Techy stuff… for the most part.
For the last couple weeks I have been getting called by someone/some company who claims to be “Cardmember Services” They start with a little pre-recorded spiel about being my final notice (Yeah right! I only wish it was my final notice.) to lower my credit card interest rates. The messages goes on to say “Press 1 to speak to an agent.”
The first time they called, I pressed 1 and when they came on I asked to be removed from their calling list as I am on the National Do Not Call registry. They promptly hung up the line. I then tried calling them back on the number they called on and the line reported that it was no longer in service. “Great!” I thought, these losers don’t want to be called back.
I left it alone and sure enough the next day at a different time, I get a call again, only this time the number was a different number on the caller ID. So I did the routine again and pressed 1. I led them on for a bit about being interested in their service and when they got suspicious of my schemes (when I asked them who they were with) they just hung up.
Sure enough, the next day I get another call, it is the same thing. This time, I got a little further with them, to the point where, just as I suspected, they wanted a credit card number to verify I had the debt. Meanwhile I am recording this whole conversation the whole time. I quickly found a cool website with a bunch of numbers that will pass the MOD10 algorithm test and gave one of them to the lady. She said she was going to run it and would be right back. I waited a few minutes and then she had me verify the number. I repeated it back to her and she put me on hold again for a few more minutes. Finally she said, ‘I am having a lot of trouble running that number, I can’t help you.” and then she hung up.
I did some research on these numbers that have called and came up with the following information:
First number that called was 865-292-0385:
tnID Database Record For 865-292-0385
Current Telephone Company: Current Provider
Original Telephone Company: Brooks Fiber Communications – Tennessee
Brooks Fiber Communications
(865) 291-5000
620 Market St Ste 600
Knoxville, TN 37902
Original Telephone Company Type: Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)
Estimated City: Knoxville
Estimated Region: Tennessee
Estimated Postal Code: 37917
Equipment Location Code: KNVLTNIIDS0
=======================================
=======================================
One of the other numbers that called: 01-942-2887
tnID Database Record For 201-942-2887
Caller ID: Caller ID
Current Telephone Company: Current Provider
Original Telephone Company: Mcimetro Ats Inc.
Original Telephone Company Type: Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)
Estimated City: Jersey City
Estimated Region: New Jersey
Estimated Postal Code: 07304
Equipment Location Code: NBWKNJ17DS1
Possible contact information for MCIMETRO, ATS, INC
MCImetro Access Transmission Services LLC
Godfrey Chisanga
2400 N. Glenville Dr.
Richardson TX 75082
972-729-5103
MCImetro Access Transmission Services LLC
Laura Dalton
500 Summit Lake Dr. 4th Floor
Valhalla NY 10595
914-741-6083
MCImetro Access Transmission Services LLC
Godfrey Chisanga
2400 N. Glenville Dr.
Richardson TX 74082
972-729-5103
MCImetro Access Transmission Services LLC
Laura Dalton
500 Summit Lake Dr. 4th Floor
Valhalla NY 10595
914-471-6083
201-942-2887
Jersey City, United States
Information: Warning: This caller is most probably a spam caller
Spam Score: 100%
======================================
I have filed a complaint three times with the FCC at https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action?form_type=1088G
Feel free to comment with any success stories in defeating these scammers or tricks you have used, funny stories, etc. I Feel if I can at least waste ten minutes of their time I have accomplished something. What do you think?
Additional Number to add to the list that has called:
tnID Database Record For 512-501-3637
Current Telephone Company:
Current Provider
Original Telephone Company:
Brooks Fiber Communications – Texas
Original Telephone Company Type:
Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)
Estimated City:
Austin
Estimated Region:
Texas
Estimated Postal Code:
78757
Equipment Location Code:
AUSTTXGRXXZ
This file has been accessed a total of 18 times. [ Delete File ]
Last accessed on Tuesday, June 14, 2011 4:03:32PM EDT.
Looking to see where a phone number called from?
http://tnid.org/ Telephone Number IDentification.
Search your own phone number and if you don’t want it listed there, hit the delete link and call the number listed and it will remove your phone number.
