BitsOfMyMind

August 2, 2015August 4, 2015

Athens, Greece

I had not reserved any hostel but had some marked on a map I printed off the web. Option A was full, so I had to resort to a 45 minute walk to option B with all my gear right in the middle of an Athenian summer day, which in the process forced me to revise my previous definition of “hot”. Luckily, they had a dorm bed for me, with A/C. After a massive nap to ward off the effects of a sleepless night aboard a plane, I set out on foot to explore the city, first climbing mount Lycabeus to get a nighttime view of the city while sipping on a Greek beer: life is not so bad…

The stadium where the first Olympic games where held

Walking around is pretty much all I did during my time in Athens, in the day and at night with a beer in hand. There is loads to see and learn about, but it was high season and everything was seriously crowded. Athens, in the likes of Rome, has the vast majority of its attraction and tourist districts concentrated within a square kilometer or so. Other city in the world will get more visitors, but here, the concentration of selfie stick and sun umbrella weaving individuals gets to extreme levels. I’ll gladly spend an afternoon looking at rows and rows of Greek vases, but not if I have to wait one hour in queue and not with masses of tour groups clogging every passage.

The Acropolis, under never ending restoration

I did see the acropolis, because I had to and for the occasion got up extra early to get a headstart on the swarms but otherwise all I did was roaming around in the cooking heat of the city, checking out the Athenians living their lives and drinking extreme amounts of water while barely going to toilet.

Abandoned and foreclosed buildings were abundant in the capital so I absolutely had to do a bit of urban exploration. My visit to the derelict “Peace and Frienship Stadium“, home of the Olympiacos basketball club, turned out to be the highlight of my stay. That day, I had visited the Acropolis in the morning and had taken the metro to Piraeus to walk around the famous port, which was nothing like I had hoped it to be and overall a huge disappointment. On my way back to the metro station, I decided to cut trough was appeared to be a park, but was in reality leftover sport facilities from the 2004 summer Olympics that the Greek could just no longer afford to maintain. I like a bit of urban exploration. There in the background the stadium was standing and I thought it must have suffered the same fate at its neighboring buildings, which made it a prime candidate for a bit of trespassing. It looked abandoned alright, doors were bolted shut, every surface had a graffiti, in the stadium were soda machines displaying advertisements from the mid 2000’s and a group of homeless had set up camp in the stadium’s bar, which looked like it had been the scene of a recent terror attack.

I tried every spectator entrance but no luck, they were all padlocked from the inside. After a while, I had given up and started my walk to the metro station when I noticed an inordinate amount of cars were parked in front of a service entrance and people were going in an out. Maybe they were just providing minimal staffing to the facility before it finally gets demolished? The entrance was guarded by a couple of dudes to which I had originally planned to politely ask if I could see the inside but the quick glance they gave me was enough to convince me that they did not give a gyros about my presence.

Awesome. I walked around until I found the staircase to the stadium itself and spent a good amount of time just walking in this very large enclosed space. It’s a weird feeling to be alone in a place that is normally crowded with other humans. Sounds like the wind, the birds knocking on the windows, the structure creaking, all echoing in this massive room for only my ears to ear. On the way out, a man gave me a suspicious look but on noting that I was heading for the exit, he did not bother to question me. The men at the entrance were still busy watching YouTube. Upon taking not the of ads promoting the team’s Facebook fan page, I rightly came to the conclusion that in spite of looking like it was bound to imminent demolition, the stadium was very much in operation, just under staffed and under maintained.

That night, nothing was going on at the hostel’s bar so I picked up my book, went to Syntagma square (where the protests usually happen) and read about astronomy (black holes) for a while, with a sense of having had a fulfilling time in this city. Athens was sort of how I expected it to be. Very much a European capital but with a more chaotic and messy touch. The price of everything I had to purchase (especially food) made me wonder how the Greeks could actually afford to live in their own capital but satisfied with my time there, I was nonetheless eager to leave it for something different. Next destination: Thessaloniki, where I will start my Greek adventure on two motorized wheels.

May 20, 2015May 23, 2016

How to download a CBC radio show episode no longer available as a podcast

Sadly, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has a policy to keep podcasts available for download only 3 months for daily shows and 6 months for weekly shows with some of them being available for an even shorter time. Luckily, most shows can still be streamed from the CBC radio website using a flash/web player but are still no longer available for direct download. That’s convenient if you’re in front of your computer (which is seldom the case when listening to radio), but not that practical if you want to take an old favorite on a run.

