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January 3, 2020
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Phased out our whtnu19.shtml blog and started a new whtnu20.shtml one.
Yeah, we are working on making this much more mobile friendly. This may take a while. The first three candidates will be this blog, the homepage, and Gila Hikes..
Meanwhile, much of this "proudly, purposely and intentionally retro" website design works best with larger screens and is more than likely to stay that way.
So, please use big screens!
January 2, 2020
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Just posted a Dr. Neely paper on the riverine San Jose Canal. Managed to compact it somewhat.
More on the bajada canals here, here, here, and here.
January 1, 2020
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Similarly, a complete directory of HTML5 commands along with interactive exercises can be found here. Again, it almost certainly pays to cycle each and every entry.
Many of the earlier HTML commands have now gotten depreciated by CSS and typically will generate errors in the usual Verify Web resource, along with its Verify CSS and Verify URL companions.
Among other no-no's are upper case and certain width and height commands. Even tables are strongly discouraged with their recommended replacements using newer CSS techniques.
December 31, 2019
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A complete directory of CSS commands along with interactive exercises can be found here..
There really aren't than many commands, when you allow for all the related or "gee whiz" ones. It almost certainly pays to cycle each and every entry.
Note that these commands interact with the HTML5 ones and may not be available on older browsers.
December 30, 2019
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We have already seen that there is a sitemap.xml file that is essential for your website to dramatically improve your SEO search engine optimization. And that it has other benefits of finding web errors and helping your viewers spot your more obscure files.
We also saw that this source is one free to low cost resource for generating your own greatly improved sitemap1.pdf "or " .xsl eliminator" files.
But there is also a serious downside. There are now malware services that use your .xml files to "click here to steal an entire website".
Used even once, this may triple your normal web hits at questionable benefit to you. Used several times a day might mightily piss off your ISP. And clearly consist of a DOS denial of services attack.
There are several workarounds. The simplest is to block any "steal this site" hits when and where they show up.
These are obvious whenever your hourly traffic suddenly goes through the roof. Sourcecode for a fancier tool can be found here and an example here. With the rest of the gang here.
Better might be to try and get your ISP to throttle more than, perhaps 200 immediate hits and then inserting a few seconds delay per hit after that.
Requiring "steal the plans" permission each time is a polite solution that ain't likely to happen.
Please let me know any alternative solutions.
December 29, 2019
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Time for our usual end-of-year predictions...
Stunning breakthroughs in quantum computing making highly disrupting cryptocurrency value generation nearly free.
Because of their production similarities between cotton and marijuana, standardization emerging on 500 pound bales. With partial bales being deemed "personal use".
A rapidly accelerating rate of conversions of the few remaining coal fired power plants into singles bars. As their highest and best use.
Single passenger drones ( possibly tethered ) that make border fences even more utterly ludicrous.
Dramatic improvements in presently terrible HVAC. In theory the SEER max is 300 or a COP of 120.
Effective solutions in making older display or print formatted info becoming much more mobile friendly.
Significant improvements in solid state Peltier-like cooling, but still restricted to specialty aps.
All hell breaking loose after PV cell pricing having already blasted through the crucial eight cents per peak cell watt threshold like it was not even there.
Utter dominance of LED lighting techniques driven by its outstanding efficiency and design flexibility. Especially for vehicle headlights.
Hangnails rapidly becoming a qualifying condition for medical marijuana.
The latest in nootropics going well beyond placebos and possibly even impacting Alzheimers.
Significant improvements in Google Drive getting able to not choke on PostScript.
Resolution of open source and creative commons issues in scholarly publishing, with embargo times newly a year or less.
Increasing climatic and weather variability, along with the size and frequency of outrageous fires. All clearly caused by human activity. As to the deniers, they better hope and pray that it is human caused, because otherwise it will be a lot harder to fix.
Imminent elimination of the traditional outrageous federal farm subsidies and price supports dropping marijuana pricing into the 59 cents per pound range. With tax revenue estimates off a tad, but perhaps only by four or five orders of magnitude.
Several major dental breakthroughs.
Libraries dramatically downscaled or repurposed based on information no longer needing returned.
December 28, 2019
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The latest update for our Bajada Hanging Canal image menu is newly available here with its sourcecode here.
Yeah, Its taking a long time, but we probably are halfway there. More on the canals here, here, here, and here
December 27, 2019
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A heretical approach to understanding and using field theory appears a Fun with Fields and More Fun with Fields.
The technique is so stunningly simple it can even be used to generate vignettes such as these.
December 26, 2019
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The Curious Saga of the Magic Lamp.
December 25, 2019
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One of the hallmark features of our prehistoric bajada hanging canals is that many of them were literally "hung" on the edges of steep sided mesas. Making both their slopes independent of local terrain (!) and representing utterly sophisticated world class engineering.
Sometimes the hanging portions were even used to go "down" to the top of a mesa!
To date, hanging canal examples of comparable scope and extent and stature remain rare in the American Southwest, and the best world wide known similar examples are the historic Levadas of Madeira.
BUT - we have this nearby San Jose Canal which is clearly riverine and Gila River Sourced and likely Hohokam that seemed to use the bottom edge of a mesa for slope maintenance.
While possibly of a much lesser technology, the obvious question is what relationship, if any, this larger canal had with the bajada hanging canals. Which otherwise studiously avoided all of the riverine ones.
The question remains open. Your comments are welcome. More photos here.
This Gila riverine canal is rare in that it was not historically rebuilt. Its modern replacement lies somewhat to the west. The original still remains obvious and easily visited.
December 24, 2019
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Two utterly fascinating places can be found here and here.
Although somewhat out of range, I've added these as our latest Gila Valley Dayhikes. I've also picked up the long missing Biosphere II. . I actually met two of the original biospherians long ago and far away.
This brings our Gila Hike main entry total to 578.
December 23, 2019
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Speaking Tucsoneese (aka "Nogales Junction" ):
R.O.B.'s ---> Regular Old Brownies
Or here for Pittsburgheese.
December 22, 2019
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December 21, 2019
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Can't put one over on her. Nosiree.
A little old lady to her friend at a live auction: "Why, that man has been talking all morning!"
December 20, 2019
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Someone historically added a four inch pipe with a 175 foot head to a remote mesa edge of one of our bajada prehistoric canals. At first glance, this might seem to offer a really better than most pico hydro opportunity. What do the numbers predict?
As a fireman's best guess, I'd estimate the effective friction loss at a deliverable 200 gpm. We can use this link to change this to .012 cubic meters per second.
Using this site and values of .012 cubic meters per second 53.35 meters of head and default densities and efficiencies, the theoretical power available is 5.65 kilowatts.
Or just over fifty cents at a dime per kilowatt hour. Assuming a rather steep mesa edge slope of 60%.
Most real world pico sites, of course, do not come even remotely near this flow rate and friction loss and its effective height. 175 feet of genuine head is utterly and totally exceptional. This equals a static pressure of 175 x 0.434 = 75.9 psi.
It is not yet clear whether power generation was in fact done. There are several similar pipes of much less head used for irrigation or cattle tanks.
December 19, 2019
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The overwhelming majority of "pico hydro" projects are likely to prove extremely bad.
First, because of a failure to "do the math" which you will find here. Hydro takes an enormous amount of water or an enormous amount of head. With few, if any, exceptions.
Second, because of a failure to appreciate just how much of a bargain a ten cent kilowatt hour really is. Until you try to produce one by running up stairs continuously for two and one half hours. Per this analysis.
Third, because of a usual failure to accurately and continuously measure the power generated and delivered and matched to the end use loads. The chances are overwhelming that the final delivered power ends up utterly negligible. And certainly a rude surprise.
Fourth, and as any fireman can tell you, the friction losses in any pipe are significant and end up utterly ludicrous in a garden hose. Thus negating much and possibly nearly all of the theoretical head. Per this calculator..
Fifth, car alternators are woefully inefficient. Their primary design goals are cost and reliability. Their efficiency can easily end up under fifty percent.
December 18, 2019
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The saga of the dripping stalactite gives you the back story of where our Magic Sinewaves came from.
These were originally based on trying to get chords out of the Apple IIe binary speaker. And started out as an exhaustive search of all possible binary sequences of length "n".
Which conclusively proved beyond a shadow of doubt that there seem to be a lot of 420 bit binary words. Around 2.707685e+126 give or take a few strays. This severely taxed the Apple IIe skill set, so we had to go to PostScript.
But 420 bit long words ended up much too short to get at the really good stuff. Eventually, a genuine magic set of numbers was found that zeroed out any chosen number of low harmonics. And did so at the maximum possible efficiency owing to the absolute minimum number of switch events.
Any sharp edged binary waveform will, of course, have to have some harmonics somewhere. Magic Sinewaves move these remaining harmonics very high in frequency by way of spectrum management. Where they can be more easily dealt with by use of filtering and other methods.
A calculator here. Much more here.
December 17, 2019
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We "sort of" have a live chat service on our Guru's Lair website, along with edited comment feedback and even a live no charge telephone tech helpline.
Just click on "respond" or "email" when and where they occur on the website.. Or call us at 928 428-4073.
December 16, 2019
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BTW, it has been thoroughly proven that any overunity free energy device that includes a 555 timer is a bogus scam. No exceptions to this rule have ever been found!
This can greatly simplify your discrediting such ludicrosities. Much more here.
December 15, 2019
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This link lets you check your website performance on lower resolution screens.
December 14, 2019
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December 13, 2019
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Yeah, our Guru's Lair mobile compatibility sucks.
First, because it is a huge site with over 2200 major pages. Second, because many of those pages have detailed tech coverage of "retro" topics. And, third, because the overall appearance of the site is both intentionally and purposely classically "retro".
We are slowly working on correcting some of the more blatant mobile problems, but the bottom line is that much of the content ( and nearly all of the nav ) simply demands larger screen viewing.
So, we request that you view the Guru's Lair on a larger screen.
December 12, 2019
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December 11, 2019
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As to the CMOS Cookbook, find its free download here, along with dozens of others. The most popular of which are currently found here, here, here, here, and here.
Also available are thousands of free reprints, many of which are of classic electronic construction projects and tutorial. USB's of nearly one each of everything are also available. As are our eBay offerings. Videos here and here
Other foci of our website include prehistoric bajada hanging canals, Gila Valley dayhikes, PostScript as language, xsl eliminators, avuncular sleezoids, poison ivy i a spray can, fractal ferns, slamming the hydrogen
ludicrosity, new Google Drive code, Marcia Swampfelder, marbelosities, patent diatribes, and expanded new menus.
Plus great heaping bunches more.
December 10, 2019
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I welcome all of our new visitors who have been breaking attendance records the last few days. Many of you are after Magic Sinewave info and others are downloading our free CMOS Cookbooks.
Please let me know where you first heard about us.
Magic Sinewaves are a new class of mathematical functions that promise to significantly improve the efficient generation of power digital sinewaves.
They are highly efficient in that they use far fewer switching events than classic PWM and feature the ability to force ANY chosen number of low harmonics to zero (!) in theory and to astonishingly low values in real world quantization.
You can find the main directory here, a tutorial here, a three phase tutorial here, an executive guide here and our latest incredibly fast calculator here.
The math has been fully verified as valid by at least one competent and independent mathematician whose link is available on request. The latest Raspberry Pi sourcecode excerpts can be found here.
Testing ongoing. Consulting services available.
December 9, 2019
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We have added a bunch of new menu and navigation files to our website. These easily let you reach just about every file on the entire website.
The two biggies are our .xsl eliminators. Use this one and its sourcecode for site nav, and this one and its sourcecode to menu tour the canal images.
Otherwise, check these out...
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap.xml
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap_images.xml
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap_video.xml
https://www.tinaja.com/glotz1_video.xsl
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap1.html
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap2.html
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap3.html
https://www.tinaja.com/sitemap1.txt
https://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml
December 8, 2019
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Enameled dealing with four paws and groundswill
December 7, 2019
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There are two flavors of Windows filenames, relative and absolute. With absolute, the exact full filename is needed and any reuse ( such as saving to USB or selling a copy, or moving to another machine ) will likely be wildly wrong. With a relative filename, only the name itself gets used with the assumption it either is in the current directory or nearby.
Ferinstance...
/greatfile is in the same directory
/zorch/greatfile is one directory down
/zorch/zounds/greatfile is two direct down
../greatfile is one directory up
../../greatfile is two directories up.
December 6, 2019
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Newly updated and expanded our Gila Valley Day Hikes. We are now up to 575 primary entries!
Expanded info on our artesian stuff, announced a pair of new hanging canals that could use your exploration help, and listed our new canal imaging menu and sourcecode. Plus added a new viewport.
More details on a few lesser known hikes here.
December 5, 2019
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We looked at the Speake FGM-1 earth magnetic field sensor here. A new winding has since been added and its linearity now ( with adjustments ) can approach 0.2 percent PWM output. Details here.
It is still a little pricey but now is Arduino compatible and has at least one replacement source
December 4, 2019
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A local library has just shut down for a year's worth of remodeling.
The fundamental premise of a library is that information has to be returned. This concept is now somewhere between quaint and ludicrous.
December 3, 2019
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Phone robocalls seem to have gotten completely out of control.
Two tricks we use are first to answer with your phone number. This causes them to loose their place in the script.
A second tip: quietly tell the "There is nobody here by that name".
When they start arguing, respond with "I'm sorry about your hearing problem."
Above all, absolutely minimize their total time with you. Further confrontation only pisses them off while stealing your time.
December 2, 2019
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Has something bad happened to Wesrch? This major open source paper resource seems to have vanished without a trace. Web comments are conspicuously absent. Your comments welcome.
December 1, 2019
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I've got a sneaky "website malware attack detector" built into this sourcecode and this demo.
We pride ourselves in keeping 404 errors to an absolute minimum, helped along by these daily reports. Except for a very few "intentionals" that temporarily aide our image report development.
So, anybody that gets eight or more 404's is likely looking for vulnerable attack points that simply are not there, were never there, and will never be there. Other parts of the software let you in fact verify the bad guy attacks.
On our website at this time, such attacks often are under one percent of the total visitors. It is not clear whether blocking will do more harm than good.
November 30, 2019
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I recently had a malware attack that featured a three inch square ad lower right overwhelming everything over and over again.
My usual first check is to look into the "remove programs" feature of the control panel to see if there are any recent dates of unwanted software entry. This did not help, and with some testing I convinced myself that my problem was Chrome related.
The problem was apparently at least temporarily solved by clicking the three Chrome dots upper right followed by Advanced followed by Cleanup Computer.
This gave an immediate fix but at a horrible price: It eliminated all cookies and saved passwords! If you try this, be sure first that the problem seems Chrome related and then make sure you record your passwords for immediate reentry.
November 29, 2019
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Supraluminal dowsing for Brown's Gas in Roswell.
November 28, 2019
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The essential very first step in mangki any web page mobile friendly is to add this line to the top of your code...
<meta name="viewport"
content="width=device-width,
initial-scale=1.0">
If this is a problem, you should get a "Viewport not set" error message. More details here and here. Some browsers may set the viewport for you if it is missing.
On larger or fancier websites, it may pay to initially add this command to your more popular pages You can find your most popular pages with something like the Fatcow stats, or we have more detailed popularity analysis code here and an example here.
We looked at some steps to improve .PDF files for mobile friendliness here.
November 27, 2019
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Fundamental Factors Underlying Recent Technological Innovation. Sourcecode here.
November 26, 2019
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If you check this source and this one, pv pricing has just broken through the eight cents per peak cell watt barrier!
I feel this is a magic "all hell breaks loose" limit to the overwhelming rapid development and use of photovoltaics.
And it seems to be crashing through like it was not even there. Contributing to the breakthrough are ongoing learning curve economics, a reduced spread between minimal and premium cells, and expected major cost and efficiency breakthroughs in Perovskites.
The pricing has been dropping so rapidly that the new tariffs have no effect whatsoever. The new price with tariff is much less than the old price without.
I'd predict the next barrier/breakthrough limit to come in at five cents per peak cell watt. At this point, the horrible shackles of net metering and all pv subsidies could be eliminated entirely.
Meanwhile, of course, the conversion of coal power plants into singles bars continues unabated.
November 25, 2019
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If my website observations are correct, the overwhelming majority of sites are finding AdSense income to end up somewhere between disappointing and utterly useless.
I'd predict the minimum profitable AdSense participating site to need 70,000 users per day of uniquely sole sourced, often updated, non-obnoxious, mobile friendly, and very in demand content.
I wrote some site analysis software you can find here with its demo here. Not surprisingly, it totally agrees with Fatcow's user stats. But for every 1000 unique visitors, I'd expect 3000 or so page views of a single ad each.
Adsense only reports 125 or so page views!
The least sinister explanation for this is that the vast majority of my viewers now have an ad blocker installed. An ad blocker that totally trashes AdSense but still may let bunches of viri and malware through.
Another factor might involve browser caching.
Note that "hits" are vastly overinflated compared to "pages". The usual exchange rate is 6:1 to 15:1 caused by other needed page downloads and 301's.
Ad blocker workarounds can be found here.
Also not surprising, AdSense pays a lot more for a click through than it does for a page view. I seem to be getting only one click through per 4000 site visitors. A response rate of a pitiful 0.025 percent.
The least sinister explanation for this is that web users have been conditioned over and over again to NEVER click through to an unknown site. Due, of course, to viri, malware, and worse. Creating highly negative vibes of ANY ad, anyplace, anytime.
I did find one way to modestly but significantly increase AdSense response. Bringing it clear up into the "pocket change" area.
While little known, most search engines look for files that are named sitemap.xml, sitemap_image.xml and sitemap_video.xml. Not offering these files is sheer folly. Details here.
.xml's are usually enhanced with companion .xsl files, but some .xsl eliminators such as this one or this one can give you superbly better results. Sourcecode here and here.
November 24, 2019
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Our Hanging Canal image guide is slowly approaching half way. Find it here and its sourcecode here.
For more on our canals, start with this Wikipedia Article, and, if you can afford it, this professional paper. A free author's preprint can be found here.
A few odd 404's may be present. These ease our new entry process. Please check back later.
A paper with bunches of links that we use for some of our talks appears here. And our latest free video can be found here.
November 23, 2019
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There's a number of things you can do to make a .PDF file more web friendly. These mods usually need the Pro version of Acrobat 10 or later, or else use of the Adobe Creative Cloud...
Restrict downloads to Acrobat 10 or later.
Convert scans into searchable text.
Optimize file size.
Restrict .JPG quality if appropriate.
Downsample image sizes if appropriate.
Conduct other optimizations.
Check into discard objects options.
Separately optimize for mobile versions.
More options here. If all else fails, rewrite with raw PostScript using our Gonzo Utilities and Tutorial. While labor intensive, this can sometimes dramatically reduce file sizes and viewability. More here.
November 22, 2019
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I just modified a version of our ISMM Incredible Secret Money Machine free eBook so it can be more mobile friendly.
Find the original here and the mobile version here. Please report any issues. More eBooks here.
November 21, 2019
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Eastern Arizona College seems to have gotten into the Public Service auction website with several dozen offerings. They are expected to continue with more. Eastern Arizona College seems to have gotten into the Public Service auction website with several dozen offerings. They are expected to continue with more.
Present bids on computers and monitors are a dollar each! Historically, they have had lots of great stuff at their earlier live auctions.
November 20, 2019
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Here's a summary of where we are in our spectacular series of Prehistoric Bajada Hanging Canal discoveries:
The canal all time engineering is clearly world class and is otherwise beyond beyond. These date from the 1350's. So far, we have a hundred study areas and a total length of 150 miles (!) from which "they" literally exploited every drop of Mount Graham runoff.
Parts of these canals were literally "hung" on the edges of steep sided mesas in incredibly hostile terrain. Thus making their slope independent of topography and showing an absolute mastery of water source engineering
Start with this Wikipedia Article, and, if you can afford it, this latest professional paper. A free author's preprint can be downloaded here. A paper with bunches of links that we use for some of our talks appears here. And our latest free video can be found here.
The vid is newly downloadable and Creative Commons distributable. You are encouraged to upload this to the widest possible audience.
Our latest and still incomplete project is a directory of all the annotated images including locations. We are only roughly halfway on this, so please keep checking back. Find the image menu here and its sourcecode here.
Besides lots of links here, we are also in Research Gate, Wesrch, and several others including American Radio History. As are USB's with nearly all available content.
Your participation and support is welcome. This is a superb way for you to instantly participate in world class scientific research.
But your easiest and cheapest access is to simply click through top of screen on our website.
November 19, 2019
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I still need your help in adding to our free eBook collection. Whose current top five are currently TTL, ISMM, TVT, CMOS, and ACTIVE.
In particular, I still need a March 1968 Electronics scan of "For low cost, count on RTL". Plus a scan of "Micro Cookbook, Volume I".
Also needed are the Spanish and the Pacific Rim versions of the TTL Cookbooks.
And, if I can find somebody with a serious compulsive obsessive disorder, please send me a scan of the "Hexadecimal Chronicles".
The latter of which was authored by an Apple IIe (!) and error free typeset by a Diablo 630.
November 18, 2019
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The encounter of the long count keeper.
November 17, 2019
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Yesterday's trip revealed a possible extension to the Smith Canal here with an image here.
While still wildly unproven, this could be a source for the Central Dump canal. Besides strengthening the case that the rebuild of the Smith canal was in fact a historical rework of only a small portion of the entire canal.
The combined length would also newly be consistent with the length of many of the other canal routings.
Much more on the canals here, here, here, and here.
Your participation welcome.
November 16, 2019
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Don't miss these videos here, here, here, here, and here! With bunches more here.
November 15, 2019
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The worst of Marcia Swampfelder can be found here.
The insider secrets of how Marcia created the tapioca pudding scene in the film noir cross-genre classic Godzilla versus the Night Nurses remain under strict NDA.
Because of the court order of protection and the restraining orders issued by the Tapioca Pudding Institute, Marcia's film never reached the theaters, going instead directly to release on eight track.
November 14, 2019
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Remember that sitemap.xml, sitemap_image.xml and
sitemap_video.xml are super important web resources for SEO search engine optimizations.
Besides doubling for error detection and maintenance as well as giving your viewers access to complete lists of all available files. Other maint tools here.
One useful source of free to low cost sitemap generators is https://pro-sitemaps.com. Companion .xsl files are sometimes needed to fancify the display of .xml info, but these are not normally used or needed by the SEO Robots
.xsl files can be obtuse, difficult, and can give downright ugly results, so I have come up with a set of .xsl eliminators that create superb quality .PDF substitutions for you.
Find a file solution here with its sourcecode here. And an image solution here with its sourcecode here.
Consulting services available.
November 13, 2019
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1. Go to sitemap1.pdf
2. Search on ".psl".
Also works on many other trailers as well.
November 12, 2019
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Finding accurate slope information for all our bajada prehistoric hanging canals can be enormously difficult.
An essential hallmark of any canal is that its slope must be held exactly constant over long distances, or typically just under two percent. Less than that and you don't get enough water. More than that and you self-destruct.
Hillocks need not apply.
Compounding the problem is that many of our canals show a very strong "water flows uphill" illusion.
It sure is tempting to use the elevation figures from Google Earth. And these do often seem to verify what you hoped they would show you. But the underlying satellite imagery is only vertically accurate to a few hundred feet.
And thus Google Earth's altitude info is utterly and totally useless in verifying prehistoric canal slopes! It does, though sometimes give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.
GPS is not much more of a help in that its unassisted vertical accuracy is MUCH worse than horizontal, especially if only a few satellites are present or if some are near the horizon.
Garmin attempted to improve this by building in barometric sensing altimeters in their receivers. While much better, they introduce a weather dependent factor that is still huge when compared to our needed canal measurement accuracy.
One hack is to field measure forward and then return to your
starting point, averaging your results. Or, better yet, repeat
your back and forth measurements a number of times. Or, as
pilots do, real time measure your airport barometric pressure.
You can find typical barometric variations here as well as spot the times of day when they are fairly flat. The relationship that is between barometric pressure and altitude error can be found here.
Where we see that an hour's change in weather might end up as
30.10/30.06 - 1 = .00133. And that a 500 foot change at 3000 feet
might be 26.82 /26.33 -1 = 0.0186 equal to a one foot change of 0.0000372 or an error of 35.75 feet!
Thus, precision survey techniques may be needed. But these are of little help when scouring web images for new canals.
And, judging by a total undiscovered lack of survey instruments, pilot extensions of the canals themselves might have in fact been water levels used for construction.
One sledgehammer cure is called an automatic level. This is a type of transit with a built in leveling pendulum that gives you a level line of sight. Much more on the canals here, here, here, and here. Your participation welcome.
November 11, 2019
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Several of you have asked how our brand new and spectacular .xsl eliminators work. And how they can instantly get rid of all of the .xsl obtuseness, learning curves, and downright awful final appearance.
Just read your .xml file with PostScript! As its first simple and easy task converting the .xml data into an" array of arrays" key info. Then point this array in the general direction of Acrobat .PDF for the best final results anyplace anytime.
The only tiny insider secret is to be sure to activate Acrobat Distiller from your command line with the //acrodist /F "bubble bubble toil and trouble" incantation GhostScript might also be useful.
Two impressive examples here and here, with their sourcecode here and here.
Consulting services available.
November 10, 2019
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A reminder that we've just made some major upgrades in our website nav. With nearly all files and many images and dozens of video links newly available...
sitemap.xml
sitemap1.pdf *
sitemap1.psl ** - These are .xsl eliminators!
November 9, 2019
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A new set of image menus that include locations and documentation are coming together for our prehistoric bajada hanging canals.
A monumental amount of work still needs done and there's still typos and 404's and such. But you can see where we are headed here with recent sourcecode here. Please check back often.
You are welcome to field proof most of these.
November 8, 2019
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Director's Cuts" are my scheme for restoring and improving Linotype Era technical reprints. This method is labor and time intensive, but produces spectacular results. Some examples...
AACB1"Level II" Rework
Applewriter Cookbook and sourcecode
Fasterized Fractal Fern and sourcecode
MLPCI "Level II" Rework and sourcecode
Paleomagnetism & Archaeomagnetism and sourcecode
Poison Ivy in a Spray Canad sourcecode
SigForth Intro to PostScript and sourcecode
Superclock Rework
Tearing Method from Enhance I and sourcecode
Thermoluminescence and sourcecode
TVT Image Rework
Winning the Micro Game and sourcecode
Custom services available.
November 7, 2019
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Some of our GuruGrams seem to have never gotten properly main page indexed. Such as these...
123 Prehistoric Bajada Canals of Southeastern AZ
122 Glyphs Hanging Canal Summary
121 Little Known Gila Valley Dayhikes
120 Apple Assembly Cookbook I and II
119 Web Friendly PS Colors
118 Some "Fat Tail Arrow" Utilities
117 Level II Precyber eBook Conversions
116 Restoring Faded or Scuffed Text
115 An "unhalftoning" scheme for eBooks
114 Remastering a Technical Book
113 Allen Reservoir Failure Analysis Docs
112 Prehistoric Hanging Canals Slide Show
111 My Metal Locater Thesis
110 Remastering Video for Web Distribution
109 Gauss-Jordan Stability Issues
November 6, 2019
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It has been a while, but I long ago predicted the latest James Dean movie. I called it the "Digital Bogey"..
