And you can't smoke in any of these places either.
No, they wouldn't want the familiar and relatively pleasant smell of tobacco to obscure their precious and Pavlovian this-place-smells-like-burning-hair marketing tool and trademark odor.
I'd still love to know how they make coffee beans roasting smell so incredibly bad.
hey, starbcuks expert, whats a... quad/quattro breve latte
Another Starbucks product that is about as overmarketed and annoyingly named as a 1984 Cadillac Cimarron (read: 1984 Cavalier with heated leather seats), served in an annoying sleeved paper cup in a restaurant that stinks like plastic and hair burning, and comes with a wooden stir-stick that gives you a splinter when you lick it to save the last drop of precious caffeine.
Ugh. I hate Starbucks. Not that the coffee is bad, but from ordering with their really annoying names for everything (tall, venti, grande, etc.) to the stink of beans roasting in the store (and I can't figure out what they could possibly be doing to make coffee beans smell bad) to the really stupid hippy tree-hugger cups and stir-sticks, I avoid the place like the plague that it is.
You can use this problem to "execute arbitrary code stored in the SWF file".
Uh-oh.
Watch out for new Metallica versions of the Camp Chaos cartoons!
"Hey! This is, like, you know, Lars Ulrich from Metallica, and we've got a few choice words on Napster. At this very moment, we're, like, deleting everything with an MP3 extension on, like, your computer. And, like, every filename with the word Napster in it. James learned Linux for you!"
"Linux GOOD! Fire BAD! Napster BAD!"
"Finally, like, we think you hackers and computer nerds that we used to beat up in high school are, like, pretty cool with us, 'cause, like, without you guys, we'd have had no clue, like, no fucking idea, like, how to stop all the money grubbers sharing our stuff with Napster. I mean, we put blood, sweat and motherfucking beers into our music!"
As useless as my modified snowblower...
on
Boogie Bass Hacked
·
· Score: 2
You know, I really must congratulate the guy who hacked this stupid fish. I mean, that's about the tackiest thing in the world; it might at least be fun if it reminds you that you're fat and ugly or makes some other nasty remarks.
"Hey! Buddy! You think I look stupid? Look in the mirror!"
Anyway, having said that, I completely understand the creative genius. You see, I have a snowblower.
Snowblowers seem to be a hot commodity this year, and the recent snowfall here has spurred me into motion on a recent project that I had started in the spring and then had allowed to languish.
I have a 1973 Ariens 2-stage 24" snowblower. And the engine was cooked. I needed to put on another one.
I'm cheap, though, so I didn't want to buy one. Especially not since I had one kicking around...
...one that had lots of power for the purpose...
...one that always started in the insanely cold weather in my hometown of Ottawa...
...one that was sitting around in my garage...
...and my neighbor got into a pissing contest with me because his snowblower had a bigger engine than mine (new 8hp Craftsman to my 27-year-old solid-as-a-rock 5hp Ariens)...
And so I did it. I got out the tapemeasure, and I figured out how I could make it fit. Stretch the snowblower chassis 7" between the drive section and the blower section, weld on some angle iron as motor mounts, and I was all set.
Now, my neighbor concedes defeat. Comfortably.
I have an electric start, 4-cylinder, water-cooled, overhead cam, 2-barrel carbureted, 1.6L snowblower. Coolant taken from the heater core ports on the water pump is circulated through fine copper tubing in the hand grips (no mittens required!) and the discharge chute, which keeps it clear of snow by forming a slippery coat of ice inside. Horsepower, according to 1980 Chevette sales brochures, is about 90.
Sure, it weighs over 400lbs with the battery, but that just gives it more traction on the wheels, and allows it to churn into the biggest and nastiest snowbanks, even without tire chains.
And, unlike the reliable but worn out old Tecumseh Sno-King that it replaced, with just a crack over idle, the snowblower won't bog down when I run through the crap blocking my driveway that the snowplow left behind. It throws slush and ice the same 9 feet or so that it used to throw light powder snow with the old Tecumseh.
It threw first snow on December 30th.
Talking bass, my ass. I'm taking photos of the blower tonight, I'll post them somewhere when I can.
Now, if only I could find some good Grade-8 bolts that will properly fit the shear pin holes on the auger...
My, you're a caring individual. Who said anything about punishment? Is it really punishment to help other people instead of pointlessly hoarding material goods? It sounds like you're doing well for yourself, high taxes or not.
Money is merely a tangible representation of work. That's it, that's all.
Those who have worked, have money. Those who haven't, don't.
I don't mind helping someone who tries. Charity begins at home, not through misappropriations of my work or the hijacking of my paycheck.
It's not like people CHOOSE to have a mental illness or addiction.
No, that's right, it wasn't a choice to do that first line of cocaine off the toilet tank.
Sadly, I did a stupid thing back when I was in high school, and it qualifies me to speak freely about addiction. I was working on an old car with some friends of mine, was offered a cigarette, and knowing the dangers, I took it anyway. I've regretted it ever since. And I still make weak excuses to myself as to why I haven't quit. I bear the costs of my addiction, as wasteful and stupid as it is. But, because tobacco is still legal, it's not as crippling as an addiction to an illicit drug.
However, I used to work in the professional sound, lighting and video business - "technical staging" is the inclusive term. I've worked on many big-name rock concerts, and many times been exposed to good quality cocaine and heroin and lots of peer pressure. And yet I've never done it - I always turned it down, initially because it was illegal, later because the stuff scares the hell out of me.
More recently, I've turned down opium, ecstasy and crack.
Not everyone's smart enough/has the education to have "a fair chance at success."
That's right, not everyone is smart enough to be successful. Similarily, not everyone is tall enough to be a basketball player. And those of us who *are* tall enough to basketball players but who lack the co-ordination are especially at a disadvantage.
I therefore propose that we impose a tax that will be used to pay all tall people who lack co-ordination the same amount as a professional basketball player, since it's not their fault that they're not capable of making the same amount of money as Michael Jordan.
Where do you draw the line? When are socialists gonna figure out that life is unfair and get over it?
As for education, no, I have no formal education. I'm a high school dropout who was able to eventually convince his high school to relent and give me a certificate. (I missed an important English Writing credit because I refused to write an essay on Shakespeare. At the time, I was writing a column for Popular Electronics magazine and had editorial demands on my time, but the teacher wouldn't accept that as a demonstration of my writing ability.)
And yet, despite the lack of formal education, I do okay. I design radar equipment for a division of Litton, run the LAN here in our office (including a Linux web/mail/DNS server) for 17 users, and administer an airport flight information system that Litton owns.
Education is not a demonstration of intelligence; nor does it open half the doors that proponents of higher learning feel that it does. Case in point, we've all encountered inept computer "professionals" who have every community college diploma that can be bestowed, without even being able to get Windows 95 installed on the Pentium 133 in the corner.
Further, I present as an argument those who possess such absolutely useless degrees as Bachelors of Arts in English Literature or other comparably real-world-useless basketweaving courses.
Yessir, a lack of formal education is often an asset. My boss likes my outside of the box thinking - it allows me to come up with new ways to improve systems and designs, cutting costs and increasing performance. And I like the fact that I'm not in debt for a piece of paper that I would just hang on a wall anyway.
I don't buy your claim to the perils of a lack of opportunity in education, and I've already dispatched the concept of providing for people based on the individual features which make us all different and unique as human beings.
Sounds like you'd love the U.S., so why don't you move here?
Rest assured, I *do* love the United States, and I will proudly assume the responsibilities of American citizenship.
P.S. Why is it all the assholes check back to Slashdot every five minutes so they can defend their greediness to the teeth?
Because we enjoy shooting down those who would erode the fiscal benefits which we have earned through years of toil. While you (plural) generally make it an easy task, it still has its rewards.
I post anonymously so I don't have to see their flames in my inbox. There's no harm in that.
