Slashdot Mirror


User: dave3138

dave3138's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
54
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 54

  1. Re:I wish more people would appreciate darkness on Night Being 'Lost' To Artificial Light (bbc.com) · · Score: 2

    I've noticed that most of the new/replaced LED streetlights in my area seem to scatter _much_ less light upward than the sodium vapor lights before them. Could just be the styles that our city/county are implementing. Many of them have such a sharp downware angle that I can't tell they're on until I get within a few hundred yards of them on the highway.

  2. Re:Better Idea on Netflix Finally Gets Download Option (netflix.com) · · Score: 2

    Because of the First Sale Doctrine https://www.google.com/search?...

  3. My community still has this... on Remember When You Could Call the Time? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...it's run by the local bank. It gives a quick advertisement for the bank, then time and temperature. Many organizations in town use it as the "official" temperature in town - "sportsball practice is cancelled if the temp is below X degrees, call time and temp for the temperature". It's number is 320-587-4700...not sure how many concurrent calls it can handle :-)

  4. "Evil" Verizon again... on Surveillance Culture Brought To the Masses, Courtesy of Verizon (consumerist.com) · · Score: 1

    Other manufacturers have had similar vehicle location/diagnostics systems available for quite a while. Not just "evil" Verizon: See also http://www.delphiconnect.com/f... & OnStar

  5. Re:The Old is New again on Military Laser/Radio Tech Proposed As Alternative To Laying Costly Fiber Cable · · Score: 1
  6. Push bumpers on Georgia Cop Issues 800 Tickets To Drivers Texting At Red Lights · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wish I had a push bumper on my car to give the people still sitting at a green light a little "nudge". It would be much more fun than laying on the horn. I'd love to see their reaction...

  7. UV breakdown? on Illuminating Window-Less Houses With a Plastic Bottle · · Score: 2

    Plastic bottles aren't exactly UV-stable...

  8. Re:wheezy on Debian Project Releases 7.0 "Wheezy" Installer Candidate · · Score: 2

    I'm assuming the name's a reference to this guy: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Wheezy_(Toy_Story)

  9. Re:Why? You have to ask why? on After Recent US Storms, Why Are Millions Still Without Power? · · Score: 1

    My community of ~15,000 in outstate Minnesota just finished a 10 year project of burying _everything_ but the 69kV lines feeding their substations. We have a municipal electric/gas utility here, not a for-profit one. Reliability is much better now than it was 10 years ago...of course all of the underground stuff is new. Give it a couple decades... -Dave

  10. Re:Blacklist 'em on Chinese ISP Hijacks the Internet (Again) · · Score: 1

    This should be a good chunk of them. There's probably quite a few other AS #s for China as well: http://www.bgpmon.net/ASinfo.php?AS=4134

  11. Re:Only 5 on What are the Best Cell Phone Services in the US? · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    MWC was bought by Alltel last year. In fact, they just announced plans to lay off many of the MWC employees at the company's headquarters in Mankato. They were a great company customer service wise, and in terms of how much they supported charities in Mankato & southern MN. It's kinda sad to see them get swallowed up.

    For central/southern Minnesota, Midwest Wireless is by far the best carrier in terms of coverage. I laugh at the people who get a "good deal" with Sprint/Tmobile/etc, only to have dismal or no service as soon as they step off of a major highway.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17498096/

  12. Re:Open Source photo repository on Flickr Online Photo Service Reviewed · · Score: 1

    I believe Gallery 2 is based on MySQL...You're correct in that the older version just uses flat files.

  13. Re:Linksys WET 11 on WiFi Bridging? · · Score: 1

    I tried one...but mine was extremely deaf. If I wasn't within 15 feet or so of the AP, it couldn't see it. Even with the device a few inches from an AP, it reported the signal as being weak. External antennae don't improve it either. I suspect there's something wrong with it.

  14. Cameras & modulators on High Tech Baby Monitoring? · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I'm doing the same thing. I first use a 600Mhz low-pass filter to scrape off any RF from the cable company above 600Mhz before mixing it with my modulators' outputs. 600 Mhz is around channel 86 or so, there's nothing up there that I use (I believe digital cable is up there on their system). If you don't do this, you'll get interference with your video channels, and there's a possibility that your neighbors could see your modulated channels.

    I have one 3 channel modulator, and one single channel modulator. Channel 88 is the driveway, 90 is the front door, 92 is our daughter's room, and 100 is the Tivo.

    Having a camera in the child's room is quite handy, and is good for some humor once in a while (young children sleep really strange at times). I am going to add infrared lighting to her camera soon, as she's transitioned to a toddler bed now and it would be nice to see if she's on the floor or not.

  15. Re:Cat room no good. on Dilbert's Ultimate House · · Score: 1

    We had our litterbox in the basement...near the noisy dehumidfier. The cat kept pooping in random places around the house. We then moved into a small storage room in the corner of the basement. No problems since.

  16. Re:In the US - consider the costs... on Email Notification via SMS in the US? · · Score: 1

    Incoming SMS/email is free for Midwest Wireless subscribers (Minnesota & Iowa).

  17. Double pane windows on DirecTV in an Apartment? · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't the force of the magnets crush the two (or more panes) of glass into each other?

  18. Re:World Overpopulation is the Biggest Myth EVER on Engineering An End to Aging · · Score: 1

    Try growing all of the food that each person needs within each little plot of land....

  19. Prior art! on LA to Oregon at Mach 9 · · Score: 1

    I made something like this in 1998. Unfortunately, it's in RealMedia format. [does anyone know how to decompress it back to AVI?]
    I drove from Olivia, MN to Ely, MN. I had a 3com "Bigpicture" webcam on my dash, connected to an old VCR. This stuff was also powered by an inverter, as the author did.
    Here is a link to the video:

  20. Re:Is it just me on WiFi On Two Wheels · · Score: 1

    Ha. I was starting to think I was the only one who noticed that....

  21. Re:Complication: What about students? on Tech Work in the Boonies? · · Score: 1

    I'll second that. It's a MAJOR timesaver when you have 120 students walking around with leased laptops. They always find ways to mess up the machines. What's easier: Spend 10 minutes cloning a partition, or an hour or more trying to cleanup a machine that has every known piece of spyware/malware on it?

  22. Re:Protocol faster than DSL? on BIC-TCP 6,000 Times Quicker Than DSL · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't this be down at good old layer 1? DSL is the physical medium over which the data is delivered...

  23. Re:Memories on Pictorial and Written History of Bell Systems · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Out here in rural Minnesota, you can still pick these systems up with a scanner. The base puts out a constant tone which periodically IDs itself in morse. I haven't actually heard any conversations on them though....

  24. Re:Telecom grade hardware on Looking for a Better Back-Up Power Solution? · · Score: 1

    At the college I work at, we have a backup generator that powers some of the lighting and other essential equipment. The engine is an older model Ford 6 cylinder that has a natural gas carburetor on it. The engine is cooled with cold tap water running through an exchanger.
    It always made me wonder what would happen to that engine if the power went out AND the municipal water supply lost pressure...

  25. 2kW?? on WiFi Phone Announced · · Score: 1

    When I first read the article title, I interpreted as a "Prestige 2000 Watt VoIP Wi-Fi Cordless Phone"
    I certainly wouldn't want 2000 watts of 2.4 Ghz RF near my melon.....