I have yet too see an applcation that does (only) this. And "8 out of 10 collegues here (in the IT) don't have a clue what a "path" in a e-mail is.
And if I was phishing, there are ways to get completely valid headers. For example, I live in the US. From here it is a simple task to send you a valid e-mail from the Cayman Islands. I have an account in the Cayman Islands. Using the Webmail interface, I can send an e-mail from there. If I scam someone in England for example and got the password for one of their e-mail accounts, I could scam someone in England by using the ISP Webmail interface and send a perfectly valid e-mail from the US that originated in England. By signing up for an account in England, using a bogus credit card, I could use VOIP and dial into the ISP in England from England (local number) and send a scam that way. Think outside the box. A local call doesn't have to be local anymore.
Some Nigerian scammers are using Canadian, Australian, and UK VOIP phones so they don't look like Nigerian scammers until you are hooked and find out where to send the Western Union money. I'm in England and not a Nigerian scammer.
The safe speed for a road is determined by the road design and the road conditions, and *not* by some arbitrary number on a sign.
They recently widened a road near me, added a turning lane, 3 traffic lights and repaved it. They also changed the posted speed from 35 to 25. In protest, I simply set my cruise control to 25 when I drive it. I love it when I get a patrol car stuck in the back-up. That's when nobody will pass in the no passing zone (due to the turning lane and police car). Sometimes to fight a bad law is to enforce it. Then it will get changed.
Yes, keeping speeds around 55-60mph usually results in fuel savings for most vehicles.
I know it is very true for a Prius. I can get nearly 50 MPG at 45 MPH. It drops to about 40 MPG at 70 MPH. It's not bad if you draft a tractor trailer, but then you have to deal with rock chips.
All the CVTs that I've driven in my day seem to be equally slow to change gear ratios to anything meaningful.
Try a Prius. At cruising, the battery is topped off and the electric boost at 70 is not bad. The delay getting the engine to rev for more boost is very short since the CVT is simply a ratio between two electric motor/generators and the engine and is never locked.
Any other Prius drivers notice any a delay in passing?
I can't use two providers at once. I shouldn't have to pay both of them.
It reminds me of the days past of the private pay phones. Everyone was going to get rich putting in their own pay phones. The reality is most cost more and provided less service. They cost even to call your calling card. They cost more than a cell phone. In short, nobody used them. They lost money because the bell's charged a monthly charge the phone owner did not regain from use. I remember trying to use one with a calling card and going no way to paying twice both localy and a calling card. I always asked for the location of a real phone.
The utility will do a better and cheaper job than Bellsouth, so Bellsouth are upset.
I've noticed that many utilities will not invest in this if the incumbent has already wired the area. The utility did this because the need was there. There is no competition in an unserviced area. They may have had monopoly plans for future expansion, but unserviced areas don't wait forever.
Doesnt the city of New Orleans have bigger issues right now. Seems to me that they should be worrying about rebuiding their city, instead of offering free wi-fi in the first place.
A lot of copper is corroded. All the telephone building demark points were under water. Communications is essential to rebuilding. This is very true where the building is uninhabitable. Wireless is the way to go. This is part of dealing with the rebuilding. How long do you think it would take to replace every copper junction box, flooded trunk cable to the junction boxes in the city and all the demark points on the buildings. This is a quick way to get VOIP phones and Internet to the construction trailers.
Any how long are we going to have to pay a surchare for touch tone service?
I fixed that problem myself. I put a rotary dial phone in and used it. When they updated the equipment, they asked when I would upgrade to touchtone. I knew legacy support cost them. I told them when it doesn't cost more. They dropped the charge and I switched over to DTMF. (this was quite a few years ago. Call them and ask why DTMF support costs extra. Don't take the it cost's more excuse. Point out the fact rotary support after their upgrade now costs more. They would save if you dropped rotary for DTMF. Ask them how much legacy dial support costs them.
I've considered starting a security company for ma-and-pa stores to battle these forms of theft.
My favorite mom and pop computer parts store simply has everyting behind the counter. Grab a price list, pick your items and present the list. Problem solved. They have very competive prices as a result. They get my business. Customer service is much better than Fry's and you don't have to deal with shelf prices that list the item price after rebate like Best Buy
I wonder what percentage of people attempting barcode scams aren't caught (or publicized, to save the store embarrassment).