Find the story here and more detail in part 71 of this anthology. Here's the rest of the series...
Emerging technical opportunities VII
Emerging technical opportunities VI
Emerging technical opportunities V
Emerging technical opportunities IV
Emerging technical opportunities III
Emerging technical opportunities II
Emerging technical opportunities I
Find the rest of the blats here.
November 5, 2019
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Thought I'd review some of our newest and best stuff. Latest is our Hanging Canal image menu. Find it here with its sourcecode here. This is very much a work in progress, so keep checking back.
Newly added our CMOS Cookbook to our ebooks. Other currently popular ebooks include ISMM, TTL, TVT, and Active.
I recently discovered how crucially important Sitemap Files are for SEO. Upon investigation, these also turn out super important for web maintenance along with these tools. They also give website end users access to each and every file in your entire website!
So, here's the latest on our newest and best...
sitemap.xml
sitemap1.pdf *
sitemap1.psl ** - These are .xsl eliminators !!
We also have a new collection of triply compatible PostScript-GoogleDrive-GhostSript demos and utilities that are summarized here.
And, speaking of videos, here's the latest, unlocked, and newly freely downloadable version. Along with good old number one.
November 4, 2019
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Above and beyond our Bajada Hanging Canals, there are bunches of obscure regional stuff you can find on our Guru's Lair.
One of the biggies is our Gila Valley Day Hikes, along with its more detailed Little Known Gila Hikes. I've long been a fan of the Mount Graham Tramway, and you can find more details on this here, here, and here.
Besides the tram, I'm also a fan of engineering disasters when and where they happen. Find the scant and hard to pin down info on the Allen Dam Disaster here. Local lore had this as a water skiing facility.
Plus, of course, this secret place that you can't get to from here. Do not try this at home!
November 3, 2019
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Thanks to stack overflow to pointing out that extracting image pixel info often not needs a programming language. Instead, operating system command line instructions can be used.
Three solutions are apparent: .BAT files, Windows Power Shell, and Mediainfo. The latter seems to work just fine.
November 2, 2019
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Some comments on our new hanging canal master menu index found here with its sourcecode here.
First, this is a work in progress that is not nearly ready for prime time. Many, many images need entered or updates or corrections. A huge amount of effort remains.
Secondly, your first pass of the sourcecode to Distiller's command line //acrodist /F will generate an insanely large .PDF file. Probably done because Distiller initially keeps huge .JPEG data present. Such data is not needed since the menu clicks through to other web sources. So, be sure to use Acrobat to optimize your .pdf size results.
Present optimal size should be around 6 megs, which considering that thumbnails for a zillion images are involved is not all that bad. This will expand somewhat as new photos are added or edited.
Thirdly, avoid ever having more than one huge file on your machine. Eliminate them as soon as possible.
Fourth, although there are white keys and black keys, I've always tended to play in the cracks. Each image has two links on top of each other, where the image expands while the text expounds.
It is not at all clear how Acrobat prioritizes multiple overlapping links, but it seems to do so just fine. Please report any rules on this that you may find.
It may be needed to further reduce the thumbnail quality and size on the final project. Or else split it into several files. Image quality should not be that big a deal on a click through thumbnail.
November 1, 2019
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A slowdown in your comm speeds over time can usually be traced to Ethernet Tokens that are either corroded or grime covered.
The usual treatment is to use Brasso. But a better long term solution is to gold plate the tokens and then flash overplate them with a few microinches of rhodium.
More here.
October 31, 2019
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Just added a new master menu index for most of our prehistoric bajada hanging canal images. Find the initial demo here and its sourcecode here.
Much more on the canals here, here, here, and here.
Your participation in this world class research project is welcome here. Drone expertise is particularly needed.
October 30, 2019
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Our .pdf replacement for .xsl on sitemap.xml seems to work just fine. Just "press the button" for instant generation using this sourcecode.
But there are several major issues with a .pdf replacement for sitemap_images.xml. Although so far, we have come up with this spectacular replacement using this software.
There are two steps to the process. First is the conversion of sitemap_images.xml to an array of subarrays of form [ url_full_filename short_filename xpixels ypixels ].
One tiny immediate problem is that xpixels and ypixels are easily found in Windows by right clicking on image properties. Which presently adds six hours (!) of manual processing to what should be a fast automated task. Please email me a fast and easy workaround.
The second step in the process is to use PostScript to create a .pdf eliminator for .xml. I am very much overly enameled with my jpegimageprocwithlink code. This demands .jpg files only and copies of the files both on the website and the home pc. It also works best if all .jpg images are in a single directory.
Nonetheless, this .jpg .xml elimination scheme would seem to have enormous potential. And - obviously- is even useful as is.
October 29, 2019
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OK, here's a status report on out new major Guru's Lair improvements.
We've seen that adding sitemap.xml, sitemap_video.xml and sitemap_images.xml to our older whtnu.xml is super important for SEO search visibility.
Underappreciated is that these files can have two other major uses. First, with the help of PRO-sitemaps.com or similar, you can get reports that are extremely useful to find and fix your website problems. These can be easily combined with the other repair tools that we use.
Second, by the use of "real" .xsl stylesheets or our brand new .pdf stylesheet .xsl eliminator replacements, all sorts of highly useful "menu cliickthroughs" can now be created for your web end users.
Stylesheets are not needed for normal SEO uses. If used, they must be in the same directory as the .xml file and the xml file has to be told the .xsl location by entry of a second from the top line something like..
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="glotz1.xsl" ?>
In general, .xsl stylesheets can be obtuse and hard to work with. Let's look at three use or avoidance apps...
In the case of our sitemap.xml, a .pdf eliminator of sitemapt1.pdf was created using this sourcecode. The flexibility and quality here clearly exceeds most .xsl.
You create the .pdf file using sitemap1.psl routed to Acrobat Distiller via a command line //acrodist /F. This will need redone each time you want a viewer update.
In the case of our sitemap_video.xml , a renamed glotz1.xsl was located and linked. Its video manipulation ( especially the thumbnail images ) were good enough to not yet pursue a .pdf workaround.
In the case of our sitemap_images.xml, a .pdf eliminator was pursued that led to this stunning image directory and its sourcecode. But the process on this is not yet fully automatic and other issues remain to be addressed.
October 28, 2019
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Using .PDF as a sitemap_ image xsl eliminator can be tricky and may involve some manual intervention. But as this demo and this sourcecode shows us, it most certainly can be done.
It is particularly useful to give all your web users a complete menu of all your selected images!
October 27, 2019
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The lf, fj, cg, rj, and friends justification routines in our gonzo utilities and its tutorial are super powerful and easily deal with mixed paragraphs, kerning, use of multiple fonts, selective colors, plus bunches more.
Their key secret is deferred operation where the current positioning waits until final locations are known.
But there are times and places where you might not want to tow along most or all of gonzo. Instead, here is a pair of center and right justification routines that only work on single font "no frills" left justification...
/simplecj { dup stringwidth pop currentpoint
3 1 roll exch 2 div sub exch moveto show} store
/simplerj { dup stringwidth pop currentpoint
3 1 roll exch sub exch moveto show} store
Used like this...
20 30 moveto (your text here) simplecj
October 26, 2019
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Here's a reminder over our "new" bubble sort routines.
They can be significantly faster for most users most of the time in that they exit their loops if there was no previous change made. Results might now be two seconds for 2000 sorts.
This code sorts an array of integers, reals, or strings...
/bubsort3a {/curmat1 exch store
curmat1 length 1 sub -1 1
{/done true store
/maxposition exch store
0 1 maxposition 1 sub
{/posn exch store
curmat1 posn get
curmat1 posn 1 add get
gt{curmat1 posn get
curmat1 posn 1 add get
curmat1 exch posn exch put
curmat1 exch posn 1 add exch put
/done false store
}if
} for
done {exit} if % stop on no swaps
} for
curmat1
} bind store
A minor gotcha on sorting strings: PostScript does a lexical sort, as do most other languages. Thus, your end sequence might be 1, 10, 11, 2, 3, 4, ... and you may want to make a manual adjustment to get a "true" alphanumeric result.
This code sorts an array of arrays. In this case, it sorts on the second entry of the subarray...
/bubsort3b {/curmat1 exch store
curmat1 length 1 sub -1 1
{/done true store
/maxposition exch store
0 1 maxposition 1 sub
{/posn exch store
curmat1 posn get 1 get
curmat1 posn 1 add get 1 get
gt{curmat1 posn get
curmat1 posn 1 add get
curmat1 exch posn exch put
curmat1 exch posn 1 add exch put
/done false store
}if
} for % inner loop
done {exit} if
} for
curmat1
} bind store
October 25, 2019
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Managed to get sitemap_video.xml to work in the expected manner. The key to the image thumbnails lies in involvement with a Google video scheema.
First, you somehow acquire lawful IP rights to the related .xsl. Save this to an appropriate directory such as your home page with the filename glotz1.xsl.
Similarly, somehow acquire lawful IP rights to the main .xml. Enter an editor and enter...
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="glotz1.xsl" ?>
...as your second line from the top of the doc.
Then save as a suitable original or new filename. Make sure both the .xml and .xsl files are both in the same directory!
Your end users should now have fancy access to every vid ever mentioned on your website.
See if you can spot what's "not quite right" here. Avoid the use of "pinafore" in your reply.
October 24, 2019
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As we just discovered, such files as sitemap.xml, or sitemap_images.xml and sitemap_video.xml are super important and primary routes towards SEO search engine optimization. Stylesheets are not needed or used for these SEO uses.
Underappreciated is that there are at least two other uses of stitemaps that could end up at least as important to you as SEO.
Web sitemap generators such as the superb PRO-sitemaps.com can give you details on nearly all of the errors in your entire website. These can be hard to find with any other web repair tools.
And second, these can lead to interactive insider clickable lists for your end users that show all of your website features. Per this demo or this one.
October 23, 2019
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Here's some of the advantages of using XSL eliminators:
1. You don't need to learn XSL.
2. .PDF graphics are better.
3. No need to modify XML.
4. Better display flexibility.
5. Simple alphabetizing .
6. Minimal IP issues.
You do, of course, keep the original .XML files so they can be accessed for SEO by search engines. XSL files are not needed for this use.
A second fake sitemap demo sourcecode can be found here with its sourcecode here. This one adds a filter so that only our website .psl files are shown. Internal flags are easily adjusted to meet your own needs.
The .PSL format is designed to open in a text editor, while any companion .PS file is intended to open in Distiller.
With .PSL, best start here with these latest demos that also happen to be GhostScript and Google Drive compatible. Then go on to the video, the beginning projects, the manual, and all the sneaky stuff.
Modern .PSL files are normally run in Acrobat Distiller from the command line via //acrodist /F. It is super important to change internal flags. And especially filenames and their prefixes before you reuse any code.
October 22, 2019
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Started a new tentative series of "XSL Eliminators".
These convert certain unmodified sightmap.xml's into all sorts of new display and linking features.
In their spare time, they can give you immediate and total instant access to nearly all of our website files!
Find the first .pdf demo here and its .psl sourcecode here. You run .psl sourcecode by command reaching Acrobat Distiller with an //acrodist /F.
Much more here and here. Your comments welcome.
October 21, 2019
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An interesting list alphabetizing interactive online service can be found here.
Our new and improved and faster bubble sort can be found here.
At present, it sorts an array of arrays on each second subarray entry. I'm exploring its use with strings, but do not anticipate any problems. Stay tuned.
October 20, 2019
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Per this source and this one, pv pricing continues its ongoing decline. Their figures seem slightly different at a minimum of 9.0 or 9.9 cents per peak cell watt.
I feel the magic "all hell breaks loose" number is eight cents per peak cell watt. Combined, of course, with the ongoing rapidly increasing conversions of coal power plants into singles bars.
More on energy topics here.
October 19, 2019
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A church in Gila Bend decided not to get a chandelier. It turns out nobody in the congregation knew how to play one.
They also can be a bear to tune.
October 18, 2019
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Now adding three major features to our Guru's Lair. These are...
They are not quite ready for prime time yet since some issues remain with companion files.
Eventually they should let you instantly click through on every tile and every image on our site, besides letting you pig out on every video that we ever so much as mentioned.
Speaking of which, be sure to check out the xylophone duet and Lawrence Welk's WTF version of One Toke Over the Line. Plus, of course, versions of the turbo encabulator.
These also are intended to improve SEO, and there are hints this may already be happening.
While our own videos should eventually be viewable with the above links, if you want to save them to another site or redistribute them, you should instead use this link or this one.
Our separate https://www.tinaja.com/whtnu.xml for our more popular files remains available.
Stay tuned for further improvements.
October 17, 2019
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A reminder that PostScript is a totally general purpose computer language that goes far beyond its ability to dirty up otherwise clean sheets of paper.
The question came up whether PostScript might be able to replace XSL with potential advantages of not having to learn a really obtuse new language, avoiding unavailability or IP issues, or offering spectacularly better graphics with its .PDF output.
At first glance, the possibilities seem simple and easy. First, we note that Acrobat Distiller demands a command line //acrodist /F if it is to read or write disk files such as an XML file. And that any text only file is easily scanned into line by line blocks for further processing by using PostScript's readline.
Routines such as /jpegimageprocwithlink found in our gonzo utilities make providing live web links and image "click expands" links in .PDF a snap. The opportunities here would seem intriguing.
October 16, 2019
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If your website is big and older, the chances are more than overwhelming that there are hundreds to even many thousands of hidden errors present.
Caused by, among other things, a mix of secure and non secure links, 404 not available errors, remnants of .asp files, 301 overloads from no longer needed byte range retrieval, upper case now being a no-no, and lots of CSS "improvements" that obsolete older HTML commands.
Yeah, most of the problems are largely invisible and show up mostly as unneeded traffic slowdowns. And malware often adds bunches of 404's and 301's in attempts to crack access.
Some errors may also cause browsers to respond differently.
I've once again tried cleaning our Guru's Lair website and think I've managed to get it faster, cleaner, and better.
While we just listed all of our web maint tools here, the three biggies are found here, here, and here. The latter with its demo here.
Plus, of course, Fatcow Stats.
Please let me know anything I missed. A very few Hanging Canal image 404's do purposely remain as a programming convenience.
October 15, 2019
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The Airpot folks are offering free samples of their robotics dashpots.
These are basically precision shock absorbers that consist of an air cylinder and an adjustable valve. The valve setting determines how much force will resist and thus dampen any sudden input motion changes.
Set by how fast air can enter or leave the cylinder.
October 14, 2019
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As we have recently seen, there are some big reasons to having a sitemap.xml file on your website.
This can be your single most important ( and free to low cost ) SEO search engine optimization. And the strongest single factor to your Google visibility.
It also gives your viewers a complete list of all of your files.
We've also seen how there is a pro-sitemaps.com site that offers free to low cost services to generate the .xml files for you.
Who also create sitemap_video.xml and sitemap_image.xml for you. The xml vids are click-through and let your users pig out on every vid you ever mentioned or linked on your website. Same goes for images.
We'll get these other .xml's live just as soon as we can.
Meanwhile, there is a stupendously enormous other "secondary" feature of pro-sitemaps.com: Their reports offer an interactive way to stomp out nearly all of your website bugs and errors.
And very much complement ISP stats services and our own logfile analyzer sourcecode and demo
October 13, 2019
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eBay sales seem to be catastrophically down for just about everybody And it seems to be getting a lot worse. Some analysis here
While there are rumors of purposeful eBay blackouts, one credible possible explanation is that buyers are leaving in droves for Amazon's free to low shipping.
This may be unfixable, short of Amazon buying eBay. Your input welcome.
October 12, 2019
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EAC ( Eastern Arizona College ) apparently is going to switch from their classic fall auctions to the online Public Surplus web site.
Additional listings are purportedly expected "real soon now".
I predict some rude surprises along the way.
More auction stuff here.
October 11, 2019
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Just had a file disappear, and its recovery ended up worse than slow and scary
I cannot emphasize strong and often enough: Back up all your PC and web resources six ways from Sunday!
And do so "defense in depth" in many different ways.
The obvious first choice are USB's that are now both cheap and huge. Camera memory cards are a second backup method. Cloud storage is now readily available and sometimes free. Obvious choices here are Adobe Creative Cloud and Google Drive.
Giving backup copies to friends or associates makes a lot of sense. As does "all we have" eBay USB offers.
Posting to open source websites such as Wesrch, Research Gate, and the rest of the gang can be most useful for scientific or technical stuff.
It may even be worthwhile to have a totally separate backup website and a totally separate backup PC.
There is not the slightest doubt that you WILL eventually be done in from everything like stupid mistakes, power glitches, equipment failures, malware, third party disasters, or scams. How bad this gets will be depends entirely on your backup policies and how vigorously you enforce them.
October 10, 2019
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Just realized that some of the links were either broken or non-obvious to our water soluble swimsuits.
Find the newly reworked links here.
And a related product of comparable value here.
October 9, 2019
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The fee based portion of pro-sitemaps.com can also give you printouts that are extremely useful for website repairs and maintenance.
This includes referred 404's, http versus https mixups. any unneeded 301 redirects, unsupported filetypes( including our .psl's ), mismatched sub domains, responses other than 200 class, mis located url's, and great heaping bunches more.
In short, listings of many different web problems that are otherwise extremely hard to spot.
Here's some of the other web creation and repair tools that we have found very useful...
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Distiller
Dreamweaver
Fatcow
A third person live proofer.
A decent spell checker
Gonzo utilities and tutorial
PostScript Reference Manual
ISP logs
Wordpad
Imageviewer32
Log file analyzer & demo
W3C Website Verifier
W3C URL link checker
W3C CSS Verifier
Filezilla
Google Chrome
Paint
pro-sitemaps.com
sitemap.xml verifier
Architect's perspective
Auto vignetting backgrounder
Bitmap typewriter
October 8, 2019
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Two of the ( often free ) Search Engine Optimization SEO tricks are super important and very little known.
First, Google wants to know who you are. Per this process.
They give you a short free file to upload to your website. The file starts with "Google" and is followed by some cookie-like alphanumerics. This goes on the home page.
Second, their search algorithms are much more thorough and complete if you have a file named sitemap.xml on your home page. Naturally, it has to obey all the rules. Which you can check with this sitemap.xml verifier. And optional Google submitter.
Our own sitemap can be found here. This doubles as a directory of many of the files on our website. Sadly, it does not include our unique .psl files, which we will deal with separately.
An outfit called pro-sitemaps.com can generate these .xml files for you. There is no charge for websites less than 1000 files nor for the first 1000 files of a larger web
October 7, 2019
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Magic Sinewaves are a new class of mathematical functions that allow the synthesis of digital power sinewaves with any arbitrary number of low harmonics efficiently forced to precisely zero in theory and to astonishingly low levels ( -65 decibels or better ) in practice.
Our magic sinewave library can be found here, an incredibly fast and powerful calculator based on a sneaky trig identity here, and an independent third party researcher here
Present work involves translating these to the Raspberry Pi. The disadvantage, of course, is a much higher cost than using a PIC.
But there are otherwise overwhelming advantages...
Amplitude and frequency setting now combined.
Real world harmonics can now be even lower.
One memory card can hold zillions of sinewaves.
Filtering simplification through different "n" values.
More of solution can now be standard hardware.
Research tools can now be more readily available.
Reduction of pinch points through delay resolution.
Cleaner and more simplified coding.
The innermost secret to computing magic sinewaves is being able to quickly calculate extremely precise long time delays. Preferably to one machine cycle precision. This is well beyond any higher level language, and the Arduino sometimes plays jitter tricks for optimization in how it plays with its instruction set. But it does have a jitter free high resolution time delay that seems ideal for Magic Sinewaves.
Here's what the key code for one n=10 quadrant might look like...
loop:
# quadrant one (0 through 90 degrees)
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=96040
bl wait
str r6,[r3]
ldr r1,=11658
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=84625
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=23113
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=73662
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=34160
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=63361
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=44596
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=53934
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=54215
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=45596
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=62801
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=38560
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=70106
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=33034
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=75813
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=29213
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=79518
bl wait
str r2,[r4]
ldr r1,=27255
bl wait
str r2,[r3]
ldr r1,=40407
bl wait
# more quadrants here
An executive guide to magic sinewaves can be found here, and the secret insider tricks to achieving three phase compatibility here.
At present, magic sinewave research funding is a tad on the thin side. Your active participation would be more than welcome.
Consulting and seminars available.
October 6, 2019
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Many people will do anything to save the environment.
Except take a science course!
Much more from here.
October 5, 2019
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Much of the previous Heathkit debacle has now gone away, with two good free sources of manuals here and here, among many others.
There is a "new" Heathkit here, but terms like "rather underwhelming" and "less than stellar" seem to have come to mind.
These days, the focus on many former Heath fans would be the Raspberry Pi.
October 4, 2019
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Newly updated and expanded our Gila Valley Day Hikes. We are now up to 571 primary entries!
Added are info on our brand new ARA hanging canal video, the May Wildlife Area, a xylophone duet link, details on the Salsa Trail and Salsafest, plus updates on the Sunglow Ranch.
The vid is newly and freely downloadable under
Google Drive guidelines. The vid is newly and freely downloadable under
Google Drive guidelines.
October 3, 2019
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Here's an alternate approach to delivering videos that avoids overloading your ISP with giant files or running afoul of YouTube's ban on downloads:
0. Compress and edit with a video editor.
1. Upload the MPEG4 to Google Drive.
2. Right click on Sharable Link. Copy it.
3. Announce the links appropriately.
It is not unusual for your upload to take hours or more. But your viewers should see it near instantly owing to the Byte Range Retrieval feature of most browsers.
You typically will be allowed three or four free video uploads.
October 2, 2019
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A curious fact: Any perpetual motion machine that includes a 555 timer is bogus and nonfunctional. No exceptions to this rule have ever been found.
Which saves you bunches of time discrediting a perpetual motion machine, for if a 555 timer is present, there is absolutely no point in continuing. Guaranteed.
After reviewing a bunch of recent candidates, the usual problem is that narrow pulses are exceptionally difficult to properly measure. I've dealt with this here, here, and here.
The key gotcha is that any spike or narrow pulse has an exceptionally high ratio of rms to average value. And even though correctly measuring rms instruments have finally become readily available, the overwhelming majority of lay members of the Church of the Latter Day Crackpots continue to mislead themselves by still using average reading instruments.
Even if you have a "real" rms meter, there's a secondary gotcha called the crest factor that still will nail you to the wall. Multiply two big numbers together and they become a huge number. Waaay beyond anything that analog can deal with.
Exceed the crest factor and the instrument will still read deceptively low. Additional analysis here.
More on pseudoscience bashing here.
October 1, 2019
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The YouTube rules say that you are not allowed to save or capture any files. And, while there are bunches of third party YouTube vid grabbers around, at least a few of these may trap you into malware or worse.
Here is a temporary link to our ARA "Hanging" Canal distributed under Creative Commons rules. This is still full HD, although we are working on reducing file sizes and doing a few minor edits.
You are more than welcome to distribute this to the widest possible audience. Within Creative Commons guidelines.
And here is a copy of our Introduction to PostScript video that is similarly freely downloadable and may be copied or distributed under Creative Commons rules.
An older video editing tutorial of ours appears here.
But these days, you are probably better off using Adobe Premier Pro. Which is now available as part of Adobe Cloud. Which also now includes dozens of programs, thousands of fonts and millions of images.
September 30, 2019
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Just realized that our Pulse Generator reprint from the April 1966 PE was not indexed properly. Although it is present on the classic reprints part of our website.
I was fascinated by four layer diodes in that they let you build test equipment without tubes or transistors!
The crucial part was renamed a 1N5160 and seems to just barely still be available. Related devices do still see some use in light dimmer phase controls.
A companion "Golly Gee Mister Science" project was the Amligner.
More on elegant simplicity here. The P38 can opener, of course, was the greatest invention of the 20th century.
September 29, 2019
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Shocking.
Nearly fifty percent of all North Dakota school children are below average!
September 28, 2019
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Unlocked and freely Creative Commons downloads of our recent ARA video are newly available here.
Similarly, free author's preprints of our still embargoed JFA hanging canal story are available here.
You are invited to bail out our embargo.
September 27, 2019
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Many of the Radio Shack Engineer's Notebooks are newly available here.
As well as zillions of other historic radio docs.
September 26, 2019
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As this older tutorial tells us, pure green light has an electrical efficiency ( or more correctly, an efficacy ) of 668Lumens per Watt, while pure white light comes in near 251 Lumens per watt. The latter lowered by eye response.
A typical incandescent bulb only has a minuscule 12Lumens per watt. Which explains why LED's have just run away with all the marbles near 120 Lumens per watt.
A similar disparity and huge opportunity exists with HVAC. Modern air conditioners come in with a COP of 3.5 or a SEER of 15.
This is only the ludicrously tiny fraction of a desert best COP of 13 or SEER of 46. And the best "average" that is achievable is a far more significant COP of 36 or a SEER of 120. Details here.
No, Peltier devices won't hack it. Even with the expected ongoing new developments. But opportunities with hybrid evaporative precooling or adsorption systems or potential new MEMS exchanger technology would seem to be just around the corner.
Even going to variable speeds and adjustable size capacities can help significantly. As can decent maintenance. Particularly needed is an efficient and economical heat pump hot tub solution.
Opporknockity tunes but once. But not here.
September 25, 2019
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Here's an updated list of our recent triply compatible
Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript utilities and apps...
#23 - Rope-a-Dope source and demo
#22 - Spherical Transforms source and demo
#21 - Poison Ivy Spray Can source and demo
#20 - 2D Perspective Cube source and demo
#19 - Fractal Fern source and demo
#18 - URL Linking source and demo ***
#17 - Print Diverter! source and demo
#16 - PS Error Reporter! source and demo
#15 - Dictionary Snooper source and demo
#14 - Marberlous Pancakes source and demo
#13 - Meowwrrr Pussycat ( available module list )
#12 - PS Accuracy Improver source and demo
#11 - Cubic Spline Length source and demo
#10 - "Lite" Gonzo Shell source and demo
#9 - Constant Cubic Spline source and demo
#8 - Fake Log Demo source and demo
#7 - Avuncular Sleezoids ( available module list )
#6 - Tuna Can source and demo
#5 - Font Reporter source and demo
#4 - Brick Wall source and demo (!)
#3 - Scribble source and demo
#2 - Fat Tail Arrows source and demo
#1 - Web Friendly Colors source and demo
The final results from meowwrrr can be viewed in Google Drive, but the key part where it traces a .JPG is not yet compatible. Your help is needed on this.
*** still has issues.
And, of course, ground zero on all this can be found here, here, here, and here.
September 24, 2019
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A reminder that the Raytheon Surplus auctions now are
handled as an open application through Exostar.
One of their more interesting new features is that they continue to report your status if you are not still the winning bidder.
An obvious omission of most online auctions most of the time: They never report the final prices on closed auctions! Probably because some ( many? ) auctions give such pitiful returns that could make the auctioneer look bad.
Much more on online auctions here, with our own eBay auctions here.
September 23, 2019
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Entry #23 in our ongoing series of triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript code demos is on the ropeadope.
Find its sourcecode here and its demo here.
This was based on #27 in this original. There is really knotting to this. The illusion is created by writing an "under" knot portion, then an "over" knot portion, and then selectively over writing individual "knotettes" of the "under" knot portion.
