Don Lancaster's What's New?       2003 Archive Blog

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Please welcome John Bright's Winford Engineering
as our newest banner advertiser. John offers some
interesting and useful DB9 and DB25 breadboarding
adaptors along with other fine products.

Just uploaded GuruGram #32 which is a tutorial on
Heap Sorts in general and PostScript Heap sorts in
particular. The sourcecode appears here and as a
ready-to-run demo utility here.

I am saddened by alternate energy enthusasiasts who
continue to delude themselves. A recent "breakeven
in fifteen years!" gridtie project COMPLETELY 
IGNORED interest rates and tapped FOUR totally
outrageous subsidies. One of the subsidies alone
would have been enough to pay their power bills for the
entire time. Without even pissing around with all that
ugly junk in their back yard.

In NO WAY was this project even remotely renewable
or sustainable. It was simply a clever but useless scam
to rip off tax dollars for no apparent benefit to anyone.
The fifteen year breakeven claim was an  outrageous
misinterpretation of real world economics.

Note that the highly touted NET METERING is
really a transfer tax subsidy in disguise. The other
utility users pay through the nose for the avoided
cost differential.

More in our Energy Fundamentals tutorial.

Just had a publisher who should know better send me
some forms which basically said "We are going to steal
your intellectual property. Sign and return this form so
we can do so. If we do not hear from you in thirty days,
we are STILL going to steal your intellectual property."

With, of course, NO WAY WHATSOEVER to provide
a negative response. Not even a specific email address
from the sender!

I Just received great heaping bunches of medical books
from a  military library. Of, by, and for doctors. We'll be
putting these up on eBay one volume at a time, but please
email me if youy are interested in an outstanding buy.

Combined our Magic Fill and Vignette routines into a
single NUBKG01.PSL that is faster and a lot more
convenient to use.

Combined our Swings and Tilts and No White routines
into a single NUTILT01.PSL that is faster and more
convenient to use.

Just discovered a programming construct called a
Heap. While a truly wondrous way to efficiently stash
data as a binary tree, its manipulation and overhead
seems daunting for everyday use.

A heap is a binary tree of expandable size that fills
from the top down and left to right. Any parent entry
is larger than either of its two children. The largest
item is always on the top of the heap. The heap gets
maintained by continual swapping to force this rule.

Our PostScript Sorts of December 21st can have their
speed further increased for large n by a factor of six
to ten! To do this, insertion presort into 128x26 bins
based on the first TWO string characters. Since the
earlier speed is way more than good enough, such
added complexity only creates low n and resource
problems for most users. Detailed code on request.

This borders on an ancient CONTENT ADDRESSIBLE
MEMORY technique that has largely fallen by the
wayside.

Picked up some vintage Casio PB-700 calculators
with unusual FIN/CAL financial firmware added to
them. Now up on eBay.

Here's the latest PostScript sort routines: This one
is a speed optimized bubble sort:

/alphabubblesort2 { /curmat1 exch store curmat1
length 1 sub -1 1 { curmat1 0 get exch 1 exch 1 exch
{ /posn exch store curmat1 posn get 2 copy lt {exch} if
curmat1 exch posn 1 sub exch put } for curmat1 exch
posn exch put } for curmat1 } bind store

And here's a bin presorter that gives an extra 12x speedup:

/presort1 {/matmat mark 128 {[]} repeat ] store
stddat { dup 0 get /curint exch store mark exch
matmat curint get aload pop ] matmat exch curint
exch put } forall mark matmat { dup length 1 ge { dup
length 2 ge { alphabubblesort2{ }forall} if }{pop} ifelse}
forall ] } bind store

Presently alpha sorts 300 strings in 12 milliseconds! More details
are found in GuruGram #31.

Latest GuruGram #31 is on Fast & Efficient PostScript
Sorting Utilities. Sourcecode here. And testfiles here.

I have a real buy on a school surplus large Xerox 5680
copier. First $699 takes it. FOB Thatcher, AZ. Original
cost: $39,000.00 Believed fully functional; guaranteed
servicible. Quite clean. Up to 11x17 input, 8-1/2 x 14
output, duplex, staple, resize, etc...  1030 pounds. Liftgate
truck or ramped 5x9 U-Haul recommended.

email me for viewing. Or call (928) 428-4073.

Discovered the secret to making a bubble sort blindingly fast:
Presorting int K bins can speed you up by up to a factor of K!

Here's a minor adjustment to our sort of December
11th. It gets down into the quarter second range for
400 strings by eliminating a variable and binding.
But making things a tad more obscure...

/alphabubblesort2 { /curmat1 exch store
curmat1 length 1 sub -1 1 {curmat1 0 get
exch 1 exch 1 exch { /posn exch store
curmat1 posn get 2 copy lt {exch} if
curmat1 exch posn 1 sub exch put} for curmat1
exch posn exch put } for curmat1 } bind store

While this seems amazingly fast, it is a n^2 type of
thingy and will slow down dramatically for large n.
The "better" sorts I looked at had enough overhead
that they did not seem competitive below several
thousand entries. They also are often highly content
sensitive.

Speaking of which, presorting the above into two
piles A-K and L-Z can approach a 4X speedup. As
can splitting out all the popularity 1's from eBay
reports . Possibly the 2's as well.

eBay may have made some internal changes that
trashed some of their older links. As a result, many
of our PDF files may have incorrect links. We have
fixed the website pages, though.

Try This Link instead if you get an eBay link error
message.

The hidden message here, of course, is to think
twice about trashing old website links. For you
might be causing untold grief to hundreds or even
thousands of other websites and documents that
are trying to link you.

Latest GuruGram #30 is an update and revision on
Conversion Between PostScript Strings, Integers,
Arrays, & Dictionaries. The original can still be
found here, and the new sourcecode here.

What is the best possible PostScript sort you can
come up with? This new one is twice as fast as
BUBLSORT.PS, sorting an array of 400 text
strings in a third of a second...

 /alphabubblesort1 { /curmat1 exch store
curmat1 length 1  sub -1 2 {/passlength
exch store curmat1 0 get 1 1  passlength
{ /posn exch store curmat1 posn get 2
copy lt  {exch} if curmat1 exch posn 1
sub exch put} for curmatl  exch posn
exch put } for curmat1 } store

Let me know if you can do any better.

There seem to be hoards of thermodynamically
challenged epsilon minuses out there calling for
government subsidies to "force" the thermo and
engineering economics fundamental violations needed
for the "hydrogen economy".

Next time you run into one of these turkeys, ask
them WHICH type of subsidy they prefer...

 (A) The CALIFORNIA model in which
        virtually all of the pv  paybacks went
        into boiler shop scams that set pv back
        by  many decades.

 (B) The ARIZONA model in which you were
       given a free large SUV for an unconnected
       one gallon tank.

