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BTW, paypal offers 2-factor authentication through your cell phone. You enter your password and they send a text message to the phone you have on file. Why can't banks use the same system?

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

So you're saying it's easier to break into their house and steal everything they own, than to bother with an interrogation with a $5 wrench (current market value, $17.98)

    I do suggest use of the proper tools.

    precision adjust tool

    adjustment tool manipulator

    leakage preventer

    People who purchased these also buy...

    Noise suppression supplies

    Compartimalized storage and transportation unit

    ground modification tool

Everyone of my outdoor outlets at my house has one of these...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xg1/R-202266482/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

It's that almost identical?

Nathan

Just use some Critter Ridder. Works for our neighbors' cats.

They make specially designed edging rollers that can be used with poles.

It looks like this kit includes one, but I could not find one on its own online...very odd.

http://www.homedepot.com/Paint-Brushes-Roller-Covers/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh7Zar6o/R-100677129/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I wish we could have made it less complicated but as the first off-line triac-decoding LED driver, it sort of needed to do everything. The eval boards for it aren't *that* expensive and do a good job of getting an experimental setup running... but it costs a lot less to buy one of the ecosmart bulbs from home depot that says "lighting science group" on the box -- this one, I believe -- because that already has the chip, the electronics, and blah blah blah, and it's a good layout with high-quality capacitors. One nice thing about modern drivers is less reliance on electrolytic caps, and there are some ref designs for this chip that use 100% ceramic caps (a lot of them, granted...) which means they should last tens of years with no problems.

And LEDs don't require you to use a hazmat suit to pick up pieces if you break one (since they contain Mercury).

LED light bulbs are available.... pricey, but perhaps worth it?

As someone who bought the CFLs back when they were "pricey" and had just appeared on the market (and way before there was sign of government regulation to make everyone use them)....buy the LEDs!

I noticed with the CFLs the tech get better, the prices went down, the quality went up once everyone pretty much had to buy them. The CFL market has kind of stagnated though. No competition, so things are holding steady on quality, innovation, etc. If you want to see CFL or LEDs get better....buy the LED.

Who would have thought a bunch of free-market loving, bleeding edge techies at slashdot would rather light their homes with candles/whale oil/wood chips/ burning lump of coal/ than a nice little electronic gizmo? What a bunch of luddites.

And LEDs don't require you to use a hazmat suit to pick up pieces if you break one (since they contain Mercury).

LED light bulbs are available.... pricey, but perhaps worth it?

Lets say the dimensions of your structure are 16 x 12.5. Assuming 8 ft walls - thats 456 ft^2 or 5 bags of insulation(R19) at $38.75 each

http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials-Insulation-Fiberglass/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh8Zbay7/R-100320353/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

and (assume 30 degree slope to roof) 230 ft^2 of R38 - so 4 bags of insulation at 62.08 - you're out of Home Depot for $450

I was at the Home Depot today and saw you can buy a device which emits TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY WATTS of ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION! Oooga boooga! The radiation is gonna git ya!

Link to the monstrosity in question: Home Depot Death Ray

And right now some sales analyst is looking at the logs trying to figure out why the page with this lamp is getting so much traffic... *giggles*

I was at the Home Depot today and saw you can buy a device which emits TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY WATTS of ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION! Oooga boooga! The radiation is gonna git ya!

If only they were that efficient. Most of that power is given off as heat, which isn't electromagnetic in nature.

I was at the Home Depot today and saw you can buy a device which emits TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY WATTS of ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION! Oooga boooga! The radiation is gonna git ya!

Link to the monstrosity in question: Home Depot Death Ray

Right, but these are designed for use in enclosures. I was simply disputing the assertion that you can't use CFLs in recessed lighting - you can if you use the right bulbs, and further, they're not expensive. The ones I have are similar to these, but I paid about half the price quoted there.