In this example, the aposn flag only allows rewriting of knotettes 8, 9, 10, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 42, 43, 44, and 45.
Per these tutorial details.
September 22, 2019
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Our new spherical mapping sourcecode and its demo does include a super sneaky way of gaining extreme accuracy of approximating a circle to waaay beyond machine shop needs. Perhaps even pushing the limits of 32 bit math.
Thought I'd mention several useful tools here...
An arc chord calculator
Bezier curve through four points
Approximating a circle or ellipse
Graphic nonlinear transforms
The sneaky trick is to change a plain old lineto into five ( or more or less ) "weak spline" curvetos. And then change those curvetos ( which usually miss their control points ) with a four point Bezier that goes exactly through them.
The magic transform is amazingly simple...
x' = sin(x) cos(y)
y' = sin(y)
Details here.
September 21, 2019
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Entry #22 in our ongoing series of triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript code demos is on spherical mapping and transformations. Find its sourcecode here and its demo here.
Hidden in its code are some sneaky Bezier-thru-4-points code that can give you both programmable and extreme accuracy for circle approximations.
This works best with Distiller by way of the usual //acrodist /F and is based on this tutorial.
Much more here.
September 20, 2019
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There seems to be some emerging interest in TV Typewriters. My best advice these days is to use a Raspberry Pi or one of its simularosities instead.
One modern "authentic" TVT reconstruction can be found here and here and here.
Much of the finest and cheapest stuff at the time is now enormously difficult to find. Analog tv sets for display are no longer sold. And NTSC at best can only deal with 32 or 40 character lines. Display of one single color upper case only dot matrix font is now very little in demand.
Steeply dropping memory prices quickly eliminated any need to treat text different from graphic pixels. Hundreds bits newly in a easily modified glyph rapidly became cheaper than the hardwire decoded six bits in an upper case only ASCII character storage
What was a fifty cent crystal is now very expensive. The TVT itself could not care about its exact frequency, but if you missed by even a little bit, cheap tv's of the time would annoyingly "breathe" while slipping power line cycles.
This problem may no longer even exist on a modern regulated switchmode monitor. At any rate, the fix is a power line PLL lock.
Rude modern surprises include the MC4024 dual multivibrator not being remotely similar to a CD4024 binary counter. And that the Signetics 2518 recirculating 32x6 register often can be pretty much unobtanium.
At any rate, you can still find the original story here and its three books here, and here.
September 19, 2019
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Just noticed that the Putney Swope movie is available on YouTube.
I'm still waiting for a free source of Buckaroo Banzai is by far the finest medical, science fiction, love story, rockumentary, comedy, racing, comic book, quantum mechanical, musical, pro nerd, intergalactic war documentary, watermelon ode, and survivalist movie of all time.
Overwhelmingly the best movie of its type ever made.
Key sound bytes...
Assumption is the mother of mistakes.
No matter where you go, there you are.
The finest movie of all time, of course, was the cross genre Godzilla Versus the Night Nurses. Sadly, the restraining order from the Tapioca Pudding Institute forced its release directly to eight track.
September 18, 2019
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The Hazmat "rule of thumb":
Hold your arm outstretched with your thumb up. Close one eye.
If you can still see the scene, you are too close.
September 17, 2019
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There are apparently two flavors of Walmart auctions. They run their own merchandise auctions here. Typical pallet lot prices are in the $800 to $2000 range. With scrap tv sets at $4000 to $5000 per lot. And averaging $25 per set.
The locations vary all over the US. Shipping within 500 miles is often free. Bidding is often by the semi truck load.
While store closing fixture auctions vary with the location, the easiest and most current access is to Google "Walmart store closing auctions"
Individual merchandise inventory items are usually not offered in store closing auctions.
Much more auction stuff here.
September 16, 2019
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We've seen how to draw a Bezier Curve through four points here.
If you draw a "regular" curveto, it will "miss" the first and second influence points. It will also usually stay "inside" of them, directly contacting only the initial and final points.
BUT - If you REPLACE your curveto and its moveto command with a bez4pts command, the final curve will EXACTLY go through ALL FOUR points!
Which should end up ridiculously more accurate when curve fitting and even possibly as "perfect" as 32 bit math allows.
This should prevent all corner cutting on a spherical transform. Or, better yet, dramatically improve the accuracy of approximating circles or ellipses with cubic splines.
Hopefully, some code and a possible detailed error analysis shortly.
September 15, 2019
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I'm wondering what our prehistoric bajada hanging canals can tell us about climatic reconstruction. The premise put forth here suggests that the 1350's were wetter times. Possibly significantly.
At present, there are only four northwest trending streams on Mount Graham. Namely Marijilda, Fry Deadman, and Ash. Most of the other canyons are dry most of the time and have very little total runoff.
But there seem to be apparently successful prehistoric on each and every possible drainage! A few of which do include Veech, Goat, Ledford, Taylor, Shingle Mill, Mud Hollow, Carter, Lefthand, Nuttall, and Tripp.
Nothing seems to have been missed.
Ash Creek appeared to have enough water to source many canals, one of which was the watershed crossing Mud Springs and its Jernigan Branch.
Similarly, Deadman Canyon seemed to have enough water to source a pair of watershed crossing canals.
The amount of engineering time and effort that went into these canals is truly staggering. Such effort would more likely have gone into more continuous, rather than seasonal solutions.
September 14, 2019
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Our new spherical transform demo seems to be going together for our ongoing series of triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript projects.
Much more on nonlinear transforms here. One big gotcha that needs attention is that any nonlinear that converts straight lines into curves may involve corner cutting! In which your line goes "straight through" your 3D perceived 2D object instead of "around its intended 2D front surface.".
Now, in general, corner cutting is not that big a deal on small lines and curves. Usually you don't have to worry about it on portions of small text. But any major construct ( such as a latitude changing chord ) the corner cutting easily becomes hideously obvious.
The fix that was discovered on a spherical transform to repair needed corner cutting was to replace each and every long problem lineto with five "weak" cubic splines.
Now, that sounds gruesome, but it is really quite simple. And goes along with our "throw another million calcs at it" we've looked at elsewhere. And your needed code only takes milliseconds at most.
The initial results were just barely corner cutting. And a disgustingly elegant trick ( to be revealed shortly ) lets you virtually completely eliminate spherical corner cutting.
Demos and code to follow after some more testing.
September 13, 2019
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Here's the EIS for the Mount Graham telescopes.
This holds lots of background info for our bajada hanging canals found here, here, here, and here.
September 12, 2019
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A free and highly useful collection of online calculators can be found at https://planetcalc.com/.
Of particular recent interest is this arc cord calculator.
Ferinstance, if you were to approximate a unit quarter circle with five straight line segments of 18 degrees each, your worst case cyclic error would be 0.0123 or an error function sinewave near 0.00435 rms.
Instead, if you used fifteen straight line segments of 6 degrees each, your worst case error would be 0.00137 or an error function sinewave near 0.000484 rms.
Naturally, using cubic splines instead would give much better results.
The magic math above is...
h = R ( 1 - cos ( ang/2 ) )
September 11, 2019
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We seem to be gaining on the Jernigan "Hanging Canal", although several mysteries remain. Its older field notes are now sorely in need of revision.
The Jernigan Canal begins as a Mud Springs Canal branch at N 32.82754 W 109.81950. A few atypical rocks here suggest a now buried headgate.
This Canal remains fairly traceable to a 4WD crossing at N32.83210 W 109.81817Here, it becomes largely indistinguishable from a natural drainage that pretty much demands its credible continuation north to its West Layton Road crossing at N 32.83688 W 109.81498.
A historical road waterbar appears to overlay the canal at this point further north, The routing is quite easily followed to its Grandma Road crossing at N 32.83891 W 109.81464.
A mysterious but apparently historic construct crosses next. This may include a short wash crossing aqueduct remnant (?) somewhat to the west at N 32.83912 W 109.81550
The canal then splits into at least two pieces, with the main portion following three or more ambiguous braided natural drainages largely free of spoil banks. It once again becomes a distinct, rather deep and rocky canal near N 32.84203 W 109.81412
A large mid channel tree can be found here, adding credibility to the canal potential age. Note that potential germination time can very significantly add to the actual tree age.
A short portion of this canal branch vanishes near a postulated counterflowing stream crossing at N 32.84111 W 109.81427, suggesting sheet wash or other flood damage.
The westerly remainder of the canal is very impressive, quite distinct and of significant depth with major spoil banks to its apparent end at a sudden drop near N 32.84079 W 109.81680. Possible destination fields are clearly observable here.
Meanwhile, the northern branch continues on its own, again via braided and apparently natural and largely spoil bank free channels. It crosses the now discredited "Jernigan Ext" study area at N 32.84232 W 109.81398 which has been deemed a trail bike route owing to erratic elevation changes.
The northern branch shortly disappears but may be very near its destination, owing to significant area cultural resources.
Another possible Central Dump water channel has been newly located somewhat west at N 32.84480 W 109.81925 . Whether this is in fact prehistoric and its relation to the Jernigan Canals remains unknown and awaits further research.
Interesting features of Jernigan are its four (!) "U" turns, some rather significant and fairly deep cuts, counterflowing at one stream crossing, and a large tree mid channel. It is also clearly associated with several cultural resources and is one of the few canals that still has a fairly identifiable probable destination.
September 10, 2019
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Org. Got yet another email from someone about to revolutionize electrolysis and would I please recommend a highly qualified yet low cost electrochemist within six of Holt County, Nebraska.
One more time: There is a first principle of thermodynamics called "Exergy" that absolutely and positively GUARANTEES that electrolysis from high value sources such as grid, pv, wind, or alternator flat out ain't gonna happen.
The process would be exactly the same as 1:1 exchanging US dollars for Mexican Pesos. There ALWAYS will be more intelligent things to do with the electricity than immediately and irrevocably destroying most of its value.
Just for kicks, try finding an electrolysizer manufacturer sometime. Even if you find one, they certainly will not tell you how much their products cost, and absolutely will not sell one to an individual because of safety and liability issues. The reason being that exergy limits such devices to highly unique, specialized, and obscure industrial uses
Virtually all bulk hydrogen gas is produced from hydrocarbons. The amount produced by electrolysis is utterly negligible and limited to exceptionally specific needs where system efficiency and costs are not major design factors.
Exergy measures of the present quality and value of an energy source. You measure exergy by converting that source to another form, converting it back, and seeing how much you have left. Resistance room heat is a classic example of horribly wasted exergy.
Electricity is about the highest exergy stuff available. Unstored hydrogen gas has exceptionally low exergy. Electrolysis is the process of converting many high value kilowatt hours of energy into fewer very low value kilowatt hours of energy.
And, thus, is normally and monumentally stupid.
As such, electrolysis clearly will forever remain totally incompatible with efficient and sensible alternate energy solutions.
And that is before abysmal system efficiencies, amortization, or stupidities ( such as stainless steel electrodes with its hydrogen overvoltage of iron ). "Real" electrolysizers demand platinized platinum electrodes that are regularly renewed.
Does exergy mean that solar to hydrogen via Faraday's Law is never gonna happen? Not at all. But it does GUARANTEE that conventional high value electricity will definitely NOT be a mid process energy state.
Once again, our bottom line summary:
If you do not understand exergy, you SHOULD
NOT be pissing around with electrolysis.
If you do understand exergy, you WILL NOT
be pissing around with electrolysis..
Either way, the outcome is not the least in doubt. More can be found here, here, and here.
September 9, 2019
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Many years ago, I was attending a folk concert. The opening act was a single and an unknown flute player, performing in front of the closed stage curtains. His job was to warm up the audience for the high priced help that was soon to follow.
He was good. Very good.
But as he went along, the music started getting strange and finally
downright weird. He was playing chords on his flute, along with notes
with unbelievably strong tonal structures. Eventually, the music turned
into bunches of impossible sounding and god-awful squawks.
Almost all of the audience got bored and restless as the music
seemed to deteriorate. Just then, I happened to notice a friend beside
me who had played in and had taught concert band. He was literally
on the edge of his chair with his mouth open.
He briefly turned to me and said very slowly, ''You can't do that with
a flute. It is not possible."
Of the thousands of people in the audience, at the most only five
realized they were now witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime performance
involving the absolute mastery of a very difficult musical instrument. To
nearly everyone else, It sounded like a bunch of god-awful squawks.
Always play for those five.
September 8, 2019
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The next project in our ongoing series of triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScrpt neat stuff to do is a spherical transformation.
This would be a variation on our Poison Ivy in a Spray Can with some of our original nonlinear graphics background here.
The surprisingly simple original nonlinear transform in degrees goes something like this...
x' = sin(x)cos(y)
y' = sin(x)
Input can be "lat lon" normalized with 90 0 = east, 0 90 = north, -90 0 = west and 0 -90 = south. Or else unity normalized. The usual PostScript scaling then brings everything up to your desired size.
More details soon.
September 7, 2019
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Four free MEMS microphone samples are newly available here.
September 6, 2019
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A reminder that free eBook versions of the CMOS Cookbook and the Active Filter Cookbook are newly available.
CMOS is often tied with the TVT Cookbook for third web place and has finally come close to a million total copies.
Your help is still needed in getting scanned versions of Micro Cookbook I, the Spanish TTL Cookbook, the Pacific Rim TTL Cookbook, and the Hexadecimal Chronicles.
Plus, of course, I do need an uncut MPEG4 HD version of Godzilla versus the Night Nurses. Only the eight track version seems to still be available on eBay. Most likely because of the restraining order from the Tapioca Pudding Institute.
September 5, 2019
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My most favoritiest place you can't get to from here can be found here and here.
WARNING: For advanced canyoneering teams only!
Note that Arizona has several Devil's Canyons and Devil's Chasms. Many of which make for interesting exploration on their own. Devil's Chasm in the Sierra Anchas is particularly impressive.
More accessible stuff here with additional details here.
September 4, 2019
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The Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem
smarter when they come at you rapidly.
September 3, 2019
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There might be a bajada "hanging" prehistoric canal tour this Saturday September 7th starting at 8 AM out of Thatcher.
A few slots may remain available. email me or call (928) 428-4073 for more details. No charge except possibly for Juanatia's lunch.
Appropriate desert hiking gear essential.
September 2, 2019
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Our Build this TV Typewriter story seems to have just gone mini-viral.
If you want to get in ahead of the hoarders, click here now for your free ecopy. With more details here.
At the time, recirculating PMOS shift registers were the ONLY available low cost memory. They also had a big advantage in that a "phase shift" cursor could be used instead of direct addressing.
Also at the time, now unobtainium custom crystals were not that big a deal. The TV Typewriter did not particularly care about its exact frequencies, but the cheap tv that you connected to it would "breathe" annoyingly if the frame rate "slips" power line cycles.
A simple and "era compatible" workaround would be a power line pickoff and a CMOS D flop phase detector used to lock the main oscillator.
Note that analog tv sets have now nearly vanished completely.
September 1, 2019
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With some recent discoveries, I guess I want to revise my list of high technology in the Gila Valley. Presented here in order of cubic wonderment....
1. Prehistoric Bajada Hanging Canals.
2. The Safford grids
3. Mount Graham International Observatory
4. Mine solvent extraction and electrowinning.
5. The Mount Graham Aerial Tramway
6. The five Morenci Southern Railway Loops
7. The EAC Fab Lab.
8. CCC infiltrating water spreaders.
9. Ubiquitous WiFi web com.
10. The Ash Creek flumes
11. The Emigrant Canyon Marble Quarry
12. The tomato factory
13. Cotton drip Irrigation and real time GPS
A newly revised Gila High Tech slide can be found here with its improved sourcecode here. Plus more on PostScript powerpoint emulation here.
More on similar discoveries here. And my secrets of technical innovation here.
Uh, responsive phone file conversion of this blog is taking a lot longer than we expected, so you are only viewing one third of it here. So please stay tuned
The full "wide" original can still be found as whtnu19w.shtml.
August 31, 2019
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For years, I've been creating what, for a better name, we might call Lancasterisms. These are intentional but apparent topographical errors intended to reveal a higher or greater truth.
Su Such as a groundswill of popular demand. Or what those French Veterinarians call a "four paw". Or being overly enameled on some idea. Or ending up a few bricks shy of a full deck. Frosting the lily or gilding the cake. Or not being able to hit the barn side of a broad. Or the mythinterpretiation of something.
Or sources close to an associate of the barber of a usually reliable spokesperson. Some New uses for Chebycheff Polynomials would take the Cheby to the Leby. Many of the web perpetual motion schemes and those electrolysis fantasies involve electrocity.
All in one swell foop. Provided there's no oint in the flyment An unauthorized autobiography. A jerk of all trades. The local hysterical society. A fragrant volition. The word "gullible" is not in any major dictionary or spell checker.
Godzilla versus the Night Nurses. Especially the tapioca pudding scene.
Letting the cows come home to roost. So long as they are elected by acrimination. That little dip between the winter slump and the spring slack period. Sort of the qualm before the scorn. Confusing Cannabis and Cannibal tasting tours. Geranium transistors. A wine that "pours well".
Plays a mean eclectic guitar. Pioneers new methods of animal husbandry. Speaks Esperanto like a native. Bruno's attitude relateralization facillitation. The long lost oriental martial art of Tai Wun Oun. Will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Reaching a new millstone.
Geologists, of course, classify rocks as sedentary, ingenious, or metaphoric. And New Mexico hikers might call an emergency rain shelter a Poncho Villa. The illegal aliens in the Alabama Grits Harvest, will, of course, be used for flavor only.
Right after the Ayatollahs Bar Mitzvah. Rectocranial Inversion being both simultaneously chronic and acute.
"I'll give you just three hours and fifty one minutes to STOP THAT!" Norfolk & Waay is the leading eBay supplier of drop ship items. Separating the useful adjuncts for porcine whole body cleanliness from the total hogwash.
These are somehow related to the Yogi Berra's of others, such as "Nobody goes there because it is too crowded", "Deja Vu all over again", or "Let's keep the Status Quo right where it is. Or "When you come to a fork in the road, take it".
Or Ed Abbey's classic "Androgynous Ammonia". Which might even involve an engendered species.
I have a hollow feeling I've lost some of the better ones of these somewhere along the way. As you go through some of my older books and stories, please report any that may be missing in action.
Because Opporknockity tunes but once. Much more here, here, and here.
August 30, 2019
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Postscript demands exact font names. Otherwise it will substitute Courier for a really bad name or else will try to approximate it with usually awful results.
If all else fails, here is a possible stunt to extract a needed and correct font name...
1. Make sure the font is properly
installed on your machine and
correctly accessible to Distiller
via Settings --> Font Locations.
2. Take any old short scrap .PDF
file and load it into full Acrobat.
3. Attempt to add a new watermark
to the file. Make sure your font is
available!
4. Actually watermark the file and
save it under a new name.
5. View file --> properties --> fonts
to find the filename and save it.
Here's some valid Adobe Type filenames...
/Blenny-Black
/FilsonSoftHeavy
/FilsonProHeavy
/FilsonProBold
/Madrone
/Eco
August 29, 2019
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Please note that our new address is Box 640. The old Thatcher Box 809 is no longer active.
August 28, 2019
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Adobe renamed their "Type Kit" as "Adobe Type"g>. Many tens of thousands of top quality fonts are available without surcharge to their Creative Cloud subscribers.
At one time the Type Kit and Distiller would refuse to play nice together. At least not without some inane secret skulduggery.
As far as I can tell, this still needs a workaround. Please email me with a cure.
August 27, 2019
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Sunday's trip revealed a long segment of a sand filled water path going from to N 32.84172 W 109.82027 to N 32.85111 W 109.81766 .
Projected length is at least one mile.
It rigorously follows the need for a constant canal slope, but has no spoil banks. While other canals and cultural resources are in the area, none yet appear to be in any close association.
The route is quite small at half a meter across and has no obvious water source and no immediate destination.
Although there seems no immediate impossibility of a source near the dam on the Mud Springs Canal and a destination near the Central Dump lake.
This also shows up best as 2011 Google Earth history. There is no obvious evidence of historic tool use or intent. I'm hesitant to call this a prehistoric hanging canal in that stronger evidence should be reasonably expected beyond "What else could it be?"
August 26, 2019
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Just discovered there are some "new" PostScript commands hidden in GhostScript. Some of these can choke Distiller.
One example is .max which can be taught to Distiller as...
/.max {2 copy ge {pop}{exch pop} ifelse} store
And a second complementary example...
/.min {2 copy le {pop}{exch pop} ifelse} store
Or this integer reporter...
/.== {20 string cvs print} store
I can't seem to find any obvious docs on these. Please report your findings and workarounds.
August 25, 2019
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There seems to be an infinite number of hoops to jump through towards my goal of making many of the fancier PostScript files triply compatible with Distiller, GhostScript and Google-Drive. So far, we have gotten here.
The latest gotcha is that the Windows command line will not allow relative path names unless it is pre-taught to do so by Administrative access to Environment Path Variables.
The usual symptom is //acrodist working just fine but //gswin64 choking on unfound. I'd guess their need for specific paths involves possible name conflicts combined with the search time for thousands of unused paths.
I'll try and test some code as soon as I can.
August 24, 2019
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For most individuals and small scale startups, patents are virtually certain to result in a net loss of time, energy, and sanity.
One reason for this is the outrageously "not even wrong" urban lore involving patents and patenting. A second involves the outright scams which inevitably surround "inventions" and "inventing".
A third is that the economic breakeven needed for you to recover patent costs is between $12,000,000.00 and $40,000,000.00 in gross sales.
It is ludicrously absurd to try and patent a million dollar idea.
Some resources...
Patent Resources Links
Our Main Patent Page
The Case Against Patents
When to Patent
How to Bust a $650 Patent
Patent Horror Stories
Risk Reduction Ploys
Tech Innovation Secrets
Perils of Patents and Patenting
With a fascinating history of urban lore patent scams here.
And the source of the sour grapes here.
August 23, 2019
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An interesting collection of archaeological films can be found here.
With our own vids here and here.
August 22, 2019
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Managed to get GhostScript to work with the sourcecode to this demo of using internal Google Drive links.
The key problem is that if you drag and drop any old routine PostScript code into GhostScript, it executes in a screen display mode that has no provision for links.
Instead, "normal" GhostScript use demands incantations sent from the command line to set up specific instructions.
Such as win-r ( without carriage returns ) ...
"C:/Program Files/gs/gs9.27/bin/gswin64.exe"
-sDEVICE=pdfwrite
-o
"C:/Users/don/Desktop/google_drive/docs/test1_me.pdf"
"C:/Users/don/Desktop/google_drive/docs/url_demo1c.psl"
The first line says to run GhostScript with the additional info that follows. The second line says to create a .PDF file document rather than a screen image. The -o tells GhostScript that the next info is an output filename. And finally, the last line is the actual PostScript code to be processed.
Naturally, you will have to very carefully adjust these links and filenames to suit your machine.
August 21, 2019
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Here's our most popular free ebooks...
CMOS Cookbook
Active Filter Cookbook
TTL Cookbook
Incredible Secret Money Machine
TV Typewriter Cookbook
RTL Cookbook
And the most often gotten classic reprints...
Build this TV Typewriter
Little Known Gila Valley Dayhikes
Don't Get Sick
Secrets of Technical Innovation
Worst of Marcia Swampfelder
The Case Against Patents
And our most visited library pages...
Home Page
What's New for 2019
Gila Valley Dayhikes
Auction and eBay Help
PostScript Library
Cubic Splines
Magic Sinewaves
And our Prehistoric Hanging Canals...
Prehistoric Hanging Canals
JFA Preprint
ARA Video
Wikipedia Story
August 20, 2019
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How to avoid "sugar" or "speckle" in eBay or other
photo post processing..
Spend at least 90 percent of your total
imaging time in postproc!15 Megapixels minimum!
Always stay in full .BMP format all of
the way through postproc.Work at least 2X your intended final
cropped resolution.Reasonably clean the object, but save
any major effort till the item gets sold.Consider electronic sprays, compressed
air, sandblast, or even an actual shower.Have a totally neutral background that
does not selectively reflect into the image.DO NOT USE FLASH! Shoot outside in
medium but fully diffused shade. All that
lighting does is create unwanted shadows.If needed, enhance the "undershade" by
using a large white card.ALWAYS use a tripod! Clean your lens!
Favor architect's 2D perspective with two
vanishing points but true vertical lines.Knock out background to maximize your
apparent sharpness. Add vignetting if
and when appropriate.Use a mottled final background to very
much reduce JPG edge artifacts.
Much more here with many examples here.
August 19, 2019
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Just discovered that the Windows 10 command line does not allow spaces in a filename.
Two workarounds are to put the whole filename in bracketed quotes, or to replace the spaces with $20's.
August 18, 2019
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Sincerity is everything.
Once you have that faked, nothing else matters.
August 17, 2019
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Noticed a yet unchecked hanging canal candidate at N 32.84503 W 109.81927. It seems to have "ok" web appearance, length, slope, and a credible destination, but it is not at all clear on any possible source.
A possible branch of the Mud Springs/Jernigan canal complex near the dam would not immediately appear topologically impossible.
I'd presently give it a fairly low priority. It is "medium" hard to reach and you are more than welcome to do so.
A superb ATV project. Other things to do here and here.
August 16, 2019
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Despite Marcia Swampfelder's perpetual motion machine shown here, I've long been a foe of Pseudoscience. Find our main library here, a key tutorial here, blasting that magic lamp here, insider secrets of Supraluminal Dowsing for Brown's Gas in Roswell here, more on the Brown's Gas fiasco here,arguments against the Hydrogen economy here, homopolar myths shattered here and here, demolishing Tesla Turbines here, here, and here, all the while trashing vehicular electrolysis here.
Finding an unlimited source of free energy would, of course, be the most unimaginably heinous crime against humanity. for it would nearly instantly convert the planet into a cinder.
Some reasons for the new YouTube reemergence of Tesla's latter day Crackpots Church...
"Not even wrong" being a major ( and often
dominant ) factor in most any issue of technical
competence.
Heavy reliance on faith and self-reliance, rather
than on the falsifiability and "shoulders of giants"
of the Scientific Method.
Until recently, many cheap measuring instruments
were dead wrong and based on an outright lie.
The details here and here.
Painting the "eleven percent" non RMS error on
a meter face convinced many that it was some
immutable physical constant, instead of being
utterly outrageous on many waveforms.
And some guidelines if you are serious about pseudoscience bashing...
NEVER attack an issue with a manic religious
fervor, as you will become one of "them".
NEVER directly attack a proponent as they are
clearly a few chips shy of a full board and might
take umbrage at any threats.
Respect Ockham's Razor, falsifiability, and,
most especially exergy. Remember that NET
is an acronym for "not entirely true".
On any unusual development, your first and
your foremost goal should be to prove yourself
wrong. Follow the money. Do a meta study.
As always, extraordinary claims will demand
extraordinary evidence, preferably from multiple
and verifiability independent sources.
August 15, 2019
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Just added Poison Ivy in a Spray can to our recent triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript utilities and apps. Find the sourcecode here and the demo here.
In real life, this shows you how to wrap PostScript fonts and artwork around a cylinder. More on our nonlinear transformations here.
New demos work best with desired fonts available.
WARNING: Be sure the nozzle is pointing forward and away from you before any use!
August 14, 2019
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Here's a list of our recent triply compatible Distiller-
GoogleDrive-GhostScript utilities and apps...