 (C) The MIDWEST model where a monumental
       energy sink was cleverly disguised as a twelve
       billion dollar vote buying scam.

 (D) The SOUTH CAROLINA model where they
       added a five ton evaporative cooler to get
       their 3 ton but nonworking solar adsorption
      cooler to look good.

(E) The DETROIT model where their bus demos
       are trucking hydrogen in from Pittsburgh,

(F) The ILLINOIS model where they hand pushed
       their nonworking hydrogen bus while having it
       lavishly praised for its "silent operation"

Or, of course...

 (G) The BRAZIL model that nearly bankrupted the
       entire country over monumental ethanol stupidity.

The best possible way for alternate energy to succeed is if the
Feds GET AND STAY OUT OF THE WAY!

More in ENERGFUN.PDF.

Latest GuruGram #29 is an update and revision on
Using Distiller as a General Purpose PostScript
Computer. The original can still be found here, and
the new sourcecode here.

Solar pv enthuasists still don't get it: If your grid
tied pv solar system produces a dollar worth of
electricity a day and if the fully burdened amort
is more than a dollar a day, you have a net energy
SINK that CONSUMES old resources.

If, instead, the system produces a dollar worth of
electricity and the amortization also equals a dollar
a day, then you have accomplished ABSOLUTELY 
NOTHING. Your system is simply transferring old
dollars and is NOT in any manner renewable or
sustainable or self- sufficient. Nor is it in any manner
"non-polluting".

Only when the value of the electricity produced will
significantly exceed the fully burdened daily amort
does even the POSSIBILITY of renewability or
sustainability arise. The only thing a "breakeven"
pv system produces is a wildly misguided ( and not
even wrong ) warm fuzzy feeling in the system's owner.

The bottom line is that conventional silicon pv is
clearly the wrong  horse to bet on and is highly
unlikely to EVER become a net energy source.
Look instead for solutions involving multiple work
functions or gradient workfunctions. Or perhaps
metalloradicals or MEMS antennas.

More on this in ENERGFUN.PDF.

There's a new and free Green Power trade journal
on solar energy and renewables and such.

Latest GuruGram #28 is a major new Web Logfile
Analyzer tutorial that includes some powerful eBay
seller reporting features. The sourcecode is here.

Uploaded the preliminary code for our Web Log
Analysis Utility. A sample output appears here,
and a weblog sample input is here.

I 've been working on a major new Web Logfile
Analyzer and just realized its incredible eBay
potential. This code can instantly give you a listing
of the popularity of each item you are selling withOUT
needing any counters or repeated eBay access! And
withOUT any need to look up item numbers!

In its spare time, it doubles as an image theft detector.
Stay tuned.

My favorite Pittsburgh Streeetcars link seems down.
I'll try to find out where it went. Please eBay me if
you have any info.

I am negotiating to do a Mount Graham Tramway
site similar to theirs.

Discovered an ancient and really cute algorithm to
find out how many ones are in a digital word. Simply
AND the word with itself MINUS ONE and repeat
till zero. Increment a counter on every repeat pass.

Looks like a virtual reality motion simulator is going
to close for less than pocket change tomorrow at
Gov Liquidation.

It is slightly too heavy and slightly too far for me.

PS: Closed for $270. An absolute steal.

Did I ever tell you about Rodney's? This is a SUPERB
barbeque place in Willcox, Arizona. Right next to Sinbad
the Parrot. On Railroad Avenue across from the park.

Be sure to complement Rodney on his large Rex Allen
portrait.

Made some minor updates to our Energy Fundamentals
tutorial in the Blatant Opportunist library.

Oops. I tried adding A Photo to our Military Fiber Optics
offering on eBay and ended up with an uncorrectable bad
link. The correct link and photo appears here.

Updated some offsite links on our Home Page.
Added a New Tutorial to our Magic Sinewave library.

In response to an ever-diminishing number of requests,
here is a list of the most profitible eBay selling items
arranged by
season...

        January - eBooks of dropshipping resources
        Feburary - UK cable descramblers
        March - Plasma HDTV displays from Rumania
        April - Nigerian lotteries
        May - Add three inches to your mortgage
        June - Pallet liquidations
        July - Norfolk & Waay overstocks
        August - Korean laptops
        September - Home theater pyramind buying rights
        October - Escrow companies
        November - Password phishing software
        December - Microsoft and Disney replicas

More on our Auction Help page.

There have been several press releases from the
thermodynamically challenged recently that claim
that hydrogen burns at a very hot temperature. In
reality, acetylene in air burns at 2400 degrees C
compared to hydrogen's 2050 degrees. Hydrogen
flame temperature is only a negligible 3.1 percent
above gasoline in absolute temperature.

Hydrogen welding is mainly reserved for very precise
applications where its pitiful energy density and low
temperatures are outweighed. Normal use of hydrogen
in welding is to create a reducing atmosphere.

More on our It's A Gas hydrogen resources website.

Just put some military tactical fiber optic bargains
up on eBay.

The "Tesla Turbine" nonsense seems to be infesting
the newsgroups again.

One more time: Bladeless turbines and pumps will
DEMAND a thermodynamic irreversibility for their
FUNDAMENTAL operation of maintaining a lossy
shear force in a viscous medium. And are thus
useless when high efficiency is a factor.

They, of course, do not work at all if the fluid has zero
viscosity. I'd expect them to be far less efficient in
vapor rather than liquid.

These devices ~are~ superb as shit pumps or when
pumping frozen chickens or live fish. As the now
defunct leading supplier tells us, blades have to be
added if higher efficiency is needed.

Most of these problems would go away if they were
simply called "shit pumps" rather than naming them
after the patron saint of the church of the latter day
crackpots. More in our Tech Musings library.

Latest GuruGram #27 is on Magic Sinewave Quantization.
Sourcecode and Companion PS Utilities and Demo
Logs and Demo Plots also newly uploaded.

We hope to ship Magsine actual chips "real soon now".
More in the Magic Sinewave library.

Few people realize that there is a profound thermo
first principle that absolutely GUARANTEES that
bulk energy hydrogen via electrolysis from high value
sources (such as grid or pv solar) is flat out NEVER
gonna happen.

Exergy is a measure of the quality of energy. More
specifically, exergy measures only the reversibly
recoverable remaining energy fraction.

Electricity has extremely high exergy. Raw unstored
and uncontained gaseous hydrogen has extremely low
exergy, owing to its pitiful reversibly recoverable
fraction. The value of a kilowatt hour of electricity is
ridiculously higher than the value of a kilowatt hour of
raw hydrogen gas.

Electrolysis is thus exactly the same as 1:1 converting
US dollars into Mexican pesos. And seems equally
monumentally stupid. Should you have electricity and
want hydrogen, sell the electricity, buy some methane,
and reform the methane.

