So, the internet here really sucks. I would add a big update to the site, but I’m having lots of issues.

1) I left the camera with most of the pictures from the GlaDos speaker build at home.
2) The pictures I do have seem to not work at all when I try to upload them to wordpress.
3) The internet sucks here and I have to wait forever for anything to upload anywhere.
4) I can’t log into Steam, which means that I can’t progress in any of my achievements in Left 4 Dead. I can’t download my TV either.

Some of those have nothing to do with the site, it just pisses me off. For those few of you that read the site, here’s another poem:

I Ask: From His Lips, How Good Did the Chicken Taste?

The alluring aroma of
Delicious deep-fat fried
Bread battered chicken chunks.

Osmosis of oil, drumsticks to digits.
Porky fingers feed a plump face.
Chew, chew, chew then gulp grease.

Lips smack as you lick the lingering crumbs;
Comets, inescapably crushed in
the black hole. Whole biscuits all at once
vanish in the event horizon; your mouth.

Your Seemingly infinite mass teeters
Toward the buffet, but then . . .
You hit the floor
And will not be revived.

School has started. I think I will spend today updating the site and getting people up to speed on my life and my projects. The speakers are done for now. I’ll write that update later today. For now, enjoy a poem I wrote for my creative writing class. It’s pretty simple.

Evolution of a Wrapping Paper Tube

I am a pirate. Max is my monkey.
But he is possessed by a voodoo curse.
I pull out my sword. Max, you will be mourned.
I miss. Stupid eyepatch. I remove it
And strike, my sword splitting in the middle;
And I no longer am a pirate.

I am a ninja. Max is a dragon.
He snarls, and spits fire from his scaly snout.
But I am trained in the ways of Kung-Fu,
And my nun-chuck skills are legendary.
I strike. Max bites the end of my nun-chuck
And I no longer am a ninja.

I’m Indiana Jones. Max is a lion.
He roars licks his lips, and leans in to pounce.
Indiana is afraid of nothing.
With my whip I will crack wild beast to tame,
But max claws the popper. It unravels.
Indiana is afraid of snakes.

After using fiberglass for the first time, and having a less than perfect time of it, I was worried about bondo. However, almost all modders talk about how easy it is to use. I hoped for the best and mixed some up. It went on well enough. It was horribly uneven, but it’s supposed to sand relatively easily, so I didn’t worry. Here’s a pic of one of the speaker enclosures with unsanded bondo, and one after being bondoed and sanded.

After sanding both spheres, I decided that I needed more bondo to fill in the valleys. I hoped that I would get a more perfect sphere the second time around. Here are the sanded balls ready for more bondo.

I sanded the balls again. The results were nothing short of amazing. Making a sphere is hard, and these aren’t prefect yet, but I am now confidant that they are perfectable. With much work these will become two of GlaDos eyes. I’m excited, and I should be. One more month ’til completion? That’s what I’ll aim for, but it could be two.

My TufCal arrived and I went to slush cast some speakers. Sadly, however, I could not get my homemade mold water tight. I had clamps and vaseline and a shower liner ring cut out to help, but it didn’t work. Plaster spilled everywhere. I was irritated and took a week off to think about things. After that week I knew that if I had neoprine that I could make it waterproof, but I decided that I could go another direction.

I went back to Fred Meyer’s and got two more balls, each one the same size. I then proceeded to fiberglass both balls completely. Each ball would serve as its own mold completely and would then remain part of the final speaker. The ball on the left has not been cut open yet.

The ball on the right was cut open with a 2.75inch hole saw. I removed the ball and glued in some PVC pipe. The plaster will be poured right into the opening. I calculated that ~5 cups of plaster will yield me ~0.75inches of plaster in the inside. That is perfect.

From this point I will be able to pour the plaster right in the opening and turn the sphere without having to seal the hole. The pipe is above the water line, so the plaster will never be able to pour out, even when the ball is upside down. Now I don’t have to worry about making the stupid thing water tight. The plaster will cure as I spin the ball, creating an even coat on the inside. This technique is called slush casting. I made a very fancy diagram showing how the ball can be upside down without spilling the plaster. Don’t laugh . . .haha.

Here is the TufCal. It’s a good plaster and resists chipping because of fibers in it. It cost about $75 shipped for a 50lb bag. I slowly sifted 2.5 cups of plaster mix into 2 cups of hot water, then stirred. About a minute later I poured the plaster into the mold and began to spin. It worked. No spills, just drips. The results were great. It set up in under 10 minutes. Hot water does the trick for a quick set.

Just like normal plaster.

The next two pics show one ball with the plaster cast and set, and one without. The plaster adds a few pounds. I’ll measure later. You know what they say; if it is heavy, it must be expensive!

A closeup of the inside. Nice and even!

After completing one shere, I quickly did the other. It went equally well and I am pleased. The artsy part of this, the fun part, will be equally difficult I fear. From here on out I have to make this thing look good. Wish me luck!

