OT: $$CN <> $$ US

$40 in "fees" is outrageous. Switch banks.

Due to the proximity to Canada, NY banks are a bit friendlier to Canadian currency than other states farther from the border.

This might seem absurd, but Jay H. can vouch for me as a real person: Send me the currency USPS Priority Mail with delivery tracking, and my local bank can convert it at 15% exchange rate (roughly the current rate) with no fees. I can then PayPal you the amount exchanged ASAP, assuming you have an account.

Hello Jim,

That's steep. I only used the bank to get foreign currency before a trip. It's kind of archaic in the US where you have to pre-order and wait. Anyhow, we didn't pay that kind of percentage cut (this was BofA).

You could keep it until the next biz trip takes you through a major airport. Or trade with someone who goes on a fly-fishing trip or something like that to Canada. Or just send it to Spehro :-)

If you or someone else travels to Europe: Almost every bank over there is prepared to trade foreign currency as long as it's mainstream and Canadian Dollars usually are. Fees for that are much lower than here and they are obligated to post buy and sell rates clearly for you to peruse (wish I could get my hands on one of those LED displays). Typically there is no fee other than that difference between buy price and market rate. At least it used to be that way.

I thought about that. Every bank in town does the same thing. Small town.

Jim

Not absurd in the least. Email me ( snipped-for-privacy@rstengineering.com) me your address and I'll send it off. Many thanks ...

Jim

Done.

Buy something on ebay from someone in Canada and send them the cash. Risky, I know, but it's just a suggestion.

Kobra

Hey, Jim. Buy something from me and you can have it at par ($1 US = $1 CDN). If you do this, from anybody, be sure to conceal the cash well, a small minority of postal workers are adept at removing cash from things that look like birthday cards from Grandma etc.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Just hang on to it until you go to Canada again. It's bound to appreciate.

Or, leave it in your wallet. Sooner or later you 'll either go to the airport, or bump into a Canadian. California's full of them.

-- Joe Legris

It's loose change... just give it to the grandkids. That's what I did with the remanent D-marks from each trip to Germany.

...Jim Thompson

Well, duh, that's what happens once you abolish capital punishment.

John

You're becoming a bit weird.

Here's one Mensa candidate who stole a gift card and spent it at Target while still in uniform:

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I think he's getting it ( for his blood pressure ) but you don't want to aggravate that !

Graham

I've always been weird. Try it... it's fun. And as you get older, you become less inhibited, too.

Next week's project is to map electric fields around bug legs.

John

I has a similar problem with some Euros I had. I sold a part to a guy on eBay (in Belgium I think) and the turd sent me a couple Euro notes to pay for it. He took way too long to make the payment and I didn't want to deal with him any more so I shipped the item.

I figured I'd get over to PDX one day and cash them in then. I ended up giving them to a friend that was going to France for a week to bring me back some cheese. It was well worth it...

Anyway you might consider keeping them until life in general takes you over to the area where you need to go to cash them in. Also call a few banks, there may be a currency exchange business closer that will buy the notes from you...

Tony

I run a small motorcycle parts business on line and I've had customers send me cash more than a few times. I admire there nerve, I would always assume it wouldn't get there. Strangely enough all the times customers have sent me cash, it's gotten here fine even a couple times from Europe.

Tony

so

bomb and

issue.

I may be wasting your time and Jim's but I don't see anyone else complaining.

Graham

Well, my Elder Brat is a biologist, and she has some - dare I say - weird ideas about now certain insects grab certain objects (can't say much more, since she may publish.) The effect is either electrostatic, which she suspects for some arguable reasons, or van der Waals, like the geckos use to walk across glass ceilings. It shouldn't be too hard to determine which. If it's electrostatic, we'd like to map the fields.

I was thinking about some sort of really tiny mostly-shielded vibrating probe scanned about in space around the LUT (Leg Under Test), with charge amps and bandpass filters and detectors and such, but this should be easier:

You just bounce a laser off the back and note the angle. Electrostatic (or other atomic-level forces) bend the beam and that's it. This is how atomic force microscopes work, and you can easily detect nanogram forces like this. Tip radius is < 25 nm, so pretty much one atom pokes out of the tip, sort of like a how a surface grinder uses the one highest bump on the wheel to make the last pass. It takes serious vibration isolation to do atomic-force stuff, but bug-parts electrostatics should be mappable with reasonable hardware.

John

How do you get the bug to hold still during this procedure?

Thanks, Rich