DurableToys.com Useful Info and Discussion Archive 03

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	Needle in a Haystack DurableToys.com

DurableToys.com Useful Info and Discussion Issue03 by David or Debra McCusker, Needle in a Haystack DurableToys.com. We share whatever news comes to mind or what customers bring up in this space on a schedule best described as random. Generally updated items are at the top. If you found this page by chance and are looking for products, just click on a thumbnail pic or the top logo for the welcome page. We invite your email or other submissions. Email or events not originally intended for this page will be summarized for privacy. More general info.

Current Topics Page

This page is an archive of older topics of discussion. For current topics go to toydisc.htm.

Critter Update

You may have seen in the past the story of the baby chicks raised into full grown chickens by our dog. The dog was told "not food" and let them walk on and peck without a problem, but sharing food- no. Shetland Pony "Kiaz" ran away from home without a trace in response to loud fireworks from a neighbor July 2004. Days later abondoned kitten "Jetta" and sibling move in, sibling kitten leaves to north. Dog cowers each time she's near cat from the experience of hearing "not food" yelled several times. Dog and cat now greet each other once then stay apart. Kitten turns out to be female, births five more, the five will hang out with the dog after gradual acclimation. UPS driver spoils dog with a daily treat, momma cat gets her figure back. Haven't seen "Bowline" the black snake lately. Three kittens, Precious, Arrow and Oreo remain with their mother, Jetta. Siblings Stew and Coty move away yet vacation visit once. Of five, only Arrow is a female. Grown cats socialize with dog by frequent greeting and shared warmth.

Dog assumes genuine responsibility for the health and welfare of her pet cats. Evidence so far is shooing them away from driveway path of an approaching car and barking loudly when one cat had a choking incident. Dog has also been observed blocking a cat from entering a no-cat zone without ever being asked to do so. Doghouse has an alarm clock and dog has been trained not to bother barking at our office entrance before alarm sounds at 8:30AM. This solves change of daylight savings time but not weekday vs. weekend timing. Another dog, Prissy, arrives after owners had to move due to a health condition and could not move and leave her during the daytime. Prissy aims to please, has no bad habits and can live near humans and cats without conflict, but she has bad breath. Prissy frequently is yelled at by the other dog for heeling too close to a moving vehicle. Our UPS driver has both dogs now spoiled with daily treats so Prissy dangerously rushes the "package car". Update: Prissy got sick and died suddenly. Update: This one cat is now a dog's shadow, often walking underfoot and sleeping up against her dog.

For several days there were eggshell fragments near the dog's abode. This puzzler seemed to imply sloppy garbage handling by humans. Then a whole egg was found inside the doghouse. Dog was told "No more eggs!... NNOOO!... AAIYGGSS!". Then there were no more eggs. Meanwhile, one young cat has earned the privilege of eating dogfood from dog's bowl with dog present. Update 8/07: Dog is given a daily egg or two to satisfy the craving on the advice of a nutrition expert, and her health has improved. Awaiting the next surprise.

DurableToys.com Products on TV

On May 9, 1961 FCC Chairman Newton Minnow said that television was "...a vast wasteland". We counter with this endearing story. DurableToys.com provided five toys for the television show called "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" on the ABC network Sundays 8/7c. Season two episode nine first aired on November 28, 2004 and featured the Burns family receiving a new home and a lot more. Six year old Ben Burns has brittle bone disease and needed special furnishings to allow a more normal home life for his whole family. His huge sandbox now has four Roadmaxx toys and a Kettler Sand Digger as seen on DurableToys.com. Learn more at abc.com using keyword "home makeover". Get a look at a big sand sculpture and little toys on photos 43, 71, and 76.

Froogle Shopping Search Engine

Froogle now known as Google Product Search is viewed from Google by the Shopping choice or by www.froogle.com (www.froogle.com) Froogle aka Google Product Search is a part of the powerful general search engine. Froogle searches are limited to retail products submitted by retailers so that shoppers avoid sifting through volumes of related but unwanted data. DurableToys.com has submitted product information for inclusion, though we are now rolling it out in phases. The data format is not really the same as our internal systems so it has been an effort to prepare and submit. The advantage for our customers is that our Froogle presentation is in the same format as other retailers. Direct comparisons are easy by name within Froogle but the system does not use bar coded UPC numbers for absolute identification. Assigned UPC codes are nonexistent for many of our semi-custom Amish made products anyway so this is not a disadvantage overall. We limit our combined descriptions, part numbers and product names to 1024 characters, somewhat more concise than our very detailed web page content. Try out Froogle to avoid strange search results when you want to shop.

