A few things worth reading

1.  From the front page of the 11/12 Wall Street Journal,  Tinkering Makes Comeback Amid Crisis.  ”The modern milling machine, able to shape metal with hairbreadth precision, revolutionized industry. Blake Sessions has one in his dorm room, tucked under the shelf with the peanut butter on it.” 

2.  K3NG writes about the upcoming 4G wireless technology and the demand for radio spectrum.  “When you look at mobile wireless spectrum, attaining perhaps 2 or 3 bits per hertz spectral efficiency and serving millions of customers, it’s hard to defend our use of a 4 Mhz wide band that at any given moment in any area is supporting perhaps three or four voice conversations.”

3. Dan KB6NU points out Hams Aren’t the Only Nuts Who Restore Old Electronics.  IEEE Spectrum has an article on a group of  engineers who are restoring a vintage IBM 1401 computer.

Fun Java apps

Got some time to kill?  I just ran across a website with lots of fun java apps.  You can play with a circuit simulator, visualize antenna patterns or play with digital filters.

You can even play a game of Pong or get lost in a 3-D maze.

New QRP power source

Sounds like just the thing for QRP (so to speak…)

Urine-powered cars, homes and personal electronic devices could be available in six months, with new technology developed by scientists from Ohio University. 

Using a nickel-based electrode, the scientists can create large amounts of cheap hydrogen from urine that could be burned or used in fuel cells.

A fuel cell, urine-powered vehicle could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon.  Read article

More soldering

Soldering of badges for a party at Defcon.  The video begins by stencilling solder paste and reflowing it using a $20 electric skillet.  About 6:30 there is some good advice about through hole soldering as well.

Pacific Power Batteries to open in August

Pacific Power Batteries to open in August [Bellingham Business Journal]

Pacific Power Batteries, a western Washington-based commercial and retail battery company with stores in Marysville, Everett, Monroe and Mount Vernon, is opening its first franchise location at 1511 Iowa St. in Bellingham in the 2,000-square-foot former Northwest Hot Springs location.  

Pacific Power Batteries carries vehicle and marine storage batteries as well batteries for laptops, cell phones, electric razors, backup alarm systems and more.

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Your next computer? pt. 2

150MHz Intel 486SX compatible, 1 watt power consumption, USB 2.0, 10/100 ethernet, serial, Linux or OpenWrt, about $50.

http://bifferos.bizhat.com/

Soldering Contest

Did you know there is a NYC Soldering Championship?  Who’s going to enter next year? 

Connector Data

Allpinouts.org is a Web-based project to collect and list all known connector pinouts.  If you need pin numbers for cable connections you may find this makes it quick and easy.  It’s a Wiki , so if you don’t find what you need, you can add it.

Hackerspace documentary

Interesting documentary about the Montreal hackerspace Foulab.  Watch them turn a TV into an oscilloscope and hook up an old Teletype to receive text messages.  Lots of electronic content!

…still in use

Husband-wife spies lured by stranger

“For three decades, accused spies Walter Kendall Myers and his wife shuffled secrets to their Cuban contacts in such fear of being caught, authorities say, that he memorized top-secret documents rather than bring them into their home…. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered a damage assessment of what the couple may have revealed. Their methods of communicating with the Cubans included Morse code on shortwave radio, changing shopping carts at the grocery store and a face-to-face meeting with President Fidel Castro himself, court documents say.”