Search found 24 matches

by John Brown
Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:38 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: hybrid math
Replies: 19
Views: 14623

Places like California want to start charging drivers by how many miles per year they drive. I believe they are doing this in the UK already. I don't know where you heard that, but it's not true. We do have a "congestion charge" in central London (and in some other cities, I believe) and ...
by John Brown
Fri Nov 11, 2005 1:06 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Looking for an Eprom
Replies: 3
Views: 1907

Re: Looking for an Eprom

I seem to remember that you used to be able to get 16 bit wide EPROMs.
by John Brown
Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:28 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: DIY Punk Ethic and Culture
Replies: 15
Views: 6172

Re: DIY Punk Ethic and Culture

Philba, my post was slightly tongue in cheek, but the bit about billions is true. I like americans, I have an american wife, from Washington State, like you!
by John Brown
Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:50 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: DIY Punk Ethic and Culture
Replies: 15
Views: 6172

Re: DIY Punk Ethic and Culture

Actually the British and the American billion are one and the same thing. We (the British) adopted the American version many years ago to save confusion. Obviously it didn't work, since so many people still believe that the British billion is 10E12. Incidentally, can you imagine America doing such a...
by John Brown
Mon Sep 19, 2005 10:33 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Green Laser pen
Replies: 71
Views: 27704

Re: Green Laser pen

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Green Vision is ten times the strength of red, blue is ten times that again. <hr></blockquote> Unless you happen to be a human, in which case your eyes will be most sensitive to the yellow area of t...
by John Brown
Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:54 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: NiMH cells go dead on shelf too quickly
Replies: 16
Views: 8249

Re: NiMH cells go dead on shelf too quickly

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> Take advantage of the "no memory" characteristic and leave them trickle charging on the shelf until you need them. I mean like 20ma up to 1.4 Volts. <hr></blockquote> From what I have rea...
by John Brown
Thu Sep 08, 2005 4:31 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: LED Surprise
Replies: 11
Views: 4584

Re: LED Surprise

This is something that always confuses me. If different LEDs produce different amount of light with the same power consumption, and they "don't generate much heat", then where does the rest of the power go in the lower-light-output LED?
by John Brown
Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:46 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Caller ID Privacy Manager
Replies: 17
Views: 8108

Re: Caller ID Privacy Manager

Indeed. I believe the modulation scheme is slightly different as well.
by John Brown
Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:02 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Caller ID Privacy Manager
Replies: 17
Views: 8108

Re: Caller ID Privacy Manager

Here in the UK the CID is sent before the first ring. Although it is preceded by a line reversal. Assuming you have some sort of micro involved, you could save the bit stream and then re-modulate it to send it to the selected phone. The modulation part should be much easier that the de-modulation.
by John Brown
Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:33 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Making hydrogen from water & DC
Replies: 208
Views: 91509

Re: Making hydrogen from water & DC

Well I'm a little more cynical than most, so I don't believe that tidal energy is "free". Seems to me that if the tides are caused by the rotation of the Moon around the Earth and the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (do I have that the right way round? I'm sure someone will disagree w...
by John Brown
Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:26 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Do orbiting wires generate?
Replies: 17
Views: 7888

Re: Do orbiting wires generate?

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Whenever a current is generated in a conductor there is a force generated as well. Any force applied to an orbiting spacecraft will effect it's orbit. It's probably a good thing that the conductor l...
by John Brown
Wed May 25, 2005 9:06 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: ian's grammactical rules
Replies: 48
Views: 19177

Re: ian's grammactical rules

The word "numeracy" was actually invented by British prime minister Harold MacMillan, so I guess you should also credit him with "innumeracy". I like to think of language as an instrument, and as such I think it's worthwhile to try and play to the best of one's ability. I would b...
by John Brown
Tue Apr 26, 2005 8:40 am
Forum: Computer Programming
Topic: PBC Pokes and Peeks
Replies: 3
Views: 4046

Re: PBC Pokes and Peeks

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> quote:Why does the 16F84 have a status register in BANK 0 and also in BANK 1?[/ <p>Because the Pic is a risc based processor and uses the Harvard style architecture (data memory and program memory ...
by John Brown
Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:41 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: pull up register for???
Replies: 16
Views: 7155

Re: pull up register for???

Somebody may have mentioned this already, I can't be bothered to wade through all the posts, but... On certain microcontrollers there is a pull-up REGISTER which is used to enable or disable built-in pull-ups on a pin-by-pin basis. They're not usually resistors, they're FETs which source a fairly lo...