Last book posting for a little while…I am heads down on a lot of other things and probably won’t get a lot of books read for a while.

* “Three Days To Never”:amazon by Tim Powers. If you’ve never read Powers before, this is a good place to start. Good characters, the typical Powers scenario of magic and evil just under the surface of our rational world. If you have read Powers before, I’m not sure this will add anything to your life. * “Gone for Good”:amazon by Harlan Coben. A decent twisty coben mystery. Won’t stick to your ribs but a good beach/airplane book. * “The Enemy”:amazon by Lee Child. Another great reacher story. Earlier in his career. I think I like the later career stories better. * “The Man Who Stayed Behind”:amazon by Rittenberg. Very engaging memoir by someone who lived thru some of the most dramatic events of the 20th century. You can really feel the revolutionary fervor of mao’s china. On reflection it seems amazing how well the america revolution ended up – the quick settling into a durable democratic structure is quite a different than what china went thru or what france went thru. * “Frameshift”:amazon by Robert Sawyer. been on the shelf forever. a decent medical mystery with better-than-average characters who you can really care about.

On other book fronts:

* Brad Feld’s vacation book list. Probably some gems in here * This Collecterz thingy might be worth trying. I couldn’t get their site to accept any credit cards tho, all my banks rejected the charges. Oh well.

* Mechanisms and Movement – online resource for mechanical motion mechanisms – how to convert rotary motion to linear, irregular, etc. great great stuff. * Lindsay Books – great catalog of all kinds of tool and craft goodness. * Surplus Center – all kinds of motors, pumps, mechanisms. pneumatics and electrical too.

Apparently I have failed to link to the system I use for my primary fog system at halloween – fogmachines. The system hasbeen trouble-free for me for years and puts out a ton of fog. It is very wet of course, but then it is usually wet around here at Halloween anyway

* 50 Yard Lion – solid analysis. * PennLive.com – newspaper coverage. Tho it says something about rural PA that they are running a contest with Peter Frampton’s new CD as the prize * Central Pennsylvania’s homepage! – more newspaper coverage

* TCRG Links – bunches of suppliers and info sites * servo connector pin-out – i needed this this week

* Seattle Marine & Fishing Supply Co. – crab line is apparently great for outdoor use * TAP Plastics for plastic sheeting * Kelsun distributors for oddball lightbulbs

I’ve been thinking about HP’s actions – A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way: “Pretexting” – and I’ve been wondering – just what is the board of a public company talking about that is so freaking secret? Why do they feel the need to treat a leak like a threat to national security? I really can’t wrap my head around this. I wonder why more board meetings aren’t open like many government proceedings are. I bet that would put a damper on ceo pay abuses among other board missteps.

Feld Thoughts: Where Has BASIC Gone? – Feld and commenters participate in the discussion about BASIC.

I’ve recently come back to BASIC, programming BASIC stamps for Halloween. I have to say, it is quite fun to be able to jump into a program so fast without all the object/ui/typing/etc overhead of “modern” languages or “modern” incarnations of BASIC. totally dangerous of course, but still quite fun. i’d rather be able to use python or something a bit more au courant, but they don’t make Python stamps.

All my gear and props delivered from door  to door storage over the weekend and unpacked today.  I’ve used these guys for storage for 4 years now and they have been great.

Got my pneumatic valves hooked up to EFX-TEK :: Prop-1 Controller. This is my planned controller strategy this year. Seems to work just great – I don’t have air hooked up yet but the valves are all click-clacking away under program control.

Also got my i-zombie lighting controllers today. As is obvious, I am moving away a little from pc-based control this year and towards a bunch of discrete systems – easier to debug, harder to manage.

Oh and Scott graciously showed me some of his past work – awesome. I am really motivated to give the axworthy ghost another try tho I may not have the time this year.

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Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection: TiVo Nirvana Has Arrived, Series 3 TiVo Available Now $799 – I’d be all over this if it wasn’t the middle of football season. I can’t upset my HD setup right now because I am dependent on it for my football fix. And I suspect getting two cablecards provisioned and working will be a long affair, based on my past experience with Comcast.

Buckeye Fans Already Setting Sights On Next Year’s Championship

AUSTIN, TX–After watching their team’s decisive victory over the Texas Longhorns on Saturday, Ohio State fans realized that the Buckeyes were virtually unbeatable and perfect in every way. Having locked up the 2006 NCAA championship in only the second week of the season, those fans were left to ponder the only question remaining: Who will the Buckeyes beat in 2007?

* The Enquirer - Bearcats – coverage on the Cincinnati Enquirer website * not much on the blog front for UC football – here’s one * Big Ten weekly release for general conference goodness.

The likely outcome this weekend is clear – Cincinnati is probably overmatched physically, and has an inexperienced QB.

Wiper Motor Page – I’ve probably blogged this before, but a great source of info on using wiper motors in halloween props.

I’d never seen this before Creature Supply – records 4 minutes of firing events for 6 output lines, and then replays on receipt of an input trigger (IR, switchmat, etc). Seems useful.

Of course the Buckeyes looked brilliant in beating Texas in Texas as expected. So all is basically right with the world. But look at the rest of these outcomes – NCAA Football Scoreboard - CBS SportsLine.com

* Wisconsin seemed to win handily over a weak opponent, they can feel good. * Michigan and Michigan State won by big margins over weak opponents – but each gave up a lot of first half points. * Iowa, Purdue, and Indiana struggled to win against clearly inferior opponents. I guess Indiana should feel good about any victory. * Penn State and Minnesota thumped by top 25 teams. * and Illinois and Northwestern thumped by weak opponents.

After the 11-0 Big Ten start last week I was feeling pretty good about the league. Not so much now.