I believe it is fairly widespread, but the retailers are trying to keep it quiet to prevent a meltdown of the system like the Napster attack on the retail music industry. I believe that is the reason Walmart is pushing for RFID. They are getting protection in place before the problem becomes P-P in scale. With tags inside the packages, it's a little more difficult to cover or replace a tag without getting caught.
The only place I've considered replacing tags is on recyling cans. Having to seperate out Walmart cans from Fred Myer cans from Safeway cans is a pain in the butt. Labeling everyting as a Pepsi can and just stuffing them in the first Can-Do you find is mighty tempting. I've thought it, but never done it.
Teens have rights too, you can't discriminate on the basis of age.
He wasn't discriminating by age. If they were customers who came in for a few convience items, paid for them and left, there would not be a problem.
He discriminated against non-paying people who hung out near the shop and discouraged real customers. He understood the demographics of the problem people and used it to his advantage. Targeting a group by demographic and direct obversation is not age discrimination. Placing a sign, "No Minors" on a place that is not selling open alcholic beverages or adult entertainment such as a casino would be age discrimination.
No, it's not. The first harmonic of 23 kHz is at 46 kHz. Harmonics increase in frequency.
You are both wrong. The first harmonic is the fundemental or 23 KHz. The second harmonic is 46KHZ
Clip " There are a variety of patterns which could be produced by vibrations within a string, slinky, or rope. Each pattern corresponds to vibrations which occur at a particular frequency and is known as a harmonic. The lowest possible frequency at which a string could vibrate to form a standing wave pattern is known as the fundamental frequency or the first harmonic. The second lowst frequency at which a string could vibrate is known as the second harmonic; the third lowst frequency is known as the third harmonic; and so on. An animation of a string vibrating with the second harmonic is shown below.
The loud noise in many older sets and monitors is not the scan frequency. It may be the switch mode power supply. Many of these run in the 15 - 30 KHZ range. They try to run them high enough so most people can not hear them, but low enough so less expensive capacitors and powdered iron cores can be used, so many are right on the margin of some people's hearing.
These power supplies have the full power the set uses, not just the scan and HV power, so they can be as loud or louder than scan circuits.
They should have left the rootkit in place so we could download some good music directly to these misguided buyers' hard drives.
That would be a total waste of time. The malware that also ships corrupts the data from a rip giving a corrupt file full of pops and clicks. That is what the DRM software hidden by the root kit does. It corrupts the data from the drive to your ripping program to make corrupt MP3 files. Only their included player can re-create the original sound, but it's not saving any clean MP3 files for grabbing.
I took the test and got only 50% right. I listed ebay and others as phishing simply because I couldn't look at the headers and the clincher I don't have an ebay account.
When I get an email regarding problems with my ebay acount, I know it's a fraud simply because I don't have an account.
These are the mails I do follow the link and fill in with all kinds of information. The more time of theirs I waste the better. I also write to tell them I'm very worried about my ballance, could you send me a check of my balance of $154,329.04 US Dollars from account #3904564385 right away before a fraudster takes any more?
Actually, you can't measure any fidelity-related parameter in audio systems with an oscilloscope (or any other cheap, readily-available instrument). Distortion, for instance. Anyone can easily hear 1% THD, on any system. You'll see visible distortion on the scope only when it's at about 10% (when you get visible clipping). In fact, most digital scopes use 8-bit ADCs -- try listening to music on an ancient 8-bit soundblaster.
If you want to measure THD, just a scope won't do the trick. Use the proper gear. Proper gear includes a low distortion sine wave generator, tunable twin T filter, low distortion delay line, mixer and inverter. Feed the sine wave through what ever you are testing. Take the output and filter it with a high Q filter to obtain the original sine wave. Sum the sine wave inverted and delayed (phase matched) with the output for the deepest null. What remains is the non-sine distortion and noise components. Now measure that. To isolate the noise and distortion components, the original must be filtered out so the result can be analyzed.
In the old day that was how VU meters and record levels were calibrated on reel to reel tape recorders. You run up the record level until the third harmonic distortion started to rise up to a certain amount (specified by manufacture typicaly 1%) and then the VU meters were set to indicate whatever +VU level the manufacture specified. (Often +3 to +10).
It used to be people cared the amplifier would produce less than 0.01% THD at rated RMS output. Now all they care about is wow 500 peak music power watts (at like 10% distortion).
