My "New" floor lamp

Found it on the curb, awaiting the trash pickup. The switch wasn't working, and as a replacement socket would be a pittance, I brought it home.

Here's what the problem is:

It's a three-way socket, and as such, has a rotary switch. The knob screws onto the switch shaft inside the socket.

The threads on the knob were stripped. I stuck a short length of thin wire into the threaded bit on the knob and screwed it back onto the switch shaft.

Works just fine now.

Plenty of light to read by, and as the light reflects off the wall and ceiling, it provides ample, glare free illumination for the entire room, and there is no reflection of the lamp itself on the screen of my monitor.

At some point, I'll replace the three-way socket with a simple on-off socket, as I use Compact Fluorescent bulbs, and the switch itself is quite stiff to turn. I can see how the threads on the knob wound up getting stripped.

What annoyed me greatly about this lamp is that the fix was SO simple. Yet, someone didn't even bother to diagnose the problem and attempt to fix it.

Oh, and as for the Harry Potter book 7 shipping box affixed to my air conditioner. The A.C. is not that powerful, and the vents direct the cool air upwards. The box redirects the air flow downward and towards my chair.

Bridge goes up, bridge goes down

The Granite Avenue Bridge, over the Neponset River, between Boston and Milton.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the bridge operators yelling at a couple of jerks to move their cars.



About every other year, the bridge gets stuck in the "UP" position. Hilarity, needless to say, ensues.

Rev. Longcrier speaks...

...you listen!

Brief Verizon DSL update

So far, it does seem as if Verizon has fixed the DSL problems that were plaguing me and just about everyone else in the area.

The service has been glitch free for the last week, long BitTorrent downloads have been uninterrupted. Streaming audio has been fine. Regular FTP up/downloads have also been unaffected.

I have to say that, save for the clueless (for the most part) tech support people, and the annoying long time it took to replace the faulty server, I have been very happy with Verizon DSL, and I do recommend it to anyone interested in getting a high speed connection.

Not to mention ten years!

I started reading the Harry Potter books around the time they started getting in the news, due to the security procedures in place to prevent early sales.

It was my birthday, and I was in the local drugstore getting a prescription filled. I had wandered over to the magazine/book section, and, on a whim, picked up a large format softbound edition of the first book as a gift to myself. The second book, Chamber of Secrets, was also there.

I get home, open the book, and read it in one sitting. I was really annoyed that by the time I had finished the book, the drugstore was closed and I had to wait until the next day to buy Chamber of Secrets!

Which I did. I also ordered the third book from Amazon.com.

A few weeks later, at Arisia, the regional science fiction convention in Boston, I gave the books to an old friend. (She says I threw them at her.) She was so instantly hooked on them, she went and bought book three before she had finished Chamber of Secrets.

So, here it is, only a few more days until the 5th movie and a few more weeks to the final book.

Amazon had better make good on its promise to deliver my book on the 21st, or there will be hell to pay. Or at least a full refund!