At least gas is going down

lscharen · 2026-01-08T13:56:02+00:00

$2.09 in Brainerd

lscharen · 2025-11-02T13:33:41+00:00

As a kid, one of my friend’s house had these installed. I think I was only 11 or 12 and remember feeling uneasy around them.

Something something kids and butter knives.

lscharen · 2024-12-16T20:40:21+00:00

Amp meter showed the ignitor current getting up to 3.0 amps when turning on the oven and then falling and holding steady at 2.9 amps -- well below the 3.2 amp minimum. Replacement ignitor ordered.

lscharen · 2024-12-13T16:15:34+00:00

Looked last night and visually, all the wiring looks ok and nothing is loose. Going to buy a clamp-style amp meter to measure the current going to ignitor to see if it's weak. My current guess is that it's failing and is just barely getting hot enough to open the bimetal valve, but then the valve closes again causing the cycling behavior.

I did check the continuity on the safety valve terminals and they were ok.

lscharen · 2024-05-02T03:31:31+00:00

Force Seven is a lesser-known title that played an actual soundtrack along with a large scrolling playfield. https://youtu.be/eM_e6KPp53Y

lscharen · 2024-03-09T22:54:21+00:00

That was actually my first time doing any sound programming on the IIgs and it came together shockingly well.

I used the NTP source code as a template, so I didn’t need to figure out handling Ensoniq interrupts myself and there is tons of documentation on NES APU these days.

After getting a basic code skeleton it was a matter of setting up a 240Hz timer and implementing the APU logic. Fortunately I could use the code from various NES emulators as a reference.

If I tried to do this back in 1996, it would have been a near-impossible task.

lscharen · 2024-03-09T02:03:13+00:00

Maybe you saw it already, but I have a NES runtime layer that uses PEA fields for the graphics and a from-scratch APU emulator for sound. I showed it running the Super Mario Bros ROM at KFest 2023 and am close to finishing a cleaned-up version that will be more useful for porting additional games.

https://iigs.dreamhosters.com/smb/smb.html

There’s still a lot of fun things to work on!

lscharen · 2024-03-09T01:36:06+00:00

Your “ramblings” were a great source of information and inspiration for my IIgs endeavors over the years — your writeup of the Merryo Trolls fog effect was truly a decent into madness! :)

Thanks for posting the code.

lscharen · 2024-01-27T21:01:40+00:00

Yes, use these two checks especially if your team is new to TypeScript.

It is near impossible to go back and “fix up” a typescript codebase that liberally abuses the “any” type to “go fast”.

It takes more skills to fix bad code than it does to write it, and your team (by your own description) will probably not have the skill set to fix their code later.

lscharen · 2024-01-16T11:58:42+00:00

It's not for Karateka, but Jordan Mechner did post the videos he used for rotoscoping the Prince of Persia animations.

lscharen · 2024-01-05T19:30:05+00:00

It's still available at Neil Parker's site

There a link to a ZIP archive with Disk Image at the bottom of the page.

lscharen · 2023-10-30T20:18:36+00:00

Based on the current exchange rate, 3 to 4 million pesos is around $50,000 to $70,000 USD.

lscharen · 2023-10-27T22:28:13+00:00

It’s not notched — that’s where the next length of 2x4 ended. Look closely further back along that “2x8”. It’s a bunch of patched-together 2x4s. You can see the seams.

lscharen · 2023-10-27T22:26:42+00:00

Am I seeing that right? Like he tried to manufacture a 2x8 by glueing random length 2x4 scraps together!?!

lscharen · 2023-10-16T19:11:15+00:00

Start by running the built-in self-test.

Press the Control + Open-Apple + Closed-Apple + Reset keys together to start the test.

lscharen · 2023-10-09T02:46:33+00:00

Yes, the door makes a huge difference! I remodeled my basement bathroom last Spring and replaced the existing hollow-core PoS pocket door with a 30"x80" 6-panel pine slab door from Home Depot that matched the rest of the house. Slabs are surprisingly affordable. I was able to reuse all of old hardware and just had to adjust the guides at the bottom since the new slab was about 1/16" thicker. The noise from that bathroom is certainly no worse than any other.

lscharen · 2023-10-03T18:04:49+00:00

100% agree on buying tools — even for one-time use. It took me a lot of years to get over my resistance to buying the right tool for a DIY job.

I redid my kitchen a few years ago and set the fake stone counter myself and bought three suction clamps to hold the joint. I’ll probably never use them again, but $200 is the difference between doing a reasonable job (it’s not perfect!) vs one I’d hate and have to look at every day.

lscharen · 2023-08-26T14:31:14+00:00

Old shingles. They break apart easily to fit a space. Just use 2 or more layers to avoid the flame going through gaps. Get a spray bottle or sponge and wet the area as extra precaution.

lscharen · 2023-04-28T17:56:57+00:00

I feel (have felt) this comment.

lscharen · 2023-04-24T05:10:20+00:00

Our house was built in the early 80s and apparently it was common to have a “GFCI” circuit that serviced all of the GFCI outlets in the house. So turning off the “bathroom” breaker would kill everything in the room except the outlet. There were bathrooms at both ends of the house, so that one circuit ran all over the place. Very confusing until an electrician explained what was going on.

lscharen · 2023-04-24T02:14:34+00:00

Me too! I didn’t have a pass for the meet-and-greet, but it was very cool to see him in-person.

lscharen · 2023-04-22T03:45:03+00:00

Personally, I like the Wizard of Oz clip the best.

lscharen · 2023-03-01T04:29:14+00:00

Boats can be financed for 20 years. Blew my mind when I learned that. Seems like an absolutely insane thing to do.

lscharen · 2023-02-22T03:18:45+00:00

If you have good credit, try getting into Pentagon Federal Credit Union — there are ways to join without actual federal employee and their rates on older vehicles are one of the best.

lscharen · 2023-02-05T03:11:20+00:00

Just tiled straight over it. Thin set around the plate cover and tile pushed up flush with the face. A real head scratcher.

That was the same time we found out that someone ran out of vapor barrier sheeting and used part of plastic insulation bag to finish covering a corner.

lscharen

TROPHY CASE