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A Decent Netbook for Under $250?
Who says you can't change the desktop background on Windows 7 Starter Edition? My first hands-on exposure to netbooks was a couple of years ago, when I was trying to find a small computer that we could...
View ArticleOh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! – Stringz’n'Thingz Revisited
I received a lot of positive feedback on my 2010 project to rejuvenate and expand a PAiA string synthesizer, but one reader wrote, "I think you are nuts. The Stringz’n'Thingz was a terrible toy –...
View ArticleComparing Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black and Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite
Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is a classic ink with a loyal following among many fountain pen users. It is deep blue-grey in colour, shades nicely on most paper, and perhaps most importantly, is a fairly dry...
View Article9th International Modelica Conference
These are some photos from the 9th International Modelica Conference, in Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich Germany. The conference was held at the Veranstaltungsforum Fürstenfeld, a former monastery. These...
View ArticleThe Making of a Lamy Frankenpen
About a year ago, my parents’ friends in Germany gave me a pair of fountain pens that they no longer used. One was a Lamy ST, which is still in production, and the other was a Lamy 25P school pen that...
View ArticleRepairing a Scratched Acrylic Watch Crystal
I recently purchased a Sekonda branded mechanical alarm wristwatch, made in the USSR in the 70s or 80s. In addition to needing a complete overhaul of the Poljot (Полет) 2612.1 movement (which I will...
View ArticleRestoring a Mechanical Russian Alarm Watch
Shortly after my interest in Russian mechanical watches began, a particular Poljot (Полет) model equipped with a 2612.1 alarm movement caught my eye. After watching sales of this watch on eBay for a...
View ArticleTurn a NATO Strap into a Two Piece Watch Strap
After getting hooked on Russian watches, I picked up a used Soviet-era Vostok "Generalskie" (Восток "Генеральские") with a paratrooper-themed dial. Since I prefer working with horses over jumping out...
View ArticleA Riff on a Russian Navigator’s Watch
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of different chronograph watches based on the Poljot 3133 manual winding movement. One that caught my eye early on was the Soviet-era Sturmanskie (Штурманские), as it...
View ArticleAn Overview of My Watch Collection
The watch collecting bug first bit me in late 2012, when an elegant Russian Strela (Стрела) hand wound mechanical chronograph caught my eye. Until then, I hadn't realized affordable mechanical watches...
View ArticleVelocimaster V-33: An Omega Speedmaster X-33 Homage
The first time I saw the Omega Speedmaster X-33 analog-digital watch, I didn’t like it all that much. I had just started collecting Russian mechanical watches and was turning up my nose at quartz...
View ArticleWhy Negative LCDs Are So Hard to Read
Many watches have a so-called "negative" liquid crystal display (LCD), where the background is dark and the digits are light. I've often read complaints about them being difficult to read in less than...
View ArticleBlack Lagoon: An Homage to the Tudor Heritage Black Bay
The offerings from Rolex and Tudor have never appealed to me. There are so many Submariner look-alikes out there, that there's little to differentiate the real thing. Then, Tudor released the Heritage...
View ArticleMaking Custom Watch Dials
The selection of aftermarket dials available for customizing watches is growing steadily, but depends on the movement being used, with Seiko-compatible dials being most common. For other movements, the...
View ArticleChord EGG 2015: Remaking a PAiA Classic
The Stereo Chord EGG was a novel little circuit introduced in kit form by PAiA in 1976 as an interesting application of a then-new top octave generator chip. This kit hasn't been produced in decades,...
View ArticleBuilding a Musical Sunrise Quartz Alarm Clock
For the past twenty years, I've been waking up to an LED alarm clock, but the large glowing red digits disturb my sleep. As both an electronic hobbyist and amateur watchmaker, I decided to build my own...
View ArticleA Display Case for My Slide Rule Collection
I've been collecting slide rules since 2007, and until now, have kept my collection in a large shoebox in a drawer. I have been wanting to build a proper display case for them for a few years now, and...
View ArticleRebuilding a Hammond AO-29 Amplifier from the Ground Up
I've owned my Hammond organ for eight years now, and although working quite well, there was still an unresolved issue of a rumbling or rushing sound, whether or not anything was being played at the...
View ArticleA Compact Home-Made Raspberry Pi Tablet
After recently discovering the Raspberry Pi and its matching 7-inch touchscreen, the first thing that popped into my head was that I could build a tablet. Mine certainly isn’t the first Pi-based...
View ArticleMusicRack – A Digital Sheet Music Display System
MusicRack is a simple yet flexible digital sheet music display system that I developed for the Raspberry Pi, but which can also be built on other Linux systems, and probably Mac and Windows too. The...
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