Friday Hodgepodge

Four Things

And my last four Pinboard bookmarks are...

1. A joke that illustrates the idea of kettle logic better than the story for which the term is named:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client was nowhere near the scene of the murder, he didn't mean to pull the trigger, and that son-of-a-bitch had it coming!

This reminds me of how left-wingers talk about inflation and Trumpists talk about covid vaccines.

2. This article has more about "tin whiskers" in it that I hope I ever need to know.

Fun fact:

Image by Jonathon Reinhart, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Perhaps the phenomenon is generally referred to as Tin Whiskers (TWs) because tin seems to be more plentiful and more likely to grow whiskers. Whatever the reason, metal whiskers grow over time, providing a short circuit path between metal-plated surfaces. In the 1950s and '60s, Bell Labs experimented with elements across the periodic table to determine if adding some other element to tin would dampen whisker growth. They found that adding 0.5-1% by weight of lead works, although other elements seemed to increase whiskering.

Not-so-fun fact: within the EU, regulations against the use of lead in electronics may be giving this destructive phenomenon a new lease on life.

3. Someone has created an entire set of web pages that convert between image formats within your web browser (e.g., PNG to PDF). Look at the sidebar to see which other conversions are supported.

4. The following story reminds me of both The Homework Machine and that time in high-school geometry I got extra credit for the original proof I wrote when I forgot the "right" answer to a problem:

Wrote a TI-83 program (TI Basic) for a geometry course in high school. About a month prior to the feared final exam, I combed through all of our coursework to catalogue all of the calculations needed then wrote a program that would solve for any query (length of side, angles, etc.) based on the shape and input data.

I read the operators guide to the device cover-to-cover and found a way to store the program such that the teacher's method of "clearing" the device would not remove my program.

On the day of the test I realized I had accidentally taught myself geometry, as I didn't need the calculator at all and could do the calculations in my head. I did, however, use the TI-83 to verify my answers before handing in the test. According to my teacher I not only had a perfect score but did so in record time, and suspiciously so did my two best friends.

Nothing ever came of it, but I enjoy the fact that I accidentally learned a course to such proficiency by trying to cheat. [bold added]

The story also reminds me of why I have trouble enjoying bank heist movies: With all the planning and ingenuity such things require, why not make more money and live freely by finding honest work?

Even if I were a victim of the moral-practical dichotomy, I'd have trouble accepting the premise.

-- CAV