hTTi

Happy 80th birthday, Eric Clapton!

March 31

1811—German chemist Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen invented the Bunsen burner.
1854—Dugald Clerk invented a 2-stroke motorcycle engine.
1878—Jack Johnson was the first Black heavyweight boxing champ (1908-1915) and invented a wrench.
1950—Pathologist Alison McCartney is a noted breast cancer campaigner.

A day late, but Tom Lehrer 97 yesterday.

snowingagain wrote: ↑Thu Apr 10, 2025 1:05 pm A day late, but Tom Lehrer 97 yesterday.

Georg Kreisler stole from him:

40 years ago, on July 3, 1985, “Back to the Future” is released (in American cinemas).

Franklan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 03, 2025 4:19 pm 40 years ago, on July 3, 1985, “Back to the Future” is released (in American cinemas).

One of my all time faves!

When I was a young lad, I had a crush on Amanda Peterson (here, shown together with a young Patrick Dempsey)...


Sadly, she passed away exactly 10 years ago, on July 3rd, 2015, at the age of 43.

On this day, 30 years ago, Bob Ross died.

On this day, 40 years ago, Gary Holton died at the age of 33.

People remember him as Wayne from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

October 31 1975: Release of the single "Bohemian rhapsody" by Queen.

Franklan wrote: ↑Sat Nov 01, 2025 7:46 am October 31 1975: Release of the single "Bohemian rhapsody" by Queen.

October 31 2025: Release of the single comment "Make Hondo Feel Old" by Franklan.

Bayrisch_Dude wrote: ↑Sat Nov 01, 2025 10:44 am [..] single comment "Make Hondo Feel Old" by Franklan. [..]

...I see a little silhouetto of a man...

Make us all feel old, whydontcha?

Franklan wrote: ↑Sat Nov 01, 2025 7:46 am October 31 1975: Release of the single "Bohemian rhapsody" by Queen.

Yes, you have made us all feel old, but hey, wouldn´t it be great to get us all singing along to it, and maybe make a recording of the whole song together? - naturally with a bit of "tweaking" to make it half-way listenable!

Robinson100 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 01, 2025 7:14 pm Yes, you have made us all feel old, but hey, wouldn´t it be great to get us all singing along to it, and maybe make a recording of the whole song together? - naturally with a bit of "tweaking" to make it half-way listenable!

Like this?

Franklan, dear, you ARE Wayne in your photo, are you not?

Elljay wrote: ↑Sun Nov 02, 2025 8:17 am Franklan, dear, you ARE Wayne in your photo, are you not?

Yes, my Avatar is Wayne Winston Norris as seen in Season 1 of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet"...

Dick van Dyke - Born December 13, 1925

Sannerl wrote: ↑Sun Dec 14, 2025 12:08 pm Dick van Dyke - Born December 13, 1925

I pointed this out to my German friend's son who turned 30 yesterday, and he pointed out that yesterday was Taylor Swift's birthday as well. I'm a Dick Van Dykie, not a Swiftie, but anyway ...

Odd one today, but the 555 timer is 55 years old.

This marvel of a chip was the first chip I ever owned all of my very own. My dad was doing a digital design course with the open university, I was 10 years old and following along. (It was all new so the explanations in the textbooks and TV programs were not hard to follow along).

My dad took me to the Tandy electronics shop in the town and we bought a "Breadboard", a couple of 555 timers, some bright red LEDs, some capacitors and resistors.

When we got home we both followed the instructions in his course notes and built a simple circuit that flashed the lights on and off, adjusting the values of the resistors and capacitors allowed the speed of the flashing to be changed.

I thought it was sooo cool, and later when I had to pick my subjects for comprehensive school I remembered that and chose electronics. It was very much a favorite subject and I've been doing hobby electronics ever since.

So little 555, happy birthday and thanks for all the fun.

For those of you who are new to this and want to have a bit of old school fun this tutorial will get you started.