Andrew Rutz's blog
Woodworking Projects
Here are links to pictures of woodworking projects I have completed.
- jul08: Oak closet shelving
- jun08: Shaker firewood box
- may08: Shaker stepstool
- jan08: Serving Tray made of Cherry
- jan08: Plant Stand (in the Greene & Greene style)
- oct07: Stickley No. 79, a three-shelf bookcase
- aug07: Occasional Table (Black Walnut)
- aug07: Two pieces made of pine
- jul07: Country Toy and Tool Chest
- 2005: Greene & Greene picture frame
...oh... and I have to mention my Saturday in Dallas at an "antique and vintage tool sale". Here's a piece of advice: you know you're at an "antique and vintage tool sale" when someone mistakes you for the proprietor and asks: "...uh, where do you have the 11-point, breasted rip saws made by Disston ?". ..and you suddenly find that whatever intelligence remains from your college degrees is slowly receding... and you answer in an authoritative voice: "uh... I think they are near the twelve-point... ...breasted... ...rip... saws... made... ...by ...Disston...." ;-)
Here's a five-minute video from the tool sale; count how many "tool geeks" you can find !
...and last, but not least, here's an album from a week-long hand-tool woodworking class that I attended at Homestead Heritage in Waco, TX.
Posted at 09:39AM Oct 29, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
"We can rebuild it..."
No, this is not a quiz to see if you can name all the parts of a
handplane. :-)
This is a picture of an "exploded view" of one of my maternal grandfather's handplanes. Bill was both a professional cabinetmaker and carpenter in a Midwest city that knew both long, humid summers and the equally challenging freezing winters. My Mom tells of stories where customers would wait for a slot in my grandfather's schedule versus accepting the work of another. She also tells of assisting her Father when she was a child by scrounging a jobsite for bent or reusable nails ... putting them in a coffee can ... to be used again ... 'for it was the age of the Great Depression, and the "Greatest Generation" were still children... 'just beginning to internalize the principles founded on self-sacrifice.
...and so if I can bring this handplane back to life, maybe some of Bill's skill will still be in the handplane's patina, and I'll... 'er.... we'll be able to build something... together.
Posted at 07:22PM Jun 18, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
The "24 Hours" have finished !
Well, here's a photo of my completed workbench. The magazine article predicted a duration of "24 hours", but it took me six months of weekends and inexperienced woodworking hands. However, I'm extremely pleased with the results.
On the front is, appropriately enough named, a front vise that consumed the majority of my time. I purchased the iron mechanism that consists of a mounting plate, guide rods, an ACME threaded screw, and two face plates. I purchased some hard maple and milled it to a thickness of 2.5 inches or so, and drilled holes so that the maple face plates could be attached to the iron face plates.
Between the pair of legs closest to the camera are a pair of stretchers. The end of each stretcher has a tenon that fits into a mortise in the leg. Each stretcher was glued and pegged to the leg using a dowel. A decorative black walnut cap was mounted in each peg-hole so that it was flush with the Southern Yellow Pine of the leg. The rear pair of legs were connected in the same fashion. These two end-assemblies were connected (along the long dimension) using a 2 x 8 stretcher that uses both mortise/tenon joinery and a brass/hardware bench bolt. The bench bolt allows the table to be disassembled... though I think this 300 pound table is probably easier to move by temporarily raising it onto casters !
I drilled a row of holes in the top for "bench dogs", along with one hole in the top of the outermost vise jaw. One can then use the vise with the bench dogs to hold an item of arbitrary length.
I finished the project by chamfering the edges of all legs and stretchers, and applying a tung oil-based finish to seal the wood's pores.
The coolest part during the making of the bench was when I realized that I would be able to do something with the bench that no one else will ever be able to do: I was able to "use the bench" before I "built the bench". (clue: once the vise is attached to the top, it becomes an immediate "friend" in the workshop...
Posted at 06:47PM Jun 18, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
Woodworking bench...
so... I think there's something in the genes... I fell in love with woodworking in the sixth grade, but never had resources
until now to do anything about it. I've made a few picture frames in the last couple years, but my largest and most current project is the building of a workbench.
Actually, my ultimate need was to use some handplanes and chisels on some of my work... which meant I needed a vise to hold the
workpiece... which meant I needed a thing to fasten the vise to... (...which, for the attentive reader... :-)
describes a set of dependencies not too unlike that of my favorite nursery rhyme...
I've been building this "24-hour workbench" for the
last six months =:-).
My bench is still in the midst of being constructed. Here is the table top, along with the vise. It's currently being supported by several lumber pallets:
...and here is the leg-assembly. There are mortise and tenon joints between all leg pieces, along with some bench bolts that join the two end-assemblies together.
