[PLUG-TALK] reliance on technology (was: Redhat changes, fedora)

Jeme A Brelin jeme at brelin.net
Wed Nov 5 19:45:03 UTC 2003


On Wed, 5 Nov 2003, Russell Senior wrote:
> On the subject of toys, my oldest was home from pre-school with a cold
> yesterday, and I was less distracted than usual, so we made a string
> telephone.  I hadn't done that for at least 30 years.  Was a lot of fun.
> Works surprisingly well.  Simple physical principle.

I remember having a terrible time with this when I was a kid.  What did
you use as a diaphragm?  Standard paper cup technology?

And just a regular knot inside the hole in the bottom?

Maybe we just didn't have enough string (resources were always an issue at
my house), but I remember it was either so short that you could hear with
the naked ear just fine or you could hear nothing.

> My youngest (under 2) still doesn't get that the string has to have some
> tension in order to transmit the signal, so it wasn't working very well
> for him.

Yeah, he's just not going to get it.  But he can use blocks like a son of
a gun, I'm sure.

> Personally, I think "magic" is okay but it is useful to be able to
> explain the "trick" to them when they ask.

And you just can't explain the trick when it's a PLC and ultrasonic
evaporator.

J.
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     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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