Silicon Valley Redneck

We're gonna need a bigger barrel.

This afternoon, I packed up the Barrel O' Monkeys for the first time in five days, and we took 'em down to the discount vet clinic for their first round of vaccinations.  (Being found in a Vaccinium patch doesn't count.)

In the past couple of weeks, that barrel has gone from plenty of space to a little crowded to... well, it was a tight fit getting all three of them into it.

And they're getting heavy, too.

At the clinic... well, there were dogs there, and one big friendly dog was sniffing around, and someone (most likely Southmoon) hissed, and the dog barked, and the kittens got rather wound up about this.

(They'd been wound up on the way down, too.  Top Hat actually escaped from the carrier.  Last time out, Southmoon got the zippers partway undone and almost got loose; this time Top Hot positively got out of the bag, and Joy ended up holding her for the remainder of the drive.)

It seems Southmoon took exception to being handled by a leather-beglovèd stranger, but the other two were fairly cooperative.  Hey, I've never used gloves when handling them, even at the beginning.  Gloves show a lack of trust.

They were all very quiet on the way home.  Back in the familiar living room, they happily climbed out of the carrier, ate their treats, and declared nap time.

"Once you open a barrel of monkeys, the only way to rebarrel them is to use a larger barrel."

They grow like weeds, don't they?

The kittens had their second bath this afternoon, a week and a half after the first.

Huckleberry was smelling funny again, and Top Hat's fur seemed to need some attention (with that fur, she'll probably be needing baths on a regular basis, so she'd better get used to it).

They weren't much happier about it.  Well... Huckleberry was unhappy about being put in the pan of sudsy water, and about being rinsed off, but got fairly relaxed about the "sitting in the pan of warm sudsy water and having it rubbed into his fur" part.  Southmoon's reaction was similar, but she wasn't so relaxed about the sudsing (though better than last time).  Top Hat... well, not only was she unhappy at every stage of the proceedings, but she's not as submissive as she used to be.  She struggled.

And... today they just barely fit in the pan, whereas last time there was plenty of room around the kitten during the shampooing process.

Still: operation completed without casualties, and the critters are almost dry now and will presumably be back to normal in another hour.

A rumbling of large air-movers

The last few days, I've been occasionally hearing a low rumbling in the moderate distance, as of a vintage heavy bomber or two.  Not having a kitten against my ear at the time, I suspect that someone's flying around in maybe a B-17 or -24 again.

Well... Saturday morning, if memory serves, I heard that sound and headed for the back yard for a look.  'Twas a brace of Ospreys, heading for Moffett.

So, yeah.  Four great big airscrews, which happened to be oriented more vertically than horizontally.  The sounds of WWII are new again!

Another useful chip bites the dust

In the past couple of years, I've designed a handy relay-driver chip, the Infineon TLE7232GS, into various things... none of which have been made in significant quantities, on account of being mainly parts of test fixtures that get used to test the things that get made in quantity.

Well, in ordering from Digi-Key the parts for a little add-on board, I came across the dreaded "Limited quantity available, not recommended for new design" message, with the limited quantity being 4700 or so.  And it looks like nobody else has any at all.

Eep?

I need two this week, and maybe another couple of dozen later, depending on whether there's respin of the main board before we build the second unit.

There's another part, apparently of similar functionality, the TLE7232G... which has an altogether different pinout.  I haven't yet compared the datasheets to check for fiddly stuff like software compatibility.  At least it doesn't have any NRfND notices.

Being as how I've got things on the drawing board that (a) involve relay drivers, (b) won't be built for a while yet, and (c) are meant to be products in their own right, it's a good thing I happened across this now.

(Come to think of it, the TLE7232GS may have been doomed before I started using it.  If memory serves, a few days after I bought some specimens from Digi-Key I got a call from someone at Infineon who was Very Interested in the prospect of getting any design-ins.  Like, maybe I was the first customer or something.)

Another thing for the "not this year" list

The Google I/O conference thingie does sound interesting, and I've got an idea in the queue that ties in with Android and optionally Google Glass....

...But, with the $900 price of admission (for that, I could buy half a 3D printer!) and the competition even to get a ticket, and the idea in question being one of this year's Summer Gadgets, to be built after I've got some code running on its predecessor from last year so's I can at least check out the hardware design properly, I think getting connected with the developer community is a Maybe Next Year thing.  Anyway, I'm sure there's some cheaper and lower-key way to meet Android/Google developer types, once things get closer to readiness.

No, I'm not being at all specific about the nature of the Gadget, 'cause if the idea got loose some young whippersnapper with time on his hands and a little spare cash could implement it in a couple of months.

Once again, we didn't catch Feral Ol' Mom

Make that: twice again.

The trap is set!

Yesterday evening, there was a bit of a commotion out on the patio.  Momcat?

Nope.  Something about the right size, if not a tad larger, but a black and white cow-print cat.  (I guess fancy-schmancy cat fanciers don't call it "cow print."  Prolly got some highfalutin' name like "harlequin" or "roeselare.")

Anyway.  Let the cowcat out, reset the trap, resume waiting...