Radio Listening Season

We like broadcast radio here at the office because our ears give our brains something to work on while our eyes are waiting at the blue screen. Just like good mind developing toys, the lack of a video script engages one on a higher level. It's interesting to hear the variety of programming on AM heard from great distances during the shorter days' darkness. AM was left for dead until 15 years ago when satellites began relaying nationally syndicated network radio programs. We "hams" also like to transmit but distance listening or "DXing" can be taken up by one of any age, budget or technical level. Our upper atmosphere provides a radio reflective layer which is obscured during daylight by lower altitude absorbtive conditions, so the DX action is late. The seasonal tilt away from the sun makes winter the best time of year for nightime band surfing. Some big city stations are "clear channel" - meaning they do not share a frequency and thus do not have to reduce power after dark as do broadcasters on geographically allocated shared frequencies. You can tune stations thousands of miles from home to hear that ballgame or connect with your old hometown.

A good digitally tuned AM radio is the best ticket to the show. A sensitive front end with synthesized digital frequency selection is almost essential to really know who in the distance you have tuned when local signal strength isn't providing context. We know firsthand of several that work well. The Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE is small and very good on AM as well as full coverage of worldwide shortwave (SW) bands, plus it gives sparkling headphone FM stereo. Use the power adaptor at your nightstand and the YB400 PE is also a full featured alarm clock radio. A Bose Wave® Radio delivers uncanny music fidelity from great design in every aspect including AM and FM tuners. The Wave® Radio is also a table/clock radio with sleep timer, alarm and 9V battery backup- all controlled from a remote. The only negative is the sticker shock though meeting the incredible Dr. Bose in person has a way of personalizing the outlay. Update: A new version called the Bose Music System has a frequency response that goes down one third of an octave lower than the Wave Radio. The CCrane Company's CC Radio by Sangean is a lifesaver. It combines the best possible AM reception and FM fidelity with a strong amplifier and a big speaker. The CCRadioplus has a Weather Radio Alert receiver system for silent standby until the National Weather Service issues a watch or warning. Check that feature out at the National Weather Service-N.O.A.A. website page for weather radio. The sleep timer and alarm functions are enhanced by a provision to control an external tape recorder- like a VCR for your radio show. The power failure battery backup is 4 "D" batteries that can be recharged in place so that the CCRadioplus becomes a portable with a grab of the recessed hand grip. It also receives the laugh track for TV channels 2-13 or gives you most all of the "News Hour" content by audio. Gather 'round and watch something that has been entertaining families with theater of the mind since 1920.
Update: More and more programming of all sorts is appearing from above in geo-synchronous orbit as XM Satellite radio. It is a favorate for travellers due to the consistently perfect fidelity all across the country - except in tunnels. Handy receivers easily facilitate one subscription serving home, car and portable use. See the C. Crane company, www.ccrane.com, website linked above for more.

Safe Boating Week

Safe Boating Week happens during each May to remind us of the safety of children around water. The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary (USCG-AUX) promotes safety to the boating population with public education and awareness campaigns. The USCG-AUX is a unit of 35,000 civilian volunteers that actually outnumber the regular Coast Guard and Reserve. The USCG-AUX has a mission to offload the generally less dangerous workload from the armed force now also under the Department of Homeland Security. A fun part of the task is appearances of "Coastie The Safety Boat", a complex radio controlled ambassador to the young. Entertaining all ages is part of Coastie and her handler, who spent time training for the "job". Coastie can listen by radio back to her operator who answers in a chipmunk translated voice much to the delight of all. Coastie is an educational tool simulating much of the look and feel of boating equipment and practices. The boat is 44" long with a 30" beam displacing 125 lb. and topping out at 3.5 knots. The official classification for the whole fleet of 36 is "44-Inch Low Endurance Coastie Cutter". The blue and white fiberglass model cruises by battery powered motors driving two rear wheels controlled just like a twin-screw boat. She has animated eyes and eyelids, plays music CDs and can squirt people and even pump bilge water. She has working navigation lights, rotating beacon, spotlight, siren and a very loud horn. Even a tiny life ring and little Kidde fire extinguisher are mounted to her "superstructure" as well as correct flags on real antennas. Educational materials aimed at the young are given out including the Coastie trading card pictured above. Coastie rides in a custom cargo trailer along with a sound system to street fairs, schools or shopping areas. Coastie WAUX 012 came here for Safe Boating Week in Burlington, NC on May 24, 2003. Coastie's Flotilla 9-9 host backed her up under an E-Z UP Instant Shelter lent by DurableToys.com between sorties among the shoppers. You can watch bearded ol' salt Ted in a blue uniform move his mouth into his headset mic then have kids respond seriously to a land moving cognizant robotic boat. Everyone else has to stifle a belly laugh. WAUX 012's home base is in District 5SR in Camdem, NC. A nice web site, a scrapbook, from another Coastie is http://coastie.auxpa.org/scrapbook.html The USCG-AUX has a web site at www.cgaux.org.

