The Poor Refugee Who Invented Patek Philippe
An evening pause: The history of business is too often ignored, even though it is the lifeblood of our modern technological society. Here is just one example.
Hat tip Cotour.
Tag: technology
Theresa Andersson – Birds fly away
An evening pause: With some creativity, one can do so much with modern technology.
Hat tip Dan Morris.
Indian Larry – Custom motorcycle builder
An evening pause: A perfect example of the American dream.
Hat tip Cotour.
Paweł Zadrożniak – The Floppotron 3.0
An evening pause: You need to watch this to believe it.
Hat tip Bill Heinz.
Old Korean Jar Factory – Making the Korean traditional jar
An evening pause: Time for another industrial on how some things are made. And it is also no surprise that this factory is in South Korea.
Hat tip Cotour.
Unintentional ASMR – Very Thorough Table Tennis Racket Tester
An evening pause: An example of the complexity of technology required to set fair standards in official competitive games — in this case ping pong — that no one ever thinks about.
I especially like the passion and dedication the tester brings to his work, to make sure all is right.
Hat tip Cotour.
Dumping Windows and Apple and switching to Linux
My regular readers know about my utter contempt for Microsoft and its terrible Windows operating system. Any company that treats its customers like dirt, as Microsoft routinely does, does not deserve the business of anyone. I realized this reality two decades ago, and successfully switched to Linux back in 2006. I have never regretted it.
Moreover, the increasingly intolerant behavior of big tech companies like Microsoft to free speech increases the need for people to free themselves from them. The willingness of these companies to also treat your privacy and personal data as a plaything for their use, without your permission, is another rational reason to stop depending on them.
Linux accomplishes this, in that its open source software structure is really controlled by no one. There is also no software company using the operating system to gather your data for its own purposes.
In 2016, after seeing a number of my posts noting the advantages of Linux (or anything) over Windows, one of my readers, James Stephens, offered to write a series for Behind the Black describing step-by-step the process by which one gets and installs Linux on either a desktop or laptop computer. Below are the links to this series. I have since used it myself as a guide to convert two used Windows 7 notebooks (purchased for $35 and $80) to my favorite flavor of Linux, both of which I use regularly as my travel computers.
I wish more people would do the same, which is why I am reposting the links to this series again. Though six years have passed, James instructions still apply perfectly, as I can attest as I used this series to convert the second laptop only a year ago. Nonetheless, James has added an addendum to Part 2, which brings the entire series up to date.
I am sure almost everyone has an old computer they don’t use anymore. It will work like new with Linux. Dig it out, follow James’ instructions below and free yourself from Windows. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Blender FLIP Fluids Addon
An evening pause: What you are looking at here appears to be a demo video of a software addon that provides users with all types of liquid visuals. And creating realistic flowing water is not easy, as the splashes and waves represent chaotic behavior which is very hard to model.
Hat tip Cotour, who adds, “At some point in the future there will be ‘reality’ and no one will be able to tell the difference.”
United Airlines buys 15 Boom Supersonic airplanes
United Airlines today announced that it has signed a deal with Boom Supersonic to buy fifteen of its supersonic Overture airplanes.
Under the terms of the agreement, United will purchase 15 of Boom’s ‘Overture’ airliners, once Overture meets United’s demanding safety, operating and sustainability requirements, with an option for an additional 35 aircraft. The companies will work together on meeting those requirements before delivery. Once operational, Overture is expected to be the first large commercial aircraft to be net-zero carbon from day one, optimized to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). It is slated to roll out in 2025, fly in 2026 and expected to carry passengers by 2029.
Boom has been developing this supersonic passenger plane since 2016, though little progress has appeared to take place during most of the last five years. This contract appears to be the company’s first real sale. It also appears that it makes United a partner in the plane’s development.
Meanwhile, another company, Aerion, is developing its own supersonic passenger jet, in partnership with Boeing and scheduled for launch in 2023.
We shall have to wait to see which company wins the race to begin commercial flights.
The Largest Stirling Engine On The Market
4-Mation: 3D Zoetropes
An evening pause: I honestly don’t understand how this works, and the video doesn’t really explain it. It is quite amazing nonetheless. More information here if you want to dig about to figure it out.
Hat tip Cotour.
Motorcycle Chariots
An evening pause: A free people might do grand things, but they will also do silly things as well. This falls into the latter category.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Tom Scott – The Library of Rare Colors
A evening pause: This is something that is technologically complex that we all take entirely for granted.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
Mechanimations – It’s Worth It
An evening pause: An animation that actually is real and useful, showing the full rebuild of a dirt bike engine.
What struck me is the number of parts and pieces and their complexity. Pause and consider the engineering thought that went into creating this and all such engines.
Hat tip David Eastman.
Bell Telephone: Explaining mobile phone technology, c1946
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace, who notes that he watched this video on his modern mobile phone.
What strikes me is how much we take this capability for granted, especially when you watch and see how “compact” the car units were. Yet, in the 1940s when this technology was first being developed the use of telephones themselves was only a few decades old. The very idea of being able to communicate instantly with anyone over long distances was still relatively new. Now it included talking to people at random locations. For the people of that time, this was exciting news harboring a bright future.
Stockholm 1913
An evening pause: The footage is gently colorized but with little else changed. Like previous such pauses showing film footage from the past, it gives us a glimpse into a different world that appears more dignified and civilized.
Hat tip Björn “Local Fluff” Larsson, who notes, “All men wear suits and hats. All ladies are dressed up. All buildings are beautiful. Then socialism happened.”
SpaceX in Starlink negotiations with the Philippines
Capitalism in space: SpaceX and a major internet company based in the Philippines have been in negotiations about offering Starlink to its citizens.
US tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) is in talks to bring broadband satellite services to the Philippines through a partnership with fibre internet tycoon Dennis Anthony H Uy of Pampanga.
Representatives from SpaceX and Uy’s Converge ICT Solutions Inc met on multiple occasions to discuss a potential venture, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Philippine Daily Inquirer.
SpaceX apparently can’t just set up business to compete with this company, probably because it has deep ties in the government that can block it. Converge probably wants a cut, along with I suspect a number of Philippine politicians.
No deal has so far been made, but Starlink would be ideal in the more rural locations of the Philippines.
Bell Labs – The Transistor
An evening pause: This 9-minute documentary, made in 1952 by Bell Labs, provides a short and clear history of the transistor as well as its predecessor, the vacuum tube. It also tries to imagine the future that such a new invention might bring. As the youtube page notes,
While The Transistor’s vision of the future seems somewhat quaint in retrospect, it captures a moment in time before the transistor became ubiquitous; a time when Bell Labs wanted the world to know that something important had occurred, something that was about to bring tremendous change to everyone’s daily lives.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Eddy Goldfarb – The Man Who Invented More Than 800 Iconic Toys
An evening pause: Hat tip Mike Nelson.
How a recording-studio mishap shaped ’80s music
An evening pause: Some technical rock music history.
Hat tip lazurus long.