>Its so evident that Mexico City and LA are positively beneficial to enhance lung function.
Well, if the air is so crappy in a city, why live there?
I think those two cities combined make up (yes, this will require scientific notation) something like 10E-100% of the earth's surface. At this rate 10E-50% of the earth might be that bad by the year 2050.
The US counts as a major country and as someone who vacations there often I've never felt the compulsion to purchase an oxygen mask.
Now, if I were a heavy smoker, that might be different.
>It was probably because of them that we can breath fresh air today.
Nahhh, its because of the plankton in the sea which generates 90%+ of all the oxygen on earth. Wildlife has nothing to do whatsoever with oxygen except for the fact that it uses it up.
If anything, the WWFs race to stop extinction has harmed the amount of oxygen on earth.
>how would you feel about twice the number of people in your neighbourhood ?
I don't know about you, but like most people owning a computer and surfing slashdot I live in a first world country.
Where I live statistics suggest I can expect to see fewer next door neighbours in the future.
>We have to leave earth or start reducing the population, and we have to start NOW.
We are reducing the population. The fact that people in the third world will be forced to reduce their population by disease or economics won't make any difference.
Third world countries can either start acting on their own problems or the consequences will be epedemic in proportion (for themselves). We got here the hard way and it isn't like we refuse to give the information necessary for third world countries to help themselves up.
Unfortunately, their leaders are (usually) mentally derranged in some way and it all amounts to a sad story.
Over time, though, I think we can expect an implosion of the world population as third world countries realise the best way to increase their quality of life would be to have fewer people eating their slice of the pie.
Our way of life will continue at its current pace, and theirs will either stay the same (should they take action) or will get worse (should they choose to continue on their path). I don't see how millions and millions of Africans starving to death will affect us, other than making fodder for a heart-tearing documentary of how horrible life is in the third world.
In first world countries we (mostly) have the ability to generate a sufficient food supply for ourselves, supply ourselves with electricity, and supply ourselves with whatever knowledge we need to survive. The fact is, in many ways (aside from fossil fuels and crazed nuclear bombing madmen) what happens in third world countries has absolutely ZERO effect on us in any economic or life-changing way. Yes, I am including the WTC bombing in this, since that was done by people living in a third world country. Ask yourself: Today, not even a year later than that event, has there been any appreciable impact on your life that wasn't artifically created?
Maybe I'm just a cold hearted person, but for years whenever a "feed african children" commercial came on TV I'd just say "if you had 1/4 the population you'd have enough food to be as fat as Sally Struthers -- fix the problem yourself -- stop having babies to the point that they'll die before they even have the chance to farm your land". Its a problem that no amount of first world resources can possibly fix. In fact, the more resources we throw at them without them changing their ways the more the problem escalates due to the fact that they'll just generate (unnecessarialy) more mouths to feed with them, rather than devote them to sustaining their current population. They have to fix their social problems on their own.
>How is nuclear waste a non-issue? Politics decide our environment; at least to the people living in towns near the roads they are going to be transporting the stuff. One truck accident and their environment will be very unpleasant indeed.
Nuclear waste is a non-issue because we have built slowpoke reactors.
Complaints from crazed enviornmentalists aside, the government would be able to build more of them and would get rid of that waste in a useful manner (even if it isn't the economical choice).
Instead, we have crazy corporate environmentalists (I consider Greenpeace a corporation, you might not) who decide that all nukes are bad and we need to ban them all rather than supporting the obvious solution to the problem -- using the waste fuel safely to our advantage.
Perhaps there are problems with slowpoke power plants (some seem to think they emit radioactive particles into the air). They might be right. Why can't these people be constructive, though, fixing the problems rather than trying to drag us kicking and screaming back into the 18th century?
I'm sorry if I came off a bit forceful on that. I really have no clue where you are on the environmentalist fence. I'm just angry because a bunch of loony hippies are stopping us from having a convenient road in my hometown...
That's why I always try to have at least one or two +5 posts in my history. Do you? I'd check, but you're just an AC. You can, however, check my account.
>I chose a real life instead of a virtual one.
