What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

[OCR]

Lol. . .

An even more mandatory summer song.

.

 

[pinball1970]

Lol. . .

An even more mandatory summer song.

.

Now that IS timeless.

 

[pinball1970]

In terms of Summer, this was released the week I started high school

 

[pinball1970]

Everyone has talking about 1976 recently because the just UK broke a few records for temperatures.

It was a great summer, I probably got burnt but mum was not aware of malignant melanoma/UV radiation and such!
We went swimming every day.

I remember some of these on the radio that year.

Silly love songs wings
Blinded by the light MM Earth's band
Haitian Divorce Dan
Afternoon Delight Starland Vocal band
Oh What a night Four Seasons
Living thing ELO

 

[Oldman too]

Blinded by the light MM Earth's band

Possibly my favorite song from that era, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light Bruce may have written and debuted it, but M.M. made it shine.
As for Albums, Pink Floyd's Animals really stands out in my memory.

 

[WWGD]

Damage control: Just realized I wrote a email to someone I don't know too well, in a keyboard (not i my PC) missing the letter n. And it included the word line , that ended as up 'lie'.

 

[WWGD]

Lol. . .

An even more mandatory summer song.

.

There are different angles to this. One I was going for was the ( hopefully; more so given recent events --Covid, Ukraine, Political Hostility)carefree aspect from Summer.

 

[Astronuc]

Everyone has talking about 1976 recently because the just UK broke a few records for temperatures.

It was a great summer, I probably got burnt but mum was not aware of malignant melanoma/UV radiation and such!
We went swimming every day.

I worked as a plumber and maintenance person (overhauled pumps, motors, blowers, compressors and A/C systems) and earned enough to pay for a year of university including room and board.

As for music some good albums:

Bad Company, Run with the Pack, January 1976
Genesis, A Trick of the Tail, January 1976
Return to Forever, Romantic Warrior, February 1976
Led Zeppelin, Presence, March 1976
Rush, 2112, April 1976
Firefall, Firefall, April 1976
Jeff Beck, Wired, May 1976
Blue Öyster Cult, Agents of Fortune, May 21, 1976
Jefferson Starship, Spitfire, June 1976
Little River Band, Little River Band, September 1976
Robin Trower, Long Misty Days, October 1976
Triumph, Triumph, October 1976
Kansas, Leftoverture, October 1976
Al Di Meola, Land of the Midnight Sun, October 1976

 

[Astronuc]

Estonia's prime minister has a message for the West: 'Don't worry about Putin's feelings'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/estonias...nt-worry-about-putins-feelings-223606146.html

 

[Borg]

<rant>I built a really awesome piece of software for my company that multiple teams are being introduced to. Unfortunately, I can never get people to stop asking questions long enough to be able to demonstrate the things that would answer all of their questions. I understand - you're an engineer and you're smart. Just shut up and listen for two lousy seconds...</rant>

 

[WWGD]

Weird how so many in other sites attribute this magical power to IP addresses , and dynamic ones at that. " Can I travel back in time if I know so-and-so's IP address"?

 

[strangerep]

<rant>I built a really awesome piece of software for my company that multiple teams are being introduced to. Unfortunately, I can never get people to stop asking questions long enough to be able to demonstrate the things that would answer all of their questions. I understand - you're an engineer and you're smart. Just shut up and listen for two lousy seconds...</rant>

[Serious...] That's why I used to make really strong efforts to write comprehensive technical manual(s) for my software. It forces people to read ( carefully) and they can't easily interrupt.

If something's still unclear/unanswered after they've RTFM'ed, then I'd get them to send me an email or PR about it (forcing them to articulate their problem clearly). Then I'd answer/clarify by improving/extending the relevant parts of the manual.

I also composed a written tutorial so they could work through it themselves, trying out many features of the software. That was reasonably successful, provided people were explicitly ordered by their boss to devote the necessary 2-3 days to work through the tutorial thoroughly. Again, if questions arose, I'd use the email + improve-manual technique to address them.

HTH.

 

[strangerep]

Weird how so many in other sites attribute this magical power to IP addresses , and dynamic ones at that. " Can I travel back in time if I know so-and-so's IP address"?

Huh?

 

[WWGD]

Huh?

I mean, people asking if someone can find their physical address and hurt them, steal their money, etc., if someone finds out their ( Dynamic) IP address.

