I don't know why it hasn't been suggested already, but if it's a big ticket item - go get a custom box made. Ask around and see where local companies that rent speakers and amplifiers for events have their boxes made. Most medium-large centers have a shop that can make them to size, custom foam lined just for your gear.
Another, lower cost option is to find some large toolboxes. This won't fit a tower case, but is good for a lot of other electronics and related items. You can get form-fitting foam linings for them, and they're damn near indestructible.
That, and insure everything out the wa-zoo.
FWIW, I have custom cases for a lot of my gear, and when I move, I ship the cheap junk, and drive the rest of the way with my gear in my car. If you're moving long haul, wait to buy it. It'll be easier. Calculate in the shipping costs for what you want to take, and you might find it makes more sense just to sell everything and buy it again when you get where you're going.
That's like dropping a crate full of automobile parts next to your neighbor's new sports car and saying "see how much cheaper mine is?"
Yeah, but a competent mechanic can't get a sports car built, installed and tested from components in one hour.
Don't discount the build your own PC crowd; if you pick quality components you can build a very high end machine for little. People have problems when they stray from widely used motherboards, use questionable ram, and generic power supplies.
Like linux, though - it's only cheaper if your time is free. Once you have the experience, you might as well use it, though.
You should all be using Freenet.. it's slow, but the more people who use and help develop it, the faster it will get. I can't believe the number of people who swap music illegally wide in the open, in the USA, anyhow. Other countries have much more sane laws about -copyright infringement-, not theft.
The negative publicity this is going to generate is not worth any price. You don't go after your customers - while the people who are sharing huge volumes of music aren't, I guess, anyone with half a brain can see what the next logical step might be - going after the downloaders. This is going to make financial martyrs of a lot of intelligent people.
freenet.sourceforge.net
Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack.
The idea that people are going to use their mobile devices to do things like watch movies is just wrong. I think this is as the reason that the Japanese i-Mode has been so successfulâ"its applications are very small.
I'll agree using a cell phone to look at movies and pictures is stupid.
However, i-Mode services took off because anyone can easily make themselves an i-Mode application and have it run. Here, I am limited to very expensive applications and only ones that have been endorsed by my digital cell provider. Meaning that I have never so much as LOOKED at any of those features. I'm not going to spend a quarter to send a instant message. I'd balk at a nickel. I'll just call - I pay a flat fee for voice, to a point. Text uses a FRACTION of that bandwidth.
The phone companies want to be in the applications business, and so long as they control the content, these services are just a bad joke. That's the secret of i-Mode.
This will do a lot more good than harm. Space travel suffers from some extreme eliteism, justified or not - and if the average joe doesn't see people who don't have 50 initials after their name going up, they are and will lose interest in space exploration. One thing that gives hope is that maybe someday you'll have enough money to do that - because in the great USA, the almighty dollar speaks both last and loudest.
Anything that drums up public support for space exploration gets a thumbs up from me. Honestly, I don't see how much this can jepordize anyone's life. Many/most of the systems onboard these craft are fully automated, and if shit hits the fan, there's pretty much zilcho anyone can do.
I have a EE degree.. as soon as I have more money saved, I'm heading for the performance auto tuning and rebuilding world. It's been my hobby for a long time - and everyone has a car. The worse the economy gets, the more people who want to keep old cars on the road.. the more old cars.. the more repairs..
And, FWIW, most tradespeople do a hair better than $14/hr around here once you work your way up and build a client base.
There's little question that it's illegal -- the lobbying dollars of the RIAA and like organizations have ensured this. Whether or not it's ethical is a question that is still being discussed, and is by no means a closed subject.
The interesting enough thing is that copying for personal use - no commercial benefit, no money changing hands - is legal north of the border. We pay a levy for it that is unjustified in a lot of cases. If I'm being levied though, I'll be damned if I'm not going to take advantage of the benefits that the levy grants me.
My point is that the music industry hasn't fallen apart here, and we don't have vapid lobbying groups falling over themselves to take away those rights. I find the situtation in the USA somewhat confusing, but on the other hand, there is so much money at stake. No wonder people get crazy. You see the Eminem's with their money, but for every dollar they get - I'd guess the label gets 5. Or more.
