And there's one liquid coolant that's non-conductive and almost free. You can buy it at almost any store for not much more than $1/gallon. It's called purified water. Only problem is, if it gets impurities it becomes conductive. Possibly the same with some of the other non-conductive coolants.
I implemented BIND on our home network. I personally didn't think it was all that tricky, though figuring out how to get DHCP to dynamically update the DNS took a little bit. Now, whenever we turn on a machine on the network (laptop, desktop, whatever) the hostname is automagically registered in DNS. It's a caching server, so generally it speeds up DNS queries quite a bit. The ISPs servers sucked for quite some time, so setting up our own DNS server we bypassed all that.
Best way to implement is to get an old box, stick a basic install of slackware on it, download/compile the latest release of BIND, and get yourself the O'Reilly book "DNS and Bind" for how to configure it. For basic setup, the DNS-Howto is good enough, but for advanced stuff (Dynamic DNS) you'll want the O'Reilly book for sure.
As far as maintenance goes, all I've ever had to do was minor tweaking at the beginning, occasional security updates (though I don't worry too much about this since it's only available to the internal trusted network, not the outside world), and deleting a couple of the servers I was using as forwarders when they got crappily slow and started bogging things down.
It may be "magical" but it isn't "supernatural" or "paranormal". That is, just because you don't understand something should your first assumption be that "this can only be explained by rejecting all previous knowledge and making something up".
Remember, it is impossible to prove a universal negative. In other words, one cannot state with absolute certainty that "it isn't 'supernatural' or 'paranormal'" without first knowing the true cause. To do so would be to say that the supernatural and paranormal do not exist, which would be a universal negative and therefore impossible to state as absolute fact.
That is, just because you don't personally believe something, it does not mean that you should discount it entirely as a possibility.
Do not let your biases blind you. Be open minded about everything, but be skeptical as hell. (To quote a biology teacher I once had, who was talking about creation vs. evolution)
And I find the lack of citations from any of the alleged scientist disturbing. The press is in a sad state indeed.
This I will agree with, at least partially. It may be that scientists are simply not talking to the press because they're too busy trying to figure out what the heck is happening, or it could be that they don't want to be known as the scientist that got stumped, or any other number of things. But it would be nice to hear something from the scientists.
Aside from recently publishing a super-jumbo-sized book... he... has written several classical compositions for piano.
Umm.... not to get too technical or anything, but if he is currently alive he can not possibly have written a classical composition. He may have composed a piece in a classical style, but there is a significant difference between the two. Vanessa Carlton could be said to have composed a work in a classical style, but very few would call it a classical composition (and they who do would be wrong).
In short, it's not always the card - if stores bought better readers you would not need the plastic bag trick. (Ever heard of it?) You put the card in the bag right at the edge, and swipe it like that - often the card will then read fine.
Ever heard of it? Dude, did I mention I have to run people's cards all the time at work? I work retail. Every person that comes in with a messed up card (usually with visible magstripe damage) tells me about the "plastic bag trick." Of course, I've known about it since oh, about the second day I worked there some 6+ years ago. I swear next time someone tells me about it like it's the next great astounding feat of magic, I'm gonna snap. Really, it doesn't work any more often than simply rubbing the magstripe on jeans or somesuch to clean some of the built-up crap off.
If people are having to use the "plastic bag trick" on your card, then _for the love_ just friggin get a new card already. FWIW I've seen brand new cards not work too well (my own card actually), but after the first few times using it, it started working much better. And I've never, ever seen a magstripe in good condition absolutely refuse to read after 2 or 3 tries.
IIRC Debit fees are generally cheaper than the credit fee for the same transaction - it's cheaper for them to let you do debit
At least here in the US (WA state), debit fees are typically around $0.35, and credit card fees are around 1%. So if the purchase is under $35, it works out better for the store to run the card as a credit purchase. If over $35, it works out better to run it as a debit. (This assumes a debit card with a Visa/MC logo like most banks here give out now).
and you can shop around for a bank that allows unlimited monthly debit purchases.
