I was over at a friend’s house and the topic of conversation drifted to the guitars he had disassembled on the dining room table. He relayed the story, and showed me the part. This little voice in the back of my head said ‘I can build that!’

I asked him about it and he mentioned he had blueprints for the part and that he’d email them to me. The coolest thing about having a metalshop in the garage is making bits and pieces like this. The second coolest thing about having a metalshop in the garage is: Once you make one, making more is pretty easy! The first part took about 2 hours to make, each additional part takes about 12 minutes now. Since  McMaster-Carr sells the steel I needed in 3 foot lengths, and these parts are about half an inch long, I’ll be making quite a few. And since _I’m_ not cost-constrained, I can make the part out of steel rather than pot-cast-aluminum.

I can’t help but think the world is FULL of little broken bits and pieces. Pieces that aren’t all that hard to make, but since it’s cost prohibitive for a factory to make them by the 10’s and 100’s, tools go unused, music goes un-played, and things get needlessly thrown out. I’m pretty happy to make 10 of something here, 20 of something there…any more than that and it’d start to seem like a job. I already have one of those.

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I had to get home early to watch the kids. The wife was going out to a club thing, so I left a little early. I’ve done it before, it’s really no big deal. I hop on the train and get the usual favorite seat, the one where I can lay my backpack flat, and still leave it touching my feet, so I can feel it. Wouldn’t want it growing legs or anything. After all, it’s got a pretty expensive laptop, and the information on it, while encrypted, would still be best left in my care. Round about the Metro Denver station…heck, maybe 10th and Osage, I look up and see the usual groups of younger kids get on. The girls are off in their group, a group of three or four boys are standing at the top of the steps in the middle of the train. I notice they’re of a certain ethnicity (unimportant), and they’re all wearing similar black jackets. One has a silver chain necklace. I look back down to my iPhone, where I’m surfing the web and listening to a podcast. The Train stops at the Alameda station and I see some movement out of the corner of my eyes. Someone is reaching, quickly, for my phone.

He grabs my phone.

I think “Oh, I’m not going to let him run away with it”, and I tear down the steps and run after the bolting group.

I can regret not working out for six months, but really, I was never a runner. I see I’m not keeping up with the perp, but a kid to the right is closer to me, and not quite as fast. I change targets.And my foot slides on the concrete. I think “tuck and roll”, so I tuck and roll.

By the time I get up, they’re gone. I’m winded, and there’s no chance of catching them. I look around and don’t see any security. I see my train’s gone and think “Crap, I’m going to be late getting home” and also, “Crap, That’s a good $600 dollars, out of contract, it’s gonna cost me.”

And then I remember my backpack. It’s on a long gone train. I suddenly feel very ill-equipped.

What time is it? I dunno, I usually check my phone.

When’s the next train? I dunno, I usually check my phone.

I dime sized chunk of skin is gone from my palm and is now starting to sting.

A Bus pulls up and I run up to the driver and ask if he can call security, he says I can call them on the phone behind me. I pick up the handset and it’s quiet….then I look again and see the red button…I push it and it rings. Another time. A train is arriving. It’s my line. I hang up the phone and jump on the train.

I walk to the front and ring the bell for the conductor. I tell him my phone has been stolen, and my backpack is on the F train ahead of him. He talks to dispatch, I relay where the backpack was, and he needs to leave the station. At the next stop I’m starting to shake a little. I think to ask him for a phone and he loans me his. The 6 key sticks. I have a hard time calling home. Get it dialed on the third attempt and tell my wife my phone was stolen, I’m trying to recover my backpack and I won’t be able to be home in time. I close the phone because the door to the control room is opening, the ‘Driver’ (conductor? Engineer?) Says the most unexpected thing:

“They’ve caught the kids. They want you to go back up to Alameda station and identify them.” he then mentions something about 4:15 I didn’t quite catch…but I DID catch ‘head back north’.So I thank him profusely, and wait for a northbound train. 10 minutes or so. Seems longer. I’m pretty worked up. Train comes, I get on, I go two stops north. I get off the train and talk to the Police. Evidently the kids are in another squad car and they’re to take me to them. I get in the back. I’m 6′6″, I don’t fit well in the back seat of a Police car. I take a moment to wonder if the passers by think I did something wrong. The Officer drives around the parkinglot, answers the radio, and says “I guess they’re bringing them to us.” and brings the car back to where we started.