Post intelligently with valid arguments and realistic viewpoints, and, no matter how controversial the topic, the mailbox signal to noise ratio remains high. And it always includes lots of content that can be summarized as "you know, I hadn't looked at it that way".
Almost everything you said could be attributed to the U.S. as well. I know you didn't specifically compare them, but here are a few that could be either.
I know about all these issues. Some of the freedoms in my list were pipe dreams - like the freeways free of idiots - but most of these problems are an order of magnitude greater in Canada than they are in the US. Hence, I still feel that the United States assures more civil rights than Canada.
My mom said that it frustrated her to see that her kids could not afford to wear as nice as clothes as people on welfare. Poor people should not be able to afford to put gold chains and Tommy Hillfiger on a toddler.
A high school classmate of mine - who has a brilliant mind and had a promising future - has been popping out kids like a Pez dispenser. With every kid, she gets an extra hundred or so dollars a month from welfare.
My solution to that problem is you establish a baseline welfare rate for a given number of children, with cost of living in the city factored in. From there, for every child that the mother conceives while she's on welfare, will result in a box of condoms being delivered to her and a $100/mo deduction from the welfare benefits she receives.
Further, while a civilized society really must provide a welfare safety net to those who are temporarily down-and-out, it should be very much enforced as a safety net, not a lifestyle. I propose that, rather than having social workers refer to their charges as "clients" - which implies that they're not burdens - we have social workers refer to these people as "scum", in order to reaffirm the welfare recipient's need to use the system only for as long as it takes to get their lives together.
Predictably, I've been called a heartless bastard. I call it common sense.
My mom was on welfare for a short time herself, but did not waste the money and didn't try to get more by having other kids like some welfare recipients do.
Exactly. Your mother used the system the way it was meant to be used. She probably also instilled a work ethic in her children, too. My hat is off to your mother, I'm glad she made it through a tough time without becoming addicted to sitting at home and watching soap operas all day.
The middle class are heavily taxed to pay for government waste. Basically, I give have of my paycheck so the U.S. government can use it against me.
$40,000/year, no dependents. 33% taken right off the top. 15% added on every purchase (federal sales tax at 7%, provincial sales tax at 8%). 7% taxes on raw materials, added to 7% when the factory sells its finished product, added to 7% when the wholesaler sells it to retail, then the federal sales tax is added again. This was supposedly less than the manufacturer's sales tax.
Corporate tax on profit: >50%. That gets passed down to the consumer.
Oh yeah, and fuel is taxed to the tune of about $0.40/liter, including federal GST.
From what I hear, Canada has protected more free speech than the U.S. has. I don't know Canadian laws so this may or may not be true, but the 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution is under constant attack by the religious right, politically correct leftists, and various jerks with their agendas that conflict with freedom.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a nazi; I don't think Ernst Zundel should be saying the stuff he says. But when the guy is denied a right to speak because he might offend someone (myself included), the dangers of that government regulation are far greater than the dangers of his unsavory banter.
I'd rather have the right to shake my head and curse him for being an idiot, rather than worry that someday the same mechanism which silences him may be used against me.
You have obviously never driven in the U.S. The majority of accidents in Atlanta are probably caused by jackasses on cellphones in SUV's.
Actually, I have, and this was one of my pipe dreams.
I've driven in a lot of parts of the United States, though, admittedly, not in Atlanta. And I'll say this: even Boston has better drivers than Toronto.
My girlfriend, a Mexican citizen, nearly had her hand broken by a customs agent because she was putting her bag on the machine for him to xray it, and he was in a hurry and caught her hand in the machine. Instead of offering to help, he simply tried to rush her along and get her out of the way. She had to stop and tell him she needed bandages or something because he hurt her hand. He reluctantly helped but was still not very friendly. Let's just say that if I was there at the time, I'd probably be in jail for breaking this asshole's neck. And what about the border patrol that think it's ok to play target practice with anyone that looks like they might not be a U.S. Citizen? These people are not "friendly" they are evil murderers.
To defend them, there is a problem with a mass immigration of unskilled Mexicans, so I can understand the border control target-practice. However, your girlfriend, flying in and presenting the appropriate paperwork, is not a problem and shouldn't be treated as such.
Now, upon returning to the country of my citizenship - especially after coming back from the United States, where far more opportunities abound for me than in Canada - one would expect that the Kanada Kustoms Kommies could treat me with the same dignity, respect and helpfulness as the American authorities who welcome me in as a visitor. Nope, they don't. And nope, I'm not the only one with a gripe. Note that this link also contains many remarks about Canada's limited freedom of speech as encountered by a small Vancouver gay and lesbian bookstore. More power to them!
Look at the president elect here now. This is going to be one of his main focuses. I'd rather he piss people off and do what's right than to do what makes everyone happy.
National unity in Canada is not comparable to Republicans versus Democrats. When all is said and done, the right and left come together and celebrate their country on the 4th of July.
For over thirty years now, a substantial and important part of Canada has been trying to leave the country and strike out as its own nation. Quebec's come very close. It's been a relatively peaceful process - no civil war like the US had in the 1860s - but as an attempt to appease Quebec, they've been getting special treatment on every level for thirty years. This is a drain on the rest of the country.
Even so, they're still not satisfied. Let 'em go if they want to. They'll come crawling back when they've realized that they'll have no stability.
It's called Medicaid in the U.S. Free healthcare for the poor while those of us paying for our own pay for theirs too.
Yeah. But you can at least go to a private hospital, pay money and get fast treatment. I can't; when I get sick or injured, I'm at the mercy of a government entity that depends on disenfranchised, unionized doctors. That scares me.
Moderating a post is fine; adding to the conversation is even better.
we'll see how far your bravado gets you when you flip your suv and realize how expensive private health care can be...
First off, I'm not likely to flip an SUV. I don't own one; while I like them, I also grew up in Ottawa. I'm a car nut, and like most people who learned to drive in Ottawa, I know a little about snow.
I also know that four-wheel-drive doesn't improve my ability to take an icy corner; nor does it improve my ability to stop in snow. All it means is that I'm less likely to have to shovel my driveway.
Because four-wheel-drive vehicles tend to be narrow and top heavy, they're significantly more likely to be involved in roll-over accidents. As such, on the rare occasion that I am presented with a Jeep YJ, or a Plymouth Trailduster, or a Ford Exploder, or a Subaru Outcast, I drive with the required caution and sense.
Furthermore, I carry insurance. And ya know what? I can afford to keep the premiums paid up.
<sigh> It's interesting how all these bleeding-heart socialists don't have the balls to reply with their real usernames...
yeah, screw charity! i'd rather have a flashy car than help keep people from starving to death...
Ya know, if so many professionals weren't being driven out of Canada by socialist policies, it's probable that more businesses would be started, more people would be employed, and the overall standard of living would go up as the Gross Domestic Product increased. Tax rates could go down while tax revenues would increase on volume.
And that way, you can have your flashy car, and a system that ensures everyone has a fair chance at success.
Finally, my responsibility is to take care of *myself*, my employer, and my friends and family. Homeless heroin-addicted losers that I've never met are not my responsibility; it's not my fault that they're losers, and I don't want to be punished for it.
I'd like to be free to keep more than 50% of my income, without having it all go to taxes to support dubious socialist programs that I'll never make use of, because I *work* for a living.
I'd like to be free not to have my government try to reduce my standard of living to that of the lowest common denominator.
I'd like to be free to say what I want - even though I probably wouldn't exercise that freedom - without the Canadian government telling me that what I say is obscene, unfair or unjust, and therefore proving that I have freedom of speech to a point, similar to the way that China has freedom of speech to a point.
I'd like to be free to drive on roads without jackasses talking on cellphones reversing on freeways because they've missed their exits.
I'd like to be free to know that upon returning to Canada, the Canadian Customs agents will treat me as well as the friendly, chipper, informative, helpful and welcoming American Customs staff always do.