There are banks that don't do this? What country do you live in again? Savages.
IIRC MC/V generally do not allow for minimum purchases for transactions.
I don't think they could really do anything about a minimum purchase requirement. Typically, a retailer is allowed to refuse service to anyone, for any reason (again, this is US-centric. Note that "any reason" does not include things like race). This reason may, however, include "customer has no cash and only wants to buy a $0.20 guitar pick and the transaction fee is going to be $0.35"
If they are hand entering or mechanically imprinting your card, something's not normal, as they're the most expensive rates (as opposed to just swiping your card). Makes you go hmmmm...
I have to hand enter cards all the time at my work... it's simply because customers do all manner of atrocities to their cards and then expect them to work. Stripe readers aren't good at what *was* there before the dog got ahold of the card, or the customer took a belt sander to it, or got bored and drew a tic-tac-toe board into the magstripe with a knife, or whatever. Usually, I'd say if a store (or especially more than one store) imprint your card or punch in the numbers by hand, you should call up your bank or whoever issued the card and say "HEY! Send me a new card!" Since they make money when you use your card, they will gladly send you a new one. There's no excuse for having a mangled worn magstripe on your card. Makes the retailer go "hmmmm.... damn lazy-ass customer making my line back up while I try to swipe his POS card."
I guess it's just easier for you to use all *12* fingers then?
For those born near Hanford, yes it is. And thank you ever so much for reminding us that we're freakish mutants. Now go away and leave us to count on our 12 fingers. Steenking insensitive metric snob.
NY Times REALLY needs more informed writers.
on
Hack Your Car
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Garage operators across the country say they are seeing more cars with burned-out engines, partly because reprogrammed chips sometimes supply too much fuel and allow turbo pressure to exceed recommended limits.
I suppose this could make sense with a turbo engine (more gas AND more air), but more gas by itself will just cause horrible emissions and, if anything, a low operating temp. A rich mixture does not fully burn, and indeed ends up cooling the engine some. A lean mixture will burn up an engine. A rich mixture will just smell bad and piss off the EPA.
(Perhaps inevitably, the hacker culture has also produced automotive pirates who buy legitimate chips from makers then copy the programming onto blank chips, selling the results at sharp discounts.)
Need I say anything? "Hacker culture" != "Pirate". Grr.
Partly to combat hackers, many carmakers are using encrypted chips in new models or, like Toyota, have done away with removable memory chips altogether. That has the e-mechanics shifting strategies, either by downloading new software directly into the computer's hard drive...
Hard Drive? In my car? From the factory? Think not.
If you have more than one x86 machine, or know how to set up a cross-compiler, you should *really* consider getting distcc and ccache to help speed up your compiles. Distcc reduces compile times almost linearly (all the linking is still done locally, however, to prevent problems with library mismatches, etc.). I use it for pretty much all my compiles now.
Umm.. dude. I don't know that mych about DCC and Pyzor, but Razor is certainly not a RBL and I'm guessing the first 2 aren't either. Razor does some fuzzy-hash matching or something to reject individual messages as spam, instead of the RBL approach of blocking whole domains. So this wouldn't hurt domains at all, just that one type of message.
Um... I live in Seattle, the land of perpetual rain, and I don't have problems with the satellite connection ever. I once did but got up on the roof, readjusted the dish and it has worked great ever since.
Even when it snowed up here I didn't have a single problems.
Dude, we may live in the land of *perpetual* rain, but compared to other places it's almost always a very *light* rain. If you've ever travelled much, say to Florida or Texas or any of the midwest states, you'll realize we actually have very tame weather. Wet all the time, yes but it's really not that much of a downpour. The heaviest storms I remember (Inauguration day storm, etc) are barely more than the average rainstorm in places like Florida. We just freak more cause we see it less.
It's about the same thing with our snow. Our last snowstorm, much as it messed up the roads and sent drivers sliding all over, wasn't really that bad. The only "severe" part of that whole storm was the ice at the end, which I'm sure could muck up a dish in no time.