This evening, there was a great commotion.  From the trap, whereof the door was closed.  Out with a flashlight, look under the cover...

It's as shaggy as Momcat, and at least as wild.  Maybe wilder.  Positively demonic, in fact.  With glowing red eyes.  And, um.  Not so gray.  More of a cream color, with gray vaguely Siamese-ish markings.

And no sign of Feral Ol' Mom's Smell.

Conclusion: what we have here isn't Feral Ol' Mom.  It may in fact be Southmoon's Dad.

And so we release another wrong wild critter, and reset the trap for another try.

Assuming we've now met both her parents, Southmoon may make an interesting study in nature vs. nurture.  She does have a certain wild aspect to her, but, at least with regard to two-legged people, is quite gentle and cuddly.

Update: in the paragraph above, after the phrase "two-legged people", insert "with whom she's familiar".  I took the Barrel O' Monkeys to the office for a while Friday, then to a neighboring office for a few minutes, and Southmoon was quite skittish around the unfamiliar people, and even hissed at one who was trying to round her up.  Meanwhile, Huckleberry was happily exploring, and Top Hat was mostly observing from a safe vantage point under a desk.

Now I need a keyboard+mouse cover

Dang kittens have started playing at the computer every time I turn my back.

If you see any out-of-character blog posts or comments, or receive any e-mails from me (possibly by way of a list) that look like someone walked across the keyboard... blame Unauthorized Furry Personnel.

I suppose a cardboard cover (or just inverting the keyboard) will work for a little while.  Gonna need something sturdy and/or anchored soon, though.

Update: actually, just adding the lock/logout widget to the panel, and remembering to click "lock" when I leave, should do the trick.

The creeping crud remaineth.

Whatever it is that I've got, I still have it....

Sore throat, randomly sore muscles, headache, fatigue, disrupted metabolism, variously feverish or chilled without regard to ambient temperature nor body temperature, body temperature deviating from my normal by cruddy little fractions of a degree.

Apparently this is Going Around, and supposedly it's flu.

Wait.  Isn't flu supposed to involve more acute symptoms, and significant fever?

And wasn't this year's flu supposed to be particularly intense?

And... didn't I hear that a cousin's husband, who'd been vaccinated, came down with a really terrible case of canonical flu, and was assured that it would have been even worse sans vaccine?

So, are there multiple strains of flu going around this year?  Swine, standard seasonal, and slow-mo seasonal?

Anyway: ugh.  Another day of going back to bed for an extra hour or so instead of getting out for morning walkies.  Bundled up today because I was getting chilled yesterday, and now I'm feeling overheated.  And, as always, there's Work To Be Done.  And Kittens To Be Played With.

(Afterthought: I must be slipping.  Eight paragraphs with nothing that bothers the spelling checker.  Nine now.)

The kittens go for a ride

Having skipped morning walkies this morning because Creeping Crud, but still needing to make a pet-supply run, I decided to take the barrel of monkeys along.

They'd had a week or so to get used to having Piggy's carrier (which claims to be a dog carrier, but must be for some sort of Far Eastern transistorized dog) standing open in the living room, and to play in and around it, so none of them put up any resistance to being put in it, though persuading the first two monkeys to stay in the barrel while I fetched the third one got to be rather amusing.

There was a bit of plaintive squeaking during the drive, both to and fro, but no signs of panic.

At the store, Southmoon promptly emerged from the carrier and wanted to go exploring.  Huckleberry stood up in the carrier, looked around, and contemplated his surroundings.  Top Hat remained tucked safely within, apparently regarding the carrier as a portable part of the familiar living room (though it doesn't, technically, have extraterritoriality).  I picked her up so people could have a look, then let her return to her hiding place.

Food for felines and avians having been procured and the kittens ooh'ed and aah'ed over, we returned home, where they happily vacated the carrier and headed back to take a nap on the floor of my office.

They certainly do have different personalities.  While Top Hat like to watch birds, she doesn't seem inclined to bother them; Southmoon, on the other hand, has the manner of a born huntress, and probably doesn't, in the long term, belong in a household with small pets, lest this sort of thing happen.  Yes, she's a cuddly, purry little thing... but I bet she'd just love to chase that chipmunk.

Update: several hours later, Top Hat was back in the Magic Transporting Bag, looking for the starter.  The others joined her.

Another technology doesn't quite do what I need.

Got a project that involves, among other things, feeding a more or less constant current, on the order of 2-3 mA, to some components, while both their voltage drop and the supply voltage may vary.

Back when I were a wee lad, there were things called "current regulator diodes," which I never had occasion to use.

And, look!  They still exist.  And are available in SMT.  And currents in the range I want.  And...

Oh.  Minimum forward voltage to ensure supplying that much current is ~2V.  My supply headroom is, worst case, rather less than 1V.

So, if in fact we end up needing current regulation (a subject which is still much open to question), a CRD won't do it.  There are other ways, but they take up more board space.

Ah, well.  Knowing they still exist is useful; I occasionally need a small constant-current source in an application where a CRD would work.