I feel guilty. Kind of. Because of this:

Browsing Goodwill recently, I bought the above sewing machine for $20…They typically show up for ten times that price on eBay. I feel like I absconded with a treasure. At any rate, this Singer 401a (1956 vintage, made in South Carolina) is mine, and after a tune-up, it will be ready for another 50 years of use. The machine is in remarkably good condition, with a clean looking cam stack:

The underside even looked clean and lint-free, which is rare for a 1956 machine. It had been maintained well.

As tempting as it was, I wasn’t going to sew a single stitch without getting the machine looked over. See, the 401a is a special machine…The proverbial Bentley of sewing machines. That machine originally sold for hundreds of (1950s) dollars, or thousands of 2011 dollars. Price-wise, that puts the 401a on par with industrial machines from Juki or Brother. I daresay on par quality-wise as well, though without the power of the bifurcated head-motor arrangement, which allows for a multiple-horsepower motor.

Singer Sewing quality went significantly downhill in the 1970s, as they started building machines largely of plastic. In the 1980s, they started outsourcing. Singer didn’t design good machines and contract manufacturers didn’t maintain quality. With Singer, older is (much) better. New machines are disappointing and lack the rigidity or power to work well with many fabrics. Another legend destroyed for short-term profit.

I again digress. The 401a was one of the last slant needle aluminum-bodied Singer models, and has a very large metal cam stack enabling a variety of stitches. The slant-needle machines were special in that they allow much more visibility when sewing than a vertical needle machine. It is also a direct drive machine with no belts, and gorgeously cut beveled helical involute gears. Those expensive gears are why the machine purrs, instead of grinds. Take a look:

The timing, adjustment, greasing and oiling of this machine is something that I will leave to a professional, so I know it is well-tuned when I do minor maintenance myself in the future. In Portland, Rooster Roc Sewco (3427 NE 72nd Ave) came highly recommended, and when I visited last year, the owner was nice enough to chat with me about some industrial machines when I was contemplating tooling up for some freelance work. When I get this machine back, I will post pictures of the first project I use it on, probably a set of gaiters (patterns to be drafted in February).

As a last piece of trivia, the Singer 400 class (401, 402, 403) sewing machines use a double-contact bayonet base lightbulb in a short T7 formfactor. The recommended bulb is typically known as a 15T7DC. As incandescent bulbs are being phased out, stocking up might not be a bad idea. Just don’t pay over $5/bulb.

It is with much excitement and some (well, maybe a tiny bit) trepidation that I’m moving from freelancing to a full-time position. This is a completely self-indulgent couple paragraphs on the vagaries of the past couple years.

After freelancing in audio and video production (and tech support and web development, and etc.) for the past 7 years (amongst school), I’m looking forward to the break from the complexities of self-employment and the constant drive to expand one’s client list. The economy didn’t bode well for the latter, and the former became downright tiring. Between health insurance, equipment and other overhead, the numbers were looking OK, but not great.

A rough economy means taking clients one wouldn’t usually touch. That leads to fun (in a profoundly sarcastic way) situations like maintaining media production computers that doubled as the client’s surfing platform for his prurient interests, or trying to explain simple waveform edits to someone who is too insecure to accept help. My favorite though, was a client who told me he needed a wife, because his competitors all had wives who did the ‘other stuff’ (bookkeeping, shipping, etc.).

I also took on some wonderful jobs, including some work for large multi-continent traveling exhibits, and some touching documentary production work. As those projects see circulation and distribution, I will try and share.

Now, I’m at an engineering consulting firm with a world-class client list that yields a constant stream of fascinating work. What do I do? Well, I work in the company lab. I make stuff that makes stuff. I don’t know what the position will grow into, but I do know I will enjoy it.

So long, freelancing. I might be back someday far away, but thanks for all the stories.

It first appeared last year. Time to show it again:

The -55, -57, and -58 in all their cooking glory.

On a more personal nature today:

For the past week, I’d been neglecting my car. The driver’s side lock cylinder was loose, and I wasn’t looking forward to disassembling all the interior body paneling and removing the window mechanism and glass to fix it. Unfortunately, it all came to a head last night, as the bolt holding the lock cylinder in place made a resonant clanging as it fell into the depths of the door.

Fortunately, I drive a moderately antediluvian Subaru Impreza. Upon removing three retaining screws, the interior paneling came off easily. Then, when I recovered the bolt and rolled down the window in anticipation of removing it, I realized something neat: The window comes down it’s tracks and moves slightly towards the front of the door, uncovering the interior side of the door handle/lock cylinder. 10 minutes later, I had the lock mechanism tight, the interior paneling back on, and an operating lock.

Some mechanics say that there isn’t a bad wrench position on a Subaru. I would tend to agree.

