Category Archives: Technology

Business, Culture, Government, Technology

Pet Peeve. One Of Many…

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Telemarketers, bah humbug.

I have both my home and cell phones on the “National Do Not Call Registry” which was set up by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission in 2003.

AFTER 14 YEARS, does it work? NOPE, not as far as I can tell. I still get several calls per day from telemarketers, phishers, and scammers.

Has anyone gone to prison for breaking the law? Again, NOPE, not as far as I can find out. There have been some fines levied but that’s about the extent of any punishment.

Okay, here’s where my “PET PEEVE” comes in. The PHONE COMPANIES can stop all of this, but THEY WON”T!

They could easily monitor any number they have and observe if the registered user is generating an unusual number of outgoing calls. They can also coordinate with the FTC and FCC to make sure a “business” is not calling people on the Do Not Call Registry.  Right now IT’S THE RESPONSIBILITY of the SCAMMER to comply with the law.  I may be a bit of a simpleton, but a law that requires a lawbreaker to self-police seems awfully stupid.  That is about as effective as a convenience store owner hanging a “No guns allowed” sign to prevent armed robberies.  “Crap, I was going to rob the place but they won’t allow me to bring  my gun into the store”.

The other thing that the phone companies are allowing on their systems is giving the SCAMMERS the ability to SPOOF CALLER ID with fake numbers and names. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE TO REPORT a violation to the authorities.  They again have control over the signalling that generates the Caller ID messages. Once more it would be easy for the phone companies to check that the Caller ID originating from the SCAMMER is their registered number which would allow us poor slobs to file a complaint. They can easily prevent ANY caller from spoofing Caller ID.

BUT THEY DON”T! The phone companies are more than happy to let this go on because they are MAKING MONEY.

The phone companies get money from the SCAMMERS, for every phone line, every phone number, and every call made, which gives the phone companies little incentive to shut the SCAMMERS down.

MONEY TALKS and BOVINE EXCREMENT (you and me) WALKS.

General Information, Technology

Imagine it. Build it!

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I’ll continue my thoughts on technology that is readily available to almost anyone,  I’d like to show what can created in very little time without much training, by describing something I built today.

I needed a method to hold a sensor to my wrist for an experiment that I’m conducting.  In my head I imagined something like a wristwatch case with a Velcro band to make adjustments simple.

Using Autodesk Fusion 360 which is a FREE cloud based Computer Aided Design (CAD) program, I quickly sketched the design that I had in my head.  I made some fillets and chamfers along the edges to make it look pleasing to the eye.Sensor_Holder_Wrist_2016-Aug-16_12-19-26AM-000_CustomizedView8540235427This is the part that I sketched and then rendered (turned into a pretty picture) using Fusion 360.

Fusion 360 can convert the sketch into a Stereolithograpy (.STL) file.  This file type is used almost universally in the 3D printing field.  Creating this file is just one mouse click in Fusion 360.

Using an Open Source (FREE) program called “Cura”, I converted the .STL file into “G-code”, which are the  instructions that tell my 3D printer how to create the part.  To make this file it’s just a matter of opening the .STL file in Cura’s “file menu”.  Cura automatically creates the G-code file, no other action is required.  The G-code file is saved onto an SD card with one click of the mouse.

The SD card was inserted into my 3D printer and the “Print” button was pushed to start the print.  After about an hour the part was completed.

3D print wrist holder 2

This is the part with the Velcro band inserted into the slots of the part.

After making this first part, I thought of several changes that I’m going to implement to make it better.  When you hold a part in your hand, it’s easier to think about how to make the next one better.  The material cost of this part is just a few pennies. No big deal to toss it into the recycle bin (the material is completely recyclable and bio-degradable) and make a “better” version.  Iterating versions quickly is called “Rapid Prototyping”.

Any kid in grade school has the ability to make this part.  The child would only need a couple of hours of lessons to learn the basics of Fusion 360.  It would only take about 30 minutes to teach a kid how to use a 3D printer.  With less than 3 hours of classroom time, any child can start making almost anything that he can conceive of in his head into a real physical part.

Imagine it.  Build it!!!

Technology

Young People, Seize the day!

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I am envious of the MAKER technology that young people have at their disposal.

A young person can buy a Raspberry Pi computer which has 32,000 times the processing power of my first computer. The cost of my first computer was about 17% of my gross yearly income as a new engineer. Young people can buy the Raspberry Pi for the cost of 1 week of fancy coffee (less than $30).

Today a grade school student has access to capabilities that we old folks only dreamed about. There was a term as young engineers, we talked about, a “Santa Claus” machine. It would be a machine where you could imagine something and it would magically appear, just like a Christmas present. Today kids can have an idea, sketch it up on FREE software, and 3D print the idea into reality!

Today everyone has access to massive computing power, worldwide collaboration in open source software development, and the ability to inexpensively convert ideas into physical reality.

If a young person only had the technology available in my youth to work with, they would probably say what Mr. Spock said, “I am endeavoring, ma’am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.”

My hope is that the young people today seize this fantastic opportunity that technology is giving them and create a better world.

Imagine it. Build it!