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At the risk of derailing this thread from its purpose, I did have a thought that goes some way towards explaining what people see in that sort of thing: All art is a combination of the predictable and the random. Neither pure randomness nor pure predictability are enjoyable, but everyone has a...

What exactly do you mean by "brighter"? It's hardly as though lenses themselves emit light! I realise that what I've been calling "lens diameter" isn't quite right - since many cameras have an iris to effectively reduce it. I should probably say "iris diameter". To be honest, I'm not entirely...

I meant that light that does not fall into the lens of the camera during the exposure period cannot possibly contribute to the final image. Light reflected off the scene travels in all directions, but the more of it you can 'catch' with the camera, the more reliable the measurements you make of...

No-no-no, elephants are like tree-trunks, not snakes! The amount of light a camera can use to form an image is directly related to the exposed area of the objective lens, and the exposure time, for any given scene. Less light --> less information --> worse results. If you have fewer, larger...

On the occasions I've had the misfortune to use a modern smartphone camera, I've been frustrated by: Low light performance. A tiny lens simply can't gather enough light to give a satisfactory SNR Ergonomics: The camera is too thin to hold, aim and control properly. The lens is always where I...

I'm not sure I agree. It depends on your approach, but I find the satisfaction of expressing frustration is less than the satisfaction of doing something, even small, to help fix the situation. Furthermore, communities that make a habit of grumbling can become trapped in a loop of naysaying...

I thought it was cockroaches?

You might be able to track down an electric car from the days before power-electronic speed controllers. Early electric vehicles had a big multipole switch to engage different combinations of motor windings and power resistors. Like gears, but even more confounding, because if you didn't change...

That, and the right to operate any sort of heavy machinery in public spaces. If you're that attached to your phone, use it to call a taxi!

Two pedals, eight gears, chain drive, two-stroke biomechanical food/air engine, excellent ventilation & all-round visibility... (Bring back the Red Flag Act, I say!)

For the moment, while very few of us have anything resembling a finished device, might it make sense to start out by trying to pre-emptively answer the inevitable flurry of questions from potential customers? The really difficult part (to my mind) is explaining the Pyra's best qualities without...

See, that's why you put your watch in your pocket, on the end of an ornamental chain. Kids these days...

Diminishing power source, yes. You can only use the KE of spinning generators to cover small imbalances of power over short periods. Feeding steam into the turbine tends to make it speed up. Drawing electric power from the generator makes it slow down. If, and only if the steam input and...

Precisely my point! The grid frequency slows down because every turbine-driven synchronous generator attached to it also slows down! Earlier today it reached 49.9Hz. At that point, every big generator was running slow - at 49.9*60 = 2994rpm Why were they running slow? Well, suppose one...