TechnologyIQ

Historical Technology Books - 75 in a series - Vacuum Tube Manual: Tomer 1960 Getting the Most Out of Vacuum Tubes (1960)    PREFACE The purpose of this book is not to add another volume to the many excellent ones available on what makes the vacuum tube work. Rather, it is intended to shed light on the almost completely neglected subject of why these versatile devices sometimes do not work. Informed scientists and engineers have frequently stated that the life of a vacuum tube in normal service should exceed 5,000 or even 10,000 hours. The fact that some of them do not last this long is well known. The question then is, "Why do they so often give less than their predicted or possible potential?" J. M. Bridges, Director of Electronics, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, speaking before the RETMA (now EIA) "Symposium on Reliable Applica- tions of Vacuum Tubes" at the University of Pennsyl- vania in May 1956, said: "It has been demonstrated b...

@keith_thesciencekid i ain’t never seen two stable isotopes... it’s always one of em gotta be radioactive 😔 ♬ original sound - keith_thesciencekid

While you can use the latest generation Pi 4 as a dual-screen “desktop replacement,” where the Raspberry Pi really shines is as an embedded, or “headless” device. Here I’ll outline five uses for the Pi where they can be set up and tucked away to do your bidding! Read Five Awesome Headless Raspberry Pi Uses via Embedded Computing An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 74 in a series - Cipher and secret letter and telegraph code, with Hogg's improvements (1884) Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats   INTRODUCTION This Secret Code may be used by any oue. It is so perfect that no message written by it can possibly be read without knowing the particular keyword us3d. In most of the Cipher systems a mere changing of the order of the alphabet, or certain signs for certain letters, has been used, and in consequence of the same letter being always represented by the same cipher, an expert could easily read any message. In this system the constant change ot cipher for every letter makes the message perfectly secret. By its use any number of persons may write the same message, and each be unintelligible save for those intended. It is very simple, and with ordinary care there can be no mistake or misunderstanding. Your message can be written in any language. More infomation: ...

The holiday season is here, and along with it comes Christmas music. Love them or hate them, Yuletide tunes are a simple fact of life each December. This year, [Derek Anderson] put a modern spin on a few classic melodies and listened to them via his set of self-playing chimes. Inspired by [Derek]’s childhood Ye Merry Minstrel Caroling Christmas Bells (video), these chimes really bring the old-school Christmas decoration into the 21st century. Each chime is struck by a dedicated electromagnetically-actuated mallet, which is in turn controlled by an ESP32 running MicroPython. Read Ringing In The Holidays With Self-Playing Chimes via Hackaday An interesting link found among my daily reading

I learned about Reinvented magazine when Carla was invited to be on its advisory board. It's a print magazine run by young women that provides real-life role models for women interested in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Reinvented is published by a nonprofit, and this year it's hosting a fall fundraiser with the goal of donating about 4,000 copies of the magazine to girls in low-income and underserved areas.​ For every magazine bought, up to one copy is donated to girls in low-income or rural areas through Reinvented Magazine's One-for-One program. Everyone who donates over $15 to their organization will receive a free digital copy of this limited edition Maker-themed issue Read Support this fundraiser for Reinvented, an excellent STEM magazine for women via Boing Boing An interesting link found among my daily reading

Inside the Paddle control there is a button and a potentiometer. Both can be easily connected to Arduino. I’ve removed the original cable and with the help of a broken USB cable I’ve connected 5V, A0, D2 and Ground to an Arduino Nano Clone. Then I’ve installed Mozzi library and converted original Atari game sounds to.h files. Finally I’ve connected a 7 segment 4 digit display to the Arduino Nano and programmed a simple animation to display current beat position. Read Old Atari Paddle Joystick as a Chiptune Sequencer via Arduino Project Hub An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 73 in a series - The Technology Monthly (1917) Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!  

