ARCHIVE - SEPTEMBER 2000

Subject: VK2TIP Ian Purdie's Monthly Newsletter - SEPTEMBER, 2000
Date:Wed, 06 Sep 2000 11:20:04 +1000
From: "Ian C. Purdie VK2TIP" 
Organization: Home of some of the greatest electronics tutorials on the WWW
To: undisclosed recipients 
References: 1

Hi Gang,

You are of course receiving this email because you elected to subscribe to the Ian Purdie's Monthly Newsletter list.

This last month has been a monumental pain. I upgraded my Netscape browser and had nothing but trouble ever since. Again email disappears only to re-appear in different irrelevant folders. To top that off a severe storm zapped my modem. I had sufficient warning, turned everything off and at the height of the storm heard "psfzzrt" from the computer, a flash of lightning and a thunderclap in quick succession. Oh well....

First piece of news http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/ now contains a daily comic by "Ask Dr. Tech". I hope you enjoy this daily cartoon and come by each day. Do click on the advertisements at the top of the pages to see what's on offer. These folks pay the bills remember.

Second news is a side bar under the navigation with late breaking news in the semiconductor industry.

This issue contains some interesting news so read on. Also some interesting FREE downloads later with the usual  humour..

PLEASE: If you change email addresses please try and let me know. Each month I get about 3 - 5 undeliverable. Thanks to those
who do notify me.

Please also note: I do NOT sell or rent the email addresses belonging to my subscribers: I respect your privacy!. To unsubscribe
from this newsletter, please see the end of this newsletter  - would you do THAT? - I put the jokes in at the end honest!..

I certainly appreciate your participation in receiving my Newsletter. If you appreciate it then you can either give me a rating or review
these newsletters

2.     My questions?

None

***************************************************************************************************
Now what's all the news up to the moment?

 3.     Projects in pipeline

 4.     What I'm personally up to.

 5.     Updates and further pages in coming month

 6.     QRP Quarterly magazine - absolutely brilliant - I'm amazed

 7.     My customary damn lies and "statistics" and milestones

 8.     Feedback

 9.    Free downloads - I recommend you look at these.

10.    I'm told in no uncertain terms - no joke - I unsubscribe. Okay can't argue with that logic so here's some goodies.

***************************************************************************************************
3.    Projects in pipeline

Still adding pages as time permits. Slowly fleshing out my ultimate goal by providing exerpts of data sheets with related projects. See:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/devices/555.htm
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/devices/602.htm

***************************************************************************************************
4.     What I'm personally up to - if you must know

See all of the above. Plus waiting for the Olympics but sick and tired of hearing about it everywhere. Missed the local passing of the Olympic flame due to the above mentioned storm.

***************************************************************************************************

5.     Updates

(a) Competition No. 1 for the mouse mats. Please review my new site http://www.electronics-tutorials.com and get back to me with
your opinions. The three I judge the best and constructive (not necessarily flattering) win a Philips "mouse mat".

Result: two opinions.

(b) Competition No. 2 - This relates to a new page http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/filters/filter-software.htm  where I review and
give a worked example of Neil Heckt's "Filter Design Software", in this case a crystal ladder filter. Check out it out at:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/filters/filter-software.htm and if you like it go to Neil's site (details on the page), download the
program for evaluation (2.2 Meg) and write back and let me know. First three names out of a box win a "mouse mat", possibly even
a calculator one.

Result: Same two opinions

(c) Competition No. 3 - Because I'm having difficulty keeping up with email questions, especially from electronics professionals, I
have set up an electronics discussion group for those people professionally engaged in the industry one way or another. If  you do /
did work in electronics or have an electronics background the go to http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/Q&A.htm and follow the
sign up process with E-groups, then send us all a test email.

Result: Five entries.

***************************************************************************************************
6.    A continuing plug for one of the most excellent electronics magazines available.

You haven't invested $US 20.00 in the most excellent QRP-Quarterly magazine yet - cheaper if you live in the USA?

Told you to subscribe. Visit QRP Amateur Radio Club, International - URL: http://www.qrparci.org

***************************************************************************************************
7.     Damn lies and "statistics"

Last month 18,221 unique visitors looking at a total of 51,594 page views

***************************************************************************************************
8.     Feedback

(a) Don't be shy. Be one of the three people who tell me what they think, be polite.

(b) Be courageous - tell two friends about this newsletter. Test your cut and paste skills.

http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/subscribe.htm

***************************************************************************************************
9.    Real COOL but FREE! downloads -

This is MY pick of the month and FREE!!! - show your appreciation.

See an example on:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/downloads/downloads.htm

TClockEx enhances the standard Windows 9x/NT/2000 clock that is built
into the taskbar, providing the ability to display the time AND date in
any format you choose. Additional features include a popup calendar,
clipboard interaction, resource and CPU monitoring, user-definable
display elements, Internet time, and customisable colour and font
options.

This program is Freeware. If you want to show your appreciation with something that won't fit in an email, here's the address:

Dale Nurden
14 Willow Crescent
Pinetown 3610
South Africa

Please mark it as a gift, otherwise he'll get slapped with duties and taxes.
http://users.iafrica.com/d/da/dalen/tclockex.htm

The second FREE download I haven't had time to check out:

CAD126

Another little free schematic circuit drawing program recommended to me but I haven't had time to run is CAD126. It is described as an entry level ciruit design program - it's FREE and about 200K in zip file size.

http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/downloads/downloads.htm

Worth looking at:

No. 1
A radio powered by a candle
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~weinfurt/thermoradio.htm

No. 2
THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER

       Good read from New Scientist on the ultimate computing limits of a 1kg laptop - either a
       billion-degree nuclear fireball or a microscopic black hole which explodes when it completes a
       problem. The article reveals the final limits imposed by physics on Moore's Law, which at its
       present rate will be reached in 200 years time. See
       http://www.newscientist.co.uk/features/features.jsp?id=ns225415

No. 3
Tired of watching toasters fly across your screen when your PC is idle?
Would you like to put your PC to good use when it is "idle"? If yes to any of those, help the scientific community search for ET.

check out
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/.

***************************************************************************************************
10.    Humour (by ever popular demand)  -

Young man Murphy applied for an electronic engineering position at an Irish firm based in Dublin. An American applied for the same job and both applicants having the same qualifications were asked to take a test by the Department manager.

Upon completion of the test both men only missed one of the questions.  The manager went to Murphy and said, "Thank you for your interest, but we've decided to give the American the job."

Murphy: "And why would you be doing that? We both got 9 questions correct. This being Ireland and me being Irish I should get the job!"

Manager: "We have made our decision not on the correct answers, but on the question you missed."

Murphy: "And just how would one incorrect answer be better than the other?"

Manager: "Simple.  The American put down on question # 5, 'I don't know.' You put down 'Neither do I.'"
 

***************************************************************************************************
IF YOU ENJOY RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER

Tell a friend to subscribe, tell a news group or a discussion group. If not I suppose you'll unsubscribe - sniff.

***************************************************************************************************

Do give me some feedback

AND

If I bore  you (good heavens!) then to unsubscribe CLICK on the URL below this line (works to unsubscribe as well):
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/subscribe.htm

***************************************************************************************************
That's all folks
 

72/73's and oink

Ian Purdie  Budgewoi N.S.W. Australia - Co-ords 33o:14' S 151o:34' E
My FREE Newsletter:- http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/subscribe.htm
VK2TIP "I'll give ya the TIP mate" QRP-L #1978. SOC #171 FP#91
URL - http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/