Posts by JeffyPoooh

How to pack...

TL;DR: legal size carry-on bag *plus* a 'personal item' is a laptop bag for small laptop and endless gadgets.

If I'm going on a trip, I'd bring several gadgets, including a small laptop. The airline allows a 'personal item' which is a full size laptop bag. Modern gadgets are so small that the laptop bags easily holds a small laptop plus another half dozen gadgets (incl several tablets) and accessories. It all fits into one laptop bag 'personal item'. Even full size noise cancelling headphones of the folding variety.

Ladies with handbags can't have another laptop bag, sorry.

The legal size carry on bag is for clothes and such. Nothing tech or valuable just in case the carry on bag needs to be 'sky checked' at the aircraft door.

This method allows essentially unlimited gadgets, and a carry on bag just for clothing.

Re: Whazzat?

PIR typically has a 'bee's eye' lens that provides a series of zones. As a warm target moves around, the heat signal goes up and down due to the lens design. The electronics are thus single channel and trivial, while the 'magic' clever bit is the plastic lens.

The primary alternative technology is a field disturbance sensor using microwave and Doppler.

One can buy 'dual tech' alarm sensors that use both to reduce false alarms.

Re: Green Mountain Coffee brand

Dan Paul offered "Green Mountain ...Bet they have some guilt in this game too!"

I'll bet you're right, considering that Keurig is a brand owned by Green Mountain Coffee.

LOL

Re: Where does the electricity go?

"Ignore the 'leccy meter, chump"

Solution = make it a space heater.

Ideally the thermostat would signal an orderly shutdown, as opposed to a sudden power cut.

My house uses 10 kW of electric heaters, with a 25+% duty cycle (very roughly) in the depths of winter.

Re: Cryptinomicon

Silly nonsense.

Nice snatch

That is all.

@HES "We use 13-17 kWh per day"

If I was using only $1.50 or $2.00 a day in electric power, then I wouldn't bother going off the grid.

Re: Tinfoil Hats?

Water, shielding and propellant.

Hmmm. I guess the lower remaining mass on the way back might allow them to scurry back before they use up all their shielding?

Or is this where the feces comes into the equation?

Imagine 400 tonnes of feces reentering the atmosphere. Yuck.

"...still enjoy a 21C lifestyle..."

23°C isn't bad, as long as there's cold beer.

"BlackBerry 10 is pretty damn good if you're not totally obsessed with apps..."

On a Smartphone, the OS is primarily used to access apps.

"Buds Buffet Restaurant is pretty darn good if you're not totally obsessed with food."

Blackberry App World (of disappointment).

Re: Noise!

It's not *just* amateur radio (ham) operators. It's also an issue for anyone that likes to listen to longwave, distant AM broadcast band, or shortwave radio.

The DC to 30 MHz spectrum is a precious resource due to the natural long range nature of the propagation, and it's a darn shame that it's being polluted with so much unnecessary man made noise.

Re: Gaining altitude?

"Dark Energy"

"...multiverses..."

I'm not sure if endlessly spawning an infinite number of parallel Universes (sic) adheres to the principle of 'Conservation of Mass' (even if we allow E=mc^2).

You just buy an optoisolator for a few cents. LED and detector in one 8-pin DIP package.

If you need E3 isolation for some reason (in a teapot), buy the bulkhead mounted version for $20.

Exponential

Well, number of transistors per unit area goes as the inverse square law of the process dimension. So even if the process dimension is only a linear function of time, the transistor count will be squared. If transistor count is linear, then obviously the process has be less than linear.

Moore's could be defined as: see Scaling Laws.

The obvious way forward is further into the third dimension. If the process can mature both thinner layers and a taller stack, you might get onto the squared growth curve.

The cheapest fix to keeping technology running smoothly would be to convince the coder drones to stop cobbling together bloated bugware. Fix that.

Re: Supply and demand

"Even when a laptop's battery is dead..."

You get on eBay and buy a replacement for $30.

Re: Roll Your Own

"...I suggested smart-TVs should have a slot-in "smart-unit", which can be replaced preventing the display from becoming obsolete."

Yeah, sure. The slot-in module size, shape and interface standard would change every year. Just like every other modern interface "standard" du jour.

You can't win.

You can't break even.

You can't quit.

Re: Have I missed something?

CDs can also be converted to vinyl.

Which is exactly how many vinyl LPs get started these days...

Wifi and microwave ovens

@Brian 3

Study the wifi channels GHz, compare to oven at probably at 2.45 GHz (check), and adjust router wifi to another channel.

Or just dive in and try channels 1, 6, or 13.

Re: F**k them and the horse they rode in on

"rent time"

Edd China of Wheeler Dealer printed off a pair of small plastic bits to hold LEDs in the brass headlights of a 1903 car.

IT TOOK 15 HOURS!!

There's a business... Rent the machine for $100 an hour, and surprise the client with a $1500 bill.

Somebody needs to make a video that alternates between a factory cranking out 20 plastic things a second, and a 3D printer slowly sweeping back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Sound track would be somebody explaining how all mass manufacturing will be 3D Printer based "in five years".

Re: A very well done

Wzed1: "...*you*..."

I DID! I took my Gyrocopter out there and they chased me away! I ended landing in DC and got in trouble for that.