A Crummy Commercial

I got an email from the NY Times about Wordle.  Basically the Wordle Bot says that slate is the best starting word.  So I started using slate instead of aegis a few days ago and today I got salty in 2 guesses: So maybe slate is better ?  Certainly letter position also is important in addition to letter frequency.  We'll see. I still intend to create a Morse code version of Wordle:  real soon now :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

source: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JPCaOEy4qjA/maxresdefault.jpg I thought that this was an interesting take: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.  Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.  Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."  "In 1984", Hux...

I poked through the junkbox and found a 16F18313 PIC.  Interesting that this chip has a 16F prefix but only 8 pins.  Usually the 8 pin PICs have a 12F prefix. So I was able to use the hex file kindly provided by Electric Druid here: https://electricdruid.net/noise2-white-pink-noise-source/ It's pin compatible with the previous version so I used the same breadboard to try it out but I disconnected the RC filter.   First here is the white noise output on pin 3: And here is the pink noise output on pin 7: It seems to work fine.  My only comment is that I got a weird interruption noise on the pink output pin 7 when I tried to record it directly to the Sangean MP3 recorder.  So I ended up recording both via an output from an LM380 audio amplifier.  I'm not sure what the problem was but it sounded like a bad connection. Next steps will be to continue with non-PIC methods of noise generation and also to try keying the noise in some fashion. Best Regards, Chuck, WB...

I saw this photo of a Milwaukee Braves fan entering County Stadium in 1962 with a case of beer on his shoulder: source: https://twitter.com/AaronNagler/status/1739779854617157654 and immediately thought not of beer or spring or baseball or Milwaukee but antennas: 82 beer cans source: https://ia804504.us.archive.org/3/items/sim_qst_1955-11_39_11/sim_qst_1955-11_39_11.pdf In other words, think of all those empties, steel cans, easy to solder/braze or weld together !  And also, when soda water came in sturdy refillable glass bottles that were perfect as insulators ! Weirdly it also reminds me of one of my earliest Milwaukee memories in 1960 or so when I was 4 or 5.  Walking the alley I found a 6 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon (I remember the red/white/blue steel cans).  Of course no pull tabs, I had no church key, couldn't read so I didn't really know what it was (my Dad wasn't much for beer).  So I pounded on a can with a rock, no luck.  They were pretty tough containe...

I finally got a chance to try the combination of the white noise generator: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/noise.html and the pink noise filter from the previous blog posts: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/pink-noise-filter.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/pink-noodling.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/of-pink-noise-filter-per-video.html I made a slight change to the Electric Druid code from the page: https://electricdruid.net/white-noise-source/ to move it over to the 12f629 PIC from the 12F675.  Here is the PIC and filter on a solderless breadboard: and here are the white: and pink: outputs in mp3 format.  I can see why the less harsh sound of the pink filter is preferred over the white noise. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

One last Christmas related post.  I received one of these either as a Christmas or birthday present in the 1964 time frame: The obligatory inflated price: They do come up on ebay regularly and the price is possibly justified by inflation: https://www.ebay.com/itm/386455878323 But I haven't bought yet.  As I recall the Communications Lab wasn't that great.  Maybe this letter from that auction explains things: The Communications Lab did include the solderless breadboarding area: possibly it was the source of trouble that the more modern ones often are ?  But a neat idea for a kid related item.  Interesting that the components were fastened on the bottom to the clips: here is a detail of an uninstalled clip: The clip could be pinched together and the component leads could be put into the slot.  Then when the clip was released the leads would be held "Fahnestock clip style" to make the connection.  I ended up transplanting the Communications Lab items fro...

I was sitting in the recliner on a quiet Christmas morning, a calm day so no wind noise.  Then I hear some commotion on the roof. No it wasn't Santa and his crew with a late delivery. I went outside and saw a single white feather settling to the ground.   I looked up and saw the scare wire vibrating a little. It must have been a seagull trying to land on the roof !  The big birds (crows, vultures and gulls) like to roost on a relatively flat area with decent height above the surrounding terrain.  Maybe also catch a little sun ?  But humans don't like the roosting behavior.  Birds leave deposits behind, including bones from prey animals, yuck !   So we tried ineffective methods like getting out the BB gun, plastic snakes and an owl statue on a pole.     Finally an islander suggested the scare wire.  A wire or rope strung about a half a foot above the peak of the roof.  It seems the big birds are hawk-eyed and can't see the wire ...

