posted by
iron (525549) on 01/22/2012 under
Improvement category
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GFCI, Surge Protector From Belkin, Humidifier
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A GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) opens the circuit when the current difference between Neutral and Hot wire is over 4 mA. Couple of weeks ago what was happening that everytime I switched to different speed of the humidifier (motor inside), since it was an inductive load, it was cauing the GFCI receptacle to trip due to inherited nature of inductor (reactive voltage / reverse voltage /arching etc.); I was thinking to build the snubber circuit myself but then decided to first find and test the surge protector - the one shown in the picture above. Home Depot folks were not optimistic that it will work. There is nothing wrong in testing especially if you can return it. Bought one and later end up buying one more because it worked. I even did the stress test by switching to different speed levels faster; no tripping at all. Give it a try yourself and let me know how was your experience. Enjoy!
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posted by
iron (525549) on 03/25/2011 under
Improvement category
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Do Not Buy High-Build Instead Buy Fast Drying
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According to Minwax - the company that supplies Polyurethane both High Build and Fast Drying to HomeDepot and Lowes here in USA; High Build Polyurethane dries in 24 hours - guys this is a joke and a very big fat lie. It's a horrible lie; it takes 3 weeks to 6 weeks for this to properly dry so that you can move/place your furniture on otherwise wherever there is a slide\pressue there will be wrinkles. I ended up doing my floor twice; do not ask me about how painful it is to redo a freshly done Polyurethane job. Always buy a Fast Drying or Ultra-fast drying formula from Winmax. HomeDepot had some old boxes and there was no such option of Fast Drying; I guess all sold-out; eded-up getting High Build. Took me two months for one floor.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 03/19/2011 under
Engineering category
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Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Logo
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Computer programmers, engineers and all those folks attached with the computer industry are aware of open source software and its associated benefits. Open-source softwares allows programmers to modify the existing code based on their needs and even redistribute modified versions with or without attribution depending upon the open source software license agreement. With open source hardware, engineers will be able to copy, modify existing open source hardware designs. This will remarkably reduce the time engineers spend in reinventing the wheel. Not only that, engineers would be able to redistribute those modified designs under open source hardware license. This is an excellent idea but it will take some time to gain maturity. The core of open source hardware statement is:
Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design.
The future open source hardwares will be designed using materials, components, infrastructure, processes etc. that are available readily in the market especially in the open source software or hardware domain. The open source hardware logo is not final yet. Maybe we will see some changes in the upcoming years.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 03/19/2011 under
Hardware category
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H2O Shower Power Radio
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Hydro turbines are basically used for generating electricity from the hidden potential energy that exists in the water flow. This micro Hydro turbine power generator is having a small wheel with fins on it. When waterfalls on the small fins it makes the generator shaft to rotate which in turns result in electricity. This electricity is then utilized to power up the radio. So as long as the shower is on, one can enjoy the radio news or listen to melodious songs, talk shows etc. As of today, H2O Shower Power Radio is available this month for about $56.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 03/19/2011 under
Hardware category
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Telepresence Robot Called Vgo
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Engineers have been developing robots for a long time now, this is one of the unique applications of robots where a person can be present at a location remotely. With Telepresence robots, one can have their eyes, ear and talking ability extended to locations where physical presence of the same person might result in body injury. This is especially useful for people suffering from immunity related diseases. A real-world scenario will be, a student suffering from one such disease and is not allowed to go outside the home. With Telepresence robots, the same student can go to the class and communicate with the teacher and other classmates as if he is present physically. These robots have built-in camera for eyes functionality, speakers for talking ability and microphone for hearing purpose. Maybe one day these robots will be having the remarkable sense of smell as well. As of today, there are certain electrical sensors in the market that can sense the presence of some smells like Carbon mono-oxide, carbon dioxide, certain other chemical agents etc. but not all.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 03/13/2011 under
Questions category
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Larry Have Some Mercy: TimesTen For 23,000 USD?
