I have spent the last two days working outside in the sun, and I am baked. Fried. Toasted. But not actually sunburned. Banana Boat sunscreen may not be the best, but it sure beats getting a visit from the Melanoma Fairy. Here is a really good article on how UVA/UVB radiation causes skin cancer, and why you shouldn't waste money on anything over SPF30. Go read it.
I don't have much tonight. As I intimated in the first paragraph, being in the sun for two days straight has left me drained of energy and bereft of imagination. However, in addition to the Youtube video of how to build a joule thief I was (and still am) going to close the post with, I just got an email from Google saying that I have been invited to Google Music Beta. No big deal.
No, really, it isn't a big deal. Anyone could sign up for the beta, I just don't think many people wanted to. Or, they've opened it up to the second (third? Maybe fourth?) round of suckers volunteers. And from what I've gleaned from a quick Google (ha!) search, it could take awhile for me to get all four thousand, six hundred and sixty-one songs to upload. Stupid throttled upload speeds. That's what the "A" in ADSL stands for, you know, "Asymetrical". Almost all DSL lines (and cable too) have vastly lower upload speeds than download. There are reasons for that.
So, what is a joule thief? It is simple circuit that allows you to run a 3v LED off of a 1.5v AA battery. Why is this cool? Because you can take your "dead" batteries and power your nifty little wine bottle LED lamp -the one you made yourself using a few off-the-shelf parts, and that you point to as justification for your 1-bottle-a-day habit- with them. Hmm...maybe that should be my next project?