A Crummy Commercial

This Lenovo Laptop doesn't really have the oomph to run a photo program like GIMP.  So I was looking in a plastic bag on top of the Canon scanner when I saw this CDROM:   (this is the same CDROM on archive.org): https://archive.org/details/elements_202402 Photoshop Elements !  a relatively "light-weight" photo editor from the Windows 98 days.  It was bundled with the Canon scanner I have.  I always liked Photoshop Elements, particularly the "auto levels" which made it easy to pep up a photo without a lot of fuss. So I tried to install the CDROM on this Lenovo laptop and it came back with an error message: I don't think that Internet Explorer is even available now. I also have a Nikon flatbed scanner which came bundled with a version of Photoshop called Photoshop LE - but I can't find the CDROM for that one.  I found an ISO image for Photoshop LE 4.0 on archive.org but it wouldn't install in Windows 11 :( Nothing is easy anymore :( Update: apparently ...

I found this home made lightbox - something my Dad whipped up for my Mom.  It was meant for tracing - used in art projects.  It's just a cardboard box with a small fluorescent fixture inside, fixture was probably for under kitchen cabinets.  There's a clear plastic top.  It's all held together with the handyman's secret weapon: duct tape, see: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/10/my-3-favorite-red-green-videos.html  I think the pontoon boat may be the only time on the show where duct tape was used on ducts ! But I might use it for a different purpose than tracing.  I have a lot of black and white negatives which I've never printed and am unlikely to ever print.  I've seen videos where a camera is used to take a picture of a negative and through the magic of Photoshop or similar software, the negative becomes a positive.  I can do this on my old Canon scanner but it takes forever and will only do 35 mm film (or slides).  I also have roll film n...

It was a nice day today so I went over to my storage and got this: What is it ?  Here is is on the particle board base: Finally here with the camera installed: It's my old Testrite Enlarger with the Enlarger head taken off and replaced with the camera rod - a nice parallelogram copy stand.  I mentioned the Testrite before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/this-isnt-true-need-maybe-more-like-wish.html  It's nice and sturdy but too large and unwieldy for the electronics bench - it really needs a bench of it's own.   Here are a couple of photos, the first a receipt from Testrite for some accessories: RUSH ! The second is an overlay that I used to make my own photo QSLs.  I still have a box of postcard paper but I'm sure that by this time it's all fogged. This copy stand should be really useful. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I received this email about a month ago: After the discovery of the html verification inherent in Firefox it occurred to me to get busy on this. https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/i-learned-something-useful-today.html  In early 2021 I added Microsoft Clarity tracking to the site, it was supposed to offer insights into how customers use the site - I was never that impressed with the monthly reports.  To be fair the same can be said of the Google reports. I added the following Clarity code to 35 pages on WB9KZY.com:             <!-- Clarity tracking code for http://wb9kzy.com/ -->             <script>                 (function(c,l,a,r,i,t,y){                     c[a]=c[a]||function(){(c[a].q=c[a].q||[]).push(arguments)};                     t=l.createElement(r);t.async...

I was making a few changes on the site, mainly that the Bug Descratcher III enclosure is being discontinued due to the tariff tax.  It would be prohibitively expensive to do the top plate of the enclosure kit in the USA. http://wb9kzy.com/bugde3.htm  But while doing the change I happened to use the: Tools-Browser_Tools-page_source pull-down in Firefox, here is an example from the main page: The pink highlighting and red squiggly underlines indicate problems with the HTML code.  I didn't know that before.  The pages were all hand created in Notepad so this is probably to be expected. So now I have some work to do on the site !  Seems like every page has problems.   I was looking at the javascript order page, it has lots of problems.  But one that doesn't seem to trigger a red squiggly are the 5 check boxes shown here: They look stupid and probably are but if I take them out the form doesn't work correctly.  Maybe after decades it's time to fig...

Why Homo Sapiens !  Those folks will walk anywhere, adapt to any conditions, elbow out the current inhabitants - there's no stopping them ! source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOwzSoDm5ws I have to admit that while I remembered that NOVA was on, and that the Brewers had played in the afternoon, I still started nodding off as usual towards the end of the NOVA .   Good thing that the show was available on Youtube as well because I still haven't fixed the PVR power supply so I couldn't record it. They started walking out of Africa, proceeded all around Eurasia, continued down through North and Central America and finally got down to the tip of South America (although this program stopped at the jumping off to Australia).  These folks took advantage of the lower sea levels and resulting land bridges for their treks (while also mastering travel across water).  It was a good stretch of the legs, no wonder that distance running is the bedrock of the Olympic games...

