On Sunday, November 26, 2023 at 11:41:47 AM UTC-5, Timothy Golden wrote:
The newb, young as he was, did have access to quite some documentation on the internet, which had access to since his younger years. His curiousity was spawn during an overheard breakfast conversation at a diner between a stranger and his friend in the
next booth. "The plates must have heated at high voltage, and the dielectric between them changed somehow. That's the only way I can explain the drop in frequency, and it still is that way now even with the thing running cold." Not a bit of it made sense
to the boy, but he could tell they were discussing electronics, and that nobody in his family spoke a word of the stuff. Indeed, they almost treated it as if it were voo-doo. When you turn the switch and nothing happens it's time for a new one. This was
the golden age that they lived in. It still is next to impossible to actually make a transistor, and yet the devices by the millions entered every gadget, from a toddler's crib toy to the grave of granddad Johnson, where a little solar panel illuminated
the grave at precisely his time of death, coordinated universal time, for about an hour. Sure, there was a fancy version that would compute the trajectory to Venus at his time of death if you wanted it to, and it would turn the LED bulb on for as long as
you want; until the battery dies. Brownout detection, they called it. These things have more tricks and widgets built into them than a slice of pi.
To find them at the dump is common around here; not with all these smarts; not on a LED light charged by the sun, but soon, perhaps. I'm really hoping to see three phase motors coming in. Plenty of old DC motors, by the way. So many NiCad drills, NiMH
batteries, and even abandoned LiIon. Is technocracy inhumane? Will culture run away? Or are we its slave now? Perhaps it would be wise to keep a wide stance.
Well, so what about those billiards? I was pondering random action, and some other had a quip of variation round about the same time; those billiards actually in their natural state not quite so stable as on that perfectly level felt top table to
perfection; as if their own terrestrial makeup were of some other worldly sort.
Then too, the damn electrons, and who exactly ever claims them to be still ever in their lives? In this kinetic mess we are born? And Ohm's law, too? Why, the current here sir is zero, so I must be in an infinite voltage sort of place. My dielectric is
quite excellent over here, sir. What a fine dry day it is. What will we do without any ground? Just use the case, sir. Sure, it could be sparking during a nuclear attack, and I've been meaning to ask that Ritter fellow about just how far a Boston blast
will get? If I hook a water heating element to my antenna am I in danger of further vaporization? Is it a line of sight thing?
The decent into such places these days feels so well established to me, as the credibility of our own government long ago washed down the toilet drain like a fecal deposit. As if they could make us stoop any lower for it. Cry out in pain, and they'll
feed you again. That, or take your circuits down, sir.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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