Interestingly enought, I've always attributed my lack of serious carpal tunnel problems to the fact that I never learned to type correctly, and have been typing several hours a day on average since I was 8 or 9. I've videotaped myself typing, and it's pretty impressive to watch.. absolutely no technique, and I have absolutely no idea where the keys are. My brain just knows.
At best, if nothing has been changed, they would mearly need to provide access to the linux kernel and stock utilities.
If they write code that is independant of the kernel, it is then theirs to license as they see fit. For example, while linux game ports might be based on the kernel, there is no obligation to release the source code to those games.
There is only a violation if they modified existing GPL code. It doesn't sound like they'd be stupid enough to do that.
People forget that the lithium ion cells they use all the time - cell phones, notebooks - can cause real injury if they go ary, too. There's a large energy density in those cells, and large energy densities mean capability for disaster. Overcharging, shorting, physically deforming, any number of things could cause a charged lithium ion cell to catch fire or explode.
If you'd carry a lighter with you, they're certainly going to be no more dangerous. Likely a good deal safer, even.
And finally the unproductive use of time: Well, it may be less productive than say...building a house but if you're doing something you enjoy I don't see how you can be going wrong... at least gaming takes some thought and skill unlike some other forms of entertainment
I used to get bagged on for spending a lot of time and money for my hobbies, but I work to have money for things I enjoy - sometimes those things that I enjoy lead to more work, too. If you enjoy gaming, then that is justification enough. Who cares what someone else thinks? Some of the best times in University I had at lan parties. I don't think they're that anti-social either; Then again, I don't usually pay much attention to what other people think, either.
I wish some of my other hobbies were as inexpensive as the unlimited entertainment machine that is the computer. At least you are thinking, but hey - if sitting in front of a TV and drinking beer makes you happy, all the power to you. I think we're only the second, maybe first real generation to have those options. You don't need a lot of money to be happy playing computer games. Now that I think about it, in general, you don't need very much money to be happy.
For what some of my friends pay in rent every month to live in a hot spot socially - you can have one bitchin' computer.
Until I dumped 5 years of contacts in a mud puddle. Backing up a palm is easy. A paper contact book is another matter; you CAN, but you're not GOING to. I bought a palm the next week - I splurged and got a Palm -Pro-, I still have it, it even still works.
I bought a Palm m500 a year ago for $240cdn. These are not high priced gadgets anymore. Get one used off Ebay for peanuts and use it.
That yesterday, I couldn't have given two honks about who Miss Vermont was, what she looked like, or who she engaged in - um - recreational activities with. Now, I've passed that google cache link around to about ten people - who will undoubtedly pass it on to more - nevermind the legions of sex-deprived Slashdot fiends who will immortalize her forever.
A search of "Miss Vermont" on Google brings up a sacchrine-sweet PR story; I chuckle, as the image of someone going down Mr. Tucker Max with the aroma of - ha - burning fish in the background.
Oh, my. Sometimes, boys and girls - there really IS justice. Hahaha.
Fully agree bikes are superior. My survivability - on a track, with a helmet and roll bar - is much, much, much higher in a car. Said roll bar (not cage) also protects me on the road.
Some bikes CAN be beaten by little 4cyls, too, so don't get too cocky.
Ok; It seems that engine tuning isn't the biggest geek topic. That suprises me, since a few years ago when I got my first car, I learned everything I possibly could about every nook and cranny in it, engine included. There's a lot of interesting things.
This project isn't of interest to most big engine tuners right now, but it could be. The Megasquirt - which only has fuel injection controllers, you still need to time your ignition spark, a much more difficult problem. Replacing your cars computer right off will not get you much - it will probably cost you HP, because cars have many, many R&D hours into them and are already running at close to maximum efficiency. You can trade a little emissions for power, but in a modern Honda engine, it isn't much.
The big power comes when you use something like this in combination with a supercharger or turbo charger, then use additional control software to monitor your engine. Think of it like overclocking - you trade safety margin for speed, or in an engine's case, power. Instead of upping the voltage; You shove more air into the engine, allowing you to burn more fuel - added by a device like this, or something that's missing - a true, open source ECU replacement. It is a very difficult problem.
