Friday, December 16, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Cycle Helmet - or not?
Just finished looking at cyclehelmets.org, a site which claims that wearing a helmet while cycling does not reduce the chance of serious head injury. Hmmm - despite the "scientific" claims and expert opinions, there is rather biased and distinctly non-scientific analyses of their data sources. "Helmets don't work" is obviously a preconceived idea.
As always with such matters, the truth is not entirely clear - but I have a simple approach. Dear cyclehelmets.org oh-so-clever engineer, put on a helmet and get a friend to hit you increasingly hard on the head with a baseball bat until the blows on your helmet are "uncomfortable." Now take it off and let him hit you directly on the skull. Now look at your helmet - I bet there will be no sign of your engineer's "compression." What does this prove? Your website is flawed, so for me ... I'm wearing a helmet.
As always with such matters, the truth is not entirely clear - but I have a simple approach. Dear cyclehelmets.org oh-so-clever engineer, put on a helmet and get a friend to hit you increasingly hard on the head with a baseball bat until the blows on your helmet are "uncomfortable." Now take it off and let him hit you directly on the skull. Now look at your helmet - I bet there will be no sign of your engineer's "compression." What does this prove? Your website is flawed, so for me ... I'm wearing a helmet.
Friday, July 08, 2011
DIY HiFi
Another project looms ... a SET amp using 45 output tubes. These are arguably the pinnacle of hifi amps, but at a measly 2 watts or so need extremely efficient speakers. Guess what - I have such speakers! Onward we go ... research stage ...
Tubelab SE?
Pros: plenty online help, pcboard, reviews all positive.
Cons: apparently rare input tubes (5842) - could find them though. PCB - would be nice to do a point-to-point. Needs a few components eg ICXP 10M45S IC (no suitable alternative apparently) that are extraordinarily difficult to source in the UK.
Still looking ...
Tubelab SE?
Pros: plenty online help, pcboard, reviews all positive.
Cons: apparently rare input tubes (5842) - could find them though. PCB - would be nice to do a point-to-point. Needs a few components eg ICXP 10M45S IC (no suitable alternative apparently) that are extraordinarily difficult to source in the UK.
Still looking ...
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
RIP Ivor
So ... Ivor cutler died 3rd March and the world loses a peculiar genius. "Life in a Scotch sitting room vol 2" stands with other great contemporary writings. It is compelling, hypnotic listening - if you don't know it, find it.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
CSS still got growing to do
I can't quite believe how unfinished CSS 2 is. Even simple layouts that are commonplace with the old tables are close to impossible to achieve. The 3-column stuff is now so difficult that it would take months to write one would not break in at least one browser.
I've had to go for a hybrid of CSS for basic style elements, but tables for layouts that need them (almost all). Roll on CSS3.
I've had to go for a hybrid of CSS for basic style elements, but tables for layouts that need them (almost all). Roll on CSS3.