We have the après-storm mugginess that lasts all day. I had to run the eBike at top speed and flatten the batteries. (My new super batteries, on order, have not yet arrived.) But speed you need when the humidity hits 90%. Air conditioning also works, provided you have the car to go with it. Actually, it is neat driving past the countless Florida dealerships knowing I could buy any used car they got. Cash. It is the cost of ownership and operation that stops me, as it should stop others long enough to calculate what I’m talking about.An aside to all the little boys who upload music to the Internet. A song title does not include the artist’s name space-dash-space, the year, or the fact it is youTube. Why advertise that you all failed database class. Also, the upload level is -89dB and there is no five seconds of silence either before or after the song. Nor the sound of a scratchy record needle. Or cheering crowds. If you want to be make your mark in life you can go, um, er. . . . Quite frankly, I can’t think of a thing you could do. But constantly proving you are a nobody by making bad uploads is certainly not going to help.
The day was spent mainly with music, but do read the addendum for an account of electronics, a hobby choice and learning experience I am more than content with. I could not put the book down and we are not talking a suspense novel, but an outdated college text. Overall, it is a wonderful adventure and departure from today’s watered-down offerings.
Another aside to the little military boys, and National Geographic Magazine, who have the retarded idea that Germany developed “stealth” fighters in WWII. First, you bimbos have distinct trouble with the difference between what is German, Nazi, and Hitler. The terms are not interchangeable. There is no such thing as a “Nazi” weapon. Alas, youTube is choked with posts and reposts that the German flying wings were “stealth”.
Fact: the Germans had no stealth aircraft, in the sense of low radar signatures. The similar all-wing aircraft were developments of glider designs which economized on materials, an important aspect of late-war Axis weapons. The swept-wing had nothing to do with radar avoidance. It was adopted to keep the center of gravity slightly behind the cockpit because jet engines proved heavier than piston models. A pilot feeling he was “pulling” the airplane in the right direction made it easier to aim at the enemy. I’ve never admired the caliber of National Geographic writers, but this one irks me.
While I’m griping, the Scooter Store is under investigation for predatory advertising. Those jokes I made that I wish I had one [electric wheelchair] so I could see the Grand Canyon were not shared by the Feds. The Scooter company was clearly using a Medicaid provision to encourage people to seek an appropriate doctor’s form to qualify. The company’s defense that they rejected nearly 90% of applicants is bogus considering the profits on the remaining 10% obviously allowed them to purchase $187 million dollars of advertising every year. Grand Canyon advertising. I’d take Medicaid for a ride on it myself it I knew how, but for those people, the jig is up. It smells too funny.
Bingo was the expected flop, though the crowd was enthusiastic. It is doubtful the club breaks even anymore. Allow me to run the stats, which takes a moment, but not near as long a moment as for those who don’t keep track. Yep, while Saturdays remain the highest sales day, what’s left isn’t making the grade. The club is a personal favorite of the owners, but I would still say the best plan is to expect the bad news any time.
ADDENDUM
For difficult reading, I have an ancient textbook on electronics I found in the trash. I can’t get past Chapter Two. Here, AMA, I’ve found the true cure for insomnia—and I promise you it is not addicting. My “use what works” attitude toward electronics means I was able to comprehend Chapter 6, “logic circuits”, and Chapter 17 “integrated circuits” with some ease. Aha, I was right, meaning I’d independently reached some conclusions even these advanced books are slowly verifying.
“Sure,” I hear everyone thinking, “We’d like to read more about those conclusions. Hurry up and tell us, please. We can hardly wait.”
First, yes, it is possible to build a working computer from small parts I’ve already constructed, namely the NOR gate, the adder circuit, and the flip-flop. It would be one hell of a challenge, since no single book ties it all together. The trick is knowing how to link all those thousands of small parts up. Recall in school how they covered binary math, with its complements and bit-shifting? Wish I’d paid more attention and I would have if the teacher had been any good.
And [as for] those Boolean formulas of A and not B or C equals not AC and so on? That turns out to be a confusing shorthand notation meant to be a learning aid. Not for me. Build one memory circuit, realize you need a million of them, that will teach you more than any formulas.
Still, that’s remarkable progress from two years ago. One near certainty is that if I built such a computer the hard way, a book on the very topic would miraculously appear soon after, saying, “Oh, you meant THAT. Why didn’t you say so?”Second, there is an overall pattern to the vast offerings of integrated chips out there. I’d correctly guessed how measuring devices (sensors) and counters had to translate their signals before they become mutually useful. And the club guessed last week the importance of how to make these items communicate over distances, albeit right now short distances. Right we were.
It is too early to say, but generally the chips belong to families that are used to change rather than create electronic signals. Before I used to think, and probably we all did, that the chips were little marvels that produced something. Nope, a small number of them count, add, and store. The remainder are bucket loads of protocol devices that translate signals. I can’t build a transistor radio, but I can tell you what each chip does. There even exists a category of chips that do nothing but cancel out parts of others.
This finally explains why, when looking at circuit boards when I was younger, there were banks and banks of repetitious chips in arrays. Let’s think, have I learned anything else. Yes, indeed. I do not believe for a second that one “engineer” in a hundred knows what in Sam Hill he’s doing.
By now, at least one of my detractors will stand up and shout what makes me think I’m the only one who read this book. What arrogance, they cry. Well, part of the reason I think they didn’t read it is if they had, they’d have said something. How can I be so sure? Easy. The cover is on upside down.
WAIT – MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK
Later, I’m gobbling up Chapter 17. It is indeterminate whether the authors screwed up or actually have a clue. I stared at my single (expensive) flip-flop for months (remember), imagining what would be needed to make it useful. So while this book cannot be used to build a computer (too many things left out), Chapter 17 does something exceedingly unusual. I’ll attempt to explain.
I had slowly figured out from flip-flops what was required to build a system, but knew it would be a system beyond anything I could build. So I never tried, I stopped after the thinking parts. I knew that adders needed memory controlled by “something that could count to eight”, and so on, for about 36 tricky steps, most of them requiring deep thinking about logic gates. By some stroke of luck, the NOR gate I picked and built is the most common version. Oddly, I picked it because the other gates looked too easy.
This book, UNLIKE THE OTHERS, presented the circuits in what I have learned FROM ELSEWHERE to be the correct order for building a computer—but only in the pattern I imagined. Judging by other authors, this book is a mistake. These authors could not possibly have known the order I required, so while they did not assist me intentionally, this book takes it to the next level. A pity it came about like that.