I used to show people a 30 watt (RMS each channel) amplifier easly blew away a 250 watt stereo on the same set of speakers. I could then educate them why the 30 watt amp had a 12 amp fuse and the 250 watt amplifier had a 5 amp fuse. One clipped at 48 V P-P and the other clipped at 23 V P-P or at less than a quarter of the power.
However, something which is much more annoying are those banner ads that use flash to make the ad creep out of the 400x80 banner and fill the whole browser window with a large animation for 10 seconds.
It was that junk that covinced me that no flash content on a website was worth the annoyance of blocked content. That was the straw that had me remove Macromedia software completely from my machine. When a right click to pull up the flash menu to shut it off only had the option "About Macromedia Flash" was the kicker. Macromedia is a product for advertisers, not end users. There were no proper end user controls whatsoever. As such I did not need flash software running on my machine. The way to control flash was remove it. They did not provide any other option at their peril.
The ads instead of offering a product, blocked the doorway to websites. I treated it with the same respect as panhandlers blocking the doorway to any establishment and made you wait while they put out their plea before you could enter. This is where I learned about the hosts file and why I would even be interested in editing it.
Advertising supporting a website is one thing. Advertising yelling at you at the door and refusing to let you pass for a while and standing between you and the page is another.
Energy Star has been incredibly effective. The cheapest refrigerator you buy is within 80% as efficient as the most efficient models.
Up to a point. Most home fridges are designed to have the biggest inside space (Cubic Feet sells) in a shape that fits the standard cut out in a kitchen. Start looking up off grid fridges and you will find a whole new class. They don't have ice makers or side by side doors. The most effecient fridge has very thick walls and is top loaded like a small freezer. It uses less than half the power of the regular consumer fridges. Alas, It wasn't designed to fit the fridge slot in a typical kitchen and it is more than twice the price.
hint google search off grid appliances. When living off 3 KWH/day instead of 30KWH/day, appliance selection becomes more important.
Oh, and about back feeding the line, you could probably get away with a small amount of back feed and just don't tell anyone about it.
I find most who go this route have pie in the sky expectations, but haven't done the math. Often overlooked is the electric bill. Lots of money on some solar panels nets a few hundred watts or a few KWH/day. Do you have a family? Do they play videogames, stay up late with the lights on playing on the Internet? use the laundry?
Many think they can throw up a few panels and sell power to the power company. If you get 3KWH/day you are doing good with a large investment. Now offset that against your 30KWH/day power bill. Oops your investment is maybe 10% of what it should have been. When you get into the big stuff, buy some Trojan batteries and an Outback Power Systems box. No sense in selling power to the power company cheap. Toss any excess power into hydrogen generation for later use in the water heater or something.
How about "very nearly zero"? Ideally, an "off" device would draw zero watts, but I realize we expect our toys to respond at a moments notice, and that takes some electricity.
Agreed. My boombox has a LCD clock. (used as a clock/radio) It's clock runs a year on a AA battery. (no need to reset after a power failure). There is no excuse for any timer applance to draw several watts when idle.
My Yamaha DX7 keyboard (many years old early MIDI synth) uses a lithium battery for memory back-up. It hasn't been changed ever and still shows full voltage. The synth is packed away and not plugged in when not in use. Why does my car radio lose all the presets when I service the car? Why can't a car radio use a 10 year backup lithium battery?
What's the point of making more energy when a good chunk of it will go to waste? Green energy is good, but it's not to be wasted.
I agree, but sometimes the articles focus on the needle and not the haystack.
First point... Commuting and green cars. Getting great gas milage is fine, but moving from a small town to the big city for a better job changed my commute from a 10 minute walk to a 45 minute drive each way. Zoning is OK to a point, but a mix of houses and businesses and schools is better than having a city center and bedroom communities which only have strip malls, convience stores, schools and parks. How about putting low/non polluting industry in some neighborhoods for low distance commutes?
Long commutes is our biggest gas waste. City planners need to focus on getting homes/jobs/schools/parks less spread out. Traffic/pollution/costs all decrease when consolidated.
Second point.. With heat, light, AC, entertainment, communications stuff on a typical house with a family of 4, energy costs for many is in the neighborhood of 30KWH/day. A 100 watt idle draw for everyting in the house is 2.4 KWH/day. I am saving more moving to a house with 6 inch walls, insulated floors, a foot of insulation in the attic from my old house with uninsulated floors and R-11 walls and R14 roof. At 0.12/KWH the 2.4KWH/day is a small portion of my electric & heating energy costs.
