Disqus - Latest Comments for Tschmidt

Re: New EEVblog WordPress Comment System – Disqus

Tschmidt — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 11:34:24 -0000

Well I'm glad it does not require a social media account, since except for Linkedin I don't have any. Had to reset my password have not used Disqus for a long time.

Our local newspaper used to use Disqus but changed a year or so back to require commentors log in via a social media account. That cut spam but also drastically reduced comments.

Keyboard character echo is pretty slow but I assume that is because the server is on the other side of the world for those of us posting from the States.

Hope this works out.

Re: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/900330-196/show-of-hands-for-appropriate-technology.html

Tschmidt — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:30:20 -0000

I agree optical scanners are the optimum technology for tallying ballots. Like many others I'm one of the volunteers that help out on Election Day. After hearing horror stories about other states: long lines, inability to vote due to purged voter registration, inaccurate vote counts, poor machine security, long delay to produce count, etcetera I’m proud of our system.

Optical scanning machines have a lot going for them. Process creates an anonymous paper ballot for audit purposes. While the machines are relatively expensive they are fast so town only needs a few, Milford has two. If electronic voting machines were used we would need dozens. Now all we have to do is put up 60 voting booths where voters fill out their ballot. Voting paraphernalia backs away into a small volume between elections.

I’m not sure filling out a paper ballot is slower than voting electronically. Be interesting to see a study, might even be faster. Regardless, since voting booths are cheap doesn’t really matter how many we need. Our biggest bottleneck is parking not the voting process itself.

Counting absentee ballots are easy. Ballot is logged then feed into the scanner.

Complementing optical scanning is same day voter registration. If a person was purged or has not registered they can register on Election Day. If they have an address or name change that can be easily be updated on Election Day. During the Primaries if you are registered as an Independent you can declare for either Party and after casting your ballot revert back to Independent.

Maintaining trust in the voting system is crucial. I wish other states would adopt our system.

Re: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/864093-196/bringing-the-web-up-to-speed.html

Tschmidt — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:32:16 -0000

I managed to find the schedule: http://iwantbroadbandnh.org...

Re: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/864093-196/bringing-the-web-up-to-speed.html

Tschmidt — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:32:31 -0000

The Milford meeting is no where to be found. I checked the IwantbroadbandNH site and the town's web site.

Re: My car runs on water! (sigh ….)

Tschmidt — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:44:22 -0000

To paraphrase a friend: the law of thermodynamics is a law not a suggestion.

One interesting proposal I’ve heard that would substantially increase overall automotive efficiency is to use exhaust waste heat (about 70% of the total energy in Gasoline is wasted) to drive a thermoelectric generator. Doing so eliminates need for a mechanically driven alternator and captures a substantial amount of energy that is now wasted.

Re: Making Stuff

Tschmidt — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:54:53 -0000

Sounds like an interesting project. Post some pictures of the lathe.

My son is the machinist in the family. I'm more of a carpenter and electronics engineer. My summer project is to build a greenhouse. I'm taking the opportunity to add a web server to report conditions and manage some environmental aspects. Not really necessary but fun to play with.

Re: Wood-burning power plant - with greenhouses!

Tschmidt — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:45:37 -0000

I'm a strong proponent of co-generation. Electricity production only utilizes about 30-40% of fuel's energy. Co-generation uses the remaining low-grade heat that would otherwise be wasted.

I looked at residential micro-CHP (combined heat and power) systems but they are not practical in our situation.

Using the C02 to promote Greenhouse plant growth is an intriguing idea

Re: Triangular manhole covers, and my 7-year-old mistake

Tschmidt — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:45:11 -0000

It the link correct, it is to a non-Telegraph site? Looks like they prohibit linking:
Your search session has expired.

Please make sure that cookies are enabled on your browser, then return to the search page and try again.

Please note that bookmarking of pages within the archive is not supported.

If the problem persists please contact NewsBank (newslibrary@newsbank.com).

Re: Pellet fuel and biodiesel, expanding slowly

Tschmidt — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:03:58 -0000

Have been rather smug about our Green credentials because we have been heating with cordwood for years. You raise an interesting question about what it means to be carbon neutral. Sustained yield in New England is about one-half to one-cord per acre per year. I assume tree death rate is equal to growth rate over long periods of time. If not land would turn into one solid tree. Not sure how Carbon capture changes as forest matures. I assume it is highest midway to climax forest.

If wood is harvested in a sustained way over the long term it should be Carbon Neutral. In the short term it probably is not since trees are harvested earlier then they would die naturally. Also need to factor in the energy used to harvest and transport firewood since that energy probably comes from fossil fuel.

Look forward to hearing about your boondoggle, oops mean trip report, to the HeatNE conference.

/tom

Re: Is The Hadron Super Collider Causing All These Earthquakes Recently?

Tschmidt — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:26:28 -0000

I though the earthquakes were due to boobquake:
http://www.blaghag.com/2010...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-b...

Re: Happy 20th Birthday Hubble Telescope

Tschmidt — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 07:37:25 -0000

What is with all these strange posts in your blog? Looks like they are autogenrated - not really spam but not a human post.

Re: The story of the 320-foot slide rule - exclusive!

Tschmidt — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:57:36 -0000

Great story, too bad the record was so short lived.

Re: Trash-to-energy is big in Europe, but not here

Tschmidt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:52:49 -0000

Agree: in the case of incinerators I do not think the term applies. On the other had the Cape Wind project is a classic case of NIMBY.

