I suddenly started getting warnings from Google about an increase in 404 errors crawling this site. The last time this happened it was due to memory exhaustion and the Linux kernel impolitely terminating mysqld to rescue the system’s stability.
This time, I’m at a loss to explain it. Google somehow indexed a ton of pages from gallery.kg4cyx.net as being on kg4cyx.net or in kg4cyx.net/gallery. In short, it saw right through my vhosts and it just doesn’t work that way.
The heck happened?!
This is beyond the usual nonsense with having a wurfer on staff who puts unsold eBay prices on everything— this is just insanity
It’s hilarious when modern technology fails at thoroughly ancient tasks.
TrafFUCKED!!!
Okay so don’t get me wrong. This thing works and I’ve seen it do so.
However, reading that LCD doesn’t inspire confidence, for the firmware is full of typos.
A few seconds into a phase sync, “PHASE” becomes “QPHASE”. “ANGLE” becomes “CAKLE”.
What the?!
Oh GE… How the mighty have fallen.
On an unrelated note, a silly moment from this morning:
KE4QPF, adjusting camera levels in his silly perpetually annoyed looking state: “Wow, the anchor is coming in bright. The only way you could come in that bright is if you’re goth or—”
Me: “Well, I’m goth and I’m not that bright.”
“You … just…. walked…. into that one.”
DERP!!! 😀
This is a fun little thing I built for the children’s museum.
The pool for the remote controlled boats always had this ledge at the back and two static cranes (made of really strong steel, may I add!) at the back.
The former director of exhibits decided this should be an interactive feature adding a goal for guests who are more skilled at controlling the boats to aim for.
When you succeed, the amber beacon light flashes and the train rolls over like it’s going to pick up cargo. After a few seconds it departs.
Yes, those yellow relays are the ones equipped with the surprise diode 😉
This is the solution I came up with for the train control. There are gaps in the third rail to allow isolation. I pulled the spaghetti out of the locomotive and wired the motors to the wheels.
It works great. Or, if you put the locomotive on the track backwards, it drives its coupler right through the drywall. BANG!! 😉
Hey guys I accidentally came in contact with the HD-SDI jack on an AJA video processor set to change timecode and got sucked into the 1970s. Please send me ridiculous disco pants. Thanks!
And now, two mysteries:
Greenies. Where do they go? Who takes them? World may never know.
What is this beautiful thing? It’s about 3″ diameter and my best guess is it’s a flat, ironless rotor for a wound rotor induction motor. It’s video tape machine related.
How. How does this even manage to happen??
Also, ever noticed just how rapidly Walgreens abandoned efforts to become a wannabe grocery store chain? I guess the reality sank in really quickly that this is the best they could manage in terms of perishable product quality with their oddball supply chain, and they pulled out the refrigerator cases as quickly as they’d thrown them in.
Nope.
Penny & Giles, eat your conductive plastic hearts out.
The tab at top is the cover lock; push it and turn to remove it for cleaning and service
…
Big silver contact studs lead to the resistors inside.
In normal service these would be lubricated with Daven oil. This is a total mystery to me — it’s been out of production for decades, and I have no idea what a proper substitute would be.
The only other place I’ve seen rotary switches this hardcore are in avionics.
The Daven step attenuator was used in older broadcast consoles — I’m not sure on the details but I’ve heard that WVUM had one.