Showing posts with label electronics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electronics. Show all posts

Friday, December 1, 2023

The Pitter Patter of Nuclear Weapons


Mom said, "You're not like the other boys, lefty.
Wife said, "Your brain does not work like other people's."

What you mean is that my brain doesn't work. You can't fool me, with yer motherly love and yer wifely tolerance.

After putting together an external fan to cool a laptop, I realized I neglected to consider the negative effects of the dog interfacing with the power supply. In one move, she pulled both wires apart, which then shorted out, taking out the wall wart. Today I figured I'd like a little (more) aggravation, so I determined the wall wart was heaven-bound (or wherever wall warts go), located another wall wart, of the proper voltage, soldered it to make it 10% more dog-proof and it worked. Sure, it's louder than a 767, but the laptop is cooler.

Except the soldering. Once again my hands shook like a 90 year old meth freak with Parkinson's. The really smart person inside of me, way down deep, so far he's almost never seen, said I should go see a doctor; any doctor. I'm starting to think he might be right.



I have a box where I put all the superfluous wall warts and laptop power supplies. The professional people on tv, with initials after their names and tv shows guaranteed to last at least a week, would call me a hoarder. But when my fan needed a 12v wall wart, I dug into said box and pulled one out. When the dog shorted that out, I went back in the box and pulled out another wall wart. That's not hoarding; that's being prepared for future dog-related electronic circumstances. Just don't ask me about my stash of resistors, capacitors, and tubes.


I'm going to guess there aren't a lot of electronic hobbyists reading this blog. The blog's title, ThermionicEmissions, refers to how vacuum tubes (valves in the UK) work. I'll just do this for me...

Why do you have so many capacitance meters?
I like diversity.
How is that diversity?
I take a capacitor and measure it on 4 meters. Each result will be wildly different - that's diversity.
Then how do you know the value?
It's printed on the capacitor.

If my wonderful readers promise to have their friends read the blog, I promise no more electronics humor.


So let's set our scopes on Wife instead.

There are many things I don't understand. Getting married proved there were many more. 

Me: Honey, why are there upside down soda cans in the sink?
Her: Oh, I had to drain them before throwing them out.
Me: Ok, but why are they still in the sink?
Her: I am working more efficiently... I turn them upside down then go on to something else.
Me: I see. But they're still in the sink, thereby cutting efficiency by 50%.
Her: Were you thinking of sleeping on the couch again tonight?

I strongly suspect that is related to this:

Water is boiling. The whistle from kettle is deafening. People across the state know we have achieved very hot water. The instigator of this is nowhere to be found. Finally she comes through the door, cursing and screaming.

Me: Why are you screaming?
Her: Stupid water is boiling.
Me: Did this come as a surprise, after turning the burner on? Perhaps you could stay in the general vicinity of the water, then you don't have to come running while cursing its parentage.
Her: But I'm getting other things done...

Efficiency, as it turns out, is not.

Her: Yes it is: I get you to do it, cutting 50% of my duties.

Guys, no matter what you think your wife's IQ is, she's smarter than you.



Amazon packages reportedly overwhelm small post offices, delaying other mail

When they say 'delaying,' what they mean is that there is an agreement that Amazon packages have priority over regular old USPS letters. That's right - Humongo Corp now runs the US Postal System. On the other hand, it probably can't get much worse...


CEO Reminds Everyone His Company Collects Customers' Sleep Data

Remember this: Fitbits, watches, phones, games, and everything else collects data. Your data, which isn't yours anymore. The article is about a 'smart mattress topper.'


 

Friday, April 19, 2019

Hey Dad, Check This Out!

My father died a long time ago, when we were both too young.
I though it would be cool to update him on what he's missed all these years.



  • Bag phones, beam me up Scotty phones, and tiny flat phones. Walkie-talkie private phones. More horsepower in the phone than the first personal pc's and the computer on the Apollo space missions. Personal computers with hard drives under fridge size. Instant communication, like a 'Dick Tracy wristwatch.'  Roswell's fiber optics, integrated circuits, and night vision. Digital electric alarm clocks. 
  • The internet as we know it. The ability to text, talk, send pics, look at dirty pics, and suck up information in no time at all, in your hand and in your house. Sometimes in your car.
  • Autonomous cars - that I wish we didn't have to see either. Ridiculously high-powered car stereos, measured in decibels instead of watts. Never replace spark plugs. No rotatable distributors. Unleaded gas. Digital stereos playing AM stereo (for a while), FM stereo, 8 track cassettes, cassettes, ELcassettes, songs from non-connected phones and memory sticks.
  • Much better medical knowledge, at ridiculous prices. Much more sophisticated diagnostic machinery. Chiropractors (?), Eastern medicine, and better medicines (horribly expensive and too frequently used recreationally). 
  • An incredibly rapid news cycle. Finding out about political scandals via news. Then going back to being covered up by news. The discovery that the Military Industrial Complex is actually running things. 
  • Shopping for everything locally, then online.  24/7 stores.
  • Complete disregard for manners, customs, feelings, and one's parents. Warehouses for old people.
  • Amateur radio, using the same equipment designed and built before your own birth.
  • My phenomenal guitar and amp collection. My less than phenomenal playing. Being crowned CEO of Sarcasm.
  • Unprecedented governmental and corporate spying. Unprecedented tax and spend.
  • Homosexuality and sex-changes out in the open, sometimes celebrated. 'Ass' and 'shit' are ok on tv, but still no 'fuck'. Publicly admitted BJs and cigars not-smoked in the White House. 
  • Expansion of The Stupid. Drooling, celebrity-obsessed idiots. Something from another planet called Kardashians.
  • The realization that All is Not Well, like it is on tv. The end of innocence.





On the other hand, most of us never got to see

  • turntables in cars. Cars the size of two current cars. Suicide doors. 400+ CID 8 cylinder engines, 'straight eight' cylinder engines, leaded gas, people pumping gas for you, waiting for your car stereo and tv to warm up before you can use them,  Fins. Large amounts of chrome. Seats that fit a family comfortably. Legroom. Bench seats. Manual and pushbutton transmissions. Having to slam huge metal doors. No seatbelts at all. Real wood on Woodys. Full service gas stations with window cleaning, fluid check, and replacement.
  • Paying cash for a doctor visit. The doctor coming to your house.
  • Newspapers. Milk and potato chip home delivery. 
  • Salespeople who knew you and 'put it on your tab', then sent it to you.
  • Happily living close to your parents.
  • Really really bad 'solid state' stereos and guitar amplifiers (ok, that continues).
  • Comics being funny without expletives.





We miss you, fella.