Electrolysis as a mid energy process GUARANTEES
you will end up with a net energy sink. More in our
Energy Fundamentals tutorial and on our Its A Gas
hydrogen web page.

Consulting services available.

It sure is fun watching the predator-prey relationships
coming down in the alt.wholesale newsgroup. eBay prices
are consistently well below wholesale and thus most
wholesale suppliers are utterly and totally useless to
serious eBay sellers. Ludicrously so.

Realistic sources for eBay sellers appear in our eBay
Selling tutorial, while direct contact links are found in
our Auction Help library.

One interesting, free, and Netscape usable newsreader
can now be found at http://News.Individual.NET I've
been using it as backup for our ISP's regular news server
which has had recent problems.

Our Earthquake Machines have arrived and are now
up on eBay. We have 20 of these Harris proof mass
actuators in stock. They include a powerful voicecoil
driver, precision piezeo accellerometer, a second
system accellerometer, and a LDVT position transducer.

Apparently Amazon Books has just started a stupendous
full text search any book any place any time service.
Which should be one of the most stunning research
breakthroughs of all time.

This new feature is now built into their normal search
function.

Updated and improved our GuruGram library.

Just picked up a bunch of theater lighting items.
Including a Lehigh 48 station 2kw dimmer panel,
a Lehigh Legacy control console, and bunches of
spotlights. Please email me if you want to get in
ahead of our eBay listings on these.

Updated and improved our Auction Help library.

Latest GuruGram #26 is on Successful eBay Buying
Strategies. Sourcecode is separately available here.

Our ISP seems to be in a pissing contest with our
newsgroup server. I've been unable to post anything
to groups for several weeks now.  I am not sure how
or when this is going to straighten out.

The .PSL downloads should work just fine now. Please
report any further problems.

Intel has apparently bought into a new lithium battery
technology that has demonstrated 600 watthours per
liter and promises even more. And nanotechnology
applied to lithium suggests a further doubling might
eventually happen. When they reach something like
1500 watthours per liter, all of the hydrogen gas
insanity should end.

A tutorial on energy fundamentals appears as
ENERGFUN.PDF.

Oops. There's been a glitch on the new server that
has prevented downloads of our .PSL sourcecode
and utility files. This should very shortly be corrected.
Please let me know if you are having any additional
download problems.

Latest GuruGram #25 is on Successful eBay Selling
Strategies. Sourcecode is separately available here.

Got some nice telecom stuff, mostly 10 baseT panels
and 25 pin extension cables. Both AMP and Ortronics.
email me if you need further details.

The "useless PIC programmer" saga continues. The
brand X programmer I just received takes the world's
strangest wall wart. Not clear why ANY power supply
is needed at all for PIC flash chips.

Despite weasel words to the contrary, Microchip's
leading PicStart Plus programmer does ~NOT~
program their most popular chips, specifically the
16F628A and the 16F648A! They promise some
sort of an upgrade by year end. Meanwhile, I'll
try to evaluate several Brand-X programmers.

Kepro, the leading printed circuits supplier has
apparently dot bombed. They are having a 75% off
sale on most items. Apparently D & L Products
acquired them. (314) 575-7117 ebex@inlink.com.

Another continuing pc supplier appears to be injectorall.

Our magic sinewave Simulator Sourcecode assembles
just fine on the http://www.oshonsoft.com PIC assembler.
Other assemblers may need lines like these added at the
beginning to maker sure the 16F628A internal labels are
picked up...

list p=16F628
include p16f628.inc

I was also a little sloppy using calculated RETLW's. These
may generate warnings. We are almost ready to go to
silicon on this.

Need your own earthquake machine? We have some
nice Harris Proof Mass Actuators in transit that should
be here in a week or two. You bolt these onto a model
structure either to shake it or to see how much it is
shaking. Apps would include everything from aerospace
structures to active buildings. You can email me for
ongoing details.

Now have a pair of robotic/automation automatic
screwdrivers. One single, one double. Please email
me if you have any interest in these outrageously
expensive devices.

We lost our only long term employee due to what
appears to be a monumental medical screwup.
Rachael Lopez will be sorely missed.

We have picked up some incredible bargains at a
recent automation auction. Adept Robotics linear
actuators. These are basically rails from two to six
feet long holding a super precision ball screw driven
slider powered by an internal servo motor and fed
back by a super accurate encoder.

Repeatability is 0.0004 inch ( yup - better than half a mil! ),
and up to TWO HUNDRED POUNDS can be supported!
Please email me for further details.

Just watched two auctioneers bidding against each
other to determine how much they would PAY buyers
to haul away primo office desks. They finally settled
on twenty six cents each. Which was well under last
week's selling price of fifty desks for one dollar.

All of which suggests shorting office desk futures.

Carl and Jerry have more or less finally made it to
the web!

See http://www.copperwood.com/carlandjerry.htm for
full details. Additional resources here.

I guess in many ways I ~was~ Carl, or at least a shorter
and wise-assed approximation. Per WAYWERE.PDF.

The "story behind the story" is even more amazing.
The Carl and Jerry author was parapalegic and utterly
unable to do any of the story activities.

An unauthorized and partial TV Typewriter reprint as
shown up on the web. I'll eventually try to get the full
and accurate info  up here. Pending some additional
Synergetics Partners support.

The full PDF search IFILTER should now be up and
running on our new website. Everything else should
now work, except for Webtrends that is awaiting an
update. Please email me with any remaining problems.

Should you really need our Website Stats, we can
make our raw log files available to you. Bottom line
is around 1800 visitors and 2700 page views per day.
With the usual early fall increase.

Now have some improved Magic Sinewave calculators
that do fast custom exporting, handle Delta 44's, and
better quantization estimation. Also some PS postproc
code that autogenerates the needed PIC assembly
sourcecode tables.

These are now available to our Synergetics Partners,
seminar participants, and as part of our InfoPack services.

The Guru's Lair web search on the new server is now
partially working. The IFILTER for PDF still needs
installed. I hope to have this happen soon.

Just uploaded some preliminary Simulator Sourcecode
for the PIC 16F628A to our Magic Sinewave library.
Full performance chips should also shortly be available
in popular sizes. Please email me for current status.

As before, Seminars, Development Assistance, and
Full Programs are offered. Partners and Banner
Advertisers are also welcome.

Several amateur astronomers who bought our "dimp
led chad" voting machines we continue to offer on
eBay tell us that they make dandy combination
accessory cases and fast setup field tables.

Our Guru's Lair has been moved up to a bigger and
better server. And now should be significantly faster
and smoother. Several minor problems remain with
updating Webtrends and getting the site search fully
debugged. Please email me over any other problems.

