery. The 7-segment LEDs will not move and you just have to wire them as you see fit. If you have any problems, you can contact me.

The Linksys WRT54G Router

OK, so someone cannot wait until August for me to replace the router. We had to go all the way to Mid-Valley since computerwar.com do not open on Sundays. This time, I want to have a router that has wireless capability, i.e. WiFi. And I am not looking for any that acts as a print server as our printer also has a scanner. And this router has two WiFI standards, 802.11b and 802.11g, whatever that is.

Anyway, we got this for RM225 after some haggling that was so interesting, one of the customer sitting on a stool fell to the floor. She was crying as well. Sheesh

After dinner and making sure Kristine is not dumping anymore, I began to set up the router. And mind you, it was not easy since the Wizard would not let me continue until I connect to the Internet first. And I could not because there was an error with the modem. So, I used some IP scanner software to scan the router's IP and use Firefox to access it manually. Thank goodness this method works. But by the time I got it set up, it was past mid-night. And I was so wired up, I cannot sleep now and have to watch the stupid football. Something about it being the finals.

So, once I open the box, I can see the router, the envelope
with the CD inside it, the power adaptor and some blue
network cable.


Compared to my old SMR router (free), the Linksys is
much bigger. And it has blue colour too. Ha ha ha ha
I just wondered why I did not get a 3COM or Belden


When I was about to plug the Network cables, I saw
this label. Things started to go downhill from there
since I am not an IT expert