Furutech is the premier purveyor of all things strange and overpriced. They’re trying to pass off what they claim is “the Most Sophisticated Power Cord and Connectors in the World” for an insane $1800. Their FI-50(R) IEC and FI-50M(R) Piezo Ceramic series connectors claim to give the cleanest possible power.

ANYONE who has even the most basic knowledge of electronics or electricity knows these people are full of shit. Do you think the power company is running “magic wire” from the nuke plants to the transformer yards to the power pole transformer and then to your house? No. Do you have “magic screws” on the circuit breakers that feed your outlets? No. Do you have magic screws on the outlets, or think the contracts are made of anything but builder-grade stamped brass? No. Why would anyone think that the last 6 feet of a $1800 cable would make one damn bit of difference compared to everything else upstream?

The best thing that could happen is to use several of these cables to make a noose and hang the dumb SOBs who try to fawn this garbage off. And maybe the so-called “stereophiles” who think they can hear a difference.

50 years ago today, Texas Instrument’s Jack Kilby demonstrated the first working integrated circuit. It’s a crude conglomeration of just five components, but it was also proof that a circuit could be miniaturized by housing all of its components on one piece of semiconductor material, allowing all these parts to work together without laborious (and technologically infeasible) manual connections.

The integrated circuit itself was housed in a germanium strip on a glass slide, and it measured 7/16in by 1/16in.  It had a few protruding wires, and contained a single transistor, several resistors and a capacitor.

Wired article.

The Wisconsin Online Resource Center has a great collection of interactive animations for learning the ins-and-outs of electronics theory and application. If you’re a visual learner, like myself, you’re likely to find these ‘learning objects’ very helpful. In addition to basic principals of AC/DC, digital/analog, logic gates, op-amps, motors, they cover pneumatics, hydraulics, sensors, and bunches more.

If you’ve found circuits confusing/intimidating in the past, try poking around a bit in the DC section, start with the basics or just click on something that sounds cool Woohoo – learning is fun!

There has been a lot of work put into this impressive collection of tutorials and resources. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting a basic introduction into any of the topics mentioned above. I particularly enjoyed the hydraulic and pneumatic sections.

Wisconsin Online Resource Center Digital Library