Skate ramps are one of the most awesome expressions of DIY individuality, and I post regularly about them – check out my roundup of online ramp plans among others. Thanks to my pals at diy website Built By Kids, one of the masters of skate ramp building, Jeff King of the TV show Built to Shred, supplies a handful of ramp making tips to help make your next project better than ever.

A key line that destroys my favorite childhood ramp material:

Just for the record I don’t ever think masonite should be used for a ramp. Indoor or outdoor.

Check out the full Built By Kids series of skate posts:
- Ramp tips from Jeff King
- Visiting the Built to Shred set (some awesome pics of truly outrageous ramp builds there)
- And a VBS how-to on building a mini ramp

Related posts:

Mini-Ramp Calculator Tool Helps You Design Your Skate or Bike Ramp Using 4×8 Sheets of Plywood RampCalc: Fun and useful flash-based tool gives you the layout...
Skate and BMX Bike Ramp Plans Roundup One of the best things about skateboarding is the DIY...

Related posts:

Tuning A Trebuchet For Maximum Distance – A Look at the Components and Variables Here are some notes on adjusting your trebuchet or catapult...

(Note: if AT&T’s throttling is affecting you too, please follow me on twitter as I’ll be continuing to broadcast my investigation there)

Looks like AT&T has a new system to rid itself of the remaining unlimited data plan accounts: throttling.

Last month, I got a troubling text message from the cell phone carrier with some news — not one of their updates to let me know that the card on file has expired — this was something new, something domineering in its faux-friendly tone.

ATT Free Msg: Your data use is approaching the top 5% of users. Avoid reduced data speeds, use Wi-Fi where available. Visit att.com/dataplans or call 8663447584.

A confusing message — I’ve been with AT&T since the early iPhone days, and still have their unlimited data plan. Who were these “top 5%?” What type of use were they seeing? Had someone hacked into my phone account and started torrenting BlueRay movies? I checked my data usage for the month: a very mediocre  2.4gb — and this was about three weeks into the billing cycle (btw, I’m on a family plan, but data is reported separately).

Three days later, it happened. I officially joined the five-percenters, as announced by another, almost identically worded, ATT free text message:

ATT Free Msg: Your data usage is among the top 5% of users. Data speeds for this bill cycle may be reduced. Visit att.com/dataplans or call 8663447584.

For the rest of that day, things seemed fine. But one day later, my phone became nearly unusable for any type of communication other than making calls (and it’s well documented how unreliable calls can be on AT&T). My downloading data speeds took a nosedive from a very useable 3G, straight past Edge, and into some nether-data-region that had the patience-mocking feel of trying to carry an internet connection via Morse code. I believe this is what some call 2G.

The SpeedTest iPhone app keeps a record of your previous tests. Here's my big speed drop. Before getting throttled: 4.14 Mbps; after: 0.04 Mbps.

Interestingly, upload speeds weren’t as affected, but uploading data doesn’t help much when you’re on the road, trying to load a map of where you are and where you need to be.

Due to the work I do, AT&T’s simply suggested “connect to wifi” solution wasn’t applicable for me — nor do I think that someone should have to pay AT&T twice to use one device. I called and was connected with a very friendly representative (I can only imagine the size of their call centers), who was very thankful for my patient tone and for being respectful to her (what can I say, I’m a nice guy).

In our call, she gave me some interesting information:

- These “top 5% of users” messages are only being sent to those with unlimited data plans. Tiered data plan contract holders (3GB and 5GB, currently) are money makers for AT&T with $10/GB after using the allotment, and therefore aren’t factored into the 5% of data users.
- The average iPhone owner uses 2gb of data a month (receiving my notification at 2.4gb, this must be an extremely steep bell curve).
- The group that the data use is compared to isn’t national — it’s regional. But the representative didn’t know what the size of the region was (city-wide? neighborhood?). That means that someone in Manhattan is being compared to an entirely different usage pattern than someone, say, in Barrow Alaska.

She agreed that it seemed odd that my alert was being sent at just 2.4gb. She had been on the phone with customers experiencing the same issue all day, and said some of them were in the 50gb range — and agreed that speaking with a manager could help me uncover some useful information. A request was placed to have someone call me back in 72 hours.