Discovered some curious math as part of our Magic Sinewave
explorations. Say you have a list of groups of numbers that all
have to sum to the same value. If you quantize these to integers
the integers may not all sum to the same value. Caused by how
many of the quantizations are "just above" or "just below" an 0.5
threshold. You instead get a Gaussian type thingy where half of
the answers are what you expect, two fifths are high or low by one,
and the rest are off by two or more.

Which leads to a slight jitter in Magic Sinewave frequency as the
amplitudes are changed. Looks like 0.05% or so for now. This can
be gotten around by adjusting "rounding" to be above or below 0.5.

We have an associate site who goes by the name of Sotofamilia
on eBay. They get most of the items we do not want to deal with,
in addition to having lots of unusual goodies of their own. Their
prices are often quite low and bargains abound.

At first glance, It would appear tricky to update a Magic Sinewaave
synthesizer more than twice per cycle for Best Efficiency types or six
times per cycle for Delta Friendly types. A sneaky workaround is to
split the amplitudes 0-50 and 51-100 and use different code for each .

There should always be lots of delay time on the low amplitudes and lots
of pulse time on the high amplitudes.

Sold out of several items, including the Allen Bradley PLC controllers
and the Motorola 6802 (yup-an eight!) trainers. We only have six of
the Marconi BET's remaining and are unlikely to find any more.

Have an interesting Physical Therapy and Circulatory item up
on eBay. This is a Jobs Cryotemp system that circulates chilled
water and pressurized air to suitable arm or leg cuffs. Cost new is
in the $6000 range and we offer this near new system for pennies
on the dollar. Please email me afor further details.

We are now sold out of Water Soluble Swimsuits. Getting more may
end up tricky. Meanwhile, they remain available at much higher cost
directly from the MD Industries manufacturer.

Put a bunch of interesting Nortel phone stuff up on eBay. Including
music-on-hold, full voicemail systems, and several other goodies.

I have a 6000+ square foot building for sale here in Thatcher AZ for
only $199. It is old, huge, ugly, and needs removed within three
weeks. But it does have great heaping bunches of corregated iron
siding salvagable, along with timbers and some electrical. And
should be ideal for any number of farm or ranch uses.

Please contact me IMMEDIATELY at (928) 428-4073 if you
have any interest. Or email me RIGHT NOW.

Two morer PICisms: Note that SUBLW subtracts w FROM the
literal, so a SUBLW 0x01 does NOT do a decrement in the way
you might first expect it to. Use ADDLW 0xFF instead.

And that missing INCW is easily faked with ADDLW 0x01.

Just put some "dimpled chad" voting machines up on eBay.
Along with an outstanding buy on a Jobst Cyro/Temp compression
therapy machine.

More on the PIC's PCLATH: There are NO(!) instructions that
set or modify this latch outside of reset. GOTO or CALL or
interrupts or any related code do NOT change this register!

Thus, if you are using table lookups on several pages, you have
to continually be sure these bits are reset correctly. To avoid
trashing the W register, the three BSF PCLATH,0 through
BSF PCLATH,2 (or similar BCF) commands can be used.

Rearranged and expanded our Auction Help library page.
All of the more popular files are now near the top.

A curious gotcha on the PIC use of RETLW: If the
lookup tables are not on page zero, you MUST
preload PCLATH with the proper page! Otherwise
you end up in a wildly wrong location.

More in their Implementing a Table Read apnote.

Some positive developments in the arcane field of
solar-to-hydrocarbon energy conversion per a
Science Direct abstract. ( Out of print> )

Found a nice little PIC Flash Assembler/Debugger/
Simulator/etc.. at http://www.oshonsoft.com. Have only
tested it briefly, but it looks like a real winner. Free
evaluation and cost can be as low as $19.00.

Expanded our Auction Help page with new and
updated links.

Two underappreciated PIC programming tricks: The
RETLW #VAL command is the secret to accessing
stored data, particularly for table lookups. This family
of 256 instructions BOTH returns you from a subroutine
AND loads W immediate with a stored 8-bit data value.

Plus, the program counter is accessible as register $02.
MOVFing a data value here does a calculated absolute
jump, while ADDWFing a value here does a calculated
relative branch.

For instance, a stack of RETLW's can be jumped into
to return a table lookup value. Or three NOP's can be
selectively jumped into to provide otherwise difficult
relative time delays of 0, 1, 2, or 3 instruction cycles.
Further assistance by way of our InfoPack page.

Added two "slides" to our Magic Sinewave intro.

A nice plastics catalog from http://www.usplastic.com

We are down to our last six Marconi BET's from the
original trailer load. See our eBay offerings for details.

The newest GuruGram #24 is on Magic Sinewave
Visualation and shows the latest Magic Sinewave
upgrades. Sourcecode is here.

Discovered some further improvements in our Delta
Friendly Magic Sinewaves.  You can now use as few as
FIVE stored 8-bit data words per amplitude and still
gain nearly full precision! Per MINDIST1.PDF, its
sourcecode, this somewhat crude delay-vs-amplitude
plot and its sourcecode. Plus its improved Visualization.

Also please see our Magic Sinewave library page and
this Development Proposal. Newer Magic Sinewave
calculators with greatly improved data exporting are
now newly available to Synergetics Partners.

A reminder that we have some really nice Tektronix
DA4084 distortion analyzers available. Super clean
mil surplus ~with~ manuals and 15 day inspection for
$379 each plus shipping. 11 units remain. email to
order.

Made some additions and updates to MINDIST.PDF
in our GuruGram library. New sourcecode appears here.

Jeff Duntemann has an often interesting weblog up at
http://www.duntemann.com/Diary.htm Where he raises
some rather interesting points on ongoing RIAA stupidity.

It turns out that anybody can do a local WiFi to distribute
their music all over their home. If somebody happens
by, they can help themselves. Within a year or so, this
should extend to two individuals with PDA's simply walking
past each other and thus automatically ~doubling~ their
personal music collections.

The RIAA "problem" is not piracy. It is having a horribly
obsolete business model and an utterly useless product
that no longer serves ~ANY~ sensible purpose whatsoever.

As I've said before, the outcome is not the least in doubt.
Just ask the printed circuit tape and dots folks or the litho
camera people.

Summary: The only apparent way to return  to mid
document in a web distributed .PDF file is by using
named page destinations. IE seems to refuse to let
one .PDF file return you to a named destination in
another, giving you a blank screen instead.

One workaround is to have the .PDF file do a .HTML
redirect as  anything BUT a .PDF fill apparently will
work just fine.

Solutions are discussed here in Fancy JPG to PDF
Conversions. A demo appears as My eBay PhotoSecrets.

And a new GRABJPG.PSL utility and a GRABJPG.PDF
demo now are added to our PostScript Library.

We've sold over half of our new hypnosis audio tapes
and they are flying outtahere. Certain titles are now in
short supply. You can email for a current inventory list.

