When you pour gasoline into a car, that's all you're doing - just moving the fluid from one spot to another.
When you charge a battery, you are ALSO doing an energy conversion from electrical to chemical. That's much more hazardous. If something goes wrong, in the best case you kill your battery (excess heat), and in the worst case it blows up sending shrapnel everywhere
Gasoline really isn't that flammable. You could toss a match into a bucket of gasoline and nothing would happen. And diesel isn't flammable at all (no vapors).
>>>they're probably taking the conservative side of safe
They have to. As a battery approaches full you HAVE to slow down, else you will damage it. In fact I bet this fast charge is already shortening the battery's life by a significant amount .
If you want atomic clock accuracy, then you go fetch the time from an actual atomic clock. Even back in the 1980s, I had a Commodore Amiga program that would automagically dial a 1-800 number, fetch the time, and set my internal clock. Doing it today via the web should be a piece of cake.
>>>Fuel tax revenue does not come close to the funding level required to maintain roads.
False. I can't speak to the whole of the US, but in my state the fuel taxes generate *extra* revenue. The government then uses that excess to help prop-up the Maryland train transit system (which doesn't sell enough tickets to sustain itself). Put another way, in this state, the cars pay for their own unkeep. They pay-in enough gasoline/road tax to keep the highways built PLUS also keeping the rails maintained.
>>>The 40$ boxes have nothing to do with the cable conversion:P
No you misunderstood. That person was saying INSTEAD of subscribing to Comcast and paying $10/month plus $5/month to rent boxes (times the three TVs she owned), she should have bought the Antenna-based converter box instead.
As I recall me reply was something like: "It's not too late. Ebay has Insignia converter boxes for only $20-30. If I were you I would cancel comcast and hook up an antenna."
But I and other americans have been watching free over-the-air TV for almost 70 years. I enjoy seeing shows like Stargate, Dead Like Me, Deadliest Catch, and so on. But what right does Comcast or ATT or anybody else come along and abscond the Common Property of the People, and lock it up behind cellphone subscription plans?
As far as I can see, they have no right to do that. We've already given-away channels 51 to 83 for other services (wireless net and cellphones). I say we stop here. Go take somebody else's channels for a change, like maybe part of the shortwave or AM or the Gigahertz band, and leave my free TV alone. I've already given up enough.
>>>Get displays up in the 300-400PPI region and none of this is a problem anymore.
On my 1280x1024 CRT I already can't see the shape of the pixels. As I recall it was advertised as a 150 DPI unit, so apparently that's all I need to eliminate the "jaggies"
(1) If you make the pixels sufficiently small, nobody will notice they are square or triangle or whatever because people won't be able to see anything but a bight point of light.
(2) Not all pixels are square.
Those used for TV-compatible computers like Atari 800, Commodore=64, or Amiga used rectangular pixels (more tall than wide) because of the analog NTSC standard (which doesn't use pixels at all but is approximately 704x486 analog resolution). These computers produce rectangular output to be consistent with that. DVDs also use non-square pixels for the same reason.
I'm surprised you've never seen "The Color of War" on History Channel or PBS. Anyway youtube has lots of footage. And oh yeah, they didn't use video. It was film
Yeah that whole $100 per year I spend on maintaining my car (basically, changing the oil and air filter) really busts my balls. Personally I think owning a car is *cheaper* than the rental fee you have to pay to use the subway/metro every day. Now THAT adds up to a lot of money.
Go ahead and have your public transport, but don't expect me to subsidize it. Let it pay for itself via ticket sales, the same way cars pay for themselves via gasoline/road taxes. I'll stay with my 70mpg hybrid car (or 200mpg VW car). Not only do I think a car is better, but also provides freedom of movement. If I need to make an emergency trip at 3am, I can. Good luck finding a subway or bus at that hour (in my city they stop running at midnight).
The main flaw I see with the moving walkways is the same flaw subways/metros have - there's never any close enough to my home to be useful.