I'd like to be free to live in a country where national unity is not a central issue to every political decision.
I'd like to be free to live in a country where I can pay for health care that doesn't leave me sitting in an emergency room for three hours waiting for a Keflex prescription for strepped throat, while homeless heroin-addicts with needles broken off in their arms come in after me, sit beside me, play show-and-tell with their pus, and then get served before I do, despite the fact that I'm a tax payer and they're not.
I'd like to be free to live in a land where what is played on TV and radio stations is based on market demands, not on CRTC 40% Canadian Content regulations, forcing broadcasters to play the same really lame Tragically Hip songs and poorly lit Canadian TV shows over and over again.
Most of all, I'd like to be free to go outside without fearing for my life for 5 months of the year. I don't define quality of living by habitating in a place where you can die simply from going outside without a jacket on.
I'd like to be free to live in a land where the politicians don't waste millions of dollars trying to figure out why all of Canada's best, brightest and most talented are moving to the United States, while the problems are so obvious and mostly rectifiable.
And finally, I'd like to be free to post this comment without being moderated down by someone who simply disagrees with me; rather, I'd like to be moderated down if I've said anything untrue about Canada.
I could throw in a 19" SVGA monitor, or I could try to get an arcade monitor and figure out a way to make it run nicely under X. I'm leaning towards the SVGA monitor simply so that I have more resolution options, but there's a part of me that would love to use either the existing arcade screen (despite the burn in) or replace it with a different one. Does anyone have advice for making such a monitor work under XFree?
More generically, you need to find out what scanning rates the old arcade monitor will support. And, you need to figure out what scanning rates your games will try to push it to. If your emulators - in certain games - push the scanning rate beyond the capability of the monitor, at best the display won't be visible. At worst, the smoke will be.
When I run MAME on my Winbloze machine, my Viewsonic monitor changes resolutions with a click and a flash. If I hit the little Viewmeter from the on-screen menu, it will tell me what the scanning rate that a particular game is emulated at. This will give you a ballpark idea.
Here's another ballpark number: 15,750Hz horizontal, 60Hz vertical, video bandwidth of about 5MHz. This is basically part of the NTSC North American (and Japanese) TV standard. Many early video games seem to have simple RGB monitors based on flybacks, deflection circuits and CRTs that were optimized for NTSC frequencies. At the time, VGA standards were overkill - I mean, video RAM was measured in bytes...:)
So, having said all this, what does it boil down to? As newer games that go beyond primitive arcade game displays - and with unpredictable factors based on being in an emulated environment (like, for example, how is vertical and horizontal timing information conveyed to the running game's virtual exists-only-in-my-RAM "hardware"?), I think you'll find that crafting a good quality SVGA monitor into your cabinet will provide you with a more satisfactory experience.
I have to figure out if I should solder them or come up with some sort of clips. I'm more of a software guy then a hardware guy so I'm kinda stumped.
Solder, for sure. Make sure you remember to heat the connection with the iron, then use the heated connection to melt the solder! Alternative techniques could result in loose connections under the heavy vibrations of good, frantic play. It's really bothersome when your fire button lets you down when you've timed the shot to the UFO in Space Invaders perfectly.
Remember to mount your monitor and your computer in rubber mounts to ensure that the vibration isn't transmitted to them. Electron guns and hard disk drives don't like vibration.
Soon we will be buried in "free" hardware and AOL CDs.
At least you can use free hardware for door stoppers, expensive-looking paperweights, and - if you can throw together a Van Der Graff generator with a couple of stainless steel bowls and a very big rubber band - graphic demonstrations to your boss of why he shouldn't carry unbagged DIMMs across the office carpets on dry winter days.
After you've done your static demonstration, perhaps all the little status LEDs on the unit will blink even without cable or UTP connections. Then, your little expensive-looking paperweight has been bestowed with LBL-factor.
("LBL" = "Little Blinking Light", (c)1993 Lawrence Wade.)
LBL-Factor is, of course, incredibly useful; it keeps people from playing with all the techical-looking stuff on your desk, and it makes one appear smarter than the combined calculating ability of the collection of neurons in one's cranium. This increases your worth to your employer because your projects are no longer interrupted by upstart 23-year-old mechanical engineers who think that they're computer literate and therefore touch the pile of hardware scattered all over your desk, as well as making your boss feel that he's getting a better deal for your services than he actually is. (This, of course, means that he's basically resigned to the fact that he's gonna have to give you a big fat raise soon.)
Thus far, these potential benefits have been tested and demonstrated with an old Anderson-Jacobsen 2400 baud leased-line modem; all this is undoubtedly possible from a little cable modem, especially if it has a cryptic brand name prominently displayed on the front of the case (as cable modems around here tend to have).
Is there any use more clever than signing up for cable Internet service?
See above.
If you can get a couple of these, with a little creative hacking (and a good reflow soldering system) you might be able to make a long-distance coax network bridge.
Then, you could hit the ARRL's website, grab the schematics for a good 2kW RF linear amplifer and plans for a nice efficient antenna, and give yourself wireless networkability... and big FCC fines.:)
(And can you examine data which passes through it without violating an implied agreement?;) )
Sure! Plug it into your computer, toss it at a cable connection, install the drivers and a packet sniffer, and watch the entire contents of your hard disk being updated to the cable company for "market research" purposes.
<sigh>
It's probably unhealthy that I become more paranoid when I'm tired.
but my rant is moreso tied to the media and those who are way out there who think the world would be a kinder, gentler place if no one could display trees for Christmas.
I agree that those who feel that way are idiots.
Absolutely. I want to see Christmas trees everywhere that people want to put them. Just as I want to see Menorahs everywhere that Jews want to put them, and whatever symbols the Muslims and the Hindus and Wiccan have around this time of the year.
However, all three countries of North America are primarily populated by people who would define themselves as having a background in some sect of Christianity or another, so Christmas trees will continue to prevail for the forseeable future.
Now, I'm treading a fine line here in my comments and opinions. I grew up - and live - in Canada, a country that officially embraces multiculturalism. It's divisive: you'll note that Canadians don't display the flag everywhere, as is de rigeur in the United States. The patriotism of Americans is one of the things that makes the United States such a strong country in every respect, even as divided as it was in the recent election.
Having said that, the United States officially grants the right of freedom of religion, which, it would seem, is contradictory to the fact that major political candidates base their stances solely on the lobbying of religious figures. Therein lies my problem.
My concern is not with the resultant risks of a country divided by official multiculturalism the way Canada is, versus the great American melting pot, where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans and everyone else come together for a big party on the Fourth of July.
My concern is that the strong religious influence in the Republican party - highly organized and well established - frequently undermines the will of the people, who may be mostly Christian, but are also a lot more moderate than many of the Republican-leaning lobby groups out there. (Proof of that? The Democrats keep on getting elected; they even did it this time in the popular vote (let alone the real Florida results).)
How bad could it get?
Think of Iran. It's a nation governed only on religious principles.
It's also one of the worst, most oppressive places in the world that you can live, even if you are a devout Muslim. Religion prevails over common sense: for example, women have to cover their entire bodies - by Islamic tradition, which is the law of the land. Imagine how hot that must be in the desert sun. If she takes it off because she's getting heat stroke in the market, she can be imprisoned. Or worse.
And therein lies my concern and my worry. Once you start down that slope, it gets pretty slippery long before you hit that stone wall at the bottom.
So name him Jeremiah. Why bastardize it into "Jeremy"?
Because people are stupid.
My name is "Lawrence". It's not especially difficult.
So, besides the British spelling, "Laurence", there are several variations that the inept routinely manage to throw at me:
Lawerence (which was once engraved on an Employee of the Month plaque)
Lawrance
Lawren / Lauren
Florence (which came on an emergency replacement Mastercard and rendered it totally useless)
Even my last name, which, as an Anglo-Saxon four-letter combination, still manages to confound.
