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Don
Lancaster's Guru's Lair Guru Archive Reprints |
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This library page is mostly a collection of my reprints of stories and
columns that I had written for various print publications. Eventually,
hope to provide a complete archive here of the 1800+ articles and 36+
books to date. With your help.
Completing this enormous archival task will require your participation as
a banner advertiser, consultant supporter, or Synergetics partner.
While I occasionally still write for print magazines, enough has changed
that most of my current output appears as sole source ezines on my web
site. More on this in my unauthorized autobiography.
Note that Tech Musings, Resource Bin, Hardware Hacker, and
Blatant Opportunist all have their own library pages. Most are now
historically complete or nearly so. In addition, my unique ezine-only
and apnote content appears on other subject-appropriate pages.
Most library files require an Adobe Acrobat 4.0 plug in for online
viewing. Offline, these may be accessed by an Acrobat Reader or
an eBook Reader or any other .PDF accepting program.
| Byte Magazine: | . |
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Just about all of the earliest Byte Magazines had one or more of
my stories or book chapter reprints in them. I hope to eventually
regather the many dozens of them here.
Meanwhile, here is one of the later tutorials I did for them...
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PostScript Insider Secrets PSINSCRT.PDF Classic early tutorial on unique PostScript capabilities. Note that we now use host based Distiller pseudo-compiling , and that font paths are mostly unlocked and easily nonlinearly remapped. |
Click here for more recent PostScript info.
| Circuit Cellar: | . |
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Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar magazine has long been a foremost
resource for homebrew, small scale hardware and software. Every
now and then I contributed a story. Usually being very careful to
submit only the very best of the best. The really important stuff.
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Nonlinear Graphics Transformations NONLINGR.PDF From Circuit Cellar for August of 1995. Reviews both linear and nonlinear transforms such as Isometric, Perspective, Tuna Can, Star Wars, Root Beer, Spherical , Glyph Path, and Scribble. |
Click here for more Math Stuff resources.
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The Quest for Magic Sinewaves SINQUEST.PDF Magic sinewave intro & tutorial. Benefits of magic sinewaves. Shorter solutions. Forcing zero harmonics. Needles in haystacks. High efficiency and low distortion results. Improving low amplitudes. . (Please see STEPSYNT.PDF below or STEPLOCK.PDF for more recent info) |
Click here for more Magic Sinewave resources.
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PIC PostScript Flutterwumpers POSTFLUT.PDF All of the raw power of genuine 100% authentic Adobe PostScript can easily get applied to stunningly low cost PIC robotic systems. Royalty free! Tutorial gives examples and insider details. |
Click here for more Flutterwumper resources.
Click here for more PostScript resources.
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Steplocked Magic Sinewave Synthesis STEPSYNT.PDF A tutorial on the properties and synthesis of Steplocked Magic Sinewaves Fundamentals. A first look. Cheby to the Leby. Steplock synthesis. Becoming Delta Friendly. For More Help. |
Click for a Magic Sinewave development proposal.
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Vector-to-Step Conversion VECTSTEP.PDF Introduction and tutorial shows how to convert slanty lines into stepper steps or screen pixels. Basic conversion. Breshenham's method. Table lookup. Adding dimensions. Cardinal moves. |
Click here for our Auction Help library.
Click here for our live eBay auctions.
| Computer Shopper: | . |
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Back in the Stan Veit days, Computer Shopper magazine actually
had bunches of useful tech content buried in its zillions of ads. My
contributions were mainly my Ask The Guru series and a group of
columns first named LaserWriter Corner and later changed to
PostScript Secrets.
Individual columns will be upgraded and improved to our current
standards as time and banner advertisers permit.
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Ask the Guru Volume I ATG1.PDF The first series of Don's Computer Shopper columns 1-32, running from March 1985 through October of 1989. |
Click here to reach the Tech Musings library.
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Ask the Guru Volume II ATG2.PDF The second series of Don's Computer Shopper columns 33-57, running from November 1985 through December 1989. |
Click here to reach the Blatant Opportunist library.
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Ask the Guru Volume III ATG3.PDF The second series of Don's Computer Shopper columns 58-74, running from January 1990 through December 1991. |
Click here to reach the Resource Bin library.
Here's the Names & Numbers directory that went with the Guru
and other columns. We are no longer maintaining this list, since live
linking seems to do way more far better...
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Ask the Guru master Names & Numbers Directory Multiple page listings of phone numbers and addresses of resources mentioned in Don's columns. No longer maintained |
Click here for Custom Consulting assistance.
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Don Lancaster's POSTSCRIPT SECRETS An early collection of useful and unique PostScript resources. Including supply sources, unusual techniques., free fonts, and PostScript-as-Language routines. |
Click here to reach the PostScript library.
Click here to reach the Acrobat library.
| Early Classics: | . |
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I eventually hope to place all of my earlier books and articles here.
