AlexWitherspoon.com

2006 Suzuki SV650s Dead Battery

Alex Witherspoon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:00:04 +0000

I recently have played around with adding video recording to my motorcycle, as well as power via a relay for my iPhone so I can keep it powered during longer rides.

My battery is over 2 years old now, and the standard lead battery tends to start getting weaker after that much time. (It is pictured above) Finally it became necessarily to charge the battery every time I wanted to crank over, and the voltage would sharply drop down to 4volts instead of the healthier 11 volts it had before.

I decided to try an AGM based battery this time for the greater power and the no-liquid-sloshing design. I am an Amazon purchaser, and went with this battery for a replacement. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YMRH70/ref=oh_o00_s01_i00_details

The company website page for this battery can be found here: http://www.motobattbatteries.com/motobatt-mbtx12u.html

When the new battery arrives, I will update this post with the installation pics, as well as some comments on how the battery holds up under stress.

Testing Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 on my 2006 Suzuki SV650s

Testing Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 on my 2006 Suzuki SV650s

Alex Witherspoon — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:00:36 +0000

This is a fairly poorly shot video, but it was the first try, and I am working to make the next recordings better. So far I have not been able to do much to fix the windshield since it is Lexan, but I will potentially replace it so videos can be more clearly shot. I also changed the mount so it is more stable and so I can include the speedometer. Hopefully in Portland the weather warms up and I can get some great videos out this Spring/Summer since I am planning on taking advanced riding courses + doing some track time.

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Motorcycle Drifting VS Car Epic Driving 101

Alex Witherspoon — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:00:53 +0000

First watch this awesome Video!

Then Watch this awesome Video!

Battlefield 3 – Epic Jet Kill

Alex Witherspoon — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:00:48 +0000

Check out this epic video of a missile shot towards

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Space Station Orbital View

Alex Witherspoon — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:36:46 +0000

Not kind of cool, this is freaking awesome, in the true sense. Make sure to watch in full HD, and full screen it. I especially like the lights, and thunder storms. The clarity is also simply amazing, how you can see right down into the population centers.

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Video Games as Art

Alex Witherspoon — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:00:07 +0000

This is great representation of my feelings towards modern computer gaming. it is an experience that forces choices, and shows life through another lens. Even in minimalistic games like Tetris, or Chess, there is a complexity to them in how the system and mechanism works. I enjoy tinkering with mechanical objects, and have all my life. Many of these games feel like a natural extension of this. Now many would say there are plenty of ‘bad’ games out there, but I would argue there are just that many flawed systems as well. It takes a breadth of experiencing the good, the bad, and the ugly to really enjoy the good stuff when it comes along. I was playing World of Tanks recently, an online tank battle game, which is more towards the arcade end of things than simulation, but I was really enjoying experiencing the otherwise historical tanks and exploring how nuts some of these tank crews must have been going into battle with no metal enclosure to their turrets in some instances, when you really sit down and soak in some of these experiences, they can be interesting to work with.

My closing statement; go get a fun game and really play it, soak it in, and enjoy it like a good book.

Here is the source article I stumbled upon: http://kotaku.com/5853739/this-video-might-convince-your-doubtful-friends-that-games-can-be-art

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Owning a Tank

Alex Witherspoon — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:00:03 +0000

I will admit, after playing World of Tanks the computer game (http://worldoftanks.com) – the idea of owning my own tank to drive to work with in downtown Portland Oregon has me pretty intrigued. I am pretty sure I would want an M36 Slugger – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M36_tank_destroyer

Source: http://i.autoblog.com/2011/11/05/infographic-the-ins-and-outs-of-owning-a-tank/

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Richard Feynman Rules of Chess

Alex Witherspoon — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:00:29 +0000

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Spherical Flying Machine Developed by Japan Ministry Of Defense

Alex Witherspoon — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:00:43 +0000

This design for UAVs is brilliant, It really removes a lot of the issues concerning normal VTOL aircraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTOL).

The flight stability from a single rotor is impressive, and the self recovering nature of the sphere shape could vastly simply automation of flight in a drone use case. All I know is I want one, so this might become a hobby project soon. One more outlandish idea that popped to mind would be to have this dock with existing systems like personnel carriers in pods, so it would charge and be ready for deployment to aid in recon for military use. Search and rescue could send them out in mass too, even just to find/track heat signatures could help locate people faster.

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Half-Life: Origins Independent Short Film

Alex Witherspoon — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:00:14 +0000

I am a hug fan of Half Life; the entire series really, and I enjoyed seeing this fan film that looks into the days leading up to the Black Mesa Incident.

Left for Dead Independent Short Film