So, what would happen to Jeremiah?
Even more so, I pity all the Mikes of the world. "Micheal" is the common mis-step. And, despite the fact that it's a very common name, my roommate and best friend often sees his name as "Mikeal", "Mikel" and "Michel" (Mike isn't French).
I assume, from this, that you have either a very simple moniker, or you simply don't care when someone butchers it.
King Jeremy, The Wicked?
Did you speak in class today?
Hey! Don't make fun. If I had a son, I'd name him Jeremy. It's a cool name. It's from the Hebrew name "Jeremiah", and it means "exalted". It's a good subliminal ego-builder.
Right wing doesn't necessarily mean wrong, just as left wing doesn't necessarily mean right.
If the Republican Party didn't base all their social policy on the rants of bible belt preachers - and if they didn't provide a goofball like George Double-Ya as their presidential nominee - I'd be a lot more inclined to support them because their fiscal plans often make better sense than those of the Democrats.
Similarily, the Democrats had a great presidential candidate who just happened to be mostly boring and behaved in a juvenile fashion during the debates, though he supported responsible and realistic social policy. Unfortunately, he just happened to be from the big-labor-unions tax-and-spend party.
If the separation of church and state has really occurred, why is it that the Republicans are still allowed to bring religion into every election?
So that's my car. It's messy right now, need to clean it and would if it weren't raining here. It's not flashy, but the tape deck works and I have a nubby cover on the steering wheel
Listen, I'm not a Saab fan, and I'm not an Escort fan. Neither is a car that I like.
But to compare the reliability of a 14 year old turbocharged luxury car against a 5 year old econobox is patently unfair.
Because of its age, it's probable that the Saab had more miles on it. It's also probable that the Saab, being a turbocharged alleged sports car was also driven harder. It's a luxury car, too - more complicated, with more things to break or wear out.
And, it's definite that because the car was nine years older than the Escort, there was a lot of decay to little things that nickel-and-dime you to death unless you know how to fix them yourself. Insulation on wire decays. Rubber breaks down. Gaskets dry up. Contacts get corroded. Keep your Escort around another 9 years and you'll learn all about that.
I drive a 24-year-old Dodge Ram pickup truck. The other day, the connector to my voltage regulator failed. It was corroded. The regulator didn't have a reference for the voltage on the battery, so it assumed the battery voltage was zero, and therefore pegged the charging current. +50A charge on my gauge - I pulled over as soon as I could, because my battery was boiling and my electrical system was running at 22 volts. (Only blew a headlight, though.) I pulled out my multimeter, checked a few connections against the service manual (kept stashed under the seat), found the bad connection, cleaned it with a pencil eraser, and the problem was fixed.
This is the sort of thing that will happen with *any* older vehicle. Period. There's no escaping it. If you like older vehicles and choose to drive them, you have to know what to do and be prepared to do it.
It's nice, though. Driving older vehicles has taught me to be resourceful, a skill useful everywhere. And I can diagnose a problem quickly, and have a lot of practice in assessing the severity of a situation.
The truck is insured for liability only, and pickup trucks are cheap to insure. $34/mo gets me $1,000,000 coverage in a city almost as big as Chicago. Besides that, I'm not paying out monthly car payments, so that money can instead go to fund other things - like a 401(k).
And besides, I just like the thing.
With a good tune-up, my truck is also the only vehicle I know that doesn't need to be plugged in to a block heater on a cold winter's night - it'll still start, first shot, on the coldest morning of the year. I frequently have to jump-start my boss's 2-year-old Integra. Why? Because, while my truck may be crude, it was built to last, and I take good care of it. The Acura was built to perform flawlessly for the first 100,000 miles and then be scrapped.
My truck gets an oil change - cheapest 10W30 oil and filter I can find - every month (3,000 miles). Every month, I also pop off all the wheels, check the brake linings, lubricate the parking brake cable with silicone grease, check the wheel bearings and balljoints looking especially for looseness or torn dust boots, and grease all the suspension. Takes about 2 hours every month. New air filter if it's visibly dirty or every three months, whichever comes first. I clean and regap the spark plugs every three months, checking the compression, timing and vacuum advance at the same time. (I'm impressed with the Bosch Platinum plugs I put in early this summer!) And while I've got the motor warmed up and I'm in my coveralls, I pop a vacuum gauge on the old Carter BBD carburetor and balance the metering rods, and re-set the idle.
Every fall, I spray another coat of paint on the underside of the body to prevent the floor and frame from rusting in the salty wet snow. Every week when there's snow on the ground, the whole underside gets washed off with hot water at a car wash. And every summer, I set aside at least one project that I'd like to do, usually because I enjoy them. Last year, I gave my truck the gift of air conditioning. This year, I'm going to repair some old rust damage on the truck, replace the windshield (there's a small chip in it), tap a couple of small dents out of the body and then treat Methusulah to another coat of Chrysler Forest Green Metallic paint.
If you think about the success of the MAG light, you will realize that low-cost knockoffs probably wouldn't even be attractive to most people.
Thank you.
Just when I was starting to despair over the fact that some people think Wal-Mart is a perfectly reasonable place to buy a VCR and flimsy disposeable cars like Hondas and Toyotas choke the roads around me, it's nice to see someone else who still respects that "100% plastic-free" school of product design.
I keep a MAG light in my glove box. It comes in handy when I need to use my 24-year-old pickup truck to jump-start my boss's Integra, which won't start when it gets below 10F outside.
I go out of my way to buy the real thing, not the crappy made-in-Taiwan knockoffs.
you'd need to convert to DC with a rectifier circuit
What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?
Actually, you do want to be careful that your diode string has a peak reverse voltage rating greater than the AC to which you're going to connect it.
For this reason, it's prudent to include a 1N4004 or better in series with your string. As with any diodes, when LEDs are reverse-biased and you exceed their breakdown voltage, the current quickly runs away and the diode fries. The maximum allowable reverse current of LEDs is generally much lower than most other kinds of diodes.
Do this all on one chip (a few dozen LEDs on one chip, like millions of transistors in a CPU). Now you have a direct light bulb replacement. No fancy power supplies, extra electronics, or extra cost.
Nope.
While you're right about the LEDs in series - especially since the diodes would then protect themselves from being reverse-biased beyond their PIV ratings, this isn't practical.
The problem is that LEDs are still less efficient than a comparable semiconductor junction. While it's easy to build a rectifier diode or other power semiconductor that will stay cool in a small package, an LED is a special case because it has such a high voltage drop. Most of that energy does leave as light, but some as heat.
Getting heat away from a power semiconductor's silicon die can be tough enough, without the added problem of diffusing light away from the junction in such a way as to be practical as well. It's just not going to happen.
Actually LED screens would be pretty sweet, if they could build them pixel-sized. They're bright, don't require crazy voltage like back-lights do, refresh super fast, black blacks and white whites....
White LEDs are already being adopted as replacements for the fluorescent tubes or electroluminescent sheets being used as notebook backlights. You can now get large (notebook display sized) sheets of frosted white plastic with white LED junctions embedded for use as backlighting in new notebooks. It will basically work like an electroluminescent backlight but without the inefficient and failure-prone inverter. I saw them advertised in an electronics engineering trade magazine that I get.
Slashdot Mirror
But at least you can get your email...
I can just see this...
Attempt to log into a POP server from Starbucks access:
"We're sorry, you can only access POP mail from the MSN.COM and HOTMAIL.COM domains. Have a nice day."
And you can't smoke in any of these places either.
No, they wouldn't want the familiar and relatively pleasant smell of tobacco to obscure their precious and Pavlovian this-place-smells-like-burning-hair marketing tool and trademark odor.