So, the first prototype pictures of the Supertechno 100 are in the wild…Dollygrippery has them.

A 100 foot telescoping camera crane…This in and of itself is an amazing feat, given the relatively recent development of even 20 foot telescoping cranes.

The whip, vibration and movement on a non cable-stayed arm of that length with 3 (or more?) sections will be tricky to handle though. I bet the engineering is absolutely top-notch though. It’s an inspirational sight! The technology has come so far in a relatively short time…Louma, Techno, the Hydrascope…There are a ton of good options out there. Anyway…

I will be curious to see the thing in use, or at least at a trade show. The Strada trick of just lifting the operator, steadicam rig and all probably is impossible, though would be a wild ride for the operator. My money is on a stabilized head like the Scorpio or Chapman G-3 over the Techno Z head or other standard heads for most uses, given the inherent flexing.

And how many operators to effect a movement? Or are they going to motorize the base in addition to the crane and head? That’s a lot of weight to get around. Sounds like a 3-4 person job now…

Anyway, Dollygrippery has the goods. It’s worth a look, because really neat things come from Plzeň.

Since 2003, I’ve worked for a number of media companies, ranging from a company with 16 networked HD edit suites, two online suites, audio suites and an archive going back decades, to individuals working on a single computer. One thing that most of them understood was the need for robust backups: The equity is in the intellectual property. It must be protected. There must be a process to protect it.

Legal issues aside, the CIA procedurally screwed up, and mistakes are things beast learned from.

The CIA:

The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists.

Well then. I guess they missed some of the tapes that they had intended to destroy in 2005. Oops.

How is it that virtually every media company I’ve ever seen can do a better job of data management than the CIA? Even the sole proprietorships. There is a lesson to be learned from this: The brief version is don’t be like the CIA. The long version is procedural:

Multiple Backups: Many companies use a 3 tier concept at a minimum: Aside from the working dataset, On-line backups and offline backups create a decent system. In the case of something like an Avid Unity, the working dataset and online backup are the same thing, and contained in a networked RAID (The ISIS uses RAID 6). Individual hard-drives can fail, RAID cards can fail, but there are multiple copies of the data.

Backup offsite: Facilities get damaged. The offline backup isn’t enough. The offline backups could theoretically be moved offsite, but if not, a separate facility with it’s own extant dataset might be prudent. The Universal Studios fire in 2008 comes to mind as an example of why this is important.

Love the WORM: Write Once, Read Many. A DVD-ROM can only be burned once…or for the people who can afford it: AIT cartridges can set up for write-once operation. This removes the temptation to recycle, and forces the creation of physical media with a single purpose: backups. I’ve seen people lay off media to DVD-ROMs, D5s, Any number of other HD tape formats…They all work, and one will fit your needs well.

Access/Metadata: Who gets to access the backups? How is that logged? Are there check-out procedures? Is the location of all media known? This is where the CIA messed up. They didn’t have decent records of the location, access, or use of their backups.

A little bit of thought can go a long way towards preventing major problems…The CIA gives us a teachable moment. Again, legal issues aren’t my point here. My point is data management. Had they practiced good backup procedures, they would have known where all the copies of the tapes were, and would have succeeded in their end goal:

The destruction of the tapes and suppression evidence potentially relevant to the Binalshibh case.

Backups. With Procedures. It’s good for you. It’s even Lean (for those into that sort of thing…)

I decided when I went down the rebuild path for this website that I would install Google Analytics. It’s kind of neat to see where I get visitors from.

The results have been fairly typical: Hits every day…Traffic from Facebook, Google searches, some people from JWSound checking me out, etc.

It seems my most read blog post this far has been about some work I did this past Spring, involving licensing for a museum exhibit. Apparently, there aren’t that many examples or descriptions of the innerworkings of most favored nation (MFN) licensing deals. I will have to write more about this.

Aside from the front page, people seem to look at what is under ‘For Sale/Rent’…Not so much ‘Services’, which is where I make the bulk of my living these days.

Then there is an anomaly: Edmond, OK.

Starting June 19, 2010, someone has been searching via Google for “MFN for master use and synch license.” They then click on the link to my website, but don’t look at any other page. This is repeated daily, sometimes multiple times. This person is on a Cox Cable connection, is in Edmond OK, runs Firefox on Windows, and is a puzzle.

Anyway, Google Analytics is a fun distraction, if a bit stalker-ish.

My little brother just graduated from high school. After a few years at ACMA (the Arts & Communication magnet high school in Beaverton), he has graduated, and is off to Southern Oregon University to study theatre and music.

Over the past couple years, he has performed at theaters around Portland, traveled as part of a Jazz band, and done some really innovative tech and sound work.

I would like to think that I’ve done something to aid in his success, or at least served as a minor inspiration.

Congrats Kevin!