Yes, I tried digikey. And mouser. And Jameco. And other suppliers I can't remember the name of. Check digikey sometime... they may have assembled LiIon battery packs, but no individual cells. At least, they didn't a year ago.
Most battery packs use 'standard' size cells in a box.
This part is true... Standard cells they certainly are.
If you open the box you can usually obtain replacement cells.
HAHAHA Have you ever done this with a recent (Li-Ion) battery? Sure you can open 'em up and find out what standard cell they use, but how do you go about getting replacements? Trust me, I've spent hours of time on phones to manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, etc. trying to track down the proper LiIon cells for things. The only places I could find that would sell the batteries would only sell them in quantities of at least 100 units. Most places want some kind of battery pack design they can look at to make sure you aren't going to blow up the cells and turn around and sue them. In all honesty, it's probably easier to buy a fully automatic weapon in Australia than it is to buy a LiIon cell in the US.
All that said, if there is a decent reputable supplier of the things, I'd be very interested in finding out about them if you could give some info.
Do you know a free alternative for live streaming over the internet? The only one i know ain't finished: OGG Theora...
Nope, I sure don't. I typically just use mplayer with either WMP or RA/RM files. Works pretty well, especially with the mplayer-plugin package. Some stuff still doesn't work quite right, but most of it's pretty good.
Their player has not always sucked. There was a time when they were the only option for streaming audio over the internet, and considering the available bandwidth and CPU resources they did a pretty dang good job of it. As with any technology, competitors came along, everything got better with time as technologies advanced, and Real slipped a bit. There is still hope though. Don't knock a product before trying. If they say they fixed many of the annoyances and such, and improved the codecs, they may very well not be lying. And for the record, I don't think I've ever had any problems removing a Real player from a MS Windows box, though it's been quite some time since I used MS Windows on my personal machines.
Did you try the new player/codecs? If you didn't notice, they said they vastly improved the codecs. That would probably fall into the category of "serious innovations." I haven't personally tried out the new player, but then I'm not bashing it either. All I'm saying is try it before you bash it. There was a time when Real was king. As long as Real remains, that time could return.
Whatever you do, get the money first (from the coffee shop). I was going to set up wireless access for a local coffee shop, bought a (really inexpensive) PC to set it all up with, started work on the PC (software configuration, etc), and then the owner never went through with her half of the deal, which was to get the DSL installed (I even have her the number to call and the plan to ask for). Eventually, it ended up I never got the money for the PC (but I sold it to someone else for what it cost me, so no huge loss except time) and the system never got installed. The coffee shop still has no wireless access, and the coffee's become more expensive than anywhere else in the area so I no longer go there.
Moral of the story: Get money first. Make sure the owner is really going to follow through with the idea. If they aren't comfortable giving you money first, make sure you have some kind of written agreement showing they know how much it will cost and agree to pay you that amount.
Points well taken. Oil lamps and esp. coleman lanterns tend to do pretty well as far as consistent quality of light/lack of flickering, but esp. the lantern will cost a good bit more to use, and should only be used with good ventilation, which raises problems of heating.
If going flourescent, I'd probably look into the cold cathode tubes... don't buy them from a computer case-modding place unless you want ripped off though. Go through an electronics supply-house. I believe mouser.com carries them for a reasonable price. The nearby electronics store here has the 12" tubes for $6 and the inverters (which conveniently run off 12 volts) for $6. Advantage here is if one is running a 12 or 24 volt solar power system, these would be an easy hook-up. They still have an inverter involved in the PS, but it's a fairly low-power unit and it's gotta be better than inverting to 110VAC, then doing whatever the base of a normal CFL does.
I also suggest that you look at using only compact flouresent lamps for lighting.
Skip that, go straight for the replacement: White LEDs. A little more upfront cost, but lower power yet, and a longer life.