After a minute or two, two units pull up a little bit away, and an Officer comes back to me. He says they’ve recovered my phone, and it’s now my decision. Do I press charges? By this time, I’ve heard my backpack has been recovered, it’ll be at the Alameda station at 4:15 (a ha. That’s what the guy said.)

Now here’s the problem. Do I ‘nail their ass to the wall and teach them a lesson?’, or do I let them go as they’re already hanging out in a police car and I’m getting all my stuff back. I’m a father of two boys, aged 7, and perhaps it’s a reflection of where I am with them, but I think “If I talk to them, maybe that’ll be enough”. The Police aren’t permitted to lead me one way or the other. I’m sorting about for a deciding factor.

“How’s the phone?” “It’s perfect, sir, there’s nothing wrong with it.” “If I press charges, do they find out who I am?” “Yes sir, witnesses retain anonymity, as the victim you do not.” “So will this be a big impact on my life?” “Probably one court appearance, sir.”

No deciding factors there. I think back to the kids wearing all the same jackets and wonder about gang activity. I guess the last thing I want is to give them a name and address to egg (or worse). So at this point, they get a drive home in a police car, the parents get a talking to, and I can get busy healing and moving on.

“Does this go on their record?” “They get a line that says an incident occurred but the victim declined to press charges.” “So it counts, they get dinged if something happens in the future?” “Not really”

The funny thing is, at this point, the two things I haven’t felt are fear or anger. I dunno why, perhaps they’re young enough I didn’t feel threatened. Perhaps it’s the nature of the incident. It was a smash and grab, half a step above shoplifting. (I later find it’s grand theft)

I turn to the OTHER officer to my left. Crack a smile and say “Whaddaya think, is this incident going to change their life?” Turns out he’s RTD security, says he’s been doing this for XX years and doesn’t think I want to hear his answer.

So, it’s down to: Nail their ass to the wall, or turn them free. Lose my anonymity, or give them a mulligan?It’s a tough question, and there really doesn’t seem to be a factor leading me one way or the other. Dumb stupid kids doing dumb stupid things.

I asked the Officer if I could talk to the two kids they caught. Given the option of going for processing or talking to me, they opted to talk to me.

One kid was going to cop to the theft, but the other boy they caught owned up to it. Honor amongst thieves, I guess.

Loosely paraphrased, I said I had a couple of boys, and when I talk to them sometimes they listen, and sometimes they don’t. I don’t care if you hear this or not. I said getting caught by the police over a PHONE was stupid. It was a bad choice. I showed them my bloody hand and thanked them for fucking up my afternoon. I said that they should make better decisions or run the risk that the next guy won’t be so understanding. I also reminded them again that THEY GOT CAUGHT. I’m sure they didn’t hear any of it.

Talking to the security guards after the fact, they suspected the kids came from the School up the line that’s already kind of the last chance stop for them. So I suspect a snatch and run line-item on their record won’t make a bit of difference one way or the other. If they’re going to straighten their lives out they’ll do it with or without this incident. Often, it comes down to their parents. IF they care, something will come of it…they often don’t care.

YOU NEED TO KNOW

There were between 3 and 5 kids, aged 14-17, dressed alike, and stationed at the top of the steps of the train. Their goal is to snatch an item, scatter, and confuse witnesses so that a positive I.D. cannot be made.

THEY NEED TO KNOW

A great many phones cost more than $500 to replace out of contract. Anything above $500 is considered grand theft, in which case the charges are significantly more serious.

