"Your Equifax Dropout Score is 342. This means that you're 94% likely to drop out in the next 6 months...."
"Teachers, with the Equifax Dropout Score, you can identify students that are likely to drop out so you can avoid spending unnecessary time on students that probably will not graduate. You will instead be able to focus on students that are going places."
"Equifax, tracking you since day 1 of your life..."
2) don't eat when you're not hungry (and I mean hunger, not appetite, they're completely different). Hunger is the physical need for food - appetite is the desire to eat.
3) don't eat within 2 hours of going to bed
4) eat a healthy diet including fruits, vegetables, and lots of fluids. I can't emphasize the importance of fluid intake enough.
5) Avoid low carb/high protein diets or other crash/fad diets that don't work
6) exercise regularly, and by regularly I mean every day. Of course, Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program. Most experts I've heard say that you should elevate your heart rate to at least 60% of your max (which is said to be 220-AGE) for at least 1 hour every day.
7) avoid simple sugars like the plague, especially HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! Fruit sugars are okay in moderation, but concentrated sugars are TERRIBLE for you. Don't eat ANYTHING that has HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in it!!! This includes Powerbars, soda, some energy gels, candy, just about any sweetened liquid, etc.
8) read food labels on stuff you eat. If there's anything you can't pronounce, don't eat it.
9) no meat. Meat itself isn't bad, but you almost can't buy meat in the U.S. that isn't pumped full of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and other harmful and carcinogenic chemicals. Same goes for Eggs, Milk, Cheese, and most other dairy products. Even products that claim to be hormone and antibiotic free are not. They are simply below the thresholds that the USDA allows.
10) Don't eat anything that requires a tool to get to (i.e. can opener)
***************
Know what you put into your body. Treat your body well, and it will treat you well. 90% of staying in shape is managing what you feed to your body. The other 10% is exercise.
"I wonder how long the schools will be able to keep the RIAA's pack of lawyers at bay..."
The more pertinent question is, how much of the tuition money that gets paid to any given college ends up in lawyers' pockets? How much are MIT and Boston College going to spend fighting this legal battle?
Or, are they simply demanding that the subpoenas be proper and lawful? We all know the RIAA is not a government agency and has no legal authority over anybody.
Minolta makes a Color Laser Printer that sells for about $750 at Staples or just about any other computer retailer.
I have an Okidata color laser postscript printer that ran about $1050, and toner carts are about $60 apiece.
Overall, I like okidata because of their low consumable prices. The printers are more expensive, but the long term TCO is less than just about any other.
The printing cost on my B4200 B&W laser is about 7 cents per page and the color is about 30 cents.
Not necessarily. Broadcom is a linux-friendly company (at least for now, not sure if SCO has threatened them yet). If you email me, I can check into it with my FAE tomorrow and see if there's a linux driver I can get for you.
I use lots of Broadcom ICs in my designs so they will probably be willing to help me out. Eric
They're not claiming ownership of all of linux. They're claiming ownership to their own code which they claim has become part of linux without their permission.
The reason they won't tell us what code is infringing is because they want to scare everyone into buying a SCO license first, because once the evidence comes out in court, 2.6.0 will not have any of the infringing code and linux will be IP-safe. However, all of the companies who bought SCO (like idiots) will have already given SCO their blood money.
1. Cry foul and sue the biggest guy you can see 2. Threaten everyone who runs linux 3. Refuse to disclose your evidence 4. Scare everyone into buying your software 5. Profit....
Anyone living in the Bryn Mawr, Rosemont, Garrett Hill, or Ardmore areas who is interested in Community Wireless Access should email me.
These are high-density areas with many dwellings in a small area, so one hotspot could cover several homes. I already have hotspots installed on Prospect Ave. in Bryn Mawr and on Garrett Hill in Rosemont. With these two hotspots, I could cover approximately 15 homes at each location.
I am interested in setting up community broadband wireless access in these areas on a NON-PROFIT basis. I have been working on this in my spare time for a while, but thought I'd open the floor to others:)
Sorry if this is pimping, but it's for the greater good:)
In 2002, my rolled up availability was 99.153% with covad and 93.889% with VZ. It's odd that I get such a significant availability difference seeing as how both lines go to the exact same location, just to different equipment cabinets.
