"Ading to it"
I'm sure this is real exciting to read as it is to type but I still don't have much to report. I didn't get a call from anyone regarding the good job offer again today. I am planning to call them on Monday and get some sort of answer.
In what might almost be considered news I did apply for "google ads" over on my
story blog, and they actually accepted me. They must not look at the counters to see what the traffic is like. Or maybe the only requirement is to fit within some guidelines of basically "no porn" or other offensive material. In any case I now have a "commercial" site, if you can call it that. Which I won't.
Now I just have to do something to promote it not to mention send it through a few iterations and drafts to make it better.
I have now sort-of started up on yet another project I thought of a long time ago, and I don't even mind telling the world about it. Namely I want to take the parts from a VCR and put them in a new case with
just the parts to play the audio from the tape, nothing else. I want to do this so I can record 6 hours of music onto the tape and play it back in the car or wherever. Even with MP3s on a CD you can't get 6 hours straight.
So i spent a few hours searching the Internet for projects related to taking apart a VCR and doing something else with the parts, with little to no results on how to something like that. Then I started thinking about "camcorders", the old VHS/VHS-C kind. Those already have the entire feature I would want in such an audio playing device: battery/car power adapter and convenient composite out connectors. The only disadvantage to this would be the size. So could I find a dirt-cheap VHS camera and cannibalize it to use just the play part, leaving the composite connectors? Well I don't know. I may as well just take apart my old VCR use the parts from it.
Most of parts I wouldn't need. No recording or video, so throw out any inputs or coaxial hook-ups and composite video, right? All that would be left are the "heads" for getting the information from the tape and the composite audio out for the sound. And a way to have it start playing. I don't really know how a VCR works, but that's a minor detail. It'd be nice to be able to do something like this. And fun.
This will most likely be really, really hard to do. I have a feeling there's all kinds of wires and circuit boards the size of the whole VCR case connected to the parts I would want to separate. And besides what kind of other container would I move it all to?
Well I was contemplating one of those automatic rewinding machines they sell at some stores and video rental places. I actually bought one of those tonight and took it apart to see if i was completely out of my mind. Well that really isn't practical, as it doesn't seem quite big enough. I also realized those rewinders are insanely simple little devices. Just a solenoid hooked up to a motor with literally a rubber band strapped around a wheel that fits into the hole of the tape. The motor spins, rewinds the tape and also lights up a small LED to indicate it's working. The parts for it must cost less than a $1. I bought mine for $12.
The only things left is that I finally have my own phone receiver. I bought a cordless phone for with an extra receiver and charging station. So without needing the phone outlet in my room I finally have a phone, one that will hopefully work unlike our current cordless. My new one even has storage for phone numbers and a whole bunch of features. And it was only $40, though an off brand.