I love to irk people with big V8s - they are silly in the age of forged engine internals, ECU control, and modern design. You haven't lived until you've seen the expression on a Z06 corvette owner's face when he gets is ass handed to him by a built and tuned 1.8L Acura Integra. My current project is an engine buildup for my 2.2L Prelude, and I have ~300HP as a reasonable target. It's amazing what a little thought and hacking can do. You can't run much more power than that on the street feasibly, so penis issues aside - if you can make 300HP+ from a 1.8L engine - why bother with more? Troll in the extreme - you can design 1500+ HP V8's, but they're not driveable. IMHO. YMMV. YHBT. etc.
Engine tuning is a great hobby - if you can assemble a PC, with proper tools and the manuals, you can probably assemble a car engine. It might even run!
OBD-III scares the hell out of me. I don't plan on owning an OBD-III vehile, though.
There is another sister project or sorts to this one, called MegaSpark. I'll let you find the links, because I don't want to slashdot the poor guys. Ignition timing is a very difficult problem because you need very, very precise control. This is difficult to do. I have played around with this, but the approach I favour is to piggyback a microcontroller onto the computers stock signals and modify them how you want. Complete standalone systems can be very, very difficult and expensive to dyno tune and test.
It's 90% because more people work at your average burger king than are full time looking for potental asteroid hazards. Polticians don't care, neither do most people. Until, of course, something happens. Sadly, nothing short of a asteroid impact in the western world will change this. I just hope that it's not mistaken for an act of terrorism, triggering a nuclear holocaust. I also hope it's not so big as to trigger massive climate change.
There is also the problem that we can only detect such objects at so-and-so a range, so earth needs to be in the right place at the right time for an event to be recorded.
Also, comets count potentially disturb the orbits of many asteroids in the meantime. You can't ever predict a comet we haven't seen before - by the time we see it, it will likely be too late to do anything.
But jamming a nanovolt signal isn't exactly rocket science.
The principles behind GPS are well understood, as are the interactions of radio signals in the ionosphere. So I don't think it will take very long at all. Bah.
Don't know where I heard this piece of wisdom.. anyhow, some guy is talking about the effectiveness of advertising. He's complaining some large fraction of his money is wasted on ads nobody pays attention to.
The problem is, he doesn't know what worked and what doesn't. While most of the information is never looked at, you don't know who it will benefit when. Since space is almost free these days - it's the bandwidth that matters - just leave the information online.
Pretty easy to build one of these..
on
Shocking Clothing
·
· Score: 1
There isn't much new here. The guys at amazing1.com could hook you up with all the pieces you need to build something comparable..
You can always use gold and silver coins for untraceable currency. Or barter. Or electronics. Or any number of things. The "underground" economy is, was, and always will be here. It's not so big of a deal in the USA I don't think - but where I am in Canada, there is a LOT of this. Taxes are very high here - small shops, repair guis, etc, if you ask discreetly, will give you a discount if you don't need a reciept.
Hell, if you're talking about the illegal economy, drugs themselves can be used for currency..same thing for me fixing a friends car for a case of beer. Mmm, beer.
Money does have serial numbers on it now, ya know.. it's just not feasible to track them, but there is no real reason it couldn't be automated.
I did some contracts as an undergrad that were very difficult - the professsor that offered them to us probably had no business doing so. We got things running, however the marathon 2 week coding binge was absolutely insane. If you play games for 30 minutes or so, your brain wakes up and you can be productive for another couple hours - then play games for another 30 minutes. This can't go on indefinately, but helps a lot.
I suspect it's because it gets other areas of your brain working and eliminates eyestrain, as your eyes are moving around constantly.
Nothing more, nothing less. If you like good art, there are better places to look - chances are if you ask around you can find someone who paints who would be flattered if you wanted one of their pictures.
A well cared for car (engine and all) should last half a million miles. You should be able to get 250,000 miles or so on a properly maintained engine. There are a lot of Hondas (my experience is limited to Honda) with 500,000+ km on them in my area.
What a lot of people don't realize about engines is that it is possible to rebuild and swap in new ones for a reasonable fee. You need to replace your piston rings, you usually need new pistons and a bore job done on the cylinder. The connecting rods should be fine, and the only other wear item is the bearings on the crankshaft. Valve guides can wear, but those are also replaceable.
