Most Viewed Technology Blogs (217)

America made a poor attempt to convert to metric in the 1970's and with the exception of tools and some engineered products, we switched back to the imperial system learned from England.
Last time I checked, America, Liberia and Myanmar were the only countries still measuring by feet and weighing by pounds. Thanks England for abandoning us!
It's time to set the record books straight.

Let's start with the 1967 song 98.6 by Keith.

From now it's "Hey 37C, it's good to have you back again... Oh hey 37C, her lovin' is the medicine that saved me..."

This week, I've gone back to watching YouTube videos about the life of Nikola Tesla and the common thread is he gave too much of his talents away... so much that it drained him. He died at the age of 81 after being hit by a taxi. Many years Tesla had been living alone in hotels leaving behind unpaid bills.

As a young man coming to America, Tesla had worked for Thomas Edison. This was a double edged sword as Edison had cheated him of money and inventions. However, Tesla had the chance to grow and expand his experiments in the laboratory environment.
Edison's idea was to power homes by direct current (DC) generators. The problem with direct current was the limitation of traveling long distances. Thick wires and power stations every few miles were needed to conduct this type of electricity.
Tesla didn't agree with Edison and had invented motors and generators that worked with alternating current (AC) so he could run much longer distances with thinner wires.
His use of alternating current was less expensive and was gaining in popularity. He partnered with George Westinghouse to provide AC power distribution.
This was affecting Edison's business to the point where Edison started a smear campaign of fear mongering the dangers of alternating current. In retaliation, he began to use alternating current and horrified spectators when he publicly executed animals.

Anyway, I find it ironic that the most famous electric car in America named Tesla, is powered by batteries that supply (DC) direct current.

A few times a day I receive (robotic) phone solicitation calls to my cellphone offering me discounted healthcare programs and the recording starts with "We've been trying to reach you..." along with that is their takeaway "This is our last attempt to offer this discount..."
If that were true, I wouldn't receive so many calls.

I stopped using a land line years ago and switched to VOIP service provided by Vonage. It was my backup to a cellphone and served as a FAX line. I haven't used it in months and decided the $30 fee could be used elsewhere.

Since I'm a T-Mobile customer, I decided to switch to their VOIP service for $10 and now that I'm at a location 45 miles North, I selected a new phone number in the local exchange.

The device with new number has been installed for a little more than a week and the first message on the voicemail system is:
"We've been trying to reach you..."

Star Trek came out in 1966.
Uhura was the communications officer aboard the USS Enterprise.
Her claim to fame is having the first Bluetooth.
It was massive by today's standards and it appeared to have it's own radiator!

Harley-Davidson is launching a new electric bicycle brand known as Serial 1 Cycle Company.

Coming soon...

Happy New Year!

My home has a modern high efficiency furnace only a few years old and of course troubles so being the diy i am I made a go at it after studying the things sensors for flame on vacuum on excessive heat induction motor the condensation hoses from the heat exchanger to various routes and then sensor for vacuum so after a fast course in HVAC online utube I realized it was my pressure switch a vacuum sensor / exhast fan sensor basically a rubber band with a cord (like a cord plug into a electrical outlet)was bad as it stuck open and closed so I ordered one saving big bucks then of course same thing as I watched it start up I realed a vacuum line connected to it from the heatexchanger to it was the problem after I double checked my install the gas line ignition set a backpresure throwing off the vacuum pressure thus sending a signal to the control panel the fan was off due to no vacuum detected but in fact the fan was running but soit kept trying to restart and programmed to do so four times before the system shuts down so after a minor adjustment for that backpresure it's game on and another skill mastered .

The condo I bought had an old washer & dryer. I didn't expect them to last long and I was right. Small capacity, they actually worked well, but they were too small to handle 10 bath towels in a load or a medium weight comforter.
A few months ago, the washer started leaking with a few cupfulls of water on the floor each load. Not alarming, but important to monitor as I'm on the 2nd floor and don't want any issues with the tenant below me. The dryer would squeal at the startup and sometimes require re-balancing the load to coax it to work. last month, it died.
Timing was manageable as we were able to do laundry in the Miami house. Home Depot had sent out offers of no interest financing and they were running a few 30% off sales so it was time to shop.
We ended up with a large-capacity pair made by Samsung. Unlike the washing machines I've owned in the past that had a center agitator, this model has a impeller at the bottom to turn the clothes.
Sophisticated computer control, I used the automatic setting that senses the height and weight of the load to determine the correct amount of water. First mistake. Doing a load of jeans I found in the water setting was so low that the clothes on top remained on top and 10 minutes into the wash I could see a dry spot where one pants leg didn't get into the undertow. I stopped the sequence to override and add more water. That didn't work as it appeared to abort the load, drain the soapy water and start another wash load that I had to stop and add more soap.
User friendly wasn't an option in it's program!
Yeah, I read the book (twice) before getting started with this new machine.
After that first load I noticed the corners of the stitched pockets were beginning to fray... this is something I blogged about with a previous HE model that had the agitator.

At this point it doesn't matter that this new model comes with an impeller, as figuring a way to wash clothes with the correct amount of water and not having them wear out from friction has become an agitating issue to me!

Info junkie stuff, pretty informative vid,

New computer this week running Windows 10 Pro and updated Microsoft Edge started some things I didn't notice on my older computer it replaced.
I'm online making a purchase and when I get to the cart to review, banners fly out to show the same items elsewhere at a lower cost.
Amazon and Walmart, but the savings were less than a dollar per item.
Since my purchase with this vendor has free shipping over $100, it makes no sense to break an order up to 3 vendors. Kinda like spending a dollar to save a dime. Triple billing, triple deliveries, triple order tracking.

Actually, the annoying part is Microsoft getting into my online purchasing. It may have been there in my previous computer (running Windows 10 with Edge) but I never noticed the banners before.

My computer is spying on me...