Deutsche Welle news article on Raspberry Pi - "Raspberry Pi and the new computer science kids"

At least there is now a memorial to him in Coventry - The Whittle arch - love it or hate it.

If the playing field has been sold off that won't be the choice though will it?

Well, if you've seen one, it's run by a microcontroller. He swaps the magnet and the coil around, so the magnet is in the armature and doesn't need any electrical connection (hence no brushes or commutator), and the windings are on the stator. This is similar to PC brushless DC fans, but they only run at low speeds. The microcontroller controls the current drive to the windings to create the fine tuned rotating field required for the high speed (104,000 RPM).

I have one, and it works just fine. I like his hand driers as well - very invigorating!

Ah well, he can join the other two then.

In a vacuum cleaner it is better in one significant respect, no bags to change - or worse split like the bag in my Lidl shop vac did last time I changed it.

Ah, thread drift! Don't you just love it. ;-)

I have to disagree with you about the efficacy of Dysons. We recently bought a DC39 Animal (Dyson's name - not ours) and, in 40 years of buying vacuum cleaners, it's the best we have ever owned. With regard to suction, we have to be careful that it doesn't lift the pattern off the carpet!

John

David Taylor wrote

I am surprised they are legal - they make more noise than a jet plane taking off.

Quite happy with our old DC04, still has more suction than an empty bagged cleaner even when over full as No.1 Daughter prooved last week. As for suction compared to an overfull bagged cleaner forget it.

Hand driers, designed to spread bugs over a wide area... Single use paper towels are far more hygenic and arguablly "greener".

Noise levels. It would take a *very* loud noise for the few tens of seconds of exposure that drying ones hands takes for it to be a problem.

On 2013-04-11, Hils wrote: "WMF file format is only for CDs"

SCons

I'll take python over M4 any day.

each new release he just stirs up the user interface a bit and adds a new save format.

Worse, it's thread migration. This thread used to live in uk.d-i-y (and possibly elsewhere before that), but it got run out of town on a rail and settled here. I'd beware of it if I were you.

it's not exactly new technology.

I've got a 30 year old electrolux here with a 30 year old reusable fabric bag, the 2200W motor sucks real good

NOTHING SUCKS LIKE AN ELECTROLUX.

My DC03 is about 15 years old, it's had a hard life but it still works just fine.

Don't you just love the way the meaning of words gets changed

Ive got a 20 years old Japanese cylinder that still also works fine. just needs the bag emptying now and again I've spent more on repairing the wife's dysons than that thing cost new.

My DA001 stopped working after about that time. It's only the power switch, so an easy repair if they still made parts for it. I'm not in a hurry to do that, as they don't seem to have broken down enough in other ways for donor machines to be cheaply available last time I looked. The DC01 was almost indistinguishable from the DA001, but later. I was tempted by a DC07 on special offer when the DA001 broke though, so I have two. They're both a bit noisy, but suction is not a problem, and neither are some substances I wouldn't try and deal with using an ordinary vacuum cleaner. Emptying the DC07 is a pleasant experience in comparison to all other vacuum cleaners I've come across, and a feature I would look for on any replacement.

The thing which really surprised me was that he was granted patents on technologies which had been around for years. Obviously the patent clerks are still being distracted by working on other ideas of their own.

Actuaslly, it was "Nothing sucks like a VAX". (Actual advertising slogan!)

But then, there are many of us who still have VAXen that don't agree.

bill

Why is a VAX like an erect Penis? Cos it generally stays up until you f*ck around with it.