We went through something similar in Milford when we decided to rent the roof of Town Hall for a Cell Phone tower. The roof already looks like a porcupine as a result of all the antennas used by MACC Base. There was an outcry over desecrating a historic building and what an eyesore it would become. Maybe it is the Geek in me but seeing all those antennas on a municipal building is kind of reassuring. The added revenue does not hurt either

Re: Trash-to-energy is big in Europe, but not here

Tschmidt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:26:11 -0000

I think here in the US NIMBY response is not unreasonable. Historically incineration has increased nearby air/ground pollution. Recent news about solders in Iraq experiencing respiratory problems from improper military incineration does not help matters.

Done well I think trash to energy is a great solution. Not only does it produce energy and reduce volume of solid waste it recovers valuable raw materials from the waste stream. The difficulty is doing it well and convincing nearby residents their trust will not be violated.

Re: Would you build a 320-foot-long slide rule?

Tschmidt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:05:49 -0000

Looking forward to it. There are worst ways to spend your free time and at least they had their 15-minutes of fame.

I did not really start using a slip-stick until the early 1970's about the time digital calculators first became available. Never really mastered the art, much prefer pushing buttons. I still have them and every once in a while take them out for nostalgia value.

One of the down sides of using electronic calculators is that people have lost the ability to estimate the result and tend to become overly trusting of the result. With a slip-stick user had to keep track of the exponent so folks developed a more intuitive feeling for calculations. There was a study done a while ago where calculator was programmed to produce ever more inaccurate results. Most people either never noticed or assumed they were doing something incorrect. I’ve always stress the need to be able to estimate the result to our kids.

Re: Is broadband a “telecom service” or an “information service”?

Tschmidt — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:12:33 -0000

Agree with other post that regulatory regime needs to shift away from what is being communicated: TV, radio, telephone, magazine, newspaper, data to one based on digital communication medium itself. Historically each service required its own purposed built delivery mechanism, with digital technology that is no longer the case. In the digital world it no longer makes sense to partition communication services by the content they carry.

Particular types of content may require additional regulation based on their unique qualities but regulation should be independent of how it is communicated.

The FCC would probably be in for a lot of stonewalling if they unilaterally redefined these services. Would probably be better for Congress to redefine scope of FCC authority in the digital age.

Re: Study: NH tops in percentage of jobs lost to China

Tschmidt — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:42:26 -0000

Interesting, I'd have though Massachusetts would have been hit even harder. As someone who worked in the PC industry during the 90's I can attest to the fact a lot of high tech design and manufacturing is no longer being done in New England.

Re: Study: NH tops in percentage of jobs lost to China

Tschmidt — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:42:13 -0000

Re: Nuke plant tritium leak found

Tschmidt — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:41:32 -0000

Glad they found the source of the leak. In retrospect it is obvious area around pipes should have been left open for visual inspection.

When it comes to plumbing I assume it will leak eventually. When we built our house worked on that assumption, and designed it to minimize damage when the inevitable leaks occur. Have not been disappointed over the 30 years we have lived here.

Re: The ugliest 4G chart you’ve ever seen

Tschmidt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:55:17 -0000

Not too bad - but don't give up your day job. :)

Re: The ugliest 4G chart you’ve ever seen

Tschmidt — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:54:07 -0000

I agree colors are rather garish but it is a pretty good secret decoder ring for the alphabet soup of ITU wireless acronyms.

Re: If you let your cat outside, you’re a bad person

Tschmidt — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:32:53 -0000

"What are they injuring badly but not capturing for you to see?"

That is a valid concern, if she doesn't bring kill home have no idea what is being killed. She does not seem to wander too far from home. Whenever one of us is outside she magically appears soon after.

Re: If you let your cat outside, you’re a bad person

Tschmidt — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:28:06 -0000

Given dogs and to a lesser extent cats are domestic animals I'd hesitate to use the "natural" argument. As far as being psychologically disturbing I'm not so sure. When we lived in the city our cat (only had one then) had no desire to go outside and even now the declawed one does not want to go out. Of course one can argue being declawed psychologically damaged the cat. That may be the case but that is the way we got her so have to live with it.

Here in rural NH cats have predators (cars mainly from our experience) but on balance they are the predators. We let ours out but I am sensitive to the argument David makes.

As an aside the book “The World Without Us” has interesting observations about how various species will fare if humans were no longer around.

Re: If you let your cat outside, you’re a bad person

Tschmidt — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:46:24 -0000

We seem to attract stay cats, currently have three but have had as many as four. Of the three one has been declawed so has to stay indoors. Even when well fed cats hunt, perhaps they are like humans and enjoy killing for sport. Of the two outdoor cats only one is a serious hunter, the other one just kind of tags along. Most of the kills are Chipmunks, hardly an endangered species, and the occasional bird. We feed wild birds so it is sad when the cat kills one, but it is infrequent enough that we don't agonize over it. Plus the birds seem to enjoy teasing the cat.

Interesting enough a couple of years ago a mouse (or mouse family) got into the house. The only cat interesting in hunting was the declawed one, who eventually succeeded.

Re: Cats, static electricity, and computers

Tschmidt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:46:14 -0000

Took me a moment to figure out what a "cynamic memory problem" was. Though you might be privy to some exotic new computer technology. Was getting ready to Google it when the light dawned.