Saturday, 21 January 2023

Futile musings of a disappointed optimist (ongoing)

It's always fun watching people savage each other on their way to the back of the high-horse
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If you are not playing by the rules of the game, then the only time you are adequate is when the normal rules go off the window.
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Monkeys be monkeys "but we are not monkeys, we are great apes" case in point, inadequate and pedantic
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"Great apes" what's so great about us anyway?
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We will do the right thing *after exhausting all other possible options
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Fear is the god that kills us all
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The  problem with conspiracy theorists is that they think too highly of people. unfortunately people are surprisingly, self serving, insecure, unpredictable and incompetent. with morals
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And probably the worst position is to be smart enough to see the unethical rules of the game and know how to play it well, and yet have the moral courage to refuse to participate. It's amazing how quickly you'll be getting exiled by the society.What I am talking about is a very subtle thing. it's when society politely and kindly rejects you as an individual. it's when everyone sincerely thinks you are a great person to stick with when shit has seriously goes wrong, yet when all is good nobody really wants to have anything to do with you. not that they hate you or anything, they actually think highly of you, it's just that they prefer somebody more...predictable.
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              Sunday, 28 January 2018

              Victor Multimeter DMM Drivers & Software 70C 86B 86C 86D 86E

              Hey All,

              So, I had bought a Victor 86E a few years back and as I usually do, copied the drivers and software off the CD to my computer and sent the CD and manual for "deep storage".

              I really never had a use for the PC interface software.... wellll, till last week. my normal archives failed me, what I did not expect was for internet to fail me. just nothing but dead links and alternate stuff. anyhow, after a week of procrastination I finally gave in and went through the "deep storage" and found the damn CD.

              I figured I should really put it up for everyone, including the future me.

              Link to Files


              Files are as they were on the CD, I have not modified them in any way. there were a few Chinese letters in the names that I translated by google translate and changed, nothing else. as far as I know, they are clean. nonetheless, they come "as is".

              Monday, 25 December 2017

              Arduino Icons

              Here are Aarduino boards in icons for those who like to have it. (transparent background)
              link for zip file download 

              Logo 400px
              Logo 1000px

              Logo 48px.ico

              IDE 48px.ico




              Nano 495px

              Uno 795x575px
              Uno 48px.ico
              Nano 48px.ico



              Digispark 303px
              ProMini 350px
              ProMini 48px.ico
              Digispark 48px.ico




              Friday, 22 December 2017

              Sex, Gender, Identity and Equality

              Just a short observation and a (somewhat) sensible proposal

              One interesting thing about the identity politics has been the issue of identities itself. I see people going around and demanding others to correctly identify and use their "appropriate" pronouns (all 70+ of them). obviously it's crazy making and a complete nonsense. people somehow think that breaking up identities to more and more fine-grained categories bizarrely is more inclusive.

              Additionally some people claim, "he" and "she" are not inclusive enough therefore we need more sub-categories. I'm actually proposing the exact opposite, we should get rid of all the other stuff and just refer to everyone and everything as "It". not only that "It" is much more inclusive within our own species, "It" also reflects our relationship to the rest of the planet, and even the universe more accurately. we are one and the same, made of the same materials and bound by the same physical rules.

              So, instead of division, let us unite under one truly all-inclusive pronoun, "It".
              The whole universe is made of "It". "It" has been around since the beginning of time and "It" will be around to the very end. "It" is around us, "It" is within us and we are full of "It", just embrace "It" and let "It" move us to a browner (brighter?) future



              ✝Footnote
              Yes I am sick of this identity politics shit.
              Yes I am actually serious about using one single pronoun
              Yes, the argument of unifying vs. division actually holds

              Thursday, 7 December 2017

              A collection of quotes (that I relate to) in no particular order


              "A preoccupation with the next world clearly shows an inability to cope credibly with this one." Richard K. Morgan

              "It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man." H. L. Mencken

              "Not all those who wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkien

              "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." Ernest Hemingway

              "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." James D. Miles

              "Shoot myself to love you, If I loved myself I'd be shooting you" Fundamentally Loathsome - Marilyn Manson

              "So long & Thanks for all the Fish..." hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams

              "Some of you say religion makes people happy...., so does laughing gas." Clarence Darrow

              "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best is now." Chinese Proverb

              "I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." Sarah Williams

              "Live until you don't" Jeb Corliss (Base Jumper - WingSuit Flyer)

              "If the world does come to an end, here, or wherever, who lives into the future, decimated by the effects of a religion inspired nuclear terrorism, let's remember what the problem was; that we learnt how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it. That's it, GROW UP OR DIE." Bill Mahr

              ===== Isaac Asimov =====================
              "Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"

              ===== Neil deGrasse Tyson ==============
              "For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you."

