This and that - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 08:50:26 am
content: Been a busy week, but here are 2 random things.The first is a quick snap of an ANPR camera attached to a vehicle. Not the Google Eye of Sauron, just the JMPD thing ( or SANRAL) for finding stolen cars. Note the caution sticker on the back. Written there in small letters ( so small you have to be almost parked inside the vehicle to read) is the warning it may stop suddenly. Somehow this is a facepalm moment.Second is a shot of a very heavy VCR deck, now moving down off the top shelf and sometime soon to go apart for scrapping. Head will go to Dexterslab, possibly with the upper drum as well if they do not want to part, as they tend to be really tight with both loctite and a very close tolerance on the mountings. It weighs around 30kg, so sending to Dave will not occur. Max mass to AU from here ( sea or air) is 20kg.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 11:30:47 am
content: They are the best quality bearings you can get, but are pretty much impossible to remove without damaging them. They generally are press fitted with a jig that applies an even pressure to both the outer and inner races to get them in there, and there is no provision for extracting them aside from destroying them.

author: babysitter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 05:14:13 pm
content: Check if you can use the heads to make a H field probe - should be possible, something I will try if i can get my hands on some.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 05:31:06 pm
content: The video heads are pretty much designed so as to not respond to an ambient fields. they are quite well shielded. Designed for a good response to the magnetic field of the tape. I have 3 of these beasts to tear down. Umatic Sony machines that all came default with stereo sound.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 06:30:07 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on July 27, 2014, 08:50:26 amHow do you tell this is for stolen car and not for street mapping? I would expect a lower mast and below horizontal facing cameras. Also, the side cameras are not that useful for license detection.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 06:46:41 pm
content: Google cars are invariably a GM Astra here, with a black sleek camera head on a pole on the roof ( at least the last ones I saw) with a Google logo on them. All are Avis rentals as well, so the camera is mounted with rubber cups and straps. If it was for mapping then it is a private GIS vehicle, and not Google. I have found some of the deliberate mistakes made on Google maps though to prove copying of them. At least 2 so far, in smaller streets. One really drove me dilly as I could not find the street that was faked, till I looked on street view and looked closely at the area and saw why.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2014, 07:22:40 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on July 27, 2014, 06:46:41 pmYes, there are a bunch GIS collection operations, both large and small.(I spent a few years on related technologies, it's not as trivial as it may look, if you want quality you can't just slap of the shelf components. You need to address dynamic range between sunlight and shade, direct sun reflections within the cameras, high resolution, motion blur, sensor scanning patterns, reliability, GPS urban canyon, localization and orientation accuracy, power requirements, temperature range, humidity, data rate, route planning, operator proof, international logistics and compliance, and then you need all the software smart. It's multidisciplinary and expensive).Quote from: SeanB on July 27, 2014, 06:46:41 pmI am curious, can you post them here? I heard of intentional typos in maps and phone books but never seen one. Typical GIS collection is based on multiple sources, as long as the license is compatible with the target license of your GIS, so it's possible that they came from one of the sources.

author: calexanian
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 06:28:59 am
content: I had a reel to reel tape deck one time that if you let the tape go all the way off when rewinding you could go to lunch, and come back and one of the roller guides would still be spinning. Japanese bearings at their finest.

author: Alexei.Polkhanov
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 04:34:54 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on July 27, 2014, 11:30:47 amYou can try to heat whole thing to 100C or so and then put some dry ice on bearings - my work the charm and they will fall out. Worked for me couple times.I have seen how liquid nitrogen is used for same purpose in production.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 05:53:25 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on July 27, 2014, 07:22:40 pmhttps://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=durban&sll=-29.859529,31.023535&sspn=0.002959,0.003718&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Durban,+Durban+Metro,+KwaZulu-Natal,+South+Africa&ll=-29.807338,30.865196&spn=0.000673,0.001859&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=-29.807339,30.865195&panoid=Fj5KLQjagf9lUAK6oW62Cg&cbp=11,285.59,,0,0Seems this one has been fixed now, it showed a through connection 2 years ago when I was looking for the road.https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=durban&sll=-29.859529,31.023535&sspn=0.002959,0.003718&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Durban,+Durban+Metro,+KwaZulu-Natal,+South+Africa&ll=-29.80289,30.969815&spn=0.010762,0.02974&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-29.802898,30.969798&panoid=kjAvuzeZdsW8gStB69yXIw&cbp=11,256.13,,0,0This is an old "informal settlement" image, it has grown massively since the street view car went by, and there is a massive series of roadworks in the intersection a little ways back as well, that is 2 years or more in the building and likely will be another 2 years more to go.

