gdp's Comments

Atomic Toasters : Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Mathematically

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 21:56:42 +0000

Randall Munroe is the guy behind XKCD.

Atomic Toasters : Nice Horsey...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:24:42 +0000

After reading your account, I think you should read this story from The Oatmeal: Why we should be eating horses instead of riding them http://theoatmeal.com/story/eat_horses

Atomic Toasters : User Input: Not Yet Caffeinated

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:39:28 +0000

I run a Bodum French Press if it is just me (or a Technivorm Moccamaster if I need to serve more people). The biggest thing I have found is fresh grinding...I grind the beans every morning (Breville Ikon conical burr grinder FTW!!!). Every bean tastes better if it is ground fresh each...oh, and I no longer stockpile coffee...don't let it go stale. I'll drink it black or with 1 sugar and chocolate soy milk...and I'll admit to drinking the above mentioned dessert abominations...as dessert

Atomic Toasters : Startup: Let's Try This Again

Fri, 6 Jan 2012 15:37:43 +0000

It looks like a sponge holder/ squeezer, to dry kitchen sponges or maybe a frame to "program" punch cards for ye olde computers.

Atomic Toasters : User Input: Scribbly Lines on a Screen

Thu, 1 Dec 2011 17:41:44 +0000

I have to add: Scenes from a Multiverse (http://amultiverse.com/) each day has a new destination in the multiverse, and then there is a showcase showdown to pick the destination on Friday. and Alien Loves Predator...yes the Alien and Predator are the Odd couple roommates living in NYC...its done with clever action figure photography: http://alienlovespredator.com/. Sadly this one is on a hiatus, but the old strips are worth reading through

Atomic Toasters : Startup: It's Not What You Think

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 20:40:13 +0000

the Soot is actually formed inside the glass tube. The glass precursors are gas-phase compounds that flow into the tube and react once exposed to the heat of the hydrogen-oxygen torch. and the torch rasters the length of the tube as is spins in a lathe, to ensure the soot coats the inside uniformly

Atomic Toasters : Startup: It's Not What You Think

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 20:11:40 +0000

The doped portion of the fiber will have 2 inputs, 1 from the main transmission line, with the signal, and 1 to attach the pumping light source (an LED or Laser Diode). This is done so all the light is confined to the core of the fiber. Trying to pump by side illumination is very inefficient. The Pump light (980 nm) excites electrons in the erbium out of the valence band to an excited state. Without getting too in depth, there is a non-radiative decay to a second slightly lower energy state, where you can maintain a state called population inversion (more electrons up there, than down in the valence band). While population inversion is maintained, when the signal being transmitted at 1550 nm wavelength passes through the erbium doped region, the excited electrons decay back to the valence band emitting a photon. Importantly, this photon is 1550 nm in wavelength just like the signal, is coherent and in phase with the signal, so it constructively amplifies the original 1550 nm signal. To maximize efficiency of the pumping light source, the active fiber (with Erbium in it) has a Bragg grating at either end, so the 1550 nm light can pass through, but the 980 nm light is reflected and is confined to the area where the Erbium is present. A similar technique is used to create fiber lasers. One of the coolest things is when the erbium is being introduced to the preform. The preform is spinning on a special lathe with chucks that allow the gasses to flow in and out of either end of the preform, while it is spinning and being heated by a Hydrogen-Oxygen torch. The torch helps the chemical reactions to form the soot described in the original article...but it also excites the erbium, so the entire 5 fool long tube is glowing at a brilliant green, It looks like kryptonite glowing. and once it is cool, the glass is transparent. Praseodymium on the other hand, keeps a pretty neat purple color.

Atomic Toasters : Startup: Not My Vacation Photos

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 16:32:15 +0000

Silicon...its sitting on silicon

Atomic Toasters : Startup: It's Not What You Think

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 15:50:29 +0000

First, glass has a very high intrinsic strength due to the disordered network of Silicon-Oxygen bonds. Glass traditionally fails at defects in the surface (think about cutting glass with a diamond scribe - you nick the glass where you want it to break). When a pre-form is drawn into fiber the viscous glass is pulled to a desired diameter, and cooled as the fiber descends the draw tower, by helium cooling. The cooled fiber is then quickly drawn through a cup of UV curing resin that prevents exposure to moisture and humidity. Water will form small pits in a glass surface and cause breakage. Once this resin is on, the glass is protected. and when you bend the fiber and pass a critical radius of curvature you will break the fiber at the intrinsic strength of the atomic bonds. The draw towers have local environments near clean-room quality, so they will only have one defect per 100Km of fiber

Atomic Toasters : Startup: It's Not What You Think

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 14:35:18 +0000

I did my graduate work in Materials Engineering, and one of my friends produced specialty fibers, where the core is doped with Rare Earth elements (Erbium, Praseodymium, etc). The Erbium compounds were deposited inside the pre-form at the same time as the silica core, and they can control the composition of the glass , first to create the refractive index difference between the core and cladding to form the wave guide, and to add the active elements. The Erbium doped fiber would be pumped with a 980 nm wavelength light source (usually an LED or laser Diode), and then emit light at 1.55 microns wavelength, the same wavelength that the long-haul signals are transmitted at. This means that as the optical signal is traveling across the ocean floor, the signal is optically amplified, prior to the Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) the optical signal would have to be converted to an electrical signal, amplified and then re launched as an optical signal. That required a lot of electricity to power the amp deep in the ocean. Now they need just enough power to light up a few LEDs every 1000 kilometers or so.

