A case in point the question above: What is the next in the sequence SSS SCC C SC? This IT interview question is said to be from Google Corp. You can google for the answer, as I did. I found the solution here.

The answer is neither logical, binary nor very clever. “SSS” stands for 3 straight lines, with which you can print the letter “A”. “SCC” stands for one straight line and two curved lines, which makes for the spine of the “B”, as well as the chest and belly. “C” simply stands for itself. The “S” of “SC” stands for the spine of “D”, and the “C” is the belly. Logically the next in the sequence is “SSSS”, four straight lines which can then create “E”. Write code like this and the support programmer after you will curse you and your ancestors for 1,000 years, and rightly so.

As a backlash against these corporate interview questions, the Career Cup has created a database of interview questions, sorted by job type, company and question type. This is a logical step in this interview arms race, and I applaud their efforts. Still I wonder if the effort put into remembering the solutions to these obscure questions is really wasted effort. They add nothing to the candidate’s technical or interpersonal skills, nor do they add to the candidate’s general knowledge of the world. While learning useless facts and figures may be acceptable for those who wish to learn such, I am sure this is not the case for the vast majority of candidates.

And what about those who’s first language is not English? Do these interview questions help find the best candidates, or simply eliminate qualified and talented individuals?

I wonder aloud if these questions by interviewers are meant to satisfy some perverse need to psychologically torture candidates? Are interviewers simply spicing up their daily grind of a job by having fun at the expense of interviewing candidates? I am unsure. While these questions are not technically illegal they do cast the interviewing company in a very bad light.

As an interviewer we all have personal choices. Asking questions that have seemingly no bearing on the candidate’s background, experience, education and applicability to the job position seems like an abuse of your authority over a candidate.

More bluntly, if you are an interviewer, don’t be a jerk.

The Pharma Hack is very intelligent. Your content is not changed, and when you browse your own site you can detect no change. Search for your site on Google Search and your blog titles and short description will be changed to flogging pharmaceuticals. Search for these blog title changes and you will find none.

From what I have researched, this Pharma Hack is very common. Even spookier, no one knows how sites get infected. This makes prevention more difficult. Somehow some code is changed in one of your plugins and some extra PHP files are added to this plugin. When WordPress is loaded, this plugin is loaded along with this virus. Certain database changes are also changed.

I have checked with my host service provider. Their audit of my site shows no breaches of security and no unauthorized changes to my WordPress blog nor account.

This blog entry from Pearsonified helped me diagnose and immunize myself. Securi‘s tool did not detect the virus. DigWP recommended some really good plugins that hardens WordPress as well as reports file changes. The Ultimate Security Checker grades your site and recommends steps to increase your grade.

It is worth taking these remedial steps to harden your WordPress install. Having someone take destroy your hard work on Google Search really is disappointing. Google Search has already started to reindex my site, a big step in the right direction. A pox on all those that use the Pharma Hack on all unsuspecting and innocent WordPress authors.

Imperial sewing machine model 535, as illustrated in the user manual. May also be branded as New Home 535 or Janome 535.

Since I became the custodian of my Imperial 535 sewing machine I have been looking for a user manual. Many people have written in looking for the same. As luck would have it, Gord Bestwick of British Columbia, Canada happened upon my blog page and has kindly cleaned up and offered me an electronic version of his user manual, for free non-commercial distribution. This means no one need pay for this manual and all Imperial, New Home and Janome 535 owners can enjoy it. This manual is applicable to many Japanese sewing machines of similar era. Between us, the world is a better sewing place.

My Imperial 535 sewing machine slightly differs from the user manual, but note the striking family resemblance. Operation is near identical.

It looks like when the Japanese were manufacturing sewing machines in the 1950-60s, much “sharing” occurred. Sewing machines of a wide variety of makes and models looked and operated very much the same. Specifically the brands New Home, Janome and Imperial, were made by Janome. Janome had bought the brand New Home in 1960. Janome manufactured many sewing machines that were later branded to suit the needs of retailers.

What this means is that Gord’s Imperial 535 looks exactly the same as the one in his manual, yet my Imperial 535 is just slightly different. Important operational issues such as needle threading, bobbin operation and sewing are identical. Minor differences include how to refill the bobbin and the placement of certain buttons and switches. In almost all other respects the user manual is very applicable.