IMHO, fiber is overkill. Lots of folks will be happy to sell it to you, but there's very little that you can do with fiber that you can't do with Cat5e gigabit. It may have its use if you live in an FTTH area, but that's just to your firewall. 10 GBit on copper requires Cat6A (a.k.a. Class EA) wire, and is far more than most people need. So pick 5e or 6A.

I'm streaming video from a server to two media boxes (all Linux) and have BitTorrent running on the server as well. All this over Gigabit, and if I start playing an MMO on top of all this, the bottleneck will be my cable modem, not the house net.

My house is wired up with a Leviton structured wiring box in my closet. Four-gang (2xRJ45 + 2xCoax) wall panels are placed in the bedrooms. Rooms with less electronics (kitchen, laundry room) get one RJ45 and maybe a coax, if that. The living rooms get plates with more jacks (3 each in my house) and also speaker connections that run to matching plates on the other side of the room (for surround channels). Make sure to place enough wall plates so that you never have to run a cable across the floor or over a door.

Remember that standard phones can be plugged into RJ45 jacks. These jacks need to be connected to the phone lines, not a network hub, in the wiring closet. Unless you're using IP phones; those get network ports. But the point is that there's no justification for Cat3 phone wire or RJ11 wall jacks anywhere.

As always, don't waste money on Monster cable. The sound quality for surround channels using 14 AWG lamp cord is just fine. Just make sure that you don't run the speaker or network wires parallel to power wires.

It took about three days of work for my friends and I (well, three for me and one for them) to wire my place (which I bought used). 30 Cat5e and 30 coax drops, including two coaxes to the south wall for future satellite TV and a cat5e + coax to the wall with the utilities, and two each drops to the kitchen which I haven't wired yet (gonna remodel soon). It's worked very well for me for seven years now.

Assuming you are in a country that has Home Depot stores: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?keyword=led%2Blightbulb&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I don't have cable and I use a DSL modem. I have a cheap $30 gforce with an svideo out and what I did was get a RF Modulator at Home Depot and I feed the svideo (well, composite, after a quick convert) and audio into it. Then I connected it to my house cable (it was wired for cable already). Outside I disabled the feed from the cable company. Anyway, I connected my TV to my home cable and I just set it to channel 4 to view any content I want.

Netflix includes Instant Play which has a TON of movies, all included with your $8.95/month membership. Lots of TV show DVDs, especially. It's a great deal.

I purchase jugs of spring water because I like the taste. I pay $2.50 for a large (25L) container when refilling it myself from the depot.

That's better than buying water in 1 liter use once bottles. I can go into many different stores and see row after row of water in 1 liter, and smaller, disposable bottles. Heck, I early today I refilled my 5 gallon refillable water bottle, and I paid less than $1. However I'd prefer to have a Whole-House Water Filter. That or a spring with good water near my home, actually I'd prefer the spring then if needed would use the filter.

Falcon

This all came about after several revisions of my home office workspace.

I started out with power strips way in the back. I was always plugging and unplugging stuff, often in the dark during a power failure as I tried to get my monitor back onto the UPS to shutdown... Or discovering (the hard way) that a paperclip had fallen onto the power strip I was blindly trying to plug into...

Well, I needed something better. Not prettier. Not expensive. Just better.

So I took a plastic shelving unit like:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100010588&N=10000003+500474+10401001

There are several features of this "shelving unit":

• It's plastic. Meaning NON-CONDUCTIVE and easily drilled/worked/etc.
• It holds 150 lbs per shelf. (These things are designed for gallon cans of paint in your garage. They can handle monitors, UPS's, computers, small children, etc.)
• It fits nicely on a standard 5 or 6 foot table. (Be advised: Shelving unit can hold more weight than most tables.)
• You can leave the top shelves off, shortening it.
• You can leave a shelf out, creating a nice big gap for a monitor/computer.
• You can leave the feet off. This gives you a nice broad footprint for all that weight.
• You can put a C-shaped or O-shaped lift made of 2x4s under the bottom. A C-shaped lift of 3 or 4 inches will let you slide your keyboard underneath, lets you dust, lets you pick up things that drop through, and provides an industrial strength monitor stand. (Yes, I still use CRTs.) Being plastic, you can easily work the shelving material to attach said 2x4s.

