You Think You Have Translation Problems?

In his book, Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose notes the following translation sequence occurred when Lewis and Clark met the Wallawalla Indians in April 1806. Lewis speaks in English George Drouillard or Francis Labiche, French Canadian soldiers in the expedition, translate this into French. Toussaint Charbonneau, a 45-year-old French Canadian trapper who speaks no English, translates this into Hidatsa, a language he has picked up in the course of trading with the Indians. Sacagawea, Charbonneau’s fifteen-year-old Shoshone wife who had been captured by the Hidatsa four years earlier, translates this into Shoshone. A Shoshone woman held captive by the Wallawallas translates this into Wallawalla, a language related to Nez Perce. This was considered an improvement over the sign-language they had been using with the Indians further west.

Computer Case Mod for "Gondor"

 

I assembled my first custom-made desktop computer several years ago when I was still living in Utah. My youngest son, Alan, had actually put it together a year or two before that, but he was upgrading and I wanted something better than the MacBook BYU had issued me as a work computer.

A DALL-E Short Story

 

This story starts with the simple inquiry to DALL-E mini, shown above.

Imagining Feelings with DALL-E Mini

 

DALL-E mini is a app that converts text into images.  It's based on a larger neural net called (not surprisingly) DALL-E.  The main public usage of DALL-E mini seems to be the generating of silly memes like those linked in this article.

One really interesting use, however, is to see the kind of images it generates when you type in feelings and emotions that are rarely associated with a specific image.  The images above are from "existential angst."

Building Westmarch, my Home NAS

 

A couple of months ago my main desk top computer, which I built two years ago at the begining of the COVID pandemic quit working.  Diagnosing the problem took me down a real rabbit-hole of possible parts problems and I ended up with some extra working parts at the end of that journey.  (The problem turned out to be a bad HDD.)  As a result I decided to see if I could cobble together a working home NAS.

There's something about ...rungus!

 

Not long ago a comedian named Guy Kelly typed in the nonsense name, Crungus, into DALL-E mini and got the horrifying result above.  DALL-E mini is a app that converts text into images.  It's based on a larger neural net called (not surprisingly) DALL-E.

What is a Mergopus?

 

Is this a mergopus?

What exactly is a mergopus?  Try searching on your favorite internet search engine and you will find no information on the word.  This is because it is a nonsense word I made up a few days ago.

Family Cars

Looking through old slides and other photos, I saw several automobiles that I vividly remember from my childhood.  Also some others that just look really cool, but which predate my arrival on this planet.

Ford F-Series Pickup 1st Generation owned by Russell and LaVon Phillips

Cleaning Old Slides

I have spent the past several months scanning old slides that were taken by my father and grandfather.  Some of the loose older slides were very dirty and smudged.  I originally scanned these "as is", but after some reading online decided to try cleaning them up.  I used a spray bottle with 99.5% pure alcohol and some microfiber cloths.  The images below show the before and after photos.

  

Click on any image to view a larger version.  Left and right arrows allow you to quckly tab through the images and compare the before and after versions.

Repairing a Colt 1861 Navy Revolver

I was visiting my mother in February this year and chanced across the above revolver in an old chest full of things from my great grandfather, George Francis (Frank) Crawforth.  I posted this photo to Facebook asking if anyone could identify it and two of my mission companions, Gary Mackelprang and Glen Leewright informed me that it is an 1861 Colt Navy cap and ball revolver.  This one has a serial number of 12101, which the Colt serial number website says was manufactured in 1863.

I contacted several gunsmiths about restoring it and they all informed me that the gun is too far gone for full restoration and would not be worth the cost.  The cylinder is rust welded to the cylinder pin and will not rotate.  I tried several methods of loosening the weld, but none worked.  In the end, I have decided to clean it up and put a trigger guard and grip back on the gun.  The plunger is also missing, and that will need to be replaced and the trigger is broken and needs replacement as well.  Since the cylinder does not turn, I can't fully repair the action, but I can get the trigger and hammer to work.

I'm documenting the repair process below.

