Blackberry REACT April 2008 NewsletterQuick ClicksMore cable-clutter controlThis person used the idea of a ribbon box to hold all those cables she has for rechargers. Not being a crafter, I'd never heard of ribbon boxes, but she tells where she bought her box and how to make one. For other ideas on ribbon boxes, see here. The disadvantage, if there is one, is whether heat will cause failures of any of the components snugly stored in the box. Hacker culture in CubaThe thought occurs to me that when we have our big earthquake here in the Bay Area, we'll be on a barter culture for some period of time, and we'll have to make do. Cory Doctorow attended a conference where a couple of people talked about how Cubans handle their lives when most cars are 1950s American automobiles, and no one has free internet access (no matter how you define free). There is a link at the bottom of the Boing Boing page to Doctorow's notes from the session. Entrepreneurship in their underground economy is based on exchange not only of goods and services but also on intellectual property; with partial information, people use gossip to fill in their knowledge gaps; people must fulfill their own needs, as the government cannot. Interesting reading from a country we know little about. Computer-controled Etch-A-Sketch clockI had an Etch-A-Sketch when I was a kid, and I was surprised to learn they're still made. Here's a how-to article on making the Etch-A-Sketch draw the time. The video is fascinating - remember you have to turn the Etch-A-Sketch on its face to 'erase' it. Cringely says Facebook is the new CB radioReturn with him now to the thrilling days of yesteryear when all the Good Buddies had CBs in their cars and someone watching their backdoors for Smokey. Ham Radio Repeater list on your GPSThis link is for California repeaters, and additional lists for other states and major cities are available. Free registration is required to download. This list is in .csv format which can be used by many GPSes; others may require conversion to .gpx or .gpi format; see your GPS manual. (The creator of the list says the coordinates are for the town where the GPS is located; he does not give the exact coordinates of the repeaters.) POI factory contains the link to the first of three pages of repeater listings. Recycling lithium batteriesThis is not emergency radio related, but we all have batteries, and this is how Tesla Motors (they make the high-powered all-electric car) treats its batteries at the ends of their useful lives. A better photo of the battery-pack before it's shredded is here. or http://tinyurl.com/2ucqmrBelkin Mini Surge ProtectorNo, it doesn't protect your gear from mini-surges, the protector itself is mini. But it's real claim to fame is its two USB ports. The unit is sideways and takes up one 120VAC outlet, giving you three on its back. But it also has two powered USB ports to recharge your gadgets that, uh, get recharged through their USB ports. I'm guessing MP3 players, cell phones, and the like. From the photo, it looks like the spacing between the outlets on the surge protector is rather tight, so I'd give it a try before I left home if I needed to plug wall warts in it. But it is small and looks like it's briefcase-ready. EmComm and environmental diseasesThere's a magazine called PDN that covers issues faced by professional photographers. The current copy has an article on reporters who covered the World Trade Center collapse in 2001. It's impossible to tie specific illnesses to specific exposures, but the magazine reports that six people who covered the story as reporters or photographers suffer persistent health problems and one has died from multiple myeloma, a cancer of white blood cells. The most common complaints are respiratory: asthma, COPD, and paradoxical vocal fold dysfunction, among others; but there is also post-traumatic stress disorder rearing its ugly head. While we may not have the catastrophic collapse of the World Trade Center to face, in the event of a major earthquake, we'll certainly face the collapse of buildings and the resulting dust and debris. I have no idea what would be in the dust from a building collapse, but I would not be surprised if it contained asbestos, lead, pesticides, PCBs, and the host of other illness-inducing chemicals and heavy metals floating in the air for days, maybe weeks. Of 161 reporters responding to a survey, 36 said health problems after September 11, 2001 have affected their careers. Another program surveyed 9,400 workers (firefighters, construction crews, etc.) who were at the site of the collapse for an unknown period of time. This group was five times more likely than the general population to have reduced breathing