I'd still love to know how they make coffee beans roasting smell so incredibly bad.
hey, starbcuks expert, whats a...
quad/quattro breve latte
Another Starbucks product that is about as overmarketed and annoyingly named as a 1984 Cadillac Cimarron (read: 1984 Cavalier with heated leather seats), served in an annoying sleeved paper cup in a restaurant that stinks like plastic and hair burning, and comes with a wooden stir-stick that gives you a splinter when you lick it to save the last drop of precious caffeine.
Ugh. I hate Starbucks. Not that the coffee is bad, but from ordering with their really annoying names for everything (tall, venti, grande, etc.) to the stink of beans roasting in the store (and I can't figure out what they could possibly be doing to make coffee beans smell bad) to the really stupid hippy tree-hugger cups and stir-sticks, I avoid the place like the plague that it is.
You can use this problem to "execute arbitrary code stored in the SWF file".
Uh-oh.
Watch out for new Metallica versions of the Camp Chaos cartoons!
"Hey! This is, like, you know, Lars Ulrich from Metallica, and we've got a few choice words on Napster. At this very moment, we're, like, deleting everything with an MP3 extension on, like, your computer. And, like, every filename with the word Napster in it. James learned Linux for you!"
"Linux GOOD! Fire BAD! Napster BAD!"
"Finally, like, we think you hackers and computer nerds that we used to beat up in high school are, like, pretty cool with us, 'cause, like, without you guys, we'd have had no clue, like, no fucking idea, like, how to stop all the money grubbers sharing our stuff with Napster. I mean, we put blood, sweat and motherfucking beers into our music!"
You know, I really must congratulate the guy who hacked this stupid fish. I mean, that's about the tackiest thing in the world; it might at least be fun if it reminds you that you're fat and ugly or makes some other nasty remarks.
"Hey! Buddy! You think I look stupid? Look in the mirror!"
Anyway, having said that, I completely understand the creative genius. You see, I have a snowblower.
Snowblowers seem to be a hot commodity this year, and the recent snowfall here has spurred me into motion on a recent project that I had started in the spring and then had allowed to languish.
I have a 1973 Ariens 2-stage 24" snowblower. And the engine was cooked. I needed to put on another one.
I'm cheap, though, so I didn't want to buy one. Especially not since I had one kicking around...
...one that had lots of power for the purpose...
...one that always started in the insanely cold weather in my hometown of Ottawa...
...one that was sitting around in my garage...
...and my neighbor got into a pissing contest with me because his snowblower had a bigger engine than mine (new 8hp Craftsman to my 27-year-old solid-as-a-rock 5hp Ariens)...
And so I did it. I got out the tapemeasure, and I figured out how I could make it fit. Stretch the snowblower chassis 7" between the drive section and the blower section, weld on some angle iron as motor mounts, and I was all set.
Now, my neighbor concedes defeat. Comfortably.
I have an electric start, 4-cylinder, water-cooled, overhead cam, 2-barrel carbureted, 1.6L snowblower. Coolant taken from the heater core ports on the water pump is circulated through fine copper tubing in the hand grips (no mittens required!) and the discharge chute, which keeps it clear of snow by forming a slippery coat of ice inside. Horsepower, according to 1980 Chevette sales brochures, is about 90.
Sure, it weighs over 400lbs with the battery, but that just gives it more traction on the wheels, and allows it to churn into the biggest and nastiest snowbanks, even without tire chains.
And, unlike the reliable but worn out old Tecumseh Sno-King that it replaced, with just a crack over idle, the snowblower won't bog down when I run through the crap blocking my driveway that the snowplow left behind. It throws slush and ice the same 9 feet or so that it used to throw light powder snow with the old Tecumseh.
It threw first snow on December 30th.
Talking bass, my ass. I'm taking photos of the blower tonight, I'll post them somewhere when I can.
Now, if only I could find some good Grade-8 bolts that will properly fit the shear pin holes on the auger...
My, you're a caring individual. Who said anything about punishment? Is it really punishment to help other people instead of pointlessly hoarding material goods? It sounds like you're doing well for yourself, high taxes or not.
Money is merely a tangible representation of work. That's it, that's all.
Those who have worked, have money. Those who haven't, don't.
I don't mind helping someone who tries. Charity begins at home, not through misappropriations of my work or the hijacking of my paycheck.
It's not like people CHOOSE to have a mental illness or addiction.No, that's right, it wasn't a choice to do that first line of cocaine off the toilet tank.
Sadly, I did a stupid thing back when I was in high school, and it qualifies me to speak freely about addiction. I was working on an old car with some friends of mine, was offered a cigarette, and knowing the dangers, I took it anyway. I've regretted it ever since. And I still make weak excuses to myself as to why I haven't quit. I bear the costs of my addiction, as wasteful and stupid as it is. But, because tobacco is still legal, it's not as crippling as an addiction to an illicit drug.
However, I used to work in the professional sound, lighting and video business - "technical staging" is the inclusive term. I've worked on many big-name rock concerts, and many times been exposed to good quality cocaine and heroin and lots of peer pressure. And yet I've never done it - I always turned it down, initially because it was illegal, later because the stuff scares the hell out of me.
More recently, I've turned down opium, ecstasy and crack.
Not everyone's smart enough/has the education to have "a fair chance at success."That's right, not everyone is smart enough to be successful. Similarily, not everyone is tall enough to be a basketball player. And those of us who *are* tall enough to basketball players but who lack the co-ordination are especially at a disadvantage.
I therefore propose that we impose a tax that will be used to pay all tall people who lack co-ordination the same amount as a professional basketball player, since it's not their fault that they're not capable of making the same amount of money as Michael Jordan.
Where do you draw the line? When are socialists gonna figure out that life is unfair and get over it?
As for education, no, I have no formal education. I'm a high school dropout who was able to eventually convince his high school to relent and give me a certificate. (I missed an important English Writing credit because I refused to write an essay on Shakespeare. At the time, I was writing a column for Popular Electronics magazine and had editorial demands on my time, but the teacher wouldn't accept that as a demonstration of my writing ability.)
And yet, despite the lack of formal education, I do okay. I design radar equipment for a division of Litton, run the LAN here in our office (including a Linux web/mail/DNS server) for 17 users, and administer an airport flight information system that Litton owns.
Education is not a demonstration of intelligence; nor does it open half the doors that proponents of higher learning feel that it does. Case in point, we've all encountered inept computer "professionals" who have every community college diploma that can be bestowed, without even being able to get Windows 95 installed on the Pentium 133 in the corner.
Further, I present as an argument those who possess such absolutely useless degrees as Bachelors of Arts in English Literature or other comparably real-world-useless basketweaving courses.
Yessir, a lack of formal education is often an asset. My boss likes my outside of the box thinking - it allows me to come up with new ways to improve systems and designs, cutting costs and increasing performance. And I like the fact that I'm not in debt for a piece of paper that I would just hang on a wall anyway.
I don't buy your claim to the perils of a lack of opportunity in education, and I've already dispatched the concept of providing for people based on the individual features which make us all different and unique as human beings.
Sounds like you'd love the U.S., so why don't you move here?Rest assured, I *do* love the United States, and I will proudly assume the responsibilities of American citizenship.
P.S. Why is it all the assholes check back to Slashdot every five minutes so they can defend their greediness to the teeth?Because we enjoy shooting down those who would erode the fiscal benefits which we have earned through years of toil. While you (plural) generally make it an easy task, it still has its rewards.
I post anonymously so I don't have to see their flames in my inbox. There's no harm in that.Post intelligently with valid arguments and realistic viewpoints, and, no matter how controversial the topic, the mailbox signal to noise ratio remains high. And it always includes lots of content that can be summarized as "you know, I hadn't looked at it that way".
Almost everything you said could be attributed to the U.S. as well. I know you didn't specifically compare them, but here are a few that could be either.
I know about all these issues. Some of the freedoms in my list were pipe dreams - like the freeways free of idiots - but most of these problems are an order of magnitude greater in Canada than they are in the US. Hence, I still feel that the United States assures more civil rights than Canada.
