My power company allows me to work on a off-peak rewards program. Peak electricity is about twice as much, while off-peak (7pm - 7am) costs 1/3 of the regular price.
We do our laundry, dishes, and shower on off-peak time. The water heater is set for economy mode during the day.
Doing this billing option does require a new meter on your house, and I'm not sure if the electric company charges you for it or not - the previous owner had it installed.
So let me get this straight: the reason Cuba can't get computer components is because of the US ban on exporting goods to Cuba? How does this prevent Japan or China from sending their stuff to Cuba? Is the fact that Cuba can't get a Gateway computer necessarily a bad thing?:-)
You'd think that if there was an unfulfilled market, some business would fill it. China makes unlicensed EVERYTHING! from Motorcycles to Microsoft Windows:-)
The latest issues of Tire Pressure sensors and Stability control come from the SUV rollover issues that the government got into. Studies showed that improperly inflated tires going onto a soft shoulder sideways, along with defective bridgestone tires caused much of the trouble (bad driving aside). Stability control is becoming standard on SUVs, and TPMS is becoming mandatory for most cars, to prevent this from happening again.
As for the limp mode, it sucks, that's for sure. It added an extra $250 onto my new set of rims, and I've been borrowing a tire programmer whenever I change my tires out (fortunately, somebody in my club bought a universal programmer, so I can get my tires learned at events). There are work-arounds, like keeping your programmed tires near the car at your pit area - the computer doesn't go into limp mode if it can see the sensors when the car starts. Pain in the ass. The older cars would just keep giving you an error when you start up your car, and this one will eventually make the "safe bet" and assume that no signal = no pressure. Ah well.
Ya, the government sucks, but I have a feeling this was somebody at GM deciding that the old setup was allowing owners to put any kind of goofy tire/rim combo and they were trying to cover their asses on owners lawsuits for damage. Dunno.
Being a bit of a corvette nut, I have a bit of understanding on TPMS systems for at least GM.
Older TPMS systems (pre-2005 corvettes) had a passive TPMS system - if you, say replaced your wheels with ones that didn't have TPMS sensors, the car would give you an error, but no performance issues would ensue.
Newer TPMS systems (after 2005) will now do as you say - the horsepower is limited, speed is limited. They call it "limp mode". I ended up having to buy a separate set of sensors for my racing set. I looked into the situation, and some people were looking into making a transponder that would send fake signals to the computer.
The new sensors, while cheaper (older sensors were more expensive, perhaps due to economies of scale), require a modulating frequency generator to reset the senors - to "learn" them to the car. Older sensors could be triggered using a magnet, making swapping wheels a lot easier.
As for you Runflat vs Conventional argument, Runflats are getting better. Comparing low-profile tires, where the difference should be less, there is still a notable performance difference between runflat and standard (runflats still have a harsher ride, but they've been getting better), though the prices are getting a lot closer. You can get some cheap Toyo Tires for $200 each, but decent ones run 300-350 a tire. Runflats start up around $350 for 18" Firestones and can get up to $600 for 19" Goodyears of Michellins.
As for tire wear, I basically get 1 year of autocrossing out of a set of tires. The OEM tires wore out really fast, but the replacement runflats I put on have been wearing well.
That was always my take on soviet tech - built like a tank. A few examples:
A late-model Russian fighter jet has A LOT of titanium (Russia has a lot of mine-able titanium). Taking a bird into its turbine will not cause a failure.
One of my professors did freelance FEA work for NASA. One of his jobs was analyzing the Shuttle's collision with the MIR space station. He had accelerometer data from many positions. He concluded no damage from the strike.
Because an informed populace promotes change, especially when grave injustices are being done and the local government is shielding its populace from it.
Elected US officials don't want an informed populace because they would be putting their own political lives on the line.
That and infrastructure is expensive.
Very chilling. My favorite HL2 character too. Looking back at the dialog in ep2, it was sort of obvious it would happen - heaven forbid there ever be any straight-forward plot exposition on the G-man.
BTW, anybody else thing the stabbing/sucking appendage looks just a little phallic?
It sounds like you should be buying your Xbox live accounts on the per-month basis. This will prevent you from purchasing a service you won't use.
Now a what-if for you: What if you play a bunch of multiplayer games on a regular basis? Should that person be charged more because they play different titles? Better yet - why not pay according to time used - that would work perfectly with my AOL dial-up account!
All joking aside, Xbox live offers a service that allows people to have a highly reliable online experience, a rating system for bad players, a system for meeting and making friends, and a decent voice system. I think that's all worth $60 a year.
I thought that Laser Surgery excluded you from flying fighter jets, due to the eye being compromised and decompression of the cockpit could lead to eye damage.
Really, more government intervention is the solution? Government is what has prevented the US from building any new nuclear reactors in the past 20+ years! So you'd like to see government get into the CO2 taxing business? If the majority of the people wants to reduce their CO2 output, they should invest in and buy products from businesses that choose to use smarter manufacturing practices.