Why must everyone here be so high-tech? Lanterns, oil lamps, candles, etc. are inexpensive up-front, produce adequate light (at least for my liking), provide a perfect romantic atmosphere (as if most slashdotters know/care anything about that), and don't require electricity. Don't put 'em right next to a curtain or directly under overhanging wood and you'll be fine.
The real nutters, the evolution deniers, Bible thumping science-rejecters - those people constitute closer to 5% of the population than 90%.
What mean you by "evolution deniers?" Explain yourself. If looking at it from a scientific Christian (absolutely not to be confused with Christian Scientist) perspective, there are two types of evolution, typically called macro- and micro- evolution.
Micro-evolution is defined as those changes which we see obviously occuring in species. Think survival of fittest. Think "big hairy dogs can fight off the predators and live here, but smaller yippy dogs can't. Therefore the smaller dogs die off and a breed of larger hairy dogs thrives." Think "early on, black moths in london were easy for birds to spot on white bark of trees, so most moths were white. Industrial revolution polluted air and blackened trees, and suddenly white moths were easier for the birds to spot and eat, so black moths started thriving. Then people became more concerned w/ the environment, and started cleaning up factory output. Moth population is again predominately white."
Macro-evolution, on the other hand, is that which has no reliable undisputed evidence, such as primordial goop turning into puddles of proteins and suddenly coming to life and crawling out of the ocean and sprouting legs and etc. etc. until man finally unhunched and became what we are today and then the whole process mystically stopped.
Micro-evolution will not be denied by anyone with common sense who has ever studied real life. Macro-evolution, on the other hand, is more like a religion of its own than science. It has no proof and is not observable.
While I'm at it, since when does "Bible-thumping" determine "science-rejection" status?
Slashdot Mirror
And there's one liquid coolant that's non-conductive and almost free. You can buy it at almost any store for not much more than $1/gallon. It's called purified water. Only problem is, if it gets impurities it becomes conductive. Possibly the same with some of the other non-conductive coolants.
I implemented BIND on our home network. I personally didn't think it was all that tricky, though figuring out how to get DHCP to dynamically update the DNS took a little bit. Now, whenever we turn on a machine on the network (laptop, desktop, whatever) the hostname is automagically registered in DNS. It's a caching server, so generally it speeds up DNS queries quite a bit. The ISPs servers sucked for quite some time, so setting up our own DNS server we bypassed all that.
Best way to implement is to get an old box, stick a basic install of slackware on it, download/compile the latest release of BIND, and get yourself the O'Reilly book "DNS and Bind" for how to configure it. For basic setup, the DNS-Howto is good enough, but for advanced stuff (Dynamic DNS) you'll want the O'Reilly book for sure.
As far as maintenance goes, all I've ever had to do was minor tweaking at the beginning, occasional security updates (though I don't worry too much about this since it's only available to the internal trusted network, not the outside world), and deleting a couple of the servers I was using as forwarders when they got crappily slow and started bogging things down.
""Why doesn't the Psychic Hotline lady call me?""
becasue you don't have a 900 number?
Just becasue you know the future, doesn't mean you should give it away for free.
Which leads us to our next (slightly off topic) question... What would happen if one were to call a 900-number collect?
And yes, I realize the phone system most likely doesn't allow this, though I've never tried it.
It may be "magical" but it isn't "supernatural" or "paranormal". That is, just because you don't understand something should your first assumption be that "this can only be explained by rejecting all previous knowledge and making something up".
Remember, it is impossible to prove a universal negative. In other words, one cannot state with absolute certainty that "it isn't 'supernatural' or 'paranormal'" without first knowing the true cause. To do so would be to say that the supernatural and paranormal do not exist, which would be a universal negative and therefore impossible to state as absolute fact.
That is, just because you don't personally believe something, it does not mean that you should discount it entirely as a possibility.
Do not let your biases blind you. Be open minded about everything, but be skeptical as hell. (To quote a biology teacher I once had, who was talking about creation vs. evolution)
And I find the lack of citations from any of the alleged scientist disturbing. The press is in a sad state indeed.
