Smiles for Miles

Recent events....Wifey babysat our neice. I was going to give her the nickname Blighthead but I thought my sis might kill me. I'll have to think up a better one. Anyhoo, we have a video of her dancing to the music that Nora's swing makes. Good stuff.

I have a buddy from college (whom I will refer to as Smiles) that has always kept in touch, sending interesting emails and photos of events in his life. He just married a girl that we both went to college with and invited me to their reception. So, we called up The Major and made plans to stay with them for the weekend and attend Smiles' reception.

The traffic was horrible on the way to the Springs but we made it down their safely, if a little later than expected. We got up and went on a brisk little hike in the mountains. It was the perfect distance for a relaxing Saturday excursion. We had a lazy afternoon and then Kristy and I headed out to the reception.

I got to catch up with several people I went to school with and see Smiles again. They had a beautiful wedding on the cliffs of France. A reggae band played at the reception. They were really good, Nora liked the reggae music (seriously, lots of smiles) but we were concerned that the amplitude of the sonic waves might be slightly intense for newly formed ear drums. In other words: kinda loud for a baby.


We had some delicious fajitas for Sunday lunch, I played some quick blues guitar, and then we were off for home again. I sat in back with Nora on the way home. I was reading a book to pass the time (Lawrence Block's "Hit Parade" if you care) and every time I'd look up at her she'd give me a huge smile. I love it when she does that, her little face just lights up.

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here. I know the posts are infrequent and boring but at least I'm getting some pictures up now and then.

Weirdest Coincidence Ever?

Today was the weirdest day I've had in awhile. I went FamousGhost this morning with my boss to present a final project to a client. I have never been to FamousGhost, or if I have, it was just passing through.

The project involved a photo shoot and bringing in lots of different elements into an interactive online screening video. There were about 8-10 people at the presentation.

I was very involved in all aspects of the project, reviewing photos, meeting the clients, programming the background logic, etc. One of the client's wives was in the photo shoot as we needed a few extra people (I wasn't actually on scene for the photo shoot).

So, we're watching the final piece and they're talking about the video and someone mentions that his wife (we'll call her "Sabe") did a great job, calling her by name. I was thinking "Sabe?" could it be the same one I know? So I said: you're wife's name is Sabe, as in Sabe MaidenName? He looked at me funny and said yeah. I said: whoa! I've known your wife for a long time! My wife and her were pen pals when they were little girls.

So, it was very coincidental that I happened to be in a meeting, in a town I've never been, with a guy who married someone I knew pretty well, and didn't even recognize her in the photos I was working with. In my defense, the photos all feature people in hard hats, safety glasses and other working equipment. I guess you see what you expect to see and I was mostly checking photo quality, color, etc. I looked directly at her in photos but didn't make the connection because it was just completely out of context.

But it gets better!

There were a few females at the meeting. One of them looked kinda familiar. I was thinking that she really looked like one of my more distant cousins. I quickly dismissed this as ridiculous since I had gotten up really early to drive up and had consumed a lot of coffee. Plus, I haven't seen that cousin since she was about six years old and I was about eight. But I couldn't shake the idea that she really looked like my cousin. This seemed even more ridiculous for the fact that we had just figured out that I knew this guy's wife. What were the chances that I knew someone else at the meeting?

So, towards the end of the presentation one of the guys thanked me, by name. At the mention of my name, said girl turned to her friend and whispered something. Her friend immediately looked at me and then back at her incredulously. Then she turned to look at me. Finally I said: "Are you Distantcousin?" And she says "Yes, you're my cousin!"

It was all very funny and strange. We exchanged info as she said she comes this way from time to time. It was neat to meet a family member that I haven't seen for close to twenty years.



The most ironic part of all of this is that I didn't recognize someone I know fairly well in several photographs, yet I recognized someone I haven't seen for years and years almost instantly. I should probably try to sleep more often. The world would make more sense.

General News, Photos

Yeah, it's been a long time since I posted. Spare me, it's been a little busy here lately. Here's a quick rundown on the latest goings on.

First of all, my buddy from work, Jorgelish, and I put up all the rails on my fence. Now it's just lacking the planks. I've put off completing the fence until I get all the med bills from baby Nora. They just keep on coming in! Darn doctors, but I guess you deserve it for sticking to it through 7 years of school and a bunch of residency stuff. Wouldn't want their job.

