Furthermore, diesel engines are a cast-iron bitch in northern climates. The root problem is that the fuel solidifies at temperatures that are actually very easily attainable in Canada and the northern part of the U.S.
We could talk about the particulates for a moment. I used to work for a systems integrator. One of our accounts was a fire department. At every firehouse in the department, I invariably cleaned a boatload of soot out of the computers. No, it didn't follow the firemen back from the scene, it was caused by the exhaust from the diesel-powered trucks, which were kept indoors for reasons related directly to my above statement about solidifying fuel, amongst other reasons. Emissions controls may help.
On the subject of biodiesel, Home Power magazine had an article two or three months ago about manufacturing biodiesel for the do-it-yourself crowd. It involved mixing 160L of vegetable oil plus 40L of methanol plus 12g of lye, heating to 50 deg C and agitating for 2 hours. Cool it, and let it settle, and out comes 40L of glycerine and 160L of biodiesel. Apparently it smells like french fries when you burn it. The author of the article was getting his vegetable oil from fast-food places, using the waste-oil from the deep friers. This has the additional benefit of taking the oil out of the waste stream.
Oh, let's not forget, except for biodiesl, diesel engines do nothing about our dependence on foreign oil.
What we have here is a case of feature creep. I want a wireless phone to be little more than that -- wireless, and a phone. If it has a place to plug in to pass data, that is a useful bonus, likewise a place to plug in to pass analog audio (i.e. a headset). Anything more than that is garbage cluttering up the functionality of a device that one needs to be able to operate while driving, and therefore without looking at the display.... in which case, who cares if the display is in colour or not?
I am disturbed by the recent trends to add menus to everything. There are cases (mobile phones, car radios, and, yes, digital cameras) where the functionality needs to be at your fingertips without fumbling through five layers of menus. I'm getting tired of it. I have to go through a menu to get to my $quot;speed" dial on my existing phone, and I assure you, it takes the "speed" out of it. Why do I want to put more crap into my phone?!?
My understanding is that the only requirement is that they provide one channel of no-charge video at no less than 4:3 480i mode. This would use a very small chunk of the spectrum available. Yes, it takes 6MHz of RF to do this in analog mode (480i 4:3 is the current standard) but the FCC is giving the new spectrum on a MHz per MHz basis, i.e. the digital stations get 6MHz to work with.
Also, I see this as being a terrestrial counterpart to DirecPC, which is DirecTV's inbound-only internet service. AFAIK, it is not all that well received, with cable, DSL and Starband collectively whooping DirecPC's ass.
I don't think it will work.
Re:Thing is, it doesn't NEED to work, now does it?
on
The Eyes Have It
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· Score: 1
Ah! I see you have the machine that goes "Bing!"
Re:Once more, for all the slow JBT's.
on
The Eyes Have It
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· Score: 1
That's because most states have mandated it by law.
I have another idea: Pretty much every store had barcode readers at this point, how about we have the gift card have both a magstrip and a barcode, and that the cash register require the cashier to both scan and swipe the card for acceptance. If the numbers don't match, the register silently alerts security, and they nab the perp on the way out the door....
Ideally, the barcode and magstrip should be cryptographically related, because forging a barcode is even more trivial than forging a magstrip....
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Furthermore, diesel engines are a cast-iron bitch in northern climates. The root problem is that the fuel solidifies at temperatures that are actually very easily attainable in Canada and the northern part of the U.S.
We could talk about the particulates for a moment. I used to work for a systems integrator. One of our accounts was a fire department. At every firehouse in the department, I invariably cleaned a boatload of soot out of the computers. No, it didn't follow the firemen back from the scene, it was caused by the exhaust from the diesel-powered trucks, which were kept indoors for reasons related directly to my above statement about solidifying fuel, amongst other reasons. Emissions controls may help.
On the subject of biodiesel, Home Power magazine had an article two or three months ago about manufacturing biodiesel for the do-it-yourself crowd. It involved mixing 160L of vegetable oil plus 40L of methanol plus 12g of lye, heating to 50 deg C and agitating for 2 hours. Cool it, and let it settle, and out comes 40L of glycerine and 160L of biodiesel. Apparently it smells like french fries when you burn it. The author of the article was getting his vegetable oil from fast-food places, using the waste-oil from the deep friers. This has the additional benefit of taking the oil out of the waste stream.
Oh, let's not forget, except for biodiesl, diesel engines do nothing about our dependence on foreign oil.
...of course, if we keep burning oil as we burn hydrogen, they'll cancel out....
What we have here is a case of feature creep. I want a wireless phone to be little more than that -- wireless, and a phone. If it has a place to plug in to pass data, that is a useful bonus, likewise a place to plug in to pass analog audio (i.e. a headset). Anything more than that is garbage cluttering up the functionality of a device that one needs to be able to operate while driving, and therefore without looking at the display.... in which case, who cares if the display is in colour or not?
I am disturbed by the recent trends to add menus to everything. There are cases (mobile phones, car radios, and, yes, digital cameras) where the functionality needs to be at your fingertips without fumbling through five layers of menus. I'm getting tired of it. I have to go through a menu to get to my $quot;speed" dial on my existing phone, and I assure you, it takes the "speed" out of it. Why do I want to put more crap into my phone?!?
I'd say it's overkill, but it might better be described as underkill....
I suggest keeping it simple, but not to the point of being bland.
...of course, you have to pay TAX on yours....
My understanding is that the only requirement is that they provide one channel of no-charge video at no less than 4:3 480i mode. This would use a very small chunk of the spectrum available. Yes, it takes 6MHz of RF to do this in analog mode (480i 4:3 is the current standard) but the FCC is giving the new spectrum on a MHz per MHz basis, i.e. the digital stations get 6MHz to work with.
Also, I see this as being a terrestrial counterpart to DirecPC, which is DirecTV's inbound-only internet service. AFAIK, it is not all that well received, with cable, DSL and Starband collectively whooping DirecPC's ass.
I don't think it will work.
Ah! I see you have the machine that goes "Bing!"
That's because most states have mandated it by law.
I have another idea: Pretty much every store had barcode readers at this point, how about we have the gift card have both a magstrip and a barcode, and that the cash register require the cashier to both scan and swipe the card for acceptance. If the numbers don't match, the register silently alerts security, and they nab the perp on the way out the door.... Ideally, the barcode and magstrip should be cryptographically related, because forging a barcode is even more trivial than forging a magstrip....