Redone fully text searchable, magnifiable, and viewable to the highest
possible quality and resolution.
Since these are mostly precomputer, an enormous amount of work is
involved to do the job right.This section awaits your support as a
banner advertiser or partner. Please email me for current status.
Some background on these books and stories appears here.
There is this third party listing of some of my earlier stories and
columns. The Modern Electronics stuff and the Nom De Plumes
required when I had too many stories at once in any issue are
conspicuously absent. As is the Caver stuff and the Goodyear
AEEM's.
Meanwhile, we offer these external links to a few reprints...
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Solid State Color Organ ( Electronics World, April 63 ) My very first professionally published paper and one of the very first SCR solid state power control publications. |
Click here to reach the Auction Help library.
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Build This TV Typewriter ( Radio Electronics, Sept 73 ) The opening shot fired in the microcomputer revolution. NIckel a bit shift registers was the only cheap memory at that time. |
Click here to reach the GuruGram library.
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IC-67 Metal Locator (Popular Electronics, Jan 73) Receiver-transmitter depth style metal locator was one of the first major hobbiest "linear" integrated circuit construction projects. |
Click here to reach our What's New blog..
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Low Cost Decimal Counter (Popular Electronics, Feb 68) $12 per decade IC decimal counting module was a gateway project that made today's digital instruments economically practical. |
Click here for our eBay Bargains .
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Build The Psyctone (Popular Electronics, Feb 71) Totally off-the-wall random tone generator and "music synthesizer" was one of the first projects for short pseudorandom sequences. |
Click here to reach the Auction Help library.
Click for your own custom Auction Resource finder.
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ASCII Keyboard & Encoder (Pop. Electronics, Apr 74) First low cost keyboard to include full ASCII encoding. The usual Apple I photo has our keyboard conspicuously shown on it. |
Click here too see the Apple I photo.
Click here to reach the PostScript library.
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Popular Electronics DVM (Popular Electronics, Dec 68 ) First low cost digital voltmeter kit offered 2-1/2 digit resolution on a "bouncing" incandescent bulb readout. |
Click here to sponsor a Guru's Lair Banner Ad.
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Univ. Frequency Counter I (Popular Electronics, Mar 69 ) First low cost frequency counter kit offered 3-1/2 digit resolution on a "bouncing" incandescent bulb readout. |
Click for the Universal Frequency Counter, Part II.
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Ultra Electronic Stopwatch ( Pop. Electronics, Mar 68 ) One of the first DCU apps digitally measured time to 20 microseconds interval and 1000 count resolution. Faster than a speeding bullet. |
Click here for our eBay Selling secrets.
Click here for our eBay Buying secrets.
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Function Generator ( Radio Electronics, Sep 72 ) Versatile sine-square-triangle-pulse function generator buildable for a tiny fraction of the cost of commercial gear. |
Click for Part II of the Function Generator project.
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Digital Logic Microlab (Popular Electronics, April 70) Early logic trainer let you perform basic tests on RTL counters and Gates. A new low cost interconnect scheme made it happen. |
Click here for CMOS Cookbook info.
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Spots Before your Eyes (Popular Electronics, Sep 67 ) Electronic dice using amazingly simple decoding. on a walking ring counter Can you spot the Monopoly error? |
Click here for an Energy Fundamentals tutorial.
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Musician's Pitch Reference (Pop. Electronics, Dec 68 ) Piano and organ tuning device was basically a long programmable RTL counter that accurately approximated musical notes. |
Click here for our InfoPack consulting services.
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Tic Tac Tronix ( Radio Electronics, Dec 71 ) RTL and diode programmed Electronic Tic-Tac-Toe game is unbeatable until a hidden switch is flipped. |
Click for Magic Sinewave energy efficiency info.
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Digi-Viewer IC Tester (Popular Electronics, Mar 71) First low cost keyboard to include full ASCII encoding. The usual Apple I photo has our keyboard conspicuously shown on it. |
Click here to reach the Acrobat library.
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Two Tone Alarm ( Pop. Electronics, Feb 70 ) A simple project in the modular IC Experimenter's Corner series. Generated a distinctive tweedle tweedle alert sound. |
Click here to reach the Resource Bin library.
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Bounceless Pushbutton ( Pop. Electronics, Mar 70 ) A simple project in the modular IC Experimenter's Corner series. Performs essential digital conditioning for mechanical contacts. |
Click for the It's a Gas Hydrogen Resources library.
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100 Kilohertz Standard ( Pop. Electronics, Apr 70 ) A simple project in the modular IC Experimenter's Corner series. Provides reference frequency for calibration uses. |
Click here for our Pseudoscience Bashing library.