This I will agree with, at least partially. It may be that scientists are simply not talking to the press because they're too busy trying to figure out what the heck is happening, or it could be that they don't want to be known as the scientist that got stumped, or any other number of things. But it would be nice to hear something from the scientists.
Just curious, where do you live? Is it anywhere near-ish to this town?
Take off what you dont need.
Whoops.. there went my clothes.
Liberating, indeed.
Aside from recently publishing a super-jumbo-sized book... he... has written several classical compositions for piano.
Umm.... not to get too technical or anything, but if he is currently alive he can not possibly have written a classical composition. He may have composed a piece in a classical style, but there is a significant difference between the two. Vanessa Carlton could be said to have composed a work in a classical style, but very few would call it a classical composition (and they who do would be wrong).
In short, it's not always the card - if stores bought better readers you would not need the plastic bag trick. (Ever heard of it?) You put the card in the bag right at the edge, and swipe it like that - often the card will then read fine.
Ever heard of it? Dude, did I mention I have to run people's cards all the time at work? I work retail. Every person that comes in with a messed up card (usually with visible magstripe damage) tells me about the "plastic bag trick." Of course, I've known about it since oh, about the second day I worked there some 6+ years ago. I swear next time someone tells me about it like it's the next great astounding feat of magic, I'm gonna snap. Really, it doesn't work any more often than simply rubbing the magstripe on jeans or somesuch to clean some of the built-up crap off.
If people are having to use the "plastic bag trick" on your card, then _for the love_ just friggin get a new card already. FWIW I've seen brand new cards not work too well (my own card actually), but after the first few times using it, it started working much better. And I've never, ever seen a magstripe in good condition absolutely refuse to read after 2 or 3 tries.
IIRC Debit fees are generally cheaper than the credit fee for the same transaction - it's cheaper for them to let you do debit
At least here in the US (WA state), debit fees are typically around $0.35, and credit card fees are around 1%. So if the purchase is under $35, it works out better for the store to run the card as a credit purchase. If over $35, it works out better to run it as a debit. (This assumes a debit card with a Visa/MC logo like most banks here give out now).
and you can shop around for a bank that allows unlimited monthly debit purchases.
There are banks that don't do this? What country do you live in again? Savages.
IIRC MC/V generally do not allow for minimum purchases for transactions.
I don't think they could really do anything about a minimum purchase requirement. Typically, a retailer is allowed to refuse service to anyone, for any reason (again, this is US-centric. Note that "any reason" does not include things like race). This reason may, however, include "customer has no cash and only wants to buy a $0.20 guitar pick and the transaction fee is going to be $0.35"
If they are hand entering or mechanically imprinting your card, something's not normal, as they're the most expensive rates (as opposed to just swiping your card). Makes you go hmmmm...
I have to hand enter cards all the time at my work... it's simply because customers do all manner of atrocities to their cards and then expect them to work. Stripe readers aren't good at what *was* there before the dog got ahold of the card, or the customer took a belt sander to it, or got bored and drew a tic-tac-toe board into the magstripe with a knife, or whatever. Usually, I'd say if a store (or especially more than one store) imprint your card or punch in the numbers by hand, you should call up your bank or whoever issued the card and say "HEY! Send me a new card!" Since they make money when you use your card, they will gladly send you a new one. There's no excuse for having a mangled worn magstripe on your card. Makes the retailer go "hmmmm.... damn lazy-ass customer making my line back up while I try to swipe his POS card."
I guess it's just easier for you to use all *12* fingers then?
For those born near Hanford, yes it is. And thank you ever so much for reminding us that we're freakish mutants. Now go away and leave us to count on our 12 fingers. Steenking insensitive metric snob.
Garage operators across the country say they are seeing more cars with burned-out engines, partly because reprogrammed chips sometimes supply too much fuel and allow turbo pressure to exceed recommended limits.