Q: Dear Analogbytes,
Yesterday someone told me that when I am drinking through a straw that I am not really sucking – can you please explain this?
A: By, Analogbytes
Imagine a See-saw. The see-saw is level because you are sitting on one side and someone with the exact same mass as you is sitting on the other side. What happens when the other person puts some of their weight on the ground? Your side goes down and their side goes up right? Why? Because you are now heavier and gravity has more of an effect on you and pulls you closer because there is an imbalance on the see-saw. Now, think of the liquid in the cup as one side of the see-saw, and the liquid in the straw as the other side. The people sitting on either end is the weight of the atmosphere being pulled down by gravity on the liquid in the cup as well as the liquid in the straw. When you remove some of this weight from inside the straw, there is an imbalance and the liquid moves down in the cup which forces it up through the straw. Did you know that if you had a long enough straw, there would be a point where the water would only reach so high and would no longer rise? Can you guess why this might be?
I noticed facebook has a new feature that lets you know when a computer, other than the one you authorize, logs into your account.
Anytime this happens, you will get an email stating the computer that logged in to your account. If someone else besides you is logging into your account, you will get an email showing that they logged in and what IP address and geographical location that IP address resides in.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
You will get an email like the following every time someone (or you) log into your account for the first time with a computer that is not already added to your authorized list.
From: Facebook
Date: Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 7:27 PM
Subject: Facebook login from “The Name I gave to my Computer”
To: [me]<*************>
Hi [me],
A new device named “The Name I gave to my Computer” was added to your Facebook account (Today at 6:27pm) from Denver, CO, US(IP=***.***.***.***). (Note: This location is based on information from your ISP or wireless provider.)
If this device was added without your permission, please remove it from your account immediately, then change your password.
If this was an authorized login, please ignore this email.
To remove this device and change your password:
1. Log into www.facebook.com.
2. Click the Account tab at the top of the screen and select “Account Settings” from the drop-down menu.
3. Scroll down to the Account Security section and click the “change” link.
4. Find the name of the unauthorized device and click the “remove” link next to it.
5. Scroll up to the Password section of the Account Settings page.
6. Click the “change” link on the right and follow the instructions.
To learn how login notifications like this one can help you to protect your account information, visit the Help Center: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=loginnotifications.
Please note: Facebook will never request your login information through email.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
This was a lab for one of my DC Circuits classes. Feel free to ask me any questions or to clarify anything that I may not have made clear.
Yaffe Kravitz
ETE-101
LAB # 20 Capacitors
22 April 2009
In this lab, we studied how capacitance, charge, and voltage drops relate to each other for capacitors in series and parallel circuits. We also used an ohmmeter and a voltmeter to test each capacitor. A capacitor is an electrical storage device that stores an electric charge.
Most capacitors consist of two parallel plates with a dielectric (insulator) between the plates. A few different factors decide how much electrical energy a capacitor can store. For one, the amount of charge they can store depends on the area of the plates; a larger plate area can store more electrons than a smaller one. (Yup, you guessed it! an analogy (0:) the plates are like parking lots for electrons, the larger the lots, the more electrons can “park” there. Secondly, the distance between the plates also determines how much charge can be stored in the capacitor; the closer the plates, the more charge that can be stored. This is because like charges repel, and opposite charges attract.
When a capacitor is charged, a power source causes electrons to flow from the positive plate to the negative plate, leaving the positive side with a positive charge and the negative side with a negative charge. When the power source is disconnected, the electrons are repelled by each other (like charges) and are attracted to the positive plate, but have no way to get there. At this point, the closest path is the dielectric between the plates, but because the dielectric is an insulator and there is not enough potential difference (voltage) to cause the electrons to “jump” across to the positive plate, they cannot go that way. Since there is nowhere for them to go, they are just attracted to the positive side and so stay on the negative plate until there is a path for them to travel back to the positive side.
