Comments by "Stephen Villano" (@spvillano) on "Technology Connections" channel.

And to think, I used to fix those damned things for a living. And LaserDisc and DVD players and CD players... Then, the price started dropping and I saw the handwriting on the wall, jumped to computers and networked systems, the rest is history. Still comes in handy for when something breaks on a holiday weekend, as I know how to repair switch mode power supplies to component level, still have a solder station, meter and oscilloscope. Although, after replacing a probe, I had to remember how to properly tune the replacement probes...
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I'm comfortable, the wife and kids are being baked and steamed, job accomplished - assuming a divorce is one's goal - with massive payments to said ex-spouse and children. Rightfully so.
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Paper clips are dwindling slowly, but staples remain annoyingly ubiquitous. Those are uglier, as they vaporize and now one has a cloud of gaseous steel in a plasma state.
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@JuanWonOne not a problem, unless you are American Legion... ;) Seriously, you simply have to treat the water to prevent growth of nasty organisms.
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@69uremum isn't a wireless water transmitter simply a cloud? ;)
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@cruelbiscuit62 a swamp cooler doesn't need electricity, only air movement past the evaporator. That can be a prevailing breeze or even mechanically provided.
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Well, a laser printer is an LED printer, as the laser is in its heart an LED in that case. But then, I remember the earliest laser printer, which used a HeNe laser. But yeah, I remember when Okidata introduced their LED printer and there were no other LED printers on the market. I went with a Panasonic laser, as it printed text at 22 pages per minute, which was blazing for a department level printer. No toner cartridges, it got toner dumped into a hopper by the bottle. Much later, got a Samsung color laser printer, excellent quality, didn't jam much, overall fairly reliable, but it was an personal office level printer. I tend to prefer department level printers, much higher toner capacity. And yeah, my home network is an enterprise level affair. To the point where, if I go on vacation and go away, the electric company wants to change my meter.
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Dual tone horns were largely abandoned in the UK due to PTSD from survivors of WW2. Odd news tidbit I remember from the late '60's - early '70's.
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I used a product labeled "minus 62" freeze spray, to diagnose thermal intermittent conditions in circuits. It was basically, regular, now banned Freon. I also used it to cool a six pack at times, until its ozone depletion effects became well documented. Later, warming effects became documented. Still, if you're done with the unit, I'll happily test it. Against thermite. Twice, just to be sure. ;)
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It's interesting. The original detectors were photoelectric. Those were considered less effective than ionization detectors, which you're claiming are obsolete in favor of the obsolete photoelectric. The better units I'm aware of was dual, photoelectric and ionization, which are I guess doubly obsolete... And been in most common usage in commercial settings. As for lifetimes of units, 10 years is what's recommended, likely due to capacitors leaking over time and electrolyte drying out. The Amerecium-241 has a 432 half-life, so it could keep on going, but the detector just isn't worth routine component servicing beyond vacuuming the sensor occasionally.
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I've long taken to be entertained as to what an algorithm tries to feed me, as I otherwise tend to ignore the results. As in, I don't watch a lot of the choices presented, but I am entertained by what the algorithm presents to me, as it reveals some of the logical decisions of the designers. My topic width and interests so wide as to confound every site's algorithms to date. Now, for search engines, don't get me started, between advertisements in search results and AI results in the search, the mighty Google's fallen straight into the toilet. I miss just plugging in a RegEx search phrase and be done with it, without the confabulations of an LLM burst of intra-processor flatulence.
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In reference to autonomous vehicle guidance in groups, perhaps this paper? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3847695_Autonomous_control_of_underground_mining_vehicles_using_reactive_navigation
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I spent five years overseas using BS 1363 , aka type G plugs. Left a few unplugged and was incessantly barefoot, only stepping on one once in all of that time. As for sparks, well, in an explosive atmosphere, sparking could be considered dangerous. That said, if one's domicile is filled with an explosive atmosphere, I've got quite a number of questions as to one's lifestyle choices. As for much of the world being confused by US heavily used natural gas, it's abundant here and always has been. For many years, lighting was provided by natural gas lamps inside of homes, my last home still having capped and abandoned gas lines in the walls from that era. That home also had some knob and tube wiring that I replaced when I found it still active, replacing an antique fuse box with a modern breaker panel while I was at it. And fixing a botched kitchen wiring issue, where some idiot was switching the neutral, rather than the hot wire on the ceiling lights. And immediately after, replacing part of the kitchen ceiling after a lead drain pipe eroded through, dropping a sizable part of the ceiling... At least it didn't have a thatched roof, it was a flat tar based roof.
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Somewhat useful in some desert environments, such as GCC states. As a freshwater source.
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@JuanWonOne you've proved your idiocy. Laughably, via the method of attack that you epically failed at. A non-US city, as this is common knowledge nationally and globally. Legionnaires disease, from air conditioning, via insufficiently treated water used in the cooling system. Discovered via the American Legion convention, at a hotel, where the organism was first discovered. What a legendary college error to miss! Perhaps, your professor should engage from now on?
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@JuanWonOne perhaps your prof should explain sarcasm to you. As if a personal swamp cooler would have a problem with legionella.
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@JuanWonOne agreed, it was a rather poor response. Been miserable for a bit, wrenched my back and that's made me a bit irritable. I think I need to sign up for a full body transplant. :/
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The old Betamax and U-matic tape did a full omega wrap around the head drum and lacked a control track, being incorporated in the video track that was recorded. LP disappeared due to its not being popular in VHS, everyone either used SP or most, who used SLP, aka EP. I referred to SLP for what it was, slop. Don't get me started on NTSC signalling and quadrature alignment. Back in the analog days, when other techs couldn't figure out how to get the phase locked loop working in a video color circuit, they'd call me up to help them - even when I was working at a competitor and the boss was fine with it.
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Where greater efficiency would be meaningful is, if all of the other heaters are producing 5120 BTU's of heat at 1500 watts, a more efficient heater would have a higher BTU output at the same or lower wattage.
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