 Printer-friendly
version |
03 October 2003
E-Bulletin Backscatter
Iris Ring Diaphragm
Hey!Could you guys do me a huge favor? I'm building a Vortex Ring Generator (VRG) with instructions I got from bill.kats22.com/vger. As I thought about the project, I thought it would be cool to place an iris diaphragm over the opening to control the size of the rings. So I went online to figure out how to make one, with no success. I've tried making a mini one out of cardboard to try to figure it out myself, but I couldn't get it to work. So I thought that someone on this site must know. So, could you guys do me this favor? Could you forward this to wherever the greatest number of amateur scientists will see it so I might be able to get a response? Thanks a bunch! (my E-mail's acitrezza@msn.com).
Sebastian Fischetti
A Clever Experiment
Sheldon
Thought you might enjoy this clever experiment:
Measure The Speed of Light With Chocolate and A Microwave http://physics.about.com/cs/opticsexperiments/a/290903_4.htm
Ray Lahr
Ethics of Collecting
Sheldon,
Please thank Susan Campbell for writing her article about collecting ethics. I can see that she is my kind of scientist - someone who can retain their humanity while pursuing intellectual goals.
Peter Baum
Writing and Editing HTML
Thank you many times over to Mark Streitman for his excellent and helpful recent article ("Writing E-Bulletin Articles in HTML", SAS E-Bulletin 26 September 2003). It includes good advice and helpful tips.
I would like to add another suggestion or perhaps requirement: always test your web page with the WWWC's HTML and CSS validators. If your page (pages) doesn't (don't) validate without any errors then read the report carefully, fix the errors (and review the warnings), and repeat until you receive no errors. The HTML validator can be found at: http://validator.w3.org/ . The URL for the CSS validator will be found by following the results page.
As a sample you might try validating my home page using http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.xtrsystems.com . You can check anyone's pages and you *will be impressed* by how poorly HTML is spoken out there. However, that is no reason for you to write in anything other than the King's HTML.
If one validates pages then it really doesn't matter which editor is used in creating those pages - the important part is the result. However, once you start validating pages you will learn about the absolutely awful an even painful HTML that is generated by many commercial products especially those mentioned in Mark's article. You can do your self a real favor by choosing an editor which speaks HTML well (and includes an internal validator) and essentially helps you write HTML well.
For the Macintosh, including OS X, take a look at BBEdit from Bare Bones Software at http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.shtml . There are full-up and light versions and the price is right. For Windows, take a look at HTML-Kit from Chami at http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ . Same story - full-up and light versions and good pricing.
Remember: always validate. Make the web a better place
Best regards,
Joseph DiVerdi
Sheldon,
Like Kevin Kilty, I'm a TeX fan. (By the way aficionados pronounce it "tek" with the X as a Greek Chi.) I use PcTeX, at pctex.com. At $100 it's 8 times the price of MiKTeX, but it's complete. I use .wmf, .gif, and .bmp files for drawings and pictures. For example:
\input setwmf \setwmf{.1in}{3.5in}{3in}{c28f1.wmf}
prints the drawing file c28f1 indented .1inches, 3.5 inches wide and 3 inches high.
The only thing I miss is a TeX to HTML converter. They are available in UNIX versions, but I've never had the nerve to use one.
John Dooley
Cyclotron in Brazil
Sheldon
I just loved your helpful reply in last month's Bulletin to the Brazilian school teacher wanting to build a Cyclotron. Is there anything I can do to help? This was one of my high-school interests many, many years ago, too! Keep up the great work!
Dennis Green
Member
P.S. Your staff was recently helpful to my budding-scientist-entomologist daughter on the cc: above. Thank you All for being so passionate about your/our Society.
