Search options (Page 109 of 151)

One of my pushdown stack tasks has gone sour.

I've been relying on a 12v->20v power brick to provide extra run time to my flaptop.  The brick has been losing the ability to keep up with the peak current draw.  I bought a replacement (whose plug is so crappy I'll have to replace it after it's run 100 hrs or so and I know it won't fail on the infant mortality side of the bathtub curve) and opened up the old one with the intent of replacing the no-name electrolytic capacitors (probably the source of the slow failure) with top-end Panasonics, and maybe to increase the output capacitance by 25% to 50%.

But it was put together in a way that made it difficult without special desoldering gear and I destroyed the copper plate-throughs in the holes where two powertab transistors and two powertab-packaged diode pairs were soldered.  The circuit board in that vicinity suffered, too.

Now, how badly do I want to fix this, and how much am I willing to risk catastrophic failure?  Catastropic failure could include overvoltage to the laptop.  What kind of test load do I put on it?  This thing can supply 90 watts.  I'm no spark.

Nyarharrharr.  It's all copied out.  Now I have to flesh it in and make all the bits work.  I'll probably have to diddle the previous chapter as well.

I'm working on the f'schtunkin' photo.  It got me into a problem where I thought I would need a tech to dismantle my laptop to get the cable out.  But the counter guy at Geek Squad recognized that it was a problem with the combo (USB/eSATA) port--you actually had to pull harder than feels safe.  I'll avoid that connector from now on.

One of the woes of vacation--you leave your right arm#########tools behind.  That's ... beyond bummer.

Doesn't sound like the vid chip.  The video would have gone out immediately, and chips don't usually go POP!  It sounds like something in the power supply on the board, which may or may not have taken other things with it.  I'm guessing the pop was a blown electrolytic capacitor.  In any case, you'll probably want a new board.  Even if you replace the blown component, you don't know if something else triggered the failure or if the failure damaged something else.
Let a technician look at it, but unless it's under warrantee, expect to replace it.  Have your software and data transferred.  Whoever does it may need to make a call to Micro$oft to get your Windoze license transferred to the new hardware.  Watch out for unwanted and un-asked-for software installations and upgrades if you let someone like Greek Squad do it.

The Big Page of Sticky Notes has been transferred to a file.  Now I have to fill in the blueprint.  It's still a lot of work.

The head amp.  I've got two new tasks pushing down the pushdown stack.  Sometimes it seems like turtles all the way down.

Meanwhile, I may have a workable sequence for the monster Erevain scene, assuming that the post-its I've been jugging around the big sheet of paper don't get blown away.  (But see the link I posted on the other thread.)

Strictly speaking, narrative, not thoughts ... but ...

In a more limited way, John Dickson Carr in The Secret of Castle Skull.

Don't forget the last story of The Old Man in the Corner by Emmuska, Barroness Orczy.

Or the last of the Drury Lane stories by Ellery Queen under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross.  The thematic clues are devilish.

One of Asimov's Black Widower shorts does this in a different way.

The more recent mysteries of Jane Haddam (Orania Pappazoglou) have us share some thoughts of every suspect, for character and sometimes backstory.

You mean when Kirsey visits the library?  Could be, but Escher was limited to impossibles that looked possible.

Israel Zangwill (have I got that right?) in The Big Bow Mystery.

And yet writers have made it work!

Quick followup to Amy: There are no stairs in this building.  There will be buildings where you go in the basement and come out on the roof, and verse-vica.  I think you remember Kirsey's visit to the library?

Oh, and how good a seat is depends on what kind of seat/table you prefer, and subtle differences on your angle of view.   The differences are so subtle that your expectations can overwhelm reality.