 

[nuuskur]

Estonia's prime minister has a message for the West: 'Don't worry about Putin's feelings'
https://www.yahoo.com/news/estonias...nt-worry-about-putins-feelings-223606146.html

Could display such resolve when Russian fighters are invading Estonian / Finnish airspace and take them out like Turkey did. Moscow understands now they can't play this game with Turkey, but us or the Finns? No problem, keep prodding.

 

[WWGD]

Always wondered about the transition point between wakefulness and sleep. Is it continuous or discreet?

 

[Ibix]

Always wondered about the transition point between wakefulness and sleep. Is it continuous or discreet?

I've definitely had "half-awake" experiences. I once was falling asleep and suddenly explained to my wife what a menu was. When she asked why I was telling her this I woke up properly and genuinely had no idea why I'd started telling her something that (a) she already knew and (b) was a complete non sequitur. It had made complete sense when I started speaking.

I think partial waking is also one of the mundane explanations for "aliens abducted me from my bedroom" experiences. You aren't precisely dreaming and it seems very real, especially if sleep paralysis doesn't disengage and you really are unable to move, but it's actually all your brain.

(Edit: minor changes. The genuine reason was that there were genuinely too many uses of the word genuinely in that post.)

 

[Borg]

[Serious...] That's why I used to make really strong efforts to write comprehensive technical manual(s) for my software. It forces people to read ( carefully) and they can't easily interrupt.

I created 5 very detailed Jupyter Notebooks that describe how to use and interact with the software. During the demos, I focus on major concepts, review the first "Quickstart" tutorial to cover the basics and then proceed to the fourth tutorial that shows the most advanced features. The quickstart tutorial starts giving them ideas w.r.t. their own software. I then start hearing things like "That's really cool but what I really need is..." along with a detailed description of their project. The interruptions cause the demo to run past the alloted time and when I can finally get back to the demo, time runs out. Then, everyone is hyper-focused on the fact that we're over the alloted time. They never get a complete picture of just how powerful the software is and how it would meet their needs if they would just shut up and listen.

It's pretty frustrating after having this happen several times already. I really don't need to hear about their project's 'needs' because I thought about all of those things for over a year before I started building it. Nobody has yet described a 'need' that isn't already covered by the software and usually covered in the fourth tutorial. For the next demo, I'm am going to insist on not being interrupted for at least a half hour so that I can actually finish it for once. Then when time runs out on them, I can be the one to tell them that I have to leave because we're out of time.

 

[pinball1970]

I've definitely had "half-awake" experiences. I once was falling asleep and suddenly explained to my wife what a menu was. When she asked why I was telling her this I woke up properly and genuinely had no idea why I'd started telling her something that (a) she already knew and (b) was a complete non sequitur. It had made complete sense when I started speaking.

I think partial waking is also one of the mundane explanations for "aliens abducted me from my bedroom" experiences. You aren't precisely dreaming and it seems very real, but it genuinely did happen entirely in your head. Especially if sleep paralysis doesn't disengage, so you genuinely are unable to move.

It is a weird feeling, dreaming whilst you are half awake. I can only do it on a Sunday morning. Wake 5.30am or so listen to some music with headphones and drop off again but much more prone to dreaming in that half awake state.

 

[BillTre]

The transition between sleep and awake is called the hypnagogic state.

 

[collinsmark]

For the next demo, I'm am going to insist on not being interrupted for at least a half hour so that I can actually finish it for once. Then when time runs out on them, I can be the one to tell them that I have to leave because we're out of time.

Sounds good. Keep the phrase, "Please, save the questions for the end of the demo. We'll get to that before we're finished," in your back pocket. Don't be afraid to use it. Even if it feels rude saying it, it's actually not. Individuals in your audience have surely encountered someone saying it before. After a couple times, they'll get the hint. The bulk of your audience will probably appreciate it too, because, deep down, they don't appreciate the distractions either.

 

[WWGD]

It is a weird feeling, dreaming whilst you are half awake. I can only do it on a Sunday morning. Wake 5.30am or so listen to some music with headphones and drop off again but much more prone to dreaming in that half awake state.

I think the dynamics are that, given your vulnerable while sleeping, your mind has to assess whether you're safe-enough to settle into sleep, to stop all awareness of external stimuli, which puts you at risk by lowering your guard.

 

[fresh_42]

I think the dynamics are that, given your vulnerable while sleeping, your mind has to assess whether you're safe-enough to settle into sleep, to stop all awareness of external stimuli, which puts you at risk by lowering your guard.

Yep. Don't fall off the tree. Some of us still sleep there.

