IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

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

We made an unpleasant discovery in a package of cookies the other day. There was something I called a "stone" that was embedded in one of the cookies. It was approximately 5 mm across in size. Fortunately, nobody was hurt by this thing, but I did bring the matter to the attention of the baked goods company.

I sent the above images and the stone itself to the company and, giving credit where credit is due, it sure did get their attention. See the following e-mail.

I called that phone number and spoke with "Julie" who told me that they had done an "inverse Fourier" analysis of the object and that it was some kind of undispersed sugar. (I didn't let on that I knew that "inverse Fourier" meant spectral analysis. After all, why add to the complexity?)

In any case, I didn't care if the explanation was true or not. It did get the matter to the attention of the right people and I'm quite sure that efforts were/are underway to prevent this from happening again.

However, since this did happen once, it probably happened more than once. If you've  purchased this product yourself, or perhaps some related product, maybe this occurrence should be taken as a cautionary tale.

Vanity Plates, Part 7 - John Dunn, ,Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

These things seem almost endless.

 

Engineered Wire - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

In my pre-teen youth, I used to read Popular Electronics. There was one advertisement that was printed repeatedly in that magazine that left a long term impression.

There was this picture of a man perhaps forty years of age sitting at a workbench, looking into an upended chassis of some kind while using a tool of some kind on that upended item. He was holding his head slightly upward so that his eyes needed to gaze downward. The effect was to make the man look very haughty and even snobbish. The caption under that photograph read: "If it's worth the engineer's time, it's worth engineered wire."

I wondered back then what kind of equipment might not be worth this guy's time. Maybe a new high fidelity amplifier? Maybe a new neon sign controller? How about a new teleportation machine?

What really came through all that was a sense of praise being offered for arrogance and false pride.

By that time, I had a pretty favorable sense of admiration for people I met who really were achievers, who knew many things which I did not and who were happy to share that knowledge with me to the best of my ability to absorb.

A case in point was one superintendent of the apartment building I lived in who took several of us kids into that part of the building's cellar that housed the heating system boiler. That thing looked like it was the size of a ferry boat. He explained how it was monitored and controlled and I was utterly fascinated. His name was Vinnie.

In the course of my career, I met many other people who provided knowledge and guidance BUT (pause for one moment), I also met a few real life "engineered wire" types, most of whom I discovered really didn't know that much despite their claims to the contrary.

"I'm an expert in everything from DC to daylight."

All part of collective human nature, I suppose.

Windows 11 and Bing - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I have a new laptop which came with Windows 11. A genuine and heartfelt expression of my personal sentiments toward Windows 11 would require the use of language unfit for utterance in the presence of polite company or of small children. Instead, with an eye toward keeping at least moderate civility, I would herein characterize Windows 11 as worthless garbage.

The format differences versus the earlier Windows 10 are a nightmare. Nothing is where I expect it to be, all kinds of announcements keep coming up on screen where they interfere with whatever I am trying, usually without success, to do and there are a multitude of "apps" icons that relate to software which I have examined but which I do not need, I do not want and I do not intend to open again or to ever use.

The only positive thing I can offer about Windows 11 is that it commits its unwanted offenses at high speed. I  don't have to wait long to realize that I am looking at rubbish.

One major objection is that the browser Bing is forced upon me as my default browser to the exclusion of any other browser that might actually do something useful. Going to the window where one is supposed to be able to choose a default browser, I find the message that Firefox is my default browser, but that claim is a lie.

Going to the Firefox icon and opening the "Firefox Properties" window, I find the Target as "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"  and the Start In as "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox". Still, the Firefox browser does not turn on. Instead, I am always presented with the useless, confusing, cluttered, objectionable and vehemently unwanted Bing.

Does anyone have a remedy for this?

 

Pills and Soil Mechanics - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Many medicines come as small pills or tablets in a bottle such as this one.

Sometimes, there is also a capsule of desiccant to protect those pills from being damaged by humidity. Often, the desiccant is enclosed in a plastic shell that is physically larger than the tablet dimensions. Such a shell always seems to rise to the top so that when you try to remove one pill, the shell blocks the bottle's opening just enough to interfere with the removal of that one pill.

This is a phenomenon you've seen in your garden. Small grains of sand and soil tend to sink down in between larger stones and pebbles which then rise toward the surface. In the pill bottle, the small tablets sink down past the larger desiccant shell which itself rises to the top.

A remedy for this inconvenience is shown above.

Put the bottle's cap in place, turn the bottle upside down and shake it all around for a little while. The small pills will gradually fall past the desiccant shell thus raising that shell towards the bottle's closed end. When you turn the bottle right side up again, the shell will be at the bottom and nicely out of the way.

Having repositioned the desiccant shell, removal of one pill is a whole lot easier.

When in the course of human events the desiccant shell gets in the way again, just repeat the turnover and shake process.

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

During the year, weather reports that predict rainfall very often seem to not come true in this area, the South Shore of Long Island.

This seems especially so during the summer. Instead, we see loads of dark clouds passing by way to the north and loads more of them way to the south while the skies here are at most patchy.

On the TV, we often learn that it rained in communities to our north while our area remained dry. To the south is mostly over open water, so we don't hear much about what happened there.