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Build the Sports Timer ( Pop. Electronics, Oct 68 ) Another of the decimal DCU project timed from milliseconds to minuutes. Provided the divide-by-six needed for minutes. |
Click here for the Cubic Spline library.
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Nixie Tube Counters ( Pop. Electronics, Feb 70 ) A series of improved counters included this entry that used industrial Nixie tubes for display and faster IC options. |
Click here for the Patent Avoidance library.
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Nixie DVM ( Pop. Electronics, Sep 70 ) A Improved Digital Voltmeter/Ohmmeter used industrial Nixie tubes for display. 2-1/2 decades was a big deal then. |
Click for the PIC Microprocessor library.
Click here for our Cash and Carry consulting.
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Build the Supertrol ( Pop. Electronics, Mar 67 ) Basically a Schmidt Trigger in drag connected to a power relay. Has an amazing variety of display, delay, threshold, and timing uses. |
Click here to reach the Blatant Opportunist library.
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Analog Frequency Meter ( Pop. Electronics, Oct 67 ) Simple duty cycle integrator measures frequency to a few percent accuracy; was much cheaper than "real" counters at the time. |
Click here to reach the Tech Musings library.
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Psycedelia I Color Organ (Popular Electronics, Sept 69) Lase and best in a long series of psychedelic color organs. offered three channels, active filters driving triac outputs.. |
Click here for our current GuruGrams.
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Musette Color Organ (Popular Electronics, July 66) Earlier project in a long series of psychedelic color organs. offered five channels, resonant filters driving SCR outputs.. |
Click here for Active Filter Cookbook info.
| Marcia Swampfelder: | . |
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There is no truth whatsoever to the ugly rumor that all of Marcia's
products and services are named after Arizona fire lookout towers.
Let's start with an annotated collection of Marcia's best Q&A...
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Blatant Opportunist #69 MARCIA.PDF An annotated collection of The Worst of Marcia Swampfelder. Mass teleportation, bob wahr speaker connections, underwater pigeon searchlight controls, $9 per kilowatt homebrew solar pv, etc... |
Click here for more history of Marcia.
Click here for MARCIA.PSL sourcecode.
Click for more Blatant Opportunist columns.
Here's Marcia's mass teleportation card, complete with its product
illustrations. Note the unique low cost far uv laser...
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Hardware Hacker Column HACK16.PDF Some more digital sinewave techniques. Understanding| micropower voltage regulators. New mass teleportation plugin card. Getting around minimum order hassles. |
Click here for the full Hardware Hacker library.
Believe it or not, this is a real product of ours that is very much in
demand by quilt makers and magicians...
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Water Soluble Swimsuits on our Bargain Pages
These are designer kits, actually. We provide you with enough (about fifty yards) raw material to make thirty to fifty swimsuits in your choice of styles and sizes. . They are unconditionally guaranteed to fully dissolve in warm water. |
Click here for more of our Bargain Pages .
Click here for our live eBay auctions.
This one was particularly insidious, since only ONE of the dozen topics
was by Marica and thus utterly bogus. But which one....?
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Resource Bin #63 RESBN63.PDF A painless way to scam a student paper. Fast web searching. Aerogels. Archaeomagnetism. Buckyballs. magnetic refrigeration. mass teleportation, the mystery band, Santa Claus machines, etc.... |
Click here for more Resource Bin columns.
Finally, here's a few of Marcia's lesser offerings...
| PC Techniques: | . |
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For a while there, Jeff Dunteman's PC Techniques magazine
was in the forefront of PC software design and development. I
mostly wrote for Jeff just to attend his legendary techie parties.
Here's a pair of PostScript-as-language examples....
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PostScript Startup Secrets STARTUP.PDF A classic reprint of Don's from PC Techniques magazine. Includes startup and interface fundamentals. These days, host based Acrobat PDF is a better route. |
Click here for PostScript Book access info.
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PostScript Speedup Secrets SPEEDUP.PDF A classic reprint of Don's from PC Techniques magazine. Includes speedup fundamentals for earlier PS printers. These days, host based Acrobat PDF is a better route. |
Click here to reach the PostScript library.
Click here to reach the Acrobat library.
| Whole Earth Review: | . |
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The Whole Earth Review is an extension of Steward Brand's
original Whole Earth catalog and was a resource unto itself.
Here's a pair of stories I originally did for them, but shown here
in their reworked latter day Blatant Opportunist livery...
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Don Lancaster's The Case Against Patents For most individuals and small scale startups, any involvement with the patent system is almost guaranteed to cause you a net loss of time, money, and sanity. Here's why in a Don Lancaster classic. |
Click here for the Patent Information library page.
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A Researcher's Guide to Stupendous Stuff Sources A listing of dozens of really great "secret" sources for all sorts of research and development materials, unusual products, strange items you should know about etc... |
Click here for the Blatant Opportunist library page.
| For more help: | . |
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Please click here to...
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