So when my wife and I had our first child (boy, 6 lbs 5 oz. born nov 18th), we quickly realized that we needed more space in our car to carry the usual odds and sods that babies tend to need while out and about. So our dilemma was either to get a larger used car (10k etc.), or to get a rack system (sub 1k) and see how much space it would provide us. We opted to try the cheapest solution first. 

Finished Cargo box and Yakima rack installed

I picked up a set of yakima crossbars, 6 lock cores, and Q-towers off craigslist, and purchased the correct Q-clips from rei and another sale off craigslist (to build the base system for my corolla, one needs crossbars, q-towers and q-clips). The total came out to be $190 for all of the above (new would be around $375), still expensive but acceptable. After initial installation and test drive, the next step was to stop the obnoxiously loud wind noise which was created by the crossbars while traveling faster than 35mph. A quick google search turned up that to do so cheaply (meaning not buying the $70 wind fairing), all one had to do was to take a thick nylon bungee cord ($2) and twist it around the bars (car manufacturers use this same principle on their radio antennas to alleviate wind noise as well). This worked beautifully, as all wind noise caused by wind running through the crossbars was eliminated. 

After the base rack system was installed and all obnoxious side-effects minimized, it came time to ”build” the cargo box which would hold some of the bulky objects one would pack for a weekend getaway. Fortunately, I found a suitable container at work. It was a used Abex pop-up exhibit travel case which was somewhat aerodynamic and made of durable plastic since it was made for shipping and travel. One can pick up similar shipping cases (which do not need to be abex branded) for pretty cheap off ebay, I did a search and found them for about $50-100 with shipping included (search ebay for ’shipping case’). 

I then purchased two 1″ x 1.5″ x 0.125″ T6061-T6 extruded aluminum tubes cut to 36″ long (my front crossbar distance from the rear crossbar is 32″)  from onlinemetals.com ($30), and some U-bolt hardware, 2″ bolts, stop-nuts, and large fender washers from lowes ($16). I was pretty impressed that the U-bolts fit the yakima crossbars perfectly and snugly. I then measures and drilled 4 holes in the aluminum tubes to run the U-bolts through, did a test fit on the rack crossbars for fitment, and then proceeded to mount the aluminum tubes onto the cargo box. 

U-Bolt and Aluminum tube Installed

I eyeballed the placement of the tubes onto the cargo box, and drilled two more holes for each aluminum tube. I then marked the centerpoint of those holes onto the cargo box and drilled four holes into the cargo box. These four holes would allow me to run the bolts through from the inside of the cargo box through the tubes, and allow them to be securely attached. 

All four bolts and stop-nuts installed through and secured

Bolt, fender washer, and nut installed (added electrical nut to protect car paint in case it hits top of car).

Top of bolt and large fender washer inside cargo box

After the installation of the bolts, the cargo box needed to be weatherproofed a little. I used some door weather-stripping that i had laying around and lined the lip of the seam where the cover would butt against. After that, the cargo box was finished! 

Cargo box mounted on yakima roof rack (notice the nylon bungee cord wrapped around the crossbar. I doubt it needs to be there with the box mounted since the box would stop the wind from whooshing over the bars. I was just too lazy to remove them)

I have since taken a trip to Tahoe in the middle of heavy wind/rain/snow/freezing temperature storms and have yet to have the cargo box fail on me. The four bolts with large fender washers securely hold the box to the aluminum bars. The weather stripping keeps the water and snow out, and the box is aerodynamic enough to keep my gas mileage at 28mpg (without passengers/cargo I get about 30-31 mixed driving. The mpg hit might be because as I was carrying 5 passengers and their cargo as well). The wind noise is very acceptable, and just noticeable at speeds of 75mph. 

The cargo box in some harsh conditions

Overall, for saving some money, this is a project that is well worth it (spent less than $250) . My sister in law even mentioned that she thought it didnt look any worse than commercially built cargo boxes and worked just as well!