First, I will add one more video of the subwoofer. I had fun with this. I know you are all thinking that I should play “Still Alive.” I promise, it will come when the entire speaker project is over.  For now, enjoy shelf shaking sub-brating goodness.

The speakers in the end are going to look like GlaDos Eyes. I hoped in the beginning that I could just find some spheres that were the right size and mod them, but I never found anything that looked like it was going to work. I eventually stumbled across this project over at partsexpress.com, which is where I got all the parts for the subwoofer. The project explained how he made the spheres. I calculated that with my 2.75inch speaker drivers that I would want the spheres to be between six and seven inches in diameter. Sadly, I could not for the life of me find a candle mold that size. This of course meant one thing, I get to make my own mold.

I went to Fred Meyer (I hate Wal-Mart) and got a ball. I came home and mixed up some paper mache, which consisted of 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup water, and 4oz of Elmer’s Glue.

I then ripped up the day’s paper and put about five layers on. This was fun and messy.

After it dried I made a template for a rim that would go around the circumference of the sphere.

And cut it out and glued it around the middle.

To add strength as a mold, I then put fiberglass over what I had.

Here are the two halves after the fiberglass and rims are added. They are only clamped together, they are seperate halves. Eventually I will cut a hole in one and it will be the hole through which I slush cast some Tufcal, which is a plaster which is fiber reinforced to reduce chipping. The speakers will eventually be mounted to the plaster spheres.

Next up I have one of the speakers on top of the mold for a size reference. I will compare this to one of GlaDos’ eyes and perhaps you can get an idea of the eventual final product.

Although there will be more to come in the form of speakers, the Companion Cube Subwoofer is finished. I glued the last pieces last night and took some glamor shots this morning. I’ll let the pics do the talking. I’ll continue the other half of this project in Part 2: GlaDos Speaks with Her Eyes. The sub weighs in at just under 40lbs. It’s heavy.

Talk about this in the forums: www.modsandends.com/forum

After some trouble getting the EL wire, I finally got it and worked hard on the Companion Cube Subwoofer today. I did a number of things. First I drybrushed a metallic gray onto the cube to give it a sheet metal sort of look. It worked pretty well and I am very satisfied with the results. It really added some depth to the gray.

I drilled holes and ran the EL wire. This is some pretty fun stuff. The pink is just right. Here is a great blurry picture of the cube in the dark. The wire is run in the grooves and holes are drilled so the wire can from one track to another on the inside on the box.

A quick mock-up with the corners on. The wire will have epoxy over it, and then the epoxy will be painted pink. The glow will show through when it is dark, just like in the game.

Here is the EL wire inverter. It will just hang like it is, but it can be removed. It is on the back, next to the sub amp.

I put epoxy in the grooves to bury the EL wire, and then painted it pink. I then added the mounted the amp and woofer. Here’s a pic of the results.

Some glue on the corners, and this is getting very close to done.

A pic of the back. You can see the amp and the inverter. I hate waiting for glue to dry.

Today I waited for the mail to come, but I didn’t get the EL wire I ordered.  Maybe tomorrow.

Instead, I worked more on the paint. The screenshot shows that There is some grading between the gray of the cube, and the complete white of the corner pieces. I decided that I would try my hand at dry brushing to add the gray. I first added the gray, and then after it had dried a little more I added another drybrush layer of white. It turned out pretty ok. There’s some natural looking wear on the corner pieces, and grade from gray to white looks pretty good too.

Here’s the cube sanded. The white was way too shiny, and the finish wasn’t completely smooth. Sanding also added some wear to the cube that it needed. None of the pictures here show the detail very well.

Here you can see the gray added and the super light white coat to cover up the wear that was a little overboard.

Finally, here’s a close up of the gray to white. There’s too much white in the pic. Sorry, there’s nothing I can really do to fix that.

Later I will add a clear coat, but first I will wait for the EL wire to show up and I will get it mounted and epoxied in.

I was unsatisfied with the results I was getting, so I decided to repaint the cube. It was frustrating, but worth it. I like the new results a lot more and after some dry brushing and a few coats of clear, it will look perfect. I’m still waiting on the pink EL wire to ship, but it should be here before the end of the week and then I can finish the subwoofer. The speakers will come next. I have the drivers, but everything else to make them needs to be purchased.

Let’s take a moment and compare the new paint job and old to a screenshot of our favorite cube.

Now, knowing that the new paint job isn’t finished yet, which is closer to the screenshot?

Back in December I purchased the Zune80. I was tempted for a while to get the Zune30 to replace my 20gig iPod that has slowly been dying, but decided to wait for the Zune80 instead. Here I will go through the review and give a final score.

If you have not yet heard of the Zune, it is a portable media player that is able to play music, videos, radio, podcasts, and display pictures. I got my Zune80 at Target for $250 and brought it home.

Unpacking

Here is the box.

From the back.

The top of the box slides off the bottom vertically. The design is pretty cool considering the whole thing is made from cardboard. I like the orange/pink fade theme that Microsoft uses. Very cool.

Inside the base is a box with a flap; lift the flap and you will see your Zune.

