LAST MODIFIED:
Hi Ian,
Again, a "top" issue, please print it out. You will be glad you did.
1. CORRECTIONS
See your personal details at the end. If these details are correct - DO NOTHING - otherwise:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/corrections.htm
Would you believe, after nearly six months, we still have 316 people named 'Blank'.
Not after next 30th June, they will become deleted because they obviously don't read these newsletters.
I certainly appreciate your participation in receiving my Newsletter.
Please keep your email address current, nothing is more disappointing to me than having to needlessly delete about 43 'undeliverable' emails from my precious list each month. Same applies to "free" email addresses where you exceed you quoto.
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2. UPDATES
Many pages have had updates as well as new information added. If you haven't looked recently perhaps now is a good time to do so.
In particular:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/basics/toroids.htm
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/basics/q.htm
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3. BIG GIFT
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation early this month donated $400 million to Stanford University, the largest gift ever made to an American university. It will be used to fund undergraduate education and Stanford's endowment for humanities and sciences. William Hewlett and fellow Stanford graduate David Packard founded Hewlett-Packard in a garage in 1938, and built it into a multi-billion company.
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4. CHIP SALES DOWN AGAIN
Global semiconductor sales fell again in March because of excess inventory and a depressed economy, according to the US Semiconductor Industry Association today. Sales totalled $14.4 billion in March, down 4.5% from a year ago and down 7% from the $15.5 billion in February. Sales were down over 10% in the Americans and Asia Pacific regions, and down 7% in Europe.
See http://www.semichips.org/
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5. THANK YOU FOLKS!
a) I have again received a few more "life saving" donations, hence my recently raised confidence levels. Please thank these caring folks.
See: https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/donor-listing.htm
b) The book shop:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/book-shop.htm continues to receive attention and I am mighty grateful to supporters who have made their purchases through it. Please continue to do so.
c) Don't forget the "electronics book of the month club".
mailto:bookclub@electronics-tutorials.com?subject=Book-of-the-month&body=ianpurdie@integritynet.com.au
d) I have ineffectually written to every large electronics manufacturer (the "who's who") that regularly appear in my site logs as "caching" my sites (proxy servers)
An example see: https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/hitbox-stats.htm
Wish they would go here:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/sponsorship.htm
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5(a) ABSOLUTE LAST MINNUTE ADDITION
Anyone who works for Australia's Telstra (our Telco) please contact me "privately and confidentially" NOW.
mailto:feedback@electronics-tutorials.com?subject=TELSTRA
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6. [FOCUS on one of our women subscribers - there are indeed many]
"Hi Ian,
I am a widow and a single mother who plans on getting a better job position. I use your column [and site] to learn a few of the extra things that would help my new career".
"I am in college now taking computer repair. I will be graduating in February. The school gets people jobs so I will have bettered my life by learning what needed to be learnt".
"Thanks for all the information you provide, it helps widows and children have a better life to look forward to".
- from Carol H., U.S.A. [with permission]
[Editorial comment: Simply one of over 1,000+ reasons why I find this all so worthwhile]
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7. CHINA-U.S. CYBER WAR ESCALATES -
By CNN's Rose Tang
"HONG KONG, China -- Chinese hacking groups have declared a week-long cyber war on U.S. web sites during the Labor Day holiday starting May 1. They say the assault is in retaliation for the Bush administration's arms sales to Taiwan and the mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. spy plane....."
"The cyber war is a two-way affair, with hackers on both sides of the Pacific launching attacks on web sites".
"Shenzhen Anluo S&T Inc. (Anluo), one of China's biggest Internet security firms, says U.S. hackers have attacked up to 300 Chinese web sites, while Chinese counterparts have invaded about 100 U.S. sites....."
See: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/27/china.hackers/index.html
[As Mike Elgin* observed: "If anything, the "cyberwar" doesn't divide the China and the United States but rather exposes some of the things they have in common:
1) too many kids with too much time on their hands;
2) techno-ignorant media too lazy to report the real story, which is that there is no story; and
3) too many insecure web sites that are easily defaced"].
* http://www.mikeslist.com/recommend.htm
"THE SILLY CON VALLEY REPORT"
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8. DAMN "LIES AND STATISTICS"
From the mind numbing statistics department. For last month, April 2001 (a log file incidentally 4,344 kB - over 4 megabyte - in size).
a) A total of 14,957 referrers.
b) The largest referrer (no surprise) was http://www.google.com/search? with 4,946 different (unique) search terms (key phrases) used.
c) The second largest was http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query? with 2,296 different search terms.
d) And; interestingly, all the different countries people came from?