Last summer, they came through my neighborhood (Rosemont/Garrett Hill) near Philadelphia and installed miles of fiber optic cable. That cable apparently doesn't go anywhere, at least not that I can tell. I can't even be sure they actually buried any cable - none of the utility polls have any of the characteristic orange conduits where there are fiber access modules. Hell, I suppose they could have just come through, dug everything up, and left.
In the process of burying the cable, they destroyed the water infrastructure, which Philly Suburban Water Co. had to come in and replace this summer.
Verizon raped PA real good, and left me and my neighbors holding the bag.
A similar thing happened when Exelon wanted to build a nuclear reactor that we didn't need. They promised the state that they'd make money selling the excess capacity to other states, thereby bringing money into the state. Limerick 2 has been dormant since its commissioning and as a result, we pay over $0.13 per kilowatt hour if PECO is the provider. If you go north or west and get PP&L, your bill is more like $0.07 per kwh.
Seems PA is just a breeding ground for "lets screw the citizens" deals.
Linux user sues SCO for copyright violation and intrusion under the DMCA.
Claim 1) Whereas '464644' is a sting that I created to control access to a specific account
Claim 2) Whereas I own the legal copyright to anything I create on my own computer, including that string
Claim 3) Whereas that string is stored only in encrypted format on my computer
Claim 4) Whereas encrypted strings stored on my computer are not made available to the general public
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of Copyright Infringement for using my proprietary string for a similar access control purpose
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of Corporate Espionage for stealing my intellectual property for use in a similar context
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of Circumventing an Encryption-based access control method for reverse-engineering my access control string, as provided by the DMCA
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of egregious copyright infringement by redistributing my access control string to millions of others users without properly licensing such technology
I hereby demand immediate payment of $3Billion in US currency in small, non-sequential, unmarked bills.
Scary thing is my case probably holds a whole lot more water than their case against IBM...
That's what they get for dumping the printer on the assumption of higher revenue later on ink. It's designed specifically to rip the customer off for even more money on a piece of garbage product. It's a stupid business model as well because it's too damn risky. If you lose, you had it coming.
It's the same thing as charging $5 for a car, but then charging $100/gal for gas, and saying that you're only allowed to buy gas at the dealer from which you bought the car. The idea is you'll make much much more over the life of the car than if you charged $20k for the car and the usual $1.49 for gas.
Personally, I'd like to be able to buy gas at any station I want to.
Well whatever - point is they're moving toward intel, just as SGI has for many of their workstations. They are no doubt under pressure from Microsoft as well, in addition to having a vested interest in selling their own high-end expensive operating system.
We have several HP Workstations at work running HP/UX, for which we pay a hefty maintenance contract in addition to having a full time HP/UX guy on staff. Naturally, HP does not want to lose that business to linux, just as Sun probably doesn't want to lose business to linux.
Sure, they may use it and contribute to it, but only as a token gesture to gain goodwill among the geek community, who no doubt has tremendous influence in corporate spending.
I don't see how selling less than 10% of their original buy constitutes dumping the stock. They're just profit-taking to recoup part of their initial investment. People do it all the time and it means nothing with respect to speculation. If they had sold, say, 50% of their original buy, then I'd be concerned. But, 10% doesn't make the threshhold for me.
WRT the article, so what if sun can buy 210k shares of SCO. That represents only 1.6% of the company. It's not a significant buyin in terms of keeping SCO afloat, but I'm sure the money will come in handy for paying legal bills...
Sun, like Microsoft, sees Linux as a threat, reagardless of how friendly they act toward the linux community. Ever since sun started dumping their good architecture in favor of wintel, there's nothing differentiating Sun machines from Dell, Gateway, or IBM.
Does Sun even make any MIPS-based machines anymore? Someone enlighten me..
What are you smoking? The FCC doesn't give a rat's ass about the RIAA, nor does the FCC give them any money.
The FCC only collects fees for licensing of a radio station. These fees go toward maintaining records, ensuring compliance with FCC rules, and other administrative tasks.
Also, college stations are required to pay the same FCC fees as all other radio stations.
Finally, the FCC does make money off of the Internet. If you have DSL, you have to pay FCC fees on your phone line. The FCC also charges all kinds of fees for Internet filing of forms, license renewals, and other Internet conveniences.
The FCC has nothing to do with royalties, the RIAA, or anything of the like.
"Jack Thompson, a Miami lawyer and outspoken critic of violent video and computer games"
He probably got is ass waxed in quake back in law school, so now he is a critic of these games...