Adobe Flash was the language of choice for a generation of game developers, helping kickstart an indie revolution on the still-young web of the 1990s and 2000s. But it withered on the proprietary and insecure vine, and both web browsers and Adobe have now canned it, threatening countless games and interactive presentations with the memory hole. The Internet Archive comes to the rescue, not only archiving the flash files but emulating the player itself, allowing history to live on. Read Internet Archive turns on Flash emulation, already has 1000 items to check out via Boing Boing An interesting link found among my daily reading

The most wonderful time of the year is approaching! “Most wonderful” meaning the time when you have to figure out what gift best expresses your level of affection for various individuals in your life. We’re here to take away some of that stress for you — provided your favourite individuals like Raspberry Pi, of course. Otherwise you’re on your own. Sorry. Read Raspberry Pi Christmas Shopping Guide 2020 via Raspberry Pi An interesting link found among my daily reading

Historical Technology Books - 72 in a series - Altair Computer Systems Brochure (1975) Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!  

For my high school summer project, I designed and built the world's most portable 3D printer from r/3Dprinting When we think 3D printers, we most commonly think of the fused-deposition modelling type that squirts molten plastic out of a hot nozzle. Typically, these are tabletop units designed to be set up and used in a workshop environment. [BingoFishy] dared to think outside the box however, and whipped up a compact, portable 3D printer for working out on the road. The printer is almost entirely self-contained, running an OctoPrint controller with built-in hotspot which allows print files to be sent to the unit over a smartphone. The motion platform is built out of DVD drive stepper motors and rails, with dual motors used on the Z-axis to ensure there’s enough torque to move smoothly. Power is courtesy of 26650 cells, in a 2S3P configuration, which provides 3 hours of runtime. While this might not sound like much, for a compact printer with a small build volume, it’s a us...

This tutorial will show you how to build a jacket with turn signals that will let people know where you're headed when you're on your bike. We'll use conductive thread and sewable electronics so your jacket will be soft and wearable and washable when you're done. Enjoy! Read Turn Signal Biking Jacket! #WearableWednesday via AdaFruit and Instructables An interesting link found among my daily reading

I have finally gotten deeper into programming with Processing  and recently watched a video on terrain generation by Daniel Shiffman (The Coding Train) on 3D Terrain Generation with Perlin Noise in Processing . Daniel is an excellent teacher and provides complete source code for all his presentations. This is a little recorded sample of my attempt to implement it and add some Minecraft-like coloring. Here is my Processing code, based heavily on Daniel’s. // Terrain Generation and Flyby using Processing // Douglas E. Welch After Daniel Schiffman - TechIQ.welchwrite.com int cols, rows; int scl = 20; int w = 2200; int h = 2200; float flying=0; float [][] terrain; void setup() { size(1280, 720, P3D); cols = w /scl; rows = h/scl; terrain= new float[cols][rows]; } void draw() { flying += - .1; float yoff = flying; for (int y = 0; y< rows; y++) { float xoff=0; for (int x=0; x < cols; x++) { terrain[x][y] = map(noise(xoff, yoff), 0, 1, -150, 150); xoff+=0.1; } yoff +=0.1; } backg...

Historical Technology Books - 70 in a series - The Edison Papers, Folder 45 Read the entire book on Archive.org   Download this entire publication from Archive.org in a variety of formats Find more books on Bookshop and Help Indie Book Stores!  

Two years ago, we introduced Google Assistant Snapshot, a new way to stay on top of your day with Google Assistant. Now, we're adding a few updates to make Snapshot more helpful, and proactive, in keeping you ahead of your upcoming tasks while also providing you with recommended activities and more, all in one place on Android or iOS devices. See a summary of your most important tasks  In addition to the essential information you’ve grown to rely on like your agenda, commute times and reminders to pay your credit card, you’ll now start to see a summary of other important tasks right at the top—things like reminders for upcoming birthdays and holidays. Your Snapshot will adjust based on the time of day and your interactions with Google Assistant. For example, in the morning you will see a card about your commute, weather, to-dos and top headlines. Read Get a Snapshot of your day with Google Assistant via The Official Google Blog An interesting link found among my daily readin...