Dynamic Subspace

Author: Jason W. Ellis

Beware Banging on Sun Drenched Brittle Plastic in a 2013 Toyota Corolla: Replacing Center Console AC Vents

Before driving back to Brooklyn, my 2013 Toyota Corolla’s center console began rattling something fierce! It began as an occasional annoyance, but it quickly became insistent and unavoidable.

The rattle, of course, manifested while I was driving. So, I began holding and pressing around the center console that I had recently disassembled a few days earlier to try to identify the culprit of the noise. I figured out that the sound came from the air vent assembly at the top of the center console. Impatient, I rapped and then banged on it with my fist. One ill-placed strike busted the air vent assembly’s top in a spray of plastic puzzle pieces. The picture above shows them carefully reassembled. Of course, the rattle was amplified by this destruction, so I ripped out the top of the assembly and made the long drive with the top off. When I got to Brooklyn, I ordered a replacement (sans clock assembly as it was significantly cheaper) on eBay. When it arrived, I installed it and restored the interior look of the car.

Above, you can see what the air vent assembly looked like when I drove back to Brooklyn. I completely removed the top so that it wouldn’t make any rattling during the long drive.

To begin the replacement, I pulled the silver plastic covers from the top of the center console. These pull off directly toward you and are held in by plastic clips. Using a thin plastic shim helps you get a hold on these. On the right side, you can open the top glove box to make their removal easier.

This is a close-up of the broken air vent assembly before removing it.

As I pulled the air vent assembly out directly towards me, I unplugged the cable from the back of the caution lights switch, because this would need to be re-installed in the new air vent assembly.

The caution switch is held in by two plastic clips–one on the top and one on the bottom. If these hold tight, you can use a plastic shim to depress the clip from the back and free the top and then bottom of the switch so that it pulls out easily.

Since I had a clock in the old air vent assembly, there was a corresponding plug on the same run as the caution lights switch cable. I used a twist tie to secure it. I pushed this cable between the two air vents so that there would be minimal possible movement by them once I put everything back together.

This is the replacement air vent assembly that I purchased on eBay for $21. Unlike my old console kit, it doesn’t have a place for a clock, which is fine for me. This saved about $20. Also, it doesn’t include the caution lights switch, which is also okay as I will be reusing my old one.

The first step for reassembly is installing the caution lights switch in the air vent console assembly. I ran the cable through the hole of the air vent where the caution switch goes, plugged the cable into the old switch, and pushed the switch into the hole. Unfortunately, the hole for the switch was slightly too large and the switch’s plastic prongs wouldn’t catch and hold it properly. I solved this problem by cutting small pieces of masking tape and putting two layers on top of each prong–top and bottom. Then, I pushed the switch in and it held securely in place.

The penultimate reassembly step was to line up the air vent assembly with the air ducts and clip receptacles. Perhaps because this was a new replacement, it was very tight to push back in. I took my time and checked and double checked the alignment as I worked it into place.

Eventually, it clicked on both sides and was flush with the radio below and dashboard above.

Finally, I pushed the center console’s side covers in place and double checked the caution light switch to make sure it was working.

I think it looks better than new now–at least that one part!

January 17, 2024
Robo Riter 3.1, an Automatic Haiku, French Lai, Ballade, and Limerick Text Generator for Macintosh
Continuing my exploration of pre-AI text and image generating software, I would like to share some screenshots and information about Robo Riter 3.1, a text-generating program for Macintosh that specializes in haiku, French lai, ballade, and limericks, created by Douglas L. Lieberman, a writer and producer in television, film, and computer multimedia projects.

Robo Riter has the tag line, “Composes poetry at the click of a button!” And, on his archived website’s contact page, he offers it for download if “you can’t afford to hire a writer.”