Atomic Toasters : User Input: Vintage Beauty

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:39:26 +0000

the Supermarine S.6B...but I have a thing for seaplanes: <img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6154/6150781062_0bf854b489.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Supermarine_S.6B_ExCC"> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_S.6B

Atomic Toasters : Lego Unimog

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:14:51 +0000

I have the Fallingwater model and it is nicely done...and a decent size. but there is just a lot of beige bricks...and that whole model is solid bricks...there is very little empty space...when you are done, it is heavy for its size...

Atomic Toasters : User Input: Getting Down Is The Hard Part

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:12:17 +0000

Yeah, but Peru is amazing...I'd recommend it to anyone...on this trip we started near sea level, in the Amazon jungle, went up to Cuzco at 10,000 feet, hiked to Machu Picchu, which is absolutely stunning, then went to Arequipa, and Colca Canyon where these guys live (Andean Condors with 6+ foot wingspans): <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/4949642757_2bf2fa41a5.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="wks_9460"> <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/4950235148_9fbfa1e9bb.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="wks_9444"> and these little guys: <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/4950235644_31efd88224.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="wks_9454"> <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/4950234634_62de437b36.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="wks_9326"> <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4950232556_e18f138f91.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="wks_9217">

Atomic Toasters : User Input: Getting Down Is The Hard Part

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:01:06 +0000

Last summer in Peru, we drove from Arequipa to Colca Canyon, and that crossed a mountain pass at 16,020 feet, according to the GPS on my camera (EXIF data available on Flickr): <img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4089/4949641769_33fcfac6f3.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="wks_9366">

Atomic Toasters : User Input: Half The Speed of Smell

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:06:36 +0000

Absolute speed, was probably a Boeing 777 Newark to London...not sure what the ground speed was. On the ground was a formula Dodge open wheel car at Lime Rock Park...The car didn't have a speedometer but the instructors said we were in the 115-120 range on the main straight...I know that is pretty tame to some...but I'm not willing to mess around on public roads

Atomic Toasters : Regulators! Mount up!

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:24:38 +0000

In graduate school, I used to process and sinter a lot of dielectrics and piezoelectric materials, so we had to use a lot of bottled gasses to control the atmosphere over the samples as they were heated to 1500C. Different gasses require different materials to be used on the diaphragms, so you have left hand threads on Oxygen regs, spherical and conical seats for specialty gasses. There was one student who thought it was acceptable to use a different regulator on a Liquid Nitrogen tank, and since the threads didn't match, they made up the difference with Teflon tape. The spray of Liquid nitrogen was almost as impressive as the smoke and melting plastic that resulted when the environmental chamber wasn't cooled properly.

Atomic Toasters : Fashion Keeps You From Being Naked!

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:00:22 +0000

I love the monaco...it was the the watch that clicked with me...I understood watches as little mechanical pieces of art...I lusted after a monaco for years...the original blue chrono with the crocodile strap. On Saturday, I got married and my wife surprised me with this: <img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3467/5837260460_99039f1d27.jpg" width="374" height="500" alt=""> I was floored...and have worn it every day since...

Atomic Toasters : Startup: When Size Equated to Style

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:03:48 +0000

My grandmother still has a giant side board serving table in her dining room. It is a massive Grundig radio (AM/FM/Short wave!) and turntable. 800 lbs of walnut, Bakelite, and steel, this is a giant mid-century modern masterpiece...I have fond memories of my grandfather (a machinist) putting his home-made center pin on the turntable, he could put a stack of 20 records on, and as they played through, the tone arm would trigger the next album to drop, and the arm would automatically go to the beginning of this new album. It was hours of music, he read the paper and drank coffee, while I played with wooden blocks, or sorted machine screws into buckets for him.

Atomic Toasters : Startup: Behind The Scenes

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:09:01 +0000

AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! world is shaking!!!!!!! Thank you Dearthair... My dream project from when I was 6; building my own Artoo, is back! Where's my Arduino and soldering iron?

Atomic Toasters : Startup: Behind The Scenes

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:30:17 +0000

When I was but a wee hoon and tinkerer of electronics I was convinced they built a R/C robot for R2-D2 ...when found out there was a little person inside, I was more devastated then when I found out there was no Santa.