It seems to me it would be much more practical to just give everyone one of these (gets 200mpg highway) for personal 1 or 2 human transport. It cuts emissions by ~75% as much as an EV1 or Prius. And ~82% as much as a city bus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car#2009_model
In Asimov's Science Fiction the walkways had different speeds. You could go 5 miles an hour, or you could step left and go 10 miles an hour, or step left, and go 15 miles an hour, or..... step left and go 100 miles an hour. So it's no big deal if someone just stand there. You can move to the faster track and pass them.
Heinlein has a similar concept in his "The Roads Must Roll" short story.
>>>it doesn't sound to me like Comcast is acting in good faith
And that's why the city of Detroit is suing them in court (failure to provide free CATV to municipal buildings and schools). Comcast really, really sucks when it comes to screwing-over the customer, even if the customer is the government.
>>>Over the phone I was arguing that each TV had to have a box
In other words you were wrong. Did you later apologize?;-) And yes Dish uses one box for two sets. The first box is free while the second box (for TVs 3 and 4) costs $7/month
Anon. Coward wrote: Until they encrypt them, like they did in my area on Dec 7th 2009. I had clearQAM from Dec 4 2008 until Dec 7 2009, when they "threw the switch" and my ClearQAM tuner just said "this channel is encrypted"
Are you sure they weren't just moved? Did you try a scan?
Looking up antenna information now as I'm finally fed up with it
Here's what I recommend: Channel Master CM4228HD. It receives channels 13-to-51 as good as a full-size "arrow" antenna on the roof. It also does a decent job with channels 7-to-13 (Hi-VHF). Note I'm talking about the "true" channels not the fake, virtual names that stations now use.
That's what I used on my main set. For my bedroom TVs I used the Winegard Freevision.
>>>Unless you're really rural, "the common people" can get off-air digital TV for free.
You're the second person that didn't bother to read my whole post. What's the deal? Too lazy to read a whole three paragraphs?:-| Quote: And next Comcast (along with the FCC and other CATV companies) want to shutdown channels 25 and up to eliminate competition from Free TV. That will effectively force people to upgrade to Comcast TV or Comcast Internet" in order to get decent television.
In other words if Comcast/FCC succeeds you can say goodbye to "this" movie channel, retroTV channel, Univision, Qubo, Smile of a Child, Global, Meghaertz, Link, PBS, Ion, MyNetTV, CW and maybe even 1 or 2 of the major networks, since there will not be enough room to carry all of them.
You can subscribe to Asimov's Science Fiction for only $3 a month (approximately). Fresh sci-fi comes direct to your door and it's ACTUAL sci-fi, not wrasslin' or fantasy nonsense. Add Analog Magazine to the subscription and get a 25% discount off both.
(Why am I plugging these magazines? Because Asimov's dropped below 15,000 subscribers and is almost dead.)
I stayed in a cheap no-name hotel in Illinois one time (along I70) and they did one of those deals where they split the cable multiple times. By the time it reached my room at the end, I couldn't get any channels higher than 25. The signal had degraded that badly.
What really pissed me off is that their sign said "$29 a night" but they charged $45 instead. I asked why and they said "Oh that's our weekly rate. $203 if you stay the whole week." That's called false advertising. And I didn't even get to watch Sci-Fi Channel because it was unreceivable. Grrr. Had I known that I would have drove another 100 miles to the Motel 6 for $32 a night and satellite tv.
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So what's the maximum length message that an MD5 number can hold?
When you pour gasoline into a car, that's all you're doing - just moving the fluid from one spot to another.
When you charge a battery, you are ALSO doing an energy conversion from electrical to chemical. That's much more hazardous. If something goes wrong, in the best case you kill your battery (excess heat), and in the worst case it blows up sending shrapnel everywhere
Gasoline really isn't that flammable. You could toss a match into a bucket of gasoline and nothing would happen. And diesel isn't flammable at all (no vapors).