 

[fresh_42]

I just watched the final of today's stage in the women's Tour de France on youtube. The comment was in German but I had the speakers turned off. However, I watched it with English subtitles. For no specific reason, it was just the given settings and I didn't change them. Could it be, could it really be that I have just read "saublöd" in the middle of an otherwise English text? Umlaut included? And could it further be that on my search for the correct English word for Umlaut on Wikipedia, I ended up with umlaut? Really? No Latin word for it?

 

[Ibix]

Diaeresis. Although most people would say umlaut, probably because German is the only language I know of that uses it (well, Russian has ë, but IIRC that's considered a separate letter from e, rather than a e with a modifier).

 

[Ibix]

probably because German is the only language I know of that uses it

...and Spanish, although in a different way. And it's fairly rare.

 

[fresh_42]

Diaeresis. Although most people would say umlaut, probably because German is the only language I know of that uses it (well, Russian has ë, but IIRC that's considered a separate letter from e, rather than a e with a modifier).

If I'm right, then the Danish Smørrebrød is pronounced Smörrebröd, which by the way is the Swedish spelling! Yes, Russian distinguishes between ё and e, and moreover has ю which sounds similar in some words. And what is the ë in French Noël?

 

[Ibix]

And what is the ë in French Noël?

Good point. I think it just means an exception to the pronunciation rules there: you don't merge the vowel sounds. It has a similar function in Spanish.

So apart from Spanish, French, Russian and heavy metal, only German uses the umlaut. So we call it an umlaut.

 

[fresh_42]

Good point. I think it just means an exception to the pronunciation rules there: you don't merge the vowel sounds. It has a similar function in Spanish.

So apart from Spanish, French, Russian and heavy metal, only German uses the umlaut. So we call it an umlaut.

Don't forget Swedish. Lemmy could have been in a Swedish Heavy Metal band if it wasn't an English.

 

[Ibix]

I'm beginning to feel like the Spanish Inquisition here. "Among the languages that use an umlaut are..."

 

[fresh_42]

I'm beginning to feel like the Spanish Inquisition here. "Among the languages that use an umlaut are..."

I haven't written that "saublöd" in the mids of an English commentary. If it was actually real English, then English uses umlautse, too.

Use English subtitles. At 2:55 in

https://www.facebook.com/EurosportDE/videos/466394181584727

 

[WWGD]

Good point. I think it just means an exception to the pronunciation rules there: you don't merge the vowel sounds. It has a similar function in Spanish.

So apart from Spanish, French, Russian and heavy metal, only German uses the umlaut. So we call it an umlaut.

If I'm right, then the Danish Smørrebrød is pronounced Smörrebröd, which by the way is the Swedish spelling! Yes, Russian distinguishes between ё and e, and moreover has ю which sounds similar in some words. And what is the ë in French Noël?

I'm beginning to feel like the Spanish Inquisition here. "Among the languages that use an umlaut are..."

Well, Beck has a song "Que onda Güero "

https://genius.com/Beck-que-onda-guero-lyrics

But you're conveniently igoring new Jerseya "Haagën Dasz"

 

[WWGD]

I guess elements of Windows' Character map are a perfect example of a set without a natural order.

 

[fresh_42]

Oh, dear! I'm getting old. I have forgotten Hungary. It has ö and ü plus similar accents like French which count as extra letters: three versions of ö and three versions of ü. And of course, Turkish has lots of ü, and ö, too.

 

[WWGD]

Oh, dear! I'm getting old. I have forgotten Hungary. It has ö and ü plus similar accents like French which count as extra letters: three versions of ö and three versions of ü. And of course, Turkish has lots of ü, and ö, too.

Stretching UTF8 to the limit.

 

[Borg]

Who wants to be a Billionaire (or at least $650 million with the cash option)? Tomorrow's Today's MegaMillions jackpot is over 1.1 Billion! I know the odds are impossible but having one ticket at least puts you in the running.

 

[WWGD]

Who wants to be a Billionaire (or at least $650 million with the cash option)? Tomorrow's MegaMillions jackpot is over 1.1 Billion! I know the odds are impossible but having one ticket at least puts you in the running.

It'd be interesting if no one wins it a few times, to end up with surreal jackpots of some $4-5 billion. But once it reaches those levels, rumor spreads , and everyone buys a ticket, so someone ultimately wins.

 

[Borg]

The last two jackpots were 600+ and 800+ million respectively. Word is already out since the jackpot increase is around half of the ticket sales. Today's drawing will probably be well in excess of the current 1.1 billion estimate. I'll be surprised if it ends up less than 1.3 by drawing time.