The level of care required is signifigant, though, and most people want a shiney new car (tm) eventually. I drive manual transmission cars only, the primary wear item there at the synchronizing rings, and again, those are replaceable.
Unless I am misinformed, I don't think you get a ticket for speeding. You get it for "waste of natural resources" or something like that. Perhaps I am operating on old news, but my point stands and is applicable to environments elsewhere, like locales in Europe.
Speed doesn't kill. Reckless driving does, and the two aren't the same.
This has been going on for awhile; I know of at least one case where this data has been used to deny a warranty claim to someone who mis-shifted, overrev'd the engine, and bent a valve.
However, there's an easier option. Remove the factory ECU completely. There are at least a dozen aftermarket systems that completely replace the electronics in the car, although you'll spend a pretty penny getting it tuned, you'll probably have a faster car that you have complete and total control over. No manifold damage warnings, though:-).
It's against the law to replace the ECU in your car - emissions laws - but I don't think that it would void your insurance, yet, anyhow. Unplugging a ECU isn't difficult, either. If you really wanted to get exotic, you could feed the stock ECU fake or "sanitized" information to keep things hunky-dory. Most of the ROM information on popular cars has been reverse engineered as well. OBD-II isn't so bad. OBD-III should scare the hell out of you. I won't drive a OBD-III car if it goes through as is.
Speeding does not kill. It is very possible to drive fast, and safe. You can safely drive 100mph in a lot of places and times. There are times when you can't safely drive 30mph. I have a nontrivial amount of money invested in driver training. I drive a fast car. My car is equipped with better brakes, tires, and suspension than ~99% of the cars on the road. I don't feel I am endangering anyone occasionaly driving 25 or 30mph over the limit on the freeway.
Someone driving a SUV 95mph with no concept of braking distances, dynamics, or emergency avoidance training makes me very nervous.
Speed doesn't kill. Dangerous driving does. The two aren't the same. Going 90mph in a C5 corvette won't get you a ticket in Montana. Doing 90mph in a minivan, will.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know why it hasn't been suggested already, but if it's a big ticket item - go get a custom box made. Ask around and see where local companies that rent speakers and amplifiers for events have their boxes made. Most medium-large centers have a shop that can make them to size, custom foam lined just for your gear.
Another, lower cost option is to find some large toolboxes. This won't fit a tower case, but is good for a lot of other electronics and related items. You can get form-fitting foam linings for them, and they're damn near indestructible.
That, and insure everything out the wa-zoo.
FWIW, I have custom cases for a lot of my gear, and when I move, I ship the cheap junk, and drive the rest of the way with my gear in my car. If you're moving long haul, wait to buy it. It'll be easier. Calculate in the shipping costs for what you want to take, and you might find it makes more sense just to sell everything and buy it again when you get where you're going.
That's like dropping a crate full of automobile parts next to your neighbor's new sports car and saying "see how much cheaper mine is?"
Yeah, but a competent mechanic can't get a sports car built, installed and tested from components in one hour.
Don't discount the build your own PC crowd; if you pick quality components you can build a very high end machine for little. People have problems when they stray from widely used motherboards, use questionable ram, and generic power supplies.
Like linux, though - it's only cheaper if your time is free. Once you have the experience, you might as well use it, though.
You should all be using Freenet.. it's slow, but the more people who use and help develop it, the faster it will get. I can't believe the number of people who swap music illegally wide in the open, in the USA, anyhow. Other countries have much more sane laws about -copyright infringement-, not theft.
The negative publicity this is going to generate is not worth any price. You don't go after your customers - while the people who are sharing huge volumes of music aren't, I guess, anyone with half a brain can see what the next logical step might be - going after the downloaders. This is going to make financial martyrs of a lot of intelligent people.
freenet.sourceforge.net
Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack.
The idea that people are going to use their mobile devices to do things like watch movies is just wrong. I think this is as the reason that the Japanese i-Mode has been so successfulâ"its applications are very small.
I'll agree using a cell phone to look at movies and pictures is stupid.
However, i-Mode services took off because anyone can easily make themselves an i-Mode application and have it run. Here, I am limited to very expensive applications and only ones that have been endorsed by my digital cell provider. Meaning that I have never so much as LOOKED at any of those features. I'm not going to spend a quarter to send a instant message. I'd balk at a nickel. I'll just call - I pay a flat fee for voice, to a point. Text uses a FRACTION of that bandwidth.
