All three tube-type oscilloscopes are gone. So’s a signal tracer, two full-sized vacuum tube voltmeters (VTVM’s). And an early Heathkit Signal generator. Poof. In a cloud of fury powered by Mrs. Olson. Headed to eBaying in future weeks. (Email me if interested.) I’ve decided that for the balance of my seventies, I’m going to focus … Read More
Today, we’re going to turn you into a competent basic radio operator. It may be a much longer report than usual, but it’s a four-day weekend for many, so what the hell, right? Much of this morning’s discussion will apply to radios other than the ATS-25 (and its many variants) that may be purchased on … Read More
Ready for the Internet to Collapse? Of course not. No one is. I mean picture a world where… Credit cards no longer work. Food and groceries can’t be delivered. Trains don’t run. Fire, medical, and police dispatch may not work. No social media work. Your bank’s offline until….who knows? Oh, and you’re locked in whatever … Read More
The reports that the navy knew – sort of – that the submersible Titan had suffered an implosion near the scene of the Titanic came as little surprise. But, as these things will, it tweaks our thinking onto new pathways. You see, words have power. A simple new word in our thinking processes can change our future. Reporters are … Read More
A short rap on Mental Topologies is a useful (Big Brain People) prequel today. “Regular” understanding of IQ as a semi-Gaussian normal distribution” among humans is oh so terribly flawed I could just wet myself. See, dimensioning humans (rendering concepts down to 2D) is hopeless Reductionism for the mentally short-changed. Multispectral Humanity becomes apparent as a … Read More
Money first. Then a ton of interesting projects that keep us busy. We’ll do a “photo-stroll” around the shop (as of Tuesday morning) so you can get more of a feel for what Making and Doing are like outside the confines of cubicles and 300 square-foot living spaces. And why retired is usual just tired. Hosed … Read More
We enjoy contrast. Without it, life is blurry, unclear. Meaningless. Yet today, we may be working toward the answer to the big “Where we came from” story. Two important pre-prints have landed. One Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi | bioRxiv while the other is 241,000 to 335,000 Years Old Rock … Read More
Yeah, well…since we do call this the ShopTalk column, every once in a so-often, we like to actually build something. Big, important, flexible, resilience oriented toward local manufacturing and sustainability builds. What we’re doing today is a whole “soup to nuts” build of a Sainsmart 3018 Pro CNC that I’ve had sitting in the project queue … Read More
The Mexico Invasion begins anew today. We’ll get to that down the page so as not to get topic-banned in search… ahem… Let’s instead start the day with P.P.I. – Producer Price Index – numbers. Because while we are still shocked at the stupidity of [controlled] media running up someone’s book in the market Wednesday, PPI … Read More
We have a number of important items on our “news budget” this week. Beginning with a virtual turkey in financial markets while the masses try to figure out what the Future holds. Apparently, it may not hold Joe Biden. NEW POLL: Trump Leading Biden By 7 Points in 2024 Race (mediaite.com). The reason for “show … Read More
Fed meeting is likely to result in a quarter point hike in rates tomorrow afternoon. The only Big market mover (at least from our 5:30 AM vantage point) is that the Labor JOLTS report will drop at 10 AM Eastern. Set an alarm and click over to see the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey … Read More
Although stock futures (early) showed the S&P down 10 and the Dow down 50-ish, we published our expectations Thursday morning and they really haven’t changed. “What we might see – and some of this has to do with Options mechanics – might be a decline today and a rally Friday. Our Peoplenomics subscribers will see the set-up … Read More
Although I got the major PITA project I’ve been putting off partly done Saturday, the real satisfaction came from wiring up the BBQ outlet this week. However, it was a fine study in how “little projects” can turn into Big ones on the clock. The idea sounded simple enough. We had run an extension cord from … Read More