>>>they're probably taking the conservative side of safe
They have to. As a battery approaches full you HAVE to slow down, else you will damage it. In fact I bet this fast charge is already shortening the battery's life by a significant amount
.
I don't think it's anything special.
If you want atomic clock accuracy, then you go fetch the time from an actual atomic clock. Even back in the 1980s, I had a Commodore Amiga program that would automagically dial a 1-800 number, fetch the time, and set my internal clock. Doing it today via the web should be a piece of cake.
>>>Fuel tax revenue does not come close to the funding level required to maintain roads.
False. I can't speak to the whole of the US, but in my state the fuel taxes generate *extra* revenue. The government then uses that excess to help prop-up the Maryland train transit system (which doesn't sell enough tickets to sustain itself). Put another way, in this state, the cars pay for their own unkeep. They pay-in enough gasoline/road tax to keep the highways built PLUS also keeping the rails maintained.
>>>The 40$ boxes have nothing to do with the cable conversion :P
No you misunderstood. That person was saying INSTEAD of subscribing to Comcast and paying $10/month plus $5/month to rent boxes (times the three TVs she owned), she should have bought the Antenna-based converter box instead.
As I recall me reply was something like: "It's not too late. Ebay has Insignia converter boxes for only $20-30. If I were you I would cancel comcast and hook up an antenna."
Its range is only 20-25 miles. The CM4228HD has a range of 50-60 miles which is why I would go with that.
But I and other americans have been watching free over-the-air TV for almost 70 years. I enjoy seeing shows like Stargate, Dead Like Me, Deadliest Catch, and so on. But what right does Comcast or ATT or anybody else come along and abscond the Common Property of the People, and lock it up behind cellphone subscription plans?
As far as I can see, they have no right to do that. We've already given-away channels 51 to 83 for other services (wireless net and cellphones). I say we stop here. Go take somebody else's channels for a change, like maybe part of the shortwave or AM or the Gigahertz band, and leave my free TV alone. I've already given up enough.
>>>Get displays up in the 300-400PPI region and none of this is a problem anymore.
On my 1280x1024 CRT I already can't see the shape of the pixels. As I recall it was advertised as a 150 DPI unit, so apparently that's all I need to eliminate the "jaggies"
(1) If you make the pixels sufficiently small, nobody will notice they are square or triangle or whatever because people won't be able to see anything but a bight point of light.
(2) Not all pixels are square.
Those used for TV-compatible computers like Atari 800, Commodore=64, or Amiga used rectangular pixels (more tall than wide) because of the analog NTSC standard (which doesn't use pixels at all but is approximately 704x486 analog resolution). These computers produce rectangular output to be consistent with that. DVDs also use non-square pixels for the same reason.
I'm surprised you've never seen "The Color of War" on History Channel or PBS. Anyway youtube has lots of footage. And oh yeah, they didn't use video. It was film
Yeah that whole $100 per year I spend on maintaining my car (basically, changing the oil and air filter) really busts my balls. Personally I think owning a car is *cheaper* than the rental fee you have to pay to use the subway/metro every day. Now THAT adds up to a lot of money.
Go ahead and have your public transport, but don't expect me to subsidize it. Let it pay for itself via ticket sales, the same way cars pay for themselves via gasoline/road taxes. I'll stay with my 70mpg hybrid car (or 200mpg VW car). Not only do I think a car is better, but also provides freedom of movement. If I need to make an emergency trip at 3am, I can. Good luck finding a subway or bus at that hour (in my city they stop running at midnight).
>>>preventing obesity?
Stop eating. Or limit yourself to 1 meal a day like your dog. I guarantee obesity will disappear.
Nonsense! I used to walk to McDonalds or Roy Rogers at least once a week. I figured the exercise did me good.
The main flaw I see with the moving walkways is the same flaw subways/metros have - there's never any close enough to my home to be useful.
