The problem is that these days, every power plant is interconnected to the 'grid'. All it takes is ONE poorly maintained utility to make the whole thing cascade fail like dominoes falling. That's what happened in August. One utility (a shit one in Ohio, who can't even keep their nuke plant properly maintained) threw the whole grid out of whack. Problem is, the whole system is VOLUNTARY. Except for power syncronization, there are really no reliability standards set by anyone. Thus, the grid becomes like a chain - only as strong as its weakest link.
In fact they're saying just the opposite! They're saying that part of the reason many people are LOSING jobs is because technology is helping the rich get richer and everyone else get poorer. This is a FACT that can not be disputed. Just take your head out of the sand and look around.
What they're saying is that technology can also be used to CREATE jobs, and since the rich assholes don't seem to want to use it that way, then the REST of us should!
That's what he's saying. In a way, he's asking for the software equilivent of Habitat for America, where volunteers (including Jimmy Carter), get together and build homes for families that (could not otherwise afford a home) on weekends.
Of course, you'd have then living in a hovel, wouldn't you?
This is a form of tithing. It's being socially responsible. It's realizing that all we are part of a bigger community, something that YOU obviously do not realize!
No one is telling you to give all your money away. All they want is a bit of your time and expertose to help others, to which you say: "FUCK YOU!".
The church I belong to helps the community through outreach programs, job training and yes, even a food pantry for those who have families but no food for them. The church asks that every member who can afford to tithe 10% of their income to them. Many of us do. For example, I would have LOVED to buy a new car this year. Instead I kept my five year old one another year and gave the $$ to the church. Know what? Doing that hasn't affected me ONE BIT! I still get around reliably. So, why don't YOU try giving up a frill or two (or a few hours a week of your time now spent playing with toys alone or watching your HDTV set). You just might find it INFINITELY more satisfying then sitting alone counting your money like Scrooge did!
Problem is, they don't replace you. Instead, they give your job to someone else who now has two jobs to do.
I saw the prefect example this weekend. A friend of mine works as an engineer for Clear Channel. Three months ago, his assistant quit. He was forbidden to replace him, even though he's already doing two jobs (He's doing his regular job and being project engineer for a big build out). Now he has three jobs to do. Last weekend he visited a transmitter site for the first time in a month and found some equipment badly damaged. The pattern of the AM radio station was far out of FCC tolerances. Problem is, his logging system broke last month and he hasn't had the time to fix it yet. He doesn't even know how long ago this happened. He planned to hire a contractor to help, but his bookkeeper told him NO CONTRACTORS.
So, he struggles to do three jobs, none of them well. At the same time, his bosses get HUGE bonuses for cutting expenses so well.
THIS is the rebublican economy at work! It ain't 'trickle down' it's TINKLE DOWN...and we all know what they're tinkling...all over us!
Greenspan CREATED the recession to help the republicans get elected in 2000. See, he's a republican too. Good times would have meant a democrat's win for sure...We had what...10 straight quarters of interest rate hikes, the last four 1/2 point or better? The economy was DELIBERATELY slowed down by the FRB. I predicted this would happen - in 1997! I told all my friends that the economy would be great until the election year then it would slow down.
Greenspan's problem was that he did his job too WELL! He slowed the economy down TOO well..and it got away from his control. Now, he's out of room to help it grow....Add 9/11 to the mix (and the dot com/bomb crap), season with Enron & Worldcom, and you've got a sure recipe for disaster. Yes, I believe that the economy would have slowed down by itself - but not until after the 2000 election. Greenspan wanted it in 2000, not knowing that the events of 2001 would throw it tinto a tailspin. He's a perfect example of the metaphor: "Be careful of what you wish for, because it might become true".
The only 'perspective' that should have mattered is the safety of that crew!
If ANYONE believed that they might be in danger, they should have been heard...DAMN THE EXPENSE!!!! When lives are at stake you should ALWAYS err on the side of caution!
This reeks of the Dominoes pizza thing a few years ago where they had a '30 minute' delivery guarantee. Some pinhead bean counter had actually figured out that one delivery person would DIE per million pizzas delivered!
When one finally DID die the public's outrage was so great that they eliminated tghe guarantee.
How come it only took a pizza place but one accident to fix THEIR problem, while NASA still hasn't learned after Challenger?