The one thing we have GOT to do as a society is stop blaming everyone else for our problems. It's not some game's fault. It's not MTV's fault. It's not some "gangsta rapper's" fault. It's the fault of the parents and the kids, plain and simple. First of all, the dad was an IDIOT for not locking down his firearms collection. Second, the parents obviously didn't spend a whole lot of time a) learning good parenting skills and b) implementing them. Finally, the kids knew better, and chose instead to be criminals.
Well, employers really only care about that piece of paper for your first job out of college. If you manage to stay employed for 2 years at the same company for your first 2 or so years out of college, your degree will probably whenceforth be irrelevant.
And you're right, textbooks do suck for the most part, but then again, so do most professors when it comes to teaching practical knowledge.
Disclaimer: IANAL - Consult your attorney if you feel you have been victimized
Notice of Criminal Trespass and Theft of Intellectual Property
To Whom it may Concern:
WHEREAS information regarding my person, my belongings, and the properties and attributes of each are confidential and proprietary information and property
WHEREAS I am the sole owner and rightsholder of the information and property described
WHEREAS you have not been specifically granted permission to collect, store, distribute, or sell any information about my person, my belongings, and the properties of each
WHEREAS it has been determined that you are actively engaged in the collection, storage, distribution, and sale of my confidential and proprietary property without explicit permission
THEREFORE you are engaged in the criminal trespass of my property for the purpose of the unauthorized activities described
THEREFORE you are angaged in the theft of my exclusive property in violation of Federal and/or State and Local laws
YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to immediately cease and desist all activites described herein, and any other activites that may be reasonably expected to result in continued violation of my property rights
AND WHEREFORE I reserve the right to bring suit against you in Federal court for damages that I deem reasonable and necessary to compensate me for the theft of my property, including reasonable expenses and attorney fees associated with the collection thereof
AND WHEREFORE I reserve the right to bring suit against you in Federal court for punitive damages that I deem reasonable and necessary as a deterrent to future activities described herein
Setting the float range is a nice feature, but not really one that I need. The Zeroes are definitely a nice pedal, but beyond, among other things, my budget:)
I also have Speedplays, but not the Zero. I only sprang for the X-3 since I didn't have an unlimited budget. I didn't want to spend an extra $150 just to shave 50 grams or so. Weight isn't _that_ important.
Oh well, gotta go out and ride before the heat gets oppressive!
Ride on....
$0.02 worth of cycling anecdotes
on
Sports Technology?
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
There are, of course, pros and cons to each frame material, geometry, tube shape, and so on. I recently purchased an alloy bike with carbon fork and seat stay, which in itself is an interesting piece of work.
I also work at a local bike shop and therefore deal with a whole lot of people every week who are anywhere from cycling newbies to seasoned professionals.
Granted, there have been leaps and bounds in cycling technology over the years, making bikes lighter, stiffer, smoother, and more tuned for good power transfer and efficiency. But, every week, I get at least half a dozen customers who just want the most expensive bike in the shop and don't even bother to test ride, fit, or anything. These people believe that the bike will make them a fast rider. I try to beat through their thick skulls and educate them that all the technology in the world will not make them a fast rider. These people just don't want to hear it.
But, I'll again scream at the top of my lungs that _it's not about the bike_ !!! It's all about attitude, desire, and that burning spirit inside you that can yell at you louder than your aching legs. It's also about learning good technique on the bike. I see so many "posers" on expensive bikes (almost always Trek, of course) pounding away at a cadence of 50 pushing 53/16 or so going 16 mph, leaning on the hoods. As I whiz by spinning 100, I can't help yelling "wrong wrong wrong!" as I fly by.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's fantastic that so many people are getting into cycling - and at least blowing money on bikes that will serve them well if they learn how to ride. What bothers me are these bike shops that push expensive bikes out the door and don't lift a finger to teach people how to ride.
The other day, I ran into a guy that was out with his two sons. He had dropped 4 large on a pair of Fuji Professionals (the bike I ride) - and the kids were in toe clips!!! I had stopped because I like to acknowledge other Fuji riders, and since they rode the same bike I do, it was a nice conversation. The shop that sold him the bikes didn't do anything to set up the bikes properly, not even doing him the favor of selling him decent clipless pedals for his sons.