#21 - Poison Ivy Spray Can source and demo
#20 - 2D Perspective Cube source and demo
#19 - Fractal Fern source and demo
#18 - URL Linking source and demo ***
#17 - Print Diverter! source and demo
#16 - PS Error Reporter! source and demo
#15 - Dictionary Snooper source and demo
#14 - Marberlous Pancakes source and demo
#13 - Meowwrrr Pussycat ( module list )
#12 - PS Accuracy Improver source and demo
#11 - Cubic Spline Length source and demo
#10 - "Lite" Gonzo Shell source and demo
#9 - Constant Cubic Spline source and demo
#8 - Fake Log Demo source and demo
#7 - Avuncular Sleezoids ( module list )
#6 - Tuna Can source and demo
#5 - Font Reporter source and demo
#4 - Brick Wall source and demo (!)
#3 - Scribble source and demo
#2 - Fat Tail Arrows source and demo
#1 - Web Friendly Colors source and demo
The final results from meowwrrr can be viewed in Google Drive, but the key part where it traces a .JPG is not yet compatible. Your help is needed on this. *** = still has issues.
And, of course, ground zero on all this can be found here, here, here, and here.
August 13, 2019
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So, what would a true 2D generic perspective transformation look like? For some reasons, I have been having inordinate difficulty finding or deriving an example.
Consider six inputs in perspective space: x0 the right x vanishing point, y0 the left y vanishing point on the horizon and z0 the distance from the horizon to 0, 0, 0 in perspective space.
For these values, we seek x' and y' in transformed flat space given x, y, and z perspective space inputs.
We might ( almost ) expect something like this...
x' = yo (x - xo ) / (y + yo )
y' = yo (z - zo ) / (y + yo )
But this code that we explored here and here clearly is not what we need in that it obviously is lacking a (z - z0) factor.
Your help is welcome. What does the true transform look like? I'd very much prefer a "ninth grade math" solution than one involving matrices.
On the other hand, here and here allows vanishing points that are not co-horizontal! While a no-no for buildings, these allow for fancy eBay object positioning.
More on nonlinear transforms here.
August 12, 2019
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For years, I have been touting this formula as a solution to 2D perspective transformation...
x' = yo (x - xo ) / (y + yo )
y' = yo (z - zo ) / (y + yo )
This can be explored with this new sourcecode and this new demo. Be sure to explore this with an available font!
It turns out this is really one of many perspective transformations but is not a true generic 2D perspective transformer!
Picture a perspective cube. With this code, you can project flat regular artwork onto any of its three faces. Also, amazingly, you can rotate the cube into different aspects.
At present, you can send this sourcecode to Distiller via the usual secret command line incantation of //acrodist /F.
This code appears to be triply Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript compatible and is number #20 in this new series.
Your suggestions welcome.
August 11, 2019
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Just made our Cheap Video Cookbook eBook much more compact and web friendly.
Cheap video was a concept that let you add video to such low end micros as the KIM1, AIM65, SYM1, and H8.
It was based on using software to provide specific timing rather than its usual use of resolving algorithms. It saw some use in the Timex Sinclair, but its most spectacular success was in the NewTek Calibar.
Its need largely disappeared with sharply declining memory prices, the demand for more and better fonts, and bandwidth needs far in excess of NTSC analog tv.
Son of Cheap Video was its sequel, found with these other free eBooks. Many more examples of code-as-timing rather than code-as-algorithm appear here and here.
August 10, 2019
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A reminder that weekly pv pricing gets reported here and here. The lowest cell pricing is now nine cents per peak cell watt.
Which is fast approaching what I feel is the "all hell breaks loose" price point of eight cents per peak cell watt. A barrier that I feel not only will be approached but will be slammed through like it was not even there.
Meanwhile, this resource reports on the ever accelerating rate of coal power plant conversions into singles bars.
August 9, 2019
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Some of the many advantages of magnetic tomcats include: (a) They will point north if you pick them up by the tail; (b) they store easily overnight on the side of your refrigerator; (c) herding cats is a lot easier if they are all oriented in the same direction. And, of course (d) you can levitate them by
using an appropriately powered electric blanket.
More on totally unrelated topics in MARCIA.PDF.
August 8, 2019
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Here are the arguments against the Hydrogen Economy...
1. Terrestrial hydrogen is ONLY an energy carrier
or transfer media and NOT a substance capable of
delivering net NEW BTU's to the on-the-books
economy.
2. Terrestrial hydrogen creation is often inefficient
as considerably more energy of usually much higher
quality has to be input than is eventually returnable.
3. No large terrestrial source of hydrogen gas is
known. Water, of course, is a hydrogen sink and, by
fundamental chemical energetics, is the worst
possible feedstock.
4. The CONTAINED energy density of terrestrial
hydrogen by weight is a lot LESS than gasoline.
And drops dramatically as the tank is emptied. The
energy density of hydrogen gas by volume is a
ludicrous joke.
5. Virtually all bulk hydrogen is produced by methane
reformation. And thus is EXTREMELY hydrocarbon
dependent.
6. Hydrogen has one of the widest explosive ranges
known, the least spark energy required for ignition,
and has no known colorants or odorants. Its flame
is often invisible or nearly so.
7. There is more hydrogen in a gallon of gasoline
than there is in a gallon of liquid hydrogen.
8. No effective and vehicle compatible means of
hydrogen storage is known that is remotely as
cheap, safe, dense, and convenient as carbon
bonded hydrides.
9. No infrastructure exists for gaseous hydrogen
distribution. Pipelines in particular raise major
density and embrittlement issues.
10. Electrolysis from high value sources such as
grid, wind, or pv is totally useless as a hydrogen
source because of the staggering loss of exergy.
There ALWAYS will be more intelligent things
to do with the electricity.
11. Improper burning of hydrogen produces
highly polluting nitrous oxides.
12. Terrestrial hydrogen is basically a POLLUTION
AMPLIFIER that increases the pollution of its
underlying sources. It is utterly ludicrous to claim that
hydrogen is in any manner, way, shape, or form
"nonpolluting".
13. Hydrogen rots most metals through embrittlement .
14. "Carbon Neutral" solutions would appear better
than "Carbon Free" because (A) A significant measure
of the energy of most fuels is in its carbon fraction, (B)
Carbon appears to be essential for convenient and safe
room temperature liquids, and (C) Reformation is not
required or else is simpler, cheaper, and wastes less
energy.
15. An optimal hydrogen storage solution exists by carbon
bonding as in heptane or iso-octane. Both of these room
temperature liquids ain't broke.
16. A kilowatt hour of electricity is ridiculously more valuable
than a kilowatt hour of unstored hydrogen gas.
I particularly like #7. The entire concept of the hydrogen
economy is thus not even wrong,
Much more here, and on energy in general here.
August 7, 2019
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A reminder that our CMOS COOKBOOK and ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK are newly available as free eBooks.
Find lots more eBooks here, classic reprints here, and a very few remaining autographed hard copies here.
And USB's of nearly one each of everything here.
August 6, 2019
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A review of nonlinear graphics transforms can be found here.
One of my all time favorites is the "Architects Perspective" or two point perspective. In which there is a y vanishing point and an x vanishing point, but the z axis remains perfectly vertical.
This is particularly useful for buildings, where most any building tilting or leaning seems just plain wrong.
Let xo, yo, and zo be the distances
from the observer to the 0,0,0
perspective origin.
x is left-right; y is in-out; and z is
up-down.
One possible 2-point transform is…
x' = yo (x - xo ) / (y + yo )
y' = yo (z - zo ) / (y + yo )
Some software I use on eBay to realign product images to Architects Perspective can be found here. This is usually followed up by a vignetting backgrounder you can find here. With many examples here.
August 5, 2019
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One interesting emerging workaround to scientific paper paywalls is the Author's Preprint.
This is a new paper you created by yourself and posted to your own website. Followed by reposting to Research Gate or Wesrch or Tdar or Academia.
Or the rest of the gang here.
It is super important that your author's preprint have zero content that was internally physically generated by the paywall source. Fonts and layout must be original!
Note that the word "reprise" is pronounced "preprint".
One of our recent author's preprints can be found here.
August 4, 2019
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The latest phone scam: "Hello, is Don there?"
If you are a real Don, of course, they hang up on you immediately. And very few phones have a Don attached.
This is likely some sort of a phishing ploy. Once the non Don's are contacted, they likely open some sort of dialog. Possibly ending in a bogus money transform.
One general workaround that we use: Answer your phone with its number instead of "hello". This often causes the scamee to loose their place in the script.
And works particularly well if you have a home business. More on home businesses here and here.
A second tip: The first person to speak after any "How are you today?" ---> LOSES!
August 3, 2019
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A very interesting electronic and automation auction can be found here. So far, there seem to be zero bids!
Shipping makes this waay too far back east for me and the stuff is obviously dated, used, and clearly in need of refurb. $5 opening bids!
But, outside of that Missus Lincoln, how was the play?
August 2, 2019
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A reminder that our curvetracing routines can simply and easily approximate perspective circles Per this demo and this sourcecode.
First, you define a perspectively transformed bounding "square". Then you calculate the halfway distance along the "square" sides with good old ( x1 +x2 ) / 2 and ( y1 + y2 ) / 2
Actually, this won't quite be right, but nobody is likely to notice. And the "real" math is way beyond gruesome.
Second, you next find the midpoint angle by using ( y2 - y1 ) (x2-x1) atan. The PostScript atan operator is wifi enough to figure our which quadrant you are in and avoid div0 hassles.
Then you Gonzo curvetrace...
[ x0 y0 ang0 x1 y1 ang1
x2 y2 ang2 x3 y3 and 3
x0 y0 ang0 ] curvetrace
Usually, the default "best circle" tension of 2.83301 will work just fine. But you can adjust it downward if there are any hints of "squareness" or upward if there are any hints of "diamondness".
August 1, 2019
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One of the problems of Bajada Hanging Canal research is that very few destination fields are yet verified. The Mud Springs Canal in particular has taken many dozens of trips to date without being able to reveal its destination.
Could an ancient canal act as a precision inclinometer?
It certainly demands an optimal slope. And "they" sure have consistently come close to optimization. The canals all tend to route in straight lines, unless there is some compelling reason not to.
Draw two Google Earth circles centered on the known canal end at N 32.84791 W 109.81105. Make the first circle radius go back to a ten foot canal elevation rise. Make the second circle radius go back to a twenty foot elevation rise.
At a two percent grade, we are talking 500 and 1000 feet. Mark many possible locations on these Google paths.
Compare their optimal elevation against their actual elevation. Which directions remain suggestive of a feasible canal route? Obviously, the canal must not go uphill and likely will continue at its previous slope without sudden turns or drops.
Note that two drainages seem to discourage trending to the northwest or southeast. And that the Central Dump would appear to be a rather weaker candidate.
Mapping strengthens the premise that the Mud Springs destination lies under the present Central Cemetery.
Note that two drainages discourage trending to the northwest or southeast. And historic reuse has many verified instances of "steal the plans" or "borrow the blueprints". "Hey, here's a flat and rock free area with lots of loose dirt for our new cemetery."
There's also no evidence so far of the bajada canals merging with the riverine ones. Not to mention the cliff between the two. And significant apparent flow rates combined with wildly different engineering .
A second weak but independent factor: Very often the canal route goes along the highest possible terrain, owing to such routes often being the most engineeringly efficient. The modern power line is orthogonal to a possible canal route and clearly crosses it at its potential highest point!
And yet another consideration: West Layton road consistently has nearly the correct slope. Curiously, orthogonal transects to it place the road at the highest possible elevation, dropping to either side.
But the evidence to date clearly remains far shy of proof. Your assistance welcome.
July 31, 2019
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Sometimes, you might instead want to trace one .JPG image into another. Particularly for an eBay sale.
.PDF easily lets you output .JPG. As these before and after images show us.
July 30, 2019
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Why work with a 10X grid? Normalizing your space to a nominal font size of "1" or a schematic's space between wires or integrated circuit pins of "1" has a number of advantages.
Many of the numbers involved may only need one or two digits, thus shortening and cleaning up your code.
The scale of the project is simply and easily changed, and the grid itself can sometimes become a design element.
To activate a 10X grid in Gonzo...
50 50 10 setgrid % xpos ypos scale
Note that setgrid leaves an "open" gsave on your stack. If you ever want to leave the grid, provide an ending grestore.
To view a portion of the grid..
40 60 showgrid % hblocks vblocks
More details here.
The latest version of Gonzo Gridding appears here and includes optional positional callouts.
July 29, 2019
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Sourcecode for a new .JPG tracing utility can be found here with its original .JPG image here and its demo here.
There are three layers to the code. The bottom most is the .JPG image you are trying to compact or sharpen or .PDF capture or otherwise modify or improve.
The next layer is a 10X layout grid with new optional numeric callouts. And finally, your top layer is your "raw" PostScript tracing. Note that any fills might need commented out if you temporarily need the local underlying grid info.
At present the code can be sent to Distiller via the usual command line secret incantation of //acrodist /F. While your final .psl code should usually be Google Drive compatible, our jpegimageprocwithlink still needs a compatible solution.
Please email any suggestions.
One of the big features of jpegimageprocwithlink is that a smaller and more compact image gets entered into your .PDF file while you can optionally click through to the full size one that is located elsewhere.
Some extensive examples here.
When you change your .JPG file, be sure to modify your filenames and the hpixels and vpixels values!
July 28, 2019
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Here's a new "Poison Ivy in a Spray Can" demo of combining a .JPG image, a grid, and traceable new code that does actual nonlinear transforms.
Find the .PSL code here and its demo here.
One caution: Be sure the nozzle is pointed forward before use!
Send the code to Acrobat Distiller via the secret command line incantation of //acrodist /F.
More on nonlinear transforms here. And many more examples here and here.
The key secret is to use a Fonts charapath operator and then redefine moveto, lineto, curveto, and closepath to transform each and every point onto an apparent new surface.
July 27, 2019
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Just made a curious observation on one of our prehistoric hanging canals:There can be significant moisture retention subsurface in the fill! As shown by darkening or even actual moisture.
It would seem unlikely that the canals are still flowing subsurface, so what is more likely is that rare rains go through the permeable sand and are blocked against further depth penetration by the impermeable canal bottom.
Evaporation would "clear" the surface but take much longer to reach deeper.
So far, there is only one sample and this one days after a rainfall. Further survey requires permits and funding.
This might be a "gotcha" for yesterday's OSL in that the process is extremely water sensitive.
July 26, 2019
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A newer and improved substitute for thermoluminescence is Optically Stimulated Luminescence, or OSL.
Single grains of sand include slight amounts of uranium or other radioactive sources. They also have "traps" that can accumulate and save this energy over time.
The trap energy can be released by sunlight or other strong radiation and its captured energy can then be measured.
Which literally lets you measure when the grain of sand last saw the light of day! Giving superb new tools for geologic and archaeological dating.
One lab is found found found found here. Processing usually costs $500 to $1000 per sample and the process can take months.
OSL would seem useful to date our prehistoric canals. It might even be useful to prove enigmatic segments of canal are are not connected.
Also a superb subject for student papers.
July 25, 2019
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Made some minor corrections to our .rss page.
Please report any remaining issues.
July 24, 2019
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Just added a highly improved "Director's Cut" end cover to our CMOS Cookbook free ebook download.
With sourcecode here, its demo here, all of CMOS here, and the rest of the gang here.
As usual, this uses our Gonzo Utilities which feature superb quality fancy text justification, electronic schematics, .jpg capture, total programmable control, and astonishingly short file sizes.
Gonzo is normally edited with any old word processor and then sent to Distiller via a secret command line //acrodist /F incantation.
I am working on making Gonzo compatible with Google Drive, but a seemingly endless number of hoops apparently need jumped through.
As done here, I'd sure like to use a -run- command rather than towing much or all 87K of Gonzo along each and every time.
Some progress here and ongoing here, but I sure could use your help.
July 23, 2019
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My most favoritist technical book of all time remains the Radiotron Designers Handbook.
Find several versions of it here.
July 22, 2019
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Plan Nine from Outer Space is newly available on Youtube. This had been widely regarded as by far the worst movie of all time, but its sheer ineptitude has long since made it a cult classic.
My own two videos here and here.
July 21, 2019
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A reminder that our ACTIVE FILTER COOKBOOK is also recently available as a free eBook.
Find lots more eBooks here, classic reprints here, and a very few remaining autographed hard copies here.
And USB's of nearly one each of everything here.
July 20, 2019
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Our free CMOS COOKBOOK eBook is newly available here!
I could still use your help in finding scans of Micro Cookbook I, the Spanish and the Pacific Rim versions of the TTL cookbook, and the Hexadecimal Chronicles.
The Raspberry Pi and friends have once again made Micro I newly and highly relevant.
Yeah, the Hexadecimal Chronicles was not all that great a seller, and it was mostly a useful internal personal tool. But it was significant in that it was completely authored and typeset and produced by an Apple IIe!
With utterly negligible production costs. Error free!
July 19, 2019
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A major lateral arabesque!
The key to understanding Google Drive full and partial directory path names is that they don't have any!
Instead, id links are available ( when allowed ) that act as most any other web url. Just pick a file and right click on Get Sharable Link for a copyable url.
Our first example here is some simple Distiller compatible PostScript code that lets you click through on your choice of a Google Drive id or a main web link.
Find the code here and a demo here.
Uh, this routine has been kept simple, so it only works on unenhanced left justification. More elegant code is found in our Gonzo Utilities that uses deferred "printlist" execution to deal with fancier text justifications where your initial and final currentpoints may differ wildly.
The code is swift enough, though, to have its active area autotrack any later text size or positioning edits!
Uh, this still is not Google Drive compatible in that the links are shown but do not work. Stay tuned.
July 18, 2019
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We are slowly making some progress in getting more PostScript programs fully compatible with Google Drive.
The goal being finding a free and full performing alternate to Acrobat Distiller. /F and all!
We found out that it is essential that any .ps or .psl programs have zero leading spaces and starts with %!PS-Adobe-3.1 or similar!
No direct method of viewing PostScript error messages and log files has yet been found. However, an often useful workaround is to define new operators to append error, log info, debug commands, and any intentional text output to the end of your .PDF file being generated.
Adding, ferinstance, a red page for the first error that you find, and yellow ones for each intended log page diversion. A side benefit of this technique is that you often can view the intended .PDF output up to the point of the first error.
Sourcecode and a demo to do this are found here. As part of our new triply compatible program examples
A next logical step would be to find out how Google Drive deals with filenames. Possibly leading up to including .JPG files in a generated .PDF using something like our highly useful /jpegimageprocwithlink proc. Or eventually, --gasp-- being able to run subroutines such as our Gonzo Utilities.
It turns out that Google Drive does not use filenames, directories, or subdirectories! Instead, each and every file from each and every user has a unique cloud-wide id.
Thus, completely bypassing issues with full and relative filenames!
You can easily extract or read this id for everything sharable by finding the file and right clicking on get sharable link. The id can then be isolated from this link
I do not yet have the faintest clue as to how to relate the links to my /jpegimageprocwithlink. But resolving this would be a really major step forward to full compatibility.
Your participation and help welcome.
July 17, 2019
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Deeply buried in our Guru's Lair is some medical stuff, mostly oriented towards a wellness lifestyle and aerobic exercise. I still use these occasionally for fire department fitness drill training exercises
The big three are...
Don't Get Sick
A wellness Lifestyle Quiz
Aerobic Pulse Rate Chart
A review by a real doctor here...
And these also rans...
Understanding Pulse Monitors
Recording Aerobic Exercise Sessions
Aerobic Fitness PostScript Sourcecode
The leading web medical resource is Medline. You normally search this with PubMed.
Also check out Healthy.Net. And one collection of the top 25 web medical resources can be found here.
Some older alternate medical book resources here.
July 16, 2019
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Insider secrets of approximating a circle or an ellipse with cubic splines can be found here.
A four spline approximation gives an average error of one part in one thousand. The "official" normalized tension magic number is 0.55228475 , but the little known "best" nearby 0.551784 beats it by 24 percent.
The "official" magic number is also known as 4/3rds of 1 less than the square root of two.
A four spline approximation seems acceptable for most ordinary display and graphics uses, but is clearly inappropriate for machine shop or optical needs.
Results for two through eight spline approximations are also shown.
July 15, 2019
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Three older third party PostScript dictionary snooping tools can be newly found here.
The tools include...
/wherevalue - find dictionary and key for value
/dicttrace - print dictstack using names
/dict== - recursively print dictionary contents
These work around the problem of there being no apparent simple or obvious way of relating a -dict- report to its name.
Many thanks to Luser Droog for their assistance here.
July 14, 2019
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A very intriguing YouTube paper on prehistoric Southwest Canals can be newly found here.
Their premise is that rectangular tank similarities might suggest a strong Mesoamerican presence. Please note here that the Scientific Method demands (a) independent corroboration and (b) falsifiability.
My initial response is that the term "not even wrong" may come to mind. Per here and here.
July 13, 2019
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Triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript updates to one or our Fractal Ferns can be found here for the sourcecode and here for the .PDF result. Example #19. Earlier stuff here.
Amazingly, the Google Drive execution time on this is blindingly and unbelievably fast! So much so that higher resolutions and larger images are now more than feasible.
Some fern background here. The image is fully defined with only 28 data values!
July 12, 2019
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The overwhelming majority of all more sophisticated PostScript programs will --not-- run on Google Drive!
At least not without modification. I am working on finding ( and have already found ) possible solutions or workarounds to many of these problems.
A series of newly compatible programs can be found here. And likely in future entries of this blog.
The most infuriating and easiest to fix compatibility issue is simply this: The program MUST start with %!PS-Adobe-3.1 or similar!
ANY LEADING SPACES DIVERT TO OTHER LANGUAGES AND TRASH YOUR RESULTS!
The usual hint of this is a "preview not available" screen message.
July 11, 2019
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Apparently there is no simple or direct way to find the actual name of a of PostScript --dict--.
I am working on a full named dictmap and have probably gotten halfway through.
Here are two alternate approaches: We have a PostScript snooper's sourcecode here and its demo here. The only gotcha is that you'll need to know dictionary names ahead of time.
And here is a possible stunt...
countdictstack array dictstack
{dup {pop == exit} forall
length ==} forall
This returns the length and the first entry of everything on the dictionary stack. If the -dict- is mainstream, chances are you can refer back to the snooper and quickly find its name.
More new good stuff here. And our latest free Active Filter Cookbook (!) ebook here. With autographed hard copies here.
And our newest video here. And our oldest vid here.
July 10, 2019
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After asking around on the incredible stack overflow web resource, it appears unlikely there is any direct and simple way to get the name of a top-of-stack PostScript dictionary.
The present approach ( which will likely take more time and money than it is worth ) is to create a new master dictionary info array.
Each element might include...
[ /hostdictname /childdictname /firstdef length]
You would then work by tiers to build up a new master directory. Given the length and first entry name for the dictionary you are after, and then extracting the target dictionary name.
Thus finding which --dict-- that == or ==d is referring to.
Cloud funding welcome.
July 9, 2019
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Here's the sourcecode and demo of an improved triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript print diverter.
Example #18 in this ongoing series.
Newly included is an error trapper with a stack dumper. The involved commands are printd, ==d, and pstackd . Used only when and where you want them and with no server side mods.
It is based on adding new .log pages to the end of your existing PostScript doc. A red page for errors and as many yellow ones as you need for reports and to output most any code in most any language.
This technique greatly improves and expands what you can and cannot do with GoogleDrive. But a better official .LOG file solution obviously remains needed or documented.
This code does sneaky stuff in sneaky ways, so please report any problems you find with it.
July 8, 2019
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What is the ultimate off-the-wall unbelievable PostScript hack involving horrific abuse of one or more commands?
Here's the sourcecode for my unbelievable on-the-wall one. And its demo.
Amazingly, it does not matter in the least how many bricks are involved. Nor what the size of each and every properly transformed perspective brick is. The code stays short and simple. And fast.
Here's an older Example #19 high brick demo.
Can you bottom this?
July 7, 2019
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I am still looking for an "official" way for Google Drive to deal with display PostScript .LOG files.
Log files are super important to report errors, to do diagnostics, or simply to let PostScript write most any code in most any computer language.
We saw sourcecode for a tentative way to report errors here with its demo here. And sourcecode of an example of how PostScript can learn to speak HTML here with its demo here. And more examples of triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript here.
Here is a new example of our compatibility workarounds. It is a print diverter that adds ( usually ) yellow gridded pages to the end of your .PDF file. Added are three new "diversion" commands of printd, ==d, and pstackd.
Find the sourcecode here and a demo here.
printd works like print, except it prints on the end pages of your .PDF being generated. ==d works like == in that it intelligently formats internal commands so you can
tell what their purpose is from their format. And pstackd outputs an intelligent copy of your stack contents, again to the end of your .PDF file.
Only a simple and short text formatter is used here. Substitute our Gonzo Utilities for anything really fancy.
Run this by sending it to Google Drive or activating Distiller with the usual command line of //acrodist /F.
Your inputs on Google Drive insider secret stuff are desperately needed. So far, there are major and obvious apparent severe limitations. Some of which may simply be not looking in the right places, some of which can be fixed by creative programming, and some of which may end up as fundamental gotchas.
Next order of business is combining the above stack dumper with the error reporter. Followed by learning absolute and relative filenames. Followed by a JPG to linkable PS image solution. Followed by "/F" running Gonzo.
July 6, 2019
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I just found out that many of the New Mexico subastas are going to be sold at auction!
Even worse, "slippery slope" issues may also endanger a large number of the licitacions and even the almonedas!
Thankfully, eBay sales and shipping to New Mexico aren't quite as bad as they used to be. Yeah, there is still the language barrier and the hassles at customs.
One main problem was that of all the New Mexico truck tires are all a different size and spacing, so everything needed reloaded at the border crossings.
Fortunately, there are now REVERSIBLE truck tires that can simply be insided out at the New Mexico ports of entry.
More details at your nearest New Mexico embassy.
July 5, 2019
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A second reminder that our Active Filter Cookbook is newly available in free ebook form here. Seventeenth printing!
More free ebooks here. Autographed hard copies here.
July 4, 2019
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Raytheon is one of the very few remaining sources of auctions for useful military surplus electronic parts and instruments.
But they suddenly just made a giant change in how you can participate. You have to sign up for a free online service called Exostar if you want to bid.
The bids are much simpler and easier to place online now. Their link is called Raytheon Source. Links
New features include access to your own Excel, advising when you have been outbid, and, if outbid, your priority.
Exostar's sign in may end up frustratingly obtuse, but they seem to have outstanding free online service.
Much more auction stuff here and our eBay stuff here.
July 3, 2019
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Befuddlement #101: How do you find the name of a PostScript Dictionary? There would seem to be some simple and obvious answer, but I can't seem to find it. The obvious = = returns a rather useless --dict--.
Yeah, you can dump a dict with { == == } forall. You can make a copy with a new name. And you can find its length. And you can find a random content name sample using...
/curdict exch store
curdict {pop exit} forall
The additional clues can help bunches. If they are known stock dictionaries, this sourcecode and this demo can help. Other possibly useful tools here.
What am I missing?
July 2, 2019
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Our Active Filter Cookbook is newly available in free ebook form here. Seventeenth printing!