Differences with my Imperial 535 include:

• illustration
• thread guides
• bobbin winder mechanism
• drop feed knob: I only have a darn/sew option, no silk
• winding a bobbin, adjust bobbin winding device (I use my finger)

As stated, this document is provided free for non-commercial use. If you have information on the Imperial, New Home or Janome 535 that would be a good addition to this manual or to my blog post, feel free to contact me or Gord Bestwick at gbestwickatshaw.ca (change the “at” to @).

If you download this document please leave a comment with a valid email address. This document will be amended as we find more information. When it is I will email you, provided you leave a valid email address. Imperial/New Home/Janome 535 Sewing Machine User Manual

Imperial sewing machine, model 535, as depicted in the user manual.

Chubb Monitor Qx started warnings, the trouble LED always lit. The battery needed replacing.

Somethings in your house just keep working silently in the background. You eventually take them for granted, out of mind and out of sight. Such was my Chubb Monitor Qx security system, 452-4713, until the alarm started going off in the middle of the night, here in Toronto, Canada. It aurally called for attention. The trouble LED light remained lit, but with no station indicated. It turned out the battery was near dead. Once replaced it returned to its normal state of silence.

The Chubb Monitor Qx is a small pad type security monitor. Every so often it would sound a high pitched warning and the trouble LED would be lit. I would clear it and the problem would go away. Last night the warning went off seven times in the middle of the night. It needed attention.

The user manual is online from Chubb, but does not state much about the trouble LED. Do a “*23″ + pin and see if it gives you a station code. Mine did not. Maybe one of the 8 stations need attention.

Downstairs I looked at the closed security box. Check that the phone line is firmly plugged into the phone outlet. Undo the cover. Check the three fuses with a multimeter to ensure continuity. All were Ok. The security system has a 12v 7ahr lead acid battery. This metered at 9v. I found my problem. Unfortunately for me there is no code from the Monitor Qx to tell me the battery is dying.

I got a new 12v 7aHr battery from my local electronics store for ~$12CAD, plugged it in, closed up the box and cleared the alarm. The trouble LED turned off, and all is back to normal.

Yes, Firefox 4.0 is faster, but they did not tell you that if you leave your browser idle for 5 minutes it would lock up. I have the habit of leaving my computer for a couple of hours during the day, and upon return FF would be locked up tighter than a bank. While it does not crash it also does not respond. Even if you continue to browse Firefox 4.0 starts to slow down markedly so that after an hour it crawls. This is not sufficiently usable. I prefer slightly slower but overall more usable. For the first time I downgraded Firefox to the previous version.

Maybe it is time to acknowledge that the previous versions were pretty good and future versions will be worse. I don’t know. Overall Firefox 3.6.17 is markedly faster than 4.0. The downgrade process went without issue.

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: body finishes were black, pearl, red, fountain blue

Ibanez basses are difficult to identify. They often have no specific model numbers written on the bass. After heavy use these model markings can wear off, making identification of vintage models difficult. Many sellers using Craigslist and Kijiji will also post poor photos of basses, making ID very difficult. This post will positively identify the Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, as well as provide related internet links. There is actually very little information about this Made in Japan, Fugigen factory 1987 model on the internet, so every little bit helps.

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Neck connects to body with 4 Philips head bolts and washers

The Ibanez RB800 has the model label on the bass body to the left of the strings and just above the neck pickup. This area is prone to heavy use and scratching with the thumb and pick. Over time the label will wear off. On the black version, you can tilt the bass and in the right light, you will still be able to read the “Ibanez RB800″ label as well as “Ultimate Expression of Craftsmanship” byline. Reading this is very difficult.

Putting the model label in this location was a mistake. While it might be Ok for a guitar, it is terrible for a bass. Most other Ibanez bass models do not use this location, thankfully.

Another interesting feature of the RB800 is the triangular headstock. I read somewhere that they were then sued by Hamer for the triangular headstock design, and therefore were not used in subsequent versions. The triangle tilts more to the right than the left. There is no make nor model marking on the headstock itself. The truss bar cover is plastic and is marked “Roadstar”, but because it is a black cover on black varnish, this will not be easily seen in a photo.

The fretboard has a full 2 octaves, 24 frets. Double dots are used on the 12th and 24th fret. The neck is bolted on the back using 4 bolts. Between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickups is a sloped piece of plastic that transitions the fretboard to the level of the body in one smooth curved surface. This plasic piece is glued to the fretboard and is part of the neck.