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/country0401.html
Alert readers will note from studying that page why I despise the term "hits". In conjunction with my other site http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic/ I would have had over one million "hits" for the month. "Hits" is largely a meaningless rubbish expression, loved by marketing type people who "skew" statistics for a living.
[IMPORTANT NOTE: No personally identifiable information is EVER capable of being collected by these statistics programs.]
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/privacy.htm
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9. CLUB NEWS - Bob Nielsen, N7XY reports:
"Our local DX club is having a year-long competition among the members to see how many DX countries we can work at 5 watts. I'm poking along at 65 "entities" (better than I expected to do) with my "corner-fed 100 ft. bent wire" at 15 ft. (definitely a second-class antenna), while K7RI with his assortment of beams and towers is closing in on 200 already and several others aren't too far behind."
See: http://www.wwdxc.org/qrp/
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10. INTERESTING SITES - all highly recommended and of course with a scientific bent
a) This one is right up my alley (quoting entirely from the site):
"For 37 years SMALL PARTS INC has remained the best place for 'small tools & materials used by artisans, model makers, engineers, & prototype builders'".
"Our Hard-To-Find Parts, Tools and Materials have been available in large or small quantities for 37 years. Many of our special parts are unavailable elsewhere!"
"We also custom machine parts we stock to your specifications".
"We carry items for a broad spectrum of demanding customer groupings. Among them are Major Universities, Pharmaceutical Firms, Hospitals, Research Labs, Defense Contractors, Clinical Labs, Precision Tool Manufacturers, and Engineering and Design Firms".
[VK2TIP says - "toys for big boys and I have no connection"]
See: http://www.smallparts.com/
b) Producing wound components
"This page from the University of Surrey provides practical guidance for students, staff and researchers who need to wind their own inductors, transformers or solenoids. The types of wound components available, and their applications, are so varied that only general guidelines can be provided. A more complete appreciation of their capabilities (and limitations) is only gained through experience and experimentation".
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Workshop/advice/coils/index.html
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[BEGIN SHAMELESS PROMOTION BIT] - to keep my sites and your newsletter
FREE.
Give me a break, do yourself a favour and GO here........
"LOW POWER SCRAPBOOK"
Hundreds of the very best projects from the G-QRP Club's magazine "Sprat" are brought together in this handy book. Includes low power transmitters, simple receivers, accessories, circuit and construction hints and antennas.
Ideal for the experimenter or someone who likes the fun of building and operating their own radio equipment.
320 pages. © 2001, published by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB).
See: https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/book-shop.htm#rsgb-lps
[END SHAMELESS PROMOTION BIT]
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11. MORE INTERESTING SITES - again all highly recommended and with a scientific bent.
a) Strange uses for Coca-Cola®:
1. Clean a toilet bowl.
2. Remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers.
3. Cook with Coca-Cola.
4. Loosen a rusted bolt.
5. Bake a moist ham.
6. Remove grease from clothes.
See: http://www.wackyuses.com/coke.html
"Coca-Cola" and "Coke" are registered trademarks of the Coca-Cola Company.
b) Modified Plant May Send Glowing Messages From Mars
"In what reads like a story from a 1950s science fiction magazine, a team of University of Florida scientists has genetically modified a tiny plant to send reports back from Mars in a most unworldly way: by emitting an eerie, fluorescent glow".
"If all goes as planned, 10 varieties of the plant could be on their way to the Red Planet as part of a $300 million mission scheduled for 2007........"
See: http://unisci.com/stories/20012/0430014.htm
[Oh yeah! Reminds me of great movie memories, "The Blob", "The Thing" - good stuff them days]
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12. HUMOUR AND INSPIRATION (by ever popular demand) -
Miss Jones had been giving her second-grade students a lesson on science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron.
Now it was question time and she asked, "My name begins with the letter `M' and I pick up things. What am I?"
A little boy on the front row said, "You're a mother."
http://www.jokeaday.com/7premium.shtml
AND
Q: Did you hear about the two antennas that got married?
