Category: Tim

Tim’s contributions

Posted on

New Zealand pictures are up…

2872

A bit of a rush job – it’s challenging to get all the pictures edited, organized and posted, and I think some of my edits might not have made it through to the posted jpegs, but here they are anyway. The main page is here.

Over time I’ll try to get in and edit some of the notes so you know where they are from and so on, but I have at least organized them into sub-galleries, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find your way around.

One of the best things we did was a trip to Akaroa, and a swim with the local Hector’s Dolphins in the wild. These are the smallest dolphins in the world, and endangered. The Akaroa Harbour is a sanctuary for them. Here’s the site for the company we went with – their pictures are better than mine! Akaroa was a French colony, and retains some of the French character in the street names, for example. Also some great cooking!

Have fun!

tim

Posted on

Back from a great trip to New Zealand

Jeremy and I went on February 6th, and Marina and Caelean joined us on the 16th. We spent our time in Christchurch, where I have a school friend who was kind enough to have us to stay for part of the time and to help us get oriented. We rented a house in Diamond Harbour, about 45 minutes from the center of town, and across from the main port of Lyttleton.

More to come, including some pictures as I get organized.

Posted on

Enjoying Seattle

We’re just enjoying a few days in Seattle – visiting the Public Market, the first Starbucks store, and today trips to Bainbridge Island for lunch, and the Boeing factory north of Seattle. Typical Seattle weather, I gather – lots of cloud, some rain, but today a bit of sun. The trip to Bainbridge Island was especially beautiful – I’ll post some pictures in a while.

At the Boeing factory we saw the production lines for the 747, the 777, and the new 787 Dreamliner, which will fly later this year. Despite being 50% lighter than a 777, the 787 is only 20% more fuel-efficient, which was a surprise to me. Still a big step forward, based mainly on much greater use of composites (carbon fiber etc.).Our plan for tomorrow is to see the Seattle Center – the Experience Music Project and the Pacific Science Center, and of course the Space Needle.

Posted on

Porsche 944 Turbo RIP

Alas, my car was destroyed by a rear-ender in Los Gatos a couple of weeks ago. I think the driver was changing lane and didn’t see the line of traffic in front. The collision was strong enough to push me into four more cars, but I think mine was the only one to be a total loss. Fortunately no-one seems to have suffered any real injuries, although I had a stiff neck for a while. Apart from the loss of a car of which I was rather fond, the biggest issue is the time and cost of finding a replacement.

I’ve settled on an Acura RDX as a replacement: it’s a small SUV like thing that drives like a car, but is a bit higher and has good space and practicality. The practicality will finally allow me to tow a small boat, as well as taking lots of tools and wood etc. in its boot.

It has a voice operated control system that has trouble with my accent – I say things like “navigate to home” and it replies “air conditioning off” or “fan level six”. I just hope it’s not running Windows.

This image is from the launch of the car – mine is a pearl white – rather like my first 944 Turbo.

Posted on

DIY furniture

I’ve always enjoyed woodwork – ever since I was introduced to it at school, building simple things like a pencil case and a tray. True craftsmanship is a discipline I find hard, however, so I’ve tended to find quick and efficient ways to make things. I enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of design as well.

ShoeRackBookCase
These are two recent pieces – a shoe rack for the front door (we tend not to wear shoes inside), and a long, low bookcase that’s also big enough to store records.

They are built from 3/4″ birch ply – reasonably good quality at $40 / sheet, but tricky to cut without splitting. I use mitred joints for the look – without dowels or biscuits these were the very devil to glue up – and double thickness for the carcass to create a strong outline. The shelves of the shoe rack are 1/4″ marine ply (oukoume), and everything is finished in clear lacquer.

Lacquer turns out to be a very easy finish to apply – brush it on and it dries almost instantly. Use steel wool (very fine – 0000 grade) to polish the surface and keep on adding coats until you’ve had enough.

The downside of lacquer is that it is easily damaged by water – not a good surface if people are going to put damp glasses down, as I have already sadly discovered. At least with a DIY piece I don’t feel bad about sanding it down and putting on more lacquer.

Posted on

Small website updates

I’ve added a “Blogroll” – this is a standard wordpress feature that puts favourite links in the sidebar. These are just a few of the sites I enjoy. You can find more on the Favourites page (from the links at the top of the screen).

 I’ve also added a set of random images from the gallery at the bottom of the sidebar. Clicking on one will take you to the full sized image in the gallery.

Posted on

New speakers in the living room

2557

I’ve spent the past couple of months building a new set of speakers based on a design by Wayne Parham (Pi Speakers). They are three-way horn-loaded speakers, using high quality PA (public address) drivers that are a lot more efficient than the speakers they are replacing.At the weekend I finally was able to install the new Pi Sevens in the living room. Here’s a first set of impressions.

