mattb [is] always sleeping » Cool stuff

Of timepieces and bygone times

Matt Britt — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:31:46 +0000

I’ve always had a fascination with retro technology, a passion which influenced the design of my 50s-sci-fi-esque tube theremin. Recently the battery in my five or six year old watch died, which got me thinking about buying a new wristwatch (keeping the old one for rough conditions, of course). When I happened upon a series of automatic skeleton watches, I was hooked at first sight. Automatic watches use a fully mechanical movement (springs and gears and such, à la grandaddy’s pocket watch) with the addition of an asymmetrically weighted mechanism which helps keep the mainspring wound by turning as you move the watch. In “skeleton” incarnations, much of the inner workings of the automatic movement are visible through the front and back watch face, meaning you can literally see what makes the watch tick. The effect is quite stunning, and unfortunately still pictures don’t quite do it justice, but here’s one anyway:

Conveniently, the mainspring is clearly visible from the front.

Sure it will require occasional manual winding, and it’s horrendously inaccurate by modern standards (accurate to a few seconds per day at best), but the sheer Steampunk awesome-factor is nearly sufficient to impel me to buy a Victorian suit and a top hat as period-appropriate accoutrements. Just watching the balance wheel oscillate and the lever escapement rock to and fro could entertain me for hours.

Fine art

Matt Britt — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:49:03 +0000

I recently procured an excellent new addition to my bedroom décor. Doubtlessly you’ll perceive the same timeless artistic quality in it that I did.

Have you got it in you?

Chrome is rad

Matt Britt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:13:18 +0000

Google has released a beta version of their new WebKit-based browser called Chrome. In reading through the introduction comic and feature list, I couldn’t help but keep thinking “why hasn’t anybody implemented this feature before?” As someone who keeps a lot of tabs open for long periods of time, and who well knows the frustration of a JavaScript hanging the browser or a Flash crash taking the browser with it, I’m really excited about the direction they have gone. It’s just as thrilling that a company with the mindshare and clout of Google is releasing an open-source standards-compliant browser which stands a chance of putting another dent in Internet Explorer’s market dominance.

Google Chrome rendering my site

I’m actually writing this post using the Chrome browser. Above is a screenshot of how it renders my web site (correctly) and of the nifty memory manager which shows some stats on the resource usage of each tab process. Neat! There are a few glitches I’ve seen so far, but this is still a test version and what I’m seeing right now is very exciting. Now I’m just waiting in expectation of the Linux and OS X versions.

P.S. – Try typing about:internets into the address bar in Chrome. Read this if you don’t get the joke.

Motorized CSS arachnotheremin redux

Matt Britt — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:15:38 +0000

It’s been some time since I’ve posted, but I have been busy with life and such. However, here I am again with some cool site updates! First off, I’ve finally finished my series on the GT Theremin with the remaining circuit details, lots of information and photos about construction, and some results and final comments. This series of pages basically represents how I would have written the final reports for the project if I had the time and were granted total creative discretion. Please let me know if I have made any errors or omissions or if any of my explanations are unclear. Or you may just contact me to say hello; that’s fine too.

In the process of writing all these pages on the GT Theremin, I realized that my site layout afforded horizontal insufficient space for text given my penchant for verbosity. Therefore I’ve updated the style sheets to give me some breathing room and hopefully make longer pages less tedious for you to read.

2000 Suzuki SV 650 (source)

Lately I’ve been hunting hard for a motorcycle, but I haven’t had much luck as yet. I had an appointment to buy a Suzuki GS500 which I confirmed twice with the seller. When the scheduled day came and I called the seller again, he informed me that he had sold it two days earlier. Thanks a lot for letting me know! It’s not like I had taken time out of my schedule and a friend’s to meet the appointment! Sakes alive…

I really have my heart set on finding a Suzuki SV 650 (I love naked bikes), but it’s proving extremely difficult. I found one in Atlanta but couldn’t manage to pull together the necessary arrangements to purchase it and store it for a few days. I’ve seen two in this area, but they were both sold within a single day of being posted on Craigslist. One was posted Sunday afternoon, I called about it this morning, and the seller had apparently sold it before he even got my message. Oh well, the search goes on.

For even more excitement, my spider problem is still ongoing. Apartment management has been accommodating thus far, but I haven’t yet seen a reduction in the number of recluses. On the bright side, I caught a big live one over the weekend and took some pretty good photos of it. I’m going to be sending some of the specimens I’ve preserved to the entomology department (under which arachnology is typically paradoxically lumped) at NCSU for a positive identification.

Update: The entomology department at NCSU confirmed that the spiders I sent are brown recluses. Well, no surprises there.

New pad

Matt Britt — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:05:48 +0000

So about two weeks ago, I packed up most of my things into my car and this cargo van:

Now that I’m more or less settled in my new apartment here in Greensboro, I took a few photos so you guys can assess my living conditions and evaluate whether visiting me will be a safe and sanitary experience. Read on, fearless friend.

Click any of the photos below to see a larger version.

Living room and dining area (that’s Genny’s picture):

Bed room:

View of my porch through the sliding door, my closet, and a view from the entrance to my kitchen:

Bathroom and a view of the kitchen from the entrance to the apartment:

Looks pretty safe, no? It just occurred to me to take a photo of the outside of the building and related environs, but it’s raining at the moment so I’ll have to post those photos later. If you need my new address here in Greensboro, call or email me for it!

Rad Radiohead remix

Matt Britt — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:10:34 +0000

I saw this on IEEE Spectrum’s Tech Talk blog and thought it was irresistibly cool. What do you get when you combine Radiohead, obsolete technology, and a healthy dose of panache? Magic. Read on for the video.

Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.