I spend my time working a full time network technician job and a part time sysadmin/consultant job. Not to mention I also go to college full time. Do you have two or three jobs?
I bet I have more life than you.
>Furthermore, I realize that every banal opinion I have isn't going to be interesting to the slashdot community.
You got it right there. Too bad you didn't realize it _before_ you hit submit.
> If I have an opinion that is shared with 80% of the slashdot readership, there's really no reason for me to post it.
Then why bother having all those anti-MPAA stories on the slashdot homepage? I mean, there's no reason to post it when everyone already knows they suck. Not to mention the anti-Microsoft stories, or patch OpenSSH now stories.
>I have a three-digit UID, so I've been around for a while
Heh. I posted _before_ moderation, user accounts, and all that other crap. You'll have a hard time finding my old posts because it seems slashdot didn't archive a whole lot of that old stuff, but it was there last year. I actually didn't register an account for a year as a protest against moderation. I did everything AC until then.
Don't believe me? Try and see if you can find my old email address shepd@sentex.net (doesn't work now, so feel free to spam it -- I don't care) on my old posts from 3 or so years back. I checked, but couldn't find 'em. Let me know if you do.:-)
Some of us are just better at firing off a quick quality post than others. Don't feel inferior because of it. Not everyone is excellent at everything, ya know.
>Again, its not expensive and its well worth it. Plus, once he reviews it once its not like I need to have him reveiew every rentral agreement I sign.
And now you've made the fatal mistake and I can laugh at you next time there's a clause added silently in the contract of your favourite car rental place that you don't notice.
See the problem here? Even you, the person telling everyone to fax anything they don't 100% understand to their lawyer, could have missed something.
That's why I think its about time that contracts be read verbally to all customers when the penalty amounts are over $100 (or whatever is considered to be a reasonable loss). And I think customers should have a right to demand a review and possible adjustment of any terms they don't like with the manager.
As it stands right now, if you find a rental contract totally unreasonable, you're stuck. I think that's mighty unfair (especially in the circumstances of the travellers that most rentral places meet).
>It's not unreasonable to expect people to read a 2-page contract.
Let's see...
My DVD player came with 2 pages of warranty information. So did my TV, my laptop, my stereo, my pager came with 3 pages TOS as well, my laserdisc player, my speakers, my CDRs, my remote control, my VCR, my microwave, my oven, my fridge, my motherboard, my CD-ROM, my DVD-ROM, my DVD-R, my CPU 5 pages, my hard drive (would you like more examples? I have at least another 20 lying about).
So, since I probably buy an item that has a warranty at least once a day, perhaps more often, I'm expected to read a minimum of 2-3 pages of legalese that comes with everything I buy?
I think it's totally unreasonable to force someone to read every line of every contract they agree to (and a warranty is a contract) when there's already an implied expectation of rights by the consumer. That's why, when you apply for a credit card (for example) they step through the most important sections of the contract verbally with you. To be sure you understand the more unusual details (such as the fact that a credit card is a demand account, and could screw you over financially worse than a whopping rental bill) that are difficult for the average joe-sixpack to get their heads around.
Its only a matter of time before the government sees how dissatisfied citizens are with this, then sees that these car rental places can't afford to buy them off, and there'll be a law requiring the car rental place to verbally read the agreement to you. And what a fine punishment it would be to make all rental places take an extra 10 minutes per customer.
>If you are worried about terms, I am sure they'd fax you a copy of the contract a few days ahead of time.
Just like I can open the box at Future Shop before I buy the DVD player and read the warranty details first before I buy it, right?
I doubt a car rental store could be bothered to go through that sort of crap for your average small fry customer. Not to mention they'll assume you're looking for loopholes in the contract and that that isn't the type of customer they want to attract.
BTW: I have a question for you. Did you read the entire TOS in the phonebook before you bought the line?
Wait a minute, most phone companies give the phonebook out after you've bought the line.
Did you therefore ask for a fax of the relevant pages of the phonebook before you bought the line?
Have you read them all?
[I suppose the above assumes you have a phone -- if you don't, feel free to ignore it].
>But if you return your car after 3 days and find that you have been fined for doing 70 in a 50 zone, how are you going to remember that you passed a semi?
