Darn straight. I'm all for making dumb people feel not so bad about things they can't control - like being dumb - but not at the expense of making the non-dumb feel dumb. There's a lot to be said for working smarter, not harder, and a lot to be said for those who have figured that out on their own. English provides several correct ways to do something and some incorrect ways of communicating. An "A" paper is an "A paper, regardless of the source and effort put in by said source.
Re:The only real answer is to reorganize society.
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
Have you ever actually spoken to a farmer (other than me)?:) I grew up outside of "the city" in a farming family. Most subsidies in the area I grew up around are those that give the farmer money to leave "wetlands" alone. The others are usually geared toward crop rotation, which is for environmental and sustainability rather than price fixing. There are several government programs that make you leave a field or a part of a field unplanted for a year (or with a wheat crop, sometimes), or to go a no-till route every year or two, which again is for conservation (to prevent topsoil erosion). I'm not aware of any subsidized don't-plant programs that have occurred within the last 50 years whose only goal was to prop prices up. They're almost *always* presented with an environmental bent. Some people game the system to get paid to do nothing, but they're the exception rather than the rule. Most only take the programs when they don't have much of a choice.
BTW, if you've looked at grain prices recently, you'd also note that they're not enough for the typical small farmer to make a living on... The price of bread goes up for the consumer, but the farmer sees jack squat.:(
There are several people like you, despite the people who vocally post that no one does this. I read code when I grab it, though I don't always. I'm sure that we're no the only ones who do that, though...
Re:On a related note....
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
It's a balance between torque and RPMs in practice. Peak torque is peak *engine* efficiency, but that's the point where the engine's most effectively burning all of the fuel that it's taking in. Peak *mileage* is probably well below that point, since you want to be using just enough fuel to keep you going smoothly. You generally want the torque peak higher than that, anyway, in case you happen to need to pass someone, etc.:)
Re:On a related note....
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
The cam I have in this particular car, combined with the super aerodynamics of a 1971 Chevelle dictated that I should be somewhere between around 1800 and 2200 RPMs. The torque curve doesn't start getting very impressive until around 1800, and it's pretty flat by the time you get to 2200 so I'm just losing mileage above that point. Also, the idle's around 1000-1100 with the A/C compressor kicked in or the cold idle on the choke, and I've gotta have a few RPMs to play with so I still have some compression braking at highway speed even if the A/C's on or the choke hasn't fully opened.
Given available gear ratios and my future tire plans, 3.73:1 worked out to be the ideal combination that would still work well with the 1-2" taller tires that I'll likely get sometime in the future.
The main factor, though, was the amount of torque available. This is why 4-cylinder engines wind a little higher on the road than a V8 - they just don't build adequate torque to still give good throttle response until they're wound up harder. It's largely just experience picking a point - and possibly some lucky guessing.;)
cloudmaster@cloud233:~ > du -hs ~/Maildir/ 2.2G/home/cloudmaster/Maildir
I dunno, I can probably find a use for at least 1 GB of mail storage (esp. if they give me IMAP access).:) I keep all sent and received mail to prove that things were sent and/or received. I keep all of my spam for about 6 months so I can retrain bayesian filters if needed, etc. This, BTW, is just my work account (which, admittedly, includes several attachments) - my home account's comparable, though.
I find it unlikely that the system will take X bytes of uuencoded zipped data and apply a compression algorithm that somehow results in compressing the uuencoded data to precisely the size of the data when it's uudecoded. In otherwords, their compression is exactly the same as just uudecoding the file? Unlikely.
Re:The only real answer is to reorganize society.
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
Soybeans are Legumes, which *produce* nitrogen. Corn takes lots of nitrogen. That's why fields alternate between corn and soybeans, and why anhydrous ammonia (~82% nitrogen) is applied to corn fields before planting.
Off topic, I'm surprised that "anhydrous" is in KDE's dictionary... Auto-spellcheck in Konqueror is great.
Re:On a related note....