• The shelves are ribbed plastic. You can easily (trivially) feed cables through them. They are perfect for organizing sets of cables.

• You can use ratbelts or mousebelts (cable ties) to attach wires to the ribbing.

• I like to attach 6-inch by 2-foot by 3/4 inch plywood to the cylindrical supports with U-bolts and mount 4 power strips per plywood rectangle. These are all daisy chained via high-amp short "appliance" extension cords. All of which are rat-belted to the shelving unit.
  
  (2 strips on each rectangle for UPS power, and 2 more for merely filtered power.) If you dig around, you can get cheap power strips for like $2-$3 a pop. Maybe less. They're all plugged into UPS-power or UPS-filtered-power, so going cheap is good.
  
  (A couple of cheap nightlights (neon or electroluminescent) can be useful to verify power is on.)

As I look around my current office, I now have 3 such shelving units, with 6 of those plywood rectangles, for a total of 144 outlets. About 3/4 are filled, though a number of power strips are turned off.

Upshot is that you now have your computer/monitor/etc on the table, and plenty of shelf space up above for NAS, external drives, etc. And a means of keeping the cables tidy.

-Dave. (Being lazy, posting anon.)

PS: Need I mention: Get a labeler and label your cords. Labeler's are cheap. You'll thank me later...

Dirt cheap foam pipe insulation from Home Depot. Works like a charm.

Already available: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn=SV_HS_Solar_Power_Systems&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=1

You can use this or some similar gadget to turn anything into a timed device. About twenty bucks.

Also remember to drop off your CFL's at Home Depot on your way in. Home Depot will recycle all those nasty CFL's for free.

If you don't mind flash
http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/

or if you prefer pdf
http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/pdf/CFL-RecyclingProgramRevised.pdf

Also remember to drop off your CFL's at Home Depot on your way in. Home Depot will recycle all those nasty CFL's for free.

If you don't mind flash
http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/

or if you prefer pdf
http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/pdf/CFL-RecyclingProgramRevised.pdf

I think you'll find that your local big-box home store has plenty of CFLs in the >40 watt range. Home Depot carries CFLs up to 65W (replacement for a 300W incandescent!).

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100653127&N=10000003+90401+530232+4294888428

Or you don't live near a Home Depot.

http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/stage/pdf/cfl_recycle.pdf

Not so hard-pressed.

$89.99? They weren't and they aren't. I bought one a year ago at Home Depot for the same prices listed here. You must have seen a different brand or something. ;)

And if you're on natural gas, you don't run out of fuel.

In my experience, this is enough to power your entire house. The 8000W unit isn't. And if you home-office, it is an income adjustment as a business expense...

Everyone seems to have their own method of doing this. It seems to me it's a rather simple process:

1) Go to Home Depot store or website.

2) Plunk down cash (or credit/debit card) for THIS plus installation costs.

3) Enjoy whole house LP or NG powered emergency backup power.

See? That wasn't so hard now, was it? And nobody got electrocuted in the process either.

(yeah, yeah, I skipped the stupid ??? -> Profit! meme. So sue me.)

I wouldn't go the route of running all that extra wire. They sell 6 circuit generator switches for that exact purpose - you move the desired circuits from your main panel into this little box, and hook you generator to it via a standard twistlock connector on a flexible cord. When the power fails, roll the genny to the panel, plug it in, fire it up, and flip the switch. If you know evil weather is coming, pre-stage the genny and cover it with a barbecue grill cover until you have to fire it up. Once it's hot, rain and snow won't bother it.

That can already be done. You can buy a motion detection switch or lights with built in motion detectors at Home Depot.

Falcon

I bought mine at Wal-Mart. They're GE brand and were right next to their older, longer GE bretheren on the display. The package said "Smaller Size" right on it in big letters. They came in a two pack instead of a three, and they are more expensive than the older ones. But they also put out a few lumens more (not much, but still slightly higher) than the longer ones, even though they were both rated for the same "incandescent watt" equivalent. They are rated for longer life though, 10,000 hours verses 8,000 for the older ones.