A note on the TV idle draw. It isn't the remote reciever that is the power hog. It's the pre-warmed picture tube. I used to repair TV's and got to know the hot when off sections. Cold/hot cycling of the tube shortens the tube life and makes long warm-up times. Having the tube 3/4 warm drasticly reduces thermal cycle shocks and makes them almost instant-on. Some early (1970's Jimmy Carter years) instant on sets had an energy saver switch on the back that would turn off this feature. Cost cutting in manufacturing eliminated the seldom used switch. Pick up a plug in cycle timer (I know more idle watts) to power down the TV, cable box/satelite box, broadband modem, and stereo system at night and morning when nobody is home. They often are all located together. Some electronic progrommable timers draw very little power.
Add a wind up timer to your bathroom fan. Forgetting to turn off the fan after clearing the steam from your morning shower can dump a lot of heated/cooled air out of the house. This is one place a $20 timer can pay for itself in a short time. It saves not only the power the fan uses, but also the cost of the heated/cooled air that gets dumped from excessive run-times.
Add a motion wall switch to your hall and stairway light. No need to leave it on all the time anymore.
My own house runs about 45 watts. The furnace alone has a microprocessor in it that takes a good 16 watts.
Power used is turned into heat. Sometimes it can be to your advantage depending on your location. In the South, having to use energy (AC) to remove unwanted heat simply means you are paying twice for the waste. Once to generate the heat and once again to relocate it outside.
I live in a Northern state. In the summer we spend more time outdoors and enjoy the cool evenings. We open the house in the evenings and let it cool down at night. (love good day/night temprature swings) During the work day/school day, most everything is shut down mindful of heat sources in the house that can be shut down.
In the fall, winter, and spring, when evening light is short, that's when we spend more time indoors and extend our TV/VCR/DVD and Internet computer time. The extra heat is just the same as if it came from an electric heater. An electric heater just provides heat. The same watt can provide additional light, entertainment and security.
A heat pump provides more heat per watt because it pumps outside heat inside in the winter. Even then the few extra watts we use for entertainment and lights is not wasted.
There was a plant that moved from energy wasting incandescent lights energy sipping high pressure discharge lights. The next winter they had to put in a bigger heater to replace the lost heat source. Moral of the story, cut your heat loss, and then plan to cut down energy use to match or use cheaper energy for heat in the winter. In the South, do whatever is needed to reduce the amount of heat you have to pay to get rid of.
Heh. I still have most of a 1000-foot spool of solid CAT 6 laying around; if you can figure out how to crimp the shit, we can make a 10000Mb network.
A few hints.. 1 Don't crimp. Install jacks on solid wire instead. Then use flexible stranded wire jumpers. 2 Use crimp connectors made for solid wire. They exist, but they don't like to be handled much. 3 Use switches. Look up the maximum segment length and stick to it. 4 Have a LAN party. Don't invite the **AA. 5 Shhh..
Intel couldn't stop competitors from selling non-Intel 80486 chips because chip numbering was a generic identification scheme in the electronics industry.
That's the real reason. If you wanted a Pentium tm. then you got a genuine Intel part. With the Pentium II they even tried to lock down the socket by having a tradmarked socket. No more Socket 5 or Socket 7. It was Slot 1 Tm. Nothing from AMD or Cyrex will fit the tradmarked socket without paying a hefty royalty.
No, an advantage is when you have something that works regardless of what the other person knows.
Sometimes knowledge is power. I know the password to my server. I know the combination to my locker. I know the key to my encrypted files. Public posting of these items does not make me more secure.
There are a few advantages to some secrets. You may know how a combination lock is operated. You may know how encryption works. My encryption key, password, and combination should not be public.
The news that a cruise ship used a blast of sound is fine. Giving the details of how it worked was not nessary. Giving details that a bright light blinds drivers trying to crash a gate is fine. Saying it is a pulse of green laser is not a good idea.
Saying the police will respond to a riot is fine. Saying police will not be using guns, but just tear gas is not. Expect the riot to have lots of thrown rocks and see lots of gas masks.
Saying the police will respond to a riot is fine. Don't tell them they will be bringing water cannons, tasers, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, tear gas, lasers, tranquilizer darts, snipers, and smoke bombs. Let it be a suprise. Let the perimiter exit searches and arrests be a suprise.
Slashdot Mirror
I have yet too see an applcation that does (only) this. And "8 out of 10 collegues here (in the IT) don't have a clue what a "path" in a e-mail is.
