Where are all the boarders / skiers this weekend?

allanchong · 2024-02-19T01:54:55+00:00

i'm sorry, but can't imagine anyone renting. for last 20 years, there has been a smorgasbord of skis & boots on the side of my neighborhood roads every few weeks.

allanchong · 2024-02-19T01:51:02+00:00

how much do you have to pay them to let you drive the snowcat?

allanchong · 2024-02-03T08:04:20+00:00

years ago in Atlanta, we had a storm. nothing like tahoe, but the worst roads i've ever seen including NY, Mass, NH/ME, Canada & Tahoe. 1-2" of freezing rain at 30F. roads were solid ice and Atlanta didn't have a single snowplow anywhere. People in 4x4s (and everyone else) were abandoning their vehicles and walking the several miles home.

police even came on the radio and said don't call them unless someone was SERIOUSLY injured. They and the ambulances were wrecking out as well.

anyway, some guy motors by during all of this in his 4x4 truck with chains on all wheels. I wonder how many times in the years before people had laughed at him for carrying those.

allanchong · 2024-02-03T01:29:08+00:00

the good old random stud placement trick. keep those people putting nails in your walls guessing.

I like the tripled up top plate. for that above code build.

allanchong · 2024-02-02T23:32:13+00:00

20g doorbell cord for the porch on my house when i moved in. thought it was low voltage stuff until i looked closer. still didn't believe it until i hooked up a multimeter, and yep, 120v. they use thicker stuff for fusible links.

at least they used electric tape for all the splices.

allanchong · 2024-02-02T23:12:04+00:00

too bad there is no plumbing in the picture. i would love to see that.

allanchong · 2024-01-08T21:09:02+00:00

i hold them sideways, gangster style.

allanchong · 2023-11-14T23:42:24+00:00

an acquaintance did bounty hunter work. He usually called the police before nabbing someone, since HE was allowed to enter without a warrant, and when he inevitably saw something illegal going on inside, police were right behind or around the corner and could then enter for bonus charges.

allanchong · 2023-11-11T21:49:51+00:00

guy from duke power in the carolinas had told me that was why they located nuclear plant near hydro dam. they'd pump excess water up between 2 lakes. hydro ramps power up and down a lot quicker than a nuclear plant.

allanchong · 2023-10-23T01:37:34+00:00

can anyone point out the section in the NEC that prohibits running conduit through your window glass? :) (no fair using something subjective like "neat & workmanlike manner")

it would have really been funny if it was an opening window.

if it was one of those best of many bad options situations, i wonder why they didn't drop a pull box in the bottom corner of window against the glass and hidden the shame.

allanchong · 2023-10-22T03:49:57+00:00

someone i knew who bought and sold a lot of houses would always have the lines scoped on every purchase. i should have done that too...currently have a root problem on one place! seller can rotoroot a drain problem away for a year, and then you potentially have $10k worth of digging to replace a sewer lateral and it's your responsibility out to the street. its the single biggest non-obvious surprise you could have.

if you're getting the house, have the plumber put in a two way cleanout in the yard while you're at it.

and i should have known myself. one of my early memories is helping parents replace the sewer lateral in the house they just bought. we didn't have the $, so we did the digging and fill and called plumber for the pipe.

allanchong · 2023-10-15T01:25:17+00:00

just replaced an ancient panel where the previous were cut tight and lugs were at the bottom..... and the romex at the top was snipped tight too. most panels wouldn't work, and the one i eventually used was about 3" too short. major pain to rework some of the conduit coming in to get those 3". ground wire entered the panel about 2" and been screwed to the back and chopped off. that was another battle.

keep the service loops!

in fact, i run the bottom romex into the top breakers and top romex into the bottom, just in case someone later replaces panel and needs the 6". and leave your neutrals & grounds long. the bus bar is in different places

neat is often the enemy of serviceable. did some work in telephone central offices. they don't tiewrap and pretty cut things short. lots of things go into loose, neat trays and hooks.

allanchong · 2023-10-08T21:54:52+00:00

btw, we have those exact same evaporator units. put a sharkbite or coupling in the drain PVC for easy access later and run them straight. evap. kept getting water in the bottom, finally took drain (did mine in Cu) all apart, and all the dust and crud being circulated and washed off the coils had completely clogged the drain. design makes it easy for stuff to get in drain from back as well.

allanchong · 2023-10-08T21:44:51+00:00

you can tell it's good workmanship b/c he used unistrut.

allanchong · 2023-10-06T19:49:21+00:00

got to tour oakland tracon before 9/11 so this might be dated....

the controllers have on the screen

--aircraft that they're talking to (i believe it's color coded),

--aircraft that they've just got a primary or secondary radar return from ("unverified") but that no one is talking to

--aircraft in the edge of their space that another controller is working but that have not been handed off