I admired the kids' desire to learn to ride - they both hoped to ride fast, which is great. I just hope they take me up on my offer to come into my shop for a free fitting and riding lesson (and, of course, to buy pedals and shoes). Maybe there's hope yet for the pair of teenage boys who both want to be the next Lance Armstrong.
Bottom line - technology helps, but don't forget the cyclist inside of you who needs to be set free to tear up the roads. Only armed with the right technique and skill will the technological revolution in cycling be of any use to you.
I see what you're saying now. This is just a class D amplifier. Almost all AM broadcast stations use class-D amplifiers nowadays. Digital modulation isn't that difficult to do. A lowpass filter on the output will get rid of most of the spurious signals in the output. Not a bad idea, however, there's one issue that you might consider. Connecting two batteries in parallel across a load won't change the current that flows through the load. It will only change the current flowing out of each battery. Also, if your duty cycle's overlap, you'll have batteries probably of differing internal impedances and charge conditions in parallel, so you'll get a lot of battery to battery currents. Also, your switching mosfets will allow reverse current through the body substrate (oft referred to as the body diode of the fet) so you'll need another series diode to prevent reverse current. The power dissipated in this diode will probably make it explode:)
Re:Why use Amplifiers?
on
dB Drag Racing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The problem with this is that a square wave has harmonic frequency content outside the response range of the driver. You'd get 50hz, 100hz, 150hz, and so on, and the first 10 harmonics are very significant- even more at these power levels.
One thing you could do is have the relay drive a pi-L network with the drivers as the series-L's in the circuit. You could tune the caps so that the resonant frequency of the network falls at the natural frequency of the driver and to match the load impedance (short) to the amplifier output impedance. That would give you some serious current through the drivers.
Slashdot Mirror
"Get your Equifax Dropout Score, only $12.95!"
...."
"Ways to improve your score:
"Your Equifax Dropout Score is 342. This means that you're 94% likely to drop out in the next 6 months...."
"Teachers, with the Equifax Dropout Score, you can identify students that are likely to drop out so you can avoid spending unnecessary time on students that probably will not graduate. You will instead be able to focus on students that are going places."
"Equifax, tracking you since day 1 of your life..."
1) no junk food
2) don't eat when you're not hungry (and I mean hunger, not appetite, they're completely different). Hunger is the physical need for food - appetite is the desire to eat.
3) don't eat within 2 hours of going to bed
4) eat a healthy diet including fruits, vegetables, and lots of fluids. I can't emphasize the importance of fluid intake enough.
5) Avoid low carb/high protein diets or other crash/fad diets that don't work
6) exercise regularly, and by regularly I mean every day. Of course, Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program. Most experts I've heard say that you should elevate your heart rate to at least 60% of your max (which is said to be 220-AGE) for at least 1 hour every day.
7) avoid simple sugars like the plague, especially HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! Fruit sugars are okay in moderation, but concentrated sugars are TERRIBLE for you. Don't eat ANYTHING that has HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in it!!! This includes Powerbars, soda, some energy gels, candy, just about any sweetened liquid, etc.
8) read food labels on stuff you eat. If there's anything you can't pronounce, don't eat it.
9) no meat. Meat itself isn't bad, but you almost can't buy meat in the U.S. that isn't pumped full of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and other harmful and carcinogenic chemicals. Same goes for Eggs, Milk, Cheese, and most other dairy products. Even products that claim to be hormone and antibiotic free are not. They are simply below the thresholds that the USDA allows.
10) Don't eat anything that requires a tool to get to (i.e. can opener)
***************
Know what you put into your body. Treat your body well, and it will treat you well. 90% of staying in shape is managing what you feed to your body. The other 10% is exercise.
"I wonder how long the schools will be able to keep the RIAA's pack of lawyers at bay..."
The more pertinent question is, how much of the tuition money that gets paid to any given college ends up in lawyers' pockets? How much are MIT and Boston College going to spend fighting this legal battle?
Or, are they simply demanding that the subpoenas be proper and lawful? We all know the RIAA is not a government agency and has no legal authority over anybody.
Minolta makes a Color Laser Printer that sells for about $750 at Staples or just about any other computer retailer.
I have an Okidata color laser postscript printer that ran about $1050, and toner carts are about $60 apiece.
Overall, I like okidata because of their low consumable prices. The printers are more expensive, but the long term TCO is less than just about any other.