The question is, if they sue you, can the rental company convince the majority of the jury that you didn't pass anything?
Menthinks that without video evidence the answer is no. So expect that next. Fun, fun, fun.
>It's like going to a bank and asking for $30 more for free on top of your $50 that you've withdrawn. Still illegal.
No, that's not illegal at all.
Asking for something for free without a threat is completely legal in all circumstances I know of.
For example: Asking a Police Officer to drop the charges (without saying why) isn't bribery. Asking the bank for a deep-discount (free money) without saying you'll do anything if they don't is legal.
Whether or not the bank chooses to give the money to you is their choice. It would only be illegal if you said to the teller "I want to withdraw $50 from my account, and I want $30 free with it or I'll [insert threat here]".
I suppose implied threats wouldn't require you to say anything, but you didn't mention going to the bank in a cat suit, and you already said the person was a customer (he wants to make a withdrawal), so no threat whatsoever.
Now you go buy a clue, AC. Or ask nicely for one for free at your local bank.
No thanks. $70 (insert native demonination for Nortel here) punchdown tools, $5-10 per jack BIX strips (save a buck or two if you want to go through the hell of punching down both sides), expensive BIX racks (which, when occasionally ruined you get those horrible looks from the boss for) and crazy wiring methods on the punchdown side of the strip are not for me!
I hated that stuff, but was willing to live with it because where I worked (a college) you needed hardy stuff (BIX stuff is almost indestructible), but for offices Nortel MDVO is the way to go! You can terminate fiber, UTP, F connects, BNC, and much more all in one box!
And no, at my government institution we reserved "terminating" for fiber since it was a real PITA. UTP is so easy to "terminate" its not really deserving of the word, IMHO.
Only cable testers that defeat the "savings" from crimping your own will detect that the twisted pairs are, infact, the original twisted pairs they should be.
Normally priced ones won't detect someone flipping the cable over on both ends (causing the lower twists/meter cable to be for your data) and they won't detect someone cabling your TP cable with random colours (but the same on both sides).
>Please read this [ul.com] before spewing nonsense like this.
Please quit being a dickhead next time you correct someone.
If you said that to me in person, I'd turn around and never speak to you again.
Asshole. Get some manners and you'll go far further in life. With an attitude like yours and I'm willing to bet good money you're sitting behind the 1" thick plexiglass at a downtown gas bar all night.
>The fire supply does not have to catch fire to make one, and that's the point of the submission.
UL/CSA will not put their logo on a power supply that gets hot enough to melt its own cables (unless thats intended to short out the power supply and blow the fuse), and they will not certify it to be installed in a manner that would cause it to set its surroundings on fire.
>If you create the right conditions of insulated heat generation, oxygen and combustible materials, you will have a fire every time.
Seriously, if you're going to operate a computer in an underground gas tank you'd best be checking it pretty often!
In a normal, certified installation there is no danger of a CSA/UL power supply setting anything on fire. I doubt that a dangerous installation environment would be certified by CSA/UL so easily. However, CSA/UL power supplies are certified for normal everyday office and home use.
[You'll notice someone who put their power supply through certification a couple of threads above. They packed the vents with cotton wool and even it wasn't allowed to burn!].
>and there was what seemed to be a foggy white substance which filled the air when we were done. >Any thoughts? Could it be a coating on the other side of the glass or some such?
It was phosphor. Probably P22. This is on the other side of the glass -- the electrons from the electron gun exicite this phosphor, which glows, and voila, a picture on your tube!
Very bad for you, although I did the same thing a long time ago to no ill effect.
I want a max-postings section in the slashdot hall of fame. I should suggest it to CmdrTaco; But I think the trolls would abuse it. Not to mention my sig seems to annoy a lot of A/C trolls (fun!).
For some reason your uid rung a bell... you're not from K/W, ON, are you? If so, why is it I seem to meet more people _here_ from K/W than anywhere else on the 'net? 8-)
>You may be surprised to learn that UL (Underwriters Laborities) is a for-profit, publicly traded corporation.
Not really, actually. I knew this...
>That means that they are responsible only to their shareholders, not to their customers and not to the public at large
True, but the shareholders, as with any corporation, are geared towards profit (more on how this is good later).