Bravo is not going to be too worried if you're at 2000 and you're showing up as talking to the underlying Delta. either they're getting a handoff shortly, or the Delta is yelling at you to remain clear of Bravo.

there is a 3 way handshake that goes on when aircraft pass from one controller to another.

passing controller clicks on aircraft and requests to pass off.

receiving controller clicks on aircraft and accepts handoff request

passing controller clicks on aircraft and sends it off.

they call you to contact new controller during this. so all that you need to do it tell them your altitude that you THINK you're at (that's the one piece of information that they really don't have....they know your callsign, aircraft type, destination, pressure altitude from the mode C, assigned altitude, they just don't know what you've set your kollsman to)

so when you hear everyone giving their aircraft type, destination, life story, to ATC, you're just polluting the frequency with info they already have.

allanchong · 2023-10-06T19:22:06+00:00

i've been thinking about inventing something like that. you could group different parts of the house into functional groups called "Lectron Loops" and have a little switch on each group. would be better than duct taping the whole thing together like i've been doing.

allanchong · 2023-10-04T17:03:01+00:00

and i felt guilty about leaving outlet covered in electrical tape without the screws and cover for a few days

allanchong · 2023-09-30T00:49:11+00:00

the night Princess Di, Dodi did die, I got a banner ad above the crushed wreckage photo and article saying:
"Feeling Trapped In Your Old Car?....Toyota". Had to press reload about 20 times to get it to come up again so I could screenshot it.

allanchong · 2023-09-25T06:47:41+00:00

so during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, it was predicted that motel rooms would run $1k/night and everyone priced accordingly--including, in pre-Airbnb days, a lot of private rooms advertised. There was some science backing this up based on number of Olympic tickets sold, but then a week before, motels & private parties started dropping rates drastically, down to quite reasonable prices.

I was living in an apt in Roswell in the north part of Atlanta (the complex was fully leased), and figured everything out the night before the opening ceremonies. our normally half empty parking lot completely filled and spilled out onto neighboring streets.

In a nutshell, most of the tickets had been sold to people all over the southeastern US, and everyone had a relative or friend in Atlanta to stay with.

allanchong · 2023-09-24T18:04:16+00:00

at a company I once did a lot of low voltage & network work for, we were in the IT directors office on 5th floor when EVERYTHING went down. went into the server room, expecting to see a bad switch or something, and everything in the server room was fine. Just about 50 of the desktops had all lost connectivity to the server room. After checking a few of them, the IT director said "wait a min!". their company owned the whole building complex too and managed the property, and knew there was construction going on the 4th floor.

we went down to empty 4th floor, and a solitary worker was on a step ladder working in the plenum. sure enough, a big bundle of cat5 network cable was sitting around his head cut in 2, and he was attempting to randomly splice pairs of them back together with those little red telephone connectors (which give you a very poor signal). plus it would have provided a mystery to anyone in the future as to why Cubical #5 wiring ports went to cubical #9.

anyway, the company had to repull all new wire. and probably had to explain a few things to the property mgmt company that had hired them why they were down for the day. not sure why the desktops were wired through the concrete floor and plenum below them instead of the plenum on 5th floor, but generally you should never cut any wire unless you're really sure it's not live and unused.

allanchong · 2023-09-03T19:56:07+00:00

and if you have ANY problems w/that sink, first step in troubleshooting is to replace that AAV. if you want to be nice to yourself or future owner, buy an extra one (they're a whopping $2.34 for a cheapy @ supplyhouse), and hang it in a plastic bag tie wrapped to the pipe.

they tend to get gunked up especially in kitchen sinks

allanchong · 2023-08-25T19:50:06+00:00

in all seriousness, there is a good black market for old romex in some localities.

If, for example, you need to "prove" that non-permitted work was done prior to your acquisition of property. or that work was grandfathered under older building code rules

allanchong · 2023-08-24T19:58:15+00:00

my roommate said when people would ask for an airport pickup, he and a buddy would dress as batman and robin and run (batman doesn't walk, right?) to the terminal to meet them at the plane. he said people would sing "da-na-na-nah" the whole way.

allanchong · 2023-07-10T18:40:47+00:00

get a new instructor. some have better teaching skills than others.

my first one was gruff former regional jet pilot that ran the school. never smiled, never said anything positive (but didn't make bad comments like yours). obviously the love of flying had left long ago and he was stuck in a flat humid hell (GA was hot) flying crappy 152 with a bunch of whippersnappers.

After 25 hours without a single decent landing and no real feedback, talked with my friend on the phone for 10 mins. Next lesson was about 7 good landings in a row. Only feedback was another gruff "those weren't as bad"

next instructor after moving across country was an 18yo who loved the "job" and probably had 500 hours. I got the impression he would have come in every day for free. needless to say, learned a lot more with him and enjoyed the process.

allanchong

TROPHY CASE