Lieberman wrote the follow abstract when he submitted his program to the pre-1999 info-mac archive (there was a massive purge of software on info-mac that removed Robo Riter and other software from later versions of the info-mac archive after 1999):
```
#### BINHEX     robo-riter.hqx   ****

From: rocketriter@earthlink.net
Subject: Robo Riter


From: (Douglas L. Lieberman) rocketriter@earthlink.net
Subject: Robo Riter


Robo Riter -- the automatic poetry machine! Composes poems at the click
of a button, no two ever alike. Robo Riter can create profound and
deeply moving Haiku, French Lai, Ballades and even Limericks. Amaze your
friends! Mystify your neighbors! Be the first on your block to own Robo
Riter, for Poetry On Demand!

Created with SuperCard 3.0

System requirements:
* System 7.6 and above
* Power Macintosh  or 680X0 with at least 16 MB of RAM
* 2 MB of hard drive space

-- 
Douglas L. Lieberman
Rocket Riter, Inc.
Screenwriting for Interactive Media, Stage & Screen
Visit my website at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rocketriter/
```
I am indebted to adespoton on MacintoshGarden.org for finding a copy of Robo Riter stored in a 1998 archive of info-mac that was once hosted by Apple Computer. You can browse the directory of programs that includes Robo Riter here.

Before launching Robo Riter, the Get Info window shows that it was created on 3 Mar. 1997. It is a “fat” application, meaning that it can be run on 68k and PPC Macs. It’s suggested memory size is 5,107 K, and its minimum and preferred memory sizes are populated with that value. As I’m running this in SheepShaver, I can’t turn on virtual memory to realize that 1,011 K memory savings mentioned in the Note at the bottom of the window.

When Robo Riter is first launched, the window above serves as the main interface for the program. It has tabs across the top of the window for Haiku, French Lai, Ballade, Limerick, and HELP. Below the tabs is the monogram, “From the Desk of Robo Riter” followed by a blank space. At the bottom of the window are two buttons: Compose Poem and Save Poem as Text File. Unlike some of the other text generating programs, there are no options and there are no editable corpus or word lists external to the program itself.

Before looking at Robo Riter’s compositions, let’s check out the two menus. The Apple menu yields “About Robo Riter.”

The About Robo Riter window indicates that it was built using SuperCard, an application development environment that is like HyperCard on steroids. At the time, Allegiant Technologies had acquired SuperCard.

Robo Riter’s File menu only has the option to Quit the program.

Returning to the main window and the Haiku tab, clicking on the Compose Poem button results in a haiku written by the program after the program shows a series of three messages or thoughts with corresponding musical notes. For example, it displayed “Letting my mind go whoosh!,” “Counting syllables on my chins,” and “Meditating with profound fervor” before showing the resulting “ONE LONELY HERO” haiku, which appears a word-at-a-time like watching an LLM reply in a chat.

After clicking on the French Lai tab, I clicked on Compose Poem. It’s pre-generation text was: “Researching a rather violent subject,” “Illuminating its dynamic aspects,” and “Developing theosophical influences.” Then, the “SHINING SUN” French Lai played across the screen.

Next, I clicked on the Ballade tab and selected Compose Poem. It’s pre-generation text was: “Developing a down to earth topic,” “Overlaying sea-faring themes,” and “Selecting perfectly matched rhymes, and rhythms.” Then, “THIS SWIFT FRAIL NUN” appeared in the composition area in the window.

The Limerick tab proved a little irreverent compared to the other composition tabs, which is fitting, I suppose, given the genre. After pressing Compose Poem,” “Selecting a theme and a punch line” appeared with a corresponding musical tone. Then, “Assembling ill-considered rhymes” appeared with a fart sound, and finally, “Convulsing at my own jokes” with a recorded “whoops” sound before showing “THE MODEL FROM PLINKETT” limerick.

The HELP tab has sub sections accessible via selecting the radio button next to Haiku, French Lai, Ballade, or Limerick.

Each of these help sections provide an explanation of that genre of poem’s construction, context, and purpose.

Robo Riter is more a black box than some of the other text generating applications that I’ve written about before. But, it’s compositions through several iterations seem quite good and interesting. Lieberman seems to have done good work behind the scenes to make his program produce what I read on the few trials that I did.
January 16, 2024
Sharing MLK, Jr. History and Place in Atlanta, 2013

In 2013, Y’s and my friend M from Japan visited us in Atlanta. He had asked us to show him historically important places around Atlanta while he was there. Paramount among those stops was Martin Luther King, Jr’s birth home, his burial site at The King Center, and Ebenezer Baptist Church. While I had read about those places before, I had not yet visited them before M’s arrival.

The experience was multilayered for me: being in those hallowed spaces, sharing those spaces with my wife and friend, and discussing those places based on our knowledge, experiences, and different cultural backgrounds. I’m glad that we were all together in that place at that time. I carry it forward as a warm memory as well as a reminder of why I do the work that I do.