We'd better RUN to the hardware store for a padlock to lock the barn door!!!!
Seriously though, you'd have thought they would have learned a few things from the Challenger tragedy...like LISTEN TO YOUR ENGINEERS' CONCERNS!!!
What's that saying: "Those who do not learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them".
What's even more whacked is they transferred or retired the people who screwed up, when you'd think they'd be the ones you'd WANT to remain. Why? Because you can be DANM SURE they'd never screw up again. Instead, there's a whole NEW group of managers to F**K up for the first time all over again!
The ISP gets a subpoena from a court clerk ordering them to provide the information. The rest of us in the United States need a judge to issue a subpoena to us. Congress allows a COURT CLERK to issue ones for the RIAA! No judge is even involved.
Like I said, designer legislation...likely written by the lobbyests themselves and rubber stamped by Congress (right after they stamped the back of the lobbyests' checks with an endorsement stamp, or course).
The DMCA indemnifies the RIAA from any litigation whatsoever, unless someone can absolutely prove that they acted with malice. So, all they have to say is: "OOPS! Our mistake" and they're covered. What a great law, huh? Do whatever you want, harass anyone you want to, get things that others need judges to get just by asking, and we'll cover you 100% from any liability whatsoever!
The United States Congress - Home of designer laws...For more info, drop a million or so into our PAC...We promise absloute satisfaction" (but no returns are allowed)
What I have to wonder is....
on
Athlon 64 Debuts
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
How many of Inrel's "New" chips are actually available?
I'd guess about a dozen....
"Melvil Dewey created the most widely used library classification system in 1873. Each of 10 main categories, such as social sciences, mathematics or the arts, has thousands of subcategories, designated by decimal points.
This Dewey decimal system is 130 years old! HOW IN HELL is trhere still a valid copyright on something THAT old??
I've had Vonage since March of 2002. It works very well. When the ATA unit arrived, I was out of town. My very non-technical wife had it up and running by herself in about 5 minutes. She's so non technical that she calls Cat 5 patch cords: "Novell cords". When we moved from Tucson to Los Angeles last year, we simply moved the ATA to L.A., plugged it into our new DSL connection and it just worked. I've even brought it to work before and used it there.
The sound quality is excellent. No lag or other artifacts. They have two bandwidth settings, 80 and 32K. I use the lower one because my DSL is only 128K on uploads. I would rate the low bandwith codec quality as better then a cell call but not quite as good as a Verizon one. When I lived in Tucson, I had 256K upstream bandwith and used the 80K setting. It was better than a wired phone! It's my understanding that they are soon implimenting a 60K setting that I'll likely change to.
I have one main number and three virtuals. My main number is downtown Boston (617). Virtuals are Manhattan (212), Taunton, MA (508), and El Segundo, CA (310). It's way cool that my friends can call a phone number local to them in Boston or Manhattan, and it rings in Los Angeles.
The only trouble i've ever had was with the 508 number. Vonage worked with me and we decided to assign me a new one. They credited my account for all charges relative to this. I find their customer service to be second to none.
I own my condo (and bought it right) so my housing would have been only slightly cheaper.
Gasoline is much cheaper there (this was Evansville, IN by the Kentucky and Illinois borders) about 40 cents in fact. Food seemed about the same.
Or at least a company he owned did (Vulcan Ventures)...along with a shitload of other people!
Scumbag.....
Re:While I remain unemployed.....since January.
on
Tech Rich Get Richer
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Because there were no good jobs there for my wife, who would have had to give up her well paying job. We would have wound up making less than 10k more without her salary. We decided to tighten our belts a bit more instead. Also, my friend had an opening at his company, but his boss pulled the job literally at the last minute.
Of course, now HE does the work of two people.
While I remain unemployed.....since January.
on
Tech Rich Get Richer
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I've sent out 1001 resumes and received but one job offer...in Indiana (UGH!)!
Most positions were pulled or filled in house-mostly by people (still) expected to do their old job too. Some simply haven't hired anyone yet.
The rich are getting richer by laying off employees in droves and expecting the ones left to pick up the slack. THEY call it: "improved productivity". What it really should be called is exploitation.
What's that Bruce Cockburn song: "If I had a Rocket Launcher".........
