XPost: alt.slack, alt.slack.goathead   
   From: j63840576@gmail.com   
      
   Doc Hammerslack wrote:   
   > At Sat, 10 Jan 2026 17:55:04 -0600, phoenix  wrote:   
   >   
   >> Sn!pe wrote:   
   >>> mixed nuts  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 1/7/2026 13:01, Sn!pe wrote:   
   >>>>> phoenix  wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> [...]   
   >>>>>> Phototransistors are not really transistors in function IMO, I   
   >>>>>> prefer to think of them as light-sensitive diodes. However,   
   >>>>>> considering them transistors can help explain what a transistor   
   >>>>>> does to the unfamiliar. When light hits the phototransistor, it   
   >>>>>> allows current to pass.   
   >>>>> [...]   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Back in the day, I scraped the paint off of a 0C71; it made a   
   >>>>> pretty good phototransistor, so I'd take issue with that.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> I grew up with discrete components so none of what you write   
   >>>>> is news to me   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> I bought a sack of 2N229 geraniums back in 1956 from a lot radio   
   >>>> parts store and made some amplifiers with 'em. They worked good   
   >>>> but ft was about 300 kHz which ain't that great. Then I got an   
   >>>> account with Evans Radio where I could get all kinds of stuff and   
   >>>> switched to RCA and Fairchild Si planar parts like 2N2102 and life   
   >>>> got magic   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>> Back in ~'62 when I joined the local radio club, they had a stash   
   >>> of NPN 2N706a rejects.  Only ~25% were completely dud, another 25%   
   >>> sub-par and the remaining half were just slightly below spec.  I   
   >>> was given a fistful of them to play with.  Among other things, I   
   >>> built a two metre converter in a two-ounce tobacco tin using them.   
   >>>   
   >> Liar!   
   >   
   > "The courteous way, the MANNERLY way to say that," he intoned quietly,   
   > "is to say 'that turns out not to be the case'".   
   >   
   >   == ==   
   > Okay, that's another reference that % probably knows:   
   >   
   > 	"Wrong," said Renner.   
   >   
   > 	"The tactful way," Rod said quietly, "the polite way to   
   > disagree with the Senator would be to say, `That turns out not to be   
   > the case.'"   
   >   
   > That's from a Niven/Pournelle book, I believe _Hammerfall_.   
   >   
   Huh?   
      
   The term "Hammerfall" relates to two distinct concepts associated with   
   "Niven": the catastrophic impact event in the novel Lucifer's Hammer by   
   Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, and an unrelated novel by C. J. Cherryh   
   in her Gene Wars universe.   
      
      
      
   Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer   
      
   In the 1977 apocalyptic science-fiction novel Lucifer's Hammer by Larry   
   Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the day a massive comet strikes Earth is   
   referred to as "Hammerfall". The novel explores the catastrophic events   
   following the impact...   
      
   --   
   xGytDsqkQY8   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)