I just attempted to measure, and the bulb is almost an entire inch back from the edge of the lamp shade (this is with a 60w equiv. bulb).

GE only offers two color temperatures in its bulbs (faux incandescent color, and cool blue). Home Depot sells a brand called n:vision that comes in three temperatures. They also seem to be ultra-compact, but not quite as small as the GEs, they are cheaper though. I picked up these to replace the CFLs in my ceiling fixture when I moved into my place (I found the ones already there too yellow). I couldn't fit the old bulbs into the package for storage easily because they were longer than the n:visions brand.

The G25 bulbs were also GE brand, but I can only find them at Target and Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart sells a Philips brand I tried that is really lousy (like three bulbs have burnt out in one year bad, the old incandescent beat them in life). The GE G25 CFL bulbs are slightly smaller in globe diameter than the incandescent, but it's not that noticeable. They are also rated at 10,000 hrs.

I think we're talking about two different LED lights. We have some that are roughly â15, See here but those are not a true replacement. The $100 ones are these ones that provide a much better lighting. If you have ones in the Neatherlands like that for â10, post a link. A few of us in the US would like to see that.

Least Expensive Torx set I've found is the one at the check out aisles at Home Despot. Doesn't have the divot for security Torx but I think Apple's not using those anymore. Cool!

sounds like there is a business selling physically destructable drives - a drive witha an easy open case, and a method to physcially damage the platter

Actually, they already exist. They require an accessory that costs about $50.

Additionally, one should buy a steady supply of $4.97 #2 Robertson & $3.97 #2 Philips screwdrivers , which are the most commonly required screwdrivers in the data centre, to complement your $50 'multi-tip' unit, and only lend out the cheap ones. That way the prick that steals your screwdriver isn't depriving you of anything you'll miss.

Additionally, one should buy a steady supply of $4.97 #2 Robertson & $3.97 #2 Philips screwdrivers , which are the most commonly required screwdrivers in the data centre, to complement your $50 'multi-tip' unit, and only lend out the cheap ones. That way the prick that steals your screwdriver isn't depriving you of anything you'll miss.

I'm in the central Ohio area. I can't find a publicly accessible webpage with the costs from my normal supplier but Home Depot sells the cat5e at$91.00/1000ft and plenum cable at $219/1000ft. They are in line with what I pay. I can't find the costs for cat6. Are you sure your not buying 500ft runs instead of 1000ft at $55? It seems to be closer to what I would pay. I don't understand what would make the cost almost double for my area.

Well, I take that back, I just found 1000ft cat5 (I don't think it is E) for $69.99 Of course it is stranded. You would want solid wire for inside the walls and use the stranded for patching from the wall plate to the computer. You also have to make sure your using the right type of RJ45 connector on this, they have one rated for stranded cable and another for solid. The difference I think is the number of cleats that make contact when you crimp them. 2 cleats are for one and three are for the other, I don't remember which though. Interestingly they have Cat6 (solid) cable for $149 here.

Now I know it is hard to get an accurate reading from different sites with different prices. But this is in line with What I can find around here. Cat6 is typically around 40-50% more for the cable. PLenum cable is usually double or 3 times the amount of regular cable and if you need shielded (I know UTP is unshielded twisted pair, but you sometimes need to remove interference)you will spend about the same.

I'm going to check again come Monday, Someone suggested the price differences are only about 10% now. So it might be cheaper then I think. My supplier will price match if I can find it cheaper somewhere else. But I have to make sure it is the same stuff.

I'm in the central Ohio area. I can't find a publicly accessible webpage with the costs from my normal supplier but Home Depot sells the cat5e at$91.00/1000ft and plenum cable at $219/1000ft. They are in line with what I pay. I can't find the costs for cat6. Are you sure your not buying 500ft runs instead of 1000ft at $55? It seems to be closer to what I would pay. I don't understand what would make the cost almost double for my area.