More free ebooks here. Autographed hard copies here.
July 1, 2019
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Our most previous "No, I am not making this up" can be found here.
Snottites are bacterial mats found in caves. They live in total darkness and metabolize sulfur to earn a living. They shit sulphuric acid and are most comfortable in a PH of ZERO (!) environment.
Not surprisingly, these are considered extremeophiles.
As such, they make superb high school or college papers.
Besides presenting a strong argument that life elsewhere in the universe is utterly and absolutely inevitable.
More assorted weird stuff here.
June 30, 2019
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A repeat reminder that our Bajada Hanging Canal video now has improved audio. But it also has a new URL.
You can find the latest version at..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cqkfyi_-FM&t=102s
Or search YouTube for "bajada hanging canal"
YouTube apparently has no provisions for redirects, so please be sure to update any links or bookmarks that you can reach.
Our other vid can be found here.
June 29, 2019
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Here's a list of our recent triply compatible Distiller- GoogleDrive-GhostScript utilities and apps...
#17 - Perspective Circles source and demo
#16 - PS Error Reporter! source and demo
#15 - Dictionary Snooper source and demo
#14 - Marberlous Pancakes source and demo
#13 - Meowwrrr Pussycat ( module list)
#12 - PS Accuracy Improver - source and demo
#11 - Cubic Spline Length source and demo
#10 - "Lite" Gonzo Shell source and demo
#9 - Constant Cubic Spline source and demo
#8 - Fake Log Demo source and demo
#7 - Avuncular Sleezoids ( module list )
#6 - Tuna Can source and demo
#5 - Font Reporter source and demo
#4 - Brick Wall source and demo (!)
#3 - Scribble source and demo
#2 - Fat Tail Arrows source and demo
#1 - Web Friendly Colors source and demo
The final results from meowwrrr can be viewed in Google
Drive, but the key part where it traces a .JPG is not yet
compatible. Your help is needed on this.
And, of course, ground zero on all this can be found
here, here, here, and here.
June 28, 2019
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We saw back here that our Gonzo Curvetracing utilities could be used to make fairly decent perspective circles.
New triply compatible Distiller-GoogleDrive-GhostScript sourcecode can be found here with a demo here.
As Google Drive project #16. And more code here.
What you do is remap a square into perspective space and then find the midpoint and slope of each edge, followed by some Cubic Spline magic.
This approach is an approximation that seems to appear ok on many circles. Very "squashed" ones might sometimes need fancier code or custom tension adjustments .
June 27, 2019
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Uh, our Bajada Hanging Canal video now has improved audio. But it also has a new URL. Find the latest version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cqkfyi_-FM&t=102s
Or search YouTube for "bajada hanging canal".
Many thanks to David Oase for his effort on this.
June 26, 2019
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Here's the status of our Google Drive PS error reporter: It works "as is" good enough for skilled adaption.
Not all of the possible errors have yet been tested. Most should work just fine, but a rude surprise was found when syntaxerror returned a string rather than a name.
The tasks are to create an intentional error for "real" distiller and see how
it gets dealt with. The error can then be added to the active error list.
Some header stuff needs improved, and adding a stack dump would appear useful.
A related project would divert the = = and print commands to appended yellow pages.
June 25, 2019
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This sourcecode and this PDF result show a typical classic Distiller example of converting a pile of .JPG photos into PostScript PDF images. I have yet to find out how to do this in Google Drive
Reviewing, my code for this is /jpegimageprocwithlink This PostScript routine takes info on a pair of .JPG files and then converts them into an Acrobat Distillable click- to-expand .PDF image. View the code in the above link.
This method means you can have a smaller and more compact image in your .PDF and a full size one only for whoever wants to click through.
To use, extract and edit in any suitable text editor. ( A .psl extension simply identifies a text file as "PostScript Lancaster" that often may need my Gonzo Utilities.
Then define /imageurl and /imagelocaldirectory .JPG
locations. Followed by this appropriately modified setup...
93 36 % page position x y translate
1500 1636 % hpixels and vpixels
0.147 % photoscale
imagelocaldirectory % local jpg source url
imageurl % image clickthru url
jpegimageprocwithlink % do it!
Those hpixels and vpixels values are critical and must exactly match your .JPG! View them in ImageViewer/32 if you can't find them elsewhere.
Your help needed.
June 24, 2019
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A summary of the Artifex commands can be found here.
Finding demos and use details of their *PermitFileReading, *PermitFileWriting, and *PermitFileControl commands would appear essential for such tasks as converting JPG images to portions of a PDF doc, running or including common control modules, improving bitmaps, and such.
The key issue here appears to be recognizing and dealing with both absolute and relative file paths. Compounded by PostScript restrictions on "\".
June 23, 2019
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The plot ppd_info.ps routine found in this third party set of PostScript resources returns this info profile for the Artifex routines in Google Drive...
*Product: "Artifex Ghostscript"
*PSVersion: "(3010) 920"
*NickName: "Artifex Ghostscript"
*LanguageLevel: 3
*FreeWM: "1292896"
*ColorDevice: True
*ColorValues: "16777216"
*BlueValues: "256"
*GrayValues: "256"
*Colors: "3"
*RedValues: "256"
*GreenValues: "256"
*MaxSuperScreen: "1016"
*LabProfile: "lab.icc"
*VMThreshold: "8000000"
*MaxFormItem: "100000"
*DefaultCMYKProfile: "default_cmyk.icc"
*MaxExecStack: "5000"
*OverrideICC: "false"
*MinFontCompress: "1000"
*AccurateScreens: "false"
*PermitFileControl: "--nostringval--"
*SourceObjectICC: ""
*MinScreenLevels: "1"
*MaxScreenItem: "48000"
*ICCProfilesDir: "%rom%iccprofiles/"
*VMReclaim: "0"
*DefaultRGBProfile: "default_rgb.icc"
*MaxUPathItem: "0"
*MaxDictStack: "500"
*IdiomRecognition: "true"
*RenderTTNotdef: "true"
*MaxFontItem: "10000"
*GridFitTT: "1"
*PermitFileWriting: "--nostringval--"
*DeviceNProfile: ""
*WaitTimeout: "0"
*MaxPatternItem: "20000"
*ProcessComment: "--nostringval--"
*NamedProfile: ""
*HalftoneMode: "0"
*MaxLocalVM: "9223372036854775807"
*DefaultGrayProfile: "default_gray.icc"
*MaxOpStack: "300000"
*LockFilePermissions: "true"
*JobName: ""
*JobTimeout: "0"
*AlignToPixels: "0"
*ProcessDSCComment: "--nostringval--"
*PermitFileReading: "--nostringval--"
*DefaultResolution: 720dpi
*ImageableArea XX: "0 0 612 792"
June 22, 2019
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The plot thickens until it clots.
Preliminary and incomplete sourcecode for a Google Drive PostScript error reporting approach can be newly found here, along with its demo here.
The concept is based on appending a red page with a summary of the first found error to the end of the existing document progress.
Two interesting features of this approach are that you can see the progress of the document up to the time of your first error. And that no server side code modifications are needed. Nor is the code used except explicitly where and when purposely included.
Much further testing is needed, and only a few error types have been verified so far. Your help is encouraged in further developing this critical need.
In general, letting a known "broken" program continue to run is appallingly bad practice. But in this case, the odds of vaporizing all small furry animals within a few mile radius would seem rather low. At the very least ( so far ) cascaded "undefined" errors do not seem to present a serious problem. Nonetheless, any "official" solution to Google PS error reporting likely should seek out some alternative method.
June 21, 2019
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An older third party collection of all sorts of highly useful PostScript resources can be found here.
June 20, 2019
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Never store carbide in a non-locking carabiner!
June 19, 2019
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Judging from yesterday's Google Search, the conversion of coal fired power plants into singles bars is taking place much faster and much earlier than expected.
I predict the "all hell breaks loose" point is where the utility pv costs blasts through the eight cents per peak cell watt. At best, we are currently at nine and a half cants.
This is reasonably expected in a few months and is a key step to utility scale solar pv eventually ending up both subsidy free renewable and sustainable.
Pricing info is sometimes available Sphere and here.
Much more on energy here, here, and here.
June 18, 2019
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I seem to be having problems in finding answers to the following Google Drive PostScript Display issues...
How and where are the PostScript
error messages received?How and where are the Log Files
Reviewed? Many PS routines demand
these as their ONLY output.How and where can .JPG files
be converted into PS image operators?
Such as my /jpegimageprocwithlink?
How can full disk access be activated
similar to Distiller's //acrodist /F?
How can the PostScript == and print
commands be used?How are more host resident fonts
accessed?What are the links for TypeKit support?
How is "save as .PDF" implemented?
How can relative filenames be used?
How can absolute filenames be determined?
How can includes and run commands
be handled? Particularly with Gonzo?How can host GhostScript display
more than one page or short records?
A reminder we have an updated Dictionary super snooper here with its demo here.
June 17, 2019
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Made some further progress in our now triply Distiller- GoogleDrive GhostScript dictionary super snooper spectrocity.
Find the new sourcecode here and a printout example here. Some of the more obscure GhostScript dictionaries have yet to be entered.
Another use of this code is to show how to divert your intentional PostScript .log content onto your main .PDF output page.
Please report any errors or omissions.
June 16, 2019
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Despite dozens of recent trips and an amazing amount of progress, there still are major mystery areas that still surround the Mud Springs Canal and its Jernigan branch.
The unverified Ash Creek takein has to be pretty much at N 32.78726 W 109.8546. But the vertical conglomerate cliff remaining from Tropical Storm Octave suggests that it may not be findable.
While this can be easily northward traceable from N 32.79137 W 109.85350 to N 32.80317 W 109.83998, this has yet to to be done. It would seem a good drone project. 4WD or ATV vehicle spotting may be involved.
An unexpected hanging portion remains understudied and and totally underphotographed near N 32.81013 W 109.83569.
The Adena Embassy ( aka the "troll house" ) remains unexplained in the area. The scientific method, of course demands falsifiability.
The Jernigan takein branch begins at N 32.82780 W 109.81967 and is fairly well studied to N 32.83888 W 109.81394. But portions of this may seem rather vague as natural drainages seem to have been used with minimal mods. The route seems fully credible here.
Continuing along the main Mud Springs canal, a modern tank seems associated at N 32.82782 W 109.81898. But there is a strikingly similar tank nearby that clearly is not prehistoric canal related. The situation remains enigmatic.
Much progress has been made northerly to N 32.83361 W 109.81187 . This section also seems to have minimal adaption of natural drainages, one of which is quite deep.
The area from here northerly to near N 32.83891 W 109.81088 remains needing major further work. A hanging portion is suspected. There are also issues with stream piracy and with moderate to severe ATV damage.
From here to N 32.84805 W 109.81101, the Mud Springs canal is quite well defined and is very suitable for easy visitor tours. Some portions show a distinct caliche-like whiteness. This seems unique except for a short stretch of the nearby Allen Canal at N 32.83528 W 109.79804.
But the Mud Springs destination fields remain unknown with the canal possibly being under vehicular tracks or cemeteries. No convincing relation to the Central Dump has yet been observed. Many trips have been made to this area with still not a slightest destination clue.
Returning to the Jacobson Canal, the area from N 32.83884 W 109.81515 to N 32.84213 W 109.81410 seems to involve two or three braided and largely unimproved natural channels. Clearly prehistoric major construction with well defined spoil banks and a large tree mid-channel temporarily resumes at N 32.84213 W 109.81410.
A second short segment with well-defined constructs heads
north at N 32.84235 W 109.81394. This is presumed to be
a still understudied branch whose destination remains unknown.
There are significant cultural resources northwest of this area.
A short segment of the main Jernigan canal remains unfound at a counterflowing stream crossing. There are no less than three significant "U-turns" in the canal area routing!
The final reach of the Jernigan Canal goes from N 32.84252 W 109.81478 to N 32.84080 W 109.816828. This section is quite obvious, very well engineered, exceptionally well preserved, includes deep cuts, and is mostly hanging. A final drop to rarely discovered destination fields suggests a short French Drain connection.
More canal stuff here and here and here. Other things to do here and here.
June 15, 2019
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A reminder about our new ARA Hanging Canal video here and the free downloadable preprint to our new JSA paper that can be found here.
This stuff all remains stunningly beyond beyond. More can be found here and here.
June 14, 2019
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Some interesting and surprisingly "supermath" third party options and verifications to much of our advanced stuff can be found here.
June 13, 2019
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One of the more interesting surprises from yesterday's downloads is that there is a boolean /AllowRelativePathOps entry in Distiller's currentdistillerparams!
Not surprisingly, its default option is false.
I'm having trouble finding docs on this and am not yet sure if it is completely functional. Nor finding anything yet of any related support in Artifex and GhostScript.
But this could be the key to using Google Drive to convert .JPG into PS image operators, and great heaping bunches more. Perhaps based upon my /jegimageprocwithlink and similar code.
Also not surprising is that the GhostScript and Artifex dictionaries have wildly different content than Distiller.
Scan the last few blog entries for the ongoing backstory.
June 12, 2019
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This is a work in progress that did not particularly end up in the direction I intended, but new snooping software pdf that lists nearly all of Distiller's dictionary contents can be found here with its demo here.
You will have to rerun for your own results.
So far, this only seems to work on "real" Acrobat with the usual command line secret incantation of //acrodist /F.
Some older related docs here, here, and here.
One sneaky use is to show how intentional output in a PostScript log file can be redirected into its Acrobat .PDF output. This might end up being needed to fully utilize much of Google Drive's potential.
June 11, 2019
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I'm having difficulty determining if it is even possible for Google Drive to send a JPG file to a PS image operator. As per here. This would be a utterly horrible restriction if it is not possible.
As we saw way back here, Distiller does not usually allow any use of relative host filenames. Apparently because of extreme abuse potential. So far, I have yet to determine some alternate workaround to use of a relative filename.
Ideally, a solution needs found that treats Distiller, GhostScript, and Google Drive identically. The key would likely be finding a way to determine your full Google Drive pathname.
I suspect Google's "bucket" feature may be of use.
Please help
June 10, 2019
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Newly updated and expanded our Gila Valley Day Hikes. We are now up to 569 primary entries!
Added are info on our brand new ARA hanging canal video, the huge northern Safford Grids and their book, along with the lesser southern Safford Grids.
These formed the largest known booze factory in the archaeological southwest. Agave.
A sampler of some of the more unusual day hikes can be found here. Talks and tours available.
June 9, 2019
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Just discovered that it is super easy to use our Gonzo Curvetracing utilities to draw accurate perspective circles!
Start with this "square" nonlinearly transformed into your perspective space. The data points are upper left x, upper left y, upper right x, upper right y, lower right x, lower right y, and finally lower left x and lower left y...
/sq [22.5 38
35 37
29 28
17 31] store
Then find the "halfway xy point" on each edge and its slope to build a [ xtop ytop angtop xrt yrt angrt xbot ybot angbot xftl ylft anglft xtop ytop angtop ] curvetrace array.
Then curvetrace...
/tension 2.83301 store
mark
sq 0 get sq 2 get add 2 div % find midway on square
sq 1 get sq 3 get add 2 div
sq 3 get sq 1 get sub % find midway slope
sq 2 get sq 0 get sub
atansq 2 get sq 4 get add 2 div
sq 3 get sq 5 get add 2 div
sq 5 get sq 3 get sub
sq 4 get sq 2 get sub
atansq 4 get sq 6 get add 2 div
sq 5 get sq 7 get add 2 div
sq 7 get sq 5 get sub
sq 6 get sq 4 get sub
atansq 6 get sq 0 get add 2 div
sq 7 get sq 1 get add 2 div
sq 1 get sq 7 get sub
sq 0 get sq 6 get sub
atansq 0 get sq 2 get add 2 div
sq 1 get sq 3 get add 2 div
sq 3 get sq 1 get sub
sq 2 get sq 0 get sub
atan
] curvetrace fill
A more detailed example whenever
June 8, 2019
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We long ago looked at how to best fit cubic splines to circles and ellipses.
Where we found that the usual four spline fit uses a normalized tension magic number of 0.55228475. Otherwise known as four thirds of one less than the square root of two. With a worst case error of one part in a thousand and an average error of one part in two thousand.
We also saw that this was not the best possible magic number, since a slightly lower 0.551784 gives you a 24 percent improvement. By its balancing positive and negative errors.
I decided to double check the optimum tension in our Gonzo curvetracing routines. The best /tension I have found so far is slightly higher than the original and is found at 2.83301.
By "best" we mean for a quarter circle fit. The tension can be adjusted for "flatter" or "loopier" ap needs.
June 7, 2019
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Let's look at a detailed example of how to do our Gonzo Curvetracing. As we saw yesterday, this fun but rather tedious method can be particularly useful to trace a .JPG or other DCT Decodable image to create compact, clean, sharp, colorized, and simple text-searchible and newly triply compatible Distiller-GoodleDrive-Ghostscript.
What you do is create a three layer "raw PostScript" doc. The lowest layer consists of your .JPG problem image that uses /jpegimageprocwithlink or something similar to convert to a DCTDecoded image. The second layer is a Gonzo setgrid and showgrid. And your third layer is your new curvetraced and otherwise generated code.
You then throw the baby away and drink the washwater by cutting and pasting only your top layer as a final ap. We can use good old Meowwr as a target candidate.
There are five new code modules here...
meow2a.psl % result only sourcecode
meow2a.pdf % result only .PDF output
halfcat2a.pdf % partial trace result only
meowwr1a.jpg % input .JPG to be traced
meow2a_trace.psl % tracing utility sourcecode ***
meow2a_trace.pdf % tracing demo PDF output
At present, your results can be made triply compatible, but the *** curvetracing itself is only possible in GhostScript and recommended in true Distiller accessed via the top secret //acrodist /F command line run.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Your tracing utility sourcecode will need edited to reach a desired and properly stored and linked input JPG!
Yes, we are working on full Google Drive compatibility. If this is even possible remains to be seen.
Custom services available.
June 6, 2019
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There's long been some curvetracing features built into our Gonzo Utilities. These are particularly useful for tracing over a .JPEG image to create ultra compact, clean, and simple text searchable PostScript.
While somewhat tedious, these can be most handy to, say, trace a pre-web schematic, isolate a logo, draw perspective circles, or capture some cartoon automation.
The curvetracing array format is...
[ x0 y0 ang0 x1 y1 ang1 ... xn yn angn ] curvetrace
... with the x and y values being position info and the default entered angle being somewhere around 0 degrees east, 90 degrees north, 180 degrees west, and -90 degrees south.
These are then converted into a "somewhat weak" set of cubic splines.
The big advantage of using "weak" splines is that they can be described with three ( and sometimes only two ) intuitive data points compared to the eight obtuse ones normally needed.
Weak splines feature constant tension. They can do nearly everything that strong ones can. But you may need a few more of them on complex projects.
A variant: 0 0 position info will append an existing path instead of starting a new one. For a cusp, repeat the previous triad with a different angle. Cusps are best commented on to ease later debug.
There is an optionally changeable variable called the tension. Which sets "how bouncy" the splines all are. The recommended "best" value is 2.83301. newly based on optimal quarter circle fitting. Optional ticks that you can turn on for debug are also available.
June 5, 2019
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An ARA video of our January Kartchner hanging canal talk can now newly be found at...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cqkfyi_-FM&t=102s
... while our older Intro to PostScript vid is found here.
June 4, 2019
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A visitor asked about Smith Charts. These are an aide to microwave design debug that are especially suitable for impedance matching Agilent features them on some of their pricier instrument displays. A tutorial here.
You can find the original paper as the January 1939 issue of Electronics, pages 39+. Free downloads here.
I put together some partial code to build your own Smith Charts as Bonus Supplement #43A of our PostScript Secrets.
While this generated the basic chart, it never got around to doing all the challenging fine print and the slider. These days, the charts can be colorized using these techniques. Triply compatible new colorizer sourcecode can be found here.
June 3, 2019
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Secrets of degubbing can be found here. This includes the LAN of the nineties. Uh, that is the EIGHTEEN NINETIES! Which had a baud rate.
Yup. ONE baud!
June 2, 2019
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Our fourteenth new from-the-ground-up PostScript tool that is triply compatible with Distiller-Google Drive-Ghostscript delivers marbelous stacks of distorted pancakes, aka some Computer Art that in no manner looks like it was done on a computer. Whose hallmark is self UNsimilarity.
Find the sourcecode here and a demo here. Amazingly, these can be compacted to 200 code bytes!
More details and some yet uncompatibized variants can be found here. To use free Google Drive as your Acrobat Distiller, simply send the preverified .psl code to it to rapidly get your PostScript visual display!
But still using "real" Distiller is strongly recommended for our previous command line.
Google Drive will apparently accept programs with a .ps or .psl trailer, so long as they start with %!PS and no leading spaces. On your host, a .ps will usually route to Distiller, while a .psl goes to a suitable editor.
June 1, 2019
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I am still trying to discover how to view PostScript .log files in Google Drive. Please email any hints to me via mailto:don@tinaja.com.
.log files are extremely important to view any error messages or to let you make debugging excerpts. They also might be your only output if you are using PostScript to generate code for another computer language, Or if you need to physically save internally generated data.
One temporary workaround is to generate a second copy of .LOG data and divert it to your main .PDF output. We just saw a simple example here and a more complex one building .SHTML code (!) here.
Something simple and easy might go like this..
/print_to_pdf { needpdflogoutput
{xpos ypos moveto show
/xpos leftmargin store
/ypos ypos yinc sub store
}{pop} ifelse
} store
For which you would predefine an acceptable font ( Or let it substitute ) , your Boolean permission, and positioning info. Data is normally accepted
as a string. If not there yet, do a 20 string cvs. If not a temporary output, you might prepend or postprend a special .PDF page to your main doc.
May 31, 2019
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Our thirteenth new from-the-ground-up PostScript tool that is triply compatible with Distiller-Google Drive-Ghostscript is an "accuracy reporter" that "improves" reported precision to nearly eight decimal places. Compared to the usual six. Almost a 100:1 improvement!
Find the sourcecode here and a demo here.
This is a variant on this older program. The new version reports both to its .log file and to its .pdf file.
To use free Google Drive as Acrobat Distiller, simply send the preverified .psl code to it to rapidly get your PostScript visual display! But still using "real" Distiller is strongly recommended for our previous PostScript-as-language stuff. Along with running //acrodist /F from your command line.
This is a reporting feature that does so only when specifically called. No PostScript internals are modified in any manner.
May 30, 2019
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I may have a solution to those infuriating lower right big malware ads that don't even work...
1. Click Chrome upper right three dots.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Scroll down and click on Advanced.
4. View Privacy and Security
5. Click on Site Settings
6. Click on Notifications
7. Scroll down to Allow.
8. Remove any non-embedded allows.
If that does not work, try dragging and dropping the ad to exit stage right. Sometimes that is all you need. Other times you have to click through dozens of times till you get a new ad screen. Beware exiting that new screen as it may also take out your previous work.
Its too early to tell for sure, and your mileage may vary. Please report any feedback.
May 29, 2019
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A reminder that our ultra fast Magic Sinewave calculator can be found here. With more on them here
This was one of the few projects of mine that demanded the 64 bit math accuracy of JavaScript.
May 28, 2019
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Our twelfth new from-the-ground-up PostScript tool that is triply compatible with Distiller-Google Drive-Ghostscript is an "empty shell" that includes only some of the more fully tested compatible Gonzo commands that you can now expand as a basis for your own custom code. Find the sourcecode here and a demo here.
To use free Google Drive as Acrobat Distiller, simply send the preverified .psl code to it to rapidly get your PostScript visual display! But still using "real" Distiller is strongly recommended for our prevision PostScript-as-language stuff. Along with running //acrodist /F from your command line.
Present overhead is around 9K. You can remove unused items for compaction or add as much of full gonzo as you like. Full Gonzo needs around 90K.
Please be sure to verify any new code for full compatibility.
May 27, 2019
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We do have an older and ultra sneaky trick to improve PostScript reporting accuracy to nearly 8 places here.
But it is unlikely to be able to improve yesterday's spline length precision and it is not yet Google Drive compatible.
More whenever.
May 26, 2019
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Our eleventh new from-the-ground-up PostScript tool that is triply compatible with Distiller-Google Drive-Ghostscript is a brand new from the ground up tool to find the length of a cubic spline. Or, with simple mods, to find any given point along a spline's path.
Find the sourcecode here and a demo here.
To use free Google Drive as Acrobat Distiller, simply send the preverified .psl code to it to rapidly get your PostScript visual display! But still using "real" Distiller is strongly recommended for our previous PostScript-as-language stuff. Along with running //acrodist /F from your command line.
As we have seen here, the normal math behind spline length involves unbearably gruesome elliptic functions. So, an approximate method is substituted here that simply sums delta S given delta T. And only takes a small fraction of a second.
This does push the limits of PostScript's 32 bit math, which restricts our best accuracy here to four decimal places.
May 25, 2019
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At present, the overwhelming majority of PostScript- as-a-general-purpose-computer-language existing apps ( especially my .psl files ) may not work properly for you with the faux Display PostScript & .PDF generator now found in Google Drive.
Issues include log files, the == command, fully accessing multi-platform fonts, using the Gonzo Utilities, providing for includes and run commands, viewing error reports, and generally reading or writing the disk files essential for PostScript to modify bitmaps, analyze existing files, or to write code in other languages.
Some of these factors may simply be learning curve stuff, while some appear to be easily worked around, and others may end up as major gotchas.
Having a free and somewhat useful alternative to Acrobat Distiller would certainly seem worthwhile.
We presently have ten .psl files fully and triply compatible with Distiller, Google Drive, and GhostScript.
"Lite" Gonzo Shell source and demo
Constant Cubic Spline source and demo
Fake Log Demo source and demo
Avuncular Sleezoids source and demo
Tuna Can source and demo
Font Reporter source and demo
Brick Wall source and demo (!)
Scribble source and demo
Fat Tail Arrows source and demo
Web Friendly Colors source and demo
I'll try to add to this list, each time trying to address each major google drive issue. Your assistance is most welcome.
May 24, 2019
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The key secret to our new constant spaced cubic spline generator ( sourcecode and demo ) is to throw another million calculations at it. Which, these days is no big deal at all and only adds fractions of a second at most to your processing time
First, find the needed total spline length and the intended step vector lengths. For our demo example, a step value of 1.698 seems useful..
Then microstep tt from 0 to 1 using 10,000 or more increments. Each time the latest vector length reaches its intended value, save it to a new /tt array. Maybe like so...
/z1
/prevx 0 store
/prevy 0 store
mark 0
0 1 numsamps div 1 {
/curtry exch store
/tt curtry store
xtt prevx sub dup mul
ytt prevy sub dup mul
add sqrt
subwidth gt {
curtry
/prevx xtt store
/prevy ytt store
} if
} for
] store
The last dot may end up a bit early, so this array is then rescale normalized for a 0 to 1 range.
Jitter ends up in the third or fourth decimal place.
May 23, 2019
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Our ninth new from-the-ground-up PostScript tool that is triply compatible with Distiller-GoogleDrive-Ghostscript is a brand new from the ground up tool to generate constant spaced cubic spline segments or to find any true point along a complex cubic spline curve.
Find the sourcecode here and a demo here.
To use Google Drive as Acrobat Distiller, simply send the preverified .psl code to it to rapidly get your PostScript visual display!