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Oracle Database is the most expensive RDBMS software in the world-wide market. Just to give you an idea, Oracle 11g Standard One Edition processor based license (dual socket or quad core) perpetual, costs 6,200 USD. Standard One is lowest, lower end or in other words small business solution. They also have Oracle Standard and Oracle Enterprise Edition Database, where later being the most expensive among the three. Now let's look at Oracle TimeTen In-memory database; it costs 23,000 USD processor based license as of March 2011. This is ridiculus, isn't it? It shows how Larry Ellison is one of the richest guys in competition to build world biggest yacht. In words of Oracle:
Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database (TimesTen) is a memory-optimized relational database that delivers very low response time and very high throughput for performance-critical systems.
It is basically Oracle's standard database with the only one major difference that at the start, almost all or at least most of the dataset is loaded in the RAM. These days RAM chips are dirt chip compared to years back. You can have a server with 64 GB RAM or 128 GB RAM or an enterprise level server with 512 GB RAM and then load the whole dataset in an array at the start of the application. Then serve all the connected sessions via this dataset array. Let's dive in. Prerequisites: VB ASP.NET, Arrays, ADO.NET, Oracle.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 02/19/2011 under
Engineering category
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Autonomous Fighting Machines Prototyped
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The era of Autonomous Fighting Machines (AFM) started long time back but now it has gain significant perfection due to advancement in A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), Robotics, Superior-Smaller-Processing (SSP) Chips, lighter weight motors, batteries etc. Most of start-up material for such projects are easily accessible in the market, google and it's just the matter of putting it together. Electrical Engineers from different universities have already designed great products. One such product is BigDog.
It was developed back in 2005 by Boston Dynamics in collaboration with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. The project was funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This robot is known to be the most advanced rough-terrain robot on the face of the earth. To read more about BigDog visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BigDog. You will find 100s of closely related examples on the same topic on Google and YouTube. Now let's come to the point of whats holding all these robots back? The answer is battery. Since we haven't developed a better battery yet so here comes era of Cyborgs.
Cyborg insects: This is an example of human's mercy-less face and courage to put it on YouTube as a pride or achievement, instigating others to embark on such mercy-less projects.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 02/01/2011 under
Programming category
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IRC Implementation Using VB 6.0
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IRC (Internet Relay Chat) implementation requires RFC 1413 (IDENT Server) And RFC 1459. Both of these protocols can be downloaded from The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) website: URL. The complete code/software, you can download from the source link provided below; it's written in Visual Basic 6.0. Here we want to discuss the some important aspect of implementation. In cmdConnect_Click() function, once you send a connect request to one of IRC servers using WinSock control: Winsock1; using another WinSock control: tcpIdentServer you will be waiting/listening for Ident Server response on port 113. Whenever the data arrives at the two WinSock controls; Winsock1_DataArrival() and tcpIdentServer_DataArrival() executes. If you want to gain expertise in Network Programming make sure you understand the theory behind Winsock control which is basically an API based TCP/IP and UDP interface. Moreover, if you want to gain expertise on the implementation of RFC network related protocols, make sure you are really good at string manipulation functions e.g. InStr, Mid, Left, Right, RegEx, Replace, Split. With a very simple method: "SendData" of Winsock control we can send any data to any TCP/IP or UDP server in any part of the world. It's that easy. In schools, most professors teach TCP/IP theory but very few shares the knowledge of actual implementation via RFC.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/27/2011 under
Engineering category
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GE Endorsement Of ZigBee Hurts Wi-Fi Alliance
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In a white paper, GE endorsement of ZigBee hurts Wi-Fi Alliance and I do not understand why? I guess Wi-Fi Alliance did not like the GE's Power Consumption Data over 24-Hour Period analysis as shown in the picture. Before I give my perspective, let's look at Wi-Fi Alliance response, they mentioned that in the test, GE used the 10 years old Wi-Fi protocol chip (b standard) and on the other hand GE used the older ZigBee protocol chip. Had GE used the latest WiFi 802.11n standard and latest ZigBee protocol chip, the results would have been totally different. A spokeswoman for the ZigBee Alliance responded that the technology has the ability to "securely transfer data at very low power rates." I think, both technologies have a different domain e.g. you will not use ZigBee to stream HD Video signal because it is not meant for this purpose. Similarly, using WiFi 802.11n standard for developing smart appliances which require less data intensive communication, will be a over kill as WiFi 802.11n standard are far more expensive and far more powerful for this task. It's like killing a housefly with an army tank. Dooes not make sense. ZigBee has far longer range than WiFi limit of 300 feet line of sight or normally 100 feet. To me it looks like folks at Wi-Fi Alliance has lot of time!
