Indeed, so far all the 500GB models I've purchased don't work for long under Windows either. If I'm lucky it'll connect long enough for me to copy off some tiny fraction of the data I copied on while it was still working. Once that's done, it's back to the store for a refund for the whole lot of 'em.
At least with the 5 year warranty you're only out your data. Err... good?
Hydrogen doesn't occur naturally in pure form - it's always combined with something else, like a hydrocarbon chain, or water. To run a fuel cell you either have to:
1) Use hydrocarbons as your fuel source. This is environmentally little different from using a standard internal combustion engine. You're still using natural gas, or possibly some other fossil fuel.
I don't know about the Nebraska fuel cell, but you can read about the Portland, Oregon feul cell here:
I just read this book on the Safari website. The chances that I would have read it without Safari were pretty slim (though having the book show up on Slashdot helps those chances a lot.)
Safari is definately worth a look for any techie, and the first two weeks are free.
F.Y.I. The worst you could do to a microwave by putting metal inside is break the magnatron, and when it breaks, it will just die, not explode or any cool shit like that.
What happens is the lack of anything to absorb the microwaves causes all the energy to be re-absorbed back into the magnetron, heating it up. Fortunately, the designers of microwave ovens put heat fuses on the magnetrons so they stop working (hopefully) before the tube itself dies. You can heat lots of unusual items relatively safely by putting a mug of cold water in the oven to absorb the excess energy.
Once upon a time I was employed to actually do microwave oven research, and the duties involved microwaving all kinds of odd things to see what would happen. (Wood pencils are my favorite since they exhibit burn marks at a nice half-wavelength intervals, or about 6cm. Put one in your oven with a small mug of water with the turntable off and see). The research was done in a jury-rigged "oven" that had no safety interlocks or heat fuses.
When a magnetron is overheated to excess it doesn't explode. The ceramic permanent magnets can crack badly, but I've never seen one explode. It simply doesn't heat up fast enough.
Most things are unexciting when microwaved. In general, metals just get hot. Tinfoil and neon bulbs were both fun. (foil sparks, bulbs flash.) The only thing I tested that actually exploded was chicken wire wrapped in aluminum foil, and even then it's not a movie-style explosion but simply a nice capactitive buildup until finally the resulting arc rips the foil apart rather dramatically.
It does make a really nice bang when it goes.
A far more dramatic explosion could be had by simply heating a thick 1L bottle half-full of water until the steam pressure built up enough for an explosion.
Speaking of crime data in GIS, it worth a look at your local police department to see what sorts of interesting things they have available in this area. I was surprised to find quite good GIS-based crime info for the Portland, Oregon area:
Slashdot Mirror
Indeed, so far all the 500GB models I've purchased don't work for long under Windows either. If I'm lucky it'll connect long enough for me to copy off some tiny fraction of the data I copied on while it was still working. Once that's done, it's back to the store for a refund for the whole lot of 'em.
At least with the 5 year warranty you're only out your data. Err... good?
I don't know about the Nebraska fuel cell, but you can read about the Portland, Oregon feul cell here:
http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/RENEW/Biomass/FuelCe
or here:
http://www.green-rated.org/resctr_tech.asp?id=5
In short, it uses option 1 but its fuel, while natural "gas", isn't a fossil fuel.
-- Steve
I just read this book on the Safari website. The chances that I would have read it without Safari were pretty slim (though having the book show up on Slashdot helps those chances a lot.)
Safari is definately worth a look for any techie, and the first two weeks are free.
Here's a link to the full contents of the book on Safari.
The book itself is also good. As the review said, it was nicely detailed where needed and skims over points that could be skimmed.
Yeah, they PAID me to do that. Not a lot, mind you, but it's definately good for storytelling after the fact.
Best part: burning things for money
Worst part: accidently burning myself (for money)
You've never felt a burn until you've been RF-burned. It hurts all the way through.
Accidently brushing the 4500 volt RF-modulated power supply was also pretty unpleasant.
But again, both are great for stories.
What happens is the lack of anything to absorb the microwaves causes all the energy to be re-absorbed back into the magnetron, heating it up. Fortunately, the designers of microwave ovens put heat fuses on the magnetrons so they stop working (hopefully) before the tube itself dies. You can heat lots of unusual items relatively safely by putting a mug of cold water in the oven to absorb the excess energy.
Once upon a time I was employed to actually do microwave oven research, and the duties involved microwaving all kinds of odd things to see what would happen. (Wood pencils are my favorite since they exhibit burn marks at a nice half-wavelength intervals, or about 6cm. Put one in your oven with a small mug of water with the turntable off and see). The research was done in a jury-rigged "oven" that had no safety interlocks or heat fuses.
When a magnetron is overheated to excess it doesn't explode. The ceramic permanent magnets can crack badly, but I've never seen one explode. It simply doesn't heat up fast enough.
Most things are unexciting when microwaved. In general, metals just get hot. Tinfoil and neon bulbs were both fun. (foil sparks, bulbs flash.) The only thing I tested that actually exploded was chicken wire wrapped in aluminum foil, and even then it's not a movie-style explosion but simply a nice capactitive buildup until finally the resulting arc rips the foil apart rather dramatically.
It does make a really nice bang when it goes.
A far more dramatic explosion could be had by simply heating a thick 1L bottle half-full of water until the steam pressure built up enough for an explosion.
Speaking of crime data in GIS, it worth a look at your local police department to see what sorts of interesting things they have available in this area. I was surprised to find quite good GIS-based crime info for the Portland, Oregon area:
t ml
Top level link: http://www.portlandpolicebureau.com/crimemapper.h
Top level map
Monster direct link to Portland downtown wide-scale crime map:
detailed downtown Portland crime info showing the locations of individual crimes.