May 22, 2019
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Some earlier resources on subdividing cubic splines can be found here with its sourcecode here. Along with related stuff here and here.
Three important things to note...
(1) The cubic math can be extremely
complex and may not even have
reasonable closed form solutions.(2) The "t" parameter is not linear; It
instead tends to go "faster" along the
"more bent" portions of the curve.(3) The length of any vector segment gets
measured from the end of its "next previous"
previous" one and not as its absolute length.
A reminder about our avuncular sleezoids.
May 21, 2019
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We started adding bunches of new stuff to our eBay store. Mostly hard to find automation and aerospace items usually at a tiny fraction of their original prices.
All fully guaranteed as usable.
We use super fast Priority Mail almost exclusively. Our shipping charges are fully combinable and are revenue neutral. And we do retain perfect feedback.
May 20, 2019
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Very few people realize that the word "gullible" does not ever appear in any major dictionary or spell checker.
It is sorta like that "no clocks in casinos" thingy.
May 19, 2019
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Subdividing a cubic spline into equal sized segments can be a real bear. The results usually look like #35A of this because the 't" parameter tends to change faster along the "more bent" spline portions.
As this and particularly this shows us, it is fairly easy to get from "t space" to "x space" or to "y space"...
A = x3 - 3x2 + 3x1 - x0
B = 3x2 - 6x1 + 3x0
C = 3x1 - 3x0
D = x0
E = y3 - 3y2 + 3y1 - y0
F = 3y2 -6 y1 + 3y0
G = 3y1 - 3y0
H = y0
But the opposite of getting from x or y space back to t space is a huge problem and might not even have a non-ambiguous closed form solution.
I'm wondering if something based on creating an array of incremental t lengths and modifying them based on their length sum might work.
I'll try to get around to this sometime.
May 18, 2019
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OK. Here's some additional Avuncular Sleezoid guidelines...
You usually start with a pair of cubic splines that do or do not share common end points and may or may not be fixed or random. Typically, one spline may be a smooth curve, while the other has loops or cusps.
For a reasonably high number of 0-1 "z" values, equivalent lines are drawn between the splines, changing the hue on sequential lines...
/newcolor1 { currenthsbcolor
/bb1 exch store
/ss1 exch store
/hh1 exch
hueinc add
dup 1 ge {pop 0}if
store
hh1 ss1 bb1 sethsbcolor
} store
Alternately, you can doubly use 3 -1 roll. More secrets of cubic splines can be found here.
As we saw here, a big sample of a near-infinite supply of random sleezoids can be found here. An optional grid can be temporarily added to let you move or recolor or rotate or hue or symmetrisize sequence these in order to "improve" them.
Web Friendly colors are found here.
Ah, yes. the "yipes stripes". These Moire patterns are caused by not having the color stripes close enough to each other. Make the stripes wider or closer together to make the stripes more or less obvious.
The "front side" and "back side" effect results from the progressive surface build from the initial end
Please send me your best ( or worst! ) sleezoids. More worst,of course here.
May 17, 2019
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They caught the perp who was leaving boxes of kittens on local doorsteps.
And charged them with littering.
May 16, 2019
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I've yet to find a way to display PostScript .log files in Google Drive. Besides being super important for debugging, log files can sometimes end up as your ONLY PostScript output. Especially for such off-the-wall stuff as using PostScript to write code in another language!
Our eighth Acrobat-Google-GhostScript compatible file example fakes a log output by generating actual .PDF text. This particular example generates .SHTML (!) code suitable for cutting and pasting during rework.
Find the code here and its .PDF demo here. Only a fraction of a second was needed here to generate many hours of otherwise tedious hand coding.
Our Gonzo Utilities can be expanded to allow much fancier text formatting.
May 15, 2019
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Our seventh PostScript group example that can work with your host Distiller, host GhostScript or Google Drive display is this stunning group of avuncular sleezoids...
Sleezoid2a .psl source and .pdf demo
Sleezoid2b .psl source and .pdf demo
Sleezoid2c .psl source and group demo
Sleezoid2d .psl source and .pdf demo
Sleezoid2e .psl source and group demo
As usual, we strongly recommend using host based Acrobat Distiller via a command line //acrodist /F.
See H.K. Hornswoggle and N.V. Blatenworth’s classic Exploiting Avuncular Sleezoids for Fun and Profit from the Brandenburg Press, Boise ID 1964, pages 55-2750 for a thorough, but definitely unterse, treatment.
More here. And, of course, here.
May 14, 2019
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Our sixth PostScript example that works with your host Distiller, host GhostScript and Google Drive display is our newly reworked Font Reporter routine.
This code here and demo example here determines which fonts are presently available on your host computer suitable for Distiller or GhostScript use.
And generates a printable report with fonts shown.
It is super important to note that the Acrobat and Ghostscript (aka Artifex) font directories are WILDLY DIFFERENT and that you have to patch them to gain access to at least a few of each other's fonts.
I'm still testing suitable tools. In general, Google Drive is only capable of displaying the tiniest negligible fraction of pre-existing PostScript code. And none of the fancier pre-existing "Golly Gee Mister Science!" stuff at all.
As usual, we strongly recommend using host based Acrobat Distiller via a command line //acrodist /F.
May 13, 2019
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Maybe it is just me, but I've just found out that Google Drive generates an error rather than displaying any PostScript code with a "==" in it. And presumably for any "print" command intended for logfiles
The double quote is essential for debugging reports. In addition, many PostScript routines will use their log files as a major or even as a sole output. Especially when generating code for most any other language.
Such as this example.
I'm still exploring workarounds. Surely there must be some solution for such a grievous omission.
May 12, 2019
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Upgraded our Tuna Can Nonlinear Graphics transform here so it is Google Drive compatible. Find the code here and the output demo here.
More on nonlinear graphics here.
Google Drive will try and execute any file that starts with %!PS or more as Display PostScript by using a GhostScript commercial variation . It is super important that this be the first line in the file without any leading spaces.
Google Drive does this regardless of whether the file trailer is .PS or .PSL. On your home machine a .PS file will usually route to Acrobat Distiller, while a .PSL one will often go to a text editor.
This is our fifth Google Drive compatible example. As usual, we strongly recommend using Acrobat Distiller instead via a command line //acrodist /F.
Scroll down for previous candidates. Please report any issues.
May 11, 2019
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What is the most mind boggling PostScript routine anytime ever? Hit me with your best shot.
I'd vote for this brick wall routine and demo. You would never guess in a zillion years which PostScript command has gotten itself so severely and outrageously abused in this routine of a only a few hundred bytes !
A printout of a 4,752 brick version appears as demo #17 here. File size is trivial and the execution speed is blindingly fast.
This is our fourth google drive compatible example. But, as usual, we strongly recommend using Acrobat Distiller via a command line //acrodist /F.
May 10, 2019
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No, I am not making these up.
The Lawrence Welk version of One Toke Over the Line can be linked here.
I feel that this could have been the defining moment when "WTF" first entered the vocabulary.
Much more ( 100 million entries per day! ) here, a detailed analysis here, and the curious origin of the analysis here.
Meanwhile, the Glenn Miller cover of Stairway to Heaven can be found here.
May 9, 2019
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Here's a third Google Drive compatible example listing of our scribble routines. And its demo here.
Alternately, they are by far best command line sent to Acrobat Distiller via a command line //acrodist /F. More here.
These are newly full color as they tow along our Web Friendly PostScript and CSS Colors.
May 8, 2019
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Most any older web page these days probably has hundreds to thousands of errors. Caused by the new CSS rules, switching to https:, broken links, new code versions, and redirects that are flat out missing or wrong.
Here's some present guidelines I am using to try and bail out some of our older pages. The process can take forever and does seem best done on a "fix half and leave half" basis, returning only when new materials or other updates are needed.
Besides taking forever, there is no way you can fix everything, especially since most of it may be utterly beyond your control. A reasonable goal is a three percent "normal user" error rate, half of which can be internally fixable.
And, of course, repairs should be based on page popularity. Otherwise, you can end up spending bunches of time working on stuff unlikely to end up viewed all that much.
Obviously, revisions should be best done on pages that can still be made of current interest, rather than altering anything of historic importance.
I'll usually start with Dreamweaver, a custom redefinable spell checker and careful third party proofing. I'll often refer to this CSS tutorial.
Rework can begin with this free tool from W3C.. And once your Web Verification page has "gotten green" from this tool, you can switch to a free URL Link checker. It is also important to learn and use .htaccess.
Log files from your ISP are of enormous help to finding which pages need attention. I've also got this free Log File analyzer and its demo available.
Consulting services and custom reports available.
May 7, 2019
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Managed to update and revise most of whtnu16.shtml. The excerpted version should also go up shortly.
A few glitches may remain. Please report any issues.
Links to the rest of our blogs can be found by clicking on most any latest update tab. While the excerpts intended mainly as a Bajada Hanging Canal history timeline can be found accessed by scrolling down here.
Around half of the blogs still need rework.
May 6, 2019
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This code reports available fonts for either Acrobat Distiller or GhostScript or Google Drive...
(*){==} 256 string /Font resourceforall
Fancier code instead of {==} can show the actual character shapes.
Curiously, a wildly different font list is provided for each operating system!
What are the magic commands to access a common font set for all three systems? How can commands be shared without error messages?
May 5, 2019
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At present, we have only two projects that we have verified as fully Google.Drive PostScript compatible.
These include variants on our FatTail Arrows ( find the sourcecode here and a demo here ) and our Web Friendly Colors ( with sourcecode here and a demo here. )
We intend to verify compatibility on many more of our PostScript routines. Especially our PostScript Beginner Stuff series and our PostScript Secrets reprints.
Unfortunately, there may or may not be some severe restrictions to what Google.Drive can do with a PostScript Distiller display PS emulation substitute.
The following issues need addressed, some of which are fixable and some possibly not...
How can fonts be added?
How can fonts be substituted?
How can ps log files be viewed?
How can common code be shared?
How can utilities be run or included?
How can disk files be read or written?
Much of the fancier PostScript stuff involves using a log file as primary output, or reading and writing diskfiles. The latter is particularly useful for including utilities, modifying bitmaps, fixing other images, and generating code for most any language in most any format.
Note that file reads and writes in "real" Distiller will need activated from the command line by using //acrodist /F.
Your comments welcome.
May 4, 2019
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Newly updated and expanded our Gila Valley Day Hikes. We are now up to 566 primary entries!
Added are info on Arizona Place Names, the latest Jernigan Canal finds, and a believed unexplored mystery impact crater.
We've also done a rework for CSS compatibility and tried to fix most of the broken links. Please report any bugs that remain or need updated.
A sampler of some of the more unusual day hikes can be found here. Talks and tours available.
May 3, 2019
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Uploaded a Google.Drive version of our Web Friendly PostScript & CSS colors.
Sourcecode here and demo here.
This version has the full Gonzo Utilities drug along internally. It also does not need disk file reads or writes. Gonzo tutorial here.
This can apparently be viewed without needing use of Acrobat Distiller (!), but until issues are resolved with Google's PS rendering, we strongly recommend using the Acrobat Distiller original, command line activated with //acrodist /F .
May 2, 2019
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Just noticed there was the slightest glitch in our Fattail Utilities that may let one pixel of background sneak on through on certain arrow heads.
This is caused by not every color being exactly positionable on most color monitors. The fix is to slightly overlap the arrow head and body.
Replacing any tipwid with tipwid 1.1 mul only on the arrow tips should fix it.
May 1, 2019
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Here is a slightly revised version of our Gonzo Fattail Utilities that works directly in Google Drive! Besides Acrobat Distiller ( with or without /F ) and GhostScript.
Sourcecode here and .PDF result here.
Key portions of our Gonzo Utilities were simply included in the file. Similar techniques can be used for most of our PostScript Beginner Stuff.
Alternately, the full Gonzo procs can be dragged along internally. This file is 9K long excerpted or 90K full.
Most of our other .PSL files may need modification for actual viewable distillation in Google Drive.
In general, there may be Google Drive issues with accessing PS log files, getting proper fonts, using run or includes, and any super fancy advanced stuff that involves reading or writing disk files.
O ( or its rental DC cloud version ) accessed from the Windows command line using the secret incantation of //acrodist /F.
Our recommendation remains to use "real" Adobe Acrobat. Much more on PostScript here, a Gonzo tutorial here, the reference manual here, and a video here.
April 30, 2019
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Still have not gotten to this mystery place. Is it an impact crater, or just a satellite imaging artifact?
Are the five nearby features related? Images do appear even more curious in Goggle Earth, especially when you dial back to 2015 historic imagery.
Might be an interesting ATV project as the nearest 4WD flat track is a mile and a half north.
And this still remains unexplained. One trinchera specializing archaeologist writes it off as natural. One engineer does not think so, owing to geometric preciseness. A rotated image here. Near O'Conner airport. Which is by itself enigmatic.
Also in the neighborhood are these linear whatevers, that appear best blamed on the CCC. Constant spacing is curious to say the least.
April 29, 2019
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We are also in the process of upgrading and improving our blog excerpts. These are intended mainly as a discovery and comment timeline for our Bajada Hanging Canals and soon should be fully CSS compatible.
Some outdoorsey and humor stuff was also kept. Here's the menu, also as found here and here..
--- | --- | --- |
2011 Blog Excerpts | 2012 Blog Excerpts | 2013 Blog Excerpts |
2014 Blog Excerpts | 2015 Blog Excerpts | 2016 Blog Excerpts |
2017 Blog Excerpts | 2018 Blog Excerpts | 2019 Blog Excerpts |
--- | --- | --- |
April 28, 2019
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My Hardware Hacker column started out in Modern Electronics and then later moved to Radio Electronics.
Long ago, the term hacking meant "pushing the limits of technical excellence." Preferably by using elegant simplicity to leave all the supposed experts shaking
Sadly, those media epsilon minuses and several law enforcement officials stupidly trashed and subverted a once proud name. Since I got tired of calls from felon wannabes and all those men in black camped on my doorstop, I changed the column name to Tech Musings in 1995.
The earliest columns happened just about the time when the utter heresy of an author generating their own ready-to-publish artwork was first being experimented with. The results initially weren't all that great, but you can follow their progress as the column matured.
Central, of course, was the emerging PostScript language. See the video here.
Here are the earliest Modern Electronics columns. We'll look at the more recent ones in a later blog or two...
These never did appear in an archived collection. My other two ME stories appeared here and here.
April 27, 2019
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Newly moderenizederated and CSS upgraded whtu09.
This should complete upgrading of all our blogs to full CSS compatibility. Check the others per the above or below blog selector. Please report any remaining typos or compatibility issues.
April 26, 2019
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And here's the final four ( and earliest ) list on the whole Resource Bin gang...
#24 -- A look at electronic collectibles
#23 -- Tools for electronic prototyping
#22 -- Online resources & opportunities
#21 -- Book-on-demand publishing
#20 -- Starting an IC data book collection
#19 -- Royalty free real PostScript
#18 -- The furry with the syringe on top
#17 -- Exploring ham radio publications
#16 -- Opportunities in hacker robotics
#15 -- Secrets of professional prototypes
#14 -- Starting up your own technical venture
#13 -- Perils of patents and patenting
#12 -- Secret desktop publishing sources
#11 -- Technical books that made a difference
#10 -- Oddball sources for just plain stuff
#09 -- Exploring PostScript for fun & profit
#08 -- Looking into electronic trade journals
#07 -- Unique opportunities in auto electronics
#06 -- Wondrous world of electronic surplus
#05 -- Labor-of-love technical newsletters
#04 -- Semiconductor & IC sources
#03 -- Hacker friendly printed circuits
#02 -- Finding obsolete integrated circuits
#01 -- Starting your resource quest
These are also available as older ATG1, ATG2, and ATG3 archives that were published to earlier precolorized standards. A few of the early columns are not yet updated and should still redirect here.
Earlier RB list entries appear as 1-25, 26-49, 50-79 and as 80-92.
April 25, 2019
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Continuing our list on the whole Resource Bin gang...
#49 -- Fundamentals of nutting and volting
#48 -- Solar and alternate energy resources
#47 -- Another look at telecomm
#46 -- New opportunities in power electronics
#45 -- Manic multimedia media magazines
#44 -- Disability and handicapped resources
#43 -- Electronic music then and now
#42 -- Alternate desktop publishing options
#41 -- Security & alarm resources
#40 -- New opportunities in home automation
#39 -- Getting started in auto electronics
#38 -- Exploring high frequency resources
#37 -- A look at sensors & sensing
#36 -- Book-on-demand publishing update
#35 -- The best hardware parts of all time
#34 -- New developments in remote controls
#33 -- Optoelectronics and fiber optics
#32 -- Direct toner homebrew printed circuits
#31 -- A "magic machine" for desktop pub
#30 -- Conducting your own personal research
#29 -- Cable & video insider sources
#28 -- Secrets of electronic breadboarding
#27 -- Electronic servicing opportunities
#26 -- Pseudoscience scams & ripoffs
#25 -- Essential homebrew test equipment
April 24, 2019
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Newly moderenizederated and CSS upgraded whatu02.
April 23, 2019
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A reminder we are still seeking web copies of our CMOS Cookbook, Active Filter Cookbook, Micro Cookbook I, and the Hexadecimal Chronicles to add to our free eBooks stash. Also to get added to our "everything USB".
Plus my RTL story in one of the March 1968 Electronics issues. They really got pissed at me when their art director coincidentally and accidentally duplicated the very same photo that was on the Popular Electronics cover a week before.
Another item I need your help on: I cannot find any copy on the Apple IIGS review story that I did for Computer Shopper, probably sometime in 1986 or 1987. I was a developer and beta tester on this earliest IIgs announcement.
One IIgs figure from the story survives here and even got colorized in this video.
Also still missing: Ask the Guru columns #53 to #58 from Computer Shopper in 1989. These are indexed but not present in Archive II.
I did discover I still had the rarest of rare stash of my Goodyear Aerospace AEEM's. Leading edge tech when and where it happened. Let me know if you need to see these. Sponsorship welcome.
April 22, 2019
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Newly moderenizederated and CSS upgraded whatu03.
April 21, 2019
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The little known secret to vastly improving .JPG files is to knock them out to a mottled background, rather than a solid color one. This eliminates nearly all of the edge ghosting with only a minimal file size increase.
We use these extensively on eBay per these examples.
66 random backgrounds for manual insertion can be found here.
A fully automatic and optionally auto vignetting (!) custom program can be found here. This free PS routine uses our Web Friendly Colors and our Gonzo Utilities.
Tutorial here, video here, bunches more here.
April 20, 2019
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Newly moderenizederated and CSS upgraded whatu04.
April 19, 2019
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The legendary Arizona Place Names by Barnes is now freely available online. Including its 1960 update.
From which we learn that Marijilda was a Camel Jockey.
I'll try to shortly add this to our Gila Dayhikes page.
April 18, 2019
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For some unbenounced reason, somebody has decided to archive our historic 2000 version of Guru's Lair.
April 17, 2019
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Newly moderenizederated and CSS upgraded whatu05.
April 16, 2019
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Here's some of our current eBay web papers...
Master eBay Directory and Index
Our own eBay Sales
eBay Selling Summary
eBay Buying Summary
My eBay Photo Secrets
Successful eBay Seller Strategies
Successful eBay Buyer Strategies
Enhancing your eBay Skills I
Enhancing your eBay Skills II
Enhancing your eBay Skills III
Enhancing your eBay Skills IV
Enhancing your eBay Skills V
Enhancing your eBay Skills VI
Enhancing your eBay Skills VII
Enhancing your eBay Skills VIII
Image Post-Processing Tools
The Arizona Auction Scene
Your own Custom Auction Finder
Auction Help Library
To recap, many individuals grossly overestimate what eBay can and cannot do. Typical industrial items may sell for one-sixth of new list price, further affected by condition, popularity, rarity, doc availability, competitors, and collectibility.
Plus, of course, demand.
I strongly feel that long term eBay success demands a 30:1 SBR or Sell Buy Rate. Thus, you should never, ever buy anything at more than 30 * 6 = 1/180th of list price.
It is surprisingly easy to find buy opportunities in this range. Particularly in bulk industrial, aerospace, or community college auctions. One thing to be on the lookout for are "contents of cabinet" and "contents of room" listings.
Some sources here.
Such a SBR, of course, precludes ever doing any consignment or third party sales!
Your minimum per-bid order price should be in the neighborhood of $24.53. Anything lower most likely guarantees a net loss.
On acquisitions, I've found that it pays to always seek out a 28 day cash back and a six month total closeout. Relisting several times can often give you a much higher return and success rate.
Shipping rates have now gotten utterly outrageous, especially for longer distances. So, I've found that it pays me to never list anything that cannot be held at arm's length.
And never, never, allow foreign sales.
April 15, 2019
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Here's the Windows environment tools we use to create, maintain, and repair our Guru's Lair website...
CSS Tools:
CSS Tutorial
CSS Validity Checker
URL Validity Checker
Web Validity Checker
.htaccess Check
Adobe DC Cloud Rentals:
Dreamweaver
Spell Checker
Find and Replace
Properties Panel
Acrobat
Distiller ( MUST run //acrodist /F ! )
The Usual Suspects:
Paint
Imageviewer32
Quickphrase
GhostScript
PostScript Reference Manual
Our ISP and Web Server:
Fatcow
Cable One
My Free Custom PS Software:
Gonzo Utilities
Gonzo Tutorial
Architect's Perspective
Auto Vignetting Backgrounder
Web Friendly Colors
Bitmap Typewriter
Auto CSS Text Code Generator
Logfile Analyzer
Knockout JPG Improver
My PostScript Video
Great heaping bunches more
April 14, 2019
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It was standing room only for Dr. Jim Neely's Society of American Archaeologists recent Bajada Hanging Canal talk.
Find related content in this Preprint and our Journal of Field Archaeology latest paper.
April 13, 2019
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Google Drive's offering at least a partial display PostScript would seem to open up all sorts of new possibilities.
The PostScript run command can be faked by using %%IncludeResource: file gonzo.ps. And any strange fonts with %%IncludeResource: font Revue. While Distiller PostScript can ignore %% comments, some sort of detector or auto switchover might be better.
And different font sets might need calling out. Some parameters are found here and here.
Here is an example of raw PostScript that does not use our Gonzo Utilities. And one that does.
As this example and this example show us,in our Gonzo Utilities may work just fine in Google Drive, at least for some programs some of the time.
Here is a PostScript program whose primary purpose is to output a log file adaptable as text insertable into a CSS program. A big question is when and how this can be gotten to work in Google Drive.
But the really big question is how to get Google Drive Display PostScript to read and write disk files. For these are the secrets to PS "leaps tall buildings in a single bound" modifying any computer language in any format or reworking bitmaps and similar images.
Examples of super powerful PostScript programs that need to create and then modify disk files are found here as our Auto Vignetting Background or Architects Perspective Correction or the Bitmap Typewriter.
Your input is sorely needed.
Apri12,l 2019
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Newly moderenizederated and CSS upgraded whanu06.
April 11, 2019
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Gaining on it! Our Gonzo PostScript Utilities can most definitely be made Google Drive compatible! Directly viewable with no Distiller or .PDF generation at all!
Sort of.
The PostScript run command can be faked by using %%IncludeResource: file gonzo.ps. And any strange fonts with %%IncludeResource: font Revue.
Here's an example, thanks to usa1retired.
What is not yet clear is how one PostScript program can be simultaneously be made Distiller and Drive compatible. Chances are an ifelse line may need added to pick run versus include.
Note that the PS side will already ignore anything beyond %% in a line. The trick will be in getting Drive to ignore the run line.
Also not yet resolved is how to read or write disk files ( similar to //acrodist /F ) in Drive. For many of the really insanely stupendously great PostScript routines may demand this ability.
Especially when using PostScript to read or write any snippet of any file in any language. Or when manipulating bitmaps or other images.
Also not clear is how PS generated .log files can be viewed.
Your input welcome. A video here.
April 10, 2019
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Google Drive is a new and often free cloud storage system. It can directly display a wide number of formats without needing further support software.
A variant of Display PostScript is available, based on Artiflex GhostScript with these details. Some font rework may be needed to avoid substitutions.
Here and here are two of my files modified for direct Google Drive display without needing Distiller or any .PDF conversions.
As near as I can tell, the really powerful PostScript commands may not be available here. Specifically the run command or any ability to read or write disk files. Such as those used in our Auto Vignetting Background or Architects Perspective Correction or the Bitmap Typewriter.
My Gonzo Utilities would thus need copied directly into your PS file rather than run downloaded. The full Gonzo adds about 85K, but you often can only
excerpt a few key procs. .psl trailers are likely not directly supported.
Should you absolutely demand disk reads and writes ( as do our above and many of our other website utilities ), you may still have to use Acrobat Distiller and its magic secret incantation of //acrodist /F.
April 9, 2019
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Continuing our list on the whole Resource Bin gang...
ResBin #69 -- Robotic resources update
ResBin #68 -- Terrific toner techniques
ResBin #67 -- Beginning amateur astronomy>
ResBin #66 -- Book-on-demand publishing
ResBin #65 -- Video game tools & techniques
ResBin #64 -- The human side of the webs
ResBin #63 -- Scamming a student paper
ResBin #62 -- Exploring trade journals
ResBin #61 -- Some favorite web sites
ResBin #60 -- Finding answers on the web
ResBin #59 -- Starting your own tech venture
ResBin #58 -- Getting a charge out of batteries
ResBin #57 -- Resources for electronic servicing>
ResBin #55 -- Exploring the web for the first time
ResBin #54 -- Pick a peck of PIC's
ResBin #53 -- PDF and other info distribution tools
ResBin #52 -- Choosing a personal computer
ResBin #51 -- Son of alternate energy 13th, part 6
ResBin #50 -- Injection molding & plastic prototyping
April 8, 2019
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Its been a while since I mentioned our Elegant Simplicity paper.
Which is a variation on good the good old Ockham's Razor which we have been using extensively on our prehistoric bajada "hanging" canal research here and here.
It turns out that most people misspell Ockham, and we do not really know his last name. Ockham was where he lived and would be similar to calling me "Don of Thatcher".
April 7, 2019
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The scam of the day goes something like this: A Pacific Rim web registration service tells you that others are trying to register variations on your website name and did you authorize this?
Should you reply, you get another email insisting the bad guys are still going to register no matter what.
And the original comes back urging you to let them do the registrations for you ahead of time.
The Engrish and style of the two parties appears to be remarkably similar.
This seems like a penny ante ploy. And for many website names, it makes no sense whatsoever. Perhaps more complex skulduggery is afoot.
The obvious workaround is to ignore them once you are fairly sure what seems to be going down.
April 6, 2019
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One of the woefully underappreciated features of the general purpose PostScript computer language is its ability to write most any code snippet in most any computer language.
I was recently upgrading some blog CSS code that needed a year's paste-ins of custom headers like...
<a id="d12.17.07"></a>
<table class="daily1">
<tr><td class="left">
December 17, 2007
<td class="right">
<a href="#d12.17.07">
deeplink</a>
<a href="#top">top</a>
<a href="#bot">
bot</a>
<a href="mailto:don@tinaja.com">
respond</a></td></tr></table>
This PostScript code easily creates all of these in a few seconds flat, and does not even need my of my Gonzo Utilities or its tutorial. Just send it to Acrobat Distiller.