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Label to left of strings on body a bad design

The neck is lovely. The bass is a 34″ scale. The neck is very slim, only 3.9cm/1.5″ at the top of the neck, making playing very easy. The neck cross dimensional shape fits the hand very nicely. I find the bass very easy to play.

The RB800 uses active EMG pickups that use a 9v battery. There are two pickups at the neck and one very wide pickup at the bridge. All are marked EMG in white uppercase lettering. There are 4 knobs, but I find it difficult to understand them. They are supposed to be 1 volume (nearest to pickups), 2 EQ (one for each pickup, cuts treble) and one balancer (nearest headstock). While I can identify the balancer, the others are not so clear to me. Maybe when I play more it will be more clear.

The back cover is held closed using 4 Philips head screws. The cover needs to be removed to change the batter and to service the electronics. The cover is made of plastic.

I do not know much about bass bridges. There are adjustments for intonation and string height, all individual to each string. I have not messed with this. The bridge is marked with an embossed Ibanez label.

There are four Ibanez labeled tuners. They are marked “Smooth Tuner BII”. Each tuner is held to the headstock with two Philips head screws. The tuners work very well and the bass does not easily go out of tune. The plastic truss rod cover is labeled “Roadstar”.

The finish is a deep black laquer, which seems very hard wearing. It is also very difficult to keep clean. Black seems to attract a lot of dust and I can never seem to keep it clean. I use Lemon Pledge, which gives the bass a lovely shine.

Links:
-RB800 bass on Youtube. He is really good.
-Used on Ankorage Craiglist: most likely out of date or removed
-comments from Big Al on Guitarsite
-Two photos of a black RB800
-specs: Dated to 1987

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: 1987 Ibanez catalogue

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: tuner labeled Ibanez Smooth Tuner BII

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Truss rod cover labeled Roadstar

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: Active EMG pickups powered by a 9v battery

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: bridge labeled Ibanez

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: rear cover used 4 Philips head screws

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987: electronics use a 9v battery and no ICs. Click for larger photo

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue: tuners

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue: headstock

Ibanez Roadstar II RB800 electric bass, 1987 in Fountain Blue: back

Ibanez RB800 Roadstar II electric Bass, 1987 in black: front

Ibanez RB800 Roadstar II electric Bass, 1987 in black: front2

Man vs Mother Nature, Mother Nature won: Japanese earthquake and Tsunami, Mar 2011. The Fukushima DaiIchi nuclear incident is a man made disaster.

Having taught English in Japan for a year, I have first hand experience with people from Japan. I was stationed in Kyushu, the largest southern island of Japan, about 100km away from a very large volcano. When you live in close proximity to a volcano that often blows its top, you become pretty nonchalant about tremors. Being Canadian, this never happened to me. The Japanese people love fresh food, especially vegetables. Having some of their food supply deemed unfit to eat is a big psychological blow. We can only hope that this nuclear disaster can be averted. Earthquake, tsunami, and now a nuclear incident: How much can they endure?

Japan loves fresh. You can see this in their homes, where there is no large refrigerator. All food is bought fresh daily and eaten soon after. Because much of Japan is tropical, this saves energy and increases your quality of food. Imported food is looked on sceptically. I recall a grocer telling me that the cheap “Grown in America” oranges were laced with pesticides and would kill me. They were Sunkist from Florida. Of course I bought them and they were delicious.

It is this attitude of “Fresh First” that makes the current nuclear incident even more serious. Contaminated land due to nuclear fallout may never again bear produce fit for human consumption. Here in Canada we would probably import fruit and veggies from some other part of the world and not bat an eye, but in Japan, this will not be the case.

The other issue is that Japan is a crowded country. In my little area of Japan, far from a large city, land is used intensively. There are fields for planting, and for living, not no area is fallow or otherwise unused. Here in Toronto you can go to many areas and see totally unused land. Small villages in Japan are really not very small when compared to Canadian villages. Japanese homes are not large and have small back yards. My point is that even in small villages in Japan, population density is high. This means that there is really no place to go to get away from a contaminated area. Those that are forced to flee will simply crowd out others in another area.

I have faith in the Japanese people in that they are hard working and resilient. How they will solve this problem I do not know, but I wish them luck. I hope that the Fukushima DaiIchi Nuclear Powerplant will change the nuclear power industry for the better. In the mean time those in harm’s way need to move to safety.