Ive come across many different organizations, many different pleas for help, and many different solutions  proposed on how to get rid of this evil, but what I do not see for the layperson, is an easy to use framework for understanding the issue of human trafficking. In my own experience, the step from caring about the issue to appropriate action has been impeded by a lack of knowledge, guidance, and the direction on how one can get involved (in a manner which one might be most beneficial). If youve ever felt like you had to do something about the issue, but just didnt know what TO do, or even where to start, you know what I mean. The problem just seems so immense and abstract to fully grasp, and if one did get involved, it seems negligible that it would even make a difference.

The barriers to entry for this issue caused me much grief, but it also forced me to really think about the issue and to understand it systemically, and it was only after somewhat understanding the scope of the issue did specific solutions make sense…So I suppose this blog post is my meager attempt to formalize a concept of how the issue of Human Trafficking may be tackled, handled, and perceived, which would then allow a layperson (like me) to understand and begin to take the necessary steps to get involved.

This is a framework which will be continually developed as I learn more from interacting with others involved in the field, and with those who have far greater experience in dealing with the issue of human trafficking and modern day slavery…So bear with me!

Part I – Super Fast Overview of the issue

Slavery is not a new concept. It has been happening ever since the start of this country, and has been in existence since the egyptians built the pyramids. Its easy to forget that the same principles that motivated owning slaves in the past are still currently operating in our “modern” world. Yet, it was only recently where weve decided to legally define it.

In the The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), severe forms of trafficking means – 

(A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or

(B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

So there you have the modern day definition of human trafficking, and ultimately where you get the term ‘modern day slavery.’ I wont go into detail about Human Trafficking and how it manifests itself because that is readily availble on the internet and can be found in any “awareness” video, publication, or media (callandresponse, notforsalecampaign, etc.) . Human Trafficking/Modern Day Slavery takes many forms, debt bondage, sex slavery, and forced labor, to name a few. But just know that it happens everywhere and probably no further than a few blocks away from your home.

Part II – The Scope

Upon first learning of the issue and seeing the atrocities that have been commited through video, images, or whatever expose’ they’ve watched, it seems that most individuals feel angry….Or maybe disgusted is a better term. They then wonder what there is to do to stop this from happening before they even know what causes it (I can relate, I was the same way). Their main motive is stopping it from taking place.

When human trafficking takes place, it usually involves treating the victim as an object, something to be owned, traded, sold, used, abused, and otherwise kept like a piece of property or good. It is mostly if not completely dehumanizing, and essentially pulls at our core values of how we ourselves want and expect to be treated…as human beings with certain unalienable rights and liberties. And because the victim is not, we become outraged and angry; we wouldnt want that for ourselves or anyone we care about. There is also a tinge of internal conflict with this dilemma…Its “Un-American,” immoral, and inhumane, yet it still coincides with our other core values of capitalism, and the “American-Dream.” And this tends to further complicate and fuel the consternation we feel.

One must understand that Human Trafficking and Modern Day slavery revolves around one key issue. Economics. And when I mean economics, I mean the values, principalities, and dynamics of it all. This means everything from market competition guiding the supply and demand for a good or service, and it also means the standard of living (values, expectations, etc.) one is accustomed to experiencing (big screen tv, hummer, and all). It is this principle of being able to improve a perceived standard of living or even existing for that matter, which motivates the entire system of human trafficking.

Therefore, if the victim is treated and perceived as a good or service to be bought and sold, we must also look at the issue of human trafficking and modern day slavery through an economic lens in order to understand its dynamics.

Lets take for instance that you are out shopping for a new toy for your 4 year old daughter. You happen to be at a toy store in your local mall and notice a shiny new stainless steel slinky. Its even slightly multicolored and not plastic like the ones youve played with in the days of old. Being a conscientious buyer, you then pick up the box and look at where its made (thank heavens it was made in the U.S.of A since you only support U.S. made products!). After confirming the manufacturing origin as the U.S.A. you pay for the item and are happy that you have made such a fine purchase.

Lets begin by breaking down the simple act of buying this toy slinky. For the slinky to be purchased, several things had to happened beforehand, raw material had to be acquired (steel), manufacturing had to form the raw material into the slinky (toy company), there then had to be a market/marketplace for the slinky to be sold (the store), and finally, the slinky had to be sold to an end user (you) who created the demand for the slinky in the first place. Without one of the four steps listed above, the transaction would never have taken place.

