Not all dielectric heat transfer oils are fluorinated, and therefore as unfriendly to the ecology and to workers' health. The best are hydrocarbon based. I developed several different fluids that are being used in computer as well as other high powered electrical equipment (RF transmission, MRI equipment, high torque DC automotive motors, etc.) OptiCool Fluid by DSI Ventures, Inc., is one of these - it's more than 98% biodegradable in standard tests, nontoxic, nonhazardous and does not deplete the ozone layer like fluorinated fluids do. It's extremely stable and has good material compatibility. Plus, it's about 5 - 10% of the cost of fluorinated fluids.
I live in Brazil, where booth babes are a fixture at any trade show. My daughter has been one of them. She's in college, speaks three languages and looks fantastic in a short, tight dress. She gets paid several hundred dollars a night to engage prospective customers outside the booth and qualify them as to whether to bring them into the booths for the salespeople to work them over. Speaking three languages, she's in demand for this job - she's tired at the end of a show, but it's good money and she meets interesting people. She's not a prostitute - she knows that she's being ogled, but she's worked hard on her looks and is proud of them. She gets propositioned occasionally, but she's a big girl and can handle herself. Next year, she'll graduate with a degree in Chemistry from University Federal do Rio de Janeiro, one of the best universities in Brazil, and will go into pharmaceutical research. She's not being degraded - she goes into her job with her eyes open and feels like this is a heck of a lot better than other jobs that she could get.
Jesus, I'm glad I don't live where people debate this shit endlessly.
No - you're wrong (and how the heck did you get modded as "insightful"?).. I don't get uncomfortable because there are more fat people in the US. I do hate to sit next to some cow - even if he/she is what would be called "normal" in the midwest these days - on an airline. I'm not asking for first class armroom; I'm just asking that the person next to me doesn't spill over into my seat. I'm an older, big guy myself, but I'm fit, and I'd appreciate it if more people in the US made the effort, too.
And whaa, whaaa, whaaa, about being "bombarded" with unrealistic body images - if they had any real effect on the psyche of overweight people, then perhaps we overweight wouldn't be the new normal.
I live in South America and return frequently to the US. The first thing that I notice when I land in the US is how overweight people are. It's not that there aren't fat people in Brasil, Argentina and Chile; it's just that it's not the norm.
That may have been their goal - to market to people who are willing to pay more for a product that works better - but both of the Apple products that I've bought have not worked nearly as well as their competition. The PPC laptop I bought in 1992 crashed several times a day - I went back to Windows 98 for its stability! The iPhone that I have doesn't like the fact that I took it out of the US to use. It constantly complains. Its battery is weak and I can't even change the darn thing. My experience is that Apple products DON"T live up to their promise of 'just works'.
Here in Brasil, we have the "US model" of subsidized phones and contracts for the more expensive phones (cheaper phones don't have contracts, but are still subsidized - it's just that the service itself is so darned expensive that the carriers get paid back for the handset).
But I buy new, unlocked hardware on Ebay and bring it to Brasil, where it works fine. Why don't people in the US do that? Buy what you want and use it where you want it. Sure, you'll fork out $300 - $600 for a new smartphone, but it would quit all the bitching about being locked to AT&T, etc. Is it just laziness and inertia?
Try using your iPhone in a country where it wasn't originally sold. Then you'll see the value of jailbreaking - and learn what a pain the Apple lockdown process is. Every time I update the firmware, the thing tries to re-lock onto AT&T (the nearest AT&T tower is about 6000 miles away, I reckon). If I want American apps (I'm American), then I have to jailbreak the thing, or buy a shitload of iTunes cards when I'm in the states.
I like the phone's functionality, but I'm seriously considering buying another piece of hardware to get away from Apple's lockdown. Oh, and iTunes sucks on my computer.
IBM/Lotus had a great product there - an excellent PIM, good word processor and the venerable 1-2-3 spreadsheet. They absolutely walked away from it years ago, stranding millions of users.
If any of you smart guys are interested, there are still many users of Lotus Organizer PIM who have no way to sync it with Outlook or Google's products. It would seem to me a pretty simple project to write a sync program, and it would be marketable. If you want to discuss it, (I can't do it; the last thing that I programmed was on punch cards) contact me at daviddd75710 at yahoo.
I'm too lazy to look up citations, but this has been going on with fire codes and other engineering codes for a while. The National Fire Protection Association writes the National Electrical Code pertaining to electrical installations in buildings. The NEC is protected under copyright. States then adopt it wholesale as local fire codes. The copyright stays intact, as I recall, resulting in a state regulation that's covered by copyright. I remember reading that mechanical engineering codes drawn up by ASME were treated the same.