I saw a project on a ham blog recently which reminded me of this: A picture illustrating the incorrect and correct way to panel mount a control or switch.  This is from a Hint and Kink in QST for April 2004, page 73 by W1VIV, Sumner. The idea is to use a second nut behind the panel to result in a flush appearance of the switch.  In addition to appearance it may also help the mechanical performance of the switch making the project a little less tippy due to the tiny lever action of the protruding switch barrel. The only problem with the C&K switches that I like is that the 1/4-40 sized hardware is almost impossible to find unless it's supplied with the switch -  I actually had an inquiry from a customer (a high school teacher) who needed some 1/4-40 hex nuts for some lab equipment - he had looked and looked and finally contacted me for some hex nuts which I was happy to sell.  1/4-20 nuts are easy to find but the thread pitch is wrong.  One workaround would...

I was looking for something and came across this: It's a rangefinder - I bought it (and several spares) during my camera collecting phase in the 1970s and 1980s.  I had a number of old cameras that didn't have built in rangefinders or visual focusing.  So the idea was I could find the range to the subject of a picture with the rangefinder and then transfer that distance to the camera lens focus ring.  You look through the eyepiece and line up the two images by turning the focus wheel - then the distance can be read from the dial / pointer. The problem was that the rangefinder just wasn't accurate - it was easier to guesstimate the distance and rely on depth of field. But it is a beauty, all metal and glass and apparently made in New York. I looked on ebay and found several similar listings: https://www.ebay.com/itm/177314621326 Here is one labeled Saymon-Brown   https://www.ebay.com/itm/305024092747 an ad for the Saymon-Brown rangefinder: source:  https://live.s...

Remember this: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/long-strange-trip.html  Well it finally arrived: Maybe it pays to complain ?  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

Veritasium had an interesting video on escalator accidents: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ8ehplVFp4  I just wonder if it also explains the runaway escalator at American Family Field in Milwaukee in 2024: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/06/escalator.html  I guess the moral is to stay off escalators when they are servicing a big crowd. Speaking of the Brewers, they lost today but clinched the National League Central because the Cubs also lost. And speaking of Wisconsin sports teams losing almost simultaneously on the road, the Packers lost to the Browns 13-10 in the final seconds !  The Packers were supposed to be 8 1/2 point favorites.  But the Pack just gave the game away on offense and special teams.  I guess the old adage:  bet the home team is still true. What a revolting end to Summer 2025 ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

Here is the USPS scan history for a kit sent to a ham in Florida: Wisconsin to Florida to Puerto Rico and then to Tennessee ?  Sixteen days and counting.  Where will it go next ?  What in the world are they doing ? The USPS along with the rest of our institutions are crumbling into dust. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I signed into my Thinkpad and was able to enroll in Windows 10 security updates through October 13, 2026.  And it didn't even cost me 1000 Microsoft Rewards points, nice ! It was so nice I did it twice - second time on a different Windows 10 laptop, the battered and broken Toshiba, again at no cost. But I went for thrice on the big Sharp laptop and didn't see the offer extended - perhaps it was just not pushed out to that machine yet or maybe because that machine isn't signed in to Microsoft ? Well, I still have some time on that - I rarely use the Sharp anyway so it could be taken off-line without a big problem - which is what I'll probably end up doing in a year or so with those three Windows 10 boxes. Why have three Windows 10 machines ?  They can be handy in a pinch, I can use one as part of a printing station.  Another is handy for looking at video files on the TV (the internal video via USB on the TV isn't fast enough at times for certain codecs, the video and...

At GTE I used to work on Fairchild Sentry IC testers like this Sentry 21: The test head of the Sentry had pin electronics cards arrayed around a circle: source:  https://caeonline.com/buy/final-test/schlumberger-fairchild-sentry-21/9267919 Here is an interesting paper on testing the Z-80 with a Sentry 610: substack:  https://mtsi.substack.com/p/testing-the-z80-chip-with-a-1970s   article repeated here:  https://mitsi.com/case-studies/z80-chip/ One thing that were used on the pin electronics cards were small reed relays, either Zestrons: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/296449132308 or Coto relays: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/394476842759 The reed relays were also used on "performance boards" which were the interface between the test head and the device under test - the relays were usually used for applying loads or power to a pin.   One thing with the reed relays, they weren't soldered onto the boards, we used small pin sockets like these: ...