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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: SoF Patent Office
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
You know when you are driving up to the entrance to a multi-story car park, and pull up next to the barrier. But wait! You are too far from the button on the ticket machine to press it!
What is needed is a sort of extensible arm to reach out and press the button, then pick up the ticket. Like those lazy-tongs for sugar lumps.
It would be easier to have the machine move in closer to your car (far enough away to avoid the wing mirrors of course ![[Smile]](smile.gif) ).
In the long run this sounds like a great smart phone application. In Seattle you can pay for on street parking with the ticket machine that's a half block away, or enter the machine number which is on the sign into an app and charge your credit card. It wouldn't be hard to make that work in a parking lot.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Combination slow cooker/pressure cooker is definitely a thing. Don't think one with a sous vide function exists yet though, but my friend has a combo slow cooker/pressure cooker/rice cooker. You can get ones with halogen ovens in as well.
I did notice that the grill/convection/microwave which has been in Europe is showing up in the U.S. recently.
How does the halogen oven one work? Is it used to heat the cooker or does it bake?
I have a rice cooker which does use pressure technology but I think it's induction baaed.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
Lately I've started to wear blue filtered short range glasses for working at the computer, and longer range varifocals for everything else. So my desired invention is a lightweight frame that will accommodate both, and whip the relevant pair of lenses in front of my eyes depending on what I'm doing, rather than my having to swap them over manually.
That might seem rather clunky, of course. If I wanted to eschew the steampunk look and go for something a bit more futuristic, spectacles fitted with Dune-style oil lenses with programmable settings would fit the bill nicely.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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TurquoiseTastic
Fish of a different color
# 8978
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Posted
I am glad to see that bobble hats are back in fashion after a decade of the grimly austere "bobble-less bobble hat". A couple of Christmases ago I saw a magnificent Christmas Pudding bobble hat. However it might not be suitable at other times of year, I felt. So how about a reversible bobble hat! But of course you would need a slit at the top so that the bobble could be pushed through and emerge once more atop the reversed hat.
Posts: 1092 | From: Hants., UK | Registered: Jan 2005
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
I am glad to see that bobble hats are back in fashion after a decade of the grimly austere "bobble-less bobble hat". A couple of Christmases ago I saw a magnificent Christmas Pudding bobble hat. However it might not be suitable at other times of year, I felt. So how about a reversible bobble hat! But of course you would need a slit at the top so that the bobble could be pushed through and emerge once more atop the reversed hat.
Perhaps the bobble could inflate or deflate at will, depending on the fashion and season.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
What is needed is a handheld, non-intrusive sensor, probably ultrasonic, which you could point at the pear and which would give a clear signal about the pear's ripeness or lack thereof. It would be good if it could work for other fruits like peaches too. Maybe it could have various settings for various different fruit. Or a deluxe version could automatically sense which fruit it was.
When I had a proper job, bits of it were in acoustics research. A colleague in Spain (where else) was trying to get this working for oranges, about 10 years ago. It's a sensible suggestion - the acoustic impedance at the surface of a fruit might well be a function of its ripeness, or indeed its species.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
Earphones which don't leave my ears hurting after 15 minutes use would be good too.
...and another! You can get custom-molds done, where something very like a small tampon (complete with string...) is pushed into your ear canal, followed by a few syringes of silicon. When it goes off, it is sent away and a hard-plastic plug formed, with or without miniature loudspeaker, to work as a comfy and high-performance hearing protector / earphone.
I once read of a fitting session where the tampon shifted, the ear-drum ruptured, and the technician kept on pumping and filled the middle-ear, ossicles and all, with silicon. Amazingly it was all removed in an operation which did not completely render the subject deaf.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
One last one:
quote:
Given some of the singing heard in my Church, I would love to see the invention of a sound sucker (kind of like a reverse microphone)
My PhD was in Active Noise Control' - a sexy, fundable corner of acoustics about 20 years ago - which is what you're describing. Not for nothing does PhD stand for Permanent Head Damage. I suggest you don't think about your suggestion for too long!