The information in question was gathered with the authority of a writ issued by a court clerk. No judge was involved. THIS is the most illegal, unconstitutional part of the DMCA. The Constitution quite clearly says that only THE JUDICIARY (ie: JUDGES) can issue these kinds of orders. Congress has knowingly bastarized the Constitution. They do it all the time by using a loophole which allows laws to be enforced UNTIL they are proven unconstitutional. See, members of Congress are indemnified from their acions. For example, let's say that Congress passes a law allowing summary executions. 100 people are killed this way before the law is thrown out in court. Members of Congress can not be charged with murder EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW what they were doing was unconstitutional. Until this loophole is closed, laws like the DMCA will begin to become the RULE as opposed to the exception. Finally, guess who would have to actually close the looophole? Yep, Congress would, just like it's up to Congress to pass federal term limits....another thing that will never happen!
If I recall, something even worse than this happened about 15 years ago in Nevada. A couple of people posing as computer technicians came in to a casino/hotel in Lake Tahoe with a large canvas covered box and left it right under the nose of security personnel. It turned out to be a large bomb that they had left for ransom. A couple of days later it went off. Though no one was hurt (the casino and half the town had long been evacuated) it still blew the side off the multi story building, destroying it.
I'll bet that despite tighter security, you could do this all over again. There's a saying that those who can't learn from mistakes are destined to repeat them. I guess it remains true post 9/11.
This is absolute proof that the record/music industry has the best drugs out there...and the RIAA people take them liberally!
Seriously, they can't be serious about this can they? You send a notarized statement and a photo id?
I don't think so!
There's no way in hell I'm going to give the RIAA gestapo anything with my picture on it!
If I recall, a Tufts scientist imported gypsy moth caterpillars from England in hopes of doing this very thing. He shrouded a tree and let them go into it. A storm came along, destroyed the shroud and the rest is history!
Gypsy moths, with no known predator, became a major infestation in the east, defoliating everything in their path, causing people to slip all over the place, car crashes from skidding and in one case stopping a freight train from climbing a grade (ugh!).
I hope they've done better this time....
I've been involved in engineering literally all my life. My dad was an engineer and as a small child I remember going to work with my dad and being in awe of all the stuff he had to 'play' with. I never wanted to be anything else!
Unfortunately, in the scheme of things we are the workers, the ones who toil withput credit.
The managers take all of that. In the 1980's as a contract engineer I built a Boston FM radio station from scratch (WFNX), yet they didn't even see fit to invite me to its sign on party!
When I asked why, I was told: "You were paid well for your work, isn't that enough?". They actually believed they paid me too much to make their property worth many millions morethan it was before.
Needless to say from that time forward, I did only precicely what they paid me to do (and what they asked me to do), nothing more.
Part of the problem is we ALLOW ourselves to be treated in this way! The plumber, electrician or auto mechanic don't. Why do we? I think one answer is UNION. They realize there is respect and safety in numbers. Are we too good, too elite to do the same?
See, in 1983, before CD's came out, LP albums cost about $6.98, and tapes about the same.
Then CD's came out, costing TEN DOLLARS MORE!
The industry's excuse was that CD's cost more to make, "better sound forever", and other rubbish.
Now we know these all were lies. CD's now cost about 1/10th as much to press as records cost at their cheapest (and I'm speaking 2003 dollars here which are worth about half of 1983 ones).
CD's STILL cost almost 20 bucks apiece. The record companies' excuse is that inflation
has finally caught up, which is more bullshit.
In essence, they TRIPLED the price of CD's over LP's, got rid of LP's (to remove choice), got rid of singles (to make sure that you HAD to pay $17.98 to get the ONE song you liked), raped the consumer for over 20 years, formed cartels (which would have been illegal in 1983!) and now when the consumer finally has the ability to fight back they respond by bribing our lawmakers to maintain the status quo by passing the DMCA, throwing the Constitution out the window in the process.
Yep..sure sounds like an upstanding business model and a fair deal for the consumer, huh?
First we have the RIAA making shit music and blaming p2p file sharing for its poor sales.
Now we have the MPAA making shit movies and blaming the public for its poor sales.
Hmmm...maybe Disney will have to bribe Congress and get text messaging banned.. Because after all there's NO WAY the PRODUCT could suck!
Right?
First off, you are right about the four pole units...they do run at 1800 RPM.