The printing cost on my B4200 B&W laser is about 7 cents per page and the color is about 30 cents.
Not necessarily. Broadcom is a linux-friendly company (at least for now, not sure if SCO has threatened them yet). If you email me, I can check into it with my FAE tomorrow and see if there's a linux driver I can get for you.
I use lots of Broadcom ICs in my designs so they will probably be willing to help me out.
Eric
Pay attention
They're not claiming ownership of all of linux. They're claiming ownership to their own code which they claim has become part of linux without their permission.
The reason they won't tell us what code is infringing is because they want to scare everyone into buying a SCO license first, because once the evidence comes out in court, 2.6.0 will not have any of the infringing code and linux will be IP-safe. However, all of the companies who bought SCO (like idiots) will have already given SCO their blood money.
1. Cry foul and sue the biggest guy you can see
2. Threaten everyone who runs linux
3. Refuse to disclose your evidence
4. Scare everyone into buying your software
5. Profit....
Nothing missing in this one.
Anyone living in the Bryn Mawr, Rosemont, Garrett Hill, or Ardmore areas who is interested in Community Wireless Access should email me.
:)
:)
These are high-density areas with many dwellings in a small area, so one hotspot could cover several homes. I already have hotspots installed on Prospect Ave. in Bryn Mawr and on Garrett Hill in Rosemont. With these two hotspots, I could cover approximately 15 homes at each location.
I am interested in setting up community broadband wireless access in these areas on a NON-PROFIT basis. I have been working on this in my spare time for a while, but thought I'd open the floor to others
Sorry if this is pimping, but it's for the greater good
I'm in Rosemont (philly suburb). I have two lines:
1) 1.5/384k w/ VZ, $65/mo
2) 1.5/384k w/ Covad, $90/mo (commercial)
In 2002, my rolled up availability was 99.153% with covad and 93.889% with VZ. It's odd that I get such a significant availability difference seeing as how both lines go to the exact same location, just to different equipment cabinets.
Last summer, they came through my neighborhood (Rosemont/Garrett Hill) near Philadelphia and installed miles of fiber optic cable. That cable apparently doesn't go anywhere, at least not that I can tell. I can't even be sure they actually buried any cable - none of the utility polls have any of the characteristic orange conduits where there are fiber access modules. Hell, I suppose they could have just come through, dug everything up, and left.
In the process of burying the cable, they destroyed the water infrastructure, which Philly Suburban Water Co. had to come in and replace this summer.
Verizon raped PA real good, and left me and my neighbors holding the bag.
A similar thing happened when Exelon wanted to build a nuclear reactor that we didn't need. They promised the state that they'd make money selling the excess capacity to other states, thereby bringing money into the state. Limerick 2 has been dormant since its commissioning and as a result, we pay over $0.13 per kilowatt hour if PECO is the provider. If you go north or west and get PP&L, your bill is more like $0.07 per kwh.
Seems PA is just a breeding ground for "lets screw the citizens" deals.
Linux user sues SCO for copyright violation and intrusion under the DMCA.
Claim 1) Whereas '464644' is a sting that I created to control access to a specific account
Claim 2) Whereas I own the legal copyright to anything I create on my own computer, including that string
Claim 3) Whereas that string is stored only in encrypted format on my computer
Claim 4) Whereas encrypted strings stored on my computer are not made available to the general public
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of Copyright Infringement for using my proprietary string for a similar access control purpose
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of Corporate Espionage for stealing my intellectual property for use in a similar context
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of Circumventing an Encryption-based access control method for reverse-engineering my access control string, as provided by the DMCA
Resolved SCO Group is guilty of egregious copyright infringement by redistributing my access control string to millions of others users without properly licensing such technology
I hereby demand immediate payment of $3Billion in US currency in small, non-sequential, unmarked bills.
Scary thing is my case probably holds a whole lot more water than their case against IBM...
Ok... so how the F*** can they charge licensing for something THEY DO NOT OWN and DID NOT INVENT?!?!?!
This is getting fscking ridiculous. This is perhaps the most blatant attempt EVER to STEAL a public resource.
They have proven ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in court, and they have NO OWNERSHIP WHATSOEVER in Linux or any part thereof.
That's what they get for dumping the printer on the assumption of higher revenue later on ink. It's designed specifically to rip the customer off for even more money on a piece of garbage product. It's a stupid business model as well because it's too damn risky. If you lose, you had it coming.
