tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post115817816220849138..comments2024-03-27T03:03:44.660-04:00Comments on Vleeptron_Z: el mercado de baterĂas extintas en Habana / Little Bobby's Geiger CounterVleeptron Dudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01913822255924924435noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post-1158521405037240212006-09-17T15:30:00.000-04:002006-09-17T15:30:00.000-04:00I just saw this little film again and the image of...I just saw this little film again and the image of your Geiger Counter popped up in my head and I could not resist to post the link. Bert rules. Be aware. Look up to the skies. Believe everything you see on TV<BR/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0IAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post-1158212300372769112006-09-14T01:38:00.000-04:002006-09-14T01:38:00.000-04:00Yo Vintage,You got the documentation for the IMSAI...Yo Vintage,<BR/><BR/>You got the documentation for the IMSAI 8080 ? I built one (I called it the $3000 Alarm Clock, 'cause that's the smartest thing I could program it to do in Machine Language), and it's still down in the basement.<BR/><BR/>Halfway between No-Tek and Hi-Tek is Lo-Tek. In World War II, the Germans had Super Ultra Hi-Tek tanks and planes, and the Russians had incredibly Lo-Tek tanks and planes.<BR/><BR/>Lo-Tek tanks and Lo-Tek planes are cheap, and quick off the assembly line. For the cost of one Panzer, the Russians could roll out 3 or 4 of their ugly cheap tanks.<BR/><BR/>I forget who won.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, all technology inevitably soon reaches a Cannabalism & Cheap Knock-Off Phase. You don't have to be rich and powerful to want something nifty that the rich and powerful people invented.<BR/><BR/>The Chudnovsky Brothers wanted to set the world's record for computing the decimal digits of the expansion of pi. They lived in a slum apartment in Spanish Harlem and were more or less unemployed. Anyway they built their own homebrew supercomputer from mail-order central processor chips and mail-order computer hardware, and cooled it with hardware store fans (which they bought in the winter, when they're cheapest). They broke the pi expansion record three times, I think; the competition was usually Hitachi's state-of-the-art industrial supercomputer in Japan. They used a variant of Ramanujan's pi-computing formula (circa 1914).<BR/><BR/>The first team to achieve a breakthrough in computerizing the written Chinese ideograph system, their spokesman told the press: "We could not have done this if we had money." Lacking any funding, they had to rely on brains instead.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for leaving a comment! How'd you find Vleeptron? Have you been to Cuba?Vleeptron Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01913822255924924435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post-1158196360311070522006-09-13T21:12:00.000-04:002006-09-13T21:12:00.000-04:00Besides Uranium ore prospecting (radium's already ...Besides Uranium ore prospecting (radium's already in the pitchblende in tiny quantities, you don't go prospecting for radium), Bob and his Geiger Counter are also just the team you need for wondering how warm things are outside Chernobyl or 3-Mile Island or Windscale or any of the world's big Cold War nuclear waste dumps.<BR/><BR/>Or what's in your tobacco before you even light it.<BR/><BR/>About ten years ago, US Customs waved over a truck coming in from Mexico hauling steel intended for building construction. A truckload of perfectly excellent steel. They waved it over because the US Customs Geiger Counter was going clickety-clickety-clickety click. The Mexicans had taken radioactive irradiated steel from a disassembled nuclear plant and were re-selling it as construction steel to the Gringos.<BR/><BR/>The hot steel that gets through (not every border crossing has GCs, or sometimes they're turned off or to the wrong settings) becomes the new East Elm Grove Elementary School. Call Bob and ask him to bring over his nifty keano GC.Vleeptron Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01913822255924924435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post-1158193962147714702006-09-13T20:32:00.000-04:002006-09-13T20:32:00.000-04:00Ahem. Which is not to suggest my Geiger Counter is...Ahem. Which is not to suggest my Geiger Counter is in any way deficient or insufficient. If you're an Alpha Particle or a Beta Particle, my Geiger Counter will detect you. You cannot hide from my Geiger Counter. And the more of you there are, the faster my Geiger Counter goes clickety-click, and the more dramatically to the right swings the meter needle.<BR/><BR/>It just -- as you can see -- doesn't have a lot of fancy bells and whistles. This is your basic Meat And Potatoes Portable Desert Prospector's Geiger Counter. Just the location of the Uranium ore, sir, at a price the gentleman can afford.Vleeptron Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01913822255924924435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post-1158193659352241672006-09-13T20:27:00.000-04:002006-09-13T20:27:00.000-04:00Oh yes. Everything you ever dreamed of in a Geiger...Oh yes. Everything you ever dreamed of in a Geiger Counter click click clickety-click noise from a science fiction movie from 1957, this has. <BR/><BR/>In fact these were so cheap -- weird little boys could afford them after the uranium boom collapsed -- and those movies had such low budgets, that the PRI 710C was probably the GC you see in "Aliens vs. Earth" starring Mike O'Dell and Donna Peavey.Vleeptron Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01913822255924924435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30829516.post-1158192140546896702006-09-13T20:02:00.000-04:002006-09-13T20:02:00.000-04:00Ooh! I love old gadgets. Has a leather case and ...Ooh! I love old gadgets. Has a leather case and everything. When you get the batteries, does it make that wonderful 'geiger counter' sound? Sort of a metallic, but somehow radioish sounding click?James J. Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18347526276770576843noreply@blogger.com