==========

Of course, that call never came, and although the next week of my smartphone-needing life was absolute hell on earth, I made it through. And then the month ended and my sentence was lifted, and all was forgotten. For three more weeks, that is, until, this time at a lower point, I received the same text message from AT&T. See, their system has a sneaky hook to it — with each month’s throttling of the top 5%, the bar is forced lower. Over time, the users that are trying to stay below the top 5% will eventually squeeze themselves in to obliteration. And the most devilish part of all is that these “unlimited” users are paying more than “2GB” plan users do, but get just about the same amount of data. Pretty soon, it will be less, much less. And then we’ll gladly swap over to the 3GB or 5GB plans, and AT&T can charge us $10 per GB that we go over. Which isn’t hard to do, especially as phones get smarter, music apps like Spotify get bigger, and streaming video gets more high-def.

The throttling of your smartphone speeds is AT&T’s very real way of making sure you don’t use more data than their “limited” plans allow. The $30 “unlimited” plan costs the same as their new 3GB data plans (recently upgraded from 2GB — but $10 more as well). At 56Kbs (0.056Mbs, roughly the speed of 2G) , you would have to wait 4 minutes 59 seconds to view the 2mb photo that your friend emailed you of their dog sleeping in a hamper, compared to 10 seconds at 2Mbps. Not many people have this type of patience. When AT&T sends emails to the unlimited data users after 2.4GB of usage, you know they’ve done the math.

What are the options? More calls to AT&T service managers. Checking when my contract expires. Looking at data plan options with Verizon (even worse) and Sprint (still unlimited, but not a great reputation so far). It’s a frustrating corner to get stuck in. I’ll update more as I keep gathering details.

UPDATE: Twitter user @BFE4Life sent info he’s gathered about the regional user groups: “my particular region is Pacific Coast, and it’s two hours to the nearest beach…to give you an idea of region size.”

UPDATE 2: I’m curious about those who have received this notification: how much data did you use before receiving it (approximately), how many days before the end of the cycle did you get it, and what area are you located in? Please let me know in the comments.

So far I have myself at 2.4gb, 10 days before the end of the month, plus one person in Indianapolis with 5.1GB (10 days prior as well), and another person at 5GB in SF (unsure of time beforehand).

UPDATE 3: Some commenters have heard AT&T say that “Top 5%” is anyone over 2GB. From what I’m seeing in the comments and on the reddit page that links to this post, many of the message-receiving users are similarly in the 2GB-2.4GB range, with some as low as 1.6GB, and a few around 5GB (as mentioned above). This appears to indicate that AT&T is targeting those users to keep their data about or less than those on the tiered plans.

And, as twitter user BFE4Life mentioned in the comments, part of the issue here isn’t that AT&T is stripping loyal users of access to a service they’ve agreed to provide, it’s that when the throttling program was announced a few months ago, they vilified the top users as using so much data that it was causing network congestion problems for the rest of their smartphone customers.

Related posts:

Cut-and-Fold Paper VW Touareg and Other Papercraft Rally Cars Rally racing, awesome as it is, tends to be a...
Calculating Trajectory – A Few Notes In Case You Ever Find Yourself Near a Giant Slingshot Not every episode of Catch It Keep It involves saving falling...

A few months ago I checked out a new pizza joint in the gritty, industrial part of downtown LA called Pizzanista. Whole pizzas and slices made on a rich, flavorful dough that stands high above what you find at most pizzerias. And for me, the best part was the pre-made vegan slices.

Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone that night for photos, and I knew I’d have to come back to get more on my big camera. A couple nights ago, I made my return.

The stone and brick building, the chalkboard menu, the wooden tables, the warehouses on the wide street — all of it has that feel that I love. My favorite part of all is that outdoor bench, especially on warm evenings. I might have to start riding my bike down here for snacks.

Related posts:

A Review of a Slice of Vegan Pizza from LA’s Pizzanista As a pizza-geek living in Los Angeles for the past...
Illustrated Map of Los Angeles from 1932, a Note about the Perry-Castañeda Map Library, and the Award-Winning US Map by David Imus I’m a huge map nerd and a history buff, so...

the BONUS round from cliff kapono on Vimeo.

Hilo surfer/shaper Robert Patterson gives a 80′s relic an extreme makeover, changing the game and breathing new life into an old friend.

7’5 to 5’5

Welcome to the bonus round…

Great concept: take an old surfboard, peel the fiberglass off, reshape it and give it new life. These guys did it with an old 7’5 single-fin (as did the dudes in the fantastic surf film Picaresque — one of my faves). Check out the interview with the surfer who received (and then rides) this board in this video too.

