went to Ace Hardware today. no collars or hitch pins. but, they had a nice supply of other cool stuff, like hardware up to 1" (alas, no 17mm but they had 16mm and 20mm, and 3/4"), O-rings of various sizes, carbon brushes for power tools, axle bolts up to 1/2" (didn't know there was such a thing), and lots of other doodads I can't remember now.
on the way home, I thought of making a simple burglar alarm with my netbook and a couple of amplified speakers. listen for sound on the microphone port. when it's detected above a certain level, make the sound of a dog barking. the louder and more constant the sound detected, the more ferocious the barking. of course, don't listen at the same time the output is active or it'll be a positive feedback loop.
there's an interesting tree outside the cathedral I hadn't noticed before, with large seed pods resembling cocoa, but the rest of it doesn't look like Theobroma cacao. I'll have to look it up one of these days.
those little dove-like birds I've been seeing are, strangely enough, called "ground doves". but I haven't figured out quite what species. these have long, curved, black beaks.
last updated 2013-12-14 18:00:48. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com