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Life
Other funny stuff which didn't really fit elsewhere is in here.
The Acoustic Coupler
Now is that spelt with 1 or 2 "c"s?
Over the past years, I've heard about these ingenious devices, started around the 1970-80s with BBC computers. BT before it was privatized made it illegal to hook your own equipment to the wall plugs. Basically, modems were forbidden. Accoustic couplers were mediators between the computer and the phone. You plugged one into the computer (it had a modem built in I guess) and the phone handset sat on top of it. So whatever the computer 'said' was sent into the mic of the telephone, and whatever was 'said' to the computer came out the phone into the mic of the coupler. It provided a data rate of 9.6Kbps, which incidentally is average on the most modern couplers. I thought to myself "All it is is a reverse-phone.". Sure enough, I looked around Google and found that you can make one yourself. So I got some phones and proceeded to tear them apart. I then found out you needed a 9V battery to power the damn things, so I found one of those. Now, some important wiring instructions:
Green--batt---phone
Black---------phone
Yellow isn't needed as it is for the ringer and is only used on UK phones. Most telephones work on the 2-wire RJ11 style standard. One phone I had worked, so it was powered up with the battery and the little lights on it's keypad indicated activity. I stuck the other end into the modem and I noticed that the plug is slightly narrower than a standard RJ11 socket. Luckily the spacing on the copper rails on the plug aren't that different, so contact was made. There are only 2 contacts anyway, so there's not much to get wrong. When the computer dials out, the circuit is complete and the keypad comes on. Sounds come out the speaker, which can only be a good thing. One thing I noticed was that making noise in the mic caused sound to come out of the speaker. So how is the thing meant to send/receive data if what goes in comes out so to speak? More so, how does the phone differentiate between incoming and outgoing data on just 2 wires? The answer was quite simple. HALF-DUPLEX. For those that don't know, half duple means talk/receive but not at the same time. That would make sense, since ALL MODEMS ARE HALF DUPLEX. 56K IS SPLIT INTO UPLOAD AND DOWNLOAD. So if you want P2P apps to go faster, don't upload. I u upload at 4K, u only d/l at 1K. After modifying the phone, I put some foam on it to make it a little more sound proof.
Next was to put the handset of another phone on it. Good thing is you dial the number on the phone manually, so it's compatible worldwide! Here it is in action:
So, what to do? At 9.6K speeds, the first thing to do was a bandwidth test:
WOW!! 8K/S Not bad considering it's a 9600bps connection, and it'll never go at full speed anyway. It's a damn site faster than mobile phone dialing, which costs more and is just as slow. GPRS is a better option, but it's download/meg isn't favourable, although with this, I can't see much MB downloading. Oh well, it'll do for IRC:
And now, here is "The Blowtorch"
At full throttle:
FEEL THE POWER!
Heats up to 1300ºC, lasts 40 minutes on a butane refill. Now all I need to do is work out an ignition system...
Here is my new dual monitor set up. I bought a TNT22 for about £40, but it is VIVO as well, so it made sense to get this one. Here are some pics of my new set up in action:
Over recent months, I've adopted a ghetto look to appliances which would otherwise be fine by themselves. My ghetto projector:
Cardboard, acoustic dynamat and baize add some sound dampening, with a fan hole at the side to let out all that hot air. Also, the ghetto aircon:
Tape and a cardboard surround at the bottom enable air to be drawn in from the outside, passed over the condenser coils and then passed out again. Improves efficiency. The tape seals up the holes in it which would detract from the performance. Now, 2 pipes go out the window instead of one. Users of these domestic air conditioners might want to try this mod themselves! Beats paying for an installation one, and now it cools much faster! Make sure u give the condenser coils a clean once in a while, as outside air is dirty!
Lastly, there is the ghetto screen, a normal projector screen (actually, a cheap roll-up one) was given a touch of class with a cardboard/baize surround to improve perceived contrast ratio and give the room a more cinema look. Of course, it's all held up by tape and until I can find a way to secure the pieces, it takes regular maintenance to stop it falling down, replacing the tape every so often is a task, as I spend more time fixing it than I do watching things on it!
Lastly is the ghetto network, although it isn't really truly ghetto since it has no cardboard or tape, but considering the vast quantities of plasterboard which had to be drilled through just to enable the cabling to get to other rooms means it has a place here too. Note the US robotics 56K modem on the firewall (The gray box with the red LEDs), that provides the internet, although we have broadband now, so the poor thing is relegated to down the back of my PC somewhere! Firewall is the Symantec VPN/firewall 100, with PAT, something that consumer routers come with, but most decent firewalls do not. Also, this doesn't have a user limit (Well, it is suggested, but there's no way of enforcing it. Symantec are so kind!) Note the ghetto camera this and the other pictures before were taken with. It doesn't take a genius to work out that it was a free cam!
The rest of my room is pretty ghetto, owing to the mess in it. The aircon can be seen chugging away in the background, sucking air from the radiator and pumping it around the room. It was cold!
Incidentally, this picture was taken with the nicer canon XM1 (Now superceded by the XM2, damn you Canon!)
One thing that has been an issue with the canon XM1 is the fact that the mic holder is very noisy, and a Sennheisser mke-300 shotgun mic picks up a lot of noise. This called for the manufacture of an acoustic suspension module. This clever mod was achieved with a ruler and a screw! No kidding, see the pics, but the difference is great!
Pics coming soon!
And now for some word documents, snippets off the net:
