IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Absurdities - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I saw this painting on the wall of a doctor's waiting room:

If those metallic looking areas were indeed metallization, I was thinking that this might be a microscope view of a very early planar integrated circuit.

Just thinking.

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I happened to notice this on Sunrise Highway:

What kind of a power supply would need a diode like this and what kind of a heat sink would it require?

Shopping Mall Trap - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Here's a trap waiting to be sprung upon the hapless unwary.

The driver of this huge truck had pulled up to make deliveries to a local CVS and in doing so, he obstructed the exit paths for cars parked in nearby parking stalls.

I went into the store to ask their manager to have the driver move the truck, but to no avail. As a result, the young mother was forced to struggle with many, many car maneuvers to escape her capture.

I never park where I can see similar situations waiting to occur, not in this shopping mall or anywhere else.

Syncopation - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I was once offered the following description of syncopation.

Imagine that you are musically counting time. Each beat is divided into two parts. The first part is the downbeat and the second part is the upbeat. If you were counting four-quarter time without syncopation, accent would go on the first half, on the downbeat, and you would have:

ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and-FOUR-and-ONE-and-TWO-and-THREE-and-FOUR-and

Notice that I didn't leave off that last "and". It was the second half of that fourth beat and you must finish the beat.

With syncopation however, the accent goes instead on the second half of the beat, on the upbeat. If you were counting four-quarter time with syncopation, you would have:

one-AND-two-AND-three-AND-four-AND-one-AND-two-AND-three-AND-four-AND

Did you feel that? That starts coming to life doesn't it!!

As an example of music without syncopation, sing to yourself "Old MacDonald Had A Farm".

Then as an example of music with syncopation, think of Louis Prima singing "That Old Black Magic". In that song, almost every measure is syncopated.

I've never met anyone who can sit absolutely motionless when hearing that performance.

Language Drift - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Each weekday morning on WNYC radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has a news program from nine to ten o'clock, New York time.

I often listen and sometimes I get caught a little off guard by the way that some words are pronounced differently from how I would pronounce them. Here are a few examples:

I am no grammarian so my notation of how these words are spoken are simply my own improvisations, but still, I see linguistic drift at work in all of these words which we share in common. However, there are also some words in British speech which simply do not exist for me.

For example, in a recent Andy Capp cartoon panel, Andy says to the other men at the pub:

Lads"? I suppose we would say "guys" or "fellas".

"Get the beers in"? I suppose we would say "buy the next round".

"Skint"? I suppose we would say "broke" but there in one balloon, you have three examples of language drift.

Nearly two and a half centuries seem to have had some effect.

Freedom Misunderstood - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Please take a look at the following Born Loser cartoon:

https://www.gocomics.com/the-born-loser/2021/08/10

Brutus' wife, Gladys, won't use a cookbook in the kitchen because she doesn't like being told what to do. Gladys seems to have the wrong idea of what it means to have freedom. In that same vein, some people have been refusing vaccination because they don't like being told what to do. They too have the wrong idea of what it means to have freedom.

I have a group on LinkedIn called "Analog Developments" to which there are 2,633 members at this writing. When someone requests to become a "contact", I extend an invitation to join that group and the process had always gone smoothly, but suddenly it has not.

One person located overseas from here could not access "Analog Developments" to join it so I asked what had gone wrong. I was sent an e-mail directly to myself rather than via LinkedIn which included this picture of what that person had encountered:

If you are somehow upset because you think your freedom is somehow impinged upon by calls for anti-pandemic medical and sanitary measures, please place yourself in the above person's situation and think about what denials of freedom are really about.

Wouff-Hong - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

We were taking a stroll around the block today when I came across an astounding object just lying in the roadway, a naturally produced Wouff-Hong.

Please see:

https://geardiary.com/2013/01/22/quirky-ham-radio-gadgets-from-yesteryear-the-wouff-hong-and-the-rettysnitch/

From the above URL, we read:

We also see at that same URL this illustration of the revered object:

I have never personally come across a rettysnitch, but then, who knows?

Decisions, Part 2 - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

"You decide for your child and I'll decide for mine."  -   Anti-masker

Also, no.