My system is as follows:

  • Townshend Rock III turntable with Grado MM cardtridge.
  •  EAR 834P phono stage
  •  Naim CDP8i CD player
  •  First Sound passive “preamp”
  • Music Reference RM9 tube amplifier
  • Mixed cables – DIY solid silver, Cardas speaker cables

The speakers replace my Thiel CS3.6 floor-standers, in roughly the same locations (corners). The room is sub-optimal in that the speakers are in corners that also house bookcases, and there’s a baby grand piano between the speakers along the same wall. However, there’s no sign yet of any piano-contributed vibration.

I’ve been listening to lots of stuff: Beatles, Tom Paxton, King’s Singers, Lieder (Brahms, Schubert), Wagner, Gilbert & Sullivan, Dave Brubeck, and a mix of CDs and records.

The first impression is of a very delicate and accurate mid-range. The King’s Singers have never sounded better. The mid-horns seem solid and unfussy. The treble is clear, but I think a bit recessed, and definitely less audible than with the Thiels. The bass I’m not quite sure about yet. Clearly the power of the woofer is exciting a couple of room modes, and I will need to build some tube traps or something, and possibly alter the room layout a bit (I’m sitting against the back wall, which is probably not ideal). The most obvious effect is on plucked bass lines, and also some coloration on male voices. But except for the notes that are too loud, the bass seems clear and unobtrusive. I don’t know if I’m really getting all the extension I was expecting – this may be because of the bookcases, or (and I hope not) it’s possible the cabinets leak. I have been unable to detect much port action so far.

The other major change is the increased level of dynamics. I find I have to adjust the volume for every recording separately – I never needed to do that before. Popular recordings with lots of compression need to be turned well down. Classical recordings with wide dynamic range can be turned up and I still get good pianissimo, with exciting climaxes. The bass excitation limits my ability to listen loud – especially with bass or baritone voices.

I should mention Marina’s view – she has expressed three opinions:

1. “They are bigger than you led me to believe”
2. “They are uglier than I thought”
3. “They sound much better than the old speakers.”

…so I guess I get to keep them, but I will need to finish the veneering and clean up the wiring etc.

Posted on

Santorini!

2201

One of the world’s great photogenic places.  Extraordinary beauty, and a quiet sense of isolation make it a great place to visit.

2127

I was there in May, following a conference. May is a good time to visit. It was hot, but not unbearable, and I did a lot of walking. The roads are tiny, and I imagine that in summer it must be very crowded, but it was quite empty when I was there.
Lots of pleasures to be found – the landscape, the architecture, the food, and of course the blue sea, all around.

Posted on

Serendipitous Sail


I was out walking in Bourne End last week while in the UK, and I was surprised to see a clutch of OK dinghies – 4m sailing dinghies – sitting on the grass by the Thames. This is a boat I used to sail when I was a teenager in New Zealand. It’s a single-hander, quite challenging, and lots of fun. Standing around were a group of people with name tags. It turns out this was the official 50th birthday party of the boat!

I gate-crashed the party, and secured an invitation to sail in an informal race as a result of the kindness of one of the sailors there. After rushing away and borrowing some clothes I came back and with some trepidation launched myself into the river. The thing about these boats is that the boom comes very low – in my old boat it would actually touch the deck. The implication of this is that you need to be flexible and quick to avoid cracking yourself with the boom, or getting it caught on your head or life jacket – usually with disastrous consequences.

I discovered that while I could still sail the boat, I am far from competitive, and made a rash of mistakes that led to a less than stellar result in the race. Still, I beat a number of people, including a few who sail those boats regularly at that club, so not too bad, I guess. And I should mention perhaps that a few of the sailors are in the top 100 worldwide, so I think I did OK. To my chagrin I found that after the race was over, and the boat returned to its owner, I was so stiff and sore I could hardly walk! But it was well worth it, and a serendipitous pleasure on the last day of my trip to the UK.

…I should point out that the picture above is not of me…but I may be somewhere in this one which was taken on the day, prior to the rather messy start of our race.

Posted on

Sailing in the Bay

Merit 25After a busy week we all went up to Redwood City and spent a couple of hours out on the water in a Merit 25. The boat is apparently based on the J24, but has better accomodation and is more of a cruiser. The boys enjoyed taking the helm and helping with the rigging, and of course sitting on the bow getting wet as we surfed down the waves!

It was surprisingly warm, with moderate winds and waves. Nice to be out on the water again, even if in a very tender monohull (half-cat). Two hours really only gives enough time to go out and come back – tacking out, running back – although the wind changed a bit on the way back in and we ended up close-hauled for a while and had to tack up the channel.

The affair was organized by Spinnaker Sailing – they offer Friday night sails as well as club memberships, bareboating, classes etc.