When Castro came to power, many, many rich Cuban families left their land, houses, farms and factories and moved to Florida. To this day, these Florida Cubans hold enormous political power. It's very difficult for a national politician to win Florida without appeasing the Cuban population there. And, because of the peculiar nature of the American electoral system, it's very difficult to win the presidency without winning, or at least a significant showing in Florida. So the Cubans in Florida wield enormous political power, despite their small numbers. And despite what the rest of the country wants, there's no way that they will relent and bless an official US recognition of Cuba.
It's the same reason why the US always takes Israel's side in the Mideast conflict. Despite their small number (I think that only 3% of the US population is Jewish), Jews wield enormous political power in the US.
Beans. For making deals, getting people's buy-in, collaborating on ideas, etc., never text or email when you can talk on the phone. Never talk on the phone when you can talk face to face.
You can seclude yourself in a don't-bother-me text cocoon, but that doesn't make you more productive.
It's also, I believe, a factor of having different licensing agreements by the content producer with distributors in different countries. I live in Brasil and it drives me nuts.
I took the plunge and bought a Macbook Walstreet in the early 2000s, complete with new printer (no USB at that time) and new Office software. Altogether, about $2200. The laptop hardware was a thing of beauty - ergonomic and well designed. It crashed more often than the Wright bros., however. After putting up with this for 6 months, I went back to Win98 because it was MORE stable. I live in east TX, so there's not a lot of local support to lean on. I'll grant that perhaps OSX is more stable, or that I got a rogue piece of iron, but I'm never going to bet a couple of thousand dollars on Apple again, on someone else's sayso. Just Didn't Work.
By the way, this liberating experience has saved me a lot of time and hassle. My MP3 player? A $40 piece of Chinese junk, but it works great. I can sync it with a toaster, if I want, and I don't have to ask Mr. Jobs for DRM permission to do anything. Try it, you may find out that white earplugs are overrated.
Evolution is not the only theory taught in school. Gravity is another theory. I suppose that Texas schools should teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of the Theory of Gravity, too.
I switched back. No, I RAN back to Windows. I took the plunge several years ago with the purchase of a Macbook Walstreet (OS 8.6) and all new Office software, a new printer, etc. It took only six months of constant crashes, freezes, reboots, and crypto-warnings ("you have experienced an error -3") to decide that the Mac wasn't any more stable than my Gateway with Windows 98, and at least I knew how to fix Windows when it crashed. My experience leads me to advise people not to use to Apple products. And I haven't bought once since. My MP3 player? A Chinese gizmo that cost me $40. I don't need itunes, and I can sync it with a toaster if I wanted to. I don't need to jailbreak my phone; I can run anyone's apps on it and they run just fine, thank you. But, no, I can't blow on it and make fog appear inside the screen... now there's a killer app.
Oh boy - a dielectric fluid thread. My specialty.
The post above is not really correct. I'm Engineering Manager of a company that makes dielectric fluids, including PCB alternatives. (www.dsiventures.com) PCBs in and of themselves are not so bad from a health perspective; the bad actors are the dibenzofurans and dibenzodioxins that are created when PCBs get overheated in an electric arc or when they contact very hot metal. PCBs have been found to be bioaccumulative, however. In the 1970s and 1980s, several alternatives were developed - polydimethyl siloxane (silicone fluid) as well as High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbons. It's true that these fluids are not *non*flammable; they do have a flash and fire point when measured by ASTM Method D92. These fluids have a fire point > 300 C, however. I've performed a lot of experiments on burning and exploding transformers; in order to get a tank of these oils to burn, your building pretty much has to burn down around it. So a fluid doesn't have to be nonflammable, such as PCBs, in order to be safe; we could sit down over lunch and come up with a test method that would burn an iron bridge, but that doesn't mean that it's going to happen in real life.
8-inch reel to reel, 8 inch floppies, cassettes...You're gonna need some large reels to read some of the formats that I have around. I haven't played the Space Invaders game from my TRS-80 cassettes in 20 years.
Not a troll, but just my experience. My experience is that Apple's OS is no more stable than Windows OS. My Apple laptop crashed more often than the Wright Bros. After a year of trying ("I *want* to believe!"), I gave up and went back to Windows. Sure it has its problems, but it never dumps me as much as my Apple did. P.O.S. Maybe things have gotten better in the last couple of years, but I'm not going to gamble thousands of dollars just to find out that they haven't.
I own a private company. We have continued technical success in our field. We don't spend a penny on parties. People get paid for coming to work and doing a good job. Nobody grumbles about this; it's just called doing your job. You want something extra for that?