And if I was phishing, there are ways to get completely valid headers. For example, I live in the US. From here it is a simple task to send you a valid e-mail from the Cayman Islands. I have an account in the Cayman Islands. Using the Webmail interface, I can send an e-mail from there. If I scam someone in England for example and got the password for one of their e-mail accounts, I could scam someone in England by using the ISP Webmail interface and send a perfectly valid e-mail from the US that originated in England. By signing up for an account in England, using a bogus credit card, I could use VOIP and dial into the ISP in England from England (local number) and send a scam that way. Think outside the box. A local call doesn't have to be local anymore.
Some Nigerian scammers are using Canadian, Australian, and UK VOIP phones so they don't look like Nigerian scammers until you are hooked and find out where to send the Western Union money. I'm in England and not a Nigerian scammer.
The safe speed for a road is determined by the road design and the road conditions, and *not* by some arbitrary number on a sign.
They recently widened a road near me, added a turning lane, 3 traffic lights and repaved it. They also changed the posted speed from 35 to 25. In protest, I simply set my cruise control to 25 when I drive it. I love it when I get a patrol car stuck in the back-up. That's when nobody will pass in the no passing zone (due to the turning lane and police car). Sometimes to fight a bad law is to enforce it. Then it will get changed.
Yes, keeping speeds around 55-60mph usually results in fuel savings for most vehicles.
I know it is very true for a Prius. I can get nearly 50 MPG at 45 MPH. It drops to about 40 MPG at 70 MPH. It's not bad if you draft a tractor trailer, but then you have to deal with rock chips.
All the CVTs that I've driven in my day seem to be equally slow to change gear ratios to anything meaningful.
Try a Prius. At cruising, the battery is topped off and the electric boost at 70 is not bad. The delay getting the engine to rev for more boost is very short since the CVT is simply a ratio between two electric motor/generators and the engine and is never locked.
Any other Prius drivers notice any a delay in passing?
I can't use two providers at once. I shouldn't have to pay both of them.
It reminds me of the days past of the private pay phones. Everyone was going to get rich putting in their own pay phones. The reality is most cost more and provided less service. They cost even to call your calling card. They cost more than a cell phone. In short, nobody used them. They lost money because the bell's charged a monthly charge the phone owner did not regain from use. I remember trying to use one with a calling card and going no way to paying twice both localy and a calling card. I always asked for the location of a real phone.
The utility will do a better and cheaper job than Bellsouth, so Bellsouth are upset.
I've noticed that many utilities will not invest in this if the incumbent has already wired the area. The utility did this because the need was there. There is no competition in an unserviced area. They may have had monopoly plans for future expansion, but unserviced areas don't wait forever.
Doesnt the city of New Orleans have bigger issues right now. Seems to me that they should be worrying about rebuiding their city, instead of offering free wi-fi in the first place.
A lot of copper is corroded. All the telephone building demark points were under water. Communications is essential to rebuilding. This is very true where the building is uninhabitable. Wireless is the way to go. This is part of dealing with the rebuilding. How long do you think it would take to replace every copper junction box, flooded trunk cable to the junction boxes in the city and all the demark points on the buildings. This is a quick way to get VOIP phones and Internet to the construction trailers.
Any how long are we going to have to pay a surchare for touch tone service?
I fixed that problem myself. I put a rotary dial phone in and used it. When they updated the equipment, they asked when I would upgrade to touchtone. I knew legacy support cost them. I told them when it doesn't cost more. They dropped the charge and I switched over to DTMF. (this was quite a few years ago. Call them and ask why DTMF support costs extra. Don't take the it cost's more excuse. Point out the fact rotary support after their upgrade now costs more. They would save if you dropped rotary for DTMF. Ask them how much legacy dial support costs them.
I've considered starting a security company for ma-and-pa stores to battle these forms of theft.
My favorite mom and pop computer parts store simply has everyting behind the counter. Grab a price list, pick your items and present the list. Problem solved. They have very competive prices as a result. They get my business.
Customer service is much better than Fry's and you don't have to deal with shelf prices that list the item price after rebate like Best Buy
I wonder what percentage of people attempting barcode scams aren't caught (or publicized, to save the store embarrassment).