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
Basically I looked at my engine's power curve (which was actually estimated based on the heads, compression ratio, and cam profile), picked a point where the RPMs were relatively low but the torque was "adequate" (right near the bottom of the level part of the torque curve), and geared the thing so that'd put me at 70MPH given my tire diameter and OD ratio (.67:1). Torque Converter loss was irrelevant, since I'm running a lockup converter - though you just add a couple hundred RPMs if you're not. I'm turning about 2100 RPMs at 70. Much lower than that, and the engine's lugging a little - which is why the mileage falls off.
I put together some javascript several years ago to do the "calculate the gear/tire combo" part - it's here.
I've cheated some on other cars - by just driving them with the stock gears, finding a point where the RPMs feel like they're pretty good for balancing low revs with adequate response, and selecting the new gear ratio that would put the RPMs and desired speed together - that's just a basic ratio (speed1/rpms1 = speed2/rpms2)... In general, you just want to get the RPMs down as far as you can without going to the point where you're lugging the engine just to keep moving.
Re:The only real answer is to reorganize society.
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
Note that several of the subsidies pay farmers to not farm land that wouldn't be all that productive anyway - though the real reason is generally some kind of environmental conservation type thing.
Re:On a related note....
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
When I selected the rear end gears and transmission for my car, I optimized for driving at 70 MPH (112kph), since that's where I spend more time. Driving at 55/60(88/96) gets me much worse mileage, whereas driving at 75/80(120/128) doesn't show a noticeable drop. Hooray for not just buying whatever crap the dealers want to shove on me.:)
I generally just use cards for expenses that I pay off at the end of the month. I've been carrying a balance on some for a while, but about once a year, I apply for a couple of new "0% for a year or so" cards, transfer the balance over, and continue making whatever payments sound reasonable. It's a great scam, so far. I'm considering putting a low-end car on a 0%-for-life-on-balance-transfers card next time. That'd be cool.
So, up to 15% of the mixture has about 40-50% less potential energy. In the worst case, the 89 octane has 93% of the energy available from the 87 octane. That's not a very big difference, and certainly not enough to bring the mileage down more than the cost savings of using the ethanol gas (which actually costs less in my area than the non-ethanol gas - I save money by buying 89 over the 87, which would offset any mileage loss). Then there's the "supporting the local economy" effects, the "keeping your fuel system cleaner" effects, and the "saying screw you to the other oxygenate sources" effect. That last one makes me happy.
Personally, running higher octane fuel in my cars allows me to advance the timing a little which does measurably increase my car's performance (not to mention letting me run higher compression than I otherwise could). That probably isn't relevant to the typical car owner, though, as most people don't even know what timing is.:)
Most of them baby it. They're old farts who have money to burn and buy the car because it looks cool, not because it can scream through an autocross course. Have you ever been to a 'Vette show/gathering (Bloomington Gold, etc)? 2/3 or more of those people don't realize that the things they're driving are *performance cars* that are meant to be driven. They think that the cars are showpieces that should never be run hard. That's just a sad way to treat a 'Vette, IMHO.
Anyway, that 6-speed manual tranny in the 'Vette has 2 overdrive steps, and the engine is damned efficient. It makes a whole mountain of torque at low RPMs. Lots of low-end torque plus steep cruising gears equals pretty decent fuel economy, even if there are 8 big cylinders running.
There's a debit card that can be used as a credit card. It works the same way as a bank card - you can get money out at an ATM, or pay for purchases at stores that accept credit cards. It doesn't extend any credit to you, though - your limit is the amount in your account.
There's also a PayPal *credit* card separate from the debit card. The credit card is what I was referring to in the parent post - just a Providian card. It's fairly ironic that the PayPal branded credit card can't be paid off with funds from your PayPal balance, IMHO.
They are separate, though. I've got both. One's just a credit card with a horrible interest rate (like 17% or so), the other's a convenient debit/check card that gets 1.2% cash back on purchases. Both are still available.