Well, I take that back, I just found 1000ft cat5 (I don't think it is E) for $69.99 Of course it is stranded. You would want solid wire for inside the walls and use the stranded for patching from the wall plate to the computer. You also have to make sure your using the right type of RJ45 connector on this, they have one rated for stranded cable and another for solid. The difference I think is the number of cleats that make contact when you crimp them. 2 cleats are for one and three are for the other, I don't remember which though. Interestingly they have Cat6 (solid) cable for $149 here.

Now I know it is hard to get an accurate reading from different sites with different prices. But this is in line with What I can find around here. Cat6 is typically around 40-50% more for the cable. PLenum cable is usually double or 3 times the amount of regular cable and if you need shielded (I know UTP is unshielded twisted pair, but you sometimes need to remove interference)you will spend about the same.

I'm going to check again come Monday, Someone suggested the price differences are only about 10% now. So it might be cheaper then I think. My supplier will price match if I can find it cheaper somewhere else. But I have to make sure it is the same stuff.

Before you mod this "redundant", at the time of this posting, no one else has actually done the math, just guessed...


For that you get a Media Center PC
Averages around $900, but they use the HP z560 at $1800...

Lifeware automation software from Exceptional Innovation
This one took some work. The closest I could get to a price, $5000, includes hardware. But it puts us at an upper limit, at least.

an Xbox 360
The easiest to find, at $400

IP surveillance cameras
They use a pair of Panasonics (not sure of the model number), around $380 each.

automated light switches
FTA: "five dimmers, five switches, two keypads". Home Depot, $80.

a thermostat
Again, no model number given, but the standard model goes for $270

and installation.
Not really - They want you to have the "hard" parts done yourself, by a privately contracted licensed electrician.



The package costs $15,000.

Total so far, $8310 (not counting your own electrician).

So, not counting needing to hire your own electrician, that puts the cost of their installation at roughly ... $6690.



I've made some pretty damned good wages doing contract work, but over $6k for less than a day's work? Wow, talk about a dream job...

Anyone that wants this system - Hunt me down for contact info. I'll do it for a third less (you pay airfair outside the continental US, and though I know how to work safely with home AC systems , you'll probably still need a licensed electrician to do this legally in most places).

If the house is more then 30-40 years old (which is common in the north east), I don't think one small heat source in the basement will cut it either

Actually, the house was 60+ years old, very poorly insulated at first, had drafty windows and was located in Nebraska where we have /real/ cold in the winter. I wouldn't expect it to heat the house to a balmy 80 degrees, but it certainly kept it from freezing. Actually we found our primary furnace (which was 30+ years old, tired and very inefficient) hardly running during normal mild winter days.

I'd call a plumber and have him "winterize" the water and drain systems

That's great when you can spare several hundred dollars to do that and the inconvenience, and can schedule it in advance. But what do you do when you lose power for several days and the pipes freeze? Either way, you'll find a power-free heating source bails you out as we've found.

If you take a more scientific approach to this problem, consider the BTUs being outputted. A nice wall-mount blue-flame heater (don't ever consider this with a non-mounted unit) puts out 30,000 BTUs with 100% efficiency (meaning 100% of the heat is going to heat your house, unlike older furnaces). 30,000 BTUs is estimated to fully heat 1,000 square feet, so a home with a 30x30 main floor will be taken care of for regular heating. Placed in a basement, you'll certainly maintain 50 degrees or more in an emergency (we held in the 60s with drafty windows, no wall insulation but new attic insulation).

You can go up to 50,000 BTUs with gas-operated fireplaces but I'd check into the safety of running those unattended first.

"this is basic data security 101 - never trust inputs without validation"

i think these guys can explain the the sun. and 'out of doors' is what happens when places like home depot do not adequately track their sales of Disney Smooth 6 Panel 30 x 80 In. PH LH IS W/Tinkerbell 2 Theme doors.

The flexability of PVC can definitely be a blessing or a curse. If you're having problems cutting PVC for a sprinkler system though, you aren't using the right tool