LASTLY

They have already done this once. IF it happens to you, PRESS CHARGES.  If it happens again, they obviously did not take my advice to do the right thing.

What you saw yesterday was a 0.8 beta. Parts just seem…sparse. Like there’s room for more. I could easily see a Camera showing up in 60 days…or in the 2nd version.

The problem is that to minimize what they have shown is to miss what they managed to do, which is completely develop a new hardware platform, rewrite an OS, and develop some pretty hefty new software, and do it fairly rapidly. It doesn’t WOW because they’re still filling in the gaps. It’s like looking at a luxury Hotel in the framing stages…you get a general idea of what it’s going to look like, but you can’t tell if the walls will be marble, or hammered copper.

What will this be good for?

Have you noticed all the schools that purchase or require a $1000 MacBook?

Dija notice this thing has a 10 hour battery life?

Notice it has art, wordprocessing, and presentation software?

No moving parts?

I think this will make a _stellar_ student computer. Kid brings it home at night to type up homework, and uses it at school for notes, books, etc. The non 3g version is roughly half the price of the MacBook. Probably including the keyboard dock, once discounts and bulk purchasing applies.

Where else would a light, stiff, bright, easy to write for, thing like this work well? Hospitals, perhaps? Having a device that didn’t have a camera is a _benefit_ there. Having that device be the _older, cheaper, iPad_ purchased in bulk, is a pretty good idea, too.

Having a school computer that can’t be an accomplice in video sexting?

The current pad is a niche product for my needs, but what I HAVE noticed from observing the past is that the folks who critique something like this because it’s missing a widget, or doesn’t have the storage of a competitor, are missing the REST of the picture. (“No WiFi, less storage than a nomad: lame!”http://ejschmidt.com/blog/tag/ipod/ )

I think back to the number of times my Laptop’s fans are running full blast, only to find Flash has crossed it’s eyes, then think how there’s no concept of ‘killing a process’ on my iPhone, and I think I know why it doesn’t have flash.

Disappointed in how it looks? Well, once you define a minimal design language…it’s hard to get any MORE minimal. That’s a two edged sword. The new hotness won’t _look_ like new hotness, but by the same token, the design gets out of the way for the important stuff, and there’s no plastic chrome to flake.

As far as the name? How many people did you think would admit to playing with their Wii?

So I grabbed the calipers and a sheet of paper:

What followed was a 20 minute head scratcher where I tried to remember geometry lessons I haven’t used in 25 years. (see that ‘SOA CAH TOA’ up there? Sine = Opposite over Adjacent, Cosine = Adjacent over Hypotenuse, Tangent = Opposite over Adjacent) So i did the math, pressed the buttons on the calculator and came up with 75 degrees. All the while, my mind was thinking ‘is that in degrees? Do I have to worry about Pi?

Setting up the compound on the lathe to 75 degrees, it ‘looked’ right. So I guess I did the math right.

Here’s the result, It’s rare when a problem and my skillset overlaps so closely.

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Only this time, It’s in Hi Def, 1080p! (You really REALLY want to view it full screen with the little ‘HD’ button depressed.)

I’m playing around with my new camera (Sony HX1) and I’m playing with the zoom out my 8th floor office window at the people leaving the hotel next door. I zoom out fully at the guy on the corner….it’s the equivalent of a 500 mm lens. You couldn’t HOPE to hold a SLR steady, by hand, with an equivalent lens. Push the button and the camera takes six shots in rapid succession, and builds a single sharp image based on them. Pull the card and slap it in the computer and it’s Really Nice. Then I remember it’s a 9 Megapixel image and zoom in on it. You couldn’t tell what brand watch he was wearing, but you might be able to tell his religion. (or what color his hair was under the wig.) Give us another 10-15 years to let the technology trickle down to surveillance equipment and ‘enhance’ might be relabeled to ‘zoom’. Don’t believe me?

Here’s the pic: http://www.millertwinracing.com/SamplePic.jpg