Related: A little over a year ago I inherited a 9′ longboard that looked like it had been used for target practice AND batting practice — possibly on the same day at times. I started removing the raised areas where the fiberglass had separated from the foam underneath, and soon had a board that looked like a zebra. Finally I decided the best bet would be a full restoration. I’m halfway through it, and honestly I don’t have much confidence that it will turn out well, but seeing that it’s a first attempt, I have no expectations that I’ll be able to shape the like pros do. My point is this: You gotta start somewhere, and where better than with a busted up board?

This video gives me inspiration to head down to my workshop and get messy. You know where to find me.

Peeling the fiberglass off. Lots of foam tends to come up with it. Especially on the rails.

Related posts:

Watch Beginners Shape and Glass Surfboards To Learn From Their Mistakes All surfers begin to contemplate building their own board at...
Shaping the Perfect 40-Minute Surfboard Wonderfully shot video piece by The Surfers Journal from a...

Build this DIY workbench for cheap!

Need a workbench for your shop, something solid that will likely last longer than you will? Something you can do serious woodworking on? Mount a vice? Build shelves and cabinets and a crib for the new baby? Well, be prepared to plunk down a ton of cash,  because workbenches like that don’t come cheap.

Or, seeing as you’re the type that wants to build stuff, why not skip buying something pricey and build the very workbench you’ll be using for your future projects? Thanks to the good people at Popular Woodworking, here are the plans to put together your own high-quality, heavy duty bench with laminated top, and the whole thing will set you back just $175 — less than many new powertools cost. And that include the vise.

The free plans are available via PDF, with an accompanying set of notes on the Popular Woodworking website. Enjoy!

Related posts:

Skate and BMX Bike Ramp Plans Roundup One of the best things about skateboarding is the DIY...
Awesome $5 Subscription Deals – Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines (and others too!) – UPDATE: Popular Mechanics for FREE UPDATE: Here’s an offer to get a year of Popular...

I’m pretty excited to be heading to Chicago next weekend (Jan 20/21, 2012) to meet with the bigwigs at Kenmore and hear about some of the new things that they are getting up to. They’ll be flying me and a few others out and showing us their latest in home goods. Most of the stuff I focus on in this site is gadget, tool, and build-related (and I’ve helped out with similar events for Craftsman, another Sears brand), but I do let my pizza fascination influence some of the posts I make on this site, and am intrigued if Kenmore has anything pizza-related in the pipeline (not that there’s any reason for me to think so).

I’m going to bring a few questions for the Kenmore folks to the event, and I’m happy to ask anything you’ve got in mind or are wondering about too (like: why do they only offer ONE pizza slicer?). So feel free to pop any of those into the comments.

The Kenmore people also have a few prizes for the best video entries in response to the following:

“When tasked with the overwhelming demands of day-to-day chores, a little creativity goes a long way – and helps stretch our resources a bit. What is your most unusual, yet practical, use of a common household appliance?”

They’re offering a $100, $50, and $25 gift card for the best three submissions, which will be used internally and possibly sent out on their social media channels (I asked).

The rules:
- Submit your videos, and I’ll send my pick for the best five (if I get that many). Kenmore will select the best three from the entries of all bloggers (which means your odds are pretty decent)
- Video Due: Wednesday, January 18 at 9p.m. CT
- Rule: No branding visible other than Kenmore. To avoid, simple cover other brand names with tape.
- Format: Uncompressed Quicktime files at 1920×1080 16:9 are preferred. Any uncompressed file would be best, and the bigger the format the better. My suggestion: upload to Vimeo so the original file can be saved easily.

Have fun with it. I’ll report back after I return.

Related posts:

Awesome Homemade Pizza – Broiler Cooked in Cast Iron Pizza Pan In my search for pizza perfection, I recently got a...
How to Build a Temporary Wood-fired Brick Pizza Oven with Cheap, Easy to Find Materials This is a great, low-cost project for someone who wants...

Wonderfully shot video piece by The Surfers Journal from a couple years back with iconic board shaper Terry Martin. While not a brand new, it’s always awesome to watch a master at work. Martin has shaped over 75,000 boards, spanning many decades. He’s a true legend.

“Terry Martin and the perfect 40-minute board”

Having started with wood as a lad in ’50s San Diego, on through to shaping sleek Phil Edwards Models, to the now – where he finds himself an in-demand builder of boards of all denominations for Hobie- Terry Martin is the consummate craftsman. In this episode of TSJ/POV Shorts, Terry shapes a perfect traditional noserider, talking us through his philosphy and technique as he works.
 
Terry was featured in a “Soundings” interview in TSJ 14.4.

Terry using the Skil 100 planer -- the "must have" power tool in the board shaping industry; Skil stopped making them years ago.