The PayPal credit card is just a Providian credit card that's not actually associated with PayPal in any way other than name. You can't transfer money from your PayPal account to your credit card, and, here's the big kicker for me, you can't pay your PayPal credit card bill using PayPal. I signed up for the stupid thing under the assumption that I'd stop seeing the damned ads every time I logged in, but the ads keep showing up. Appearently, they're part fo a random rotation, and since the card is just a branded Providian card, the PayPal folks have no way of even seeing if you have one or not.
I'm still pissed that I can't pay the stupid PayPal credit card bill using PayPal's billpay service - and it's been well over a year since I started regularly complaining about that (to both Providan and PayPal, theough PayPal just responds with [generally inappropriate] form letters to everything)
The PayPal debit card, OTOH, is all kinds of handy.
I've got English down, but my C++ is kinda rickety (lack of recent practice will do that). I know Perl, though, and it'll compile down to something nearly as useful...;) There's probably already a language translation module on CPAN anyway.
In retrospect, Jim Ryan probably would've been a better choice.:) I never got a good impression of him while he was Attorney General, though, which could very well be the media screwing someone over again. He did screw up a case in Chicago involving the improper conviction of one guy for another guy's rape ("another guy" confessed, but "one guy" still was left on death row). I'm pretty sure that was one of the examples cited when George Ryan was stopping death penalties all over the place...
Anyway, I personally think it's safe to assume that desiring an office of governor or higher generally requires one to be somewhat crooked, but that's my cynicism at work there more than anything. Jim probably would've taken the election if his last name hadn't been Ryan.
Wait. So, everyone learns English. I know English. What other language do I have to learn in order to communicate with most everyone? That's not self-centric, it's wisely spending my time learning things that are actually useful.:) (note, I do know Spanish, and you're right about the speed, but that's not really the point)
Last time, we were choosing between another Ryan (not related, but just as crooked) and an unknown guy. I think that lots of us thought that unknown jackass might be better than known jackass. Boy were we wrong. I really didn't think that anyone could screw up the state worse than G. Ryan, but it seems that someone actually can. Even if B's opponent is literally a drunken monkey, I guarantee that I'll not be giving Blowgujavoichishnitspotch my vote next time...
Though, I *am* happy with the new law that makes it illegal to drive in the left lane on the interstate for a long time without passing anyone - even if it's not actually enforced.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Can I claim that? :)
Darn straight. I'm all for making dumb people feel not so bad about things they can't control - like being dumb - but not at the expense of making the non-dumb feel dumb. There's a lot to be said for working smarter, not harder, and a lot to be said for those who have figured that out on their own. English provides several correct ways to do something and some incorrect ways of communicating. An "A" paper is an "A paper, regardless of the source and effort put in by said source.
Have you ever actually spoken to a farmer (other than me)? :) I grew up outside of "the city" in a farming family. Most subsidies in the area I grew up around are those that give the farmer money to leave "wetlands" alone. The others are usually geared toward crop rotation, which is for environmental and sustainability rather than price fixing. There are several government programs that make you leave a field or a part of a field unplanted for a year (or with a wheat crop, sometimes), or to go a no-till route every year or two, which again is for conservation (to prevent topsoil erosion). I'm not aware of any subsidized don't-plant programs that have occurred within the last 50 years whose only goal was to prop prices up. They're almost *always* presented with an environmental bent. Some people game the system to get paid to do nothing, but they're the exception rather than the rule. Most only take the programs when they don't have much of a choice.
:(
BTW, if you've looked at grain prices recently, you'd also note that they're not enough for the typical small farmer to make a living on... The price of bread goes up for the consumer, but the farmer sees jack squat.
There are several people like you, despite the people who vocally post that no one does this. I read code when I grab it, though I don't always. I'm sure that we're no the only ones who do that, though...
