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Showing posts from January, 2009

On the "Reading Workbench" Part 1

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I'm a fairly avid reader and thought the blog would be a good place to discuss some of the more interesting books that I've read recently. My interest in books covers technology, history, film making. I was originally thinking of making a list of books that I've read and just leaving it at that, but then I thought it would be worthwhile to give my impressions of them too while I was at it. So here goes ... 1). Droidmaker : George Lucas and the Digital Revolution Droidmaker tells, in immense detail, the story of the George Lucas and his quest to modernize the film making process to keep up with his vision for storytelling. Beginning in the late 60's the book begins describing the collaboration and friendship with Francis Ford Coppola. It documents the tedious, labor intensive and manual process for assembling a film. The story follows the creation of the the computer graphics group at Lucasfilm which had three purposes: to advance the state of film editing, compositin

Economical Fastener Storage

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For a long time I've had one big plastic bin with a mish-mash of screws and bolts. I've been on the lookout for an inexpensive way of being able to store these fasteners. I've found the the Ziploc food storage containers fit the bill perfectly. I labeled both the cover and the container so that I can easily see what is in each one. I can now put screws of the same type in a separate container and when I need, for example 1-1/4" drywall screws and 2" gold screws, I can easily grab the 2 labeled bins for the project at hand. The containers fit well in the existing niches above the workbench. Simple and economical; and if one bin gets messed up, it is very easy to replace with a new one.