Blackberry REACT May 2010 NewsletterQuick ClicksHomemade TVMade in Romania, so I’m not sure what channels it picks up. Three photos of different angles. World War II weaponsThis site has descriptions of WWII weapons in what would be fold- out pages if it were a magazine – big pictures that you click on to be able to read. The ‘pages’ describe machine guns, tanks, fighter planes, and other weapon systems of WWII. No great depth, but an overview of what they were and how they worked. One of my friends used a flame-thrower in the Korean war, so it was interesting to read about it. They were incredibly dangerous in and of themselves. When I was in high school, our local veterans organization (I’ve forgotten which one, maybe the VFW) had a real M1917 water-cooled machine gun from World War I, which it test-fired back in the teens to see if it worked – it did. Some of my high school buddies stole it as a prank. I lived on a farm, so they brought it out and hid it in one of our sheds. Eventually it got boring, so they took it back. John Browning was an absolute genius at designing automatic weapons. Drop by his Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Browning and read about some of his incredible inventions. His .45 caliber automatic pistol was developed in 1911 and is still in service. The .50 caliber M2 (Ma Deuce to WWII soldiers) machine gun was developed in 1918 and is still in service. His Browning Automatic Rifle was considered so advanced, our troops weren’t allowed to use it in World War I from fear it would fall into German hands. And the Germans, who were using chemical warfare, filed a claim of war crimes against American troops using Browning’s automatic shotgun, called the trench sweeper. “Cities Under Siege”One of my interests is how New Orleans has been affected in the long term after its destruction by Hurricane Katrina. My expectation is that San Mateo will suffer similarly after a major earthquake and following fires. The article is a review of a book entitled “Cities Under Siege,” and it seems geared more toward cities whose infrastructure has collapsed under war (think Baghdad) rather than disaster. The result is that some of the thinking won’t apply, but much of it will: “feral cities” where there is no public sanitation, no reliable food, no electricity. In New Orleans, the crisis didn’t last long enough for the rise of criminal gangs and warlords, but there was anarchy in a civil sense. The article appears to be very long, but that’s because of the formatting of the Web page – it’s actually a reasonable length. If you have any interest in what the potential is for cities in the Bay Area after an earthquake and weeks of isolation (a la New Orleans), this is a good start for thinking about your planning. Core MemoryTime Magazine has a couple of dozen photos of old computers from the Forties on up to the Sixties. Originally, computers were programmed by wiring the circuits to perform whatever functions. Early ones with memory couldn’t remember anything if the power was shut off. Lots of great photos of wiring, vacuum tubes, and brands like Control Data, Philco, and Neiman Marcus. (Yep, Neiman’s sold a computer. Well, they actually didn’t sell any, but it was in their catalogue.) TRIVIA QUESTION: There was IBM and then there was the BUNCH. Who were the companies in BUNCH? How electric pencil sharpeners workMake your own rocketIt runs off compressed air, not terrorist chemicals, and you can make it for under a dollar, assuming you have some common household stuff around. Louise and I saw these at a Make Magazine picnic earlier this year, and they look like a lot of fun. The Making of Florida OneThe construction of a 737 for Southwest Airlines from start to finish in two and a half minutes. The fuselage is delivered by rail, by the way. The Hard Disk You’ve Been Waiting ForI don’t know what year this print ad is from, but I remember those prices and capacities. My first work computer was a Compaq DeskPro with a 10Meg hard drive. We ran XyWrite as our word processor, and that still brings back fond memories as maybe the best ever. Raised by Radio ShackSome guy writes about being a Radio Shack hanger-on back in the early Eighties. He played with and bought their computers and was paid by the store manager to transfer (by typing) the data from one incompatible database to another incompatible database, the only way anyone could think of to do it. He lived for their computer catalogues, and in the Fifties and Sixties, I lived for their radio catalogues. I also got Lafayette and Allied catalogues, and I put together a Knight Kit receiver that I bought from Allied in 1965, before I went to college. It was solid state, and it still took many long minutes before it warmed up and started squealing and hissing at me, letting me know I could tune it. My all-time favorite Jean Shepherd line is about tube-type radios we had when I was growing up: “The hum was built in at the factory.” Using your microwave to measure the speed of lightThis is a nice explanation of wavelength, why your microwave has a rotating tray, and standing waves. (I knew we’re supposed to have a Standing Wave Ratio of 1.1, but I never even wondered what a standing wave was.) Events
UpdatesNone ProgramsTo be announced. |