The phone companies want to be in the applications business, and so long as they control the content, these services are just a bad joke. That's the secret of i-Mode.
This will do a lot more good than harm. Space travel suffers from some extreme eliteism, justified or not - and if the average joe doesn't see people who don't have 50 initials after their name going up, they are and will lose interest in space exploration. One thing that gives hope is that maybe someday you'll have enough money to do that - because in the great USA, the almighty dollar speaks both last and loudest.
Anything that drums up public support for space exploration gets a thumbs up from me. Honestly, I don't see how much this can jepordize anyone's life. Many/most of the systems onboard these craft are fully automated, and if shit hits the fan, there's pretty much zilcho anyone can do.
So no, I don't find this disgusting at all.
I have a EE degree.. as soon as I have more money saved, I'm heading for the performance auto tuning and rebuilding world. It's been my hobby for a long time - and everyone has a car. The worse the economy gets, the more people who want to keep old cars on the road.. the more old cars.. the more repairs..
And, FWIW, most tradespeople do a hair better than $14/hr around here once you work your way up and build a client base.
There's little question that it's illegal -- the lobbying dollars of the RIAA and like organizations have ensured this. Whether or not it's ethical is a question that is still being discussed, and is by no means a closed subject.
The interesting enough thing is that copying for personal use - no commercial benefit, no money changing hands - is legal north of the border. We pay a levy for it that is unjustified in a lot of cases. If I'm being levied though, I'll be damned if I'm not going to take advantage of the benefits that the levy grants me.
My point is that the music industry hasn't fallen apart here, and we don't have vapid lobbying groups falling over themselves to take away those rights. I find the situtation in the USA somewhat confusing, but on the other hand, there is so much money at stake. No wonder people get crazy. You see the Eminem's with their money, but for every dollar they get - I'd guess the label gets 5. Or more.
Interestingly enought, I've always attributed my lack of serious carpal tunnel problems to the fact that I never learned to type correctly, and have been typing several hours a day on average since I was 8 or 9. I've videotaped myself typing, and it's pretty impressive to watch.. absolutely no technique, and I have absolutely no idea where the keys are. My brain just knows.
Stuck at around 80wpm though..
At best, if nothing has been changed, they would mearly need to provide access to the linux kernel and stock utilities.
If they write code that is independant of the kernel, it is then theirs to license as they see fit. For example, while linux game ports might be based on the kernel, there is no obligation to release the source code to those games.
There is only a violation if they modified existing GPL code. It doesn't sound like they'd be stupid enough to do that.
People forget that the lithium ion cells they use all the time - cell phones, notebooks - can cause real injury if they go ary, too. There's a large energy density in those cells, and large energy densities mean capability for disaster. Overcharging, shorting, physically deforming, any number of things could cause a charged lithium ion cell to catch fire or explode.
If you'd carry a lighter with you, they're certainly going to be no more dangerous. Likely a good deal safer, even.
And finally the unproductive use of time: Well, it may be less productive than say...building a house but if you're doing something you enjoy I don't see how you can be going wrong... at least gaming takes some thought and skill unlike some other forms of entertainment
I used to get bagged on for spending a lot of time and money for my hobbies, but I work to have money for things I enjoy - sometimes those things that I enjoy lead to more work, too. If you enjoy gaming, then that is justification enough. Who cares what someone else thinks? Some of the best times in University I had at lan parties. I don't think they're that anti-social either; Then again, I don't usually pay much attention to what other people think, either.
I wish some of my other hobbies were as inexpensive as the unlimited entertainment machine that is the computer. At least you are thinking, but hey - if sitting in front of a TV and drinking beer makes you happy, all the power to you. I think we're only the second, maybe first real generation to have those options. You don't need a lot of money to be happy playing computer games. Now that I think about it, in general, you don't need very much money to be happy.
For what some of my friends pay in rent every month to live in a hot spot socially - you can have one bitchin' computer.
