Posts by Andre

How the Internet Archive faces potential destruction at the hands of Big Four publishers

Similar situation here

I once had a pile of accumulated old RS and other free CDROMs that were filled with treasures like datasheets for long expired chips and other parts.

Alas RS saw fit to remove them over time to "save space" so decided to fight back by making my *own* datasheet DVD with literally every last one of them

spanning decades with an Acrobat reader and search engine built in.

Ended up making hundreds, but one day got a nasty email about it so stopped.

Might well update it and re-release with "Datasheet Archive 2.0, Ultimate Blackbeard Edition" out of sheer spite, on SD card or something.

Also containing an encrypted copy of all my research and unpublished scientific papers so when I choose, everyone has a copy at once.

Cardiff 'copter coppers give chase to UFO

alien invasion?

hmm.. could be some sort of UAV test, but this would seem unlikely due to the size. Also I doubt the military would intentionally endanger a civilian aircraft in this way.

Possibility exists that it could be someone's model aircraft project gone awry, perhaps something based around a helium blimp. I did recall reading somewhere that someone had patented a new type of electrically powered plasma "saucer" so maybe this is a scaled up version capable of free flight.

-A

Phoenix beams back Martian postcards

Seashell-like structure?

Hi..

Take a look, extreme left about 1/2 way down. Is it just me or does this look a bit like a seashell on its side?

I asked SWMBO and she agrees with me on this one.

-A

US teen cuffed for disposable camera 'Taser'

KZZZZZEEERRTT!!!

Ahh, brings back memories. I once "demonstrated" my ioniser+tinfoil capacitor experiment at school. After half a dozen really LOUD sparks, someone suggested I touch it. Needless to say someone *else* beat me to it, and I got a stern lecture from the deputy head about not shocking fellow students.

Wish I'd had the know how back then to show 'em a Lifter, that would have pwned :)

We had an epidemic over here of idiots zapping people on buses with these things, and taking the igniters from old gas lighters etc. They actually had to stop the sale of those nice battery powered gas lighters thanks to the idiots using them as makeshift TASERs (take of end cap, nuff said).

Galaxy's smallest known black hole discovered

Alien physics experiment gone wrong?!

Hmm. I wonder, is it possible that a few MYA that "black hole" used to be a planetary system? Perhaps one with an intelligent civilization experimenting with high energy physics on a grand scale.

You see where this is going. "I wonder what happens if we push the energy past 250TeV on the Equatorial Large Muon Collider"... BOOOOM!

Sure they discovered a limitless power source, but weren't around to harness it. Pwned.

Declare Steve Fossett dead, asks adventurer's widow

Area 51?

We all know how strict the no-fly-zone over Area 51 is.. maybe he was knocked off course, right in the middle of some ultra-secret test flight.

SO he's probably working out some of the bugs in the B-3a Visual Stealth (tm) system...

Exploding mobile battery suspected in S Korea fatality

Shaped charges..?

Hi all,

I've done some tests on old mobile phone packs and they can and do explode in flames if overcharged then shorted.

Had to use a screwdriver to initiate the reaction but its possible that overcharge-induced internal short could have been enough.

Then, the phone's battery casing acted like a shaped charge, in that the hot gases were briefly confined and burst out of one area. The force generated would be enormous (these things are used to compress plutonium in "Physics Packages") !

Lesson learned: do not do Li charging in software, its far too risky.

And they allow portable DVD players on planes? Li cells 10* the volume of mobile packs + overcharge + strategically placed drawing pin + fist = Instant incendiary device.

Oh, and there's the favourite camera flash hooked up to battery trick, this also induces rapid disassembly with flame :)

-A (IANAT) Next stop Gitmo... LOL!