Here’s a “Before” picture of the Hewlett-Packard. Note hammer, carbide tooth saw, and scooter tire. The tire is a coincidence, but yes, I did want to drive over the thing. In a rare move, I watched the mummy movie twice within a day. Fantastic scenery even if it is backdrops. I didn’t know they had Foster Grants in the Himalayas in 1947, or rayon jackets, either. Most Chinese (Mandarin) customs are accurately portrayed but the actors have terrible accents. And they didn’t study Russian before calling a “Pay Pay Shay” a PPS. Look that one up on your own.
I’d like to take a scooter trip today. The streets are deserted. But, the weekend budget is determined by my tips, equating to no road travel this time, so I'll stay local this time around. I need distraction, so off to the bookstore. Distraction is required from the fifth day of my new diet where my morning reading material consists of every package label. Other than odd industrial chemicals, there are few surprises. My lemon tea contains no lemon. Oatmeal is oatmeal and while this food fills you up, it is a different kind of full.At least I empathize a mite more with people who have to lose like a hundred pounds. Your mind tricks you and drives you insane with constant appetite triggers. I can easier understand how those with weak willpower could never last the day. Myself, I learned these cravings and I can unlearn them. Do other societies advertise food like Americans? Every TV show, radio program, even billboards. Maybe at the bookstore I’ll check into which magazines have the least food ads, a different perspective.
Here’s a little more info on the scooter not contained in the owner’s manual. You get around 100 miles per tank, which is 5 liters. Current cost of a tankful is approximately $6, be sure you burn 93 octane or better as these things have poor carburetors. Regularly add carb cleaner, as in every tenth fill up. Don’t push the 100 miles either, as a slight headwind can easily take off 20% of the distance. And carry a spare gas bottle, as the gas gauge is also made in China.
Off to the bookstore. It was spitting a little rain or I’d have taken the long way for a Sunday drive. It doesn’t take much to turn south Broward into a ghost town. I even got a chair at Barnes & Noble without waiting. The place doubles for some of the better girl-watching in this town, one of the few places to see women on their own, though I’ve never had a date out of there. But today, I had a mission. I bought an electronics book.
To test if I’m getting anywhere, I bought an edition of “Nuts & Volts” with the intention of picking a circuit and building it. And to read the magazine cover to cover to find anything I don’t understand. This is a challenge, as I mentioned how authors in this field tend to assume too much. I got you some trivia in the process.
Why is Chinese history hard to follow? I mean other than the fact it is Chinese. Too many dynasties and not enough kings, for I found out that once the Emperor dies, they give him a different name. So there was a Ming dynasty but nobody called Ming on the throne. I think. I often wondered about that. Oh, and I heard the definition of a practical nurse: one who dates me. There you go.
Since I was in the store four hours, I read all the available material on electronics and I may have already built most of the circuits associated with beginners. Time to tackle integrated circuits. Why do I just know that will be an uphill struggle against bad texts and worse directions? I built an advanced Darlington y’day with capacitors to smooth out what I thought might be spikes or dropouts in the surrounding electromagnetic field. It performed no better than the basic design.
Here’s some insight into my distractions when I’ve got time off. I further read some cookbooks, mostly vegetarian to see what I’m in for, and for diversion, a book on knitting socks. I’d like to find a book on how to sew ties, as well. What else? I found some Florida road maps with incredible satellite detail. Tons of back roads and different routes up the coast. However, keep in mind that Florida is a very large state. It is the way it is portrayed on Mercator maps that makes it look smaller than it is.
I was again appalled at the “Men’s” section in the magazine rack. Guns, ammo, weight-lifting, race cars, and virtually anything juvenile that would attract gorfs with an IQ of less than 95. Speed boats, overly posed swimsuit models, rolling cigars, and other brain dead pastimes. I found my magazine over in the “Computer” section next to “Arts & Crafts” and “Teen Literature”.
Later. I finished the magazine. While I didn’t gain much new information, several mysteries have been cleared up. For instance, the use of “shields” on the Arduino, the existence of smoked glass front panels for LED circuits, and how copper-plated prototype boards are connected. That last one was late coming, as I have already developed my own wire-wrap technique. They say the trick is to bend the component leads and solder them. I never thought of that because it is a messy process. I’ve actually become proficient at wrapping the jumpers and soldering them, which takes longer but makes for a strong and somewhat flexible joint that is easy to repair or replace.
I can’t state how often these answers did not come about in the proper places, but were encountered while reading elsewhere. Shame on the original authors, that is not performance. I found the strip boards, parallel copper perf boards in the magazine, the first time I’ve seen then pictured in use. They are, it appears, more popular in England. And I made a pot of chicken soup. With garlic. Call it a day.
That was a hasty decision. Not being tired, I stayed up and reverse engineered a laser mouse. It is driven by an LED. No laser at all. Then again, I learned that LEDs emit a single wavelength of light, a laser-like quality (in a real laser the waves are in phase, not merely the same color). The receiver is an integrated circuit, that is, an off-the-shelf part. I was also struck by the miniature mechanics of the switches. I sure miss my microscope, which I would have had two years ago except for treachery.
As a more fitting conclusion to a long day, I tested a design of my own to prove that transistors don’t really amplify anything. I rigged up a transistor with a 2.2V LED on the collector and another on the emitter. The collector LED had the standard 1,000Ω resistor, the other had no resistor. At this threshold level, if either the voltage or current truly was amplified, the second LED would fry, as in go poof. It didn’t.
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