Part of the reason the distance between the plates determines how much charge the capacitor can store is because initially, a capacitor only stores charge on the plates because the electrons are “pumped” to the negative plate from the positive plate by the power source. Nevertheless, because electrons repel each other, only so many electrons can accumulate on the negative plate before the force of the electrons repelling more electrons becomes equal to the force that is (pumping) them there (power source). However, if the negative plate is in close proximity to the positive plate, the positive force will be acting on the negative plate with an attracting force, which will cause the net force of the repelling electrons to be less, thus allowing more electrons to “park” on that plate. The electrons become, in a way, distracted by the positive force from the positive plate so they do not realize that more electrons are “parking” on their plate. Consequently, more electrons are able to “park” on the plate because the force repelling them is partly canceled by the “distracted” electrons. The closer the plates are together, the more this effect becomes magnified. Of course, the plates can only be so close before electrons would “jump” to the positive side, (the higher the voltage used to charge the capacitor, the further this distance needs to be).
See the discussion/conclusion on the post titled Resistor-Capacitor (RC) Time Constant for more information on how a capacitor works and a couple reasons why they are useful.
Get a frying pan and place on stove-top burner, turn the burner on high and place six slices of bacon in the frying pan.
Let bacon sizzle until it is bubbling up and then turn burner down to medium.
Take out four slices of Oat Nut bread, put in toaster on light, remove, and spread mayo liberally on both sides.
Cut tomato into slices. Wash head of lettuce under cold water for one minute.
Place three slices of tomato on each of two of the four slices of bread. Tear a few leaves of lettuce off and place on top of the tomatoes on the bread.
By now, the bacon should be ready (crispy but not black and burned).
Place Bacon on a paper plate covered with 3 layers of paper towels to absorb the bacon grease and let the bacon cool for one minute.
Fold three pieces of bacon over and place on each sandwich.
Place the other slices of bread (one each) on each sandwich, mayo down and press together with opposite slice somewhat firmly to mush the lettuce, tomato, bacon, and mayo into the bread a little bit.
Place sandwiches on a paper plate, sit down, bow your head, say grace, and enjoy your amazing BLT!
And there you have it, the "Yaffe" style BLT. Enjoy!
Two different inventors are credited with the creation of the capacitor. In November 1745, Ewald Georg von Kleist (a German scientist) is recorded to have invented the capacitor. A few months later, Pieter van Musschenbroek (a Dutch professor at the University of Leyden) invented the Leyden jar and is typically credited with the first capacitor. Kleist had no detailed records or notes, so Musschenbroek gained more notoriety for the capacitor (Bryant 1).
The Leyden jar was a simple glass jar, half filled with water and lined (inside and out) with metal foil. The glass acted as the dielectric. There was a metal wire or chain driven through a cork in the top of the jar and then hooked to something that would deliver a charge (most likely a hand-cranked static generator). Once delivered, the jar would hold two equal but opposite charges in equilibrium until they were connected with a wire, producing a slight spark or shock (Bryant 1).
Benjamin Franklin worked with Leyden and soon found that a flat piece of glass worked as well as a jar. He prompted Leyden to develop the flat capacitor. Michael Faraday would pioneer the first practical applications for the capacitor in trying to store unused electrons from his many experiments. He made the first usable capacitor from large oil barrels. His progress with capacitors has enabled us to deliver electric power over great distances. The unit of measure for capacitors is known as the farad in honor of Faraday and his achievements (Bryant 1).
In this lab, we created a circuit, known as a resistor-capacitor circuit or RC circuit, using both a resistor and a capacitor. The purpose of this lab was to measure the RC time constant when a resistor is in series with a capacitor. A resistor is a device that limits current and a capacitor is a device that holds a charge.
