Internal Mono(b)log

I haven’t rented apartments for over a decade, but [Kim](http://www.eyecanseethat.com/) and I are thinking that at some point our current home (built as a duplex, but currently a single family dwelling), may someday become an income property.

[O'Reilly Radar](http://radar.oreilly.com/) [posted](http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/10/rentometer.html) a link to the [rentometer](http://www.rentometer.com/) which is a pretty nice mashup for seeing if the rent you’re paying is higher or lower than the comparable rents in the area.

Pretty sweet.

A banner advert for a new Sci-fi channel series caught my eye. It was ad for the Cryokennel, a device to cryogenically freeze your pets when you go on long vacations.
It gave me a chuckle and pulled me in to see the rest of the [site](http://www.scifi.com/eureka/madeineureka/). Looks like this could be a fun series. Wonder how long it’ll be before we get it up here in Canada.

Recently, I’ve been working at learning Morse Code (frequently abbreviated “cw”). I found a very cool piece of software for OSX called [MorseManiaOSX](http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/morsemania.html). I’d been going along learning to hear code, but the interface for entering code was via a mouse button. For those of you who have never tried morse code, let me tell you, a mouse button is not a good vehicle for quick and well timed dits and dahs.

So, not to be thwarted by this, I decided to cannibalize an old USB mouse and create a USB CW interface. My radio uses a 1/4″ stereo headphone jack to attach the key to the radio, so interfacing should be simple (and it was). Disassemble the sacrificial mouse, find the switch that operates button 1 and the contacts on that switch that close when the switch is pressed. Solder on the leads from a cable attached to a female 1/4″ headphone jack and you’re in business. Rather than use a project box, I decided to drill a hole for the new cable and reuse the mouse housing to hold the circuit board.

Here are some pics:

The mouse pc board with the wires for the headphone jack soldered on.

The project back in the mouse housing.

This is just too cool not to cross post.

People are building extended life batteries for their ipods out of altoid tins, playing card holders, etc.

Click here for the info.