News From the 'Hood - Fred Rogers Published

The late Rev. Fred Rogers aka Mister Rogers hosted a childrens show based in Pittsburgh for 23 years. The familiar music with sneaker and sweater routine from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" were his trademarks. His public television station WQED show tackled the tough topics posed by curious children with kindly and thoughtful responses. A book titled "The World According to Mister Rogers" holds an account of the many sayings, bits of advice and stories from his television ministry. Published in October 2003 by Hyperion.

Whimsical Dual-Use Application

bird feeder on horizontal three scoop windmill

From the department of multiple uses come a combination of anemometer and bird feeder- or is it a bird carousel? Spotted in the east midwest, well north of the south (western PA), this horizontal windmill is 5' tall, 5' 4" in overall diameter and revolves on ball bearings. A light breeze usually spins it one revolution in five seconds and it kicks up to one per 2.5 seconds with windy gusts. Note little orange seed container at the blue globe. Sparrows love to ride around eating there though most birds eat at the center. The red tin can hides top ball bearing race under cut-out 12" platter.

Reptile Joins Security Team

"Bowline", a five foot black snake encircles the door knob at one of our entrances to add a visual element to security street theatre. Actually, he (or she??) is nonvenoumous so it is all bluff. Cold blooded Bow doesn't really move very much, except for chasing spiders. At first introduction, K-9 team member thought she smelled something funny and imagined a black and white cameo of her last "frog gigging" action. If we could get some cooperation, we would station legless at the garden since North Carolina's [2002] drought has hungry deer raiding crops. That's another story... If high beams are effective in deer eyes then "blue blue blue" must be better, right? Visible from space at night, son's gardenscape looks like a crash scene with dazzling amber strobe and rotating beacon. Throw in a windmill with shiny blades moving to loud rap music- no more bites out of the surviving plants.

New Performance Measurement Instrument

DurableToys.com has measured wheel toy cornering force the old fashioned way, with a stopwatch- but now we have a precision instrument. The tiny 2 oz. G-TECH Performance Meter Pro (www.gtechpro.com) can measure positive or negative acceleration or cornering forces in real time. Sampled every 25 mS is a micro-machined liquid damped accelerometer on a chip measuring a range of +/-1.3G. The device also has a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processor programmed with the discreet sample calculus to integrate the measured G force over time to figure speed and to double integrate to calculate distance. It can display and sometimes store instantaneous or average (3 sec.) cornering Gs, acceleration/braking in Gs, time from 0-60 mph, 60-0 braking distance, or 1/4 mile time and teminal speed. GTech device mounted facing right on Kettcar front bumper - displays negative .02 .

GTech device mounted facing right on Kettcar front bumper - displays negative .02 .

It can also estimate horsepower (less drag losses) during acceleration if a correct weight is entered and used to do the math. For normal use as intended it is plugged into a 12V socket in the car, secured level to ignore our gravity and then the car is flogged to get some numbers. For our use, we first measured the current consumption to plan for a portable battery pack. With current draw at only 33 mA, it is practical to arrange a pack of 8 "AA" or "AAA" cells to source the 0.4 Watts. Interesting results will be coming soon once the power and level mount clamping have been worked out. We have already arranged a team of testers eager to top each other's numbers.

Kid cornering hard to the right on a Kettcar Formel 1 Air pedal car

Kid cornering hard to the right on a Kettcar Formel 1 Air pedal car

Update: 0.73 G! Testing a Kettler Formel 1 Air pedal car resulted in a 0.71 G estimated sustainable cornering force.
Method: The G-Tech was attached laterally to the front bumper of the Kettcar along with a battery pack of 8 AA cells by cable ties. The preferred three second sustained mode of the test instrument was not useful because riders could not maintain maximum cornering for long enough to use that mode. The instant mode with resettable storage was then used to store the absolute value of the largest of either left or right cornering G force. Several G force peak numbers were obtained by repeatedly riding the car close to its maximum speed and then executing two to four iterations of serpentine steering input across the asphalt. The numerical value of the sustainable cornering limit (ignoring transients) is judged to be a stored instant "G" force which can be repeated a total of three times, that is the lowest of the top three attempts.