Block planing the wooden stringer

Checking the tail for square

Check out all of The Surfers Journal videos here.

Related posts:

Reshaping An Old Surfboard Into New the BONUS round from cliff kapono on Vimeo. Hilo surfer/shaper...
Watch Beginners Shape and Glass Surfboards To Learn From Their Mistakes All surfers begin to contemplate building their own board at...

I’m a huge map nerd and a history buff, so finding this illustrated layout of early Los Angeles (the city I’m currently living in and exploring) is like unearthing an ancient treasure map of fun discoveries. Los Angeles is an interesting place as it didn’t grow to prominence until recent times — things only really started clicking around 80-90 years ago, thanks to the oil and entertainment industries. This map from 1932 is interesting as it shows how many landmarks were already in place then, yet still shows the large tracts of undeveloped areas that remained in this region in those times.

Maybe the most fascinating thing about this map: NO FREEWAYS. No 101 cutting through Hollywood. No 405 crawling past LAX. Heck, no LAX for that matter. Remember, the Model T Ford had only been introduced 18 years prior, and the winding Arroyo Seco Parkway (Interstate 110, otherwise known as the first freeway in the USA) wouldn’t be built for a few more years. It’s no wonder the map maker drew Pasadena, Burbank and Universal City as far-off destinations, approaching and beyond the horizon — it must have taken a full day to drive to any of those spots. Not that it’s much better now.

One other interesting note is that Los Angeles hosted the Olympic games in 1932, and you can see the Olympic Village drawn in just south of USC’s campus.

Click and zoom on the map, explore, pan around. I haven’t seen zoom.it before, but I love the functionality. Make sure to go full screen on this thing.

You can also find this map on bigmapblog.com, which has a number of their map findings available for purchase. I might look into getting this one for my wall.

And next time you need some maps for your project, historic, modern, or otherwise, check out the amazing collection available at University of Texas’ Perry-Castañeda Library. It’s an amazing resource that has just about everything I can imagine online to browse through.

Here’s an image of 1902 Hollywood/Silverlake area Los Angeles

and 1915 San Francisco Bay Area (no bridges back then).

Finally, for you map geeks, make sure to check out David Imus’ award-winning map of the US. He spent 6000 hours over the course of 2 years to make it, working along at home, then won “best of show” against the huge map makers (Rand-Mcnally, National Geographic, CIA, etc) in 2010.

From slate:

The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See
 
The longer you look at Imus’ map, the more deeply you feel the complexity and the artistry.
 
It is delightful to look at. Edifying to study.
 
- Slate.com

Read the full article about Imus here — this is one of those “ultimate DIY” accomplishments.

Related posts:

Some New Photos of Salman Agah’s Pizzanista in Downtown Los Angeles A few months ago I checked out a new pizza...
Undersea Cable Cross-Section and Interactive Submarine Cable Maps Ever wonder how those undersea cables survive the rigors of...

About a year and a half ago I helped some producer friends shoot a “punkin chunkin” themed segment of a popular cable TV show. I had initially talked with them about building a catapult for the scene, but they were able to locate a guy who has his own oversized pumpkin-launching “potato gun,” so they asked if I’d just help out by appearing in the bit as one of the good ol’ boys having a laugh and firing off some shots of the cannon.

The launcher we used was a short length of large diameter steel pipe, capped off on one end. The triggering mechanism was a spark plug connected to an ignition coil, which unfortunately had the tendency to foul up quickly and had to be cleaned and replaced often. Word of warning: I strongly advise against using this method of pumpkin launching — it’s far too dangerous to play around with the explosive forces involved, and tends to be somewhat unreliable anyway. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, actually.

The pumpkins were pretty tender and mostly ripped themselves to shreds upon firing, but the guys finally got the cannon dialed in and we blasted some good shots. In the segment, a pumpkin supposedly hits a guy who is stealing pumpkins far off in the field. Sorry to ruin the illusion, but this scenario didn’t really happen in real life — but we did have a lot of laughs that day. Watch the video at the top of this post and check it out. Also, notice my pal Chris in it as the DIY Technology Expert. I love that we got to appear in the same clip together.

Related posts:

Homemade Pumpkin-Launching Catapult That Shoots 2000 feet – Punkin’ Chunkin’ (Note: Looking for pumpkin catapult/trebuchet plans? Check out my roundup...
How Those Crazy Punkin Chunkin Machines Work – Cannons, Trebuchets, Centrifugals and Onagers – Behind the Chunk! Part of hosting the Science Channel coverage of the 2009...