Japan is known for their advanced earthquake technology. Was it a calculated gamble to use nuclear reactors in Japan? Unfortunately the downside of this gamble will now play itself out. I wonder if mankind is really smart enough to control Mother Nature. Maybe the smartest thing for mankind to do may be to coexist with Mother Nature and not try to conquer her. She is unpredictable and incredibly strong. Mankind needs to understand that we are small.

The Force is with Her, not mankind.

There are key tell-tale signs that all is not well on a project. These include:

• Promising a work item without consulting the person doing the work: It is not so obvious to all that a work item will get done. There are many more permutations to the solution than the one you envision. Without consulting and getting approval from the person doing the actual work, providing a guarantee that a specific work item will be completed, or that certain products will be used, will cause confusion, back tracking, loss of credibility and frustration on your part as well as the customer.
• Promising an end date for the completion of a project without consulting those that will implement, nor having a project plan with some buffer. You might think that you have left a lot of time for the project, but without consulting with the implementer, what do you base this on? Even with discussions with the implementer, there are dependencies between work items, such as one item must be completed prior to another item, that need to be considered. Contingency time must be added so that when some item takes longer than expected, or an unplanned issue arises there is buffer in the schedule. All large projects need a project plan.
• Delegate the project plan to someone you have no prior project familiarity. Yes, they are very nice, but if this is your project how can you delegate responsibility of the completion of the project to someone you have not previously worked? Implementers usually have many projects on the go, and yours might not be very high priority.
• Of course everyone can plan. This is untrue. Most people think they can plan, until something goes off the rails. Project planning requires more discipline than most people acknowledge. The final list of work items is crucial for the implementer as well as the customer. If the customer believes that are getting a work item and the implementer does not have this on their list, then it simply will not get done. This clarity of communication is the key to a happy customer, and is often the downfall of even a simple project.
• Not having a formal process for project changes. Project changes are inevitable. You dig down and hit a large rock, so need to veer left or right. By not formalizing this process, which includes writing down how the change will be handled, issues will inevitably arise. Assuming that you can handle these changes by sweet talking customers and implementers is fraught with danger. Customers do not like surprises.

As the project progresses, issues will arise. Customers seek changes or wonder why certain work items are not being done. They have expectations that they may not have vocalized. Implementers go on their merry way, checking off their “To Do” list, oblivious of the storm brewing in the background. The leader is stuck in the middle, trying to keep it all together.

Half way through a project that is going off the rails, the leader is usually oblivious to the pending storm. The time line progressively slips. No matter, just pressure the implementers, who can suck it up, but for a little while. Changes and unrealized expectations come from the customer, which comes as a surprise to implementer. Oh they cannot do these changes, and besides, it was not in the original scope of work and there is no additional money nor time to complete it. Customer squeezes the leader, leader squeezes the implementer, implementer pushes back, leader is in a tight spot, never to dig oneself out.

Heart brealking it is, to see a train wreck before it occurs. Still, if you have done your due diligence then there is really nothing left to be done. Sit back and wait, watch and learn. An excellent beginning paves the way for a smoother, more controlled landing.

Addendum March 18 2011: Here’s an excellent article from Brian Baeumler on project management in the home renovation field. It is insightful and a must read for all wanting to do a renovation.

Fender Mustang I guitar amp is a modeling amp with 24 presets. Installing the Fender Fuse software is difficult but worthwhile because it allows you to change your preset amps

Growing pains, I say. It will get better, surely. This review will cover the Fender Fuse software package (v2.1.0.8) that is used with Fender Mustang and G-Dec guitar amplifiers. I have installed the Fender Fuse on my PC in order to configure a family friend’s Fender Mustang I. The Mustang is a versatile amp, but came too heavily rock for her tastes. She wanted some acoustic. The Good: After considerable toil I was able to install the software, download different amps to my PC and then store them on the Mustang. The bad: The software install process is overly onerous, required me to download a couple of other Microsoft packages, and is prone to crash. Summary: A very versatile software package and amp, but needs more stability.

Our family friend wanted to learn to play electric guitar and called on me to help out. She wanted to play rock, told the sales people she liked rock, so rock it was. I helped her choose an Epiphone SG and a Fender Mustang I for Christmas. She was ecstatic and her Mom was grateful. After Christmas she came over, I fine tuned her guitar for string height and intonation and explained her amp somewhat. The Mustang is a modeling amp that comes with 24 different present of supposedly famous amps. It is like an electronic keyboard that at a flick of a switch can play trombone or ukelele. The Mustang can morph into a Fender Twin Reverb, amongst many other amps.