I believe it is fairly widespread, but the retailers are trying to keep it quiet to prevent a meltdown of the system like the Napster attack on the retail music industry. I believe that is the reason Walmart is pushing for RFID. They are getting protection in place before the problem becomes P-P in scale. With tags inside the packages, it's a little more difficult to cover or replace a tag without getting caught.
The only place I've considered replacing tags is on recyling cans. Having to seperate out Walmart cans from Fred Myer cans from Safeway cans is a pain in the butt. Labeling everyting as a Pepsi can and just stuffing them in the first Can-Do you find is mighty tempting. I've thought it, but never done it.
Teens have rights too, you can't discriminate on the basis of age.
He wasn't discriminating by age. If they were customers who came in for a few convience items, paid for them and left, there would not be a problem.
He discriminated against non-paying people who hung out near the shop and discouraged real customers. He understood the demographics of the problem people and used it to his advantage. Targeting a group by demographic and direct obversation is not age discrimination. Placing a sign, "No Minors" on a place that is not selling open alcholic beverages or adult entertainment such as a casino would be age discrimination.
No, it's not. The first harmonic of 23 kHz is at 46 kHz. Harmonics increase in frequency.
/ waves/harm2.html
You are both wrong. The first harmonic is the fundemental or 23 KHz. The second harmonic is 46KHZ
Clip "
There are a variety of patterns which could be produced by vibrations within a string, slinky, or rope. Each pattern corresponds to vibrations which occur at a particular frequency and is known as a harmonic. The lowest possible frequency at which a string could vibrate to form a standing wave pattern is known as the fundamental frequency or the first harmonic. The second lowst frequency at which a string could vibrate is known as the second harmonic; the third lowst frequency is known as the third harmonic; and so on. An animation of a string vibrating with the second harmonic is shown below.
from website http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia
The loud noise in many older sets and monitors is not the scan frequency. It may be the switch mode power supply. Many of these run in the 15 - 30 KHZ range. They try to run them high enough so most people can not hear them, but low enough so less expensive capacitors and powdered iron cores can be used, so many are right on the margin of some people's hearing.
These power supplies have the full power the set uses, not just the scan and HV power, so they can be as loud or louder than scan circuits.
They should have left the rootkit in place so we could download some good music directly to these misguided buyers' hard drives.
That would be a total waste of time. The malware that also ships corrupts the data from a rip giving a corrupt file full of pops and clicks. That is what the DRM software hidden by the root kit does. It corrupts the data from the drive to your ripping program to make corrupt MP3 files. Only their included player can re-create the original sound, but it's not saving any clean MP3 files for grabbing.
I took the test and got only 50% right. I listed ebay and others as phishing simply because I couldn't look at the headers and the clincher I don't have an ebay account.
When I get an email regarding problems with my ebay acount, I know it's a fraud simply because I don't have an account.
These are the mails I do follow the link and fill in with all kinds of information. The more time of theirs I waste the better. I also write to tell them I'm very worried about my ballance, could you send me a check of my balance of $154,329.04 US Dollars from account #3904564385 right away before a fraudster takes any more?
Actually, you can't measure any fidelity-related parameter in audio systems with an oscilloscope (or any other cheap, readily-available instrument). Distortion, for instance. Anyone can easily hear 1% THD, on any system. You'll see visible distortion on the scope only when it's at about 10% (when you get visible clipping). In fact, most digital scopes use 8-bit ADCs -- try listening to music on an ancient 8-bit soundblaster.
If you want to measure THD, just a scope won't do the trick. Use the proper gear. Proper gear includes a low distortion sine wave generator, tunable twin T filter, low distortion delay line, mixer and inverter. Feed the sine wave through what ever you are testing. Take the output and filter it with a high Q filter to obtain the original sine wave. Sum the sine wave inverted and delayed (phase matched) with the output for the deepest null. What remains is the non-sine distortion and noise components. Now measure that. To isolate the noise and distortion components, the original must be filtered out so the result can be analyzed.
In the old day that was how VU meters and record levels were calibrated on reel to reel tape recorders. You run up the record level until the third harmonic distortion started to rise up to a certain amount (specified by manufacture typicaly 1%) and then the VU meters were set to indicate whatever +VU level the manufacture specified. (Often +3 to +10).
It used to be people cared the amplifier would produce less than 0.01% THD at rated RMS output. Now all they care about is wow 500 peak music power watts (at like 10% distortion).
