red echo

Wow, time is flying by: today is the deadline for Mutant Vehicles registration for Burning Man. They have a fairly complex questionnaire to fill out - I guess I know what I'll be doing this evening...

In other news, my six-year-old, used-almost-constantly computer speakers seem to be giving out. The right channel won't really play anymore. Hmmm. Add that to the sand-encrusted camera, La Bête's busted ignition, and the twigged-out amp, I guess.

I flew into San Jose Airport last night and spent the day in Cupertino, working with a couple of Apple engineers on a not-very-secret compiler-related project. We made all the progress I could have hoped for, and I'm looking forward to seeing what our users have to say about the new feature.

It's been about ten years since I last visited Apple; the place looks just like it always has. I wonder how many people can still identify all the '80s-era icons engraved on the glass walls at 1 Infinite Loop?

Adam, Janet, and I took the Nomad Lounge out for its first rolling test today. We started with another trip to Lowe's for even more lumber, screws, and brackets, then packed tools, hardware, the platform modules, and the tractor into a couple of borrowed pickup trucks and headed for the wide, flat parking lot just north of Husky Stadium.

A good four hours of hot, sweaty afternoon labor later, we had our 12-foot by 16-foot platform built and rolling on ten 8-inch wheels. We unloaded the tractor, hitched it up with a tow strap, and away we went. The frame held up, the wheels ran smoothly, and the tractor had power to spare. The steering, however, did not work so well: no matter which direction the tractor went, the trailer kept on cruising straight ahead. We eventually worked out a steering system wherein I sat on the front of the platform and braked with my feet, but that is not what I would call a viable long-term solution. Time to buy some more swivel mounts for the wheels.

When Llew and Coe stopped by on their way to a barbecue, we had the platform all set up with folding chairs, the generator, and a boom box. We took them on a nice little cruise around the parking lot: four adults and the generator, plus the weight of the platform itself, and the tractor showed no strain at all. Perfect. They took pictures of the proud builders before heading off to dinner.

We spent another couple of hours disassembling the vehicle, packing everything back into the trucks, and then putting all the pieces back into their storage places at Adam's house. I was definitely tired by the time we finished. At least next time we won't have to spend so much time mounting all the brackets onto the frame, and we'll have some experience getting everything laid out and squared up, which will simplify the process.

I'm very happy with the progress we've made. The project is coming together, and the time we've spent designing it is starting to pay off. We've crossed the toughest engineering hurdles already, and the work that's left is more about comfort and appearance than function. Next we have to build the lattice wall panels, obtain a proper hitch, and set up the roof pole; I think we'll be ready for the next road test in about three more weeks. Then we'll have a month and a half 'til playa time with nothing left to do but decorate.

I took apart my little 15-watt practice amp today and now it doesn't work anymore. The amp has an optional distortion effect, which you have to engage by pressing a switch on the front of the amp itself. This is sort of inconvenient when you are playing, and I have been thinking for a while that it would be nice to use a footswitch instead. After taking it apart and looking at the circuit board for a while, I decided that the project was too complicated and put the amp back together - but now the only sound you hear is what comes from the spring-reverb unit. Oops. I tried troubleshooting for a while but couldn't find anything obviously wrong. Oh well - this is the risk I take every time I crack something open. At least I come out ahead often enough to make projects like this worthwhile in general.

We had band practice tonight. The energy level was a bit lower than usual, but we made some nice steady progress. We have three or four songs now that we can play through cleanly, and a few others that we are not exactly butchering anymore. We haven't quite found our “special sauce” yet, but that'll come in time.

We tried something new with the vocals. I brought a powered monitor and a little 4-channel mic mixer, which has a built-in compressor and a reverb effect, and we plugged in a pair of mics. In the past, we used a single mic, which shared Greg's bass amp, and the sound was as muddy as you'd expect. The new setup is a definite improvement, though it took a bit of fiddling to conquer feedback problems. It was nice to be able to amplify two voices at once, and the sound was a lot clearer. We're talking about getting two more mics, so each of us can sing as needed, which ought to be interesting.