It seems to me it would be much more practical to just give everyone one of these (gets 200mpg highway) for personal 1 or 2 human transport. It cuts emissions by ~75% as much as an EV1 or Prius. And ~82% as much as a city bus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car#2009_model
In Asimov's Science Fiction the walkways had different speeds. You could go 5 miles an hour, or you could step left and go 10 miles an hour, or step left, and go 15 miles an hour, or..... step left and go 100 miles an hour. So it's no big deal if someone just stand there. You can move to the faster track and pass them.
Heinlein has a similar concept in his "The Roads Must Roll" short story.
>>>the main MPEG2 payload
- MPEG4 is the usual choice, so cable operators can squeeze twice as many programs per channel.
>>>it doesn't sound to me like Comcast is acting in good faith
And that's why the city of Detroit is suing them in court (failure to provide free CATV to municipal buildings and schools). Comcast really, really sucks when it comes to screwing-over the customer, even if the customer is the government.
+1 Best Anonymous Coward post ever.
You said exactly what I was thinking.
>>>Over the phone I was arguing that each TV had to have a box
In other words you were wrong. Did you later apologize? ;-) And yes Dish uses one box for two sets. The first box is free while the second box (for TVs 3 and 4) costs $7/month
Anon. Coward wrote: Until they encrypt them, like they did in my area on Dec 7th 2009. I had clearQAM from Dec 4 2008 until Dec 7 2009, when they "threw the switch" and my ClearQAM tuner just said "this channel is encrypted"
Are you sure they weren't just moved? Did you try a scan?
Looking up antenna information now as I'm finally fed up with it
Here's what I recommend: Channel Master CM4228HD. It receives channels 13-to-51 as good as a full-size "arrow" antenna on the roof. It also does a decent job with channels 7-to-13 (Hi-VHF). Note I'm talking about the "true" channels not the fake, virtual names that stations now use.
That's what I used on my main set. For my bedroom TVs I used the Winegard Freevision.
>>>Unless you're really rural, "the common people" can get off-air digital TV for free.
You're the second person that didn't bother to read my whole post. What's the deal? Too lazy to read a whole three paragraphs? :-| Quote: And next Comcast (along with the FCC and other CATV companies) want to shutdown channels 25 and up to eliminate competition from Free TV. That will effectively force people to upgrade to Comcast TV or Comcast Internet" in order to get decent television.
In other words if Comcast/FCC succeeds you can say goodbye to "this" movie channel, retroTV channel, Univision, Qubo, Smile of a Child, Global, Meghaertz, Link, PBS, Ion, MyNetTV, CW and maybe even 1 or 2 of the major networks, since there will not be enough room to carry all of them.
>>>If all you had to do was buy TVs with built-in digital tuners -- you'd be fine. But because Comcast ENCRYPTS THEIR CABLE TV CHANNELS... you can't.
Comcast sucks
Comsucks.
You can subscribe to Asimov's Science Fiction for only $3 a month (approximately). Fresh sci-fi comes direct to your door and it's ACTUAL sci-fi, not wrasslin' or fantasy nonsense. Add Analog Magazine to the subscription and get a 25% discount off both.
(Why am I plugging these magazines? Because Asimov's dropped below 15,000 subscribers and is almost dead.)
I stayed in a cheap no-name hotel in Illinois one time (along I70) and they did one of those deals where they split the cable multiple times. By the time it reached my room at the end, I couldn't get any channels higher than 25. The signal had degraded that badly.
What really pissed me off is that their sign said "$29 a night" but they charged $45 instead. I asked why and they said "Oh that's our weekly rate. $203 if you stay the whole week." That's called false advertising. And I didn't even get to watch Sci-Fi Channel because it was unreceivable. Grrr. Had I known that I would have drove another 100 miles to the Motel 6 for $32 a night and satellite tv.
Steps down off soapbox again.