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User: rogerzilla

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Comments · 35

  1. Seiko Kinetic on Interesting Wrist Watches? · · Score: 1

    Or Lorus, if you can't afford the $$$. Totally sealed because there's no battery to change, powered by wrist movement like an automatic watch but with quartz accuracy. Hardly any "ladies" watches made because of the size of the mechanism, but if you're a guy, go for it.

  2. Re:Genetics? Other nations are not so obese. on Born with Couch Potato Genes? · · Score: 1

    Touche. Although I'm actually British and "gasoline" is 90p a litre over here; about $6.50/gall US.

  3. Re:Genetics? Other nations are not so obese. on Born with Couch Potato Genes? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nice theory, but I think cheap gasoline and fast food in supersize portions had more to do with it.

  4. Re:I always knew on Born with Couch Potato Genes? · · Score: 1

    Except you just can't be assed.

  5. So what the article is saying is... on Born with Couch Potato Genes? · · Score: 3, Funny
    If you're a couch potato, you're just a *chip* off the old block?

    /I'll get me coat

  6. In Soviet Russia... on Hubble Replacement on Slow Track · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Space watches YOU!!

  7. It reads like it was written by a 10 year old on Is It Wrong to Love Microsoft? · · Score: 1

    Was this another one of those entries for a reader-written article? If this guy thinks the XP install procedure is great, he hasn't used it much.

    I use Windows because the software I use needs it in order to run. I don't necessarily *like* this situation.

  8. Some sites are worse on E-commerce Sites Edit Customer Reviews · · Score: 1

    There's one site I've seen where all comments are "moderated". This means that people *you've never even met* can mark your comment down so that other visitors to the site may not get to see it. Now, if that's not insidious, I don't know what is. In fact, I might make a Slashdot story submission about it. Oh, wait...

  9. Re:No ozone depletion from hfc134a either on Utah Teens Invent Better Air Conditioner · · Score: 1

    With the power requirements of a large a/c compressor - you'd still need thick cables (I'm not sure how the Prius does it). With 24V you'd have more problems with damp circuits; 24V can electrolyse dirty water, 12V can't.

  10. Re:/.ed on Utah Teens Invent Better Air Conditioner · · Score: 2, Insightful
    But drawing more power from an alternator increases the back e.m.f. and the engine has to work harder - you don't get nowt for owt and if you were drawing power for a large a/c unit from an alternator you would feel it kick in, I promise.

    Thinking about it more, the reason car a/c is belt-driven is probably because no-one makes an alternator that can handle the current to an electrically-driven compressor. Ideally you'd have TWO alternators, one running at 12V (or 14.4V, which is typical) and the other running at 400V to drive the a/c without using huge fat cables.

  11. Re:/.ed on Utah Teens Invent Better Air Conditioner · · Score: 5, Informative
    Except that car alternators are surprisingly efficient - up to 90%. In fact, if it wasn't for the power supply difficulties (a typical 4kW unit would draw 333A at 12V), electrically-powered car a/c would have a huge advantage - it doesn't need expensive servicing every 2 years because there are no shaft seals open to the outside, hence no refrigerant leakage.

    Domestic fridges are the most reliable applicances in the home because they are built as a completely sealed unit.

  12. Re:MacArthur on Censored Nagasaki Bomb Story Found · · Score: 1
    And the bombing of Tokyo was glorified in the gratuitous we-need-to-make-this-a-bit-longer-so-it's-an-epic ending to that execrable movie "Pearl Harbor".

    Do yourself a favour - watch "Tora! Tora! Tora!" instead.

  13. Re:DSLR seems like the only way to go on Kodak To Stop Making Black and White Paper · · Score: 1
    DSLRs are fine (leaving aside the fact that most aren't full-frame so all your lenses become "longer", the ruinous cost and the rapid obsolescence) but blow up a picture to 30" x 20" and you get pixellation. With film the grain is more obvious, but it's random and more pleasing to the eye.

