Perhaps one day we will see the enlightenment as prelude to this relativistic limit, followed by quantum, chaos and crisis theory, all culminating in enlightened despair at ever finding a common ethic higher than the hedonistic burn out of fossil fuel airflight.
But if Einstein were wrong about c being the limit, if just one thing could go faster, and that thing were the electric force, then all the dooms from solar increase to end of universe collapse could be reversed, and the future might just teem with richer evolution.
Just read a little bit about electric universe theory, Sheldrake’s vision, and the possibility that there is a mightier brain than ours, and other life forms. Very comforting indeed. True or not, it would be good to think the species has a future and more meaning than our current politics suggest.
Might even help us pull in the same direction to sort the climate changes western capitalism is ignoring.
[ 1 comment ] ( 13 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 223 )Hardware list for a computer display
Motherboard
disc drives of each type, one open
media from tape via floopy to CD and DVD and pen memory
I/O cards labelled
Input devices opened: keyboard, microphone, mouse, digicam, webcam
Modem, router, switch opened
CRT and LCD opened
Projector types inc coin sized
For large displays and systems:
Complete systems to dismantle and reassemble 1 board and leads to peripherals, 2 PC system, 3 server, drives and fans, 4 ISP model.
A timeline around a room with aging items, perhaps illustrating Moore's law or other trend
A class set may have advantages
Collections of pairs of plug-and-sockets
Basic electric components to identify, cobble together or solder
Risk analysis -
Kids swallowing small bits
Sharps, poisons, explosion of capacitors, shock, electrocution by mains connecting
Sensitive or obscener data on old drives.
Fear preventing sensible uses
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 208 )Motherboards as a teaching resource. Second draft., somewhat hurried, for topic ideas and ridicule. E&OE.
Motherboards a source of notschool research projects, and as wall mounted stimulant for each researcher to find more projects.
Motherboard as the Morris 1000 of computing, the last easily understood and self-maintained car.
For computer science, all hardware and much system software knowledge is triggered by a glance at the patterns in the boards. Data flows in series and parallel ++. Economies of scale. Future improvements.
Basic circuit theory V=IR can be practiced on any part with resistance from 0 ohms to infinity. Pd’s of 12V and 5V from mains, purple and yellow. Currents from 0 and nanoAmps up to fan power. Power by P=VI and power loss IsquaredR Energy by VIt and IsquaredRt especially for chip heat loss and capacitor breakdown.
Heat losses from heatsink by conduction, convection, radiation and forced cooling.
Trace the main bus lines.
Networking is pre-figured, the relation between CPU, memory and off-board peripherals stands comparison with the server-client relations.
Comparisons with city, company, corpoarate, cell, brain, evolution, packing density in all complex systems, planned and normal obsolescence, self repair and self-addition, plug-in spaces for undeveloped technology, trsting methods, chip replacement life-cycles, recycling of valuable and dangerous components, adolescent attachment to a device (tomaguchi efeect) or a technology. Even for cathedral and bazaar comparisons for independant action. The 'when will computers become conscious' debate.
Wiring up project: add RAM, connect to memories, monitor and projector, phone line and network cable, router, keyboard types and mouse, archiver, keyboard, camera, webcam, sensor, security socket (drill hole for Kensington model, use chain and lock)
EXTRA TOPICS
Dangers and risk assessment:
SHARPS: MANY OF THE CONTACTS ARE VERY SHARP. Handle boards only with thick gloves or wrappings or by flat hand on edges.
POISONS:
1 The heat connecting paste under many heat sinks on chips is nasty and sticky. Do not touch.
2 The chips contain life-threatening impurities. Dispose safely at correct waste site.
3 The capacitors emit lethal featherlike fumes of carcinogenic etc PCB’s if opened or worse exploded by age or over-voltage. Inspect all capacitors for ooze when first seen, and do not apply even the normal working voltage if old.
ELECTROCUTION and EXPLOSION
Never connect a raw unshielded power supply to the mains.
Never apply a higher voltage to a component than specified.
DISPOSAL: Be wary, use an approved council dump only, and then use the high tech skip. The Japanese tech island dump is leaching unspeakable poisons into the sea.
GIFT HORSES. Inspect clearly before accepting only what you need and can store.
RISK ASSESSMENT FATIGUE AND MOCKERY. Do not give way to these. The judge expects you to have been aware of all dangers, and to have taken all reasonable precautions. Your personally edited copy of this on file would help your barrister. They can be made into a fun way of exploring the ultrafeminist dominated antipathy to fun in physics, so enjoy! But do well.
[ 1 comment ] ( 7 views ) | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 2.9 / 232 )Motherboards as a teaching resource. First draft., somewhat hurried, for topic ideas and ridicule. E&OE.
For computer science, all hardware and much system software knowledge is triggered by a glance at the patterns in the boards.
Basic circuit theory V=IR can be practiced on any part with resistance from 0 ohms to infinity. Pd’s of 12V and 5V from mains, purple and yellow. Currents from 0 and nanoAmps up to fan power. Power by P=VI and powerloss IsquaredR and Energy by VIT and IsquaredRt especially for chip heat loss and capacitor breakdown.
Networking is pre-figured, the relation between CPU, memory and off-board peripherals stands comparison with the server-client relations.
EXTRA TOPICS
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
NOTE: other peripherals like memory I/O and power packs to follow
Dangers and risk assessment:
SHARPS: MANY OF THE CONTACTS ARE VERY SHARP. Handle boards only with thick gloves or wrappings or by flat hand on edges.
POISONS:
1 The heat connecting paste under many heat sinks on chips is nasty and sticky. Do not touch.
2 The chips contain life-threatening impurities. Dispose safely at correct waste site.
3 The capacitors emit lethal featherlike fumes of carcinogenic etc PCB’s if opened or worse exploded by age or over-voltage. Inspect all capacitors for ooze when first seen, and do not apply even the normal working voltage if old.
ELECTROCUTION and EXPLOSION
Never connect a raw unshielded power supply to the mains.
Never apply a higher voltage to a component than specified.
DISPOSAL: Be wary, use an approved council dump only, and then use the high tech skip. The Japanese tech island dump is leaching unspeakable poisons into the sea.
GIFT HORSES. Inspect clearly before accepting only what you need and can store.
RISK ASSESSMENT FATIGUE AND MOCKERY. Do not give way to these. The judge expects you to have been aware of all dangers, and to have taken all reasonable precautions. Your personally edited copy of this on file would help your barrister. They can be made into a fun way of exploring the ultrafeminist dominated antipathy to fun in physics, so enjoy! But do well.
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 2.9 / 194 )This is a long shot, but if notschools are to teach anything it must be by inspiration.
Hence the topic is unimportant except as conduit for researcher and mentor to share an advance in knowledge, skill or awareness of talent. That you have potential, and someone else knows about it and is rooting for you.
This is I think the basis of prayer, distance healing, family love and support, and even football fandom. For the team feels supported in the dressing room, and so does the crowd on the terrace as well as in the debriefing and on the bus or at work later. TV takes this a step more dilute: there IS a tenuous two-way interaction between the celeb on set and the lonely viewer.
The first paragraph will be posted on the notschool blog. The second is for ice and milk groupies to shred if you dare.
[ add comment ] | [ 0 trackbacks ] | permalink |
( 3 / 218 )
Calendar
