Last, Last Day

Today is my third, and last, last day working for IBM.  The first time, in 1999, the Austin card assembly plant was divested to Solectron.  Coincidentally, we were moving to Florida and I ended up back at IBM in field technical support.  In 2010, IBM laid off most of my group, for dubious reasons.  A year later (after months of false starts), I was rehired with the promise of “getting everything back”.  You can imagine what happened with that promise, but that is another story.

And today marks the closing of another divestiture of the Retail Store division to Toshiba, and my last, last day.  I couldn’t be happier about it.

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Project 365+33

On 11-11-11, I started yet another daily photo project.  The plan this time is to take and post a daily photo for 398 days.  Since 2012 is a leap year this should technically be titled “Project 366+32”.  But 2008’s project was titled Project 365, so I’m calling this Project 365+33.  Plus, I’ve run out of fingers to figure out the correct count.

This project was partially inspired by a new camera purchase, the Canon Powershot Elph 300HS.  Great little camera, with a very wide, for such a tiny camera, 24mm lens.  I quickly cracked the screen by knocking it off a table (it’s very thin), prompting a second purchase before they were discontinued.  Got the second one at an even better deal, so every member of the BackAmp Research team is now fully equipped.

How to Fix a Blackburn TPS-2 Bicycle Pump

Last night, my (previously) trusty TPS-2 bike pump failed with a large POP.  At first, I thought the bike tube had blown but I quickly realized the hose on the bike pump had split open.  I didn’t think to take any photos, but  (deleted) had a nearly identical problem, check out (deleted)’s photos  others on the internet seem to have had similar problems.  (Note: For some reason, the site I noted deleted my comments on their blog.  No idea why, but I won’t bother them with any incoming traffic.)

If your TPS-2 fails like this, try the following:

Step 1:  Call Blackburn and request a replacement under their lifetime warranty.  I called this morning and was promised an Air Tower 2, since they no longer make the TPS-2 nor stock parts for it.  You’re entitled to a replacement, even if you have some success with the following steps, who knows when the hose will fail again.

Step 2: If you’re like me, think about whether you might be able to fix it and dig the old pump out of the trash.

Step 3: Remove the hose from the pump itself by turning the knurled knob where the hose attaches.   I had to use channel lock pliers to get this loose.

Step 4: Examine the knob and hose.  The hose feeds through the knob housing and pushes onto a barb fitting inside the knob.  You might be able to push the hose/fitting out the wide end of the knob with a screwdriver.  In my case, I picked at the torn end of the hose with pliers until it came loose from the fitting, which then just fell out.

Step 5: Remove any remaining hose remnants from the barb fitting.

Step 6: Cut the remaining hose (with the valve attached at the other end) straight across beyond the damaged area.

Step 7: Push the cut end of the hose through the small end of the knurled knob.  Then press the barb fitting into the cut end of the hose.  Be sure that the hose is pushed completely onto the fitting, past the barbed end of the fitting and up to the flat area.

Step 8: Pull the hose gently to get the barb fitting back into the knob and then screw the knurled knob back onto the pump housing.  At this point, I was able to use the pump, but had some slow leakage from the knob causing the gauge to quickly drop to zero and some pressure lost from the tire.

Step 9: If needed, use pliers or a strong grip to tighten the knurled knob completely to the pump housing.

I think that the original build of this part of the pump may have included some sealant where the hose enters the knob.  At the moment, my TPS-2 is not leaking, but I may try sealing this area with Goop or Gorilla Glue if I have leaks in the future.

Once you get the torn rubber from the hose removed, you will see that this all goes together very simply.  Tightness of reinstalling the hose and knob appear to be the keys to getting a (mostly) leak free operation.

A Story That Could Be True

If you were exchanged in the cradle and
your real mother died
without ever telling the story
then no one knows your name,
and somewhere in the world
your father is lost and needs you
but you are far away.

He can never find
how true you are, how ready.
When the great wind comes
and the robberies of the rain
you stand on the corner shivering.
The people who go by–
you wonder at their calm.

They miss the whisper that runs
any day in your mind,
“Who are you really, wanderer?”–
and the answer you have to give
no matter how dark and cold
the world around you is:
“Maybe I’m a king.”

William Stafford

Great scene at the end of the pilot for the Riches where Eddie Izzard recites the last stanza to a poetry professor.

Back to the Future

This week, BackAmp Research reopened our Minneapolis and Chicago satellite offices as part of our primary client restructuring.

Menard

This is the classic version of the Menard family crest.  The inscription that goes with it is:

“D’or a une main sen., tentant un arc. de gu, bande de sa., pose en pal”

Or for the Latin challenged:

“Gold, A left hand holding a red bow, stringed black, posed vertically.”

Family lore says that Pierre Menard is either my great-great-great-great grandfather or my great*5 grandfather. Either way, my Dad’s extensive work to connect us genealogically has not proven this out. Pierre Menard was a fur trader in his youth and a contemporary of Lewis and Clark. He later became active in Illinios state politics and was the state’s first Lieutenant Governer.

As far as we know, we’re no kin to the Menard’s hardware stores in the midwest (or, by association, the Menard’s racing team). At least, they haven’t been sending us any checks.

“Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.” — John Galsworthy

Berlin U-Bahn

Circa 1975

An old friend recently returned from a work trip to Berlin.  Now and then I get a decent work trip too, although it seems like I usually end up in Cave City, KY or making seven trips in a row to Columbus, OH.  I visited Berlin in 1977 during a high school summer student exchange program.  Berlin was far and away the most metropolitan place I had ever been and remains one of my favorite, albeit fuzzy, travel memories.

This subway map of the U-Bahn was published in 1975 and is notable for the closed, “ghost” stations of then East Berlin.  We traveled regularly on the U8 which, at that time, ended at the Gesundbrunnen station.  That station served the Wedding district, where our youth hostel and the Flakturm Humboldthain were located.