Skip to Discussion/ Conclusion
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.66μF Charging |
.66μF Discharging |
.99μF Charging |
.99μF Discharging |
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Time (s) |
Vr |
Vc |
Vr |
Vc |
Vr |
Vc |
Vr |
Vc |
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5 |
5.5 |
6.5 |
6.2 |
5.8 |
8.1 |
3.9 |
4.2 |
7.8 |
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10 |
3.2 |
8.8 |
9.3 |
2.7 |
4.8 |
7.2 |
7.7 |
4.3 |
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15 |
1.3 |
10.7 |
10.8 |
1.2 |
2.8 |
9.2 |
9.3 |
2.7 |
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20 |
.60 |
11.4 |
11.4 |
.59 |
1.7 |
10.3 |
10.3 |
1.7 |
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25 |
.30 |
11.7 |
11.7 |
.27 |
1.0 |
11.0 |
11.0 |
1.0 |
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30 |
.14 |
11.9 |
11.9 |
.13 |
.62 |
11.4 |
11.4 |
.57 |
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35 |
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.37 |
11.6 |
11.6 |
.35 |
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40 |
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.22 |
11.8 |
11.8 |
.21 |
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45 |
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.14 |
11.9 |
11.9 |
.12 |
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50 |
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.08 |
11.92 |
11.92 |
.08 |
A battery is connected to a capacitor with the positive leads of the battery connected to the positive leads of the capacitor, and the negative leads of the battery connected to the negative side of a capacitor. Once there is contact, charge flows as fast as it can into the capacitor until it is full. In reality, electrons flow out of the capacitor’s positive side and into the battery, causing the positive capacitor plate to have a positive net charge on it. Likewise, electrons flow out of the negative side of the battery and into the negative side of the capacitor and start accumulating on the negative plate, causing that plate to have a negative net charge on it. Once the capacitor is fully charged, no more current flows, and the battery and capacitor are both at the same potential. We can disconnect the battery and the capacitor will still hold the charge on the plates for a significant amount of time. If we were to connect a conductor across the terminals of the capacitor, the electrons would rush out of the negative side of the capacitor as fast as they could; go through the conductor, and whiz back on to the positive plate. At this point, everything will be back in equilibrium, there will be a net charge of zero on both plates, and the capacitor will be discharged.
One might wonder what the purpose of such a device would serve, but suppose we could slow the electrons down and cause the charging and discharging of the capacitor to go as fast or slow as we choose. We can do this, and in fact, in this lab we did. When a resistor is added in series with the capacitor and battery, (it does not matter which side of the battery it is placed on, as long as it is in series with the battery and capacitor), then the electrons will flow at a slower rate depending on the resistance of the resistor. When we multiply the capacitance of the capacitor (the amount of charge it can hold) and the resistance of the resistor (value of the amount of opposition to the flow of the electrons flowing to charge the capacitor) we get what is known as the Time Constant. To help us imagine what is actually happening, this effect can be considered in terms of a water system analogy. Let us suppose that a certain pipe with a valve attached to it would allow 10 gallons of water per minute to flow through it, and this pipe connects to a 100-gallon storage tank. Looking at this scenario, we would postulate that it takes 10 minutes to fill the tank with water. We could also assume that it would take 10 minutes to empty the tank through the same pipe. This setup may be used repeatedly, assuming the pipe always allows 10 gallons per minute of water to flow through it, and the tank capacity is always 100 gallons. This simple contraption could be used as a 10 minute timer; since we know that it always takes 10 minutes to fill and the same time to drain completely out. Back in 1500 BC, such a time-telling device was found in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep (Early, 1).
An RC circuit can be used in any number of electronic circuits as a time base for many applications. The time base is repeatable to a virtually infinite number of times, yielding the same results every time. Usually accompanying an RC circuit is another circuit that automatically charges and or discharges the RC-circuit. Depending on the function of the circuit, it may be set up to trigger a discharge cycle once the capacitor is fully charged and or vice versa. Another part of the circuit may be set up so that after a number of charge and discharge cycles, it would trigger some other function in the circuit. That, in turn, might trigger other RC circuits and so on and so forth; making a circuit do virtually whatever one would want it to do, whenever they want it done.
Bryant, Charles W., and Marshall Brain. “How Capacitors Work .” HowStuffWorks. 30 Oct. 2008. A
Discovery Company. 2 Apr. 2009
<http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/capacitor3.htm#Williams>.
“Early Clocks.” A Walk Through Time. 30 Apr. 2002. National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) . 2 Apr. 2009 <http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/early.html>.