If you're looking at putting an artificial pressure on the sector, the options are taxes, usage vouchers, or a combination of the two (a carbon voucher with a "subscription").
I'm against taxes because that's money in the government's hands - even if the money is earmarked for research, government has a way of getting its mitts on it (see social security, gas taxes, etc).
Vouchers make more sense in terms of market dynamics because they can be bought and sold, giving companies incentive to use less, allowing them to sell their vouchers. The question with vouchers is how are they originally distributed? Are the vouchers going to slowly constrict on themselves, slowly lowering the carbon output? Are they going to be applied to citizens (every car, house, human needs one), or just to businesses?
Either way you go, government is involved, allowing the opportunity for people and industries to be exempted through loopholes, which prevents it from working. Taxing businesses will drive the businesses to moving someplace where the controls are not in effect.
Nuclear? You bet. Can existing plants be converted? I don't know about that - I'm all for building new. Build some breeder reactors while you're at it and you're all set.
I agree that there was massive support in the war against Al Quida, and I support what's going on over there. It seems the only people that were against the war was the media, who seems to find every opportunity to report negatives in Iraq, but fails to report any of the positive aspects. I don't think that was happening in WWII - granted, the military was determining what was coming in or out of the front lines.
"The next World War will probably see us on the losing side, we don't have the innovation of the 40's, we don't have the manufacturing powerhouse we did in the 40's, and we definitely don't have the willingness to defend another country anymore. Everything that made it possible for us to Kick Butt in WWII is pretty much gone."
I think one of the major differences between now and the 40's is information - if the entire US had the same access to information we have now, I don't know if support for the war would be as great. Back then, thousands of men were dying and the losses weren't hitting home. With the lack of information, the government (through the news organizations) can gain massive support. The mass majority of the country was behind the war - working, producing, fighting, sacrificing.
If you can get that level of sacrifice from most of today's population, you could wage another war on the scale of WWII. It would require a draft though - a chilling thought for those not inclined to fight. It's comforting to know that all the conflicts and wars since Vietnam have been fought without using the draft.
Slashdot Mirror
My power company allows me to work on a off-peak rewards program. Peak electricity is about twice as much, while off-peak (7pm - 7am) costs 1/3 of the regular price.
We do our laundry, dishes, and shower on off-peak time. The water heater is set for economy mode during the day.
Doing this billing option does require a new meter on your house, and I'm not sure if the electric company charges you for it or not - the previous owner had it installed.
So let me get this straight: the reason Cuba can't get computer components is because of the US ban on exporting goods to Cuba? How does this prevent Japan or China from sending their stuff to Cuba? Is the fact that Cuba can't get a Gateway computer necessarily a bad thing? :-)
:-)
You'd think that if there was an unfulfilled market, some business would fill it. China makes unlicensed EVERYTHING! from Motorcycles to Microsoft Windows
The latest issues of Tire Pressure sensors and Stability control come from the SUV rollover issues that the government got into. Studies showed that improperly inflated tires going onto a soft shoulder sideways, along with defective bridgestone tires caused much of the trouble (bad driving aside). Stability control is becoming standard on SUVs, and TPMS is becoming mandatory for most cars, to prevent this from happening again.
As for the limp mode, it sucks, that's for sure. It added an extra $250 onto my new set of rims, and I've been borrowing a tire programmer whenever I change my tires out (fortunately, somebody in my club bought a universal programmer, so I can get my tires learned at events). There are work-arounds, like keeping your programmed tires near the car at your pit area - the computer doesn't go into limp mode if it can see the sensors when the car starts. Pain in the ass. The older cars would just keep giving you an error when you start up your car, and this one will eventually make the "safe bet" and assume that no signal = no pressure. Ah well.
Ya, the government sucks, but I have a feeling this was somebody at GM deciding that the old setup was allowing owners to put any kind of goofy tire/rim combo and they were trying to cover their asses on owners lawsuits for damage. Dunno.
Being a bit of a corvette nut, I have a bit of understanding on TPMS systems for at least GM. Older TPMS systems (pre-2005 corvettes) had a passive TPMS system - if you, say replaced your wheels with ones that didn't have TPMS sensors, the car would give you an error, but no performance issues would ensue. Newer TPMS systems (after 2005) will now do as you say - the horsepower is limited, speed is limited. They call it "limp mode". I ended up having to buy a separate set of sensors for my racing set. I looked into the situation, and some people were looking into making a transponder that would send fake signals to the computer. The new sensors, while cheaper (older sensors were more expensive, perhaps due to economies of scale), require a modulating frequency generator to reset the senors - to "learn" them to the car. Older sensors could be triggered using a magnet, making swapping wheels a lot easier. As for you Runflat vs Conventional argument, Runflats are getting better. Comparing low-profile tires, where the difference should be less, there is still a notable performance difference between runflat and standard (runflats still have a harsher ride, but they've been getting better), though the prices are getting a lot closer. You can get some cheap Toyo Tires for $200 each, but decent ones run 300-350 a tire. Runflats start up around $350 for 18" Firestones and can get up to $600 for 19" Goodyears of Michellins. As for tire wear, I basically get 1 year of autocrossing out of a set of tires. The OEM tires wore out really fast, but the replacement runflats I put on have been wearing well.