The only tiny detail is to be sure to change the PostScript .log output trailer to .txt. Chrome does weird things to .log trailers.
A sample output here, video here, and reference manual here.
April 5, 2019
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Several less-than-astute web denizens have commented that my website looks like a 1995 one.
That is intentional as I purposely seek out a "retro" or "classic" look. Which is one effective way to deal with eclectic and humongous archival content. Much of which is most appropriate for full size screen display.
This works best with the latest of CSS and multiple access nav. And continuous kaizan, or ongoing small improvements.
And works even better with only one third party ad. Combined with my adblocker immune live links that randomly rotate and make a game out of clickthrough.
April 4, 2019
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My YouTube fan base was much lager than I expected.
Thanks, RU.
April 3, 2019
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Several viewers have asked about ELF Reception.
I'd suggest starting with a punchbowl and some very small cups. More here.
April 2, 2019
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I've been reworking some of our oldest blogs to make them fully CSS compatible and repair some 404's, typos, redirects, updates, and such.
These should be ready to go...
Accessing any one blog should give you links to all of the others.
Please note that yearly blogs are best viewed as video, since a full printout might take hundreds of print pages.
Please report any updating issues.
April 1, 2019
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House Bill 420-HN has just passed, making hangnails a qualifying condition for medical marijuana
But no less than three separate Senate bills do remain stuck in committee that would mandate the conversion of coal fired power plants into singles bars.
Meanwhile, this stunning development once and for all completely resolves the border fence ludicrosity. It might end up interesting to crowdfund a lower cost ( and possibly F-250 tethered ) minimal range copy.
March 31, 2019
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A huge collection of jukebox through video arcade game stuff can be found here. With some jukebox schematics here.
March 30, 2019
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For some unknown reason, this old Resource Bin #50 on plastics just went near viral. Here's a starting list on the whole Resource Bin gang...
ResBin #92 -- Some PostScript Possibilities
ResBin #91 -- Exploring Antenna Resources
ResBin #90 -- GPS and Navigation
ResBin #89 -- Boat Anchors
ResBin #88 -- Hydrogen Resources
ResBin #87 -- Used Test Equipment
ResBin #86 -- Roswell Dowsing for Brown's Gas
ResBin #85 -- Some favorite web sites
ResBin #84 -- Exploring Medical Electronics
ResBin #83 -- Fun with neat stuff
ResBin #82 -- Secrets of military surplus II
ResBin #81 -- Secrets of military surplus I
ResBin #80 -- Test Equipment manuals
ResBin #79 -- Finding semiconductor & IC data
ResBin #78 -- Starting your own web page
ResBin #77 -- Accessing offshore electronics>
ResBin #76 - Home Automation
ResBin #75 -- Virtual reality illusions
ResBin #74 -- Seismic & earthquake resources
ResBin #73 -- Electronic surplus & auctions
ResBin #72 -- Some wireless resources
ResBin #71 -- Secrets of web based research
ResBin #70 -- PostScript PIC flutterwumpers
March 29, 2019
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Newly updated and expanded our Gila Valley Day Hikes. We are now up to 563 primary entries!
Added are info on Apache Tears, a new CNF supergroup agglomeration, and links to our latest hanging canal papers.
A sampler of some of the more unusual day hikes can be found here. Talks and tours available.
March 28, 2019
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Here's our five best and latest bajada hanging canal papers...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/
10.1080/00934690.2018.1557029.
https://www.tinaja.com/preprint-bcsb1.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_bajada_canals
https://www.tinaja.com/hang01.shtml
https://www.tinaja.com/hang02.pdf
Photos and more are in either of the last two links above.
March 27, 2019
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A caller asked whether hell was endothermic or exothermic.
If exothermic, then eventually all hell breaks loose.
If endothermic, then eventually hell freezes over.
March 26, 2019
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PV prices continue in free fall per this weekly quote.
These prices are now waaay under the quarter per peak panel watt needed for long term renewability and sustainability.
I'd predict eight cents per peak cell watt near future to be a more than cataclysmic tipping point.
Much more energy stuff here.
March 25, 2019
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A reminder we have several upcoming hanging canal talks. I'll be doing a free BLM/CNF "Brown Bag" lunch talk Thursday April 4th at noon at their lecture room at 8th street and 14th Avenue in Safford, AZ. Bring your own food and drinks.
And some sort of an "Empty Nester" potluck presentation near Solomon on April 8th at 6 PM. Contact info on request.
Dr. Neely will be separately speaking at the Albuquerque NM Convention Center Society of American Archaeologists meet April 12th at 3 PM. Navajo Room 25.
Meanwhile, talks and tours can be arranged and research participants (especially GPS literate hikers, ATV folks, and drone operators ) are more than welcome.
March 24, 2019
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I'd like to start a list of "instant" research topics that you can use related to our prehistoric bajada hanging canals.
Numero uno seems only slightly hung...
1. Verify a prehistoric hanging canal exists at
N 32.81517 W 110.02853 Best presently
known image appears as Google Earth
Historic 11-2011.
2. Date this canal. It is likely around CE 1350.
3. See if destination fields underlie historic
cattle ponds at N 32.81600 W 110.02239
4. Prove that this canal includes yet another
spectacularly engineered watershed crossing
found in a very few of the more eastern canals.
5. Attempt to link this canal to the ridiculously
easier to find and access one at N 32.81082
W 110.04704.
6. Find the relationship between these canals
and modern cattle structures at and above
N 32.80366 W 110.05089
7. Verify the canal is continuous and at least two
miles long and that virtually all of its length is
on Coronado National Forest lands.
8. Drone fly and GPS the entire canal route.
9. Provide strong evidence that this canal supports
the theory that the hanging canals completely
surrounded Mount Graham.
March 23, 2019
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Most of our free eBook reprints can be found here. While most of our free classic reprints are here.
We still do have autographed hard copies of our Micro Cookbook, Active Filter Cookbook, and CMOS Cookbook available via our eBay store.
Note that others sell UN-autographed copies elsewhere for a mere $50 surcharge.
We also have USB's of one each of everything found here or on our eBay store.
March 22, 2019
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To come near to completing most of our eBooks I'll still need trustable scans of...
CMOS Cookbook
Active Filter Cookbook
Micro Cookbook I
Spanish TTL Cookbook
Pacific Rim TTL Cookbook
Hexadecimal Chronicles
I'd like to do Director's Cuts on the first three as well, but this would take additional funding.
And I am still looking for this ultra rare reprint from a 1968 issue of Electronics...
For Low Cost, Count on RTL
March 21, 2019
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Just discovered the CNF hosted Coronado Outdoors found at https://www.coronadooutdoors.org/ network of Southern Arizona outdoorsey groups.
The only participation requirement is Arizona Pinstriping on your vehicle.
I'll shortly try to get a link on this up on our Gila Dayhikes page.
March 20, 2019
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One interesting module from yesterday's sourcecode is /jpegimageprocwithlink. This PostScript routine takes info on a pair of .JPG files and then converts them into an Acrobat Distillable click-to-expand image.
To use, extract and edit in any suitable text editor. (A .psl extension simply identifies a text file as "PostScript Lancaster" that often may need my Gonzo Utilities.)
Then define /imageurl and /imagelocaldirectory .JPG locations. Followed by this appropriately modified setup...
93 36 % page position x y translate
1500 1636 % hpixels and vpixels
0.147 % photoscale
imagelocaldirectory % local jpg source url
imageurl % image clickthru url
jpegimageprocwithlink % do it!
Those hpixels and vpixels values are critical and must exactly match your .JPG! View them in ImageViewer/32 if you can't find them elsewhere.
March 19, 2019
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The sourcecode for our JFA preprint can be found here.
This is PostScript code in an ordinary textfile format. You will need an appropriately linked copy of our Gonzo Utilities helped along with its tutorial and its reference manual to run this code by yourself.
You also will need to memorize the secret magic incantation of ...
//acrodist /F
...to execute your code by sending it to Acrobat Distiller via the Windows command line. The /F is crucial!
March 18, 2019
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Just discovered the CNF hosted Coronado Outdoors at https://www.coronadooutdoors.org/ network of Southern Arizona outdoorsey groups.
The only participation requirement is Arizona Pinstriping on your vehicle.
I'll shortly try to get a link on this up on our Gila Dayhikes page.
March 17, 2019
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There's two different flavors of BNC connectors and tees and such: 50 Ohm ( for networks and test equipment ) and 75 Ohm ( for video and audio ).
Ideally, any cable system should be all of one or the other, but these may be safely plugged into each other and mismatching is simply not that big a deal under 50 MHz. When measured against the length of a connector.
You can often ( but not always! ) tell the difference in that the 50 Ohm devices include a white Teflon dielectric.
Most of our eBay offered BNC products include white dielectrics and are believed ( but not guaranteed ) 50 Ohm.
March 16, 2019
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If they include several unmodified .JPG images, the size of your generated Acrobat .PDF files can often be dramatically reduced.
In this 45 page example, from 8337 kB to 923 kB. For a nearly 9:1 reduction! Ending at 20K per fancy page.
The secret concept is to make your JPEG images in the actual document as small as possible. By making their image data the exact size of the "normally viewed" .PDF image.
And then have your viewer "click expand" them to full size high resolution. Only the viewers that care will thus have to download full size .JPG's.
Acrobat 11 DC Pro can do this for you automatically by Tools--> Optimize PDF --> Reduce File Size
The only side effect of this optimization is that any viewer who magnifies their main .PDF display will not see any improvement in the resolution of their JPG's.
PostScript JPG auto-expand sourcecode can be found here.
March 15, 2019
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Dr. James A. Neely will be speaking on our latest Prehistoric Bajada "hanging" canals at the upcoming SAA Society of American Archaeologists Albuquerque Convention Center meet on Friday April 12th at 3 PM.
An author's preprint can be viewed here.
My related local talk is announced here.
March 14, 2019
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2 + 2 = 4. Except for very large values of two.
The Barbie Index is a new way to measure math competency. Ferinstance, an individual with a BI of 0.43 would have 43 percent of the math awareness of a Barbie Doll.
Of all the eBay Barbie Doll collections, the Klaus Barbies remain the most controversial.
Lots more random math stuff here in this older collection that definitely awaits our updates.
March 13, 2019
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It has been a while since we looked at this weekly pv pricing report. Mostly because prices have been either flat or dropping only slightly over the last few months.
But this week shows substantial drops in all products.
We are already significantly under the quarter per peak panel watt needed to eventually be able to reach long term unsubsidized renewability and sustainability.
And an achievable goal with in the next few months would appear to be eight cents per peak cell watt.
This older pv paper of mine is now somewhat dated due to its ludicrously higher-at-the-time pv pricing.
Meanwhile, there have been major recent advances in Perovskite pv materials.
More on energy tutorials here and here.
March 12, 2019
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There is more hydrogen in a gallon of gasoline than there is in a gallon of liquid hydrogen.
More hydrogen economy ludicrosities here and here-and those water powered car absurdities here.
March 11, 2019
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There's been some emerging canal discoveries in the artesian Marijilda/Jacobsen junction area. These may define the easternmost limit of the bajada hanging canal systems.
Which now more or less go all the way around Mount Graham.
Sadly, work is going slowly due to brush, high water, and lack of participants. But these bring the potential totals to over 100 canal study areas and likely more than 150 miles of total passage!
We've already seen a historic Jennings Canal around N 32.74329 W 109.69353 that likely may have had a prehistoric original.
Hints of short segments of potential but still unproven prehistoric canals are found near N 32.74370 W 109.69064 and N 32.74352 W 109.68997 . But their sources and destinations remain unresolved. Lacking spoil banks, these may or may not be minimalist adaptions of physical features.
And neighboring residents insist a really major and obviously prehistoric canal winds its way around three sides (!) of a mesa near N 32.74278 W 109.69708. Recent high water has largely prevented access. But this is anticipated to become a major find.
Your help welcome on these world class research projects.
March 10, 2019
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Our author's web preprint of our new JFA story is now online! Find its PDF file here and its sourcecode here.
There's bound to still be a hidden glitch or two, so please report any typos or whatever.
To cite the actual article: James A. Neely & Don Lancaster (2019) The Bajada Canals of the Safford Basin, Southeastern Arizona: Excellence in Prehistoric Engineering, Journal of Field Archaeology, 44:1, 52-69.
To link to the actual published article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1557029
Additional content and links here.
March 9, 2019
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Several bajada hanging canal events are in the works with more details to follow.
A BLM/CNF Brown Bag lunch is planned for April 4th at lunchtime in Safford.
An "empty nesters" dinner potluck presentation is planned for 6 PM April 8th near Solomon.
The focus would be this paper here and this one here.
Some tours in the same time frame are also possible.
Contact me or stay tuned for more details.
March 8, 2019
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Watch out for the cliff!
What CLIFFFFFfffffffff?
Watch out for the ping pong ball!
What ping pong gloulckkk?
Watch our for the ladder!
What ladder dedadder dedadder dedadder?
Watch out for the revolving door!
What revolving door .. ing door .. ing door?
Curiously, there does not seem to be the faintest hint of these on the web.
I'd like to try and find the rest of these and give them a long missing home on the web.
The rules are: The first person is excessively safety conscious. The second one is both clueless and haplessly accident prone.
I suspect there should be around twenty of these.
Please email me with your candidates and suggestions.
March 7, 2019
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A reminder we have a new CSS compatible version of our Magic Sinewave Calculator.
Magic Sinewaves would appear to work best when you have a high number of clocks per quadrant.
It is not unreasonable to combine a 10 Megahertz clock with a 60 Hertz output. Thus, these are best suited to power line and similar low audio applications.
ANY sinewave generation scheme that has ANY sharp edges will of necessity still have harmonics.
Magic Sinewaves attempts to make these harmonics as small and as high in frequency as possible. But some sort of filtering will likely remain. A motor's inductance and inertia can sometimes be a major part of this filtering.
The pulses per quadrant sets the minimum values for low harmonics that otherwise should be zero. Something like -65 decibels is a typical quantizing level.
Besides using the highest possible clock frequency, there are two "shake the box" tricks you can use to pick up a few more decibels of harmonic rejection.
One is to jitter each pulse edge by -2, -1, 0, 1, or 2 counts. Of the zillions of new candidates, a very few should offer further harmonic rejection of 3 to 10 decibels or so. This can be seen here.
A second approach is to change your desired amplitude in steps of one part per thousand or so. Then pick the best answers that remain within an acceptable amplitude deviation error.
March 6, 2019
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One of the earliest discoveries in our Bajada Hanging Canal studies was a French Drain where the High Lebanon Canal drops off the mesa it was hung to.
Which was basically a near vertical pile of rocks that would slow water descent without significant erosion.
Earlier, this French Drain was believed to be archaeologically unique to the American Southwest.
But it turns out that there are several still unexplored and unresolved French Drain candidates in the system...
The Deadman East Canal demands a
yet unvisited mesa dropoff.
The Robinson Canal has a need for
a similar dropoff. In addition there
appears to be a major route failure
midreach that may or may not have
been a French Drain.
The known end of the Jernigan Canal
has a short but sudden dropoff that
might be French Drain related.
It is still not known exactly where and
how the Allen Canal leaves its mesa
with a sudden drop that may or may
not make use of a French Drain.
Numerous Goat Canal and Ledford
Canal dropoffs need further study.
March 5, 2019
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How do you go about appraising what some industrial item may bring on eBay?
First, obviously, start with our eBay site and then everybody elses. Be sure to note how popular the item is, how much competition you have, and how many asking prices are unreasonably low.
I've found that Radwell is a very good source for finding street prices of industrial equipment, test gear and such.
Radwell also outright buys stuff. Usually with lowball prices but with far little hassle.
OEM's trade is great for finding the value of semiconductors or integrated circuits. But note that many electronic components now sell for only a fraction of a cent each when bought by the SMT reel. Not to mention they come in thousands of different values, only a few of which are of your customer interest.
This resource is also especially valuable for determining if a real market still exists for older chips. Beware of any links that only have you request pricing rather than directly giving you any.
For plain old industrial stuff literally clear down to nuts and bolts McMaster Carr can be a very good resource. With W.W. Grainger and MSC being useful alternatives.
In general, reasonable condition and in-demand items will sell for around one-sixth of list price. And that a successful eBay venture demands you have a 30:1 BSR buy Sell ratio.
Note that shipping charges on most items have now become outrageous. As have UPS Store and other third party pack and ship services. Craig's List can be a better "customer picks it up" alternative.
Many more eBay secrets here.
March 4, 2019
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A reminder that the DOAJ or Directory of open Access
Journals is now readily linkable on our home page.
Of significance is the doi or digital object identifier of most
any scientific paper anywhere.
Our latest paper is
https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1557029
I just discovered arXiv and socarXiv. These are Cornell
University related open access publications. The former for
"hard" science such as physics, and the latter for "soft"
stuff like archaeology. I hope to provide them with a few
examples of our hanging canal resources.
I have lots of papers already in Research Gate and Wesrch.
An "also ran" is Academia, but I don't care for their vibes.
Here's a list of some other random open source stuff...
Academia
arXiv
Crossref
DeepDyve
Doug's Archaeology
eLife
Hubmed
Innocentive
Lifewire
Mendeley
Peerlibrary
Publishing Archaeology
Pubmed.gov
PubSci
Selected Works
Slashdot
SocarXiv
Sourcefabric
Wikipedia
Please let me know any that I missed.
March 3, 2019
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Here's a few currently hot student paper topics...
Digital Electricity
Zennick Wave
Perovskite pv
Double doped solar pv
Hacking Photosynthesis
PeerUS
Lidar Data Sources
Meta Lenses
Phase Change RAM
Graphene Desalination
Metal-Air Transistors
ArXiv
Or check here for some oldie but goodie topics.
March 2, 2019
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I am certainly not a soils specialist, having only one course many moons ago. But a certain something on our Bajada Hanging Canals seems to be trying to tell us something.
A typical canal will be a foot or two wide and full of a bone dry appearing fine yellowish to light brown sand. There will usually be soil banks if they had built the route from scratch. Or no banks if they are adapting an existing drainage.
But, if you dig three or four inches deep, the sand first dramatically darkens and then actually becomes quite moist. Like as if the canal was still flowing ( albeit very slowly ) to this day!
This also suggests that the underlying terrain seems to be impermeable to the point of which it does not severely "empty" the available canal water on their obviously long runs.
And that the occasional shrub or brush adjacent to the canal still may benefit from this water supply to this day.
And that the buried moist areas might differentiate between a normal drainage and a real canal. You might expect the real canal moisture to be continuous, while a natural drainage highly variable.
Possibly related: During exceptionally wet springs, the canals fill with dead flowers. Greatly verifying and tracing their routes.
March 1, 2019
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The worst nightmare of any Southwestern Art Gallery: A DeGrazia macramé howling coyote.
In teal.
February 28, 2019
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Yes, we are working on making author's web preprints available on our latest JFA Publication. While it is not quite complete, you can find a preview preview here.
And some preliminary sourcecode here. Please check back for the full story and report any typos or suggestions.
To cite the actual article: James A. Neely & Don Lancaster (2019) The Bajada Canals of the Safford Basin, Southeastern Arizona: Excellence in Prehistoric Engineering, Journal of Field Archaeology, 44:1, 52-69.
To link to the actual article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1557029
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/
What I'd really like to see is our ability to legally provide unlimited free access to the actual JFA paper. This would take a $2900 Moridita/ baksheesh Creative Commons grant.
Hint. Hint.
February 27, 2019
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Hidden characters in the PostScript language are font dependent, but sometimes can be "exposed" by their hexadecimal equivalents.
For instance \274 can be an ellipsis, \320 an em dash, and \267 a bullet. Details are hidden here.
There's a sneaky trick in our Gonzo Utilities and tutorial that lets you fake tildes and complement bars and underlines and such.
This involves the /overstrikechar and /overstrikeht defs. The character might be a "~" for a tilde or a "_" for a complement or underline. A "|o" for overstrike enters the next character without advancing. and the height sets where the unadvanced character will appear with respect to the previous character's baseline
A PostScript video here and beginner stuff here and secrets here .
February 26, 2019
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One of the lesser explored features of our bajada
hanging canals is the apparent existence of many
pinch points.
A pinch point is an extremely narrow mesa top or some other intermediate feature that the canal absolutely must go through if it is to properly maintain grade.
A few pinch points often will exactly define the only possible route for a canal.
And knowing and exploiting these pinch points is yet another example of the sheer engineering brilliance of the canal designers.
February 25, 2019
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Patient enters Mercy Hospital in Brisbane, keeps complaining about the afternoon tea. The staff finally suggests a native tea made from the hide of a koala bear.
They then praise the excellent taste of the tea but complain about the floating hairs and fat in it.
"I'm sorry, but the koala tea of Mercy is not strained."
More here.
February 24, 2019
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A few papers that I may have not mentioned for a while...
Fundamental Factors Underlying Tech Innovation.
Nonlinear Graphic Transforms
Exploring the Bitmap File Format
A Review of Some Pixel Interpolation Algorithms
More Energy Fundamentals
The Saga of the Magic Lamp
Interesting Approach to Product Liability Notices
Cubic Spline Length and Subdivision
Approximating a Circle or Ellipse
Web Friendly PostScript and CSS Colors
February 23, 2019
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A bunch of UFO style aliens just landed next door. They were super shaggy and about a foot tall.
One of them volunteered "I'm a Furry" After going through the "take us to your leader" shtick, the leader furry was just like the others, but wore a very long and narrow upright crown.
"I'm a Furry with a syringe on top"
More here.
February 22, 2019
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A reminder that our Gila Valley Dayhikes page can be found here. And a guided tour of some of the more obscure ventures here.
February 21, 2019
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I've always considered PowerPoint to be mesmerizingly awful, so I wrote my own emulator using my Gonzo Utilities to generate Acrobat .PDF equivalents.
Per this tutorial. And this sourcecode.
These files are much more compact, are totally device independent, load much faster, and offer significantly better graphics. It is not even close.
A newly revised Gila High Tech slide can be found here with its improved sourcecode here.
Other available Powerpoint emulation resources and emulations now include...
A Gonzo Tutorial and Directory
A Gonzo PostScript PowerPoint Emulator
High Tech Gila Valley Features (source here)
Successful eBay Buying Strategies (source here)
Successful eBay Selling Strategies ( source here )
Little known Gila Valley Dayhikes ( source here )
Prehistoric Hanging Canal Lecture ( source here )
Energy Fundamentals Summary ( source here )
PV Panel Intro & Summary ( source here )
.t. Graham Aerial Lumber Tramway ( source here )
An Introduction to Magic Sinewaves ( source here )
Three Phase Magic Sinewaves ( source here )
Alternate Lores Magic Sinewaves
Consulting, custom design, and training services available.
February 20, 2019
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The key innermost secret to using and understanding "Tee Squared Ell" integrated circuits is, of course, owning your very own Tee Square.
February 19, 2019
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The Worst of Marcia Swampfelder can be found here.
A free Incredible Secret Money Machine ebook can be found here.
And How to Trash a Vehicle Electrolysizer here.
February 18, 2019
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JPG images sent to Acrobat PDF are opaque, and any attempts at making PostScript transparent can be tricky at best.
But .GIF files have a possible transparent "color" But their use is discouraged owing to license issues.
Better yet, .PNG files not only have a transparent "color" but even a range of them. Here is one possible web utility.
How would you further improve this figure one?
February 17, 2019
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Our older superstroke and superinsidestroke utilities were black, gray, and white only and accepted an array of [widewidth widegray, midwidth midgray, smallerwidth small gray,... etc ] .
We can easily make them full color. First, be sure to provide the setwebtint1 code...
/webtintmat [
0 1 5 { /a exch store 0 1 5 { /b exch store
0 1 5 { 5 div b 5 div a 5 div} for } for } for ] def
% setwebtint accepts a color number 0 to 215 and
% sets the Post Script color generator for later use...
/setwebtint { abs cvi 216 cvi mod
webtintmat exch 3 mul 3 getinterval
aload pop setrgbcolor} def
And add these two new routines...
/tintsuperstroke { save /sssnap exch def
/sscmd exch def mark 0 2 sscmd length 2
div cvi 1 sub 2 mul {/aposn exch def gsave
sscmd aposn get setlinewidth sscmd aposn
1 add get setwebtint stroke grestore} for
cleartomark sssnap restore newpath} def
tint/superinsidestroke {save clip /sssnap
exch def /sscmd exch def mark 0 2 sscmd
length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul
{/aposn exch
def gsave sscmd aposn get 2 mul setlinewidth
sscmd aposn 1 add get setwebtint stroke
grestore} for cleartomark sssnap restore
newpath} def
The new routines can still be used for black-gray-white, but restrict you to six 0 43 86 129 172 and 215 values.
February 16, 2019
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One of the sneaky spectacularosities of a variation on yesterday's roundbox routine is that it can accept unusual or even negative radia leading to all sorts of beautiful, unpredictable and astonishingly compact results.
Such as our Mitzi's Yuppie Faire.
Find many more examples in part 45 of our PostScript Secrets.
Included Gonzo utilities of superstroke or superinsidestroke work with blacks and grays. While similar full color routines can easily be written for setwebtint1 variations.
Warning: May not be fully GhostScript compatible. div0 errors are also possible.
February 15, 2019
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Had a JPEG image needing PDF inclusion that seemed excessively "white" compared to the other artwork.
In general, .JPG images are fully opaque. So a quick and dirty workaround was to simply slide a rounded PostScript border tint underlay under the image...
gsave
8 % left side
2.6 % bottom
24.7 % width
26.2 % height
0.8 % rad
roundbox
gsave 213 setwebtint fill grestore
192 setwebtint 0.15 setlinewidth stroke
grestore
This requires our Gonzo Utilities and setwebtint1 routines. Plus this tutorial and running Distiller from the command line with the top secret incantation of //acrodist /F.
Much more on PostScript here and a video here.
February 14, 2019
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Several of you have asked about exec files. These were a spectacularly failed attempt by Adobe at copy protecting PostScript fonts and related routines. The only tiny flaw was that they easily could be sight read by a patient seventh grader.
Otherwise, they were absolutely uncrackable.
All they ( or you ) had to do was set up two way comm and insert an extra character a dozen or two bytes into the code. Your PostScript computer would then report what has piled up so far on the stack, plus a new typo. Rinse and repeat.
It was sort of like a safe that verbally advised "try three clicks to the left"
More detail on exec and some sample code here.
February 13, 2019
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Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
February 12, 2019
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Revised our Guru's Lair Home Page, mostly for better nav and a refocus on newer and more important content.
Also a reminder that our CSS Magic Sinewave Calculator appears to now be fully functional. After solving a most infuriating problem where <div> routines were overwriting JavaScript's later ability to revise cell backgrounds.
February 11, 2019
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If you find Acrobat PDF documents in Chrome returning to their home page rather than their previous page, click on the upper right triple dot -->more tools -->extensions and make sure Convert current web page to an Adobe PDF file is either turned off or not present at all.
In Acrobat or Acrobat Reader themselves, a reminder that alt-->left arrow returns you to your previous screen.
February 10, 2019
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Revised our new Magic Sinewave Calculator so that it highlights the first two uncontrolled low harmonics.
Many thanks to Robert Ackrman for his ongoing help on all sorts of obscure math things. Robert also has provided independent verification of the Magic Sinewave concept and is a second source of consulting.