I suppose this could make sense with a turbo engine (more gas AND more air), but more gas by itself will just cause horrible emissions and, if anything, a low operating temp. A rich mixture does not fully burn, and indeed ends up cooling the engine some. A lean mixture will burn up an engine. A rich mixture will just smell bad and piss off the EPA.
(Perhaps inevitably, the hacker culture has also produced automotive pirates who buy legitimate chips from makers then copy the programming onto blank chips, selling the results at sharp discounts.)
Need I say anything? "Hacker culture" != "Pirate". Grr.
Partly to combat hackers, many carmakers are using encrypted chips in new models or, like Toyota, have done away with removable memory chips altogether. That has the e-mechanics shifting strategies, either by downloading new software directly into the computer's hard drive...
Hard Drive? In my car? From the factory? Think not.
If you have more than one x86 machine, or know how to set up a cross-compiler, you should *really* consider getting distcc and ccache to help speed up your compiles. Distcc reduces compile times almost linearly (all the linking is still done locally, however, to prevent problems with library mismatches, etc.). I use it for pretty much all my compiles now.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call Portland 'ground zero' of anything...
...but many of us wish it was.
Umm.. dude. I don't know that mych about DCC and Pyzor, but Razor is certainly not a RBL and I'm guessing the first 2 aren't either. Razor does some fuzzy-hash matching or something to reject individual messages as spam, instead of the RBL approach of blocking whole domains. So this wouldn't hurt domains at all, just that one type of message.
Um... I live in Seattle, the land of perpetual rain, and I don't have problems with the satellite connection ever. I once did but got up on the roof, readjusted the dish and it has worked great ever since. Even when it snowed up here I didn't have a single problems.
Dude, we may live in the land of *perpetual* rain, but compared to other places it's almost always a very *light* rain. If you've ever travelled much, say to Florida or Texas or any of the midwest states, you'll realize we actually have very tame weather. Wet all the time, yes but it's really not that much of a downpour. The heaviest storms I remember (Inauguration day storm, etc) are barely more than the average rainstorm in places like Florida. We just freak more cause we see it less.
It's about the same thing with our snow. Our last snowstorm, much as it messed up the roads and sent drivers sliding all over, wasn't really that bad. The only "severe" part of that whole storm was the ice at the end, which I'm sure could muck up a dish in no time.
Yes, I tried digikey. And mouser. And Jameco. And other suppliers I can't remember the name of. Check digikey sometime... they may have assembled LiIon battery packs, but no individual cells. At least, they didn't a year ago.
If you want unbiased news, why don't you try yahoo or google news? they tap directly into the wire services, I understand.
So I would find the unbiased news where now?
Most battery packs use 'standard' size cells in a box.
This part is true... Standard cells they certainly are.
If you open the box you can usually obtain replacement cells.
HAHAHA Have you ever done this with a recent (Li-Ion) battery? Sure you can open 'em up and find out what standard cell they use, but how do you go about getting replacements? Trust me, I've spent hours of time on phones to manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, etc. trying to track down the proper LiIon cells for things. The only places I could find that would sell the batteries would only sell them in quantities of at least 100 units. Most places want some kind of battery pack design they can look at to make sure you aren't going to blow up the cells and turn around and sue them. In all honesty, it's probably easier to buy a fully automatic weapon in Australia than it is to buy a LiIon cell in the US.
All that said, if there is a decent reputable supplier of the things, I'd be very interested in finding out about them if you could give some info.
Do you know a free alternative for live streaming over the internet? The only one i know ain't finished: OGG Theora...
Nope, I sure don't. I typically just use mplayer with either WMP or RA/RM files. Works pretty well, especially with the mplayer-plugin package. Some stuff still doesn't work quite right, but most of it's pretty good.
Their player has not always sucked. There was a time when they were the only option for streaming audio over the internet, and considering the available bandwidth and CPU resources they did a pretty dang good job of it. As with any technology, competitors came along, everything got better with time as technologies advanced, and Real slipped a bit. There is still hope though. Don't knock a product before trying. If they say they fixed many of the annoyances and such, and improved the codecs, they may very well not be lying. And for the record, I don't think I've ever had any problems removing a Real player from a MS Windows box, though it's been quite some time since I used MS Windows on my personal machines.