>"UL Listed" guarantees nothing about the safety of a product.
That's why I put guarantee in quotes. Because you receive nothing in return if the testing was defective.
Now, more on how the profit-mongering is a good thing in this case.
The profits for UL are based on the fact that companies pay to get items UL certified. They pay for it because consumers look for the logo (or they should) and because companies (especially) look for the logo before using an item or selling it (always).
They look for the logo because the logo assures them the product was tested to be 100% safe for use by people under normal operating conditions. Now, if UL were to slip and not test properly, the moment this is found out UL will never sell another license ever again. No profit = angry shareholders.
Therefore, the profit the shareholders want drives the quality of their testing, because the only thing UL has to sell is the name, and if that's tarnished, the company goes out of business.
You can repair some older power supply and CPU fans that won't turn anymore by removing the sticker on the backside of the fan (the non-moving part). Get some thin grease or silicone spray and squirt it into the hole. Clean off the area and put some tape over it. Now, turn the fan by hand for a few minutes to get it loose and you're all set.
You have nothing to worry about. They test for things like the fan stopping.
Eventually, when the heat gets too high, the power supply will either shut off or destroy itself.
The UL/CSA logo (if its genuine -- many cheap power supplies don't put on genuine labels) "guarantees" the power supply won't be dangerous to you. A flaming power supply would be, obviously.
Slashdot Mirror
>These areas which previously hosted numerous species of flora and fauna are now deserts and will remain so.
If this were true we wouldn't exist.
Deserts eventually flourish once again.
>Its so evident that Mexico City and LA are positively beneficial to enhance lung function.
Well, if the air is so crappy in a city, why live there?
I think those two cities combined make up (yes, this will require scientific notation) something like 10E-100% of the earth's surface. At this rate 10E-50% of the earth might be that bad by the year 2050.
BFD.
>Just go to Japan (or any other major country).
The US counts as a major country and as someone who vacations there often I've never felt the compulsion to purchase an oxygen mask.
Now, if I were a heavy smoker, that might be different.
>It was probably because of them that we can breath fresh air today.
Nahhh, its because of the plankton in the sea which generates 90%+ of all the oxygen on earth. Wildlife has nothing to do whatsoever with oxygen except for the fact that it uses it up.
If anything, the WWFs race to stop extinction has harmed the amount of oxygen on earth.
>how would you feel about twice the number of people in your neighbourhood ?
I don't know about you, but like most people owning a computer and surfing slashdot I live in a first world country.
Where I live statistics suggest I can expect to see fewer next door neighbours in the future.
>We have to leave earth or start reducing the population, and we have to start NOW.
We are reducing the population. The fact that people in the third world will be forced to reduce their population by disease or economics won't make any difference.
Third world countries can either start acting on their own problems or the consequences will be epedemic in proportion (for themselves). We got here the hard way and it isn't like we refuse to give the information necessary for third world countries to help themselves up.
Unfortunately, their leaders are (usually) mentally derranged in some way and it all amounts to a sad story.
Over time, though, I think we can expect an implosion of the world population as third world countries realise the best way to increase their quality of life would be to have fewer people eating their slice of the pie.
Our way of life will continue at its current pace, and theirs will either stay the same (should they take action) or will get worse (should they choose to continue on their path). I don't see how millions and millions of Africans starving to death will affect us, other than making fodder for a heart-tearing documentary of how horrible life is in the third world.
In first world countries we (mostly) have the ability to generate a sufficient food supply for ourselves, supply ourselves with electricity, and supply ourselves with whatever knowledge we need to survive. The fact is, in many ways (aside from fossil fuels and crazed nuclear bombing madmen) what happens in third world countries has absolutely ZERO effect on us in any economic or life-changing way. Yes, I am including the WTC bombing in this, since that was done by people living in a third world country. Ask yourself: Today, not even a year later than that event, has there been any appreciable impact on your life that wasn't artifically created?