The grid does NOT always run at exactly 60 Hz! It's NOMINAL frequency is 60 hz. Why? it's difficult to get excat speed accuracy out of a huge turbine. Also, the grid does NOT sync to a common source. Usually generators coming on line sync to the grid power available to them at the time.
I'm an electrical engineer too.....
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that these days, every power plant is interconnected to the 'grid'. All it takes is ONE poorly maintained utility to make the whole thing cascade fail like dominoes falling. That's what happened in August. One utility (a shit one in Ohio, who can't even keep their nuke plant properly maintained) threw the whole grid out of whack. Problem is, the whole system is VOLUNTARY. Except for power syncronization, there are really no reliability standards set by anyone. Thus, the grid becomes like a chain - only as strong as its weakest link.
In fact they're saying just the opposite! They're saying that part of the reason many people are LOSING jobs is because technology is helping the rich get richer and everyone else get poorer. This is a FACT that can not be disputed. Just take your head out of the sand and look around. What they're saying is that technology can also be used to CREATE jobs, and since the rich assholes don't seem to want to use it that way, then the REST of us should! That's what he's saying. In a way, he's asking for the software equilivent of Habitat for America, where volunteers (including Jimmy Carter), get together and build homes for families that (could not otherwise afford a home) on weekends. Of course, you'd have then living in a hovel, wouldn't you?
This is a form of tithing. It's being socially responsible. It's realizing that all we are part of a bigger community, something that YOU obviously do not realize! No one is telling you to give all your money away. All they want is a bit of your time and expertose to help others, to which you say: "FUCK YOU!". The church I belong to helps the community through outreach programs, job training and yes, even a food pantry for those who have families but no food for them. The church asks that every member who can afford to tithe 10% of their income to them. Many of us do. For example, I would have LOVED to buy a new car this year. Instead I kept my five year old one another year and gave the $$ to the church. Know what? Doing that hasn't affected me ONE BIT! I still get around reliably. So, why don't YOU try giving up a frill or two (or a few hours a week of your time now spent playing with toys alone or watching your HDTV set). You just might find it INFINITELY more satisfying then sitting alone counting your money like Scrooge did!
Problem is, they don't replace you. Instead, they give your job to someone else who now has two jobs to do. I saw the prefect example this weekend. A friend of mine works as an engineer for Clear Channel. Three months ago, his assistant quit. He was forbidden to replace him, even though he's already doing two jobs (He's doing his regular job and being project engineer for a big build out). Now he has three jobs to do. Last weekend he visited a transmitter site for the first time in a month and found some equipment badly damaged. The pattern of the AM radio station was far out of FCC tolerances. Problem is, his logging system broke last month and he hasn't had the time to fix it yet. He doesn't even know how long ago this happened. He planned to hire a contractor to help, but his bookkeeper told him NO CONTRACTORS. So, he struggles to do three jobs, none of them well. At the same time, his bosses get HUGE bonuses for cutting expenses so well. THIS is the rebublican economy at work! It ain't 'trickle down' it's TINKLE DOWN...and we all know what they're tinkling...all over us!
Greenspan CREATED the recession to help the republicans get elected in 2000. See, he's a republican too. Good times would have meant a democrat's win for sure...We had what...10 straight quarters of interest rate hikes, the last four 1/2 point or better? The economy was DELIBERATELY slowed down by the FRB. I predicted this would happen - in 1997! I told all my friends that the economy would be great until the election year then it would slow down. Greenspan's problem was that he did his job too WELL! He slowed the economy down TOO well..and it got away from his control. Now, he's out of room to help it grow....Add 9/11 to the mix (and the dot com/bomb crap), season with Enron & Worldcom, and you've got a sure recipe for disaster. Yes, I believe that the economy would have slowed down by itself - but not until after the 2000 election. Greenspan wanted it in 2000, not knowing that the events of 2001 would throw it tinto a tailspin. He's a perfect example of the metaphor: "Be careful of what you wish for, because it might become true".
