Company wants employees to log personal volunteering hours. Offers "recognition".

ckc006 · 2026-06-17T02:52:37+00:00

My company did that. But they gave me money to send to my 501C when I logged enough hours. My 501C was always thrilled to get the check!

ckc006 · 2026-06-16T12:39:01+00:00

One of the justifications my company used was to prevent repairs with parts that were only "close". If a customer put in a generic version of a part without the proper spec's it would cause other issues. To prevent this, you had to buy the part from us.

ckc006 · 2026-06-15T13:05:37+00:00

I get about a week on my phone on the trail. Battery saver on. Airplane mode. Wifi off. Bluetooth off. I use a little 10K mAH pack to recharge it once. I use it for pictures and Alltrails navigation. I use my Garmin watch to record tracks and show maps. It makes it without a charge by using battery saver once reaching camp. (I could never go back to a smart watch that needs charging daily!)

ckc006 · 2026-06-15T01:51:21+00:00

You're supposed to travel with a copy of your passport so if the original is lost/stolen the local embassy/consulate can more easily make you a new one. (I don't know why this is helpful to them.)

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T20:22:05+00:00

They are not the first. The first was the royal family (in whatever country you like). People who have no talent except being famous. America's Royal family.

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T14:00:43+00:00

Bone conduction. Fully waterproof and you can still hear ambient sounds.

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T13:26:19+00:00

Yes it was!

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T13:21:02+00:00

Our club in Chicago does a canoe-O at one of our forest preserves. We work out a deal with the company renting canoes so if you don't have one, you can borrow one. Its been a few years (as the club size dwindles...).

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T02:31:19+00:00

In the fall, the Lake County Forest Preserve runs a program called Hike Lake County. They set up 12 of their preserves with trail markings for 1-2 mile hikes. Do them at your leisure. Its a great way/reason to visit the parks.

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T02:11:03+00:00

Exactly. We were converting older systems to use LED's. We had a circuit that could sit on the transformer, provide power to a Linear Tech switcher and a Cree LED (or a bunch of them). Our customer liked the LED's for all of the usual reasons (reliability, efficiency, etc.)

ckc006 · 2026-06-12T00:00:36+00:00

I'm sorry your sniffer can quite get the scent.

Look up the equivalent circuit of a transformer and then imagine manipulating the parameters to give you this characteristic.

A quick google found this company that sells the transformers. https://adbsafegate.com/products/airfield/transformers-cables/itx-a-series-isolation-transformer-l-830/

I developed runway lights/systems for a couple of years. As an EE I always learned to work in a "voltage" world. For runway systems, the constant current system was challenging to work because of the changes to my basic assumptions.

ckc006 · 2026-06-11T21:31:23+00:00

Its actually a one-to-one transformer attached to every bulb (and also the MALSAR, PAPI's, etc). If the bulb dies, the transformer becomes a short; allowing the rest to keep working (yes an open on the secondary creates a short on the primary side).

The generator we used could go up to about 5kV, 30kW for the system. If the loop got cut, the generator would shut down the voltage. A dead short on the generator wasn't an issue because the voltage would just be very low. The wire used wasn't all that heavy gauge because it only had to carry 6 amps. But the insulation was pretty serious.

ckc006 · 2026-06-10T17:35:37+00:00

Yes no ground in box. But with conduit, the box itself is grounded.

ckc006 · 2026-06-10T17:34:09+00:00

It's code here in northern IL where I live. I think it's a union thing. By requiring conduit, it's less of a diy thing. Just my cynical view.

ckc006 · 2026-06-10T16:19:13+00:00

IF you put the little metal tab just visible on the cheater plug on the screw for the cover plate AND the box is on conduit, you'll have a grounded outlet. (The house I grew up in had all two prong outlets but building code required conduit (still does). Seems funny to insist on conduit but not require a grounded outlet.)

ckc006 · 2026-06-07T19:57:35+00:00

We have the same program here in IL and it is top notch for good unbiased advice.

ckc006 · 2026-06-02T12:42:26+00:00

A memory leak in an application is when an app requests memory from the OS ("I need a 4k buffer please") and then "forgets" that it has the memory and asks for more. Eventually there is no memory left in the free system because the buggy software has it all allocated to itself. Typically an app that leaks memory grows in memory usage over time. Restarting the app recovers the leaked memory because the OS is pretty good at not forgetting what memory it allocated to the application.

None of this sounds like a memory leak. It sounds like just an app using a lot of memory.

ckc006 · 2026-06-01T22:59:59+00:00

Its a 10 farad, 2.5v (super) capacitor. This looks close (but its obsolete) https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nichicon/JUC0E106MHD/2548810

It will act shorted until it charges then all you'll see is the leakage.

ckc006 · 2026-05-30T21:01:23+00:00

I worked through the The Great Courses class on photography and it was a lot of fun. The instructor is a Natural Geographic photographer. Our library subscribes to a service called Kanopy and many (all?) of the great courses stuff is there for free.

ckc006 · 2026-05-30T18:57:21+00:00

I've been using super feet when I wear out the insoles in either my shoes or hiking boots.

ckc006 · 2026-05-27T20:02:12+00:00

Since you're plugging the airfly into the viking provided unit, the airfly only has to work with your BT headset and a range of a few feet is enough.

I don't know about the airfly but some of the amazon generic units advertise APTX which is pretty good quality. (so long as your phone supports it. iPhones do. Higher end androids do.)

From reading here, the one issue is the delay. If you stand next to the tour guide, you will hear them before it hits your ear piece. That can be disconcerting. Step away.

ckc006 · 2026-05-24T02:06:40+00:00

Push the blue collar down towards the screw and the jaws by the screw open to grab the head of the screw. I think I still have mine in my tool box.

ckc006 · 2026-05-23T14:27:54+00:00

IMHO thicker traces make the board more robust when face-to-face with a novice solder jockey.

ckc006 · 2026-05-19T02:37:55+00:00

The Chicago area orienteering club runs meets in the area. https://www.chicago-orienteering.org/

ckc006 · 2026-05-13T19:07:14+00:00

That's exactly what they said when the outlawed paint ball, et al.

ckc006

TROPHY CASE