The geek and nerd thread. Period.

[William67]

It was bugging me, so I looked it up. It's the law of conservation of energy, which I had forgotten about, but it's kind of hard to wrap your mind around how you can't create energy even if there is no friction.

So, ideally, if it were suspended in a magnetic field, and in a vacuum, it could be used to pass a magnetic field over a circuit to induct the flow of electricity (it would still make a very nice energy storage device), but I think the electronic circuit itself might project a magnetic field of its own, resisting the flywheel.

Tesla created a similar device in 1894. Although, in Tesla's device, the current was induced by an A/C induction coil generating a magnetic field, which created current in another coil. However, the induction coil needed a source of power and the magnetic field, because it was A/C, oscillated at a high frequency. (This is actually how induction cooktops work by "push/pulling" the iron atoms in cookware and generating heat).

 

[redblue22]

neither.

 

[sundewgrower]

Where can I start..
I have had a lot of hobbies over the years.
A reef aquarium for 7 years, 50 species of carnivorous plants, I know a lot about hydroponics and aquaponics,
I own two CNC machines and know a lot about software in that area, I build my own stuff, I love reading about random stuff on Wikipedia while seemingly remembering most of it which harasses me at times, and I find a lot of things others do to be very boring unless it's thinking about things in a deeper manner. But initially most think I'm a bit of a dull moron since I'm rather nice, and don't act very intelligent.. I just realize most aren't into what I like, and so I just shut it off in some ways.

And a question to a networking nerd since I know nothing.
I need a good wifi router.. Our family has four to five cellphones, three desktops, a Chromekey, and I need crystal clear VOIP with very low latency/jitter with some moderate usage (say while 3-4 devices streaming 720p video) from those devices. What router could I buy where I can have that happen that's not hundreds of dollars? I'd like it so I can set QOS for VOIP to be top priority or something..
Good range would be nice, but just holding the streams, and having VOIP work perfectly would be nice. Budget is about $$80-$150 but if a cheaper one of that range will be good than I'd be very happy.. I'm sick of reading about routers and Wifi since it takes too long to know what to get.

 

[Nanopants]

This thing started to roll in finnish science park at 1990 and its still rolling (possibly with some short maintenance breaks). I know it's not possible to have it moving forever but seems to be possible to make thing that moves for very long time. I don't know what keeps it rolling but if someone knows similar machines, wanna tell how they work?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKOjGVXps_k

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's a flywheel that's being rotated by the pendulums below. The pendulums could be swinging because of something like seismic activity, or possibly slight movements in the building itself (I think modern skyscrapers are designed to shift slightly with seismic activity or strong gusts of wind).

If that's the case it's not really a perpetual motion machine even if it never stops, since it's drawing energy from the environment.

 

[JackofSpades]

I have no idea about it, they refuse to publicly tell how it works.

 

[RobertMerton]

And a question to a networking nerd since I know nothing.
I need a good wifi router.. Our family has four to five cellphones, three desktops, a Chromekey, and I need crystal clear VOIP with very low latency/jitter with some moderate usage (say while 3-4 devices streaming 720p video) from those devices. What router could I buy where I can have that happen that's not hundreds of dollars? I'd like it so I can set QOS for VOIP to be top priority or something..
Good range would be nice, but just holding the streams, and having VOIP work perfectly would be nice. Budget is about $$80-$150 but if a cheaper one of that range will be good than I'd be very happy.. I'm sick of reading about routers and Wifi since it takes too long to know what to get.

I am running a ASUS router with gargoyle.
I've found it way better than DD-WRT or Tomato.

 

[MarkSB]

So, ideally, if it were suspended in a magnetic field, and in a vacuum, it could be used to pass a magnetic field over a circuit to induct the flow of electricity (it would still make a very nice energy storage device), but I think the electronic circuit itself might project a magnetic field of its own, resisting the flywheel.

Yep, its called back electromotive force (back emf). Its similar to a generator, when you place an electric load on the generator circuit, it requires more torque to drive the generator at the same speed (more power).

A flywheel in space will store energy, but it doesn't create it. So as soon as you begin to extract that energy (through induction or by mechanical means), the flywheel will slow down.

