stefanv.com

Comparing Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black and Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite

Stefan Vorkoetter — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:33:40 +0000

Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is a classic ink with a loyal following among many fountain pen users. It is deep blue-grey in colour, shades nicely on most paper, and perhaps most importantly, is a fairly dry ink that works reasonably well on poor quality paper used in office copiers and Moleskine journals. Unfortunately, some time in 2011, this ink became unavailable in North America, leaving its many fans searching for a substitute...

Oh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! – Stringz’n'Thingz Revisited

Stefan Vorkoetter — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 16:12:00 +0000

I received a lot of positive feedback on my 2010 project to rejuvenate and expand a PAiA string synthesizer, but one reader wrote, "I think you are nuts. The Stringz’n'Thingz was a terrible toy – noisy, drifty, unstable, and cheaply built ...". Well, it may have been cheaply built, but then again, it was affordable. But noisy it was, and I recently set out to correct that problem in my modified Stringz'n'Thingz.

A Decent Netbook for Under $250?

Stefan Vorkoetter — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:50:36 +0000

My first hands-on exposure to netbooks was a couple of years ago, when I was trying to find a small computer that we could place in our home entertainment cabinet to replace the turntable, tape deck, and CD player (we had already copied all of our purchased music into MP3 format). I checked out the usual suspects (Tohsiba, HP, Dell, Acer) at their usual hangouts (FutureShop, Circuit City, Best Buy), and everything I could find at that time was in the $500+ range.

Does the Demise of Cursive Writing Really Matter?

Stefan Vorkoetter — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:04:33 +0000

I’ve read a lot of posts on The Fountain Pen Network and His Nibs’ blog bemoaning the demise of cursive handwriting, and the state of penmanship in general (especially among the younger crowd). Apparently the teaching of cursive is being scaled back or eliminated in U.S. schools (I’m not sure what’s happening here in Canada). [...]

Fuselage Assembly

Stefan Vorkoetter — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:13:23 +0000

Continued from Fuselage Construction: Sides. I used a laser to mark a straight line down the centre of the workbench. 2011-Oct-11: Although I didn’t realize it at the time, the previous entry would record my last time working on the Volksplane for over four years. A home renovation meant I wouldn’t be able to work [...]

Destination: Misery (Bay)

Stefan Vorkoetter — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:34:33 +0000

I like to go on at least one all-day flight every year, although I haven’t managed to do so since 2006 (unless you count my half-day trip to the Edenvale Gathering of the Classics, which turned into a whole day due to a mechanical issue). I’ve actually only made three full-day trips in the past: [...]

My Workshop

Stefan Vorkoetter — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:25:09 +0000

My small-hobbies workshop. 2004-Jun to 2006-Feb: When I first set out to build my own airplane, my workshop space was rather limited. I had one 10′ x 17′ room with two workbenches in it: a 9′ x 2′ bench in an alcove for my electronic projects, and a 2-1/2′ x 6-1/2′ walk-around bench for my [...]

Musings on Faster-than-Light Neutrinos

Stefan Vorkoetter — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:53:59 +0000

I am not a theoretical physicist! I can do Newtonian physics in my sleep and I’ve read , but when it comes to quantum mechanics, string theory, and the rest, my knowledge is sketchy at best. Recently, scientists at CERN near Geneva Switzerland, and the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, appear to have clocked [...]

Side by Side: Pelikan M605 vs. Sheaffer No Nonsense

Stefan Vorkoetter — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:50:43 +0000

While reorganizing my collection of fountain pens recently, I was struck by the similarities, at first glance, between my new Pelikan Souverän M605 and my early 90′s Sheaffer No Nonsense. These pens are in fact quite different from one another, but it is interesting to compare them nonetheless. That these pens look so similar at [...]

On the Nature of “The Hammond Organ Sound”

Stefan Vorkoetter — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:04:07 +0000

Why does the Hammond tonewheel organ (or a good clonewheel) sound like no other electronic organ? What exactly is it that constitutes the “Hammond Sound”? Many will say that it is the Leslie speaker, with its unsynchronized counter-rotating treble and bass drivers, that produces the sound associated with the Hammond organ. That is probably true [...]