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Author Archives: lschiefer

Presidents only use useful technology

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The President of the United States sets the tone for many things: from fashions, to foods, to sports, to national attitudes. He is also the indicator that a technology, that the electronics that you create and that we all use, is truly useful. If you have been following what I write on electronicproducts.com of late, [...]

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Who was the first President to have a copier?

Monday, June 4, 2012

The first President with a copier was George Washington. You can see his copier at Mount Vernon when you visit his home.   Washington’s copier in his study at home in Mount Vernon, VA. Photo by Hal Conroy.   The copier was a letter-copying press invented in 1780 by steam engine inventor James Watt. The press [...]

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‘Computer’ is dying

Thursday, June 2, 2011

“Have you noticed,” a colleague remarked to me today, ” that we no longer call computers ‘computers’? Here’s my iPhone. It’s a computer, but we never call it a computer.” He went on to say that the only thing we call a computer has a keyboard, such as a desktop or a laptop. It’s true. [...]

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Why the President slept with the lights on

Friday, April 8, 2011

In 1889, not long after Thomas Edison invented the first commercially viable incandescent lamp in 1879, permanent electric lights were installed in the White House by the Edison General Electric Company. Edison’s lighting  was powered by direct current (dc), which he promoted as being safer than the competition: alternating currect (ac).   Nevertheless, President Benjamin [...]

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Electrical units of measure

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Here’s a handy chart of the units of measure we use all the time for electronic quantities. Note that the unit itself is lower case, the person its named for is, of course, cap/lower case, and the unit symbol –which is used behind a numerical quantity — is usually upper case. The chart is an [...]

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How numerals 0 – 9 got their shape

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A friend sent me this information in an e-mail: How numerals 0 – 9 got their shape – Interesting. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Do you know why numbers look like they do? Someone, at some point in time, had to create their shapes and meaning. Watch this short presentation [...]

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Why we use a ‘less than sign’ and not a ‘fewer than sign’

Monday, February 7, 2011

By Len Schiefer English is a difficult language to master because it has many  rules. Take “less” and “fewer,” for example. Both words mean that a quantity is diminished in size, but they are not interchangeable if used correctly. Use “less” when you are referring to a quantity that cannot be counted and “fewer” when [...]

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