Sony and Toshiba were the direct competitors for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but Toshiba makes a chip in the Dualshock 3 w/SixAxis controller.
http://benheck.com/03-22-2008/inside-the-dualshock-3-controller#more-356 (I suck at http writing)
Link is deceptive. Made my Firefox window shuck and jive like it was the 4th of July :-)
you're probably right about that. It's not like I checked my 5-year-old notes before posting :-)
That was always my take on soviet tech - built like a tank. A few examples: A late-model Russian fighter jet has A LOT of titanium (Russia has a lot of mine-able titanium). Taking a bird into its turbine will not cause a failure. One of my professors did freelance FEA work for NASA. One of his jobs was analyzing the Shuttle's collision with the MIR space station. He had accelerometer data from many positions. He concluded no damage from the strike.
Because an informed populace promotes change, especially when grave injustices are being done and the local government is shielding its populace from it. Elected US officials don't want an informed populace because they would be putting their own political lives on the line. That and infrastructure is expensive.
I downloaded it yesterday - 49.15MB XLA games are supposed to stay under 64MB, but if I recall they lifted that limit
Ah well - game looks awesome though
Are we talking regular twinkies, or 35ft-long 600-lb ghostbusting twinkies? (yes I had to check imdb.com for the weight, I suck)
Or is this a demo piece of hardware crammed in a consumer laptop box?
...but does it run linux? (couldn't resist)
An intel dual core processor (2) with a cell processor (4)
Very chilling. My favorite HL2 character too. Looking back at the dialog in ep2, it was sort of obvious it would happen - heaven forbid there ever be any straight-forward plot exposition on the G-man.
BTW, anybody else thing the stabbing/sucking appendage looks just a little phallic?
Who's ever going to need all that space? :-)
It sounds like you should be buying your Xbox live accounts on the per-month basis. This will prevent you from purchasing a service you won't use.
Now a what-if for you: What if you play a bunch of multiplayer games on a regular basis? Should that person be charged more because they play different titles? Better yet - why not pay according to time used - that would work perfectly with my AOL dial-up account!
All joking aside, Xbox live offers a service that allows people to have a highly reliable online experience, a rating system for bad players, a system for meeting and making friends, and a decent voice system. I think that's all worth $60 a year.
Just my two cents
I thought that Laser Surgery excluded you from flying fighter jets, due to the eye being compromised and decompression of the cockpit could lead to eye damage.
Really, more government intervention is the solution? Government is what has prevented the US from building any new nuclear reactors in the past 20+ years! So you'd like to see government get into the CO2 taxing business? If the majority of the people wants to reduce their CO2 output, they should invest in and buy products from businesses that choose to use smarter manufacturing practices.
If you're looking at putting an artificial pressure on the sector, the options are taxes, usage vouchers, or a combination of the two (a carbon voucher with a "subscription").
I'm against taxes because that's money in the government's hands - even if the money is earmarked for research, government has a way of getting its mitts on it (see social security, gas taxes, etc).
Vouchers make more sense in terms of market dynamics because they can be bought and sold, giving companies incentive to use less, allowing them to sell their vouchers. The question with vouchers is how are they originally distributed? Are the vouchers going to slowly constrict on themselves, slowly lowering the carbon output? Are they going to be applied to citizens (every car, house, human needs one), or just to businesses?
Either way you go, government is involved, allowing the opportunity for people and industries to be exempted through loopholes, which prevents it from working. Taxing businesses will drive the businesses to moving someplace where the controls are not in effect.
Nuclear? You bet. Can existing plants be converted? I don't know about that - I'm all for building new. Build some breeder reactors while you're at it and you're all set.
I agree that there was massive support in the war against Al Quida, and I support what's going on over there. It seems the only people that were against the war was the media, who seems to find every opportunity to report negatives in Iraq, but fails to report any of the positive aspects. I don't think that was happening in WWII - granted, the military was determining what was coming in or out of the front lines.
"The next World War will probably see us on the losing side, we don't have the innovation of the 40's, we don't have the manufacturing powerhouse we did in the 40's, and we definitely don't have the willingness to defend another country anymore. Everything that made it possible for us to Kick Butt in WWII is pretty much gone." I think one of the major differences between now and the 40's is information - if the entire US had the same access to information we have now, I don't know if support for the war would be as great. Back then, thousands of men were dying and the losses weren't hitting home. With the lack of information, the government (through the news organizations) can gain massive support. The mass majority of the country was behind the war - working, producing, fighting, sacrificing. If you can get that level of sacrifice from most of today's population, you could wage another war on the scale of WWII. It would require a draft though - a chilling thought for those not inclined to fight. It's comforting to know that all the conflicts and wars since Vietnam have been fought without using the draft.