Children are known to be able to carry and propagate the COVID-19 variants. Schools are confronted with hosting assemblages of children who are quite capable of spreading the pandemic infection. Mandated masks are a step in diminishing that spread.

If you send your child to school with a strep infection, you risk spreading that ailment to all of the other children. Strep has the well documented property of leading to rheumatic heart disease which can then have fatal consequences. Singer Bobby Darin who died at age 37 is perhaps the best known public persona to have died in that way.

Disease preventative measures against strep which is highly infectious and can lead to lethal circumstances are well accepted. Disease preventative measures against COVID-19 which is highly infectious and can lead to lethal circumstances are equally warranted.

This is not a matter for parental "choice".

Hopefully, vaccination resources will soon be available to younger aged persons, but we're not there yet. Even then though, I do NOT accept that anyone's choice to risk transmitting possibly lethal disease to my grandchildren is either appropriate or warranted.

These guys cannot be replaced.

Decisions - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

"You make your decision and I'll make mine."  -  Anti-vaxxer

No.

If you make a decision to dye your hair pink, that is rightfully your decision to make. If you decide to drive a 1957 DeSoto automobile, that too is rightfully your decision to make. However, if you decide to drive that DeSoto through red lights and in the wrong directions on One Way streets, those are NOT your rightful decisions to make. You would be subject to arrest.

If you were infected with tuberculosis, you would NOT have the right to step aboard a crowded elevator and risk transmitting your disease to other elevator passengers. You could be subject to quarantine. Similarly, if you choose to promote exposure of me or my loved ones to infectious and possibly lethal disease as in COVID-19, that too is NOT your rightful decision to make.

COVID-19 caused the recent death of H. Scott Apley, GOP politician from Texas, age 45, who stood in ardent opposition to vaccination, falsely espousing among other things that vaccines don't work and writing to a former Baltimore health commissioner: “You are an absolute enemy of a free people,”.

Please see:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/05/texas-gop-leader-antimask-antivax-dies-covid/

By all appearances, Mr. Apley, still young from my perspective, brought about his own demise and took steps which jeopardized others including those whom he undoubtedly held dear.

This is tragedy, absolute, avoidable and needless tragedy in every sense of that word.

I earnestly hope that you will live to see your next birthday, the birthday after that and many more beyond. Please do all that you can to make that happen.

I look forward to having a piece of birthday cake.

Coping With A "Request" - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Belarus sprinter  Krystsina Tsimanouskaya had trained for the 200 meter sprint event in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. However, while in Tokyo, she received governmental word that she should run in the 400 meter relay race, an event for which she had not trained. The demands of the two events are, as she informs us, quite different.

When she spoke of not being prepared for that change, she had to fear Belarus governmental reprisal. Rather than being able to return home, apparently fearing arrest, she took refuge in another nation, in Poland.

That situation brought to mind memory of a somewhat parallel situation.

New York City has several specialty high schools. One of them is the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. (Can you say all of that in one breath?)

When Rudolph Giuliani was mayor of New York City, he contacted the administration of Fiorello LaGuardia High School to ask that a marching band be provided for some city event that he wanted to stage. That school's music department was training its students in its music department for concert performances, not for marching band performances. The demands of the two types of performance are also quite different.

That the two place very different demands on their performers was a fact that the mayor seemed not to accept. When the mayor was told no, his reaction was unconcealed anger. The saving grace was that at least he could not threaten those who had not complied with his "request" with being arrested.

Support Animal - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I was in a medical office waiting room today. While I was there, a couple came with the woman holding this dog on a leash.

The reception clerk spoke first and asked "Is that a support animal?" to which, after a moment of hesitation, the woman with the dog answered "Yes" and was allowed to take a waiting room seat.

Shortly afterward, a man entered. He was quite ordinary. He was wearing jeans, a blue tee shirt and a baseball cap. As he approached the reception desk, for no apparent reason, the dog suddenly tried to attack him.

With a loud bark and growl, the dog tried to lunge in that man's direction but was held back by the leash. The man looked at the dog for a few moments, then turned back to the receptionist to take care of his needs.

The woman who owned the dog strove to calm the animal down and eventually did so, but I think that the incident could have turned out much worse.

A "support animal"??  

Really??