Thursday, May 1, 2003

Airplane - No Progress 5: And now the kitchen is gone. 1:11:23 PM    comment []

Airplane - No Progress 4:  This is just a reminder of what the kitchen used to look like ... at this point it looks really good. How could one not like the open, airy feeling of a ceiling full of florescent lights? 1:08:56 PM    comment []

Airplane - No Progress 3: Here is the glulam being positioned beneath the undersized beam with the failed supports under the family room. With it in place, the floor only slopes in one direction; toward the back perimeter which is down 3/4 inch from there it started (in 1958 or so). With the improved drainage, installed 4 years ago and revised now, the ground under the house is much more stable. 12:56:58 PM    comment []

Airplane - No Progress 2: Here is the new retaining wall in the space behind the garage stabilizing the slope from the south-west corner of the house. The right side of this picture is the wall to the garage. The studs end at the top of a 4 ft concrete wall. At one time there was enough water in here to go over flow into the garage. With the drainage around the back of the house, this area is now totally dry. New ties to hold the house on the foundation in the next earthquake are visible on the left. The blue tape outlines where the heater distribution ducts (asbestos contaminated) have been removed. 11:34:50 AM    comment []

Airplane - No Progress 1: Here is the side of the garage with sheetrock removed ready for installation of 3/4 inch plywood shear panels. This is intended to increase the strength of the structure so that the second floor will not end up in the street during the big one. 11:23:18 AM    comment []

Why I never recommend HP (continued):   Terry Frazier views on HP's enforced printer cartridge timeout as one in a series of creative uses of the DMCA to inhibit competition. When I talk to someone about digital photography, the question of what printer I use comes up. Often they are primed to hear me recommend HP. While none of the printer manufactures is faultless in this area, my experiences with HP have all been negative. When it came time to upgrade systems I have found no, or at best costly and by mail, software upgrade support. My experiences with other vendors has been universally positive with easy access to software updates over the internet. Even devices from companies that are out of business have some support (DigitalWallet is a recent example). You really need to read the reviews carefully. A recent review picks an HP printer over Epson with the only difference being print speed in one particular mode. It sounds to me like an anomaly that has more to do with the system setup than the printer. I currently use a Epson Color 900 and would buy a new Epson printer today. 11:04:13 AM    comment []