Tag: Metrology
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Extending again
In previous item: Every real experience has non-verbal cultural factors that can’t be acquired through books or Google. This meshes with my assertion that secrecy is the default. Secrecy in this form is not enforced by government rules and censors; it arises from the natural barrier around the culture and experience of a group. The…
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Accuracy isn’t enough
Somebody cited this quote from physicist Feynmann: “We would always like to present things accurately, or at least precisely enough that they will not have to be changed when we learn more.” Precise and accurate are distinct words in metrology, but this still isn’t enough. When we learn more we change our assumptions about what…
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The reality check test
I listen to writers who agree with reality at points where I can check. Mattingly always fits at the points I can check, so I listen to him on other matters. In this podcast he’s discussing the (admittedly small) turmoil inside the Southern Baptists. Above all Baptists are NOT hierarchical. They disagree on many things…
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Another rerereprint
Originally from 2010, with a few celebrity names and topical words modernized. = = = = = Three types of knowledge: How, What, Who. All three types are necessary, and everyone uses all three types all the time, but the dominant type strongly influences the form and the success of a culture. = = =…
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Pinfeed and Pigskin, part 4 of 5
This is Metrology Day! I’ve done several relevant items in recent weeks, especially GenRad’s color comparator and a return to the alidade theme. = = = = = I’ve been researching and modeling a lost tech, closely related to my recent sequences on Pinfeed and Pigskin, and Pinfeed and GenRad. Instead of regrouping the previous…
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Pinfeed and Pigskin, part 5 of 5
Now let’s look at the process of making and punching and selecting Filmsort cards. I’ve modeled some of Filmsort’s patents and reused some of my old McBee animations, subbing a Filmsort McBee card for a non-image McBee card. = = = = = Polistra is an office manager tasked with turning a company’s film into…
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Contours
Reading the constant flow of ‘reported brush fires’, really homeless campfires gone out of control, I was struck by the perfection of Sailer’s altitude rule. Height = status. The homeless occupy the floodplain and hillsides next to the river. The urban Democrat types are on the first shelf near downtown. The working class and retired…
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More ZiG
Listening to more commentators, mainly African, discussing the new Zimbabwe gold-backed currency. Some of them miss an important point, others hit it squarely. Miss: The central bank doesn’t have enough physical gold to pay all notes “on demand”, so the currency can’t work. No. Banks NEVER had enough physical gold to pay all bills “on…
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Colorful GenRad
GenRad specialized in both light and sound. I’ve been featuring sound for a long time, now let’s do light. Polistra and friends are processing food, using a GenRad color comparator to check the quality of tomatoes. The Comparator was simple to use. You’d place the object on top of the viewport, then turn the filter…
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Flashy GenRad
Continuing with GenRad’s light measuring tools. Stroboscopes were a GenRad specialty, going through several generations, with the usual assortment of accessories for different industrial uses. Strobotac was one of GenRad’s widely known brands, along with Variac transformers. Their other products were more obscure, known only in research and testing labs. Polistra is aiming a Strobotac…
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Tensile test
Animating old GenRad testing machines got me thinking in terms of Metrology again. Social media algorithms are testing machines for the pigeons in the Skinner box. You have a lever marked “block”, which allegedly gets rid of stuff you don’t want. You keep pressing, assuming that the AI algorithm will adapt to your desires. If…
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Useful pushback
At the Ankler, a producer discusses what AI can and can’t do for producers. He concludes that AI can replace human editors for first-stage filtering to winnow down a huge pile of incoming scripts. He received immediate and knowledgeable pushback from two human editors, who pointed out the fallacies: = = = = = START…
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Where the elite meet to beat
Brownstone provides a progress report. I’m not going to impute bad motives to them, but I’m suspicious of their elite connections. They claim to be reforming the elite with secret “retreats” at hoity-toity resorts. Could be. But when the elite get together with the non-elite, the influence and power flows one way. Reforming the system…
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GenRad and pinfeed part 1/4
Last month’s tech history piece on the Standard pinfeed invoice machines reminded me that chart recorders also used the same pinfeed system, along with the more familiar dot matrix printers. The Standard began as THE STANDARD: Chart recorders bring me back to old home territory, GenRad. General Radio in Boston started as a regular maker…
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GenRad and pinfeed part 2/4
Continued from Part 1 re-introducing GenRad. = = = = = GenRad’s chart recorder followed a common pattern, with the usual GR extras to satisfy peculiar needs. The common pattern was a pinfeed drive for the paper and a solenoid controlled by negative feedback pushing the pen back and forth. The pen was driven by…
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