EDIT: Already up to 1.28 since this morning's estimate.

 

[Mayhem]

Trying to understand the theory behind RSA encryption makes me understand why programmers hate when their nephews ask if they "can hack facebook". This is not trivial at all.

 

[WWGD]

Summer time. Shorts and dress socks are like tree-rings to tell a person's age. The higher up, the older.

 

[fresh_42]

Summer time. Shorts and dress socks are like tree-rings to tell a person's age. The higher up, the older.

I observed that basically every woman here who turns 40+ colors her hair Mahogany red and darker. You can tell their age by their hair color.

 

[collinsmark]

Gwaah! My telescope has been sporadically thinking that all stars are somewhere down near the center of the Earth!

Its declination motor has gone into runaway mode several times now with increasing frequency. This has the tendency to damage expensive equipment (camera, etc.) -- there might have been damage already; the camera has crashed into the fork-base more than once now.

I think I've narrowed down the problem to the declination motor's relative encoder.

Fig. 1 Declination motor, relative encoder

But the problem could be (hopefully), just a loose connection to the circuit board controller.

Fig. 2 Declination subsystem. The encoder's control wires are connected to the circuit board via the 4-pin blue connector to the right (the blue connector that is partially hidden by wires in the image).

The connector might have inched out a little due to vibration over time. It's not clipped into the circuit, rather it's only held on by friction. I've unplugged and replugged the connectors, and hopefully that fixes the issue.

If not, I've got another encoder coming in the mail from Digi-key just in case.
https://www.usdigital.com/products/encoders/incremental/kit/e4t/

If the re-seating of the connectors doesn't work out, my telescope might need some surgery.

 

[dlgoff]

It's not clipped into the circuit, rather it's only held on by friction.

Maybe you could use a wire tie around the connector and circuit board to hold it in place:

image from this search: https://www.google.com/search?q=wir...6Be0Q_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=1024&bih=448&dpr=1.25

 

[collinsmark]

Gwaah! My telescope has been sporadically thinking that all stars are somewhere down near the center of the Earth!

[...]

If the re-seating of the connectors doesn't work out, my telescope might need some surgery.

Update: Well, it happened again. 'Looks like surgery is in the near future.

Parts (organs) should arrive by early next week, I estimate.

I've had the telescope since 2008 (I think. It might have been 2007). So it's not really new. Things do wear out, and from what I can tell from Internet forums, these relative motor encoders do wear out after awhile. If it's not dirt/dust/scratches on the optical disk, it's just the aging of the LED/photodetector.

So I bought two new encoders, one for the declination motor, and the other for the right ascension. Fortunately, these encoders are not too terribly expensive (they're "relative" encoders, as opposed to "absolute." Absolute encoders, which are not compatible with my scope, cost a fortune.)

I'm glad that I'm at least a little tech savvy. Packing it up and sending it to Meade for repairs sounds like a nightmare to me. Particularly since I'm in the process of upgrading to a bigger telescope anyway. Until then, I'm hoping to fix it myself.

The fact that I'm making preparations for a different scope is a little ironic. It's like my present telescope is pissed off and rebelling. Maybe jealous?

In the mean time, I still might be able to get some imaging done. The problem is intermittent.

 

[pinball1970]

The fact that I'm making preparations for a different scope is a little ironic. It's like my present telescope is pissed off and rebelling. Maybe jealous?

In the mean time, I still might be able to get some imaging done. The problem is intermittent.

I posted in the James Webb thread and remembered 24th February today.
Besides imagining myself and everything/everyone I know going up in flames I also thought of Webb at the time.

I even imagined the telescope continuing with settings, pre-programmed calibration and testing then sending down images in June/July...
The most amazing ever yet taken...
To an obliterated world, no one on Earth would ever see them.

Not the most rational few weeks of life.

Anyway I also thought of this from your post.

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/hubbles-future-in-the-webb-era/

 

[WWGD]

I can never find my Levi's 404 jeans.

 

[WWGD]

Weird , confusing exchange about song "Under Pressure" for like 30 minutes. I was referring to the one by ZZ Top, the other person to the one by Queen.

 

[Ibix]

I can never find my Levi's 404 jeans.

I wore my 406s to a club, but the doorman wouldn't let me in. I think my brother borrowed my 410s. My 413s I can't wear because I bought them when I was younger and fitter. I tore my 502s on a nail going through a gate. The pockets are too small on my 507s. My 510s I turned into cutoffs. And my 418s appear to be a nerdy joke.