Two titles they should have done: "Overcoming your
fear of Chocolate" and "Weight Loss for Anexorics".

Found a crude sledgehammer cure for the IE-hangs-on-
PDF-return problem. Put a named page in the original
PDF doc. Have this click to the expanded photo PDF
doc that has a return box. Make the return box go to
an HTML REDIRECT(!). Have the redirect put you
back on the page where you wanted to return to in
the first place.

The repairing redirect should look something like this...

<html>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>IE REPAIR REDIRECT</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="1; URL=https://www.tinaja.com/glib/ebayfoto.pdf#GoBack4">
</HEAD>

<body>
Avoiding an IE Acrobat bug.
 </body>
 </html>

One gotcha is that you should NEVER do a redirect with
a zero time delay as this will hang the normal browser back
arrows. This example uses the one second minimum. Yes,
it is also Netscape compatible.

Yeah, you could also go to a HTML file consisting of a
.JPG and a return message in a table. But this would be
less flexible and may prevent you from overlaying a
return button or box.

Apparently IE does not mind going to an internal page
in a PDF document so long as it is not a PDF document
requesting the link!

See My eBay PhotoSecrets as a test platform.

Yup, this is a downright awful hack. But it works. Again,
please email me if you have any better ideas.

I am still trying to find a solution to the Acrobat
"GoBack" problem. The goal is to view a .PDF file
inside IE, click expand to a larger photo, and then
return to the same page and position you started in
the original .PDF file. Typically, you are forced back
to page one instead. Or end up stuck on a white page.

Some possibilities are newly outlined in our Fancy
JPG to PDF Conversions tutorial. Meanwhile, I've
been using My eBay Photo Secrets as a test platform,
so expect some glitches for a while. At present, the
code works beautifully with NetScape but hangs on a
white screen return with IE. Not sure if Acrobat 6 is
any better.

Your suggesions and help on this sticky problem
welcome via email.

Newest GuruGram #23 is on Fancy JPG to PDF
Conversions. Source code is Found Here.

The latest GuruGram #22 is on My eBay Photo Secrets.
Source code is Found Here.

Decided that additional Blatant Opportunists will be
released in GuruGram format. For much better web
appearance and distribution, among other advantages.

Added some new links to our Its A Gas hydrogen
energy page.

There's a new fuel Fuel Cell Store website that
offers educational and full size units, along with
lots of support materials. Their bargain basement
200 watt unit sells for a mere $3500.00. But that
excludes all the expensive essential accessories.

Trying to figure out how to make web viewed .PDF
files click expand into a larger image and then return
to the old image page rather than returning to the
document start. Making the larger file .PDF rather
than .JPEG does not seem to help, and I'd like to
avoid some sort of clickable return note. email me
if you have any suggestions.

Improved our bitmap magic background utilities as
MAGFILL2.PSL. This takes all true white ( or other
selected RGB value) pixels in any .BMP format 24-bit
file and replaces them with a mottled three color random
pattern. Colors and "mottle depth" are now much easier
to preselect.

Based on the autopat code in our PS PowerPoint Emulation.

Besides being visually interesting, these patterns can
dramatically reduce JPEG edge artifacts on any later
conversion. Read file in WP or editor, modify, send to
Distiller. Use "edit colors" in Paint to assist selection.

Your results can be post-vignetted by using our new
Dodge and Burn Utilities.

Added new content and links to our Magic Sinewave,
Acrobat, and PostScript library pages.

Uploaded a new Three Phase Magic Sinewaves slide
show and tutorial to our Magic Sinewave library.
This is a second example demo of our PS PowerPoint
Emulation found in our GuruGram library. Gonzo
sourcecode is Found Here .

Bee now has a list of all the hypnosis self-help audio
cassette tapes in stock. email for our free inventory list.

Just got four telco T3 to T1 multiplexers, available for
a tiny fraction of the list price. EZT3/ES units from
ADC. Still in original factory packaging. email me for
further details.

...and some Fibronics FX8210 telco to fiber bridges. email me
for further details on these five available units. For those of
you on a high fiber diet.

Just got in the eleven Tek DA4084 Distortion Analyzers and they are
all real beauties. Available direct for $479 each plus shipping, or per
our various eBay listings.

Latest GuruGram #21 is a tutorial on our Website Fades & Wipes.

May have found a bizarre bug in Acrobat 5 PDF: If you run my
FADEWIPE.PDF from Internet Explorer and click on the third
party wipes demo URL in the middle of the second page, their
demos will NOT run corrrectly. Neither will the "circular demo".

Only if you copy the URL and then reboot IE do the demos run ok.

It appears as if any acrobat access in IE "poisons" the browser
against any fades and wipes by any other following URL forever.

Comments appreciated.

Latest GuruGram #20 is a tutorial on our PS PowerPoint Emulation.
As per This Demo.

Expanded our GuruGram and Auction Help library pages.

Just got some really nice Tektronix DA4084 Programmable
Distortion Analyzers and mainframes. These are the mil spec
version of an AA5001. email me if you want to get in ahead of
the hoarders on these spectacular instruments. WITH manuals.

Also have a bunch of ADC DS3 and FDDI telecom multiplexers
from the same lot at a tiny fraction of list prices. email for info.

I finally got mad enough at PowerPoint that I rewrote the entire
program as a Gonzo PS emulation. Files are now one fifth the size
and further reducable; display instantly, device independently, and
glitch free; look ridiculously better; and now web link and transfer
effortlessly. Yes, all the GIF's and huge bitmaps are now history.

A rework of our new Introduction to Magic Sinewaves tutorial was
the first project. Sourcecode and tutorial GuruGrams should shortly
follow. Your comments are welcome.

This should be most useful for Linux and Open Source folks. As
always, Gonzo is proudly not WYSIWYG and has a moderate to
steep learning curve.

Betchya you'll never guess what the primary subject matter of the
http://www.powergenitalia.com website is.

Uh, that's what those French Veternarians call a "four paw".
Like the Pacific Rim mini-PC named the "Hand Job".

Did a major expansion, verification, and overhaul on the Offsite
Links on our Home Page.

Some interesting links: Abbeon Cal has all sorts of neat stuff that
includes a new plastics catalog. A new Acess to free Journal Reprints
site looks promising, but so far is uneven and mostly foreign. And a
new Scientific & Engineering Innovation site pays you for your ideas.

GuruGram #19 is on some sneaky methods to Reduce Distortion on
8-bit Magic Sinewaves.

I've been having some trouble converting Powerpoint to PDF. The
results are large and slow files and an apparent lack of cacheing.
Will try to find some workarounds, but for now downloading and
displaying the PDF file locally gives a reasonable speedup.