Most of what we do on our computers is just data copying and playback, always in that order. So if it’s playing in your computer speakers, its coming from a stream, and if it’s coming from a stream, it can be copied as file. There are tons of software and websites that will let you do just that, but most of them are geared towards more popular streaming sites of the likes of YouTube and such so I had to resort to another technique for the CBC’s website. The non-trivial part here is to find the URL from which the data is coming from but modern web browsers and their built-in debugging facility have made this an easy task. Once you have the URL, you’re free to download the wanted file at will. This process assumes you’re using Chrome, but it works just as well with Firefox.

So let’s say I want to download this past episode of the show Ideas. There is a player on the page, but no download link.

Bring up the page in Chrome but don’t start streaming yet.
Left-click anywhere on the page and click on “Inspect element“, this will bring up the Chrome debugger.
Within the debugger, switch over to the “Network” tab.
On the episode’s page, start steaming the episode by clicking the play button, you’ll see a bunch of things happening in the debugger window.
Click on the “type” column to sort the data elements by type and find the audio/mpeg (or media) one, that’s the file you’re streaming (see screenshot below). Mine’s name is ideas_20130307_53465_uploaded.mp3.
Left-click on the name and select “Copy link address” or “Open in new tab” and that’s it, from there you can download the episode as a file. The link for my episode is http://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/14/881/ideas_20130307_53465_uploaded.mp3. When opening up the link in your browser, it might bring up its own player but if you click around, you’ll find an option to download the file instead of playing it.

Chrome debugger view with the stream data row highlighted. Left-clicking on the row will bring up a link to the stream itself and allow its downloading.

November 23, 2014May 23, 2016

Fold-down back seat modification on a Toyota Corolla 1999 VE

On several occasions lately, I’ve had to transport long objects or gain access to the rear strut mounts in my Toyota Corolla. On most cars, this would have meant to simply pull a lever in the trunk and fold the back seat down but for some reason, Toyota had made this an option on my vehicle (the North American VE model).

So in order to be able to take advantage of the full length of the car, I had to remove the rear seat, which is not that difficult and only requires a socket wrench, but still massively inconvenient. While undoing the seats, I had originally thought of a way to make removal easier and tool-less in the future, but did not decide to make the modification. Until now, with winter at my doorstep, I’m convinced fold-down seats are going to prove themselves quite practical should I want to go skiing.

The mod is quite easy and requires no specialized tools or knowledge. The end result is that you will be able to lift the backrest up and lay it flat on top of the bottom cushion, exposing the opening to the trunk . Since the seat belts are bolted to the frame, disturbing the seating should not have any effect on their function. However, you might end-up discarding a part I call the V frame, which could possibly have some structural or security importance, I’ll get to it later. Lastly, I’m not going to post a full disclaimer, this is the internet so you’re following this guide at your own risk. If you or your passengers get hurt because of this modification, nothing can be held responsible but you and your judgement.

Removing the rear seat

Taking the rear seat apart is nothing really complicated. The bottom cushion is held to the frame of the car by only two plastic clips that are approximately lined with the two front seats. You can even feel them by running your hand under the cushion along the outer edge. Pry them out with a sudden pull and they should give.

Next, undo the three bolts holding the back cushion to the frame. There is a bolt in the middle and two at the extremities close to where the seat belts attach to the frame. Lift the backrest out and set it aside outside the car. At this point you can re-install the bottom cushion to make working in the car a bit more comfy. Finally, push out the black plastic cache that separates the trunk and the interior.

If you just wanted your rear seat out only as a temporary measure, stop here. The car is perfectly drivable in this state. You might notice the road vibrations becoming somewhat louder but that’s entirely normal given the amount of noise insulation you just removed.

Removing the V frame

What I refer to as the V frame is the coincidentally V shaped piece of pressed sheet metal bolted right in the middle of the opening to the trunk. It’s in the way but if it does not bother you you can certainly keep it there. I, for one, decided to remove it because I did not deem it to be critical for the safety or handling of the car. First, Corollas with factory installed fold-down back seats do not have it and I’d be really surprised if their frame was any different than the standard model to account for the added structural integrity. Second, if it’s purpose was to give the body more stiffness, the V would be upside down. It could have a part to play in case of rear collisions, but my theory is that it’s meant to add support to the rear seat. So If you agree with my logic, you can go ahead and remove the six bolts that hold the V frame in place.

