So true. My phone has a better speakerphone than my new Silverado. The mapping is better than the built in nav system, AND I can set up my route from the comfort of my armchair or dining room table where I have all the written information NOT in my lap. Onstar is less than stellar, although having the added safety of dispatch service is rather nice to think about (never have needed it, hope it stays that way).

Heck a nice chassis, reliable drive line, and adequate suspension are all I *NEED* in a vehicle. Radio optional. OK, I like a radio, but I don't need 5 billion features, just make it sound good and give me a half a dozen preset equalizer settings *on one button* so I don't have to spend 20 minutes fiddling when I change stations.

This is the first time I have my own brand new vehicle that I got to choose. Huge step up from the used cars and beaters I have driven the rest of my life.

Phil

True modular design is not necessary. Simply making it come apart in small enough pieces for two people to take through a door is all that is needed. Some bracing on the underside of mating panels that can be bolted together rigidly with probably 4 or 5 more bolts than necessary.

Some thoughts as to layout around the breaks - a lot can be done to make the breaks come apart cleanly without having to redo the entire section of landscaping
use stiff plastic to make sure the "fault lines" are going to divide nicely.
use flocking - redoing a small area of flocking is pretty easy... messy but easy.
use fabric over the base material then decorate the fabric. Make sure the fabric has a seam that can peel near the mating edges
have the town roads split. The split will be near invisible if a "naturally straight" feature is part of the edge, such as a car road, track bed, or building.

Plan for grade plan for access with hands. Use tunnels, building and other features to make "trap doors" so there are reaching holes that allow access to the center of the board.

Pre-plan the whole diorama. If you have access to CAD use it. Have poster printouts made to become templates that can transfer information quickly and easily

Make sure there is wiring paths, plan these to be accessible from underneath so use conduit, loom, or other means to organize the many, many wires that inevitably happen.

I do a small Christmas layout most years using O27 Lionel. The track all comes up, and the boards get put away in the basement. Even though this is super simple and dead flat the failures are mind boggling at times.

Phil

Decent quality disposable injection molded plastic stethoscopes are available for less than $1, packaged sterile, make part of the need here difficult to accept. I am sure the sound quality on a disposable stethoscope is not even similar to a Littmann cardio III.

I am surprised that the git appears to only offer molds for making silicone ear pieces. I am not going to deny that the silicone earpiece is likely superior both for comfort and for ambient noise elimination. It seems like having additions options available would be important.

If these are being printed in a resource poor area a set of ear tubes that have ball ends built directly onto them so added material resources of liquid silicone is not necessary would seem to be an essential! Of course several diameters would be required since not all ears are the same size. Yes, this will prove to be a duplication of parts, but the cost of having an alternate design available is minimal, especially if it means that the device is more readily useable.

Availability of the diaphragm plastic is happily not essential as a stethoscope without a diaphragm will still perform better than an ear pressed to the patient.

A noble project. Stethoscopes are used for listening to the heart and lungs, the abdomen for digestion/gas sounds, taking blood pressure, and likely more.

Phil

Most of the world uses Windows, unless they use Mac. Also many employers use Adobe. It would be of benefit to NOT eliminate Windows and Mac entirely. Maintain a class size lab of these different platforms, while switching everything else to Linux and Linux based software.

Gonna take a lot longer than 50 years to get robotics to replace straight/bent stick laprascopy. Payers (Medicare, Medicaid) have a strong preference for the older technology - to the point of dropping robotic certified physicians!

It also turns out that the advances in ROBOTIC surgery have lead to advances in Laprascopic surgery! Laprascopic surgery has more trained surgeons (effectively ALL of them), is part of regular surgeon training, has typically shorter anesthesia time (although this gap is closing), and is not going away anytime soon. Open surgery is also going nowhere because robotic cases, like laprascopic cases, must have a fail-safe option of open procedures.

Laprascopic procedures are faster, use cheaper instrumentation, and the surgeon population is much better trained that in robotic surgery.

Effective robotic surgeons ONLY do robotic surgery. They also do not do procedures that are already optimized for existing procedures, such as gall bladder and appendicitis.

Robotic surgery is just another tool in the kit. The old tools will not be thrown out because of a shiny new tool. Robotic surgery will likely remain in the realm of specialists and sub-specialists for a long time

Well, yes that is an option. Problem with reducing the mass of semi-automatic handguns is many of the parts that are held are doing double duty for the user interface (grip, magazine holder). By the time you strip it down much of it needs to be custom fabricated. Suddenly it is no longer an off-the-shelf build. Sights are very little weight. Maybe stripping a rifle would get the results you are indicating.

The point is have you looked at quadcopter control boards recently? Every control board has active stabilization, and can be set to a mode that is very stable. This will hold level fairly well. Add GPS and it will hold position in all axis. Add a FPV camera and use a bore laser to aim, simply put a mark on the monitor on the pilot/shooter's end and it will be good for 25 feet range without second thought, probably much longer range but that would require test firing. Add a tilt servo if desired otherwise the firing line is locked in, and 5 or 10 degrees of up/down adjustment would make aiming potentially easier.