The previous problem was that some <div> routines were hijacking the ability to change cell background colors.
Here's how a JavaScript cell background color change...
document.getElementById("cell11").style.
backgroundColor="#0F0" ;
...works in normal use in a normal program.
A reminder that if you extract the MS code to another pc, you also have to include xxxx1.js in the same directory.
And that the secret incantation to turn on your Chrome JavaScript debugger is ctrl-shift-j.
February 9, 2019
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A sick person checks in with the witch doctor in darkest Africa. Who takes a rawhide strip and boils it in all sorts of vile concoctions. And tells them to eat two inches of it a day till it is gone.
Person comes back in a week and reports they ate it all and they are feeling much, much better. But still are not quite cured.
"I guess the thong has ended, but the malady lingers on."
February 8, 2019
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There is a fundamental thermodynamic principle called exergy that absolutely guarantees that hydrogen for vehicle or other bulk energy from grid, pv, alternator ( and certainly not primary batteries ) flat out ain't gonna happen.
For the simple reason that electrolysis is the process of converting very high value energy into very low value energy. And is pretty much the same as 1:1 exchanging US dollars for Mexican Pesos.
Much more here. And, of course, here.
February 7, 2019
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For most individuals and small scale startups, patents are virtually certain to result in a net loss of your time, energy, money, and sanity.
One reason for this is the outrageously wrong urban lore involving patents and patenting. A second involves the outright scams which inevitably surround "inventions" and "inventing".
A third is that the economic breakeven needed to recover patent costs is something between $12,000,000.00 and $40,000,000 in gross sales.
It is ludicrously absurd to patent a million dollar idea.
Much more on all this in our Patent Avoidance Library. And this link collection. Key papers include...
The Case Against Patents
Patent Horror Stories
When to Patent
How to Bust a $650 Patent.
February 6, 2019
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Our newly revised hanging canal page will navigate best when run locally from an Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat reader. The same goes for most .PDF files.
Chrome, instead, gives you two annoying options. In its normal nav mode, clicking to an image returns you not to the previous .PDF page, but to the .PDF start page! And you'll have to scroll down to where you left off!
Instead, if you Chrome click upper right icon--> settings --> advanced --> privacy --> PDF and turn on Download .PDF you will be given the opportunity to download any .PDF file. Which should be properly nav viewable in your local version of Acrobat or Acrobat viewer.
But you will have to reselect Chrome if you want to continue using it!
February 5, 2019
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A good source for instant programming solutions is stackoverflow.
February 4, 2019
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Um, there's some details to be attended to if you try to get our new CSS compatible Magic Sinewave Calculator to "save as" host properly on your own machine.
The sourcecode calls several includes at the top and bottom of the page. These are not needed for the MS calculator portion of the code and may be bypassed Links to these includes are available on email request.
But the key issue is that the sourcecode will look for a file called xxxx.js in the same directory that the sourcecode is in! And will not work without it.
Make sure you properly locate this file.
February 3, 2019
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Um, there seems to be a minor glitch in our new CSS compatible Magic Sinewave Calculator. The color retints on the first two uncontrolled odd harmonics are supposed to move around with each new choice, but they aren't even there at all .
The older JavaScript code is found here. and clearly involves the first two terms fed prepDisplay. These are apparently being ignored by the new CSS code.
Chances are the previous tints are also not yet getting erased. I'm highly hesitant to change any JavaScript code with a belief in "Iffen it ain't broke, don't fix it".
The core problem is that .bgcolor is no longer supported with CSS! The working pre-CSS code can be found here and its original JavaScript here.
This is driving me up the wall. Your assistance would be most welcome.
February 2, 2019
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Many tutorials on understanding the math behind our new magic sinewave calculator can be found here and here. With the actual JavaScript code here.
The basic problem lies in solving an equation like this.
My favorite is a "shake the box" approach that makes a guess and then improves it via Newton's Method a few times. It turns out there is a trig identity of...
cos (a+x) = cos(a)cosx - sin(a)sin(x)
Here (a) is a known angle in the first quadrant and (x) is the error between where we are and your desired solution. Now, (x) should be very small and its cosine will be near unity. The sine of a small x angle can be approximated by...
sin(x) is roughly = x - ( x^3)/6 + ...
Which ( almost ) simplifies to...
cos (a+x) = cos(a) - xsin(a)
Now, miraculously cos(a) and sin(a) are already known numbers and x is a numeric variable. So, all the trig disappears(!), leaving you with a plain old n equations in n unknowns.
You will need 64 bit or better math ( as in JavaScript ) since a wide range of value spreads ends up when solving most "high n" equations.
A good approach to this is called a Gauss-Jordan solution. Typically five repeat trips will get you zeros accurate to twelve decimal places.
More details here.
February 1, 2019
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I've just newly revised the latest version of our magic sinewave calculator so it is now fully CSS compatible.
Magic Sinewaves are a new math technique that lets you digitally synthesize sinusoidal waveforms whose selected low harmonics can all be theoretically zero and real-world astonishingly quite low.
These are also potentially more efficient than classic PWM in that there are far fewer switching events. Possible uses include motor controls, electric cars, and communications.
And they seem eminently Raspberry Pi compatible
Find the latest version here and much more on our magic sinewaves here.
January 31, 2019
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I have long been fascinated by transmission line transformers. Find an older tutorial of mine here, an original IRE reprint here, and more links here
Separately, a useful audio transformer resource can be found here.
And resolving whether two point or four point barbed wire is your finest choice for premium grade hi fi tube speaker interconnects here. Four point has improved soundstaging, better bass speed, and greatly reduced midrange granularity.
January 30, 2019
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The CIA World Country Factbook seems to have been newly improved and reformatted.
Check out Kingman Reef. Further covered here. You can't get there from here.
More travel stuff here and here.>
January 29, 2019
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Then there was the agnostic dyslectic insomniac who stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog.
January 28, 2019
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And here's how to do a fully CSS compatible box to display or export scrollable info. Put this into the <style> portion of your <head>...
.report2 {background-color: #6C9;
padding: 0px;
width: 430px;
height: 140px;
text-align: center;
font-weight: bold;}
And put this in your <body>...
<table class="report2"><tr><td>
Exportable: Delay-Pulsewidth Pairs (scroll)
<textarea name="ExportD" id="ExportD"
cols="40" rows="4" > </textarea>
</td></tr></table>
A complete example can be found here.
January 27, 2019
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Here's one way to do a fully CSS compatible form button activity menu: Put these into the <style> portion of your <head>...
.actions1 {border-collapse: collapse;
text-align: center;
border: 7px solid #999;
table-layout: fixed;
width: 590px;
height: 30px;
background-color: #0C9;}.actions1 td {background-color: #FFF;
width: 63px;
margin: 8px;
padding: 6px;
border: 8px solid #0C9;
font-size: 14px;
font-weight: bold; }.actions1 tr td {background-color: #FFF;
padding: 0px;
font-weight: bold; }
.actions1 td:hover
{background-color:#CCC}
And put this in your <body>...
<table class="actions1" >
<tr>
<td onClick="setAmplitude (form) ;">Amplitude</td>
<td onClick="setAngles (form) ;">Angles</td>
<td onClick="imProve (form) ;">Improve</td>
</tr>
</table>
A complete example can be found here.
January 26, 2019
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Theres a new power and data scheme called digital electricity. At first glance, it seems to me to now be outrageously overhyped.
It is similar to POE power over Ethernet and intended for 100 watt class delivery over ordinary comm cables
Basically, there are two elements to a packet. The first to deliver the highest possible ( and in some ways the most efficient ) dc voltage, and the second for the usual pulse comm.
Presumably, only the needed power would be delivered in the most efficient manner. But the 500+ volts could raise severe safety issues. And it would not be obvious where that ap's power would come from before the first packet was delivered.
Check back in a year.
January 25, 2019
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Four new possible hanging canal candidates in the
new Jennings Hanging Canal area...
N 32.74352 W 109.68999
N 32.74321 W 109.69071
N 32.73076 W 109.69580
N 32.72903 W 109.69634
These all remain unvisited. Your participation is welcome. More on hanging canals here and here.
January 24, 2019
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Here's yet another variation on half space CSS ledding...
<div style="font-size: 4px;"> </div>
January 23, 2019
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Two not-so-funny Walmart stories: The paper quality on their wolf calenders is so bad that they self destruct with their own weight when you hang them on a nail!
And it seems they got this huge assortment of oversized stuffed animals. And somebody has taken upon themselves to rearrange all of them into the most obscene imaginable group activities.
January 22, 2019
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We are newly in print in the prestigious Journal of Field
Archaeology.
To cite this article: James A. Neely & Don Lancaster (2019) The Bajada Canals of the Safford Basin, Southeastern Arizona: Excellence in Prehistoric Engineering, Journal of Field Archaeology, 44:1, 52-69.
To link to this article:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2018.1557029
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/
Yes, we are working on making a free author's preprint available on our website and Research Gate. This may take a week or two.
Meanwhile, a very limited number of free review copies are immediately available on your specific request.
Much more on our Bajada Hanging Canals here.
And a reminder about this Saturday's talks at Karchner
here.
January 21, 2019
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Your help is welcome to continue research on Jennings Canal, our newest bajada hanging canal find...
Do a thorough potsherd distribution study.
Seek destination north of Stockton Road.
Seek current status of flowing springs.
Seek evidence south of Jennings Road.
Seek additional prehistoricity proofs.
January 20, 2019
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Here's the paper lineup for this Saturday's January 26th
ARA at Kartchner Caverns outside of Benson AZ...
Sarah Truebe,
How many rangers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Bob Zimmerman,
Mappers Projects: Grand Canyon, Buckelew, Belize
Henry Schneiker
High Accuracy Elevation Survey System
Kelsey E. Hanson,
Recreating the Cave in the Kiva
Debbie C. Buecher,
Bat Research Conducted at Kartchner
Bob Buecher
Arizona's Newest 1942 Natural Wonder
Blase Lasala
Virtualization of Timpanogos Cave
Paul Jorgenson
Cave Temperature, Pressure, and Humidity
Don Lancaster
Prehistoric Bajada "Hanging" Canals
Ray Keeler
Peppersauce Cave Conservation Project
Park admission charges are waved if you use the top
secret entrance password of "A.R.A.". 8-5 plus an after
hours party. Lunch optional.
Anyone with an interest in Arizona Caving or prehistory
is welcome. Presentations are in the Discovery Theater.
January 19, 2019
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Managed to field verify the Jennings Canal around N 32.74411 W 109.69257. This is bajada hanging canal study area #97.
It appears to be a concrete lined historical rebuild of a prehistoric original. The size, slope, intent, and location are all consistent with similar prehistoric examples in the area. The concrete linings are of a puddled aggregate style similar to Marijilda, Tranquility, and others presumably of the late 19th or early 20th century.
This would seem to be one of the smallest of the historic rebuilds, being half a meter across and a tenth deep. A single potsherd was observed. Very light artifact distribution is typically associated with the prehistoric hanging canals.
Most of the route is "hung" in the usual manner to make canal slope largely independent of local terrain.
This is the easternmost known of the hanging canals and lies somewhat southeast of Roper Lake. A credible source might be "flowing wells" to the south. While clearly in the Jacobson Creek drainage, water was removed upstream by Ledford and Goat canals as well as possibly Dankworth Pond. Deeming an artesian primary source more likely.
The destination would appear to be a modern tank or a field area that is immediately to the north near N 32.74692 W 109.69114. Total unverified length would seem to be in the two mile class.
Canal evidence apparently was destroyed in creating Stockton Road. Elsewhere, while portions are eminently traceable, nearly all remains are excessively filled in or badly washed out.
Portions are readily accessible over State Lands, while others involve numerous individual landowners.
Some photos can be found here, here, here, and here.
January 18, 2019
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We are in the process of making our website fully CSS compatible, but this is taking a lot longer than expected.
The latest work in progress involves updates to our Auction Help page.
Meanwhile, here is a somewhat recent directory of our older index pages...
ahsamp1.shtml - auction help
ansamp1.shtml - assorted neat stuff
bcsamp1.shtml - bezier & cubic splines
bksamp1.shtml - book recommendations
blsamp1.shtml - blogs and what's new?
bodsamp1.shtml - book-on-demand
bosamp1.shtml - blatant opportunist
catsamp1.shtml - catalog directory
crksamp1.shtml - free classic reprints
ebsamp1.shtml - Bay secrets
etsamp1.shtml - energy tutorials
ggsamp1.shtml - gurugram library
hhsamp1.shtml - hardware hacker
issamp1.shtml - ISMM
lasamp1.shtml - latest additions
lbsamp1.shtml - libraries by subject
matsamp1.shtml - math stuff
mbsamp1.shtml - marbelous pancakes
mssamp1.shtml - magic sinewaves
orsamp1.shtml - other free reprints
pasamp1.shtml - patent avoidance
pssamp1.shtml - PostScript programming
psusamp1.shtml - pseudoscience bashing
rbsamp1.shtml - resource bin
scsamp1.shtml - Santa Claus machines
spsamp1.shtml - service pages
tinsamp1.shtml - canals & tinaja quests
tmsamp1.shtml - tech musings
Just realized we are missing a sample link to our Ask The Guru library page of early assorted tech articles.
January 17, 2019
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A reminder that we do have a definitive Bezier and Cubic Spline webpage and index directory.
Cubic Spline Circle and Ellipses
Cubic Spline Length and Subdivision
Cubic Spline Minimum Point Distance
Cubic Spline through Four Points
Image Post Processing Tools
Lagrange 4 points Bezier demo
Lagrange 4 points Bezier sourcecode
Length of a Bezier Curve
Pixed Interpolation Algorithms
The Math Behind Cubic Splines
Using Cubic Splines
January 16, 2019
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W3.org and others have strongly recommended that you switch to secure https: files on your website, rather than the older http: ones. And major web browsers have or soon will add dire warnings if you do not fully comply.
The recommended update path is with a 301 redirect. As we've seen, a change to your .htaccess file can do this for you. But note that messing with .htaccess is very dangerous. One validator can be found here.
While 301 events are pretty much invisible and benign, they do have some downsides. They slow your site down and increase the number of hits needed by any one user. While making things generally more complex.
So, you may want to redefine many or all of your original internal html: links. Replacing each http://www.yoursite.com link with https://www.yoursite.com.
At the least, you may want to fix your most popular files to at least cut down on your 301's. Our web log file analyzer and its demo can greatly simplify this task for you.
January 15, 2019
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When assisted by historic or modern rebuilds, a very surprising number of prehistoric hanging canals do still flow to this day. At least partially or seasonally.
In rough order of significance...
Marijilda Canal
Deadman West Canal
Goat Canal
Ledford Canal
Bigler Canal
Hog Canyon Canal
Grant Creek Canal
Aravaiipa Canal
Cottonwood Canal
Artesian#1 Canal
Artesian#2 Canal
Evidence is accumulating that the Roper Lake Canal, while flowing, is a modern construct that appears to lack any prehistoric basis.
A related question might be which canals would be the most suitable for a genuine authentic restoration.
My vote would be the Tugood Canal in that it already is fairly well preserved, has mostly a single State Land landowner, is mostly in an undeveloped and more or less unused area, is of significant length, and remains doubly on the wrong sides of posted property.
Given the lack of reasonable research programs, and the usual water litigation hassles, doing a genuine "live" restoration would appear to be a lofty goal at best.
January 14, 2019
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May have found a new hanging canal! So far, it passes a preliminary credibility filter, but has not yet been field verified. Once validated, this would be called the Jennings Canal of Study Area #97.
A tentative possible segment might be at N 32.74217 W 109.69414 to N 32.74334 W 109.69352
A potential source might be Jacobson Creek, aided by some nearby artesian wells. A credible destination might be a modern tank half a mile to the northeast. There is a significant ruin further northeast.
Your help is welcome for further study. This is the furthest east of the known canals, and some others are rumored to be in the area.
January 13, 2019
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I found enough problems with the new Dreamweaver 19 revision that I switched back to older version 18.2.
January 12, 2019
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Most computer languages include subroutines. Whose usual advantages are to shorten and simplify and reuse and clarify code.
In HTML and CSS, subroutines are called includes. While these are normally plain old text files, they usually will have a .shtml or .js trailer.
Th Their most famous use is to let you make ONE change that automatically alters dozens or even hundreds of your web pages.
The older HTML include code looks like this...
<!--#include virtual="/includes/blogyear1.shtml"-->
While a JavaScript code link would be...
<!--#include virtual="/includes/banrot3.js"-->
While the recommended new CSS code is now...
><div w3-include-html="content.html"></div>
One subtle gotcha: When you use includes, the file your ISP delivers to your end user will be different from ( and almost certainly longer than ) your source code!
Should you get some hard-to-fix CSS validation errors, make sure the problem is not in your includes!
January 11, 2019
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Our long overdue updates on our auction help page is taking a lot longer than I expected, so here is a preliminary update. We are about halfway there on full CSS validation, modern content, and some URL verification and updates.
Please keep checking back.
January 10, 2019
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Sigh. Nobody got the joke. I'll try again...
This hanging canal picture has some stunning but subtle evidence of a possible trans-Pacific contact!
January 9, 2019
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Um, there's a subtle detail when you are using Paint to retrace a printed circuit board pattern: The IC's must reasonably fit their PC footprint! And you want to stay in native resolution for best "litho" results.
As File-->Properties tells us, Paint's native resolution is a fixed 96 Pixels per inch. One workaround is to use IrfanView which can be programmed to 100 pixels per inch.
The pin 1 to pin 7 distance with Paint would thus be 67.2 pixels. But we really want really w want 70 pixels at 100 DPI.
Consider changing the individual pin to pin distances something like this...
10 pixels
11 pixels
10 pixels
11 pixels
10 pixels
11 pixels
10 pixels
This gives you 73 pixels for a distance of 0.7008 inches. Which should be close enough.
Similarly using a 31 pixel distance between pins 7 and 8 should give you 0.2976 inches. Which is also close enough, especially since the side- to-side pin group spacing is not at all critical.
January 8, 2019
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The earlier way of doing web selector buttons has been to use JavaScript's onmouseover and onmouseout. An older tutorial can be found here.
These days, there is more interest in finding "pure" CSS solutions. These can be based on hover:
Here is the approach for only a table cell background color change...
Place this in the style portion of your header following your other .auct1 info...
.auct1 td:hover {background-color: #FC9;}
Activate your .auct1 table in the body...
<table class="auct1"> stuff </table>
And here is how to use a pair of images for a
pressed button effect...
Place this in the style portion of your header...
.button1 {position: relative; display: inline-block;
margin: 5px;}
.button1 .img-top {display: none; position: absolute;
top: 0; left: 0; z-index: 99;}
.button1:hover .img-top {display: inline-block;}
Use this for your table cell...
<td><div class="button1">
<a href="https://www.yourlink.com
<img src="barro.jpg" width="60" alt=" " height="60">
<img src="barrox.jpg" width="60" alt=" "
height="60" class="img-top" > </a> </div></td>
A z-index: 99: should guarantee that the mouse pressed button ends on top. Button example images appear here and here.
A temporary example of both methods can be found here.
January 7, 2019
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The .PDF version of our latest prehistoric hanging canal paper had some problems with properly printing headers.
Find the new repaired and corrected version here.
January 6, 2019
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There seems to be some interest in restoring the Psyctone printed circuit boards. The originals are long gone and were based on 4X tape and dots on gridded mylar which were litho camera reduced.
Sigh.
It would seem a simple matter to grab Figure 10 from here as a beginner's Paint project. Adjust the size to exactly suit a RTL integrated circuit with its 0.1 inch pin spacings.
Make up IC and dot and switch patterns and overlay these in red. Use Paint's superb and little appreciated Curve feature to do the traces.
Knock out the background to white and then save as black and white. Similar tricks can be used for the callout side art.
I can do this for you on a "crossing palm with silver" basis.
January 5, 2019
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I have two upcoming talks scheduled on our prehistoric bajada hanging canals. Both are free and open to the public. You are more than welcome to attend.
The first is this Saturday January 12th with the Historical Society at 11 am at Safford's Discovery Park barn.
The second is Saturday January 26th with the ARA at 8 am Karchner Caverns outside of Benson AZ. The entrance fees are waived for this event. Use the secret password "ARA".
January 4, 2019
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This new product renders any border fence even more ludicrously absurd than it already is. It might end up very interesting to crowdfund a lower cost ( and possibly tethered ) short flight copy.
TFD's approach to fence like problems is one of these. Which munches through steel or concrete with equal aplomb. It can even cut the bottom out of a bucket full of water. From the inside. Definitely a universal skeleton key.
January 3, 2019
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We just relisted our stunning Southern Oregon Gold Hill spectacular view property for sale with Chris Marshall of American Forest Management at (541) 664-9200.
20 acres. Find it on Craig's List.
Price has been reduced to $7475 per acre. This is the last remaining large developable property immediately adjacent to the northern Gold Hill city limits.
We have secured a full access easement for these 20 acres. Power and cable on the property.
Legal description is T36 R3W S16 Tax Lot 400.
Attractive financing is now available. Mid-size city amenities are twelve minutes away at Medford. The property borders directly on the town of Gold Hill. The Rogue River is very close; beaches and mountains are only an hour away.
Here's a newer group of photos...
You can click expand these. Then click again.
This steep to sloping parcel is immediately adjacent to the Gold Hill city limits and offers absolutely outstanding views. It is in one of the most in-demand rural areas in the country, and has really great access both to recreation and to midsize city resources. Plus superb climate, low crime, and good schools.
Here is a map. Property is the green rectangle "pointed to" by Thirteenth Street. You can click here for an aerial photo and flyby.
You can now contact the owner directly by phoning (928) 428 4073 or don@tinaja.com.
Additional older photos here. More info here and here. Free guided tours are immediately available.
January 2, 2019
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Closed out the 2018 What's New file and started a 2019 one.
We are in the process of further reducing 404's and other link issues. Surprisingly, our malware detector and reporter tells us there are now far fewer script kiddies attempting to download invalid URL's in a quest to find vulnerabilities.
At present, our internal 404 rate is just over two percent, with the lion's share of these being malware attempts. This would seem close to an irreducible minimum.
We do have a few 404's intentionally left in our Hanging Canal paper images. These simplify the generating and processing of emerging new files. We are working on these on a daily basis.
Please report any other 404 issues.
January 1, 2019
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Reprints of our Psyctone story can be found here and here. With a youTube demo here and a JavaScript Synthesis approximation here.
This started out as an aerospace bet with a cellmate doing a million dollar study of then new pseudorandom sequences. I bet that I could get a ludicrously short sequence to squawk. And did so.
Partial tutorials here and here, with lots more on pseudorandom here, here, and elsewhere.
I never did find a n=19 near optimum solution. Was one ever found? How about n > 31? Beyond this sneaky stunt. Please Tell me.
One sort of competitor ( I never thought so and was unaware of it before my publication ) can be found here with its JavaScript approximation here.
And the latest of TV TypeWriter modern rebuilds here.
December 31, 2018
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There's some details involved with using this W3C URL verification software:
First, the process takes a long time since there is an intentional one second delay between queries.
Second, some sites have robot exclusion rules that it cannot check, so you will have to manual recheck each and every one of these.
Third, the process may return an obscure error message such as (500) after actually reaching the intended site. Chances are your user could not care less, but, once again, a manual check is needed.
Fourth, link redirects are reported. The most common of which
fixing these is worth their considerable effort. Benefits are faster loads and a more secure web.
Fifth, pay particular attention to anchor problems in that they directly affect your user navigation.
Sixth, emails are locked out and not checked.
Seventh, if you have a wrong URL such as "here.", it will be reported as something like https://www.tinaja.com/here. The correct search term with Dreamweaver or whatever when searching would be "here.
Eighth, your report can easily be overwritten by newer browser activity. Wayward caches can also be a problem.
This is a really great service, but the key rules are to be patient, manually retest everything questionable, retest often, fix only what you feel is time and cost effective, and prioritize repairs on visitor probability.
December 30, 2018
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One other detail in converting a .SHTML web file into acrobat .PDF:Navigation anchors require some extra effort per these details..
December 29, 2018
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What ever happened to Carl and Jerry? You can still find their original hijinks here and here.
These days, Carl is now a universally despised and quadrupole divorced gazillionare. And Jerry is now relearning to tie his shoes, purportedly owing to an inadvertent incident involving some specialty herbs and spices.
The back story on the series author remains amazing.
I guess I was in some ways very similar to the original Karl, albeit for real. Details here.
December 28, 2018
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Did I ever tell you my story with my involvement with the CIA? It took place somewhat before ( and was a proximate cause of ) the Bay of Pigs incident.
As we tended to do, Bee and I were wandering around south central Arizona and came upon a then presumably long abandoned Marana airstrip. We continued with the vague ( but unlikely ) hope of finding some unusual planes stashed or even an open restaurant.
We were stopped by a military uniformed type of person having no identifying marks whatsoever and holding an ancient SCR 536 WWII handi-talkie.
He asked us what we were doing and we told him.
Things then proceeded to get bizarre in they in no manner could stop us or tell us what to do. because --------> he was not there!
We continued our tour and noted shadowy figures furtively hiding just at the edge of buildings carefully tracking our activities, also with ancient handi talkies.
But again, they could not interfere in any manner with us because ----> they were not there!
At the time, I held a DOD secret clearance, so I eventually decided that what was happening was not quite right. As suspected, there was no restaurant, and the only planes were a bunch of derelict connies
The outcome of the Bay of Pigs clearly indicated the skill levels of the epsilon minuses involved. It seemed to me that a simple "ROAD CLOSED" sign might have helped their cause significantly.
Eventually many years later, the CIA involvement was admitted.
December 27, 2018
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Time for our usual end-of-year predictions...
Total elimination of "unintended consequence" federal price supports and marijuana farm subsidies dropping street prices under a cotton comparable 59 cents per pound. With standardization on 500 pound bales. Some more analysis here.
Recent declines in pv prices continuing unabated and dropping under eight cents per peak cell watt. This figure well below traditional power sources and fully within achievable long term goals for renewability and sustainability at utility scale.
Hangnails readily becoming a qualifying condition for medical marijuana.
Spectacular advances in oversize tethered "bounce" type drones rendering any border fences even more of the ludicrous absurdity they already are.
A new class of metal air transistors resetting Moore's Law back to zero.
AI Artificial Intelligence soon unexpectedly crossing a self-awareness threshold. Boy, are they gonna be pissed. Ya mean they are made outta meat?
Another AI interface dramatically increasing human to dog comm. Cats need not apply.
Significant advances in graphene desalination that involve a new name brand of perforene.
New but still misunderstood developments in phase change memory.
The latest in nootropics going well beyond placebos and possibly even impacting Alzheimers.
Increasing climatic and weather variability, combined with size and frequency of outrageous fires. All clearly caused by human activity.
Major new improvements in axial flux motors.
Optically stimulated luminescence OSL dramatically replacing thermoluminescence in archaeological and geological dating.
Vacuum Metal Deposition significantly altering fingerprint forensics.
Stunning breakthroughs in new ultra thin and vaguely Fresnel like meta lenses.
"Just in time" education where "look it up on Google" replaces now outrageously overpriced and clearly no longer cost competitive college educations.
Emerging proposals for the conversion of coal fired power plants into singles bars.
Uh, that's all folks. To continue, please...
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