              ===== House (TV Series) ================
              "Somewhere out there is a tree, tirelessly producing oxygen so you can breath. I think you owe it an apology."

              "you know I get it people are looking for a way to fill the holes..., but they want the holes, they want to live in the holes, and they go nuts when someone else pours dirt in their holes..., climb out of your holes people!" S02E19

              ===== Bertrand Russell =================
              "Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand."

              ===== Mark Twain =======================
              "I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it"

              "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

              ===== Friedrich Nietzsche ==============
              "People don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed"

              ===== Jacque Fresco ====================
              " I was asked once, "You're a smart man. Why aren't you rich?" I replied, "You're a rich man. Why aren't you smart? "

              "I have no notions of a perfect society, I don't know what that means. I know we can do much better than what we've got, I'm no utopian, I'm not a humanist that would like to see everybody living in warmth and harmony: I know that if we don't live that way, we'll kill each other and destroy the Earth."

              "The majority of the people of the world today are unsane, not insane, unsane meaning having been exposed to methods of evaluation that have long rendered obsolete, our language in the future will change to a saner language where we have no argument in it, 'can there be such a language?' there is, when engineers talk to each other, it's not subject to interpretation, they use math, they use descriptive systems, if I interpreted what another engineer said in the way I think he meant it: you couldn't build bridges, dams, power transmission lines. The language has to have meaning."

              ===== Richard Dawkins ==================
              "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."

              ===== Ricky Gervais ====================
              "Why won't people believe that I am God? It's really annoying. They suddenly want proof. I shouldn't have to prove it. What happened to faith?"

              " 'I'll pray for you' = I want some credit for caring, without actually having to do anything that takes any effort or that actually works' "

              ===== Anonymous ========================
              "Only kids count sheep to fall asleep. Count your debts, your mistakes, your heartache and cry yourself to sleep like a grownup!"

              "You never see churches with free wifi because no church wants to compete with an invisible power that actually works"

              "The Bible is 100% accurate....When thrown at close range.."

              ===== Rorschach (Watchmen) =============
              "None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with *ME*!"

              "Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That's always been the difference between us, Daniel."

              "Men get arrested. Dogs get put down."

              "This city's afraid of me... I've seen its true face..."

              ===== George Carlin ====================
              "Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist."

              ===== Oscar Wilde ======================
              "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

              ===== Carl Sagan =======================
              "Science is not perfect. It's often misused; it's only a tool, but it's the best tool we have. Self-correcting, ever changing, applicable to everything: with this tool, we vanquish the impossible."

              "Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."

              ===== George Bernard Shaw ==============
              "A man of great common sense and good taste - meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage"

              "A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out"

              ===== George Orwell ====================
              "The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it."

              "Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is possible that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never had much temptation to be human beings"

              ===== Albert Einstein ==================
              "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

              "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

              "if you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough"

              "Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?"

              "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

              "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits"

              "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"

              ===== Sigmund Freud ====================
              "Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy"

              "Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires"

              "I have found little that is "good" about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think"

              ===== Marilyn Manson ===================
              "You get depressed because you know that you're not what you should be."

              "Find out what's really out there. I never said to be like me, I say be like you and make a difference"

              "A lot of people don't want to make their own decisions. They're too scared. It's much easier to be told what to do"

              "Part of me is afraid to get close to people because I'm afraid that they're going to leave"

              ===== Steven Wright ====================
              "A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths"

              "I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol"

              "I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it"

              "I live on a one-way street that's also a dead end. I'm not sure how I got there"

              ========================================

              Wednesday, 6 December 2017

              Portable stereo speaker (digital amp) 5V 3-5W

              I was never a fan of internal speakers on phones, even the best of them. the sound is always jarring and too strong in the 1-5kHz band. whilst they rarely can reproduce frequencies under 500Hz. and that is mainly due to the fact that physics is a harsh bitch (the size of the speaker and speaker box dictates the resonance range and hence power output at various frequencies).