A: The wedding was a disaster but the reception was great!
thanks to Casey Ray - again
AND
Life Without E-Mail
An unemployed man went to apply for a job with Microsoft thinking his best chance was as a janitor.
The employment manager arranged for him to take an aptitude test per the company guide line: (Section XYZ: Floors, sweeping and cleaning).
After the test, the manager said, "You will be employed at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address, so that I can send you information and authorization to report for work on your first day.
Taken aback, the man protested that he had neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the MS manager replies, "Well, then, that means that you virtually don't exist and can therefore hardly expect to be employed, certainly not at Microsoft!
Stunned, the man left. Not knowing where to turn and having only $10 in his wallet, he decided to buy a 25 lb flat of tomatoes at the supermarket. Within less than 2 hours, he sold all the tomatoes individually at 100% profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ended up with almost $100 before going to sleep that night.
And thus it dawned on him that he could quite easily make a living selling tomatoes. Getting up early every day and going to bed late, he multiplied his profits quickly. After a short time he acquired a cart to transport several dozen boxes of tomatoes, and acquired his inventory wholesale only to have to trade it in again on a new pick-up truck to support his expanding business.
By the end of the second year, he was the owner of a fleet of pick-up trucks and managed a staff of a hundred former unemployed people, all selling tomatoes in various communities.
Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decided to buy some life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picked an insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. At the end of the detailed conversation, the insurance agent asked him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically.
When the man replied that he had no e-mail, the adviser is stunned, "What, you don't have e-mail? How on earth have you managed to amass such wealth without the Internet, e-mail and e-commerce? Just imagine where you would be now, if you had been connected to the Internet from the very start!"
After a moment of thought, the wealthy tomato dealer replied, "Why, of course! I would be making $5.15 an hour as a floor cleaner at Microsoft!"
Moral of this story:
1. The Internet, e-mail and e-commerce do not need to rule your life.
2. If you don't have e-mail, but work hard, you can still become a millionaire.
3. Seeing that you got this story via e-mail, you're probably closer to becoming a janitor than you are to becoming a millionaire.
4. If you do have a computer and e-mail, you have already been taken to the cleaners by Microsoft.
[Thanks to my close friend Eva Rosenberg from "Ask TaxMama" - Your weekly tax reduction newsletter - Free! TaxMama cures your Tax Anxiety - and saves you a bundle - U.S.A.]
http://taxmama.com/subscribe/
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See: https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/book-shop.htm#newnes
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IF YOU ENJOY RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER
Tell a friend to subscribe, tell a news group or a discussion group,
tell the world! Write to your favourite magazine! Email costs nothing,
well very little anyway.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety to other
interested people. Please do.
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A PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION - Affiliated
Ian Purdie, VK2TIP of www.electronics-tutorials.com personally uses and
recommends - Web Wizards - this is where our main site lives:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/presswizards/
See Robert Marlbrough, Jr. for Hosting, Design, eCommerce,
Registrations, Search Engines, Marketing, and more. Visit Rob's site
today! Good value.
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/presswizards/
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You can view this newsletter online at - give me time!:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/newsletter/mid-may-2001.htm (you're now looking at it!)
Archives of previous Newsletters:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/newsletter/newsletter.htm
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14. FINALLY -
YOUR PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION RECORD
You are currently subscribed as:
Name: Ian Purdie
Email address: ianpurdie@integritynet.com.au
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15. FEEDBACK, FLAMES!
That's all folks
72/73's and oink
Ian Purdie Budgewoi N.S.W. Australia - Co-ords S33º14', E151º34'
VK2TIP "I'll give ya the TIP mate" QRP-L #1978. SOC #171 FP#91
URL - https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/
URL - http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic/
Please send me your valuable comments and suggestions! Tell your friends, tell a news group, tell the world!
the author Ian C. Purdie, VK2TIP of www.electronics-tutorials.com asserts the moral right to
be identified as the author of this web site and all contents herein. Copyright © 2000 - 2001, all rights reserved. See copying and links.
These electronic tutorials are provided for individual private use and the author assumes no liability whatsoever for the application, use, misuse, of any of these projects or electronics tutorials that may result in the direct or indirect damage or loss that comes from these projects or tutorials. All materials are provided for free private and public use.
Commercial use prohibited without prior written permission from www.electronics-tutorials.com.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved. URL - https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/newsletter/may-mid-2001.htm
Updated 14th May, 2001