Wabi-sabi

I like this description of Wabi-sabi. It describes the approach I've taken to my projects lately; I don't let myself get hung up on imperfections. Each of my projects has blemishes, and that is how they should be.

Love my Dewalt planer!

Thank you, Dewalt! Right after I got my DW735 planer, I decided it'd be a good idea to plane some wood with countersunk nails in it, and managed to take a couple of chips out of the blades, which means that I now get three little raised ridges on everything I plane. So today I remembered to buy a set of replacement blades, although I was dreading the replacement process, since I'd heard it's really painful to get them aligned properly.

It turns out that replacing the blades is a delightfully easy and elegantly designed process. A single allen wrench is all that's required, and it came with the tool, in its own holder. The process of disassembly and replacement is obviously something they put a lot of thought into: everything's easy to reach and simple to remove. There was almost no dust inside the machine at all. And the allen wrench even has magnets on the handle for lifting out the blades and guards. The whole process is alignment-free; the blades have slots that fit squarely over pins on the shaft.

The best part? The blades are reversible. Whereas a lot of companies go to great lengths to make big profits on replacement parts, Dewalt essentially included a replacement set with the tool.

That rocks! That's the kind of quality that makes me willing to spend twice the price of a cheaper tool. We've spent thousands of dollars on Dewalt tools at work, and it's all been worth it. Well done.

Obama's inagural address

Here's the text of the speech. Lots of grand ideas and stirring words, but I really like that he said this: "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals".

Belkin routers suck

The other day I lauded Turtle Wax for their response to one of my blog posts about their suboptimal product packaging, and mentioned the evil that is astroturfing. And today I read that a
Belkin employee was caught using mechanical turk operators to astroturf positive reviews for a crappy Belkin router. Boo for Belkin.

A 4-color proof

"A four color proof", a parody of "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.
Dedicated to Appel, Haken and Koch, with thanks to Hilarie Orman.
Released into the public domain, January 13 2008.

Well my daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much for ma and me
Just a few conjectures and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing he ever did
Was to leave us with a 4-color sketch, unproved.

Well he must a' thought it quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a lot of folks
It seems I had to prove my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell ya, it aint easy writin' a 4-color proof.

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My predicates got hard and my insights keen,
I'd roam from town to town to seem aloof.
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the journals and seminars,
And kill that man who gave me that awful proof.

Well, it was in Atlanta in March '08
And I'd just hit town and was feeling irate,
so I thought I'd hit G4G and see what's new.
At an old card table, on a fractal rug,
Dealin' puzzles, lookin' smug,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that claimed that proof.

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad,
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that frumpy coat and his ugly tie.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
and I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: "How do you do? 4-color's true!
Now you gonna die!"

Well I hit him hard right between the eyes,
with a manuscript, about 10 feet high,
With nineteen hundred thirty-six cases proved.
And I showed him the code, and the bill I owed,
For the twelve hundred hours of time I'd stole'd,
And said "Just read that through and stay unmoved!"

I tell ya, there'd been longer proofs,
But I really can't remember whose
It read like a dictionary and strained the eye.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his pen and I pulled mine first
He stood there lookin at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough
And to make it in math he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that sketch and I said goodbye,
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's that theorem that helped to make you strong."

And he said: "My sketch was one hell of a blight,
And I know you hate me and you've got the right
To graduate now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But you ought to thank me, before you go,
For the vectors in the plane and the snarks that you show,
Cause it's my faulty proof that got you through.

I got all choked up and I threw down my proof
And I cited his work and he gave me my due
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, every now and then
Every time I try, and every time I win
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna have him prove,
FLT or Goldbach, or anything but 4-color cycling! I still hate that proof!

Turtle Wax rocks :)

Marc, a rep from Turtle Wax, left a comment on yesterday's rant about poor product packaging. I really respect a couple of the things he said:

• He acknowledged that he works for the company, and
  
• He acknowledged that a defect exists.
  

That alone is praiseworthy, even if they had decided not to fix it. But apparently they do have a fix in the works, and he even gave a timeline. That rocks.

Astroturfing is an insidious practice that society isn't really prepared to handle yet. So I'm glad when companies take the high road and respond honestly instead of ignoring their customers or being deceptive. Thanks, Marc!

Also, turtle wax sucks.

I must really sound like a curmudgeon sometimes, with all this complaining. Stupid product tricks do make me grumpy, but they also mystify me: why do premium brands sully their reputation with silly, preventable mistakes? Is it a random fluke? Price competition from cheap brands? Complacency? Mediocrity that accumulates as a company ages?

I bought some Turtle Wax to use on my cast iron tool worktables. Here's a company that's over 60 years old, whose product probably hasn't had to change much over that time. It came in a little tub with an applicator on top. Great.

Except that it's virtually impossible to get the yellow lid off without taking off the lid to the tub, and the tub is so flimsy that as the lid flies off, you end up with a handful of wax, and a gooped up lid attached to the lid holding the applicator safely inside. Seriously, wtf?

Did nobody at Turtle, Inc. ever actually think to try their product? Did environmental DDT contamination cause statistically thinner shells over time?

Even Sawstop didn't get it right with their $5000 cabinet saw. Reviews called it the finest saw they'd ever used, but both of the ones we got at work had some stupid missing or incorrect pieces or something.