My mom said that it frustrated her to see that her kids could not afford to wear as nice as clothes as people on welfare. Poor people should not be able to afford to put gold chains and Tommy Hillfiger on a toddler.A high school classmate of mine - who has a brilliant mind and had a promising future - has been popping out kids like a Pez dispenser. With every kid, she gets an extra hundred or so dollars a month from welfare.
My solution to that problem is you establish a baseline welfare rate for a given number of children, with cost of living in the city factored in. From there, for every child that the mother conceives while she's on welfare, will result in a box of condoms being delivered to her and a $100/mo deduction from the welfare benefits she receives.
Further, while a civilized society really must provide a welfare safety net to those who are temporarily down-and-out, it should be very much enforced as a safety net, not a lifestyle. I propose that, rather than having social workers refer to their charges as "clients" - which implies that they're not burdens - we have social workers refer to these people as "scum", in order to reaffirm the welfare recipient's need to use the system only for as long as it takes to get their lives together.
Predictably, I've been called a heartless bastard. I call it common sense.
My mom was on welfare for a short time herself, but did not waste the money and didn't try to get more by having other kids like some welfare recipients do.Exactly. Your mother used the system the way it was meant to be used. She probably also instilled a work ethic in her children, too. My hat is off to your mother, I'm glad she made it through a tough time without becoming addicted to sitting at home and watching soap operas all day.
The middle class are heavily taxed to pay for government waste. Basically, I give have of my paycheck so the U.S. government can use it against me.$40,000/year, no dependents. 33% taken right off the top. 15% added on every purchase (federal sales tax at 7%, provincial sales tax at 8%). 7% taxes on raw materials, added to 7% when the factory sells its finished product, added to 7% when the wholesaler sells it to retail, then the federal sales tax is added again. This was supposedly less than the manufacturer's sales tax.
Corporate tax on profit: >50%. That gets passed down to the consumer.
Oh yeah, and fuel is taxed to the tune of about $0.40/liter, including federal GST.
The high taxes are a recurring theme in a survey done by the University of British Columbia to figure out why so many of their graduates took their degrees and ran south.
And, at least you get something for your taxes. From the best defence in the world to the prestige of a space program. As the saga between the Canadian Department of Defence and the Katie will prove, in any sense of the word, the Canadian military is a joke.
From what I hear, Canada has protected more free speech than the U.S. has. I don't know Canadian laws so this may or may not be true, but the 1st amendment of the U.S. constitution is under constant attack by the religious right, politically correct leftists, and various jerks with their agendas that conflict with freedom.Politically-correct leftists have already destroyed freedom of speech here.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a nazi; I don't think Ernst Zundel should be saying the stuff he says. But when the guy is denied a right to speak because he might offend someone (myself included), the dangers of that government regulation are far greater than the dangers of his unsavory banter.
I'd rather have the right to shake my head and curse him for being an idiot, rather than worry that someday the same mechanism which silences him may be used against me.
You have obviously never driven in the U.S. The majority of accidents in Atlanta are probably caused by jackasses on cellphones in SUV's.Actually, I have, and this was one of my pipe dreams.
I've driven in a lot of parts of the United States, though, admittedly, not in Atlanta. And I'll say this: even Boston has better drivers than Toronto.
My girlfriend, a Mexican citizen, nearly had her hand broken by a customs agent because she was putting her bag on the machine for him to xray it, and he was in a hurry and caught her hand in the machine. Instead of offering to help, he simply tried to rush her along and get her out of the way. She had to stop and tell him she needed bandages or something because he hurt her hand. He reluctantly helped but was still not very friendly. Let's just say that if I was there at the time, I'd probably be in jail for breaking this asshole's neck. And what about the border patrol that think it's ok to play target practice with anyone that looks like they might not be a U.S. Citizen? These people are not "friendly" they are evil murderers.To defend them, there is a problem with a mass immigration of unskilled Mexicans, so I can understand the border control target-practice. However, your girlfriend, flying in and presenting the appropriate paperwork, is not a problem and shouldn't be treated as such.
Now, upon returning to the country of my citizenship - especially after coming back from the United States, where far more opportunities abound for me than in Canada - one would expect that the Kanada Kustoms Kommies could treat me with the same dignity, respect and helpfulness as the American authorities who welcome me in as a visitor. Nope, they don't. And nope, I'm not the only one with a gripe. Note that this link also contains many remarks about Canada's limited freedom of speech as encountered by a small Vancouver gay and lesbian bookstore. More power to them!
Look at the president elect here now. This is going to be one of his main focuses. I'd rather he piss people off and do what's right than to do what makes everyone happy.National unity in Canada is not comparable to Republicans versus Democrats. When all is said and done, the right and left come together and celebrate their country on the 4th of July.
For over thirty years now, a substantial and important part of Canada has been trying to leave the country and strike out as its own nation. Quebec's come very close. It's been a relatively peaceful process - no civil war like the US had in the 1860s - but as an attempt to appease Quebec, they've been getting special treatment on every level for thirty years. This is a drain on the rest of the country.
Even so, they're still not satisfied. Let 'em go if they want to. They'll come crawling back when they've realized that they'll have no stability.
It's called Medicaid in the U.S. Free healthcare for the poor while those of us paying for our own pay for theirs too.Yeah. But you can at least go to a private hospital, pay money and get fast treatment. I can't; when I get sick or injured, I'm at the mercy of a government entity that depends on disenfranchised, unionized doctors. That scares me.
Moderating a post is fine; adding to the conversation is even better.Amen to that, my friend!
we'll see how far your bravado gets you when you flip your suv and realize how expensive private health care can be...
First off, I'm not likely to flip an SUV. I don't own one; while I like them, I also grew up in Ottawa. I'm a car nut, and like most people who learned to drive in Ottawa, I know a little about snow.
I also know that four-wheel-drive doesn't improve my ability to take an icy corner; nor does it improve my ability to stop in snow. All it means is that I'm less likely to have to shovel my driveway.
Because four-wheel-drive vehicles tend to be narrow and top heavy, they're significantly more likely to be involved in roll-over accidents. As such, on the rare occasion that I am presented with a Jeep YJ, or a Plymouth Trailduster, or a Ford Exploder, or a Subaru Outcast, I drive with the required caution and sense.
Furthermore, I carry insurance. And ya know what? I can afford to keep the premiums paid up.
<sigh> It's interesting how all these bleeding-heart socialists don't have the balls to reply with their real usernames...
yeah, screw charity! i'd rather have a flashy car than help keep people from starving to death...
Ya know, if so many professionals weren't being driven out of Canada by socialist policies, it's probable that more businesses would be started, more people would be employed, and the overall standard of living would go up as the Gross Domestic Product increased. Tax rates could go down while tax revenues would increase on volume.
And that way, you can have your flashy car, and a system that ensures everyone has a fair chance at success.
Finally, my responsibility is to take care of *myself*, my employer, and my friends and family. Homeless heroin-addicted losers that I've never met are not my responsibility; it's not my fault that they're losers, and I don't want to be punished for it.
Too chicken to post with your real username?
I'd like to be free to keep more than 50% of my income, without having it all go to taxes to support dubious socialist programs that I'll never make use of, because I *work* for a living.
I'd like to be free not to have my government try to reduce my standard of living to that of the lowest common denominator.
I'd like to be free to say what I want - even though I probably wouldn't exercise that freedom - without the Canadian government telling me that what I say is obscene, unfair or unjust, and therefore proving that I have freedom of speech to a point, similar to the way that China has freedom of speech to a point.
I'd like to be free to drive on roads without jackasses talking on cellphones reversing on freeways because they've missed their exits.
I'd like to be free to know that upon returning to Canada, the Canadian Customs agents will treat me as well as the friendly, chipper, informative, helpful and welcoming American Customs staff always do.
I'd like to be free to live in a country where national unity is not a central issue to every political decision.