author: Rigby
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2014, 07:36:30 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on July 27, 2014, 09:18:18 pmWhat country is that? I see your flag as a black flag-shaped box.

author: Rigby
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 01:14:01 pm
content: I guess debtor prisons aren't illegal in the UK. In the US, for the moment at least, owing money is not a crime.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 03:48:58 pm
content: US you cannot default on student loans. A debt millstone with no way you can ever repay that one. Even going bankrupt cannot get you away from that one. I would call that a debt prison.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 04:08:59 pm
content: Quote from: Rigby on July 29, 2014, 01:14:01 pmIt should behttp://www.usdebtclock.org/;-)

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 04:24:22 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on July 28, 2014, 05:53:25 pmYou can try submitting fixes herehttps://www.google.com/mapmakerIt worked for me in a few cases. In others they rejected but with a reasonable explanations. One fix of a bike trail in Monterey CA did not go through for years but now I see that it's fixed, possibly from another source.GIS is hard, even if limited to a one tiny planet.

author: Rigby
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 05:51:19 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on July 29, 2014, 04:08:59 pmNo healthy government is debtless. Being debtless (as a government) is actually very, very bad. Finding out why is left to the reader, it would take me a long while to explain it.Quote from: SeanB on July 29, 2014, 03:48:58 pmYes, you can. Well, you can't DEFAULT on them, but you can get out from under them, and have the debt forgiven. THANKS OBAMA

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 06:05:41 pm
content: Here the Uni student are dancing and throwing stones because the university will not enroll them unless they have paid the unpaid fees they still owe from last year. They seem to think that the university should be free for them, and that they should stay in accommodation and get food, books, study aids and such for free, along with booze for the weekends as well. They seem totally unable to grasp the relationship between paying for something and getting something. But the skoteens want money to go buy fancy designer label clothing, fancy cellphones and airtime and then of course they want dop as well, not iJuba but clear beer, scotch, whiskey and designer drinks. Seems that they learned very little in school in the methods of economics and such.

author: Rigby
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 06:37:53 pm
content: that's not bad schooling, that's bad parenting.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 29, 2014, 06:53:52 pm
content: Perhaps, but the parents might bring home $200 per month, and spend $100 on transport to and from work, which might take 2 hours each way. Not much time for the children, so they learn from others at school. It always is the most "flashy" who are seen to be the best, not those who excel academically, which may be discouraged for many reasons.When Chris was talking on the last AH about Detroit, I saw many similarities to ZA, so think of inner school children in the USA, and subtract all the money they have access to along with the internet, libraries, school books and other amenities.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2014, 07:27:03 pm
content: Quote from: Rigby on July 29, 2014, 05:51:19 pmDo you say that any amount of debt is better than no debt?Quote from: Rigby on July 29, 2014, 05:51:19 pmThis's one way to dodge accountability ;-)BTW, the title of this thread is just brilliant!

author: gxti
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2014, 07:54:25 pm
content: Past experience:http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/15/135423586/when-the-u-s-paid-off-the-entire-national-debt-and-why-it-didnt-lastPaying off the debt likely didn't cause a depression directly, but it certainly didn't prevent it. Nevertheless I avoid personal debt when I can.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2014, 08:08:48 pm
content: OT but hopefully not too much OT so that the mods lock it, or I do.As to debt, a small amount that you can control is usable, but a spiral of debt that is never repayable is not. Something you can pay off in less than half of the useful life of the asset is good, but if the payments continue forever, or you are paying for something you no longer have the use of it is not good. Same for the big players as the small payers. Borrowing money to pay salaries and such is not good, especially if the income is less than the wage bill.Eventually you will all have a giant (horse apple) sandwich, and we all will have to take a bite of it.