The box that holds the Zune is removable. Behind it are boxes that hold the USB cable and the headphones.

Underneath those boxes is a cool graphic that reads, “Welcome to the Social”

Opening the headphone box you can see that the orange/pink theme is even carried to the inside of the box. Details like this make the packaging pretty darn cool.

Here are the Zune Premium Headphones. The cord is wrapped in woven nylon and the earbuds are magnetic to help with tangling issues. The earbuds come with three sizes of covers, for variously sized ears.

Here are some closeups of the earbuds.

Magnetically held together.

Side shot.

Here is a shot of the USB cable for the Zune. It comes with pink shields that are pretty cool in all honesty.

Finally some shots of the Zune.

Zune alone. The screen is glass which makes it very scratch resistant, but to protect it even more I added an Invisible Shield screen protector from ZAGG. I am sold on their screen protectors. You can go to their site here and see the gizmodo test here. You can also see another torture test here.

The back. Too small for me to get a picture of is that is says “Hello from Seattle” near the bottom with the serial and model numbers.

A comparison shot to my old iPod.

A shot of the screen.

Specifications:

Capaicty:
The Zune has hard drive based storage with a capacity of 80Gb.

Dimensions:
It’s 4.26 x 2.41 x 0.51-inches.

Screen and Resolution:
It has a 3.2 inch screen with a resolution of 320 × 240, but can output to a TV at a resolution of 720×480.

Compatible audio formats:
Mp3, AAC, and WMA.

Compatible video formats:
Mpeg-4, and WMV.

The Zune could not be used in the slightest until I had installed the software on my computer and updated some firmware on the Zune. This was very frustrating as I knew that there was music and video on the device already. Once the software was installed, however, I was pretty very happy.

Software Pros:
The software automatically updates the music in your collection by actively searching the folders you have designated to the Zune. If there is any new music or videos, it gets added to the library, no work from you. This is a huge plus for me.

Software Cons:
The software is very clunky. Very often it will freeze when opening a song. This is frustrating, but I don’t usually use the software for media playback. I mostly just use it to get the media from my computer to the Zune.

There are also issues with music with an unknown artist. If there are several CDs or songs with an unknown artist, they all must be changed to the same artist. I discovered that this is because the software doesn’t search the metadata to know these things, but searches for where the file is located to name the artist. If you rename the artist, the folder containing the music will be renamed. This can be fixed by going into the folder and sorting the music out, which in the end is better because it forces you to keep your music organized, but is still irritating.

First Impressions of the Device:
It is not much bigger than an ipod, and weighs about the same. The big improvement is the 3.2 inch screen. It is a lot easier to see than the ipod’s. Microsoft was also smart to make the words big and easy to read. The “squircle” is a really cool interface, but I find that it is a lot harder to use the touch function side to side than it is up and down. One drawback of the squircle is that people inevitably try to use it as a scroll wheel . Music playback is great. I love the menu and how you can navigate between lists of artists, genres, albums, and songs without having to go back first. This is a big improvement over the iPod.

Music sounds great. The headphones are noise isolating, so they block out some outside noise. Bass response it decent, but when I went to equalize it I was unpleasantly surprised.

NO EQUALIZER!

The lack of an equalizer is a huge oversight in my opinion. It’s frustrating on many levels. However, the sound quality overall of the Zune is enough for me to forgive the fact that I can’t adjust it. Music sounds clear and crisp. Details are not lost. In the end I am ok with no equalizer, but I hope that they release a firmware update soon to add one.

Video is amazing. The screen is bright and big. The resolution may be the same as the iPod, but the fact that I have so much more screen to look at means that I actually use the device to watch movies and TV shows. It’s really very beautiful and something you have to see in person to really appreciate.

Zune AV Station

I have a friend who purchased a Zune30 and in the end was unsatisfied with it and returned it. He had the Zune AV station (which was un-returnable) and asked if I wanted it. I said yes, so here are some shots and my impressions of it.

Everything.

The AC adapter. Really it just turns AC power to USB. You use the same USB from your computer to power the dock, although another USB cable is included.

The remote.

My Zune plugged into the base.

Output to my TV. I’m sorry for the poor quality. I was never able to get a good picture.

Impressions
The AV station turns this portable media machine into a home entertainment monster. You can view slideshows of pictures along with music, you can watch your videos at DVD quality on the TV. The remote works flawlessly with the same controls as the Zune itself, minus the touchpad capabilities. I absolutely love the dock and don’t know how I got along for so long without it.

Final Thoughts
If you are debating between the Zune80 or an iPod, stop. The Zune is your device (unless you own a mac). The screen is bigger, it can play the radio, music and video. It is beautiful and durable. The AV Dock integrates flawlessly with the device, allowing you to use all your media in your home’s entertainment center. I am in love, and I’m not scared to admit it. If the software is ever fixed then we will have a product that I feel will actually be an iPod killer, or if not a killer, at least a little brother that steals his older brother’s girlfriend.

Final Scores:

Packaging:10/10
Device:11/10
Software:7/10
AV Dock:10/10