It really is kind of weird, since pretty much any energy "source" is just energy stored in a different form (fossil fuels, wind power, ect.), most of which ultimately comes from the sun.

 

[MarkSB]

I actually happen to have a perpetual motion machine. I keep it in the closet, right next to my monopole magnet , which is sitting on top of Barak Obama's birth certificate.

(And yes, that last one was a joke, and I'm not one of those birther people.)

 

[MarkSB]

No way...I just assembled two fully tested kit and wired it up. That's it.
It's not my design at all.

I see. Well that still ranks as cool in my book, I imagine that's what I would do if I was going to build one, since the design part might be a little too much for me.

Btw, I'm gonna build a pre-amp and a power amp in the coming months for my upcoming stand mounted monitors. Most probably, the power amp is gonna be a class-A design. Jean Hiraga's Le Monstre is my inspiration.

Nice, I've never heard of that amp before. I have a Butler Audio TDB2150 (car audio amp) which is sitting in a closet and hasn't been hooked up for a while. Not a true class A amp by my understanding (class AB). In house, I currently have an Adcom GFA-555 which was hooked up to my fronts, but I might be having some issues with it.

Yeah but yamaha already discontinued that model in the UK and USA with AS 501 but they haven't introduced them in India yet.

Ah, I see. I've never heard of that amp before, but I think my receiver was discontinued not long after I bought it as well. It seems like its one of the last "middle of the line" receivers which actually had pre-outs.

 

[sparkydave]

I can't really show off my collection, it's a little too big. I collect and restore antique radios:

1921 Westinghouse Aeriola Senior - works, or so I'm told
1924 Midwest Radio "Miraco" - might work, has tubes, needs batteries and a loudspeaker
1926 Atwater-Kent model 32 - needs some repairs
1928 RCA Radiola 18 - unknown, but needs a loudspeaker
1933 Philco model 89B - currently being repaired, working
1935 Silvertone model 1845 console - works
1935(?) Silvertone model 1884 - someday I'll fix it
1936 Zenith model 10S153 console - works
1936 Grunow table radio - works
1937 Truetone model D-727 - works
1939 Westinghouse model WR-270 - works, last I checked
1939 RCA model T-80 - works
1946 Howard model 920 - works
1946 General Electric model 114 - works
1950 Zenith H-500 Transoceanic - works
1950 Silvertone model 2 - works
1950 Hallicrafters S-40B - works
1951 Airline - unknown
1950(?) General Electric clock radio -works
1953 Zenith AM/FM table radio - works
1958 Emerson model 888 transistor radio - works

 

[Qyöt27]

And a question to a networking nerd since I know nothing.
I need a good wifi router.. Our family has four to five cellphones, three desktops, a Chromekey, and I need crystal clear VOIP with very low latency/jitter with some moderate usage (say while 3-4 devices streaming 720p video) from those devices. What router could I buy where I can have that happen that's not hundreds of dollars? I'd like it so I can set QOS for VOIP to be top priority or something..
Good range would be nice, but just holding the streams, and having VOIP work perfectly would be nice. Budget is about $$80-$150 but if a cheaper one of that range will be good than I'd be very happy.. I'm sick of reading about routers and Wifi since it takes too long to know what to get.

Honestly, I doubt brand names have much if any impact here. You're going to want to look for high-bandwidth routers, which probably means the new Wireless-AC standard.

I've never used one of their routers, but I do have a TP-LINK USB2.0 Wireless-N adapter that's been performing well for the past couple months (despite us only having a Wireless-G router and multiple other devices competing for bandwidth during the evening). On Amazon, there's a TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 dual-band router for ~$92. If I had the money, that's probably the one I'd buy, mostly for future-proofing since we've almost certainly not got any AC devices. The '1750' is a bit of a misnomer, since AC supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels, where the 2.4GHz channel supports 450mbps and the 5GHz channel supports 1300mbps. So combined, it's 1750. There are also 1900mbps models from other manufacturers that up the 2.4GHz channel to 600mbps, but the price on those is still well over $100.

And since AC was only finalized and released this past January, older devices would need an adapter to fully make use of the new AC features (when I looked, the AC adapters were usually in the $30 range). Otherwise, they'd just connect to it using N mode and you'd probably still be in the same position you are now.

