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October 21, 2008

Will the Real NAND Gates Please Stand Up?

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NANDillogate.jpg 
 
 
 
 
 
Richard Langner's been wondering about the recent appearance of DUAL NAND gates in a local grocery store's car park. He muses:
 
"Could this space be reserved for BUS drivers?
OR maybe it was the next logical step since the store now sells computer peripherals?
Pehaps I should just ig-NOR them."
 
Or maybe Richard, it's time for that badly needed holiday!!

Is This Three Pin Adaptor for Real or Just Artistic License?

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No wonder banks are having such a tough time of it these days! Mike Meakin sent in this head-scratching HSBC advert from the Sunday Times:

"I'm fascinated by the 3 pin in-line plug - never seen one of these in my travels! What do you suppose the graphic designer thought this adaptor was supposed to do? Or am I missing something?"

 

 

Was Matt Groening Inspired by a CDMA Plot?

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Besides loads of useful stuff over at www.microwaves101.com, the authors have posted what they call a "politically incorrect"  microwave slang glossary.  While it predictably features some of the usual crude and sophmoric lab humor, there's a lot of amusing terms that will ring familiar to most engineers -- myself included.

A Simpsons fan, I'm particularly fond of Bart's Head: 

"'Bart's Head' is the colloquial term for the waveform in the frequency domain of a CDMA signal as viewed on a spectrum analyzer. When operating correctly, it looks a lot like Bart Simpson's head. Square sides, kind of choppy on the top. You might hear something like; " I looked at the Bart's head at the antenna port, and it rolls pretty sharply, I think the duplexer is tweaked" "

November 5, 2008

When Levelers Fail

  statatwin.jpg                                                                                                       Thanks to Jon Titus another contribution to our photo gallery of cockeyed construction work -- or is someone just having fun with photoshop?

November 18, 2008

Three Pin Adaptor Plug No Deadly Device--But Maybe a Lethal Weapon!

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Nathan Herbert sends proof that he owns and uses a three pin, inline plug and has lived to tell the tale, though it's questionable as to whether he can get through airport security with it! He writes: 

"It's not quite the death trap artistic device as imagined by some people. Each of the plug-prong 'faces' is removable, and only one of the cube faces has live connection pins inside. The face opposite the live one has a standard UK socket on it. It's not bad (or lethal!) to use, just a pain to pack, as it's like packing a caltrop in your suitcase, and just as much fun to step on while jet-lagged in the night!"

Apologies to the artist who designed the HSBC advert!

December 15, 2008

A Straightforward Solution to a Math Problem

 

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Dish Detergent Label Contradicts Itself

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File this one under "mislabeled."

Solar Powered Speed Sign in a Shady Spot

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Last time we picked on Burton upon Trent for this leaf-shrouded parking ticket machine. Now, we turn our attention to Herriman, Utah, where Jon Titus snapped a shot of this inconveniently-located solar-powered street sign. Wonder how tall those trees get?   

December 30, 2008

Man Turns Prius into a Backup Generator

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After a particularly nasty ice storm knocked out power to more than 1 million in Massachusetts and New England in mid-December, one resident did, well, what any good engineer would do:
 
"When it looked like we were going to be without power for awhile, I dug out an inverter (which takes 12v DC and creates 120v AC from it) and wired it into our Prius."

According to the NYT blog post "Prius: It's Not Just a Car It;s an Emergency Generator"  the resident used his improvised power source to run his refrigerator, freezer, TV, woodstove fan and several lights.

Knowing several Patriots fans, I would assert that getting the TV going was paramount to the man's survival. But one does have to wonder about the need for a freezer during icy weather.

About Quirky Observations

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Made By Monkeys in the Quirky Observations category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

Outsourcing is the previous category.

RoHS is the next category.

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