• Without raw material, there would be no slinky manufactured.
• Without a means for production/manufacturing, the raw material would just sit there.
• Without a market/marketplace there would be no opportunity for the transaction of goods and services.
• Without the end user, there would be no demand for the slinky and it would not be sold.

Likewise, there are FOUR distinct stages of development involved with human trafficking.

1. Raw Material – The exploited
2. Manufacturing – The exploiters
3. The Market/Marketplace - Place of transaction between end users and manufacturing (ig. brothels and johns).
4. The End User – The Johns or users of the good or service offered.

It is important to note that each stage of human trafficking has its own seperate core of operating values and must be looked at as a unique set of motivating principles (for each particular stage) in order for the entire scope to be understood. Personally, I feel it is only until one breaks down the entire issue into these stages does the scope of the issue move from huge and intangible, to manageable and understandable.

III. Lets break it down

It is important to note that much like a crime, these stages need two things to operate, motive and opportunity. Within each stage are unique core operating values (motive), and within each stage, there is the environmental, social, and political context (opportunity) which allows the activity to take place.

So lets break the stages down in terms of human trafficking.

Raw Material:
Who we are dealing with –  The exploited (typically those who have little education, money, opportunity, and social status).

The motivating core value is personal gain. However ”personal gain” in this section tends to be the economics of living, or namely trying to seek out a basic living or better standard of living. Many people who are exploited/trafficked come from impoverished families, lands, and from an “undersireable” social status or caste. These individuals typically have little opportunity to support themselves let alone a family, and are forced to sort through limited opportunities which will allow them to engage in the economic system in order to sustain their lives (ig. buy food). It is this limited scope of opportunity and “desire” for a better life (or basic subsistence) which allows those in the Manufacturing  Stage to exploit them.

Manufacturing:
Who we are dealing with: The exploiters, the recruiters, traffickers.

The motivating value is personal gain (somewhat similar to the raw material motive, possibly even the same). Although “personal gain” may rely less on eeking out an mere existence, and more so on sustaining or obtaining  a ”desireable” standard of living. The recruiters and people who begin to exploit the raw material are essentially making economic decisions to exploit the raw material as they seek to gain (money, livelihood) off of the exploitation (sale, transportation, procurement) of another.

These individuals are the “hunter-gatherers” of the raw material, and harvest, trick, train them, using any means available to ready their victims to meet the demand in the market/marketplace. Interesting to note,  the same motive for seeking a livelihood in the raw material stage is essentially the same principle for the manufacturing stage, yet may differ in necessity and degree of choice (some trafficked individuals turn around and traffick others to make a living).

Market/Market Place:
Who we are dealing with: The market can be virtual or physical. The internet can be used as a vehicle for the exchange of goods and services, as well as local brothels and farms.

The motive for this stage is supply and demand. Business transactions take place in a context where the exchange of goods and services take place. This can be a brothel, finances exchanged over the internet, street corner, or parked car.

End User:
Who we are dealing with: Anyone who desires a return on investment for a particular good or service. People who want sex for money, people who want labor for cheap, people who want a feeling of control over another, etc. Johns, Factory Employer, etc.

The motive for this stage is personal gain. The end user is a person or entity who is ultimately exchanging a good for a service, or a good for a good; money for sex, money for a human to be used as a slave. The End user and manufacturing stages lines may blur at this level as manufacturing may end up being end users as well, while still providing goods/services to another end user. Ig, pimps and brothel owners may make their sex slave not only prostitute and earn them income, but do their personal bidding as well. 

A visual of the four different stages of Human Trafficking.

In the above illustration, the top descriptions (words above the boxes) represent the WHO that is involved in the stage, the words within the boxes represent the core operating values within that stage, and the bottom words (underneath the box) identify the stage within the issue of Human Trafficking. Here, I substituted the motives of “personal gain” with more tangible and specific motives.

IIII. How does this apply?

When applied to human trafficking/modern day slavery, the above framework allows an interested party the ability to separate the overwhelming issue into several manageable sections. Once separated, one can then anticipate how activity in a certain field will address the issue as a whole. When one asks “how can I help stop human trafficking with the skills that I have?” the framework provides an understanding how their skill set may address certain aspects of the trade, and uncovers the aspects which are left unaddressed.