Anyway, my friend Boone was also around these parts for a business trip. He came by to see the little one and our house. It was good to see him, too bad he could only be around for an hour or two. Nora's face is hilarious in the picture with Chad.

We went on a family camping trip, which is becoming a tradition, over labor day. I have a whole bunch of pictures somewhere but they are not handy and my sis posted a bunch over on her blog so you can check those out there. She's more diligent about the posting thing, which is to say, her job is easier than mine (I only wrote that because I know she'll read this).

Wifey's grandparents were out, visiting their son down south. Wifey took Nora down to see them. I was working so I didn't get to go but we're hoping to visit Wifey's family soon.

We babysat Babyhaley on Thursday so the Painter and his wifey could have an evening to theyselfs. She was pretty cute, crawling all around and making noise. She realized, when Wifey was changing her diaper, that Wifey was not Mommy and started looking frantically for mom and dad. I played a little guitar for her though and she quieted down and was soon snoozing. It was a pretty uneventful babysitting.

Nora has been growing a lot. She's getting more and more aware. She seems to smile on purpose now, though not consistently, and occasionally makes a little noise.

Work has been super busy the past week or two. I blame my lack of blogposts on that. It's exciting because we're working on some really cool projects but it's also stressful as I am the only programmer and pretty much every job calls for some programming. We're booked pretty heavy through the end of the year, given our small staff. Still lovin' it though.

Anyway, that's a short and boring update but nobody is gonna read this anyway. You're all just here for the pictures.

Quick Nora Video Post

So I don't get yelled at by our readers :P

Laptop Cooling Mod Walkthrough

(I will post a baby video immediately after this post so just hang on, you baby-crazy people! Gotta keep some posts on here for the nerds out there.)

My laptop gets hot. Really hot. When I'm running a resource-intense program I've seen the CPU (Central Processing Unit) temp hit 85 degrees Celsius. Keep in mind that 100 degrees is boiling on the old "C" side of the thermometer. Electrical tape is compromised at 85 degrees Celsius. Running a computer, if it runs and mine doesn't, at that temperature for very long will ruin your circuitry.

I purchased a cooler pad shortly after I bought my laptop (it's almost 3 years old). However, the poor design of the machine means that the cooling pad doesn't help much at all. Something had to be done.

Here was my progression of ideas, starting with the most obvious and moving steadily to "technical:"

1. Buy a cooling pad: didn't change the temp more than 3 degrees
2. Replace the thermal paste: this did conduct the heat from the circuitry to the heatsinks better but the heatsinks were still not dissipating the heat quickly enough.
3. Build an external fan: I built a small fan unit that assisted the internal fan by sucking more air from the exhaust port. This didn't work for two reasons. A: the moronic engineers allowed the monitor to cover 1/3 of the exhaust port while open, eliminating the ability to place an extra fan on the exhaust. B: it still didn't pull enough air and was inconvenient, requiring an additional power source.

Having exhausted the logical options I ventured into the more risky thought paths...cut a hole in the case to improve airflow. The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) has a large heatsink that sits right against the bottom of the laptop and has no fan. Most serious GPUs have a good fan that pulls air through the heatsink. If I cut a hole directly above (or below rather) the GPU heatsink I could either install a fan or just put in a screen for easier airflow.

I decided that if I were going to cut a hole in my laptop I may as well install a fan too. I tested the airflow of several fans I cannibalized from old motherboards and power supplies and selected a 12V .25A processor fan. It pushed almost as much air as both of my cooling pad fans combined...which can push 40cfm. Then I tested it with my laptop power supply to see if a 12 volt fan could handle 19.5 volts without immediately burning out. It did just fine.

I removed the bottom cover from my laptop and made sure there would be room to put the fan in without getting in the way of screw holes or other components. There was room for the fan but there was no way it would fit completely flush with the bottom, which meant that I would probably have to increase the size of the risers on the laptop too. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing as it would allow more air into the case.

I carefully drew in the fan dimensions and started cutting with a razor blade. The case appeared to be black plastic and I thought I could get a more controlled cut with a razor than with my dremel. However, the case turned out to be aluminum, which was surprising because it felt like sturdy plastic. I used my dremel with a grinding blade to cut a nice square and then trimmed the cut up with some jewelry files that Wifey had from some of her college art classes.