              So, what's a man to do? well that depends to the type of man. some go and buy a cheap compact speaker that sounds shite, some buy expensive ones (ex. Logitech UE series $100-$400) and live with what has been made for them, OR, he makes his own damn speakers! with all the features he wants and none of the nonsense he doesn't. 




              [after 9 months of regular use]


              So, here are my criteria:

              Want
              • Simple and robust
              • Wired connection
              • Potential for upgrades and add-ons
              • USB rechargeable
              • Long runtime
              • Repairability
              • Modular


              Don't want

              • Complication (fidgeting with bluetooth, pairing, hold buttons for on/off or functions, etc)
              • Loads of controls that rarely get used
              • Large or heavy
              • Short battery life (high standby current)
              • Heat management 

              Our chip of choice is PAM8406, class-D amp with %90 efficiency and 3W Output at 10% THD with a 4Ω Load and 5V Power Supply. (originally I had made this with PAM8403, it turned out my parts could handle more so I upgraded).

              Parts:
              • ABS project box (ebay) ~$5
              • Speakers (ebay) ~$5
              • Amp module (ebay) ~$4
              • Boost circuit (ebay) ~$1
              • Battery li-ion 1000mAh (salvaged off rc toys)
              • Caps 6.3V, 1500/1800µF x 14 low ESR (salvaged off old motherboards)
              • Sockets, pot, leds, resistors (almost all salvaged)
              • Wires (pc power supply quality cables - salvaged)
              • Copper Heatsink (made of reclaimed metal)
              • Paint, hot goop, cardboard, screws, etc (more or less free :D)



              Notes:
              • Battery has protection circuit on it
              • Amp doesn't make enough heat to cause trouble with the battery underneath
              • Boost circuit gets a bit toasty at full output (used what I had handy, needs upgrade)
              • Panel could have been done cleaner, alas, "ain't nobody got time for that" :D
              • Base funnel/tube was helpful but not hugely. according to online calculators, with my box size and the low frequency response I wanted, to achieve resonance, tube needed to be +60cm long. my box is 16cm long total soooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 
              • This speaker has much fuller sound than a phone speaker and gets much louder but it's no sub-woofer (physics being a bitch and stuff) lower band is around 200Hz before output starts to take a dive

              Future upgrades
              • Replace the battery with one 18650
              • Swap the charger module with one that has micro usb (instead of mini) and has onboard battery protection 
              • Redo the volume knob
              • Redo the lights and light pipes












              Monday, 29 May 2017

              Locking hinge attachment for local bat rescuer

              INTRO

              So, this project started like this, I found the youtube channel of  this nice lady that was doing bat rescues. she would film some of the rescues and put them up for people to watch. It turned out she was local, and I offered to do a few potential upgrades. 

              So, we have a collapsible net like the one here and the net is also on a telescopic extension arm. alas, bats having wings meant they often were hanging very high up trees or other structures. so the next natural thing was to attach this pole with some tape a longer pole, ideally an extendible one, ...or two. it turns out holding a small net on top of a wobbly pole 8-10 meter straight up in the air, while trying to catch a bat that doesn't take too kindly on the idea of getting caught could be a challenge. so some upgrades were in order.
              First upgrade was to get a nice telescopic flag pole, a nice aluminium one that could do +6 meters. now she could tape the net extension to the flag pole and get another 2 meters of hight. less wobbly but still not all that great. so it would have been great to have a way of holding the net in an angle on top of the pole. like one of those gopro mounts, just stronger.
              Also, it would need to hold the net frame directly, so , took the net frame thing out of a set with damaged extension and went brainstorming. after a few back and forths I had a basic idea to work on.
              you can get an idea of the flag pole and the actual head here


              STEEL?