Why is that so often the case??  Please consider the following.

In the aftermath of September 11th, jet travel was largely suspended. It was later reported that a lack of jet contrails in the sky was affecting weather patterns.

Is it possible by similar reasoning that Kennedy Airport as a localized heat source is deflecting incoming rainclouds arriving from the west up towards the north and down towards the south, thus diminishing the rate of raincloud arrivals over this area?   

I cannot envision any remedy, but I am curious to know.

Hamas Rockets - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

The picture below is a satellite photograph of my home. It dates back to 2012.  Please see:  Satellite Recon 

Those two white dots are a pair of vents over my dining room's roof. Each vent is an aluminum square, approximately twelve inches on a side. Satellite imaging can be very precise.

The attack that Hamas launched on Israel involved thousands of rockets, the physical dimensions of which surely exceeded twelve inches. They might have been stored in tunnels or been disguised with some other camoflage, but while being prepared for launch, they had to be out in the open and visible.

Using the above image as an example of observation capability, the apparent fact that Israel failed to employ even rudimentary surveillance that would have revealed those rockets before launch is evidence of negligence born of complacency.

Also, I would think that US satellite imaging would have achieved detection of those rockets as well and that a warning alert would have been provided. Again, there appears to be evidence of complacency.

The cost of that complacency is beyond my descriptive abilities.

What else is being overlooked?

Miller Place Accident - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

A woman was hit by a car in Merrick the other day and was reportedly in critical condition.

Please see the following screen shot:

I know this intersection. My home is only a five minute walk away. Almost every day I see at least one pedestrian along Merrick Avenue barely escape being run over by a car. On October 4th, it seems to have happened.

I don't know the circumstances that led to the above event, but there are two dominant contributors that prevail.

1) Sheer stupidity of a motorist. 2) Sheer stupidity of a pedestrian.

1)         The Motorists

The posted speed limit is 30 MPH except where schools are located and the limit is lower. At this intersection, there is an elementary school and the limit is 20 MPH. Also, there are "No U-Turn" signs at frequent intervals all up and down Merrick Avenue.

Every day, I see vehicles traveling on Merrick Avenue, both northbound and southbound, at speeds I estimate to be forty to fifty MPH. Every day along the length of Merrick Avenue, I see vehicles making forbidden U-turns.

2)         The Pedestrians

Every day, I see at least one pedestrian abruptly step out from between parked cars and into the flow of traffic. They do not pause to look at what might be coming. They do not hesitate to simply stride across the roadway, often forcing drivers to abruptly slow down or even to stop to avoid an event.

At night, I often see pedestrians clad in dark clothing that renders them almost invisible, even under a street light or in the direct headlight beams of my own car. There is not a stitch of anything either light colored or reflective that would enhance their visibility. When I see such cloaked pedestrians behave as cited above, I find my heartbeat racing whether I am a driver or a pedestrian myself.

My request which I provide here, perhaps in vain, is USE SOME COMMON SENSE. Your hot date can wait a few minutes while you drive observantly of the traffic laws. Nobody will object to seeing you on foot under the street lights.

Remember Carl Sandburg's poem "Chicago"?  There is a line that reads  "...for I have seen your painted women under the gaslamps luring the farmboys."

You don't have to worry about anything like that.

Hyundai and Kia - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Hyundai and Kia are recalling vehicles dating as far back as model year 2010 because of a fire hazard. Owners are advised not to park their vehicles next to their homes or other buildings.

Please consider the following two screen shots.

The issue appears to be that a rubber seal tends to deteriorate over the course of time leading to brake fluid leakage. That errant brake fluid can then penetrate to electrical circuitry which in response draws excessive current and overheats which can then set off ignition.

A suggested remedy of replacing a fuse with a lower amperage fuse is supposed to prevent the overheating and thus prevent a fire, but when that lower amperage fuse does its job and blows out, you the driver are going to be stuck somewhere with a disabled vehicle.

Replacing the rubber part is clearly a more costly effort than replacing a fuse. These two manufacturers are trying to minimize the recall-servicing cash loss at the possibly life threatening peril to their customers.

Our family owns four sedans of model years 2011, 2006, 2002 and 1999. They're a geriatric automotive quartet for sure. When I finally need to seek any replacements, there are two names that I intend to avoid.

 

Oops! Something Went Wrong, Part 6 - John Dunn, Consultant Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

My group blockages at LinkedIn appear to have ended.

As of July 26th, I was blocked from 38 groups, as of August 2nd, August 7th and August 16th, I was blocked from 35 groups and as of August 19th, I was blocked from 25 groups. However, on September 4th, I discovered that my posting abilities had been restored to all 49 groups in which I am a participant. As of October 2nd, full posting ability has not been disrupted.

While the blockages were in effect, I sent correspondence to The Better Business Bureau, to The Federal Trade Commission and to The New York State Office of the Attorney General. In all three cases, I received replies (my paraphrasing) that the issue had been made a matter of record at each agency, but that no remedial steps were to be expected.

I don't know if one or more of those agencies quietly had a hand in that restoration nor whether restoration will continue to be the case as time goes on. However, if you have had an experience similar to my own and are still affected, the above information may be of use.