According to Reuters news article the European Commission has issued new volume standards for MP3 players on Monday this week. The new standards will require that MP3 players will play at a safe volume by default. There will also be a health warning so consumers who choose to override the default settings know the risks. →
John Huntington’s Entertainment Technology Site has an interesting posting Moving More Stuff Onto the Gravesend Inn Network that describes show technology used behind Gravesend Inn hounted house atraction. This system uses lots of industrial electronics (PLCs etc..) for a show control application. →
Ground loops are a common problem in many experimental setups. A ground loop is an un- wanted closed loop of cables in the setup, most often through the ground system. Those ground loops are often hard to find and debug. A Ground Loop Detector document describes how to build and test a simple system to →
9 Kick-Ass DIY Projects to Get Your Hack On article on maximumpc.com web site starts with instructions how to alter a non-USB gadget so that it can be run off of USB power from your computer. The article shows you how to use USB to power a desk fan and book-light lamp. →
A normal way to troubleshoot ground loops problems in audio systems is to listen to the audio signal at the mixer with headphones. If the buzz exists at the mixer then do the following: One by one, disconnect the inputs and outputs to and from the mixer and note if the buzz decreases. This same →
Grad student at the University of Houston who has designed a cardboard case for a computer. This is not a new concept, but this one is meant to be used in manufacture. The idea is that it will be faster and easier to produce (no fasteners for example) and dramatically easier to recycle. Houston Chronicle →
Remember that a real life return path for current is not an ocean of zero impedance. Some engineers draw every ground as a wire because even copper planes have impendance. This approach might be one reason that makes some audio engineers more think of using single-point grounding. By discarding ground planes in favor of thin →
Video isolation transformers are primarily used in CCTV application in fields of security, manufacturing, avionics and display. The video isolation transformer is an extremely broad bandpass 1:1 isolation transformer. Its hum isolation is very good and it can sustain very high noise voltages without degradation. Isolation decreases with increasing noise frequency. Video signals can transformer →
Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage tells how to store hundreds of petabytes of customer data in a reliable, scalable way—and keep costs low. Backblaze decided to build their own custom Backblaze Storage Pods: 67 terabyte 4U servers for $7,867. Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage article →
I saw this interesting stunt mentioned on several news sites: Pigeon transfers data faster than South Africa’s Telkom. According to the article a South African information technology company Unlimited IT proved that it was faster for them to transmit data with a carrier pigeon than to send it using Telkom , the country’s leading internet →