*shrug*
Until I dumped 5 years of contacts in a mud puddle. Backing up a palm is easy. A paper contact book is another matter; you CAN, but you're not GOING to. I bought a palm the next week - I splurged and got a Palm -Pro-, I still have it, it even still works.
I bought a Palm m500 a year ago for $240cdn. These are not high priced gadgets anymore. Get one used off Ebay for peanuts and use it.
That yesterday, I couldn't have given two honks about who Miss Vermont was, what she looked like, or who she engaged in - um - recreational activities with. Now, I've passed that google cache link around to about ten people - who will undoubtedly pass it on to more - nevermind the legions of sex-deprived Slashdot fiends who will immortalize her forever.
A search of "Miss Vermont" on Google brings up a sacchrine-sweet PR story; I chuckle, as the image of someone going down Mr. Tucker Max with the aroma of - ha - burning fish in the background.
Oh, my. Sometimes, boys and girls - there really IS justice. Hahaha.
Fully agree bikes are superior. My survivability - on a track, with a helmet and roll bar - is much, much, much higher in a car. Said roll bar (not cage) also protects me on the road.
Some bikes CAN be beaten by little 4cyls, too, so don't get too cocky.
See also:
"Twisties"
"Traction"
"Speed Wobble"
"Rain"
"Loose Gravel"
and
"Insurance".
Ok; It seems that engine tuning isn't the biggest geek topic. That suprises me, since a few years ago when I got my first car, I learned everything I possibly could about every nook and cranny in it, engine included. There's a lot of interesting things.
This project isn't of interest to most big engine tuners right now, but it could be. The Megasquirt - which only has fuel injection controllers, you still need to time your ignition spark, a much more difficult problem. Replacing your cars computer right off will not get you much - it will probably cost you HP, because cars have many, many R&D hours into them and are already running at close to maximum efficiency. You can trade a little emissions for power, but in a modern Honda engine, it isn't much.
The big power comes when you use something like this in combination with a supercharger or turbo charger, then use additional control software to monitor your engine. Think of it like overclocking - you trade safety margin for speed, or in an engine's case, power. Instead of upping the voltage; You shove more air into the engine, allowing you to burn more fuel - added by a device like this, or something that's missing - a true, open source ECU replacement. It is a very difficult problem.
I love to irk people with big V8s - they are silly in the age of forged engine internals, ECU control, and modern design. You haven't lived until you've seen the expression on a Z06 corvette owner's face when he gets is ass handed to him by a built and tuned 1.8L Acura Integra. My current project is an engine buildup for my 2.2L Prelude, and I have ~300HP as a reasonable target. It's amazing what a little thought and hacking can do. You can't run much more power than that on the street feasibly, so penis issues aside - if you can make 300HP+ from a 1.8L engine - why bother with more? Troll in the extreme - you can design 1500+ HP V8's, but they're not driveable. IMHO. YMMV. YHBT. etc.
Engine tuning is a great hobby - if you can assemble a PC, with proper tools and the manuals, you can probably assemble a car engine. It might even run!
OBD-III scares the hell out of me. I don't plan on owning an OBD-III vehile, though.
There is another sister project or sorts to this one, called MegaSpark. I'll let you find the links, because I don't want to slashdot the poor guys. Ignition timing is a very difficult problem because you need very, very precise control. This is difficult to do. I have played around with this, but the approach I favour is to piggyback a microcontroller onto the computers stock signals and modify them how you want. Complete standalone systems can be very, very difficult and expensive to dyno tune and test.
It's 90% because more people work at your average burger king than are full time looking for potental asteroid hazards. Polticians don't care, neither do most people. Until, of course, something happens. Sadly, nothing short of a asteroid impact in the western world will change this. I just hope that it's not mistaken for an act of terrorism, triggering a nuclear holocaust. I also hope it's not so big as to trigger massive climate change.
There is also the problem that we can only detect such objects at so-and-so a range, so earth needs to be in the right place at the right time for an event to be recorded.
Also, comets count potentially disturb the orbits of many asteroids in the meantime. You can't ever predict a comet we haven't seen before - by the time we see it, it will likely be too late to do anything.
Rosy, isn't it.
But jamming a nanovolt signal isn't exactly rocket science.
The principles behind GPS are well understood, as are the interactions of radio signals in the ionosphere. So I don't think it will take very long at all. Bah.