Results: The top three G measurements stored for a 65 lb. rider were 0.81, 0.71 and 0.75 G (in that order). Several of the runs resulted in G force peaks below 0.60 G. Update: A 162 lb rider eclipsed the cornering record by ripping off 0.73, 0.78 and 0.75 G best of three runs. With the heavier rider the Kettcar lifted the front or both inside wheels during cornering and in fact the last turn of the 0.78 G run resulted in a step-out for the hapless grayhair. The lighter rider's turns often lifted only the inside front wheel. Neither front nor rear tires gave up any grip at all nor made any noise but both outside tires did leave visible arcs on the asphalt. The marks indicate nearly balanced cornering with slight understeer (push) but never any oversteer (loose). The handling was affected by a lack of suspension compliance since (!) there is no suspension. The evenly balanced roll stiffness distribution was affected by relatively low lengthwise torsional stiffness of the chassis. The center backbone frame allowed for some flexing under the giant cornering stress of the larger rider without benefit of suspension travel, (other than the tire sidewalls) but it sprung back after each of many hard cuts. This characteristic is just right for maintaining all four contact patches over uneven terrain without the loss of roll stiffness that a laterally floating front axle would impart. At well under the 250 lb weight limit we have left intact the 3 year residential (one year commercial) warranty even after repeatedly inducing up to two inches of twist between the two axles- but it wasn't racing!!

The 0.71 and 0.73 G results (kid and adult-sized kid) beat the 0.52 and 0.55 G obtained with a hard tire Kettcar of the same chassis using a timing method- which defies direct comparison. We can say positively that the hard tires have less ultimate grip causing understeer (push). The rosey-cheeked kid really didn't have very much fun in obtaining these results. The old man lost some water weight and then verified his life insurance. Coming maybe: An attempt at the lap record around the 100' unbanked broomed concrete surfaced tricycle trail at the kindergarten. As one of the six men who poured the concrete, this track record is really coveted. Update: Washout, heavy rains left soggy mulch over turns one and two so no attempt was made (6/02). Getting loose in the mulch will send you right up into the wall (if there was one).

Tech: The meter was meticulously calibrated before testing to make resulting measurements very credible. The case was opened and a trimmer was found and adjusted to show exactly 1.00 G on the display when held vertically display down (the sine function of the angle from level). The "-0.02" G visible on the meter in the photo above reflects the device's sensitivity to natural gravity, the meter mounting for that test was adjusted to show 0.00 G only when parked on level pavement. Set for the 1/4 mile standing start time and terminal speed mode, we simulated acceleration runs using just the constant force of gravity. Simulated runs were done by holding the device level, (showing 0.00 G) setting the "go" prompt and then snapping it around a workbench corner so that it suddenly was oriented perfectly vertical. The internal logic started the clock on a steady 1.00 G "1/4 mile run" and stored the results at the end. The times obtained by this method were repeatedly within three parts per thousand of the theoretical value of 9.05 sec, and the computed speed within 1.5% of 198.8 mph. That is really good considering that the device had to further infer 1320 feet of traversed distance to recognize the end of the run. Of course this "inertial navigation" method of reckoning speed and distance has been proven for decades aboard spacecraft.