Actually, you'd be best off with a set of high-performing ear muffs or ear plugs. These never work as well at low, as opposed to high frequency, so if they have a loudspeaker built-in, this can be controlled to vibrate in anti-phase to the incoming bad singing, detected by a small microphone. Only needing to achieve sound cancellation in a small space (under the muff/plug), you have a fighting chance, which you would not if you wanted to wipe out that singing across the whole church - but the feedback-loop stability problems are such that you would very likely do a great impression of that elderly congregant who always turns up their hearing aid until it whistles. And whistles. Good job they're deaf, really.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
I have a pair of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones. I'm partial to them in part because a friend of mine worked on the design. They don't completely cut out noise in an open office but they do help. It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.
The ones I have are over ear with big foam muffs. I haven't tried their in ear model yet.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
I have a pair of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones. I'm partial to them in part because a friend of mine worked on the design. They don't completely cut out noise in an open office but they do help. It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.
The ones I have are over ear with big foam muffs. I haven't tried their in ear model yet.
I was amused when these first appeared, as I recalled how, long ago, the concept appeared in Ariadne's column in New Scientist, a home for things intended to be humorous.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I want a 3-way copper pipe elbow--one arranged corner style. Seriously, folks, people build crap out of copper piping all the time. Why should this be so hard (read: impossible) to find?
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I want a 3-way copper pipe elbow--one arranged corner style. Seriously, folks, people build crap out of copper piping all the time. Why should this be so hard (read: impossible) to find?
You mean a corner tee? Not sure I've ever seen a copper one for solder joints, though - you might need to make do with a tee and a 90.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
It's the right shape, but looks like brass to me. And no need for compression. I'm just looking to build a simple rectangular frame here, rather like a 3-d cube diagram but with copper.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
You could always make two squares using 8x90deg bends, and then use a round file on both ends of 4 bits of plain pipe to form them so as to stand the two squares off from one another and make a cube. Then clean it all up with a wire mop, put plenty of flux on, and use a solder stick and a blow lamp to join them. Getting a good enough fit to solder will be a pain in the a*se, but if you anneal the pipe end by heating and quenching it will be nice and malleable and you can knock it into contact within reason...
I'm assuming this is art, and not some funky radiator needing to hold a fluid!
Edit to add - or if it really is just art and not much strength needed, do the above but join the two squares to the intervening 4 plain pipes with a hot glue gun or epoxy glue!
[ 01. March 2015, 09:37: Message edited by: mark_in_manchester ]
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.
You mean like this?
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
It's the right shape, but looks like brass to me. And no need for compression. I'm just looking to build a simple rectangular frame here, rather like a 3-d cube diagram but with copper.
Copper corner tee. They do exist.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
Wow. Is that price for one?!
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Heheheheh. And I'd need six of the things for a single project, and I need three copies of it. Meh. I've decided to order the cheapo crap version off the internet (it's a trousers trolley) and use duct tape or something to shore up the inferior welding. Hey ho.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Why not PVC or ABS? You'd likely need to go a thicker pipe than is generally used for home plumbing and I'd add some vertical bracing in the middle of the long horizontal span, but it should work. I built a lighting rig from it for a friend once. The thicker stuff works surprisingly well, and is easy to cut and glue.
ETA: or the cheaper stuff with a wooden dowl along the horizontal spans.
ETA2: and, if there is too much sag, additional wheels under the added centre horizontal span.
[ 01. March 2015, 18:28: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I priced the PVC corner tees (which are also hard to get) and it was much cheaper just to go with the prefab crap and shore it up when it gets here. I could have done all wood, of course, but my carpentry skills are not much and my husband would likely divorce me halfway through the building process, so, all in all...
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Stercus Tauri
Shipmate
# 16668
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Posted
ABS corner tees were once used for the frames of wendy houses. It happens that though our daughter's wendy house has long since disappeared, I still have the six corner tees, about 13mm inside and about 17.5 mm outside in a lovely shade of red, free to a good home if they would work. If it's not too late and they sound useful, send a PM. I've used most of the frame tubes for other projects, though.
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Thay haif said. Quhat say thay, Lat thame say (George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal)
Posts: 905 | From: On the traditional lands of the Six Nations. | Registered: Sep 2011
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
but my carpentry skills are not much and my husband would likely divorce me halfway through the building process, so, all in all...
I think Mr. Lamb and Mrs. Cniht might be kindred spirits there. I'm quite good at starting projects...
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
quote:
It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.
You mean like this?
More like this I chose the three hour one rather than the 10 hour one in consideration of the hosts
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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