Trivia. Is there a difference between imitation flavoring and artificial flavoring? Yes. Ordinary natural flavors like strawberry and banana have over a hundred chemical combinations each, making them very difficult to synthesize. Imitation means a mixture of natural and man-made ingredients while artificial means it is completely synthetic. The upcoming American generation will have several million children who reach adulthood without ever having tasted any of these natural flavors: vanilla, peppermint, maple, eggnog, pomegranate, amaretto and butterscotch.Another angle on silver speculation. The price is plunging and we are waiting with baited breath. Silver is touted to be, like gold, a store of value. It isn’t. If it was, there would be a steady upward trend in the price. But every upswing in the past 200 years has been followed by a downswing. If silver stored value, there would be more ups than downs. The historical price of silver is $18.11 per ounce. I’m banking on a run, not a steady return.
The expense of motor vehicle operation never escapes inspection here. The new rear tire on the batbike is $140 plus installation. Still, these “repairs” also constitute a general upgrade of the machine. It has new carburetors and battery where sooner or later these expensive parts are all replaced and you get some carefree mileage. Keeping the scooter, batbike, and electric bike proved the concept of the year. RofR and I learned in our early twenties that you need three vehicles to have reliable transpo, though nobody predicted it would be three of what I got.
Blog rules say I must report the most exciting event of the day. Okay, I replaced the scooter headlight for how many times now I’ve plain forgotten. I’m still hesitating on the Fishman Solo as there is a lot more expense to that project than the PA system. Not all the delays with that act are rational. Few Florida guitarists play country, they’re much to musically “sophisticated”, which explains why I’ve never met one who could do it right. But I also know how often I’ve jammed with such people and a week later they are outright copying my material.
The bottom line there is the Fishman involves me playing my own rhythm guitar. That means anyone who can play more than five chords can wipe me out. The only way to ward that off is to have a dazzling floor show. For me, that is a boat-load of extra work. It would be different if I could do it in steps. Nope, for if it was successful, every butt-crack guitar player in town could undercut me. And that has happened too many times since I got to Florida. While they lack imagination, my show is full of easily duplicated material—once someone like me proves it can be done or gotten away with.
The opposite is to be said for electronics. Endless searching turns up nothing, but what happens a few moments after the agony of figuring something out yourself? Shown here is the single transistor NOR gate of y’day, the 48-hour effort. (Look to the right of the German cookie to see last day's diagram.) I’ve already allowed for the effect of not knowing what something is called but that does not excuse bad authorship on the part of the nerds. Titles aside, the body of an article should still be worded descriptively, or they are talking jargon. Yet nowhere in the right side of the photo does that term NOR gate appear.
(The left side doesn't count, as it is not published for sale, but my own crib notes. I'm the only one that needs to know what my diagram represents.)
Around 2/3 of my booklet on transistors has been sent to San Diego for proof-reading. As I try to simplify logic gates, I find increasingly complex material on the speeds at which these operate. If I’d known that was an issue, I would have known this diagram is “transistor-to-resistor logic” setup. Faster types are diode-to-resistor logic and transistor-to-transistor logic.
So once again I stumble across a very important concept while trying to follow up on something else. It proves how marginalized and off on tangents the electronic, computer, and engineering fields have become. They claim to know where they are but lack the skill set to tell you how they got there—but that doesn’t seem to stop them from taking your money.
I know, I’m out-numbered on this one. But where I come from we have other words for people who do things so badly.
