A device (442) for producing a dynamic reference signal (UREF) for a control circuit for a power semiconductor switch comprises a reference signal generator (442) for providing a dynamic reference signal (UREF), which has a stationary signal level after elapse of a predefined time following a switching process of the power semiconductor switch, a passive charging circuit (450) which is configured to increase a signal level of the dynamic reference signal in reaction to a switching of a control signal of the power semiconductor switch from an OFF state to ON state for at least one part of the predefined time above the stationary signal level, in order to produce the dynamic reference signal and an output (A) for tapping the dynamic reference signal (UREF).

In accordance with an embodiment, an adjustable capacitance circuit comprising a first branch comprising plurality of transistors having load paths coupled in series with a first capacitor. A method of operating the adjustable capacitance circuit includes programming a capacitance by selectively turning-on and turning-off ones of the plurality of transistors, wherein the load path of each transistor of the plurality of transistors is resistive when the transistor is on and is capacitive when the transistor is off.

A radio-frequency (RF) switch includes a field-effect transistor (FET) disposed between a first node and a second node, the FET having a source, a drain, a gate, and a body. The RF switch further includes a coupling circuit including a first path and a second path, the first path being connected between the gate and one of the source or the drain via a first resistor in series with a first capacitor, the second path being connected between the body and the one of the source or the drain via a second resistor in series with a second capacitor, the coupling circuit configured to allow discharge of interface charge from either or both of the gate and body.

A wireless access control system may include a remote access wireless communications device and a lock assembly to be mounted on a door. The lock assembly may include a lock, a door position sensor, interior and exterior directional antennas, lock wireless communications circuitry, a touch sensor, and a lock controller. The lock controller may be configured to unlock the lock based upon the touch sensor, determine when the door is closed after being opened based upon the door position sensor, determine whether the remote access wireless device is in an interior or an exterior based upon the directional antennas, switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the interior, and not switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the exterior.

A wireless access control system may include a remote access wireless communications device and a lock assembly to be mounted on a door. The lock assembly may include a lock, a door position sensor, interior and exterior directional antennas, lock wireless communications circuitry, and a lock controller. The lock controller determine whether the lock is manually unlocked, determine when the door is closed after being opened based upon the door position sensor, and determine whether the remote access wireless device is in an interior or an exterior based upon the directional antennas. The lock controller may also switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the exterior, and not switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the interior.

An arrangement is disclosed for a meter cabinet, distribution cabinet or empty housing, including a frame and a door, wherein the frame can carry a door and the door is attached pivotally to the frame on its hinge side. The door may be aligned in relation to its frame quickly and without problems, with an adjustment device for aligning the door in the closed condition, the adjustment device being associated with the frame.

Switchable grounded terminal loads are built into, or otherwise coupled to, connectors on motherboards and control devices. The terminal loads are coupled to the bus termination at the connector when the connector is “stuffed” (connected to a mating connector). The switchable grounded terminal loads replace dummy connectors in preventing empty “unstuffed” connectors from increasing error risks on active channels.

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for improved switching speed and/or tunability for radio-frequency (RF) devices are described. In one embodiment, a liquid crystal (LC) component comprises an LC structure in a mixture with right-handed (R) and left-handed (S) chiral dopants.

The present invention provides a combination showerhead with press button switching comprising fixing holder, two showerheads and switching mechanism. The first showerhead is mounted to fixing holder; fixing holder comprises an inlet passage and two diversion passages. The switching mechanism comprises diversion plate, transmission mechanism, sliding block and press button. Diversion plate is connected to fixing holder movably and cooperated with inlet and diversion passages to switching waterway by predetermined angle rotating. Sliding block is slidably connected to fixing holder; the transmission mechanism is connected between the diversion plate and the sliding block in transmission way so that back-and-forth sliding of sliding block drives diversion plate to rotate step-by-step in predetermined angle. Press button is movably connected to fixing holder and connected to sliding block in transmission way to drive sliding block to slide. The combination showerhead is novel and convenient for one-handed operation with reasonable layout and compact structure.

A remote switch combination shower head includes a first shower head, a second shower head and a switch mechanism, wherein further comprising a fixing seat assembled to a support arm, the fixing seat is disposed with an inlet waterway connected to the support arm, a first diversion waterway and a second diversion waterway; the first shower head is assembled to the fixing seat and is capable of connecting to the first diversion waterway; the second shower head is a hand shower head connected to the second diversion waterway by a flexible pipe; the switch mechanism comprises a switch component and an operation component, the switch component is disposed to the fixing seat and is coupled to the inlet waterway, the first diversion waterway and the second diversion waterway, so that the waterways are switched by the movement of the switch component.

A switch-scanning circuit includes a chip and switching units. The chip includes pins having an output operation mode and an input operation mode, and a processing unit. The processing unit sets one of the pins as an input pin and the rest of the pins as output pins sequentially according to a clock signal, uses a scan signal to provide different voltages to the output pins, and then determines states of button switches according to a voltage of the input pin. The switching unit includes a power source resistance, switches and resistors. A first terminal and a second terminal of the power source resistance are electrically connected to a power source and a first pin respectively. The resistors have terminals electrically connected the first pin and terminals of the switches. The other terminals of the switches are connected to the pins other than the first pin.

A multi-level DAC includes first and second level resistor ladders, and a dual-switch ladder interconnect reduces DNL at tap-point transitions between first-level ladder resistors. For each first level resistor N, the switch-interconnect network includes dual (first/second) switches connectable to a resistor-top node NT, and dual (third/fourth) switches selectively connectable to a resistor-bottom node NB. The first switch is operable to connect NT to a top tap switch operable to select NT as a top tap point, and the fourth interconnect switch is operable to connect NB to a bottom tap switch operable to select NB as a bottom tap point. The first and fourth switches are connected, forming an outer loop that includes top and bottom tap points. The second switch connects to a top second-level resistor RT, and the third switch connects to a bottom second-level resistor RB, forming an inner loop that includes the series-connected second-level resistors.

For analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) which utilize a feedback digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for conversion, the final analog output can be affected or distorted by errors of the feedback DAC. A digital measurement technique can be implemented to determine switching mismatch error for the feedback DAC in a continuous-time delta-sigma modulator (CTDSM) or in a continuous-time pipeline modulator. The methodology forces each DAC unit elements (UEs) to switch a certain amount times and then use the modulator itself to measure the errors caused by those switching activities respectively. The obtained errors can be stored in a look-up table and fully corrected in digital domain or analog domain.

The present invention relates to a modular photoelectric-switch keyboard key, including modular photoelectric switch, base, keymodule and elastic element, the said modular photoelectric switch is mounted in the said base, the said keymodule is slideably placed in the sliding cavity of the said base and the said elastic element is placed between the said base and the said keymodule; the said modular photoelectric switch comprises transmitting tube, receiving tube and distance piece, the said transmitting tube and the said receiving tube are placed oppositely and are electrically connected with the circuit board; the said distance piece is connected with the said keymodule and located between the said transmitting tube and the said receiving tube.

A monolithic integration of phase change material (PCM) switches with a MEMS resonator is provided to implement switching and reconfiguration functionalities. MEMS resonator includes a piezoelectric material to control terminal connections to the electrodes. The PCM is operable between an ON state and an OFF state by application of heat, which causes the phase change material to change from an amorphous state to a crystalline state or from a crystalline state to an amorphous state, the amorphous state and the crystalline state each associated with one of the ON state and the OFF state. A method of fabricating the MEMS resonator with phase change material is provided. A reconfigurable filter system using the MEMS resonators is also provided.

An LCD with switchable viewing angle includes a first substrate, second substrate, and a liquid crystal layer. The first substrate is provided with a first electrode and a second electrode. In an embodiment, the first electrode is a pixel electrode, and the second electrode is a common electrode. The second substrate is provided with a third electrode. Liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer are positive liquid crystal molecules. When a first bias voltage is applied to the third electrode, the LCD is displayed with a wide viewing angle; and when a second bias voltage greater than the first bias voltage is applied to the third electrode, the LCD is displayed with a narrow viewing angle.

An infusion pump system providing therapy to a patient in a closed-loop or semi-closed loop mode can safely automatically revert to open-loop therapy. The system stores a default open-loop basal rate profile in memory. The system also continually tracks the insulin on board for the patient over a plurality of closed-loop therapy intervals. When an error or event occurs requiring reversion to open-loop therapy, the system automatically provides therapy according to the open-loop basal rate profile and the tracked insulin on board amount.

A switching regulator control circuit is used in a switching regulator that converts an input voltage into an output voltage by the switching of a switching device, and generates a switching signal for controlling the ON/OFF operation of the switching device. The switching regulator control circuit has a fault detector and a fault protector. The fault detector detects, based on the duty ratio of the switching signal or a variable correlated to it and included in a control signal used to generate the switching signal, a fault state where the duty ratio falls outside the normal modulation range. The fault protector stops the switching of the switching device when the fault detector detects a fault state.