Given those things, the one thing you should do is cable those desktops. That'd be three less devices competing for the wifi bandwidth, and besides that, cabled connections are faster - sometimes significantly - than wireless, and Cat6 cable is cheap (you can get 50ft. of it for less than $10).

 

[The Outlier]

If I am able to perfect the systems, Im more interested in the US and International patent rights. The only people who have seen it are members of my own family. I was originally thinking "household power", but my brother suggested I try to make it small enough to fit inside a car. Ive been working on these for more than 10 years.

The main thing to remember with a patent is it just gives you the right to make money off your idea. It doesn't keep others from copying your idea. China has copied well-made American products with cheap imitations for years. The way to protect yourself is find the cheapest way to produce your idea, that way if someone does copy it, you will still be able to sell yours at a cheaper price.

 

[The Outlier]

Does anyone else out there draw maps of imaginary places and then put cities in them and then draw roads to connect the cities, or am I the only one who does that?

 

[Messy]

Does anyone else out there draw maps of imaginary places and then put cities in them and then draw roads to connect the cities, or am I the only one who does that?

I used to as a kid. Now I draw normal maps, I'm a cartographer.

 

[sundewgrower]

Well I got sick of it and picked something up at Target.
I looked up the wrong model, as they have the same generic number but one is Linksys, and the other Belkin. So what I bought wasn't liked on Amazon.
And so I bought something on Amazon, but read about the one you mentioned so I'm trying to decide still

 

[The Outlier]

I used to as a kid. Now I draw normal maps, I'm a cartographer.

Now I have a true friend! LOL

 

[William67]

The main thing to remember with a patent is it just gives you the right to make money off your idea. It doesn't keep others from copying your idea. China has copied well-made American products with cheap imitations for years. The way to protect yourself is find the cheapest way to produce your idea, that way if someone does copy it, you will still be able to sell yours at a cheaper price.

Patents also give you the right to sue anyone manufacturing your device without your permission. As I said earlier, my brother suggested I "downsize" it to fit inside a car. In other words, to use it as a power supply for electric cars. Included as part of any patent agreements with US or overseas cars companies, would be a requirement for them to "defend" my patent from illegal use.

Part of this defense would be to get a court injunction to prevent any "dealers" from selling those cars, or, barring an injunction, to force the dealers to pay a "fee" for each illegal car sold. This would effectively raise the price of each car making it cheaper for buyers to purchase legally manufactured autos.

 

[William67]

Does anyone else out there draw maps of imaginary places and then put cities in them and then draw roads to connect the cities, or am I the only one who does that?

I did that many years ago when I played NationStates.

 

[The Outlier]

Patents also give you the right to sue anyone manufacturing your device without your permission. As I said earlier, my brother suggested I "downsize" it to fit inside a car. In other words, to use it as a power supply for electric cars. Included as part of any patent agreements with US or overseas cars companies, would be a requirement for them to "defend" my patent from illegal use.

Part of this defense would be to get a court injunction to prevent any "dealers" from selling those cars, or, barring an injunction, to force the dealers to pay a "fee" for each illegal car sold. This would effectively raise the price of each car making it cheaper for buyers to purchase legally manufactured autos.

If they change it by 15% they can get away with pretty much anything. Example: You can buy a cheap knock off version of the old transformer Devastator for $15. Its the same molds (or makeshift molds) of the original but its yellow. That could be considered 15%. A real G1 Devastator in mint condition could cost in excess of $300. Its green and purple.

 

[William67]

If they change it by 15% they can get away with pretty much anything. Example: You can buy a cheap knock off version of the old transformer Devastator for $15. Its the same molds (or makeshift molds) of the original but its yellow. That could be considered 15%. A real G1 Devastator in mint condition could cost in excess of $300. Its green and purple.

Actually, for toys, its more copyright infringement. For patents, you cant change the color or make it 15% bigger or smaller. It has to be significantly modified by 15%. Believe it or not, that is very hard to do. Also, Im not just going to get the legal rights for the actual design and construction of the device, but also on the "mechanics" that make the device work.

I currently own 17 patents.