Fastening the bottom cushion

Last major step is fastening the bottom cushion. It has three metal prongs that would normally slide under the backrest part of the seat, but since it will now become loose, the bottom cushion needs to be attached to the frame. Once you have re-installed the cushion, simply drill holes where the prongs are. Rest assured, the metal is not very thick and your fuel tank is a safe distance below. Once that is done, use properly sized sheet metal screws and washers and thread them through the holes you just did to hold the cushion down.

Of the metal prongs on the bottom of the backrest that used to be screwed to the frame, the middle one get in the way and should preferably be removed. Its not absolutely necessary, but it will make installation easier. This procedure can be accomplished with a bolt cutter or a metal saw. There is another prong right next to the one you just cut that is meant to slide under the seat cushion; leave it in place.

Finally, slide in the backrest, thread the seat belts in their correct position and set it so the metal loops below the headrests pair up with the hooks on the frame. Give it good tap so it sits correctly and you’re done. Nobody should ever notice this little trick but I’m sure its going to prove itself very useful.

Done! You can now transport dead bodies in your trunk without having to cut them up.

October 31, 2014

Going way back – A digital clock that pretends to be analog

Going way back to 2006 actually, to my very first electronics project, a digital clock with an analog twist. I had very little experience in programming let alone electronics and back then, user-friendly prototyping platforms were not that common and mostly underground; the arduino had only came out the year before.

For many evenings in my dorm room I battled with a bunch of components and a serially programmed Microchip PIC16F628. I recall having loads of trouble getting inputs to the chip functioning, with the minutes and hours buttons activating or refusing to work with a mind of their own. The internet was not of much help but in the end I figured it out: pull-down resistors. No wonder I could not find anything on the subject, for someone with the least bit experience in electronics, it’s one of the most elementary concepts, akin to trying to troubleshoot a TV that’s not plugged in. For beginners attempting to learn electronics by themselves, its nothing but trivial.

Eventually, I succeeded in putting a working clock together on the breadboard that I had. Back in my basement over the next break from school, I soldered the whole thing on a perfboard and equipped the circuit with a face plate. The programming is rudimentary, the circuit is much less than optimal and in spite of the 32kHz watch crystal, there is still a bit of drifting but I could not have asked for a better learning experience. Some LEDs have burnout, but even after those years, it’s still doing a fine job at reminding me that time is ticking.

July 18, 2014July 18, 2014

Toughts on traveling

Note to reader: this is a piece that has been sitting in my drafts folder for about a year. I no longer remember why I did not publish it back then. It could have been the transpiring pretentiousness. However, now that I have hung up my backpack for a while, I have found it to resonate very well with the new life that I am living.

Nick from Utila told me particularly insightful story he had heard many years ago back in Belgium. It was a rich old man giving a piece of wisdom to a journalist on TV and it went like this:

True adventure has three requirements: energy, time and money. As a young person, you have plenty of time, loads of energy but no money. As you progress into adulthood, you start earning money and still retain most of that youthful energy you had but for many reasons such as family or professional obligations, the clock eludes you.. You age further, you eventually reach retirement, which affords you with much freedom and richness you gathered during your productive life but sadly, the energy has disappeared.

It sounds like a fatality, but upon careful inspection, there is a moment, even a brief one, where the conditions for adventures are fulfilled: the twenties (or more generally celibacy). You have no (real) responsibilities so time and energy are plentiful. You most likely have studied and held a well paying job for a while so money is not an issue. Go.

I’m not saying that there cannot be anything afterwards, quite the contrary, at least I wish that for myself, but as life progresses, it becomes less likely that you will embark on a crazy trip across the globe. For the lack of energy perhaps, but chiefly because you have lost the interest, you’ve “grown’up” to other things; so many decades spent sleeping on a comfortable bed have made you soft. Fear not though, there is plenty left to do and many more experiences to enjoy, the richness of life is infinite, but there are certain things you wish you would have done when you were younger. Playing your cards well is not putting yourself in dangerous situations just for the sake of it, its more like making sure you’ll live on without regrets.

At all stages or life, adventure is exposure, to new things, to hardships, to solitude. Humans do not like change, but it is change that made us humans. The brain only adapts and thinks if there is pressure on it to do so and putting yourself in new environments does just that. La meilleure école, c’est le voyage (the best school is travelling), but on those benches, nothing you learn could ever be summarized in a textbook, it is not discrete knowledge, it’s experience in it’s purest form. It makes you a better person, but more so it gives you an opportunity for introspection and growth not found elsewhere.

Carpe diem as they say.