The only 'perspective' that should have mattered is the safety of that crew! If ANYONE believed that they might be in danger, they should have been heard...DAMN THE EXPENSE!!!! When lives are at stake you should ALWAYS err on the side of caution! This reeks of the Dominoes pizza thing a few years ago where they had a '30 minute' delivery guarantee. Some pinhead bean counter had actually figured out that one delivery person would DIE per million pizzas delivered! When one finally DID die the public's outrage was so great that they eliminated tghe guarantee. How come it only took a pizza place but one accident to fix THEIR problem, while NASA still hasn't learned after Challenger?
We'd better RUN to the hardware store for a padlock to lock the barn door!!!! Seriously though, you'd have thought they would have learned a few things from the Challenger tragedy...like LISTEN TO YOUR ENGINEERS' CONCERNS!!! What's that saying: "Those who do not learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them". What's even more whacked is they transferred or retired the people who screwed up, when you'd think they'd be the ones you'd WANT to remain. Why? Because you can be DANM SURE they'd never screw up again. Instead, there's a whole NEW group of managers to F**K up for the first time all over again!
The ISP gets a subpoena from a court clerk ordering them to provide the information. The rest of us in the United States need a judge to issue a subpoena to us. Congress allows a COURT CLERK to issue ones for the RIAA! No judge is even involved. Like I said, designer legislation...likely written by the lobbyests themselves and rubber stamped by Congress (right after they stamped the back of the lobbyests' checks with an endorsement stamp, or course).
The United States Congress - Home of designer laws...For more info, drop a million or so into our PAC...We promise absloute satisfaction" (but no returns are allowed)
How many of Inrel's "New" chips are actually available? I'd guess about a dozen....
Yes.
And if you happen to be a statuesque woman in black leather and stiletto heels, you'll likely get paid a decent chunk of change to do it too!
This Dewey decimal system is 130 years old! HOW IN HELL is trhere still a valid copyright on something THAT old??
This is INSANE!!!!I've had Vonage since March of 2002. It works very well. When the ATA unit arrived, I was out of town. My very non-technical wife had it up and running by herself in about 5 minutes. She's so non technical that she calls Cat 5 patch cords: "Novell cords". When we moved from Tucson to Los Angeles last year, we simply moved the ATA to L.A., plugged it into our new DSL connection and it just worked. I've even brought it to work before and used it there.
The sound quality is excellent. No lag or other artifacts. They have two bandwidth settings, 80 and 32K. I use the lower one because my DSL is only 128K on uploads. I would rate the low bandwith codec quality as better then a cell call but not quite as good as a Verizon one. When I lived in Tucson, I had 256K upstream bandwith and used the 80K setting. It was better than a wired phone! It's my understanding that they are soon implimenting a 60K setting that I'll likely change to.
I have one main number and three virtuals.
My main number is downtown Boston (617). Virtuals are Manhattan (212), Taunton, MA (508), and El Segundo, CA (310). It's way cool that my friends can call a phone number local to them in Boston or Manhattan, and it rings in Los Angeles.
The only trouble i've ever had was with the 508 number. Vonage worked with me and we decided to assign me a new one. They credited my account for all charges relative to this. I find their customer service to be second to none.
I own my condo (and bought it right) so my housing would have been only slightly cheaper. Gasoline is much cheaper there (this was Evansville, IN by the Kentucky and Illinois borders) about 40 cents in fact. Food seemed about the same.
Or at least a company he owned did (Vulcan Ventures)...along with a shitload of other people! Scumbag.....
Because there were no good jobs there for my wife, who would have had to give up her well paying job. We would have wound up making less than 10k more without her salary. We decided to tighten our belts a bit more instead. Also, my friend had an opening at his company, but his boss pulled the job literally at the last minute. Of course, now HE does the work of two people.
I've sent out 1001 resumes and received but one job offer...in Indiana (UGH!)! Most positions were pulled or filled in house-mostly by people (still) expected to do their old job too. Some simply haven't hired anyone yet. The rich are getting richer by laying off employees in droves and expecting the ones left to pick up the slack. THEY call it: "improved productivity". What it really should be called is exploitation. What's that Bruce Cockburn song: "If I had a Rocket Launcher".........