Two Methods of Converting 8mm Film to Digital

A couple of decades ago I got a copy of some of my grandfather's old 8mm home movies he filmed in the 1960s.  These films were played on an 8mm film projecter onto a screen and recorded again using a VHS camcorder.  I got a copy of this tape.  About a decade ago, I digitalized all my VHS tapes using a VHD to DVD converter deck.  This included the tape with my grandfather's movies.  Then a few years later, I converted the DVD files to mp4 format to share with family more easily.

Favorite Albums since 2000

These are my favorite albums since 2000 - (in progress)

Sailing to Philadelphia (2000) - Mark Knopfler

Favorite Albums of the 80s and 90s

These are the albums I regularly played over and over again in the 1980s and 1990s.

Eye in the Sky (1982) - Alan Parsons Project

My Favorite Science Fiction

These are my favorite science fiction (not fantasy) books of all time.

The City and the Stars (1956) - Arthur C. Clarke

Favorite Albums from my Youth

These are the albums I listened to over and over during my formative years in the 1970s.

The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970 (1973) - The Beatles

Why Offer COVID Relief Money to Big Business?

“Not one dime of the relief funds should go to big business.”  I saw something on Twitter yesterday to this effect.  Most people relate to the sentiment.  Our primary concern should be the well-being of ordinary people, most of whom are workers and not owners of big businesses.

Why then do economists and policy makers include bailouts and loans in their prescriptions for addressing the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic?   Perhaps economists and policy makers are just heartless bastards that have sold out to the plutocracy.  Some are and have, but the vast majority are not and have not.  There are actaully sound reasons why relief to business helps workers.

Musical Gems on Twitter

I started a Twitter account just to post musical gems without long explanations.

The handle is @musical_gems.

And, of course, you can access the playlist. "Musical Gems" on Spotify, where my userid is kerkphil.

Muiscal Gems - You've got Another Thing Comin'

One of my favorite genres of music is hard rock.  Classic rock, punk, metal, power pop.  I really enjoy the sound of heavy electric guitars and pounding drums!.  I also love a good melody and there are actually some artists that can pull both of these off at the same time.  I have an growing playlist on Spotify (userid: kerkphil) called "Best Heavy Music" that showcases some of my favorites.

One such group is Judas Priest.  They are one of the pioneers of Heavy Metal, formed in 1969 and have been going strong since.  My favorite song by Judas Priest is "You've got Another Thing Comin'" from their 1982 album, Screaming for Vengance.

A Brush with Death!

We had an intense storm front blow through the DC area yesterday afternoon and it knocked out the power in our neighborhood for about eight hours.  It was tough, but as my Twitter feed shows, I am a survivor!

6:05 PM - 23 May 2019
Power has been out in my section of Arlington for almost 3 hours now.  I've slept for 2 1/2 of that, but it sure feels like the end of the world.

6:29 PM - 23 May 2019
Daylight is slowly fading and I fear the mobs with torches will materialize soon.

Musical Gems - Gimme Your Money Please

BTS is the nickname of a K-pop band known in Korean as 방탄소년단 which translates roughly as "bulletproof youth group."  My wife, who was born in Korea, is a big fan.  But long before there was BTS, there was BTO - Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Bachman Turner Overdrive was founded in the early seventies.  Randy Bachman left the highly successful Canadian group, The Guess Who, in 1970.  He formed a new group, Brave Belt in 1971 with his brother Robbie and Chad Allen, a former bandmate from the Guess Who.  C. F. Turner and Randy's brother, Tim, joined the group after the first album.  Turner took over the lead vocals from Allen who left the group.  Brave Belt issued two albums and changed their name to Bachman-Turner Overdrive for the third album.  The group's name came from the two surnames in the group, Bachman (Randy, Robbi, and Tim) and Turner; and from the name of a trucking magazine they saw in the Colonial Steak House in Windsor, Ontario.

BTO's first album was the eponymous Bachman-Turner Overdrive.  And the first track on that album was a song called, "Gimme Your Money Please."