It's the same thing as charging $5 for a car, but then charging $100/gal for gas, and saying that you're only allowed to buy gas at the dealer from which you bought the car. The idea is you'll make much much more over the life of the car than if you charged $20k for the car and the usual $1.49 for gas.
Personally, I'd like to be able to buy gas at any station I want to.
"To me that sounds like a load of something you'll find just to the rear of a male bovine"
And this description is inapplicable to the patent system, how?
Shift-F1 :0 :1- Shift-F8
Login
startx --display
Alt-Shift-F2
Login
startx --display
Alt-Shift-F7
Alt-Shift-F8
Alt-Shift-F7
Alt
Been there, done that...
Well whatever - point is they're moving toward intel, just as SGI has for many of their workstations. They are no doubt under pressure from Microsoft as well, in addition to having a vested interest in selling their own high-end expensive operating system.
We have several HP Workstations at work running HP/UX, for which we pay a hefty maintenance contract in addition to having a full time HP/UX guy on staff. Naturally, HP does not want to lose that business to linux, just as Sun probably doesn't want to lose business to linux.
Sure, they may use it and contribute to it, but only as a token gesture to gain goodwill among the geek community, who no doubt has tremendous influence in corporate spending.
I don't see how selling less than 10% of their original buy constitutes dumping the stock. They're just profit-taking to recoup part of their initial investment. People do it all the time and it means nothing with respect to speculation. If they had sold, say, 50% of their original buy, then I'd be concerned. But, 10% doesn't make the threshhold for me.
WRT the article, so what if sun can buy 210k shares of SCO. That represents only 1.6% of the company. It's not a significant buyin in terms of keeping SCO afloat, but I'm sure the money will come in handy for paying legal bills...
Sun, like Microsoft, sees Linux as a threat, reagardless of how friendly they act toward the linux community. Ever since sun started dumping their good architecture in favor of wintel, there's nothing differentiating Sun machines from Dell, Gateway, or IBM.
Does Sun even make any MIPS-based machines anymore? Someone enlighten me..
What are you smoking? The FCC doesn't give a rat's ass about the RIAA, nor does the FCC give them any money.
The FCC only collects fees for licensing of a radio station. These fees go toward maintaining records, ensuring compliance with FCC rules, and other administrative tasks.
Also, college stations are required to pay the same FCC fees as all other radio stations.
Finally, the FCC does make money off of the Internet. If you have DSL, you have to pay FCC fees on your phone line. The FCC also charges all kinds of fees for Internet filing of forms, license renewals, and other Internet conveniences.
The FCC has nothing to do with royalties, the RIAA, or anything of the like.
"Jack Thompson, a Miami lawyer and outspoken critic of violent video and computer games"
He probably got is ass waxed in quake back in law school, so now he is a critic of these games...
The one thing we have GOT to do as a society is stop blaming everyone else for our problems. It's not some game's fault. It's not MTV's fault. It's not some "gangsta rapper's" fault. It's the fault of the parents and the kids, plain and simple. First of all, the dad was an IDIOT for not locking down his firearms collection. Second, the parents obviously didn't spend a whole lot of time a) learning good parenting skills and b) implementing them. Finally, the kids knew better, and chose instead to be criminals.
They should ALL be locked up...
Well, employers really only care about that piece of paper for your first job out of college. If you manage to stay employed for 2 years at the same company for your first 2 or so years out of college, your degree will probably whenceforth be irrelevant.
And you're right, textbooks do suck for the most part, but then again, so do most professors when it comes to teaching practical knowledge.
