Category: Technology

I am a non-techie person working for a tech firm surrounded by techie friends.

05/12/08

Buzzing Made Me Batty

I turned off the bathroom fan tonight and an annoying buzzing began. The fan is relatively new, having been installed less than a year ago. I removed the bulbs to take a peak inside; there was an inch of dust all over the surface. After using a hand-held vacuum to suck out all the dust, I screwed on the bulbs and flipped the switch. No more buzzing! Awesome!

I washed my hands and flipped off the light. Took one step out of the bathroom and the buzzing began again. What the hell! I thought to myself, “Maybe if I just leave it alone, it will magically fix itself.”

No such luck.
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03/5/08

And the Phun Begins

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From an internal email list at work today, this little gem popped through and introduced a little fun into what had been a drab work day.

From the words of the creator, Emil Ernerfeldt, Phun is a “fun 2D physics sandbox”. The program was written by Emil for his Masters of Science Thesis at Umeå University. The program allows the user to create and manipulate objects and see the effects of gravity and motion.
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02/11/08

Call-boxes are Solar Powered

This morning, I was taking a MUNI bus that travels across the freeway to reach downtown San Francisco. Stuck in the morning traffic, I noticed a shiny panel on top of a Call-Box on the side of the road. It was a solar panel! How awesome is that?

Solar panels atop a 14-foot pole recharge the batteries that power the wireless cellular telephone in each call box. Also built into the equipment is a detection system that notifies the call box maintenance contractor if a unit fails or is vandalized.

Metropolitan Transportation Commission

These type of things the government does under the radar should be on the news more often.