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/27/2011 under
Engineering category
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Netduino Mini Using The .NET Micro Framework
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Netduino is an open source electronics platform using the .NET Micro Framework. Visit http://netduino.com for details. This is a excellent solution for engineers and hobbyists. As shown in the picture, it designed for easy breadboard use and later PCB fabrication. It is having a Atmel AT91SAM7X512 32-bit Atmel 32-bit microcontroller having Speed: 48MHz, ARM7 with the Code Storage size of 152 KB and 64 KB RAM. It is having 48MHz speed. It can be programmed via RS232 serial port like BASIC Stamp 2 or via 3.3V USB-TTL cable like Arduino Nano. Another good feature is that it can be powered via 9V alkaline battery.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/27/2011 under
God category
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Shameless Shark Fins Trade
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This is not any floor tiles pattern, it's Hong Kong Shark Fin Sidewalk, taken by Photojournalist Alex Hofford URL. The brutality is that the cruel fishermen cut the fins off the sharks and while they are still alive put them back in the sea where they die eventually due to extreme pain and bleeding. Shark fin soups is very popular and it's prepared after removing the skin off from the fin. Shark fin is incorrectly perceived by some as having high nutritional value especially in fighting cancer. Shark fins are not only in demand in Hong Kong but in China as well and it's considered as delicacy in restaurants.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/01/2011 under
Hardware category
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MagicJack - A Non-Environmental Friendly Product
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Horribly non-environmental friendly product. Let's see how? For this device to function you have to keep your computer ON always. Since it's a phone, so it does not make sense to turn it off. There are millions of MagicJack units sold. Imagine that! Now millions of those computer remain ON always. Each computer desktop takes at the minimum 70 watts, the latest one have bigger footprint around 140 watts that is without monitor and other accessories. Let's suppose 1 million of those units remained ON for 24 hours. It means 1680 MWH (70 x 24 x 1 mega watt hour) of energy is being wasted every day. The inventor knows about it's harmful impact on the environment but his greed has surrounded his heart. There is a much better environment friendly product called NetTalk URL. It does not require a 70 watt computer to be ON always. It's wattage consumption is less than 1 watt.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/01/2011 under
God category
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Satellite Sentinel Project - The World Is Watching
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George Clooney has started this Satellite Sentinel Project that will collect real-time satellite imagery and combine it with the field analysis from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the Enough Project to show to the world, the movement of troops and civilians. He wants to deliver a message to folks out there waiting to launch another genocide after January 9th independence referendum. Clooney says, "We were late to Rwanda. We were late to the Congo. We were late to Darfur." and I hope we will not be late this time.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/01/2011 under
Hardware category
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Power Outlet Plate With USB Ports
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To me it looks like a useless product. It's just my personal thinking. You can use the USB port on the plate as a source of power to charge the cell phones etc. You cannot use it as a port for USB sharing devices e.g. if you have USB printer hooked up in one room, you cannot access the same printer from the other room. Most likely they have a AC to DC converter behind each plate which will remain ON on all the plates in the home whether you are using it or not. Like MagicJack URL this will destroy all human efforts to save energy and safe environment. The AC to DC converter behind the place support 2100 mA or 2.1 A. That is why I call it a non-environmental friendly product.
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posted by
iron (525549) on 01/01/2011 under
Hardware category
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Olympus E-PL2 With Macro Spotlight
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A unique mount at the flash light location gives this Olympus E-PL2 two snake lights to illuminate macro subjects under short range. The innovative approach of flexible spotlighting objects will surely bring effects that in the past could only be achieved using good quality graphics software like PhotoShop. It comes with BlueTooth technology built-in which I do not recommend, one should use it for longer duration because of health hazards URL and a high resolution LCD display. This camera is not in market yet and it's planned to be released to general public during the first quarter of 2011.
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