capacity. Our training includes debriefing and counseling after traumatic events, as it should, but this probably will be insufficient. Our dust masks may be insufficient, too. Who knows which way the wind will blow? And speaking of dustThe March 21, 2008, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle says a major earthquake on the Hayward Fault will be more devastating than the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco from groundshake alone. Fires are inevitable, and major fires will call more damage. If we are lucky over here on the peninsula and don't suffer major shaking and flooding, we'll be able to volunteer as communicators in relief efforts across the Bay. But plan on lots of damage here, too. And, as I say occasionally, don't plan on rescue in the short term. The idea of rescue in only three days looks more and more wrong. Even if our homes on the peninsula are not heavily damaged, I expect us to by isolated by infra-structure failures: bridges, roads, utilities. While we all know the earthquake won't happen in our lives and will happen to someone else, it still doesn't hurt to be prepared for a long period of survival. Think Katrina; remember there was widespread looting as people took food and clothes from abandoned stores. If the looters were taking necessities, the police did not interfere. I've read stories saying the remaining residents kept track of where things were and shared it among their friends and new associates. Long-term foodBePrepared.com is "sponsored" by Emergency Essentials. Lots of dehydrated, freeze-dried, and canned foods, candles, MREs, hand- cranked mills, SteriPENs, emergency power, first-aid, and much more for your browsing delectation. Maker FaireThe Maker Faire is at the San Mateo Expo Center on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, 2008. At 6:00 pm on Saturday, the special evening attractions are scheduled to begin: power tool drag racing, fire art, and a "Steampunk Spectacular." Speaking of steampunkJason Lane makes robots from junk. San Francisco has an artist-in-residence program at its junk yard, and Louise and I go whenever they have a show. The quality varies, but it's always been good enough to get us back. See here for stills and here for video. This guy works in a cube farm and uses a headset which his co-workers can't see. So he made a steampunk hook for his headset so people don't come up and start talking, not realizing he's on the phone. The definition of ironyThe factory that makes all those exploding batteries caught fire. Until the factory gets back online (2 to 3 months) expect a worldwide shortage of batteries and an increase in prices. The definition of scatheMotorola is splitting into two companies. We care about whether Motorola survives and thrives because it just bought a controlling interest in Vertex, the parent of Yaesu. I thought it was bad in the USDorset Fire and Rescue (in England) has banned fire extinguishers in communal areas of apartment buildings because they (the fire extinguishers) are a safety hazard. Yep. Fire extinguishers are a safety hazard. It is feared that untrained persons might stay and try to put a fire out rather than leave a burning area. 99-cent fine diningLinks to articles about buying more or less gourmet meals at the dollar store. Stocking up for the Big One just got cheaper. We'll be here in 50 yearsFickr has a "vintage science" pool. Photos and illustrations from past decades, some Sci Fi art, some editorial illustrations for magazine articles, some photos (the 1939 World's Fair, for example). Is that a torch in your pocket?No, not that kind of torch. What we Americans call a flashlight. The trick for this "One Battery Emergency Mobile Charger Torch" is that it has a recharger for your cell phone. It runs on one AA battery and is supposed to provide over a hundred minutes of talk time, depending on some stuff. It's also an LED flashlight. Ross Peterson in the newsRoss Peterson and his ham crams are mentioned in the Wednesday, April 2, Mercury News. Google search tipMost of our radio manuals are online nowadays. If you're looking for your manual for your Yaesu VX-7R, for example, try this search: VX-7R manual filetype:pdf This will limit Google's searches to .pdf files, eliminating thousands of pages which use the words VX-7R and manual. I just did that search and got 109 hits,the first one being the manual itself. Without the filetype, I got 23,200 hits; the first one was the manual, though. Events
*events for which we sometimes receive a donation UpdatesJim Galbreath will present May's program. Jim was a radio operator in World War II, and he will talk about what it was like, training, and operations during wartime. |