Peter Hendra wrote in
:

Larry,
What a wonderful idea!. I shall do exactly that though I have never
done it before. Thanks for the details which you have obviously spent
time thinking about. It is so much better not having to reinvent the
wheel. I shall start collecting bottles today. I presume that when you
say polycarbonate you mean such as plastic fizz or Coca-Cola bottles?

Yes, those clear plastic ones. Spray paint the inside of it on the ends,
but leave the middle transparent so anyone noticing it will see the stuff
inside and cut it open. The brighter its color, the better.


It is one of my pleasures to receive emails and letters from people I
have never met but who have met me through newsletters I write. I
started writing them of our travels to my daughter and a few friends
and work colleagues. They passed them on to friends and the result is
that they are sent all over the world. I often get emails from places
that amaze me.

I don't know if I asked you, Peter, but are you using Skype? You sound
like a natural for Skype...(c; Skype now has Skypecasts, open
conferences of people who just showed up. Some are even in ENGLISH!...
(c; Many are in Arabic, but the languages are easily seen as Skype lists
them in Arabic lettering. Sit for hours and chat with other crazy people
around the globe....for free! It's like being at a party, with a host
(moderator) who can control everyone to dump the crazies.

I met a Russian, who lives on Sahkalin Island on the Sea of Japan. He
knew I was an electronic tech, so called me on Skype one evening (my
time) to see if I could help him fix his Russian tube-type TV set. He
sent me the schematic in pdf format for easy navigation, using Skype's
data transfer feature inside "chat mode" (texting), even while we were on
the phone with full color video running. Armed with the schematic and
looking at his nice video signal pointed into the chassis, I asked for a
measurement and he made it, in realtime, and in about 20 minutes I had
found a shorted capacitor in the horizontal output stage trashing our HV
to the picture tube. He called me back to show me how nice the picture
looked (of course, showing it to me on Skype video) after he replaced the
part. Way cool fixing a TV on the OTHER side of the planet....(c;

Emails are nothing when you can video conference with a GROUP of people
on Skype, in realtime, across the planet. Skype only costs you if you
use it to interconnect with the landline/cellphone telephone systems.
Even then, it's dirt cheap to most civilized places on the planet. You
can also buy up to 9 telephone numbers in various countries. If anyone
calls any one of them, your Skype rings you...even on multiple
computers/devices. That's called Skype IN to receive calls from your own
Skype phone number, no matter where YOU actually access broadband. Skype
OUT allows you to call OUT to landlines/cellphones by precharging your
account from a credit card. Skype homeports in Luxembourgh so there's no
ripoff taxes outside the EU....yet. Most places are $US2.1 cents/minute,
no matter where your computer is connected.

Great fun! You could talk to BOTH your Chinese friends simultaneously
for free if all 3 of you had Skype on a computer!

Larry
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