    What I find depressing is the shift from camera as precision instrument to camera as consumable toy. Proper film cameras was built to last, and (above a fairly low price threshold) the pictures were as good as the film you loaded them with. Digicams are like PCs - laughably behind the times after 3 years, vertical depreciation and uneconomic to fix.

  14. I don't know anyone who uses Kodak b/w paper on Kodak To Stop Making Black and White Paper · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Everyone I've met has used Ilford or Agfa (although the latter shot themselves in the foot 15 years ago when they discontinued Record-Rapid). Kodak b/w film has always been great (Tri-X is legendary and T400CN is a very good C41 b/w film) but their paper was never all that popular among enthusiasts.

    The general shrinking of the market is worrying though - my digicam just doesn't do what I want it to (big enlargements, shallow depth of field, nice grain) but I can see film and processing getting a lot more expensive. I don't think it will ever disappear though; the lab I use have just bought a few millions' worth of new processing equipment and black-and-white was never completely killed off by colour. I don't think there'll be much R&D going into film any more, but Tri-X is decades old and people still like it :-)

  15. Great! on House Passes Spyware Bills · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let's hope it's as successful as the YOU-CAN-SPAM Act. That really showed those Nigerians and Chinese (not to mention the big American spammers) who was boss, didn't it?

  16. Re:Human physics on Review: Star Wars Episode III · · Score: 1

    2001 was one of the few space films to get the physics largely correct. It looks weird though, so SF filmmakers have to invent stuff like artificial gravity (not the 2001 type that's obviously created by rotation) and the sound of laser light.

  17. Re:Death Star on Review: Star Wars Episode III · · Score: 1

    Then the guys who did the thermal exhaust ports must have been the same ones that fitted my new gas boiler.

  18. Re:BT on The Horror Of British Telecom · · Score: 1
    I've not read the article yet, but I have dealt with BT on many occasions. They are without a doubt the worst company in the world. Totally disorganised, uninterested in their customers, and years behind the rest of the world.

    There speaks a man who has never experienced NTL's call centre.

  19. Re:What's taking so long? on The Horror Of British Telecom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Two words: British Telecom (and a toothless regulator). But you read TFA, so you know that.

  20. Nothing special on Hybrid Drivers Provide Real-World Mileage Data · · Score: 1
    Your average old-tech diesel engine (no common-rail injection etc) can get close to those figures. Add the slippery aerodynamics and skinny tires of the Prius/Insight and you'd probably equal them.

    It's all a bit of cheat, of course, because diesel fuel contains more energy than gasoline even before you've considered the higher compression ratio and lack of a throttle valve.

    Still, I think biodiesel and particulate filters are a more economic and sustainable solution than hybrids - or making hydrogen from dino oil, FFS, which is what GWB wants.

  21. Re:Bunny on Next Gen Oxyride Batteries Coming Soon · · Score: 1

    Which shows how ineffective advertising is. It's the Duracell bunny.

  22. Re:And in Europe? on Wal-Mart Lindows PCs Selling Well · · Score: 1

    That's mainly due to company cars, a peculiarly British concept which was kicked off by a left wing Labour government in the 1970s - they tried to limit incomes in a period of high inflation, so companies started giving their employees cars instead. Unfortunately the habit has never died out which explains why so many people drive (comparatively) large cars and don't care about speed humps, washing them or checking the oil. it just isn't their problem.

  23. The Japs obviously don't use NTSC on Angry Spirited Away Fans Strike Back · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If they did they'd think strange tints were normal ;0) Never The Same Colour.

  24. Yeah, like they really keep Lindows... on Wal-Mart Lindows PCs Selling Well · · Score: 1

    What are the odds that half these machines have their hard disks wiped as soon as they're out of the box, and a pirate copy of Windows installed? "Free" Windows is terribly easy to find.

  25. Tubular steel and wellies on Ultimate Sleds? · · Score: 1
    The formula for the perfect sled: A light tubular steel frame (which can be waxed if you're performance obsessed), and a wellington brake (TM).

    Can't beat it. For greater stopping power get boots with pointier toes ;-)