The information in question was gathered with the authority of a writ issued by a court clerk. No judge was involved. THIS is the most illegal, unconstitutional part of the DMCA. The Constitution quite clearly says that only THE JUDICIARY (ie: JUDGES) can issue these kinds of orders. Congress has knowingly bastarized the Constitution. They do it all the time by using a loophole which allows laws to be enforced UNTIL they are proven unconstitutional. See, members of Congress are indemnified from their acions. For example, let's say that Congress passes a law allowing summary executions. 100 people are killed this way before the law is thrown out in court. Members of Congress can not be charged with murder EVEN THOUGH THEY KNEW what they were doing was unconstitutional. Until this loophole is closed, laws like the DMCA will begin to become the RULE as opposed to the exception. Finally, guess who would have to actually close the looophole?
Yep, Congress would, just like it's up to Congress to pass federal term limits....another thing that will never happen!
If I recall, something even worse than this happened about 15 years ago in Nevada. A couple of people posing as computer technicians came in to a casino/hotel in Lake Tahoe with a large canvas covered box and left it right under the nose of security personnel. It turned out to be a large bomb that they had left for ransom. A couple of days later it went off. Though no one was hurt (the casino and half the town had long been evacuated) it still blew the side off the multi story building, destroying it. I'll bet that despite tighter security, you could do this all over again. There's a saying that those who can't learn from mistakes are destined to repeat them. I guess it remains true post 9/11.
This is absolute proof that the record/music industry has the best drugs out there...and the RIAA people take them liberally! Seriously, they can't be serious about this can they? You send a notarized statement and a photo id? I don't think so! There's no way in hell I'm going to give the RIAA gestapo anything with my picture on it!
If I recall, a Tufts scientist imported gypsy moth caterpillars from England in hopes of doing this very thing. He shrouded a tree and let them go into it. A storm came along, destroyed the shroud and the rest is history! Gypsy moths, with no known predator, became a major infestation in the east, defoliating everything in their path, causing people to slip all over the place, car crashes from skidding and in one case stopping a freight train from climbing a grade (ugh!). I hope they've done better this time....
I've been involved in engineering literally all my life. My dad was an engineer and as a small child I remember going to work with my dad and being in awe of all the stuff he had to 'play' with. I never wanted to be anything else! Unfortunately, in the scheme of things we are the workers, the ones who toil withput credit. The managers take all of that. In the 1980's as a contract engineer I built a Boston FM radio station from scratch (WFNX), yet they didn't even see fit to invite me to its sign on party! When I asked why, I was told: "You were paid well for your work, isn't that enough?". They actually believed they paid me too much to make their property worth many millions morethan it was before. Needless to say from that time forward, I did only precicely what they paid me to do (and what they asked me to do), nothing more. Part of the problem is we ALLOW ourselves to be treated in this way! The plumber, electrician or auto mechanic don't. Why do we? I think one answer is UNION. They realize there is respect and safety in numbers. Are we too good, too elite to do the same?
See, in 1983, before CD's came out, LP albums cost about $6.98, and tapes about the same. Then CD's came out, costing TEN DOLLARS MORE! The industry's excuse was that CD's cost more to make, "better sound forever", and other rubbish. Now we know these all were lies. CD's now cost about 1/10th as much to press as records cost at their cheapest (and I'm speaking 2003 dollars here which are worth about half of 1983 ones). CD's STILL cost almost 20 bucks apiece. The record companies' excuse is that inflation has finally caught up, which is more bullshit. In essence, they TRIPLED the price of CD's over LP's, got rid of LP's (to remove choice), got rid of singles (to make sure that you HAD to pay $17.98 to get the ONE song you liked), raped the consumer for over 20 years, formed cartels (which would have been illegal in 1983!) and now when the consumer finally has the ability to fight back they respond by bribing our lawmakers to maintain the status quo by passing the DMCA, throwing the Constitution out the window in the process. Yep..sure sounds like an upstanding business model and a fair deal for the consumer, huh?
First we have the RIAA making shit music and blaming p2p file sharing for its poor sales. Now we have the MPAA making shit movies and blaming the public for its poor sales. Hmmm...maybe Disney will have to bribe Congress and get text messaging banned.. Because after all there's NO WAY the PRODUCT could suck! Right?
First off, you are right about the four pole units...they do run at 1800 RPM. The grid does NOT always run at exactly 60 Hz! It's NOMINAL frequency is 60 hz. Why? it's difficult to get excat speed accuracy out of a huge turbine. Also, the grid does NOT sync to a common source. Usually generators coming on line sync to the grid power available to them at the time. I'm an electrical engineer too.....