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Not all dielectric heat transfer oils are fluorinated, and therefore as unfriendly to the ecology and to workers' health. The best are hydrocarbon based. I developed several different fluids that are being used in computer as well as other high powered electrical equipment (RF transmission, MRI equipment, high torque DC automotive motors, etc.) OptiCool Fluid by DSI Ventures, Inc., is one of these - it's more than 98% biodegradable in standard tests, nontoxic, nonhazardous and does not deplete the ozone layer like fluorinated fluids do. It's extremely stable and has good material compatibility. Plus, it's about 5 - 10% of the cost of fluorinated fluids.
I live in Brazil, where booth babes are a fixture at any trade show. My daughter has been one of them. She's in college, speaks three languages and looks fantastic in a short, tight dress. She gets paid several hundred dollars a night to engage prospective customers outside the booth and qualify them as to whether to bring them into the booths for the salespeople to work them over. Speaking three languages, she's in demand for this job - she's tired at the end of a show, but it's good money and she meets interesting people. She's not a prostitute - she knows that she's being ogled, but she's worked hard on her looks and is proud of them. She gets propositioned occasionally, but she's a big girl and can handle herself. Next year, she'll graduate with a degree in Chemistry from University Federal do Rio de Janeiro, one of the best universities in Brazil, and will go into pharmaceutical research. She's not being degraded - she goes into her job with her eyes open and feels like this is a heck of a lot better than other jobs that she could get.
Jesus, I'm glad I don't live where people debate this shit endlessly.
No - you're wrong (and how the heck did you get modded as "insightful"?).. I don't get uncomfortable because there are more fat people in the US. I do hate to sit next to some cow - even if he/she is what would be called "normal" in the midwest these days - on an airline. I'm not asking for first class armroom; I'm just asking that the person next to me doesn't spill over into my seat. I'm an older, big guy myself, but I'm fit, and I'd appreciate it if more people in the US made the effort, too.
And whaa, whaaa, whaaa, about being "bombarded" with unrealistic body images - if they had any real effect on the psyche of overweight people, then perhaps we overweight wouldn't be the new normal.
I live in South America and return frequently to the US. The first thing that I notice when I land in the US is how overweight people are. It's not that there aren't fat people in Brasil, Argentina and Chile; it's just that it's not the norm.
That may have been their goal - to market to people who are willing to pay more for a product that works better - but both of the Apple products that I've bought have not worked nearly as well as their competition. The PPC laptop I bought in 1992 crashed several times a day - I went back to Windows 98 for its stability! The iPhone that I have doesn't like the fact that I took it out of the US to use. It constantly complains. Its battery is weak and I can't even change the darn thing. My experience is that Apple products DON"T live up to their promise of 'just works'.
I always told the team "I'll be in my office if I can help you in any way", and then went back to my office and watch some porn.
That's just the way I roll...
Here in Brasil, we have the "US model" of subsidized phones and contracts for the more expensive phones (cheaper phones don't have contracts, but are still subsidized - it's just that the service itself is so darned expensive that the carriers get paid back for the handset).
But I buy new, unlocked hardware on Ebay and bring it to Brasil, where it works fine. Why don't people in the US do that? Buy what you want and use it where you want it. Sure, you'll fork out $300 - $600 for a new smartphone, but it would quit all the bitching about being locked to AT&T, etc. Is it just laziness and inertia?
Try using your iPhone in a country where it wasn't originally sold. Then you'll see the value of jailbreaking - and learn what a pain the Apple lockdown process is. Every time I update the firmware, the thing tries to re-lock onto AT&T (the nearest AT&T tower is about 6000 miles away, I reckon). If I want American apps (I'm American), then I have to jailbreak the thing, or buy a shitload of iTunes cards when I'm in the states.
I like the phone's functionality, but I'm seriously considering buying another piece of hardware to get away from Apple's lockdown. Oh, and iTunes sucks on my computer.
IBM/Lotus had a great product there - an excellent PIM, good word processor and the venerable 1-2-3 spreadsheet. They absolutely walked away from it years ago, stranding millions of users.
If any of you smart guys are interested, there are still many users of Lotus Organizer PIM who have no way to sync it with Outlook or Google's products. It would seem to me a pretty simple project to write a sync program, and it would be marketable. If you want to discuss it, (I can't do it; the last thing that I programmed was on punch cards) contact me at daviddd75710 at yahoo.
Modded 3- Informative?
You are factually incorrect. American citizens are subject to search when entering the U.S.
I athumed that you were jutht fabulous...
I'm too lazy to look up citations, but this has been going on with fire codes and other engineering codes for a while. The National Fire Protection Association writes the National Electrical Code pertaining to electrical installations in buildings. The NEC is protected under copyright. States then adopt it wholesale as local fire codes. The copyright stays intact, as I recall, resulting in a state regulation that's covered by copyright. I remember reading that mechanical engineering codes drawn up by ASME were treated the same.