I'd like to be free to live in a country where I can pay for health care that doesn't leave me sitting in an emergency room for three hours waiting for a Keflex prescription for strepped throat, while homeless heroin-addicts with needles broken off in their arms come in after me, sit beside me, play show-and-tell with their pus, and then get served before I do, despite the fact that I'm a tax payer and they're not.
I'd like to be free to live in a land where what is played on TV and radio stations is based on market demands, not on CRTC 40% Canadian Content regulations, forcing broadcasters to play the same really lame Tragically Hip songs and poorly lit Canadian TV shows over and over again.
Most of all, I'd like to be free to go outside without fearing for my life for 5 months of the year. I don't define quality of living by habitating in a place where you can die simply from going outside without a jacket on.
I'd like to be free to live in a land where the politicians don't waste millions of dollars trying to figure out why all of Canada's best, brightest and most talented are moving to the United States, while the problems are so obvious and mostly rectifiable.
And finally, I'd like to be free to post this comment without being moderated down by someone who simply disagrees with me; rather, I'd like to be moderated down if I've said anything untrue about Canada.
isupportthemonolith.org seems to be registered in Seattle... :)
I could throw in a 19" SVGA monitor, or I could try to get an arcade monitor and figure out a way to make it run nicely under X. I'm leaning towards the SVGA monitor simply so that I have more resolution options, but there's a part of me that would love to use either the existing arcade screen (despite the burn in) or replace it with a different one. Does anyone have advice for making such a monitor work under XFree?
More generically, you need to find out what scanning rates the old arcade monitor will support. And, you need to figure out what scanning rates your games will try to push it to. If your emulators - in certain games - push the scanning rate beyond the capability of the monitor, at best the display won't be visible. At worst, the smoke will be.
When I run MAME on my Winbloze machine, my Viewsonic monitor changes resolutions with a click and a flash. If I hit the little Viewmeter from the on-screen menu, it will tell me what the scanning rate that a particular game is emulated at. This will give you a ballpark idea.
Here's another ballpark number: 15,750Hz horizontal, 60Hz vertical, video bandwidth of about 5MHz. This is basically part of the NTSC North American (and Japanese) TV standard. Many early video games seem to have simple RGB monitors based on flybacks, deflection circuits and CRTs that were optimized for NTSC frequencies. At the time, VGA standards were overkill - I mean, video RAM was measured in bytes... :)
So, having said all this, what does it boil down to? As newer games that go beyond primitive arcade game displays - and with unpredictable factors based on being in an emulated environment (like, for example, how is vertical and horizontal timing information conveyed to the running game's virtual exists-only-in-my-RAM "hardware"?), I think you'll find that crafting a good quality SVGA monitor into your cabinet will provide you with a more satisfactory experience.
I have to figure out if I should solder them or come up with some sort of clips. I'm more of a software guy then a hardware guy so I'm kinda stumped.Solder, for sure. Make sure you remember to heat the connection with the iron, then use the heated connection to melt the solder! Alternative techniques could result in loose connections under the heavy vibrations of good, frantic play. It's really bothersome when your fire button lets you down when you've timed the shot to the UFO in Space Invaders perfectly.
Remember to mount your monitor and your computer in rubber mounts to ensure that the vibration isn't transmitted to them. Electron guns and hard disk drives don't like vibration.
It's also the first server running FullPliant to be Slashdotted.
Politically Incorrect just started on ABC. There are 100+ responses. God knows how long this article has been up, but it's still the top of the page.
I'm impressed. No one has crashed it yet, and it doesn't seem to have melted down yet.
Soon we will be buried in "free" hardware and AOL CDs.
At least you can use free hardware for door stoppers, expensive-looking paperweights, and - if you can throw together a Van Der Graff generator with a couple of stainless steel bowls and a very big rubber band - graphic demonstrations to your boss of why he shouldn't carry unbagged DIMMs across the office carpets on dry winter days.
After you've done your static demonstration, perhaps all the little status LEDs on the unit will blink even without cable or UTP connections. Then, your little expensive-looking paperweight has been bestowed with LBL-factor.
("LBL" = "Little Blinking Light", (c)1993 Lawrence Wade.)
LBL-Factor is, of course, incredibly useful; it keeps people from playing with all the techical-looking stuff on your desk, and it makes one appear smarter than the combined calculating ability of the collection of neurons in one's cranium. This increases your worth to your employer because your projects are no longer interrupted by upstart 23-year-old mechanical engineers who think that they're computer literate and therefore touch the pile of hardware scattered all over your desk, as well as making your boss feel that he's getting a better deal for your services than he actually is. (This, of course, means that he's basically resigned to the fact that he's gonna have to give you a big fat raise soon.)
Thus far, these potential benefits have been tested and demonstrated with an old Anderson-Jacobsen 2400 baud leased-line modem; all this is undoubtedly possible from a little cable modem, especially if it has a cryptic brand name prominently displayed on the front of the case (as cable modems around here tend to have).
Is there any use more clever than signing up for cable Internet service?See above.
If you can get a couple of these, with a little creative hacking (and a good reflow soldering system) you might be able to make a long-distance coax network bridge.
Then, you could hit the ARRL's website, grab the schematics for a good 2kW RF linear amplifer and plans for a nice efficient antenna, and give yourself wireless networkability... and big FCC fines. :)
(And can you examine data which passes through it without violating an implied agreement?Sure! Plug it into your computer, toss it at a cable connection, install the drivers and a packet sniffer, and watch the entire contents of your hard disk being updated to the cable company for "market research" purposes.
<sigh>
It's probably unhealthy that I become more paranoid when I'm tired.
but my rant is moreso tied to the media and those who are way out there who think the world would be a kinder, gentler place if no one could display trees for Christmas.
I agree that those who feel that way are idiots.
Absolutely. I want to see Christmas trees everywhere that people want to put them. Just as I want to see Menorahs everywhere that Jews want to put them, and whatever symbols the Muslims and the Hindus and Wiccan have around this time of the year.
However, all three countries of North America are primarily populated by people who would define themselves as having a background in some sect of Christianity or another, so Christmas trees will continue to prevail for the forseeable future.
Now, I'm treading a fine line here in my comments and opinions. I grew up - and live - in Canada, a country that officially embraces multiculturalism. It's divisive: you'll note that Canadians don't display the flag everywhere, as is de rigeur in the United States. The patriotism of Americans is one of the things that makes the United States such a strong country in every respect, even as divided as it was in the recent election.
Having said that, the United States officially grants the right of freedom of religion, which, it would seem, is contradictory to the fact that major political candidates base their stances solely on the lobbying of religious figures. Therein lies my problem.
My concern is not with the resultant risks of a country divided by official multiculturalism the way Canada is, versus the great American melting pot, where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Pagans and everyone else come together for a big party on the Fourth of July.
My concern is that the strong religious influence in the Republican party - highly organized and well established - frequently undermines the will of the people, who may be mostly Christian, but are also a lot more moderate than many of the Republican-leaning lobby groups out there. (Proof of that? The Democrats keep on getting elected; they even did it this time in the popular vote (let alone the real Florida results).)
How bad could it get?
Think of Iran. It's a nation governed only on religious principles.
It's also one of the worst, most oppressive places in the world that you can live, even if you are a devout Muslim. Religion prevails over common sense: for example, women have to cover their entire bodies - by Islamic tradition, which is the law of the land. Imagine how hot that must be in the desert sun. If she takes it off because she's getting heat stroke in the market, she can be imprisoned. Or worse.
And therein lies my concern and my worry. Once you start down that slope, it gets pretty slippery long before you hit that stone wall at the bottom.
So name him Jeremiah. Why bastardize it into "Jeremy"?
Because people are stupid.
My name is "Lawrence". It's not especially difficult.
