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User: bigattichouse

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  1. Re: Food Allergies on Unicode Consortium Looks At Symbols For Allergies · · Score: 1

    Glad all this rectal bleeding and stabbing pain is merely "discomfort" .. whew.
    The skin sloughing off and leaving sores? That's what we call "the wheat hug".

    There's more to allergies than anaphylaxis.

  2. Re:Joule Thief on Debunking the Batteriser's Claims · · Score: 1

    Kinda like I said: Great for an LED flashlight, and that's about it. (possibly a motor driven as well - think old-time casette player or *ahem* personal "massage" device).

  3. Re:Joule Thief on Debunking the Batteriser's Claims · · Score: 1

    Hence the concerns.

    Now, this does open up an interesting thought about creating microprocessors that can work with spikes of power, holding state... much more complex, but able to run on frighteningly small pulses of energy.

  4. Re:Joule Thief on Debunking the Batteriser's Claims · · Score: 1

    Correct: 0.450V

  5. Joule Thief on Debunking the Batteriser's Claims · · Score: 4, Interesting

    (oops accidentally posted A/C)

    I've coincidentally been running a battery experiment using a joule thief on a 1.5v Energizer battery (starting voltage 1.621v)

    The LED and resistor I use would normally draw about 20mA from a battery, but run at 3v, requiring 2 AA batteries, and running for around 5 or 6 days in total.

    Through the joule thief (similar, I am guessing the to guts of the device), I know that I can run the same LED down to 0.450mV (with a much larger current draw)... but since it basically consists of spikes of power (which can reach 5-12v) with a very short duty cycle, I can run off a single AA battery for some time.

    As I use the thief in my own battery experiments (think edison cells), I decided to run an AA down and chart the voltages. I'm currently on day 10, and have made it down to 1.257v I think it will drop off quite quickly around 1.0 or 0.9v, but you can see I've easily doubled the servicable life span. At this point it has only dropped ~20mV per day, so I could possibly get 10 more servicable days out of this battery for the purposes of running an LED... so we're up to around 5X the service life.

    I did not major engineering to make my thief, and it isn't particularly well made.. so I think 8X life for an LED is very possible with the data I have.

    EXCEPT... I'm just making light, for a human, who can't see that it's not actually "ON" all the time. This is a very simple circuit and can easily handle the duty cycle. I have some concerns about running a microprocessor or similar toy with the device without damage.

    ADDITIONALLY.. batteries can swell when they get very low voltage, and all sorts of nastiness can occur. I'd be cautious to drain one to the minimum voltage for my thief... or at least keep it on a glass plate in case of leakage.

  6. So, should I just read reddit? on Thousand-Year-Old Eye Salve Kills MRSA · · Score: 0

    Really - should I quit even coming here for news? I haven't seen one item this week that wasn't on reddit for a day or more.

  7. I can speak for programming... on Ask Slashdot: How Should a Liberal Arts Major Get Into STEM? · · Score: 2

    All of the high-end coders I know, have the following traits:

    1. They learned how to teach themselves
    2. They learned when it's time to find someone to teach them things
    3. They play with the code, they build things, experiment, etc.
    4. They aren't afraid to try a new tool, and be a noob ... but they seek out mentors.
    5. They understand that the quality of their work is important... and seek out the processes and skills it takes to increase quality

    Over my 20 year history, the folks with these traits have always managed to build things that last, and work well, and were easy to maintain.

    Very few of them went to school for "Computer Science" degrees, everything from Poly Sci to Construction.

    I say:
    1. find (or start) an interesting open source project
    2. learn how to use git
    3. start building tests
    4. code.
    5. play.

  8. console. on The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I work in console mode... reading wrapped log file lines is bad, mkay?

  9. Re:In summary... on Dad Makes His Kid Play Through All Video Game History In Chronological Order · · Score: 1

    It rubs the lotion on its skin..

    wait, I think I might have been playing different games.

      (I lie, I was totally buying/playing anything infocom crapped out)

  10. How about a URL reference to denote a "lost user" on AdNauseam Browser Extension Quietly Clicks On Blocked Ads · · Score: 2

    How about appending:

    yourdamnad.com/?BLOCKEDBY=AdBlock (or whatever)

    to the fake click. THEN get the word out that customers should ask for BLOCKEDBY ratios vs. actual clicks.

  11. Re:NC Research on Researchers Develop $60 Sonar Watch To Aid the Visually Impaired · · Score: 1

    I know the part well.. you actually get about 5 meters fairly accurately... but soft materials and echos can mess up the flight time sensing.

  12. Hah, I had the same idea. on Researchers Develop $60 Sonar Watch To Aid the Visually Impaired · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Mine's more like a flashlight, and vibrates based on distance. I have an idea for something better, but haven't had time to work on it.

    https://twitter.com/bigatticho...