I used to show people a 30 watt (RMS each channel) amplifier easly blew away a 250 watt stereo on the same set of speakers. I could then educate them why the 30 watt amp had a 12 amp fuse and the 250 watt amplifier had a 5 amp fuse. One clipped at 48 V P-P and the other clipped at 23 V P-P or at less than a quarter of the power.
However, something which is much more annoying are those banner ads that use flash to make the ad creep out of the 400x80 banner and fill the whole browser window with a large animation for 10 seconds.
It was that junk that covinced me that no flash content on a website was worth the annoyance of blocked content. That was the straw that had me remove Macromedia software completely from my machine. When a right click to pull up the flash menu to shut it off only had the option "About Macromedia Flash" was the kicker. Macromedia is a product for advertisers, not end users. There were no proper end user controls whatsoever. As such I did not need flash software running on my machine. The way to control flash was remove it. They did not provide any other option at their peril.
The ads instead of offering a product, blocked the doorway to websites. I treated it with the same respect as panhandlers blocking the doorway to any establishment and made you wait while they put out their plea before you could enter. This is where I learned about the hosts file and why I would even be interested in editing it.
Advertising supporting a website is one thing. Advertising yelling at you at the door and refusing to let you pass for a while and standing between you and the page is another.
Energy Star has been incredibly effective. The cheapest refrigerator you buy is within 80% as efficient as the most efficient models.
Up to a point. Most home fridges are designed to have the biggest inside space (Cubic Feet sells) in a shape that fits the standard cut out in a kitchen. Start looking up off grid fridges and you will find a whole new class. They don't have ice makers or side by side doors. The most effecient fridge has very thick walls and is top loaded like a small freezer. It uses less than half the power of the regular consumer fridges. Alas, It wasn't designed to fit the fridge slot in a typical kitchen and it is more than twice the price.
hint google search off grid appliances. When living off 3 KWH/day instead of 30KWH/day, appliance selection becomes more important.
Oh, and about back feeding the line, you could probably get away with a small amount of back feed and just don't tell anyone about it.
I find most who go this route have pie in the sky expectations, but haven't done the math. Often overlooked is the electric bill. Lots of money on some solar panels nets a few hundred watts or a few KWH/day. Do you have a family? Do they play videogames, stay up late with the lights on playing on the Internet? use the laundry?
Many think they can throw up a few panels and sell power to the power company. If you get 3KWH/day you are doing good with a large investment. Now offset that against your 30KWH/day power bill. Oops your investment is maybe 10% of what it should have been. When you get into the big stuff, buy some Trojan batteries and an Outback Power Systems box. No sense in selling power to the power company cheap. Toss any excess power into hydrogen generation for later use in the water heater or something.
I unplug all my clocks when I'm not using them.
I have a couple clocks I don't wind when I'm not using them. That saves some energy.
How about "very nearly zero"? Ideally, an "off" device would draw zero watts, but I realize we expect our toys to respond at a moments notice, and that takes some electricity.
Agreed. My boombox has a LCD clock. (used as a clock/radio) It's clock runs a year on a AA battery. (no need to reset after a power failure). There is no excuse for any timer applance to draw several watts when idle.
My Yamaha DX7 keyboard (many years old early MIDI synth) uses a lithium battery for memory back-up. It hasn't been changed ever and still shows full voltage. The synth is packed away and not plugged in when not in use. Why does my car radio lose all the presets when I service the car? Why can't a car radio use a 10 year backup lithium battery?
What's the point of making more energy when a good chunk of it will go to waste? Green energy is good, but it's not to be wasted.
I agree, but sometimes the articles focus on the needle and not the haystack.
First point... Commuting and green cars. Getting great gas milage is fine, but moving from a small town to the big city for a better job changed my commute from a 10 minute walk to a 45 minute drive each way. Zoning is OK to a point, but a mix of houses and businesses and schools is better than having a city center and bedroom communities which only have strip malls, convience stores, schools and parks. How about putting low/non polluting industry in some neighborhoods for low distance commutes?
Long commutes is our biggest gas waste. City planners need to focus on getting homes/jobs/schools/parks less spread out. Traffic/pollution/costs all decrease when consolidated.
Second point.. With heat, light, AC, entertainment, communications stuff on a typical house with a family of 4, energy costs for many is in the neighborhood of 30KWH/day. A 100 watt idle draw for everyting in the house is 2.4 KWH/day. I am saving more moving to a house with 6 inch walls, insulated floors, a foot of insulation in the attic from my old house with uninsulated floors and R-11 walls and R14 roof.
