Author: Alan
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Learning Celestial Navigation
In my continuing effort to acquire miscellaneous skills, I took up celestial navigation a little while ago. Yes, I mean using a sextant, some printed tables, and a rudimentary grasp of the principles of spherical trigonometry to find my position on Earth. It’s unlikely anyone really needs to do this here in the 21st century,…
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A Sturdy Blanket Booth
I’ve been getting into voiceover projects lately, and it’s time I documented my recording setup. For those new to this subject, the key challenge in making high-quality voice recordings is setting up a “treated space.” There’s a whole literature on sound treatment, but the essence of it for this purpose is to kill all echoes…
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Supporting Open Source Software by Writing Documentation
Almost all of the software I use these days is Open Source; Free code runs this blog, most of the applications I use every day at work, and many of my hobby projects. While it’s great to get all of these power tools at no cost, I do try to support the ones I use…
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Refinishing Antique Chairs
I inherited a lovely Philippine mahogany dining table and a set of four walnut chairs from my great-grandmother, but as one might expect for century-old furniture, they weren’t in pristine condition when I got them. The chairs in particular were rickety and heavily worn, with the finish thick with accumulated grime in some spots. Here’s…
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MAIB, R.I.P.
The weirdest, and for my money most delightful, publication in the boating world has ceased operations. Messing about in Boats, which began as a bimonthly journal in the early ’80s, covered a broader and stranger beat than any other regularly published magazine I’ve ever encountered. Named for a famous quote from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind…
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My First Complete Audiobook
My first complete solo audiobook is now online and free for anyone to download at Librivox. The Track of the Typhoon was a book I read in serialized form several years ago, in the delightful zine Messing About in Boats. It’s a travelogue from a slightly insane sailing voyage in 1920, written by the aptly…
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Building an Exterior Door with Plywood and Epoxy
The back door of our garage was in rough shape when we bought the house ten years ago, and we’ve been procrastinating its repair for just as long. Ordinarily I’d just go to the lumber yard, pick up a pre-hung door in the appropriate style, and install it by lunchtime. However, this particular door is…