  13. Re:Its not the CFL/LED on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 1

    I would seriously like to see LED bulbs without this ballast, and have it inside the actual lamp... I think you'd extend the life of the bulbs, and lose less power to heat generation with a single source.

  14. Completely converted house to LED, 3 have died. on The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, the "return" process is iffy. I didn't have my receipt when one died and I took it back to Lowe's for an exchange of the same model (Phillips).. they said they couldn't be sure it was under warranty, I told them it was supposed to last 10 years, and they had only been selling them for a few months. They begrudgingly swapped it out.

    Anyway, the other 2 bulbs, I decided to pull them apart. I dug out the silicone potting, and found the failure was in a large capacitor, visibly bulging. I haven't had time to replace the bit - but I'm pretty sure that's all that blew on it. Tested the individual LEDs and they are fine.

    So both failures were due to purchasing the cheapest possible components, specifically a "largish" (like 0.3uF 200v) capacitor. My guess is that there was a larger cap that would handle the load, but they needed to reduce the size. Initiating the failure was probably one or more line spikes.

  15. Re:Freeman Dyson on The Grassroots Future of Biohacking · · Score: 1

    Look up Microbial Fuel cell... which normally generates power.
    Now put in 0.2v. the little buggers make hydrogen.
    Now use algae in one fuel cell to generate the 0.2v for another fuel cell.

    You're welcome.

  16. How about : Compile that to an ASIC.

  17. It's probably fluffy and crystaline. on More Details About Mars Mystery Rock · · Score: 1

    I do a lot of brickwork in my damp basement, and Efflorescence was the first thing that came to mind.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E... .
    a suitably "fluffy" pic
    http://www.retrofittingcalifor...

  18. Re:Marvin on Google Doodle Celebrates Birthday of Douglas Adams · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sadly, the OP doesn't realize that the TV marvin *WAS* in the movie. He's in the queue for paperwork.

  19. Re:Prior Art on Amazon Patents 'Maintaining Scarcity' of Goods · · Score: 1

    I even remember a specific commercial for lion king on another video that mentioned "Hurry, before it goes back in the vault".

  20. Prior Art on Amazon Patents 'Maintaining Scarcity' of Goods · · Score: 1

    Disney's "vault" for movies (particularly VHS) in the 80's/90's. Two years, then off the market for 10.

  21. Re:As an ASL Interpreter... on Designing a Practical UI For a Gesture-Based Interface · · Score: 1

    Well.. ok.. attention would be both hands... but I meant it in context of using it to communicate with a computer.

  22. As an ASL Interpreter... on Designing a Practical UI For a Gesture-Based Interface · · Score: 4, Informative

    I interpreted ASL in educational settings (High School, Freelance, University, Public, and even elementary.) for something like 6 or 7 years.

    My arms were ripped, and you could expect to burn several hundred calories (EASY) during a day of doing that. Also, I had learned the stretch properly thanks to some Aikido training.. and I still had some bad habits that caused me repetitive stress problems.

    Gestures are a novelty, and a lot of work for the user... I think there will be many blind alleys before they become natural.

    Some problems/ideas I see:
    1. Exhaustion - you waste a lot of energy
    2. "Namespaces" - you can make two gestures at once - geez... so you have a left hand gesture that tells the computer to listen (the ASL "Attention" one handed would work) + a command - maybe even "against" that hand. Its like a salute with your left hand vertical moving away from your face.
    3. Facial expressions are a HUGE part of ASL, probably not even considered. "WH" questions get eyebrows scrunched, other queries eyebrows up, puffed cheeks and all kinds of things...
    4. Security - I defy you to sign EXACTLY like someone else... It's possible, and easy in a mocking sense (High schoolers) - but I imagine a door that could see you carrying groceries and unlock combined with voice recog., or other simple things would be useful.

  23. Re:Mah book writings ! on Scientists Race To Establish the First Links of a 'Quantum Internet' · · Score: 1

    My thought was timed reading... where you only read the next qubit at predefined intervals to check for state.. and what is definitely a gross misunderstanding of QE (but useful as narrativium) - writing a state to the next particle. so particles are read-write in order, and they slowly "tick away"... but the base set are linked into the network.. so you can buy any random batch of particles and they link back to some other endpoint.

  24. Mah book writings ! on Scientists Race To Establish the First Links of a 'Quantum Internet' · · Score: 1

    Yay! QE is a major component of my scifi book's communications. Yes, it's a crappy book, but it is my crappy book... and you can read it online without DRM, blah blah blah.

    http://cruft-private-janitorial.com/?chapter=1

    Can't wait for animated breakfast bar wrappers! Or Capt. Skyking brand Starling!

  25. What do you mean there's no silcon heaven? on Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Found Calculators? · · Score: 1

    Where else would all the old calculators go?