The present invention is to provide a chassis switch, which comprises a chassis for accommodating a designated number of line cards therein; a backplane installed on the back side of the chassis and having a plurality of connectors disposed thereon; at least one line card plugged into one of the connectors corresponding thereto via a front side of the chassis and each having an access switch chip adapted to switch local network signals and an interconnect switch chip adapted to switch the signals between ports of the at least one line card; and a loop adapted to connect the corresponding ports of the access switch chip and the interconnect switch chip respectively through the connectors, so as to enable each line card plugged into the chassis switch to perform a local network switching function and a switching function between the at least one line card.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a cool package that Switch owners and fans of the original WiiU release will not want to miss.

If you missed it the first time around now is the perfect time to go on an adventure with Toad. 

As a penniless wanderer making landfall in The Trail: Frontier Challenge, you have one thing to do: push the thumbstick forward and hike to the next camp.

Square Enix have confirmed that Dragon Quest XI is still in development for the Nintendo Switch but it may be a long way off.

Bandai Namco announced today that the release of the Switch version of Dark Souls Remastered has been postponed.

Bethesda announced today that the Switch version of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will launch on Friday, June 29.

Mulaka is a pleasant discovery; a Zelda-type adventure that distinguishes itself with its own unique style.

State Senator Jeff Irwin wants all future elections to be done entirely with absentee ballots.

Redhall Jex is nearing completion of a nine month contract to build a bio-energy plant located within a new facility on the Aston University site in Birmingham.

Stop stressing over camera-switching for live-streaming and video-podcasting!

Tana French was an actor in her thirties when she sat down to write about a mystery that took the lives of two children, which became the global blockbuster “In the Woods.” With her subsequent books about the Dublin Murder Squad, French became known as “the queen of Irish crime fiction”—despite having been born in the United States. French’s latest book, “The Witch Elm,” departs from her line of police procedurals: the narrator is a civilian, a happy-go-lucky young man named Toby whose life is turned upside down when he is attacked during a burglary. Although the book involves a murder, “The core story arc is not the murder and the solution,” French tells Alexandra Schwartz. “The core story arc is Toby going from this golden boy [with] his happy life to somebody who’s had that shattered. . . . Where will this crisis take him?” Though known as a literary mystery writer, French acknowledges that some of her fans have found the plot frustrating. “If you’re coming to this book expecting a straight-up crime novel . . . you are going to be a hundred pages in [asking], ‘Where’s my murder?’ ” 

There's been lots of advice for partner board games and group social meetups and work meetings online but I feel like I'm in the vacuumest vacuum in which I've ever been. I've been at a contract job for 2 months and just got an extension until 4/30. However, I spent last Thursday and Friday on furlough (no pay) and my contract has been paused (no pay) for the next 2-3 weeks.

I have a regular Wednesday evening happy hour that we've turned into a video party but beyond that I have no social interactions and no real reason to get out of bed.

I tend to be pretty bad at self-care anyway so reminders to cook or clean or exercise more may not work.

I'm totally OK with sleeping through it all. There are online classes I can do, partly-finished projects, lots of cleaning that I could do but I just need a kick in the butt.

Mainly I need motivation from fellow lazy people - just lazy people - to figure out how to start and how to keep going.

This episode is a recording of Jeremy Allison's talk, Why Samba Switched to GPLv3 from the 2011 Linux Collaboration Summit, with some commentary from Bradley and Karen on the talk.

Show Notes:

Ironically (or perhaps appropriately), Bradley was at Samba XP with Jeremy the day this show was released. So, there he wasn't able to get show notes together in detail for this show.

However, Jeremy's slides from the talk are available (in PDF), and also ODP format. So, you can follow along with it in the talk.

Also, you may be interested to read Bradley live-dent'd Jeremy's talk, so the discussion there might be useful to read as well.

Send feedback and comments on the cast to <oggcast@faif.us>. You can keep in touch with Free as in Freedom on our IRC channel, #faif on irc.freenode.net, and by following Conservancy on on Twitter and and FaiF on Twitter.

Free as in Freedom is produced by Dan Lynch of danlynch.org. Theme music written and performed by Mike Tarantino with Charlie Paxson on drums.

The content of this audcast, and the accompanying show notes and music are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 4.0 license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

For your holiday listening enjoyment, very special guest Rich Siegel joins the show to talk about BBEdit's past, present, and future, the state of developing for the Mac, and more.

Twitch, the online video site popular among gamers, is looking for its version of “The Bachelor.” The company plans to fund a slate of original, unscripted series that would be live and interactive, airing two to three times a week, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg. Its preferred genres are game shows, dating […]

Twitch, the online video site popular among gamers, is looking for its version of “The Bachelor.” The company plans to fund a slate of original, unscripted series that would be live and interactive, airing two to three times a week, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg. Its preferred genres are game shows, dating […]

Twitch, the online video site popular among gamers, is looking for its version of “The Bachelor.” The company plans to fund a slate of original, unscripted series that would be live and interactive, airing two to three times a week, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg. Its preferred genres are game shows, dating […]

At first glance, the secluded camp looks like a lost city. Through the scrub are caravans, tents, vans and little dorms, where a group of kids are switching off technology and learning about Indigenous culture.