My hopes are to create some workpieces which are at most even half as good as those of my maternal grandfather, who was both a Master Carpenter and Cabinetmaker.
Posted at 09:38PM May 12, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
"Free" golf lesson...
If you want to see what an awesome golf swing looks like, you go to pgatour.com and find when the (American) PGA Tour is in a city near you, and you hope that Steve Elkington is playing that day. You bring your chair and a bottle of water, and watch him hit balls on the driving range, then you walk 18 holes with him. His swing was voted "Best Swing on Tour" for several years... even when a guy named Tiger Woods was around. I've been watching him since 1991; 'the swings don't get any better than this.
The following photo is from 2006, when he played in San Antonio:
Posted at 10:29AM May 07, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
"Patently obvious"...
Well, the concept was "patently obvious" to the first author of this patent, and since I implemented a major part of the Idea, I was made second author.
"Ahhhh.... THIS is what it feels like to be a University professor!..."
:-).
The patent is for an error-injection system that allows re-use of "C" code fragments that
can be combined using a simple (as in Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
=:-)) GUI-based development environment. The code fragments are combined using
the semantics of a simple language that allows has-a relationships, Logical AND, and Logical OR.
Posted at 10:11AM May 07, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
Books I've read since January, 2007 ...
- jul08:John Adams, by David McCullough
- jul08:Founding Brothers; The Revolutionary Generation, by Joseph J. Ellis
- jun08:Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow (730 pages!)
- may08:Finding Jefferson; ... the First Amendment in an Age of Terrorism, by Alan Dershowitz
- may08:China Road; A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power, by Rob Gifford
- may08:April 4, 1968; MLK Jr's Death and How it Changed America, by Michael Eric Dyson
- may08:Appointment in Samarra, by John O'Hara
- apr08:American Pastoral, by Philip Roth
- apr08:Bad Samaritans; The Myth of Free Trade..., by Ha-Joon Chang
- mar08:Standing at Armageddon, by Nell Irvin Painter
- mar08:Day of Empire, by Amy Chua
- mar08:The Trial, by Franz Kafka
- feb08:For Whom The Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
- feb08:The Conscience of a Liberal, by Paul Krugman
- feb08:Uh-Oh, by Robert Fulghum
- feb08:It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, by Robert Fulghum
- feb08:Maybe (Maybe Not), by Robert Fulghum
- feb08:From Beginning to End -- The Rituals of Our Lives,by Robert Fulghum
- feb08:True Love, by Robert Fulghum
- feb08:To a God Unknown, by John Steinbeck
- jan08:As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
- jan08:All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum
- jan08:God is not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
- dec07:The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, by Haruki Murakami
- dec07:What on Earth Have I Done ?, by Robert Fulghum
- dec07:Write It When I'm Gone, by Thomas M. DeFrank
- nov07:The Second Civil War, by Ronald Brownstein
- nov07:Second Chance; Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower, by Zbigniew Brzezinski
- oct07:Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham
- sep07:An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, by Robert Dallek
- sep07:Che Guevara, A Revolutionary Life, by Jon Lee Anderson
- sep07: Joseph McCarthy, The Misuse of Political Power, by Daniel Cohen
- aug07: Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- aug07:Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
- aug07:The Seekers, by Daniel J. Boorstein
- aug07:A Woman in Charge, by Carl Bernstein
- aug07: Martin Eden, by Jack London
- jul07: Oil on the Brain, by Lisa Margonelli
- jul07: Milton Friedman, a Biography, by Lanny Ebenstein
- jun07: Seventeen Traditions, by Ralph Nader
- jun07: The Battle for God, by Karen Armstrong
- jun07: Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, by Karen Armstrong
- jun07: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
- may07: Basic Judaism, by Milton Steinberg
- may07: Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama
- may07: The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson
- may07: Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, by Pagels and King
- may07: The Handplane Book, by Garrett Hack
- apr07: House of Saud, by Said K. Aburish
- apr07: Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero
- apr07: Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama
- feb07: Freakonomics, by Stephen Levitt
- feb07: The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation by Sandra Mackey
- feb07: The Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein by Sandra Mackey
- feb07: Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
- jan07: Lebanon: Death of a Nation by Sandra Mackey
- jan07: Passion and Politics: The Turbulent World of the Arabs by Sandra Mackey
- jan07: American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham
- jan07: The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, by Thomas Cahill
Posted at 12:36PM Apr 11, 2007 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
Thoughts...
"...only when it is dark enough can you see the stars." (MLK, Jr.)