Added a new Introduction to Magic Sinewaves tutorial to our
Magic Sinewave page. This is a PDF adaptation of a Powerpoint
slide show. A Magic Sinewave Development Proposal is found here.

Acquired bunches of self-help hypnosis tapes from a francisee
bankruptcy. Stuff like weight loss, smoking cessation, sales
excellence, etc. All top quality and far less than usual. See our
eBay listings or email me with your subject needs.

A reminder about our PARAFIT.PSL utility in our Math Stuff
library. This shows you how to exactly fit any three data points
to a parabola. Some preliminary work shows that this should be
able to significantly speed up solutions of Magic Sinewaves that
have hundreds or even thousands of low harmonics forced to zero.

If you are Newton's Method solving any difficult math by finding
minimums, you measure one point, one point incrementally above
and one point incrementally below your current "best". Your true
"best" will often be the minimum of the three point parabola fit.

Additional assistance here. Partnering and associates welcome.

Enhanced our Power Curve Fitting Data Points so that ONE
self-generating routine now solves ALL linear equations of ALL
orders. Sadly, PostScript's limited 32 bit math may start creating
problems above an 11x11 solution or so. Strangely, it seems to
affect the plot before the actual solution. Blame ~exp~ for this.

Our latest GuruGram #18 is a tutorial on our Power Curve
Fitting Data Points. Its sourcecode is also available here.
And its described utility here.

A big flap on Slashdot over a PostScript "life" routine. Not one
of the posters picked up on the fact that you can instantly run
PostScript as a general purpose language on Acrobat Distiller
without needing a printer or two-way comm. Or on GhostScript.

A reminder that many hundreds of unique ready-to-run PostScript
as Language routines appear in our PostScript library and elsewhere
on our Guru's Lair web site. Including robotics apps and the ability
to generate complex JavaScript programs.

I continue to be fascinated by PostScript's stunning abiltity to
write programs and procs. Especially in other languages. A stack
based method newly appears in CURVEFT3.PSL Here you simply
start an array with a mark and anytime you want a proc, you insert
the NAME of the proc, followed by an ~exec~. A final cvx then
converts the array into a real proc.

Use of PostScript to auto-write incredibly complex JavaScript code (!)
is found in our Magic Sinewave library. This approach is disk rather
than stack based.

A reminder that PostScript math is limited to 32-bit precision. While
highly useful for most sane apps, this may not be enough for solving
high order linear equations, configuring digital filters, or analyzing
magic sinewaves. JavaScript offers 64-bit math and better interaction.

Our latest GuruGram #17 is a tutorial on our Dodge and Burn
Utilities. Its sourcecode is also available here.

Added some big time new features to DODBUR01.PSL, our
bitmap dodging and burning utility package. These include a
selective gamma correction (increase/reduce contrast, blacks,
whites, etc...), a black mask generator, a color sep generator
(also useful to extract detail from very light or very dark
images, and, finally, a selective transparency generator!

Hope to get a new GuruGram tutorial up soon on this.
Custom consulting and Partnering available.

In the process of doing a major overhaul of our Santa
Claus Machine library. Much of it is finished, but some
checking and a few more links still need added.

Tektronix has just released the copyrights on ALL of their
earlier test equipment manuals. This seems to apply
to TEST EQUIPMENT ONLY and ONLY to products no
longer supported.

The EAC Library just did a major update on their online
access. They now have free access to some harder-to-reach
online services such as EBSCO, NewsFile, SIRS, and
CQ Researcher. You have to ask at the front desk for the
free magic passwords.

Updated the Santa Claus Machine book access page.

Latest GuruGram #14 is on Exploring the .BMP Data Format.
Sourcecode is also newly available.

Can't tell the players without a program. Here is a
guide to the newest and latest of our PostScript-as-
Language utilities and tutorials:

Heavy #1 is our Swings & Tilts Utility and Tutorial.
And #2 is our latest Dodge & Burn utility and its not
yet available Tutorial.

These allow exceptional bit-by-bit manipulation of .BMP
images. Yeah, you can use PhotoShop for some of this,
but these routines put all the algorithms out front where
you can understand and customize them. A Bitmap
Fundamentals tutorial is in the works.

Supporting utils include NOWHIT01.PSL used to avoid
punchthrough when transparently towing over new
backgrounds, and MAGFILL1.PSL to do "magic"
backgrounds that virtually eliminate JPEG edge effects.

An older cut-and-paste catalog of magic backgrounds
appears here, while an example of the latest and best
of everything working together can be found here.

SATADJ01.PSL and SHADE1.PSL were used for
preliminary work on the Dodge & Burn package.
They are standalone modules that let you adjust
bitmap luminance and chrominance.

Also new are our Power Curve Fitter, and its demo,
a new Histogram Generator, and its demo plus a not-
yet-ready-for-prime-time Burn Eliminator.

Custom consulting is available on all of these concepts.

A reminder about or PostScript Gonzo Utilities. These
are a  series of purposely and proudly non-WYSIWYG
routines that give you exceptional typography and
layout capabilities. They are especially strong for non-
traditional PostScript-as-Language apps such as
manipulating foreign file formats, robotics, or doing
exotic tricks such as automatically generating
JavaScript programs.

Yeah, the learning curve is tough and parts of them
are tedious. Most of my newer PS routines highlight
these routines. If you must, only key parts of Gonzo
need be split out to initially run these new apps. In
particular, the ~mergestring~ utility sees a lot of
standalone use.

Just uploaded a major new PostScript-as-Language
utility set that lets you do all sorts of pixel-by-pixel
dodging and burning of bitmaps! Correcting or
enhancing luminance, saturation, hue, or vignettes,
waterfalls, and bunches of other special effects.

Tutorials are in the works, but the working code
is DODBUR01.PSL. As usual, load into wp or editor,
change filenames and parameters, save to disk as
standard ASCII textfile, and send to Distiller.

Yeah, much of this can be done by PhotoShop. But
here the underlying algorithms are all up front and
easily customized for your own uses.

Oops. Norfolk & Waay now have a life of their
own! Curious how their url is the same as their
mission statement.

I am very much bemused by the RIAA fiasco. As
times change and paradigms shift, certain products
and services are no longer of any value. Obvious
examples are printed circuit tape and dots or litho
cameras. Wanna buy my NuArc Rocket cheap?

With today's technology, there is no point in having
ANY physical embodiment of a song being delivered
from artist to listener. And certainly no justification
whatsoever to force a particular collection of songs
off on a listener who just wants one or wants to specify
exactly which assortment from ALL artists that they want.

And absolutely no justification for any transaction costs
that does not leave the lion's share of income in the hands
of the artist. We'll also note in passing that anyone who
wants to can produce a record by buying readily available
software that costs less than a traditional recording hour
in an older studio.