As water supplies run low for towns reliant on the Darling River in western NSW, the Government says it has drought-proofed Broken Hill with a 270-kilometre pipeline from the Murray River.

Victorian households could be separating rubbish into six or more bins instead of the usual two or three if the state adopts recommendations from Infrastructure Victoria, which has released its ideas for dealing with the recycling crisis.

A study reveals a visit from a rare bird to a tiny NSW town generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for the economy, highlighting the untapped potential of birdwatching tourism.

MANLY United FC will host fixtures next season on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons in a bid to attract bigger crowds.

Hood Critic Magazine Sits Down With P And Coming Hip-hop Artist Telephone Switches For A Brief Interview.

There are some games in my collection that I get excited about when they arrive at my house but it takes me months to get them to the table. Typically in these cases the artwork is lovely, the theme is interesting, and the mechanics look promising but there is something standing in the way of playing the game right away. For Triora: City of Witches (designed by Michael C. Alves), what stood in the way is the game’s rulebook. It absolutely flummoxed me.  Even with the errata notes released a few months ago, it’s hard to make sense of the rules. It made a mess of things. And look what’s it’s done to my review – I usually like to start with a nice overview of a game’s theme, cover the components and artwork, and then dive into the gameplay.  But the rulebook is so awful in this case, I’m forced to lead with that. The publisher needs a skilled editor to rewrite the rulebook entirely. It’s laden with spelling errors and unclear language.

So that’s the bad news; the rulebook is subpar. The good news is the game itself is quite interesting. In Triora: City of Witches, players take on the role of witches and their familiars who have traveled to the city to face off against the nobility and the inquisitor, both of whom have been persecuting local women they suspect are witches. To win the game, a player must have the highest total victory points (referred to as doom points and sometimes ruin points in the rulebook) at the conclusion of the game. The end of the game happens at the end of the round in which one of two conditions are met:

[1] three of the four main locations in the city are destroyed,

or

[2] a witch is captured by the inquisitor after they have already accumulated the maximum inquisition points. Note that a witch captured this way is out of the game and ineligible for victory, as all of their doom/ruin points are forfeited.

Gameplay centers on making and using potions toward strategic ends. Players can create potions both by simply moving their witch meeple to a new location (grants 1 cauldron automatically, which can be used to make one type of potion from the requisite herbs held by the player) and by visiting a location with their witch or familiar that grants a cauldron as part of the action of that location. Note that there is an entire subroutine for generating the requisite herbs on a player’s board; once used to make a potion, herbs shift to a seed state and then must pass through planting and harvesting phases before they transform into usable herbs once more. Potions are consumed when visiting locations on the board that require a potion to complete an action at a location (either as an upfront cost to initiate the action or as an input to the action such as when changing potions into silver or taking control of villagers).  Certain locations on the board are defined targets for destruction; when players move their witch or familiar to these locations (there are 4 of them), as part of the location’s action, they place one of their wooden player tokens on the location. When the required number of tokens have been placed, the location is destroyed.

I’ve mentioned players moving their witch or their familiar on their turns. A player gets two turns per round; one turn to move their witch and the other to move their familiar. It is up to the player to determine which to move first. There is more freedom in moving witches (familiars cannot be moved to a location where a witch or another familiar is currently located) and moving a witch grants extra benefits (the automatic cauldron as mentioned above but also there is a witch’s bonus at each location that is granted only when a witch is moved to the location). However, there is also more risk in moving a witch and so it must be done with great attention to detail. This is because in addition to the witches and their familiars, there is also an Inquisitor meeple moving around the board (up to 2 spaces per round; it moves after all players have finishes their witch and familiar movements for the round). If the Inquisitor lands on a location where a witch is standing, the controlling player of the witch receives a penalty, which can include the immediate loss of the game if they have sufficiently high inquisition points already (inquisition points are assigned when completing certain actions as well as each time the Inquisitor catches your witch). In fact, in all of the games I played, the ending was triggered because a player didn’t carefully consider the Inquisitor’s upcoming movement when moving their witch on their turn and thus they found themselves caught by the Inquisitor and disqualified from winning. And these were smart opponents with several years of experience playing strategy games. So remember to be mindful of the Inquisitor’s current location and movement possibilities before you pick up your witch to move her.