We STILL miss Charlie

Big Charlie Riley riding a Bison pedal car around 1999

Charlie Riley died suddenly at his home on February 13, 2001. He was an occassional borrower of our cargo trailers, and on one such visit we "made him" ride the pedal car for some photos. Charlie helped promote the Bison and other pedal cars with this picture taken in the spring of 1998. The entrepreneural spirit drove him beyond his employment as a truck mechanic at UPS into several local business ventures. In Charlie's memory we have donated a big wheel toy to the Allied Churches of Alamance County Shelter Services at 206 N. Fisher Street, Burlington NC. Charlie's wife, mother, grandmother, brother and lots of other people will miss him. Each June on the closest Saturday to his June 6 (1963) birthday friends remember Charlie with an event which raises charitable funds. All proceeds benefit local families in need. The Charlie Riley Fund is now c/o SunTrust, 2178 N. Chruch St. Burlington, NC 27216. Pic: Charlie in 1992
Updates: The 6th annual "Charlie Ride & Party" was held on June 3, 2006 with the final events at "The Place" in Burlington. A 5th annual Charlie Riley Memorial was held on June 4, 2005 with around ten thousand dollars raised for local charitabale needs. The 4th annual Charlie Riley Memorial Benefit poker run on June 5, 2004 raised thousands of dollars to assist two families each with a seriously ill child. A third annual Charlie Riley Memorial Benefit poker run was rained out on June 7, 2003 then moved to June 21. Again there was massive attendence with live music and free feed at several stops along the way. For 2003 an estimated $9000 was raised. The funds raised are collected at Central Carolina Bank's [now SunTrust] "Charlie Riley Fund" and distributed locally. The second annual Charlie Riley Memorial Benefit Poker Run was held on June 1, 2002. Three local needy familes, each with one seriouly ill member, are the beneficiaries of the $7000 raised in Charlie's memory. This event had over 300 motorcycle riders depart on a group ride from Davis' HD behind a police escort. Riders drew a playing card at each of five stops to build a poker hand, the best and worst hands and a drawing each winning a prize. At one of the stops, the "Roadhouse 54" in Graham, the band "Three Day Funk" played and free food was served. The final stop's crowd at "Bogey's" in Burlington was entertained with a free concert by the band "Toyz". In all, about 550 folks, many from out of state, came together for one day to remember a good friend. Charlie's 2002 memorial was largely organized by Ray of Southern Alamance Trailers which is also the sales and service shop for our cargo haulers.

New ordering system enhancement

Our latest improvements give the most up to the second answer to the "in stock?" question for our entire product line. Rather than frequent periodic updates to our online inventory data, we now have an automated system for inventory decrements with each online order. Instead of the elapsed time since last updated, our order/status checklist now displays the time at which your browser accessed the data. A click on the "Refresh" button gets the data again, to the second. This means your confidence in the accuracy of our stock data. As usual, we time-order allocation where there is contention regardless of order's source. A previous ordering enhancement adds previews, delivery info and discounting. Look for a button within the Order/Browse checklist pages titled "Preview". Using only your destination state and your selected items you can get quantity discounts and conditional shipping info up front. You can also see NC sales tax and discounts for shipments within North Carolina. Easily convert your preview into an online order or into a handy fax form summary. Either way, ordering is fast and easy.

VeriSign®

Needle in a Haystack DurableToys.com, Needak, Inc., uses VeriSign® Secure Site Online Secure Site Cerification on our secure transaction side server. The installation of VeriSign® public key infrastructure (PKI) security software specifically for durabletoys.com provides a digital ID to enable authenticated secure socket layer encryption to secure e-commerce transactions. We actually encrypt again and have an additional certification of our privacy procedures from BBBOnLine® Secure.

We're Rebuilding That Bridge

to confidence. Employees of Needak, Inc. share the grief and reget and offer our best wishes to the people affected by the 9/11/2001 attacks. New York, DC, and the LA (destination) area have many of our customers and we do not yet know the multitude ways that we have been afflicted.

New Telephone Equipment

We love talking about the good stuff, and have lots of numbers and telcom equiment to prove it. Needak has purchased a new telephone system which will enchance our responsivness to customers while addressing other issues. We have also restructured our telcom services in an effort to reduce busy signals. Our new optioned-out Siemens Gigaset 2420 sets allow much better voicemail coverage, secure digital wireless intercom among staff, caller id, call logging, distinctive signalling among our multiple lines and line in-use status. The 2.4 GHz frequency is just like the 2.45 GHz in a microwave oven only at 1/1000 the power. But we now have cubic feet of unused or broken telcom equiment. These investments along with recurring costs of services such as toll-free inbound and staff time makes telephone calls for orders a more costly alternative (for us) compared to online secure ordering. Even more so for non-productive telephone solicitations and other calls unrelated to serving our customers.

We encourage use of the online secure ordering process which has been in service since 1998, while the web catalog dates to 1996. To gain your confidence we maintain our BBBOnLine® Privacy compliance and display their mark, verified by clicking it. We also use Verisign® for your security, as described on our privacy page. All online orders are acknowleged by email initially by machine, and then again after human confirmation of the order and possilby a third time with shipping info. We have a significant number of web-only offerings to share the cost and time advantage of that medium with our customers. Another advantage is by computed discounts based on quantity and distance which appear only on the generated ordering/preview system. An intermediate way of ordering with the same benefits is to enter the online ordering system to the "preview" page and by printing the faxable form. Then fax it as part of a competed order. You will get the same offerings and terms as by online secure. Note that the machine ordering methods work around the clock and carry a time stamp to resolve possible contention with subsequent call-in orders.