Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Technobabble

TASER XREP Shotgun Stun Projectile

While a TASER XREP might be a good non-lethal solution to a home invader, I would recommend the next round in the magazine to be a standard 12-gauge double-ought round – Just in case.

Taser XREP

How Stuff Works has a new article on this interesting technology.

Creating a device small enough to fit into a shotgun shell casing but powerful enough to incapacitate a subject was no easy task. The development team at TASER had to find a way to balance power with size. Not only did they need the device to travel farther than a standard TASER, but also to have the right amount of mass. If it had too little mass, it wouldn’t travel far enough. But if it had too much mass, it could become a deadly projectile rather than a non-lethal solution.

UPDATE: This has nothing to do with this post, but deserves your attention. Gun Rights Examiner has details about a teacher getting suspended for having a picture on Facebook while holding a gun. Recommended reading for sure.

06 Feb 2009 by Second Amendment Technobabble

We’re in the Money Now!

big moneyLast month, we finally had our landline telephone service discontinued. I called AT&T to inform them that their services were no longer needed since we each now have a personal wireless device that does everything (and much more) than their service can provide.

I was reluctant, at first, to discontinue the service, since it has been our telephone number since before 1979 – we kept the same number from the previous owner when we moved here.

But, after doing all the trade-offs, it just had to be done.

Then, after all the smoke settled, I got this fantastic refund from the accounts payable folks at AT&T. Woo Woo. Where will I spend all this money? Maybe a lead 7½ shot ball in a 12 gauge shell? Yeah! That’s a great idea!

23 Jan 2009 by Money and Business Technobabble

Tribute Counter

A couple of days ago, our server upgraded the operating system, which managed to break some of the scripts I use for this site. It turned out to be a good thing, because I re-wrote some of the scripts using more up-to-date features. One of those features is AJAX or Asynchronous JavaScript And XML which is said to be “JavaScript on Steroids” by some.

ttrib-stats.jpgI had been wanting to make the readout of the hit counter on the “Never Forget” tribute a dynamically-updated widget, so I went to work and made it happen. Now, when you look at the tribute statistics in the sidebar, you will see the counter update in (more or less) real-time as the tribute is served up to yet another website. The rate at which it increments is higher during day and evening hours in the U.S., so I presume most of the people seeing it are in the western hemisphere.

As of this posting, the counter is about ready to roll past 48 million hits – wow!

Disclaimer: if you don’t have JavaScript enabled, you will not see the counter.

13 Jan 2009 by Blogosphere Never Forget Technobabble

Happy Face Fireworks

“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

— John Adams to Abigail Adams, Philadelphia July 3rd. 1776

While watching the fireworks display at a nearby park last evening, we witnessed a lot of great effects, including a happy face. Check it out in the video.

I got curious about what effects there were out there and so I looked in WikiPedia for some answers. I was amazed at the many types of effects applied to modern fireworks displays. Among the many effects there is the ring effect; the happy face is a derivative of the ring.

I also found the quotation from John Adams at the top of the WikiPedia article.

05 Jul 2008 by Culture Technobabble

Barbie’s Piano

barbie-piano.jpgWhy is this Barbie Piano special? Well, because, this one has provenance.

You see, back in 1980, I worked for Mattel Toys in Hawthorne, CA as an engineer in the preliminary design department. I designed electronics for prototypes of all sorts of toys, including remote control cars, self-guided racers, sound effects for a hot wheels airborne transport toy, and the piano sounds for Barbie’s Piano.

I collaborated with another prototype designer who did the mechanical development. My job was to develop an electronic piano sound. I actually got a patent for the ‘decay modulator’ circuit, which was the heart of the semi-realistic sound. When a key is struck, the tone fades out gradually just like a real piano.

When it came time to demonstrate the toy to Mattel’s president, we brought the model in, sat Barbie down on the bench and I made my first and only professional musical debut as I plunked out “Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ using Barbie’s hands on the keys.

keyboard.jpg“I love it,” said the president as he clapped his hands with approval, “let’s get it into toy development and go with it!” After the piano went into production, even though I was not working at Mattel, they called me in and gave me this one when it was new.

I saw an original Barbie Piano on eBay today with a selling price of 160USD. And that was without the bench and the instruction/songbook. I imagine that this particular one might be worth a bit more with my signed statement about its development and my role in it.

While this one has never been owned by a child, I used to indulge my granddaughters and let them play with it. As a consequence, it’s not completely pristine and the little wands used to play the tiny keys are missing. A mistake, to be sure, but you should have seen the pride in their eyes knowing granddad invented this toy.

Please, click either image for a wallpaper-sized close-up.

Cross-posted from our family blog.

02 Jul 2008 by Money and Business Music Technobabble

Point and Click

Please don’t associate the “point ‘n’ click” terminology with computers – unless the *&^$@ computer dies and just might make a better target than a tool. Come to think of it, even though the hard disk died, it’s possible it could be recovered and read by unauthorized persons. Any personal data on the hard drive should be destroyed.

Hmmmmm – a remote area, the Glocks and this defunct laptop – it might be fun.

Point and Click

Naah – I’ll just remove and destroy the drive and take the rest to the recycler.

15 Jan 2008 by Firearms Humor Technobabble

Powered Flight – 104th Anniversary

A hundred and four years ago today, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flights from Kill Devil Hill, close to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their history-making effort sparked the greatest period of technology in the United States and abroad.

I took my first flying lesson on December 16th, 1961, just a day short of their 58th anniversary. By then, the sound barrier had been broken, satellites were in orbit, the Russian, Yuri Gagarin had already orbited the Earth, and John Glenn would be in orbit within a couple of months. It was a great time to get into a career in aviation or aerospace.

First Flight

What makes Wilbur and Orville Wright’s achievement so significant is not only that it was the first time in history that a manned, powered aircraft completed a fully-controlled, sustained flight, but it proved to naysayers around the world that heavier-than-air flight was practical. After the Wrights proved their critics wrong, the field of aeronautical engineering was born. Governments, universities, and inventors soon began dedicating vast resources to understanding the science of flight and methods of building improved flying machines. In essence, every event and discovery in aviation either led up to or followed from the flight of the Wright Flyer, and it changed the way we live forever.

Image and text courtesy of AeroSpaceWeb.org.

17 Dec 2007 by Aerospace Aviation Technobabble

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