It's a balance between torque and RPMs in practice. Peak torque is peak *engine* efficiency, but that's the point where the engine's most effectively burning all of the fuel that it's taking in. Peak *mileage* is probably well below that point, since you want to be using just enough fuel to keep you going smoothly. You generally want the torque peak higher than that, anyway, in case you happen to need to pass someone, etc. :)
The cam I have in this particular car, combined with the super aerodynamics of a 1971 Chevelle dictated that I should be somewhere between around 1800 and 2200 RPMs. The torque curve doesn't start getting very impressive until around 1800, and it's pretty flat by the time you get to 2200 so I'm just losing mileage above that point. Also, the idle's around 1000-1100 with the A/C compressor kicked in or the cold idle on the choke, and I've gotta have a few RPMs to play with so I still have some compression braking at highway speed even if the A/C's on or the choke hasn't fully opened.
;)
Given available gear ratios and my future tire plans, 3.73:1 worked out to be the ideal combination that would still work well with the 1-2" taller tires that I'll likely get sometime in the future.
The main factor, though, was the amount of torque available. This is why 4-cylinder engines wind a little higher on the road than a V8 - they just don't build adequate torque to still give good throttle response until they're wound up harder. It's largely just experience picking a point - and possibly some lucky guessing.
I find it unlikely that the system will take X bytes of uuencoded zipped data and apply a compression algorithm that somehow results in compressing the uuencoded data to precisely the size of the data when it's uudecoded. In otherwords, their compression is exactly the same as just uudecoding the file? Unlikely.
Pretty much.
Soybeans are Legumes, which *produce* nitrogen. Corn takes lots of nitrogen. That's why fields alternate between corn and soybeans, and why anhydrous ammonia (~82% nitrogen) is applied to corn fields before planting.
Off topic, I'm surprised that "anhydrous" is in KDE's dictionary... Auto-spellcheck in Konqueror is great.
Basically I looked at my engine's power curve (which was actually estimated based on the heads, compression ratio, and cam profile), picked a point where the RPMs were relatively low but the torque was "adequate" (right near the bottom of the level part of the torque curve), and geared the thing so that'd put me at 70MPH given my tire diameter and OD ratio (.67:1). Torque Converter loss was irrelevant, since I'm running a lockup converter - though you just add a couple hundred RPMs if you're not. I'm turning about 2100 RPMs at 70. Much lower than that, and the engine's lugging a little - which is why the mileage falls off.
I put together some javascript several years ago to do the "calculate the gear/tire combo" part - it's here.
I've cheated some on other cars - by just driving them with the stock gears, finding a point where the RPMs feel like they're pretty good for balancing low revs with adequate response, and selecting the new gear ratio that would put the RPMs and desired speed together - that's just a basic ratio (speed1/rpms1 = speed2/rpms2)... In general, you just want to get the RPMs down as far as you can without going to the point where you're lugging the engine just to keep moving.
Note that several of the subsidies pay farmers to not farm land that wouldn't be all that productive anyway - though the real reason is generally some kind of environmental conservation type thing.
When I selected the rear end gears and transmission for my car, I optimized for driving at 70 MPH (112kph), since that's where I spend more time. Driving at 55/60(88/96) gets me much worse mileage, whereas driving at 75/80(120/128) doesn't show a noticeable drop. Hooray for not just buying whatever crap the dealers want to shove on me. :)
Heroin isn't something you normally fill out a written purchase order for... ;)
Ohh, sorry. :)
I generally just use cards for expenses that I pay off at the end of the month. I've been carrying a balance on some for a while, but about once a year, I apply for a couple of new "0% for a year or so" cards, transfer the balance over, and continue making whatever payments sound reasonable. It's a great scam, so far. I'm considering putting a low-end car on a 0%-for-life-on-balance-transfers card next time. That'd be cool.
So, up to 15% of the mixture has about 40-50% less potential energy. In the worst case, the 89 octane has 93% of the energy available from the 87 octane. That's not a very big difference, and certainly not enough to bring the mileage down more than the cost savings of using the ethanol gas (which actually costs less in my area than the non-ethanol gas - I save money by buying 89 over the 87, which would offset any mileage loss). Then there's the "supporting the local economy" effects, the "keeping your fuel system cleaner" effects, and the "saying screw you to the other oxygenate sources" effect. That last one makes me happy.