As I see it, the RIAA has two choices: They can continue
to blow funds pissing off customers and suing everybody
in sight until they inevitably lose big time. Or, instead,
they can have one hell of a party and then a really,
really big yard sale.

Either way, the outcome is not the slightest in doubt.

Created a new PostScript-as-language utility that lets
you at least partially correct .JPG image color saturation.
You set a value ( that is nominally 1.0 ) for the new
saturation values you want. A 0.0 will give you an
eyeball- NTSC-PostScript adjusted gray picture of 0.29
red, 0.6  green and 0.11 blue instead. Also useful to
enhance or back off on your color saturation.

Custom assistance is available by way or our InfoPack
services.

Started offering bunches of prime Allen Bradley
components on eBay. These are mostly quantity
one in original boxes.

By the way, A-B is one of the good guys that has
seen the light. To instantly find pricing on any of
their products, simply use their shopping page.

Created a new PostScript-as-language utility that lets
you at least partially correct .JPG image shading. You
pick a point on the picture that is "just right" for
brightness and place a tilted plane on it with x and
y brightness adjustment gains.

The code is SHADE1.PSL. Oops- demos seem to
have been lost.

Custom assistance is available by way or our
InfoPack services.

I continue to be galled by industrial manufacturers
who refuse to provide instant pricing. Only a third
of them so far have picked up on the fact that survival
DEMANDS one-click registration- free website
pricing available to anyone at any time.

Created a new PostScript-as-language utility that
dramatically speeds up image post processing.
Take a bitmap. Apply our older NOWHIT03.PSL
utility to eliminate any and all whites.

Then knock the background out to all white. Then
apply our brand new MAGFILL1.PSL to apply a
rich color background that will both look good
~and~ agressively suppress .JPG edge artifacts.

( Superseeded by our Auto Backgrounder )

Added new links to our Auction Help page.

Discovered a super method for improving photography:
Use BOTH a scanner AND a camera! While we really
like the Nikon Coolpix 5000 it tends to wash out meter
faces on autobrightness. So, I use the camera for the
instrument and a scanner for the meter face.

My Swings & Tilts routines are then used to distort the
meter face to where it will exactly fit where it belongs.
You first crop and scale the right edge. Then crop and
scale the correct width. Then go vertical and provide
the needed S&T offset. Finally, provide the S&T scale
for the righthand side. Per this Example.

Custom consulting and training available here.

The AMOE gets at least a dozen requests a week as
where to find instant wholesale drop shipping suppliers.
Since eBay prices are almost always well BELOW
wholesale, the only recommended company here
would be Norfolk & Waay.

Who this week only have free sample pallets with
free shipping from their choice of Sears, Neiman
Marcus, Land's End, Sharper Image, Macy's, or
Bruno's Trucking.

The REAL key eBay source secret is simply this:
Quality merchandise MUST have taken a stupendous
hit in value BEFORE it will be of  interest to a successful
eBay seller. Sources that work for me include mil surplus,
community college auctions, industrial bankruptcies, and
dot com failures. Some recent medical stuff has also
worked out well.

Other key eBay success secrets include always seeking
out a 30:1 or higher buy sell ratio, seeking out sales
above $19.63, listing not less than 75 items at any time,
spending at least two hours post processing each
photo, and selling US only & VISA/MC/Paypal only.

More on our Auction Help page and our MYEBAYS.PDF
and MOREEBAY.PDF tutorials. Custom assistance also is
available by way or our InfoPack services.

There's a new electric motor drive trade journal you
can find at http://www.e-DriveOnline.com.

( apparently went dark. )

Carefully studing the quirks of your Local Auctioneers
can reap huge benefits. One carelessly puts whole
unsorted rooms full of industrial  stuff very late in their
auctions. A second is easily trained to continuously
accept your $2.50 opening bids, even for valuable gear.

A third insists on moving high tech stuff to an obscure
rural location. A fourth keeps taking bids off you after
you have stopped bidding. A fifth welcomes side deals,
loading, and hauling. A sixth takes all the trash you do
not want so you do not have to haul useless grunge long
distances. And virtually all of them are sloppy about
their websites and underutilize them.

We can do custom local auction finders for you.

Some of the newsgroups I follow include...

alt.marketing.online.ebay
sci.energy.hydrogen
   ( WARNING: some posters not housebroken! )
sci.electronics.design
comp.text.pdf
comp.lang.postscript

I've yet to find a way to live link newsgroups that works
on all browsers.

Discovered a shipping charges comparison service
at InterShip.

Found out that Google does reverse phone lookups!
Just enter your number as the search term. Works
amazingly well & super convenient.

Can also be used to resolve UPS business vs residence.

Added a new PostScript-as-Language Speedups tutorial
as GuruGram #16. The Gonzo sourcecode can be found
here, and custom assistance here.

Got some nice "Moose Antler" Ortronics cable
organizers at the Pima College auction. They
are up on eBay.

Added our Swings & Tilts tutorial as GuruGram #15.
The sourcecode can be found here, and the actual swing
and tilt utility here. And custom assistance here.

Our latest PostScript Utility solves a nasty little problem
involving bitmap images. In Paint, if you knock out to a
white background and then copy to a new background, any
inadvertent true white pixels INSIDE the image will
"punch through" with disasterous results.

What NOWHIT01.PSL does is view an  uncompressed
24-bit .BMP file and replace each FF FF FF true white
with a FE FE FE, "light ivory". You also have the option
of making ANY color the Paint transparent color. To use,
load into a wp or editor, change the filenames ( and
optionally the color), resave, and send to Distiller.

Just picked up a pair of large and superpremium
vibratory parts feeders with lots of accessories.
Also some rather large (10 x 12 inch!) heavy duty
neopreme bellows. email me for further info.

We sold out of Tut LR2000T's! All 2000+ units are
outtahere and shipped. While we think we can get
some more, we can only do so on a prepaid 30 day
delivery basis. No ship, no cost, of course.

Price would be $349 per case of 14 plus shipping. Four case minimum.
email me if you need further info.

Added new utilities and links to our Bitmaps & Fonts
library page.

Improved the response speed and code cleanliness
of the Swings & Tilts routine. Speed is now in the 4
megapixels per minute range, which is amazingly
fast for bicubic pixel interpolation on a general
purpose interpreted language.

Added new files and links to our PostScript library.

Just added a new PostScript Swings & Tilts routine
that lets you add these view camera special effects
to your digital camera!

I'm still working on the GuruGram, but here is the
Sourcecode, a Before and an After demo, and a
Practice Bitmap.

Load the sourcecode into a wp or editor, change
the params and your .BMP format filenames, then
send to Distiller.

Added new files and links to our Cubic Spline library.