Santa definitely appears to be a tapper here: Christmas card from 1924 Merry Christmas  and Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

A NASA star field image that kinda-sorta looks like a Christmas tree with lights: Source: https://phys.org/news/2023-12-ngc-telescopes-illuminate-christmas-tree.html My Dad used to get a kick out of cutting a Christmas tree each year on our property - I'm afraid I've abandoned that practice.  It looks like Christmas will be a brown and gray day here assuming the forecast of rain is accurate. Merry Christmas  and Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

This is a cool picture of Soldier Field and lakefront Chicago on December 15: source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-chicago-bears-soldier-field-20231221-3nsknssdhzeuni3ta3xpmnfdmm-story.html Apparently the grass is much better this season, a different variety was installed along with UV grow lights and the result is much greener late in the season. So even though the Bears still stink, Solider Field is better this year. And one thing is constant:  most Chicagoans still say: "Soldiers Field" or maybe "Soldier's Field" since an S always seems to get added :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was watching this episode of Dick Van Dyke: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGXtYLps7DA The one with the walnuts: And then I noticed this: Where are the Dairy Maids ?  That little framed thingy behind Rob is a Jimmy award ? So I watched another episode, the Uhny Uffts one: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkq6BXgHNxI And there it is and all is well :) Per MeTV (see point 5),  The Dairy Maids was a 1907 Broadway show: https://metv.com/lists/10-tiny-details-you-never-noticed-in-robs-office-on-the-dick-van-dyke-show Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

See the previous blog entry: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/jwst-put-to-good-use.html I saw this entry on Ars Technica by Eric Berger:     https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/12/daily-telescope-the-rings-around-uranus-sure-are-shiny/ So yet another usage of the JWST for comedy.  Resultant laughter and smiles equals money well spent !   A continuing source of mirth:   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/04/he-doesnt-get-it.html   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/05/uranus.html     Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Carrington Valentine (of the firm: Ballentine and Valentine) lost in space source: https://www.theonion.com/james-webb-telescope-finds-evidence-of-packers-secondar-1851108512 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

This is pretty weird yet neat:   source: https://live.staticflickr.com/5304/5884246614_8de73e3379_b.jpg   source:  https://www.evilmadscientist.com/2011/555-footstool/   It looks both authentic and uncomfortable at the same time.   I remember an ad for Young Frankenstein voiced by Mel Brooks - at the end Mel says something like:    "made in black and white . . .  and plywood !".     The 555 footstool is sorta similar.   Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

SOURCE: https://youtu.be/bsj3nkLmPsI https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/a-new-essential-guide-to-electronics-by-naomi-wu-details-a-different-shenzen/ This is really cool - Hua Qiang part of Shenzhen kinda sounds like the Akihabara area of Tokyo that my Dad mentioned from the 1950s but blown up 10x.  And the fact that all the 21st century coping mechanisms of people who aren't native Chinese (like Google) don't work, amazing.  So they can fall back on the relatively ancient book technology to flip and point to what they want ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I tried looking up the residents of Carnegie Hall on the 1950 Census at Familysearch.org (you need a free account).  I did find Editta Sherman and her husband on lines 15 and 14 of this page: Genealogical searches are much easier when people have unique names The address for the residences/studios in Carnegie Hall was apparently 154 West 57th Street.  Editta Sherman was featured in the documentary on Bill Cunningham mentioned in the blog yesterday: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/carnegie-hall.html Looking at some of the other 1950 census pages for Carnegie Hall I found this one: The name on line 7 stood out to me: Edwin Quinby - mainly because his occupation was listed as Engineer / Electronic working in the field of Calculating Machines !  The other people on the page are artists, voice teachers, dance teachers, actress and so on - they sound more of a fit for Carnegie Hall. So since Edwin Quinby is a somewhat unique name I tried searching for it and found these pag...

After looking at yesterdays blog post I realized that Carnegie Hall is also in that same neighborhood south of Central Park with the needle residence towers and Fred Allen's apartment - see the little marker with the music notes in the next block down from Fred Allen's apartment. "How do I get to Carnegie Hall ?"   "Practice, Practice" I remember seeing a documentary about Bill Cunningham, a famous fashion photographer in New York.  One memorable thing from that movie was that Bill Cunningham actually lived in Carnegie Hall.  In addition to the actual hall there were also offices and apartments.  Bill Cunningham moved into Carnegie Hall in the mid 1950s, about the same time that Fred Allen died so not sure if they ever crossed paths or not.  Here is Bill Cunningham exiting Carnegie Hall on his bicycle: Here is a link to the documentary: https://archive.org/details/bcNewYork One of the things I recognized right away in that documentary was the Tamron Fotovix...