 

[Astronuc]

Space debris refers to equipment in space that no longer works. Most space debris burns up while reentering the atmosphere, and much of what’s left over often falls in the ocean. However, with more spaceships entering orbit — such as those from private companies like SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk — impacts on land may happen more frequently. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/large-object-landed-sheep-farm-122342021.html

The trunk segment, which is used to carry cargo and also includes the spacecraft ’s solar arrays and radiators, is jettisoned from the body of the capsule shortly after the burn is completed when it goes out of orbit. “It typically burns up in the atmosphere over the open ocean, posing minimal risk to public safety,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Last week, after debris from a large Chinese rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, the administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, issued a rebuke, saying that China “did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth.”

Last year, a malfunction caused a SpaceX rocket stage to complete an uncontrolled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere near Seattle in what looked like bright objects lighting up the night’s sky. Pieces of the burning rocket debris landed on a farmer’s property in Washington state. The debris had reentered the atmosphere after 22 days in orbit.

The rural area of Australia where Miners discovered the space debris on July 25 lies about 100 miles south of the capital, Canberra.

 

[collinsmark]

Telescope repair update:

Last night it was clear for a couple a few hours, but my telescope was not cooperating. The declination runaway problem went from being intermittent to happening constantly. I had to give up after gathering only 20 minutes of data.

I haven't received the optical encoders yet. As a matter of fact, according to Digi-Key's website, they haven't even shipped yet.

This afternoon I saw that the forecast was clear skies all night. Gaah! it's the first fully clear night in weeks! I couldn't just twiddle my thumbs all night, waiting. I had to do something. Anything that might help. I didn't really have anything to lose. For all I knew, a termite might have laid her eggs in the optical encoder, and all I needed to do was clean it out. I had to at least try.

So I decided to try to clean or fix the existing encoder, as long as I'm waiting for the new ones to arrive. So I carefully ripped out the declination motor assembly, and took it up to my private laboratory (pronounced lab-OR-a-TOR-ee).

Fig 4. Declination motor assembly in laboratory. Much of the hot glue that Meade put on it has been carefully stripped away with an X-ACTO knife by this point.

I had to take an X-ACTO knife and remove as much hot glue as I could. I'm not sure why Meade used the hot glue, but it was concentrated around the motor's electrical connections and the encoder's electrical connector (the one on the encoder itself). Maybe it's to prevent corrosion? I don't know, I'm guessing Meade had their reasons.

By the way, that thing to the left in Figure 4 that looks like a back-to-the-future flux capacitor is a choke coil, I assume. Presumably it's to prevent the motor's back-emf from damaging the controller board. Or maybe it's for electrostatic discharge reasons, but I'm still guessing back-emf. (Do you think it could be there to reduce RF interference caused by the motor? This scope does support GPS, so maybe it's to reduce the interference caused by the motor, with the GPS receiver in mind, maybe.)

The optical encoder is that thing on the end of the motor that has the label on it.

Btw, for those who don't know, an optical encoder is able to provide feedback letting the motor controller know how far the motor has advanced and in which direction.

Fig. 5 Theory of operation.

Figure 5 shows the basic theory of operation. The encoder that I'm working with is like that, except the encoder disk has one side completely reflective, thus allowing the LED source and the two photodetectors to all be mounted on the same side of the disk. (To be clear, one side of the glass disk has the stripes on it, and the other side of the glass is mirrored.)

Anyway, after getting rid of most of that hot-glue, I was was able to take off the encoder's cap. Everything appeared to be in working order (visually). There didn't appear to be anything I could do besides dust it off. So that's what I did with a handheld air blower. I put the cap back on. I also removed and re-seated the encoder's electrical connector that was previously covered in hot-glue.

I reattached everything back out on the telescope. Good news: it seems to work now! I don't know what I did. But maybe one of the photodetectors or the LED had big piece of dust on it or something. I'm not sure.

Before it got dark I slewed it back and forth for several minutes without problems. So far tonight I've been able to image nearly 4 hours so far, and everything is still working.

Of course, the problem might rear its vomitus, disgusting head again. The problem was intermittent before. I just hope it lasts until the new encoder arrives. So far so good.

Edit: Oh, and @dlgoff, I have a package of hundreds of these cable ties. I need to remove the flux-capacitor-looking choke coil everytime I remove the motor assembly, since its covering a screw I need to get to. Then I put a new one on when I reassemble. But I have plenty. I should have enough to work on the thing hundreds of times. Thanks!

Fig. 6 cable ties by the hundreds.