Our newest PostScript utility is BMPRPT01.PSL,
which reads .BMP bitmap file headers and reports
their characteristics. Edit this with a wp or editor,
modify filename, and send to Distiller. Uses gonzo.

Just picked up a large pile of The BlueJacket's
Manual, which is ~the~ US Navy book. New and
like new mil surplus. 22nd edition, 1998. email me
if you want any copies.

The latest GuruGram #13 is on PostScript PostScript
Disk File Utilities. The The Sourcecode is found here.

Our used fire truck clearance sale closes today at
5:17 PM MST. See here or here.

Provided some new additions to our Auction Help page.

Working on several new blats and gurugrams. Hope
to get them up shortly. Sorry for the delay.

Wanna buy a fire truck? ( A pumper engine, actually.
"truck"  has a very specific meaning in the fire service. )
But you knew that. Only 10,600 miles, always indoor
station quartered.

Details on my eBay auctions.

Picked up some X-ray image intensifiers from a
medical equipment bankruptcy. email me if you
have any interest in these $40,000+ devices for
pennies on the dollar.

Just awarded some gen-U-wine civil defense SKIV
sanitation kits. From the golden age of "what were
they thinking" kiss your onaager goodbye. Basically
a fiber drum temporary porta potty for fifty.

Which is your choice of (a) eminently collectible, (b)
a ridiculous present, (c) a survivalist "must have",
or (d) utterly ignorable.

Thinking about something like $79 each plus shpiping.
You can email me if you want to get in ahead of the
hoarders. Unused.

Got two more review books: Roger Allen's Quick
Guide to Book-on-Demand printing which I hope to
say more on in an upcoming Blatant Opportunist.
And Steve Bottoroff's Sharpening Made Easy which,
while highly readable, just ain't me.

Most of our knives around here are about as sharp
as five pounds of raw liver.

Some industrial suppliers still do not get it: If you are
to survive the next few years, you ~will~ have one-click
and registration-free pricing of ~all~ of your products
on your website, and you ~will~ have instant shopping
cart small quantity ordering.

The outcome is not the least in doubt.

Two recent items I've been very impressed with: The
Nikon CoolPix 5000 digital camera, which ~completely~
blows film away on ~all~ counts. And Frank Stefanick's
Inside the Auction Game book that has otherwise
incredibly hard to find auctioneer insider info.

Our Tut LR2000T inventory is now down to 24 cases
of fourteen each. Or less than ~one-sixth~ of what we
started with. Current price is $319 per case plus shipping.
This is waaaaay less than the manufacturer's price. We
do not expect these to last long, nor are we likely to get
any more.

Once again, these let you run Ethernet on top of an
ordinary phone line without voice interference. You can
click here for a Tut LR2000 intro.

Added a new tool to our Auction Help page that lets
you edit and list local trucking firms for your eBay sales.

Watch for some really nice video goodies going up
on eBay.

Made some corrections and updates to our Auction
Help page.

It really pains me to throw away top quality equipment
worth hundreds to thousands of dollars, simply because
it is bulky or heavy. Case in point: We just got four
super premium "medical console carts". These are on
nice casters and about three feet high. The top includes
a keybord and two pull handles. They are waaay beyond
ultra rugged and quite pretty.

They are "not quite" relay racks as they lack the
standard mounting rails. They do come apart for flat
shipment. Most panels are intact.

These are immediately available. email me for more info.

There's been a merger of two Virginia shipping firms.
Who now offer overnight coast-to-coast delivery by
rail for a flat fee of $19 per thousand pounds. The
new firm name is Norfolk & Waay.

Just picked up a 30KVA power quality conditioner
from a power utility auction. Liebert DataWave
CAC030C. This is a magnetic synthesizer type of
thingee used to insure superb ac power quality.

I've just put it up on eBay with a $990 reserve. Price
new is over $10K and normal used street is $6K.
Because of some third party involvement, if this does
not move fast, it will be stripped for parts.

FOB Willcox AZ. Buyer arranges all shipping. email
for more info.

Also picked up some older peak current recording
ammeters and a few Marconi signal transmitters and
receivers at the same  auction. Again, please email
me for more info.

Discovered some easy to use wipes and fades that are
bulit into Internet Explorer. Will try do a GuruGram on
this. But meanwhile, search the web under "revealTrans"
for secret info.

Closed the What's New? blog page WHTNU02.SHTML a
nd started WHTNU03.SHTML. The earliest pages have
also now
been autolinked.

We wholesaled out our remaining Tektronix 7912AD
inventory. One power supply remains and will go on
eBay shortly.

Picked up a nice quad survellience video display
system. Please email me if you have any interest
along these lines.

Gernsback Publications has recently ceased publication
of Poptronix.

I expect a lot of trade journals to suddenly merge or
fold as well. The underlying model of paying an outrageous
ad price for leads that may or may not happen six months
in the future that may or may not result in a sale no longer
makes any sense whatsoever.

I also see that industrial suppliers are at long last starting
to put their prices on their web sites. I'd further suspect
that those who do not will soon become history.

Latest Blatant Opportunist #73 is Son of eBay Secrets.

Expanded the Blatant Opportunist and Auction Help
libraries.

Parting out an older Westinghouse motor drive.
email me if you have any interest in the 1000 volt,
100 amp dual Darlingtons, the current transformers,
or the three phase reactors.

Gathered together a bunch of our background
patterns used for knockouts on our eBay and
Bargain Page images. Besides their subtle
textures, these can greatly minimize JPEG edge
artifacts.

This is more for your locals living within the greater
Bonita-Eden-Sanchez metropolitan area: Just picked
up a large pile of Sears/Craftsman gifts at half price.
Table saws, submersible pumps, yard vacuums, drills,
food processors, weed wackers, leaf blowers, etc... etc...

Probably going to yard sale these at 3860 West First
Street in Thatcher. Call 428-4073 or else email
don@tinaja.com or bee@tinaja.com

Speaking of which, I've pretty much decided that
liquidation pallets are at best marginal and usually a
worthless scam. Went to the best of best possible
pallet auctions -- genuine Sears, no cherry picking,
total inspection, doubly distressed. $175 pallets cost
more like $300 after time and U-Haul and such.

And held something like $1500 in list price merch, of
which around $450 could be realistically sold without
too much refurb. Bottom line: Waay too much risk for
too little return. I'll probably stick to my 30:1 buy sell
rule found in MYEBAYS.PDF.

Expanded our Offsite Links on the Guru's Lair home
page. Also added links to our Auction Help library page.

Latest GuruGram #12 is a PS Search & Replace Utility.

Found out a little more about othose PIC Projects
components we have up on eBay. These were intended
for hot tub contollers, with the main pc board doing
things like relay controlling the pump, heater, and
blower. And the small pc board being a three digit
Fahrenheit temperature display.

The original proto house just bought a lot of our parts
back for an improved design!

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