Kurt Leucht’s Blog

At home I have DSL Internet service with a very large phone company.  Recently my DSL modem has been giving me a little trouble, but I haven’t done anything about it because the problems always corrected themselves simply by power cycling the modem.

But last week the modem started rebooting all by itself and according to the front panel lights it had lots of trouble reconnecting to the Internet.  I noticed it would run fine for a while and then start acting up.  Once it started acting up, no amount of power cycling would seem to fix the darn thing.

So I finally called the very large phone company to complain and the very polite offshore phone support lady quickly realized that I was an extremely intelligent and technically savvy customer and she immediately said she would overnight me a new modem.  Nice.  Only one catch, though.  It was the beginning of a long holiday weekend and the modem shipped overnight would probably take three days to arrive at my doorstep.  Hmmm.  Three days without Internet service?  This was gonna hurt.

So I did what any self respecting engineer would do … I got a screwdriver and took the thing apart.

No obvious burnt or charred areas were found.  But static shock or lightning could have internally messed up some of these components without showing any external damage.  Hmmmm.  One or two of the capacitors appears to be a little bulged at the top.  That might be a problem.

I felt the circuit board components just out of curiosity and holy cow, the DSL system on a chip (TI AR7 7100) was so hot I couldn’t keep my finger on it for more than about one second.  That can’t be right.  That chip is totally overheating.

I tested my theory by getting a small glass bowl from the kitchen and putting some ice cubes in it and placing it on top of the overheating chip.  And it seemed to fix the problem!

All weekend long, my wife and I would put the chip on ice every time we wanted to use the Internet and this solution always kept the DSL modem in operating condition for an hour or two until the ice completely melted and the water started to lose its cool.

Turns out that the replacement modem that was “overnight” shipped actually took four days to arrive at my doorstep!  Figures.

At least now we can keep our ice away from our computers and keep it in our sweet tea where it belongs! 

Kurt

Update:  Oops.  The media tricked me again.  This was the last GPS launch of Delta II, not the last launch of Delta II.  There are still apparently a handful of more Delta II launches planned.  Sorry for propagating my own confusion.

This morning a little after 6:30am, the very last Delta II rocket blasted off from Florida’s Space Coast carrying a GPS satellite into a successful orbit. According to local news reports, the newest GPS satellites are wider and heavier and will be launched from larger Atlas V or Delta IV rockets. Delta II rockets have been launching on the Space Coast for just over 20 years, so this morning’s event was truly the end of an era.  Here’s a photo of this morning’s launch from the Florida Today website (click it for full size image):

I was outside exercising this morning during the launch and caught some low quality photos using my phone (click them for full size images):

I’m so confused, I don’t know what to put in this bin:

I guess I’d better err on the conservative side and not put anything at all into this bin!  Wouldn’t want to get in trouble for not following directions!

This confusing recycling bin was found at the greatest manned launch complex in America, the Kennedy Space Center.  Without giving away the exact location of the offense, it was found inside a building that is known for it’s Super Salty Pomegranate Fence, if you know what I mean.

At NASA we’re smart enough to send men out into space and even to the moon, and yet we somehow manage to create and install signs in and around the Space Center like this:

What is the deal with this sign?  Not only is it confusing … but it has some random space characters thrown in there to break up some of the words … and it has a few font changes in there also just in case you weren’t confused enough already.  Obviously, this is a sign whose purpose is to show me where the “stairwell one floor” is.  Or maybe it’s “stairwell on E floor”?  Whatever … I still haven’t figured out the purpose of the down-arrow.  And who came up with the phrase “for exit discharge”, anyways?  Do they even speak English at the sign shop?

This sign was found in the stairwell of a very popular building at KSC.  It’s an Odd Shaped Building, if you know what I mean.

NASA Press Release dated: June 5, 2009

NASA LAUNCHES HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT REVIEW WEB SITE FOR PUBLIC USE

WASHINGTON — NASA is inviting the public to make its voice heard as a panel of experts undertakes an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities.

NASA has created a Web site for the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee to facilitate a two-way conversation with the public about the future direction of the agency’s space flight programs. In addition to providing documents and information, the site will allow the public to track committee activities, receive regular updates and provide input through Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Flickr, user-submitted questions, polls and RSS feeds. Additional features and content may be added as the committee’s activities continue.

“The human space flight program belongs to everyone,” committee chairman Norman Augustine said. “Our committee would hope to benefit from the views of all who would care to contact us.”

Anyone may use the Web site to submit questions, upload documents or comment about topics relevant to the committee’s operations. The committee will conduct public meetings during the course of the review. The first will be held June 17 in Washington, D.C. An agenda for this meeting will be announced soon. Time will be set aside for public questions and comments to the committee members. No registration is required to attend.

To learn more, visit the committee’s Web site at:

http://hsf.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency activities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov