The Wandering Minstrel

The Better Half took this (clickable) image of a classic old 1973 Buick convertible while I went into check the PO box. The interior of this nice ride is very comfy-looking brown leather. It warms my heart to see that someone still drives these big heavy cars with the big engine under the hood.

The Better Half snapped this (clickable) image of an old panel delivery truck driving through old downtown. I initially thought this was a Hudson, but I can’t match it up.

Any ideas?

We see a lot of Jeeps and other off-road vehicles in town but this one looks to be an older model. Plus, it’s in the old Army olive drab color which adds to the nostalgic appeal. I like the tires and hubs. Clickable image.

When this hot rod passed us in traffic today, The Better Half took this (clickable) image.

I don’t have any late firearms-related things to pass along other than to send this reminder to California District 36 voters (via ACE):

If you’re a resident of California District 36, not only should you vote, you should call friends to get them to vote for Craig Huey.

He doesn’t give taxpayer money to convicted killers and rapists.

His opponent, Janice Hahn, voted consistently against the second amendment as a Los Angeles City councilwoman. We’re registered in Arizona now, but lived in that highly gerrymandered district for years.

The Better Half took this (clickable) image of a very clean ‘58 Chevy Apache yesterday while we were heading home from grocery shopping. I do not remember seeing this beauty in town until yesterday. Shiny . . .

The Better Half took this photo of a WWII era Cadillac that we saw while we were going into the botanic gardens for some business. There was a large film production crew there and we suspect this beautiful car is one of the props. Clickable image.

The Better Half photographed what appears to be an old classic airplane headed eastbound just to the north of town. It’s powered with four radial engines, probably Pratt and Whitney, but I could be wrong. The radial engine sound was unmistakeable though. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but it was up above 8500 feet MSL or so. No larger image available.

At first, I thought it was a Douglas DC-6 but looking at pictures on-line, I don’t think so. I also don’t recognize the blue on white markings on the aircraft. Anyone know what kind of aircraft this is?

UPDATE: Thanks for the comments, guys. We will have to visit Sentimental Journey sometime when she is on display.

The Better Half subscribes to Archaeology Magazine. When her copy arrived yesterday, she showed me an article devoted to the history of old computers. They featured the MOS 6502 microprocessor that powered early Atari, Nintendo, Apple and Commodore computers. The article highlighted a group of computer experts that are digging into the history of old computers and attempting to reverse engineer some of the lost, but primitive, technology.

The group has a website that contains a slide show about devices using the 6502 as well as an actual simulator of the microprocessor. If you remember these old computers, you will enjoy their website.

Clickable image - screen shot of the 6502 simulator

Excerpt from their interesting Visual6502.org website:

Welcome to Visual6502.org! Here we’ll slowly but surely present our small team’s effort to preserve, study, and document historic computers. We aim to present our work in a visual, intuitive manner for education and inspiration, and to serve as a solid verifiable reference for classic computer systems. See our slides for an introduction and some fun images.

Have you ever wondered how the chips inside your computer work? How they process information and run programs? Are you maybe a bit let down by the low resolution of chip photographs on the web or by complex diagrams that reveal very little about how circuits work? Then you’ve come to the right place!