All the electronics are off the shelf to do this There is nothing special needed, no special programming skills. No electronic wizardry other than using a soldering iron, and that can be avoided even by choosing components with connectors already installed. _ALL_ the fabrication can be done with a saw and drill, even the gun rest and (optional) tilt mechanism. More robust material than hardware store square dowel would be needed, so aluminum, fiberglass, or carbon fiber square tubing with PCB, fiberglass, or CF sheet, and a couple boxes of nuts and bolts. These are all easy to get materials.

The hardest thing with I see with this build is keeping the machine close to balanced AND having the thrust line of recoil pass through the center of gravity. Both are trivial design problems.

I would not try this myself, well, maybe for paintball but that seems silly.

As a proof of concept, someone building this kind of machine, I am still surprised this was not seen a few years ago.

I am surprised it took this long for a video that looks like it is not CGI, showing reasonable mostly off-the-shelf hardware demonstrating a firearm.

I am not surprised by anything in the video.

This might half the time required. You say you have a VM already on the laptop. Get a handful of external ethernet adapters. I think the best number will be in the neighborhood of 4, but learn with 2.

Run the VM and have one adapter present in each VM. Connect to device inside the pump. Start the next VM. etc. This is still a 2-node network, each instance will have a "fail safe" in an error will stop the one instance. With a typical gas station having 2 double pumps per island having 4 connections means one island at a time. 2 connections means 1 double pump at a time.

Best part is the headache is all in the VM working properly, and should be transparent to the software and to the pump. I am sure you have a training system to practice on before taking this live to the field.

I agree. I know a physician who laments taking a mere HOUR to dictate the day's procedures, with the paper charting completed at time of visit. EMR takes 10x longer according to this physician.

I just want a middle button! My new M525 functions, and has a wheel button, but pushing the button so it doesn't register rotation is a pain since the rotation sensor has very fine graduations. It also has left and right push on the wheel.

Even if the software would create an increased, adjustable "dead spot" of N clicks prior to action on the wheel might be what is needed to make it work to my needs.

Phil

I purchased one of those induction hot-plates to try induction out before buying a (rather expensive) range top

Induction is a surprising pain in the a$$. Expensive (you knew that though) and full of safety interlocks so the only cookware you might own that works is the cast iron bacon skillet! In order for the interlock to allow operation a magnet must stick to the pan bottom, which is not the case for most stainless steel (yes, some flavors of stainless a magnet sticks to, but not what they typically use to make cookware) Copper or aluminum clad are out too. No glass, ceramic, or aluminum pots and pans either!

Resistance heating is more versatile than induction.

Since I live in an all-electric house, I would rather not have propane installed. The option is not ruled out completely since I like cooking on gas, but my wife prefers the perceived safety of not having gas lines. (She lost a cousin to a propane gas explosion) In the mean time I rebuilt the 1970's range top with new burners since I need a counter top to change the cook top! The counter is a drop in vs slide in headache. I have a slide in, and only drop in cook tops can be purchased currently.

Phil

I put an LED lamp in my drop light. Been under cars, in the crawlspace, knocked around pretty good. The "bulb" has taken much more abuse than any incandescent lamp ever could, and is going strong. The light pattern is not as good as an incandescent or fluorescent since there is a spot effect off the top of the bulb.

I agree, no CFL's in drop lights or other rugged duty applications. They contain mercury like any other fluorescent light. WHEN they break I don't need that particular cleanup headache.

I was an early adopter of CFL lights, and installed a set in the kitchen of an apartment I lived in. 3 years later when moving out my wife and I debated taking them (this was over 12 years ago). We left them primarily due to the slow start. Instant start CFL lamps have been hit and miss, with life spans in _days_ (usually with epic failure involving excess heat and sometimes fire!) and some that are nearly 10 years old in a couple floor lamps.

I installed a pair of LED spots in the canister lamps of my great room, I got tired of dragging a ladder in to change bulbs, especially since the chicken stick was too short, and a 6 ft step ladder was still needed. I used the extension ladder to install some "dimable" LED spots. NOT dimable, but at least reliable. After 5 years they are just as quirky as day 1, and I have not needed a ladder in my great room since! The biggest quirk is 1 lamp lights, then about 5 minutes later the other lamp lights. It is somewhat random which lamp will light first.

Phil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Control line aircraft are, according to some, (and citations of the supposed FAA response are never available) "motorized kites." Therefore having a permanent tether to the aircraft makes this model no longer subject to the same rules as a untethered aircraft (in theory). I am not sure if these are really parallel arguments though.

If use of a tether allows commercial operation of "camera drones" to resume then it is probably a good thing. Responsible operators taking reasonable precautions and safely operating their equipment allow for some useful services. There should be oversight for these operations though, but the industry should be encouraged not banned.

I do not want some yahoo with a model to crash and then think they have no responsibility to the resulting property damage though...

A safe deposit box with the data stored in it. A key in the possession of a time keeper, such as a suitable law firm, and a third party to receive the information.

But what format to use that will remain useable after 50 years...

Phil