Watchman for Dummies

Telegraphist's Equations

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521646456/
• at Google Book Search
  
• Page 82:
• As an historical example, we can analyze the first transatlantic telegraph cable, laid in 1865. The cable was 3,600 km long and weighed 5,000 tons. The insulator was a vegetable gum called gutta-percha . For this cable L = 460 nH/m, C = 75 pF/m, and R = 7 mQ/m. At a frequency of 2.4 kHz, wL = R, and so the high-resistance assumption is well satisfied for frequencies below 100 Hz. At 12 Hz, we can write a and v as
  
• a = v/wRC/2 = 4.4 x 10...
  
• v = ...
  
• The loss for the entire line is al = 140 dB and the delay is l/v = 210 ms. For comparison, at 3 Hz, the loss in dB and the delay change by a factor of 2, to 70 dB and 420 ms. Thus the 12-Hz component attenuates 70 dB more than the 3-Hz component. In addition, the 12-Hz component arrives 210 ms ahead of the 3-Hz component. In order to improve these characteristics, the signalling speed had to be drastically reduced, to about one word per minute, which was twenty times slower ...
  

Beowulf

Further my infatuation with Old English (OE), sparked by Dr. D. S. Lee's lectures, I just discovered James Rumford's wonderful retelling of Beowulf. The back cover points out the he's used modern English words that come from Old English almost exclusively. The language is beautiful, as is the book design, the length is good for the impatient and there are wonderful touches: after the introduction we meet Beowulf in the original, "Beowulf is min nama" - Beowulf is my name. The final line is also included in OE.

Photo Book for Mom

I want to make a book of photos of Mom. What are the option?

• Tabblo
• It looks like a 40 page minimum
  
• Flickr
• Kevin Kelly's list
• Blurb
• This is KK's top recommendation.
  
• 20 pages minimum
• MyPublisher
• 20 page minimum?
• Qoop (Flickr)
  
• How many photos have I got?

Reading via the index and table of contents

When I pick up a non-fiction book in a bookstore or a library I seldom begin my examination by looking at the content. Rather, I look at the table of contents to get a general overiew, and then in the index to see if it has references to people or concepts that I already associate with the topic. More atomization.

Rules for a Dictionary Catalog By Charles Ammi Cutter, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Philip Lee Phillips, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck

Rules for a Dictionary Catalog By Charles Ammi Cutter, Worthington Chauncey Ford, Philip Lee Phillips, Oscar George Theodore Sonneck: "1 To enable a person to find a book of which either A the author B the title V is known c the subject J 2 To show what the library has D by a given author E on a given subject F in a given kind of literature 3 To assist in the choice of a book G as to its edition bibliographically H as to its character literary or topical"