Did you try the new player/codecs? If you didn't notice, they said they vastly improved the codecs. That would probably fall into the category of "serious innovations." I haven't personally tried out the new player, but then I'm not bashing it either. All I'm saying is try it before you bash it. There was a time when Real was king. As long as Real remains, that time could return.
Whatever you do, get the money first (from the coffee shop). I was going to set up wireless access for a local coffee shop, bought a (really inexpensive) PC to set it all up with, started work on the PC (software configuration, etc), and then the owner never went through with her half of the deal, which was to get the DSL installed (I even have her the number to call and the plan to ask for). Eventually, it ended up I never got the money for the PC (but I sold it to someone else for what it cost me, so no huge loss except time) and the system never got installed. The coffee shop still has no wireless access, and the coffee's become more expensive than anywhere else in the area so I no longer go there.
Moral of the story: Get money first. Make sure the owner is really going to follow through with the idea. If they aren't comfortable giving you money first, make sure you have some kind of written agreement showing they know how much it will cost and agree to pay you that amount.
Points well taken. Oil lamps and esp. coleman lanterns tend to do pretty well as far as consistent quality of light/lack of flickering, but esp. the lantern will cost a good bit more to use, and should only be used with good ventilation, which raises problems of heating.
If going flourescent, I'd probably look into the cold cathode tubes... don't buy them from a computer case-modding place unless you want ripped off though. Go through an electronics supply-house. I believe mouser.com carries them for a reasonable price. The nearby electronics store here has the 12" tubes for $6 and the inverters (which conveniently run off 12 volts) for $6. Advantage here is if one is running a 12 or 24 volt solar power system, these would be an easy hook-up. They still have an inverter involved in the PS, but it's a fairly low-power unit and it's gotta be better than inverting to 110VAC, then doing whatever the base of a normal CFL does.
I also suggest that you look at using only compact flouresent lamps for lighting.
Skip that, go straight for the replacement: White LEDs. A little more upfront cost, but lower power yet, and a longer life.
Why must everyone here be so high-tech? Lanterns, oil lamps, candles, etc. are inexpensive up-front, produce adequate light (at least for my liking), provide a perfect romantic atmosphere (as if most slashdotters know/care anything about that), and don't require electricity. Don't put 'em right next to a curtain or directly under overhanging wood and you'll be fine.
The real nutters, the evolution deniers, Bible thumping science-rejecters - those people constitute closer to 5% of the population than 90%.
What mean you by "evolution deniers?" Explain yourself. If looking at it from a scientific Christian (absolutely not to be confused with Christian Scientist) perspective, there are two types of evolution, typically called macro- and micro- evolution.
Micro-evolution is defined as those changes which we see obviously occuring in species. Think survival of fittest. Think "big hairy dogs can fight off the predators and live here, but smaller yippy dogs can't. Therefore the smaller dogs die off and a breed of larger hairy dogs thrives." Think "early on, black moths in london were easy for birds to spot on white bark of trees, so most moths were white. Industrial revolution polluted air and blackened trees, and suddenly white moths were easier for the birds to spot and eat, so black moths started thriving. Then people became more concerned w/ the environment, and started cleaning up factory output. Moth population is again predominately white."
Macro-evolution, on the other hand, is that which has no reliable undisputed evidence, such as primordial goop turning into puddles of proteins and suddenly coming to life and crawling out of the ocean and sprouting legs and etc. etc. until man finally unhunched and became what we are today and then the whole process mystically stopped.
Micro-evolution will not be denied by anyone with common sense who has ever studied real life. Macro-evolution, on the other hand, is more like a religion of its own than science. It has no proof and is not observable.
While I'm at it, since when does "Bible-thumping" determine "science-rejection" status?