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Topics - meandean
16
« on: June 07, 2010, 11:53:08 pm »
Yes, I'm aware of Brigham Young's belief that the sun is inhabited and also the
statements by Brigham Young and Joseph Smith about people living on the moon.
Now a question for you: Are you aware of the source of these beliefs? Are you
aware, for example, of the 1835 hoax in which a British newspaper, soon followed
by the New York Sun, took advantage of the overseas absence of Britain's
astronomer-royal, Sir John Herschel, to publish an article saying that he had
discovered people living on the moon, and followed it up with claims that other
astronomers had discovered people living on the sun? No refutation of these was
ever published, and I suspect that a great number of 19th century Americans
believed them to be true. Again, Let me remind you that even prophets can have
opinions. I have no problem with either Joseph Smith or Brigham Young accepting
as true something that was being published in the name of the prominent
astronomers of the day.
I hope this rather lengthy letter (nearly matching yours in size) has clarified matters.
Sincerely,
John A. Tvedtnes
Wow, I think I finally get it now...  http://laserboy.org/forum/index.php/topic,310.msg3718.html?PHPSESSID=qbs5fqhsbkcsbhi0c4amq1bgv4#msg3718
17
« on: April 30, 2010, 12:23:24 am »
It's been kinda slow on the Forum lately... When there's nothing new to watch on TV, there's nothing better than watching some good old fashioned TV Land style re-runs! This stuff rivals the Andy Griffith show, or the original Star Trek series in its re-watchability... It's an all-time LB Forum classic! And, for those of you who are new to the Forum, you'll get the special treat of experiencing it for the first time. Enjoy!  http://laserboy.org/forum/index.php?topic=183.0 I'm anxiously waiting for the next season premiere... 
18
« on: April 05, 2010, 10:01:49 pm »
OK, who turned out the lights? I seem to remember a Corel Draw thread that disappeared from history, just when it was starting to get good. It reminds me of a Next Generation episode where Dr. Crusher got caught in a warp bubble experiment conducted by her son. She was unknowingly caught in a reality where familiar people disappeared one by one, and there was no record of their existance as they left. Eventually, the universe itself began to shrink around the Enterprise as the bubble collapsed, before they figured out how to bring her back...
19
« on: February 05, 2010, 07:53:52 pm »
20
« on: January 29, 2010, 12:54:29 am »
Here it is, the one and only International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK). This unit of mass was orginally based on the mass of 1 liter of water at its densest temperature (about 4C), but the water definition was impractical to reproduce to high precision in a lab, so back in the late 1800's scientists took their best guess and made 40 cylinders of 90% platinum 10% iridium (for hardness, as platinum is soft) measuring just over 1.5" in diameter and height to match that value. The alloy used is nearly twice as dense as lead and over 10% more dense than gold. The first cylinder (pictured) in this set (housed in a vault near Paris) is decreed to be THE reference for the kg itself; the others in the set match to within about 2 parts in 10^8, and these replicas were distributed to many countries- the US uses kg#20 as its reference. In their history, all of the prototype kg's have returned to France 3 times for dilligent comparison to the original, (last time in 1999) and the results have drifted around a bit, causing a problem for scientists. Interestingly enough, the metric system is French based, but the cylinders were made in England. Here we are in 2010, and the kg is the only unit left in the SI measurement system that is based on the properties of a specific artifact, rather than a natural property. The exact value of the kg is important in physics, as so many other measurements such as Amperes, Coulombs, Planck's constant and others depend on its value. There are some alternative ideas in the works, but the next meeting of the big wigs is scheduled for 2011. Notice that the IPK is adorned with 3 nested bell jars- it remindes me of the triple tiara worn by the big guy in Rome for centuries before Paul VI 86'd it in the 1960's (party pooper!). 
21
« on: January 13, 2010, 12:51:44 am »
LaserWave is now LWave. I decided that rather than post another incremental release, I'd just rename and post it like it was something new (an old marketing gimmick). LWave is an abstract function generator containing a compliment of built-in functions with adjustable parameters and effects; it generates multi-channel wave files of a user specified duration for playback into a modified soundcard using a common audio player app. Some of the plot functions require the import of stereo wave tracks that can be ripped from audio CD using Win Media Player, and will place music in ch 7&8 with an 8ch card, but it also works with 6ch cards. LWave also includes a variety of complex color generation functions, to include photographic color rendering from an imported 24bit .bmp file. Wave files generated from this app can be easily imported into LaserBoy to include 2 & 3D plot functions, making a good bridge between the two applications in both directions. LWave can be run on any Win PC as demo without a multi-ch card or projector. The program does require a little reading to get the most out of it, with docs provided. Hopefully, this rev will be a little better for first time users... Do take a look at the InstallNotes doc before diving in. Some sample files are also provided for download. And it even comes with the Freeware Money Back Guarantee! "This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE." Use only as directed... Now, is that a sales pitch or what! http://laserboy.org/lwave/
22
« on: December 13, 2009, 10:36:16 pm »
23
« on: November 30, 2009, 09:40:31 pm »
Compact Discs have been around over 27 years. Here's some questions to test your knowlege (OK James,
give somebody else a chance to answer).
1. Which came first- audio CD's or CD-ROM?
2. Name the two companies that teamed up to create the CD.
3. Name the title and artist of the first audio CD release.
4. Opposite of vinyl, CD tracks start at the center and go out- this was because the final diameter
of the medium had not yet been decided in the early prototype stage. A maximum diameter was later
established based on a specific equipment size limitation- name the equipment.
5. Early CD's had a maximum playlength approaching 74min- why was this important?
6. Vinyl LP's spin at a rate of 33 1/3 rpm- what about CD's?
7. CD's can accomodate up to 99 tracks, but there was also an optional feature within tracks, supported
by many players up until the mid 90's- what was it?
8. What is 'emphasis' as it applies to audio CD's?
9. What's the difference between CD-R and CD-R Audio?
24
« on: May 11, 2009, 11:21:31 pm »
Well, I just set up Win7 32bit RC1 (I plan to check out the 64bit rev later)... Not exactly a laser topic, but we all know the drill- inside of 6 months, all over-the-counter PC's will have this thing, so I thought it would be worth a look. It installed quite easily on my old Athlon system, but there's much testing to do... I've already noticed that its Media Player can play multi-channel wave (I couldn't get that to work in Vista, as it does in XP). Anybody else out there using Win7?
25
« on: May 05, 2009, 02:58:48 pm »
The attached doc describes how to read and write formatted waves that are compatible
with LaserWave and LaserBoy
26
« on: April 16, 2009, 08:02:49 pm »
Just a few days away... Hard to believe it's been that long. Anything special planned?
27
« on: February 04, 2009, 10:26:58 pm »
LaserWave now has 8ch support in a format that is compatible with LaserBoy! IF you already have LW installed, you can get the update from the laserboy\laserwave\new directory at the akrobiz site. Also included is 24Plotter, an abstract color bitmap generator.
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