When Castro came to power, many, many rich Cuban families left their land, houses, farms and factories and moved to Florida. To this day, these Florida Cubans hold enormous political power. It's very difficult for a national politician to win Florida without appeasing the Cuban population there. And, because of the peculiar nature of the American electoral system, it's very difficult to win the presidency without winning, or at least a significant showing in Florida. So the Cubans in Florida wield enormous political power, despite their small numbers. And despite what the rest of the country wants, there's no way that they will relent and bless an official US recognition of Cuba.
It's the same reason why the US always takes Israel's side in the Mideast conflict. Despite their small number (I think that only 3% of the US population is Jewish), Jews wield enormous political power in the US.
I fully expect to get flamed for saying this.
Beans. For making deals, getting people's buy-in, collaborating on ideas, etc., never text or email when you can talk on the phone. Never talk on the phone when you can talk face to face. You can seclude yourself in a don't-bother-me text cocoon, but that doesn't make you more productive.
It's also, I believe, a factor of having different licensing agreements by the content producer with distributors in different countries. I live in Brasil and it drives me nuts.
It's more fun anyway when you can't see the playing field.
I don't see anything that discusses bias against citizenship, but rather on what country you reside in.
I took the plunge and bought a Macbook Walstreet in the early 2000s, complete with new printer (no USB at that time) and new Office software. Altogether, about $2200. The laptop hardware was a thing of beauty - ergonomic and well designed. It crashed more often than the Wright bros., however. After putting up with this for 6 months, I went back to Win98 because it was MORE stable. I live in east TX, so there's not a lot of local support to lean on. I'll grant that perhaps OSX is more stable, or that I got a rogue piece of iron, but I'm never going to bet a couple of thousand dollars on Apple again, on someone else's sayso. Just Didn't Work. By the way, this liberating experience has saved me a lot of time and hassle. My MP3 player? A $40 piece of Chinese junk, but it works great. I can sync it with a toaster, if I want, and I don't have to ask Mr. Jobs for DRM permission to do anything. Try it, you may find out that white earplugs are overrated.
Troll much?
Evolution is not the only theory taught in school. Gravity is another theory. I suppose that Texas schools should teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of the Theory of Gravity, too.
I switched back. No, I RAN back to Windows. I took the plunge several years ago with the purchase of a Macbook Walstreet (OS 8.6) and all new Office software, a new printer, etc. It took only six months of constant crashes, freezes, reboots, and crypto-warnings ("you have experienced an error -3") to decide that the Mac wasn't any more stable than my Gateway with Windows 98, and at least I knew how to fix Windows when it crashed. My experience leads me to advise people not to use to Apple products. And I haven't bought once since. My MP3 player? A Chinese gizmo that cost me $40. I don't need itunes, and I can sync it with a toaster if I wanted to. I don't need to jailbreak my phone; I can run anyone's apps on it and they run just fine, thank you. But, no, I can't blow on it and make fog appear inside the screen... now there's a killer app.
Oh boy - a dielectric fluid thread. My specialty. The post above is not really correct. I'm Engineering Manager of a company that makes dielectric fluids, including PCB alternatives. (www.dsiventures.com) PCBs in and of themselves are not so bad from a health perspective; the bad actors are the dibenzofurans and dibenzodioxins that are created when PCBs get overheated in an electric arc or when they contact very hot metal. PCBs have been found to be bioaccumulative, however. In the 1970s and 1980s, several alternatives were developed - polydimethyl siloxane (silicone fluid) as well as High Molecular Weight Hydrocarbons. It's true that these fluids are not *non*flammable; they do have a flash and fire point when measured by ASTM Method D92. These fluids have a fire point > 300 C, however. I've performed a lot of experiments on burning and exploding transformers; in order to get a tank of these oils to burn, your building pretty much has to burn down around it. So a fluid doesn't have to be nonflammable, such as PCBs, in order to be safe; we could sit down over lunch and come up with a test method that would burn an iron bridge, but that doesn't mean that it's going to happen in real life.
8-inch reel to reel, 8 inch floppies, cassettes...You're gonna need some large reels to read some of the formats that I have around. I haven't played the Space Invaders game from my TRS-80 cassettes in 20 years.
NSFW - http://www.toyssexshop.com/products/bms4321.htm
Not a troll, but just my experience. My experience is that Apple's OS is no more stable than Windows OS. My Apple laptop crashed more often than the Wright Bros. After a year of trying ("I *want* to believe!"), I gave up and went back to Windows. Sure it has its problems, but it never dumps me as much as my Apple did. P.O.S. Maybe things have gotten better in the last couple of years, but I'm not going to gamble thousands of dollars just to find out that they haven't.
I own a private company. We have continued technical success in our field. We don't spend a penny on parties. People get paid for coming to work and doing a good job. Nobody grumbles about this; it's just called doing your job. You want something extra for that?