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How to Avoid/Reduce Feedback in Sound Systems

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Principal cause of acoustic feedback Most, if not all, of us have experienced hearing that piercing whistle from sound systems. What causes it and what can we do to minimize or eliminate it? There are several types of feedback but in this case, the proper name is acoustic feedback, the type of feedback that you can hear. In simple terms, feedback happens when the sound from the speakers enters the microphone/s, goes through the mixers and amplifiers, out through the speakers and back into the microphone/s. In the case of guitars, the sound from the speakers make the guitar strings vibrate, which goes through the sound system, out the speakers, and vibrates the strings again. So, essentially, the sound is going 'round and 'round the sound system. Feedback may be caused by microphones, guitar pickups, and other sound system inputs along with speakers. They can range in frequencies from a low rumble to an ear-splitting shriek. So, how can you prevent your sound system from g
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Another Fake Proposal

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email supposedly from Kindle Direct Publishing I received another email with a proposal to convert my book into a movie. This time, it's from Kindle Direct Publishing. It's obviously fake because the sending address is amazon_submissions_at_gmail_com. Amazon using a gmail address? Furthermore, my book is hardly a bestseller. If it was a bestseller, I'd understand if someone would contact me with a proposal such as this but it's nowhere near being even moderate seller. Lastly, if some big movie production outfit really wanted to convert my book to a movie, I don't think they will ask me to submit a screenplay. Of course, they would offer to make the screenplay for me, which means I will have to pay for it. I would think a real proposal would be free. If you're also a budding author and received something like this, don't believe it right away. Look at the sending address. If it's a gmail, yahoo, or other free, public email service, don't believe it.
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Design Flub Fixed

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  Pinout diagram of Zilog Z80 microprocessor Back around 1989, I received a request to fix an infusion pump, a device that allows medical staff to pump very small, and precise, amounts of fluids and medicines into patients. I was told it would turn on but wouldn't start pumping. The display showed rubbish and pushing buttons didn't produce any response. I opened the thing and quickly discovered a Z80 microprocessor, a computer chip that I had been studying for some time with the intention of building my own computer. I was very familiar with it. From the description of the problem, it seemed as if the unit was not starting up properly. Opening the unit and checking pin 26 (the RESET pin), I found...nothing, the pin was floating (unconnected to anything). The chip needs the RESET pin to be held at 0 volts for about a split-second after power-on to start the program at the beginning. If the chip is not reset, the program may start at a random line and the unit will likely
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Zero Sales Since June 2023

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  Updated cover for U-1215 Smashwords version Sales for U-1215 has become zero since June of this year. It's strange because I had consistent sales almost every month prior to this. Quarterly sales of U-1215 from 2016 to 2023 I don't know what happened so I sent off an inquiry to Smashwords. They said that it's probably due to a "long tail distribution." What is that? A long tail distribution is a type of statistical distribution that seems to explain what probably happened to my book. A book may do very well at the beginning but over time, will start to slump, meaning sales will start to slow down. There may be many reasons why this happens so I won't try to give examples. Eventually, sales drops to a much lower level than at the start and it may drop down to zero or stay at a low level indefinitely. If a book is very well written, sales may increase sharply and then plateau after some time. In this case the vertical part of the long tail refers to increase i
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Scam Alert! Film Adaptation Proposal

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  This would have been a perfect start to a day...if this were true. I received this email today and, I have to admit, it got me excited...for a while. What author wouldn't be, right? You get an email from someone claiming to be from a film/television production company and proposing to turn your book into a film or television series. Wow! Hollywood, here I come! As I read through the email, red flags started to wave. The first paragraph says it's from Rhiley Roads and yet, the email address is from Adam Mckay, the CEO of Hyperobject Industry. Furthermore, the email address uses a gmail extension. Curious. Shouldn't an official email come from a corporate email address? I checked out Hyperobject Industries. It's a legit company run by Adam McKay and they've produced several movies and television series on Netflix. This email, however, uses the words "Hyperobject Industry" instead of "Hyperobject Industries." When you're representing a company
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New Book - RTD Temperature vs Resistance Tables

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RTD Temperature vs Resistance Tables Those who know me know that I'm an instrumentation professional and I've been in the profession since 1985. One of the instruments that I've handled many times are RTDs, or R esistance T emperature D etectors. These are temperature measuring devices and are very popular in industries due to their accuracy, temperature range, and low drift. Handled and installed properly, they will last almost indefinitely. RTDs operate on the principle that metals change their electrical resistance in response to temperature. This means that you can determine the temperature of the RTD by mea-suring its resistance. Unfortunately, there many types of RTDs and each type has a different resistance at any given temperature. This is usually not a problem because instruments that use RTDs as a temperature measuring sensor perform the conversion of resistance to temperature internally. However, if the instrumentation technician or engineer doesn't have such
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U-66 vs USS Buckley: Duel in the Atlantic (adaptation of a true story)

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cover of U-66 vs USS Buckley Just published my newest book, U-66 vs USS Buckley Duel in the Atlantic. It's a book that's been in the works for around seven years.  Back in 2016, while I was researching for information about u-boats for my other book, U-1215, I came upon the story of U-66 and USS Buckley. The story I found was short so I went looking for more information about the event. The best source was from USS Buckley's after action report at the uboatarchive website. It detailed the almost minute-by-minute retelling of the whole battle. With no thought of publishing the story as a book, I gathered every bit of information I could get and filed them in a folder in my computer. I went ahead and published U-1215 and forgot about U-66. During the pandemic in 2020, the movie Greyhound came out. While watching it, the surface battle between the USS Greyhound and the u-boat struck me as very similar to the story of U-66 and USS Buckley. I decided to review the story and mak
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