Little did I understand that she really did not know what type of music she wanted to play. For an amp I chose the Mustang I for its versatility, 24 preset amp modeling, and ability to connect to a PC and download different amps. A couple of weeks later we receive a frantic call from here: Her amp was echoing too much and she did not know how to turn the echo off. No amount of phone coaching would fix the problem. I came to the conclusion that the Fender Mustang is too complex an amp for her to handle. When she delivered it to me for the second time I was easily able to turn the echo effect off. The next issue was that she had changed her mind and now wanted an acoustic sound from her amp. I hoped that the Fuse software would not let me down.

First off, the enclosed Fuse software CD would not start up. It was a dead piece of plastic. I could play any kind of CD but not read the one from Fender. Ok, I will download it from Fuse.fender.com which happened without issue. The install did not go too well. Firstly the install was extremely slow. Even the verification of the installation software took a long time. Once loaded up it stated I needed to install the Windows Installer 3.1, and then promptly stopped installing. I installed Windows Installer 3.1 from oldapps.com and restarted the Fuse installation, only to find that Fuse required me to install Microsoft’s dotnet framework. This also took a long time, a reboot, and a third attempt at installing Fuse. Now it wanted Microsoft’s Silverlight 4.0, included in the Fuse download thankfully, and I did not need to reboot. Now Fuse will load, show a “Please wait” graphic for 2 seconds and then I get a blank and black screen. Damn.

I search google for the cause of the problem. It turns out that Fuse requires Internet Explorer 7.0 and I only have IE6.0 installed. This is because I do not use IE at all and opt for Firefox or Google Chrome. Using Chrome I tried in vain to upgrade to IE7.0 only to have Microsoft pop up that I need to validate my copy of Windows, which I did two years ago. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) plugin would not let install. I researched more on Google and find out that IE7.0 dropped their WGA validation requirement two years ago in 2008, so why am I still being asked for Windows validation? More importantly, why do I even need IE to run Fuse? Is not Fuse it’s own standalone piece of software?

The solution, oddly, was to close Chrome and use Firefox. Using Firefox the IE7.0 upgrade from Microsoft went without an issue. With Firefox there was no mention of WGA validation. I can only hope that today’s Microsoft upgrades do not screw anything else up on my system. Just in case I did add a setpoint before today’s software antics.

The installation attempt number 4 of Fuse, though slow, finished without error. I started up Fuse and waited. It takes Fuse 4 minutes to start. This is the slowest start bootup process I have experienced on any piece of software. Even Windows boots up faster.

Initially Fuse said that I needed to update the firmware on the Mustang I. Fuse displayed a clear message on how to power down and power up the amp a,d this procedure went without issue. The Mustang I’s firmware was quickly updated, and Fuse recognized I had a Mustang I connected. This installation process took over 4 hours.

Initially, Fuse is very confusing. There is no documentation from the online help within the software itself. For the life of me I could not figure out what Fuse wanted to do and how to get amps into Fuse and then into the Mustang I. I finally found the .pdf documentation for Fuse online but after reading it cover to cover this did not help much. I closed down Fuse and went to Youtube, where Damon Chivers from Fender UK, at Nevada Music Uk, gave me an excellent explanation and demo of the Fuse Software. He ran through all the features of Fuse, searched for, downloaded and tested an amp. So that is what Fuse does! There is a community of Fender Fuse users, they upload amps and we can all share. Ok, then.

I start up Fuse and wait 4 minutes. After nosing around Fuse I find that Fuse will crash inadvertently on a regular basis. I need to reboot my PC as well as restart the amp before I reboot. Once I tried to restart the amp when Fuse had come alive again and found one of my amp settings labelled “WHAT THE #^[!?”. At least someone in their software department has a sense of humour. The routine is when Fuse crashes, reboot your amp, then reboot your PC, start Fuse, wait the 4 minutes for it to wake up and then carry on with life.

It was quickly becoming clear why IE7.0 is required: The Fuse interface IS a web browser that both connects to the Internet as well as the Mustang amp. Impressive, I thought. As Damon had shown me I searched for clean amps, and a small list of interesting amps came up. I could also search by genre, number of reviews, ratings, title, etc, except that most of the search methods gave an error from Fender’s web site. Improvement is required here. Either remove the non-functional search methods or fix the underlying issues. I opted for search by title, tag or title because the rest do not work. Once I selected a clean amp to download, I was told by Fuse that I needed to upgrade to Flash Player 10.1, but before I tried to do anything else, Fuse crashed yet again.