And I’m reminded that history is all about space and time. There feels like a kind of physics at work with it. Not like Hari Seldon’s psychohistory, but something paralleling Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. Time passes differently for different observers, or more precisely, culture changes at different rates for different observers. Standing along Auburn Ave that day, I thought that culture supporting equality and liberty for all wasn’t happening at the same rate for everyone everywhere. The rates were different. There was a kind of cultural dilation it seemed. Could there be a fall and dark age to follow? Could Asimov have caught a glimpse of what lay ahead in Foundation after all?

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birth Home

The King Center

Ebenezer Baptist Church

January 15, 2024
Grizzly Sawdust Collector Assembly Project

While I was visiting my folks, one of the larger projects that needed to be done was assembling the Grizzly G0862 3 hp dust collector (completed in the center of the photo above) for his planer, edger, and table saw.

It began with these three boxes and their contents.

Then, I made space to put the dust collector together in a space near all three machines. Note the stack of thick rough cut boards on the left side. These will be planed and edged before being installed as the stair treads in my folks’ house.

The instructions call for having two helpers to lift the top motor assembly while a third person secures it to the supports with bolts. Thankfully, my dad’s forklift was running, so we repositioned the forks close together, picked up the top motor assembly, and positioned the stand beneath the motor assembly while we threaded the bolts.

The only trouble that we had during assembly was securing the collection drum to its lid. It only has two buckles that lock down to secure the drum to the lid. Then, you raise the drum off the floor and the suction during option keeps the lid and drum mated. However, the two buckle system–despite adjusting the buckle lengths–didn’t always hold the drum and lid together. I removed the two drum bumpers from the base, which helped the drum better align with the lid for a more secure connection. It seems that adding one or two buckles would avoid this problem. Another solution would be to run a nylon tie strap around the drum over the closed buckles to keep them from releasing.

After connecting the dust collector to 220v, we did a test run with the planer and it worked spectacularly. Now, my dad will use this to plane and edge the stair treads out of rough cut cypress boards sourced from trees that he cut down on.

Eventually, the new cypress stair treads will go on the currently roughed-in stairs between the first and second floors.

January 12, 2024
“My God, It’s Full of Stars”

While I was visiting my folks the past few weeks, I enjoyed a few clear nights to see and take photos of stars and planets with my Panasonic G85 mirrorless camera. They live in the middle of no where with very little light pollution from their closest neighbors, which permits spectacular views of the night sky.

In the image above, you can see Cepheus above my parent’s house, half of Lacerta in the upper left, and Ursa Minor peaking out from the tree line on the lower right.

How I Took the Photos

I didn’t have a tripod with me, so I used a towel folded in different configurations as a support for the camera. I unfolded the back display so that it was both easy to view and provided further support for the camera to hold its position when aimed in different directions. I rested the camera on a tractor for the shot above that shows my folks’ house, but some of the others below, I placed the camera on the ground or the brick pilasters along the edge of the porches surrounding the house.

The camera that I used was a Panasonic G85 with a stock 12-60mm telephoto lens. I shot in manual mode setting maximum aperture and multi-second exposure times. I also used manual focus and the 10 second shutter delay to avoid any residual camera shake from pressing the shutter release button.

Pleiades

In the center, upper third of the photo above, you can see the Seven Sisters or Pleiades.

Orion

In the center of the photo above, you can see Orion (his belt is formed by the three vertical, evenly spaced stars, and his shoulders are to the left and his legs to the right).

Auriga, Taurus, and Orion

In this image, I was able to capture Auriga (upper left), Taurus (middle top), and Orion (middle below).

Jupiter and Its Moons

For this shot of Jupiter, I extended the telephoto lens to 60mm, which reduced the aperture by several stops compared to its 12mm wide angle. I laid the camera on the ground shooting almost vertical. With the telephoto extended, it was difficult to find Jupiter–the slightest camera movement sent it shooting out of view. I took several photos and this one was the sharpest with Jupiter being the brightest object near the center.

When you see the photo at 100%, Jupiter and some of its moons are visible like a mini-solar system.

If I had easier access to clear night skies with good seeing, it would be nice to have a star tracking tripod to have longer exposures.

January 11, 2024