Maybe Exchange will be usable this weekend.
* * *
Nancy Pelosi will resign if the Dems lose the House because she'll lose her fat Speaker perks.
That would be nice.
* * *
Liberal pants-wetter freaks out when she's counseled by all and sundry to get herself a gun to protect herself from a stalker.
Oregon is one of the top four liberal states in the Union yet they have "shall issue" CCW law.
C'mon, Illnois! WTF!
The bedwetter: "...[W]ho really needs a 20-round magazine when you're defending against a stalker?" Because of course, in a self-defense situation, you're going to be as calm and collected as you are at the pistol range, and you'll have plenty of time to aim, right?
*rolleyes*
* * *
Two links to Michelle Malkin:
1) More about Democrat vote fraud.
2) Democrat needs to be spoon-fed softball questions lest he embarass himself.
* * *
"Statistically, youngsters who think themselves "gay" can expect to contract scores of STDs and to die young of AIDS."
* * *
NPR gets 41% of its budget from taxes through various channels.
* * *
The Fed's going to buy more treasuries. We managed to avoid inflation with the first round, so naturally they're trying a second. Whee!
* * *
"The great unwashed", sez Katie Couric.
Holy smokes! You mean Katie Couric is comin' out here? Why, she's wunna them coastal liberals we all wish we could be! Dayum. I'm-a gonna have to get out my washin' soap and take me a bath if she's a-comin' to this-here neck o' th' woods! I might even wash my clothes while I'm at it! I just cain't believe she'd take time outa her busy schedule to visit a bunch of uneducated hicks 'n' hayseeds like us-n!
*GACK*
God damn it I wish I could hit these arrogant assholes with a tire iron.
* * *
Remmyton hit level 26 yesterday.
I'm having fun with this new character. Although hunters lost area of effect attacks, a lot of the attack shots have been improved to be "instant", and the cooldown is about 1 second for most of them, so you can go bang bang bang like you actually mean to kill whatever you're shooting at. At level 26, able to wear only leather armor, I can send my pet into a mob of monsters to keep aggro while I shoot at them from a distance; and even if one detaches itself and comes over to pound on me I can live through it.
Combat's not a chore! I don't feel like I'm just babysitting countdown timers and having to wait to do anything; there have been times I've been able to drop a monster before it could close the distance and chew on me.
I'm hearing tell that mages are more powerful now. I suppose I should hop on Oledanbolt and get him out of the starting area....
I realized that certain names would be awesome once the character can get the "Jenkins" achievement. "Oledanbolt Jenkins" sounds good. I'd love to have a character named "Hooter Jenkins".
* * *
The other day, as I was going to sleep, I recalled that I had seen a circuit which incorporated a 555 timer not too long ago, and I was trying to remember what it had been.
The 555 timer is an 8-pin IC; it's a dirt cheap timer circuit. It's not very accurate but if you simply want some way of turning something on for a little bit, then off again--and don't care about precise timing--the 555 is probably the cheapest way to accomplish it. A couple resistors and capacitors are all you need to set the interval and duty cycle, and in bulk they cost pennies apiece. They can operate on a variety of voltages and as the design is quite mature, its operating characteristics are well-understood.
But you don't see them in modern sophisticated consumer electronics. The timing isn't precise enough; and besides, a lot of consumer electronics require some modicum of computing power, and you can replicate a 555 timer's function in just a few lines of code. (Despite this, I have seen a 555 timer in surface-mount IC form. They still use it when it's needed.)
So, I thought, WTF had I taken apart recently that used one? I'm always pleased to see the 555 timer being used, because it's kind of an old friend of mine (memories of college days...).
I hadn't had the fog machine apart. When I tried to disassemble the 500 GB external drive, the interface didn't have anything like a 555 in it; why would it? What else had I had apart in the last couple of months that could possibly use a 555 timer?
It led me to realize that I don't take stuff apart as much as I used to. It used to be that I'd take something apart just to see how it's put together, just out of sheer curiosity. Even intricate things, like one of my cell phones. I did finally take the MP3 player apart, just to see its insides, but that wasn't where I saw the 555. So where was it? Shoot, I hadn't just had some kind of dream about it, had I?
Then it hit me: the Jeep's rear wiper motor. Specifically, the relay module. It had a 555 timer in it.
After that--the mystery solved--I fell asleep.