Notice of Criminal Trespass and Theft of Intellectual Property
To Whom it may Concern:
WHEREAS information regarding my person, my belongings, and the properties and attributes of each are confidential and proprietary information and property
WHEREAS I am the sole owner and rightsholder of the information and property described
WHEREAS you have not been specifically granted permission to collect, store, distribute, or sell any information about my person, my belongings, and the properties of each
WHEREAS it has been determined that you are actively engaged in the collection, storage, distribution, and sale of my confidential and proprietary property without explicit permission
THEREFORE you are engaged in the criminal trespass of my property for the purpose of the unauthorized activities described
THEREFORE you are angaged in the theft of my exclusive property in violation of Federal and/or State and Local laws
YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to immediately cease and desist all activites described herein, and any other activites that may be reasonably expected to result in continued violation of my property rights
AND WHEREFORE I reserve the right to bring suit against you in Federal court for damages that I deem reasonable and necessary to compensate me for the theft of my property, including reasonable expenses and attorney fees associated with the collection thereof
AND WHEREFORE I reserve the right to bring suit against you in Federal court for punitive damages that I deem reasonable and necessary as a deterrent to future activities described herein
SWORN this _____ day of ________, 2003
VICTIM: ___________________
NOTARY: ___________________
Setting the float range is a nice feature, but not really one that I need. The Zeroes are definitely a nice pedal, but beyond, among other things, my budget :)
I also have Speedplays, but not the Zero. I only sprang for the X-3 since I didn't have an unlimited budget. I didn't want to spend an extra $150 just to shave 50 grams or so. Weight isn't _that_ important.
Oh well, gotta go out and ride before the heat gets oppressive!
Ride on....
There are, of course, pros and cons to each frame material, geometry, tube shape, and so on. I recently purchased an alloy bike with carbon fork and seat stay, which in itself is an interesting piece of work.
I also work at a local bike shop and therefore deal with a whole lot of people every week who are anywhere from cycling newbies to seasoned professionals.
Granted, there have been leaps and bounds in cycling technology over the years, making bikes lighter, stiffer, smoother, and more tuned for good power transfer and efficiency. But, every week, I get at least half a dozen customers who just want the most expensive bike in the shop and don't even bother to test ride, fit, or anything. These people believe that the bike will make them a fast rider. I try to beat through their thick skulls and educate them that all the technology in the world will not make them a fast rider. These people just don't want to hear it.
But, I'll again scream at the top of my lungs that _it's not about the bike_ !!! It's all about attitude, desire, and that burning spirit inside you that can yell at you louder than your aching legs. It's also about learning good technique on the bike. I see so many "posers" on expensive bikes (almost always Trek, of course) pounding away at a cadence of 50 pushing 53/16 or so going 16 mph, leaning on the hoods. As I whiz by spinning 100, I can't help yelling "wrong wrong wrong!" as I fly by.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's fantastic that so many people are getting into cycling - and at least blowing money on bikes that will serve them well if they learn how to ride. What bothers me are these bike shops that push expensive bikes out the door and don't lift a finger to teach people how to ride.
The other day, I ran into a guy that was out with his two sons. He had dropped 4 large on a pair of Fuji Professionals (the bike I ride) - and the kids were in toe clips!!! I had stopped because I like to acknowledge other Fuji riders, and since they rode the same bike I do, it was a nice conversation. The shop that sold him the bikes didn't do anything to set up the bikes properly, not even doing him the favor of selling him decent clipless pedals for his sons.
I admired the kids' desire to learn to ride - they both hoped to ride fast, which is great. I just hope they take me up on my offer to come into my shop for a free fitting and riding lesson (and, of course, to buy pedals and shoes). Maybe there's hope yet for the pair of teenage boys who both want to be the next Lance Armstrong.
Bottom line - technology helps, but don't forget the cyclist inside of you who needs to be set free to tear up the roads. Only armed with the right technique and skill will the technological revolution in cycling be of any use to you.
I see what you're saying now. This is just a class D amplifier. Almost all AM broadcast stations use class-D amplifiers nowadays. Digital modulation isn't that difficult to do. A lowpass filter on the output will get rid of most of the spurious signals in the output. Not a bad idea, however, there's one issue that you might consider. Connecting two batteries in parallel across a load won't change the current that flows through the load. It will only change the current flowing out of each battery. Also, if your duty cycle's overlap, you'll have batteries probably of differing internal impedances and charge conditions in parallel, so you'll get a lot of battery to battery currents. Also, your switching mosfets will allow reverse current through the body substrate (oft referred to as the body diode of the fet) so you'll need another series diode to prevent reverse current. The power dissipated in this diode will probably make it explode :)
The problem with this is that a square wave has harmonic frequency content outside the response range of the driver. You'd get 50hz, 100hz, 150hz, and so on, and the first 10 harmonics are very significant- even more at these power levels.
One thing you could do is have the relay drive a pi-L network with the drivers as the series-L's in the circuit. You could tune the caps so that the resonant frequency of the network falls at the natural frequency of the driver and to match the load impedance (short) to the amplifier output impedance. That would give you some serious current through the drivers.