Nonlaser things that I think GFers will find interesting

Apple, like a teenager, is great at minimal compliance. But one can always dream!

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Very true :slight_smile:
No doubt apple is just like a teenager. I feel like we are playing catchup to European policy. I am interested to see what comes from Frances new requirement for products to be labeled with a reparability index. Not sure yet if that would impact consumers decisions but it is showing to cause a change in manufactures.

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Imagine if there was a reparability issue that producers could avoid a high tax by posting modular information requirements and making replacing modules easy. Then any small producer could just produce modules that those making the modules would avoid further taxes by opening primary production to any producer that met standards in order of their prices.

This is what Microsoft did with hardware while making their software mandatory (and thus expanded their presence and making most of the money, and overwhelming Apple that kept all to themselves) Managed by an honest broker with carrots and sticks instead of mandates, the result could be what happened to the price and quality of computer hardware as every part was fitted to a standard frame while allowing laptops to flourish.

remember the decade plus of horrific driver and hardware device issues with DOS/Windows before they finally got their #### together, tho. win95 was passably workable. win7 was probably the first version that was truly plug and play for a common user. Mac was truly plug and play from the beginning, long before windows, because of that insulated system.

there are plusses and minuses to that.

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I was there for most of that time and did not see much horror, though that may have been about what I did. I was doing Autocad from very early and saw them quit supporting any system but Microsoft, which screwed out a lot of folks using other systems, and migrating from dos to win to NT etc as much to crush those cutting into the Microsoft monopoly on dos machines.

Apple made their machines work better as a way to compete, but the increase in dos machines out did them in competition. Neither Microsoft or Autodesk were the best out there early on, but quality per se was never the base of their competition planning.

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if you were tech savvy, it was less of an issue (altho annoying). if you weren’t tech savvy, it could be a nightmare.

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Oh that’s good.

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https://linksquare.io/

PVC detector anyone?

“LinkSquare® is a smart handheld spectrometer born out of a mission to make infrared spectroscopy available for everyday use.”

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How interesting… that’s a cool idea.

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That camera thing is for sure one of those ‘what my dad wished I would do with my GF’ things lol. My pappy was also a big camera collector and we have some really old according ones with those big flash bulbs. Finally got the polaroid camera from the 70’s working :slight_smile:

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Would be useful if I was still making jewelry. $10 a month to check for pvc might get old though.

@evansd2, #23 - I remember that, it’s where the saying “this is where we came in” is from.

#28 - recently replaced the cheap white plastic switch plate/outlet covers with decorative metal ones. I “clocked” Evey screw…

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For those who are a fan of fans, (hello @johnbrooker) this is particularly interesting. And those just interested in superior engineering in nature there is this…

OMG, you’ve probably just given me the need for another twenty years work, investigating folding folding fan leaves!
There do exist folding fans that can be ‘bent’ in half to make them more compact, but the ‘bend’ is at the bottom of the leaf, and allows the sticks to be folded.
Sylvain le Guen, a French fan maker does create almost 3d fans, and has said that his early inspiration was origami, but I’ve not come across insects as a design source.
Thanks for the heads up.
Regards
John :upside_down_face:

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Huh. Wizardry.

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I can think of easier ways to shave my head… Amazing talent.

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For all you soldering surface mount people:

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Would love to see what you can come up with. (I never knew earwigs could fly, the wings looked vestigial. Who knew they were folded that way?)

If I tried that I would definitely be stuck doing it :grin: (noticing the two guys cowering in the corner behind furniture)

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