The cut turned out really nice, the fan fit so tight that I almost didn't need glue. I also found a fan cover in my boneyard (computer junk) that fit the fan perfectly to prevent accidentally getting fingers or anything else in the fan. I wired the fan into the main power supply right where it plugged into the motherboard and I had a working laptop fan.

To increase the riser size I took 4 thumbscrews (handy aluminum case screws that you can get from any computer store) and glued them where the previous risers were, putting little rubber bumpers on the bottom to make them nonskid.

At this point it was pretty late at night but I tested long enough to determine that I had been successful. The CPU had a resting temperature of 52 and a 20 min load temp of 65. Compare this with an original metric of 55-60 and 80-85 under load. Pretty cool, literally. However, there were some things I hadn't thought of.

I wanted the fan to only run if the laptop was on AC power. I assumed the battery charging mechanism would have diodes to prevent backflow of current from the battery towards the AC adapter port (where my fan drew). This was correct, so my fan only ran if it was plugged into the wall. What I didn't foresee, though it's obvious now, is that the fan would not turn off if the machine was powered down. The fan is also fairly loud. The ideal situation would be a potentiometer (POT) with an off position. Like a dimmer switch for a light that would control speed.

The next day I stopped at radio shack and picked up some POTs for testing from their limited selection. I picked up a pack of about 10 POTs that were small enough to fit in a modem port. This was the only feasible place on my slimline laptop to fit a switch or POT. That case is tight (which is what caused the heat problem in the first place). I tested several pots on the laptop power supply. Bad news. None of them could handle the voltage. One of them almost started on fire. As a backup plan I went back to the boneyard and found a tiny switch that would fit perfectly in the modem port.

Then I talked to a guy at a local electronics supply store. He said they didn't make POTs that could handle 5 watts of power for any sustained time that small. The problem is basically the same problem that my laptop had in the first place: not enough surface area to get rid of the heat buildup. Oh well, speed control would be cool but it's not that necessary.

I tried to install the switch after our Wed study. The soldering and switch install went well. However, when I tried to close the case I couldn't get the additional wiring to fit anywhere. It was simply to cramped. At midnight I gave up for the night, too tired and frustrated at such a simple obstacle to make progress.

I revisited it last night and revised the wiring, closed the case and booted up the machine within about 45 minutes.

Summary: I define the project as a success. It looks pretty nice, considering the size of the fan I installed. It keeps the laptop up to 25 degrees cooler (that is a LOT). Eventually, under load the heat will build up but if you take the load off the CPU the temp drops back down at the rate of about 2 degrees per 5 seconds. I also like the increased height. The keyboard is much more comfortable to type on, which was a positive side effect. Keep in mind that the fan isn't even installed on the CPU, it's installed on the GPU, which I suspect is far cooler but I have no way to measure it. I recommend not cutting into an 1,500 laptop if possible, but if heat is gonna kill your machine anyway....go for it :)


Image captions and notes:

1. The processor with heatsink removed...applying new thermal paste (arctic silver).
2. The fan and the location penciled in. I had already started to cut out the vent. Notice how poorly designed the vents are to actually get any airflow.
3. The cutout, before smoothing with files.
4. The fan, grill installed and mounted in case. Also, you can see the risers.
5. Motherboard. You can see the CPU with heatsink and CPU fan remounted. GPU heatsink is the large silver thing. The fan sits directly above the angled fins. The AC power cord is sticking up into the air, it crosses over the top of the CPU fan.
6. How I initially tapped into the power without soldering. I didn't want to solder on my actual motherboard. I had to change this method but I still did it without solder. I did solder the fan wires and switches, just no superheated metal near the motherboard.
7. The completed laptop as it sits on the table, the fan hangs a few millimeters from the table at a slight angle so it's not trying to draw directly from the surface under it.

I haven't gotten pictures of the modem switch yet, which I am most proud of. Also, if you're wondering, the fan draws air in. I thought this would be a better system as it could then help the CPU fan out by offering more air to that fan. If they both blew out, they would be competing for intake through the poorly designed vents.