A Crummy Commercial

At least when they start doing this: The computer battery discharged way down and then zoomed up to 100%.  It is supposed to peak at 60 percent and start charging at 55 percent: I've spent a fair bit of time trying to get it back to the way it should be.  Why computer, why ?  Why waste my time ?  Aren't you supposed to save time ?  Can't you just leave things alone ? Full Rooney mode engaged ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

There are lots of them on ebay, one of the cheaper listings: https://www.ebay.com/itm/315986591921 Like the 9V Lithium re-chargables that use a USB source as a charger the fly in the ointment is that the lithium cell inside has a switching supply to both handle charging and outputting 1.5 volts (since Lithium Ion cells are usually more like 4 volts the voltage has to be pumped down with a switcher).  Of course this creates RF hash which precludes using these internally in a radio like the Sony 2010.  I first found out about this on the Sony 2001/2010 group, a member of the group was having sensitivity problems on the AM band and below.  When he replaced the lithium D-cells the problem went away.  They are kinda expensive anyway. Everyone hates NiCd or Nimh but at least those cells don't generate RF hash ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

This was interesting from Ars: https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2024/12/nasa-says-orions-heat-shield-is-good-to-go-for-artemis-ii-but-does-it-matter/ The thing that struck me was that the skip approach to landing the Orion capsule was what caused the problem of the big cavities in the Orion heat shield.  This was supposed to minimize the highest temperatures (and also g-force on the astronauts) but that ironically led to the problem by causing the internal heating of the shield.  To me this means that while the shield was tested on the ground for extremes, it wasn't tested as NASA decided to use the shield.  As I recall the original Apollo re-entry did NOT use the skip method so that might be why this wasn't seen before. This reminds me a little of IC testing.  We always did the tests at the databook limits but never at levels either below or above the limits.  One thing that we could do on the Sentry IC tester was employ what was called Schmoo plots (named...

When I check Youtube it will often serve up Letterman videos.  But recently I've come to feel like this commenter: So now when I see a Letterman video thumbnail, I always check: still alive still alive dead (he was known as the co-writer of many Woody Allen movies) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I found this while looking through a box of flashlights: It's one of those shaker flashlights that used a cylindrical magnet and a coil of magnet wire to generate a charging voltage for a supercap.  I actually found a couple more shakers but one was dead and the other gave out a kind of scratchy red light, the switch might be going bad.  They are hard to fix because everything appears to be glued in place.  Anyway, the beam of light that this one produces from the white LED is kinda weak - but certainly better than nothing. I did see some of these on ebay but the prices in the 20 dollar range seemed too high to me. Now that winter is here there's more of a chance of extended power outages on the island so it'll be good to get things ready in case the power does go out for a while. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I thought these Failure Analysis (FA) electron microscopy photographs in IEEE Spectrum were pretty cool: https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-art-of-failure This one kinda reminds me of a bath mat I used to have :)  Not sure what these structures are, maybe power and ground connections ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I had purchased this non-Nikon (notice it says: For Nikon ) IR remote for the D40 SLR some time ago on Ebay.  It did work at first but then NOPE !  So it got put on the shame shelf with the other broke stuff. Today I noticed it and since I had just purchased a bunch of CR2032 lithium cells on Ebay, why not give it a re-try ?  So I put the CR2032 in, almost inserting it upside down but caught the error.  Then I got out the cheap cell phone that I use as an MP3 music player.  The cameras on the cheaper phones don't have an IR filter so it's easy to try an IR remote (in a darkened room) and see if the IR LED lights - and it did !   So the next step was to get out the Nikon D40 and try it but still NOPE.  I then delved into the menus and turned on the IR remote and voila, it works ! A picture of me triggering the D40 camera with the IR remote control Then I looked at the cell that came with the remote, it was NOT a CR2032, it was the slightly skinnier CR20...