Maybe I'm just a cold hearted person, but for years whenever a "feed african children" commercial came on TV I'd just say "if you had 1/4 the population you'd have enough food to be as fat as Sally Struthers -- fix the problem yourself -- stop having babies to the point that they'll die before they even have the chance to farm your land". Its a problem that no amount of first world resources can possibly fix. In fact, the more resources we throw at them without them changing their ways the more the problem escalates due to the fact that they'll just generate (unnecessarialy) more mouths to feed with them, rather than devote them to sustaining their current population. They have to fix their social problems on their own.
Their destiny, ultimately, is up to them.
Sorry for the rant.
>How is nuclear waste a non-issue? Politics decide our environment; at least to the people living in towns near the roads they are going to be transporting the stuff. One truck accident and their environment will be very unpleasant indeed.
Nuclear waste is a non-issue because we have built slowpoke reactors.
Complaints from crazed enviornmentalists aside, the government would be able to build more of them and would get rid of that waste in a useful manner (even if it isn't the economical choice).
Instead, we have crazy corporate environmentalists (I consider Greenpeace a corporation, you might not) who decide that all nukes are bad and we need to ban them all rather than supporting the obvious solution to the problem -- using the waste fuel safely to our advantage.
Perhaps there are problems with slowpoke power plants (some seem to think they emit radioactive particles into the air). They might be right. Why can't these people be constructive, though, fixing the problems rather than trying to drag us kicking and screaming back into the 18th century?
I'm sorry if I came off a bit forceful on that. I really have no clue where you are on the environmentalist fence. I'm just angry because a bunch of loony hippies are stopping us from having a convenient road in my hometown...
Wow, I just did a search for "First Amendment Zone" on Google because I couldn't believe you.
I'm flabbergasted at the truth. Wow.
I think the mail fraud laws say that you aren't allowed to open the mail of others.
I don't think they say anything about reading it, which would explain why credit statements are often sent in security envelopes.
>Remember, kid, quantity != quality.
:-)
That's why I always try to have at least one or two +5 posts in my history. Do you? I'd check, but you're just an AC. You can, however, check my account.
>I chose a real life instead of a virtual one.
I spend my time working a full time network technician job and a part time sysadmin/consultant job. Not to mention I also go to college full time. Do you have two or three jobs?
I bet I have more life than you.
>Furthermore, I realize that every banal opinion I have isn't going to be interesting to the slashdot community.
You got it right there. Too bad you didn't realize it _before_ you hit submit.
> If I have an opinion that is shared with 80% of the slashdot readership, there's really no reason for me to post it.
Then why bother having all those anti-MPAA stories on the slashdot homepage? I mean, there's no reason to post it when everyone already knows they suck. Not to mention the anti-Microsoft stories, or patch OpenSSH now stories.
>I have a three-digit UID, so I've been around for a while
Heh. I posted _before_ moderation, user accounts, and all that other crap. You'll have a hard time finding my old posts because it seems slashdot didn't archive a whole lot of that old stuff, but it was there last year. I actually didn't register an account for a year as a protest against moderation. I did everything AC until then.
Don't believe me? Try and see if you can find my old email address shepd@sentex.net (doesn't work now, so feel free to spam it -- I don't care) on my old posts from 3 or so years back. I checked, but couldn't find 'em. Let me know if you do.
Some of us are just better at firing off a quick quality post than others. Don't feel inferior because of it. Not everyone is excellent at everything, ya know.
>Again, its not expensive and its well worth it. Plus, once he reviews it once its not like I need to have him reveiew every rentral agreement I sign.
And now you've made the fatal mistake and I can laugh at you next time there's a clause added silently in the contract of your favourite car rental place that you don't notice.
See the problem here? Even you, the person telling everyone to fax anything they don't 100% understand to their lawyer, could have missed something.
That's why I think its about time that contracts be read verbally to all customers when the penalty amounts are over $100 (or whatever is considered to be a reasonable loss). And I think customers should have a right to demand a review and possible adjustment of any terms they don't like with the manager.
As it stands right now, if you find a rental contract totally unreasonable, you're stuck. I think that's mighty unfair (especially in the circumstances of the travellers that most rentral places meet).
>It's not unreasonable to expect people to read a 2-page contract.
Let's see...