Don't know where I heard this piece of wisdom.. anyhow, some guy is talking about the effectiveness of advertising. He's complaining some large fraction of his money is wasted on ads nobody pays attention to.
The problem is, he doesn't know what worked and what doesn't. While most of the information is never looked at, you don't know who it will benefit when. Since space is almost free these days - it's the bandwidth that matters - just leave the information online.
There isn't much new here. The guys at amazing1.com could hook you up with all the pieces you need to build something comparable..
You can always use gold and silver coins for untraceable currency. Or barter. Or electronics. Or any number of things. The "underground" economy is, was, and always will be here. It's not so big of a deal in the USA I don't think - but where I am in Canada, there is a LOT of this. Taxes are very high here - small shops, repair guis, etc, if you ask discreetly, will give you a discount if you don't need a reciept.
..same thing for me fixing a friends car for a case of beer. Mmm, beer.
Hell, if you're talking about the illegal economy, drugs themselves can be used for currency
Money does have serial numbers on it now, ya know.. it's just not feasible to track them, but there is no real reason it couldn't be automated.
I did some contracts as an undergrad that were very difficult - the professsor that offered them to us probably had no business doing so. We got things running, however the marathon 2 week coding binge was absolutely insane. If you play games for 30 minutes or so, your brain wakes up and you can be productive for another couple hours - then play games for another 30 minutes. This can't go on indefinately, but helps a lot.
I suspect it's because it gets other areas of your brain working and eliminates eyestrain, as your eyes are moving around constantly.
My $0.02..
..what someone will pay.
Nothing more, nothing less. If you like good art, there are better places to look - chances are if you ask around you can find someone who paints who would be flattered if you wanted one of their pictures.
A well cared for car (engine and all) should last half a million miles. You should be able to get 250,000 miles or so on a properly maintained engine. There are a lot of Hondas (my experience is limited to Honda) with 500,000+ km on them in my area.
What a lot of people don't realize about engines is that it is possible to rebuild and swap in new ones for a reasonable fee. You need to replace your piston rings, you usually need new pistons and a bore job done on the cylinder. The connecting rods should be fine, and the only other wear item is the bearings on the crankshaft. Valve guides can wear, but those are also replaceable.
The level of care required is signifigant, though, and most people want a shiney new car (tm) eventually. I drive manual transmission cars only, the primary wear item there at the synchronizing rings, and again, those are replaceable.
Unless I am misinformed, I don't think you get a ticket for speeding. You get it for "waste of natural resources" or something like that. Perhaps I am operating on old news, but my point stands and is applicable to environments elsewhere, like locales in Europe.
Speed doesn't kill. Reckless driving does, and the two aren't the same.
This has been going on for awhile; I know of at least one case where this data has been used to deny a warranty claim to someone who mis-shifted, overrev'd the engine, and bent a valve.
:-).
However, there's an easier option. Remove the factory ECU completely. There are at least a dozen aftermarket systems that completely replace the electronics in the car, although you'll spend a pretty penny getting it tuned, you'll probably have a faster car that you have complete and total control over. No manifold damage warnings, though
It's against the law to replace the ECU in your car - emissions laws - but I don't think that it would void your insurance, yet, anyhow. Unplugging a ECU isn't difficult, either. If you really wanted to get exotic, you could feed the stock ECU fake or "sanitized" information to keep things hunky-dory. Most of the ROM information on popular cars has been reverse engineered as well. OBD-II isn't so bad. OBD-III should scare the hell out of you. I won't drive a OBD-III car if it goes through as is.
Speeding does not kill. It is very possible to drive fast, and safe. You can safely drive 100mph in a lot of places and times. There are times when you can't safely drive 30mph. I have a nontrivial amount of money invested in driver training. I drive a fast car. My car is equipped with better brakes, tires, and suspension than ~99% of the cars on the road. I don't feel I am endangering anyone occasionaly driving 25 or 30mph over the limit on the freeway.
Someone driving a SUV 95mph with no concept of braking distances, dynamics, or emergency avoidance training makes me very nervous.
Speed doesn't kill. Dangerous driving does. The two aren't the same. Going 90mph in a C5 corvette won't get you a ticket in Montana. Doing 90mph in a minivan, will.