Monthly Archives: March 2011

Why does the stock market close?

Posted on March 25, 2011 by jwk

Back when people used to physically be on a trading floor to buy and sell stocks, it made sense that there would be business hours. Today though, with 70% of all stock trades being executed by computers, I’m surprised it … Continue reading →

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Old Radio Detective Work

Posted on March 25, 2011 by jwk

I’m still working on my 1941 Stromberg-Carlson 520-PG and am running into a few new problems I’ve never come across before. Back in the era of tube radios, everything was serviceable on a component level and most people had enough aptitude and … Continue reading →

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Google Chrome-to-Phone Usability Feedback

Posted on March 17, 2011 by jwk

Google offers an interesting extension called Chrome to Phone that works with Android 2.2+ devices to remove some of the barriers between computing. A small screen isn’t the best place for planning a trip or seeing transit data from multiple … Continue reading →

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Gmail Trees Theme Tells You the Weather

Posted on March 15, 2011 by jwk

In case anyone wasn’t already using the Trees theme for Gmail, you should know it tells you the weather. Sunny, cloudy, foggy, rainy, snowing. Add a new weather item to that list: thunderstorm! I’ve never seen this one before today, … Continue reading →

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System Center Virtual Machine Manager – Self Service Ownership Bug

Posted on March 15, 2011 by jwk

At the office, I use Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 to manage a few dozen Hyper-V servers hosting around 150 virtualized services. SCVMM allows me to manage all the servers across different high-availability clusters and physical locations … Continue reading →

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Review of Victor 3165 Frequency Counter

Posted on March 14, 2011 by jwk

A frequency counter is an important part of any electronics service bench where it’s necessary to deal with unknown signals. I used them to verify the operation of my RF signal generator while performing alignments on tube radios, because I’m … Continue reading →

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Bad Parking

Posted on March 12, 2011 by jwk

In the parking garage at the Commons. I’m not sure why they parked their Hyundai this way, since there was nothing but empty space in front of it.

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Burned Up Aiphone

Posted on March 10, 2011 by jwk

This is what happens when you connect the high level output of an audio amplifier, to an input designed to be hooked up to an MP3 player or other line level audio source. This Aiphone PA amplifier was incorrectly installed … Continue reading →

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REI’s Server Attention Span / Mobile Web Browsing

Posted on March 9, 2011 by jwk

REI‘s mobile site is guilty of doing what the XKCD comic described just a few days earlier. I was reading a message containing a link to an REI store product on my phone, and was redirected to their mobile site. … Continue reading →

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The Orion Space Capsule

Posted on March 8, 2011 by jwk

I was looking for some files I thought might be on a flash drive, so I went through my stack of a dozen of them. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but did find some photos I’d misplaced … Continue reading →

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