My DVD player came with 2 pages of warranty information. So did my TV, my laptop, my stereo, my pager came with 3 pages TOS as well, my laserdisc player, my speakers, my CDRs, my remote control, my VCR, my microwave, my oven, my fridge, my motherboard, my CD-ROM, my DVD-ROM, my DVD-R, my CPU 5 pages, my hard drive (would you like more examples? I have at least another 20 lying about).
So, since I probably buy an item that has a warranty at least once a day, perhaps more often, I'm expected to read a minimum of 2-3 pages of legalese that comes with everything I buy?
I think it's totally unreasonable to force someone to read every line of every contract they agree to (and a warranty is a contract) when there's already an implied expectation of rights by the consumer. That's why, when you apply for a credit card (for example) they step through the most important sections of the contract verbally with you. To be sure you understand the more unusual details (such as the fact that a credit card is a demand account, and could screw you over financially worse than a whopping rental bill) that are difficult for the average joe-sixpack to get their heads around.
Its only a matter of time before the government sees how dissatisfied citizens are with this, then sees that these car rental places can't afford to buy them off, and there'll be a law requiring the car rental place to verbally read the agreement to you. And what a fine punishment it would be to make all rental places take an extra 10 minutes per customer.
>If you are worried about terms, I am sure they'd fax you a copy of the contract a few days ahead of time.
Just like I can open the box at Future Shop before I buy the DVD player and read the warranty details first before I buy it, right?
I doubt a car rental store could be bothered to go through that sort of crap for your average small fry customer. Not to mention they'll assume you're looking for loopholes in the contract and that that isn't the type of customer they want to attract.
BTW: I have a question for you. Did you read the entire TOS in the phonebook before you bought the line?
Wait a minute, most phone companies give the phonebook out after you've bought the line.
Did you therefore ask for a fax of the relevant pages of the phonebook before you bought the line?
Have you read them all?
[I suppose the above assumes you have a phone -- if you don't, feel free to ignore it].
>Of course, that would be a stupid clause for them to put in a contract, so there'd be no reason for them to take pictures of your bedroom.
And forcing you to stay within certain distance limits when you still have to return the car to the original store isn't a stupid clause?
>But if you return your car after 3 days and find that you have been fined for doing 70 in a 50 zone, how are you going to remember that you passed a semi?
The question is, if they sue you, can the rental company convince the majority of the jury that you didn't pass anything?
Menthinks that without video evidence the answer is no. So expect that next. Fun, fun, fun.
>It's like going to a bank and asking for $30 more for free on top of your $50 that you've withdrawn. Still illegal.
No, that's not illegal at all.
Asking for something for free without a threat is completely legal in all circumstances I know of.
For example: Asking a Police Officer to drop the charges (without saying why) isn't bribery. Asking the bank for a deep-discount (free money) without saying you'll do anything if they don't is legal.
Whether or not the bank chooses to give the money to you is their choice. It would only be illegal if you said to the teller "I want to withdraw $50 from my account, and I want $30 free with it or I'll [insert threat here]".
I suppose implied threats wouldn't require you to say anything, but you didn't mention going to the bank in a cat suit, and you already said the person was a customer (he wants to make a withdrawal), so no threat whatsoever.
Now you go buy a clue, AC. Or ask nicely for one for free at your local bank.
>check out the Nordx/CDT stuff
No thanks. $70 (insert native demonination for Nortel here) punchdown tools, $5-10 per jack BIX strips (save a buck or two if you want to go through the hell of punching down both sides), expensive BIX racks (which, when occasionally ruined you get those horrible looks from the boss for) and crazy wiring methods on the punchdown side of the strip are not for me!
I hated that stuff, but was willing to live with it because where I worked (a college) you needed hardy stuff (BIX stuff is almost indestructible), but for offices Nortel MDVO is the way to go! You can terminate fiber, UTP, F connects, BNC, and much more all in one box!
And no, at my government institution we reserved "terminating" for fiber since it was a real PITA. UTP is so easy to "terminate" its not really deserving of the word, IMHO.
>You use all 4 pairs with Gig so it does equal 1 Gig.
So you need to run another cable for return data?
Ugh...
>That's what cable testers are for.