I know there is a community of Fuse users out there that have uploaded their amp settings, or what Fuse calls “presets”. Upon searching on Google I found the same download tool I saw in the Fuse software. Using Firefox, I was able to search for, find and download different amps, all without Firefox crashing. As well I did not need Flash Player 10.1 to download amps. Alas, Fuse is very new, not even six months old, so there are not a huge install base of amps. Still, I found and downloaded 7 acoustic amps that I liked. Do yourself a big favour and use Firefox to download amps to your PC, and avoid using Fuse to download amps. Fuse seems Ok for installing the preset to your amp, but is unstable for searching and downloading amps. Fuse is a very unstable web browser that will definitely disappoint.

Start up Fuse, turn on your amp, wait the required 4 minutes, hit “Media Library”, then “Add to Library”, then tell Fuse to read in your previously downloaded amp. The amp loads and you can immediately try it out with your guitar and the Mustang. Different amps are similar to fonts in word processing in that you download them and then load them into your font software for use on your computer. Once in your media library, to save the amp to one of your 24 presets, right click on the amp where there will be an option to save. You will need to scroll through the orange/green/red settings 1 through 8.

From the Main Menu, hit Utilities, then backup, in order to backup your amp settings. With all the delays in getting Fuse to start and the regular software crashing I am still unsure how reliable it is. I cannot even launch Fuse when my Firefox browser is running, because it simply will not load.

Once you have downloaded your desired amps, they will be at different volume settings. This throws off many people, including myself. Once you switch to a different amp, no matter what the knobs say, the amp presets will override it. If the volume is too loud in a preset, you will need to change the amp’s physical volume knob to where you like it, and then hit the amp’s save button twice. This new setting will be saved and reflected back in Fuse. Alternately you can change the software volume setting in Fuse, which is then reflected back in your amp’s volume, but the physical volume knob setting will not change. This is important. Flick to a different amp and then flick back, and your amp will have changed, irregardless of the physical knob settings.

I have only been playing with this amp for a day. My impression is that the amp comes biased towards distortion. Installing the Fuse software is difficult and may be impossible if you are not competent using and installing PC software. The Fuse software is large, slow and prone to crash, so save your work often. Still, to be able to change your amp from a rock amp to an acoustic amp is pretty nice. The result is that after all the difficulties, Fender has allowed me to get together with a community of others in order to exchange amp settings. The software does work, and the results are excellent. Just be prepared for a fight.

When, not if, my family friend again changes her mind and wants to play more rock, Fuse will be ready to help me. Factory presets can be restored. New rock amps can be downloaded and tried, Different types of amp settings from other music genres can be tried just for fun and experimentation. I hope that Fender will spend more effort to make this Fuse amp software much more stable. IMHO building a stand alone user application based on IE is sheer software suicide.

Addendum: Jan 25 2011 After using it for a couple of hours today Fuse seems stable and did not crash once. I did not download any amps from the internet, nor did I transfer any new amps to the Mustang. I merely tweaked the volume controls, saved the settings to Fuse, which were then reflected in the Mustang.

It is a lot of fun to play around with various amp settings. You have a wide assortment o (predominantly) Fender amps, effects pedals, and rack mounted effects, many more than the average player could ever attain. From looking at other amp settings you can also learn what you could do to improve the sound of your amp. A recurring and nagging question I ask myself is if the modeling on the Mustang sounds as good as the real thing?

Addendum 2011 Jan 25, afternoon: After using Fuse to tweak amp settings for a couple of hours, NOT downloading amps, NOT transferring amps to the Mustang, NOT doing anything stupid silly, like purposely trying to kill it, I was showing my daughter the nice guitar tuner in Fuse. It is large and impressive. We always have our guitars in tune and use Seiko and Korg guitar tuners. She quickly noted that the tuner on Fuse said that her guitar always “in tune” guitar was out of tune, which was impossible to her. Once tuned up according to Fuse, we checked it with the Seiko tuner. Note to all: The Fuse/Mustang tuner is consistently out of whack by -20 on their scale, with no way of calibrating the tuner. People of the world, do not rely on the Mustang/Fuse tuner or you will be out of tune with others. Then, the Fuse software acted like it was giving me the finger and promptly crashed. Or was it giving me the moon? How’s that for attitude?