              So I did a prototype hinge, something solid and strong with quick lock and release capability. simple enough right? maybe...
              This is the one I made, it's thin chromoly steel sheets, it's strong, it locks very very well, to the point I'm convinced it will break before it slips. aaaaaand it's heavy, way too heavy for the application. 200grams on top of a 8 meter lever means a LOT of force. oh well, I have like 5 different projects that can use a hinge like this, it won't go to waste. but we need something lighter, much lighter, and really didn't need to be that strong.

              PVC PERHAPS?

              I had some PVC tubes available but no other types of plastic sheets at the time. figured I do a prototype and see if I can make the same thing out of plastic. To get some sheets out of the pipe sections, I cut the PVC tubes lengthwise and unroll them with the help of a heat gun. Now to get really flat sheets I would sandwich each piece between two thick aluminium offcuts, clamp, and slowly heat till PVC would spread flat. then I could cool the whole thing down and extract my nice and flat plastic sheet. needed 12 of these.

              Then made some patterns and cut out the hinge sections. also need to cut out some spacers. then used some more PVC tubes to make a body to hold the whole thing together. to lock it I wanted to use a quick release mechanism but had to forgo that in the interest of time. so used a wing nut and two wide washers to get a solid locking action. one side has a screw that attaches to the tip of the flag pole, the other side has a tight slide-fit to hold the net frame. 

              It turned out quite solid in the whole 270 degrees of movements. but just for good measures I had made the hinge so it could be flipped around and at 270 degrees it would sit on the other piece directly and hence reduce the force on the hinge. while at it I made a fix attachment as well, just in case.


              This prototype worked well for one rescue season, even got featured in some of the rescues. but alas, nothing goes "that smoothly". we had a record-hot summer and at one point the pole was left in the car in the sun with the net attached. the heat and added force was enough to deform the PVC. unsurprisingly, what can be heat-formed can also get heat-un-formed. oh well, maybe using metals wasn't a bad idea after all?


              ALUMINIUM OR ALUMINUM?

              In the past I had tried to source some aluminum with no success. I hear its only available in US and it's export is illegal. so, the next best thing was locally grown aluminium. 
              Working with aluminium has some unique challenges, specially thin sheets of it. it's gummy, has tendency to "cold weld" and to weld it you need a TIG welder, and usually can't be heat-hardened. I had temporary access to a TIG welder so I decided to give it a go. maybe I could make it work with some additional tricks.

              aaaaand...., NOPE. aside from welding it and doing some weld build-up which was a pain, the heat as expected annealed aluminium even softer and more prone to cold-welding. even after lapping the hinge in, it was not as free moving, and perhaps worse, if I were to bring the parts together without loads of oil or silicone lube, the layers would stick like crazy and just gull the surfaces pretty badly. I knew this was a long-shot, just didn't knew how much of a long-shot..... so, on third thought, maybe plastics were a reasonable solution after all...

              POLYCARBONATE (PC)

              So, need a plastic that is not gummy (like PE or PP), not weak or heat sensitive (like PS or ABS), easy to source as sheet for me (unlike POM or PTFE) and it needed to be though. very few non-exotic plastics are left to chose from and polycarbonate was the obvious choice. aside from one minor caveat of requiring DCM for fusion welding. DCM being a bit of a controlled solvent, is hard to buy. I could have extracted it out of paint stripper but that requires some glassware that I don't have and rather not get at this point. so, no gluing, at least I can do some minor heat forming. 

              Bought a small sheet of 4mm polycarbonate and did the usual cut-outs and drilling, and sanding. not bad!, looks promising I thought.... so, let's go further.
              A thin steel sheath and a bit of sanding, heating and some epoxy to fill all the gaps... damn it! now that I have epoxy on it, it's not going in. (that's what she said...). some cursing later I got it in and it looks good! I mean I have epoxy all over but that cleans easy enough.


              I wonder what these few odd looking marks are though?
              .....FUCK, are these cracks? yeah, yeah they are cracks..... FUUUUU....*flips-tha-table


              Ok, so, it's two weeks later and I'm cooled down enough to get back on this. kinda out of ideas though. I wish I had my furnace going, maybe I could cast something. or maybe I do something with fibreglass casting? I don't have the right tools for casting of any sort at this point..... perhaps I should give polycarbonate another chance...