At 0.12/KWH the 2.4KWH/day is a small portion of my electric & heating energy costs.
A note on the TV idle draw. It isn't the remote reciever that is the power hog. It's the pre-warmed picture tube. I used to repair TV's and got to know the hot when off sections. Cold/hot cycling of the tube shortens the tube life and makes long warm-up times. Having the tube 3/4 warm drasticly reduces thermal cycle shocks and makes them almost instant-on. Some early (1970's Jimmy Carter years) instant on sets had an energy saver switch on the back that would turn off this feature. Cost cutting in manufacturing eliminated the seldom used switch. Pick up a plug in cycle timer (I know more idle watts) to power down the TV, cable box/satelite box, broadband modem, and stereo system at night and morning when nobody is home. They often are all located together. Some electronic progrommable timers draw very little power.
Add a wind up timer to your bathroom fan. Forgetting to turn off the fan after clearing the steam from your morning shower can dump a lot of heated/cooled air out of the house. This is one place a $20 timer can pay for itself in a short time. It saves not only the power the fan uses, but also the cost of the heated/cooled air that gets dumped from excessive run-times.
Add a motion wall switch to your hall and stairway light. No need to leave it on all the time anymore.
My own house runs about 45 watts. The furnace alone has a microprocessor in it that takes a good 16 watts.
Power used is turned into heat. Sometimes it can be to your advantage depending on your location. In the South, having to use energy (AC) to remove unwanted heat simply means you are paying twice for the waste. Once to generate the heat and once again to relocate it outside.
I live in a Northern state. In the summer we spend more time outdoors and enjoy the cool evenings. We open the house in the evenings and let it cool down at night. (love good day/night temprature swings) During the work day/school day, most everything is shut down mindful of heat sources in the house that can be shut down.
In the fall, winter, and spring, when evening light is short, that's when we spend more time indoors and extend our TV/VCR/DVD and Internet computer time. The extra heat is just the same as if it came from an electric heater. An electric heater just provides heat. The same watt can provide additional light, entertainment and security.
A heat pump provides more heat per watt because it pumps outside heat inside in the winter. Even then the few extra watts we use for entertainment and lights is not wasted.
There was a plant that moved from energy wasting incandescent lights energy sipping high pressure discharge lights. The next winter they had to put in a bigger heater to replace the lost heat source. Moral of the story, cut your heat loss, and then plan to cut down energy use to match or use cheaper energy for heat in the winter. In the South, do whatever is needed to reduce the amount of heat you have to pay to get rid of.
Heh. I still have most of a 1000-foot spool of solid CAT 6 laying around; if you can figure out how to crimp the shit, we can make a 10000Mb network.
A few hints..
1 Don't crimp. Install jacks on solid wire instead. Then use flexible stranded wire jumpers.
2 Use crimp connectors made for solid wire. They exist, but they don't like to be handled much.
3 Use switches. Look up the maximum segment length and stick to it.
4 Have a LAN party. Don't invite the **AA.
5 Shhh..
Intel couldn't stop competitors from selling non-Intel 80486 chips because chip numbering was a generic identification scheme in the electronics industry.
That's the real reason. If you wanted a Pentium tm. then you got a genuine Intel part. With the Pentium II they even tried to lock down the socket by having a tradmarked socket. No more Socket 5 or Socket 7. It was Slot 1 Tm. Nothing from AMD or Cyrex will fit the tradmarked socket without paying a hefty royalty.
No, an advantage is when you have something that works regardless of what the other person knows.
Sometimes knowledge is power. I know the password to my server. I know the combination to my locker. I know the key to my encrypted files. Public posting of these items does not make me more secure.
There are a few advantages to some secrets. You may know how a combination lock is operated. You may know how encryption works. My encryption key, password, and combination should not be public.
The news that a cruise ship used a blast of sound is fine. Giving the details of how it worked was not nessary. Giving details that a bright light blinds drivers trying to crash a gate is fine. Saying it is a pulse of green laser is not a good idea.
Saying the police will respond to a riot is fine. Saying police will not be using guns, but just tear gas is not. Expect the riot to have lots of thrown rocks and see lots of gas masks.
Saying the police will respond to a riot is fine. Don't tell them they will be bringing water cannons, tasers, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, tear gas, lasers, tranquilizer darts, snipers, and smoke bombs. Let it be a suprise. Let the perimiter exit searches and arrests be a suprise.