For example, say I have a strong technical background and have knowledge in computerized networking and internet surveillance tracking systems which identify possible terrorists or criminals. I would then look at the stages of human trafficking and discern where those special skills may prove most useful. Here, these skills might best be utilized in the stages of Manufacturing and End User, but less so in the raw material or marketplace stages. 

Lets take another example. Say that I have a heart for those who are victimized by the trade, I would then look at my skill set, passion, and knowledge of a particular area and apply it to the stages where it may provide itself most useful. It may be that my passion for victims and their plight, combined with my advanced nursing degree may lead me to an organization which specializes in working with those who have been victimized. In this case, it would apply to the first stage of the issue…the exploited.

This can be useful when evaluating social services and its offerings and placing them within the issue. A service which seeks to support victims in aftercare will certainly address the raw material stage, but might not address the manufacturing, market, or end user stages. Law enforcement which aims to crack down on brothels will address the marketplace stage, but not necessarily the raw material, manufacturing, or end user stages.

Another working principle of this framework is the idea that each stage is motivated by values. One must realize that when one addresses the operating values of the different stages, one essentially changes the shape and function of the system itself.

Say for example you work for an advertising firm which invests millions of dollars into changing the social consciousness of factory employers, and now those employers look upon hiring and using forced labor with disdain. It has effectively “put a bullet” into the end user (the factory employer), which creates less demand for forced labor, which in turn forces manufacturing to find other means of earning a living. The numbers exploited by manufacturing is lessened (for it is less in demand), and thus slows the process. Granted, this example is highly simplistic and ideal, and more bullets would have to be put into the issue…but you get the idea.

Although economic principles and the laws of supply and demand are the tangible operating forces of human trafficking, values (held or not held) cannot be overlooked and are really the reason why things are the way they are. One must address the external factors of the the system (poverty, lack of police, prosecution, etc.), but one must also address the motivating values of the issue as well. Healing a symptom is not curing the disease.

IV. What now?

So there you have it, a framework for understanding the scope of human trafficking. It is by no means comprehensive, as it does not take into account law enforcement, NGO’s, and other social services which seek to address this problem. It is meant to be a tool which helps one take the next step from anger and disgust, to informed and intentional action (specifically, seeking out organizations, task forces, other law enforcement and related social services which address the four different stages).

In short, find what interests you. Evaluate your skillset and seek out opportunities where those skills can be utilized. Be political, be vocal, be administrative, be whatever youre good at. Do what it takes to be proactive in finding your own specific way to help stop human trafficking and end modern day slavery.

The motorcycle up for trade

Ford F150 traded for a kawasaki ninja

 This bad-ass F150 is one ugly beast, but it will definitely see more “action” than my friend will now that he owns it.

New LG VX5500

Software. I know I needed to get some sort of software to interface the phone to the computer, and after some googling, I found Bitpim (www.bitpim.org). Bitpim is a FREE and open source software (free was the magic word!) software that does the same thing (although less elegantly) that other products that cost about $30 do. It supports many phones(*1), and is continually upgraded. Did I also mention its FREE? After one downloads and installs Bitpim, all one needs is the interface to communicate with the phone and in my case, this was either a USB cable or bluetooth adapter.

The teeny tiny bluetooth adapter from Ebay

Hardware. I realized that my laptop did not come equipped with a Bluetooth adapter and buying a USB cable specifically for this phone didnt make much sense as I wouldnt want to have to purchase another cable in the future for any new phone I upgraded to later. I quickly found a good option from ebay. Its a super tiny bluetooth module supported by Windows Vista. It cost less than $5 with free shipping, and arrived in ten days (from Hong Kong). Windows picked it right up and I was now bluetooth enabled. So next thing I needed to do was to get Bitpim to work with the LG Vx5500…heres what I did:

1. Pair your phone with the computer using bluetooth (you will have to put your phone in discovery mode, and follow the prompts given to you by windows after clicking ‘add’ in the bluetooth properties window). After this is done, click on the COM ports tab and view the com port your phone is set to.

My phone is the VX5500, and is connected to COM16

2. Install, download, and run Bitpim (Bitpim does not currently support the VX5500 natively, but by choosing a phone that has been supported some of the features like browsing the filesystem work).

3. Click on the icon with the screwdriver and wrench (settings button).

Bitpims settings window

• Select LG-VX8560 (chocolate 3) <—important.
• Then click on the browse button located next to the COM Port section (in my example, im using COM16, the port my phone is connected to).
• After the window refreshes, select the COM port which was associated to your phone in the previous bluetooth settings window. Click ok and ok to exit out of the settings window.

**NOTE: Bitpim will not autodetect your phone. But by manually specifying the settings listed above, Bitpim will connect and communicate with your phone.**

4. Now you must use the filesystem view/pane to reliably transfer your photos and ringtones. To enable this view, click on the View menu at the top of the window, and put a checkmark next to the View Filesystem option. You should now be able to see the Filesystem Pane/Window.

After enabling filesystem view, and expanding the directory tree

5. It takes a few seconds to get the directory listing after expanding the / folder. Your ringtones will be placed in the 10889/Ringtones folder shown above, and your pictures/wallpapers will be placed in the 10888 folder listed below.

wallpaper/photo directory

6.  Now that you have the locations for your ringtones and wallpapers, here are the guidelines to put them onto the phone.

• Ringtones can be in .mp3 format, but NEED to be renamed to xxx.aac (song.mp3 –> song.aac), then added by right clicking on the pane to the right of the filesystem tree, and clicking on New File… Select your .aac file and upload it. After uploading your files, you must reboot the phone for the file to be seen by the phone. Either power cycle the phone, or right click on the viewing pane and click ‘reboot phone.’

*NOTE* To make the ringtones, I didnt bother with any sound editing software, and just went to http://makeownringtone.com/ and uploaded an mp3. I then used its tools to shorten the song length, and encode it into a lower bitrate, and have it saved as an .aac file. Easy as pie. highly recommend it! Oh yes, try to keep the ringtone to less than 30 seconds…

• Main wallpapers for the LG VX5500 use a pixel dimension of 176 x 220, and front lcd image dimensions are 96 x 64 pixels. Upload these images in the same manner as uploading ringtones to your phone, but using the 10888 directory (you might even see other photos you have taken listed in that directory). Reboot the phone to have the changes take place on the phone itself.

*NOTE* To make the wallpaper, I didnt fuss with any image software. I just took a picture and uploaded it to http://mobopic.com/upload/eng. It allows you to zoom, crop, and just enter in the size of the wallpaper and it does it all for you. Fast, easy, and FREE!

So far, the only thing I want to be able to do now, is to save my phone contact list to my computer. I wasnt able to figure out how to do that, but im sure bitpim will support it in the future. Until then, im not too worried about that as im doing everything that I wanted to do, without the Verizon wireless charge. Once again, I showed my wife, and she made me put ringtones on her phone! Im a hero!

——————————————–

*1 Phones bitpim currently supports: LG-AX8600, LG-C2000, LG-G4015, LG-LX570 (Musiq), LG-PM225, LG-VX10000 (Voyager), LG-VX3200, LG-VX4400, LG-VX4500, LG-VX4650, LG-VX5200, LG-VX5300, LG-VX6000, LG-VX6100, LG-VX7000, LG-VX8000, LG-VX8100, LG-VX8300, LG-VX8500 (Chocolate), LG-VX8560 (Chocolate 3), LG-VX8600, LG-VX8610 (Decoy), LG-VX8700, LG-VX8800 (Venus), LG-VX9100 (enV 2), LG-VX9700 (Dare), LG-VX9800, LG-VX9900 (enV), E815, E815m, K1m, V325, V325M, V3c, V3cm, V3m, V3mM, V710, V710m, SCH-A870, SCH-A930, SCH-A950, SCH-U470, SCH-U740, SPH-M300MEDIA, SPH-M300PIM, VM4050, LG-UX5000, SPH-A460, SPH-A620 (VGA1000), SPH-A660 (VI660), SPH-A680, SPH-A740, SPH-A840 (Telus), SPH-A840, SPH-A900, SPH-N400, SCP-6600 (Katana), SCP-6650 (Katana-II), SCP-7050, SCP-8400, MM-5600, MM-7400, MM-7500, MM-8300, PM-8200, RL-4920, RL-4930, SCP-200, SCP-2400, SCP-3100, SCP-3200, SCP-4900, SCP-5300, SCP-5400, SCP-5500, SCP-7200, SCP-7300, SCP-8100 (Bell), SCP-8100, VI-2300, LG-LG6190, LG-LG6200, LG-LG8100, LG-LX5450, LG-LX5550, LG-PM325, LG-TM520, LG-VI125, LG-VI5225, LG-V 10, LG-VX4600, LG-VX5400, LG-VX8350, LG-VX8550 (Chocolate 2), LG-VX9400, SCH-A310, SCH-A650, SCH-A670, SK6100, SPH-N200.

I learned much of this information from searching through forums located at www.howardforums.com/. Unfortunately, its scattered and sometimes difficult to understand for a newbie. Hence the blog post.

I think this hack is probably the simplest solution I have done to date, as you only need three items:

1. Any crappy Audio CD (burned or whatever).

2. Super glue (A glue stick might work, but I was hesitant to use one as the material might not hold as well and fall off into the player).

3. Cotton ball, Felt material, or in my case, PEC pads (used for cleaning sensitive electronics like a digital camera CMOS sensor). If you are using a cotton ball, just glue the ball onto the CD, then pull and leave some cotton adhered to the CD (it should work the same).

Preparation:

First, cut a thin strip of the material you plan on using on the CD. I made mine about 2/8″ wide, and cut to the length of the CD.

Application:

Just draw a thin line of super glue on the CD. Next, Glue the strip onto the CD and cut off the excess. It should look like this.

Glued on strip of material

Here is a closeup view of the material on the CD. I checked the clearance of the CD Laser assmembly to the CD to be around 1/8″ (the distance of the gap between the laser element and CD). So I left roughly that amount of material hanging off the CD.

Fold and bend the material to stick up about 1/8" high

I stuck the CD into my cars in-dash CD player and heard the disc spinning for a few seconds, then the player ejected it. I repeated this a few times and then tried an audio CD. Played right up! Simple, cheap, and effective…just not as elegant and pretty as the ones sold in stores.

**Update**  – After two days of using my cars cd player. I can honestly say that this cd lens cleaner works like a charm. My player used to error out when I would start the car after ending work, and I would need to pop the cd back into the player several times before the cd player would read the disc. Now the player reads the disc from the point where I turned off the car.

**Disclaimer**
Do this at your own risk. I assume no liability for any damages done to your equipment.

1. First item on the list was to cut the four legs of the shelf to six feet tall.

Rack legs

2. Next I cut the shelf supports (the crossbeams) for which I needed six. These needed to be 66.5″ as the legs of the shelf would add 2.5″ to the width.

Cross Beams to support the shelving

3. After, I cut the short links which would connect the front and rear portions of the rack. I wanted my shelf depth to be 19″ so I cut these to 16.5″.

Links for front and back of rack

4. After all the cutting was done, I needed to drill the holes to where I wanted my shelving located. I drilled 4 holes, with two holes alloted for the crossbeam, and two for the links. I made three sets of the four holes on each of the legs of the rack. One set for the top, middle, and bottom shelf.

Pilot holes for screws which would hold the crossbeam and links

5. Now for the assembly. I assmbled both the front and rear of the racks first, by laying them on the floor and screwing in the crossbeams. I then attached on the front of the rack the links so I could attach the rear portion of the rack to the front portion after. I installed the casters after this was all done.

Front and rear rack faces attached with links

6. The joints of the rack look like this:

7. Next comes the shelving platform. I didnt buy any plywood or material to use for the shelving. Instead I scrounged around my wood shed and found some 1/4″ board of sorts, and some old pieces of 5/8″ plywood. I had to cut pretty creatively to utilize all the board and cover the shelf platforms.

1/4" board for the upper shelves (where lighter things will be placed)

5/8" plywood (where heavy things will be placed)

8. After finishing my rack, I noticed that I had enough space to add another shelf. I added this one above the middle shelf, and found some messed up 2 x 4’s in the wood shed. They were not in the best shape, but would work for this application. I installed these sideways as the shelf was not going to hold a lot of weight, and would allow more clearance for putting things on the middle shelf.

With extra shelf added.

The shelf took a few hours to build, but the satisfaction of making something and saving money (although with the time trade-off) is to me, definitely worth it. an added bonus are the casters which make my shelf mobile. After piling on the clutter in the garage, it was really convenient to be able to roll the shelf around and into different positions. I also realized that the casters have the extra benefit of keeping the wood off the garage floor where it might someday come into contact with water (washing the garage floor, flooding washing machines, etc.).

I did add one final touch to the shelving, in that I added an eye hook to tie some rope through which connected to the wall. Living right next to the San Andreas faultline, I wouldnt want to find my shelf and all its contents laying on my car after an earthquake. Now for the best part…when my wife pulled into the garage and saw all the clutter neatly organized onto the shelf, she was delighted…and finally realized I could build something that I always say I could for less. Score!

After a bit more googling, I stumbled upon a piece of software supplied by the University of Washington which was written under the GNU GPL, this basically means that it is free to distribute and modify. Its called Adeona (http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/) and is available for the Mac OS X (10.4 or 10.5), Windows XP/Vista, and Linux. A small unobtrusive program, Adeona runs as a service and periodically and randomly contacts an OpenDHT server to store the IP address and other associated information of the laptop when it is connected to the internet. This information can then be used to track down your computer, and in theory be recovered. Spiffy eh?

All would be swell, except for one (albeit huge) bug in its implementation. The software is in an early stage of development, and as it is now coded, has an issue connecting to and communicating with the OpenDHT servers (this is due to be fixed in the next release). In my quick evaluation, the included recovery tool was not able to grab the necessary information and did not return the useful results necessary to track a stolen laptop. Adeona in theory is one awesome tool, but its implementation has yet to deliver. Overall though, I feel this free and tiny alternative to the paid and more full featured software (although much more comprehensive in comparison), is just what is needed in todays era of mobile computing.

Ill be waiting till Adeona is fixed, and once that is done, will have it installed on all my mobile devices within the blink of an eye.

Solar panel from nice VW dealership

I work at a computer liquidation company, so finding LEDs was no problem as many computer peripherals, server cases, and the like have these things mounted in/on them. I found three bright white LEDs (I figure they pull about 3.4volts drawing 20 milliamps each after googling), and found an appropriate resistor for use with the system (I used the LED resistance calculator at http://ledcalc.com/), by taking it from an old cisco router powersupply (its actually a 240 ohm resistor and the calculator called for a 100 ohm one, but it doesnt seem to affect it much).  I also upgraded my battery to use my old car battery that died from my car…I just charged it for several days with my solar panel till it was 12.7v.

The LED diagram that the LED resistance calculator gave me

As illustrated in the diagram, I wired my LEDs in series, attached the resistor to the positive lead on the LED chain and tested it with my battery. It worked!

Wired up LEDs in series and soldered the resistor to the positive lead

I then unmounted my address number sign and had to pop out the female plug which the bulb would screw into. That gave me a nice sized hole to thread the LED string through.

LED string threaded and secured with some tape and a pluggy thing big enough to cram in the hole where the original plug used to be. In this picture, im using one of the UPS batteries to test it with. Now, I needed to unhook the original wiring which went from the address number sign to the transformer and reroute that with some wire to my car battery/solar panel setup. I went into the garage, and unscrewed the two wires from the transformer.

Transformer with the two wires still connected

I then ran some speaker wire that I had laying around to those two wires to act as an extention, and connected it to my car battery.

Car Battery. You can see the gold speaker wire (connected to existing address sign wiring), and the black wires (connected to solar panel).

Address number sign remounted with hood.

I was pleased that it was still working, and waited till dark. I did have to adjust the direction of the LEDs, as they were extremely bright and would streak a beam of light over only certain parts of the sign making it difficult to read. I ended up taking off the hood, lining the inside with tin foil, and oriented the LEDs towards the center of the sign and pointing towards the hood. The tin foil reflected and diffused the light so it was more evenly dispersed.

Address sign at night time.

Im happy with the results, and the idea that I wont be spending any electricity on powering up a stupid address sign at night. It also makes my house easier to spot as the light from the LED is sort of bluish white, and looks completely different from the other houses in my neighborhood.