So, besides the British spelling, "Laurence", there are several variations that the inept routinely manage to throw at me:
Lawerence (which was once engraved on an Employee of the Month plaque)
Lawrance
Lawren / Lauren
Florence (which came on an emergency replacement Mastercard and rendered it totally useless)
Even my last name, which, as an Anglo-Saxon four-letter combination, still manages to confound.
So, what would happen to Jeremiah?
Even more so, I pity all the Mikes of the world. "Micheal" is the common mis-step. And, despite the fact that it's a very common name, my roommate and best friend often sees his name as "Mikeal", "Mikel" and "Michel" (Mike isn't French).
I assume, from this, that you have either a very simple moniker, or you simply don't care when someone butchers it.
I once knew a "Daugavietis". Poor guy.
King Jeremy, The Wicked? Did you speak in class today?
Hey! Don't make fun. If I had a son, I'd name him Jeremy. It's a cool name. It's from the Hebrew name "Jeremiah", and it means "exalted". It's a good subliminal ego-builder.
While Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot...
...he's also right about a lot of things.
Right wing doesn't necessarily mean wrong, just as left wing doesn't necessarily mean right.
If the Republican Party didn't base all their social policy on the rants of bible belt preachers - and if they didn't provide a goofball like George Double-Ya as their presidential nominee - I'd be a lot more inclined to support them because their fiscal plans often make better sense than those of the Democrats.
Similarily, the Democrats had a great presidential candidate who just happened to be mostly boring and behaved in a juvenile fashion during the debates, though he supported responsible and realistic social policy. Unfortunately, he just happened to be from the big-labor-unions tax-and-spend party.
If the separation of church and state has really occurred, why is it that the Republicans are still allowed to bring religion into every election?
If only the Libertarian Party had had a chance.
So that's my car. It's messy right now, need to clean it and would if it weren't raining here. It's not flashy, but the tape deck works and I have a nubby cover on the steering wheel
Listen, I'm not a Saab fan, and I'm not an Escort fan. Neither is a car that I like.
But to compare the reliability of a 14 year old turbocharged luxury car against a 5 year old econobox is patently unfair.
Because of its age, it's probable that the Saab had more miles on it. It's also probable that the Saab, being a turbocharged alleged sports car was also driven harder. It's a luxury car, too - more complicated, with more things to break or wear out.
And, it's definite that because the car was nine years older than the Escort, there was a lot of decay to little things that nickel-and-dime you to death unless you know how to fix them yourself. Insulation on wire decays. Rubber breaks down. Gaskets dry up. Contacts get corroded. Keep your Escort around another 9 years and you'll learn all about that.
I drive a 24-year-old Dodge Ram pickup truck. The other day, the connector to my voltage regulator failed. It was corroded. The regulator didn't have a reference for the voltage on the battery, so it assumed the battery voltage was zero, and therefore pegged the charging current. +50A charge on my gauge - I pulled over as soon as I could, because my battery was boiling and my electrical system was running at 22 volts. (Only blew a headlight, though.) I pulled out my multimeter, checked a few connections against the service manual (kept stashed under the seat), found the bad connection, cleaned it with a pencil eraser, and the problem was fixed.
This is the sort of thing that will happen with *any* older vehicle. Period. There's no escaping it. If you like older vehicles and choose to drive them, you have to know what to do and be prepared to do it.
It's nice, though. Driving older vehicles has taught me to be resourceful, a skill useful everywhere. And I can diagnose a problem quickly, and have a lot of practice in assessing the severity of a situation.
The truck is insured for liability only, and pickup trucks are cheap to insure. $34/mo gets me $1,000,000 coverage in a city almost as big as Chicago. Besides that, I'm not paying out monthly car payments, so that money can instead go to fund other things - like a 401(k).
And besides, I just like the thing.
With a good tune-up, my truck is also the only vehicle I know that doesn't need to be plugged in to a block heater on a cold winter's night - it'll still start, first shot, on the coldest morning of the year. I frequently have to jump-start my boss's 2-year-old Integra. Why? Because, while my truck may be crude, it was built to last, and I take good care of it. The Acura was built to perform flawlessly for the first 100,000 miles and then be scrapped.
My truck gets an oil change - cheapest 10W30 oil and filter I can find - every month (3,000 miles). Every month, I also pop off all the wheels, check the brake linings, lubricate the parking brake cable with silicone grease, check the wheel bearings and balljoints looking especially for looseness or torn dust boots, and grease all the suspension. Takes about 2 hours every month. New air filter if it's visibly dirty or every three months, whichever comes first. I clean and regap the spark plugs every three months, checking the compression, timing and vacuum advance at the same time. (I'm impressed with the Bosch Platinum plugs I put in early this summer!) And while I've got the motor warmed up and I'm in my coveralls, I pop a vacuum gauge on the old Carter BBD carburetor and balance the metering rods, and re-set the idle.
Every fall, I spray another coat of paint on the underside of the body to prevent the floor and frame from rusting in the salty wet snow. Every week when there's snow on the ground, the whole underside gets washed off with hot water at a car wash. And every summer, I set aside at least one project that I'd like to do, usually because I enjoy them. Last year, I gave my truck the gift of air conditioning. This year, I'm going to repair some old rust damage on the truck, replace the windshield (there's a small chip in it), tap a couple of small dents out of the body and then treat Methusulah to another coat of Chrysler Forest Green Metallic paint.
Hondas today are high-quality, low-maintenance, reasonable price -- a net customer benefit.
Sure. Disposable and expendable, like their owners.
If you think about the success of the MAG light, you will realize that low-cost knockoffs probably wouldn't even be attractive to most people.
Thank you.
Just when I was starting to despair over the fact that some people think Wal-Mart is a perfectly reasonable place to buy a VCR and flimsy disposeable cars like Hondas and Toyotas choke the roads around me, it's nice to see someone else who still respects that "100% plastic-free" school of product design.
I keep a MAG light in my glove box. It comes in handy when I need to use my 24-year-old pickup truck to jump-start my boss's Integra, which won't start when it gets below 10F outside.
I go out of my way to buy the real thing, not the crappy made-in-Taiwan knockoffs.
I have always preferred Light Emitting EPROMs, though they're a lot more expensive and don't last as long. (plug one into your breadboard backwards)
Or try programming it on the wrong voltage. (Ooops.)
you'd need to convert to DC with a rectifier circuit What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?
Actually, you do want to be careful that your diode string has a peak reverse voltage rating greater than the AC to which you're going to connect it.
For this reason, it's prudent to include a 1N4004 or better in series with your string. As with any diodes, when LEDs are reverse-biased and you exceed their breakdown voltage, the current quickly runs away and the diode fries. The maximum allowable reverse current of LEDs is generally much lower than most other kinds of diodes.
Do this all on one chip (a few dozen LEDs on one chip, like millions of transistors in a CPU). Now you have a direct light bulb replacement. No fancy power supplies, extra electronics, or extra cost.
Nope.
While you're right about the LEDs in series - especially since the diodes would then protect themselves from being reverse-biased beyond their PIV ratings, this isn't practical.
The problem is that LEDs are still less efficient than a comparable semiconductor junction. While it's easy to build a rectifier diode or other power semiconductor that will stay cool in a small package, an LED is a special case because it has such a high voltage drop. Most of that energy does leave as light, but some as heat.
Getting heat away from a power semiconductor's silicon die can be tough enough, without the added problem of diffusing light away from the junction in such a way as to be practical as well. It's just not going to happen.
Actually LED screens would be pretty sweet, if they could build them pixel-sized. They're bright, don't require crazy voltage like back-lights do, refresh super fast, black blacks and white whites....
White LEDs are already being adopted as replacements for the fluorescent tubes or electroluminescent sheets being used as notebook backlights. You can now get large (notebook display sized) sheets of frosted white plastic with white LED junctions embedded for use as backlighting in new notebooks. It will basically work like an electroluminescent backlight but without the inefficient and failure-prone inverter. I saw them advertised in an electronics engineering trade magazine that I get.