In addition to the Inquisitor, there is a meeple representing the spirit of Morgana, the great witch who drew the witches and familiars to Triora. If Morgana catches up to a player’s witch on the board, the player is granted doom points or shovels (used in the seed to herb subroutine) if they are willing to accept some inquisition points as the cost for these benefits.

There is a moderate amount of analysis paralysis inherent in the game, but it’s not extreme. What will cause slowdowns during gameplay is trying to determine consensus on the rules as questions arise that the rulebook fails to address. For example:

1 . For the two player setup, the rulebook notes that two extra familiars should be placed on the board; these will move around the board each round and serve to occupy spaces and simulate the limitations on familiar movement that players would normally encounter during a three or four player game. Once they are initially placed (instructions say each player should place one familiar), are players limited to controlling the extra familiar they placed or can they select either of the extra familiars to move? The rulebook just states that before or after a player moves their own familiar they should move one of the extra familiars. We had much debate on this; I thought you should be able to move either familiar but my husband thought it made more sense that you should only be able to move the one you initially placed otherwise you could just move the one your opponent placed each turn to get it out of your way.

2. Do players alternate with other players their turns in which they place their witch and their familiar or does play pass from one player to another only after a player does both their turns?

3. When and how often do villager bonuses trigger? The rulebook states that they grant a bonus to the player in the final round, which implies the end of the game. But the bonus list includes “produce 1 shovel”, which would do no good in the final round so that doesn’t make sense. We think it should have read in each round, but we can’t be sure. Also, it’s a high price to play for a villager if you get its bonus only once per game as most villagers cost 3 potions.

4. More villager confusion: the rulebook notes that villagers may be used for actions in the Swamp House. But the only action available in the swamp house is to corrupt and acquire more villagers. It’s not clear how a player would use a villager to corrupt and acquire another villager.  And the rulebook also states that villagers may be used for the action in the City location. But the City is the other location where you corrupt and acquire villagers. Based on this, we think the rulebook was trying to convey that these 2 locations are where you get villagers, not where you use them as is actually written.

5. If a player is not at max inquisition points but the result of the Inquisitor catching their witch would take them over 32 points, does that also trigger the end of the game?

Once players get the rules sorted out (they will likely will need to decide on house rules for the questions above or request feedback from the publisher), they can dive in and enjoy the mechanics of the game. The artwork is lovely and the components are pretty well made (components include plastic coated cards, wooden meeples, wooden and cardboard tokens, cardboard player boards, and the large central board hosting all the locations).

I’m really indecisive on the final rating I should award Triora: City of Witches. A perfect rating (oui! oui! oui!) is out of the question because there are some minor problems with the game independent of the rulebook. For example, a round begins with nightfall and the movement of the Inquisitor and Morgana come after that during the day phase but on the top of the main board the Inquisitor’s movement is the very first item shown on the left, followed by Morgana’s movement; nightfall is shown at the end of the line. Why does the sequence of phases on the board not match the actual sequence of play? Is it possible that in earlier drafts of the game nightfall marked the end of the round instead of the beginning and the board was designed based on those drafts?  If the rulebook wasn’t a disaster the game could absolutely be worthy a oui! oui! rating.  So how heavily should the rulebook factor in here? It’s entirely possible that the problems with the rulebook aren’t the result of shoddy work but simply language translation issues (the game originated in Brazil; I am assuming the English rulebook is a translation). That makes me feel bad about dropping my rating down a notch. But with an oversaturated board game market (I heard last week that approximately 3000 new games are published yearly), I can’t in good faith recommend folks invest in a game that is such a headache to sort out how to play. So Triora: City of Witches gets a oui! from me for now. I’m going to hold onto the game and may play it occasionally and I’m happy to take another look at the game as a courtesy to the publisher should they fix their rulebook and ask me to re-evaluate.

Bonus side story: when posting pictures of the game to Instagram, I found out the village baker in Triora and other folks interested in the city track the #triora hashtag. This came to my attention because these individuals began to send me private messages on IG. They had heard a game was being made about their village but they didn’t know the details. They wanted to know the locations in the village depicted on the board (to see if they corresponded to actual locations). They wanted to know how one wins the game (imagine how awkward it was to explain that one of the goals of the game is to destroy the city). They wanted to see pictures of the game. It was a very entertaining series of conversations and now I’ve actually made a new friend from overseas after having chatted with him at length about the game and the village and its historical events regarding witchcraft.

-------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Meeple BR Jogos
Players: 2-4
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): varies widely depending on whether the game ends via Inquisitor or destruction; 10-60 minutes.
Game type: worker placement, area control

Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.