Only cable testers that defeat the "savings" from crimping your own will detect that the twisted pairs are, infact, the original twisted pairs they should be.
Normally priced ones won't detect someone flipping the cable over on both ends (causing the lower twists/meter cable to be for your data) and they won't detect someone cabling your TP cable with random colours (but the same on both sides).
And not so good either. With a small brick sized battery and antenna pack, these were hardly the portable pieces they seem to be.
>Please read this [ul.com] before spewing nonsense like this.
Please quit being a dickhead next time you correct someone.
If you said that to me in person, I'd turn around and never speak to you again.
Asshole. Get some manners and you'll go far further in life. With an attitude like yours and I'm willing to bet good money you're sitting behind the 1" thick plexiglass at a downtown gas bar all night.
But at the time I'm posting this...
It's Miller Time!
[Stick to metric time if you're under 21]
>The fire supply does not have to catch fire to make one, and that's the point of the submission.
UL/CSA will not put their logo on a power supply that gets hot enough to melt its own cables (unless thats intended to short out the power supply and blow the fuse), and they will not certify it to be installed in a manner that would cause it to set its surroundings on fire.
>If you create the right conditions of insulated heat generation, oxygen and combustible materials, you will have a fire every time.
Seriously, if you're going to operate a computer in an underground gas tank you'd best be checking it pretty often!
In a normal, certified installation there is no danger of a CSA/UL power supply setting anything on fire. I doubt that a dangerous installation environment would be certified by CSA/UL so easily. However, CSA/UL power supplies are certified for normal everyday office and home use.
[You'll notice someone who put their power supply through certification a couple of threads above. They packed the vents with cotton wool and even it wasn't allowed to burn!].
>and there was what seemed to be a foggy white substance which filled the air when we were done.
>Any thoughts? Could it be a coating on the other side of the glass or some such?
It was phosphor. Probably P22. This is on the other side of the glass -- the electrons from the electron gun exicite this phosphor, which glows, and voila, a picture on your tube!
Very bad for you, although I did the same thing a long time ago to no ill effect.
>What's your point?
I want a max-postings section in the slashdot hall of fame. I should suggest it to CmdrTaco; But I think the trolls would abuse it. Not to mention my sig seems to annoy a lot of A/C trolls (fun!).
For some reason your uid rung a bell... you're not from K/W, ON, are you? If so, why is it I seem to meet more people _here_ from K/W than anywhere else on the 'net? 8-)
>You may be surprised to learn that UL (Underwriters Laborities) is a for-profit, publicly traded corporation.
:-)
Not really, actually. I knew this...
>That means that they are responsible only to their shareholders, not to their customers and not to the public at large
True, but the shareholders, as with any corporation, are geared towards profit (more on how this is good later).
>"UL Listed" guarantees nothing about the safety of a product.
That's why I put guarantee in quotes. Because you receive nothing in return if the testing was defective.
Now, more on how the profit-mongering is a good thing in this case.
The profits for UL are based on the fact that companies pay to get items UL certified. They pay for it because consumers look for the logo (or they should) and because companies (especially) look for the logo before using an item or selling it (always).
They look for the logo because the logo assures them the product was tested to be 100% safe for use by people under normal operating conditions. Now, if UL were to slip and not test properly, the moment this is found out UL will never sell another license ever again. No profit = angry shareholders.
Therefore, the profit the shareholders want drives the quality of their testing, because the only thing UL has to sell is the name, and if that's tarnished, the company goes out of business.
Catch my drift?
I should have tacked onto my other post.
You can repair some older power supply and CPU fans that won't turn anymore by removing the sticker on the backside of the fan (the non-moving part). Get some thin grease or silicone spray and squirt it into the hole. Clean off the area and put some tape over it. Now, turn the fan by hand for a few minutes to get it loose and you're all set.
You have nothing to worry about. They test for things like the fan stopping.
Eventually, when the heat gets too high, the power supply will either shut off or destroy itself.
The UL/CSA logo (if its genuine -- many cheap power supplies don't put on genuine labels) "guarantees" the power supply won't be dangerous to you. A flaming power supply would be, obviously.
Hope that allys your fears!