:)
Personally, running higher octane fuel in my cars allows me to advance the timing a little which does measurably increase my car's performance (not to mention letting me run higher compression than I otherwise could). That probably isn't relevant to the typical car owner, though, as most people don't even know what timing is.
Most of them baby it. They're old farts who have money to burn and buy the car because it looks cool, not because it can scream through an autocross course. Have you ever been to a 'Vette show/gathering (Bloomington Gold, etc)? 2/3 or more of those people don't realize that the things they're driving are *performance cars* that are meant to be driven. They think that the cars are showpieces that should never be run hard. That's just a sad way to treat a 'Vette, IMHO.
Anyway, that 6-speed manual tranny in the 'Vette has 2 overdrive steps, and the engine is damned efficient. It makes a whole mountain of torque at low RPMs. Lots of low-end torque plus steep cruising gears equals pretty decent fuel economy, even if there are 8 big cylinders running.
There's a debit card that can be used as a credit card. It works the same way as a bank card - you can get money out at an ATM, or pay for purchases at stores that accept credit cards. It doesn't extend any credit to you, though - your limit is the amount in your account.
There's also a PayPal *credit* card separate from the debit card. The credit card is what I was referring to in the parent post - just a Providian card. It's fairly ironic that the PayPal branded credit card can't be paid off with funds from your PayPal balance, IMHO.
They are separate, though. I've got both. One's just a credit card with a horrible interest rate (like 17% or so), the other's a convenient debit/check card that gets 1.2% cash back on purchases. Both are still available.
The PayPal credit card is just a Providian credit card that's not actually associated with PayPal in any way other than name. You can't transfer money from your PayPal account to your credit card, and, here's the big kicker for me, you can't pay your PayPal credit card bill using PayPal. I signed up for the stupid thing under the assumption that I'd stop seeing the damned ads every time I logged in, but the ads keep showing up. Appearently, they're part fo a random rotation, and since the card is just a branded Providian card, the PayPal folks have no way of even seeing if you have one or not.
I'm still pissed that I can't pay the stupid PayPal credit card bill using PayPal's billpay service - and it's been well over a year since I started regularly complaining about that (to both Providan and PayPal, theough PayPal just responds with [generally inappropriate] form letters to everything)
The PayPal debit card, OTOH, is all kinds of handy.
I've got English down, but my C++ is kinda rickety (lack of recent practice will do that). I know Perl, though, and it'll compile down to something nearly as useful... ;) There's probably already a language translation module on CPAN anyway.
In retrospect, Jim Ryan probably would've been a better choice. :) I never got a good impression of him while he was Attorney General, though, which could very well be the media screwing someone over again. He did screw up a case in Chicago involving the improper conviction of one guy for another guy's rape ("another guy" confessed, but "one guy" still was left on death row). I'm pretty sure that was one of the examples cited when George Ryan was stopping death penalties all over the place...
Anyway, I personally think it's safe to assume that desiring an office of governor or higher generally requires one to be somewhat crooked, but that's my cynicism at work there more than anything. Jim probably would've taken the election if his last name hadn't been Ryan.
Hey! Facts aren't important to that discussion - emotions and "equal treatment" are. ;)
Wait. So, everyone learns English. I know English. What other language do I have to learn in order to communicate with most everyone? That's not self-centric, it's wisely spending my time learning things that are actually useful. :) (note, I do know Spanish, and you're right about the speed, but that's not really the point)
Who? *I* sure don't know any...
Last time, we were choosing between another Ryan (not related, but just as crooked) and an unknown guy. I think that lots of us thought that unknown jackass might be better than known jackass. Boy were we wrong. I really didn't think that anyone could screw up the state worse than G. Ryan, but it seems that someone actually can. Even if B's opponent is literally a drunken monkey, I guarantee that I'll not be giving Blowgujavoichishnitspotch my vote next time...
:)
Though, I *am* happy with the new law that makes it illegal to drive in the left lane on the interstate for a long time without passing anyone - even if it's not actually enforced.