GBC 450-KM binding machine: Maintenance is required for smooth and reliable function

All machines need maintenance or they will break down. My GBC 450-KM binding machine is no exception. My machine uses common plastic combs, will punch comb rectangles and bind into a booklet of varying thicknesses. Given use it will jam and will refuse to bind, so you need to open it up, trouble shoot, tighten and grease. The user manual also does not fully explain the left side controls of the machine nor any maintenance, so I thought I would embellish here.

The GBC 450-KM instruction manual covers a little of this post but is insufficient, especially for general maintenance.

The Binder control knob on the left side has two controls:

1. The ABC control is activated by pushing the knob in and turning. This controls the distance between the rectangular holes and the edge of the page. Setting “C” is 16mm and above. Setting “A” is 5-10mm. I always use setting “C”.
2. The 1-9 control is the Back Guide Control Knob. This adjusts for small and large combs. At the higher setting the combs bend back very far in order insert large amounts of paper.

I have had to do the following:

• Comb control mechanism separated from handle mechanism
• Grease the comb mechanism

From the bottom of the machine at each far corner you will see four bolts with an indented allen key round head. These bolts will have a lock and circular washer. You will need a hex or allen key to remove them. Remove all 4 bolts. In the middle of the machine there are lots of other bolts, some slot head some hex head. You need not remove these, as they bolt the machine to its base.

Remove the handle by rotating it counter clockwise until it comes off. Remove the Binder control knob on the left side. The outer part simply pulls off. The inner knob requires a 2.5mm allen key. When reinstalling this allen key ensure it firmly seats itself into a circular hole. The top cover should become loose.

To remove the binding mechanism there are two additional bolts to remove. The first is a “+” bolt, located on the right side where the arm goes down. Remove this and an “L” shaped piece of metal will fall out. This tightens the comb mechanism to the rear right of the cover. The second is located on the rear left corner of the machine, visible from underneath. This is a slot head bolt and is difficult to access. You will need a long handled screwdriver. Remove this and a flat piece of metal with a small right angle will fall out, which tightens the comb mechanism to the rear left of the machine. Remove the two “+” head screws on top of the comb mechanism. Jiggle the comb mechanism out, which is difficult. Be persistent. It does remove.

Once you remove the comb mechanism you will see the large axle in the middle. This connects to the comb mechanism through a pair of forks. These two forks have no return mechanism and simply stay in place through friction. When you move the arm you will see these forks engage the main axle. Tighten these two forks until they stay in place due to friction. If these forks loosen and drop down due to gravity you will have lost control of the comb binding mechanism and will not be able to bind. Grease the two knobs where the main axle meets the cutting mechanism. Grease the forks.

The comb binding mechanism is a group of three sliding pieces of metal. The first is a long narrow piece that interacts with the two forks near the main axle. For all three pieces, grease the tops and bottoms where the metal slides against each other. I used automotive bearing grease that has a light translucent colour. Put the three layers back together.

Inserting the newly greased comb binding mechanism back into the top is difficult. I will forgive anyone who curses. Firstly slip the whole mechanism into the machine top cover. It is a very tight fit. Slip the long edge, the one opposite the comb fingers, between the plastic cover and a metal bar underneath. If you fail to do this the three metal layers will not stay together. Reinstall the two metal brackets you removed from the left and right rear sides of the machine. The “+” bolt on the right is easier. You will need slim hands to do the one on the left rear, or maybe some adhesive on your screwdriver. My daughter slipped her dainty digits into the damn small opening, bless her sweet heart. Tighten down those and the two “+” head bolts on top of the comb mechanism.

The next thing to do is to mate the two fingers near the main axle with the comb mechanism. One is on the left and one is on the right. Take your time because they are tricky. Look from the bottom. Because the cover is loose you can see better, but the fit is still tight. Once the two fingers are mated to the comb mechanism, try the binding handle. If the comb mechanism comes alive you are good, otherwise try mating again.

Reinstall the four indented allen head bolts on the far corners of the bottom of the machine. Reinstall the left side control mechanism and the handle. Your comb mechanism should slide very easily and will not bind up and refuse to move. You are done.

Overall this machine is solid and will last many years. Apart from the outer cover the mechanism is all metal. With maintenance and a lack of physical abuse I am very happy with its function. I am sure you will be happy as well. I have not needed to maintain the cutter mechanism, but if I do I will amend this article.

GBC 450KM3 User Manual