"Where it rains, the grass is greener."
"No rain, no rainbows."
"It did not come to stay; it came to pass."
"A Lucky Man affords his Wants; a Rich Man affords his Needs." (Andrew Rutz)
"..the eagle does not bother with the crow; the eagle simply flies higher." (J. Osteen)
"no prophet is accepted in his own country"
"A board has two ends."
"It is always sunny; you just have to get above the clouds."
"Weeping may endure for the night, but Joy is coming in the morning."
"...we lay our garments down, beside our beds to rest, though Death may soon disrobe us all, of what we now possess." (Unknown)
Posted at 01:09AM Aug 25, 2005 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
Compulsive reading...
When I was asked as a kid what I liked to do, I'd say "read"... but I wasn't convinced. My passion was athletics, but I think I felt I wasn't supposed to have such an answer... that I was supposed to have a "real hobby" ... a productive one...
Well, times certainly did change, and not only can I read ;-), but I enjoy it. There's a Twilight Zone episode where a librarian who never has enough time to read... finally gets that time... when Earth is hit, I believe, by a meteor... and he is the only human left standing... yet he mistakenly knocks his "spectacles" off his ears... and they shatter on the ground... along with his hopes of reading all those books he's had on "his list".
My greatest fear would be to lose my sight... and probably why I have so much respect and awe of those who are not capable ... and it's probably why I volunteer at Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic. It allows me to share my sight ... to let it live on after I'm gone...
So, after some background on me and reading, here's one of the "100 Best Novels lists" that are "out there". I have read the books that are highlighted.
- ULYSSES by James Joyce
- THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
- LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
- BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
- THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
- CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
- DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
- SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
- THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
- UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
- THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
- 1984 by George Orwell
- I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
- TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
- AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
- THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
- SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
- INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
- NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
- HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
- APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
- U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
- WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
- A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
- THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
- THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
- TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
- THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
- ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
- THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
- SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
- A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
- AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
- ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
- THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
- HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
- GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
- THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
- LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
- DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
- A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
- POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
- THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
- THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
- NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
- THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
- WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
- TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
- THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
- PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
- PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
- LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
- ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
- THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
- PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
- THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
- ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
- THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
- DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
- FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
- THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
- THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
- A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
- OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
- HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
- MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
- THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
- THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
- A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
- A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
- THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
- A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
- SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
- THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
- FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
- KIM by Rudyard Kipling
- A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
- BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
- THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
- ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
- A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
- THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
- LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
- RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
- THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
- THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
- LOVING by Henry Green
- MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
- TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
- IRONWEED by William Kennedy
- THE MAGUS by John Fowles
- WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
- UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
- SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
- THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
- THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
- THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
- THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
Posted at 12:04AM Aug 02, 2005 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[0]
Hello Blog-o-mundo
Hello public-blog-o-sphere ! My first name is Andrew, and my last name should be pronounced "roots", but Los Angelenos in the early 1960's were incapable of such lingual contortions, so my family name came out sounding like "ruts".
I went to UC Irvine for this degree, which qualified me to work in the Exercise/Pulmonary Physiology lab at the UC Irvine Medical Center. After hearing a PDP-8 minicompuer humming in my ears for 2.5 years, I transitioned to the world of computers and obtained this degree. I worked at Xerox Corporation in Southern California for several years, writing embedded software for their 120 page-per-minute laser printers.
Some type of "mid-life thing" happened, and I found myself at this school, riding my bicycle 6.5 nights a week to the computer lab, in mad search of "educational satisfacton" which came in the form of a Master's Degree in Computer Science. I had the extreme privilege to have Dr. Urs Hölzle as my research advisor.
Affordable Housing was the next priority, so I relocated to Austin, TX
and worked in the
AIX kernel group at
IBM. I
developed a solution so that dbx could identify pthread-level
deadlocks in an arbitrary process. My solution would also compute whether
there was a "deadlock" with any of a process's read-write locks (I
operated on the identities of the set of lock owners. If
the more recent set is a (set-theoretic) superset of the previous
set, then the number of lock owners is either not changing or increasing.
Either case could assist a developer in understanding their program's behavior).
I then moseyed on over (...well... it is Texas!) to Sun Microsystem, Inc.'s Austin site. I work on the Solaris operating system. Initially, I worked on improving boot time, and now I work on device drivers.
When my doctor clears my arteries for a new load of lipids, I go here for some real Texas vittles
Posted at 05:51PM Jul 26, 2005 by Andrew Rutz in :-) | Comments[2]
